Well if the leaks are true then season 9 will be the final season but we will have to wait and see;) And if what I have been hearing about season 9 is true it will be one wild ride:)
I have seen the leaked episodes and have to say if the rest of the season is on par I will really enjoy season 8.
If only Sunset Shimmer could get to be in at least some episodes in the actual series before it ends, I will be very happy.
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Some thoughts on Equestria Girls: Forgotten Friendship (spoilered because c'mon, it just aired yesterday):
Spoiler:
Okay, first things first, let's dispel some confusion: this is apparently the first of two hour-long EQG specials, which is news to me. It seems that the downside of avoiding spoilers so ardently is that sometimes things completely slip by you.
Some checking reveals that, although this premiered after the "A Friendship to Remember" chapter book, that novel is apparently an adaptation of this special, and not the other way around (as a note, the novel also folds the Queen of Clubs short into the story).
As a note...is this a special, or a movie? It's forty-five minutes, so it sort of feels like it could go either way.
Huh, that opening song is rather catchy, and does a great job of recapping the first four films!
Yeah...I'll applaud this moving trying to fake us out later on, but we all know that if there's a new character that we've never seen before, and she's given a name and a speaking role, then she's probably the guest villain. It's meta-character, and it can't really be helped, but there it is.
Okay! Finally some timeline-specific material! So Sunset was at Canterlot High School and was a terror during her class's freshman year! Presumably that was before the events of the first movie, since yearbooks tend to be something made after the year is over. Presuming there's no intervening gap, that would mean that the first three movies took place during everyone's sophomore year, and that they're now juniors.
Rainbow Dash hates the idea of their picture being opposite Bulk Biceps', since it'd be like they're kissing him when the book is closed. Cue another round of the fandom wondering if she's a lesbian or not.
Oh Trixie...you're just never going to win, are you?
Geez, those are some conservative swimsuits, girls. I know that there are meta-character aspects to deal with, and I'm not surprised that Fluttershy is showing less skin than she normally does, but still...were you all trying to avoid giving Pinkie Pie too much opportunity to use her edible sunscreen on you?
Sci-Twi casually invents an AI drone that can judge when something's a "selfie moment" and snap a photo. I suppose that's less noteworthy than inventing a mechanical advice that can detect and absorb magic.
Props to Sunset for immediately grabbing Applejack's hand to try and figure out what's going on instead of spending fifteen minutes thinking that everyone's just decided that they hate her now. Clearly, she's applying what she learned from her encounter with Juniper Montage here.
You know, seeing Sunset vanish from AJ's memory of the Siren's defeat makes me wonder...what do they remember instead? Or is the entire memory just sort of filled with incongruities now and they're all ignoring them? The way they talk about the yearbook committee later on suggests the latter.
I'll admit it, writing to Princess Twilight and asking for her help was pretty smart. I'd have gone for photographic evidence of an existing relationship first, but that's still not a bad plan.
And, huh, going back to Equestria to boot? Okay, I'm not quite sure I understand the point of her going back rather than having Princess Twilight go there, but if it takes us back to Equestria, I'm all for it!
Twilight, what do you mean you don't know anything about what Sunset's dealing with? Discord screwed with everyone's memories when you first faced him? And something similar happened when you miscast that alicorn transformation spell! You have some experience with things like this!
Whoa! Now THIS is major! Sunset Shimmer coming face-to-face with Princess Celestia and reconciling with her! Awesome stuff! I mean, Twilight's reason for that seems contrived, and...wow...Celestia's being unusually harsh to start off with. Like, No Second Prances glower-y and all. But even so, this is great to see!
Oh Luna, it should be wrong for them to laugh at you like that, and yet it feels so right.
What the...? Hang on, there's a restricted section of the Canterlot library, one that Twilight didn't know about? I don't get it, the "Star-Swirl the Bearded" section was right there in the main library, and it had a freaking time-travel spell and who knows what else in it! If that was the case, what could be in the restricted section that needs to be hidden from public view?!
Okay, allow me to nitpick those titles here for a moment. I don't know what "Canterlot Cantibles" is supposed to be, but "an original 'Windigo Weather Warning' from the pre-Equestrian era"? Didn't the Hearth's Warming Eve play tell us that they only discovered the windigos after they'd left their original land because of the winter weather? This isn't...wait, no, hang on...Clover the Clever was able to identify the windigos immediately, so they had to already know what they were. Hmmm...alright, I'll allow it. But you're on notice, special.
Ahh! More awesome-sounding stuff from Equestrian history! "The Seven Trials of Clover the Clever" from before the founding of Equestria? An evil sorceress who was "practically invincible"? More! Give me MORE!
Hrm, so if I remember correctly Clover the Clever was Star-Swirl the Bearded's student. In that case, it sort of makes sense that his solution was to bury the Memory Stone in another world. But honestly, maybe destroying it right then would have been a better idea? Yeah, that won't help memories that have been gone for more than three days, but since apparently nothing will, why not just destroy it right then?
At this point I'm kind of moved to ask, why isn't anyone talking to Starlight Glimmer? I mean, both Twilight and Sunset know her, and she's obviously very intelligent. She could help, so why not bring her in?
Also, notice that Clover was referred to with male pronouns. That's a subtle monkey wrench thrown into what we know, since Twilight portrayed Clover in Hearth's Warming Eve.
Props to the special, here, for playing up that Trixie might have been the culprit. I honestly thought for a minute that maybe they were going to switch things up on us by not have new character Wallflower Blush be the villain after all.
Pinkie, that move isn't technically legal in volleyball. I know you're playing for fun and all, but I'm just saying.
Hey, good call with using photographic evidence to prove that you used to be friends, Sunset. A bit of a delayed tactic, but good that you thought of it at all.
Hah! Nice note to continuity by having Trixie note that Sunset photoshopped pictures before!
Heh, that bit with Micro Chips handing Sunset Shimmer his lunch money when she was trying to help him up was a great way to showcase Sunset's having been thrust back into her old role in the school. Her angrily roaring "I'm not mean!" was also well done.
Wow...that way of having Trixie relate to Sunset was actually really insightful. Both girls now register a painful disconnect between how they see themselves and how everypony else sees them. Very clever.
You know, between Trixie befriending Starlight Glimmer in Equestria, and now her human counterpart befriending Sunset Shimmer here...I dunno, I feel like there's some sort of greater insight there, something that can be said about Trixie's character. But I don't know what.
Love the obligatory Maud appearance. :D
Normally, I'd ream Wallflower out for having the location where she found the Memory Stone be her desktop image, but in all honesty I can't fault her for it. While I suppose she could have put together that the mystical artifact she found (complete with instructions) was connected to Sunset Shimmer and her friends (who never hid their magic, where it came from, that it was "ponying up", etc.), she really doesn't come across as anything remotely resembling an evil mastermind, so I can forgive her overlooking something as unlikely as Sunset Shimmer receiving instructions about the Memory Stone's location.
Yeah, Sunset now has the whole "grab 'em and read their memories to figure out what's going on" thing down. No more need to comment about it here.
Hah! Sunset Shimmer sneaking around during Wallflower's song, and Wallflower interrupting it when she sees what Sunset's doing was hilarious!
The commentary on that recording was also extremely funny. Self-awareness on the show's part for the win!
The moral here, that it's not enough to simply not be cruel to someone and instead need to be kind, is given simplistically, but touches on a deeper philosophy. There are some virtuous actions that, when they're not done, constitute a failure on your part...but there are other virtuous actions that you can ignore that aren't an instance of immorality. I worry that, as well-intentioned as the special is being here, it's sending the wrong message. It's one thing to be kind to the people you interact with, but it's something else again to say that you need to try and be friendly with literally everyone around you. If Wallflower was unhappy with her life, part of - the lion's share, I'd say - the responsibility for changing that fell on her. I'm really not sure I'd say that Sunset Shimmer is to blame simply for never noticing her before. That's coming perilously close to needing a demandingness objection be raised.
Good on you for stepping up, Trixie! That's the sort of "it's-only-stage-magic-and-not-real-magic-but-it's-pretty-much-teleportatio n-anyway" sort of feat that made your pony counterpart so useful against the changelings!
The final confrontation between Sunset and Wallflower was surprisingly emotionally-charged. Wallflower's hurt feelings came through as driving her anger, and Sunset's anguish as she loses her memories of her friends - along with their shock as she protected them - was really something. That, and Sunset's terror as she couldn't remember why she wasn't back in Equestria.
Wow, aggressive Pinkie is aggressive.
Eh, Wallflower's apology felt like it came just a wee bit too quickly...but I'll forgive it for how awesome that last confrontation was.
Squick! Stupid sexy Bulk Biceps!
I wouldn't have guessed that was Shannon Chan-Kent - voice of Silver Spoon and singing voice of Pinkie Pie - as Wallflower. Good on her for having such a great range!
The Spiked leathers of Sunsets new outfit(s) show a failing in this. When ponied-up her hairband looks like Adaggio's.
This is now second to Rainbow Rocks for me, it would have surpassed it if the music was better. (It wasn't bad, let me be clear, but it wasn't as great as RR).
Interesting. So the most recent episode confirms the "unicorns plus Starswirl raising the sun at the cost of their magic before Celestia" bit from the Journal of the Two Sisters.
Hearthswarming Eve already confirmed that a council of unicorns had that task at the beginning of Equestria.
Of course, I need to catch back up on the latest season. I hate being stuck with 2g internet. Can't watch anything anymore.
I'll have to check that episode. Did it just mention the "council of unicorns" or did it also include the "this eventually drains their magic" bit?
Spoiler:
I ask because there was a discussion somewhat recently about the logistics of unicorns all across Equestria eventually losing their magic to this task faster than new unicorns would be available to take over, and how the distaste of these implications should result in (what felt to me like) aggressively holding to only the show being canon and not other source material such as the novels or comics.
Whereas I always felt that this show by its very nature was never meant to be exclusive to what other mediums add. The comics and novels build on the show. Sometimes they take things in a direction that the show doesn't follow (the origin of Chrysalis). Sometimes they introduce ideas that the show loosely runs with (Oubliettes & Ogres, even though Twilight played the game as a filly in the comics but wasn't familiar with it in the show). But even if ALL the material can't fit into the show, that doesn't mean NONE of it can. So I enjoy it when I see these sorts of cross-references.
When it comes to canon, I generally avoid secondary sources mainly because secondary sources are often done by other people and usually start including inconsistencies. To use a Fallout Equestria example,
Spoiler:
in the book the Zebras started the war in response to several detained ponies being rescued by the Wonderbotlts.
But in Project Horizons, often considered canon itself despite a different author, Celestia started the war because the zebras had detained several ponies.
Additionally, secondary sources often include additional detail that tries to trump or be more epic than the original source rather than detail that fits smoothly into the existing lore.
Example, all the Stars Wars novels with clones of the emporer, and the ever increasing size and firepower of mega-superweapons to the point of weapons that destroy stars and not mere planets.
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Tectorman wrote:
I'll have to check that episode. Did it just mention the "council of unicorns" or did it also include the "this eventually drains their magic" bit?
Season two's Hearth's Warming Eve said that the unicorns collectively raised and lowered the sun and the moon prior to the Royal Sisters taking over that task. However, that was the sum total of it; there was nothing there about them losing their magic. That particular tidbit was introduced in the printed Journal of the Two Sisters, and as quite a few people (myself among them) noted, while it clearly wanted to make Celestia and Luna more of a necessity than the mild convenience that episode implied, the Journal introduced far and away more problems than it solved.
Insofar as issues of canon go, the problems the Journal introduced in that regard were due to its violations of the show's internal logic and self-consistency, which are the watchwords of canonicity itself. Obviously, it's a bit too easy for fans to get wrapped up in them to the point of aggressiveness (and I'm certainly guilty of that), but presuming that everyone can keep things respectful, there's nothing wrong with a vigorous discussion.
In this regard, the issue was that the secondary sources kept conflicting with the primary sources, with very very few instances of the secondary sources introducing something that was then canonized by the primary (and even then, these tend to bring attendant conflicts that cannot be separated). Since I'm of the opinion that canon is a binary state - something either is canon or isn't - rather than having "levels" or "degrees" of canonicity, that makes the issue of whether or not these sources are canon very black-and-white. Obviously, quite a few people disagree.
It certainly doesn't help when even the primary canon has instances of disagreeing with itself. (For a great article on this, check out Oliver's blog post entitled "Pareidolia". Oliver is probably the most rigorous among fans trying to interpret the show's canon, and though I disagree with a significant amount of his premises and conclusions, his blog is absolutely worth reading.)
Insofar as this particular issue goes, having been reintroduced by this episode...well, this brings up more problems with the canon as presented by the primary source material which are now all but irreconcilable. That said, this doesn't mean, to my thinking, that the Journal should be given any greater weight or credence than it was before, since it still contains numerous points of conflict with regard to what the show has presented. (I suppose we could get into some ultra-parsimonious slicing and dicing of words what happened to twist things around to something more palatable, but I find that to be disingenuous.)
The irony here is that the writer for this show, for whom this was their first episode of MLP:FiM, very clearly did research in order to try and integrate this episode more tightly in with existing lore, not realizing that the Journal was such a problematic thing to begin with!
Why does that article make me think of a Stand Alone Complex?
Thanks for linking it. I never heard of it before.
As for binary canon, I consider canon in four states,
1) the canon,
2) a secondary canon that I treat as canon until the actual canon confirms or denies it,
3) my head canon which is a varience in which I make everything fit logically together but at times must differ from canon to work,
4) and not-canon, which is everything else.
I almost forgot, there is also what I call uncanon, things that are shown but are not literal concepts, basically things that are done for comedic effect or some other "literary" purpose.
For example, if Twilight gets surprise and jumps 30' in the air (before having wings and flight), it could be considered uncanon if it is canon that ponies can't jump that high.
Of course, what is canon or uncanon is not always clear. I.E. when Twilight went all rapidash when she got angry. Was it literally an ability she has, or just exaggeration for dramatic effect?
So was anyone else thinking that Equestria needs a Stone Sleep Hotline that Rockhoof could have called before he gave up on life?
I was thinking that he'd stay that way for a thousand years, until Twilight's castle was raised above the clouds.
That reminds me of something I don't think I was ever clear on: is the Equestrian year the same as ours? I mean, their sun and moon move around their world as opposed to how it works for us, and all the seasons are artificially orchestrated instead of naturally occurring. Given all that, is their year twelve months long or is that a meaningless distinction and what they call a year is a month instead? For example, making Celestia's solo rule a thousand months (still a long time, but more manageable).
I am fine with Celestia and Luna being a 1000+ years old. Though I would love the story of how they became immortal or Alicorns in general. So many missed opportunities that this show has had:(
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Tectorman wrote:
Alzrius wrote:
Tectorman wrote:
So was anyone else thinking that Equestria needs a Stone Sleep Hotline that Rockhoof could have called before he gave up on life?
I was thinking that he'd stay that way for a thousand years, until Twilight's castle was raised above the clouds.
That reminds me of something I don't think I was ever clear on: is the Equestrian year the same as ours? I mean, their sun and moon move around their world as opposed to how it works for us, and all the seasons are artificially orchestrated instead of naturally occurring. Given all that, is their year twelve months long or is that a meaningless distinction and what they call a year is a month instead? For example, making Celestia's solo rule a thousand months (still a long time, but more manageable).
The short answer is that there's no way of knowing, but it's presumed that their passage of time is equal to ours.
The much longer answer is that there's a great deal of uncertainty regarding numerous fundamental aspects of how Equestria works, including measuring the passage of time, because the show itself doesn't really care about those things. Just look at how often "moons" has been used as a measurement of time; that's presumed to be equivalent to "months," but not only have there been instances where that'd be rather awkward, but we also have the ponies using "months" as its own form of time measurement.
Plus, there's at least some indication that, though the seasons are artificially constructed, at least part of them are naturally-occurring. See Tank's preparing to hibernate due to the ambient temperature dropping in season five's Tanks for the Memories. We also know that can't be due to the sun, since in season five's The Cutie Re-Mark, Part 2 we see a world where Nightmare Moon has ruled a kingdom of eternal night for years, and there's no mention of the temperature having fallen. So apparently Equestria just sort of cools off for no apparent reason at a certain time of the year, and the ponies decided to manufacture snow and dump it everywhere.
Things like that, contradictory bits of incomplete information, are everywhere when you start looking at the background aspects of the world. From cosmology to pony biology. It's understandable that the show staff is more interested in making the series entertaining than in world-building, but for the dedicated segment of the fan-base that wants to know the "how" of things, it's maddening.
So was anyone else thinking that Equestria needs a Stone Sleep Hotline that Rockhoof could have called before he gave up on life?
I was thinking that he'd stay that way for a thousand years, until Twilight's castle was raised above the clouds.
That reminds me of something I don't think I was ever clear on: is the Equestrian year the same as ours? I mean, their sun and moon move around their world as opposed to how it works for us, and all the seasons are artificially orchestrated instead of naturally occurring. Given all that, is their year twelve months long or is that a meaningless distinction and what they call a year is a month instead? For example, making Celestia's solo rule a thousand months (still a long time, but more manageable).
They appear to use a lunar calendar ("the gate won't open again for 29 moons"). And they have four seasons identical to our own.
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GreenDragon1133 wrote:
Tectorman wrote:
Alzrius wrote:
Tectorman wrote:
So was anyone else thinking that Equestria needs a Stone Sleep Hotline that Rockhoof could have called before he gave up on life?
I was thinking that he'd stay that way for a thousand years, until Twilight's castle was raised above the clouds.
That reminds me of something I don't think I was ever clear on: is the Equestrian year the same as ours? I mean, their sun and moon move around their world as opposed to how it works for us, and all the seasons are artificially orchestrated instead of naturally occurring. Given all that, is their year twelve months long or is that a meaningless distinction and what they call a year is a month instead? For example, making Celestia's solo rule a thousand months (still a long time, but more manageable).
They appear to use a lunar calendar ("the gate won't open again for 29 moons"). And they have four seasons identical to our own.
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So, hot on the heels hooves of today's episode, which
Spoiler:
introduced a new race, the kirin,
I just saw the trailer for the Best Gift Ever special episode that we'll get next month after this season ends, and lo and behold...
Spoiler:
There are reindeer in Equestria! And similar to the kirin, their horns, or rather, antlers, are not only telekinetic - the trailer has one of them lifting something (a bowl, I think?) while their antlers glow - but they can also fly! Or at least, run (bound?) through the sky, also while their antlers glow. For a series that's nearing its end, there are quite a few new races being added!
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I can't believe how much new MLP material we're getting despite it being the off-season!
First we had the Best Gift Ever special.
Then we had three animated shorts related to the special.
Then we had the announcement of a new season of Equestria Girls shorts (which have already started airing).
Then we had a new non-Equestria Girls short come out ("Ail-icorn").
Then the recent announcement of the next Equestria Girls special (which may or may not be part of the aforementioned season of shorts, I'm not sure), "Spring Breakdown" airing on March 30th!
For those who want to know more about that last one, the synopsis is spoilered:
Spoiler:
It’s Spring Break and the Mane 7 are about to board the most glorious yacht ever for a relaxing cruise. But Rainbow Dash is convinced that Equestrian Magic is on the loose and won’t let anyone rest until she finds it! This leads to disaster on the high seas, a trip to Ponyville, and the ultimate discovery that Equestrian Magic related to the Storm King has seeped into their world and is threatening everyone on board the yacht!
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Okay, so, that new Teacher of the Month short was actually rather important, in terms of chronology (spoilered just to be safe):
Spoiler:
So this short begins with the teacher of the month award being given for the sixteenth time, and ends with it begin given for the seventeenth time. Compare this to the ninth time it was given out in Non-Compete Clause (season eight, episode nine). By the end of this short, at least eight months have passed since then.
Except it might have been even longer than that. All suggestions have been that Twilight's school functions on a time-frame similar to the American public school system (see the winter break in The Hearth's Warming Club, season eight, episode fifteen). That would include three months off during the summer. So since there are now seventeen teacher of the month awards, there has to at least have been one summer break in there (quite possibly two, since we're not sure what month it was when Twilight opened the school).
So that means that, at minimum, we're looking at this short taking place twenty months after the events of School Daze - Parts 1 and 2 (season eight, episodes one and two). It's possible that it's twenty-three, just shy of two years!
Interestingly, this seems to solve the disparity between The Hearth's Warming Club (where the Young Six stayed at school over the holiday) and The Best Gift Ever special episode (where we see that at least some of them have gone home).
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Well, Hasbro giveth, and Hasbro taketh away...
We can now confirm that the new My Little Pony movie will not be a sequel to the 2017 film. While this doesn't confirm what it will be, the current speculation is that it's the prelude/intro/lead-in movie to G5 (i.e. the next incarnation of My Little Pony) mentioned in the information leaked a while back. That looks more likely in the wake of another bit of news from that leak now being confirmed:
Season 9 will be the final season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It's not like this is unexpected, due to those aforementioned leaks, but it's still sad to hear. I have a lot of thoughts about this, but I'll let them sit for now, and say only that I'm really glad we still have one more season before it all comes to a close.
The fact the new movie will not be a sequel and be CGI has made me loose my interest. Though this information, and season 9 being the last, was leaked info a while back. Not interested in a G5 but at least G4 lasted 9 seasons.
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So apparently that last short for the main series ("Sundae Sundae Sundae") was the final one. That's rather sad to hear, particularly since I think this one was the weakest out of all of them.
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GreenDragon1133 wrote:
The new EG movie was awesome! And tells us that the EG s2 takes place concurrent with FiM s8.
I'm going to have to politely disagree. Spoilers below, just to keep things safe for everyone who hasn't seen it yet.
Spoiler:
I didn't like how Rainbow Dash was being even more self-centered and disruptive than she usually is. Also, what the heck was up with "the Storm King's magic" being the issue that caused the disaster? The guy had no magic to begin with! He only picked the name "The Storm King" for branding purposes! The magic he used to cause a storm near the end of the movie was stolen from the princesses!
Also, to be technical, this movie has to fall sometime after the movie but Molt Down (season eight, episode eleven) since Spike doesn't have his wings yet.
The only really major addition this made to the canon is that there are other portals to Equestria out there (which also make clothes conveniently appear/disappear as needed). Overall, though, while this had some good aspects to it, the entire thing just felt a little too forced in what drove the conflict (i.e. selfish Rainbow and the Storm King's inexplicable "magic").
Dash tends to be like that. I didn't think it was out of character.
Spoiler:
SK was being pretty crazy with the stolen power in the brief time he had it. It could easily have flowed through the portal.
I missed it, did Spike have wings? The fact it was at the old playset, and not the new one, made me assume that the school wasn't built yet - and that was the start of s8.
