You what I see this looking like?

Bratz. Look at it!

They might be taking the most positively progressively feminist cartoon ever made and turning the Dial right back. Six stick thin high school girls dealing with high school problems...yay.

Sorry but for once, I'm having a hard time accepting this.

edited 10th Feb '13 1:01:49 PM by ApplelightLimited

Now that you mention it, yeah. They all have the exact same body type. Would it kill them to mix it up, have them be different heights, maybe make Pinkie be *gasp* slightly overweight?

I don't like that news so I ignore them. I do like that followup, agains that same guy who can make funny followup.

BTW Do we learned new town/city name in this episode? Mustangia?

@ Crowfall

Not even making pinkie pie a bootylicous bbw could improve this in my eyes. That's how serious I am!

Well, when it crashes and burns, they'll learn a lesson

Also this isn't a new show. At least not yet. Just a single movie, then a line of toys launched from it.

Yeah it's not like they all use the same model in FiM at all. So lazy.

edited 10th Feb '13 1:10:01 PM by Badwolfwho

I finally got to see Games Ponies Play.

I really liked it, one of the top episodes of the season at least. I really like that they're setting things up for future episodes. The Equestrian Games have to take place in Season 4, I bet they originally planned for it to be in this season but when they shortened it to 13 episodes they changed it up. Actually, this episode really felt to me like part 1 of a 2 part finale, with the focus on the entire cast, the higher than usual production values, the Big Event set up, and the guest star characters (Shiny was great).

I didn't like the green haired ponies accent or manner of speaking, I find that sort of bad fake southern affectation really grating. But the character herself I found interesting. I didn't expect claustrophobia to show up in this show. I assumed with the way they she kept going on about wanting to run and stretch her legs that they were leading up to the reveal that she was actually an athlete competing in the games, but that didn't happen. I wonder if it was initially planned but they decided the plot was complicated enough.

Best part: Twilight's legitimate character development. She was put into a position where she was in charge of a job that went bad... and she didn't go crazy. She even realized that this was unusual herself when she was talking to her brother, and it was really good to see her practicing the relaxation technique Cadance taught her throughout the episode. It leads very well into the season finale. It would be a bad idea to have a princess who can't cope with stress, and she's now shown that she's gotten good at handling it.

I thought it was a province/country but maybe it's a town.

edited 10th Feb '13 1:11:56 PM by Bluespade

@Applelight: As much as I'm not a fan of the idea, I think we should wait until we have more than one frame (that appears to be more of a test frame than anything else) before claiming anything about the quality. If the original show can take something girly and make it palatable, it's possible (however unlikely) that they might be able to take the whole "High School AU" thing and make something decent out of it. Sure, it's a bit of a long shot, but let's not throw the whole thing under the bus before it airs.

That, and the body types is one of those things that's going to please no one so they made it the same so that it isn't an important part of the episode.

edited 10th Feb '13 1:19:39 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Yeah, but Faust basically said that she wished she had used different models. The only reason they didn't was because it was cheaper. I'd also say that model reuse is way more noticeable with humans since we're more familiar with what they should look like.

edited 10th Feb '13 1:13:44 PM by Crowfall

I dunno, I may sound a bit crazy, but I think this could have potential. They could try to avert the usual high-school type shows and do their own spins with it. The only thing that confuses me is the technicolor skin, unless it's for the same reason homestuck characters are monochrome.

I'll just wait and see ^_^

@Bluespade: Southern? That sounded like a northern accent to me. Something Minnesota-ish.

edited 10th Feb '13 1:15:39 PM by Rinsankajugin

The weird part though is how a highschool AU would actually make them mroe immature.

Hmm the episode wrap up makes a good point.

this is the first time, EVER that RD has hit a roof, and NOT gone through it. How strong is the architecture?

And likely make them less independent and just generally appear younger.

edited 10th Feb '13 1:18:49 PM by Mio

If this is a story about them being highschoolers, then I wonder if they will have a human version of Cheerilee be one of the teachers, to keep with her usual role, or if she will be a classmate of theirs since she's probably the same age as Rarity in the main show (since she showed up as one of Rarity's classmates in the Cutie Mark Chronicles flashback).

@Rin: I'm guessing the skin color is because giving the characters any sort of realistic skin tone is a fast track to Internet Backdraft. If you made them all white, people would complain about the lack of diversity, and if you made them other ethnicities, people would complain about tokenism.

I'll try to reserve judgment but honestly? Hasbro, I am disappoint...ed.

@Rainbow: They can't have Cheerilee be a teacher, that would wreck havoc with my Twilee ship!

Or, possibly, make it better. We'll see.

Well. . .I guess we always hope they go the Urban Fantasy route. Maybe then we can have that Magical Girl show that we always thought Lauren Faust was trying to make.

Really, if they get inventive about it they could find new roles for the characters. Like Celestia could be the principal, Luna could be a teacher, Iron Will could be the gym teacher, Trixie could be like a cheerleader or something.

So is this an actual thing? Fully confirmed? I hear a lot of people complaining but I don't even know if it's legit.

In regards to Equestria Daily's episode followup, it made me realize something about this scene◊. Rainbow Dash didn't break the roof! Rarity was probably thinking the whole time "Huh, that sounded like Rainbow Dash...but there's no property damage... can't be her..."

As for the supposed TV movie screenshot, nothings really confirmed yet and it could still be a hoax. That said, the reason most ponies have the same body type in the show is to make it easier for the animators, there are Loads and Loads of Characters to draw & animate after all.

I think I said before that my main problem with this if it turned out to be real wouldn't necessarily be the High School setting but the fact its not ponies. Imagine if they did a High School AU of Transformers as humans!

...Actually, that might be hilarious

IDK I'd like to see the CMC as middle schoolers. As for Rarity, I always assumed she's a few years older than the others, explaining her sense of professionalism. So Cheerilee's probably in her very early twenties; just on her second or third year of teaching.

@Blue: Basically, it's not confirmed, but there have been multiple rumors from multiple sources. I'm still taking it with a grain of salt but after the last big spoiler, I wouldn't put it past them.

Also, I think it's important to keep in mind that as far as we know this is a one-shot thing. There haven't been any hints of them making a whole show of this anyway, so we have no idea.

In other news, Episode 12 review.

High school AU? Forgive me for not putting trust into something which has a source of 'I know a guy'.

If it is real though, I just hope they don't take the easy 'High school girl drama' way out, but actually be interesting to the fandom.

@JT: Principal Celestia...

That sounds really legit for some reason.