Been a while since I blogged here. Well, more ponies! So there. I give you now, my thoughts on season two.
Season two is done and I liked it for the most part. Unfortunately, there were two places during the season where I found myself thinking something I never would have thought in season one. I found myself thinking "Why am I watching a little kids show?" I couldn't help it. The story just seemed to drag and suddenly disinterest me.
The first time was during the "Find a Pet" episode when Rainbow Dash was moving through the qualifications for agility, listing off "kinda' agile", "not too agile" ect.
The second time was during the episode "Read it and Weep". I loved the parts that actually had Rainbow Dash in them, and I like that they had an 'Indiana Jones' type of story inside a story. I also liked that the Daring Do we saw was Rainbow Dash's interpretation of what the character looked like. But the actual Daring Do story itself dragged on for far too long, and it gave me the impression they were just trying to pad the episode with useless chunks of animation to make it drag out longer (which is what it made the whole thing feel like).
Those were the only parts through the whole second season that I said, "I'm bored with this." I can't help but think that this would not have happened with Faust there. That bothers me. It makes me wonder if there is a slippery slope pulling the series down. I fear that perhaps the best of pony may be behind us now, with the end of season two. Don't get me wrong, there were some gems there, but also some mistakes that wouldn't have happened in the first season.
I am one who really enjoyed the story book type of tales from the first season. It was very clear that Faust had a vision of the story she wanted to tell, and she had the skill to pull it into reality. It even had a cosmology to it, as presented in the first two episodes. She targeted the show at little girls and made it something that they wouldn't be embarrassed to say they enjoyed. The female characters were strongly presented and THEY were the ones who saved the day.
Now onto the only episode that I have a problem with from a canonical perspective. I really liked the first half of the season two finale. Everything was set up and all the characters were in their places for a stellar ending. Then the second half of the season two finale happened, and changed that all over the place.
I have two main problems with the second part of the finale.
*One: Celestia, the Goddess who raises the Sun, suddenly gets punked out by an insectoid bog vampire. I realize that Celestia needed to be neutralized in some way, but it could have been done in a more subtle manner, rather than brute physical confrontation. On top of that, if you are going to have a character jump up out of almost nowhere and smack down an established Goddess, then you better damn well have a REALLY good reason for how and why she's able to do that. The excuse of "fueled by the power of love" wasn't cutting it for me (although it was kind of amusing to see that LOVE almost destroyed the entire kingdom). I'm willing to say that there are other forces in the land that could possibly rival Celestia, I have no problem with that, but it should have been introduced better. It would have been far more satisfying to see the Evil Queen put Princess Celestia in a bind on a more ideological level or perhaps even a political/legal level, something on the lines of an ancient agreement where Celestia can not directly intervene against an entity from a higher royal class than herself, or some such thing. It would have made for a better story and a higher level of frustration for the Princess.
*Two: I have a problem with the message of feminism being subverted in the last part of the episode. In the season One finale we see Rarity lose her glass slipper while escaping the grand galloping gala, and then pause to SHATTER it before escaping. The implications were that she was shattering the old type of male dominated fairy tale, where a girl's highest aspirations were to marry rich and marry early. She was rewriting the story and creating her own ending, one of her choosing.
In the season Two finale we see the pretty pink Mary Sue of a pony give her agency, her power, her ability to take action OVER to her knight in Shiny Armor. All the female cast had been shot down, and the Evil Queen was winning. The only character able to fight them off was the male. Then he took his prize of a wife and the went off to live "happily ever after" like the traditional male dominated fairy tales. The over all theme of feminism was lost.
It could be argued that Shiny Armor couldn't have done anything without the help of his bride, and that they both could only vanquish the Baddies by working together. I would like to believe that, but if that is the case then they could have accented that part of the story a bit better, made it a bit more prominent. I just can't help getting the feeling that this was part of the stereotypical "little girls dream" that was shoved down girl's throats since Hasbro began stamping out toys.
Well, either way, the second half of the season finale could have been a lot better. Was I entertained? Oh yes. Did I like it? Oh yes, definitely. Do I think that Faust could have presented the same story with a slightly better angle that curved more toward her original vision, and not stereotyped any female characters into being basically helpless? Absolutely, and that is my main gripe.
I have to wonder if season three will have more or less mistakes than season two. Hasbro now knows for certain that MLP FIM is an ultra money maker, and when executive suits have a giant money maker on their hands they tend to want to try to tweek it in a way that they believe will get them even more money. In the process what usually happens is that they end up destroying what they touch little bit by little bit. I really hope that My Little Pony isn't one of those things to taste the bite of the money hungry corporate executive.
Once again, time will tell.
