KouAidou
二番目の翻訳者
Pixel,
No need for any more apologies, I get where you are coming from.
On the point of identification, I think what you mention about formative years is dead-on. I mean, now that I'm older I can identify deeper levels of character personality and conflict and really identify with them on all sorts of levels. But little kids, I think, tend to fixate on far shallower points of identification, like race, or gender, or hair color, or birth order, or very general traits like "smartness" or "athleticness." (Citation: my own memories of my priorities as a little kid, plus the way kid's shows are written in general.)
I also wonder if some of has to do with who's in the core cast and who's not. Like, April was never a character whose presence upset my worldview of myself as a ninja turtle, because she wasn't a turtle; if asked "Which Ninja Turtle do you want to be?" I could still answer "Leonardo." I heard that later incarnations have been putting a "girl turtle" in the cast, though, which probably would have given me some problems.
Maybe the fact that Spike is similar -- a main character but not a pony, and not "core cast" -- makes him not run the risk of upstaging the actual personality you most identify with? Do you think you might feel differently if, say, Rainbow Dash was just a boy pony, and the only boy pony in the core cast? I couldn't say, obviously, but I'd be interested to hear what you think.
Anyway, one thing I want to make clear is that by talking about this I'm in no way trying to take the show down a notch. I think the show holds up to discussion like this, and that's a sign of how good it is. When you talk about the Zecora episode not hitting your red flags, I find that fascinating -- it makes me want to think more about what the show has done so right that it can do things like this and have them not be issues.
No need for any more apologies, I get where you are coming from.
On the point of identification, I think what you mention about formative years is dead-on. I mean, now that I'm older I can identify deeper levels of character personality and conflict and really identify with them on all sorts of levels. But little kids, I think, tend to fixate on far shallower points of identification, like race, or gender, or hair color, or birth order, or very general traits like "smartness" or "athleticness." (Citation: my own memories of my priorities as a little kid, plus the way kid's shows are written in general.)
I also wonder if some of has to do with who's in the core cast and who's not. Like, April was never a character whose presence upset my worldview of myself as a ninja turtle, because she wasn't a turtle; if asked "Which Ninja Turtle do you want to be?" I could still answer "Leonardo." I heard that later incarnations have been putting a "girl turtle" in the cast, though, which probably would have given me some problems.
Maybe the fact that Spike is similar -- a main character but not a pony, and not "core cast" -- makes him not run the risk of upstaging the actual personality you most identify with? Do you think you might feel differently if, say, Rainbow Dash was just a boy pony, and the only boy pony in the core cast? I couldn't say, obviously, but I'd be interested to hear what you think.
Anyway, one thing I want to make clear is that by talking about this I'm in no way trying to take the show down a notch. I think the show holds up to discussion like this, and that's a sign of how good it is. When you talk about the Zecora episode not hitting your red flags, I find that fascinating -- it makes me want to think more about what the show has done so right that it can do things like this and have them not be issues.
apparantly Zebras get them so why didn't Little Strongheart have a heart shaped cutie mark? That would have been adorable XD 
