Okay, the problem I have with the image is made evident here:

"The problem here is that the entire concept of "friendzone" has already thrown common courtesy out the window, because it presumes that ~~~Nice Guys~~~ are entitled to something more than "just" friendship solely for being "nice", which is not in fact in any way nice at all."

My whole point was that not everybody uses the term "friendzone" to refer to the situation that you're describing, and that this image fails to acknowledge that. What I was saying is that some people use "friendzone" to refer to situations that don't involve guys feeling entitled, but to situations where guys are, in fact, being taken advantage of. I agree that nice guys aren't entitled to anything more than friendship for being nice. But that's not what the image is saying. The image says "women don't owe you shit", which is in this context means "being nice to a girl will get you nothing, not even common courtesy". And it's that last bit I resent. That was the entire point of my post:

Girls don't owe nice guys a relationship or sex or anything. But they do owe nice guys basic human decency, and this image doesn't say that.

Okay, I don't usually respond to these mouthpiece/SJW things, but I figure I might as well give my two cents here. There are two parts to this image:

"The Friend Zone Doesn't Exist"
Whether this is true depends on how you define "friendzone". If this refers to the notion that a girl somehow owes sex or a relationship to a guy who's nice for her, I agree that that's stupid. That's not how things work. BUT, that's not always what people mean when they say "friend zone". I've seen it used just as often (in real life, mind you, not on tumblr) to refer to a situation where a girl is leveraging a guy's niceness to get stuff from him with no intention of ever actually reciprocating that niceness. In short, the act of stringing a guy along for their own gain. In that case, yeah, it's a thing that happens, and guys should complain when they or somebody they know is being taken advantage of in that way. If a girl isn't interested, that's perfectly fine, but they should just say that rather than using the attention to their own advantage.

"Women don't owe you shit"

Now this I have to call BS on. Before you go calling me anti-feminist or whatever, let me clarify: I'm not saying that women owe men sex, or a relationship, or anything like that. A woman can respond to that how she wants and is under no obligation to respond to niceness with boning or whatever.

BUT

That isn't the same as saying that women don't owe me (or any man) anything at all. Because they do owe us something: The same damn respect and common courtesy that every human being, whether man, women, trans, or whatever else, owes to every other human being.

If I'm nice to a girl I'm interested in, no she doesn't owe me sex or a relationship, or anything like that. But she does owe me enough respect to tell me upfront that she's not interest and not lead me on to get me to keep being nice to her. So yeah, women do owe nice guys something. It might be the same thing that women owe nice women, and guys owe nice guys, and in general that humans owe other nice humans.

Don't get me wrong, I'm fully aware that there are dudes who think that being nice entitles them to get laid, and I agree that they're douchebags. Unfortunately, this image doesn't make that distinction, and instead says "I don't care if you're nice to me; screw you." I have no clue if that's what the artist meant, but I know that that's how a lot of people will take it.

And either way, I can't say I appreciate co-opting somebody else's work as your own mouthpiece, and I don't think such things really belong on this site either.

The other pics are nice, though. That header is simultaneously spooky and adorable.

For the record, I actually don't have any sort of petrification fetish (<Seinfeld>Not that there's anything wrong with that</Seinfeld>). I was fully aware of the potential appeal for people who are into that sort of thing, but that wasn't part of my motivation to write the story. So no, not a censored clopfic. It was more just a case of stumbling on the concept (Maud wanting to experience being a rock) and then seeing how other characters might react to it.

But hey, if people like it for that reason, who am I to complain? I'm just glad they enjoy it, even if it's not quite for the reasons I intended.

I'm just going to say that as somebody who's had (and still has) a degree of stage fright, I think that this episode was pretty much spot on in how it portrayed it. For an introvert, the fear of failure is only really a part of issue; the main thing is that whether you perform well or badly, everybody is paying attention to YOU, which is basically the last thing you want.

For that reason, I'm actually kinda glad that they went the route of Fluttershy doing really well, because having people respond badly to her would misrepresent the issue. It would imply that the only reason to be afraid of performing is the fear of failure, and than if you're good at doing something you shouldn't be afraid. Because that's not the issue; if you have performance anxiety, you're going to be terrified even if you're the best in the world at what you're doing. Fluttershy might very well be a great singer, but that doesn't matter because it isn't the problem: the problem is that she doesn't like being the center of attention. That's the whole conflict of the episode; she enjoys singing, but doesn't like being watched.

As for her previous performances, I think a lot of those are justified by the fact that in those she was always just one in a group of performers; in HWE she was on stage with RD, who would absorb most of the attention, etc. I really sympathized with her position. And I think the rest of the cast (Barring Pinkie, obviously) handled the situation very well; they respected her wish to stay in the background rather than going the "But you're good at, so YOU MUST PERFORM" route. Not to mention that they got it exactly right that you don't just get over something like that instantly by being good at something. It takes a lot of work deal with it.

It is kinda similar to previous Fluttershy episodes, but honestly I think it had enough of a different tone from the previous ones that it still worked. Those were more about Fluttershy learning to do things that don't come naturally to her and that she doesn't enjoy, whereas this one is more about Fluttershy not letting her nerves prevent her from doing something she DOES enjoy.

But seriously, on the whole this might be my favorite episode of the season so far, for a lot of reasons:

1. The way it handled the moral (which again, I think is spot-on given that I've been in similar situations)
2. They fit a lot of content into it without it feeling rushed.
3. Lots of continuity nods (Flutterguy especially)
4. Zecora
5. Catchy music
6. They did a good job developing Fluttershy over the course of the episode, showing how she went from scared to enjoying it)

My only real complaint is that Pinkie was kind of aggravating; back in S1 she recognized that Fluttershy was extremely sensitive, and seems to have completely forgotten that here. But on the flipside, the rest of the cast calls her out on it, which helps, though I think it would've been better to tone it down more.

But even so, I still think it's one of the best episodes of the season.

I'm working on it, okay? :p

Just feel the need to point something out: It' not explicitly stated that the show itself will have five more seasons. A more likely meaning is that they intend on keeping G4 going that long. It's entirely possible that MLP:FIM will end before that, and we could get a movie or spinoff starring other characters or something. As for further seasons, let's not complain until we see whether they're actually bad or not.

As for the Rainbow Power designs, they're a little on the garish side, but honestly I don't think they're that bad, especially as they'll likely just be a temporary powerup rather than a permanent change.

I wouldn't say best one yet, but it's definitely a big step up from S3. I think it was less "Show's quality downgraded" and more "new producers finding their feet after Faust left". Now that they've had some time to get things together, it's going pretty well.

You do remember that the first episode (well, second, but the premier was a two-parter) of the series involved the villain being shot with a magical rainbow, right?

Pinkie. That is not good for your skull. Don't do that.

Really? Everything we know about this episode screams that the moral will be that Rarity shouldn't try to change herself for a guy.

Also, just having a woman be really interested as a man doesn't make it any less feminist. If Rarity gives up her independence to hook up with him, proclaims that all the accomplishments she's made with her own abilities were worthless by contrast, and the show portrays it as a good thing, THEN we'll have a problem.