Season 2 is getting into its closing stages and with that in mind i
would like to take this opportunity look at the series thus far. Fair
warning this is mainly going to be falling into the realm of a
"critique" rather than a general summation so don't be disheartened is
many of the things i bring up are things i would improve/tweak. The main
point of this State of Equestria address is to raise some of my hopes
and thoughts on what the writers have done and what i think they could
still do.



With that in mind let us venture forth;



The biggest trend I've noticed is that Season 2 of Friendship is Magic
feels very condensed; there is so much tightly packed into each episode
its hard not to get the feeling things have had to be cut and difficult
choices are to be made. The creative team seems so brimming with great
ideas they are butting up against their 22min format sometimes. This is
of course not a bad problem to have; in children's TV, especially
'female programming', the problem is usually too few or badly formed
ideas. Here we have too many and to much. Friendship is magic is simply
TOO GOOD for its own format which i think is a huge credit to the
creators.



But before i go into this anymore lets look at couple of examples;



Return of Harmony Pt1&2;
This is the most noticeable example. Return of Harmony should have been
a movie. I know that sounds odd but it should. The 40minute span, less
if you count recapping and the inherent disadvantages of a two part
structure, was far too little for the sprawling ideas they obviously had
for the episode and the character of Q- i mean Discord. They are good
episodes but they are cut back to bare bones simply because of time
constraints. I get that Hasbro and The Hub proabaly didn't have that
level of faith in them yet but none the less the strength of the ideas
and not to mention THAT guest voice cast it seems like we missed a real
treat here.



 Certain moments could have been so much more fleshed out; the
relationship between Luna, Clesestia, Discord and the elements of
harmony. The corruption of the mane 6 turning their elements against
them, The encounters with Discord himself and the eventual conclusion.
All of these were well handled but were VERY condensed in their makeup. A
tale that good needed a bit more room to breath.



Luna Eclipsed; Here i have
an actual example of some cut content. According to Faust Rarity was
actually cut from the episode altogether for time. This episode did at
least have the time for some fun background antics as shown as far back
as an early dev sketch. But it can only be guessed that this admittedly brief scene was one of
the things the team was unwilling to cut and so rarity got the chop
altogether due to not being part of the main story of the Episode.





This actually leads me onto my other main observation about Season 2;
as things get trimmed down episodes tend to solely focus on a single
member of the mane 6 (or the CMCs). Season 1 we got quite a few ensemble
cast episodes; Drangonshy, bridle gossip, Winter wrap-up, The Ticket master and Swarm of the century
were all (non premier/finale) episodes that may have had a central
character but the entire cast had a role in. Season 2 is more focused on
character episodes and arguably the only ensemble episode bar the
opener thus far is "The last Roundup" and whilst this is a valid
approach i do sometimes miss the cast all playing off one another an
appearing onscreen as, you know, a big group of friends.



Again this is a creative decision on an approach rather than a real
'flaw' but i would love to see the change and see more of the cast get a
role.



Now for the tricky part;



Where do we go from here?

The series does have room to grow, of this i am certain. But that's a whole other address ^_^



Stay tuned for the semi-followup; "Onwards and Upwards!" Coming soon!