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

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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.

     Original OP text 
I don't know WHAT the Hell happened (I blame shenanigans) but we're going to start from scratch. Post your feels for this awesome show again! Naow!

Edited by Mrph1 on Aug 26th 2024 at 10:24:26 AM

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#193651: Jun 13th 2019 at 6:52:43 AM

Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara are liberals? Since when?

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
fredhot16 Don't want to leave but cannot pretend from Baton Rogue, Louisiana. Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: Too sexy for my shirt
Don't want to leave but cannot pretend
#193652: Jun 13th 2019 at 7:09:27 AM

[up]I guess he meant "libbies" as an archetype for "Alpha Bitches"?

So, this came to me: Ginger, are you actually ginger? As in, you have crimson hair or you're actually a "flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine"?

And why aren't you a ninja anymore? Or have the Mark of the Beast? Would you be a Satanic ninja?

She "forced" Fluttershy to come with her because she simply assumed she would want to. Everyone else was interested, it didn't occur to her that Fluttershy wouldn't want to go. She made an assumption without thinking of Fluttershy's wishes, yes, but it was hardly an unkind thing to do.

Are we talking about the beginning scene in dragon Quest? Because that was "unkind" of Sparkles to calmly stand around, trying to convince Fluttershy to go see dragons, when Fluttershy has made it clear she does not want to go and dash is currently physically dragging her.

Seriously, what the heck?

Edited by fredhot16 on Jun 13th 2019 at 7:18:38 AM

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#193653: Jun 13th 2019 at 7:53:29 AM

Most of that is due to the early show having a different sense of humor, much more physical.

And remember that the whole this is played for laughs, not for drama. The joke is supposed to be that Flutters is a coward, and her friends are having none of that.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Rainbow Pomeranian Lover from Central Illinois (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded)
Pomeranian Lover
#193654: Jun 13th 2019 at 8:01:18 AM

@Redmess and fredhot: Yes, the Alpha Bitch trope was called "The Libby" at one point as a reference to a specific character from Sabrina The Teenage Witch who fit that trope. I was glad when they changed the name to the current one, because it could cause confusion like where Redmess thought it meant a slang term for political liberals. Or in my case, I had seen it used as a slang term for feminists, as being short for "Women's Lib", and usually the Alpha Bitch characters aren't portrayed as being outspoken feminists (more like they usually bully the outcast Soapbox Sadie types) so I thought that was confusing.

Edited by Rainbow on Jun 13th 2019 at 10:08:22 AM

fredhot16 Don't want to leave but cannot pretend from Baton Rogue, Louisiana. Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: Too sexy for my shirt
Don't want to leave but cannot pretend
#193655: Jun 13th 2019 at 1:11:59 PM

[up] Looked up and yep, "Libby" is another name for "Alpha bitch".

[up][up] And not playing it for drama is the problem. It's trying to play for laughs a moment which comes off as everybody being incredibly mean to her. If there's a punchline here, it ain't funny.

I mean, it's also genuinely not funny.

I have no idea why there are these "" marks around "forced". She was being dragged despite her reluctance, her stated wishes to stay, and, of course, having to drag her contrary to her will.

She was being forced. You have no argument for her not being made to go to an activity she clearly has no wish to be at.

It's not even as though it means anything in the narrative. You have a plethora of options to get across exposition about the migration. Nothing required Fluttershy being physically dragged.

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.
GNinja The Element of Hyperbole. from The deepest, darkest corner of his mind. Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
The Element of Hyperbole.
#193656: Jun 13th 2019 at 1:13:11 PM

[up][up][up][up] I used to have very red hair. I'd say my hair looks more like actual ginger now. More of a dull copper.

And yeah, this comment was me referring to Call of the Cutie where Silver Spoon stayed by Diamond's side.

Also, I loved Silver Quill's analysis of Uprooted. How it kinda single handedly changed his opinions on the Yaks.

Kaze ni Nare!
fredhot16 Don't want to leave but cannot pretend from Baton Rogue, Louisiana. Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: Too sexy for my shirt
Don't want to leave but cannot pretend
#193657: Jun 13th 2019 at 1:29:04 PM

[up]However, are you still a Satanic ninja?

I mean, you're still a ninja, I have no idea why that went by me. However, are you still ssssaaaaaatttttaaaaaannnnniiiiiccccc?

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.
GNinja The Element of Hyperbole. from The deepest, darkest corner of his mind. Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
The Element of Hyperbole.
#193658: Jun 13th 2019 at 1:39:27 PM

[up] Yeah, on some sites. I'm mostly too depressed to be satanic nowadays.

Kaze ni Nare!
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#193659: Jun 13th 2019 at 1:55:56 PM

I think you are making a bit too much of it. This show is a comedy, and a cartoon at that, which means that you can get away with a lot more than you could in live action.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
GlitterCat Since: Mar, 2018 Relationship Status: The Skitty to my Wailord
#193660: Jun 13th 2019 at 2:14:49 PM

I still remember back in Season 1 hen they let Spike fall through the ice into freezing water. It's meant as a joke and possibly his comeuppance for egging Twilight into using magic, but it didn't come across as funny or karma to me.

see my completed Tangled (Varian) fanfic collection! https://archiveofourown.org/works/24467056/chapters/59049532
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#193661: Jun 13th 2019 at 2:56:15 PM

Like I said, the show had a different sense of humor back then. More slapstick, and cartoonier comedy.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
fredhot16 Don't want to leave but cannot pretend from Baton Rogue, Louisiana. Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: Too sexy for my shirt
Don't want to leave but cannot pretend
#193662: Jun 13th 2019 at 3:58:31 PM

O.K, let me bring my thoughts into coherence.

I can laugh at moments of cruelty. Season five might as well be titled "Spike's Myriad Misfortunes" and I laughed. I laughed whenever Spike was subject to the cruel whimsies of fate such as when Beefslab gave him a agonizing massage when Spike was trying to get Sparkles to stay at the spa. I laughed when discord's speeding away chucked mud on Spike. I chuckled when Spike was getting a potion poured on him (with none of those laughs having anything to do with ''Spike at Your Service'').

However, for me to laugh at those moments of cruelty, there has to be a joke and the joke has to be funny. You're willing to forgive cruelty or tastelessness if the joke about it is funny.

A prime example is a character whose shtick embodies such an idea: discord. He's cruel and capricious, with a penchant for annoying everybody he can. He's a Master of Chaos whose main ambition was plunging Equestria into a place where sense and reason were given restraining orders made of taffy.

However, even while he was being the Master of Chaos, we were enamored by him because of his hilarious antics. His cruelty is often made up by him being hilarious even while he was being cruel, character traits that remain true even now. He's basically a mean-spirited version of the Genie from Aladdin.

Now, I am going to be brutal here: I am not funny. I can recognize a joke, I can laugh at one. However, I am not very good at making jokes. My understanding of comedy is very limited.

However, here is one of the basic principles of comedy I know: it's about juxtaposition, absurdity, the subversion of normality. In a word, surprise.

Here's where that scene collapses: it's not funny enough to excuse the cruelty. What is our punchline here? What is the humor here? Fluttershy being physically dragged while Sparkles acts calmly as though there's nothing wrong happening here and dash is being uncaring and dismissive of Fluttershy's fears while she drags her from her home? Is our humor from Fluttershy not wanting to watch dragons, a very reasonable fear?

I'm sorry, I simply can't see the punchline here or, at the very least, not a funny one. Nothing about this situation is funny enough for anybody to excuse Fluttershy's closest companions not giving a crap about her consent or feelings. If you're trying to play everything here for laughs, you're not playing it very well.

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.
Fedetropes Call me Blast, not Fedetropes from Doomed universe Since: Dec, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
Call me Blast, not Fedetropes
#193663: Jun 13th 2019 at 5:07:32 PM

Humor is subjective, so to some this may be funny

¡PONLE QUE DIGA!:"¡HUMONGOSAURIO HASTA LA MUERTE!"
fredhot16 Don't want to leave but cannot pretend from Baton Rogue, Louisiana. Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: Too sexy for my shirt
Don't want to leave but cannot pretend
#193664: Jun 13th 2019 at 5:38:48 PM

[up]Yes, and?

I'm expressing my opinion about whether this scene was funny. If anybody disagrees, go ahead. However, humor being a matter of opinion means I can argue with you about why it's not funny to me.

I can also ask why this hypothetical person considers it funny.

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#193665: Jun 13th 2019 at 5:45:34 PM

Also, there IS a joke there, namely Flutters freezing up in fear like a goat (who really DO freeze up like that when startled), requiring her friends to carry her up the mountain.

Also, part of that episode was about Flutters overcoming her extreme fear, which she did. She hasn't been quite THAT cowardly since then.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
lalalei2001 Since: Oct, 2009
#193666: Jun 14th 2019 at 5:00:08 AM

Scootaloo's aunts are appearing in an episode! The bad news is according to someone who's seen it they downplayed the indication of them being a couple compared to female/male couples.

"There was not much indication that they are a romantic couple. In FiM ponies kiss and constantly infer that they are "special somepony" or husband/wife or in love. With these two it was really downplayed as opposed to the Cakes, the royal couple or Big Mac/Sugarbelle (whose episodes only ever center on their love for each other).

As a kid I wouldn't have caught it, while I was completely aware of Haruka/Michiru in Sailor Moon. And that was in the 90s."

The Protomen enhanced my life.
storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
More like giant cherries
#193667: Jun 14th 2019 at 6:35:13 AM

Post of the Day #2546

Yeah, I'm taking more credits than last semester, as well as having to work more hours in a school office because one of the guys left to go work someplace else, so I have to pick up the slack. And I have no idea what I'm doing. In other news, I made another attempt at drawing Twilight and Fluttershy. I'll try to upload those when I get home. Twilight turned out pretty well, but Fluttershy looks like she's a character from The Wind Waker. Her head is enormous and it took me like half a dozen tries to give her an expression that didn't make her look evil. Yeah, Blueblood's a jerk, but he's a passive jerk. His jerkiness is the result of his self-centeredness and lack of empathy, and I doubt he really holds any animosity to anyone; he probably doesn't even realize that he's being an ass. Compare Gilda, an active jerk, who was deliberately mean to other characters.

Posted by Japanese Teeth on Mon, 20th Feb '12 2:42:38 PM - Post #102558 in the old thread

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#193668: Jun 14th 2019 at 7:33:20 AM

Tomorrow, on My Little Pony: Scootaloo's family finally gives a damn, and threaten to actually adopt her, taking her away from her friends forever.

I mean, really, I like that her aunts are appearing, but this raises SO many questions, and I don't mean about the aunts' relationship status.

Edited by Redmess on Jun 14th 2019 at 4:34:17 PM

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
kyun Since: Dec, 2010
#193669: Jun 14th 2019 at 9:54:21 AM

This sounds like something that should've happened WAAAAAAY before Season 9!

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#193670: Jun 14th 2019 at 9:56:29 AM

That's the refrain of a lot of these late show episodes: they should have been done way earlier than now.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Theriocephalus Amateur Veteran from gimme a map and a moment and I can tell you Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: I made a point to burn all of the photographs
Amateur Veteran
#193671: Jun 14th 2019 at 10:31:34 PM

@lalalei2001 Speaking as someone else who already saw the episode, that's very true. I believe that they were confirmed as a romantic couple on twitter, but you'd never know it from the episode.

Personally, this does seem like the kind of episode that should probably have happened a good few seasons ago. There's no real issue with the episode itself — self-contained it's a perfectly workable and reasonable story — the real puzzler is how we could have gone for eight and a half seasons without word of any family on Scootaloo's part when Sweetie Belle's and Apple Bloom's get referenced near-constantly.

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#193672: Jun 15th 2019 at 4:59:42 AM

Well, I guess we shouldn't be too surprised. Dissapointed, sure, but this is simply where cartoons are now. We clearly still have a long way to go.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
kyun Since: Dec, 2010
#193673: Jun 15th 2019 at 7:32:59 AM
Thumped: This post was thumped by moderation to preserve the dignity of the author.
storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
More like giant cherries
#193674: Jun 15th 2019 at 7:37:13 AM

Post of the Day #2547

The long-style acronym I know is QUILTBAG, which I think is... Queer, Unisex(or Unsure?), Intersex, Lesbian, Transgender, Bisexual, Asexual, and Gay.

Posted by kegisak on Thu, 10th Apr '14 10:58:04 PM - Post #64764 in the new thread

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play
theLibrarian Since: Jul, 2009
#193675: Jun 15th 2019 at 7:51:05 AM

I wonder how much of an uproar there’ll be from conservatives.


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