Unpopular Pony Opinions

[TJgamer]

Starlight Glimmer is a lot of fun to watch. Her rebellious tendencies makes me want to side with her a lot.
Maybe it's because I kinda feel that Twilight and her friends haven't really earned their roles as mentors.

As for them being friends, there's a number of things to consider.

To start, whenever the entire group is together, it's usually to go on adventure or discuss the current situation at hand. Nothing wrong with that, it's just that we don't really get much growth from the characters' intermingling during these times.

That said, I can easily see duos like Rarity + Fluttershy working as well as Pinkie Pie + Rainbow Dash being friends. However there are some that still make no sense to me, such as Applejack + Rarity and to an extent Pinkie Pie + Fluttershy.
I get that all friends have their disagreements and fights, but all Applejack and Rarity do together is butt heads, and we see it so much. 

Which leads me to another point. Obviously every episode has to have some form of conflict whether it be between friends, or some other external threat. Unfortunately because of that, we don't get to see quite enough of them actually being happy with each other. I've heard someone call it the "positivity void".

Fyi, I'm not a writing expert. That's just my take.   

[invaderhorizongreen]

From the looks of things, I may not collect any ponies from gen 5. With poor quality, distribution, and all that I am just about ready to toss in the towel on pony collecting.

[Taffeta]

So absolutely because of the discussion on here about Starlight, I went and watched the two sets of episode on Prime where she has her village/takes the marks and where she tries to take revenge/almost destroys Equestria.

I dunno if there's more to her 'bad guy' aspect, and her flip at the end is kind of quick, but I don't see an issue with her personally. Maybe it's an unpopular opinion but she's more real to me than the mane 6.

From my perspective I don't think she's an extremist, either. She went to extremes but that's not quite the same thing. She didn't know the consequences of stopping the Rainboom. She had reasons for what she did and she also had reason to resent Twilight and company. Meh, to me she's fine.

If anything bothered me it was the fact that Twilight called her trauma ridiculous. That and the fact they decided to be friends with her on a whim to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't cause problems, because she's exceptionally talented.

Not to take this more off topic, but the thing that makes her more interesting than the mane 6 to me in just those few episodes is the fact she is so gifted magically (as Twilight acknowledged) but wanted a world in which nobody's talent shone. She used her magic not to be superior but to force a fake "equality" and "friendship" to prevent anyone moving on and leaving her. So she wasn't fulfilling her potential either because she saw her friend achieve his and leave her behind and it hurt her.

So yeah. I'm grateful to the discussion coming up. I find Starlight interesting.

[Zapper]

I guess my unpopular opinion is that Starlight is finally an "evil" protagonist that is interesting and can be shown working through her massive issues which is more helpful than all those defeated warlords.

Discord had them against each other a couple of times, manipulating them to break their friendship. First his reason was that he was just born that way. Then his reason was that he was jealous and possessive. Now he is back to "born that way" doing manipulation and bullying. First to Twilight and then to Starlight, whom he is supposed to be friends with. Not even forced friends like with the Mane Six but naturally progressed. Yet he keeps on bullying.
I could write an essay about how keeping such a character around just to create conflict reinforces a harmful message about just tolerating toxic "friends" because it is much more realistic than someone who goes back in time Butterfly Effect style.
But the truth is I started to not give a damn about Discord anymore and only bring him up as a "gotcha!" when people start ranting about Communist equalist Starlight

At least she had a reason. Even if that reason was rooted in insecurity/selfdoubt/anger. Same with Tempest - she got dropped by her friends for being disabled. Do you see many disabled people irl going around helping a dictator who wants to imprison you and kill your mentors?
Cartoons have over the top villainy sometimes to showcase the bland good side to be so much better.
And Starlight was shown that destroying friendship leads to war and famine - this is extremely nuts but as I could see back then all those cartoon critics loved the "gritty MLP" with death and destruction. Ridiculous.

A little girl watching MLP might find it more realistic to stop a misguided evildoer by teaching them and leading them. Which is what happens with Starlight. And she keeps on getting better. While with Discord girls see an irl troll and bully you just have to stand somehow even when he conspires with someone who can kill you (Tirek).

So yeah, by the end of the day it's called "friendship is magic" and not "lock 'em up" which leads me to my problem with their idea of Tartarus and just a bunch of tiny cages standing around with normal dangerous animals inside... now that is something I have an actual issue with
I wish these "bad" animals wouldn't get locked away but shown kindness like first intended with Fluttershy's character.

[LadyMoondancer]

A little girl watching MLP might find it more realistic to stop a misguided evildoer by teaching them and leading them.

This reminds me of a post I read somewhere where a dad was introducing young kids to Dungeons & Dragons, and their first reaction to seeing a goblin--which is the low level Evil Grunt of D&D--was to try to befriend it because "Maybe he's just lonely." 

I loved the 2017 movie but yeah, having Fluttershy be scared of the weird animals in Klugetown was so wrong.  She should've been trying to free them.  Incidentally, apparently there was originally a subplot where the sea ponies locked up the Mane Six and Fluttershy convinced sea creatures to free them.  But it was cut for time. 

Starlight Glimmer actually seems a bit more nuanced than the Mane Six to me, possibly because she isn't the Element of [thing].  I really enjoyed that, even after 'turning good', she would sort of . . . try to do good things in a bad way.  I'm pretty sure I remember her trying to solve a friendship problem by screwing with ponies' heads, leading to disaster. And that is my jam.

I've never liked Discord, but the most recent episode with him had a particularly terrible moral.  Just complete BS.

[Ponyfan]

I'm not a big fan of Discord. I find it hard to believe that he is fully reformed due to the way he acts.  The only episode I've been able to buy his complete reformation is "To Where and Back Again" but it's obvious that he only joined the rescue party because Fluttershy was captured.  I've heard some suggest that Discord was just pretending to work with Tirek  but was really loyal to the ponies but that doesn't make sense when Discord gives Twilight the medallion and it turns in to Twilight's Friendship Key. The Friendship Keys are true symbols of friendship so it wouldn't have worked if Discord was just "playing along"

I also don't think he should have tried to throw Tree Hugger in to the alternate dimension just because Fluttershy invited her to the Grand Galloping Gala instead of him.


I think the sea ponies imprisioning the Mane 6 is mentioned in the Art of My Little Pony the movie book.  I'm pretty sure there's a picture of ananimation cel or concept art showing the Mane 6 looking through bars. I think it was probably supposed to fit in between Twilight getting caught and the next scene. There's also that seprate light up tower thing that comes with Sequestria. I wonder if that was part of the sea pony prison at one time.


Ponyfan

[Leave a Whisper]

A little girl watching MLP might find it more realistic to stop a misguided evildoer by teaching them and leading them.

This reminds me of a post I read somewhere where a dad was introducing young kids to Dungeons & Dragons, and their first reaction to seeing a goblin--which is the low level Evil Grunt of D&D--was to try to befriend it because "Maybe he's just lonely." 

I loved the 2017 movie but yeah, having Fluttershy be scared of the weird animals in Klugetown was so wrong.  She should've been trying to free them.  Incidentally, apparently there was originally a subplot where the sea ponies locked up the Mane Six and Fluttershy convinced sea creatures to free them.  But it was cut for time. 

Starlight Glimmer actually seems a bit more nuanced than the Mane Six to me, possibly because she isn't the Element of [thing].  I really enjoyed that, even after 'turning good', she would sort of . . . try to do good things in a bad way.  I'm pretty sure I remember her trying to solve a friendship problem by screwing with ponies' heads, leading to disaster. And that is my jam.

I've never liked Discord, but the most recent episode with him had a particularly terrible moral.  Just complete BS.

On the one hand, nothing wrong with compassion. Its better then learning to hate people different then you.

On the other hand, its up to parents to try and teach kids that not everyone is misunderstood and that some people out there are TRULY horrible or dangerous. They'll learn, many people learn that without serious incident.

[Khoufu]

Unpopular opinion: I like to watch people debate the quality of characters in a children's show.

[Taffeta]

Unpopular opinion: I like to watch people debate the quality of characters in a children's show.

Oh, me too!

Starlight discussion stuff in spoiler as somewhat OT, albeit I imagine most of it would count as 'unpopular opinion'

Spoiler

I can't comment on Starlight in all of her ep appearances, having only watched those 4. I think I am ok with her basically because I understand where she came from, why and how she ended up where she was. And ultimately she didn't want to destroy Equestria, she wanted to make it an equality utopia, completely missing the point that equality is not the same as, well, same.

I genuinely feel uncomfortable watching the mane 6 practice friendship in some episodes I have seen. Saying Starlight's neuroses were ridiculous because she couldn't relate to them was one of those moments. In Starlight's village, they were fundamentally rude (except Fluttershy) on encountering a different perspective of living. I don't say Starlight was right, but they should have been more open to that difference before assuming it was bad. I mean, Pinkie is hate glaring and judging the 'fake smiles' from the start. I get that's meant to clue kids in that This Is Wrong...but is it wrong? What Starlight did to make it happen is wrong and as time goes on, you realise yes, it is wrong because some of the ponies are unhappy and frightened. But in that initial moment, I dunno.

I am prone to overanalysing things because that's basically what I do in my academia, and I get it's a kid's show so there are a lot of very obvious pointers. But ironically I feel like it's a message preaching that everyone is different by telling them all to experience friendship in the same way It reminded me a lot of an episode of Jem called Roxy Rumbles, when Jem and the Holograms make nusiances of themselves telling people to just go learn to read instead of actually finding out why people can't. They basically get shown up by a ten year old who is the only one in the whole of the show that actually 'gets it'.

I do wonder about the voiceless individuals in Starlight's village whose opinion we never actually heard. And I also wonder about why so many ponies followed and believed Starlight's rhetoric and what had happened to them to bring to them to this point? The Mane 6 are not at all concerned with that depth. Again, kids tv show But we see a lot of them being brainwashed in a room, and not so much of them actually trying to understand what led the ponies to Starlight's village in the first place. So the show only presents the negatives of Starlight's mantra because it doesn't fit mane 6 friendship rhetoric.

Going back on topic of unpopular opinions..I really don't like Twilight as an alicorn. I have no issue with Starlight using magic to fly, unicorns have been doing that since G1 (at least in the comics they have) and even sometimes earth ponies. But I feel like alicorn is too much for a regular cast member. It should be left to the ancient divine types like Celestia and Luna. In my opinion.

[LadyMoondancer]

Yeah . . . I loved Celestia and Luna being the ONLY alicorns.

I have NEVER liked the idea of alicorns in MLP context before, it is not something I've ever wanted and in fact I kind of hate the idea.  It's just too extra.  But it made sense for those two because they were practically Greek deities, raising the sun and moon!

Then suddenly it's alicornpalooza.  Cadence, who BTW was originally scripted to be a UNICORN and I'm sure they only made her an alicorn so they'd have a pink alicorn to sell in place of Pinkestia.  Twilight Sparkle.  Flurry Heart. 

Flurry Heart is the worst narratively because she hasn't done anything to 'earn' it.  (Maybe if she doesn't do something grand when she grows up, her wings or horn will fall off? )  Although as a character, I'm surprised by how non-annoying Flurry Heart is.  I was expecting her to be the Scrappy Doo of the show, a constant annoying sidekick.  But she hardly ever shows up.

[Lady Frostbite]

I liked Celestia and Luna being the only Alicorns, but I wasn't too fussed about Cadence being one. Then again, I like Cadence! I like how she's more a 'teenage' level of Princess to start with, upbeat and getting on her hooves. I know there's a story where she was originally a pegasus that became an alicorn through some adventure, I just hated how she was introduced as Twilight's unmentioned brother's bride. Like, at least mention she exists before then! I would have been okay if she were a pegasus princess as well, so I'm fine either way. She's really pretty and has a sweet personality.

Flurry Heart ... I hate her design. Colours? Yes, lovely! But her huge eyes and gigantic head and overblown wings ... it's when Celestia and Luna said they didn't know how Alicorns were made or born that I had to go 'wait, whaaaaaaaat'. I'd have liked it if Celestia just laughed and said that sometimes they're born rather than made. But that confusion? It just makes the Sisters look like idiots.

Yeah, to echo what's already been said, I never got into FIM because I didn't buy all of the mane 6 being friends. Sure, some I can accept after interaction and adjustments, like seeing Rarity and Fluttershy go for a spa day or Rarity understanding Fluttershy's limits, but ponies like Twilight and Rainbow, or Rarity and Applejack? Never! I expect some to be bitter enemies!

Gilda is the most maligned 'baddie' ever. I though she was totally right in the first half of the episode; she was trying to catch up with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie would simply not stop trying to barge into their alone time. Take a hint, Pinkie! Not everyone likes a third wheel! It made her being mean and stealing on purpose afterwards seem forced to make her seem like a real villain.

Slice of Life is a cringy episode.

I STILL don't understand the appeal of discord. He is annoying and distracting everytime he appears.

I hate Maud's boyfriend with a passion.

More episodes need to let Spike be the mature, level-headed helper he can be. He's at his best that way, like talking down Twilight's anxiety.

Twilight has so much going for her I just cannot like her. And she gets praise for being the 'everypony' when she quite clearly is NOT. Do I aspire to be Twilight? Absolutely not. I've been actively talked down to and bullied for liking books, so she can be praised all she likes but I 'm not joining in just because she is smart.

For Starlight, I liked the idea of a cult pony, but her village forgave her FAR too quickly, she was forgiven too quickly, and she suffered no consequences, and hasn't learned in her friendship tutorials. She's no Sunset Shimmer.

[LadyMoondancer]

I don't think Maud's boyfriend is supposed to be likeable.  I think the message of that episode wasn't "You can become friends with ANYONE once you get to know them!", but more like "Yeah, sometimes you will hate your sister's / brother's / friend's significant other, but if they make your buddy happy then suck it up and be civil, because it's not all about you."

[brightberry]

I prefer Discord as a bad guy. 

I don't like the premise that everyone has to be good friends with the people that hurt them.  That's not a new message.  Little girls have been told they have to be nice, sweet, put their own needs aside, make everyone else happy and suffer silently for eons. 

I don't like that ponies turn into alicorns to show that they're special and need to live in a castle.  That's just... weird.  What are earth ponies suppose to make of that?

[Ponyfan]

Going back to Starlight I didn’t like how Twilight treated her in “Shadow Play” after Starswirl appeared. Starlight is still learning about friendship yet once Twilight had Starswirl to talk to she let him influence her and started downplaying or dismissing  Starlight’s suggestions. Maybe because I’ve had people do the same to me in real life I felt really sorry for Starlight at that point. I don't expect Twilight to be absolutely perfect but she makes too many mistakes for someone that earned becoming an alicorn becaude she understood the importance of friendship more than any other pony ever had.

Trixie is a little annoying to me at times but I can put up with her in small doses. I think it has to do with the way she talks in 3rd person saying stuff like “Even Trixie makes mistakes.”


I wish we’d see the baby characters like Pumpkin and Pound Cake grow up a bit. Flurry Heart hasn’t been around as long as they have so I can overlook her still being a baby.

How did Hasbro think the G1  first tooth babies were supposed to brush their teeth, with their hooves?

Ponyfan

[Ragamuffin]

Star Catcher is a bit of a...............Normie Pony. Like anyone who's asked who their favourite G3 is, she's usually in the top spot. Tbf I was ALL over her as a kid when she first came out, because of her goddess-like presence and the fact she wasn't an earth pony As an adult I don't find her to be as special. However, the SC toy used in the little pamphlet that came Friendship Ball ponies? Beautiful. Maybe it's the lighting, maybe it really is coloured differently but I love the darker colours. She looks more ethereal. STILL on the topic of SC I prefer the one with the foil wings to the regular pegasus release. Giving her normal wings and no body patterns definitely makes her even LESS special.

G3 pegasuses in general I don't like. It's not because of the wings (I think they're cute) or the designs of the pegasuses released, it's the pose, or lack thereof. It's only one pose!!!! You could say, "Oh there's two poses" but no, there is not!!! It's the same pose, just mirrored!! And it's not very interesting either.

The Fizzy Pop pose is underrated. She's so playful and pouncy!!! I like the walking (Pinkie Pie) pose too, because of how small it makes the pony look.

This kinda goes back to "I like the dark SC better than the official release", and it's not really an unpopular opinion probably, but I wish there were more ponies with muted or darker colourschemes. There's a lot you can do with black, brown, and grey! I'd especially love to see grey ponies, since I think grey is an underrated colour in general. It looks good with all sorts of colours! And black and brown have a lot of design potential too ofc. I'm hoping we get brushables of the longma in the G5 concept arts, I LOVE the idea of having glowing optic fiber dragon ponies (dragon ponies I'd love, period, but them being neon is the best possible outcome). And they all have dark bodies with bright glowing horns and features, they're so pretty!!!

Finally, I'm surprised it's taken Hasbro this long to give us ponies with markings. Ponies like Bubbles have stars and I know the first prototypes were more realistically coloured but I love seeing ponies with face markings, spots, whatever!! It adds more design choices. I can see why maybe they would avoid doing this, it might get in the way of the cutie mark, it might be hard to mass-produce, whatever. Especially with how lazy Hasbro has been lately. :/ G4s don't have their eye gradients anymore ever since Rainbow Power, Spike doesn't have any eyelashes/lines around his eyes, and his teeth are never even coloured in. Zecora has her bangles painted only halfway on her legs, and that carries on to the ponies with painted features like the Power Ponies or the new school uniform ponies. It makes me kinda "ehh" at the reality of ponies with markings as toys, but as a concept, I like it.