What to do if the show is canceled
What to do if the Equestria Girls Spin Off goes horribly wrong
What to do if the show's quality drops and loses the charm it currently has
We will also take a look into other fandoms and see how they deal with similar situations. So, can you make it through this rough patch? Is there a rough patch to begin with? Let's find out, follow me my little ponies!
"What if this Equestria Girls Spin Off bombs and is absolutely horrible?!"
My my, that would certainly be a pickle, that would. First of all, let's all remember not to call it horrible until it releases. After all, wouldn't most people have called My Little Pony bad years ago? Now, I'm not at all saying you have to be excited for this, or even interested, but calling it bad before it airs and you've seen it seems a bit harsh.
But none-the-less, if it is bad? Well, it's thankfully not intended to be canon with the main series! This is something that has been confirmed, rest easy there! If it's /really/ bad and bombs, then odds are the spin-off will end right there, and we can all move on with our lives.
Worst worst case scenario, we'll deny it ever happened. Many fandoms deny things happened in their franchise. Ask a Sonic fan if a Sonic game was released for the X-Box in 2006. Ask a Pokemon fan who primarily enjoys the games what they thought of the Anime. Or a Legend of Zelda fan what the best dungeons from the CD-i were. Most fans will willingly acknowledge the faults there, or deny they exist. Both are perfectly fine and normal responses! One bad apple, contrary to popular belief, doesn't spoil the bunch! You instead focus only on the good apples, the reason you're buying apples in the first place!
"I heard rumors from 4Chan though that elements from Equestria Girls will leak into the Mane series! What should we do if the core series drops in quality?!"
Let's first start with an important issue here. Take all rumors with a grain of salt, especially at this period in time. This is a very crazy time in this fandom right now, panic left and right. No doubt there are people eager to plant a few seeds a chaos into the mix. Yes, 4Chan has leaked legitimate information a great amount of times. But they've also not just as many times. Pokemon Fans, remember Mr. X? Man who supposedly leaked such Pokemon like the Card Legendary, and Houndoomed? Those were proven fake. This kind of stuff isn't uncommon.
Anyways, back on topic, assuming you've lost faith in the writers, and the show actually does go downhill, all is not lost! Assuming you are a fan now, you certainly enjoyed at least one season, no? What does a new bad season do to change and make the older one less enjoyable?
It doesn't.
You can still watch that older one and enjoy it just as much as you did before! Those will still be just as good as they were before! And you can always return to those and enjoy them, just like old times! Let's bring in the Spongebob Fandom!
Backstory, Spongebob was started as a cartoon. It was extremely creative and well written, with very sharp wit and humor. Spongebob was a innocent, quirky, and well-intentioned main character brought in a time where most cartoon characters were gnarly and tubular, and cool. The show was a success with everyone, all audiences, young, old, male, female. It's quality was wonderful. Cue the movie, what was intended to be the end of the series. Everyone in the staff room was ready to head home, but unfortunately, the movie did so well, Nick didn't want to end the series. By now, not only had the creator left, but also a bunch of the original staff too.
Nick brought in new to replace the old, and the new didn't fully understand what made the old good. Needless to say, the modern series was not good. Quite the opposite. However, it was still successful in both viewership and merchandising that it continued. Right now it's in season 8, with a new season and a new movie on the horizon.
Seems a lot like what people in this fandom are worried about happened here, big corporate suits ruined a great series. But is all lost? No. Spongebob still has it's fans, it's forums, it's fandom. How, you ask? Well, roughly 90% when asked if there were any episodes after the movie will tell you the series ended. Denial and ignoring succeeds again! That's right folks, this strategy works wonders for fandoms! Instead of crying over what was lost, enjoy what was given. To Spongebob Fans, those first three seasons were wonderful, amazing and an experience they will cherish forever. And they certainly wouldn't allow anything to ruin their feelings to the classic. Would you let something get between your love for My Little Pony?
"OK, but what if the series ends? What if there are no new episodes, or Equestria Girls replace it? Will it be the end of the brony fandom?"
That is a very good question, and I can understand why you'd be worried. To have such a good thing taken from you would most certainly be a tragedy. I'll explain this one similar to the above, with another fandom.
Enter the Earthbound Fandom. Earthbound was a game released in the early 1900s for the SNES. It was a standard JRPG, but with quirky characters and a modern setting. It was odd, it didn't sell well, but by God did it build up it's fans. They made fansites, fan art, fan fiction, all dedicated to showing how much they loved this game.
A few years later a N64DD game in the series was announced, but due to the failure of the N64DD, the game was never finished. With that, it appeared the series, aside from it's ambassadors being sent to Smash Bros., was over.
Suddenly, a new game, what was originally the N64DD one, was announced for the GBA to be released in 2006. Years after the last game. Fans cheered. The game was only released in Japan. Fans cried. Then, fans worked their butts off to translate the game to English by themselves. Note that this isn't say, a Mario game. This is a text heavy RPG that people hacked into the game and translated to English.
Not a small feat.
And that was really one of the last big events in the series. Only one game released stateside, 3 games in the series total, and for years ignored pleas to bring them to the west. The most latest big event is finally confirmation that Earthbound will, after years of waiting, be released on the Wii U Virtual Console in the West. Plus Europe to boot.
But that's pretty much it, asides from an old game being released digitally, there has been official confirmation there will be no more games. Not counting the Smash series, Earthbound is pretty much finished.
But the fandom is not, not by a long shot. Fan art is still being made, podcasts still being aired, and to boost, there are fans making a Mother 4. Just because the series ends doesn't mean nothing more will come from it. Fans can, and will, keep something alive for years afterwards, on their own.
In short, the Brony Fandom will only end when you allow it to end. If you jump ship, that certainly won't help at all. But you continue to show your support, make fanart, read fanfiction, watch episodes with friends, talk about which ponies would make a good couple, enjoy the good, ignore the bad(If there even is bad), and hey, who knows, this fandom might go on till the sun sets one final time.
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