• So recently I have become very exhausted with MLP: FiM and the brony fandom. For one my enthusiasm for this show has really dropped a lot since the end of last summer when I was really big into FiM. While it dropped a little after that summer my enthusiasm really dropped in the past few weeks.
  

• Now I have also got exhausted with the brony fandom even more so than the actual show. There are certain things about this fandom that I dislike. Probably my biggest gripe is brony analysis which analyzes the show, fandom, or whatever. I feel like this show gets over analyzed, because for one this show doesn't have the best storytelling combined with numerous plot holes and sometimes confusing plots, but I feel like those were done on purpose so morals can be incorporated. And I feel the morals in this show are vastly overlooked and I feel it's one of the show's best parts. For instance there are episodes that are hated like Rainbow Falls, Putting your Hoof Down, and certain specials like Canterlot Wedding because of the plot holes but even the episodes that are considered bad have some good morals. And bronies that hate certain changes such as Twilicorn. I feel most of the plots especially the "bad" ones in every episode should be taken less seriously and just appreciate the messages they are trying to tell. And even changes to the show such as Twilicorn should be taken less seriously as well.
  

• I mean this show is rated TV Y and mainly targeted towards kids and most shows of that rating have some sort of educational value in in addition to innocence. And episodes at the beginning had the e/i label (educational and informative) but was dropped later on. I feel that even the worst episodes can tell some valuable life lessons to kids.
  

• So what do you think about my exhaustion with MLP and the brony fandom?
  

I understand where you're coming from with losing your enthusiasm for something you really enjoy. I've experienced this kind of fatigue when I was playing video games because of my increasing cynicism from what was going on in the gaming industry as of late. I've also experienced this with pop punk bands as I felt that the large majority of them were trying to replicate the pop punk bands from the 90s, and a lot of bookworms have seen how much good repeating the past has done for Gatsby. I've took a break from watching the WWE during 2009 because I didn't found the "sports entertainment" wrestling promotion to be very entertaining during that time period, ironically. I don't find Triple H and Shawn Michaels to be very entertaining when their making jokes about midgets. And I've always found Shawn to be more entertaining than Hunter in comparison. No hate on Trips, he's talented in his own rights, but I'm HBK all the way when I think about whose the more talented of the two.

After Season 3 and a bit into Season 4, I've chose to stop watching FiM for awhile and took a bit of a break from writing some of my stories based on the show shorty after. Not because the show was rubbing me the wrong way, but because I felt unhappy with the huge amount of negativity in fandom and I felt that I needed a break from everything pony related at the time. When something you enjoy starts to make a negative affect on you, whenever it be physically or emotionally, it's time to just take a step back and think about whenever or not you still want to enjoy it.

I disagree with some of the things you've said in your post, such as the storytelling. Just because you have a message to send to the masses and your product is rated TV Y, this does not by any means necessary excuse your product of criticism for the plot holes and storylines that makes no sense. I'll use the WWE for example. Recently, The Authority, a heel (wrestling term for an asshole) stable consisting of Triple H, his wife, a literal big baby (i think? I just want him to stop being poorly booked), Seth Rollins, and a man who sounds a lot like Kane going through a mid-life crisis have been putting the three man band three man group New Day, a group that just about everyone hates so much that they ended up turning heel, in matches that were ridiculously unfair, like a 10-on-3 handicap match and they have to defend their title against five other teams back on a PPV Payback. On Thursday, however, they went out to help The Authority attack faces (wrestling term for the good guy) Roman Reign (a guy smarks once cheered to win the Royal Rumble last year since they didn't like Batista, but then booed him this year even when The Rock tried to put him over) and Dean Ambrose (one of the best workers in the promotion right now). How they don't even remember this detail is still going through my mind. A Saturday morning cartoon has more consistency than this.

Rainbow Falls is hated because it throws away previous characterization of The Wonderbolts (a group that Rainbow Dash holds dear in her heart and wants to join) and made them other than Soarin into completely unlikable jerks and were antagonized poorly for the sake of the plot going somewhere. While I disagree with the analysis approach not working for this show, I do agree that some episodes do get more criticism than they actually deserve.

During those time periods, I chose to do activities that I enjoyed and didn't made me feel negative. For this time period, I got back into some of the bands that I used to listen a lot in the past, like Bad Religion, Descendents, ALL, Anti-Flag, Smashing Pumpkins, Paramore, and others. I gotten into some new bands like The Wonder Years, Tonight Alive, Night Birds, and Walls of Jericho. I watch some shows that ended and I still enjoyed watching them to this day. I've helped my friends with stuff such as moving, mowing the lawn, unpacking, etc. I watch Bryan Danielson finally getting his moment as the newly crowned World Heavyweight Champion at WM30.

It wasn't until I went to Bronycon last year I partaken in something that was related to the show. During my time there in my Twilight Sparkle cosplay (including some dance shoe that didn't felt really comfortable on me), I felt like I was breathing in a bit of fresh air. I haven't engaged in anything MLP related for a good while, but I felt that it didn't mattered to me one bit as I felt happy during my time there. I gotten myself some merch and multiple posters that I loved. I haven't seen the show for 7 months, and I not only did I still recognized it, I remember why I enjoyed the show and gotten right back into it and resume writing my stories.

I guess what I am trying to say is, we sometimes need to take a break from something we enjoy and do others things that we're also interested in, otherwise you end up barely surviving a staph infection and decide its a good idea to join the UFC afterwards, and then become more of a prima donna than you're usually are you'll end up becoming a pessimist about it and grow to even hate it. I honestly think that fatigue is a factor of not just people leaving the fandom, but becoming disinterested in things you like in general. I've learned that if we just take break from something we got tired of doing and come back to it sometime later, we may refresh some of the enthusiasm we had for it in the past.

So what do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Song of the Blog: Sextape by Deftones, from their album Diamond Eyes

Source: Fandom Fatigue