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MLP Friendship is Magic or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Color Pink


HawkbitAlpha

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You know those moments when you hear a new movie being announced, and the synopsis of it alone sounds dumb, probably not bearing much potential? Yeah, this thread is one of those moments. It's about a notorious hardass dude who decides to watch a cartoon made for little girls. Doesn't sound very promising, does it?

Well... this might get a bit personal. So sit back and enjoy the story!

 

When the infamous brony movement hit SBC in 2011 (mind you, a time when I was nowhere near as progressive-minded as now), I was, to say the least, baffled from wondering why a bunch of men had decided to embrace MLP, of all things. Without stopping to hear their reasoning out, my 11-year-old self thought it was best to take a stand of "masculinity" (*vomits*) against brony-ism. Only it didn't stop after that - I spent the show's entire 8 years of running trying to avoid it, and continued even after it had ended, still as stubborn as ever to try and not look "uncool." A total 9 years of baseless aversion.

Then, everything changed 4 months ago, when a new development hit me.

My friend Stack asked me why I was so opposed to ever giving FIM a chance, but this time, I admitted to her point blank that I didn't really know why beyond projecting the "girl show ghetto" stigma onto it. She told me what FIM was actually like, but I still wasn't quite sold on it, even despite getting a solid dozen recommendations from other friends to watch the show. Then Stack sent me this article written by the creator, Lauren Faust. It blew my mind to hear that Faust took a similar approach to MLP that I've spent the past several years planning to do with My Life as a Teenage Robot. Most of all, it was the ending of the article that really struck me:

Quote

I never expected to work on a show based on a toy line, but I accepted the project based on my sincere childhood love of the toy and Hasbro’s desire to create an entertaining show that is not just a long toy commercial. When I took the job, I braced myself for criticism, expecting many people - without even watching the show - to instantly label it girly, stupid, cheap, for babies or an evil corporate commercial. I encourage skeptics like this to watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic with an open mind. If I’m doing my job right, I think you’ll be surprised.

It was at this point in early August that my curiosity was finally piqued, so I decided to download the first season of FIM and give it a shot.

Now (as of the making of this post) my avatar everywhere is Rainbow Dash. I think you can already tell how it ended.

 

I went into FIM not really knowing what to expect, but I figured that it would be at least decent. Through Stack, I knew who the main characters were, but that was about it... and as it turns out, the characterization is everything in this series. Three seasons in now, I've thoroughly enjoyed seeing how the writers added so much nuance not only to the Mane Six, but even to the Cutie Mark Crusaders and other recurring characters. What do we get out of the Mane Six? Twilight: initially antisocial and sometimes neurotic, but a natural leader; Pinkie: incredibly hyperactive and friendly, sometimes to an outright damaging degree; Applejack: sensible, but painfully honest; Rainbow: somewhat arrogant and brash as hell, with a very clear facade of "coolness" that eventually starts breaking down (sound familiar?); Rarity, who balances occasional vanity with serious generosity; and Fluttershy, an animal lover with severe self-esteem issues that slowly fall by the wayside. I have a sort of test for determining my judgements of character-driven shows: take note of the characters' personality traits when they're introduced, then compare them with their traits some length of character development later. (Things like My Hero Academia fail that test.) With the possible exception of Applejack, all of the Mane Six see either character development or expansion of their existing personalities (see: Pinkie), and to a lesser extent, the same goes for the CMC.

To illustrate how much all of this matters to me: I just finished season 3, and got to witness Twilight's transformation into an alicorn. It gave me the same feeling of pure joy that I had upon seeing Aang finally realize his destiny in the series finale of Avatar, the cartoon that still remains my absolute favorite to this day. To come within striking distance of Avatar in my book is an insane feat!

As much as this is ostensibly a show made for little girls, there's only one way that really stands out to me (in a writing sense, not an aesthetic one), and it's still something that can go over well for people of any age: the life lessons that most episodes are centered around. I went into watching completely unaware that these were present, and came out of it taking them to heart. In a weird way, it makes me feel really stupid for not watching the show when it was running, because I could've done well to hear the lessons it had to offer when I was still a kid. "Family Appreciation Day" is a great example of this, as when it comes to my last two remaining grandparents, I only learned to really value what they had to offer in their last years (they passed in 2017 and 2019, both in their 80s). On more than one occasion, it's also gotten comically meta for me, with "Read It and Weep" being the standout instance. Tell me, after reading what I've said so far, does this sound familiar?

 

The "don't knock it 'till you've tried it" lesson this episode is all about is really the moral of the story behind my adventure into the world of FIM. I went in not expecting much, and got something that's burned a permanent place in my heart right next to Avatar, by way of putting a good smile on my face every time I see it... and that's coming from a guy who usually is pretty stoic when it comes to media. In short, this sums up my thoughts. My thoughts are always mathematical like that. Maybe I could divide them for my next review. Or add them. Add a LOOOOOT of them. Or maybe subtract them?

(Now you see why I don't write reviews. This thread took 5 hours, and this mess is the best I got. Hope you enjoyed reading though!)

 

 

Spoiler

Dear Princess Celestia,

When I was first introduced to your Most Faithful Student™, Twilight Sparkle, I had no idea what you had in mind by sending her off to a new land to learn about friendship. I'm happy to report that I now understand - Twilight's saga has taught me that one of the most valuable parts of life is developing personal bonds, especially with your friends and family. From the wacky, to the down, to the introverted, everypony has the potential to become a great lifelong partner, as long as you understand them as well. And though I likely won't be actively searching for new friends going forward, I've learned more about how to better get along with my current ones, and respect the personal differences I have with them. All in all, I see that my studies are incomplete, and I'm very much eager to continue them.

 

~Your loyal subject, Wedge Hawkins

 

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Really, really enjoyed reading this. I'm glad the show means that much to you and the feeling of something hitting so close to home to you, giving a "THIS is what I missed out on?" feel after getting into it is something that really hits close to home for me.

 

I've got a pretty interesting history with MLP; when I first found out about it I kinda shrugged it off/thought it was weird until one day I decided to watch the first episode as it was linked on the MLP Know Your Meme (look, it was 2011 and I was 10) page back in August 2011 and I just kinda became super obsessed. I used to tune in for new episodes every Saturday and it just became a full blown obsession as adolescence and puberty was rearing its head for me. Also worth noting that I have Asperger's and it was really bad as a kid and throughout my entire life I've never felt like I belonged with others my age despite having friends (most of which weren't true friends in all honesty) here and there and while I was always in a normal class with other kids, I had a lot of accommodations in regards to my education and as I've gotten older I realized I was that autistic/weird kid during elementary and especially middle school. Regardless I was so into it that I started buying those 2011-era MLP shirts from Hot Topic and what not and wearing them to school in fifth grade and generally just started being super open about it.

Kids during late elementary school and middle school are fucking monsters, man.

For the latter half of fifth grade (2011-2012 school year) I basically became the grade's punching bag, especially with the boys in my grade; it got so bad that my teacher found out and talked me about being bullied and all that and mentioned that his like 3 year old daughter also liked the show which in all honesty just made me feel even worse. But yeah, I never really gave up on liking it. I even had the toys for a while, and for a long while it was pretty much 80% what I talked about. I never shied away from liking it even in middle school, which if I thought the bullying was bad in fifth grade, I hadn't seen anything yet; instead of being the punching bag of the boys in my grade, I became the entire school's punching bag. Girls started making fun of me just as much. It was baaaad. 8th graders I never even knew were making rumors about me. I was legit infamous as "brony kid", was constantly called gay, homophobic slur starting with an f I don't want to say, etc. My interest still never waned and I'm thankful for the show providing me solace in the darkest times in my life, which back then in sixth grade, unbeknownst to me, was about to get even worse. My bullying reached an apex like a month into seventh grade; I had friends who turned out to not be friends (one of them was horribly verbally abusive/manipulative toward me actually) and had no friends upon entering seventh grade. Anyway because of course it did and just because it was something I never was/still am not 100% comfortable with (changing in front of others), the boy's locker room became a bullying hotspot for me. My middle school had the dumbest fucking policy where there were stalls in the boy's locker room but you weren't allowed to change in them for zero reason, so I always changed in the shower in the back away from everyone else. Anyway the bullying in the locker room got so fucking bad that my gym teacher arranged for me to change in the cafeteria bathrooms (which the cafeteria was right next to the gym) and basically some kids came in one day while I was changing, found out who I was, and tried to steal my backpack. This was the final straw for me and my mom, who had me transferred to another school, where I continued to be open about it, and people generally gave less of a shit; the problem was the transition was so hard and I just faced other non-MLP related bullying, and eventually things like depression caught up with me and my MLP phase really ended by the end of seventh grade; still liked the show, but was not expressive about it at all. I actually watched Season 5 and most of Season 6 as they came out and finished the end of Season 6 later and honestly haven't watched since. It's not a bad show at all, but I personally lost all interest as I've grown older and it's just not my thing anymore. I do want to rewatch some older episodes sometimes for nostalgia. 

Despite dwindling interest, it still does have somewhat of a soft spot in my heart for providing me solace during some of the darkest periods in my life, and I'm very, very grateful for that. It's crazy that I got into it almost 10 years ago at this point, and the show in general is almost ten years old; fuck I'm feeling old (despite only being 19). I go back and forth on whether or not being bullied to hell and back for liking it changed my perspective on it; said bullying plays a large part in my demeanor nowadays unfortunately (keeping to myself during school, not really talking to anyone in class, having some degree of trust issues and I need to fix all this but that's another story for another time) but I remember never backing down in regards to liking it so I really don't think it's that. There's also some narrative problems I have with later seasons (sick of nearly every villain being redeemed, show feeling a bit tired) but that's whatever, because I do think I've just moved on but I do think the first couple seasons deserve a second look from me sometime, and I hope I can enjoy them as much as I did as a kid.

Edited by CyanideFishbone
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i am glad you like the show! i haven't watched in years, i should watch it again. i remember when i went to see the movie, a mom gave me a really ugly look, i guess because i was 18 years old and there with my mom, and she continued to stare at me when the movie was over and everyone left. who cares what people think though, people are allowed to like whatever they want!

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