literature

Hopes and positive predictions for Season 4 of MLP

Deviation Actions

AlektheWererat's avatar
Published:
6.6K Views

Literature Text

So Season 3 is gone and season 4 is in the future, yet, it’s still a good 5 or 6 months away, so it give us plenty of time for discussion, I wanted to share with everyone my positive hopes, expectations, and ideas for the fourth season. In a future note, hopefully in a few days time, I will have another note on my negative expectations. Yet, for now, let us be optimistic and discuss what good I think can come from season 4!

There are some loose ends that they desperately need to wrap up, and given how the show is, generally, good at canonical continuity and giving accounts of origins, I think at least some of them will be resolved. One of the most glaring gaps is the issue of pegasi families. With the very possible exception of the ponies that Rainbow Dash is seen with in her flashback in season 3, we have absolutely no mention of any pegasi families what so ever. With Rainbow Dash, with her as a grown woman, it makes sense for her to live away from home, and she is seen going back to Cloudsdale on more than one occasion, so perhaps she does every now and again go back to visit family. However there are problematic issues with Fluttershy and Scootiloo. For Fluttershy she is seen getting her cutie mark on the ground, why didn’t anyone come down to Ponyville looking for her? Also, why doesn’t she ever go back to visit her family? In the season 3 finally, she mentions she is “moving back to Cloudsdale,” so does this mean that she has family who would take her in?

Scootiloo is the most problematic case of them all, who is raising Scootiloo? Does she have parents who take care of her? Does she live permanently in the CMC clubhouse? Or does she live in an orphanage? This seems to be the most likely explanation, as we see in the episode about the sleepover, they don’t even suggest the possibility of going back to her place, wherever it is, also, she brings no family, and gets no permission whatsoever to go on the camping trip in season 3.  

So what we need is an exploration of these three characters. Especially, we need to know why Fluttershy’s parents never looked for her, and we need to know who is raising Scootiloo. It would be pretty epic if Scootiloo moved in with Rainbow Dash. Although this opens up something more they need to explain, which is, where does Rainbow Dash even live? We know were Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack live, but can you name any instance of them ever showing were Rainbow Dash lives, or any of the ponies going to visit Rainbow Dash in her place of residence?

In terms of loose ends, they really need to explain what happened to Twist. I would ideally like them to bring back Twist, and explain why Applebloom and Twist grew apart after the first episode. In the process, they have a moral lesson about what to do when you grow apart from a friend. On a related note, they need to do an episode about the issue of staying loyal to a friend, even when it seems like a bit of a bad situation. I am thinking of an episode similar in case to an episode of Hey Arnold where Arnold refuses to report to Principle Warts that it was Stinky, Harold, and Sid who mooned him. I can see this episode being very controversial, but all in all, something that kids have to deal with on a regular basis is being put in prisoners’ dilemma situations with their friends.

Another characters origin’s that need more explanation is Spike. I discussed it at length in a previous note, but we need to know, why did Celestia have a dragon egg in the first place? We know from “Secret of My Excess” and “Dragon Quest” that not only do ponies know next to nothing about dragon anatomy and culture. We also know from “Dragon Quest”, as well as the entire series really, that Spike is essentially the only one of his kind: that being a dragon brought up by ponies. Through out the first season, I suspected that perhaps, just as with the case of mules, griffons, and buffalo there existed at least a subclass of Dragons who either were on diplomatically positive relations with Celestia, if not, as we see from Donkeys and Mules, completely assimilated, a subclass if you will, of pony civilization. Yet we have seen no other “poniezed” dragons, and we see from “Dragon Quest” that the dragons have no respect for Celestia.

A lot of fans have posted a lot of interesting theories about Spike’s biological origins, ranging from he was an egg found on the ground, to that he was part of an exchange program. I suspect, for better or for worse, they will explore in greater detail Spike’s origins. A hope is that we actually get to meet Spike’s biological family, and Spike has to choose between them and the main 6.

I said this before in a previous note, where I reviewed season 3, but for the fans who negatively reacted to “Keep Calm and Flutter on” because of the quick way Discord was reformed, all I can so to that is this: you don’t appreciate that Discord is Q from Star Trek. Watch the episode “Deja Q” from Star Trek TNG and you will see how “Keep Calm and Flutter on” was an obvious ode to the episode.

Watch the end of “Keep Calm and Flutter on”, and see how Discord reacts when Celestia tells them that they are holding onto the elements of harmony. Also, notice how Discord promises to use his magic for good “most of the time,” meaning that he still has a mischievous trick or two up his sleeve. In a nutshell, Just like Q, Discord, while an antagonist and arguably a villain, is not “evil”, in the conventional sense of the term. A description that fits him better, even from the beginning, is chaotic neutral. Chaotic neutral characters value their freedom above all else, and are loathe to any kind of order and regulation, no matter who it is coming from, and do not seek power, or enjoy deliberately inflicting pain on others, their only goal is individual freedom and their own happiness. So with this understanding, I don’t see Q as “reformed”, in the classic sense of term, at least not to the level that many Bronies thought he was. Like all the characters on the show, and ultimately like Q himself in “Deja Q”, Discord was moved by the magic of friendship. Ultimately, Discord will likely continue his Q role, remaining a wildcard, popping up now and again to either help the mane 6 or hurt them, depending on how he is feeling.

On the subject of how “Keep Calm and Flutter on” was an obvious ode to “Deja Q”. A somewhat unrealistic hope is that they do another episode based on the episodes theme. In Deja Q, Q is stripped of his powers and is protected by the crew of the Enterprise, and he, in a sense, learns the magic of friendship, and tries to sacrifice himself for the good of the Enterprise. Q is then restored of all of his powers and then saves a planet from destruction that the Enterprise, throughout the episode, was trying to save. An ideal remake of this episode would involve Discord being stripped of his powers, and a host of creatures who Discord has terrorized through out the millennia come back to extract revenge and the ponies protect him. Not sure how it should end, but it would be interesting if this confirmed the rumor that Discord and Starswirl the bearded are actually the same person. The major clue to this is that Star-swirl never mastered the magic of friendship, as we know from the end of season 3, and we also know from “Keep Calm and Flutter on” that Fluttershy was the only friend who Discord ever made. Other clues that Bronies have pointed out are that whenever Discord casts a spell, stars appear in the background. Perhaps the episode could begin with Twilight looking out her window and seeing Star-Swirl coming down to the library and Twilight excitingly rushing out to greet him, and Starswirl then says “It is I, Star Swirl, yet also Discord”, and explains that he became Discord after seeking out a spell that would bring him great power, but instead it transformed him into a beast. The episode could be a moral lesson in forgiveness, and about the reckless pursuit of power.

The episode in most desperate need of a remake is the episode “Tapestry” of Star Trek TNG. In this episode, Picard is stabbed in the heart and Q sends him back in time giving him a chance to not get stabbed in the heart. Picard then realized that if he had not gotten stabbed in the heart, he would have never amounted to anything in his life, he would have simply been a low ranking ensign, without any friends, any career, any accomplishment to his name. They need to remake this episode into an MLP episode where Twilight has a fight with her friends and then wishes that she never came to Ponyville and had made friends in Canterlot instead. Discord would then show up and tell her that that can be arranged, and she is zapped back in time. Discord says she has a day to make friends in Canterlot as a filly. She spends a day making friends with the Canterlot fillies, and she is then transported back to the present, where she is a custodian in a library, without any friends, recognition, and certainly not an Alicorn. Discord shows up again and then gives a moral lesson about appreciating your past, and having patience with your friends.

OK, so another expectation, they will bring back the Diamond Dogs. Think about it, the Diamond Dogs have only been in one episode, and are one of the few villains to not make a come back, unlike Discord and the great and powerful Trixie. The Diamond Dog society need to be explored more, are they, like dragons and buffalo, aloof from Pony Society, or are they a subclass, a “mudsill” of pony society? An unrealistic hope is for David Bowie to make an appearance voicing “The King of the Diamond Dogs”, it would especially awesome if his name was something like “King Ziggy,” and that he even said “young girl, they call them the Diamond Dogs”!

I have heard rumors that Weird Al will make an appearance, I don’t know how they will fit it in, but as long as they have him in some capacity, as a traveling musician, relative of Pinkie Pie, etc, but as long as they do it, I’ll be happy. It would be much better than some other folks they could bring in, but I will get to that when I talk about my fears for the fourth season.  

OK, so these are a few of my positive hopes and expectations for season 4, I will, in a future note, outline a few of my negative predictions.

Thanks for being with me today
-AlektheWereRat.
Just some thoughts, about 70% of what I wanted in season 3 came true, so who knows. Although I also have very terrible intuition sometimes as well, I never imagined them making Twilight an Alicorn before the series ended, and I thought for sure that EQ was an elaborate hoax.

If your interested, here is my note on Spike's biological parents [link] and my reflection on season 3 [link].
© 2013 - 2024 AlektheWererat
Comments31
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
janmathew's avatar
In the episode Party of one Pinkie pie sang in front of Rainbow's house