What are the best character designs in the show? Or worst?

[bubbleteapony 583]

hopefully there's not a thread for this, I couldn't find one 

 

who do you think has the best design in the show? which pony has the best design, and which non-pony has the best design? who has the worst?

 

for me, personally, I think Cloudchaser has the best pony design, and as for non-ponies, I think Fizzle the dragon looks best. Maybe Ember and one of the griffons as a close second.

In terms of worst, I don't much care for Jet Set/Upper Crust (whichever one is the yellow mare). Her design is just ... bleh. Desaturated yellow which is already kind of ugly on its own, mixed with a bright purple mane, AND teal eyeshadow? Ew. Not to mention the pink earrings and her nasty personality

[Splashee 28,537]

I don't know about the best (yet), but I know the worst are the ponies in the episode "The Parent Map".

[Cagey 4,207]

I always liked the mane six’s designs, although if I had to pick a favorite apart from them, I think I’d pick Sunburst. 

For non-ponies… maybe Chrysalis? Or Zecora, Autumn Blaze, or Ocellus. 

And I don’t know about a least favorite, but definitely agree with Upper Crust. I’ll probably edit this when I think of another. 

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Best designs are probably the Kirin.

[Miss 6,211]

Best designs I would say Rarity (especially when she's in a signature outfit), Pear Butter, Fluttershy (especially in fake it til you make it outfits), The Kirin, Starlight Glimmer (after season 5), Kerfuffle, Torque Wrench, Saffon Masala

Background ponies I really like

Moonlight Raven:

Valley Glamour: 

I mean alot of the ponies are just kind of just recolors of the mane six without too much of anything special about them. With that in mind I'd say for the worst designs: Raindrop, Lemon Drop, Daisy

And any recoloring of this very bland design: 

(I get it they're just background characters so they dont all have to be super detailed, imagine the toll it would take on the animators, but yea just saying)

[bubbleteapony 583]

2 hours ago, Funtime Splashee said:

I don't know about the best (yet), but I know the worst are the ponies in the episode "The Parent Map".

I quite like the librarian pony with the green mane in that episode, but everyone else is meh. like their parents 

[Miss 6,211]

7 minutes ago, bubbleteapony said:

I quite like the librarian pony with the green mane in that episode, but everyone else is meh. like their parents 

 

2 hours ago, Funtime Splashee said:

I don't know about the best (yet), but I know the worst are the ponies in the episode "The Parent Map".

Yall don't like Stellar! 

Love her design. Forgot to add her to my list

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

Best: Fluttershy, Cozy Glow, Chrysalis, all the princesses, CMC

Worst: BlueBlood, Snips & Snails, Cloudy Quartz, Luster Dawn

[Landi 597]

There are a lot of pony designs I really like. Whether it be a good color scheme, good color palette, or both; these ponies Just look great!

Main: Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash

Side/Secondary: Vapor Trail, Kerfuffle, Petunia Petals, Wind Sprint, Clear Sky, Sugar Belle, Night Glider, and Fleetfoot

Background: Cloudchaser, Flitter, Angel Wings, Cotton Sky, Soaring Virtue

These aren't all of the characters who I think have good designs, just fifteen that stand out to me as great. This list would be even longer if I had included all the ponies with amazing designs.

On the other hand, are character designs I dislike. For this one I'm going to be a bit more general. I don't like the creature designs of a few of the non-ponies. The three main ones I don't like are: Changelings, Yaks, and Dragons. I'm also not a huge fan of the designs of griffons and hippogriffs, although I do prefer them over the previously mentioned three. I just think these creatures have weird designs that aren't very aesthetically pleasing, specially compared to the amazing designs of ponies.

 

[bubbleteapony 583]

4 hours ago, Miss said:

 

Yall don't like Stellar! 

Love her design. Forgot to add her to my list

hmmm, well looking at her again she's not that bad  I think starlight's dad took me some getting used to with the purple+green he had going on

[Mrs. Prospector 20]

Luna's simply stunning. A beautiful and unique color palate and a mane that looks like the night sky. Very fitting for the Princess of the Night. Celestia and Cadance are lovely as well.

Autumn Blaze and the rest of the Kirin look adorable and cuddly as well, although I wish they weren't all palate swaps. 

I like how the hippogriffs have a blend of pony and eagle features, rather than just being griffons with pony hindquarters. 

This is an unpopular opinion, but I really like the new changeling designs. They have very fairy-like coloring, and cute faces.

Chrysalis is just a great design, creepy yet majestic

 

As for ones I don't like

• Snips and Snails. They look like a (ugly) pig and giraffe rather than ponies.
• Most dragons other than Spike. Their bodies are too humanoid, especially Ember. 
• On that note, Last Problem Spike. I can't take that design seriously at all.
• Ditto to Twilight in the finale. She feels too much like a Celestia recolor, and looks out of place amongst her friends.
• The Storm King. His design feels too derivative of Tirek.  

[swu24 8]

The best designs are Luna's mane design and Cadence's color of the mane. I'm sure them both would look adorable!

[Megas 27,070]

For Best: The mane 6+Sunset Shimmer and Starlight are all pretty and adorable, Trixie is adorable, Ember looks cool, the princess are beautiful

Worst: The teenage dragons look stupid, I've said it before but all the dragon designs since since Dragon Quest look like gross frogmen. Speaking of gross frogmen, Future Spike fits that bill to a tee. And last and certainly least, Future Princess Twilight, when I saw this I really thought it was a bad joke, she seriously looked like one of those generic recolors you found on deviantart, one of the laziest designs this show ever came up with

[Kadeda 178]

On 10/28/2020 at 3:49 PM, Miss said:

 

Yall don't like Stellar! 

Love her design. Forgot to add her to my list

Not gonna lie... she looks pretty damn good.

[bubbleteapony 583]

6 hours ago, Megas said:

For Best: The mane 6+Sunset Shimmer and Starlight are all pretty and adorable, Trixie is adorable, Ember looks cool, the princess are beautiful

Worst: The teenage dragons look stupid, I've said it before but all the dragon designs since since Dragon Quest look like gross frogmen. Speaking of gross frogmen, Future Spike fits that bill to a tee. And last and certainly least, Future Princess Twilight, when I saw this I really thought it was a bad joke, she seriously looked like one of those generic recolors you found on deviantart, one of the laziest designs this show ever came up with

I have to totally agree here... i get they're teenage dragons and are gonna look lanky? but the puppet-styled animation the show uses doesn't really do them justice. frogmen describes them pretty well 

I don't like future twilight and spike either. Not sure why they gave spike a chin like that .... and twilight is pretty much a recolor of celestia. she just doesn't look good with that model and hair style, she's too.... flashy i guess

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

2 hours ago, bubbleteapony said:

I have to totally agree here... i get they're teenage dragons and are gonna look lanky? but the puppet-styled animation the show uses doesn't really do them justice. frogmen describes them pretty well 

I don't like future twilight and spike either. Not sure why they gave spike a chin like that .... and twilight is pretty much a recolor of celestia. she just doesn't look good with that model and hair style, she's too.... flashy i guess

When I saw Twilight’s new style I expected Celestia’s voice to come out of her mouth 

[Sepul-Coloratura 756]

Worst : Grown up Spike.

Best : The Great Seedling.

Edited November 17, 2020 by Sepul-Coloratura

[bubbleteapony 583]

On 11/17/2020 at 5:56 AM, Sepul-Coloratura said:

Worst : Grown up Spike.

Best : The Great Seedling.

oh yeah, the great seedling /definitely/ is up there for best designs in the show. As for spike, i really feel they were going for a like "look, he grew up to be buff and manly looking like how he fantasized!" which.... idk. his body is fine, but i don't like his face very much. his lower jaw is just too big for me lol

[Thrond 3,257]

I’ve always thought that Princess Cadance is pretty. Would also like to throw my hat in the ring for Rarity’s punk getup. She can pull off any look. 

[Number62 1,247]

33 minutes ago, AlexanderThrond said:

I’ve always thought that Princess Cadance is pretty.

I've always been partial toward the alicorn sisters' designs especially because of their flowing manes/tails and their larger sizes giving them a more mysterious appearance. Cadance somewhat fits that opinion as well since she's also taller than the average pony, but her mane and tail don't flow like the sisters'. That's why I'm a tad disappointed the show didn't go deeper into alicorn lore

[Thrond 3,257]

Just now, Number62 said:

I've always been partial toward the alicorn sisters' designs especially because of their flowing manes/tails and their larger sizes giving them a more mysterious appearance. Cadance somewhat fits that opinion as well since she's also taller than the average pony, but her mane and tail don't flow like the sisters'.

I like the sisters a lot but I also like how Cadance is a little smaller and has a normal mane. It makes her feel slightly more relatable even though she's way less developed as a character than either Luna or Celestia. 

[Number62 1,247]

1 minute ago, AlexanderThrond said:

I like the sisters a lot but I also like how Cadance is a little smaller and has a normal mane. It makes her feel slightly more relatable even though she's way less developed as a character than either Luna or Celestia. 

I don't know if I was clear, but I do like Cadance's design as well. Or at least the idea behind it since there's an implication that she isn't as much of an "alicorn" as the sisters. At the very least, she doesn't look like a regular unicorn pony with wings like Twilight did. Cadance's mane and tail definitely looked more ornate than even the Mane 6's.

And I'm not saying that Twilight's design is bad. Her alicorn appearance is simply Twilight with wings, which isn't as aesthetically impressive as Cadance's appearance. Of course, it probably wasn't supposed to be as impressive since Twilight has been an alicorn for less time than the other 3. Again, this is why the show should have talked about that lore.

[Thrond 3,257]

Now that I think about it my least favourite design is probably something from the movie. Maybe the cat dude, I really don't want anthropomorphic cats in My Little Pony. 

2 minutes ago, Number62 said:

I don't know if I was clear, but I do like Cadance's design as well. Or at least the idea behind it since there's an implication that she isn't as much of an "alicorn" as the sisters. At the very least, she doesn't look like a regular unicorn pony with wings like Twilight did. Cadance's mane and tail definitely looked more ornate than even the Mane 6's.

There was a period where I just thought she was naturally tall and would have been just as tall if she never got her horn. We've seen other ponies with long legs who aren't alicorns. But then Twilight became tall and it threw everything off. 

3 minutes ago, Number62 said:

 And I'm not saying that Twilight's design is bad. Her alicorn appearance is simply Twilight with wings, which isn't as aesthetically impressive as Cadance's appearance. Of course, it probably wasn't supposed to be as impressive since Twilight has been an alicorn for less time than the other 3. Again, this is why the show should have talked about that lore.

I remain partial to the mane six's designs, especially since the show has done so much with them over the course of its nine seasons and various specials. Meanwhile Twilight's future design just kinda bums me out. To be honest, Twilight's whole coronation arc has kinda soured me on alicorns in general. I kinda wish the show had way less alicorn stuff. Maybe things would have been better if it were just Celestia and Luna and we didn't know much about them. 

[Number62 1,247]

On 11/19/2020 at 9:49 PM, AlexanderThrond said:

Meanwhile Twilight's future design just kinda bums me out. To be honest, Twilight's whole coronation arc has kinda soured me on alicorns in general. I kinda wish the show had way less alicorn stuff.

I haven't seen much of season 9, specifically not the final episode, so I don't know how her whole coronation arc went if she had one in that season unless you meant over the entire show.

However, Twilight's future design does look weird to me. I don't know what it is exactly, but Twilight's normal design doesn't exactly lend itself to an alicorn design in the same vein as the sisters'.

On 11/19/2020 at 9:49 PM, AlexanderThrond said:

Maybe things would have been better if it were just Celestia and Luna and we didn't know much about them.  

I can't disagree with this.

[Thrond 3,257]

2 hours ago, Number62 said:

I haven't seen much of season 9, specifically not the final episode, so I don't know how her whole coronation arc went if she had one in that season unless you meant over the entire show.

I do mean the entire show to an extent, but season 9 doubled down on the same mistakes the show has always made with that stuff, which I found pretty galling. The truth is, I don't necessarily have a problem with alicorns, even if the mythology around them is pretty muddled; it's just that their association with Twilight's coronation has made me bitter about the whole thing. 

2 hours ago, Number62 said:

However, Twilight's future design does look weird to me. I don't know what it is exactly, but Twilight's normal design doesn't exactly lend itself to an alicorn design in the same vein as the sisters'.

There's not enough of her personality and previous fashion sense in it. The hair is too long and wavy; all of the things that make Cadance distinct and relatable are absent in Twilight's future design. 

Edited November 22, 2020 by AlexanderThrond