Happy Easter

Well, now that Season Five has begun, time to see just how Hasbro will fail its fanbase even more.

4243185 Well, the opening of this season was a lot better than the Crystal Empire and Princess Twilight. It's not a big surprise that Meghan had the help of Sonneborn. But having a good season opener dosen't make impossible to make a shitty ending for season 5.

4243626 You're serious?

And I was 100% on the money: It was a jab at a horrendous strawman of communism. Aka what dumbass mccarthyists (lol irony) THINK communism/socialism stands for, but doesn't.

(Communism/socialism is about worker control of the means of production and political and social equality. It has nothing to do with stripping away individuality or suppressing talents or other such nonsense.)

Here, this video by 8-bit philosophy will explain it FAR better than this show will.

http://youtu.be/Vz3eOb6Yl1s

)

Any episode that borders on propaganda is garbage by default and not something impressional kids should be allowed to watch. Besides, the whole "being equal does not mean being the same" is a message that has been done many times before and better.

4243986

To be fair, I rank both Princess Twilight and Crystal Empire in my top 5 worst episodes of all time so the idea that the S5 premiere is better than them isn't particularly ridiculous as far as I'm concerned. Not that I'm ever going to watch it, though.

4244028 Well, I suppose that's true. The worst part of a bad story is the very start because it is what spawns every single piece of trash that comes after. Where that is the roots, the rest are just branches and leaves. Even if you cut them off, the roots will remain and continue to produce more rotten fruit until you dig it up and throw it all into the wood chipper, killing the entire system.

So, yes. I can believe that the Season 5 premier is slightly better than the Season 3 and 4 premiers. On a side note, I think Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 is better than Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric.

4243986 Dark Qiviut actually has made a lot of praise for that:

Even though I was a critic of various executions of Season 4, one of the bigger pluses is how much they approached maturer and grayer morals. Rarity Takes Manhattan talked about how you shouldn't quit your most positive qualities because someone took advantage of you. Pinkie Pride delved into the very mature theme of jealousy over an individual who can not only do the same talent you love and work on, but are also better at it. Everyone here knows how much I praise Testing Testing's excellently executed moral and approach to it.

Season Five commenced it with one of the most mature conflicts of not just the entire show, but family TV altogether. It's an entire episode where the conflict between how two ponies approach what friendship is about. Is friendship supposed to be about agreeing with one another? Or is friendship about where despite having serious disagreements, you can still be friends? Can friendship work under the philosophy that conformity trumps all?

Yesterday, I mentioned how The Cutie Map had a very eerie similarity of George Orwell's Animal Farm, a storybook criticizing the way the Soviet Union was governed and politicized. Starlight Glimmer's goals run through very similar propaganda. She continued to spread the idea that in order to be true friends, you must be equal. Give up what makes you you. The song, In Our Town, is revealed by Ingram himself to be heavily inspired by WWII propaganda music. This is a really bold direction that hones in the criticism of how strict communist countries had or currently run such as the USSR and especially North Korea. The fact that they explicitly describe the area it's located as "East Equestria" (an implied allegory of the old Eastern Bloc) confirms this powerful message further.

One of the cleverest directions Sonneborn, Larson, et al. induced this skewed opinion of friendship equating conformity is how the show never told the audience the name of the town. If you give this town a name, you risk breaking apart the theme of conformity and how the only way to thrive is to be like everypony else in Equestria. The lack of name retains that mystery behind the history of the town. More importantly, it reinforces Starlight Glimmer's skewed opinions of how the only way to actually be friends is to not conform to the rest of society. Keeping it nameless makes this drab village very inviting by teasing about how despite its dinky appearances, it could be one of the best places you'll ever run across. It's a very tiny thing quantitatively, but it really established credibility in Glimmer's propaganda.

Undoubtedly, Starlight Glimmer's a fraud. By not conforming to the very same messages she claims to celebrate (not sacrificing her cutie mark while forcing everyone else to do so), she becomes a major hypocrite. However, don't let that mean her beliefs lack any level of sincerity. As a character, she's incredibly sharp with a sense of how she can be one step ahead of the others. With the ReMane Five locked up, she manipulated FS into trying to out her accomplices. Even more, Starlight doesn't act like some magical being who reigned in terror æons ago. She's a unicorn with very strong magical powers, and we have no idea what her past is. There's no doubt that her lack of past is intentional; it makes her feel both relatable and real.

There would be more but i don't want to spam this stuff. Yet.

4244264 I'm honestly not sure what to say to this. It's as if just seeing any praise towards the show's recent episodes, even where warranted, just fills me with such a powerful feeling of bitterness. Almost as if the actual good qualities are spiteing me. I understand that there are good qualities, but seeing these good things happen while the show is built on a horrendous and rather disgraceful foundation that never should've happened leads to such a conflicted feeling...

It's almost like the makers of the show are telling us "See? We can still pump out gems of episodes! Just forget the bad stuff ever happened and focus on the good ones!" And are just hoping we'll forget about it. It makes my head hurt.

4244515

I'm honestly not sure what to say to this. It's as if just seeing any praise towards the show's recent episodes, even where warranted, just fills me with such a powerful feeling of bitterness. Almost as if the actual good qualities are spiteing me. I understand that there are good qualities, but seeing these good things happen while the show is built on a horrendous and rather disgraceful foundation that never should've happened leads to such a conflicted feeling...

Is that sort of like when you play a video game, and it's totally crap, but there's one or two elements of it that you wish would be adapted to work in a better game?

4244264 After taking some time to gather my thoughts, I have articulated myself to give a more thorough response.

To be completely honest, having the concept of communism being the big plot point of this premier wasn't exactly a good idea and really doesn't apply to the modern day. In fact, over the years, I have seen conflicting reports over the concept of Communism. And while I have heard some claiming that it more of a take on cults, I don't see cult practices in this as much as an allegory for Communism. But to be completely honest, it's quite likely that Communism would've been a bit better received by the Western powers if it had originated somewhere other than Russia. Seeing as it revolved around the concept of community after the embarrassingly inept reign of Nicholas II (which has been explained in another thread on this forum) the concept behind it is rather noble. The only problem with it is it really all depends on how the person in charge handles it. It especially took root during the rather cruel reign of Josef Stalin. Need I say more? And even today, Russia isnt exactly being run by the most moral people in the world. Even after the governmental change to democracy.

Today, pretty much only one nation on the planet is still a genuine communist nation. And that is Cuba, which doesn't seem to be nearly as hellish as the American government keeps trying to make it out as. Almost as if they have some sort of xenophobic fear of any other form of government that is not democratic capitalism. I understand that there is criticism of Communism, but is it an inherently corrupt means of government, or is it frowned upon for being different and simply having been founded in the wrong place and put to use under the wrong people? After all, the world back then wasn't quite as smart or informed as it is today.

This brings us to the Season 5 premier, which seems to heavily condemn Communism and makes it look like a morally corrupt means of keeping order and maintaining power. Am I the only who sees this as something that is not only extremely dated, like something that you would only see in cartoons during the Cold War, but also completely pointless and out of place for a show like this? It really does seem like Hasbro has their heads stuck in the past, what with overused tropes and cliches showing up like the high school setting and rock band cliche in the Equestria Girls movies, and even moreso since the MLP toyline and animated series first started back during the Cold War. Anyway, Communism will never gain a foothold in America, so why make it become such a central point in the plot when it simply has no place there? It just reeks of ugly paranoia and propaganda and makes Communism out to be much more simple than it really is. Honestly, the Red Scare ended nearly 30 years ago. Why dig up old misgivings now and in a show like this?

We all know full well what happened in Seasons 3 and 4 that ultimately spawned this group. So, is this premier truly a step in the right direction?

To be honest, no. You have to take a closer look.

During Season 4, the main plotline clearly took a turn for the worse with Twilight being turned into a little miss perfect and many of the characters suffering of varying forms of flanderization. But at the same time, during the episode Trade Ya, they had a special guest appearance of a young teenager suffering from a severe spinal condition voicing Stellar Eclipse. This may seem like a sweet gesture, and it likely was, but I am all but certain there was an ulterior motive behind this, not unlike Celestia's ulterior motives behind Twilight making friends that was shoehorned in out of nowhere at the start of Season 3. Much like a picture of Adolf Hilter giving candy to little German children, it looks sweet, but it only hides the dark truth. When you see said picture, you're not going to be thinking ugly thoughts about Hitler right away. Instead, you will be thinking to yourself that it's a rather cute scene. A brief distraction that makes you think of the person in the scene in a way you should not.

This method is what some call "covering your ass" and points to a bloated ego and arrogant pretentiousness in Hasbro. Basically saying "We're not as bad as you think! And we'll prove it!" to appease the detractors and take some of the heat off. Using story and the presentation of new characters to distract the viewers from the past that received so much controversy and from the rather dated and xenophobic stigma that has hung over America's interpretations of a foreign form of government for nearly a century. In some ways, it even comes across as borderline offensive. Much like Josef Stalin, if someone who is more pleasant than Starlight Glimmer were to be in charge in the episode with truly good intentions, I am sure the viewers would be viewing such a way of life to be different, but not inherently bad. This could have actually been a setup for a pretty strong moral that follows the original message of the show, now that I think about it! Love and tolerance, right? But instead, they took the biased way out and had there be a bad guy to make the plot so much simpler like so many other propaganda writers from long ago. This was an episode that really did not need a villain. Almost like a deconstruction of the xenophobic stigma that consumed the Sunny Town zombies of Story of the Blanks. And of course, they are showing no signs of fixing or reversing the problems that were introduced in the previous two seasons. And am I the only one who finds the concept utterly ridiculous and unrelateable of the Mane Six becoming Equestria's equivalent of the Justice League?

At the end of the day, I can say that Hasbro has gotten more skilled and crafty at distracting their viewers from the show's colossal flaws, but they have also gotten cockier and more pretentious with the use of their subject matter, trying to make the show look amazingly deep while only looking at things from one perspective and undermining the message as a result, quite possibly even in spite of critics like us. It is no longer just the writing on the wall anymore. Now you also have to read between the lines to see how twisted the show has become. The show has gone from being equally implicitly and explicitly flawed to being more implicit.

4245152 You should make a debate with Dark Qiviut, it would be a great show. Meanwhile im gonna post the second part of the review:

Unlike the other villains, she does believe in the magic of friendship, but not the MoF that the others believe. Instead, she sees the concept of individuality as a hindrance of both growth and triumph. Her idea of the cutie mark doesn't translate to being someone of equal potential, but how you must conform to Equestrian matriarchy/patriarchy. By telling everyone to give it up, force them, and hammer it in, she's making them believe that her totalitarian opinions will lead to an eventual Equestrian revolution. Not "revolution" as in warfare, but "revolution" as in how a new ideal of Equestria can be legitimately established. Even after she was revealed to be a hypocrite, she never relented that belief. Consequently, this further legitimizes her gray opinions on Equestrian society.

Starlight Glimmer is a very credible, three-dimensional villain. She has very legitimate motives that back up continuity from not just the whole series, but also Magical Mystery Cure. One big problem from that finale is how it conveniently changes the whole definition of the cutie mark from being something you innately like and look forward to for the rest of your life to how it's forced on you. Starlight Glimmer — and the two-parter's theme itself — openly critiques the very structure and magic of the cutie mark. Surprisingly, SG's political assessments and critiques of the cutie mark system not only opens up further discussion and history of the cutie mark, but it also closes the continuity gap that Magical Mystery Cure opened. Her angst over the cutie mark isn't plucked out of thin air. It's an ongoing discussion in the fandom, including Pinkie Pride itself. There's legitimate backing to it, and she has very good reasons to tell passersby to abandon the practice. By being a very slick motivational speaker, Starlight Glimmer becomes both imposing and very threatening.

A common problem in two-parters is the lack of naturality in the dialogue. Only Return of Harmony had much conviction in the dialogue. The Cutie Map's dialogue is incredibly believable. Sure, there's some repetition in Rarity's "divine" comments, but that's me being a little picky. Pinkie Pie was incredibly on point throughout; if you're a very big brony of her, you will like her here. She retains that same zaniness that we grew to know and love, but she's not a random idiot. Her comedy has purpose, and her obliviousness isn't exaggerated. She was acutely aware of how forced the ponies were acting, and it creeped her out. When she wasn't liking how Fluttershy bobbed to the propaganda, her glare snapped her out of it.

Honestly, the disagreement the Mane Six had with their impressions over the town was awesome! Pinkie Pie was extremely apprehensive over the town, Starlight Glimmer, and the townsponies. However, Fluttershy had a completely opposite opinion of the town. Despite Glimmer's scary predisposition, FS wasn't willing to quit on the town and believe there were some good intentions behind everything here. In Bats!, FS's skewed opinions of how to handle the bats was completely wrong, yet treated as in the right despite Applejack having more justification to get rid of the vampire fruit bats. Here, both FS and PP had very solid opposing opinions of the town. This establishes not just the gray morale in this whole episode, but also Starlight Glimmer's politics. They were a driving force in the conflict, but neither side was one-hundred-percent right. Each of the Mane Six had strong, solid, differing convictions of the town. None of them were right nor wrong.

4244515 I can totally understand you. I feel the same way about EQG 2. Everyone says is good and even those who disliked the first one now have turned into Hasdrones. Only Dark Qiviut was capable to see through the "improvments" and say that EQG 2 is still a bad movie (Well, him and MovieMaster8510). The only problem that i had with his review of RR is that the movie a little step in the right direction. And i completely REFUSE to belive that.

4246235 I will say it again. There should not have been a villain in this episode. And having SG's views and ambitions built upon the incredibly flimsy and nonsensical plot of Magical Mystery Cure does not help her case. In a show like this, you cannot make the most of a bad decision. You need to go back and basically retcon the thing first. And if you can't, the best you can do is take what the Pokemon anime did with the GS Ball and just go about things acting like what occurred in the incriminating episodes never happened. Like I said before, Magical Mystery Cure are the roots that have bore poisonous fruit and this episode is one of them. Much like so many episodes built upon that episode, anything with a flawed foundation cannot be great. Perhaps her views over this "gray morale" and this whole thing about the cutie mark system is once again a bogus take on destiny, which Hasbro really seems to be afraid of displaying right. Almost as if they are trying to tell us that free will is a bad thing. And from that mindset, I can say that Starlight Glimmer may be a living metaphor for Hasbro itself. It's not just about communism. It's about one particular character whose entire outlook is fueled by the incredibly botched plot of Magical Mystery Cure. How the hell is someone like that real and relateable? I cannot imagine someone like her actually behaving like a real person. Maybe if she was a conspiracy theorist, but they aren't exactly relateable or reasonable people on their own, are they? She is a pseudo deep character, made to sound deep and believable when she really isn't.

And yes, I believe you completely on Rainbow Rocks. While I do personally find Sonata Dusk to be incredibly adorable when compared to her bandmates, the movie is still trapped in the cage set up by its predecessor. You can't just ignore the mistakes you made and hope that the viewers will just forget about them while getting swept up in the plot of the sequel. Even if they aren't smart enough to actually do that, you should fix it anyway. Not doing so is nothing short of contempt for your audience, something that has spread like wildfire in the video game industry. And what makes it worse for me is that it is really just a product of its time. Only problem? It is a product of the 90s in the 21st century. Even if the songs are good, the rock band trope wore out its welcome almost 20 years ago.

And no thanks. I'm not going to get into an argument over anyone who actually likes this episode. When they cannot see the problems with it, it will not be a pretty sight and they will not listen.

4246731 Now that I think about it, wasn't it established in season 1 that no amount of magic can affect a cutie mark?

4246785 Not quite. No amount of magic can force a cutie mark to appear. The acquirement of a cutie mark is a completely natural phenomenon.

4245152 I suppose the argument could be made that the episode was about communism, but I think that's inaccurate. It had more to do with fascism, oppression, cults, thought control, etc. More Jonestown or 1984 than Animal Farm. It was very similar to the Kurt Vonnegut story Harrison Bergeron ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron ).

That isn't a defense or a criticism of the episode. I just didn't see it as a commentary on communism. Stalinism, yes, but not only Stalinism. Overall I thought the episode was a step in the right direction. But I'm still waiting to be convinced that the rest of the season will continue that trend. Lord knows I've been fooled before.

4246795 Like I said, My Little Pony is not the place for something like that. It's supposed to be a show about teaching the values of friendship and that has NOTHING to do with political and social commentary like this. This only reenforces my claims that the show is not the same show it was at the start. A plot like this would've been better suited for Family Guy or South Park! At this rate, they just might do an episode about homosexuality with Rainbow Dash turning out to be a lesbian like everyone feared at the start. Just like the music video segment in Testing Testing 1 2 3 where Pinkie Pie did a rap song dressed like a pimp with gangsters backing her up, (yeah, that's something parents want their kids to be seeing in My Little Pony) it just doesn't belong there. How are kids possibly going to get stuff like this before they're older, not to mention stuff like that is pretty far out of the average person's ballpark to begin with. They're trying way too hard to impress the fans and are putting stuff in the show that simply has no place there. Like I said, covering their asses to hopefully impress the viewers so much that they'll forget about their executive meddling that led to the garbage in Seasons 3 and 4. This plot is more like something you would find in a fanfiction. Maybe I would be able to forgive it if it wasn't entirely built off of such a rotten foundation. It may be a step forward, but it still stepped into mud.

Hell, by this point, the subtitle probably needs to be changed because "Friendship is Magic" no longer applies to the show if they are no longer going to teach morals and values of friendship anymore.

4246833 Perfectly understandable. There are many days when I wish Season 3 and 4 would just un-write themselves. I think we've all been there, at the very least.

4246846 I think I added to the comment before you replied. Bad habit. I really need to finish writing the whole thing before I post it.

4246731 Good point.

Actually its also erriely similar to Ayn Rand's Anthem, which is a book about the supposed "final outcome" of socialism.

Of course, Ayn Rand isn't a very good authority on socialist theory or practice. Or a good halfway decent authority on anything else, for that matter. Except of course, "how to be an obnoxious self centered hypcritical douchebag".

4250228 I actually can't imagine anyone from the western hemisphere banging on about socialism or communism without being biased and misleading.

4250886 The episode actually probably has little to do with Communism and everything to do with cult practices. You know, giving up you identity for the good of the whole, toeing the party line... brainwashing. You know, because cults are bad.

I don't know where people are getting Communism from.

4284483 Even so, cult practices is pretty far removed from normal life. You have to go pretty far out of your way to have anything to do with stuff like that.

And again, I don't see what this subject matter has anything to do with the show's original purpose.

4284507 You mean to entertain girls in the 7-10 age range?

4284510 Really? The purpose of the show was to appeal to kids of both genders and even their parents while educating them with strong morals that taught the beauty of friendship. How in the world do you not know that?

4284520 Let's face the reality of the situation here. The primary purpose of the show is to sell Hasbro's toys.

4284524 That's not what the show runner had in mind. The toy selling purpose was a secondary function at best with the show while the commercials were specifically designed to sell toys. And for a time, Hasbro was comfortable with that. The show did what it was supposed to beautifully with few missteps and Hasbro reaped the profits from its runaway popularity.

When Season 3 came along though, something went wrong with Hasbro. It wasn't enough for them and started forcing the story to revolve around increasingly blatant toy advertisements in the show and tying it all in with a bogus unrealistic and dated take on destiny.

I know you probably just don't want to understand this, but just because something changed to what it is today does not mean it had to be this way.

4284507 And really?

Really?

Really?

The thing about cults is that you don't know if you're in one until it's pretty much too late. So why not teach children warning signs before they encounter them?

4284546 Look, I see we're not getting anywhere here. I'm arguing that the primary purpose of the show was for Hasbro to make money and they hired Lauren Faust, who saw that the show could be something more.

You're arguing that the show completely went to shit at Season Three. I disagree. I still find the show entertaining after Season three for reasons I can't quite explain. Maybe I just like looking at pretty colors. I don't know.

And as for Hasbro... can you really blame them for trying to squeeze more money out of it, a.k.a the primary function of a business? You can hate them all you want, but can you blame them?

4284546

I know you probably just don't want to understand this, but just because something changed to what it is today does not mean it had to be this way.

This cracks me up. Clearly anybody who disagrees with you is a delusional try-hard who refuses to see the truth, because there is no way at all that your own opinion is anything but absolute fact.

4284565
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4284546

4284593 I like the pretty colors.

4284565
4284593

We've had a few incidents where dissenters have joined this group before, but I think this is probably the first time I've actually found myself agreeing with what they say. (for the most part)

Firstly, I won't comment on anything related to season 5 since I've not seen any episodes, and am only aware of basic plot premises so far.

Look, I see we're not getting anywhere here. I'm arguing that the primary purpose of the show was for Hasbro to make money and they hired Lauren Faust, who saw that the show could be something more.

This is absolutely true.

You're arguing that the show completely went to shit at Season Three. I disagree. I still find the show entertaining after Season three for reasons I can't quite explain.

That's fair enough, and you shouldn't need to explain. Not unless you're trying to argue a specific point.

And as for Hasbro... can you really blame them for trying to squeeze more money out of it, a.k.a the primary function of a business? You can hate them all you want, but can you blame them?

Like when a major game dev transitions to making mobile games instead of big budget titles... It's annoying, and you'll probably think less of them, but if the money is there, you can hardly blame them. Hasbro just be doin' business. Although it doesn't mean that any and all criticism of the show is invalid if it just so happens to concern a toy line.

It's cute that you like to paint it as a black and white issue with no in between though. You either hate the show after season 2 or you're a sheep who needs to wake up.

That's not true! The ones who started hating the show after season one are the real MVPs!

Joking aside, I'd like to think that most people here aren't arrogant enough to assert that people who like season 3 and beyond are morons. Because that would make this place a fucking dive. Though I think things can get a bit contentious because many here have had unfortunate dealings with ultra-brony fanboys who refuse to admit any criticism and treat the show as if it were the second coming of Christ, and so we take out our frustrations after speaking with these people. But they are not representatives of the fandom at large and it shouldn't be assumed that someone who loves the show acts this way. If you guys love the show then great. You have more reason to be in this fandom (and on this site) than me, for certain.

This ties in with the idea that this group is just a 'circle-jerk,' which... sometimes it kinda is. But I think a lot of that stems from the fact that many of our opinions are simply not welcome in the wider community. Many of us here can attest to posting our views in various forums only to be branded 'haters', and for our views to be dismissed without question or rebuttal, simply because they were negative. Heck, even famous bronies like Digibrony and Tommy Oliver were branded as 'closed-minded haters' by some such simply for not liking season 4 as much as earlier seasons. For those reasons, many of us simply don't want to deal with the hassle that comes with this. So this group acts as a safe haven where we can be as critical as we want without being bombarded by spiteful messages. That's not to say we don't have our disagreements though.

If there's anything about this group that I don't really like, it's this trend of wanting the show to suck and simply watching new episodes in the hopes of finding something else to point and scoff at. (As well as offering critiques on episodes without actually watching them first...) Although I wouldn't say this behaviour represents the bulk of us.

And now I'm off to bed because

I expect explosions and charred corpses when I wake up.

4284565

Look, I see we're not getting anywhere here. I'm arguing that the primary purpose of the show was for Hasbro to make money and they hired Lauren Faust, who saw that the show could be something more.

I see your point, even if

but can you blame them?

Yes, YES I can! They sold the sprout instead of the full grown tree!

but that's false since Hasbro only owns the show. They commissioned it, they paid someone to create a new generation of their horrendous pony series for the sole purpose of selling toys, that's definitely true, but not the show purpose. Friendship is Magic only purpose is to send certain, specific messages, and I quote:

Cartoons for girls don’t have to be a puddle of smooshy, cutesy-wootsy, goody-two-shoeness. Girls like stories with real conflict; girls are smart enough to understand complex plots; girls aren’t as easily frightened as everyone seems to think. Girls are complex human beings, and they can be brave, strong, kind and independent–but they can also be uncertain, awkward, silly, arrogant or stubborn. They shouldn’t have to succumb to pressure to be perfect.

There are lots of different ways to be a girl. You can be sweet and shy, or bold and physical. You can be silly and friendly, or reserved and studious. You can be strong and hard working, or artistic and beautiful. This show is wonderfully free of “token girl” syndrome, so there is no pressure to shove all the ideals of what we want our daughters to be into one package. There is a diversity of personalities, ambitions, talents, strengths and even flaws in our characters–it’s not an army of cookie-cutter nice-girls or cookie-cutter beauty queens like you see in most shows for girls.

Find out what makes you you. Follow your passions and ambitions, not what others expect of you. For instance, if you like sports don’t let someone’s suggestion that that is unfeminine stop you from doing what you love. Be considerate of others’ feelings, but not at the expense of your own goals and dreams.

You can be friends with people who are vastly different from you. And even though all friendships have their share of disagreements and moments when you don’t get along, that does not mean that your friendship has to end.

And yadda, yadda, yadda. And we, as fans, watched this show because we agreed/enjoyed/loved the messages it sent, otherwise the brony fandom would have existed even during the G2 and G3 era.

4284593

All I've really seen from you and this group is a circlejerk of "it sucks and it ain't what Faust wanted."

And you are most certainly right, this group has lost all of its charm, probably because it also became quite dead. For some decent argumentation you should dig deeper and I'd like to suggest you How Magical Mystery Cure Ruined Everything.

4284507
I'd say that cult practices are far too often far too close to far too many peoples' normal lives, personally.
4284550
What this guy said.