StaryStory

Hello Hello Hello, so as I said in my previous status update, I was going to talk more about me and My Little Pony, today it's October 3, 2024, holy damn, 1 year ago I joined the forum, though I wouldn't count it since I only started to post here in late October 2023, but still, today it also makes 1 year and 3 months since I became a Brony / MLP Fan, I think it was a fair run, at the same time I feel it was quite short too, so, what I'm going to say here is going to be very long, it can be important, or maybe not, it's so long that I tried to make some parts shorter, and they still feel long, so I separated this text in 4 chapters, if you want to read this but the length is too much for you, you can skip the “how and “why” parts and go straight to Chapter 4 to see how it's going to be my future in this forum and etc.

But to say it simply, you might have noticed that I've been referring to you as "MLP fans" but not me for a while, well, yes, I lost interest in My Little Pony, I'm not a fan of it anymore, my hype for the franchise has been completely nonexistent for a few months and I don't believe I'm going to recover it anytime soon, I'll start.

Chapter 1: How and Why I Stopped being a Fan of MLP

Yeah, you can think and say “You're only saying this because the franchise is in a bad time, you didn't like Tell your Tale and G5 was canceled, but when G6 arrives and be good, you'll recover your interest and become a fan again”, it's fair and I understand if someone says that, and well, that could be the case, but no, that's not the reality, it's not G5 or Tell your Tale's fault that I stopped being a fan of the franchise, well, yes, my disappointment with TyT and G5 contributed to me losing interest in it, I can't pretend that it didn't, but the reason I'm no more a fan of MLP now has more to do with the franchise as a whole and not just the fact that I'm disappointed by the current state of the franchise.

I Think this started back in June, when I stopped watching Tell your Tale, I said that there was no reason for me to keep watching the show, as it wasn't entertaining me, not exciting me, nor keeping my interest, and most importantly, I said that “the show isn't for me” , keep this phrase in your mind, it's going to be important later in this text.

So after I dropped TyT, I thought “well, I don't want to watch this anymore, but there is still a lot of MLP content for me to enjoy and check, and there's FiM for me to rewatch as well”, so after this I expected for me to go through more MLP content, including fan content etc, but nearly 3 months passed and that still didn't happen, actually, after I gave up on TyT, I discovered others franchises, and so I started following them, that made me think “hmmm I think I'm enjoying this as much as MLP, or even more than MLP”, so I spent a time “ignoring” MLP, I thought about trying to go back to MLP again, but I just couldn't do it unless I forced myself, I was more interested in other stuff, even in Sonic content again, and then that made me think “hmmm maybe I'm more interested in these other franchises, and not in MLP anymore”

So I spent a good time of July and August seeing stuff from these other franchises (this is one of the reasons for my random long weeks of absence in the forum) and barely stuff from MLP, which for me was really weird. If I was a fan of MLP, then why wasn't I feeling excited about the franchise, wanting to see more content about it? For example, I'm a fan of Dragon Ball, I always check out content of the franchise every day or week, I'm always excited about it even when they aren't releasing new content, the same used to be with Sonic when I was a fan of that franchise.

The only MLP stuff I saw during this time was rewatching FiM (some episodes, not entire show, I also rewatched Equestria Girls movies), and my thoughts were…well..first I want to say something first. Back in 2022, 2023, I remember I was very critical regarding some aspects of Dragon Ball, I remember saying that some things in it were really bad, but as the years passed, and I grew older, I don't agree with those critics anymore, or they don't bother me anymore, and I actually feel that I started to enjoy and love the franchise even more than before (and the death of the creator just made me start to love it even more), so I used to think the franchise was amazing, now I think it's even more, and I don't change my opinion everytime I rewatch the anime or read the manga.

Now, with My Little Pony, the opposite happened, I used to think in 2023 that the franchise was amazing, my second favorite thing after Dragon Ball, but after rewatching these episodes, the only thing I thought was “hmm…this series isn't as amazing as I thought when watched it for the first time” yeah, and no, these episodes weren't some random episodes, these were some episodes that I considered to be veeeery good, awesome, of course, I still get surprised with stories like the 2017 Movie, Twilight's Kingdom, etc, but in general, rewatching the show was underwhelming to me, not in the sense that it was a bad experience rewatching it, it wasn't, I mean in the sense that rewatching it wasn't as fun as it was the first time I watched it, and that's why I was disappointed, I noticed stuff and details that for me weren't as good as I thought and that I just didn't notice during my first watch, in short, rewatching the show made me realize that it wasn't that impressive for me, and this is not a case of “when you rewatch, you have no more surprises”, no, something can still be surprising for me even after rewatching it, this happens to me with Dragon Ball and other movies and shows as well, with MLP this only happened with few episodes and scenes.

Chapter 2: How and Why I Became a Fan of MLP

So now I want to explain, how the hell from 2023 to 2024 my opinion regarding the series went from “my second favorite series after Dragon Ball” to “not amazing”? Well, I think it's very simple, and I think some here already know the story that explains it. Back in early 2023, I was very depressed, I was losing interest in Sonic, a franchise I was a fan for so many years, and even though I was still a fan of Dragon Ball at the time, that franchise alone wasn't being enough to make me happy (though that could be because 2023 was just a very dry year for DB), I didn't have any friends and was very unsatisfied with my arts, it was terrible. But almost around the same time, I met that friend from Facebook, who brought me a lot of joy, and was a fan of the Sonic and Love Live franchises, I really liked how he used to talk about the two and how he compared them, so that gave me the idea of watching a “cute and girlish” show too, as I already a fan of a “boyish” show, and at the time, random posts about MLP started to show up in my feed, and them made me remember how I used to love the ponies back in 2012 as a kid, so that gave me strong nostalgia, so I started to watch the show and I fell in love with it, the colorful, cute and friendly aesthetic just made me feel so happy, and I loved the ponies, it was very exciting to watch it and making random crazy comparisons with Dragon Ball just made it even more fun for me, and the “Dragon Ball” moments in a few episode just made me go crazy, so I enjoyed everything in it.

But time passed, in early 2024 there was only TyT for me to follow, and I wasn't enjoying that show, so I was just dropped it, but since then, I didn't continue watching G1, Pony Life, nor reading the G4 comics, and I also didn't watch the rest of the Equestria Girls content (Better Together, the latter Specials…), all I did was rewatch some episodes of FiM and this was the moment where I noticed that the show wasn't that magical for me anymore, I believe what made me love it in 2023 was that its light-hearted and my unexpected interested for it just made me blind and surpass my depression, MLP was the only series I followed from July 2023 to June 2024, the only other show I watched at the time was Dragon Ball, and of course DB for me was better, but for me comparing DB to MLP was unfair for obvious reasons, so MLP just made me amazed because there was nothing else that I was watching at the moment other than Dragon Ball, and I also wasn't expecting to love the Ponies so much and specially, a show made for very little girls, so all of this surprised me.

So consider all this + the fact that I was depressed at the time, and there are the reasons for why I became a fan of MLP, it helped me during my depression, I loved the ponies, the stories surprised me for a show made for little girls, and the only other series I had to compare with it at the time was Dragon Ball, all of this made me go through a true “Pony Mania” time during the latter part of 2023.

But as 2024 arrived, my hype cooled down, I finished FiM and Make Your Mark, there was only Tell your Tale, and that was already a show that I wasn't enjoying very much, but since it was my “second favorite franchise" I really tried to give it a chance, but after many episodes the show just wasn't pleasing me (as you may remember when I was very positive in the first episodes of Season 2, but I started to become very critical about them every time a new episode was released), that was very underwhelming for me and I even made a thread saying how G5 for me was a lost cause, but, I couldn't be a fool again, as in a very similar time, in 2023, I was also very underwhelmed by Sonic, I was losing my interest in the franchise due to the latest releases, and that just made me very frustrated, angry, I even deleted all of my posts from the Sonic forum, I remembered this, and I didn't make the same mistake with MLP, I continued posting here normally throughout July and August even though I was losing my interest in MLP and underwhelmed by it.

Chapter 3: Why I'm sure I won't be a fan again

For me, it was much easier and calmer to accept that I should move on from the franchise, when compared to Sonic, which for me was quite hard to accept.

I don't think my love for MLP will come back some day, and I don't think it has to, as I said, when I used to love it, I was In a very bad situation, and the positive energy of the show just made me blind, I couldn't see in it the aspects that for me weren't good, and this is where I would like to talk about that “the show is not for me” line, I mean, not the show, but the franchise, a major thing that made me underwhelmed when rewatching FiM, was the franchise's focus on little kids, being a TV-Y show, a preschool show, for me, the series has so much potential to do so much more, but I feel that the focus on little kids just holds it too much, and I think that is really annoying, not being able to work with its concepts and world more like Transformers do, with high budget productions, awesome videogames, something that MLP lacks completely (sorry but MLP games are mostly just bad), for me it was wasted potential.

But then, I just had to go through another acceptance, is the Franchise really for me? My favorite series is Dragon Ball, which is very different from MLP, and I don't have much interest in stuff that is similar to MLP, but I have interest in lots of stuff that are similar to Dragon Ball.

So I realized that, and for that reason, my complaints regarding TyT went from “story is bad, characters are bad, too short, dumb and childish, it was a bad decision to finish MyM, a much better show, and continue its story in TyT, a shorter and worse show” to only “it was a bad decision to finish MyM, a longer show with high budget, and continue its story in TyT, a shorter and cheaper show” (I don't have any post to show here as example, but if you go to my post history, you'll see how this was exactly the evolution of my criticism), this happened because I realized that there was no need for me to complain about TyT not doing stuff that it was never going to do, there's nothing wrong about TyT considering its idea and target audience, and so is G4 and the whole franchise, as a Dragon Ball fan, I expected a lot more from the show, and I had in my memory that FiM was amazing like Dragon Ball, so when I rewatched it, my expectation was broken, but it was never the franchise's purpose to offer that much that I expected from it, that's why I had to accept that it just might not be for me, if Hasbro wants it to be targeted amongst little kids, so be it, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Does that mean that I dislike MLP now?...well, not exactly, even if I admit that the franchise is not for me, and even if I dislike TyT in particular, I still like G4, I still like FiM and Equestria Girls, despite the flaws I see in them now, and some aspects that annoy me, for me they aren't unwatchable, I still enjoy them, Make Your Mark I still kinda like it, despite the show being much worse than I remembered (again, not the show's fault, I'm not the target audience, I'm not here to talk about execution and quality).

I just stopped enjoying MLP as a “franchise”, I just enjoy specific productions now, and I don't love them anymore, I don't think they're amazing like Dragon Ball anymore, for me they're just good and that's it, I enjoy them now as much as I enjoy a western cartoon like Spongebob Squarepants, for me that show is nothing amazing nor something that would make me super engaged into, but it's definitely a fun watch to spare time.

Of course adults like me can think the show is amazing, I'm not dictating any rules, I’m just saying that for this specific adult, Rafa Stary, the series is just good, he would recommend it to someone who wants to watch a fun silly show, but he don't think it's amazing (though, I do think the show may be indeed amazing for its genre, probably the best preschool show ever made, I highly doubt something like Bluey is any better than it)

I wouldn't deny rewatching it, I would definitely have fun with it, but for now, I'm more interested in other stuff, like Dragon Ball and those other franchises, that's why I said in some posts before that I'm not looking forward into G6 or whatever they are going to release after TyT/G5 ends, I have no hype or interest and I'm sure they aren't going to make something that is more interesting than the best parts of G4, I actually believe that the franchise will never be a hit again, and that Hasbro is going to forget the older audiences and just focus in the little kids, MLP will go back to its day of the first 3 generations and be popular only amongst little kids again, and hey, that's a belief I already shared back in 2023 when I still was a fan!

Chapter 4: My Future in this Forum and my Pony arts

And now finally, the most important part of this gigantic status update, first of all, I want to talk about the Ponies.

While I don't love MLP anymore…I still love Ponies, yes, I still love these little creatures, I think they are just my favorite fictional animals/creatures, if not my #1, for me they are way too cute, beautiful and cool (at least in G4/Lauren Faust-ish style), I still enjoy drawing them, I still plan to make a lot of arts of ponies and share the ones I see on Derpibooru, I love the official pony designs too, so I'll draw them as well, even Equestria Girls too, I really like the EQG designs, so that definitely had almost no effects in my drawings, I'll continue making MLP fanart and pony art.

And now, finally, the most important part, Am I going to quit the forum? 

Of course not, I actually already commented about this multiple times during this year, I only joined the forum a year ago because I wanted to talk about MLP, but as time passed, the friends I made here started to be the main reason for my stay, so that means, MLP is no more the reason for me to stay here, I'm still here because I have friends here.

Though, I know a few months ago I said “I'm here because of the forum”, well, no more, as I said in a previous status update, I don't have interest in the art contest anymore, nor in the events, and I also don't feel motivated to open myself for new friends here (yeah I have that problem, sorry) so it's unlikely that I'm going to make any more friends here than the ones I already have (but I'll always accept new ones).

But for me, because of this, it's important to continue here, I'll continue posting, though, of course, I'm not that much interested in posting in a lot of threads anymore, I'll mostly use the status updates to share my feelings and adventures, also, don't worry, I'll, continue with the requests, drawing for free, you can still ask me to do drawings, and actually, I won't deny to talk about MLP here, I'll still talk about the franchise whenever I feel doing so (I actually even really enjoyed trying to debunk the TyT cancellation rumors), you can still ask or talk about it with me if you want, of course, I'll answer based on what I know about it and everything I saw in the 12 months. 

Now, if I'm going to stay here for a long time, well, I can't guarantee anything, for now, I really have no plans of leaving, I really don't want to, but no one can tell how the future is going to be like, so if my plans end up changing, I promise that I'll stay here with you at least for Christmas 2024 and first weeks of 2025, but I really don't think it's going to happen, I see no reason for me to quit the forum just to be alone again, but just saying in case it happens (and yes, I'll send my contacts to those who ask for it)

Well, I think that's it, me and My Little Pony may not be together anymore, but I’ll always owe one to the series, it truly helped me in a very complicated chapter of my life, it's definitely not its fault that I lost interest in it, I changed, I’m in a new part of my journey now, and there are things we need to say goodbye to during our life journey, but we should never forget them, MLP may not be in my heart anymore, but it will remain in my memory, it was truly important for my spirit, if it wasn't for it, I would've never joined the forum, I would continue alone.

I know this can sound repetitive, but even though I'll probably not be looking forward into the future of the franchise, I truly hope G6 (or whatever comes next after Tell your Tale in the series’ animation sector) will be as amazing as G4 was in its golden years, the fandom is giving me a bit of sad vibes, I feel sorry for that, and I really have no hopes that the franchise will ever shine again (as I already said early in the text), but if you still trust the potential of MLP, continue supporting, don't lose your hopes, a miracle may happen in the future and the fandom may see a new golden time again, just wait and see, only time will tell it (though I really wouldn't count on Hasbro for it, for me, fuck them, in my opinion they should sell MLP and their other IPs), for now, remember that MLP is a entertainment, before putting any of your feelings into it, think, entertaining you always comes in first place, and the G4 of MLP still offers that for me, it just doesn't stir up strong feelings in me like Dragon Ball and certain other productions do anymore, but the first, “entertainment”, is always the most important, and that can lead to incredible things, such as the amazing fandom that still exists to this day, please continue supporting the ponies and their content creators.

Anyway. Damn, this took a long time to write, sorry for the text being so huge, yeah I know that for this subject, it could've been much shorter, but I really had to open myself for this, and when it comes to these things I really link to write a lot (and there was still a bit more to talk about, but it wasn't that important for this subject, so I'll save it for another time), it was a fun ride, a important one, I had to say all this already because October is going to be a crazy month for me (I don't think I need to explain it hehe)

Anyway, thanks for reading (regardless of whether you skipped parts of the text or not), below, my favorite song from the franchise, after “Open Up Your Eyes” from the 2017 Movie of course, but I had to choose another one because I don't think Tempest Shadow's song fits the mood of this post very much, so I choose “A Friend for Life” from Equestria Girls 2013 (still my favorite EQG movie, some things don't change hehe), also because I don't have many others, only a few MLP songs are remarkable for me actually, I'm quite boring haha.

Anyway, thanks to My Little Pony, and you people for being my friends, good night! ~☆