First Blog

Hi there!

Wayward Pony here, also known as Stone Rabbit to the furries, and Peter to my friends.

Where to start? Makes sense most people or bronies out there reading this might be interested in how I got into My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Well, MLP: FiM is a pretty interesting phenomenon that I almost didn't start following.

A couple years ago when it was first on I was living in a different house than I am now, with a cable provider not like what I have now. I had the HUB and I was curious to see what was on it around the time MLP was going to appear. I watched the first episode and was NOT impressed in the least. I thought, for one, it was suggesting the death of traditional animation in favour of flash and what I perceived to be an anime look and very anime'ish character designs/personalities. I thought it was formulaic and the characters were uninspired. By the time the first episode rolled to Sweet Apple Acres and started introducing the Apple Family, I lost interest. I watched it as well as little snatches here and there of the second episode, flipping through back and forth with something else. I did catch Pinky's song and thought it sounded much like what could be found on youtube by the guy who made Charlie the Unicorn. Basically, I said to myself "pass" and thought it'd fade away pretty quickly. It was a modest sucess that seemed to be growing...

I gave other episodes a chance. Apple Jack's episode I watched up to the Mayor giving her the trophy, and Pinky's episode I watched up to the meeting of Gilda... it almost got me, if it weren't for Gilda's dated lingo and appearance. The Peppe Lepew parody was a count against it though, plus Gilda was too much. Had I watched the episode through, however, I would have seen some of what draws people towards it and probably would have appreciated the series some.

A while later I was flicking through the channels and found MLP about to begin. Over a Barrel was the episode playing, and, again, it almost had me until it got to the silliness involving the buffalo. That episode is the weakest in the first season, IMO, but it does have some good moments.

I was flipping through and saw the beginning of yet another episode. The "Pink thing" sang:

This is your singing telegram, I hope it finds you well!
You're invited to a party, 'cause we think you're really swell!

I immediately changed the channel and that was the last I saw of MLP in that house.

Now, a while later I discovered a game on New Grounds called Story of the Blanks, where I played an RPG like adventure as "Apple Blossom" (actually Applebloom, lol). I found it atmospheric and fricken creepy! I filed it away in my long term memory as something I liked, and continued on with life.

Well, then I moved across the country with my family, leaving behind friends, co-workers, and even my mate. It was tough, but I found the people I started interacting with and working with to be more... well, positive. My perspective, my outlook started changing gradually, and I had a lot of free time...

I discovered, being a furry, a lot of.... bronie stuff on places like Fchan and Fur Affinity. People on, and outside, of these websites justified their liking of MLP in a lot of ways -- some said it was the positive energy of the characters, others said it was the neat writing, the impressive artwork, even some said they just found the characters to be sexy and that was enough. All this made me curious...

I took off youtube a few of the episodes one day when I had a lot of time. I rewatched the pilot, saying to myself I will NOT turn it off until I've given it at least 9 episodes. There are cringe worthy moments in the pilot and I cringed, watching other episodes in the series there were plenty of cringe worthy moments, but there were also moments that I really liked. The ending of the episode with Gilda and Pinky was something I was guessing about -- was Pinky really trying to anger Gilda or was it just dumb luck? There have been several episodes where I was wondering how they're going to end... what road is it sound to take? There have been also several episodes where it was painfully obvious. I almost cancelled my 9 episode promise with Boast Busters, due to Ingus and Dingus, but I gave it a full chance and found a few of the gags to be chuckle worthy.

Then I said I'd download the whole season, as a curiosoty... I downloaded it and watched a couple a day. I also started exploring the fandom during this time, being a bit of a shut in due to being in a "scary new world" half way across the country.

It was during this time I discovered Azekha (s/p), a youtube personality. He read fan fiction and a few in particular stand out that were not smut:

Pretty In Pink
My Little Dashie
Bubbles

I'm used to reading some pretty terrible fan fiction. The amount of effort and creativity put into these tear-jerker stories really caught me off guard. The fact that the reader was getting upset suggested to me that he really cared about the characters and was invested in them. While I didn't entirely know all the character names yet, I knew some of them well enough and I got invested enough to feel sad listening to him read. Whether it was acting or not on his part, it stood out to me.

I started re-watching some of the episodes I already seen. It was fun for me. I seemed to have a bit more pep in my step at work because I was playing the MLP theme song in my head during busier times... It's normal for me to play music in my head when I'm stressed, just happened to be the MLP theme XD

What finally sold me was the same episode I couldn't stand the opening of back in my old house -- Party of None. By the time I was watching that episode, I was curious to see season 2. By the time I was watching season 2, I was occasionally falling asleep at night with them playing on my computer.

Part of what gave me this curiosity was all the free time I had. I really wasn't up to exploring the new world all that much yet, as I had just moved, so I gave something new a chance... the second thing that made me curious, was that I had a much more positive support structure than I had before. Let's just say I had a better understanding of "the magic of friendship" and a lot of my co-workers/friends out here, men and women, just seemed... better adjusted. This put me into a more accepting and open frame of mind, and made me feel a bit less harsh. It was a time killer during a transitional phase and I can see some cool things in it.

To be fair to the Hub, once I got settled enough I got a satellite hook-up with the Hub on it. I always felt that if one is enjoying something that much, he should contributed something towards it... and I did. Not everybody can get the HUB, and fortunately there are still ways to watch MLP online.

I don't know whether or not I'd call myself a brony. There are aspects of it, such as the art and the storyline, which I have grown an appreciation for. The art, having layers on top of layers for the characters and very lush backgorunds is cool. The story lines can keep me wondering what road MLPs going to take, and sometimes it takes an interesting direction. Parodies also get my interest, vile ones as well as more accurate ones. It's as much the community that draws me in as it is the series, perhaps even more so, because the community creates art and kinda does its own thing much like the furries. MLP's become a pretty cool thing because of the fandom. Your fans make you big, and it seems the cast of MLP certainly appreciates us all with open minds quite well :)

Nowadays when I watch a MLP episode, I try to remain objective. First I realize I'm watching a show that was designed for little girls and is basically advertising a toy line. I'm a fan of children's television to begin with, so it isn't hard to go into that mindset and level of expectation. I ask myself at the end of the episode what did it share and how did it go about it? Would it teach a little girl an appropriate lesson in values? Was it funny? Did it beat me over the head with the moral? Generally, no to the last, even in the more recent ones which have been a bit weaker and less inspired, and even a bit rushed in the end O.o

It started out with a lot of energy seeming like it didn't know what to do with some of the ideas, the second season was more refined and less awkward, but at times had pretty stupid episodes. Third seasons has had a couple gems, a couple episodes with a lot of good ideas but so-so execution, and a couple really awful episodes.

This has been how I got into MLP and my two-cents on the series. It's a fun series and it's got quite a following, and I'm happy to be enjoying both the series itself as well as the following.