Oh my god lookit all dem words

>Reboot

Oh man that shit blew my mind when I was like eight. All of a sudden my favourite status-quo TV show about video games was getting destroyed by evil monsters from beyond. I thought the world was ending, it was intense. Pony could use some of that spice, even if it doesn't need the "Grimmer, darker, better" junk.

If many teenagers and twenty-somethings can appreciate the show as it is, there is really no need to change the style of it.

The innocent style of the show is timeless, much like how we would appreciate old cartoons even now, so no, we don't need to change the style although it would be interesting if they did.

seeing how mlp's audience range is pretty wide, i'd think it'd be okay to stay the same.
i mean, why change a good thing?

though personally, i don't really care about the stories . just so long as the characters shine and be funny

Didn't mlp get its fanbase in the first place because it DIDN'T treat their audience like 6 year olds?

>>2562922

The vast majority of fans (particularly tv-watching, advertising-targetted) are still little kids though, not teenagers and adults. If the show wants to retain its audience it has to know that a twelve-year-old and a nine-year-old have very different views and tastes. Sure the show's "timeless", but there's no guarantee that children going through the transformations of their youth will stick with what they come to see as their immature, childish interests unless those interests try to keep up with them.

>>2562933

Yeah, pretty much. The show already does a good job of not feeling tightly targeted to any particular age band. Just tune in to a new episode a half-hour early and watch Strawberry Shortcake for a reminder of what REAL little girl TV looks like.

..what darker themes are we talking about?
death, divorce, war, rape, murder, etc ?

or weird teenage stuff like love interests and relationships?

I'd say the subtle changes from season 1 to season 2 are enough to indicate they know how to keep the show open to all ages, even as their fans grow up. I really don't think MLP is going to have to choose on this one.

>>2562991

Darker is probably the wrong word for MLP, but more mature can mean things like having a real, hurtful fight (Putting your hoof down, where Fluttershy's insults were actually pretty meaningful, is a good example). Having evil characters with more complicated motives or plans, or really just more complicated motives and plans in general shows more faith in the audience.

A more mature show has less to do with someone dying and the colour palette trending toward black, and more to do with dealing with issues closer to the real world. Not necessarily war or murder, but perhaps disappointment, or family conflict, or even loss.

>>2562967
Actually, I know a couple of eleven and twelve year olds who watch the show as it is, even males. Once they get over the initial stigma, they treat it as they would any other cartoon. It really is universal.

We've already seen the show mature a little. S2 was a little more mature than S1 because the team was no longer subject to the E/I restrictions.

I doubt it'll get much more mature than S2. Hasbro has a hit on their hands, and they don't want to blow it. This franchise has matured in the past, with ponies getting boyfriends and whatnot, but it didn't increase the show's popularity. Right now MLP is the biggest moneymaker in their girls' line. They're not going to fuck with it.

They might want to give it a rest after S3, however, because of the internet phenomenon. I'm sure execs at Hasbro are nervous about how easy it is to find pony r34 and grimdark stuff online, and they're terrified of a soccer mom backlash from it. Most of the toy sales are still happening in the target demographic, remember.

>>2563069

Well that's good. And continuing fans who started watching when they were six, seven, or eight won't have to overcome any initial stigma anyway, so that bodes well for retention.

Sometimes I wonder what it'll be like in like six or seven years when the young fans of MLP are grown up enough to get on to the internet and start posting "what the fuck? What were all of you guys doing watching my favorite kids show? That's so messed u- oh wow, that fan animation's pretty good. And are those comics? Let me just read a few of these..."

>>2563058
I think the first paragraph would fit in well with the show and actually increase the appeal. I would love to see more complex motives and plots Having real fights and such with friends is a theme that could tie in well, too. Disappointment could be a good idea, too, but I think that family conflict/loss would be a bit too much.

>>2563097

>yfw Hasbro ends MLP after three seasons
>only to create a mature, adult-targeted spinoff that runs at night

Makes me think of Hey Arnold. That show was a masterclass in giving my younger self Feels, while still being perfectly age-appropriate. Sometimes I didn't even pick up on what was going on, but I had a good sense that it was serious and relatable to the real world and that really dragged me in.

>>2563130
In your wet dreams. and mine

>>2563113

You don't think they could do an episode about the Cakes having a fight and Pinkie Pie having to watch the kids on her own for a while until they sort things out? Or an episode where Applejack figures it's time to sit Applebloom down and explain to her where their parents went? I mean sure it'd be their "Very Special Episode", but still.

>>2563175
I don't think that it would fit in well with the rest of the show. The other themes would probably mesh, but that would just seem out of place.

>>2563105
Yeah that would be interesting. We're coming to a time where fans of the show are more based on the internet and most of the younger fans will not even know about all the crazy things people are doing on the internet...

Imagine if you had watched Foster's or Dexter or some other show when you were young and knew nothing about a committed fanbase. Then you would grow older and see a plethora of fanfics and art and music. It would definitely be an interesting thing to experience.

I fear though with the exposure we're getting from the commercial that kids might not like the show as much as they do, since a single pony is capable of causing a shitstorm (or no pony, as was on /v/ some nights ago)

>>2563270
Don't forget how many children are growing up connected these days. It's no longer kids getting on the family computer. Toddlers grow up playing with their parents' smartphones.

Kids in the target demographic might not care about the online culture based around FiM, but they could easily stumble across some of the more disturbing elements of it, resulting in a parental shit fit.

>>2563408

Yeah, we've all been worried about this the whole time, and Hasbro sweats bullets about it. It's impossible to keep it off the internet so it's a permanent risk. Still, there's usually a proportionate relationship between a kid's ability to use the internet and their jadedness to what they find - any kid that works their way to the porn is probably also going to shrug it off.

It'll still be weird when they hit their teenage years and really start to embark on the internet. I'd have found it weird if the shows I liked as a kid had as huge a fanbase as this online.

>>2563408
That has actually already happened, with a little girl stumbling over the video "Bronies" from Collegehumor. Frankly, it could've been a lot worse, all those youtube poops and pony thread simulators are just accidents waiting to happen. We all know how the media loves to exxagerate the dangers of the internet.

>>2563518
>>2563507
That's why I fear there's a good chance FiM will end at 65 episodes. Hasbro can milk it for a few years in reruns and foreign markets. They'll get their value from it, while they wait for the fandom to die down before the next re-launch.

If I were a Hasbro exec I'd probably be seriously considering that line of thought.