MLP:FiM Megathread: Does anyone even watch this show anymore edition

[MJN SEIFER]

I can't disagree with a single word there! /)

Thanks bro(ny?) I'm pleased I'm not the only one thinking this.

The conflict, as we may well all know, is that DHX really know what they're doing and put their heart and soul into the show... but Hasbro are the ones who own the rights to the MLP brand and basically employ DHX to create a show. And it would seem that increasingly Hasbro are stepping in and telling them what to do based on their toy update strategies (i.e. show driven by toys) instead of taking their advice and developing the toys based on the directions the show goes in (i.e. toys driven by show).

That is probably the fear, and I can understand it being a fear. It wouldn't be the first time that Hasbro have allowed the toys to take precidence of what happens in the show; Gen 1 took awhile to get an official main cast, and wasted the potential of several one episode ponies because they didn't know wether it would help the toys or not to focus on just some ponies (ironically some toys were still never used), and Gen3 suddenly dropped most of it's ponies making it into the far more limited Gen3.5 (Gen3 itself was actually pretty heart warming and story driven - not as much as FIM, but it had a lot of potential).

During season 1 and 2, although most of the toys looked wrong at first (the pink Celestia was just a laps in judgement) the majority of it was more influanced by what the show was doing, and even went through some compromises for the fandom. Ironically, I find the Gen1 toys to be the most well made (and regret not buying them as a kid) simply because they looked more like the show ponies, and came with a story - I understand a toy being made into a character, but thats really all it should influance, and it would look less like they're trying to sell toys. It's hard to explain to be honest.

Last season we had much the same thing with the wedding and Twilight suddenly getting a brother she'd never mentioned before out of nowhere and there was quite a big fuss back then too with it being clearly a thing directed by Hasbro to create wedding sets and wedding dress up ponies etc. In the end? It was a great episode! And it introduced some fun characters.

That's what people thought? Wow... I don't understand why, seeing as the episode was planned since season one, and based on an idea Lauren had when she was younger (like most of the season 1 episodes were). There were some bad-ish decisions on Hasbro's part such as retconing Cadance to being an alicorn, when she was scripted to be a unicorn (they clearly did it because they assumed royalty and alicorns were supposed to be synomninous, when I can actually provide back up that they are not, and an alicorn was just supposed to be another form of pony)

I agree about the brother thing, I don't know if that was Hasbro or DHX, but I always assumed it was an excuse to give Twilight and friends a reason to actually go to the wedding. If that's the case, I really wish they'd have thought of that earlier, so they could have... I dunno, just name dropped the two ponies in season 2 - so there was more of a build up the the finale. Seeing as it actually felt like a finale (and was an awesome episode) and The Best Night Ever, while still being entertaining didn't feel like a finale, yet it was hinted towards throughout the season - even having two episodes of them preparing for the event.

I don't agree with the change but I have faith that DHX are still given enough creative freedom pull it off once again and make good with the story they've been told to create, even if they and we tend to disagree with it. I have faith that it'll be good still.

Neither do I, simply because it's obvious from past episodes an (SPOILER)alicorn isn't something a pony becomes and the like. I'm sure they can somehow make it work though - as they have promised it won't change her personality (and there's no reason to believe that it would).

However I can admit to getting a little bit concerned at how much meddling Hasbro is doing against DHX's advice (allegedly and according to anonymous claimed-to-be-an-insider). I'm well aware that it's due to wanting to sell {redacted} Twilight, but it's getting worrisome.
But to be fair to them, that's the ultimate purpose of the show. I notice that a lot of the more bitter parts of the fanbase are shouting about "Hasbro just wants to sell more toys " - well, yes, yes they do. This is not evil, they don't exist solely to create a great show for you to pirate on youtube, of course they're in it to sell toys.

It is a concern how it's happening though. I think the toys should be influenced by the story, not the other way around.

Yeah, I'm kind of in the same state of mind, the sad thing is (even though the toys came first) Hasbro have always been stronger when they let what's happening in the show influance the toys (or just let the toys do their own their own thing on occasion) and it's been true for every generation (though I don't mind the occasional toy inspiring the show - seeing as some toys clearly should have been in the show, based on their storylines, but never were). However, I won't get annoyed if they do go completly the otherway, as I like I say I will have the memory of being a fan, and will remain a fan if the worst possible thing happens, and the show ends up losing everything it had (I don't see that happening too soon though, I admit that S3 lost something without Lauren's input, but even the most flawed episode was still within the basic charm of the show - there's just a little more OOC stuff at first than there would have been I think.
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Not sure if you've heard the new big rumour. It's looking quite likely (but not yet confirmed or denied, so take with a pinch of salt if you wish) that in the spring we'll be seeing a spinoff show called "Equestria Girls" that sees the mane 6 sent on a mission to a human world where they take on a human form.
Equestria Daily: MLP Spinoff Series? (Rumor)

I would assume it's fanmade - I have seen (but not watched) much more better animated and drawn human-ponies episodes on YouTube - this doesn't even look as good as the style of the show itself (FIM: I mean), but even if it is real it will ultimately not affect the show in any way. Although, I kind of wish that they would give it another name. It shares it's name with a comerical that I really liked (I suddenly loved the song it was based on a lot more because of it), and if this show does turn out to be real, and is hated - I feel that a lot of people will take it out in the comercial (I may just be reading too much into it though).

BUT. I have gotten the impression recently that Hasbro are itching to get humans involved in some way, and I'm far happier with the idea of them creating a spinoff series that we can cheerfully ignore, than putting humans in Equestria. It's not really a misanthropic thing for me, I just don't think they belong there AT ALL and I'm more than happy for Hasbro's thirst for human dolls to be quarantined to a spinoff

If that's the case, I'm okay with a spin off for that reason. I remember the writers saying they'd never put them in the show, as it would be too much of a sudden change and there would be no way to justify it. I'm perfectly okay with bronies creating fanfictions with humans though (though I have never read any*). I understand the notion of humans (appearing side by side with the ponies) potentially working from a story perspective, and Gen 1 kind of proves it can sort of work.

However, the reason it worked in G1 is because the idea of humans was planted from the start - and they worked up until a point. I think that they wanted to establish a bond between their viewers and the ponies (if those humans can be friends with them, then maybe we could one day? - that sort of view), but dropped the idea and focused on ponies. I think it worked for the time being though - I know one of the humans was based on a toy, but since she was older in the show, maybe they only partly based her on the toy?)

*I don't know if I'll ever read a Humans in Equestria fanfiction, but ironically my favorite fanfiction is basically the reverse of it (one of the ponies is sent to our world) it's probably hated, but I love it.