User blog comment:Rafe Adler/"The Scorpion and The Frog" Discussion/@comment-1031724-20171201044327/@comment-1031724-20171201060548

Exactly. (Dean asks if Bart's "favorite My Little Pony" is what Shrike took from him)

I don't know how much you know about it. Given the nature of the line of toys, it might surprise you to know the pilot episode of the first generation of My Little Pony features a malevolent demon named Tirek who threatens to behead a baby dragon on more than one occasion, and in the end he gets killed by a rainbow. There are many other villains in "G1 of My Little Pony", at at least one other dies (Lavan). Possibly more, depending on how you interpret Hydia, Squirk, and Beezen's fates. I'd put them on the level as the G-rated Disney movies, or your older animated fantasy movies.

Then came My Little Pony Tales (often referred to as G2, but really G1.5, there is no G2 series), which, from what I heard, is the kind of show only the little kids would like. G3, even more so.

Then G4 was My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which has more appeal, initially in an attempt to make parents in the same room as their kids watching it not want to take a power drill to their skulls, but they threw in a little too much appeal (through both references and scenarios only older viewers could appreciate, while keeping it suitable for the kids), and it gained a big fanbase. Following that, the writers threw in more intentional appeal, to the point they started having dark villains in two-part premiers or finales, including King Sombra, the villain being killed in my avatar, who was based off Sauron from Lord of the Rings. They even did a Game of Thrones reference, and a James Bond one.

Although the show has slowly been getting more mature (even with a few scenes I'd question whether they were suitable for kids, and at most it'd be PG now, which its feature movie released in theaters this year was rated), ever since the main character got wings and became a princess in Season 3, fans have been leaving and/or complaining about every little thing, and not only has the fandom been getting smaller, but ever since Season 7 the show has been declining in quality. Well, Season 6 wasn't quite as good as the first five either, but it at least had some awesome episodes. The Season 7 finale villain was very underwhelming (he's a symbiote like Venom).

Again, I really hate villains still being on the loose, they have to either die, reform, or otherwise get imprisoned, and in the Season 6 finale Queen Chrysalis, one of the most evil villains of the show, just flew away once she lost her kingdom and army. She is set to return in the Season 8 premier and I hope they finally defeat her for good.