Today, my brother comes out, a confused look on his face, and says, "I cannot believe how good My Little Pony is."
I'm not a HUGE fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - I don't know every background pony, I don't know the terms and phrases bronies use, and I am sometimes creeped out by the new meaning of the word "clop". I know and like the Mane-Six, and I love a couple of the background ponies - especially the fan creation of Doctor Whooves, a time-travelling pony incarnation of the Doctor, who seems to have taken Derpy Hooves as his companion. Really, it was Doctor Whooves that got me into ponies in the first place. I don't know that much about ponies, but I know what I like. I like it's sense of humour, I like that it manages to get a moral across without preaching down to its audience, and I like the characterisation of the characters on it.
This is a show for little girls. I am a grown man. And there are much older, much nerdier fans out there. What is wrong with the world?
In fact, this was my initial reaction to hearing about the "brony" phenomenon. Grown men fawning over a kids show? The last example I heard of was Lazy Town, for reasons that would make Chris Hansen sit up and pay attention. So, understandably, I was more than hesitant in reading up on them. It was only when I heard about just what a meme generator they were becoming that I became curious, but even then I still dismissed it as a fad - understandably so, given past history with the internet and its obsessions. But eventually, I discovered a character called Doctor Whooves - appalled, I clicked the fanfiction, fully expecting to be reduced to an indecipherable rage by poor writing, mixing my favourite series with a kids show, and the juxtaposition of the Last of the Time Lords with ponies. Friggin' ponies!
Needless to say, I was surprised. The writer did a great job - I won't say it was the best fanfiction I've ever read, because it wasn't. But it was good, very good, and it got across a sense of both of the shows in the most surprising way possible - it felt simultaneously like an episode of Who, and one of the better ones, while also feeling like My Little Pony. The interactions of the Mane-Six were surprisingly intricate, and everyone felt unique and complex enough.
Fascinated, I looked up some more Whooves stories. I liked what I saw. And, finally, innoculated against it, I delved into the world of ponies.
I won't admit to understanding the community, because any community will be varied, with both its shining upper crust and the black depths. We have that in Halo, and Who, and every other community worth its salt - people there to discuss the show, suggest improvements and ideas, and realise that there are people out there who share the same interests; and the people who just want to rip it to shreds in an angry hate-fuelled flow. And then there are the people between those two spectrums - the people who like the show but don't know much and want to find out more; the trolls who find it funny; the fans who also find it funny; the people just there to talk; the dictators who try to control the conversation, and the people who erode that authority, for good or ill. This is as any community should be - variety is the spice of life. The spice IS life. And it must flow. The fact that one has cropped up around what started out as a childrens cartoon is what has surprised me the most, but after watching some episodes, I can see why.
Firstly, there's the sense of humour that the developers inject into it. In my first episode (don't know title or number), the first visual was of Pinky Pie leaping across the screen in an obvious and hilarious homage to Peppy le Pew, the classic Looney Tunes character, as she chased Rainbow Dash. The fact that someone had the idea of homaging Looney Tunes was a stroke of brilliance, and it was what finally convinced me that this was no mere fad. I watched a couple more episodes, and really liked the characters - I dare you to watch this without laughing. The quality of the writing is far and above what I've seen of modern kids TV - maybe being a child of the 90s, the most awesome time to be a kid, has coloured that vision, but it seems like it's all been downhill - I was a fan of the original Thomas the Tank Engine, and the modern incarnation just feels alien and wrong in all kinds of ways. What happened to Ringo? Who are all these new characters? Why do they have actual voices? And what, oh why, did they abandon models for 3d animation? And there are other shows that have gone the same way - dumbing themselves down because uninformed parents complained it was violent or not educational enough or encouraged blah blah blah. Transformers went from an epic tale of good vs evil, of the heroic Autobots vs the evil Decepticons, with the Earth as their battleground. Briefly, it GOT BETTER with Beast Wars, but then the Japanese got their hands on it, and then MICHAEL BAY got his hands on it. Explosions: The Movie. Bluh.
But FIM manages to be educational, hilarious, and complex, all at the same time. And I like that.
There's also the main cast - the aforementioned pun of the Mane Six. Apple Jack, a "southern" apple farmer; Pinky Pie, a manic force of chaos whose exultations of "Okey Dokie Loki" make me wonder if she's related to the Norse trickster god; Rainbow Dash, the tomboy obsessed with speed; Fluttershy, the shy animal lover; Rarity, the fashionista; and Twilight Sparkle, the nerd who serves as the series' protagonist. Every character is developed and differentiated enough from each other that the cast never feels too big, or wasted. Fans have their favourites - I don't understand the love for Rarity myself, but eh, whatever floats your boat (Oh god that sounds like a euphemism). As for me, well...
Heh, I guess I just have a thing for nerdy girls...
And there has been a reason why I kept this, if not a secret, then not exactly at the forefront. Because there is a stigma attached to being a fan of a "girls show". And I have to wonder why that is? Plenty of women can be fans of "male" shows, yet we're not allowed to return the favour? I have a horrible feeling that it is a knee-jerk reaction to anything feminine, the automatic assumption that anything designed for girls must automatically be inferior to products meant for males. In modern society, girls seem to have a fascination with childhood, and bear it proudly, wearing bright colours, kids-show characters on their clothing, etc. But boys are supposed to "rise above" this. With the acceptance of gender equality, I also have to wonder if this is just one of many signs that the boundaries between accepted male and female gender roles is blurring. We've been seeing the signs of a one-way transfer for years, with the empowerment of women in a world formerly dominated by men. Is the transfer starting to reverse? We already have the popular androgynous look, and males have suddenly started taking a keener interest in maintaining their bodies and getting rid of all that lovely facial hair that we spent millions of years perfecting. Now ponies?
I prefer to see this as a sign that people, no matter what gender, know what they like when they see it.
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