Will DHX address the elephant in the room?

[ManaMinori 4,145]

No, not Francine's birthday, rather, the issue of something that the target audience might now be experiencing- puberty. Both the mane 6 and cmc have matured as their target audience has grown up. Should the cmc be the best ones to take over the mane 6 episodic morals, and write about these changes and experiences that come with puberty?

[Red Cedar 1,408]

I've seen this suggested before. The short answer is, likely not. They're going to continue to target their age demographic, even if those now in their age demographic weren't born when the show started.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,730]

This would be insanely difficult to do. Puberty is most often associated with sexual maturity so they of course owuld have to focus on a different side of it. Voice changes? Some conflict within the CMC's? Changes of interest? We sorta got that one with On Your Marks (What a depressing episode that was) and beyond that, there wouldn't be a whole lot of wiggle room. It probably would be difficult to pull off without making another episode that has tons of sad overtones like On Your Marks.

[Luminance 2,186]

Problem is...when the kids that originally grew-up watching the show leaves, there's new group of young kids who takes there place. The show itself faces an undeniable fact that they can't really progress the characters in both physical and mental age well beyond the understanding of young newcomers because the show still tries to retain the certain target age group.

 

The Equestria Girls movies is probably the only form of addressing to more preteen and teenage audience and I don't think that FiM is going that route.

[Concerned Bystander 2,903]

I think the gaining of their cutie marks is pretty much what passes for puberty in MLP.  I don't think we're going to see the CMC breaking out in acne and succumbing to the endocrine induced insanity that is human puberty.

[Ganondorf8 11,370]

I don't think it's going to happen since the idea goes against the age demographic that the show is designed around, six to ten year old girls. Hasbro is likely to shoot down even ideas that are similar or go the minimal distance to what you're suggesting.

Edited February 3, 2017 by Ganondorf8

[cmarston1 5,959]

I've kinda just used the whole getting a cutie mark as an allegory for puberty or as close enough to puberty as the show is ever going to address.

[GrimGrimoire 4,973]

They kind of already are. As stated getting ones cutie mark seems to pass for puberty to some degree in their world.. and they are documenting their discoveries and experiences with us the viewers. You could make the argument many viewers are "growing up" along with the CMC.

[AlbaTross 1,586]

No, not Francine's birthday, rather, the issue of something that the target audience might now be experiencing- puberty. Both the mane 6 and cmc have matured as their target audience has grown up. Should the cmc be the best ones to take over the mane 6 episodic morals, and write about these changes and experiences that come with puberty?

Hi, as this topic seems to be about a hypothetical direction for the show, it has been moved to Show Discussion.

<p>This thread appears to be discussing MLP:FiM in some way, shape or form. Thus, it has been sentenced to Show Discussion.</p>

[Yellow Diamond 7,575]

Problem is...when the kids that originally grew-up watching the show leaves, there's new group of young kids who takes there place. The show itself faces an undeniable fact that they can't really progress the characters in both physical and mental age well beyond the understanding of young newcomers because the show still tries to retain the certain target age group.

 

This right here. The members of the core demographic may grow older, but the demographic itself will remain in place. Since MLP isn't a coming of age story, the characters are going to stay fairly static in their aging. Plus, as Kyoshi pointed out, the studio can avoid the trickier topics connected to maturation, like puberty.