Wind Chaser

I'm sure a lot of us are familiar with the "haters gonna hate" mentality, and there's nothing wrong with that. But when the same kind of ill-informed opinion is regurgitated on the scale that it is, eventually someone's got to call them out on their BS. Better Oliver doing that than nothing at all, even though he didn't do it in the best of ways.

I definitely do not approve of the tone he uses, but this was a dose of brutal honesty the fandom needed. I don't agree with his vision of the show. He's going along the Digibro route of letting his other experiences jade his perception of the show rather than judging it by by its own standards. However, I have witnessed quite a bit of change in this fandom. He is right about the fanboying tribalism and the people bitching that the analysis community is ruining people's enjoyment of the show. I'm sick and tired of the fact that people are en masse crapping on a perfectly valid hobby and method for enjoying the show, but at the same time there are people in this community giving it a bad name and pretty much baiting those criticisms, and Tommy Oliver has slowly been turning into one of them. But, to be fair, there are still plenty of rational voices that encourage this community, and blaming the fandom for this when your interpretation of the show is questionable at best is not the right way to go about it. He legitimately likes the show less than he used to, and that's fine. But his reasons for giving up on the fandom are hypocritical when all is considered. People accuse him of ruining their enjoyment of the show, and yet part of the reason why he's quitting is because he's letting these fanboy tribes ruin it for him. It's one thing to call out the fandom for something it needs to be called out on, but leaving because of it is something else entirely. I hate the fanboy tribalism and pseudo-analysis, too, but I still love and appreciate the fandom too much to give up like this. This is a time where it's better to hate the sin, but not the sinner. He should have just left it at "I don't enjoy the show that much anymore and I have other things to work on." I don't approve of what he did and how he did it, but he raises some important points worth considering.

The one thing that astounds me, as someone who has been watching cartoons for a while, is how wide this show's appeal is. Look at the many bronies today and look at how many of them don't normally watch cartoons. That really says something about this show's quality and the work of the fanbase. For the show itself, I just came for a good cartoon. At first, I felt a lot of nostalgia for the writing and art styles of Saturday morning cartoons from the 90s. I considered the show a "natural evolution" of what had been learned about the animation medium and its appeal since then. Over time, the show became grander in scale and had done more complex and subtle morals than before, constantly pushing the boundaries for what is to be expected not only from My Little Pony show, but a Western animated show in general. It shows that cross-generational appeal is still possible today and can sustain a show, despite what industry executives think. I met some of my best friends in this fandom, and gained the confidence to express myself through art, writing, and reviews for the first time. As a creative enthusiast with many ideas of my own, I have never seen a group more open and supportive than this fandom, especially on this forum. I can think of no other time in my life when I have made so much progress in my social life than learning from this fandom and this show. The success of MLP and the scale, support, and creativity of the fandom has inspired much of my art and writing style and helped to redefine what I'd love to see from cartoons and stories in general. The show and fandom have combined to serve as a great inspiration to me and I'll never forget to give credit where it's due.

I really am in the majority when I say I gravitate towards offbeat characters that have such a personality that seems to live and enjoy life their own way, acting and speaking in such a unique manner that no other character would and conveying a sense of not wavering in who and what they are. It's why I liked Pinkie Pie a lot when I first got into the show; she didn't react to things the way everypony else did. She did it her own way and it was a lot of fun to watch. It's the same with Maud, except her mellow attitude contrasts with Pinkie's hyperactivity. There is another subset of people who gravitate towards that mellow, flat delivery just as they do to Pinkie's. I enjoy both very thoroughly. It works as a plus when you can have biting sarcastic humor delivered through such a character, because of how it portrays a "normal" person's reaction to ridiculous events, and that's what she got in "Make New Friends but Keep Discord".

There is quite a bit of subtext. My personal favorite is the social commentary, which they don't do often. There are episodes like "The Cutie Map" whose morals are aimed at larger groups of society rather than just individuals, and then there are episodes like "Testing Testing 123" which are hiding deeper contextual messages (like not trying to force learning by rote methods) under relatively easy-to-grasp individual lessons (finding the right method of learning for yourself, and not letting your difference in abilities compromise your self-confidence). There are even subtleties to the way Equestria itself works that look like social commentaries, like cutie marks symbolizing the importance of self-identity in the world and the increased freedom schools there offer rather than the industrial-era warehousing mindset most school systems today use. MLP rarely does this explicitly, but I thoroughly enjoy it when the writers are getting out big messages in such a format as MLP allows.

I see what you're saying, but there's generally a rule against referencing specific fan works for legal reasons. As for popular headcanons, I'm not against it as long as it works in context. Vinyl and Octavia looks really cool, but having them front-and-center in an episode reeks of fanservice. It was a great scene, and the episode can still be really good, but it all depends on story.

The fanservice in this clip is very near maximum possible levels, and I'm pretty much one of those purists that believes that the fanworks and the canon should be kept separate as much as possible, unless it was used subtly or it would have a considerable benefit to the storyline. However, I'm pretty much on board with @Dark Qiviut. Vinyl played that really cool, and I really liked how Octavia played off of her, as opposed to the friction normally seen in most fanworks, to create a unique piece for this show. As long as the story works and it doesn't wreck the show, it's all fine.

For "Games Ponies Play", give Rainbow Dash's plotline more focus rather than on that cliche setup with the mistaken identity. After all, that's where the moral came from. With the comedic plotline in the foreground, the episode was all style and little substance. In "Equestria Games", do not make Spike look like an idiot! That problem was rampant in Season 4, and magnified so much considering the hype behind the episode. I would have been fine with it as a Spike episode had he not been relegated to thinking he can set fires with his mind and then rushing into the spotlight without so much as a second thought. Spike is a bit immature and is self-conscious on a different level than the older mane cast, but he was not such an insufferable idiot or clumsy, unlucky oaf on that level that he was in Season 4. Being at the Equestria Games, there was plenty of room for other plot elements to fill the time than Spike just being an idiot. Also, having him save the Crystal Empire a second time came off as too convenient to be believable by any stretch. No one needs another "save the world" moment to boost their self-confidence. They just need support from their friends to help find faith in themselves. Also, their friends should help the person actively become a part of something without doing everything for them (illustrated in Twilight's fire trick backfiring, no pun intended). I say this from experience. The contrived plot element distracts from this great moral and is part of why I consider the Crystal Empire bad luck for morals, in that we've had three episodes set there, all with great morals, but dubious execution. Among the many gripes I have with "Trade Ya!", the number one I have is the completely biased portrayal of Twilight's decision to keep her books on nostalgic value rather than potential utility and fulfillment out of selling them to potential future students. It comes off as self-centered and even more negative when combined with the portrayal of Pinkie Pie as completely frenetic and scaring customers away. The icing on top of this is that the validity of the opposing argument is never considered. Twilight wants to give the books away -> Pinkie acts like a jerk -> Twilight is convinced she shouldn't give the books away. It comes off as an extremely desperate last-ditch effort to generate force an emotional connection to the destruction of Twilight's library in the season finale. A more fulfilling conclusion would have been for Twilight to give her books away and tell off Pinkie for scaring away her customers, while acknowledging Pinkie's points as valid. If there had been an opposing argument considered at the very least, it wouldn't have come off as bad, but this to me continues to be one of the worst scenes in the entire show, IMO.