You either leave as an idealist... · 3:15am Jun 7th, 2015
Or stay long enough to see yourself become a cynic.
In case you don't know what I'm on about, I'm talking about this little piece of legitimate journalism.
So, I'll tl;dr it for you guys, if you have trouble digesting pretentious rants like I do. Tommy Oliver (bronycurious), a rather famous reviewer in the MLP fandom, has violently decided that he has had enough. Instead of doing the mature thing, politely declaring that he know longer wishes to do the reviewing for the show and leaving like an adult, he went on to throw a giant tirade kind of resembling a three year old throwing a temper tantrum.
Now, why the hell am I talking about this? Believe it or not, I used to enjoy Tommy's videos. He was an intelligent critic, who brought up a lot of good and bad that I hadn't thought about. He showed me another way to view the characters and the world, which did wonders for my own writing. A lot of how I write Rainbow Dash actually started from observations that Tommy made in some of his videos. I didn't always agree with him, but I found different ways to look at something from his insightful critique.
So what happened?
Well. Apparently Tommy didn't want to be recognized for his pony stuff anymore, so instead of the familiar dark blue unicorn you would have seen in his older analysis videos, it was just him sitting in front of a camera. Not shaved, maybe wearing a clean shirt, and his abode looking rather, well, unprofessional.
Remember that word, we'll be coming back to it.
So I went to watch Silver Quill for some reviewing insight, and I very much enjoy his critique. Again, he does give criticisms, but there is one major difference. He doesn't expect the show to be something it isn't. He understands that MLP is, at the bottom line, a 22 minute toy commercial aimed towards little girls. There is only so much they can do with it, and to expect LotR or GoT style storylines, characterization and thought provoking imagery from it is simply ludicrous. He understands what the show is aiming for, and he judges it on those criteria. This is something that Tommy simply did not do.
It doesn't help that his reviews near the end of Season 4 and into Season 5 were loaded with absolutes. Any reviewer, be they fanfiction, fanart or animation, who speaks as if they are the one and only truth about something has instantly earned my ire. That is the height of pretentious, and it was what originally turned me off to his channel, as well as the aforementioned lack of professionalism.
He, however, chose to see his declining popularity as the fandom not liking his 'critical' view of the episodes, which in turn caused him to reaffirm those beliefs. It culminated in this, a massive rant against anyone who would dare to disagree with him as being the poison of the fandom.
It's really depressing, when someone you once admired falls this far. He was once an insightful man to listen to, now he's just a ranting lunatic sitting by the subway entrance. Would it have been too much to ask for him to leave the fandom gracefully? Just to act like an adult and be, well, professional?
Apparently so.
So what do we take away from all of this? Emotion. Emotion is the biggest bane of anyone on either side of critique. Ego probably doesn't help, but that isn't something easily cured.
So what did you guys think about this whole issue? I'm kind of curious to see what other people took away from it.
-Lumino
I... pretty much got a gist of the video based the comments... one of those moments where I'm glad I didn't watch it.
But... I think this part of one of Silver Quill's non-MLP analyses could apply?
Silver Quill's After the Fact: Brave Star: Fallen Idol
To paraphrase from the episode that he reviews, "If someone lets you down, remember them for what they did right, and not what they did wrong."
Admittedly, a simplistic message, but I hope the jist of it could apply here? Tommy and Digibro (though his exit was earlier and much more... dunno what word works here...) were among the first and set a standard. Remember them fondly, and let them leave with dignity. And there's nothing dignified about pitchforks and torches and name calling.
But again, I'm a bit of a lunatic, here.
I've checked out most of the major reviewer's videos, and honestly I couldn't really get into any of them for one reason or another. I liked/stomached Tommy Oliver's style the best, but hadn't watched anything of his since early S4. It's sad to see him, or anyone else, implode in public
I don't remember precisely why at the moment, but I stopped following Tommy in any channel a while back. Something he did or said cheesed me off to the point where I just didn't care to be exposed to his opinions anymore.
I unsubscribed to him thanks to this video, I used to enjoy him and the analysis he did, but now he just seems to not care anymore, losing touch with a fandom is fine, I've lost touch with this fandom multiple times, but don't do what Tommy did and act like a child...
With as popular as he was, you would think that he would be used to the sperglords who will go after him because of his opinions. I don't agree with literally anything he said here, but I can respect a different opinion.
That is, until he goes off and basically calls us all pathetic by extension. Now all the respect I once held for him (not much, but some) is gone. He is a childish, narcissistic asshat who can't accept that people don't agree with his opinions. Just because he became a total cynic towards the show doesn't make him right, and his tone changed to clash with the rest of us who still enjoy it.
In other words: Goodbye and good riddance.
My browser ate the long, rambling reply I spent half an hour scribing, which I had been quite pleased with in my dozy state.
With what patience I have managed to retain, and newfound energy borne of irritation, I shall try to summarize!
I share many of the sentiments you expressed here, especially with regards to Silver Quill (my favourite reviewer), why I used to like Tommy's videos and how they influenced me ('What is a Cutie Mark?' is a stand-out), and how he has sadly been on something of a decline of late. Makes this announcement of his departure rather obvious, in hindsight.
Still, I have to agree with some of the points he brought up. His comment on people seeking affirmation makes me consider why I stopped watching reviewers like Digibrony in the past, and mainly it was because I didn't like their reasons for tearing into the show (usually because they were being petty and unprofessional). His issues with the more negatively-vocal elements of this fandom have been cause for exasperation on my part in the past, and I can see why he might get fed up with 'zealots' or 'hugbox' types.
But I also agree with him that one can enjoy the show based on their own opinions, and without feeling threatened by those of others, or demanding affirmation from self-proclaimed analysts. I think this is where Tommy's philosophy butts up against his amibitions.
It's clear that the man is frustrated, because the artist in him wants to be able to speak his mind, but as he says so himself, this can hurt his chances of making his videos profitable. He wants to play the game, but he wants to do it his way, and this isn't always a viable option. If he truly adhered to this sentiment he's espousing, he wouldn't mind if his videos got downvoted, or that he got backlash, or that he wasn't able to reliably profit off of his work. But for one reason or another, he does. Should things be that way? Probably not, no, but this is the nature of the beast, and for that he has some of my sympathy.
But further on the topic of being secure in one's opinions, I have to say that I found his parting shots at the show itself to be in rather poor taste and downright disagreeable. I've seen Tommy sing the praises of a great many episodes over the last few seasons that he's denigrating, and it strikes me as petty to set those memories aflame in a moment of anger and frustration. It seems to me that he either wasn't being sincere when he applauded FiM's recent entries, or he's taking his frustration over a vocal and often infuriating element of the fanbase out on the show itself, which is not deserving of such a degree of condemnation.
So yes, it would have been nice if he'd announced his resignation with some grace and dignity, given the respect I have gained for him over the last couple of years. It would have made this whole affair less disappointing.
I stopped watching Oliver sometime around the middle of Season 4. Before then, I actually enjoyed his reviews. I rarely agreed with everything he said, and sometimes I thought he was completely off his rocker, but early on, he had a sense of professionalism about him. That waned towards the close of Season 3, and only got worse into the next season. It got bad enough to stop watching altogether.
By then, I had found Silver Quill and Dr. Wolf.
I like Quill and Wolf due to their less-than-radical styles, and while I still don't agree with everything that they say, I like the way in which they say it. As you've mentioned, Silver Quill understands that the show has its limitations as determined by Hasbro, not the writers. Dr. Wolf also seems to understand this. However, the biggest appeal to me from these reviewers is that they are even handed with both their praise and admonishment. They never fall into true rants. If they see something that they don't like, then they point it out, and while they may question it a bit, they eventually move on to other things without harping on it for the whole review. Silver Quill's antics entertain me, while Dr. Wolf's philosophy filled reviews give me pause to think, so they're not exactly the same, The overall tone of both of these reviewers is still optimistic, It's little wonder why I like these guys.
As for Oliver and the former Digibro, nostalgia will probably kick in in about a decade or so, but until then, all I can think about is why I stopped watching them in the first place.
--Spade
I think everyone has already said what I could say about Tommy. I do have a thought about the comparison to Digi though. For a long time now I have felt like Digi is simular to Mr. Enter in that his best work is the non-pony content.