Bhending the Rules

I think there's something deeper for every fan than just it being a funny and well-done show. There's a reason why every major character has a vocal, passionate, and rather significant band of supporters. Among these characters, there's something for everyone. The one I latched onto immediately was Spike, because in many ways he is essentially me in baby dragon form. He has excellent penmanship, he's clearly not a fan of mornings, he held in a crush for a while, he's full of amazing quips even in potentially distressing situations (Bridle Gossip, anyone?), and in season 1 he seems to have an interest in broadcasting. I just love the little guy, flaws and all. In the Grand Galloping Gala episode, when we see him in the donut shop at the end (doing essentially the little kids show version of "drinking one's sorrows away"), I just thought to myself "right there with ya, buddy".

I'm actually planning on making a video addressing this new "controversy", just as I did for the Twilicorn freakout. In short, everyone needs to calm down and get through this. That's what we do, or at least it's what we *should* do. In the grand scheme of things, even if Equestria Girls ends up being a bad movie, it's not worth the energy people are devoting to hating on it.

Definitely gonna be seeing this one, probably with a group of bronies. A small group, but still a group. Then gonna make a review video.

I have a feeling the T-meter will be low, almost certainly under 50%. I think most critics will avoid seeing this one, and the ones that do won't look on it favorably regardless of how it turns out relative to the fandom's expectations. It's just not a critic-friendly kind of movie, but it might be a critic-proof movie. I doubt any of us will care what they say when we make our decisions on whether to see it. We'll look to fellow bronies for opinions first.

I hear ya... the premise still sucks, and I wish it could have been something completely different. But you know what? Some of the episodes of the series had really shaky concepts that ended up working a lot better than they had any right to. Maybe this will be another one of those. Granted, I'm still not actually expecting that to happen, but I'd say it's at least a possibility at this point. EDIT: Now that I watched your video reaction, I should point out one thing. Your volume is kinda low. I had to put on my headset to hear it well. No biggie. And yeah, it's not a terribly impressive trailer, but it's actually not as bad as I feared it would be. Maybe that's why I'm reacting positively at the moment.

Like mine, right? Now, on to the trailer. I have been an outspoken critic of EG's promo materials so far, especially the synopsis, but I found this trailer VERY encouraging on several levels. Same voice cast? Check. Wings gone from the human designs? Check. And, as Batbrony said before, the designs themselves work a lot better in action. The animation looks really good. I have two main problems with the trailer, though. First, the "characters who remind Twilight of the Mane Six" plot point still seems incredibly contrived... why don't they just go with her to start with? Second, it appears the plot will revolve around some sort of prom queen-like contest, which explains how Twilight intends to get this "crown" we've heard about. For one thing, that makes the "most difficult challenge" line from the synopsis look even more eye-rollingly stupid than it already did. For another, that's an incredibly lame plot, though I'm glad the trailer does address why Twilight doesn't just use her magic to immediately solve the problem. Sure, it might be a lazy hand-wave, but at least that question is answered. And given that the horn is gone from the human form, it makes sense. Overall? I'm MUCH closer to sold on this now than I was, but there remain questions about this project that give me pause. This... might... work... In any event, I'm now actually kind of looking forward to seeing it, which certainly wasn't the case a few short hours ago.

Well, I suppose this isn't the ONLY one. This would be the second one I've met, to be exact. In my experience, this sort of interaction just doesn't happen very often. Or, at least, not yet. I've met far more trolls than people who actually have something worthwhile to say. I suspect the same is true for many others on these forums. For us, seeing maturity and constructive criticism is a refreshing and long, LONG overdue change. Oh, and the OP's avatar is awesome. XD

This thread has done A LOT for my faith in humanity, related to pretty much everything that the bronies here have repeated over and over. (Reasonable critique, gave it a shot, etc.) The level of respect and tolerance being shown here is why I joined this fandom, enthusiastically, about a year ago. But the OP's last paragraph was what really struck a perfect tone, and by itself makes the thread worth creating. More of the discussion about this show needs to be on the level seen in this thread. I keep saying that us bronies can make that happen, but we need to be patient and willing to make it happen one non-brony at a time. Not every non-fan is a hater or a troll; we can win them over to the point where even if they don't join us, they respect us. Just as we respect them. Folks, we've now interacted with one of those people. The importance of that cannot be overstated. No hyperbole there, it's a fact. Forget everything negative the OP might have said about MLP. Forget about any inclination you might have to say that this post and thread is a waste of time. It isn't. It's proof that we are one person closer to making this a world where our fandom isn't mocked and shamed merely for existing, and many of our members feel the need to hide their brony status from their friends/family/etc. We are one person closer to a world where no one needs a brony documentary to explain why we AREN'T how others want to portray us. That is a win. For the show... for the fandom... for everything we must be willing to fight for... that is a win.

If you ever reach a point where your technology *isn't* primitive and doing commentaries becomes feasible, we should collaborate. I'm just sayin', turning those long e-mail threads on individual episodes into videos might be cool.

This deserves SO MANY more replies and views. My favorite vid in the series is this one. George Takei with Pinkie Pie hair, Bon Jovi, a Tommy Wiseau reference, and a ninja fighting a giant robot. This is gold.

Underpowered? Not at all. They've given Dashie enough power to take down a Decepticon and create a nuclear explosion. 'Nuff said.

Well, good news for you. I've now decided I'll be going to see it, so that I can put together a video review like I did for Iron Man 3 (and will be doing pretty much weekly throughout the summer). There will probably be a small brony group in the Madison area that goes, including a good friend of mine, so I'll be going with them. That's right... if this is really going to be as bad as you and I suspect, I'll take one for the team. Because I'm not the hero Equestria needs. I'm the hero Equestria deserves.

Already posted this as an edit to my previous post, but making a new one to make sure you get to see this... A promo image for the EG DVD, which had been posted on Equestria Daily, says "visit mlpeg.com". Well, here's what you get if you type that into your browser: http://www.hasbro.com/equestriagirls/en_US/ I'm not even joking.

The lack of marketing push is very alarming, I agree. Why don't we have even a short teaser trailer online? It isn't like that'd be difficult to put out there, and if the finished product delivers the goods then a trailer might put a lot of the negativity to rest. But that doesn't exist, so we have to deal with slow information trickle. We've gotten two completely contradictory sets of character designs. (The first were basically humans with the pony color schemes ported over, the second were basically the ponies re-done with human skeletons.) I have no idea what to make of this, except to say that "humans with pegasus wings".is an extremely silly idea, which makes me doubt that these characters are actually "humans" at all. Speaking of that... The premise... remains a complete, baffling mystery, and only gets more so with time. The high school idea was met with derision, with good reason, but the new information might be even worse. So Twilight is essentially chasing a Macguffin, and the other Mane Six... aren't really the Mane Six at all. That RAISES more questions than it answers. Like, why would Twilight enroll in a high school if she was just chasing after a crown? How would she get into that school without committing multiple felonies? And if the other Mane Six aren't there with her, WHAT are they doing for all that time that Twilight is away? I can't even find a confirmation of voice cast or a list of characters. With six weeks to go, that doesn't inspire confidence.

Previews? In the theater? As in, like, a real full trailer of some kind? I was unaware of the existence of such a thing. Has it been posted online?

Funny you should say that. After season 2 ended, I was talking about how they should make a FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC movie. Not a spin-off, just a feature length movie set in the world of the show. Make an 80-90 minute film in the style of FiM, put in an awesome antagonist, and structure it similar to the Royal Wedding. Put in a bunch of great songs, maybe introduce a new character or two, have a life-changing event of some sort, and turn the last 10-15 minutes into straight-up action jazz. You'd have an interesting looking-trailer and ALL of the Bronies would be on board and buying as many tickets as possible. That might have even gotten a wide release ("wide" being defined as 1000+ theaters in moviespeak) and that's how I would want to see it done. Who knows, maybe that might yet happen at some point, but somehow I think the existence of EG makes it at least a bit less likely. Incidentally, Equestria Girls is really low-profile for what is supposedly an imminent theatrical release; IMDB doesn't even know it exists. No wonder the information we've been getting is so confusing.

I don't see this posted anywhere on here yet, so... This is the list of theaters that the EG movie will be playing in come June 16. Don't know for sure if this is a one-day event or if it'll have a conventional multiple-week theatrical run, information on this project seems to be a slow trickle all the time. http://www.screenvision.com/cinema-events/my-little-pony-equestria-girls/ Very mixed emotions about this. It'll be playing less than half an hour from my house. I really hope it's a solid movie and goes down as a success, and I think it's cool that Hasbro is behind this enough to put it into 298 US theaters. (Yes, I counted.) On the other hand... I've been one of the outspoken critics of EG, mostly because the limited bits of information have been off-putting. To me, at least. I wonder what more will come over the next six weeks. Will we get an official trailer? Confirmation of voice cast? Identity of supporting characters and villain, if any? The other thing I'm seriously wondering about is how long this was in the can before they announced it. Rumors have ranged from "spin-off series" to now pretty much officially being "feature film and who knows what else". But they couldn't have thrown all of this together and done the animation in less than a year... could they? If they did, Hasbro went the fast and cheap route and it's gonna be horrible. (Except for maybe the music.) If they didn't, I'm wondering how long they HAVE been working on this, and what form it's been in for all that time. Regardless, I'm still hoping for the best but can't say I'm optimistic. But that's just me. Not sure if I'll actually buy a ticket yet.

High school is Twilight's "biggest challenge yet"? She's fought Nightmare Moon, Discord, and King Sombra, for Concordia's sake. She solved the magical Macguffin at the end of season 3 and solved numerous problems over the course of the show, including passing difficult magic tests, (Trixie, anyone?) and high school is supposed to seem like a daunting challenge in comparison? One sentence into the synopsis and I'm already losing brain cells. Oh, and alternate versions of the other Mane Six raises more questions than it answers. Will everyone on the show look like anthro ponies, complete with wings/horns? If so, why bother setting it anywhere other than Equestria? Why will Twilight go alone? Wouldn't Celestia and her friends try to do something to help her when they find out she's gone? How will she even get enrolled in the school without breaking SEVERAL laws? Somehow I doubt the show will even address most of those questions. The writing is what makes FiM so special, and they're gonna have to pull a rabbit out of their hats to even salvage something watchable out of this. The nail isn't in the coffin yet, but every piece of information we get about EG moves me FURTHER away from "sold". The last time I got this bad of a vibe from promo materials was the Green Lantern movie. The less said about that, the better.

I side with the people who are saying that pregnancy by itself probably wouldn't be a deal-breaker for Hasbro. Will they actually do it? I doubt it, but it isn't out of the question. Pregnancy isn't exactly something that kids can't handle. The other kids shows are good examples of this, but the best one might be Up. That's right, the $200 million Pixar movie that showed a character having a miscarriage. Now, I doubt they will show Cadence being pregnant. But if the writers came up with an interesting idea revolving around that concept? I don't think Hasbro would just say "No, you can't do that".