Superstars111

What I'm noticing is that often, Apple Bloom seems to be second favorite. I suspect that it would balance out if we gave 1, 2, and 3 points to them and then added up their total points.

Not that all pegusi would have weak immune systems, but the ones born in Cloudsdale wouldn't build up an immunity to the surface germs like the ponies that live on the ground would.

Actually, I'm starting to lean against a strong immune system, because then ponies that grew up in Cloudsdale would get sick when they first landed, and would be a lot more likely to get sick in general, and we don't see this type of distinction. I'm starting to think either that their germs are different, or that there's some type of magic that keeps them healthy.

Well, part of me says they don't have "germs" in the same way that we think of them, and part of me says that they must have really strong immune systems. But I don't think the ground being kept sanitary is an option, because then they'd have to wash their hooves after walking places like the Everfree Forest, and we don't see them doing that (though they technically could offscreen).

*Ahem* I think we're all forgetting about someone very relevant to this conversation. While I don't tend to be a fan of Bulk Biceps as a character, he does show that pegusi can be very strong. In general, however, I do tend to think of earth ponies as being stronger. It was mentioned earlier that AJ works mainly with her rear legs. While this may be true to some extent, horses tend to have stronger rear legs in general, and while bucking apples would only use those muscles, farm work in general would even things out. Pegusi, on the other hand, would tend to use mainly their wings, and would need to stay light and flexible to be effective fliers. Bulk Biceps is shown to have very small wings, possibly having a condition similar or identical to Scootaloo's. It could be that he worked on his muscles to compensate for his wings. It's also even possible, in my mind, that he could have a lot of earth pony blood in him. I think that AJ lost the arm wrestling match because of a bad position, or a cramp, or something like that which I use to cover up writer error. XD Think on this. Unicorns aren't thought of as strong or athletic. They need brainpower. But then we could look at Doctor Whooves (who, I think Slice of Life confirmed, is rather intelligent). But the question is, /why/ aren't they strong? Is weakness in their genes? I'm sure that's part of it, but I think it's more about what they focus on. Now, think on this. A gymnast or a ballerina must be strong, but in a different way than a bodybuilder or furniture mover. Which is stronger? Ask a furniture mover to stand on pointe. Can he do it? As a ballerina to move a couch up a flight of stairs. Can she do it? Similarly, the earth ponies and the pegusi are built in different ways. But bear in mind, of course, that genetics build in ranges. There are upper and lower limits. No matter how little you exercise, you can't weaken beyond a certain point, and no matter how much, you can't become stronger than your genetics allow. But it's perfectly reasonable to assume that these limits would overlap and be flexible. They're all equines, after all.

Nope. I thought it was a bit odd, I suppose, but that was it. I had some friends that were (/are) really into it, and they kept pestering me to try it, which did get a bit annoying, so that kept me from trying it for a while, but I was always rather clear that I wasn't going to judge something I didn't even know anything about. "I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better." -Maya AngelouMany bronies used to be anti-brony at one point. Not all, but it's not uncommon to find. While I can't speak for all bronies, I would love you even if you hated me still. And now, that's in the past. *Hugs* Welcome to the herd!

Sweetie Belle is my favorite. Aside from being flat out adorable, her relationship with Rarity is something that helps me relate to her. Apple Bloom is my second favorite. I do agree that she's a bit under-developed as a character, and I wish they'd put in some more effort there. I mean, she was the only one that I had no clue about as to her cutie mark, aside from, "apple." But she's still cute. And has siblings. Scootaloo is... I mean, she's not a bad character. I think they've done a great job developing her. But I've never been able to relate to her. She's too tomboyish for me to really understand her, and she has no biological siblings. That's a great aspect of her character, but... Well, I have four siblings, and our friends consider us to be a rather small family. (It took me a while to figure out that most families think of us as a large family.) Basically, she's my least favorite, not because she's a bad character, but because I can't relate to her very well.

I have several layers of thoughts on this. On one hand, there are obviously far more female characters than male, including all the main characters (save one, if you count Spike.) However... I think that this is to be expected. Whatever popular culture may say, men and women are naturally different. Does that mean that no guys will like this show? Even if there weren't a large community of bronies to answer that question, I'm a guy. Does it mean that no girls will like something like Star Wars? Of course not. I have many female friends who think Star Wars is great. But at the same time, my little brothers gag at any reference to MLP, and would try to disown me if they knew I watch it. My sister, mom, and many of my female friends haven't seen all of the Star Wars movies (or, in some cases, even one). Guys and girls are born different, both physically and mentally. We have different strengths, different weaknesses, and different interests. And of course there's variation in there, but this is primarily a little girl's show. To my understanding, Lauren Faust wasn't trying to make it not a little girl's show, she was trying to change what "little girl's show"" means. She didn't like that when people say that, what they mean is, "it's stupid, it has no plot, and the characters are bland." And in that sense, I agree with her. Aiming a show at kids is no excuse to do a bad job with it. Now, I will admit that, as a guy, I would like to see a little more male character development. (This is partly based on my childhood, because I grew up surrounded by girls who would ditch me rather often.) But I can understand why there aren't a whole lot of male characters, and I do think that they're at least getting better about the development. What I'd really like to see is a guy with friends. We don't really see Big Mac talking to... Well, anypony, really, and same goes for many other males, who are seen to have one friend or fewer. And I'd also like to see a male character that's enough like me for me to relate easily to him, but that's a stretch for any show. XD

I like them both, but I have to go with Twilight. Being the analytical person that I am, I'll explain my reasoning in detail. My first reason for picking Twilight is simply that I relate easily to her, being the analytical bookworm that I am. But there's more than that. I think Twilight is a deeper character. (Please don't misunderstand- both are lovely characters, and I'm not saying that Pinkie is shallow. I'll explain my reasoning momentarily.) Pinkie's element is laughter. So, naturally, she's outgoing, friendly, extroverted, and silly. But her element isn't friendship, it's laughter. While she's certainly had her share of sad feelings, she doesn't seem to understand how to interact with somepony who doesn't want to smile right now, or who isn't in the mood for companionship. For example, take Cranky Doodle. While things did turn out all right in the end, and while she did have the best of intentions, she wasn't really respecting his wishes. (I should also point out that, unlike some situations, where you do what's best for your friend regardless of what they want, this wasn't one of those cases. She was aiming for her personal view of friendship, and it happened to work out in the end.) People often look at Pinkie's extroverted nature and think that she would be a better Princess of Friendship. I thought the same, for a little while, until the episode where we met Moondancer. Pinkie organized the party, but that's all she did. Pinkie has the extroverted side of friendship down flat, but not the introverted side. Not the side where you just sit with a friend and don't say anything. Not the side where you need some space to recharge. She also doesn't have a good understanding of depression. Sometimes, as in her case, laughter is good medicine. But not always. Sometimes, ponies need someone to sit and listen and accept that this time, it may not end in laughter, and that it's okay if it just doesn't end in tears. Twilight, on the other hand, is an introvert. She wasn't born naturally friendly and outgoing, so she had to actually learn about it, and about the different ways to be friends. She has to step outside her comfort zone to make friends, and she's willing to do it. She understands what it's like to not want friends. She understands how her actions can affect ponies. Twilight isn't perfect. In fact, sometimes her attitude gets on my nerves. And again, I'm not saying that Pinkie is shallow. I know that she's been in rough spots, and I know she's learning. But let's not mistake laughter and extroversion for friendship. Both are lovely characters, but I think that Twilight has had more development than Pinkie.

I had similar thoughts while watching the episode, but having given it a little more thought, I think that's part of why Twilight actually works better as the princess of friendship. It's effort for her. Pinkie Pie loves everypony instantly, without a second thought. Which means that she cant understand why anypony wouldn't. Twilight now loves everypony, but she also understands what it's like to not want friends. Pinkie Pie alone couldn't have convinced Moon Dancer. In fact, all she really did here was set up the party. But Twilight knew not only what had happened, but how it had affected her, and what it was like to be her.

This episode was adorable! Perhaps some of it's based on what's been going on in my life lately, but I've been getting a bit overwhelmed with the standard cartoon where someone makes a mistake and then has to go fix it. I find myself sitting there wincing as the character makes that fatal blunder, and oftentimes I'll have to pause the episode. I keep sitting there wondering how they could have said/done something so stupid. I should note, I'm not just talking about MLP here. I'm talking about any cartoon. And I'm not necesarily saying it's bad when cartoons use that method. After, all, nopony's perfect. But for me personally, that style is clashing with my life right now. So this episode, in my opinion, was a nice break from that. It was softer, I guess you could say. No monsters to fight. No Equestria hanging in the balence. No Rarity being overdramatic or Fluttershy being overly scared (as much as I love them both). No fatal mistake that ends in humiliation. But still a plot. There was a mistake. But it was ages ago. We didn't have to suffer through the mistake being made, but we did learn what the mistake meant, which, I think, had the same effect, but in a gentler way. And instead of Twilight trying to covr things up or pretend that nothing ever happened, like would happen in the first halves of so many TV shows, she was open and apologized. I was a bit worried at first that her old friends were going to end up being the type that only cared about her because she was a princess, but that fear was dispelled quickly, and I adored this episode. They didn't need to remove the plot or the risk in order to give me a nice break from heartbreak.

So, as I was watching the 100th episode, which I was rather pleased with, I was also worrying. I was looking at it and thinking, "Oh no... People are going to react like [insert reaction here]." But that's not what this thread is about. That's just to describe how I was looking at the episode. 80% of me was enjoying the episode, and 20% of me was thinking about what other people would think about it, because I like analysis. And then we saw Gummy. And we heard a voice. But here's my question. Was that voice actually Gummy? As I watched, I saw two perspectives. One, the one that I was more likely to consider, was that this was a narrator, and this scene was something like a documentary. The second, which I believed more likely to be the popular consideration, was that the voice was actually Gummy's thoughts. The voice did refer to alligators, but didn't refer to itself. I.e., he didn't say, "and what about alligators like me?" which would have clearly pointed towards the voice actually being Gummy. I've only seen the episode once, and admittedly, I haven't seen the credits. I couldn't find them online after a brief search. But my leaning would be against popular opinion, that the voice wasn't actually Gummy. But I'm still curious as to your opinions, and what evidence for or against might be presented upon closer examination.

Fan lore is complex and twisted. It's one thing to look and see which background ponies people like. But not all fan lore is compatible. For example, from this episode, it looks pretty clear to me that Doctor Whooves isn't literally The Doctor from Doctor Who. A reference to him, certainly. I really don't think they could have made it any more obvious that he was a reference to The Doctor without giving him a blue box. But he doesn't seem to actually be The Doctor like fanfiction would say. I don't typically read fanfiction (from any fandom) because of how tangled it can get. I mean, there is some good fanfiction out there, but it's rare enough that I don't want to waste my time looking for it. People see some character with no lines and decide to create this whole random personality based on what they want, but that new character isn't canon. The name, the body, sure. But not the character. Or people see two canon ponies and think they would be cute as a couple, based on this random tidbit or that obscure scene. Sometimes a random tidbit or obscure scene can give a lot of information, but most of the time, people are just blowing things way out of proportion. I actually really enjoyed this episode, because I got to see some background characters that we haven't gotten to know very well. Yes, the bodies and names have become very popular in the fandom, but we know next to nothing about the actual characters. A good episode should be understandable without being emersed in the fandom, and this one was. I know because I understood it, and like I said, I don't typically read fanfiction- especially MLP fanfiction. So, rather than just having an episode about what we already know, they let us meet some characters that were previously unknown. Surely they took inspiration from the fandom, but I can imagine how hard it must have been for them to be questioning which stories to keep, which to throw away, where to tweak, where to keep... It's not as easy as it might sound. Because although there was a lot of fanservice in this episode, that wasn't their only goal. They were also trying to develop real characters that we could care about, even if they're not the center of attention for every episode, or even for one.