Will MLP persist or will it be as dead as disco?

[cybershocker455 324]

A question that perists sometimes in bronydom is, "Will this show stand the test of time or will it bite the dust?" Personally I think this show will be highly-regarded as the best girl oriented show ever and I think the brony fanbase will still continue many years from now. With some great characters, great animation, and great storylines, I have no doubt this show will last. We're already starting our sixth season, which is already an impressive feat, so I think this show will sontinue being great.

 

What do you guys think?

[Cynic 336]

Nah, people have been calling the fandom dead since season 3, the only real difference now is that it's not on the forefront of "weird fandoms" like it was in 2011. The people who were only here for the ride just because it was trendy most likely left when it stopped being trendy (around 2013), and what you're left with is a more focused and niche community. I can't think of many other fandoms six years in that are still this active in terms of regular content creation.

Edited April 1, 2016 by Cynic

[Dark Qiviut 22,431]

We don't know for sure the future impact twenty years from now, but it does have a really huge current cultural impact. FIM and bronydom at large prove how anyone can watch a feminine show. Not only are the characters and stories great, but they destroy stereotypes plaguing feminine TV. It's a part of pop culture.

 

But there's more to it than that. FIM helped pave way for other shows, ones that have the same cross-demographic appeal, to both be produced and succeed. Current cartoons like Thomas & Friends are in the middle of an impressive revival through this same demographic appeal. New ones like Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, and We Bear Bears began airing either simultaneously as FIM or a few years later. Similar lessons from FIM (appealing art, excellent animation, engaging and creative stories, deep characters, and not stubbornly sticking with the "kids' show" strawman) are there, too. Whether this formula will be used and refined remains to be seen.

Edited April 1, 2016 by Dark Qiviut

[captainborgue 343]

It has potential to be a fandom that persists beyond the lifetime of the show, yes. There are some solid unifying ideas... though for an ideology of love & tolerate there are some pretty big cracks in there. I'd like to see it persist, or see a resurgence of the attitude of inclusiveness it had at the outset, but I honestly don't expect it to. The majority of the demographic is in a stage in life that tends to be more self-serving than inclusive. Now that may be the cynicism of age talking, so I'm not sure how prescient it is.

Edited April 1, 2016 by captainborgue

[Jackie Snack 1,498]

First off, disco is timeless.

 

Second, if they were to stop making episodes after season 6, I see the fandom surviving about another four years before the hype died.

[Gestum 2,493]

Give it five years after it ends and most people will have forgotten about it.

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,302]

First off, disco is timeless.

 

My guess is that whatever the hell G5 ends up being won't have anywhere near as much of an impact; certainly not on me, it won't.  If that's the case, what MLP show will people look back upon fondly?  FIM.  That is, if members of the fandom can stop crying, "The fandom is DOOooOoMED, I tells ya!" every five minutes or behaving as though they actually despise the series.  Eh, maybe nostalgia will ultimately give everyone new eyes.

[Traker 6]

As sad as it seems it'll probably die off in a couple years to come.

[Wind Chaser 4,768]

I've seen fandoms persist for shows that have endured much shorter runs and longer droughts of content. It all depends on how strong the people's connection with the work is.

 

As far as mainstream recognition, MLP will fluctuate dependent on the quality of future generations. However, fan works will likely endure.

 

Two fandoms I joined in the late 2000s were for two relatively obscure kids' shows from the 80s (The Raccoons and TUGS). The former ran for 5 or 6 seasons, but the latter only got 13 episodes, and yet the communities still persist even though new content is in development hell due to lack of mainstream interest in the first case and orphaned copyright in the latter. If those smaller shows can still be remembered, FiM will have no problem, especially considering its potential nostalgia value.

[Mesme Rize 15,683]

I think it's a bit unrealistic to expect, that FiM will have as strong of an impact like Star Wars, Doctor Who, or Star Trek, since these are all covered by mainstream, while FiM has more of a cult following.

[TheMarkz0ne 962]

Transformers is timeless in the sense that it has created symbolic characters like Optimus Prime, Sound Wave, Megatron, Starscream, Ultramagnus and so on. I am saying that previous MLP gens didn't do that, MLP was just a show in the 80s that girls watched. Transformers was an 80s toon that not only survived but stuck in pop-culture. G4 ponies has created memorable characters and characters that I think Hasbro should immortalize.

 

I really think G5 should be a G4 sequel, they'd be stupid not to do it. I am REALLY not digging the CGI crapfest known as Legends of Everfree, looking at it makes me bored immediately. I know the Bayformer movies made Habsro billions of dollars, but the Transformers toons have been awful in recent years. If Hasbro plays their hand right, that 2017 can be a potential smash hit. After the movie's success, I see the series staying around longer. 

[PandySenpai 4]

Personally, I think the essence of the show that made it what it was were seasons 1-3, after that they kinda forced new ideas onto the television. It's almost extremely hard too stick with the fandom and not deny the fact that the episodes that are being showcased now have truly original story lines and have the same exciting feel to them. I'm sure it will stand the test of time with it's current cultural impact.

[The Coffee Pony 1,390]

Considering that this is the fourth incarnation and it's proven to be a massive hit I'm going to say no for this one simple reason: Transformers!

 

That and there are fans of G1 that still exist, some of the creators of this show were fans of G1 to begin with. Now you can tell us about how bad Tales,G3 and G3.5 were until you're blue in the face, If MLP was able to get to it's fourth incarnation and create a big hit with said incarnation there no way the My Little Pony franchise is going to die off.

Edited April 2, 2016 by The Coffee Pony

[Nuke87654 1,849]

Considering that this is the fourth incarnation and it's proven to be a massive hit I'm going to say no for this one simple reason: Transformers!

 

That and there are fans of G1 that still exist, some of the creators of this show were fans of G1 to begin with. Now you can tell us about how bad Tales,G3 and G3.5 were until you're blue in the face, If MLP was able to get to it's fourth incarnation and create a big hit with said incarnation there no way the My Little Pony franchise is going to die off.

 

^^

 

Listen to Coffee Pony on this. The transformers fandom, fans of a hasbro brand, has lasted for 30 or so years and still going strong. Also, as much as many in the fandom like to pretend that the previous generations weren't good, many of the minds behind G4 were fans of the G1 MLP and cartoon. Also I don't view G3 as being terrible (G3.5 on the other hand) as it had it's appeal and fandom too. The fears of many worrying the brony fandom won't last long obviously haven't been part of fandoms before. Fandoms have a long life shelf as we have many famed ones like Star Trek and Dr. Who going on 50 years strong. Hell we have the Sherlock Holmes fans which are fans of a near 125+ year old brand just to emphasize it.

Edited April 3, 2016 by Nuke87654

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,596]

Star Wars, decades old, still going strong to this day, both in the fandom and now cinema. FiM is will be considered an all-time classic of animation, no doubt. The fans will always be around to, so FiM, in at least some way, shape or form, will live on, for a long, long time. 

[Banul 3,831]

Disco will never die

 

MLP has blown up enough that even when the current generation ends, it will stick around in some form or another for a very long time. I'm always reminded things like Star Trek, Star Wars and Harry Potter; fandoms that have persisted well after their object of interest had huge lapses of new content or just stopped completely. In the absence of officially sponsored stuff, the fandom will create it for itself. You can already see this at work in the massive amounts of fan fiction, fan art and all manner of fan created merchandise that the MLP fandom generates. This forum is still active, even in between seasons. MLP has managed to create a great deal of staying power and has carved out a nice hole for itself in nerd culture that wont be going anywhere anytime soon.

[ManaMinori 4,145]

Mlp as franchise, will last

FiM will NOT

[CastletonSnob 3,074]

We don't know for sure the future impact twenty years from now, but it does have a really huge current cultural impact. FIM and bronydom at large prove how anyone can watch a feminine show. Not only are the characters and stories great, but they destroy stereotypes plaguing feminine TV. It's a part of pop culture.

 

But there's more to it than that. FIM helped pave way for other shows, ones that have the same cross-demographic appeal, to both be produced and succeed. Current cartoons like Thomas & Friends are in the middle of an impressive revival through this same demographic appeal. New ones like Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, and We Bear Bears began airing either simultaneously as FIM or a few years later. Similar lessons from FIM (appealing art, excellent animation, engaging and creative stories, deep characters, and not stubbornly sticking with the "kids' show" strawman) are there, too. Whether this formula will be used and refined remains to be seen.

For every Thomas and Friends, there are more shows that tried to copy MLP, and failed. Examples would be the Care Bears cartoon from 2012, the Rainbow Brite cartoon that aired in late 2014, and the Popples on Netflix.

[cmarston1 5,959]

I highly doubt that FIM will ever have the same sort of relevance that something like Star Wars has had on pop culture.

And I don't really think this fanbase is going to get considerably bigger or at least any time soon.

Also why do we need to care whether or not this cult hit show will become some gigantic pop culture phenomenon?

What's wrong with just enjoy the show and fanbase just the way they are right now?

Personally I don't really care how big of an impact the show will have in the future as all I really care about is that I highly enjoy the show and it has and will give me a lot of fun over the years.

[AlbaTross 1,586]

I think Hasbro would be foolish to not try to keep the MLP brand alive with a new series built on what they've learned from FiM, and if the brand could survive G3, then I think it will persist whether there is a decent follow up show or not. As for FiM, I think it has some ability to stick around. If some cartoons from the mid 90s and earlier can still have dedicated fandoms, many of which didn't run for more than two seasons, then FiM almost certainly will.

 

Moreover, while those fandoms have forums and have taken advantage of stuff like YouTube to make tribute vids and whatnot, this fandom had all of those things out of the gate and that could be why fanvids are actually considered an integral part of the fandom, and there's a huge difference from the mindless tribute vids I used to see all the time for old series and stuff with heart and creativity that this fandom turns out such as Lullaby for a Princess. Fan works alone will likely help FiM stay relevant to its dedicated niche going forward, even after the series ends. Plus, this is a fandom that has already established a cult following of adult fans. Most of the adult fans of classic cartoons can probably cite nostalgia as a prime reason for still liking the show, whereas we are following a modern series from the current decade. Nostalgia need not apply for those of us who weren't following MLP before FiM. That said, in 10+ years I could easily see FiM having a following of fans who are nostalgic for the series.

[weesh 690]

I find it interesting that you guys feel a hypothetical generation 5 needs to be tied to generation 4. 

 

The sentiment behind the thought implies that the story is already perfect, and there is no room for improvement.

Is it really that hard to imagine that there will be other Faustian geniuses in the future who can come up with a fresh and powerful show without all the baggage of the current beloved incarnation?  Asking that genius to make a sequel could be radically holding them back.  Aren't there enough sequels in the world?

 

That said, I'd check that new generation out with an open mind no matter how close or far away it exists from the gen 4 canon.  

 

Here's a partial list of things that wouldn't bug me:

• Far future
• Far past
• Different continent/world/setting
• No returning characters or callbacks
• Completely new way for flying and magic to work
• Completely new government/organization.  

The only thing that is non-negotiable to me would be strong relational themes.  

[Kenshiro 13,493]

I believe that bronydom will continue at least 10 years from now on even if MLP show ends and i really want to be there after ten years '''

[PiratePony 8,475]

The error in your thinking is that disco is dead. In fact, disco will never die!

 

 

Serious answer: No, it will persist, as it has for 20 years, whether it's Friendship Is Magic or some other iteration down the line. Kids like horsey toys. 

[Cherry Palette 81]

Well, it could be a situation similar to what shows like the 4400 are facing after they've ended. The fandom still exists, but instead of making headlines, it just lingers in the back of peoples' minds as "that show I used to have fun watching."

 

Personally, I'll always be a fan of the show, whether the hype around it dies out or not :3

[Phanact 333]

Weather or not the show persists, or even the fandom, I know that it will persist in my life

 

I have made lifestyle changes and I'm so obsessed with ponies that I am almost always doing something pony related, so it'll at least persist in me.