@Phoenixflambe  
Machinima’s cool, but there are other gaming channels out there like Gamecross; He has a couple of other channels that I can’t remember the names of but he covers ps4 games like sales that are going on what games are hitting the shelves stuff like like that. Then there are some similar channels out there that aren’t as big as Machinima or IGN like ACG, Gamingbolt, Fextralife the list goes on, but these guys are independent reveiwers they dont get paid by the developers for giving their games a good reveiw to help with sales.
 
You’ve heard of the game Neir right? Back when it was released on ps3 and 360? I was going to pick that game up for myself when it came out but I didn’t due to a lousy reveiw that it was given by the “mainstram reviewers” only to find out that the game was phenomenal and criticaly underated by other gamers. (I plan on picking up the remaster when it comes out.)
 
But I don’t go off what every reveiwer says either, just because someone is independent doesnt mean that their always right either, which is why I watch some let’s plays of the actual game and decide wether or not if the game is worth my money. That and I useually pick them up on a sale.

@chaotic-7  
So Machinima?

I Been Member Of Derpibooru Since 2018

@Phoenixflambe  
You still have gaming channels on YouTube like lets players and game guides. But IGN was and is one of the big ones and lately they’ve been in some hot water for fabricating other people’s reviews as well as charging game developers for a positive review just scummy stuff.

@chaotic-7  
Other gaming networks are dead though.

@Phoenixflambe  
That and they had film reel projectors. I think the issue some people have is that that they feel that Equstria should be a strictly traditional fantasy realm, like the concept of technology cheapens and ruins the whole mystycism and thats fine for people to feel and see it that way. As for me, I like the idea of a world where technology, industry and magic all reside in the same type of eco system. It’s not like it hasn’t been done before either; we’ve seen it in comics, cartoons, anime and manga, videogames, even television and movies.
 
I like the idea of a magical, technologic industrial world setting only because I feel that it expands on the lore of such a world. I might be overthinking on this and the show creators probably just threw in the idea of modern tech for the hell of it which is fine. But it made me wonder about what powers their devices? Obiously they use electricity to power their appliances, but what if they used a type of magical element as well? Like magical gemstones in place of batteries kinda like Soulstone from Skyrim but without the ACTUAL soul.
 
My rebuttal is this,its okay to have conflicting veiws and opinions and it’s great to discuss them. But when someone just uses their veiwpoint just to post up a video on YouTube or to get more donations for their Patreon accounts? That just seems kinda desperate and half-assed. No two people are going to agree on everything and not everybody is right about everything either.
 
It’s like how IGN basically gives lousy reveiw scores on what are actually some pretty solid game titles. But most people don’t even bother with even trying the game for themselves because they simply go off of what IGN has already told them. Kinda like those in the analysis community. “Let us tell you how you should think and feel about a cartoon series, while we block any comments from people who disagree with us. Because we are the fandom’s influence.”
 
It’s one of the reasons I dont watch any of their content these days.

@chaotic-7  
Modern hi-tech. Don’t think ipads or laptops existed in the original series. There’s the arcade machine though.

@Ebalosus  
Yeah, I’ve felt that alot of them would either tip-toe around the issue or just flat-out praise each episode without even adressing the lazy writing that transpired in later seasons.
 
But they are sure quick to criticize Pony Life though. I’ll admit I actually like this rendition of the Mane 6 only because it gives me a little laugh now and again. It doesnt try to come up with complex answers to simple questions. It’s goofy because thats what it’s supposed to be. Of course that’s my veiwpoint, Im sure there are a lot of other people who disagree and that’s fine to each their own as I say. I actually like the idea of Equestrians utilizing mondern technology I mean it worked for the Shadowrun universe (think Cyberpunk 2077 meets DnD in case your curious)

@chaotic-7
 
Even though I agree that brony reviewers/analysts should branch out, I also feel that now would be a good time to do retrospectives on FiM on the whole. Not necessarily episode-by-episode analyses, but maybe seasonal analyses. Even those burnt out by it should go back and have a look, since I feel that enough time has passed (especially for the earlier seasons) to do a more objective look back at the show and the surrounding fandom.
 
I feel that this would be good for everyone since it helps prevent nostalgia-itis from calcifying and ending up like the Star Trek and Star Wars fandoms where even the (at the time) bad entries are assumed to be uncritically and objectively good or at least better than what came later.
 
I mean, we’ve had season 1/2 circlejerks since season 3, and from my experience it’s only been Voice of Reason (reviewer-wise) that has put those seasons under the microscope and objectively analysed them, whereas a lot of others (cough Chad Rocco cough) have treated them as unassailably good and beyond criticism.

@Ebalosus  
True. I’ve noticed that with a lot of “brony” reveiwers. Either they don’t have the drive to branch out, or they just stick to MLP because it’s just simply EASY for them to just spin rhetoric about some characters that (if were being honest) arent all that difficult to understand. Something that I’ve noticed a lot of in their videos. They can’t stand critique of any kind and only want to hear the positves of what they discuss. Which then leads to a complete lack of effort to improve as well as a lack of development of ones channel. Which is why I feel that particular “group” acts like such a close knit group of “freinds” It’s not because they all care about each other’s well-being, but it’s more of a parysytic-symbiosis that they all share. They simply “feed” off of one another for their channels to survive.
 
I remember watching a video from Golden Fox, talking about how the Sonic Movie was “surprisingly good” and how the franchise itself was “completly bizarre”. Ok, granted I’m a LONG time Sonic fan (I grew up with the games, Satam, comics) and I know that the fandom gets a lot of flak these days, but what I noticed was how the video depicted Sonic visually, not discussing why so many people to this day still love Sonic. Just how the movie was and that the games were weird. But if it were something on Mlp (and this was something they all did back in the day) the video would be bullett points about how guys who watch mlp are justified and that you should care because its a big deal for a guys masculinity. When in truth there were tons of reasons why guys liked mlp, like mythical creatures, magic, ect. Just like you have a lot of people who are into DnD and Warhammer…and 40k. It wasn’t because it was bridging gender gaps, because you’ve had guys out there who were already into that suff…for decades!
 
But back to SabreSpark, I’ve noticed that despite how his videos may seem lacking at first (you know like how he has just stills of himself) he actually puts more effort into his videos than one would think. Like he’ll talk about the content in question, why he thought it was good or terrible, then he’ll talk about the production value of the content, what went into it and either why he thought it succeeded or why he thought it turned out to be such an atrocity that watching paint dry is more entertaining by comparison. But he also admits that those are his veiws and opinions. He doesn’t try to gloss things over with fluff and tries to spin his opinions off as facts which is depicted HEAVILY in the “Bronalysis” community.
 
Another YouTuber who I enjoy watching from time to time is a guy by the name of Brandon Tennold. He’s kinda in the same ballpark as SabreSpark but he covers old b-movies from ranging from Godzilla knock-offs to cheesy slasher flicks to corny sci-fi films. But these guys actually do their research on whatever they reveiw because its about what they love, what they grew up with not because it trended some 10 years ago. But these two are just a couple of examples as to what makes a successful reveiwer. Its more about the culture itself, what I mean is everyone has something they grew up with; wether it be animation, movies, comics, videogames or whatever the case maybe. These people understand that and they actually in some way shape or form resonate with their audience. It’s like sitting down with a freind and they’re just like “hey pal, pull up a seat and lets talk about stuff.” Y’know what I mean though? There’s a sense of actual community at the core. Where as most other reveiwers seem to talk and act with piouitiy and how others need to follow their example because a kids show told them to.

@chaotic-7
 
It’s not that they have to distance themselves, but more about how they make the leap from what topic got them famous to covering other topics. I was extremely conscionable of this back in 2012 during the explosion of new people who got their start (or got famous) covering the fallout from Mass Effect 3. Thankfully a lot of people made the leap from what made them famous to continuing popularity, but that’s because they didn’t really hammer the Mass Effect stuff that heavily, and clearly showed that they could cover other subjects as well.
 
The problem I feel with a lot of Brony analysts is that they come across as trapped by what made them famous, as they appear to be more concerned with engagement as defined by the algorithm than by a genuine long-term interest in the property or things related to what they cover. It also takes effort, which I feel a lot of them a lacking.
 
Saberspark shows that if you have the interest and put in the effort, you can do very well, which is how he’s succeeded. Voice of Reason or anyone else from whatever they call their cabal, don’t seem to have that much interest or are willing to put in the effort.
 
Finally, I feel that MLP isn’t exactly conducive towards in-depth analysis on an episode-by-episode basis, which I feel also hampered the MLP reviewer/analyst community. Sure, some episodes and two-parters have enough to talk about to make videos about, but given the slice-of-life nature of most episodes, there simply isn’t really enough to talk about unless you’re willing to pull an SF Debris and talk about themes and ideas brought up by certain episodes.
 
Overall, while I applaud them for trying, I feel that by making their focus MLP episodes they were setting themselves up for failure in the long term unless they were willing to branch out…preferably to things other than anime, since I feel that’s done to death these days.

@Ebalosus
 
@Phoenixflambe
 
Another YouTuber Manga Kamen has distanced himself from the “Brony” scene as well and has admitted himself that when one bases their entire channel around a singular kids show it’s going to end in disaster. Like how Doctor Wolf’s veiws have plummeted and KP is just blegh. (Though I don’t think Doctor Wolf’s veiw decline is due to fan stagnation, but more to the fact that he tried to tell everyone that they should forget that they had a pedo in their group.)

@Ebalosus  
No kidding, I visit his channel now, its majority is other stuff. When I did join the fandom in 2014, and searched for mlp videos on YouTube, Saberspark did pop up with lots of stuff like that, heck even his avatar looked different. Over the years, he did other stuff to the point that it outnumbers his mlp stuff and well, I forgot. I knew, but I wasn’t sure.

@Phoenixflambe
 
He started out that way, but has effectively branched out into covering other animated series, movies, producers, and production houses. Like with Jenny Nicholson, if you watch their stuff today you’d have no idea that they got their start in MLP.

i felt that  
already know mlp since 2018  
making arts when quarantine  
missed all the fun

@Ebalosus  
I know this is an old comment but I’ve always thought Saberspark was an MLP analyst, am I wrong?

i just joined to look for spicy memes that were ponified

@Ebalosus  
In my own opinion, I think the only real reason people started to analyze FIM in the first place was simply because the show had garnered so much popularity at the time. (As I mentioned before I have nothing against people who want to give critique or their own analysis.) At the start they start to amass their own following, but once a show starts losing it’s luster as it were they try to keep their following going by moving on to other intrests like movies or videogames. You don’t notice it at first but they start moving onto other topics little by little.
 
It’s like if one of them had come out and just announced “I’m leaving this fandom.” well they would loose a large porton of their follwers right of the bat. Take former youtuber AnimatedJames for instance, he posted a video announceing his departure from the fandom just by wording it differently “I’m taking a break” but the reality of it was that all of the “popular Bronies” were leaving the fandom (that and the elitism that was beginning to affect it). Only to find out that he had quit YouTube alltogether and kept the donation money from his Patreon.
 
And here is another example; Jerry/Lilly Peet/Orchard. Started out in the Brony analysis community, once they (I use the term “they” because I feel this individual suffers from duality) started gaining ground they imediately threw everyone else under the bus. “Because I’m a victim” is their go to excuse and basically just either bashes on anyone who disagrees with them or ripps off other people’s material. (I say this because they’ve been called out on this numerous times.)
 
There is nothing wrong with being an analyst of a show you like, but it should be for being a fan of the show you like instead of being used as some sort of stepping-stone for Internet fame. Because who’s to say that media servervices like YouTube will even be relevent in ten years?
 
Again to anyone else who were reading my previous posts I appologize If I was coming off as some sort of cynic. I’m not trying to attack anyone in particular I’m simply voicing how I feel on the matter.

@chaotic-7
 
I don’t have a problem with them choosing to critique things either. My issue with them is that they lack the staying power of external reviewers, and/or can’t seem to branch out into anything else for the most part. Off the top of my head only two analysts managed to have staying power, even if it was through branching out: Saberspark and Paleosteno.
 
What gets me, besides the personal bullshittery that you aptly pointed out, is that a majority of them had the smarts to both keep going with MLP reviews and branch out into other fields. Just focusing on MLP analysts, far too many of them just got the shits with the show at one point and stopped doing MLP reviews altogether; as if the show betrayed them personally by not living up to some lofty preconception.
 
It makes me wonder if reviewing/analysing in the moment is not the best approach, but like with SF Debris they should give some distance between when what they’re reviewing/analysing aired and when they’re looking at it in order to not get caught up in the emotions of the time. Would more of the analyst community have stuck around if they started reviewing S1 of the show when S4 was airing? Were they too connected to fandom trends at the time of airing that overly impacted both their appreciation for the show and their reviewing/analysing of it?
 
A lot of Star Trek and Star Wars reviewers/analysts can slog through the worst of their respective franchises’ output, so why can’t bony analysts when it comes of MLP?

@Phoenixflambe  
Yeah not every crossover that’s been done has garnered much success such as Archie meets the Punisher or Frakencastle, though I will give that last one points for creativity.
 
But I do dissagree when people say “crossovers don’t work.” Because that’s like saying it’s a bad idea to team up Spider-Man with Daredevil or Wolverine. To me It’s all in how the universe the characters reside in works. Again this why lore creation is important; it doesn’t have to be the main focus, but it can be used to give some bit of background for the overall setting. Otherwise you just get a buch of characters who are just thrown in together for no reason.

@chaotic-7  
Crossovers are like my jam! Although I do find Archie x Predator/Sharknado a little unsettling.

@Conversed Corruption  
Thanks, I’ve always liked the idea of “shared universes” especially if it can be used in a comic book fashion. Alot of people tend to dislike the idea mostly due to the fact that they see it all as non-cannon. Which is why I feel that lore creation is so important. It also helps to have a broader spectrum when making a foundation for a shared universe, just so as long you can find a way to make it work without just throwing in a bunch of characters in all at once. So in other words don’t just limit yourself to just two types of characters (i.e. Sonic characters and Equestrians) try find other types of characters that have a similar vibe to the world you create.
 
For example, this story I was working on years ago (in definite need of a re-write) starts off with characters from the Sonic satam and Archie comics universe. But as I was going to continue the story I was going to introduce the reader to other characters from other universeslike Crash Bandicoot. Whom in this reality earns his way as an underground pit fighter (I loved Fight Club). But I don’t use some lame cheesy plot device like “they jumped through a wormhole through time and space and now here they are.” these characters just simply exist in this reality. There doesn’t have to be some ultra, complicated reason as to why? Because sometimes the best solution is the easist awnser.

@chaotic-7  
It’s alright. I read through it anyway and sounds like you got some unique ideas and points about the collision of the character universes coming together. Very detailed.

@Conversed Corruption  
Yeah, sorry. I didn’t mean to write entire essay, sometimes I get carried away.

@chaotic-7  

 
Well, obviously. Otherwise they’d join a famedom.