Caramel Frappe said:
OT: I love the show, I despise the fanbase. Bronies are nothing special, yet they say things that they tend to not keep. For example, many say "love and tolerate" but really it's only amongst one another. Anyone who dislikes the show or has criticism, the fans go off on them. Another thing is that Bronies deny people who draw rule 34, saying that are not Bronies or even fans for that matter.
Rule 34 art on MLP is not my thing at all, but it's art nether the less so you're pretty much shunning those people who share the same passion in the show as you. But that is another subject to look into which I don't feel all that comfortable discussing. Point is, the fans make themselves ought to be good yet turn back on their word in situations without accepting opinions. Crap, they argue who's the best pony.. you should all know that the main 6 are best when they're together. Simple as that.
This right here, to an extent. I love the show and
most of the fandom. Some of the creative works I've seen produced by brony artists is phenomenal, from art to writing to music to animation. That's what I find so great; the fact that people have expanded exponentially on the show the fandom's based around.
As for Rule 34, not for me, but I don't begrudge anyone for making or perusing it. It's not doing me any harm, and John Joseco, one of the best known Rule 34 artists out there, produces some amazing SFW stuff as well, and he's just one amongst many. The one thing that really annoys me about the fandom is the stick-up-their-ass moral crusaders who will do everything in their power to denounce everything with even the whiff of romance around it, let alone Rule 34. They'll complain about haters, and then be even more hostile to people within their own fandom, and expect to be applauded for it. God forbid you point out their hypocrisy.
There's one comic artist in particular, Toxic Mario, who produced a rather venomous journal on DeviantArt calling anyone who shipped a particular pair of characters from the show as 'creepy' and 'wrong'. He later removed the offending sentences after I called him out on it and had a lengthy debate with one of his more level-headed friends (who maintained that there was nothing inherently wrong with being so hostile regardless, because, hey, they're just doing canon art, right?), but I still can't enjoy his comics, thanks to the niggling thought in the back of my head that they were produced by a rather spiteful person who couldn't accept that some people like things he doesn't like.
So that's that; with the exception of a few sour notes, I'm strongly in favour of show and fandom.
EDIT:
Berithil said:
Lugbzurg said:
I. Totally. Agree.
I actually used Portal as an example when trying to describing the show to my mom. It's so innocent and simple, yet its made intelligently and with care, and that makes a real gem.
I also think its mainly the "phonies" who go around shoving it in peoples faces and spout memes everywhere. Theyre the ones who like the show either ironicly or just because its popular. I find it really hard to tolerate the ones who feel the need to sexualize the show. It just goes to show that they don't get what makes the show so great. It's the reason I refuse to go near "cupcakes". I'd rather have my view of the show untainted. Thankfully, as far as I can tell, the show hasn't quite gone mainstream yet, or we would be seeing a lot more of those types of fans, and not just on the internet. I know a lot of people who would just jump on the bandwagon just because its popular if it went mainstream.
Oh, and you used my favorite quote by C.S. Lewis, (i think that's a favorite for a lot of fans of the show).
Sorry, I only spotted this after hitting post. I have to say that's something I'm completely in agreement with as well, with one exception - I don't like the ones who use
gratuitous amounts of violence, gore or sexuality in their fanworks. However, there is definitely a distinction to be made between, say, Cupcakes and Fallout: Equestria. Both are undoubtedly M-rated fanfics, but while one is an uberviolent, badly written trollfic, the other tells an epic tale of adventure, love and sacrifice, just in a setting far removed from the original show. Building upon it like that is great in my eyes, because it still held true to the messages of the show about friendship, it just put those lessons in a post-nuclear wasteland.
