As someone who grew up watching G1 and G3 (Not while it aired, I had Dvds to watch them) I simply didn't have access to the rest of G1 canon. I live in the US, for me, the backcards and animation was my "canon". I'm sure this issue, a lack of resources, applies to other fans and other fandoms.

The animation mostly contradicts the backcards, where the ponies with backcard stories are in the animation. Although the comics do add their own flair, the characterisations of some ponies, like Magic Star and Shady, are closer in the comics to the American backcards (even though they're for the SS ponies) than anything in the animation. Of course some sets in the UK have their own backcard stories and some ponies are very unique in the UK canon, like Baby Lucky. But mostly 'backcard' and 'animation' are not the same pony canon and there's more 'backcard' canon in comics than in the animated series. This is why to me it's not 'THE' canon, just 'a' canon

There are some recordings on YT where someone has read the comic stories (some of them) in the style of the UK story cassettes. There are a lot of comics, though, and I doubt anyone will ever digitise them completely, especially not given that some are quite expensive and rare to track down :/

I am not a fan of FIM, though I do like some of the G4 figures and designs. The animated series makes me cringe for a lot of reasons, although I accept it exists and is its own canon. But honestly, it's Lauren's canon not anything to do with G1. This is fine, too. Not judging that. But for example, Surprise. Surprise has the Pinkie Pie moment I think in End of Flutter Valley? One of the episodes she is buzzing around all over the place. But that's So Soft Surprise and it's not even consistent with how Surprise is portrayed in Escape from Catrina (I think it's that one?) And in the comic, there's this lovely story about her being surprised for her own birthday party. I believe her backcard story talks about her helping out others...not jumping out from behind bushes or throwing parties. That's not her personality, so when people go "Surprise is G1 Pinkie Pie", I get twitchy xD.

Same applies for most all the other M6, who are their own selves, but not anything really like the G1 counterparts.

This is sort of off topic now though. It's just evidence of how G4 has coloured how My Little Pony is perceived (like, right now so many "g1" collectors refer to G1 symbols as cutie marks as well, which is so annoying) and how difficult it's been for G5 to break that mould. Even if it had been set in a different world. But Hasbro didn't give it that space, so it's basically dead before it begins.

Haven't read "Generations" yet, but I heard it wasn't the best due to making the G1s need need the G4s to save them, or something... I dunno... I am trying to avoid that with my project.

And today's kids aren't really like that (only using phones) - they aren't really that different to how we were as kids really, phones are just extra - I still see them playing outside and having fun, and the like, and some still play with toys because everybody is different no offense.

I didn't say kids, I said people, as in the world in general and the direction it is moving towards.
BUT there is acknowledged to be difficulties with young people and early screen time and imagination development, also the social development lost during COVID and other things which has been well documented over here (in fact in my local area, but that's by the by).

I work in an environment where I meet a lot of imaginative kids, so it's not always the kids that are the problem, it's the world being framed around them and the options they are being given that are the issue. At the same time, I work in an environment where kids who are bored and completely unable to work out how to entertain themselves come in to make a nuisance for us and our customers just because that is the extent of their lives. I've worked on and off in libraries since the late 1990s, it's a situation that is getting worse. So yes, it is having an impact on some young people and not on all.

I actually had a lot of access to a computer in the eighties, but that was because back then schools sent their computers home with staff over the holidays so they didn't get stolen, rather than have them on site over the break. So my Dad always had an old BBCB or Compact computer over the break and I used to write stories and play games on it under supervision. I would say that was definitely happening from the late 1980s. BUT I agree this wasn't a normal state of things. We had our first home PC in 1998. My primary school were also ahead of the curve, though - we had a PC in school almost as soon as they came out. Just one, in the whole school, but we were very excited by paint and having screens that weren't green and black!!

I think the imagination thing comes down to the kids with the internal capacity to self-entertain or those which have the support to do so vs those who don't/lack that support. The latter category are the ones who potentially miss out because of today's tech revolution. But I do think there is a problem with the quality of what is being churned out. They keep remaking old things instead of doing much new. And, as someone who works in a library, you don't want my opinion on some of the literature social media raves about xD.

Back on topic again somewhere...

I am maybe an outlier here but I actually prefer them not using G1 ponies in newer gens. BUT I also accept that when they appear in those gens, they're new ponies and not really the old ones. I absolutely despise people talking about the six ponies that Lauren Faust based the M6 on as though they belong together in a group, when they don't, though. And also when people talk about Posey as the original fluttershy, rather than Fluttershy as based (very, very loosely) on a concept of Posey from one person's imagination.

I don't see the M6 as being at all like any of the g1 ponies, but that's also because of another bugbear of mine. I am sick to death of people talking about G1 animation as the only G1 canon, and then comparing it with FIM. G4 has a collective canon but G1 doesn't. It gets talked down because people are only aware of/only care about comparing animations and not the wider franchise. In reality, the animated series is the least canon part of G1, as it erased pony magic outside of unicorns and massively changed characters from how the backcards portrayed them. It is its own canon, of course, but it is not "THE" canon and it irks me when people make that comparison.

(That includes Dazzleglow as an alicorn, by the way. Dazzleglow is a unicorn, and in fact the first animated 'alicorn' is a glitch of Baby Surprise (I think) in Escape from Catrina).

Quote from: Taffeta on August 27, 2024, 11:07:50 AM

Re Nori
'

Spoiler

Yes, he has a stress injury on his elbow iirc, to make it impossible for him to play in the final. There's more to it plotwise than that but that's the gist of it.

Spoiler

I feel so bad for Nori.  I wish he would have been able to pitch in the final.  I think it would have been nice to have all of the main Seidou pitchers we've followed for so long pitch in the game.

Ponyfan

Yeah, well..


And further to Nori, bit more of a spoiler...

Hasbro will care about MLP if they see it boosting profits and being a marketable product/toy, no matter whether that's now or in ten years. But I still think G4 utterly gutted out the soul and spirit of MLP to the point that it's saturated the market and until that clears, nothing else is going to really vibe.

It's interesting how much G1 stuff is being made right now under licence, as if Hasbro is trying to make the most of the older brand as well as G4. Maybe more than G4? Or am I just noticing G1 more because I don't like G4 much?

I agree connecting G4 to G5 was a big mistake. It's made some G4 people angry because of the continuity issues as well as the idea that after all the 'perfect evolution to G4' arguments there's now another generation out there.

Reinventing stuff from Twilight etc in Equestria for g5 has also annoyed people. But it's no different from mangling G3 or G1 characters in FIM, it's just that because this is stuck in Equestria it seems more directly problematic. If it were a completely new world, it'd probably be fine.

I saw a handful more G5 toys down south than I see generally in my local area. But honestly, probably saw as many if not more Basic Fun ponies in the same stores. :/

Re Nori
'

Dream Valley was one of the first things I stumbled onto as well. Remember being so excited to discover that Medley and Powder and Glory and company actually existed and weren't just story characters.

 But while I can respect what it did then as a gateway ID site for all of us back in the late 1990s, I haven't forgiven it for maintaining misinformation years after that stuff had been debunked, just to score points against the international people who dared correct the site information.

Because of that, international pony people still get told to prove everything if they raise a point, or, as I was told recently, to hold our tongues because it is disrespectful to 'more experienced and knowledgeable' pony collectors to criticise 'established resources'...for which we 'don't understand the effort made'.

If DV had taken a different path, and we'd been able to stamp out the myths and such sooner, I am certain we'd be better off. So I don't miss it. I regret the path it went down, but that's all.

On a happier note, welcome back Lilithdrff

It's the first time tonight that I actually went and ploughed through it. Did see one older version of my site, which was nice. But more than that it was great to see that old diversity and all the things that used to be there back in the old days.

It annoys me so much when you get G4 fans who have been online for ten seconds blarting about how old gen MLP never had a community or any fandom and obviously that's because most of it has gone now - but it was there and it was probably more ingenious given how limited the options were.

I had actually meant to raise International Pony Day this year but I forgot until it had passed I remember the whole campaign and voting and such to pick an International Pony Day, which ended up being August 2nd, because it was 8/2, from 1982.

We all used to have IPD banners on our sites, but nobody even talks about it anymore.

The Wiki has one of my old IPD banners on its IPD page. It's my image so maybe I'll stick it on my renovated site somewhere. I know I have one with Ice Crystal on somewhere but can't find it right now...

https://mlparena.com/index.php/topic,387442.msg1657479.html#msg1657479

Wiki links this thread which apparently I started, LOL

Although most of the pictures are broken, the oldest surviving version of my site, with my ancient dead email address and some horrified ponies in scanner pictures is still half alive out there. It was the first site to include variant ponies, as well as UK releases, but good grief is it full of mistakes that make me cringe xD. I was hunting over it for the other IPD banner, not just the screengrab, but can't find it :/

It's been ages since I gave a plant update!

I had to move my streptocarpus off the windowsill as it was getting scorched, it's now sitting by my sink and looking much happier. Poinsettia is putting out bigger leaves towards the window, she's a clever old thing. Nikolai the dragon tree is also growing nicely, he's getting so big and is very much a 'tree' now rather than a baby plant. My little cactus keeps growing upwards, at this rate it will need a cane. Succulent is also fine.

In the garden, the tomato plants have produced some fruit, the tree has some apples but most other things have finished producing. The vine probably has grapes but we never take those, it's too much effort to pick them and the birds like them anyway. We always have baby birds around this time of the year.

Hanging baskets and tubs are all flowering prettily but not enough butterflies this year Some places have reported low bee numbers but that hasn't been an issue for us thanks to the lavender.