Season 9 Officially the Last Season of FiM (SPOILERS!)

[MJNSEIFER]

I've certainly seen enough "faux-environmentalist" characters to know that Fluttershy certainly doesn't act like one (but if that's what people see I respect it) - for one thing, she doesn't boast about how much good she is doing for the environment, and genuinely seems to care, she just states her opinion and stands up for the animals when they need standing up for.  It's nice to see that kind of character portrayed genuinely, since it's an easy joke to make to write the character as intentionally annoying, and like they're on an ego trip.

Regarding "Bats!" I'll look deeper into this when I review it, but it sounds like Fluttershy's motives would have worked better if one of the following things happened;

1.  The plan was to actually exterminate the bats, and the idea to move them comes later, as the compromise (but they can't do this, as it would make the other ponies look bad, and they're too diluted to show death by that point.)

2.  The Mane Six were children, so they idea of infestation would be more realistically lost on Fluttershy, and she'd have to learn that you can still love animals, but also understand that infestations are bad and that you have to control the population at times (but the Mane Six aren't children, so...)

Ultimately, it ends up being all about Flutterbat anyway, so the problem really is that the episode forced itself to have a moral that it didn't really need - they could have just skipped the big debate, and gone straight to the plan, and had Flutterbat happen.

[Taffeta]

I feel like, for all she sometimes needed a slap, Bright Eyes was more convincingly environmental in MLP:T.

What you say, Zapper, goes back to what I said above about writers and tunnel vision on one idea without realising the implications of that one idea in other contexts. Leaving some concerning questions around the overall message for kids (and sometimes adults) to pick up on.

[Zapper]

she just states her opinion and stands up for the animals when they need standing up for. 

Yeah but that's more animal wellfare and a love of pets. In real life Fluttershy would be someone who runs a pet shelter and watches a lot NatGeo, but she would also say stuff like "shooting deer is evil" and vacation in places where she can legally disturb the local wildlife
She is just nuts for animals, she is not a real activist. Which is ok for the show because they can't show death anyways.
Ironically, Rainbow Dash had a real activist moment when she stood up for the native buffalos. But with Fluttershy, they could never really show environmentalism because that requires these darker themes. And Flutters also can't call out the ponies usage of plastic bottles or whatever, because their world is not like ours. There is no littering or destroying nature even though they have cities and factories.
So when they tried to pick up a real world issue like a plague of vermin destroying a farmer's livelihood they really handled Fluttershy badly. They had to stick with the friend to all creatures theme and the subject matter was just not well chosen.

[Leave a Whisper]

I don't really see Fluttershy as an environmentalist, or an activisit but more an animal lover. Though the two do usually go hand-in-hand. She's the one who will pick up a starving dog off the street, or nurse an injured bird back to health, rather then to stand up for deforestation or the pollution of a river. I think the only environmentalist we ever had in MLP was Bright Eyes.

[MJNSEIFER]

she just states her opinion and stands up for the animals when they need standing up for. 

Yeah but that's more animal wellfare and a love of pets. In real life Fluttershy would be someone who runs a pet shelter and watches a lot NatGeo, but she would also say stuff like "shooting deer is evil" and vacation in places where she can legally disturb the local wildlife
She is just nuts for animals, she is not a real activist. Which is ok for the show because they can't show death anyways.
Ironically, Rainbow Dash had a real activist moment when she stood up for the native buffalos. But with Fluttershy, they could never really show environmentalism because that requires these darker themes. And Flutters also can't call out the ponies usage of plastic bottles or whatever, because their world is not like ours. There is no littering or destroying nature even though they have cities and factories.
So when they tried to pick up a real world issue like a plague of vermin destroying a farmer's livelihood they really handled Fluttershy badly. They had to stick with the friend to all creatures theme and the subject matter was just not well chosen.

Ah, I see what you mean now.  You are right; environmentalist/activist doesn't fit with her character for those reasons.  Like you say, she is someone who cares about animals and their welfare, but it was never really an environmentalist thing.

[Al-1701]

I think what irritated me most about Bats was the reviews that wanted to dissect the moral choice of removing the bats and casting Applejack as bad for wanting to go against nature.  Again, as someone who witnessed first hand the devastation an invasive species can do, the immoral choice is to not act.

And this show has done this so many times when it tries to get into not so simple topics.  They do an awful job of it due to the limits imposed by Hasbro or frankly the incompetence of this staff on the matters.  Luna is harming herself, that's going to solved with a hug and an encouraging word, she needs to be dragged to professional help.  Just applying yourself is no guarantee of success, especially now, and they made Zephyr Breeze so detestable I couldn't bring myself to care whether or not he succeeds.  I think wishy washy is a good description of how this show handles topics.  Unfortunately, when you are dealing with more serious matters, a wishy washy treatment of them is worse than no treatment at all.  This show has unintentionally delivered so many toxic messages to its young audience it's frightening.

And even issues of the fiction itself have crept up.  Since making Daring Do real, she hasn't had a good episode because each episode featuring her has to bend over backwards to justify all the garbage you need to swallow to make this work.  And in the end the episodes create more problems than they solve.

[Zapper]

Just applying yourself is no guarantee of success, especially now, and they made Zephyr Breeze so detestable I couldn't bring myself to care whether or not he succeeds.

I can't look into the writer's head but the entire Zephyr episode was so much more in line with stories you see for a tween/teen audience. I figured it was meant as a comment on how young men stay at home much longer than in the past, young adults in general are living longer in their parent's house because the job market is crap - except with Zephyr he always found excuses to stay unemployed and use his family.
So I guess he was meant to be a jerk and kids weren't meant to root for him. Just root for him to finally leave his poor doormat family alone

I kinda liked the parent episodes overall. But I'm always looking for an entertainment aspect first. Some episodes I like have messages I don't agree on or seem to have unrealistic setups, but I enjoy them anyways.
I never got the hype for Bats! tho. I guess it was because adult fans honstely believed Fluttershy was now a vampire and the show would go to dark places with her, lmao!

[MJNSEIFER]

I think what irritated me most about Bats was the reviews that wanted to dissect the moral choice of removing the bats and casting Applejack as bad for wanting to go against nature.  Again, as someone who witnessed first hand the devastation an invasive species can do, the immoral choice is to not act.

And this show has done this so many times when it tries to get into not so simple topics.  They do an awful job of it due to the limits imposed by Hasbro or frankly the incompetence of this staff on the matters.  Luna is harming herself, that's going to solved with a hug and an encouraging word, she needs to be dragged to professional help.  Just applying yourself is no guarantee of success, especially now, and they made Zephyr Breeze so detestable I couldn't bring myself to care whether or not he succeeds.  I think wishy washy is a good description of how this show handles topics.  Unfortunately, when you are dealing with more serious matters, a wishy washy treatment of them is worse than no treatment at all.  This show has unintentionally delivered so many toxic messages to its young audience it's frightening.

I feel that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic should have stopped being a moral show by season 4.  It doesn't need to have a moral every single episode, and I think the fact that it forced itself to have a moral in every single episode was one of the things that damaged it - we end up with ponies having to learn things that they already know, or with episodes where the moral is badly explained or seems thrown in and isn't really needed with the rest of the episode.

That's why I'm not going to do moral shows when I write.  I'm going to do moral episodes, but I'm not going to force my entire shows to have a moral in each episode.

I never got the hype for Bats! tho. I guess it was because adult fans honstely believed Fluttershy was now a vampire and the show would go to dark places with her, lmao!

Yeah, I never got this either.  If anything "Bats!" made me realise how diluted FiM had become, since it was made very obvious that Flutterbat wasn't a threat to any living being.  The early seasons (and earlier generations) would have at least allowed us to make up our own minds whether she was a danger to anyone, even if they still avoid actually showing she was.  I'm cool if fans want to have their own version of a bat pony, which actually is a danger to other ponies, though.

Season 4 onwards just seemed really overly eager to make sure we all knew that the ponies weren't in danger.  I'm not saying they just have ponies dying ever five seconds, but the previous seasons and generations at least showed death as a possibility, but at this point they seemed afraid of the ponies even getting hurt.

[brightberry]

The Zephyr episode almost seemed like it was aimed as a cheap shot at "Bronies" or the public opinion of what Bronies are.  I'm sure it wasn't meant that way.  But it was kind of a depressing episode.

I do feel that the messages of friendship were getting to the point of insanity.  It's important to be civil and fair to others.  But personally, I think saying you're friends with people you don't trust, who try to harm you, who think of themselves first and you don't know well at all really devalues the meaning of friendship and the real friendships you already have.  Friendship is important but it needs to be based on respect and actual caring and definitely should not go only one way.

"Be nice even at your own expense or people will think you're too demanding" is really not a lesson I think should be taught to little girls especially as it's been proven detrimental to their adult versions in the workplace and other relationships. 

[Flitter]

We have a trailer!
SPOILERS!
https://youtu.be/fR8ZXSYtDSw

S9 is coming in April!

[Mewtwofan1]

     Oh I’m hype! Looks like is shaping up pretty well.

Spoiler

there’s king sombra doing evil stuff again! I was wondering when he’d start terrorizing flurry!

[Al-1701]

     Oh I’m hype! Looks like is shaping up pretty well.

Spoiler

there’s king sombra doing evil stuff again! I was wondering when he’d start terrorizing flurry!

Spoiler

If they reform him, I'll scream

You know, I'm more hype for the new Pokemon generation than this.

[Ponyfan]

We have a trailer!
SPOILERS!
https://youtu.be/fR8ZXSYtDSw

S9 is coming in April!

Spoiler

Interesting. I though we'd see Cozy in the trailer. If King Sombra is trying to kidnap Flurry Heart I could see where that might introduce Grogar and that Chrysalis. Cozy, Tirek Grogar and Sombra might be working on some elaborate plan together.

Ponyfan

[Sunset]

We have a trailer!
SPOILERS!
https://youtu.be/fR8ZXSYtDSw

S9 is coming in April!

Spoiler

Interesting. I though we'd see Cozy in the trailer. If King Sombra is trying to kidnap Flurry Heart I could see where that might introduce Grogar and that Chrysalis. Cozy, Tirek Grogar and Sombra might be working on some elaborate plan together.

Ponyfan

I’d completely forgotten about those rumors of

Spoiler

Grogar’s return....

[tailrustedtealeaf]

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Was pretty much my reaction.

Spoiler

Wonder how they're going to explain Sombra's return? To my memory he was pretty much eliminated.
I'd prefer a Chrysalis return or something. I get that they may be holding that off for the finale but with this it feels like they're dropping Season 8's loose ends.
Wasn't there a full leaked season 9 plot list a bit back that hinted to Grogar? Has that been debunked or is it still up somewhere? Am I remembering incorrectly?