PacificGreen

From Twilight's "This! Is! TRIVIA TROT!" moment to Applejack dishonoring her family during the apple round, there were so many memeable moments in the show.

I think certain elements either don't meaningfully contribute to the story or characters, or would just cause fandom wars, and would probs be better left to the fandom. Obvious prime example is ships (like Lyrabon or AppleDash). Since this show isn't really much for exploring romantic relationships (outside of Big Mac & Sugar Belle, or Bright Mac & Pear Butter), it's really just trivia and doesn't affect the main story. Really, though, I think it's just up to the creative team's best judgment. While I would have liked an explanation for, say, Cozy Glow's origins, what happened to certain side characters, or how Starlight came to know the other ponies in her village, I feel they probably just didn't have the time for that. Do they have concrete answers for those things? Would they be willing to come up with those answers? We'll never know, honestly. So I guess in the end we just take what we can get. XD

Heh, I love it when they lampshade how useless Celestia and Luna have been throughout the series. I'm just messing...I love both of the princesses. XD

It is kind of a weird stigma. I think it might have to do with the fact that fhe Transformers have broken into the mainstream older age groups, what with the big-budget movies, whereas MLP, despite having gone mainstream in its own little way, is still kinda niche and looked down on as "geeky" at best. It seems to be a kind of a double standard based on gender and societal roles, combined with the fact that MLP has cemented itself as a girly property in the mainstream consciousness (and admittedly, as good as G4 is, it's still pretty girly. No denying that). That's just the way the cookie crumbles. But really, everyone who's into a pop culture product tends to be "geeky" in some way, so it's not really that different from other stereotypically geeky things. I think it's a matter of balance. Be into the things you like, feel appreciation for them, but don't let them define you. Just be sensible. But who knows, that stigma may change with G5. Whether or not you're actually looking forward to it...

While I agree with most people out there that the term "out-of-character" is kinda overused (especially since characters aren't perfect), I also think it is applicable in a lot of instances, usually when the character does something completely contrary to one of their core values or personality traits knowingly or without giving a second thought (think Fluttershy in Fake it 'Til You Make it). Or if they've been down a pretty consistent road of development only to have it completely ignored for most of an episode (like I mentioned, last season acceptance of people (creatures?) who are different from you was a pretty important theme, and we've had numerous "be yourself" episodes in the series, so it seemed kind of strange that they would transform Yona so much without giving a second thought). I haven't seen much of S9 so far, but episodes where the characters are made to fit a certain plot line rather than the other way around seem to be a sign that they may be running out of ideas. Not saying that applies to S9, as I haven't seen most of it like I said, but it's my opinion.

I kind of have to agree with this point (and the point about the writers seeming to "punish" Yona for trying to learn pony ways). I think the issue was that they took this to an extreme by making Yona actually think she had to be pony-like from the very beginning. Which, from a storytelling perspective, actually reinforces the moral, but made it more or less just another "don't feel pressured to fit in, be yourself" episode moral. I think the episode could have been more nuanced if it was merely about Yona wanting to learn pony traditions as, like you said, Pinkie did when she visited Yakyakistan, and having to find a balance between that and still being true to her yak self. I don't really know if they were going for an "immigrants" angle, but I agree that I would have also expected the Mane Six to have been more sensitive to this kind of thing, given their encounters with Chancellor Neighsay, and their interactions with creatures like Zecora in the past. They made it pretty clear that they wanted to be welcoming and accepting of all creatures in the last season, so I found it rather surprising that they, especially Rarity, were so eager to change Yona so much and make her so unlike the culture from which she comes. (Honestly, the rest of the Mane Six seemed to be less at fault, as they were merely helping Yona learn their customs.) I think my biggest problems with this episode is about how pretty much everything was done to the extreme. From the small things (like Fluttershy going way too fast during the dance lesson and Yona subsequently destroying the gym during the Prance) to bigger things like Rarity making Yona talk in a way that even seemed a bit overdone for someone like Rarity, pretty much the whole episode had me struggling to suspend my disbelief (even in a show like FiM, suspension of disbelief has its limits, especially in more slice-of-life oriented episodes). Again, this doesn't really invalidate the lesson; I just think they could have approached this episode from a more moderate angle, thus delivering a more nuanced lesson in the process. But, then again, that's more of what I'd like to have seen, so maybe this post will come across as me complaining an episode didn't turn out the way I would have liked. :/ Overall, an okay episode. Not bad, but not particularly enjoyable.

I haven't seen the episode yet, and I'm probably the only one who cares, but... OMG THIS BACKGROUND PONY IS BACK! (If you know me at all, you know this is like a prayer answered for me. XD It's like the show artists read my mind)

This is a good point. The climactic realization in this episode seemed to pretty suspiciously echo the moral in the Season 4 premiere, with the main difference being that the physical Elements in this episode literally served no purpose in the second half. Honestly, I feel like the whole "you can take away the Elements but you can't take away our friendship" would have been a given by now; it was a bit surprising it took the Mane 6 until the end of the episode to use that against Sombra. But really I think that was my only gripe with this premiere. The show does seem to be pretty inconsistent with regards to how the power of the Elements actually works; going a bit off-topic here, but while I'm personally not very hyped for G5, a lot of people mention consistency with how the world works as an issue that could be improved in G5; it's something fans have been hoping G5 will improve on when it comes.

Glad to see Celestia and Luna being useful again. All jokes aside, I thought it was pretty cool that they brought in some reinforcements in the form of the Princesses, Discord and even Starswirl. No surprises here, but this was probably the highest stakes premiere in the whole show, what with friends and family being enslaved.

While I don't think it's likely, and it would be very hard to pull off a film series of MCU caliber, I could potentially see them doing G4 specials from time to time if they don't wish to completely throw away this current universe. Of course you'd also need to be sure that all the cast and crew would still be on board with the idea.

Yeah, honestly I think my biggest worry more than anything is that G4 will become, not necessarily forgotten, but irrelevant. I'm probably gonna keep pumping out G4 fanart until I either get bored or run out of ideas, and I really love this generation a lot (despite its flaws), but the thing I fear most would be having G4 stuff from both veteran and newbie creators overlooked because everyone's latched onto the new generation. I know my fears are probably overblown, but at the same time I feel it could totally happen. I guess only time will tell.

(Going a bit off topic here) Yeah, those two things definitely changed significantly (changing Webby and the triplets was probably more well received than making the tech in the show more modern), as well as the incorporation of Lena. At the same time though, the whole premise of "Scrooge and family go on adventures all over the world and encounter mystical creatures and forces" has pretty much stayed the same, as well as other characters like Scrooge, Launchpad, Fenton Crackshell/Gizmoduck (aside from a race lift) and Magica de Spell (no Italian accent, but her objective of trying to steal Scrooge's lucky dime stays the same). Not sure if my point still stands, but there you go. I actually never grew up with the original DT and have only watched a couple episodes, so I actually don't have too good of a frame of reference, I admit.

I'm of the opinion that a new mane cast would be preferable, just so that the new series can be sure it can set itself apart from the previous one. The way they seem to be going about it, it feels more like a bizarro version of G4, which I think will probably turn more people off than a completely new universe would. Part of my opinion of this comes down to (and I realize I'm going on a teeny bit of a tangent here) how reboots in general have also tended to be not-so-well-received by fans of the original (Powerpuff Girls, TTG, Ben 10, etc). When reboots do work, they tend to be under very special circumstances, like 2017 Ducktales (released a LONG time after the original ended, generally keeping a similar premise to the original and keeping most of the characters roughly the same) and, a recent discovery of mine, the 2019 Carmen Sandiego Netflix reboot (which, despite using the same characters as other installments but slightly redesigned, is based on a franchise that didn't follow a single continued story arc and was already being continually rebooted anyways.) Even then, those series aren't immune to comparisons to the originals. I know MLP is also based on a highly rebootable franchise, but at this point it's so popular and has generated such a deep continuity and dedicated following that rebooting it at this point would be less like rebooting Carmen Sandiego and more like rebooting Gravity Falls (which would no doubt send LOTS of Fallers in a tizzy.) That said, if they do stick to rebooting the Mane 6, I do think there are things they could do to make it work better- namely, just making the setting and the characters as different as possible from G4. I saw a comment on EqD that had some interesting character ideas, like making Applejack a deputy of a western town, or Twilight a simple book seller. Maybe don't have all 6 be friends from the very start- pair them off into their respective pony races, so you have three different groups of friends to follow (or maybe more). And I'm probably in the minority when I say this, but I'd actually like to see new voice actors for them. Because honestly, my worst case scenario would be if G5 ended up being this "sort of almost G4 but not quite" kind of rehash, basically unable to escape G4's shadow as a result of being too similar. So while my preference would be some sort of continuation of the world of G4, next best thing would just to make it entirely its own thing (heck, you could even imagine it as the same world as G4, just maybe thousands of years into the future, where Equestria has changed).

I'll probably give it a chance, although I'm not very hyped up for it given what's been revealed in the leaks so far. I'm also mostly still into MLP for the fan works, and I've already got a lot of unmade G4 fan content as it is, so if the previews don't look promising or interest me that much I'll probably pass (at least until I have more time to kill) and focus more on other fandoms, or on my original content. But if the previews end up pulling me in, then yeah, I'll definitely take a gander.

This is just my preference, but if they are going the reboot route (which I think is the most likely case), I think they should either (a) keep the general setting and character designs as they are but tweak some things here and there, so that it feels more like an "alternate timeline" sort of reboot, or (b) come up with an entirely new world and characters, maybe borrowing some elements here and there from G4, so that it's easier to distinguish from G4 and doesn't just feel like a "new and improved G4". The way they seem to be going about it in the leaks though, they seem to be keeping the main characters but changing them and the setting drastically. And I'm not usually one to say this, but I feel like this is one of those times where a middle ground may not actually be preferable to either extreme. That said, maybe there could be some sort of compromise between the two extremes that can be achieved so that there are still elements of G4 carried over for nostalgia's sake, but at the same time the show feels different enough that it's able to carve its own identity. One of the emails mentioned boys tagging along for the "journey", the word "journey" specifically making me think that, instead of one pony and her five friends learning about friendship, maybe the next show could follow two members of each pony race going on some journey together, having some epic adventures with other friends, and then the six ponies meet further into the series? Just brainstorming, but I think an idea like that might help G5 defray some of the inevitable comparisons it'll get, rather than feel like "G4 but different now!" if it just has the same premise as G4. Anyways, yeah...that's my rambling for today.