Stupid Bronies and Stupid Anti-Bronies

[Strider77]

I wish we could just make a rule that did not allow for bronie material on the forum.

I'd say nuke all bronies from orbit. It is the only way to be sure.

^^This

[Specineff]

I am honestly not surprised nobody understood the problem.

So, the problem you have is that males are "trying to add masculine elements to a clearly female-oriented cartoon." and you claim that's such a thing is bullshit.

While you taunt us about feeling threatened about your presence as a female in our "little boys club", and brag about being as good or better at shmups as we are.

So, it's not hypocrisy when you do it, right?

(Edited the post to get to the point quicker)

[Giest118]

So many dead babies in this thread.

[The Coop]

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned that people were still fighting over their like and dislike of a cartoon. But I told them that there's a simple solution to the whole thing that would make everypony happy. Each person just has to decide if they either like the cartoon or hate it, and then not give a shit about the other side of the issue from then on. I couldn't wait to tell them, so I- er, whoops. Can I swear in a letter to you? Guess it's too late to ask now, huh? Am I going to be banished to the moon?

Your faithful shmupper,

The Coop

Spotted the bronie

Like the show? Yeah. Brony? Nope. I don't do fanclubs.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

I'm a brony

[Specineff]

Spotted the bronie

Like the show? Yeah. Brony? Nope. I don't do fanclubs.

Aw, and I was just about to get my hammer and nails to crucify you.

[drunkninja24]

I've kinda fallen out with the show myself in recent years (I was involved enough early on to actually attend the first Bronycon in 2012) but I still enjoy it from time to time. That said, the community overall has become....well, not something interesting to me anymore at the very least.

That said, I still find it absolutely hilarious that this topic STILL generates such "controversy" years later

[The Coop]

Spotted the bronie

Like the show? Yeah. Brony? Nope. I don't do fanclubs.

Aw, and I was just about to get my hammer and nails to crucify you.

Sorry to disappoint


drunkninja24- I know the feeling. I was never into MLP:FIM enough to attend any meetups and all of that, but I did a small amount of fan art (namely some animated sprites) back in... what, 2012 I think? Somewhere in there, when I was into the show the most. Since then, I just watch the show and enjoy it for what it is. But for me, fanclubs just aren't my thing.... namely because every fanclub out there can get absolutely and idiotically asinine. It's one thing to like a show, buy the toys, do cosplay of the characters... all of that, you know? It's another to actually get mad about what was done in the show, get into huge arguments online about the show, send death threats and insults directly to the show's creators, and all of that. I know the people who tend to go overboard like that latter group aren't a given fanclub in its entirety, but it usually doesn't take long for the so-called infighting to start. And frankly, that kind of drama is shit I don't need or want. So, I just avoid it all and play/watch/read the game/show/book. Makes life a lot less stressful.

[BrianC]

Stupid pro-anti bronies, stupid anti-pro bronies, stupid brownies, stupid Brawny.

[Opus131]

Kids this days are too effeminate. Lot's of girly shows but no super heroes, giant robots and worse of all, no Kenshiro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weoc5fA4200

In the immortal words of Jessie Ventura, too many slack-jawed faggots around here and not enough god damn sexual tyrannosaurs.

[Captain]

I'm not sure if that post is ironic. If not, i hope you know that giant robots are pretty damn popular, and that fotns has a dedicated fanbase (myself included).

[HenAi]

Maybe merge with the existing MLP:FIM thread?

I will personally ban whoever dares to resurrect that splitting headache of a thread. Heck, I'm already leery enough of this one...

Guess I have a new legacy thread to read

Got a lot of good laughs out of that one.
It's amazing how a discussion about what's (ab)normal or creepy can drag on for so long.


Oh, reading OP's post history, he might actually be serious.

[Opus131]

Bronies will never beat furries, if that's a comfort to anyone.

[Opus131]

I'm not sure if that post is ironic. If not, i hope you know that giant robots are pretty damn popular, and that fotns has a dedicated fanbase (myself included).

Obviously i was being humorous, but there is a grain of truth to what i said. I just don't entirely get modern cartoons.

[Xyga]

Hokuto no Ken Ichigo Aji is so manly.

[Strider77]

I'm a brony

I'm so sorry...

[DunlapDunlap]

Specinoff the situation is hypocritical. My little girl watches GI Joe, nobody gets on her case about being "too manly." But my little boy watches My Little Pony and its treated like its a disease. If you don't see something wrong with that, then please, don't ever have kids. The last thing our society needs is more abuse victims.

[Strider77]

Tell your son and daughter to watch Jem and the Holograms instead.

[Skykid]

Specinoff the situation is hypocritical. My little girl watches GI Joe, nobody gets on her case about being "too manly." But my little boy watches My Little Pony and its treated like its a disease. If you don't see something wrong with that, then please, don't ever have kids. The last thing our society needs is more abuse victims.

A little boy watching My Little Pony is not the issue, it's the adult males that people take exception with.

I'll say it again, however, that that particular contingent is in it for the kinship and sociability of a fandom, even if they don't fully realise it themselves.

It's a fairly well made kids show, it ain't the second coming of Christ. I've seen better.

[BryanM]

I'd like to say cartoons for japanese children have gotten weirder over time, but they really haven't.

For the mockery of Bronies, it isn't that they like a cartoon that is the source of much mirth, but rather the social maladjustment that tends to be endemic in that population. (Which is a similar feature of furrys or gamers.)

The type of thing that makes Brian Boyko think it's OK to to use his real name on the internet while talking about cartoons or lady problems he's having or (even more serious) makes him think supporting Lessig is a good idea.

What kind of weirdo posts on the internet using their real name anyway?

[Edmond Dantes]

Tell your son and daughter to watch Jem and the Holograms instead.

Seconded. Pretty much any cartoon from the eighties is better than today.

It's a fairly well made kids show, it ain't the second coming of Christ. I've seen better.

Indeed, pretty much the best I can say is "its probably the best kids cartoon still getting new episodes." But that's not exactly a high bar. After all, just years prior, Codename Kids Next Door--aka THE WORST CARTOON EVER MADE--lasted six seasons and a movie. I would therefore expect MLP to last at least nine.

Nowadays, I absolutely can't watch MLP without my six-year-old niece being with me, and even then I try to guide her towards better cartoons like the afformentioned Jem. Better than her learning terrible moral lessons like "standing up for yourself makes you evil" or "if everyone thinks you're scary, too bad--you're obligated to play up your image" and all the millions of examples of authority worship and just fucked up morality that you'd expect more from a brutal dictatorship than from freedom-loving America make MLP just a bullshit cartoon. Eighties cartoons at the very least didn't teach you horribly harmful morals.

@DunlapDunlap

Yeah lady, you lost all credibility when you accused me of sexism. Even my worst enemies laughed at that one, because its literally like calling Einstein a luddite creationist or calling Tolkien a book-burner.

[The Coop]

Better than her learning terrible moral lessons like "standing up for yourself makes you evil" or "if everyone thinks you're scary, too bad--you're obligated to play up your image" and all the millions of examples of authority worship and just fucked up morality that you'd expect more from a brutal dictatorship than from freedom-loving America make MLP just a bullshit cartoon.

I'm assuming this is aimed at MLP:FIM, given the thread it's in. Which then begs the question... um, what?

[HenAi]

What kind of weirdo posts on the internet using their real name anyway?

I agree with the sentiment, but it's gotten pretty common. Normal, even.

[Edmond Dantes]

Better than her learning terrible moral lessons like "standing up for yourself makes you evil" or "if everyone thinks you're scary, too bad--you're obligated to play up your image" and all the millions of examples of authority worship and just fucked up morality that you'd expect more from a brutal dictatorship than from freedom-loving America make MLP just a bullshit cartoon.

I'm assuming this is aimed at MLP:FIM, given the thread it's in. Which then begs the question... um, what?

What's the "umm, what?" about? A lot of the episodes end with the characters learning pretty reprehensible moral lessons. Not sure how I could be more clear.

Just for some examples:

"Dragon Quest" -- Spike wants to learn more about his own kind (dragons). He meets three who turn out to be essentially baby-murdering pricks (well... they like to smash phoenix eggs for fun, but considering where phoenix babies come from and that the cartoon even treats this as reprehensible, yeah, its baby-murdering). At the end of the episode he outright declares that from now on he considers himself a pony. The lesson? Its okay to judge an entire culture based on three people who happened to be pricks.

"One Bad Apple" -- Apple Bloom meets her cousin Babs, who joins with the local bullies and torments AB (even in AB's own home). Apple Bloom and her friends plan to get back at her but then are told that Babs herself was bullied and suddenly we're supposed to accept that Babs (who drove a main character to tears at one point) is sympathetic. The stated lesson is "if you're being bullied, just tell someone"--which itself has been analyzed to death with many victims saying how horribly unrealistic and insensitive that "advice" is (you might as well tell a paraplegic to just wait until their legs start working again)--while the associated sub-messages are "standing up for yourself makes you evil" and "bullying is okay if you play the victim card."

Also, keep the above in mind when you read the next few summaries:

"Ponyville Confidential" -- Apple Bloom and her friends write (under a pseudonym) a gossip column for a school newspaper which winds up getting very popular even as it offends the very people they write about. They worry its going too far and want to stop, but Diamond Tiara--the editor--blackmails them into continuing. Then they DO get found out and the entire town takes a collective shit on them. The situation is resolved by them printing an apology and taking all the blame (did I mention they were blackmailed? What happened to "always tell a grownup?")

"Return of Harmony" -- The ponies all just take Celestia's word for it that this Discord person is evil (by the way this episode outright conflates "Chaos" wth "Evil," which even Dungeons & Dragons stopped doing in the 1980s) and go on a quest to stone him. Because Celestia--who is shown plenty of times to NOT be perfect--assures them that he is, without him otherwise demonstrating it. Remember: if the pony princess tells you someone is evil, then its okay to be an asshole to them (so if the person bullying you is the authority figure, you're shit out of luck). Made even worse because in a later episode they end up bring Discord to the good side with basically no effort.

And in general the show has a dual tendency of both being mean-spirited (in more recent seasons its become okay to use Spike for slapstick despite him being a child, simply because he's a boy) while also continuing the blow-sunshine-up-your-ass attitude with problem solving (there was an episode about a desolate, broken-down town where Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash taught a bunch of griffons that things will magically get better if they just be nice).

This stuff, coupled with the fanbase showing itself to be anti-honesty and anti-learning (seriously I saw a forum where bronies bitched at some dude for mentioning in passing that he had read Dickens) and seeming to never do anything except harrass people who disagree with them, plus my having met bronies in real life and seen them get into the same sort of pathetic arguments that they do on the internet, is why I basically don't watch the show anymore. With my niece its different because she knows nothing of the larger issues and thus its easy to see it as just "look at the silly horses," but by myself or with adults I can't separate the show from the bullshit surrounding it. It must all die.

People like Dumblap aren't helping.

[Specineff]

Specinoff the situation is hypocritical. My little girl watches GI Joe, nobody gets on her case about being "too manly." But my little boy watches My Little Pony and its treated like its a disease.

You know, I was going to post an image macro stating the lack of perceptiveness and some improper moral behavior as a response, but I'll humor you for now:

First, no one here has called into question the appropriateness or lack thereof about your kid watching MLP. Even some critics of the show and fandom (here in the forum) have stated it's a good show, and that's it. I find it more entertaining than say, Teen Titans Go (Away), Flapjack or Chowder. So, I'm not sure what kind of reaction you expect from us.

Two, if your kid can say "So what?" to someone who thinks it's not appropriate for him to watch such thing, kudos to him for feeling secure enough to dismiss it. Just like we here have had to do when someone calls into question our enjoyment of games like Kid Dracula, Parodius, Bomberman, Little Samson, Otomedius, the 8-and 16-bit Final Fantasies or Rayman. It's not news to us because we've experienced it in the flesh. It seems like you're simply trying to troll.

I mean... do you want to find support from people who like the show? See the prior paragraph. Do you want to change the minds of those who don't like the show or the fandom, ranging from the vitriolic/allergic to those who simply don't see what the big deal is? Not going to happen, and that's something we're going to have to deal with in many aspects of life until the heat death of the universe.

After all, just years prior, Codename Kids Next Door--aka THE WORST CARTOON EVER MADE--lasted six seasons and a movie.

[Skykid]

I was actually watching Dungeons & Dragons recently while working. Wonderful stuff. Bags of imagination and an unending theme that normal kids can be heroes too with a little bit of courage, and overcome all odds.



Those 80s cartoons weren't just morally accurate, they had aspirational role model ideals in there that tend to be missing from absolutely everything in commercial media these days. Hence, kids these days (insert picture of fucked up cosplayer here).

[Ruldra]

Ah, Dungeons & Dragons. You just reminded me of my biggest issue with 80's cartoons: how the story never progressed. By the end of the episode the overall situation of the characters was exactly the same as when the episode started. It annoyed me greatly how the D&D guys would always get so close to finally go home, but then something happens and they're back to square one.

Dungeons & Dragons, Captain Planet, Ninja Turtles, He-Man...not that they were bad, but all the cartoons I watched as a kid had an eternal status quo and I hated it. It was huge breath of fresh air when stuff like Saint Seiya and DBZ came along.

[cave hermit]

I still think Strawberry Shortcake should have an adult male fanbase.

We would call ourselves Straw-bro-ies.

Spoiler

[/sarcasm]

[Giest118]

You guys keep saying "adult males." It's made me wonder: if an adult female likes the show, is that also a horrible abomination of God's will? Or is it just dudes? I'd like to know exactly to what extent the circumstances of our birth needs to dictate our taste in things.

[BIL]

I could outdo your high score at any shmup you care to name. I hope you're feeling really insecure and threatened now, just melting into a little sexist ball of jelly that you are.

Scores or GTFO ;3

Also, watch me make Ketsui my bitch