>>5719 >This maybe one of the strongest points you have ever made, period. after discussing deeply two seasons along with you extensively, I believe that it was bound to happen something solid in the middle of these discussions. Thanks. I still can mention more examples (my method to analyze and illustrate what I think requires specific examples, I need to go a little bit with the inductive hypothesis here) of that evolution and how lore is portrayed in this show (not lore explicitly but within its context and purposes to use it).
>In universe the characters get used to what would be a threat or something spooky exactly. Zecora and The Everfree Forest are the clearest examples to put on the table for coming up with this thesis. You notice how the interactions from the cute innocent ponies that wandered around Ponyville would stay in their pinkish world yet in the following season, they react less impressed towards those weird events that shouldn´t normally happen in theory but they have adapted a mindset that those situations could happen at anytime. So in the end, you don´t see much fear in their faces anymore (and Fluttershy by herself exposes that fearful feeling for a brave one over time. A Health of Information happened because of her maturity).
>from an out of universe perspective those places and concepts just being assimilate for later use for a setting for SoL stories because that is still mostly was the show's nature. nailed it. If you want to see more of X place, for example the hive, it means that you want to see more content of Thorax or Pharynx, same applies to the Dragonlands with Ember, Smolder or Spike, or whatever...but if you want to visit any weird place that contained lore at first, it means that the lore will run out and as soon that state arrives, all you can extract from it will rely on the characters and some of them are entailed for certain settings.
Perhaps the changeling serve as the greatest example of a 180 turn from their debut to their state from season 6 onwards.
