My Little Pony: Cinco de Mayo Show

[ProfessorDetective]

Yeah, honestly, EQG is the last good part of this franchise. After 'The Cutie Map' and the introduction of Starlight 'I'm a good guy because the writer's say-so' Glimmer, it's all just been poorer writing, one-note villains, badly-executed, same-episode, redemptions of those villains, boring unnecessary additions to the cast (the school, et al) and Twilight being Flanderized into the High Priestess of the Friendship Gospel.

There have been good episodes since then. But on the whole, I'm glad it's ending. The well hasn't just run dry, I think it's been poisoned.

[aceina]

i like starlight but her redemption was by far the worst handled in the series

[Trinary]

Yeah, honestly, EQG is the last good part of this franchise. After 'The Cutie Map' and the introduction of Starlight 'I'm a good guy because the writer's say-so' Glimmer, it's all just been poorer writing, one-note villains, badly-executed, same-episode, redemptions of those villains, boring unnecessary additions to the cast (the school, et al) and Twilight being Flanderized into the High Priestess of the Friendship Gospel.

There have been good episodes since then. But on the whole, I'm glad it's ending. The well hasn't just run dry, I think it's been poisoned.

Agreed! It is so refreshing to know I'm not the only one who hasn't drunk from the Starlight Glimmer kool aid.

Season 6 was dumpster fire with only about half a dozen episodes (out of 26) I'd consider really good and rewatchable. Starlight Glimmer's redemption was botched mess; veering sharply between showing her displaying absolutely amoral behavior with no understanding of it (including making jokes about how she brainwashed ponies!) to over-the-top gushing from other characters about how powerful and wonderful she is, with her and her alone being the voice of reason. Beyond that, the Mane Six came off as being written by people who not only hated them, but hated you for liking them. It was just a mess.

Season 7 was better, but still below the bar set by the first five seasons, with way too much of Starlight fixing everything and being oh-so wonderful. Season 8 was about the same. I like the Student characters, but hate the school setting. I am sad the show is ending and it can have really strong writing at times...but less and less of late. I wish that if it has to end, that it does so on a high note.

In case anyone wants to read my musings and rantings on seasons of the show: https://www.deviantart.com/mlp-trinary/ ... MLP-Season

[Mecha82]

i like starlight but her redemption was by far the worst handled in the series

That "redemption" and Starlight being made part of cast was reason why I walked away from FiM for good. It's in same category as Sasuke's "redemption" at end of Naruto Shippuden.

[ProfessorDetective]

Yeah, honestly, EQG is the last good part of this franchise. After 'The Cutie Map' and the introduction of Starlight 'I'm a good guy because the writer's say-so' Glimmer, it's all just been poorer writing, one-note villains, badly-executed, same-episode, redemptions of those villains, boring unnecessary additions to the cast (the school, et al) and Twilight being Flanderized into the High Priestess of the Friendship Gospel.

There have been good episodes since then. But on the whole, I'm glad it's ending. The well hasn't just run dry, I think it's been poisoned.

Agreed! It is so refreshing to know I'm not the only one who hasn't drunk from the Starlight Glimmer kool aid.

Season 6 was dumpster fire with only about half a dozen episodes (out of 26) I'd consider really good and rewatchable. Starlight Glimmer's redemption was botched mess; veering sharply between showing her displaying absolutely amoral behavior with no understanding of it (including making jokes about how she brainwashed ponies!) to over-the-top gushing from other characters about how powerful and wonderful she is, with her and her alone being the voice of reason. Beyond that, the Mane Six came off as being written by people who not only hated them, but hated you for liking them. It was just a mess.

Season 7 was better, but still below the bar set by the first five seasons, with way too much of Starlight fixing everything and being oh-so wonderful. Season 8 was about the same. I like the Student characters, but hate the school setting. I am sad the show is ending and it can have really strong writing at times...but less and less of late. I wish that if it has to end, that it does so on a high note.

In case anyone wants to read my musings and rantings on seasons of the show: https://www.deviantart.com/mlp-trinary/ ... MLP-Season

Yeah, you aren't the only one. One YouTuber I like tore the character, and the twisting the writers have done to push her on the audience, down a while back.
youtu.be/7ffD8bRlTDE

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

You talk a lot of shit, but please remember the season 8 finale had the most terrifying villain in the show I have ever seen. Also Yona is a treasure.

[Trinary]

You talk a lot of shit, but please remember the season 8 finale had the most terrifying villain in the show I have ever seen. Also Yona is a treasure.

I did really like the Season 8 finale, true. I'm not saying there still aren't good, even great, episodes that still come out--just fewer and further between than I've come to expect from the show's first five seasons.

But yes, Yona is adorable. My favorite students are Smolder and Ocellus, but Yona's great too. She's proof of a minor miracle: she made us actually like some yaks. After their first showing, that seemed hard to believe at the time! =P

[CmdrKing]

I mostly agree with the sentiment, but it's not fair to pin this on the FiM creators; at least, if by that you mean the creative staff who produce and write the series. According to several of the show writers and VAs who were at BABScon 2019, they said that the impetus for Equestria Girls came from the higher-ups at Hasbro, not the show creative staff. The way they described it: they got a call saying, in so many words, "We decided to turn the ponies into people." The writers described the reaction to this bombshell on their part was dead silence for a good ten seconds.

Oh, I should clarify there. MLP is a merchandise-driven show at heart obviously, but FiM always just treated the franchise as a story where they were handed character designs and then just fit the new characters into the setting and cast they already had.
The first EQ... really reads like someone handed them this set of dolls and they kinda went "uh.. okay sure we'll make it." THey just clearly had no actual plans for how to make any of this work and just stuffed the cast they had into a generic 80s Cartoon Movie plot basically.

But as noted I'd definitely limit that to the first movie.

Rainbow Rocks was MUCH better and it really did great things with the character of Sunset Shimmer. It's easily the best thing EQG did. The movies after that kept the Star Trek numbering rule: 1 and 3 (Equestria Girls and Friendship Games) were pretty weak while 2 and 4 (Rainbow Rocks and Legend of Everfree were good). The specials they've produced after that have been hit or miss. Nothing awful, but only a few offered anything that really stood out as good (mostly Sunset in Equestria or the like). The shorts are generally pretty good.

Honestly I still like Friendship games even. I can see how it feels like Sunset is treading water in terms of her character arc after Rainbow Rocks, but on the other hand... it has Unleash the Magic, that justifies the whole danged movie.

Everyone talking about Starlight

I've never been on board the Starlight hate train. I can kinda see where the finale of Season 5 would be a huge turnoff on that front, sure, but that's the point. Starlight's a window into a set of traits the original cast just aren't good subjects for: guilt, impostor syndrome, and the dangers of The Greater Good as a mentality. And that even if you want to be a better person, it can take forever to unlearn all the assumptions and habits that lead you to evil in the first place.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

You talk a lot of shit, but please remember the season 8 finale had the most terrifying villain in the show I have ever seen. Also Yona is a treasure.

I did really like the Season 8 finale, true. I'm not saying there still aren't good, even great, episodes that still come out--just fewer and further between than I've come to expect from the show's first five seasons.

But yes, Yona is adorable. My favorite students are Smolder and Ocellus, but Yona's great too. She's proof of a minor miracle: she made us actually like some yaks. After their first showing, that seemed hard to believe at the time! =P

Yeah. Up until her I was all for turning the entire country into yakburgers or at least magically yeating them out of Equestria until they learned how to behave.

[Trinary]

Yeah. Up until her I was all for turning the entire country into yakburgers or at least magically yeating them out of Equestria until they learned how to behave.

You know what the first yak episode, "Party Pooped," reminded me of? It reminded me of an early Star Trek: TNG episode. One of the ones where the crew has to nobly put up with the assholish customs of some primitive culture that they're indulging in order to show how noble and enlightened the crew is, thus making everyone in the episode look like a twit? Yeah, was not a strong showing. The stuff with Pinkie Pie was great, but the yaks were just ... euuugh. Thank goodness for Yona.