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I'm crappy at explaining things, so please do bare with me.
===Notes to self===
===Thoughts on Generation 5 -- so far!===
Some resources say [[Rhino Entertainment]] was doing ''My Little Pony'' VHSs as early as 1987. I don't ''think'' this is true since I'm pretty sure they're actually from 2006 but the content ON the VHS (the shows) was copyrighted 1987. Or something. I don't get why they're copyrighted like that.
Updated up to {{Oct|10|2022}}.
* Little known fact -- 2006 is kind of the "twilight" of VHS's. Most people assume they died in the 90s but they stuck around as a budget competitor for DVDs until the mid 2000s.
Always make sure to check WorldCat and Wikipedia sources critically. They get stuff wrong all the time.
I'm not caught up on Gen 5 so maybe the recent media has stuff that blows me away but currently, I'm not really vibing with it. Generation 4 was clearly a kids franchise, but it was always written in a more all-ages approach. Gen 5 on the otherhand seems really focused on the kid demo. That's not bad or anything, it's just not for me. I struggle to really get invested in the stories it tells because they often lack meat on their bones. Compare the Make Your Mark shorts to the Equestria Girls shorts and there's a night-and-day difference. In just three minutes, the EG shorts could tell fairly compelling stories about insecurities, compassion, or just full little skits. There were quiet moments, moments to reflect. Make Your Mark just...doesn't have that. It's always so loud and busy. I ''love'' the voice cast, especially [[Maitreyi Ramakrishnan]] and at least enjoy most of the characters [though I think they kind of removed any 'edge' that made Sunny an interesting protagonist, someone who wanted to ''seem'' progressive and cool but ultimately didn't do the right things and mostly made her activism into a vanity project, while genuinely having the best interests at heart, and just made her a pretty basic all-loving hero with little flaws -- her being a food-truck chef is an interesting occupation tho] but the connecting issue of everything needs work.
The world it builds also just feels...off. Despite its much kiddier storytelling, the premise of the show is inherently kind of messed up. Not in the fun way either, a way that nulls the ''entirety'' of Gen 4, or at least its ending. That no, what Twilight did wasn't good, and the peace of the world she managed to forge was weak and didn't last. For Gen 5 to exist, Gen 4 had to have a 'bad ending'. I'm not forsaking Gen 5 for this as some fans are, and we are pretty early in its lifespan so maybe they're going to do something interesting with this premise but...I'm not sure what they can do that wouldn't cause a conflict of interest. Either they go full continuity -dirty P word- and re-introduce long-lived characters like Spike or Discord into the main series and go over how some of the species like Kirin, Hippogriffs, Dragons, Deer, etc, fit into all this and make the world feel more compete at the risk of alienating kids, or alienate adult fans by brushing these aside, which seems antithetical to its entire premise being a continuation of a show that most kids in the demo wouldn't have watched, much less know the lore of.
I'm all for big long single-continuity shows like Power Rangers or the WFC era of Transformers, but it doesn't seem to really work for MLP. The show is for kids young enough to where the sense of mystery of what came before doesn't seem to be a selling point, but maybe they know what they're doing. If they take their time and age the show for their aging audience, I think they can please all demos. I hope the creative team the best!
===When I think Pony is at its best===
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