Unpopular opinion time

@Badumsquish  
Agreed. I’ve said before that certain characters were vastly worsened because they were given an excuse instead of really believing what they did, which totally isn’t especially true for a certain communist unicorn. *coughcough* This is why Discord’s “redemption” had power back in S3- he really changed who he was on his own and by his own choice, not because he was shown the light or whatever.

@GenericArchangel  
It’s like they think people won’t buy the redemption unless they tack on a sob story, which feels super cynical and manipulative to me. It’s like they’re saying people truly can’t change, and that only “good people driven to do bad things” are capable of being good and to hell with friendship being magic. Not to mention yeah it totally cheapens and worsens the character: Starlight went from being an interesting character with a sympathetic edge to a whiny, self-entitled man-child who got free ride she didn’t even remotely deserve or earn because of the backstory they gave her; without that cheap backstory she’d have actually had a really interesting redemption story D:

@Hali the Emoji girl  
Oh, I agree with all that - but how does it lead to liking Spoiled, who was deliberately designed to be worse than her daughter?

Mlp frienship express should be replace
 
 
Unicorn twilight is overrated
 
Princess luna is overrated
 
And her memes are unfunny

@Badumsquish  
What she needed wasn’t less backstory, but more - even now much of her past is still a mystery.

@Penncentral15  
I’ve always liked Cadence more when it came to the three main Princesses.

@ILoveMyoozik
 
I’m kind of thorn in that decition, but I guess my favorite is Celestia among the Celly/Lulu/Candy trio.

@ILoveMyoozik  
I think Applejack being superstitious could come for the fact, she lives in a small town and maybe her being a country girl.

I dont understand why some people despises a MLP with more adventure-oriented stories. That thing worked on Generation 1 well, with plenty of different villains with long arcs that took 4 episodes each another, with also some Slice of Life episodes here and there.
 
Why people want it to be 100% slice of life?

@E-123
 
I also kinda wish a bit more in the adventure part. I’m not against slice of life, but the reason why I got attracted to this show was the awesomeness in some adventure or relatively-more-actiony episodes.

@Hali the Emoji girl  
Still, i’m happy that they didn’t go in that direction since.
 
@E-123  
I like both but I lean more towards adventure stories.

@E-123  
I guess because there’s somehow not enough character work in adventures, nevermind that all characters can approach adventures in unique ways.

It’s a careful balance. I wonder which way G5 will go?

@Latecomer
 
In this show, I get the impression that backstory doesn’t matter in the end in terms of redeemability; Luna got little of it to speak of (and it kinda was her fault to begin with, same with Stygian, probably, with how he seemingly stole things behind their backs), and she got forgiven, no strings attached, trying to do what she did 1000 years ago a second time (which, original Word of God said it would kill everyone), Discord has done his shenanigans, was forgiven, and while you might argue he got petrified as punishment, he committed treason on Equestria afterwards, and got no real consequences, because he felt bad for it and was sincere in wanting to change; I feel like any “sob stories justifying their actions” are actually more of an explanation/hinting for how they got there, if one is provided.
 
Going back on the Luna turning into Nightmare Moon thing, I have doubts that Celestia would have punished her, if she stopped being Nightmare Moon from being blasted by the Elements, as opposed to being banished.
 
If say, Chrysalis got reformed (possibly bold to assume she’d be alone on that one, if it happened), I’m guessing her backstory “justifying” her actions, or lack thereof, is utterly irrelevant to what happens to her next. I have strong doubts they were going to throw the book at her if she didn’t reject Starlight’s offer and fly the hell away from everyone, despite how she tried to stage a takeover twice.
 
TL;DR: Backstories aren’t overly relevant in terms of what happens next, perhaps your potential value to Equestria might, and most importantly, your willingness to stop matters most.

@Latecomer  
I like mean and snobby cartoon girls, I see some potential for episodes with her and filthy rich and maybe diamond tiara also I think spoiled rich has some untapped character depth that’s not being taken advantage of by the writers.

@AC97  

Yeah, doesn’t justifying it imply that the narrative believes the actions were the right thing to do? I don’t think MLP has ever done that.

@Twi Clown  
Adventure-like episodes were what this show caught my attention in the first place. I was surprised that the “G1 formula” came back again, except with better animation and new characters. I mean, the previous generations didnt do well because they were 100% slice of life, with bad dialogue and writting.

@E-123  
I pretty much only watch on-time the “adventure” episodes these days.

@Vivace
 
Yeah, I don’t think it does either. Notably, the show has never had Starlight, say, justify her missteps with her backstory.
 

 

Esto es el fin@Hali the Emoji girl

@Broken Adam  
I know that.

@AC97  
I’m glad that she acknowledges her mistakes and tries to work past that.

@ILoveMyoozik  
I see

@E-123  
Because some people just love to be contrarians to annoy other people, I suppose.
 
Personally I’m of the idea that having a fantasy setting and using it just for SoL stories is a huge waste. I’m not saying it should use epic stories like Game of Thrones, but a few more episodes taking advantage of the fantasy world like Dragonshy or the Diamond Dogs could have been great.

@Anonycat  
I’d say the show has always had a mix of social and fantastic elements - do you see recent seasons as lacking in that area?
 
Just look at the recent Student Counsel, where a guidance counselor has to look for a missing student in a cockatrice swarm’s lair.