Bronycon · 10:42pm May 5th, 2012
Did I ever mention how much I hate the word "Brony"? Because I seriously do. It's enough to make a guy want to undergo sexual reassignment surgery just so that he can wear the far more classy "Pegasister" instead. I HATE IT SO MUCH THAT I AM JOKING AT YOU ABOUT UNDERGOING MAJOR ELECTIVE SURGERY ON MY GENITALS. THAT IS HOW MUCH I HATE IT.
Additionally, I've never been totally comfortable with the real hard-core quasi-religious aspects of the inner circles of any major fandom, "Friendship is Magic" included. And while there is a deep and lonely part of me that is more or less constantly begging me to find a flock to throw my heart at, and while I do superficially appreciate the whole "love and tolerate" sentiment, I'm never going to be able to jump all the way into this fandom without keeping at least one hand on the edge of the pool. This is probably a good thing.
That having been said, approximately one year and one week after railing at "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" on my LiveJournal as being a "momentary fascination", I will be in New Jersey, attending Bronycon Summer 2012 (God willing, fair winds, and all that). I am... sort of at a loss as to how this happened. How did I go from this guy...
"I'm still resistant to the idea (of writing Ponyfic). If you even see anything at all on this front, it'll be very short. I refuse to let myself get caught up in an extended storyline in a universe which I don't even own, and which -- let us not stress this point insufficiently -- IS BASED ON 'MY LITTLE'-FRIGGIN-'PONY' TOYS."
...to Mister "Let's See If I Can Write A Whole Damn Novel About Applejack Who I Don't Even Like All That Much"? I don't quite know.
Things are different now. Despite the fact that I styled myself as a writer, I used to detest coming to the page, plunking myself sullenly down in front of my laptop only when the voices in my head wouldn't let me do anything else. Now... I actually kind of like it. I'm at least ambivalent on the topic, which is miles different than the way things used to be. I've connected with a number of brand-new writing acquaintances, and re-connected with some folks I thought were long gone from my life, folks that remember the bad old days of "Mundementia One", when I had way more inspiration than I had talent or drive (or the ability to punctuate properly). I've gone to a working observatory and made observations of Jupiter through a gigantic fifteen-inch telescope, more or less exclusively to connect with Twilight Sparkle, and I've attended a live, professional rodeo so I can try and see what Applejack sees in it. I eat more apples than I used to, because in addition to being a half-hour commercial for Chinese molded plastic, the show also frequently serves as a half-hour commercial for how tasty apples are. A hundred tiny little changes in my life. All from a program that... really isn't all that good, sometimes.
I don't have an explanation as to why I'm doing this. For the record, though, I'm glad that I am.
Thank you all for being a part of it.
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_RageFace.png
I hated all aspects of fandom, especially fanfic, before FiM. I'd say that I'm still hesitant to drink the Kool-Aid, but I also am seriously considering looking to see if anyone sells Fallout: Equestria pony figurines (the mane 6 ones with the motivational tags). The excuses I make for myself on this show go against everything I used to stand for.
It's been a pleasure.
No fandom is ever 100% perfectly suited to every person in terms of all the sub-groups and dedication levels they contain. So long as you're ok with the level and sections you associate the most with and can screen out the rest with an attitude of toleration, I don't see a problem.
, the rest should be able to move on with a feeling of satisfaction and fond remembrance of Twilight Sparkle and the gang and everything they did to try and teach us and make us laugh,
Besides, people and their interests undergo constant change based on what they focus on and do. Nothing weird about that. Ponies have come into our lives; eventually they'll leave, and while that make some
I personally dislike the term "Brony" solely because it's original meaning is /b/ro-ny.
I personally became a fan through YouTubePoops.
I stay a fan solely because I love the characters. I love them as much as I can possibly love fictional characters. My love for them is neither romantic nor platonic, not being reciprocal to begin with. It is cathartic. I love them because they give me the ability to feel love for them.
100820
It's really kind of trippy to be here in the middle of a fandom at the height of its power, instead of coming at things five or ten years down the road like I usually do. But, the fact remains that, yes, no fandom lasts forever, either in terms of its community and organization or in terms of its existence as a construct in the minds of its fans.
That having been said, I am feebly sane. I suspect that, even losing everything else, I will have an inner Twilight Sparkle making comments at me about my dietary choices for many years to come. But I once got talked at by a spoon, so maybe I'm not the best example.
100826
I kind of like the term "cathartic love", at least as you're defining it. I don't think I've ever seen something phrased quite like that before.
Honestly, one of the scariest parts of this fandom is how it is still actually growing, and based off of unique EqD visits per week, at an increasing rate. I have no idea how such a thing is possible.
I started watching FiM in the middle of the most difficult semester I've ever experienced (last fall). In one particular three week period (otherwise known as Hell), I was averaging 90 hours a week in the library furiously writing lab reports and problem sets. When I wasn't writing something, I was either going to class, reading journal articles for said classes, or sleeping. No real entertainment whatsoever. After 6 weeks of this, I was on the verge of going nuts. When I did have leisure time, I didn't know what to do with it and sort of stared at walls instead of doing anything stress-relieving.
However, I did notice that some of the few websites I frequented for laughs (memebase, especially) had been afflicted with some strange obsession over a little girl's cartoon. Even stranger, the more I looked into this curiosity the more it appeared that people really did enjoy the cartoon. Well, I didn't have anything to lose and I sure was bored, so I thought, why not?
I didn't finish the first episode. I'm not sure why currently, but at the time it simply didn't hold my interest. Oh, and I felt like I was burning during the intro song. So I assumed it just wasn't for me, and went back to staring at my lovely wall. Which I need to clean, now that I look...
But it was like some sort of virus had been placed in my mind. During the next week, I was idly wondering about it constantly. Was it really that bad? Why was I thinking about it? I didn't know, so the next weekend I had some free time (at some ridiculous hour in the morning) I watched the first episode. And then the second. The third almost lost me again (really, Applejack should have had priority, end of episode), but after the fourth I was screwed. I liked the show, and wanted more. Watched 9 straight hours of pony and I felt so damn happy. The show didn't have to be sarcastic or ironic, it was just honest and innocent. And I loved that; I realized after finishing the last episode at the time that I had become disenchanted with sarcasm and irony (it's like nothing can take itself seriously without fearing the audience won't too, so it doesn't and suffers for it). Also, it may have helped that I viewed the entire first season feeling that Twilight was my avatar (seriously, at the time I felt like she was a caricature of me in my life).
Anyways, now that I've made a disproportionately long response to your blog post... huh, I'm not really sure where I was going with this. I guess I tried to like the show, failed, and then failed at failing to like the show. I don't think I will ever have the desire or courage to go to a pony con (or really participate in the "fandom" outside of reading). Although, I do have some fanfic ideas I want to flesh out once my index finger stops being all cut and useless. And I suggest you all run, because I can guarantee whatever I put into text is going to be an abomination. Like this novella of a comment. Oh, and I'm an engineer, which is worth -1000 to writing skills and social interaction understanding. Flee.
And since you got me into pony fanfiction, it will be your fault again.
100934
"The show didn't have to be sarcastic or ironic, it was just honest and innocent. And I loved that; I realized after finishing the last episode at the time that I had become disenchanted with sarcasm and irony."
Yes. This. Every comedy show on TV now has to be sarcastic and ironic. I've had enough. Sometimes, after a hard day's evildoing, I just want something nice.
100934 101031
Yeah, that's a big part of the appeal for me too: the show is just so damn happy. Every episode leaves me grinning like an idiot, and I don't even care. And it's genuine happiness, too, not the manufactured 'authenticity' that's going around these days.
100852
To phrase it slightly differently:
25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lz32bsMg3g1r8uiq6o1_500.jpg
I'm a huge animation nerd, so even if the content of the show had been unremittingly terrible, I would have probably observed it simply because it's gorgeously animated. As it happens, it is rarely terrible, and indeed, often very good. This surprised me until I put two and two together about Ms. Faust's prior work. But even so, I've seen lots of good shows which did not inspire me to join their fandom. Firefly, for example. I love Firefly. Like, a lot. But I've never engaged with its fandom in any way, because I never felt the need or desire to.
Ponies were different. Something about them or the cultural blast wave around them made me want to be part of the fandom. And after some months, I realized what it was that brought me in—or at least, some significant parts of the cause. A big part of it was one simple thing: happiness. Watching these cartoon ponies made me feel happy. Happiness is in short supply in my life, and in our culture in general, and it had been years since I'd felt like that. Later, the creative output of the fandom and the testimonials of hundreds of creative people who were inspired by the show to pick up their tools again—or for the first time—told me that I wasn't the only one who felt that satisfying happiness.
Another big part of it has nothing to do with the show, but with the culture of the fandom: acceptance. The idea that it is okay for a person to like what they like, that it is okay to slough off the chains of gender roles, spoke powerfully to me. Gender roles weigh more heavily on some people than others, but they weigh on everyone. I was, and am, strongly attracted to the idea that belonging to this fandom meant that I would be free to defy expectations, even if only in a narrow slice of life. (And of course, there are millions of examples of the fandom not living up to that ideal. But on the whole, inside the fandom, warts and all, is more accepting and tolerant than outside.)
Haha! Been doing the same myself. While I'd love to make it out to Bronycon, it's just don't think it's going to be logistically feasible for me. Though, I will be attending Everfree NW this year (which will be the first fandom convention I will have attended since I was organizing one, seven years ago.)
As a former door-to-door salesman of religion, the quasi-religious aspects of fandom are something that fascinate me. And unlike other fandoms, the spirituality of this one seems... different somehow. The best I've been able to pin down, from my perspective, is that the message of this... well, little girls' television show is so simple, so pure, so sincere, and so unburdened with unnecessary religious dogma that it's extremely appealing to those of us who have been jilted by the religions of our parents, yet still crave a sense of spirituality and belonging. The little morals are extremely simple, and the kind of thing that just feel good and right-- and so obviously true in most cases that it's practically intuitive. (Being a good friend for the sake of being a good friend makes a whole lot more sense to me than being a good friend because the angry old man in the sky is going to burn me for eternity if I'm not.) If you don't mind me blaspheming some more for a bit... I would say that the idea that just being a good friend is more likely to lead to happiness in this life seems closer to the capital-T Truth than the idea that a life well spent results in an eternity of bliss with the magical old man in the sky.
In this show, you know they're never going to say a thing about your religion if you have one, or about your sexual orientation. They're not going to exclude you because you have problems or are awkward or don't fit society's idea of "normal." They're always going to build you up and encourage you to be a better person without reservation. And you know the good guys are always going to win in the end. Nothing really bad will ever happen in this show. And dammit, sometimes I just need that. It makes me stupid-happy.
(That, and it certainly doesn't hurt that they have just about the cutest character designs I've ever seen, and generally excellent voice acting, animation, directing, music, and writing-- better than most shows I've seen.)
As far as how all this has affected me in real life: Well, you know some of that. Most prominently, I've been inspired to re-evaluate what I'm doing in my life and try to make changes for the better-- to do stuff that really matters. I'm writing stuff that matters (ie. heart-felt, self-exploration fiction) again for the first time in over a decade (yes, it's ponyfic, of course), and think I might actually be starting to get over my divorce and subsequent work-a-holism.
And all of this because of.... ponies? How bizarre is that?
Honestly, it creeps me out a bit, and I'm pretty sure I must be at least partially crazy.
But I feel good, and I truly think my life is getting better.
Also, Mundamentia One was/is a lot of fun. Don't down-play the fact that it really was pretty clever, and you did do it justice, eh.
And I'm right with you there on eating more apples. (Didn't really need to visit an observatory since I volunteered at one for a year, and I grew up in Idaho-- so rodeos are a given.) And connecting with Twilight Sparkle? I had successfully lobbied to have "The Checklist Manifesto" added as required reading for new recruits at the company I work for about a week before I saw my first pony episode (which was Winter Wrap Up, by the way). Crazy shit like that that seems to happen with this show has almost made me religious again.
Man, what is wrong with us?
And isn't it kinda awesome?
As a side note: Try putting a really thin slice of aged English-style cheddar cheese on top of a thin slice of Honeycrisp apple sometime. Absolutely dee-licious!
(Also works well with WSU cougar gold cheese, if you can get it.)