My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Sorry. I could probably do them in tinwork (another of my very strange talents -- have I mentioned I'm a polymath?) but don't have the ability to do them in bronze or pewter. No 3d printer, either and they'd be horribly expensive done that way.

...and now I *am* wondering if I can do pins using tinsmithing. Detail work isn't that nice unless you do it large. I may have to experiment today.

(edit: tried it. Tinsmithing on metal foil (which is the way it's done) is NOT a very forgiving art. First attempt was so-so, but will try it again. Want to play around with some enamel paint, too, on the tin.)

Oh Noooos...Run little pony..Run!

Did some pony-watching last night (season 2, episodes 19-22) and am still pleasantly surprised that the show has managed to stay strong and interesting. The spoof of "Murder on the Orient Express"... with cakes... was hilarious.

I wonder if Journal of Popular Culture (yes, a real journal... I did subscribe years ago) has anything on this. If not, there should be.

reply to post by Byrd

RL has been absurdly busy for me in recent weeks, but I still make a point of catching the latest Pony episode each weekend. I keep wondering when the quality or entertainment value of the show will take a dive, and it just isn't happening.

That's precisely the sort of "disappointment" I can live with.

[color=#FFFF00]Season Two Finale: A Canterlot Wedding (Parts 1 & 2)

WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS. WASH EYES BEFORE AND AFTER READING.

Setup? Who needs setup?

Fig. 1: The nicest little ponies you never heard of.

"My brother, who is Captain of the Royal Guard, is my Big Brother Best Friend Forever and was always there for me no matter what, is getting married to a princess who was my favorite foalsitter in the whole wide world and the most loving, wonderful pony I ever knew, and nopony told me about it."

"What, I never told you about them or introduced you to them during the numerous times we've visited Canterlot over the past fifty episodes and been guests at parties and royal ceremonies where both of them were sure to have also attended? Well, I didn't think it was all that big a deal."

"I mean, who doesn't have a brother who's Captain of the Royal Guard, or a royal princess for a foalsitter? Rather typical, really. I didn't want to bore you with such mundane details."

Seems legit.

Actually, I can forgive them that, in light of the presumably modular nature of the episodes. The mane cast has, after all, been busy saving Equestria and studying the magic of friendship, and Twilight has shown herself to be anything but a name-dropper or a braggart. Heck, her parents probably have a whole wall of Twilight's academic trophies and award certificates at their house, but that doesn't mean she would bring it up.

The appearance of another royal relative (Prince Blueblood being the other so far) raises the question of just how many of them there are, and how Celestia can have nephews and nieces. Unless they're Luna's descendants (doubtful, considering her thousand-year banishment to the moon), then that means the regal sisters must have additional brothers or sisters somewhere.

It also brings up the question of whether Princess Cadance (yes, it's officially spelled that way), who is apparently an alicorn like her aunts Celestia and Luna, is as immortal as they are, and if she and her new husband will be faced with a sorrowful Arwen/Aragorn scenario down the road.

[color=#FFFF00]Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changelings

I was a bit worried that a pair of "royal wedding" episodes hosted by Tori Spelling would be too "girly" for my tastes, and indeed there was much more mush in this arc than usual. But sure enough, our intrepid showrunners not only took the edge off the treacle, but gave us the biggest fight scene in the whole series.

Fig. 2: You want a piece of pony? BRING IT ON!!!

Unless I missed it, that dust-up with the Changelings was the first time our little ponies actually resolved a conflict with a flat-out, no-hooves-barred, full-on street rumble. And indeed, much ass was roundly kicked that day.

Mark my words: it's just a matter of time before the mane cast becomes a genuine pony sentai ("Friendship Warriors... ASSEMBLE!"). Maybe they'll all wear those ninja suits they always seem to have handy when they need to sneak around.

Fig. 3: Queen Chrysalis. She looks a lot better in makeup.

The semi-equine, semi-insectile Changelings are an interesting addition to the Equestria bestiary, and adding shapeshifters to the ever-expanding menagerie of villains opens up a whole range of possibilities for future episodes.

Considering Queen Chrysalis was able to smack down Princess Celestia in a magic battle and take her prisoner, it would seem our esteemed yet repeatedly-challenged monarch has found yet another worthy nemesis.

[color=#FFFF00]The Royal Fifteen Minutes

Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor are endearing characters, but I doubt we'll see anything more than a cameo from them, if that, in the future.

Fig. 4: Marriage: Royal or not, it's all downhill from here.

If they should prove to be more than one-offs and get some meaningful roles in Season Three, that would be a nice touch, but as Sethisto over at Equestria Daily oft laments, they have yet to bring back The Great And Powerful Trixie, who has become quite a popular character in her own right, and we last saw her near the beginning of Season One.

All in all, a great way to wrap up the season with a grand tale of treachery, drama, romance and ass-whoopery, with something for everypony, whatever their tastes.

Do we have ponies?

Yes. Yes we do.

Ponies are a requirement for life ;D

When the internet became awash in ponies like so many waves crashing upon the rocks, I was sure it would be a short fad or too small a cult following to last for very long. After some time, the ponies refused to subside and even began to creep into every forum I visited, every game I played had a subset of the pony following.

What was it about this show? Why is it so popular?

So a week ago I watched a couple of episodes and I realized...




I f*ng LOVE PONIES.


Okay, so I'm not that bad, really. I won't be collecting any of the toys nor making any pony-memes, but my god, the unabashed cuteness and silliness of this show is perfect, and a little expected from the creator of The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

The Big Lewbowski reference in "The Cutie Pox" helped.



Now I'm off to go do something manly.

Nopony Knows What The Ponies Know

Originally posted by eNumbra
Okay, so I'm not that bad, really. I won't be collecting any of the toys nor making any pony-memes, but my god, the unabashed cuteness and silliness of this show is perfect, and a little expected from the creator of The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

Indeed. I've not exactly found myself running out to buy pony dolls with brushable manes, but the show is so unexpectedly good that, once I saw it, I was hopelessly hooked.

I also enjoy the fact that it's a "hidden gem", hidden by decades of popular perception shaped by previous generations of the franchise. We are, after all, talking about My Little Pony here, and that's an intellectual property which made its name being as cute, pink, girly and sickeningly sweet as Hasbro could possibly make it.

When I tell people I'm a fan of the show and they give me that look, I know exactly why they do, because I was the same way myself, and I certainly can't blame them.

One of the key reasons I've adopted the ponies as my ATS mascots is precisely because of that phenomenon of judging the book by the cover. We ATSers get that a lot, since we visit one of those sites and talk about those things that no "normal" person would ever give a first thought.

It is, ultimately, ignorance itself (not in a pejorative sense, just in the sense of not knowing) that leads to such assumptions, and thus the very thing I highlight with my equine avatars. And that's not a knock on anyone. I've been there, done that plenty of times myself.

But people who have actually seen Friendship is Magic, even if they may not like it themselves, will know it's much, much different than what most people assume.

So it is with ATS. The common assumption is that we're a bunch of paranoid whack jobs who will believe anything we read.

While I suppose that might be true of some of us, it's certainly not true of all of us, and realizing that, just as with our little ponies, requires nothing more than bothering to look.

Our site motto exemplified.

This is a good, great and awesome series. I am so crazy for this series and love it.

the-boondocks.otavo.tv... , torchwood.otavo.tv...

I LOVE MLP!!! I must watch it each morning to start my day off right. I love it sooo much that when The Hub moved it an hour earlier last month I changed my sleeping schedule to wake up an hour earlier so I wouldn't miss one. Watching the ponies makes me feel like everything is alright in the world. The theme song is also amazing...it plays in my head off and on throughout the day. I have my SO watching it with me and he loves it too. I hope they keep making more and they stay the same high quality. Have you heard if there will be a new season?
-Alena

The Changing Of The Seasons

Intriguingly, I haven't seen or heard anything more definitive about Season Three than I knew back in October of last year.

There has been confirmation of a third season by several cast and crew members, as mentioned at the bottom of Wikipedia: List of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episodes, so we can be assured there will indeed be one, but surprisingly few details have leaked so far.

A rumor that Hasbro had only given the green light for 13 episodes had quite a few fans, myself included, somewhat worried. However, given the runaway success of the show (the Season Two finale broke The Hub's all-time record with over a million viewers on the channel alone, not counting potentially millions more who watched it via the Internet) and its effect on toy sales (they are way up), it seems unlikely Hasbro would pull the plug that soon.

I can only speculate about the future of the show, but given how popular it is now as a ratings leader for The Hub and a sales booster for the toy franchise, I am optimistic it will stay in production for as long as it remains profitable, and I suspect that will be for at least a year or two more, and hopefully longer.

reply to post by Majic

I really hope it makes it back for a season 3! I watch a LOT of cartoons and it seems to me that there is very little advance notice for the new seasons. I really love the new Mystery Inc (Scooby Doo) but it just sort of ended in a clifhanger last year and I can't find out if its coming back. I also love the new ThunderCats and it seems to come and go with no advance notice. Like I got up last Sat to watch it and it wasn't on so I guess its over for the season? This goes for all cartoons on The Hug except Pound Puppies (which I DO NOT like) and they have a new advert for it each week until I hear it repeating in my head all day...urrggg! Thaks for the heads up on MLP!

And Now, Your Moment Of Zen...


No reason. Just felt like posting that.

Season Three Teasers From Comic-Con (May Be A Bit Spoilery)

Sethisto at Equestria Daily has been following the panels and announcements related to MLP:FiM at Comic-Con, and there are quite a few tantalizing bits to be found.

One article jumped out at me, due mainly to how much information it contained:

Season 3 Spike and Twilight Song from Comic Con (Cell Quality)

- Trixie's return was "confirmed" with a "I think we're not allowed to say, but I will expect season three to maybe see some great and powerful stuff". after someone asked if she would be returning. (yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes)

- There was a great section about Derpy. Someone asked if she would be receiving anymore speaking roles, and the response basically said Hasbro loves Derpy, they have her everywhere now, but she probably wont be able to roll with anything other than background shots. You guys scared the poor girl!

- Octavia's section was a question about "Which background pony would you like to voice?". This eventually lead to a shoutout for Octavia, where Cathy Weseluck just out of nowhere busted out an awesome voice for her, with a hint that she could do a duet with Rarity.

- Fluttershy turning into a dragon and her cute voice coming from a giant lizard was actually mentioned by Tabitha. Sounds like season 3 to me!

- More crazy ponies on the way! These are the best episodes btw.

- Meghan reads Equestria Daily. Suddenly I'm even more insecure about my writing on this site! Please don't read this blurb Meghan, I'm totally doing it in 10 minutes in my hotel room!

- Dash not confirmed or denied for filly-fooling (this question was hilarious).

- They hyped Luna up, so we will probably be seeing more of her.

- Tabitha's first panel was a huge success! And her voice is just as amazing in person as in the show.

And, of course, the cell-phone video of a musical number from a future episode. A higher-quality version is embedded here:


As always, a delightful mix of great animation, masterful voicing, a little cheese, and that wink of clever self-parody which makes the show so enjoyable for adults.

I think it's natural for fans to worry about how the next season will turn out, but the more I see of what's in store, the more optimistic I become.

reply to post by Majic

I'm getting really excited! I've been seeing adverts on The Hub saying new MLP are coming to Sat. mornings! I can hardly wait! Thanks for all the updates!

reply to post by Alena Michelle

I'm trying to play it cool but I'm also really looking forward to the new season.

Meanwhile, I couldn't resist making this my avatar for a while. It somehow seems suitable for ATS...

reply to post by Majic


That is one sweet avatar! Yeah...I wanna live in Ponyville...in Twilight's tree house!

Confirmed: Season Three Will Only Have 13 Episodes

Meghan McCarthy Interviewed on the Nerdist + 13 Episodes Confirmed 100% (Finally)

So the rumor was true. I guess I've been spoiled by 26 episodes a season, though 13 episodes are certainly better than none.

There is some concern among fans that this brings the total number of episodes to 65, making it a 65-Episode Cartoon. That often signals the end of a series.

A fourth season has not been officially confirmed. However, if the show has indeed been canceled, the cast and crew have done a magnificent job of hiding it.

Details of Season Three have been leaking out, but it finished production months ago. If the show was over, the various contributors to it might linger to bask in the spotlight without so much as a word about it, but it is far more likely that they would quickly move on to other projects, because spotlight-basking pays a lot less than cartoon-making.

Keeping the cancellation of a show secret is nearly impossible, because somebody on the staff is almost guaranteed to say something if they're out of a job and looking for work. The flood of resumes alone would be a big tip.

Plus it seems unlikely that Hasbro, which had the vision and foresight to commission the series in the first place, would so quickly pull the plug on its Hub ratings leader and the promotional centerpiece of the entirely new MLP G4 toy line. The show is, after all, what has been pushing such strong sales of the merchandise.

Though I'm disappointed not to see 26 episodes this season, I'm also aware that 13-episode seasons are more sustainable for long-term production, and that we're likely to see more investment in each episode as the pressure of cranking out so many of them eases.

So what does the future hold for Equestria?

Only Princess Celestia knows for sure.