I approached LPS from the stand point of complete and total newness; in that I wanted to see something, new. I'm not saying that MLP has grown old, not at all, but variety is the spice of life, they say. So I wanted to give Hasbro a bit of my time. Certanly, the show is not MLP, I honestly do not thing that Hasbro was wanting it to be. Sure, like I said elsewhere, I think they wanted to see if maybe lightning could strike twice, and who could blame them?
There are a lot of Bronies that are too enthusiastic when it comes to making the general comparison of LPS to MLP, as if the show was conceived and founded on a conspiracy to bolster ratings exclusively from the Brony fanbase. It's not from the brony community that Hasbro has set their sights. But once again on the actual intended audeince.
When I go on-line to view vids about LPS, all I see are endless girls playing with their toys, not a plethora of adults, and men... but children. Hasbro knows which side of the bread their butter is on, and I'm sure they know that Bronies aren't going to be beating down the doors of Target or Wal-Mart to get the latest generation of toys that get shipped to the site.
People liking LPS aside from the target audience is a perk of the franchise. Naturally, it seems that Hasbro wants their property to succeed, and if Bronies come to love the show, that's just a perk. In all honesty, it was the talented people and staff from MLP that helped to influence my decision to watch LPS, but what always grabs me about a show, is not its relationship to some other franchise, or series, but whether it has its own merits.
I think the Pet Shopper community want LPS to succeed as much as MLP, but not at the expense of inter-fandom hostility. People watch MLP ( myself included) not because it's a part of something else, or spawned from an older series. But because it can stand on its own two legs (four legs). LPS deserves the same chance. Regardless of the fact that it's a Hasbro remake of an older show, or the Blythe doll series, or has a ton of staff from MLP, as far as I see it those people are staff of Hasbro, not MLP.
When I put up a fandom survey for LPS, the two things that are the most answered, are the questions; "What brought you to the fandom?", and "What would you like to see the fandom accomplish?"... the vast majority of responses were, "I was a fan of MLP, so I tried LPS." and "To be great like the MLP fandom." No where no time, has the fans of LPS wanted to out-do, or become greater than the MLP fandom, they just want to be as good as it.
MLP says, "love and tolerance"... LPS says, "Be who you want to be." Well, I want to be a fan of LPS, and a fan of MLP. I think if we can meet in some middle ground, we'll be the better for it. And the two fandoms will thrive.
