spoiler Fame and Misfortune...a personal analysis. (My take)

[BrilliantVenture 334]

It's been a while since I did a real review or post on this site.

Fear not my friends, in this time away from the forums, I have been a loyal brony...watching episodes, discussing them with friends/family, writing music...all that jazz. I've enjoyed the show these past 2 seasons rather immensely, and with such a "meta" episode occurring today, I felt like sharing my views on it with all of you who choose to read this.

To me, this episode was important...very important. It feels that way to me, because (and I could be wrong about this, I'll admit that) I felt it was a reflection from the cast, the writers, the dedicated staff, and directors of the show, who wished to deliver a message to this growing community of pony fans. This episode in my opinion, was a reminder, from those mentioned above to all of us, on what this brilliant show's intention originally was...virtue. Now, I realize the word virtue has become tainted in some respects over the years, what with "virtue signalling," and the like. Here however, I am going with the classical definition. When I speak of virtue, I'm talking about morality, decency, love, and respect...I'm talking meaningful values, life lessons, sharing, caring, and wholesome entertainment.

Let me give you a little back-story. I watched this show for the first time in early 2013, due to being linked to some stuff that the fandom had put out. I enjoyed some of the pony related fan-games, the memes, and most influentially, the music. Out of curiosity, I saw the first couple of episodes, (Friendship is Magic Parts 1&2) and found myself slightly underwhelmed. I remember watching it all the way through and going "meh...that was okay I guess...I see a little why people like it, but it's not for me."

The following day was a boring one. I had the day off, my wife was working, and I didn't have any real plans to do anything. I was fairly tired and sore from the previous day of work, so I decided to use the day off to relax, and spend some time online. With nothing else really to do or watch at the time, I decided to give the show another chance.

So I watched the next episode..."The Ticket Master," this time however...I began to notice a slight charm to the show, that I couldn't quite put my finger on...I just kind of felt..."happy" watching it. I then proceeded to view "Applebuck Season" and "Winter Wrap Up," "Fallweather Friends" and "Feeling Pinkie Keen" and the more and more I watched, the more I realized I had fallen in love with one certain aspect of the show...The positive message.

Something I've long felt has been lacking in television, is content with good meaningful purpose. With practically everything on the screen now, it's all about explosions, not-so-subtle agendas, edginess, negativity, and how far a tv-show can "push the envelope."  It's stale, low-brow, and in my opinion, lacking heavily in creativity. That's what made this show so refreshing to me. It had real messages, and not just any messages...but the kind of meaningful stuff we as human beings should focus on re-teaching ourselves every day!

You know what? If I miss one thing more than anything else from prior seasons...it's the letters to Celestia at the end of each episode, and not just Twilight's letters, but the Mane 6's, and even the journal entries from later on in the series. Those moments were beautiful, because they were simple reminders that age-old lessons of kindness, civility, and self-reflection, are not just simply for children, but for adults as well, and they still have a very necessary place in this world. This was something the writers clearly enjoyed doing...and why wouldn't they? Helping others, and spreading good-cheer will make anyone joyful inside! However, as time grew on...the show became more popular...and with popularity and support from tons and tons of people, a feeling of duty to "raise the bar" suddenly became expected from the writers.

Fans of the show (myself included) began to critique the show harsher than before. Yes, I was upset at the whole Twiley-corn thing...but not at all because of the writers. I was worried that the popularity of the show, had driven Hasbro to push toy sales harder, make the show more mainstream, and uproot it from its original charm. I feared that the show would lose emphasis on the morals, and go more for the fan-service route, in an attempt by Hasbro to cash-in on the show's success.

Then again, we here in the fandom egged them on a bit...we have to admit it. Yes, it was great to see the fandom get a shout-out with "Derpy" and see some of our little memes become a reality, but we began to see it with almost an entitlement mentality. "The fans made this show popular, and made the corporation money, so they owe it to us! The show would be nothing without us!"  By season 4, it was as if the fans were running the show, and the writers were just going along with our requests to make us happy...fans craved more action, more adventure...more pop culture, and trends, heavier detail in animation, more songs, just more more more...

But what about what made the show great in the first place?...What about the good story telling? the effort to bring other people to a better place in their lives?...What about the simplicity of the original show's concept, before everything became so complicated, and the fandom became so demanding? The show is about friendship, virtue, unity, and fun...Truth be told...that's enough for something to be good on its own...But what did we do? We picked our best pony, and fought over whose choice was better, we began to focus too much on which pony was getting the most screentime, or whose episodes were better. We shipped characters with other characters, and got upset when the show chose a different pairing. We went to cons, and put more focus on what we wanted to see in future episodes, rather than being thankful for what we've already been given.

My fellow bronies, don't you see yet?...when the writers and Hasbro see stuff like this...they're almost required to change their show's formats, to try and appease the audience, for fear of losing viewership...it's marketing 101...Guys, they gave us the 100th episode...and it was great! But let's let that be enough fan service for us all. Let's let the writers go back to writing, and the show runners go back to show running. The message is what's important, and that's why the show speaks volumes to so many people. Why do you think the show caught on so well with people in the military, and those struggling with depression? It's because there's a feeling of hope and innocence within this show...the hope that maybe one day, people will be kind to one another again...or at the very least, civil. Disagreements can be had without the throwing of fists, firing of guns, and word-wars online. This show was a little piece of what that kind of life would be like...Lauren Faust used to use Equestria as a form of escape when she was a little girl; a world of imagination, creation, and joy. Just as Twilight and the rest of the Mane 6 wanted to publish their "art" to the masses with the intention of inspiring others to do better, so I believe was the intention of Faust, and the writers, to spread that traditional wholesome ideology to the world.

In conclusion, I thought this episode was very well done, with a message that we all needed to hear. The fandom got a bit carried away, especially around season 4 (which I believe is one of the reasons season 4 was referenced so much in this episode)  and the only way to climb back from where we've been, is to let the writers write, and let the show's message once again take center stage. Seasons 5,6, and now 7 have all been wonderful...we've started to drift back to the way things were when the show began, and I only hope (should the writers decide to take it this way) that, we'll feel that old familiar charm more and more, as the seasons progress.

 

...And at the end of the day, remember...

...It's a show about candy-coloured talking horses

 

Thank you for reading, and take care! 

 

-BV-

[PacificGreen 1,163]

Thanks for sharing your perspective.

You know, I feel like I've always heard of the nasty and/or entitled parts of the fandom, but rarely have I actually experienced them. To be honest, I feel like I can't really relate to what you described in your post- maybe it's cause I'm a little myopic and was part of the pandering craze myself, who knows. But that's okay, because we have different experiences and different ideas of what the fandom has looked like.

In my opinion, it's not wrong at all to criticize certain aspects of the show, debate who is best pony, or to wish to see certain fan favorites featured in the show. Heck, with several background characters making reappearances this season, I'm actually kinda wishing my favorite BG ponies would reappear in the show as well. I can agree with you, though, that we can get a little carried away with it and forget about the real purpose of the show and the things it's intended to reflect. And that we need to understand how much time and energy the staff put into the show, even if they may make a less than favorable episode or two, and maybe learn to be a bit more appreciative.

[BrilliantVenture 334]

1 hour ago, PacificGreen said:

I can agree with you, though, that we can get a little carried away with it and forget about the real purpose of the show and the things it's intended to reflect. And that we need to understand how much time and energy the staff put into the show, even if they may make a less than favorable episode or two, and maybe learn to be a bit more appreciative.

Absolutely! And to be clear, this fandom is still pretty fantastic, and I still love it massively! There is a small group of entitled groaners however who have unfortunately grown in number in the last few years, some more extreme than others...and bear in mind, when Twilicorn happened, around a fourth of the fandom at the time left the show...kind of a big schism for just one change...it's not a huge problem at this point though, just more of an area of concern. If anything I feel this episode was a "settle down reminder" to that small group, and a refresher to us not to get too carried away ourselves. Light hearted banter is fine, but as Julia Child used to say "everything in moderation."