Anyone Else Kind Of Iffy About Continuing To Watch FIM?

[RoseNoire]

I like FiM, even more the late seasons. I have watched every episodes so far as well as the S8 leaks. I'm not sure I am some sort of hardcore fan, but I find enjoyment watching the show, watching the characters interact with each other in a funny or clever-ish way. I'm always up for a good laugh. FiM makes me happy and give me some cuteness, that's all I need. 

[Sawkinator]

Yeah, the fandom and its reputation was the biggest reason for me to stop watching. I think it was early-mid season 4? It was getting harder to avoid the nastier parts and impossible to not be associated with those parts just by being a fan, regardless of how you actually behaved.

Honestly I think season 2 was the best of what I saw. Season 3 was somewhat disappointing because it was only 13 episodes (thanks to Equestria Girls, which I've never been interested in), and I feel like the writing and story became less... coherent? Like it was trying to be a deeper story (like, say, Steven Universe or The Last Airbender) but it just wasn't coming together. So many plot devices and awkward pacing and weak character motivations...

I definitely feel like FiM suffered in quality from Lauren Faust leaving, considering her experience and the fact that she created the show.

Even so, I am kind of interested in seeing the movie at some point. What I've seen of the animation is amazing and you just Do Not see 2D animation in theaters anymore. 

[Baby Sugarberry]

I don't remember where I sort of gave up on the show, but it was several seasons ago. 
There's only so much Cutie Mark Crusaders and 'let's redeem all the adversaries' I can stomach and the Mane 6 have gotten so pigeon-holed it's not even funny anymore. The show should have ended years ago, rather than being run into the ground like this.

[Minty_Magic]

I still enjoy watching the show even though I'm kind of critical of it. Basically I'll watch anything MLP, I'm always happy to see colorful talking ponies no matter whats going on plot wise!
I really love Starlight Glimmer and her gaggle of friends, they're a big part of why I still find the show fun! I loved the mane 6, but honestly I feel like they've pretty much completed all their little character arcs and are really starting to either stagnate or even maybe decline in their characterization. It's gotten better over time, but I'll always prefer simple one shot slice of life type episodes. I was really bugged by all the magic duels and battles that got thrown into some of the mid seasons. I also started losing interest around season 4 or so due to the brony fandom being so embarrassing.
With possibly not much longer left though, I plan on watching the show until its end. It's been a fun ride for the past few years and I'm really grateful to have had a fun, simple cartoon to come home and watch after stressful days at school and work.

[Jocelyn]

I became spotty in my watching around season six, and I barely watched season 7. The other day I was looking for something to watch and put on the episodes where Applejack's a fashion judge and tge one about the princesses. It was hard to watch because everyone has gotten so sarcastic, sassy and nasty sounding. Or just very overexaggerated. It's kinda painful to see.

[Harmonie]

I'm still watching it, but not with the enthusiasm I was back in 2011 - 2013 or so. I did not keep up with the most recent season at all, and ended up marathoning most of it when I got home for break. I can say a lot of the episodes don't really work for me anymore. In the early seasons I related with Pinkie Pie so well, but then you get to an episode like "Secrets and Pies" and she just feels like nothing more than a ridiculous cartoon character now, with no relatability.

I plan to watch this show to the end, even though it's not anything amazing anymore.

[Taffeta]

Half the time I think part of what killed the show for me is some of the fan base, not everyone in the fan base but some lol

This is actually a big reason as to why people stop watching. I see a lot of people who have had the show soured due to bigoted or rabid fans, it's sad that such a community has risen out of a show about friendship and understanding.
If it's not the core reason, it only motivates people tired with the repetitiveness of the show to drop it.

I was actually put off having anything to do with FIM at all in the first place by that kind of thing, which is sad and totally against the message of the show.

It took about 2 years before I watched any FIM. I got about halfway through the first season but I wasn't connecting with the characters or the storylines, so I stopped. In my opinion if people are enjoying it, then brilliant, if not, then it's a waste of time to watch for the sake of it. All that might do is spoil the things you loved about it by making them go in a direction you don't like.

In the end, everything has good and bad points. I still really like the Equestria Girls episodes, but even though I occasionally see FIM on TinyPop in the morning, I still can't get into it so haven't bothered with the movie.

So yeah. Halfway through season 1 was my limit. On the positive, it made me appreciate G1 animation more (which I had more or less rejected for years), so maybe the moral of the story is that the later FIM series' value might only become clear when it has been replaced by something else...

[Al-1701]

Yeah.  I was watching some Tales episodes, and one of them was "Sweetheart's Birthday" where the solution was Lancer locking Bright Eyes, Melody, Patch, and Clover in the same with Teddy and essentially saying "You don't need to like each other, but you need to at least get along with each other for Sweetheart's sake."  When it was over, I thought to myself "We'd never get that kind of nuance from Friendship is Magic.  No one is ever allowed to be friends with anyone who isn't pro-Mane 6 and those that aren't converted must be ridden out of town on a rail."

And I also appreciate the original series even more.  It might be a cheap cartoon from the mid-80's but you get the sense they were at least trying to make the characters and stories compelling.

[Kiwi]

We still enjoy the show and will keep watching. But I've been feeling "meh" lately about the toys and merch. So I'll enjoy the parts I do enjoy, and move on from the parts I don't.

[Koudoawaia]

I'm not the least bit iffy about it. I still really love it^^

[prancingstag]

I attempted to continue watching for a while but checked out long ago. I liked it up until Twilight became an alicorn. I was naiively excited for some kind of development and progress amongst the cast, and was disappointed with the ensuing season where they seemed to do much of nothing. I think that was 2014's rainbow power? I'm pretty sure I struggled through the status quo episodes and saw the finale with the rainbow tree castle. Then maybe a little of the next season, hoping now they would develop and grow and change... I saw Starlight Glimmer get revealed as a villain and then mysteriously run away, I was so underwhelmed and disappointed that it was still on laugh-a-day villain-of-the-day stereotypical episodes that I stopped tuning in.

I still love the basic premise and the characters, but the constant building and teasing of something greater being developed only to be completely reset next time on FiM was really discouraging. Also the fact that every villain either disappeared completely, or if they returned had to be stripped down and remade into a friend rather than an antagonist. Like you can't exist if you oppose the majority... there are cartoons for kids under 10 that have nuanced plotlines and character developing arcs, I'd rather watch something exciting and new-new than the sameold-newep that FiM was delivering to me.

[Crystal-Sushi]

I didn't even make it through Season One, it just didn't gel with me story and character-wise and I really couldn't stand the animation style - it's just too 'cookie-cutter flash' for me, one of my biggest pet peeves

[Taffeta]

Yeah.  I was watching some Tales episodes, and one of them was "Sweetheart's Birthday" where the solution was Lancer locking Bright Eyes, Melody, Patch, and Clover in the same with Teddy and essentially saying "You don't need to like each other, but you need to at least get along with each other for Sweetheart's sake."  When it was over, I thought to myself "We'd never get that kind of nuance from Friendship is Magic.  No one is ever allowed to be friends with anyone who isn't pro-Mane 6 and those that aren't converted must be ridden out of town on a rail."

Also the fact that every villain either disappeared completely, or if they returned had to be stripped down and remade into a friend rather than an antagonist. Like you can't exist if you oppose the majority...

These two comments sum it up really nicely for me. Being friends is awesome, but be friends or else is not so great. There needs more of an element of mutual dislike but respect for difference in these concepts as well.

I think that the more unpleasant bronies are acting on the message that if you don't agree with us, you're wrong. I don't think that's the message FIM is intending to convey, but the fact that all the villains become brainwashed to the mane 6 if they are going to stay around does basically amount to that.

But this is not a problem unique to FIM. It's a general practice now to push ideas on kids without considering the balance. Telling kids to be friends with everyone is naive - the way the madder bronies react to people who disagree with their interpretation kind of proves that that way of thinking is dangerous.

I don't think the same problem exists in the same way in the Equestria Girls series. I think the rival school helps this. They don't really like each other that much at times, and they don't really like the Canterlot girls either, but there are times they work together. Yes, there's a sense of them ultimately becoming sort of friends with the Canterlot students, but it's not entirely there. Then you have DJ Pon3 who kind of doesn't gel in with any 'crowds' but appears when she's needed to help save the day in Rainbow Rocks. The relationships between the characters are much more nuanced. Yes, friendship is still on the menu, but it seems more fleshed out. I understand the potential target age may be different, but to me that makes it more important to make the definition between making friends and treating with respect at the younger level.

It isn't that hard. I remember from when I was a kid that shows aimed at young kids, like Thomas the tank Engine, spent most of the 1980s telling the stories of characters who didn't always get along, but could still work together and keep their unique personalities without having to become something they weren't. It isn't as though kids are 'too young' to get the difference.

I had forgotten that scene happened in Sweetheart's Birthday. I think MLP was generally good at not making relationships immediately brilliant. I mean, Gusty and Buttons are bullying Wind Whistler in Crunch the rock Dog, and she ultimately uses that to save all of them - but the message at the end is that just because you think someone is a certain way, it doesn't mean they are. And that you can be on the same side without necessarily being best friends.

[Zapper]

The show didn't create the rabid fans, the rabid fans attached their identities and egos onto the show because apparently it's impossible to like (or dislike) a kids product without justifying it to hell and back , which can happen to any piece of entertainment but when it's about kids cartoons it becomes extra weird because we are not the target audience.

I even saw it a lot in the FiM critics corner we used to have here. With people honest to goodness seeing dangerous or insidious messages in an episode just because they interpret it that way (or wanted to find something horrible in it so they could concern troll us casuals ).

Fan ist short for fanatic. Fanatism takes many forms and is not always based on the subject that is being fanboyed/fangirled.
Good shows can have horrible fans and antis. Bad shows can have horrible fans and antis. And they often come up with their own version of what the show means to them. Like a Brony who goes nuts and says Starlight is a communist or an anti who goes nuts and says the show teaches sexual harassment because something something Discord and Fluttershy's brother.

I'm sure none of the pro or anti fanatics will enjoy G5 because it is not possible to be the vision many have created of what MLP should be like. So new pros and antis will arise. MLP is a highly divisive toy and always will be, I fear

I've been feeling "meh" lately about the toys and merch. So I'll enjoy the parts I do enjoy, and move on from the parts I don't.

Sounds like a good plan. I did like the movie for its cuteness, songs and animation. But it didn't make me get anything because the new toy style is freaky to me.

@ topic: I do enjoy about half of the episodes each season. It has always been that way for me, I was never a ride or die FiM fan but also never a big critic. What irked me most was the pandering to adults and Bronies that could go way out of hand, imo. You will see me complain about Slenderpony or the Muffin pony drama  until the end of my fan time.

Some recs for people who like girly cartoons about friendship: Steven Universe, Star vs The Forces of Evil, Lego Elves. Just don't go into their fandoms Elena of Avalor.
For the people who enjoy kiddy shows and cuteness: Puffin Rock, Shimmer and Shine, Sofia the First, Hanazuki.
For the people who like sentient horses: Spirit Riding Free. Or wait two years for G5

[Al-1701]

I remember one of the brony "analysts" commenting about how Tales was the anti-Friendship is Magic.  This was of course meant as a negative since anything not from the ground smote by the almighty Faust is unholy and unclean.

Season 4 is definitely where the wheels came off and I stopped watching repeats.  The show had gotten extremely pretentious with the Rainbow Power arc which just the same episode done five times with the circumstances changed a little to fit the pony.  Twilight was pathetic as a princess and looked to be promoted to the level of her incompetence (and still does by the end of Season 7 as she still takes orders from a piece of furniture).

"Trade Ya" and "The Equestria Games" almost broke the series for me.  I sat there thinking of Twilight's punt on Rainbow Dash trading away Fluttershy and how if you put Wind Whistler, Bright Eyes, or Kimono in that situation (or even less intellectually inclined ponies from previous generations), they would have had no qualms voiding the trade on the moral ground that you can't trade away another pony.  Why is she a princess if she can't even make that basic of a decision?  Then "Equestria Games" shows us the population of Equestria are literally too stupid to live as they disable their most reliable resource to deal with an emergency at a public event because they want to stop cheating.  Yeah, as far as the population of Equestria is concerned, cheating is a pressing issue than public safety.  All because we needed Spike to save the day, and the walking fax machine couldn't do that unless the ponies eliminated any possible way for them to do it themselves.  By the time "Twilight's Kingdom" rolled around, I was like "You know what, let Tirac (or Tirek or however you feel like spelling it) eat them."