Random/off topic pony thoughts

[Leave a Whisper]

A cohesive story is one that is fairly well put together, has a beginning, middle and end to whatever the plot is and has decent pacing at the least. It does not matter if its a one episode story or  multi-parter story

An uncohesive story is all over the place, poorly written, has poor pacing etc. Castlevania Animated is a good example of this, despite having a conclusion to the initial plot line.

You're thinking of cartoons with multiple seasons and an overarching storyline told, from beginning to end, like Avatar the Last Airbender which is an excellent example.

Neither type of toon are mutually exclusive, or inclusive to the other. It all depends on the skill of the writer(s).

Tales is just as episodic as Friends, in that you can tune into an episode at any given day, and not worry that you missed major plot points. Very few cartoons had overarching seasons, and it was a rarer cartoon that had an actual ending to the whole thing.

Thus as an example, Friend's Somnambula is just as cohesive as Tale's Happy Birthday Sweetheart.

Both stories are well-put together, have things explained, have decent pacing and resolves the conflict within their respective episodes.

And as for being a commercial, all of MLP is. Tales/ Seven Characters have toys do they not?

Hasbro makes toys and enhances it with media. That is their bread and butter. It's what they've been doing for years.

To say otherwise of either the cohesive stories, or their purpose in using media to help sell their toys, is being nitpicky.

[Lilja]

My opinion that I expressed was that MLP 'n Friends in general puts more focus on pushing products and less focus on creating a cohesive world and characters than Tales. This does NOT mean I think Tales NEVER does a story to advertise toys (each "Rainbow" family got their own episode after all), or that Friends NEVER has good writing. I'm saying IN GENERAL. It doesn't have to be one thing or the other.

A problem with Somnabula (ignoring the obvious continuity problem with previous episodes/movies) is that it's very unclear what the relationships are between the "girl" ponies and the big brothers. Are Buttons and Slugger siblings or boyfriend and girlfriend? There are things that point to both, because the writers were to careless to clarify this, which makes the whole thing needlessly uncomfortable. In Happy Birthday Sweetheart however, the relationships between the characters are extremely clear (and consistent with what we see in most episodes of Tales).

I have never even implied that a series being episodic means it's automatically bad somehow. Or that one episode always needs follow directly after another (although I do think the characters/world should still be consistent between episodes). So I'm not sure where that came from.

[Leave a Whisper]

Tales has self contained stories is what I meant. Not episodic.

[Taffeta]

I have to admit the idea that the Tales characters were 10 years old yet sold as adult toys was something that bothered me as a teenager watching for the first time and bothers me now.

I admit that I like Tales more than the MLP & Friends series, and I was never a big watcher of the series so aside a few eps I don't have Lilja's level of detail for those. I will always wonder how PE and Lullabye Nursery became a combined entity in Revolt of PE but it never really worried me as a kid watching, so I'm not sure how much other jumps would matter...

I feel like because I watched most of the Friends eps as a teenager I am not qualified to comment on plot in the same way as I am the four I grew up with.

IMO neither Friends or Tales are geared up as effectively to sell product as Jem. Tales is probably worse at it because it mangles the dynamic of the rainbow families, adds a sibling, changes symbols on the male ponies and so on. But on the flipside not including the other rollerskates ponies is kind of like not including all the SS ponies or whatever. We still don't know why Baby Buttons appears in Crunch the Rock Dog, either, and there are at least 2 naming blips in Friends (ignoring the UK/US name differences, there's Score and Lilac, neither of which are actual production names post-release).

So honestly I don't think either does a great job of selling products. The masses of not made characters across both series are also a key element of that.

But I grew up with the comic and so I am probably missing important details of both.

What I will say is that Tales was a complete canonical reboot that reached every element of MLP at the end of G1. Although there are ponies that were made in the line that were not featured in the animation, some of them were featured in the comic (rollerskates ponies, Princess Sparkle, Bridal Beauty...) which was also taken over in 1992 by this new updated version of Ponyland. The Glowing Magics and the Rockin' Beats were reinvented at the same time to fit this new narrative as well (admittedly Glowing Magics I think are only in the cartoon, they aren't reinvented in the comic). The merchandise from the time was also dominated by the tales ponies. This was Hasbro trying to reinvent the G1 line in the early 1990s, maybe for a European market. But that in itself poses some advertising problems for the cartoon, because it's being made in a place that has no apparent plans to sell any of the products and possibly is being made by people who don't really know what the actual line will consist of when it does hit the market. That may explain why they drew on those 2 old sets from prior to Tales because they were confident in those as products that kids might identify with.

The schoolhouse was another element that was already out and being sold before MLP Tales happened. It wasn't introduced for the Tales ponies, it's designed for the Schooltime and Playschool ponies, and they continued to feature on the box even into the time after those ponies were retired.

Tales are also, officially, part of the 1993 release here, as are all of the other ponies released the same year. The animation is 1992 and since this production is being run by Hasbro International and not Hasbro in the US...it probably wasn't as much focused on advertising as previous. Bearing in mind the series aired in the US and probably would not have been intended to sell toys there.

[Lilja]

So honestly I don't think either does a great job of selling products. The masses of not made characters across both series are also a key element of that.

That's probably true to some extent. I think most kids watched the cartoon because they were already into the toys. Or they would've been predisposed to colorful fantasy horses either way. It likely didn't matter much if the cartoon was good or bad, as long as there was ponies on screen kids would watch it. I sure watched a lot it as a kid, even though in hindsight there were things that bothered me about it (back then my main annoyance was when the villains/guest characters took too much attention away from the ponies).

Just because a cartoon exists mainly to sell toys doesn't automatically make it a bad cartoon of course, it all depends on how they go about it. I think Jem did a good job showcasing products without it being too obtrusive or dictating the plot of the episodes. Hasbro wasn't satisfied with Jem's sales, but I bet without the cartoon they would've been much lower. I think it's telling that there are so many who still fondly remember the Jem cartoon, but the toys not so much. With MLP it's the other way around. While the G1 MLP cartoons have their fans, it's extremely rare to see someone who is a fan of them without also being a fan of the toys.

And the whole situation with Tales is super interesting! I wish we knew more about its developement. Why its world is so drastically different to everything that came before, and why they decided to make a cartoon in the US to advertise toys that would only be sold in Europe. I don't think anything like that has ever happened before or since.

[Taffeta]

Yeah, Jem definitely survived better as a series than its toyline did, because the proportions were different from Barbie and Mattel introduced the rockers which basically dealt the fatal blow.

Aside "Glitter and Gold", which is a 20 minute shameless infomercial of New Stuff cloaked in a record selling competition...I'd say Jem does a great job of promoting the characters and what's available. But it just didn't last...

SheRa also followed the pony "not many toys given attention but still hugely successful" TV series model.

I'm also curious about what/how/why the Tales series happened. I guess we won't ever know

[Leave a Whisper]

I sincerely hope G5 isn't going to have moulded hair in place of actual, decent quality hair.

[starrynights]

I sincerely hope G5 isn't going to have moulded hair in place of actual, decent quality hair.

Me too....

[Ponybookworm]

I sincerely hope G5 isn't going to have moulded hair in place of actual, decent quality hair.

Me too....

Me three

[InkyMilk]

I had a dream last night that I was at Target and on the shelf was the very first pony toys released for G5. I first saw Applejack, which I figured made sense as she's a classic, and let me tell you...this pony was SO CUTE!!! It looked like a blend of G1 and G3 and it was SO pretty and cute and I absolutely loved her! Soon after I saw more ponies, I think Big Mac and then another boy pony without a name. It was so exciting, because there was a definite vibe of returning to the ways of G1 and G3 by releasing lots of unique ponies, regardless of weather or not they were in a show.

I'll tell you, I was so disappointed to wake up and realize those ponies weren't real. I wish I could picture them more clearly, but all I remember is they were SOOOOOOO freaking adorable!!!

[Leave a Whisper]

I've had a dream like that too. Though the ponies in mine were tweaked Wind Whistler, Majesty and some new ones. I.hope it comes true Inky.

[BlackCurtains]

What's the deal with baby ponies? Are baby versions of adults the same pony? Is it like Mario Kart where Mario has an existential crisis when Baby Mario wins the race because he's both Mario and NOT Mario so therefore Mario Mario didn't actually win?

[Ponybookworm]

What's the deal with baby ponies? Are baby versions of adults the same pony? Is it like Mario Kart where Mario has an existential crisis when Baby Mario wins the race because he's both Mario and NOT Mario so therefore Mario Mario didn't actually win?

I think they're Mini-Me's ala Austin Powers, at least according to UK comic lore, which has their mothers looking at a mirror & receiving "clones" of themselves like Jango & Boba Fett...

Whatever they are, the fact there are Baby Ponies is cute, & though some are just like their Mums while others are a great Mum/Dad combo (think Loving Families), there are others who are distinctly different...

[Taffeta]

Eh, the only baby ponies known to come through the mirror are the original set of baby pegasus and unicorn ponies, none of whom were sold in the UK anyway (I actually can't remember if Blossom and CC were included).

Since we never saw that method again, I kind of ignore it as a one off. The original newborn twins were brought to life from drawings on a paper, by Baby Lucky. And Baby Half Note was found randomly abandoned on an island. But most just "came to live in ponyland", often without guardians.

But hey, babies can look like their parents and can also have the same names as their parents. Or Baby is a temporary name until they grow up and choose their own.

TBH the lack of males in ponyland is more of a problem. I think magic is probably much more involved in pony babies...but the Missile Launcher proves that biology is an option as well

[Leave a Whisper]

I will never not laugh at Mummy Missile Launcher. Someone needs to show off a video of her in action.