A thread to discuss My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and the tie-in media.
All of the usual forum rules
apply. In addition, please remember that the thread is discussing a kids' show, and it's primarily focused on the work itself, not the fanfic — in particular, we don't want to see lewdness creeping in.
Edited by Mrph1 on Aug 26th 2024 at 10:24:26 AM
I imagine he's adopted? Or she is. It's not overly unusual considering the Fantastic Four has always had a theme of Family, be it an irregular family or no. Having an adopted brother might be a bit ham-handed about it, but it's still thematically resonant so I can see why the went with it.
And cyncially, there aren't really any better options for a racially diverse character. Your other options are Ben Grimm or Richard Reeds. If they went with Ben he'd only be black for a small portion of the movie and it would feel cheap, and Hollywood is still a ways away from having a black leading man in a superhero movie. (inb4 someone points me to a superhero movie with a black protagonist)
]I actually think it's kind of a shame it's doing poorly. I had hoped it would do well, if only just to spite those fans who whinge whenever something comes out.
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Actually Sony still has a split deal with Marvel. I think the general idea is that Marvel can use the Ultimates universe of Spider Man? Or it might just be that Sony is 'loaning' the character to them for the purposes of Avengers movies. Either way last I heard Sony retained the main move-making rights.
edited 6th Aug '15 1:17:40 PM by kegisak
Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.He's not quite the main protagonist, but Falcon was cool in Winter Soldier.
Marvel had better do a bang up job with Spidy, because the Sony series was fantastic, despite what the Fan Dumb insists.
^^Keep in mind that the reasons why people want the movie to fail are 1: Fox has done a piss poor job with the Fantastic Four films in the past, and 2: If the movie does really badly, maybe Fox will give up the movie rights to marvel so that we can finally have characters like the Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Doctor Doom and Galactus in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Fox is being greedy and won't share those movie rights.
edited 6th Aug '15 1:30:56 PM by marston
You know, that reminds me. One of the reasons why I barely go to the MCU thread on this site is because half of it consists of people whining about the "Lack of diversity with the MCU leads". Okay yes, it would be cool to have a Black Widow film or something about Falcon, but shouldn't the overall quality of the movies be what matters and not if the main character is black or female? I mean jeez, some people were even saying that Miles Morales should be the MCU Spiderman instead of Peter Parker {Kind of like the situation with Antman in the films}, and while I have nothing against Miles, there isn't really anything about him that would make me even consider that aside from precious "Diversity". These people arn't even pleased by the fact that there are a Black Panther film and a Ms. Marvel movie in the works.
Look, I'm not sexist or racist or whatever. I view people as people no matter what gender or ethnicity they are. I just hate all the complaining that "OMG Marvel is so sexist and racist!".
edited 6th Aug '15 1:54:33 PM by marston
While lacking diversity doesn't inherently make Marvel Sexist or racist, diversity in media is still important because it makes people feel valued and good.
It's difficult to understand when one is in a position where so many people like them show up in movies and TV and books, being cool and awesome and stuff. You become desensitized to it. And while, as a minority(Bear in mind I'm a sexual minority so this might be different for say, racial minorities or people with disabilities), even if you can associate with those characters in some ways there's still this strange, lingering sense of... otherness. That person might be like you in some ways, but not in a really core way.
So seeing someone who is like you in a core way - someone with the same sexuality, or race, or disability - and seeing them still be cool, still be awesome, it feels special. Makes you feel good.
There's lots of other things that make it valuable as well, like making society at large more comfortable and accepting of the stuff, but as far as comics and superhero movies go? It's just nice to see someone like you saving the day.
Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.@ kegi Blade.
@ Sereg So, according to you, when a character starts baking cookies, then, while doing so, begins imagining what the cookies will be like when finished, it's suddenly impossible that they're really baking cookies because there was an Imagine Spot? This is ridiculous.
Huh? how.. does that make any sense at all? They are in one, consistent musical number, which establishes for a fact, that what we are seeing is NOT the literal actions the characters are doing via the fact Fluttershy and AJ are talking about two incredibly different looking creatures. Plus the whole shadow thing AJ did being impossible, several other effects that simply are not going to work. So given musical numbers are genrealy non-diagetic and not meant to be what is going on in 'verse, but something representative of the idea given to the audience, proof that parts of this musical number cannot be literal, why are suddenly ONLY certain parts not litteral, but others are, within the same number?
re: the whole 'diversity' debate.... fuck those people.
Not not saying diversity is bad in and of itself, but if you are just randomly altering established characters races, genders, other aspects, ONLY for the sake of having a token black/gay/female/whatever.... that's even more insulting, as well as rather condescending.
Why is so much of the MCU white? Because they are heroes that were created back in the 60's and 70's, if not all the way back in the 30's and 40's. It has jack shit to do with 'being racist' or 'exclusionary'.
edited 6th Aug '15 2:04:04 PM by Seraphem
So I'm returning to my liveblog. Today I've updated with a post
on chapter 1 of The Clown Prince of Equestria.
It's a terrible cosplayer fic.
@marston: Without wanting to seem critical of you specifically, "just seeing people as people" is a pretty easy argument to make when you're part of the group that gets almost all of the attention. And the fact that Marvel has held off until Phase 3 of their big universe to make a movie that doesn't star a white dude isn't really a point in their favor.
That said, there are places where that's the only conversation that ever seems to happen, which gets damn exhausting, no matter how much I may agree with it.
@Kegi: I gotta say, you did a much better job with making me understand that sort of thing then the thousand of fans ever did. I do see where people are coming from, it's just that it gets so tiring hearing the same thing over and over again. This is probably the reason why I know how some of you guys probably feel when I won't shut up about something that pisses me off.
And I am sorry if I offended anyone with that post. I do understand where some of this is coming from. I probably wouldn't even be talking about this if I had stayed away from that thread to begin with.
edited 6th Aug '15 2:09:32 PM by marston
The other thing is that I'm really going to have to get used to the character designs, because most of them just look weird. I mean, Garnet's body is weirdly disproportionate, and Amethyst's mouth looks like a donut with a cleft palate. It's just really strange looking.
I never really found them strange. I guess it's because exaggerated character designs are normal in cartoons.
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play
Not not saying diversity is bad in and of itself, but if you are just randomly altering established characters races, genders, other aspects, ONLY for the sake of having a token black/gay/female/whatever.... that's even more insulting, as well as rather condescending.
There's a difference between tokenism and representation.
A token is a one-dimensional character, often based on stereotypes, whose sole purpose for existing to to attempt to attract an audience identifying with the token's race/orientation/etc in the cheapest, laziest way possible.
A diverse character is a regular character who just happens to belong to a minority demographic of some kind.
Turning a character black doesn't make them a token. Making being black their sole characterization makes a character a token.
Why is so much of the MCU white? Because they are heroes that were created back in the 60's and 70's, if not all the way back in the 30's and 40's. It has jack shit to do with 'being racist' or 'exclusionary'.
Intent does not excuse effect. That's how we end up with institutionalized discrimination.
On the topic of Spidey in the MCU verse, I really would like 2 things from them.
1. Don't give us another origin movie. We've already had 2 and besides, everyone knows Spiderman's origin(Uncle Ben dies due to Peter's negligence). Briefly go over his past in something like Civil war or in his first movie.
and 2. Later on down the road, I really would like to see Miles take up the role. I'm not saying he should be the first Spidey in the MCU verse nor should he become him early on, but maybe have him appear as him self early on(as in, before being Spider Man) and have him take up the mantle some time after Peter dies/disappears.
My Tumblr "If theirs one thing I'm good at, it's blowing" Jesse Cox 2013It's already been confirmed that we're skipping the Spidey origin this time around, so no worries there. I was sort of expecting an after credits scene in Ultron or Ant-Man that would show Parker in the lab where he would get bitten, but I guess he's just going to show up in Civil War having been a hero for awhile.
up in here.
edited 6th Aug '15 2:34:08 PM by Crowfall
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,
Thank fucking god!
I really hope the guy they get to do Peter is good. Andrew Garfield did poor job as him. Did the guy in the original trilogy do any better? In fact, is the original trilogy any better, period? I know that Spider Man 3 is supposed to be so awful cause of emo peter and how Venom was poorly used but is the original trilogy(Esp. 3) any good at all? Cause I've heard that it hasn't aged well.
edited 6th Aug '15 2:36:13 PM by ScottPilgrim2013
My Tumblr "If theirs one thing I'm good at, it's blowing" Jesse Cox 2013just randomly altering established characters races, genders, other aspects, ONLY for the sake of having a token black/gay/female/whatever.... that's even more insulting, as well as rather condescending.
Well, comics are kind of weird and particular about that sort of thing too.
So here's the thing: Let's say I invented a Gay Superhero, whole cloth. He's not stereotypical, he's not overly flamboyant, he's just gay. Now, I could build stories around this character, have him have his own solo adventures, maybe become a part of a larger team... the whole shebang. He would be a completely new, completely original character.
Now, that would be great and all. He could be a good character, and a good comic. But what do you think the odds of him taking off are?
And I don't mean that just because he's gay. Think about the big A-lister comic book characters. Superman, Batman, Wonder woman, Spider Man, Iron Man, Captain America... these are all characters who were established decades ago. It's actually crazy hard for new Superheroes to get followings, because fans really stick to the established names and heroes, and Comic Books companies are, frankly, in kind of dire straights. If a comic book isn't immediately popular, chances are pretty good it's also immediately cancelled. A lot of really good series got dropped because they just weren't popular enough, and it's not really a surprise that those comics tended to be less well-established characters.
So what's a comic book company to do, if they genuinely want to introduce representation, and give people someone to identify with in a meaningful way, knowing full-well that a knew character will either be reduced to B-lister or just plain ignored?
Well, there are a few options. One is to put them on a team with the big-namers. DC did that recently with the Justice League United(Justice League Canada originally, but two heroes were american and two were aliens so FUCK IT), introducing the First Nations hero Equinox. But even then, you risk havign them overshadowed by the bigger-nam members, or losing readership if you give them focus over the big leaguers.
So the other option, the more potent option, is to take one of your big heroes - maybe one who's already been established as a Legacy Identity - and have them give up the mantle to someone else. Captain America recently gave his title over to The Falcon(Which is a good series), The title of Thor went to Jane Foster(also a good series), etc.
It might seem like pandering, or pointless changes, but honestly? It's not a bad idea. Once these heroes become more established they can take on their own identities, but they need to get established, and that's honestly pretty hard to do in the world of comics these days.
Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.The first two were really good at the time, but honestly I'm not sure I think they hold up that well, especially given how the bar has been raised for superhero flicks since then. I don't know, it's been awhile since I've seen them.
The actor did an alright job as Peter Parker, but he didn't really do the whole joking around aspect of Spiderman, which to be fair was probably an issue with the script not the actor.
I just want to see the MCU do justice to the character of Venom. He's an awesome bad guy and my favorite spiderman villain, but saying that the original movie version was terrible is an understatement. Seeing a proper live action version of him would be one of the best things ever.
I also want to see the Ultimate Spiderman version of Green Goblin, since that one looks awesome and is different from the classic one.
They held off till phase three, because that's just where the story fit. Phase 1 was all about establishing the Avengers. Who let's see, of the ones focused on.. A big green guy. A guy whose family is big name old money which for as old as he is, means they made it back when you'd pretty much need to be white to get that far when his parents did. A Norse deity. And the Us Armies poster boy during WWII. Of the minor ones, a Russian female, and hawkeye. Of them only two could have their race changed at all without it making no damn sense. One of those two the focus is more on them turning into a massive green monster whose main attraction is him smashing everything in sight that pisses him off. Leaving only Hawkeye as a viable choice, but again if you are altering their race, just for the sake of altering it in and of itself.. that's just insulting to everyone. And yes Hawkeye and Black Widow weren't original founding Avengers, but they replaced Ant-Man and Wasp. A white guy, and a white girl. So wouldn't have changed anything.
Phase II was dealing with the aftermath of Phase I. The concluding points, or the next parts in their stories, mostly all about sequels and wrapping up the lose threads from Phase I, building to the massive changes in the MCU in Winter Soldier and Avengers 2. Isn't the only non-sequel in Phase II GOTG? Phase III seems to be more about broadening the world of the MCU, and hence, where more heroes get their solo movies added.

^Well, there's a weird copyright situation going on with The Hulk. He and his characters can still be used in the MCU, but Universal has the film distrubution rights. This is why there arn't any Hulk sequels. And the character Namor is in some weird copyright loop where nobody can really use him in movies.
Also, I apoligize for my earlier comment on FIW. I was a bit grouchy when I wrote that. I still stand by most of what I said, but I could have worded it better. I have been wondering though: Why is it so hard for people to make a good MLP Abridged series? That type of show has became popular for a reason, and there's plenty of other fandoms that did good with that kind of thing. Most of the MLP Abridged series that are out are either okay but not real special or crappy. The only one I actually liked was the one from the Sonic Paradox team, and that was just a one-off project instead of an attempt at making a full series. This fandom is generally creative, especially with parodies, so it kind of boggles my mind why the Abridged shows arn't all that great.
edited 6th Aug '15 1:18:10 PM by marston