MLP:FiM Megathread: Does anyone even watch this show anymore edition

[Pike]

I effing loved this episode. I just could not stop laughing. Also I kept expecting Diamond Tiara to go "I WANT PICTURES. PICTURES OF SPIDERMAN!"

[MJN SEIFER]

The one pony who was running it, however, made it clear she wanted more stuff like the gum thing that was their first issue.

I'm not talking like the story they wanted to do on spike that got rejected, but just random stories about things people had done in public eye. There is a big difference in publishing a story about kids acting up in a store, and publishing someones diary entries. This episode tried to make them sound like the same thing.

I may have to watch it again to check if there really was a blur between the "good" stories the "bad" stories. The impression I got is that they created the illusion of them being the same as that's what the CMC were being lead to believe, and you the audience are supposed to be ahead of them, and by the tame they realize what you knew, they're blackmailed into it. I don't think they tried to make them seem the same thing, just that the characters thought they were at first, but I will rewatch it to be sure. Also the pony running the paper was not a CMC, and we've established that she's meant to be a bitch anyway.

I dunno, I'm gonna have to buck the trend and say I thought this episode was pretty awesome. The lesson was vague and muddled, I'll openly support that complaint. The moral itself was a little off because they never went into the difference between gossip, news and invasion of privacy. For me though, the moment to moment one liners, facial expressions and wtf moments totally made up for any shortcomings. Spoilerseses Big Mac and Applejack swapping speech patterns when they got pissed was classic. Celestia stuffing her face? Rarity's several violent declarations? Twilight throwing up a forcefield out of spite? Poor little Scoots only able to hover her flank? It was pretty much wall to wall hilarity for me.

Like I say, I'll rewatch it to check if the lesson was done in an off way, as I always thought that they didn't need to explain it out loud. We got it, the CMC got it, the target audience got it. Did it need to actually be said by the characters, or would that just shove it down everyone's throats? That said I will watch it again to be sure, as this show has goofed on it's lessons before (The unfortunatly named "Mysterious Mare Do Well" is a good example, even though I seem to be the only one who actually liked the episode, I do see an obvious flaw with the way the moral was handled).

I agree with the episode being humorus though.

Did anyone notice that while Diamond Tiara was featured in enough scenes to be considered at least a semi-central character; her so called best friend Silver Spoon didn't appear once? It's probably because she wasn't on the paper team or something, but seeing her absence, and seeing that Diamond's personality appears to have gotten even worst now, reopens what I thought when I saw "Family Appreciation Day" which is; what if they did an episode where Diamond Tiara becomes so spoiled and so bitchy that even Silver Spoon can't stand her anymore? I personally think that would be a good episode, and would be good for the target audience as it will show them that you shouldn't be stuck up and everything (I personally view Silver Spoon to be the lesser of the two evils, if that makes sense).

[Hollycat]

[NeoCracker]

Thats a terribly unconvincing April Fools.

Edit: And the botched lesson is really only a small portion of my dislike for the episode. I never enjoyed Cutie mark Crusaders, and the majority of jokes with them I don't find funny in the least. Its the culmination of dislike of CMC, a botched lesson, and everyone seeming so out of character in their support of the gossip collum at first.

The amount of jokes I found funny could be counted on one hand.

'Et Tu Sweetie Belle', Rarity threatening to kill them all, and scootaloos flying atttempt.

As I also mentioned I was amusied at the fact they had tail extensions, but boggled by why it would be embarassing, though I have never known or heard of anyone seeing extensions in anything resembling a negative light.

And I enjoyed Mare-Do Well. Not one of the better episodes, but still fun.

[Hollycat]

[MJN SEIFER]

And I enjoyed Mare-Do Well. Not one of the better episodes, but still fun.

At least I'm not the only one who doesn't outright hate it. To be honest, the worst aspect of it for me was (aside from the fact they gave a supposed Super Hero a title which was horse pun on a phrase that means "a bad guy") was that while Dash did need to be put in her place, and while I thought it was cool how they did it - why didn't any of them even try to talk to Dash first? Yeah, okay she might not have listened, but it wasn't believable that her friends wouldn't have tried talking to her before humiliating her first if that makes sense. Loved the humor though, I really like Scootaloo's feeble attempt at acting, and the fact that Dash doesn't see right through it.

Also, and I realize that it's been online for ages, and you've probably all read it already, but... I've finally read My Little Dashie. It was beautiful. Words can't even begin to explain how I felt by the time I'd finished reading it...

[gyepitokki]

I never realised this thread.. i'm now in heaven T^T

I can't wait for the next episode x3

[GhandiOwnsYou]

aaaaaaand another one. Welcome Brony.

[Madame Adequate]

What the hay was out of character about supporting the column? It provided lighthearted, amusing stories at first. Snips and Snails getting stuck together by gum; A couple of babbies cry at the store; The Great and Powerful Trixie's Secrets Revealed. They show a clear and logical progression towards being unacceptably invasive. It was only when the CMC started running out of stories and Diamond Tiara pressed them that they started getting invasive, and that was exactly when the Mane Six started to have doubts about it, which seems pretty reasonable to me.

And Sweetie Belle herself asks why on Earth Rarity and her friends would want to read the Foal Free Press and it's because gum on their bum!

[NeoCracker]

The only one that had doubts was Twilight Sparkle. The rest showed no issues until they were the ones featured.

I agree that the gum and kids were rather light hearted stories mind you, (they weren't specific enough about the light hearted stories), but there in lies the problem. Diamond Tiara, upon reading the article about the gum, immidiately refers to it as getting stories about ponies when they think they are alone. Even her reaction to the crying babies makes the article come off as less then flattering.

Mind you, these are the only stories we've heard about during the scene in the Spa. Everypony except Twilight has no issues what so ever with whats going on, yet twilight is already talking about how Gabby Gums 'values no ones privacy'. This is where stories like the Mayor Dying her maine and Celestia eating the cake come up, and still only Twilight thinks it can be hurtful.

Then the first collum that's not gossip, i.e. the spike story, it gets shut down as 'not being the same kind of journalism that got them this far'. And even the CMC have said the feel bad about these stories they've been doing up until now. It seems the episode has made no distinction as to what column's are just the light hearted ones or mean spirited ones.

To further the point, we get to the next scene of the colums about AJ and Twilight, which AJ is immediately pissed, as is Twilight. Rarity brushes it off as completely Harmless, as do Fluttershy and Pinkie (Not buy saying anything, but by seeming completely un-phased by AJ's reaction to the article on her. There is no way I can believe that was in character for Fluttershy.) We then get, in this order, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity having articles about them, and them getting upset over it.

There is a big difference here in that the articles feature lies, but between them already feeling bad about the initial articles, as well as Twilights earlier comments about the articles being hurtful and feeling bad about the featured ponies, there isn't shown to be any distinction, and in fact reason to believe that the articles are all in the same ballpark of mean spirited.

And I still hold it's out of character for the ponies.

1) Rarity, as I mentioned, should already know the adverse effects of such columns. She is in a profession that knows the downsides.
2) You would tell me that Fluttershy, the one who represesnts Kindness, has no issues reading a column that to date has shown nothing but peoples negative sides, in addition to not reacting to AJ getting so upset over one and brushing it off like its nothing? This isn't something as objectively silly as the Twilight Freak out episode mind you.
3) Other then AJ being in a spa after the whole sleepover episode shenanagins (Just something odd I noticed, nothing that's a big deal mind you. ), it may just be me but she never seemed the type at all interested in Gossip, which is exactly what this column is, light hearted or not. That just may be me though.
4) It's pretty much the same for Rainbow Dash as AJ for me. She seems in no way someone interested in a Gossip Column.
5. Pinkie Pie amounts to the same as Fluttershy. She brushed off the stories of AJ and Twilight until she read the one about her. The Pony whose main purpose in life is to bring a smile to the faces of others.
6.) I'm derailed as to how Twilight can think 'Gabby Gums' can be mean and hurtful at times, how she can 'feel bad about the featured ponies', and STILL say she likes Gabby Gums.

[Madame Adequate]

Well the show is kind of limited by the fact that it is for kids. What the heck kind of stories are they supposed to state are being printed? 'Fluttershy Caught Yiffing; Angel Speaks Of Years Of Abuse', 'Princess Luna dies in high-speed paparazzo car wreck', 'Trixie's Sixth Abortion'? They couldn't just say everypony's diary was getting published, they couldn't just say "Pony's secrets revealed!" or the like, they had to have some more 'meat' as it were, but the constraints of the fact that bronies are secondary to the show's intended audience meant that these additional stories had to be fairly lightweight affairs. So I can see that there might be some dissonance here, I guess I'm just more willing to forgive it than you are.

But why you think Rarity would be opposed to gossip I cannot fathom. She's in the fashion industry, that doesn't mean she realizes how gossip can hurt, it means she partakes in gossiping and thinks it's fine. She's so casual about it precisely BECAUSE of her profession, not in spite of it!

[Pike]

Ponies condoning gossip didn't seem particularly unusual to me because if you go out into the real world pretty much everyone condones gossip. Is it a good thing? Not really. Does everyone do it anyway? Yes.

[NeoCracker]

Well the show is kind of limited by the fact that it is for kids. What the heck kind of stories are they supposed to state are being printed? 'Fluttershy Caught Yiffing; Angel Speaks Of Years Of Abuse', 'Princess Luna dies in high-speed paparazzo car wreck', 'Trixie's Sixth Abortion'? They couldn't just say everypony's diary was getting published, they couldn't just say "Pony's secrets revealed!" or the like, they had to have some more 'meat' as it were, but the constraints of the fact that bronies are secondary to the show's intended audience meant that these additional stories had to be fairly lightweight affairs. So I can see that there might be some dissonance here, I guess I'm just more willing to forgive it than you are.

But why you think Rarity would be opposed to gossip I cannot fathom. She's in the fashion industry, that doesn't mean she realizes how gossip can hurt, it means she partakes in gossiping and thinks it's fine. She's so casual about it precisely BECAUSE of her profession, not in spite of it!

As far as I can tell, people in that position tend to be a lot less likely to gossip because they tend to be the target of it more then most. I never hear about celebrity types being the ones spreading gossip, I only ever here them speak out against it. (It is less widespread when it comes to fashion designers though, but it applies to people who are big into whoever fasion designers are.)

I guess it could be argued that she isn't that big in the industry yet, but she constantly seems fully aware of how it works, so it's just awkward that she doesn't seem to realize the hurtful nature of gossip. The more light hearted stories I'm fine with, I mean her getting a chuckle out of it isn't an issue. It's only an issue when they try to play off all the stories as being bad(I recall mentioning the CMC feeling guilt about all of their stories prior to the mentioning of Spikes getting rejected.) The poor job at differentiating between bad gossip and the light hearted stories is where the problems start forming for me.

I do find it odd that this is what we end up debating, since really its secondary to my real dislikes of the episode, being I just don't like the CMC.

[Hollycat]

Hey guys, I am about to be completely serious, this is the single most important post in the history of this thread.
I'm spoilering the news for those of us with weak hearts.

THE ABSOLUTE BEST THING Ponies are on Netflix

[Pike]

My collection is finally complete!