How exactly Rainbow Dash lacked in personality? I’ve seen her having one of the most in-depth personalities in the early, era actually. True, her obsession with rainbows was lapping Pinkie and even Minty’s obsessions, but there was more to that, really.
Even as soon as in ‘A Charming birthday’ we got to see that she is stylish, graceful, and keeps herself up to a certain standard. She also had two moments of wisdom as well (‘Perfect is never ready, darling, it just… happens.’ and ‘Oh, darling, you can never have too much of something you love. [Which was arguable but expectable from her]).
In ‘Runaway Rainbow’ we got to know that she’s quite an expert in her territory, and proud of it, but is not afraid to lie a little bit to defend that pride (she didn’t actually know where the rainbows came from). Also, we saw her arguing with Spike on who’d jump after the girls, but didn’t actually do it. Courtesy towards Spike, or cowardice due to caring about herself so much, I’ll let you decide.
‘Greetings from Unicornia’ shown her as fun-loving which bounces off her ladylike persona rather well too, sort of like Rarity’s martial arts knowledge.
@Ponylooker
I’d retaliate by saying that I’ve gathered enough info about the characters from watching them to be able to tell them apart in of behavior, but that is the matter of my own imagination and perception, which, when it comes to G3 (and especially G3.5), is insanely positive, but does not count as an argument.
@Ilsor
You have a point, but at the same time, consider this: G3.5 was about the characters, but utterly failed to demonstrate any ability to give them personality. Pinkie Pie already had one, and even then was a mere shadow of her former self. Rainbow Dash, of course, never did, and that only got worse with the voice change. Cheerilee was dehorned and lobotomized, Star Song and Toola Roola were empty shells, and Sweetie Belle apparently likes cookies. Easily-frustrated Scootaloo is the only exception.
@Ponylooker
You’re making a brave move by comparing character dynamics of G3 to those of G3.5.
The key difference between G3.5 and G3 is the presence of the Core Seven and its domination over all other characters.
G3 stories were, at least in my eyes, about the world, the society of the ponies. Main character spotlight was taken by a different pony in almost every cartoon of G3 - as if to show that every story is about a randomly picked bunch of ponies casually spending their time on whatever.
G3.5 isn’t like that. G3.5 has seven clearly defined characters, and the story dances around them and mostly around them only. G3.5 decided to be a character-driven show with a small cast of main characters having magical adventures, solving problems and maintaining their friendship.
@Phantom Rider
I don’t even know if we would have gotten to know them, honestly. I mean, if you look at all of G3, how many ponies had a real personality? Kimono, Pinkie, Minty, Thistle Whistle, Wysteria, Unicorn Cheerilee, and (surprisingly) Scootaloo. Maybe Star Catcher and Lily Lightly, but we don’t even know what Lily’s like when she’s not in the closet. Not Sweetie Belle, Toola Roola, Star Song, Pony Tail Cheerilee, any other pegasus ponies, unicorn ponies, Breezies (the closest we get is Zipzee, whose defining traits are allergies and not being manager material?), or a whole holy host of other ponies. Certainly not Rainbow Dash–she didn’t have a personality, she had a shtick, no deeper than “Rainbows, dahling, rainbows!”
Come to think of it, “ponies with personality” seems to line up almost perfectly with “ponies we’ve seen in adversity”…
@Background Pony #2306
Which leads me to a big question I’ve been wondering about lately.
Would they do all of this if they didn’t decide to push FiM? Since at least two official sources I’ve spoken to (the music composer for G3/G3.5 and the guy who oversaw the production of Newborn Cuties) indicate that G3.5 was cut to make room for FiM.
I think at the very least we would have gotten to know Toola-Roola and Starsong better. However, with productions of any length so few and far between, it would not have grown in the direction many of us are thinking it might have when we put our fanfic hats on. (There were only a few of those per year during G3 proper, ?) If it had gotten, say, two more years, we might have gotten one or two more stories the length of one of the earlier G3 movies if we were lucky, and a lot of other five-minute shorts along the lines of ferris wheels and dancing shoes, just assuming the same trajectory we’d been seeing even before the art style changed continued.
Parts of G3 are kind of like Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Horrible design choices no sane person would approve, but technical execution was at least okay (PM:SS was actually executed really well considering they cut 2 1/2 chapters and everything not from New Super Mario Bros. except OCs, poison mushrooms, Flutter, Snifit, Birdo and Petey Piranha…
@Background Pony #2306
Which leads me to a big question I’ve been wondering about lately.
Would they do all of this if they didn’t decide to push FiM? Since at least two official sources I’ve spoken to (the music composer for G3/G3.5 and the guy who oversaw the production of Newborn Cuties) indicate that G3.5 was cut to make room for FiM.
@Ponylooker
I wouldn’t put the Pre-Core7 era under the same umbrella as the Core7 one. I think they stripped at least two third of the characters’ traits with that move. Seriously, the earlier DVD relases were genial in of subtle characterisation, great, easily differentiatable voice acting, clever comedy, and most of all consistent world building. Not to mention its songs lapped G4s.
That changed a lot when they cut the 22 and 45 minutes down to five minute shorts of mundane things like ‘not finding dancing shoes’ and ‘counting how many ferris wheel carriages are there’. Twinkle Wish Adventure could have made up for that, but it did not show much of our ponies personalities either because all conflict regarding to it was solved nearly instantly. Cheerilee being left out could have made a wonderful 22-min DVD, so could have Toola Roola dealing with her fear of darkness.
A shame really, because I did found reference sheets of these girls that told a lot about their virtues and vices, most of them not being in the animations at all.
I’m a big fan of G3 and G3.5. There’s a lot of good in it. At the same time, I freely it that a whole lot of it is really dumb, saccharine, insipid, nonsensical, and sometimes just plain offputting. It’s very obvious why G3 and G3.5 don’t have the same following G4 has.
That said, some of the music from G3 absolutely puts G4 to shame, when it’s not sung by a character with a terribly distorted voice. (I’m looking at you, that firefly in Come Back, Lily Lightly.) Listen to Tabitha singing harmony with herself on “Friendship and Flowers” from The Princess Promenade and then PLEASE tell me why they bothered with Kazumi Evans…
@naganofan99999
Hear-hear, I like it too!
I think the whole of G3.5 was brilliant. Apart from Once Upon A My Little Pony Time. That was weird, but that’s what you get when you give the license to other, smaller studios.
How exactly Rainbow Dash lacked in personality? I’ve seen her having one of the most in-depth personalities in the early, era actually. True, her obsession with rainbows was lapping Pinkie and even Minty’s obsessions, but there was more to that, really.
Even as soon as in ‘A Charming birthday’ we got to see that she is stylish, graceful, and keeps herself up to a certain standard. She also had two moments of wisdom as well (‘Perfect is never ready, darling, it just… happens.’ and ‘Oh, darling, you can never have too much of something you love. [Which was arguable but expectable from her]).
In ‘Runaway Rainbow’ we got to know that she’s quite an expert in her territory, and proud of it, but is not afraid to lie a little bit to defend that pride (she didn’t actually know where the rainbows came from). Also, we saw her arguing with Spike on who’d jump after the girls, but didn’t actually do it. Courtesy towards Spike, or cowardice due to caring about herself so much, I’ll let you decide.
‘Greetings from Unicornia’ shown her as fun-loving which bounces off her ladylike persona rather well too, sort of like Rarity’s martial arts knowledge.
I’d retaliate by saying that I’ve gathered enough info about the characters from watching them to be able to tell them apart in of behavior, but that is the matter of my own imagination and perception, which, when it comes to G3 (and especially G3.5), is insanely positive, but does not count as an argument.
You have a point, but at the same time, consider this: G3.5 was about the characters, but utterly failed to demonstrate any ability to give them personality. Pinkie Pie already had one, and even then was a mere shadow of her former self. Rainbow Dash, of course, never did, and that only got worse with the voice change. Cheerilee was dehorned and lobotomized, Star Song and Toola Roola were empty shells, and Sweetie Belle apparently likes cookies. Easily-frustrated Scootaloo is the only exception.
You’re making a brave move by comparing character dynamics of G3 to those of G3.5.
The key difference between G3.5 and G3 is the presence of the Core Seven and its domination over all other characters.
G3 stories were, at least in my eyes, about the world, the society of the ponies. Main character spotlight was taken by a different pony in almost every cartoon of G3 - as if to show that every story is about a randomly picked bunch of ponies casually spending their time on whatever.
G3.5 isn’t like that. G3.5 has seven clearly defined characters, and the story dances around them and mostly around them only. G3.5 decided to be a character-driven show with a small cast of main characters having magical adventures, solving problems and maintaining their friendship.
…which sounds familiar somehow.
I don’t even know if we would have gotten to know them, honestly. I mean, if you look at all of G3, how many ponies had a real personality? Kimono, Pinkie, Minty, Thistle Whistle, Wysteria, Unicorn Cheerilee, and (surprisingly) Scootaloo. Maybe Star Catcher and Lily Lightly, but we don’t even know what Lily’s like when she’s not in the closet. Not Sweetie Belle, Toola Roola, Star Song, Pony Tail Cheerilee, any other pegasus ponies, unicorn ponies, Breezies (the closest we get is Zipzee, whose defining traits are allergies and not being manager material?), or a whole holy host of other ponies. Certainly not Rainbow Dash–she didn’t have a personality, she had a shtick, no deeper than “Rainbows, dahling, rainbows!”
Come to think of it, “ponies with personality” seems to line up almost perfectly with “ponies we’ve seen in adversity”…
That is very fitting.
@Ilsor
I think at the very least we would have gotten to know Toola-Roola and Starsong better. However, with productions of any length so few and far between, it would not have grown in the direction many of us are thinking it might have when we put our fanfic hats on. (There were only a few of those per year during G3 proper, ?) If it had gotten, say, two more years, we might have gotten one or two more stories the length of one of the earlier G3 movies if we were lucky, and a lot of other five-minute shorts along the lines of ferris wheels and dancing shoes, just assuming the same trajectory we’d been seeing even before the art style changed continued.
I’m not really sure.
Which leads me to a big question I’ve been wondering about lately.
Would they do all of this if they didn’t decide to push FiM? Since at least two official sources I’ve spoken to (the music composer for G3/G3.5 and the guy who oversaw the production of Newborn Cuties) indicate that G3.5 was cut to make room for FiM.
Edited
I wouldn’t put the Pre-Core7 era under the same umbrella as the Core7 one. I think they stripped at least two third of the characters’ traits with that move. Seriously, the earlier DVD relases were genial in of subtle characterisation, great, easily differentiatable voice acting, clever comedy, and most of all consistent world building. Not to mention its songs lapped G4s.
That changed a lot when they cut the 22 and 45 minutes down to five minute shorts of mundane things like ‘not finding dancing shoes’ and ‘counting how many ferris wheel carriages are there’. Twinkle Wish Adventure could have made up for that, but it did not show much of our ponies personalities either because all conflict regarding to it was solved nearly instantly. Cheerilee being left out could have made a wonderful 22-min DVD, so could have Toola Roola dealing with her fear of darkness.
A shame really, because I did found reference sheets of these girls that told a lot about their virtues and vices, most of them not being in the animations at all.
That said, some of the music from G3 absolutely puts G4 to shame, when it’s not sung by a character with a terribly distorted voice. (I’m looking at you, that firefly in Come Back, Lily Lightly.) Listen to Tabitha singing harmony with herself on “Friendship and Flowers” from The Princess Promenade and then PLEASE tell me why they bothered with Kazumi Evans…
Sadlyt that seems to be mostly the case.
There’s a fraction of people who do it based on their own opinion, but most people seem to bash it because others do it.
Yea I dont really understand from besides the baby one why people give G3 or any other gen for that matter such a hard time
Hear-hear, I like it too!
I think the whole of G3.5 was brilliant. Apart from Once Upon A My Little Pony Time. That was weird, but that’s what you get when you give the license to other, smaller studios.
I tried….and almost died
Dont knock it until you’ve tried it
Also please do continue
Also Minty is now Derpy