Unpopular opinion time

@Background Pony #F622
It never went away. This fandom will always be stuck in the past.

@Background Pony #F622
Hate’s a strong word, I don’t think people hate her; blame the writers for giving her little character development and seemingly doing nothing when shit goes down.

I was never mad on her character, always reminded me of a primary school teacher I had, too much of a “I’m wiser than everyone” authority figure I guess. It’s great when she shows her “trollestia” side though.

I feel like Inspiration Manifestation was proof positive that the show was going out of its way to neglect Celestia. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: it should not have taken 7+ seasons to give Celestia a single focus episode

Starlight hate, Celestia hate, and G5 hate are still as prevalent in the fandom as it did in the past. We’ll always be stuck in season 1 where we still believe alicorn Twilight is the spawn of Satan and Lauren Faust is the only one allowed to direct the show. Nothing ever changes.

I think most fans would agree with that.

@Just Wayne
Faust is the saviour we need to redeem the show, if she directs G6 perhaps it’d be worth watching.

@kleptomage
Agreed

@Just Wayne
Seasonwunners are a real problem in this fandom. All the love goes to Season 1-3 ponies, plus a few major others like Maud and Cozy. There’s, what, one background pony post Season 2 who gets any attention. And then there’s Spur… I guess One Bad Apple spoils the bunch, huh?

@midob
To be fair, Lauren Faust saving G4 makes some sense because she was a fan of G1 as a young girl, and she knows what girls want, or at least what girls like her want.

@kleptomage
Not really unpopular at all.

@ЅℰℒᎯℙℋℐℰℒ
Technically speaking slightly less.

Fim started in 2010, G5 started in 2021.

@Andyxdr
https://mlpforums.com/topic/200832-tell-your-tale-will-continue-into-2025/
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2023/09/tell-your-tale-will-continue-into-2025.html?m=1

@ЅℰℒᎯℙℋℐℰℒ
Apparently, when they have huge lack of related toys, no advertisement and playing it too safe with TYT shorts. They hit their target audience but now have their target audience are starting to care less.

@Cosmas-the-Explorer
Neutral on that. I’m very happy with the world it built but g5? It had many ideas but they squandered it all away due to many problems sometimes outside of their control. By that, I meant their alleged loss of their own g4 IP and not managing to hit a general audience, be it due to their poor planning from the get go or that the original audience simply refuses to consoom it

@midob
Maybe it’s because they don’t know how to write characters that basically is a god or Superman. When they can do anything, what suspense, plot and action is there? Superman literally has a green rock as a sole weakness, remove that and well yeah, he would be boring. Hell, magic by itself is a godly power, their weakness? Anti-magic!

@Kiryu-Chan
And when they did, it’s a kick to the nuts because of my above reason.

@Just Wayne
Those groups are probably 1% or below on this fandom. They’re there but not prevalent.

@Wiimeiser
PPG proved Girls can be and want to be badass.

@midob
Yes, thank you.

Glad I stopped caring.

@midob
Ironic then that the show jumped in quality when Faust left

Superman’s interesting because he’s an alien and yet he’s more idealistic and human than most other humans in the world. But also kryptonite too.

@Jonny Manz
Also ironic how the peak in MLP’s popularity was during the McCarthy era, not the Faust era like many believe.

Yeah, the fandom may have kicked off during the Faust era, but FiM and G4 toys hit their peak in popularity in 2014.

@TheQuietMan
Okay. Thanks.

@Wiimeiser
The whole “background ponies getting tons of fanon” thing was mostly a product of its time. The fandom was still fairly centralized, and the average fan had a lot more free time to comb through the episodes looking for things. And there was the power of confirmation bias. If a random background character did something notable one time, fans were more likely to look for that character, which lead to them noticing other notable things they did. It was a feedback loop.

But the character has to actually deliver. There was a time when Carrot Top was as popular as The Background Six, but she fell out of popularity. There was also a brief period where Berry Punch was “Overprotective Parent Pony”. But they just didn’t give the fandom enough to work with.

Also, the more characters you have, the harder it becomes for a new background pony to stand out. Back in the day, you only had 25 to keep track of, but the number kept growing.

Of course, some background ponies are just destined for popularity:

@Jonny Manz
I’ve been looking for an excuse to say this for awhile now, but I’ve revisited the first four seasons, and of those, I still think Season One is the best. Not because it’s a flawless masterpiece, but because the quality is consistent, while the quality in the other seasons is more of a gamble.

@DerpyFast
That’s typically Hasbro for you. You have no idea how many characters exist in each of their franchises. It’s about 3-4 digits.

@DerpyFast
Season 1 has always been my least favorite “classic season” (that would be Seasons 1-5, before what many agree to be the downhill point that is Season 6) because I’ve always found the world of MLP that has evolved more to be far more interesting. I have never once cared about “what could have happened” with the world and characters in the earlier seasons. There’s no doubt in my mind that opinion of mine is unpopular.

I don’t actually believe anyone actually loves this show. That background pony was right. MLP is a fluke. A fandom was only formed around it because we want to sex the ponies.

@Just Wayne
All fandom starts with being a fan of something, AKA loving something. MLP has plenty of fans who have no interest in doing cartoon characters and pony porn, especially with it being popular in Eastern parts of the world that have different cultures than many developed Western parts of the world and are far more restrictive than places like the US when it comes to porn, where in the world are you getting this from?

@Just Wayne
Men can only enjoy a show if they envision themselves fucking the characters. You’re deluded if you genuinely believe that.

He probably watched too much off brand stuff. I actually dislike them more than wholesome stuff.

@Wiimeiser
A young girl, yes, but on the upper end of the G4 target audience age. I wonder if that influenced how she related to it.

@DerpyFast
Seconded. It’s one of my top seasons (along with Seven and the first half of Five).

@Just Wayne
Please stop spiralling.

Alright alright, I’m done. I’m just tired, about everything I guess. I should unsubscribe from this thread soon. Time to really leave this franchise behind. Sorry.

@Just Wayne
No need to apologize, you’re a really cool guy