how much did it actually hurt the fandom - /mlp/

Anonymous10/19/26, 03:58No.43634765

How much did it actually hurt the fandom?

Replies

Anon10/19/26, 04:05No.43634809

It didn't hurt the fandom. It hurt the larpers.

Anon10/19/26, 04:10No.43634836

I think realistically the episode itself wasn't too harmful, it was Equestria Girls and waiting 9 months for new episodes that started to really make a mess of things. The show didn't get to a 'six months on, six months off' schedule until after season five and by then the damage was done.

Anon10/19/26, 04:38No.43635026

I love those wings so fucking much bros it's unreal...I think Twilight might be like, the perfect mare. Seriously, she's like pony Jesus.

Anon10/19/26, 16:42No.43638125

I genuinely cried in anguish and dropped the show after. I was 13 years old. I'm still fucking livid all these years later. It also looked like Twilight had absolutely no choice in the matter and the massive responsibility of now being an immortal being who would eventually ascend the throne was put upon her without her consent. This episode is horrendous and I fucking hate it for ruining my favourite character. I headcanoned that Twilight graduates Celestia's friendship crap and later ends up just simply becoming her top teacher at the School for Gifted Unicorns. Twilight becoming and Alicorn was the single worst thing to ever happen to this series. I will never forgive the writers for this.

Anon10/19/26, 17:55No.43638517

Yes

Anon10/19/26, 18:17No.43638632

Aside from a bunch of complaning and arguing, it didn't. What hurt the fandom was the passage of time with people growing older. Even as someone who generally agrees that S6+ onwards are not as good as what came before, I don't think the drop-off of interest in that time period is up to a specific quality drop. It's simply that MLP became a fad in late 2010 and stopped being a fad in late 2015 when the internet changed, more normies and children unfamiliar with prior internet culture (of which bronies were a huge part of) flooded in, and MLP largely lost its cultural relevance.

Anon10/19/26, 18:20No.43638650

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2011-08-01%202017-07-01&q=%2Fm%2F0czdsgs,my%20little%20pony,mlpMLP's peak popularity was Season 4 and the first half of Season 5. It started declining second half of Season 5 and took a huge nosedive after the season. What "objectively" killed the show according to popularity metrics was not Twilicorn, if it was then the Season 4/5 popularity would not have been so high after large hiatuses that were post-Twilicorn. And from memory those two seasons were the height of the fandom's reviews/analysis scene even if the creative scene was admittedly lower. You can make the argument that Twilicorn/EQG stopped the fandom growth (I am not personally convinced on this arguement due to how growth naturally levels off with the show being fully exposed in online culture at that point, but it is certainly possible), but it absolutely did not cause an outright decline.Honestly, I found it really cool when I saw this google trends since it matches so well with my opinions of the show, since I thought the show was great for Seasons 1-4, declined a little in 5 but stayed good, then declined a lot afterwards. Apparently dropping the show after Season 5 was not uncommon. Anyways, here is why Season 4 was the best season:Season 4: >Featured by far the most amount of songs of any season of the show, and the songs are consistently great and varied.>Took risks and was very creative with really fun and varied concepts for episodes.>Very solid mix of episodes for each of the mane six, plus Spike & the CMC. Every character got great development in at least one episode. All of the characters got great episodes to shine in without exception. (especially impressive is that this season managed to have both two great Spike episodes (Inspiration Manifestation, Equestria Games), and two great CMC episodes (Flight to the Finish, Twilight Time), even though both of those episode types tended to be meh in seasons 1-3.>Has a more action packed and mature tone, while at the same time not sacrificing any of the characterization and fun that makes the show great (unlike the later seasons).>The episode quality and consistency is easily the best of any season. Outside of a couple bad episodes and like 3 meh ones, basically everything else was flat out great.>Twilight was just as nerdy and likeable as before, and her treehouse was still there. She also got great development in the premiere and finale that undid the issues with the rushed Season 3 finale. (Both episodes clearly established how Twilight was not actually very happy with her role as princess, and it took the whole season for her to find her place.) None of the issues with Twilight's character were actually noticeable until Season 5. (1/2)

Anon10/19/26, 18:27No.43638688

>how much Irreparably

Anon10/19/26, 18:40No.43638755

Everything that came after it hurt the Fandom. It was like a malaria mosquito bite. Kinda annoying when it first happens but in time turns into shit.

Anon10/19/26, 18:51No.43638803

made most of the brony audience leave tbf

Anon10/19/26, 18:52No.43638810

A lot. And they had it coming. Bronies are hideous.

Anon10/20/26, 07:33No.43640692

Not by much. Unironically EGQ and Starlight did more damage than a fancy pair of wings ever did.

Anon10/20/26, 08:32No.43640795

The fandom? Besides going crazy, it didn't hurt it that much, FiM was going to hit its peak regardless during that time thx to the previous season & trends. Now for the writing, yes it did.

Anon10/20/26, 20:29No.43642993

i don't think it was exactly because of this but that was about when i stopped watching, don't think i ever got around to watching equestria girls or whatever still really like art of the dress tho

Anon10/20/26, 20:53No.43643145

What really hurt the fandom was the lack of a Rarity episode in S3,

Anon10/20/26, 23:05No.43643682

A decent amount, but the people who really cared were already hardcore fans. It was one of the big reasons I fell off of the show, felt very alienated by it and then the changing quality and "atmosphere" of the show and Equestria in it made me kind of just slowly drift away. I was trying to relive the S1/S2 glory days with it but simply wasn't getting that.A lot of people who were OG bronies back in 2012 that I ran into backed away from the show due to writing quality changes in S3 more than just Twilicorn. The general phrasing I see is "It stopped being amazing and just became another good cartoon" more or less, and that kind of made them feel like it wasn't really worth sticking around. Twilicorn still alienated a shitload of people though, especially when they started doing more and more of a focus on her in the coming seasons. I feel like it was less damaging than the people who claim it destroyed everything say, but also more damaging than the people who claim it didn't do that much say.

Anon10/21/26, 23:37No.43644248

43640692 Twilight's wings were 100% a thing of speculation and for autists like me an issue with continuity in eegards to a princess sometimes getting shoved out of a cab while at other times getting regaled by every single pony in the area. That constant rubber-banding of continuity just got worse as seasons went on and they tried to 'explain' more things in the show. One of the greatest assets to the popularity with autists beyond the color and cartoon stuff was that the world had a bunch of small bits about how it worked without needing to overexplain like they did in that mane episode in s7 or 8. On the other side of the coin I could spend hours talking with multiple people and all of us come up with a different solution to how magic plays with the fabrics of realities with the mirror pool spell in Too Many Pinkie Pies. They laid the groundwork for fans to talk about the spell, left it open to interperation for people to get as autistic as they like, and that was the fun of it. Past that, as a guy who joined up in early 2011 in my early college years because Suited for Success was just that good of an episode, the real death knell for me was Glimmer's redemption. The idea of a manipulative sociopath who's constantly showing she just doesn't give a damn about what sort of inflicted pain she brings on others as long as it futhers her goals reqlly rubbed me the wrong way. Her excuse was flimsy at best and she spent 80% of the time in S6 and S7 being a complete faggot to everyone who welcomed her. Sometimes there really are people you just can't be friends with because thier inner core is so hardcoded they won't ever change, and I think trying to teach the lesson of 'fixing a sociopath with friendship' is a fucking terrible idea for anyone outside of professional psychs.

Anon10/22/26, 02:02No.43644597

NOT ENOUGH!!!

Anon10/22/26, 03:27No.43644775

I think that the wings are stupid!

Anon10/22/26, 06:15No.43645015

The real damage was done by that hotpink slut. Twiggies wings were just the cherry on top of the shit sundae that was smeared onto our face. "Everything's gonna be just fine!" They fucking knew what they did, though show staff probably had no say in the executive meddling. The aggression how all unicorn twi merch was wiped off from the face of the earth tells its own tale.

Anon10/22/26, 09:30No.43645269

Having extra limbs to grab whilst I'm plapping her from behind is a good thing.

Anon10/22/26, 15:42No.43645764

uuuu

Anon10/22/26, 20:06No.43646402

Maybe this is a hot take, but for me it wasn't the wings themselves, I thought it was a bit sad to see happen, because even nimwits pretty quickly realized this now means twilight will outllive every friend she ever makes as the paradoxical princess of friendship, she was destined to always watch her friends grow old and leave.No, what really actually got my hooves all bunched up was the GIANT LITERAL MIDDLE FINGER from Hasjew AFTER THEY BLEW UP TWILIGHTS HOME

Anon10/22/26, 20:16No.43646437

I don't think any of the wings/castle stuff was bad in itself. I just wish the effects of it had been applied more consistently through the rest of the show. Even that really isn't a huge deal: the whole "schrodinger's princess" thing is slightly annoying but far from the biggest writing issue in season 6-9.

Anon10/22/26, 20:45No.43646563

How much did it actually hurt the fandom?

Anon10/22/26, 20:46No.43646568

>First she gets wings >Next season she loses her beautiful tree house It was like a punch after punch to the balls. I'm not still sure which hurt me more. Her tree house was also so fucking comfy and beautiful and actually fits Ponyville unlike the ugly fucking castle.

Anon10/23/26, 03:26No.43647482

I dropped the show before this happened o the show was already bad before this happened. I wouldnt know about the fandom since the only pony stuff I saw after that point was all clop until this year

Anon10/23/26, 04:42No.43647563

Hard schism. Half the creators high on pone fucked off that day, and the stark decline in output over the next couple years was very noticeable. The dream was broken, all that remained were Mad Max bandits in the wastelands fighting over the remaining drops of gas.

Anon10/23/26, 06:49No.43647705

Too little.

Anon10/25/26, 03:41No.43653480

The fandom both peaked and died with Twilicorn.