Bronies for dummies.
To kick things off were going to answer the simplest question, what is a brony? A brony is a fan of the Hasbro franchise, My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic. This phenomenon started in the /co/ or comics and cartoons section of 4chan and quickly spread throughout other sections of the website, primarily the /b/ or random section, coining the term “brony”. It is a common misconception that brony is derived from the slang “brother” and “pony”, but in actuality, it came from /b/ random section of 4chan and pony.
But why? What makes grown adults and teenagers so attracted to this show intended for 7-year-old girls? There are four simple reasons. The animation quality, the humor, the interaction, and the community. It also helps that the show is created by the mastermind Lauren Faust, the creator of the Power Puff Girls and Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, but lets start off with the animation quality. The show is animated in Flash, a type of animation more familiar to older teenagers and younger adults in the first place. It is incredible quality and made using vectors, a type of animation that has literally unlimited quality potential. The hidden pictures, easter eggs, and small games between the producers and fanbase only add to the quality and attraction of the show.
Next, the humor. The show has a large amount of puns, surprisingly slightly made for adults despite the target audience of younger females. Other than that, the producers still have an excellent sense of humor, throwing in jokes at every turn and corner that they possibly can.
Thirdly, the interaction. The producers, especially Lauren Faust are specially known for interacting with the community. On of the most prominent examples of such behavior is Derpy Hooves (shown earlier in the Easter Egg link). This figure was originally show as an animation error, but being discovered (again on 4chan) and a large reaction from the fans, the animators put him in as a where’s waldo game for the fans, shown hidden in many of the scenes in odd places. Also, Lauren Faust commonly interacts with the community through her DeviantART.
The main reason for the huge spread among all age groups is, without question, the community. MLP has a huge fan base and very active community that helps everybody everypony in times of need or just with desires. There are also hundreds of PMV’s (pony music videos), spoofs, spoofs of spoofs, remixes, re-remixes, re-re-remixes (Eeyup), and original content on Youtube. As this is a very simple statement, it is most true to the brony community and shows why many people are attracted naturally to join and help the community. Naturally, due to the basics of human psychology, we are naturally attracted to, and feel tendencies to help, others which offer help, are kind, and do not cause unnecessary harm or suffering to anybody else. This being said, people are naturally afraid to join the community, or at least publicly admit to joining the community or enjoying the show because of the fear of public rejection for enjoying a show intended for 7 year old girls. Only people not afraid of segregation and willing to publicly announce their opinions despite of it are open to the show, keeping egotistical trolls away. This causes the community to be formed primarily of trustworthy welcoming members that love and tolerate to no end. The community is so active, that hundreds of submemes have been formed in its name.
To sum it up. If you dislike My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic, you either have not watched it with an open mind, are heavily subjected to bias and negative external influence, or you have not seen the show. It is a very rare occasion that somebody is socially open and active, yet still, after watching it, rejects MLP. Bronies will still love and tolerate the shit out of everypony.
Here are some of the best reviews of bronies:
-Why Grown Ass Men Like My Little Pony (my favorite)
-Urban Dictionary Definition (not professional, but reviews from fans as well has haters)
Here are some famous bronies:
Stephen Colbert (From The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live)
Notch (Creator of Minecraft)
The Yogscast (Most Subscirbed gaming channel on Youtube)
Robert Pattinson (from Twilight)
