Anyone else looking forward to the Friendship is Magic Season 4 premier?

Cafe Society
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If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you won’t wanna know.

The next season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is coming out in just over a week, premiering on the 23rd. I am psyched. Apparently there’s some serious shit going down, with

The princesses missing

Not entirely sure why, if I had to guess I’d say it may have something to do with Discord, although I sincerely hope it doesn’t - Fluttershy would be so heartbroken. :frowning: Also really looking forward to the Scootaloo episode in a few weeks that seems to be directly addressing the fact that she can’t fly.

Anyways, predictions, thoughts, general friendship, kindness, love and compassion thread.

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Thanks for posting this; I might’ve missed it otherwise.

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Well, my 7-year old daughter is. And I think, secretly, my 9-year old son, although he won’t admit it.

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Tell your son that one of the largest audiences for the show is guys between 16 and 30. No, really. :smiley:

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Can someone please explain to me why this show is so popular with adults?

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Speaking only for myself - it’s funny and cute, but more importantly it is a nerd show written by the nerdiest nerds who have ever nerded. Every other episode is neck-deep in references to other things that have nothing to do with ponies, friendship, or magic. An award ceremony that is shot-for-shot a remake of the one from Star Wars. Batman the Animated Series and Darkwing Duck. The Big Lebowski.

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…So, are they going to address the weird-ass ending of season 3 where

Twilight Sparkle somehow turns into an alicorn and is named a princess because they didn’t know they were going to get a fourth season?

Or are they going with an “it was all a dream” thing?

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That was actually planned from before the first episode of S1. Supposedly Twilight’s Element being the Big Crown Thingy was intended to be a giant hint. In any event, she was pretty clearly being groomed all through the show for some sort of advancement. That the actual execution, when it came, was rather lacking, I chalk up to Season 3’s sudden abbreviation due to having to cram in the EqG movie during the same production time. The finale really needed to be a two-parter.

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Beyond what Mek said, we also had the Equestria Girls movie (which was a lot better than it looked, by the way) which addressed this theme quite heavily. I think there are going to be quite a few episodes playing off this. Hopefully at least one more lovely scene like in “Lesson Zero” with

Twi having a complete mental breakdown, because this time it’d be even MORE fun. :smiley:

[QUOTE=Shakes]
Can someone please explain to me why this show is so popular with adults?
[/QUOTE]

I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me, the main issue is just that it’s a really well-made cartoon that is funny and heartfelt with three-dimensional characters, strong plots, and great use of expectations. Scenes like Big Mac’s bit with the doll in Lesson Zero and the inclusion of Donny, Walter, and “The Dude” ponies in the bowling alley easily rank right up there in my favorite cartoon moments ever, right along with “All hail the magic conch”. I suppose part of it may just be a childish desire to belong to a counterculture, the fact that I really like the fanbase (greatest. thing. ever.), but damn - I wouldn’t have stuck on so long if the show wasn’t just damn good.

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Posting about MLP outside of fansites is a dubious idea since it usually gets derailed by “I can’t into cartoon pony” posts.

But sure, I’ll nerd out.

I’m far and away most interested in

why Luna is turning back into Nightmare Moon, as revealed in the animatic teaser. Is it time travel, a flashback, or is Luna really as bitterly tortured or just plain schitzo as darker fan depictions and she wants to punish everyone for loving her sister more? The comics are pseudo-canon and made it seem like she got over the jealousy/isolation thing. Then again there was the Crystal Empire intro where she seemed irritated at Celestia’s plan and was mean mugging Twilight something fierce.

Here are ideas I’d like to see that won’t happen, but if they did I would forgive s3 for all its sins:

  • If the stuff in the spoiler box is in the past I’d like to see Twilight go through what Luna did and becomes if not a temporary villain maybe a knight templar. Badass Twilight would be fun by itself, but I’d also like to see her friends save the day without Twilight fixing it with magic. Luna can help, since she can relate.

  • Discord reveals his defection was all a clever ruse, and now Equestria is fucked.

  • Anything that involves the horrors of Tartarus spilling into Equestria and/or visiting Tartarus itself. Of course it was a throwaway gag, but this show has a ton of Greek myth influence, and that’d be an easy goto place for a new villain.

I don’t know what you guys mean about the alicorn episode. Twilight saved her friends’ destinies and Celestia congratulated her on fully understanding the magic of friendship and she graduated from her advanced magic studies to become the archmage of Equestria. And then the series ended.

OK, maybe it wasn’t that bad. But after season three, or even just due to Twilicorn, MLP definitely has a broken base. I can’t remember the last fandom civil war of this magnitude over a singular issue I’ve seen that didn’t involve romance shipping wars or a character death.

I hope after the show ends after season 37 Faust writes a tell all book detailing her creative differences with Hasbro re: Twilicorn, Cadance, and exactly what she wanted to do. She’s been tight lipped since leaving but she did say she might share after the show ends. I’d buy it.

Faust wanted Twi to succeed Celestia (viva la revolucion) but I’m guessing not as an alicorn (she seemed adamant on there only being the two sisters, but who knows). And I’d hope she’d do it in a much better way, maybe with some actual build up.

It’s weird to me, given the fact that Celestia has ruled for thousands of years and Twi just doesn’t seem like princess material. Politics, running the country…that’d drive her nuts. Just managing her team and random Ponyville stuff makes her stabby. I’d like to imagine her ultimate fate (after she’s retired from the saving the world job) would be a famous scholar like Starswirl.

It’s not like Twilight is succeeding anyone here though. Celestia and Luna are still the sovereigns of Equestria as far as anyone knows, unless in s4 they’re going to step down or ascend to the stars or something (which would cause another hilarious shitstorm). Is she gonna be the princess of Ponyville? That has a mayor? They won’t move the show to another land, so she won’t be helping expand Equestria’s empire a la the Crystal Empire and Cadance.

Not that this world makes much sense given its episodic nature and freelance writers, anyway. McCarthy said Twi will have to learn to deal with being famous. I always thought this schizophrenic split between the adventure and slice of life episodes was pretty funny. Because Twilight should’ve already been famous before the pilot! Certainly after saving the world. Or if Celestia kept that under wraps to protect Luna’s public image, after S2’s pilot. There are entire episodes that count on them not being famous, which is ludicrous. Bitch, how have you never heard of Rainbow Dash? How does anyone in Canterlot not recognize Twilight? Unless there’s a bunch of other people with mystical artifacts going around saving the world from disasters and ancient evils they should be living legends.

When people asked if Twilight would outlive all her friends McCarthy said Twilight WON’T live for thousands of years. So it seems there’s two tiers of alicorns:

Physically large demi-gods: Celestia, Luna
Medium sized knock offs: Cadance, Twilight

I liked how in Twi’s coronation Celestia had the ginormous crown. We know who really runs this shit. Especially since she made Twi an alicorn basically against her will, or at least without asking.

tl;dr Reservations about general direction and Hasbro manipulation aside I am looking forward to S4. Honestly, I love the characters too much to ever stop watching. The ride will never end. I need moar candy colored magic horses.

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My 15 yr old son and his friends are eagerly awaiting it.

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I will say that given the events of Sonic Rainboom and the Cutie Mark Chronicles, it stretches plausibility somewhat that Rainbow Dash isn’t already part of the wonderbolts.

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It’s because the clock is ticking on Celestia’s thousand-year plan. She’s having to push Twilight because she’s on a literal deadline now.

Ahem. In my headcanon, that is.

My notion is that the sisters’ immortality has nothing to do with being alicorns, princesses, or rulers: it’s because they were attuned to the Elements. When Celestia used the Elements against Nightmare Moon, she broke Luna’s attunement, so she turned her to stone in order to preserve her until someone came along who could restore her. She’s been doing the Bene Gesserit thing since, guiding, manipulating, and training unicorns until she found one with the right potential. Then she arranged to transfer the Elements to Twilight and her friends, sacrificing her own immortality to restore her sister’s sanity.

Right now, the Mane Six are the immortal ones. Celestia and Luna will grow old and die, leaving Equestria in their hands. In due time–perhaps centuries, but not millenia–when the Mane Six have had their fill of guiding and guarding the land, they will find successors of their own and retire to live out full, natural lives.

</headcanon that is totally not going to be real canon>

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inb4itstotallycorrect :v

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So would Twilight bring out the sun and moon, or would they have to assemble a team of elite mages to do it a la Hearthwarming (if you believe it’s an accurate history)?

Heh, I think the nature of the alicorns spawn the craziest fan theories. Everything from them being creator gods to secret tyrants to being mortals harvesting pony souls or using an artifact to stay forever young. I kinda hope they don’t reveal too much about their true origin because they’d kinda ruin the fun. Your theory reminded me of this idea for a finale I copied down a long time ago:

I almost said it was jossed, but Twi could still absorb her friends to reach that final tier with the cosmic hair.

Speaking of alicorns, I wonder if they’ll introduce even more. Hasbro doesn’t care about what adult nerds think of the show’s mythology as envisioned by the long gone creator, so their backlash is meaningless.

Now to speak of actual episode ideas that could actually happen, they should start expanding the scope of the show to other characters every once in awhile. Love the mane6, and the CMC have gotten better over time, but eventually a 22 Short Films About Springfield-type episode would be too cool to pass up. Especially if the mane6 were fighting monsters or doing something crazy in the background and the townsfolk are all blase about it. Because that’s just Tuesday for them.

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Usain Bolt is a record-breaking Olympic sprinter, and possibly the fastest runner in history; could he make it as an Olympic gymnast, or even a circus acrobat?

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Does he ever watch “Wordgirl” on PBS? On that show her brother TJ goes through the same thing with “The Pretty Princess and Magic Pony Power Hour” because magic sparkling ponies are awesome.

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Holy shit, and here I was thinking we’d never find common ground. :smiley: I dunno, man. I guess the role of the Wonderbolts is fairly ill-defined to begin with. I mean, the early episodes paint them as sort of a “Blue Angels”-style artistic routine, but then you get episodes like Wonderbolt Academy that paint them as a straight-up military unit. Which does open up some questions. Basically though, at this point you’d think they’d at least have their eyes firmly trained on Dashie, right?

Also, anyone know any streams where this is likely to go up? I’ll be stuck away from home in Frankfurt on saturday. :frowning:

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While I like common ground as much as the next guy, I’m at a loss as to how to keep it going here: you bring up the Wonderbolts Academy episode, and then immediately segue into asking whether they’d train their eyes on Rainbow Dash at this point?

Wasn’t them eyeing Dash pretty much the whole point of that episode?

They invited her to the Academy, and timed how long it took her to recover from high-speed spins. They teamed her with Lightning Dust for a training exercise, at which point injury ensued. They had her fly through the obstacle course before deciding she’s a better fit as leader than in the wingman role. They heard what she had to say about the tornado she just now (a) helped whip up, and (b) endangered innocents with. You know all of this. How much more eye could they train on her?

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I would not in the least mind an episode or two featuring various background ponies, and it’s not like they don’t all have lots of fanon to start from. (Leaving aside some of the more obviously problematic parts.)