With season 4 just a few weeks away, and hype hitting an all time high after this massive pony drought, there are a lot of expectations for our favorite characters in the coming season. In the last 8 months, things have slowed down to a crawl, but that doesn't mean a ton of significant things and fandom shifting events didn't happen. We saw a huge rise in fanfiction, a bunch of homebrew animations, and while art, music, and video have taken a huge dive with the lack of new characters to draw and songs to remix, the really good stuff had a ton of room to breathe without the swarm bearing down on it.
So without further adieu, I give you our top 5 things we want to see in season 4, completely spoiler free! Check them out below the break, and feel free to drop yours in the comments.
5.) An Applejack episode without apples, family, or farming.
Applejack has always been an extremely focused character. Her biggest "out of the box" episode was a jump from bucking apples to bucking cherries, and we all know who stole the show there. It's time to throw her into a situation she isn't comfortable with! Escape your wild west trope! Just because you have a southern accent, rope, and cowboy hat, doesn't mean your episodes needs to focus on that! How about "A. Jack: international spy"? Or transported into a video game via "AppleTRON"? Lets see her in a crazy situation she isn't comfortable at all with!
4.) Fandom is present, but only in the background.
The fandom has slowly crept into the show in the last two seasons, and I honestly couldn't be happier. It adds an xtra layer to watching a new episode of pony when things are going on in the background. At this point, Hasbro has shown that they are more than willing to do what we do on the merch side. We have pretty much named their entire lineup of toys, from Lyra and Bonbon to DJ-Pon3. Having our fandom ponies pull off their shenanigans in the background is just plain fun, and I'd even settle for giving them a voiced scene or two.
On the other hand though, this show was great from the start even without our BG pony adopting, and when it comes to the foreground and actual episodes, we really aren't needed. There are only ~20 minutes of time allotted, and the main ponies are more than enough to fill it. The official comic does a good job of this overall.
That said, a side series about Lyra's travels into the deep Equestrian jungle searching for ancient human artifacts with Daring Do and Derpy would be straight up epic, and we really could use something to break up those massive gaps of time between seasons~
3.) Use the current princesses, we don't need more
If any of you higher ups at Hasbro are reading this, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. People love Luna. With just an episode and a half under her belt (she looks good in a belt, look up the fan art), she has literally taken over the poll side of EQD. There is not a single pony out there that comes anywhere near how popular she is. Even Fluttershy, winner of The Hub's best pony competition, would get completely stomped 1v1.
Have you looked into what your 4-10 little girls demographic is growing up into lately? With things like Monster high, Twilight, Harry Potter, and a host of other darker toned/monstery things grabbing their attention, a navy blue mysterious moon pony isn't too out there. You have your pretty pink princess that loves tiaras, the nerdy purple one, and your elegant white one to back her up. I think we are good at this point.
2.) More evil looking villains with unique models
See that bug up there? Within 24 hours of her episode, I was able to do this. 60 fandom artists took up their markers, tablet pens, and paints to completely fill an art post up. So why did people jump on her over some of the other villains in the show? Just look at the design. The neon green/black color combo, them fangs, those cheese legs, this villain was destined for fan art the second she appeared. It took less than 5 minutes of airtime in her true form to cause every artist out there to want to draw her.
Chrysalis is so out of bounds from what people would expect to see in a cartoon labeled "my little pony". And when most pony villains are redeemed by the end, she never stops the evil, even in her extended series in the comics. She even got a villain song. We need more like this.
1.) History and exploration.
Time for the final point on the list! Equestria has always been pretty loose on the lore building. It's a tough one to stick to with the corporate overlords and stockholders poking for changes. Even with the typhoon of dollar signs bearing down on it though, the world still has a rich history that is constantly hinted at. Everything from Starswirl the Bearded and his inability to go alicorn mode to the origins of Luna and Celestia would be worthy of checking out. On top of that, we have a complete map of Equestria, with "Yonder to Griffins" and "Dragons be here" hinting at even more off in the distance. This place is just begging to be explored.
Lets hope for some lore and world exploration in the next year of episodes! Either that or give us some Elder Scrolls: Equestria.
Feel free to drop your top 5's below! I'm sure we didn't hit everything.
