Unpopular Pony Opinions

[Leave a Whisper]

I get annoyed when people say that older pony fans weren't into or influenced by the cartoons. Please speak for yourself only. Just because YOU were not big on them, and did not have YOUR play influenced by them, does mean the same for others. I love them and my play was influenced by them.

Did someone say this?

I've never made a secret of the fact I'm a toy and comic person, but I've heard a lot of G1 fans talk about the cartoon. About as many have also said it didn't matter to them. I think it's more a case of not wanting to see older gens defined by the limited range of the G1 cartoon, not a matter of not being influenced by them.


This is not aimed at you, LAW, but it reminds me of some things on this line that bother me.

1. G1 does not haver only one canon, it has many different stories across different regions and mediums. That is the beauty of G1. I really get annoyed when people say (like in the Toys that Made us) that G1 had no canon. I grew up with the comics and that was absolutely a canon that lasted longer than any other G1 "canon". But there was also the G1 cartoon series and Tales, the backcard stories and space for a kid's own imagination as well. Sometimes those themes overlapped and sometimes they didn't. But for me G1 has the most rich and developed 'canon' because it carries so many possibilities, and is not dictated by one overreaching way in which people should view MLP.

ON a similar and maybe hypocritical note, I really don't like when people randomly flash in something from the comics as though it speaks for the whole of G1 overall. I'm talking about when people start talking about Majesty in G1 like her comic persona was universal, or the twinkle eye mine incident, and so on. These happened in a locally produced paper comic in the UK in the 1980s and may have gone to Europe as well. They do not define Majesty or the TE ponies for everyone, nor should they, and are often misrepresented anyway. I am all for people engaging with the comics, but actually engage with the comics, not with a social media post you saw that went viral.

Saw a YT video one time which talked about the TEs in terms of that comic story. It talked about it like it was accepted canon and misreferenced the comic number. Sigh.

On another note - I also like the dollymix, but only the G1 ones.

I expanded my quote.

I have heard people say this. But as I said, this is not everyone's experience and should not be discounted or brushed aside. I find it a tad hypocritical when a person is willing to cite their personal anecdotes as truth for most of, or all of the community's, but tells someone else, your anecdotes don't count.

And yes, I know it does not only have one piece of lore. At the time however, fans in different parts of the world only had whatever sources were available to them, regardless of whether they had cable or not. Names, shows, back cards, comics and toys differ.

To people who grew up in certain parts of the world Shady is Shady. To those in France she is Incognito. (Love that name. Lol)

To some Gusty is a nurse to the baby ponies. To others she is a rude, belligerent, hothead.

To my knowledge, UK/Europe got comics and toons. The US got toons.

Some parts of the world got Tales toys. Others didn't or at least we only got the Glow n Shows and Rock N Beats, which some of us may have only known from the cartoon in the 90s.

As far as G3 goes, my daughter and I had no idea there were any cartoons. Only toys and merch. Other little kids may have enacted personalities and partial stories based off them cause they had seen them.

I guess G2 was such a short lived blip in the US that I had no idea it even existed for years until I found the old Dream Valley site. Others owned and enjoyed them.

Hence why I think its not right to speak for the whole community.

[Ragamuffin]

As someone who grew up with G3, I can't remember how I played with my ponies exactly. I had the books, I had all the videos, and I read all the backcards. I don't think anything ultimately influenced my play with the ponies. Ponies like Minty and such I think were influenced in some way, not that it matters, because I didn't play with those! I had a hefty collection and the "cast" of the story changed from time to time. Most of the ponies really do have nothing more than the to-do list on their backcard to go off of, personality-wise.

[Taffeta]

@LAW - it's all true, but for the most part I would say 75% of discussion on G1 characters centres (when they have them) on how the TV show portrays them.

I've experienced the opposite of your frustration...I've been called out a few times for criticising the Quest of the Princess ponies. Honestly, from my UK perspective, there's a sense that the G1 TV show > the comics in people's minds, so I hadn't thought that it could be read the other way around.

From the UK perspective it can be very stifling to have this idea of mainstream = US, and that probably makes me personally more resistant to the influence of the G1 series. I don't like having ponies I grew up with called US ponies. It's wearing having to constantly use US and UK names but I don't want to give up the names I grew up with, or the stories either. I'm so tired of having people tell me how things must've been sold in the UK because of what happened in the US, too.

 So I probably have put distance between myself and the G1 TV series canon because I'm worried about the canon I grew up with being entirely lost or forgotten or just considered a 'novelty'. It often feels like a losing battle to preserve my childhood. While you're right that one person should not speak for the whole community, the fact remains that the US pony lore and pony release years and set names and pony names etc have spoken for the whole of pony for as long as I can remember, and keeping the rest alive is a lot harder work than it should be. There are absolutely no US exclusive ponies - and it would be nice for me personally to see more awareness of that across the community, especially in the ID sites that still persist in using US/other or the US year system for their formatting. And most of all in our very expansive pony lore, the existence of which "The Toys that Made Us" essentially denied by not looking beyond the US.

If my comments about the TV series have ever struck a nerve with you, though,  it wasn't meant that way

[Leave a Whisper]

As someone who grew up with G3, I can't remember how I played with my ponies exactly. I had the books, I had all the videos, and I read all the backcards. I don't think anything ultimately influenced my play with the ponies. Ponies like Minty and such I think were influenced in some way, not that it matters, because I didn't play with those! I had a hefty collection and the "cast" of the story changed from time to time. Most of the ponies really do have nothing more than the to-do list on their backcard to go off of, personality-wise.

And your experiences are totally valid as any other G3-er.

[Taffeta]

I know that with G1 I was hugely influenced by the comics in terms of favourites and abilities and whatever, but never played a game using those characterisations. But I think they fed into the stories I wrote as a kid about Magic Star - at least the Fact File calling her the most magical pony in all ponyland. That definitely did. :/

[Leave a Whisper]

@LAW - it's all true, but for the most part I would say 75% of discussion on G1 characters centres (when they have them) on how the TV show portrays them.

I've experienced the opposite of your frustration...I've been called out a few times for criticising the Quest of the Princess ponies. Honestly, from my UK perspective, there's a sense that the G1 TV show > the comics in people's minds, so I hadn't thought that it could be read the other way around.

From the UK perspective it can be very stifling to have this idea of mainstream = US, and that probably makes me personally more resistant to the influence of the G1 series. I don't like having ponies I grew up with called US ponies. It's wearing having to constantly use US and UK names but I don't want to give up the names I grew up with, or the stories either. I'm so tired of having people tell me how things must've been sold in the UK because of what happened in the US, too.

 So I probably have put distance between myself and the G1 TV series canon because I'm worried about the canon I grew up with being entirely lost or forgotten or just considered a 'novelty'. It often feels like a losing battle to preserve my childhood. While you're right that one person should not speak for the whole community, the fact remains that the US pony lore and pony release years and set names and pony names etc have spoken for the whole of pony for as long as I can remember, and keeping the rest alive is a lot harder work than it should be. There are absolutely no US exclusive ponies - and it would be nice for me personally to see more awareness of that across the community, especially in the ID sites that still persist in using US/other or the US year system for their formatting. And most of all in our very expansive pony lore, the existence of which "The Toys that Made Us" essentially denied by not looking beyond the US.

If my comments about the TV series have ever struck a nerve with you, though,  it wasn't meant that way

And why should you? You had what you had and your lore over there is just as special to you guys across the pond.

Its fascinating to know that there are comics and country exclusives and colorful variations and dragon toys.

These different experiences means that people in the community can share and compare. That's kinda cool.

I remember joining this model horse community, the majority of the members of which is from the UK and Europe more then the US. Great group, very fun. And I started learning about brands over there like Julips n stuff. I remember how excited they were when one of their own started making their own line called CopperFox.

If you'd have struck a nerve with me concerning that I would have said something.

And I'm guilty of tunnel vision myself sometimes.

 

[Taffeta]

To be honest, the variety around the world is one of the big selling points for me on G1.

And frankly, part of it is that you guys are just better at holding together or caring about how ponies were over there.

Also, though, the US had some amazing backcard stories when we had very little, and I think some of our comic stories were drawn out from those concepts at times too.

On your note on Shady, she's a great example, because she was furry there and not here, but Incognito in France and Petit Ombre in French speaking Canada. And of course her personalities in the US animation and the UK comic are both drawn from the US backcard, but in completely opposite ways. The magic aspect the UK took on, and the uncertain aspect the US took on. So there's a really nice connecting thread linking them all together <3.

[brightberry]

I was a backcard is "canon" kid.    I don't know why that is exactly but I suppose it was something to do with the actual pony being attached to it.  Though, I didn't make it a rule that all media had to match up and make complete sense.  There were a lot of stories running in my head that changed all the time.  I've always felt that because it's make-believe facts and logic don't have to apply.  Though I never liked it when ponies started acting too human and technically advanced.

I never got to follow the comics but I think I would have loved them.


I don't know if it's an unpopular opinion... but I'm not really worried about whether or not I'll like G5.  It doesn't matter to me at all.

[LadyAmalthea]

As a US kid, I really wish we had had the comics. I was more of a reader than a TV watcher, and I think I really would have liked that. I did watch the show (in fact, I'm embarrassed to admit that I woke up early to watch it on weekdays in the summer), and enjoyed it (as a kid; I tried watching it with my son a few months back and was bored to tears!), but by that point I had been collecting and playing with ponies for years and I already had stories and personalities made up for them, and the show didn't change the way I played with them. In fact, it kind of annoyed me that some of the ways the show portrayed the ponies' personalities was exactly the opposite of the way I did. But...had I watched the show first, I probably would have patterned my ponies after the ones in the show...it's hard to make a new personality up out of thin air after seeing the way someone/pony acts. I mean, take the mane 6...you probably can't imagine making any of those ponies acting out of character now that you've seen them!

As for an unpopular opinion, I think Majesty is kind of an overrated pony. Her colors are boring, and there's really nothing special about her to the point that she got to be the one that came with the Dream Castle. I'm probably just saying this because my son just loves her and talks about her all the time and it gets old. He has a slight speech impediment and calls her 'Madness-ty', which I find secretly charming.

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

As for an unpopular opinion, I think Majesty is kind of an overrated pony. Her colors are boring, and there's really nothing special about her to the point that she got to be the one that came with the Dream Castle. I'm probably just saying this because my son just loves her and talks about her all the time and it gets old. He has a slight speech impediment and calls her 'Madness-ty', which I find secretly charming.

I'm not super big on Majesty myself. I own her and she's fine, but I think I'd like her a lot more if she was in a different pose? I've never liked the Glory post all that much. And she seems to generally be of lower quality compared to most other G1s, being nearly constantly riddled with head body mismatches among other problems. It feels like they skimped on QC with her due to her coming in such a big playset. I like Majesty's color scheme, but I think she'd look better in a different pose, and I wish her quality control was better.

[Taffeta]

As for an unpopular opinion, I think Majesty is kind of an overrated pony. Her colors are boring, and there's really nothing special about her to the point that she got to be the one that came with the Dream Castle. I'm probably just saying this because my son just loves her and talks about her all the time and it gets old. He has a slight speech impediment and calls her 'Madness-ty', which I find secretly charming.

I'm not super big on Majesty myself. I own her and she's fine, but I think I'd like her a lot more if she was in a different pose? I've never liked the Glory post all that much. And she seems to generally be of lower quality compared to most other G1s, being nearly constantly riddled with head body mismatches among other problems. It feels like they skimped on QC with her due to her coming in such a big playset. I like Majesty's color scheme, but I think she'd look better in a different pose, and I wish her quality control was better.

I think she definitely has a deeper cultural resonance here because she was not only in a lot of stories but ran the pony club and sometimes the letters in the comics. So she became the cornerstone of the pony lore in the UK (which is deeply preferable to Megan, honestly). But I've never been obsessed with her either. I loved the Princesses. Adored them. But Majesty...well, she's fine. I liked her well enough and I did see her as the Queen. But she may have been a bit nuts (Madnessty indeed!) and most of the decisions were thus made by Princess Sapphire (who now I think of it was the wisest princess pony according to UK pony lore).

I don't know about having to follow the M6 characters. My special mascot Fluttershy 'Fluttsi' has a personality - it has nothing to do with Fluttershy though.

[LadyAmalthea]

TheBeatlesPkmnFan42: Her pose doesn't bother me too much, I like the Glory pose well enough, but you are right about her quality! Both of mine had head/body mismatch that I was able to successfully sunfade, thankfully (not sure I've ever seen one without this problem, actually!), and her hair is thinner than most ponies. I guess they thought they could get away with skimping on her because she came in a box and no one could see her before purchasing, and people were going to buy the Dream Castle anyway.

Taffeta: I like the princesses better, too. I can see a good storyline being that Majesty was secretly a little bit off her rocker and the princesses try to keep it on the down-low by running the show behind the scenes while publicly putting her as the legal front of the empire. Oh to be a kid and make up these kinds of stories again! (I also do prefer Majesty over Megan; having a human girl in the mix never made much sense to me!)

The name Fluttsi is cute 
I'm not a fan of Fluttershy's personality in the show (at least in the first 2 seasons; she seems more likeable in the sporadic later-seasons episodes I've watched), but I have her because I think she's a pretty pony. If I were more creative I'd make up a different personality for mine, but alas, my childhood storytelling abilities of my youth seemed to have flown the coop the day I turned into an adult 

[Taffeta]

Well, Fluttsi (her full name is Flutter Magic) is the Cutie Mark Magic version I think. She was a gift from my sister for good luck when I was in Japan, so she kind of got her persona as the traveller, and also now the queen bee (butterfly?) of my G4 ponies. But Naynie chose her because she looks like the pegasus Rainbow Curl pony (in the UK called Rainbow Magic - hence Flutter Magic) xD. I have seen enough of FIM to know what character Fluttershy has, but eh. That's Fluttershy. Not Flutter Magic to me

Yeah that was pretty much my DC/Majesty narrative. I had Majesty/DC and Princess Sapphire as a kid, and then second hand I had Aquamarine with 1 symbol (in the UK her persona was a daydreamer, so I assumed she'd left the other symbol somewhere and forgotten), so poor Sapphire ended up dealing with a slightly eccentric mother and absent-minded sister while trying to run ponyland

[Tropical_Sunset]

I don't see ponies without brushable hair as "real" MLP and I can't get excited for them. 

[Taffeta]

I don't see ponies without brushable hair as "real" MLP and I can't get excited for them. 

I also feel like brushy hair is a key feature <3