Well, to be fair, if you want that kind of control over your work, it may not be the best idea to make something based on an existing IP.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

Age alteration is a really hard spell that requires a powerful force of magic, which is why the Alicorn Amulet was required to do it.

Magically changing gender, on the other hand, is outright stated to be impossible. Even with the Alicorn Amulet, that is a feat of magic that simply cannot be done, which is why Trixie was so blown away by Twilight's fake amulet pulling it off.

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On the point of higher ups taking control of the show, it seems like the opposite to me. The only recent toy tie-in was Flurry Heart, and she didn't really affect the story besides the episodes focused on her.

And most of the people working on the show now are those who were there from the start.

[wmg]Trixie "Humiliates Heckling Hicks" Lulamoon doesn't do "real magic" when her point of reference for "real magic" is Twilight "Princess Of MagicFriendship" Sparkle and Starlight "Death Is But A Doorway" Glimmer. It's an ego thing.

Well, to be fair, if you want that kind of control over your work, it may not be the best idea to make something based on an existing IP.

And also, don't work in a medium like TV that involves creative input from a lot of different people.

If you want complete control over your world, write a book or webcomic.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

Finally caught up with this season up to A Royal Problem.

A lot of it's so far unremarkable (but that seems to be the norm for most of the series these days, IMO), but the episodes that center on Starlight, much like in Season 6, I've found are consistently the best ones the season has to offer.

I also really like how they seem to be focusing on Celestia as an actual character lately, though a part of me wishes they'd done that several seasons ago.

edited 27th Jun '17 12:24:40 AM by Zennistrad

TV can work as long as you're the showrunner, but the rule of thumb there is, again, existing IP v. new one. So long as you're playing in someone else's sandbox, they'll always have the final say, not you.

Joss Whedon found more freedom in television than in film when writing Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The movie was botched to Hell and back by Executive Meddling but with the show, he was free to tell the story his way. Part of this is because Buffy is not a licensed property or a merchandise-driven IP. She's 100% Joss's creation, putting nobody in a position of higher authority over what he was allowed to do with her.

There were still bits of meddling here and there, of course, but at the end of the day, Buffy was and still is his intellectual property.

EDIT: This is actually reminding me of discussions I've had about comic books in the past; the distinction between creator-owned and company-owned IP. If you want to own your characters, publish original work through a company like Dark Horse. If you're writing for Marvel or DC, you have to go in understanding that this is a shared universe and not only are these characters going to have other writers, but there will be times when you need to adjust your story to account for theirs.

MLP's biggest problem in that regard is poor editorial control. The guy that's supposed to go around and make sure that what everyone's writing is consistent with what's come before and with what everyone else is writing? Yeah. That guy isn't doing his job.

edited 27th Jun '17 7:02:48 AM by TobiasDrake

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Remember the Silver Age of Comics? Remember the times Superman had hundreds of Superman robots so he could be a dick to people?

Who in MLP would be the most likely to have a robot like that and why would it be Pinkie?

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.

Post of the Day #1865

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

I don't know the answer to that question, but I like how you phrased it.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

Twilight sparkle would totally build an army of robo ponies 'just in case' only for them to rebel because they somehow become sentient

edited 27th Jun '17 8:25:46 AM by Ultimatum

New theme music also a box

"Somehow".

Man, it's the Silver Age. You can't build a toaster without it obtaining sentience and declaring its new mission will be to toast THE WORLD.

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@Tobias: If transmogrification magic can go so far as to turn a mouse into a horse or a frog into an orange (that is still a viable organism) I'd think that modifying gender wouldn't be impossible. In fact, the gender part would probably be the easy part; the hard part is making sure you change only that and not just creating an entirely different pony.

Also, I think the reason that they don't have that editorial oversight is because from square one the show was never really intended to be continuity heavy. In fact, for the first season I'm pretty sure it was editorially mandated that the episodes be viewable in any order. It wasn't until later on that they started making any effort at all to have the episodes build on each other in a meaningful fashion, and by then the continuity snarl was in full swing.

Regarding the robot: Twilight would build it, and Pinkie would co opt it for parties.

edited 27th Jun '17 10:30:08 AM by JapaneseTeeth

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Honestly I think what would help a lot is if the show got rid of the Cutie Map and stopped doing the overly "Epic" adventure episodes, instead just sticking to the mundane Slice of Life stuff. There's still other stuff that would have to be fixed {Like making the character interactions fun again, seeing as how those were the best parts of the series}, but it would be a step in the right direction.

There haven't really been that many adventure episodes. Even the premiere was way more lowkey.

This song needs more love.

As much as I despite the Bullshit Map, I can't really say it's done that much harm. Three episodes out of a season of 24-26 isn't asking for a lot. I hate it and everything it stands for but I can tolerate it three times out of a year. Especially if we're finally going to see Twilight take some agency, like she does in "Not Asking for Trouble". Love that episode so much.

Bullshit Castle, on the other hand, is a miserable structure that only serves to highlight Twilight's Millennial status. It's just elaborate and fancy enough to segregate Twilight from the rest of Ponyville. Such an elaborate structure for two, now three people who almost certainly never touch 80% of its rooms, however, renders the entire thing hollow, unnecessary, and thoroughly devoid of purpose. It's nothing more than a fancy apartment. It could have meant something but the complete failure to capitalize on its storytelling potential has made it meaningless. Not unlike Twilight's princesshood.

edited 27th Jun '17 2:39:46 PM by TobiasDrake

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Considering the Golden Oak library got blown up, they could have at least dedicated a section of the castle toward being the New Ponyville Library or something.

edited 27th Jun '17 5:32:13 PM by KylerThatch

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

It effectively is the new library. It's just that nobody except Twilight visits it anyway.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

If only Twilight uses it, it's not really a library. (Not a public library, anyway.) It's effectively just Twilight's personal book collection.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

Quick question; would the Apple family's acceptance of Pear Butter fall afoul of laws against collusion, being the daughter of their rivals and all?

edited 27th Jun '17 6:51:50 PM by neoYTPism

Who is Pear Butter?

A spoiler character?

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

I was under the impression that spoilers were fair game in a thread like this. My bad.

To be fair, we only saw anyone using the Golden Oaks library once, with the exception of Twilight Time—which was more or less a private tutoring session and not really a function of the library. And that one time would be Rarity taking out a book I recall, which would be equivalent to borrowing a book from a friend.

We assume it was used, since it was, after all, a library, but in terms of what we're shown there isn't any real reason to assume that the Crystal Palace functions any less as a public library than the Golden Oaks.

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

> I was under the impression that spoilers were fair game in a thread like this. My bad.

They used to be. Not sure when that changed. But now there's a seperate thread for spoiler discussions. (This thread discusses episodes when/after they air)

edited 27th Jun '17 7:05:44 PM by storyyeller

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

I reviewed Dance Magic over in the Equestria Girls thread.

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