DHX hit with major data breach (beware of spoilers)

[Al-1701]

That's a pretty extensive list, and many of them have been badly developed.  Do we need so many species based on farm animals?  Really, I hope they get away from that in the next generation, and other species they do create will have some thought put into them.

[Leave a Whisper]

Spoiler

I saw some of the leaked season 8 episodes, and I’m officially ready for FiM to go away.  There are WAAAAAAY too many different species in this thing now.  I can’t wait til this thing is cancelled..

How do you figure that? It has roughly the same amount of species G1 has.

Maybe the rationale is that G1 didn't try to force all those species into one continuous cartoon series? A lot of the species in G1 were never in the animation, or only peripherally compared to the main three (earth, peg, unicorn).

Not that I have seen much or any FIM since season 1, and I'm not interested in the ep leaks at all, but that would be my best guess.

I would be amused now if there was a g5 release in 2020 and it was entirely different from anything yet seen and all of this is designed to take people off guard and fool them.

Wingers and Mer Ponies were the only ones who were no-shows. The Sea Ponies and Flutters didn't show up very often, but they did show up.

I'm fairly certain that  Changelings, Bat Ponies, Breezies and Mer Ponies aren't in every single episode of FiM.

[Leave a Whisper]

Spoiler

I saw some of the leaked season 8 episodes, and I’m officially ready for FiM to go away.  There are WAAAAAAY too many different species in this thing now.  I can’t wait til this thing is cancelled..

How do you figure that? It has roughly the same amount of species G1 has.

Well let's see:
Alicorn
Unicorn
Earth pony
Pegasus
Changeling
Bat pony
Dragon
Hippogriff
Yak
Seapony
Minotaur
Mule
Centaur
Sea serpent
Dog
Buffalo

If you count the movie and comics
Cat
Bird

Eh. Maybe. 

I'm talking ponywise. But if we're including other creatures.

Earth Pony
Unicorn
Pegasus
Sea Pony
Flutter Pony
Winger
Merpony
Octopus
Rabbit
Squirrel
Skunk
Dragon
Zebra
Human
Gnome
Cat
Lobster
Donkey
Ram
Crab Nasty
Florrie
Dog
Ogre
Troll
Elf
Bushwoolie
Furbob
Mouse
Blark
Dell Dweller
Whatever Woebegone is supposed to be
Raptorian
Pig
Whatever Arabus is
Whatever Rep is
Salamander
Undine
Spider
Smooze
Centaur
Troggle
Eagle
Penna
Crunch's Boulders
Camel
Sentient Mountain
Moochick
Penguin
Moose
Lama
Brontasaurus
Panda
Lamb
Kangaroo

That's all I can think of atm. The comics probably added even more.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

E I E I OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... 

[Leave a Whisper]

E I E I OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... 

[Taffeta]

E I E I OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... 

If you count the pony comic, there are about 30 more...such as sea sprite and kelpie...

[Leave a Whisper]

E I E I OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... 

If you count the pony comic, there are about 30 more...such as sea sprite and kelpie...

There are kelpies and sea sprites? How cool!

[Al-1701]

You forgot lava demons and ice orcs.

G1 (especially in the show but also in the comic) also presented Pony Land as just one small corner of the world instead of a country almost completely dominating it like Equestria.  All those species have their own territories and communities within them.  The ponies (aside from Majesty with her extensive library of forbidden knowledge) do not know too much about the world beyond Dream Valley because they are an enclave that mostly keeps to themselves, so when they encounter these different species their ignorance of them is more understandable.

And even with that list, we get more development of many of those races than FiM has given us.  "The Golden Horseshoes" alone gave us three new races and we have a better understanding of their cultures than the blasted cows of FiM.

[Leave a Whisper]

D'oh! How could I forget them? They're sooo cool!

[Zapper]

That more than ponies are part of the school makes sense and is the opposite of bad development. Bad development would be ignoring them all even though these species are friends with the ponies as of S8.

I like seeing the seaponies and hippogriffs being part of the show. Skystar was my movie favorite! And cats like Capper have appeared in G1 as well.

[Al-1701]

That's underdevelopment which is a different problem.

Bad development is making buffalo stereotypical Native Americans, or having zebras represented by a single bush shaman who is never wrong about anything, or basing yaks after southern Asian cultures and having them act like brutes, or cows and sheep talking but acting (and being treated like) the common farm animals they are.

Even within the ponies, these are the biggest bunch of idiots.  Indentured servitude is legal?  They would endanger public safety to stop potential cheating?  The Crystal Empire has almost nothing to its culture in the show beyond putting a shard in the Crystal Heart when a foal is born which we took three seasons to learn (and they're also too stupid to head for shelter when the weather turns bad).  The new changelings are pacifistic to the point they would defend themselves by non-violent means.

This is the problem when you make an Aesop series with a coherent world and characters.  Everyone becomes lesson fodder even if it doesn't make sense.  That leads to stereotypical races, nonsensical world building (if you can even call what this show does world building) and characters who don't synthesize lessons so they can learn a similar lesson later even though anyone with a functioning brain should be able to take their past experiences and not let it come to that.  And before someone says "This is a kid's show", being able to think critically is a vital skill for children to learn at a young age.

[Zapper]

I really want them to lose the "lesson learned" element for G5 and just make a nice adventure show à la Legend of Korra that has messages that are not recapped by the end of the episode.
So basically I agree with the e-mails. Btw they also mentioned less focus on cutiemarks, which I would embrace and celebrate. G4 can get really intense about the marks. I used to love the CMC but now I almost loathe them. It's just always about cutiemarks. The leaked episode with the hippogriff was really nice because he didn't have a mark spelling out his destiny and it was presented as a challenge for the foals

[Tulips]

Spoiler

I saw some of the leaked season 8 episodes, and I’m officially ready for FiM to go away.  There are WAAAAAAY too many different species in this thing now.  I can’t wait til this thing is cancelled..

How do you figure that? It has roughly the same amount of species G1 has.

Well let's see:
Alicorn
Unicorn
Earth pony
Pegasus
Changeling
Bat pony
Dragon
Hippogriff
Yak
Seapony
Minotaur
Mule
Centaur
Sea serpent
Dog
Buffalo

If you count the movie and comics
Cat
Bird

Eh. Maybe. 

Don't forget the sentient Cows they farm!

[mlly]

I'm still hoping that concept art isn't actually official.. (it most likely is though  )

Cause if it is then that means even in G5 we still can't get away from the Mane 6 uuuugggghhhhhhh 

No more Mane 6 or extreme over-focus on 'core' casts in G5 PLEASE I am BEGGING...

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

I'm still hoping that concept art isn't actually official.. (it most likely is though  )

Cause if it is then that means even in G5 we still can't get away from the Mane 6 uuuugggghhhhhhh 

No more Mane 6 or extreme over-focus on 'core' casts in G5 PLEASE I am BEGGING...

Don't forget that since this is pretty early concept art, things will likely change. Ultimately, it's up to Hasbro what G5 will be like. As much as I love this concept AJ as well as the slight G2 inspired art style, I also really hope we don't have the Mane 6 again. That's the last thing MLP needs. I think the way early G3 did it was perfect, have a few ponies that get more releases than others and are featured more in the cartoons (Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Minty, etc), but still have a wide variety of ponies.