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[SigmasonicX]

That's a gorgeous piece of art, but I refuse to believe that no one would pay for Luna.

Anyway, weird toys.
Rainbow Dash (pony) putting on a skirt to go roller skating. AFAIK, ponies have only worn these short skirts that don't actually cover anything in "Rainbow Falls" for the cheerleader outfits, despite them being popular in fan art; I always think it looks weird.

And there's this abomination

EDIT: What a way to start off a page.

 

[SigmasonicX]

San Diego Comic Con footage of Friendship Games (no sound) confirms that

Spoiler

Cadance is at Crystal Academy. Also, Fleur de Lis. It's quite weird that the characters usually affiliated with Canterlot don't actually go to Canterlot High.

Screenshots of the SDCC booth.

 

[brian577]

It's not season 6 later this year, it's the second half season 5. Damn.

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2015/07/season-five-split-up-season-six-not-at.html

 

[draetenth]

So instead of a quick turn around between seasons, we may be getting another break during this season and one that is far longer than any break during the season than before? Man, as much as my interest is kept because of how good the episodes have been... these breaks are really starting to get beyond annoying at this point.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Some interesting info regarding Magical Mystery Cure from Mitch Larson.

First and foremost we've got confirmation that as far as the writers knew, the end of Season 3 was the end of Friendship is Magic. Larson mentions that the episode originally ended mirroring the start of the first episode, with the storybook closing rather than opening.

 

[Cheerilee]

Some interesting info regarding Magical Mystery Cure from Mitch Larson.

First and foremost we've got confirmation that as far as the writers knew, the end of Season 3 was the end of Friendship is Magic. Larson mentions that the episode originally ended mirroring the start of the first episode, with the storybook closing rather than opening.

The Second Opinion (a non-brony youtube reviewer) was recently mentioning for the 100th episode that he thinks MA Larson is an ambitious writer who sometimes screws up when they give him the big event episodes, especially Magical Mystery Cure.

Then MA Larson goes on to list all the ways Meghan tore up and rewrote his script. From the sounds of it, all of Meghan's changes were for-the-worse, while Mitch actually cares about things like structure and Twilight "earning" her ending.

And apparently Meghan might have known by that point that they were getting an S4 (Mitch speculated that as a reason for the changes), and yet she still rushed Twilight into a pair of wings.

 

[PaulloDEC]

The Second Opinion (a non-brony youtube reviewer) was recently mentioning for the 100th episode that he thinks MA Larson is an ambitious writer who sometimes screws up when they give him the big event episodes, especially Magical Mystery Cure.

Then MA Larson goes on to list all the ways Meghan tore up and rewrote his script. From the sounds of it, all of Meghan's changes were for-the-worse, while Mitch actually cares about things like structure and Twilight "earning" her ending.

And apparently Meghan might have known by that point that they were getting an S4 (Mitch speculated that as a reason for the changes), and yet she still rushed Twilight into a pair of wings.

Oh goodie, we're doing the pile-on-Meghan-McCarthy thing again.

 

[DrForester]

I'll give credit where it's due. I think it was a really good rewrite. Having Twilight solve a big problem with an incredibly simple solution was a good thing. It showed her that she can't just beat a bad guy over the head with a friendship beam. My only real issue was they could have scaled back the Corronation, but that's really it for me (well, a few of the songs were meh, but most of them were fantastic.)

As for his "she didn't earn her wings" comment. I don't think that would have changed with his episode. As it, I think MMC did a good job showing why she got them, and the original would have as well. But only if you look at it on it's own.

The problem was S3 as a whole. There should have been more build up. All we got was a stinger at the end of an episode with Celestia and Luna looking at a book. There is nothing else in the season to build up to it. Heck, you have one episode where Celestia tells her to make friends with Discord, and Twilight all but tells her to piss off.

 

[PaulloDEC]

I'll give credit where it's due. I think it was a really good rewrite. Having Twilight solve a big problem with an incredibly simple solution was a good thing. It showed her that she can't just beat a bad guy over the head with a friendship beam. My only real issue was they could have scaled back the Corronation, but that's really it for me (well, a few of the songs were meh, but most of them were fantastic.)

As for his "she didn't earn her wings" comment. I don't think that would have changed with his episode. As it, I think MMC did a good job showing why she got them, and the original would have as well. But only if you look at it on it's own.

The problem was S3 as a whole. There should have been more build up. All we got was a stinger at the end of an episode with Celestia and Luna looking at a book. There is nothing else in the season to build up to it. Heck, you have one episode where Celestia tells her to make friends with Discord, and Twilight all but tells her to piss off.

I'd agree with that. I think it probably would've gone down a lot better if they'd had a scenario more akin to Season 4 available to them, i.e. enough episodes to properly weave in a running arc from premiere to finale.

As to the script itself, it doesn't really sound like the story changed all that much. The delivery method for the destiny-switching stuff is a little different, but the result seems pretty much the same, with both endings being about correcting/changing a spell. It sounds like the Coronation stuff was probably in no matter what, though I guess that would've been down to toy plans more than anything.

Interesting to hear that the Everfree Forest stuff actually originated in MMC too; I guess it was just a little extra bit of danger in the original script? It's nice that the idea was salvaged, even if it ultimately became something (presumably) quite different by the time it hit screens.

 

[Cheerilee]

Oh goodie, we're doing the pile-on-Meghan-McCarthy thing again.

It's not "piling on" to criticize or to try and figure out who did what. I had just been watching a review that focuses on the show from a writing standpoint (very critical but also very positive), and he said that MA Larson was probably the single best writer on the show, but... Magical Mystery Cure.

And then Mitch says that the episode is hard to talk about, because it's not really what he wrote. It's "roughly" what he wrote, but it was changed heavily by Meghan.

Mitch says the end product is messed up, structurally. The climax is in the second act, and the third act is a party. Mitch was criticized for not understanding structure, but Mitch criticizes the structure in the rewrite.

The logic of the cutie mark juggling never made much sense. Starswirl wrote a spell that messes up cutie marks (if you happen to be the Element of Magic and are connected to other ponies through the Elements of Harmony). But he never figured out the antidote to this spell because he never knew nothing bout friendship. Twilight is an expert (thanks to Celestia), so she fixes her friends, but then putting pen to paper teleports her to Celestia, who gifts Twilight with wings as if she just passed a simple friendship test. But in Mitch's version, Twilight lets Pandora out of the box, Celestia says it's impossible to fix this, but Twilight tries anyways, and manages to do the impossible and earns a set of wings. In Mitch's version, Twilight did what Celestia couldn't do, but in Meghan's rewrite, Twilight did what Starswirl (a throwaway gag from one episode) couldn't do.

Twilight getting wings was rushed because it was based on a misunderstanding of Lauren Faust's notes on Twilight's character arc, and another misunderstanding about the show getting cancelled. Mitch speculates that the changes to his script were made because Meghan learned that the show wasn't being cancelled. But if that's the case, why did Meghan change everything but the core problem of closing out Twilight's character arc? Just make a musical episode about Pandora's Box that doesn't end with Twilight flying off into the sunset.

Mitch has been liberated from possibly the worst-written episode on his resume, and entirely new questionable decisions have been attributed to Meghan's leadership. It's silly to ignore these things because you think people are being unfair to Meghan.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Still haven't watched the video, but I get the impression that McCarthy's changes were due to the following:
* With knowledge that the show wasn't ending, she decided that Twilight doing something that Celestia could not was better saved for the actual ending, or perhaps now the theatrical movie. Thus, quick swap to it being Starswirl instead.
* They couldn't change the story so that Twilight wouldn't become a princess, because now that the idea was proposed, the higher-ups at Hasbro became really gung-ho about the merchandizing possibilities.
* The higher-ups wanted there to be more emphasis on the coronation.

One good thing to come out of the show ending would be everyone having more freedom to elaborate on what the hell was happening during season 3.

 

[Cheerilee]

Still haven't watched the video, but I get the impression that McCarthy's changes were due to the following:
* With knowledge that the show wasn't ending, she decided that Twilight doing something that Celestia could not was better saved for the actual ending, or perhaps now the theatrical movie. Thus, quick swap to it being Starswirl instead.
* They couldn't change the story so that Twilight wouldn't become a princess, because now that the idea was proposed, the higher-ups at Hasbro became really gung-ho about the merchandizing possibilities.

That makes a ton of sense.

 

[PaulloDEC]

It's not "piling on" to criticize or to try and figure out who did what. I had just been watching a review that focuses on the show from a writing standpoint (very critical but also very positive), and he said that MA Larson was probably the single best writer on the show, but... Magical Mystery Cure.

Sorry, but your phrasing was kinda aggressive right off the bat.

And then Mitch says that the episode is hard to talk about, because it's not really what he wrote. It's "roughly" what he wrote, but it was changed heavily by Meghan.

Mitch says the end product is messed up, structurally. The climax is in the second act, and the third act is a party. Mitch was criticized for not understanding structure, but Mitch criticizes the structure in the rewrite.

The logic of the cutie mark juggling never made much sense. Starswirl wrote a spell that messes up cutie marks (if you happen to be the Element of Magic and are connected to other ponies through the Elements of Harmony). But he never figured out the antidote to this spell because he never knew nothing bout friendship. Twilight is an expert (thanks to Celestia), so she fixes her friends, but then putting pen to paper teleports her to Celestia, who gifts Twilight with wings as if she just passed a simple friendship test. But in Mitch's version, Twilight lets Pandora out of the box, Celestia says it's impossible to fix this, but Twilight tries anyways, and manages to do the impossible and earns a set of wings. In Mitch's version, Twilight did what Celestia couldn't do, but in Meghan's rewrite, Twilight did what Starswirl (a throwaway gag from one episode) couldn't do.

Twilight getting wings was rushed because it was based on a misunderstanding of Lauren Faust's notes on Twilight's character arc, and another misunderstanding about the show getting cancelled. Mitch speculates that the changes to his script were made because Meghan learned that the show wasn't being cancelled. But if that's the case, why did Meghan change everything but the core problem of closing out Twilight's character arc? Just make a musical episode about Pandora's Box that doesn't end with Twilight flying off into the sunset.

Mitch has been liberated from possibly the worst-written episode on his resume, and entirely new questionable decisions have been attributed to Meghan's leadership. It's silly to ignore these things because you think people are being unfair to Meghan.

I've always loved Magical Mystery Cure (it's one of my favourites in the entire show) so I've never been down on Larson as a result. If anything, it made me think more highly of him for taking such a tough brief and making it work!

Anyway, Sigma basically has the big stuff covered there, particularly regarding the princess/coronation/wings thing. Seems to me that Hasbro probably locked that one in well before Larson even started writing, and in the panel he mentions that he knew early on that he was only getting a single episode to work with. He speaks about the structure of the episode as if he doesn't claim total ownership of it, which suggests to me that he was forced to include a big coronation sequence from the word go.

In other words, it sounds to me like the weird structure was Hasbro's fault, not Larson's or McCarthy's. A two-part story would've solved the problem, but they weren't given that option.

Finally, it's interesting to hear stories like this that shed a bit more light on how TV gets made. I'm reminded of one of Russell T Davies emails from "The Writers Tale", where he mentions that the (highly acclaimed) story "The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit" was heavily re-written by him, though it went to air with only the original writer's name on it. Re-writing happens, and as viewers we'll usually never know why.

 

[draetenth]

It's not "piling on" to criticize or to try and figure out who did what. I had just been watching a review that focuses on the show from a writing standpoint (very critical but also very positive), and he said that MA Larson was probably the single best writer on the show, but... Magical Mystery Cure.

And then Mitch says that the episode is hard to talk about, because it's not really what he wrote. It's "roughly" what he wrote, but it was changed heavily by Meghan.

Mitch says the end product is messed up, structurally. The climax is in the second act, and the third act is a party. Mitch was criticized for not understanding structure, but Mitch criticizes the structure in the rewrite.

The logic of the cutie mark juggling never made much sense. Starswirl wrote a spell that messes up cutie marks (if you happen to be the Element of Magic and are connected to other ponies through the Elements of Harmony). But he never figured out the antidote to this spell because he never knew nothing bout friendship. Twilight is an expert (thanks to Celestia), so she fixes her friends, but then putting pen to paper teleports her to Celestia, who gifts Twilight with wings as if she just passed a simple friendship test. But in Mitch's version, Twilight lets Pandora out of the box, Celestia says it's impossible to fix this, but Twilight tries anyways, and manages to do the impossible and earns a set of wings. In Mitch's version, Twilight did what Celestia couldn't do, but in Meghan's rewrite, Twilight did what Starswirl (a throwaway gag from one episode) couldn't do.

Twilight getting wings was rushed because it was based on a misunderstanding of Lauren Faust's notes on Twilight's character arc, and another misunderstanding about the show getting cancelled. Mitch speculates that the changes to his script were made because Meghan learned that the show wasn't being cancelled. But if that's the case, why did Meghan change everything but the core problem of closing out Twilight's character arc? Just make a musical episode about Pandora's Box that doesn't end with Twilight flying off into the sunset.

Mitch has been liberated from possibly the worst-written episode on his resume, and entirely new questionable decisions have been attributed to Meghan's leadership. It's silly to ignore these things because you think people are being unfair to Meghan.

Honestly, I agree with Cheerilee here. The episode just felt so disjointed to me and is one of my least favorites because of it. It certainly killed a lot of enthusiasm I had for Season 4. I can't even remember how the cutie marks got switched. I just remember that the episode started with a freakout over swapped cutie marks, it was resolved in like 5 minutes, *bam* twilight dies, and *boom* twilight is alive as a princess. Compared to some of the other things she did (defeat Nightmare Moon, Discord, and the Changeling army), fixing a spell seemed so tame and hardly worth the rise to Princess. I mean sure I fully expected Twilight to become a princess/alicorn eventually, just not in such a poorly explained manner.

Honestly, I think the Season 5 opener was how the whole thing should have gone. It certainly helped cement her status as the Princess of Friendship imo.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Honestly, I agree with Cheerilee here. The episode just felt so disjointed to me and is one of my least favorites because of it. It certainly killed a lot of enthusiasm I had for Season 4. I can't even remember how the cutie marks got switched. I just remember that the episode started with a freakout over swapped cutie marks, it was resolved in like 5 minutes, *bam* twilight dies, and *boom* twilight is alive as a princess. Compared to some of the other things she did (defeat Nightmare Moon, Discord, and the Changeling army), fixing a spell seemed so tame and hardly worth the rise to Princess. I mean sure I fully expected Twilight to become a princess/alicorn eventually, just not in such a poorly explained manner.

Honestly, I think the Season 5 opener was how the whole thing should have gone. It certainly helped cement her status as the Princess of Friendship imo.

I don't think it's unfair for people to dislike MMC. I'm a huge fan of it, but I'm not oblivious to its flaws.

I think the unfortunate truth is that the things people like least about it are simply the result of a bunch of business decisions.

 

[DrForester]

Honestly, I agree with Cheerilee here. The episode just felt so disjointed to me and is one of my least favorites because of it. It certainly killed a lot of enthusiasm I had for Season 4. I can't even remember how the cutie marks got switched. I just remember that the episode started with a freakout over swapped cutie marks, it was resolved in like 5 minutes, *bam* twilight dies, and *boom* twilight is alive as a princess. Compared to some of the other things she did (defeat Nightmare Moon, Discord, and the Changeling army), fixing a spell seemed so tame and hardly worth the rise to Princess. I mean sure I fully expected Twilight to become a princess/alicorn eventually, just not in such a poorly explained manner.

Well that's kind of it. The problem is more with S3 than MMC. Twilight's Transformation was supposed to be the culmination of everything she's done. Even with Larson's original, it sounds like they both tried to make the reason just about MMC. S3 needed more build up to that.

 

[Cheerilee]

I don't think it's unfair for people to dislike MMC. I'm a huge fan of it, but I'm not oblivious to its flaws.

I should point out that there's a difference between saying it's a bad episode and saying it's a poorly-written one (or even not saying it's poorly-written, but saying it's MA Larson's worst-written).

Danny Ingram and Nicole Oliver carried the episode.

I think the unfortunate truth is that the things people like least about it are simply the result of a bunch of business decisions.

Yep.

Meghan to Hasbro: Okay, MA Larson just handed in the final MLP:FIM script, and it's a good one. Twilight becomes a princess, The End. I'll send it over to animation on Monday and start cleaning out my desk.

Hasbro Exec: Oh, the show's not canned. You're not fired. You need to start getting ready for season 4. But we do like this idea of Twilight becoming a princess. Keep going with that.

Meghan: ...

 

[PaulloDEC]

I should point out that there's a difference between saying it's a bad episode and saying it's a poorly-written one (or even not saying it's poorly-written, but saying it's MA Larson's worst-written).

Danny Ingram and Nicole Oliver carried the episode.

It certainly would be interesting to see a theoretical MMC written without musical numbers. I'm not even sure the story could function in 22 minutes without the ability to compress storytelling the way the songs allowed.

Yep.

Meghan to Hasbro: Okay, MA Larson just handed in the final MLP:FIM script, and it's a good one. Twilight becomes a princess, The End. I'll send it over to animation on Monday and start cleaning out my desk.

Hasbro Exec: Oh, the show's not canned. You're not fired. You need to start getting ready for season 4. But we do like this idea of Twilight becoming a princess. Keep going with that.

Meghan: ...

Yup, exactly. Running a TV show seems difficult enough, but one where a bunch of people with no interest in storytelling can drop in at any time and completely change the game plan? Nightmare scenario.

 

[Sciz]

Some interesting info regarding Magical Mystery Cure from Mitch Larson.

This makes the whole "you're a princess because you made new magic wow" thing make a lot more sense.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

New animation takes a turn for the disturbing with A Colt Classic

Also, Luna art!

 

[tomtom94]

So I suppose this is the best place to ask... are the Equestria Girls films worth watching? I've seen they're on Netflix, but I've heard mixed reviews myself and want to know if they're worthwhile or if I should just skip them.

Also, do they contain any spoilers for the show, since I only started watching the show at the end of last year. I'm currently three-quarters of the way through season 4, for reference.

 

[Orcastar]

So I suppose this is the best place to ask... are the Equestria Girls films worth watching? I've seen they're on Netflix, but I've heard mixed reviews myself and want to know if they're worthwhile or if I should just skip them.

Also, do they contain any spoilers for the show, since I only started watching the show at the end of last year. I'm currently three-quarters of the way through season 4, for reference.

Once you get past how stupid the entire premise is, the first one is merely mediocre instead of being outright bad. The second one is a bit better. Overall they're nowhere near as good as FiM is at its best, but they're also not as bad as the series' worst episodes, so you might as well give them a shot.

Both movies do contain some spoilers for the show. The first movie takes place between seasons 3 and 4 and the second one takes place between seasons 4 and 5.

 

[DrForester]

That one is really, really cool.

 

[SigmasonicX]

So I suppose this is the best place to ask... are the Equestria Girls films worth watching? I've seen they're on Netflix, but I've heard mixed reviews myself and want to know if they're worthwhile or if I should just skip them.

Also, do they contain any spoilers for the show, since I only started watching the show at the end of last year. I'm currently three-quarters of the way through season 4, for reference.

Premise aside, they are like the show in that they are better than they have any right to be. The second movie (Rainbow Rocks) in particular is very well liked, though I was more lukewarm on it than others. The second movie does have the best climax of the entire franchise, though, with the entire thing being done in song. The primary appeal for people appears to be a sort of "back to basics" approach to the story and character relationships, and the way that it handles the character arc of Sunset Shimmer, a villain who turns good, basically doing what people wanted in the first place with Luna (super regretful, driven to tears at some points, mistrusted even by the heroes, is the one to save the day in the end). The movies were also heavy on callbacks and background ponies getting moments to shine, before the show started doing that.

On the other hand, Equestria Girls also introduced the character I hate most in the franchise, Flash Sentry (aka Brad), Twilight's love interest. I mentioned in the previous paragraph that the movies take a "back to basics" approach, but that also means the Main Six other than Twilight are presented merely as their basic archetypes. I also greatly dislike the designs for the human versions of the characters and how they have become the standard for fanart, but the movie-original major characters admittedly sometimes have good designs. Plus, as nonsensical as the show stories can sometimes get, the first movie is on another level of absurd, and the second movie has some odd plot developments too.

As for spoilers, movie 1 takes place right after the end of season 3 and was actually the first official story with Princess Twilight, which drove a lot of the early interest in the film. Movie 2 takes place right after the end of season 4, so yes, it would be spoilerish for you to watch it now.

 

[draetenth]

So I suppose this is the best place to ask... are the Equestria Girls films worth watching? I've seen they're on Netflix, but I've heard mixed reviews myself and want to know if they're worthwhile or if I should just skip them.

Also, do they contain any spoilers for the show, since I only started watching the show at the end of last year. I'm currently three-quarters of the way through season 4, for reference.

Honestly, I don't think they are worth watching as I found both them to be mediocre at best (and I watched them both as someone who was neutral to them). I thought the writing and characterization were quite subpar compared to the show. I'm not really a fan of songs, but while the series manages to get me to enjoy most of them the ones in Equestria Girls are forgettable at best.

Don't worry about spoilers as iirc they did a great job keeping the series and movies separate. Well, one character from the movies has like 1 or 2 brief appearances (like 5 seconds at most) in the series, but that's it.

 

[wookieofdoom]

I thought the first Equestria Girls was okay. There are some great moments with Twilight being all awkward but the ending is...ridiculous. The Cafeteria Song is good, but the others are pretty forgettable. Heck, I can't even think of one melody from the other songs. Rainbow Rocks on the other hand, is pretty great. It has a great character arch with Sunset Shimmer and the villains are much better. The ending is great, and I really like the songs in this movie.

So I would recommend them, if anything just get through the first one to watch Rainbow Rocks.

 

[DrForester]

I thought the first Equestria Girls was okay. There are some great moments with Twilight being all awkward but the ending is...ridiculous. The Cafeteria Song is good, but the others are pretty forgettable. Heck, I can't even think of one melody from the other songs. Rainbow Rocks on the other, is pretty great. It has a great character arch with Sunset Shimmer and the villains are much better. The ending is great, and I really like the songs in this movie.

So I would recommend them, if anything just get through the first one to watch Rainbow Rocks.

I'd agree with this except for the songs. I found the first films songs to be much more catchy. The only song in the second one that I really liked was the end credits song.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Important comic

 

[Cheerilee]

Rainbow Rocks has fun stuff like this (not spoilers, or even part of the actual movie).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKBTsZgk1aA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh7j1qUaGOc

So I think they're worth it.

Neither movie is as good as it could be (shaky premise, fairly generic, some obvious flaws), but in my experience with kids movies they could be A LOT worse.

IMO, the pinnacle of Equestria Girls is Sunset Shimmer's music video (not linked because spoilers). That one is great, and has a unique flavor, which tells me that the EG series has the potential to be great. Although I don't expect greatness from the third movie. "Good" at best. It's a good idea to set your expectations low.

I'd agree with this except for the songs. I found the first films songs to be much more catchy. The only song in the second one that I really liked was the end credits song.

EG1 had a good opening and the cafeteria song.

EG2 had a good opening, a trio of great villain songs (even a dark cafeteria song), then an epic music battle and a great end credits song. And a pile of bonus music videos.

 

[novenD]

The wait for the new wave of 4DE plushies is killing me. They were projected to ship in late spring, but there's been no sign of them yet.

 

[tomtom94]

Rainbow Rocks has fun stuff like this (not spoilers, or even part of the actual movie).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKBTsZgk1aA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh7j1qUaGOc

So I think they're worth it.

Neither movie is as good as it could be (shaky premise, fairly generic, some obvious flaws), but in my experience with kids movies they could be A LOT worse.

IMO, the pinnacle of Equestria Girls is Sunset Shimmer's music video (not linked because spoilers). That one is great, and has a unique flavor, which tells me that the EG series has the potential to be great. Although I don't expect greatness from the third movie. "Good" at best. It's a good idea to set your expectations low.


EG1 had a good opening and the cafeteria song.

EG2 had a good opening, a trio of great villain songs (even a dark cafeteria song), then an epic music battle and a great end credits song. And a pile of bonus music videos.

Honestly, I don't think they are worth watching as I found both them to be mediocre at best (and I watched them both as someone who was neutral to them). I thought the writing and characterization were quite subpar compared to the show. I'm not really a fan of songs, but while the series manages to get me to enjoy most of them the ones in Equestria Girls are forgettable at best.

Don't worry about spoilers as iirc they did a great job keeping the series and movies separate. Well, one character from the movies has like 1 or 2 brief appearances (like 5 seconds at most) in the series, but that's it.

Premise aside, they are like the show in that they are better than they have any right to be. The second movie (Rainbow Rocks) in particular is very well liked, though I was more lukewarm on it than others. The second movie does have the best climax of the entire franchise, though, with the entire thing being done in song. The primary appeal for people appears to be a sort of "back to basics" approach to the story and character relationships, and the way that it handles the character arc of Sunset Shimmer, a villain who turns good, basically doing what people wanted in the first place with Luna (super regretful, driven to tears at some points, mistrusted even by the heroes, is the one to save the day in the end). The movies were also heavy on callbacks and background ponies getting moments to shine, before the show started doing that.

On the other hand, Equestria Girls also introduced the character I hate most in the franchise, Flash Sentry (aka Brad), Twilight's love interest. I mentioned in the previous paragraph that the movies take a "back to basics" approach, but that also means the Main Six other than Twilight are presented merely as their basic archetypes. I also greatly dislike the designs for the human versions of the characters and how they have become the standard for fanart, but the movie-original major characters admittedly sometimes have good designs. Plus, as nonsensical as the show stories can sometimes get, the first movie is on another level of absurd, and the second movie has some odd plot developments too.

As for spoilers, movie 1 takes place right after the end of season 3 and was actually the first official story with Princess Twilight, which drove a lot of the early interest in the film. Movie 2 takes place right after the end of season 4, so yes, it would be spoilerish for you to watch it now.

Once you get past how stupid the entire premise is, the first one is merely mediocre instead of being outright bad. The second one is a bit better. Overall they're nowhere near as good as FiM is at its best, but they're also not as bad as the series' worst episodes, so you might as well give them a shot.

Both movies do contain some spoilers for the show. The first movie takes place between seasons 3 and 4 and the second one takes place between seasons 4 and 5.

Cheers for the advice - given that the premise was my major stumbling block, they're fairly short, and the series has done nothing but delight me thus far I'll dive in at some point then, probably once I finish S4 and run out of Netflixable episodes

 

[wookieofdoom]

Some interesting info regarding Magical Mystery Cure from Mitch Larson.

First and foremost we've got confirmation that as far as the writers knew, the end of Season 3 was the end of Friendship is Magic. Larson mentions that the episode originally ended mirroring the start of the first episode, with the storybook closing rather than opening.

MMC is one of my very favorite episodes, despite it's pacing issues. But after listening to this panel, I think his original script would've worked better.

 

[SigmasonicX]

First Philomena regeneration

Egophiliac Luna and Tantabus art

And the girls as Disney Pri--er... girls. Rarity is Meg (Hercules), Applejack is Jesse (Toy Story), Twilight is Jane (Tarzan; artist specifically chose not to do Belle), Pinkie is Giselle (Enchanted), Rainbow is Tinker Bell (Peter Pan, though I suppose she's appeared in her spinoffs more now), and Fluttershy is Alice (Alice in Wonderland; considering the artist's reason for not using Belle, it's odd that Alice was used when Fluttershy is always drawn as her).

 

[SigmasonicX]

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #35

(W) Jeremy Whitley (A) Andy Price (CA) Sara Richard
"Siege of the Crystal Empire," Part 2! The mystery antagonist reveals the next stage in a diabolical scheme! Will our ponies be able to uncover what role Sombra is meant to play before it's too late?

Friends Forever #21

(W) Ted Anderson (A) Agnes Garbowska (CA) Amy Mebberson
Ship Date: 10/7/2015
A strange flu has descended over Ponyville! Only two friends find themselves immune... Spike and Zecora? Will the unusual pair be able to find a cure?

It seems like in Siege of the Crystal Empire, Chrysalis may be the main villain, who is trying to revive Sombra. At first, I thought the pony on the cover was supposed to be Luna, but given the way her magic looks, is that supposed to be that one healer from Sombra's backstory? Was she those colors?

And it looks like we may be getting a zombie story in Friends Forever. I don't think Spike and Zecora have interacted at all.

 

[DrForester]

Yeah that's Sombra's friend from the Friendship comic. Her magic is in the shape of her cutie mark.

Sounds like it could be a really interesting series.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Surprisingly enough, the Japanese dub of MLP is getting a DVD release (in Japan), though because lol japan, it's $162 for the two seasons. I do wonder if these episode will still have the time cuts.

Starlight Glimmer is running for president! The site is spot on in look.

A second comic Art Gallery with original art has been announced!

MLP: Art Gallery II
Publisher: IDW PUBLISHING
(A) Various (CA) Sara Richard
A brand new art gallery featuring your favorite Pony artists! Rare and never-before-seen art fill this gorgeous book!

And a neat comic involving the CMC having nightmares after dabbling in surrealist art. Linked because big.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Direct feed of SDCC Friendship Games trailer, though there's little new information gleamed from having dialogue.

Random thought, it would be hilarious if the movie had the two Twilights switch worlds, and the show never brings this up again. It would sort of be like Sliders, where Prof. Arturo may or may not have been switched with an alternate reality version but it is never brought up again.

 

[novenD]

Random thought, it would be hilarious if the movie had the two Twilights switch worlds, and the show never brings this up again. It would sort of be like Sliders, where Prof. Arturo may or may not have been switched with an alternate reality version but it is never brought up again.

There is probably a fan fiction with this exact premise; there always is.

Also,[Spoilers for trailer]

Spoiler

Cadence appears in Twilight's doorway and the rival school she attends has a crystal empire vibe going on. Principle Cadence incoming?!?!

 

[SigmasonicX]

There is probably a fan fiction with this exact premise; there always is.

Also,[Spoilers for trailer]

Spoiler

Cadence appears in Twilight's doorway and the rival school she attends has a crystal empire vibe going on. Principle Cadence incoming?!?!

We already know that the rival school is called Crystal Prep Academy.

Spoiler

As for Cadance, she might just be a teacher or something. In the first trailer, others have pointed out that in the scene of Dougworld Twilight's magic going out of control, we see what looks more like a stereotypical evil principal character, so she might be the real principal.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Interesting BronyCon exclusive cover for comic #32. I'm sure there's a deep meaning to it.

Surprisingly, the MLP comics got their own app, iOS only right now. It will be linked to Comixology in the future, but it isn't right now.

And lastly, Lyra and Bon Bon confirmed for cousins

 

[SigmasonicX]

I keep forgetting this happens in "Fall Weather Friends", since it makes little sense even for cartoon logic. I guess this is as good an explanation as any.

New MrPoniator animation! This time about the flower-themed ponies (Rose and friends).

And new Friendship Games synopsis that I find really weird.
The Competition's On!
Canterlot High meets its rival school, Crystal Prep Academy, in a competition that's a long-standing tradition — the Friendship Games. Sunset Shimmer is tasked with keeping magic out of the games to avoid the appearance of impropriety while she and her friends compete against Crystal Prep's top students led by someone with an equal amount of interest in Equestrian magic — this world's TWILIGHT SPARKLE!
Includes a Never-Before-Seen Song! [referring to the home release, I presume]

If magic is still a secret to everyone, then I really don't think the appearance of impropriety is the biggest issue of it being exposed.

 

[DrForester]

 

[SigmasonicX]

Surprised there isn't that much Fury Road MLP art, tbh.

ED article on the health of the fandom, from their perspective. Basically, it is true that things aren't as active as they were in 2012-13, but this is still far more active than most (non-mainstream) fandoms five years in.

Odd Equestria Girls figures all with Amibo Palutena faces. And Pinkie has a human skin tone? EDIT: And Rarity appears twice. Somehow didn't notice that.

Alternate reality picture, posting because it's actually a good look for the both of them.

And I like Fluttershy in this

I could also give news about news of there being upcoming news of the MLP movie, but nah.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Just read Friendship is Magic #32, the start of the Night of the Living Apples story, and... it was OK. The story is clearly aiming for silliness, but it could have been a lot sillier in the first part. Things got a lot better once Pinkie turned into an apple, though. It was also annoying to see them once again make the enemies immune to magic to easily render Twilight useless. Hopefully things get more over-the-top in the next issue.

 

[SigmasonicX]

It always amuses me when toys are packaged together in odd groups. Apparently Twilight is friends with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. At least all of the Main Six is included this time.

Interestingly enough, the three Equestria Girls movies are getting a boxset, though it appears to be DVD only.

And I'm surprised this took so long.

 

[Chariot]

Gotta ask, did you guys drove over a bunch of puppies? The hostility against you on this board is even bigger than I thought it was.

 

[wookieofdoom]

Gotta ask, did you guys drove over a bunch of puppies? The hostility against you on this board is even bigger than I thought it was.

huh. I haven't seen any hostility in quite a while. Even Evil Lore made peace with us.

 

[novenD]

Gotta ask, did you guys drove over a bunch of puppies? The hostility against you on this board is even bigger than I thought it was.

My inner gawker wants to know if any particular thread brought this post on.

But most people seem pretty cool with us now; there's still the occasional posts implying we're all sexual deviants but those happen to animeGAF as well so... eh.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Gotta ask, did you guys drove over a bunch of puppies? The hostility against you on this board is even bigger than I thought it was.

Hey man, if those puppies didn't want to get run over they should've stayed on the sidewalk.

But seriously, some, shall we say overly enthusiastic fans way back at the start kinda earned the community a bad name that I doubt it'll ever be able to shake. I wasn't around until a few years after it began, but I think the whole "post ponies everywhere/ponify everything" mentality did a lot of damage.

huh. I haven't seen any hostility in quite a while. Even Evil Lore made peace with us.

That was a nice moment. I don't expect people to like or understand this fandom, but not being actively hostile is nice.

My inner gawker wants to know if any particular thread brought this post on.

But most people seem pretty cool with us now; there's still the occasional posts implying we're all sexual deviants but those happen to animeGAF as well so... eh.

I'm guessing this is related to Amirox throwing a tantrum over Sigmasonic posting a link to a ponified version of a Steven Universe character over in the OT. Apparently Amirox just opens every link he/she comes across without reading the text.

 

[McNum]

Gotta ask, did you guys drove over a bunch of puppies? The hostility against you on this board is even bigger than I thought it was.

I am also a little curious as to what thread brought this on, but not curious enough to ask for a link. There will likely be nothing there I haven't seen before.

I suppose it comes as little surprise that in a place where people get in heated arguments over what badge is on the plastic box under the TV that there would be rather severe disagreements over other choices of entertainment. But it's much better now than when PonyGaf started out. People can actually have a pony avatar without getting yelled at for that now.

It may be that it's a big culture shock for some. My Little Pony is not supposed to be good. Heck, "not-horrible" was aiming high before Friendship is Magic. But honestly that was part of the fun. Imagine if Sharknado 3 was an Oscar-bait movie, and genuinely good. It's that level of disbelief. Good My Little Pony shouldn't be, let alone have five seasons and two movies (and counting) and yet here we are.

In the end we're just a bunch of guys who like a cartoon about pretty pink pony princesses (although white, blue, and purple pony princesses are fine, too). Some people apparently can't deal with that. And frankly that's their problem, we're kind of tired of those arguments and insults. Heard it all before.