• Member Since 2nd Jan, 2014
  • offline last seen February 14th

TheIdiot


To all who come to this user page, welcome. I am TheIdiot; Head Author of the Alt-TCB Story SPECTRUM (and the occasional stuff on the side). Feel free to follow me if you so wish.

More Blog Posts29

  • 126 weeks
    Team/Crew Spectrum Regarding What Lies Ahead...

    TheIdiot: Well, here we are, everyone. This is the last SPECTRUM update for me at least. The end of an era after four years. To finish it out, I’m joined by my successor, Sledge115--

    Sledge115: Hello there.

    TheIdiot: And frequent collaborator, VoxAdam.

    VoxAdam: Alea jacta est.

    Read More

    10 comments · 751 views
  • 153 weeks
    Team/Crew Spectrum Regarding: What Comes Next?

    TheIdiot: Hello, everyone! TheIdiot here once more to give an update on matters. And there’s so much to go over, it isn’t just me this time.

    To start, there’s Doctor Fluffy – say hi, Doc.

    Doctor Fluffy: (Doc says something)

    Read More

    28 comments · 1,388 views
  • 190 weeks
    TheIdiot Regarding: Revamp of Chapters

    Hello, everyone! TheIdiot here once again to provide you, our readers and watchers, an update on what's going on.

    Or rather, I’m not alone this time. Because I have someone else present. Say ‘ello, Vox.

    Hello.

    Read More

    9 comments · 651 views
  • 199 weeks
    TheIdiot Regarding: Three Year Later

    Hello, everyone! TheIdiot here once again to provide you, our readers and watchers, an update on what's going on and…

    Read More

    3 comments · 585 views
  • 206 weeks
    An Update On The Next Chapter

    SPECTRUM

    The Team:
    TheIdiot
    As Waxy Gallant

    DoctorFluffy
    As Downy Quill.
    I am aware of the irony.

    VoxAdam
    As Appollo One (aka Single Craft)

    Sledge115
    As Resolute Shield

    RoyalPsycho
    As Smiling Service

    Read More

    7 comments · 617 views
Oct
16th
2019

Team/Crew Spectrum Regarding: The End of the Show · 8:08pm Oct 16th, 2019

Dear Characters of Generation Four, 

Consider this an open letter of sorts, one from those of us who dwell on the spectrum and everyone else who have watched your world unfold over the course of a near-decade. This would have been written earlier, but I got a bit sidetracked. The intent remains the same though and that’s what counts.

What I can’t do is speak as if I was there from the beginning. Because I wasn’t. I came in more in the middle you could say, and even then the connections I had to the world of Equus wasn’t that great. Even at the apparent conclusion, I still lack any “best princess” or anything that this strange fandom of older fans tends to have. Hell, I never even religiously watched it.

So, why am I here? What kept me in this fandom of a show that is primarily about Technicolor cartoon horses with butt tattoos and wings/a horn? A show that was primarily created for a young girl demographic?

Well, the answer is simple and consists of two acts.

The former is the music. Wonderful little songs that were catchy and energetic and had heart in them that struck a chord within me. Some emotional, some were fun, some were triumphant, and some were just synergetic. What these songs tend to give me is a boost that can rarely be matched by contemporary compositions from other animated shows and movies.

The latter is all the fanwork. Like, the fanfics, the fanart, the fan-created songs, and so much dedication from everyone involved. There’s so much heart done in tribute it’s amazing. Sure, I didn’t really watch the show that much, but I viewed so many fan creations I’ve lost count of all the wonderful ideas I’d seen. I can scantly think of any other fandom or fans who had endeavored to be so faithful to any one thing in my life. Or were able to change their life for the better thanks to this show.

Here are some of the reflections from my compatriots.

***

Doctor Fluffy - https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/874466/finale

***

Sledge115 - As another major work in 2019 said, part of the journey is the end. And truth be told, I haven’t watched the end of Friendship is Magic because hey, the story goes on, right?

I first watched Friendship is Magic one day in 2013. My sister had gotten the DVD for a collection of episodes, and out of curiosity, I went in with her as an episode started. It was called Luna Eclipsed.

Jumping in blind, there was a certain charm in the titular character, an old-fashioned princess who wanted to fit in. She was adorable and haughty all at once, and suffice to say, Princess Luna became a fast favourite, even today, six years on since I’ve watched the show for the first time.

Admittedly after the craze of 2013-2015 I’d tuned down my fandom of it. The show hadn’t hit the heights of Twilight’s Kingdom and (my personal favourite episode) Amending Fences, but I kept track of it thanks to the ongoing fanfiction project I had going on with a few of the best people I had ever known online. You know who you are.

It’s funny to think that in the end, I did grow up with Friendship is Magic. The show premiered at the start of my teenage years and ended the same year I hit twenty. Much like the much more mainstream and popular MCU, I’d say it’s a part of me now.

I like to keep this concise. Otherwise, we’d be here all day. Going into the finale, Friendship is Magic would always hold a special part in my heart. But for me, though, the show will always remain tied to a bookworm trying to approach her old friends again, and the Princess of the Night exclaiming “Haha! The fun has been doubled!”

It’s been a ride, and I’ll remember it always.

***

Kizuna Tallis - Like others, I didn't get into MLP immediately. Being a 90s kid, my only exposure to the franchise was a couple episodes of the first generation and not being particularly impressed by what I saw. It took finding the TV Tropes article and its praise of the series and knowing males my age were watching it to make me decide to give FiM a chance. And I'm glad I did.

But as they say, all good things must come to an end. Admittedly, it wasn't always perfect, but no show is, and I'm glad that MLP was given the chance to reinvent itself for a new audience and inspire a new generation of fans. 

Thank you MLP, for all the good times.

***

Jed R - “I got into MLP through Spectrum, and I fell out of the habit of watching the show. But still, despite… a LOT of things, I met some people I consider to be some of the best friends I’ve ever made through the latter, which only happened because of the former. So cheers, Lauren Faust, you made a vehicle of friendship. Fitting, I suspect.”

***

VoxAdam - I’d felt burnt on online fandoms just one year after I was introduced to them - quite late for someone of my generation, actually. Though that said, this burnt feeling had more to do with my own mental state at the time, than anything the Internet itself threw at me then. I guess I’m both unfortunate and fortunate in that regard.

When there’s something in your life, some piece of media or a work of fiction you love very much, but have long been the only person you knew who did, the Internet seems such an exciting new horizon, a place where you can share at last. It’s a shame it doesn’t always quite work out like that.

Honestly, looking back, my getting into Friendship is Magic as I did in 2013 may have originally seemed a bit of a “cart before the horse” kind of deal - side-note, I personally prefer the French variation on the expression, “cart before the oxen”, but what you gonna do, the English expression is more appropriate here. Though I’d been aware of G4 MLP and the brony community since their start, I didn’t really have much interest in the show, until I saw the scope of the fandom.

I’ve got no particular episode or character that “hooked” me in. I just was, slowly, by growing gradually engrossed in the colourful cast and production design, the bouncy songs and animation, the surprising amount of genuine heart poured into familiar cartoon plots and aesops. Now, six years on, I do have elements I can point to as stand-out favourites - the character of Rarity, or episodes like ‘Amending Fences’, rank top of the list - but at the beginning, it was just the cute pastel-coloured ponies, ponies everywhere that did it.

And as it turned out, G4 MLP is the only thing I’ve been a fan of that I felt motivated to dedicate a considerable chunk of my time to writing a story for. Yet, I’ve said it before, given how lonely the writing process can be, and despite how getting together can directly tie into our rough patches, I doubt I’d have stuck with Spectrum as long if other people weren’t involved.

So, thank you, FiM. If I don’t bother with online fandoms ever again, I’ll always remember that, come what may, there still can be a magic to them. 

***

TB3 - Nine years. Well, eight years since I personally got onto the MLP bandwagon, just around the time Season Two began looming on the horizon. And I still remember the moment I got my first taste...

It was a .gif. On a forum I frequently someone had uploaded a .gif of Fluttershy practising her ‘yays’ with Rainbow Dash, from all the way back in S01E16, ‘Sonic Rainboom’. This was in the dimly-remembered days of the HUB, a network whose only appeal to me lay in the form of ‘Transformers: Prime’. How could I imagine what was about to transpire, the depth of the rabbit-hole into which I was about to stick my head...

I’d not heard any word of the MLP reboot, and so I went in cold, but based on those scant few seconds of winsome animation I went in eagerly. Within days I’d binged most of Season One, and then sublimated myself into the world of the fandom. Oh the fandom...

My Little Pony, makes you a Brony...
aah, Aah, AAH, ARGHHH!
My Little Pony!
I used to wonder how equines were win.
(Didn’t heed the warnies)
And then this fandom sucked me right in!
Dinky-Derpy!
Socks and rocks!
With EQD and FOE!
Derpibooru
Lyra sits!
Bon-bon, Scratch and the TARDIS!
My Little Pony...
I just hope that all of this never ends!

Then Season Two launched. Discord’s premiere antics were entertaining, but when ‘Lesson Zero’ gave us our first instance of Twilly-nanas, and a week later Luna got her long-awaited character development, I could deny it no more: I was a Brony, and was in this for the long-haul.

Season Two was a high note for me, and for many in the fandom I imagine. I remember the double-whammy crises of Lyragate and Derpygate, celebrated each moment of fanon that was hinted at or canonised, followed the ups and downs of the show. And from ‘A Canterlot Wedding’ onwards the ride just picked up steam. While ‘Transformers: Prime’ withered and faded after barely three seasons, the pastel ponies just kept on soaring.

Sad to say that the ride at last has reached its end. But what a ride. ‘Friendship is Magic’ and its associated spin-offs and fanworks have been a constant friend and companion through the past few years. As the cast grew and the show matured, I found more and more to love – Sunset, Starlight, the Young Six, the dragons and griffons and changelings. I watched Equestria’s boundaries pushed back to reveal a world of infinite potential, a world divided by differences but which in the breach always came together when it counted. United in friendship.

My emotions during the final episode were hard to parse, and still are. But even if G4 has ended, the impact it has left behind will not fade soon. The analysis videos and reactions, the fanfics, artwork and animations, and of course those two-hundred-and-change episodes, plus the movie and the ‘Equestria Girls’ shorts and specials. So much to love, and so much that can and has inspired.

The past few years have been tough, not just for me personally but for the world at large. We’ve seen a resurgence of exclusion and hate, and a coarsening of our political dialogue as we grapple with new technologies, an uncertain future, and the ever-present threat of economic and environmental chaos. But against all that dark, the Mane Six and all their friends and adventures remained a constant shining light, and a reminder that love and tolerance can indeed show a better way. And even with lofty ideals set aside, these mares and fillies have never failed to raise a smile, or coax out a happy tear.

They are not gone, and will not be forgotten. And they made a difference, to me and to so many others around the world.

Thank you girls, and to the people who brought you to life. And to everyone in this team and fandom with whom I’ve ever exchanged words, messages, memes and creative energies. I’ve treasured these years together, and would not have had it any other way.

Even here, at the end of things, the magic of friendship grows.

***

Yes, there are fans out there who are fairly terrible. Or creations that are, in a word, bad. Sometimes the show has duds or misses, or there are some tunes that aren’t as great as others. That happens and it's best to not get hung up on what warts there are. All that matters is the experience there was and how wonderful this ride has been.

And so, from all of us from here on Earth to all of you at Equus (even if you’ll never see this), I’ll say the following.

Thank you. Thank you for all you granted us and the boundaries you’ve pushed (and all the boundaries you’ve helped us push! - ~fluffy)in this decade.

Rest well, Gen 4.

Signed,
TheIdiot
~Fluffy
Sledge115
Kizuna Tallis
Jed R.
VoxAdam
TB3

Comments ( 3 )

It was a great show. Like I’ve said elsewhere it would be a tragedy if it continued onward like the Simpson's becoming a dried soulless husk of itself. Now it will be remembered fondly and will continue to be a source of inspiration for years to come.

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