"Leave it to the fandom to decide"

[FlareGun45 2,221]

Now that the show's over, some of the fandom have alota unanswered questions, and a large majority of the staff are just answering with "that's for the fandom to decide". I understand the reason WHY they do it. Fans get angry when their headcanons don't become canon, and they're afraid of being attacked - even though it's happening anyway. Either that or they're just kind enough to keep things open for us, and that's ok! I know they mean well on that!

However, there are some downsides to this. There are certain story elements that are just way too good for fanfiction and deserve actual answers. Stuff like whatever happened to Scorpan?. Then we have the stuff like shipping which don't matter, fanfiction can handle THAT! My point is, I think the devs kinda "overdid" it on the "leaving it to fanfiction", though I'm sure Hasbro is mostly to blame since the devs DID wanna get into the zebras and post-reformation Diamond Tiara. 

In the end, it is their choice, and whatever they couldn't do, the comics can! How do you feel about this? Do you agree with them? Is there at least SOME things you'd rather see answered?

Edited October 18, 2019 by FlareGun45

[Megas 27,629]

A lot of it sounds like laziness or like they’re to afraid to answer certain questions 

[Goat-kun 2,527]

Debate the loyalists! Fandom war now!

 

 

Anyhow, it is a wrong move on their part but also the only move left to those who have lost authority over the franchise. Me, I wouldn't be answering such things on social media. It is unfair to the IP and to the fans. Seriously, corps need some contractual clause that compels "creative" team members to hold their anus together so as to not defecate bullshit onto the fans and customers. The fans may be cranky about the clenched anuses but it prevents situations that can make fans even crankier.

[Will Guide 21,360]

Look, fanbases can potentially be full of entitled people who want things one way and it would be impossible to please everybody. That was the lesson of Suited for Success. That you shouldn't try to please everyone if it gets in the way of your creativity.

I believe the fact many questions being left unanswered is a good thing. So that people can come to their own conclusions. Besides, everyone is different. They have different personalities, different tastes, and such.

Besides, here at the end of the show's run, most of the Mane 6 have reached their goals. Twilight becoming Celestia's successor. Rarity opening multiple boutiques. Fluttershy offering a sanctuary for animals. Rainbow Dash becoming a Wonderbolts. Arguably, Pinkie Pie and Applejack are still in the same place they were at the show start because they already were content with their lives. Pinkie spreading laughter to others and Applejack running the farm with her family. You don't have a big life changing goal to be a success.

Besides, if the characters in the show aren't making a big deal about these "unanswered questions", then I believe we shouldn't be forcing the matter onto them. If at some point, they have a chance to pursue answers to things they don't know, it should be THEIR choice. For example, Spike is content that he already has a family. So if he's happy, we shouldn't be demanding that Spike find out who his real parents are. If he really wanted to know, he has to make the decision himself.

As mean-spirited as Fame and Misfortune was, it brought out a few tough but important lessons: Don't force your opinions and beliefs onto others. That there are some people who think they know better than others. It's about looking for the people who appreciate your work (the lessons in the Friendship Journal were actually appreciated by those little fillies who had a few rough spots in their friendship) for what is. Not people who use your work to fight and argue with others (Like the Fan Dumb ponies who try to force Fluttershy to "be assertive already")

In Short, Every fan is unique and should be allowed to have a different viewpoint than others and not just be force into believing that there's absolutely only one perception of all this.

[Rushing cash 836]

Some things they really wanted to let the fans do their thing and leave part to our imagination, some they were afraid to tackle and some they didn't want to or didn't think about(you can call it lazy or that they couldn't bring it and tie it into an episode, and of course some things hasbro did not allow them to do).

[Prince Doopliss 2,351]

I don't mind the unanswered questions. I mean it is a family friendly show that allows imagination run wild. Sure some questions could have been answered like who is Cozy Glow? All I know is she is just a filly that replaced Diamond Tiara as an antagonist. Well Diamond wasn't evil, just a spoil brat.Though I saw someone comment on YouTube thinking with some of her dialogue with Neighsay and Starlight  in School Raze that she wasn't from the same planet. I admit that does seem a bit far fetch  considering I've never seen School Raze so I have no idea where they got the idea . How ever it can leave me to theorize who she is. I mean, Cozy Glow actually could just be some witch with eternal youth that escape the human world and decided to try and control Equestria after seeing Sunset and the human Mane 6 defeating other antagonist in the human world. Or maybe she is some kind of spirit, demon, god? Are we 100% sure Cozy Glow is actually a filly? Has she even mention anything about her family or at least be truthful about her family if she has?

Okay that is a bit of far fetch after seeing one comment . My point is it is better to little a show to help sells on toys and create a world for people to use their imagination with said toys or make some fan fiction, fan comics, animation, etc. I mean the show being open to the fans isn't exactly a bad thing. It shows that you care about the fans and not have the staff control their world. I mean it is a huge no-go in a kids show if people can't use their imagination and the show's staff would be uncaring to them for not leaving anything to them. Fans need as much openness as they can show they can express their creativity. I mean if the show answered too many questions then and takes away their creativity, then it hurts the fandom to some degree. 

Though there is still some questions are better off being answered. I mean they do need some sort of control, but just not complete control and being disrespectful to the fans. I mean it is a good move and a bad move. It just depends on how the fans take it.

 

[Ganondorf8 11,310]

Time constraints played a large factor when it came to how the final episodes would pan out. According to Big Jim, they knew the show was going to be cancelled as far back as Summer 2017, and fans wouldn't know that season nine would be the last until late 2018/early 2019. Because of this, the staff had only fifty-two episodes across two seasons in order to wrap up as much as possible whilst introducing new ideas. Because of this, backstories of characters weren't fleshed out or left in the dark, some characters only had one or two appearances and never appeared after that, locations weren't explained in full detail, and so forth.

With regards to the epilogue, they just didn't have enough time to create vectors of all the future versions of everyone, so they had to make do with what they could. This also includes showing us how locations have changed over the years since we only got Ponyville and Canterlot. I've been saying that 'The Last Problem' needed to be either two parts or an extended episode to get everything resolved.

For 'The Ending of the End', despite how much I dislike it for what it did, it did have some good moments, but again, much had to be left out because they didn't have enough time to get it all in there. Had this been three parts, they might have gotten more in, but that is a dream idea now as we have what we have.

I'm all for allowing the fandom to decide on things but it does carry risks which others have already suggested. The time skip is fun as we get to see the future but without knowing how the characters got to that point, problems arise which is where having the fandom figure things out can result in ugliness if you get my meaning.

[bigbertha 414]

I think it's a lazy answer. I really like hearing what the creators thought about their work in retrospect and just ignoring most of the questions under the excuse of "leaving them to the fans" is boring. And it doesn't even make sense. The creator (or any staff member that's interviewed) giving their opinions doesn't somehow stop fans from having their own opinions. It's not like the stuff that's already explained stops people. Any staff member giving their thoughts on what Cozy Glow's backstory might've been doesn't stop fans from having their own headcanons. 

[Quinch 1,120]

I'm pretty okay with it... quite frankly, actually, I'm partial to tight writing - focusing on details that are important to the story, and leaving the rest to imagination, especially given that locking in one aspect of canon locks out many others. Instead, the staff let most of the doors open for future writing.

[Ittoni 538]

They might not be able to say anything by contract or something like that. They could get in trouble if they get the fans going with stuff Hasbro doesn't approve. 

I prefer to have some ends open. That's were imagination and theories come in and I love to imagine and theories 

[cmarston1 5,959]

3 hours ago, Kiryu-Chan said:

A lot of it sounds like laziness or like they’re to afraid to answer certain questions 

This is how I feel when they are talking about shipping.  Like for instance when talking about whether or not AppleDash is canon or not.  Instead of just being honest and saying that they had Applejack and Rainbow Dash be in a relationship, they would say they would rather leave it up to the viewer's imagination.  It ultimately comes a cross as them wanting to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to LGBT representation.  They want to get the positive attention that would come across with that, but implying that AJ and RD are a thing, but don't really want to deal with homophobic backlash.  It kinda feels a bit cowardly in a way there, NGL.

[Jeric 46,851]

Eh. In the past they had stated what the truth is just to have people close their eyes and nya nya them. Case in point the people who still refuse to accept that the Apple parents are dead. Same with gay ponies. 
 

Also it’s disingenuous to state that it is left up to the fans completely because Jim did give several elements of what his interpretation or intent is. He just gave an out for people that don’t like his view. He even pointed out that he and Haber disagree on if Luster is related to Starlight. He gave answers, it’s up to the fan to accept them or not. 
 

The other non answers were mostly related to not having enough time to go into everything. 

21 minutes ago, cmarston1 said:

This is how I feel when they are talking about shipping.  Like for instance when talking about whether or not AppleDash is canon or not.  Instead of just being honest and saying that they had Applejack and Rainbow Dash be in a relationship, they would say they would rather leave it up to the viewer's imagination.  It ultimately comes a cross as them wanting to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to LGBT representation.  They want to get the positive attention that would come across with that, but implying that AJ and RD are a thing, but don't really want to deal with homophobic backlash.  It kinda feels a bit cowardly in a way there, NGL.

Depends on who you asked on the writing team, Jim or Mike. You’ll also get a different answer or at least I did. 

Vogel is mostly in line with “Implicit = Yep” BTW

And it’s far more lazy to spell out exactly what you are seeing. 

[Latecomer 439]

What writers care about isn't necessarily what fans care about anyway. They don't have to come up with answers for things they never thought about on the spot just because they're asked.

(Anyway, we have like most of their production materials now so that should tide us over for a while.)

[Pentium100 2,122]

Writers cannot think of every single detail of everything. It would take too much time and probably a lot of people would not care. Just like in designing video game maps, the areas where the player is not supposed to go are not made.

Also, there are many more fans than there are writers - the fans can always come up with questions that writers did not think about. Having them make up the answer on the spot is not so good in my opinion. If the details are not in the show itself, then they are probably not important to the story.

We do not know all the details of real history either, some records are lost, some things were not recorded at all. 

[Goat-kun 2,527]

20 hours ago, Beetlejeric said:

Eh. In the past they had stated what the truth is just to have people close their eyes and nya nya them. Case in point the people who still refuse to accept that the Apple parents are dead. Same with gay ponies. 
 

Also it’s disingenuous to state that it is left up to the fans completely because Jim did give several elements of what his interpretation or intent is. He just gave an out for people that don’t like his view. He even pointed out that he and Haber disagree on if Luster is related to Starlight. He gave answers, it’s up to the fan to accept them or not. 
 

The other non answers were mostly related to not having enough time to go into everything. 

Depends on who you asked on the writing team, Jim or Mike. You’ll also get a different answer or at least I did. 

Vogel is mostly in line with “Implicit = Yep” BTW

And it’s far more lazy to spell out exactly what you are seeing. 

Eh, I didn't know that being a shallow issue peddler whose grasp of fantasy begins and stops at character's genitalia had so much to do with lore and worldbuilding.

 

And AJ's parents aren't dead. They just went on a very long vacation to Daisyland. Will be back any day now. Also, CMCs will lose their cutie marks, Starlight is still evil, Equestria is future Earth, and RD has a feminine benis. Or so we were told. Oh who are we, the fans, to so cruelly reject such speculations! All canons are equal, and good, and worthy! And utterly meaningless. When everything is canon ...

[Quinch 1,120]

3 minutes ago, Goat-kun said:

When everything is canon ...

...the fanfiction will flourish.

[Goat-kun 2,527]

5 minutes ago, The Grim Reader said:

...the fanfiction will flourish.

Too much of a good thing can be bad. We'll see how it goes as there's nothing else we can do. Forging The One Lore is now nearly impossible.

[Latecomer 439]

1 minute ago, Goat-kun said:

Too much of a good thing can be bad. We'll see how it goes as there's nothing else we can do. Forging The One Lore is now nearly impossible.

 

Stop talking like we have no canon to work with. There's plenty of concrete stuff AND plenty of empty space.

[Prince Doopliss 2,351]

12 minutes ago, Goat-kun said:

And AJ's parents aren't dead. They just went on a very long vacation to Daisyland. Will be back any day now. 

I'm pretty sure most of the staff acknowledge AJ's parents as dead. Hasbro just wouldn't let straight out say it on the show. They just let hints at it.

[Goat-kun 2,527]

31 minutes ago, Latecomer said:

Stop talking like we have no canon to work with. There's plenty of concrete stuff AND plenty of empty space.

Oh we most certainly do. I happen to know for a fact that Celestia's fur is indeed white.

26 minutes ago, Prince Doopliss said:

I'm pretty sure most of the staff acknowledge AJ's parents as dead. Hasbro just wouldn't let straight out say it on the show. They just let hints at it.

At one appendage we advocate for fanfictions ... but gods help that foolish fanfic writers who happens to believe that AJ's parents are alive. We haven't seen their corpses. The story can be done.

[Latecomer 439]

1 minute ago, Goat-kun said:

Oh we most certainly do. I happen to know for a fact that Celestia's fur is indeed white.

I thought it was an extremely pale pink?

But seriously, there's a lot we know, a lot we don't know, and the AU tag for when we just don't like what we know.

[Prince Doopliss 2,351]

14 minutes ago, Goat-kun said:

Oh we most certainly do. I happen to know for a fact that Celestia's fur is indeed white.

At one appendage we advocate for fanfictions ... but gods help that foolish fanfic writers who happens to believe that AJ's parents are alive. We haven't seen their corpses. The story can be done.

 

Like I said we got hints. We didn't need to see their corpses. I mean Hasbro isn't going to allow them them to be straight forward, they aren't Disney. AJ showed some kind of distress abut her parents being dead. As far as my head canon knows is that AJ was close to her parents and them dying made her felt uncomfortable about their death. I mean she could have felt like she didn't belong on the farm because of their death and decided to try and live in Manehattan with her Aunt and Uncle. 

To quote something form the MLP Wiki,

Quote

At the 2016 Middle Equestrian Convention in Poland, My Little Pony character designer Kora Kosicka stated in response to a fan question that Applejack's parents are dead.

With this quote and somebody stumbling on that on the wiki will know not to write AJ's parent alive.

[Toastypk 923]

I'm just wondering how much the Season 10 comics will address about things.

[nightshroud96 124]

6 minutes ago, Toastypk said:

I'm just wondering how much the Season 10 comics will address about things.

Yeah, I hope to see some questions answered.
Also hoping it follows the shows continuality rather than the comic's continuality.(Yeah I know they said the comics are "canon" to the show but lets face it, the comics ultimately have a separate continuality/universe pretty much)

[Ganondorf8 11,310]

3 minutes ago, Toastypk said:

I'm just wondering how much the Season 10 comics will address about things.

We're pretty much in the dark with season ten. We don't even know how the format will work. All IDW did was make an announcement and left it at that. We'll probably get details of their plan next year. At least I hope so. I am expecting one thing though, and that is they will tackle stories that occur after 'The Ending of the End Part 2' but before 'The Last Problem'. The epilogue, as good as it was, is an issue with regards to the comics because of how long the time skip was. Then again, they could do a short spin-off series that tackles the future events just to satisfy those who are curious to want to know more about it.