On My Second Year as a Brony: A Brony Revival · 6:25am Sep 22nd, 2014
Hello everybrony.
About two years ago around this time was the first time I watched an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and became a Brony. A year ago around this time, I blogged about my first year of Bronyhood. (Thank you to Doctor Perseus for making up that word. 
) Some of my newer followers might want to check that out as I share the story there about how I became a Brony. Right now though, I just want to share my thoughts on my experience of my second year of Bronyhood.
Season 4 was a very special season for me. Season 4 was the first full season I got to watch live as a Brony. I initially entered the fandom a couple of months before the start of Season 3, which was a rather abridged season. As such, Season 4 was the first season for which I could do weekly review blogs. I’ve already shared some of my thoughts on the experience of writing weekly review blogs. Such as it’s exhausting doing weekly reviews for six months straight with only one week off, and I believe it has sharpened my skill at criticism. It may have been exhausting because I was simultaneously trying to finish a Master’s Degree. I will be finishing my second draft of my Master’s thesis shortly, and hopefully I’ll be done with it. So once Season 5 rolls along, I shouldn’t have that same problem. I really look forward to continuing blogging during Season 5.
As I said, I feel blogging has sharpened my skill at criticism. I feel I’ve gotten good at giving a fair and balanced critique. That was not always the case though. When I started my review blogs, I took many cues from other review bloggers on this site like Doctor Perseus and Steel Resolve. Their reviews are always fair, thought-provoking, and sometimes highly amusing. However, I also took a number of cues from the Brony analysis community. There was a time where I could not get enough of these analysis videos. I have noticed though that some of the big names in the analysis community have become overly critical. (In my opinion, the analysis community is kind of starting to collapse in on itself. The tent got way too big, and its initial tentpole has effectively bowed out from it.) This led me to often approach episodes looking for something to be wrong so I could criticize it. As the season wore on, this became more difficult and eventually I gave up on that. You may have noticed that some of my criticism past midway this season is rather weak and forced. I feel realizing that I was doing that has made me more careful about making sure that any criticism I give is actually legitimate. It certainly should improve my review blogs in the next season.
Also, it was in some of my other blogs where I would speculate on future episodes of MLP is where I discovered my strange skill at predicting the course of future episodes of MLP. I don’t know how that happened. I’ve always admired those writers who sometimes inadvertently predict events of future episodes of MLP because it seems like they’ve gotten inside the MLP writers’ heads. Somehow I’ve developed this same skill without having written that many stories.
Speaking of writing stories, unfortunately I never got the chance to write any of the stories I was planning on writing this year. My Master’s thesis ended up taking much longer than I initially anticipated. I feel like I may have disappointed any of my followers who were anticipating me writing more stories. The last thing I want to be is someone that talks a big game but never follows through on it. Rest assured though, with my thesis finally winding down, I will be able to finally work on some projects I’ve been percolating, and something will be coming down the pipe in like a month or so.
So, I ended up focusing on and perfecting my skills at blogging this year. Blogging is great. It only takes a few hours to do rather than the days and weeks writing a story can take. I may have even picked up a few followers because of it thanks to a recommendation from Bad_Seed_72. (I will always be grateful to her for that even though she is no longer with the fandom.) That’s certainly something.
As long as we're talking about blogs, I'd like to retract something I said in my Retrospective on Season 4. I called "You'll Play Your Part" from "Twilight's Kingdom" the most underrated song of the season. I'd like to change that to "Hearts as Strong as Horses" from "Flight to the Finish". That song was probably one of the few things I enjoyed about "Flight to the Finish" and it was the first song of Season 4. Others though thought it was the weakest part of "Flight to the Finish".
In my blog last year, I noted that I had inadvertently chosen to enter fandom right before one of its most contentious periods with Twilicorn and Equestria Girls. Season 3 was truly the season of the fan freakout. Season 4 was definitely less contentious in my opinion. Despite major game changers like giving up the Elements of Harmony, Twilight’s new magic friendship castle, and an Equestria Girls sequel, the fan angst seemed relatively minor. (Amy Keatings Rogers apparently receiving death threats over Pinkie’s supposedly out of character portrayal in “Filli Vanilli” notwithstanding.) Instead, there were some really exciting developments like Derpy’s return in “Rainbow Falls” and Weird Al Yankovic appearing as Cheese Sandwich in “Pinkie Pride”. Now as then, I still feel very optimistic about MLP’s future. Season 4 has given me many reasons to be.
Even in my first year of Bronydom, MLP opened the door to me becoming a bit of an animation aficionado. A cartoon connoisseur if you will. In my early days as a Brony, I did look into other children’s cartoons with adult followings like Adventure Time and Regular Show. By far, my favorite behind MLP has to be Dan Vs, which unfortunately was never renewed. However, the entirety of Dan Vs., except for two episodes, is currently available on the Starz Media Youtube channel in case you’re interested. In my second year, I started watching the latest incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well as Gravity Falls. Gravity Falls is such a great show. It’s so delightfully disturbing. Kind of like Dan Vs. I’ve also gone back and watched Avatar: The Last Airbender and Transformers: Prime. I plan on eventually watching Littlest Pet Shop one of these days. I’ve seen a few clips of it so far, and I’m really attracted to the qualities it shares with MLP. Without MLP, I would probably have never seen these wonderful shows. I would probably be still stuck in that mindset that a grown man should not be watching cartoons. I would have missed out on what may be a new Golden Age of Animation.
The Brony fandom is the only real fandom where I interact with other fans on a regular basis. The only time I ever interact with fans of other shows I’m a fan of like Once Upon A Time, Agents of SHIELD, Defiance, Grimm, and other assorted shows is when I live tweet episodes on Twitter. (In case you’re interested in seeing me tweet about these shows, you can follow me on Twitter @Mariusioannesp).) I don’t really go on Tumblr. I wouldn’t give that up what I have here as a Brony for anything right now. It has been such a joy being part of this fandom. I wouldn’t give it up for the world.
Overall, I have really enjoyed being a part of the Brony fandom. I have nothing by optimism for what the future holds for MLP and the Brony fandom. I look forward to being a part of that.
God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.
It's great that we both share such optimism for the future of MLP.
And congratulations on your second year as a Brony (this is my third)! 
You're welcome.
I agree. Some of the big names in the analysis community that I used to like I personally don't really care to watch anymore (not mentioning any names here) and I feel that particular section of the fandom is starting to become overcrowded and overly-critical.
In relation to the shows you mentioned:
Too bad the show was cancelled though. 
Adventure Time: I've only seen the first few episodes. I plan to continue watching it at some point.
Regular Show: Like it. Seen several episodes. Hope to see the entire show eventually.
Dan Vs.: LOVE this show! Haven't seen all of the episodes yet. Thanks for providing the link to them!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012: Have you seen the Season 2 finale yet? OH MY GOD...I'm really looking forward to seeing where the show goes from here.
Gravity Falls: Really like this show. I'm really interested in seeing where it goes throughout the rest of Season 2.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Amazing show. Nuff said. Have you watched The Legend of Korra yet?
Transformers: Prime: Haven't seen it. Thought about checking it out. Was never a huge Transformers fan, though.
Littlest Pet Shop: You obviously know that I already watch that show due to my review of it way back when. I still recommend it but you don't need to drop everything right now and rush out to see it. Check it out whenever you feel like it.
Once Upon A Time: You ready to see Storybrooke get Frozen over?
Agents of SHIELD: Haven't seen it. Thought about checking it out. Have heard mixed things about it.
Defiance: Haven't heard of this show. What's it about?
Grimm: Seen the pilot episode. Might check out the rest in the future.
Glad you like it.
Does that mean we could possible see Dan in your Doctor Whooves stories in the future? There's a lot of crossover appeal between MLP and Dan Vs.
I like to watch episodes when they air live so I haven't seen the finale yet. You have given me reason to be quite excited about it.
I haven't seen Legend of Korra yet. Its first season is available on Amazon Prime and with my thesis winding down, I will eventually have the time for it soon enough.
YEAH! I finally got to see Frozen like a month ago too.
Live tweeting it is going to be so much fun! 
It got a lot of mixed reviews at first, but trust me, it gets so much better midway through the first season because the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier have a major impact on it.
Defiance is this show on the Syfy Channel. It's about these aliens who seek refuge on Earth but conflict with humanity causes years of war and one of the aliens' terraforming spaceships explodes and radically transforms the Earth's environment. So basically these aliens and humanity have to rebuild civilization. It centers on this town called Defiance which used to be St. Louis, Missouri and the various humans and aliens who are trying to live together in peace and stuff. I like it because the relationship between the aliens and humanity are reflective of social issues concerning culture and religion we see today and we've seen in the past. Although it can be rather dicey when it comes to sexual mores in my opinion. I think the first season is available on Amazon Prime.