Support NeoGAF

[Orcastar]

Unrelated to the discussions, but if anyone has a better theory than this I'd like to hear about it:

Here's my theory: Hasbro asked DHX to make a humaised MLP movie, so they did, but couldn't be arsed to think too deeply about the whole parallel world thing or even how the "human" world with its oddly-coloured people and ridiculous names actually works. It's not like the primary demographic of the movies actually cares about minute little details like that after all.

 

[Tenumi]

Here's my theory: Hasbro asked DHX to make a humaised MLP movie, so they did, but couldn't be arsed to think too deeply about the whole parallel world thing or even how the "human" world with its oddly-coloured people and ridiculous names actually works. It's not like the primary demographic of the movies actually cares about minute little details like that after all.

Why you gotta be no fun?

 

[Village]

Well, Joe Ballarini has just gone on-the-record to say that:



Original tweet. He also mentions that the film will contain "10 times more explosions" than a Michael Bay Transformers movie, though I think we can assume that one wasn't entirely serious. Such a movie wouldn't have time for anything besides explosions.

So this metal gear rising the movie?

 

[wildthing2022000]

Unrelated to the discussions, but if anyone has a better theory than this I'd like to hear about it:

Her counterpart lives in the same city as Twilight's counterpart.

 

[Orcastar]

Why you gotta be no fun?

Speculating about this sort of stuff was fun and worthwhile in the early days of the series (season 1 and 2) since it was apparent that Lauren Faust had actually put some thought into crafting a relatively believable fantasy word with its own internal logic.

Speculating about the same kind of stuff in regards to Equestria Girls is pointless since it's just humaised ponies in high school, as mandated by Hasbro. The whole concept is ridiculous and doesn't make any kind of sense.

 

[Lupin the Third]

Pretty sure the writer's tweet is saying "it plays within the show's time line, but will have ten times more explosions than said show." (Not 10x more than a Bay film.)

Even so, I'm confident that aside was tongue-in-cheek.

Re: Sunset Shimmer, I think the "lives where human-Twilight does" explanation is the most logical. And I realize this is nofunallowed.jpg, but why is the actual pony-Shimmer the one who buried human-Shimmer? Once the pony-Shimmer crossed over to a place where human-Shimmer exists, she should ALSO be a human-Shimmer. Boo @ image.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

A Brony Tale, the Ashleigh Ball documentary, is now available on Netflix.

 

[Slamtastic]

oh my

 

[Village]

oh my

How do you do the fusion dance with no fingers?

Would trixie and Twilight be Gogeta? Or Veggerot as it were?

 

[DeadPhoenix]

How do you do the fusion dance with no fingers?

Would trixie and Twilight be Gogeta? Or Veggerot as it were?

I imagine it would be more like the fusion dances from Steven Universe.

 

[Village]

I imagine it would be more like the fusion dances from Steven Universe.

I mean that is fine, but it involves twerking.So if you are fine with that, that's cool. I mean if thats your thing. Episode titled anaconda.

Niki Minaj gets to be the Rarity twilight fusion.

 

[DeadPhoenix]

Pearl's dance didn't involve any twerking, so I assume they don't have to go that route if they don't want to.

 

[Village]

But pearl isnt cool though , cool wins.

Nikko minaj confirm,get ready for that movie cameo. Where she teaches the mane 6 the points of twer.... Pft thats halairiously bad. I cant even finish

 

[SigmasonicX]

Sunset Shimmer's true origin story, in a not that great video about the economy using colorful alpacas, giving a very very basic overview of how the rich are getting richer and such. I notice the video outright used a FiM background toward the beginning.

Details about the season 4 DVD set have been released, and unfortunately, no commentary.

And in sad news, a memorial fund is being held for the late mother of Noelle Benvenuti, writer of "Maud Pie".

 

[Village]

Do the dvd's usually have commentary?

 

[Cheerilee]

Speculating about this sort of stuff was fun and worthwhile in the early days of the series (season 1 and 2) since it was apparent that Lauren Faust had actually put some thought into crafting a relatively believable fantasy word with its own internal logic.

Speculating about the same kind of stuff in regards to Equestria Girls is pointless since it's just humaised ponies in high school, as mandated by Hasbro. The whole concept is ridiculous and doesn't make any kind of sense.

IIRC, Meghan McCarthy said that the idea of Equestria Girls didn't come down from Hasbro, it came from her.

Hasbro told her that they wanted an MLP:FIM spinoff, to increase MLP's profits, and they were willing to support this new endeavor with a feature-length episode (made with a TV budget, not a film budget, because let's not get crazy). Meghan came up with the idea of human ponies, because she was impressed by the human pony fanart she had seen. Everything from the high school setting to Twilight's romance came from her.

Hasbro based their toys on her film, not the other way around.

 

[DeadPhoenix]

But pearl isnt cool though , cool wins.

That's crazy, you're crazy. Amethyst is the coolest of the gems, but Pearl is pretty fucking bad ass when she wants to be.

On topic: I really wanna be able to look forward to this movie, but my hopes are not the high right now... thankfully they have almost 3 years to change my mind(or confirm my fears).

 

[SigmasonicX]

IIRC, Meghan McCarthy said that the idea of Equestria Girls didn't come down from Hasbro, it came from her.

Hasbro told her that they wanted an MLP:FIM spinoff, to increase MLP's profits, and they were willing to support this new endeavor with a feature-length episode (made with a TV budget, not a film budget, because let's not get crazy). Meghan came up with the idea of human ponies, because she was impressed by the human pony fanart she had seen. Everything from the high school setting to Twilight's romance came from her.

Hasbro based their toys on her film, not the other way around.

Any source? Because that seems to be a rumor spun off from Katie Cook's statement that Hasbro thought Equestria Girls would appeal to fans due to all of the humanized fanart, which she claims they have several collections of. In any case, even if McCarthy came up with the idea of doing human ponies, that doesn't necessarily mean Hasbro didn't push the high school and Brad angle.

In any case, new comics, and they're both pretty surprising.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #27
Cover

Spoiler

(W) Katie Cook (A) Andy Price (CA) Andy Price, Tony Fleecs
Timberwolves invade Ponyville! They're just the start of the troubles for our ponies though as many other mystical creatures emerge from Everfree Forest. What could be causing the mass migration and how can the balance of nature be restored?

Friends Forever #13
Cover A
Subscription cover

Spoiler

(W) Jeremy Whitley (A) Agnes Garbowska (CA) Amy Mebberson
When Sweetie Belle gets sick, it's up to big sis Rarity to entertain Babs Seed on a visit to Manehattan. The only problem is the two seemingly have nothing in common! Will the two find a way to overcome their differences and find a way to have fun in the big city?

Comments:

Spoiler

The former feels like the second half of "Princess Twilight Sparkle" expanded to a full comic arc, but hopefully there's a different hook. The latter is a really unexpected combo, and it will be interesting to see how that turns out.

 

[Lupin the Third]

So...are these comics considered canonical, or like "secondary canon"? That is, if something in the show contradicts the comic, the comic is the one that doesn't count? Have they talked about this at all in an official capacity?

 

[DrForester]

So...are these comics considered canonical, or like "secondary canon"? That is, if something in the show contradicts the comic, the comic is the one that doesn't count? Have they talked about this at all in an official capacity?

Pretty much, unless the show contradicts them, they're canon, just like the books. So far there really haven't been any contradictions. The comics are quite good, and I think the adventure arcs tend to be a lot more creative than the adventure stories the show has done the last few seasons.

 

[SigmasonicX]

From what I can tell, the way stories are written is that the comic writers start with the exact same knowledge that viewers do, they propose a story, and Hasbro representatives give feedback about anything obviously contradictory, similar to something coming up, or out of character. Otherwise, they have no knowledge about future plans. For example, the Rarity microseries issue was going to have the same plot as "Rarity Takes Manehattan", but they were told to do something else. This appears to even apply to ambitious stories like "Reflections". Similarly, supposedly a show writer said at a convention that they aren't allowed to read the comics, but I haven't seen the source for that, and I don't know if the writer misinterpreted the question and was talking about fan comics.

So, they are following the old Star Wars EU rules, with different levels of canon. Personally, I'd love to see cameos from comic-only characters like the hippies, but I'm fine with the show otherwise not referencing the comics.

 

[DrForester]

From what I can tell, the way stories are written is that the comic writers have the exact same knowledge that viewers do, they propose a story, and Hasbro representatives give feedback about anything obviously contradictory, similar to something comic up, or out of character. Otherwise, they have no knowledge about future plans. For example, the Rarity microseries issue was going to have the same plot as "Rarity Takes Manehattan", but they were told to do something else. This appears to even apply to ambitious stories like "Reflections". Similarly, supposedly a show writer said at a convention that they aren't allowed to read the comics, but I haven't seen the source for that, and I don't know if the writer misinterpreted the question and was talking about fan comics.

So, they are following the old Star Wars EU rules, with different levels of canon. Personally, I'd love to see cameos from comic-only characters like the hippies, but I'm fine with the show otherwise not referencing the comics.

Someone involved with the comics (Might have been Bobby or Andy) has said before that they had access to S4 stories to make sure they weren't retreading anything. Bobby also commented that he read the Rainbow Rocks script a year ago, and I would Teddy was given the script, or at least the gist of the story before writing the upcoming EQG Christmas Special issue.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Someone involved with the comics (Might have been Bobby or Andy) has said before that they had access to S4 stories to make sure they weren't retreading anything. Bobby also commented that he read the Rainbow Rocks script a year ago, and I would Teddy was givent eh script, or at least the gist of the story before writing the upcoming EQG Christmas Special issue.

Bobby is the editor, though. I would imagine the writers don't have quite the same access.

But you did remind me, an exception to this does appear to be Equestria Girls.

 

[Cheerilee]

Any source? Because that seems to be a rumor spun off from Katie Cook's statement that Hasbro thought Equestria Girls would appeal to fans due to all of the humanized fanart, which she claims they have several collections of. In any case, even if McCarthy came up with the idea of doing human ponies, that doesn't necessarily mean Hasbro didn't push the high school and Brad angle.

I might have misremembered.

 

[Village]

Any source? Because that seems to be a rumor spun off from Katie Cook's statement that Hasbro thought Equestria Girls would appeal to fans due to all of the humanized fanart, which she claims they have several collections of. In any case, even if McCarthy came up with the idea of doing human ponies, that doesn't necessarily mean Hasbro didn't push the high school and Brad angle.

It might have been good with out both of those things.

 

[DrForester]

I have to think Brad was the corporate mandate, because in both films it's handled in the most half-assed, "this is the minimum effort we have to do with this" way possible.

Or maybe just tossed in as filler...

 

[SigmasonicX]

Just read Friends Forever #10, about Fluttershy and Iron Will, and I didn't find it very interesting, but there was nothing too bad. The worst part was how everyone except Fluttershy viewed Iron Will so badly, which felt out of character to me. For the record, I did think Rarity and Pinkie were out of character in "Putting Your Hoof Down" with their treatment of Iron Will too. Otherwise, the story was just rather trite. Every scene had an obvious punchline, there were no exceptionally cute scenes, and there was nothing that exciting. I suppose it is interesting that Iron Will is married and has a son, though we don't see the rest of his family.

 

[DrForester]

Friends Forever #10 followed up with the same question we have at the end of "Keep Calm and Flutter On"...

Why is Twilight the Princess of Friendship and not Fluttershy?

 

[SigmasonicX]

Friends Forever #10 followed up with the same question we have at the end of "Keep Calm and Flutter On"...

Why is Twilight the Princess of Friendship and not Fluttershy?

If you take Twilight's magic/friendship element to also mean leadership, then it's pretty clear that Fluttershy isn't up to the task of leading.

Outside of that, while Fluttershy was able to turn Discord good in "Keep Calm and Flutter On" with her kindness, it didn't stick until "Twilight's Kingdom" (so far, at least); and ignoring what the backstory of Equestria Girls implies, the main six wouldn't have all gotten together as friends without Twilight.

 

[$200]

Why is Twilight the Princess of Friendship and not Fluttershy?

That's not how you spell Pinkie.

 

[$200]

 

[Cato the Censor]

Sorry for being mean all those times. Most of it was directed at the ideology of the subculture and not specific members, but I'm sure some of it targeted the latter too, so I apologize to anyone involved.

We all cope with life in different ways, and I don't think the brony subculture has had a net negative impact on the world (Florida Man aside, haha), so, live and let live. Hitokage died resenting me over the things I had said about bronies, when we had been friends prior for almost 15 years, and that's something I regret. Most of my frustration over brony culture stemmed from his involvement in it, because I saw it as him explicitly giving up on certain aspects of life instead of trying to figure them out, and I wanted him to be able to succeed and integrate and live it up, as I try to encourage people to do frequently on GAF in many different areas. But, yeah, it's okay to be weird and different, too, especially when no one's being hurt by it, and we're all weird in our own ways. Celebrate it, and if this is what you want to identify with, so be it.

Laters.

Much respect for saying this. Not many people change their opinion AND talk about it openly.

 

[Andrew J.]

Sorry for being mean all those times. Most of it was directed at the ideology of the subculture and not specific members, but I'm sure some of it targeted the latter too, so I apologize to anyone involved.

We all cope with life in different ways, and I don't think the brony subculture has had a net negative impact on the world (Florida Man aside, haha), so, live and let live. Hitokage died resenting me over the things I had said about bronies, when we had been friends prior for almost 15 years, and that's something I regret. Most of my frustration over brony culture stemmed from his involvement in it, because I saw it as him explicitly giving up on certain aspects of life instead of trying to figure them out, and I wanted him to be able to succeed and integrate and live it up, as I try to encourage people to do frequently on GAF in many different areas. But, yeah, it's okay to be weird and different, too, especially when no one's being hurt by it, and we're all weird in our own ways. Celebrate it, and if this is what you want to identify with, so be it.

Laters.

Cool.

Are you, uh, gonna unban that one guy?

 

[PaulloDEC]

Boy is this cute. Cute little Flutterbat.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Cool.

Are you, uh, gonna unban that one guy?

Tenumi has been unbanned for a while now. He has even posted in this thread.

Anyway, this Princess of Friendship discussion made me realize, we've obviously seen episodes where Fluttershy demonstrates kindness even when the others don't. It isn't hard to imagine a scenario where Applejack would demonstrate honesty where the others wouldn't and I suppose "Leap of Faith" somewhat shows this; Rarity shows uncalled for generosity when others wouldn't be inclined to in multiple episodes; there are obviously several moments where Pinkie Pie demonstrates laughter where others wouldn't; and I guess Twilight demonstrates magic (she does show leadership, though). However, it's hard to imagine a scenario where Rainbow Dash would demonstrate loyalty where no one else would, without making every other character look terrible.

 

[McNum]

Tenumi has been unbanned for a while now. He has even posted in this thread.

Anyway, this Princess of Friendship discussion made me realize, we've obviously seen episodes where Fluttershy demonstrates kindness even when the others don't. It isn't hard to imagine a scenario where Applejack would demonstrate honesty where the others wouldn't and I suppose "Leap of Faith" somewhat shows this; Rarity shows uncalled for generosity when others wouldn't be inclined to in multiple episodes; there are obviously several moments where Pinkie Pie demonstrates laughter where others wouldn't; and I guess Twilight demonstrates magic (she does show leadership, though). However, it's hard to imagine a scenario where Rainbow Dash would demonstrate loyalty where no one else would, without making every other character look terrible.

Flight to the Finish comes to mind. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom nearly gave up on Scootaloo, but Rainbow Dash set a brilliant example of loyalty to Scootaloo by bluntly calling them out on it and hurrying to help fix their errors with them.

Also her choice of team in the Equestria Games. And I don't mean her choice in Rainbow Falls, because of course she'd stick with Ponyville when her loyalty is challenged like that. I'm talking teaming up with Fluttershy and Bulk. Rainbow Dash could team up with any speed based team that's even slightly competitive and cruise home with a gold medal. She did not, despite her intense competitive streak. She chose the, frankly, dead last team. And now her friend, Fluttershy, has an Olympic medal in flying. Something we've seen is kind of a sore point for her as she's not the greatest flier. Basically, a bronze to someone like Fluttershy or Bulk is worth far, far more than gold would be to Rainbow Dash. And she saw that and basically carried her team to win one.

I could maybe see Twilight do something like this, maybe, but it's a clear display of loyalty by Dash there. She was totally there for her friend.

 

[DrForester]

Rainbow Dash has shown over several seasons that she's a great leader. She has an ego, is occasionally tactless, but usually has her priorities straight, and is able to inspire others to better themselves.

One of the big reasons Rainbow Dash's key episode falls on it's face. In order to set up a situation where Rainbow Dash chooses helping her friends over winning, they establish in the first scene that Rainbow Dash has chosen helping her friends over winning.

 

[McNum]

Maybe that's why there's relatively few episodes about Rainbow Dash getting her sense of loyalty challenged. Unlike being kind, honest, generous, causing laughter or doing that magic/friendship thing Twilight does, displaying loyalty is not exactly an active trait. You don't do a big gesture of loyalty usually, it's more subtle than that. And Rainbow Dash has already shown countless times that she's just that kind of pony. Friends need her? She already knew and is there. Sometimes even before the friend in question knows they need help.

Really, Rainbow Dash is probably one of the ponies best representing her element. She just is loyal. She can be a jerk, insensitive, and has a competitive streak a mile wide, but when push comes to shove, she stands by her friends. How do you write a story to challenge that?

 

[$200]

 

[SigmasonicX]

Related, I just rewatched "Rainbow Falls", and the episode was more enjoyable than I remembered, though it's definitely still on the lower end of the season. "Rarity Takes Manehattan", however, had a fair amount of flaws that I had forgotten, namely that the song has some fairly lengthy dull sections, the timeline is a bit confusing--it seems like a day passes between Rarity checking in her dresses and the practice run where she discovers Suri stole from her, but dialogue indicates that it's the same day--and the shifts in mood are a bit sudden. It was still a good episode though, and I may be rating it lower because my family was distracted by something else during the episode and had to ask me what happened in the end. Incidentally, no one noticed the rainbow in the eye things in either episode until I pointed them out. "Pinkie Apple Pie" is still great.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Cute. Twilight loves that junk food.

Related, I just rewatched "Rainbow Falls", and the episode was more enjoyable than I remembered, though it's definitely still on the lower end of the season. "Rarity Takes Manehattan", however, had a fair amount of flaws that I had forgotten, namely that the song has some fairly lengthy dull sections, the timeline is a bit confusing--it seems like a day passes between Rarity checking in her dresses and the practice run where she discovers Suri stole from her, but dialogue indicates that it's the same day--and the shifts in mood are a bit sudden. It was still a good episode though, and I may be rating it lower because my family was distracted by something else during the episode and had to ask me what happened in the end. Incidentally, no one noticed the rainbow in the eye things in either episode until I pointed them out. "Pinkie Apple Pie" is still great.

Rainbow Falls' greatest failing for me is just that it has a crap premise. Rarity Takes Manehattan isn't perfect, but the premise at least is pretty strong.

Pinkie Apple Pie is just terrific generally.

Unrelated amazing Princess sculpture:

 

[SigmasonicX]

Details from the Rainbow Rocks DVD commentary. Most notably, Equestria Girls was not made with a sequel in mind; and Rainbow Rocks takes place 6 moons after the end of the first movie, which is the equivalent to 5 and a half months, so yes, we have confirmation about what a moon is and presumably how much time passed during season 4. Incidentally, though I understand that it's now a successful franchise and that they worked on it knowing that it would be shown in theaters, it still really annoyed me to read about how much work they put into an Equestria Girls movie. I still really dislike the entire concept.

Yahoo News opinion piece regarding the big movie, asking that Hasbro do more to market to little boys (instead of just teens and above for males), but also hoping that the movie doesn't do anything stupid to appeal to boys like introduce a male into the main cast.

Finally, details about the MLP manga, and I guess it's not a new series, but rather just a collection for last year's series, but I don't actually know.

 

[Village]

... Don't.

 

[$200]

... Don't.

 

[Village]

Now I must clean this because you lack thumbs and fingers!

 

[Owlowiscious]

is that 4DE? Looks super adorable. Kinda want to get some of those now.

 

[$200]

is that 4DE? Looks super adorable. Kinda want to get some of those now.

Don't know why you wouldn't just get one anytime...
http://www.amazon.com/My-Little-Pony-Dimension-Entertainment/dp/B00E8IBIZ6

Still waiting for the 7 or 8 new plushies they said they're gonna release this year... :S

 

[Choppasmith]

Hey guys! Finally saw Rainbow Rocks. Not sure if it's necessary, but I'll spoil everything just in case.

While I felt the original was better than expected but never wanted to see again. The sequel is a pretty big improvement.

Spoiler

I'm glad it was actually something new and fresh and not a retread. I was expecting Shimmer would lose herself and join the trio much like Discord did with Tirek, but she turned out to be the voice of reason that saved the day.

Speaking of saving the day, I just LOVE how Vinyl Scratch showed up to save the girls with her transforming car. That was legitimately awesome to me. I also like a lot of the little gags between Maud showing up to Trixie's dramatic escapes. It's done much better than the first film's "HEY IT'S LIKE THE SCENE FROM THE SHOW... BUT AS HUMANS!

I found the music much more enjoyable and memorable too. I actually want to pick up the soundtrack.

And finally, I can see why a lot of Bronies have clung to Sonata Dusk. She's like cute kawaii version of Kronk from Emperor's New Groove.

EDIT: I just remembered, the one thing that bugged me was Twilight ponders if the Sirens were such an ancient threat, why they hadn't shown up in the human world until now.. And... they never explained it.

So anyway, it's an improvement, unlike the original, I actually want to go out and buy a copy. It's only the concept, setting, and designs that still rub me the wrong way.

EDIT 2: Just looked through all the stuff I missed in the last page, EvilLore's post, cute Flutterbat, and apparently watching the TV version of RR, I missed a bunch of little things? Dang, well that definitely gives me more incentive to pick it up!

 

[SigmasonicX]

This Halloween mix of songs, featured on ED, is pretty decent.

On another note, I've seen various theories about the 2017 MLP movie, including that it will be a grand finale and even that it will involve Equestria Girls, but one thing everyone should keep in mind is that this is a wide release film. This means that a primary target audience will be people who haven't seen the show. Fun fact, though the source of this information isn't where I thought it would be so I don't have it: Disney released DuckTales the Movie with the expectation that since the show was a hit, the movie would be too, but it wasn't. Disney came to the conclusion that a large part of this is because many parents had not seen DuckTales and were uncomfortable taking their children to a movie that would require knowledge of the show, even though it was a completely stand-alone story. It was for this reason that A Goofy Movie was released with that title, even though it obviously took place in the universe of Goof Troop, and it was a far bigger success.

We all have to remember that Friendship is Magic doesn't have the same mainstream popularity that DuckTales had, let alone Spongebob or The Simpsons, so having the movie be accessible to people who aren't familiar with the show will likely be a priority for this wide release film. I'll even go as far as to suggest that even though the movie has been confirmed to be in continuity with FiM, the movie itself will likely just be called "My Little Pony". The point is, the story is likely going to be something that someone who hasn't seen the show would be able to follow, and making it a culmination of everything or even just referencing Equestria Girls seems antithetical to that. Heck, if the movie takes place in the "present time", then we may not even get a reference to Twilight having previously been a unicorn, if it isn't directly connected to the plot.

Also, random thought, I'm only going off my memories of the preview clip with the song (I'd prefer not to listen to it again until I watch the movie), but it occurs to me that "Let's Have a Battle" from Rainbow Rocks could be mixed with the One Piece Rap. The part where they repeat "battle" could be replaced with "ya yo"s, and "Let's have a battle" could be replaced with "Set sail for One Piece".

 

[DrForester]

Probably be just another Twilight Sue story.

Celestia and Luna kidnapped in first few minutes, other 5 shoved off to the side until Twilight needs her fuses friends for the magic cannon, or the guest star who should have been the focus in the first place gets to pretend they had a role int he story by delivering the final blow.