Eh, ponies are quite alright, in my opinion. Sure, I relaunched a pony thread in the EOF, but.... it IS the EOF, so it doesn't matter. It's not like I let my EOF content necesarily spill into the other boards here (maybe possibly my own blogs).
I agree on certain points with the opposers here. Some bronies DO take it too far: while I agree that it there's some worth in having something you can share with others, you know there's something wrong when they want to roleplay as ponies.
Those sorts of people can be considered to be on par with weeaboos, or at least in my eyes. I'm not going to let myself fall into that sort of destructive fandom.
Nonetheless, there some things that you can take to heart from MLP if you give it some thought and don't drone around like the fanboys I described above. For one, it DOES remind us who are a bit older that common decency matters: loyalty, laughter, honesty and the like are integral to the relationships we have to other people. It may not seem like it, but as I've gotten older, I've forgotten these principles a bit. MLP brings this back a bit.
Now, this doesn't mean I constantly restrain myself from posting ponies everywhere obsessively, or show ponies to everyone I know. The fact is that I'm just very lax over it IRL: if my friends find out about, alright. Maybe online, I'm a bit more vocal about it (especially in the EOF, perhaps). The principles I sketched up above are probably the only thing I do absorb properly from the show, anything else is really just fluff for me.
So while a few of you may argue "
but you photoshop ponies in the pony thread, Ace!"... I choose to do this because 1) Photoshopping is a skill I've been trying to practice for YEARS now, so this is nothing new, and 2) It's fun to contribute. While the brony community would benefit more from being a simple arts (excluding fan-fic here slightly) fandom rather than leghumping the entire My Little Pony franchise, it's just the way it is.
To some extent, I can sort of understand why something as foreign and overtly (sp?) girly like MLP brings out naysayers. There's a large element of trolls included in it from the fans. But it is important for these people who oppose MLP to look past this provocative function, and instead look at the more positive factors: isn't it GOOD to have more people brought together to something like Bronycon's, in a similar way to the umpteen iterations of anime conventions?
Because of this, I find it harder and harder everyday to separate "cartoon" fans from anime fans, because the general fandom is so similar. I'm not saying I lump them all together, because that'd lead to this becoming another massive flame war. But I do want to say that the communities hold similarities, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
I know a lot of you here are likely thinking that most bronies are 15 year old little shits, running around on chan boards and fapping to anything vaguely feminine showing skin. While there ARE quite a bit of these sorts of bronies, most of the ones I do know here in Sweden (through Facebook) are generally older than 23. Many already have families of their own, or at the least a university education. I'm not saying that it's like this all over the world, but doesn't this suggest an older fanbase than just teens? Maybe the people who were teens during the days of Dexter's Lab, Johnny Bravo, Johnny Quest, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Cow and Chicken, I Am Weasel, Ed Edd 'n Eddy, Powerpuff Girls, etc?
I'm not writing this wall of text up to tell you how to think. I'm doing this because I myself haven't put these thoughts to words since I first saw the show. It's first now that I know what I want to say about this and how I want say it. Please, excuse me if I come off as patronizing: I'm trying to be as clear as possible with my thoughts.
Now, unlike a Rayder-length post ( ), I'll go ahead and TL;DR this:
- It's okay for anyone to like MLP: no one should have to tell you what to like or believe.
- Yes, some bronies CAN be compared to weeaboos in their level of destructive-obsessive fandom.
- There are good things to take from the show, namely the importance of friendship and principles of general decency.
- Anyone who watches it is in control of what they take in from it: you don't instantly turn into a "weeabrony" from watching it.
- In my eyes, the brony community looks better if it's not leghumping the MLP franchise with brony conventions.
- The fandom is comparable to anime fandom: there's conventions, merchandise, cosplaying, etc.
- Bronies aren't always necesarily 15 y/o's with too much angst and confusion: check those numbers up.
Final Summation:
It's another iteration of something with a following. How much you care is up to you.
EDIT: Alright, nice type-up and formatting finished. Time to rest my fingers a bit.
