BornAgainBrony

Those parentheses arrived too late to save me

So, to summarize... Bronies 4chan I don't know though. It's not like there have ONLY been dark signs coming from them, if that's indeed where it came from.

I spent most of my life thinking I was an introvert, when really what it turned out being was the result of a LOT of negative/indifferent stimuli; in that hardly anybody really "got" who I really was, so that side just became VERY repressed. There were a few rare times where I've been in fandom-ish places with introverted people I knew, and the difference became pretty obvious. I slowly start turning into this Pinkie kind of a character with a lot of wild, loud, childish energy, while those others, definitely didn't, and also were slightly shocked that I could be that comfortable in a group of people I'd only known for a half hour. I definitely have times where I want solitude for just chilling out or deeper reflection, but... not all the time, where alternatives aren't even a choice. Then all of it... posting online, gaming, skyping, etc... it feels like a prison to me, as if I was on some solitary deep space outpost where it was my only contact with the world, which is pretty much what roughly 2009-2017 ended up being. Even in environments that aren't my element I've noticed something. Now that I'm able to work again, I ended up doing sales-floor in retail, which is like that thing that the whole world fears ever getting stuck in. I discovered I'm actually happier doing retail (as stressful as it sometimes gets) than I am being home alone. Since salespeople are expected to be outgoing, I can meet new people every day. Outside of work, it's the exact opposite. It's like "never talk to strangers" has expanded far beyond a rule for children, and encompasses practically everyone (maybe because enough kids who had that drilled into them are now adults?), unless you're in a recreational 'venue' of some kind. But as I said way further up, 95% of those "venues" are just not my thing. One of those weird times where I did get that experience though... funny you bring up a film premiere, was when Revenge of the Sith came out. I decided to toss on my Jedi robe, and go on a trip to meet a couple people I had known online for a few months. Back before Fandango and electronic tickets, Star Wars was one of those things you had to camp out at so you can get in line soon enough to get a seat, so premieres for major IP's were a bit like mini-cons in their own right. All the cosplayers there quickly converged and we had a ton of ridiculous silly fun. It's still one of my favorite memories today. A bit of irony, that was in Provo, Utah, same place where the Crystal Mountain Bronycon ended up being.

I don't think mine even really grasp what Brony means, but I was enough of an entertainment deviant as a little kid, and then a spiritual one in my late teens, so I don't know if anything could shock them at this point. Overall though at this point with all the Hell I've been through, I think they'd just prefer I find happiness than worry about stigmas and weird social rules. Though... I still wonder if my RBdash Daki (suitable for work FYI) would freak them out. I don't know if by some freak chance they've seen it, and I'm not about to ask.

In this particular case, I have trouble believing the glass ceiling. Why would women be less interested in animation than men? There's nothing in artistic creativity that is particularly resistant towards one sex or another.

Celestia I'm not sure about. Looking at Luna's mane, it's like seeing all of the cosmos through it. What's it even made of? Touch it and your hand burst into flame or something.

I chuckled when I saw the title. "Punish." My original post I planned to say something like, I fully expect this thread to be clean, mature, and completely free of perverse thoughts." Then instead I feel like I found "House of 1000 Corpses." This thread is full of scary and cruel. How could anyone do this to Derpy. Comeon... she'd feel bad enough about it already and would never intentionally hurt anypony. Besides, I suspect the problem would remedy itself. I worked on a fic like this. Derpy practically wrecked the Boutique... in the middle of the freaking night. This had a side effect of waking up most of Ponyville though and by daybreak they were fully in musical montage "barn raising" mode. But... OK. Perhaps more in the spirit of the OP... I have a more humerous one. "Can I borrow the keys to the TARDIS? After that disaster I think I need to go for a joy ride."

She's still twilight, but with more responsibility, so does it matter? But... she may have become a bit more cute to me with wings.

Can the obsession with BG Ponies even be counted as CANON? Seems more like it's really about fan-created content rather than what was actually in the show (Slice of Life aside, but that all came from said fan content).

She led the charge of probably the "deepest" episode ever where she was first introduced. And gosh, did she bring an interesting new dynamic to the show. Anyone else kind of get the feeling too that out of all the characters she's most like what a human would end up being like if suddenly displaced to Equestria? Wanting to embrace everything but also feeling really insecure because of past trauma.

"Oh my Celestia" has come up a number of times for me in addition to the other. Sometimes in a positive way, othertimes negative. And there was one specific time I remember in "Sea of Thieves." Giant megalodon with its maw open coming straight at me on the boat. Quarter second before it hit me, I screamed "CELESTIA!" at the top of my lungs just spontaneously came out. Pretty sure I confused that entire crew.

Wow... there... uhh... must be a new speculative journalism piece about celebrities from the New York Post? I'm sure Pinkie eats way more and doesn't gain weight. Or Derpy with her muffin addiction. Pony metabolism is epic. How else do you think they have all that energy?

Really not sure how they could do with an episode about their lives as Princesses, that could be better than Starlight's cutie-mark swap. And most of their epic days were 1000 moons past.

Alright, I haven't had enough time to scour the forums, but Cutie Mark Crew is sold at Walmart. Are these somehow different? And by that, I mean... beyond maybe having a McD's logo under the hoof?

Gosh, that first paragraph... yeah. In my case, it's not about sex... definitely not asexual, but the end result was still the same, in that deep emotional bonds are typically forbidden without being romantically involved, so in our society, sex and emotional bonds have become ridiculously (and unnecessarily) intertwined. Even hugs have become pretty rare now. As for hanging out, yep. I don't mind that kind of thing some of the time, but the macho guy thing got old for me pretty fast and I wanted something more. Something I couldn't possibly get from the "normal" places where humans tend to convene. Bars, nightclubs, stadiums, church... That's also part of my concern about what's happening now though. It has always seemed that while I could go anywhere, ANYWHERE, and meet people, the only way I could ever find the kind of people I REALLY wanted to meet were limited to online. Ponies is a nearly perfect reflection of what I've always been after, but the real key is others who are getting the same thing out of it. I've seen glimpses of it in others throughout my life (and a good portion of them ended up being fake) people, but again, always... ALWAYS were people I only met online, and it was always limited to that. Bronies are unique in that regard in that they actually started creating national gatherings and local clubs. Now that these are dwindling down too, it seems like the same thing is going to happen all over again. That's definitely a problem for me. While I cherish the friends I've made online over the years... indeed, aside from a few from highschool and before, the ONLY people I've met since then who are still around, are those I've met through a couple of other fandoms (that unfortunately never really survived beyond the 90's) that come as close cousins to MLP. But I'm also tired of being forever "trapped" on the internet in that regard. The people I CAN meet, are everywhere. The people I most WANT to meet, are always on the other side of a computer screen. Just like the Ponies. Go figure.

Even the MLP boards there? Yeah, I know there's been a history of flak between them and the other boards, but I know for a time, MLP was one of the biggest boards on the whole system. If there was really that much hate, I think we'd be in a ton of trouble. 4chan has both the power to create, and also to destroy... practically anything they want. I would almost say Discord in terms of sheer power, at least on the internet. I've jokingly referred to them as the closest thing the world has to a literal Illuminati. Their ability to pull off masterful social engineering schemes (whether this is coordinated by a few leaders or more randomly via hivemind) is pretty darned impressive, and the idea of corporations or political parties hiring professional troll armies to change the tides of popular opinion, is mostly likely inspired by them.

Unfortunately the very first legendary time this was used as a key marketing strategy ended up proving to almost literally be a coverup for a lackluster product. In other words, "Don't worry about it being good or not, just watch it because, diversity." Basically an alternate way of using a trailer to hit you so hard and fast that you don't even realize what happened. Really, it's kind manipulative, especially in an age where it's ILLEGAL to not have diversity in your company. It is, if 95% of your customers aren't smart enough to know they're being cheated. And that is USUALLY the case. 4chan being largely responsible for thrusting MLP into the limelight in the first place is... now trying to tear it down???

Because she's RAINBOW DASH!!!

Does that strike anyone else as being a bit bigoted and stereotyping? Towards both the current actress and the future one? Like... "Yeah, we want our southern country girl to be more metropolitan, so we're dumping the white girl and getting a black one." That was something I didn't realize they were doing. But I'm cool with it if that's as far as it goes. But if they're going to bring something like... say... Ebonics into the show? That's going to be weird. Not because there's anything wrong with Ebonics, but it exists in our world because of things that I absolutely CANNOT imagine having happened in Equestria. Now this has me wondering what the race demographics for viewership are like. Has MLP struggled getting black viewers because their culture isn't represented enough, resulting in kids having trouble relating to the characters? I'm talking specifically African-Americans, not Africans in general.