What did you think of it all- at first?

[Cirrus. 1,092]

So what did you think of it all at first in regards to the show, fandom, and fan-made content?

 

Overall I was like, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH THIS AND WHY?!?!  HOW/WHY IS IT SOMEHOW NOT COMPLETELY STUPID? WHY AM I WATCHING AND ACTUALLY LIKING THIS?! AM I GOING MENTAL?!"

I didn't have any hate towards it or anything, I was just very confused at first.

 

I first found out about MLP at the end of 2013 by looking up Tara Strong from a Powerpuff Girls parody she was in. Being 25, I hadn't really been watching cartoons for a while mainly because I think most of the new ones are just too stupid compared to the ones I liked from the mid 90's-early 00's.

Edited July 10, 2014 by steve88

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,303]

I had...  Ulterior motives for watching the show at first.  I didn't quite know how to respond to some of it, initially; the spontaneous singing, especially lol.  The first two episodes weren't enough to convince me to go Brony.  But, when I returned and gave the entire first season a real chance, I started to notice things.  Standout moments.  And once I realized there was an appeal beyond what originally got me watching, I was able to embrace it as a whole.  More and more.  Unabashedly, even.  Though that...  Other thing will always be a plus / factor regardless. ^^;

 

And you could say there was some fanmade content I liked before I even began watching the show in earnest.

Edited July 10, 2014 by PegaMister

[CMQuickfireTK 751]

So what did you think of it all at first in regards to the show, fandom, and fan-made content?

 

it was like...

 

 

lolwut

 

and now... I actually dislike the fandom more and more every day.

[WunderWaffen_ 165]

It all started in a galaxy far, far away. Known as Reddit.

 

While scrolling through the usual cr*p, I saw a few pony related memes. One google later... I found out about bronies.

Originally I thought "God, This is a first class ticket to wierdoville, I bet these guys are all about 30 living in their mother's basement."

 

I soon learned that I was wrong. After watching an episode I regretted my thoughts.

[Guest]

I only found out about the perceptions of the fandom after I signed up here! 

 

My first impressions of the show when I saw it were: 'How pretty and perfect for chillaxing' 

[Sceethe 704]

its kinda standard for me: i found out by looking at profile pictures of people in a forum.

first i thought: "its just some gamer girls,no big deal"

then i clicked on the profile and read: MALE. WTF?

cycling through the friendslist of some users:MALE,EVERYWHERE!

somehow i landed on an article that explained the show(not the fandom) in a very positive light and i decided to give it a try.

first i thought to myself:why am i watching this?

but the show had that kind of..special feel to it.

this uniqueness..

so i continued watching and told myself:

noone must EVER know about this.

 

and noone does until this day...

[Pastel 7,630]

My first impressions were very positive actually, I thought it looked interesting and I quickly decided to watch the first episodes.

No regrets.

[Justin_Case001 4,908]

You know, long before I was even aware of the existence of the brony fandom, I would notice a pony picture here or there, see the FIM toy displays at Target, and I would slow down, gaze wistfully at them for a moment, long enough to get a good look, but not long enough to arouse suspicion, and think to myself, "I wish I could like that.  It looks so great."  ...I wish I could like that....funny.  I wasn't really listening to myself.  I did like it.  I just didn't want to admit it.  At the time I would have thought I was the only one, and that would have been too difficult.  Then I found out about the brony community.  I was thrilled that I wasn't the only one, but I still didn't watch the show right away.  It took a catalyst to knock some sense into me and make me ask, "Why didn't I do this sooner?"  After I watched my first episode (Three's a Crowd), I thought, "Ok, not bad."  After my second episode (Filli Vanilli), I had an ear to ear grin and thought, "Oh yeah.  This is awesome.  Must buy all seasons."

 

Honestly, on the whole, I like the fandom more and more every day.  The community, the fan-made content, all of it makes me feel a rare bit of hope for humanity, and makes me feel a little less alone in the world.  I loved it all right from the start.  In fact, I never had any "lol wut, or dude wtf" moments.  Actually, it just made perfect sense.  I always felt this way, felt a natural attraction towards the show--it just made sense that others would as well.  It's difficult to explain; it's sort of like, I've always felt as though something was missing in our society.  Well, many things, really.  But this fandom solved a mystery for me.  I would look at the show and think, "Why wouldn't guys, or any adults, like this?"  Bronies answered that question.  It just fit like a missing puzzle piece.  You know that documentary entitled, "Bronies: the extremely unexpected fans of MLP"?  I would change the title to "The inevitable fans."  And actually, my initial reaction to all of this was something like J in Men in Black when K tells him that everyone on the screen is an alien.  J (Well, Edward at the time) shakes his head, and says "Oh man."  K says, "Doesn't make any sense does it?"  And J replies, "No, no it makes perfect sense."  That was me.

Edited July 10, 2014 by Justin_Case001

[Jeric 46,871]

1. Sees army of Pony images invade Facebook/ You Tube/ Twitter/ Forums

2. "Um, this is different."

3. Researches.

4. Turns on image filter

5. Researches

6. "This is from MLP? Didn't this just restart? How many fans does this show have!?"

 

My first reaction was basically that back in early 2011. Had to compress it a little since it was a trickle of images at first ... but when 2011 came ... Ponies attacked.

 

My opinion remained amused/baffled curiosity until much much later.

Edited July 10, 2014 by Jeric

[IridscentNionios 1,420]

I was like... "Oh cute..." and "Nice... i guess..." and "Queen Chrysalis is best pony whatever you say..." seriously though Queen Chrysalis made me a brony and ziom05's deviantart did too. I was like "If these guys can draw something so awesomely then this community is awesome!!!"

[Psycho 44]

My reaction was "I need to stop watching this before I get bullied".

[Zekromic 1,054]

I just thought that it was for girls, but finding out that SOME (I wasn't aware of the fandom's actual size) guys liking ponies, I was just 'meh, no big deal'

[Banul 3,831]

I thought it was pretty dumb at first, couldn't get over grown men watching a little girl cartoon. I'd get irrationally judgemental whenever I'd see a pony avatar or something, though I never got into a fight with anyone about it. Part of me thinks I was this way because my first exposure to MLP was being told about the fandom by people who hated it, so I got a skewed idea of what is was about. Now, I look back at how judgemental I was and think it was pretty silly of me.

[Megas 27,921]

I thought it was weird, like most people did. But eventually I decided to give it a try since a lot of my friends were enjoying it

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,162]

My reaction was simply "this looks VERY interesting."

 

I mean, Nightmare Moon kept me really interested in the pilot, and the slice of life episodes proved to be VERY competent and not fall into the stereotypical girly stuff.

 

It was just smartly written programming that I could actually get into.

[SparklingSwirls 21,374]

I don't think I reacted too strongly to it at the time, although I'm pretty sure I was surprised at the amount of males dominating the fandom.

[Magnum Flare 553]

My first reaction:

 

Brain

 

wat r u doing?

 

Brain

 

Stahp

 

BOOM

 

I become a brony.

Edited July 10, 2014 by Metagross

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

I was indecisive. I didn't know what was going on...it wasn't until I found a small mlp clip on youtube and continued to look around. I then realized that it was MLP and was completely shocked. 

[TenorSounds 832]

The first time I ever heard of the show was when vgcats.com did a comic about the Cutie Mark Crusaders getting completely smashed by their stage. The news post accompanying the comic mentioned something along the lines of "oh hey there's a new my-little-pony show and it's not too bad, check it out". I logged that info away but didn't actually watch it for the longest time. It wasn't because I was against the idea, but it's generally pretty tough to get me to watch anything new in general.

 

So it sat in the back of my mind until I noticed pony avatars starting to pop-up in forums I visited and the term "Brony" being thrown around more-and-more, as well as various memes and image macros based on the show being used more and more. Eventually my curiosity reached critical mass and I marathoned the first season. I remember liking it pretty-much from the very beginning, and I've been a fan ever since

[Bunnyhop123 194]

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ALL OF THESE PEOPLE!?  PONIES EVERYWHERE?  AM I IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE!?

WHAT!?

WHAT?

WHAT

What

what

wut

wut

...

 

Friendship is Magic --

In The Twilight Zone. . .

 

[Splashee 28,581]

I had help from crazy YouTube pony reactors to guide me into feeling okay about the show.

If I had to explain why I like searching the web for Ponies, I would think "I am sick, this isn't right".

Also I don't search the web for Ponies, I have people doing that for me, thank you all!