Depends on whether or not you liked Jan’s content.
Personally it sucks since Jan put a lot of effort on both Ask the Crusaders, Button’s Adventures and his other projects…and yet Hasbro decides that since Button has attracted attention, why not C&D Jan since it’s their brand, despite the fact the fandom does stuff much more past Jan’s little projects.
Doesn’t help some animators treat Button Mash as more of a joke and do C&D Jokes, because yes, mock the fact a fellow animator just his hard work.
RIP Jan’s pony comics / animations, you will be missed.
It really shows how fast time passes, because it doesn’t seem that long ago that he was at the height of his popularity… doing live streams often and with many projects on the go (that will now never see the light of day, sadly).
When it comes to the fandom, Hasbro was floored during the first two seasons or so, and turned a blind eye to fan projects / episode uploads / etc… to increase the show’s own popularity and thus make much, much more money than they ever intended.
Around the time season three started though, everything changed. There was no need to cater to the fans anymore because the show’s success / money-making was set in stone at that point, so Hasbro started trimming off the branches so to speak, one after another. Which is a very dirty move, ignoring legal issues to make money and then using them once you have. I’d sooner have had Hasbro crack down on things from the start instead of playing the fandom like a fiddle.
Season three and onward has seen a steady decline in the fandom, the “golden age” as it were was the first two seasons. I still think what Jan tried to do with Button (making a spin-off series) was a dumb move that was probably the biggest reason he had the hammer come down on him, but it’s likely the C&D would’ve happened in time regardless of that. Because the grace period was over almost as soon as season three started, and the fans weren’t needed to hype up the series anymore.
Such a shame though, because at the time the C&D first happened, he had like three or four projects on the go that would’ve been awesome to see.
Can we just all drop this subject? It’s getting to the point where there are practiclly no comments about the art itself and just people arguing over JanAnimations. The darker Button on the picture is the one from Hearts and Hooves Day, thus not involving him at all. I’m not even going to say what side I’m on, because it’s not worth it. When an image gets tagged +drama in the comments, and that drama isn’t even about the picture, it’s time to drop it and move on.
