My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Live Reactions & Discussion)

So I just finished Daring Do and the Eternal Flower. So far, amongst the two of the three I've read thus far, it's better than Masked Thief of Marapore. The villains in this one were ultimately better, the pacing was better, and the adventure aspect was in full force. It once again gave Daring Do some extra character that hadn't present yet (her relationship with her uncle was adorable) while still making her really badass and her uncle is fun to read. Speaking of the villains, both books definitely make the villains more ruthless than their depiction in the series. Ahuizotl in the previous book left giant gash on Masked Thief's cutie mark for wanting to leave his crew and in this book, he feels more dangerous than comically hammy. There are still silly parts with him, but that moment where he catches Daring off-guard and holds her hostage in front of her uncle was pretty chilling. Meanwhile, when Caballeron reveals that Ahuitozl has her uncle, he really rubs it in her face. I'm actually surprised she did not buck in the face.

As for the story itself, I went back and read the summaries for the Indiana Jones movies to see if this might match up with anything as I haven't watched any of them, and it's basically a G/PG-rated Last Crusade, right down to the stallion who tasked Daring with finding her uncle, Thaddeus Vine, being the Bigger Bad and suffering for choosing the wrong Eternal Flower (though his body just puffs up into a balloon instead of dying).

edited 20th Oct '14 8:12:25 PM by AkoSiKuya23

@Meta: Fanboys: "We just really like being angry about things! It's all we know."

edited 20th Oct '14 8:11:41 PM by edvedd

Visit my Tumblr! I may say things. The Bureau Project

Yeah the shipping in LOK is ridiculous. It's like the writers saw all the shipping wars in the fandom and were like, they want shipping, we'll give them shipping! At least they made a great joke about it in season 3.

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@Meta: Oh yeah, I fully expect a disaster either way. But I'd rather not give them more material than they already have. They don't need the help.

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And of course, they're heavily gearing season 4 towards Korrasami.

I'm partly convinced the reason this is the final season is because it's gonna end in a big lesbian kiss.

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.

The shipping was the main reason I just could not get into Korra at all and just do not care about it at all.

@JT: So broken base? Seems normal.

We are all made of star stuff. Very, very weird star stuff.

Yeah, it's basically going to be business as usual.

In other news, I rewatched part of Fantasia for the first time in forever. I had forgotten how trippy that is.

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Wait, seriously? I haven't started watching season 4 yet, but I'm very surprised to see they're risking a prominent lesbian relationship. You don't see that much on TV.

Come on, it's not that bad. And it led to a hilarious moment in season 3.

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To be fair, the shipping stuff in season 1 did kind of kill my interest until Season 3, which I agree, handled things way better.

Korra still doesn't feel like appointment viewing though.

Visit my Tumblr! I may say things. The Bureau Project

It's not the greatest about shipping, but it's reputation is very exaggerated. I think the rep turns people off that would have otherwise liked it.

When you get down to it, it's still the same spirit, just different setting and characters. I'm personally happy it avoided the usual stasis and let the world progress.

Haven't seen the second half of 3 or 4, so can't comment on that. Though I'm skeptical Korrasami is anything at all. Even if I think it's the most logical conclusion from a personality standpoint.

Even funnier is if Applejack herself is never seen or talked about, even if her child is a main character.

Honestly I don't think I'd mind a Sequel Series that focused on the Mane Six's children/decedents if, like all things, is done well. On the other hand, Star Trek: The Next Generation doesn't follow the decedents of the Kirk Enterprise crew and that's basically the gold standard of Sequel Series (in my mind, anyways).

Actually, come to think of it the new Transformers cartoon that's coming next year is a Sequel Series to Transformers: Prime, and its suppose to follow Bumblebee leading a new team of Autobots, so Hasbro's not opposed to the concept. Granted Transformers has the advantage of the characters being nigh-immortal robots so you can go forward or backwards anywhere in the timeline and still use familiar characters, where as outside of a select few like Celestia, Luna, and Discord if you go forward or backwards in Equestria's timeline too much and you have to have a completely different cast. I'm pretty sure Hasbro still wants to make Pinkie Pie toys, so a supposed Friendship Sequel Series wouldn't say take place 1,000 years later (unless Pinkie finds the secret to immortality).

...I'm rambling, ain't I? This is what happens when a Pony Movie is announced, apparently.

edited 20th Oct '14 8:41:21 PM by Calnos

You there! Check out my Youtube Channel! The power of Ponies compel you!

Just how different the setting is from the first one is the other reason I couldn't get into it. it didn't feel like the same thing. It was just, to different, to at odds, to far from the world I liked from the original.

AJ's descendant will have a bitchin' robot leg after she lost hers in a cider making accident /unnecessary_darkness

Look, I've had a totally awesome future Equestria series follow up in my head for a while. I have ideas.

edited 20th Oct '14 8:42:59 PM by edvedd

Visit my Tumblr! I may say things. The Bureau Project

Make one of the New Mane Six a different bright pink, eternally cheerful pony. Go with Lauren's original sketch and make her a pegasus who flies like a hummingbird.

The difference with TF thoughis that it's allowed to have interseries continuity and a multiverse. MLP's just getting used to the idea of having solid continuity.

edit: You'd have to give Surprise a different name to make her an expy though.

edited 20th Oct '14 8:58:10 PM by darkabomination

I actually liked that they averted Medieval Stasis for once. It makes the world feel like a real breathing world, and the transition from steampunk to 1920s makes perfect sense.

Tonewise, I think LOK is noticeably aimed at an older audience, since the main characters are aged up from 12-16 to young adult range. And the older characters is probably the reason for having more romance too. Likewise, it's a darker, with more characters killed onscreen.

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My own idea for any kind of MLP sequel series is to retain the idea of a Mane 6 and the Elements, but have the viewpoint character NOT be the element of magic. In my case, I'm going with Honesty. She would be a journalist, so you can still do some moralizing.

A bit on the nose, but that's just me.

edited 20th Oct '14 8:59:59 PM by edvedd

Visit my Tumblr! I may say things. The Bureau Project

Actually, Hasbro has been trying to make a shared Transformers universe mostly involving the recent cartoon and video games; the IDW comics (that aren't tie-ins to other stuff) and live-action movies are their own separate continuities. But you're right, Transformers has more experience with continuity heavy stories (which is kinda funny since MLP is technically the older franchise by a couple of years!)

ADDITION: Either I've become a slow typer or I forgot how quick this thread can be.

edited 20th Oct '14 9:05:18 PM by Calnos

You there! Check out my Youtube Channel! The power of Ponies compel you!

It's much quicker than usually tonigt. Must be the movie announcement.

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So I started browsing through that Sequel Series page Calnos linked to and holy shit, there's a follow up to Negima? How am I only just now finding this out?

I only found out about LOK season 4 yesterday.

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What about a series focusing in the CMC but already grown up?

We hear that they have cutie marks now, but owing to awkward camera angles and inconveniently placed scenery, we never get to see what their cutie marks are.

And every time they try to talk about their cutie marks, they get interrupted by something. I'm thinking this would be a good role for Inconvenient Trixie.