#they never did release a pony figure of trixie did they... or maybe they did but iirc she had more equestria girls dolls than pony ones | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

skekteksfurby · 5 years

Text

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: A Lookback

I’ve been uncertain about whether or not to do it, but I’ve decided to go through with it. Tonight is the finale of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, a series that used to be a huge part of me. It’s a bit of a bittersweet ending for me. I know I’ve already seen the leaked final episodes, but I’m going to be watching them again after they’ve officially aired tonight.

But for now, I’m just going to look back at this show, my thoughts on it, and how it affected me.

Pre-G4

My journey with the MLP series actually goes way back. I remember watching the G1 series and movie a lot of times. I collected some of the toys, though I only started getting into collecting those when G2 was just coming out, as those were the toys I had the most of (and to this day still like the most aesthetically). I also had some of the G1 episodes on VHS, which I would watch over and over again. My favorite G1 pony was Sweetstuff!

I actually never watched the G2 series, My Little Pony Tales, and (from what I’ve heard), that’s maybe for the better. I really enjoyed collecting the G2 toys, though, and playing the G2 game. I to this day regret losing it somewhere.

G3 I also enjoyed. At least, what I saw of it. The A Charming Birthday special still was the one I watched the most due to having a VHS of it as well. I saw the occasional other special of G3, but never a lot. I stopped watching the series after a while, having reached the age where I moved onto other things, though I still collected those tiny Ponyville ponies that came out. Finally, after doing nothing with my old ponies (my collection was mostly G2 and G3 at this point) I gave all of them (safe for the Ponyville ones) away to a local school.

Then G4 came along.

G4- Season 1

My first thoughts when seeing the images and clips of the new series was just mostly neutral. I thought Fluttershy looked like Posey and I was at first honestly kind of pissed off they made Rainbow Dash a pegasus tomboy (I actually really liked her G3 counterpart back in the day, so seeing her this different was weird to me).

I didn’t actually watch the show, but a lot of my internet friends these days were into the series, and I started to see the Brony phenomenon pop up slowly and surely more and more. It didn’t really bother me, just thought it was kind of odd at first, but soon accepted it.

Then, finally, though I don’t know what it was that made me do it, I checked out the opening two-parter. And I really liked it. I watched a few more episodes after that, though out of order, and eventually grew disinterested, so I abandoned it after a whilewithout having watched some season 1 episodes. I also didn’t like the finale of this season (which I really thought would be the final episode back when). I still liked some aspects of this series. Over a Barrel and Sonic Rainboom were my favorite episodes, and I really loved Rainbow Dash as a character.

I didn’t participate much in the fandom, however, unless you count me chatting with my back-then best friend Abra about it.

G4- Season 2

I got back into the series when season 2 just came out, and this is the point where I like to consider myself officially becoming a fan. A popular animash YouTuber I was subscribed to back in the day uploaded the two-parter to his channel, and I watched it, and just kinda got hooked from there. I loved Return of Harmony and Discord as a villain.

I watched all of the other season 2 episodes as they were coming out. I didn’t tune into livestreams quite yet, but all of the episodes were still safely uploaded to YouTube (Hasbro didn’t go copyright strike-mad yet) and I watched them there. My favorite episode that I watched when it came out was A Canterlot Wedding. Another one that just really hit close to home was Hurricane Fluttershy, and slowly but surely she started to become my favorite pony, after Derpy (yes, I used to be big into background ponies. Don’t judge me, I was having fun).

After I was out of season 2 content to enjoy, I started to go back and watch those final season 1 episodes I missed out on earlier. I also started to participate more in the fandom, faving tons of MLP art on DeviantART and of course making my own OC’s. I even wrote a fanfic for a while (in my back then very, very broken English) about my OC Thundershot. It was horribly unoriginal and she was basically diet Rainbow Dash, but what can you do.

I also bought some of the G4 toys while this was going on, though I was very shy about it since I had no one to share it with and I was by this point well past the target demographic. I probably had it easier than most male bronies at this point, but still felt very awkward about it.

G4- Season 3-4

Season 3 marks the point where I figured out how to watch livestreams. I remember being really excited for The Crystal Empire (and ultimately being disappointed by it). I was there during the livestream of that, and, yes, I did indeed experience the Gak meme being born. Good ol’ times.

All other episodes I also proceeded to watch of this season on stream. This was also roughly where I discovered the MLP review/analysis community. I animated a lot in these days (we’re not going to talk about what) and would have these videos playing in the background to have something to listen to.

I also recall really liking some season 3 episodes that others hated. I’m actually kinda fond of Apple Family Reunion and Spike at Your Service to this day. Spike and Applejack also were my least favorite characters back then, so it was unusual for me to enjoy their episodes. As for the Discord redemption thing... I used to be all for it back when, but nowadays I honestly think I’d preferred it if he stayed a villain, or got a better redemption. More on that later.

Season 4 was and still is my favorite season of this show. It gave us wonderful episodes such as Flight to the Finish; Rarity Takes Manehattan; Pinkie Pride, Maud Pie; Testing, Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3; Equestria Games and of course the very best episode to come out of this entire show: Twilight’s Kingdom. I will fight you on that.

By this season Rarity slowly also started to be one of my favorite ponies, and I even grew to like Spike a lot more. Applejack I still couldn’t care less about, though. No matter how much I want to like the character, I just can’t connect to her at all.

This season was where I liked to consider my fan-ness for this series was at it’s peak. I actively drew fanart, browsed art, listened loyally to every major analysis/review brony’s thoughts on each episode, watched a shitton of those GMod/SFM animations, PMV’s, joined nearly every stream, etc. Now I just had to wait for season 5.

G4- Season 5-7

This is, unfortunately, where things started to become a blur for me. Not only because I felt that nothing could top season 4, but also due to my deteriorating mental health. 2015 is where my depression started. I had less gusto to do literally anything, including participating in the fandom and watching the show.

There was also more shit going on in the fandom, with major analysis/review bronies (among others) leaving (and some making quite a big stink about it, too). I myself still watched some of the streams of the earlier episodes, but felt more and more disconnected from the show. One episode I did really cling onto, though, was Amending Fences, as it really hit close for me.

I continued to watch little to none of the new episodes. I know season 6 was coming out at some point, but just ignored it. I had at this point lost all my care for a lot of things, MLP included.

However, as I eventually got better, I finally started to be interested in the show again. I had a shitton of catching up to do, as I think season 7 was already past the halfway point or maybe even nearly done. So I continued to watch the new episodes. And I... enjoyed it. In moderation, maybe, as I still wasn’t back to how I used to be, and I still don’t enjoy a lot of these episodes to the same extent I did some of the older ones, but I enjoyed it at the very least again.

Some things I did not care about in 6-7 were Starlight Glimmer and how Discord was handled. Starlight I initially liked, but quickly saw how bad of a character she really was. I was also all of Discord’s redemption in season 3, but then the seasons onward proceeded to turn him into an expy of the Genie from Disney’s Aladdin. Feel free to chase me with your pitchforks for saying this but, I never quite liked Genie from that a lot. He’s funny at some points, but also really annoying and needlessly busy for me? I always got this feeling that he would overstimulate me if we got more content of this guy. I just never cared much about the Genie, so seeing Discord become essentially this was a big disappointment.

I did like Trixie’s return, though she could also be needlessly air-headed. Overall, seasons 5-6-7 were much more of a blur for me. A blur I somewhat enjoyed, but still more or less a blur. I can recall very little episodes of these seasons by name, or name very little I actually really liked.

G4- The Movie

If you want to hear my full thoughts on it, just go here, where I did a Movie Thoughts on it. I actually saw this one in cinema with my friend... in Dutch. Yeah, there was no OV release of it here, so I had to go to the cringy Dutch dub if I wanted to see it in cinema. I did this and, the horrid dub aside, I enjoyed it fine. Nothing grand, but it had some good animation and moments. I liked Tempest (though I definitely think she should’ve had more comeuppance for her crimes) and “Open Up Your Eyes” especially.

The movie didn’t particularly reawaken my old love for the show again, but I still thought it was decent and deserves some credit. I’d just rather re-watch some of my favorite episodes of the show over this film.

G4- Seasons 8-9

Though I was doing much, much better again at this point, the show still remained somewhat of a blur for me. I watched each episode, but, much like during 5-6-7, felt little to no need to watch them live or multiple times unless they stood out in particular.

I still don’t quite know what to make of the whole School of Friendship idea. I like the Young 6, but still wonder if they were really necessary. Couldn’t they have just told more stories about characters we already knew? We also got some episodes I really didn’t care for like Horse Play, The Parent Map, A Matter of Principals, Friendship University, The End in Friend and especially Yakity-Sax. As for Rockhoof and a Hard Place, I’m not even going into that. Yikes.

I also thought that the idea that the villain that is a kid gets sent to the MLP version of hell is really...yeah. No thanks.

I also watched some of the specials (Rainbow Roadtrip and The Best Gift Ever) during this time and felt rather uninterested about them. Also, no, I won’t be bringing up Equestria Girls in this.

Season 9 I’ve also seen in its entirety thanks to some Dutch streaming service leaking the final few episodes (again with the bad dub, but there’s not much to be done about that until the official release). Season 9 is again very much a blur for me. I tried to like it as much as I did in the old days, but I just don’t connect that much to this show again.

Still, I felt really bittersweet when the final few episodes were over. No matter how slowly disconnected I became from the show overtime, I still grew up with these characters. I was about 13 when I first got into the show. Now I’m 21 and a whole different person. I’ve combated a depression and trauma, learned to accept my gender identity, grown as a writer and artist, etc.

So, no matter how slowly I drifted apart from the show, I definitely do feel something for it. It’ll always have this special place in my heart, especially the first four seasons. I met a lot of people and got to experience what it was like being in a fandom for the first time. True, not everything that came out of the show and the fandom was pretty, and I still don’t feel comfortable calling myself a brony anymore. I just casually enjoy re-watching some of my favorite episodes from time to time.

Sorry for this rambly random distorted mess of a post, but I just wanted to do something for the 9-year anniversary and the final episodes coming out today. Thanks for the good times, MLP. I’m curious to see what G5 will have to offer. So long, horses.

#mlp: fim #mlp:fim #My Little Pony #my little pony friendship is magic #my little pony: friendship is magic #mlp #mlp g4 #tekrim text #long post

9 notes · View notes

marvelandponder · 7 years

Photo

I’M SCREAMING

We’re 3 months away from this glitter-bomb and they gave us some stuff to scream about. I think I’ll do just that. I took my sweet time putting this together, I know, but there’s a fair bit to unpack and a lot to be excited about so, let’s go through it all!

Animation

Okay, so first things first: people are calling this a 2D movie and that’s not really that accurate.

It certainly has some 2D elements, like the backgrounds, but the style of animation only makes the characters look 2D, when in fact they’re 3D models.

You can tell in how they move. If I were to give you a still screen shot, you might guess that it was from a 2D animation, but in motion, you can tell what it actually is: cel-shading.

I had a hunch that’s what it was so I asked a storyboarder who worked on the MLP movie (and the show) if I was right and she said:

The program they’re using is ToonBoom, which does rigs with 2D toon shaders, among other things!

You know, I don’t often call things, but I fucking called it. Let me have this. Just to give you a quick definition from Wikipedia:

“Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades.”

3-dimensional figure with cel shading, has the effect of making it look 2D. Typically seen with thick outlines on the outside and little to no outlines on the inside:

(Team Fortress 2 itself isn’t normally cel shaded, but that’s a great example a fan made of what cel shading usually looked like when I was growing up)

Cel shading without outlines, as seen in Wind Waker.

Like I said, just seeing this still image, it looks 2D, but watching it move, you can tell there’s a 3rd dimension to the character with the features and lineart mapped out onto the models to make it look 2D

Which by the way, is really unique for a major release! I don’t know about anyone else, but I was excited that MLP: The Movie seemed to be 2-D since there hasn’t been a domestic 2-D animated movie since Winnie the Pooh in 2011. 6 damn years! While I maybe would’ve ideally liked a completely 2-D animated movie, the backgrounds and the cel shading works in really neat ways, and it will definitely make the movie stand out

The purely 3-D objects seem unfinished at the moment (but that’s not out of the ordinary, CGI seems to be one of the last processes). It needs texture or shading or something, and I can tell because most of the ship looks too soft (too much like a model) to be metal. I really think this will be fixed for the final product, but that’s probably the most jarring part of the style at the moment

Not all of the 3-D looks unfinished, but the best looking parts are still the painterly, 2-D stuff (look at those towers; they’re really stylized, but you can tell they’re 3D in a more 2D environment)

THAT DIGITALLY PAINTED VERSION OF CANTERLOT THOUGH:

The light effects are definitely 3-D in the fireworks and rainboom

Oh, and speaking lighting, so much of it looks so pretty! There are one or two times when the colours are slightly off, but the majority of the time it looks freaking gorgeous

You can kinda see by looking at Rarity that the shading is juuust slightly off here (kinda like they were for the teaser trailer), but then you look in the background and see this BEAUTIFUL background and Twilight all upset and worried about this invasion, and it feels like such a nitpick to worry about what will probably still be cleaned up before it hits theaters

We also get some really great expressions, so they’re not really limited by the 3D models underneath (if I’m right about that)

Also, just as one last little note here, the style is detailed enough to see little things about the characters we didn’t know up until now, like the fact that the spines on the side of Spike’s head are translucent, or that the colours of RD’s mane aren’t 100% perfectly separated

Overall with the animation, I’m so impressed not only by how gorgeous it is,but by how willing they were to take a risk and incorporate a 3D element in the form of (I think) cel-shading. This only really matches the creative spirit of the MLP team, though. Whether or not you agree on how well they always execute everything, they always try to step up their game with every new season and push themselves to be and do better.

And while I will say that if some of the more 3D parts (yeah, I’m talking about the zeppelin/airships mostly) aren’t fixed for the final release, I would have a bone to pick with them, but I have faith that we’ll be seeing a much smoother integration of that 3D on the big screen.

Story and Character Details

I really appreciate that they didn’t outright spoil anything too big. It’s definitely a well-cut trailer! We basically only know about the same information we did before, with just a hint or two as to things like who the true villain is.

Just based on the focus given to these characters in the trailer (and what I know of the Storm King’s characterization in the first Movie Prequel comic that was just released), seems like he’s not as big of a threat as the commander of his fleet, Tempest.

It’s a kind of villain we haven’t seen on the show or even in EQG, and not only that, but

She’s got a fantastic voice actress behind her, so she can pull off the deliciously evil vibe well without, say, reminding us too much of Chrysalis or other powerful animated villains from Disney classics

Plus her design with the broken horn and her magic sparking up out of it is instantly intriguing to me: for such a powerful presence, it’s awesome to see her weakness (and most likely shady past) is always on display---especially for a commander character, that’s just really cool

Grubber seems to be pretty standard so far, nothing he’s done has really impressed me quite yet, but I’m hoping his best stuff is saved for the movie itself

The sky pirates (or skyrates) look like a lot of fun, and in context I can see how well the bipedal birb pirate blends with the universe (the bipedal designs were the ones I had the most trouble with)

On top of that, we have sea ponies at last! And they’re far more adorable than I ever could’ve hoped

The original sea pony designs from G1 looked a lot more like sea horses, with curling tails and fins on either side, but I think the meraid-ish look is both more marketable for Hasbro and more appealing to look at (the original sea ponies always seemed like a joke in the fandom to me, I admittedly never understood why people would actually want it in G4)

And a-ha! Good queens do exist! Poor Celestia and Luna. Always a princess, never a queen.

Oh, and Seaquestria? It’s freakin’ beautiful. I LOVE the rich blues and purples here. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the 360 image of the underwater palace complete with an excellent piece of background music, treat yourself.

The Mane 6′s sea pony designs are pretty dang adorable. I don’t have anything interesting to say, I just like the cute water horses, okay?

Minor Details and Incidentals

I’ll start out by saying Twilight’s narration in the trailer is pretty standard, but still heartwarming (mostly because I already know and love these characters though). It sort of reminds me of the bits of narration from the How to Train Your Dragon movies, although those had a bit more character to them.

The what could possible go wrong? line, though. It just makes me laugh thinking of all the flashbacks we could have to the series.

I guess she’s talking about that festival specifically that she’s organizing, and in that way it’s a show of character development (in a similar way to the character development on display in A Flurry of Emotions, where Twilight is told she’s late and doesn't have a panic attack or worry about what could go wrong... too much), but it’s still hilarious to contrast the idea that nothing could go wrong in Equestria to... literally all of the show.

AJ and RD protecting their friends even before the others have gotten over the shock of whatever they’re seeing tho

Starlight and Trixie get a bit of screen-time together and it’s adorable. Starlight might be stuck in Canterlot for the duration of the adventure, but I’m glad to see her included. Characters like Discord who might be too hard to explain to new audiences are understandable losses, but even if Starlight’s cameo is brief, it’s good to see her role acknowledged

In terms of music, Sia’s looking adorable so far, and Lukas Graham’s as of yet unreleased Off to See the World sounds pretty catchy (it’s the song at the end of the trailer), so they’ve got talent behind the vocals!

Jumping back to little details, it’s neat how sea pony magic has a very distinct look from unicorn/alicorn magic. Also, the bubbles are really cute

And, okay, I just wanted to take a minute to appreciate how serious this ponk is. Can we all just stop and take a look, because in this scene Twilight’s saying how she’s the one Tempest is after, and she should probably face this alone, which seems to be our Princess of Friendship’s big dilemma in this movie, and Pinkie’s clearly trying to tell her she’s crazy

Gotta love that they didn’t just go for hyperactive comic relief Pinkie Pie; they don’t seem to be boiling down these characters to just one trait (which is partially why I loved the moment where RD and AJ defend the girls; RD’s ego will no doubt be on display throughout the movie, but you’ll also see she’s ready to lay down her life for her friends)

And hey, lookie here! Canterlot got a make-over... and a contractor. There’s more pink than there typically is and it doesn’t necessarily match what we’ve seen of it in the show. Especially places like the throne room:

And you know, I’m a little torn on this detail? It’s beautiful, and I’m digging the starry night mosiac they’ve got going on back there, but it would’ve been nice to see the throne room we know and love rendered in this new style, you know? I’m gonna miss the deep magentas and the stain glass windows of the Mane 6′s accomplishments. I know that’s mostly the fangirl in me, but I like seeing continuity nods back to the show (like hey look: Cadence gets a cameo!)

Unless Canterlot gets destroyed and subsequently rebuilt in the season 7 finale, in which case I’ll shut my mouth

Speaking of which, I still have to wonder exactly when this will take place in the series, or if it exists slightly to the left of canon like the Equestria Girls movies (which, I mean, I consider canon, but still). I know there’s ties into the comics, but I wonder if/when the show will acknowledge the events of the movie... I guess only time will tell

And for now, I think that about wraps it up! All in all, I’m beyond excited to see this thing, as anyone could’ve guessed.

It should also be noted that a lot of kids movie trailers focus on the fun, comedic portions of the movie, so while I do think it’s mostly going to feel like this, I’m also looking forward to the more character-driven feelsy parts. As we well know, you can never get the full scope of a movie from just the trailer, but it’s usually especially true for kids movies.

Even just from what we have seen, it looks like we’re in for a ride. Can’t wait to get on.

Hey, if you’d like more MLP stuff, you can click right here to see my editorials or here for episode reviews. And if those links don’t look pretty enough, have the last three things I’ve done right here:

Parental Glideance Review, Celestia/Daybreaker Editorial, and LGBT+ Editorial

Year of the Pony

139 notes · View notes