We hijacked it!

[Ember Gleam 167]

First off I want to apologize if this topic was already made elsewhere. MLP was of course intended to be a show that's target audience was for children and more specifically young girls. Well we all know how that turned out lol. Having said that since a huge following of adults has occurred do you think that the show and it's content has been changed to appeal to adults? I am just curious if the brony community has effected what the writers put out on the show. Do we directly have an impact on the show and do our head cannons, art, fanfics, ect. influence how an episode will be developed? Just curious what you all think.

[GrimGrimoire 4,973]

Nope.

 

The show has always appealed to adults. Nothing has changed about it. As said in another thread, the target audience is one thing, but smart writing and clever plots make it so it can appeal to anyone. They have not suddenly started getting popular with adults.

 

And yes we do have an impact on the show. Both good and bad. By writing fan-fiction, drawing art and discussing the show in forums and the like you let he creators know how they are affecting the fandom... it can definitely influence some of the content we see.

 

However the incessant bitching and whining other groups might do actually sets a lot of things back, since it makes the creators less interested in trying to communicate with the fans or even bother with anything they have to say. They may have a target demographic but they are looking more and more on how to keep that audience while broadening it further for even more to enjoy. Whether that is through toys, the show, the comics.. or whatever.

[Dreambiscuit 9,964]

Anything anypony does, especially on the internet, is going to have an influence on some level. Look at the 100th episode and how it was meant to cater to the Brony fanbase. For that matter, look at Derpy and how her impact on the show has been affected, both positively and negatively, by the audience. This isn't the kind of feedback typically put forth by the demographic of little girls, at least not on the scale we've seen. So the adult fans have certainly made their presence known. 

That being said, I still think the writers try to make a show that appeals to all audiences because it would be foolish to limit themselves in any way, especially since MLP does cover such a wide variety of different fans. Hasbro wouldn't want their target toy-buying audience to be overlooked, so MLP will continue to be written for children in one way, but with the understanding that adults love it too. I think they've found a nice balance that seems to work for everyone, or at least an impressive cross section.