Early Installment Weirdness in Ponyville
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- Опубліковано 18 лис 2022
- "Friendship Is Magic" is an immensely important show for a lot of people, but a lot of people forget about some of the jank that came with those earlier episodes. Let's take a look back at some early series pony and check out some of the crazier ways the show tried to find it's footing.
- Фільми й анімація
"Zipp after chocolate" is genuinely my favourite G5 related meme. It's just so bizarre and dumb that it feels like a shitpost
Agreed.
slap some impact font on it and suddenly top tier shitpost
seeing it on this video was the first time I saw it, genuinely made me crack up.
ITS NOT?!
Your telling me that some guy didn't make it as a joke?
I notice that in the older seasons, their being horses is a lot more upfront. You clearly hear hoof noises when they walk, they whinny and snort when they're excited or angry, and occasionally reference the fact that they are animals with animal features. Season 4 onwards and the hoof noises are toned down if not totally gone, the whinnying stops, and they don't really reference their being animals very often. Made G4 feel a lot less "pony".
Oh DEFINITELY with the horse noises early in the series. It's pretty rare to hear them nickering later in the series!
Now that you mentioned it, I feel like it's due to season 4 coming after Equestria Girls, so that might have something to do with it.
I remember hearing somewhere that that was one of the core ideas Lauren Faust had--that they were actual ponies living in a world suited for them. Generation 3 was basically a human society, with human technology and problems. Faust wanted to get back to the fantasy ideas of Gen 1.
Even the early seasons have saddles part of their dresses, like Twilight first gala dress.
I actually adored the horse noises. I feel like animal noises coming from animal characters really adds a lot. The only other example I can really think of is when Warrior Cats animators pepper in audio of cats hissing or growling. It just adds a lot of character. Plus there's the fact that even PEOPLE make what could be considered "animal noises" when angry. People growl. People squeal. It just adds character to show that thing in movies and TV shows.
I think the reason why this early installment weirdness is bothering people so much in G5, is because it's a continuation of G4's universe, so not a completely new installment. It gives an impression of mlp going backwards, when we expect it to continue going forward.
Just another reason why G5 would be MUCH better if it was its own thing, without connections to G4...
I mean, I'm mostly fine with _connections_ to g4 existing (stuff like that one music box playing the old theme song is cute), but I do agree that it should probably just be allusions
Young fan here, (young like I grew up with G4,) I always appreciated it when older G4 fans got excited and pointed out interpretations of previous iterations from past generations-
But a continuation kinda spoils that as it’s no longer an interpretation but an already established callback
Like all the points have already been made
Why on Earth would Hasbro want to make an MLP series not connected to G4? Sure, they would pretty heavily reboot the continuity in earlier generations, but those generations were a bit of a mess. When you create something as iconic as G4, you don't just throw it away.
I'm not sure why a viewer would want them too either. It'd be like making a new Transformers series without mentioning Autobots or Cybertron or Optimus Prime. Or a TMNT series that didn't star the original turtles or have any connection to them. That stuff is what people are here for, right? If anything, I wish G5 leaned in to G4 even more. My biggest criticism of it is that the G4 stuff is handled clumsily fairly often.
@@hearts285 I know it only makes sense for Hasbro to not just throw G4 away, but that generation was finished after 8 whole seasons + comics, which is a lot of content.
What stories could they possibly squeeze out of this world and these characters? And how could they do it in a graceful way?
As you said, G5 handles G4 stuff clumsily, which is inevitable considering the movie director didn't even think about WHY all of Twilight's hard work to unite all pony and non-pony species went to waste. It was up to Make Your Mark writers to come up with something on the spot.
G5 as it is doesn't need to be a continuation of G4's universe in the slightest- the writers could've easily made a story about separated pony species uniting once again, without making a shit ton of retcons along the way.
My point is, G5 being set in G4 universe brings more problems that good. Was it a logical decision on Hasbro's part? Yes. But it certainly wasn't the best one.
I think the issue is that they’re trying to establish themselves as a continuation, while also basically trying to have a completely new world and these two ideals just, don’t mesh.
Like, it’d be fine if they tried to be a continuation and continued using and exploring established ideas. It’d be fine if they were their own world and came up with new ideas. But the only element that really fits into the idea of this series being a continuation is the occasional reference to Twilight and to an extent her friends. But then it makes you wonder what happened to Hearthswarming Eve, or the other creatures who all inhabited equestria. Its just this weird halfsies approach that I think is hurting the show in its current form
3:19 Applejack's old voice probably led to my favorite animation quirk in "Winter Wrap Up," where Ashleigh Ball sings one line that gradually (accidentally?) slides from AJ-range to RD-range, and the animators decided to play with this by having Rainbow Dash "interrupt" Applejack mid-line.
I think you blew my mind a little there. @.@
whoa that was a voice acting error? You learn something new every day i guess
Oh wow I didn't know that, I assumed that it was in the notes for it to happen during recording but it was on accident is a nice touch. Early season mlp has a hoof grip on me as I watched the show from the start of FIM (and farther if you count me raised on G3) so I'm used to the weirdness lol
wait what part of the song?
@@scribblecloud It's the first "Cuz tomorrow spring is here"
i remember being flabbergasted when the animators decided to change the unicorn magic aura thing from just sparkles to an actual aura 😭😭💀
One thing that always gets me about season 1 is how little BGM there is. It hit me specifically during Winter-Wrap Up, but it’s really one of those “impossible not to notice” things once it’s pointed out.
Personally, I think it’s kinda cool. It really just makes the scenes feel more real and puts greater emphasis on comedic timings and delivery.
I never noticed! That's gonna be so weird to go back to now. @.@
What’s BGM?
and when there is bgm it's VERY different from the bgm in the later seasons... like the later seasons have a much more whimsical fantasy feel while early season 1 has these very poppy very 2010s synth and guitar playing [usually when rainbow dash and pinkie are on screen]
@@Mirthful_Panda background music
Real talk I kinda miss Pinkies random songs tho
Also s1 vibes just hit differently maybe it's nostalgia but I like how chill it is
Reminds me of s1 boondocks vs the rest of the show
Honestly, my biggest concern about G5 is that Hasbro will see the mixed reception for the two shows, decide the reboot didn't work out, and cancel G5 before it can really come into its own.
Yeah, I was wondering why Netflix was making it instead of Hasbro and DHX themselves or something I don’t know how that works
@@Mirthful_Panda
Netflix is not producing the show, they are simply distributing it on their platform.
@@HellaFuckingKawaii oh gotcha well let me rephrase that then “yeah, I was wondering why it’s not on Discovery Family on Cable”
The fact Hasbro barely even seems to be pushing the toy-line doesn't fill me with much confidence either. At least in my local stores the new G5 merch seems to be relegated to a small bottom shelf corner that is very easy to miss, whereas even at the trailing end of G4, ponies had nearly an entire shelf to themselves and sometimes spilled out into adjoining ones.
Then again, even Transformers seems to be getting crowded out of its previous toy isle prominence. So maybe it's just a problem of the market being overly saturated with competing brands.
@@EmeralBookwise that was my problem trying to buy some! they dont have near as much prominence in the toy aisle and it makes me incredibly sad.
My biggest problem with G5 is that the world feels so… small. Idk if it makes sense. A singular town for each pony race (two of which look pretty small) just makes it seem like the world is empty. And maybe it actually is. Maybe there was some kind of mass pony extinction or something lol. I just don’t like that. But I’m pretty happy with the rest!! Izzy is precious
As the ponies migrated, as their magic disappeared, as the hungers and thirst took them one by one...
Wait! It's only a day's walk to each settlement. This isn't the journey of Moses we're talking about, nor Frostpunk. xD
The world didn't even feel so small in G4's pilot. Even Ponyville, which was supposedly a small town in the middle of nowhere, felt so busy and alive. Maretime Bay just kinda feels like it's big but empty.
@@fatcat1414 not enough ocs or ram to populate it all that densely. XD
@@fatcat1414 Exactly!!!!!
G5's animation makes it a lot harder to create new locations. For G4 they just needed background artists, but building "sets" for G5's CGI requires a lot more staff and time (+ filling those locations with unique background character designs, as designing and rendering those ponies is a lot easier when working in 2D)
Spike not liking girly things is funny when you consider the episode Dragon Quest which is all about Spike being insecure about how he’s not like other dragons which is an allegory for boys or masculinity or something….. which just goes to show how many things season 1 dropped like the weird Luna design
I think it's worth pointing out, though, that the punchline to Spike "not liking girly things" in The Ticket Master is that he was putting on a front; when he finally did get a ticket, he was thrilled to participate in the girly gala gunk. The show definitely was inconsistent about just how open Spike was to feminine things or how confident in his masculinity, but it wasn't a case of a season idea that was dropped later. It was just one of those things that fluctuated from writer to writer rather than being linear.
@@maybehawthorn That’s what I was thinking, I think spike more so then anyone acts the most different depending on the writer for better or worse. Spike in spike at your service is blatantly a different character from how he normally is for example
That’s a really cool way to see it
The mane 6s treatment of Spike in season 1 isn’t just exclusive to him. The mane 6 overall are just WAY more mean to each other compared to the seasons afterwards, compare the way they treat fluttershy in this season compared to way season 5 for example
yeah they are just more childish, akin to the auditory they were aiming for. Which is why their conflicts were also more like children's ones
I don't really see that as a problem. I see them as more young, immature and without any real friendship lessons and experiences with their friends to define them yet. Of course they're not going to be super friendly all the time, that wouldn't work with the show.
absolutely!
I think it makes sense for them to have to get a grasp on friendship before the arcs where they'd teach others on friendship. Also, with such a diverse cast that barely knew each other before the pilot, I think more interpersonal conflict is understandable.
I think that's part of the reason everyone fell in love with the show. Originally every character actually did have a bit of an edge to them, especially Twilight who before becoming a princess she was quite an egghead who noticeably thought she was smarter than everyone else in the room
And then there's the complete redesign of Luna. Another kinda extreme case of the studio experimenting with what they actually want the characters to be like.
As for G5, I have mixed feelings. The first movie was great. It did its job - it was supposed to get us excited about the new characters, and introduce us to their world, whether someone was new to ponies, or a veteran of previous generations. That was its purpose. It wasn't designed to explain what happened between G4 and G5, so I don't get why so many people complain about that not being addressed in the movie. It wasn't supposed to address that. That would only take away time and focus from the main job, while confusing viewers new to ponies.
Also, it didn't overwhelm with details. Just three cities, a few characters. Good starting point.
Now, I knew the shows after that would have lower budgets, so I lowered my expectations, and... well, that was a good approach. Better than nothing, but far behind the quality of the movie, both in terms of visuals, and in terms of writing. Now I get that lower budget necessitates worse visuals, but I'm not fully convinced that worse writing was necessary, but eh, you get what you get.
But, with lowered expectations, one can still focus on the good things, while ignoring - or better yet, replacing - the bad. The important thing is, I, and many others, have grown to like the new characters, so now we can take over and create headcanon, art, fanfiction, whatever, to create something better in place of everything bad. While retaining all the good parts of canon. Thus, we can - together with the artists hired by Hasbro - create something good. You don't make things perfect by yourself, on first try. It has to be an iterative process, and having more people work on it can, if done right, lead to better results.
@@Tennouseijin: I'm not entirely sure the writing in TYT and MYM are "worse", just that the shorter form stories give less time to actually flesh that writing out. Actually, I think TYT even does a remarkable job condensing down coherent plots and characterizations into under five minutes. Then again, the first MYM special really dragged out its double episode runtime, but the Winter Wishday special feels like a major improvement.
@@Tennouseijin Have you seen the character concepts and the storyboards and all the plans thrown out by G5? There was so much love and care made for G5 that never made it in because locations and characters had to fit the toys. G5 existing in this terrible state where it needs the fans to fix it is not a positive at all. I hate G5. And that's what makes me glad that there's still good characters and ideas that can be unicycled from it into a far better G5. A fanmade G5. How can you share my views but say you like G5? Is this some weird 'glass half full' situation?
G4 always had the canon replace the fanon when it got around to world building. We never said "G4 did it wrong, let's fix it". The fanon was built around the canon, that's how it works for good shows. G5's canon doesn't even work around G4's canon though, it's so bad that it needs head canon and fanon to glue it back together. Ideas about G5 actually being one of the bad timelines created by Starlight Glimmer, this goes against canon statements but it instantly strengthens G5's canon. I hate that it feels like a battle between the fandom and the show writers, because they're making something wrong and we know how to fix it. I honestly can't wait for G5 to end so that we can give it the proper treatment it deserves, and rewrite it with care. Just looking at all the idea they tossed out shows we could have had something better than we got. It shows that toy sales ruined something that was meant to be special.
Luna's redesign is easy headcanon, though. Spending a thousand years as someone else might leave a significant mark. All of that gets forcibly stripped away at the start of season 1 and it's season 2 before we see her again. Time to recuperate and recharge as it were.
Several people asked Lauren why Luna’s design changed and she… canonically headcanon’d it??? as Luna’s power slowly recharging after all the evil power she had as Nightmare Moon was stripped away, leaving her weakened
Whenever I think of early installment weirdness in G4 I remember the Pinkie Sense. What was that? Why is it never mentioned again? Why didn't Pinkie just use her Pinkie sense to predict they'd get locked in a cage or trapped in Tartarus before it happened? They introduced this super OP thing only Pinkie Pie can do to teach Twilight a lesson about not investigating her friends and then it never came back.
There is a charm to just how dialogue-driven season 1 of FiM is. So many episodes are literally the characters talking for 90% of the runtime, it makes you wonder how interesting children actually found the show to be early on. Your comment about how it's more like a play is apparent even in the episode structures. It feels like each scene is set up to incorporate a set amount of characters that have a conversation and it moves the story along. I think a lot of this is because the show was using stories made for 11-minute shows and stretching them to 22 minutes. Ticket Master is the only one that *officially* was written as an 11-minute pilot originally, but the simple plots seem like they were ideas thrown around when the runtime was still quite short. Twilight was also an experimental character it seems; she's mostly a nice pony, but had a habit of being sarcastic. She also could be insecure, skeptical, leaderlike, airheaded, and even a bit snobbish. She was definitely the most dynamic character and could fit into different roles, but she still felt like a consistent character.
About two years ago I sat down with a friend who was interested in seeing the show (he loved it, we watched it all the way through). Before turning on the first episode I said something to the extent of "if you wanna see animation errors, watch their eyelashes."
Season 1 is *writhe* with vanishing eyelashes. They pretty much drop out of frame whenever they feel like it. It's more common when characters hit extreme expressions, but can also be seen in super casual circumstances. Sometimes they come back before the end of the shot, sometimes they don't.
The biggest thing in season 1 was so many clones used in background and crowd shots. Especially in the flimflam episode where you can see two or three clones for a good number of ponies at various times
Yes! And by season nine each background pony was BEAUTIFULLY unique and they all had such cool designs. It’s funny rewatching the “clone era” of MLP but I’m also blown away at the effort they put into making every minor character different later on.
@@rulerzreachf4n34 I also really like how in later seasons they got more varied with face markings like with Sunburst, or color gradients, or even unique body types. It was a nice touch and also gave some validity to some bronies oc's with similar traits made early on lol
Well it beats the early installments of the series RWBY, where the background characters were all pitch black like they were walking shadows or something.
My only real issue with G5 isn't the oddness they keep trying.
Like you said, new shows through lots of stuff at the wall to see what sticks before finding their groove.
Sure, the animation is jarring at times and sometimes the character's attitudes can be really off putting (looking at you, Pip), the tones change between Make Your Mark and the UA-cam show, but I can’t really hold that against them.
My only true issue, the one I CANNOT overlook, is how they keep insisting G5 is in G4's universe's future instead of just being it's own thing.
It's holds G5 back because so much lore contradicts G4's, they always end up relying too much on G4 whenever they bring it up and, biggest of all, it paints G4 in a REALLY bad light, since the idea for the crystals being made and the separation of the tribes was just a badly rehashed version of G4 Season 9's final 2 parter.
It makes it seem like nobody learned anything from the events of Tirek, Cozy and Cheese Legs' attack on the kingdoms.
If it were established as a separate timeline, Starlight gave plenty of options to choose from for that, I could maybe understand.
But, no, they keep insisting G5 is set barely any time after the Season 9 finale.
That's not only bad in that it says, even with all species coexisting in perfect harmony by Season 9's end, it fell apart barely any time after, suggesting society as a whole in mlp is too fragile to last any length of time in peace, but it literally undermines what the finale was saying and makes all Twilight and the others' efforts feel like they were a waste of time.
Season 9 finale: We went through many struggles, but now, our world is in balance.
G5: HAH! Sike! Our society is so fragile we fell apart as soon as the cameras stop rolling, our world has literally rewritten its fundamental laws of reality and we're all racist no matter how much we we try to improve and Princess Twilight’s efforts were wasted and her legacy absolutely destroyed.
Aren't we even better now?
The worst thing is, when they try to put the blame on Twilight. I'd be ok if the story went that "Twilight reigned for a thousand years, always solving problems as they arised. But in the end, her reign somehow ended, and centuries later, ponies are again divided, because Twilight didn't have any worthy successors. Mane6 became just a legend, a fairy tale told to little fillies, and sold as collectible toys. Sort of how Nightmare Moon during her thousand year banishment became a legend and ponies doubted her existence.
Now it's time for Sunny and her friends to become Mane6's worthy successors, relearn the lost lessons about friendship, and rebuild what Mane6 achieved.
But no, instead they tell us that Twilight created some crystals that destroyed everything she and her friends worked for. And she did that just because... one pony was racist. Basically.
I still like many things about G5, it's just that some of its lore is so bad, I choose to replace that in my headcanon with something that makes more sense, so that I can enjoy the good stuff.
G4 ends with the song "The magic of friendship grows" and it's such a good ending to it
But g5 kinda spits on that tearful and magical ending doesn't it
Even though the previous two episodes are filled with problems
The thing is most of these "problems" should hopefully get resolved as we delve further into Opaline's role as an evil alicorn anti-Twilight, and just what role she played in the downfall of the previous kingdom. The series is clearly trying to build up some mystery and intrigue around this dynamic, and I think it's unfair to make any snap judgments until we see how all of that plays out.
I assume it's been around 1,000 years, which is plenty of time to get a country's culture to fall. And that would make Equestria about 3,000 years old.
This is exactly the problem, finally someone noticed, G5 is just trying too hard on connecting G4 to G5 when in reality everything is just going downhill. Like youtubers such as Star Strike said, some characters like Sunny doesnt even have a clear personality yet, and G5 is slowly coming into Season 2.
If they focused on G5 in the beginning instead of trying to squeeze G4 into it, then it wouldve been a great show honestly.
What they shouldve done at first is to let G5 grow a bit, let the Mane 5 show who they are, what they do, their dreams and some backstory on each of them like how they grew, how their cutie marks appeared, give some depth to the characters like the villain, then maybe improve Sparky, give him a personality and stuff.
Once everything is settled, it's their choice to make G5 into it's own universe or slowly transition into connecting G4, eitherway we'll still have a great show with new characters.
But no, Twi and Discord suddenly came out of nowhere, worse is they keep mentioning stuff that always goes against the G4 lore, making it more confusing.
G5 has potential but they keep throwing it away, they should really fix this before it's too late...
Another thing that’s different is the magical aura around ponies horns, like in the very first episodes there were just sparkles then evolved to a pink aura to finally the aura matching the unicorn’s eyes.
They don't always match. Sunset's did during her debut appearance, but later it was changed to red.
Little fun fact but in a Season 9 episode's flashback that takes place prior to the Season 1 premiere, Twilight's magic is shown as pale pink like how it was pre-S2 Ep3
I love how Aqua Teens actually solving mysteries is considered early installment weirdness.
Aqua Teens suffered early installment normalness.
i noticed the desaturated color palette in call of the cutie specifically and i always thought it was just something wrong with that episode, i never even realized it was like that for all the early episodes... [i feel like the cmcs have more bright saturated colors compared to the main 6 so it's more noticable with them, but now i can't unsee it with rainbow dash]
i also always wondered what that "ei" meant in the corner so thanks for pointing that out
I'm really glad you brought up the color palette change. I realized that Scootaloo looked a lot brighter in Season 8 than normal and it was driving me crazy wondering if the values had really changed.
I just recently started re-watching the whole show from the beginning, and wow, is it ever jarring.
The differences between season 1 and season 9 are so numerous, it feels like a totally different show.
But I love it. That's what's so cool. I love FiM's quaint beginnings. I love what it grew to be. I just love it.
It's such a lovely journey to make, isn't it? Starting in a quaint little town on simpler adventures with more mundane moments of life, out and about in the name of making friends, only for those adventures to become more dangerous with higher and higher stakes, those moments in life becoming more complex and nuanced, and the dynamic shifts from just making friends to learning to bring that love to more and more people further and further outside the safety and comfort of that quaint little town.
It's honestly one of the few shows I just don't get tired of. Nine incredible seasons, lots of laughs, cartons of creativity, fields of feelings, and six little goofballs at the heart of it all.
The thing is, people can see the difference between Season 1 and 9 as a step down for deviating from Lauren Faust's original version, and I can see where they're coming from. A creator leaving their own show is usually never a good sign.
The one thing that always stood out to me was Applejack's voice in early episodes. I really like the deeper tone she ended up taking on, and I at least feel like most of the character's earlier personalities and speaking patterns were who they were /before/ they all got to know one another more and started stepping out of their safe zones. The older animation also really stands out, but that's understandable considering early productions have a lot less money to work with, and they were still trying to get used to the style and techniques. Seeing them go off-base so much later on with different perspectives and facial shapes was really nice.
Great video. You give a lot of good points about the early days of the show lol. Zipp after chocolate is also already a classic G5 meme imo, I remember looking at it when it first was published and was in denial that it was official lmao.
A trope known as "growing the beard", referencing Star Trek: The Next Generation's growth beyond its awkward early instalments coinciding with Riker growing a beard in the show :3
I didn't even notice they stopped doing the "dear princess Celestia" thing
for whatever reason, you bringing up the "welcome princess celestia" being written in regular english *really* freaked me out lol. you're so right though, the rest of the show has the little symbol-like gibberish alphabet. i dunno, it just gives me goosebumps lol
So yeah, hopefully G5 will find it's footing, especially since the team behind the show (under Hasbro's orders) haven't yet got a proper plan for the series. Hopefully it will just be early installment weirdness, and not remain a consistent problem throughout.
I dunno, I really love the simplicity of the first few seasons. Yeah, epic scenes, character progressions, world building mostly happen later, but in season 1 you really got just the pure MLP experience, where stakes are not high, the plots are simple but entertaining, the characters dialogue is well-written and the messaging is very cheesy but honest. I really liked the latter seasons as well, but something about S1&2 is just still charming and I can't deny it.
The humor is very “early 2010s” is how I’d put it
G5 was always going to encounter trouble in its infancy just by merit of having to live up to the expectations set by its predecessor. G4 had time to evolve considerably before the full force of this community was built up around it.
I’ve tried writing under pressure. It’s not fun, and it’s certainly not any easier.
Good to see somone examining the old show's early installment weirdness. I love the strange small parts of shows that get overlooked. I completely forgot how mean the early seasons were. Honestly, it does give me some more hope for this new generation.
Also, I completely forgot about his jackhammer tail. It might be a fun video idea to list off his strange powers. We know for a fact that he can stick metal pins in his body for Rarity to use him as a pin cushion, and everyone knows his fire breath can teleport scrolls. But we have seen that he can fully control it. In the episode where he helps Big mack bake a cake, he transports the paper pieces INSIDE of an object. So theoretically speaking, he could teleport items inside of his enemies. If he thought more about it, when he was attacked by timber wolves, he could have literally teleported one timberwolf into another to make them both explode.
Also, according to multiple websites and written material outside the show, they just said his breath is a mysterious thing that no one understands. It seems odd in retrospect that they never expanded on that. If any of the other main six had a random magic power, would they leave it unexplained? They went out of their way to say that RD wasn't the first to do a Rainboom, and I don't think Fluttershy's abilities are that out of the ordinary for a pony with her mark. Twilight just seems to naturally be super powerful with a connection to magic. Those all make sense. Spike just has some strange magic power that is a pure mystery to everyone and never gets focused on. Even when we see other dragons, it never comes up.
The funny thing is while it never was stated officially, I think a lot of people (including myself) just believed that it had to do something with the magical burst that Twilight used to hatch him. Like it had some bizarre side effects or gave Spike some magic DNA of sorts.
It's a shame that they never tried to explain the parameters of how Spike's breath works. Can he only send letters to Celestia? What's the difference between the fire breath and the magic breath?
@@alisonwallace5619 I like the theory ngl, he was still in the egg and Twilight sort of just forced him out, so it could make sense that Twilight kinda messed with his DNA, making him this magical dragon, it also would make sense why his fire has the same purple color as Twilight's magical glow, or is it just Spike being Spike LOL
I remember that initially the plan was for spike to have been raised by celestia and not twilight and her family which could have had something to do with it but was scrapped like a lot of season 1s ideas. Honestly spikes fire breath ability in theory is hilariously over powered I can see why they dropped it cause then hypothetically he could just warp anything away
Pinkie's fourth-wall breaking and reality-breaking 'powers' were also never explained or really focused on. We were just expected to roll with it. G5 is already indicating they won't explain every little phenomenon, like with Sparky's breath. I guess that's the side perk of writing for a kid's show about magic.
I honestly never really thought about Spike's Jack hammer drill tail moment.
Now I'm not sure what I think either
Personally I just believe it doesn’t give the same kind of experience mlp gen4 gives. Lauren did a wonderful job making a childrens show not feel like a childrens show, and have genuine adventures and lessons with serious topics like divorce and family separation and racism etc..
You can also tell in Season 1 they tried to make Pinkie Pie the wiser than she looks type. Since she often had episodes where she became the correct one.
Later on she became more of the immature one, who would sometimes be insensitive and even a bit rude.
Believe it or not, I prefer her later seasons more flawed attitude. I think it makes more sense with how childlike Pinkie is, and how she needs to learn from others. Otherwise im Season 1 she was a bit of a Mary Sue.
I prefer the more flawed Pinkie that has to learn more.
I'd say Pinkie was never flawless. Even when she was correct, she was very bad at communicating it to others. They would have to see that she was correct from the results, because she would never explain why she does something.
@@Tennouseijin: Exactly. It's not so much a case of early Pinkie being a less flawed character, but rather of later season Pinkie's flaws being so much more overtly magnified. It' pretty much a case of flanderisation, where in a previously nuanced character gets reduced down to a single trait that dominates their entire personality... and Pinkie kinda got stuck as the clown.
Izzy is like Season 1 Pinkie Pie, clever but pretending to be stupid
"dude, stop talking, do you need me to call somebody?" almost made me cry laughing
I feel like with Make Your Mark, it's alteady growing into something more defined. I'm glad to give it time.
on the subject of bizarre promotional material, anyone remember the “equestria girls” promo parodying california gurls?
I have to agree that early G4 had a ton of problems. It's even arguable that it had _more_ problems than G5, but I personally still can't call G5 good because I feel the problems with it carry more weight than the problems with G4 did.
When I watch a show, I'm not just looking to see if it has too many problems for me to get into it. I'm mostly looking to see if there's anything stand out that really pulls me into a show despite it's flaws. FIM season 1 had plenty of problems, but made up for it with well written characters, a massive world filled to the brim with interesting lore, good humor and good lessons that even adults could often apply to their lives (even if spelling out the lesson for us at the end was a little cringe).
G5 just doesn't have enough to pull me in like FIM did, and certainly not enough (in my opinion) to make up for all its flaws.
I can see why other people enjoy it. It does have it's moments and people are free to like it, I just personally can not.
I totally get what you mean! For me what got me into my little pony was to see a group of friends learn together and grow together (as I was a kid who didn’t have many friends and related to twilight a lot) generation 5 just doesn’t have that kick for me it feels like the later seasons of mlp with out the build up of the earlier ones
The biggest thing I remember was the front-on shots always looked exceptionally awkward until I think the third season.
This video was so well produced! The writing was clear and informative, plus some really interesting stuff discussed! The Zipp after chocolate meme seems so surreal and shitposty
Discord is my favorite pony and throughout the media I can't recall another character being so purely chaotic.
For me G5 is essentially the literal next generation's MLP. I enjoyed G4 growing up and learned to appreciate all it had to offer alternatively I just can't relate to G5's comedy and world like G4.
To put it as briefly as possible the characters in G4 are young adults with responsibilities and government obligations. Their daily lives and the tasks and adversity they faced felt very real because it tied into the world in a way that made sense.
The G5 ponies come off to me like teenagers pretending to be adults, some have jobs but they don't feel very real or hold much weight. For example compare Hitch (Sheriff) to Shining Armor (Captain of the Royal Guard). I realize it's not very fair since G4 has a lot more development put into their characters but my gut tells me that G5 is probably going to lean hard into being a "Kid show" rather than "Family show".
(Also swapping from 2D to 3D is hard to watch, I just don't like 3D animation it feels like selling out but that's just me)
I've never watched G5 but based on the little bits I've seen and heard I like this viewpoint. It makes sense too, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are completely different
Hitch is probably the worst example you could have made for the G5 cast being anything like "teenagers". Maybe sheriff seems like a less prestigious job title than Captain of the Royal guard, but if anything, Hitch's job is even more important. From what we've seen in episodes, he not only has authority to enforce laws in Maretime bay, but he also even has authority to make new ones, and Sprout seeming could do the same in his brief time as acting-sheriff. Despite what the Job is called, "sheriff" is the only position of actual leadership we've seen in Maretime Bay.
As for the rest, Pipp runs her own salon, making her pretty much the same kind of small business owner that Rarity was. Sunny also doesn't seem to just work as a cashier at a smoothie stand, she seems to own it as well. Izzy is more the independent artist type, but seems to take professional commission work. About the only one who comes up short is Zipp, who's "detective" agency has so far mostly just been her talking to herself and recording blandly obvious observations.
Lol, I saw this video when it was released, but I lost it and I tried searching for it. I finally found it again! Great video!
Thanks! Glad you found me!
I’m still holding out faith for g5. I don’t hate it, and I’m still excited to see what it can do. The comics have actually peaked my interest and I hope they do more things like that in the show. Hopefully as the series goes on the writers will be given more freedom to tell better stories. I can’t deny there’s a lot of clunkiness so far but I’ve still got hope
I feel like a big issue with the show is pacing. Some episodes feel really slow, and some feel really fast. Chapter 1/the first special feels like they had a whole season or second movie idea that had to be condensed into 44 minutes
You have very good points, obviously I think personally s1 of g4 still done more things right than the first year of make your mark.
It’s being much simpler yet already has better idea of it’s Identity.
But even that, different from other people, I can still see potential in make Your Mark, after all, I can acknowledge it is it’s first year after all.
Btw, tho some are in different, I enjoyed TYT personally far more than MyM‘s entirely.
I might even say, that’s what MyM should of been.
But of course that’s just my Opinion, and of course respect everyone else’s
Man... has it really been twelve years since Friendship is Magic first aired? Geez, time flies. I remember back in the first days of the show being spread around on the internet. Prior to FiM, MLP was regarded as absolute DREK, with excessive pink, ham-fisted morals, and poor animation. It was unheard of that a show about ponies for little girls could actually have... quality.
It's so surreal to me, that there's a video saying "The first season of FiM was kinda weird," when at the time season 1 was regarded as a massive step up from decades of prior pony stuff. I guess that's a genuine sign that the show got better and better as time went on.
In another 5 to 10 years, people who were kids during the show's run will be making videos about how nostalgic they feel about FiM.
Season 1 of MLP had such a unique vibe to it that later season let's face it didn't have even in tone
Though I will say the later half of s1 episodes were much better quality wise
Change in production staff probably accounts for much of that shift, most notably Lauren Faust's departure after the first season. Not saying the show was better with or without her, just very obviously different. Then again, at the same time was when they dropped the "educational" mandate, so that could also be just as much a factor.
Every time i have some sort of fandom i want to show my friends they always dip at the first season or brush it off saying something about how it dosent seem good but not even finishing the show first only the first part of the series trying to say “if it dosent start out good im kind of not interested” and then i have to try and point out EVERY series has first season weirdness but no one really seems to listen. At least someone finally gets it!
I was a fan of MLP in its earliest days, and I just can't help but be so fond of the bigger eyes, weird facial expressions, desaturated colours and generally more childish charm. It's just too cute!!
I cant wait for zipp after chocolate to become a nostalgic meme
I've heard the desaturated color palette in season 1 was a rendering error.
Isn't it also specifically a rendering error with the version used for streaming? Like, I've been around long enough distinctly remember there used to be color corrected versions of the episodes here on UA-cam to make them look more like what was originally broadcast.
@@EmeralBookwise Yeah, I think it was iTunes that messed up the color, and most people ripped from those streams back in 2011.
@@snowblind9551: I know I certainly did. I also did my due diligence and supported the show officially by purchasing it off I tunes and later DVD. But I ripped the uploads off UA-cam to watch at greater convenience, especially since I could set up playlists on my laptop so whenever I was in a pony mood I could just launch episodes at random without having to decide which one to watch.
I felt that FIM didn't really hits its stride until the 2nd season and I feel like the reasons you gave here are part of that reason. I think it's the same with G5.
I think a difference for me between early G5 and G4 is focus.
G4 had a clear focus with every episode: Learning a friendship lesson to tell Princess Celestia.
Even when the letters stopped - by then the core themes of the show were established, and following episodes knew what they were doing. The exploration on "how to get along with eachother" coninued with a bit more freedom for fantasu adventure.
What is G5s focus? What is the overall point to each episode? Why does drama happen and why do the characters get from A to B? What is its general theme...?
Or is it just whatever scattered idea the writers fling at the wall? Because thats kinda what it feels like at the moment.
i love how MLP is referred to only as "pony" in this video
Friday's video is called "How Much Pony Is There?", so I'm sticking with my bad habits!
I have it as a rule to form an opinion about a show after season 2. It is at that point that the characters have solidified on who they are, the animation usually gets a boost and, most importantly, usually the story picks up.
A very good video. I went back and re-watched seasons one and two a few years after first watching them, and it was an odd experience. On the one hand everything was so new and fresh, and it reminded me of the early days of the fandom, where videos were still free on UA-cam and half the fun was reading the comments on the episode. On the other hand, they were a bit odd in that they were inconsistent in tone.
I would also add that inconsistency has been one consistency in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. In my experience, every season has its ratio of good, bad, and so-so episodes, and a "bad" season is more defined for MLP: FIM as a season with a negative ratio of good to bad episodes.
I'm also reminded in this video how the second episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "The Naked Now" is just so tonally off and weird that it might as well have been an episode of a different TV show, and I'm reminded how the first season of The Orville was trying to push goofy humor more, and just falling flat at that, and later seasons made it more of a serious sci-fi show exploring important issues of the day with a little humor sprinkled throughout, and I think it's better for that.
You all need to remember that season 1 came out in October 2010.
this was really good man, well fleshed out ideas and very well spoken, i enjoyed very much, subed and awaiting the next :)
I gotta be honest at 0:30 that looks like apple Jack and rainbowdash’s love child.
The colour palette change thing was something I always noticed. I'd like if they kept the grey eyelashes/pupils though. It makes it look a little flatter and prettier
Very much enjoyed the video! Yeah, early shows are always weird and I think people tend to forget that as shows go on because, well, the increase in quality is usually slow and unnoticeable. It's only when one looks back that the difference is noticeable. I'm currently watching someone else react to MLP for the first time and I was struck by just... how different the show was in the beginning. Made me laugh, in fact. It's something I've noticed with other shows I have fond memories for as well, with Avatar: TLA being the most popular example
Shows don't start good, they _get_ good. Ideally in response to what works with their audience. It's something I think more folks need to be reminded about and I believe your video really nailed that point 👍
I though I was the only one who thought they looked more saturated when rewatching s1 😭
Honestly I'm glad to see the mlp fandom hasn't died or devolved into pure argumentative chaos. I'm not really into the franchise anymore but I'm happy y'all are managing to have fun with it still.
Every show has its awkward phase where the team is figuring everything out. I feel like the animation team is finally finding its footing after watching Winter Wishday. The writing team is getting there but they still have stuff to iron out. Most of the writing team for the show is different from the movie team and they are basically stuck building upon the straws that the movie left behind.
So, I ended up getting distracted with this little thing called college while gen 4 was being released. But before then I watched FiM weekly but tapered off around Rainbow Rocks. Now that I'm reaching my graduation date soon, I'm starting to look back into the Mane 6 and thinking about watching through all the seasons and movies. Especially the ones I missed. It just feels like a nice wholesome comfort show. Its the same way I trust Ed Edd n Eddy or My Life as a Teenage Robot. Something you lean on when I need to decompress.
Great video man! Interesting topic with great delivery.
The color difference in S1 is a mastering issue. A lot of people started with the US iTunes releases, but the Australian releases turned out to be superior for some odd reason.
This is a comment I'm hearing a lot, and I'm actually really interested in seeing where these poorly-mastered episodes became the ones we currently watch.
@@gatorgoatjohnny One thing I did notice of S1 is that the shot composition was made to also work if you cropped the show to 4:3. You can also see quite a few shots where the footage is rather pixelated, as if someone editing the footage digitally zoomed in the rendered footage instead of reexporting it from Flash.
I think the color issue might be due to the studio moving from SD to HD around that time. SD relied on Rec. 601 while HD moved to Rec. 709, so they might have accidentally exported the footage with Rec. 601 instead. Both standards are pretty close, but with bright colorful ponies you can feel something is off.
I actually was watching since Season 1 and I really, really hated how they decided to glom onto the "Yep/Nope" thing for Bic Mac, seemingly based off of random internet memes more than anything. Because it meant Big Mac's voice actor, well, barely got any work at all per season and what he did get was just saying the same two words over and over.
You gotta feel bad for the guy basically having his work on the show cut down to almost nothing, based off of internet memes.
While all shows suffer from early instalment weirdness, in FiM's cae I think that has just as much to do with the first season being the only one supervised by Lauren Faust. Quite a few of the stylistic differences and tonal changes between the first and later seasons could probably be attributed to her departure.
Well... that and that later seasons were clearly more aware of the older male demographic the show had attracted. Although I think that might be more a case of "Late Instalment Weirdness," wherein the last few seasons started drifting away from winking nods into full blown fanservice.
On the subject of early instalment weirdness in G5, however, something I really hope gets resolved is the awkwardness that is "detective Zip". I really preferred her in the movie, where she was just clever and inquisitive, with a secret lair dedicated to studying flight mechanics. I'm somewhat hopeful we might get some of that version of her back, after the recent short where she and Izzy made the group's flying camper van.
As a so-called detective, however, Zip is entirely lack luster at best, if not outright annoyingly pedantic at worse. She isn't taking cases or solving mysteries, most of the time she's just making overly obvious statements or repeating basic stuff other ponies say into her recorder as if it where some amazing insight. If they were really looking to give her a job, I'd have much preferred her as Hitch's new deputy, which seemed to be what earlier episodes were building up to before the P.I. swerve.
Season 4 notoriously doubled down on the fanservice I feel which would not happen in s2 or 3
Full blown fanservice? Even ignoring how weaboos use this word to mean "boobs", I'd love to hear you list just one example of fanservice. The staff always said they never altered the show as a result of bronies with the single exception of episode 100... And the season 2 Derpy incident. Every adult joke or reference was not done for an older fanbase, it was done for the enjoyment of the staff.
There is no fanservice, not a small amount, not a full blown amount. This is a complaint I hear but have never heard anyone back up with a single example.
@@TailsClock "Fanservice" is used in pretty much every fandom to refer to the writers throwing in something they know the fans would want to see or be "in" on. You might see it often being used to refer to scantily clad anime girls because there are tons upon tons upon TONS of anime being pumped out constantly, with their main demographic being heavily skewed towards older guys who enjoy drooling over an attractive anime waifu. And of those anime being pumped out all the time, a not-insignificant amount of them have their fanservice in the form of... appealing to the male gaze. But this isn't the only definition of the word. Depending on the fandom you're in, fanservice can also be used to refer to teasing a popular ship, giving a popular character extra screentime, alluding to an inside joke, or making a popular fanon interpretation canon, just because.
Anyway, other examples of MLP having fanservice would be the shared dream sequence in Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep, Twilight's fight with Tirek in S4, making LyraBon canon (and by extension having them star in an Equestria Girls short that irised-out in a heart shape), Derpy's continued appearances after S2, the return of Lightning Dust in S8, the ambiguous relationship between Applejack and Rainbow Dash in the finale (as well as making CheesePie canon), and the general story of Stranger than Fanfiction. You can probably also add Sunset's/the Dazzlings cameos in FiM to the list too. Fame and Misfortune can probably be viewed as anti-fanservice for referencing several points of discourse within the fandom, albeit in a way that criticized bronies instead of being a friendly nod to their discussions and headcanons.
Also, no writer ever really admits to sprinkling in fanservice into their work, even if they're known to interact with the fandom. From what I can tell this is generally to avoid being accused of pandering.
I still think the biggest problem with G5 is that they anchored it to G4. A new show should be taken on its own merits, but it’s hard not to compare it to FiM when they go out of their way to remind you the previous show happened.
It's wild to hear that the later seasons changed things up, cause I never watched past the first season. I'd started watching when I was about 12 during summer vacation and at the time the second season only had the two parter or whatever with Discord, and I forgot to ever go back and watch any new episodes. Now the series is over and there's like nine seasons lol
yeS exactly, great vid. S1 was by no means bad but it hadn't settled into it's world yet, and there were several character choices that were later changed or improved, Applejack is my favorite pony but s1 applejack and s9 applejack are completely different characters, there was a reason I really didn't like AJ as a kid. Something that happens to a lot of shows, including FiM, is that the characters are nothing more than stereotypes in the first season, nerd, jock, diva, country bumpkin, ect, and as the show goes on, the writers are able to actually flesh out and come to an understanding on how to write the characters outside of their basic traits, I'm expecting the same thing to happen with gen5 especially with Pipp's hello fellow kids-ness, as her character is pretty much The Influencer and very little else atm
Season 1 AJ could maybe be a bit... "bland" at times, but that was mostly on account of her typically playing the role of levelheaded straightmare to the other pony's wacky antics. By season 9, however, AJ became just as much an over-the-top participant to the zany antics as anypony else.
Not a "bad" change per say, but it does result in the later seasons becoming less grounded and more surreal.
@@EmeralBookwise i think we have opposite opinions lol, she seems to be portrayed as pretty dumb in season 1, and all the characters fairly 2 dimensional, her grounded-ness of being the more levelheaded one makes her one of the, for lack of better words, smarter characters in the cast by the end. Tbh i'd never consider s1 to be more grounded, it was simpler for sure, but thats because they were more focused on appealing to the target demographic.
It’s great to see someone actually hype up G5. There’s so many weird adults putting G4 on this pedestal.
oh shit I wasn't expecting a Survivor mention. That show is my entire personality holy shit. You've earned a subscription from that hell yeah
Also every magic aura is white, i like the detail that in later seasons the animation was consistent in that in flashbacks.
Theres this weird mildly unsettling vibe to season 1 that I feel whenever I watched it and I dont know why, its just a vibe I get from season 1.
I think this is a pretty good analysis on the “finding-their-footing” season of the show! Season one still had a lot of things to sort out and change, and it was interesting to see how the show settled into itself over time. Hopefully G5 can do the same! Great video!
(Also, that season one desaturation was something I noticed but it never really bugged me, lol)
As someone who writes stories (not an author but aspiring to be) I can agree with early installment weirdness.
I’ve been writing a 9 book series for 2 years (actually five if u include the unreleased pilot), and I will say there is a lot of things that got discarded in later books, or just didn’t make sense. Heck, I even rebooted the first four (working on rebooting book 5) so things would make more sense
With the color pallette, i thought i was going insane well watching it , turns out i was right that the colors changed 😭😭
Very well articulated video. Respectful and objective. I can tell there was a mountainous amount of love and effort put into it. I subscribed 👍
As someone who grew up with mlp g4 I think a lot of my connection to the show does come from the fact it grew up with me as well? Like s1-3 suited my 6-9 year old self fine and then as I got older the stories got more complex and multifaceted as I did as well. It was changing with me. That was a nice feeling for a kid Idk I feel I have an intresting perspective as someone who was a kid watching it at the time.
I thought I was crazy noticing the color saturation before! I knew something looked different when I went back!
I mean, yeah, Spike did gets the short end of the stick of how he’s constantly abused throughout the series that I agree on and yet I still love the little guy
Sometimes, the "abuse" can make a character all the more lovable. Makes us really want to root for the little guy finally catching a break.
Look I’m just saying spike got significantly abused less AFTER Faust left the show
@@dc7981 True...
@@EmeralBookwise Another good example of this would be Meg from family guy.
Remember early Princess' Celestia face? It looks like her face got squashed.
Damn I miss G4
I for one- love the first seasons charm and I don't think g5 will ever be as good for me- bc I grew up with g4 and it's charming weirdness.
I honestly feel that the world of Daughter of Discord would be my favorite pony world, it just has all the good stuff 😂
THIS GUY NEEDS MORE SUBS HIS GREAT!!
After years of watching MlP:FIM for the first time I've rewatched season 1 and I really see the difference in more mured color palette and animation is more wonky. The animation in later season really stands out to me, especially bc it was done in flash, so congrats to animators. I also noticed in the later season some viral pony memes or references that adult fans of the show would catch and it's both hilarious and kinda cringe
I wish adults could just like something made for kids and not have to justify why it’s some kind of mature masterpiece. MLP is a fun comfort show with some surprisingly good elements, but putting G4 on this huge pedestal and trying to distance it from all the other MLP generations is just getting silly. I love G4 but I wouldn’t recommend it to all my friends as a must-watch cartoon, let’s not delude ourselves.
Honestly this just feels like strawberry shortcake. Most people judge how it looks different or that’s it’s 3D before they get into the actual law of it. Ofc some might seems better then others. My little pony at the end of the day it’s still just colourful horses having fun and adventures and the child in me needs that 😊
I don't care for G5 because it looks like it has no charm/soul. It doesn't produce fan works or entice new talent to explore/expand/meme the show which was a significant factor in G4s success. The worst thing is the writing I've seen based on the movie has almost no depth and explores nothing interesting. The old show had a balance of life lessons that kids can learn but adults could relate to (hence its charm), the new show is clearly aimed at the kids and only the kids. G5 was set up to fail since it's riding the coattails of its predecessor when G4 was already petering out and losing support well before its final season. Pony has basically overstayed its welcome on the internet.
It’s been a awhile since I watched this show, but man even I was watching this video and the clips, I was surprised how the color was kinda diluted in the early seasons. I was thinking to myself, I don’t remember this show being so low in vibrancy, and even before you mentioned it. 😅
i love a day to remember too!!!
this what i’ve been saying. FIM had growing pains for SURE!! and G5 will find its rhythm soon.
This is amazing 😭
G5... Something about it just feels hollow compared to G4. Sure, the first couple of G4 episodes were a little weak and felt tv-show-ish, but I'd argue that about 4-6 episodes in the feeling disappears entirely for me. Nobody in G5 FEELS like a real person to me, they feel like plot devices.
The G4 pilot felt like it had a fun cast of characters that were conceptualized first and independently, then the plot showcases who they are and their personalities. I am invested in these characters. G5 feels like it made a plot and then shaped its characters to fit inside that plot. I care less about the characters because they feel like conveniences for the story to exist.
great video! keep it up!
My biggest problem with the newest MLP generation is mostly just how it handles mysteries by having only Zipp care, because she’s the detective, and even then she doesn’t really try sharing the information that much. I especially didn’t like it in the winter special because of how often she would just look at the book in suspicion yet not actually try opening it up to read until the very end. I think I’d have less of a problem with this if they had it so the other characters do actually care about the mysteries going on as well since it would help to make me care.
Good insights!
It was the episodes that is a saying that I have grew up with many times that has been said Twilight sparkle which is never look a gift horse in the mouth , in one of the episodes