Princess Lona

I'm going to give it a chance and watch to the end of course, but honestly, I'm not liking this episode. It's pushing a really obvious ideology and it's coming off as preachy. Or maybe a better term would be "reverse preachy"? The way they phrase the lesson they learn will make or break this for me.

Reading this topic, I'm leaning towards the idea that a cutie mark represents something that a pony really enjoys doing and it is because they enjoy it that they become talented a it. When you really love doing something, practicing is easy so how could you not get better at it? It becomes a passion. So now I'm wondering: what happens if a pony discovers that they love something, gets a cutie mark for it, gets good at it, and then gets bored of it? Losing a passion happens to some people and it's not necessarily a bad thing. What if for example, Scootaloo got a cutie mark for doing scooter tricks, but later on she learned to fly and the sensation of soaring through the air was so intoxicating that scooter tricks became tame and boring to her? I know the writers would never do something like that for the sake of keeping their metaphor pure, but it could make an interesting fanfic.

I hope the episode isn't about communism. It's always so unsettling to me when complex political concepts are oversimplified in a story for the sake of easy vilification. When I saw the trailer I was immediately reminded of Fahrenheit 451 and its implied slippery slope fallacy. I hope the episode shows how the ponies in the Equal town had problems with fairness in the past, so they did everything they could to make sure everyone has equal rights. But they took it a bit too far, overcompensated for whatever unfair things occurred in the past, maybe brought some magic into it, and are now trapped in a zombified state of perpetual conformity. The Mane Six will help to break the spell over the townsponies and the lesson of the episode will be that social equality doesn't have to come at the expense of individuality. The two concepts can exist together and even compliment each other.

This is a licenced, limited edition IDW cover art. The story in the comic had nothing to do with Transformers as far as I can tell. Not exactly a reference in the show itself, but licenced. Edit: Beaten by @Lordav

I don't dislike Twilight as a character on a show, but I feel like if I knew her or a person like her in real life she would get on my nerves. I think it's because of the leader position she has taken. I'm really not a big fan of leader types. This might be part of the reason a lot of people call her a Mary Sue, especially in her alicorn form. She does have some flaws, but they are downplayed because as the leader, she has to be consistently strong. It seems like as she progresses and her responsibilities increase, everything gets easier for her. The opposite should be true. I think if they show Twilight make a really, REALLY huge mistake in season 5, it will make her far more interesting and likeable.

The pilot. I saw a brilliant cartoon that is not insulting to its intended audience, that has a dynamic cast of female leads in a market that's generally dominated by poor role models and oversimplified stereotypes, and that gives a badass makeover to some of the titles normally reserved for those stereotypes (namely "Princess").

I can't say the same for all TV shows, but in the case of MLP specifically I think it's perfectly acceptable to pirate. Despite the excellent quality of the show, it's intended purpose is still that of a toy commercial. They want you to watch it. I really don't think the company cares if you pay to watch it or not because they know that the more you watch and grow to love the show, the better the chances are that you will buy licenced merch.

Maybe Granny Smith's name is just "Smith" and they added the "Granny" when she bacame a granny. She probably saw it coming ever since she learned that Granny Smith is also a type of apple.

Well, I'm a bit of a psudo-anarchist so I suppose I would have to vote for Discord (I know, a voting anarchist. Irony). Can you imagine a United States ruled by him? Think of what it would do to/for the rest of the world! I'm salivating just thinking of it.

I would rather see her lose her horn because that would present a new challenge to her. Magic is her thing. Stripped of it, she would have to learn an entirely new way of living, and might even learn how to rise up and become better than she was before, thus regaining Celestia's confidence. That would be a much more interesting story to watch than "Twilight turns back into a unicorn".

I was just thinking about this the other day! I would love to see more Tank and RD on screen. He has gotten some screen time since May The Best Pet Win, but we don't really see him interacting with rainbow that much unless it's in a group setting where the focus isn't completely on the two of them. I want to see them fly together more!

Scootaloo sneaks into the Wonderbolts Academy in a desperate attempt to learn how to fly. She ends up nearly dying but does improve slightly in the end.

For the lightning bolts in the mane you could wrap a few strands of hair in aluminum foil and bend them to create the shape.

I started writing a fanfic to give Flash (pony version) some backstory and character since everyone was complaining that he has none. It's true there wasn't much canon material on him to go on, but the more I explore the few things we do know about him, the more intrigued I am, and the more I grow to like him! If anyone is interested in reading my fic, I'm almost finished the first draft and I'll be posting it just as soon as I type it up and smooth it out a bit.

I found the mane six rainbow designs gaudy and jarring at first, but the more I look at them, the more I don't despise/kind of like them. That being said, I still liked the look better on the humane six because the whole over the top, too many colours thing seems more fitting for a rock band.

Norm Macdonald. Oh wait, never mind, he's Canadian. Still, I would love to hear him on the show, mostly for the outtakes which would likely be so hilarious they would leak.

@ShadOBabe beat me to it. I have to agree on the steampunk wings. If you go full mechanical all the alicorn OC naysayers will be more forgiving because it will be more obvious the character is not an alicorn. Or maybe you could get a jet pack?

In before someone says Twilicorn. But yeah, Twilicorn.

So. Much. This. I hate the word "tomboy", it doesn't make any sense. Using "tomboy" to describe a person like Rainbow Dash implies that behaviour can be objectively defined as masculine or feminine when in fact, the gender of a behaviour is completely subjective to the gender of the person performing that behaviour at any given moment. If Rainbow Dash is a girl, then any and all of her actions are feminine while she is carrying them out. If Soarin or another stallion were to carry out the same action, it would be masculine while he was carrying it out. The gender of behaviour is in constant flux. To put it another way, masculinity and femininity don't actually exist so the word "tomboy" is irrelevant.

Since he shows up in season three I'm going to guess he wasn't planned from the start. I also don't think anything past season two was planned from the start because going into this, no one at DHX would have known if the show was going to do well. Generally when you pitch a show, you have your entire first season arc planned with at least the pilot episode written and the others outlined in-depth, and you have your season two arc planned out but less in-depth. If the show is picked up for season 1, you finish writing season 2 and you start thinking about a potential third season. If season 2 is picked up, you write season 3 while season 2 is being produced. So even if Faust had dreamed Shining Armour up when she was creating the main characters, she probably put him on the back burner for the first little while because she already had enough material to work with. As I write this, I realize that's just how it would work for a normal tv show. I forgot that this is a show meant to sell toys. So what probably actually happened is Hasbro said "We want to sell a pony wedding playset next year, make it happen in the show", a designer drew sketches of Cadence and Shining Armour, and the writers found a way to work them into the show. (PS, A Canterlot Wedding is one of my favourite episodes because of this. I love how the writers took something as potentially boring and cutesy as a Pony Princess Wedding, and turned it into such an action packed adventure with lots of mounting tension and plenty of badass moments.)

Maybe it's not the size of Scootaloo's wings that's the problem, maybe it's the shape, or the way her feathers grew. It takes a very specific type of aerodynamics to make wings that fly. One little feather or bone out of place, even an imperceptibly small one, and it's game over. If this is what's keeping her grounded, she may still be able to fly someday. Maybe her body will sort itself out during adolescence.

I think Snips is super cute. I love his pudgy little face, I just want to squoosh it! My vote for worst design is Luna before they gave her back her starlight mane. I think it's because she looked so badass as Nightmare Moon that her "good" self seemed pitiful in comparison. Not to mention that haircut. It's cute, and might look good on someone like Cheerilee, but it's not fitting for a princess as uncompromisingly regal as Luna. And her coat colour was too light.