On August 13 2011 01:32 viralintruder wrote: Had to sign up a TL.net account after avidly lurking as a guest for 2+ years to comment on this (can't say I wasn't wondering when this thread would be created). All I do on TL is read the interesting threads anyway... I could not stop reading every page of this thread up to page 16 at 2am in the morning and immediately afterward made an account to participate in this discussion.
I consider myself to be a little peculiar in taste and behaviour, but I am an average male youth who enjoys stuff the average male youth is expected to (aside from watching too much Food and Travel Channel programming). My experience with MLP:FiM is typical: three months ago I could never fathom myself watching a show about flamboyantly coloured ponies reciting and enacting morals and principles that build and encourage various qualities such as unity, teamwork, diligence, caring, selflessness, honouring of obligations, equality, tolerance, constructiveness, innovation, and open-mindedness.
I could never understand why everywhere I went I always saw some image of a pony with a dubious caption to match the discussion in every forum I browsed or elsewhere on the internet. Was it an elaborate troll? Was it a dedicated movement by weirdos to derail threads and websites across the internet? Was this show one of those cartoons that are for adults but are packaged so innocuously that you'd have to be clued in on it before you watched/understood? Or was it just GOOD?
Whatever the case, I steered very far from anything equine related. Cartoons and animations for me always sucked except for a few that were really good, some that were slightly enjoyable and the rest being unbearable to watch. The mere stigmas and prejudices I held about the "My Little Pony" franchise being for 4 year old girls also made me have my reservations about diving into the show. I could not have been more sorely closed-minded about the show, as all I really knew about MLP was the little jingle and that it was a toy line, so I just figured it would be emasculating to watch a show for female toddlers.
Ponies as a meme never really made sense to me before I watched the show, and rightly so. Who the hell understands what a blue pony with a multicoloured tail and small wings has to do with being 20% cooler?
Spontaneously, one day early in the afternoon, I came to the realization that I felt bored. Bored out of my wits. The type of mundane, restless boredom that could not be ignored. All my favorite streamers were offline. There was no SC2 tournament going on. There were no movies/tv shows I was planning to watch. There was nothing pressing to take care of at home. I was tired of listening to music. It was unbearably dull.
As I sat mindlessly browsing youtube, a fan video about MLP came up in the recommendations and I stared at the thumbnail for a few seconds before clearing my mind of what I thought was good sense, ignoring the video, and going straight into searching for "My Little Pony episode 1". I was almost put off by the intro song, it was like a ringing slap to my brain to leave. Leave now.
I just listened to it and shook my head, one eye on the screen and one behind me to see if my family was looking at what I was watching. After covertly watching the first and second episodes I thought "Ok... well, that was a waste of 45 minutes. It was predictable, linear and not nearly as decent as people hype it up to be. It's just a show for little girls..." I mean, by no stretch of the imagination were the first two episodes bad; I could clearly see that a lot of work had gone into the production and animation, and whilst the plot was predictable and the setting was cheesy, the story was tied together if only a little bit dryly.
I decided to kill some more time by watching the next three episodes, and surprisingly, the subsequent episodes were like a different show. Upon completion of the first 5 episodes, I watched (amid other activities) up to episode 15 in a row that same day before tearing myself away at 3:30am to get some rest for work. Over the next month I watched the rest of the entire season at a more moderate and yet eager pace, even watching a few episodes again to re-familiarize myself with the story. The show is genuinely good and the first two episodes are a bad starting point unless you're going to watch the next 5 or so episodes to understand why the first two were necessary. Here are five reasons why I like MLP:FiM:
1) The show was genuinely and refreshingly clean unlike the majority of cartoons on CN or Nick. It didn't have to focus on killing or violence to resolve the main conflict in each episode. In fact, the MLP world of Equestria and more specifically Ponyville is devoid of violence save for minute volumes of violence necessary to advance the plot (the hydra, the dragon, the chickenlizardmedusathingy, devil dogs, etc). Violence is never rewarded or successful, and the few times the ponies do resort to violence, it is never effective.
2) The characters were identifiable and so very well developed. Were you to watch the entire season, you get a very crisp grasp of each of the ponies personalities and how they'd react to a situation; their personalities are as varied as an assortment of humans can get. You get to see how different personalities with differing methodologies and ideologies go about resolving conflict, but in the end, the "right" path is chosen and a lesson is learned. Tolerance, parity, and teamwork are heavily showcased in MLP.
3) The show pushes a single moral and expounds upon it in each episode. The characters all uniquely (yet in most cases positively) respond to developments in the story and in the end, the protagonists (any one or all of the Mane 6) will prevail with the power of an admirable quality. This is what we need in this time of aggression where children are being bombarded with violence, mercilessness, and independence in all forms of media. I will NOT regret watching this show and I hold the viewpoint that everyone should watch this show, if nothing else, at least for the moral value.
4) The production quality is exceptional, the animation never feels forced or unrealistic (=p maybe a few times, it's a cartoon...), and I have genuinely been entertained and even laughed many times in most episodes. Stories are coherent and usually fluid. Plot advancement is appropriate and characters are never contradictory to themselves in previous episodes, which shows that the entire season was mapped out with care and scrutiny. The show itself is quite vibrantly cute, sickeningly cute, but I love their style. I know that I genuinely feel better and happier when I watch MLP, those 22 minutes never feel like a drag.
5) The brony community is one of the more intriguing phenomenons to hit the internet in years. While I'm not familiar with the specifics, I believe what started off as a mixed disingenuous troll by some and a legitimate interest by others has blossomed into a mostly sincere and well mannered group of males and females the world over who enjoy watching MLP. Love and tolerance along with the other morals on the agenda of the show are the hallmark of the community and I really believe that this is a step forward in mental progression and open-mindedness. Yes, there are trolls, creeps, freaks, and people who like anthropomorphic ponies too much. They are in every community and are the minority. Some time ago there was a thread on Blizzard's SC2 forums that had waaaaay too much focus on the size of the chest of the human/zerg transition Kerrigan on the site, with comments ranging from disdain for her "ugliness" to complete devotion and violence towards dissidents. Kerrigan is a game character, these ponies are animations. Same thing? Those comments had me far more worried about the mental state and impulsions of some of the world's youths rather than comments about ponies spreading love and tolerance.
Since my discovery of MLP, I cannot wait for the next season, my only regret is that I didn't try it out it sooner. Approximately 1/5 of my browsing is about ponies, the rest is TL.net and other forums, music/movies/tv shows/youtube/misc, wikipedia/educational activities or talking to people. MLP has become an accepted part of me and I don't really care who doesn't like it or thinks negatively of me for it. I'm not a super crazy dedicated brony, and I don't purchase MLP merchandise (partly because it isn't widely available in my country and quite frankly I don't want to be mobbed for wearing a Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash shirt). I do appreciate the show and it's producers and will try to watch the next season on the Hub, and I hope that it is even better than the current season.
TL;DR: In conclusion, now that I have that all out of my system I can wholeheartedly recommend this show to everyone. I have genuinely had my approach to my actions, choices, and the people around me changed by this show. Even though no one I have shared the show with has given it a chance, that neither discourages me nor detracts from how I feel about this show or it's message. The mere fact that I, a random stranger, have so much to say about MLP:FiM is an indication that at least there is something there for some people. If it's not for you, that's fine, but don't be closed-minded.
You can find inherent goodness in something that wasn't directed towards you. If you found nothing at all in MLP:FiM, you did not give it a chance. If you really did give it an objective chance and found nothing of value, you may need to reconsider your values. The packaging may be girly, but the message is universal.
Also:
writing an essay about this kids' show is even worse than admitting that you watch it.
On August 13 2011 01:38 taldarimAltar wrote: is this thread just one big troll? I cannot for the love of pete begin to fathom why our demographic would even slightly enjoy such a thing
I was wondering that myself. To each his own , I guess. lol
On August 13 2011 01:32 viralintruder wrote: Had to sign up a TL.net account after avidly lurking as a guest for 2+ years to comment on this (can't say I wasn't wondering when this thread would be created). All I do on TL is read the interesting threads anyway... I could not stop reading every page of this thread up to page 16 at 2am in the morning and immediately afterward made an account to participate in this discussion.
I consider myself to be a little peculiar in taste and behaviour, but I am an average male youth who enjoys stuff the average male youth is expected to (aside from watching too much Food and Travel Channel programming). My experience with MLP:FiM is typical: three months ago I could never fathom myself watching a show about flamboyantly coloured ponies reciting and enacting morals and principles that build and encourage various qualities such as unity, teamwork, diligence, caring, selflessness, honouring of obligations, equality, tolerance, constructiveness, innovation, and open-mindedness.
I could never understand why everywhere I went I always saw some image of a pony with a dubious caption to match the discussion in every forum I browsed or elsewhere on the internet. Was it an elaborate troll? Was it a dedicated movement by weirdos to derail threads and websites across the internet? Was this show one of those cartoons that are for adults but are packaged so innocuously that you'd have to be clued in on it before you watched/understood? Or was it just GOOD?
Whatever the case, I steered very far from anything equine related. Cartoons and animations for me always sucked except for a few that were really good, some that were slightly enjoyable and the rest being unbearable to watch. The mere stigmas and prejudices I held about the "My Little Pony" franchise being for 4 year old girls also made me have my reservations about diving into the show. I could not have been more sorely closed-minded about the show, as all I really knew about MLP was the little jingle and that it was a toy line, so I just figured it would be emasculating to watch a show for female toddlers.
Ponies as a meme never really made sense to me before I watched the show, and rightly so. Who the hell understands what a blue pony with a multicoloured tail and small wings has to do with being 20% cooler?
Spontaneously, one day early in the afternoon, I came to the realization that I felt bored. Bored out of my wits. The type of mundane, restless boredom that could not be ignored. All my favorite streamers were offline. There was no SC2 tournament going on. There were no movies/tv shows I was planning to watch. There was nothing pressing to take care of at home. I was tired of listening to music. It was unbearably dull.
As I sat mindlessly browsing youtube, a fan video about MLP came up in the recommendations and I stared at the thumbnail for a few seconds before clearing my mind of what I thought was good sense, ignoring the video, and going straight into searching for "My Little Pony episode 1". I was almost put off by the intro song, it was like a ringing slap to my brain to leave. Leave now.
I just listened to it and shook my head, one eye on the screen and one behind me to see if my family was looking at what I was watching. After covertly watching the first and second episodes I thought "Ok... well, that was a waste of 45 minutes. It was predictable, linear and not nearly as decent as people hype it up to be. It's just a show for little girls..." I mean, by no stretch of the imagination were the first two episodes bad; I could clearly see that a lot of work had gone into the production and animation, and whilst the plot was predictable and the setting was cheesy, the story was tied together if only a little bit dryly.
I decided to kill some more time by watching the next three episodes, and surprisingly, the subsequent episodes were like a different show. Upon completion of the first 5 episodes, I watched (amid other activities) up to episode 15 in a row that same day before tearing myself away at 3:30am to get some rest for work. Over the next month I watched the rest of the entire season at a more moderate and yet eager pace, even watching a few episodes again to re-familiarize myself with the story. The show is genuinely good and the first two episodes are a bad starting point unless you're going to watch the next 5 or so episodes to understand why the first two were necessary. Here are five reasons why I like MLP:FiM:
1) The show was genuinely and refreshingly clean unlike the majority of cartoons on CN or Nick. It didn't have to focus on killing or violence to resolve the main conflict in each episode. In fact, the MLP world of Equestria and more specifically Ponyville is devoid of violence save for minute volumes of violence necessary to advance the plot (the hydra, the dragon, the chickenlizardmedusathingy, devil dogs, etc). Violence is never rewarded or successful, and the few times the ponies do resort to violence, it is never effective.
2) The characters were identifiable and so very well developed. Were you to watch the entire season, you get a very crisp grasp of each of the ponies personalities and how they'd react to a situation; their personalities are as varied as an assortment of humans can get. You get to see how different personalities with differing methodologies and ideologies go about resolving conflict, but in the end, the "right" path is chosen and a lesson is learned. Tolerance, parity, and teamwork are heavily showcased in MLP.
3) The show pushes a single moral and expounds upon it in each episode. The characters all uniquely (yet in most cases positively) respond to developments in the story and in the end, the protagonists (any one or all of the Mane 6) will prevail with the power of an admirable quality. This is what we need in this time of aggression where children are being bombarded with violence, mercilessness, and independence in all forms of media. I will NOT regret watching this show and I hold the viewpoint that everyone should watch this show, if nothing else, at least for the moral value.
4) The production quality is exceptional, the animation never feels forced or unrealistic (=p maybe a few times, it's a cartoon...), and I have genuinely been entertained and even laughed many times in most episodes. Stories are coherent and usually fluid. Plot advancement is appropriate and characters are never contradictory to themselves in previous episodes, which shows that the entire season was mapped out with care and scrutiny. The show itself is quite vibrantly cute, sickeningly cute, but I love their style. I know that I genuinely feel better and happier when I watch MLP, those 22 minutes never feel like a drag.
5) The brony community is one of the more intriguing phenomenons to hit the internet in years. While I'm not familiar with the specifics, I believe what started off as a mixed disingenuous troll by some and a legitimate interest by others has blossomed into a mostly sincere and well mannered group of males and females the world over who enjoy watching MLP. Love and tolerance along with the other morals on the agenda of the show are the hallmark of the community and I really believe that this is a step forward in mental progression and open-mindedness. Yes, there are trolls, creeps, freaks, and people who like anthropomorphic ponies too much. They are in every community and are the minority. Some time ago there was a thread on Blizzard's SC2 forums that had waaaaay too much focus on the size of the chest of the human/zerg transition Kerrigan on the site, with comments ranging from disdain for her "ugliness" to complete devotion and violence towards dissidents. Kerrigan is a game character, these ponies are animations. Same thing? Those comments had me far more worried about the mental state and impulsions of some of the world's youths rather than comments about ponies spreading love and tolerance.
Since my discovery of MLP, I cannot wait for the next season, my only regret is that I didn't try it out it sooner. Approximately 1/5 of my browsing is about ponies, the rest is TL.net and other forums, music/movies/tv shows/youtube/misc, wikipedia/educational activities or talking to people. MLP has become an accepted part of me and I don't really care who doesn't like it or thinks negatively of me for it. I'm not a super crazy dedicated brony, and I don't purchase MLP merchandise (partly because it isn't widely available in my country and quite frankly I don't want to be mobbed for wearing a Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash shirt). I do appreciate the show and it's producers and will try to watch the next season on the Hub, and I hope that it is even better than the current season.
TL;DR: In conclusion, now that I have that all out of my system I can wholeheartedly recommend this show to everyone. I have genuinely had my approach to my actions, choices, and the people around me changed by this show. Even though no one I have shared the show with has given it a chance, that neither discourages me nor detracts from how I feel about this show or it's message. The mere fact that I, a random stranger, have so much to say about MLP:FiM is an indication that at least there is something there for some people. If it's not for you, that's fine, but don't be closed-minded.
You can find inherent goodness in something that wasn't directed towards you. If you found nothing at all in MLP:FiM, you did not give it a chance. If you really did give it an objective chance and found nothing of value, you may need to reconsider your values. The packaging may be girly, but the message is universal.
It's a modern cartoon, language and graphics, and the jokes are refreshingly natural. I like practical jokes and irony, but it´s rare in good comedy shows, real or cartoons. It just feels like a high quality cartoon with the graphics, and that makes it more fun to look at. And then there´s something about a pony saying "This is serious business" or "Oh, it´s on!"
Haha, my friends know I watch the show but I never faced any type of discrimination or was made fun for liking it because I am gay (sterotypes ftw) But more importantly, I play LoL hours every day. I have to put up with ragers and egomaniacs so many times a day and I sometimes wonder why I play the game in the first place. Then when I meet your typical LoL player in real life and get a game going and we discuss it afterwards, people barely try to talk well about others or try avoiding so. Instead, people brag how awesome they are, even if they fed, they will claim they were distracting. I think of Rainbow Dash, my favorite character but she is still someone that is not really 100 percent snobby but 20 percent (bad joke intentional) but she is still fun and interesting...there is some charm to her arrogance.
On August 13 2011 01:32 viralintruder wrote: Had to sign up a TL.net account after avidly lurking as a guest for 2+ years to comment on this (can't say I wasn't wondering when this thread would be created). All I do on TL is read the interesting threads anyway... I could not stop reading every page of this thread up to page 16 at 2am in the morning and immediately afterward made an account to participate in this discussion.
I consider myself to be a little peculiar in taste and behaviour, but I am an average male youth who enjoys stuff the average male youth is expected to (aside from watching too much Food and Travel Channel programming). My experience with MLP:FiM is typical: three months ago I could never fathom myself watching a show about flamboyantly coloured ponies reciting and enacting morals and principles that build and encourage various qualities such as unity, teamwork, diligence, caring, selflessness, honouring of obligations, equality, tolerance, constructiveness, innovation, and open-mindedness.
I could never understand why everywhere I went I always saw some image of a pony with a dubious caption to match the discussion in every forum I browsed or elsewhere on the internet. Was it an elaborate troll? Was it a dedicated movement by weirdos to derail threads and websites across the internet? Was this show one of those cartoons that are for adults but are packaged so innocuously that you'd have to be clued in on it before you watched/understood? Or was it just GOOD?
Whatever the case, I steered very far from anything equine related. Cartoons and animations for me always sucked except for a few that were really good, some that were slightly enjoyable and the rest being unbearable to watch. The mere stigmas and prejudices I held about the "My Little Pony" franchise being for 4 year old girls also made me have my reservations about diving into the show. I could not have been more sorely closed-minded about the show, as all I really knew about MLP was the little jingle and that it was a toy line, so I just figured it would be emasculating to watch a show for female toddlers.
Ponies as a meme never really made sense to me before I watched the show, and rightly so. Who the hell understands what a blue pony with a multicoloured tail and small wings has to do with being 20% cooler?
Spontaneously, one day early in the afternoon, I came to the realization that I felt bored. Bored out of my wits. The type of mundane, restless boredom that could not be ignored. All my favorite streamers were offline. There was no SC2 tournament going on. There were no movies/tv shows I was planning to watch. There was nothing pressing to take care of at home. I was tired of listening to music. It was unbearably dull.
As I sat mindlessly browsing youtube, a fan video about MLP came up in the recommendations and I stared at the thumbnail for a few seconds before clearing my mind of what I thought was good sense, ignoring the video, and going straight into searching for "My Little Pony episode 1". I was almost put off by the intro song, it was like a ringing slap to my brain to leave. Leave now.
I just listened to it and shook my head, one eye on the screen and one behind me to see if my family was looking at what I was watching. After covertly watching the first and second episodes I thought "Ok... well, that was a waste of 45 minutes. It was predictable, linear and not nearly as decent as people hype it up to be. It's just a show for little girls..." I mean, by no stretch of the imagination were the first two episodes bad; I could clearly see that a lot of work had gone into the production and animation, and whilst the plot was predictable and the setting was cheesy, the story was tied together if only a little bit dryly.
I decided to kill some more time by watching the next three episodes, and surprisingly, the subsequent episodes were like a different show. Upon completion of the first 5 episodes, I watched (amid other activities) up to episode 15 in a row that same day before tearing myself away at 3:30am to get some rest for work. Over the next month I watched the rest of the entire season at a more moderate and yet eager pace, even watching a few episodes again to re-familiarize myself with the story. The show is genuinely good and the first two episodes are a bad starting point unless you're going to watch the next 5 or so episodes to understand why the first two were necessary. Here are five reasons why I like MLP:FiM:
1) The show was genuinely and refreshingly clean unlike the majority of cartoons on CN or Nick. It didn't have to focus on killing or violence to resolve the main conflict in each episode. In fact, the MLP world of Equestria and more specifically Ponyville is devoid of violence save for minute volumes of violence necessary to advance the plot (the hydra, the dragon, the chickenlizardmedusathingy, devil dogs, etc). Violence is never rewarded or successful, and the few times the ponies do resort to violence, it is never effective.
2) The characters were identifiable and so very well developed. Were you to watch the entire season, you get a very crisp grasp of each of the ponies personalities and how they'd react to a situation; their personalities are as varied as an assortment of humans can get. You get to see how different personalities with differing methodologies and ideologies go about resolving conflict, but in the end, the "right" path is chosen and a lesson is learned. Tolerance, parity, and teamwork are heavily showcased in MLP.
3) The show pushes a single moral and expounds upon it in each episode. The characters all uniquely (yet in most cases positively) respond to developments in the story and in the end, the protagonists (any one or all of the Mane 6) will prevail with the power of an admirable quality. This is what we need in this time of aggression where children are being bombarded with violence, mercilessness, and independence in all forms of media. I will NOT regret watching this show and I hold the viewpoint that everyone should watch this show, if nothing else, at least for the moral value.
4) The production quality is exceptional, the animation never feels forced or unrealistic (=p maybe a few times, it's a cartoon...), and I have genuinely been entertained and even laughed many times in most episodes. Stories are coherent and usually fluid. Plot advancement is appropriate and characters are never contradictory to themselves in previous episodes, which shows that the entire season was mapped out with care and scrutiny. The show itself is quite vibrantly cute, sickeningly cute, but I love their style. I know that I genuinely feel better and happier when I watch MLP, those 22 minutes never feel like a drag.
5) The brony community is one of the more intriguing phenomenons to hit the internet in years. While I'm not familiar with the specifics, I believe what started off as a mixed disingenuous troll by some and a legitimate interest by others has blossomed into a mostly sincere and well mannered group of males and females the world over who enjoy watching MLP. Love and tolerance along with the other morals on the agenda of the show are the hallmark of the community and I really believe that this is a step forward in mental progression and open-mindedness. Yes, there are trolls, creeps, freaks, and people who like anthropomorphic ponies too much. They are in every community and are the minority. Some time ago there was a thread on Blizzard's SC2 forums that had waaaaay too much focus on the size of the chest of the human/zerg transition Kerrigan on the site, with comments ranging from disdain for her "ugliness" to complete devotion and violence towards dissidents. Kerrigan is a game character, these ponies are animations. Same thing? Those comments had me far more worried about the mental state and impulsions of some of the world's youths rather than comments about ponies spreading love and tolerance.
Since my discovery of MLP, I cannot wait for the next season, my only regret is that I didn't try it out it sooner. Approximately 1/5 of my browsing is about ponies, the rest is TL.net and other forums, music/movies/tv shows/youtube/misc, wikipedia/educational activities or talking to people. MLP has become an accepted part of me and I don't really care who doesn't like it or thinks negatively of me for it. I'm not a super crazy dedicated brony, and I don't purchase MLP merchandise (partly because it isn't widely available in my country and quite frankly I don't want to be mobbed for wearing a Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash shirt). I do appreciate the show and it's producers and will try to watch the next season on the Hub, and I hope that it is even better than the current season.
TL;DR: In conclusion, now that I have that all out of my system I can wholeheartedly recommend this show to everyone. I have genuinely had my approach to my actions, choices, and the people around me changed by this show. Even though no one I have shared the show with has given it a chance, that neither discourages me nor detracts from how I feel about this show or it's message. The mere fact that I, a random stranger, have so much to say about MLP:FiM is an indication that at least there is something there for some people. If it's not for you, that's fine, but don't be closed-minded.
You can find inherent goodness in something that wasn't directed towards you. If you found nothing at all in MLP:FiM, you did not give it a chance. If you really did give it an objective chance and found nothing of value, you may need to reconsider your values. The packaging may be girly, but the message is universal.
On August 13 2011 01:32 viralintruder wrote: Had to sign up a TL.net account after avidly lurking as a guest for 2+ years to comment on this (can't say I wasn't wondering when this thread would be created). All I do on TL is read the interesting threads anyway... I could not stop reading every page of this thread up to page 16 at 2am in the morning and immediately afterward made an account to participate in this discussion.
I consider myself to be a little peculiar in taste and behaviour, but I am an average male youth who enjoys stuff the average male youth is expected to (aside from watching too much Food and Travel Channel programming). My experience with MLP:FiM is typical: three months ago I could never fathom myself watching a show about flamboyantly coloured ponies reciting and enacting morals and principles that build and encourage various qualities such as unity, teamwork, diligence, caring, selflessness, honouring of obligations, equality, tolerance, constructiveness, innovation, and open-mindedness.
I could never understand why everywhere I went I always saw some image of a pony with a dubious caption to match the discussion in every forum I browsed or elsewhere on the internet. Was it an elaborate troll? Was it a dedicated movement by weirdos to derail threads and websites across the internet? Was this show one of those cartoons that are for adults but are packaged so innocuously that you'd have to be clued in on it before you watched/understood? Or was it just GOOD?
Whatever the case, I steered very far from anything equine related. Cartoons and animations for me always sucked except for a few that were really good, some that were slightly enjoyable and the rest being unbearable to watch. The mere stigmas and prejudices I held about the "My Little Pony" franchise being for 4 year old girls also made me have my reservations about diving into the show. I could not have been more sorely closed-minded about the show, as all I really knew about MLP was the little jingle and that it was a toy line, so I just figured it would be emasculating to watch a show for female toddlers.
Ponies as a meme never really made sense to me before I watched the show, and rightly so. Who the hell understands what a blue pony with a multicoloured tail and small wings has to do with being 20% cooler?
Spontaneously, one day early in the afternoon, I came to the realization that I felt bored. Bored out of my wits. The type of mundane, restless boredom that could not be ignored. All my favorite streamers were offline. There was no SC2 tournament going on. There were no movies/tv shows I was planning to watch. There was nothing pressing to take care of at home. I was tired of listening to music. It was unbearably dull.
As I sat mindlessly browsing youtube, a fan video about MLP came up in the recommendations and I stared at the thumbnail for a few seconds before clearing my mind of what I thought was good sense, ignoring the video, and going straight into searching for "My Little Pony episode 1". I was almost put off by the intro song, it was like a ringing slap to my brain to leave. Leave now.
I just listened to it and shook my head, one eye on the screen and one behind me to see if my family was looking at what I was watching. After covertly watching the first and second episodes I thought "Ok... well, that was a waste of 45 minutes. It was predictable, linear and not nearly as decent as people hype it up to be. It's just a show for little girls..." I mean, by no stretch of the imagination were the first two episodes bad; I could clearly see that a lot of work had gone into the production and animation, and whilst the plot was predictable and the setting was cheesy, the story was tied together if only a little bit dryly.
I decided to kill some more time by watching the next three episodes, and surprisingly, the subsequent episodes were like a different show. Upon completion of the first 5 episodes, I watched (amid other activities) up to episode 15 in a row that same day before tearing myself away at 3:30am to get some rest for work. Over the next month I watched the rest of the entire season at a more moderate and yet eager pace, even watching a few episodes again to re-familiarize myself with the story. The show is genuinely good and the first two episodes are a bad starting point unless you're going to watch the next 5 or so episodes to understand why the first two were necessary. Here are five reasons why I like MLP:FiM:
1) The show was genuinely and refreshingly clean unlike the majority of cartoons on CN or Nick. It didn't have to focus on killing or violence to resolve the main conflict in each episode. In fact, the MLP world of Equestria and more specifically Ponyville is devoid of violence save for minute volumes of violence necessary to advance the plot (the hydra, the dragon, the chickenlizardmedusathingy, devil dogs, etc). Violence is never rewarded or successful, and the few times the ponies do resort to violence, it is never effective.
2) The characters were identifiable and so very well developed. Were you to watch the entire season, you get a very crisp grasp of each of the ponies personalities and how they'd react to a situation; their personalities are as varied as an assortment of humans can get. You get to see how different personalities with differing methodologies and ideologies go about resolving conflict, but in the end, the "right" path is chosen and a lesson is learned. Tolerance, parity, and teamwork are heavily showcased in MLP.
3) The show pushes a single moral and expounds upon it in each episode. The characters all uniquely (yet in most cases positively) respond to developments in the story and in the end, the protagonists (any one or all of the Mane 6) will prevail with the power of an admirable quality. This is what we need in this time of aggression where children are being bombarded with violence, mercilessness, and independence in all forms of media. I will NOT regret watching this show and I hold the viewpoint that everyone should watch this show, if nothing else, at least for the moral value.
4) The production quality is exceptional, the animation never feels forced or unrealistic (=p maybe a few times, it's a cartoon...), and I have genuinely been entertained and even laughed many times in most episodes. Stories are coherent and usually fluid. Plot advancement is appropriate and characters are never contradictory to themselves in previous episodes, which shows that the entire season was mapped out with care and scrutiny. The show itself is quite vibrantly cute, sickeningly cute, but I love their style. I know that I genuinely feel better and happier when I watch MLP, those 22 minutes never feel like a drag.
5) The brony community is one of the more intriguing phenomenons to hit the internet in years. While I'm not familiar with the specifics, I believe what started off as a mixed disingenuous troll by some and a legitimate interest by others has blossomed into a mostly sincere and well mannered group of males and females the world over who enjoy watching MLP. Love and tolerance along with the other morals on the agenda of the show are the hallmark of the community and I really believe that this is a step forward in mental progression and open-mindedness. Yes, there are trolls, creeps, freaks, and people who like anthropomorphic ponies too much. They are in every community and are the minority. Some time ago there was a thread on Blizzard's SC2 forums that had waaaaay too much focus on the size of the chest of the human/zerg transition Kerrigan on the site, with comments ranging from disdain for her "ugliness" to complete devotion and violence towards dissidents. Kerrigan is a game character, these ponies are animations. Same thing? Those comments had me far more worried about the mental state and impulsions of some of the world's youths rather than comments about ponies spreading love and tolerance.
Since my discovery of MLP, I cannot wait for the next season, my only regret is that I didn't try it out it sooner. Approximately 1/5 of my browsing is about ponies, the rest is TL.net and other forums, music/movies/tv shows/youtube/misc, wikipedia/educational activities or talking to people. MLP has become an accepted part of me and I don't really care who doesn't like it or thinks negatively of me for it. I'm not a super crazy dedicated brony, and I don't purchase MLP merchandise (partly because it isn't widely available in my country and quite frankly I don't want to be mobbed for wearing a Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash shirt). I do appreciate the show and it's producers and will try to watch the next season on the Hub, and I hope that it is even better than the current season.
TL;DR: In conclusion, now that I have that all out of my system I can wholeheartedly recommend this show to everyone. I have genuinely had my approach to my actions, choices, and the people around me changed by this show. Even though no one I have shared the show with has given it a chance, that neither discourages me nor detracts from how I feel about this show or it's message. The mere fact that I, a random stranger, have so much to say about MLP:FiM is an indication that at least there is something there for some people. If it's not for you, that's fine, but don't be closed-minded.
You can find inherent goodness in something that wasn't directed towards you. If you found nothing at all in MLP:FiM, you did not give it a chance. If you really did give it an objective chance and found nothing of value, you may need to reconsider your values. The packaging may be girly, but the message is universal.
My sentiments exactly. I hope this thread keeps civil, no need to devolve into name calling or argumentum ad hominem discrediting the show based on assumptions of the people who watch it.
On August 12 2011 14:12 Mr. Wiggles wrote: GMarshal, what madness is this!?!?!? O.o
Flamewheel better hide... :p
Madness? This... is... PONIES!
On August 12 2011 14:30 AirbladeOrange wrote: GMarshal, I never thought a badass die hard mafia guy like yourself would watch a show about magical ponies. Either way I don't care but I do have a question for the guys who like this show. What other TV shows do you like? I never even heard of this Hub station.
I guess it takes a real man to admit what he likes :-P
As for what other shows I watch, basically only Game of Thrones, although I watch a fair bit of anime on the side
I was bemused at peoples aparent love of the show, so I gave it a shot last night.
It's pretty well written, it's not what you expect hearing "my little pony" and remembering those childhood toys.
It genuinely made me smile and laugh out a few times. It's got a positive atmosphere that sucks you in, you can't help but sit there grinning at some of it.
Give it a shot, won't hurt u.
Other shows I watch - Game of Thrones, House MD, Dexter, Breaking Bad, Misfits, Daily Show/Colbert report for lulz. Have never watched anime though, didn't quite grab me.
Thank you for that post Viralintruder I too felt the need to register for this discussion but you said what I was thinking much more eloquently than I could have managed.
The fandom surrounding the show does have its odd folk just like every fandom that ever existed has but on the whole the "brony" community is one of the friendlier and creative that ive ever witnessed and I assure you the love of the show is very sincere, (thought no doubt a few people in it for the "oh im so ironic" deal) a gem in the rough of todays grim and cynical interwebs.
That being said I don't expect everyone to enjoy the show that is of course rediculous but most people that have watched it do end up enjoying it (even the first 2 episodes...they get alot of hate but i like them just fine :D) If you do watch the show I could say come with an open mind, but really the quality speaks for itself, just dont turn it off at the initial intro music, its cheesy but you might learn to love it eventually.
Also hello TL! yay for Brood war and yay for starcraft 2
EPT
