The First Installment of Lauren Faust’s Super Best Friends Forever Happened! Here It Is! [Video]

Ahh! I loved it!

HAHAHAH even more adorable than I had hoped! And I’m a little in love with Supergirl. Rock those muscles!

They’re gonna need all that TP for a jet-load of burritos.

Pretty good, but I can’t help but feel Steph would have been a better bouncy Batgirl than Babs.

You know. It makes sense, the Amazons having Mediterranean accents.

I’m digging Supergirl’s curvyness. :D

Finding it hard to not hear Twilight Sparkle in Barbara though. XD

Also, Wonder Girl has a wicked accent.

I’m not sure if I still should be amazed at Lauren Faust’s continuing inability to create characters and resortion to the same lazy archetypes over and over, while still being a popular director/writer.

There’s also something vaguely racist about Wonder Girl’s accent coupled with the burrito thing. Points for curvy Supergirl though. Love her look.

I love how cute and chubby Supergirl is!  I wish I had her around when I was little…I looked a lot like her!

It seems to me that it makes sense for Amazons to have Greek/Mediterranean accents. I don’t see anything inherently racist about burritos either.

We can definitely agree on curvy Supergirl though.

I’m not actually familiar with Faust’s work so I can’t weigh in on it as a whole and I don’t know if there’s precedent that I’m clueless about, but I am pretty befuddled by the “vaguely racist” thing. Wonder Girl is obviously supposed to be an admirable, principled character here, and also not some sort of racist cliche (Batgirl’s the one obsessing over a burrito fix, not her, not that burritos are Mediterranean, or Spanish, or even really Mexican), so her having an accent just means….that she has an accent. What am I missing?

I don’t think liking burritos, which is Batgirl’s thing, is a stereotype of Mediterranean people. Is it?

I think we must have been watching different cartoons.

I for one think Cassandra would make a perfect straight man.

love love love love love it.

Now if only they could do full 30 minutes episodes instead of just teasers.

My knowledge of Faust’s work is limited to PPG, FIM, GG and now this. PPG and FIM are dreadful as far as I’m concerned. No characters whatsoever, just archetypes that interact for reasons that only half the time are clear and that get their ‘character’ adjusted to whatever the episode of the day needs. And that’s leaving out the predictability of the humor, the approval of violence and humiliation to ‘correct’ people, and the unhealthy messages about racial and gender interaction (though admittedly, FIM didn’t get that bad until s2, when Faust wasn’t as much in charge anymore). Which isn’t to say it’s all bad – some episodes and ideas of those series are quite clever and entertaining, but that does not negate the bad or the fact Faust never improves or just changes things up for once.  

It wasn’t the accent (which doesn’t sound Greek to me… more like Spanish) or the burrito, but the combination of the two. But I’m taking the “vaguely racist” thing back because upon the third viewing I caught Batgirl mentioning the burritoes an earlier time and Wonder Girl not responding to it then. As I saw it the first and second time, the suggestion of getting a burrito is what caused Wonder Girl to agree, which isn’t the case. So, my bad on that and apologies. 

There is precedent, but as I said to the other user, I take back my “vaguely racist” remark. It wasn’t the accent or the burrito, but the combination of the two. However, upon the third viewing I caught Batgirl mentioning the burritoes an earlier time and Wonder Girl not responding to it then. As I saw it the first and second time, the suggestion of getting a burrito is what caused Spanishy-sounding Wonder Girl to agree, which isn’t the case. So, my bad on that and apologies. 

See I saw those shows too and i didn’t see anything to do with race at all except in terms of postive working together messages. Also the characters have traits but they are not really archtypes since characters like rarity don’t behave like their archtype would suggest. Also the characters actually seem to develop and mature and there’s continuity (however small) and it’s really really funny. I mean she got grown men to care about my little ponys which is an amazing achievement in and of itself.

I kindly ask you not to act like there were no grown men fan of MLP before FIM. I also kindly ask you not to treat the fact FIM managed to attract a large grown men fanbase as an inherently good thing. It’s done more harm than not.

I don’t think you understand the difference between an archetype and a stereotype. An archetype is a type of character that can be put within a context and often works from the presumption there can be only one of each archetype. I.E., there’s the leader archetype, the quiet one archetype, the kind one archetype, etc. Because archetypes work by being unique to a context, the characters associated with them tend to never grow beyond being an archetype, since there’s no alternative offered. Say, if a context has two anti-heroes, the way they are not the same becomes more noticeable than the archetype they fullfill and this gets them to develop beyond the archetype.

A stereotype is an image of people belonging to specific groups commonly held by other groups that, while it may not be unfounded, is definitely not true for all the members of the group. Despite this, it might be treated as such, giving precednece of what over who, and some stereotypes are so pervasive they aren’t even recognized as stereotypes.

Rarity is an archetype, but she’s not a stereotype. And in that, she’s not unique. Back in the 80s, Jem featured the song “She Makes An Impression”, and more recently, Winx featured the character Stella, and Monster High the character Clawdeen Wolf. The latter two (and the relevant members of the Jem cast) are not sterotypical fashionistas, and many of them have actually averted the sterotype more interestingly than Rarity did. I still find a scene in Winx, when a more ‘toughy’ character tried to one-up Stella by saying Stella would probably not survive without her fashion and Stella responded with a cold “Indeed.”, to be one of the most powerful scenes in any TV show I’ve ever seen. It cuts right to the core of how much everyday judgement is based on values that are rarely evaluated themselves.

I can’t say I feel much for a long analysis on Faust’s work to explain my problems with it, so I’ll keep to the recent FIM episode. I acknowledge she may not have much of a hand in it, but on the other hand, the content fits her usual array of ‘mistakes’.

In Dragon Quest, Spike is mocked for not being a true dragon in a way that strongly mirrors (note the apron) the way men are mocked when they fail to live up to masculine stereotypes, which is part of femmephobic social oppression. Following this, Spike gets into an identity crisis and decides to find out what it means to be a dragon by socializing with dragons. His pony friends follow him in secret after faking their approval of his lone journey. Spike gets accepted by a bunch of teenage dragons (instead of dragons his own age, which are mysteriously absent) and is eventually forced to choose between their approval and a fertilized egg soon to hatch. He chooses the egg, at which point his pony friends show themselves and help him escape. The episode ends with Spike choosing to be a pony, who have shown their moral superiority over his genetic kind, and the egg hatching, at which point Spike announces he’ll teach the bird how to be a pony too. – This episode carries all the philosophies you can also find in racial superiority and inferiority theories and the same justifications as those behind the laws and other opportunites that allowed for children of inferior races to be taken from their parents and taught the enlightened ways of the superior races. Babar at least has the excuse of being written in the 30′s. Spike makes what is presented as final say on the matter – that dragons are bad (based solely on hanging out with hoodlums) and that he’d rather be one of those awesome ponies. Also, phoenices are apparently given to be less than ponies. The episode presents all this as good things, and what is essentially forced cultural assimilation is seen as a happy end. Oh, and the entire episode seems to say that “who” trumps “what” in a way that “what” is entirely irrelevant. Anyone who was adopted by loving parents but still wants or wanted to know about their biological roots can tell you that’s nonsense.

Compare this to the 80′s MLP episode Spike’s Search, which Dragon Quest has many similarities to. Spike gets fire-breathing hiccups and figures it’s time for him to meet other dragons who can guide him towards adulthood in a way the ponies can’t. Danny offers to come with him and his offer is readily accepted. Spike joins a group of adult dragons and witnesses them attacking a village. Disappointed, he tells the dragons about his life with the ponies, causing the dragons to trick Spike in bringing them to them, with the intent to rob them. Danny observes this and goes ahead, allowing the ponies to prepare. Once the dragons start stealing the ponies’ food, Spike loses his will to doubt malintent, shortly after which the ponies launch their surprise attack and chase the dragons away. Later, Spike voices his disappointment over the results of his search to Danny, but Danny responds he shouldn’t give up to quickly. Just as there are many ponies, there are probably many dragons, including ones Spike will feel happy to be with. Relieved to hear this, Spike announces he’ll continue his search another day. – With the analysis of Dragon Quest, I don’t think I have to further elaborate what this episode did right that Dragonquest didn’t.

You are over thinking these cartoons to frightening excesses. That last episode has nothing to do with race or racism or anything of the kind it’s just about Spike not having the same values as other dragons who only want to loot and pillage. If anything one would say that the ponies are more like the oppressed while the dragons are more like the oppressors and just because one is born amongst the oppressors doesn’t mean they have to be like that.
Also I find the comment “I also kindly ask you not to treat the fact FIM managed to attract a large grown men fanbase as an inherently good thing. It’s done more harm than not.” suspicious.

I do apologize though for assuming that no man liked those terrible old MLP tv shows.

I wanted to start this note with the third paragraph, but I figure I should first get me being “suspicious” out of the way. The very first time I was confronted with the FIM fandom, it was when I was leisurely watching G1 episodes and checking up on Tales episodes, since I never got to watch that show when I was a kid. Not a single one of the uploads I found on YouTube was without vile comments by FIM fans how terrible pre-FIM is and how FIM is the true MLP. Almost all of the comments I bothered to link to a person were male. Similarly, a significant portion of the comments on FIM stuff were (and are, but I believe it has lessened) about how FIM is for (real) men and that there are no female fans of FIM. In fact, my sis has a few song uploads and had/s a dayjob on removing the sexist comments. You can go to MLP fora that precede the FIM craze, like MLParena, and look for topics about or start one yourself about how FIM changed the MLP landscape: They’ll tell you there were no conflicts before FIM and that it was okay for everyone to like that part of MLP they did, but that FIM changed that. I’d also like to link you to this treasure trove: http://bronysay.tumblr.com . What you can track of those comments or deduce from their context, you’ll find is mostly male.

I could go on and on, but I don’t think that’s necessary (correct me if I’m wrong). FIM has generated one of the most misogynistic and hostile fandoms I’ve seen in a while. And it is linked to the deluge of male interest in the show. My theory is that it is all one big system to protect the masculine identity and value of the male fans. Throughout history, you’ll find that in societies that value women significantly less than men, every so often men will figure out women have something good and claim it for themselves by creating an artificial barrier between the ‘worthwhile’ and the ‘other’. A fairly recent example is how after WWI (at least in, but not limited to the USA), men came home with cooking skills and wanted to make use of them in a world where cooking was seen as one of those jobs you could just trust to give to the lesser half of the population. So, the former soldiers created the world of culinary art, which to this day is incredibly hostile and dismissive to women to preserve value of the job for the male participants. I’m not saying every man has this same attitude and I’m not saying women can’t be “female chauvinist pigs”, but at it’s origin, it’s the uncontrolled and sudden male interest in a show made for a female audience that has done more damage than not. I like men to like stuff for women, but male FIM fans have created a vision in which FIM is not for girls and hardly generates female attention, It underlines the problem behind why I like men to like stuff for women: as a society, men are taught they have status to lose if they associate with the likes of the lesser half of the population. Some men don’t buy into that nonsense, but most, unfortunately, do and look for ways to preserve their idea of masculine value. FIM’s a victim of that.

On to the rest: I knew you would play the overthinking card. That’s the lazy excuse you’ll always see to any analysis that goes further than “it was teh funniez!”, particularly if that analysis is opposed to popular opinion on the quality of the show.
It was about race in DragonQuest, as it has been about race throughtout FIM with unicorn superiority, pony colonization of buffalo grounds, the use of sapient creatures as the ponies’ cattle (the donkey episode was the only one better than that, and unfortunately I’m not sure how to fit it in the larger continuity) the translation of human races/cultures other than the Caucasian/Western ones to not-ponies, etc.. I wouldn’t so much call malicious intent as neglectfulness born from privilege and personal favoritism, but that’s only so much better than the former option. FIM is all about saying how awesome and even necessary ponies are (unicorns in particular) compared to everything else their world. They are not the oppressed ones. Meanwhile, while we get to see ponies presented as good people and ponies presented as bad people (whether they actually are what the show wants the audience to elieve they are is not always the same thing. The Flim Flam brothers were not nearly as bad as the episode treated them), nearly everything else is swiftly dismissed as evil or less-than-pony based on a sample experience. Honestly, we are cheering for Spike turning his back on being a dragon because he had a bad run-in with TEENAGE dragons? Honestly? For the record, FIM isn’t the only show I treat this way. I don’t like Ed, Edd, and Eddy for sending messages it’s a-okay to sexually assault men (I heard things improved in later seasons, but those weren’t aired here). I oddly love Trollz because it hugely promotes racism  and sexism and is utterly oblivious to it. Despite all the good about Winx, I hate it’s approval of gender segregation. And so on.P.S.: Apologies not accepted. If you can’t excuse without throwing in another insult (“terrible”), you should re-evaluate your attitude.

hmm cant actually directly reply and who knows if itll get read but whatver here goes:

The pre- Fim cartoons are terrible just like the old ninja turtles cartoons are terrible, well maybe not the exact same way but it has nothing to do with what gender the target audience is supposed to be. The sooner you accept this the sooner we can move on.

You ever think though that you could just be projecting your own beliefs onto the show? Not every non- pony species is presented as evil or inferior to the ponys and they’ve had to learn valuable lessons about not judging people which they have done more than once ( the episode where they first meet Zecora. Pony is not code for white people no matter how much you want it to be.

You’re right though those so called bronies are not doing the franchise any favors by their attitudes but they certainly do not speak for the majority of MLP fans and no aspect of the show is anywhere near as bad as you’re making it seem.

TMS’s system doesn’t allow messages to get thinner
past the limit we’ve reached, but replying to the last message that still can
be replied to gets everyone who replied to it before a note on the new reply.
So yeah, I got an email warning. Just like you’ll get once I post this one.

I’m not sure what you are saying about gender. I’m
fairly certain I never said gender was a problem in the way new cartoon
versions of older franchises adapt to new generations. So, please do elaborate
what you are saying that I should accept.

Though hey, if the newer TMNT shows have managed to
garner a plentitude of fans whose main joy seems to be to insult the old show
and its fans, I’d love to hear of it.

And speaking of accepting, something I am having a
hard time with right now is accepting that I live in a world where there are
people presumably over the age of 14 that think that randomly tossing the
adjective “terrible” in their statements with no elaboration
whatsoever makes them worthwhile discussion partners. Moreso, the few times you
have actually argued thus far on the quality of a cartoon, part of it was in
the form of, instead of countering my arguments, trying to mirror back my accusation,
though sans arguments. Is this honestly how you think a discussion is to be
done?

An just to get this clear: I do not envy your
inability to appreciate old cartoons and shows alongside the new ones. There’s
tons of old shows from days gone by that I only get to see now, and I enjoy
them. There are shows I did get to see back in the day, and while none of them
can live up to the memory of a child, they also manage to offer things that I
didn’t notice as a child or that have proven to be unique to those shows.
Meanwhile, I enjoy what shows the now has to offer, even when it annoys me when
its fans give them more credit compared to old shows than they deserve
(especially in terms of gender equality. It’s funny how many old shows are
decried as misogynistic while modern shows step into exactly the same pitfalls
that prevent an actual solution). Shows haven’t improved – some things are done
better these days, others worse. Art has taken a step back for animation,
ethics have taken a step back for plot/continuity, own creativity has taken a
step back for pop culture references, clichés have been traded for clichés
exposed as clichés, characters these days are on average much younger than
they were back in the 80’s and early 90’s which adds to the connectivity with
the audience but at the cost of realism. And so on.

Though truth be told, I don’t believe you know a thing
about pre-FIM MLP. I haven’t met anyone who did who believed it deserved to be
put away like you do it. Quick test, what’s wrong with the
following statement: “The MLP G2 cartoon features seven protagonists who each individually
possess more character than the protagonists of FIM combined.”

But of course I am projecting my own beliefs on the
show. And my beliefs are that racism, sexism, heterosexism, etc. are wrong and
that a society’s excesses can’t exist without approval of some kind in the
mainstream mindset. Racists and sexists you’ll find everywhere, but when they
can get their arguments straight from and in line with the source material, you
gotta rethink what is happening. If people claim Twilight Sparkle may not be
drawn as a black human because if she’d be intended as black, she’d be a zebra,
there’s not much based on FIM canon itself you can use to argue with them. And
that’s just one of the cleaner examples. And you see, when I am told the show
is deep enough to offer valuable lessons but at the same time I’m also told
when I make mention of troubling content that it’s just a cartoon and I should not
take it seriously, I call bs.

The majority of MLP fans are not bronies – I am well
aware of that. Fortunately, I even know some fans of the show who are sane and
whose existence helps me remember the show has attracted good people to.
People, btw, who can properly apologize or retract incorrect statements without
sneaking in an under-the-belt. And yes, I just snuck in an under-the-belt too, but
I wasn’t apologizing or retracting incorrect statements.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m in the mood for some Jem
tunes and I got five episodes of Mighty Max left. Might throw in Milton the
Monster episodes too, or rewatches of Jim Button. Monster High will have a new
episode up in about four hours and I still need to decide whether I’ll be
watching Legend of Korra as it goes or when the first season has aired fully.

so is it just a series of shorts?  I though it was going to be a full show.

What’s wrong with that sentence? Other than the fact that there WASN’T a G2 cartoon?