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

@Lum: Ah. Crap. Well now I guess I have to hope no one else downvotes it or else I look like a total ass.

So fellows, is there anything you guys would love to see in Season 5? For me, there's these:

1:More episodes for Twilight. Seriously, she was really Out of Focus for S4, which was annoying because she's one of my favorite characters in the show. And no, I couldn't care less for any stupid fanboys who whine that "OMG Twilight has the spotlight, what a Mary Sue!!!"

2:Gilda returning. We've already had Discord, the Flim-Flam bros, Trixie and Sapphire Shores returning after long absences, so why not bring her back? I'd love to see how her "Reunion" with RD would go, especially since much like Wonderbolts Academy it could also show off how much RD has changed since the beginning of the show.

3:Twilight's parents actually having a big role in an episode instead of being even less important then the BG Ponies {Heck, they never even showed up in Season 4}. I'd like to see what kind of actual personalities they have and how they'd interact with Twilight and possible SA.

4:Another G1 character returning for the show, be it a G1 pony like Firefly, or maybe even Scorpan since he was mentioned in the S4 Finale.

5:Flutterbat returning. Seriously, she's so freaking cute, and bat ponies are awesome, so yeah. Heck, if she even ended up retaining her original personality while in this form, it would probably bring up some interesting ideas and maybe even conflict too.

edited 22nd May '14 2:49:34 PM by marston

@Crow: Yeah, the fimfic rating system is a bit dumb, but that just means I won't take it very hard when I inevitably crash and burn.

I want to see the side characters get more development; ponies like Cheerilee, Zecora, the Mayor, the Cakes, etc. kinda got shafted this season. One of the few things I think that S2 had over S4 is that the secondary ponies got half-decent screentime.

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^ I'll second that. I'd be particularly interested to see how the Cakes met.

What matters in this life is much more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too. - F. Rogers.

Well, when you really look at it, Twi had 4 episodes focused on he, and two more where she played a fairly major role. So she get' about the same number of focus episodes more or less. its just hers are spaced out at the start and end of the season.

Definitely agree we need more stuff with the side characters. When's the last time Cheerilee had anything to do?

Some followup on certain things from this season. For awhile it seemed like every episode ended with something that could lead into future episodes. Flutterbat is the most egregious of those, and I'll be disappointed if that's never referenced again.

More Lyrabon. It seems like they were hardly together at all this season. I'm not asking for much, just have them hanging out together in the background.

Octavia. Always more Octavia.

Crow: Yeah, every algorithm on that site in general is pretty questionable, unfortunately.

Story: That's true, but ranking actually kind of hardly matters in the long run because the feature and popular boxes (the most visible parts of the site) don't actually run off of that ranking system. Best I can tell, the feature and popular box algorithms don't even account for dislikes (or do so to such a small degree that it's a worthless component), therefore what gets the most views and comments typically gets there and stays there. Shipping, porn and shippy porn all tend to draw a lot of viewers, so those fics stay up for very long periods of time. Naturally, such a high raw amount of views will draw in a large raw number of "I like this! Gimme more!" comments, as well as draw in detractors who just want to say "I hate shipping/porn!" Since comments are a big part of the algorithm, this further cements the fic's 3 weeks stay. Ergo, the winning formula, at least as far as getting as much traffic as possible goes.

FE: New Mystery Fresh Cart Lunatic 7PM PT Sun, Mon, Fri; Expert Unicorn Overlord 7PM PT Wed, Thurs: http://www.twitch.tv/kuroitsubasatenshi

It doesn't help that the site mods have specifically never released the exact mechanics, specifically to keep people from trying to game it. It definitely doesn't figure dislikes in very much though. Which is probably a necessary evil to keep people from downvote-bombing stories to keep them from being featured.

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The current weighting doesn't really work either, though. I mean, with the way the comments factor in, people getting into a big flamewar (possibly over off-topic or only tangentially-related topics) benefits the story. Plus with likes still retaining their weight, people can just do the opposite dislike bombing and like-bomb their favourite author just because it's their favourite author. Suddenly, insta-feature.

FE: New Mystery Fresh Cart Lunatic 7PM PT Sun, Mon, Fri; Expert Unicorn Overlord 7PM PT Wed, Thurs: http://www.twitch.tv/kuroitsubasatenshi

This is why I prefer to judge stories based on the comments. Up and downvotes are unreliable for al ot of reasons, but people can generally be trusted to voice their opinions honestly. If... somewhat extremely in some cases.

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

One thing I'll say MLP Tales did that G4 has not thus far is showing parents. There, the mane cast's adults would frequently show up and weren't abusive, dumb, or bumbling, just refreshingly normal and fair parents.

Meanwhile we haven't seen Rainbow's aside from a dad cameo, Shy's, AJ is justified, Pinkie's somewhat, Rarity's in a few scenes, and Twi's a few times in the background.

And really there's not much excuse for Scoots, it's almost like the writers are going out of their way to keep them absent and unmentioned.

"No will to break."

Yes but in tails the ponies were younger, more teenagers. So there parents being around more makes sense.

In this one, they are adults, living on their own. No reason for their parents to be around as much.

Though yeah, no excuse for Scoots.

From a doylist perspective, it hasn't really been necessary - or indeed, feasible - to show Scoots parents thus far. Rarity's parents have only been shown out of necessity to set up a story, and Sweetie and AB have the benefit of being related to other major characters.

At this point in the series the cast is mostly established, so branching out is a bit harder. Not terrible, but harder. There's simply no reason to invent, design, implement and animate new characters when she's established with another cast where her parents aren't ever brought up anyways.

That said it would be nice to see them, and it's possible an episode will come up where they're necessary, but...

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

Keg: I dunno, I find they're often filled with comments that might as well be up- or down-votes. Like, out of curiosity, I've been poking through comments on of feature box stories as they pass through and it seems like maybe 1 in every 20 comments are actually relevant in some meaningful way.

One thing that strikes me as a bit odd is that the parents often don't turn out for the "main six saved Equestria again" celebrations. Then again, I suppose it happens often enough, that maybe it's not considered that much of a big deal.

Otherwise, I let it slide based on the fact that the main six are all young adults with their own lives.

FE: New Mystery Fresh Cart Lunatic 7PM PT Sun, Mon, Fri; Expert Unicorn Overlord 7PM PT Wed, Thurs: http://www.twitch.tv/kuroitsubasatenshi

@Dark There's the thing Friendship is Magic doesn't always focus on slice of life so having the parents around isn't really a big thing to bring into the series. Have them appear for a few episodes maybe but again not a big thing to worry about. Though Scootaloo's we still haven't seen yet.

edited 22nd May '14 4:11:00 PM by Starscream759

"Transform and Roll out!" Optimus Prime

I still headcanon that Scoots intentionally avoids introducing anypony to her folks as much as possible because they're Over-Enthusiastic Parents.

What matters in this life is much more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too. - F. Rogers.

Wryte: Hehe, if that's the case, I think some of it rubbed off on Scoots.

FE: New Mystery Fresh Cart Lunatic 7PM PT Sun, Mon, Fri; Expert Unicorn Overlord 7PM PT Wed, Thurs: http://www.twitch.tv/kuroitsubasatenshi

@Wryte (Chuckles) Embarrassing parents for Scootaloo.

"Transform and Roll out!" Optimus Prime

I mean, why else would Scoots want a sister figure so badly? I mean not that I'm going for the easy she's an orphan deal, but there's not much else to conclude. We saw her house in Flight to the Finish, and not there. Equestria Games? Nope.

And yes I'll admit the Tales Seven are teenagers so it makes sense, but even young adults interact with family from time to time.

"No will to break."

And so do the mane 6, mostly. The only ones we've never seen interact with them are Fluttershy and RD. The rest, the only one with parents that line in town with them is Rarity. The rest, their parents live in other owns, so not odd we don't see them more.

None of the parents of the participants were shown at the Equestria Games. So it doesn't prove anything for Scoots.

edited 22nd May '14 4:28:37 PM by MetaFour

I didn't write any of that.

Does a Tangent Comics style setting/story for Marvel comics have the potential to be interesting?

http://h0useb0und.tumblr.com/

Does it contain marriage and unborn child erasing deals with Satan? That are somehow better then a divorce.

Yeah it's a cool idea. But knowing Marvel and DC these days. They'd screw it up.

Even if you can raise the sun or lower the moon, try doing both at the same time.

Apples are fickle things.

"Because you never wore a condom." "Bon Bon, I AM A MARE."

Actually, Marvel hasn't been that bad these days. One More Day was almost a decade ago, and overall I haven't heard any negative recent things about them. DC on the other hand is a whole different can of worms......

edited 22nd May '14 4:36:13 PM by marston