My Thoughts on Equestria Girls

So it seems there is a lot of people upset about this new Equestria Girls thing. I wasn't going to bring this into my blog yet, in fact I was planning on making this some sort of breather for everyone who is so upset, so they can escape all this drama by coming here and just reading about everything but Equestria Girls. But after seeing all the reactions, and the opinions, and people getting angry, and threatening each other, I think I shouldn't be ignoring this. Let’s address the big, multicolored elephant-turned-into-human in the room, Equestria Girls.

Let me address one thing right away, so we can get it out of the way first thing first. I am amazed at the way people are reacting. I don’t mean just the typical immature fan who is raging and tearing his or her clothes off, but also those who consider themselves level headed and keep a cool attitude towards it. We are having two extremes going on now about this subject: We have the people freaking out and going insane, and the people who are chilling and pointing at those freaking out and calling them idiots. Can’t we have something in between? I guess that would be too convenient. It’s virtually impossible to come up with a clear response when determining how the fandom feels. This is how I perceived the fandom’s reaction as I went through the websites during the past three days.

You also believe in unforgivable spelling errors.

If I go to Tumblr everything is in shambles and falling apart. It’s like seeing Charlton Heston in “Soylent Green” as he runs around left and right flailing his arms and screaming “Ponies are now human! Ponies are now human!”.

All fire extinguishers are on fire, but we're fine.

If I go to Twitter then what I see is people from DHX somewhat appalled at the negativity but thankful for the support, and I see a lot of people actually praising them for their continued efforts, plus the occasional upset “mature Brony” who is acting like this is not a big deal.

You know it's important because the text is green.

If I go to 4chan’s /mlp/ board it’s like stepping into “The Towering Inferno”, if the Towering Inferno had a volcano on top and was built next to a nuclear plant in the surface of the Sun.

This is the first time I post this meme here, can you believe that?

If I go to Equestria Daily it’s like watching the Titanic sink in a kiddie pool, as there are negative comments but they get quickly reverted and then derailed, and in the end people just return to talk about the latest shipping fanfic.

Abandon...everything!!!

The only places in the whole fandom that haven’t seemed to change one single bit are Derpibooru and YouTube, the first one because it never gave a crap to begin with (and seriously, people go there because of the memes and the porn, I dare you to tell me I’m wrong) and the second one because it was always rotten to begin with.

I look at all these websites plagued with the hatred or support to Equestria Girls and it’s remarkable. It’s like the Bronies have no idea how to feel about this! And to be honest, I think that’s the best way to describe this situation. This is not like the whole Season 3 finale dilemma, there is no Alicorn Twilight here, there is no musical episode debate or “I believe in M.A. Larson” crap. It’s none of that. What’s going on here is pure and simple division because people have no idea how to feel, and since they are forced to pick one side or the other their feelings appear to be a lot stronger than they really are. They say things they don’t really feel, and they get angry to people they love and admire. This goes to both the people who like it and the people who hate it, which to be honest and from what I’m seeing, the division is pretty much half and half. With the whole Alicorn Twilight debate we can argue that there was the same division, but if you noticed the voices of support and admiration have ended up drowning the voices of hatred and despise. I barely hear anybody complain about Alicorn Twilight anymore, and those who do complain get quickly overwhelmed by the swarm of love towards the character change.

How could anyone be mad at something so adorable anyways?

Equestria Girls is not the case however. You have this perfect, clear cut division in the fandom, and it’s digging itself so deep it’s going to leave a scar so ugly and so permanent it’s going to make the whole Derpygate debacle look like a mere scratch. To put it in perspective, this event is up there with the Mass Effect 3 ending in terms of drama and upset people, and you know what I thought of that thing? I thought it was disgustingly sad. And for me to say that this fandom has done something disgusting and sad it’s saying something. Despite how I've always said how much I love you guys, and how much I stand for what you stand, this reaction is just shameful.

But, believe me or not, I understand it. I know why you are so upset, those of you who are at least. I know where your hatred comes from. I've said it when talking about Alicorn Twilight and Princess Cadance that, despite Hasbro’s intention when making the show to promote toys, I totally understand when people get upset because the changes applied to their favorite show come from the need to plug in a new toy line. I know it’s supposed to be like that because Hasbro is all about selling the toys. They don’t make any money out of the TV Show (besides maybe the DVD sales) and they make a lot more money by selling the toys that are advertised in the show, so when they get shoved into our faces there’s going to be people who are going to get upset. It’s been clear in the past, of course. Like I said with Cadance or Twilicorn people who didn’t like them mostly used the argument that Hasbro was shoehorning their products in their show. Could they have done this in a better way? I think so, yeah, but I think the way they have done it so far works fairly well.

Do you remember this? That's how NOT to do it.

And this leads me to voice my cautious opinion on the whole Equestria Girls thing. I don’t hate the concept, but I am not a fan either. I don’t know how to feel towards it, and personally I like to feel like that. A trailer is not going to change my perception and I am not going to make any judgement based on sixty seconds out of a seventy minutes long movie. Nobody should do that. If you do you are being judgmental and close minded, you are acting like those who judged you when you became a fan of a show whose target audience were little girls. That’s why I am not acting like that, because I am not like that. I am an open minded guy and I think I treat people with the respect they deserve, and I am not going to give an opinion without first watching this movie.

Remember when you saw past this and gave it a try? Surely you can do it again.

If I was to judge the whole thing based on what I saw, I will say that the animation looks as good as the animation in the main show, and that’s probably because the ones behind it is DHX and the people from Studio B, including Sabrina Alberghetti and Jayson Thiessen. The designs look odd though, and too clone-ish, it’s like they copy-pasted the bodies, changed the hairs and played around with the hue option in Photoshop. The music is powerfully catchy. I keep humming the song from the trailer, and that one isn't even written by Daniel Ingram, who has composed music for it so I can only imagine how catchy those are going to be! It appears that the movie is written by Meghan McCarthy. I know some people don’t like her. I know some people consider her to be the worst writer of all MLP: FiM and a poor choice for Story Editor, but I personally love her style and her work (with the exception of “A Canterlot Wedding” which I still consider her weakest episodes so far) and if she managed to pull something through with her work is to mix day to day occurrences with magic and wonder. So you can say that my feelings towards this movie are cautiously optimistic. Will I watch it? Sure I will. I want to know more about this Crystal Mirror, and this portal to another dimension, and how Twilight is going to recover her crown, and what’s in that crown that’s so important to make her go through another change in her life. I frown at the concept and where it came from, but I am hopeful for the guys who make this show so awesome to bring us something good and compelling. And you have to think that these are the people who brought us 65 episodes of high quality story and animation. If I ever say bad things about certain episodes (Over a Barrel, Dragon Quest, Putting your Hoof Down, Wonderbolts Academy) is because of my personal gripes with them and just that. It doesn’t mean they are bad, it just means I didn’t like them. There are fans of episodes I hate, and there is people who hate episodes I love. So I can safely say that every episode has its fans, meaning that this show doesn’t have bad or good episodes, it has episodes people love or hate.

Cue the line of people who want to punch me in the throat for liking this episode.

Now, with Equestria Girls things don’t seem to be so fine and dandy. Like I said, the division seems to be at fifty percent, one half loves it and one half hates it, and I’m trying to understand why is this. I don’t think it’s caused because of the designs, or the fact that the ponies are now human. Ever since this fandom started there have been re-imaginings that portray the ponies are humans made by artists like John Joseco, Megasweet or Cartoonlion. I know that not everybody in the fandom is a fan of the humanized versions of ponies, and that’s perfectly fine, so it’s possible that a significant portion of this hatred comes from the mere fact that now the ponies are humanized. There is also the fact that Hasbro is putting their product in their TV show, and I could go on an eternal tangent about how Hasbro uses their property to sell their products, but for the sake of brevity I will save you the reading. It’s clear that a big portion of the hate comes from that though, so I’m counting it. Perhaps it’s the whole High School theme, and those Bronies that hated high school can’t enjoy it because it reminds them of how awkward and unfair that time of their lives was (I’m talking from my own experience, if you are wondering). But hatred in this fandom has always gone as far, it has never been so vitriolic, acidic and corrosive as it’s being with Equestria Girls. So what makes it so much stronger? There is no permanent change here. Twilight is not going to be a human forever, and if you read the plot carefully you will know that she is the only pony that gets turned into a human! Every other character in the movie is going to be an alternate universe equivalent of their pony counter parts! So either people didn’t think of that, or this fandom loves to get upset whenever Twilight Sparkle experiences a change in her life, first Alicorn transformation and now this.

...and some people think you fucked it up, though I don't.

Whatever is getting people so upset with this new Equestria Girls IP, be it the design, the tone, the fact that Hasbro is using their property to promote their new toy line (seriously guys, the show exists thanks to the toy, get over it), the High School theme, the fact that half the budget of Season 3 went to make this movie, it’s very possible we may never find a satisfactory answer to the inevitable question: What is making Bronies so upset? I don’t know. I seriously don’t know, and to be honest I don’t think we should care either.

To those who got angry at the trailer, and went as far as insulting and threatening the folks that work at DHX, you should do two things: One, feel ashamed for acting in such a poor and rotten manner; and two, stop it. You have made your point loud clear; going beyond that is stepping into Family Guy territory of comedy, the type that goes on for so long that it becomes pathetic and instead of laughing you are just changing the channel. I don’t mean to say you are wrong for being upset and angry, but you certainly are wrong for acting this way. You can’t change it, you can’t stop it, it’s going to happen and there is nothing you can do about it. If you are upset and angry, go play a videogame, watch a movie, go outside, do some exercise, help your family with something, go out with your friends, do anything that’s not related to ponies and disconnect, for your own good and the good of those around you.

Read a book too, books are good.

For those who are excited about it and have a good and positive attitude towards this whole thing then more power to you but don’t go too far. Don’t get too over-excited, remember it’s just a show, and keep it level headed. There is no need to shove your passion towards it into everybody’s faces. There is also no need to go to those who are angry about it and assault them and tell them they are wrong. If you can’t word your thoughts and be respectful about it then you should just shut up and stay away, or if anything share your opinion with your friends in a calm and level headed way.

Gushing only makes you endearing when you are a cartoon...or a fan of Castle.

I personally am in the boat of the cautiously optimistic people. I don’t love the idea, but I don’t hate it either. I want to watch it, I have no strong feelings towards it, I am interested in knowing more about the whole mythos this is based on, and I am going to give it a shot and see how it goes. If it hadn't been for me having this attitude towards Friendship is Magic I would have never found my favorite group of people on the internet.

Yes guys, it's you, who else is going to be?

If you want to share your opinion, feel free to toss it in the comments, and try to keep it hatred free. We are not here to get upset, we are here to have fun and enjoy a really good cartoon. If you want to get upset you have real life to do that, switch on that TV and check the news channels or read a newspaper, or go to a news feed, or just step out of your fucking door. The real world and its current state of affairs is what should be upsetting you, not a show about colorful ponies.