Discord is such a great villain. I wish there were more episodes where Discord was villainous.

Derpy and the other background characters were basically created by the fandom. They didn’t even have official names, fans just gave them names for fun. They were never supposed to be plot relevent at all, so Slice of Life was just sort of a love letter to the fans. It’s actually amazing how much the fandom influenced the show.

From what I remember, the fandom was actually at its biggest in season 5

I definitely felt like Luna got way more episodes where she played a major role than Celestia did. Not including FiM parts 1 and 2, we got Luna Eclipsed, the Crusaders dream trilogy (Sleepless in Ponyville, For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils, and Bloom and Gloom), and Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep where she plays major roles(she also plays a spirit in A HearthswarmingTale). Outside a few small scenes and cameos, the only Celestia focused episodes were Celestial Advice and Horse Play, with both sisters sharing A Royal Problem and Between the Dark and Dawn.

on the flurry heart point, most people hate her because she was introduced by hasbro pretty much entirely as merchandising bait (so was every other character tbf but she was just the most obvious and egregious example)

i watched the show in 2021, but i'm a huge lore nerd, so i already knew basically everything under celestia's sun before i finished season 4.

0:59 I like that you included footage of the breezies when you said the word breezy

you didn't pay attention very closely to the discord-focused episodes. discord had the chance to end the ponies multi times and didn't and when Fluttershy is in danger you see him become very serious which shows the said redemption arc.

I think the reason Celeste is not helping and letting Twilight do it is because she wants Twilight to prove to be worthy in being an alicorn and Celeste has future vision an she probably saw that if she interfered then it would create an even worse problem Another reason is if Celeste did everything then we wouldn’t have an episode

The reason Starlight was picked and not Twilight is because Starlight is very neutral and level headed then Twilight when it comes to the princesses Twilight definitely over idolizes the princesses and if she tried to fix the problem it would makes things worse like how she although accidentally fed into Starlight’s insecurities

sister here can confirm the cmc thing was funny as hell

It's cool to see the perspective of a newer fan. I hope you enjoy the final season! I disagree about the idea that twilight should have been the one to help the royal sisters with their friendship problem. Starlight points out that Twilight would have been biased if she'd gone, and that's true. Celestia was Twilight's mentor her whole life. The issue needed an outside perspective. It also makes more sense for it to be starlight, because she's the one that has the strongest cutie mark based magic. We see that the map always sends ponies that would be perfect for certain situations, and I feel that starlight's cutie mark magic knowledge was a deciding factor for its decision to send her.

The Background 6 are Lyra, Bon-Bon, Vinyl, Octavia, Dr. Whooves, and Derpy

The student Twilight now becomes the teacher for Starlight

The misconception about thinking Discord was the main villain actually kind of makes sense, since prior to his return and change into a comic relief character in the show, I vividly remember him being pretty much the "go-to" antagonist for any dark and gruesome fanfiction that didn't want to make a canonical good guy evil.

Very interesting to see the perspective you came at FiM from. For years I saw new people enter the fandom but its much rarer nowadays to see people get into it and especially talk about how their expectations from a decade of internet fandom influenced their experience with the show. I look forward to seeing new content from you Ashley! Nice to see this video and channel blow up like this too, I hope you'll also use this new platform to remind people about what they can do to support Palestine. Good luck gal!!! 😊😊😊

what about discord? you said the name of an episode!!!! hahaha, it's funny because you said the name of an episode! reference humor guys!

Equestria Girls got really good in places! Didn't know what to do with itself in others... I think the best comment I can leave about the surprising quality of Equestria Girls is that in 2013 I had an anime-manga burnout that I never really recoverd from, so I never ever expected to like a show set high school again. But I did love most of Equestria Girls.

Ashley, I'd like to start off by saying this. On behalf of the mlp community, welcome to our little corner of the internet. Despite the absolutely terrible reputation of bronies, we are generally a very welcoming and inviting community. Do we have to deal with the odd bad apples and snakes in the grass? Yes, tis just the way of the internet, but our community moto since the start has been "love and tolerance". We really just want to be friends and get along with people. That being the case, You shouldn't have to worry about getting much if any hate about your opinions (even if a few of them are less than popular). You also don't need to worry about thinking Equestria Girls is fantastic (most of us do, and you wouldn't be alone in liking it more than fim). However, what I find most interesting is you making this video before watching season 9, especially in regards to your comment about fim getting more cynical as time went on. I won't spoil anything, but I do think that season 9 (especially the end) will probably leave you both surprised and rather satisfied. Thank you for putting your time and effort into this great video. It turned out really well, especially since it's only your second video on the channel. We pony folk are glad to have you here. Honestly, the worst part of being in the pony community (outside of the fact that tons of people hate us for little to no reason) is the fact that our overlords of Hasbro and KZfaq try to kill our content all the time (be wary of copywrite claims on your videos and or having them labeled as "for kids" if you use to much footage from the show). Once again, thank you for the fantastic video, and welcome to the pony side of the internet.

I think its totally healthy that some people prefer EQG over FiM, as they focus on different things. MLP is for the lore nerds who want a rich, yet NobleBright setting. The world is actually full of darkness under the hood, trauma is prevalent, yet Goodness is a tangible force that will carry the hopeful through. You could fill entire encyclopedias on Equestria at this point, from the interplay of Dragon-Pony relations (which are likely more tense due to the conflict at the the Smokey Mountains that led to the Bat Ponies joining Equestria, yet Healed by Spike's diplomacy efforts in the show, and the small urban populations of dragon youths, if we count the comics) to Equestria's monster equivalent of the Men in Black, (whom Bonbon is a part of) to feudal, Pre-Equestrian society, the Earth Pony magic that Mage Meadowbrook uses... You get my point. Add in the cool AF detail that nature is broken and has to be operated manually, and the Cutie Mark sustem, and its legitimately deep, fascinating and unlike most legitimately unique fantasy worlds, (and fairly crunchy- something like Pokemon has zero consistency) it doesn't make me feel like shit when I dive too deep. *cough*Bethesdagames*cough* Meanwhile, Equestria Girls... doesn't do that. (which could be seen by some as "getting to the good stuff") Its character interactions, music and fun. And the human characters are generally way less traumatized- Fluttershy has never experienced bouts of involuntary skydiving, Applejack was protected by child labor laws and human social safety nets, and while Rainbow wasn't traumatized, she's more chill for not having performed a Sonic Rainboom as a child. And except for Twilight and Sunset, they had each other for years, building a more cozy bond. They get to be Superheroes, not face the burden of being their world's Last Line of Defense- its all very much framed as a choice. Even the way they keep saying that "Equestrian Magic" is corrupting people, and later specify in Spring Breakdown that the Storm King's magic is "Bad" or "Evil," makes it clear (on top of the she-demon transformations) that pony magic itself is prone to darkness, leaving darker implications to FiM that EqG can freely pick and choose to interact with as tone permits. I think its why Sunset is such a great character- she keeps dipping into the darker sides of FiM, from the dark themes (like her antagonism, or her human world memory wipe) or eventhe dark humor ("not a witch") and pulling it smoothly into Equestria Girls. She's got Dark and Mysterious vibe character undertones, but we have a decade of her world to dive into if we're so inclined. That's Peak spin-off!

13:37 Fun fact you might not now. Slender man shows up in that episode. Like the whole ass creepypasta character. White face tuxedo and all. It's not a joke or an edit. He is just in the episode on the background of on of the scenes. 😂

You are one of the most sincere person i have ever seen and I love and respect that a whole lot. As a brony who entered the fandom since 2013 or 14 and loves MLP:FIM, seeing another person's opinion who was once a pure outsider to the show is genuinely super interesting! You are doing great work out here and I hope to see more from you.

Your friend said that by episode 5 of Make your Mark, Opaline had been a villain for longer than any villain in FiM was on screen throughout the series? Or did I misunderstand? Because if that's the case, if we're speaking purely on episode counts Chrysalis was a villain for almost twice that. If any villain would be a 'main villain' of FiM based on consistent appearance and behavior, it'd be Chrysalis.

I love how clear and consistent your analysis is! I remember having similar questions and thoughts when watching the show.

The funny thing is Sunset Shimmer is my favorite character (and Starlight my second) and I do believe Friendship is magic is objectively better but I love Equestria girls to heck and back so that last opinion brings little emotion from me

My little pony: fim is the best comfort show, I’ve loved it like most my life, and it’s just so nice + starlight is best pony And EQG is underrated

I recently started this show in January and finished it in March. My biggest misconception was that Pinkie Pie was the main character and Twilight was the Dueteragonist. I've seen images of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy in different places but didn't really know who they were and didn't even know Applejack and Rarity was until I started the show

I started watching in 2021. I realized how wrong I was for hating on mlp FIM when I was younger in the 2010s.

Personally i feel like shows can totally do the whole technology allegories, but in a world that has more magic than science, i feel like this show could have made the tech be a little more whimsical. Mabye they charge with crystals or they are shaped differently?

I love EQ (At least the first three movies and some of the specials.) but FiM is still my favorite piece of MLP media. Looking forward to the EQ video(s) whenever that happens though. I’m interested in your opinion on the post-Friendship Games stuff because I think they can be pretty hit or miss.

Surprising opinion on Celestia vs Luna screentime, I remember Luna having more episodes and more development because of that. I remember back in the day people were obsessed with Luna with all her helping of the cmc and the Nightmare Night episodes.

Well I am a person who grew up watching friendship is magic and I love this show and I also love g5 just as much 💖 💕 💗 ❤️ 💓 ♥️ ❤❤❤💗💗💗❤🎉🎉🎉

I love how your OC has an Izzy plushie, it’s such a cute detail omg 😮

Sorry, but the last opinion is just objectively wrong since Discord wasn't in Equestria Girls, so it's automatically worse than the main series. But seriously it is always interesting to see a newcomer's retrospective of the series. One that kind of surprised me is that you felt Celestia had more focus than Luna whereas I felt it was the opposite, especially in the early seasons where Luna had episodes that would focus on her as a character whereas Celestia didn't get that until season 7 and later which is a shame since I really like her when she got focus in an episode. Also, I wouldn't say the later seasons got more cynical. To me, they felt more self-aware which does seem to be a divisive decision in the fandom. Though I definitely agree with you that I don't get the hate Flurry Heart get's in the fandom.

Interesting video. Couple things to note tho: About the technology thing, I wouldn't say it's the pony version of the "middle ages". Because one, we actually see flashbacks to what's their version of the middle ages. And two, the most modern tech we see in FiM is arcade machines and a movie theater in color. So I'd say probably late 80s or possibly early 90s And as far the Princesses not doing a lot or having as much screentime as one might hope, there's a legit behind the scenes reason for that: The Princesses (particularly Celestia and Luna) are more difficult and expensive to animate. It's that simple lol Speaking of the princesses I would point out how Starlight was a better choice to help with their problem because she is objectively the ONLY one to take the task in the most non bias approach, but I'm sure someone beat me to it. Tho I will say the episode does point that out *EDIT:* I just saw a response you made to someone else pointing this out, and while having Twilight unlearn her bias would be interesting, I don't think that should be limited to that episode. In fact there could've been a follow up episode where she does just that and Starlight would use what she experienced to help her see that

While I do prefer Friendship is Magic, Equestria Girls, despite not the strongest possible start, had some truly excellent content with some of its movies and specials rivaling the best of FiM. It always saddened me that we never got a real ending to EQG, unlike with FiM. Many of the shorts also didn't quite measure up quality wise, so that drags it down a bit for me. My top 3 of EQG would be Rainbow Rocks, Forgotten Friendship, and Sunset's Backstage Pass. I'm curious: Did you watch and base your opinion on all of EQG, or mainly stick to the movies and specials?

Personally i love EQG & FIM equally. And i really love how both series were written. I never hated Flurry heart. She was just a cute alicorn to me and seeing her show some of her intelligence was neat to see. P.s I advise you to check out the G4 MLP comics after you finish season 9 because the canonical season 10 is exclusive to the comics. Plus there is alot of characters, species, creatures & events that happened there that could never be brought up in the show since hasbro never had the 2 writing teams interact with each other. With the rule of the comics Canonicity being "If the comics didn't majorly go against the show they were canon". Comics & Manga after Season 9 are basically excluded from that rule though since they all take place after.

I 100% AGREE about equestria girls being better than FiM ! I grew up on magical girl shows, sailormoon was my favorite show growing up...alongside MLP FiM! So when equestria girls came out, the idea of these horses turning into human magical girls made me INSTANTLY adore the equestria girl part of the whole show, I still love FiM and have a special place for it in my heart, but man equestria girls was so gooood!

As someone who joined the fandom and watched the show fairly early on (season 3), this was an interesting perspective! A couple points: -It didn't even occur to me that the background characters could get more episodes, especially since they have such a big cast already. I thought of them more as fan characters, but I guess they are canon now. -Flurry Heart was way over hated. I think it's just cause adding a baby is seen as a jumping the shark moment for a lot of shows. Imo, the fandom got too heated about a show meant to sell toys... introducing characters to sell toys. She didn't even show up that much. -They did explain Cadence's backstory in some spin-off book (pegasus turned alicorn), but I wish they made it into an episode. It would have made sense to have her confide in Twilight after she became an alicorn too and could have given Cadence some more depth. -I think being aware of the fandom really changed the show. Cynicism is a good way to put it. The vibes are different for sure. Great video! Interested to hear more about your thoughts on Equestria Girls!

I'm glad someone else appreciates Equestria Girls! The first movie didn't leave the greatest impression on me, though I was also a teenager at the time and therefore prone to jump on bandwagons. But I'm glad I stuck with it because I would have missed out on some really great stuff from the movies, specials, and songs, to the cute KZfaq shorts!

I LOVE this show. I started watching it in 2019 actually lol. One of my friends showed it to me and I feel in love. AND I AM A MACHO DUDE BRO!

Starlight for me, was the best. Im also a bit antisocial and weird peorson. Also Thorax is best side character and its sad we only got like 1.5 episodes about reformed changelings.

I loved the show. It had its ups and downs, but I have an appreciation for the change it went through. And the Bronies that I follow do some great analysis and reviews. I recommend checking some of them out, they got some good videos.

I wouldn't go as far as saying EG is better than FiM, but I like EG enough to see where you might be coming from, for sure. Sunset Shimmer is definitely the best character at least

Ooo, a ponytuber whose channel is based more on G5 than G4, very nice. I've only seen like, two others, it's nice to see them popping up.

I think Starlight is a bit like a new Generation of Hero. First there Was Celestia and Twilight as Teacher and Student,but after Twilight is a Princess, she is now the Teacher and Starlight the Student. Similar are the Student 6 the Students of the Mane 6, who are the Teachers. That and the removal of the old cozy Library and the addition of this optical not fit Mace Castle with a School who is not a School and run by Ponys who not are Teachers and aditional have their own Job to do, looks like the Showmakers have try some sort of next Generation in the Show to add new Storys. I personaly not like many of the Content after the Cutiemark Map was added. Rarity has her Boutique and her Clients, Pinkie work for the Cakes, Applejack need to do her Work on Sweet Apple Acres, Fluttershy has a Animal Sanctuary to manage and Rainbow is Part of the Wonderbolts, so how can they do their Jobs, manage Friendship Problems and run a School at the same Time? Equestria Girls is just one of many Highschool Storys, who exist in America since the 80s and 90s, with no real Content, more Music as a Disney Movie, unrealistic Bodyforms with giant Heads (because its just Teen titans with MLP Look) and the only Connection to MLP are the Names and the colors of the Char, but it has practical nothing to do with Ponys (and Sunset is the Leader and Twilight the Starlight Char there). It had to get a Leak of Magic from Equestria with the "Pony Up" and the Power Crystals to get closer to FiM. The Show is not Bad but you could add some unknown Char in it and it would still work, see "Monster High". At last its not the worst Spinoff, we still have the "Pony on Drugs" Show "Pony Life", where all Figures somehow act like Pinky Pie.

0:00 Wait a second, I’M an MLP fan who recently obsessed over Rhythm Heaven!!!! 😱😱😱😱

Interesting vid, New here, what sort of vids will you be producing? 🤔 And actually, G4 Equestria was sort of a mix with technology. Vinyl Scratch’s sound equipment is pretty advanced.

Starlight was necessary for episodes where Twilight no longer fit due to her character development and her respect for authority figures. Starlight being perhaps the only one of the cast without devotion to princesses or fear of Discord was perfect for several of the episodes.

Equestria Girls was the first MLP media that I recently sat down and watched because compilations of the shorts showed up in my recommended feed, so right now, I share the same opinion of it as you. Before that, all I saw or heard about Gen 4 was people making videos on it and showing clips or listening to podcasts. I feel like I would like the main show, but I usually like humans/humanoids more than animals when it comes to designs, plus they're still multicolored like their pony counterparts, which I think makes them look a little more interesting, so I just like seeing the EG versions do human stuff more than the ponies doing regular human stuff with their hooves and mouths or magic when it's clearly not designed for them. I wish they weren't in school, but besides that, I'd like to watch more EG stuff.

Discord DID get redeemed, in the season 4 finale. In the rest of the show, you can tell that he genuinely cares about the Mane 6 (especially Fluttershy), but he's a little misguided. He orchestrates problems, yes, but it's not for his own amusement, it's so that Twilight and her friends can defeat them to boost their confidence. In "Discordant Harmony" (season 7 episode 12), you can see that he almost erases himself from existence to avoid disappointing Fluttershy. The entire reason he doesn't really play a role in gen 5 is because of how depressed he was after losing Fluttershy and the rest of the Mane 6. Granny Smith in "The Perfect Pear" was not necessarily against every single member of the Pear family just because they were Pears. The reason she was so against the relationship between Bright Mac and Pear Butter is because it would be bringing the two families closer together, and the majority of the families hated each other. Granny Smith did not want to have to spend any time with ponies like Grand Pear, and the reason she was fine with it at the end is because the Pear family abandoned Pear Butter. She was never specifically against Pear Butter as a pony. Grand Pear on the other hand, just hated every Apple's guts. He was the problematic one. Celestia not really doing anything is intentional on her part, and addressed in the season 9 premiere. She was training Twilight to eventually take over as ruler of Equestria. And plus, the elements of harmony were far more powerful than anything Celestia could've done on her own. And Luna's lack of screen time fits with her character. She sleeps during the day, and only comes out when big things are happening or during people's nightmares. Her struggle is loneliness, and having to spend all of her waking hours dealing with intense nightmares. The map specifically chooses those best suited to any particular friendship problem. The reason "A Royal Problem" sends Starlight Glimmer to help the princesses is because the only real way to help them understand each other is to have them spend a day (or night) in the other's shoes. Starlight Glimmer is quite literally the only pony in the show that is known to possess cutie mark manipulation magic, so without her, switching the cutie marks of the princesses may not have been possible. I've never felt like they cheaply swapped Twilight with Starlight for the sake of giving her more screen time. (And by the way, Starlight is quite popular in the community as far as I can tell. I've also heard a lot of people calling her by the nickname "commie ponie.") I also really liked Equestria Girls, and probably slightly prefer it over Friendship is Magic. I guess in general the show is more relatable to me since I share a lot of biological qualities with the characters in it. I also really love how they adapted a lot of real world things, and despite how cliché it's gotten, I still like the theme of a show or movie that takes place in a high school. I really like shows and movies about a non-magic world reacting to the introduction of magic. I also really love the character Sunset Shimmer, and while I'm not sexually attracted to her like half of the Equestria Girls fandom, I think she's probably one of the best characters in My Little Pony as a whole. I do think it's a bummer though that they never really made a "real" Equestria Girls TV show, just doing a special once a year or so and a handful of 2-3 minute shorts. And I really wanted to see how the pony Mane 6 would react to the human world. (Equestria Girls also has the best music imo) And I hold nothing against you for enjoying gen 5. The reason that I (and many others) dislike gen 5 is not because it's necessarily bad, but because it just handles a lot of things in a very strange way, and disregards some things that were established in gen 4. And when those things are addressed, they're either ignored or explained away in an unsatisfying way. I'm still trying to find out how the sun rises and sets before magic is restored to Equestria, without an alicorn or team of unicorns helping to move it. Though the fandom sometimes doesn't address that issue in the correct way, assuming that Celestia is the only one who can move the sun, even though Star Swirl the Bearded along with a small team used to raise it before Celestia's time. BTW: Friendship is Magic actually takes place close to the present, as long as you assume that the Equestria Girls universe corresponds with the real world. This means G5 takes place far (likely thousands of years) in the future. (and sorry for writing a 6 paragraph essay in your comments)

Lyra and BonBon ARE married. If you pay attention they get married in a spot in the town paper at som point. I don't really remember which ep or season but it's there. I was obsessed with MLP when I was 4, in 2010, when it came out 😂😂😂 been a huge fan ever since then too

Smartphones killed mlp ;) But seriouslyy the mythology and world was one of my fav aspects of g4.

What's your opinion on The School of Friendship and the Student 6? Also, so you joined the fandom late too? Sounds like you and me are both outside observers. If I'm being honest, the fandom can blow things out of proportion or be entitled to certain things. Also, dont be sorry for expressing controversial thoughts.

Whoa ! You prefer EG over the series... I've never heard anyone in all my years in the fandom say that!

Equestria Girls gave us the best mare out of G4. Sunset is the best character out of them all. Imo.

I also got N2 the show after the majority of the show finished airing & the fandom energy was dying down. It feels more like a privilege bc fandom didn’t influence my opinion on the show. I LOVED the show AFTER twilight became an alicorn. I still h8 fandom darlings Rainbow Dash & Discord. Still a pegasister but such a relief that I never felt pressure 2 have an opinion on these things … I just ended up having them authentically.

I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO WAS MORE INTERESTED IN EQUESTRIA GIRLS THAN FIM ????

very much disagree with your opinion of eqg being better than fim (i personally view it as just a thinly veiled attempt to compete with monster high) but i'd be interested in hearing your reasoning

My biggest misconception with the show is assuming it was gonna b a lot more single-story focused. I.e., season long arcs with strong continuity relevance. It was very intimidating when a villain was introduced & defeated on the first storyline. Then it was very dissatisfying when season 1 was boring episodic stuff. It was only until season 4 onward when it had a rlly nice mix. It’s very weird 2 not get N2 a show until after 60+ episodes but I kept on bc & now I’m a huge fan!

I’ve heard there are people who like EG more than FiM so I think you’ll be fine.

I disagree with the Starlight thing, Twilight would not have switched the cutie marks, and it had to happen. Nshe's not in I as much as it seems. I think she's in 8 episodes if that in season 6, her debut as a reformed character G5 is amazing when it gets it right, i like make your mark, i like the comics, buti can't get into tell your tale. Eqg is amazing

Clearly

ther is comic book wher discord secret is reveld he is not a villan but a trickster his girfrend was the one who did terible thing even discord was this is wrong he somehow look her up and claim all damage to himsel to be bigger

At the end, it's Equestria Girls 2 and onwards where peak occurs. I can see why you vibe with EqG more. I just don't like the first movie.

Fun video

I think Deleted Scenes!Friendship Games would've pushed Equestria Girls ahead of Friendship is Magic to me. I also would've appreciated Friendship is Magic Canonizing Equestria Girls into it's continuity like it did the Movie would've been fantastic, as it would've improved my opinion on both shows. I would have a positive opinion of g5 if it (or even the production staff) had any respect or care at all for the source material. Or quality writing. G5 lacks the heart that G4 had, and it shows. Which is a shame, because I was seriously looking forward to it. I genuinely wanted to see what was next, what new story, held to the same or higher standards of the last one, would be told, only to find out that production staff didn't really understand what made G4 good, had no intention of finding out, and didn't care to even make their own series internally consistent or put any care into the storycrafting. That killed literally any hope I had for liking G5, and was quickly proven right by how shallow and poorly-written the characters and plot were. I'm not mad, just disappointed. That about sums up my feelings for G5. Feel free to like it, though. You can guilty pleasure your slop, and I'll guilty pleasure my slightly-higher-quality slop.

I like my little pony Equestria girls more than my little pony too

WAIT DON'T YOU WRITE FAN FICS ON FIMFICTION?!

First, who da hell needs technology when you have literal magic. Second, g4 os obviously set in sort of a victorian era, only later seasons when production got lazy include modern dayish technology

This was genuinely painful to watch..

You're very underrated dear, i wish you many luck with the KZfaq career and i hope you gain many many more in no time 🩷🙏🏼🍀