I thought it was going to be terrible wokeshit about how some ponies were privileged for being the type of pony they were (and what led me to think that was the announcement that the protagonist was going to be an activist) but it wasn't. It was pretty harmless.
Hell, it handled racism better than Season 8 of G4 did.
Yeah, it was the same message the show always had, really - people are different, there's no shame in being better at certain things than others, and All Lives Matter. There are several sections that could be a swipe at Trump OR at Critical Race Theory and wokeshit, but the Classical Liberal agenda is pretty subdued and not preachy. Earth Pony society is clearly a critique of Big Tech, the Pegasus society is a critique of social media and mainstream celebrity culture, and the Unicorns are a critique of PC speechpolice, doomers, and...
Brit Bongers??
Not exactly based, but NOT woke by any means. At least not yet.
So far it seems like it's been a nice shot in the arm to the horsefucker fandom, but not knowing any personally, i have no idea. Are there any here that can confirm? Also lmao that this is what the originals go out on, gotta give props to whoever thought that up bc i'm sure it's caused many of them to seethe.
Seething is unlikely, to be honest. That "send off" scene actually looks more like fanservice than a fan-fuck-you. It's possibly a reference to two beloved Brony memes: Crazy Rarity, and Pie Hating Rainbow Dash.
And even if that scene is not intended to be deliberate fanservice, you have to remember, the Brony fandom adores things like Cupcakes (Andrew WK video with ponies being tortured and cannibalized) and Fallout Equestria (a fanfiction longer than a Tolstoy novel, packed with murder and rape). Evil Rarity blasting pony brains with her horn magic is actually totally in line with how Bronies engage with the show, and if anything, probably reflects the G5 they'd
prefer to see.
So instead of "oh God, how could they dishonor the memory of G4 like that?", the reaction is more likely to be "wow, too bad the whole show can't be like this"
As for being a shot in the arm? Still too early to tell. A lot of bronies were dipping out by the last few seasons of G4, and the ones who stuck around and/or staked their careers on Bronydom (such as the professional Bronalysist community) have been focusing primarily on fanwork for years. If you ever followed Jin, the lolcow who married Twilight Sparkle, but disavowed the official show midway through, and opted to focus on his own headcanon instead - that's kind of where most holdout bronies wound up.
