Spinelspike

I appreciate the intent in ships and how fans show their devotion and interest in the show through their personal pairings. For me personally, I really only support ships that could potentially become canon within the show. For instance, I see potential within the Spike and Rarity relationship given their official interaction on the show, and in some ways, I do actually see some evidence to support the Rainbow Dash- Fluttershy pairing. But those are just my personal shippings.

Recently managed to get a Doctor Whooves Vinyl Collection figure!

Of course. If nintendo was making it, then that's already some assurance of quality. A fighting game would be out of the question (as cool as it would be) as it would be contrary to the message of the show, but I think an adventure game would be brilliant. Each of the ponies would have different abilities that could make for good puzzle solving and platforming, and I'm sure a multiplayer option would be highly prominent knowing the message of friendship that the show promotes.

Maybe this is for the best. It gives them a chance to surprise us and not make assumptions too quickly and try and spoil the plot for ourselves. I actually almost regret watching the storyboard sneak peeks that were revealed at bronycon because I'm already making predictions about what will happen in the opener. It could still surprise me, and I hope that it does, but in future, I think I'll avoid reading any information for the sake of being surprised and enjoying the episodes more. I remember how exciting it was just watching through every single MLP episode for the first time when I got into the show. I had no idea what each episode was about, but the constant excitement just kept me watching. So I'm going to try and go with a similar approach with this new season.

With any fandom, I think it's inevitable that it will continue to grow, but honestly, unless it is an organised Brony venue specifically for bronies, I don't think it's completely right for bronies to clog up cinema screenings where there are many young children who want to see the films as well. Bronies are entitled to see the films, but they can be organised to see them in different formats and different venues. I think it's only right that we give priority to the young fans who are unable to organise and pay cinema tickets themselves. The show is made for them after all, and there are other alternatives to seeing the films that bronies can find that small children just wouldn't be able to.

FiM is certainly one of my favourite shows, but I would certainly hold the likes of Doctor Who, Frasier, and shooting stars above it. But FiM would still certainly make it into my top 5 tv shows of all time, and it's one of the few shows that I have a strong dedication and loyalty towards, and also one of the few shows where I actively engage in the community.

eh, so far, all of the promotional material has made me cringe in some way. But at the end of the day, it's still ponies (even though they are humans), so I'm sure they'll be something about it that I'll like.

I doubt that it would ever die. Think about all the fandoms that are still going about films and shows that have been long gone like the likes of star trek, star wars, buffy the vampire slayer, firefly, and torchwood amongst many others. After seeing how much fan content was created in roughly two years since FiM's inception, I think it's safe to say that the community will find some way of keeping the show alive, whether it be comics, radio plays, fan made episodes and merchandise, I think the brony community and FiM has created an impact that will not easily dwindle. I doubt that it would ever die. Think about all the fandoms that are still going about films and shows that have been long gone like the likes of star trek, star wars, buffy the vampire slayer, firefly, and torchwood amongst many others. After seeing how much fan content was created in roughly two years since FiM's inception, I think it's safe to say that the community will find some way of keeping the show alive, whether it be comics, radio plays, fan made episodes and merchandise, I think the brony community and FiM has created an impact that will not easily dwindle.

I personally really admire the Spike x Rarity relationship, because I think that overall, when looking at the episodes focusing exclusively on that relationship, it is developed rather well. In terms of the future of the show itself, I don't think we will ever come to a point where both Spike and Rarity are declared to be in an official 'relationship' and I don't think they will become much more intimate on the show than what has already been shown, but given the direction that their relationship has taken, I think it's entirely possible that in the context of the show's story, I think Spike and Rarity could very well get together in the future when they are both older, so I think it's possible for the show to continue to subtly show the possibility and probability of that happening without actually showing it. At first, their relationship was not perfect, because given Spike's sometimes misunderstood or immature ways of looking at things, he didn't fully understand that concept of love, and thus his attempts to show nothing but praise and adoration for her were not met with great succession. But as the series developed, I started to have more hope in their relationship because of Spike's developing mature attitude. We see that in some episodes, he genuinely tries to protect and praise Rarity out of care for her, and he ultimately doesn't really expect anything in return from her. Also, we actually see that Rarity does have a very strong and open fondness for Spike, and even when she knew about his feelings for her, and she knew that he knew she knew, she still showed a strong affection and care for him. Since then, they have both shown their fondness for one another, and Spike was actually incredibly mature for helping Rarity try to win the heart of trenderhoof despite his feelings for her. There are still big steps they can make in their relationship, given how that in Inspiration Manifestation, Rarity told Spike that he shouldn't ever be afraid to tell her the truth, and thus I think that their relationship will be stronger now that Spike will only praise Rarity out of complete honesty, and will alert her if she is doing something he doesn't think is right. This will also hopefully allow Spike to love other aspects about Rarity as a person other than giving her praise for the sake of giving praise. Also, in Equestria Games, Spike also learnt the lesson of being able to accept and hopefully love himself, which should help his nervousness and shyness against other people he has strong feelings for. Other steps that both Spike and Rarity could take would be Spike being even more open and honest about his feelings to Rarity, and perhaps genuinely asking her about her feelings towards him if he treats his affections towards her so seriously. I can understand why he has so far avoided this for fear of being rejected, but if he could overcome that fear, it would be great development for him, and the sparity relationship. Likewise for Rarity, I think it would be nice to hear her true honest thoughts about how she feels towards Spike, and perhaps not take advantage of him all the time. As a person, Rarity doesn't own Spike anything, and I don't think that Spike expects anything in return for his kindness (we can see that in Secret of my Excess, he was genuinely surprised to receive a kiss on both occasions, and he was not expecting any reward for his kind actions before), but it has been established that they do have a shared fondness for each other, and Rarity taking continuous advantage of Spike does steep a bit dangerously close over the line of just treating your friend a bit like a servant, whether that friend is happy to help or not. But yeah, so overall, I really admire their relationship, and given the strong developments that they'e had and the developments that there are still left to come, I honestly have high hopes for their relationship in the series

I agree that the community can sometimes be too demanding and not treat the makers of the show with the respect they deserve, especially given their attempts to please us even though the show is not made for us, but I think that's to be expected from any fandom. And besides, that's more to do with the community than the show itself, and I personally believe FiM to be the better show strictly because its writing and characters are both likeable and relatable, being able to communicate messages to any audience without having to talk down to them. The animation in G1 may have taken more effort, but sometimes it's not down to how much time, money or work you put into something, it's how you coordinate and organise your work to look as good it can. FiM may use flash, but it has a very distinctive and appealing style that makes everything pop out, and it suits the show's tone, overall making it an incredibly beautiful show due to it's clever colour palette and presentation. From writing, characters, narrative, morals, tone and style, I believe FiM to overall be the much more accessible and enjoyable show. I can understand why some people may prefer G1, and I do think that in perspective of the time it was created, G1 was actually a very well made show, but in comparison to it's later generations, I personally hold FiM to be the better show.

hmmmmm, it is interesting to consider. On the one hand, we do know that RD very commonly flies constantly, usually without knowing. She just has a very energetic personality, and likes to display her flying prowess constantly, so far that it has become a sub-conscious action that she does without even being aware of it. But actually, even though scootaloo knows that that is part of RD's character, I think that scene would have worked a lot better if RD wasn't flying while talking to her. It would put her on a level of equality with scootaloo, making her feel closer to her idol, and show her that she can still strive to be like her despite weaker flying skills. "Insensitive" may be a bit extreme, but just because RD wasn't fully aware doesn't mean it still may have made her speech to Scootaloo less impactful as a result.

Given that Discord never once actually attempted to kill anyone or really ever enslave anybody (keeping people captive perhaps, but he's usually happier just being left to his own devices and creating his own chaos at free will), it may be possible for him to be eventually corrupted by Tirek, but had Tirek maybe gone too far in his rule, Discord may have opposed some of his decisions. Given how both characters have quite large egos, a think a confrontation between the two of them would happen eventually. I think Discord trusted Tirek to take charge initially because it was an eventual means to an end where Discord could picture himself as a ruler alongside Tirek as his equal (plus he was still adapting to betraying Equestria at first, but would become more comfortable once everyone had been subdued). But it's also interesting to consider whether Discord would even be of any use to Tirek after his dominion over Equestria was complete. In this scenario that we are imagining, Tirek gives Discord what he wants and doesn't betray him. But what then? We saw how eager Tirek was to cause destruction, and he clearly enjoys the process of defeating others. What would happen when there was no-one left to defeat. Nothing left to destroy. Would Tirek go even more mad with power than he already was and eventually shut Discord out regardless? It's an interesting discussion, and even now, I'm not sure whether I truly know what would happen or not.

Well, it shouldn't go too dark, because, yes, it is a kids show, but remember, its a kids show specifically targeted at incredibly young audiences. Some cartoons can get away with dark subject material, but for something like My little Pony? It's audience may A: be too young to be exposed to darker subject material and B: too young to even understand it fully. Now of course, we all know that there are many many many different audiences that watch MLP, but the show's staff have to adhere to the needs of the their intended and youngest audience. They can't risk parents sending in complaints because of the show's content, because it could risk the show's cancellation. I don't think they'd risk that. That being said, this only applies for going 'too dark' (which in itself is a subjective quantity). As it is now, I think it could get away with some very slight darker turns here and there, but not much more. I guess for me personally, seeing Spike crying in a mirror because he thought Twilight was abandoning him, that was pretty dark for me in the context of the show's universe. So basically, take that as an example of a level of darkness, and say only 1 or 2 levels above that is how far I think the show could go without going 'too far'. But ultimately, we have to ask whether it would be worth the risk going darker in the first place? Is the demand for it so high? What do the staff have to lose by not going darker and staying the way they are? Honestly, if the show stays the way it is without going in the slightest bit darker, I think I can live with it.

ehhhhhhhhh, I don't know. It's very hard to judge the state of affairs with the fandom based on statistics alone, especially ones only taken from the fans who chose to go onto Equestria Daily to enter that poll. We don't know quite how many fans chose not to do that poll, or didn't even know about it. Also, the fandom has changed a lot, becoming much more diverse, but also split. I know many bronies that state that they are bronies, but just choose to not get involved in fan discussions or fan sites. Some bronies just like to watch the show and leave it at that. Other bronies are completely different. It's an interesting piece of research I'll admit, but I wouldn't declare anything over statistics from one site alone.

Would I want it to? Yes. Is it realistic? Probably not. But the question is about what we'd want against what we think will happen. I know that it won't run on forever, and I will accept that, but that doesn't mean I can't still want it to.