Okay, first off, full disclosure: I'm not particularly fond of the show. The characters, the fandom, sure. But the show doesn't particularly appeal to me, and the addition of Starlight more or less solidified that, but hey, if despite that if manages to entertain, which it does at times, then an impartial opinion like mine is probably going to be high praise or lowest condemnation from a brony, so theres that.

That said, I notice a certain... trend, if you will, in later seasons, namely five through nine. Mind they kept matters professional and they didn't pander, but its like they were intentionally doing a whole lot of "hey, we know your there for this" sort of thing. Like the two ponies from when they were in the diner, and the blatant waifu making, or more blatantly the closing of the skies in the last episodes. It didn't go full tilt classic Goofy style with its humor, but there were a decided amount of wink wink nudge nudge.

Or am I reading to much into things?

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and the blatant waifu making

Well for starters they were making waifus from day one. Let's be real. Waifus is not something that suddenly cropped up at any point in the show. They were there all along. Waiting. Waifing.

Hell, they threw some husbandos in there too. Don't think I've not seen the Braeburn art. I have. Some of it is olde.

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Braeburn fanart? I thought that was just an old legend.

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an impartial opinion like mine

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What really changed is animation. They went from reusing the same few recollored vectors to fill the background to a much larger selection of vectors. When you create something for 9 years you tend to get better at it and you tend to have a much larger gallery of creations.

There wasn't a magical line between season 4 and 5.

7209618 It is not a story the Big Mac simps would tell.

7209615
eh, ive only been here for a couple of years so ive missed a lot. But apparently there's not a whole lot to miss. This fandom and this site in particular seem not to catch much drama aside from the clop or something like Molestia, which wasn't all that controversial really. I mean, it was Sabrina Online levels. Not something a kid should read, maybe, but not so traumatizing as to warrant worry if they did.

As for my waifu note, I mean it wasn't so, as I said, blatant in earlier seasons. There were no more personality to what was basically the same template with different manes and hair styles then what one assigned them, so they became as such.

7209624 Felt pretty blatant to me.

I mean, what am I supposed to think when I see this?

Look at her! She's got a bowtie!

On a less serious note, for real, the main thing that changed in waifu regard was that they got a bigger bunch of assets to work with and were able to actually bring in more characters. MLP has always been good at making compelling female characters. Which is, let's be honest, basically just a waifu but with more than 5 letters. As soon as they were able to easily make more characters, well, it wasn't hard to see them make lots of memorable ones.

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Yeah, pretty much - it started even earlier, but it got heavier over time. Still, nothing as reference-heavy or fannish as the comics.

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Oh, this fandom's had plenty of drama.

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Or am I reading to much into things?

Yeah, probably this. Especially if you're thinking closing the skies is a reference to what I think you think it is.

The show was made from the start with the intent that it would have appeal to a wider range of ages, because at the very least, the main target demographic is going to have parents exposed to it as well, so it's probably a good idea to make sure they're entertained, too. I haven't really seen much changing with that. The only thing that comes to mind is making Derpy a recurring background character, skewed eyes and all.

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Like the two ponies from when they were in the diner... or more blatantly the closing of the skies in the last episodes.

I have no idea what you're talking about here. Would you mind clarifying these examples, please?

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If you're asking whether the show became written with the awareness that bronies watched it, then yes, that was simply unavoidable. I don't know what you're specifically referring to with the diner and waifus, but I'll say this: anyone who creates anything for the purpose of presenting it to an audience does so with that audience in mind, be it music, writing, cinema, animation, or painting, an artist has to understand who will see their work.

I don't think there was any blatant waifu making, the show's intention was always to make visually attractive ponies for the sake of selling toys, and characters that are interesting and engaging with their first impression works really well with pulling in kids when they are walking down the toy section. As for visual gags or humour, I think a lot of it was just for the sake of making the show more appealing to watch. Children can definitely pick up on the background jokes, especially if they're placed intentionally to be seen. True, the adult fans might get more out of it, but that's down to the individual sense of humour.

It's not really a trend, but a staple of animation and visual media. Manga and anime will put a lot of little gags in their background or margins, western animation does much of the same. I don't really understand the point you're making. It's neither a problem nor a distraction from how I view the show, but an expected element that shows the creators' attention to detail.

7209621 Big Jim said they were doing things with Flash as they went along that they never thought it was able to do, and it just kept getting better. Particularly expressions.
7209629 They never would have been able to pull off the Celestia/Sombra love story in the cartoon, or the Shining Armor/Cadence High School story. Or Tibbles, my favorite.

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SHUT UP APUL HORZ, YOU'RE THE FRUMPY ONE THEY INVITE SO THEY CAN LOOK BETTER IN COMPARISON

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Okay, lets take Octavia then, for example. Now, in canon, she is british, or whatever, but she wasn't until then. She could have been Prench, of Russian, or a changeling, or a thestral under a charm to escape bigotry. The sky was the limit. And no one really did Vinyl as a mute before the show did, she was always more a light Dash with a party girl chaser. But in show we see her as a helpful older sister type with horrid taste in music.

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Fallout Equestria: pegasus turncoated and cut off the sky following the zebras using balefire, and the diner featured two ponies who were a reference to Pulp Fiction

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Thankfully its never gotten Sonic bad... or steven universe

I think a lot of that has to do with the fact we came from, of all places, 4chan

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Indeed - but opinion remains divided if that's a good thing or a bad thing. (Well, I don't think Tibbles has many haters..)

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Is it that the most morally positive shows that somehow spawn the most toxic fans, or does it just stand out bi contrast?

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Eh... again, it varies. You always get the weirdly obsessive in the fandom, but this one seems to be impervious since most folks actively don't care. They like their little horses and don't engage with others who want an arguement.How bronies view trolls and toxic elements is kinda like how Catholics view Protestants: "We still love you, just think you're retarded."

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I hope it's that good...but it would still be nice if bronies were a more pleasant sort of fandom. I know there was some aspiration to that, early on...

We're talking about a show that may have aimed at being accessible for everyone, but had a target audience of young girls. So you'll notice early on that most major characters are female, and there are a wide variety of different types of characters, making it so that their target audience generally had someone to relate to. Later seasons, they could flesh out all the background ponies, and add more incidental characters.

But having a bunch of different characters girls can relate to does also have the side effect of more potential waifus.

And yes, they did notice that boys were starting to watch their show. Note Pipsqueak from Luna Eclipsed, who was specifically there at Hasbro's request. And later, you obviously have Slice of Life...

--Sweetie Belle

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You know, right now, a bunch of bronies are raising money for @ScopeGuardPony 's family. I'd say it's still a pretty good fandom...

--Sweetie Belle

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exactly my point. And I'm not saying its a bad thing at all, merely making a observation.

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How bronies view trolls and toxic elements is kinda like how Catholics view Protestants: "We still love you, just think you're retarded."

And vice versa. :)

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Also where is the next chapter gosh darn it

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SHUT UP APUL HORZ, YOU'RE THE FRUMPY ONE THEY INVITE SO THEY CAN LOOK BETTER IN COMPARISON

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Saturday.

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Yeah, there are still some who have held on to the benevolent spirit.

And it is a constant worry, at least for some of us, that the show over time became more aimed at the vocal online fanbase than the original target audience...

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wrong one

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Fallout Equestria: pegasus turncoated and cut off the sky following the zebras using balefire

Yeah, I thought that was where you were going with that.

As much as I love Fallout: Equestria and would get a kick out of seeing some nod to it in the actual show, I'm not remotely convinced that was a reference to it. Given their famous restriction on not reading fanfiction to avoid accusations of plagiarism, it seems more likely that it was a coincidence, with two people coming to the same idea for the same reasons.

As for the Pulp Fiction reference, they've been making references and allusions to popular or famous works from the very start. I doubt many of the younger viewers of season one would recognize the Yakety-Sax sound-alike for what it is, much less the quote from Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now

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Oh, now there's a comment... quite honestly, I think the fandom as a whole is probably nicer than it was in, say, 2013. The people who just wanted lulz and drama have gone, the people who were only into MLP because it was Popular have gone, the people who couldn't bear the thought of Cadance existing and told us all so very loudly every ten seconds have gone, etc.

As everyone knows, there have been some unpleasant people brought to light in recent years, and I think some fans have overdone the "We're uniquely special and wonderful" stuff. We're not. But in pure drama terms, nothing in recent years has been remotely as tedious, wearying and just plain miserable as the months of people yelling at each other about Twilicorn in 2013. The show was better back then than it was by the end. The fandom as a whole, though... I really would hesitate to say the same. I wouldn't go back.

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True, compared to other fandoms I'd say the MLP one is pretty nice.

*Puts on serious but sarcastic voice*
Unless they choose Starburst over StarTrix. Then they're the spawn of satan.