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Description
The fourth season begins with a revealing two-part premiere in which the newly crowned Princess Twilight must balance her new royal duties and her friendship with the other ponies. Amid preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in Canterlot, Princesses Celestria and Luna go missing and the Everfree Forest is taking over Equestria. These unexpected turn of events sends Princess Twilight and her pony friends on a quest to discover a mysterious foe who threatens to destroy everything. It is all up to Princess Twilight and her friends to help save Equestria from being destroyed. As part of the journey, PrincessTwilight is given the chance to discover the secret behind the Elements of Harmony.
Oh Link, whatever shall we do with you. Look at what a bad influence you were upon the Avatar!
Well, it’s better than the lessons that hero video games gave us:
“Being the world hero means you have a rightto steal from everyone.”
There were some new elements introduced into the canon of the show, there’s no denying that. However, those elements are merely icing; they are not the cake.
It’s the characters that are ultimately what make this show great, and that is why some of us watch so closely to see what is being done with them—relationally, behaviorally, etc.
@Zennistrad
Along the same lines as what I said above, Pinkies “reality bending” abilities aren’t what I’m on about (even if those, too, have been cranked up from before). My point of contention is the careless way in which the cast is personified.
Well-known analytical bronies, for another example concerning this issue, have pointed out they’re not sure who the “real” Fluttershy is, since her portrayal is so wildly inconsistent. Contrast “May the Best Pet Win” with “Magic Duel” to see a little of what I mean.
Oh come on. It’s barely even noticeable compared to some of the ridiculous, reality-defying stunts she’s pulled.
Really, I’ve not seen any exaggerations over time that were bad enough that they would damage the show.
Career progression is what I meant. Applejack is taking steps towards being the new Apple Family matriarch, Rainbow has made progress towards joining the Wonderbolts, Fluttershy was trusted with reforming someone, Twilight… Yeah. Only Pinkie Pie and Rarity missed out on that, and even Pinkie tried to up her game.
Even the CMC set up a new branch of Crusaders. Heck, Luna took up the duties of patrolling dreams, which is at least new to us.
I disagree with these “themes” you’re suggesting. There were no such underlying messages behind any of the seasons as a whole that I can see. Aside from Twilight (and that was terribly handled), the other characters are in the same old places they’ve ever been, only worse in some cases. Attempts to drag them in some different direction of personality from their original selves might have been interesting if done right, but instead they seems anchorless and like the writers are just throwing ideas against the wall to see what sticks.
This.
S1 was Settling In
Season one established the characters and their relationships with each other. It showed us them becoming friends.
Season two had a theme of showing the characters at their worst, and season three had a theme of progression.
I’m not sure what the first season’s theme would be.
Season two, for the record, was my favorite. It put the characters in more extreme situations, and I liked seeing how they handled it.
As much as, say, A Friend in Deed had Pinkie being terrible, it explored how Pinkie’s personality can affect other people negatively.
Let’s just agree to disagree.
But again, it was never that bad before. The fact that the script had attained to a point that abysmal had me mimicking Pinkie herself from an earlier time:
Other examples for the rest of the main cast could easily be given, as well as counter-examples, which begins to make people feel like the characters are gyrating back and forth between the extremes of their natures harder than a drunk on the freeway.
I mean, half of Applejack’s role in the show is to basically say, “Gettin’ Real Tired of Your Shit, Pinkie.”
Which is completely in-character for them. Heck, I don’t think there’s a single episode where someone else doesn’t end up being annoyed by Pinkie.
You say that as if she didn’t have moments like that in season one.
Even her friends, who are well-acquanted with her antics, had to cringe at THAT new low.
Well, I kind of don’t see much difference, honestly. Pinkie’s never exactly been sane to begin with, and I’d really expect her to do something like that for the sake of a cheap laugh.
But they aren’t natural personalities, that’s the problem. I fell in love with S1 because of its soft hand in terms of defining characters. We could see exactly what they were like, they were very well-defined, but they also felt very real. Now, we have moments like Pinkie’s complete abandonment of anything resembling intelligence (13:44 if the link works improperly). That’s not improvement, it’s degradation. It’s not “finding the characters’ voice”, it’s latching onto one thing and running off with it like a dog with a steak.
I disagree, but I’m not going to say you’re wrong. Maybe the show is dropping in quality, but I don’t see it.
Also, Season three, like superhulkman, actually managed to progress the characters in some way. Rainbow’s always talked about wanting to be a Wonderbolt, but it’s never actually been something relevant to the show until now.
You could also argue that the so-called “Flanderization” is really just the characters settling into their natural personalities.
In many shows it takes time for the characters to really be defined strongly, and in Season 1, to me at least, it seemed like the characters were watered-down, more weakly defined versions of themselves.
On the contrary.
The problem here is that you take a retro-corrective view of the characters, and I can’t even call that sort of position logical. As far as I’m concerned, they were far truer to their own personalities, free from excessive caricature and exaggeration for the most part, until certain episodes in season 2 began to change that. There can be no doubt that by the time S3 happened, outright flanderizations began to appear, and the characters seem less believable as a result.
I really appreciate how season three allowed the characters to grow. Dash took a step towards achieving her ambition, she took Sootaloo under her wing, and Twilight is now her mentor’s peer.