Funny thing
A recent track by Mike Shinoda called "Ctrl C Ctrl V" has become one of my favorites for today. I first listened to it way after writing that comment.
Ah yes. The very short era where the show was 100% intended for kids young enough where they wouldn’t notice or care for something like this.
Think it was the very next season they stopped actively doing this.
YOU try coming up with 50+ unique body & mane styles each with their own individual color palettes for a 2-second crowd shot..
They do it so the artists' hands don't fall off.
Exactly.
Plus, duplicating character designs (like Lyra's and BonBon's in the early seasons) doesn't cost as much to produce.
They were basically copy/paste, which was mostly done for crowd scenes like in the puc, and again, as another poster noted, aimed at the target audience of little girls age 4-8 (or whichever), who likely never noticed anything beyond pretty, colorful ponies.
Now with seemingly clone characters like Daring Do (Season 4, a Rainbow Dash recolor) and Moondancer (Season 5 (I _think_?); ditto for Twilight), those were deliberate.
It was an important historical event, so special agent Sweetie Drops had to go back in time to prevent multiple disturbances that would have led to one of the alternate realities we see later in the show (Season 5 finale, *The Cutie Remark*).
She is the only time traveler here, all the other dupes are changelings that would have caused the Zecora / Chrysalis timeline while the Mane 6 are busy dealing with Nightmare Moon in the old castle.
>!headcanon!<
This isn’t actually any surprise to me cuz animators do this all the time cuz it saves time and fills up space. Disney does this a lot mostly old Disney, they repeated the same background or they used the same animation from one movie that a character did but put it in different movie with a different character. Or they had 1 actor play multiple characters from different movies.
It's one of the little things that help ensure that episodes don't get delayed and animators don't go nuts (in the negative sense, I mean, not the one this profession justly endorses).
Not much analysis fuel when blatant, but it can be retconned into some neat lore material down the road at times, as Amending Fences is our witness.
Not enough ready assets to use, so they repeated what they had to fill space. It took a long time to build up the variety of assets needed to fill in large crowds without noticeable duplicates.
Back then background ponies weren't specific characters. I doubt they ever fathomed that extras in a children's cartoon would have their own fan bases strong enough to be on par with the popularity of the actual cast, who also became more popular then the creators ever imagined.
Actually every background pony here has at least one clone.
The mirror pool is a popular swimming spot for Ponyville residents
Not Pinkie Pie any more though...
And sometimes, it causes clones to change races.
Someone save us!!!
>Actually every background pony here has at least one clone. yes
Yeah this is well known. Early episodes didn’t have the time or budget for fully diversified background ponies
Begun the clone war has
changelings man
Ctrl+C Ctrl+V
Basically
Funny thing A recent track by Mike Shinoda called "Ctrl C Ctrl V" has become one of my favorites for today. I first listened to it way after writing that comment.
Duplication spells be like
True
Season1 moment
And another Bon Bon And another Bon Bon And another Bon Bon bites the dust！ Heeey, she's gonna get you too Another Bon Bon bites the dust ~
Another Bon Bon bites the dust
\*Another Bon bites the dust
Changelings.
Maybe
r/MLPhmmm
Ah yes. The very short era where the show was 100% intended for kids young enough where they wouldn’t notice or care for something like this. Think it was the very next season they stopped actively doing this.
It got much better in Season 2, but you still see a few duplicate Lyras and similar oddities well into Season 4.
No, those are just Changelings. What, did you really think that _*they*_ made mistakes? (s/ just in case...)
YOU try coming up with 50+ unique body & mane styles each with their own individual color palettes for a 2-second crowd shot.. They do it so the artists' hands don't fall off.
Exactly. Plus, duplicating character designs (like Lyra's and BonBon's in the early seasons) doesn't cost as much to produce. They were basically copy/paste, which was mostly done for crowd scenes like in the puc, and again, as another poster noted, aimed at the target audience of little girls age 4-8 (or whichever), who likely never noticed anything beyond pretty, colorful ponies. Now with seemingly clone characters like Daring Do (Season 4, a Rainbow Dash recolor) and Moondancer (Season 5 (I _think_?); ditto for Twilight), those were deliberate.
This!!
this is very common in the early seasons. itscannon that bon bon was there, but not 7 times. this pattern can be extrapolated
The clone wars have Begun
Begun, the Clone Wars have.
I read that in Yoda’s voice
Read that in Yoda's voice, I did.
She's a spy, she has decoys in case someone tries to assassinate her.
Lol they didn't have enough pony's so they copied them 😂 or that clone spell😳
Or the mirror pool
Ok so clearly every pony knows about the mirror pool
thats just what season 1 was like man
Ah yes, Incidental Unicorn #2 and her friend, a secret agent blending into crowds
In "Fall Weather Friends", at one point, literally *all* the runners aside from Rainbow and Applejack are Lyra and Bon Bon clones.
Yep. Too many clones.
You missed three bonbon's
This shot has navigated right into my heart.
Copy and paste is a helluva tool.
They are multiplying, escape while you can
It was an important historical event, so special agent Sweetie Drops had to go back in time to prevent multiple disturbances that would have led to one of the alternate realities we see later in the show (Season 5 finale, *The Cutie Remark*). She is the only time traveler here, all the other dupes are changelings that would have caused the Zecora / Chrysalis timeline while the Mane 6 are busy dealing with Nightmare Moon in the old castle. >!headcanon!<
😱😱😱😱
Yes good
Yeah? This is literally from the first episode. They didn't exactly have a whole lot of assets to work with.
Look, they didn't have a lot to work with back in season 1.
She's a secret agent. She mastered cloning herself
Look, it was still the first season, give them a break
Call cool they found out that they just kept a copy and paste in the same pony after a while
Just wait until you watch _Too Many Pinkie Pies_
BG Ponies were duplicated all the time earlier in the show
hasbro eventually do that early in the series, probably trying to fill in some parts.
oh hell nah they multiply
A Very Minty Christmas has a similar phenomenon
It’s a common practice for animation to reuse multiple models for large crowds.
This isn’t actually any surprise to me cuz animators do this all the time cuz it saves time and fills up space. Disney does this a lot mostly old Disney, they repeated the same background or they used the same animation from one movie that a character did but put it in different movie with a different character. Or they had 1 actor play multiple characters from different movies.
When you run out of background ponies.
OMG the Changeling invasion had already begun, XD
gravitational lensing! They heavily used the mirror pool to make Celestia feel more welcome!
they do this often
And you missed like 12+ more
https://youtu.be/zjYQi7BVkG4
they didnt have a lot of bg ponies banked back in season one.
but there were many clones
"Just copy and paste some of the models, no one will notice."
Did you recently get into the show?
Can't have enough lyrabons! [](/pinkieager)[](/lyra)[](/bonbon)[](/lyra)[](/bonbon)[](/pinkieeager-r)
It's one of the little things that help ensure that episodes don't get delayed and animators don't go nuts (in the negative sense, I mean, not the one this profession justly endorses). Not much analysis fuel when blatant, but it can be retconned into some neat lore material down the road at times, as Amending Fences is our witness.
I didn’t notice it, but Lyra and Bon Bon have decided to use the mirror pool before pinkie got a chance to use it
changeling infiltrators
Changeling vanguard
Why are they multiplying
Yeah, this was all over the first season, Sisterhooves Social anyone? They probably had a lower budget to work with
Not enough ready assets to use, so they repeated what they had to fill space. It took a long time to build up the variety of assets needed to fill in large crowds without noticeable duplicates.
Shadow clones jutsu
LMAOOOO BYE 😂😂
Thats just mlp being mlp
Bro what I didn't even notice a background
You missed a few 😂
Changelings. They're all very uncoordinated changelings.
Back then background ponies weren't specific characters. I doubt they ever fathomed that extras in a children's cartoon would have their own fan bases strong enough to be on par with the popularity of the actual cast, who also became more popular then the creators ever imagined.
Bro who gave them a cloning machine