My Final Thoughts on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Consider this the season nine overview, as it's the closest to one I'll bother writing. I just don't have the energy nor the time to write one out. By the time I got to The Last Problem, I had completely underestimated how disinterested I'd been in the show. There are a lot of reasons as to why, but there are three big ones.

The first one is the fandom. And in case anyone comments, I do believe that not every fan is awful, but there are those who attack people because they have views that don't agree with theirs; in fact, I received a chewing out over what I said about Sparkle's Seven, Frenemies, The Last Crusade, Between Dark and Dawn and The Summer Sun Setback. I have absolutely zero regret in tearing them apart (although in hindsight, I felt I was too generous towards The Last Crusade; since the review was posted, I decided that it now deserves an Atrocious score (-10/10) because of implications regarding child neglect), and I stand by what I said about each of those episodes. Regarding those who can't accept that everybody is different, including their opinions, they can fuck off for all I care. The same applies to those who attacked Jim Miller on Twitter over the early Dutch leaks. How can they be expected to preach "love and tolerate" if they don't even follow that philosophy?

The second reason is the content distribution. For the the last few seasons, it's been absolutely dreadful, especially with seasons eight and nine. For the latter, episodes were leaked early in English in China, sometimes two episodes a week, and by the time they've properly aired in America, the hype will have been pissed away and there won't be anything new to talk about. And then what? The only thing I can think of is Equestria Girls, and even then, shorts come out once a week (unless they were leaked early elsewhere).

And then there's the last (and possibly most controversial) reason: the show is fucking boring. I mean, my God, season nine was an absolute slog to sit through. If I wasn't dedicated to writing up weekly reviews, I'd have quit watching at The Point of No Return. It got so bad, I thought I'd be better off watching season six again; at least that was able to keep my attention for the most part! It did have good episodes - Common Ground and The Big Mac Question being the best of the season - but the majority of them were forgettable at best (Going to Seed) and downright horrendous at worst (A Trivial Pursuit), and some even presented some of the most toxic lessons that the show had ever taught. Episodes like The Last Crusade are a prime example as to why you should proofread your scripts; if you don't, you're going to end up implanting unfortunate implications without knowing it.

The point of season nine, from what I understand, was to have Twilight taking over for Celestia and Luna, but even then, it barely got any focus from half of the season and a lot of the episodes felt like those you'd see in seasons 1-7 (as well as parts of 8). There has been a lot of wasted potential for tying up loose ends in the series; are there other zebras like Zecora? What became of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon after Crusaders of the Lost Mark? What were Babs Seed's fellow Crusaders from Manehattan like? (There's more I'm probably missing, but you get my point.) But instead, they focus on boring as piss rehashings that it gets to the point you end up comparing them to older episodes.

It'd be easy to blame Jim Miller and co. for the problems season nine had faced, but it's on the writers entirely to make their ideas work, and they haven't cared in the slightest about telling an interesting story with the ideas thrown their way. It takes a lot of thought and effort to make something entertaining to everyone. Instead, they gave us the worst season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. As much as I've been critical towards season six, I felt that they were at least trying to tell entertaining stories and in some cases, they failed spectacularly. Is season nine the worst of any kid's show? No, it's the laziest and most boring, but it's at least in the range.

So where will things go for me in the future? Honestly, I'm not sure, but whatever it is, there's no turning back; I've been enjoying new things like the DC Super Hero Girls reboot (also created by Lauren Faust), I'll continue to enjoy Thomas and Friends for as long as I allow myself, and there's the likes of 101 Dalmatian Street I'm thinking of checking out. Life is too short to think about the things you don't enjoy; as of now, I don't enjoy My Little Pony anymore.

I don't like dealing with shitty fans and their shitty behavior, I don't like the idea of early content only to wait weeks for the next episode to air, I don't like seeing the writers rehash ideas that have already been done in the past, and most of all, I don't enjoy watching something that's supposed to be entertaining that's boring me to death. I'd much rather watch Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice or hell, even Foodfight!. Watching either would've been far more entertaining than the garbage that MLP had put out this year.

And... that's that. My last ever take on a franchise that's gotten worse since 2015 (despite some improvement with 2017 and, to some extent, 2018). And no, I'm not going to bother with Generation 5; good, bad, or in-between. These days, companies like Hasbro don't seem to care about the quality of the content they distribute just as long as they're making money. If you ask me, the franchise ought to be put to bed for good; there's nowhere left for it to go except... just sell toys, I guess. It's like it doesn't know what it wants to be in the future.

But that's just my two cents on the matter. If the kids still enjoy it, especially since it's aimed at them, more power to them. Same goes for the older fans who liked Generation 4. After venting all my grievances, I feel like I finally have some closure with my relationship with the show, and now I can look forward to the future.

Farewell, and thank you for reading and putting up with my rambling for the past several months.