G3: The generation with unrealized story potential?

[Rainbow Dash]

Honestly I like the G3 specials for being exactly what they are - cute little slice-of-life tales where the most hazardous thing in the entire environment is Minty.

G4 and G1 may have the better stories but if I was a pony and had the chance to pick a generation to live in, I'd certainly pick G3.  All the ice cream I can eat and none of the monsters to battle.

The G4 slice of life episodes are the ones that hooked me in the first place.  The action episodes feel rushed and tend to be solved by the Elements of Harmony (substitute Megan & the Rainbow of Light for G1).  At least with G3 they didn't pretend to be something they weren't - they were just cute little ponies having fun.

[Valerie]

Well, I have to admit it... I love the G3s cartoons!!

I also like the other gens, I recognise that the others gens have stories more elaborated. I really enjoy and like MLP FIM and Tales.

Maybe for me the most boring gen is G1, although I also enjoy seeing it. I find it a little repetitive, always something bad happens, and Im not a fan of the G1 villains... this gen mix a lot of creatures with ponies, that for me don´t fit in the "pony world".

In MLP Tales we have ponies that are envious, jealous, aggressive, etc. It is very similiar to the real human world, and I don´t like those things of the human world....

G4 have things from G1 cartoons and Tales...

But in G3 all are good ponies, they are all good friends without bad feelings.... yes, the G3 stories could be more simplex, but their show a world that I would love to have and beautiful relationships. Could you imagine live in a place like that? without bad persosn and feelings? I would love that!

The G3 ponies seemed like they were incapable of feeling negative emotions 99% of the time,

For you that is something bad, but it is exactly what I love about this gen!!   

I would love to live surrounded by people like that 

Honestly I like the G3 specials for being exactly what they are - cute little slice-of-life tales where the most hazardous thing in the entire environment is Minty.

G4 and G1 may have the better stories but if I was a pony and had the chance to pick a generation to live in, I'd certainly pick G3.  All the ice cream I can eat and none of the monsters to battle.

The G4 slice of life episodes are the ones that hooked me in the first place.  The action episodes feel rushed and tend to be solved by the Elements of Harmony (substitute Megan & the Rainbow of Light for G1).  At least with G3 they didn't pretend to be something they weren't - they were just cute little ponies having fun.

I agree in all what you said!!! 

[Haruna]

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!

Bwahaha! I'm an ATLA fan, too.

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.

Yeah. I only saw a few of the G3 movies, but I remember being enthralled by Rescue at Midnight Castle when I was the target age (5-sih), while I don't think the G3 movies would have done that for me. But, that's just my two cents.

[Firehooves]

Eh, I do agree G3 would be the most pleasant gen to live in, and it's nie to see the ponies not fighting villans EVERY SINGLE TIME. But I think they could have put just a tiny bit more meant on the story, so to speak! ^^

[MJNSEIFER]

I'll probably type a better post when I can, but I agree that G3 has a lot of storyline potential - I kind of look at it the way Lauren looked at the G1 series (and G3 too, to some extent) in other words; I adore it, am inspired by it, and find the storylines interesting as they are, but at the same time want to expand on certain things - the things that were simply hinted at or referred to.  As one example, I have always found those castles interesting since they were mentioned, especially as we only ever see one - it's a storyline waiting to be explored.

I'll never understand why some people say that G3 had no depth whatsoever, because that is simply not true; it had enough depth to be seen, just not enough used; like it allowed you to peer through a window to the actual depth of the show, and the ponies - you could see it, or at least most of it, but the window stayed closed so you could never get close enough to explore the depth in full.

Saying all the ponies had the same personality, or no distinct personality is also incorrect, they had very clear personality traits, and most of which are pretty clear from the moment the pony is introduced.  Again, they don't go that far into it (and then again neither do the other generations, not even G4 - and, while I personally don't think this is a good reason not to fully explore depth; they are all children's shows), but the give enough of an idea for us to see what their main personality trait is, and the majority of which is separate from the others; can anyone honestly tell me that Wysteria and Sunny Daze for example had the exact same personality?

Even if it was aimed at a younger audience (and personally nothing about it jumps out and screams that it was to me, not that I'm denying that it was) it definitely has as much to it as the other generations do, in terms of both potential and what it actually has.

Also, that thing about Rainbow Dash liking fashion; I think you may be thinking of G3.5 not G3. 

[Star Spark]

I just got into G3 (largely because, between growing up on G1 and currently watching FiM, I wanted to see this "in between" cartoon) and while I like it enough, I think it was hampered by two things- the limited amount of "episodes" and changing trends in cartoons for little girls and young children in general. It only had about a half dozen or so 20-45 minute episodes (haven't seen the shorts), so there just wasn't as much opportunity to vary storylines like the full G1 and FiM series (which had/have their share of "slice of life" episodes in addition to the adventure themed ones.) They could have still done one or two for G3, but that gets to my second point- shows for young children in the 2000s just come off as much tamer than shows for the same demographic in the 1980s. Shows like MLP, Care Bears and Rainbow Brite all had their share of "scary" villains and situations (sometimes it could even be considered "nightmare fuel" for the target audience) and that doesn't seem to play as well with some modern parents (if you look at some of the Amazon reviews for these shows, there's always at least a couple parents complaining it's too "scary" for their child and how awful it is as a result.) They may only be a minority, but from a marketing standpoint it's generally better to "play it safe" and not include anything that part of the target demographic might find objectionable. That's my two cents, anyway- I still like the G3 characters and cartoons, but I also wish more was done with them.

[HelloGoodbye]

In large part, I think the lack of an overarching story line is due to the fact that the episodes were never widely televised (I could be wrong about that, but where I live they were never really on TV).  I recall episodes occasionally popping up on the Kid's Channel, but without any real regularity.  The main way I got the episodes when I was a kid was by purchasing the pony and VHS/DVD packs, like Star Catcher.  I didn't have all of the videos (for example, I missed out on a Very Minty Christmas), so if there was some big overarching plot, I'd have missed huge chunks of it.  I'm assuming it was the same for most kids.

The format, as a result, was just not conducive for the more complex story lines that are present in the G1 specials, or Friendship is Magic.  Unless there was a way to get the episodes without the toys, it would have been tricky.

I do wish that we had had a televised or more widely available cartoon such as FiM.  Then the story line would have been able to grow and develop. 

I apologize for any misinformation about the availability of G3, this is just the impression I have of it.

[Al-1701]

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

You're not the only one who thinks this.

I think part of G3's problem was the times.  The G1 cartoon was made in latter years of the cold war and like the other Hasbro-backed shows it was about conflict.  However, instead of two major powers pitted against each other, it was about a small enclave in a mostly unknown and hostile world.  It could be described as a commentary on the more serious debates about extraterrestrial life and whether or not contact is desirable.

G3 was made in the aughts when people wanted to feel good.  The world was crumbling around them, so they wanted to escape to where none of it mattered and they wanted to keep their kids (especially girls) there.

G4 really hasn't gotten away from that notion completely either.  While better written, it's still about ponies going about their lives in their own little world.  All the monsters are kept in one place, and nature so bows to the ponies' whim even the sun and moon rise and set at their command.  While there are threats out there, they're mostly negative ideas given a body.   Even with Twilight being a princess, the scope remains very narrow.