#i actually really really like the fact that the main character of g5 is an earth pony because im a huge earth pony truther | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nayialovecat · 5 months

Text

Mane 6 new generation (en+pl)

I'm sick and bored, so I decided to rate the new Mane 6 out of boredom. Remember, this is my review - you have the right to disagree with it, but respect it!

First, a little reminder of how I rate the Mane 6 from the previous generation:

Twilight Sparkle - she was better without the wings (kidding), I actually like her a lot, even if she was neurotic at times. Or that's why. In character, she most resembled me, especially in trying to reconcile social maladjustment and introversion with the role of a leader. I also like her colours.

Pinkie Pie - die, pink horse and never come back... Seriously, I can count on one hand the number of episodes with this fucked up mare that I liked! But I like her absurdly Amish family. The only thing I like about her appearance is her functional hair that acts like a fifth limb.

Rarity - my favourite mare. She has all the qualities I value most in others: hard work, generosity, ambition and a rich imagination. She also shares many traits with me, including a tendency to dramatize. And I love her design.

Applejack - I like her for similar reasons as Rarity, plus she's from the countryside, values family ties and has the overprotective older sister syndrome. My characteristics. She also has a big plus for freckles.

Rainbow Dash - most of the time she annoyed me as much as Pinkie Pie, especially when she showed a lack of loyalty (her own element!). I don't like poseurs and liars, but sometimes she was okay. I don't like her look - I understand why she's blue, but that mane would look nicer with some other fur colour.

Fluttershy - my second favorite filly! What I liked most was that she was true to herself. And her shipping with Discord - Nayia likes this! And her colour combination is charmingly pastel.

+ Spike - poor little pony slave. I have nothing against the character himself, but his attitude in the group always irritated me - he was something between a sidekick, a pet, and a slave and it irritated me the hell out of him. I was waiting for the moment when he would start to be respected. It wasn't happen. He has purple and green colours - a plus, although as an adult it becomes quite unattractive (in all his versions).

And now the next generation Mane 6! (yes, Mane 6 - if I spoiled this to anyone at this point, I'm sorry...)

Sunny Starscout - too Mary Sue at times. She has contradictory character traits, as if the creators didn't know whether she should be shy or brave, intelligent or stupid. Which is why, from my point of view, he has at least schizophrenia with multiple personality disorder. I don't like it or the design - somehow I don't like the combination of orange and magenta.

Hitch Trailblazer - yay, it's guy! Finally a guy among the main characters! I really like the character of Hitch in the first film, I also like his design - but from the moment he finds and hatches this stupid egg, something strange happens to him and he becomes another schizophrenic. I get that he couldn't be normal being friends with Sunny, but seriously?

Izzy Moonbow - I miss Pinkie Pie... I can't describe why I don't like Izzy so much - she looked cool, I like that she's a bit of a combination of Pinkie's chaoticism and optimism with Rarity's talent, but why does it have to be a total comic relief? Couldn't she be a little more serious? In fact, the entire unicorn race is kind of fucked up in this generation... I only tolerate the singing chick and the big guy from the tea shop. A big plus for Izzy's design - a beautiful combination of colours and wonderful mane and tail. I love.

Zipp Storm - I didn't think something like this would happen and the pony who replaced Rainbow Dash would do it, but officially... Zipp is my favourite from G5 Mane 6! She may be a bit obsessive in places, but she's lovely about it. She is a princess, but she has her own passions, she has the makings of a detective, and she practices parkour! She is what I would like to be if it weren't for my health problems (except maybe being a princess). I like the wings in her design, but the colors and hair look are a bit meh.

Pipp Petals - let me start with her appearance - since she had to look like one of the others, I would rather have her look like her sister than Izzy. I don't like her design. Or the structure of her wings. Am I the only one who thinks that Pipp would have gained a lot if, with all her character without the slightest change, she was a boy? As a girl, she's just annoying. But maybe that's me and my aversion to girl-influencers.

Misty Brightdawn - oh yes, the second successful pony! First of all - character. Maybe being raised by Opaline, but I like that she's not as crazy as the other unicorns. She is shy, but knows how to stand her ground. She's bold, but not overly so. She is well-balanced and undergoes meaningful transformations throughout the series. I also like her design, especially after recolouring her mane in the episode celebrating the stamp's release. She's just cool!

+ Sparky - I honestly miss Spike. No, seriously. The series tries to convince us that this thing is cute and is the mascot of the series - AND IT FAILS. He's an annoying little pain most of the time and is seriously hard to like. Or is it just my impression? I don't like the design of this thing either... I wouldn't mind the colour, but the shape of the head, the eyes, uh, everything... Most of the time I try not to remember it exists.

What do you think about the new Mane 6 and their mascot (well, not a slave, but give Sparky a few years...)?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Jestem chora i nudzi mi się, więc postanowiłam sobie z tych nudów ocenić nowe Mane 6. Pamiętajcie, to moja ocena - macie prawo się z nią nie zgadzać, ale uszanujcie ją!

Na początek małe przypomnienie, jak oceniałam Mane 6 z poprzedniej generacji:

Twilight Sparkle - była lepsza bez skrzydeł (żartuję), tak naprawdę bardzo ją lubię, nawet, jeśli momentami była neurotyczna. Albo właśnie dlatego. Z charakteru najbardziej przypominała mnie, zwłaszcza próby godzenia nieprzystosowania społecznego i introwertyczności z rolą przywódcy. Lubię też jej kolorystykę.

Pinkie Pie - umrzyj różowy koniu i nigdy nie wracaj... Serio, na palcach jednej ręki mogę policzyć odcinki z tą zjebaną klacza, które mi się podobały! Za to lubię jej absurdalnie amiszowatą rodzinkę. W jej wyglądzie lubię tylko jej funkcjonalne, zachowujące się jak piąta kończyna włosy.

Rarity - moja ulubiona klacz. Ma wszystkie cechy, które najbardziej cenię w innych: pracowitość, szczodrość, ambicje i bogatą wyobraźnię. Także dzieli ze mną wiele cech, chociażby skłonność do dramatyzowania. No i uwielbiam jej design.

Applejack - lubię ją z podobnych powodów, co Rarity, poza tym jest ze wsi, ceni więzi rodzinne i ma syndrom nadopiekuńczej starszej siostry. Moje cechy. Ma też dużego plusa za piegi.

Rainbow Dash - większość czasu wkurzała mnie niemniej niż Pinkie Pie, zwłaszcza, gdy wykazywała się brakiem lojalności (jej własnego elementu!). Nie lubię pozerów i zakłamańców, ale czasami była w porządku. Nie przepadam za jej wyglądem - rozumiem, czemu jest niebieska, ale ta grzywa wyglądałaby fajniej w zestawieniu z jakimś innym kolorem.

Fluttershy - moja druga ulubiona klaczka! Najbardziej podobało mi się, że pozostawała w zgodzie z sobą. No i jej shipping z Discordem - Nayia lubi to! A połączenie jej kolorów jest uroczo pastelowe.

+ Spike - biedny, mały niewolnik kucyków. Nic nie mam do samej postaci, ale jego stosunek w grupie zawsze mnie irytował - był czymś pomiędzy sidekicka, zwierzątka, a niewolnika i to szalenie irytowało. Czekałam na moment, kiedy zacznie być szanowany. Nie doczekałam się. Ma fioletowy i zielony kolor - za to plus, chociaż jako dorosły staje się dosyć nieatrakcyjny (we wszystkich swoich wersjach).

A teraz Mane 6 nowej generacji! (tak, Mane 6 - jeśli komuś w tym momencie zaspoilerowałam, to sorry...)

Sunny Starscout - momentami za bardzo Mary Sue. Ma sprzeczne cechy charakteru, jakby twórcy nie wiedzili, czy ma być nieśmiała, czy brawurowa, inteligentna, czy głupiutka. Przez co z mojego punktu widzenia ma co najmniej schizofrenię z osobowością wieloraką. Nie przepadam ani za nią, ani za designem - jakoś nie przepadam za połączniem pomarańczy i magendy.

Hitch Trailblazer - jej, facet! Wreszcie facet wśród głównych postaci! Bardzo lubię postać Hitcha w pierwszym filmie, lubię też jego design - jednak od momentu znalezienia i wyklucia tego pierońskiego jajka robi się z nim coś dziwnego i staje się kolejnym schizofrenikiem. Rozumiem, że przyjaźniąc się z Sunny nie mógł być normalny, ale serio?

Izzy Moonbow - zatęskniłam za Pinkie Pie... Nie umiem opisać, dlaczego tak nie lubię Izzy - zapowiadała się fajnie, podoba mi się, że jest trochę połączeniem chaotyczności i optymizmu Pinkie z talentem Rarity, ale czemu musi być przy tym totalnym comic relief? Nie mogłaby być odrobinę poważniejsza? W ogóle cała rasa jednorożców jest jakaś taka zjebana w tej generacji... toleruję tylko laskę od śpiewu i wielkoluda ze sklebu herbacianego. Za to duży plus za design Izzy - piękne połączenie kolorów i wspaniałe grzywa i ogon. Kocham.

Zipp Storm - nie sądziłam, że takie coś nastąpi i kucyk, który wszedł na miejsce Rainbow Dash tego dokona, ale oficjalnie... Zipp jest moją ulubienicą z G5 Mane 6! Może miejscami jest nieco obsesyjna, ale jest w tym urocza. Jest księżniczką, ale ma swoje pasje, ma zadatki na detektywa, do tego uprawia parkour! Jest tym, czym chciałabym być, gdyby nie moje problemy zdrowotne (może poza byciem księżniczką). W jej designie podobają mi się skrzydła, ale kolorystyka i wygląd fryzury trochę meh.

Pipp Petals - zacznę wyjątkowo od wyglądu - jak już musiała być podobna do kogoś z pozostałych z wyglądu, wolałabym, żeby była podobna do swojej siostry niż do Izzy. Nie lubie jej designu. Ani budowy jej skrzydeł. W ogóle czy tylko ja uważam, że Pipp wiele by zyskała, gdyby przy całym swoim charakterze bez jego najmniejszej zmiany, była chłopcem? Jako dziewczyna jest po prostu irytująca. Ale to może ja i moja niechęć do influencerek.

Misty Brightdawn - o tak, drugi udany kucyk! Po pierwsze - charakter. Może przy wychowanie przez Opaline, ale podoba mi się, że nie jest tak zjebana jak inne jednorożce. Jest nieśmiała, ale umie postawić na swoim. Jest odważna, ale nie przesadnie. Jest dobrze wyważona i przechodzi sensowne przemiany w ramach serialu. Lubię też jej design, zwłaszcza po rekolorowaniu fryzury w odcinku z uczczeniem wyjścia znaczka. Po prostu jest fajna!

+ Sparky - szczerze tęsknię za Spike'iem. Nie, serio. Serial próbuje przekonać nas, że to coś jest urocze i jest maskotką serialu - I MU NIE WYCHODZI. Większość czasu jest irytującym, małym wrzodem i serio trudno go lubić. Czy to może tylko moje wrażenie? Nie lubię też designu tego czegoś... jeszcze kolor bym darowała, ale kształt głowy, oczy, uch, wszystko... Większość czasu staram się nie pamiętać, ze to istnieje.

A co Wy myślicie o nowym Mane 6 i ich maskotce (dobrze, że nie niewolniku, ale dajcie Sparky'emu kilka lat...)?

#MLP #I'm sick again

2 notes · View notes

herd-of-ponies · 2 years

Text

Ok see here's the thing. I haven't watched the series itself yet bc quite frankly the movie was just. Horrendous in ways I still go into a blind rage over. So full disclaimer all my complaints stem from there alone.

But like. Firstly you have a ""Good"" Cop character. Then you have a Bad Cop who receives literally zero repercussions for his actions. His fascist overbearing mother likewise is unpunished in any way, shape or form - save minor embarrassment over her son who she raised this way herself. As a funny little joke.

The one character who Consistently has the solutions to get the group places, Izzy, who In Fact is the entire reason the movie got anywhere in the first place (because Sunny never left town herself fsr??), is treated as a joke character, Pinkie but incredibly dumb or nonsensical and who needs "looked after" by the main character (see everyone's favorite 'iconic wlw song', it's never Sunny being looked out for). Wild part is a) she's Obviously smart and clever and creative and self-capable enough to wander the continent Alone with Nothing to help her, and b) she's also voiced by a non-white va which uh. Makes the narrative's treating her like a joke idiot look really dicey!! So got some ableist AND racially charged takes going on here!

Speaking of, Sunny gets to take all the credit when she has Izzy to thank for a lot of what happened. Yes, it's because of 'her' (her dad's) message in a balloon Izzy ever even looked for other ponies but. Sunny never reached out again or tried setting out herself, despite having that sureness and tenacity to do so? Izzy didn't even KNOW that other ponies were safe, she didn't have anyone in her village to tell her anything else, but she STILL took that chance to go looking, risks herself and meets Sunny. So Sunny can then take the credit and get alicorn'd or whatever.

You could say it's that alicorns need to inspire others or whatever but Sunny clearly wasn't doing that to anyone else, because her speech flopped Every Time, including when she was put at risk of bodily harm in the beginning. Inspiring One pony does not a princess make.

(And yes, somehow that same canned speech inspired everyone once her house was destroyed but. Given how people didn't care in the beginning of the movie when she was put in direct danger, I really don't think her house being destroyed should have made an impact)

I could honestly keep going, about how everyone was so bland bc they acted so 'staged', never moving or speaking independently if it wasn't Their Turn; or how there were attempts at characterization that had Zero Payoff and thus seemed weirdly shoved into the writing for no reason (Hitch's dancing didn't have any impact to the story, Izzy makes comments on auras seemingly just to paint her as weird and laughable) ; or primarily how no one has any Flaws, and you can argue they technically do, but none that they get narratively held responsible for!

Actually I will keep going on that last point - in the g4 movie, characters mess up, and get narratively 'punished' for! Either drawing attention of the villains or getting offers of help rescinded (thanks specifically to Twilight! The protagonist!) Their actions and shortsightedness lead to direct consequences, and others around them also recognize this and typically disapprove if only for a moment.

The g5 movie... really does not do this. There's no 'punishment', the rejection and loss the characters experience aren't because they messed up. It's only to show how Tragic they are or to move the plot along (like the house). In fact, there's one instance of genuine criticism - Hitch being upset that Sunny is purposefully endangering his job because his livelihood isn't as important as her ideals - and tbh, given he's a cop, that really doesn't need to be a concern - but that's retracted and used to paint him as wrong for ever doubting her, despite the fact that realistically? She was prioritizing poorly!

No one listened to her and everyone rejected her tired speeches, and that's common knowledge by that point. Her choosing One More Tired Speech over her friend's job and reputation, when she's only ever seen failure, isn't her making some 'for the greater good' choice. That's stubbornness and pride speaking, no matter how well-intended, and she put herself and her friend at risk for a pointless gesture. And she gets ultimately rewarded for this via the rest of the movie proving her right, and awarding her the role of princess.

Anyways. The movie was awful and if anything felt like pro-cop propoganda cleverly disguised as pro-activist sentiment, and while it's been a bit I watched this movie three times to break a lot of this down and I can keep going if needed.

Idk about the series, but the g5 movie sucks and honestly is horrifying to see as accepted by the fandom, because in terms of writing and in terms of meaning it is literal shit.

#long post #ramblingonandon #hmmmm #im gonna tag this #g5 movie hate #firstly. but also?#mlp g5 movie #mlp a new generation #feel free to block the hate tag or just me if your complaint is me putting this in tage #but the movie itself is a moral trainwreck so i feel like that needs to be put into the public eye more #if that upsets you then again Just Block me or the tag. this post aint for you if that's your issue

5 notes · View notes

taiblogcomics · 5 months

Text

This Old Treehouse

Hey there, wet bag of mayonnaise. Well, our backlog pile is dwindling! I know I said we'll have MLP comics to last into the new year, but this is the last of the main series that I've got for now! Everything else is gonna be one-shots and spinoffs! I hope that's okay! If it's not, too bad, that's just how it is! Deal with it!

Here's the cover!

Hey, it's more Izzy! You guys like Izzy, right? She's the best thing out of G5. That's why we're giving her two issues in a row! In fact, both are about her crafting tendancies as well. Once again, that's really all there is to say about it! I like MLP and all, but a lot of the time, the covers don't give me a lot to work with. Basically it boils down to "Is your favourite character on the cover? Maybe buy this issue!" And I mean, I guess that works for consumers, but us critics need more material than that~

We open in Bridlewood, which is a rare sight in one of these comics. Just like FiM starting in Ponyville, you kind of expect G5 comics to start in Maretime Bay. So I guess Izzy is keeping a second home in Bridlewood, even though she also lives at the Brighthouse. Like, I expect Zipp and Pipp to be second-home-owning bougies, but Izzy literally lives in a tree. Maybe the Brighthouse is her second home, but either way the point stands. Speaking of second houses, though, the string decoration she's trying to hang snaps, and goes flying into an abandoned treehouse nearby.

Man, that string must've had some serious tension, because it launches, like, a hundred feet or more. Maybe her magic increased the elasticity or something. Either way, she mad, and she goes to try and retrieve it. She gets a big spook inside the abandoned treehouse by a huge shadowy figure, but of course it turns out to be a bunch of animals. The animals flee once revealed, but them smashing through the boarded-up window gives her the opportunity to examine her surroundings. Clearly Izzy is not satisfied with how much property she owns, and promptly decides to fix this place up for her friends as well.

And I do mean "for", not "with". She intends the whole treehouse to be a surprise, scavenging some items from the alleys of Maretime Bay, narrowly avoiding Zipp in the process. She spends all day on it, until she even falls asleep in the treehouse. The animals watch her all night, like adorable voyeurs. She wakes up marveling at how nice the place looks, and invites her friends to come over and see. And in spite of the rainy weather, they drop whatever they were doing and come all the way out to Bridlewood to see her surprise.

It turns into a surprise for her as well, as when she opens the door to the treehouse again, all the cushions and decorations have been ripped up and smashed. Just general devastation. Perhaps these adorable animals running around the place are to blame? Izzy's in tears, big disappointed that forest critters would be so hateful to her art. Well, Hitch is here now, so why doesn't he just… ask them? You know, use that special power that apparently only he has for whatever reason? Yeah, let's do that! That should advance the plot!

So, as you might expect, this place isn't abandoned, at least on a technical level. Nope, these animals live here. Figures a property-acquiring pony like Izzy would disregard their squatter's rights. She sadly turns to leave, having been driven off by small animals, when Hitch tells her to wait. A few more lines from the squirrel and they agree the treehouse does need some work. So why not get some free labour out of these home invaders~? And then we'll totally "share" the space when it's done! Yeah, that's the ticket!

So then we get a big montage of all the ponies fixing up the treehouse. Like, the animals don't even pitch in, they just sit on the ponies and supervise. What do you think this is, a Disney film~? Zipp fixes some shelves, Pipp figures a windowsill would make a good mini-karaoke stage, and so on. Hitch, meanwhile, actually turns some shelves into animal beds. Clearly the only one putting some thought into who actually is going to be living here. And so the comic ends with the ponies and animals sharing the same space in peace--for now…

All the coloniser and landlord stuff is mostly jokes for my amusement, but still. I don't think this is a great issue. Oh, sure, it's a cute story about ponies, but they do barge their way into someone else's living space and proceed to make it their own. Like, even when purportedly working together, the ponies do all the work and continue to cater it to their tastes. Like, that "mini karaoke stage" Pipp builds? It's mini to her scale, she's the one using it in the end. Animals don't care about karaoke, Pipp! Only Hitch had the right spirit here. Like, you only need a slight rewrite to tweak this one. If they fixed up the place in the animals' favour and decided it wasn't their place to butt in, I think that would've been a much better story.

#comics #reviews #My Little Pony #My Little Pony: A New Generation #Taiblog

0 notes

bronyinabottle · 3 years

Text

MY LITTLE PONY: A NEW GENERATION (G5 Movie) THOUGHTS

It’s finally here. The beginning of Generation 5. Though before I get into the movie in some detail I’m going to reiterate one more time what G5 means for my content and a non-spoilery summary of the movie.

Again, I will say that the movie nor will the G5 series coming later have much of an effect at all on any of my blogs. The revelation in Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear that life itself is also magic means that a world that implied to have no magic for years would mean the extinction of all life (Perhaps resulting in the wasteland we saw in the Season 5 finale). There may be something I’ll probably do at some point on a certain different blog. But even then, that may likely be a one-time thing and probably come around the time the series is starting to air.

That said, just because I’m continuing with mainly G4 content doesn’t mean I disapprove of G5. In fact, my non-spoilers thoughts on the movie is I think it is a good start for this new generation. There are questions I have that I’m not sure will be answered (Though many of those questions are the same ones I had in my Trailer/Preliminary thoughts) quickly enough. But the movie is structured well enough, in fact it’s probably a better movie as a whole compared to any of the movies G4 had (The 2017 movie, Rainbow Roadtrip, and all 4 Equestria Girls movies). As the 2017 movie was fun, but it jumped around a lot, sometimes scenes transitioning too fast. And while Rainbow Roadtrip may have been this on purpose, the entirely slice-of-life story taking up a long length… made it something of a less interesting plot to follow. It feels like some of that special could of been cut to at least a two-parter length and keep the same beats they hit. And while i have a soft spot for the 3rd and 4th Equestria Girls movies, I’ll always say a full-length pony adventure feels better suited for what I want to see out of MLP then spin-off movies with high school movie cliches and weird pony/human world shenanigans.

So movie-wise I’m not a G4 purist. It’ll take some time to see how Gen 5 compares to Friendship is Magic when we get to the series. As I feel it’d take a lot for it to surpass G4 in my mind. But I’m going to try to be as fair as possible and judge on it’s own merits. The implied connection to G4 by referring to G4 being ancient Equestria is going to naturally get the staff and hasbro pressured by fans to tell us what happened in-between the generations. Because that’s the trap they put the writers in when they made it so they want to try to say it’s in the same universe. That’s the double-edged sword Hasbro chose to have, trying to appease the G4 fanbase and keep at least some of them around. But at the cost of questions both nitpicky (Such as character design being inconsistent) or actual honest questions that need to be known (Why did magic disappear, and what happened to the Alicorns) for some of us to truly see this as the same Equestria.

After the break, I’ll have more spoilery thoughts

Even for a brief moment, it was nice seeing the Mane 6 and 2D animation. The former because of course those are the ponies many of us that saw all of G4 loved. And the latter, because while the animation wasn’t bad in this movie. I’m one of those who’d prefer to have 2D animation in an animated film. As in most cases aside from Pixar, it’s just a strong preference of mine. If this had the animation of the 2017 MLP movie but otherwise everything else was generally the same here, I feel that would of have been great.

I wish they didn’t have to have Sunny’s dad die off-screen, as he seems like he could of been a compelling character. And not to mention if perhaps he has any connection the “ancient” days in any fashion. But *sigh* I get it, it’s an old trope where part of the character’s offscreen growth is not having their parent(/s) around.

On a side note there’s quite a few times during the beginning of the movie that somewhat foreshadow what happens to Sunny later. 3 times where she had a fake horn and wings on her. Once in the flashback, then 2 separate times when she’s doing her protest where she has her own costumed wings and horn. As well as the helmet and mechanical wings.

Also, there’s no way around it. Some of the discussions this movie are going to get quite political. (Namely one part of Sunny’s song that could be seen as having a double meaning of a jab at Trumpsts regarding “Building your wall”) From the very premise in the early times, we know that the inspiration for the story was last year’s Black Lives Matter protests. Which honestly, I do support the message they’re going for. Having an anti-racism message to tell kids from the very beginning and making a focus on it is important when in G4 it only got briefly touched upon in Bridle Gossip and the Heath’s Warming Eve play. Although it certainly rose up to some form of prominence with Season 8 and onward. Still, while you can argue if G4 executed the anti-racism message well. it does come with something of a problem that the series finale left Equestria in the least divided it’s ever been.

And personally, I feel it’s a terrible interpretation of time to say “Well, it’s a realistic take. Racism has existed for years in our world. Same should go for the ponies” and while yes, racism is still rampant in today’s world. That said, that ignores that if we went from The Last Problem to the start of G5. There’s a huge difference between our world and Equestria. There is no ancient civilization that we look at like “Yeah, those were the golden days of world peace” when normally the “Golden age” was reserved for the high classes of Ancient Greece or Rome. It was most decidedly not perfect, with slavery rampant and wars for the sake of expanding an empire. While if you look at The Last Problem’s Equestria, you not only have peace between the three main types of ponies. But you literally have non-pony citizens in Equestria. You can see a dragon handing off a flower to a pony which can imply cross-species romantic relations. With the Friendship school still going strong, and was the reason that the world was saved in The Ending of the End. While perhaps it may be too glowing to say that future is perfect for everyone even in-universe. It’s certainly a hell of a lot better outlook then comparing to how we view even the so called Golden age of ancient civilizations. The Last Problem’s Equestria implies it looks to ally with every country outside of Equestria, not conquer them.

So it should still be a valid question on just how this world collapses to the point it gets to where G5 is at the start. I at least assume that it’s not the fault at all of any of the Mane 6 nor Twilight. Or at least I hope it isn’t, as I’d rather the MLP fanbase not have to deal with a The Last Jedi Luke Skywalker situation. (Where after the joyful end of the original trilogy, things go wrong as Luke almost murders the son of one of his best friends and his sister despite trying to hard and succeeding at redeeming his father who at that point in the canon was a galaxy-wide known ruthless mass-murderer.) I assume we’re at a point where everyone of the Mane 6 sans maybe Twilight are presumed dead. And even in Twilight’s case, there’s a chance that G5 decides to say that G4 overestimated the whole Alicorn immortality thing. Though I wouldn’t put it past Hasbro to have some event where the Mane 5 of G5 meet the Mane 6 in some special event whether that’s a a Season finale or a sequel movie/special. Where either the Mane 6 return in a limbo situation similar to the Pillars at the end of Season 7 or Time travel gets involved. They may even string us along on answering just what in the heck happened until they involve a meet-up with the Mane 6 in that way. Though I hope they don’t, I’d really like the beginning of the series (Or I guess this supposed special coming up in Spring supposedly?) starts to answer some questions. G5 should get a chance to stand on it’s own, but I hope the writers are actually well aware there will be so many questions people have and address them in the show. A cynical part of me feels like they’re likely to string us along until at least the Season 1 finale.

Onto the characters for a bit. I think Izzy Moonbow was absolutely the most stand-out character in the whole movie. She was energetic, funny, and aside from “The pegasi are bad news” she along with Zipp and Sunny were the most averse to the way the world was. She was already the most popular due to the tennis ball memes. But now it feels like she legit stands on her own and most certainly deserves to be the most popular character of G5 thus far. Behind her in a bit of a surprise to me was Zipp, who I thought would be mainly a Rainbow Dash-expy. Though she really helps out Izzy and Sunny in Zephyr Heights. Despite having Twilight be my favorite pony from the very beginning of G4 all the way to the end, I didn’t feel as strongly about Sunny for some reason. So she’s in the middle of the pack, she could grow on me later. I just don’t know if I click with her as much as I did with Twilight. As for the last two, while I don’t hate either of them. Either one could be the lowest of the 5 for one reason or another. Pipp (Although I will say she's probably my favorite character design out of the 5) feels like she doesn’t do a whole lot in the movie and it takes until she’s forced to be an outlaw because the other choice was to get imprisoned like her mother was. So she may come off as quite pretentious, though it’s arguable Rarity was the same way early in G4. But she definitely grew later. Could be the same case for Pipp. And as for Hitch, he has shining moments in the film. But what might hurt him is the fact he was such a bad friend to Sunny up until the campfire scene. “I’m the last real friend you have. You really want to lose me too?” is not a healthy friendship. Hitch may have been Sunny’s friend the longest, but it definitely feels like Izzy connected immediately. I don’t know if this show will get into shipping any of the main characters between each other mid-show, but if they do. I hope it’s between Izzy and Sunny currently, cause Hitch and Sunny just gives bad vibes even with Hitch getting better later.

None of the songs I felt were particularly too special. Though I think the closest was Sprout’s “Danger, Danger” song that has similarities to Smells Like Teen Spirit in some parts of the song since I tend towards more rock/metal-esque music.

I touched upon it earlier, but there’s perhaps a stand-out reason for why the G5 movie outdid the 2017 MLP Movie. They have the typical “Our heroic group splits after a sad moment before coming together again for the climatic good end” in Sunny seeing that that the two crystals don’t instantly bring magic back, and when Twilight left the group after an argument that happened with Twilight trying to take a pearl. They perform the same purpose in the movie. But the crystals not working, crushing Sunny’s hope for a little while works better into the story. Where as Twilight’s part frustratingly brought the sea pony scene to an end too quickly and/or doesn’t feel right of Twilight to have done that. It felt forced in the 2017 movie, but works out in the G5 movie. Especially since a part of it is that it’s not the crystals themselves capable of bringing magic back. But it’s the journey going after the crystals that brings the ponies themselves their magic back.

Just a small note on dictator Sprout, he tries to cause a war. Though admittedly the film seems to treat him as a joke the entire time despite his seriously evil ambitions. With the only repercussions is he gets a wishy-washy answer on if he was a good sheriff from his mom. I don’t quite know how I feel about that yet, but I wonder what they’ll have in mind for Sprout given his actions. He and his mom are the only ones that feel like a true antagonist. Though they seem to be ok with things fast when the magic comes back.

But anyway on to the ending, we see that Sunny becomes an Alicorn. Which I guess with no other real Alicorns around, I guess it makes sense to alicornify her since she’s the real leader behind what united the leaders of each type of pony again. Though there is of course this weird thing where her horn and wings don’t seem like as much a part of her body compared to very obvious connected wings on Twilight when she got hers. Sunny keeps her horn and wings to the end of the movie, and has colored streaks in her hair. Though I do wonder if that;s truly permanent. If it is permanent, I suppose at least they got to have a headstart and have it established at the end of the introductory movie rather then have it shock people at the end of a shortened 3rd season. I still feel like Twilight had well earned her alicornhood considering that besides what she did in the series. She has a whole childhood and time as a teenager learning under Celestia. Which had to mean something, and I’m not sure Celestia just leaving her to live the rest of her days with her friends in ponyville was that. Sunny has no doubt been trying countless time to try to spread friendship throughout her life even after the tragedy of her father’s passing. So there’s no doubt she’s been through a lot, and may indeed be worthy of being an Alicorn at this point. Though in terms of screentime before Alicornhood it's definitely a lot less then Twilight had. And it is at least nice to see that it is possible for non-unicorns to become one. (The only case of that we sort of got was a children's book that may or may not be canon that implied Cadence was a pegasus before she ascended)

Though you have to wonder if the visual differences such as Sunny’s alicorn horn and wings, the cutie mark only on one side (Yes I know that’s how it was normally in the MLP generations before G4. But a distinct visual difference between shows is still noticeable even if the context of G4’s cutie marks on both sides of the flank was about it being easier on the puppets for Flash), and how animals can have wings or weird round shapes such as those bunnies when G4 has normal looking animals. There’s enough striking visual differences for any nitpicky G4 to say “This isn’t the same Equestria”. And if someone tries to say maybe some sort of evolution happened. That’s still trying to put a little too much real world logic on this fantasy world. And evolution tends to take millions of years to have such dramatic changes. Not 1000 years or so, there should still be normal looking animals at this point and time. And these small details are probably going to be the things most ignored but nonetheless can build a case that this isn’t the same Equestria. Even if they touch on the important questions like how magic disappeared and what happened to the Mane 6, there will be details they make different that will add to the case that this is it’s own universe if it doesn’t quite matchup with what was remembered about G4. There will be fans who will be that nitpicky to call G5 out of continuity for small details like that. That is again the trap they put themselves in when they decided to try to say it’s the same Equestria.

All-in-all though, I think that’s at least a good enough chunk about my thoughts on the movie to end off here. If there’s something I missed or something from the movie you’d like me to give a particular opinion about or elaborate on something feel free to ask me here. G5 is indeed off to a good start, just I will be along the many hoping some questions get answered sooner then later. And I’m not sure I’m confident in getting anywhere until a Season finale or a 2nd movie. And it’ll be a year before the series starts proper (Though again I guess there’s a 44 minute special coming in Spring to try to hold us over). But I could definitely see G5 finding it's own following, now there's just the inevitable clashes between some of the more vocal fans of each generation bickering at eachother. But hoping there will be enough that take the movie's lessons on divisiveness to heart and be able to enjoy both even if there may be preferences.

#mlp #my little pony #g5 #mlp g5 #netflix #my little pony the next generation #my little pony movie #generation 5

31 notes · View notes

provider-of-guardians · 3 years

Note

What are your thoughts on G5’s pony designs? I like that they have distinct hooves. But the fact that their cutie marks are asymmetrical irks me. And the indent in the bottom of their hooves is backwards, while in the previous generation it was oriented like real horses. And since they are meant to be a sequel to G4 rather than an alternate universe that doesn’t make sense

Overall I thought they were pretty good. (Absolutely agree on the cutie marks though XP I really like the hooves, though I didn't realize they were backwards :o I just saw them as having hearts on the bottoms, lol! (Which kinda gave me a "older mlp generation" vibe, like they were trying to harken back to that a little bit, but tbh I don't know anything about the older mlp gens so I could be wrong XD) Since it is tied to G4 though, it does seem to imply some kind of... evolutionary shenanigans? Or something? Weird o3o

The horns too, actually. Since Izzy's horn had little swirls on it, instead of the typical segmentation like in G4, so... what does that mean? I didn't notice if any other unicorn's had horns like that either..

Okay I went and looked it up and apparently they do! They probably all do? Which is interesting but odd... Like, how does a horn form that way? Is it natural? Why not have both kinds, allowing for more character design possibilities? (But I guess that's too subtle to matter that much fjsalfaj)

I like the wings though, and how there were multiple colors in them like how fans often draw. (And how Pip's were fluffier, that was neat and cute! I wonder if it means her wings aren't fully grown yet? (Omigoshimagineafluffybabypegasus;;))

As for the main character's designs specifically.. they're good, but I gotta say two things. 1) I really though Sunny and Hitch were gonna be siblings, based on their similar coats (and how they were goofing around in the promos) so I was really surprised to find that they weren't. And 2) Zipp.... looks like toothpaste. I have to be honest, she does. XDDD (Okay wait, 3rd thing - besides being an earth pony, Sunny looks, like.. exactly like Scootaloo, right? XD I wonder why they didn't make her look closer to her dad? But again, it's probably a moot point) I like Pipp and Izzy's designs though, they're pretty cute.

So, in conclusion: From an artist's perspective, some specific designs were kinda bland (imo) but others were quite nice! They really made the 3D style work beautifully, brought in some interesting new design elements and made what feels like a slight mix of G4 and the earlier Gens. From a zoological perspective, some things are exciting (wings) and other things... bring up questions we'll never get answers to (horns, hooves) I'd say 7/10, make the cutie marks symmetrical dang it >:U

#provider of ramblings #whomst #sorry if I went off on a tangent - I was trying to cover all the bases to give a full opinion XD;;;;

2 notes · View notes

kindestegg · 4 years

Text

oh right! i suppose as the resident mlp mutual i should say what i think of pony life (this got long SO under the cut it goes)

honestly? i actually really like it, BECAUSE i think, now that the intention to create a big arching plot full of danger while including every new character is gone, the characters finally get a chance to develop by themselves, and i actually like much better how theyre written here.

theyre clearly different from their main show counterparts since this is an AU by word of god, but not so much that theyre not recognizable. what i like best is that they seem to have fixed some of the gaps the show used to have, specially when it comes to pinkies and rainbows characterization. twi, rarity, aj, i havent noticed much of a change. and i actually like fluttershy having a more pronounced “dark side” so to speak, because its clear that this isnt like bronies weird attempts at making the ponies edgy, more of her just getting more personality and agency, and in fact is actually making the bronies ive seen uncomfortable, bc shes not “uwu so soft and shy and fragile” anymore, which i think is epic.

speaking of making bronies uncomfortable i am loving this energy <333 because bronies are so fuming mad that of the three male characters so far (besides spike) the ponies have hung out with n tried to befriend all of them were assholes and they found out one of the new writers is clearly involved in sj so theyre all whining about how theyre being oppressed by the meaaan man hating writers of the show ndfkgjdsfkgdfjgi and i absolutely adore it bc literally all these episodes have done is tell stories about how girls shouldnt let a guy put them down or manipulate them in the name of a friendship or even possible relationship

which brings me around to also, ok so discord is here, are you guys like uhm <33 going to fix his character because ;)) we had a whole episode calling out a male character who was ultra manipulating fluttershy for her friendship just like discord has done so like~~ are you going to make discord better or will you let the hipocrisy continue? oh btw i hate that he doesnt look squishy, he looks almost the same as his fim counterpart except for some minor changes and its bullshit. he needs to look like he was dipped in a vat of littlest pet shop brand acid TM. i want to see his long snake body be reduced to half with a head too big and sparkly eyes taking up 70% of his face. otherwise whats the point.

honestly in the end all of this just makes me more excited for how much of a hard reset g5 is gonna be. if life can actually breathe new LIFE (lol) in these characters just by making an AU, imagine g5 who will actually try to deviate even more and be given even more liberty. good job mlp the more you move away from trying to play into legacy n stop caring about pleasing the bronies the better you get you cracked the code.

#Commander's orders

2 notes · View notes

joyofcrime-elinorhigh · 5 years

Text

2018 Year in REVIEW: Part 1

Doing these list was a lot easier back when I actually had cable...

Hello everybody, my name is JoyofCrimeArt, and another year has come and gone. And with 2019 is right around the corner, I think it's time to once again continue the annual tradition. That's right, I'm talking about my end of the year recap! Cause 2018 was a huge year for the cartoon community!-

Oh wait, that's a picture of a dumpster fire. Don't know how I mixed those two up... If you've been following my page for a while now, you'll already know how this works. But for any newcomers, I'll be going through a list of several of the most notable events and animated series that happened over the course of the year. I'll be going over these events is roughly chronological order (Though I may swap a few things around to keep similar topics together) all while giving my own personal thoughts and opinion on each one. Anime and theatrical films will be exempt from this list, as it's already long enough as it is. I'll mostly be focusing on TV series and animation news. And while OBVIOUSLY I won't be able to cover everything I'm try to hit you with the highlights, along side some things that may have gone under the radar. And when I'm done I will count down my favorite series of the year from worst to best, give the year a grade, and decide which network "won" the year. I would also just like to be transparent here and say this concept is stolen directly from the anime youtuber Gigguk. I liked the concept, and wanted to apply it to something I loved. Also, if you want to check out my previous years in review, you can do so here. (2016 Year in REVIEW: Part 1) And here. (2017 Year in REVIEW: Part 1) But with all that out of the way, let's get into 2018 year in review. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And what's a better place to start with than with everybody's favorite cringe lord. That's right, I'm talking about the Christian Minecraft Server himself, Butch Motherfluffin' Hartman! Who announced that he...would be leaving Nickelodeon. Which is just weird to think about, y'know? Butch Hartman has been working at Nickelodeon for close to two decades. And now he's just gone seemingly out of the blue. Sure, not all of his shows were great, but you can't argue his impact. He helped define the network and was one of the channels biggest tent-poles along with Dan Schneider. In other news, Dan Schneider has announced that he would be leaving Nickelodeon. Which is just weird to think about, y'know? Dan Schneider has been working at Nickelodeon for close to two decades. And now he's just gone seemingly out of the blue. Sure, not all of his shows were great, but you can't argue his impact. He helped define the network and was one of the channels biggest tent-poles along with Butch Hartman. ...Wait? Yeah, these are massive hits for Nickelodeon. But honestly, it might be for the best in the long run. If you look at Nickelodeon for the last twenty years or so, it's always been dominated by shows from the same handful of creators. So maybe losing these two will force the channel to take some chances on some fresh talent, rather than relying on the same people over and over again. For good or for bad, I think we're going to see some big changes for the network within the next couple of years. I just wonder what these creators are going to do going forward. Especially Butch Hartman, I hope he has some kind of project planned. If he did I think a lot of people would be really excited for it, y'know? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In other news, it was announced that My Little Pony Friendship is Magic would be canceled in the year 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOtGi2McE6A

I never watched much My Little Pony, only seeing the first season and a handful of episodes from the second. So this news isn't that big of a deal to me, but I know that it is for a LOT of other people out there. I mostly just feel bad for Hasbro honestly. Cause let's be frank here, when they do make a G5 My Little Pony series...people will crucify it. It doesn't matter what the series is like. The reaction will be knee jerk, as THIS series is what people consider to be the definitive interpretation of MLP. If they change things people will be mad, and if they keep things the same people will find it to be a rehash. There's no real winning. I would suggest that Hasbro holds back on rebooting the series for at least a couple of years after this. Let the series die down a bit before starting something new. But I know there not gonna do that. They're going to want to make a new series as fast as possible in order to capitalize on the massive fandom. But still, nine years, that's a pretty good run for a show I think everybody was expecting to suck when it was first announced. Even though the show was never my cup of tea, I can still respect the show for the impact it's had. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile, Cartoon Network decided to grace us several new cartoons this year. The first of which is Apple and Onion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A9YzON11nw

The series follows a pair of food, Apple and Onion, as they begin life as adults living in the big city in a world of other anthropomorphic food people. The series is created by George Gendi, who has worked as a storyboard artist on both The Amazing World of Gumball and Sanjay and Craig. And that's exactly what this show feels like. A cross between The Amazing World of Gumball and Sanjay and Craig. This show is nothing that you haven't really seen before. It's the pair of naive but optimistic idiots who get excited about everything around them. They annoy the people around them, but always find a way to make for it in the end. They're childish. They constantly break out into these in-prob raps, which I think is a trend that Adventure Time and Regular Show started. It's that kind of show. They're not really much difference between Apple and Onion besides Apple being a little bit weirder and Onion being a little bit more neurotic. Something that this show does do that different is the delivery. In most of these types of series the characters would always be yelling and shouting slang and stuff. But the deliverer here is pretty dry and subdued. The dryness coupled with the somewhat odd looking character designs honestly makes this show feel less like a Cartoon Network series and more like an [adult swim] show with all the raunchiness taken out. There's something just unnerving about this show, and I can't tell if it's intentional or not. Despite the shows flaws, I do kinda enjoy the elements about moving out and tackling adulthood. Both characters grew up in a very sheltered environment, and don't know much about the real word. We see them with relatable worries. Things like missing their parents on their first night alone, or being desperate to make they're first friends. But most of these moments are really only in the first episode and after that the show just goes back to following the typical "dude bro" formula. Which is a shame. The show has a really base to work off of, but it didn't do anything with it. And instead just became something cliche. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TBS began creating it's own original animated series. Seemed like an odd move given the fact that TBS is owned by Turner, which already owns [adult swim]. Would TBS be able to find a way to differentiate itself? Well, to find out the answer to this question, let's have a look at the show that TBS seems to be most heavily pushing. Final Space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EHbt_kSkG8 Final Space follows the adventures of Gary Goodspeed. A space criminal who has spent five years in solitary confinement aboard a prison ship filled with nothing but robots. But just a few days before his release he encounters an alien creature that he names Mooncake and decides to adopt it. But it just so happens that an evil alien empire happens to also be looking for this exact alien in hopes of using it's powers for universal domination. So Gary, along with a ragtag group of friends he meets along the way, have to work together to protect Mooncake and save the universe from said evil empire. This show is something very unique, and there really isn't any other show I can think of that I can really compare it to. Not only is it one of the only "lore shows" that are aimed at adults, but it also one of the only american adult cartoons I've seen to really incorporate not just comedy but also drama and action as well. One one hand, I love the combination of it all. It's all a combination I've never really seen before. Nearly all adult cartoons are comedies. And while that's not bad in any way, It's great seeing an adult cartoon tackle a more complex story. The show also manages to have really high stakes, with an adventure story with the entire universe potentially being in jeopardy. The series main villain, Lord Commander, shows just how much scarier a villain like say Bill Cipher or White Diamond could be if they were allowed to kill people onscreen. There is a sense anybody can die, which I really appreciate. The show also has a lot of heart...ehhh, for the most part. It is really refreshing when most adult cartoons rely on dark, cynical humor. Again, not that it's a bad thing, it's just nice to see an adult cartoon with a more optimistic viewpoint is all. "Cynical" does not automatically equal "adult." However, there is a big problem I have with the series. While all the show's individual elements all work, they really don't all gel together very well. I don't mind a show tackling drama, comedy, action, ect. in fact, I tend to enjoy stories more when they're able to do more than one thing. But there isn't much easing these different elements into each other. And as a result the tone is all over the place. Every time something serious would happen Gary would end up making some kind of dumb joke that kills the mood. Even though the shows stakes are high, it feels like it's not until the last couple of episodes where Gary starts taking anything seriously. And it ends up making Gary seem really annoying. The show will be mostly light hearted, but then will throw out absurdly dark jokes out of nowhere that feels like they belong in Rick and Morty.While every element of the show is strong on it's own, it feels like they're all at odds with each other. It feels like the show wanted to be everything at once, but ended up being the jack of all trades, master of none. I admit these problem does begin to get a little better as the season goes on, but it still ends up kinda killing my enjoyment of the show as a whole. I don't want to be to hard on this show though. It's clear that a lot of people really seem to like this show a lot. And you can tell from the interviews that the creator, Olan Rogers, feel very passionately about the series. And while I wasn't as crazy about the show as a lot of people were, I still admire the ambition and am glad that it exist. I'm glad that TBS is really promoting it, cause it is something that is unlike any other adult cartoon out there right now. And if this is the direction that TBS's original animation is going to do moving forward, than I think it defiantly will have it's own space separate from all the other adult cartoon channels out there. Olan Rogers has been very open to criticism of the show on twitter, so I am cautiously optimistic for season two. If the show can iron out some of these problems in season two, I think it could have the potential to be something really special. But as it is, it feels like great ideas with meh execution. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So Infinity Trained got picked up, and-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBNxGZP49ls

Sure, you're all hyped now. But just wait till Infinity Train has it's first "filler" episodes! Than you'll turn your back on it faster than you did with Steven Universe! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roster Teeth gave us a new animated series in the form of "Nomad of Nowhere." A show that it felt like they didn't promote nearly as much as there other series. Which is a shame cause the show is actually pretty good.

The series follows The Nomad, a magical immortal being with the power to bring any inanimate object to life. In this world magic is feared and forbidden, with only the king and his top governors allowed to hoard the power. The series follows The Nomad as he travels town to town, helping people with his powers, all while being hunter down by various people trying to capture him. The show has a real Samurai Jack vibe, which makes sense as the people behind the show listed Jack as a main inspiration. Both series follow quiet, or in The Nomads case mute, protagonist traveling around helping people all while dealing stalked by bounty hunters. But the series does manage to differentiate itself to not just a ripoff. While someone like Jack is a stoic badass who's driven by a mission, the Nomad is just a bumbling goofball who really just wants to survive and help people. Nomad of Nowhere also benefits from recurring antagonist who get there own character development in the form of Toph and Scout. Two characters who come close to approaching Steven Universe levels of "sad lonely lesbians." And THAT is quite and accomplishment!

The series has a bit of a slow start, but gets better as the season goes on. The animation, while not fantastic, is "pretty good" and about on par with other 2D Roster Teeth series like "Camp Camp." One complaint I do have with the animation is with the way the objects that the Nomad brings to life are animated. They're just given stick arms and googly eyes, and I feel like the could of gone a bit more creative with that. The series is nothing mind blowing or anything, but it is fun. It definitely deserves more attention than it's gotten, as I feel it's been pretty overshadowed by Rooster Teeth's other works. Check it out if you haven't. It's all on Youtube for free. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cartoon Network decided to give us another new series, created by Matt Burnett and Ben Levin of Steven Universe fame. And that series is Craig of the Creek.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIflRLSjzH8

The series follows a young boy named Craig and his two friends Kelsey and T.J. as they just kinda...live life. More specifically it follows there adventures around the creek, the top hang out for all kids in there town. It's a fairly quaint series just following the life of these kids as they deal with all the different cliques that occupy the creek. It's one of those shows where they most mundane things as incredibly importance. Despite the show being made mostly by people who worked on Steven Universe, I'd say that the show is more comparable to something like We Bare Bears. However, there still are some elements of the show that are VERY Steven Universe. You can also tell the people who made this show worked on Steven Universe because anime references...

(Image source KnowYourMeme.com) Also the sad lonely lesbians.

Seriously, what's the point of making character who are ambiguously gay if you're going to make it so obvious! Why not just have them start out as a couple! And why can't a lesbian couple ever just be happy in one of these cartoons! Why are they always sad and lonely!? This show...is fine. There's nothing wrong with it, but I have to admit that I couldn't find myself getting that into it. While it is funny enough, I just don't think there was anything in this series that felt particularly stand out. Craig feels like the same "naive but kind fun loving" hero it feels like every Cartoon Network show seems to have right now. The shows art style is INCREDIBLY similar to most other Cartoon Network shows, (specifically Steven Universe.) Like, nearly the exact same. I know that they share a lot of the same crew, but so does OK KO, and that has it's own style. Even the concept feels like a toned down Clarence. Everything about this show just feels like something I've seen before. All of this wouldn't be a big deal if the show had some kind of unique quirk or execution or something. But it really doesn't. The show isn't bad but it's incredibly... average. It's the most average show of the year. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [adult swim] made several new shows this year, too. One of these series is Ballmastrz: 9009. A show that I didn't know much about and wasn't too interested in before I saw the trailer. But when I saw the trailer-oof, man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4OaHcvzPh8

What the FRICK is this madness?! Ballmastrz 9009 follows Gaz Digzy, an athlete living in the post apocalyptic future. She's a star player in a futuristic sport known simply as "The Game." However, after a drunken bender she ends up being kicked off her team and is forced to play on the worst team in the league, the Leptons. If she can help the Leptons win just one game, she'll be given permission to return to her original team. The world of this show is pretty much the OK KO universe after a nuclear apocalypse. There is a TON of anime influences and references going from the obvious to the obscure. I also like how the show get's right to the point with establishing it's lore, instead of dragging it out. The series manages to have an overarching continuity that rewards people watching it in order, while also having episodes stand on there own for people to jump in at any time. And OH MY GOD the animation. This is probably one of my favorite looking TV shows out right now. I love the sketchy look of it. The animation varies from comedically bad to INCREDIBLY fluid. It just adds to the anime aesthetic. The show is made by creator of Superjail. I've never seen that show, but from my limited knowledge I do have to say if your expecting the same level of gore you're not going to get that much. There's some gore, as this future has just invented immortality apparently, but there is a surprising lack of carnage compared to what I was expecting given the creators reputation. The show isn't perfect however. The biggest flaw is actually the characters. There not bad, but there not great either. Gaz is an alcoholic, drug attic, sex crazed snark machine who uses these vices to make up for the fact that her life feels empty. As she, being the best at her profession, has become bored. Cause y'know, I've never seen that character done ANYWHERE else before.

In addition to Gaz, we also have Baby Ball. A robot ball who is just Master Shake from Aqua Teen in both voice and personality. There's also Ace, who is the typical "friendship loving shonen protagonist" played by Jessica Dicicco. These three are the only characters who really get much screen time. The rest of the Leptons all pretty much stick to there one personality trait, maybe an episode about them if there lucky. I wish the show focused more on the team as a unit instead of just three of the characters. The series also ends on a bit of a joke ending, which feels a bit unsatisfying for a show with a continuous continuity. The plot they set up in season one pretty much wraps up, so I don't know what the show is going to do if it gets another season. But I really hope it does. The show isn't perfect, but it's a fun ride through and through. The whole series is up for free on [adult swim's] website, no cable login in requires. I would highly recommend checking it out. It's like OK KO, just with more raunch and less propaganda aimed at children. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And while we're on the topic of [adult swim] decided to renew Rick and Morty...FOR SEVENTY MORE EPISODES! Like...oh my God! The show has been running for five years so far, and has only aired thirty one episodes. If they continue at that pace, that means Rick and Morty will be on until...2031, give or take. Rick and Morty will outlive us all...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUpsKsBqqwE

Play all three videos at once for maximum IQ) But it's okay. It's all fine. Unless, Rick and Morty has some kind of drop in quality sometime within the next SEVENTY episodes. Y'know, like a lot of fans say it's already has. But then again, I already don't like this show, so I'm not the best person to comment on this. I'm sure a lot of people are excited about this announcement. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disney decided to move all of there original animated series off of Disney XD and back onto Disney Channel. A move that honestly just makes sense. Disney XD is a secondary channel that not as many people have. But for some reason for the last several years Disney always treated it as the top channel, with episodes of cartoons not airing on Disney Channel proper until MONTHS after they had already aired on Disney XD. With more and more people cord cutting each year, it just doesn't make much sense to have so many shows premiere on a channel that a lot of people do not have. Many people have said this is the end for Disney XD. And while it is probably the end of it being a "big channel" it'll still be there along side channels like "Boomerang" and "Nicktoons." At least Disney XD still has originals like the Marvel cartoons, anime like Pokemon, and reruns of older Disney shows. There's an audience for that, even if it's not as huge. I mean, where else can you watch Fillmore in the year 2018? That's what I thought. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ace is in the Gorillaz.

... And they said Avengers: Infinity War was the most ambitious crossover of all time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And finally, I have to ask you all...do you know what a Thundercat is?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qi41rHz4ps

My God...just, my God. In the several years I've been in the cartoon community I have never, EVER, seen a clusterfu*k quite like this. Powerpuff Girls 2016 WHO? Teen Titans Go! WHAT? Nah, man. This is the real tea right here, sis! So, Thundercats is getting a reboot coming out next year. It's called Thundercats Roar. And the internet...has opinions on it. If you compare the actual percentages of likes to dislikes on both videos, there is actually a higher percentage of people who liked Youtube Rewind 2018 than the Thundercats Roar trailer. Yeah... So what are people so upset about, exactly? Well, there are several reasons. One of which I've seen several people in the comments list is the creators man bun. Guys, come on. We all agree that man buns are a sin against God and nature, but let's leave the mans appearance out of this, alright? Many people are also mad at the seemingly more comedic tone that this series seems to be going for, saying that it's another example of an action cartoon being rebooted as an eleven minute comedy. I mean that does seem to be a trend as of late. From 2017's Ben 10, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and of course Teen Titans Go! I mean just look at the titles. Teen Titans GO! Thundercats ROAR. The comparison seems easy to make. There are also people who are upset about the fact that we're getting a new Thundercats show instead of a continuation of the previous series, Thundercats 2011. I've never seen that show, but from what I understand it was a really well received action cartoon that got mistreated by the network and got cancelled without resolving a lot of the plot threads. It can seem like salt in the wounds when your mature, serious action series ends on such a note only to be replaced with a kiddie comedy. As a Young Justice fan, I've been there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNp8JQJjKAw

But the biggest reason I have seen for the outrage is...the CalArts style. Hoo Boy... So let's go over some history. CalArts is a school that was founded by Walt Disney and a lot of other people. A lot of famous animators have got there starts at CalArts. Everyone from Genndy Tartakovsky, Craig Mccracken, Pendleton Ward, JG Quintel, Pat McHale, Alex Hirsch, Butch Hartman, and many many others. The CalArts style however, is a term that has come to refer to what is often considered the way "modern" cartoons tend to look. Distinct features include thin outlines, really noodle-y arms, the "bean head" shape, and large eyes without colored irises. And boy oh boy, do people have OPINIONS on this style. First off, I wanna clear away some misconceptions. Not everything that people label "The CalArts style" is actually made by people who went to CalArts. Steven Universe, Gumball and Undertale, two series are often listed as having the "CalArts style" are both made by people who didn't attend CalArts. And obviously not everyone who went to CalArts draws in the "CalArts" style. However, and this might get me some hate but I have to say it, I do believe that there is an argument to be had that there definitely is a "modern" art style that is prevalent in animation today. I'll continue to refer to it as the "CalArts" styles since that's what everyone else calls it, but I believe the better term would be the "2010's style." And this is nothing new. In the 2000's everything had the "knock off anime" style. And in the 90's everything had the "thick outline UPA inspired style." And in the 80's everything has the "Macho Man Action Figure " style. However, I have seen a lot of people use this as an argument on why you shouldn't complain about the CalArts style. And that's something I disagree with. There are a lot more cartoons coming out now of days compared to the past, and people in general expect more from them. And this is a good thing cause it forces the medium to evolve. You shouldn't come accept something you consider sub-par just because it was deemed okay to do so thirty years ago. And this is coming from someone who doesn't hate the CalArts style, but does feel it to be a bit overused at this point. But also a series art style should match the story there telling. The creators say that Thundercats Roar will have both action and comedy. And while we won't know for sure till the series airs, but these designs don't look like they're very tailored made for action. The designs don't look like they have any weight to them at all. Lion-O looks small, and the lighting on his body is very bright and stretchy looking. Almost like he's made of plastic. He looks like a chew toy. But still, I'm not going to judge the show until it comes out. (So look forward to that in 2019 Year in REVIEW.) However, I'd be lying if I said I was particularly looking forward to this. Even if there is some action in it, I've simply grown tired of these more comedic superhero shows. They're just so many at this point. Even the good ones feel done to death for me at this point. But this is all just such a big deal for a show Cartoon Networks probably going to dump at 7:30 am anyway. If you hate the show, don't be a jerk and make bomb threats to CalArts, which is something that somebody actually did! It should not need to be said that doing that is bad. And if you're excited for this show, don't be pretentious and claim that anyone who doesn't like the style is just a man child who doesn't know anything about the animation process. People can like or dislike whatever art style they like. And the least productive thing to do is to say that someone else's argument is "invalid." And when this show does finally comes out, what will probably happen is that people will freak out for a few episodes, and then move onto the next thing. This segment is longer than most of the show reviews and this series isn't even out yet! AHHHH! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And that's where I'm going to end this part. But do not worry, we still have several more stories and series to get to before we get to the end of the year! So come back in hopefully a few days, as we go over the second half of 2018 for animation. What are your thoughts on the shows that I talked about here? What are your favorite series of 2018? Tell me all that and more in the comments down bellow. Please fav, follow, and comment if you liked the review, and let's all hope we can get through the second half of the year without any more huge controversies, okay?

I'll be the round....about.... Have a great day. (I do not own any of the images or videos in this review. All credit goes to there original owners.)

https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/2018-Year-in-REVIEW-Part-1-778591454 DA Link

#Final Space #Thundercats Roar #Rick and Morty #Nomad of Nowhere #craig of the creek

34 notes · View notes

rantsaboutponies · 5 years

Text

Season 9 Retrospective

One last ride.

If this final season proved anything, it’s that nothing matters anymore. I mean, it’s kind of been that way for the last few, but this one crystallized that. The final score (W-L-T) was 1-5-20; the sheer amount of “meh” episodes is staggering.

I wonder how this show will stand the test of time. If it had aired for just those first two seasons, it probably would have been a classic, “canceled too soon” series that maintained its small but passionate group of fans for decades to come. That’s not going to be the effect, though, if you keep a series going well after the point that it should have ended. If you continue out of momentum for six or seven years past its expiration date, you’re going to end up driving your fans away by creating an atmosphere of apathy, and indeed, that’s exactly what happened. Sure, diminishing returns are still returns, but you’re going to reach a point where the majority of people have dropped off, and that’s when not even your financial responsibilities will justify your existence anymore. It might ironically turn out that the longer the show runs, the less it will be remembered. For a recent example, look at what happened to the Transformers movies. From the fiscal side, you had what looked like a good thing going; it was just a whole bunch of people complaining that these movies sucked, which didn’t matter to you as long as you were still making money. And then the fifth film came out, and you lost $100 million. Everyone who was still continuing to give these movies a chance had officially run out of patience. (I guess continuing well past anyone giving a shit is something Hasbro has yet to learn from.)

Anyway, enough rambling. This final ranking is going to be tricky, since there were just so many Tie episodes that I really didn’t give a shit about, but #1 is going to be easy because there was only one Win in the entire season. That would be...

#1. “Student Counsel”: Once again, putting Starlight and Trixie in an episode together will basically guarantee hilarious dialogue. I don’t know why they’re not getting their own spin-off.

And it’s a pretty steep drop-off from there...

#2. “Between Dark and Dawn”: I guess seeing more of the sisterly relationship between Celestia and Luna was halfway interesting (even if it wasn’t that different from what we saw in “A Royal Problem”). The fact that they seemed to forget about the main storyline at the end was kind of dumb, though.

#3. “Twilight’s Seven”: You know what, at least it was different. A heist? Sure, why not?

#4. “The Last Laugh”: There’s something ironic about this show having an episode about how it’s bad to move from doing something creative (and that you love doing) to a mechanized, monotonous process of doing the same thing and losing the passion and interest you once had. I wonder if the writers were aware of what they were doing here.

#5. “The Summer Sun Setback”: When you get right down to it, this plot wasn’t too different from the finale. This one was just smaller and focused on a single event. Either way, at least Tirek and Cozy Glow had fun fucking with them a little.

#6. “A Horse Shoe-In”: Some of the teaching auditions were kind of fun, but this wasn’t a Starlight/Trixie episode that had a ton of humorous dialogue. Very disappointing.

#7. “The Point of No Return”: Twilight doesn’t freak out about minor stuff anymore! That’s why she’s going to rule Equestria very, very soon. If I lived in Equestria, I’d be terrified for my future.

#8. “Common Ground”: I kind of wish the moral here could have been, “It’s possible not to have the same interests as someone else and still have a healthy relationship with them,” but with this show, we’ll have to settle for, “If you look really, really hard, you’ll be able to find an aspect of their interest that you like enough to keep yourself entertained.”

#9. “Sweet and Smoky”: “If you’re useful, people will stop making fun of you.” The lesson of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, now in dragon form!

#10. “She’s All Yak”: “Tell me about it...stud!” I never got on board with the “Yona is best yak” train (I mostly just found her obnoxious), but I absolutely agree with the “Jesus Christ, please stop trying to kill her!” crowd.

#11. “The Big Mac Question”: This was probably the most in-one-ear-and-out-the-other episode this season. I don’t even remember what happened. Big Mac married Cheerilee, right?

#12. “Frenemies”: I’ll be honest, this is the episode that aired while I was at Everfree Northwest, and I wasn’t really paying attention. The only thing I remember about it is “Gregory’s Bell”. As far as I know, that was actually in the episode proper.

#13 & #14. “The Beginning of the End”: Weird that Sombra never came back. Nope, he’s totally super-duper for reals defeated this time.

#15 & #16. “The Ending of the End”: I’ve mentioned this before, but big, epic battles do absolutely nothing for me when there isn’t any substance to them. If some super-powerful being is fighting some other super-powerful being, it’s no different from a normal being fighting another normal being. Scaling it up doesn’t make it more interesting. The plan involving undermining everypony’s trust in each other was a good idea, but they forgot that every single background character in this show is dumb as a box of hammers and changes allegiance on a dime, so that was never really going to work. Plus, the fact that it was Discord the whole time was just...ugh.

#17. “Dragon Dropped”: Oh, really, Rarity? Now you care about Spike? Geez. We can’t end the show without Spike continuing to be a punching bag. (But he’s buff in the last episode, so it’s fine.)

#18. “The Last Crusade”: Given how a few of the later episodes on this list, I’m surprised it didn’t turn out that Scootaloo’s parents were secretly testing her the entire time. “We just wanted to make sure that you really meant it when you said you didn’t want to move!”

#19. “Uprooted”: After Sombra destroys the Tree of Harmony, the Student Six have to work together to...decide how best to memorialize it. I just wanted to remind everyone how moronic the premise of this episode was. That’s all.

#20. “The Last Problem”: God, this framing device sucked. Without it, this episode might have been higher on the list. As it was, it rendered the entire thing pointless.

#21. “Daring Doubt”: Wow, it turned out the villain wasn’t really the villain the whole time! Please ignore any contradictory information that may have cropped up in previous episodes.

Did you notice that there were three unrelated episodes this season whose titles began with “The Last...”? Talk about uncreative.

#22. “Going to Seed”: Children really don’t need more outlets encouraging them to believe adults who lie to them for their own gain and/or pleasure. There really needs to be a show that teaches, “There are people out there who profit from lying to you.”

#23. “2, 4, 6, Greaaat”: This and the next one on this list are the double-header of “It’s okay to trick and manipulate someone if you think it’ll teach them a lesson they need to learn!” episodes.

#24. “She Talks to Angel”: Notice in both of these cases (Rainbow Dash’s in the former, Fluttershy’s in the latter) that these were not, in fact, lessons that they needed to learn! Twilight and Zecora just got to be smug assholes and pat themselves on the back at the end. Yippee.

#25. “A Trivial Pursuit”: Remember, this was the episode immediately before Celestia told Twilight how qualified she was to run a country. This was a mere seven episodes before the finale. Character growth is super easy if you just say that it happened! Also, as a major trivia buff, this was just insulting on every level.

#26. “Growing Up Is Hard to Do”: This episode really brought back the name of my blog. After so many that I didn’t care about, it felt good to have a nice long rant again, and boy, did this one deserve it.

So...what will G5 bring? Different characters? Different stories? Different writers? At this point, who knows? Maybe I’ll be there to find out.

#my little pony: friendship is magic #my little pony friendship is magic #my little pony #friendship is magic #mlp fim #mlp #fim #my little pony spoilers #mlp spoilers #spoilers #season 9 retrospective #retrospective

2 notes · View notes

higuchimon · 3 years

Text

[fanfic] Savor The Display: Chapter 2 [end]

Mizael didn't often find himself at a loss for words, but this wasn't an often-seen situation. Vector being his form of affectionate - which more often than not involved embarrassing Mizael in some fashion - happened more than it didn't. But he'd never yet experienced being in the middle of kissing Vector and being interrupted by Tskumo Yuuma.

Vector, fully immersed in his persona of Shingetsu, took a step away from Mizael and smiled a little weakly. "I found him lurking around here and decided to distract him."

Mizael wasn't certain of how to think about that. He decided not to bother with it and stepped away from Vector, brushing himself off. "I wasn't distracted," he declared. "I have nothing to do here." He stepped away again and called up a portal, stepping through it and letting it close quickly behind him. Whatever Vector wanted to do after this was completely on him. Mizael refused to have anything else to do with this situation. He didn't care what Tskumo Yuuma thought of him.

Now if it had been Kaito there - that might have been a little different. There wasn't any way that he would back down from another combat with the enemy of his soul. He ground teeth together that he wasn't used to having, wondering where Kaito might even be. It was far better to think about that form of combat than anything that Vector tried to do.

The portal opened up a fair distance away, depositing him in an alleyway. This one seemed much cleaner and tidier than the one he'd encountered those idiots in, and he almost regretted stepping out of it to try to get his thoughts sorted out. There weren't many people moving about here, and he finally did what he hadn't yet, stopping a teenager.

"I require directions to the library," he requested, restraining himself from demanding the answers he wanted. Better to get this taken care of so it didn't haunt him even more. He wanted to figure out what humans did about soul-marks, especially like his.

The human he'd chosen proved to be a very useful informant, instructing Mizael on how to reach the library. It wasn't exactly that far away, so Mizael hurried along the way, wanting to get this done before Vector turned up and found him again. He supposed that would happen sooner or later. Vector had indicated he had plans that Mizael would take part in. That wasn't something Mizael really looked forward to. He'd never liked Vector's plans.

He entered the library and started searching around, quickly figuring out how the books were organized. It wasn't that difficult; this had been designed by humans, after all.

Soulmate and soul-enemies, he mused after he'd read everything he could find on the subject. Humans, with all their myriad of ways to detect soul-bonds of any kind, did have that happen on occasion. From what he'd discovered, that was one of the rarer ones. That tracked with what he already knew. There were apparently several human fictions about events that transpired when a person had a soulmate and a soul-enemy who either didn't like each other or did care deeply for one another. One human play even involved having the main characters' soulmate being the offspring of their family's hereditary soul-enemies.

That might be interesting to read one day. He would check into it when he had the time. But not right now.

Nothing he'd found had given him any real answers on what to do about his own situation. Not that he'd expected it to. He knew very well what it was that he needed to do - defeat Kaito and assure the victory of the Barian World. That might be difficult but not remotely impossible.

Nothing that he chose to do was impossible. It would simply take time. He had time. He had all the time that he wanted or needed.

Slowly he rubbed the arm that had Kaito's name on it. He wanted to rip the name off. He hated being branded with it against his own will. He didn't quite enjoy having Vector's name on his other arm, for that matter. But even humans had no way to get rid of the names.

With nothing else to learn here, he got up and headed out of the library. He hadn't decided where he wanted to go from here. There really wasn't anywhere else he needed to go. He felt he should return to the Barian World, but a tiny part of that felt like retreating and Mizael didn't retreat from a fight, especially if he didn't know what the fight was.

Perhaps, he considered, he should make an effort to find Vector and see what had happened with Tskumo Yuuma. He doubted Vector had given up the Shingetsu persona so very easily, and he spun webs of lies and deceit with the ease of centuries of practice. Yuuma would be once more eating out of his hand. Mizael hated the thought of that, but there wasn't much he could do about it right now.

He wasn't sure of how long he wandered before an odd tingling swept through him. His first thought was that Vector was around somewhere, but it didn't come from the correct arm. The dawning understanding of which arm it did come from required one response - he warped quickly to the top of the tallest nearby building and checked around.

He had to be somewhere around there. Then Mizael saw him. Kaito stood just one building away, that ridiculous robot of his by his side, glaring at him. Mizael glared right back.

"What are you doing here?" Kaito demanded, voice carrying clearly despite the noises of the crowds down below. Mizael raised hi head proudly.

"Certainly nothing that you need to concern yourself about." The fact he'd simply been walking, with no real goals in mind, wasn't any of Kaito's business at all. They were fated enemies. All Kaito needed to worry himself about was the day when Mizael inevitably defeated him.

"I'll make the decision on what to concern myself about." Kaito snapped back. "I thought you hated this world."

"I do." That Mizael wouldn't ever deny. "That doesn't mean I'm not allowed to find some things mildly useful." He knew it wasn't the best decision to face Kaito here and now. The strength of their respective dragons and wills to battle one another would lay waste to vast regions. Mizael could not have cared less about that, but it would also be messy and inconvenient, and he couldn't use his full power in this world regardless. The proper time for their true battle hadn't yet arrived.

Oh, but it would, and when it did, he fully intended to leave Kaito a broken shell in the dust. He quite looked forward to it.

Kaito's fists clenched, his sharp eyes resting on Mizael. The Barian Emperor regarded him calmly, thoroughly enjoying the way the other watched him so warily. Then another thought occurred to him. Vector worked with lies and misdirection. He'd always preferred an honest and open battle. Kaito likely wouldn't believe him regardless. He'd never yet mentioned to the other that they were soul-enemies. Perhaps it was time.

"If you must know, I came here to research what humans know of soulmate markings," Mizael said at last. "Though I found out nothing that I didn't already know."

"Why would you care about that?" Kaito demanded. Mizael wasn't surprised. If he'd met a human in the Barian World who'd wanted to find out what they knew about the marks that bound souls to one another, then he would have been suspicious as well.

"Because I have one. Two, in fact." Mizael savored Kaito's expression. So surprised, so shocked. As if he'd never imagined that Mizael would have a soulmate. Though perhaps he'd just never imagined Mizael as having a soul in the first place. But he would learn.

"Two soulmates?" Kaito scoffed at the very notion. "Let me guess, two of your Barians?"

Oh, if he could only be that lucky. Mizael snorted softly. "Who my soulmate is isn't any of your concern. But I have a soulmate and a soul-enemy. Someone I'm bound to battle, no matter what. Someone I will hate, regardless of time or space." He stared at Kaito, the tiniest flicker of amusement on his lips.

Kaito, to his credit, didn't take more than a moment to understand. He crossed his arms and sneered back. "You think I'm your soul-enemy?"

"I don't think it. I know." Mizael slipped his sleeve up and revealed the name written in flawless markings on his left arm. Kaito Tenjo - the same who stood before him, looking - looking -

Surprised? Shocked? In disbelief? Kaito simply didn't understand the depth of the hate that burned in him at the idea of a soul-enemy, clearly. Perhaps he'd only thought of their rivalry in terms of the conflict between a human and a Barian or between dragon-users. Perhaps it had never occurred to him that it could be something deeper, something woven into their very souls.

Kaito's eyes turned furious. "You're wrong."

That wasn't what he'd expected. Mizael raised one eyebrow lightly. "I am?" Now this seemed just a trifle interesting. What could Kaito possibly be thinking that he was wrong about?

"You're not my soul-enemy and I'm not yours." He actually seemed to believe that. Mizael refused to back down. He'd known for as long as he could remember what those names on his arms meant. He might never have known who Kaito was until they met in this world, but he couldn't remember a time when the sight of that name hadn't infuriated him beyond the ability of words to convey.

"Really. And what makes you think that?" Mizael had to hear this, if only to be able to properly laugh at it. Perhaps Kaito didn't even believe in the divine power of soulmates and soul-enemies? Wouldn't that be amusing if he didn't? Another point that would have to be hammered into him.

"Because - " Kaito hesitated, not meeting Mizael's eyes. Now that was fascinating in and of itself. Never before had he seen Kaito even consider backing down. He couldn't hold himself back. He didn't even want to. He leaped over to the building Kaito stood on and strode closer.

"Here is your name, on the arm that means you're the one I am to hate for all time," Mizael said coolly. "You can see it with your own eyes."

"I know." Kaito shook his head even as he said the words. "But that's not what I have on my arm."

"What are you talking about?" Mizael demanded. Did Kaito have someone else as his soul-enemy? Perhaps Vector? Or Nasch? C Could it be Nasch? Or someone else who he'd already defeated or not yet faced? Was he nothing more than an irritant to Kaito, someone to be disposed of before facing the true for of his life?

For the first time in his very long existence, Mizael could feel the stirrings of jealousy. How dare Kaito have another person as the enemy of his heart and soul? It wasn't to be tolerated! He would find whoever this was and shred them into nothing more than dust and ashes! How dare someone else take this position from him? It wasn't allowed!

Then Mizael mentally shook himself. He didn't get this worked up outside of a duel and this wasn't a duel. Close to one, and it did involve his most hated person, but he needed to keep his focus sharp.

Kaito hadn't noticed anything. The distraction had taken only a few seconds, after all. But he regarded Mizael firmly, then pulled up his own sleeve on his right arm and shoved it out towards Mizael. He could read any human language; it was one of the gifts of being a Barian. So he understood the words there.

Or, in fairness, the word. One single word, written in gleaming gold and edged in brilliant blue, as hard as rock, on Kaito's skin. Mizael had never seen his own name written in human writing until now. But he knew what it looked like regardless. He glared at Kaito.

"What nonsense is this?" This was Kaito's right arm. The arm of the soulmate - but how could his name be on Kaito's right arm? On the left he wouldn't have cared at all. It was supposed to be like that, enemies of the soul bound together for all time. That was the proper order of reality.

Kaito shrugged, tugging his sleeve down again. "I've known all my life about you. I never cared. But now you're trying to claim that we're enemies?"

Mizael wasn't sure if Kaito was upset by the difference or not. There was a small ghost of a thought in the very back of his mind that something wasn't right at all. He'd never encountered a situation where the markings indicated something on this level before. It wasn't that it couldn't happen, but that it never had, and he didn't know what to do about it.

Yes, you do, he remonstrated with himself. He's your enemy. He's human and all humans are your enemies. Like it or not, Vector is your soulmate. Even if you don't love him, your souls are bound together.

That didn't mean a thing to Mizael, but he knew it was true whether it was or not. It also didn't matter what the name on Kaito's arm was. What mattered was what he knew.

"Because we are. Perhaps your marking is reversed. But we are enemies and I will end you sooner or later." Mizael knew what he'd read about human soul-markings. They were the same as Barians. But he wasn't going to say that something like that couldn't happen. Whatever power had created his Photon Mode could have reversed the marks, or it could be some other power that Mizael had no knowledge of. Regardless, he knew the difference between the enemy of his soul and his soulmate.

Unable to hear another word of such idiocy, he turned on his heel. "You better be ready to give me a good fight when the time comes," he threatened, and teleported away. He and Kaito, soulmates? What nonsense. As if he'd ever be partnered to a human in any fashion.

Vector's plan had best come to fruition soon, Mizael decided. Then they could move forward with the utter destruction of the Astral World and he wouldn't have to put up with humans ever again.

He also decided he wasn't going to tell Vector about this. Vector had his own jealousy issues. It would be better if he never knew. In fact, no one else needed to know, ever. Perhaps once he defeated Kaito, but until then, he might only recently have come into possession of a mouth, but he knew how to keep it shut.

The End

Notes: I know exactly why the marks are different. There is a reason behind it. And one day, Mizael will know that reason.

#fanfic #higuchimon writes #ygo zexal #Vector (Zexal)#mizael (zexal)#Vector x Mizael #mizael x vector #chapters: savor the display #au: soulmates

0 notes

sammyjs-ponies · 6 years

Text

My Thoughts on MLP G5 Rumors (Potential Spoilers)

So you've probably heard about the massive MLP leaks lately. Among those have been a supposed plan for a Generation 5.

Below the Read More is my detailed opinion on the rumored direction of G5, and the things that I would like to see in a new generation.

The leaked concept art and information is highly debated on if it's real or not. I'm not going to share the images since it's a touchy subject for a lot of people, but by now if you want to see them, it's easy to find if you google "My Little Pony G5".

So, while the images are convincing, to me they look more like a really nice quality fanart than something a show would produce. From an animator's point of view, while the designs are pretty to look at, they are very complex and not practical at all to animate. I've heard rumors that it will be done in 3D instead of 2D (which is a huge disappointment), but even then, the designs have a LOT going on that would be distracting as an animated character.

It gives the impression that the show will:

Cut corners on animation quality to make up for the time it takes to work with that much detail.

Cut corners on story quality to make up for the time and effort it would take to animate that much detail nicely.

Become a more toy-focused generation and not have much of a show at all.

Judging how they've made a lot of smart decisions with G4 business-wise (not saying all the decisions were smart), it seems unlikely they would make a lot of these changes. But then again, the staff has changed a lot since the "good seasons" of G4. There's also looking back at how we all thought things like the Pokemon Sun & Moon starter concept art was fake, but it turned out to be real.

Assuming it is true, the plans/rumors I've heard so far are as follows:

(POTENTIAL SPOILER WARNING)

The same "Mane Six" characters are staying, and their designs (as in their colors and hairstyles) are staying the same. However, their species' are changing. Twilight to an Earth Pony, Fluttershy to a Unicorn, Pinkie to a Pegasus, etc. They will also be living in somewhat of an alternate universe.

Right away, this sounds more like a 0.5 generation. A completely new generation would have all NEW characters in an all NEW world. They might borrow a few names (Like Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy all came from G3), and their designs and personalities might nod to their past incarnations, but they would be completely different characters. While a 0.5 generation will instead keep all the same characters, maybe change a few designs or personality traits (like what happened to Toola Roola and Cheerilee in G3.5/Core 7) and make a dramatic change in the art and animation style.

It will be CGI/3D.

This one is argued on whether or not it's true. Like I said above regarding how difficult the leaked designs would be to animate, 3D would certainly make the most sense if they want to animate this much detail efficiently. But if this is the case, I am severely disappointed. I was proud of MLP for going so long without falling into the generic, cheap, 3D animation route.

It will cater to an older demographic and have more mature elements.

This I am skeptical of, but not doubting. The MLP franchise knows all too well what they can get from an adult fanbase, but they could also face a lot of backlash from angry parents who might feel like they can't let their little girls watch MLP anymore because it's suddenly become violent (or God forbid, sexual). I'm curious to see what they mean by this. It could be fantastic and enjoyable, or it could be a massive failure.

They are changing some of the characters' personalities. In particular, they are changing Applejack to something more generic to promote diversity.

Am I the only one who sees a HUGE contradiction here? To create a more diverse cast, they're getting rid of the most unique main character, the only one with an accent and a tie to a specific culture? Do they know what diversity means? Removing a race is the opposite of diversity. Diversity is to have a lot of unique and different things. Diversity is NOT simply removing everything that is white or tied to whiteness. If this is what they plan to do, it says a lot about the direction the show is going to go. We may be bracing for a propaganda-fest of progressive racism and who knows what other Leftist and Social Justice ideals being shoved down our throats. The fear of this once pure show tiptoeing into sexual content doesn't sound so farfetched now...

They want the ponies to act even less like horses, because even now, they think they're too much like horses.

In a leaked email, McCarthy was recorded expressing worry that the ponies are too horse-like. THEY ARE HORSES for crying out loud! That was the appeal of the show, especially for people like me. We like the show because we like horses! We WANT them to be horses!

(END OF POTENTIAL SPOILERS)

So, what would I want in a Generation 5?

Knowing what MLP has done right and done wrong in its lifetime, plus what I would like to see, this is what I would want from a Generation 5:

First of all, MAKE THEM LOOK LIKE THEY'RE ACTUALLY SUPPOSED TO BE EQUINES.

What was appealing about past generations (G3 in particular) is that they were horses, resembled horses, and appealed to horse lovers. G3.5 and even more so G4 strayed violently from looking like something that was supposed to be a horse. I might get a lot of hate from G1 fans for this, but while the G1 TV show did a great job of making the characters look like horses, the toys looked like Hippopotamuses. I loved the G1 cartoon, but the toys don't appeal to me at all. They did improve some over the years, but in general (ESPECIALLY the baby ponies) looked more like Hippos to me than horses. The G3 toyline in particular did the best job of looking like horses, and I'd love to see something go that route again.

While you're at it, let them ACT like horses!

In complete contradiction to what the MLP staff say they want, I really loved it in the first few seasons in G4 when they would nod to the fact that they were horses by giving them horse-like mannerisms once in a while, like making them whinny when they were surprised or excited (they did bring it back once recently for Shining Armor) and that one time in the Buffalo episode where Rainbow Dash snorted when she was angry. It was really clever.

Not so many main characters, yet still not focusing on any one particular pony

One thing that both G1 and G3 did right was not having a set cast of main characters that dominated the series. There were a few "spokesponies" that appeared often, but were more seen as... idk... like the "leaders" of the town? than "THESE are the MAIN characters that you're SUPPOSED to pay attention to!!!" It gets old focusing on the same characters for so long, and you can only drag out a character arc so far. That's why FiM has lost my attention. When you start out from the beginning by focusing on a different character or set of characters every episode, you could seemingly run the show as long as you wanted to and always have new material.

Bring back the wide character assortment in toys!

My Little Pony's "Thing" has always been, until now, to have a wide selection of characters to collect. If the character was in the show, there would (almost) always be a brushable toy figure of them that you could own, and then some. There was no shortage of designs and colors to choose from, and if they weren't in the show, that added to the creativity of playing with them because you could make up your own personality for them. With G4, all you get are the main characters, maybe 3 or 4 background characters, and 2 or 3 "creative" characters. I don't know about other kids or kids nowadays, but when I was little, I always loved to have empty slate characters that I could project my own ideas and personalities onto.

Don't you DARE make it 3D.

This is more of a personal preference than what may or may not benefit everyone, but PLEASE MLP. PLEASE don't fall into the "just another generic, dumb 3D kids' show" hole. PLEASE.

Make something wholesome that can still touch on not necessarily adult topics, but deep topics (like the reality of death) the way older shows weren't afraid to do.

Don't focus too much on being funny. Like the 3D trap, nothing makes civilized people who crave substance turn off your show like a cartoon that acts like the only emotion kids feel is humor. Witty and clever gags are good. Random is funny in moderation. But if that's all your show has going for it, people are going to brush it off at best, and rabidly hate it at worst. We need shows like G1 that could go on adventures and help characters overcome problems. Problems that often got deep, and even invoked empathy, sadness, or even fear. We need shows like G3 that could inspire us and ignite our dreams. We don't need more shows that have to rely on pop culture references, making every moment "funny", and breaking the fourth wall.

#My Little Pony #My Little Pony G5 #My Little Pony Leaks #MLP Leaks #G5 Leaks

23 notes · View notes

santostonehouse-blog · 6 years

Text

The Greatest Gamings From 2017.

It is actually not consistently simple caring for a senior citizen. There is actually an item called G5 Organic Silica that you can have that will definitely help the body acquire this beneficial mineral but that will definitely also leap begin additional calcium mineral manufacturing and usage in the physical dieta-tomka.pl body. This is actually been unsatisfying this holiday to think that I have to restrict my Amazon.com purchasing, however I possess, considering that I want to ensure that I, as an individual, am actually doing whatever I could to encourage the suppliers that offer to me that they're mosting likely to need to carry out points right to maintain me as a customer.

3. Normally, internal troubles like scalp stroke, drunkenness, or even trauma are aspects that result in individuals to be comatose, nonetheless, sometimes medical doctors will definitely induce a coma to make sure that the person are going to certainly not manage to really feel excessive bodily discomfort. In a typical month, 39.2 per-cent of children received some form of means-tested benefit, compared with 16.6 per-cent of individuals grow older 18 to 64 and 12.6 percent from folks 65 and more mature. To figure out even more about this and also various other mass natural herbs, browse through Greater than Alive - an on the web establishment and relied on resource for loved ones wellness information. Much of my clients have actually emotionally consumed when Facebook produced them think alone or poor concerning on their own," mentions Susan Albers, Psy.D. A 2013 research study coming from researchers at Columbia University and College of Pittsburgh posted in the Publication from Consumer Study discovered that folks who spent additional time on Facebook had much higher BMIs (body system mass mark, a measure of weight for height) as well as improved overindulge consuming.

They are actually alone, they have cats and also animals as a surrogate loved ones, no children, no actual career, as well as unlike their traditional and oft-mocked 1950's homemaker that got her passed-away husband's pension, they possess $120,000 in student lendings for their "Expert in Wellness Management" degree and also it is actually all of due to the fact that they swallowed entire just what feminism told them. Nonetheless, Lord Ted adores to acquire characters and my main reason for creating is actually to inquire if you could save a little from your opportunity to send a little bit of details to wish him effectively and also thank him wherefore he has actually created for all of us. Although that a few of these compounds pose just as a lot a threat to our health as well as environment as their chlorinated as well as brominated versions (i.e. they are actually extremely consistent as well as fat deposits soluble as well as a lot of accumulate in the food chains and also our body system fat), those organizations and also companies which have actually behaved to limit the wide-scale circulation of these other halogenated products, seem to be to have a dead spot for the hazards presented by organofluorine compounds. This is a wonderful kind of herbal tea for people that would like to view their caffeine consumption or that are actually certainly not made it possible for just about anything with coffee in it. You can easily still enjoy a drink with an outstanding flavour, however merely if you put in the time to try to find a company that performs certainly not risk on quality when this concerns the teas that they use to their customers. Goku was hemorrhaging but this took A GREAT DEAL coming from Little one Buu to create that take place to the Super Saiyan 3. Your survival opportunity without food or water is actually very customized and is accordinged to your size, hydration condition and also activity level.

Android phones with extra-long monitors will definitely stretch applications to make use of the entire screen, but there is actually no such option listed below. If writing isn't your favorite, you can give your companies to services or individuals either personally or even through Skype or even Google.com Hangouts. 3 - Over weight folks are actually two times as likely to develop style 2 diabetes mellitus as those which maintain a well-balanced weight. With the help of his influence, I have taken pleasure in the experience of the option and a life-time to create it as an entertainer in my very own right.

0 notes

bronyinabottle · 3 years

Text

G5 MOVIE THOUGHTS FOLLOWUP - THE ANCIENT EQUESTRIAN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

SPOILER WARNING: THIS WILL GET INTO SPOILERS FOR THE G5 MOVIE EVEN BEFORE THE BREAK. IT HAS BEEN JUST OVER A WEEK SINCE THE MOVIE PREMIERED. BUT IF YOU STILL HAVEN'T SEEN IT, PLEASE SCROLL PAST THIS.

This is something of a follow-up to my thoughts on the movie. My thoughts on the movie were generally positive. Though much like the movie itself, the positive thoughts were on what it’s doing on it’s own merit as the start of a new generation of pony media. As someone who had followed Generation 4 from all the way in the middle of Season 1 to the ending of Season 9, the connection the G5 movie makes with the previous generation in the opening scenes are enough that it’s necessary to give a perspective from a G4 fan’s point of view. Again, I do want to say that G5 will be within it’s right to not have to answer so many plot things at once and try to stand on it’s own by exploring the characters and this new Equestria first.

That said, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the longer none of the questions G4 fans will have are answered. There is a huge elephant in the room with the unanswered questions from G4. And It is Hasbro’s fault in the first place for telling us it’s the same Equestria, There will be fans that are annoying about it from multiple angles, and there will probably be times where people who just want to enjoy G5 on it’s own just outright snap at anyone who wants their answers about what happened in between G4 and G5. Even if the person who asks the question is just genuinely curious and not being demanding there be answers. This is just the kind of thing that all fandoms that have timeskip sequels, especially ones where it overrides a happy ending where discussing with other friends can get dicey.

HAPPY ENDING OVERRIDES AND ALICORNS

Until we get an official answer from the show itself, we can only theorize with each other. Though theorizing about a happy ending override, regardless of how long it’s been and/or how sensible the theory is can start some heated discussions, Cause many were content with the happy ending of the original. While no realistic story ever has a happily ever after, a story within a fantasy land such as MLP’s can be an exception.

Let me give something of a comparison by bringing up another show. Avatar: The Last Airbender is perhaps my favorite show of all-time. And while it’s true I didn’t like the sequel series Korra as much as A:TLA. It wasn’t because of some happy ending override with at least half of the main cast from the previous series deceased. The Avatars themselves are just as human as the other characters in the world. Avatar’s still a fantasy world when all is said and done, but the way the world building is done still made it feel like it it was possible for the world to be in danger again by the time the next Avatar is grown up, most known Avatars had challenges they had to face. The Avatar series blends some form of realism but still manages to provide a fun fantasy world. It’s a case where it’s believable that the main legacy of Aang’s time as the Avatar aside from defeating the Fire Lord where he created Republic City would have it’s own fair share of problems that would be left to his successor to solve. Aang in turn was finishing the war that Roku failed to stop. So while I have my criticisms about Korra, none of those are related to the way the world is after the timeskip. It reasonably makes sense in the context of the Avatar universe.

In contrast, there isn’t much we know about the past of G4 and it’s a much more idealistic setting then in Avatar. Yes, ponies die with what I assume are human-esque lifespans for the exception of the Alicorns. But Friendship is Magic is a setting where the power of friendship is literal magic power that can save the day even when things look bleak. As a result it can get very sappy, but FiM is the kind of show you watch to put a smile on your face rather then go to for a multi-faceted plot. Most episodes of FiM are the kind of thing you see in a lot of other shows. But what brings most of it’s fans back even for the most overdone plots is the characters and their interactions. FiM’s lore is a lot less straight forward, and sometimes may feel not as consistent given there were so many different writers over the long span of time. That said, there is something about the series that sort of ties in heading into G5 and that’s G4’s history, and especially Alicorn lore. We don’t get a lot of either even back in G4, as the most we get is the founding of Equestria was through the Hearth’s Warming Eve story, and the knowledge that Alicorns like Celestia and Luna are at least older then 1000. Which is a huge gap compared to the Avatars that no matter how powerful, have similar mortality to our own. Throughout G4’s time, the debate about Alicorns have raged throughout the whole time even before things got really heated upon Twilight becoming an Alicorn in Magical Mystery Cure. Some went with Celestia and Luna being the only immortal Alicorns while Cadence and Twilight were somehow lesser Alicorns that aren’t immortal but maybe at least still a longer lifespan then their normal pony friends and family. Though as of Season 9, that may be turned on it’s head when in The Last Problem. Twilight eventually grows to Celestia-size as Celestia and Luna even retire to let Twilight succeed them. If Twilight is somehow a lesser Alicorn, why did she grow to Celestia’s size? Why did Celestia and Luna retire in the first place if they knew Twilight will not be as long lived as they are? Perhaps part of the reason G5 has as many questions as it does is because G4 itself created questions it never promised to answer.

That said, the implied length of Celestia and Luna’s rule still presents G5 with a problem that will be asked everywhere. Even if we go with the possibility that most of the Mane 6 have passed from old age, you still have to answer something about Twilight. If Twilight is also dead, how long did she live? Did she at least have an over-1000 year reign as Celestia did? Was perhaps Luster Dawn chosen to be her younger co-ruler if Luster herself ascended at some point? The kind of things that might actually force G5 into a corner when it comes to Alicorns despite the fact G4 never had to, especially now that Sunny may have just become one herself. This is once again, another of the traps Hasbro put the writing team through by having them put it in the same world. G5 thus not only adds questions about what happened in between the Generations, but also now has to inherit what remained unanswered in G4. That is a VERY tall task on a team that will likely just want to do their own little fun pony show. It’ll raise expectations too high, and there will be annoyed fans regardless how they spin it. Which could have all been avoided if they set it up that this was an entirely new world, or made G4 a fictional story (With all the references to it being mainly merchandise for a really meta look at things) in the G5 universe. You’d still have people complaining about it not being as good as G4 probably, but the approach they went with added more gasoline to the fire whenever G4 Vs. G5 debates happen in the MLP fandom. And inter-fandom generation fights are never fun, just ask the Pokemon and the Sonic fandoms how that turns out (Even though there’s no Generation number count for the Sonic franchise. You could say Gen 1 of Sonic was the classic era. Gen 2 was the Sonic Adventure Era. Gen 3 was the “Dark Age” Sonic 2006-Sonic Unleashed era. Gen 4 the Sonic Colors and Generations era. and Gen 5 the current Sonic Forces and Team Sonic Racing era. And then of course there’s also the different TV shows and comic books that also have their own fans that can be at each other’s throats).

There isn’t going to be an easy solution to something that will no doubt have fans on the edge on their seat even if they will be left to hang on that edge for a longtime before G5 starts to give some answers. I think I’ll at least bring up 3 things that will probably be part of the discussions of just what happened between G4 and G5

(More after the break)

1. AND THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED WHEN THE FIRE NATION AN UNKNOWN THREAT ATTACKED

With G4 being considered Ancient Equestria. It’s probably safe to assume this is at least 1,000 years after G4. And 1,000 or more is a really, really, long time. Where anything could of happened, including *GASP* a villain actually winning at some point (Or at least, did some lasting damage even if they were ultimately defeated). Though I think even with that possibility, there has to be a sense that the villain didn’t defeat the Mane 6 while the other members aside from Twilight were still alive. If Twilight was at some point defeated. Perhaps the villain struck when Twilight was most vulnerable. You could also have it that Twilight somehow sacrificed herself to defeat a large threat. She saved Equestria one last time, but at the cost of even her long-lasting alicorn life. With the populace left on their own to continue life without Twilight, but the loss of their longtime leader too much for Equestria. Thus a slow decline happened.

As for who the threat was it’ll probably be a while if we ever know. Perhaps the real Grogar showed up at some point and was truly a harrowing threat to deal with. Or something entirely new. Maybe it wasn’t even a villain, but a catastrophic natural disaster. Whatever it is, if this is the case. We’d have to deal with the sad thought of something being too much for even Twilight to handle

2. TWILIGHT BECAME DEPRESSED/JADED AFTER HER FRIENDS PASSED. POSSIBLY EVIL TOO?

This would basically be the cliche sadfic ending. Where after everyone of the Mane 6 has passed. Twilight just never felt the same afterward. Though I do feel like there is the slight counterpoint that maybe Twilight would still have Celestia and/or Luna (maybe, again we’ve never ever gotten full confirmation of how long Alicorns live. Just assured that it’s more then 1000 years) and she’d most certainly still have a full grown Spike and any of her friends descendants. Death is always a sad reality, but you have to wonder if Twilight would have prepared herself by the time that comes. Twilight would have not gone as far as she did without the rest of the Mane 6. But while I’m sure it would be a tearjerking moment, it’s not like Twilight wouldn’t have other friends she made throughout the generations. Celestia and Luna also must of gone through the same thing living for more then 1000 years, yet they seem pretty fine. So while the subject of “immortality blues” is prime for sadfic material in the fandom. It feels like there’d have to be more nuance then that, if this were the reason the time between G4 and G5 led into each other.

Supposedly, this theory is picking up some form of steam. To the point that a head canon is rolling around is that it was actually Twilight who sealed the magic away in the first place for one reason or another. Essentially making Twilight, in a huge plot twist, a villain in G5 or at the very least someone who took the magic with them into some form of Limbo very similar to Starswirl and the other founders during the Season 7 finale. I… personally don’t know how I’d feel about that. They’d have to be very careful with the execution of such a twist. And I’d want more nuance then simply Twilight getting sad about the deaths of her friends. At the very least, it’d likely eventually get to a point where this villainous incarnation of Twilight is reformed and probably becomes a recurring character from then on. But the writers will have to tread very carefully if this is the direction they take.

3. G5 IS AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT UNIVERSE/TIMELINE. JUST FOR THE MOST PART THE MAJOR EVENTS OF "ANCIENT EQUESTRIA" STILL HAPPENED

Perhaps this last one really gets into a more desperate side to deflect any possibility that the ending of G4 could of deteriorated into what the world becomes at the start of G5. I know there will be plenty that will be too frustrated with the lack of satisfactory answers that they annoy people in the comment sections, getting into situations where sometimes the only answer to those people will be others that just want to watch G5 as a fun show with a “cope”, “read a history book”, or “deal with it”. But honestly, there can be a case here. As I mentioned in my thoughts in the movie. There are visual details on characters and/or lore that while they may seem minor, to the point that even if they do ever answer important questions such as what caused magic to disappear and/or what happened to Alicorns like Twilight. That the staff may ignore completely because they think it’s too small of a detail to bother including. But the most nitpicky fan can and will latch on small excuses into why it can’t be the same.

Let’s begin with the one-sided Cutie Mark. Again, while it’s true that previous generations made this a tradition. And it was only on one side on the G4 toys as well, as the actual reason it was on both sides in the G4 show was because it was easier for the flash animators. That said, it’s still a big pony design inconsistency. Because regardless of it was only to make things easier, it became a staple because of how long G4 lasted. So it was still so weird to see early screenshot and artwork of G5 characters with grown ponies with no mark. When that wasn’t possible in G4, as it turned out it was because the one-sided cutie mark returned. But one side as opposed to both sides is still a significant difference. Similarly, the horns and wingtips being a different color then the coat may also be a significant difference. Of course I know it can be just waved off as art style difference, as the art direction is no longer based on what Faust wanted the ponies to look like. It’s still plausible enough for someone to discredit it as truly in continuity with G4. Cause even for those that are on the side of “More then 1000 years is a long time, anything could of happened” it’s a lot harder to argue against inconsistencies such as cutie marks only being on one side unless they switch gears to the meta explanation of “G4’s double sided cutie mark was not intentional, at least at first”. But from what most people saw in the G4 show, G4 ponies had marks on both sides. And the G5 ponies don’t. It’s again, quite nitpicky. But it’s enough to start a case that at the very least, the ancient past of G4 is not 100% the same G4 we saw in the show.

Speaking of not the same G4 we saw in the show, another possibility is that G5 actually came out of an alternate timeline. Where perhaps the last two seasons did not happen. If perhaps it’s a timeline where major events in the show either ended anywhere between the end of Season 4 or the end of Season 7, then it starts to feel a little more possible. (Supposedly, the tree of harmony in it’s Season 9 form that might counteract it. But then again it had none of the treehouse architecture and was all wood. Which ironically may lead into it leaning more that the G4 show isn’t the same continuity). If the events of the Friendship School nor everything else that leads to the ending we saw in The Last Problem. It’d be a lot more palatable because the pretty much implied world peace ending with non-ponies in the mix included is discounted. There’d still be questions even in this scenario, like did Celestia and Luna still retire in this timeline then. And regardless if they did or not, the show would still be burdened with the question of what happened to the Alicorns. But it’d at least solve the most pressing question with the peace of The Last Problem being squandered. Because perhaps in this timeline, the Mane 6 never went that far. Perhaps it would imply some sort of indirect failure in that case. But this is perhaps a scenario they had a similar foreign policy as Celestia did. Not really hostile to anyone, but not intervening even in ways that could be helpful. Heck, if we go far enough in saying that G5\s G4 (As confusing as that may sound) was different from what we saw in Friendship is Magic, what if there were differences even early on for one reason or another? With how vague the connection is, we only know that the Mane 6 were friends and Twilight still became a princess at some point. From there. potentially a lot of other things may have gone differently other then that.

Again, saying G5 is a completely different universe/timeline is probably always going to sound like a desperate way for people who cannot possibly believe the ending of G4 eventually led to the start of G5. And I’d understand why that’ll annoy people who just want to watch the G5 series on it’s own merits. But it really wouldn’t be entirely the fans to blame for that attitude. G4 lasted a whole decade, many got attached to the characters/world we saw that had about the happiest ending it could possibly be. It should naturally make people unhappy that in a few ways it’s stomping over a happy ending for this fantasy world that many watched to escape from the realities of the real world.

Even with the long time allotted of 1000+ years or more, that’s made complicated by the implied long lives of the Alicorns from G4. Only opening up that can of worms further by seemingly making Sunny an alicorn. There’s a debate on whether this form is permanent, but if it’s NOT permanent. That arguably adds yet another addition to the list of reasons it may fall out of continuity. The only time we had a temporary Alicorn transformation (outside of Animation errors, or dream sequences like Big Mac’s) was when Cozy was an Alicorn after receiving some of the magic from Grogar’s bell. But even in that case, Cozy’s wings were not more like a glowy hologram like Sunny’s wings seem to be. And even if it is permanently on Sunny now, the design for Alicorns is too different. Adding onto the one-sided cutie marks, and different colored wings and horns. So the G5 writers may actually be stuck in a lose/lose situation when it comes to Alicorns after the ending of the movie. I think whether Sunny is permanently an Alicorn or not, they may not elaborate enough about it. And it’ll be among the headaches in the comment section (Though may at least be a reprieve from the political discussions G5 are going to have on occasion I imagine.)

Hasbro chose to try to say this is the same Equestria, and a new show needs conflicts to solve. But from the perspective of some G4 fans… it forces a world they loved, to get torn down into arguably a more divided world then even the Hearth’s Warming tale. Which said tale seems to have been implied to be from before Princess Celestia and Luna were around (Based on the lore of the unicorns being the one to raise the sun and moon) and thus yes. Somehow, if everything that happened in G4 is canon to G5. Then the world peace in The Last Problem in just a thousand years or so become worse then even Celestia’s sole rule.

RESPONDING TO “READ A HISTORY BOOK”

I’ve mentioned before, you can try to point to World History to point why this is a realistic take. But again, we don’t have an ancient civilization from 1000 years ago that we look up to as the pinnacle of peace in the world (Like I said, the Golden age of Ancient Greece and/or Rome still had slavery and brutal wars). That has literally never happened. What was shown in the Last Problem very much looked like it was that for Equestria. I feel it’s a terrible interpretation of time, especially in regards to the context that the leaders of Equestria tend to live for at least more then 1000 years to imply things would just go backward like that.

CONCLUSION

The movie on it’s own merits is a good start for the generation, though at the same time. It’s going to have some hard questions that’ll often be no-win situations for the writers. They can choose to ignore the G4 questions, understandably trying to tiptoe around as many cans of worms as possible which would allow them to do whatever the heck they want with G5. Maybe even getting a few stragglers frustrated with no answers to just shrug and continue watching anyway if the show entertains them enough. Or they can certainly try to at least give some answers on the biggest questions (What happened to the magic, and/or what was the fate of G4’s alicorns) but risk having an answer that just adds even more questions.

The movie is a decent start for a new generation if you only view it as a pilot for a new series, but if you view it as a sequel to Friendship is Magic. There are certainly problematic issues with that currently. Maybe the special in Spring, or the eventual Series will cover some of this but it does leave fans waiting a while for answers that they’re not promised to get, or at least not as quickly as they’d like. Remember when I mentioned that I may view some of this similarly to how I was about Starlight Glimmer after her sudden redemption at the end of Season 5? With many questions I wanted to know about Starlight before I could really accept her as a recurring character? (And not really fully coming into terms with her until I expanded on her myself in a story for I Dream of Twilight Sparkle) This may be how I have to view the connection of G4 and G5.

They can go one of two routes: At least try to give as much of a clear explanation as possible. Even if it’s one that doesn’t exactly answer everything, at least giving a good try may help with those who have questions remaining in relation to G4. If instead however, they go the Season 6 Starlight route of just about ignoring all the questions fans have, it’ll make things frustrating for many. At least with Starlight, she wasn’t the major focus in every episode. That said, Season 6’s job was to endear us more to her reformed character. Now with G5’s setup, it may be running well into a corner where they must try to answer what happened in between G4 and G5 or else you end up making a lot of fans lukewarm or worse to your series. Starlight’s reformation and then lack of ability of Season 6 to explain more about Starlight to us was a divisive moment. And G5 involving G4 brings over the same kind of feeling but on a larger scale because now it’s in the very premise of the generation’s plot, it’s less avoidable compared to one character. Because even when it comes to episodes that will not further the plot and it’s just a fun friendly moment between the members of the mane 5, this movie is how they met and thus the not fully explained premise would always be looming over like a large shadow. It probably doesn’t help that they’re basically starting with a reformed Starlight-esque moment when it comes to introducing it’s premise AND on top of that something similar although certainly with at least a lot less backlash then with Alicorn Twilight since it came so soon. Though I do have to think there will be people who think this was way too soon to be ascending Sunny, since at least we got to see Twilight’s journey to Alicornhood (Even if you weren’t a fan of the episode she ascended in). Sunny arguably does earn her Alicornhood through implied years of working to unite the ponies. But it can still feel too soon when you had 2 1/2 seasons worth of episodes before Twilight did, while Sunny did so within one movie.

Someone’s ultimate thoughts on G5 might end up being what they are looking for in this new generation. If they’re looking for just about everything new. The movie provides plenty of that with new characters, new locations, and a more modernized world compared to G4 Equestria (Even if G4 Equestria had it’s own fair share of electronics it looked like, such as video game machines). If you’re in this for the G4 references. Aside from the very beginning of the movie, you’re kind of stuck doing a where’s waldo for most of the movie. And no guarantees you’ll get much more then that later. As I said in the trailer thoughts, the G4 stuff could very much be just Hasbro trying to bake it’s cake and eat it too. With a world that feels like it should be it’s own thing, but they didn’t want to commit entirely to that. So they shoehorn G4 in as the ancient past without giving a proper explanation to how point A (the end of G4) got to point B (the start of G5). It’s only been about a week since the movie premiered, but there is just so much to digest. And for those looking for answers to the G4 elephant in the room, may feel like they get nothing but metaphorical tummy aches for a long time.

I’ll end this off by having a message to both people who already feel like they’ll be fans of G5, as well as people like me who were fans of G4 and have concerns about where G5 may be doing to it’s legacy.

For the G5 fans, as I mentioned in the trailer thoughts. I still hope that it turns out ultimately good. I don’t know where things will go from here but the G5 movie taking in context that it’s basically a really long series premiere, had some genuinely enjoyable moments. At the same time, I hope anyone in the G5 fanbase can try to understand why G4 fans have the concerns that they do. I’ll repeat, G4 lasted a decade and was the absolute peak of MLP’s popularity. There will be a lot of people attached to that world, and understandably upset about the implication that it got torn down into how the world is at the start of G5. If they’re really annoying about it, I can understand why you couldn’t hold the urge to snap at them to “Get over it” just try not to snap at the ones who are just asking curiously. I’m personally not going to spam comment threads with “THIS DOESN’T FIT WITH G4!” or “HASBRO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS PLEASE”, but I would be lying if I were to say I’m not just as curious about what those type of fans want to know too.

And as for G4 fans like me, if G5 ever upsets you in some fashion. It’s ok to stop watching and just stay quiet whenever you find yourself in a conversation about G5 and only participate in G4 matters in the fandom. This is a natural evolution of a fandom’s lifecycle where eventually a direction a franchise is taken to a place some others don’t like. So you’re only left to mainly talk with those who prefer an older generation and/or incarnation. Just because G5 has started and even though Hasbro says it’s the same world as G4. You can still do G4 content by itself and ignore G5. If you still have the inclination to do stuff with G4, do it. Generation 5 is not stopping people from still drawing the G4 characters, or writing more stories about them, or even if you don’t feel you’re that creative. Support artists who are still drawing G4 ponies, and/or rewatch some of your favorite episodes of Friendship is Magic that give you a smile. MLP has lasted since the 80s, and while for the most part to Hasbro it’s to sell toys. Toys, and the shows surrounding them’s purpose is to make the people watching or playing with them smile. From the little girls in the 80s to the much more diverse both gender-wise and age-wise fandom that came out of G4. The cute ponies are supposed to make us happy, and it’s ok to get back into a comfort zone if perhaps a different part of Ponies don’t give you the same feeling or even upset you in some way. Also as a vice versa to my message to G5 fans, try as best you can not to provoke those enjoying G5. If the G5 movie and/or episodes makes them as happy as your favorite G4 episodes/movies you should let them be. Many of us had to deal with that crap just for daring liking a pony show at all early on in the fandom. Try not to add to the toxicity as best you can. G4 is not going to be forgotten, the fact Hasbro decided to try to make it in the same universe actually has the side effect of making sure of that. Cause maybe you have fans that enter the MLP franchise through G5 curious about what happened in the past. And thus, they can be led to watch the previous generation. New G5 fans could potentially also become new G4 fans and friends. In other words, friendship… is still magic!

#mlp #my little pony #g5 #mlp g5 #netflix #my little pony the next generation #my little pony movie #generation 5 #g4 #mlp g4 #generation 4

19 notes · View notes

bronyinabottle · 3 years

Text

Some Preliminary thoughts on MLP Generation 5

I was considering waiting for a Trailer before speaking on this. I assume one will probably come out any day now, heck the way things are coming out I probably won't be surprised if I end up sort of jinxing things and we get our first trailer smack-dab in the middle of tomorrow or something. But I do want to sort of give my current thoughts heading into G5. As we've gotten alot more tidbits then the rather vague details from the first few months since our first look at the new characters back in Feburary. If we do get a trailer, depending what is shown. Maybe I'll make a follow-up post.

I will first say that I do plan on giving both the movie and series a shot, none of the concerns that I express in this post will make me hesitate in at least checking how the movie and show goes on it's own merits. There is a possibility the movie and/or show ends up being fun despite the underlying concerns I'm about to say. Without further adieu, I'll begin.

((More thoughts after the break))

We are now almost 80 days from the premiere of G5. And most information up until recently have been fairly vague on what exactly is the G5 world. With a brand new cast, and even some vastly different design from the G4 pony design we knew it feels like at least from a visual standpoint that this is supposed to be an entirely new generation. The same way G1 or G3 is not the same universe as G4. However, both some vague information and recent information sort of dropped the bombshell that no, G5 is actually supposed to be in the same world that the G4 Equestria is. Which lets get to the general point of this:

Even if the G4 world that we loved in Friendship is Magic is sort of now this ancient past in which for at least thousands of years there was harmony between all the pony races and non-ponies alike as shown in the future of The Last Problem until perhaps some sort of slow collapse later on happened (Presumably long, long, LOOOOOONG after assumingly everyone of the Main 6 sans Twilight have died from old age). It... might be a bitter pill to swallow for any fan of G4 that loved the show's happy ending. Sure, at the very least it doesn't look like they're trying to say that at some point Twilight failed, as heck Sunny is probably sure to look at Twilight as this legendary hero to aspire to be like. But still, it just doesn't feel like a good look when while I get why G5 is having it's premise of Sunny and the others making the world a better place. Upon seeing the initial synopses of the show. It very much feels like it was Hasbro taking note of last year's George Floyd/BLM Protests. Which I will say is potentially a good direction. But it'd help if this was an entirely new universe that is having this divided world problem. Not a long time after G4 itself ended on the positive note on just about every notable species pony or non-pony alike are living in harmony where Sunny's goal had already basically been achieved.

I get the idea behind having G5 mentioned as the same world as G4. It's an attempt to have their cake and eat it too where they're trying quite a bit new and also try to keep many of the fans of G4 that proved to be a lightning in a bottle. It's a big truth that Friendship is Magic is going to be a hard act to follow even if G5 turns out great on it's own merits. Having an entirely new universe from Hasbro's perspective I also get have some risks. You toss away a world so many people love for one that the fans might find it hard to find an interest in flocking to like the previous one. At the same time though, taking G5 as the far future of G4 runs the risk of heavily feeling like everything Twilight and the Mane 6 did eventually fell to ruin and the ponies became divided again anyway despite the very finale showing they may have very well ended it for good. With even non-pony species part of the harmony that exists.

I guess the counterpoint may be that in if they must have G5 a follow-up in some way of G4. Then there must be some sort of conflict as otherwise the show would feel boring without many villains and/or adventures to save the day going on. The cost of G4's massive success is that no matter what direction they take G5, it's going to be a struggle for it to find the same footing. But what's worse: Making a new world which while it may potentially disinterest fans of G4 with a lack of familiar faces, it can have potential to grow in it's own fashion and maybe just maybe you'll get something of a following even if it's alot smaller. Or possibly saying it's in the same world where the world of Equestria has somehow gotten to the point that it got worse then when Celestia was ruling Equestria by herself (Because at least under Celestia even with Luna banished to the moon and Twilight was either not there yet or still training. The three pony races were generally united as they have been for more then a thousand years. Not segregated as they are implied to be in G5.)

And while it's too early to tell and could easily be still very much a part of G5 is the non-ponies that were featured in the later seasons. Will Changelings, Dragons, Kirins, Hippogriffs, etc. still play a role? Or will it only focus on ponies? Because the less there are of the non-pony species, the less it will feel like this truly is supposed to be the same world of Equestria we knew. Unless you want to say in a really dark direction that most non-pony species went extinct ever since G4 happened. Even if they're never going to explain how Equestria collapsed into the G5 world (Which I have something of a suspicion that they might never explain it completely)

And another question that is sure to follow... are all the Alicorns from G4. Whether it be Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Cadence, or Flurry Heart... all dead at this point? We never really got much lore about Alicorns even throughout all of G4. So while it's certainly still possible that the Alicorns are more mortal then the fans have been led to believe. That doesn't mean it's not an important question to think about. As if this supposed to be a follow-up to G4. G5 is well within it's right to tell us that maybe we overestimated the immortality of the Alicorns, though because G4 never gave us a straight answer... it means it's entirely on G5 to tell us it's own interpretation. No matter what they say will alienate some fans because the topic of Alicorns has always been a touchy subject even before Twilight herself became an Alicorn or even arguably before the introduction of Cadence due to the many, many, fan interpretations of Luna until we finally got a look at canon Luna in Luna Eclipsed and the fear of how many headcanons it'd destroy (Didn't turn out as bad as people thought it would, but just that the fear was there sowed the seeds of what discourse the Alicorns in G4 was going to cause)

Before we got the detail from the book that G4 is considered ancient equestria in G5's world. There was speculation on the possibility that G4 is actually fictional in G5 world. In other words, the G5 world is in fact an entirely new world but in a meta sort of way is a TV show that Sunny and others were a fan of. Which would explain both the changes that are much different from Equestria (With stuff like horn and wings being different colors from the coat) and the fact Sunny had Mane 6 figures and merchandise in her room. This in retrospect might of been the smarter decision because even with the slight possibility of making some G4 fans mad that they're entirely tossing out the previous series and only having it being mentioned in a fictional context. It wouldn't run the risk of overriding the happy ending. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if say if they took that direction they'd pull a Daring Do and have it that yes in fact G4 was once G5's past. But in order to show that, they'd have to bring back the G4 Mane 6 in some fashion. Perhaps in a pulled out of limbo-like fashion like they did for the Founders. Though that in itself comes with the problem that they'd want the Mane 6 to be actually recognizable and thus young looking. And if they come out of a limbo while still looking fairly young, it means they weren't around in the past for much long for some odd reason.

That's all I have for now at least on the top of my head. If there's a trailer coming soon I might make another of these as I said. And I'm also open to any responses whether if you want to tell me you have some of the same concerns or do anything that might calm my own concerns about the way G5 might be stepping on G4's toes whilst trying to maintain G4's fandom into the coming generations. Thanks to anyone who bothered to read. I wish good luck on G5, but if concerns aren't addressed and/or they end up correct on some fronts. There's a chance I may have quite the baggage clouding my mind even before the movie and series starts...

#MLP #my little pony #my little pony the next generation #g5 #g4 #mlp g5 #mlp g4 #netflix #my little pony movie #generation 5 #generation 4

8 notes · View notes