They do this in practically every fantasy setting ever written, and most sci-fi settings. You don't have to like it but it's definitely an established thing.

To everyone in general: can you explain how Pinkie is supposed to have changed between seasons? Cause I didn't notice any difference at all, except for the one episode of development in Party of One.

My opinion on the quality thing: I initially felt that Season 2 was pretty much better all around. Now that I've rewatched the first season, I've decided they are pretty much equal, with slightly different strengths and weaknesses.

edited 19th Jun '12 10:57:27 AM by Bluespade

Both Seasons are awesome for different things.

Anyways I'll be off the bed soon, so I leave you this neat PMV before I depart for the realm of dreams. Luna, guard my sleep :D

Reminds you of Apartheid?

edited 19th Jun '12 11:00:06 AM by AceOfScarabs

@Moe: There's a difference between wanting other species to have a different culture and wanting segregation and job descrimination. One makes the setting interesting while the other reeks of prejudice.

Have the flames calmed down yet? It was getting a little hot in here for a hour.

That was hot? Compared to other things I've seen, even in thread very thread, that was nothing.

Pff, this isn't a flame war. This is barely even arguing. Much closer to debate.

In regards to your opinion regarding species, moe, it's pretty clear some different species are intended to be racial analogues. Zebras are african, Buffalo are native, etc. I see no reason why we can't take Griffons as simply another race here. Again, it's far more akin to an asian at the counter than a dog at the counter, particularly given aside from look we see no real indication that Griffons are any different.

-Insert comment about Moe being a speciest here-

...

-Bails thread-

you must hate standard fantasy settings then, huh? human, elves, dwarves, all different species, all doing similar things.

edited 19th Jun '12 11:06:04 AM by Blissey1

My view on the matter pretty much comes down to "it's more interesting to see other races, so I want more of them."

A lot of people do dislike standard fantasy, myself among them. That's one of the reasons I love MLP though, it's one of the most unique fantasy settings I've seen.

edited 19th Jun '12 11:06:53 AM by Bluespade

Griffins are French/European while the Pegasi are Mediterranean/Italian.

/headcanon.

Warning: audio feedback from dreamscape leakage

exception: memory leak at (redacted). Current dreamlogger operation terminated: Malware counter-intrusion triggered. logfile dumped.

...Mumblemumble this isn't even as heated as previous drama mumblemumble...

edited 19th Jun '12 11:14:51 AM by AceOfScarabs

@Ace: I'm too young to remember Apartheid, but it's legacy means that there's still a lot of hatred between the races. For instance, it's almost impossible for someone like me to get a job because I'm white and the government has made laws about how there has to be compensation. So even though I was 6 years old when the ANC came to power, 4 years old when Apartheid was abolished and wasn't even born before most Apatheid laws were ended, it still affects me.

Hmm that would make Earth Ponies American and Unicorns British?

So...again, how was it that Pinkie was supposed to have changed so much in between seasons? I haven't noticed any big changes.

@Ace Why are you throwing exceptions at memory leaks? Seems rather counter productive, considering how common minor ones are in just about any complex application. It's when you start leaking either huge amounts of memory at once or are leaking in an a often repeated process that you start to get problems.

edited 19th Jun '12 11:10:46 AM by PerpetualLurker

Oh great, now I can't go back to sleep. confounded creepy music

@Sereg: yeah, such discriminative stuff usually never ends well. Hope you can help to break the cycle of hatred, because I for one would not want to see Windigos set up shop and turn the savannah into a frozen deathland.

@Lurker: Minor memory error, it tripped my malware (counter-intrusion) defenses with a false positive and the system terminated my dream process, waking me up.

See y'all, I'll try to get some sleep. Again.

edited 19th Jun '12 11:11:56 AM by AceOfScarabs

Well, since I have nothing to add to this, I'm just going to talk about The Last Roundup, since it was just on.

I think it's sad that all people remember about this episode is Derpygate. The I Love Lucy reference got mentioned on several online newspapers, so I was surprised when it got glossed over. The moral is one of my favorites in the series, since it's one of the few I can relate to. Also, the "get the heck out of Dodge" was a nice joke, but that too got glossed over.

Personally she seems to have gotten a lot more Loony Toonesque as time's gone on. Compare Griffon The Brush Off, to Feeling Pinkie Keen, to A Friend in Deed.

@Badwolf - Because then, why have two species in the first place? Gilda and Gustave could've just been pegasi and they would've still filled their roles just fine. Cranky could've been an Earth Pony and the story (though not the pun—although, a pony named Donkey wouldn't be too hard to believe) would've still worked.

Ponies kidnap people, speak like gollum, are obsessed with digging for diamonds for no reason, live underground, and can't bear loud or shrill noises?

Ponies live in tents, keep ritual stampeding grounds, wear feathers... and all the additional native stuff that implies?

Zecora gets a pass. "Dragonshy" and "Owl's Well" dragons were okay, but not the "Dragon Quest" ones. Griffons literally have no delineating characteristics, period.

@Bluespade

I'm sorry, but how does that make it good writing? Where I come from, everyone else jumping off a bridge doesn't mean I have to think its a good idea.

She acts more down-to-Earth and believable in Season One, behaves more like she's a part of the environment. In Season Two, the world basically caters to her comedy whims.

The best example is how she reacts to the hydra in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" versus how she reacts to the Cerberus in "It's About Time." In both cases, she's reacting to the appearance of a scary monster that could kill her. In the former, she reacts like a real person would—eyes wide, mouth open, unable to scream, in fact she freezes up in fear and needs to be saved by A.J. It's clear the situation is as real to her as it is to everypony acts. The Cerberus? She makes a sight gag while everypony else behaves realistically, painting the impression that she's removed from this situation.

@Blue: I really don't see a major difference either. She's not really become any more or less unhinged, in my opinion. Although there is the argument to be made that she's become less zany and more simply eccentric. Before she seemed random, but now she seems at least somewhat stable, but with a lot of pretty serious quirks.

Pinkie was pretty loony toons even in griffon. Where did she get a flying machine from?

I haven't noticed a noticeable increase in zaniness, personally.

I don't really a change in Pinkie Pie between seasons either.

meta

I have to agree more with Kegi than Moe on Pinkie. In season 1, she got away with whatever she wanted until the end of the season. In the second season, she's merely (incredibly) eccentric (An improvement IMO).

The thing I see about the hydra was that it caused more exceptions than standards. The same incident that caused "Pinkie is too scared to move!" also caused "Twilight forgot Teleport!".