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Heh. As much as I'd like to express how baffling it is that bronies are mewling so much about the fandom's fate, I do realize that this falls outside the scope of this thread. That's right, G4 is a deviation from Hasbro's main marketing strategy for the MLP franchise as a whole -- and you know what? There's quite a bit of potential in what they're doing here in G4 if they just study the phenomena close enough -- even if it means getting their hands dirty by looking at what might subjectively be termed the more disgusting aspects of the fanbase. I've been active in a bunch of MLP communities and even when I wasn't, I did quite a bit of lurking. Quite a few bronies appear to be total misfits who might feel more at home in a psychiatric ward. I've even heard of a few who were legit drug addicts. Heh. I'm thinking that Hasbro could take a page from animé. I've never been much of an animé fan myself but I've heard stories of how addicting the stuff is. Something any good show will do is manipulate the viewer's attention and get them to experience specific feelings at specific periods. When masterfully done, shows can leave the viewer in a state of ecstasy. Admittedly, I have no education whatsoever in film or in drama so feel free to take that with a grain of salt. But what comes after the roller coaster of feelings? Thirst. Remember when you were a kid at a theme park and you wanted to go for that ride again just to repeat the experience? That's exactly what I'm alluding to here. Some of these individuals will want a repeat of the experience so badly that they will spend many hours and dollars on the franchise and merchandise either to get their next fix or to remember how it all felt. The point of all this? Perhaps Hasbro could sell euphoria to adults who are desperately looking for even a glimmer in their otherwise pitch black lives. In this instance, the toys would serve as reminders of the emotional roller coaster the viewers experienced in the show, movies, comics, etc. If Hasbro doesn't net them, they can rest assured that some other franchise will. Perhaps more notorious for doing this than animé would be Disney. Such an endeavor is obviously not without its risks. After all, the kind of people this strategy targets are the same kind of people who would go to back alleys at night to purchase potentially dangerous substances from armed, shady and dangerous dealers -- all just for their next fix. Any fandom made up of even a small minority of such far gone individuals could sour any fandom -- now just imagine if there were more of the worst of us. It would be hell -- a quagmire of anger, sorrow, bitterness, resentment... Such people are really good at feeding off of each others and it's quite a sight to behold. They will worship or damn the content of the franchise for succeeding or failing to give them their fix and that isn't surprising given that withdrawal is quite a nasty bitch. The real cesspool, however, is in general topics. What do these people have outside of the show? A never-ending sea of darkness without any horizons, that's what. It's an environment where individuals who are yet to be corrupted either see the writing on the wall and leave or they will eventually be assilimated. Assimilation can be quick or it can be slow depending on the individual. Is this really the kind of people Hasbro wants in their stores? Would it tarnish their brand? Perhaps they could make certain toys available only online to keep the forsaken adults separated from the children -- as they better do. Could this move hurt Hasbro's reputation? Perhaps they could branch out and create a separate company that sells content and toys to this adult audience. No, such a show wouldn't need to be rated R. That's silly. PG would suffice or PG-13 if they're feeling lucky. LOL You know, I would certainly consider the latter. There are astronomical sums of money to be made from exploiting the thirst of those who suffer most. It's an extremely competitive market, though.

LOL you might want to add a disclaimer to that post.

Goodness gracious, did that really hit a nerve? You must be new here, kid. Your profile does suggest as much. You see, this month will mark the 9th year of me being in this fandom and you know what, you really should be not one bit surprised that I've said what I've said. Eight years is a long time. A very long time and so many things happened in those eight years, so much that I've experienced. I used to think just like you when I was dumb and naive but the fandom itself eventually beat that out of me. You can rest assured that the beating went on for years and years until I finally got the memo: bronies are just people. That's all they are, all that they've ever been and all that they'll ever be. IMO I'm finding the broader furry fandom to be more welcoming. That that how you will. Not to say there aren't a few gems in this mound of sludge but just like in life -- in real life -- you need to keep your wits about you. Trust is often regarded as something sacred but there are plenty of people who will think nothing of abusing your trust -- especially if they look to you as disposable and even better if they have the social capital and the ruthless cunning to turn the community against you should you dare call them out for their BS. I could look back on how I've gotten screwed again and again in the fandom and just laugh. The only reason I had to go through all that was because I was too stupid and too inexperienced to know any better. Painful as it may have been, I'm thankful for the disillusionment because now I can rebuild myself into something that's more adapted and less based on wishful thinking like before. Look to me and see your future self. Trust me, I would not have liked what I would have seen either. In all my experience, one thing has been made unequivocally clear: those bronies who pride themselves on following the friendship lessons are rotten hypocrites right into their very cores. The whole "magic of friendship" shtick never turns out to be anything more than a façade. Put their "magic of friendship" to the test with even a little bit of heat and pressure and you'll see what's really behind the mask. Keeping appearances is easy in the absence of any heat. Of course, I'm under no illusion that you'll heed any of my words. I just think it's too bad I won't get to see you get screwed and suffer so much confusion like I did.

The tattered remnants of my optimism would like to live in the future in the belief that everything there is just wonderful but it probably won't be. The more morbid part of me would do the same but to see just how far humanity falls. Either way, it would be interesting to travel to the 22nd century and read up on 21st century history. I've no doubt that history-themed movies would be quite interesting to see either way. Who knows how recognizable Earth would even be by then.

If I had a dollar every time someone panicked about the fandom "dying," I could probably buy myself a nice car. Definitely a nice car with a snazzy interior. But I'm getting ahead of myself. For real, though, I've been in on this fandom since, what, 2011? Yeah, definitely 2011. The fandom has been dying for quite a long time now, let me tell you Besides, if the fandom "dying" seems like some life-ending tragedy then I suggest you find something to live for that's actually meaningful, mm'kay? Then again, it does make sense that one would be deeply concerned about ponies coming to an end if someone has their life built around that. Not a very smart idea now, is it?

Depending on my mindset, I can be on either extreme. Context matters a lot. Most of the time, though, I'd rather be a stone-cold, unrepentant bastard than be played and manipulated.

5/10 -- Eh. Not what I'm looking for

If I have any fame whatsoever, it would likely be infamy. With that in mind,

The Confederate Flag is as unrelated to slavery as the much as the hammer and sickle are unrelated to communism. To deny that the Confederate flag stands for slavery based on race is to deny its actual heritage. People born today don't get to choose which part of their history they get to embrace and ignore, so just own it already. Besides, cherry-picking one's history just so one could feel a sense of pride for some heritage they had no hand is shaping is just utterly pathetic. Just what kind of person is so utterly devoid of any self-worth that they seek to define their self-worth by the work, struggle and sacrifice of their fellow countrymen -- alive or dead? The more I elaborate, the cringier it sounds LOL Just how low does an individual have to sink that they have can only define their self-worth by some heritage they themselves didn't do any work to earn? Though the more generous possibility is that people aren't really proud in the actual definition of the word but just attached to this heritage -- much like how children are attached to their parents, siblings, etc. Maybe these people are just confusing attachment with pride. That makes so much more sense. I don't see anything wrong with being attached to one's history, culture, etc. Cherry-picking one's history just to guard that attachment, though? Still pathetic -- just not as much as taking pride in it but still pathetic. Was the banning of the flag excessive? Yeah. What I think should have happened is that everyone be honest and clear on what the Confederacy was and that it was an attempt at keeping slavery in the south. Having a clear understanding of what's behind the flag can help to create proper guidelines for its use so as to avoid any misunderstandings.

This episode convinced me that Queen Chrysalis' ultimate weakness is screen time. And you know what? Forget Chryssy. I think evil Twilight would make a better villain.

Pop Sickle. Cold cuffs. Stratachromia. Juan-Carlos Espinoza-Cortéz. Colt #2. Microwave.

8/10 - That was pretty entertaining. Prepare yourself to be taken to a different world (Intro ends at 1:24)

Pff no. Well, I've mostly communicated online via text so maybe that skews my frame of reference. There's just something about about the people actually being there that even full-blown video chat can't really capture. Can't get more HD and high fidelity than real life, can you?

Give them the loudest belch they've heard in their entire life.

"You can be a general or you can be dinner. I don't really care which... But do try to show a little initiative, won't you?" - Mad King Ashnard, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance He meant dinner for his mount, by the way. "Mad King" Gangrene Gangrel in FE: Awakening makes a total mockery of the title "Mad King."

May as well include these tweets from Jim Miller.

EDIT: Would you look at that? I messed up the BBCode and now my entire post is spoilered. Since that "switch" function is no longer here, I can't dig into the BBCode myself and fix this problem. Sorry, but I'm not going to rewrite my entire post just to fix this. --- This episode did some neat things but detracting from that was the very formulaic "Oh woe is Rainbow" motif. Now for this