BornAgainBrony

Directors apparently have confirmed this being the Tree of Harmony was intentional. What happened to the Everfree Forest? This doesn't bode well for Discord still being around, since I think that menagerie was powered by him. It's really sad how much hate the Y6 got, and especially that episode. Seems like nobody understood what DHX was doing with it, in what they knew was the final season of G4. All these younglings with their own ideas of how to honor the fallen Tree of Harmony, finally coming together to build something that would last. And then Harmony's parting message to them. "Because of you. The spirit of the Treehouse would have perished without your selfless deeds and caring. Whenever you seek solace, come here. Your friendship, and the friendship of future generations, will always be safe within these walls." This was a thank you note and a love letter to the fandom, telling us that even though the show would end, we would be the ones who can keep it alive, and the memories and the fun would always be there waiting for us when we need it.

The tree must've used some really shabby crystal if all the structural parts of the "tree house" just disappeared.

I can't help but wonder if this was a change due to a test reaction. Maybe the song wasn't as well-received as hoped? When we got to the makeover scene, I thought for sure that song was going to kick in, and then surprisingly we got something completely different. My preference for 'musicals' is that the big numbers help drive the story. Some musicals, especially the older ones seemed to have a, "Alright, this part needs a song, where can we put one in?" The music isn't written as part of the plot, it's just there to stretch the runtime. The story stops, waits for a song to finish, and then continues. More recently, songs have become more integral to the story. Sometimes they help to explain the setting, or actively help to advance the plot forward. Often they provide deeper insight into characters when they're having an important moment; it's a great way to have an inner monologue without it seeming campy. G4 had a lot of good songs like this, and a some of them were very emotionally powerful. While it wasn't a deal-breaker for me, I was a bit disappointed with the music. Not because the songs were 'bad,' but there wasn't anything that really spoke to me that I would remember in the long-run. Perhaps the most memorable overall is "Danger Danger," which is pretty much the Lion King's, "Be Prepared," but with Ponies, only sticks out because it's fun for similar reasons. It's pretty clear that there was limited communication between the song writers and the screen writers. In some cases they might just have been given a theme to work with, without really knowing anything about the characters or what was going on in a particular scene.

Well, looks like my concerns about the over-use of pop music were proven wrong. Watching the completed work, the music didn't bother me, and I'm very much glad about that.

I got some strong Diamond Tiara vibes, complete with a Spoiled Rich egging him on until it got out of control. I'm still trying to decide who is more competent now. I think Sprout is competing with the Storm King for the very bottom of the "ranked MLP villain" list. And yeah, kind of the opposite of what I want to see in a good villain. It didn't seem like he had any deep motivation at all. I didn't get much passion from him for his political(?) message. It was like he just saw it as a launchpad to become a superstar ruler of sorts. There's also some hints of Cozyglow here, but she did it way better.

Hasbro got hacked multiple times. S9 got hacked, the movie got hacked, and one other time I seem to remember before that. It was kinda pathetic.

Well, at least this time it wasn't a hacker who guessed an MLP file-server password was "rainbow."

"We (Ponies) Got the Beat" felt out-of-place enough with the G4 movie.

Heh, I'm guessing they don't even realize Crystal Ponies are a thing. These do look really good though.

Glowing Up sounds like a meaningless credits song too though. Dunno... this killed my hope even further. They're going generic, and I can't see how this will end well for the impact it has on the overall feel. This really may make it unwatchable for me. This is the kind of pop music that I don't mind listening to in the background when I'm driving around, but it's nothing that makes me want to listen up and take notice. And for those who like these songs, it still may not be such good news either. Going this 'mainstream,' the bigger the names involved, the more likely it is that it'll be impossible to use this music in fan projects, both online and at conventions. G4 was one thing, but this? The copyright hounds will be having a field day. Fandoms have been crushed before they ever got started due to over-regulation before, and this is really starting to look like it could be a repeat of that.

Well, if the translated lyrics from the new song, "Fit Right In," are anything to go on...

I'll be amazed if they go over that at all. And that's assuming that events in FiM were ever "real," or if it's just part of an idealistic "Care Bears" TV show that some foals are a fan of, and the adults are all, "Yeah, it'd be nice if things could be that way, but they can't. You'll understand why when you're older." However, I've wondered for quite a while the fiasco that could erupt if the kingdom ever found out that Discord was 'wagging the dog,' by fabricating who knows how many conflicts for Twilight to get into, in order to aid her ascension. It was implied that he'd been at it for far longer than just the Grogar puppet show. The political fallout from that would be insane. If it was all real though, my best guess is that the movement just faded out. Nobody picked up where Twilight left off, and a whole bunch of small things escalated into bigger things until the quarrels had crossed a rubicon of some kind. There's other weirdness too though, such as the loss of magic, and apparently the Wendigos didn't come to reenact "The Day After Tomorrow."

The show was actually about ponies? I mean, sure, the original had ponies in it, but after watching the show not long ago, I realized that they were seldom the protagonists. It almost felt like they were just this group of mostly helpless creatures who needed a human savior to keep their society from collapsing. The most mature of ponies still needed Megan's help for... pretty much everything. And their personalities weren't all that great either, which was really surprising to me. Squabbles were nearly constant - another thing that Megan usually had to resolve. In fact, a lot of the characters were downright abrasive to one another - far more than what I've seen in other cartoons from that time period. Also, villains with depth. I know the 80's were FILLED with shallow villains with no motivation, but dang: "We have to destroy the Ponies... *bursts into song* because we're Witches from a long line of mean Witches, and that's what us Witches do!"

Pop has a very broad definition. In fact pretty much everything being made now that makes it to mainstream radio is pop music, the big exceptions to that being hip hop and country. And yeah, a lot of MLP was pop music, but I think what separated FiM music though is that it was more like pop as filtered through a Broadway jukebox musical. It wasn't over-processed and auto-tuned and it was at least somewhat believable that the characters could be singing the song right there in the moment. I couldn't get into it. It was just TOO artificial and I can only go so far with that before it turns me off. But since folks are bringing up "Rainbow," I might as well add that while I'm not a big fan of some mainstream pop music, Sia's song in FiM can still make me emotional if I let it, and whenever it comes up at a con, I'm there with a lighter, trying to keep from crying. Also as a side-note: Ponies and this fandom got me into EDM and turned me into a raver, which was something I had never even given a chance before. This song though... just isn't doing anything for me. That could work to the show's disadvantage, if this is what the whole thing is going to be like. There's already enough fashion toy lines with cartoon support that are doing this very thing. Making MLP feel like a "runway" show will reduce it to whitenoise in an over-saturated genre of doll-making. It may be better on-screen if this is just the radio version. It's entirely possible there will be a different version of this song performed during the actual film will feel a bit more like G4. Could be that. Could also be a "montage" song for them to do stuff that might be progressing the story by days or weeks in a matter of minutes.

That... was.... surprisingly kind.

Ever heard of the show, "Toddlers and Tiaras?" There are mothers who are easily as screwed up as Spoiled Rich, and take any form of competition involving their child to an almost "Tanya Harding" level of ridiculous.

A certain conservative/libertarian slogan comes to mind: "Come and take it."

Odd thing about this is, I'm a horror fan and love a slaughter-fest as much as the next person. But I limit my slaying to obnoxious teens who fail to understand that making out in the graveyard after a car accident on the 666th anniversary of a Voodoo ritual that made an entire town disappear, is a bad idea. Also, I've seen "The Cell." That's the only time I needed to see a horse get split in half. Leave my Princess alone!

My suspicion is that Equestria once enjoyed a more ordered system long ago, more in line with how the physics in our world worked. Nature managed itself, more or less. Until Discord showed up. His magic screwed with things so much that even banishing him wasn't enough to bring everything back to normal, forcing the Ponies to start managing things themselves through the use of magic. Maybe they finally figured out a way to jump-start the "physics engine" so they wouldn't need magic?

It's the Season 9 release dates staggered in different countries, all over again.

So... is the book actually in stores? Or is this yet another checkmark on the list of Hasbro's inability to maintain control of anything?

Hard to say. Unfortunately we never find out for sure what his motivation is. There's very little insight into his character. By the time we get to talk with him at depth, it's all about revenge. Did he just want to run everything, or did he have an "end justifies the means" mentality with some grand vision for a (at least in his eyes) better society? Besides, I'm pretty sure this all fits Cozyglow too, but funnily enough, I don't see her as someone who has a God complex. Maybe it's because she was trying to get power? She knew she was almost powerless, and was doing whatever she needed to get the power she craved. Sombra on the other hand, isn't as delusional as your typical "god complex" individual, because almost IS at god-levels of power. It originally took the combined effort of two Alicorns to bring him down. That's nothing to scoff at. Then he came back and conquered the Crystal Empire, got Cadence's surrender without even having to fire a shot, and then out-foxed Twilight, slayed the freaking Tree of Harmony and shattered the element talismans. His eventual downfall was not knowing the Elements could be wielded without the Tree's power feeding into it, but then NO creature knew that yet, so can he really be blamed for it? Sombra is still quite probably the most competent villain in the whole series, with Lord Tirek coming a close second.

This could quickly derail into a pretty intense conversation about political influence, and I don't want to get the thread locked. But purely from a logical perspective, I don't think it would mean that Ponies are "better" than anyone else; anymore than when one culture develops a new piece of useful technology that gets adopted by the world. Nationalism or racial prejudice 'could' be injected into that, but ultimately it's in the eye of the beholder. Lightning strikes a certain tree, and a certain primitive human picks up the burning branch, and that tribe ends up being credited with the 'discovery' of fire. A LOT of what we see going on in FiM, isn't actually about Ponies at all. Their wisdom is coming from a higher source, ranging from gentle nudges to really blatant shoves by the Tree of Harmony. Whether or not it's moral to spread this discovery to other lands, well that's a very VERY complicated question. In the case of the Griffons, we could probably discuss that in circles for hours, because trying to determine "happiness" is a very complicated question. This is the same show that started off the "missionary" quest with the toppling of a pseudo-Communist dystopia. "We" can say the smiles are fake, but when is a fabricated reality that produces happiness worth destroying? Relativism is a very messy thing; where does one draw the line with the Griffons? They're apparently proud of their situation, and in general are opposed to change. But objectively, it's a very impoverished kingdom that has already collapsed. Viewing it through the rose-tinted glasses that Pinkie Pie wears is, honestly, not very good. But then we see how Gallus feels. The other students are all excited about winter break and celebrating the "Christmas" holidays, but Gallus doesn't want to go home. There's nothing warm waiting for him there. And that's not an isolated family issue. Evidently that's typical Griffon culture. To interfere, or not? There's really no right or wrong answer to that. The black and white all fades to gray.

It's kinda strange. My parents are pretty conservative. I'm almost sure they at least passively wondered if I was gay when I was a teen. My dad flipped out like a devout Catholic when he found out I was interested in the Occult. And I know they thought it was weird when I got into the Pony fandom. But I had always been a very depressed person, and they saw the positive impact it had on me. They saw me becoming happier. They saw me go from being terrified of people, to becoming very outgoing. After years of therapy, antidepressants, and psychological reprogramming going absolutely nowhere, In this case, it seems the results spoke for themselves, so they just stepped back and accepted it.

That's some pretty impressive mental gymnastics for villifying inclusion. Especially considering what the dominant opinion of the season would be had it been a "ponies only" school. It's no more or less bad than what was already going on ever since the Cutiemap first appeared, with the Mane 6 being "missionaries" of a sort, traveling to different lands to spread the "Good News." Their reason for opening the school was because the world as they knew it was rapidly expanding to new lands and they were getting spread too thin. Instead of globetrotting all over the place, all the seekers could come to them. The school is actually LESS imperialistic in nature. It's worth considering that maybe the teaching isn't nearly as taxing on the Ponies as we would expect. Also, the map quests had to already be taking up a lot of their time. Possibly moreso, because you have to factor in travel time, investigating to find where the problem is, and then coming up with a solution and executing it. Replacing all that with a school means you can have a predictable schedule to build your life around, instead of being "on call" 24/7 like a first responder. And you get to be home every night instead of off in distant lands. Also, Twilight could have structured it from the beginning to be more accommodating to part-time teachers by staggering class schedules; making it less like a public school and more like a university mixed with a spiritual retreat. Even for your basic public school teachers in Equestria though, we should keep in mind there are some things that Equestria handles far, FAR better than human society. It's probably not a lot to assume that being a teacher there isn't nearly as Hellish as it is on Earth, with irate parents screaming during PTC week, doing hours of unpaid work grading papers every evening, or worrying that "armed combatant to deter school shooters" will be added to the already ridiculous list of teacher duties. First of all, school is where kids learn social interaction the most. That can be done at any school. But more important, we have to remember that Friendship isn't just a passive social construct like in our world. It's right in the title. Friendship is Magic. This isn't simply a school that is teaching children how to be nice to each other. It's teaching them to wield magic. At the time of the school's founding, Friendship in the pony world is sort of developing into a spiritual path. This is a recently-discovered kind of magic that is accessible to all creatures. The classes delve into the theory behind it, both established and speculative, based on all the notes and research that Twilight has been taking over the years. In that regard, yeah, the school is a bit of a large-scale social/magical experiment. The culmination of this effort reveals itself in the final episode: all creatures are able to harness the Elements of Harmony. I think they knew that the show was nearing its end, and the S6 were an experiment to try and provide the "pilot episode" for a new series. That new series being what would become G5. So, that would have been a spin-off... sorta. This is evidenced by how the Student 6 were being treated at the time. The Tree of Harmony's roots spread to the school and then dragged the Student 6 into 'trials' very similar to what the Mane 6 had to go through in Everfree Forest. It seemed pretty obvious that the tree was searching for some new acolytes. All that came to an end in S9 though with the killing of the Tree (which if I remember right, was ordered by Hasbro). I also have my suspicions that Cozy Glow wasn't meant to be a permanent villain. Though she has a lot of malicious intent and is using them to her own ends, she worked with the Student 6 repeatedly throughout Season 8 and was very good at planning and coordinating them into a unified group. I could have easily seen her reforming and eventually becoming the "7th" member of the Student 6, like Spike with the Mane 6, or Stygian with the Pillars (both Stygian and Cozyglow got banished after trying to perform an arcane ritual that involved six powerful artifacts, which was something that I couldn't assume was mere coincidence). To all in this thread: I had no problem with the Student 6 or the school. At first glance, I thought it would be a disaster, and I hated the idea of it. In application though, the school was fine. I feared it would turn the show into something episodic, with every single story being about student life in the school, but fortunately it didn't do that. Not even close. There were still plenty of episodes that were detached both from the school, and the Student 6, so I don't see why everyone seems to act like this wasn't the case. I also didn't think I was going to like the new characters. "DHX, how DARE you replace my beloved Pones!" But I fell in love with them from the very first episode. Yeah, they did somewhat slip into the archetypes of the Mane 6, but there were a lot of things that separated them from being carbon-copies as well. With the S6 they were also able to address some problems kids deal with, that really couldn't have been done with the CMC without wrecking established CANON.