Disclaimer: Before you read this essay, I’m kindly requesting you to respect my opinion the same way I respect yours. Also, please don't consider my thoughts on the subject matter a personal attack against fans of My Little Pony G5, especially the person that originally submitted the picture I'm talking about on Twitter (aka X). If my writing feels disrespectful or too one-sided, that’s completely unintentional and I apologize in advance.
Who knew? One day, you're talking about potential G5-related essays that may never see the light of day; then you blink, and you're notified of an ongoing war (!) between fans of Friendship Is Magic (G4) and A New Generation (G5). People have so much time amidst the collapse of Western civilization that they engage in petty fights over which pony generation should prevail. Weird times they're a-goin'.
Before I go any further, I must emphasize that I'm and will be a G4 fan. The fourth generation of MLP made such a huge impact on my life in many aspects that I cannot help but be grateful for the rest of my days. And as much as G5 didn't convince me - especially Tell Your Tale - I see the effort made by this generation's creators, which is the thing that truly matters in the end. To paraphrase a famous saying, I disagree with many things in G5, but I will defend it and its fans to the death.
With that said, I was shocked to learn that certain G4 purists have gone so far that they sent death threats to not only G5 fans but also this current pony generation's creators. This is insane. Regardless of G5's overall quality and the poor marketing decisions made by Hasbro, it has every right to exist. Just because many people think that G4 is better, it doesn't excuse harassing those who prefer the new generation over the GOAT ponies.
People who verbally attack G5 fans attack the whole community - and I mean all fans of each generation. They also spit in the face of Twilight Sparkle, who fought to spread friendship and harmony, which Sunny and the gang swore to continue after the events of the G5 movie. But, honestly, I'm not surprised to see such a vile side of the G4 fandom that managed to sh*t out a pony wearing a hat with a swastika and doing the n*zi salute, giving plenty of reasons for mainstream media to attack a community that was seen as a loony bin of weirdos from the get-go. In short, everyone's suffering due to a loud, visible and disgusting minority.
However, addressing the atrocities committed by deranged G4 fans isn't the only reason I started this reactionary essay. Something in Equestria Daily's article caught my attention. And I think I figured out why the divide between G4's and G5's respective fans escalated to where we are today.
Why the Argument KOs Itself
I'd like to thank 
for directing my attention to the tweet (or xeet as that idiot Musk wants us to call it) that started the chain reaction. Or, to be more precise, the picture included in it:
(Source: Equestria Daily and Sethisto)
Have you guessed what the issue is? If not, allow me to help you. The image in the tweet indicates that G5 is better than G4 because the animation style of G5 characters is more diverse than that of the G4 ponies. In other words, G5 beats G4 because the former's characters can be easily distinguished from each other by their appearance.
Granted, I see the point in the argument. In the 2010s, G4's animators had to cut corners as much as possible due to the limitations of Flash animation. That's why G4 ponies have similar shapes: you just have to slap the right color and mane onto a dummy, and voilà, pony. Rinse and repeat. However, if we put technical limitations aside, this simplistic style made G4 characters so easy to replicate by fans and, most importantly, children. So, G4 used this limitation to its advantage.
Now that's out of the way, here's why I think the original argument fails flat on its face. It focuses on character design instead of the actual characters. Simply put, it judges two books by their covers and picks one because it stands out more. An obvious mistake.
G4 became successful because its characters were unique and memorable. And it did so despite basing the ponies on the same character models - with some exceptions, of course. We loved and still love G4's ponies for who they are and what they represent, not how they look. For instance, I don't like Rainbow Dash because of her rainbow mane and cyan body color, but because she's a fundamentally flawed and, therefore, interesting character. The same goes for the Mane 6, the CMC, and many secondary characters. We love them because they feel alive despite not existing beyond the cartoon realm.
And then comes a half-assed argument, stating that we should consider G5 better because viewers can easily distinguish the ponies from each other. My immediate question is: "Ok, and..?" And this is where I think the argument fails. Don't get me wrong, it's great that G5 tries and succeeds in making each character unique in their respective appearances as well. But that alone doesn't make them stand out. No matter how well-designed a character is, if I cannot connect with them, chances are that I won't like them.
I didn't stop watching TYT because of its design but because many episodes - at least in season 1 - were aggressively childish for my taste, not to mention how different the characters are from their movie and MYM counterparts. For example, Sunny and Izzy were the most likeable and fleshed-out characters in the movie. In the follow-ups, Sunny became extremely bland, while Izzy was turned into an irritating comic relief, much like Pinkie did in FiM's later seasons. Shortly, they didn't connect with me anymore. However, it seems that I cannot trust my gut instincts and must praise these characters for what they are and not who they are. Translation: appearance matters more than character.
This is why postmodern entertainment fails to connect with audiences. Instead of relatable, well-written, deep characters, we get bland planks that are tickboxes on a diversity checklist. With all due respect, skin color, religion, sexual orientation, etc., shouldn't be the primary traits that define a character. Those are just icing on a cake that adds further layers to a person. I'm more interested in the core - the person "operating" the flesh. The self. If I resonate with that particular self, I'll like that character no matter what. For instance, I dig the MCU's pre-Endgame Nick Fury, not because he's black but because he's a strong, nuanced character portrayed by a fantastic actor. I still watch South Park because of the characters, the stories and the unapologetic jabs at both political sides, not for the crude animation style it's been known for since 1997. And yes, I like Sunny from ANG not because of her looks but because of her contagious optimism, which makes me want her to succeed in restoring magic to Equestria.
Oh, and speaking of the movie, the argument image reveals its Achilles heel; it only focuses on TYT. I know Hasbro is hell-bent on shoving TYT down our throats, as if it was the only G5 content, but this generation isn't just TYT. It's TYT - plus the movie, MYM, the comics, and the video games. Except for TYT and, if I'm not mistaken, the post-2023 comics, all of these mediums use the original 3D characters, who, by the way, have similar appearances due to the limitations of the technology. The exact same reason G4 was called out for.
KO.
Make Love, Not Burn Bridges
To sum it up, the original argument didn't even try to defend G5 on the most fundamental level - the characters themselves - but took the pandering route and claimed G5 to be diverse based on the characters' designs. Still, I must emphasize that I doubt the original poster had malicious intentions when they uploaded that comparison image. As a matter of fact, many G5 fans admit this generation isn't as strong in terms of characters and story. So, when it comes to defending G5, fans usually stick to one of the supposed strenghts of G5, appearances.
Regardless of the poster's intentions, however, the damage is done. The MLP fandom had already been divided between G4 purists, G5 fans and the inbetweeners - even before this controversy raised its ugly head. With arguments like this, the divide could grow even bigger than ever. In a short time, there could be a point where Equestria Daily's predictions come true, and both sides excommunicate each other because of a small minority who, rather than building bridges, want to watch the world burn. And considering that each generation of MLP taught us about the importance of love, friendship and tolerance, this is a tragedy.
In conclusion, all I can say is this:
You have every right to love G4 and G5, and you're entitled to prefer one over the other.
No matter what you do, not everyone will like what you like - and you cannot force them to be in the same group as you.
Think before you post your argument, especially if it can be shred to pieces in seconds - like I just did.
Don't attack, let alone send death threats to others if they disagree with you.
And, most importantly, don't visit Twitter, X or whatever the f*ck that sh*theap is called because that's where evil, hatred, and misinformation are born.
Let the idiots and purists have their stupid little flame wars. For the rest of us, I wish you a Happy Easter and a pleasant pony, no matter which generation you prefer.
See you, space cowboy...
Core's So-called Perks, aka Spot the BS
On March 20, 2024, my temporary Core subscription I received alongside a Diamond badge expired. As usual, I received an automated email from DA, asking me to, and I quote, "regain those shiny Core perks."
First, thanks for the good laugh, DA! 
Second, due to the scandalous introduction of Sh*tUp and the abysmal handling of the resulting justified user outrage in 2022, I refuse to buy Core.
However, this automated message gave me an idea. So, I want to play a little game called Spot the BS and analyze what DA wants to sell as Core """perks""" and how that translates to the average user.
(Note: All text from DA was taken from their email verbatim.)
Customization, aka Welcome to the 90s!
What they say:
"Seasonal exclusive updates to deck out your Profile with Custom Sections and Profile Skins."
Reality:
Starting with profile skins, what's the problem with the default, free version? Granted, it looks a bit lifeless, but in the modern age, the focus should always be on the product, not the appearance. But if you think your art cannot gain an audience, you can upgrade to Core and either upload your own background - which Google's homepage allows you to do for free - or pick one of DA's premade backgrounds. These remind me of the golden age of the internet where no website could exist without barf-enducing backgrounds, moving images and giving zero f*cks about user experience. Does Space Jam's website ring a bell?
(Yes, the original Space Jam with Michael Jordan. The website is the coelacanth of a bygone era.)
As for the custom profile sections, the majority are entirely pointless and may even cause computers with weaker CPUs to not load the web page properly. Is it necessary to show your badges - they have lost their purpose since Eclipse - or your pixellated llamas that bounce around like idiots, much like in those early websites? Keep it simple and get straight to the point - your art/writing.
Barf Bag (Sh*tUp)
What they say:
"Access to DreamUp, DeviantArt’s new AI-image generator."
Reality:
Yes, keep on promoting the service that was fed with our artwork without our explicit consent. Shove this service into our faces even though it's literally tearing the community apart. And definitely keep on pandering to AI bros looking for a quick buck who dare to call themselves "artists," even though all they do is give prompts to a brainless machine.
By the way, how is promoting that scammer who made $12,000 with AI* going for you? Further alienating your original audience and initiating another exodus from this site or, at least, a massive cancellation of Core subscriptions isn't a big price to pay for riding the AI hype, right? Also, congratulations for being involved in the second PR catastrophe in a row within the past two years.
Eat a 🍆 , DeviantAI.
UPDATE 03/28/24: On March 26, 2024, just two weeks after the original post, they made another one, celebrating that their liebling hit the $13k mark. Oh, for Fred Fuchs' sake...
UPDATE 03/30/24: wyerframeZ, who had way much time than I do, made a video about Isaris-AI, yet another scammer DA promoted as a """top seller""" on March 26, 2024. Turns out that team not only encourages severe copyright infringement but also money laundering - which is a serious violation of 18 U.S.C. §1956 and §1957 that could equal up to 10-20 years in prison for those convicted of such a federal crime. Here are the details:
Eat. A. Fucking. Dick. DeviantAI!!!
Money, Money, Money
What they say:
"Earn more from your art using Adoptables, Premium Downloads, Premium Galleries, and Subscriptions!"
Reality:
For those of you who forgot what DA was like pre-Eclipse - or registered their accounts after May 2020 - there were no such things as Adoptables, Premium Downloads, Premium Galleries, or Subscriptions. What you had was your DA page - and no more. You couldn't convince visitors to become your watchers? No problemo. It suited hobbyists and professionals alike.
Nowadays, everything on DA is about monetization. Just like you cannot escape your favorite YouTubers from shoving a sponsor into your face - unless you have the SponsorBlock extension, God bless it - DA always lets you know that you can make money from your art with just a few clicks. If you're a hobbyist uploading your stuff for fun or your art form is literature, you're considered a secondary citizen on this platform.
Also, hiding your artwork behind a paywall is quite a 🍆 move, to be honest. Especially considering that there are much better platforms to do that, such as Patreon, which has a working UI.
"He Steals from the Poor and Gives to the Rich..."
What they say:
"Maxed-out profits with lower platform fees."
Reality:
At the time of writing (March 2024), DA has three Core tiers: Core+, Pro, and Pro+ for $7.95 per month, $9.95 per month, and $14.95 per month, respectively. Out of these tiers, only Pro and Pro+ are better than what Patreon has to offer. Unfortunately, this model provides the perfect recipe for AI bros/scammers:
Generate crap.
Upload it as a premium product, but never ask for more than $15-$20.
Convince your braindead, impatient iPad kid audience to buy your crap.
Give the necessary fees to DA.
Profit.
No wonder that bastard whose highlighting caused the uproar in the community made $12,000 within a year. In the meantime, people who are only here for funzies and want to share/enjoy art don't get any advantages.
Aside from the next entry in our list...
Anti-theft and NFT Tool
What they say:
"Safeguarded art with DeviantArt Protect."
Reality:
It's funny and sad at the same time that the only tool I find useful is mentioned in the penultimate place in DA's email. And I do mean useful.
In 2022, when I still had Core, I got a warning that someone used one of my pictures without my permission. A little bit later, a similar instance occurred. Thankfully, both cases were solved amicably, and I haven't encountered art theft since. In other words, the tool created to battle the then-rampant HFT craze works like a charm.
And DA, like the moronic, greedy bastard it's known for, hides this feature behind a paywall. For free users like me, once you upload something, it's protected for the first three months. After that, it's "so long, suckers" - unless, of course, you purchase Core. It's already disheartening that you have to battle against immoral thieves every day, but, unfortunately, this great feature cannot protect you from the biggest thief of all: Sh*tUp and the horde of tech bro zombies who get an erection after hearing the word "AI."
I can only reiterate what I said in the journal I just linked; this feature should be freely available. Period.
Useless Analytics
What they say:
"Graphical goodness when analyzing your Stats and Insights."
Reality:
If you put a ribbon on a piece of sh*t, it's still a piece of sh*t. And DA's statistics are useless. Again, before Eclipse was forced onto us in 2020, the statistics were actually useful. They didn't feature nice graphics but displayed the most important information.
Now we get the following:
An all-time stat, which is useless.
An overview of visitors, views, watchers, and
s that you can only backtrack for a year.A Core-only "Recent visitors" tab that once was part of your front page - FOR FREE.
Two Core-only tabs showing deviation and traffic stats.
An "Activity" tab containing virtually the same as the all-time stat in terms of data.
And a benchmarking tab that I never understood and never used.
Overall, it's nothing much I can learn from. Besides, we all know that there's no beating Google Analytics when it comes to gathering data for a deep analysis.
Miscellaneous
Of course, some additional Core features that weren't mentioned in DA's email. So, let's go through them quickly:
Fragments: The only reason for collecting them is to give out free one-month Core subscriptions to Core-less users via awarding a Diamond badge. As for the Hype badge, I doubt it does anything. The point is that fragments are basically pointless.
Changing your username: This is fine, especially if you want to strengthen your brand or distance yourself from your past self for any reason. If you do this rarely, this is fine. The problem is that I saw many users abuse this feature, going from one name to another and having three different usernames within a seven-month period. (As DA allows username changes every six months.) Oh, and guess what? This feature is available free on many other similar social media sites. #fail
Sub-galleries, multi-submit, and scheduling: While scheduling was always a Core feature, sub-galleries and multi-submit - although I'm not sure about the latter - were freely available pre-Eclipse. Basically, we have yet another case of 🍆 move here.
Private collections: So you can hide your p*rn and fetishes, eh? Yeah, no thanks.
Two-factor authentication: Oh, you mean a key security feature that every social media site owner with more than two functioning brain cells offers for free? What a bunch of greedy bastards.
50GB of Sta.sh storage: What a great deal! Oh, wait, it isn't. Google One offers 100GB for as low as $2 a month. Also, remember when you could edit a deviation's description before going to the submission menu? It's gone. But you can now enjoy the """wonderful""" UI DA is known for in Sta.sh. Just kill me already...
Overall, what I can tell those who are toying with the idea of purchasing a Core subscription is this:
Don't. Just don't. It isn't worth a nickel.
It's one thing that the most basic features ara available for free - at least for the time being. But if you keep paying DA, they'll invest your money into useless, unfinished features and will continue turning this place into an AI-bro haven, suffocating genuine artists and hobbyists in the process.
Seeing that DA refuses to listen to the cry of its most dedicated, legacy users and is more focused on making a profit than maintaining what made this platform a wonderful place - its community - the only way we could send a message that's loud and clear is to
cancel your Core subscription and never renew it again.
And if you still need those few, useful Core features, you can always ask around people with enough fragments to award you a Diamond badge and get Core for free for a month - even if you can't award a Diamond badge twice to the same user. DA, as we knew it, may be dead, but the community isn't. Let's show them how much power we have!
See you, space cowboy...
If you haven't seen it already, I recently submitted a photo of my Rainbow Dash plush enjoying her salted caramel cake on her 10th "birthday:"
This is a rare occasion because the last photo I uploaded of one of my pony plushes having their birthday was in February, 2018. However, there's a very good explanation for why I made an exception with Dash this year.
Firstly, March 4, 2024, is an important anniversary in the DaLatz household. Exactly ten years ago, after travelling from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to my home country and then sitting in the customs office for a total of 46 agonizingly long days, I finally opened a brown parcel and was greeted by this fine lad:
(Not the message, mind you. That was me 
)
Secondly, the story I concocted in the tenth-anniversary photo was inspired by true events. I'm indeed overly stressed by the things I mentioned in my fictional conversation with my Rainbow plush. I love Deeragon Dash and my pony plushes to death, but buying them cakes, taking the pictures and uploading them here - first as actual deviations, then only as journal entries - caused me less and less joy each year.
As such, it was time to make a harsh decision that would allow me to continue this tradition without the accompanying stress.
This means that after I'll have celebrated Deeragon Dash's birthday in July, 2024, I'll only organize a proper "birthday party" - with a cake and a photoshoot - for my five favorite plushes every five years, the counting of which starts from the year each of them arrived.
(Rainbow and Fluttershy arrived in 2014, Twilight in 2015, Sonata in 2017, and Deeragon Dash in 2020.)
Based on the above, here's my planned plush birthday schedule:
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy: 2024, 2029, 2034, 2039...
Twilight: 2024 (the last year of the old system), 2025, 2030, 2035, 2040...
Sonata: 2027, 2032, 2037, 2042...
Dash, the deeragon: 2024 (the last year of the old system), 2025, 2030, 2035, 2040...
"Leap Year:" 2026, 2028, 2031, 2033, 2036, 2038, 2041, 2043, 2046...
In other words, you'll get a new anniversary image every two years. In addition, every fourth year will be a double whammy; in 2025, for instance, I'll celebrate Twilight and Dash as they turn ten and five, respectively. As for the plushes that won't have rounded anniversaries in the given year, I'll make a quick "Happy nth Birthday, X!" status update and call it a day.
I hope you understand my decision, and I can count on your support from this year forward. It was nice while this whole schtick lasted, but all good things must end - or, at least, change radically. I don't know how many years I have until my warranty expires, but I'll strive to continue this silly little tradition of mine while I still can or want. If anything changes, you'll be the first to hear about it.
Thank you, dear watcher, for your support! And to close on a high note, let's cheer on a certain cyan pegasus with an attitude one last time:
Happy Tenth Birthday, Rainbow Dash!
When There's Nothing to Review...
... just make shit up! 
So, ever since Equestria Daily semi-confirmed that MLP: Make Your Mark is over, I have no MLP material to review. I mean, the IDW comic books are already rebooting and Tell Your Tale didn't make a good impression on me at all so I'm not watching that. At this point, I'm just waiting for G5's inevitable end. And I'm not saying this out of respect for G5's creators; I think they're out there busting their balls to make this thing work. But what starts, eventually comes to an end, doesn't it?
Anyway, I've made some 'just in case' essays out of boredom - and a lack of work at my workplace (you didn't hear that from me ) - that I only need to copy and paste from my Grammarly account for all of you to enjoy. All I can say is that I prepared for nearly all possible 'what if' scenarios, including but not limited to:
If Hasbro decided to create a G5 Equestria Girls spinoff
If G5 was prematurely canceled, listing the possible causes
And if G6 would turn out to be a blatant G4 reboot.
Yeah, in hindsight, it's pretty silly that I work in advance, especially if none of the things I wrote comes true. But hey, it's practicing my writing skills. Also, what can you expect from a bloke who's buying cakes to celebrate the dates when his plushes arrived?
Speaking of that, I have something big coming up on March 4, 2024 - if not earlier...
Happy Birthday, Sona7a!
While in 2023 I failed to celebrate my Sonata plushie's birthday in time, I'm happy to announce that this year I got lucky. The day before Sonata's anniversary was a "You Can Slack off Before We Work You to Death" Day at my workplace - don't ask - so I managed to buy a little something for fish pone, as well as purchase the Lego Concorde for my brother. (Albeit without my 10% discount to the Lego Store because we can't have nice things.)
And before you ask: I did celebrate her "birthday" on the 9th of February. The reason why I'm posting this journal entry today, on the 10th, is because I had to retouch the image due to it being too dark. Also, I'm lazy AF, there. 
Anyway, have a content little merpony:
Happy Seventh Birthday, Sonata!
P.S. That's a slice of chocolate and apricot marmelade goodness called Sachertorte. Feel free to drool in the comments below. Until next time, auf Wiedersehen meine Freunde!