Could G5 be as big as G4?

[CastletonSnob 3,089]

Supposedly, G5 will premiere in 2020. 

Is there any chance of G5 being as big, or maybe even bigger, than G4, or did Hasbro just catch lightning in a bottle with G4?

[MangoFoalix 25,054]

6 minutes ago, VG_Addict said:

Supposedly, G5 will premiere in 2020. 

Is there any chance of G5 being as big, or maybe even bigger, than G4, or did Hasbro just catch lightning in a bottle with G4?

Going with the obvious, it probably will already have it's own pony fan base from G4. Why? Because there are still going to be a lot of us left over after the series ends with no show to go to for ponies.

[Will Guide 21,371]

I doubt it. Not to say it's going to suck. I'm sure it can be a success. Just that guys watching this kind of TV show isn't a big deal nor shocking anymore. 

[SDP40F amtrak 2,448]

29 minutes ago, VG_Addict said:

Supposedly, G5 will premiere in 2020. 

Is there any chance of G5 being as big, or maybe even bigger, than G4, or did Hasbro just catch lightning in a bottle with G4?

Well I think isn't bigger than g4 

Not saying it good or not but the bad thing is that the hatedom will be lot bigger 

 

[Sparklefan1234 179,524]

As long as the writers for Generation 5 care about making the characters & universe as fleshed out as FiM I think everything will be just fine.

Edited July 30, 2018 by Sparklefan1234

[Iam 526]

Generation 5 should be a sort of sequel to Generation 4, no changes to characters, otherwise it may catch a lot of hatedom, eventually lose fanbase drasticlly. (Note that this is only an opinion.)

[Vocal Analyst 665]

If executed in the right way and treated with as much care as the writers, animators, voice actors and show runners committed to it, then I don't see why it couldn't.

As fans, we'll notice pretty quickly if it doesn't manage to match up to what came before it... but it is up for whoever's in charge that it grabs attention, looks good and has enough to keep us coming back for more. If they can do that, all will be well, if not then it has no chance.

[Misty Shadow 8,194]

I think it's still too early to judge, but so long as they make the right calls in how they produce the show, I don't see how it couldn't be just as big or even bigger than G4.

[Jedishy 3,549]

I think it holds the potential to be a massive success, a massive failure, or neither and just coast on the ride of G4. It will all depend on making the right calls. It has to keep the charm of its predecessor, stay true to the stories and character profiles of G4. BUT has to make enough changes to be novel in its own right. If it can do two of those well and one ok it will ride the wave. If it fails any of them too hard it could crash bad, if it does them all well or one well and two surprisingly well then it could take things to new heights. 

At least that is my random guess work 

[Brainstorm 4,123]

I think G4 is the best, nothing can beat MLPFIM.

[Twilight Luna 31,492]

Anything can happen. For all we know, Gen5 will be the Teen Titans Go of the franchise. It’s impossible to tell at this point. I hope that everyone will give it a fair chance instead of writing it off just becaus it’s not Gen4.

Edited July 30, 2018 by Twilight Luna

[Frostgage 7,980]

I've been wondering about this quite a bit. It seems unlikely that G5 will garner the same unique fanaticism that FiM has, but you never know. Because G5 will launch shortly after the conclusion of G4, I expect it will initially retain many of the same fans, myself included. If nothing else, that will give the next series a nice head start.

[Aurora Glimmer 494]

I have no doubt G5 will be popular, but we're probably not going to see G5 develop the sort of cult following G4 has. G4 was lucky because it came at a time when there weren't a lot of quality children's cartoons. Since G4 began, the number of quality children's cartoons has increased exponentially, so any successor to G4 is going to attract less attention than G4 did.

Edited July 30, 2018 by Aurora Glimmer

[Steve Piranha 29,496]

For it to be as big another worldwide explosion of dudes liking 'em horses must happen. Thing is, many thing this phenomenon is now normal, but G5 could still become big if they don't fall on the trap of girly stuff many people still stigmatize MLP with 

[Jordan D 149]

I don't think it'll be as big for a few reasons. A lot of the factors that made Gen 4 so big when it first came out now have kind of fizzled out. The "renaissance of animation" is starting to fade into another phase and it's no longer seen as "rebellious" or "weird" to like shows like this anymore now that stuff like Steven Universe and Star vs The Forces of Evil are all the rage, which leads to the show being hardly mentioned outside of its community anymore. I think a lot of newer or younger fans tend to forget just how huge the series was in its prime. Tons of news outlets reported on it, lots of big name YouTubers made a big deal out out of whether or not they liked the show and lots of now defunct fansites were formed.

II'm looking forward to it, though. They learned a lot about what works and doesn't work from Friendship is Magic like having a cool fantasy world to build on and explore, and lots of fun adventures that shows off how big and versatile this world really is (G1 had a lot of that stuff too, but it wasn't as refined or consistent), and I hope they fix a lot of the mistakes FiM suffers from like inconsistent chronology, geography and characterization.

I just hope Gen 5 s as versatile in media as Gen 4. I love when weird G4 merchandise comes up, like that manga in 2013, or the RPG game books by River Horse and those anime-styled MLP figures being made now. 

[Vlazamal 338]

Yes. If it's done right it will be like Star Trek Discovery for the fandom and renew interest (The MLP Fandom is just as big as the Star Trek fandom anyway). If it isn't then the fandom will mellow out some more, but have a core fanbase that persists.

[Plonkett 345]

19 hours ago, Iam said:

Generation 5 should be a sort of sequel to Generation 4, no changes to characters, otherwise it may catch a lot of hatedom, eventually lose fanbase drasticlly. (Note that this is only an opinion.)

I'd rather it'd take place in its own unique universe with all new characters.

[EpicEnergy 23,244]

Only time can tell. Sure, extrapolations can be made, but there is always potential for anything to happen.

[Shadowfax 68]

To answer your question, I'll first ask a series of rhetorical question.

First, can G5 keep around the already existing brony fanbase?  No one knows how good it will be now.  But, we could say that G5 spits in the face of G4, and does something so different that the current fanbase rejects it.  However, seeing G4's success, I doubt Hasbro would go out of it's way to do that (at least I hope so!). 

Second, can G5 attract the ex-bronies?  We all know that the fandom was much larger back then.  People leave the fandom/show for many reasons.  It is not illogical to say that, with a clean slate, G5 could amend the issues people had with the show.  However, we must also remember that many who used to be in the fandom only did so as bandwagoners, and they will never come back if there is something "cooler" to gravitate towards.

Third, can G5 attract new people, particularly in a phenomenal way like G4 did?  We have to remember that G4 was born of shitposting.  4Channers heard some Christians losing their marbles over MLP:FiM, decided to watch it, and unexpectedly liked it.  This cascaded into the omnipresent fandom that it once was.  However, now that we've been through something like that, we cannot expect such a phenomena to occur again.  It is not illogical to say that it could not rake in many new viewers, but I doubt it will be to the same degree as with G4.  However, being a new slate, some may give it a go out of mere curiosity's sake.

I cannot say I can assuredly answer the question in the OP.  But, I can give a guestimation, drawing from the rhetorical questions.  If I were to answer my rhetorical questions, I would answer yes to the first, somewhat to the second, and unlikely to the third.  From these, I will say that G5 would revitalize the brony fandom a bit as it retains the current members, drawing some of the ex-bronies, and attracting some new members, but not being able to strike the same magic G4 did.

Of course, this is just a very elaborate thought process that will probably be completely #rekt when G5 actually comes out.  This is the internet, after all; strange things have happened, and stranger things to come.

Edited July 31, 2018 by Shadowfax

[Photon Jet 5,493]

There is still no confirmation from 'the big cheese' itself if G5 is really going to happen or not as plans do change now and again. But if it does happen, it depends on the story-writing, character development, world building etc. As long as it has the same potential as Friendship is Magic, it will be another generation to remember. 

[ccb20yes 81]

On 7/29/2018 at 11:55 PM, Aurora Glimmer said:

I have no doubt G5 will be popular, but we're probably not going to see G5 develop the sort of cult following G4 has. G4 was lucky because it came at a time when there weren't a lot of quality children's cartoons. Since G4 began, the number of quality children's cartoons has increased exponentially, so any successor to G4 is going to attract less attention than G4 did.

I know we arent as big as we were back then, but i'd bite my tongue before saying are fanbase is tiny.

[NathanW200 307]

I hope it does as good as G4 but only time will tell there's no way of knowing how it will turn out we don't even really know 100% when it will come out we can only wait and see

[Matraxial Artemi 2,231]

We don't know for certain that the Generation 5 of My Little Pony will be as big as the Generation 4 of My Little Pony/My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, but it depends on the series story and the category that they are in

[BornAgainBrony 2,398]

On 7/29/2018 at 8:32 PM, Will Guide said:

I doubt it. Not to say it's going to suck. I'm sure it can be a success. Just that guys watching this kind of TV show isn't a big deal nor shocking anymore. 

Hard to say that for sure. I still see "Brony" randomly flung around as an internet insult. If anything it's taken a backseat to the political nonsense and since it's also died down, there's not a lot of "Mods asleep, post ponies," going on. If the fandom had a resurgence, I'm guessing the general populous is going to be like, "Oh, frack, not again!"

 

On 7/29/2018 at 11:55 PM, Aurora Glimmer said:

I have no doubt G5 will be popular, but we're probably not going to see G5 develop the sort of cult following G4 has. G4 was lucky because it came at a time when there weren't a lot of quality children's cartoons. Since G4 began, the number of quality children's cartoons has increased exponentially, so any successor to G4 is going to attract less attention than G4 did.

I think it's a bit more complicated than just the presence of more competition. There's a lot of little things that allowed it to become as big as it is. I'm not saying other shows aren't good, but it seems like their universe aren't as fleshed out. MLP has a good balance of zany while staying serious 'enough' to have a somewhat LotR feel to it. Also the presence of countless background characters who were expanded upon by fans, a huge map with vast landscapes and a whole bunch of key locations... it's a world that is very easy to see yourself as being an inhabitant of, instead of just putting yourself in the shoes of one of the main characters. There are other shows that I like, but they don't seem nearly as welcoming to all of the "Expanded Universe" stuff that has happened with MLP to where it reached a point that it got its own spinoff site separate from fanfiction.net. Same thing goes with all the music and the videos. "My Little Dashie." The SFM stuff. Utterly beautiful shorts about O.C.'s like Snowdrop. All of this stuff that is so solid that you'd never know it wasn't official content. There are only a tiny handful of other shows that have generated that much content, and really the only one I can think of offhand that has had so much of that is Star Wars (Star Trek probably could've done the same but Paramount is kinda O.C.D. about tossing C&D's around like it's candy. Saying the show when it arrived on the scene was an island of quality in a sea of cheap cartoons doesn't seem to explain the amount of passion it generated. If that's all it was, then we should be seeing the same amount of quality content coming from fans of other shows, and that simply doesn't seem to be happening.

And one other thing I've wondered about that may or may not have allowed FiM to have more of an appeal is the somewhat seedier side of the fandom. Pretty much any other show out there targeted at little girls, has almost exclusively little girls (or children in general) as the main protagonists. The Ponies are adults, so if you're attracted to them, there's nothing bad about it (Equestria Girls is another story, but that's a vastly overcomplicated debate). I think this is something that made it at lot easier for older fans to immerse themselves in the world, that they might not get from other kids shows that go full overload on the cute and cuddly. Even ignoring the romancy or rule 34 stuff... if the Ponies were human, they'd be grownups. We can easily imagine ourselves living among them and there being nothing weird about it. Do the same thing with most other kiddie cartoons, and you'd be the lone adult in a world mostly populated by children.

Edited August 18, 2018 by bornAgainEquestrian

[The Recherche 29,982]

I'm just going to be blunt: I would be genuinely taken aback if it were even half as big. Whether we like to admit it or not, bronies during their trendy phase lived off of their shock value... which no longer exists. While it would be a stretch to say that bronies are about as mundane as a light summer breeze, they won't catch anyone off guard anymore. Will Generation 5 be successful? I believe so, but I have yet to be convinced that it will reach the heights of Generation 4 during its peak. These are just projections, though: I could very well be proven wrong one day.