Viridian Dreams Forum

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic is an amazing show, and I feel we need a thread to discuss it here on Viridian Dreams. For this first post, though, I'll be giving the rundown on some of the reasons it's so amazing. People tend to be a little incredulous when you tell them the best new cartoon this year is the new generation of My Little Pony. That's fair. But it really is worth your time. Here's why.

1) Great technical proficiency. First things first, this is a seriously well put together animated show. The animation is well done, with sold direction and lots of variety so it never feels stale or repetitive visuals wise. The voice acting is great. The music is fantastic, both the background stuff and when they break out into song. (Which is not particularly often, but when they do, it is always funny, catchy, or both.)

2) The writing is awesome. While this is a show created to get little girls to buy toys, it is also so, so much more. The characters are all very well developed, and the plots are centered around them. The show isn't afraid to let it's characters mess up, be in conflict with each other, or even snap and go batshit crazy. Basically, the show has characters at the heart of everything it does, and this makes the show eminently enjoyable.

3) Unrelenting joy. As mentioned above, the show does not shy away from having conflict, a mistake often made by "girl" shows in the past. It is, however, singularly lacking in anything resembling cynicism, bitterness, or too cool for school shenanigans. The purity of how it unceasingly strives to entertain gives me the warm fuzzies. It's so rare nowadays.

4) The primary creative control of this show belonged to Lauren Faust. Lauren Faust was an important part of the creative teams behind Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

5) The fandom is pretty insane. I've really only started looking at the fandom in the last couple of days, but there seem to be a lot of cool, passionate people being creative out of their love for ponies. It's nice. Seriously, this is a fandom that responds to haters with image macros saying "I'm going to love and tolerate the shit out of you."

6) Accessibility. All the full episodes are on youtube with very good quality.

Even with these reasons, you might still be super skeptical. I'd urge you to remember that this forum was created to discuss fanfic about entertainment products aimed at children not much older than what My Little Pony is aimed at. Great creative work transcends things like "target demographics," and MLP:FiM really is great. Hope we can have some good times talking about ponies here on Viridian Dreams.

I can honestly say I was a doubter of My Little Pony, but not anymore.

The show is absolutely delightful, with a wide cast of characters and personalities.

My personal favorite thus far is Pinkie Pie, although I find Fluttershy and Rarity to be entertaining as well.

Haha, I haven't had an excuse to post this for a while, but here we go!



Alright then, now, I want every person who is a brony on this site to stand up, tall and proud, and tell us all who your favorite pony of the main six cast is.

I'll start. My favorite pony of the main (or mane, as it were) cast is Pinkie Pie (as seen above).

Need to finish the series, then I'll say for sure who's my favorite. Though I do think bookworm pony is awesome and Pinkie is a genius.

I'd like to give it a try. Absolutely loved Fosters, when it wasn't about being Bloo being a dick, and absolutely loved Powerpuff Girls. Just haven't had a whole lot of time to spend investing in stuff. :(

Watched through ep 7 so far. I don't know if I could pick a favorite, though Pinkie is definitely top 3.

Not having time sucks. Like I mentioned, all the episodes are up in full on youtube in high quality, and they're only a little over 20 minutes apiece. I hope the time to check it out frees up for you soon.

Favorite pony? Very tough question, but I think I'd also have to pick Pinkie Pie. She has the best lines. (The quote in my sig is a Pinkie Pie quote.) She's also the most cartoonish character in the show, and I enjoy that visual aesthetic. Also, this. (Warning, language.)

So THAT'S why Andrew Joshua Talon keeps writing My Little Pony crossovers.

Jesus, Arg! Put up a warning or something. I think I actually felt something in my brain about to burst.

That's it! Back to back marathon of My Little Ponies this weekend, followed by an episode of Game of Thrones!

This one contains no strange sounds. Just a pretty good joke.

Watched the first two episodes of Friendship is Magic. I liked it a lot, though I admit I don't see the brony appeal yet. I love Twilight Sparkle, though. Such a cute, awkward protag. :)

Glad you're liking it. :) I'm curious, though. What do you mean when you say "brony appeal." I can think of at least a couple ways to interpret that.

If you haven't seen the appeal yet, you clearly haven't seen enough Pinkie Pie. ;)

Ahhh, I have caught onto your devious plot!

All these ponies, rainbows and happiness!

You will not draw me into your disgusting ways, slaneshii!

Slaneeshi has nothing to do with this Zankaru. :P Just sugar and spice and everything nice~.

And here's Hasbro showing bronies some love by mentioning them and DJ-P0N3 in a commercial spot.

Glad you're liking it. :) I'm curious, though. What do you mean when you say "brony appeal." I can think of at least a couple ways to interpret that.

Saw the term in a youtube comment box, and took it as short-hand for things that appeal to male audiences, or an older male demographic. I get the liking things on a creative level, but I don't know many guys my age who have gotten past the pony veneer and actually watched the pilot to tell me what they think of it. And at the moment nothing in the show at the moment has struck as me as creatively groundbreaking, though with that said I've only seen two episodes so far and I do see a glimmer of intelligent writing and complex characterizations. Sometimes things like that take time to build up.

Also, yes there is always more room for Pinkie Pie.

Well, things don't have to be creatively groundbreaking to inspire intense enjoyment and dedication. In fact, sometimes it hurts. House of Leaves is one of the most creative novels I've ever read, and yeah, a lot of people love it. But I don't think its fanbase has anything on the likes of Harry Potter, Naruto, or the Dresden files. I wouldn't consider any of those three series to posses anything bearing more than a passing resemblance to creative breakthroughs. They are on the whole technically well executed pieces of fiction with engaging casts of characters and intriguing worlds. I think MLP:FiM has those qualities as well.

Beyond that, I think FiM has surprise going for it. With My Little Pony's history and the look of this generation, I feel very few people would predict that it was enjoyable before seeing it. So once you do see it and enjoy it, that enjoyment is all the more vivid for coming as a surprise. That helps pull you down the rabbit hole. I'd also speculate that transgressing against gender norms is exciting, and so that also heightens the appeal for the male fanbase.

tl;dr, I think the "Brony Appeal" stems mostly from FiM being a solid show that was lucky enough to spark a community around it.

I think I'd agree with that, Witt. By the way, finished the third episode. Loved it, even if I saw the plot drama coming. Managed to convince my friend to watch another episode of it, and even an admission that he liked it (he watched the Pilot with me as well). He said it's no ponycrack or anything, but it's solid. We have also officially bumped up Spike into bro status, for he is the bro in all of us (sentiment has cooties!)

EDIT: Also, Fluttershy's rabbit friend Angel is an Ensemble Darkhourse. That is all.

Beyond that, I think FiM has surprise going for it. With My Little Pony's history

you know I still remember getting up at about 530am on a Saturday to watch the original on tv, even though my parents would tape it for me. I was maybe 3 years old and I can still remember it as being the first show I was really, really in to. And I hear it sucks, but three year old me was a massive fan XD

Yeah watching a new series 20 years later is incredibly weird O_o