Over in the wild world of Twitter, there is a growing sentiment that there are, in fact, two active pony fandoms right now. It's an interesting concept, and something I think surprised a lot of us over the past few months while it broils. You may have seen videos like Makaryo's "WHY I LIKE MLP G5" that has furthered this concept, with the story of an artist that was getting actual death threats for posting G5 content instead of G4.
Personally, I had no idea this was a thing. G5 content has fused right into G4 here on EQD. Even the chaotic 4chan community is almost completely merged at this point, with a few vocal outliers demanding separation while being largely ignored.
It's all real though, and on Twitter has become somewhat of a blight. Lets dive in and see exactly what's going on!
The Divide
As with most things on Twitter, people can easily be set off by a random tweet from a random person with almost no warning at all. Ever since G5 was announced there have been plenty of haters. Nothing will ever top G4 for a lot of people, and it was inevitable in such a spicy fandom like ours. There have been many viral tweets that started waves, but the one above is what seems to have spawned the most recent battle of generations.
I'm keeping everyone's names censored, but this sparked a HUGE debate in the replies between people that love G5 and people that hate it. With Twitter's complete lack of moderation these days, it quickly spiraled into some pretty toxic discussion surrounding the whole thing. In the end, everyone came out disgruntled. G5 influencers threw their tweets up with loads of love for the current show, and G4 purists attacked them.
On the sidelines, many of us were just... confused! If you've been to a convention since G5 aired, you will see plenty of mingling of the generations. The various cartoon horse discord servers are filled with emotes and discussion from both worlds of pony. Every major MLP website from EQD here to Fimfiction and Derpibooru cover both. To the old crowd, it's just more pony.
After loads of digging though, it does appear to be a huge deal for younger fans of the show. Particularly people on Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter who actually started with G5 unlike most of us that have been around for years. They actually don't get involved much at all with what they consider "old" at this point in G4.
Unfortunately this has spawned a very real group of G4 fans who go after them for their lack of love of what they consider peak pony. Which is where we end up with death threats for artists who only draw G5 ponies. The anonymity of the internet strikes again!
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As with most things in this wonderful online world of ours, there will always horrible people that can't be stopped. They will do their usual nonsense and most likely have a host of mental problems that cause them to lash out at people when they see any kind of "fun" happening at all for a topic they dislike. That's just part of how this weird ecosystem works. Trolls will troll.
You can help temper their blows though! Be supportive of G5 creators. If you like a pony drawing they make, drop a comment with some praise. Welcome them to G4, but don't force them into it. As Sunny and friends continue on with Tell Your Tale, it's inevitable that more people will join pony from that specific show, and have very little knowledge of G4 as a whole. In fact, that might even see the old fandom as somewhat scary with our weird grimdark animations and questionable pictures of ponies all over the place.
If you are already in one of the many merged communities, accept that there will be people who don't love specific concepts from either side. It's OK to not be a fan of something, but accept hat people have completely different thoughts and tastes from you, and no amount of debate will ever convince them otherwise. It's about as useful as debating politics on Reddit. No one will ever change their minds from a random person on the internet.
Be friendly to your fellow cartoon pony lovers, even if they aren't into the same equines you are. Hopefully in the end, everyone can get along as we plow forward into future seasons of G5, and someday even G6!
