The Biggest Problem with Brony Reviewers · 9:20pm Jan 10th, 2017
I'm subscribed to a lot of brony reviewers and analysts on youtube. DRWolf, Silver Quill, ilovekimpossiblealot, ToonKriticY2K, Lightning Bliss, GoldenFox, Keyframe, Master Code, Mad Munchkin, and The Brony Notion, to name more than a few. Each has their charm, and some faults. I used to subscribe to Lily Peet, but unsubscribed because of her review of "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep". I do have an issue with most of them, but it never comes up often enough for it to be a big enough issue to unsubscribe from them.
"My Little Pony is a show made to sell toys."
There's nothing particularly wrong about this statement. It is, after all, a show produced by a toy company as commercials for toys, but most of the time that statement is used as an excuse for poor writing and bad characterizations and just left as is. That is the biggest problem I see with brony reviewers. See, I used to work at Target and checked the toy section and target.com frequently, and I never saw as many toys as reviewers seem to say there are.
Because selling toys, while a big reason the show exists, is not the main reason the show exists. Lauren Faust designed the show in such a way that families would be able to watch the show together and all enjoy it.
Because the toy line is a commercial for the show just as much as the show is a commercial for the toys.
Because, although Princess Flurry Heart is a toy, I didn't know it was until I googled it to make sure. Yet "to sell toys" is still one of the biggest criticisms of the character.
Because I've looked but can't find a single Legend of Everfree toy at Target, one of the two biggest retailers for Hasbro toys. I've only seen LoE toys on Walmart.com, not even in the store. I've tried finding a Friendship Games Sunset Shimmer figure, but I've always come up short.
I hate when reviewers pass something off as a half-baked excuse without a second thought, and it's not the first time it's happened. Alicorn Twilight = Mary Sue. Fan pandering = despicable. An episode you don't like = bad writing/characterization. New character designs = greedy toy company. It's all different shades of the same color. Some arguments, like the bad writing/characterization, have merit, and others (Mary Sue Twilight) have no basis in reality. Selling toys is somewhere in the middle. Stop pretending it's the only reason for new character designs.
Peet is a jerk