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Good work. Get the facts out there.

You're young, so I'll be nice.

If anything, listen to your father. He seems to be the most clear-headed here. I'll go further than that and say he'd make a good role model for you. I think you should consider talking to him more and try to understand what he has learned so far in his life. Just keep in mind that he isn't perfect -- only that he has more life experience than you. Certainly, he would have much to teach you.

I think you would do well to strive towards becoming independent. Your priorities seem to be misplaced as it seems you place MLP ahead of becoming independent. By independence I mean generally being able to take care of yourself. This can mean having your own income, your own home, etc. Ultimately, Starlight isn't going to bring food to your table or a roof over your head or pay rent or electricity or heating. Another thing about work that people don't seem to tell anyone these days is that you get more than just money. Perhaps more importantly is learning work ethics. The younger you are when you learn this, the better off you'll be later on.

Right now, it does't seem like you're asking the hard questions about what you want to do in your life. That's not something you want to be procrastinating on. Right now, it seems like ponies and Starlight are the center of your life. This might feel good now but it won't carry you through life. I don't think you intend on growing old with MLP and Starlight plushies and other merchandise. I suggest you start thinking hard about what kind of a life you can lead where you'll be happy. It might help to talk to your father about it. Again: do not procrastinate on this. You might be 17 now but you'll be 20 before you know it, then it becomes 25 and then 30. You do not want to be lost, confused and alone at that age. It only gets worse as you get older. That is why I want you to understand that the time to act is now. Get out there, make some mistakes, learn from them, repeat. It might be embarrassing to fail at things now but people are more forgiving when that person is 17 than when that person is 30. 

Something else I should throw in here -- since you have Asperger's Syndrome, to my understanding, it means you have difficulties understanding social signals. Something I can tell you here is that you should pay attention to how people express themselves when they interact with you or other people. Listen to the tone of their voice, pay attention to the emotions on their face or any other movements they make as they interact. The thing is, social interaction is a life skill and will prove to be important. Asperger's Syndrome just means you'll have to figure out how you'll learn that skill.

I'm feeling bold so tell you what, copy this post, show it to your father and ask him what he thinks.

By the way, if you need some help with English words, you can use Wiktionary or the Polish version Wikisłownik. As a non native English speaker myself, it has helped me tremendously.

41 minutes ago, Wolfhog said:

Perhaps there are a lot of people acting this way, but I see no sense in not attempting to encourage discussion regardless. If there's a possibility of getting people to think, it's worth the effort. The idea that the world is beyond saving or changing in any way... I think that complacency can contribute to the problem, not the solution.

Then you would do well to seclude yourself into quiet niches such as this, picking out just the tiniest minority of people who can be bothered to think things through.

36 minutes ago, ShadOBabe said:

Well isn't that disgusting, elitist and misanthropic? 

But no less true 

Come, my dear, surely you've been paying attention to the nature of political discourse as of late. The disease hasn't spared this little community either -- it's the reason why the Debate Pit has earned its infamy. More and more, politics brings out the worst in us. In all my years looking over political discussion, I always find this common thread: political factions that are diametrically opposed to one another in ideology hate each other and I've only seen this get worse. Whether it's conservatives vs liberals, communists vs fascists, etc. These opposing factions want nothing more than to put their opponents down at any and all costs. A game is all it is anymore.

This is something you'll eventually open up your eyes to. Question is, how will you cope when you can ignore it no longer?

Funny. You want people to be thinking in a nuanced fashion and consider a wider range of possibilities? People are more often than not intellectually lazy ideologues who want nothing more than praise from their in-group authority figures or to advance their own position within said in-group. Nuanced thinking is simply asking too much of people. I'm only expecting to see the West -- particularly the USA -- become ever-more divided as time goes on. I'm rather excited about these divisions coming to a head down the line and I'm hoping it'll be violent. They've had their chance to stop and reflect on what is going on but at every turn, they choose to continue the division. They'll get exactly what they deserve.

To anyone wondering.

2 hours ago, BronyNumber42licious said:

@Querch I guess I'm not supposed to be honest and instead just repeat the standard lines.

Spare us your martyr complex. All it ever tells anyone is just how how far you head is up your hind quarters. This would be self-evident to you if you had even the slightest ability for self-awareness or reflection. Honesty is no pass for having terrible ideas and even less of an excuse for keeping them. Maybe if you were honest with yourself maybe you'd stop and think about whether or not we might have a point -- that maybe the feedback you get could have something useful in it.

@BronyNumber42licious

If your appearance is any bit as cringy as your character has shown itself to be, I really cannot blame her for her lack of interest in you. Doesn't surprise me either that you're over 40 and had no luck -- though it's very clear by now that bad luck had nothing to do with it.

@Justin_Case001

Life's harsh. You know it, I know it. If you have even one scientific bone in your body, you'd understand by now that life is an agonizing struggle to survive with there being an infinite amount of events and objects that will either kill you or make the case that the phrase "Hell on Earth" is redundant. What it comes down to is Evolution. Whether we speak of animals that defy our notions of what's possible in regards to speed, strength, durability, determination or intelligence and sophistication, they all evolved that way out of sheer necessity. The same logic applies to extremophiles that manage to live in environments that by our imagination are down-right alien.

Now what do all these evolved species have in common? They adapted to their environment instead of the other way around. Hearing you complain about all of this, it sounds to me like you wish for the world to adapt itself to your perceptions. If that's your modus operandi in life, you are already doomed. Take a hint from all the species that are still with us on this planet: Adapt!

Does this mean you have to discard who you are? Not really. Life exists in many forms, shapes, sizes and behaviors. What this means is that you could still mold yourself into a well-adapted person that is still quintessentially you. Make no mistake: this takes relentless effort and focus but seeing as you're 30 already, you're going to want to put in as much time as you can. It really is like hacking into your own being and programming yourself into something that functions better in this life. Oh and do avoid going into defeatist rabbit holes like BN42 up there. It may give your suffering a sense of validation but it guarantees your suffering just as well. Believe that you can adapt, be humble in admitting you do not know where this will lead you and be fearless as to move ahead with it regardless. Understand that this is a learning curve and it's going to be absolutely frustrating at first -- that's just normal. Where you go from there is up to you. I can't know what a well-adapted you is like. Heck, you might not even like what you see yourself becoming but at some point, you know you can't do anything but say "fuck it, what else am I to do?" Another thing: you're more likely to find interesting clues in places you least want to look at. This could include things like meditation or just anything you might think is "beneath" you.

Hopefully this is helpful for getting you started. Where you go next is entirely up to you. Good luck and may your wounding struggles lead you to a better and more meaningful place. You're not expected to get there in one piece.

1 hour ago, BronyNumber42 said:

This doesn't change the fact that you are still stealing from one person to pay for another.

I'm actually happy to contribute to the system.

1 hour ago, BronyNumber42 said:

And people will not agree on what is necessary.

And in a democracy, it's the votes that settle that dispute. Not sure if you've heard of such a concept.

1 hour ago, BronyNumber42 said:

People who want a cosmetic surgery will claim that it affects their life, which can affect their ability to work, which affects the tax base for "society." Thus, such surgeries will be justified.

Only in fringe cases that are too quantitatively significant to be of much if any concern. Anyone here who wants plastic surgery has to pay up and nobody here is raising a tizzy about it. Just because it could be justified on paper doesn't mean that in practice people will bother pushing politically for something so frivolous -- and we don't.

1 hour ago, BronyNumber42 said:

This misses my entire point. I'm not surprised that you missed the point. The point was not to argue whether it could or does seem to work by some circumstance. The point was to prove, logically, that such a system is logically inconsistent.

If there's any point you're proving, it's that you "logic" translates very poorly into practice. Sorry I didn't just spell it out for you. I really should have done that.

1 hour ago, BronyNumber42 said:

You might be lucky that there are enough doctors who are willing to do the job for pay. But that is not a logical consequence of the system.

What's so strange about doctors doing job for pay? There just isn't anything magical about this. Another thing you're forgetting is that a more (nuance!) universal healthcare system still exist within a larger system: capitalism -- as is the case in modernized nations. People both foreign and domestic go where the money is. If there's an imbalance in supply and demand, that gets corrected unless we're dealing with a centrally planned economy like in Cuba or Venezuela. Seriously, why are you ignoring economics?

1 hour ago, BronyNumber42 said:

It is entirely possible that a situation could occur where there is no doctor. With increasing costs, why can't the government force doctors to work for practically nothing in order to serve the "right" of health care? 

If we don't have any doctors that can give a specific medical treatment that is important, we send our patients abroad. In our case, that's usually Colombia for cardio-vascular procedures among others. There are times when we get foreign patients sent our way. It's called Medical Tourism.

1 hour ago, BronyNumber42 said:

The government giveth, and the government taketh away. You got my point but don't even realize it. That is what I am saying! The government decides who gets what, who lives, and who dies. And it is all justified by some bureaucrat created prioritizing system. You are nothing more than a cog in the government machine.

Apparently you live in a dictatorship instead of a democracy. Sucks to be you.

1 hour ago, BronyNumber42 said:

I entirely expect that people will fail to see the forest for the trees. My logic is unassailable, apparently.

1 hour ago, BronyNumber42 said:

It does not matter that I logically prove that A implies B implies C, because people will just say, "yeah, well, let's just hope B never happens."

You're not even considering "how much of B happens." Is your thinking that binary? It's like with the cosmetic procedures example: in practice, not enough people care about cosmetic procedures for it to get justified in parliament. Sure, some might complain about it but what politician is going to raise a platform about universal cosmetic surgery? They'd get more laughs than votes! Oh, wait, I forgot that democracy is outside of the scope of this nonsense exercise. My mistake.

Great wall of text! o_o

I'm just going to confine this to health care for now.

How is health care defined?
Let's look it up. Efforts made to maintain or restore physical, mental, or emotional well-being especially by trained and licensed professionals —usually hyphenated when used attributively.

Must minor injuries be treated, or only major conditions?
That's needlessly black-and-white, don't you think? The clearest line is drawn to exclude cosmetic procedures that don't have anything to do with one's actual health. After that what you want to do is prioritize based on need or urgency (whichever word you prefer) and that's a very tricky thing to do. You obviously want the person with a life-threatening electrical burn to receive quick treatment over someone with a bump on their head. Think of it as a hierarchy of urgency.

What happens if there is one person who is a doctor? If every person is entitled to health care, then this doctor must provide that care. This doctor might be busy 24 hours a day. This might seem like a far-fetched situation, but logic must apply in every case.
Well, you partially answered your own question later on...

Perhaps we encourage people to become doctors by paying them more. This means higher taxes. But following logic, what happens if we still don’t have enough doctors? What happens if a doctor has been over worked and he decides he wants to take a day off? 

You got the part of higher wages right but you completely missed the mark assuming that doctors can't be imported. Immigration of skilled labor is a welcome thing. We actually have that problem here as well and what ends up happening is that we see an increasing share of our doctors turning out to be immigrants. That said...

In order to satisfy our assumption, it would be logically valid to force the doctor, at gun point if need be, to help someone. Explain to me how this would not be permissible? Logic demands that it be so.

Seriously, this is just comical
I'll repeat myself for good measure. What ends up happening in practice is that when you have a shortage of doctors, more happens than just salaries going up. Doctors from abroad would see a lucrative opportunity and immigrate, getting that piece of the pie and filling the void. Sure, it's no step-function but it happens quickly enough for people to endure the shortage as correction is taking place. Immigration of skilled labor is a welcome thing. What's more, as the local population is seeing how lucrative a job doctors have, people are going to want those jobs. Sure, most adults might not be able to get educated into becoming a doctor but you can bet parents are going to want their children to consider such a lucrative career!

If your base principle says that you are entitled to X, then there must be a way for X to be provided. You cannot simply say, “A tax will go to pay the medical bills.” This assumes 1) that enough taxes will be available, and 2) enough doctors will exist. What happens if 1 or 2 are false?
Seeings as I already addressed 2), I'll just confine my answer to 1).
Remember what I mentioned earlier about prioritizing based on need and urgency? When funds are coming short, that's usually where the policy gets affected if tax revenues can't keep up and assuming that reallocation of tax funds is off the table. Funding for less urgent care such as pain killers get their funding slashed (that happened here), generic pharmaceuticals are given preference and "big name" pharmaceutical brands lose coverage (also happened here) and the elderly might also get their healthcare coverage removed from them (also happened here).

Seriously, there are more options available for solving such problems without turning to the Gulag. Sheesh.

No. I think you're overthinking it and believe I should let you know.

Thinking that everyone hates you often ends up being a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you believe that you are beyond redemption, you start to see everyone as enemies and act as if you have nothing left to lose.

Not to mention that once you're in this mindset, confirmation bias becomes incredibly powerful. Every inconspicuous little act of disappointment becomes proof that you are hated while the person itself bears no ill will on your person. Not many people hold grudges at all (in fact, that's actually considered strange) let alone over tiny little things.

A government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.

People, you say? That's crazy talk, you don't make a government for commodities.

Agreed. Violence enacted for political motivation is terrorism; plain and simple. And yes, the extremism has to die down. Coming from a place with negligible ideological division (it's all partisan politics over here), the contrast cannot be more clear.

I really don't see what the big deal is. Going around asking people what a "fandom" is and what makes a "fan" and you'll get different answers that may or may not contradict each other to some extent. It's one of those words or terms where consensus is missing.

Welcome back. Sounds like I missed a lot.

More identity politics. Whoop-dee-doo.

Much of my pessimism is reserved for politics and the common folk but when it comes to technological progress, that's where I am optimistic -- essentially topics that will bore you to death. I am in favor of phasing out fossil fuel to have it replaced with an arsenal of hydro-electricity, biomass, nuclear, geothermal, wave, wind and solar with energy storage to cover for the intermittency issues. The good news is that there is an increasingly attractive business case for wind, solar and storage and because of that, the opinions of the ignorant masses are largely (but not completely -- but if only) irrelevant. Most people cannot be bothered to think about things too much, especially when it's something far removed from their vision. Instead they would prefer bite-sized pieces of info -- regardless of their actual validity -- that fit snugly into their web of "facts". Though I suppose if I can just wave banknotes in front of people's faces to get them to understand why something is in their best interest or use national security as a talking point then I suppose that could be sufficient as it bypasses the issue climate change -- you know, that piece of science people reject because some pundit said so.

That part about drawing parallels between season 3 and season 6 was pretty darn hilarious!

For the constant party cannon jokes, I figured the writers intended to hammer in the fact that Pinkie Pie loves her party canon to make sure we understand the weight of her sacrifice when she does the trade. Forced as they may have been, they served their purpose. That would be my take on it anyway.

To be fair, I'm not sure how much they could've done to connect Starlight back to her previous self, after that finale, but I do think they rightly decided not to go out of their way to much to try it.

 

It's strange how often Spike ends up the redeeming factor of episodes that were partially seen as disappointments, but I also like the portrayal of him here much better than most of what he got last season.

 

Thankfully, the team has an easy out with Flurry Heart, so they'd probably have to really go out of her way to make her a serious detriment. Basically though, if you know the story of Scrappy Doo, you know the kind of thing people are afraid of here. 

Yeah. Probably for the best.

And I really hope they continue to portray Spike in this manner more often in this season.

Scrappy Doo...

This is where I hope the whole Flurry Heart thing is a one-time event. Her magic fluctuations getting under control hints at this. The whole alicorn birth tells us that this will likely be revisited to expand upon the show's lore but whether or not she will have any more involvement in that is anyone's guess. Although with Sunburst being the Crystaller -- whatever that really entails... If the point of this episode was about showing the importance of the Crystal Heart then Flurry Heart really did show us why it's so important by destroying it and force everyone to fix it. The episode also hints that Starlight and Sunburst will be relevant in this season. Why exactly remains unanswered at this point.

It was kinda like Twilight suddenly not flying so well in the S4 premiere with Starlight's character. The S5 finale depicted her as "she lived happily ever after" to suddenly being repressed and not confident in herself because of her misdeeds. It raises more questions than it answers between S5 and S6 Starlight.

Loved the dynamic between Starlight and Spike. There was much better chemistry between those two than between Starlight and Sunburst. Speaking of Spike, it's good not to see him as the #1 assistant again as opposed to just being the buttmonkey.

The reason I'm not all that phased by Flurry Heart is how unfamiliar I am with the trope she represents so much. Given how it's all taken care of, it'll hopefully just be a one-time thing.

What really made the premiere for me was the resolution.

Starlight's mane looks like she couldn't decide between Rarity and Trixie's mane style.

That and I still can't seem to get over the fact that the season premiere's less than a week away.

You've done your part.

I'm just going to keep myself guessing why Sunburst is there. Starlight's going to be there as well. Will be looking forward to how that plays out.

Even the characters seem to be treating the whole Alicorn birth thing as something that wasn't supposed to happen for some reason. Curious to see what explanation they give there.

And yeah, March 26th is the third next saturday as of this post. The inter-season wait turned out to be shorter than anyone dared to hope. The season finale was in late November, right? If you had told anyone that the wait to season 6 would be only four months, how many would believe you? Heck, even you were taken by surprise at that revelation.

Anyway, being someone who tends to take things as they come, I'm not fretting too much. Right now, For me, it'll be the top episodes of season 6 that I'll be looking forward to. There's going to be hits, there's going to be misses but hopefully there's be at least one episode to knock it out of the ballpark. What will Season 6's equivalent of season 5's Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep turn out to be?

Can you imagine how one-sided a Zecora vs Princess Celestia rap battle would have been?

So, how many points did Princess Luna receive?

To date, princess Celestia hasn't gotten a single episode devoted to her. Yeah, pretty much an unfair fight.

Will be looking forward to the next part.