OK as long it's not replacing My Little PONY Friendship Is Magic situation will not be that bad.

But it's possibility of draining resources from MLPFIM.

The thing is...they could've done urban fantasy without that. Just set it in Manehattan or something. Bam, urban fantasy.

Im still betting S4 is the last. They wont stop showing, they will syndicate the episodes they have and ride it out til G5 is ready.

I think Hasbro is smart. Crazy from time to time, but they're not stupid. Canceling the show that made My Little Pony a phenomenon now, during its 30th anniversary, and while said popularity is still going strong, is stupid.

They just want to make a toyline to compete with Mattel in the young teen girls market, and apparently subjecting the entire My Little Pony franchise to Wolverine Publicity. Think about it, what's the safer bet? An entirely new franchise entering a fray with other Cash Cow Franchises, or expanding the pop-culture brand with 30 years of history, especially when said brand is at the peak of its popularity?

Weird though. There's an anniversary to celebrate, and Hasbro launches a human spin-off. Here's to hoping Season 4 takes care of the Milestone Celebration.

edited 12th Feb '13 5:08:57 PM by Calnos

We've obviously reached the point where Hasbro is trying to milk the show to death. In the past 4 months YouTube has started charging for episodes, Hasbro bought the copyright for the title Equestrian Girls, ceased down the fan game Fighting Is Magic, forced Twilight into having extra limb surgery, and now this. So yeah, unfortunately, I feel like Season 4 will be the last. They been going the way of LEGO for a long time..... another company which, by the way, also introduced a line of toys aimed at girls featuring characters that are not designed to look like they're in the LEGO family at all.

Is it 26 episodes?

edited 12th Feb '13 5:08:34 PM by Shota

S4 is 26 episodes at least, yes.

Hmm... if they do Urban Fantasy then they'd be competing with the Monster High dolls and others like them.

edited 12th Feb '13 5:10:10 PM by Turtlebutter

My body is ready.

Man, first [OBVIOUS SPOILER REDACTED], then the Bronycon Doc bonus material gets axed, then Fighting is Magic gets shut down, and now this. Apparently it's shitstorm season in the Pony fandom.

edited 12th Feb '13 5:17:28 PM by Hsere

1. It's a spinoff, which to me at least implies that it's going to be an alternate continuity from the main show, meaning if it sucks we can just ignore the thing.

2. Regarding this:

We can't really say that they're "diving headlong into them" yet because we've literally only seen one frame of the show, and that even that might change. It might very well be a high school setting, but again, execution trumps concept. What baffles me is that people keep talking about how it's going to obviously be terrible despite the fact that FIM itself is an example of that exact line of thinking being wrong. Let's go back a few years to before FIM started airing. Hasbro announces that they're creating a new My Little Pony show. They give you this promotional image:

And this summary of the show's plotline: "Twilight Sparkle is an antisocial unicorn sent to the town of Ponyville by her mentor Princess Celestia to learn about the magic of friendship".

Without any prior knowledge of the series, it sounds every bit as vapid, girly, and cliche as any previous incarnation of the franchise. And it turned out to be great. So why are we assuming the same things about this new spinoff even though we know for a fact that a cheesy-sounding summary has resulted in a quality show? I'm not saying that the spinoff will be great; it might very well be awful. But let's hold off judging that until the damn thing actually airs, or at the very least until we have some more information.

3. I'm honestly quite interested in how this will influence the characterization. I know the worldbuilding and fantastical elements draw in a lot of people, but personally the biggest draw of the show has been the personalities, and I'm curious about if this show will be able to keep those intact. I'd like to see how their personalities interact in a mundane setting.

We'll just have to see. Fighting is Magic was never anything close to official so Hasbro has every rite to take it down. And why would you let potential dvd sails go to nothing if you can just watch an episode on Youtube. Of course they should be removed. Honestly this fandom's been a bit spoiled by all the perks from the nicer executives, many things people seem to have problems with are just decent business policy.

You know what would be cool?

Is if this whole 'equestrian girls' thing turned out to just be some toy line, and the new IP was a galaxy girls/mlp crossover-type thing featuring members of the cosmic council travelling through space in one of those 80's 'fantasy-via-scifi' aesthetics.

edited 12th Feb '13 5:19:33 PM by kegisak

I like ponies... because they are ponies.

I hate Barbie. My ponies lived in the Barbie Dream house I had when I was little (along with dinosaurs...)

If they are trying to turn ponies into barbie... then I'm not interested.

Now if they go the Urban Fantasy route as suggested... then I might be interested.

Damn it, I know there's a political term for that, when there are set laws in place, but they aren't enforced, and then when they are everyone starts complaining even though the rules were there from the get-go.

But yeah, that's a good way of putting it. The fandom has really been treated incredibly well, and they still are, really. Hasbro hasn't targeted stuff like fanfic, fanart, or PM Vs or fan music at all. If something like Derpibooru or Fimfic gets hit with a C&D, then problems will happen.

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

The real reason Twiligt learned to mellow out this past episode.

At the bare minimum the new one will be good for r34 if nothing else :P

In other news, BERRY PUNCH!

Awesome.

Spike isn't amused by her antics.

I'm cool with an Urban Fantasy in fact. If they go with an High School AU then Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon will be given a Plot-Relevant Age-Up (Yes I know of the possibility of Trixie in this spin off but since she Heel Face Turned in Magic Duel the possibility is unlikely leaving the high school Alpha Bitch spot open for these two

edited 12th Feb '13 5:31:24 PM by MorningStar1337

Well, yeah, they have every legal right to do so, but it's kind of a dick move. Or it would be if they didn't have to cover their asses in the "must make an active effort to enforce copyright to retain it" department. Either way, it means a lot of effort and creativity goes to waste, so it's entirely reasonable to be unhappy about it.

Because the fact that the episodes were available on Youtube is half the reason the show (and the merchandise) became so successful in the first place. Of course, given that the eps are still easy to find on Youtube, this isn't such a big deal.

edited 12th Feb '13 5:30:53 PM by Hsere

So am I the only one who thought Twilight and Cadence's deep breath thing looked like a heil?

Unfortunately, the show has reached the point where there are enough fans that the additional youtube viewers aren't going to figure into their calculations. That and it's that stupid copyright law again; they have to take them down if they want to maintain their right to sell the episodes.

I doubt it. I didn't think of that because I feel like their legs would need to go higher for that to work.

edited 12th Feb '13 5:32:20 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Are we freaking out? I hope not. Freak outs are very...freaky. [/fluttershy]

Don't get me wrong, Hasbro's been incredibly cool so far, and still are, largely. I think a lot of the furor is concern that this may be changing.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I'm personally getting tired of some fans confusing girlieness and shallowness as if they're the same thing. Yes, FIM is one of the most girly, cute, and idealistic shows ever made. It's an esthetic as well as financially viable choice on Hasbro's part, good writing and characterization have nothing to do with it. That's all the staff's doing. Just as dark and gritty doesn't mean mature. MLP has always been and will probably will always be first and foremost, a childfriendly show about talking ponies targeted at children. So I find it funny that some people think the show will be Ruined Forever if it's being made into a spinoff. Apparently, anything else will destroy the dam of vapidity and shallowness the show's been trying to hold back if it's changed or expanded in any way. For all we know it could just be a new toyline, MLP's made plenty of those that were never incorporated into the animated productions. Seriously, My Little Wiki's got a list of toy concepts that never made it to the small screen and it's freaking huge.

edit: That came off a bit stronger than I intended, it's not directed at anypony, I'm just getting a bit sick of some of this fandom's Hypocrisy, but that happens in every fanbase imaginable. So sorry if I offended anyone. Tensions are understandably getting a bit higher as of late.

edited 12th Feb '13 5:49:33 PM by darkabomination

One Changeling didn't get evicted forcibly from Canterlot last season