G3: The generation with unrealized story potential?

[Firehooves]

Maybe it's just me after watching all the G3 movies and shorts again, but does anyone else think when it comes to the generations, G3 got the short end of the stick?

Now, before everyone tells me G3 was aimed at a younger audience, I woul;d point out MLP and Friends, Tales, and FiM have basically the same target demographic, and they had more interesting stories. The G3 toyline was handled pretty well, so how much unrealized potential did the storyline have if it had gotten a full series instead of just a couple of movies?

Think about it; three isolated communities- Butterfly Island, Ponyville, and Unicornia- that were mostly unaware of each others' existance, until key events (Starcatcher and Skywishes's efforts, and Rarity's little foul up with the wand) brought them into contact. How much of a shock would it have been to the earth ponies to find a tribe of ponies who could fly? (They initally were skeptical of Skywishes's claims of Pegasus ponies, and Pinkie Pie reacted with surprise when Starcather saved her, but that's about it) Would the Pegasus look with pity on thier grounded cousins? How would the unicorns view ponies who couldn't use magic?

Also, we saw that there were many diffrent castles throughout the land, and that each represented a diffrent virture/concept. Did each of those virtues have to be replished like the unicorns replenished rainbows? Was celebration castle one of those castles, the one that celebrated friendship? Might not all of the castles been built long ago, as magical battires that kept the land in balance, and the joy and happiness of the pony tribes are the magic fuel? Coud all those parties in ponyville serve the same purpose as the rainbow ceremony in unicornia, only for friendship? Just what was spike doing alseep under the castle?

Aslo, in the special we saw the potential for characters just as deep and complex as the FiM ones. You have a really complex core cast- Sunny days the sporty tomboy, Kimono the logical thinker, Minty the goofy and clumsy mess-up, Rainbow Dash the girly fashionesta, and Pinkie Pie, the closest thing the group has to a level-headed leader. (Considering G4, that's a shocking thing to say O_O)
Other ponies, like twinkle Twirl, Spakleworks, Sew and So, etc. are guest stars for particular episodes, and background ponies in the rest.

Start season one of in Ponyville, then discover butterfly island in Season 2, then unicornia in Season three- a new region to explore each season, and new advertisement for toys to sell!. Toss in a new character moving to Ponyville in each season to 'learn about the earth ponies' (Starsong and Sweetie Bell) and you build the cast to a core seven. The breezies are always around, of course, and even throw in some mild slice of lfe conflicts and a villian or two here and there.

I dunno, I just thought we got a glimspe of a lot of wasted potential in the specials, and everything I saw I wanted to see more. I'm not saying G3 should have been somehow darker or not aimed at it's core audience, I just think it could've been more interesting. Just my two cents.

[rtattles]

Story wise the G3s were always a little boring for me. There was no real sense of story and neither did the ponies had any distinct character of their own. They were also extremely annoying. If it was me, i would have taken the story arc on a different path altogether.

[LadyMoondancer]

They definitely glossed over / over-simplified the most interesting aspects, IMO.  Like you said, it was geared towards young children, but young kids can understand complex concepts.

I feel like there's this perception, in the entertainment industry and in our society in general, that little girls are dumb.  Like, I feel that shows aimed at little girls are often very simplistic compared to shows aimed at boys in the same age range.

Transformers Rescue Bots is aimed at 3 to 6 year olds, but the characters are still well-developed compared to G3 MLP (except Minty, who is awesome).  The G3 ponies seemed like they were incapable of feeling negative emotions 99% of the time, like they were Stepford ponies.

[Sakuyamon]

Long ago, the tribes of My Little Pony lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when Hasbro attacked. Only Queen Majesty mastered all magic spells. Only she could stop the ruthless business men. But when the Dream Valley needed her most, she vanished. A thousand years passed and Lauren Faust and Studio B discovered the new princess, a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle. And although her magic skills are great, she has a lot to learn before she's ready to save anyone. But I believe Twily can save the franchise.

Soooorryyyy! I had to do it! Seriously though... if you didnt know it was meant for little kiddies, the settings of G3s show could be post apocalyptic. Remains of old castles, scattered tribes of surviving herds, one lone survivor from the ancient days in a "frozen" state in order to find the next true ruler.... It sounds like a scifi- fantasy novel!

[Dragonflitter]

Now, before everyone tells me G3 was aimed at a younger audience, I woul;d point out MLP and Friends, Tales, and FiM have basically the same target demographic, and they had more interesting stories.

I don't think so. I remember comparing the commercials for G1 and G3, and the little girls playing with the G3 toys in the commercials appeared younger to me than the ones in the G1 commercials. To me, that means G3 is aimed at a younger demographic than the G1 toys.

And if you look at the girls in the Equestria Girls commercial, they are much older than the girls in the G1 and G3 toy commercials, which is a clear indicator that Hasbro is now pushing the G4 line at an older demographic of girls.

[LadyMoondancer]

I think Hasbro thought of G3 as being for very young girls;  that said, I don't think the "actual" target audience was that different from G1.

I do feel there's something weirdly post-apocalyptic about the G3 setting, though.  Like, if the G3 unicorn kingdom was only a day or two's walk away, how come no one from Ponyville ever found it?  Maybe there's a magical barrier around Ponyville to keep out the radiation, and no one dares leave . . .

[G4Sweeties]

When you put it that way, that sounds awesome! I like to think of G3 as a alternate universe to G4, because in the christmas special it's shown that the 3 species of ponies originally wanted to start their own countries, but ended up arguing and being frozen by the windigos, leaving only their partners. My theory is g3 is what would have happened if the windigos had never existed and the ponies found their own land to thrive on. Further evidence for this is when Rarity wants her portion to be called Unicornia, that ring a bell anyone?
But it's just a thought.

[Firehooves]

Now, before everyone tells me G3 was aimed at a younger audience, I woul;d point out MLP and Friends, Tales, and FiM have basically the same target demographic, and they had more interesting stories.

I don't think so. I remember comparing the commercials for G1 and G3, and the little girls playing with the G3 toys in the commercials appeared younger to me than the ones in the G1 commercials. To me, that means G3 is aimed at a younger demographic than the G1 toys.

And if you look at the girls in the Equestria Girls commercial, they are much older than the girls in the G1 and G3 toy commercials, which is a clear indicator that Hasbro is now pushing the G4 line at an older demographic of girls.

Fair enough, I guess I always assumed it was always aimed at the same age group. That's something I'll admit to knowing very little about!

Long ago, the tribes of My Little Pony lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when Hasbro attacked. Only Queen Majesty mastered all magic spells. Only she could stop the ruthless business men. But when the Dream Valley needed her most, she vanished. A thousand years passed and Lauren Faust and Studio B discovered the new princess, a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle. And although her magic skills are great, she has a lot to learn before she's ready to save anyone. But I believe Twily can save the franchise.

Soooorryyyy! I had to do it! Seriously though... if you didnt know it was meant for little kiddies, the settings of G3s show could be post apocalyptic. Remains of old castles, scattered tribes of surviving herds, one lone survivor from the ancient days in a "frozen" state in order to find the next true ruler.... It sounds like a scifi- fantasy novel!

Ha ha... no. G3 is the weakest of the gens, but I don't think that a very fair comapriason. Also.. that whole G1 leads into G4 thing again... I know it's just personal taste, But YUCK! NO WAY!

Post Merge: February 21, 2014, 09:23:53 AM

When you put it that way, that sounds awesome! I like to think of G3 as a alternate universe to G4, because in the christmas special it's shown that the 3 species of ponies originally wanted to start their own countries, but ended up arguing and being frozen by the windigos, leaving only their partners. My theory is g3 is what would have happened if the windigos had never existed and the ponies found their own land to thrive on. Further evidence for this is when Rarity wants her portion to be called Unicornia, that ring a bell anyone?
But it's just a thought.

That part... does almost make sense, in a way. G3 into G4 is kind of doable, sort of.

[Zapper]

Transformers Rescue Bots is aimed at 3 to 6 year olds, but the characters are still well-developed compared to G3 MLP (except Minty, who is awesome).  The G3 ponies seemed like they were incapable of feeling negative emotions 99% of the time, like they were Stepford ponies.

Agreed. I hate it when people say "well, G3 was for really young girls" as if these girls are so much dumber than boys their age. I'm not saying girls who love G3 are dumb, heaven's no. But you sure got the impression Hasbro thought girls their age couldn't handle real conflict and overarching plots and that's not only sad but says a lot about this toy company. I think after G2's mediocre success in the U.S. they somehow started to hate their own franchise and didn't know what to do with it anymore.

Still love the G3 ponies. And their Spike was so much better than the G4 version (there, I said it).

[Khema]

I love your ideas. I think the G3 was poorly done, but it has a lot of potential for a reboot.

[PinkRosedust]

Wow, you actually make the G3 cartoons sound like they could have been interesting! It really is a shame they dumbed it down so much. FiM is pretty great...G3 could have been that good too.

Long ago, the tribes of My Little Pony lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when Hasbro attacked. Only Queen Majesty mastered all magic spells. Only she could stop the ruthless business men. But when the Dream Valley needed her most, she vanished. A thousand years passed and Lauren Faust and Studio B discovered the new princess, a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle. And although her magic skills are great, she has a lot to learn before she's ready to save anyone. But I believe Twily can save the franchise.

LOL!

[Firehooves]

I love your ideas. I think the G3 was poorly done, but it has a lot of potential for a reboot.

Thanks, I really wish they had dome more with G3! ^^

[LuckyTwirlerina]

Who wants to help make this storyline a real thing? We can use my G3 collection. 

Silliness aside, I agree that G3 had a lot of potential that was wasted because of Hasbro's stupid and horrible idea that younger girls were somehow simpler and dumber than boys of the same age group. ._. (toy marketing is one of the worst culprits for some awful gender stereotypes, but that's another topic for another time...)

I felt so much more could have been done with the three distinct communities, and I wish we could have seen more characters and relationships develop. Especially, say, Minty and Thistle Whistle, and Skywishes and Star Catcher. I always wanted to see more of their interactions and relationships. (I mean, especially since it looks like a bunch of pegasi came over from Butterfly Island for Christmas? Ponies and pegasi must have grown pretty close between Friends and Never Far Away and A Very Minty Christmas!)

Also I LOVE Thistle Whistle and just wanted to see more done with her...

I really love your ideas and wish we could have seen something like that! 

[hathorcat]

Now, before everyone tells me G3 was aimed at a younger audience, I woul;d point out MLP and Friends, Tales, and FiM have basically the same target demographic, and they had more interesting stories.

I don't think so. I remember comparing the commercials for G1 and G3, and the little girls playing with the G3 toys in the commercials appeared younger to me than the ones in the G1 commercials. To me, that means G3 is aimed at a younger demographic than the G1 toys.

And if you look at the girls in the Equestria Girls commercial, they are much older than the girls in the G1 and G3 toy commercials, which is a clear indicator that Hasbro is now pushing the G4 line at an older demographic of girls.

This ^ G3 was aimed at a younger audience than G1. G1 was meant to appeal for longer as well whereas G3 expected much shorter attention span.

While I understand adults largely dismissing the shows and perhaps there being some eye rolling at how girly or silly or frivolous the story lines could be, personally I actually like them for what they are. Yes, they are puff pieces not made to be analysed or even enjoyed by anyone over the age of 5 but I dont think there was unrealised potential. I think they did their job and anything bigger or grander would simply not fit what G3 and the brand at the time was about. 

[tinyblondie]

G3 was very toy orientated so maybe that's why the show wasn't amazing (but I still love it), however that does make me wonder if that is the reason G4 is so show orientated with the same toys being re released over and over again with a new gimmick. So perhaps this time round they wanted to focus on the show?

Your ideas sound amazing though, I'd love to see them in action. The Sweetie Belle and Star Song moving to Ponyville ideas are my personal favorites, its perfect!