Jump to content
Banner by ~ Sparklefan1234
Guidelines

Fhaolan

Retired Staff
 View Profile  See their content

  • Posts

    3,639

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Fhaolan

  1. Fhaolan

    Roll around the Clocks

    By Fhaolan,

    Roll around the Clocks (G1.5 TV episode, August 14th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Bright Eyes and Lancer want to participant in the Rollerskating competition, but they are too shy to ask each other out.
     
    Rollerskating. In the early nineties inline skates were taking over from quad skates, which indicates the age of the creators here. They were unaware of the style change that was going on at the time.
     
    Makeovers. This is the girly part of the show.
     
    The boy section is just as girly. And the singing is awful.
     
    This is why the old MLP stuff is the exact opposite of what Lauren Faust was going for with G4. It's not that they ponies have relationships, it's the *nature* of those relationships that's the issue.
     
    Uhhhhh. Those outfits/hairdos are awful.
     
    Another case of the creators being a bit behind times. The switchover from vinyl to CDs was pretty much complete in America at the time this episode was broadcast. Vinyl records were only being produced for the specialty market at this point, like scratchers.
     
    Eventually they reached a good lesson about relationships, but the ones that *needed* to learn the lesson are still in the dark.
  2. Fhaolan

    Blue Ribbon Blues

    By Fhaolan,

    Blue Ribbon Blues (G1.5 TV episode, August 14th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Sweetheart and Teddy go to his family's farm to try to learn if there is anything to Teddy beyond his ability to upset other ponies.
     
    Just happens to be harvest time. There's a co-winkie-dink.
     
    So many things off with the harvest there. If you're using a combine harvester, which it looks like they are, you offload the grain directly to the elevator via an auger, you don't dump it on the ground. And the hay has to dry first after being cut before moving it into the barn. So on and so forth.
     
    Episodes are out of order, I think. This should be before Shop Talk, to be the episode that Sweetheart finds out about Teddy's secret. Checking: Yeah, Wikipedia seems to think this is the broadcast order and has actual broadcast dates. But IMDB has a different order, with no dates. And TV.com has yet another order, again with no dates. Looking at the three lists... I'm not sure any of them are the 'correct' order.
     
    Oh, yeah. If there's nothing to be afraid of, why are you having a problem?
     
    Yep. Having shown sheep at fair myself, they're not showing the actual judging, just the announcing. That's pretty normal. I'm not sure about in the 90's, but judging now at fair takes place outside of the public eye unless there's a sport aspect like with horses.
  3. Fhaolan
    The Great Lemonade Stand Wars (G1.5 TV episode, August 7the 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: The girls need to buy a new teapot, and decide to try to raise the money by setting up a lemonade stand. The boys want to turn it into a competition instead.
     
    Stick Forever Glue? They could deal with brand-naming Coke, but not Krazy Glue?
     
    Two hundred jangles for a tea set at a porcelain store. Is this a full set with cups and saucers, or just the teapot + creamer and sugar bowl? Both are considered 'sets', and sets with as many as 8 cups (one for each of the girls + a spare) with a teapot big enough for that number of cups (48-oz) would be unusual and expensive here. If so, then given inflation since '92, a jangle may actually be worth more than an American dollar at the time. As much as 1 jangle = 3 American dollars. That's right, a tea set like that would normally cost about 300 dollars in '92 money, which is about 500 dollars now.
     
    What's that posted on the back of the door? It looks like what they put in hotel rooms, with escape routes and check-out times.
     
    Curious.
     
    Stereotypical behavior from boys. This is one of the things that turns me off of this series. Just because it's a girls show doesn't mean it has to be adversarial with the boys all the time. Where are the girl antagonists?
     
    Back when I was a kid (which was fifteen-twenty years before this episode broadcast, mind you), you had to be more wary of the girl bullies. Since they were already outside the cultural norm, they had a lot less holding them back. Boy fights usually ended with a bloody nose or something. Girl fights *usually* ended with an ambulance.
     
    In any case, they raised enough money with the change in plans. But now they definitely need 8 cups. Given that each customer could only pay a reasonable amount, likely tea sets are more reasonable in price than in real life, and 1 jangle = 1 American dollar.
  4. Fhaolan

    The Impractical Joker

    By Fhaolan,

    The Impractical Joker (G1.5 TV episode, August 7th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: The girls decide to teach Patches a lesson in response to all her practical jokes.
     
    Cup of flour, two tablespoons of sugar.... That's a weird ratio for a pie crust. One of my hobbies is baking, and for normal sized pie it's more like 2 1/2 cups of flour to one teaspoon of sugar. There's no flour in the lemon filling or meringue.
     
    Interesting tower. It looks a lot like the watchtower in Desert View next to the Grand Canyon. It was built as a replica of some of the structures left by the Ancient Pueblo tribe. I wonder what it's doing here? I'll have to keep an eye out for other indications of the terrain around this area. Maybe Ponyland is supposed to be the pony equivalent of Arizona in this setting.
     
    Finally, a pony pun. Bright Eyes is talking about van der Waals' force, which they've renamed van der Shires' force for the horsie pun. (Shire is a breed of draft horse often confused with Clydesdales. They've very similar in looks, but on average Shires are bigger.)
     
    Burger and Cokes. I'm told Texas and many of the South Eastern states call any soda 'coke'. According to a survey I just looked up, that includes New Mexico, so Ponyland is looking more and more like Arizona/New Mexico.
     
    That took a lot of effort. Cardboard doesn't 'bonk' like that.
     
    And no lesson is learned.
  5. Fhaolan

    The Play's the Thing

    By Fhaolan,

    The Play's the Thing (G1.5 TV episode, July 31st 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Melody lets her lead role in the school play go to her head.
     
    Yeah, that's about right for auditions. Been there, watched many do that.
     
    Pegasis! Awwww. Special effect.
     
    And that's where I normally end up in theatre. Putting together costumes and props. And being the third Viking from the left.
     
    And that's how rehearsals normally go, too.
     
    This green-haired pony again. She's the only TV personality in this world.
     
    You know, I like that throne.
     
    The princess vanquished the dragon? That's interesting, and counter to the normal culture at the time.
  6. Fhaolan

    The Masquerade

    By Fhaolan,

    The Masquerade (G1.5 TV episode, July 25th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: The girls are to attend a costume ball where they dress up as what they want to be in the future. Bon Bon feels that her dream isn't possible, and is too embarrassed to go.
     
    Yeah, the pony brushing her teeth in the intro gets freakier each time I see it.
     
    Masquerade party that evening? Only an hour or two to come up with costumes? Really? I mean, yes, I do that, but I have a room of my house devoted to period clothing construction... which is currently full of bags of fleece as my wife's spinning and weaving has kinda taken over... Anyway, that's not really a reasonable thing to ask kids to do.
     
    Yeah, I'm not going to like this one, am I? No, I'm being judgmental. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be a fashion model. It's all in how the episode treats the topic, not the topic itself.
     
    It's just unfortunate given the stereotypes layered onto the idea even in the 90's.
     
    Actually, good advice on costumes. Simple, but detailed. A good number of small details on a clean outfit makes much more impact that a lot of big props. Treat costumes as someone else's clothes and you'll do better at professional costume contests.
     
    Male pony named 'Lancer' with a fleur de lis cutie mark. Again, some of these ponies are difficult to peg the theme on. I'm not sure how that all holds together.
  7. Fhaolan

    The Tea Party

    By Fhaolan,

    The Tea Party (G1.5 TV episode, July 17th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: While the girls try to decide whether to allow boys into their club, their stuff is stolen from the abandoned house they are using as a clubhouse.
     
    Abandoned house being used as a playhouse by the young ponies. I remember doing that.
     
    Gender segregation, more exaggerated than what's normal even in the 90's. This is another bit from when the writers were kids, likely in the 60's and 70's.
     
    Elastics in their saddlebags? Doing what, exactly?
     
    Rainbow Dash's ancestors?
     
    Tails! What???? When did they gain this ability?
     
    This isn't a move-in situation. This place needs a complete remodel.
     
    Chestnut instead of cheese. Odd choice.
     
    The little playhouse is very Victorian Gothic. I'm surprised that the girls didn't notice this being built, given the level of detail and amount of construction that would have been necessary.
  8. Fhaolan

    Stand By Me

    By Fhaolan,

    Stand By Me (G1.5 TV episode, July 17th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Teddy is put on trial by his classmates for stealing.
     
    Ah. Memories. I remember how each new 'state of the art' boombox was taken so seriously.
     
    Mohawk pony has a comb for a cutie mark, and the name 'Teddy'. Normally the names have at least *something* to do with their cutie-mark, but this time I'm not getting the connections. The haircut though is a pretty standard one for horses in RL, especially ponies. I'm kinda surprised it's not more popular in MLP.
     
    Okay, something interesting. How does the court system work in this world?
     
    Uhhhhh. No. This is a bad idea.
     
    Okay, allowed to call two witnesses simultaneously.
     
    And both sides are appealing to emotion, not fact.
     
    Three-legged walking looks odd.
     
    How did he fall 'down' into the basket?
  9. Fhaolan

    And the Winner Is

    By Fhaolan,

    And the Winner Is (G1.5 TV episode, July 10th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Clover wins tickets to a special concert, and has to choose between her friends to go with her.
     
    This green hair pony seems to be re-occuring character.
     
    Miss Hackney again. Actually does seem a lot like the G4 version.
     
    A slide straight out of the school. Nope, no actual precident. That does not happen. Unless you're dealing with kindergartens in Los Angeles or something.
     
    The ponies seem a bit whiny in general. Anything even slightly disappointing turns into a big deal. Much like Bronies.
     
    This is the Golden Ticket episode.
     
    Wait, hold on. Rewind. That's Muppet Babies on the TV. That had gone off the air one year previously, done by Marvel Productions just like the last MLP series. Cute easter egg.
     
    Bon Bon, Bright Eyes, and Melody... but the other three don't rate being named.
     
    Concert, or movie premier? They don't do red-carpet bits for concerts, do they?
     
    Tickets that important, and it's only worth one pizza. Strange exchange rates there.
  10. Fhaolan

    The Battle of the Bands

    By Fhaolan,

    The Battle of the Bands (G1.5 TV episode, July 10th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Melody enters a Battle of the Bands, but forgets to find someone to babysit her younger sisters.
     
    Technically 'sporange' rhymes with orange. It's a antique herbology term. Orange doesn't rhyme with anything else in English because it's one of the select words in English that is not sourced from Latin (through Norman French) or Germanic (through Saxon), instead coming from Sanskrit (through Persia): 'naranga' the n at the beginning got dropped when it passed through Norman French to get to us.
     
    Yikes, early 90's hair. Not as bad as 80's hair, but...
     
    And yet, 70's style music. You can tell how old the creators are by what they create.
     
    Bon Bon being grounded is a more interesting story. Why aren't we hearing about that?
     
    Yes she will. Especially if you win.
     
    And there's nobody else behind stage?
     
    So you're no worse off than before.
  11. Fhaolan
    Last week, I detailed what I was able to glean from the entire run of My Little Pony 'n Friends. How can we use this information? Well, it's pretty obvious this is not a part of Equestria taken literally. The base rules of the world are different, with a larger variety of sentient creatures, cutie-marks and unicorn magic working differently, and so on.
     
    However, this is the series that inspired Lauren Faust as she developed Friendship is Magic, and several of the things from this series have already been translated to Equestria. So that means we can steal from this setting and migrate it into Equestria as long as we're sufficiently liberal with our interpretations.
     
    If we were to force the issue, the various valleys and volcanic mountains would best map to the western coast of Equestria, covering a relatively small area somewhere between Tall Tale and Los Pegasis in the Unicorn Range. In fact, it may be the reason for the city name of Tall Tale, which given the pony's penchant to puns would have been more likely to be called Tall Tail normally. Possibly it's named after the mythology of Dream Valley that the legends place near by. In which case we may be dealing with an prior expedition of ponies crossing into Equestria long before the one mentioned in the Hearth's Warming Eve episode. This would be similar to the Norse settlements in Newfoundland that occurred in the 10th century which had died out and had been forgotten long before the rest of Europe started showing up in the 15th century.
     
    The variety of other sentient creatures is the hardest to deal with. Where did they all go, between the time of G1 and G4? If the time-frame of North America above is any guide, we're dealing with at least 500 years, which is not enough for that number of intelligent species to simply disappear without deliberate action on behalf of *somebody*. That's proper fanfiction fodder right there. If you take the series in a different order, and have the Theatrical movie actually happen at the end of the historical events rather than near the beginning, you do have the devastation of the Smooze to work with. It's not inconceivable that the low populations of all the other races meant that the Smooze event dropped them below the minimum viable population.
     
    That aside, here are some examples of things we can steal:
     
    First, pony culture itself. In this series, mares and stallions are heavily segregated, and foals are raised by the community not by their parents. This can easily be true in the past for Equestria, and may even explain why the show gives the impression that the ratio of stallions to mares in Equestria is so oddly skewed. It may only be relatively recently that the nuclear family concept has become the norm in this society, as in within the last thousand years or so. Hearts and Hooves Day may actually be Celestia trying her hoof at social engineering, rather than how Valentines Day was created in the real world, all in an effort to increase the population growth of her little ponies.
     
    The Seaponies may yet exist, but have retreated to the deeper seas. Flutterponies... I'm being told that alternate versions of the flutterponies exist in one of the later series, but I haven't reached them yet, so I'll leave them for now.
     
    Second, the antagonists. Let's only deal with the heavy hitters here; Squirk, Grognar, and Tirek. The various witches, like Hydia and Catrina, are actually pretty generic and don't need much in the way of adaption.
     
    Squirk is a horribly silly name, but the concept of an ancient Kraken that wants to flood the world to claim all that territory as it's own, is perfectly sound and can be made *really* creepy. His main power source, the Flashstone, already has an analogue in FiM, in the Alicorn Amulet. An amulet that allows the wielder to use massive magic power with little to no limits.
     
    Grognar is a wonderful mythological villain. The Ram Sorcerer, who made a necklace that allowed him to channel and control the power of the Bell of Tambelon. The story of the lost city of Tambelon itself has so many mythological precedents, and likely has some kind of a connection to the capitol of the Crystal Empire. Possibly being Sombra's inspiration for doing that trick.
     
    And then there's Tirek. As I mentioned in my essay on the Terror of Tartaurus, he's a bit trickier to use as some of his shtick was transferred to Nightmare Moon. However, he is unique in that he used his transformative power on unwilling targets, rather than be a shapeshifter himself. Adding in that he may have been cursed by his own power, and his natural form may have been quite different (perhaps a normal minotaur), and you have an interesting villain there.
     
    Finally, let's look at the artifacts. I've already mentioned the flashstone, but there are a few others that are interesting. The Dark and Light Rainbows, for example. Two paired yet opposite powers. One forcing metamorphosis on unwilling victims, and the other restoring things to their true form. Given the effect of the Elements of Harmony is normally shown as a Rainbow, it's possible they are connected and the Rainbow of Light is inhabiting the Elements of Harmony due to some events that were not shown in the series.
     
    The Sunstone is interesting, perhaps being one of a pair of artifacts that allowed the Unicorns of Hearth's Warming Eve to control the sun and moon before Celestia and Luna came along. The other being the Moonstone, of course. Maybe these things are still around in a vault in Canterlot, and some unicorns decide to use it in an attempt to overthrow the princesses...
     
    The six crowns of the Heart of Ponyland could very well be the first known versions of the Elements of Harmony. Normally linked to the Crystal Heart, they were separated by ponies wishing to protect them from those who would abuse their power, and scattered across the land. It was these legendary artifacts that Starswirl devoted so much time to. Later Celestia and Luna take Starswirl's research as a guide to re-assemble them as part of their Hero's Quest to defeat Discord. In this version, they would take on Sombra *before* Discord, attempting to recover the final piece, the Crystal Heart itself. Sombra phased the entire capitol of the Crystal Empire, using the same dark magic as the Lost City of Tambelon. The Princesses could not retrieve the Heart, and they had to take on Discord with a not-quite-complete set.
     
    I've left the Smooze until here, because it's... odd. It was summoned by a spell, and appears at least partially self-aware and 'alive'. But honestly that's not that much different from the variety of artifacts in the series. But it's considerably more dangerous than any artifact; a true weapon of mass destruction, who's only real weakness is the stupidity of the witches who put it into play. Those who survive the Smooze are still affected by it, driven to sickness and depression. To be honest, for how silly it was being portrayed, this thing has the highest potential for GrimDark in the entire G1 series, even more than Tirek, Grognar, and Squirk combined. When you look at it a bit closer, and take off the rose-colored glasses, the Smooze is very much a biological equivalent of a nuclear weapon, complete with radiation sickness and the like, leaving only complete devastation in it's wake.
     
    Oh, and the connection between the pony world and the human world. Allowing for Equestria Girls' rather odd coloration being an artistic choice rather than 'reality', it lines up rather nicely with the time passing between contacts getting shorter an shorter from the human world's perspective. It does mean that the calendar of the human world is completely disconnected to the calendar of the pony world, which means Luna's mention of 30 moons was actually only vaguely relevant to Twilight, as it would have been 30 moons in the pony world, but who knows how long in the human world.
     
    There are lots of other small details that could be ported over, but as they are truely tiny details I think I've done enough for this essay.
  12. Fhaolan

    Slumber Party

    By Fhaolan,

    My Little Pony Tales
     
    In 1992, several years after the prior series ended in 1987, a new My Little Pony series started up. Still produced by the same animation studio, but this time Hasbro went directly to the studio rather than going through Marvel like they had before.
     
    Originally, Hasbro's deal with Marvel covered all of Hasbro's properties, Transformers, G.I. Joe, and My Little Pony, amongst others. But while Marvel put out comics and cartoons for the other franchises, they only produced a cartoon for My Little Pony, no comic book. Given that Marvel was primarily a publisher of comic books at the time, and not a true multi-media company like they are now, Hasbro seems to have decided to skip the middleman if they weren't going to do a comic, and deal directly with the animation studio who was doing all their other IPs.
     
    I'm afraid, to be honest. My one memory of this show is horrible. However, I said I was going to do this, so I will.
     
    This is still technically Generation 1, as the generations are supposed to be based on the toys and Hasbro hadn't switched to Gen 2 yet. However, this series is sufficiently different in setting that I am going to call it Generation 1.5 to keep it separate from the previous series.
     
    Slumber Party (G1.5 TV episode, July 3rd 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: The girls are enjoying a Slumber Party when Patch's ghost story takes a strange turn.
     
    Animation style has improved in a way. Movement is a lot more fluid, but the characters are also far more cartoony. And also a lot more anthro,
     
    Using their hooves as hands when the prior series avoided that mostly.
     
    The world is a lot more settled, dealing with a school, a ice cream parlour, vehicles, telephones. What little costuming in the intro is early 90's as expected.
     
    We also seem to be focused on seven specific ponies. If I remember correctly this pattern continues right up to the end of G3, when it switches to six in G4. I think who the seven are changes though.
     
    Hey Bon Bon.
     
    Okay, these are very specifically teenage ponies. There are parent ponies but they're almost immediately side-lined.
     
    Wait, all of these ponies are earth ponies. Where are the unicorns and pegasi?
    Yeah, I remember kids doing this kind of thing.
     
    Very anthro, they're rarely if ever going down onto four legs.
     
    Ha! The puppet is representing a Ms. Hackney, who we saw in G4 as the Equestrian Olympics inspector.
     
    I'm not going to list all the 90's equipment, as they don't appear to be anachronistic in this setting.
     
    Story time. Cool, it's a parody of Prince Valiant, a comic first published in 1937 and still running today in a limited number of Sunday supplements. It's the haircut that gives it away.
     
    Okay, when 'walking' or 'running' they use all four legs, but any time they're doing anything else they go back to bipedal poses.
     
    This isn't as bad as I remember, possibly the bit that ticked me off is a later episode.
     
    Okay, suddenly ghost... Squire is looking for his dragon, Basil. If this isn't a dream, then this opens up the possibility of a connection to the slightly older series, with its pseudo-medieval cultures.
  13. Fhaolan
    My Little Pony 'n Friends: Escape from Catrina (G1 Re-edited TV Episodes, 1987, 2x 10 minutes)
     
    Like Rescue from Midnight Castle, two minutes were edited out of this by removing one song. In this case, however, the one song has one of the biggest worldbuilding bits of weirdness in it, as it's when the two villains dress up in 1880's costumes and do a musical number right out of Mary Poppins with a penny-farthing bicycle and everything.
     
    Like the previous re-edited special, there's not much point redoing my notes for this one. So here's my original notes from the TV Special version: http://mlpforums.com/blog/1191/entry-6945-escape-from-catrina/
     
    Well, that's it for the original My Little Pony cartoon. Next I move on to My Little Pony Tales. I've put my compiled findings so far in my worldbuilding blog: http://mlpforums.com/blog/844/entry-7371-the-generation-of-ideas-my-little-pony-n-friends/
     
    Before I go though, I need to say that any Bronies who complain about Hasbro interfering with My Little Pony? You guys really need to watch the original series. Every other episode is advertising new toy lines (New Tooth Ponies, Newborn Ponies, Twinkle-Eyed Ponies, Big Brother Ponies, etc.), all buildings are copies of playsets, characters are swapped out randomly just so that all the toys get screentime, etc. Watching the old series, then the new one, you get the distinct impression that the toy line was propelling the old series, while the new series is the one propelling the toy line this time around. Yes, Hasbro still has DHX add things or swap things around on occasion, and often the writers need to scramble to find a way to fit this stuff in, but it's no where near as blatant as previous generations were. I'm curious to see if this was a sudden change with G4, or whether it progresses slowly from this point.
  14. Fhaolan
    My Little Pony 'n Friends: The Prince and the Ponies (G1 TV Episode, 1987, 10 minutes)
     
    Invitation to some kind of castle. The Palace Debrandfore? The name is too complicated to be an accident, so it has to be a joke or reference. But I'm not catching what it's a reference to.
     
    Human.
     
    Again we're back to the second French Empire architecture and clothing.
     
    Actually not human, elves again.
     
    Duchess, somehow took the throne from the real rulers.
     
    The Duchess was the cook? Okay. Yes, that can happen, but it's a pretty involved process.
     
    No evidence of the Big Brother Ponies anymore. One shots, I guess.
     
    Fencing is not that easy.
     
    In case you're wondering 'Scullery' is the room for dish and clothes washing, often used as an overflow room for the kitchen. In North America the term was supplanted by the laundry room as the mechanical dishwasher took over part of it's role. In northern England and Scotland the term scullery often refers to the entire kitchen area.
  15. Fhaolan

    Somnambula

    By Fhaolan,

    My Little Pony 'n Friends: Somnambula (G1 TV Episode, 1987, 2x 10 minutes)
    Part 1
     
    Big Brother Ponies are coming home! They've been away for a year travelling all around the world? Okay, so everything prior in this series occurred all within one year, but we're finally getting stallions. Think about that; sixty episodes have past, we've got five more to go before the end of the series,and these are the first male ponies we've seen. This is *way* worse than FiM's in-show demographics.
     
    Calliope!
     
    Somnambula is some kind of witch, and controls a magic songbird that hypnotize any pony that hears her. Spike seem unaffected. And ponies dealing with loud noises aren't affected either.
     
    Somnambula is using the ponies to make herself younger.
     
    So the only real differentiation between mares and stallions is that stallions have neckerchiefs and feathers (long hair on the lower leg just above the hooves). With reference to real horses, not all horses have feathers, and it has nothing to do with gender. It's a breed thing. Though many do shave the feathers on breeding mares to prevent the foals from nibbling the hair off. The bit that's usually distinctive on real stallions (outside of genitals which there're not going to do in this show, of course.) is a highly defined 'crest'. Basically the part of the neck where the mane attaches is taller and thicker on a stallion than it is on a mare or gending.
     
    They've been to Paradise Estates before. So they were here after the Movie, but we didn't get to see it.
     
    Magic song doesn't affect the young ponies either, just adults.
     
    Ah, witch is normally an illusionist, but is using the pony dreams to make the stuff real. Either she just took the name Somnambula due to this, or it's really the name of the bird and the witch is appropriating it.
     
    The song affects the male ponies.
     
    Being knocked out of the spell works for a while, but they eventually fall prey to it again. How long is different for each pony.
     

    Part 2
     
    Big Brother Ponies refer to the mares as 'All the Little Ponies' several times now. That just strikes a bad chord for me somehow. It's a bit too close to how women were often regularly referred to as the 'little women' as a demeaning insult, in response to Louisa May Alcott's immensely popular novel Little Women (1868).
     
    Ponies are being aged by the power drain.
     
    The song just overrides all free will.
     
    Heck of a beak on that bird.
     
    Okay, all the Unicorns are apparently imprisoned separately.
     
    The unicorns are powering the 'reality bending' powers, by channelling their magic into some kind of crystal.
     
    Crystal just poofs away. likely it was also an illusion being stabilized, making it a kind of perpetual magic machine.
  16. Fhaolan

    The Ice Cream Wars

    By Fhaolan,

    My Little Pony 'n Friends: The Ice Cream Wars (G1 TV Episode, 1987, 10 minutes)
     
    The heck? Even younger ponies than the nominally Baby Ponies. Plus twins. As a note, twins are *extremely* rare with horses.
     
    Something odd with these Baby Ponies. Checking wiki. Gotcha, they're 'First Tooth Baby Ponies', replacing the old just 'Baby Ponies'. People complain about Hasbro now, they really need to check out these older series to know what interference looks like.
     
    Newborn Ponies. Like actual horses, these 'newborns' are running around pretty quickly.
     
    Ice cream shop, made to look like a slipper. Where did this come from?
     
    Mixville? All of sudden ponyland is highly developed with rival businesses.
     
    And these aren't ponies, but some kind of Scottish Human/Troll kinda people making ice cream.
     
    Why do cartoons always show butterscotch as pink? I've noticed that before.
     
    I guess that's one way to feed ice cream to babies.
     
    Ah! A giant ice-cream shooting special weapons Dalek!
     
    This has got to be the gizmonk's doing again.
     
    One of the troll's accents is slipping, he slides from Glasgow to Lancashire then suddenly to Boston.
  17. Fhaolan

    Flight to Cloud Castle

    By Fhaolan,

    My Little Pony 'n Friends: Flight to Cloud Castle (G1 TV Episodes, 1987, 2x 10 minutes)
    Part 1
     
    Twilight, referring to a pegasis pony this time. They're doing some kind of water-skiing on their own.
     
    An elf. Standard Norman English fantasy gear.
     
    Sleeping maiden Aerial in a cloud castle set there by her wizard father.
     
    This pony is a sucker for love stories. Heartthrob. She was the one in the strawberry shortcake get-up in a previous episode. Didn't even realize she was a pegasis at the time.
     
    Cloud castle has the standard Greek orthodox onion-spires normally associated with Russian and middle eastern architecture.
     
    Ha, the cloud castle is taking active evasion manoeuvres. Nice logic, surrounding it makes it not be able to manoeuvre.
     
    A Merman, apparently part of the wizard's spell.
     
    Salamander, which according to the alchemist philosopher Paracelsus is a type of fire spirit, in a cute little cap in this case. If he's really a 'salamander' that probably means the merman is supposed to be an Undine (water spirit). We're going to get a Gnome (earth spirit) and a Sylph (air spirit) eventually then as well.
     
    Oh of course. Aerial. She'll be the sylph. We're only missing the Gnome.
     
    Castle actually appears to learn.
     

    Part 2
     
    Elf has magic on his own. Ah, so *he's* the Gnome. I should have guessed.
     
    Huh. She just looks like another gnome/elf. Unexpected.
     
    Baked Alaska.
     
    Salamander and Undine are turned into... humans, it seems.
     
    Ha! Elf girl is isn't following the script.
     
    That's actually pretty good. The girl doesn't automatically fall in love with her rescuer, she basically says 'We'll see.'
  18. Fhaolan

    The Golden Horseshoes

    By Fhaolan,

    My Little Pony 'n Friends: The Golden Horseshoes (G1 TV Episodes, 1987, 2x 10 minutes)
    Part 1
     
    Twinkle-Eyed Unicorn by the name of Mimic is fading in and out. Is this some kind of Winking disorder?
     
    Ponies have never run into this before.
     
    When was the last time going to Moochick actually *helped?*
     
    Wolves.
     
    Habbit changes colour from white to brown from episode to episode. That might actually be natural, as I believe some rabbit breeds actually do that. I'm not that familiar with rabbit to tell the truth.
     
    Pony Legends and History.
     
    Mimic long ago land of Argite, horseshoes made of starlight.
     
    1) Future 2) Blazing Light 3) Hearing 4) Flying.
     
    Storm tore the horseshoes away, and left the unicorn in Dream Valley.
     
    Mimic's fading supposedly because the horseshoes have gone too far away.
     
    Streerah?
     
    Gave Megan a box of wolf howls
     
    The Stree are ostrich-type things that can turn into rocks.
     
    Crescent of Visions. Ah, which is the Horseshoe of the Future.
     
    But the Strees didn't technically cheat, really.
     
    Blarkland. Blarks and groundhog-like creatures who are traders.
     
    Standard riddle game. With standard riddles everyone's heard of.
     
    Horseshoe of Light.
     
    Gobland Tunnels.
     

    Part 2
     
    Yep, Goblins. Though bigger ones than normal. More like trolls.
     
    Reading minds? Okay, what I thought was the Horseshoe of Hearing is more the Horseshoe of Hearing Thoughts.
     
    Mixed signals.
     
    Moochick *is* being helpful. How weird. He might be able to recreate the horseshoes.
     
    They seem to be stealing stuff more often than 'winning' them.
     
    Moochick determines he can't recreate the horseshoes. But at least he tried.
     
    Green mountain elves.
     
    Nice, different pegasi have different tolerances for heights.
     
    Not Horseshoe of Flying, but Horseshoe of cloud riding.
     
    Elves seem to be ruled by a child? Interesting.
     
    Uhm, the horseshoes were *absorbed* by Mimic. That's weird. I'm not sure what to make of that.
  19. Fhaolan

    Spike's Search

    By Fhaolan,

    My Little Pony 'n Friends: Spike's Search (G1 TV Episode, 1987, 10 minutes)
     
    This is actually an interesting episode just from a franchise point-of-view, as it parallels the 'Dragon Quest' episode from Friendship is Magic.
     
    Spike's growing up, supposedly. He's losing control of his fire.
     
    He's going to go learn from 'real dragons', but unlike the G4 episode he's bringing the human boy Danny.
     
    Talking eagle fledgeling, named Weston.
     
    Animation makes it look like the flame is actually coming from the *top* of Spike's mouth, like from something similar to a venom gland.
     
    Over the mountains into another valley.
     
    Teenage dragons? We're following not that far from the G4 episode really. Only three of them.
     
    Village of... things? I'm not sure what kind of creatures these are supposed to be, we don't see them very clearly.
     
    Standard dragon-like behaviour, but stealing food.
     
    Garden hose.
     
    Marshmallows. Marshmallows are ancient, tracing back to ancient Egypt. But the version we're familiar with came about in the 19th century when French confectioners replaced the whipped marshmallow plant sap with gelatine and egg whites.
     
    Okay, while the setup is very similar, and the message is the same, the actual events between the two episodes are *completely* different.
  20. Fhaolan
    My Little Pony 'n Friends: The Quest of the Princess Ponies (G1 TV Episodes, 1987, 4x 10 minutes)
     
    Here we are at the second season of the first My Little Pony cartoon. It looks like we're starting of with an adventure-type four-parter.
     
    Part 1
     
    Ponies in conical hats, using magic wands. Those hats are often called 'hennin' now, but they had a variety of different names back in the wide range of period where they were popular. 15th Century-19th century all the way from Western Europe where they had the name Capuchon to the Middle East where they were known as Tantour.
     
    Mix of pony types, all of which are called 'princess ponies'. All arguing over who's to be Queen.
     
    Spike's wandering around lost, relying on bushwoolies. Wow, he's desperate.
     
    He's not in dream valley. Instead he's found the 'Royal Paradise', only royalty lives there.
     
    Uh. Okay, random strangers get to decide who's Queen. Ominous, as usually it is random strangers who get sacrificed to the harvest gods in *place* of the King.
     
    Whole bunches of magic being thrown around here out of the wands, including weather magic, plant growth, Duplication of a Living creature!
     
    Another viewing pool, being used by some kind of mud monster? Or is it supposed to be lava?
     
    Princess ponies are legendary, and guard the magic of ponyland.
     
    Yep, lava. Lava demons, in fact, ruled by Lavan? After all the magic wands.
     
    Lavan has direct heat blasts, blasting one of the princess pegasi out of the sky.
     
    The lava dude wants to use the wands to transform himself into a crystal creature with immense power.
     
    Not as easy as billed, again.
     
    The crystal desert is expanding under the power, weather is going nuts.... and all the unicorn magic is triggering randomly in Paradise Valley.
     

     
    Part 2
     
    Bushwoolie got crystalized by the expanding crystal desert.
     
    Princess Tiffany. So they don't follow the same naming convention as regular ponies.
     
    Bushwoolies doing something... useful? It's the apocalypse come early.
     
    Who's this?
     
    Hereditary enemies of the lava demons. Spike again uses fire breath as a weapon.
     
    Okay, these guys are ice demons or something.
     
    Incorrect address according to modern usage. Your Highness would be correct now. Your Majesty is normally reserved for the ruling monarch.
     
    Actually, that's a good song. The Princesses are putting aside their prissiness, and are actively doing something they normally wouldn't because it's necessary.
     
    Lavan managing to achieve his ends by using the wands one at a time rather than all at once.
     
    His heat blasts are now rainbow blasts.
     
    Okay, all the lava demons have heat blasts, and the ice demons have cold blasts.
     
    The animation was a bit weird, but I think Megan has just lost the locket with the rainbow of light. Which is odd, because she had officially turned it over to the ponies way back when.
     

    Part 3
     
    Spike's actually quite violent.
     
    Ice Orks! Interesting. Despite what you are normally told, Tolkien did not invent the term orc. What he did was narrow the definition down to a specific creature. Orcneas appeared as a word in Old English in the poem Beowulf, apparently referring to something similar to, but not a ogre (referred to as an ettin) or an elf. Probably rooted in Orcus, one of the many chthonic Gods of the Underworld that the Romans stole from other religions and made synonymous with Pluto, Hades and Dis Pater.
     
    Oh the stupid Moochick again.
     
    Lavan is now a full crystal being.
     
    Okay, back to the Queen election.
     
    Aggressive chair, reminds me of a Doctor Who episode from way back when.
     
    Book of Lost Answers? Twilight would *kill* for this thing.
     
    Seek the Heart of Ponyland.
     
    All the wands are drained into Lavan.
     

    Part 4
     
    Heart of Ponyland is the original source of all magic in Ponyland.
     
    I changed my mind, the songs are *really* repetitive.
     
    Woah, wait, wait! The Heart of Ponyland, a large gemstone with coloured facets. Including what looks like six crowns on the top facets. Orange, green and purple, repeated, with a pink facet on top with no crown. Six crowns. Is this the earliest version of the Elements of Harmony and the Crystal Heart?
     
    Putting the wants in the crowns will recharge the wands.
     
    Bunch of fighting.
     
    Only five wands getting charged, leaving one crown unused.
     
    Five wands working together starts out with a unique effect, but near the end it looked like the rainbow of light.
     
    YOU HANDED THE ULTIMATE MAGIC POWER CROWNS TO THE BUSHWOOLIES! Oh dear lord. One crown kept by the princess ponies.
     
    Until the last bushwoolie shows up, and now has a magic crown too.
  21. Fhaolan
    My Little Pony 'n Friends: Rescue From Midnight Castle (G1 Re-edited TV Episodes, 1986, 2x 10 minutes)
     
    Here's the first TV special, re-edited to be part of the TV series. About two minutes have been edited out of this, mostly by removing one song. You're not missing much as the song isn't that spectacular.
     
    This one is a bit puzzling, as they don't change any of the context to deal with the problem of being the first one made, but being broadcast at the end of the first season. Megan and the Rainbow of Light is introduced as if it was the first time, and so on. Little to no effort was made here in this re-edit.
     
    So I'm not going to re-do my notes for this. If you're interested go here: http://mlpforums.com/blog/1191/entry-6944-rescue-at-midnight-castle/
     
    And that's it for Season 1 of My Little Pony 'n Friends. The next season is a lot shorter, about 15 episodes verses Season 1's 50 episodes. All to total up to the magical 65 episodes that networks use as the 'standard' for animation syndication.
  22. Fhaolan

    Through the Door

    By Fhaolan,

    My Little Pony 'n Friends: Through the Door (G1 TV Episodes, 1986, 2x 10 minutes)
     
    Part 1
     
    Ponies are actually exploring, this is somewhere they've never been before.
     
    The Door seems very elaborate. Very reminiscent of Angkor Wat, the Buddhist Monastery in Cambodia. It shows up as a backdrop in a lot of movies going for a mystic Eastern feel.
     
    The Golden Door. Ooooh, actual history of ponyland. Sorcerer built a door to the Land of Legends.
     
    wat. No, not Angkor Wat. Just wat.
     
    This seems to be the Mel Brooks version of Robin Hood. A collection of human myths, but definitely the silly versions.
     
    Heartthrob is one of those overdressed ponies. While her outfit still resembles a strawberry shortcake knock-off, it does follow the late Baroque style in or around 1650-1700. It just looks silly scaled to a pony.
     
    Fast drying fabric there.
     
    I really don't want to deal with the idea of humans and ponies getting it on. How did this get past the 80's version of the censor board?
     
    That's an interpretation of Hercules I hadn't really thought of. Cleaning the Aegean stables = cleaning Paradise Estates. Cute.
     
    Ponies doing the dance of the seven veils. How on earth did this get past...
     
    Reference to light bulbs. Yep, the ponies are firmly in the 80's now.
     

    Part 2
     
    So the monster everyone is afraid of is a Dragon? Haven't we had dragons before?
     
    Prince Charming is fake French? I guess that follows.
     
    I'm not going to bother with the architecture in the Land of Legends.
     
    All the books in the real world have been erased. That's an interesting effect.
     
    Why has the dragon got a wig?
     
    Door switched sides.
     
    This set of episodes are really meta when you think about it.
  23. Fhaolan

    Crunch the Rockdog

    By Fhaolan,

    My Little Pony 'n Friends: Crunch the Rockdog (G1 TV Episodes, 1986, 2x 10 minutes)
     
    Part 1
     
    Desert area. Narration? Ah, okay, reading to the kiddies.
     
    I'm so tired of bushwoolies.
     
    Da what?
     
    That's...
     
    Okay, this 'rockdog' can animate rocks, and transform anything into stone.
     
    Rockdogs are apparantly from the Purple Mountain.
     
    Southern bell pony is definately a proto-Rarity. Can't go anywhere without a big hat.
     
    Yeah, like the Moochick ever has useful information.
     
    Sentient stick. Fine.
     
    Elevated Eminance, the Mountain king.
     
    Danny is as much an idiot as a bushwoolie.
     

    Part 2
     
    I like that, the Mountain King really is a mountain.
     
    Heartstone, which allows the Mountain King to feel.
     
    Black lava from the Volcano of Doom gives Cruch the ability to turn things to stone. There's a lot of Volcanos in this immediate area, and most
    of them seem to have magical effects.
     
    It's the Crystal Heart! A red one, but still.
     
    That, I did not expect. The Heartstone turned Crunch into an actual dog.
     
    And then back to a stone dog. Oddly inconsistant.
  24. Fhaolan
    My Little Pony 'n Friends: Baby, It's Cold Outside (G1 TV Episodes, 1986, 2x 10 minutes)
     
    Just as a note, that song you may have heard on the radio called 'Baby, It's Cold Outside'? It's a cover. The original song is from 1944, believe it or not, and has been covered by a *lot* of different artists over the years. So the title of this episode is in fact a pop-culture reference. Just for giggles, I looked it up and Sigourney Weaver and Buster Poindexter covered this song on Saturday Night Live only a month before this episode was first broadcast, so for adults at the time the song was fresh in their minds. And the original version of this song is just as creepy, and inappropriate for kids, as the current version as it has always includes several lines like: "Hey, what's in this drink?"
     
    Other than the title, I can't find anything in this episode that links it to the song beyond the cold weather itself, so it's just a pop reference with no real meaning.
     

    Part 1
     
    Unnatural snow.
     
    Chilly Willie! Nobody remembers...
     
    Penguin king has a freezing stare. Fine. Has a machine that amplifies the power.
     
    Rainbow is freezing? Wow.
     
    Okay, it's frozen on the human side as well.
     
    Wingwarmers. Fine. Flying with wingwarmers on. So much no.
     
    Or from high altitudes... Never mind.
     
    Nice clear ice you can see through. Usually that only happens when water is in constant motion, believe it or not. Not agitated, but circulated.
     
    Minotaur maze, with a yeti playing the part of a minotaur. Well, kind of a duck yeti, but still.
     

    Part 2
     
    King Charlatan the Great. Nice.
     
    Huh. Pony thinking outside the box.
     
    Uh.... what's with the glowing rod thing?
     
    Okay, but how does that help?
     
    He said the machine was not... oh, okay, I get it. It just amplifies whatever is fed into it, and the Penguin King doesn't have a heat power to
     
    feed in, so it never occurred to him.
  25. Fhaolan

    Would Be Dragonslayer

    By Fhaolan,

    My Little Pony 'n Friends: Would Be Dragonslayer (G1 TV Episode, 1986, 10 minutes)
     
    Earth Pony Jumping Finals. We seem to be back to the Pony Olympics again.
     
    Hey, a camel. That's new.
     
    A local human, again medieval culture & clothing, just like Scorpan from the first TV Special.
     
    Standard fantasy castle, based on an exaguration of Alpine castles. Surrounded by briar bushes.
     
    Wizard, fairly godmother, retired adventurer marrying a princess. Okay, so this is the *end* of a fairy tale.
     
    By the way, that's not actually how a camel saddle works. A camel saddle is made to perch *above* the humps, not around them.
     
    Rather simple knightly test. They're usually harder than that.
×
×
  • Create New...