Dear Princess Celestia,
Whoo-hoo! Oh wait, does this mean after this I actually have to STOP celebrating? but I was having such fun with the punch and the balloons and the streamers! Oh well, two week old ice cream cake is not too fun. Ohh! But we had our best guest ever on this week! All of them! Or we brought back a bunch of our champions as well as we had our listeners call in and chat about My Little Pony! It was an awesome time!
Sincerely,
Apple Cider
PS – Show notes can be found on the following Google Doc.
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1v0ZqbkPS_aatzfjxvUM8AAU0-yQe6qWjNE6nlVl3w2k
Intro – Friendship Forever Mix by ChainAlgorithm on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V59MgGRHvo
Outro – Song: Friendship is Magic
Artist: Pickitup!
Linky linky: http://youtu.be/_3N9bzNFHlA?hd=1
Excellent show, as always! Here’s to a summer full of pony-fueled creativity, and an excellent season three come fall.
Speaking of seasons, I’m actually one of those odd ones that actually liked season one better. I was one of those people that were really worried that Lauren Faust’s stepping down would mean really bad things for the show. I’ve seen other series that has lost its flare without its original creator (*cough* Apollo Justice), and although we can safely say that this wasn’t the case with My Little Pony, I do feel that Faust’s absence is noticeable. Let me defend my case as best I can, so you won’t think that I, or anyone preferring season one, am crazy.
The first thing I noticed right off the bat was that the show seemed to be a bit more… exaggerated. The animation, the music, the characterization, it all seemed to have been played up a notch; sometimes in a good way, but sometimes not. There were times where I felt the visual gags felt unnecessary and did nothing but cut into the story, and other times where the characters didn’t feel like they used to.
I like to use The Last Roundup as an example: I sure didn’t expect Family-loving and honest Applejack to leave her family and friends just for her broken pride, and that chase scene could have been easily bypassed if Rainbow Dash would have thought to use her wing and – at least attempt to – fly off on her own and capture Applejack. Also Read-it-and-Weep: Dashes attempts to get them out of the room just felt too, well, cartoony for my taste; and I don’t care how slow of a reader she’s supposed to be, there is no way someone THAT into a book could only read that one scene all night.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, season one as a whole felt more well-balanced and polished. It felt like the brain child of one creative individual, whereas season two felt more like an endeavor to stay true to that brain child. The results, albeit overall positive, was a mixed back for me: it had what I felt were the weakest episodes in the series: Mare-Do-Well and Last Roundup, but also some of the best, such as A Friend in Deed and the Fluttershy episodes.
I know that I’m nitpicking, but I nitpick because I love. Season two was still spectacular, especially around the latter part of the season, and the season finale couldn’t have gone better even if Lauren was in charge. Despite my occasional complaint, I find myself more often than not enjoying myself just as much as I did season 1. Who knows, maybe when I rewatch the whole season, I might change my opinion and put them on par with each other. Still, season one was Faust’s original work, and what made me a brony, and it’s going to take more to top it.
With all said and done, I have really high hopes for season three. Though I do hope they won’t go overboard with the references to Brony culture. I know many would disagree, but quite frankly, the less impact us Bronies have on the show – beyond inspire the creators to do their very best – the better. Any more than we got in season two would probably be too much; and to be honest, those reused lines from season one (“Piiinkiiiie” or “No offence – None taken.”) didn’t serve much purpose. I would rather see them do their own things, give us new meme-worthy lines, more character- and world building to base our art and fanfics on. Don’t make it My Little Brony; keep making the show we all know and love.
I actually agree with you with a lot of the points you bring up, but within my mind there’s an argument between what I feel and my bias-conscious thinking. I feel that while season one has a certain charm to it of being tremendously innocent and sincere, it’s story telling is somewhat restricted by ei (I think that only applied to season one) and probably by less support from Hasbro when they were playing it safe with their expectations.
My bias is that the end portion of season one was when I first opened my cold heart and took part in a community in a long time; those first episodes I pored over and stewed with during the summer will always have a fond place in my heart even if compared side by side to newer episodes they have less exciting features. Season two is where they had more freedom to do what they want, but the seemingly growing disconnect from Lauren might have also skewed what was produced. Perhaps if we were told nothing we would assume Lauren is getting what she’s always wanted with the show and knowing otherwise is acting as a nocebo or self-fulfilling prophecy. Not to insult anyone’s opinions, it’s all hypothetical and expecting disaster is a fair and understandable thing when the creator leaves [insert EO/LoE reference].
The explanation I like to subscribe to is that season one built the world and season two developed the characters. If you were to apply them as elements to a larger story the next logical place to go would be bigger and/or more significant story telling. Between season one and season two I would be hard pressed to pick my favorite as they both have such great qualities to me, but I don’t see them as being with the same intent so it’s very easy to understand someone liking one more than the other. Portal had an element of mystery and Portal 2 had a better story, but Portal 2 hand fed it to you and feels like a different game. They’re both amazing but it’s hard to choose a favorite. Since I was around to experience Portal before it had a fandom I’ll probably always have a bias toward it. Other people see Portal 2 and go back to the original to see an aging minimal-effort game without context.
I finished this the following morning after falling asleep to the Portal soundtrack, so somewhere just before that whole Portal thing my thoughts probably split. I also have to say that I’m excited for season three, and even if it doesn’t meet standards of previous seasons I won’t be disappointed.