Will history repeat itself?

When MLP: FIM ended, I found myself thinking about Digimon Adventure and Digimon Zero Two quite a bit. Mainly it was because, like a lot of fans, I felt something special to me had just ended and I would never experience it again. I remember feeling that way about Digimon when Zero Two ended. Then along came Teen Titans, Yu-Gi-Oh, Transformers Prime, the Marvel Movies, Star Wars Clone Wars, and of course MLP: FIM to prove me wrong.

Now, I find myself thinking about Digimon because the revelation of the premise of MLP Gen 5 has reminded me of how I felt when I first learned about Digimon Zero Two. I remember being disappointed that the characters we’d followed in Adventure would only be involved peripherally. Then I watched the show and found myself becoming more of a fan of the new characters. I see a lot of that same disappointment towards MLP Gen 5 with the revelation of the premise. A lot of folks are sad and disappointed we won’t be seeing any of our favorite main characters and probably not any of our favorite secondary and background characters (I’m gonna miss Derpy and Discord). I won’t lie; it’ll be strange watching a new Generation that’s set in the same universe as Friendship is Magic, but more than likely without a single familiar character (though granted, we’re only getting teases now. Things could change).

But at the same time, I find myself rather interested in the new ponies and eager to see their adventures. I can already see possible ships and fandom theories on the new characters, and I don’t think it’s too far fetched for the fans to form a new community around them. And something I keep reminding myself is the fact that pretty much all the ponies we fell in love with in Friendship is Magic were all completely new characters. Granted, some like Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were inspired by past generation ponies, but they were all given their own unique personalities and stories. And the fandom fell in love with them from day one if I understand things correctly (ironically, discovering FIM after it’d already been on for a while is something else I share with Digimon).

So now I find myself wondering if history might repeat itself. Not so much with what happened with MLP: FIM (I hope a new mass fandom can be born, but I’m not too optimistic at the moment), but with what happened with Digimon and myself. While I think MLP was the superior show, I’m seeing a lot of similarities. When Digimon Adventure ended, the characters had just defeated a major villain who had tried to obliterate both the Digital and Real Worlds. They’d just left a Digital World that had been heavily damaged but was clearly on the road to recovery, with the added bonus of all the heroic digimon who had “died” being reborn. By all rights, everything was great again and the idea that things could go bad again seemed pretty far fetched. Then Digimon Zero Two came along and showed how worse things could get.

So it is with the current premise of Gen 5. When Gen 4 ended, it seemed like Equestria was now a utopia, with all species living in friendship and harmony together. And of course, the villains were the worst they’d ever faced and came damn close to succeeding. So the idea that all species are going to be against each other in the new generation is a bit hard to believe. But hey, been there, thought that, got proven wrong. So we shall see. And if Generation 5 turns out to be even better than Generation 4 (again, thought that was impossible and got proven wrong about a show before), I’m certainly not gonna complain.