My Fandom is dying

Help, the brony fandom is dying, the community is-HAHAHAHAHAHA, so sorrry, I couldn't keep a straight face after the first two minutes.


To all of you who are worried that the brony fandom (and indeed, any) is dying, I want you to do this. Go outside, take a deep breath, and look around you. Then I want you to ask yourself a few questions, "Am I still enjoying this fandom? Do I still love looking up the various arts and stories that come from my fandom? Is it still fun to have friends here?" If your answer to any of the above is a yes, then no, your fandom is not dead and it won't ever be. Take it from a guy who is a member of more fandoms than I can care to count and still have a blast in each one (The SATAM fandom being one of those)

But, I bet you are actually worried for it, you are scared because you read something online or saw a guy yelling about it until his typing fingers are blue. These are, sadly, expected in any fandom. Such is life, and you can't really do anything about it. There will always be a doomsayer who wants to stir things up and then there will be a thousand more who will knock him back down. This is natural, because we are humans, and the only way to wipe out people like that is to remove free will. Why? Bcause some people just want it to be that bad, they want it to be the end of the world, because they feel like something good in their lives can't be eternal and are just waiting for the shoe to drop.

This is an ok feeling, and it doesn't make them any less of a person. Just a person like you and me.

Using the brony community as an example, there are occasionally people who will pop up and yell to the foums "The Brony fandom is dying! The endtimes are near and you need to abandon the site before it all burns. Women and OCs first!" and when I see that, all I can do is shake my head and just walk away. I want to respond, but I think other people say what I want to say far more eliquently than I ever could.

"Its odd to say that a fandom with so much fanart and cons are dying"

"The truth is, we have more fanart and fanfics than a whole lot of other fandoms out there"

"When the show ends, it will just temper off and become natural."

"We aren't dying, we have just tempered off."


And, this is all true. The truth is, we in the brony fandom have thirty to fourty pieces of fanart DAILY. We have close to seventeen hundred fics monthly and music galore, sometimes original and sometimes remixes. Our cons, for being what they are, are still popular, and we still have people talking about the show. I may not have the numbers (Though Google shows that FIM is still looked at a high rate) but that doesn't sound like a dead fandom to me, but one that is still popular and have a ton of people coming and going.

Now, I won't lie. One day, FIM will end and Hasbro will most likely put in G5. It will probably be good, but not as loved as G4 and the G4 fans will mix with the fans of other generations and become a larger MLP community. Fimfic will remain online and Equestria Daily will be run by a few hangers on until the next big generation of bronies come along. We (bronies) have become large and bigger than one might imagine, and that is something that wont die out easily, just shrink until it becomes home to a great group of people.

Fandoms really don't die, just shrink. Take it from me.

After all, the SATAM fans are still around and there are a ton of people who love Gargoyles. The Sailor Moon fandom had enough fans after its dormancy to beat out Naruto in the sales. Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Sherlock have plenty of moments of dormancy and I dare you to tell me that those fandoms are dead.

But, I think the greatest example of all is this...

Back in 1993, a little show called Babylon 5 appeared on PTEN and it was awesome. It was one of the best, if not the greatest, sci-fi shows out there. However, due to it being on such a channel and not very many people getting a chance to see it, not very many people know about it. Even less are the people who will watch an online review of each episode. For a time, I was a little sad. I thought this meant that a show that meant so much to me as a kid would be forgotten and not talked about. I wouldn't find much fanart of this or people who would tell me that they like it.

...Then I looked up fanlore wiki. And I was shocked to find people who still talked about it, people who were still in love with it, and people who made fanart and fanfics about it. When I mention it to my brony friends, I get a "Oh yeah, loved it" from a lot of them. I have seen people love it and are still huge fans of it. That was when I started to think, that if a fandom as small as B5 can still exist after all of this time, then why not a much larger one like the brony community?

I have seen my future as a brony in the Babylon 5 fandom, and it is good.

See, this is what I mean. Fandoms don't really die, nor do they fade away. They just stablize into a particular niche of fun people who will continue to create fanart, fics, and more of thier favorite show. It only really dies, for you, when you decide to quit and leave. But, it will still be here for you, and so will I.

Because, I don't leave fandoms, I take breaks.