Season 9 Discussion Thread [Warning: SPOILERS!!!!!]

@Shimmering Spectacle  

 
Yeah, sorry dude, absolutely jack of that is canon to the show.

@Philweasel
 
Equestria Girls is canon. The comics aren’t, though they have about an 80% compatibility.

I wonder how people would react if Sunset made a little cameo in S9. Even just appearing in the background talking to Twilight or Celestia or so to get a new journal

@Background Pony #1EE4
 
The finale might be a wild hodgepodge of every single FiM character that ever appeared. Sunset, Tempest Shadow, comic-only characters, etc.

@Fibriel  

 
Equestria Girls is canon, as it is an official MLP product made by Hasbro. It is not canon to the show, as Hasbro has a fairly strict policy on the show keeping it’s own canon for simplicity’s sake.
 
Notably the portal in Twilight’s library (which is pretty big) has never appeared in the show.
 
The Sirens have appeared in the legends of magic comics, show and EG, but there’s no indication they’re the same characters between the three. Some of their appearances in other material CAN’T be canon with that list, that’s just the stuff that could conceivably exist in the same universe.

@Philweasel
 
There’s a strong enough overlap between the TV series and Equestria Girls, with no irreconcilable contradictions, so as to consider them a unified canon. There’s even a timeline bluntly stating when Equestria Girls’s stories take place with regards to the TV series: EQG1 takes place between S3 and S4, EQG2 takes place between S4 and S5, and EQG3 takes place during The Cutie Re-Mark (S5 finale).
 
However, there are several contradictions between the TV series and comics. Therefore, they are not a unified canon.

@Fibriel  
That brings up a good point: Since Grogar is a villain from Equestria’s distant past, and Grogar and Tirek were in G1, does that mean that G1 was Equestria in its distant past? Is that what the writers are implying? Because I honestly think that’s awesome.

@Nightweaver20xx
 
Unfortunately, that won’t work. Grogar and Tirek were contemporaries in G1, but in G4, Grogar was already an ancient legend when Tirek was young.
 
(I fully intend to incorporate both G1 and G4 into Reverie Equestria, however.)

@Fibriel  
There’s also the S7 finale which outright shows how the Sirens got into the EQG Universe

@Prowl  
Yep, it showed how it all started with greater detail.

@Fibriel  

 
The comics aren’t a unified canon. Legends of Magic, Nightmare Knights and the movie prequel (as well as some bits like Tempest’s micro) are all canon with each other, and don’t contradict the show in any way, but can’t be canon with some of the other comics (as they feature boring Show Luna).
 
Besides, as I said we can argue this all day, but whether a work contradicts the show or not, it’s still not canon to the show.

@Philweasel
 
Equestria Girls is canon to the show regardless, so… whatever?

@Fibriel  

 
Everything is canon. Ray is ‘canon’, but he’ll never appear in the show because of technical or practical reasons.  

 
And arguing about it is fairly pointless. Has Equestria Girls ever influenced the show in any way? Did Twilight recognise the sirens?
 
Hell, Gillian Berrow referenced her books several times in ‘Daring Done’. Does that make them canon?
 
The comics clearly foreshadowed Babs cutie mark, long before it appeared in the show.  

 
Are Andy Price and Katie Cook now canon?  

 
 
Frankly there seem to be two separate canons in the comics, mostly distinguished by (as I mentioned) which Luna we get. Funnily enough the Sombra one had ‘wacky’ Luna, which is why I had to raise an eyebrow when people started making out like him reappearing fully evil was a huge deal. It was clearly never canon to the show in the first place. And considering none of the other comics I mentioned referenced it, it’s debatably canon to them too.
 
We also have another nice test point, which Starswirl we get. Again nothing canon Starswirl appears in contradicts the show, and ironicly the stuff with non-canon Starswirl featured wacky Luna and so was never canon in the first place.
 
The moral of the story? That worrying about inconsequential trivia and gatekeeping what you can and can’t enjoy in a pleasant series about acceptance is a gigantic waste of time for all parties, and seeing as it’s rapidly approaching summer throughout the Northern Hemisphere I’m sure we can all find better things to do.

@Prowl  
Equestria Girls isn’t canon just because some minor detail was teased by animators. Dude, Ougres and Oublettes were taken straight from IDW comics, but following your logic 100% of comics are canon because they had influenced the show in some way. And Sirens were much more minor than that because they were never referenced in the script or mentioned by any character. They only appeared because storyboard artist used them as “generic threat” that Pillars were fighting against. This is like claiming that Slenderman is canon because he appearead briefly in Pinkie Apple Pie episode. EQG reference is as much a reference as that.
 
So yeah if youre going to claim that anything beside the Movie is canon, then IDW comics get to be canon first before EQG.

@Fibriel
 
Have you seen the general size of my posts? I’m well aware I could do with a lot more sunlight, and a lot less arguing about ponies.
 
…though to be fair, this topic has come up so many times I’ve pretty much got a template already made.

@Volcel  

 
I think it’s the books first oddly enough, as the show has referenced them most directly. (as in stuff has appeared exactly where it’s described in them)
 
That cheeky G.M Berrow! Sneaking her stuff into her scripts!

@Philweasel  
Yeah but you might also claim that they aren’t canon because they were retconned many times, too. For example Discord Drama Rama book established that Discord doesn’t own any money and can’t summon it or buy anything with his powers. However, Discordant harmony shows him having no problem summoning loads of coins.

@Background Pony #43AF  

 
I’m up for both, and the latter could be modeled after That 70’s Show. For the Starlight and Trixie one, maybe they can join the Army. 😏

@Volcel  
But to be fair the show itself has retconned previous episodes so often by now… not sure that can be used as an argument for or against ANYTHING at this point ^^

@Background Pony #1EE4  
What episodes have been retconned?

@Wiimeiser
 
None.

@Volcel  
I figure none of it sticks around.
 
…that poor shopkeeper is probably still working out how to sue an eldritch abomination for fraud.
 
@ILoveMyoozik  
I have a feeling the IDW comics may continue after the end of the show to tell those kind of stories. Like Star Wars legends.
 
(In before jokes about Disney buying them out and making them all non-canon)

@Wiimeiser  
@Mildgyth  
I phrased that very badly. Entire episodes have not been retconned but things that were established in earlier episodes have now and then

@Wiimeiser  
I don’t think any episode of this show has been quote on quote “retconned”