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.