Opinions are like ... · 6:20am Mar 3rd, 2013
So, someone wanted me to weigh in on a few issues currently making waves in MLP-fan-land. So I will. This will probably be a short blog and have nothing to do with anything I'm doing so feel free to ignore it.
Firstly: Equestria Girls. The main 6 as neo-anime-nekko-necco-wafer humans in high school. What the christ?
I'm stealing another author's thing, I'm great!
Ok, the human thing aside, this just looks like shit. Both Rarity and Pinkie look like they need to get their wisdom teeth removed stat. And why is everyone wearing a fucking skirt? RAINBOW DASH is wearing a skirt, seriously? And they all have beep-boop-robot-boots. Look, MegaMan took a shit on MLP! Ok, style is shit and bad but we've got one image to work from and I hope beyond hope that it's a work-in-progress shot.
HA-HA! Kids love that anime shit, right?
This is a concept-art thing. The robot-boots have been around for a while, evidently. Aw shit, let's go stomp on a Goomba girls! (bad Super Mario Bros. movie reference FTW). Ok, well, the art is pretty poorly thought out with stick-figure Booble-head McPony up top and Killer Robot Boots KAWAII down below. It looks like they asked a middle school kid to draw these things. But hey, the art isn't everything! Maybe there's more to this idea than first appears!
High school cartoon drama island? I hate these high school-set 'drama' things. One of the reasons I despise anime in general is because that is a major trope within those works. Not every anime uses it but more than half do. I hated high school, I hated being there, I hated the 'culture' of that place, I hate hate hate hate hate hate that shit. So of course, I want to watch cartoons set there! Like Saved By the Bell only in Technicolor! I am anticipating badly thought out high school drama tropes like bullying by the jocks, trying to figure out who gets to take Sadface McEmo to the dance (because everyone wants to get in his pants, he's soooooo fucking deep because he writes poetry about roses and black), and dealing with parents who try to be 'cool.' Oh and drugs, can't forget the drugs. Those caffeine pills won't take themselves.
All-in-all, I'm going to give this a shot but I expect it to be worse than watching an ACTUAL Saved by the Bell episode. Because at least with one of those, I could fantasize getting a blow job by the actress without feeling COMPLETE and utter shame and self-hate. Hope for the best, plan for 'we need money for our shareholders.'
EDIT: I WILL watch it as best I can. If it turns out to be as good as MLP, I will print this out and eat it in front of a camera and then upload it to YouTube. Just saying, I am willing to give it a try.
Lauren Faust joins Mane6 crew to help the Fighting is Magic game avoid shut down!
... yay? Fuck those games.
But wait! There's something very important going on here. See, I don't like fighting games and don't really care about Fighting is Magic. The animations and moves looked nice enough but I really didn't care - button mash till KO isn't my thing. The C&D order from Hasbro did not come as any surprise to me at all either. The game was well known and was even going to be featured in some fighting championship thingy. I don't know but that seems like it was just begging for trouble on the part of the Mane6 - fan games like this should be as quiet and unobtrusive as possible. Anyway. Ms. Faust's offer to help the team re-work the models and 'world' to avoid complications with Hasbro's properties ... that kinda shocked me. Fuck, I might become a Fighting if Magic fan if the world is even similar to MLP. Like Touhou only less Japanese! But why did that shock me?
See, Lauren has been avoiding making many waves with regards to Hasbro and their IP. There's a famous quote of hers wandering around the internet where she explicitly says it doesn't matter what her plans for Twilight were. I thought she was doing this to avoid 'splitting' the fandom, creating confusion and uncertainty with how the show is being handled and creating an 'alternate' fandom based more on her original vision instead of Hasbro's current work (of which I would be behind 110% damn it!). Makes sense to me, doing that would create bad blood between Lauren and Hasbro. Essentially, I was expecting Lauren to fade into doing some other show eventually (well received or not) and generally become less and less a part of the whole MLP thing. Maybe that was just my thought though.
With this, I feel that it shows her support of the fandom in an oblique way - regardless of Hasbro's stake in everything. She doesn't want to step over Hasbro and the vision of the current show producers but she also feels a connection to the fandom. So all in all, I think this shows a great amount of care on her part for what happens to the fans and the show. It would have been absolutely brilliant had she kept going with being the creative force behind the show but that she is interacting with the fans at all is a huge thing. If other show creators managed to have as good a relationship with their fandoms as Ms. Faust has with MLP fans, only good things could come of it in my opinion.
Remember when Star Trek was good? It was a show about cowboys in space on a submarine - essentially. How is that NOT cool?! Then, as the world turned and people grew up, it was about a decently written diplomat-captain who wasn't afraid of gun diplomacy if the situation called for it. Gene Roddenberry was still at the helm and life was full of green alien chicks to bang and a captain that actually knew when to pull out his kill-set phasers.
Picard is one of only ten men I would be gay for. Not Stewart, Picard.
Once he croaked, it all turned into emo teens on an Apple-designed bridge,
I'm sorry Captain. Our OS cannot access basic EXE files.
What happened? Executives got a hold of the property and wanted to leach it of everything it was worth. Now, to be honest, it was dying looooooong before the latest reboot. Deep Suck 9, Voyager, that stupid ... Borg-in-past movie. Hell, Picard was in that and it was terrible. But overall, I think that Gene's death really took the wind out of the sails. When the imaginative force behind an IP stops and lets paid-creatives in, creatives that don't have the same emotional investment of that IP as the original creator, executives find what once was a massive uphill battle to add - say - a new alicorn to the mix much easier. I'm not blaming Larson. He's a great guy. His actions due to Unicon really showed that. He wants the show to do well, he wants the fans to be happy, he wants the same thing that Faust wanted - a good, fun show. But I gotta say, Cadenza was the first step on that slippery slope.
Point is, with Lauren still out there helping the fans get around some of the legalese and company BS and with her original vision still in her head, we have a great resource to enable the really awesome projects that might be killed by some legal action to take a new life and a new direction if needed without loosing that core feel. And that is where this fandom has a leg up on some of those other ones. Star Trek's creator is dead, Star Wars lost his damn mind and most others are still being held in situations where the bottom line is - in the end - what you have to care about. We still have our Gandalf the Grey to pull our patookus out of the fire. Ms. Faust, you are the Fire of Arnor! One day, I hope to make something worthy of Hasbro's C&D and you standing atop that small bridge.
I really hope Equestria Girls never happens...
*dies*
Rainbow Dash looks cyanotic.
LIES AND SLANDER
883716
We lost half a season because of it so you better like it. Or at least watch it to know why we got a 13 episode season.
883743
Yeah... no.
The season was so short because it was what the studio originally signed with Hasbro. Equestria Girls is even being made by a different studio.
So no, we didn't lose half a season for this.
883743 wait...it's a real...thing...
.....i...i-i thought it was only a rumor
Why does Rainbow Dash and applejack in skirts scare the fuck out of me!
robotboots fits Twilight somehow someway...maybe becuse am laughing to hard from the thought of Twilight super robot 
so hard not to laugh when i think the main 6 make a Celestia robot 
wow....I feel bad even thinking that! 
sorry 
to the other topics, I actuly like Voyager they werent trying so hard to copy the other ones (key word in there somewhere) but thats my opion otherwise Your damn right and thats whats happening (and been happening) to the anime indistry to many high school romances (saddly they still produce enough love from fan boys (and some girls) to give them money to fuel that greed) while gems pop out barly any at all are worth a 2nd glance.... well theres always school days to remind us how High School Anime can always go. (realy that ending!)
My thing with FiM (Fighting is magic) is WHY THE FUCK NOT HIRE THE SODS THEY ARE FUCKING BRILLIENT!(am not british) look at that game and compare it to some that are 'pro' made games, its amazing how much effert and skill they put into that game. Those guys are amazingly talented, and what they do IS ...attack them via law.... brillient work sirs ...i'd say they atleast have princible (If i could spell the world, would likly be mine) BUT then again they are picking on a bunch that are openly saying ITS NOT GETTING MONEY OUT OF IT (excluding am sure the many generous donatiosn the fandom would give them for moving on productions, cant see them doing even what they have now otherwise.)
I think you made all very good points (i love debate) and your right on every point, I think though i dont serously expect anyone to read this or even care (since personaly they would stop at my many grammer fails and spelling/typo mistakes am sure) posibly I just wanted to get this out of my head since some things you just cant get out till you do it. Am sorry for bothering anyone who actily reads this for serousness!
(edit: Dear god thats long... sorry!)
Will they get the VA's from MLP for Equestria Girls or not? Because that would be kinda awesome.
Thumbs up, Minalkra. Nicely done editorial. I don't like the EQ Girls thing either, but in my age, I have no problem giving it a shot. Thats how I found MLP:FiM. Spin-offs are usually just shadows of the original, though they can surprise.
This music represents my current feelings on the matter-
dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw8335-T0mQXd1350969845.jpg
883740
Uhhh, we need an oxygen tank, stat! Wait, damage to the lungs after years of smoking crack? I expected that from Pinkie ...
883754
The RUMOR that I have is - supposedly - it's going to be a TV movie first. Something about Twilight messing up a spell and sending the ponies into human-land
while some Brony dies and takes their place to bang the Princesses and become King Man of Equestria.That last part was made up but the rest is the rumor. The show itself has been remarked on a few times in Toy and Entertainment press. So there's probably a good chance it's pretty confirmed.883790
I read it! And to be honest, most of the girls feel to me like they should be majority-pants types. AJ and RD are the biggies but Flutters needs pants because of all the bending and such caring for animals takes. Pinkie ... would be WAY too energetic for a skirt. Twilight just doesn't care enough about her looks for a skirt. Rarity is the only one I can see wanting to be skirt-primary.
Voyager was ok but it was trying a bit too hard to be a Survivor-Enterprise. I understand the thought behind it but with Sixty-of-Nine's boobs in my face and the Borg having to be one-upped by a 'fluidic space' beast thing, I found it hard to care.
The Fighting is Magic thing, they probably didn't WANT to have a fighting game associated with the MLP name. That would probably not fly too well with parents. 'Teaching my daughter to fight' or some bullshit. Violence in boys entertainment, sure - but NOT MAH LITTLE GIRL hyuck w'ere's mah shotgun ma-sister? And once it got as big as it did, there was only two recourses: buy it or shut it down. If they bought it, they might encourage others to do similar (as well as 'girls don't like fighting games,' 'parents would hate it,' etc. etc.). If they didn't shut it down, that weakens their copyright. So they really only had one thing they could do.
I'm not blaming Hasbro for it. You kinda have to to protect your cash and that's what a company is about, cash. I would have loved to see the work either bought up or the Mane6 given a license or something but it's hard enough to create a show that gives little girls more options than 'my hair is so pretty' or 'friends are your friends, isn't that super - look, pretty colors!' An interactive game? HERESY!
883794
I would cry - actually, no. I really have to watch the show before I can say much. It just looks like shit right now. It might work. I have no hope for that though.
883867
Yup. And they are like assholes. Everyone has them, they all stink - mine especially because I had Taco Bell for lunch ... bad idea.
883893
oh hasbro...why!!!
I've watched Stat Trek all my life. Seen all the series. All the movies (none of which hold up with the TNG cast, I agree). And by no means is DS9 bad. DS9 was about taking the established morals and flipping them around; and seeing how the characters and organisations on the show deal with them. I admit, the first season, especially the first 8 or so episodes are kind of bad, but after that it really pick off. Sisko really grows on you. As does all of the cast. The original series layed the foundation for great series like TNG and DS9. It's good it didn't stay the same. So many shows have stagnated because they refused to change and adopt new ideas. At the core Star Trek is still the same. As is the philosophy. It's the greatest series ever made. What I've ever watched. It holds up to this say. I still watch it.
Voyager was... Okay. It was decent in the beginning. Scratch that, it was good in the beginning. But I despised Janeway. Horrible and most illogical captain. So many dumb choices. So many unised opportunities. And Seven of Boredom replacing the beautiful and interesting Kes. The consept of voyager was pretty good. If they just had had utalized the opportunity they had... Turn the starfleet crew into Maquis. That would have been great. That would have been REALLY flipping the morals.
Enterpise was better than people give it credit for. Archer was pretty good. The environment and political situation were interesting. But the abrupt ending and stupid time stuff, and the Xindi season ruined it for me. As did the cast. I only liked Phlox, Archer, and Hoshi.
I could go on. But I don't feel like it.
So I hope it looks more like the concept art than that original image.
I wonder if ponies will be canon as THAT SIZE.
I was looking forward to Fighting is Magic.
Lauren is cool, but I like FiM as it is. Yes Lauren with more ongoing creative control would likely be an improvement, but then again I don't like all her ideas either, so...
And the new JJ Abrams Star Trek movies are the best thing since TNG IMO. Although DS9 wasn't that bad.
883989
I disliked most things post-TNG. I called it Deep Suck 9 but I actually liked DS9 more than anything else after TNG (still sucked). But I feel that by focusing on a station, the producers removed a ton of the semi-wacky situations that a ship would have gotten into. It was heavy on diplomacy for a while - and I liked that - but I felt that the show limited itself with a static set-piece. Still, it was a new direction showing an entirely new as-yet 'unseen' side of Star Trek that was hinted at but never shown in detail before.
Voyager really was a bit of an issue with me. It felt like it was trying too hard to be TOS but without the flashy gun-love of Kirk. It could have been more ... that and to make the new 'big bad' feel worse, they had to up it from the Borg. The BORG! The Borg are supposed to be so bad, only the Q can really ignore them and they had to make something WORSE?! Why?! What's the point?!
Enterprise sucked
and I hate you for mentioning it(note: I don't actually hate you). It sucked BECAUSE it was a prequel. Because we KNOW what a Romulan looks like! Klingons used to be vaguely Asian aliens until ... didn't that genetic thing happen during TOS? It was saddled with so much back story, so much history that it was never allowed to go outside what the fans already knew and couldn't 'reveal' anything if it was a surprise for TOS (and if it tried, you get guys like me standing up in our Doritos-stained shirts 'Excuse me, but in TOS episode 999 ...'). It couldn't be what it should have been. It was a good theory but it fell down fast. Oh, and time travel ruins all shows. Even shows based on time travel.883992
The 'new' Star Trek ... ehhhhhhhhhhh. I don't like the set design, I didn't really like the acting all that much, I didn't like the 'rebooting' though I feel it was LONG overdue. As it stands, it's probably one of the 'better' movies (outside of WoK but really, how would anyone top that?) and it will allow for the universe to expand in directions beyond what the fans 'know' but still, it could have been done a bit better.
883893 i see still giving them a job under you gives yo ua advantage, no? but your point is true. (saddly)
then agai nthe fandom is in multiple areas Little kid camp and then the insane brony/pegisister camp little - big camps am sure thye realise thisand am sure stupid adults will get their stupid heads beaten if they dont if they do have a problem its a very VERY simple way to cover your tracks
"Dear parents while, we see your concerns and understand them. We have a fanbase and pockets to fill if you do not see that label on the box and the back that reads 'fantasy violance', clearly its your fault. We do hope you learn to read the box and learn to tell your children 'no', we do applogize for your spoiled children if they refuse to let you NOT BUY IT for them. this is for the adult who liek the show and game. and yes we are confused as to why adults like this stuff, but we are a company money is better than asking why!"
Honestly that'd be the msot epic thing said if ever said by a company excutive i think (to the public) pretty much officaly telling them to fuck off and learn to say no to there kids (honestly it is a problem) and to be compeletly honest with as many fans as there are i nthe United states alone justifies the action money wise. but thats my thoughts!
am also gonna push the joke with the idea of "eqeatria girls" 'when their powers combine they make...PRINCESS CLESTIA! (now in green blue colors!)'
Side note: OMG OMG OMG someone actuly understood what the helli was sayings!
am amazed! thanks for taking you time.
personally i fucking hate the human thing, i mean what the fuck where they smoking when they thought of that idea?
I guess it's okay to give the fans what they want sometimes but considering all that stuff you mentioned and the feeling I get just from looking at the image, which tells me they're probably gonna derail everything in spectacularly unbelievable crescendo of an excuse for a plot, Hasbro is completely way in over their noggins. Remind me again why Lauren Faust retired as the creative director after season 1? I only recently got into MLP late last year.
On another note, do really you hate anime in general that much or just the high school setting? I recommend avoiding that certain genre if you hate it so much; I'm sure there are other stories out there in anime format that would suit your tastes in terms of story and characters. Though we all have our own preferences, watching something along the lines of FullMetal Alchemist, Samurai Champloo or Cowboy Bebop would certainly curb your scorn for the industry.
884062 Focusing on the station was bad? No, it wasn't .
You see, focusing on the station they could bring back many recurring characters and races. Gul Dukat, Brunt, whatever whenever. Using this, they were able to create characters and races we actually cared about. TNG and TOS, and especially Voyager suffer from this to some extent (Is that how you type that word.. Hm). They had many "filler aliens", who were all humanoid, and whose faith we didn't truly care about. Obviously they still needed them, to form the Star Trek universe, to make it seem plausible and create philosophical conundrums. I guess what I'm trying to say, is sometimes an unchanging environment is good. It makes us focus on the characters, their past, and their own personal philosophies. More than the environment and "how to solve this issue that has presented itself to us". In the end, Star Trek is all about philosophy (and jumpsuits). And that's why we love it.
"But I feel that by focusing on a station, the producers removed a ton of the semi-wacky situations that a ship would have gotten into."
Agreed. But that's why they created the Defiant. I know, you can argue, it's not the same thing, but they needed some way to explore the Gamma Quadrant, and actually show what was going on over yonder.
I'd rank the series like this: 1. TNG (6/5), 2. DS9 (5/5), 3. TOS (5/5), 4. VOY (3/5), 5. ENT (2.5/5). I won't touch to movies. The TNG movies are decent. The TOS movies are great (The Voyage Home was kinda bad though. Time Travel. Meh.).
But the 2008 "Star Trek" movie. As if. It can burn in hell, forever. I think I shed tears in the theater when I saw it. I wept for Star Trek. It was horrible.
There's still a chance that those pictures aren't from the actual show, technically. The first, earlier ones were originally posted on a pony hate site, and while the second one was posted on the NYT, it could have just been taken from somewhere online. I heard that the picture has a NYT copyright on it, but nothing from Hasbro.
Yeah, that's stretching it.
There's also the possibility that it might just be a bunch of ugly toys.I don't know of any better source for this stuff, but on TV Tropes here if you open the tabs and CTRL-F for 'Star Trek' there's a bunch of stuff from Spock's ears and Picard's baldness to the creation of Q and Seven of Nine being caused by executives.
Opinions are like. . . interesting?
Enjoyed reading your thoughts on these issues.
I hate the entire Equestiran Girls concept as much as everyone else, but i'm actually hoping that the reason it exists is because MLP FIM became too big for the higher ups to mess with it too much. Even in big companies at some point a product becomes too valuable to inflict changes to without a great deal of concern, and the company becomes more conservative on how the product is handled, so i'm hoping Equestrian Girls was conceived as a concession to whatever marketing departments exist in Hasbro, so that they can put whatever focus tested nonsense they want on that show rather than on MLP proper.
For now i'm thinking on Equestrian Girls as a corporate immunity system kicking in to protect MLP from further damage. I might be a little optimistic but that's what i hope for.
*Insert rant about how DS9 was my favorite Star Trek and how Voyager was just as good as Next:Gen*
*Insert rant about HOW BUCKING CREEPY TWILIGHT'S FACE IS!*
*Insert rant about how Lauren Faust is a Goddess*
*Insert rant about how I actually liked the latest Star Trek movie*
*Insert rant about waiting for updates*
*Insert rant about how I hope to Faust (being a Goddess and all) EQ:G will be as trans-formative as MLP*
*Insert rant about how Republicans are a bunch of butt-hurt pricks*
*Insert rant about how Obama is one of our top 5 presidents ever*
*Insert rant about Woona is best pony*
*Insert rant about how Derpy Hooves is Derpy Hooves' name*
*Insert rant about how Hasbro and the HUB have their reasons but I'm still frustrated as Hell with them and wish DHX could buy the rights to MLP and become independent*
*Insert rant about how the fandom is dieing*
*Insert rant about how the fandom is growing*
*Insert rant about how splenda still tastes nothing like sugar*
*Insert rant about asteroids using as much nescience and Scientific illiteracy as possible*
*Insert rant about how no one cares*
*Insert rant about how everyone secretly cares*
*Insert rant using all pony nouns*
*Insert witty smart ass closing statement*
*Insert adolescent humor. Example: "Insert AIDS"*
*Insert Carry On*
Carry On
I seriously hope there's at least some action in this show. Instead of high school drama, lets have Spider-Man styled high school drama. Y'know, having to go to school but also having to fight evil? Ah, who am I kidding. Nothing can make this show sound good
What a well-written piece, and it explained things in a good format. Jolly good show, old lad!
Also, I've got to say I've never seen the new Star Trek movies, as I wanted to hold on to my Original Series/The Next Generation memories. To wit:
Maybe if they go to the human world looking like that they will get captured by the guverment and get experimented on