Now I think about it, maybe the Rick and Morty Fandom are that current big fandom, but unfortunately, for the wrong reasons. Kind of like how MLP was big but somewhat on the smaller side, until between Seasons 1 and 2 when the fandom just exploded and took over everything.

RNM has been vocal, but it wasn't until last year's April Fools prank of airing the new episode early that suddenly the fandom went completely mainstream, followed by the fandom attracting all of the wrong attention.

—flashbacks to szechuan sauce meltdowns—

They're probably as close to the bronies as anyone in terms of explosive popularity and prevalence, especially considering the copy-pastas that have been going around the last couple of years, but still markedly different.

edited 8th May '18 6:58:48 AM by Rytex

Post of the Day #2145

Wonder what that comment was about. What fanon idea did that poster hate and not want in the show?

And then Stranger Than Fan Fiction happened and it was hilarious.

I'm still so happy that the episode did not end with Quibble Pants changing his mind about Daring Do after learning the truth of her existence. He's like, "Okay, these books are autobiographical; that does not change my opinion that the quality of storytelling has declined!"

A lot of shows would have had him come around and agree with Rainbow Dash after being objectively proven wrong, but that's missing the point of taste. People like what they're going to like. You can try to disprove their reasons for disliking something, but what you can't disprove is the negative emotional reaction that the story inspired in them.

You might, in the best case scenario, get a person to concede that they're being unfair to a piece of art that they hate. But that's not going to make them like it, because ultimately those emotions don't come from the reasons; the reasons are an attempt to put words to the emotions.

Stranger Than Fan Fiction got that, and that made me so happy. It's no secret that I don't like the Daring Do episodes, but if I had to pick one, I'd say that one's probably my favorite of the lot.

This talk of internet culture and bronydom reminds me of how I wrote an essay for a high school social studies course where I tried to connect bronies to wider trends in Millennial culture.

I still think it's possible that there just hasn't been anything that came along recently with the right mix of ingredients and conditions for memetic popularity.

Obviously, nothing will be able to take off in the specific way that FIM did, since it broke the girl show taboo, but there can always be new fandoms that arise in different ways.

edited 8th May '18 8:10:20 AM by storyyeller

I stumbled on a Syfy Fandom Files podcast with Andy Price, and he argues that the brony fandom, while declining in activity, is still very much in what we would equate as a Fandom Life Cycle Stage 5 existence, talking about how despite fandom creativity going down, the con scene is still huge it is still largely in the public eye, and the MLP comics are still IDW's #1 highest-selling comic for several years running. This was as recent as March 8th 2018, so it's not like it's from the fandom early days, too.

It's found here.

Where would you guys say we are? I made the edit that currently stands on the Trivia page for the show, where I list arguments for Stage 4 (Large and Organized), Stage 5 (sufficiently ingrained in pop culture), Stage 6A (Cooldown) and Stage 6B (Oblivion). And how much of a chance do you give the Gen 5 reboot of giving the fandom new life? It will never reach that 2011-2013 heyday, but maybe get brought back up to the quieter 2015 levels, possibly?

I'd probably say in cooldown right now. It's popular, but the only time it was near stage 6 was a few years ago, at the height of it's popularity. What the next gen does is probably going to determine where it goes next.

We know no show's popularity lasts forever. What will finally end the fandom?

Well for starters we know this show already has a last season, so it feels good knowing this show never really had a horrible episode! We had very unpopular episodes or ones that divided the fanbase like Magical Mystery Cure, The Cutie Remark, and both episodes addressing the older fans. But this show has had an unbelievable streak of success, for a bright childrens show on a non-basic cable network!

edited 8th May '18 1:46:56 PM by kyun

@Japanese

Near Stage 6, or Stage 5?

If Harry Potter and Batman are the standards by which stage 5 is judged, I don't think MLP ever came close, even at the peak.

Is Stage 5, in a sense, a permanently-active fandom? Because if so, then yeah, MLP may have come close to it back in the day, when Colbert made shoutouts (without realizing what bronies were) or when it seemed like there was a news article about us every other week.

It definitely reached Stage 5, even today I see tv shows ribbing on male fans of the show, or at the very least referencing the anomaly that guys liked the show. Everyone knows about the show and that guys liked it.

Like, even if you consider Batman and Harry Potter, how many people actually know even a drop in the bucket everything about them? Same could be said for Star Trek and Star Wars. They're super popular, but the amount of people that actually go at length to understand and watch the show are super small.

edited 8th May '18 6:44:10 PM by EpicBleye

As a crotchety old adult, I'm inherently suspicious of anything that says that the peak of internet culture was whatever I was into in college. It seems more likely to me that I'm just not up on what the hot new thing is.

No, you see, when I say that things were better when I was a teenager, it's totally different than when my parents say it, because everything really has gotten worse!

Did you know that Sonata is Best Dazzling? Because she is.

The theater episode was fun enough. I have to wonder at Celestia casually raising the sun, though, especially after the movie established that yes, it IS a Big Deal, and it won't be messed with for anyone.

The school characters might as well have been cardboard cutouts in that episode, though. Its one thing that they don't get lines, but they don't even show an ounce of personality in their acting. Soon they will become like Starlight, shoehorned into episodes where they don't really get anything of note to do.

This episode would have worked a bit better in an earlier season, what with Twilight forgetting all about the importance of being honest. That's the problem with wanting to have something to learn in every episode in such a long running show, I guess.

I think the issues with Sunburst's mom go way beyond pushing Sunburst to make more plans. Note that the very first thing she tries to do is snip off his beard, and shes constantly combing his hair or adjusting his clothes. This woman has no sense of personal space with her child, and no respect for his sense of modesty either (I know they are ponies who often don't wear clothes, but clearly this is what they are going for with Sunburst, so here we are).

Starlight's dad, meanwhile, is basically Parental Glideance light, wanting to preserve his child's childhood despite her growing up. Is it any wonder she became an edgy teen rebel?

Tune in next week, when two stubborn, competitive ponies (guess who) have to learn to put aside their differences and work together to survive... a field trip.

Post of the Day #2146

Especially @Tobias Drake

So I was thinking about the upcoming "G5 My Little Pony", and I wondered, what network could it be on? Does Hasbro really want to stay on the graveyard that is Discovery Family? It would be interesting to see Disney or Cartoon Network pick it up, or even a streaming site like Netflix (although most of the Netflix kids shows (ie, Buddy Thunderstruck) have little or no merchandise, but they arent based off a toyline in the first place).

Well, I feel like a channel away from their main competitors (Mattel and Disney) would be best. The Hub was a good thing going for them for this show, LPS, Dan Vs., Transformers, etc. Why did it end? I never learned what caused that.

I also had a thought​ about G5 earlier too. Assuming that Hasbro won't scrap the idea entirely after the leak, G5 is going to be CGI instead of Flash Animation. My thought is that CGI tends to be very ridiculously​ expensive, particularly​ for a TV Show. These types of show's tend to not have many background characters because of this, and the few that are around are generally faceless extras or Faceless Mooks. For example, Transformers Prime never really has people around outside of the named human characters and the occasional human Red Shirt or Mook, even in a populated town, to the point that you'd be forgiven for thinking the show takes place in some Post Apocalyptic setting. My point to this is that I doubt G5 will have very many detailed or memorable BG Ponies.

edited 9th May '18 1:14:29 PM by marston

Haha, no, they are not going to cancel a show because of a leak. And definitely not because of an insignificant leak of preliminary ideas.

RWBY has gotten better at using background characters (they used to literally be completely black human-shaped placeholders in Season 1), but episodes are usually a lot shorter and season are usually 12-15 episodes.

But it does suck, because the background ponies were, in a lot of ways, the core of the fandom even more than the Mane 6. Derpy is still the fandom's mascot, and her quirk was literally just a background shot.

I mean, Discovery Family must be very unpopular. I have to watch he eps live on a fan stream because no legit online streaming services carry it.