Did you take backcards/shows/comics into account when you played?

[MJNSEIFER]

In the early days of MLP there were three possible different canon storylines for each pony; the backcard that came with the pony, and how how the pony acted in the show and/or the comic (obviously not every pony appeared in the shows, and some came without backcards - I'm not sure if anyone was left out of the comics).

I am sure that the majority of you who grew up with ponies played with them (I know I would have done), but did you use what you knew about the pony from their three (in total) canon stories as a kind of head-start, or did you make things up from the get-go?

Based on what I was like as a child, here is what I think I would have done; I think I would have mostly followed what the shows gave me in terms of personality if the pony appeared in the show, as knowing me I would have been aware of that first (which I technically was), but would have also created my own stories for them based on what I know of their personalities in the show, basically an early form of fanfiction.

I am sure that (for G1 at least) I would have "acted out" the back card stories for most, if not all ponies once I got all the ones involved in the story, and tried to make an "episode" out of that, but I would have made my own "episodes" completely with them, but use what I know from the three canon sources to help me with how each pony would act, or what they'd do.

The interesting ones are the ones with no "real" storyline at all - the Slumber Party Gift Pack don't really have a "real" storyline (unless they're in the comics), they are not in the show, nor are they given a back card (unless MLW just doesn't know it yet), we just know they all had a slumber party at some point, which is a given.  I have a slumber party storyline for them, but it would be interesting to see how they'd act outside all that.

[Tap Dancer]

Nope. I just wanted to play with my ponies and I didn't care about their stories. LOL

[spottedslug]

Nope. I just wanted to play with my ponies and I didn't care about their stories. LOL

Yep, even renamed them.

[Flitter]

I remember holding on to one of my pony's backcard for awhile because I liked the art (I think it was one of the Sweetberry ponies) but I don't necessarily remember taking the story into account when playing with my ponies. Then again I was really young when I got my G1s so I might have but just don't remember but I did kinda give them their own names and stuff so probably not. I don't really remember watching any of the TV shows other than a vague memory of MLP just being on TV. Apparently, I was not really into cartoons as a small child and preferred things like Muppets or robots when I did watch tv.

[Skeen]

I followed the tv show pretty closely, especially since I tended to have mainly ponies from the show (mostly TE's, SS, Princesses, BBE & FT babies). 

Buttons was always the leader though.  That very rarely changed. 

[LadyMoondancer]

Backcards, yes!  Cotton Candy ate Moondancer's flowers and was cast into a magical sleep a lot of the time.

The show, not really.  I really never saw more than an episode or two.  I did sometimes make the ponies sew things out of their own hair (pretend) for Barbie, but that was about it.  I didn't have the comics at all.

[Wildshadow]

A lot more now then when I was younger. Well I followed the show because I watched them so many times over. Oh did I love them.  I did lots of villain stuff and tied my ponies with shoe strings X D even had TMNT be the villains one time.  Then when I saw Tales, my sweetheart sister ponies became them, heh.

Now I like the back card stories and the magazines and put some of their info in my head. Like when battling Majesty and Surprise in my head, I make it over Spike because of Surprise's back card story . Then loving Sky Rocket now cause of tie in with balloons from her stories in the UK comics.

[Shenanigans]

I don't think I even read the backcards when I was little because I didn't know their names Streaky was named Melody, I had no idea her name was Streaky til I got the internet

The show did influence my play a little bit. Such as Buttons and Slugger being boyfriend and girlfriend (but since I never had Buttons, Sparkler had to play the part lol)

I remember my sister naming Cherry Treats Cherries Jubilee. I had a fit and told her that was NOT Cherries Jubilee and she couldn't name her that Nevermind that I named Sparkler Buttons

[Rosencrantz]

Not the pony show. Did I follow the X-Men for my ponies? Yes.

[Bibsy]

I definitely watched the show, but except Baby Tiddley-winks, most of my ponies weren't in it.  My earliest ponies (from before I could read names on the packages) got renamed based on their symbol or feature, for instance Skydancer was Rainbow since she was my only rainbow pony, but my later ones all had the names they were officially given.

[brightberry]

I really only saw the first two specials when I got the majority of my ponies and many of them were not in it.  So most of my pony personalities came from backcards.  In fact, before I picked out a new pony... I read all of the backcards first in the store to find the one I liked most.   

I kind of lost interest in ponies when the first regular series came out and I never knew there were pony comics.  It's funny to say we didn't know about stuff because there was no internet.  Next I'll be saying I walked a mile to school in the snow.

[Strawberry Swirl]

You know, I don't even remember owning any of the backcards with my childhood ponies. Even the one regular brushable I did have...I don't remember having it.

I dunno, though, something in me doubts kids really care about the real names and personalities of their ponies. Most people I've met here have changed names, gender identities, and personalities without a second thought. It seems to really only matter with older fans.

[Firehooves]

for me, the cartoon was the beginning, middle, and end of pony- it stood even above the toys! But I've gotten more into the toy and comics side of things, recently! ^^

[HelloGoodbye]

I was little in the G3 era, and I would take the mostly the pony's personality from the back card (if enough information was given; some were a bit sparse, if I recall correctly).  I remember loving Waterfire's studious personality.  Her back card talked about how she would bring books to the beach on Butterfly Island to read.  Loving books myself, that combined with the fact that she is such a gorgeous pony was enough to put her in my top five favorite G3s (and she is still right up there!).

[Elisto]

I got a lot of mine second-hand, so no backcards to go off of. Plus, I got a lot of my ponies when I would have been too young to read them anyway.

The cartoon though, yes, definitely. To the point where even though most of the ponies I had were not in the cartoon/movie, I renamed some of them to be ones from the show.

I didn't know about the comics until the internet, but they likely would have influenced me had I known about them.