Twiface
MLP has always been a niche franchise aimed at children. Bronies are not the target audience, never have been, and never will be. The little girls who comprise most of MLP’s audience will fondly remember whatever generation they happened to grow up with and ignore the rest.
For bronies, I think G4 will still be beloved for years to come. It significantly raised the bar for MLP, and everything that comes after will be compared to the standard set by FiM. As is typical in fandoms, people will idolize previous installments and downplay their flaws if newer installments seem bad or mediocre in comparison (eg. Terminator fans compare every new movie unfavorably to Terminator 2, Fallout fans generally dislike everything after New Vegas, Star Wars fans rarely ever criticize the original trilogy, etc.) FiM’s later seasons may receive the ‘Star Wars Prequels’ treatment where many people disliked them at the time, but began to appreciate them once they had sequels to compare them to.
I have low expectations for G5. G4 came about when Hasbro was trying to launch The Hub, so they were willing to invest resources into making FiM good. Now that television is dying and TTG clones are the big trend in animation, I expect G5 to consist of cheaply produced web shorts like ‘Pony Life’ and a handful of movies/TV specials. This will produce a very different type of show than FiM that would make it harder to connect with the characters and setting on a personal level. Even if we got another 20-minute syndicated TV show, they would need to hire someone like Lauren Faust and give them the necessary creative freedom to make it special, which I doubt Hasbro is willing to do at the moment.
And if, as some of the concept art implies, G5 is just going to repackage G4’s Mane Six in a different setting, then nostalgia-heavy comparisons of G4 to G5 will be inevitable and many people will deride G5 for a lack of originality.
Princess of Kirinposting
I just want G4 to look good so people can love all of G4 over and over again and not be distracted by yet another reboot. If FiM didn’t have an impact, then the show wouldn’t have spin-offs or movies. I know FiM is beloved, but the problem is that is niche and fandom drama towards the changes and the new writers affected the show’s reputation. The nicheness of the franchise is what led to a low performance in the box office for the 2017 film.
MLP has always been a niche franchise aimed at children. Bronies are not the target audience, never have been, and never will be. The little girls who comprise most of MLP’s audience will fondly remember whatever generation they happened to grow up with and ignore the rest.
For bronies, I think G4 will still be beloved for years to come. It significantly raised the bar for MLP, and everything that comes after will be compared to the standard set by FiM. As is typical in fandoms, people will idolize previous installments and downplay their flaws if newer installments seem bad or mediocre in comparison (eg. Terminator fans compare every new movie unfavorably to Terminator 2, Fallout fans generally dislike everything after New Vegas, Star Wars fans rarely ever criticize the original trilogy, etc.) FiM’s later seasons may receive the ‘Star Wars Prequels’ treatment where many people disliked them at the time, but began to appreciate them once they had sequels to compare them to.
I have low expectations for G5. G4 came about when Hasbro was trying to launch The Hub, so they were willing to invest resources into making FiM good. Now that television is dying and TTG clones are the big trend in animation, I expect G5 to consist of cheaply produced web shorts like ‘Pony Life’ and a handful of movies/TV specials. This will produce a very different type of show than FiM that would make it harder to connect with the characters and setting on a personal level. Even if we got another 20-minute syndicated TV show, they would need to hire someone like Lauren Faust and give them the necessary creative freedom to make it special, which I doubt Hasbro is willing to do at the moment.
And if, as some of the concept art implies, G5 is just going to repackage G4’s Mane Six in a different setting, then nostalgia-heavy comparisons of G4 to G5 will be inevitable and many people will deride G5 for a lack of originality.