CR vs. "A Canterlot Wedding" Onward: My Final Thoughts on an Old Topic · 3:13am Oct 29th, 2013
I'm sure that those of you who have been following my blogs for some time will recognize the name "CR" as I've brought it up several times whenever I've referenced to the backlash against A Canterlot Wedding, season 3, and so on. For those of you who don't know, Chad "CR" Rocco is a reviewer from ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com. His most famous series of videos is known as Familiar Faces, where he takes a look a side characters from various television shows. I first came across CR a few years back when I came across his crossover episode with the more well-known TGWTG reviewer the Nostalgia Critic, where they both did a retrospective of the character of Baby Doll from Batman: The Animated Series. I began to watch more of CR's videos and it wasn't long before I came across his retrospective of the four generations of MLP, thus revealing him to be a Brony. His MLP retrospective remains to be my favorite pair of videos from him and they remind me of the CR I used to highly enjoy. Then...everything went downhill.
There was a period where I hardly saw anything from CR for a while. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he made a cameo appearance in the Nostalgia Critic's review of Son of the Mask...and it was one of the most painful cameos I've ever had to witness. His brief cameo basically consisted of him labeling MLP season 3 a sh*tty abomination and blaming its existence on the Devil. This was the first time I had heard about CR's dislike for season 3 and it wouldn't be the last. I eventually came across his blogs on Twitter and DeviantArt and...they're not pretty. Through these blogs, I no longer saw the positive, friendly, entertaining CR that I had come to know and enjoy. I instead saw a bitter, nitpicking, Faust elitist who talked as if his opinions and head cannons were right, the show was going downhill, and would accused anyone who disagreed with him, as in anyone who liked season 3, of "killing the show". Heck in this tumblr post (which is linked here) CR, in an insufferable, nitpicking, and unnecessarily ruthless fashion, goes into a long spiel about every "problem" in season 3. And all in response to someone who calmly and maturely expressed their own opinion even though it was the opposite of CR's.
And, of course, it doesn't end there. Like I said, he's posted several things on his tumblr, twitter, and DA bashing season 3, Megan McCarthy (a post that can be found here), and arguing his viewpoints in quite an overbearing manner. Just look up "I Believe in MA Larson Alpha by PixelKitties" and scroll through the comments to see what I mean. Heck, he's even left some jerkist comments in the Youtube comment section of his MLP retrospectives (which is quite ironic as, at the end of his retrospective, he writes that he loves this fandom and yet now he's getting into arguments over differing opinions about season 3).
Of course, this dark turn for him hasn't gone over well with his fellow Brony fans (the fans that liked season 3 or have any differing opinions than him on the matter), especially the Bronies that were introduced to MLP through CR's retrospective. Hell, there's now a YMMV page on TV Tropes dedicated to the drama CR has created about his hatred for season 3 (which can be found here).
CR hasn't even seen Equestria Girls yet and refuses to. He's labeled it as a terrible film based up the synopsis, a few clips he's seen, and "reviews from people he trusts". In fact, it was the release of the synopsis of the then upcoming Equestria Girls that pushed him to announce his departure from the fandom (link here). And, honestly, all I can say to that is "good riddance, and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out". By this point, CR was just insufferable when it came to anything having to do with MLP. Frankly, I'm glad he's no longer in the fandom and I hope he's done with his MLP videos 'cause (based on what I've heard of how he acted in his commentary of A Canterlot Wedding with the Otaku Ascended guys) I'd rather not go through a video of him obnoxiously ranting about a season 3 episode of Equestria Girls. I think his departure was the best for both us and him. We can continue to enjoy the show in peace and he can continue to leave in his world of A Canterlot Wedding and beyond sucks and anybody who disagrees is a disgrace to the almighty Lauren Faust's vision!
Now, to be fair, the Bronies who CR has gotten into drama with aren't too innocent either and have proven to act just as childish as him. Not to mention that I've heard there's plenty of drama going on in CR's life away from the internet. From what I've heard, he's had three deaths in the family. Add to that all the drama he's caused for him with his Brony fans (plenty of it honestly warranted), the fact that he knows he's losing fans, there's an entire TV tropes page dedicated to picking apart the drama he's created for himself, and a group of commentators he worked with and followed called him out for his negative feelings of Sleepless in Ponyville, I'm sure CR is going through quite a difficult time. And I have a feeling that if CR and I sat down somewhere in real life to discuss season 3, I'm sure our conversation would be quite civil (hopefully). However, that's one curse of the internet. The internet allows us to go to extremes in relation to our emotions, opinions, and viewpoints. But, still, CR is by no means an idiot and should have known to act better in his posts.
I want to state here that my main problem doesn't stem from CR's dislike of everything beyond A Canterlot Wedding. He can hate it all he wants. My problem stems from how douchey he was about it. It the words of Eli "The Cartoon Hero" Stone, it all depends on execution. If he had calmly and maturely expressed his opinions about season 3 while still being open to everyone else's opinions, things would be a lot better. But, no. He had to go down the path of the show is going downhill because it's going against my headcannons, these small flaws here and there make the episodes crap, and if you don't agree with me then you're killing this once great fandom, and that's the true tragedy here. It's always sad to see a once enjoyable and funny person go down a dark path that ultimately taints their reputation. When I first saw CR's retrospective of MLP, I pictured him as such: a nice guy who enjoyed a show about technicolor, magical ponies for its many good points and its small flaws here and there. Now, all I picture is an angry elitist with dart boards featuring Cadance, Shining Armor, Alicorn Twilight, and Megan McCarthy (I wouldn't be surprised if he actually has those in his house).
But, at the end of the day, this is all old news. CR left the fandom long ago and most of the drama has died down. However, it's still being slightly kept alive on Youtube. But I'm not trying to stir up any drama myself...though I guess I might have come off as such during this blog. This has just been a topic that's been bugging me for a while and I just wanted to get my thoughts about it out there. And, thus, I will no longer give snide remarks about CR whenever I discuss backlash that I disagree with in the future. I used to really like CR and I enjoyed his videos. But, now, I just can't think of him in the same light anymore. I'm willing to move on and put it all in the past but I'll probably always unintentionally think back to this drama whenever CR pops up. But I shall move on and, at the end of the day, I think I'll be saying farewell to this drama and looking forward to the future in a much happier fashion than CR. This drama has obviously done a fair amount of damage. CR's broken himself away from his Brony fans, has cast himself out of a still great, albeit flawed-at-times, fandom, and has given up hope on a series that still has much potential. At the end of the day, it's his loss. He can no longer enjoy the show that many of us still hold dear. He can no longer appreciate any of the wonderful people that work on this series. He can no longer associate himself with a group of wonderful people who still continue to enjoy the show. And if season 4 proves to be a truly outstanding season, he'll never be able to enjoy it. But the rest of us will. The rest of us will carry on to cherish this show, enjoy its triumphs, accept its occasional flaws, and grow as a fandom. The moving train that is the Brony fandom says farewell to you CR. Though you may never like the show again, I hope you never forget that friendship is magic.
As always, you guys feel free to put in your own input about this random topic of the day.
I was not familiar with this CR. In fact, I'm not really familiar with any of the people associated with The Guy with the Glasses since they don't have a Youtube channel. Really, hating Equestria Girls just because of the synopsis.
He really missed out. I ended up liking it. 
This just really emphasizes the point I made in my Brony testimony blog. I chose a weird time to enter the fandom.
Yeah. CR has basically become a Holier than Thou asshat.