--Thunder Bolt--

None of this is peculiar to the MLP fandom. There are fan-made live-action movies for Star Wars and Star Trek. People can get teams together and create full-length original movies like Iron Sky funded by Kickstarter. I think this is freaking awesome. Even though most of the resulting creative output isn't awesome, the fact that ordinary people can produce and distribute it without the blessing of one of a handful of Hollywood studios or one of three (count 'em, three) television networks like in the "Good Old Days," is fantastic, IMO. It means that a much greater portion of the creative potential of the human species is being unleashed. And this is a bad thing, how? To me this sounds like somebody saying, "I went into the book store the other day, and I'm tellin' ya, there were way too many different books in there, man! And so many of them are well-written! It was better back when there was just the Bible, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and maybe Thoreau and Joyce for the coffeehouse hipsters." I've read that only about a thousand people actually participated in the Renaissance, as in creating the art, literature, architecture and music that defines it. Even if that's understating by an order of magnitude, I think it's pretty amazing that our little fandom for a cartoon probably has more participating creatives involved. I agree, I wouldn't want this to happen. However, I think this problem would likely be an even greater danger if our only outlet for expressing our enjoyment of the show was as passive consumers buying merchandise. In that scenario, Hasbro and DHX would be under more pressure to offer fan service via focus groups and marketing research in order to keep us buying. As it is, fans who want there to be something like Double Rainboom or Snowdrop or Fallout: Equestria can go off and make and/or enjoy them on their own, and the main show doesn't have to compromise itself to appeal to those audiences. Consider the reverse case, the Star Wars franchise. Here we have a set of movies designed to appeal to roughly the brony demographic (mostly adolescent and adult males), but with an important and lucrative secondary demographic: the kids who buy most of the toys. Lucas "twisted around to please" that secondary demographic, and as a result we got Ewoks, Child!Vader, and Jar-Jar Binks. Note that this took place in the complete absence of a creative community of child Star Wars fans making fan-films about 8-year-old Jedi kids saving the Galaxy by accident and coincidence accompanied by ridiculously clownish sidekicks. Maybe I'm too new to the community to have encountered the "fandom elitism" you're talking about. However, it seems to me that an "elite" of lots of fans making music, animations, fanfics, art, etc. is actually less elitist than the prior situation of "only professionals working for the company can do any of this stuff and present it to the world." The opposite of "elitism" is "democratization," the spreading of participatory empowerment toward more and more people. But isn't that what you're worrying about here? So, I'm not quite following the continuity of your argument. This is a flaw in society, particularly the haters you're talking about. Why is it such a shock that adult men would like a show targeted toward little girls? Nobody gets their knickers in a knot over adult female Transformers fans, or female Harry Potter fans who ship Harry and Draco in fanfics. Why? Because male entertainment is good for everybody, you see. Men are the default humans. Women are the sexually-desirable sorta-people that serve as prizes to be won by the real people, i.e., "the hero gets the girl." This means that women should be accustomed to a universe of shows centered on male characters, with maybe one "chick" among the protagonists as a love interest or token (Harry Potter, The Avengers, Inception, etc., etc..). We don't just assume that every woman who likes Thor only does so 'cause she thinks he's hot (even if many of them do); good [male-defaulted] entertainment is good entertainment. On the other hand, if a show is made for females, then it has cooties. The only reason a Real Mantm would watch a show like that ("a date movie" or "chick flick") is to get laid. Because, obviously no show that isn't made for men could ever be good enough for men. If a man actually enjoys a show that's not male-defaulted, clearly there's something wrong with him and he shouldn't be allowed in the treehouse. And if the show is meant for little girls...*gasp!* *pearlcluch* *faint* The male FiM demographic is shocking because, under the assumptions of "baseline misogyny," they're slumming. Like billionaires who sneak into McDonalds when they could be having pheasant under glass at a fine restaurant. And since the only reason men would stoop to watching "a show for girls" is to get laid...then they're either gays (i.e., infested with too many girl-cooties) or pedophiles. Because we all know that little girls are idiots who would gobble up any saccharine glurge that's shoveled at them, as long as it's got enough ruffles, rainbows, and magic spaklies, amirite d00dz? That's the rule that the FiM creative team decided to break, with extreme prejudice. They created a show--for little girls, yes--but they treated that audience with enough respect to make a show for them that was actually good, with excellent animation and appealing story lines and likeable characters with depth and growth, and a living world for them to inhabit. They treat girls as real people. As a result, other sorts of real people, including men, also enjoy the show. This, to my mind, is one of the truly great things about FiM, and the brony/pegasister community. The "crap to good stuff ratio" isn't just a problem for our community. It's pretty much an issue for all creative endeavor. Sturgeon's Law: I'm sure there's lots of MLP fan-crap out there, but I'm quite impressed by the level of craft being produced for free by the brony community. That lullaby Celestia sings for Luna (I don't remember the title, but the feels, man!)? Fighting is Magic? Heck, Motion Spark (a member on this Forum) has an animated OC avatar and signature that couldn't have been done by one person for such a casual purpose "when I was your age." Yeah, he ought to get off my lawn. But still, it's pretty cool. I haven't read any grimdark/horror FiM fanfics because FiM is where I go for a breather from the whole "gritty," grimdark trend of pretty much everything else. So, I can't judge that segment of the creative output. I do find it very mildly annoying when I see somebrony saying, "Oh, I hate this horrible crapsack world! If only I could live in Equestria, where the ponies are so much better than we awful humans are!," but then I look at their avatar or signature and see a pony OC with a combat knife in its mouth and a vulcan cannon mounted on its back, with a soupcon of grit, grime, and dried bloodstains to complete the artistic effect. But--whatever floats their boat. I would much rather they have the opportunity to express themselves, and me the opportunity to not read their fanfic or join their RP of Doompocalypse Equestria, than for them not to have the opportunity to express themselves and be appreciated by an audience. As for the pornography? Rule 34 ("If it exists, there's porn of it") doesn't just affect FiM. Besides, Bugs Bunny cross-dressed and shipped himself with his male adversaries in the show canon. The only reason that isn't causing mass headsplosions is because Loony Toons became a "venerated classic" before there was such a thing as the internet. If "It was so much better in the early days" isn't Somebody's Rule or Law, it ought to be. Here's Greta Christina explaining why "the amazingness of atheists" is doomed. Christians could say almost the exact same things she does, just substitute "Christian" and "believer" for "atheist" and "queer" (she compares the "coming out" of the New Atheist movement with the emergence of the openly gay community), and talk about the 1st Century instead of the 21st. For Christians, "the early days" were illuminated by people like Paul, Peter, James, and John, and all those people who fearlessly went into the Colosseum to face lions. The local church pot-luck pales in comparison. Or talk to the fans of a band who were there when they were playing in bars and small dance clubs about how much better it was then, before the band (or even a whole genre, like punk) became a huge hit. I know it's probably the opposite of the intent of many of the posters, but this thread actually gives me a boost of hope for the future, and makes me more proud to be a brony, not less.

I think the odds are fairly good that it's coincidence. Keep in mind that FiM has a fairly small stable of voice actors. They overlap in the Mane 6 (one VA doing more than one character), so it's not much of a surprise that a one-off character (Flash Sentry) might be the same voice as a rarely-recurring one (Prince Blueblood). Especially since most (all?) of their VA's are women, and not all of them are necessarily going to be good at doing male voices. So, the available "pool" to select VA's for male characters from on FiM is very small, so the likelyhood of any given pair of male characters being voiced by the same person is fairly high.

@@Concord, I would say go for it, follow your creative inspiration. I don't understand why anyone would hate an alicorn ponysona. It seems to me that a ponysona is wish-fulfillment, by definition. "I wish I was a pony [or dragon, griffin, etc.] in Equestria, and this is what s/he looks like." AFAICT the only reason I can see for complaint is if someone thinks, 'I love gardening and hiking in the forest, so behold, my beautiful Earth Ponysona, Faerie Leaf!1 Oh, what's this? An Alicorn ponysona? What, does somebody think they're better than me?!' I would say, no, their Equestrian wish-fulfillment just comes in a different shape. Why compare? I've seen a lot of anime-girl avatars here and have yet to encounter anyone saying, "AY! NO HUMANS IN EQUESTRIA! FAUST HATH SPOKEN!" So why not an AlicAvatar? At least, it wouldn't bother me--but then, maybe I am not yet enough of a brony to understand the true meaning of a ponysona to the community. Disclosure: I don't have one myself, yet. You can also cheat: if your avatar is a close-up of the head, "What a lovely unicorn!" Flying, but with the forelock/mane just happening to flow in such a way as to conceal the horn: "Nice pegasus!" This gets a bit harder if your Alicorn has the Astral Mane and Tail2 and the long, pointed horn like Celestia and Luna. Even so, a close-up of the face that doesn't show the whole horn or enough of the mane to reveal its Astral nature would probably let you "be" your Alicorn ponysona without getting other Members' knickers in a knot. RP's and Fanfics: This is a bigger problem because your Alicorn ponysona/character is in direct interaction with other, ordinary ponies. If s/he is a full-on divine Alicorn like Celestia and Luna, then s/he will very likely be OP for the game, hence the "No Alicorns" rule in most RP's. Possible solution: start an RP about Alicorns, with challenges set to their power level. Remember Eleazar's First Rule of Fanfiction: I have to admit, this thread has me thinking, 'Hmmm, interesting challenge. How could I go about making a compelling Alicorn OC?' I already have a few ideas... NOTES: 1. Any resemblance to any actual OC or ponysona named "Faerie Leaf" is unintentional and entirely coincidental. I just pulled the name from my posterior without any thoughts about or intent to reference, any actual OC or ponysona or Forum member. 2. I don't know if there's a proper term for the kind of mane/tail that Luna and Celestia have, that other Alicorns like Twilight and Cadence don't.

[scientist voice] Unlike those of terrestrial equines, the hooves of most members of the three Equus equstrialis sapiens subspecies are fully covered by dermis and coat, producing what some refer to as the 'marshmallow' appearance of their appendages. The fine hairs of their hoof-coat are able to generate powerful Van der Waals forces, in similar fashion to the fibers of a gecko's feet. Through means we do not yet fully understand, the 'ponies' of Equestria are able to achieve remarkable levels of fine motor control by selectively amplifying and dampening these forces in differential patterns across the surface of the hoof. [/scientist voice] Or... "In the end, there can be only one!" "Indeed. Draw your sword!" *Both attempt to draw, fumble, drop their blades* "...You know what? Screw it. I mean, as long as we don't go around trying to chop each other's heads off, we can all just go on being immortal, accumulating vast fortunes and all the rest, right? Life is good." ... ... ... "You've got a point there. Love and tolerate!" "Love and tolerate. See you around." /)*(\