They want to be the one, but without having the content to back it up. Either that, or taking advantage of the situation to con people into thinking they do, cashing out, then baililng when things start to look bad.

Fancy executives making six-dollar figures fail to realize that the povertous majority making up the consumer base tends to prioritize affordability when making their purchasing decisions.

In other news, the sky is blue.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Sep 13th 2018 at 12:52:08 PM

I'm surprised that the free streaming services (ie, Shout, Tubitv, Crackle) arent more popular. Maybe if they got a really popular show (like MLP, there, back on topic!) they'd increase in popularity (of course, then they may become pay sites, it happened with crunchyroll and hulu after all).

A service could maybe do that with MLP now, though it'd be a short-lived strategy. Look into acquiring the license with the expectation that in about six months, some people might miss having access to it on Netflix. Then offer it, hyping up the return of its availability. A hard push on the earlier seasons might even trigger a nostalgia avalanche.

I think any site will eventually become a pay site. You just can't afford to buy quality content on advertising dollars. Heck, even Youtube tried to get into the paid market.

I've been watching my way through MLP on Netflix while it's still an option, and I've noticed some fascinating details and differences between Season 1 and recent episodes. Apologies for the oncoming long post:

Unicorn magic looks very different, especially in the pilot and "The Ticket Master", than it does post-Season 2. Unicorns don't always have individual magic colors, for instance — sometimes there's just a faint, almost colorless glow for all of them. On that note, there aren't the focused, outlined and colored auras we have now to show an object is being moved with magic — the first few episodes use very spread-out, broad cloud of white sparkles, and the rest of the season has fuzzy halos with no definite borders.

Applejack's and Rainbow's voices have changed a lot, especially Applejack's. AJ's voice was a lot... twangier... back in the day, and higher-pitched.

Twilight's and Rarity's "tell me she isn't"—"she is" exchange at the start of Pinkie's "Giggle at the Ghostly" song kinda feels like the reaction you'd expect Trixie and Starlight to have to a sudden song number nowadays.

The Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters looked a lot different in the pilot than it did later on — honestly, it looked like what you'd expect a castle to look like after spending a millennium in ruins in the middle of the wilderness, an overgrown pile of rubble and broken walls. For the most part it's a barely-standing wreck — in most shots it's in, all the roofs are collapsed, the walls are broken and half-gone in most places, there are no windows left intact and there are plants growing everywhere. A far cry from the high-celeinged halls, colorful if torn tapestries, working trapdoors and secret passages, intact suits of armor and library stocked with readable and fairly well-preserved books that debuted in Season 4.

I kind of wish Rainbow's more varied list of tricks from "The Ticket Master" had been kept around — also, you gotta love how her grand plan for joining the Wonderbolts boiled down to "okay, I'm going to barge in announced in the middle of their show, upstage them in front of their fans and steal everyone's attention from them! They'll love me for sure!"

Seeing the pegasi and earth ponies levitating the tickets in "The Ticket Master" is always a tad odd. It's kind of strange to think that what was later established as the unicorns' special trick was almost a default pony ability.

The gag in "Applebuck Season" where two rabbits jump in a bush, Winona scares them out and like eight rabbits jump out still makes me chuckle.

"Boast Busters" has a pretty bad case of telling more than it shows. It spends so much more time on the main characters complaining about Trixie being insufferable than it does on Trixie actually being insufferable that it just makes them seem petty, judgy and kind of unpleasant... and Spike just looks like he's overreacting to very little.

I find it immensely amusing how, in "Bridle Gossip", Rainbow's curse just makes her unable to fly and it just never occurs to her to simply walk. I mean, she could just stick to ground level and ignore the misplaced wings entirely, but nope — she has to stay airborne at all times.

"If you will remember back, the words I spoke were quite exact." No, they were not. You just made a vague comment about leaves of blue that weren't a joke. That said nothing except that they were bad news in a non-specific way.

I think what bothers me the most about "Swarm of the Century" is that it's clearly shown that, if not for Fluttershy squirreling away a single parasprite and restarting the infestation, the plan to roll the swarm out of town would have worked just fine, which really undermines the idea that the main characters should have listened to Pinkie from the start. Well, that and how unnecessarily vague and obtuse Pinkie was being, but that's hardly ground that hasn't been covered ad nauseam by this point.

"Winter Wrap Up" is such a good song — fun and upbeat, incredibly catchy, very nice visuals, it gets a lot of necessary exposition out of the way in a clear and enjoyable manner, it neatly introduces the episode's main conflict... it's kind of sad how the show doesn't get as many musical numbers as it used to, although I have to admit "Friendship Bound" is a very solid song.

"What if I help clear up the clouds? ... right, no wings." Ah, hilarious, hilarious hindsight.

Spike is really kind of an asshat in "Winter Wrap Up", isn't he?

... on this general note, is it just my impression or has the Painting the Frost on Windows angle kind of dropped from the spotlight lately?

The scene where Rarity magics the combined team vest onto Twilight looks kind of odd — it almost looks like when you level up in a video game.

I've mentioned this however many pages ago, but the first few seasons give the impression that Equestria is a lot smaller than it was established as being later — like, more like a large valley than anything else.

I'll see how much of the rest of Season 1 I can get through tomorrow before the show's taken down. I also have thoughts about Fluttershy, but they'd make this post twice as long as it is already so I think I'll post them later.

In season one, bursting into song was mostly Pinkie's quirk and aknowledged as kinda weird by other characters.

Then in season 2, they gave Daniel Ingram more to do per episodes, and other characters started joining the trend and these days it's something all of the Mane 6 (dare I say all of Ponyville) indulge in.

My memory is fuzzy, but I think May The Best Pet Win was the first impromptu musical number that broke out without having Pinkie around.

Unicorn magic looks very different, especially in the pilot and "The Ticket Master", than it does post-Season 2.

IIRC, the big change was between seasons 1 and 2 (with Return of Harmony counting as part of season 1). The auras went from generic pale blue or purple to bright colors matching each Unicorn's eyes.

... on this general note, is it just my impression or has the Painting the Frost on Windows angle kind of dropped from the spotlight lately?

I think that was part of Faust's vision, which like many things, left the show when she did. I mean, it's still referenced due to continuity, but subsequent writers decided to do their own take on everything.

Then in season 2, they gave Daniel Ingram more to do per episodes, and other characters started joining the trend and these days it's something all of the Mane 6 (dare I say all of Ponyville) indulge in.

Another difference is that in season 1, Pinkie had a lot of short in-universe song bits. I think those were pretty much dropped, even for Pinkie.

My memory is fuzzy, but I think May The Best Pet Win was the first impromptu musical number that broke out without having Pinkie around.

What about Sweetie Belle's song in Stare Master?

Edited by storyyeller on Sep 13th 2018 at 11:51:11 AM

Also, while we we're conversing about the first series, the Element of Magic is rather odd: while the other inert Elements of Harmony were what can be described as "the Dragon Balls after Guru died", the Element of Magic was not actually among them, only popping into Equesteria when the other elements were not inert.

Where was it, actually? And why, both from a Doylist and Watsonian way? (This query is for naught but conversing.)

Edited by fredhot16 on Sep 13th 2018 at 10:56:27 AM

Well, Friendship is Magic.

My guess would be that when Celestia used the Elements on Nightmare Moon, permanently severing both sisters from using them and effectively ending their relationship, the elements that were their virtues turned inert, and with them gone Magic just vanished.

The reciprocity of the elements of harmony is something that is also touched on EQG with some consistency, where removing the element of Magic from Equestria would've rendered the other elements useless (they turn inert).

Curiously, on the other side of the mirror, the virtues seem to be power on themselves. The girls' magic manifests when they express their virtues.

Even when Twilight seemingly de-powered all of them, when they helped each other in the climax of Friendship Games, they regenerated their magic, and when Sunset invoked their friendship, they empowered her.

I suspect that initially, the writers of EQG didn't want the girls to have to wear tacky jewelry or something, and a few movies later the gems were introduced to have some semblance of continuity between the two sets of Elements.

I think one of the biggest main cast changes was Spike, actually. Notice how in the first episode in particular, and occasionally afterwards, he is referred to as a BABY dragon. He also has difficulty spelling big words in the first episode. The writers seem to have aged him up after the idea of him having a crush on Rarity started developing.

So it looks like MLP is going off of Netflix, but migrating to Hulu. One streaming service to another. Better than it vanishing entirely, but still, Netflix used to have everything and now they don't.

The "full body wing and hoof" gag from The Washouts has weirdly grown on me. I don't know why. Maybe I just started to find it more charming after I learned that in the comics Spitfire is absolutely terrible with kids, so that scene is kind of an extension to that.

"DRINKING THROUGH A STRAW"

I've only read a couple of the comics - Twijack Christmas Special! Squee! - but I do like the idea that Spitfire is just awful with children. It harkens to the notorious concept of Drill Sergeant Dads while also sticking a middle finger to the toxic cultural philosophy that all women are natural, instinctive caregivers whose Mom instincts immediately take over in the presence of kids.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Sep 14th 2018 at 8:12:14 AM

Post of the Day #2274

I got the impression that Fleur was a model and Fancy Pants was her friend and employer. Which could translate to her being his mistress, but doesn't necessarily have to.

I'll have to rewatch that party. As often as not Fleur is considered to be Fancy's wife; if there's somepony else he's been shown so close to in canon (well, besides Rares...), it's been completely overlooked. (According to the weekee, much of his subsequent appearances were with Fleur as well....)

Someone on the Paradox forum pointed out this mod for Hearts of Iron 4. The mod is called Equestria at War, for those interested.

From what I've heard, it's really good, too.

Edited by Redmess on Sep 14th 2018 at 7:16:50 PM

I just subscribed to that mod myself XD

But also, apparently MLP is now going over to Hulu though idk how many season it'll have on it.

Bit of a late reply, but I'm up for joining in the next Round Robin.

I haven't watched any Equestria Girls since Rainbow Rocks, so my contribution could be... interesting.

I posted about it. I've been playing it for a while, and recommend it to people for totl map conversion (and MLP stuff) and shit. It's a really high-quality mod.

Yeah, from the video I saw, it is really extensive, with all custom events and characters. It is basically its own unique game built over the HOI 4 base game.

I think I saw it the week before. She didn't have many lines, only about two or less. I can't even recollect how we knew her identity. Also, what exactly did her Cutie Mark mean? Is she proficient in being from the roots of the fleur-de-lis?

Also:

Eh?

Honestly, outside of a couple of rare instances in Season 2 that Rarity/Fancy shippers latched on to, about 90% of Fancy Pant's total screentime has had Fleur next to him. Fleur has showed up at least once on her own in crowd shots, an her EQG counterpart makes background appearances with some frequency (she hasn't met her world's Fancy Pants yet, it would seem).

Last time we've seen them together was in Horse Play, I think, where Fleur was seen chatting up with Luna while they waited for the play to start.

Edited by MrSeyker on Sep 14th 2018 at 4:26:21 AM

I can't say those two characters have really stuck with me.