Ember vs Star Dreams

[Sunset]

A lot of the nebulousness comes back to this:

As I've said many times before, during G1 the cartoon was an accessory. You didn't have to have the cartoon to love the ponies.

The ponies sold without concrete lore, so Hasbro just never bothered with it.  (A big difference from G1 Transformers, where Hasbro literally went to Marvel comics to get them to write lore for them.  I do wonder what Marvel would have come up with if Hasbro had done the same for G1 MLP!)

The mirror clone story wasn't 'from' Hasbro, it was from a UK comic writer who decided to explain why there were identical babies running around their comic when there were zero boy ponies.  (The Big Brothers etc not having been released yet.)

The nice thing about not having a solid answer, though, is that everyone can make up their own explanation. 

This^ is what I love about G1 and earlier gens.

Don't get me wrong.  I like G4, collect it and even watch all the episodes.  But I sometimes really get tired of "show first" attitude prevalent among FiM fans.  As a child and even as an adult, I don't need for there to be an extensive mythology that everyone must adhere to. 

I just want pretty ponies.

P.S.  I'll add that both my sister and I had the lavender Ember.  My mom ordered them before I think either of us even knew what the mail order program was.  To be honest, I don't remember really what I thought about her being without a symbol.  But I wasn't inclined towards creating elaborate characters or back stories.  As I said, I just want pretty ponies.

[brightberry]

As a kid, I did take Twilight’s comments to mean that baby Ember would possibly get a symbol.  Maybe even wings!  But what happened when she grew up was less important to me than her baby portrayal.  I didn’t really want her to grow up.  So, I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it.

For what it’s worth, I love her without a symbol.  I think it makes her adorable.

[Leave a Whisper]

Question, did people always take the Twilight/Ember convo in RaMC as a "you'll earn your symbol one day" sort of thing, or did that interpretation only come in after G4? I'm curious!

Don't forget the pregnant Mommy Pony and her two babies, Torpedo and Bombs Away.

 

Since there was no mention of symbol earning, I doubt any kid thought that. It was more like you'll be whatever you wanna be when you grow up. The idea of her earning her symbol is strictly a G4 interpretation.

[Carrehz]

Question, did people always take the Twilight/Ember convo in RaMC as a "you'll earn your symbol one day" sort of thing, or did that interpretation only come in after G4? I'm curious!

Don't forget the pregnant Mommy Pony and her two babies, Torpedo and Bombs Away.

 

Since there was no mention of symbol earning, I doubt any kid thought that. It was more like you'll be whatever you wanna be when you grow up. The idea of her earning her symbol is strictly a G4 interpretation.

That's how I've always read that scene, but a lot of people keep bringing it up so I was curious how everyone else read it prior to G4, lol.

[Ponyfan]

I think the Twilight and Ember scene is basically to establish that Ember needs the full grown grown ponies to look after her (she did try to jump off the cliff and try to fly a moment before) and to contrast how peaceful the the ponies lives seem to be before Scorpan anc the Stratadons attack.

Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

Really late to this thread...but I don't remember ever thinking about what Ember would grow into or anything about a symbol. I kind of saw her as a not real little pony because to me in the animation she didn't look real. I associated her more with characters like Knight Shade - just in the animation, not actually real.

We did have Ember in the UK but only the MO ones. Interesting what Uni said because I think that she was offered here without the name Ember. I'd need to check with people who know more than me about this and who have the insert, but I have this feeling. So Ember is a kind of fluid identity and may just have been added to the MO one after Ember's Dream? Dunno.

The club baby was designed to be adopted by the club member, there was a whole adoption certificate, tips in the club booklet about how to take care of the baby, things to make for her...so I really am attached to her I begged and begged to do the club that year and it was the only year I did where there was a baby pony involved. It was a cute idea anyway, but she had no canon identity so it's not quite like Ember.

The mirror mother thing is just the comic, like LM said, and it's literally only one story in the first comic. It's not a canon exactly. The original newborn twins were brought to life from drawings by Baby Lucky. And the majority of ponies in the comic moved to ponyland after being rescued or for unknown reasons. In the case of the MB ponies, they lived quietly on Misty Mountain with the wizard till Baby Lucky found them. The Big Brothers came to ponyland, however.

I think it's what was said above - there's a lot of different possible canons for G1, meaning there isn't one overall one. But it's fine to have your own fan head canons about any of these things. I mean, there's no wrong answer with that. Just I think sometimes the comic stuff and the animation get intermixed as though they belong to the same context and they don't. The comics were in the UK where the TV show was only really available on some VHS - and the animation was big in the US where it aired but there were no comics. So both were different and independent attempts to tell stories about the ponies to make kids buy them.

I think the comics responded more to the backcard versions in general but I am not certain. As a kid I loved the comics but I never ever played stories from them.

@LM - Torpedo and Bombs Away! Best names ever

[Leave a Whisper]

Really late to this thread...but I don't remember ever thinking about what Ember would grow into or anything about a symbol. I kind of saw her as a not real little pony because to me in the animation she didn't look real. I associated her more with characters like Knight Shade - just in the animation, not actually real.

We did have Ember in the UK but only the MO ones. Interesting what Uni said because I think that she was offered here without the name Ember. I'd need to check with people who know more than me about this and who have the insert, but I have this feeling. So Ember is a kind of fluid identity and may just have been added to the MO one after Ember's Dream? Dunno.

The club baby was designed to be adopted by the club member, there was a whole adoption certificate, tips in the club booklet about how to take care of the baby, things to make for her...so I really am attached to her I begged and begged to do the club that year and it was the only year I did where there was a baby pony involved. It was a cute idea anyway, but she had no canon identity so it's not quite like Ember.

The mirror mother thing is just the comic, like LM said, and it's literally only one story in the first comic. It's not a canon exactly. The original newborn twins were brought to life from drawings by Baby Lucky. And the majority of ponies in the comic moved to ponyland after being rescued or for unknown reasons. In the case of the MB ponies, they lived quietly on Misty Mountain with the wizard till Baby Lucky found them. The Big Brothers came to ponyland, however.

I think it's what was said above - there's a lot of different possible canons for G1, meaning there isn't one overall one. But it's fine to have your own fan head canons about any of these things. I mean, there's no wrong answer with that. Just I think sometimes the comic stuff and the animation get intermixed as though they belong to the same context and they don't. The comics were in the UK where the TV show was only really available on some VHS - and the animation was big in the US where it aired but there were no comics. So both were different and independent attempts to tell stories about the ponies to make kids buy them.

I think the comics responded more to the backcard versions in general but I am not certain. As a kid I loved the comics but I never ever played stories from them.

@LM - Torpedo and Bombs Away! Best names ever

Mommy Payload. 

[SkyCakes]

Don't forget the pregnant Mommy Pony and her two babies, Torpedo and Bombs Away.

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G1 was quite diverse in terms of pony reproduction!  And one point Baby Lucky draws a picture of baby ponies and they pop off the page and become Newborn Twins.  Well . . . okay then!

agreed on both these names. bombs away and torpedo. LOL. I do like ember a little more as for the "big ponies looking after her." I would think that was the thing back then. What confused me is the play and care ponies. when they made mini versions of the big ones because that was "supposed to be them" when they were little. I do like the concept they are adorable but it makes no sense. Also dont forget the magic mirror that's how ponyland was created. I guess ponyland is just very whimsical and too wild for me. "we are all mad here."

[Sunset]

I don't think that the babies of excisting adult ponies where supposed to be "them when they were young."  I think Hasbro's idea was that the babies were the offspring of the adults in question.  This is supported by the "Mommy and baby" clothing sets.  The reason the babies looked just like the adult ponies is because of the whole "the child looks just like the parent" concept that is used in any number of toys and media.

[katrine2309]

The babies are not suppose to be them at all. It is their babies. Yes, it is supported by ponywear, but it is also plainly stated in the cartoons. The babies are all there- living in the Lullaby Nursery if I remember correctly? Someone else might have a better memory on that, I haven’t seen the episodes in a long long while.

[Taffeta]

Also reiterating that therr seems to be much confusion about the mirror. It appears a lot but only in the comics in the UK and baby ponies only come from it in one story. It didn't create ponyland and isn't a consistent source for most babh ponies. Mostly it is Majesty 's way of watching over her ponies.