Unpopular opinion time

@Ring Team  
Well, I’m glad that even if you can’t appreciate all the parts I think are great, you can love parts I don’t think much of - it helps balance things, and reminds us taste is subjective.

@Ring Team
 
She may be most of those things, but at least she’s a cute eater!
 
 
 
 
 

@Ring Team  
Chauvinist? I hate starlight more then anyone but I don’t remember her being chauvinist, misogynist, misandrist or sexist at all. She’s stupid, selfish and manipulative but not bigoted, as far as I remember.

Gee, Starlight is a nihilist (in a good way after reformed), now stop with Starlight drama, enjoy the comrade glory.

@Ebalosus  
Honestly, I never believed that FIM had any “filler” episodes since the entire series is above all a regular slice of life cartoon instead of a lore heavy/continuity based show like what a lot of anime is. I think the reason why they made the show go into that continuity heavy direction was to please the brony fanbase and because the landscape of cartoons was gravitating to that sort of idea.
 
But I do agree that there are episodes that don’t seem to do anything to the overall series wide lore, but they do help in settings and characterizations.
 
@DoctorWTF  
Oh I’m not denying that at all, there’s only so much you can develop a character before you either bring up old problems for them to solve or exaggerate a trait a lot. Long runners can have the potential to bounce back in quality, look at what happened to Spongebob after its creator returned, MLP FIM could’ve had that same luxury or not.

@Spinny  
Precious baby <3

@Terminal Red  
Perhaps he’s trying to challenge for your title?

@Latecomer  
A pretty counterproductive title if you ask me

@Spinny  
So she’s a greedy glutton.
 
@Myoozik  
I understand why many episodes are basically a slice of life experience. I get that. However, my problem with this is that the show wanted to be a slice of life story, but at the same time it wanted to be ambitious (that’s why we got some double episodes). Because of these two opposite approaches, the show is rarely at its best. That problem used to annoy me a lot many years ago, especially with season 6. Nowadays, meh. It’s just a problem I tend to point out sometimes.
 
It’s like the Metal Gear games. Trying to chronologically connect all the games, the sequels and the prequels in a logical way it’s just impossible at this point. xD
 
I would have liked this show a lot if it was either a slice of life show or an ambitious show. One or the other.

@Ring Team  
So she’s a greedy glutton.  
Pinkie Pie : I’m I a joke to you?
 
I understand why many episodes are basically a slice of life experience. I get that. However, my problem with this is that the show wanted to be a slice of life story, but at the same time it wanted to be ambitious (that’s why we got some double episodes). Because of these two opposite approaches, the show is rarely at its best. That problem used to annoy me a lot many years ago, especially with season 6. Nowadays, meh. It’s just a problem I tend to point out sometimes.
 
It’s like the Metal Gear games. Trying to chronologically connect all the games, the sequels and the prequels in a logical way it’s just impossible at this point. xD
 
I would have liked this show a lot if it was either a slice of life show or an ambitious show. One or the other.  
Hmmm, at least FiM manages to stay in between Anime (Eastern Japanese cartoons, long ambitious shows are more common) and Western Cartoons (slice of life shows are more common) pretty well.

@Ring Team  
Like I said, single-/simple-minded enjoyment finding fault, but go off, I guess.

@Background Pony #14A1  
I don’t know, just because a TV show has to be ambitious doesn’t mean it has to be long. In fact, by making it longer you would eventually end up writing and making meaningless episodes.
 
I mean, who would watch a thousand episodes of the same story?

@Ring Team  
I think mixing adventure and slice of life is part of what gives the show it’s unique appeal.
 
 
@Ring Team  
Soap opera fans?

@Latecomer  
Yeah, I forgot about these ones, but I don’t watch soap operas. These shows have no content and they only put a cliffhanger at the end of the final episode of each season.
 
Everyone in my country love watching Love is in the Air (the turkish one) and no matter how many commercials it has, I just don’t care. xD

@Ring Team  
They still are pretty massively popular though, so length is clearly no object to some.
 
I think 9 seasons was a good, workable length - not too long or two short. Whether the seasons were used as well as they could have been, on the other hand…

@Latecomer  
MLP is near perfect when it comes to show length.
 
Many other shows aren’t often this lucky.  
Though Foster’s Home, Faust’s previous creation before FiM also managed to had good length and good finale as well.
 
But PPGs did not end well, it was meant to stop at S4, but Cartoon Network did executive meddling on it.

@Ring Team  
Eh, I thought it handled it pretty well like what Latecomer said, both the adventure and slice of life episodes. Other shows of the time like Adventure Time, Regular Show, Steven Universe, Gravity Falls and Star Vs. the Forces Of Evil were all doing the same thing with mixing both and FIM wanted to be part of the big kids table.

@Myoozik  
…your last sentence seems strange given most if not all of those postdate FIM.

@Latecomer  
When those shows premiered, FIM was still mostly slice of life. It wasn’t until after those shows became popular that MLP wanted to gravitate towards this. It wasn’t the only reason either, it was also to entertain and placate the beong fandom as well.

@Ring Team
 
I do find it somewhat amusing that in only her four seasons as a recurring character, Starlight had more eating scenes than Twilight did in the entire show. Keep in mind, that’s not even all of them. I left out the falaffel and haycakes from Road to Friendship and the popcorn from The Crystalling. Meanwhile….
 

 
This is the first time Twilight has ever been shown eating in the show, at least of her own volition and not counting the flower petals she licked up in The Ticket Master or the single piece of candy she had in Luna Eclipsed. This was freaking season 4, episode 15, and up to this point, Twilight had only ever been force-fed by Applejack or been interrupted somehow just before she was about to eat something for herself (which occurred in The Ticket Master and A Canterlot Wedding, part 1).
 
Is it any wonder she pigged out the way she did? She must’ve been starving!

@Myoozik  
Faust always intended to mix adventure and slice-of-life. Even in the first season, we not just the premiere but also episodes like Dragonshy. And there’s no season of FIM which isn’t mostly slice of life.
 
If there was anything the show added more of over time, it’s not adventure but rather continuity and serialization. And even then, not a very strong form of it.

@Latecomer  
It certainly felt like that to me since the show was just starting and was focusing more on galas and weddings and typical everyday problems than having arc wide villains that posed large threats.
 
Which I’m sure was a compromise for both the adult fanbase and the target demographic of young girls.

@Myoozik  
The show opened with villains posing large threats. And they never really stepped outside their two-parters very much - each season is free of their shadow.

@Myoozik  
I haven’t watched Adventure Time, Regular Show or Star Vs the forces of evil, but I watched Gravity Falls and Steven Universe and I think these two are absolutely fantastic. The difference, at least to me, is that all the episodes were building up to something interesting and great. And when it’s not, it’s either a really funny episode (in the case of Gravity Falls) or really wholesome (Steven Universe).
 
In the case of Steven Universe, my least favourite episodes were the first ones, because I didn’t get all that hype after seeing an episode about ice-cream or something. Then, the more I was watching, the more invested I was, trying to connect all the clues, all the dots and all the secrets of Rose Qwartz. There was a main goal, some characters with motivations, conflicts, goals, worlds, etc. And the 10 minutes length helps a lot, because if you didn’t like an episode, you could just ignore it. I think the only episode I didn’t like about the last seasons was that one about Steven Vs Amethyst. It wasn’t very interesting. But the rest was great, wholesome and even emotional.
 
About Gravity Falls, it’s a show that doesn’t lose its focus, not even for a second. I’m the type of person who thinks that “less is more”. And Gravity Falls perfectly shows that, with only 2 seasons, and it doesn’t need another one. It’s perfectly ended. I can’t even remember an episode that I didn’t like. This show combines all the stuff I love: comedy from The Simpsons, a world-building that reminds me of X-Files, a Disney style for kids and adults, funny lines, Stan in a nutshell, etc.
 
As much as I like MLP, this show doesn’t have that focus. When it wants to be ambitious, it’s only for 2 episodes out of 26 in one season. It doesn’t even have a natural or organic progression. When it shows some interesting concepts (such as Chrysalis and the changelings from season 2), the show ignores it until it’s too late to get hyped. Sometimes it wants to rush some episodes instead of giving some necessary development for some characters. And when it’s an slice of life episode, it’s a complete gamble. You never know if it’s gonna be a good episode, a boring episode or a bad episode. And when it wants to show some continuity or self-awareness, it’s only minor and selective.
 
I still think Friendship is Magic needed a person like Alex Hirsch or Rebecca Sugar, a person with a vision and able to put the show in one certain direction. Because of the lack of that person, I think MLP has a combination of specific problems related to continuity, organization, production, planning, world-building, character arc and repetition of ideas.

@Ring Team  
Off topic, I would say Adventure Time doesn’t really focus on much during the first couple of season,but down the line it focuses on a lot of cool/interesting things. I would recommend anyone to watch it. I would also says it’s one of Cartoons Networks best shows.