10 Days 'till Season 6 · 6:33pm Mar 16th, 2016
Despite the fact it's airing on a day when my time will be filled completely with a combination of Brony meet and travelling for Easter, I'm very happy that Friendship is Magic is returning to our screens with new episodes very shortly. The fandom has felt very quiet at times since Cutie Re-Mark aired just over a three & half months ago, and although we've had a slow trickle of the usual art, music and animations, and endless blind-reactions to watch of the previous season, I admit my interest in the show would have faded considerably had we been given a much longer hiatus.
At this point I could talk about what I hope to see in the new season. About what characters I want to see given more focus, about what stories I want to see told. But the truth is not all my wishes are guaranteed to come true. I think the best way is to just go into it with an open mind, and have faith that the show staff have got a treat of a season in store for us.
I will talk about my expectations for season six though. I think it will be our best yet, as in my view, the seasons always get better year-on-year. I think there'll be some really fantastic episodes in there, quite possibly some all-time favourites, but I also think it's inevitable we'll get some shoddy pieces of work. FiM has never been a perfect show by any means after all. I think the animation, voice acting and background music will be better than ever, although the songs will be rather hit-and-miss. I think we'll also get a boat load of new characters, most of which will be one-shots for a particular episode, and who the fandom will draw a lot of inspiration for new fan-works. And I think we'll see one or two characters from old seasons return. In terms of the season opener, my worry is that it'll simply act as a set-up for the finale which turns up months later, without any recurring story linking the whole season together. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.
I've not really been spoiled on anything other than that foal, which has been impossible to avoid for anyone who 'internets'. I'm curious what they do with it, but I don't imagine I'll care for it all that much.
I think during the S4-S5 hiatus, quite a lot of people did drift away for a while, but then started to drift back as we had confirmation of S5 and the premiere came closer. Now I come to think of it, that may well have been the time when many of those who were only in the fandom for the meme/lols/etc aspect finally went away, since 11 months is a long time to wait if you're not really invested in something!