>>5704
>Lore Seasons: Season 4, Season 7
>These seasons were the ones that were paying the closest attention to a unified story. Probably where you could give the most consideration to small details and background elements.
no problem with these options. In fact, the story arc of the little objects that worked as keys in certain episodes scattered throughout the entire season in S4 paid off with the crystal castle and the revisit of the Castle of the Two Sisters. Season 7 didn´t show the greatest show arc but in comparison to the rest of the seasons, from Campfire Tales (that is to say its 2nd half) onwards, it relied on the lore behind the pillars (which topped with the revival of each one of them including the awaited Starswirl).


>Fan Service Seasons:Season 5, Season 6
>These Seasons had lore but I felt that the stories were less thought out as a unified whole as much as "Let's do X! Fans Love X!" as the mentality. There was still stuff serious introduced (Like magic dynamics) but felt less somewhat organized with a unified whole.
arguably correct. After reading this,I´ve had to give a few spins in my head about the feel of both seasons and I see where you are coming from with this mindset. Episodes like Slice of Life, 28 Pranks Later or even something as spare like The Cart Before The Ponies didn´t add anything to the table in terms of interesting stuff that lead somewhere else but to throw things at the wall to see what sticks.

I find it certainly arguable because keep in mind that in those seasons, the yaks were introduced and the dragons, the griffons and especially the changelings were reintroduced all over again, so the expansion of the map did occur around those seasons. Not only them but also Las Pegasus and Dolores´s village debuted as well so in terms of refreshing and standardizing them, those seasons did their part.

>Pre Lore Seasons:Season 1,Season 2.
>These Seasons set the foundation but the lore and intentions where only there for some elements not in service of a hard unified continuity (I'd say that be arguable for the series in most places as the continuity is more mid level).
while they have episodes that explain the backstories of the mane 6 (Cutie Mark Chronicles) and even how the union of the three pony races happened (Heart´s Warming Eve), both openers (The Return of Harmony and Friendship is Magic) rely on lore to explain both villains, the introduction of Daring Do´s universe or even get a slice of non pony creatures in certain episodes, the impact isn´t reflected in the arc of any of those seasons at all and you wouldn´t notice what would happen from one episode the other. Perhaps the biggest turning point of these two seasons was when Twilight decides no longer to write letter to Celestia all the time so the last two minutes of each episode wouldn´t spend the time in summarizing the moral (Lesson Zero) . This turning point might not be reflected instantly but allows to have more freedom and expand on more experimental direction that would pay off later.