Random/off topic pony thoughts

[SpacePinto]

Whenever I watch the "Slumber Party" episode of My Little Pony Tales, i can't help but think that Squire was originally supposed to die in it, but it wouldn't fly past the censors so they had to change that. Just think about it, Patch's ghost story doesn't really make much sense, seing how ghost stories are meant to be scary and there's nothing scary about a dragon simply walking away while the protagonist was temporarily stuck in a hole, plus when we actually see Squire's ghost at the end he's still the same age, implying he never got any older than he was in the story. Now when you see the scene where Patch's story ends with him falling into the hole, imagine that she says something like "and then he fell into the hole and was never seen again, but some say his ghost is still out there" instead, and now the whole episode complete with the twist ending suddenly makes a whole lot of sense!

Oh ... oh no! I wonder if you're right!! Welp, goodbye sleep!

I was thinking about asking George Arthur Bloom himself for clarification on that, but I don't know if he is available anywhere online

[Lilja]

Whenever I watch the "Slumber Party" episode of My Little Pony Tales, i can't help but think that Squire was originally supposed to die in it, but it wouldn't fly past the censors so they had to change that. Just think about it, Patch's ghost story doesn't really make much sense, seing how ghost stories are meant to be scary and there's nothing scary about a dragon simply walking away while the protagonist was temporarily stuck in a hole, plus when we actually see Squire's ghost at the end he's still the same age, implying he never got any older than he was in the story. Now when you see the scene where Patch's story ends with him falling into the hole, imagine that she says something like "and then he fell into the hole and was never seen again, but some say his ghost is still out there" instead, and now the whole episode complete with the twist ending suddenly makes a whole lot of sense!

Oh ... oh no! I wonder if you're right!! Welp, goodbye sleep!

I was thinking about asking George Arthur Bloom himself for clarification on that, but I don't know if he is available anywhere online

I don't think he is. The guy is in his 70s and has worked on a huge amount of cartoon movies and episodes over the course of his life. I doubt he'd remember such a minor detail from a cartoon episode he wrote nearly 30 years ago. But yeah, if it's a scary story and Squire's ghost is supposed to be haunting, it'd make more sense for him to die in it (although if the story took place a long time ago he'd be dead either way). Falling down a hole is a pretty safe and child friendly way to go in a cartoon, but maybe even that was considered a bit too much.

That said, I'd be really interested in learning more about the production of Tales in general. Like who created the main characters and for what purpose. If it was mainly for the cartoon or mainly for them to be made into toys (considering the toys never released in the US). What the intended market was and why it was such a departure from earlier pony cartoons.

[Carrehz]

I'd love to hear more production stories about both G1 cartoons. But yeah, Tales is a bit of a mystery.

I want to know how they ended up calling the Glow 'n' Shows "Glowing Magicals", which is almost the UK name. I wonder if they got renamed halfway through production, and Hasbro UK/the Tales crew just didn't get the message? Or something.

[Taffeta]

I'd love to hear more production stories about both G1 cartoons. But yeah, Tales is a bit of a mystery.

I want to know how they ended up calling the Glow 'n' Shows "Glowing Magicals", which is almost the UK name. I wonder if they got renamed halfway through production, and Hasbro UK/the Tales crew just didn't get the message? Or something.

I still think the show was made in the US for a European market. There's the prominence of football as the sport as well, which would make more sense in Europe. And the ponies were marketed here, so it makes sense in that context as well.

I don't think that it's about a lack of communication. I think each Hasbro branch had its own power to name or rename ponies and sets to successfully market them in whichever country.

Besides, there is timeline problem with a lack of communication, since both Glowing Magic and MLPTales happened chronologically after Glow & Show (1991 vs 1992). So a deliberate change and a target market makes more sense IMO. Sadly we can't see how "Tuneful" is spelt in a Tales context, as we don't have the scripts. xD.

UK also added a g to Rockin' Beats to make it Rocking, and took an l from Tunefull to make her Tuneful. Tiny details like that almost certainly were local.

I generally assume the UK renamed sets and ponies according to their own personal preferences or needs, but we do know in at least one case that went in reverse with Cherry Berry.

I think it's sad we don't have access to the kinds of things for MLP that do exist for other 80s shows.

[Leave a Whisper]

Can you imagine if the Rainbows, Twinkle Eyes, Brush n Grows and Rainbow Curls had their hair horizontally striped like the UK Family Ponies? That would be so gorgeous

[Safflower]

Can you imagine if the Rainbows, Twinkle Eyes, Brush n Grows and Rainbow Curls had their hair horizontally striped like the UK Family Ponies? That would be so gorgeous

Pretty, and VERY hard to rehair

[MJNSEIFER]

On the subject of the Glow n' Show Ponies and the Rockin' Beats, I wonder why they had different designs in My Little Pony Tales to what they did in the toyline?  I noticed it with the latter, when I started checking out the toyline, but it took me time to realise this with the former, for some reason.  I mean, why would you advertise a toyline by including them in your cartoon, and then redesign them? 

I knew for a long time that they made Dazzleglow an alicorn, but I assumed that was because they couldn't think of how to make her fly and use magic (G1 Twilight could fly without wings in at least one book, but maybe they didn't know that?), but they actually changed the look and pony type of all of them (Starglow remained a pegasus) for some reason.  In fact, they look different on their shared backcard as well - the Glow n' Shows have at least three designs!

[Leave a Whisper]

Whenever I watch the "Slumber Party" episode of My Little Pony Tales, i can't help but think that Squire was originally supposed to die in it, but it wouldn't fly past the censors so they had to change that. Just think about it, Patch's ghost story doesn't really make much sense, seing how ghost stories are meant to be scary and there's nothing scary about a dragon simply walking away while the protagonist was temporarily stuck in a hole, plus when we actually see Squire's ghost at the end he's still the same age, implying he never got any older than he was in the story. Now when you see the scene where Patch's story ends with him falling into the hole, imagine that she says something like "and then he fell into the hole and was never seen again, but some say his ghost is still out there" instead, and now the whole episode complete with the twist ending suddenly makes a whole lot of sense!

Oh ... oh no! I wonder if you're right!! Welp, goodbye sleep!

I was thinking about asking George Arthur Bloom himself for clarification on that, but I don't know if he is available anywhere online

I don't think he is. The guy is in his 70s and has worked on a huge amount of cartoon movies and episodes over the course of his life. I doubt he'd remember such a minor detail from a cartoon episode he wrote nearly 30 years ago. But yeah, if it's a scary story and Squire's ghost is supposed to be haunting, it'd make more sense for him to die in it (although if the story took place a long time ago he'd be dead either way). Falling down a hole is a pretty safe and child friendly way to go in a cartoon, but maybe even that was considered a bit too much.

That said, I'd be really interested in learning more about the production of Tales in general. Like who created the main characters and for what purpose. If it was mainly for the cartoon or mainly for them to be made into toys (considering the toys never released in the US). What the intended market was and why it was such a departure from earlier pony cartoons.

I don't see how it would be too much? The ponies magically exploded two of their foes.

Not to mention Disney's most violent villain death  was stabbed, electrocuted and exploded all in one go. Like were the people who animated that one inspired by JAWS 1 and 2?

[Taffeta]

On the subject of the Glow n' Show Ponies and the Rockin' Beats, I wonder why they had different designs in My Little Pony Tales to what they did in the toyline?  I noticed it with the latter, when I started checking out the toyline, but it took me time to realise this with the former, for some reason.  I mean, why would you advertise a toyline by including them in your cartoon, and then redesign them? 

I knew for a long time that they made Dazzleglow an alicorn, but I assumed that was because they couldn't think of how to make her fly and use magic (G1 Twilight could fly without wings in at least one book, but maybe they didn't know that?), but they actually changed the look and pony type of all of them (Starglow remained a pegasus) for some reason.  In fact, they look different on their shared backcard as well - the Glow n' Shows have at least three designs!

Given how many variations there are within the Glowing Magic set, it almost seems right that there are so many ways they're being represented. You're entirely ignoring the multiple different ways they're illustrated in the UK comics as well.

I assume it's because the TV series world doesn't tend to understand magic in the same way as the comic-verse, where flying and magic were not limited by species in the way that they tended to be in the animation. Though I don't think it's a huge deal adding Dazzleglow etc's wings. There are some bloopers in the earlier animation that do similar to ponies unintentionally after all

Tuneful lost her horn because Tales world isn't a magical world. Dazzleglow and company are special so they are allowed such features, but the ordinary ponies were just earth ponies, so Tuneful lost her horn.

...No ideas on the green, that's a bit odd:) But another interesting point is that Teddy, Ace and Lancer also have multiple different designs depending on the medium being used.

My point being that just looking at the TV series means you miss a lot of details.

[Lilja]

Every iteration of G1 (cartoons, books, comics etc.) operates under its own rules, so what applies to one does not necessary apply to another. I think Tales in general was more focused on creating cohesive stories, rather than bending over backwards to advertise Hasbro's latest products. The toyline ponies that do appear (apart from the seven main ones) seem like they were put in because it served the story of the episode, and the writers had no trouble making alterations to make them fit in better. Maybe Hasbro gave them a list of ponies that could be featured, but didn't enforce it. There were several episodes where they could easily have featured then current toyline ponies (princess, wedding, rollerskating episodes), but didn't.

In the case with the Glow 'n Shows, I see two possible reasons why they were given wings. One could be to clearly highlight that they are fantastical creatures and not the same as the other ponies. Another could be that their purpose in the story was to save Patch and Bon Bon from a hot air balloon crash, and therefore having wings makes them fill this role more naturally (and kind of makes them seem like angels coming to the rescue). Tales episodes have a pretty short runtime and there's not a lot of time to explain things. It makes sense they'd use visual cues like these to get information across more effectively.

I think there might be a similar reasoning for why the Sunbright family's design was altered so heavily, when the other two families match their toys' color schemes very well. Since their episode is about prejudices against people from other cultures, the ponies were given a more light brownish color instead of yellow. This sets them apart from most other ponies we see on the show. And in the society we live in, people with skin colors similar to theirs often face negative stereotypes, so it drives home the point more effectively to the audience that's watching.

[Leave a Whisper]

I don't get why some people have this strange notion that Friends didn't have cohesive stories?

[SpacePinto]

I don't get why some people have this strange notion that Friends didn't have cohesive stories?

It's mostly just bronies bashing older generations without knowing anything about them, as always.

[Taffeta]

I don't get why some people have this strange notion that Friends didn't have cohesive stories?

It's mostly just bronies bashing older generations without knowing anything about them, as always.

I think they have cohesive stories but the stories are often self-contained tales. So they were split into parts and told that whole story, but there isn't an obvious canonical link between what happened in one story vs another story. So you don't have them referring back to the events of a previous encounter or using the experience of that encounter (exception End of Flutter Valley).

I am not sure if you really have that with Tales either, tbh. Or with FIM in the bits I've seen - it seems like a series where it doesn't really matter a lot which series the ep is from or if they're in order because aside a few notable things (Twilight got wings!?!) there's not a lot that carries over?

So it's really just a kid's show thing, probably. But the stories in G1 hold together. They just don't tell a wider ranging arc.

It's also kind of true of Jem, although there are a FEW things in Jem which, if you look for them, do carry over, the only real main shifts are the addition of Jetta and Raya and the introduction of the Stingers.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I am not sure if you really have that with Tales either, tbh. Or with FIM in the bits I've seen - it seems like a series where it doesn't really matter a lot which series the ep is from or if they're in order because aside a few notable things (Twilight got wings!?!) there's not a lot that carries over?

I feel like we're seeing a lot more kids shows that have a serialized storytelling thing, but I guess that's just She-Ra and binging/Netflix stuff. I know stuff like the Owl House and Amphibia have some sort of season/series-long thread? I haven't seen those personally so I can't really speak on that but I do feel like it's becoming a bit more of a "thing" right now versus episodic stuff.
If I may take the opportunity to spew some FiM thoughts.

Spoiler

I can definitely feel that there was some sort of want for longer story threads, but I feel like the ones we got were really rushed. What did we have...the Grand Galloping Gala in S1 (with...three? episodes), the Friendship Games in S3-4 (at least two episodes), the rainbow key thing in S4 (6.5 because of the two-parter finale and also I GUESS that hint in the opener), and the proto-EOH thing in whatever season that was with the campfire story and then other episodes. That one is so forgettable to me.
The proto-EOH was definitely one I remember hearing mutterings about how they wanted it to happen over two seasons, or like, something with more cohesion...I can barely remember what happened with the characters. I think they should have just dropped that one, especially since it felt much less about the ponies actually learning a lesson/being an interesting story than it did a gigantic lore dump.
I hold that the rainbow key thing was the best season-arc because these were all things that tried to challenge the elements of the ponies and they made sense as a way to challenge the CHARACTERS, which are the reason I watch the show. Look, Rarity's generosity backfired! Oh no, Fluttershy is being nice but it's detrimental to the breezies! These make sense and it's fun to see the characters challenged.
The loredump thing was just a loredump. We had a Daring Do episode (the most boring episodes in the entire series, I don't even caare about Indiana Horse) that says "this egyptian pony something crossed the leap of faith" and then something happened, but Pinkie wasn't challenged. She didn't learn anything about how sometimes you aren't always the source of laughter or whatever, it wasn't even HER story...but the egyptian pony is supposed to be her parallel.
Then we had that campfire episode where the CMC+sibs got in a cave and said some tales to each other and then nothing was learned. Go team.
THEN we had the best episode in that entire arc, where Fluttershy learned about self-care and whatnot and it makes SENSE. Lore is integrated into the story rather than overshadowing the interesting part, and it's not shoehorned in. Zecora is sick with an olden disease, oh no, we have to find the cure, oh Fluttershy is so tired because she feels guilty for making her sick. She runs herself down (which serves to better prove the point of the moral) through research and then finds breadcrumbs of information leading her to eventually find out about the ancient healer who found the cure to the disease by doing mystery thing. Fluttershy learns that you can't just muscle through everything and you need to take care of yourself (be kind to) before you can take care of others. Yes, this makes sense because her whole thing is kindness.
More of THAT please, but with all the characters. So I actually care.
The finale to the arc was such a joke. Oh there's this villain oh no he's like evil or whatever. Ok, well maybe if you had given us information/alluded to him beforehand I would CARE. Good lord he comes up like ONCE and then never again. Like oh, what was THAT. I think a BREEZE blew by. How WEIRD.

Ok, I've procrastinated too much on this assignment.

My thought of the day: Where oh Where is the G5 information.

[Lilja]

Not sure if it's my comments being alluded to, but I stand by them either way. It's not like either show is completely incomprehensible, but in general I think Tales' stories, world and characters are more coherent and consistent than MLP 'n Friends. For one thing, characters don't blink in and out of existence, and no large buildings pop up out of nowhere because Hasbro had a new toy to sell in Tales.

If we take The End of Flutter Valley as an example. This story is meant to follow the events of the movie, but the pony population has been reduced to five ponies + one baby, and the flutter ponies have been reduced from a huge swarm to just six. One could excuse this I guess, because this is just how the old show worked (old characters disappear, new ones appear depending on what toys are on the shelves). But if we look at the episode as a self contained story there are some pretty blatant inconsistencies:

*The stonebacks try to kill the furbobs + ponies by wrecking the bridge they're standing on. By the end the stonebacks are portrayed as misunderstood and make up with the furbobs. The previous murder attempt is never explained or addressed.
*Queen Bumble is dangled over a hole and is terrified for her life, even though she has wings and flies without problems at several points in the episode. A child can easily notice this inconsistency.
*After fighting over the sunstone with Queen Bumble and her army throughout the whole episode, Queen Bumble changes her mind immediately at the end when Rosedust says she's allowed to come to Flutter Valley for flowers. This is inconsistent with how extremely greedy her character has been portrayed up to this point. A competent writer should've built up to and foreshadowed this moment. MLP 'n Friends in general is full of these types of easy "quick fixes" in their stories.

I could point out many similar things in other episodes (I have watched them hundreds of times since childhood, so I know my stuff), but I feel I've made my point. Kind of funny how in MLP 'n Friends the writers created confusion by having a character with wings be afraid of falling, but in Tales they gave wings to characters that shouldn't have them just to make sure kids would be able to follow what was going on.