You got most of what I was thinking down here. I think the whole thing is that the whole community just needs to re-evaluate their approach to making videos and the tone and structure that they use when delivering these videos. We still love this show, but we should not be delivering our opinions in a way that suggests that we might dislike the show or may suggest an overtly negative opinion which does not exist.

The most important thing is that we want the best for this show and everyone watching it. The analysis community has a part to play in holding the show accountable for its mistakes because of the implications these mistakes have (given the impressionability of MLP's devoted audiences). We want to uphold quality by telling people why certain episodes seem to work and others don't, and what makes this show special against other shows.

In the end, the root problems are that we need to find out a better way to deliver these videos and that we need to remember what it's all about in the end; helping the great show and great community we love so much get even better, and inspiring not only other reviewers, but also inspiring the possible "next Lauren Faust" or "next MA Larson" that could end up coming out of this very community. It's about upholding quality, and that starts with upholding our own.

I'm glad some members of this community are starting to post videos on how to get started in this community, that's a step in the right direction.

You got most of what I was thinking down here. I think the whole thing is that the whole community just needs to re-evaluate their approach to making videos and the tone and structure that they use when delivering these videos. We still love this show, but we should not be delivering our opinions in a way that suggests that we might dislike the show or may suggest an overtly negative opinion which does not exist.

 

The most important thing is that we want the best for this show and everyone watching it. The analysis community has a part to play in holding the show accountable for its mistakes because of the implications these mistakes have (given the impressionability of MLP's devoted audiences). We want to uphold quality by telling people why certain episodes seem to work and others don't, and what makes this show special against other shows.

 

In the end, the root problems are that we need to find out a better way to deliver these videos and that we need to remember what it's all about in the end; helping the great show and great community we love so much get even better, and inspiring not only other reviewers, but also inspiring the possible "next Lauren Faust" or "next MA Larson" that could end up coming out of this very community. It's about upholding quality, and that starts with upholding our own.

 

I'm glad some members of this community are starting to post videos on how to get started in this community, that's a step in the right direction.

I agree with you, and I upvoted your comment on YT, as well. I could understand it being an impression, but I definitely agree on the fact that the analysis community does a great job making sure DHX is held accountable. And that's one important scope: accountability. Show love for FIM, but understand that DHX can make mistakes and keep them in check.

The fandom getting less stable and more divided is a problem a lot of dedicated fans worry about and lose sleep over. Given that this is the driving force that culminated in this bold claim of his, IMO the driving force matters more. Besides, you seem to have the explanation itself covered pretty well already.

Honestly, I think the morals of the show itself is one contributor to the fandom's current state of degradation relative to the state of affairs early on. This is something I've explored in the blog Friendship is Myopic. At the end, it is concluded that the show's morals -- which bronies tend to want to emulate -- are too narrow in scope to be applicable to the community scale. The only exception to that being if the community in question is small enough for most people to be friends with one another like back in the day when the brony community was small enough for that.

There's another way where the morals of the show, though indirectly, may have put the brony fandom on a very treacherous path. That is, to imply that people confide, speak up about feelings, accept people as they are, that whole song and dance. This is something I've explored with the blog Problems of the Brony Utopia: Resignation. That is, the resignation of their agency as bronies become dependent on the acceptance given by the fandom. That appetite for acceptance may prove insatiable which can manifest as this parade of emotional baggage being spilled into the streets, turning communities into cesspools of angst and disillusionment.

I think the whole thing is that the whole community just needs to re-evaluate their approach to making videos and the tone and structure that they use when delivering these videos. We still love this show, but we should not be delivering our opinions in a way that suggests that we might dislike the show or may suggest an overtly negative opinion which does not exist.

 

The most important thing is that we want the best for this show and everyone watching it. The analysis community has a part to play in holding the show accountable for its mistakes because of the implications these mistakes have (given the impressionability of MLP's devoted audiences). We want to uphold quality by telling people why certain episodes seem to work and others don't, and what makes this show special against other shows.

I agree with this. A lot.

But I don't think that Tommy is necessarily wrong. I think he can get a little more negative than a lot of people like, but I think that he does a decently good job at keeping himself level with his videos, which makes them fun to watch even if I don't always agree with him. I also think that he's absolutely right that most people seek these analysis videos for affirmation, not for pure analysis. I know that I have fallen into this trap.

I find it funny that he used a clip from one of Digibrony's season 4 videos (the one about Daring Don't, which was an episode that I didn't like very much either). "Am I getting jaded?" he asked. At the time, since I didn't like the episode much either, I didn't think so. But as the season progressed, that quote came back to me, and I felt like Digi was looking for too much to dislike, and he was letting what was happening in his own personal life influence his opinions on certain episodes. In short, I didn't think that they were fair analyses. And that's what really bothered me about him as I watched his videos. Eventually I just stopped because I wasn't enjoying his "analyses" anymore - they were more like bitching if you ask me.

So that's why I agree that tone and approach in making these videos makes a big, big difference. I think that it's good that Tommy is wondering these things himself, because I think that it helps keep him grounded. But overall, I think that analysis videos have an important place in the fandom, and as long as the people creating the content don't allow themselves to become too positive or too negative, it serves an important purpose, and that is the role of keeping the rest of us on our toes and remembering that scrutinizing our favorite thing in the world doesn't mean that we think that our favorite thing in the world is bad. It just means that we know that it can be better.

Oh, and if people in the community would just stop believing that analyzers like Tommy hold any kind of authority about how anyone else should feel about a particular episode, that would be great.

i personally think some people look too into the show taking it way too seriously with the critical view point, like yes i like that it has excellant writing and such, but im not going to get pissed off when it does something like such as poor characterization happens, i think sometimes we just need to step back and remember we are watching a show about technicolored ponies, like when every one bitched about twilight getting wings, i was just like whatever about it, yeah i had some issues with the episode, but at the end of the day it was just a crappy episode

I have to agree. Analysis is what saved my fandom in a sense, because without the analysis, I would never have thought of MLP as more than just a fun show and likely would have passed over it after a while. 

However, I do agree with a couple of TO's points; overanalyzing is something I struggle with in reality, and once analysis had been applied to this, overanalyzation was doomed to follow. Media has become less enjoyable to me when I got into criticism; I focused much less on the fun of the piece and so much on what was wrong with it (and sometimes right.) I had to take a step back and separate myself from things that made me think this way temporarily.  Tommy Oliver's over focusing on the bad made him lose his enjoyment of the show, and I think that part of it, if his experience was anything like mine, could be that he felt like he shouldn't be enjoying it.

But that was the problem- it was overanalyzing that was killing my enjoyment of media. Figuring out how an author made his/her point is exciting, but trying to guess whether a movie was "good" or not became scary because someone else was going to say "It was horrible and you should feel bad watching it!" or something along those lines. What things should I be enjoying? 

That's why I like to have two scales: objective and subjective "good" meters. Objective is how well it is crafted and subjective is how much I enjoyed it. ​The Odyssey is a book I highly respect yet absolutely despised reading, and yet "Call me Maybe" isn't the best written but it is just a fun song. 

Analysis is said to be what brings a piece to its completion, but overanalyzation is the same momentum in the opposite direction.