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Fhaolan

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  1. Fhaolan

    Meet the Ponies

    By Fhaolan,

    Meet the Ponies (G3/C7 Webcasts, 2008, 7x 4 minutes)
     
    This is something new, in that these are webcasts rather than direct-to-video stuff. This is one of those things that makes the division between G3 and G3.5 odd, because we're now dealing with Hasbro getting all experimental.
     

     
    Pinkie Pie's Party Party
     
    Summary: Pinkie Pie puts on a party!
     
    This generation really gave up on trying to have buildings that were reasonable. Pinkie's 'house' is bizarre on the outside.
     
    The interior, however, is pretty normal for a place built in the 50's or so.
     
    Rainbow Dash sounds like she's *trying* to do the character from before, but not getting quite close enough.
     
    Odd circular fireplace, but I've seen weirder stuff in various 50's architecture magazines.
     

     
    Rainbow Dash's Hat Fashion Party
     
    Summary: Rainbow Dash organizes a Hat fashion show.
     
    Again, another weird exterior.
     
    Wow, Starsong's wings are going a mile a minute.
     
    The odd thing about this generation is the fact they accept pretty much *anything* that's going on without comment.
     

     
    Cheerilee's Pajama Party
     
    Summary: Cheerilee hosts a slumber party.
     
    I like the windows.
     
    Of course Pinkie knows how to do balloon animals.
     
    Given the characterizations, this could easily be Cheerilee from G4 when she was a teen. And Sweetie Bell is actually Rarity.
     

     
    Scootaloo's Outdoor Play Party
     
    Summary: Scootaloo organizes a play-day.
     
    Pinkie and Scootallo's voice actors are giving them very young male-sounding voices
     
    Not just outdoor play, but all very competitive events.
     
    I notice we're *still* dealing with quad skates, and not inline skates.
     

     
    Starsong's Dance and Sing Party
     
    Summary: Starsong has all her friends join her in a Karaoke party.
     
    Starsong's voice actor is trying very hard to hold that voice, there are parts that she's holding back while singing.
     

     
    Toola-Roola's Mixed Up Painting Party
     
    Summary: Toola-Roola has her friends paint special plates for her party.
     
    There are places you can do this now, but it's not paint. It's glaze and you bake the stuff on.
     
    There's not much going on in these shorts, really.
     

     
    Sweetie Belle's New Cake Party
     
    Summary: Sweetie Belle has her friend help with baking special cakes.
     
    That's not quite how carrot cake works, but what the hey.
     
    Interesting. In this generation Sweetie Bell is the baker.
     
    Yes, yes it is.... You have to be very experienced at baking to be able to be spontaneous. Baking is a science, not an art.
     
    Rainbow berries are a lot smaller now, and hard according to the sound they make. Unless they're candied berries, of course.
  2. Fhaolan

    Pinkie Pie's Special Day

    By Fhaolan,

    There's an odd thing going on at this point. Hasbro did another redesign of the ponies and stripped the toy line down to seven characters; Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Cheerilee, Scootaloo, Starsong, Toola-Roola, and Sweetie Bell. This is called by the toy collectors 'Core 7', but for some reason while the animations were also cut down to the core 7, the animation art style didn't change to match the toys until one year later. There was likely some communication issues between Hasbro and SD entertainment.
     
    Because of that, there's some confusion as when exactly 'Generation 3.5' started. This still appears to be the same setting as the rest of G3, but Hasbro goes very experimental with authorizing content from other animation studios, doing webcasts and the like, so it gets even trickier to figure out what's going on. I'm going to call this G3/C7 until the animation style changes, but I might change my mind depending on what these episodes are like.
     
    Pinkie Pie's Special Day (G3/C7 Direct-to-DVD Short packaged in the playset of that name, 2008, 12 minutes)
     
    Summary: It's a day to celebrate Pinkie Pie!
     
    Hey Scootaloo.
     
    Ponyville seems the same, but the characters have changed slightly. Rainbow Dash isn't all 'darling'.
     
    Hey Sweetie Belle.
     
    Wait, is that Cheerilee? She's lost her horn then, and changed color and cutie-mark. With Starsong, that's one unicorn, one pegasus, and five earth ponies.
     
    The Rainbow of Light is making a re-appearance. Interesting.
     
    This is going to be a clip show, isn't it?
     
    They're showing other characters in the flashbacks, but they're not involved in the main ... story. It's basically reinforcing that this is still G3 though.
     
    No, that was the *tradition*, not Pinkie's idea.
     
    Reinforcing the pinkie-party-pony introduced previously.
  3. Fhaolan

    A Very Pony Place

    By Fhaolan,

    A Very Pony Place (G3 Direct-to-DVD Collection, 2007, 45 minutes overall)
     
    This is a collection of three shorts, each of a different length.
     

     
    Come Back, Lily Lightly (20 minutes)
     
    Summary: Lily Lightly doesn't want to be different from the other ponies, and being promoted to princess is the worst thing she can think of.
     
    Time for the Unicorn Spectacular. The Rainbow Lights Party.
     
    Right, so Lilly is now a Princess. And it's making her horn glow, and she's exceedingly nervous about this.
     
    Ah, there was a specific toy for this character that had a glowing horn and dress.
     
    Re-using animation sequences.
     
    Closer look at Unicornia architecture. It is rather Bavarian, overall.
     
    We keep getting odd scenes of the balloon with Minty and Pinkie, but they seem to not have anything to do with the story.
     
    And suddenly she's wearing a glowing dress. Out of nowhere.
     

     
    Two for the Sky (15 minutes)
     
    Summary: Two storybook characters try to learn to fly.
     
    Back to Ponyville, to a windmill built like a pinwheel toy. Turns out this is the library?
     
    Twilight would love this place.
     
    Gossamer the... Dragonfly? Is this pony's equivalent to Twilight's Spike.
     
    These are the pony equivalent to the Wright Brothers, I guess.
     
    These guys predate the discovery of the pegasi, but not the Breezies.
     
    Uhm... Flutterponies?
     
    I don't like this one. Sure, be who you are is a good message, but this one is tinged with 'don't try to do something different.'
     

     
    Positively Pink (10 minutes)
     
    Summary: It's Pinkie Pie's birthday, and her friends try to surprise her.
     
    It appears that Razaroo is gone or something. Nobody's in charge of tracking birthdays anymore.
     
    Back to Puzzlement, who has that odd English accent. If I'm catching it right, I believe it's a variation on 'RP', or 'Received Pronunciation', a sort-of-fake accent used ages ago on the BBC, sometimes known as the 'Oxford' accent though that's not entirely accurate. What Rainbow Dash (and G4 Rarity) has is Mid-Atlantic accents, another variation of RP that occurred when upper-class Americans picked up Received Pronunciation.
     
    Rainbow berry bush. I get the feeling these are this generation's zap apples.
     
    Rainbow berries look... odd. They're kind fluffy looking. I'm not sure what I'm looking at.
     
    Minty may be a nit, but she's good at improv.
     

     
    This may or may not be the end of Generation 3, it depends on who you ask, and I'll explain that in more detail in the next entry. I'm gong to hold off doing a summary for the worldbuilding blog because of the confusion. I might even wait until the end of G3.5 and do it as a combined thing. Things get weird from here on in.
  4. Fhaolan
    Yes, I'm including this. It's real, it happened. I doubt there will be much I can pull out for worldbuilding, but it's valid.
     
    The World's Biggest Tea Party (G3 Live Action, 2006, 75 minutes)
     
    Summary: The ponies put on the biggest party of all!
     
    Giant sentient ladybugs stealing Spike's How-To book.
     
    Why has he got a giant watch around his neck? That's awfully white rabbit.
     
    It's not a watch, it's a tuning whistle it seems. Maybe it's an ocarina. Or maybe an ocarina *and* a pocket watch? That would be a neat thing.
     
    This is set up like a Panto. An English tradition of a children's play where the audience is encouraged to cheer and boo at the various characters. That's oddly fitting, as panto derives from mummer's plays and the like, with a stock character called the Hobby Horse (or Panto Horse) that reaches all the way back to the worship of the Celtic goddess Epona. (For those of a linguistic bent, this is one of the words that points out whether you are dealing with the old clasification system of Q-Gaelic/P-Gaelic. In one set of dialects certain sounds in words are in the back of the throat as a Q's while in the other set of dialects that same position has a front of the mouth P. Epona is P-Gaelic (Welsh and others) where the English words 'Pony' and 'Foal' come from. Equosa is the same word in a much older Q-Gaelic dialect which the Romans picked up as 'Equus' from which we derive 'Equine'. If you track it back further, you can tie it into the Proto-Germanic Hrussa from which we get 'Horse'. I find languages fun.)
     
    The costumes are... odd, but it's an interesting way of dealing with it. It's more efficient than panto horses that requires two people per character. However, I'm not seeing any way for the actors to actually see what they're doing? They must be able to see through the mane at the top of the 'head', as the eyes and mouth are mechanically operated.
     
    Earth ponies and one pegasus, Thistlewistle.
     
    There we go, Rarity the unicorn.
     
    And Minty is just as much a walking disaster.
     
    I just noticed the heart on their front right hooves. They all seem to have it, but I don't remember seeing it in the animations.
     
    And the Breezies, as stickpuppets.
     
    I've noticed the ponies never seem to eat anything outside of baked goods in this generation.
     
    Pinkie Pie Squink again. I'm glad they changed the name of this for G4, as 'squink' is just unfortunate, especially the way they're describing needing the 'squeeze your squinker'.
     
    This is where Pinkie Pie got the 'party pony' thing from, it seems.
     
    You know, that teapot song always confused me when I was a kid. You don't boil the water in the teapot, you use the kettle. The teapot is for steeping. At some point the teapots were also kettles, but that style went away long before the 80's so I'm confused as to why all the MLP shows still show it that way. Oh, did you know that originally you drank tea directly from the teapot using the spout? That's why most teapots are small, they're supposed to serve one person. Sorta puts that ''Friendship is Manly' video in perspective.
     
    The Rainbow is used to deliver mail regularly now. Rainbow Dash is apparently the post pony.
     
    Intermission.
     

     
    I remember this song from somewhere else. Strange.
     
    An interesting note, when it's 'tea and cakes', traditionally it's fruit cake. Not the sponge and butter cakes you may be used to.
     
    Try a new color on size, and Minty and Pinkie come out in green and pink respectively. Not practicing what you preach are you?
     
    What? Disco Dash? Heh. Scratching and rapping. People forget that hip hop started as a disco off-shoot.
     
    And this is the origin of the Pinkie Promise. Interesting.
     
    Pinkie never forgets *anything*...
     
    *ANYTHING*
     
    Amusing that the teapot has a paper tag from a teabag. So we're not dealing with loose-leaf.
  5. Fhaolan

    Greetings from Unicornia

    By Fhaolan,

    Bonus episode on the Crystal Princess DVD.
     
    Greetings from Unicornia (G3 Direct-to-DVD Short, 2006, 8 minutes)
     
    Summary: Rainbow Dash goes on tour in Unicornia.
     
    Rainbows delivering mail.
     
    Rainbow Dash is visiting the Unicorns.
     
    Rarity's horn changes size from scene to scene.
     
    Puzzlement has an odd accent compared to the other ponies.
     
    Wait, the ponies are *riding* the rainbow.
     
    That's a nice round. You don't hear them very often anymore.
  6. Fhaolan
    Crystal Princess: The Runaway Rainbow (G3 Direct-to-DVD Special, 2006, 48 minutes)
     
    Summary: Rainbow Dash finds the origins of Rainbows is in jeapordy, while a young Unicorn just wants to play.
     
    Animation seems to have cleaned up a bit this time.
     
    Random turning pillars into maypoles.
     
    Where's this? It's a new place... All the architecture looks identical to Ponyville again, but maybe a bit more Bavarian influence.
     
    Unicorns! Whole new sets of ponies again with no connection to Ponyville.
     
    Annual Princess Rainbow Ceremony. The Crystal Carriage. Uhm... it's being pulled by two bird things.
     
    Hey Rarity.
     
    *Princess* Rarity at that. The Rainbow Princess. Chosen every year in Unicornia from a number of pink unicorns.
     
    Trying to teach a young foal specific magic techniques.
     
    The first rainbow of the season is proceeded by a series of shooting stars.
     
    Oh, hey Cherilee. A Unicorn this time.
     
    Back to Breezies. They seem to be the bushwollies of this generation, but not as irritating.
     
    Okay, Ponyville, Unicornia, and the Breezies all celebrate this Rainbow ritual. But the earth ponies are completely unaware of the Unicorns making the rainbows, or their existence at all.
     
    Is that a normal function of the rainbow-making wand? If so, why?
     
    No, actually, without the *wand* there won't be a rainbow. Any pink unicorn could be elected to the position.
     
    They don't feed foals very well in Unicornia, obviously.
     
    They've mentioned rainbow berries several times, they apparently only come about after the first rainbow.
     
    It seems the pegasi aren't around today. They don't celebrate this festival, or if they do they do so on Butterfly Island.
     
    Someone who knows everything about everything. Spike? Really?
     
    Spike is the Moochick of this generation.
     
    Several castles, each celebrating a different 'thing'. Happiness, Friendship, Family, Kindness, Music, Laughter, Rainbows. The map has them color-coded, and two of them line up with the Elements of Harmony. However, there's seven castles. Which is interesting as this generation (3) and the next (3.5) seems to have an obsession with seven later on.
     
    Crystal Rainbow Castle.
     
    So, is the castle in Ponyville one of these castles, or are they all in Unicornia? The way Spike is using that map, and as we know the Ponyville castle predates Ponyville proper, it's very likely the Ponyville Castle is one of the ones on the map.
     
    Rainbow Dash's colors are actually connected to Rainbows, when the first rainbow is in jeopardy, she starts losing her colors.
     
    All colors drain from the world if the first Rainbow doesn't happen. It's just that those with dramatic colors notice it first.
  7. Fhaolan
    This was a special add-on to the DVD version of the Princess Promenade.
     
    Pinkie Pie and the Lady Bug Jamboree (G3 Direct-to-DVD Short, 2006, 8 minutes)
     
    Summary: Pinkie Pie takes the lead and rescues the Magical Music Show.
     
    Magical Music Show. Back to Pinkie Squinks?
     
    I have no words.
     
    Wait, they can see this? It isn't just in Pinkie's head?
     
    That was quick costuming.
     
    Well, it's technically better than the songs in the Promenade. But not by much.
     
    Line dancing. I've never done that myself. Do people just figure out how to do that as they go, or are there set routines? At least with square dancing there's a caller.
  8. Fhaolan

    The Princess Promenade

    By Fhaolan,

    The Princess Promenade (G3 Direct-to-VHS/DVD Special, 2006, 50 minutes)
     
    Summary: Wysteria finds the most perfect flower under the castle, along with Spike the dragon. Finding the flower comes with privileges that set her above all her friends, and a price she may not want to pay.
     
    The heck? Is this what happened to the Flutterponies? Breezies.
     
    The framerate seems to be dropping every animation.
     
    Right, Breezies are *shrunk* Flutterponies.
     
    They're planting cut flowers? What?
     
    No they're harvesting flowers... and planting at the same time. Sure, why not. Different plants have different growing seasons.
     
    Hey Spike.
     
    A thousand years again.
     
    Lots of songs in this one.
     
    The hairdresser is using safety scissors.
     
    More a don't than a do? No wonder, you're not a pony.... She needed glasses to tell that Spike wasn't a pony? Yikes.
     
    This is no basis for a system of government. I mean if a watery bink threw a scimitar at me....
     
    Pinkie Pie just had a... squink? Is there a cream for that?
     
    Lesson #6. I wonder what lessons 1 through 5 were? If this is another song... yeah. I wouldn't mind so much if the singing was any good. I mean, they're are technically in tune, but the singing voices aren't exactly pleasant. It reminds me of the school choir I belonged to way too long ago.
     
    Actually there are several flowers that are green. That one looks specifically like Green Hellebores. And there are several trees with pink leaves like that, such as the some types of beech.
     
    I really don't like this artificial view on princesses. Despite what the media tells you, this is *not* what a princess is.
     
    Wow, these ponies are really incompetent. They do need a princess to tell them what to do.
     
    Spike constantly refers to various fairy tale stories as if they happened.
     
    Not necessarily the first princess of Ponyville, unless the castle was here *before* Ponyville.
     
    Here's where everything is going to really go south. Everyone's a Princess! *sigh*
     
    Not another song. Please no. Again, those are just not the right singing voices for that style.
  9. Fhaolan
    Friends Are Never Far Away (G3 Direct-to-DVD Short packaged with the Hidden Treasure toy, 2005, 20 minutes)
     
    Summary: Sky Wishes and Star Catcher want the ponies of Ponyville and Butterfly Island to all be friends, but convincing the Pegasi is a problem in and of itself.
     
    Back to Butterfly Island. Okay, so we're not going to just ignore this. Good, good.
     
    Pegasis ponies are very shy... heh.
     
    Pegasis ponies love icecream. Who doesn't?
     
    And again with the prehensile tails.
     
    So much for the secret.
     
    The art is very inconsistant. Some of the ponies have black outlines, some don't. It really looks odd with the mix.
     
    Not really getting clear look at any of the architecture. What bits I've spotted looks like Ponyville, but more thatched roof examples, probably standard for Island fare.
     
    Starcatcher's wings are considerably bigger than the other pegasi.
     
    The waterfall rainbow is actually some form of transportation system, as they *have* to use the rainbow to move between Ponyville and Butterfly Island.
     
    Holy crap. *That's* a sundae. Good luck with that.
     
    The sparkly butterflies are sentient.
     
    Lots of hot-air baloons now.
     
    The inconsistant outlines is very jarring. It's almost like the different characters were drawn by different artists on the same frame.
     
    However, we now have pegasi ponies and earth ponies co-existing to an extent. That's good.
  10. Fhaolan

    Dancing in the Clouds

    By Fhaolan,

    Dancing in the Clouds (G3 Direct-to-VHS Short packaged with the Star Catcher toy, 2004, 20 minutes)
     
    Summary: Twinkle Twirl needs to choreograph a special dance for the Friendship Ball, and Sky Wishes finds she has a secret friend that can help.
     
    We're still in the same town, all earth ponies.
     
    Roller-skating on cobblestone. Not recommended.
     
    Hair stiff enough to actually *join* two ponies together. Fascinating.
     
    New ponies not introduced in the prior episode, Twinkletwirl and Skywishes.
     
    Catch a kite and you catch a wish, said in unison so this is an actual cultural thing.
     
    Lots of new ponies, and no safety bar on these roller coasters. Not sure how those ponies are staying in those cars.
     
    Dance studio, not like any dance studio *I've* ever been in. The stage is way too small.
     
    The eyes are strange, with three rings of color in the iris. This appears to be common.
     
    The most magical place in Ponyville, a rainbow waterfall, that Skywishes thought was legendary... PEGASUS!
     
    A real pegasus this time. In the style as the G1.5 pegasus, huh. Not just a cutie-mark, but a tattoo on the forehead and sides as well. Star Catcher seems to have magic powers, using sparkles and butterflies to ..
     
    Where the? They went through the rainbow to reach 'Butterfly Island', a secret place that is the source of Skywishes' wishing ability.
     
    Which they're not going to detail at all. *grump*
     
    Supposed to be a secret, and nobody questions the suddenly magically flying ponies?
     
    Darn it, I was hoping this would be introducing Pegasi proper into the G3 world. Instead it's looking like we get another set of magic fairy aliens that we likely won't see again.
  11. Fhaolan
    Last week I talked about weapons that are in-show. This week, we do armor, and if I have time I'll dive into speculation about both weapons and armor.
     

    There’s the Canterlot Guard armor, of course, with two variants the golden ‘Day Guard’, and the gray ‘Night Guard’. Shining Armor, as captain of the guard has an identical suit, but primarily purple rather than gold or gray. The guards of the Crystal Empire show up in identical designs, as do Luna’s personal guard (despite their batpony differences). The armour worn by the pegasi actors in the Hearth’s Warming Eve episodes are effectively identical to the Canterlot Guard armor, which makes sense as they are likely borrowed from the guard for purposes of the play. However, the armor worn by Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash in the jousting scenes are also identical. Which means that this design of armor has remained identical for just over a thousand years. This is, to put it frankly, highly unlikely.
     
    The helm is a classic shaffron and crinet from horse armor, blended with a roman praetorian guard helm, complete with the horsehair crest. Half of the crinet is missing, however, as there is normally articulated (or mail) pieces that protect the underside of the horse's neck. The plated breastcollar (called a peytral) may be different in appearance on each of these armours, but they follow the same fundamental design. The back plates resemble the roman lorica segmentata armor again, with earlier Crystal Empire sets having additional decoration and complete with pteruges (the leather strip 'skirt'). Also there is apparently a 'saddle' plate that is considered to be extra, not used when higher mobility is required (scouts, messengers, pegasi). This isn't that unusual, as most late-period harness (what a full suit of armor is called) would include several 'exchange plates' that were worn for specific combat situations and removed as needed to minimize weight. Just like modern military flak jackets that have removable ceramic and steel plates for vital areas.
     

    Nightmare Moon’s body armor has less coverage than the Canterlot Guard missing all of the back plate protection, and the helm is structurally quite different. Solid construction with no articulated crinet. Keeping with the semi-roman theme, I would compare it to the Gallic helm. Given the lack of coverage, likely this is parade armor, meant for appearance not for actual use.
     

    Ah, here we go, Sombra’s Armor. No helmet to examine, but the plating for the neck and body is quite different. We’re dealing with far more coverage, and what looks like a more advanced articulation system. He has a full plate crinet, in a 16th century Spanish design. Sombra’s armor is made for actual use, and is only missing a helm.
     
    And finally, Tank, as @@CITRUS KING46 reminded me. While we haven't seen any tanks yet in Equestria, we do have a reference thanks to Rainbow Dash's pet tortoise; Tank. It's pretty obvious that he's named after the war machine, as the other usages of the word make even less sense. Now the concept of tanks go back to the 15th century but it wasn't until the mid 19th century that industry reached the point that they could start building armored vehicles. But they still weren't called tanks, as they were called Landships or Land Ironclads until 1915. It was then that Britain started to build the first modern tank as a secret project. To protect the secret, the machines were built under the false public identity of all-terrain water trucks, or 'Water Carriers' which was a big deal for a military supply line at the time, so it was a quite believable lie. Unfortunately, just like today projects became known by their acronyms, and this led to the project being called the 'W.C.', which in England is also the short form for 'Water Closet' or toilet. This caused a bit of a to-do, and they changed the name of the plans from Water Carriers to Mobile Water Tanks, which was quickly shortened to just 'Tank'. Because this use of the word is pretty darn recent, and we haven't actually see any tanks or other armored vehicles in-show, I'm not entirely sure what to do with this information. The only self-propelled vehicles we've seen at all were the floats in the harvest parade, and the train (only later in the series, as at first the train was pulled by ponies).
     

     
    I'll start with my conclusions and speculation over armor, as it's quicker. What we are seeing is the devolution of armor. Due to the lack of true warfare in Equestria during Celestia's rule and Luna's exile, the various 'unnecessary' parts of the armor have been discarded, in much the same way that guard armor in Europe shifted from full harness to just the breast-and-back as it became increasingly obvious that the type of combat the guards were going to face wasn't going to be helped by full plate. Likely the original guard helms had some form of visor, articulated in some way like human gauntlets to allow for mouth-weapons. An a underneck crinet of plate, mail, or leather, plus a skirting of mail and/or leather all around to protect the legs.
     
    Something like this:
    This is based on extending the roman-esque design of the Guard's current armor, putting back all the pieces that would be removed over time as being 'useless' and 'unnecessary'. The mouth area is a bit off, I can see it clearly in my head how it would work, but I can't figure out how to draw it that doesn't just look like a mess of lines.
     
    Of course, the rich would have full plate much like Sombra. It's possible that even during the Crystal Empire at the time of Sombra that his armor would have been considered an antique, that he wore as a symbol of authority. Or that it was cutting-edge armor technology that he wore to symbolize his willingness to take the field personally. Which I think is more fitting to what little characterization we've seen for Sombra.
     

     
    Now back to weapons. The first thing you have to get into your head is that our ancestors weren't stupid. They may not have had access to the materials we have now, but if a weapon didn't see use on a battlefield there was a reason. They could have made those silly swords with all the spiky bits, or giant mallets and the like. You could have had lines of meteor hammers, or double-ended flails. It was well within their technology to build that stuff, but they didn't because they just don't work the way you want a real weapon to work.
     
    There are very few weapons that started life purely as ‘weapons’, and those few are usually fancy training tools used to demonstrate principles of martial arts rather than real weapons intended for battlefield use. Real weapons are usually developed from a variety of handtools (hammers, axes, scythes, etc.), or are adapted from hunting (spears, bows & arrows, slings, etc.) Real weapons are also fairly light, as you are supposedly using them against targets that are actively trying to not get hit, and therefore if you can’t change the direction of your swing reasonably easily and hit what you're actually aiming at (and nothing else) you’ve already lost.
     
    Here’s where the first break happens. Ponies, if they are herbivorous as the series presents them, do not ‘hunt’ as such. They have no reason to develop hunting implements at all to derive weapons from. So any weapons derived from hunting tools would need to be ‘borrowed’ from other cultures that hunt. The only races we have seen that are likely tool-using hunters are griffons, and maybe diamond dogs and dragons depending on what their dietary requirements really are. There’s some speculation that diamond dogs actually eat the gems, and as such are more dragon-like and just have the appearance of canines.
     
    So archery is probably borrowed from the griffons, especially since griffon talons are more likely to be able to do archery in the first place. Ponies would have been playing catch-up in that regard, adapting the aggressor’s tools to use against them. Historically eastern horse archers do use a special tool known as a thumb-ring. This special odd-shaped ring allows them to pull, aim, and stabilize bows that they would normally not be able to. It wouldn’t be inconceivable for the ponies to have a similar tool, more a bracelet than a ring, which works in a similar manner. It would be designed quite differently, of course, but the *concept* is usable.

     
    Spears, javelins, darts (meaning short javelins, not the darts you go down to the pub to play), and possibly even slings would have originated with the hunting griffons. Once you have slings it’s not that far of a jump to bolas, and honestly if you’re dealing with flying creatures I could see bolas and related weapons being way more useful as a way to tangle those huge wings.
     
    Improving the versatility of spears by adding scythe blades (guisarme), picks (bec du corbin), axes blades (pollaxe), or mixes of them, would also be popular, especially if the ponies engaged in formation fighting.
     
    Regular short tools such as axes, hammers, sickles, and the like would have been adapted into weapons. As we’ve seen, they do use these tools in their mouths rather than on their hooves, so that’s how their fighting style would evolve. Short, fast movements of the head to use the strength of their neck muscles. Short movements, as big, grand swings would mean difficulty in maintaining sight contact with your target. EDIT: Mind you, horses, and likely ponies, have a much larger 'arc' of vision than humans. Being a prey animal, horse eyes are on the sides of their heads rather than facing forwards like ours. This allows them to see a much wider range around them without moving their heads. If pony eyes are really that large, and situated on their heads the way the art style has them, then they too will have a larger visual arc and can swing weapons farther to match while still maintaining sight contact.
     
    Horses in real life stamp, kick, and bite, and do so quite effectively. As such weapons that can increase the effectiveness of these attacks would be common. While the use of mouth-weapons replacing the bite, the pony equivalent of cesti or brass knuckles would be popular, especially on the back hooves where the punishing double kick would be improved. However, these would not be military weapons in the same way brass knuckles and knife boots aren’t here. Backup weapons used by individuals, perhaps, but not for primary use on the battlefield. Military weapons rely on extending the soldier's reach, not just improving the impact of the blow. If it was, then spiked gauntlets would be more popular than swords.
     
    Which brings us to the wingblade. Described by fanfiction writers as a pegasis-only weapon, turning the leading edge of their wings into a cutting surface. This isn’t that unreasonable as a dueling weapon really, but the craftsmanship of the blades would need to be very high to be workable. Likely early wingblades would be small blades spaced along the wing, possibly only on the tip of the wing, with a tough but light fabric connecting the blades. Full wingblades would be *very* thin, in order to be light enough, and would need to be of extremely consistent quality steel to be durable enough for use. So a relatively late-period weapon. And due to the fact the weapon does not in any way extend the soldier's reach, requiring the wielder to at minimum slide the edge of their wing across their opponent and disrupting their *own* flight, this is extremely unlikely to ever see use on the battlefield. A dueling weapon to be sure. Pity, for it is a cool concept.
     
    However, all of this is ancient news. Ponies know what firearms are, but they obviously don't think of them first. When presented with what they believe is a credible threat, they arm their soldiers with spears, not guns. So either there is something we don't know reducing the effectiveness of guns in this world, or they have deliberately abandoned the technology. There must be some counter to guns easily available in Equestria, that does not affect bigger, slower missile weapons like spears and arrows. Funnily we ran into something similar to this in real life. Bullet proof vests are only proof against arrows if they include the optional metal or ceramic plates. Relatively slow moving sharp blades go right through Kevlar. Which is why I get a lot of questions from bouncers in rough bars about where they can find good quality but inexpensive mail, as they are more likely to encounter knives than bullets.
  12. Fhaolan

    Friendship Gardens

    By Fhaolan,

    Generation 2 has no animated series. In fact they only have a single video-game. My Little Pony: Friendship Gardens, which is basically a relatively complex tamagotchi system where you are keeping a pony as a pet. I don't have the game, and from what I was able to find it doesn't run properly on current operating systems, glitching out regularly. So I'm not able to go into it for finding anything worldbuilding in it.
     
    So, all I have is a tiny bit around the region the G2 is set in, is called ‘Friendship Gardens’. Wow, revelation there. Actually, that *is* interesting as it’s not ‘Ponyland’ or ‘Ponyville’ but something completely different.
     
    Due to the lack of a series, I’m not going to bother doing a summary in the Worldbuilding Blog.
     
    On we go to Generation 3 then! The end is in sight!
  13. Fhaolan
    Honestly, this series wasn’t as bad as I remembered it being. While there was an episode or two that insisted on the fillies needing coltfriends, and the colts were almost universally portrayed in negative stereotypes, overall it wasn’t *that* bad. Sweetheart is best G1.5 pony.
     
    Oh yes, as mentioned in my Episode Watching Blog, I’m treating My Little Pony Tales as Generation 1.5. Officially it’s still Generation 1, as the generations are determined by the toy line, not the shows. But this show is definitely *not* using the same setting and characters as the G1 My Little Pony ‘n Friends show, and it is not using the same character designs as Generation 2.
     
    Anyway, on to my findings:
     
    The My Little Pony Tales show is set in a region whose terrain, culture and slang usage resembles Arizona & New Mexico in the late 80’s, early 90’s. The primary focus is an unnamed mid-sized town in Ponyland. In fact the town may be all there is of Ponyland.
     
    The town has elected officials, and the ponies themselves are organized into nuclear families. While there was no evidence of a broader nation as such, there are several islands that appear to be their own nations, including one ruled by a European-style monarchy, and another with Polynesian-styled ponies. There is also a region that produces ponies with French accents.
     
    All of which are Earth Ponies. Unicorns do not exist and Pegasi are considered to be a cross of magical fairies and otherworldly aliens. The few Pegasi that appear are extensively tattooed, and appear to be led by the first Alicorn seen in My Little Pony animation. These Pegasi appear to be monitoring the Earth Ponies in that they are tracking certain individuals by name. They only appear once, and are never mentioned again. The only other intelligent species even mentioned in the series are dragons, and those being mythical. We don’t even get to see much in the way of animal life in general. There is definitely no explicit contact with the human world as such.
     
    There is an odd thing that points towards ponies not being related to real life equines, in that they have semi-prehensile tails that they can twist and turn at will.
     
    The ponies are again not native to this region, having travelled there as ‘settlers’ in wagon trains. There is evidence of a prior civilization, with architecture similar to the ancient Pueblo Indians (reinforcing the Arizona/New Mexico model), however unlike the real-life region they appear to have died out completely leaving no modern Pueblo-equivalents like the Hopi or Zuni. These Pueblo-equivalents appear to be called 'Pinto', which is a specific type of mottled coloring on a horses, unlike any of the ponies seen in this series who are all solid-coated.
     
    Many of the businesses in the town seem to have put a lot of effort into being retro 50’s, with uniforms, equipment (jukeboxes, hairdryers, etc.). Special shaped architecture (storefronts made to look like the product being sold) became really popular in the 50's as well, but it continues to pop up on occasion ever since so this is not indicative of anything.
     
    The education system of the ponies also resembles early 90’s where standardized testing was beginning to be mandated in America. This caused tests to be wildly out of sync with what the students were actually being taught in the classroom. In this case we have students in 4th or 5th grade delving into molecular chemistry while at the same time being tested on simple multiplication tables. (This is based on Sweetheart being 10 years old in the series.) This would eventually lead to the ‘teaching to the test’ concept in America, but that has not apparently occurred yet in pony culture.
     

     
    So what can we salvage from this?
     
    Not much, honestly. The removal of unicorns and pegasi from the main setting, and any other intelligent life for that matter is a big blow. The very modern technology is very difficult to work around as well. It's very rare that this series explores the broader culture of the ponies, or travel to areas outside of the town. It's very narrowly focused on slice-of-life episodes in the lives of the seven young fillies.
     
    Forcing the issue, this would be best placed in the southern region of Equestria, near the farthest reaches of the Ghastly Gorge bordering on the San Palomino Desert and the low mountains separating that region from where the Appleloosa settlement is now. And it would need to be temporally located when the three pony tribes were functionally independent of each other, long before the Hearth’s Warming Eve story.
     
    If this was to be a continuation of the My Little Pony ‘n Friends setting, the ‘settlers’ would be Earth Ponies leaving Ponyland, to create ‘New’ Ponyland in this region. The alien Pegasi would represent ponies from the original Ponyland keeping tabs on the new civilization, but for some reason not allowing extensive contact. The change from a gender/age segregated society to a nuclear family setup is a major shift that might have been the reason for exodus to the new land, and the desire for the two 'nations' to keep as separate as possible from each other. In much the same way as religion was the impetus for many of the American colonies. But this is a far more extreme level of isolation and I can't convince myself that there is a good reason for this.
     
    If we're really looking as all of this as one big story, it's more likely we're seeing these series out-of-order, and My Little Pony Tales takes place *before* My Little Pony 'n Friends. We will have to see how the next Generations go to see if those will give us something to work with.
     
    Other than that, I’m having trouble finding anything worth porting over to G4, other than some specific characters like Sweetheart and Lancer.
     
    Oh, except for the Polynesian ponies. There were a couple of fanfics at one point that posited that Fluttershy's parents were not from Cloudsdale originally, but were from some island region. The idea being that Fluttershy's beauty as described in the 'Green isn't your Color' episode is at least partially because she is exotic in some way that isn't translating through the cartoony artstyle. That and her flying abilities are in question simply because she is built for a completely different style of flying than what Rainbow Dash and all the other Cloudsdale ponies are used to. While Dash is more raptor-like built for speed and power, Fluttershy is sea bird-like built for long-distance gliding. Follow that line of thought and you can bring in the Polynesian ponies as being distant ancestors of Fluttershy then. If they weren't all Earth Ponies in this blasted series.
  14. Fhaolan

    Who's Responsible

    By Fhaolan,

    Who's Responsible (G1.5 TV episode, September 25the 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Bright Eyes and the girls try to find the source of the pollution choking Ponyville's rivers.
     
    Hey, this looks like one of the ice cream factories from the previous series.
     
    It's a delivery van, you nitwit.
     
    Clover can't read? That's interesting. She may have a learning disability of some kind. That sounds like a setup for a second season episode that never happened.
     
    And that ends My Little Pony Tales. There's a few things here for the worldbuilding blog, I think I'll be able to make one full essay out of it, for tomorrow's publish. (Generation of Ideas: My Little Pony Tales)
     
    Overall, the series wasn't that bad. It's a bit light and fluffy, and definitely reinforces the status quo society-wise, advocating some bad (but typically 90's) morals in places. But it's not brain-killing the way some people make it out to be.
  15. Fhaolan

    Ponies in Paradise

    By Fhaolan,

    Ponies in Paradise (G1.5 TV episode, September 25th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Bright Eyes is chosen to be an exchange student, and has to deal with being in a foreign land without her friends to help.
     
    More world stuff! Hopefully?
     
    It's actually called 'Tropical Island'. That's disappointing.
     
    So these are Polynesian ponies.
     
    Ponies really don't do well with other cultures, do they?
     
    ... why are they making bamboo spears?
     
    They seem to be having problems making up their minds what accents to use, they're sliding around from Hawai'i and Jamaica.
     
    Windsurfing.
     
    Pity there's not enough episodes left to follow up on this one.
  16. Fhaolan

    Just for Kicks

    By Fhaolan,

    Just for Kicks (G1.5 TV episode, September 18th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Starlight has a crush on Ace, the star of the soccer team. But Ace like Melody instead. Shenanigans!
     
    This is the episode I watched a long time ago that turned me off MLP. My memory of it is the girl's only acceptable desire is to attract boys, and boys are universally portrayed as selfish, brainless jocks. The writer seemed to need to vent their own issues with the 'popular people' from when they were in school. But that's just my memory of it, and the impression I got when I saw it the first time.
     
    That looked like strawberries and bean sprouts in that smoothie. *shudder* 90's.
     
    Ballooning. There is definitely a theme with MLP and hot-air balloons. They show up in every generation one way or another. Huh, I wonder how hard it would be to make an actual working hot-air balloon toy in-scale to the MLP toys. They have toy dirigibles, can you get a toy hot-air balloon? *pauses for research* Yes, but the only 'working' one I can find is from the Smithsonian Adventures line and is a bit bigger than I was thinking. And you have to have one of those hot-air popcorn poppers to inflate it apparently. All the others use helium and blimp-shaped. Oh well.
     
    Yes, it does matter. Hackney is an awful secret advisor.
     
    Interesting the soccer ball is orange and back, not white and black. I have vague memories of professional balls coloured like that to make it easier for the camera to pick it up for televising.
     
    Is dribbling the actual term? I thought that was basketball.
     
    Again with the ability to control tails as if they are tentacles.
     
    Okay, the message is actually still bad: change yourself to attract a mate. But there is a secondary message: you don't know what you're good at unless you try different things. I still think this is a bad episode, but it's not as bad as I remembered it being.
  17. Fhaolan

    Bon Bon's Diary

    By Fhaolan,

    Bon Bon's Diary (G1.5 TV episode, September 18th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Teddy finds Bon Bon's diary, and tries to find the advantage.
     
    Bon Bon's diary is one of those ongoing topics, I guess?
     
    What grade is this? Simple multiplication tables? They were talking molecular chemistry in a previous episode...
     
    Again, rollerskates not rollerblades.
     
    People now need to learn about this. Don't write down something you want to remain secret. Don't post stuff to the internet that you don't want the entire world to know.
     
    Good leap of intuition there.
     
    Sweetheart is hilarious. Behind that niceness, she's got a cruel, manipulative streak. I think she's my favourite G1.5 character.
     
    Again, I think this episode is supposed to before Shop Talk.
  18. Fhaolan

    Gribet

    By Fhaolan,

    Gribet (G1.5 TV episode, September 11th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Sweetheart finds a injured frog, and nurses it back to health. She discovers that taking care of a wild animal is not as easy as she assumed.
     
    This is the first nonsense word title, so I assume it's a name of a non-pony.
     
    You don't eat *before* a picnic, silly.
     
    Ah, this will be Gribet.
     
    Sweetheart is obviously this generation's equivalent to Fluttershy.
     
    Spot, not Gribet.
     
    Two extra days in a splint isn't *that* bad, but you'd be surprised at how quickly muscle deteriorates when immobilized and how slowly it builds back. I had my knee rebuilt once years ago, and my leg still isn't as strong as it used to be.
     
    What, it's just a frog?
     
    This is a lot of problems that a terrarium would fix. They're not that hard to put together.
     
    True. Wild animals should not be kept as pets.
  19. Fhaolan
    Happy Birthday Sweetheart (G1.5 TV episode, September 11th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Sweetheart and the girls are entered into a synchronized swimming contest, and Teddy interferes causing them to forfeit. Sweetheart has to decide between the girls and Teddy as friends, on her birthday.
     
    Back to the Nutcracker suite again? I guess once you have the rights to that performance, you use it to death.
     
    Those look more like parsnips than carrots. Interesting.
     
    Sunnyside team, so there's a region called Sunnyside. Probably a school.
     
    Paradise Lake.
     
    Scrunchieface!
     
    They're dropping sundaes, in bowls, on her? That's going to hurt.
     
    Bingo. Sweetheart is 10 years old. There's a fact to put into the mill, when I do my summary.
  20. Fhaolan

    Send in the Clown

    By Fhaolan,

    Send in the Clown (G1.5 TV episode, September 4th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Clover feels she cannot live up to her sister Meadowlark's career as a ballerina, but an accident forces Clover into the role of Harlequin alongside Meadowlark in the Nutcracker.
     
    Nutcracker. I wonder what got altered to make it ponified.
     
    Not much, apparently, if they include the pas de duex between the Harlequin and Columbine dolls.
     
    That's not right. That's the music from Trepak, the Russian Dance from Act II of the Nutcracker, not the pas de duex from the Act I Dance of the Puppets. And only one of those characters is supposed to be Harlequin, the other is Columbine. Usually depicted as a ballerina doll the Harlequin (a jester and acrobat doll) falls in love with to do a really brief reference to the even older Harlequinade story.
     
    Right, okay, so they changed a *lot* for the ponies.
     
    And they used different music again during the performance. Heh.
  21. Fhaolan

    Birds of a Feather

    By Fhaolan,

    Birds of a Feather (G1.5 TV episode, September 4th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Bright Eyes leads her friends into the Old Woods to find the endangered Green Winged Songbird, and discover why this once plentiful bird is now so rare.
     
    Not a bird person, but my uncle is, and he said there isn't anything resembling a green winged songbird in North America. I looked, and found a duck and an African finch, but that's it.
     
    The Old Woods, that *nobody* has been to. Kinda mysterious for such a settled region.
     
    I really don't like some of these ponies. Bon Bon, Ace, etc.
     
    Fish. They're going to eat fish.
     
    Take the wrapper off at least.
     
    Okay, so the green-winged songbird is an expy of the Burrowing Owl.
  22. Fhaolan

    Sister of the Bride

    By Fhaolan,

    Sister of the Bride (G1.5 TV episode, August 28th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Clover's sister is about to be married, but Clover becomes suspicious that the groom has other ideas.
     
    According to my wife, that's not the way most brides think on their wedding day. I know it's not how the groom thinks.
     
    Cheval is the groom. Cheval is actually horse in French.
     
    Huge wedding ring to fit on the hoof.
     
    Okay, Cheval is actually French.
     
    That will be his sister, of course.
     
    And so it is.
  23. Fhaolan

    Up, up and Away

    By Fhaolan,

    Up, up and Away (G1.5 TV episode, August 28th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: A UFO is spotted at Pony Point, and Patch will do whatever it takes to catch it.
     
    Pony Point, different from Pony Rock.
     
    Okay, maybe not. This may be the same place, but looking at it from a different angle.
     
    Dream sequence. There's some interesting bits, but because it's a dream sequence nothing usable for worldbuilding.
     
    The wizard of Oz, who is a bit of an operator, isn't he?
     
    Never actually been in a balloon myself, so I have no way of discussing the accuracy of its workings.
     
    Qualified and capable are two different things.
     
    Pegasi! Actual Pegasi! A bit over decorated, and glowing but still. And an alicorn?
     
    And they know Patch's name.
  24. Fhaolan

    An Apple for Starlight

    By Fhaolan,

    An Apple for Starlight (G1.5 TV episode, August 21st 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Starlight takes on the role of teacher when Ms. Hackney is ill. In an attempt to control her peers in the class, Starlight takes them on an ill-advised field trip where they need to use what they've learned in class to escape.
     
    So the 'star' student gets to teach the class because the teacher is ill.
     
    Starlight is awfully tan in the mirror.
     
    Okay, this is all known as Ponyland.
     
    Pony Rock.
     
    Pinto Cave! History! Finally! Interesting that they reference Pinto at all, given that none of the ponies are... ah. Maybe that's the name they are using to refer to the Pueblo-equivalent that built that watchtower several episodes ago.
     
    That's actually a pretty big cave. It's either a limestone system, or volcanic tubes. Most likely limestone, given the size and complexity.
     
    Settler wagons. Old ropes and tools.
     
    That's nice, but for it to help the pulley needs to be at the top of the slope....
     
    Oh, okay. That makes sense. The scale is weird that the pole reaches, but it makes sense. I'm going to ignore the need for axle grease for the wheel to spin, or a channel or guide to keep the rope on the wheel. Cartoon.
  25. Fhaolan

    Princess Problems

    By Fhaolan,

    It just occurred to me, that those of you bothering to read these might actually like an episode summary along with my 'live' notes. I was originally thinking that it's easy enough to look up a summary on the various wikis, so it just didn't seem like something that was particularly necessary for my purpose.
     
    If you'd like that sort of thing, let me know. I'll backtrack through this blog when I can and put in summaries for prior entries as well.
     
    Princess Problems (G1.5 TV episode, August 21st 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: The orphan Patch may be the lost princess that the King and Queen are looking for, as she has all the attributes they're looking for. Patch tries to come to terms with leaving everything she has known in order to follow this opportunity to be royalty.
     

     
    Yikes. That's what Big Mac would look like in this generation. *HUGE*
     
    King and Queen of the Isle of Pony. Still no idea what *this* place is called, but there's apparently a Isle that is a monarchy. Unless they're also the monarchs of this land as well?
     
    Should I answer that question? So far this group isn't exactly the most trustworthy I've seen.
     
    Wait, if the newborn foal they're looking for was lost at sea... how would now-older child know what their birthday is, that they're using as a criteria? It's not like it's printed on the back of their neck or anything. Unless they're *really* good at guessing with ponies.
     
    Woah, sparkly King and Queen there. Is that supposed to be an audience-only visual cue to their rank, or are they actually sparkling in-universe?
     
    That paint was really good quality if it took this long to wear off on the bottom of her hoof.
     
    Magic crown to indicate who the real princess is.
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