Daily Dialogues

In My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, there were only a few characters that the story was allowed to follow. The mane six, Spike, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and Starlight. Almost every episode of the show was told from one of their perspectives. This was a problem.

I got this thought when I was watching videos about the Simpsons and I remembered that Slice of Life was compared to 22 Short Films About Springfield in terms of both episodes focusing on short scenes with many different characters. The difference is that 22 Short Films About Springfield was about previously established side characters while Slice of Life mostly focused on background characters that never talked before.

MLP had side characters, but they were never allowed to carry stories. If they had a bigger role, they were seen through the eyes of a main character. Lesson Zero fixed an issue that Twilight had to be shoved into every episode, but it didn’t fix the larger issue preventing side characters from getting spotlights.

Hearts and Hooves Day was the biggest role that Cheerilee ever got, but that episode had to be told through the perspective of the CMC. When Trixie became a side character she had to be seen through the eyes of Starlight. The same went for Sunburst. We couldn’t see the Crystal Empire, Griffonstone, the Dragonlands, or the Changeling Hive unless a major character was going there. Every side character had to be seen through the eyes of a major character.

The show started to move away from that in its later years. We got episodes with the students which largely left the major characters out. Frenemies was the only episode without a single appearance from any major character.

It’s frustrating because the show came really close sometimes. Brotherhooves Social began from Big Mac’s perspective, but then switches to Apple Bloom’s. Hearts and Hooves Day could’ve been a better story if it put more focus on Cheerilee instead of shoving the CMC in it. A Royal Problem shoved Starlight into an episode that would’ve been better if it just featured the princesses. Between Dark and Dawn did the same thing with a useless B plot.

This issue culminated in the show constantly adding new characters. People say that Starlight and the students were needed to keep the show from becoming stale. I disagree not just because the show proved that there were still stories to be told with the main cast (The Washouts), but also because the side characters were right there to be fleshed out if the show could just get away from the main characters.

In a serialized story, I understand needing to focus solely on the main characters. There’s a story to tell and the side characters should just play their role as supporting characters, but MLP wasn’t serialized. For the most part, MLP was episodic so it could’ve easily given more attention to other characters. If it did, I think it would’ve been a better show.