McGuinty1 said:
I guess to each his own, and having seen clips of the show I agree to every reason you listed except for the saccharine part, on which I believe our respective tolerances differ greatly. I didn't say outright that the only reason any adult watches it is for the references, though I did not make that explicit. My contention is that just because it has all those qualities you listed, just because it is a well-above-the-bar kids' show, does that mean that one HAS to watch it? Sure, you can watch it and enjoy it, but there is plenty of other programming that is just as good or better that is not aimed squarely at kids.
My post was really aimed at the uber-nerds who are making a cult out of a kids show, I guess I should have been more specific. Also I suppose the avatars are a fad that will pass next year, and I did edit my post after you quoted me to read "very difficult" instead of "unable", as I realized that the first version was too broad. However, most people who have a Pony avatar that I have run into on various forums are exactly the kind of white-noise blockheads who deserve exactly zero attention or scorn. You sir, are not that kind of poster, and I've enjoyed this discussion.
Upon reflection, I'd have to agree that it's very, very sugar-coated on the surface (could not say any of the character's names out loud without reluctance for maybe 3 weeks after having first seen it, and it took twice that amount of time before I stopped cringing whenever the theme song came on), but I think it's considerably easier to get past it relative to other things that might be considered saccharine (given what can be found under the surface).
Not to say that being "tolerably saccharine" makes it a must-watch. That's like saying a Transformers movie had
just enough of a plot to make to legitimate, then insisting that it was the best plot ever in any movie. Sure, it was better-than-average, but that doesn't make it a 'must-see'.
But novelty in society goes a long way. And I think the sheer novelty of MLP drove a lot of the initial interest, then hung onto people once they got into it. And it was fortunate enough to be so novel that it was absurd to say you liked it, which drove people to justify it excessively, and drove people to "recruit" others so they might observe the same process that they went through.
MLP was a fad.
Was. That's what helped its rise (unless a person immediately heard the title and got excited about it, the fad aspect recruited them). But because there's legitimate content in it--both canonical and fanmade--and because people had already displayed their interest in it (often adamantly), they decided to stick with it. This is the true reason MLP is popular and will continue to be. Not because it's an amazing show among modern standards, but because a series of events triggered a sociological reaction in a group of people (saying this as an avid fan of 8 months of FiM).
Damn, a calm, intelligible debate on the internet? What happened?
