BornAgainBrony

Unfortunately, "southern country" isn't exactly popular now. Particularly in America in the past couple of years, because, "reasons," the image of those kind of people has been tainted by the "white supremacist neo-nazi dreaming of a Civil-War-Rematch" stereotype for the forseeable future. The show even played with it a bit by showing the Apples as a stereotypical NRA-style survivalist group in the Starlight Glimmer alternate timeline. There's also the problem that the idea of the farm life is just so rapidly vanishing. It already was at the time of the series launch, but it's ever becoming more and more prevalent. Farming is now completely industrialized, and "mom and pop" farms will ultimately die. AJ represents a version of the American dream that simply doesn't exist anymore. I wish that weren't the case, and I don't want her destroyed by this; in a place like Equestria these problems don't exist. But I can easily understand why this is happening.

Regardless, if it's going to survive with some of the magic that it had at the peak, the fandom needs to evolve some. Learn to sustain itself without constant content pouring out of Hasbro. Something I'm going to write about one of these days, but that's a topic for another thread, or maybe an editorial piece.

Heh, funnily enough it was of all things, "The Little Mermaid" that was the film that made me realize something was changing in me during my adolescence and that I was very much male, and into girls. That she was half-fish didn't mean squat to me. So... heh... as far as Dash is concerned, I would just need to know one thing. "Does it feel good?"

Yeah... I've found it interesting how suddenly "diversity" and "exclusion" are suddenly starting to have the same meaning... as long as those being excluded are members of a historically privileged majority.

That's what I'm seeing. Just 3 and 4.

Ohhhh... yeah... duh. Alright I do remember that. I must've been mixing up a couple of the posts from further up. But yeah,I don't think it would have nearly the same impact as if there were an actual relationship that kind of went into a somewhat manipulative place. The big deal with Trenderhoof didn't involve risking breaking up any friendships (I can easily see how that COULD have happened but it wasn't really focused on), but rather, becoming someone you're not in an attempt to impress somebody you want.

I haven't actually seen that episode (though the mean six is well enough known that it's about as practical a secret as Luke Skywalker's father). But I was under the impression that Trenderhoof was more of a "Rita Skeeter" papparazi type of thing, which is a VERY different kind of moral lesson.

From what I know of the drama that ensued back with the end of season 3, I'm probably in the minority here, but I like Twilight as a Princess, and I like the "friendship knights." All that said, I don't think it's really fair to decry this as just copying Disney. I kind of found the idea of having Princess as the highest royal rank to be pretty neat, and the presence of multiple castles and even multiple kingdoms provides a bit of a "Game of Thrones" or Tolkien feel. Even if they WERE just ripping off of Disney though, singling them out for doing so is pretty unfair. ALL companies do this kind of thing, taking ideas from one another and putting a different spin on it. This is more or less a necessity in a competitive world when something becomes extremely popular. Take for example when "Jem and the Holograms" became big. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Barbie gets her own rock band. Even outside of the businesses who are focused on certain properties, this kind of thing happens. Have you noticed how insanely popular unicorns have become in apparel in the past ten years? Most of what's being sold isn't MLP, but they clearly exist because they're trying to snag a tiny piece of that same pie. I think the simple fact that they made being a Princess seem "boring and restrictive," kind of conflicts with the point you're making that they were trying to copy Disney. Disney's stereotypical Princess tale is a "rags-to-riches" story. This is irrelevant in Equestria because poverty is virtually unheard of, so there is no need for Ponies to have an obsession with becoming a Princess as a means of escaping some Hellish lifestyle. The Ponies don't seem to envy it at all really. And I really don't see how this is necessarily a bad thing, to paint being a ruler in a somewhat more realistic light. Isn't that a good lesson for children to have? That there's more to being a leader than getting your way all the time and having tons of money? Restrictive lifestyle isn't unique to rulers either. This is true for ANYONE who has responsibilities. Also, you seem to be mixing things up a little bit when you go into the lack of Princess dresses or accessories, such as a crown. So are you saying the Princess angle is bad? Or that Hasbro failed to capitalize on it? I tend to agree with the latter more, because IMO that is Hasbro's larger problem and this is one thing that Disney does extremely well. On the merchandising front, Hasbro doesn't seem to know how to think outside of the toy box. Disney does it brilliantly. Not only in knowing the diverse number of things they can sell, but they also are much better at catering with a fandom consisting of people ranging in ages from 1 to 90. Hasbro merchandising never even seemed to figure out how to sell to Bronies, instead putting all of that potential money into the hands of artists on Etsy. As for Princess merch though, it could've still easily worked. There's SO much more they could've done. That they somehow failed to do this is pretty amazing to me. Even just doing more with toy props for humans, further diversifying the kinds of play that kids could experience with Ponies. Some kids are fine just roleplaying with dolls, hopping them around the table and doing a bit of ventriloquy. Other kids want to jump into costume and roleplay it themselves, and Hasbro doesn't seem to know how to cater to that. Equestria Girls should have made that idea even more of a no-brainer and they STILL did nothing, aside from Halloween. Here's one example. With Rarity, they actually could have done one heck of a clothing line, with human dresses inspired by all the ones featured on the show. Even taking it a step further, Hasbro could have set up their own promotional booths at comic-con, or in the lobby of a Toys R Us, and invited kids to come get themselves done up. Ever heard of the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique that Disney has at their themeparks? It's a salon where kids can get a dress along with a full makeover with hair styling, makeup, and body glitter. It's pretty much a completely immersive experience. Imagine if there could have been a Ponified version of this. Granted, not as extravagant (Disney has pretty much infinite resources after all), but what a cool it would be to walk into a mall, see a cool Carousel Boutique mockup, roughly the size of a "Photo with Santa" enclosure, and hear that Rarity has expanded her company to include a traveling store of sorts so that humans can also get in on the fun. Hasbro, unfortunately, seems to lack the kind of vision that could enable them to become a much bigger entertainment and toy giant than they already are. They're stuck with a very narrow-minded focus, and aren't very good at adapting. Even just the fact that MLP became popular to boys AND adults, was all just a happy accident. With a full decade for a kids show, they were given more time than most companies could hope for, to figure out a way to add those demographics to their marketing and merchandising plans, and STILL, they did nothing. Even while the studio was loving every minute of it and jumping right in to play with the fans, Hasbro just never seemed to care. It's strange too though that they seem to have no problem with taking a more progressive approach to Transformers (and for crying out loud, they have the Star Wars toy license too), but they have mainly ignored trying to get the most out of Ponies. Heh, that's exactly what I thought. I clicked on this thread feeling my anxiety quickly rising.

I don't think so, I feel this is horridly unfair to Princess Luna. Her time on the "dark side" was strictly circumstantial. Trauma, neglect, and isolation (the result of her sister and her subjects) are what created Nightmare Moon. Luna doesn't create fear or danger. She guards foals against nightmares, makes the night time beautiful, and brings moonlight to keep away the darkness. Tirek on the other hand, is quite the monster. With the amount of magic Alicorns have, it's not ridiculous to think they can transform ponies or themselves. We've seen Twilight do it. If we were to try to connect the "rainbows of light/darkness" to G4 at all, the answer is most likely linked to the Elements of Harmony. Celestia and Luna once harnessed this for themselves, and (arguably) Celestia lost control of them when she betrayed their essence by banishing Luna. So, the two sisters have dabbled in a magic that is ultimately a "higher power" than they are. Perhaps the rainbow of light eventually manifested itself in the form of the harmony tree. The dark one? Who knows, (and maybe this has been delved into now, but I'm only partway through season 7), but the "Star Wars" geek in me would expect that there is a polar opposite of it, somewhere in the universe. Discord most likely knows. He has probably dealt with and harnessed it, which explains why he understood how the Tree of Harmony worked, even better than Celestia.

Given the timing of this thread being created, I think it's mostly about the gloom and doom surrounding con shutdowns and a show cancellation on the horizon, rather than a more general pessimistic outlook. Maybe I'm wrong but that's how I saw it. Either way though, pessimism is an inevitability if your idea of a perfect world is radically different from the world you have to live in. If that's what this is about, I don't find it ironic at all. And really it's a good thing, as long as it leads to action instead of helplessness. Nobody ever changed the world for the better without first being incited by a sense of dissatisfaction.

I got past the fear of ridicule long ago personally, but I definitely remember what it felt like when that was still a big problem. In elementary school everyone found out that I had a crush on a cartoon character and the impact of that lasted all the way through high school. These days I could care less what anyone thinks of me. But it's also very surprising to see, at this point in human civilization when things like gay rights are practically solidified, that people are still afraid to show off their love of colorful ponies, or feel like they have to hide a plush or dakimakura from their own parents. That is unbelievable to me, and also very heartbreaking. And I'm with you. I'd lose no sleep over leaving Earth for Equestria, as long as there were a few people I could bring with me (the ones who would be just as willing to go). I can only hope for a chance at a resurgence. Or just... something... incredible to happen. I sense that nothing is going to fill the void left behind by G4, unless G5 ends up being equally spectacular. And if the throne that FiM sat in is then left empty, I suspect there's going to be some serious backlash. Why I'd much prefer Hasbro thinking outside their usual box. I've said this a few times now but I feel like I can't say it enough. Do a sequel, prequel, different location in Equestria, or whatever. Rebooting now is to throw out the baby with the bathwater. In my case, while granted, drama can be very stressful, I actually still would've welcomed it. I've heard the horror stories but I know exactly where I would've stood on each of those points. I was a moderate celebrity in two different MMO's and as a result, had a responsibility to speak out on major things that came up. It was very draining and sometimes painful, but I welcomed it. I typically transformed into the stereotypical mildly-crazy-but-very-wise-old-man whenever such things came up, and I've no doubt I would've done the same here. But with all of those heated topics, like the Derpy war or Alicorn-Twilight, I know how I would have handled it. The only thing I DON'T know how to handle, is what I'm facing now. Yeah, even if I'd been here, I wouldn't know what to do, but my gut tells me I would have been at least mildly prominent in the community to where my voice would have some pull, meaning overall, I'd have more options available to "hold back the tide." Also, while drama can be negative, it's also a good "sign" because where there's drama, you also know there's passion. Well it's a bit more complex than that too because as I said, I was cut off from all of my friends, and that really has left a scar as well. Through Dash I actually learned how much of a loyalist I actually am, so knowing I actually let her do that to me, and betray people I cared about and cared about me... yeah, that hurts a lot. Also realizing that losing contact with one particular friend is ultimately the reason I had no chance at discovering Ponies at the right time, and it's like fate has dealt me the worst punishment for the ONLY time in my life where I ever consciously abandoned anybody. The closest thing to how I really used to believe, I drew from Lilo and Stitch. The "Ohana" thing... nobody gets left behind or forgotten. That was a big deal to me and clearly an early indicator of what Loyalty was about to me, but I still screwed up. Hard. I guess you could say I failed Nightmare Moon's trial with the Shadowbolts. And in a way I'm going to be paying for that mistake for the rest of my life. Play is definitely not a problem for me, though I haven't done anything with toys in quite a while. I've always found it funny how so many thumb their noses up at that kind of play though, but then have no problem doing what is essentially the same thing in video games. You have an avatar, you play dress-up with it, you go out and roleplay, and probably get into battles. Really the only big difference is it's electronic instead of something you can hold in your hand, and maybe the karate chop action comes with cool laser effects and explosions. I hope it doesn't come to a tiny cluster of 100 people. I've been a part of fandoms like that before, the dawn of the internet with Muppets and later Rainbow Brite. I hope I don't experience that kind of thing again though because with so few, it's impossible to ever have cons, and as a result, also next to impossible to turn friendships into something more real, that exists beyond the computer screen. I found that it still brings with it that same sense of being isolated or trapped, when electronic communication is all you have, being across a country is the same as being in different galaxies. No need to apologize. I'm very open to criticism as long as it doesn't come out like rage-filled bullying. I think you may have misinterpreted my story a little though. My "soul-search" has been going on since I was old enough to contemplate existentialism. FiM did more than get me over a divorce (but if you knew me well, you'd know how even that on its own is amazing). It got me over practically a lifetime of pain. Yes, I was in a very dark place after being abandoned by my ex, but this went so much further. And I can't just brush aside the near infinite energy as "suddenly having purpose." I've had purpose before. My wife was my entire world, and even early on before she revealed her true colors, even that wasn't enough to get me past alcoholism. FiM on the other hand? I have full control over drinking now, without the need for intervention. That is no small thing, knowing what is said about how hard it is to combat addiction. For anything to have that kind of influence is to have nearly infinite power, and it's a power I've never felt from anything else. The only ways I know of "normal" people who get such a long-lasting energy surge from anything boil down to two things: sports fandom, and religion. I've tried being a participant of both in my life, and neither gave me the feeling that most long-term practitioners of such get out of it. This did. And please don't assume that I haven't been looking for alternatives. Indeed, the whole of my adult life, long before FiM was even a thing, has been nothing BUT trying to find an answer to this problem, and pretty much every adventure I've had can be attributed to that search. I got around in a way that few in the modern age ever have; exploring; wandering; trying to find the "thing." Maybe this is as good of a time as any to bring this up... I always related to "The Doctor" a LOT, particularly the soft-reboot incarnation of him, and most people who both know me and that show have said as such... they see me as pretty much being that guy, just without a magic time-traveling machine. Looking at "Hooves", and what the fans made him out to be, I can't help but chuckle, because it makes all too much sense to me that the Doctor would choose Equestria as a new home to settle down in. One of the things from Doctor Who that has played on my mind since my weird "awakening" this year, was a bit of monologue from the 50th anniversary movie. Even knowing that most likely, all of this will die soon, I can't shake these words from my head. Had I discovered this ten years ago it would be even more prevalent, but this describes my life at this point probably better than anything else could. "Clara sometimes asks me if I dream. 'Of course I dream,' I tell her. 'Everybody dreams.' 'But what do you dream about?' she asks. 'Same thing everybody dreams about,' I tell her. 'I dream about where I'm going.' She always laughs at that. 'But you're not going anywhere, you're just wandering about.' That's not true. Not anymore. I have a new destination. My journey is the same as yours, the same as anyone's. It's taken me so many years, so many lifetimes, but at last I know where I'm going. Where I've always been going. Home, the long way around." I certainly wouldn't have preferred a kiddie show and its ragtag fandom to be the only thing I ever found that could fill this hole in my heart, but life has a way of not giving a darn how we would want things to go. And it's not like I haven't tried to find something that keeps me going. Any deity in the universe knows how much I tried; more prayers in my adulthood have been attributed to this than any other subject. I've seen so much in this world, a lot more than you probably think I have. I literally feel like I've been through multiple lives, and I've been all over the place. I've seen lots of wondrous things and had many amazing adventures during my quest. But on that deepest level, nothing was able to impress me, touch me, give me the sense of, "This is it. You're needed here, just as much as you need to be here." I've done a lot for a lot of people in my life. I've helped many. And while I feel satisfaction from having done that, and I got appreciation (though often not), there was always somehow this feeling of "unrequited love" through all of it; where I put my heart and soul into things but really got nothing in return for my efforts. This is the ONLY time where I've felt like I DO get that ambient feedback (sometimes by putting forth almost no effort at all), and that's really kind of eerie because it feels like a freaking episode of the Twilight Zone. No concept or idealism I've found out there can hold a candle to this and yeah, that's sad, but it's also simply the reality I have to live with. Everything else feels like an empty distraction, like getting high or drunk. That was definitely part of my "alien on Earth" feeling. In my case it wasn't really a case of hating people, but not understanding why they hated me. Or not understanding why the kind of personal life I wanted was such a foreign and undesirable concept. A rekindled faith in humanity is definitely something that came out of all of this, but mostly I still feel like an outsider. I just have less of a grim view of people in general. Aaaand... yeah, about fantasizing, interesting little story adding onto what happened to me the day I saw Tirek attacking. That night I had a dream. I remember very little, which is probably a good thing, given how emotional I was for a few days after. I kind of suspect something in me isn't letting me remember all of it because otherwise I would probably be "blue pilling." I also tend to remember only the last minute or so of a dream. In this case, on that night, I was outside my house looking at the night sky. I saw the most beautiful thing and wanted to take a photo with my good camera, but either the SD card or the battery was missing. What I saw was stars glowing brilliant like in the middle of winter, a full moon, and absolutely marvelous silver lining at the edges of the random clouds. One of the clouds then suddenly began changing shape, and took the form of an Alicorn. Then I woke up. And suddenly I was over someone I'd been in love with for a whole decade, as if she'd been "erased" in an instant That is pretty incredible to me and I still sometimes can't believe that a dream could do something like that. But some kind of strange metamorphosis definitely transpired that night. I haven't felt the same since and I'm glad of it. The only thing vexing me now is... what the heck do I do with this? Why now, at the end? And I've just been reminded of another thing from entertainment that always freaked me out, a little scene from the Last Unicorn; ironic really because it actually involves a human conversing with a talking horse. A bit more in line with what you said... yes. Like the aforementioned MMO's I mentioned further up, I was there when the "lights went out." In one case I was part of a small group who was amazingly there AFTER the lights went out. With the Ponies, it will be no different. I will stand by them until the very end. They deserve at least that much. Loyalty. Loyalty will stay with the ship after all others have jumped overboard, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Sometimes I get weird feelings like you too. A few times I almost feel like I hear Dash screaming at me, pushing me forward, the way a coach would. Really she's somehow given me more than any girlfriend ever did, without even "really" being there. I can't comprehend how that's even possible, but somehow it is. " There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy." **************************************************** To all who replied, thank you for your responses. I felt a little better just being able to post my feelings and get them out, but it's a rare thing to even be able to do that and get such heartfelt answers. You may not know it, those of you who have enjoyed this for so long, but it's a very, VERY rare thing to have in this world. I'll end my post with this... a song that has meant so much to me for many years. It describes the feeling I've always had, the feeling that only crystallized into something more coherent when Ponies came into my life.

"Guerilla art" stenciling is fun. If you plan it out, you can paint something like that in less than a minute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC7GQVOvupE

I never based "beauty" on the typical definition, but a combination of a bunch of things, and she definitely fits the description. Also, that smile, that laugh. I love seeing that look on her face.

Why renew for only 2 weeks? That just seems REALLY weird.

Heh, I didn't give it much deep thought before this thread. There are people who know I have a thing for dashie and have randomly sent me a thing or two from deviantart, and... wow... having things on the chest of a pony (where it's expected on a human, relative to the head location) really does seem just... strange. Sexualized parts on a pony in general just always felt weird to me anyhow, so maybe retractable glands is how my brain just decided to interpret it. Unless there's some weird "Stork" lore to pony reproduction, but I think I remember hearing there was an "official" comment (around the time Flurryheart was born) stating that ponies deal with all of this "the usual way."

There are animals on this planet that have retractable genitals, so it's not hard to imagine udders working similar. Maybe just not big enough and they're obscured by fur, which is enough of a reason for them to not be drawn.

There was a short story turned into a film that I remember as a child, and it always shook me to the core. "All Summer in a Day." A little Ray Bradbury tale about children living on a planet where rain falls constantly, and the sun only shines once per decade (for a child, that is an eternity). One child, an immigrant from Earth, the only one who remembered what it felt like, dreams of nothing more than being in the sun again. Eventually, the sun appears, but a mean-spirited prank leaves her locked in the closet during this brief window of daylight. This is an approximation of how things are feeling right now. Without realizing it, this is something I had been looking for since the end of my literal childhood, raised on the likes of Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, and Fraggle Rock. I always attributed it to some kind of "Peter Pan Syndrome" thing and dismissed it as such; hey, it's something that I guess everybody goes through at some point, right, wanting childhood again? But there was something more fundamental that just wouldn't go away. Being into "girly" things or even just "girly" emotions was bad enough already, leading to a ridiculous amount of bullying. But as teenhood arrived, puberty brought with it a myriad of changes, and I saw everyone around me change from who they were, into whoever they thought the opposite sex wanted. I was mostly unchanged by this. It felt like a meaningless transformation, and still does. But I was apparently the only one who felt that way. Friendship was never again what it used to be like. It could be described just as acquaintance. A strange business partnership with no deeper connection. I was still much happier being around others, but it still brought with it a sense of isolation. None of it felt "real" anymore, and I felt sort of like an alien visitor who was just living on Earth incognito. I didn't feel right, and while I was doing all the other things that came with adulthood, there was this underlying search for the missing part of me... the best part of me... that was always the dominant theme of my journey, occasionally manifesting in creative works in all sorts of abstract ways. But after so much time had gone by since the last time I had experienced the thing, the true nature of it had become locked away in my subconscious. The only exception to this, was in romantic relationships. With a partner, it's acceptable to share feelings; to truly be yourself and expect to be accepted. As a result, that became the holy grail, a way of supplementing the idea (though I didn't realize this at the time), and it led to a lot of bad places, and go figure, in retrospect it wasn't even necessary. This includes my only marriage, which lasted roughly a decade. This one, classic abuser and manipulator, cut me off from all of my friends out of some weird sense of paranoia, and was probably the biggest reason that I never discovered FiM until just last year, or even if I had, I would've been so broken because of her, that I might not have been able to let it in. In the wake of divorce, one of my old friends who managed to track me down kind of tricked me into giving the show a chance. There's a million cases of this so I need not go into a lot of detail. But I was starting to have emotions again. Real ones. Not the shallow ones I'd been experiencing in most of post-childhood. It wasn't until Tirek showed up that I realized how deeply the show was impacting me. I felt genuinely afraid, sad, angry, all of it. I felt like it was my own home that was in danger, and that was when I connected it to the essence of my childhood and realized that they were one and the same. In that moment, somewhere in early 2018, I went from casual viewer to part of the herd. It blew my mind that there was a show like this out there, post 1980's, and how massive the following was, even to the point of conventions dedicated solely to it. I was completely amazed. A bigger deal than the show itself, was while reading the vast information out there, there are so many others who are drawn to the show for for so many similar reasons; which is something that was unexplored before due to the absence of the internet to help unite people. I felt burdens I had carried for so long, lifted away. I felt twenty years younger. I had energy, excitement, and ambition. And it wasn't some little thing like a rush that lasted a day. This went on for months, and I was filled with ideas and dreams and thoughts of what the future could bring. I felt like I had come home. But as I was gobbling up a lot of the famous fanworks scattered all over youtube, I was also aware of the dates. many of them from 2011-2013, and then I worried. My friends assured me everything was fine, that the fandom was secure, but there was still this feeling of concern. Then I heard about the G5 leaks, and then the Bronycon bombshell, and then another convention announced its end just weeks after. It hit hard. Real hard. I haven't felt the same since then. In one way I'm still better than I ever was, but in another, I feel worse. Even during the time I was with my wife, while she was stricken with some long-term unidentifiable illness, I remember having this strange thought a number of times that... "My time is right now, out there," though I didn't understand what. But I had felt a subtle change in what I was experiencing online, giving me this feeling that I was supposed to be living the decade to the fullest, instead of locked away, and now it all makes too much sense. But now all I keep feeling is "too late, way too late." Even going to Bronycon next year, it'll be like a funeral, not the joy and hope I've been longing for, for far too long. I hope I'm wrong, and the future, as always, remains to be seen, but how many miracles can keep happening in rapid succession? Few people more than me logically "should" have been involved from the beginning, and I even feel a twinge of guilt for not having been able to be a part of all this; especially knowing how much I would have been able to contribute. I'd still be pretty down now, with the news what's going on, but the past ten years surely would've been scores better, with a lot more happy memories, and I'd probably have a lot more years left ahead of me. If all of this comes to an end, it seems like there will be no place to go but back to the way things were. There are plenty of other fandoms, but none that have the same impact. If I was given access to a TARDIS or a pair of dimensional scissors, there are a million worlds I would love to visit and explore. But Equestria is the only place where I would want to stay. And I think that reflects just as much, how I'm feeling about the Brony fandom. I feel like I just fell in love with someone I've only dreamed of since I was five years old, and now all I can do is watch her die.

That's really kind of done already too, that's Twilight's past before Ponyville. So focused on study, no time for friends. Also, Snowfall Frost. Yeah I get that she was reading it to Starlight. This made sense, as Starlight is a LOT like Twilight used to be. I figure Twi loves that story so much because it parallels her own life in many ways. I think she sees Snowfall as a parallel to a pony she could have easily become.