The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: Mana Minori on June 07, 2020, 06:02:30 PM
-
Every Pony gen has the fans making the staple art of it- fan drawings, fanfiction. But I have to wonder if this expanse from staple fan drawings and fanfic and expansion into other artistic expressions, through PMV, music, fan animations, plushies, crafts, etc. will become the norm for Pony generations going forward- namely g5z How do you guys feel, if it is?
-
definitely a product of technology and the time period!
-
I think I agree with lovesbabysquirmy. The internet has given a platforms to different artforms. A lot of franchises have fan content like music videos and songs. I remember when Harry Potter was at it's peak popularity I'd listen to fan music and watched more than one video of movie clips to Evanescence songs.
-
I thought it was delightful! Though I never had much interest in the music. (But I appreciate the effort that goes into it.)
One of my favorite fan item was a homemade music box (? I think) and when you turned the handle the pony on top of it was jointed so she would move her head or tail. I feel like I saw one with Fluttershy on it and one with Rarity. (Almost typed Glory, oops!)
I also loved "Moonstuck", a homage to Homestuck but with adorable baby Luna stuck on the moon. Very cute and wholesome.
Found the link for it: https://woonastuck.tumblr.com/page/187
-
I agree that this sort of fan content is intrinsic to a fandom in the years of major internet use and technology development. I can't see it going away, perhaps lessening in volume if the generation does not gain as much traction as G4 if anything.
-
Speaking as a millennial (and someone who was initially drawn into ponies by fanmade G4 content and memes), it would very much depend on the show.
FiM was one of the first in a big resurgence of high-quality cartoons alongside shows like Adventure Time and Gravity Falls, which appealed to both kids and those in my age group who grew up in the 90s/early 2000s during the 'Golden Era' of cartoons (and that's not just my nostalgia goggles talking, it actually is called that in animations circles :lol:). I think a lot of fan content was a perfect combination between millennials getting to an age where we had the time, skills and energy to make ambitious content like fanmade episodes and tons of fanart, and the appeal to our childhoods with Golden Age cartoons.
The next gen cartoon (not sure if Pony Life stuff counts as G5?) would probably need to be in the same kind of vein, with a good overarching plot and worldbuilding, decent animation/visuals, good characters, and also be lighthearted enough to offer an escape from everyday life. Although 10 years later and following on the heels of things like Steven Universe, the bar might be higher now than it was when FiM really took off. It would also have to appeal to those who are currently teenagers since they're likely to be a major force for content creation today - but I think their cartoon tastes do overlap with millennials, seeing as they literally grew up with AT and SU.
I think it's plausible, but the people who make the next show would need to be ambitious and committed to making a good cartoon and not exclusively see it as a vehicle for selling toys. Most of the 'good' cartoons with lots of fan content these days are made by people who genuinely love making a show and bringing their creation to life, which really shows and is much more appreciated by fans.
I just hope the next show wouldn't also draw in a large and... less savory crowd. I genuinely think FiM had a huge problem with that, and it's part of the reason I and many other people fell off the FiM bandwagon.
-
As someone who has grown up in the age of technology, I think it’s a good thing. It has given so many people so many creative opportunities, allowing them to discover more about themselves. And as someone who hopes to one day produce a show that people will love the same way they love Steven universe, MLP and adventure time, it would fill me with such joy to see fan made content of what I make. If someone believes it is worth putting the effort into making a fan made music video or artwork, then I shall make sure my work is worth every ounce of their time.
With regards to g5 and fan work, I do think they will need a solid world to build upon and good characters. I wouldn’t make good work for something I didn’t believe was worth my time, and I think many creators would agree. We make art for the passion and joy it brings. If it’s not something that brings joy, why make it?
-
Every Pony gen has the fans making the staple art of it- fan drawings, fanfiction. But with g4, we saw a whole flood of different forms of pony art- from original fan made music and remixes of the official music, to PMV’s, custom sculpts and crafts, to fan made fracking animations!
To be honest, I find plenty of G4 fan works to be pretty cringeworthy.
-
Other then fanmade animation none of what you mention is new to any franchise that lends itself to creative endeavors. I don't know why anyone thinks sculpting, writing, customs, songs, crafts and stuffed toys got their start with FiM fans? Sorry, but if some of them actually think that, they are full of themselves.
I remember my friend drawing and writing stories about new characters, because it was her dream to work at Disney's animation department some day.
I've seen handmade crafts at swapmeets with popular characters before and during the time when the internet was what it is today.
When I started going online to research G3s and look up my old G1s, I saw lots of pony customs and fan crafts. I've even commissioned a few.
The only difference is that it can be widely shared. Why would it be some recent thing when lots of people have tried their hand at it even as kids?
And people have been making up lyrics to songs for ages, often parodies belted out on the playground. Or Weird Al.
As for G5, I've seen a few pics but with it only an announcement, Hasbro wildly see-sawing between two different styles and no further official information in sight, people can only speculate, and there will be little of it till further notice.
-
yeah, this sort of stuff didn't start with G4. Although to be fair, I can't think of many other fandoms that have/had every sort of fan content like G4 does. Pokemon, definitely... Sailor Moon has most of it... prolly Harry Potter too... but this definitely isn't a FiM-exclusive thing, or anything FiM started, or whatever.
Honestly I think most of it is just that FiM was made at a time when it was very possible and easy to make elaborate fan content, share it, and profit from it. It's a huge fandom so you're pretty much guaranteed to get some attention for it, too. Whereas with older fandoms (pre-technology boom fandoms) there may have been the desire to do those things but not the ability, or the ease of attracting a wide audience, or what-have-you.
I think any fandom will get fan songs, videos, games, plushies, whatever, as long as someone wants to make them.
-
Previous to G4, we didn't have as much tech to have a platform to share fanwork.
Well, yes you can upload images of your plushies to a website, but having web platforms like Youtube, DeviantArt, and Imgur and Flickr really helped. plus all the social media sites!
-
Disney, Star Wars and comics have gotten a lot of creative stuff over the years. And I agree with you on Pokemon.
-
It stems down to what programs are now available at people's fingertips, and the ability to spread it all over in an instant, and how many people have access to the internet now...
The sky is the limit because of how many platforms we have to share, and the tools available to so many fans.
And quite frankly, that goes for ALL fandoms, and isn't limited to ponies. But the creativity in all fandoms has ALWAYS been there, but they certainly have evolved and grown in the past 30 years.
-
well, in the pre-internet days you had to pay postage, long-distance call fees, figure out how to get people together.. etc. Had to work with what you had.
In the early internet days you had to get internet access, figure out how to get your stuff online, get your hands on some webspace... etc. To say nothing of getting people to actually find it.
But these days everything's so easy! Used to be it'd take a good hour (at best) to get something on YouTube. Nowadays, you want to put something online? Just stick it on Tumblr, or Twitter, or YouTube, or whatever and slap a few hashtags on. Takes about five minutes. No need to worry about where to host it, cause there's all these free hosting places and social media sites and whatnot. It's a different climate to the one that older fandoms were born in.
-
Every Pony gen has the fans making the staple art of it- fan drawings, fanfiction. But with g4, we saw a whole flood of different forms of pony art- from original fan made music and remixes of the official music, to PMV’s, custom sculpts and crafts, to fan made fracking animations!
To be honest, I find plenty of G4 fan works to be pretty cringeworthy.
um...care to elaborate on that?
Post Merge: June 08, 2020, 11:15:34 AM
Other then fanmade animation none of what you mention is new to any franchise that lends itself to creative endeavors. I don't know why anyone thinks sculpting, writing, customs, songs, crafts and stuffed toys got their start with FiM fans? Sorry, but if some of them actually think that, they are full of themselves.
I remember my friend drawing and writing stories about new characters, because it was her dream to work at Disney's animation department some day.
I've seen handmade crafts at swapmeets with popular characters before and during the time when the internet was what it is today.
When I started going online to research G3s and look up my old G1s, I saw lots of pony customs and fan crafts. I've even commissioned a few.
The only difference is that it can be widely shared. Why would it be some recent thing when lots of people have tried their hand at it even as kids?
And people have been making up lyrics to songs for ages, often parodies belted out on the playground. Or Weird Al.
As for G5, I've seen a few pics but with it only an announcement, Hasbro wildly see-sawing between two different styles and no further official information in sight, people can only speculate, and there will be little of it till further notice.
ok, didn’t mean to offend, and I know these mediums of art existed before g4, but I was saying that I haven’t personally come across any, so either I’m looking in the wrong places, or they are rare and few and far between. I asked for a correction if I was wrong and there are some out there. And I appreciate you bringing this to light. I would also like you to point me in the direction of these earlier gen forms of art, if you please.
Post Merge: June 08, 2020, 11:18:03 AM
Previous to G4, we didn't have as much tech to have a platform to share fanwork.
Well, yes you can upload images of your plushies to a website, but having web platforms like Youtube, DeviantArt, and Imgur and Flickr really helped. plus all the social media sites!
yeah, SnS has been a huge help to finding and discovering people’s Pony works for sure! And there are so many now that it’s hard to compile them all in one space. I know that Takara pony crafts and crochet plushies exist out there, for sure! (I actually forgot about those when I was writing the op).
-
Every Pony gen has the fans making the staple art of it- fan drawings, fanfiction. But with g4, we saw a whole flood of different forms of pony art- from original fan made music and remixes of the official music, to PMV’s, custom sculpts and crafts, to fan made fracking animations!
To be honest, I find plenty of G4 fan works to be pretty cringeworthy.
um...care to elaborate on that?
Post Merge: June 08, 2020, 11:15:34 AM
Other then fanmade animation none of what you mention is new to any franchise that lends itself to creative endeavors. I don't know why anyone thinks sculpting, writing, customs, songs, crafts and stuffed toys got their start with FiM fans? Sorry, but if some of them actually think that, they are full of themselves.
I remember my friend drawing and writing stories about new characters, because it was her dream to work at Disney's animation department some day.
I've seen handmade crafts at swapmeets with popular characters before and during the time when the internet was what it is today.
When I started going online to research G3s and look up my old G1s, I saw lots of pony customs and fan crafts. I've even commissioned a few.
The only difference is that it can be widely shared. Why would it be some recent thing when lots of people have tried their hand at it even as kids?
And people have been making up lyrics to songs for ages, often parodies belted out on the playground. Or Weird Al.
As for G5, I've seen a few pics but with it only an announcement, Hasbro wildly see-sawing between two different styles and no further official information in sight, people can only speculate, and there will be little of it till further notice.
ok, didn’t mean to offend, and I know these mediums of art existed before g4, but I was saying that I haven’t personally come across any, so either I’m looking in the wrong places, or they are rare and few and far between. I asked for a correction if I was wrong and there are some out there. And I appreciate you bringing this to light. I would also like you to point me in the direction of these earlier gen forms of art, if you please.
Post Merge: June 08, 2020, 11:18:03 AM
Previous to G4, we didn't have as much tech to have a platform to share fanwork.
Well, yes you can upload images of your plushies to a website, but having web platforms like Youtube, DeviantArt, and Imgur and Flickr really helped. plus all the social media sites!
yeah, SnS has been a huge help to finding and discovering people’s Pony works for sure! And there are so many now that it’s hard to compile them all in one space. I know that Takara pony crafts and crochet plushies exist out there, for sure! (I actually forgot about those when I was writing the op).
Well yes. Once again its because people didn't have a widespread means to go Hey! Look what I made isn't it neat? But that doesn't mean it didn't exist or that it was rare. To imply otherwise is feeding into certain mindsets of ignorant arrogance.
And again, even before G4 was a thought in Hasbro's head during the G3 era, pony fans were creating stuff and posting it on deviantart and etsy and toy forums.
Anime fans were posting comics, crafts, drawings and fan art.
And the list goes on.
-
Well yes. Once again its because people didn't have a widespread means to go Hey! Look what I made isn't it neat? But that doesn't mean it didn't exist or that it was rare. To imply otherwise is feeding into certain mindsets of ignorant arrogance.
I feel like you are being unnecessarily aggressive on this.
I'm more familiar with anime fandoms then early pony stuff. In the early-mid 90s fans were making music videos (AMV) for anime and showed them at local clubs, or conventions. And we are talking a handful of people who had access to being able to do that in the early-mid 90s. NOW people can easily put those things together, and one little phrase on youtube gets me 1000s of hits.
Its not to say people didn't make things... but more people are doing it now then ever. And I think that's across ALL fandoms, pony stuff included...
-
Like others have said the volume comes with technology. Anyone can make these now whereas in the past less people had the equipment and knowledge to put them together. Apps can do so much now, things you would've need to know how to program or create by hand in the past.
Oh and it came up briefly, also the fact you can more easily monetize these things now. It's more motivating to do them if you know you can get some ad revenue, or if you know it's a popular/trending topic that will get you lots of clicks
-
It's just my guess but I suspect LAW is annoyed because she remembers the thread posted by this user a couple of years back which intimated G1 didn't have a fan presence online and needed to ape G4's in order to survive. Sadly that thread got removed but this one:
http://mlparena.com/index.php/topic,386564.15.html
On similar lines didn't, and also carries similar undertones in it.
I remember those discussions and I'm sure LAW does as well. And with that context, it's easy to be ruffled by the OP's questions, comparisons, and pretence that she isn't aware of G1 fan media.
But eh, perhaps lockdown has torched the OP's memory.
In any case, a sincere request from me.
Can we maybe have some discussions that don't require comparing fandoms? I think discussing fan media for G5 is valid and interesting, but this thread doesn't really seem to be about that so much as discussing whether G1 or G4 had media or whatever. But we're talking about G5, right?
And the thing is, who knows where we will be going forward with tech in 10 years? So trying to imagine what might be possible then is an interesting exercise. I really expect 3D printing will play a bigger role than it does now, given that it's got very sophisticated even since the birth of G4 and G5 would be a perfect opportunity for it to evolve further.
-
People were making pony fanart, fanfics, etc, as long as the 'net's been around. But the wider internet didn't care because MLP wasn't "popular" or "cool" at the time.
also yes as SaraMari said, fan content is more saleable now. Have you seen the amount of cash some people'll pay out for a high-quality MLP custom plushie?! Used to be maybe someone'd sell a print of their art on deviantART, or they'd open commissions or whatever, nowadays it seems like every other pic I see has a link to the artist's Redbubble or whatever it's called. (Not that that's a bad thing, I'm just saying.)
edit - aaa I posted at the same time as you again Taffeta! Yes, I was thinking about that thread, too.
Personally I wasn't trying to compare to previous gens, so much as I'm trying to compare to ALL fandoms. Yes FiM has wide variety of types of fan content, but so do lots of others... FiM isn't anything special in that regard, so the question seemed kind of weird to me to begin with.
but yeah, I think as long as G5 has a fandom (and of course it will - even if it doesn't reach the levels that FiM did, there'll be people watching, people discussing, drawing, writing, etc), there'll be fan content, and I suspect that fan content *in general*, across all newer fandoms, will continue to become more advanced as technology does and the ways to deliver it do.
(also hopefully this is at least halfway coherent. I'm very tired.)
-
:cookie: :cookie: :cookie: @ Carrehz. ;)
-
:cookie: :cookie: :cookie: @ Carrehz. ;)
*munches* thanks :P
Wasn't going to reply again but I thought of another way to put it, so I figured I might as well come back and write it to get it out of my mind - I think a big reason why FiM got all this fan content, is that it came about at the exact right time. All the pieces fell into place - it became very popular at a time that allowed these fanworks to be shared. Same thing happened with Homestuck, I think.
-
Few of my guy friends who watched FIM became stupider, really, so I think it had some sort of 25th frame brain thing in it, that's it.*
*not being serious
-
but yeah, I think as long as G5 has a fandom (and of course it will - even if it doesn't reach the levels that FiM did, there'll be people watching, people discussing, drawing, writing, etc), there'll be fan content, and I suspect that fan content *in general*, across all newer fandoms, will continue to become more advanced as technology does and the ways to deliver it do.
(also hopefully this is at least halfway coherent. I'm very tired.)
That's the question. Not every kids cartoon has a "fandom". Some cartoons exist just being enjoyed by the target demographic and maybe an occasional teen/adult fan that is a kid at heart.
-
but then that's still a fandom, surely? Why is there this "need" to have a "fandom"? You can't control or predict what will/won't be a hit.
I'm sure at least some of us will still be around for G5, isn't that enough of a fandom?
-
Every Pony gen has the fans making the staple art of it- fan drawings, fanfiction. But with g4, we saw a whole flood of different forms of pony art- from original fan made music and remixes of the official music, to PMV’s, custom sculpts and crafts, to fan made fracking animations!
To be honest, I find plenty of G4 fan works to be pretty cringeworthy.
um...care to elaborate on that?
You know, like those epic 400k word dark fics where Pinkie Pie dies murdered by a pony drug cartel and Rainbow Dash is coping with the loss (with dozens of dramatic readings by sobbing bronies on YouTube), or those cheap dubstep songs about how much the author likes Rarity, or all those edgy self-insert OCs, or those videos that are just copies of non-pony videos with vectors traced straight from the cartoon (I once saw one that ripped off a Touhou fan video), or all those memes and comics about wanting to go to Equestria, or all that questionable fanart I won't even talk about here ;) Yeah I know it's not all like that, but there's been quite a lot of it, especially in early to mid 2010s.
-
but then that's still a fandom, surely? Why is there this "need" to have a "fandom"? You can't control or predict what will/won't be a hit.
I'm sure at least some of us will still be around for G5, isn't that enough of a fandom?
This is why the subject of comparison is so vexed - people trying to impose their interpretation of 'fandom' based on modern criteria, rather than interpreting it more broadly based on on what the word means. It's that which conveys this (false) idea that only modern 'fandoms' with modern 'content' are valid.
This is why I hate the forced comparison. It's always used to undermine older fandoms as not meeting modern criteria, whether purposefully or otherwise, and it's simply irrelevant without taking into consideration wider context. Newer =/= better.
Moving away from MLP for a moment but I know a couple of anime fandoms where something becomes out of date almost as fast as it's been posted.
Anime fandoms (speaking as someone with broad experience of them) are also problematic because there are things that belong in those fan spaces that get transferred out to other lines or whatever. Anime can be quite adult in places. Ship fics and so on make sense in anime fandoms. Do they make sense in MLP ones? Some people will say yes, some will say no. It's a controversial question that probably has no answer.
This completely omits the small percentage of crazy people in anime fandoms who spend all their time applying anime tropes to REAL LIFE people, spew random Japanese words into all their sentences, refer to themselves as x-chan and think everything should be remade in a Japanese style/chibi/whatever. I mean some level of that may be fine, but there's a limit to how much you can do that. Those people who take it over the top are embarrassing in their *own* fandom. They're a menace when they infiltrate others.
Although based on what happened with FIM, the modern context of fandom was not just positive content but a lot of negative and seedy material as well...given that, and given MLP's demographic, it would probably be nice if G5 went back to a more muted sense of appreciation, where people contributed, but didn't feel the need to mutate it into something more adult than it is meant to be.
Edit - SpacePinto basically beat me but made the same point about the seedier side of the 'fandom'.
-
Taffeta hit it on the head. That first thread immediately came to mind. I got annoyed with the wording, it came out as self-absorbed arrogance.
I came into this thread thinking that it would be about G5 fanart, including some actual fanart and instead see a long post about how FiM fans somehow "think" that they are one of the first and main generators of fan created content and what do we think of it. And then there's a blurb about G5 fanart tacked on as an afterthought. Perhaps its petty of me, but I felt the need to say something about the erroneous belief and superior tone. It felt both clickbaity and deliberately designed to agitate.
Back on topic: I'm sure we'll see a lot once Hasbro shows off the next toyline. If you look at some of the multi-gen mlp groups on deviantart, you'll see some g5 speculation art and some art based on the leaks.
Post Merge: June 09, 2020, 08:46:34 AM
but then that's still a fandom, surely? Why is there this "need" to have a "fandom"? You can't control or predict what will/won't be a hit.
I'm sure at least some of us will still be around for G5, isn't that enough of a fandom?
This is why the subject of comparison is so vexed - people trying to impose their interpretation of 'fandom' based on modern criteria, rather than interpreting it more broadly based on on what the word means. It's that which conveys this (false) idea that only modern 'fandoms' with modern 'content' are valid.
This is why I hate the forced comparison. It's always used to undermine older fandoms as not meeting modern criteria, whether purposefully or otherwise, and it's simply irrelevant without taking into consideration wider context. Newer =/= better.
Moving away from MLP for a moment but I know a couple of anime fandoms where something becomes out of date almost as fast as it's been posted.
Anime fandoms (speaking as someone with broad experience of them) are also problematic because there are things that belong in those fan spaces that get transferred out to other lines or whatever. Anime can be quite adult in places. Ship fics and so on make sense in anime fandoms. Do they make sense in MLP ones? Some people will say yes, some will say no. It's a controversial question that probably has no answer.
This completely omits the small percentage of crazy people in anime fandoms who spend all their time applying anime tropes to REAL LIFE people, spew random Japanese words into all their sentences, refer to themselves as x-chan and think everything should be remade in a Japanese style/chibi/whatever. I mean some level of that may be fine, but there's a limit to how much you can do that. Those people who take it over the top are embarrassing in their *own* fandom. They're a menace when they infiltrate others.
Although based on what happened with FIM, the modern context of fandom was not just positive content but a lot of negative and seedy material as well...given that, and given MLP's demographic, it would probably be nice if G5 went back to a more muted sense of appreciation, where people contributed, but didn't feel the need to mutate it into something more adult than it is meant to be.
Edit - SpacePinto basically beat me but made the same point about the seedier side of the 'fandom'.
Agreed. Fans do not strictly encompass modern internet only. They are not restricted to "it needs to do such-and-such, and create such-and-such, or be of a certain age. Otherwise you don't count." That's elitism and gatekeeping.
If a person generally enjoys something, be it a band, sport, toy, book, tv show or game they are a fan. If a group of people enjoy it, it becomes a fanbase/fans/fandom whatever. Generational conflicts are inevitable as are iterational conflicts. But at the end of the day they're still fans. Furthermore you cannot dictate how every fan is supposed to act, due to generation and the fact that each form of entertainment has their own unique way of enjoyment and discussion.
-
:cookie: :cookie: :cookie: LAW.
I read the same, not just in this thread but in several recently. I've mostly bitten my lip on them to give the benefit of the doubt, but I'm not gonna stand back and watch someone pretend ignorance of a subject they incited two years ago. We know what the OP thinks of older gen fandoms, thus any comment the OP makes comparing older fandoms to G4 is always going to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Good rule of thumb is to assume Arena people have longer memories than the average social media account.
Also that the Arena has a search function.
The last thing you said about fandoms is on the nail. It's elitist and it's wrong to take the attitude that you can only be a fandom if you meet modern standards. A school playground club where you make your own badges and swap toys or cards is a fandom, even if it's run by eight year olds. And honestly, those are probably the best ones :/
So going back to that subject about G5 and potentially G5 fanart - I wonder if there is anything we can draw from what leaked regarding what Hasbro think G5 will be and how that might inspire creators going forwards? It's interesting that some DA artists are already exploring this as a possibility.
-
It's just my guess but I suspect LAW is annoyed because she remembers the thread posted by this user a couple of years back which intimated G1 didn't have a fan presence online and needed to ape G4's in order to survive. Sadly that thread got removed but this one:
http://mlparena.com/index.php/topic,386564.15.html
On similar lines didn't, and also carries similar undertones in it.
I remember those discussions and I'm sure LAW does as well. And with that context, it's easy to be ruffled by the OP's questions, comparisons, and pretence that she isn't aware of G1 fan media.
But eh, perhaps lockdown has torched the OP's memory.
In any case, a sincere request from me.
Can we maybe have some discussions that don't require comparing fandoms? I think discussing fan media for G5 is valid and interesting, but this thread doesn't really seem to be about that so much as discussing whether G1 or G4 had media or whatever. But we're talking about G5, right?
And the thing is, who knows where we will be going forward with tech in 10 years? So trying to imagine what might be possible then is an interesting exercise. I really expect 3D printing will play a bigger role than it does now, given that it's got very sophisticated even since the birth of G4 and G5 would be a perfect opportunity for it to evolve further.
i don’t make these topics with the intention of getting anyone hit and bothered, and I’m sorry that it has. The point of this wasn’t to compare fandoms of older gens and g4, but discuss the possibilities that the fandom that comes with g5 will bring to the table. I apologize to LaW especially if this had upset them. Again- that was far from my intent.
Also, since I make many topics here, I am not always aware of which topics that I make years back or similar undertones that people perceive in every topic.
Again, I apologize to anyone who I might have caused offense to, unknowingly. And I just wish for honest, healthy discussion without topics being derailed or vilified. I hope we can all get along.
-
I would like to see some of the seemingly nameless blindbag designs get names and roles and art. I'd be interested in the new flying unicorns and the pony with the mouse symbol if the design of G5 is better. I'm hoping Potion Nova will be in G5. I can't help but suspect that both the RtM toyline and Mishmash ponies will co-exist side-by-side, but I could be wrong about that.
The two designs contrast each other in a way I personally have never seen before. (Keep in mind I never saw Dream Beauties in stores, or I mistook them for FSF.) Even G3.5s still had G3ish elements. Perhaps the G5 style will even be a mash between RtM and Mishmash, in the way that 3.5 is the bridge between 3 and 4?
-
Every Pony gen has the fans making the staple art of it- fan drawings, fanfiction. But with g4, we saw a whole flood of different forms of pony art- from original fan made music and remixes of the official music, to PMV’s, custom sculpts and crafts, to fan made fracking animations!
To be honest, I find plenty of G4 fan works to be pretty cringeworthy.
um...care to elaborate on that?
You know, like those epic 400k word dark fics where Pinkie Pie dies murdered by a pony drug cartel and Rainbow Dash is coping with the loss (with dozens of dramatic readings by sobbing bronies on YouTube), or those cheap dubstep songs about how much the author likes Rarity, or all those edgy self-insert OCs, or those videos that are just copies of non-pony videos with vectors traced straight from the cartoon (I once saw one that ripped off a Touhou fan video), or all those memes and comics about wanting to go to Equestria, or all that questionable fanart I won't even talk about here ;) Yeah I know it's not all like that, but there's been quite a lot of it, especially in early to mid 2010s.
ok, I hear you. And I understand that certain works don’t fly.
But you’re delving a bit too deep. I was only talking about the art mediums- the categories that are available and being done now- the medium of fanfics as a whole, PMV’s as a whole, Music and crafts as a whole- not necessarily the individual works that make these things up. And basically just where g5 can go and bring to the table next by way of artistic expressions.
-
I actually bought a Potion Nova off the net because I have no idea with the current crisis if these ponies will come here or they won't. And I was curious. I didn't unpack her, admittedly, but she is a weird looking thing.
I still want a proper G5, which separates from G4 completely in the way other gens have set up on their own. It won't be G5 to me if there isn't a completely new cast, even if Hasbro tell us that's what it is - I'm stubbornly rogue on this point.
But that probably also feeds into the question about what kind of fanart or fan media a new iteration might produce. I'm expecting a cringey rehash of the mane 6 which in my view stunts creativity by being limited in its innovation.
Also we don't know whether the leaks will actually be a thing or not. I'm curious to how Hasbro have become recently obsessed with retro MLP stuff, as if they suddenly realised that what Basic Fun is doing has captured the imagination more than they realised it was going to. When I spoke to Hasbro UK it was like they wanted nothing to do with it - but now Hasbro's mothership has tried so hard to connect the M6 into the past, you have to wonder whether the 'retro' aspect will form a part of this.
(FIM fans have already partly warped bits of the G1 canon, though, for example with Majesty and the fact a whole lot of G4 fans are convinced Majesty was this overpowerful Queen figure in G1, when in fact she was only Queen in the UK comics and most people, especially stateside, grew up with her barely registering as a character. So I suppose I use the word 'retro' advisedly here).
I don't really want G5 to ape G1 either mind you.
And some of the leaked art would be great, IF they were new ponies.
@ OP - if I had a constructive suggestion, then, perhaps flip through your past posts and see what you already posted and how people reacted to it. You can check your past posts by going to your profile/clicking on your name and viewing all your posts that way. It might help you realise when you might be repeating a subject, and that won't create misunderstandings of your motives.
Albeit that was a horrible thread which merited removal. And horrible threads stick in the mind, no matter how much time passes.
-
but then that's still a fandom, surely? Why is there this "need" to have a "fandom"? You can't control or predict what will/won't be a hit.
I'm sure at least some of us will still be around for G5, isn't that enough of a fandom?
Of course it's still a fandom but the quality and quantity of fanworks for those kind of fandoms can be lacking. For example there's no such thing as Paw Patrol or PJ Masks remixes. I mean maybe there will be in the future when the kiddos who grew up with it get nostalgic but currently it doesn't really exist.
Every Pony gen has the fans making the staple art of it- fan drawings, fanfiction. But with g4, we saw a whole flood of different forms of pony art- from original fan made music and remixes of the official music, to PMV’s, custom sculpts and crafts, to fan made fracking animations!
To be honest, I find plenty of G4 fan works to be pretty cringeworthy.
um...care to elaborate on that?
You know, like those epic 400k word dark fics where Pinkie Pie dies murdered by a pony drug cartel and Rainbow Dash is coping with the loss (with dozens of dramatic readings by sobbing bronies on YouTube), or those cheap dubstep songs about how much the author likes Rarity, or all those edgy self-insert OCs, or those videos that are just copies of non-pony videos with vectors traced straight from the cartoon (I once saw one that ripped off a Touhou fan video), or all those memes and comics about wanting to go to Equestria, or all that questionable fanart I won't even talk about here ;) Yeah I know it's not all like that, but there's been quite a lot of it, especially in early to mid 2010s.
ok, I hear you. And I understand that certain works don’t fly.
But you’re delving a bit too deep. I was only talking about the art mediums- the categories that are available and being done now- the medium of fanfics as a whole, PMV’s as a whole, Music and crafts as a whole- not necessarily the individual works that make these things up. And basically just where g5 can go and bring to the table next by way of artistic expressions.
While I'll admit most of those forms of fan media don't exist for earlier gens, crafts have always been a big part of MLP fandom. It's kinda inevitable when it is a toy based fandom. Look at the fandom for the early 2000s LPS toys. The customs they make are amazing. Tbh if those other kind of things exist or not depends on the quality of G5 itself and we can't judge that until it actually exists.