Look. I've been to the deepest, darkest, and most disgusting crevices of the internet. I've witnessed inhumane things that should not be normally contemplated or viewed by the average human being. The things I've witnessed thanks to this world wide web honestly has shaped my idea of maturity, shoved it down my throat, and had me regurgitate it in my own way to where now mixing it with the real world and shaping it into a social factor has been a key point in becoming who I am today.

What I'm trying to say is, I'm not a closed-minded asshole who condescends towards everyone because of what they do or how they view things. And for the longest time now, I've simply just flat out ignored any discussions involving bronies because it honestly is so minuscule in comparison to other things I've encountered that it wasn't even worth a second glance. But lately, I've taken notice in the rising discussions upon bronies in this community. Now, I have a 9 year old sister, so I've seen this MLP show before. I've even seen some of those fucked up YouTube parodies of said show. But no matter how much I watch and witness how this show works, I cannot for the life of me wrap my head around the idea at all of how older males and females make this show their icon and personality. Honestly, I have no idea.

This thread is a question. I want you guys to give me the answer. This is no debate. It's not a discussion on if it's right or wrong. Any means of insulting or fighting or attempting to down talk to someone because of their views on this thread will be infracted. There is no bias here, for I am not an anti-brony nor am I a brony. I simply want to know from the bronies on this forum, why do you act the way you do about this show? Why does this girls cartoon in particular, amongst so many others that have been released throughout time, attract so much attention and interest from you? Like I said, I've seen the show before and everything that has been involved with making it popular, and I still have no clue why this has become such a trend. So please, someone explain to me how exactly this brony movement started, and why everyone (and you in particular if you're a part of it) has joined in.

This:

I just like the show a lot, and it has to an extent helped with some emotional issues. Anyways, I try not letting it get too out of hand, I am an art and writing brony. So I make pony pics, write pony stories, blah blah. I guess the only thing I can say is that being a brony hasn't particularly changed me much, except giving me something else to use in my life. I'm also a Whoovian, Homestucker, PokeFan, DigiFan, Anime/Manga enthusiast, Duelist, and several other things. I just don't have enough space to put them all.

I was a fan of My Little Pony as a child, I had a lot of the merchendise, like you'd expect of a 7 year old little girl.
I lost interest and eventually began to be interested in other things.
Since I saw the whole brony thing become popular, I decided to give it a chance, I just eventually ended up liking it, and it's the same as anything else I watch.
I don't consider myself a 'brony', nor as much as a fan as bronies, I consider myself as a person who simply watches a cartoon show.

I'm not really a bronie, I watch the show but don't really adore it. To me its kinda like one of those show you watch when you're bored or eating.

I've seen the show and yes it does have good morales. That's why I'm more than happy to watch it with my sister if that means she learns from it. And I get the fact that older men and women may enjoy it because it's just flat out a good show.

What I don't understand is how it's become an expression of who they are. That video is incorrect when it says that people begin making it a focus and expression of themselves while still retaining their role of being a heterosexual older male/female. I'm not saying it's changing their sexuality, I'm saying it's changing their personality as a whole. Disregarding maturity and instead keeping people in a bubble of belief that everything is wonderful and magical.

I'm not a brony, but I do watch the show and pay attention to the fanbase. As proof, cupcakes is filled with gore. I GM for a bunch of bronies in an RP on skype, and the way the story goes, well, let's just say it's extremely addicting.

if anyone wants me to go into detail, they can ask me on skype.

Quote from Sacred

What I don't understand is how it's become an expression of who they are. That video is incorrect when it says that they begin making it a focus on themselves while still retaining their role of being a heterosexual older male. I'm not saying it's changing their sexuality, I'm saying it's changing their personality as a whole. Disregarding maturity and instead keeping people in a bubble of belief that everything is wonderful and magical.

I understand the 'changing personalities' idea you have, I think it's a very true idea, being a show that sends messages to it's audience, being little girls, I can only guess the impact is different with teenage boys and adult men.
And as Wv_Hawk_vW said, it's addicting as a show, I myself am unsure as to why though.

I know I'm a little young for it, being 17, but I honestly pay way more attention to the economy, politics, state of foreign powers, stock market, conflicts, or just world wide news as a whole. It's the reason I suddenly jumped out of my shell of being a small and fearful child to becoming a confident man because I'm realizing the way the world rotates. By creating this brony movement as the face of who you are, you're immediately limiting yourself from opening up to the bigger (and actually important) things that this world offers.

Quote from DeathPetalRosie

And as Wv_Hawk_vW said, it's addicting as a show, I myself am unsure as to why though.

please, just call me hawk.

Quote from Sacred

I know I'm a little young for it, being 17, but I honestly pay way more attention to the economy, politics, state of foreign powers, stock market, conflicts, or just world wide news as a whole. It's the reason I suddenly jumped out of my shell of being a small and fearful child to becoming a confident man because I'm realizing the way the world rotates. By creating this brony movement as the face of who you are, you're immediately limiting yourself from opening up to the bigger (and actually important) things that this world offers.

I simply play along with it because it's easy to keep NPCs in-character (after all, pinkie pie is random, fluttershy is shy, twilight sparkle's an egghead; basically all the NPCs can be summarized in one word), and because the entire universe is pre-generated.

I feel that todays shows have some sort of impact on the audience.
Take regular show, a cartoon that tries extremely hard to push into its audiences interests, but constantly fails to deliver.
Mlp may be considered the"liberation" from these shows, as to how good the audience portrays them.
Lets face it, most of our favorite channels we enjoyed 5-7 years ago, what made them good, is almost completely gone.
How I see it is mlp being the little spark that those kinds of shows aren't completely gone.
I myself am not a fan, and I am certainly not a fan of this so called "powerful fanbase" comprised of close minded, obsessed children who feeel everyone should be everypony.
There are watchers out there who watch just to watch, and with that I can tolerate the show more.

being one of the only legit cartoons out at the time, I can see why some people are do infatuated with it, stamping it everywhere as if to say "hey guise, good cartoonz arent ded, watch mlp!".

Quote from Sacred

By creating this brony movement as the face of who you are, you're immediately limiting yourself from opening up to the bigger (and actually important) things that this world offers.

This sounds strange coming from someone who spends their time moderating an animation forum. Are you not limiting yourself from bigger, better things by being here, trying to discuss the legitimacy of a TV show made for adolescent girls? I spend more time here than most discussing "actually important things that this world offers", but I can also spend several hours in a row watching Adventure Time. Entertainment doesn't necessarily need to be some intellectual pursuit.

You're defining "Bronies" by the small, vocal minority of people who take it a little too seriously. Most people probably just play along with it because they like the show. For most people, they realize it's something silly that shouldn't be taken seriously, and so they don't waste mental energy trying to "figure it out". IMO, that mental energy is better spent on things that are actually important.

Bronies do not think of it as reality. We do not think of it as a lifestyle. The characters are relate-able, art is cute, jokes are mostly funny, and there are a few things thrown in that only adults would understand. Also the wing boners... It's also very good advice at the core:

Tolerate others and be a good friend

That's advice to live by. Did I mention it's a little like a psychological switch, that makes mature brains think a little more open-minded?

Stone I think made a thread on this subject awhile ago, I expressed everything I could on that thread. So i'll just repeat what I had said before.

Quote from bl3u

This is a concept that I can do some really deep digging into, and when I say really deep I mean really deep... Many bronies enjoy the show simply because it has fantastic animation, good voice actors, and other intriguing factors that make it appealing. While some do it for the entertainment value of community. Some others like myself do it because it makes us happy.

I had a long-ass conversation with Leokill on this topic and basically what I got around to was that the reason I watch the show is because it creates in a term "A gateway," an escape from the constant bullshit that humanity must and has to deal with during the day and throughout. Believe it or not, and as cliche as this sounds. The show portrays fun happy characters in a world with no issues... No violence, no pain, no suffering... a utopia of some sort. Making the show appealing not on a physical level or on a mental level, but on a psychological level... I uncontrollably smile and laugh at even the dumbest things when I watch the show... Because its so happy and cheerful, there's nothing bad there and its the world that humanity dreams of. And yet its a dream humanity will never have a chance at achieving.

Bronies aren't doing anything wrong. And its wrong to discriminate against them. Because the reason your going against a community is because they watch a show so they can be happy? Genuinely happy in a moment were a friend died, he/she lost a job. Or something else equally as terrible...

I could drag out this for another 50 or so paragraphs. I could probably write a book about it. But this is all i'm willing to type for now. And just as some more insight into what was mentioned. this guy made a really accurate depiction of what I was trying to get at.

Now that I've gotten all this bullshit out of the way... HAVE PINKIE PIE :D

pinkie pie (Click to Show)

This guy is a fucking genious...

Another really great video to check out. It's an hour long, so warning. Although its eye opening.

Wait how the hell is openly being a brony limit you? All it means to be a brony is to like MLP openly, nothing more... I fail to see how you dragged this out into some kind of study that requires deep thought and psychology, it's seriously just too fucking simple...

Some people like to watch MLP because the show is not complete shit (according to a large amount of public opinion)...

Just because a community of people like to watch a show about friendship it doesn't mean they are somehow limited from the world, it just means they like to watch the show as a pass time like normal people do...

If that were the case then wouldn't watching normal television, playing video games, animating stickfigures, or even typing away on a debate forum be considered "limiting yourself from opening up to the bigger (and actually important) things that this world offers"?

They are just people who like to watch a TV show, it's not fucking rocket science...