Unpopular Pony Opinions

[FernMariposa919]

I don't consider non-G1 as MLP    I love my 80s stuff !


Yessss...come on, hate me 

Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, I KNOW that the other generations are My Little Pony, but to me, G1 will always be the best and I just don't really care about the other generations. I did watch Friendship is Magic (well, I still haven't seen the last season!) and enjoyed that, but that's probably the only non G1 MLP thing I like.

When I see people's G1 collections full of their ponies, play sets, merchandise, memorabilia, etc., I'm just drooling. Perhaps it's the nostalgia. Perhaps it's seeing the "vintage" aspect. (Are things from the '80s considered vintage now?) When I see any other generation of pony collections (especially G4), it just doesn't do anything for me.

[Ponybookworm]

I've seen & heard of people referring to the Pony toys as "merch".
Nope. Sorry. Not to me.
MLP IS the toys. The Pony figures are the core, or heart, of the whole thing. I think here is where I disagree with the G4 fans. They talk of "time to watch Ponies" which to me sounds like going to the collection & admiring it (not that this sounds like a bad thing tbh). Then I realise they're referring to the cartoon, like it's the heart of everything.
The G1 cartoons were never the heart of G1, nor were the comics. The comics were never the heart of G2, & the cartoons were never the heart of G3. In all those cases the heart of the whole thing was the Pony toys.
I think that's where G4 got it wrong. It's not meant to be a show which spawns fun toys. It's meant to be toys with a fun show or shows.

I know at least one Discord server where that is an unpopular opinion I don't voice on there, for fear of what others would think. I don't mean it to degrade the cartoon in any way, but it's never been as important as the Pony toys to me. That's one of a thousand reasons I'm so disappointed in the lack of variety in the G4 brushables.

[Taffeta]

I've seen & heard of people referring to the Pony toys as "merch".

Gasp.
Heresy.

[Carrehz]

Yeah, when I think "MLP merch" I think like, the sweater I'm wearing right now. () Or a backpack or something. Maybe a Funko figure or something, I can never decide how I want to count stuff like that. But not the Hasbro toys themselves.

[Leave a Whisper]

I've seen & heard of people referring to the Pony toys as "merch".
Nope. Sorry. Not to me.
MLP IS the toys. The Pony figures are the core, or heart, of the whole thing. I think here is where I disagree with the G4 fans. They talk of "time to watch Ponies" which to me sounds like going to the collection & admiring it (not that this sounds like a bad thing tbh). Then I realise they're referring to the cartoon, like it's the heart of everything.
The G1 cartoons were never the heart of G1, nor were the comics. The comics were never the heart of G2, & the cartoons were never the heart of G3. In all those cases the heart of the whole thing was the Pony toys.
I think that's where G4 got it wrong. It's not meant to be a show which spawns fun toys. It's meant to be toys with a fun show or shows.

I know at least one Discord server where that is an unpopular opinion I don't voice on there, for fear of what others would think. I don't mean it to degrade the cartoon in any way, but it's never been as important as the Pony toys to me. That's one of a thousand reasons I'm so disappointed in the lack of variety in the G4 brushables.

 

[Taffeta]

I have no good opinion of Discord, honestly. I've had two bad experiences with it, one pony and one not.

The idea of ponies as merchandise is a bronyism. With any luck as G4 moves into G5, some of those concepts will start to fade - although admittedly it's hard to see it happening with G5 so far.

Calling ponies merch is like calling Tales G2. It's advertising your ignorance to the rest of the pony community.

On which note, returning to the theme of this thread - as much as I love the G1 comics and wish everyone had access to them, I wish bronies would stop citing 'things that happened' in the comic like they know all about it. Frequently it's wrong or out of context, or an assumption that it's somehow concrete canon for everyone and can't be shifted.

The examples I see most often are ones relating to Majesty (often cherry picked), and the infamous "The TE ponies were enslaved in a mine" story...probably the former to compare with Celestia and the latter because Rarity had that whole ep stuck in a mine.

I also see them cite the wrong issues of comics when making these claims.

It's really annoying. If you want to talk about G1 comics, at least read them first.

[Ponybookworm]

I'm only on a few Discords myself, most Pony, one plushie sharky.

The Pony discord with the high Brony content is the Ponyfest Online one. The others are cool enough & the sharky one is pure wholesomeness xxx

I was on another Discord but I saw rules I'd been told not to break being broken & a couple of users were just too much. So when I got kicked for my reactions to this, I stayed out of there. No point going back there.

Anyway, yep, the comics aren't "canon" per se. There was never "canon" in G1. It was all about what we imagined.

[Leave a Whisper]

That's especially true for G4. With earlier gens I think people choose different aspects of the media to focus on, but I tend to agree - it's still Hasbro's promotional train. It's true of Jem as well...the animation (up till G4) and the comics are designed to sell ponies, and thus are all one big part of the advertising package.

It's really weird.  I tuned into Jem frequently,  but I never saw a single doll being sold. I had no idea there even were toys until I discovered the Arena.

[Taffeta]

That's especially true for G4. With earlier gens I think people choose different aspects of the media to focus on, but I tend to agree - it's still Hasbro's promotional train. It's true of Jem as well...the animation (up till G4) and the comics are designed to sell ponies, and thus are all one big part of the advertising package.

It's really weird.  I tuned into Jem frequently,  but I never saw a single doll being sold. I had no idea there even were toys until I discovered the Arena.

Not to go offtopic too much, but I don't remember the toys either. I didn't ever watch the show...like with MLP there were some VHS here but I didn't go after it because the trailer on my pony vhs made it look like some weird show about magic rather than what it actually was. I may have been a bit too young, but as a kid all I ever saw were the same shelves of blond-clone barbie and I hated it. I'm pretty sure if I had ever seen Jem dolls, I would've been more interested. Hasbro didn't do a great job there.

Although the ep Glitter and Gold is basically a glorified 20 minute commercial for every new doll, accessory and outfit from the line (minus Jetta and Raya who got a 2 part special right after it to fix that issue!)

The same is true with the ponies though (going back on topic! Yay me!) here in the Uk at least. The idea the ponies are merch for the show makes no sense given most of the ponies aren't in the show, but even fewer of the ponies in the show were sold here. They were most all in the comic but nobody talks about ponies as merch for the comics...

It's just a very narrow view of MLP through the veil of G4. Anachronism is bad...

[Wardah]

I think the direction MLP is going in is not going to make old school collectors or bronies happy. Tbh it almost feels like they are trying for a Paw Patrol/PJ Masks hit. Because after all those are big sellers with the target market despite the limited cast.

[MJNSEIFER]

The idea of ponies as merchandise is a bronyism. With any luck as G4 moves into G5, some of those concepts will start to fade - although admittedly it's hard to see it happening with G5 so far.

Calling ponies merch is like calling Tales G2. It's advertising your ignorance to the rest of the pony community.

A bronyism I've never heard of until today, but there you go.  I know some bronies don't seem to get that the toyline is the main part of MLP (which seems to be why the whole "Tales is G2" thing happened), but I didn't expect this.

On which note, returning to the theme of this thread - as much as I love the G1 comics and wish everyone had access to them, I wish bronies would stop citing 'things that happened' in the comic like they know all about it. Frequently it's wrong or out of context, or an assumption that it's somehow concrete canon for everyone and can't be shifted.

The examples I see most often are ones relating to Majesty (often cherry picked), and the infamous "The TE ponies were enslaved in a mine" story...probably the former to compare with Celestia and the latter because Rarity had that whole ep stuck in a mine.

I also see them cite the wrong issues of comics when making these claims.

It's really annoying. If you want to talk about G1 comics, at least read them first.

This also surprises me about bronies (although I have heard it said, I'm sure here, that they take the Twinkle Eye Ponies one as canon - I think even I stated that event as fact at least once), considering that in my experience they do the exact opposite with G4, i.e. they treat the comics as non-canon, and I keep explaining that the comics are canon, just a separate canon, and I tend to use the G1 comics as examples of how this works (i.e. everything created officially is "canon", but their own.)  I'm surprised they're not just saying that the G1 (and any other generation) comics are non-canon as well, as that's the attitude they've taken with G4.

Sorry if this is the wrong way to look at the previous generations (saying that all aspects of it are their own canon), but that's the easiest way I can look at it; the comics, the cartoons, and even the toys if we factor backcard stories and the like into it, are their own canon.

That said, it could just be that they like to see those comic things as "canon" for themselves, like their headcanon - I get the idea of doing that like, "Yeah, I like this storyline, so I'll imagine it was something that happened", but if it's like the "Tales is G2" thing and they're stating it as fact, I understand the problem.  But then, it could also just be that they aren't bothering to emphasise that it only happened in the comics, if that makes sense... I can only guess as it's contradictory behavior to how they are with G4 comics.

But I can understand the cherry picking thing if they're creating a story for those ponies - I do that, even with G4 (and to a lesser extent with the "same headcanons" that every brony supposedly has, though I ultimately focus on mine and my friend's headcanon.)  We're telling our own story, so we focus on what we like or what fits in for us, as well as completely creating our own.  If this isn't for a story or a headcanon, though, and they're stating it as fact, like I say I understand the problem.

[Taffeta]

I just don't like the misappropriation. I saw a YT video a while back which was preaching all about the TEs down the mine as G1 canon, and it just irked me. (I also saw a YT video where they'd swiped a picture from my website as well, which I don't appreciate, but that's another matter...

I try NOT to watch videos on YT now but I was trying to give the whole cross-generational thing the benefit of the doubt and not just jump to conclusions about bronies because of the bad stuff we hear about.

Tales = G2 is entirely unforgivable though

I would agree all versions of pony are their own canon, whatever the generation. That makes sense to me? And that also includes headcanon because in G1-3 they were just part of how MLP worked.

[Leave a Whisper]

I just don't like the misappropriation. I saw a YT video a while back which was preaching all about the TEs down the mine as G1 canon, and it just irked me. (I also saw a YT video where they'd swiped a picture from my website as well, which I don't appreciate, but that's another matter...

I try NOT to watch videos on YT now but I was trying to give the whole cross-generational thing the benefit of the doubt and not just jump to conclusions about bronies because of the bad stuff we hear about.

Tales = G2 is entirely unforgivable though

I would agree all versions of pony are their own canon, whatever the generation. That makes sense to me? And that also includes headcanon because in G1-3 they were just part of how MLP worked.

I knew ponies getting carried off to their doom, by fire-breathing, skeletal dinosaurs wasn't some weird fever dream I had. *pumps fist*

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

I've seen & heard of people referring to the Pony toys as "merch".

Ahh yeah this bugs me, too! The ponies are just... the thing itself. It bugs me when I see people (usually G4 fans of course) talk about how they got some merch and it's just actual pony toys. Rather than like. A shirt, book, or anything else which would actually be merch.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I think the direction MLP is going in is not going to make old school collectors or bronies happy. Tbh it almost feels like they are trying for a Paw Patrol/PJ Masks hit. Because after all those are big sellers with the target market despite the limited cast.

This would make sense. I skimmed through the annual report for Hasbro earlier and they keep saying that the MLP media stuff is in the hands of eOne now...who made PJ Masks.
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I wouldn't mind so much, personally. I like most kids cartoons.