Seven Years Later

Show’s Over. After seven years of watching the show I had the pleasure of watching the last episode with OGM & JC. It was way better than I thought it would be, and it was enjoyable and touching. It’s a lot take in, though.

There’s a lot of interesting questions about what will happen next. Will MLP keep its time slot on Discovery Family, running in syndication now that the show is over? Or will it go completely over to streaming services? Will there be a blue ray set of the complete series, so we can enjoy all our favorite episodes in the best possible quality? What will G5 be like?

But more importantly, we’re still here. Lately, OGM and have been thinking about how, and why we’re still here. It’s an interesting question, one I thought was worth blogging about.

When I started watching My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, the show had been on for two years. I knew about Bronies, vaguely, in as much as an old friend of mine who was on 4chan saw a couple episodes once (probably the premiere of season one). OGM had started watching, because he had come across a silly gif of Pinky Pie playing the drums, and found the episode “Baby Cakes”. I thought the idea of a old man watching pony cartoons was semi-ridiculous and started hanging around to poke fun at the show. I wasn’t a big fan, and also for some reason the colors hurt my eyes.

But I warmed to it, eventually. My “Come to Pony” moment was John DeLancie’s appearance as Discord. Now you may say this obviously because of his role in Star Trek, and you’d be partially right because as previously mentioned I love Trek. But actually, I’m not a big Q fan, I always found him kinda intolerable. But Discord, Discord was awesome! A cartoon character that was Q inspired, that had somehow managed to actually get the actual actor of Q as a VA was really something. Those episodes were great too, with such classic lines as “Congratulations! You’re the new Rainbow Dash!”. Then there was the episode Nightmare Nights, which cemented my love of Princess Luna. I then discovered background ponies through the Internet: Derpy Hooves, Vinyl Scratch, Octavia Melody, and Lyra Heartstrings. I was hooked, forever to be a brony!

But now at the end of the ninth season, as myself and OGM look back, we find ourselves wondering. Just what is it about MLP? I’ve been a fan, a serious fan, of plenty of shows over the years. But I’m not as involved with their communities quite as much, I don’t create as much in those communities, and I don’t think that they are nearly as big a part of my personality as being a Brony has become. Perhaps it’s because liking pastel plastic ponies is still transgressive. Perhaps it’s the supportive community. Perhaps it’s the world building in FIM, that makes me want to keep on exploring Equestria. But whatever the case may be, we’re still here.

And us fans will continue to be here, though maybe in a different way now. I’ve got a lot of catching up still to do in the latest season and with EQG (no spoilers!). I’d like to watch the show all the way through now, beginning to end. I’ve got a ton of writing still to do, and TrotCon next year promises to be absolutely *insane*.

So I ask you the following questions:

1. How did you start watching the show?
2. At what point did you know you were a fan of the show?
3. What is it about Pony for you, do you think, that makes you still want to be involved in the way you are with the fandom?