Friday 14 October 2016

Mini-essay: Decline, not Fall

"We will never fade," runs the line in “Join the Herd” – but it's wrong. We will. We are.

People may object and argue and say it ain't so, but the evidence is mostly against them. Compared with the boom times, there's less of nearly everything: music, stories, animation. Even Bronycon's attendance fell this year.

There's the 2017 movie, and we now know that S7 will happen, and the EqG specials too – but after that? Does anyone truly imagine we'll get many more seasons of FiM? I doubt it. We're well into the twilight time (sorry) of this show now.

That may sound rather depressing, so here's something more optimistic:

Our fandom won't die.

Not next year, not in five years, not ever.

Why?

Consider this. There is still a G1 fandom out there. No, it's not huge, but it's still active after more than 30 years. Those G1 fans didn't abandon the MLP they loved when Hasbro moved on.

We can learn from them. There's nothing forcing us to abandon the MLP we love once G4 ends.

It's the previous line of the song that matters:

"Do not be afraid."

Fading – but not to black.

6 comments:

  1. Even when the show ends, I'm pretty sure that the comic series will still be going.

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    1. I dunno... its sales have been falling steadily for ages. Now around 13k for the main series and 11k for FF. That's still well above danger level (which for IDW is about 7k, I think) but I'm not sure they'll still be going in four or five years' time.

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  2. I dunno... if it's anything like the Simpsons and it keeps being profitable to make it we could still be here for Series 17 in a decade's time.

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    1. Well yeah, in the end it comes down to whether people buy toys. I just wonder how long that's going to last. I actually hope it doesn't do a Simpsons -- while I don't think FiM is stale yet, I don't want it to go on so long that it becomes so. Refreshing and reinventing with new generations (and half-generations) is part of why MLP has lasted so long in the first place.

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  3. I just joined the fandom in 2015, i am not ready to see it ended. :C

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  4. I just joined the fandom in 2015, i am not ready to see it ended. :C

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