For those in doubt as to MLP:FiM and how MLP:FiM S4 will be 100% Toy tie ins. · 8:43pm Jan 30th, 2013
Stephen Davis. Because that is the man responsible for what is essentially now an all toy-tie-in MLP:FiM universe. That was always intended to be though so, why should we care you ask? Because, this man loves being seen as Hasbro's sole savior and why it was put on the map again, globally.
If you want to be more informed, you can visit the link before and see why I'm pretty indifferent but disappointed in how rushed the MLP series has become.
http://www.deadline.com/2012/12/stephen-davis-hasbro-studios/
Davis, who has overseen global TV development, production and distribution for Hasbro since launching the studio in 2009, will report to Hasbro Chief Marketing Officer John Frascotti to ensure the seamless integration between the entertainment and global marketing teams.
Davis is essentially why FiM show productions were cut back. It's become popular, now they must focus on getting new IP(s) to be as popular only faster to sell other toys outside of just MLP:FiM. Littlest Pet Shop is that new IP right now. What most don't know is that Hasbro is pretty far behind Mattel right now in toy sales, and now will be facing off against their IPs in films and tv soon, Barbie is one such series that's gotten that reboot. And it's pretty funny. It's mostly a Youtube thing now but you can expect more like that from Mattel.
Now, why bring up outside competition and why should you care? You don't have to. My point is that Hasbro, and their affiliates, are out to sell toys. They've been losing ground more and more every year on trying to appeal to Boys who continue to be swayed ever more by video games and other IPs not owned by Hasbro. Their earnings have yet to yield sufficient enough expectations. This, however, has been alleviated slightly thanks to the HUB. The network where a lot of their IPs are aired. MLP:FiM is a great toy seller. But, how much of that is the fandom and how much of those sales are for the kids?
“We are bringing together several of our entertainment groups so that we can fully drive our content development capabilities across our global franchises,”
said Hasbro's Chief Marketing Officer John Frascotti, the only person Davis has to answer to so to ensure the seamless integration between the entertainment and global marketing teams.
Hasbro is first and foremost a Toy company that likes to be seen as a family friendly and kid oriented company. We, as a fandom, were essentially not meant to be in their eyes. They have chauvinistic and very, VERY outdated look at today's youth and, adults for that matter, views. They will always cater to the younger audience and introduce products, that are being produced without any real thoughts behind them at all mind you, and Davis' job is essentially to make sure all those products being dished out to find it's way into the correlating shows.
This person, Stephen Davis who's been in charge of the TV scene, has gone out of his way to view things as a whole; not caring much for the individual products. It's not his job to make the products fit into whatever shows' story to make sense. It is his job to ensure any new toy picked by Hasbro and partners to being included in that show's world, and make sure that team knows it best do a good job about it or be replaced with those who can.
“We are in the early stages of unlocking the full power of Hasbro brands globally and this new group will capitalize on our talent and creativity on both coasts,” Davis said. “We are now in a tremendous position to expand our content and storytelling more impactfully across all screens around the world.”
This is why, and I'll stress again, Twilight becoming an Alicorn is just an excuse to include many toys that overseas have either already included/will in books and other random merch, to be more integrated into the show, so as parents would feel they'd be justified into buying something GOOD that the kids won't groan about being "this isn't even a show character!" or other such similar ideal. Parents mostly pay attention to what they see on TV, and if that happens to be a $50 playset of Princess Twilight Sparkle, and their kids love the show, then guess what? Likelihood is that said parent will end up buying it.
Now, whether it all is Davis or more Franscotti and others that want this to be the way regardless of how it would affect the viewers of their shows, is not a sure thing.
One thing I'll address though, is what is poor Rarity to do now that Twilight is a Princess? Aside from being her friend, it's not like she can just up and leave any time between her busy schedule to see Twilight in Canterlot. There are a lot of undertones hinting at Twilight leaving Ponyville. One thing is certain though, somehow, we'll still have the other 5 next season play some sort of role. But, as Hasbro's main strategy for years have shown, they tend to replace old characters with new ones who haven't met up with expectations on toy sales. Example: Could Rarity be such a victim next year? Could Hasbro see her as a bad influence on kids and want her phased out? Are her toys the least popular, being the most prevalent as to this whole example, be the reason we've seen next to nothing of her this season?
Do I have any facts about Davis' character and this is what his goals really are? No, but it's my observations and 2 bits on the matter.
==========================================================
Below this is more my personal opinions then anything else. feel free to stop reading now.
==========================================================
All this is purely my own personal worries as to how so many stories are now coming to a close, and eventually we'll see what Hasbro plans to introduce in the next year as to whether any real impact will be had on the series. With Twilight now a Princess, we have at least some excuse to seeing more Princess Celestia and Luna; with Cadance and Skyla being another for Hasbro. My predictions is that S4 will indeed see less of the least popular toy selling characters, and a rise in newer ones being introduced to improve sales where they can for already existing and yet to be announced toys.
Humans in Equestria or a likely Japanese oriented project might be in the works. Japan has expressed wanting to do something different. You know, cause having 17 versions of Pretty Cure and other magical girl shows is 'different'. Hasbro has signed a license for Equestria Girls, and it's not just about that one brony shoutout we got years back. Only time will tell if these theories and opinions will bear fruit.
Shit, now I'm worried. Ignorance is bliss.
773730 I love living in ignorance too, boredom and other things tend to make me learn/notice things more than I'd like to personally.
On the bright side, it was confirmed that, as I've mentioned at least, that the other mares including Rarity, will be by Twilight's side next season. Inb4 Rarity jumps into the useless role of teaching Twilight mannerisms and other such things other actual royals and teachers would be more adept at teaching Twilight.
Thankfully I doubt many would even give this a glance, so they at least, can live in blissful ignorance. Now, where did I put that brain bleach. I seem to have slightly brought my own spirits down.
773902
fullfatrr.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10611/mindbleach.jpg
Holy titty fucking Christ.
Look, man, as you can see from my blog post I already KNEW this, but there's a difference between knowing all the individual facts and seeing someone tie them all together into a Mayan Calendar Quilt that says "This is when everything you love will die".
I feel physically and mentally destroyed right now. Not just about ponies, mind, but because it goes against everything in my soul.
I have, working in creative industries, had a lot of disdain for people who sneer at the successful and call "Sellouts". Money is a commodity that people pay to things they like. A lot of the time a lot of money will go to the thing that has the most mainstream appeal. It's the way the world works, don't work against it, try to make something that people want and make it in a way that you, yourself, are incredibly proud to have made it.
It prevents an awful lot of reverse-magnum-opus syndrome. It helps me not resent my most successful story, despite it being up to 10 times as popular as those that follow, because I wrote that for everyone, myself included.
Now, to take that love out of the creative team? This is the other end of the "Sellout!" spectrum from the creatives.
It's the sellout cry from the executives.
The best products, the most profitable, are the ones made for everyone on both sides of the product. The creators and the users alike.
By forcing the product to stop being a creation and to become a commodity, a soulless advertorial? Now, that's when quality drops dramatically. The animators, the writers, they start phoning it in because suddenly their work has become a job.
Goddamnit, Hasbro, Seasons one and two proved there was a middle ground. Discord, for Christ sake! Hell, the writing was on the wall when you gave Cadance wings.
That should have been the biggest indicator you were starting to lose the biggest impromptu fandom of all time.
People didn't complain about the fact that you were introducing two new blatant toy tie ins.
No.
People complained that you were introducing two new toy tie ins that directly and irrevocably disrupted the show and its lore.
We don't care if you treat it like a business. More money means more money to spend on quality. What we care is when you take the money and, and I cannot stress this enough, use it to try to make other people spend more money at our expense.
Even a cheap whore only fucks you once before you walk away feeling something gnawing away at you.
no hasbro plz don't purge Rarity
k
and do anything bad with mane 6 characters
899726 I'm sure Rarity will be fine. Just my over analyzing stuff as per usual. I too hope S4 will at least give them proper closure before they move on from the mane 6. Course, seeing how Lauren isn't around anymore and knowing how popular the main show is, I can say with confidence that as long as we support the mane 6 the least they can do is just introduce new characters.
Now, if this whole princess arc coming up doesn't give us more Princess Luna and more backstory to her and Celestia, than nothing will!
S2 opener alone suggested that they weren't on teh best of terms, and Nightmare Night well... I'm sure Celestia wouldn't have let Luna go to Ponyville unannounced if she knew her sister was so detached from today's pony culture. Shame we missed out on their sisterly re-bonding.
*hugs* To a grand and most fabulous s4 pony future! Btw, be sure to get yourself the comics! Those are very action packed and very cleverly done <3
It gives us the adventure episodes of sorts we normally don't get in ponies save for openers and finales.
900315
tell 
that she learned the magic of friendship and even 
bow at 
sent 
to ponyville to learn about magic of friendship, and now she done learning about it and became a princess
*returns the hug as scootaloo*
Actually I started to worry about mane6 after twilight became a princess. I was not thinking about how hasbro drop characters due to money at that time. I worried about the story.
mlp G4 is titled "friendship is magic". At S3 fin,
So how can "FIM" continue with the mane 6, does Princess Sparkle lives in Ponyville anymore?
What I think after watching s3 fin is that there will be no more mane6 that we loved but all new characters
Where will be the 6 if hasbro really throws them away? Well, after a few eps of their presence, hasbro will ask trollestia to send them on a queat to Earth, yea, our crazy world, to be equestria girls--->six new races or racist human. Hasbro will throw in new ponies to learn friendship while send the six to be six furry girls(human with pony ears) wear like sluts to earth
Maybe I think too much but...How s4 will be without the six? Well I'm not that good at accepting changes....
looking at the humaniod Twilight(now with wings) on eqd makes me feel awful
everything is gonna be fine, everything is gonna be fine, everything is gonna be fine
_____
and about the comic
I don't know but from the covers, it feels so different...not going to comment before I read the first issue
902647 Thankfully EG is not canonical to FiM.
While FiM is going to play on the whole role of what it means to be a princess or whatever spiel Megan was trying to defend her recreation of the show's theme to be. It won't be focused on the ideals Lauren wanted, they'll likely *try* to throw episodes with friendship lessons as the other girls probably have things to learn, but yes... I suppose they'd have to redo the whole intro now that the show really is going a whole new direction.
You brought up a good point with the show theme. Megan is building a new canon, Amy Keaton was asked to return to possibly salvage S4 from being written into a bigger pile of poop that was half the episodes of s3. But, at the very least rest easy knowing that Equestria Girls is thankfully not going to be referenced in the main show of FiM. We might get a movie of FiM girls going to Earth and somehow thinking we'd embrace a bunch of horse-like freakishly mutated human girls into our racist and discriminatory society so easily.
*shrug*
One can only hope the movie is actually FiM and not related to EG but that would be wishful thinking at this point. Far as the comics go, I own all the issues so far, and while the non-variant comic covers for the first couple issues are rather plain, the contents inside are hilarious and on par with the best qualities of S2 FiM. It does have more freedom with the girls too so we can see more character details being fleshed out.
Take care, and try not to worry too much. It will be sad if they ruin the show Lauren managed to setup for them because Hasbro wanted things their way, but we'll see. It is so many months away that it isn't healthy to even bother thinking about now. The damage has been done, now it's up to Megan and crew to repair it.
Due to the culmination of dozens of ways Hasbro has disappointed me and embarrassed themselves with the series, I just can't stand the series any more. I'm giving them one last chance to do something interesting, and if they fail, I bail. In other words, I hope they don't royally fuck up the season premiere.
903074 Honestly, what they've done with the series is revolting.
It can't even be called MLP: FiM anymore, and they really should have just made a new series out of whatever twisted fantasy the show has become. Oh, but that slot has already been taken by Equestria Girls, of all things. *shudders*
Now don't get me wrong, I'm still willing to accept Hasbro back with loving arms if they manage to do something interesting with the season premiere, but I am highly skeptical.
1233501 Well, it's not like Renzetti and Lauren around, while I won't call S3 an example of them even trying to put effort into writting, the new guy who did Sleepless in Ponyville was rather good. Wonderbolts Academy would of been perfect if they didn't go the route of every other kids show and make a villain out of an otherwise innocent and competitive pony like Lightning Dust when Rainbow Dash did all those awful choices of trying to one up LD just so she could gain favor with Spitfire.
MMC and Twilicorn. Man. I call extreme bullshit that anyone who would willingly use a brainwashing spell as being 'a pony who embodies all the traits of Harmony' which was the horrid writing and Hasbro marketing that ruined S3, cutting it in half and hamfisting an ascension episode just so they don't have to redo all those toys that got botched up. "Make Twilight a Princess. Give her wings. I want an episode with 7 songs." Makes me sick really.
Now we have S4 backpeddling more character development for some characters just to revive an idea that was shotdown during S1 and 2. I don't want a pity episode of her 'just can't fly yet' sort of crap, they better go the full mile if they're making DT and SS NOW after all this time of knowing about her inability to fly for so long, to bully her specifically over something everypony around her seems to have known and accepted...
I'll hold my judgements off till I see what S4 has to offer. It's not like its the only show around anyways, its innocence and moral values aren't even really around anymore. Sure, they got a lesson or two but seriously, wtf did WBA teach us? What did Too Many Pinkie Pies teach us besides the only way to solve a problem is shooting your friend's clones almost blindly on an assumption that the test wouldn't screw over the real Pinkie Pie? That episode was morbid and stupid as hell.
Well, whatever. I tend not to like season premiers and finales because the first ep is usually slow and boring. I'll stick with the in between episodes and judge it on that. Though, I'll likely have to work hard on not vomiting on my screen whenever Gary Stu and Mary Sue are on screen. Having to dealw ith more Cadance and SA is something I'm not looking forward to. They bring nothing to the show... even Equestria Girls made no sense. Give the mirror over to Cadance? PFFT lotta fucking good THAT did! She has NO real security and everyone is essentially too complacent to take their jobs seriously I bet. So, WHY would Celestia and Luna think giving Cadance Luna's damn mirror would be a good idea?
EURGH! I've read better fan fiction from a 10 year old...
1233838 Shows, even a completely fictional animated cartoon series originally meant for children (and their parents, which a lot of people seem to forget), should be able to hold up under at least some level of scrutiny. If your plot has so many holes that it sinks the moment you test the metaphorical waters with it, then it should be scrapped, or at the very least patched up a bit.
In my time, I've poked more holes in FiM's plot than Pinkie Pie has baked cupcakes. As a prideful editor and sometimes-writer myself, I simply can't hold any respect for the show as it stands. There is too much pandering, too many stereotypical "kid's show" cop-outs that take the place of actual conflict resolution, too many good ideas shot down, too many bad ideas put through, too little real emotion and too much idealistic "this is what you should feel" emotion. I would be able to take all these things in stride and continue watching the show if I still found it enjoyable. S3 was not enjoyable to me.