In Defense of the Brony: A “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” Tale

Witty writing. Great artwork. A dedicated fanbase, largely over eighteen. None of these things immediately bring Saturday morning cartoons to mind, but My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has broken the mold.

You might have heard of it by now – particularly with its second season coming up, starting on the 17th. After some harsh words from Wired Magazine, the show has received some attention – not all of it positive. Fans of the show who aren’t considered quite the target audience, called bronies, have been maligned as obsessive, inappropriate, and downright strange. Not only is this an extreme generalization, it’s also largely untrue.

I’m a girl in her twenties. When I was little, I had well over a dozen My Little Ponies, complete with accessories, hairbrushes, and VHS tapes filled with movies and TV episodes. Like Barbie for so many, MLP was inextricably part of my childhood. Things have changed, obviously. I’ve grown up. I have a full-time job, bills to pay, things to do.

But you know what? I’m a brony, too.
With the right Google-fu, it’s easy to find articles in defense of the brony. Your typical brony will be anywhere from fifteen to thirty-five, and typically (though not universally) male. They talk about how they were converted from skeptics (surely watching a show for young girls is a lark, not an actual hobby) into regular watchers, or perhaps they started watching because their favorite cartoonist was on board with the project.

They became genuine, not ironic, fans of the show, drawn in by the art, the humor, and the characters. You can find countless stories of brony “converts” anywhere – just check out /r/mylittlepony on Reddit or take a look at Equestria Daily, one of the more popular fansites.

My story, though, is probably significantly less “typical” than your average fan. Whereas so many tuned in on television and YouTube expecting to be horrified or to laugh, I tuned in for the nostalgia. The internet is made for people like me – I google commercials I loved as a kid, sigh longingly at reviews of “retro” video games, and often wish for the good ol’ days when I could sit back with my favorite cartoon. So naturally, when I heard that there was a new My Little Pony series out, I was excited. There was a lot of positive buzz from an older crowd, so I thought “what the heck?” and gave it a shot.

Even after the first episode, which is often toted as one of the less impressive episodes of the series, I was hooked. With the help of uploaded YouTube videos (which remain there with the show’s blessing), I made my way through the entire first season and loved every moment of it. The bronies were right.

Was the art crisp, the story engaging? Yes. Were the characters interesting, the musical numbers catchy? Absolutely. Was I transported to my youth again, thinking, “This is exactly how I remember it!”? Definitely not. MLP:FiM has a bite to it that was never present in the original movies and TV shows. As Anna pointed out to me in one of our viewings, there are elements of the show that have a tinge of “cynicism” where there was nothing but sunshine and rainbows before. Rainbow Dash, a reincarnation of my favorite pony Firefly, is spunky to the point of obnoxiousness at times, while baby dragon Spike is crazy for pretty pony Rarity.

That’s not to say that it deals with world hunger and poverty or that any of the main characters suffer from an incurable disease. It’s just got bite whereas before, there was scarcely even a bark. This is far from a bad thing, though.

The show is no longer something that has to be endured by parents, but very possibly can be enjoyed – even if the adult isn’t getting the same joy as their child. Like Shrek and other similar films, it can be enjoyed on a number of levels. On one hand, there’s the ponies - colorful, cheerful characters with different marks on their rump trotting around a colorful town. On the other, there are some light nudges that’ll make the parents chuckle without the young one so much as batting an eye.

I tend to have my hands in both cookie jars. The nostalgia is an instant sell for the kid in me, and meanwhile, my favorite pony, Pinkie Pie, makes me laugh myself to tears with spastic, fourth wall breaking antics. I love the whimsical, catchy songs, but also get joy from seemingly insignificant phrases like “20% cooler” and “eeyup” for reasons that would puzzle my four year-old niece.

This show is clever, and yet oddly sweet and instructive at the same time. You don’t need to be six and under, or an “out of work computer programmer” like Wired suggests. I’ve met some of the nicest, most open-minded and creative people on the internet (a big statement) on /r/mylittlepony, and you’ll find that many of them aren’t all that unlike you. They have jobs. They watch Game of Thrones and Mad Men and love a good movie, going out, or drinking with friends. They are, in fact, well-adjusted and regular people just like you. They just happen to to know what a cutie mark is.

So why does this matter to you? You don’t watch Saturday morning cartoons. You haven’t heard of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic outside of the backpack that your kid sister, daughter, or niece sports. You don’t care.

Well… maybe you should start.

Have you ever watched a show not meant for your demographic? What do you think of the brony phenomenon?

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• The Unlikely Origins Of The Brony, Or Dudes Who Like My Little Pony [Bronies] (jezebel.com)
• Know Your Bronies: Memes Are Magic! (memebase.com)