Sunny Fox

She falls so often cause she's an angel. 

I think Season 5 was the height of the show for me personally.

Here's mine... old school, I guess, but I can't be bothered to keep up with you young whippersnappers these days.

Oh, Discord, you ol' so'n'so... back at it again, are ye?

17 minutes ago, TheAnimationFanatic said:

True, but Big Mac was always at least an amusing side character, and he never disowned his sister.

Context is for kings, here. There was good reason for Shining Armor to "disown" Twilight, in light of what he and any other pony knew at the time. Shapeshifting, emotion-eating bug ponies is probably a bit too far a leap for anypony to make, and Twilight didn't really know the score either. Plus, there was nopony, not even Celestia herself, who did not consider Twilight's actions to be beyond the pale. Seems a bit unfair to highlight SA as the jerk in this scenario, considering not even Spike believed Twilight.

Looks at avatar... looks at topic title... looks at avatar... Guess I like Luna... why? Do I really gotta justify why I like her?

She's just adorbs... really, watch Luna Eclipsed to see why she endeared herself to so many. The woobie is strong with this one. Is it good? Is it bad? Who knows? Who cares? It touches a chord. I'm not a Celestia hater by any means, but until her issues are explored further than "she likes cake" or whatnot (maybe they were, I haven't caught up past Season 6) Luna is always going to be more interesting to me. Plus she can help you out in your dreams! How cool is that? I could use some dream advice, these days.

(Yes, I know there was an episode about Sunbutt recently - and by recently, I mean in the last half a decade or so - (a term of affection, I also call Luna "Moonbutt" from time to time), but since the inclusion of Trixie in any episode annoys me , I haven't been keeping up with the more-recent, Trixie-apologist seasons. Plus, I like Steven Universe more these days - come at me, bro - so I don't have much motivation to catch up - use that as thou wilt.)

But spoiler alert... I won't be listening.

22 hours ago, bigbertha said:

Schulz had a lot of fun with visuals. Here are just a couple of my favorite visual ones:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Thanks for sharing those!

22 hours ago, bigbertha said:

I honestly don't see the problem with licensing. As long as the writer of the comics continues to write the comics with as much care as before, so what if they make animated specials and plushes to go along with it? As long as the creator is in control of their property and controls what is made, I don't see the issue. Sure, if the syndicate has complete control, that can be a problem, but it doesn't have to be like that. It doesn't have to be a Garfield situation in which Jim Davis hasn't written the strip in decades and has a bunch of ghostwriters while he works on the merchandise. Not every situation is like that. Calvin and Hobbes didn't have to be like that. 

It's not that licensing is bad per se. It's more that Watterson didn't want the syndicate to license C&H and stood by that, in the face of enormous pressure and the significant amount of money he would have made if he had let them do as they wished. It's more that he fought the system and won that gets my respect, not simply having the stance of not wanting his creation to be licensed, if you understand me.  (Bonus points for actually turning that into a source of inspiration for some of his material)

As for if licensing merchandise is good or bad in itself, I haven't researched the pros and cons, so I can't really give my opinion on it one way or the other. 

My Spidersona comes from a universe where everyone but him has Spider powers. He is known far and wide as Normal-Man.

hnfdihbnb ei efndfvg oidfv b erwoipdsisadhi pioja sjiosa dkijo

While I know a bit about Peanuts, and I like it just fine, I really have to side with the Calvin and Hobbes crew. I just know it better, and it IS GLORIOUS! It just has so much heart. And many of favorite strips rely entirely on the visuals, with no dialogue at all. Those are really where Bill Watterson shines through as a story teller.

Spoiler for size:

I'm not sure if Schultz ever used that approach... I'd love to see one to compare.

I also really respect Watterson for fighting so hard to keep C&H purely as a comic. There was enormous corporate and financial pressure put on him to license merchandise or animationed adaptions, but he stood by his principles and was ultimately successful in keeping his creative control. Imagine how much richer he could have become from royalties if he had agreed to license merchandise. A number of his strips even allude to those battles, which adds another layer of depth to them.

Spoiler for size:

Here, Calvin's dad is representative of the corporation's complaint about his stance, and Calvin's response is pretty much Watterson's.

Again, the same might be true of Peanuts, but if so, I'm not aware of it.

Darkwing Duck

When there's trouble, you call DW!

I've watched it. I did kind of like it, too, although I don't remember too much since it was a while ago.

Letting go of slavery the latest of any country that doesn't have slavery still going on.

Can you tell where I'm from?

I do like* that double standard:

heterosexual couple portrayed... oh that's just life...
homosexual couple portrayed... gosh, so adult, so sexualized! 

* actually, I do not like it, it sucks.

I love that her issue with frustration was alluded to even in EQG... "She began her studies with me not long before Twilight... but when she did not get what she wanted as quickly as she liked, she turned cruel and dishonest"... traits we see in her before her defeat in the first movie. After that, she's more mellow, but certain things still get that blood flowing... like being accused of "jealous rage" when she was misunderstood while trying to prevent Rainbow from going full pony-hybrid during the preliminary rounds of the Battle of the Bands (Rainbow Rocks) or her lambasting SciTwi for meddling in magic, which was something she had been struggling with figuring out the while. Plenty of character continuity there.  

Well, I had people over quite recently, which always makes me tidy stuff up. I don't really have a unitfying theme to my rooms except that, y'know, they mine... My room would probably say I like pop culture and not much else... I rely on personal charisma to get across what I'm all about... and if anything does come across, tell me immediately!

The show already shows romance and love between heterosexual couples, (Hearts and Hooves Day is about little else) and all the nascent understanding of sexuality that such entails. So, if they were to include homosexual couples in the show in the same vein, I don't see how it would be a problem for anyone except those people who are going to be offended by any reminder that they share a planet with people who feel romantic or sexual attraction to members of their own sex. Even having an episode that delicately (YMMV) broaches the issue should present no problem.

Having a "very special episode" episode would be counterproductive, I feel. Be the change you want to see in the world, and all that. Presenting it as something normal and accepted in Equestria, without putting too fine a point on it, would be enough. Of course, I'm a young, white, cisgender male, so what the heck would I know?

Whoops! Ninja'd! 

Cheese

All good things come to an end. At least we had a good time on the ride. Friendship is Magic and this site in particular have enriched my life in so many ways, I cannot list them all. Yeah, my interest dropped off in the last few years or so, but FiM will always be something I can look back on with positivity. Rarity in particular is a character I will always cherish, as I have many other characters from various cartoon franchises. Better to end on 9 seasons of good, rather than dragging on and snuffing out like a dwindling candle.

I'll see you all in MLP G5! Stay sunny side up, everybody!

8 hours ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

My theory is Celestia or the royal secretary enchanted those tickets to automatically detect the nearby pony and follow them around after the mail was opened. It's a royal service, so it would have a special touch on it. Anyone touches the ticket triggers the ticket to stop floating around and it will turn into a normal ticket. Unicorns are so used to using their horn, they just used telekinesis so the spell didn't broke. Earth ponies and pegasi tried to reach it, but it just floated around even before them trying, so they just went with it. In Spike's case, either they forgot to enchant it, or Spike grabbed it right away.

I think my theory is simpler and needs less assumptions, but if you prefer your own theory, that's fine too. Let's agree to disagree. 

Just now, BasementSparkle said:

Possibly, but then the Elements of Harmony also don't work without ponies to power them, do they? They clearly have magic of their own, but without the Mane Six or the Princesses there to activate and power them, they don't really do anything. I'd consider that the Crystal Heart is likely the same, it has it's own magic, but like the elements it needs ponies in the mix to be powered and used.

That makes sense to me.

Still, for the particular case of the "floating tickets", I don't think we need look any further than "It was probably Twilight doing it".

3 minutes ago, BasementSparkle said:

I'd counterargue that the Crystal Heart still has to have some kind of magical ability of it's own, otherwise, if it's really only the Crystal Ponies magic that is necessary, why couldn't they just replace the Crystal Heart with any other random artifact when it was missing or destroyed? The Crystal Heart must have some sort of special property of it's own for it to be seemingly the specific object they need to use.

Possibly, or it might just be a sort of placebo effect... they might not need it necessarily, but are so sure they do need it that they can't find a way of making do without it. 

6 minutes ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

But it's the third episode ever so she wouldn't be that good to seamlessly cast complicated (five different objects follow five other objects, and if she did not include Rarity, it means she put extra care of who to not give the enchanted ticket, and not looking back. But still the tickets followed them as they passed by, so either it's manually cast without looking at it, or automatically cast to be triggered on certain conditions like : a pony passing by, but in this case she also has to exclude Rarity out of the equation.) spell without any visible cues like her horn glowing. Even she is good with magic enough to beat Ursa Major, there isn't any other magical unicorns did it without being noticeable like that.

Ah, but Twilight's horn does glow,

as does Rarity's:

And EVERY unicorn can use telekinesis, it's not beyond possibility that Twilight is particularly accomplished in it even at this early stage.

And I'd still like to know why Spike's ticket is the exception to the "ticket enchanted to follow particular pony" - unless Celestia herself set it up like that, but then why would Twilight and Rarity even need to use their own magic?

Just now, BasementSparkle said:

The Crystal Heart, Spike's comic in "Power Ponies", Neighsay's amulet, and all of the other magical artifacts from Season 8, the Pillar's artifacts from Season 7, the Staff of Sacanas from the movie. There's quite a few really.

I'd argue against the Crystal Heart... it was the Crystal Ponies who powered that up with their inner light, or some such. But yeah, most of those are valid examples of objects having magical power on their own. (Heck, the mirror from Equestria Girls probably qualifies too.) So I was probably a little too quick to disregard the idea. Thanks for setting me right.

I still think Twilight was making the tickets float in Ticket Master, though.

I don't really agree that it can't be Twilight who is doing the spell. She is pretty boss with magic, after all, and in the earlier episodes, objects being magically manipulated didn't have a colour-coded aura that matched with a particular unicorn's horn aura, instead being just a more general white-ish glow. (Or goldenish glow, due to the tickets being golden and hey-wait-a-second-I-see-what-you-did-there-MLP!)

If you rewatch that scene, Spike's ticket (which comes later, and only Applejack is still around to see it at the time) doesn't float, and he is just carrying it.

This would be consistent with my "Twilight just using normal unicorn telekinesis to make the tickets float for her friends, except for Rarity who can do it herself" theory (try fitting that on a business card ) : Twilight isn't levitating Spike's ticket because she doesn't know about it yet.

So that's my guess - only Twilight (and Rarity) have telekinesis and she is making the tickets float.

In fact... have we ever seen objects having their own magic? (Helements of Armory and Cutie Map notwithstanding) It's rare to be point of being absent.