Ho boy.....
Alright I gotta say my peace..
As an ex-hater I was infact running into pony art in what I considered Sacred Ground of fandoms. Trauma Center, Zatch Bell, Black Butler that sort of stuff getting ponified...It doesn't help that the first episode wasn't really an eye opener...
I rolled my eyes and figured ho hum they can like their ponies all they want but I ain't falling for it. Then began groaning internally seeing the shirts at Hot Topic, and fanart everywhere and yes yuri. That was in 2010 when it was just lifting off and I really didn't like the idea of MLP taking up the space of something else I enjoyed.
That's what put me off the most.. I watched Know Your Meme's ep for MLP: FIM and it was interesting. I figure hey they like what they wanted and spoke to some bronies in the comments.
I watched Cupcakes, watched the first few eps of season one and well...Here I am. And it's a fun fandom giving me excuses to draw things I haven't considered possible plus I love horses...
And I don't shove it down people's throats. I throw in the Brohoof emote on DeviantART on occasion but I don't really fave fanart for MLP or fanfiction....Why?
I just haven't found any I really liked yet...I faved one to read later on but I decided to remove it because the character he was using was a real jerk and got turned off...
I admit we are a pretty strongly opinionated fandom. But the haters likely just hate because they feel they can hide behind their computer's in their Justin BIeber T-shirt's and feel happy that they made someone feel horrible.
I mean just yesterday on a Hunger Game's video I commented that I hated Peeta and got told: "Don't be stupid you freak!" in those exact words...That hurt my feelings a little but when I saw a chance to snark, the twerp back I did it with a vengeance.
I don't like conforming totally to the Love and Tolerate because I'm a strong willed person and if someone pisses me off I like to get under their skin, play games with their heads to amuse myself.
Does that make me a bad person? No. It's the ones who never leave me alone that get that treatment especially if they've been harassing others on same opinions. I like Monster High too and there was one girl who bullied everyone that it took me getting Spectra and her not getting any attention at all that caused her to go into a total bratfest.
I just responded by posting the lyrics to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xqH5aBDYqo
Why? I've been a bullying victim and when it comes onto the net I have low tolerence for it. Period.
I just don't like seeing people get hurt. That's sort of the point here...
The best point of that song is those lyrics can be made into a well thought out come back by just posting them. No one will see it coming and they'll make themselves look like an ass whilst you can stay calm cool and collected.
Most haters are so obvious about it that they'll not realize by posting their hate for ponies on an ep of MLP is just asking for trouble.
So we're partially to blame but OP's friends sound like asswhipes. Poking holes in drawings with pencils just cause they don't like MLP? Why not do that to theirs and see how they like it.
Bullying happens in many forms. These guys are just a new breed of bullies.