My Little Pony: The Movie (2017)

True, but I still don't count it as them appearing on the show.

Which does make me wonder what happened to them after their movie. They kind of... dissapeared.

Friendly reminder that not everyone has seen that.

From a practical standpoint, it's going to be real iffy if it's going to happen outside of a special milestone episode, since a lot of those VAs for the new characters are more expensive. Otherwise, I don't think the show can afford to bring them back for anything other than a dialogue-less background cameo.

Its not really new content, just a reminded of an old plot point.

Seen what? I'm gathering from context that some spoilery thing that hasn't aired publicly is being subtly hinted at but I'm unclear as to what, exactly, the thing being discussed is. Not the spoiler but where the spoiler's from. Is this a leaked episode? The leaked story bible? Some other leak about the EQG digital series or season eight or something?

This is a very confusing conversation being held.

edited 21st Oct '17 1:25:01 PM by TobiasDrake

Its a cameo in the season finale. Its not really a new plot point, but an old one used to introduce an actual new plot point. Also, it shows a bit of new animation around these cameos, you'll love it.

I've already seen it, and it is awesome. If you thought Starlight Glimmer was upending the status quo...

I'm gonna spoiler it. I'm gonna spoiler it with a nice red text.

Season 7 Finale Spoiler:The sirens show up in a flashback getting whooped by Starswirl's crew before being tricked into flying through a portal.

Gotcha. Season finale. Thanks for clearing that up. ^.^

One thing I really liked about this movie is that for as easy as it is to sympathize with Twilight's stress and increasing frustration at her friends' antics, when you get right down to it, she's actually the one in the wrong. It's something I've always loved about My Little Pony: that the protagonists are allowed to be wrong about things and make mistakes.

As is often the case, the villain is in some ways a reflection of the hero. But in Tempest's case, she's not a reflection of what Twilight is, but rather what she could become if she continues down the path she spends most of the second act on. While her friends are busy touching hearts and changing minds through the power of friendship as they do, it's Twilight who loses the faith and has to be reminded of what she's supposed to stand for in the third act.

In its own way, the movie perfectly parallels "The Return of Harmony". In that, it was the others who are driven away from their identities and subsequently fracture the fellowship; here, it's Twilight who abandons everything she believed in and begins to embrace the same ideas later espoused by Tempest: that things work differently out here, that you can't just go around spouting platitudes about love and friendship, that you have to be cold and serious and callous to survive.

It's because of this parallel that I am so glad that the MacGuffin wound up being a Red Herring. There really is no more perfectly thematic conclusion that this film could have had than Twilight's friends who never gave up on their way of life in the cold and hostile outside world, saving the day not via a new magic super weapon but through the friends they'd made along their journey while Twilight was rolling her eyes and criticizing them for doing things the pony way.

edited 21st Oct '17 2:30:46 PM by TobiasDrake

Most if not all of these celebrity voices will be replaced if their characters ever appear in the series, since the budget is smaller.

Could that be a reason to not include these characters in the series? Finale Spoiler: the sirens are not voiced, either.

I dunno, John De Lancie has gotta be pretty expensive. We likely won't see them return often, but I don't think it's impossible that they might show up in an episode or two here and there.

Finale spoilers:

So the voice actors for the new characters are: Chris Britton, Bill Newton, Mariee Devereux, Murry Peeters, Giles Panton, Ellen-Ray Hennessy and Matt Cowlrick. Are these voice actors well known/expensive, like John De Lancie? Because that could be an indication of how much we get to see of them next season.

x2 While true, they'd probably have to split the budget. If they bring back someone else expensive, they won't be able to use Discord as much and vice versa.

Tobias: They were all in the wrong, though Twilight was more wrong because her breakdown ended in trying to steal the treasured artifact of their only ally, pissing an entire nation off. Even from a callous point of view, that's a monumentally stupid move. Ponies staying with the pony way was a good thing, but they also lacked any presence of mind. Running around screaming out their goals at the top of their lungs or overdoing the grandstanding with something that very obviously gives their position away is very nearly as stupid as pissing off their only ally in the world. They just about wrecked themselves for basically no reason, because the rest of their pony antics would have sufficed for making their new friends.

I'm gonna be honest and say that while Emily Blunt acted the part wonderfully, her voice isn't so distinctive that another voice actor couldn't take over fairly easily.

I just want more of these characters, y'know. Would be a shame and kind of a waste of characters if they just disappeared.

I bet someone said that about Starlight Glimmer at some point, too.

If you mean the part about being a waste of a character if she never appeared again, then I've personally said that about Starlight.

It would be nice to see all these characters again in the show itself (though probably not all at once). I don't know what they'd do in their respective episodes, but I'm sure the writers can come up with something.

edited 22nd Oct '17 5:38:21 AM by KylerThatch

And plenty of those people are surely satisfied with the results. Starlight's a Base Breaker; while there are some who think she's an obnoxious and unwelcome presence, others are thrilled to have her in the cast and think she brings a breath of fresh air to a series at legitimate risk of going stale after six years on air.

Personally, I'm in the middle of the road. I would love to see Starlight, Trixie, Maud, etc. spun off into their own series with the occasional crossover. While the main series is largely focused in and around Ponyville with the occasional trip beyond its borders, Starlight's crew could take the show on the road with Trixie's traveling magic act and explore new locales, meet new people, and discover new lessons about friendship while also satisfying people more interested in the worldbuilding than the characters.

edited 22nd Oct '17 6:53:37 AM by TobiasDrake

I agree, that would probably be the ideal situation.

I do like Starlight, but I also recognize the problems with the character having a rushed reformation that was handled poorly compared to Sunset. She also has a spotlight stealing tendency in her episodes, where she drains competency from other characters to come off better in comparison.

On another note, someone just posted this on youtube:

edited 22nd Oct '17 7:24:35 AM by Redmess

She totally has a spotlight stealing tendency, but I would say her reformation is only rushed if you consider her to be reformed as of the end of "Cutie Re-Mark". She has a reformation arc that carries her through all of season six. She struggles, stumbles, and even falls a time or two as she tries to understand the meaning of the second chance Twilight's offered her.

The musical number that ended "Cutie Re-Mark" was a bad choice because I think it gave fans the impression that she was supposed to be considered 100% redeemed right then and there, but she wasn't. That was only the start of her journey.

By contrast, Sunset didn't have to work at redemption. She, like Luna, was blasted by rainbow beams of redemption that instantly fixed all of her problems, erased all of her negative personality traits, and transformed her into a better person largely divorced from the character that she'd been up to this point.

Sunset had a journey in Rainbow Rocks as well, but it was not one of redemption. She'd already been artificially redeemed and would never even be so much as mildly unpleasant to be around again. Instead, her journey was one of acceptance; convincing the people around her that she was totally a better person now through no actual effort on her part and, because of how much better she was, they should like her.

edited 22nd Oct '17 7:35:12 AM by TobiasDrake

I saw DWK's reviews on Sunset Shimmer, and I thought he had an interesting angle on her character. He argued that, unlike Starlight, Sunset does not act the way she does because of some twisted ideology of a greater good (like making everyone equal so no one gets left out). Her actions in the first movie are not those of someone with a thought out plan for power or driving philosophy. She does not have a plan and just acts like a vindictive school bully (lets remember that she is probably older than Twilight, who is an adult). Sunset acts out of anger and rebellion. Not a political or social rebellion, but the kind teenagers have against their parents or other authority figures. DWK argues that Sunset is always so angry to hide her own insecurities and avoid having to confront them. Twilight giving her a beatdown at the end of the movie forces her to confront her rebellion and grow up. DWK's argument here is that Sunset always knew that what she was doing was not ok, but she was too angry and rebellious to stop doing it, staying in a vicious cycle of anger and lashing out. Twilight beating her up and offering her a second chance allowed Sunset to break the cycle and return to her real personality.

I think this is an interesting interpretation, which would explain her apparent immaturity. She has been stuck for who knows how long in an environment that fed into her rebellious behaviour, namely, high school. This incidentally also makes the setting more appropriate, because it is fitting to the sort of conflict Sunset is going through: rebellion against authority figures. It is a shame we never find out what happened between Celestia and Sunset.

It is also interesting in this light that it is not even suggested that Sunset become Celestia's student again. Being under Twilight's wing, but also being less directly guided, allows her to grow up without the emotional baggage from her former teacher. Also notable is that in the follow-up movies she does not learn by way of being a student so much as being a leader herself.

Been a bit since I read the issue, but the comics have it so Sunset was too impatient with her studies when Celestia told her to wait on some things. She ended up delving into that stuff in direct defiance, anyway, and they had a falling out.

Sunset's negative traits do still come out a bit here and there, but there's a bit muted compared to in the first movie. Like, in Rainbow Rocks, she approaches the Dazzlings and it's very similar to the darkened hallway in the first movie, where she's acting intimidating, though it doesn't really work on them (it was apparent enough at the time, that I did a really fast and dirty dark comic that had her respond to their taunt by cracking her knuckles, then cut to her throwing them into a dumpster). In Friendship Games, her tendency toward alpha aggression comes out when she flips out at EqG!Twilight, pushing her away and possibly contributing toward what pushes that Twilight into the final fiasco.

Starlight and Sunset's journeys towards redemption were different- oh my god, this isn't exactly the right thread for this discussion, neither of these people were in this movie.

-outwards and inwards. Sunset had to deal with the consequences of her actions and Starlight had to deal with the personality traits that led her to this actions in the first place.

Inversely, Starlight was (mostly) removed from anyone who might have had a problem with her (and, as was revealed in To Where And Back Again, her genuinely (rather than magically) brainwashed cultists didn't have much of an issue with her either and probably could use some serious deprogramming). Sunset had a magical lobotomy.

I'll put in a post in the main thread to transplat the discussion.

I stopped watching MLP after Season 5 and stopped paying any attention to it after Season 6. So because of that, I don't know if this movie features anything that has been revealed from Season 6 onwards. Should I watch Season's 6 and 7 before the movie? And is the movie any good?

I think you're good to go even if you've seen nothing of season 6 and beyond.