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Why was My Little Pony hated so much?
10 years ago
ScottishFurWARNING: This journal contains comments that may or may not offend and anger. So just be warned
Remember the My Little Pony tidalwave that happened a few years ago? We seem to be still living in the nuclear winter of it; there's still My Little Pony fanart here and there, but for the most part it seems to have faded away. Now for some reason this series was greatly lauded and also greatly hated. Does it deserve either....um, no.
Sorry fans of this show but its really really not that great. In fact its just kind of your generic kids show, especially ones based on toy lines, or at least it has aspects of a load of other kids shows; you have the one dimensional characters (the sporty one, the shy one, the Barbie, etc.), heavy moral messages (literally smacking you over the head), Princesses (taking a leaf from Disney. Give Disney credit they did introduce a Queen as a protagonist) and the Power of Friendship (UUUUUUGGH).
Honestly compared to other cartoons that came out around the same time like Adventure Time, Legend of Korra and Regular Show, it felt a bit boring. This is especially true with Adventure Time, particularly in the antagonists. In Adventure Time they are given a lot of depth and development, most of it indirectly and by that I mean they don't talk directly like:
"I used to be a good guy now I'm evil because blah blah blah."
Instead the series SHOWS us instead; look at the song the Ice King and Marceline sing; it is wonderful!
My Little Pony's villains are pretty dull in comparison with lots of generic traits; there's the Changelings who are clearly evil because:
a) they're lead by a Queen and queens are always evil of course
b) They're not bright and colourful, they're green and black and therefore evil!
These are very very basic troupes that have been around for a long time; look at Snow White for example; she wears blue, red, white and yellow, very bright colours, whereas the Queen wears mostly black or purple, dark colours. Also there's other stereotypes; Trixie is the pompous show off bully , there's your evil cloud pony, ala the Nothing from the Neverending Story (minus the intelligence) and anything that's not pony shaped or different being treated with fear and hatred.
The only interesting one seems to be Discord and he's unceremoniously kicked out. Its like if Star Trek got rid of the Klingons or Doctor Who blew up the Daleks; taking an iconic villain and just throwing them away.
But at the same time does it really deserve to be hated? I find that most people more often hate the fandom rather than the series itself. And yes, the fandom can get really irritating; pumping out pony characters like a sweatshop. Also the fact that it kind of appeared didn't help; most older established fandoms evolved over time, for example Classic Whovians, Trekkies and anime fans have had years to evolve; most fans grew up with the media they are fans of, and yes many do have their rotten sides (like weeaboos, which are anime/Japanophile hybrid abominations), many do have maturity.
The internet however has changed the evolution of fandoms. Now fandoms can grow very quickly and sometimes even painfully. A perfect example are fans of New Doctor Who, a loud part of which are fangirls (not that Doctor Who isn't for both genders; it is, but these tend to be the fan ficcy writers) which have caused a lot of headaches for the rest of Doctor Who fans. They're more like the Twilight fans than Doctor Who fans, not helped by the fact that for a while the New Series was more about the Doctor snogging hot girls rather than what the core of Doctor Who is about; Travel and adventure (but this is a whole other can of worms). Another more recent example could be the explosion of the Five Nights at Freddy's fandom, which itself is also causing more headaches, but seems to have died out much faster.
The My Little Pony fandom seemed to have had a similar growth. It burst suddenly onto the scene. Now some of these fans are of course children and also older MLP who like the show and hey that's fine. I'd never fault someone for liking the series. Then you have the bronies, or snobby fanboys who, oh boy. There are some who say its not for kids....which is a dumb notion. Its clearly for kids. And no the characters are not deep; giving them mental breakdowns doesn't not instantly make a character interesting or complex. Also so what if it has pop culture references? You know what else has pop culture references? A tonne of other cartoons; some great like Aladdin and Animaniacs, some horrendous like Shark Tale.
But this isn't going to be a whole journal about bashing bronies. And in the end pure 100% bronies are pretty rare; most My Little Pony fans just like the series and hey that's fine.
But even ignoring the snobby over-reading fans, why is the MLP fandom despised in the furry fandom?
I have a theory; furries are scared of the fandom. Not all furries, but a fair few I believe are scared. Why? Well probably because they see themselves in some aspects of the MLP fandom. The furry fandom is gigantic and we have all sorts of people, good, bad and those who turn from good to bad or from bad to good.
That and some bits have similarities to the MLP fandom; we have a sleuth clone characters, like gallons of factory made characters, from seas of fat bears into leather (how very boring) to oceans of foxes with the exact same personalities (with islands of those who are different, kudos to them), kind of like how all the MLP characters look the same (just different colours). Also we have our fair share of irritating extremist fans; you don't need to go far to see drama wars raging both online or offline, and we have our share of nasty stuff which judging from Devientart and other sites seem to plague every fandom like Dutch Elm Disease.
So really should the MLP fandom, or any fandom for that matter, be hated? No. Not the whole of it. Every fandom has their rotten sides, its just how the world works.
I also don't think it should be hated because its based on something for girls; lots of media aimed at girls have achieved a lot of acclaim; look at Sailor Moon for example, that introduced thousands of people old and young to anime. But I admit I honestly cannot get into My Little Pony. Its just too sugary and saccharine for my tastes. That and the whole pretty perfect princess who uses magic to solve everything and bland villains...yeah. No.
So those are my thoughts; feel free to comment and share your opinions; but please keep it civil. Thank you!
Remember the My Little Pony tidalwave that happened a few years ago? We seem to be still living in the nuclear winter of it; there's still My Little Pony fanart here and there, but for the most part it seems to have faded away. Now for some reason this series was greatly lauded and also greatly hated. Does it deserve either....um, no.
Sorry fans of this show but its really really not that great. In fact its just kind of your generic kids show, especially ones based on toy lines, or at least it has aspects of a load of other kids shows; you have the one dimensional characters (the sporty one, the shy one, the Barbie, etc.), heavy moral messages (literally smacking you over the head), Princesses (taking a leaf from Disney. Give Disney credit they did introduce a Queen as a protagonist) and the Power of Friendship (UUUUUUGGH).
Honestly compared to other cartoons that came out around the same time like Adventure Time, Legend of Korra and Regular Show, it felt a bit boring. This is especially true with Adventure Time, particularly in the antagonists. In Adventure Time they are given a lot of depth and development, most of it indirectly and by that I mean they don't talk directly like:
"I used to be a good guy now I'm evil because blah blah blah."
Instead the series SHOWS us instead; look at the song the Ice King and Marceline sing; it is wonderful!
My Little Pony's villains are pretty dull in comparison with lots of generic traits; there's the Changelings who are clearly evil because:
a) they're lead by a Queen and queens are always evil of course
b) They're not bright and colourful, they're green and black and therefore evil!
These are very very basic troupes that have been around for a long time; look at Snow White for example; she wears blue, red, white and yellow, very bright colours, whereas the Queen wears mostly black or purple, dark colours. Also there's other stereotypes; Trixie is the pompous show off bully , there's your evil cloud pony, ala the Nothing from the Neverending Story (minus the intelligence) and anything that's not pony shaped or different being treated with fear and hatred.
The only interesting one seems to be Discord and he's unceremoniously kicked out. Its like if Star Trek got rid of the Klingons or Doctor Who blew up the Daleks; taking an iconic villain and just throwing them away.
But at the same time does it really deserve to be hated? I find that most people more often hate the fandom rather than the series itself. And yes, the fandom can get really irritating; pumping out pony characters like a sweatshop. Also the fact that it kind of appeared didn't help; most older established fandoms evolved over time, for example Classic Whovians, Trekkies and anime fans have had years to evolve; most fans grew up with the media they are fans of, and yes many do have their rotten sides (like weeaboos, which are anime/Japanophile hybrid abominations), many do have maturity.
The internet however has changed the evolution of fandoms. Now fandoms can grow very quickly and sometimes even painfully. A perfect example are fans of New Doctor Who, a loud part of which are fangirls (not that Doctor Who isn't for both genders; it is, but these tend to be the fan ficcy writers) which have caused a lot of headaches for the rest of Doctor Who fans. They're more like the Twilight fans than Doctor Who fans, not helped by the fact that for a while the New Series was more about the Doctor snogging hot girls rather than what the core of Doctor Who is about; Travel and adventure (but this is a whole other can of worms). Another more recent example could be the explosion of the Five Nights at Freddy's fandom, which itself is also causing more headaches, but seems to have died out much faster.
The My Little Pony fandom seemed to have had a similar growth. It burst suddenly onto the scene. Now some of these fans are of course children and also older MLP who like the show and hey that's fine. I'd never fault someone for liking the series. Then you have the bronies, or snobby fanboys who, oh boy. There are some who say its not for kids....which is a dumb notion. Its clearly for kids. And no the characters are not deep; giving them mental breakdowns doesn't not instantly make a character interesting or complex. Also so what if it has pop culture references? You know what else has pop culture references? A tonne of other cartoons; some great like Aladdin and Animaniacs, some horrendous like Shark Tale.
But this isn't going to be a whole journal about bashing bronies. And in the end pure 100% bronies are pretty rare; most My Little Pony fans just like the series and hey that's fine.
But even ignoring the snobby over-reading fans, why is the MLP fandom despised in the furry fandom?
I have a theory; furries are scared of the fandom. Not all furries, but a fair few I believe are scared. Why? Well probably because they see themselves in some aspects of the MLP fandom. The furry fandom is gigantic and we have all sorts of people, good, bad and those who turn from good to bad or from bad to good.
That and some bits have similarities to the MLP fandom; we have a sleuth clone characters, like gallons of factory made characters, from seas of fat bears into leather (how very boring) to oceans of foxes with the exact same personalities (with islands of those who are different, kudos to them), kind of like how all the MLP characters look the same (just different colours). Also we have our fair share of irritating extremist fans; you don't need to go far to see drama wars raging both online or offline, and we have our share of nasty stuff which judging from Devientart and other sites seem to plague every fandom like Dutch Elm Disease.
So really should the MLP fandom, or any fandom for that matter, be hated? No. Not the whole of it. Every fandom has their rotten sides, its just how the world works.
I also don't think it should be hated because its based on something for girls; lots of media aimed at girls have achieved a lot of acclaim; look at Sailor Moon for example, that introduced thousands of people old and young to anime. But I admit I honestly cannot get into My Little Pony. Its just too sugary and saccharine for my tastes. That and the whole pretty perfect princess who uses magic to solve everything and bland villains...yeah. No.
So those are my thoughts; feel free to comment and share your opinions; but please keep it civil. Thank you!
Simple, the general premise doesn't interest me, however, that alone isn't the real problem as there is plenty of stuff that doesn't interest me but I don't hate.
The real problem is the fact it's all over the internet, everywhere you go you'll see it or hear about it, even when it has nothing to do with whatever you're looking at.
and this is what impact the internet has had on fandoms. Its so easy to get information and videos. Compare to poor Trekkies and Whovians back in the 60s and 70s when there were no VHSs, which is a shame because that might have saved many lost Doctor Who episodes
But then again, I tend to not mingle much with most fandoms. *Shrugs*
And on the side because you mention it, I've recently lost interest with Dr. Who because of the shift in writing. Don't even get me started on "Kill the moon". Argh.
and then in comes in a pretentious Abortion message
I have actually noticed loads of people going to the Classic Series instead, and I highly recommend people it. No sappy soppy Doctor x companion romances and a host of originality
I grew up on classic who. The effects are silly, but I feel it has a nice 'monster movie' charm.
Does not hurt I also watched MST3k growing up too.
I was actually quite into the show for the first two seasons. I think what made it so appealing is the way it reinvented the MLP franchise aesthetically, bringing the art style out of the narrow, impotent, stereotypical "'80s girl's toy" look into something cleaner looking, brighter, and more universally appealing.
I don't think plot and character were ever strong points for MLP - its merit is essentially in aesthetics, particularly in the "aesthetic revolution" of the new show for which we usually credit Lauren Faust. Aesthetics is fine, but it makes for a very short-lived merit, as I'm sure you'd understand.
I think the main reason I fell out of it was because the fandom felt very unfair to me toward dragons, since they were my favorite animal. I think what made it worse was that the show indeed posed itself as a "sweet" show, which would have been fine in itself, except that underneath that sweet coating and singing about "friendship" there's a very cruel, amoral kind of discrimination on bases of species, appearances, etc. It suggests a kind of superficialization of values: "yes, friendship, but only within the canon rules of discrimination." That inconsistency gives the "sweetness" of the show kind of a bitter aftertaste beneath it. With that in mind, I really agree with you about the show's one-dimensional treatment of animals other than the ponies.
I'm usually pretty tolerant when it comes to fandoms, but one of the things that really irks me is when canon rules are enforced for no other reason than blind faith to the product, especially when the rules themselves are simply one-dimensional tropes that have nothing to do with the product's artistic value, like your "queens are evil" example. I feel choked in that kind of consumer slave mentality, and is the main reason I generally distrust franchise products in general, and find it refreshing when someone breaks canon rules for once to create something that's genuinely new, interesting, and creative.
But no, instead we get the Pony master race....though even then, the ones that can use magic seem to superior to the others. Its kind of messed up when you think about it
I think Transformers Prime is a better series overall to be honest. Its based on the 80s toy cartoon, but does more like having Megatron be really intimidating. That and it has Starscream :D
honestly this series, thinking it over again and reading into it, I actually find myself disliking it even more D: