Series Thoughts: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Seasons 3 & 4)

• Released: 10 October 2012
• Developed by: Lauren Faust
• Amount of seasons: 9
• Seasons watched: 3 & 4
• Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

In the magical world of Equestria, a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle and her friends learn all kinds of lessons regarding friendship.

My Thoughts

A while back I took a look at the first two seasons of this series, but now it's time to tackle two more! I think I'll just be doing these in two's, except for one of them since there's 9 seasons. So without further ado, season 3 and 4.

Season 3 is a bit of an outlier compared to the other seasons, due to several factors. For one, it's length. Whereas the usual season of Friendship is Magic will consist of 26 episodes, season 3 only has 13. Why, I do not know. It's also different in that it tried new things the series didn't do before. Not just one storyline told simultaneously over two episodes (Games Ponies Play and Just For Sidekicks), but also, of course, the ascension in rank of one of our main characters. When alicorn Twilight first leaked, at first I just didn't buy it. I don't know why, but it just didn't seem like something the show was actually going to do to me. But it did happen.

The execution of Twilight's alicornification episode is honestly just fine to me. I've seen people rip that one to shreds or say how much they love it, and I'm honestly a bit mixed on the episode. The songs are great and it's got some good moments ("Celestia's Ballad", anyone?), but the pacing is just all over the place and goes so fast that it fails to leave the impact it's supposed to. I guess they only had one episode to work with due to the time constraints of only 13 episodes, but this really should've been a two-parter if you ask me. It's a good concept for an episode and definitely hits a couple of marks, but for one of the most significant episodes in the series it definitely needed more time.

I did also quite like a few of the season three episodes. Back in the day people seemed quite disappointed by some of this season, but it's honestly just a fine one to me. Though it sucks we didn't get a Rarity episode. My favorite episodes of this season are Wonderbolt Academy, Sleepless in Ponyville, Apple Family Reunion and Magic Duel, whereas my least favorites would have to be One Bad Apple and Spike at Your Service.

The visuals in this season also really are good. Season 1 and 2 (particularly season 1) looked fine/good in and of themselves, but there were some movements and expressions that wouldn't return in later seasons. By season 3, the crew really has grown comfortable with working with these puppets and everything looks pretty great. There's still the occasional mistake here and there, but nothing major.

Overall I do like season 3. I wouldn't put it up there with one of my favorite seasons, but I do remember a lot of it (something I can't say for later seasons) and this was the time where I was the most active in engaging with the Friendship is Magic series, aside from season 4.

Now, talking about that season...this is honestly the highest point in the series for me. It is perfect? No, but I feel like this series hits a nice balance between what the initial setup for the show was and what the adult fans want. Seasons after season 4 (particularly the last few) got quite pander-y to the adult fanbase with its overkill on lore, exploring new locations, more serialized stories, needlessly adding new characters and the like. 

Season 4 definitely has elements of this. There is for the first time (unless you count the Grand Galloping Gala thread in season 1) an ongoing plot thread with finding out what Twilight's position as a princess really amounts to and what the magic box the Tree of Harmony gave her holds. There's also more lore than in previous series (such as the flashbacks in the season opener). However, all of this is still in a nice balance with the initial setup of the show: episodic storytelling about these main characters with friendship lessons at the end. It's nice to take an epic detour like in the openers/finales of each season once every while, but it really became overkill in later seasons.

Season 4 hits that perfect balance if you ask me. The plot thread of the magic mystery box is definitely there and we do get a hint at that plot-line every few episodes, but it never overshadowed the episodic friendship lessons. We do get our dose of epic with the opener/finale, but aside from that the show remains pretty consistent with previous seasons without becoming needlessly pander-y. 

Like, I really don't have a problem with the show (or any, well, most cartoons for that matter) having an adult fanbase, but I kind of feel like the series lost touch with what made those bronies and fans love it in the first place after a while. The rise of bronies came about (mostly during season 1-3) due to the show's good character writing and interesting world, but then in later seasons you can really tell that the staff caught on to this fact and tried to make the series more epic and serialized to cater to those fans. Come on, I fell in love with this show during the early seasons for its characters and friendship lessons, not the epic lore and stuff. If I want epic fantasy stories with huge casts of characters, I'll just watch Lord of the Rings, thank you very much.

So with this "gap" between seasons 1-3 with them being mostly non-serialized and catering more so to the initial target audience and the later seasons with them catering more to a family audience (and older fanbase), season 4 really bridges the gap. And, if you ask me, it's the best of the show for it. My second favorite season is season 2, but season 4 has this perfect balance of what I like in a show. The episodic friendship lessons, but also a decent dose of lore/serialized storytelling without it taking over the entire goddamn show like in later seasons.

Another thing that makes season 4 unique is the animation. Well, okay, I wouldn't say unique, but definitely a bit different. Seasons before (and after) have had epic scenes before, but season 4 really does have the most epic flashy action scenes out of any of the seasons, before or after. The season opener has a grand flashback fight between Nightmare Moon and Celestia, and this is then topped in the season finale by a showdown between Tirek and Twilight (with the power of all four alicorn princesses). It's grand, it's epic, but doesn't overstay its welcome. I'm also really glad they didn't try to replicate or outdo these scenes in later seasons. They're epic, they're grand, they don't overstay their welcome, it's good this way.

Now for episodes I liked this season: Princess Twilight Sparkle; Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3; Maud Pie; For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils; It Ain't Easy Being Breezies; Pinkie Pride; Equestria Games; Flight for the Finish and of course Twilight's Kingdom. Episodes I wasn't so fond of: Power Ponies, Simple Ways and Leap of Faith.

I still really like these characters and I'm very glad that we also get to spend more time with each of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Spike as time goes on. These two seasons also take place before the series would needlessly start shoving more characters to the frontlines (Starlight Glimmer, the Pillars, the Young Six). 

I'm also not a huge fan of Discord becoming one of the major character cast, but his redemption arc within this season was handled really well. In Keep Calm and Flutter On things went way too fast, but he's his good chaotic neutral self here (mostly) without becoming an obnoxious Genie-clone like in later seasons. And then of course the last season completely fucked up his character arc. But the way we see things here, from Princess Twilight Sparkle to him really coming around to learning what friendship means in Twilight's Kingdom, it's really well-executed and leads to some good scenes for him. Too bad I really find him grating for the most part post-season 4. 

Season 3 is another really good season, and season 4 is honestly to this day still the season I simply consider to be the best. It does have a more family-oriented audience in mind with some more epic moments and a more serialized plotline, but it still stays true to the spirit of earlier seasons enough for it to not overshadow the rest. I absolutely recommend you watch the series up to this point. After season 4 I'll leave it up to you whether you continue or not. There definitely are some episodes post-season 4 that are worth checking out, but overall I find the seasons after this to slowly get less engaging and just leave less of an impact as time goes on.