Two Years until the Equestrian Exodus: What we should do now and how we can go on from here · 2:30am Apr 12th, 2018
I bet everyone of you has heard about the bad news we got in December. I am very late with this, but I want to share my thoughts about it here, talk about how the future will look for us in sight of this and what are the best things for us to do in this situation.
It is a long read, but an important one, so I ask you to please stick around and read until the end.
So, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is ending and Season 9 will be the last one..... When I first read this news on Equestria Daily on December 16th, I was shocked. It was nothing that surprised me to a 100%, cause we already heard in 2014 that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic will get five more seasons and could therefore conclude that it will end with Season 9.
But I still felt shocked over seeing this so bluntly and directly confirmed, because, the news in 2014 only meant that we would get five more seasons at least and it did nowhere say that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic can't run even longer than that if it continues to perform well. And after the movie, I had high hopes that Hasbro will order more seasons for it and that it will last longer than Season 9, because the movie was an obvious attempt by Hasbro to attract more fans (and, therefore, potential customers) for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and it was pretty clear that, if the movie succeeds with this, Hasbro will gladly order more seasons.
As big as these hopes were, as much I felt crushed when I had to find out this won't happen..... My shock was so big, that I wasn't able to say anything about it for quite a long time. I was desperate over this news.
Only after a while, thoughts about it started to form in my head..... About the reasons why this might happen, what this means for me and the whole fandom, if it is even true or if the Generation 5 reboot leaks are just fakes by someone who wanted to use the whole hacker affair to get attention or to troll the fandom, by creating Generation 5 concept arts and pretending they are official and that it was the hacker who leaked them.
The latter thought got crushed rather quickly when Equestria Daily, which has very good connections and a close partnership with Hasbro since recently, openly warned about the spoilers from the Generation 5 reboot leaks, which confirmed those leaks as legit.
Realizing that all of them were legit was another hammer blow for me. I once again started to think about the reasons for this drastic step of rebooting My Little Pony for Generation 5. After some thinking, I came to the conclusion that the movie probably didn't perform to Hasbro's expectations and that Hasbro lost faith in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic over this, which is a situation that already happened once a long time ago, when Hasbro originally wanted to end it with Season 3 due to sales that were lower than expected.
For me, this was a very trying time. The imagination that I soon will have to say goodbye to Equestria and all the ponies I know and love was wrecking me. And, in addition to my fears of having to farewell Equestria, I wasn't (and am still not) on-board with the concept for the Generation 5 reboot.....
Taking all of the Mane Six, changing them from the ponies we know to something entirely new like Twilight being an earth pony, Fluttershy a unicorn, ect., altering their personalities, even going so far to change Applejack's name (!) and to turn her into a very mundane character who lives in some ordinary, urban city, all this sounds terrible to me, like they're trying too hard to repeat the same spark that happened when My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic first aired.
I have seen shows that crashed because the creators tried too hard to capture the same spirit and to repeat the same success that the preceding show had in a reboot, by zealously changing everything that made the predecessor so charming in order to make the reboot look new and fresh.
All the plans for the reboot sound exactly like this and the past has shown plenty why you don't change a winning formula.
These thoughts, and the looming goodbye to Equestria, tormented me..... But when I, once again, lamented this fate of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and started to ponder over the likely reason for it, of the movie not having performed well enough for Hasbro, I had a little epiphany and this let me grow back a tiny bit of hope.....
I was suddenly realizing that Hasbro has actually yet to see how successful the movie turns out exactly in the end, as it were only four months after it had its first cinema release and there were still countries the movie hadn't been shown in yet, as well as countries that still needed DVD/Bluray releases of the movie. Not to mention that Hasbro didn't even know (and still doesn't know) the final sales numbers of toys and merchandise based on the movie, especially considering that there were still some new movie toys on the horizon.
And I also realized that Hasbro can't even know yet what kind of effect the movie will have on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and its popularity, as Season 8 had yet to start and toys based on Season 8 had yet to appear in stores.
And a lot of this is still current; the movie still has to get DVD/Bluray releases in some countries, Season 8 is only four episodes in now and toys for Season 8 have started to appear in stores only recently.
I realized Hasbro still has to wait until it can see the full scope of the movie's success and this brought me the epiphany that, maybe, Hasbro is only pondering about a possible reboot in case that the overall revenue of the movie stays under its expectations and that the leaked Generation 5 reboot plans are just being made because of emergency instructions from Hasbro for Meghan McCarthy and the rest of the team to come up with ideas for a reboot in case Hasbro needs one.
What we should not forget is that Hasbro is a company and that, as such, it has to look forward to stay in business. For Hasbro, the revenue it makes from sales of toys and merchandise determines what decisions it makes for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and in case something goes wrong and these sales should drop fatally, it has to have an emergency plan for the future. These Generation 5 reboot concepts we heard about could be such an emergency plan in case My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic starts to decline in sales dramatically.
But, if the overall revenue from the movie does meet Hasbro's expectations or even exceeds them and if My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic continues to perform well or starts to perform even better because of the movie's effect on it, then this emergency plan will not be needed. It is redundant then and Hasbro will gladly scrap it and continue with Generation 4, as there is no reason to invent the wheel anew as long as it still rolls excellently.
The plan to reboot My Little Pony for Generation 5 might not be as set in stone yet as it currently seems to us. This plan is one that can still change over the next months while Hasbro watches how the revenue from the movie develops and how it affects My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in popularity and toy sales.
And, if Hasbro does change this plan and decide to keep My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic going beyond Season 9, then this is something we should find out in the coming Fall. The production of a new season takes about one year and six months and if we assume that a Season 10 will start airing in Spring of 2020, this means the script writing has to start at the beginning of this year's October for Season 10 to be done in time.
And since the last plan regarding the number of seasons My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic will get that we heard before we saw the leaks was nine seasons, Hasbro has to make some announcement about new seasons that go beyond Season 9 to hype these seasons up via advertising and to get its new plans attention. And we will probably also hear a few things about it from DHX.
Regardless of what Hasbro's final decision for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is, we are going to hear some words about this around the end of September or the beginning of October and the next HASCON (assuming it happens in September again) is a very likely candidate for the release of infos about the future of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, so this is the time we should set our eyes on.
Until then, there are things we can do to support a positive outcome of the decision.
- The movie has tons of excellent toys in stores that are of a much higher quality than Hasbro's usual brushables, as well as toys that belong to the Friendship is Magic Collection and the Guardians of Harmony toyline which have an even higher quality and are more like collector's figures than toys.
And, of course, the DVDs and Blurays of the movie, the movie soundtrack and a plethora of books based on or tying in with the movie.
Even with Season 8 having arrived, supporting the movie is still important, due to its revenue playing a large part in Hasbro's decision-making process.
- August will see the major toys for Season 8 and the Friendship School playset hitting stores and supporting these is very important as well, as Hasbro does expect more interest in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the new toys for it because of the movie.
To see My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic getting continued even after Season 9, each of us buying a few of the toys for both the movie and Season 8 (or a lot, if you can afford that, the more, the better!), as well as DVDs/Blurays and soundtracks, will prove as very helpful for convincing Hasbro to order more seasons, so if we all do this, we can massively increase the chance of Hasbro making a positive decision for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
However, if all of these efforts should fail and Hasbro does make a negative decision, making the worst-case scenario of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic ending with Season 9 in Fall of 2019 indeed happen, I want to say, that we should not give up hope because of this and not stop what we are doing since My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic started or since we first saw it.
If the Generation 5 reboot we heard about happens, there will, regardless of its quality, probably be a good number of members of our community jump over to it, start watching it and create fanfics and other fanwork based on it, just like we did it for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for so long now. A few of them might return if they don't like the reboot, others might continue to be active and creative for both generations and a lot will probably stay with the rebooted Generation 5 after migrating and form a new fandom.
But even with this, a hard core of us will remain here in the Generation 4 fandom, as not everyone will like the reboot regardless of how it will turn out in the end.
And even though My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic will be over and not get new episodes, comic issues or books to draw inspiration from anymore if the reboot happens, once it has ended with Season 9, we will be left with 221 fantastic episodes, more than 150 exciting comic issues, 30 captivating books, 1 Hearth's Warming Eve two-part special and 1 wonderful, 90-minutes long movie made for the big cinema screens.
Even in the worst-case scenario, these things will stay with us. And they will continue to provide us with inspiration for fanfictions and other creations.
- We will still be able to write about a ton of unexplored lore from Equestria, as even all the world-building we got and will get until the end of Season 9 will not suffice to show us all of Equestria and what lies beyond it or all of the secrets and mysteries Equus holds.
- We will still be able to write about many, many interesting, fascinating, cute or deep ponies and other creatures, even once we grow tired of the mane cast, as we have a huge sidecast and an even huger background pony cast of enormous dimensions who all just wait for us to come up with ideas and theories for them and to turn these into stories.
- And even if we should run out of ideas for all of this one day, too..... Then we can go and write about Equestria's future.
If Hasbro does not allow My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic to exist longer once Season 9 is over, we can go and continue where it left off and with this, keep our (creative) minds connected to Equestria far, far into the future by continuing to write and create for it.
Generation 4 and Equestria have provided us with enough sources of inspiration to continue creating stories for it for a lifetime and with the nearly unlimited potential of writing and creating for Equestria's next generations, we will never have a need to stop writing stories about Equestria.
Even once everything is over and done and the last book has been closed for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Equestria will have left us behind a gift and we should keep honoring this gift and keep up the word about Equestria and the messages it brought us, through our creations for it.
And even with everything I said here, there is STILL one more glimmer of hope we have..... Even if Generation 5 of My Little Pony should show us an entirely different universe with entirely different ponies, who says that Equestria won't come back to us in Generation 6 one day?
We don't know yet how the rebooted Generation 5 will perform and how popular it will become, but even if it performs well and becomes very popular, it will still end one day, too, and Generation 4 is Hasbro's biggest success ever, so, who goes to say it won't let Generation 6 be about Equestria again?
Maybe one day, Equestria will return to us..... And wouldn't it be wonderful to keep writing for it all this time and to welcome it back in the same way we said goodbye to it? 
Follow-up: A Season and a Half Left?
Even if it ends, the fandom will Never die, neither will our Stories and this site
Here, here! Long live Equestrian!
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Nothing will ever die. Even once My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic ends one day and even if a new generation does not show us Equestria again, Equestria will still continue to exist.
And as long as we write and create for it, we won't have to say goodbye to it and to the ponies we love completely.
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Indeed.
I'm actually one of the few people who is waiting for G4 to end, even if it could go on forever, Hasbro would run out of ideas, like they are now for Season 8, everything must come to an end, including My Little Pony. G4 should be the end of it. We could still continue the story of G4 with our imaginations, but the media part and the show, has to end sometime. Thankfully us fans will never leave G4 or abandon it. You're right about one thing: Equestria will survive with us. 😊
I'll probably will get a lot of hate for thinking this way, but I'm not the only one. And regarding G5, we don't need it. What else could Hasbro show us that is in G5 that we obviously don't need to see?
I'm hoping the next MLP movie will become a thing as well. 😄
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It is possible. But not from me. In some, the old spirit of "Love and Tolerance" still remains and I'm one of them.
However, don't feel in the right with something just because you feel to be part of a majority. I do not have numbers or statistics about how many want to see G4 end and how many see its potential and hope for it to go on, but regardless, believing to be among the majority makes you feel more validated in your opinion, but it can't tell you if your belief is right or wrong.
If you truly believe that the show's writers are running out of ideas, then this is something you heard from someone else, as there are frankly a lot of bronies who can only see similarities, but not the differences between the episodes of today and the episodes of past seasons. I will have a blog entry about that soon.
Until then, I can tell you that the belief the show should end with Season 9 (or, in more extreme cases, even that it should have ended long ago) that some hold often comes from their affection they have towards the Mane Six. Their is nothing wrong about having affection for them. But they see the Mane Six as the answer to all questions, the characters to end all characters. They over-obsess with them and switch out that there are other ponies/creatures and that there is more to Equestria than them.
The show and Equestria are rich and there is enough to make the show last far into the future that lies beyond Season 9. But for this, the show does have to let go of the Mane Six, because unless something very dramatic and life-changing would happen to them, they don't offer much anymore as characters.
And this is something the fans of the show can feel, but for those who cling too strong to the Mane Six, this feeling is unbearable. They don't want to say goodbye to the Mane Six as the mane characters of the show, so they instead hope for the show to end, so they can at least remember the Mane Six as the shiny heroes of the show they have been until the end.
But this is also a foolish thing to hope for. Equestria is full of ponies and we adore them all. And even more, we also adore Equestria itself. If the show should end, after how many seasons is irrelevant, we do not only have to say goodbye to the Mane Six, we would have to say goodbye to everypony and to the world they live in itself.
There is more to lose for us than just the Mane Six at the end of MLP: FiM, but there is also much more for us to gain if it continues, this is something a lot more bronies have to become conscious about.
And while we can't keep Hasbro from ending G4 one day, we can stick close to Equestria and encourage Hasbro to keep Equestria for a future generation orsimply more seasons of this generation.
What I spoke about in this blog entry is true, if the end should happen with Season 9, then it's our task to continue writing and creating for Equestria to keep it alive in us, while we wait for it that it will return to us one day, be that in G6 or any My Little Pony generation in the future.
But until then, we can do things to influence the decision and to make Equestria stay with us. There is one more chance we have and we should use it.
This fandom is a strong force and if it is using its strength at the right place and at the right moment, it can move a lot. We have seen that in the past.
Maybe you belong to the group of bronies I mentioned above. But what unites us all is that we love Equestria and all the things, ponies and creatures it has to offer. There is something to gain from future seasons for us all, even if some are not aware of this or even convinced of the opposite.
If all our efforts fail and Hasbro does stick with its plan to reboot, then we will do what I said and keep writing and creating for Equestria to keep it inside of us. But before this happens, we can still move something and influence Hasbro to make a positive decision for G4 and Equestria.
This is where our energy and our strength is needed right now.
There is nothing that a G5 that is a reboot could accomplish. It would have new ponies who have the same names as the ponies we know and love, but they would be different ponies still. Alternate universe counterparts you could find in a world beyond one of Starswirl's mirrors, nothing more.
A reboot for G5 would alienate everyone. The reason why G4 didn't for those who knew the early generations was just because G4 is so much better than those generations.
And that's something unique. Whatever another reboot of the My Little Pony franchise would do, it could not do the same that G4 did.
It could not ignite the same spark and it would not have the same magic again.
But in G4, this magic is still alive even today. If Hasbro really wants to have a new generation of My Little Pony, it would be best to show us Equestria in the future. Perhaps in a similar vein like in the story I tagged this blog entry with. Or in a different way, there are countless possibilities for Equestria's future that we can't predict.
This is something that would give Hasbro a fresh start with the franchise, but it would also keep this magic that G4 created when it started and it would allow us to stay in Equestria.
It would even help soothe the worries of those who believe that MLP: FiM is getting stale, and so it would be optimal.
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You're right, we all love many other characters than just the Mane Six, and no matter what, they'll stick with us regardless of G4 ending, same goes for Equestria. They'll have a very special place in our hearts, and we'll never forget them, that's what makes this fandom unique. 😊
I didn't hear the " running out of ideas " thing from someone else. I knew after Shadow Play and the first Movie, that Hasbro couldn't top them both. The only episodes in Season 8 that actually showed any creativity and innovation in my opinion, were The Parent Map, The Break Up Break Down, Molt Down, and the Mean 6, that's it. Speaking of which, giving Spike wings out of the blue like that, wasn't necessary. I believe that Hasbro should've waited till the Season 9 finale to give Spike wings. Cause like you said about the Mane Six, it may be the end of their character arcs, but it doesn't have to end with them, it should be different for Spike. Giving him wings feels like the end of his character arc to me. XD
And see? Nothing G5 can do that G4 hasn't already done. It'll probably be just as flattened and not very interesting, as the first 3 generations were, that's what I'm scared of. The first 3 generations haunted people like me for as long as I've known about them. And you know why G4 is better? It's because of Lauren Faust. She's the one who revolutionized My Little Pony forever with G4, and since she's retired from that, wherever Hasbro takes G5, there's always the feeling that it'll slam MLP back into the ground. But thankfully, we'll always hold on to G4 forever, and that's a fact. 😄
Even if the seasons the magic of friendship will never die, neither on this site, or in our hearts
!!!