I've been watching ponies for about 3 years total now. Equestria Girls had just come out, and Twilight was already a princess with wings. I'd consider myself relatively newfag. I have a question about where we are today compared to back in the early days of the "fandom"ugh...
There's a lot of people who say things like "You will never experience ponies in 2012 again," but there's also people who like the fact that we have all the show and fan content from the past combined with new content coming out.
Was being a fan of ponies really all that back in 2011/2012? If so, how much has it lessened in quality/enthusiasm/energy/whatever?
The show is losing its quality since season 4.
Sad, but true.
Making show only for fandom is worst decission.
>>27906003
It was more about being full of faggots shitposting every day
Now it is much slower and much less faggots in the same shitposting place, hasbro killed enthusiasm with massive ridiculous bullshit cease and desist from cool stuff, they destroyed headcanons and went maximum jew which destroyed the little spirit the show had. Now the fags that are left just scream "everything is fine" when you tell them how shitty things really are and the others are just cynical fucks.
There are some that just stick because of their waifus, but that's it.
>>27906003
>Old vs new
Reminds me...
>>27906056
>losing its quality since season 4.
This isn't my argument, this is just a counterargument I'm offering. There are people that say things along the lines of "It's still good. We're just a little more comfy being fans. It isn't as energetic and bouncy, but that's only because we just passed the honeymoon phase of hype. Regardless, the show is still good quality."
>>27906097
>how shitty things really are
Would you say that it's "shitty" now, or that it just went from great to good?
>>27906111
Old > New
>>27906227
The show was never "good quality", it was always about watching something different. If one wanted to watch a better show those were scarce back when this thing started.
All you can watch now that is kinda good is violent, serious border edgy shit or sexual stuff so pone gave us a break from all that crap for a while. It is like an anime minus the japanese shit.
It was something fresh.
>>27906273
>It was something fresh
Why this show, not Littlest Pet Shop or something else?
>>27906288
Littlest pet shop started airing later.
I think that didn't catch on because it was more of the same shit.
>>27906003
Honestly, I believe FiM was a better thing in 2011 and 2012, and was in fact at its peak then. That's not to say it's on a decline or no longer popular, but it definitely peaked during that period. There was that growing, thriving environment. Now you have people getting tired of things in the series more and more, and a lot of content creators tired and moving on to new fads.
And honestly I think it's reaching that point of people getting tired of it, for a lot of groups.
>>27906227
>the show is still good quality.
But I miss simple show for kids like s1 and s2.
Maybe that's only my imagination after 5 years of everyday pony indoctrinate, but S1/2 > next seasons
>>27906003
Anons like >>27906097 make it really difficult to simply tell you how things really are. Hasbro is rapidly losing interest in keeping G4 around now that it's perceived used by exposure date is up. It's taken a bunch of new writers less than a few months to get G4 canned at this point it helps if your fan of the current mlp since the IP is rapidly approaching another spin off.
Let me put it this way /mlp/ will be filled with G4.5H content you'll have to decide if it's worth being around for never experiencing 2016 ever again.
>>27906003
I think it was "All that" in 2011, because it was within reason to make friends & meet like-minded shut-ins.
Fast-forward to 2016, the only fans you'll meet are sperglords, chads looking to pickup & futafags
I put some thought into this.
I think what made this show kind of offbeat and refreshing for a jaded cartoon fan was the credible level of interpersonal conflict amongst characters who had simple, relatable lives.
The whole elements of harmony overplot kind of changed the dynamic of the mane six from a bunch of likeable small town yokels to a famous cabal of unstoppable super badasses. More to the point, they stopped having any kind of meaningful friction within the group, they all just sort of agree on everything and work together perfectly now. One of the most charming elements of this show, the focus on realistic interpersonal problem solving, became somewhat occluded by world-threatening anime type plotlines (not that I hate those, either.)
On that note, I do appreciate what's been done with Starlight Glimmer in S6 as this sort of reluctant reformer (haters gon hate but whatever), the trixie episode was particularly reminiscent of the early stuff because of the not-totally-perfect interplay between Twilight and her frienemies.
In all, I'm not disappointed with where the show seems to be headed, as the fanservice/pandering is as good a filler gag as any (within reason) and the functional world has been fleshed out with enough layers of history and lore to make it kind of nifty in the common nerd sense of a fantasy realm.
>>27907742
I definitely have to agree with a lot of what you just said. I've been thinking about how in season 1 and 2, all the plots were within each other and if there was an exterior problem, it would be a villain in the premiers or finales, or it would just be a simple villain or slice of life problem. Those were the things that made it enjoyable. I guess you can't write every single episode like that, and perhaps the writers have that in mind as they move to more "Mane 6 vs." style episodes. I feel that they are moving away from that stuff (although they have good SOL episodes here and there) with good reason, as they understand what made MLP bloom in the first place.
>>27907742
I think like any show a lot of it is to do with character progression, Rarity, Twilight, Rainbow Dash all had pretty lofty goals and the show is moving to achieve them. I loved when they were small town nobodys, eg. Rainbow with her small time weather patrol job and wonderbolt fanboyism, but as much as I loved them then, I'm happy to see them progress.
>>27906003
Both the show and fandom was the shit back in 2011-12. Now the magic is over, and not just because of fuckups like Twilicorn or Equestria Girls, but the steadily declining quality of the episodes as well. And of course, the fandom itself has "matured". It's just no longer that fun being among ponybros. That, or I'm just a jaded cynical fuck like this >>27906097 anon said
