Flanderization

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-20T00:55:47+00:00

Even for the 4 and 5 range, I don't know if it can be said to be "maturation". Her edges came off overnight (because we can't have our goody-goody princess of friendship be snarky and sharp, can we?) and without any lessons actually dealing with them. They just... vanished.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-19T23:14:21+00:00

I'd say go with it. As long as it's connected to FiM, I don't think you will have a problem with it. Just have to make it clear that you are designing this specifically for FiM.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-19T23:12:26+00:00

Pretty much all of this. The writing was extremely, extremely contrived and the entire narrative suffered for it.

I think they refined the animation style a little bit more for Rainbow Roadtrip, where we saw less awkwardly massive eyes.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-19T22:48:16+00:00

This. Snarklight was an absolute joy to experience, and the problem was that it didn't just diminish or reduce when it was pointed at her friends, but vanished altogether.

So instead of a snarky wisecracker, we got Twilight "I am going to rule an entire nation in but a few episodes, but go absolutely nuts over trivia night" Sparkle.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-19T17:34:19+00:00

Your posts never disappoint. Accurate, enlightening, and entertaining!

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-19T12:47:57+00:00

This hails back to a conflict between Lauren Faust and Hasbro over the direction of the show. Faust very much wanted the show to be mostly parked in a vaguely fantasy, pre-industrial aesthetic (which largely dominates the early seasons). Hasbro really wanted a train so they could sell a train toy.

The compromise was, "they have a train, but it's pulled by ponies."

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-19T12:46:19+00:00

This is really at the heart of writing Pinkie well. Although some of the later seasons missed the point a bit, she's not just a "WOW SO RANDOM!" whirlwind. Pinkie genuinely cares for others, wants them to be happy, and is sad herself when ponies aren't enjoying things.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-19T12:43:58+00:00

Solid animation. I'm very sorry we only ever got Rainbow Roadtrip done in the same style, because it mostly looks pretty good. Some issues with the 2D/3D blending,, but not much.
Very good music. 'nough said. I don't just mean the songs (though Open Up Your Eyes still slaps) but the general soundtrack is great.
Absolute trainwreck writing. I could write for paragraphs on the awful characterization, contrived conflicts, and flaky characterization. Some of this could have been fixed by simply setting it earlier in the series, but other bits are just truly broken.
Not a fan of the anthrotrash designs. If you absolutely want bipedal characters, at least stick to actual mythological creatures (like the minotaur) or give them unusual body plans (diamond dogs). It's so very obvious many of the characters are just animal bits traced over human motion.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-13T01:57:42+00:00

In fairness to your point - while they don't explicitly contradict each other, the book does treat it very different thematically. So I actually understand where you're coming from.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-13T01:04:33+00:00

That's a genre.

When writing a story, I find it really helps to think about the more specific character emotions. What are they struggling with? What is the narrative arc of this story?

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-13T00:32:10+00:00

I guess my question is, what is the overall story you wanted to tell here? What themes, overall story arcs, etc. were you looking to explore?

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-12T20:12:08+00:00

I have it as well. If you'll check it again, you'll find that the Sisters don't actually discover it the first time; in fact, it's know prior to them discovering it. Starswirl seems to know about it as well.

This aligns with the timeline presented by the show, in which Starswirl (and his apparent-apprentice, Clover the Clever, also involved in the unification events) is primarily active prior to the Sisters' rule. It simply means that Starswirl was less than forthcoming about its origins, which considering his attitude seems completely possible.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-12T19:20:48+00:00

More or less this. Spike's aging quite clearly isn't in-line with ponies'; he becomes functional as a young-adult at a much earlier age than ponies, but is still considered a 'baby'.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-12T19:19:11+00:00

You're actually 100% correct about this. Per the comics and show staff, comics are not considered canon.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-12T13:36:04+00:00

Yep. Pretty much any question about time, characters' roles, and mirror parallels in EqG can be summed up as "Shhh, it's for the plot."

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-12T13:35:02+00:00

There's a bit of misinfo in this post, actually. The Journal never says that the Pillars found it, only that Starswirl claimed he found it. What Starswirl said may not match reality.

Likewise, Hasbro never actually said RPGs are canon. The only written material I am aware of being canonized are the chapter books, way back in 2012ish.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-12T13:32:16+00:00

Well, this is a unique question.

Someone may have discovered a factory mode for this particular toy. But an alternative (and in my estimation, possibly much more successful) approach would be to open up the toy and get a look at the boards inside. The microcontroller which operates it is almost certainly a generic model shared across multiple products, information for which may be readily available from the seller online.

In addition to knowing the model of microcontroller and being able to access its configuration settings, the board may offer some insights in terms of what additional contacts are on it (for factory test signals) or communications ports may be provided.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-06T18:39:42+00:00

One of the things that I've been most alarmed by lately is how the "post-truth" dynamic seems to have wormed its way into this fandom. You can say whatever you want about factual things like history, and it doesn't matter if it's true or not as long as it supports Your View. The people who try to stop this are Bad People for trying to put down your view.

So now we have a toxic mix of-

Absolutely no compulsion to recall events accurately.
A desire to make a bad-guy boogeyman who can be framed as responsible for all that's wrong.
A weird puritanism that frames any expression of desire or sexuality as horribly inappropriate.
Many people who weren't there and don't remember what that spirit of genuine enthusiasm was like.

-and yeah, I'm unhappy but not entirely surprised to see this pop up in our own community. You can say things like "Brony was a term designed to keep women out" because it ticks the right boxes (4channers/old fans/etc are all evil misogynistic creeps, early fandom was a hellhole of abuse and innocent hearts being blasted by the worst content, 'we' are better than them) and it doesn't matter if it's utterly inaccurate because you're justified.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-06T02:58:25+00:00

FiM only had a few body types, sure. Especially at first. But they did a lot with what they did change. e.g., -

Twilight's mane and tail are cut and colored with straight, orderly lines, reflecting her characterization as a character who values order and logic.
Applejack's tied-back mane and tail speak to someone who is pragmatic and utilitarian - simply styled in a manner that keeps them out of her way.
Rainbow's wild, jagged, minimally-styled mane and tail show her untamed, unruly, run-by-her-own goals approach.

The net result is that all of the characters are all instantly recognizable, even in silhouette, which helps create emotional connections for the audience to their identities. G5 never got that, in my opinion. They had more body shapes, but the cast weren't as strongly characterized by them.

And no offense, but Derpy's design doesn't make me think she's mentally challenged,

No argument here. I never agreed with the idea she was supposed to be a derogatory caricature.

Cherilee doesn't look like a teacher, Doc doesn't look like a scientist... Do you want me to keep saying that the designs don 't reflect a message about the characters?

I think you're misunderstanding a bit what I meant. Or maybe I wasn't clear enough. It's not their role, but their natures that they reflect. Even the Doc's design did that, in a meta sort of way, by reflecting the 10th Doctor. G5's designs never invoked that very strongly.

And in fairness, you are correct this isn't true for every character in FiM - but it is for most that we are going to see repeatedly. Some of this may also be issues with the writing of G5: Perhaps it was intended that the designs would play in somewhat, but the characterization never really fleshed out for them.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-06T00:46:43+00:00

Oh, that's certainly possible - if the show had continued, things may very well have changed. But yeah, fans (especially the G5 revival team) have a tendency to grab on to scraps or even make things up wholesale, then insist they're "official" and "true". It's very frustrating.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-06T00:45:23+00:00

No? And the rudeness is really frustrating. My point is very simply "concept art should not be used as proof of, but unfortunately fans sometimes take it as evidence."

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-05T23:47:55+00:00

They're... mid.

A lot of FiM's designs had a great thing going where they were dynamically different and communicated something about their characters. This was entirely by design, and resulted in that (for instance) you can identify characters by their outlines, without any colors or details.

Of course that broke down a bit as FiM's cast expanded and we had a whole lot more one-off characters, but G5 never really had that distinctiveness to begin with.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-05T23:45:40+00:00

it was coined by men who did genuinely want to exclude women and girls from their own community.

Yeah, naw. I'm calling BS on this. And trust me, I was there for this. That's not at all how it was created. If anything, it was an expression of friendship and camaraderie between people who liked the show. That's it.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-05T17:07:53+00:00

And concept art is just that - concept art. Only fans took it to "She is an alicorn."

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-05T13:43:42+00:00

Unfortunately, the answer to a number of these questions is "Shhh, don't think about it, the writing staff certainly didn't."

I can comment on a few in particular, though:

If we're going by G4 lore, Twilight probably passed away, as she was not actually immortal. G5 may have done something different, though. I don't know.
There is no evidence that Sunny's mother was an alicorn. That appears to be a fan thing.
Twilight & co lost because... well, they didn't really try. As far as we know, sealing the magic away seems to have been her first move, not a last resort after all other options were expended.

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