I've never understood the 'brony' thing

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Okay, I don't mean to sound critical, but I never understood why teen and young adult guys like My Little Pony so much, considering it was made for little girls. I'm not trying to say that it's bad, I just don't know how guys can identify with the show. Can someone tell me what all the rage is about with MLP?

The plots, characters, and humor. They have a huge range that would take a long time to type out the variety of...especially the humor. They go from references (my favorite being their Metal gear Solid reference,) puns, cartoonish humor, breaking the 4th wall humor and political undertones to a few episodes. A lot of the humor is also based around the characters they have built, which is marvelous since it allows for humor where the characters make fun of each other in a fun way.

If you don't understand the Derpy Hooves appeal, I don't either.

I particularly find the character FLuttershy to be relatable...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcUCjAzHoLc[/youtube]

Can you honestly say this isn't funny or doesn't represent a well created character?

Edit: Also worth noting many "bronies" are annoying 4chan idiots following trends. They are about 60% of the fanbase...

Because the idea that boys can only relate to boys and girls can only relate to girls is really outdated. Girls can like "guy shows" so why can't guys like "girl shows"?

What they said. And MLP is the only thing that I can use to express my interests.

Why do boys like to have an easy bake oven? Why do girls like sports? Why do girls like to get out of the kitchen (just joking).

I would say there is rage about MLP as much as there is controversy. As you said it is very much a "girly" show, but so what? Why should people be constrained to social norms?

The creator also did the old Powerpuff Girls cartoon, and guess which demographic was watching that?

While it is in fact primarily marketed towards little girls, they toss in too many little in-jokes, pop-culture references, and other subtle nods that anyone under 12 is not going to get. Also, the season 2 villain is a complete expy of Star Trek's Q, even sharing the same voice actor, John de Lancie.

My particular favorite (no counting the semi-canonical "Derpy Hooves") is Applejack, being the most straightforward and plain-speaking of the characters.

I didn't get it, either. And then I watched a few episodes. The rest is history.

All I can say is, everything this show does, Ruby Gloom did it better.

Powerpuff Girls is equally awesome for that very reason. Bubbles = Fluttershy kinda.

Also, I didn't know Discord was modeled after anything, just thought he was an awesome villain idea.

I've read some stuff on the internet about this... that lots of Aspies like MLP because it's "grounding", whatever that means in psychiatrist's lingo.

I personally like the show because it elucidates (albeit through cartoon) the dynamics in play in a friendship circle through stereotypically portrayed characters. The conflicts, the challenges, the foibles and the faux pas are there. It's friendly and non-threatening in virtually every way, and it helps me identify lots of the key elements of friendship that i failed to see as an adolescent.

I suppose that's someone's definition of "grounding" but there you go.

Grounding as in calming...I'll copy and paste over a story that explains why I like this show so much. I find the letters on friendship lessons useful because I'm kinda socially ret*d.



I don't often tell stories, but I think this will explain why I've been way more into this show than I previously was. Before this incident, I watched only for Fluttershy and the humor. The lessons learned from the show later helped.

I had to get the state of Florida's help to pressure my dad into getting a psych evaluation. The first 4 hours at a mental health facility were fine. However, then I was taken backroom.

I woke up and found that there was nothing familiar (something that alone would set off most aspergians), had no ability to use my coping mechanisms (Apparently a Sony Walkman mp3 player and an acoustic guitar are a weapon but a f***ing telephone behind a desk isn't), no music to calm myself, no music to play, and art and writing only help me so far, they don't take me completely out of reality.

But that was only half the problems. The food was awful, so I basically starved while I was there; the acoustics basically made the sound be always in a way you heard EVERYTHING, yet they allowed no music for BS reasons; the others were freaked out by me and as such bullied me; and I had only so much I could do to calm myself. It got so bad they forced me to take mood stabalizers...which causes hallucinations. I never want to see spiders on the ceiling and feel my skin crawling again, let alone for a whole day.

I had to survive this for 2 days. By halfway through the first day, I had a panic attack from all of this that lasted for 3 hours. No sympathy from anyone.

The thing that kept me sustained was this: Fluttershy's experiences. I thought about them and how she would handle various situations (since me and her are a lot alike, except for my higher masculinity obviously) and used it to cope. There are many examples I could use, but this is getting long enough as is.

I also used the lessons of Twilight Sparkle regarding friendship findings to ease the tension between me and the other drugged out people trapped in that purgatory covered with art. I also found thinking about the subtle humor, puns and not-so-subtle humor to be a nice diversion to the blank horrors around me. It would go from white noise of insanity to a pure amount of chaos, with no true rhythms around. All those acoustics, all the random noises, all the random phone calls that were constantly happening. And no privacy or means to take care of myself (damn locks on EVERYTHING.)

And at least I got the diagnosis to start therapy, though they probably misdiagnosed it. This was the third hardest thing I've ever done, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic helped me out where music couldn't.

That's quite a story.

Did this happen to you?

Yep, happened a few weeks ago. Id I wasn't such a strong person, it would have likely been traumatic.

watch ' Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony ' (you can find it on netflix) it may help you understand a bit better......my son daniel ( who is in the documentary) is a brony who has aspergers.

Slight correction. The Powerpuff Girls originator was Craig McCracken. It was his wife, Lauren Faust, who was behind the 1st and 2nd Seasons of MLP. She shares a very similar sense of humour and style of writing to her husband though, so easy mistake to make.