The Avatar and Signature Appreciation Thread

[Ben]

Wow, a race joke. That's always funny.

I like to think so.

[Matador]

Was: Han Solo kissing Leia in Empire;

Now: Joe Cocker at Woodstock.

"I don't care what the devil may say; Never gonna let you go!"

[Jim North]

It's all Fluttershy up in this bitch.

[Robert McSantos]

Huh. Always pegged you as more of a Rarity man, Jim.

[Jim North]

Huh. Always pegged you as more of a Rarity man, Jim.

[stock]

I STILL DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

[Jim North]

That's okay, stock. I still think you're cool.

[stock]

I've asked people and they're all like "nostalgia" and I'm all like "that's insane."

[Jim North]

I've asked people and they're all like "nostalgia" and I'm all like "that's insane."

Ew, that is insane. The old MLP was utter shit.

[Knight]

It's called "being creepy".

[Robert McSantos]

Yeah, it's got nothing to do with nostalgia for me. The show is funny because of the way the characters bounce off each other. It's the type of comedy Würdwürm would love. That's not easy to find anymore.

And it really is the American version of Azumanga Daioh. As much as we need more shows about guys doing stupid stuff together, there's an even greater shortage of shows about girls doing stupid stuff together.

[Jim North]

When I first heard that there was a new My Little Pony, I was dismissive and highly skeptical that it could actually be good like people were saying it was. Any right-minded person who had ever even heard of the old MLP would be right in being dismissive and highly skeptical, after all. But since I have a strange track record for checking out stuff I really know I shouldn't (I've seen the first four or five episodes of Tokyo Mew Mew, though I have thankfully managed to erase most of it from my memory), I decided what the hell and gave it a try. And to my own great surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode. I watched the second, then the third, and just kinda ate 'em up from there. There weren't many at the time, but I started catching them as soon as they hit YouTube every week until the first season ended not too long ago.

So, what do I see in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic? Why did I keep watching? Well it's pretty simple . . . because it's good.

I like the animation, both the style and the movement of it. The show is created by many of the same folks that did The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home of Imaginary Friends (the latter of which is another show I enjoy) and has an even more polished look to it than those two shows. I always found the old MLP designs to be weird and clunky looking, but the current crew are very sleek and work very well.

I like the characters. They run the usual gamut of girl-show stereotypes (the studious one, the pretty one, the shy one, the athletic one, etc.), but the writers manage to make them pop and keep them from being stale or one-dimensional. They're not just girly girls, but fully realized people who embody their own particular brands of femininity in healthy, interesting ways. I watch the show and find myself actually giving a damn whether these girls actually succeed in what they're doing or not. The personalities on display work well off of each other and are able to drive stories all on their own when necessary.

I like the writing. Sure, all of the tales are out to tell one of the usual stock morals - that's children's television for ya - but they aren't infused with the usual saccharine overdose and are presented with a lot of style and class. The jokes - of which there are many - are all high quality, and I find myself laughing out loud on many occasions at the ponies' antics. The writers are coming at it with the attitude I wish more cartoon writers would approach their work with . . . they know it doesn't have to be just good enough to keep kids entertained. Even though Hasbro is pretty open about the fact that they see the show as nothing but thirty minute commercials for their toys, the creators of the show themselves work to lift it above that. Lauren Faust herself has said that the low quality of the stories in the original MLP was one of the things she hated most about it, and she has aimed to change that with her version.

I like the voice acting. Tara Strong heads the cast, and as always she's totally awesome, but the rest can't be sold short by any means. They all fit their characters perfectly (even the lady who splits her time between the ultra-shy Fluttershy and the ultra-energetic Pinkie Pie) and bring a massive amount of personality to the table. I could just sit back, close my eyes, and enjoy listening to them talk for hours on end.

I like the songs. Just like with Fraggle Rock and Phineas and Ferb, almost every song in the show tends to be an irresistibly catchy toe-tappin' beat. Except on those occasions when they're actually supposed to be weird and bad, such as the Cutie Crusader's talent show song and Pinkie Pie's "Share and Care" showtune.

I like that the creators of the show actually pay attention to their fans, both kids and adults. There have been a number of shout-outs to the internet culture that has grown up around the ponies, and they all seem to do as much as they can to make all of the viewers feel like they're both important and appreciated. And given that so many other show and movie creators seem to be often distant and sometimes downright antagonistic toward parts of their own fandom, feeling important and appreciated is pretty cool.

I like that the fandom itself is made up mostly of pretty cool dudes. Fandom is such a nasty, brutish thing sometimes. I'm a member of the furry and Sonic the Hedgehog fandoms, so I'm obviously no stranger to that. But most folks in the MLP fandom actively work to be nice when it comes to their adulation of a bunch of multicolored ponies. It could have gone totally the other way, of course, with the bronies getting the same nasty persecution complex as so many furries, but hey. Friendship is magic, and so if you get all up in their grill then they'll just sit there and love and tolerate the shit out of you.

Really, overall, the thing I like about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is that when I load up an episode and get to watchin' it, I'm not bored. I laugh, I cheer, and I generally just enjoy myself. And as long as I'm doing that, then I figure what the hell does it matter what exactly constitutes the content of the show? You don't have to "get" ponies in order to get that it's a well made piece of work.

But anyway, hey, that's just me. If other folks still don't get MLP, or they actually don't like it on its own merits, then that's all good with me. Not everyone is going to like everything, after all. And that's just fine, 'cause I like it well enough for everybody! BROHOOF!

[eitlobsaboo]

[Robert McSantos]

They run the usual gamut of girl-show stereotypes (the studious one, the pretty one, the shy one, the athletic one, etc.), but the writers manage to make them pop and keep them from being stale or one-dimensional.

This is very true, and I would go so far as to say that the show intentionally tries to defy expectations. Many of the girls, if not all of them, prove to be the opposite of who you would assume them to be be based on similar characters from other shows. And that's just in the first two episodes.

Sure, all of the tales are out to tell one of the usual stock morals - that's children's television for ya - but they aren't infused with the usual saccharine overdose and are presented with a lot of style and class.

I'd like to point out that the morals are mandated by the network. If they seem like afterthoughts, it's because that's exactly what they are. The people who make the show don't build the episodes around the morals. They make the episodes they want to make, then stick a vaguely related moral onto the end.

I've heard that they're being given more freedom for season 2, which may spell the end of the morals.

Except on those occasions when they're actually supposed to be weird and bad, such as the Cutie Crusader's talent show song

That sequence was the entire decade of the 80's compressed into a single two and a half minute period.

[ninja-pie]

Yoink.