Friendship and the Danger of Attrition · 8:31pm March 24th
If the show's to be believed, then friendship's biggest threats come from external forces: hatred, fear, etc. Friendship's purpose is to hold fast and let natural strength repel these attacks.
You ever consider that friendship's greatest threat comes from within? From much more banal forces: erosion, decline, and fading away?
Blog Number 251: Growing Trinity Edition
In which Impossible Numbers waxes nostalgic and wants to try again.
Without resorting to time travel.
From Wikipedia:
The dissolution of a friendship may be viewed as a personal rejection, or may be the result of natural changes over time, as friends grow more distant both physically and emotionally. The disruption of friendships has been associated with increased guilt, anger and depression, and may be highly stressful events, especially in childhood. However, potential negative effects can be mitigated if the dissolution of a friendship is replaced with another close relationship.[4]: 248
Indulge me a moment, please.
When I first joined the fandom - one of the few I ever took an active part in - over ten years ago, it was an astonishingly creative time. I hopped on during the beginning of Season Two, which if Equestria Daily's questionnaire last year can be believed - and which, given my general impressions of fan opinion in blogs and so on, seems likely - ranks as one of the most beloved seasons of the show. Fandom classics (some of which don't hold up, some of which do) proliferated, defining a fandom era, and who didn't relish the coming together of people from many walks of life?
Or the epic reveal of the changelings, of course. 
Still one of MLP's most badass moments.
I myself was getting a new wind on my lifelong writing interests. Much as I can't credit my early work as anything more than primitive juvenilia, I remember it being an exciting burst of creativity, of possibility, of new plans and headcanons appearing as if from nowhere. I might not think much of All of a Fluttershy and I might lament the unclimbed mountain of Cutie Mark Espionage Agency, but these early fumbling attempts of mine laid the groundwork for a hobby that, in hindsight, led to some of my favourite Fluttershy writings and encouraged me to keep the novelist dream alive.
Whatever else happens next, I've got that.
It wasn't all fun and games. Even without the rotten parts of the fandom souring the experience here and there, I've been endlessly frustrated with my writing, run into situations that backfired, and suffered moments of all-round stress with a patch of my life I never want to repeat again.
We've seen old names die off or disappear, and surely I can't be the only one waxing nostalgic for the time before the pony cons started to shrink and close. Whether or not I dived into that particular bonfire, there was a pleasant way to feel its warmth from a comfortable distance, and to see other people pass the torch around.
So perhaps I'm just refusing to let go of the past, but... I've been feeling very alienated from pony these days. I can't entirely blame G5 for this: it doesn't appeal to me, true, but there's nothing stopping me from revisiting G4 whenever I like, and with Loganberry's My Little Repeats blog series, plus PM conversations with people such as Ghost Mike, I've had very enjoyable moments doing just that. Equestria Girls, being a franchise I went into very late (2019 was when I first saw the movies), still has a freshness to it in my mind. I'm even catching up on the comics that I neglected.
All the same, overall I feel like we're drifting apart a bit.
Part of that's inevitably my own fault.
It's crazy. I'm far from done, adding to pony canon in myriads of fanfic ways, but I also fear spoiling the surprise on works of mine which I hope will be unique contributions, and that clamps my mouth too tightly shut. Yet I want nothing more than to speak. Madness!
And I love reviewing old episodes or compare-and-contrasting the hundreds of pony components and media, yet I'm convinced that doing so would be pointless, redundant, even a bit old-fashioned. How can I make sense of this?
Almost every day, I ache to speak, and yet I'm sure I shouldn't ruin the experience with words. And in the meantime, life serves other challenges. It's somehow senseless: for all the blogs I've written over time, I'm convinced I could have written many, many times more in the same vein. Look at the inconsistent release dates of some of the subseries I started. I ask you!
Basically, I'm conflicted.
Not as badly as some, but...
I also feel a little sad to see the fandom - or at least, this corner of it - become so strangely quiet, detached, and disconnected. Nonsensical as it is, I really do feel like it's partly my fault for not keeping the torch lit. If I'd spoken out more, or done more, perhaps we'd be that little bit stronger.
Something's burnt out. Maybe it's just me: domestic living, finance, and personal health haven't been all-easy either*. I still wonder if G6 - should it come - would mark the fandom reborn. Can something bigger rise out of the ashes? Or am I just being melodramatic?
* Fate being the joker that it is, I've been sick more times in the last two years than I have been in the last ten.
All I know is that, today at least, I want to change something, and stop this corrosive waiting for something to change. I don't want to see this flower wither away, not if it just needs regular watering and sunlight. Some kind of "Get Back On The Pony Wagon" thing?
It's a working title. 😕
From Wikipedia:
Which relationships count as true friendships, rather than as an acquaintance or a co-worker, varies by culture. In English-speaking cultures, it is not unusual for people to include weaker relationships as being friends.[50] In other cultures, such as the Russian and Polish cultures, only the most significant relationships are considered friends. A Russian might have one or two friends plus a large number of "pals" or acquaintances; a Canadian in similar circumstances might count all of these relationships as being friends.[50]
In Western cultures, friendships are often seen as lesser to familial or romantic.[51] In practice, friendships in Ancient Greece were more utilitarian than affectionate, being based upon obligation and reliance, though they held a broad view on the variance of friendship.[52][53] Aristotle wrote of there being three kinds of friendships: those in recognition of pleasure, those in recognition of advantage, and those in recognition of virtue.[53]
What's the core of the show, then? What's all this built on?
"Friendship" would be the obvious, trite answer, but honestly I think that's nothing unusual about the show (pick a Disney feature, any Disney feature) nor all that helpfully specific on the face of it. I'm not even sure I can conclusively pinpoint the X-factor here, not to any scientific degree as such. My best guess is that it's best represented in the first main player, Twilight Sparkle.
Retroactively speaking, I've grown to better appreciate Twilight's unusual placement as the show's central heroine. This is the kind of franchise where it'd be all too easy to fall into the Girl Show Ghetto (and all the female stereotyping that comes with it), the infantilizing Animation Ghetto (because Disney, I suppose), the Comedy Ghetto (something which Chaucer and Shakespeare would've laughed at, given their broad scope for highbrow and lowbrow humour), the decline of the non-ironic "Magical Girl Show" as a Dead Horse Genre (HA!), and perhaps the usual limitations of a heroic fantasy that isn't about the older, more traditional straight white men. But I digress...
So what is Twilight? An academic shut-in who happens to be a magical unicorn. Someone who (humanized, in theory) wouldn't look out of place among the Disney Princess line (oh hi, Belle!), unapologetically owes some DNA to Sailor Moon and her stablemates (admittedly mostly by harking back to the adventure aspects of the first pony generation, which pre-dated the Magical Warrior Girl craze of the 90s), is a sane snarker in a crazy world, and (to the limit that a show aimed at a very young demographic can convey), started off with a case study of friendship out in the field and moved on to political ambition and (vaguely - I'm being very daft here) unapologetically religious charitable outreach.
All we're missing is the minority representation and the LGBTQIA+ elements, and we're set!
Er... spoke too soon?
Anyway, I won't say those were all done well (myself, I think her political climb feels a bit uneven and has some missed opportunities), but it all speaks to a few core appeals:
- The sciency, geeky side, which feels especially ironic placed in the body of a magical unicorn. Admittedly, this mostly comes across in the form of the "neat freak" organizational moments and bibliomania, but the core is there.
- The combination of official leadership and a focus on the community to which she belongs, and among whom she mingles, creating a fascinating interplay of the powerful and the personal.
- Sort of a reflection of the previous point, but: the championing of traditionally "feminine" ideals such as love, emotional seriousness, and helpfulness alongside traditionally "masculine" ideals such as duty, heroism, and power (I know I'm reinforcing and exaggerating the difference here, but it's in the name of emphasizing what makes her universal, transcendent combination of traits work).
- The emphasis on the absence of close friendships early on, which informs some of her patience with redeeming others (whether you'd agree it was done well or not, Discord's reformation is based at least partly on the idea that he simply had no idea what he was missing, and he's not the only one).
N.B. Pinkie Pie manages to diagnose Twilight's problem within seconds of meeting her.
The latter point has some power especially when you get a glimpse of the "epidemic of loneliness" in modern life, something which was a problem even before the COVID-19 pandemic started. This is a typical example. And this. And this too. Although the pandemic didn't help matters either, it's been a documented problem since long before then, such as in the declining number of confidants each person can turn to.
I certainly feel the premier of Season One had a strong, unparalleled finish, with Twilight's own epiphany and transformation from tetchy course-follower to socializing enthusiast (to the point I referred to it once as Twilight's "welcome to the herd" moment). Perhaps it combines with the political ascension to create a slightly overblown spiritual version of the "Rags to Riches" template, from an overstudious little foal to effectively supreme ruler of the land, but then again how many fictional princesses could find 1729 a very interesting number? Whilst literally writing the book on friendship (OK, co-authoring, but still...)?
Whether or not it was expressed very well, Twilight's academic side adds a rare element to the otherwise traditionally benevolent and powerful protagonist: the science. Without delving too far into religious concepts, it's like the omni trinity of (omni)potence, (omni)science, and (omni)benevolence rolled into one mortal.
I don't know if I'm expressing that very well, but I think that's a large part of Twilight's appeal as the lead, in a situation where the "smart guy" is usually a sidekick spouting technobabble, not leading the charge or reaching out to a misguided foe.
Yes, it mainly opened the door to the pony equivalent of "Give geeks a chance!" The show definitely had another layer of appeal with its secret game of Spot The Reference, and to changing attitudes with the unexpected popularity of playing "Where's Derpy?" and the later show emphasis on other species as "races". But it also opened the door to the idea that, yes, you could have interests in e.g. physics or psychology, and still be pretty damn cool.
Entirely speculatively, I wonder if that meant the second half of the show weakened itself a bit when the Twilight focus shifted to introducing new character after new character. You could loosely argue most of them were successors to Twilight, but they didn't have that rare, outright alchemical combination of science freak and all-loving superhero.
I think it's significant that Season Nine's return to the dropped princess thread of Season Five seemed more coherent than trying to make an apple Starlight into an orange Twilight, or simultaneously introducing the Student Six yet downplaying them for the majority of their own season (as for the Pillars, it's mostly a redemption compare-and-contrast between Twilight and Star Swirl, even ignoring how they vanished as suddenly as they appeared).
Perhaps we can all agree Twilight was special?
"Ah-hem."
"Am I not MAGNIFICENT!?"
From Wikipedia:
Friendships are foremost formed by choice, typically on the basis that the parties involved admire each other on an intimate level, enjoying aspects such as commonality and socializing.[28]
Some factors affect most people. For example, most people underestimate how much other people like them.[29][30][31] The liking gap can make it difficult to form friendships.[32]
If my complete guess is right and that represents at least some of the foundation for the fanbase's inclusive explosion (allowing that, obviously, the show had to be good at a lot of things in the first place to draw a devoted crowd outside its target demographic), then how do I explain that "decline"? What is the attrition?
Are we just waiting for some kind of canon comeback of that science-potence-benevolence lightning strike? (I apologize to those of you who love G5 more than I can: consider this a question of popularity and particular demographic resonance rather than any kind of jab at quality).
Honest answer: not a clue. It's probably just as simple as changing show tastes.
Nevertheless, my "diagnosis" (such as it is, since I'm not a "doctor") is that the fandom has either been worn down or worn itself down (somehow), without regular, ongoing airings of that secret ingredient that made it so explosively popular in the first place. Whichever is the case, I'm interested in some way of renewing it.
(And yes, I'm open to the possibility that I'm making a mountain of a molehill and should acknowledge what's gone is gone: at the very least, this is how I honestly feel at the moment... bear with me a sec as I ride on my hobby horse).
The G4 show's probably as close to universal as we're likely to get in a mixed fandom, so that's a fair place to start. Although "animation" is a broad category, there are plenty of shows which I think come close in spirit: the Disney adventurous ones in particular, such as Amphibia and The Owl House, have similar ideas of other worlds, magic and technology, and the interplay between geeky smarts, moral compassion/redemption, and the influence of power. (Heck, Amphibia even has the science-potence-benevolence themes lined up as a plot point among its friendship trio!). And older, famous ones outside of Disney, such as Avatar: The Last Airbender (Zuko's pretty much a legend as an example of a well-done redemption arc) and, obviously, the Magical Warrior Girl inspiration herself: Sailor Moon.
These aren't must-haves or non-negotiables: my point is to emphasize the compare-and-contrast between shows. Or other media: no need to restrict ourselves to TV when films and books and anime and comics have something to say too. The point is to guard against repetitive staleness by adding fresh waters.
If nothing else, should I be proven wrong then I'd be interested in seeking better elements to emphasize, more important factors to consider. Can't improve if you don't test, after all.
Another way of looking at it is to skip the concrete and look more directly at the abstract. If Twilight's secret was to introduce the science to the more traditional power and benevolence, then what about the interplay between the three? More general discussions as to the ways science can help (and harm), or its remarkable historical power? The way power in the past has been changed by new appreciations for what constitutes the good of society, or its increasingly sophisticated technology? Benevolence's manifestation in the real world, and the know-how to do it wisely?
I'm not saying get pretentiously deep about any of this. Most of us got here because of the fun of silly ponies, not out of any high-minded ambitions. Still, there is a literary element to this that should appeal to a fandom of writers too. We use tyrants in our stories, we inherit stereotypes about science and technology from sci-fi and fantasy forebears, we have all kinds of secular, Christian, Buddhist, spiritualist etc. ideals about vice and virtue. We use armies and fighters, healers and poisoners, diplomats and firebrands in some of our stories.
Even modest quick-fics about romance (all right, "shipping") are shaped and informed by our learned understanding of what's good and benevolent in a relationship, versus what's unhealthy, stupid, and nothing more than a desire for control and power. If only in terms of what works and what doesn't work in a modern story, I feel we could only improve by airing a discussion like this at some point.
What I'm trying to say is that, boiled down, I want to do better than I have been, and part of me hopes - though I can't at all expect or demand - that the fandom feels like that big exciting phenomenon again, instead of quieting down into something I can't totally connect with right now.
I want to feel like I'm getting somewhere with all this writing obsession, this on-off interest in the technical craft, this social drought of mine. Not end up feeling like I've sunk too much into it, only to have lost the trail.
At the same time, it's more than that. I want to geek out about stuff, feel I'm getting more competent, and... I don't know, "harmonize", I suppose would be the right word. True, but part of me wants to go beyond that as well.
It's not enough to reconnect and end up repeating the same mistakes. I want to think my writing - either by helping myself as writing therapy, or helping others indirectly as bibliotherapy - is improving, almost rising. I want to get smarter, stronger, better.
And since I simply don't feel like I'm achieving any of those things right now - since I feel like I'm wearing down more than I'm building back up - something has to change.
From Wikipedia:
The lack of friendship has been found to play a role in increasing risk of suicidal ideation among female adolescents, including having more friends who were not themselves friends with one another. However, no similar effect was observed for males.[40][41] Having few or no friends is a major indicator in the diagnosis of a range of mental disorders.[14]
Higher friendship quality directly contributes to self-esteem, self-confidence, and social development.[22] A World Happiness Database study found that people with close friendships are happier, although the absolute number of friends did not increase happiness.[42] Other studies have suggested that children who have friendships of a high quality may be protected against the development of certain disorders, such as anxiety and depression.[43][44] Conversely, having few friends is associated with dropping out of school, as well as aggression, adult crime, and loneliness.[3]: 500 Peer rejection is also associated with lower later aspiration in the workforce, and participation in social activities, while higher levels of friendship was associated with higher adult self-esteem.[3]: 500–01
That's all for now. Impossible Numbers, out.
This is an interesting thought-piece.
It happens, but remember, Star Trek's fandom kept it alive for quite a while.
We have a lot more distractions and options in general for entertainment nowadays, though, so there is more competition for attention.
Not impossible. Star Trek came back and was reimagined. But I do not hold out high hopes.
There is certainly a large back-catalogue of stories, art, comics, etc. that you can probably go back through if you're interested in the 'stuff'. I'd argue that someone is missing out on a lot if that person is only looking at new things and the person can be introduced to great wonder by exploring old works of art. (either via one's own searches or through reading a leading reviewer's back catalogue/indexes).
If someone is interested in the discussion era of the show, there are corners of discussion, different peoples' Discords and forums, etc. but it's a bit fragmented and limited since the show itself is not producing anything new. It will inherently repeat itself and dwindle without new material... which doesn't necessarily mean new material from the show but any new authoritative material--even if that is fan-driven--e.g. someone's youtube show creating a faux episode, fallout equestria, etc.
If someone is interested in the third tier of friendship, of virtue... that's harder but it is probably also why there are so many different chat rooms. Everyone's moved out into their cliques of friends. Some groups dislike others or have different interests--so the community fractured. In places, the different groups will meet, but there likely will be tension.
There is less collaboration these days. Less people on the same page to create things. If you want to create the same sense of united purpose, I'd suggest working on collaboration, whether it's a shared world (Fallout Equestria, Equestria at War, etc.), or a writing feedback/comment group (which appear to be shockingly difficult to get a critical mass of interest for, though), or even just a 'response fic' (e.g. x wrote about y... so I'm going to write my own take on it with jibes and jokes and put a wink and a nod and the two of us authors will spur each other to new heights of ideas), etc. Different people want/expect different things from sharing here.
5773603
I have to admit that part of me is really hoping G6 comes along and gets the hype train rolling again, even though it doesn't seem like a very realistic hope when I think about the business context.
Well, I still have plenty of comics to get through (been neglecting them this year due to disruptions at home and at work), and I suppose technically there's nothing stopping me from looking at the old stuff. I do think novelty counts for something, though. When it comes to discussions, it's sorta like feeding a fire versus poking around the ashes.
🤔
Huh. For the longest time I thought I was the only feeling this, which was why I stepped away from FIMFic in January and kept to my other circles. Now I'm back, and I realize that this is not really uncommon, which is... Both disconcerting and oddly comforting, in the sense of finding some validation for some emotion I can't describe but which nevertheless I feel.
It's always been an odd thing for me, this "fandom." I mean that, I guess, both admirably, but also pejoratively. Sure, there's something awesome about a Fandom that churns out products of creativity since its inception and continues to do so, but I've been a cynic going in and perhaps still in; I wondered, even as I arrived late (Season 5 was my step in, but even then I was not involved in "big" stuff, like the shared worlds of Fallout:Equestria, the early fandom bubble of audio drams, ironically enough, cons, etc), if it was not fit to collapse under its own weight, like a massive star. There's something intimidating about this thing. It's awe, in the oldest sense of the word - something that fills one with terror (or an equivalent emotion of intensity) at its seeking majesty. Speaking as an introvert, it was hard for me to become invested any more into the pony craze because, quite simply, it was too crazy.
In this manner, I was almost thankful it began to lessen by Season 6, if only because it permitted a barrier of entry not held back by sheer numbers. Even as I kept to my corner and ended up not being able to get more involved due to life commitments, it was almost comfy, finding a little niche, a little room, that opened up as members got old, got upset, and got going. At the same time it was undeniable that the fandom was shrinking. If not in mass, then in enthusiasm (but that, I think, is how many internet fandoms go; they all look so dramatic in their diminishing). And people moaned about this, which upset me, and still does, in some way, perhaps because I'm of the opinion that nostalgia is more a trap than anything good, and that those who say something along the lines of, "It used to be bigger, or better, or the show is dying, the Fandom is dying, etc" are, themselves, invalidating those who discover the show and fandom in its twilight years, when, perhaps, they need that opening more than the initial brony madness that so many veterans cite as gospel and ichor.
Not that, I think, you're saying any of that.
Perhaps the simplest reaction one can have to all this is that, we've simply grown up. The normal boxes we once set ourselves happily in - things we thought were so enormous as to be infinite - simply did not match the pace of life, or the pace of our living. Things stagnated, sure, but it's not isolated to the fandom as the sole entity. The individual must also have stagnated, but in the sense that an organism stagnates if it has outlived the usefulness or utility of its environment.
I think the environment is still useful, but I think it behooves one to move around a little, too. Or take a step back, return to center, come back into oneself. Think about what drew us in and what kept us here, and if there's something we'd like to do that effect.
At any rate that's why I've come back. Having never been in the fandom's golden age, I have no need to become nostalgic to the point of bitterness; I have always existed between eras, oscillating like wave and particle pairs between stages, and have found my own sense of comfort in never being too attached as to be beyond upset. Peace, really. I have made peace with the fandom as is, and am thus, inclined to be more hopeful without needing to rely on the future to manifest that hope.
But I might be rambling. Maybe I'm attributing more or reading more into this, making it nonsensical l. Maybe that's a trap, as well, this proclivity to interpret interpersonal changes as meaningfully poetic.
Your blog got me to think about things I have always been thinking about, though, so if you're wondering if your writing ever amounted to something, I hope you take some satisfaction that it has here.
It's hard for me to directly relate to a lot of this, given my entry point in the fandom of early 2018. But a lot of it did resonate strongly regardless.
As useless advice as it may sound, I think acceptance that things are always changing is what it boils down to. Sometimes for the better, more often (lately, anyway) for the worst, but it's never always linear. It always changes direction at some point. Much like with Star Trek, we'll see a rebound at some point, likely but not definitely kicked off by the next generation that strikes a real long-lasting chord with people, and while I don't think we'll ever see a fandom in size or the particular vibe like 2011-14 again, we'll get something else out of it. It won't be that, it won't be this, it'll be its own thing.
As for the here and now, I was quite impressed and inspired by your breakdown of Twilight's character. I think I can agree that, for all that FiM was a combination of many factors that all contributed to more and more people being brought in, the particular blend of attributes and character role that Twilight had was a core component, above and beyond all the nerds and geeks that identified with her. The contextualisation of the shifting tone of the property as it went into G4 and of our times as it pertained to her, her starting and end point, why she is the way she is as regards the show's theme of friendship in a way that isn't so for most animation ostensibly about it, it was all quite insightful.
And while we've all usually cited the loss of her snark, repeated and hollow moments of doubt and her getting more bland as the reason Twilight dipped as the show went on, the way you look at it here bears merit too. It's easy to say the characters that "replace" Twilight don't have what makes her work, but you offer theories as to why, and I buy into them. Good job, bud.
I know I've said it before, but you have me as a mainstay for whatever you want to try and do around her going forward. In both fics and blogs.
I think it's partially to be chalked up to the loss of a monoculture surrounding the gradual release of seasonal content over time. G5's banner seasons on Netflix are dumped all at once and are done events, and the YouTube shorts are fine in their way, but despite dropping revelations that are startling in their implication (if not their execution) there's just not as much there to sink one's teeth into. If I had a wish-list for a hypothetical G6 it would include a return to gradual season drops.
5773609
There's a fair chunk to unpack here, so I'm going to come back to it (even if only as food for thought), but for the sake of first impressions:
My first thing to note is that even as a long-runner on this site, I've always had some level of distance from the rest of the fandom myself. Partly it's my commitment to keeping online biographical details to a vague minimum, but mostly it's due to me not being much of a social creature. Even when I found out about cons here in the UK, I never bothered to attend any (I only managed one - online - and then never tried again despite enjoying it at the time).
The campfire metaphor generally works for me. I don't get too close, simply because it feels uncomfortable or even risky, and I'm generally better suited to the cooler, darker margins. That said, I'm happy if other people want to sit closer, and I still prefer there be a fire, and that I'm close enough to bask in the Goldilocks Zone of (what for me counts as) "warm enough".
I remember people even saying they were more invested in the fandom than in the show itself. Finding recursive fanfiction (heck, MLP:FiM has its own subpage over there) gives me the weird feeling of watching someone climb further and further along a branch that has to snap at some point. The logic is that none of these, however massive they look at the time, can truly last without growth from the centre: the show is still the trunk.
Well, I won't object to puncturing the romanticism of the Good Old Days. Trends and fads - novelty and innovation - are too unpredictable for me to feel confident saying much more than "I like what I like when I find what I find".
What I'm trying to get at is that I do think the fanfic fandom, at least, is in a bit of a rut at the moment. G4 was genuinely a shot in the arm, but also lightning that didn't strike twice (now that G5's out there, I haven't seen all that much enthusiasm for it, especially compared with the madness of G4).
Unfortunately, I think on some level I've been somewhat in denial/defiant about that for the last few years, which has also coincided with an uptick in my writing difficulties. Blame me for getting too attached: that's a hypothesis I wouldn't be surprised by.
Re: G4 pony, we are still talking about one iteration of a show within a multi-decade series within a subgenre of a genre on one medium among many in a society with too many other things on its mind. Without that wider recontextualization, we're in danger of obsessing over a molehill so much that a few bits of soil sliding is hailed as a massive village-destroying avalanche.
Sometimes, I genuinely wonder if I'm obsessing too much, or if it's some rabbit hole of obsessing over obsessing...
All the more reason for a cold splash of reality, I agree.
Regular splashes, if need be.
I honestly don't think I've reached that stage. That's part of what worries me about all this writerly storm and stress: on some level, I know it's in a teacup, but I don't think I've ever meaningfully let go of said teacup or stopped sipping at it. That doesn't sound healthy to me, yet "simply let go" seems unthinkable, impossible, even risky in its own right.
It's depressing, I won't lie.
I won't object to getting a few gears turning, granted. I'm surprised at how you started your comment: my sense of isolation was so strong that I debated at first over whether or not I should even post this blog, for suspicion that hardly anyone would be on the same page. So thank you for saying what you said.
Seriously, I need to come back to this and think it over...
5773612
Regular feeding, not "one feast and they're done".
5773611
Gad, I hope you're right. I'd love it to be G6, but the universe doesn't progress based on my permission, so we'll just have to wait and see.
It's a plausible hypothesis, but not one that's airtight. Twilight's intellect was rarely a direct factor in her stories, perhaps due to a combination of not wanting to confuse the younger target audience, the writers not opting to push themselves in that direction (they're paid to be commercial staff, not deep thinkers), and the difficulties of consistently depicting a clever character convincingly or engagingly (Batman: The Animated Series had a similar problem with the Riddler, who alone of the rogues gallery made a point of flaunting his genius, so he only appeared three times).
It'd be truer to say Twilight promised a combination of brains, brawn, and benevolence than to say that she was a pinnacle of the fusion dance. But she did enough that you could code in that direction (loves books, espouses science, strives to be rational and reasonable, etc.), and certainly the political angle of her ascension adds an extra layer to the cake.
Obviously, there's also the turnover of staff from the first half of the show to the second - realistically, as far as Twilight's arc goes, you could bolt the premise of S9 onto S5 and little would fundamentally have to be changed (I say fundamentally because specific canon details would inevitably have to be rewritten on the surface). There was a decline in interest during Seasons Six, Seven, Eight, and to a lesser extent Five* - wherein the central focus shifted away from Twilight (and co.) - and that coincides with the turnover enough that one could get suspicious about cause and effect.
*Which I'm also duty-bound to explain, and must reluctantly admit that I can't. Maybe Season Four was just a natural winding down? I didn't think there was anything particularly offensive about it, and if anything it generally seemed to win back the crowd compared to the controversy over Season Three.
I suppose we should also add to the criticism list the repeat of her low-confidence arc in the pony movie, which definitely came out three seasons later than it really should've done.
Well, no plans, but we'll certainly have more to talk about going forward.
5773615
Not to worry. Ghost Mike knows it well - I say a lot and then there's a lot to read.
It took me a bit to get to this point, too. Early on I thought I had an "obligation" to be more involved, but that quickly drained me, until I slinked back to the darkness and nursed my energies... and then seven years had passed, lol.
(Is the past tense of "to slink" "slinked" or "slunk?" Hmm)
It takes time, to quote that one song from the mid-2000s. I found my way via taking a step back and connecting with friends over other interests. And also just going back to things I liked before pony - books, mostly. Then I found myself realizing I was already a complete person without pony.
Either way, I hope you can find that level of peace one day, should you choose to find it.
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I'd say this is the one that captures it, combined with the simultaneous explosion in total content (There's just /a lot more/ being made today) and the fragmentation of the internet, ala 'Discord now fulfills a niche that forums and the like used to' and the issue with that is that Discords dont get indexed; forums had the potential to always pull in new people from a random search or stray link, which is much less likely in the Discord era.
Pony came out in a moment where there was an unmet hunger - for something bright, sincere, and wholesome, the opposite of Angsturbation that dominated prior to that. But pony inspired spiritual children, and one consequence is that the potential fanbase for such can fragment as well.
So, piece one is 'The last remnants of the monoculture have been swept away, and the easy way for people to glam onto a thing has largely vanished too'
Then piece two is that what made Pony /work/, bluntly, was the creative team, which really all comes down to Lauren - she assembled the right people to bottle lightning together, and G6 isn't gonna bring things back without a similarly capable talent with a vision assembling & inspiring the right group. G5 has many many 'designed by committee' hallmarks and those just don't work, because what draws people in are the unique stylistic flairs of an auteur.
And piece three is the fact that, well, yea - while there are always new people finding the giant well of Horse, the reality is the bulk of the old fandom has drank their fill and moved on.
I joined this ride when S1 was airing, so I think I can say I've basically seen it all, and for everything to /come back/, yea the most important ingredient is a /really good G6/, but it needs other things to support it that are harder to come by in 2024 compared to 2010 / 2011.
One can still make spaces for those who are left, it's just...harder, these days.
I always feel strange hearing people talking about the gone eras and the melancholy of such, because ... and I know this sounds even sappier, but the true fandom lies within us and all that we create.
Attrition certainly always exists, but the great communities are great despite these losses.
This fandom is about pony, love and creativity, not in any particular order, and I say about it a lot because I believe these are what made the bronies "the bronies". If we stick with these and remember our origin, we won't be going anywhere even though some may be "moving on".
When I joined in I just interacted with a bunch of fan work and not with much fans. Now that I've come to this site and a lot of others, I realized that I am in a part that is much bigger than it seems.
I really love this fandom, and mostly because it's so alive. I can see tons of action both online and off, not to mention the creation being pumped out day after day, like music, pictures, news, videos and even games. I have been seeing excellence in these things even now, and that already makes me more optimistic than ever.
I know it can't be compared with the past, but there's a reason we don't like comparing with the past. Maybe I'm just exposed to a particularly active space or my standard is just pretty low, but I know that with the activity now we can still have fun with ponies, love and creativity for years to come.
Whatever people say about G4 or G5 or something, the pony world is always there living. It has been since the first episode aired and its the things we create in the world as a whole that matters. Doesn't matter the generation, at least to me.
Final word: I believe that what makes a fandom mature is the events that make them independent from so-called "canon". It means that we can be self-sufficient.
I believe that we have achieved that.
And we can still achieve more. (Hoof to heart~)