My Little Pony

The original 1980s series was widely regarded as shit....

My Little Pony (MLP for short) is a toy and cartoon series created by Hasbro with a long and tortured history. Originally noted for being a particularly shitty series back in the 1980s during the Dark Age of Cartoons, it was notable for having characters with no actually definable points, little in the way of conflict, and very little in the way of character development. Like Transformers, the show came into existence to support a line of toys. Unlike its counterpart, however, My Little Pony show was horrible, even by 1980s standards, and it died - as expected, and we were richer for having lost it.

....Or so we thought.

Then, nearly 2 decades hence, it saw something of a revival - and of a most.... Unusual sort. Done by a completely new team and with a completely new cast, a new show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic emerged, and managed to leave everyone who watched it in a state of stunned silence - it was actually reasonably good.

...Whereas the re-release is heralded as mildly awesome.

How the series went from complete shit to not-complete-shit is something many familiar with the series have wondered. In truth, it owes most of its revival to a combination of factors: extremely clever writing (it has the same writers as the Powerpuff Girls), much better animation than most other shows, and remarkably-enjoyable characters. Which is hilarious when you consider that the show is directed at little girls. Whilst hardly the best show ever to grace television, the new series stands head and shoulders over 99.95% of the drek that's on network TV, which is kind of unique.

The charm and appeal of the various characters has caused huge portions of the general populace to develop an affection for the show, seemingly in the face of any and all logic. Even /tg/ has not been immune to this, with the show inspiring works of concentrated hilarity and win such as Don't Rest Your Hooves, Ponyfinder, and joking setups with the cast of the new series playing D&D and Warhammer 40,000. It seems like almost no community can resist the combination of d'aaaaw and humor.

Wait, Seriously?

It's sort of incredible how a show that was widely regarding as being some of the worst fail ever to fail could be revamped into something so widely-accepted and praised, but there you have it. The pony-show has inspired many, both on /tg/ and off of it, so in spite of the series being so aimed-at-little-girls, it has achieved humorously high acceptance, even among fa/tg/uys and ca/tg/irls. Posting MLP-related will invariably produce biblical-level firestorms on /tg/, as the few holdout haters of the series bitch and troll whilst the rest of /tg/ rushes to defend the original posting. It's rare that anything on /tg/ outside of he who must never be mentioned brings about this kind of righteous indignation, but there you have it. To the credit of the Show's producers, they know that chan-goers are a sizable chunk of their audience, and make shout-outs often. Several memes, including Chocolate Rain have already been referenced in episodes.

Yes, it's a show for little girls, but the bulk of the audience doesn't care; it's blinded by the Awesome. Yes, things in it make no sense, such as the fact that they have somehow constructed a village without actually possessing hands or opposable thumbs - but the audience will put up with it, because it still makes more sense than Matt Ward's fluff and is hilarious to boot. Yes, it's childish and silly, but the audience doesn't give a shit. It is accepted nowadays for the same reason Touhou was, and whilst there's a number of fa/tg/uys who will take up arms against MLP content on /tg/, the bulk will defend it to the death.

Characters and Such

blah blah blah original ponies: 1982, legs without feet like psuedopods, as many characters as the Chinese sweatshops could pump out. 24-minute Saturday-morning ~~cartoons~~ commercials. Second wave: 1997, poseable heads, Mary-Sue pegasusicorns, sales were good in Europe but tanked in USA, so let's hear it for Boxcar Willie syndrome. Third wave: the start of writing actual fluff instead of shitting on a typewriter, and making ponies for ~~manchildren~~ ~~womanchildren~~ adult collectors.

Wave three-point-five, or "core 7", 2008, is what /co/ would recognize as MLP. The water-caste Tau working for Hasbro figured the cartoons were getting more dollars in than the normal 30-second commercials, so they cut the pony models down to just seven: Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Star Song, Sweetie Belle, Toola Roola, Cheerilee, and Scootaloo. The toy molds were changed to make the toys more weeaboo: smaller bodies, larger heads, freakishly wide eyes.

Wave three-point-seven-five (the Pathfinder wave?) is 2010, with the "Friendship is Magic" cartoon on teevee channel The Hub. This is where the MLP starts to infect /b/, /tg/, even /v/ like a four-legged syphilis. All the reaction image shit you see comes from MLP:FiM. The new "core 7" are: Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity and Princess Celestia. I think that last one is a horse, not a pony, but /tg/'s entire expeditionary force risked going into diabetic shock just from doing this research for you bastards.

It should be noted that Celestia is voiced by none other than Nicole Olliver, who voiced Farseer Macha, Farseer Caerys, and star of Love Can Bloom, Farseer Taldeer. Another character, Chief Thunderhooves, is voiced by the ever and extremely awesome Scott McNeil (A.K.A. Davian Cool, Sindri Myr,Neroth, Firaeveus "MEHTAWL BAWKSES!!!" Carron and Indrick "Spess Mehrens" Boreale). Suffice to say, hilarity has resulted.