Darker and more serious.

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Sombra proved MLP can do dark and do it well. A damn shame he was so underutilized though. A highly intelligent, warlord/warlock/enslaver hybrid with a laconic way of speech. I mean you had the credentials for an exceptional villain to make an arc out of!
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they’ve had a pretty dark tone along the way when they’ve felt like it. stuff like villain starlight being a take on harrison bergeron complete with a town that looked like a concentration camp and a song based on propaganda music, the resolution to too many pankas, the sombra bad future being gritty and based on world war 2, as well as some of the imagery itself:  

 
they’re a lighthearted kid’s show because they want to be, but they’re not afraid to get pretty dark when they want to either.
Mikey
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Yeah, the show doesn’t need to be dark an edgy to be good. It can have serious themes without being dark.
Amethyst Star
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The writers do want it to be darker and more serious, but Hasbro says no. M.A.Larson’s cutted Make New Friends and Keep Discord scene is way more serious than the scene replaced it
hironakamura
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It doesn’t need to be dark but it does need to be sincere. Especially since they tackled friendships. The most serious episode I’ve seen was Amending Fences. That episode really hit home.
 
The show shouldn’t sugar coat making friends easy. Its not. Its hard putting yourself out there because you don’t know how other people will react to you. Not to mention sometimes you’ll make friends with people who’s influence could be bad for you. Or sometimes, friendships just end because of circumstances and there’s nothing you can do about it. This is among other things like failed forgiveness. Imagine if Moondancer never forgave Twilight. Imagine if Starlight and Sunburst failed to rekindle. A certain mindset in life is required to deal with these kinds of circumstances that even I am not mature enough to face.
 
The show is in a great position to explore these things but they rarely ever do. And it always goes the happy happy joy joy route. I don’t mind if they use fantastic magical rainbow pony antics to make the episodes entertaining as long as they treat the episode’s subject matter sincerely.
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We always have fanfics for grimdark. If you want dead foals, there’s Fo:E Pink Eyes and Why am I Crying?, among others. Maybe try Sweetie Bot: A Hearth’s Warming Tale. I’ve read the latter two and am working my way through the former at a snails pace.
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This idea, with those writers, would be a death warrant for Celestia, so I think this idea sucks. >.>
AwkwardLuna
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If you made things darker it would go against the spirit of the show, might as well be a different show altogether. More serious plotlines and adventure are great, and thwyve done well with that, but remember this is still MLP and it needs to stay kid friendly.
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Since this thread is active again, allow me to elaborate with what I said before:
 
Far too many people mistake “dark” and “edgy” with “serious” and “mature.”
 
In fact, all too often, stories that try too hard to be “dark” are actually far more IMMATURE than lighthearted stories.
 
This show does not need to be “dark”. At all.
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I know this thread is dead, but it’s a damn interesting subject. The franchise has had its darker moments ever since the 80s, and G4 certainly isn’t one to stay away from it. However, I feel like the FIM is fine the way it is and pulls off saod scenes better than G1. Withv its explicitly dark or serious moments, it works for the most part and catches the viewer off guard (Fluttershy “breaking” Harry’s neck, Pinkamena Diane Pie, Twilight’s Kingdom, an the alrernate timelines from the season 5 finale). And hell, even some of the darker and more serious moments of the ahow are the subtle ones. What happens to the changelings victims, Luna coming to terms pretty much everybody she knew is dead, an earth pony making threats and nearly committing cold blooded murder, and the goddamn swamp filled with trees that might have been ponies once to name a few. The show is very capable of pulling off explicitly dark and serious scenes well, and even better when they have done them subtlety.
Ihhh
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Luna coming to terms pretty much everybody she knew is dead, an earth pony making threats and nearly committing cold blooded murder,
 
Neither of those ever happen in the show.
Binkyt11
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@Ihhh  
I just looked over Luna Eclipsed again and I have no idea where that first one came from. So that was my own error.
 
But the second one I was referring to Caballeron, I just forgot his name briefly. But yeah, the first is based on this quib from Stranger than Fanfiction:  
…And I say you will remain here until Daring Do comes to rescue you. And if she wants you back in one piece, she will give me the amulet!
 
And the latter just based on the whole reason why he kidnapped RD in Daring Done? Basically he knew that she was one who would be destroyed if something were to happen to RD, and while the TV-Y safe option was just “boiling green slime”… it’s safe to assume that it’s something else that would have not gone well with the rating department/censors and Hasbro.
 
I could be looking too deep into it, but yeah those two moments kinda stuck out to me for the time being.
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