My Little Pony Friendship is Magic - Is it possible to dislike this show?

[DashieInTheDark]

There's another flaw to your argument though -- not everyone can be defined as a "hater" or a "brony." Some people might like the show, but does that make them a brony? I think it's important to define what, exactly, a brony truly is. Maybe there are different degrees of bronyism. There are the hardcore bronies -- the ones who collect the toys, wake up early on Saturday morning to watch the show, make PMVs, listen to remixes, wear pony shirts, post on forums like this, go to meetups, and check EqD every five minutes. Then there's the "casual" brony -- they watch the series, they might put a pony wallpaper on their phone or PC and watch some videos on YouTube, but that's about it.

After that, I think we're getting into the territory of someone who might have seen a few episodes, and liked what they saw, but not enough to really follow the series. This is the baseline where we move away from brony and more into the term of maybe "show supporter." After that, we'll say the person knows what the series is, and doesn't like or dislike it. They're neutral and could care less. After that, we're getting into the territory of trolls and whatnot -- the ignorant folks that probably never saw an episode, and dislike it simply because they love to hate what others enjoy. Maybe it's against their personal values that a bunch of guys should like a show designed for little girls. Those are your haters.

Not everyone is black and white on this like you're describing. There's a whole spectrum of thoughts, likes, and dislikes for this series, so to truly understand your own argument, you'll have to understand the audience itself first.

I think you read my arguement backwards, actually. If you look, I said that there are "500 colors inbetween Black and White" but those two are the most apparent, and promnent. I also mentioned that there are the hardcore fans "bronies" and the casual fans. Which you seemed to have overlooked. I said that there are inbetweens, but the two are so big and prominent, that the inbetweens are overlooked. That's all. Not everyone IS a hater or a brony, but a MAJORITY is. Majority, that's the key word. It's what most people see, and never go deeper than that. Which is exactly what I'm doing here. Now that we've (I've) established that you can dislike it, I'm just discussing forms of liking and disliking it.

Like there are difficulties ot a game, there are levels to linking and dislikng this show. Something like this:

1. Extreme hatred toward the show. (Haters)
   
2. Hatred toward the show, but accepting of others.
   
3. Disliking the show, but does not mind that others like it.
   
4. Isn't very fond of the show, and is not interested.
   
5. Knows about it, but does not care to watch it.
   
6. Knows about it, watched it, and did not like it.
   
7. Watched it, but not did not enjoy nor dislike it.
   
8. Watched it, and enjoyed it, but nothing more tha nany other show.
   
9. Watching it, and enjoying it, but keeping it to themselves in real life.
   
10. Watching it, and wearing the occasional T-shirt, and talking about it in real life. (Average brony)
    
11. Loves the show, has T-shirts, toys, goes to every bronycon they can, and watched all of the fanmade stuff, and makes his/her own stuff. ("Internet" brony)
    

These are about all I can think of at the moment. Most people overlook what is inbetween "Hater" and "Internet Brony." Wit h the exception of the levels directly before or after them.

That is my point. The two main "Hater" and "Internet Brony" ofershadow everyithing inbetween, so it's easily overlooked.

[Rosewind]

Sorry if I misunderstood what you were trying to say -- your writing is a bit hard to follow.

I'm just going to drop this here:

Annnnnd... *runs*

[3arlGrey]

I have an account on youtube with a similar name to my username, except that the "e" in "Grey" is "Gray."

So for a while now, I've been in an ongoing war with a certain species called "anti-bronies,"

and I've learned a few things, really.

1. Anti-bronies do not exist. They're basically hipster trolls who think they'll stand out if they hate on something mainstream.

2. People who do not genuinely dislike the show can't be considered anti-bronies, just regular people who don't follow it.

The sad fact is, anti-bronies make up a large percentage of the people who just kinda don't like MLP. So

that immediately makes the majority of them as haters and trolls. In an instant, that kind of exemplifies

all people who don't like MLP as trolls. I think it's fine that people don't like MLP. We've already got

enough **** on our plates, from attention whores who use the name of the show as a source to screw

around with, and those god-forsaken non-entities on 4chan.

I have nothing against rule 34 nor people who follow it, but 4chan..

Some like the show, and dislike the fanbase. That's also understandable, seeing as outside of Ponychan and Canterlot.com,

we've been plenty hateful as of late, and becoming increasingly more and more like the Sonic fandom, which I've never

really taken participation in. So it kind of comes down to appearance.

Some people who don't like the show, and yet, are forced to watch it by other bronies who are more obnoxious or rude, will

obviously not take it as something very pleasing or nice just because, well, they were forced to watch it. Perhaps if they

initially found it before encountering those particular bronies, they would have liked it.

Hope you see where I'm getting at here.

[Dessa]

Here's the thing though - the show takes all these "girly" elements - the all-female pony cast, the pastel colors, the slumber parties and spa activities and such - and mixes them all in such a way that the result is decidedly not "girly".

...

There was, I believe, an analysis of the impact of this show that summarized the effect as "it made girly things look cool". I think that's a fairly accurate description.

These contradict, and I'm more inclined to agree with the latter. The show is very girly. This doesnt mean that you have to be girly to like it. It doesnt mean that much of what makes it good is aside from gender. But the trappings are there.

[SeanMirrsen]

These contradict, and I'm more inclined to agree with the latter. The show is very girly. This doesnt mean that you have to be girly to like it. It doesnt mean that much of what makes it good is aside from gender. But the trappings are there.

Hmm.. well, I did make it sound like two contradicting views. What I tried to say with the first one is that all the "girly" elements are still there, and yet the overall effect isn't what one would expect from them. I have seen several different shows with a similar direction and for a similar demographic, and my initial reaction to Friendship is Magic was completely different. It felt like I'm watching a perfectly normal cartoon that just happened to have a cast of female magical ponies as protagonists, and once that understanding sunk in I simply, well, learned to sit back and enjoy the ponies. I did understand, on a conscious, logical level, that technically this is still a girls' show, but this never stood out to me over the interesting characters and the quality of the writing and animation. So in a nutshell, "it makes girly things look cool" is pretty accurate.

[Dessa]

It felt like I'm watching a perfectly normal cartoon that just happened to have a cast of female magical ponies as protagonists, and once that understanding sunk in I simply, well, learned to sit back and enjoy the ponies.

Eeeexactly

It's the 2010s, and TV execs are just starting to realize the broad appeal of things that just so happen to be feminine. I thank Lauren Faust for having the tenacity to see this made, and Hasbro for having the sense to trust its artists when it comes to their art.