Fifty Months Later, I Finally Have My First DVDs · 9:51pm Jan 19th, 2016
Blog Number 20: Confessions Edition
"Twists and turns are my master plan,
Then find the elements back where you began."
Because epigraphs add a touch of class and meaning to an essay, do they not? 
I did it! At long last, when I visited HMV today, I found and bought the first two My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic seasons on DVD. It was something I had determined to do this week to buck myself up and give myself a much-delayed treat. And boy howdy, did I feel self-conscious about it.
Ah, the wait has been so long. It was November 2011, and I had been browsing the TV Tropes pages - as one does when one is sucked in by the sheer gravitational pull of that eye-opening website - repeatedly coming across a certain show, mentioned over and over while I was reading of tropes and their laws and formulas. I was intrigued enough to track down its entry, and surprised enough by the positive reviews to go looking for it. The site has proven to be a gateway like that more than once, I can tell you.
Being open of mind back then (and having rather more free time than sense), I looked for episodes on Youtube to see what all the fuss was about. I don't think I've ever really been the same since. I was captivated by the show, and still am to an extent that never ceases to astonish me. Back then, for example, and only on my first exposure, I went through the entire first season in two straight days. The last time I was that keen on a work of fiction, I was ploughing through the Discworld series at a rate of one book per three days.
It wasn't long afterwards that I caught up on the second season's episodes online. By the time I caught up with the current airing episodes, I'd gone straight through episodes one to six in a day. "May the Best Pet Win" was the next episode, and after that I kept pace with their imminent releases online as best I could, right up until the second season's finale at the end of April 2012.
I won't deny my entire contact with the show has, up until today, been through the world wide web. I can only imagine what it's like in the USA, but here in the UK, apart from the occasional toy and book, the franchise might as well not have existed, at least not in my shopping experience. I could, I admit, have ordered the thing online, but online orders and deliveries have proven to be a mixed bag for me, and as sentimental as it sounds, it doesn't quite compare to going into a shop and holding the thing, looking at it from all angles, and carrying it around while I browsed, before going to the counter, paying for it, and then taking it home with a sharp sense of anticipation. So you can imagine how interesting it was for me to find complete season DVDs at HMV. 
Even if they were in the pre-school section.
As you can guess, I put it off for the longest while. Whatever the climate is in the US, here in the UK I felt almost like a secret communist in 50s America*. I avoided buying the thing for the longest time because the thought of anybody else finding out, even my family, always makes me too nervous.
* Interestingly, this made it a bit exciting, however childishly, when I finally went to the counter and bought the DVDs. Forbidden fruit tastes that much sweeter. 
In an ideal world, I would do what I wanted openly, with no care for the prejudices and raised eyebrows of other people simply because I had unorthodox tastes. The show makes me happy, I enjoy it in my own privacy, and that is enough as far as I am concerned. Sadly, I suspect this is not that ideal world, and I'm certainly not gutsy enough to test it. If I were ever to get the DVDs, then they would remain out of sight. If I were ever to get them.
Quite what tipped the balance in favour of getting them, I'm not quite sure. The most obvious and plausible thing I can think of is that, only a few days ago, I happened to revisit the episodes online again and rewatched a lot of the fourth season.
And I thought, darn what anyone else thinks, but I like this show. It's not The Best Thing In The World, or anything nearly so melodramatic as that, but as a fan of slightly insane fantasy and sci-fi, I think it's awesome. 
I laugh at Rarity's histrionics over Trenderhoof, and Pinkie Pie's goof-off against Cheese Sandwich is one of the show's most glorious "sit back and enjoy the madhouse" moments. I love watching the comfortable family ties of the Apples as they include (possible) cousin Pinkie on a disastrous road trip and react to the returning Flim Flam brothers.
I like watching the Mane Six struggle over how to bond with Maud Pie, chip in to help Rainbow cram for a test, and run themselves ragged in an abandoned castle. I like seeing such an odd society of weirdos and all-over-the-map personalities muddle their way through everything from a cross-country quest to Equestria Games tryouts to a day out at a trader's market.
I think the team putting the show together enjoy playing with a range of concepts, such as episodes centred on comic book superheroes, faery-like critters, or fashion contests in the Big Apple, because there's such an appealing attention to detail and diversity. Even little touches like the Princess Bride fire swamps, an episode title's allusion to Milli Vanilli, and the Terminator 2 references when Discord** captures Tirek, all make the show seem that much richer.
** Who in any case is basically an MLP-friendly "Q" from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and not so much an easter egg as a walking Easter Bunny with a sack of 'em.
The characters, the setting that allows a wide variety of stories, the easter eggs and general cheery playfulness of the show mixed with dark moments, sentimentally sad moments, genre-jumping, character rotation, the quiet and the epic, and all other kinds of things that mean I identify - however slightly - with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic...
At some point around this time, I decided that I was going to get the first season on DVD, one way or another. My own quality copy. If I could get all kinds of other DVDs I wanted, why shouldn't I have this one too?
Today, I finally got it. When I saw the second season's DVD, on an impulse I took it off the shelf too, in no small part because the first two seasons together made my introduction the fireworks explosion it was, not just the first season. Admittedly, I bought something else at the same time so that it didn't look that conspicuous even in the shop - though the cashier didn't bat an eye - and admittedly, I was shopping solo, but I did it. I got the first two seasons - the ones that started it all - on DVD, after a mere four years and two months!
And my brain is basically doing this at the moment:
EDIT 23/11/2017: Impossible Numbers, out.
Statistics
New Stories?: Southern Front. It started when I thought about Daring Do's adventures on the periphery, poor Daring herself locked in a seemingly endless struggle against a relentless Ahuizotl, and then began thinking, What if that was the point all along? Also, last year I published Diminished, a strictly-incomplete WBA contestant that I struggled to write a fuller ending for, so I thought I might as well let it go while it was good, seal it, and publish it.
New Updates: No.
Story Count: 23
My Total Story View Count: 25,515
Age: 1,499 days, or 214 weeks and 1 day
My Follower Count: 77
My Followed Count: 70
The wonders of online shopping, to cashier to lie to, though it is probably harder for you since you have to worry about the disk region.
Welcome to the herd of physical media
Ah, congrats. If the DVD's ever make it this far over the pond(s), I'll be doing the same. If you really are that worried about anyone finding out, say you're a chaoist and it's for meditative practice/religious reasons. Seriously, that's a legit excuse.
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That is something I've thought about, though the sites usually indicate what region any particular DVD is, and I've never - as far as I can remember - had a problem with that. More often, I've just come up against false advertising or orders that never arrive.
As for the cashier, I did have a cover story in my head that it was a present for a young cousin, but I doubt I'd have actually used it. You can imagine my relief when the whole thing played out as simply another purchase. In fact, the cashier was probably just relieved I wasn't yet another customer saying, "Have you seen this? OMG, it's the best thing ever..."
Thanks!
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Thanks!
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Place like Amazon will probably default to the release for your region unless its out of print or rare. Family ran into that when we got the complete Sharpe series in DVD and turned out to be Region 2 rather than Region 1.