JMHorse

@starswirl I love the CS Lewis quote, and I hope I've stuck to the spirit of that in my article and in my comments here. I use 'childish' as a description, not as a measure of quality. At least that was my intention. I can see how my own personal preferences, which don't normally swing towards the likes MLP, can be interpreted as a criticism that the show doesn't have value. (In fact, I'm sure that pony-lovers get that all the time, it's certainly been the vibe of a lot of the coverage I read when I was preparing for this experience.) Instead, my experience confirmed my suspicion that there is something a bit special about the show. @phil I think that's a totally fair criticism of my article, and one that I could have improved. My negative comments (which were only aimed at some elements of the show) was pointed, whereas positive comments on my overall enjoyment and appreciation for its quality were a little soft. As you point out, the MLP fandom is indisputable proof that the show is pretty great. @steeleagle Thanks for the kind comments, they are appreciated. You guys are really nifty here on Canterlot: the ability for a group of people to disagree with something in such a kind and friendly way is very rare indeed.

Hi Phil. Thanks for the thoughtful and critical comment. It's not easy to be critical on the internet without being combative, so I really appreciate your friendly and intelligent tone. I think your arguments are perfectly valid. I suspect it's an just area where I'm going to disagree with you, and probably most of the other pony fans out there. The show impressed me, for the reasons I laid out in my article, and I do think that it's something special. But it's still fundamentally a show for small children, despite any easter eggs that might be dropped in for the unintended adult audience. I'm comparing FiM with art created with an adult audience: for example, I'm currently reading The Great Gatsby. Compared with MLP, it's a lot more complex, nuanced, grown up, imaginative, funny, etc etc. MLP is great for all the reasons you mention: it's fun, it's positive, it's engaging, it has an amazing community of fans who have created something special. I won't argue that MLP is 'good' or 'bad', because that's a matter of perspective. I will, however, argue that it's (objectively) childish. But regardless of the areas where we disagree, I'm pleased that you enjoyed the article. The intent is to try to understand the phenomenon from my outsider's perspective, and I hope that people will find my analysis to be engaging and interesting. I tried to keep a neutral tone, but it's difficult for something as polarizing as MLP: the pony fans will think I'm being unreasonably negative; the pony haters will think I'm being unreasonably positive. So thanks for understanding and not simply focussing on our areas of difference.

For the curious, my second article is now published on Adjective Species: http://adjectivespecies.com/2013/04/02/my-little-mlp-adventure-verdict/ I think I understand why the show is so attractive to so many people. (Especially furries.)

@ Sparkleheart I couldn't agree with you more about the interesting gender issues inadvertently brought up by MLP. The show just wouldn't work with male characters, a fact that I find intriguing. This is definitely something I'll be talking about in my follow-up article (published tomorrow!). MLP seems to have a high profile among a lof of largely online-based groups as you point out, and furry is once of those. I'm not involved in the online world as closely as many, so I'm not really in a position to judge whether furries are more pony-crazy than anyone else out there. However it certainly seems that they must be: references to the show are everywhere. I was at a large furmeet here in the UK and asked around about the show... I was surprised to learn that many, many furries—ones who don't overtly display as a pony fan (and there are plenty of those too)—are really into the show. By the way, I love the name, if only because it reminds me of Sparklehorse, one of my favourite bands. @Quicklime You and Sparkleheart both point out how nifty your community is. The group that has grown around the MLP fandom is obviously what brings you here to Canterlot, and brings pony fans together in all sorts of spaces. Even if I'd watched the show and hated it, I would have pointed out how unlikely and awesome the pony community is. (As it turns out, I didn't hate the show, but you have to wait until Tuesday to read my full article. I'll post a link here once it is published.) Thanks for the comments. You both show how the pony fandom is a positive and friendly place.

Hi Elsporko. Someone else had pointed out my error about Family Guy as well. I don't consider it a show for children - I meant to say that I don't consider it a show for adults. It's juvenile, geared towards a high school audience, or somewhere around there. It's not a children's show. Thanks for pointing that out. Your thoughts on the furry community are interesting indeed. It all but impossible to nail down exactly what a furry 'is'. I like to call it a club, where the only criterion for membership is that you consider yourself a member. Being a furry doesn't require you to have a non-human avatar (although most furries do); being a furry doesn't require you to identify with anthropomorphic cartoon animals (although most furries do). I'm curious as to what you mean by 'most furries aren't part of the community because they actually are furries'. The FiM community, including the huge online influence, is something that I'm hoping to learn about. It's the big reason why I'm here on Canterlot: I'm really curious to hear what you guys think about my outsider's perspective of FiM. So thanks for reading and thanks for the thoughtful comment.

@Starswirl There is obviously something special about the show, and that's what I'm interested in discovering. The world is full of TV shows and cartoons that are well made, but none that seem to have captured the imagination of people as much as MLP. I've seen a few of my friends go through your exact process: curiosity that turned into a love for the show once they got their feet wet. I'm not sure if I'll fall quite as deeply as many, but we'll see I suppose. @Phil I don't judge MLP for being a children's show or being lowbrow, that's just how it looks from the outside. Coming into this exercise, I didn't know much about the show other than that there coloured ponies, and that they seem happy. I even accused one of my friends of making fun of me when he said that they had names like Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle: I thought they were joke names, at my expense. So I'm not going to use classifications as a judge of quality, or at least I'm going to try to avoid doing that. However they are a useful tool when describing something. I'm not going to be writing an episode guide, or describing the makeup of the characters. There's enough of that out there already, and besides, I'm hoping to delve a little deeper into why the show is so pervasive and engaging.

Hi Rosewind, thanks for the comments. I like your comparison between the furry fandom and the pony fandom, and I think it's very true, at least from what I know about the FiM fans. There is clearly a big crossover between the two groups. Your comments hits at the nub of my curiosity. So much of what you—and everyone else—appreciates about FiM is the community that has developed around the show. I've seen reflections of this within furry, where the furry pony fans are clearly a happy, good-natured and generally enthusiastic bunch. Of course, everyone in the community associated with FiM has one big thing in common: the show itself (and related media). We furries don't have anything so universal. That's the big difference between the two groups, and the big unknown for me.

Hi everyone I'm a contributor to a site called Adjective Species, which is dedicated to thoughtful exploration of the furry community. As many of you will know, MLP is very popular with many furries. And many other furries, like me, are completely confused why so many smart, grown adults love a children's cartoon. I'm on a quest to find out. Your benevolent dictator / evil overlord, Artax, is a friend of mine and a fellow furry. He has kindly offered to host my introduction to the show. I'm writing about the results on [adjective][species]. The first article talks about why I'm doing this and what I'm hoping to learn. You can read the article here http://adjectivespecies.com/2013/03/25/my-little-mlp-adventure-prologue/ The followup article is due to be published on Tuesday 2 April. There might be one or two more, depending on how everything goes. If you're curious, please have a read. You can comment directly on the articles on [adjective][species] if you like, otherwise I'll be hanging around this thread. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on MLP, furry, and my approach. Thanks, and thanks to Artax for his help, and all at Canterlot for hosting this thread. JM Your friendly local houyhnhnm