Lauren Faust has posted a clarification on her DA page for those of you who are confused as to what will be going down in the future.
Here is a direct quote...
"*clarification: Story concepts and writers' meetings were completed several weeks ago, so my role is complete. I am not currently working on this show in any capacity at this time. Sorry for the confusion. While I'm at it, folks are asking if I left to work on another show. This is not the case. I had no other projects in the works when I stepped down."
So, what we can gather from this:
- Lauren Faust is technically done with MLP
- Season 2 is still primarily her doing, at least when it comes to laying the groundwork for the episodes
- Season 2 is further along than we expected! Hurrah!
Anyway hope that clarifies everything for you all!
Also a note from Allspark on Derpy Hooves
"Her role in season 2 (to my understanding) is the same as season 1. A kind of 'Where's Waldo' visual gag for the fans. Instead of being edited into the scenes in post production she's actually showing up in the storyboards. I don't know if she will get an official name or speaking lines, but the Derpy joke scenes are now being planned out ahead of time instead of just thrown in as we go. I'm certainly not in the decision making process, this is just what I'm seeing from my perspective. "And that's exactly how it should be!
Shh, all these images are from Drawfriend #77 that I'm still working on, so bare with me on that! Every time I add 2 images another 2 pop up!
77 comments:
You forget one very important bullet point there:
ReplyDelete- This means that MWGG is not getting a show as of this point in time.
I can only hope that the quality remains high into season 3. I will be furious if Hasbro turns this show back into the soulless kiddy toy vehicle that MLP used to be...
ReplyDelete@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteWe all will.
But I doubt hasbro would do that. This is turning out to be their network's Spongebob, and after making nickelodeon 2 billion I doubt they would ignore that.
I think Hasbro is smart enough not to mess with the dynamic hit they got here.
ReplyDeleteI want a derpy hooves toy
ReplyDeleteWhile I would hope for a season 3, maybe even 4, lets not get too overworked up. Powerpuff Girls was still good when Craig left the directing chair, so will this. although for this show dragging it out to 6 seasons would be a bit much, a movie wouldn't be bad.
ReplyDelete@Sethisto
ReplyDeleteI hope so, but well, this is a cruel and harsh world of corporations. They actually can decide, that they can make MOAR money out if it after "slight improvements"... And we all know what that mean in corporate language.
I have faith that Season 2 will be good, despite Lauren's involvement being limited.
ReplyDeleteJust know that I will go 'cupcakes' on a Hasbro employee every time they say "My Little Pony" again.
Faust might be back for season 3, but her role is pre-production, and season 3 hasn't been comissioned yet.
ReplyDelete@SethistoAlthough I believe that the HUB's "spongebob" is MLPFiM, isn't Dan Vs. the HUB's "spongebob"?
ReplyDeleteExcellent...
ReplyDeleteNow I don't have to worry about Derpy, I like where this is going.
@Sethisto
ReplyDeleteLogically that would make complete sense. "If it ain't broke" does hold true after all. However, Fireant said it best. What concerns me is if they decide MLP can make even more money if they slightly change the direction of the show. I am going to stay optimistic... but still, fingers crossed.
Ditzy should be like Morn from DS9. Like the mane cast always mentions how verbose she is, and in scenes she could always be on the verge of making a suggestion (possibly even a really good suggestion) before someone like Rainbow Dash jumps in and goes "Quiet DOWN, Ditzy! Now, here's what we should do --"
ReplyDelete@sleepingcobrox
ReplyDeleteSpongebob exploded on the internet/with the wrong demographic, same as MLP is now. I remember when the movie came out and being amazed at how many of my friends actually wanted to go see it.
Maybe not as much of an internet focus due to the limits of technology back then, but that only gives this show an even greater boost.
There is still a stigma that this is a girls cartoon. It's difficult to really spread it around.
People worrying about season 3 need to realize it needs to be renewed for a season 3 first. Nothing has been written or even thought of yet.
ReplyDeleteWho knows what'll happen by the end of season 2? It might end with Celestia forever tied to a golden hitching post for all you know.
I would like to see Ditzy/Derpy actually getting a role in an episode. Could you imagine how awesome it would be for her give Twilight her morning mail, even if it's a very short scene?
ReplyDeleteYa know, I always equated Derpy to Waldo. I could never find her in the episodes the first time around, and I'd always have to cheat by looking through the comments for a timestamp.
ReplyDeleteOmigosh, a "Where's Derpy?" book would be all kinds of awesome.
also /r/ing mothers day derpy/dinky banner. This news got in the way of that plan =[
ReplyDeleteSee?Storyboarding is complete.
ReplyDeleteSO STOP REQUESTING TRIXIE, GILDA OR WHATEVER ON HER DA!PLEASE!
So, Lauren totally quit afetr all. Tht means she won't be able to control all the changes from this point. She already mentioned few times that there was INSANE amount of those changes right befire they finished episode. And now.. oh well :<
ReplyDeletePeople are afraid of Hasbro, but I think that the writing and production teams will contain a lot of control over the process. That's basically how things at The Simpsons seemed to work when it exploded in popularity in the 90's.
ReplyDeleteI`m fully prepared now for some people to hate season 2 right off the bat because of this news. I really hope the rest of the team has things under control here.
ReplyDeleteI hope this isn`t a case of Wolf's Rain, which was essentially the work of EVERYONE on the cowboy bebop team except Shinichiro Watanabe, and look how different that was in quality from Bebop.
Some red flags to look out for:
Drastic Art Style change (a la dexter's lab)
More dumbed down stories (MLP G3)
Merchandising takes over (Pink Trucks!)
charachters are redesigned
As long as none of the above happens, we should be good. But I`m sure a part of anypony is feeling that the show just won`t be the same without her. I hope I`m wrong, but that topic will be the elephant in the room throughout all discussion in any forum over S2.
Another thing I hope I`m reading wrong is that LF left due to corporate pressure from Hasbro, which seems like an unfortunately liekly scenario. You don`t just leave supervision of a hit show without another project to work on for a very good reason.
I'm a bit sadden by how all people are happy that Derpy remains a simple "Where is Waldo" kind of thing. I understand people's concern about ruining her as a character. But I would be so happy if she got just simple roles like in Pinkie Keen, that was just perfect.
ReplyDeleteIt would make me so happy if she only delivered a letter then left again. That's enough for me.
Semi-minor character or what not. Hate seeing her as a simple filler pony. But I'm by no means applying that I want them to rewrite episodes to include Derpy =3
@B-Man
ReplyDeleteHasbro has always been the monster in the closet for this show. Hopefully they won't change anything, after all they gave Lauren a lot of creative freedom in the first place so I don't know why they would want to change a winning formula now.
I don't think we have anything to worry about. One of the directors said there isn't going to be drastic changes and it sounds like Lauren stepped down of her own free will and wasn't fired so I don't think Hasbro forced her to leave or anything.
Give it awhile and I'm sure everyone will eventually calm down. I'm just happy to hear we are getting back a majority of the same team that gave us a fantastic first season! While having Lauren's role diminished for season two does suck it would have been even worse to have production of the show handed off to another team. I'm sure we've all seen that happen to other projects before and witnessed lackluster results.
Guys. You've all got to calm down. And I'm surprised at just how many negative attitudes there are. I know you ( the youngert generation ) were raised to believe the worst news first, but trust me when I tell you that Season Two will be fine.
ReplyDeleteLauren held off telling you this stuff because she didn't want you to freak out. And now you're freaking out! Imagine if she'd told you mid-season. There'd be so much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Y'all need to start adopting a more "can-do" or "everything's gonna be okay" vibe. I personally think the frickin internet has damaged everyone's sense of hope, as there's nothing but vile hate speech and rampant anger that takes over EVERY little discussion. Exactly the oppposite of Poni philosophy in every way.
So chill guys. Be supportive for Lauren. She didn't do any of this to hurt you. She had her reasons for leaving. And I for one respect her for having the artistic integrity to stand up for her beliefs.
We animators deal with disrespect all the time. I was in an elevator with two executives once. Not knowing who I was, one turned to the other and said "I'd like working in animation more if we didn't have to deal with all the goddamn animators" To which his friend replied. "Yeah I hate those friggin guys"
That's just ONE example of the kind of crap we have to deal with in the corporate world of animation. As I said last night, it's a wonder ANY of us can ever get ANYTHING of quality produced.
Thats nice.
ReplyDelete@Sethisto
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a horrible analogy, since that... thing... is nothing more than a toned-down Ren and Stimpy with 99% more stupidity.
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteThe only one I would worry about is possibly the merchandising aspect. While I would like to think Hasbro wasn't involved in her decision to step down it will always be a possibility unless she explicitly states otherwise.
As for art style changes and such, one thing to consider with the large change in Dexter's style if I remember correctly is that they revived that series a few years after it was supposed to have ended. That gave them time to retool that show with the biggest change being that almost the whole team behind the original show was replaced since the original team had scattered and was working on other things.
As for dumbed down stories, I don't think we have to worry about that as we have the same writers as we did for the first season and Lauren did consult on the writing process. Unless Hasbro meddles with the stories later down the line I don't think we have to worry much.
>derpy staying as a where's waldo thing
ReplyDeleteGOOD
Dear Princess Celestia,
ReplyDeleteToday I learned that while a great project starts out with a team leader with a vision, it takes many skilled ponies to pull it off. Once the project is well underway, everypony works together in creative harmony, relying less and less on guidance to do their parts. That's when everypony _becomes_ the project and it exceeds the team leader's wildest dreams.
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle
Guys, if Hasbro's smart, they aren't going to intervene in a way to isolate us. We may not be the target demographic, but we're the demographic that can PAY for their stuff. They aren't about to give up the money we promised with that merch poll.
ReplyDeleteI'm still going to keep my hopes low.
ReplyDelete-If season two does suck, I'll have my beleifs affirmed.
-If season two is good in the same way as season one, then I'll be pleasently surprised.
Either way, I "win," if you can call that victory.
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteI do not think anyone is upset with lauren, but it is daunting news. For myself, after the initial shock of waking up to this news, I have calmed down a bit. I've seen shows come and go, and as a fan of so many, I know what the loss of leadership can do to a show... but i also know what it can do FOR a show. Not to say that her influence won't be missed, to the contrary, the vision will continue and grow, especially with the team of writers and producers that we have here.
To be honest, the vast majority of posts I have read have been "calm down, it will be ok, etc..." with a few massive "the world is ending" posts to keep the discussion going.
I for one wish Lauren all the best with her future projects, whatever they may be, and I know her career is just getting started. That said, of course, IF the decision were made to produce a feature length FIM project... PLEASE get Lauren to produce it!!!
anyway, Brony out...
and keep up the good spirits! We've got a long summer, this news cannot dominate it, it must spur US on to do the best we can to continue our humble community!
@frith
ReplyDelete*hopeful, teary-eyed brohoof*
dear lauren, i'm sorry you're unemployed now, i know that feel bro
ReplyDelete@fallenprincess, yeah i worry that the show is going to be like season2 of ren and stimpy after john k left
ReplyDelete@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteThat's another thing. Would she really leave of her own will to be temporarily unemployed in this job market? Maybe that was a subtle hint at the truth she left us...
*Brohoofs to all* Go team! *yay!*
ReplyDeletei have confidence in the production team to be able to carry on what lauren has started.
ReplyDeleteI doubt that someone with the credentials that Lauren Faust has is going to have a problem finding a job in the media market.
ReplyDeleteLike I've said everyone needs to calm down and remember that Lauren worked on the stories and the SAME TEAM that brought us season 1 will bring us season 2. They worked with her for a year, they know what they are doing. Give them some love and credit for their work too.
ReplyDeleteHasbro wont interfere, they gave Faust and the TEAM a lot of creative freedom and they are not going to take that away from now.
Wait patiently, and have faith, I'm sure everything will work out alright.
@Anonymous
ReplyDelete"So chill guys. Be supportive for Lauren. She didn't do any of this to hurt you. She had her reasons for leaving. And I for one respect her for having the artistic integrity to stand up for her beliefs."
^^^This x100^^^
Everyone needs to calm down. Some people are taking this way too personally, as if Lauren owes them something. She created this great show, and now she is leaving it in the very capable hands of the crew that produced season 1.
No one has the right to judge Lauren or her reasons for leaving. You haven't even seen one episode of season 2, yet already you're screaming about how terrible it must be. Wait until the season starts airing before you pass judgment.
If wild speculation about Lauren and Hasbro is what keeps you going, then the show has done more harm than good. Lauren wanted the show to make people happy. Cynicism is the antithesis to the message of the show.
I give until season 3 to seriously screw something up.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous She's going to be the Consulting Producer of the show.
ReplyDeleteShe is still employed.
I think its natural to be anxious about her descent.
ReplyDeleteIf Bronies are a subculture rather than a fad, then Lauren Faust is and always will be our first "icon", so to speak.
The pioneer, the creator - the vision was hers. Whenever I heard others speak of the values of the show, they always regressed it back to her.
I don't pretend to know what will happen in the latter second season or oh-so-horrible third season. I can see why she was hesitant to drop the news: it will definitely add undertones of anxiety to The Big Wait, just by the mere fact we've been told that "next time, someone else will hold the reins".
The fear is totally justified because we had a really good time. Of course the show wasn't perfect, but it had a lot to offer and precisely because of that, there's a lot to lose.
So here's what I'll do to fend off the over-eager ghosts of comparative analysis in the meantime.
I first started by loving the show - > And then - > I loved Faust because of it (and the "oh, that's right, she did Foster's and PPG").
Not the other way around.
Like all icons and heroes, we first witness what they can do, and only afterwards do we give them our love.
Therefore, I'll aim for fairness. I'll try to follow the same evaluative pattern. In other words, give the new team a chance.
...Well, I think I've typed enough and there's a few melodies that require my attention. In the words of Photo Finish: I GO.
@Trunky
ReplyDeleteShe's finished with her duties as consulting producer.
"Story concepts and writers' meetings were completed several weeks ago, so my role is complete. I am not currently working on this show in any capacity at this time."
May I just say:
ReplyDeleteTotally called Derpy's role.
I agree on all of the season 3 stuff... When things go downhill like with the later seasons of SouthPark when the writers take over.. that is when we panic.. that isnt going to happen until s3 or s4. We need to keep the faith, and Ms Faust will be able to bask in the Bronie fandom for this year. This rollercoaster is not done yet.. it just crested the first lifthill.
ReplyDeleteReally I am not too worried.. at least for this season. This dosen't seem like a third season of the gargoyles scenario where the tone and style are drastically changed. And to you who said I give them till season 3 till they really screw up.. your probably right, but the fact is hasbro has been rather hands off on the show and only said things when it comes to names, nothing else. They don't make transfomers:prime or G.I. Joe rendgades too based on merchandise as far as I know. The fact is as long as we exist and little girls exist, and aunts, uncles and grandparents who like buying girly stuff for little girls exist, the toys will sell well and hasbro will have no reason to try to turn Freinship is Magic into a cashcow. Plus judging from wheres derpy and a luna episode, their still listing to the fans and lauren, as mentioend alot. most likely just couldn't take all of the exectuives telling her what to do every 5 minutes, and could have just left the show and told us to go fuck ourselves, but instead held off telling us until after season 1 wrapped so the end of the season wouldn't have a dark cloud over it and stuck around long enough to help with the season. I'll miss her time on the show, but hopefully this new chapter on the show will still be bright and the future will be bright for our faviorite ponies.
ReplyDeleteas forest gump said: "and that's all I have to say about that"
>Her role in season 2 (to my understanding) is the same as season 1. A kind of 'Where's Waldo' visual gag
ReplyDelete...Nooooo! ..or, I mean... owww damned...
Don't they know about the THOUSANDS of fans waiting for just a BIT more for this lovable character ?
>I don't know if she will get an official name or speaking lines
...Really now ? That's definitly not good.
It's only barely if they throw us a bone or something there...
''Planned jokes'' is something, but that's pretty thin for what a lot of fans are waiting...
For a second I thought they had saw and truly listened to the fans ? ... (sigh)
do you think she'll be called back for the early stages of planning of season 3? I would be VERY okay with that setup as well.
ReplyDeleteCool to know. So that means the best we have to fear is stuff concerning season 3 and that really shouldn't be a problem given the rest of the staff is still there and that's way into the future.
ReplyDeleteStill sorry to see her go, but it sounds like more personal reasons than job reasons. Well to whatever she does in the future may it be Freaking Awesome!
@Nova25
ReplyDeleteFans don't know what's good for them. The reason we like the show is because it is what it is. They didn't need our help making the first season. While they do acknowledge our suggestions, it's good that they don't bend to our will.
People write about Derpy because she's an open canvas. You can imagine what she's like: airhead, genius, retard, etc. If they give her a speaking role it'll cement her personality in stone and not only trample on many fans' ideas of her, but also would just be a bad decision to turn some BG pony into a regular character simply because a few loud fans campaigned it.
Hey every pony, guess where they
ReplyDeletemake the episodes of MLP:FIM?
In my country, there's this animation
studio called "Top Draw."
For those who not lucky enough to
live here, well, I'M IN PONY PARADISE!
You can check their website linked below:
http://topdrawanimation.com/
@ultra8
ReplyDeleteThe personal reason thing is sounding more and more likely. Someone found Lauren's and Craig's Facebook pages and it shows their profile pics as sonograms.
It could be possible Lauren is taking personal time because she is expecting which would explain why she would leave even though she has no other projects lined up.
@Anonymous If so congratulations to them both.
ReplyDeleteIf Lauren is pregnant, then that should help dampen the cries of "You abandoned us!" People are acting pretty selfishly right now.
ReplyDeleteNow I shall beg the current crew to FINISH FiM WITH SEASON 2. If they make a season 3 without her I don't think it'll be the same, not to mention Hasbro might get their dirty corporate tentacles onto it.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous Have some faith in the people still there after a year of working on the show and what we've seen they're really committed to towards what they do.
ReplyDelete"***Well I guess the cat's out of the bag. (I'm a bit disappointed some FB friend chose not to respect my privacy.someone cyber-stalked me and couldn't respect my privacy. I suppose I should have expected it. I guess I'm going to have to do an FB friend cull) Anyway, I just want everyone to understand that my pregnancy is absolutely, positively NOT the reason I'm no longer on the show. It's just a happy side effect that happened after-the-fact.***"
ReplyDeleteQuote from Lauren's DA. The pregnancy was not the reason she quit.
And what's with all of the comments about season 3? Has season 3 been confirmed, because I haven't seen any news on anything of the sort (granted it would be amazing news).
Season 3 is not confirmed, so I don't know why people are getting upset/excited over it.
ReplyDeletePeople are jumping to conclusions
ReplyDelete@Not A Clever Pony
ReplyDelete"I first started by loving the show - > And then - > I loved Faust because of it (and the "oh, that's right, she did Foster's and PPG").
Not the other way around."
^
I think this is important to remember and will assauge some fears. I like MLP:FiM because it is a good show. The staff (most of them, anyway) who worked on its first season will be working on Season 2. Therefore, I trust that I will like MLP:FiM upon its triumphant return.
There's my two cents.
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteYou could have left with some dignity, IF you hadn't said this : >Fans don't know what's good for them.<
>simply because a few loud fans campaigned it<
Guess what? This is not whining, not complaining, this is SUGGESTING.
People love the show, love this character, and made the suggestion to combine the 2.
>would just be a bad decision to turn some BG pony into a regular character<
Oh please... Have more faith into the abilities of those who made this series so great and awesome... Surely they would be able to find a way, IF they did it.
I think season 2 will work as well as the first did, maybe slightly better. This incarnation of the MLP franchise can only improve even more with time...like a fine wine.
ReplyDeleteIt's fine if she's not working with them. Atleast the show goes well that I'm concerned.
ReplyDeleteAs for Derpy, I'm hoping for something along the lines of this:
ReplyDelete'Oh Ditzy, you so derpy!'
But, whatevz.
Hey, I remember when I thought it was the end of the world when Joel left the Satellite of Love, but Mike really made the grade, didn't he? You never know.
ReplyDeleteAnd, in one respect, I see this as potentially a blessing in disguise. Because this way, if the next season sucks, we can just say it's because Lauren left, and hold the first season all the more dear to us as an era of television in its own right, a work of art by a creative genius. And if the next season is good, well... no problem.
I doubt that Hasbro will change the formule of FiM becuase if it is a succes, why chance it(aka Simpons and South Park).
ReplyDeleteI hope they realize that they will just sell toys as good or even better with this little pony.
I also hope they will allow broadcasters in Europe to show this series to.
What about Lun?!?!
ReplyDeleteI mean LUNA DAMMIT!!! XD
ReplyDeleteWhat if she was replaced by her husband? I think she's telling us why she's leaving without actually telling us. Let's piece together the clues shall we?
ReplyDelete- She tells she's leaving, and is going to be consulting producer, but she also tells us she's pretty much done with her part for S2.
- She mentions her pregnancy and calls it a "happy side effect", and yet tells us that it's not the reason why she's leaving.
- She mentions that she doesn't have any other projects lined up. This is weird because new cartoons are sprouting up like wildflowers lately, and she's one of the big names in the industry.
- Also, everyone knows that you don't speak ill of past employers (especially on a public page like her DA). Also, when you get laid off, your employer doesn't keep you around.
- This is the quote from her DA I find interesting.
"Various circumstances with the production made it increasingly impossible for me to keep up the level of personal creative involvement and control that I had at the start of the series."
So after looking over all these clues I have come to my final conclusion...
Lauren is only human.
I think as much as she loves doing this, I think it just becomes stressful to keep up with the quality. I remember reading from some interviews that a lot of the team were practically working free overtime so that each episode was superb, and they'd spend late nights working hard on the episodes. Lauren is about to be a mother (not sure if she has other children) and raising a baby requires a lot of attention.
@frith You win an Equestria man..
ReplyDelete@Bibo
ReplyDeleteThis will be her first child, so she will definitely be busy and exhausted. But she clearly stated this is not the reason she left. She got pregnant after making the decision to leave. (I am not going to speculate about whether it was a planned pregnancy, because it's really no one's damn business but Lauren and Craig's.)
nothing will change other than her position just putting that out there darlings.
ReplyDeleteI think people are overreacting to Lauren Faust leaving the show. TV shows have showrunners coming and going all the time. And if LF says she trusts the creative staff of the show, it's good enough for me.
ReplyDeleteVery few shows actually retain their original creative staff 100% past a few seasons. Even fewer keep the same staff from season 1 to season 2. I am not saying the entire staff is replaced, but that some writers and creative consultants *do* move on rather quickly, especially if their goal was actually to get the show set up and running past the first season. This happens a lot.
Does it suck Lauren Faust has left the show after season 2? Yes. Does this mean the show will suddenly turn to crap in season 3? Doubtful. Does it mean Hasbro's suddenly going to turn it into a show meant purely for selling their toys? There's no actual signs that they will, and I'm sure by this point they are well aware who the most significant viewer base for the show is. I'd say there's more bronies than actual little girls who actually watch the show. For this reason I can actually see season 2 and 3 aligning a bit closer to grown-ups while still retaining the MLP persona, as many cartoons in the past have ended up doing.
As for Derpy... fun as the Where's Waldo-esque appearances might be, I agree with an earlier poster here who said she'd be a great pony to depict as a "Morn." For those who don't understand, Morn was a commonly recurring alien from Deep Apace Nine who never spoke onscreen and was never really seen doing much beyond sitting at the bar at Quark's, but that all the main characters mention as being one of the most talkative aliens they've ever known.
They even dedicated an entire episode to Morn, and the execution was fantastic, because Morn was pretty much absent for the entire episode until the ending, with Quark going around trying to get ahold of Morn's vast personal fortune, thinking he was dead.
Thus, we could have Derpy actually come into a recurring foreground character who rarely says more than one word per appearance, but that the characters insist is a chatterbox off-camera.
Where's Waldo is fun and all, but the fact that pretty much the *entire* fanbase has developed her into a full character, it's pretty clear what most fans really want is a real character. To me, the idea Derpy is now an official character of the show is a very good thing.
@Joe England
ReplyDeleteThat's actually a good point. A lot of shows actually tend to improve when the creator/developer stands down or greatly reduces their role in production.
Your MST3K example was on-the-nose. Sure, Joel Hodgson was funny, but Mike Nelson was outright hilarious and the show got so much funnier when he got to run the show. Outright comedy gold up to the end of the series run.
Star Trek is another example of this, too. Notice how when Gene Roddenberry left/died, Star Trek: The Next Generation's stories got significantly improved and we even got the fantastic Deep Space Nine show, which probably had the best writing of any Star Trek ever.
People need to stop acting like the show is about to go down the tubes just because Lauren Faust won't be behind season 3. I don't mean to imply Lauren Faust doesn't know what she's doing, she's an animation veteran, after all, but I do mean to say that the creators of a show can and often do hold back a show.