@BSOD (and DeadParrot)
On this note though, how do you suggest people get over it?
Retcon ALL the things! :D
Talk them through it. As you (and others) have said, a lot of people probably have issues that are deeper than the show. I even said that myself with my comment about the show being a crutch: it's something you use until the actual problem is fixed and you can go about life in a more independent manner.
This isn't something most people are willing to do or have time to do (perhaps you're a hardened Interwebz sailor, and you don't have the mind for that sort of hugboxery…which, as has also been stated, would be somewhat paradoxical.) If someone is threatening to leave the fandom, then (even though they don't or don't easily) they're probably serious about it at that moment. That means they're pretty much willing to leave not only that crutch but their friends as well.
Consider the current people we all interact with here. Would you consider yourselves close? Friends? DeadParrot (although he may be regretting it now) sent me and various other people plushies.
To people who very well may be robots I don't know he didn't I bet beep.
Fifths has collaborated on various occasions with the people he has come to (Internet) blows with. You've had full-fledged conversations right here on this thread about your personal lives.
I, myself, have sent gifts from BronyCon to various people and have a 4DE plush being sent to another friend. I even drove 5 hours one way to meet the guy (and 17 hours one way to meet various others. Despite my personal, er…
…inclinations…
…and my self-defined status as a periphery brony (and a somewhat closeted one,) I still come back to this thread as it stands, because I want to be a part of it (on some tsundere sort of level.)
How easily could you disconnect with us (or if you wouldn't include me and various spotty posters,) KYM PG?
The people who rely on their identity as bronies, their connection to the fandom, and (perhaps most so) their own friends within the brony hubs and their threats to leave all of them just indicates that they've left the realm of "rustled jimmies" and are in as much need of help as any socially disconnected person with serious emotional problems. Even if I can't counsel all of them (or even one, at times,) I can't be dismissive of them.
At my best (where I haven't been in a few months), I'd get at the root of their issues (beyond Ponus) and try to talk them through it…as a friend. These aren't things (with relationships) that a person can properly "deal with" on their own. They need other people who know and care about that person but can be objective about their situation.
That is what I'd suggest.
And for those you just happen to hear about from lurking, then I'd just let them swim around in their own funk and let them figure it out in time.
@DeadParrot
nu retcon all the things >:[
You were here when Princess Alicorn first hit (through news then in musical episode). My jimmies were certainly rustled. I didn't like it. I didn't like the implications of it. And I'm still uncertain of the direction of the series. I'm not sure if Princess Twilight Sparkle can really be a princess unless she isn't a princess in the same way that Luna and Celestia are: seemingly removed from friends or at least in a way that we haven't seen from Twilight since the very beginning of Season 1.
I have no doubt that the show would still be entertaining. Twilight was endearing to me even before she left for Ponyville in Season 1. But it wouldn't be the same, and that's not something I can just shrug off and adjust to so easily.
But I've adjusted ultimately, and I'm probably just as excited for new Pony as anyone here.
And because my other issues are minimal and the show (despite being a show I fervently follow) is just a show, I'm not in the same state as some others (and despite raising a stink, was never in any real emotional distress.)
I think that's how I can relate to others who are though. I'm not delusional. Things can't always stay the same (at risk of having the Pokémon anime syndrome xTSGx spoke of), but such a drastic change that many felt was premature wasn't really unexpected but eyebrow-raising. If it were in a vacuum, I'd have dealt better with it in the M. Night Shyamalan way.
It just felt bad with Hasbro being behind it.
But it would feel even worse with an actual involved or uninvolved backpedaling to take it back. I agree with that.
I actually had more to say, but I'm having to be in other places, so this is all you'll be exposed to get for now. And I've forgotten it. Because I'm old.