Some thoughts on why Pony Life gets so much hate

I’m not into Pony Life myself, but looking at the discussion surrounding it, I couldn’t help but wonder why it’s so overwhelmingly negative. People are really going ham on it. And I feel like no one is talking about why that is, the only discussion about the negative response boils down to name-calling and being negative in response. So I thought about it and here are the results of those “thinkings”.
 
It is possible, in my opinion, that there are some fairly objective reasons why Pony Life is being received so poorly. So here they are.
 
First - Too Soon.  
The show ended just a month ago. A lot of people had a lot of emotions and those emotions are still brewing or haven’t yet settled. Some people are worried, some people are sad, some people want to preserve their good memories of FIM. There was no time to let things to settle down, to let people to start to want something new.
 
Second - Most People Here are FIM Fans, not MLP Fans.  
For a fan of an overall MLP franchise - FIM was just one of many shows. And Pony Life is also just one of many shows. MLP fan would want to the franchise to continue though whatever means it can. The fact that the franchise keeps going and keeps making new content is exciting in and of itself.  
For an FIM fan though - FIM was and is, for the lack of a better word, everything. They don’t want another show, they just want more FIM. There’s no “franchise loyalty”, only “FIM loyalty”. They don’t feel like they have to be interested or excited about a new MLP show.
 
But I hear you saying: “Wait, but they are reusing the characters and the world of FIM. Shouldn’t FIM fans be interested?”, - and to that, I think this is the most unfortunate part of Pony Life. It had an unfortunate, in my opinion, idea of taking the world and the characters of FIM and turning them into something else. That’s an easy way to rub fans the wrong way. And it’s not because people hate change or scared of anything new. It’s because people love those characters and the world the way they are and they don’t want anyone to take it and change it. It is possible to reuse those characters and the world without angering anyone, but you have to preserve what people love about it. And that’s where Pony Life is either failing or failing to communicate. It very well might be that things we love about FIM are preserved, but it doesn’t come through in the promotional material.
 
Third - The Artstyle.  
I want to start by reminding you that the artstyle of FIM is great. Everything is super cute, heartwarming and lovable just from the way it looks. For many people that was what sold them on FIM: just some screenshots, gifs or random youtube clip. Now that we had this reminder, let’s talk about Pony Life. I think it’s unfortunate that Teen Titans GO isn’t great, because Pony Life has nothing to do with it. It’s not responsible for TTG’s shortcomings. But I want to ask this: Why does this show look closer to TTG then to a chibi version of FIM’s art style? There are many ways to draw chibi characters and have them be close to FIM in style, in fact, you can check it out right on this very website. I think that’s another unfortunate decision that was bound to have a negative, or at the very least polarizing, reaction.
 
Well, that’s about it. I’m not trying to say whether it’s “right” or “wrong” that people are reacting negatively. I’m trying to say that it’s fairly understandable, if not obvious, why this negative reaction is happening. But what do you think?

@Background Pony #4352  
I think that those might be the main reasons why Pony Life is getting a shitton of hate, yeah.
 
I think the TTG comparison is the main reason imo.

@icey wicey 1517  
Yeah, that’s an easy knee-jerk reaction to see some similarities with TTG and assume that it’s going to be as bad. But I think even in the world where TTG doesn’t exist it still is an unfortunate decision to make Pony Life look closer to a generic western cartoon instead of something cuter.

@Background Pony #4352  
Personally I like TTG and im indifferent towards the art style (I’ve seen cartoons I like that have pretty unappealing art styles and vice-versa), but the new designs helped by the fact that the new show is going to be more comedic probably isn’t doing any favours.
 
Admittedly we only have about 10 seconds worth of animation from the toy commericla and the promo shots, so im waiting until we actually get A proper trailer focusing more on the show then the toyline

@icey wicey 1517  
The more I’m thinking about the TTG comparison the more I feel like it’s not the cause of the distaste towards Pony Life, but a result of it. What I mean is that people didn’t liked Pony Life first and then made the comparison as the result, not the other way around (where they first compared it to TTG and then hated Pony Life because of this comparison). I might be wrong, but that’s what my psychological brain suggests.
 
I, to be honest, haven’t seen TTG or the original Teen Titans. I’ve only seen some negative reviews of TTG. I don’t have any personal distaste towards it, I’m just trying to reflect the overall consensus. Which makes me wonder how many people are in the same boat as me - never watched TTG, just heard that it was bad. Hmm…
 
I hope we get a proper trailer soon. Maybe the actual show will look more promising.

Some of the promo art looks good,  

 
but who thought this would make a good first impression?  

@Background Pony #4352  
I’ve been a fan of Pony since the 80s. I can say that MLP fans absolutely aren’t guaranteed to love “everything MLP” by default; I still have absolutely no love for G3.5’s “Newborn Cuties”.
 
The art style of “Pony Life” really grates on me. It doesn’t land on “cute and appealing” for me. It’s a little bit combination of saccharine and unsettling (I’m not a fan of the ridiculously large mouths that run into other facial features, like eyes). I don’t like the “bean mouth” style. Like, these look even less like horses/ponies than ever before.
 
I don’t like how it just felt 100% always zany. I mean, I say this as a fan of Pinkie Pie. Zany has its place, but it’s going to be exhausting if it’s like that all the time. The gut feeling I came away with was less “inspired by FIM” and was more “bastardized FIM”.
 
 
If a trailer comes out and it’s more of the same (even without the TTG comparison) I can’t blame people for not wanting to bother. I’m also of the mind that absolutely no one has to give anything a chance if they don’t want to. That’s perfectly fine. There’s no harm in not watching a thing.

@ArrJaySketch  
Thanks for the input.
 
With my point about MLP and FIM fans I think I was more trying to make a point about FIM fans and wasn’t paying too much attention to the point I’m making about MLP fans in the process. There were a lot of mentions of “those people” who are okay with any new content, and I don’t know if those people are real or it’s just an exaggeration that’s being thrown around, but my mind has been circling around it for awhile, and I tried to imagine where this kind of person could be coming from. So this is kinda where the idea for the paragraph about MLP fans was born, and in the moment it looked like it could be a probable explanation, but I might be wrong, as I said, I wasn’t thinking too hard on this one, and in your case it was definitely wrong. So thanks for the info.

TTG is the main reason

@Typhoon2000  
Yeah. But I also feel like if it wasn’t based on FIM characters it would’ve gotten a lot less hate, because any direct comparison to FIM seems so not in Pony Life’s favor. If it was it’s own thing expectations would’ve been a lot different and I feel like people would be more willing to wait and see what it will be. Also it gets away from a direct TTG comparison, because it’s not “same characters but now chibi comedy” anymore.
 
I personally think that Hasbro needs to refrain from reusing mane six. Writing for mane six was getting stale since season 6. Almost every newer character was more interesting in those late seasons then mane six themselves. I understand that they are popular characters and Hasbro will milk them for all their worth, that’s just how they do, but I’m afraid that there won’t be anything that somehow rejuvenates mane six’s writing and it’s just going to be more of the same but gradually getting worse. I think I’m not the only one who feels like that’s what Pony Life is going to be.