What has been your impression of bronies?

[kitsunefather]

...Not Clopping (whatever the fuck that is)...

As a pedant, I felt the need to address this.

"Clopping" is an in-fandom (I use the term loosely here) term for "fapping" or masturbation. Not used by all, obviously, but enough that a non-brony knows it.

There is also a divide among the more serious in the fandom between those who feel it should be okay to create porn of the show to "Clop" to, and those who feel it just makes the entire community look too creepy and should be avoided. The saner elements of both, because of this and the aforementioned appearance of creep, usually use different terms for the show when posting porn of it, so it doesn't end up being found by kids looking up stuff about their favorite characters.

I do mention in my previous post that my two players were aggressive in explaining the fandom to me, yes?

 

[Politrukk]

Absolute creepers, at least around here.

I don't mean that to be offensive, these people are just really creepy.

 

[Nathan Josephs]

my impressions of bronies is that eve when there commentating on something completely unrelated they need to bring it back around to there love of my little pony. so negative. no one cares if you like a kids show or not. the only reason people hate you is because you wont shut up about it.

 

[happyninja42]

The closest thing to real-life interaction with a brony was me seeing some guy walking down the street in my city with a plushie under his arm and glaring viciously at anyone who dared make eye contact.

Maybe he was forced to buy it for someone else and that's why he looked pissed.

'No seriously, I was holding it for my cousin.'

See, me personally, I'd probably just sit it on my head while I waited for my cousin to come back, because fuck what other people think. xD But then I'm weird that way, and like to do things to make people do a double take at me sometimes.

 

[Halla Burrica]

Interestingly enough, this sounds a lot like coming out as an LGBT or an atheist to your family/friends. Lots of fear of rejection for something you identify with. Very curious. Not implying anything about your friend, even though if it was an indicator of some other reveal, I don't see any problem with it either, but it is interesting your choice of words to describe it, is very similar to other groups on a basic level.

Yeah come to think of it, it DOES sound like a "coming out of the closet"-thing, but I highly doubt it's in any way related to his sexuality. I've known him for years, but I've never seen him remotely interested in anyone from the same or opposite sex (and there are a lot of hot guys and gals in our town). It's probably more to do with the fact that he is a bit autistic (he's actually been diagnosed as such, and his grandma also has a bit of it too). It has its up and downs, but one thing that always sticks in my mind is that according to him, anime really resonates with autistic people. There are these group meetings arranged for autists he's gone to, where one day they were having a quiz with questions from the different members of the group, and a lot of those questions were anime related. That's kind of adorable.

 

[Eddie the head]

Bad. It's like my interpretation of uber Christians. You know the one's with crosses everywhere? They pay a lot of lip service to being "nice" or "tolerant." But mostly they're just a butch of ass holes. It seams to me when you reject the show is any good, you reject them. And they take that personalty. Just another example of why identifying too strongly with something isn't a bad idea.

 

[Ishigami]

Mostly harmless.

Only know one in RL. Strange fellow.
Likes rock music, got a chip on his shoulder and has a goatee... odd combination if you ask me...

 

[sageoftruth]

I understand why people feel weirded out by them. I was when I met my first brony at a college campus. Still, at this point I feel more intrigued than disgusted by them. I see them as a sign of changing times and I feel kind of optimistic about the idea of moving forward into times where things that weird me out are no longer considered weird by future generations.

 

[pookie101]

Didnt get it when it started and dont get it now..

being obsessed 20+ yo male fans of a show designed and aimed at selling toys to 5yo girls

to me it would be just as weird seeing a 20yo male running around the street acting like one of those japanese girls obsessed with cute things.. to quote Samuel L jackson in the spirit "thats just plain damn weird"

*edit* to be honest alot of people just seem to be jumping on to the latest internet fad

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

What's wrong with Faust's MLP? It's an entirely innocent show of cute things thrown together. I can see the appeal. I think fanboys (AND girls, for that matter) can ruin anything, but then again in the right environment they can make everything more awesome. For instance, I fucking love Netrunner. I meet other people that love Netrunner, we play Netrunner ... we get others to play Netrunner. What happens? Fun.

People judge love and obsession like it's something to crush out of human existence. It's not like it's gore porn and they're plotting some red room level shit. It's a colourful cartoon with colourful characters interacting in colourful ways.

You can take any other medium and paint it in the same light. Have you ever been to the unveiling of a new artistic collection of works? Sure some bronies can ruin the experience of simply watching colourful cartoons, but the same could be said of certain visual art critics (or worse, people who ever use the word 'aficionado' to describe themselves). Or hell, people who talk about NOTHING but the latest ballet performance or opera experience they saw at the SOH.

I like the ballet, I like the opera. I like lots of things. The world is replete with stuff that I am bound to like. The difference is I know enough to realize that I shouldn't think less of people who find either of them boring, nor think myself odd for appreciating them.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Didnt get it when it started and dont get it now..

being obsessed 20+ yo male fans of a show designed and aimed at selling toys to 5yo girls

to me it would be just as weird seeing a 20yo male running around the street acting like one of those japanese girls obsessed with cute things.. to quote Samuel L jackson in the spirit "thats just plain damn weird"

IMHO, that would seem a bit less unusual. It doesn't seem strange to me to have 20 something men very much into shows originally aimed at young girls. But when they are all into the same show, and seemingly not other things aimed at young girls, that seems a bit odd.

 

[Inglorious891]

As someone who went knee deep into the fandom years ago (right after season 3 ended is when I just quit being involved with the show, fandom, etc.), overall my opinion is rather negative.

90% of the people I met were some form of extremists who either obsessed over the show and made it so their lives centered around it, or they actively made fun of those fans who obsessed over it while obsessing over it in different ways (the entirety of /mlp/). The only group of remotely sane bronies that I've ran into were on BronyState, but due to some life complications I had to sever my connection to them. Without them I lost contact with any level-headed bronies and I just gave up on the whole fandom. Only recently I've begun to get back into the show, although it's been slow since I'm only on S4E4.

So yeah, overall most bronies are almost all rather undesirable individuals.

 

[onionpanzer]

they used to be really annoying but they eventually calmed down

I don't like the show but I did enjoy one of the songs

But I will confess the tiny group that has taken MLP:FiM fandom into sexual realms just squick me the hell out.

Spoiler

[http://postimage.org/]

I mean I can't judge people for their weird sexual fetishes but I just find that hard to believe

from what I've seen on most brony fanfic sites and fan sites most people are very okay with human x pony pairings and on boards like /mlp/ there are multiple porn threads up at the same time. I went to /mlp/ a couple of times to check out their them's fighting herds thread and the first thing I usually saw was a porn thread

I know that every fandom has people that make rule 34 but there is so much more porn of mlp characters than there is of characters in most other fandoms. in the short span of 3ish years the amount of porn that was made for mlp characters rivaled the amount of porn made for characters in other fandoms that are over a decade old and just are as popular as mlp

 

[TakerFoxx]

Some are a bit weird, but most are probably alright, much like any other fans of whatever. I personally never really got the idea of calling yourself a "Brony" though, or "Whovian" or whatever.
I do kind of have some fond memories of brony on this site though I guess, called "EternalNothing" maybe? Used to enjoy wandering into his threads about how MLP was turning into Dragonball Z or something like that. I don't think I've seen much of them nowadays though...

That's because he got banned. He was asking for it, but it was a shame. The place is a little bit duller without him.

I know that every fandom has people that make rule 34 but there is so much more porn of mlp characters than there is of characters in most other fandoms. in the short span of 3ish years the amount of porn that was made for mlp characters rivaled the amount of porn made for characters in other fandoms that are over a decade old and just are as popular as mlp

Try checking out the Touhou fandom sometime. We may not get as much mainstream attention as MLP, but when it comes to sheer porn output, no one is our equal!

...

Why am I proud of that?

 

[Drathnoxis]

They've got pretty poor taste in television.

Other than that, a lot of the stuff that came out of the fandom was better than anything that actually was in the show.

Edit: And also, I was under the impression that there were barely any left. I rarely see the show mentioned, and I only know of one person who still watches the show, and even he isn't too enthralled with it.

 

[JemothSkarii]

I treat bronies like I treat shippers, otherkin, most fanfiction and my ex girlfriends:

I acknowledge and accept they exist, but I do my best to avoid such things and treat it with a certain level of disdain. Maybe it's just bad experiences, or maybe it's just something I can't understand. Must be similar when I state I like the -monogatari anime but wish it had less fanservice (Looking at you Episode 1 of Tsukimonogatari... Nise's can be somewhat explained at least).

Anyways.

It's just like most other fandoms really, they can be nice, but then there's a faction which ruins it for everyone on the outside. This occurs for most shows.
I also dated one once... that was odd, in a way. Kept asking me why I wasn't interested in it.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

From my experience, the ones I have interacted with are likely suffering from neurological disorders. Not that they necessarily need treatment, as long as their obsessions do not interfere with their daily lives or relationships it can be harmless enough to not be all that concerned. People often obsess over many things, this just happens to be an odd one. Although in many cases, it isn't necessarily an obsession over ponies, but rather a strong desire to be different ( or silly, funny, ect..) or an obsession with developing their identity. Whether someone relates to ponies, anime, actors, singers, sports or games is not a concern, it is a matter of how they relate to it, whether it is abnormal level of intensity or focus, and whether or not it negatively impacts their life or others in a negative way. More often than not however, the only negative impact fanboyism over ponies or anything else usually has is " others thinking you are weird" which is usually not overly concerning unless of course, the people who think you are weird are an employer that promotes someone else instead of you due to thinking you are weird, or someone who has the ability to affect your life in some way. For example, neighbor thinks you are weird, takes picture of you wearing pony shirt, shows it to your employer while at their pool party and tells your boss and the rest of the neighborhood " this guy is obsessed with little girl shows so I keep my children away from him" and yea that can have a negative impact on your life because people are nosy and cruel. Not necessarily a problem from watching ponies, but moreso a problem of what is considered socially acceptable.

 

[Loonyyy]

Cringeworthy?

I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but it's a cringeworthy thing, even in this scene. On the same note, I get the same cringing feeling when my younger brothers try to talk video games to my father, who has absolutely no clue about video games, or about a lot of youtube types, who are just embarrassing if you haven't already bought in. I don't usually cringe about these things on my own, but the context matters heavily. Interestingly enough, a lot of the bronies take a lot of pride in this, that people cringe, or think it's silly. That's an interesting way of dealing with that, although it runs the risk of appearing silly if they're talking to people who are genuinely apathetic.

I think it's odd though the reaction that they get in this scene though. Most of gaming culture is thoroughly cringeworthy. Jim Sterling? More cringeworthy than MLP ever will be. Moviebob? Cringe. Cosplay? 95% cringe. Let's Plays? Cringe. Trade shows and expos? Cringe. Razer? Cringe. Booth babes? Cringe. All of these things have a pretty high cringe factor, unless you've already bought in. Try showing the likes of Jimquisition to someone who doesn't care about video games, and you'll experience the same cringe.

So while I may cringe at the MLP stuff, I'm sure it seems perfectly fine to them, they've bought into that scene, and what comes with it, and you know, good for them, they've found something they enjoy, and people who they can talk to about it.

Of course, when it collides with general geeky lack of self awareness, it's primed for some awkward situations in real life, but that's a different discussion altogether.