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All I see is hysterical whistle blowing and fabricated controversy in a desperate attempt to snag readership

There is not a single woman that has been excluded or devalued in any way by this fandom. All that article did was deliver an array of confirmation biases and red herring arguments but no facts to back it up

Quick question bronies (depending on how hardcore brony you bronies are) what is so special about Mandopony? Like what exactly makes him this household name for the brony fandom that managed to get the attention (very lulz worthy) of 4chan, and even get to play a cue on the MLP Season 3 finale?

The only song of his I heard was that song "Picture perfect pony" and I only saw that because it was supposedly one of the better fan animations out there (and it was) but the only thing I really liked about the song was the chick singing for Photo Finish. Wasn't too crazy about the lyrics or anything and I hear his singing itself isn't that great so I really don't feel like wasting my time when I could be listening to Justin Bieber I mean insert name of Death Metal Band here…..

Of course, there's his music and remixes. He was also accused of being a pedophile, but that was an obvious lie. Currently, it seems he's in a relationship with storyboard artist Sisby.

That's about the whole jiffy in a couple of sentences.

I'm not sure, but I think i might be the only one here who has seen the doc and, as most of you guys guessed, this article is going in with a bias and purposefully trying to find issues.

First off, there's just a blatant lie in there.
The article says that the opening scene pushes the 'white male' thing in your face with a collage of white males talking about pony.
They completely ignore the fact that of those 8 or 9 testimonials, two are Asian and two others are clearly non-white (I'm not precisely sure what their ethnicity would be, but 'white' they are not).

Another thing is their twisting of the scientist's statistics.
He was clearly there to give a general overview of the fandom makeup, which is, by all realistic accounts, largely male.
They did not claim that it was exclusively male at all, and most of their points after that one can easily be applied to either gender (especially the whole 'generally open to new experiences' thing that could contradict the article's narrative of closed-mindedness).

The way they talk about the girl who was featured really shows their bias, too.
The article plays it off by saying that she was only relevant insofar as she related to a male, but that is really mangling the point.
That segment is all about a relationship that was built between two people who found each other through pony.
Both of them are portrayed as skilled plush and figure makers who fell in love through a mutual interest.

Okay, okay, as I was writing the above, I reopened my copy of the movie to flip through for more counter-examples and these people are just being deliberately obtuse.
There is literally a short interview with a girl (dressed as RD) who specifically says "BronyCon is a place where you can go to be loved and accepted. It doesn't matter about your age, your gender, or anything about you."
I mean, come on.
That's pretty damn direct.

Now, as with most stupid arguments, there is a small grain of truth to it.
Yes, there certainly could have been more female involvement and I would not have discouraged that in the slightest.
However, when it comes right down to it, the subtitle of the doc is "The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony" and quite frankly, even outside of the fact that the statistics overwhelmingly reenforce the point, it's the guys who were most 'unexpected.'
Girls are 'allowed' to like MLP and no one really bats an eyelash.
(Personal story: I was looking over my mom's shoulder one day when she was on Facebook and noticed that one of her friends had a Pinkie Pie icon. I had only recently mentioned the show to her so I popped in and said "Hey look, that's one of the characters. The show really is popular with adults." My mom came back with "Yeah, but she's a girl. That's not very weird.")
This doesn't mean they should be excluded, and they weren't, but it makes some sense that they didn't have the most prominent roles.

So yeah, a whole article full of confirmation bias and selective memory. Yay!

@Mandopony
Mando is essentially just one of the most famous musicians in the fandom.
He got in pretty early and has a number of popular songs (though tastes obviously vary).
My fav from him, technically a collab:

Anyway, he gained more notoriety when he started to make friends with people on the actual show staff, most notably Sibsy and Michelle Creber, who has done a number of musical collaborations with.
(It is his working with Michelle that started all those stupid Mandopedo things on 4chan, since no one can work professionally with a girl under 18 without being accused of pedophilia… Admittedly, he fed into their stupidity by responding, but it was a complete ass-pull on 4chan's part.)
Overall, he's been pretty cool.
Someone made a fancomic of him and Sibsy meeting (LINK) that the two of them ended up reenacting (LINK).
That's were most of the rumors of their relationship come from, though I'm still pretty sure that it is mostly a joke and they are not actually romantically involved.

And yes, he also got to get some of his music into the show, essentially becoming the first brony to be directly hired onto the staff, even if is was just a minor contribution.
He's done a very good job of both contributing positively to the fandom and simultaneously using it to advance his overall career goals.
He's not my favorite musicain or anything, but I hold no ill will toward him and wish him the best.

Special alternate ending!

(Note: This was made by the original animator.)
(Does it count as a double-post if it's three hours apart?)

Um guys… can you all take a look at something?

Also…

Now… One instance is questionable… Two starts sounding like you're on to something…

I don't know if there's a third to make us all justified to panic, but guys… Are you sure we shouldn't be taking the "New Unicorn Friend" and "Mane 7" theories more seriously.

I leave the floor to you. Debunk or Confirm at your whim.

Also… Tell me whether we should panic over this if it's true.

Fun question for everyone:
If you could be best friends with one of the ponies from the show, who would it be and why?
I would probably become good friends with Rainbow Dash, because she is sarcastic and arrogant but still nice. Basically, kinda like me in real life. Also, she seems like she would be a really caring pony, after seeing how nice she was to Scootaloo in the end of Sleepless in Ponyville. Plus, she seems like she would be the kind of pony you would have a lot of fun playing Borderlands 2 with.

New Unicorn friend’s name: Sunset Twinkle
Hobbies: Books, Science, trying new things like running in a race when she’s never raced before.
Talent: Exceptional use of magic.
Traits: Smart, Skeptic, Caring, Sometimes gets a bit neurotic.
Brand new character!!!11!!

@Mrwens Do I really need to answer? Everyone knows which pony I'd pick to be my best friend. Fluttershy, she's good with animals, good with kids, you're likely to never get into an argument with her and she is just so fucking adorable! Lol JK it's Rainbow Dash.

@Sexism
"It seems your little lessons left the fairer sex neglected."
"Well, when girls like little ponies, that's very much expected!"

It's more "unexpected" to see a straight man watching My Little Pony. The documentary focuses on that because it's more "unusual" i.e. "interesting".

And if a documentary isn't interesting, nobody watches it.

Is this good or bad? I dunno. But it makes sense.

Fuck the police.
http://www.mediafire.com/?f6vev5xfivbok0v
Take the FiM file, drag it to the desktop, open it from there, enjoy playing.

EDIT: I just noticed that EqD already went back to a banner they used early in the season…
Did we do that?

I've been avoiding mlp, so I've needed to get my fix for children's animation from somewhere else. I was watching the little mermaid when I got to this part.

And I couldn't help but think "Someone needs to make a parody of this starring Lyra and Chrysalis." I mean come on, it's obvious. You don't even need to change half the words.

To start off with, the picture is a bad photoshop. Scene in question (sorry I don't embed): http://images.wikia.com/mlp/images/c/c4/Celestia_%22that%27s_because%22_S3E13.png and http://images.wikia.com/mlp/images/6/62/Celestia_%22she_is_a_princess%22_S3E13.png

Later on at the bow scene http://images.wikia.com/mlp/images/8/86/Celestia_%22not_in_the_same_way%22_S03E13.png

The other "ordeal" is either done for symmetry or (in the case of the banner) is going to represent "the House of Sparkle"

Thanks, good to see people are still around to check my facts.

@ZeroBlue: If there was a new unicorn added to the group, I would respond the same way as I did for Twilicorn and Equestria Girls. Sit back, make speculations as to what might happen, and don't make any final judgements until we see what actually happens. All I can say about adding a new unicorn and making it a mane 7 is that there will be good and bad things to that if it is true. The good news is that Hasbro understands the importance of having the dynamic be 2 earth ponies, 2 pegasi, and 2 unicorns and so "fixing" the change made by Twilight becoming an alicorn is smart business sense if you ask me. The bad news is that if this ends up being in the show, it could be extremely hard to write her in in a way that isn't clumsy as all hell. I say I'm neutral to it for the time being, but adding a whole new main character 4 seasons in (while it has been done before) is pretty odd.

@Mrwens: I think Fluttershy would be a pretty easy choice. I like quiet people ponies, and I can't resist being around all those cute cuddly animals :3

@Fifths: This needs to be done. Now.

Seriously, why is that not more of a thing?
We even have Seapony Lyra as a pre-established character!
I'd say that it practically writes itself, but it's basically already written since almost none of the lyrics even need changing!
Another good song choice, and one of a surprisingly few pieces of art made on this subject:

My Little Seapony: Coming to an internet near you whenever someone decides to run with the idea!

So there's an official (as in "It won't get the Haxe, bro," because they're under the Hasbro license) plushie from 4th Dimension Entertainment.

Of course, it's going to be small and look like cr-

Actually, looking at the images for it, it looks great to me, even though I'm not really a plushie or merchandise person. Apparently, the first wave is set to begin in June (perhaps something to hold you over until you get a girlfriend/boyfriend Season 4), and you can find them at conventions, comic books stores, and places like that (online as well.)
 
I looked into this "4th Dimension Entertainment." And it turns out that I've bought from them before. I used to follow (and should probably catch up on) Lackadaisy, a comic with anthropomorphized cats in US prohibition times (the author/artist Tracy Butler is very savvy about the time and the culture,) and I bought a set including the first volume of the comic, a mouse pad with the characters on it, and a neat club-shaped pin (a sort of symbol of one of the places in the comic.)

If what I got from that set is any indication of the quality of the plush, then I couldn't recommend them enough. The pin is quite nice, the comic (even as soft cover) is of a high level of quality as I can expect, and the mousepad works great and looks great. Once people see them and hear about them, I'm sure 4th Dimension will be Nintendo-rolling (now a verb) in money.

Yeah, I dunno, I've never liked the plushes too much, and the official ones are rarely show-accur…

I can spare $25 when they're released.

@Verbose
It looks like they work off of a fan-made pattern (ValleyViolet's?), so that might be why they look so good. Glad to see some good looking official plushies come out, even though it'll only be the Mane 6 in waves 1 and 2. I still fully intend to get a Twi and Rarity. I may even probably will cuddle them to death.

11 inches tall though.. wow. Those kind of fan plushies run at around the $500 dollar area.

Yeah, the fanmade ones of that quality are really expensive just because of how greatly the demand outstrips the supply.

Of course when you start making these on an industrial scale, we don't have to scrape tooth and nail over one another to get them -- though there will certainly still be some plushies that certain fans like Seth will still pay big bucks to get:

BulletproofBrony, Cpt. of HMS Joevance wrote:

Yeah, the fanmade ones of that quality are really expensive just because of how greatly the demand outstrips the supply.

It will help to lower the prices on some of the fan plush ponies being made. Beanie ponies will still sit at their original prices, but they aren't as high.

Only bad thing I can see happening is some fans getting upset and quitting because their business dries up. They'll have to specifically do Secondary, Background, OC, and Modified ponies to keep their.. business.. afloat..

Actually, I think they'll be fine. That's pretty much what they do already.

I have a theory. Twilight Sparkle knows how to fly with her new wings, but how does she know how to fly if shes never done it before? Easy, she read all about flying before she became an alicorn.

But then that made me think "Why?" It's not like she knew she was eventually going to grow wings, right? She couldn't have seen this coming, right?

EDIT
sorry, I double posted. I forgot about the edit button

So, yeah, I finally got around to watching the season finale.

The first 12 minutes were amazing.

The last 10 were as stupid as I thought they were going to be.

In short, I know this doesn't mean anything to anyone, but I'm pretty much done with the show. It was a good three seasons, but I really can't derive any more pleasure from it. Hope you all continue to like it.

16 goddamn minutes.

Next he's going to make his own TV show or something.

Ahh so THAT'S why he tweeted his fans asking them how to animate a pony's head melting.

What's this? A new pony.mov?!

Ah sweet, I didn't know Egoraptor was in it.

DAYMN, this crowd shot!

Snowpony is best pony.

Wait a minute, Egoraptor is in the .mov series!? I just came buckets.
I could not have asked for a better ending for the series. It was just too awesome! Came just in time, too seeing as season 3 just wrapped up.

I spy Egopony and jontronpony in that group shot. Too bad Rainbow Dash squashed them.

>MFW SWAG.MOV about to start

>MFW while watching

I love you.
I AM ASS HAPPY TO HAVE FINALLY HAVE SEEN IT, IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT!!!

I see the homestuck Betas JonTron and Egoraptor and the kids from the anime club dub. And some of you probably haven't heard of the anime club so here's the first dub.

You think you can avoid MLP when the first thing you think of when watching a cartoon is MLP.

You can't resist, we are one. You try to hide, it will find you

Vinyl. Form a rap-rock group like a boss.

I think we should bring our pony thread back to the roots of pony threads. With pony memes.

Well, that was.. odd…
I never really cared for the humor in the .MOV series in the first place, but why did this episode seem to turn almost completely away from it?
It was just one big action scene.
I could kind of understand the other ones as over-the-top parodies even if they didn't specifically work on me, but this was just kind of… there.
And I just have to say it: This episode actually made me kind of happy that RD has been 'dead' this whole time because I hadn't realized just how annoying I find her voice until she actually had some significant lines.
I'm going to guess that that contributed to my inability to consider the battle 'epic' like it was apparently supposed to be.
Another case of something that is technically very well done, but just 'meh' overall due to acting and story.
I will say that once again, even in a parody, Scootaloo is shown to be awesome and a major factor in saving the day!
Yay!
(And he completely disregarded AJ's whole storyline which I actually liked! Why? AJ's journey was actually interesting and had some character development.)

For those who missed his other freeze-frame gag:

In an odd parallel, SWAG.MOV ended up looking a heck of a lot like Ax Brutaloo's current storyline, but jumbled around a bit.

Thing is, I like Brutaloo because, even though it is massively over-the-top and insane, it actually took the time to give the characters character.
It's the same type of crazy, but I actually want to know how Brutaloo will end whereas .MOV has been relatively emotionless for me.
Eh, diff'rent strokes and all…

I'm generally annoyed with the .mov series. I don't care for most gross humor from simple poop jokes to excessive and unrealistic (or realistic) blood and guts. Ren and Stimpy, albeit a classic cartoon, is one of the last things I'd watch for entertainment. C-Span ranks above it.

This is like an amateur Ren and Stimpy. It's mere existence bothers me, but hey. Others get a kick out of it.
 
I can't be bothered to watch the grand ending because of that aspect (which is nearly the entire premise of the series), in part because I don't like Jon Tron all that much so the apparent cameo doesn't help (he annoyed me with his, um, "review" videos. I say "review" because most of them seem to be him making odd noises and voices as opposed to being witty), but mostly for the time being, because there are about 5 links to the darned thing on this page and I have to deal with my machine trying to load each instance of it just to see what people are typing.
 
What do you mean "Passive aggressive much?"

But it's a really well made series! Can't we all agree on that? Can't we all just appreciate the quality? Can't we all just… sit down… and… enjoy the… animation…

Actually, have to kind of side with Verbose, to an extent. The unending sex and gore have kinda worn their welcome by this point, and this one was probably the worst-animated video in the series; I'm willing to partially forgive its transgressions because of its length, but the animation was just a little stiff and lacking energy. I appreciate that it stepped away from nothing but vulgar humor, though. The sheer immaturity was really only used to positive effect in Party.mov, but Swag.mov actually had some decent moments that didn't pivot around gore or sex. Sure, there was still a lot of that, a lot of the movie was as cringe-inducing as ever, but I would say that this one was the best written, even if it wasn't the best executed. But if there's one thing I've noticed on the quality front, it's that Pinkie Pie and Rarity are doubtlessly among the best voiced, and, shocker of the century, they're voiced by Arin Hanson, which is awesome. The acting as a whole was a little (read: greatly) lacking over the course of the whole series, which is a shame; they didn't pull of the "girls voiced by guys" trope as well as, say, the Mentally Advanced Series.

In other news, yesterday I learned that Twilight Sparkle is voiced by the same actress in Fighting is Magic and Super Smash Ponies.

Just so you know, the only "cameo" of JonTron in the video is the pony that kinda looks like him that is only there for about 3 seconds. No speaking parts or anything. If you're still insulted by the sight of him, well I guess then you still have that reason to not watch the video.

@Crimson Locks

Nah, I'm less insulted than it's no reason for me to watch it. Whereas other people might be slightly more likely to watch it, I'm slightly less likely. But on the whole, a small cameo that some people might miss won't change the opinion of most people of the video one way or the other. But since it was brought up, I responded in kind.

Derpibooru says this was in it. Well, I'm glad this came out of it, like this gem.

It's actually in reverse, but I like it better this way.

@Exudes

Yeah, it's well done animation, but the art style prevents me from really appreciating it, if that makes any sense. I see that Max is good at what he does, but I don't think to praise him when I've seen other animators who are just as good. From when I followed the Jappleack tumblr (I don't know how it ended. I lost interest,) I saw just how well he could "art" and animate removed from the context of some of the gross humor (Jappleack still had its bits, but it was still often very clever.)

To be honest, I don't like the .mov series much, myself, I feel I just have to watch them because they're extremely popular. I don't like Brutaloo, Ren and Stimpy, etc. for much the same reason. I did watch this, and I did feel the animation was a bit… less… I guess 'polished' than the previous, but it was extremely long, and I think HDD ran into a lot of shit while making SWAG. I found a few parts funny, but it wasn't really too great.

I actually find a few of HDD's other stuff to be better. Namely the Northern Incident. It was eerie and creepy for most of it, and filled me with anticipation, just to kill it all and make me burst out laughing at the end. Maybe it's just personal preference, but I find that video to be better than the whole .mov series, bar maybe Apples. I also kept up with Applejack's deal, and found it pretty entertaining. To an extend more than .mov, at least.

Really, I'll watch the .mov series just to get grossed out and have the occasional life, but mostly just so I feel I can understand all the references and such people will make to it. It's grown to be such a major thing in the brony fandom because of a number of reasons I'm sure I don't have to explain, and that's not entirely unwarranted. I won't discredit the humor HDD uses just because it isn't my taste. The videos do have effort put into them, and he does take a lot of time to make them, so you can't exactly hate them just for being a type of humor you don't enjoy.

That said, I will say that there were a few… touching-ish parts. They were kinda ruined horribly by HDD overdoing the profanity and stuff (Spike interrupting AJ springs to mind), but it did at least have a tad bit of emotion. Not a lot, but, hey, it's a 15.5 minute video about a bunch of corrupt little ponies killing a giant god of chaos.

I like TF2 and MLP.

Stop making stupid comments before you get banned.

Lulz

@Adolf

Bronies pretty much run TF2. We're in every server filling it with pony sprays. If you don't like us, then maybe you should find another game to play

And it's you who should take that comment down before you get spammed with angry comments. Whiny crybabies like you are liked even less than us

Leave and don't come back

Judge Verbose? Judge RandomMan? What do you suggest our course of action be?

@Whatever Adolf is Talking about

Guys, I think Adolf is trying to get a reaction out of us. While writing up a reply saying we should give the guy a fair trial, I'm noticing that his comment comes right out of nowhere, doesn't explain himself, and seems to not mention anything that within reason could cause such a grievance.

Not to mention… He's using a name that specifically sounds like a Troll name.

In closing, I'm beginning to suspect Adolf doesn't actually have grievance with us, and is just trying to get a rise out of us for a laugh.

Unless Adolf would like to contest this Position with a genuine grievance and some polite words, I would like to rest my case.

If the Defense has no words in their defense, I shall defer to the judges, or Mods, who can pronounce the verdict.

No comment.

@Official Hasbro plushies

Hey, do you guys hear that?

Seriously listen close

…

…

..

plunk

It's the sound of Deadparrot's net worth plummeting to nothing! Oh Deadparrot you fool, you made the same poor choice as those fools at the beginning of the industrial revolution who stuck by traditionally made products: You chose to bet on man over machine.

Fifths

Hey, do you guys hear that?

Seriously listen close

…

…

..

plunk

It’s the sound of Deadparrot’s net worth plummeting to nothing! Oh Deadparrot you fool, you made the same poor choice as those fools at the beginning of the industrial revolution who stuck by traditionally made products: You chose to bet on man over machine.

Hey, Lighten up, there's one thing that's harder for a machine to do than a human.

…Making custom stuff.

Think about it, Hasbro is only likely to make show standard plushies with a machine. But a machine can't account for certain details a customer might want to distinguish it from the usual merchandise as "better quality" in their personal opinion.

And then… There's the elephant in the room…

OC Plushies and Alternate Version Plushies

Yes, someone has to be there to give people a plushie of those fan made characters that while not loved by many, is at least loved by their creator.

Also… One more thing… What exactly is the chance of Hasbro making a Giant sized Plushie? Like, as big as we are?

…That's what I thought.

Aaaactually, the total value of his plushies probably just went up. Fans like the cheap ones, yes, but they're only releasing Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy for Wave 1, then the rest of the Mane 6 for Wave 2. Here's the thing though: the market is already saturated with those plushies and it's becoming slightly more difficult to sell them. Artisans are making custom characters now (Like RD laying on a cloud or Fluttershy in her Dangerous Mission Outfit) that sell like wild, but fit to specific niches of the fandom. Companies don't usually go into that much detail.

People will also want slightly different patterns. It's likely any high-quality pony that doesn't use ValleyViolet's design will become wanted, as people don't want the same style of plushie twice. Those that couldn't afford high-cost plushies in the past will buy the cheaper ones and feel a need to complete collections, making Secondary Characters more popular as well.

So some of the ponies' values may have gone down, but the net worth has likely gone up.


Though, I really don't know why you would want to sell such an adorable pile of pony plush in the first place.

Awe man, how is it that every-time I argue a point, someone else argues the same point and does it better…

…Without even acknowledging my being here?

Can't someone say "I agree, but I've got better points?"

Le sigh.

@.MOV
Well, if nothing else, one good thing came out of this little movie:

Another chance for Lauren to be awesome!
I tip my hat to you, Ms. Faust.

Just going to double down with Verbs and Exudes too, and say that the quality of the series went way down after Apple and never really recovered.
Rarity's was so pointless that I don't even remember it, Fluttershy was mindless gore, Pinkie was mindless sex, Twilight had a whole movie where nothing happened, and then Dash gets this one that just felt awkward pretty much all the way through.
The acting was the real killer in RD's simply because I don't think HDD had the physical ability or talent to put emotion into that voice, and an 'epic battle' where you don't care about the outcome pretty much loses its sense of drama or interest.

@Verb's screenshots
Yeah, that face was in there, but it honestly annoys me.
Not because the face itself is bad, but because its inclusion proves that HDD could animated something that looks pretty good and it is instead a conscious choice on his part to make everything… like he does.
They are reminders of missed potential.

@Fifths
Yeah, give me a call when Hasbro starts putting stuff like this out on the market and we'll talk.

Don't get me wrong, I do actually love that Hasbro is finally getting in on this and if the quality ends up being as good as it looks, I may end up picking up these official ones too.
But the custom market isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
The sheer variety of characters, sizes, outfits, poses, OCs, ect. that are out there would be impossible for Hasbro to mass-market.
I'll stick with what I have, thank you very much.

(But as CrazyC said, a collection's 'value' is really only a factor if I were planning to sell them and that ain't going to happen.)