I feel like we had better discussions in the fandom in the early days because with a weekly schedule there was time for reacting and anticipation at the same time. So reactions had a direction to go towards and any fan theories already had an excuse which to hook readers with. Now it seems like 98% of the time only fan art makes it in the fandom and there's only so many ways Peridot can smooch Amethyst, right?

I think the bomb format roughly exists because times are difficult in broadcasting and the company needs to have something to make kids excited so boom they have events they can advertise. And the Teen Titans Go! stuff is partly because the parent company owns DC and they need to manufacture the future film audiences.