Toon4Thought

I think the CMC deviation here works doubly well on the grounds that Equestria doesn't seem to have movies like they do. We've seen a movie theater in the show before, but never anything resembling a blockbuster film, suggesting they are made on a very old-school scale at best.

I'm quite confused over what this even will be, format-wise. All sources say this is a short, and yet it looks like far too much story to fit in 3 minutes. Is it going to be a longer short than the other ones we've gotten, like 7-10 minutes, or something? Because it almost looks as though the announced series is that Choose Your Own Adventure thing that was also announced at Hascon, though even that's kind of hard to tell as of now.

As much as I agree it'll more than likely be in the web series, I should point out we actually aren't done with the shorts as of now. All the promos for them showed a baker Pinkie music video that we've yet to see, and an On Demand screw up said "Pet Project" was about Sunset Shimmer at home playing a video game (likely a synopsis for another one).

Well, it's going to be put to animation in some form. That much can be inferred.

I feel the exact same way. Not to mention the animation appears to be DHX, marking this as a higher priority than the majority of the recent shorts. Also worth noting is that, starting November, there's a Choose Your Own Adventure series. There's not much to say about it though, since what the EQD post says about it is kind of vague in a way that's hard to understand. What I am wondering is whether or not this is the series that Hasbro announced. I wouldn't be disappointed by any stretch, especially considering the Overpowered thing says we're getting a good amount of fully animated stories in the near future, but still.

Well, all of these ideas sound quite nice, but I was more wondering about what you think we could expect to actually happen? The majority of these are at least somewhat in the realm of plausibility, but I'd imagine the fact the two properties are now largely separate story-wise kind of complicates the crew's willingness to actually do it. I feel like a one-off crossover special is probably the only way to fully avoid the biggest hurdle, that being one property intruding on the other, but would DHX really do something like that? I'm mostly asking because I would be beyond bummed out if they never do anything with this.

Well, for something off the top of your head, it sounds dang good.

That would also be quite cool, especially for someone like me who's interested in the various different animation styles. Have you ever considered writing a one-shot fanfic of some kind about your idea?

Well, she does have at least some artistry skills if "The Art of Friendship" is anything to go by. But yeah, it would be really fun for her to try and find which way of expressing herself suits her best. Someone please make something of this idea...

...Wow, now that's a really interesting and creative idea. I would love to see someone put this to life in some form.

By this point, I think it's safe to say most of us really want to see Sunset Shimmer revisit the life that she had long abandoned. I especially want to see this because I personally find the ideas of her being the only pony who gave up her entire species and moving to a previously unknown dimension (as well as being satisfied with her new life) beyond fascinating. But the thing is, with how increasingly separated EqG and FiM has become, it's kind of hard to tell how we even could realistically expect them to tackle this. Putting this in EqG has the issue of spending most of its story in Equestria, whereas an FiM episode would have to give her a lot of exposition. And yet, I feel like not doing this would probably be the single biggest waste of opportunity in all of G4 MLP. So, how do you think they should tackle this? Should it be an EqG or FiM installment, or perhaps a one-off crossover special? What should she do there? And, most importantly, what kind of story would be behind it? For stuff like "reconciling with Princess Celestia", I'd like you to be specific on how you think it could be handled.

We've yet to see the music video with server Pinkie. Also, an On Demand screwup gave Pet Project the wrong description, saying it was about Sunset playing a video game. That is most likely another short we've yet to see. So that makes two.

Alright, feelings of betrayal aside, I'm really hoping the intended short ends up On Demand tomorrow. If it does, I'll be sure to record it just like I did with Epic Fails.

I can see that this time they used a GIF rather than reusing the same promo again. This has nothing to do with anything, I just felt like pointing that out. I hope they show multiple shorts per night this weekend, since this is the last weekend of August and I can tell there's at least 4 more shorts (5 if you count "Epic Fails").

Among the ones that I could make out, Pinkie's is really the only one that feels like a downgrade to me. I don't know, I always really liked the heavy amount of blue in her current outfit. Sunset looks pretty good from the little I can see of hers, but I will definitely miss her Friendship Games + specials outfit. Rainbow's is a lot better, though.

A mix between the two I feel would be best, not unlike what we saw in the specials. Though I will say that slice of life is definitely something EqG needs a lot more of, even if the shorts have somewhat helped that to an extent.

I think Dance Magic was the best overall, as to me it basically told me just how well an EqG series could work. Plus, it's such a breath of fresh air that there's no straight-forward antagonist this time around. However, Mirror Magic was probably the most entertaining, even though it did have some flaws and personal nitpicks. EqG Starlight's design alone was enough to make it worthwhile.

Most likely Boulder Media didn't get the updated model; Hasbro seems to be kind of slow on being kept up to date on these things, only recently did a mini come out that matches her new outfit. That being said, you really should see how she's animated in that one scene I mentioned. I may be overmilking it a bit, but I do think it's the best work Boulder has done on these shorts so far.

I actually just found another new short On Demand that I don't think has surfaced anywhere else called "Epic Fails", and it also combines Sci-Twi and Sunset's old outfit. BTW I love how Sunset is animated in the scene where she's with Rarity, and is a great example of the potential Boulder has when firing on all cylinders.

Unfortunately, I get a strong impression that it'll be like that for every Boulder Media short that has her, at least in this large set. Most likely they didn't get the updated model.

That's more or less what I've been thinking. Honestly, one of my absolute favorite things about Sunset's character is the fact that, despite spending most of her life as a pony, she managed to fully integrate herself in the human world so well that she almost entirely acts just as human as the rest. There's just something I find incredibly fascinating about all that. I definitely think future installments should do something involving her either having to revisit her old life (like, she'll be reminded of what things were back in Equestria compared to her new life, and possibly even growing to appreciate things about it that she couldn't before), simply because I think the idea has endless potential, especially given you really couldn't pull off this kind of setup in other franchises and even FiM. Either that, or give her an overarching character arc involving her slowly becoming homesick then eventually having to pick a side; I know something like this was in the initial draft of Friendship Games, but looking at the deleted scenes I honestly don't think this side-plot would've done this idea justice. It deserves an all-out treatment.

I believe that having Starlight in that position was for the better in the grand scheme of things, for the reason you brought up regarding Rarity and the fact she really hasn't gotten as many side roles as she probably should. Granted, it is weird to hear her say things that would sound a little more at home with Spike (even the deliveries seem oddly similar), but still, she does get a lot of the better lines of the ep anyway, many of which were definitely written specifically for her.

I don't even know what to think about this episode. There is so much I really like, but there's just as much that bothers me to extents that very few other eps have matched. I think my main problem is that the tone, at least the way I see it, seems to almost directly go against the charm of the show. For the most part, the entire town seems very unusually bitter and mean, and it's so phenomenally jarring that it's quite honestly uncomfortable. The jabs at obsessed parts of the fandom don't annoy me at all, since it's clear they are referring specifically to those that go just as over the top, but their attitudes in general do annoy me as a viewer. In fact, a lot of this ep is a pretty dang big downer. Note that they don't take the "build up transition" route they usually use with these kinds of stories; here, Twilight thinking publishing the journal is a good idea is pretty much immediately shot down, with them getting out of hoof extremely early on. So, the majority of this ep is basically just seeing the Mane 6 get unfairly attacked or harassed. Sure, we find out at the end that the two fillies that were fighting at the beginning benefited from their copies of the journal, and to be fair it definitely succeeds at ending the ep on a relatively sweet note, but it just isn't enough to offset the rest for me. Now, with all that in mind, there's also a lot to like. The song itself was nice, catchy, and even fairly clever, and it helps that it pretty much added a lot of MLP charm in a section that had very, very little of that - which makes it bar none the highlight of the episode. I also really like Starlight's role in this, with her providing some good support for Twilight and getting a lot of the episode's better lines (even if a lot of her lines sound eerily like things Spike would say; in fact, considering MA Larson's name is on this, some people - myself included - get the impression this role was originally meant for Spike). Some of the Mane 6's freakouts, especially Rarity's, were pretty entertaining too - even if their inceptions were, as I said, a little too much for my tastes. Even the idea of Twilight making the friendship lessons public sounds like a really neat, interesting, and promising concept. It's just that it was pushed too extreme too quickly IMO, which severely harms the episode for me. It's hard to tell just how different MA Larson's original vision would have been, since they clearly at least changed enough to throw Starlight in there. However, looking at the final product I can very much see why he wasn't very happy with how this idea turned out since it was honestly much more pessimistic than even his more dramatic and dark entries in the series. And, unfortunately, this persists throughout so much of the episode I just can't look past it. The good stuff we did that does make me really want to like the entire episode, but I just don't think it's worth sitting through all of the mean-spirited stuff. Can't fault them for trying, though.

It's worth noting when Princess Twilight called her to Equestria in "Mirror Magic", she seemed fairly worried about it. I really hope this is meant as foreshadowing for something later, because I think them not tackling her ties with Equestria in future installments would be probably the single biggest waste of opportunity in all of G4.

I feel like a series is a far better medium for tackling the leaks than a movie would be, since it would allow the individual instances to be more fleshed out.