Metemponychosis

Is this still a thing in 2025?

I don't believe fans have the power to make others not like something. G4 would not have been 'successful' if that was the case. Because that is the only way to explain this logic that some fans hating on G5 is somehow related to it failing. If it really can be said that it failed. What happened to G5 is that it didn't relight the magic of G4. Everyone was willing to give it a chance; after it came out, people realized they didn't like it. Things like the weird, non-committing connection to G4, like it is a distant family relation, they're embarrassed by. And when the following projects came... Come on. Opaline? An evil alicorn? FFS. They had a perfect and original villain in Sprout. If they had built on that, they wouldn't have alienated the people that they managed to gather with the first movie. The people who stayed didn't stay because of the story or the setting; they latched to the characters, and you can see that in the lack of exploratory fanfiction that G4 and G5 lack. You can't put these things in an Excel spreadsheet and expect results to confirm or deny your interpretation of the 'data', either. Hasbro didn't ruin everything. They took a chance, which is what every content creator does whenever they toss an idea out there. If it works, they follow it up with something. This is exactly what happened in G4 (which they tried to prolong with Pony Life) Also, remember that time keeps ticking, and people move on. Eventually, people will grow up, or simply want new things. Transformers made an absurd amount of money before it started to lose steam. It's not that it is in a bad place. It simply ran its course. And if Hasbro made any mistakes, it was trying to cash in G4 nostalgia before it even became nostalgic. Finally, G4 was lighting in a bottle. I don't believe it is ever coming back. The entire environment is different. People will just call it woke or something and move on. Remember the clowns that mentioned Celestia was white and had a phallic symbol on her head, or how the 'girls' have cutie marks? Multiply that by a hundred today. As for Transformers, it still has so much potential for parallel ideas like the original cartoons that it could work. But they need to move on from 'sensory overload' to coherent storytelling and make characters that don't bastardize themselves.

First I've heard about it. Did a quick search and I smell BS (the leak, not you). What exactly are you talking about?

I wouldn't like it. G4's time is past. Let it rest. It did what it had to do. Let's see something new.

'Grogar' was a catalyst to unite them. They were the antagonists. That is the clever part of the clever part, that they wouldn't be working together without 'Grogar'. They could have pulled off the same with the real Grogar. It might also have been Discord himself instead of his Grogar disguise and it would make more sense because he could have thrown his intention to seed chaos around. His colleagues might simply agree because he was helping and planned to betray him since the beginning. Wouldn't change a thing and it would work better. But that is me, in retrospective and sitting in front of my computer without a megacorporation overlord and a bunch of different parts to fit together.

Do you have anything to show already? Are you doing it all by yourself?

I pretty much mimic Azure Dawn's opinion. It was too soon, but it was understandable at the time. It would probably have been better if Celestia and Luna's retirement were tied to Twilight becoming a princess. Not that I like their retiring... I think that Twilight should have been to Ponyville as Cadance was to the Crystal Empire. But there you have it.

I've been having this conversation since season 2. It has been my biggest frustration with the cartoon since then. "Normal pony", "Goddess" "Ruler" "Tyrant" "Incompetent" "Chessmaster" "Flawed" "Relatable" "Immortal" "Mortal" The problem with Celestia is that the people writing the cartoon (and especially the comics, which is the reason I disliked them) never knew what they wanted to do with her. Not only her past is a messy patchwork of plot-serving lore, but also her powers, her skills. Everything about her is more scenery than character. I hold to my opinion that Celestia was a character that didn't fit the cartoon. She needed a higher age rating so she could do something. Decide. Make her weight felt in a story about ruling the mess of a nation that Equestria. To this day I'm not entirely sure what is it she or the others actually do.

I feel like nothing went wrong. It just ran its time, and G4 was the outlier in the present times. If something was the problem, it was not letting go of G4, but not in the temporal sense. It could have started years later, and it would have had the same reception. It should have been a different world. I don't think that the fandom's opinion had that big importance to the IP holders (at least not past buying merchandise and viewership). It's whoever made the decision that it should remain attached to G4 that made a gamble. If Hasbro didn't want g4 to end, they wouldn't have ended it. It ran its cycle and ended very deliberately. It was a poor business decision and that is it. To be honest, the reasons I didn't like G5 went beyond it being attached to G4.

The video claims that Fluttershy can communicate with animals because she is "special," but this is incorrect. Communication implies that the animals understand what she is saying, but the video missed something important. In the real world, animals understand tone and body language—how they naturally communicate with one another (along with scent). The video seems disingenuous by not acknowledging that the animals in MLP perfectly understand Fluttershy in much the same way we, the audience, do. These animals can even make gestures, so they're not like real-world animals. This is what the video refers to as "level one intelligence." And before I go on, I hate equating communication with intelligence, or sapience. But... Anwyay, the video's overall point—that the MLP scale of communication with animals doesn't match real-world behavior—is not necessarily flawed. It just operates within the logic of the show's universe, as it should. At level two, the video focuses on animals that don't communicate verbally but can perform complex tasks, like setting tables or the actions performed by Iron Will's goats. The video incorrectly claims that these animals don't speak, but it ignores the possibility that they might have their own language. Iron Will understands his goats. At level three, the video places animals that are vocal, such as cows and sheep, but notes that they are subjugated by the ponies. Level four includes ponies and others that act similarly to ponies for communication purposes (griffons, zebra...). The video tries to wrap things up by comparing the characters' eyes, but this point falls apart because MLP is consistent in that regard. Here’s my take: Cows are as intelligent as ponies at level four, but they lack the insight or drive to organize a civilization like the ponies. This might be similar to how dragons in the show are content with their way of life, or how the Diamond Dogs have their own civilization. The animals that ponies shelter likely don't mind their treatment and are content with living in the pens and shelters the ponies provide. In fact, I'd say this applies to every animal in the show, because even the "level one" animals don't act like real-world animals. Perhaps there's a scale of intelligence that isn't immediately apparent. At least, that is what I did in my fanfictions. Ponies are the caretakers of nature. That is not our world, and judging their layers of coexistence is unfair. I can guarantee Mooriela is happier with the Apples than some people and their freedom in our world. Capper (woe upon him, his ancestors and descendants) does not exist. I refuse to accept him.

Give me a couple of hours and I'll watch the video when I get home so we're on the same page. Then I'll get back to you.

Does the video explore the possibility that different kinds of sentience can exist?

Can I write to all of them? Because I totally would.

I've been talking about this since season 4. The difference is that I blame the writers and not the characters.

They probably read the wikipedia entries.

I would keep not watching it.

What exactly do you mean with 'mechanized'? That term can mean a lot.

As a hater, I say yes. I'm kidding. The problem is that... It's a baby. It could be an object, a macguffin in a more interesting story. Personally, I dislike everything about her. Her design is awkward, she complicates the lore for no benefit at all, the way she broke the Crystal Heart just didn't sit right with me, and I would never name a baby "Flurry anything" after that episode. In the following episodes I started liking her more, but... Meh.

Definitely the princesses.

It has really big shoes to fit. It's not that bad, just not as good. But I can't put my finger on what exactly si missing. To me, it is the mythological gravitas of the Sisters and of the world.

You know what pisses me off about this conversation? It is that people point fingers at Celestia as though she had any control over what happened. Luna was the one that snapped. I think this conversation starts here. And I don't think that the working of the elements was ever explained in any way that made it seem as though anyone has any control over what they do. The whole point is moot. Can we stop pretending that the cartoon even tried to make half of the drama people worked out over this issue? The cartoon couldn't even decide on how does one make a damn alicorn or how Luna's powers work, or even if the sun is actually or not important. Jesus Christ. This is cringe worthy. EDIt: You know what? Never mind me. People have been beating this dead horse mercilessly ever since the cartoon aired. It's been fourteen years and people still shove in their headcanon on this stuff. It's what fandoms do. But can we please, PLEASE, acknowledge that the cartoon moved on from that immediately, that Luna not only became a better character while the writers just shelved Celestia and that Luna herself acknowledged her own blame in that whole mess? Or perhaps acknowledge that Luna sitting alone in the moon, all sad and abandoned, is a headcanon? What the legend Twilight read in the book actually said? And please, you don't have to convince people that isolation is bad for cartoon horses. Nobody ever argued against that.

The part I highlighted in bold. This. So much this. And I would add that I think the entire cartoon suffered from this. It often had great ideas that fell flat, or at least never were as effective as they could have been because the execution seemed careless. I'll always complain about Celestia because I think that hers was the biggest problem in this regard, but it was not only her. Starlight Glimmer too. Twilight becoming an alicorn was never a problem to me, but they never did anything with it. It was always the same thing to the point her speeches became trite.

Sounds fair. Season one was my favorite for several reasons. I liked Celestia more in that season and the cartoon hadn't grown so self conscious yet. It's not as though I don't like the other seasons, but they started growing... I don't know exactly how to call it... It felt the cartoon lacked a unified direction. I started to really dislike the way writers treated Celestia, who was my favorite character along with Luna, Cadance and Twilight. I loathed those ponies from the past. They should be legends, like Star Swirl was. They should have stayed legends and we should have gotten lore dumps, spin offs. I absolutely hate the last season though. It makes no sense whatsoever to me. Which I hate because the last season had some great moments and I really liked the young 6. The biggest problem, to me, were a series of creative decisions that started piling on each other.

There are a few things that rube me the wrong way. One of them are the magical wings instead of actual wings. Is there a reason for that?

G4 fanfiction is what you need. Or, maybe just go look for something you actually like. You're not obligated to like anything.