What has been your impression of bronies?

[mind-screwed]

No, you didn't just travel back in time to 2012. I just wanted some opinions from fellow escapists.

Some background: I have been a fan of Friendship is Magic for a long time now, but as a fan I usually just:
-watch new episodes when they come out
-watch funny reviewers (joshscorcher, jerry peet, and silverquill to be specific)
-occasionally go on mlpforums.com and discuss some topic with other bronies
I am not really that involved with the fandom except the aforementioned mlpforums and even then it's usually related to the show itself not the fandom.

I don't ever want to come off as obsessive, or a jerk who flings hatred at anyone who doesn't like FiM (lets be honest it is very "kiddy" compared to Gravity Falls or Steven Universe), and I achieve this by telling absolutely no one in real life or commenting on anything brony-related... so far so good. And I've always been aware that bronies are notorious for being too sensitive, inserting pony stuff in non-pony situations, "clopping" (shudders), just generally being irritating, so I usually steer clear of it. But lately I've been wondering more and more about just how severe this is and what their reputation is. When bronies are mentioned, I see a lot of hostility towards even the mention of them.

So I ask you, escapists: what have been your experiences and overall impression of MLP fans?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I still have a hard time taking them seriously, no offense intended. I never got over the "it's for 5 year olds" impression.

 

[Rewdalf]

Bad.

I met quite a few people from that community.
I don't like saying this, but the majority of experiences have been negative.
Thing is, the ones that were positive were very positive.
In fact, some of my current closest friends used to be "bronies."
That's literally how we met.

Now, I say used to be.
Well, we all just moved on...
The ones who didn't move on, well. We don't talk much anymore.
It was basically just a phase.

There are still plenty of nice people, and I have nothing against anyone.
It's just all in the past.

 

[Zontar]

There's only two who I've met, and both are pretty nice guys who are pretty decent friends of mine. They still watch the show but because of other hobbies they tend to talk about other things since no one really wants to talk about Brony things with them and they accept that, much as I accept that people around me don't tend to want to talk about some of my interests.

Though I do have to say I enjoy brony cringe videos, though the same applies to minecraft. I'm a terrible person in that regard.

 

[Creator002]

With Bronies IRL, it's been fine. However, that only includes me and my cousin.
Online is much of the same, but I mainly stuck to watching episodes and buying merchandise.
I still get merchandise now and then, but I've only seen episode 1 and 2 of season 5 so far. I plan to watch it once it's fully released, but I'm not into it anymore.

 

[Silvanus]

Only met one IRL (that I was aware of). Seemed like an alright guy, although he did bring it up in irrelevant situations a couple of times.

"Mostly Harmless" is what I'd write in a travel-guide on this topic. I do find the attraction inexplicable, though; there are numerous animated shows with a mature approach and advanced storytelling, so those don't really explain the disproportionate followship for this particular cartoon about ponies.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

My experiences were that they're just people. Made some good friends in uni that would wear MLP shirts and (very) occasionally talk about it. Never a particularly dominant part of conversation, though. So basically "normal," for whatever that's worth.

Did see a few guys that matched the fedora/trilby, trenchcoat and MLP shirt (plus very unkempt facial hair) stereotype a couple of times, but they were generally very uncommon.

I tend not to have qualms with someone liking the show, essentially. Even if it's not anywhere near my cup of tea.

 

[Twintix]

Well, they're people, for one thing.

Which means, some of them are über-creative, some are funny, some are jerks, some are nice, some take themselves waaaaaay too seriously, some have more self-distance and are willing to laugh at themselves.
They're straight, gay and everything in between, they have interests and talents elsewhere, they probably have jobs or go to school and I'd hazard a guess that they probably like Saturday nights.

They're just...people. People who happen to like a show about candy-colored horses. They shouldn't be defined by this alone, not by themselves or by other people.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I'm not one to denigrate anyone for their subjective likes, I'm a bit overboard on certain aspects of Star Wars myself. However I have always drawn the line at the obsessive jackass who tries to "convert" me, despite me having stated my case that I'm just not a fan of MLP, no matter how well written they may say it is. Just not my bag, my cup o' tea, you know what I'm sayin'?

Enjoy what you will so long as you don't try to force your subjectivity on someone else.

 

[loa]

They keep spamming their ponies all over my precious midget lobster furry porn.
Sickos!

...what?

 

[jklinders]

Frankly I don't really get the hate. Even if the show is just for kids, I really do not understand the need to sling bile at these folks for it. Odds are really good that those members of the fandom who are repulsive are such in spite of their membership of that fandom rather than because of it.

Life's too short to go apeshit over whether or not a 20+ years watches kids shows. Now if on the other hand they are cruising playgrounds in a white van with candy....but that goes without saying and has nothing to do with the show.

 

[sonicneedslovetoo]

Considering I am a brony and have actually written fanfiction I'll give my perspective on them. A lot of them are quiet and don't shove it in your face. However there has been this thing growing up around the show where youtubers overanalize the shit outta episodes to the point where minor plot inconsistencies are magnified to the point where it can literally make them hate an episode for no other reason than that(seriously one of their complaints was that the episode introduced new characters and tried to expand on the backstory of the main character and they presented that criticism without a hint of irony.)

On the fanfiction side not a lot of people commented and it was generally ok either most people were ok with what I wrote or there wasn't much to comment on, but there were a few people who style themselves as "critics" of fanfiction and go out and hand out overly vague criticism with more effort put into the metaphors than the criticism itself. That's not a very nice thing to do when you're talking directly to somebody.

The last type that I know about are the really pushy ones and honestly I try not to bring up the show at all if I can help it and honestly I don't think I've met one of these people. But rest assured they exist watching the fandom grow when it was new was kinda crazy. if you want to get an idea of what it was like find a Steven Universe forum or something and ask about how progressive the show is, it was pretty much on a similar level to that.

 

[McElroy]

Anyone over 10 being a genuine fan of a show like this is weird, if they keep this way for long it's even weirder. And I considered myself a fan for some time too, but I got disillusioned - not just to bronies but to fandoms in general.

I think that just watching and liking the show is one thing - that tells more about the show than its viewers - but buying stupid merch, creating a ponysona or something like that, having long debates about the rules of a cartoon-toy world and so on... that's telling much more about those people. Are these guys just embracing the little girl we all have inside of us? I guess that could be one thing, and another is the need to be defensive, oh so defensive. And drama, of course you need drama too. In the end it was a decent escape to innocence for the while it lasted. A guy who still thinks he can hold on to that would definitely not leave a good impression on me.

I mean, I have this former schoolmate who used to spam a lot of pony stuff on fb and I've always considered him much much more of a brony than I ever was, but even he, since getting some good ol' shit on his plate, has mostly stopped now.

 

[Evonisia]

The sane ones: They're OK, just like fans of anything that aren't too obsessive.

The mad ones: Are as funny as Sonic fans, and just as creepy.

 

[GrumbleGrump]

I find the ones that like to insert their fucking fandom everywhere to be extremely irritating.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

The main problem I had with any of them were the people who redefined themselves because of the show. Hell, "Brony" doesn't make sense to me. I love Game of Thrones, and I even have a shirt, but I don't call myself a "Gamer" (wait, shit)

There were obviously crazy ones and normal ones but in the end the only thing fandom wide that annoyed me was the need to insert it into everything. If something exists, there's a pony version of it. Like one of the rules of the internet, though I can't recall which one.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I'm glad they've quieted down. A few years ago the net was swamped by them. Ok, fine, you like the show, but we don't need to be reminded of it everywhere, they were worse than Joss Whedon fans.

Also, that Derpy Hooves stuff...if you are going to blather on about love and tolerance for all, you shouldn't expect to be taken seriously when complaining about not making fun of the mentally handicapped.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Never met a real life Brony.
Never spoke to an online brony.
Never watched the show.
Ah, so that's why there are multicoloured ponies everywhere!
They would be various types of human, I guess. An educated assumption that they are of the "male" gender also. One would need to speculacte to give more information.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Bronydom will die off once MLP progresses beyond its current generation. Gen 5 will probably come in 5 years or less.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

Well, like with any fandom, some folks are just pricks.

Personally, I like the show and own a brony shirt or two friends have bought me as a joke. I don't go beyond that though. As that would be weird.

Oh, and my sibling, puzzlingly enough, bought me a large Twilight piggy bank for my birthday, again, as a joke.

I actually wound up using it though, since it was easier than losing change everywhere.

...Besides, I have plenty of anime to obsess over. Splitting my time up like that would just be inefficient.