My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

We’ve never watched this show, but my wife recorded one for when our niece visits. My son and I saw the listing on our TiVo and had a few laughs. This show is for little kids, yet the description sounded nothing like a cartoon show for toddlers.

The episode in question was “Over a Barrel” and the description was “Settling a complicated land dispute.”

We were like - “WTF???”

This Thread got me curious, so I watched an episode on the Hub website. I did actually enjoy it. It was pretty amusing.

The episode I saw, Green is Not your Color featured a flutterpony as one of the main protagonists (I am assuming that flutterponies are ponies with wings, am I incorrect?). This flutterpony was very sweet and nice.

Does “flutterponies are dicks” refer to something about the original series?

I watched Sonic Rainboom last night, and I got the impression that, as a general rule, pegasus ponies[sup]*[/sup] act like hotshot pilots. Not that they’re necessarily dicks, but they do seem to take it for granted that having wings is superior to not having wings.

*I may admit to taking an interest in FiM, but I’ll be damned if I use the term flutterpony. :smiley:

No, Flutter Ponies are a particular type of winged ponies, distinct from the pegasuses.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy (and all other winged ponies shown on FiM so far, save for Princess Celestia and Nightmare Moon/Princess Luna*) are pegasuses. Flutter Ponies, unlike the pegasuses have transparent, insect-like wings. Their toys featured a mechanism that let the wings flutter, thus the name (Pegasus ponies had their wings molded on in a closed position). I wasn’t really interested in MLP as media (just the toys) until FiM, so I can’t say anything about whether Flutter Ponies (or, indeed, pegasuses) are dicks or not in previous media.

  • Celestria and Luna are pegasus unicorns. Because they’re extra-special.

bienville, from what I can tell that is the consensus, though Fluttershy (the sweet and nice pony) seems to be an exception. Like Rainbow Dash is pretty into herself and her abilities. Fluttershy is nothing like that, though. She’s just such a sweetie, though. Every time she’s on camera, I just want to grab her and squeeze her to bits. And she’s so gentle that even if it hurt, you know she’d be so sweet and polite about it.

ETA: Ohhhh. Tengu, thanks for the clarification! :slight_smile:

I think I had a flutter pony as a child. Starry Wings was her name. Would she qualify as a flutterpony?

Ahh, very cool. (Just saw this now.) It makes more sense. Though I’m glad you don’t really have to know about all the original ponies to watch the show. I had so many ponies as a kid but didn’t know anyone’s “real” name. I think I just gave them their own names.

Starry Wings is a Windy Wing.

Windy Wings were yet a third distinct type (though they were identical in form, if not theme, to the Summer Wings, which were part of the prior wave). They had transparent plastic wings, like the Flutters, but not the fluttering mechanism.

They were introduced a couple years after the Flutter Ponies were discontinued.

Wow. I just watched a few minutes of it online, and (as 40-something guy who never gave MLP a second thought) I have to say it’s fricking brilliant!

We don’t have Hub at our house. Is there anyplace else to watch it?

Some, maybe all, episodes are up on Youtube. The Hub appears to be lax about asserting copyright issues (considering the money is made from merchandising instead of advertisements, that’s not too surprising).

I think I’d add Star Trek to that list - I’m decently sure Swarm of the Century is the MLP version of The Trouble With Tribbles.

The Hamster King, it looks like they have the two most recent ones online here: http://www.hubworld.com/my-little-pony/shows/friendship-is-magic/videos, plus some clips.

Thanks for linking to this. I found this site yesterday and was looking at all the ponies to see which ones I had. (Didn’t make the distinction between windy wings and other kinds of wings, though–last night, they were all just pegasus vs. unicorn vs. earth ponies.)

It’s a lot of fun when I think, “My pony!” I think the original pony toys were a lot cuter than the toys Hasbro is putting out now. Though the new TV show trumps everything. Cute ponies plus cool plots = happy Freudian Slit.

The ‘flutterponies are dicks’ issue comes up in the G1 Smooze episode. Basically they had the ability to save the world from the evil Smooze, and… eh, nah, don’t feel like it.
Also, the toy wings would fracture off in seconds, to the point where an intact pair of flutterpony wings goes for extraordinary amounts on Ebay these days.
I don’t want to spoil the episode plot, but there is only one Flutterpony appearance so far, and it’s artificial. But the character acts remarkably like the old ones do during it.


Have a thing.

Do you mean:

When Rarity gets wings in Sonic Rainboom and puts on airs/shows off?

Oddly enough, while I’ve never watched the show I’ve seen more than a few mashups myself.

Batmare

MLP/Star Trek

Doctor Whooves.

MLP and Majora’s Mask.

Thanks, Tengu!

It is to your credit that, not only do you know all those facts, but that you are not ashamed to let it be known that you know all those facts.

This board, indeed this world, is richer for your presence.

Precisely, Slit. That’s the episode.

An interesting thing I spotted while looking at one of the FiM wikis…

The entries for the ponies on this particular wiki include descriptions of their cutie marks.

Twilight Sparkle’s is described as

(Spoiler for the first two episodes…)

Just like the Elements of Harmony. Before she even knew what they were, her cutie mark was foreshadowing the pilot! That’s subtle-ass foreshadowing. Or, given the cutie mark’s location, subtle ass-foreshadowing…

Also, a variant with only 4 small stars is fairly common, looking at a list of background and minor ponies - particularly among the males.

So did the concept of a cutie mark exist for ponies in the original show? I mean, I know they had marks but were they called cutie marks and did a pony develop hers when she knew what she was meant to do with her life? And did the marks relate to a pony’s life work?

ETA: AH! Fluttershy just talked about doing a BUNNY CENSUS! SO CUTE IT HUUUUURTS.

Side note, does Fluttershy remind anypony else of a female equine (er, pony ine?) version of Mr. O’Neill from Daria?

Oh my, I think I’m hooked. And I LOVE love love Fluttershy, too! She’s adorable…

Been checking out an episode or so an evening on the net to relax after work. This is a fun show, I can see why it’s drawing an adult fannish following. It’s sweet to watch without being too saccharine and there’s enough wry humor and wit to cut the sugar.

“You’ve got a problem and the cure is a banjo!” Gotta love it…

I was trying to pace myself with an ep a night but somehow I wound up finishing the whole season. And the new episode (Chronicles of the Cutie Mark Crusaders?) isn’t airing till the 15th! D’oh!

Also wanted to ask if anyone else knew about the cutie marks–that is, where they part of the original show? (Not the concept of a symbol but the name and the fact that they appear.) Are they…ah, Pony canon, as it were?