To be quite honest I think the series would have gone in this direction regardless of Faust being there or not. The real big difference between the first and second seasons is the lack of the E/I requirement. This allowed the writers to do things they could not do in season one (though not necessarily a good thing in my opinion).

Even as someone who prefers season one, I think Moe is seriously over estimating the originality of season one compared to season two.

Yeah I found season 2's plots just as good as season 1. I honestly can't say I like one season better. I think season 2 had more inconsistent quality. The best episodes were better than s1 and the worst episodes were worse than s1.

And yeah Gilda isn't early installment weirdness any more than anything else. Also I find it odd to credit Lauren with the quality of the plots when the two episodes she actually wrote are the most formulaic.

edited 19th Jun '12 10:02:11 AM by JapaneseTeeth

To be honest my absolute fave episodes are more from Season Two :D

Hey guys! How you doin'?

I agree with Sereg - action/aventure oriented MLP would have been pretty awesome. (slice of life was still supposed to be present, by the way, just not as omnipresent as now)

And I think that season 2 was overall much superior to season 1 (actually, a good 80% or my favorite episodes come from season 2). The villains (Discord, the Changelings, Flim&Flam...) were much more interesting IMHO, the Shout Out were awesome and some rather weird things were corrected (Pulling the whole damned train?! Would have made sense if said train hadn't a GODDAMN LOCOMOTIVE.).

Also, I don't see your point about the teen dragons. Of COURSE they would be jerks, it's not like season 1's dragons were much more sympathetic (Basil wasn't a jerk but still completely uncaring of the trouble he caused).

Alright. Something's gone on with my computer. I can't connect to the internet with it and the firewall won't stay up. I'm going to have it looked at and hopefully will be back to posting soon. Hopefully some time away from the thread will be what I need to get myself to stop being so lazy about homework.

So, if you're wondering why I don't seem to be around, that's why.

Season 2 still had songs with inspiration, the "Find A Pet Song" by "Fabulous Places" and "The Flim Flam Brothers" song by "Ya Got Trouble".

Personally I prefer the focus on Slice of Life. And I'm glad that Pinkie's over the top zaniness was vetoed. And I don't like her Word Of God on Nightmare Moon's origins. And I prefer the Friendship Express to the original train.

edited 19th Jun '12 10:12:20 AM by Badwolfwho

Lauren was able to put at least some of her zaniness back as the season went on for better or worse.

Also this series was never going to be heavy on the action/adventure. The only thing Lauren wanted was a couple of more episodes like Dragonshy, which would prove impractical with the time frame and creative team they had.

I think I can agree with that.

edited 19th Jun '12 10:12:06 AM by Mio

And that's why early Pinkie is more likeable. At least to me.

Good luck untangling your internets, Crow.

Yeah, I really can't see the downgrade in quality. Of course, if you prefer the way things were done in the past (though nothing has really changed from my perspective), then more power to ya. Conflicting opinions are good for discussion.

I kinda agree with JT on the "Which season is better" topic, except that I found "Cutie mark chronicles" to be worse then any of the mediocre season two episodes. Even moreso then...... A certain season two episode which I will not mention by name.

And I kinda like a couple season one episodes more then most season two episodes.

edited 19th Jun '12 10:15:39 AM by marston

Repost from last page Because Prince Shiny, (not so) Mighty is he

I honestly liked MMDW more than half the season 1 episodes. I'm utterly convinced that it suffered from episode placement. And yes, I really liked season 2 that much more than season 1.

@Ace - Okay, the wedding episode was kind of cool, but I've never been of the school of thought that says "commenting on a real situation automatically makes it good." As for pop culture references, I rarely care for those. Especially when they're as overplayed as Indiana Jones is (nothing against the man, it just seems like every cartoon, video game and other media of the last thirty years has had Indy shoutouts).

@Sereg - The show might have been watchable if they had gone with an Adventure format, but personally I'm glad they didn't. It's a genre that's played out, and it probably wouldn't have worked.

@Badwolf - Okay fine, maybe not "Early Installment, " but its still weird. I mean in every other episode, Ponies are bakers, Ponies are railroad workers, Ponies control the weather and the rotation of the sun and moon... then, for one episode, GRIFFON BAKER! It would be like if you went to Mcdonalds one day and the cashier was a dog.

The problem with the dragons is that when you show me a fantasy species and give me an episode where we're gonna get a look at their culture, I don't want to see "just like me, but with scales." That's stupid. A dragon should act nothing like me. A dragon should be ALIEN to me. That they went with the interpretation they did... smacks of a lack of imagination, more than anything else.

@Everyone else - Totally agree about Pinkie Pie. I loved her in Season One, but Season 2 helped me understand Ginger a little more.

They also totally referenced Batman, Darkwing Duck and Cybersix in the same episode :D I can't dislike them for such an AWESOME triple whammy ^3^

Prince(ss) Dashie, Awesome is Sheeeeeeee

edited 19th Jun '12 10:25:55 AM by AceOfScarabs

I tend to pick and choose a bit more between seasons. I find overall the two seasons are roughly equal, with two maybe taking a marginal lead. I'd prefer a few extra adventure episodes to balance the slice, even though Cutie Mark Chronicles, a slice episode, remains my number 1 (followed by a two/three way tie between Winter Wrap Up and Canterlot Wedding and then Lesson Zero). All I have to say is: world building, main six background and "YESYESYES" Twi, oh my.

Wait, so your issue with Gustav is that he does something that ponies have already been seen to do? Do you also dislike Muriel for that same reason?

I mean, Griffons are established parts of that world. What, you just expect them to bum around and do nothing all day, you don't think they should be allowed to have a job? It's not like seeing a dog at the teller one day, it's more like seeing an asian person at the tell on the east coast. Unusual, certainly, but not cause for alarm or upset.

Really, the only time I found Pinkie annoying was in "A friend in deed", though I can understand why someone might find her annoying in "The last round-up". In the other episodes, I had no problem with her. Some people say she was annoying in "It's about time", but i highly disagree with that.

Nah, it's more like meeting a Dwarf and an Elf at the buffet. I'd pass them the gravy boat without comment, honestly, because humans come in wierder shapes

Help my shipping goggles are stuck

@Moe If your stock fantasy setting can have Elves, Dwarfs, Humans, and whatever else you can think of coexisting as civilizations, then why can't this one have Ponies, Griffins, Buffalo, etc coexisting?

What race would fill in for Hobbits in the pony world anyways?

@Moe: Forbidding gryphons from being bakers comes across as racist, honestly.

Your dog analogy holds no water at all as dogs aren't capable of holding intelligent conversation with us.

@Kegisak: Moe just doesn't like other species being portrayed as sapient in the show since he wants to follow ponies and not them (or something like that).

I would say it's idiotic, but I have similarly poorly thought dislike of the Pegasi=Spartans thing in HWE and beyond, so yeah.

edited 19th Jun '12 10:34:11 AM by Mio

Also, I found Pinkie by far her most annoying in early season 1 as I didn't know her good points well yet.