Unpopular Pony Opinions

[brightberry]

I don't think of G1 My Little Pony as having a canon at all.  Backcards and cartoons don't work together.  Even the specials and cartoons seem to have somewhat different realities.   I haven't read much of the comics but, they don't fit in with the other worlds well either.  I never cared much for the idea of "canon" for most characters anyway.  It can really ruin storytelling.

[Taffeta]

I think they know, most of them, about G2 and the Tales thing. I have seen people say, "some people don't think so but I'm talking about the animation so it's G2" and stuff like that. Like it's a discussion option. It's not. It's ignorance.

The canon/non canon thing comes I think as well from an anime culture whereby manga is seen as canon and anime that deviates from the manga is filler...thus deciding what is and isn't 'official storyline'. This is obviously true for other franchises but in a generational term the manga/anime one is probably the most solid in conjunction with the brony fandom, and thus there cannot be competing canons. So canon and non canon, which, as you say, is a bit odd in a multi-canon product.

See, I would argue with the idea G3 had the best colours and characters, BUT that is an opinion and a valid one, as is mine, and both are right, just from different perspectives.

BUT calling Tales anime G2 is simply ignorant and wrong, because the toys that came from it belonged to G1. They were marketed in G1 poses, in G1 styles, and other ponies that are marketed in the traditional G1 way were also represented in the cartoon (Rockin Beats and Glowing Magics). And what shoots the bronies in the foot given their obsession with the comic canon of G1 and Majesty and such is that the Rockin Beats and Glowin Magic Ponies (using the UK names here for a reason) appeared in the comics PRIOR to the MLP Tales animated series (so with 'normal fantasy G1' stuff). And the Rockin' Beats at least appeared in the comic AFTER MLP Tales happened too, in MLP Tales like stories.

...So that's the difference.

You can have opinions about the best generation, best design, best format, etc.

You can't move a whole generation into a different tag because you cba to understand how older generations work.

[Zapper]

I think they know, most of them, about G2 and the Tales thing. I have seen people say, "some people don't think so but I'm talking about the animation so it's G2" and stuff like that. Like it's a discussion option.

This silly "the toys are G1 but the animation is G2" thing was introduced by Bronies who didn't want to admit they were wrong about something as trivial as MLP generations just because the icky girls with their cooties came up with it.

Even Hasbroken remember they made a G2 computer game instead of a show

[Leave a Whisper]

I think they know, most of them, about G2 and the Tales thing. I have seen people say, "some people don't think so but I'm talking about the animation so it's G2" and stuff like that. Like it's a discussion option.

This silly "the toys are G1 but the animation is G2" thing was introduced by Bronies who didn't want to admit they were wrong about something as trivial as MLP generations just because the icky girls with their cooties came up with it.

Even Hasbroken remember they made a G2 computer game instead of a show

Then maybe those sorts should stay clear of us icky little girls. We might give em cooties.

[SpacePinto]

Aren't pony generations a purely fan-made and non-official concept anyway? Because in that case there would be no problem to define the toyline G2 as the taller ones that existed between G1 and G3, and the cartoon G2 as MLPT since it was between the G1 Megan verse and the G3 straight-to-video specials, and it would be just as good as any other definition.

[Taffeta]

Aren't pony generations a purely fan-made and non-official concept anyway? Because in that case there would be no problem to define the toyline G2 as the taller ones that existed between G1 and G3, and the cartoon G2 as MLPT since it was between the G1 Megan verse and the G3 straight-to-video specials, and it would be just as good as any other definition.

Nope.

My Little Pony up to G4 is defined according to toyline, not according to animation. Whether it is fan defined or not is not the issue. It's anachronistic to force FIM rules on pre-FIM generations that have long since had their own accepted and fixed way of classifying themselves before FIM existed.

As LAW said, retconning sucks.

It demonstrates an ignorance of what came before dressed in the pretend of caring about it. Thus it's worse than completely ignoring it imo.

And there is no such thing as a G1 Megan-verse. I wouldn't define G1 by its animation as it's such a tiny part of the overall franchise. But if you want to define it by the animation, you have to include Tales. You can't just shunt Tales down to G2 because G2 didn't get animation, and pretend like G2 doesn't exist (which is what happens).

G1 animation was made to sell toys, thus toys define G1. And that includes the Tales ponies.

[Leave a Whisper]

Aren't pony generations a purely fan-made and non-official concept anyway? Because in that case there would be no problem to define the toyline G2 as the taller ones that existed between G1 and G3, and the cartoon G2 as MLPT since it was between the G1 Megan verse and the G3 straight-to-video specials, and it would be just as good as any other definition.

I can see what you say, but tbh these things define themselves and it cannot erase fact, no matter how much revisionists try to force it otherwise, it just makes em look arrogantly stupid. Tales is G1. It would be like G6 fans  erroneously calling EQG G5 and telling G4 fans they're wrong and don't know anything whatsoever.

[Taffeta]

Aren't pony generations a purely fan-made and non-official concept anyway? Because in that case there would be no problem to define the toyline G2 as the taller ones that existed between G1 and G3, and the cartoon G2 as MLPT since it was between the G1 Megan verse and the G3 straight-to-video specials, and it would be just as good as any other definition.

I can see what you say, but tbh these things define themselves and it cannot erase fact, no matter how much revisionists try to force it otherwise, it just makes em look arrogantly stupid. MLP&F and Tales is G1. It would be like G6 fans  erroneously calling EQG G5 and telling G4 fans they're wrong and don't know anything whatsoever.

I was trying to find a comparison like that. Well done.

Or Ponyville is G4 because it's not G3.

On a sidenote I did see someone writing in a blog back in 2011 that G4 was actually a continuation of G3. True, back in 2011, but still...they were sure people would stop with the G4 label and go back to calling them G3 before long.

I often wondered what that person thinks now.

[MJNSEIFER]

I never cared much for the idea of "canon" for most characters anyway.  It can really ruin storytelling.

This actually reminds me of a problem I have with the G4 fandom (it's probably mostly bronies, but also not all of them) is that there has to be such an issue about canon towards the show - like you "have" to stick with what the show states as fact, even when it comes to fanon, or something.  Obviously, you don't, but there are some who have to point out that now that a background pony has been given somewhat of a canon, it's not right to stray away from that in fanon material, or something.

There's also the case of complaining about "ruined headcanons" when the show does this, but there is a chance that at least some of the people who say that are joking, but it's hard to tell.  Either way, neither of these things should be an issue - the beauty of fanon is, it can be as close to or as far away from canon as you personally want it to be.

On the subject of this; (to add a possibly unpopular opinion), I don't have a problem with there being an "established fanon" amongst bronies, though I get why it can look stupid to have one (and hope that bronies are aware they don't have to follow it.)  I think it's an exaggeration to say that all bronies have the same headcanon, because some do deviate away from it in places, but I don't mind that certain things being so popular in the fanon, that everyone kind of accepted it (as long as they get it's not canon... if that makes sense.)

I myself follow "Muffin" being clumsy but adorable, and Lyra Heartstrings and Bon Bon being "close" (friends or lovers is fine) for example, because those headcanons work for me, and I have a nostalgic attachment to them - they are not original, and many bronies have gone with the same thing, but I stick with it, because I like these headcanons.  On the other hand, I do not view Dinky Doo as "Muffin"'s daughter at all (but accept that some have this headcanon) - I'd have gone with sister personally.

[Zapper]

It would be like G6 fans  erroneously calling EQG G5 and telling G4 fans they're wrong and don't know anything whatsoever.

I hope this happens

[Leave a Whisper]

It would be like G6 fans  erroneously calling EQG G5 and telling G4 fans they're wrong and don't know anything whatsoever.

I hope this happens

Mechoo. 

[SpacePinto]

I still don't understand why some people insist that categorizing generations by animation only came with G4. When I first got back into ponies in 2006, I soon discovered that the new ponies with short muzzles who giggled a lot were called G3s but I was confused by Tales which reminded me of the ponies from my childhood and yet was so different, so when I picked up all the mentions of "G2" which most people apparently hated for being so different, I figured it referred to MLPT since it indeed was quite different from the earlier show and it seemed like I was one of the few people who actually liked it, so I soon just came to the conclusion that G1 must have meant the first show with Wind Whistler, Fizzy etc., G2 was Tales and G3 was the "new" (at the time) ponies. Of course some time later I also discovered those weird ponies that looked like nothing else and had no cartoon at all, and soon I realized how it actually worked, but to this day I like to think that MLPT is either an animated adaptation of the G1 toyline or the G2 animated canon.

[Zapper]

I still don't understand why some people insist that categorizing generations by animation only came with G4.

Some people are right here And I don't "insist" on it, I observed it first hand. What a single person like you thought before Bronies came around doesn't matter in this argument. None of you tried to fight these fandom categories as they did and still do.

It was the G4 fans who populized the "Tales is really G2" stuff ignoring what the older fans said. It simply makes things more confusing if you refer to a G1 toyselling vehicle as G2 just because it's a secondary show. "Tales" is a great way to refer to it, that's literally what the show is called.
G1 ran for a couple of years and in Tales a bunch of later G1 ponies were featured, not a single G2. Tales wasn't about Sky Skimmer and Ivy.

[RoseNoire]

My unpopular opinion is that I don't like deflocking ponies. It feels so wrong to me.

I'm from Europe, So-Softs were not released out there, we only have NSS and I really want to have at least one SS in my life, see how they look and feel like. I don't mind if their color is "dulled" by the flocking, it seems to look decent enough, judging from pictures and videos.

If I were to find a SS with some flocking missing here and there, I would try to reflock its bald spots rather than removing everything. If I want a vibrant pony, I'd get a NSS release instead of removing an otherwise nice flocking.

[Carrehz]

Yeah, it's not so much that we think "Tales = G2" is a notion created by bronies, so much as they perpetuate(d?) it. There's a difference between a misconception, finding out the actual answer and being like "oh, okay then" and stubbornly insisting Tales HAS to be G2. (Or "G1.5", which really drives me up the wall...)