My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic! Discussion

[Kyero Fox]

Did anyone watch that episode of Tosh.0? ... what the hell O_o

[Snork]

Spoiler for Good to see...:

Twi and Trixie parting on friendly terms. Moreover, Trixie has been shown that tricks can actually outsmart magic, especially when the cause is good and your friends are there to help. I couldn't help suspecting that her grudge with Twilight was the result of Ponyville folks pushing through the message that she's not as strong a mage, thus second rate to the likes of Twilight (although Trixie's a pro in the field that Twi only studies peripherally), leading to a hidden inferiority complex. Now, however, she may stop seeking more magical power and return to just following her talent and cutie mark and being great and powerful at what she's great and powerful at. Just make sure she never stoops to tall tales again and that she doesn't pay too much attention to dumb public.

Not to mention that pleading pouts and genuine smiles fit her oh so perfectly. I'll have them over any great and powerful smug expression anytime.

Hope we'll see more of her someday. She has more potential and odds for that now.

And today is the day a certain pegasus filly gets the first episode all to herself!

Did anyone watch that episode of Tosh.0? ... what the hell O_o

Googled it. Yes, Tosh.0, of course, MLP pron is something outstanding (in the same internet where Wreck-It-Ralph got rule-34'd mere days after the premiere, for chrissake!), and of course this is all the fandom consists of.
Also, I don't seem to have sufficient cultural baggage on me to understand the joke they pulled off. Yay for the good ol' laugh track, it always points out where to react.

EDIT: Looks like I've got my fave episode in this season.

Luna appears with another aspect to her job, and there are lots of Scootaloo to both laugh at and sympathize with.

Spoiler for And then there's THE moment for all Scootaloo fans:

And as if it wasn't enough, next up is a Rainbow Dash episode!

[Vexx]

This belongs here:

John de Lancie ('Q' of Star Trek) and Tara Strong explain Bronies.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/OV-OF9wZWDs

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

http://www.themarysue.com/john-delancie-my-little-pony/

[Kudryavka]

As much as I love good animated shows, I still don't like how a bunch of "bronies" call this the best show ever. MLP isn't the only good animated show in the world...

I feel a lot of them are just copying what the others say.

[Vexx]

No, but they love it. I have to admit it is frequently amusing and I'm a rabid Animaniacs fan (Animaniacs, Pinky&theBrain, Freakazoid era).

[Kyero Fox]

I love how they had the girls come in like feminists (true ones)

[videoman190]

My little pony is going to be released in Japan!
http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/0...confirmed.html

[Kudryavka]

Originally Posted by videoman190

My little pony is going to be released in Japan!
http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/0...confirmed.html

Surprised it wasnt already in Japan.

Originally Posted by Vexx

No, but they love it. I have to admit it is frequently amusing and I'm a rabid Animaniacs fan (Animaniacs, Pinky&theBrain, Freakazoid era).

Its not that, there are some people that just swear off MLP, and only MLP, like its the only cartoon they ever watched (and then poo on the earlier MLP stuff, like fuckin really? Need to show some respect). Then act like their discovering themselves by watching a little girls show. And I'm like shit, cant they just chill and watch the damn cartoon?? It was cute when the first guys joked about it, but all these later guys doing college class presentations on it and other attention stuff is getting annoying to me. Joke's way old, lets just watch our ponies.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Kudryavka

Surprised it wasnt already in Japan.


Its not that, there are some people that just swear off MLP, and only MLP, like its the only cartoon they ever watched (and then poo on the earlier MLP stuff, like fuckin really? Need to show some respect). Then act like their discovering themselves by watching a little girls show. And I'm like shit, cant they just chill and watch the damn cartoon?? It was cute when the first guys joked about it, but all these later guys doing college class presentations on it and other attention stuff is getting annoying to me. Joke's way old, lets just watch our ponies.

Heh, that would be the Narutards of Broney-dom. I guess it depends on what kind of presentations they're doing. The social phenomena and the messaging would make some fodder for reports or studies I suppose.

[Ithekro]

Q

Well that explains a lot...and yet nothing at all.

[videoman190]

View on Derpibooru - Original source
Four main cast of this show are doing the voices for My little pony!
For Applejack, Rarity, Pinky Pie, and Rainbow Dash the other two will be confirmed in march.

[Snork]

Its not that, there are some people that just swear off MLP, and only MLP, like its the only cartoon they ever watched (and then poo on the earlier MLP stuff, like fuckin really? Need to show some respect). Then act like their discovering themselves by watching a little girls show. And I'm like shit, cant they just chill and watch the damn cartoon?? It was cute when the first guys joked about it, but all these later guys doing college class presentations on it and other attention stuff is getting annoying to me. Joke's way old, lets just watch our ponies.

There are people who tend to go overboard, and they're everywhere. What they love is the best, and nothing else so much as exists.
Also, a big deal has always been made of the adult fanbase, which I can only blame Animation Age Ghetto for. Myself being an animation fan in general and never really having taken that "cartoons are for kids only" stuff seriously, I didn't have any bias against watching a girl-oriented cartoon about ponies. I was sceptical to give it a try for some time, if only because a bunch of works I had encountered in early 2000s had dropped my interest towards American TV animation pretty low, so it took a couple of fanworks and exposure to the show's highlights before I did. And I liked it - but I felt neither shock for liking a cartoon about ponies nor catharsis for doing so, which is why I tend to take all those "social phenomenon" claims with a light-hearted smirk. It's a good thing Lauren Faust & Co managed to create something notable and enjoyable out of something that had used to be a set of 22 minute animated commercials for a toy pony franchise, but really now. IMHO this show gets the merit for:
- likable characters with kinky expressive animation and good voice acting
- nice plots (I mean stories, not what the fandom likes to call "plots" nowadays ) that have some moral without being overly preachy and allow for some actual character development (and an occasional healthy measure of OoC to avoid having wood-carved personalities)
- enjoyable humour with a conspicuous minimum of toilet gags (you might want to take some notes here, DreamWorks) and a pile of shout outs and references over half of which isn't for the target audience (unless little girls all watch Star Wars, Big Lebowsky and old Hanna-Barbera classics)
- fine music and especially songs that come in a variety of styles, often with Disney-like musical number presentation and quality (This Day Aria was among the things that got me hooked on the show, and it's freakin' Alan Menken level, if you ask me!) and more shout outs to old musicals. And the singing is something to remember, too - Kazumi Evans (Rarity's singing voice) reminds me of Jodi Benson and Eri Itoh combined, which buys my body and soul on the spot. Pity there's so little of her in season 3...

To summarize - the things that can make an animated work enjoyable to watch and follow, although are by no means exclusive to this particular animated work.
Yet there are people who manage to advertise a convincing impression that MLP FiM only has merit in having attracted a ridiculous amount of adult men and the ridiculous nature of this fact. They think that EVERYONE is either a potential brony or a stupid hater. They don't understand that aggressive advertising of the cult they made out of the show can only mostly lead to hype backlash - people annoyed and wondering what is so great in that stuff (not only a show can't physically be EVERYONE's cup of tea, but there are numerous cases when people get too high expectations from all the omnipresent pony talk - expectations the show fails to live up to for them).

I know there's one in every community (the punny term "Fan Dumb" wasn't created out of thin air), but with everything I'm a fan of, I like it and I like its popularity and I like to see it growing - but not being turned into a cult and troll material. That rarely ends well, if ever.

Let's just watch our ponies, indeed. I'd rather this show was viewed as a simply fine quality animated work, not as internet cancer.

Four main cast of this show are doing the voices for My little pony!
For Applejack, Rarity, Pinky Pie, and Rainbow Dash the other two will be confirmed in march.

Guess I might as well try this show, then, because I haven't heard these actresses anywhere else. I personally always imagined Ayumi Fujimura as a fitting seiyuu for Pinkie, but oh well... Although until March I can still hope for Kana Hanazawa to dub Fluttershy. As for Twilight... Chiwa Saitou, maybe? I'm not really sure here.

In any case, I'll definitely check this dub out. Voice acting trade has always seemed to have more money and people revolving around it in Japan then overseas, so it may be something interesting. I also wonder if they might do an exclusive OP or ED (like Italians did), although seeing as the show will be broadcast in both Japanese and English, it doesn't seem too likely.

Spoiler for As for the current season:

episode 7 - Rainbow Dash to showcase how she really changed since the beginning of the show and Lightning Dust to help accentuate it by contrast. And Spitfire to get more screen time finally
episode 8 (which was moved to last weekend as its events coincide with ep 12) - another simple but nice episode from Corey Powell, with lots of details to cause a smile and a lot of screen time for pets. And Angel's still a jerk most of that time
episode 9 - Applejack finally gets a song to herself, and it's an upbeat country earworm to boot. A nice ep, but the song kinda overshadows all other highlights for me. Oh, but we also had Babs back for an episode, if anyone's interested
episode 10 - Spike goes OoC (not to Lesson Zero extents like Twi, but the fandom still was NOT amused) over some Dragon Code of his own. Not as bad as it's painted, if you ask me, although not among the season's finest either. Then again, I'm not too much into Spike episodes (except the above-mentioned S3E08 "Just for Sidekicks" which I did like a lot)
episode 11 - one of my faves. Discord is back, and Fluttershy manages to be of some good influence on him without the process looking too cheesy. One of the best-executed "Friendship is magic" messages I remember in the show, and without the element-powered pseudo-sattelite rainbow cannon shot! Also, John de Lancie is awesome in this role

After this week's break, only two episodes remain. And the last one is the most intriguing, due to a lot of hints and rumours concerning Twilight which have already broken the fanbase with a loud crack. Can't wait to see if and how the authors will pull it off!

[Kyero Fox]

Why yall hatin on Spike's stuff? One less episode about the pony girls?

[Akito Kinomoto]

If Twilight Sparkle becomes an alicorn, we riot. If the new episode in a few weeks promotes her to princess status I'm not sure how the dynamic between the characters will remain intact. She's always been the center of the main six and held a special place for being Celestia's prodige but was like everypony else otherwise.

Oh well.

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

Why yall hatin on Spike's stuff? One less episode about the pony girls?

He's like the best friend guy in a harem anime nobody pays attention to. xD

[Snork]

Why yall hatin on Spike's stuff? One less episode about the pony girls?

Why, yes! Every minute spent on Spike gives us less Fluttershy MOE!

Seriously, though, I like Spike and his episodes, they just don't rank as high in my toplist as others. Gotta like his snarky attitude, he usually does a good job being the local Kyon around Mane Six. But he also has his common sense slip-ups (not that it's a bad thing - like I said, I prefer a little OoC here and there to wood-carved personalities), and his own episodes are usually where he tends to act least logically. So, odd as it may sound, but Spike episodes aren't always where Spike does shine, IMHO.
If we're talkin' Spike hatin' stuff, let's wait till ep 12 and see why the hay Spike wasn't invited together with Mane Six to the Crystal Empire which he had played a big part in saving. In last weekend's episode, he complained about it himself.

If the new episode in a few weeks promotes her to princess status I'm not sure how the dynamic between the characters will remain intact.

I don't think it will change significantly. It's unlikely that the authors will want to do something risky for the show's balance, and as far as I understand, they have control over what to do with the actual plot development. Hasbro doesn't run the show, their concern should be ending at "throw in this and this, because we're launching a toy line about it" (something we'd better be always prepared for, since nobody really canceled the show's advertising purpose). Remember Canterlot Wedding - Hasbro basically ordered a wedding episode, and the bronies rioted at first, too. Meanwhile, McCarthy went ahead and threw in all the changelings, invasion and fake brides stuff which resulted in an impressive two-parter with some action and some of the show's finest songs ("and it's still a better love story than Twilight", as memes claim ). And, a not very fleshed-out villain aside, they likewise did an impressive job on The Crystal Empire which was also apparently ordered as a toyline tie-in. So the point I stand at is, let's wait and trust the authors to pull this one off as well. Good luck to them.


As to how to preserve the balance... I just don't think becoming an alicorn will change THAT much. Even Cadence has yet to demonstrate a scope of powers comparable to the sisters (over 1000 years of experience can't be a thing to underestimate here), and Twi is even younger. I don't see her becoming a constant Super Saiyan just like that - rather, I believe she'll get a pair of pegasus-type wings (the ones we've seen her have in the rumour-igniting merch) and some boost in magic. Going by the finale's synopsis, she may also get some exclusive magic of her own, which she will then showcase occasionally, mostly in epic two-parters. In the show where magic doesn't solve every plot and where not even all the episodes feel obliged to keep Twilight in focus, I don't see a drastic change out of this. I don't even think she'll be demanded to leave Ponyville, let alone rule anything.

I'm more interested in the kind of new plots this whole deal can lead to. From the slice-of-life "Rainbow Dash teaches Twilight to fly (or tries to teach, at least)" to TEH EPIC DRAMA "Twilight in danger of going downhill with her new powers like Luna once did". Plus, I can't deny that I find winged Twilight 20% cuter.

EDIT:

Spoiler for DUN DUN DUN!:

http://family-room.ew.com/2013/01/29...ight-princess/

It's official alright. And in tune with my expectations, McCarthy promises everything will be OK.
And what seems to be a real screenshot: http://cs6077.userapi.com/v6077343/4b8b/NRX88yWVsng.jpg

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by Akito Kinomoto

If Twilight Sparkle becomes an alicorn, we riot. If the new episode in a few weeks promotes her to princess status I'm not sure how the dynamic between the characters will remain intact. She's always been the center of the main six and held a special place for being Celestia's prodige but was like everypony else otherwise.

Oh well.

He's like the best friend guy in a harem anime nobody pays attention to. xD

Who's harem? Twilights?

[Kudryavka]

Originally Posted by Snork

There are people who tend to go overboard, and they're everywhere. What they love is the best, and nothing else so much as exists.
Also, a big deal has always been made of the adult fanbase, which I can only blame Animation Age Ghetto for. Myself being an animation fan in general and never really having taken that "cartoons are for kids only" stuff seriously, I didn't have any bias against watching a girl-oriented cartoon about ponies. I was sceptical to give it a try for some time, if only because a bunch of works I had encountered in early 2000s had dropped my interest towards American TV animation pretty low, so it took a couple of fanworks and exposure to the show's highlights before I did. And I liked it - but I felt neither shock for liking a cartoon about ponies nor catharsis for doing so, which is why I tend to take all those "social phenomenon" claims with a light-hearted smirk. It's a good thing Lauren Faust & Co managed to create something notable and enjoyable out of something that had used to be a set of 22 minute animated commercials for a toy pony franchise, but really now. IMHO this show gets the merit for:
- likable characters with kinky expressive animation and good voice acting
- nice plots (I mean stories, not what the fandom likes to call "plots" nowadays ) that have some moral without being overly preachy and allow for some actual character development (and an occasional healthy measure of OoC to avoid having wood-carved personalities)
- enjoyable humour with a conspicuous minimum of toilet gags (you might want to take some notes here, DreamWorks) and a pile of shout outs and references over half of which isn't for the target audience (unless little girls all watch Star Wars, Big Lebowsky and old Hanna-Barbera classics)
- fine music and especially songs that come in a variety of styles, often with Disney-like musical number presentation and quality (This Day Aria was among the things that got me hooked on the show, and it's freakin' Alan Menken level, if you ask me!) and more shout outs to old musicals. And the singing is something to remember, too - Kazumi Evans (Rarity's singing voice) reminds me of Jodi Benson and Eri Itoh combined, which buys my body and soul on the spot. Pity there's so little of her in season 3...

To summarize - the things that can make an animated work enjoyable to watch and follow, although are by no means exclusive to this particular animated work.
Yet there are people who manage to advertise a convincing impression that MLP FiM only has merit in having attracted a ridiculous amount of adult men and the ridiculous nature of this fact. They think that EVERYONE is either a potential brony or a stupid hater. They don't understand that aggressive advertising of the cult they made out of the show can only mostly lead to hype backlash - people annoyed and wondering what is so great in that stuff (not only a show can't physically be EVERYONE's cup of tea, but there are numerous cases when people get too high expectations from all the omnipresent pony talk - expectations the show fails to live up to for them).

I know there's one in every community (the punny term "Fan Dumb" wasn't created out of thin air), but with everything I'm a fan of, I like it and I like its popularity and I like to see it growing - but not being turned into a cult and troll material. That rarely ends well, if ever.

Let's just watch our ponies, indeed. I'd rather this show was viewed as a simply fine quality animated work, not as internet cancer.



Guess I might as well try this show, then, because I haven't heard these actresses anywhere else. I personally always imagined Ayumi Fujimura as a fitting seiyuu for Pinkie, but oh well... Although until March I can still hope for Kana Hanazawa to dub Fluttershy. As for Twilight... Chiwa Saitou, maybe? I'm not really sure here.

In any case, I'll definitely check this dub out. Voice acting trade has always seemed to have more money and people revolving around it in Japan then overseas, so it may be something interesting. I also wonder if they might do an exclusive OP or ED (like Italians did), although seeing as the show will be broadcast in both Japanese and English, it doesn't seem too likely.

Spoiler for As for the current season:

episode 7 - Rainbow Dash to showcase how she really changed since the beginning of the show and Lightning Dust to help accentuate it by contrast. And Spitfire to get more screen time finally
episode 8 (which was moved to last weekend as its events coincide with ep 12) - another simple but nice episode from Corey Powell, with lots of details to cause a smile and a lot of screen time for pets. And Angel's still a jerk most of that time
episode 9 - Applejack finally gets a song to herself, and it's an upbeat country earworm to boot. A nice ep, but the song kinda overshadows all other highlights for me. Oh, but we also had Babs back for an episode, if anyone's interested
episode 10 - Spike goes OoC (not to Lesson Zero extents like Twi, but the fandom still was NOT amused) over some Dragon Code of his own. Not as bad as it's painted, if you ask me, although not among the season's finest either. Then again, I'm not too much into Spike episodes (except the above-mentioned S3E08 "Just for Sidekicks" which I did like a lot)
episode 11 - one of my faves. Discord is back, and Fluttershy manages to be of some good influence on him without the process looking too cheesy. One of the best-executed "Friendship is magic" messages I remember in the show, and without the element-powered pseudo-sattelite rainbow cannon shot! Also, John de Lancie is awesome in this role

After this week's break, only two episodes remain. And the last one is the most intriguing, due to a lot of hints and rumours concerning Twilight which have already broken the fanbase with a loud crack. Can't wait to see if and how the authors will pull it off!

You are 100% truth, Snork!!

My beef there was just that, for whatever reason, the internet is literally filled with ponies at this point. I can't go anywhere even slightly nerdy without seeing ponies or someone talking about ponies.

Now, I have no problem with ponies being so widely discussed, of course. I just am annoyed that this overabundance of ponies makes the, um, "too hardcore" fans very easy to see. In all my other fandoms you won't see those guys unless you look for them. But with MLP they are everywhere...

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

Why yall hatin on Spike's stuff? One less episode about the pony girls?

Personally, I don't mind Spike at all. However, I'm not happy with the writers doing something "experimental" (i.e. an episode that focuses on the side characters that takes place around the same time as the episode that will premiere on the 9th) while pretty much giving Rarity the shaft this season (especially given how greatly improved she's been in season 2).

As for that will happen with the season finale,

Spoiler for Season 3 Finale:

Yeah, I'm somewhat concerned with Twilight being an alicorn (as well as the actual episode in general), as one concern I have with the show is that she's leaning a little bit towards "Mary Sue" territory IMO. Of course, in my case, I do know that I'll be attending Katsucon that weekend, so I'll be waiting until Sunday to get an actual idea of what actually happens in the episode.

Getting back to the situation at hand, one thing that I also know is the fact that the third season was pretty much a rough one for the creators and fans for three big reasons:

1. Only 13 episodes this season compared to the 26 episodes in Seasons 1 and 2;

2. A lot of the crew that have worked on the show in the first two seasons have either left the show or were busy with other Hub shows along with My Little Pony;

3. With the show about to reach the important 65th episode (which is the minimum amount of episodes for a kids show to air in syndication), a lot of stories need to focus on stuff that fans are pretty much expecting (i.e. a Scootaloo episode, Raindow Dash attending a camp for potential Wonderbolt members, the return of Trixie and Discord).

In other words, season three is pretty much a major transitional season for My Little Pony. However, being familar with the Simpsons (which actually started to grow the beard around season 4), I think there's still a few good seasons left in the show (just as long as they don't overdo Alicorn Twilight and give focus to the rest of the show's main characters).

[Akito Kinomoto]

Originally Posted by Snork

Going by the finale's synopsis, she may also get some exclusive magic of her own, which she will then showcase occasionally, mostly in epic two-parters. In the show where magic doesn't solve every plot and where not even all the episodes feel obliged to keep Twilight in focus, I don't see a drastic change out of this. I don't even think she'll be demanded to leave Ponyville, let alone rule anything.

I'm more interested in the kind of new plots this whole deal can lead to. From the slice-of-life "Rainbow Dash teaches Twilight to fly (or tries to teach, at least)" to TEH EPIC DRAMA "Twilight in danger of going downhill with her new powers like Luna once did". Plus, I can't deny that I find winged Twilight 20% cuter.

The point of the two part episodes was to demonstrate how strong the main six are when working together. If Twilight can access something like an alicorn form ala Super Saiyan that can magically defeat whatever it is they need to defeat then the arc loses the camaraderie. If Twilight still needs their help then her upgrades are meaningless anyway.

The show isn't obliged to focus on Twilight but the problem arises when it does focus on her. Beforehand Twily was the rim keeping the spokes of the bicycle wheel together; now she could be the bike itself.

We'll see what happens I guess.

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

Who's harem? Twilights?

She's a transfer student who moves into a new town with an athlete, a genki, an oujo, an Osakan, and a shrinking violet. She's got a friend who's the butt monkey of many jokes. Only with her girls has she become uber powerful.

Seems legit. :3

[Chaos2Frozen]

So after giving in to morbid curiosity I've decided to try out a few episodes here and there (To hay with continuity!), in the end I concluded that with a few exceptions aside, I can't really sit through an entire episode from start to finish.

BUT, the small individual gag scenes on their own were actually pretty entertaining in a non-brain dead kind of way

So no full episodes, just youtube clips for me

Though you know what this reminds me of? When I was a kid I'd found some resemblance of entertainment when I watch mahou shoujo like Cardcaptor and Akazuki chacha... Of course, I had to hide that shit like I was on the wrong side of the Iron curtain