Booksmith

This was explained by Antony C in a very good review video about the Canterlot Wedding episodes. It's kinda long but it will kind of blow your mind at the end. I skipped through the first 4 minutes of drivel to get to the point where the actual reviewing happens. Enjoy https://youtu.be/y36UT2tOvkI?t=4m24s

Google Fallout: Equestria, read that. Then when you are done with that, (Which is massive.) Read Fallout Equestria: Pink Eyes, (It will make you weep like a baby) then when you are done with that, embark on the magical twisted journey that is the book, Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons. Here is a synopsis of the idea behind the series (No spoilers) Warning: FOE and FOE: Project Horizons have adult content, very adult content, but are amazing stories. You can listen to the audiobooks on youtube for free. I recommend CrazedRambling's complete FO:Equestria at this link to start if you're not into heavy reading. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBX-BvTh7SMC_NGlshPVbWEPJSCy0fTI9 His voice is very soothing. I have read all of these and honestly, I like the FO:E better than the actual show. It is that freaking good.

So, based on the new Alicorn toys I have a prediction for season 5.

Digibrony explained in one of his videos before the change that he never knew what to do with his life, trying various things and never finding much happiness in them until he started doing analysis for books and shows. It was the art of analysis that made him happy. You saying that "Youtube is just a hobby so he shouldn't be paid" is like saying "Making clothing is just Rarity's hobby, she shouldn't be asking people to pay for the clothes." or "Growing apples isn't a real job, the trees do all the work." If this trend from Hasbro's legal team continues it's going to kill their fan base because no one is going to make art or music or videos about their show. They are kicking themselves in the teeth by doing this kind of stuff. I don't see how they can be this freaking stupid.

I think we may be asking the wrong question. This should be less about why we like the show and more about why the OP doesn't like the show. OP, have you actually watched the show? The entire first season? Did you have some prejudice against it before you started it? What makes you dislike it? I have yet to meet a single person who sat down and watched the entire first season then went "I just hated that." The production quality, themes and music are too damn good. Even if you hate pastel ponies with a passion, it can be enjoyed on a purely artistic level. We've all said what we like about the show, so if you want our help in understanding it, lay out for us what your experiences have been, OP?

Also I think the fandom would have not taken off as much as it had if the technology used to create the show wasn't so freely available. People started making a lot of vector art for the first time after falling in love with the show, they learned to paint in photoshop or make music or remixes or write fan fiction. It was an open field for new artists and the fans were not as harsh or cruel as other fandoms because the show's themes are basically "Don't be a douche bag." They wanted to make their own pony so they learned a whole new skill set to make part of that idealized "Pony world" their own. I think that really helped the fandom and the show to grow in popularity which is why I think Ha$bro should stop harassing content creators.

OP, you might also consider that a lot of the fandom -doesn't- like the show, but they took it as a branching off point and started massive independent projects like Fallout Equestria and the other famous fanfictions. A lot of people in the fandom are OK with the show, but like the community and it's creations a lot more.

Has anyone ever considered maybe AppleBloom's special talent is helping ponies find their special talents? So when the other two find theirs she will find hers.

Oh, also, if you want to truely understand what makes them good from a more intelectual and not just "The feels" point of view I recommend: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCipYvDkcBw8Np3H8cmmxIzw - Bronycurious and http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHhnf3RgHabfk5f2gUX6EVQ - DigibronyMLP These two channels are where two gentlemen sit down and analyse the shows, the characters, the plots (No not that kind of plot, the literary kind) and try to make sense of some of the back story. They both give well thought out presentations which gave me a new appreciation of the show and it's more subtle meanings. Once you have watches the three seasons of the show (All on netflix!) you should then watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao9teQKuEo8 - My little Critiques 4 where Bronycurious and Williamsfan, another youtube user, work together to critique the most controversial episodes in the show, the two part "Canterlot Wedding." They end it with a conspiracy theory that gave a friend of mine eye twitches because it -could- be true but we will most likely never know.

Honestly, for me, it just makes me feel good. I can't even figure out why but I watch it and I feel good afterwards. It's pretty much my free emotional heroin. I can watch a show, listen to Pinkie's songs, the art of the dress, This day or any of the music really and it cheers me up. Reduces my stress and makes my other wise soul crushing life of poverty and despair more tolerable. I think perhaps it lets me believe, even for a few minutes, that not all the world is shit and there can be things worth doing in the long run. Not that I think MLP will last forever, but the positive emotional contributions the show has made to the general population of the human race will live on for at least a generation. Happiness passed from child to parent and parent to child in turn. Can there be any thing better to do with your life than that? The artists/producers should be very proud of what they have done. I also think Hasbro executives should also be kicked in the junk for their tampering with a great story in the name of squeezing out 2% more profit. I never was a nice person though

Oh, I agree completely. The lack of key mirror characters was a huge plot hole for me. I mean, why did we even NEED a Sunset Shimmer? Why not just have Mirror-Twilight be evil because she never made friends and grew bitter then discovered the mirror in her obsessive arcane research as a nerdy shut in secretly looking for power to change the world to the way she liked it? Without a teacher or friends, Twilight's character flaws would have grown unchecked and would have made for a good villain. Instead we get disposable-plot-element-pony which just opens more questions than she answers. I like to think that we all know where Discord was in a world without magic. Being awesome:

So, I just noticed, the Great and Powerful Trixie who seems to be a stage magician in the human world, was at the vending machine a lot including as Twilight ran past after Snips and Snails at the end. She appears in the end dance sequence at the high school but there is a lot of time she is unaccounted for while for the first time in her life she sees real magic for the first time happening. Mind you, she was never in the group that was mind controlled so she witnessed the whole thing.. so what do you think Trixie was up to while everyone else was standing around telling SSS how horrible she was after the end battle? What if she's the only one who clearly remembers the details of the events because she wasn't mind controlled? Why would they purposefully animate her being at the vending machine and not in the group of people mind controlled? Will there be double Trixie trouble in the latter part of season 4?

Oooh, good eye. I skip over the credits part. It ruins the illusion for me if I know who is who's voice actress. It bugs the crap out of me when I know which characters share the same original voice because I can hear it once I know but if I don't they are just the voices of the characters.

Fun fact: The crown that SSS left in Equestria was identical in every way to the actual crown. In the human world when they were getting ready for the formal Rarity opened this box, which looks a lot like the box the elements are kept in, in Equestria. So basically the human world elements of harmony were in Rarity's possession all along, just waiting to be given to the right people to empower them with their virtues. The crown SSS replaced was the human world element of magic which had not been activated because the human world Twilight had never made friends with the human version of the five friends. The "fake crown" left in Equestria, to no doubt be thrown in the trash, was humanities last hope to unlock the power of friendship and unite the world in a peaceful future. On an amusing but less plot hole like point: I also like the foreshadowing about Flash Sentry and why she's going to fall for him so hard. I like to think it's a nod to the bronies and their strange obsession with wing boners. It was Rarity. That is why Human-Rarirty says she wants an apology from Sun Set Shimmer at the end of the movie. She was the one who got black mailed by SSS and that is why she is really good at disguising people. She had to live with shame since the previous dance. When Twilight first walks into the throne room she bumps into Sentry then he announces her as "Princess Twilight Sparkle." A lot of people didn't think the SSS thing through. Celestia said she was a student shortly before Twilight was but when she didn't get what she wanted, as fast as she wanted she turned cruel. Remember that Twi became Celestia's student in Magical Kindergarten so that means SSS would have still been a child when she ran away and got displaced into the human world. She had a decade to make a new life and she was obviously coming back to Equestria keeping tabs on things in secret every year so she knew who Twi was and was able to keep the human-Twilight away from her Human-5. She had a decade of hatefulness with no friends, no attachments to anyone even the foster parents she was put with because she was planning on going back to Equestria and ruling it. She became "Good" all of the sudden for the same reason Discord did: It was the first time they ever felt real friendship. She was emotionally raped by the rainbow and forced to feel friendship. We're just going to let that complete violation of her core being slide because emotional and mental rape is OK if you are doing it for a good reason, just ask Cadence and her "Love magic." As to the Moon thing, yeah, they totally messed that up. In the start the crown is stolen at night, but pops out the other side of the portal in the middle of the afternoon. So they must operate on different time lines. But remember, the only time we actually -see- the night sky in Equestria is when Luna create an illusion using her magic. So that could have just been her imagination being projected. (Reusing frames from the animation) The portal is most likely completely controlled by the cycle of the moon on Human-Earth and Luna was just illustrating what she should be looking for.