Let's Talk Fandom Crap That Probably Only Irritates Me (Part 1) · 6:35pm Apr 25th, 2018
We all love My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It's the reason we're all even here on this site, after all. And most of us like Equestria Girls. And, of course, we all like making up stories about these characters and places that have captivated our imaginations.
But, over the course of the last 8 years, there's been a lot of expectations placed on the show by the fanbase. Expectations that seem to forget what the franchise's main purpose is. There's a tendency by the fanbase to take certain assumptions as a given, or that certain things the shows do ignore what has come before, or even complaining about what happens in one show while ignoring the fact that the exact same thing is happening in the other show.
So, let us reiterate what the actual, true purpose of My Little Pony as a whole is: It exists to sell toys. Hasbro may claim they're more of an IP company these days, but at its core, it's still a toy company and anything they're attached to is going to have that ultimately as the bottom line. As has been noted before, Hasbro isn't concerned about the ratings of their TV properties as much as the toy sales. And after 8 years, in an industry where the average toy line is expected to last three to five years at best before needing "refreshing," that's saying something for the current generation of MLP.
Fortunately for us, the animation industry has come a long way since the 80s. The rise in the 90s of Cartoon Network and Nicktoons led to a wave of creator driven animation, where the show and the characters were the point, not how much merch could be squeezed out of it. The current production team of MLP, including now Hasbro VP of Story Meghan McCarthy, all either grew up or got their start in this this era of animation. Of course, Lauren Faust herself worked on several beloved series during this era which landed her the development of MLP in the first place.
This led to a show that wanted to do more than just sell toys. It wanted to tell stories of engaging female characters of various personality types so that nearly anyone looking for that kind of show could tune in and see someone -- or somepony -- they could relate to. And it seemed to prove to Hasbro that if you make engaging characters, the toy sales would take care of themselves.
But nothing lasts forever. If the information found in the recent breach of Hasbro's computer network is legitimate (and right now, I see no reason to believe it isn't), generation four of MLP will be coming to an end in the next couple of years. And that's fine. It happens. Times and tastes change, and keep in mind the target audience who started watching MLP as kids are growing up now. Some are either graduating from high school or attending college at this point.
But, as seems to be indicated by the dialogue in the Season 8 premiere indicating that the events of the 2017 movie happened and specifically happened between seasons 7 and 8, plus episodes like "Fame and Misfortune," it would seem that even the creative team is getting a little exhausted by the rabid members of the fandom. Which I can't help but think is also a reason why G4 may be coming to an end.
When any form of media runs for a spectacularly long time, continuity can actually become a burden to storytelling. The comic book industry, specifically Marvel and DC, have had this problem for years. And the main reason that continuity becomes so burdensome, especially in the Internet age, is largely because of fans who don't want things to change... or at least, not much.
And almost from the get go, this fandom has been obsessed with continuity. Maybe the creative team indulged us a little too much by elevating background characters to the point of adopting (or attempting to adopt in the case of Derpy, or as she's now officially known, Muffins) fan created names for these characters. We began to see the show as "ours" and had, and still have, no problems being extremely vocal when the show does things we don't like.
Let's start with a minor but persistent complaint: "The show repeats it's moral too many times." Yes, it does. But have you considered why they do that? Remember how I said the kids to were watching the show when it first began are almost adults now? New kids are coming in. New viewers are watching. And any network will almost always favor showing newer episodes on the air than older ones. Not every kid has access to Netflix. Not every kid has access to the internet. And some kids just need a reminder every now and then. As Fluttershy pointed out in "Fame and Misfortune," (and was, in fact, the entire POINT of that scene) people don't change overnight. Some lessons need to be relearned in order for them to stick. And if the changes people claimed they wanted had stuck after the first bit, guess what? Within a couple of weeks there'd be another contingent of fans whining about how the character had changed "too much, too quickly."
Here's one that kind of sticks in my craw: the continued efforts by some fans to paint Equestria Girls as lesser because it's a show about human girls set in a high school. I've already talked about how much I hate the phrase "the lore of the show." Many prominent fans in the YouTube Analysis community almost always have this backhanded way of talking about EG. Even "Forgotten Friendship," hands down the most successful EG story yet, got a kind of "Well it's good... but it's not as good as FiM" response from these high profile fans. This is where I first heard the phrase "I just don't see how it contributes to the lore of the show."
As I've said before, THE SETTING SERVES THE STORY, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. If all you care about is how Episode X contributes to the the "lore of the show," then I suggest you're watching for the wrong reason. If all you want is canon delivery, go read the series bible. Equestria Girls, despite it's fairly pedestrian setting, has, in my opinion, proven itself capable of standing on its own. And, may I remind all of those who are still complaining that it even exists; the reason that they decided to separate the two franchises in the first place is because YOU ALL BITCHED AND MOANED ABOUT IT. It's only recently that the creative team has even begun to re-link the two back together (The appearance of the Sirens at the end of Season 7. Sunset finally reconciling with Celestia in "Forgotten Friendship."). And yet there are still fans who keep bending over backwards to disassociate EG from their precious ponies, some even going so far as to say, after several people who work on the show said on Twitter that EG is canon to FiM, that people who work on the show, including the writers, can't dictate what canon is. As I had Applejack point out in "The Green Room:" For these fans, there could be an episode of FiM where Sunset comes through the portal, has an adventure with the Mane 6, reconciles with Celestia, and states specifically at the end "I'm going back to the human world now," and actually shows her coming out of the portal at Canterlot High, and these overzealous [EXPLETIVE DELETED] would STILL try to find a reason to declare it "non-canon."
And this wouldn't bother me so much if it all just didn't boil down to these fans metaphorically screaming "NO HUMANZ! ONLY PONIEZZZ!" Now, I know there's gonna be people who watch EG and go "pass." I have no problems with people not liking it. I personally can't stand "Firefly" and that show has a massive fanbase. But when these overly obsessive fans come into every single mention of and EG project and shit all over it, it's really frustrating and aggravating. Yes, we get it, you don't like EG and wish it didn't exist. You've made that clear... MULTIPLE times. Let it go.
To Be Continued...
Exceptionally well said!
EQG is what got me into pony in the first place. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but when you browbeat someone with it (especially the show staff) then you’ve gone too far.
I know, right?
Though, I figured the show was ending because they're running out of places to go with it, and would rather not jump the shark. The Simpsons was good for nine seasons before its shark-jump, so it seems like a good plan to end Pony at the same number.
And yeah, EqG is better than it has any right to be, in large part because of its being urban fantasy. It's not exactly Shakespeare, but it is fun, and it's hard to believe how often people forget the importance of fun.
I predict people will make unfavorable comparisons when the G5 cartoon comes out, but as with EqG, it will win most people over soon enough. The ride isn't ending; it's just switching locomotives.
I like the show as a whole. Ponies and Humans. My current preference is Humans, mostly because of it's blatant "slice-of-life until we get the budget to do something cool" stance. And that stance came about because the Pony side seems so confused about itself. (Open Spoiler block if you care to see some of my rantings)
The Pony side of things is always going back and forth on things. Do we show new stuff? Do we save it? Do we do Slice-of-Life? Do we do Adventure? And most egregious, in my opinion, is how they keep making characters act stupid in order to get the plot to work. I think even the staff are aware of their own crutch, as opening scenes of Non-Compete Clause show. They knew it was stupid to make Applejack and Rainbow Dash do their competition shtick, but they did it anyway; probably because they made the "Student Six" get to the same bond as the main cast in far too short a time to make the moral work.
Do I have times when I cringe at the Pony side? Of course.
Do I have bits of the Pony side that I can't stand? Obviously. (I will continue to proclaim "The Movie" and "School Daze" could have been handled in a far better way)
Does any of this mean I love the Pony side any less? Hell no. I still have my favorites on that side and I can always go back to them.
Am I going to intentionally make trouble for the people who dedicate their MLP time to FiM instead of EG? Of course not, that'd be rude. I'll rant and rave about what I don't like for the purpose of discussion, but I'm not going to seek out people who don't share my opinion and intentionally cause them stress.