Do you think you would've been happier if My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic released around 2007-2009 as opposed to late 2010? I know this is an oddly specific post, but I've been thinking about life from the late 2000s and early 2010s and people's fondness for the 2000s more.
>>43237353we had the same values and were desperate for something that countered the current zeitgeist of everything being gay and cynicalit was really just a perfect storm
>>43237353>2007-2009 as opposed to late 2010Almost same fucking shit, dude. Except maybe that back in 2007/2009 it would be harder to find full episodes online, especially on YouTube as it was still crawling and didn't have the 720p HD and even HD 1080p format at that time.deviantART was still popular as ever, same for FurAffinity where most of the pony art would've been posted.Perhaps Michael Jackson would've come out as a Brony, publicly announcing it during one of his concerts, while George W. Bush would've cracked a lame pony joke/mention during one of his press conferences causing Bronies to meme the fuck out of him. Not sure about Billy Mays, tho.Lots of The Twilight Saga memes/jokes involving Twilight Sparkle.
>>43237353You greedy fuck. Zoomers also deserve good things. They are starving and you even want to take that from them? Of course, just monopolise every single good thing into one era you genius, and leave no crumbs for generations coming.
>>43237478>foetroon>terrible opinionPottery.
>>43237478>They are starving and you even want to take that from themUnironically not my problem.
>>43237353I think 2010 was the perfect time. It merged with internet culture in a great way and I think the current way online culture and content worked at the time was a huge reason why it took off. That being said, I think it still would've done really well. Lazy Town also had a stint on 4chan as being pretty beloved for its fun music and visual design.For me though, ponies hit me when I needed them most. Very grateful for them, all those years ago.
>>43237358>everything being gay and cynicalJust like now, but we can't even have ponies these days.
>>43237478>Zoomers also deserve good thingsWe don't. We really don't.>FOEfagKill yourself, by the way.
>>43237527>We don't. We really don't.You also deserve love. You also deserve good media and you were gifted the best media ever in MLP: FIM. There is no reason to hate yourself to that degree. Do not internalise the hate for things that are out of your control.>Kill yourself, by the way.But you just said you are a zoomer? You are supposed to connect to the struggles of Littlepip. Her search for purpose, you know? Or the insecurities about her companionships and morals? You have a little bit of Littlepip inside of you.
>Flag>Abhorrent postName a more iconic duo
I could see it coming out in 2009 but any earlier than that just doesn't make sense to me, you gotta have the pain of the '08 crash sink in a bit before a comfort show is gonna take off.
>>43237353I think that entirely depends on who you're asking. I know for a lot of people, FiM just happened to drop during a rather dark or desperate time in their lives. Whether it would have had the same effect on them largely depends on if they were going through the same stuff at the time. For me, it wouldn't have made a difference.For the internet as a whole? It still would have been popular, but as other anons mentioned the state of the internet at the time was a big reason it took off so quickly. It was relatively easy to find episodes of it quickly floating around after they aired and there were a lot of avenues for making and sharing music/art/fanfics. It's debatable if the fandom would still be in the same state or had been popular with the same people or the same circles, but I think it largely would have followed the same tracks. 1-3 years isn't really that long off, and a lot of the same websites and communities (/co/, deviantart, tumblr, etc) would have still picked up on it. /mlp/ would probably still have been made, and we'd still be shitposting on it after all this time.
>>43237596>the state of the internetwas society somehow vulnerable to the pony around these years?
>>43237603It happened to release during a drought of good western animation, and it was quite unique in its style and cuteness. It wasn't perfect, but it didn't need to be. It was just the right combination for a lot of things, like potential for OCs and storytelling, that allowed it to appeal to a lot of different niche communities on the internet at once. And I think a lot of people really just needed it in their lives at the time too. There really wasn't anything quite like it at that time. The internet was also entering its last real phase of becoming mainstream; things were able to travel around it a lot quicker, so MLP kinda managed to ride the wave of it.
Semi-related but sometimes I wonder if the MLP fandom would've been able to take off during the pre-facebook era of the internet, or if 2010-2011 really was just the perfect window of time and any year later or earlier would've resulted in failure.
>>43237486
>>432373532008 was the era of trollface, so ponies would fit in just fine.
>>43237794That entirely depends on Hasbro's competence. If it was on free TV channels and there were a lot of VHS tapes, then it would. If it was on cable extension pack, it wouldn't. MLP got popular in 2010s because of piracy, so despite Hasbro's incompetency with The Hub.
>>43237669It's a bit of a long story, but 9/11 had a lot of far reaching effects on the world that trickled down into society, and all of the war and everything caused an era of cynicism in culture and media. At the same time, 2000's culture was also simultaneously extremely sunshiney and happy; I don't even need to point out examples, it was just everywhere suddenly compared to the 90's. There was a genuine demand for cynicism that felt more "real" and a genuine demand for happiness that existed in spite of it all and championed personal independence.Ponies managed to appeal to peoples desire for true happiness (which was reflected in how cheery and happy early 2010's memes were), especially after the 2008 economic recession also put people in a bad mood. It also appealed to the meme format at the time as well, stupid quick one liners like "20% COOLER IN TEN SECONDS FLAT" were so easy to put on an image macro and spam around, and a lot of memes at the time were just genuinely really simple little inside jokes like that. Not to mention, the cringe culture that arrived in 2013 or so hadn't stomped playfulness online flat yet; people were able to make all sorts of fanfics, roleplays, songs, animations, and just have it be silly playful fun. The late 2000's culture of fanfiction and random fan obsessiveness was still in full swing in the early 2010's, and pony resonated with it wonderfully.Not to mention, a lot of us were in very dark places at the time. If you look back at early /mlp/, there's a lot more lashing out and attacking people but also simultaneously a ton of healing and really meaningful analysis of the show going on. Tulpas and all sorts of other crazy shit were uncovered just to bring people closer to the characters that meant so much to them, too. "Normalcy" was more of a big deal back when compared to now, even though it's still kind of an oppressive force for many at the moment, and for a lot of young men who were told liking "girly" things meant you were a failure and a freak and a pedophile or something disgusting or even dangerous, MLP felt like the ultimate rebellion.
>>43238240 (continued)You could just stand in the face of a lot of the pressure you felt to be a "real man" and join up with the bronies and love ponies for the healing and warmth and comfort they brought. It made it even more special, because now for many, after years of being the "weird" guy, this thing that felt like proof that something was "wrong" with you in the eyes of many was the very thing that was giving you some of the most warmth and love you ever felt in your entire life. It was extremely empowering for those who felt they didn't belong in the world. I think this part of it is a little more timeless, as it's not like this feeling doesn't exist now, but the shock value of being a brony is a reason a lot of people checked the show out to begin with. It was being "edgy" by using sunshine and rainbows and love and friendship rather than anger and cynicism and angst, and that often got you way more negative reactions from the media and confused boomers and such. They were used to the whole Satanic heavy metal shtick and the random glorification of violence, but this was reaching for another kind of provocative.It was the kind of cutesy little girls thing you would get told something was wrong with you for enjoying. I think it's why so many dudes had such an intense emotional reaction or discomfort when watching the show for the first time, only for that to become an extremely compelling reason to want to check it out further. That feeling, along with the shock value of it, ended up being the reason a lot kept watching I feel. I know it was a factor for me.Also, the surprising depth of the characters encouraged people to look even deeper in them. Many found traits they themselves could relate to, and even saw the characters making mistakes they themselves made. Watching these characters go on to be loved despite their mistakes, and to see them have positive outcomes, meant a real air of healing was present in the source material that resonated with a lot of people.Ultimately, pony has always been an extremely powerful and warm force for those who feel completely lost. Equestria was always an escapists heaven for how wonderful and full of kindness it was. No matter how bad things got, for so many anons back when, nothing really picked them up like the thought of genuine friendship with their favorite pony. It's also a damn fun culture for creativity and fun shit too, so even if you're not into the more emotional side of it all, there's so much room for casual fans to just let loose and enjoy creativity too, and that's been the case from 2010 all the way to now. I used to think it just came out of nowhere, but looking back on it deeper, it absolutely caught on for a reason. The show managed to strike very deeply at the hearts of a lot of guys. FiM was and still is a very truly wonderfully special thing.
>>43237353>2007-2009 as opposed to 2010Fucking gen-Zer. You know why the 2010s and 2020s feel so fucking boring and feels like barely 2-3 years passed? Because no real cultural progress is happening. You dumb fucking kids are still wearing those Bill Gates bottle glasses in 2026 as you were since 2013 and talking in those retarded ebonics urbanite niggers from the 90s used to talk. Get your own fucking identity already, you're boring, it feels like we're stuck in time in a loop. Change you fucking primitive, CHANGE.No. Millennials weren't such fucking pussies like they are since 2008+ with the economic crash which also destroyed CN, Disney, Fox and the entire animation industry and writing guilds with competent writers.MLP spread primarily through Youtube/pirating, without that nobody would have bothered no matter how many times Amid Amidi make a correct fuss over veterans like Lauren Faust working for disgusting companies like Hasbro.MLP's stylistically is just the 2000s style with those thick outlines minus the stencyl shadows.It's the same art style you see in Loonatics Unleashed and many French & Japanese cartoons of the 2000s that's just a streamlined stylized smoother sleeker version of their 80s and 90s comic book counterpats. It's a thicker-looking Invader Zim style since Invader Zim copied the UPA style too much but with stick figures like all Nickledeon and CN shows.Writing wise S1 MLP is just a slice of life with characters that have the intelligence to speak out loud without going on big fancy pretentious diatribes like you're used to in cartoons from the "smart one" where the writer is flexing his vocabulary and culture.MLP wise it feels like the "cool mom" of its genre without boring you completely to death, but neither can you expect an action cartoon out of a slice of life.It also doesn't go very deep unfortunately. Any comparison to actual good shows of the 90s and 2000s lands this show into 5/10 territory and you need to compare it to Teletubbies and Barney for it to reach a 8/10. And if you say anything about S2+ you can go straight back to >>>/r/eddit(our system thinks your post is spam OH LOOK REDDIT TOOK OVER 4CHAN since 2014. I"LL KILL YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY) with all the other communists sucking yourselves off and crying yourselves to sleep how bad your childhood was and how you need your therapy animals to not commit seppuku. Go to India and China already where you belong and neck yourself already. No, MLP, just like Minecraft, would have not found an audience if released in the early 2000s with every other show that looked like it.
>>43238240I firmly believe Cringe culture is a lot of what killed off memes and peoples willingness to be retarded for others. Its infected everything, and even when you try to do something simple and genuine, you get everyone you know jumping up and down screaming cringe. Nevermind the fact that it will ALWAYS be online so everyone feels the need to perform even on the day to day now. It does help that lines where more blurry, and doing something like, say enjoying a little girls show didnt make you trans or even gay. Just a faggot or some shit, just used as an insult not a ploy to get you to side with anyone or change your identity. At the same time there was edgy memes? But they where made partially to counter the above, but also frequently those edgey memes got made to parody things going on in day to day life, rather than to target eachother or specific groups of people. >No. Millennials weren't such fucking pussies like they are since 2008+I remember us being pussies. Though mostly those people used tumblr. The bants on 4chan where always more akin to ribbing or generic insults without getting too serious or personal. Or at least back then when someone called you a pedo online you didn't have to worry a out them going further than that with it unless tou acgually deserved it. (Like how these days if you call someones wife trash they blackmark you forever and go through any and all post history they can find related to you to counter attack)
>>43238308Ah, yeah, personally for me I just stopped giving a shit. 4chan culture nowadays is very big on this idea of "follow the invisible social rulebook or we'll yell at you to shame you into being like us", and it has been for over a decade. In recent years I've noticed that part of the culture getting way more uppity and high-string though. Ultimately with a website like this, someone with thick skin is just going to have more power when socializing, and can do whatever they want and everyone else kinda just has to deal with it, for better or worse.Rest of the internet too, I don't really care that much - I just wanna have fun online like I used to. Truth be told that mindset has actually gotten me real far, as I think a lot of people who want to put you down think they have the moral right to put you down, and you just continuing on being you ends up triggering the fuck out of some people. Lotta people are real big on "post-irony" these days but they don't really know how to laugh off the little things, and often just uses humor as a shield to conceal the fact they feel actual vitriol at something. Everyone considers themselves a master troll because of that, but in reality this is one of the best times to be an actual troll who just doesn't care, because of how serious and brooding the internet gets at times. Have had a lot of people who act really detached suddenly just go absolutely ape on me, haha.You mentioned it, and yeah cancel culture is a thing too but I think it's overblown how dangerous it is. You can still have fun, especially places like here, but also yeah if you end up notable for your contributions to a community, for whatever reason that makes you more of a target to attack which is wack. You'd think there'd be a vibe of "oh but that guy made so many cool drawings/songs/whatever, he legit gave so much to our culture which was really cool of him", but it feels like the more notable you are the angrier people get. Guess people want drama, though.But yeah, cringe culture is a riot. It sucks ass to deal with if you're the kind of guy to get pushed around by it, but if you're on top of it all, it's genuinely kinda funny to play with. Being called a tranny or gay or a pedo or whatever is just par for the course at this point - my answer to it has been to just have fun and laugh. Internet's kinda lame when it's srsbsns.
Ban the ponkflaggot and watch the board improve instantly. Ban all flaggots and watch the board improve exponentially.
>>43238342Thank you Ponkfag for your reoccuring zeitgeist analysis on this board. That you've spent a lot of time thinking about this is keenly observed. It is a very etherial subject. I mean, history isn't a new field exactly, but the history of the modern internet feels special, the internet as we know it pretty much began 2000. I'm 26 and got into the horse show in summer 2011, just before Skyrim released. I like to think about those two pieces of media as monumental, at least for me, as they happened pretty much at the same time and shook the internet at its core. I've pretty much grown up with the internet. I remember Pedo Bear, Chuck Norris, bacon and firing mah lazah being popular just before and during MLP's heyday. And I swear the whole tone of the internet as a place has shifted remarkably, sure I grew up and my sensibilities changed, but the world and culture demonstrably changed too, arguably more, I don't know, it is so incredibly difficult to say for myself if it is I or the world that changed, if the world changed me or if I changed the world that I, with my actions, choose to inhabit. 2016 feels to me as the obvious cut off point. Obamas election was the first big election in which the internet took a major part it, by then enough normies had migrated into the cyber world to warrant extensive internet campaigning. But 2016 took that to a whole new level, this has been quite evident for a long time and I'm not the first to say it, but with the ongoing release of the Epstein files and the unraveling of the red conspiratory thread, 2016 feels somehow more willfully malevolent than I thought of it before. If 9/11 was the death of everyones sense of physical safety, if 2008 was the death of everyones sense of financial safety, then 2016 was the death of everyones idealogical safety, because the schism has been seemingly intentionally widened, it is nowadays hardly even entertaining to call someone a nigger because it means truly nothing, and it isn't funny because our attention spans have been eviscerated so our sense of humor has become distorted too. I don't know wtf the pandemic signifies, because I myself was hardly affected by it, but I'm sure we'll figure out the ramifications of it soon enough, I guess we are already, gen alpha can't read lol.
>>43238507>Thank you Ponkfag for your reoccuring zeitgeist analysis on this board. That you've spent a lot of time thinking about this is keenly observed.Well thank you, I'm really touched to hear that. The fact people could find the stuff I have to say insightful or interesting is one of the big reasons I like sharing them.And hmm, I'm definitely more optimistic about things online myself. I think while it's really fucking rough at face value nowadays with how chaotic and vitriolic and rage-bait fueled everything is, there's also a lot of fun to be had if you have the mindset to adapt and see the best in every situation. Personally I feel that with us all being cooped up on a handful of websites nowadays compared to the 2000's web, which had us all visiting a ton of websites, has caused unhealthy echochambers to form. One of the most polarizing shifts is that ragebait gets immense clicks, and thus ad revenue, and so social media like Twitter really prioritizes it. It's profitable to make people mad, so thus, people are mad; but it doesn't end there. People take their anger and frustration they felt after seeing this content and leave and share it with the rest of the world, taking it out on others. Twitter is all about short form responses that are easy to digest for easy dopamine, and ratios and such to "win" arguments, so people will go there just to see the "right" opinion (read: theirs) echoed back, upvote the people who were right, and then get irked when someone disagrees. It's an addictive cycle, and treating people poorly with no thought is the norm now.There's a culture of thoughtlessly seeing people as the bad guy automatically now. Morality and elitism have taken over so much online discourse, and even the simple act of enjoying a hobby is now controversial, with liking one game more than the other making you wrong, and not engaging with material enough - even if it makes you happy to engage with it as you are - making you a "secondary". Genuine happiness and enjoyment gets vilified quite commonly, and, of course, as a Ponkfag, I do have some level of concern with people potentially being pushed away from the things that make them smile. I think there are valuable lessons to learn about self-respect and not letting yourself be bullied into being miserable, though. I just hope as many people as possible will be able to take the positive outcome here. I'm fine, and very very happy, but many others aren't.The shift towards extreme politics has been jarring to watch over the past decade, though. I am personally just hoping for some kind of anti-cruelty hippie dippie movement to start where we can glorify showing kindness to others instead. It's part of why I love this board and community so much; just enough vitriol for it to be funny, and just enough good conversation for the community to be wonderful to be a part of - lots of camaraderie and care going about from all sides, too.Thanks for the thoughtful response, Anon.
Yes, I do think I would have been happier. I graduated in 2009, and I watched the first season of MLP torrented on a laptop while homeless living in an RV. While ponies were certainly a small light in my life and mean a lot to me, I kind of resent already being technically an adult when it came out. I probably would have been able to enjoy it a lot more freely if it had released a couple years earlier, while I was still in high school. That would have been so much fun...
