Bronies

Grangokhan

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What's with the sudden bloom of these guys? For those of you not familiar with what I'm talking about, let me explain:

Bronies are adults who watch a children's program called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This franchise dates back to the eighties. I actually remember seeing MLP advertisements on the kid's channel I watched back in the day. "Nothing special" I thought, "Just another series for girls." Fast-forward a decade and I'm an adult now. Suddenly two years ago I start seeing all these "bronies" popping up on YouTube and gaming forums.

Now I'm thinking, "what got these adult men/women to actually watch these cartoons to become fans of them? The advertisements were clearly aimed at little girls as is the show."

I've actually heard the arguments these "bronies" come up with (they use pony avatars on YT which almost inevitably lead to an argument in any video they post in so I've seen a few). They claim the show is special and different from other kid's shows because of quality voice acting, writing and it's filled with pop-references only an adult would get…

Now maybe it's just me but I remember bloody Scooby Doo being full of this stuff but you don't see any "Scoobiesdooies" running about.

The funniest statement I heard came from a supposed ex-military guy who claimed to watch MLP and how it was witty and for adults. Jesus! Can you actually picture that? A manly man with a beard watching a cartoon for girls? What is this world coming to?

Edit:

I just made the mistake of Googling brony and going onto images. That's it. I'm killing myself.
 
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This was one of the funniest posts I've read.
Since the internet, if you can think about "it", you can be assured "it" is a "thing" with a following.
 
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Whenever I see the phrase Bronie I think of one thing

"Hands of blue, two by two..."
 
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People obsess over everything under the sun. Internet allows them to connect and makes them visible. Fact of life.

(I heard there are even sites frequented by grown up men (and worse, women) that still play fantasy role playing games. On computers. Imagine that! ;) )
 
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(I heard there are even sites frequented by grown up men (and worse, women) that still play fantasy role playing games. On computers. Imagine that! ;) )

Even worse, instead of giving money to the local church they give money for Kickstarters and Fundraisers - eternal hell and damnation are certain consequences … :cm: ;)
 
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People obsess over everything under the sun. Internet allows them to connect and makes them visible. Fact of life.

(I heard there are even sites frequented by grown up men (and worse, women) that still play fantasy role playing games. On computers. Imagine that! ;) )

Yeah that's true, minority groups will gather on the internet.

People can watch all the kid's cartoons they want for all I care. They could even be decent people. I just don't understand the appeal of that particular cartoon and why it suddenly bloomed in the last few years.

When I've seen men on YouTube in the comment section (at least their avatars would suggest so) for an unrelated video to MLP arguing over why Pinkie Pie is a great character complex character I just scratch my head confused.

Looking at video game art on deviantArt will also reveal that a pony has been made for nearly every recent video game to represent the character.

my_little_pygmy__dark_souls_is_magic_by_sirqwerty-d52dydd.jpg


Made worst by the fact that that pony is being quite sexually suggestive in its pose and eyes and believe me, that's the tamest I've stumbled across.
 
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A few days ago me and a good friend of mine were talking. We're both in the 40s right now.

We agreed upon the the fact that from a certain age on, other things begin to matter. Things shift.

She and me agreed upon the assumption that it is no more important that the person you'd want to marry is good looking. Things shift.
What's becoming more and more important is that people understand each other, it's like riding on the same wavelength.

Things shift. Things change.

So does taste, I assume nowadays, or other things about perceiving the environment.

From this point of view I begin to understand now why Bronies exist. From a certain age on, it is no more important how the movie looks like - it's rather the message transported by it, or it's the communication, or the plot, or the … wittyness.

Things shift. Taste changes. An action movie would bore me to death. I like witty movies. Humour becomes more and more important to me - and the plot, of course. Maybe even the dialogues.

People change. Perhaps it has really something to do with the age …




What's with the sudden bloom of these guys?

I just had an interesting thought : We now live in an "Age of dark & gritty media", right ? Games, movies, everythings becoming darker & darker.

Maybe Bronies are just a kind of rebellion against that ? People who just don't want to be sucked into movies that show "very explicit rape", as someone from these forums here stated to have it in an video game ? Maybe Bronies are people abhorring just this current trend/fashion ? People who DO NOT want to see movies like "Game Of Thronies" ? Oops. ;)
 
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Herd mentality. Anything and everything will have a few psycho hardcore fans. The internet allows those folks to "spread the gospel". In the case of My Little Pony, I expect the appeal is a healthy dose of nostalgia with a pinch of the "dark and gritty" backlash that Alrik describes. You start with a nice happy callback to "The Decade of Decadence", create some "in crowd" secret deeper meaning (hidden adult themes is always a good one, regardless of whether they're actually there or not), and generate a like-minded community. The basis for the connection is largely irrelevant.

The other possibility is a little more sinister. Given the apparent sexualization of the stuff, perhaps the driving psychology is more one of "soiling the innocent". If you're the type that likes to shit on someone's birthday cake, My Little Pony represents a perfect virginal target to deflower. You've got a brightly colored, happy, innocent show targetted at little girls. Some folks wouldn't be able to resist twisting that into something dark, sexual, and adult.

I favor theory #1, but I could see #2 being possible.
 
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Herd mentality. Anything and everything will have a few psycho hardcore fans.

Didn't star "Star Wars" that way, too ? ;)
Or the Blues Brothers ? ;)

But yes, Nostalgia might be a point. I grew up in an agre where things were much more peaceful than today - subjectively seen. Little did we know about Olympia in Munich, or the RAF.

We didn't grow up with children's movies that were fast, like today, and packed with action, like today.

Everything was a LOT slower.

Children's movies from then would most certainly - I fear - be very boring for children of today. Because they were so slow, and so little things happened.
Just take a look at Biene Maja from the 70s on YouTube.

I think yes it could be nostalgia to some degree, the memory of an "better world" …



Edit : About Theory 2 : Yes, that's possible as well. It would even be possible that people "who like to shit on someone's birthday cake" actually hide among a group of really innocent "Bronies" (if this really exists) … That'd be the perfect cover. Hiding among innocents.

And another twist would be added by the innocents getting caught by the police - and the *real* troublemaker not. He'd be standing in the corner, giggling at how the police interrogates the innocents, trying to get something out of them they cannot know.

Cynism has nowadays led to the assumption that "no-one is innocent. Everyone has some dirt."
 
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That's from Firefly, right? I don't see the connection…

Another group of fans obsessed by a weird show: Browncoats.

--

You know what cartoon back in the day had a really sophisticated stooryline in spite of its choppy japanese animation? Teddy Ruxpin.
 
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Both starts with an "b" …
 
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Both starts with an "b" …

as well as rons! plus they both have horses.

I miss wash…

Also, didn't the Browncoats make trouble in England just before WW2?

Edit: Sorry - this last post seems funnier in my own mind than it really is.
 
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