Was EQG made just to spite fans of FiM?

Plonkett · January 25, 2015

Let's be real here, why was EQG really made? People are probably going to say "Because Hasbro wanted to compete with other doll lines such as Monster High". If that was the case, then they would've made a separate IP for that sort of thing. Hasbro most likely knew that the reason MLP has been successful in the first place was because of its pony characters. They also probably knew that bronies are known to complain about a lot of things, so they just put what people loved so dearly about it to the side for something most of them never were interested in seeing. As a result, that's exactly what happened in the end.

Don't get me wrong, EQG, for what it is, seems OK. I've only watched reactions of the movies and not the movies themselves. The fact that ponies aren't the focus here is rather odd because it's called My Little Pony for a reason, and not My Little Human. I myself have rather wanted to see art and stories about ponies instead of stories about ponies turning into humans or art of ponies as humans. Instead of spending their resources on these three movies, they could've made three good movies about ponies, like it was so hard for them to make one and now we have to wait for over two years for one.

I however do appreciate that EQG introduced characters like Sunset Shimmer and the Sirens, but they're better off being in the actual show than movies about humans in high school.

Edited January 25, 2015 by vgmaster9

VitalSpark · January 25, 2015

Equestria Girls, just like Friendship is Magic, was produced to sell toys and other merchandise, sell DVDs, and sell advertising spots on TV.

Unlike Friendship is Magic, it served an additional purpose: to sell cinema tickets.

Edited January 25, 2015 by Vital Spark

GenderIsAnIllusion · January 25, 2015

It was made to make money off of little girls begging their parents for overprice, ugly, non-movie accurate dolls. Evil bastards.

PoisonClaw · January 25, 2015

It was made to try and market off the success of Monster High dolls, much like how everyone are making Skylanders clones after Skylanders' success. They didn't go into a board room with the mission statement "How can we piss off a whole group of people?", but more like "How can we make more money off this franchise?"

Ziggy + Angel + Rain · January 25, 2015

I've heard that EQG was actually inspired by the humanized fan art produced by the fandom... So blame the fandom. xD

I'm all about the poneh. I'm not interested in EQG, and I'm similarly uninterested in humanized / anthro fan art. BUT, there's enough of that stuff out there that one could assume the fandom embraces it.

Dark Qiviut · January 25, 2015

The concept of it being made out of spite is overreaching. Monster High was Mattel's biggest successor, and Hasbro wanted to compete. The reasons why Equestria Girls is "FIM-related" is as follows:

Creating a new IP can be expensive and risks not getting it noticed. Tagging it onto an existing IP cuts the cost and gives Hasbro the better capability to advertize it.
Because FIM's toyline's is one of their biggest, slapping the FIM logo on the front equals more sales and more exposure for FIM.
Even though the main animated series is written as an all-ages, gender-neutral family show, Hasbro continues to treat their FIM as a "girls-only" product and treats it as such in their first-party merchandise. Equestria Girls (both the merhcandise and films) panders to that market, notably adolescent girls (the base market of EQG).
They're limited releases in movie theaters as well, so they get some revenue from cinema tickets.

I've heard that EQG was actually inspired by the humanized fan art produced by the fandom... So blame the fandom. xD

Many of us have heard it. That comment was nothing more than a joke by IDW's writers, but done so dryly, it can come off as serious.

No. It was made for little girls, who happen to absolutely love it.

Friendship Is Magic's animated product isn't executed as something "for little girls," but for everyone. Girls, boys, kids, adults. Equestria Girls's base market isn't four- to six-year-old kids like FIM, but kids ages ten to fourteen. Its base market is older than the main series.

As intended, and as it should be.

Wrong. If it's "as intended," then Equestria Girls would actually be designed and written in a way that respects the periphery demographic just as much as the main demographics, something Friendship Is Magic and G1 succeeded. The concept of "as intended, as it should" is disrespectful to both adults AND children.

Edited January 25, 2015 by Old King Q

Coco before Pommel · January 25, 2015

...Yeah, I know lots of people hate EQG (and that's fine), but this is pretty reaching. As much as some bronies seem to want to believe otherwise, I really doubt Hasbro's decisions revolve around "how will bronies react to this" as much as "how much merch will this help us sell". And no company makes decisions with the intent to reduce their fanbase and therefore make less money - whatever Hasbro-in-general think of the whole brony thing, it means a whole lot more potential customers and that's not something any right-thinking toy company will want to pass up on.

And it makes much more sense to use an existing brand like MLP to break into the dolls market - there's already an established fanbase, concept and characters, none of the effort or risk involved with making a brand new line they would then have to develop and promote. Hate EQG all you want, but it shouldn't be difficult to see why it exists, even just from a solely financial point of view, and the hurt feelings of (some) bronies that they dared to do something slightly different (which nobody is forcing them to watch and does not affect FiM at all) with their precious horses are likely pretty low down on Hasbro's priority list, if they even feature at all.