Help me out!!! · 8:51pm Feb 3rd, 2013
As some of you may or may not be aware, the extremely popular website Cracked.com released an article about 4 insane pieces of My Little Pony fan content. The entries were Porn comics, food porn, Fallout: Equestria, and Rainbow Factory.
Now, some Bronies were pissed off about it but a lot of us did what we should do: calmly defend our fandom without getting angry and still loving and tolerating. In fact, a lot of people who don't care for the show did something similar which I thought was awesome. Now, the reason that it riled more than a few pegasus feathers was 1. people went 'no duh there's MLP porn. Rule 34? Why does this surprise you and why are you using completely obscure examples to paint us in a bad light'?
2. The line
The children's cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic inexplicably has a legion of obsessively weird adult male fans who proudly refer to themselves as "bronies," because the Internet has made it much easier for people to confuse "individuality" with "being a sociopath."
when Cracked has been fairly neutral on the whole thing before. Even if they think our fandom is odd (and they do and we are to some extent) they don't actively troll us or paint us in a bad light because they can (and they have millions of readers so they totally can).
3. They took one of our crowning achievements, Fallout: Equestria, and compared it to
the mind of a schizophrenic toddler as he beat his mother to death with a toaster.
Naturally Bronies were pissed off because again, we're proud of how successful and generally well written it is and they wrote it off as just another example of how we all deserve to be on an FBI watch list. If Cracked had praised its accomplishments as well as cracking jokes about it (which is what they do) then Bronies would have been far less angry.
But I'm not here to talk about that. Do I think that they went too far in some places? Yes. Was I mad at Cracked at first? Yes. But I thought about it some more, listened to Bronies far more rational than I and calmed down. I still like Cracked.
Now, I write for Cracked on occasion. I was one of the people behind this article here and I have another one coming up sometime this month. So, considering that I traverse the Cracked writers forums, I saw the Brony article and thought that it was a good chance to get some of our better works out there. I was excited that stuff like Fallout: Equestria would be getting some positive exposure. Nothing I suggested got in, but I felt good knowing that our fandom would be getting some positive light.
Apparently not.
Now to the real purpose of this blog. I'm not going to bash Cracked and I implore you to do the same, I'm here to help it and us all. I can't do this alone so I need the help of Bronies everywhere. I wanted an article showing some of our crowning works and by golly I'll get one to the people if it kills me! So, I need everypony's help to get me entries! Tell me of moments that out Fandom has had that will really show the world "yep, they can be pretty awesome when they want to be." It can be art, stories, anything really! Anything that would help really showcase how awesome we can be!
Entries that they nixed in the original article: My Little Dashie and Cupcakes.
The voices who scream the loudest are the ones who are heard the most. Right now, a lot of the loudest voices are the ones who fly off the handle when anybody looks at our show funny. Make the 'love and tolerate' side of our fandom heard!
Love and tolerate, keep calm and Brony on.
BronyWriter.
Make them read Story of the Blanks and Cupcakes.
Wow. There is a reason I stay off of news websites.
790289 Story of the Blanks maybe, but they nixed Cupcakes in the original article.
I don't know where this love and tolerate thing came from. Let them think whatever the hell they want.
I wonder if they consider any story with sex, kinks or violence a horrible psychopathic thing or if it's just because Fimfiction uses already established characters that where supposed to be pure and simple.
I just read the article on cracked.com. Man they are assholes
Maybe some fan music? I really don't know, FO:E was pretty much the magnum opus when it came to fanfics.
790292 Cracked isn't a news site, it's kind of like The Onion but fact based. Its writers write articles about a ton of cool stuff and you should check it out. It's actually a cool site.
A good example of something awesome that bronies have done is this website
I think this PMV is amazing. It introduced a lot of bronies to the Wu-Tang Clan, and vice versa.
Background Pony maybe?
Yourenigma's Tavi/Scratch suite is some seriously brilliant music which could be worth mentioning.
And the Seeds of Kindness albums would definitely be worth putting on the list.
I'd look into the various charity work the fandom has done. We've raised lots of money for alot of really great causes. I'd also include the rolling stone article on brony music, which specifically called out the living tombstone's Discord remix (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/behind-the-music-of-pop-culture-smash-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-20120420).
I don't take Cracked seriously anyways. They're the Fox News of the internet, just saying.
But what about "Ponies: The Anthology"? That would be a good thing to show for our talents. Oh, and the song Discord. Not the Tombstone one either. Eurobeat Brony's version is far superior.
That Swing Wing looks freakin' amazing
Good stories: Past Sins, It Takes a Village, On a Cross and Arrow, Post Nuptials, and Anthropology. My personal top five. All very well written, engaging, heartwarming, and all around excellent reads. Links to all of them in a box on my page. Hope this helps, it's actually rather saddening to see a renowned website insult the mental stability of thousands of people without a second thought.
Keep calm and brony on, eh?
Cheers!
790321 Ha ha. Yeah. My contributions are all the second page, though.
790325
Like the Adultery board game?
790332 More specifically Racism the board game and Juden raus!
790322
My personal top five: My Little Megas XLR, The Wizard and the Lonely Princess, Shinji's Nightmare, The Elements of Harmony and the Savior of Worlds, Halo: On the Wings of Angels. My Little Megas XLR is tied with Arrow 18.
There was an article about Bronies on a Dutch site too, I said in the comments that it made us look bad and was wrong, later that day I got contacted by the director of the site: They want to rewrite the article in order to make is as neutral as possible, next week I'm going to be interviewed.
Maybe bring up things like the Humble Brony Bundle and other various charities and things bronies have done?
I've always been a fan of Cracked, and although I am a BIT peeved at that article, I'll still read Cracked. It's the same with collegehumor.coms "My Little Brony." Personally I found that rather funny, but it's still the same. As for good examples maybe a spotlight on the charity funds raised through Brony events? Charity always brings the feels.
(Also I read the "4 Most Unexpected Fan Bases in Pop Culture" article on Cracked. And I'm just wondering how Bronies were more expected than women liking Yaoi?)
How about some animations? You could show the preview for "Double Rainboom"
I had no idea they had done this. I was out at a cabin and had no internet
I am a little angry but I understand.
Also, two great fanfics are The Immortal Game and On a Cross And arrow.
Great music are Loyalty by acoustimandobrony and also by them, Kindness
Never actually been to Cracked.com.
I guess the huge bunch of charities started by bronies got pushed aside for petty insults. Oh well.
790302
preview.images.memegenerator.net/Instance/Preview?imageID=6684826&generatorTypeID=&panels=&text0=&text1=%22Fact%22&text2=&text3=
Sorry, the first thing that came to mind :P
Many people heve said this, but My Little dashie, and two spinoffs My Little Twilight and My little shy friend
How about
?
This video clearly shows that in the brony fandom, you can be yourself, regardless of how eccentric you are, and you won't get judged for it.
790302
Maybe I'll check it out later.
Shows how much I know.
Eh. Another part of the internet that rips on us because it's the cool thing to do. Another reason to keep my head down about being a brony.
Seriously though, a good topic could be what the fandom has done for charity. The music the fandom has produced and how it's been recognized by people outside the fandom. Throw up some neat art and a famous story here and there. If you want to defend the fandom then I think the best way is to not show stuff by the fandom for the fandom, but things that have been done by the fandom for the world (i.e. the charity).
~Have a good one.
790512 My main purpose was more about doing a better article. Whether the original is read or not is incidental.
I gotta ask, are articles, including this one, primarily done by full time writers for Cracked, or are a lot of them done by occasional contributors? Just a thought. I can't fully express why but i think I'd be a little less peeved if it was done by a contributor and not someone whose job it is to write for Cracked all the time...
Bronies, We are awesome. Because We have a blue llama in our fandom. Blue llamas are unique.
790566
Or the guy at everfree northwest that spent $600 on the derpy brushable signed by all the VA's just so he could give it back to the guy who donated it.
790592 This particular article was by sometimes contributors. They both contribute a heck of a lot more than I do, but they are not full time staff.
They call us sociopaths and suggest we be put on FBI watch lists and your plan is to show them Cupcakes? Seems slightly counter-intuitive to me.
I don't know a thing about Cracked, and in fact this blog is the first I have heard of it. If you are trying to get non-bronies to follow stories, then you will want ones that stand on their own, without the support of the show.
Something I found to be far sadder than MLD was 'The Things we Leave Behind'. A short Sadfic about Twilight.
I suppose Flight of the Alicorn by Pandora PrancyPants would work, another long fiction about adventure and intrigue and whatnot.
Or perhaps 'A Cup of Joe' by The Descendant, a short emotional piece about a pony who has returned from war.
Pheonix Wright Turnabout Storm series on Youtube, A very long video series, but seems in-line with internet persona.
I read two other blogs by Cracked.com, and neither of them seemed to be anything other than sources of entertainment. With the context of those other two blogs, I actually take no offense from the article you reference above, any more than I would take offence from someone in a Youtube comment. The site appears to be built about non-professional articles about inane topics that are meant to entertain, not inform. Therefore, I would actually be surprised to see a fairly written description of the fandom, as it would be both informative and boring.
I have provided you with a few suggestions, but my personal response is to chuckle and get back to reading "The Colour you Bleed', confident that this article will have approximately zero effect on the brony fandom.
Not to shamelessly plug my friend, but he wrote two sad fics that are really quite nice. Also there is the obvious Fighting is Magic that shows how awesome we are. Those were the the two things that came to mind for suggestions.
sorry, I can't do it. The article is laughably bad and it's atrociousness has already been proven time and time again. I think I'll leave it to you fellows.
That article was trash. I read it and then moved onto the comments, and Bronywritter, I really don't think that you need to write a single thing about it.
Why?
Because most of the people who commented were sensible about it, some understood, other non-bronies defended Fallout Equestria (which I must say I am growing rather curious of) and agreed that while some stuff is bad, other fanbases have them and there will be people who will "taint" them in some way no matter what.
I guess you could go ahead and write it anyway, would be a better read than that garbage.
791385 The whole idea is a better article. I only added the one that Cracked did as context.
791403 I'm guessing you will write it from a more neutral stand?
If so, I'll be quiet now.
791430 That's the idea. It's not going to be pro-Brony propaganda, it's going to be more 'hey, Bronies have made some cool stuff.'
It's not really my thing, but Fighting is Magic has gotten some recognition in the fighting game community.
I'd post something about The Living Tombstone, Rina Chan, Wooden Toaster (Blaze) and etc...
The TVTropes Daring Do page is worth a mention: not only are there now plots for several dozen books in various continuities and dozens of complex characters (admittedly a lot are expies of MLP characters), there's also an increasingly complicated web of fictional authors, including Lyra and Derpy.