The Unscripted

[CaT in Rogue]

Hello, I'm Kung Fu Rahkshi Destroyer, here with something I like to call 'The Unscripted.' This is where I review...well, whatever I want, really. So, sit back and enjoy the show...story...thing...JUST READ IT ALREADY!

 

Review the First: MLP:FiM

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"Now hold on a second here, My Little Pony?!" You may ask. "That silly toy for little girls? What on Earth is that doing here?! I wanted a grown up review of grown up stuff on a website that's a gathering place for fans of a toyline, why, back in MY day, arglesnargleshnorkypft!"

 

Now, let me stop you right there. My little Pony: Friendship is Magic has very little to do with the toys of the 80's, or really any other version of My Little Pony. This show actually has good storylines, well developed characters, and a respect for the intelligence of the audience.

 

"Impossible! You'd have to be girly and not a true man to enjoy something like that!"

 

Well, actually-

 

"You'd have to be incredibly stupid and a social misfit!"

 

If you'd let me finish-

 

"You'd have to have no friends and be horribly-"

 

SHUUUUT UUUP!!!

 

DO. I HAVE. YOUR. ATTENTION?!

 

GOOD.

 

Anyways, believe it or not, this version of My Little Pony is actually good, thanks to a woman named Lauren Faust.

 

Lauren Faust had previously worked on a few different animated shows in the past, such as Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and The Powerpuff Girls. Her work with MLP began when she approached Hasbro with an idea for something called 'Galaxy Girls. 'Hasbro instead said,

 

"Hey, Lauren, we like these ideas 'n stuff you are presentin' here wit the Galaxy and the Girls, but I have a different idea. What if we replaced 'Galaxy' wit 'My Little,' and then replaced 'Girls' wit 'Pony?'"

 

And thus began My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

 

A large part of the show's development was fueled by Lauren's belief that shows for girls shouldn't have to be 'girly,' so to speak. They could be just as grown up and respectful as boy's shows, if not even more. Once the show was made, the final product was far removed from the awful girly pit of despair and fluff, and was actually respectable. Of course, the show would never have taken off if it weren't for the people of the internet and their desire to send a giant 'Screw You!' through to the heavens.

 

What do I mean by that? Well, when the first episodes aired, a review of it that basically called it a low sellout was put online. This ticked off people who actually thought the show was pretty awesome, and the review was met with scathing comments, and really just made people like the show even more, followed by it sweeping across websites and becoming a major hit. (My story of discovering the show was also a giant 'Screw You!,' but that's another topic.)

 

Anyways, now that we have the history of the show out of the way, let's talk about the show itself. The show takes place in Equestria, which I can only describe as what you would see if you read mythology and then hit up the Tylenol. I'm not kidding, everything mythological is here, and I mean EVERYTHING. They put in so much mythology that they even have TARTARUS in there. I mean granted, it's not actually seen, just talked about, but still! On top of that, they actually create their OWN mythology for the show too, so there's a lot going on here.

 

The main inhabitants of this world are three types of magical ponies, Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi. Oh, and there are also some Alicorns in there, who are all princesses. I don't know why that is either, it's never really explained. The show focuses on Unicorn Twilight Sparkle and her friends as they learn about the magic of friendship, which is actually literal magic in this show, as evidenced in the Elements of Harmony, which are basically magic artifacts powered by friendship to create FREAKIN LASER BEAMS.

 

The first two seasons are 26 episodes long each, and are generally your basic stuff that you would expect, like evil former rulers, Q from Star Trek, pop culture references, and topping it all off with a big two-parter involving a wedding and an invasion from shapeshifting bug-ponies that get defeated pretty much just like Team Rocket. These are notable for popularizing the show and managing to do a decent job of teaching lessons while handling subjects you might not expect on a kid's show.

 

Then there was Season 3.

 

Hoo boy.

 

Season 3.

 

In case you're wondering why I held off talking about this season, it's because this one has caused an EXTREME amount of controversy, fueled by rather unintelligent fans and leading to a broken fanbase. This season took the most chances, and not all of them work. For example, this season starts off with having to defend a Crystal Empire from a tyrant king that enslaved it's inhabitants before being turned into shadow and trapped in ice about a thousand years back. Of course, he's back and wants to do the same thing, except now he's an immensely large shadow monster. Oh, and it's implied that he killed off all the children in his reign.

 

Charmed yet?

 

A major complaint about this season is that it's too dark and strays away from the original idea of the show, as seen above.

 

 

Yeah, that can be a problem.

 

I mean, I certainly don't mind some darker and edgier material as long as it's done well. If it's done well, then it feels more mature and more respectful to it's audience. However, it's a very fine line, and if you don't balance correctly, it'll just come off as awkward and mean-spirited, and that is a problem with this season. Take Spike, for example. Spike is a dragon, and the assistant to Twilight Sparkle. He's also an orphan. And the main target for comedic suffering.

 

Not a good combo there.

 

Granted, they previously handled this pretty well in that he usually deserved what was coming to him, and it never really affected him that much. Then, in the third season, he started being picked on by the writers for really no good reason, and that does show.

 

The third season seems to be trying to get away with as much as a kid's show can, like having Ponyville taken over and turned into the 'kid friendly' version of Nazi Germany, showing blood, (granted the blood was just a very tiny amount from accidental stabbing with a needle, but still more than most kid's programming can get away with) Chrysalis killing a kitten, and Tim Curry.

 

(Yes, I know the last two are from the comics, but I still count them. There's still a lot of Nightmare Fuel from the episodes if you're that picky.)

 

(Also, Optimus Prime was in the comics. What was up with that?)

 

Another complaint is that they changed stuff, like reforming one of the fan favorite villains and turning Twilight into an Alicorn. This complaint holds very little ground with me, as they actually did these things well.

 

Remember how Transformers was ruined forever when they changed something? Or how Bionicle totally sucked after they switched stuff around? No? THEN STOP YOUR COMPLAINING. SOME PEOPLE LIKE CHANGE. STOP SHOVING YOUR OPINION INTO OUR FACES.

 

I'm going to have to end this review here, although you can expect me to go a lot more in-depth about the series in the future. I will say this before I go: watch MLP:FiM if you haven't already. You're free to like it or dislike it, but please just give it a fair judgement. I personally like it quite a bit.

 

So, Arrivederci, and goodnight.

Edited April 16, 2013 by Kung Fu Rahkshi Destroyer

[Advent Child]

Unrequested review review!

 

While I am certainly appreciative of the levelheadedness and fair portrayal of the franchise that went into this review, my lone problem with the review itself stems from the fact that it leans towards requiring a familiarity with Tropes to truly understand what you mean when you describe the thing. Other than that, thumbs up to you. Not a fan of the show personally, but kudos to your review all the same.

[CaT in Rogue]

That's a good point. I'll admit I was hesitant with the use of tropes when writing the review. I'll fix that ASAP.

[Black Six]

If you just want to write about things, I would suggest becoming a Premier Member and using your blog for that. If you want to review something in particular, I'd suggest seeing if there's a topic about it already (such as a MLP topic) and review it there. Alternatively you could make a topic where anyone can post reviews. A topic for just you to review things would be better off as a blog though.Thread closed.