Is this the end?

[AlbaTross 1,581]

What's early depends on what we're talking about. In the case of this show, yes. I feel like 6 seasons would be too early, maybe what comes in the rest of season 5 and beyond will change my mind, we'll have to see. I grew up mostly in the early 2000's, a lot of shows I liked lasted 4-5. That felt early to me too, more often than not. I guess I just have a preference for shows to go on longer, if at all possible.

 

 I can see where you're coming from. A movie does sound like a pretty good place to bring the series to a stop. I accept that most shows have a point where continuing just isn't a good idea, but it feels like people are jumping on that too early. Nobody wants to see the show decline, but people seem too quick to want things to end.

 

 Still, what happens, happens. Hasbro will probably do what they think will get them more cash in their pocket. Whether the show ends soon, or goes on for another 5-6 years, I just hope it turns out well. The ideal scenario in my mind is the show ending when the staff really feels like they can't do it justice anymore, when their well of ideas has truly run out of good ones. No sooner, no later.

You were lucky to grow up with shows that lasted 4-5 seasons. I've been a fan of a show called Bromwell High since my teen years and that only lasted for 13 episodes. There are plenty of shows that just don't last very long. This show in particular also has a ton of spinoff comics, novels and 3 alternate universe films and counting, in addition to 5 seasons so far plus an additional one planned and a planned in universe film. I don't think we're hurting for pony content.

 

I also don't think fans so much want the show to end that they're afraid of its legacy being tarnished by some less than stellar follow-up seasons. I like this series and want it to continue on too, but not at the expense of quality. Now if we can have quality and quantity then it's a non-issue so only time will tell. I also hope the show's staff will make the right decision about when to end it. I'd also rather it not be a case of Hasbro mandating the show ends or declining popularity making the series considerably less viable from a business standpoint. I think it's best to cross that bridge when we get there. We do know there will be at least one more season.

[Sunset188 193]

I don't see it ending anytime soon. It's pretty much become a pop culture phenomenon, not to mention Hasbro is still making money off the toys. Like others said, there's plenty to work with. Even if the actual tv series ended, there will still be plenty of MLP for years to come, in my opinion.

[Yufery 205]

All good things must come to an end, some before others.

 

Now, there's a few things here that I should address, even if they don't directly apply to MLP. Firstly, later seasons don't strictly HAVE to have 26 episodes. It's a common trend for the show, sure, but there are shows with a large sum of episodes per season, like Steven Universe.

 

However, there are also shows that are destined to end in a short period, like Gravity Falls. That show is bound to end either during this current season, a possible future one, or a movie. Not to mention Over the Garden Wall.

 

Needless to say, modern animation is taking steps back and forward in terms of shows' length. Only time will tell how long MLP will last, but I do think that it'll end once the writers run out of ideas. However, seeing the world they've built and the characters they've developed, and plenty of questions to answer, I don't think it'll end anytime soon. My guess is that Hasbro will keep Gen 4 running longer due to it being their most successful, and possibly just try to add in new elements.

[Guest]

MLP has been greenlight for new episodes / seasons / movies until at least 2019. No need to worry.  No end in sight!

That is actually incorrect. Hasbro has only greenlit season 6, a movie and possibly another Equestria Girls movie. No news of a season 7 confirmation has been given and many people are mistaking their promise to investors of producing MLP until 2018 to mean that they are greenlighting seasons until then. They merely said they will continue producing the brand until then. That does not necessarily mean more of the show or seasons. They could simply end after the movie and just produce toys until then.

Edited September 21, 2015 by Guest

[PonyWaifu 559]

That is actually incorrect. Hasbro has only greenlit season 6, a movie and possibly another Equestria Girls movie. No news of a season 7 confirmation has been given and many people are mistaking their promise to investors of producing MLP until 2018 to mean that they are greenlighting seasons until then. They merely said they will continue producing the brand until then. That does not necessarily mean more of the show or seasons. They could simply end after the movie and just produce toys until then.

 

If you know the business, you know they will milk the show for all its got. It's the most successful show Hasbro has ever had. Why would they continue the brand but not the show? lol. Come on, let's be real.

Edited September 21, 2015 by PonyWaifu

[CastletonSnob 3,045]

Off-topic, but I think there are a good amount of good shows other than MLP. So, even if it were to end after S6, I'd personally still have shows to watch.

Edited September 21, 2015 by VG_Addict

[Guest]

If you know the business, you know they will milk the show for all its got. It's the most successful show Hasbro has ever had. Why would they continue the brand but not the show? lol. Come on, let's be real.

I know business. Also MLP is not their most successful show, Transformers has proven insanely successful so much that it has been going strong for nearly 30 years. That being said it is actually cheaper to syndicate a show and just run reruns to keep the toys selling. It reduces costs and keeps moving the toys, it's actually a far more profitable business strategy. So yes, let us get real: why spend more money when you can spend less and get the same results? Kids are going to buy the toys regardless of new episodes or not. Consider this from Hasbro's standpoint:

 

• Any kids who hadn't seen the show before are going to consider any episodes they see as "new" and with so many episodes it'll keep them hooked for a while. This is why syndication is so popular with kids shows because it WORKS.
• They can just keep the movie and air it on TV as "new content" for those kids who didn't see it in theaters. That's another way to inflate new content to keep people watching.
• Bronies are becoming more and more irrelevant. Hasbro is at the stage where they are thinking about the long term, not the short term. Bronies popped up out of nowhere, so they are not banking on them carrying over to generation 5. Hasbro may be paying some mind to bronies right now, but it's just to milk out the last bits of change they can get out of them. Hasbro is not going to see bronies as a viable investment in the long term because bronies could just all stick with gen 4 when gen 5 comes out.

[CastletonSnob 3,045]

 

I know business. Also MLP is not their most successful show, Transformers has proven insanely successful so much that it has been going strong for nearly 30 years. That being said it is actually cheaper to syndicate a show and just run reruns to keep the toys selling. It reduces costs and keeps moving the toys, it's actually a far more profitable business strategy. So yes, let us get real: why spend more money when you can spend less and get the same results? Kids are going to buy the toys regardless of new episodes or not. Consider this from Hasbro's standpoint:

 

• Any kids who hadn't seen the show before are going to consider any episodes they see as "new" and with so many episodes it'll keep them hooked for a while. This is why syndication is so popular with kids shows because it WORKS.
• They can just keep the movie and air it on TV as "new content" for those kids who didn't see it in theaters. That's another way to inflate new content to keep people watching.
• Bronies are becoming more and more irrelevant. Hasbro is at the stage where they are thinking about the long term, not the short term. Bronies popped up out of nowhere, so they are not banking on them carrying over to generation 5. Hasbro may be paying some mind to bronies right now, but it's just to milk out the last bits of change they can get out of them. Hasbro is not going to see bronies as a viable investment in the long term because bronies could just all stick with gen 4 when gen 5 comes out.

 

 

Would you say the brony fanbase is declining?

[Guest]

Would you say the brony fanbase is declining?

Not at all. There is no evidence to support that. Though a lot of the veteran fans are leaving, the amount of new people coming in is surpassing the amount leaving. This creates the illusion that the fandom is shrinking because older members are no longer around.

[UnknownFry 169]

No one knows for sure. The movie has been a popular choice as being speculated as an end point for the series and that could very well be the case, but it could also run for a short time afterwards.

 

Eventually the show will have to end as Hasbro will need to phase in G5 at some point.

 

I would say the fandom is plateauing now, and the numbers are evening out, but there is no doubt that fandom right is bigger than it has ever been even if some people are being vocal about it and rage quiting.

 

Also the brand of MLP has been running for 30 years as well too so it had some staying power well before G4.

Edited September 22, 2015 by UnknownFry

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,330]

Again, I'd be okay if the show ends with the movie since it's a very grand scale way to end a series. I know about G4 running until 2018/2019, but that could mean anything. It could just mean they continue the toys or they make an EQG spinoff of something. If the show ends, I have other shows to keep me in touch plus I could just rewatch episodes. Here's my predicted route for the show if they go the way I'm thinking:

 

Season 5 ends by the end of 2015

 

Season 6 starts in late 2016 and goes through the first half of 2017

 

Hasbro then gears up for the movie in most likely the summer or fall of that year and that ends the series

[GuyNamedEarl 1,332]

(excuse my language) I sure fuckin' hope not.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

I think so.

S6 as the final one leading up to the movie with the movie being the grand finale seems about right to me.
Then if the movie is successful they keep making movies like how EQG has movies, and cut out the show to free up resources, possibly to make an EQG series.

 

 

@ 2014 Hasbro investor webcast. It was stated that they foresaw at least 5 more years of the show. So that's 2019

To my knowledge they just said they were going to support the brand that long, they didn't say the show specifically. Which would just mean its 100% confirmed they're going to keep making toys and merch, which doesn't need a show to be done since they have reruns. (heck g2 didn't even have a show)

[Buck Testa 5,503]

MLP has been greenlight for new episodes / seasons / movies until at least 2019. No need to worry.  No end in sight!

This, thank you. They are totally not going to drop this when there is so much money to be made from it and when it has such a big fanbase. This train stops when Generation 5 is probably going to pop up, at least that's my guess. 

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

Thinking about this, I wonder how well the movie will do; ratings for the show have been dropping this season, and overall it looks like the show's losing steam. I think season 4 would probably have been the best time to launch a movie, not after S6, that's pretty late in, yeah? if ratings keep dropping after all, it could be a bad sign for how many little girls will turn out: and we have a precedent from the power puff girls movie that adult fans can't prop a movie up if the young fanbase doesn't go (and catering to adults can actually backfire)

 

 

Not at all. There is no evidence to support that. Though a lot of the veteran fans are leaving, the amount of new people coming in is surpassing the amount leaving. This creates the illusion that the fandom is shrinking because older members are no longer around.

I'm curious what information you have for this, the info about google searches of MLP terms, the amount of Fanart being produced and traffic at FIM sites seems to indicate the opposite.

With its memetic status all but gone FIM doesn't seem to be pulling them in like it used to.

 

 

 

If you know the business, you know they will milk the show for all its got. It's the most successful show Hasbro has ever had. Why would they continue the brand but not the show? lol. Come on, let's be real.

 

They do the same thing with Transformers though; They end transformers all the time despite it being successful to reboot it rather than wait for sales to get to bad levels. They rarely have transformer series go on past 3 seasons usually.

Plus, I think the original transformers was probably, toy sales wise, a bigger success than FIM is.

[shy0wl 484]

I believe a show shouldn't run on and on and on until it becomes mediocre at best.  But with MLP, there's still so many loose ends that need to be tied up, mainly to do with some of the Mane 6's parents.

 

 I think a backstory on Celestia would make for an awesome episode too, because all that's really given about her (or what I know about her, at least) is that she was born over a thousand years ago and banished her sister to the moon.  What did she do as a filly, who raised her? Then that could even bring up alicorns and their lifestyle.  Are they born as alicorns?  Do they receive their wings/horn at a certain point in their life, similar to cutie marks, when they discover they are meant to be a princess?  

 

So many question marks.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

I believe a show shouldn't run on and on and on until it becomes mediocre at best.  But with MLP, there's still so many loose ends that need to be tied up, mainly to do with some of the Mane 6's parents.

 

 I think a backstory on Celestia would make for an awesome episode too, because all that's really given about her (or what I know about her, at least) is that she was born over a thousand years ago and banished her sister to the moon.  What did she do as a filly, who raised her? Then that could even bring up alicorns and their lifestyle.  Are they born as alicorns?  Do they receive their wings/horn at a certain point in their life, similar to cutie marks, when they discover they are meant to be a princess?  

 

So many question marks.

 

there's the journal of the two sisters partly for that.

It seems they were taught by other alicorns in the past before the three tribes of ponies came there, and were raised by starswirl (more or less) after that, though where the other alicorns all went is an unanswered question.

[Guest]

 

 

I'm curious what information you have for this, the info about google searches of MLP terms, the amount of Fanart being produced and traffic at FIM sites seems to indicate the opposite. With its memetic status all but gone FIM doesn't seem to be pulling them in like it used to.

 

Fansite traffic does not seem to be taking a hit (such as EQD) and sites like this are not shrinking as well. On top of this, the brony herd census increased from last year. There is no evidence to suggest a shrinking fandom. To top all of this off, BronyCon grew once again, while it was the smallest percentage growth it was still a growth.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

Fansite traffic does not seem to be taking a hit (such as EQD) and sites like this are not shrinking as well. On top of this, the brony herd census increased from last year. There is no evidence to suggest a shrinking fandom. To top all of this off, BronyCon grew once again, while it was the smallest percentage growth it was still a growth.

While EQG may not be shrinking, I make my basis on that a large amount of early brony news sites have closed their doors in recent years, as well as a number of the chans having their traffic shrink to near zero.

 

Heck, that's the mane reason I came to this site was that all the other chans from early on in the days of the fandom have shriveled to nothing, so its only a handful of ones like this and EQD or round stable that still have a decent flow of traffic.

[Partialgeek514 4,925]

Season 5 is the first season I've been able to see as it comes out. I still feel so new to the fandom that I don't even want to think about the show ending!

[Guest]

While EQG may not be shrinking, I make my basis on that a large amount of early brony news sites have closed their doors in recent years, as well as a number of the chans having their traffic shrink to near zero.

 

Heck, that's the mane reason I came to this site was that all the other chans from early on in the days of the fandom have shriveled to nothing, so its only a handful of ones like this and EQD or round stable that still have a decent flow of traffic.

 

I think it's more a matter of oversaturation of sites. I mean there was a crap ton of sites for a while.

[KillerKingBakudan 702]

Sure, FIM itself could end with the movie, but that doesn't mean they can't do more with the G4 characters. The current gen as a whole is the most successful, and it still has a lot of potential for stories that can't fit into FIM. 

TV shows in general can be popular enough to warrant spinoffs; Cheers led to Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond led to The King of Queens, etc. DHX could always do something similar, like make a new show for the background ponies with occasional Mane Six cameos. Who wouldn't want that?

[EquestriaGuy 1,074]

The current trend is for the season to end November 28th or Dec. 5th if they want to skip the Thanksgiving weekend. Season 6 is on course to air this Spring.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

The current trend is for the season to end November 28th or Dec. 5th if they want to skip the Thanksgiving weekend. Season 6 is on course to air this Spring.

aren't they supposed to be pushing back hearthbreakers a little further into december I thought?

[EquestriaGuy 1,074]

aren't they supposed to be pushing back hearthbreakers a little further into december I thought?

 

It's entirely possible there is a 2-3 week break, but it seems like they're chugging through the season with no breaks so far. 14-21 are airing in consecutive weekends.