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She could still be self-centered. We haven't seen her since her episode in season 3 and considering how well they handled the reformed Discord (who still exhibits signs of self-centered chaotic rudness), Trixie could still be interesting. Maybe not as sinister as in Rainbow Rocks, but I doubt she'd be a shadow of her former self. She wouldn't be as power hungry, but I bet she'd still have a bit of a showoff attitude. Even at the end of her season 3 episode, she ironically bragged about how humble she now was. So she could still be the same interesting character as before but with new depth as she can now explore a new side that she had never tried to channel before.

After watching today's episode, I wanna say yes.

It comes on all sides. Non-fans threatning fans. Fans threatning fans. Fans threatning non-fans. You can find each type on the internet if you look deep enough. Yes, this fandom had its rough moments, but if anything, that just provokes the irattional fans to act even more irrationally. As long as you have big groups on the internet, someone's going to take it to the extreme. It's like religion (in fact, I even did a presentation on fandoms as a religion) There is no "Christianity", but rather a bunch of different versions of Christianity, each one claiming to be the "Christianity". You have the version that believes the bible is full of metaphors. The version that believes it's literal. The ver. that believes being gay is a sin and the ver. that does not think that. There's also time sensitive versions. 1950 Christians thought interracial marriage was a sin and that version is practically all, but gone in the U.S.. And of course, you have extremist versions, like the variant of Christianity found in some countries in Africa that mutilate the genetials of females. This happens because Christianity is so popular. It's all over the world and U.S., so naturally the people pick and choose which ideologies to focus on depending on the context of their lives. The exact same system applies to fandoms. The bigger they are, the more versions there are. Being a Brony isn't clear. Is it just watching the show? Is it buying merch? Participating in the fandom? Everyone has their own definition of what it is to be a brony and there are extremist examples as clearly evident in the fans who encourage a fanfic author to kill herself. One could say it even resembles the Catholic Inquisition. These fans want those who challenge their beliefs (or headcanons, to be more precise) to go away and some find that solution in death. Murder is illegal and the internet is anonymous. Encourage suicide. Being in a fandom is like being in a religion. The more widespread and big it becomes, the more likely you are to see different types of the same fan and the more likely you are to see extremists. It doesn't matter how much worse bronies have had it than others, it just naturally happens.

Any fandom that grows in popularity will definitely show these problems. Forgive me for generalizing and if this doesn't apply to whoever read this, I personally believe you should feel proud. Teenagers are prone to being the worst people. Teens lack the mental skills to make intelligent, rational choices. That part of the brain isn't 100% developed until you're like 20-ish. Give a teen who's already prone to aggression, maybe feeling awkward and out of place, suffering from so much whiny tween angst towards life and access to the anonymous internet, and you've got a recipe for vile toxicity. And popular fandoms are, obviously, big. They have a lot of members. Popular fandoms also tend to be popular because it's the fad. MLP is a currently a fad and won't leave that status for a while. Steven Universe is also currently a fad. It's the cool thing right now. Determining if something leaves the fad status is only once show content declines. If fan activity dies with it (or just dies in general), it dies a fad. If fan activity remains constant, despite show content going down, it wasn't just a fad. Example: Earthbound. One U.S. game and two (for a long time) Japanese games that required a lot of patience to acquire. The fandom of Earthbound was small. It wasn't crazy popular. It had a group of dedicated fans in a content-less environment. Point being, you wouldn't find this hatred in the Earthbound community because most people who knew about the game were young adults when the internet was widespread and young people coming in from Smash Bros saw that there wasn't much. They were appreciative of how much they got from so little. An actual sense of community. A tween who was hell bent on trolling would find a fandom so passionate about their so little content, that you'd pretty much quickly and easily isolate and exile yourself as an already small fandom isnt likely to have as many trolls. Back to MLP. A. It's huge. Naturally in all that mass, it'll have some bad eggs and easy to join other trolls in an already massive fandom. B.Constant content = spoiled attitudes. C. Teens tend to not think rationally and "hey, Filthy Frank makes me laugh by joking about suicide and calling everyone f@gs. I, too, shall mimic his behavior because that's what we teens seem to do. We see popular people dress, talk, and act certain ways and we just seem to copy that". Seriously. Go on instagram and look up hastags like #mlp and you'll find so many troll accounts that joke about suicide, 9/11, "dank memes", and all sorts of other attention-begging BS that I highly doubt a 25 year old who's got their life together would create. Teenage trolls seem to subconsciously compete with one another to see who can outdo who. Overall, popular fandoms will always have their trolls on the internet. It doesn't matter if you're a brony or a whovian. Love and tolerate is a myth. We're no worse nor better than any other fandom. Raising awareness won't do much. As a community we just need to ignore the trolls. Block them and encourage others to shut as many doors on them as possible. There are cyber bullying resources. Use them. Take advantage of every resource but never engage. 1. You won't win 2. Attention is their blood 3. What I mentioned previously is much more effective If you're a teenager and none of this applies to you, good job. You're already acting like an adult and your transition from adolescents to adulthood will go much easier than the trolls that will someday regret their actions.

I was always under the impression that it isn't being an alicorn that gives you longevity, but rather it comes with the job of raising and lowering the moon, so Luna and Celestia have the longevity. Talk about a sweet health benefit. Up to now it hasn't been officially confirmed that being an alicorn means living for thousands of years. I doubt they'll go the path of "Cadence will outlive her husband". It seems to make more sense that however Luna and Celestia took up the role of sun and moon raisers, that is what gave them their longer lifespans.

And to add to that, we can't forget that, at it's core, MLP is a 22 minute toy ad. The head of this beast is, and always has been, Hasbro. A lot of the issues that are found in episodes (or Equestria Girls) can sometimes be traced back to the fact that the show is designed to advertise characters available for sale in toy stores. So naturally we will sometimes get rushed stories that were made for the sake of introducing a particular character or stories that aren't very gritty because Hasbro sticks to the idea that a happy audience is more likely to want to spend more. Like you said, there's only so much it can do and I think it's a miracle it's been so good considering everything the writer's have to juggle. It's not impossible, but it definitely can't be easy when you have Hasbro over your head with their own agenda that might not fit into an artistic vision.

I think this is good advice because while some people may take issue with some narrative choices and others may not, in the end, a children's cartoon isn't worth getting so worked up over and some people really do need I disagree. Spending too much time complaining about said show about colored equines is where we need to start looking into getting some new hobbies. What counts as complaining, well...I'll leave that up to personal decision. But deep and thorough analysis doesn't seem like that bad a waste of time. If you find negative stuff, it's worth sharing because the rest of us might learn something new. It's just a matter of how you present your analysis. For example, I disagreed pretty much on all of Tommy Oliver's MLP analysis videos and everything he would like, I tended to dislike as well. But I always watched his videos because he made good points. He would make good arguments, but they wouldn't detract from my enjoyment of whatever episode he was talking about.

There's a balance, though. On the one hand, yes, respect the intelligence of kids. Airing the show Caillou and defending it on the grounds of "it's just a kid's show" is a terrible defense considering that the show often presents Caillou acting like a brat and getting away with it (Caillou joins the Circus). A show like MLP G3, which presents a world where everything is perfect and only trivial problems happen is also damaging to little girls because it presents a limited window of what it is to be a girl. Compare that to G4, which has a diverse cast of stereotype characters that allow girls to see that "hey, you can be into fashion and you can be into sports. You can be into hard labor or you can be a bookworm nerd". The cast of G4 breaks the cliches that were so prevalent in previous little girl animations. To defend G3 with "it's just a little kids show" does not cut it because G4 is also "just a show for little kids" and it does it in a much more healthy and constructive manner. So that's what it comes down to. What we're showing kids, is it bad for them? Good for them? Can they take something meaningful out of it and what more can be done? Lauren Faust answered the latter question by expanding the role of female characters in g4 and not relegating them to the stereotypical, tea-party giggle flowery braindead mess. Now, this applies to story as well. Presenting kids with a story where everything ends happily ever after and everything can be solved by crying together and yelling out "we care" is not a realistic portrayal of the world and begs the question "what more can be done?" G4's stories have appealed to adults because they were cleverly thought out. It takes Discord a whole season to reform and even then he's still got a lot of problems. Continuity is important and for kids, when a show is complex and intricate, they gotta map it all out in their brains. They gotta remember plot details, characters, locations, etc. It makes them smarter by challenging them to think. It also improves the state of children's animations. Kids love a good story. G4 raised the bar. Good luck airing anything like G3 again. Kids will just change the channel. So we know that a good story is vital and a bad story should not be defended with "it's just a little kids cartoon" because a bad story is a bad story. Now, to use an example that could be easy to criticize: The Equestria Girls series. It's got plot holes. But are they deal breakers? In the end, that falls within personal preference. But let's look at it and see where balance lies. In Friendship Games, why does no student seem to care that there are monsters on the track during the motorcross race? This is a pretty big plot hole and could be passed off as lazy, terrible writing. I personally think this is a case where "It's just a kid's cartoon" is a fine defense. This isn't real life. One of the best cartoons ever made: Earthworm Jim. You could ask "why does no one seem to care that there's a giant Earthworm in a supersuit running around?" Because it's not important and it'd be nitpicking to seriously hold it against the show. This sums it all up. What may be an insignificant detail to one person may be a deal breaker to another. But in the end, it being a kids cartoon DOES need to be taken into consideration. This isn't Breaking Bad or The Sopranos, shows taking place in the real world. It's a show about multicolored ponies that look more like alien worm monsters (it's a long story). Is the Equestria Series good? I personally think it's mediocre, but I like the three movies because they have what I enjoyed from FiM (if you ask me, I never found the stories of FiM to be as grand as people make them out to be. They're predictable and safe, but understandably so because this is, well, you know, a kid's show). If I wanted to, I could criticize season 1 and 2 to death if I really wanted to, but I don't because the arguments I make look pretty silly when you take into consideration that it's just a kid's show. The episodes are constructed in a manner that kid's will be able to understand, relate to, and follow with ease. Are the Equestria Girls movies as good as FiM? No. Does that make them bad? No. Can we defend the plot holes by saying "it's just a kid's movie?" In my personal opinion, yes, and seeing people get so bent out of shape over the littlest details, plot holes, and gag, well, I find that kinda cringy because, well, it's just a kid's show. Watch something else if little unimportant inconsistencies prove to be too distracting.

He could be a substitute teacher (those usually unexpectedly drop in) who gives the students a pop quiz (oh, the unpredictability and chaos)

This is the same series where the principal of an opposing school passes off giant piranha plant monsters as "cheating" and sudden wing growth as "performance enhancing regiments". I think it should be expected that this series isn't supposed to be taken so seriously to the point of questioning why Sunset wasn't expelled.

I personally wanna say Tanks for the Memories. I know it may seem harmless on the surface due to Tank simply going into hibernation, but I think it was an allegory for death and loss. Dash goes through the five stages of grief: Denial (refusing to accept Fluttershy's expert opinion), Anger Bargaining (delaying Winter in return for keeping Tank around), Depression And finally Acceptance (putting Tank to rest with one more bedtime story). Also, Winter is also a time often associated with death, so in a sense, preventing Winter could be symbolic of preventing death. You could replace the word "hibernation" in this episode and most of the events could still happen the same way. The only major difference is that the other mane 5 wouldn't be so nonchalant about Tank going away and would probably seem a bit more concerned over Dash and her well being. Now, within the context of the show, Tank isn't really dead therefore is this really that dark an episode? I personally consider it to be the darkest because this is the closest we'll ever see death being discussed in MLP (at least I think so). Sure, there were hints of AJ's parents being dead and the episodes listed in the OP do contain some dark elements. But for me, Tanks for the Memories felt real. It felt like Tank was going to die and they were only using the word "hibernation" to not make the kids at home feel bad or whatever. Dash's reactions felt out of proportion and exaggerated considering that Tank was only going to go to sleep for a while and would eventually come back. But change the idea to death and suddenly, imo, Dash's reactions seem completely rational and incredibly sad. And that is why it's my personal pick for darkest MLP episode. It's the death episode.

I personally think its because pony has been going on for a while. I mean, how many times are kids going to buy the same toy, but in different variations? You got normal twilight Equestria Girls Twilight Twilight on a motorcycle(?) and Rainbow Power Twilight Just to name a few. And then you multiply it by 6 (7 considering that Sunset is also getting many different variants) because all the other main characters also have a different variants. Sure, you have blind bag ponies which can capitalize on other, lesser known ponies, but for the most part, the toys that kids will want the most are those that are bigger, have more accessories, and do more things. And those toys, which will cost more to produce, are saved for the more popular characters, so that they don't risk not selling a bunch of toys based on a BG character that kids aren't that interested in. People have been speculating that FiM is going to end with the movie, a sentiment I feel because it wouldn't be the first time Hasbro "ended" something with a movie. The 1980s Transformer movie killed off the majority of the original cast to introduce new characters/new toys. Not saying the MLP movie is going to kill off the mane 6, but if FiM is ever going to end, I can see the movie setting up new characters to regenerate any interest that may have been lost in the past 3 years. I don't think it has much to do with marketing or hiatus, but more with the fact that it's natural for people to lose interest. Remember how amazing it felt to watch MLP for the first time. Discovering these brand new characters in a way we never thought possible for MLP? While the show is still good, it's not the same anymore. I remember watching like 2 to 3 episodes a night. It was addicting and now it isn't as much. And this is just a natural reaction. A lot of people freak out when they think they're losing interest in MLP because it doesn't capture the same feeling it did when they first saw it. Now imagine kids who are constantly being competed for by all these different toy companies. It's like a hot girl who eventually becomes numb to compliments because they've lost their meaning now that every single guy she encounters hits on her. With kids, you gotta really impress them because the moment they get bored of something, there's already another toy company there to show off their latest IP.

I imagine it'd be a little something like this for my past self upon realization of what he ultimately will become

I personally like how season 5 has tweaked the CM rules. Makes things more interesting and realistic. Getting a CM and having your whole life purpose figured out is way too froo foo fruity cakes happy land for my liking. I like to see characters like Diamond Tiara struggle with misinterpretation of their destinies. Kind of like this one movie I saw where an old man comes out as gay a couple years before he dies despite having had been married and has kids. I believe even till our last years, we can discover something new about ourselves and who we really are. In the film, he claims he had known he was gay all along, but he was living a lie. It wasn't until near his death that he understood who he should really be. Same goes for Trouble Shoes. He may have gotten his CM, but misinterpreted what it meant even though in hindsight, it was as clear as rain. That, to me, is what living is all about. So I consider season 5's treatment of cutie marks as being a retcon of the original concept. Where you can get a cutie mark and misinterpret it in an understandable way whereas before it was suggested that getting a cutie mar meant you finally understood what your special talent is. That was a nice concept, but I find the concept of misinterpreted CMs more interesting and providing more depth for discussion. It gives it a better balance of destiny and free will to shape that destiny vs before you knew no matter what you did, as long as you followed your CM, you'd be fine because at the very least, you knew you were doing what you were meant to do.

Like I said, "There is no set number of seasons necessary, but I hope the writers and Hasbro respect their viewers and fans to understand that if they are out of good ideas, to wrap it up."Everything you said, I said it as well, but with different words.

I never understood the panic for FiM ending someday. It's either seeing it end someday within the foreseeable future or watching it decay into an unwatchable mess that then ends because kids lost interest. I'd rather it reach a definitive, respectable, and high-note ending. If the show ended in season 6, 7, or after the movie, at least the majority of the seasons were good. But to see it go the way of The Simpsons where it just keeps going and going and has overstayed its welcome is not the ending FiM deserves. It deserves an ending that gives you smiles and tears. One that leaves you with many fond memories. And keeping FiM on air for as long as possible only results in a show that could potentially become a shadow of its former self and feeling sad to see such a great thing end is better than being glad to see such a terrible thing end. There's a reason why the term "jumping the shark" exists. I can't say how long the show should last. Parks and rec. was like 7 or 8 seasons long and the whole thing was beautiful, imo. There is no set number of seasons necessary, but I hope the writers and Hasbro respect their viewers and fans to understand that if they are out of good ideas, to wrap it up. Start a G5. New art style. New toys. New direction. Just something to give G4 a nice front and back cover instead of starting off with a crisp and clean cover and a bunch of muddy, messy, unreadable pages at the end.

I doubt it. The show serves as Hasbro's main way of selling the toys. They're essentially 22 minute toy commercials structured as a three act stories. On the one hand, it is possible to see it end in the same way the Transformers 80s movie "ended" the original transformers. They killed off the majority of the cast to introduce new characters and therefore new toys. While they're not going to be killing anyone in the 2017 movie, it's possible they'll be setting up new characters and therefore "end" FiM. This could make sense from marketing standpoint because how many variations of the same toys will parents buy their kids. Alicorn Twilight was one way to sell kids more Twilight, but by this point, the majority of kid fans who buy the toys because of the show, probably already have many variations. The 80s ninja turtle toy line begs to differ what with their infinite variations of the same four turtles. Out with the old and in with the new. New characters. More toys. New focuses. More screen time. More motivation to buy new toys. But, at the same time, creating new characters takes writers, time, and it could potentially not reach the same success of the original FiM. It'd be a gamble. So it also makes sense to keep FiM on life support, extending it and stretching it out to ride this success wave until toy sales and show ratings drop. Then they just burn the old and reinvent the show (G5). That's how we got G4. G3 was lacking. No one was watching. Kids were looking elsewhere for better entertainment and Hasbro had to end G3 to start G4, NOT for quality, but for views, which leads to toy sales. So FiM can easily go two ways. It could go on for way longer until it's just a zombie that has to constantly jump sharks to stay relevant with kids. Or the production team and Hasbro can work out something to end the FiM series on a high note with dignity while at the same time finding a way to keep the MLP franchise going.