Son, let's talk about My Little Pony.

[slimequest]

Perhaps some of you have heard about this new My Little Pony show, on some dark corner of the internet. Maybe you've seen pony icons such as mine around LJ, and maybe you've even had people mention how the show's pretty good. Even more surprising, some of those talking about the show may have been male.

Well, I'm here to explain things for you. Not only what it is and why people like it, but also why you, too, should consider giving it a shot. This post will be full of information, full of image macros, full of... My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.



In order to understand My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, you basically have to throw away any existing preconceptions you have about what My Little Pony is or what those three words convey.

Imagine, for a moment, if you will: A show aimed primarily at little girls, that also managed to somehow be GOOD.



Now, I'll fully admit to having a very limited exposure to shows for girls when I was growing up, but the general consensus from girls I've talked to is that most of them focused a lot on being cute and pretty, but didn't have much appeal beyond that. After having watched Friendship is Magic, I've compared it to other contemporary girl's shows (like Strawberry Shortcake), and let's just say that FiM is in a completely different league. I can feel the actual sensation of my brain cells dying while watching Strawberry Shortcake, it's really THAT bad. Needless to say, that show isn't trying to reach beyond its most obvious demographic, but Friendship is Magic most certainly is.

The creator of this new Pony show is Lauren Faust, whose name you might recognize, since she contributed to The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. Even if you weren't a fan of her previous work (or maybe even never heard of her), I think everyone can appreciate what she's set out to do with FiM. Simply put, her goal is to create a show for little girls that is actually good. Not just cutesy and appealing to girls, but well-written, humorous, and entertaining enough for both mom and dad to watch along with them. Not just them either, as there is an entire cult following of 20-something females AND males who are legitimate fans of the show. The guys call themselves "Bronies", watch the show, some even buy merchandise based on it. No, seriously.



Seriously. It's that good of a show. I discovered it quite by accident, really. I was made aware of the Hub because it plays the original Transformers and G.I. Joe cartoons, and I was curious to watch them again after all these years. So while I discovered the channel due to nostalgic boy's shows, I'm continuing to watch it because of My Little Pony, a show I'd never imagined I'd become a fan of.

Considering krile was a fan of the original series, we humored ourselves by watching an episode of this new one. It was impossible to tell at first, but... by the end of that episode, I knew I had to see more. Soon enough, I was proud to call myself a fan of this show.



It's not just ironically liking something you're not supposed to. The show is actually competently written, the characters are extremely expressive and endlessly amusing. The ponies actually go and DO THINGS like go on adventures, instead of sitting around at a tea party. But I assure, you this show could turn an episode centered around a tea party into the most entertaining thing you've ever seen.

Let me break things down for you:

There are ponies with OCD.

There are songs, glorious songs. Songs about making dresses that men in their 20s proudly put on loop on their iPods.

The babysitting episode had a freaking Cockatrice in it.

There's at least ONE gay dragon.

Manticores! Hydras! Griffons!

And the list goes on. Really, most of the mind-blowing things are more subtle and happen so quickly you'll have no idea what to think.

I feel like the episode recommendations down below do a good enough job introducing the main cast as it is, so I'll just post some more pictures that will give you an idea of their personalities (okay, a lot of them are just funny pictures from the show, whatever).

Twilight Sparkle: Friendship might be magic, but you better be able to explain it in scientific terms. [citation needed]







Fluttershy: Umm... that's nice.







Pinkie Pie: META AS FUCK







Rarity: Use a coaster. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, USE A COASTER.







Applejack: Makes Japanese salarymen look like lazy slobs, y'all.







Rainbow Dash: This post needs to be about 20% cooler.







There's also a cast of supporting characters, and even some of the background ponies manage to have personality. It's downright amazing.



So, let's say that all this has intrigued you, and you're considering giving the show a shot. Putting your manhood on the line. Or maybe just trying to rekindle your long-lost MLP fan status? Where to begin? With this series, it's a little hard to say what the best first episode would be to watch.

There's the two-part series premiere [1] [2], which is actually a bit different than the rest of the series. It has an established villain the ponies have to confront, and has been described as "Sailor Moon" compared to the rest of the series' "Clarissa Explains It All" feel. It does a good job introducing the main cast, and I definitely wouldn't recommend against starting here. The fact that it's not REALLY an example of what the series is actually like is the only forewarning. Some might say it's not as funny or entertaining as other episodes, either.

"Bridle Gossip" is regularly considered the overall best episode so far. It's an episode where wacky stuff happens to the main cast, so it could be said that having a better knowledge of them beforehand would make it more entertaining. Still, it's just so damned good and fucking hilarious that it's hard to not recommend it. I don't think you can go wrong with this one.

I'd start with either of those choices. If the first couple of episodes don't seem that impressive, "Bridle Gossip" might strike a chord with you instead. If you still somehow don't see the appeal after Fluttershy's song in that episode... I don't know what to tell you. This show might not be for you, and you MIGHT want to have your sense of humor checked.

But no matter who you are, just watch nine and a half minutes of Pinkie Pie being... Pinkie Pie. This is compiled from only the first few episodes, so it's just barely scratching the surface. I still can't believe they're "allowed" to make My Little Pony this entertaining.

Assuming you DO want to see more, Pensivepony's Youtube Channel is the easiest place to find episodes to watch. And be proud of your pony-loving heritage. Embrace it. You've overcome prejudice and stereotyping, and your reward is... ponies.

EDIT: Okay, since some of you are watching it now, I bestow upon you webrips and glorious HD versions of episodes here! You can also watch on the Hub's official site



*now edited with higher-quality video links added at the bottom!*

Comments

[yachinami.livejournal.com]

The show has very recently just started to pique my interest. I haven't watched anything from it yet, but just in the past couple weeks there's been some wanky MLP secrets on Fandom Secrets that essentially said "If you prefer the old MLP designs you're an idiot!" and "I judge you to be an asshole if Rainbow Dash is your favorite!" and "Bronies are all creepy perverted lolicon furries!" (or something to that effect), and all the fans of the show were pretty much "lol stfu", so it kinda caught my attention.


Back in the old-school MLP days, my favorite was this fuzzy yellow pegasus named Lofty. /nostalgia

[slimequest.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, there's a fandom. Which consists largely of guys from 4chan, so that pretty much explains everything you saw. I basically left that out of my post because inevitably anyone who becomes a fan will run across it. There are some amusing things to come out of it (image macros, the fact that 4chan's /co/ basically got their interpretation of a background character into the show for real, etc), but it has all the problems of your typical fandom. Multiplied tenfold because of its subject matter and new fanbase.

Kind of funny how there were moms in their 30s who made MLP forums and just kind of nostalgia'd over the first-gen ponies and showed them to their kids up until just recently, and now there's an entirely new demographic in town.

I actually asked for a My Little Pony when I was like, 5. I think my dad promptly ignored that and got me a He-Man action figure instead. Oh well, time to make up for lost time!

[fireholly.livejournal.com]

the fact that 4chan's /co/ basically got their interpretation of a background character into the show for real, etc)

You're going to have to give me more details about this one.

[slimequest.livejournal.com]

http://derpyhooves.com/ has all the information you'll ever need.

Long story short: Some random background pony with messed-up eyes (either as an error in animation or some animator's inside joke) naturally gets noticed by the internet. An entire background, personality, and name are created for her, and copious amounts of fanworks come into existence.

The people working on the show get wind of this, and she's since appeared with those messed-up eyes on purpose in at least two episodes, and one of her appearances basically matches the fan interpretation as much as possible without actually doing so for legal reasons.

It's pretty amazing. Magical, even.

[fireholly.livejournal.com]

I had I think three MLPs when I was little. I had a big yellow brushable one with blond hair, a little white one with I think orange hair, and one my mother made for me. She took a mould of my mini white pony in clay, filled it with plaster of paris, and between each half of the mould she placed some curly orange nylon she snipped off a clown wig I had to make its mane and tail. And then she painted it green. I wonder if I still have it somewhere?

[slimequest.livejournal.com]

Home-made ponies? That's pretty awesome. Unfortunately I don't think krile has any of hers left from way back when. The again, I don't have any of my toys from back then, either.

The concept of toys with brushable hair is still a very foreign concept to me. Now that I notice, seems like most girl's toys have it. I think us boys just got kung-fu grip or something instead.

There's something... oddly soothing about brushing it.