The State of My Little Pony

[BytByte]

With everyone's favorite friendship guru long gone from this forum, I realize that MLP is still going on but I haven't heard much of anything about it?

Has it lost its appeal? Has the fandom died down? Did the amount of porn based on it finally implode the universe?

What is the status of My Little Pony in this new age?

 

[Queen Michael]

I stopped watching in the middle of season 4, but I'll start watching again in a week or so, once I've caught up with the other shows I follow.

 

[MeatMachine]

I watch each episode once, maybe twice, and the rest of my exposure to MLP comes from vicarious interactions with bronies in other areas such as online forums and Steam. Needless to say, I'm not in the loop about these sort of things, but based off what a few people I'm familiar with have said, the series has diverged quite a bit for many people.

In short, many original fans feel completely betrayed by many of the core creative directions being made, such as the main character (who was a flawed, awkward dweeb) being granted demigod status of the very thing she was ignorant of (and no longer appears to exhibit any of her personality flaws that made her fun and endearing), as well as the hideous and thoroughly offputting debacle that is Equestria Girls simply existing, let alone thriving as a spin-off franchise.

I don't claim to speak for the fandom at all given that I don't even consider myself a fan or bother to invest myself in the series more than a one-time interest as the episodes come out, but that's my impression of why MLP's prominence has waned a bit.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Well for one thing, there are a whole less shitstorm towards the series these days. I doubt some people who hated it will give a shit if a pony news crops up on here.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

The fandom has certainly quieted down. People have left and moved on. We're still very much alive and well--and I still am collecting plushies from as many people on DeviantART as I can--but the glory days are certainly behind us now. The world has moved on to other things to spotlight. Stories on FimFiction used to need at least a hundred up votes just to creep up to the top of the popular list, let along get featured on the site. Now though, some stories are getting there with barely double digits, and stories with 1,000 up votes are exceedingly rare. There just aren't as many people there anymore it seems.

But as long as the show keeps airing new episodes and keeps the quality up (you will find many people have left because the show has been 'ruined' many times over because of this or that), we'll still be around.

 

[ThereIsNoSanta]

I think that as a fandom, bronies kinda came to terms with the fact that there's really nothing particularly special about this fandom. No need to 'convert people' anymore. I think things went back to casual interest.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Well for one thing, there are a whole less shitstorm towards the series these days. I doubt some people who hated it will give a shit if a pony news crops up on here.

I have to ask and its been a long time coming but please here me out:

I'm not an Anti Brony because I don't look at the show or the fanbase that much heck I don't know whats going on with the show right now. My exposure and awareness of this show was seeing alot of references to this show like user's avatars in forums and certain videos that mentions it, but seriously I just have to say I am BAFFLED as to how this show got popular. I mean Powerpuff Girls and Avatar did not get a convention?

I mean seriously and I have seen episodes and I just think of it as average cutesy kids show, even coming from the same cartoonists that made my childhood shows (Craig McCracken's Wife and Paul Rudish of Dexter, PPG, Samurai Jack, 2003 Clone Wars, and Sym-Bionic Titan)

I am of the opinion that I just think MLP:FIM is grossly, GROSSLY overrated its unbelievable that people my age and generation love this like it was the only good cartoon in existance.

And some of the reasoning for why this show popular is weak sauce, "The animation is good and smooth"

So its Flash Animation, which I deem a lazy method of animation, it will never be as smooth and beautifully animated as 2D traditional animation like these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmi22cta2hU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt1V61SPI_w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCAYto7Svwo

I'm sorry if this upsets/bothers you because really I don't get into this MLP discussion often, I just feel I like to ask someone why is this show such a BIG thing.

 

[Marik2]

Yeah I was wondering about it myself. The fandom seemed to have stopped being loud around the third season.

I was a casual watcher who enjoyed it for the animation and aesthetics.

 

[-Ezio-]

we're still around. i guess the ones who felt the need to make a load of noise about it have got bored.

 

[False Nobility]

we're still around. i guess the ones who felt the need to make a load of noise about it have got bored.

And thank god.

No offense to the loud ones. But at least it's just another fandom now. It was hard to avoid before.

 

[kenu12345]

I stopped watching it. Mostly cause I feel they have run out of ideas and are just relying on fan service. I just don't care for it anymore cause it isn't the same show that I use to love.

 

[EternallyBored]

It's pretty much just another fandom at this point, the fandoms still around, and even grouwing in some ways, the conventions manage to still draw more people year after year rather than less.

The show itself is still pretty good, I never got the people that thought seasons 1 and 2 were somehow mindblowing and there then went to shit after that, the whole thing has just been an above average cartoon to me, Season 3 was probably the worst, and I don't really care one way or the other about the princess twilight thing, season 4 was all around solid and probably my second favorite season, the fifth season is shaping up to be pretty solid as well, season 2 is still my favorite but the quality is still pretty high.

The weird made for tv movies caused some drama for being set in an alternate human high school setting, those I don't really like, but the show itself is content so far to just pretend the movies didn't happen. The comic series is pretty good though the tech level is even more schizophrenic than the show.

Tumblr still gets its panties in a twist about bronies from time to time, the last one was that Church shooter a little while ago, someone photoshoped a pony t-shirt on one of his arrest photos and a small group picked it up on Tumblr and tried to pass the shooter off as being a brony, that was pretty cringe-worthy.

Basically the crazier people moved on to different fandoms when pony wasn't getting them the attention and drama they craved, and the rabid anti-bronies either found a new fandom to hate on (I hear steven universe fans get a lot of shit now, though for different reasons) or they've learned that they look worse than the crazy bronies when they start ranting like lunatics anytime someone even so much as mentions the show.

Overall its pretty good actually, probably disappointing for those that thought the show was going to explode into a cultural phenomenon the size of Star Wars or something, and those that hated the show and were convinced everyone would abandon it after a couple years are probably disappointed that never happened. Really though, it's kind of chill, you get your small fandom dramas, but nothing like the first two years.

 

[IceForce]

Basically the crazier people moved on to different fandoms when pony wasn't getting them the attention and drama they craved, and the rabid anti-bronies either found a new fandom to hate on (I hear steven universe fans get a lot of shit now, though for different reasons) or they've learned that they look worse than the crazy bronies when they start ranting like lunatics anytime someone even so much as mentions the show.

Pretty much. "Anti-bronies" stopped giving a thing they didn't like attention, (which they should have done a whole lot sooner).

I'm not denying that there was also a fair share of 'crazy' bronies around as well, but I saw very little evidence of them on THIS site (other than perhaps one, which the OP offhandedly mentions).
The anti-bronies however, were much more annoying, and noticeable.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Personally I felt the show had a drastic drop in quality as soon as Lauren Faust left the show. The ponies began acting wildly out of character, and the plots became increasingly daft. I couldn't stand to watch the show past the awful Canterlot Wedding season 2 finale. The only episodes I've seen past that are the Trixie rematch (which was lame) and the hilariously bad episode where Twilight unceremoniously ascended to godhood as an afterthought.

Really the only surprise is that the fandom managed to carry on as long as it did, when all quality evaporated from the show after the first season.

 

[SolidState]

we're still around. i guess the ones who felt the need to make a load of noise about it have got bored.

And thank god.

No offense to the loud ones. But at least it's just another fandom now. It was hard to avoid before.

There's nothing more obnoxious than someone who gets in your face and insists that you love what they love, because it "changed them". All of the grotesque pageantry of religion with the strange shallowness of Hasbro.

This show turned seemingly ordinary people into evangelists like nothing I've ever seen before.

 

[FPLOON]

Wait... That user got banned? Ah, horseapples!

*ahem* I don't know...I still watch it on a daily basis due to syndication and shit... Still have my favorite seasons[footnote]1<4=2<5(?)<<<3 outside of Rainbow Dash-based episodes, I guess...[/footnote] and all that jizz... And yet, after going to EQLA 2015 and seeing/meeting Lauren Faust[footnote]"Secret" fan of the "Ponies Anthology" videos, apparently... [/footnote] once again, it really made me reevaluate how much I do love this show[footnote]I seem to do that alot when it comes to stuff I buy on DVD and/or Blu-Ray...[/footnote]... I mean, I still love the [freelance] writers on the show and shit, but damn did the show take an interesting turn in its own canon... It's like watching that one alternate future timeline in Continuum... It's cool and all, but it makes you wonder how would the OG timeline play out if it wasn't already erased due to all of the shit that made sure the OG timeline can never make a canon comeback in the first place... Anyway, the fandom's music is still great even if we did loose some of the ones from circa 2011 back in 2014, I think...

The show lost it's touch after the first two seasons.

In other words...

as soon as Lauren Faust left the show

...for a "multitude" of reasons... which, "inadvertently", led to her own negative assumptions about the show, specifically with the fans that "still" support it... [footnote]It's about as hilarious and as ironic as Bojack... [/footnote]

Now Steven Universe is something special. It runs only for 10 minutes per episode, but somehow keeps getting better and better.
I highly advise for anyone even remotely interested to go watch the show. It's freaken good man. Also DEM feels too!

That show it so the shit, that even one of the mods of EQD (not "Trixie Fanboy Seth") created a site specifically to talk about that show and its fandom...

 

[CrystalShadow]

Sometimes, I get the feeling the whole thing leant a little too heavily on the "It's a show for girls!? And it isn't terrible!? ~gasp!~ best thing ever!"

For some reason, shows aimed at a young female audience have a bad reputation.
I sometimes wonder if MLP drew so much attention just for being good, or for being good in a demographic group notorious for really low quality?

When your direct competition is largely truly awful, it does leave you looking better in comparison I suppose.

 

[Silk_Sk]

I still watch and love it. The fandom hasn't shrunk, just mellowed out. I still watch and love the show and I am of the opinion that the current season is by far the best yet. As for why the show got popular in the first place, it really isn't because of how great it is. Objectively, the show is pretty average. The reason people love it is because it speaks to the goodness and love for friends we all have inside us and it does so in a straightforward way that makes you feel better about yourself and the world at large. It's not an escape from reality like better shows are, it makes you feel better about life period.

 

[Nazulu]

Yeah that bloody porn even managed to come up on searches that had nothing to with it.

Personally I felt the show had a drastic drop in quality as soon as Lauren Faust left the show. The ponies began acting wildly out of character, and the plots became increasingly daft. I couldn't stand to watch the show past the awful Canterlot Wedding season 2 finale. The only episodes I've seen past that are the Trixie rematch (which was lame) and the hilariously bad episode where Twilight unceremoniously ascended to godhood as an afterthought.

Really the only surprise is that the fandom managed to carry on as long as it did, when all quality evaporated from the show after the first season.

Holy Shit! You're the only other person I've seen here that noticed the dramatic change after the first season. I thought I was going crazy back then.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I love the show, but the fans are a parody of what they're supposed to be.
Like instead of being post-modern males who like a girls show, it's a bunch of post post-modern SJWs complaining that it's somehow sexist to say random pony #1 and #14 aren't lesbians.
Like I get that they want inclusivity, but the show is aimed at pre-sexual children and you need to come up with a better reason for two characters being gay than "they sit next to one another!!!!!!!!!!111one"

Sad to say but MLP is just being picked apart by special interest groups like any other fandom looking to shoehorn in their values/opinions. Won't be long before people are calling for a Catlyn Jenner pony and that Applejack should apologize for being cisgender and that Pinkie is a gender fluid pony/pumpkin otherkin avatar of a hetero-normative trans-plant avocado self identitying unicorn.

And if you don't agree, I guess you're a Nazi.