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

Background Pony #EEA5
I’m genuinely hoping that G4 carries on in a sort of spin of show…or even shows. Because even after all this time they’ve still barely scratched the surface of what they could do.
 
I would love to see twilight running equestria, I really would. With the others as her court. Even if they were no longer the main characters, but mentors to a new batch. Either way, please continue with them in some shape or form…please.
Philweasel
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@Background Pony #1EE4
What episodes have been retconned?
 
Some episodes look… weird placed alongside each other, but only through nitpicking. A lot of it is more because of character stuff, claims of OOC behavior. Some stuff like Twilight very firmly insisting she had no friends getting kinda weird when you consider her relationship with Shining and Cadance, let alone Amending Fences.
 
After nine seasons of anything continuity always tends to break down a little, lets face it.
Volcel

@ILoveMyoozik  
Fame and Misfortune was mostly retconned. Nobody recognize or react to Mane6. And Daring Done retconned the whole idea of ponies reading Dash entries about meeting Daring Do. If the episode was canon, entire Equestria and beyond would already know that Daring Do is real and not a fictional character. But in Daring Done it was established than only a secluded little village knows about Daring Do being real.
Background Pony #EEA5
@Background Pony #1EE4  
How long of a gap was there between the previous generations? Because what worries me about G5 is that it’s almost immediately following G4. To potentially see twilight turn up as an earth pony without a period of ‘rest’ as it where would feel disconcerting imo.
Philweasel
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@ILoveMyoozik
Nobody recognize or react to Mane6.
 
That’s not a recon, that’s never made sense since the third episode of the first season.
 
“Oh look, it’s the heroes that saved us from Nightmare Moon. Let’s bully them in petty ways and be as unhelpful as possible.”
 
I am led to believe the majority of Equestria’s population are pathlogically ignorant of anything happening more than thirty feet in any given direction. This remains consistant to this day.
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I don’t think the student six can carry a whole new series by themselves in the same continuity.
 
But my main motivation for thinking a spin-off show unlikely is that they might use the same main characters in G5.
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So yeah if youre going to claim that anything beside the Movie is canon, then IDW comics get to be canon first before EQG.
 
Well, except the ones that are incompatible with show canon.
 
Regardless of why the Sirens were used in “Shadow Play”, the method of their defeat doesn’t gel with how it was depicted in FIENDship is Magic – in the latter, Starswirl defeated them in Canterlot, did so alone, did so through a music contest that invented most of Equestria’s musical genres and banished them as a last resort. In the former, he fought them in small frontier village, did so alongside the Pillars, did not do so in any way involving music and banished them as a first resort. They’re too different to call them different interpretations of the same thing – it’s got to be one or the other.
 
The premise of Reflections, where it’s a major plot point that Starswirl was around and active after Nightmare Moon rose and was defeated, also isn’t compatible with “Shadow Play” – there, it’s established that Starswirl vanished before the sisters even rose to power or fully grew up.
 
The comics have Discord turning into an embodiment of order, Accord, when he forces himself to become orderly in order to fit in with ponies better. When the show used the same concept, this process proved deadly and nearly made Discord vanish, because as a creature of chaos he cannot survive being orderly.
 
Celestia battling Nightmare Moon in her dreams and counteracting her influence in ponies’ sleeping minds in Nightmare Moon’s FIENDship is Magic issue runs into problems when considering how “A Royal Problem” established that dream magic is so fundamentally tied to Luna’s cutie mark that even Luna herself becomes completely powerless when hers is switched for Celestia’s – a cutie mark thus trumps a millennium of experience – and that Celestia has little to no experience in managing dreams and needs to be walked through the process by Luna.
 
Sombra’s return in “The Beginning of the End” isn’t compatible with his redemption arc in Siege of the Crystal Empire. Even if this was a simulacrum and not the real Sombra, as I’ve seen hypothesized, none of the people who played major roles in the events leading up to his redemption express any surprise at him being evil – they are only surprised that he’s back, and no redemption or encounters beyond the original one are referred to.
 
And considering that the writers and showrunners have established that comics are only canon so long as they do not contradict the show, in all of these examples the comics, or at least parts of these comics, were evidently simply retconned.
 
This is not an issue that Equestria Girls has ever run into.
 
@Philweasel  
I am led to believe the majority of Equestria’s population are pathlogically ignorant of anything happening more than thirty feet in any given direction. This remains consistant to this day.
 
I recall that fandom drama that sprung up in Season 4 over Twilight not even being able to cut in line for a taxi despite being a multiple-times national heroine and an alicorn princess to boot.
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@Philweasel
 
And then there is Celestial Advice, where Celestia seems to imply the other five were already friends before Twilight came through, when we know from S1 this wasn’t the case.
Philweasel
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@Frustration in Excelsis  
As I said, most of those helpfully included a non-canon Luna, so were never show canon.
 
…I’d debate Celestia in dreams. She was being projected into those dreams by another dream walker, and it was a specific situation (find NM, kick her butt) a very long time ago.
 
It also solves the problem in the show of Nightmare Moon doing nothing evil. (or anything at all for that matter)
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@PonyPon
 
I think they could, depending on the premise. If they leaned in heavily on the idea of showcasing all of the students’ home countries, then you can essentially build 6 different supporting casts, one for each student.
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The Devil's Advocate
@PonyPon  
I agree. I don’t think that they are “interesting” enough to lead G5. I think they are going to be retconed as soon as G5 starts. We may even get some sort “new timeline” at the end of this season. Maybe m6 would have to change timeline to stop Grogar?
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Regardless of why the Sirens were used in “Shadow Play”, the method of their defeat doesn’t gel with how it was depicted in FIENDship is Magic – in the latter, Starswirl defeated them in Canterlot, did so alone, did so through a music contest that invented most of Equestria’s musical genres and banished them as a last resort. In the former, he fought them in small frontier village, did so alongside the Pillars, did not do so in any way involving music and banished them as a first resort. They’re too different to call them different interpretations of the same thing – it’s got to be one or the other.
 
And they chose the other. The comics outright did the show’s depiction of the Siren’s defeat in the Legends line, and future issues have followed up on it.
 
When Fiendship 3 was made incompatible IDW just shrugged and rolled with the show’s version. As they’ve done with several plot threads.
 
The premise of Reflections, where it’s a major plot point that Starswirl was around and active after Nightmare Moon rose and was defeated, also isn’t compatible with “Shadow Play” – there, it’s established that Starswirl vanished before the sisters even rose to power or fully grew up.
 
And yet Equestria Games included a line that made it impossible for EQG to have happened, and Winter Wrap Up included a line to make Granny Smith being a founder of Ponyville incredibly unlikely.
 
When it’s easier to just gloss over a minute detail to make a larger story work, you should probably gloss over it.
 
The comics have Discord turning into an embodiment of order, Accord, when he forces himself to become orderly in order to fit in with ponies better. When the show used the same concept, this process proved deadly and nearly made Discord vanish, because as a creature of chaos he cannot survive being orderly.
 
Again, the same arc did that plot point as well. Accord could physically exist because magic, but the remnants of Discord was fading because he can’t survive being non-chaotic.
 
@Philweasel  
@Frustration in Excelsis
As I said, most of those helpfully included a non-canon Luna, so were never show canon.
 
Except Luna’s first reappearance had her being fun loving loudmouth. It’s canon that when she drops the mask and responsibilities she’s not a stoic bore. The comics just run with that half the time (for the better)>
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@Philweasel
 
Heck, I’d argue that you’d rarely even notice anything that’s happened in the series thus far, if you don’t live in Ponyville or Canterlot, save for the incidents of Tirek, the Storm King (only because it was day longer, conversely I’d say a longer night is less noticeable in all cases shown) and Cozy Glow.
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The Devil's Advocate
@gingerninja666  
I’m not saying ’in the way of G4 never happening”. I tought about something more along the lines of what happend in Mortal Kombat 9. Same events, same characters but diffrent choices along the way. Maybe universe where Mane 6 never became friends as we know them as. Maybe a universe where there was a completly diffrent mane 6, but characters we know and love are still present?
 
When you look at possible concept art, it makes sense. Why are they drawing fluttershy as an unicorn? Why Pinkie has wings? Maybe it will be a new universe with many subtle changes?
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“I knew there was a special group of fillies in Ponyville”
 
To be fair, you could say that was an example of her having precognition on that one.
 
Dustcan made a great point though, about not sweating the minute details.
Philweasel
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@Dustcan  
[bq=”Dustcan”] @Frustration in Excelsis
@Volcel
Except Luna’s first reappearance had her being fun loving loudmouth. It’s canon that when she drops the mask and responsibilities she’s not a stoic bore. The comics just run with that half the time (for the better)>
Luna’s really wacky in a lot of those though. Like ADHD levels of exuberance. It’s really hard to marry that with broody ‘Royal Problem’ Luna, even when Royal Problem outright stole one of her stories.
Oddly enough, I think the comics do that Luna better as well. Show Luna rarely gets more to do than be a thirty second plot device for the CMC, where as the comics keep that characterisation but actively have her as the protagonist (often of the best stories). Luna/Discord, Nightmare Rarity, Luna/Pinkie, Nightmare Knights…
@gingerninja666
When you look at possible concept art, it makes sense. Why are they drawing fluttershy as an unicorn? Why Pinkie has wings? Maybe it will be a new universe with many subtle changes?
If you read the full document, you would know. I’m not going to spoil it in case it turns out to be accurate to the finished product, but it looks like the whole cosmology is going to be radically different.
Think of it like this. It looks to be as related as Transformers Prime and the Michael Bay Transformers movies. A similar visual aesthetic, same tone, same characters, but with no connection between the two universes and a very different story.
Background Pony #EEA5
All the mane six having their cutie marks attained at the same time following the rainboom has got to be important. It definitely feels like Celestia probably looked into it too. Arrange the summer sun festival in Ponyville, make sure the others had important roles…a definite set up.
Philweasel
Equality - In our state, we do not stand out.

Right About Everything
All the mane six having their cutie marks attained at the same time following the rainboom has got to be important. It definitely feels like Celestia probably looked into it too. Arrange the summer sun festival in Ponyville, make sure the others had important roles…a definite set up.
 
Funnily enough they did a comic pretty much confirming that.
 
…it was kinda shit, bar some nice art from Pencils. (in before “we put anon’s pie adventure on hold for this?”)
Philweasel
Equality - In our state, we do not stand out.

Right About Everything
@Philweasel
Does that makes the “alternate timeline” explanation impossible?
 
More ‘alternate dimension’.
 
There’s no Equestria, no Ponyville, no unified pony nation. It looks like they’re trying to focus on the three races as separate, equal cultures.
 
…Meghan noted that the Earth pony world must not be ‘brown, agrarian and boring’.
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