@Hollowfox, Always The Worst Person
How can you tell if the refusal to accept change was the fault of fans for being unreasonable as opposed to the creators for the changes being legitimately bad/poorly done such dislike is a justified reaction?

@Background Pony #B1B7
How are S8-9 compared to G5?

Calling S8 and S9 mediocre is being charitable.

@zokboook
Can I help it when the movie flopped at the box office and without a sequel that redeems it?

The show lost popularity when fans refused to accept change, not to mention MLP had low viewership as seasons went on and on and on despite renewing every season until Hasbro saw the underperformance of the film and they decided to give up on G4 after Season 9 with ZERO redemption.

I would believe you if Lauren Faust didn’t change everything that MLP was in the past with FiM. But she did, then fans outside of the demographic were born, but died at the hands of refusing change and lost pop culture relevance and is unknown to everyone. Even Robert Downey Jr.

I’m just stating stuff.

@midob
Me when the snobby bitch becomes better friends and more likable with the main cast in a show about cartoon horses and friendship

@Hollowfox, Always The Worst Person
yeah what Sunshyne said, if you’re insecure about a franchise only appealing to specific niches instead of broad mainstream appeal, then I’m wondering what you ever saw in MLP in the first place lol

@Hollowfox, Always The Worst Person
Uh, nothing. We can enjoy the thing we enjoy without worrying about trying to make it a massive mainstream cultural phenomenon on the same level as the MCU. (God, I would hate for MLP to end up like that.)

I would say we could try not being weird and gross, but normies are always going to latch on to the weirdest, grossest, and most disturbing stuff that comes out of the Brony fandom. Like Cupcakes and The Jar. They don’t care that most of us aren’t weird (ok, we’re all a little weird, but not in a necessarily bad way) or gross.

@Sunshyne
Oh so what can we do to make it seem not a turn-off without taking away what made MLP MLP? Change the name?

The castle is an out of place eyesore that dominates Ponyvile, it looks more in keeping with crystal empire architecture. I’d love to see a fan made clip/comic of Mayor Mare ordering it’s demolition :D

@Background Pony #4B16
Her character development was poor, she came off as a snobby bitch in earlier episodes, but I did like her in A Dog and Pony Show; as the series went on she progressed into a loveable drama queen.

@Mr.Myoozik
Agreed, I didn’t hate the later episodes, but when I rewatched the earlier episodes it reminded me why I fell in love with the show originally.

Understandable, but I believe that all seasons have their good and bad episodes

@midob
“made rarity more likable”
?????????????????????????

This is accurate, the later seasons had more subpar episodes, lost the charm that season 1-2 had, made fluttershy less likable, watered down twilights character and made rarity more likable. Twilight’s kingdom was great but came at the price of twilight’s castle.

@Hollowfox, Always The Worst Person
Literally yes, My Little Pony will always struggle to reach a wider audience simply due to its premise. Most adults are going to hear that name and immediately be turned off. Even people who like other children’s cartoons, like Avatar the Last Airbender, Adventure Time, or Gravity Falls to name a few.

@fluttershank
I joined the fandom in December of 2010. It was a couple of things.

The first part is novelty. The fandom in 2010 was made up of people aged 18-25. Season One was probably the first time a lot of these people had watched a good kids’ show with their newly renovated adult brains, so they were able to pick up on all of the things only adults would understand. This would have felt like a completely novel concept to them, even though FiM was far from the first kids’ show to be like this.

This was a “novel” enough concept on its own, but My Little Pony of all things? To all these people, Lauren Faust had seemingly done the impossible.

But for the full context, you need to look up the “word of faust” tag, starting with the oldest uploads. Because Lauren Faust’s goal was to make a show that parents could enjoy with their kids, and to challenge the idea that “for girls” had to mean “stupid” or “bad”. So the fandom got the idea that they were “special” and “helping the cause” by watching the show and spreading it around.

This led to two runaway feedback loops:

Without that whole zeitgeist, Season One is above average and Season Two is a mixed bag. But a lot of people have a really personal attachment to that era, so anything that deviates from it becomes a personal attack to them.

i was introduced to MLP in 2020 during COVID lockdowns so i have no attachment to the timeline of releases and everything, so i gotta ask: What did Faust do that made season 1 and 2 so special to people?

from what i gathered, the first couple of seasons were pretty hard to get through. It wasn’t until season 4-5 onward that i REALLY started getting latched into it. So the idea that seasons 1 and 2 are the best ones is strange to me

@Sunshyne
Since when is the name preventing it from being as well known as Marvel and Star Wars?

Is the title too girly for mainstream audiences or something?

’member when people called S3 abysmal, and S4 a return to greatness?
I ’member

Frankly, the show remained amazing with worldbuilding throughout its run. I don’t know why you would think Twi lost her relatability in future seasons; her personality evolved, but, like… That’s what personalities DO? And saying she’s fully focused on princess duties and friendship from S5 onwards? Yeah, no. We see her doing a lot of that because of the nature of the show, but there’s plenty of other things on display - trivia trot, anypony?

Episode quality has been mixed from season-damn-1. The show has always drifted from ‘eh’ to ‘ABSOLUTELY AMAZING’ on a dime, that isn’t something unique to later seasons. The student 6 can be seen as side-characters to the mane 6 (who are anything but stagnant with how their lives have progressed! Absolutely incredible compared to most shows), and AIMLESS? The closest the show has ever gotten to a consistent inter-episode (not inter-season) plan was the rainbow power in S4 lol, by that standard S1 was aimless. S8 even had Cozy gradually build up as a villain across the season, which is huge compared to S1’s handful of gala episodes, and 5’s background-stalking of Starlight.

People who think that the later seasons are of comparable quality to the earlier ones don’t care about the quality of the show at all.
It doesn’t matter how many more years pass, it will always suck…

@Hollowfox, Always The Worst Person
Wym, this series is always going to be niche. It’s fucking My Little Pony lmao.

This shit is why I wish people accepted change 10 years ago (soon to be 11 when MMC was aired or it’s now 11) so the franchise wouldn’t be niche and lesser known than Marvel.

Don’t six me.

While there’s certainly a couple of fair points of criticism in here… somewhere… other commenters already mentioned the obligatory studio interference/corporate mandate aaand I’d like to add my own spicy opinion:
… season G5 season 9 was still better than MYM/G6.

So basically, everything after Lauren Faust sucks?

Honestly I feel like people circlejerk Lauren Faust a bit too much. She had good ideas, but learning about her original vision for the Diamond Dogs (or should I say Diamond “Dawgz”) made me realize she was absolutely capable of coming up with some bad ideas. Anyone rewatched Over a Barrel recently, or Bridle Gossip?

Season 3 was a low point for the show, too. Presenting things as a straight linear decline is really oversimplifying the show’s run.

Crazy concept, hear me out; we focus on the episodes we enjoy and don’t let the lesser quality ones ruin our fun. Labeling entire seasons and grouping them into “eras” is like razing an entire village if you don’t like a few of the people who live there. For example, seasons 5, 6 and 7 have some episodes I really don’t like, but they also hold a few of my absolute favorites, so I just watch those and have a good time.

The show’s been over for 5 years now and people still get mad over “muh Faust!” lol

The person who made this clearly hasn’t watched seasons Two and Three recently.

Two was a very mixed bag, with some of the best and some of the worst. Three was very mediocre.