Things You Wish Hasbro Hadn't Done With FIM (TV Show or Toy Line)

[Al-1701]

Yeah, the buffalo = Native American thing was such a bad idea and it honestly baffles me when people say the quality of FiM has gone so downhill when this mess was in the very first season.

It made the Apple family into bad people and the overall message of sharing was ridiculous given the entire natives vs settlers metaphor.

That entire episode was a brain fart by Faust starting with a 2000 horse power train (complete with locomotive) pulled by 4 ponies.  However, the buffalo and the conflict were handled terribly.

I think we're more forgiving of earlier seasons because they're earlier seasons.  There are always growing pains.  However, when you pull the same stunt in Season 5 or worse, there is no excuse.

[Zapper]

Yeah, the buffalo = Native American thing was such a bad idea and it honestly baffles me when people say the quality of FiM has gone so downhill when this mess was in the very first season.

It made the Apple family into bad people and the overall message of sharing was ridiculous given the entire natives vs settlers metaphor.

That entire episode was a brain fart by Faust starting with a 2000 horse power train (complete with locomotive) pulled by 4 ponies.  However, the buffalo and the conflict were handled terribly.

I think we're more forgiving of earlier seasons because they're earlier seasons.  There are always growing pains.  However, when you pull the same stunt in Season 5 or worse, there is no excuse.

I don't see it as growing pains, it was a tired storyline and wrong on another level. Anyone could have recognized that this wasn't a good idea for any sharing message because we all know that stealing land is not sharing.

About the Yaks, the FiM folks just continued to portray different people as different animals because that's what they established in the very first season. They just don't care.

I wish they would finally show the zebra land but it would probably be just straw huts and zebras banging on drums

I know who Sia is, I've heard her music but I'm not a fan.  Apparently Hasbro thought she was awesome enough to have a pony version of her.  Honestly I think her whole hiding her face thing is stupid.
She has been seen without her wigs before through leaks and stuff.  Her thing was to be anonymous so that if people saw her on the street they wouldn't know it was her and she could be a normal person.

You know it's too bad that David Bowie passed away, because I feel like he could have been the one to have done a cameo in the movie instead of Sia.  He could have looked like Ziggy Stardust or something.  It would have been epic.

So you would have wanted a celeb ponysona with a silly gimmick, just not the celeb they have chosen because you don't like her music, but do you really think kids would have recognized and hyped Bowie Pony? It would have been just another thing for the parents and adult fans like having Big Lebowski ponies that many here seem to hate especially.
Sia is popular right now and she has been around for a long while. Just didn't use the gimmick.

I think the Sia pony is just a visual gag for the movie song. She's only there to deliver the song and that's it. It's ok to not like her, but it's cross-marketing for the soundtrack.

[Al-1701]

Actually, that gets into a larger issue.  Why is the world Equestria is in an analogue for our world?  All the cultures are essentially cultures we have.  Equestria is just the U.S. and southern Canada with horse puns.  Couldn't they have created a world that did not fit our world so exactly?  I can already here the "It's so kids can relate better" which is a pathetic excuse for laziness.

[Leave a Whisper]

Actually, that gets into a larger issue.  Why is the world Equestria is in an analogue for our world?  All the cultures are essentially cultures we have.  Equestria is just the U.S. and southern Canada with horse puns.  Couldn't they have created a world that did not fit our world so exactly?  I can already here the "It's so kids can relate better" which is a pathetic excuse for laziness.

The Moochick's song, Everybody Has to Have a Home. He sang about real locations that he, a resident of a fantasy land shouldn't have known about, since he'd only met Megan once prior and they hadn't had time to chit-chat about Earth's geography on their way to stop Tirek.

[Al-1701]

G1 had the out of Megan being from our world.  The fact our world exists is enough.  Who's to say he doesn't trot to and from out of sight?  He seemed quite at home at the villa in Capri.

It also plays to his eccentric old man persona.  Why does he know of these places?  Because he's the freaking Moochic.

FiM has no connection at all.  And it's not just one eccentric old man, it's the whole place.  And, as this conversation has shown, it opens us up to all kinds of issues when this show tries to get topical. 

[Zapper]

I think G1 started doing it with MLP Tales. But everyone was just a pony. I remember an episode with the Family ponies that took place in what was obviously meant to be Hawaii and they were represented as natives.
But they weren't another species, they weren't "primitive" and the message was about overcoming prejudice.

Something the first season of FiM did with all the ponies judging Zecora's appearance and customs and spreading rumors about her just because she was a zebra... then in the same season ponies take away land from other species. The pony race in G4 is kind of terrible and that's why they need a Princess of Friendship and a Princess of Love

But seriously, that's what I would change about the show. That all people are just ponies and not other species. Or at least horse-like like the Saddle Arabians who are just Arabian horses and not camels with turbans or something dumb like that.

[Leave a Whisper]

I think G1 started doing it with MLP Tales. But everyone was just a pony. I remember an episode with the Family ponies that took place in what was obviously meant to be Hawaii and they were represented as natives.
But they weren't another species, they weren't "primitive" and the message was about overcoming prejudice.

Something the first season of FiM did with all the ponies judging Zecora's appearance and customs and spreading rumors about her just because she was a zebra... then in the same season ponies take away land from other species. The pony race in G4 is kind of terrible and that's why they need a Princess of Friendship and a Princess of Love

But seriously, that's what I would change about the show. That all people are just ponies and not other species. Or at least horse-like like the Saddle Arabians who are just Arabian horses and not camels with turbans or something dumb like that.

Yeah they have a superiority problem alright.

Would the lead camel be named Sheik Carbombya? And would he swear on the honor of his family's livestock? 

[Zapper]

Hahaha! Oh man, I remember Carbombya. Or the international battle of the bands in Jem and the group from Japan were just a bunch of Geishas. I guess Hasbro can't stop being Hasbro

But wouldn't it be cute if there were international ponies (more than just fake accents but actual pony lands with other cultures) and they'd all kind of correspond to horse breeds from those places, like the Saddle Arabians?
Maybe I've found myself a fanart project.

That brings me to donkeys. Donkeys can talk and seem to live with ponies. But at least Rarity has called mules ugly before. So there is even more prejudice! Terrible ponies!

[Leave a Whisper]

Hahaha! Oh man, I remember Carbombya. Or the international battle of the bands in Jem and the group from Japan were just a bunch of Geishas. I guess Hasbro can't stop being Hasbro

But wouldn't it be cute if there were international ponies (more than just fake accents but actual pony lands with other cultures) and they'd all kind of correspond to horse breeds from those places, like the Saddle Arabians?
Maybe I've found myself a fanart project.

That brings me to donkeys. Donkeys can talk and seem to live with ponies. But at least Rarity has called mules ugly before. So there is even more prejudice! Terrible ponies!

That would be really cool.

Wigwam and Kimono would of course have to come back. Oh and Desert Palm and Baby Paws and Lancer and brand new ones for other places.

[Al-1701]

I think Larsen said he got a lot of hate mail over Saddle Arabia and its inhabitants.  I know it long time to make a brony board I was on understand that the Saddle Arabians were designed to resemble Arabian horses (they didn't even know there was such a breed).  So, maybe Hasbro believes they need to be different species so the kiddies (and bronies) understand they're different.

[Leave a Whisper]

I think Larsen said he got a lot of hate mail over Saddle Arabia and its inhabitants.  I know it long time to make a brony board I was on understand that the Saddle Arabians were designed to resemble Arabian horses (they didn't even know there was such a breed).  So, maybe Hasbro believes they need to be different species so the kiddies (and bronies) understand they're different.

Waah wah wah I say! Nm that Arabian horses are one of the most beautiful, popular and easily recognizable breeds.

 Then again, I actually met some people who actually believed horses had humanoid mammary glands instead of teats like other four legged mammals. 

[Al-1701]

Then again, I actually met some people who actually believed horses had humanoid mammary glands instead of teats like other four legged mammals. 

I wouldn't be all surprised if it wasn't because of a certain brony fan character with such anatomy.

[Zapper]

Hatemail because they weren't MLPs or hatemail because they came from the pony equivalent of Arabia? I don't quite get it.
Tbh, back when that episode aired I thought they were meant as a callback to Dream Beauties or the Carousel ponies with the molded on saddles. Very pretty designs.

[Leave a Whisper]

Then again, I met some people who actually believed horses had humanoid mammary glands instead of teats like other four legged mammals. 

I wouldn't be all surprised if it wasn't because of a certain brony fan character with such anatomy.

That's no excuse. Thats like saying they don't know what a real cow, shark or dog looks like. Unless those people were part of a super bizarre and specific experiment since birth, they've seen a horse at a pony ride, or on a calendar or carousel.

Post Merge: August 06, 2017, 12:10:08 PM

Hatemail because they weren't MLPs or hatemail because they came from the pony equivalent of Arabia? I don't quite get it.
Tbh, back when that episode aired I thought they were meant as a callback to Dream Beauties or the Carousel ponies with the molded on saddles. Very pretty designs.

I actually haven't seen them. I'll take a look.

Edit: They are pretty and have muzzles. I want Hasbro to make those.

[Ponyfan]

G1 had the out of Megan being from our world.  The fact our world exists is enough.  Who's to say he doesn't trot to and from out of sight?  He seemed quite at home at the villa in Capri.

It also plays to his eccentric old man persona.  Why does he know of these places?  Because he's the freaking Moochic.

FiM has no connection at all.  And it's not just one eccentric old man, it's the whole place.  And, as this conversation has shown, it opens us up to all kinds of issues when this show tries to get topical. 

I really like the idea that the Moochick might travel between our world and Ponyland whenever he wants. Come to think of it he didn't seem sursprised at all that Megan and the ponies came looking for him.

I didn't like the yak characters at all. They were very rude and didn't even try to acknowledge that the ponies even tried to make them feel at home. Then there was the whole build up with Pinkie traveling to Yakistan only to slide all the way back to Ponyville and then to say that the ponies shouldn't have tried to make accomendations for the yaks but to show them what was unique about Ponyville didn't make sense at all.

I think the "Ponies in Paradise" episode of Tales was a good episode showing how someone shouldn't judge someone else before getting to know them. Poor Bright really thought the tropical ponies were going to throw her in the volcano.

Ponyfan