How did you join your fandom(s)?

[yayayayayala 1,668]

FNAF

YEESHHH

 

MLP: I was a fan of G3 when I was young. Then five days before I turned 10 I watched the pilot episodes of MLP:FIM the day they aired <3 I didn't keep up with it after a few weeks though, but started again some time in 2012 and was mostly caught up by the time Season 3 aired. I watched S3 faithfully, S4 not so much but discovered how fun it is to binge, and have only seen a tiny amount of S5. I'm saving them for the next cold I have XD

Funnily enough though, it took me until 2014 to watch the episode where the Cutie Mark Crusaders form. *shrugs* That was the only one I had never seen lol!

I became involved in the fanbase itself more gradually - I suppose late 2011 was when I was starting to look at fanart and stuff. In Jan. 2012 I joined deviantART as my first account to participate in the art more, and I've never stopped being in the fanbase!

 

FNAF: December 2014. I'd heard about it and decided to look it up; at first I was like NOPE but then I watched about thirty seconds total of a MLP SFM "gameplay" video. I was like WHOA what is this? and finally looked up the FNAF wiki and started reading. I then ignored it for a while, but finally I became curious again and started looking up more stuff about it, watching videos. I found this one of this guy in a red and black flannel with glasses, and read a comment that said he was afraid of animatronics. I was like "Whoa, if that's true, this dude is actually playing this game? Impressive!"

Fast forward eight months and I'm still hooked on the fanbase I listen to the fan music all the time, among many other things. I also just played FNAF 4 a few days ago and regretted it. Funnily, I'm *sort of* part of the fandom *the part that's not toxic* but I've only played 3 nights of any of the games XD

 

Markiplier: Red and black flannel glasses guy playing FNAF. XD I started watching more of his videos and ended up watching him rage at Yoshi's Island (nostalgiaaaaaaaa) in the...I think it was the April charity livestream! Someday I am determined to donate to one of his livestreams - I think meeting him is too far out of my league, hehe.

I actually teared up the slightest bit watching him react to the 8 mil video.

 

Uh.........what else....I know there's got to be something else...OH, I guess Presentable Liberty counts? I've played the game through once, or maybe twice, and I've played it like half through once (I got interrupted lol). Any fanart makes me squee.

 

Oh and one more: Dapper-Deoxys aka Rebornica! Can't forget good ol' Deo! XD I heard about them through their now discontinued FNAF AU (of course...like everyone's heard of them through the FNAF au :/) and started following the stuff they now do on tumblr, and now I'm hooked on their many many amazing characters. ouo I've actually kind of accidentally created a tulpa of one of their characters //0u0//

[baba_booey 4,303]

MLP:FiM - Well, I originally heard about the fandom around early/mid-2011 on the ROBLOX forums, and then in September of that year my best friend became a brony and recommended me to watch the show, giving me links to the first 2 episodes, and from then on after I told my parents about it, I got hooked.

 

Thomas and Friends - I watched it a lot when I was a baby, and I still love it today (although only really the first 8 seasons and Season 17+)

 

Super Mario - I played Super Mario Bros 2 and Mario Kart Super Circuit on my GBA all the time when I was little, and when I got Super Mario World, I got hooked on the series as a whole, and I feel it introduced me to gaming as a whole.

 

Angry Video Game Nerd - Not long after I got into gaming, I first watched his Toilet Tuesday video, and found out he had a ton of reviews on bad games, which I found fun to watch.

 

Steven Universe - At first, I didn't care for it, but after going back to it a couple times, I realized I liked it's characters and plots and I overall found it fun to watch.

[iceestarz 5,765]

Only one I'm active in online

 

Mlp- super depressed in Washington after having moved from Texas. Got really bored one day so I was scrolling through Netflix. Saw my little pony and laughed at how lame and girly it looked. So I clicked on it for a good laugh. Ended up getting hooked after the first episode. It all just went downhill from there and here I am lol.

 

Didn't even know about the show or bronies for that matter until I looked it up on the internet after watching season 1-3. 4 hadn't come out yet at the time. At the end of the third season I sat there for a minute and was like "DO OTHER PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THIS SHOW WHAT THE HELL WHERE WAS THIS FOR LIKE 2 YEARS"

 

Not so active with these below, but I do consider myself a part of the fandom.

 

Pokemon- I honestly don't remember. It was so long ago, I'm guessing I watched an episode when the original came out and got hooked as a kid?

 

Yugioh- basically the same as Pokemon lol.

 

Kingdom hearts- my sister picked up the first one when I was in 6th grade. Watched her play it and loved what I saw.

 

Sonic- again I have no idea. I was pretty young when I picked up playing video games so I don't remember much of how I got into things.

 

Tmnt- my dad loved them when he was a kid and so of course I wanted to love them as well. I love ninja turtles so much

Edited July 30, 2015 by iceestarz

[Ribbonfree 2,383]

Anime and MLP were both the result of the influence of the exact same friend, just many years apart (anime first, with Naruto back when I was in grade school and MLP around Season 2's height). Video games I found on my own, starting with my dad's collection of Civilization games then exploding into full blown addiction thanks to my sixth grade teacher getting me into WoW. And Homestuck I was introduced through via an anime RP group where everyone was hyping up Homestuck until I got sick of it and read the entire thing in two nights (this was pre Act 5 bloating).

[Emerald Star 513]

MLP: Heard about it on the internet and had a few friend who were into it. I got curious to why it was so popular. First I watched a few Youtube videos and read Cupcakes, then the first episode. Here I am.

 

Anime: Always liked the art style before I even saw any anime. There was a girl I knew who was really into it so I knew a little about it. So I watched Death Note and since then have become obsessed with anime.

 

Hetalia: I was already a history nerd and an anime fan. So it was only a matter of time before I discovered Hetalia.

 

Game of Thrones: My older brother was into Game of Thrones. He got me to start watching it. Now I love it, and have also read the books.

 

Gravity Falls: This one is more recent; I had just heard some good things about it and randomly decided to check it out.

Edited July 31, 2015 by Emerald Star

[redaxted 1,765]

MLP - I watched a few episodes on Bin Weevils, and a little while later I found out my friend was a pegasister. We watched a few episodes together not too long ago and that's what really got me hooked. That and the amazing looking merchandise. Gotta me some Vinyl Collectibles...

 

Marvel - I used to hate the idea of superheroes, until I walked in on my parents watching Iron Man. I realised it wasn't that bad and therefore found myself in the cinema soon after watching The Avengers. My love kinda died off after that though... Until I watched a few more Marvel movies at home and found out when about the second Avengers movies would premiere!

 

Pokemon - I received my first Pokemon game on Christmas. I was quite young. I'd been enjoying a few episodes of the anime for some time before, but Pokemon Platinum really got me hooked. I got every Pokemon game after that.

 

YouTube - youtubers have fandoms... So why not? My brother introduced to Jacksepticeye, and I found out about Jacksfilms via another youtuber I used to watch.

Edited June 12, 2016 by Wolves

[James A Williams 199]

MLP - I watched a few YouTube Videos with MLP references in them, back in early 2013, like a few of missoliverandblossom's videos and Sonic Vs Rainbow Dash by AnimatedJames. So I decided to watch the first few episodes of MLP just to see what the big deal is. Then,... I met Fluttershy for the first time. By dingo, she was ADORABLE!! and Dragon Shy got me more interested in the series. Then, I discovered Bronies, I found out what clopping is, I found out about famous characters and other bronies and pegasisters and I've been a Brony ever since.

 

Thomas and Friends - I was already a huge fan of Thomas the Tank Engine ever since I was little. I LOVED Thomas back then, I wacthed episodes on VHS, I collected many Ertl and Tomy models, I LOVED IT! I watched a lot of Thomas up until Season 8 was released on DVD, then I started to grow out of it cause I was in the middle of Primary School and I wanted to grow up by watching Cartoon Network and other VHS tapes I had. Then, a few years later, I heard about Season 12 and how they were adding CGI animation in the show (along with the models). I liked the idea of the engines' mouths moving and their eyes blinking and the human characters finally moving. So I suddenly became interested in the show again and I watched amajorit of the CGI Series (this was before Season 17), then I watched missoliverandblossom's videos. His own model series T&F, him ranting about how Sharon Miller ruined the show and why Season 15 was the worst thing ever etc. Then I saw some more YouTubers doing the same thing, redubs, reviews, episode remakes with they're own toys, the works. They even kept us updated about upcoming episodes and specials, and Season 17 suddenly brought me into the community and the show for good for being such a big improvement than Sharon Miller's crap.

 

Sonic the Hedgehog - I first knew about Sonic by watching 4 episodes of The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog on VHS: Too Tall Tails, Big Daddy, Tails' New Home and Momma Robotnik's Birthday (in that order). I didn't even knew Sonic was really a video game series until my dad bought my Sonic Heroes on the PS2 in 2012. It was to take with me to play while we were on our first cruise to the Caribbean. This was the first time I saw most of the characters, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, Amy, Chaotic etc. The only characters I knew were Sonic, Tails and Dr Robotnik (I got into an argument with a little kid correcting me that he's now Dr Eggman). But luckily the cruise ship I was on had a games room that 4 Nintendo Wii consoles hooked up to 4 different TVs. 3 of them were playing Wii Sports and one of them was play Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games and it's THEN I learnt a few more of the characters. When I got back home I wanted to know more about Sonic and all the other characters, so then I looked at many playground and Let's Plays on many Sonic games and I got hooked ever since Sonic Generations was being released. But I'm starting to slip away from at the moment, or at least until Season 2 of the Sonic Boom TV Series is aired.

 

Power Rangers - I was first interested in Power Rangers ever since PR Dino Thunder was airing on Jetix. I watched a few episodes, and then Power Rangers SPD was released. SPD got more interested than Dino Thunder, I liked the colourful costumes, I liked the fight scenes, I LOVED the Megazords, everything. Then, when Mystic Force was airing, I discovered Ranger Central, a website that was full to the brim with Power Rangers information. It had EVERYTHING. All the teams, actors episodes, toys, Megazords, I also discovered the other side of the website which featured the same PR teams but everything was in Japanese for some reason, there even some teams I hadn't seen before, but I focused more on Power Rangers. I didn't watch Operation Overdrive because I focusing more on the Ranger Central. But, I did watch Jungle Fury on Jetix, and I was interested in Power Rangers again. But, then I stopped watching again, for some reason, so I didn't watch RPM, Samurai or Super Samurai. But then I listened to the Samurai theme song and found it interesting, then found out that 20th Anniversary Season, PR Megaforce, will be airing soon, so I watched Linkara's History of Power Rangers series and I suddenly knew a lot more about Mighty Morphin', Zeo and In Space than I did before. And I was hooked on Power Rangers ever since. Then I finally discover Super Sentai, by watching a few clips from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. That was when I found out about the other 35 Sentai teams were, what they were called in Japanese, and found out Gokaiger was much better than Power Rangers Super Megaforce (but I'm still watching and liking PR Dino Charge). Now I'm a huge fan of both Power Rangers AND Super Sentai.

 

Five Nights at Freddy's - I first heard of FNaF by watching someone playing the game on YouTube and by watching MattPat's Game Theory about the game's story. And FNaF 2 was announced, I was hooked. So saw a few play through, jumped at the jumpscares, watched more on MattPat's way of telling the story, and liked it. The same thing happened with FNaF 3 and 4 and the story is becoming more clear and understandable, the jumpscares are scarier, the games are better and I love listening to Phone Guy's phone calls.

[skbl17 199]

MLP: Discussed in vivid detail here.

 

Sonic: Back in March 2008, my family got digital cable for the first time ever. One of the interesting aspects of digital cable was the on demand service, in which many different entertainment companies and broadcast networks make episodes of their shows available for viewing anytime. One of those companies was a certain 4Kids Entertainment, and one of those shows was a certain Sonic X. I decided to watch some episodes, and it wasn't long before I found myself hooked on the show. Eventually, my Sonic fandom-related portfolio grew; I soon bought some of the games (I remember Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity as my first) and guidebooks, and joined Wikia in 2008 just to participate in the Sonic News Network and Sonic Fanon Wiki. Looking back on it, those were the darkest days of my time on the internet. Eventually, I grew disillusioned with the Sonic fanbase; while I still keep up with the comics, I can't say I'm much of a Sonic fan anymore.

 

Anime: My most recent (and current) stint with the anime community began in late 2013, when I decided to hop on the nostalgia train and watch old episodes of Pokemon. It wasn't long before I started keeping up with the kind of late-night anime that people usually talk about, like Kill la Kill (which was airing at the time). I've lost count of how many shows I've now watched.

Edited July 31, 2015 by skbl17

[ChoroChii 284]

Pokemon - My mom bought a VHS from the Anime when I was about 3 years old and I ended up loving it.

 

Anime - It started as an obsession with Naruto but then I wanted to expand and eventually, I ended watching hundreds.

 

Fnaf - The hype. I had to check it out, so I watched Markiplier play it. This lead to more interest and I played the demo, which resulted me into buying the game, which resulted in me becoming obsessed.

[Vertigo_95 572]

MLP-I was sorta tricked into trying out the show by my brother, but I must thank him for that.

 

Doctor Who-Many people in the Brony fandom had watched the show so I started watching it after the 50th anniversary episode.

 

Pokémon-Received a VHS in the mail, and I've been in love with it since then.

 

Harry Potter-I only liked the movies in the beginning, because I hated reading. In one of my classes a few years ago, we were told to read a book, and I chose something I was familiar with, which was the first book in the series. I was able to read the entire series in under 1 month, and I became in love with it.

[ArielCurlicue 30]

I'm pretty sure I was slowly sucked into it ever since someone in tinychat made me quote Pinkiepie before I knew who Pinkie even was.

[PROJECT: Simon 3,955]

MLP - Cupcakes. That lovable creepypasta.

This. This is what made me get interested~ xDDD         

Edited September 21, 2015 by Simon the Unforgiven

[SquipyCheetah 449]

Tumblr. My 'friends' from Tumblr literally dragged me into all of them. There's nothing more to that.

[TheSwooceMaster 72]

Teen Titans - Watched it in the summer of 2013, and loved it!

 

My Little Pony - Slowly began to love the show after seeing the colorful ponies, the wacky stories, pony animations and much more. Everywhere I went, I saw MLP, so I decided to give it a try finally in the summer of 2015. I loved it right off the bat. After the first episode, I was hooked!

 

And that's about it. 

[Celtore 2,770]

Mlp: A strange cocktail of boredom and curiosity which stemmed from exposure from the web. Mlp was basically everywhere and I wanted to see what it was about so I could stop sitting on the fence about it.

 

Pokemon: It was the cool thing on the playground and one of the best gameboy games at the time. I continue now because it's a fun series and nostalgia.

 

Phoenix Wright: The Phoenix Wrong series on newgrounds introduced me to the games. I played the first three games and really enjoyed them.

[Lord Bradley 1,319]

I join them through mere chance. I joined this fandom after I found someone mentioning it on the Internet, deciding to see what it was, watched an episode, and now I'm a brony. Pretty much the same procedure with others.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,652]

I think MLP is only one, How, well I don't have any idea, One day I just started watch the show and now I love it.

[SimStat 55]

MLP: said to myself "What's all this then" in a terrible British accent.

 

Watched the rest on YouTube.

[Justin_Case001 4,903]

Wellsir, after seeing the show, I decided I just HAD to join the brony fandom, so I went to www.federalbronyagency.us.gov and applied for membership.  I downloaded the pdf instructions on how to join, downloaded their 10E35A form, filled it out, submitted it, along with my $200 application fee, then went to my local government center to apply for the required background check, then waited 90 days for that to come back from the FBI, then mailed the completed background check, along with my completed 75B form to the National Brony Headquarters in D.C.  Two months later I recieved a notice saying I was approved for membership.  I was then required to go back to the government center to be photographed.  I then mailed the photograph, along with another required $100 fee, to the National Brony Headquarters, and three months later I finally recieved my Brony Community membership card, complete with my brony licence number, and here I am!.  My membership expires in April 2016, so I'll have to mail in my renewal form before then.  I'm planning to move next year, though, and it might be too much of a hastle to keep up with membership dues, so I might leave the fandom at that time, in which case I'll have to mail my 2W5C Brony Community Membership Termination Application to the NBH.

 

 

When you look at some of the formal "leaving the fandom" rants, or blog posts saying, "I'm going away to college so I might have to leave the fandom", you'd swear that some people think this is actually how it works.

 

[Limeblossom 482]

After watching PONY.MOV movies, parodies and memes of MLP.

[gamecubeguy214 2,512]

After hearing my brother say he was a brony, I asked, ''What's a brony?'' He answered ''A guy that like My Little Pony''. It disgusted me. I once sat on the couch. My cousins turned on MLP. I had no will to leave the couch. No choice but to watch the episodes. I loved them. MLP became all my life after that. But then I grew out of it, then grew back into it again. I grew out of it, then my friend in sixth grade told me about Rainbow Rocks and said I should watch it. I saw it and then became a brony again. MLP was a huge part of my life again. To this day, I still watch MLP, but I'm not obsessed with it. I watch We Bare Bears as well.

 

I joined the Super Smash Bros fanbase by realizing that I really liked to play one particular fighter. That fighter was PAC-MAN. The first time I heard PAC-MAN was joining the battle, I was quite happy. PAC-MAN was so appealing to my eye. The demo for Super Smash Bros for 3DS came out. I got it and my brother got it. We would play on it together. I would play Pikachu and spam down special. The full game for the 3DS came out. My 3DS was broken. My brother would never let me play it on his 3DS. Smash for Wii U came out. I would play it with my best friend. I would pick PAC-MAN first match. He was so much fun to play. A couple months after, we went to Arizona. We went there for my cousin's wedding. Though when we were there, our other cousins had a Wii U and Super Smash Bros for it. Even though Smash wasn't quite my thing, I still bothered to play it casually with my cousins to have a good time. I still loved to pick PAC-MAN. I played PAC-MAN and I would spam side special all the time. I then played Little Mac next. I was decent with him. Though someone said ''No more Little Mac'', so I went back to PAC-MAN. I then realized that I loved how he played. His moveset was so much fun and playing. It was one of my favorite things ever. Eventually, I learned how Smash Bros worked by taking notes on how to use PAC-MAN. I then took notes on his combos. I watched Abadango play Smash. I learned from him. To this day, I think I am decent with him. There are a couple fighters I'm better with, like Little Mac and Palutena, but PAC-MAN still appeals to my eye. He's the most fun to play. I feel nostalgia of only about five months ago. PAC-MAN makes me feel the nostalgia of when he was my main. I became obsessed with not only the fighter but his game after maining him in Smash. This is why I love PAC-MAN so much.

 

Both becoming a brony and maining PAC-MAN in Smash happened in Arizona. These are both nostalgic, positive times of my life why is why Arizona is my favorite state in the US. I cannot explain how good I feel when I talk about my early maining of PAC-MAN..

[Megas 27,766]

Megas XLR - Saw it on TV

Nintendo - Played A Link to the Past

Metal Gear - Watched my brother play MGS non stop

Final Fantasy - Watched my brother played VIII non stop

Megaman - Beat Megaman 8, Legends and X5 until the discs became unreadable(for X5 at least)

Gurren Lagann - Friend was obsessed with it. Gave in when I saw that Rugrats/TTGL parody

No More Heroes/Suda - Literally bought it on a whim, got lucky and ended up loving it

Ace Attorney - Saw the goofy sprites and parodies, decided to give the series a shot

Clover/Platinum - Bought Viewtiful Joe when it was cheap. Since then I've tried to buy all of their other games

Friendship is Magic - Saw a lot of friends obsessing for it. Questioned their sanity for a bit, then gave in and watched a few episodes

Edited September 27, 2015 by LAZENGANN OVERLOAD

[Trixie Heartstrings 434]

MLP Fandom: Kind of a long story. I knew about the show since the begining, but didn't know about the fandom until 2012. My brother told me there were bronies at his school. I thought it was kind of weird, then moved on. Until 2013, when I heard fans talk about why they like the show, then started looking up things about the show. I ended up watching Double Rainboom at some point. There were also 2 things I found out about that got me interested in the show. Derpygate, I found out about it and thought the soccermoms were ridiculous(and this is when I started really finding out about the ridiculousness of soccermoms), and also the MLP fursuits/ponysuits I thought looked interesting. I was worried about how my family would react to me watching it, and the drama around Alicorn Twilight and Equestria Girls sure didn't help. In 2014, I started watching Turnabout Storm, and really liked it. Then I thought "fuck it, I'm watching it." I really liked it, and then my brother started watching it too. To this day, we are both still fans of the show.

Furry Fandom: Had a fascination in fursuits for a couple of years, then I joined the furry subreddit. I'm not really active in the furry fandom outside of Reddit though.

Edited September 28, 2015 by Trixie Heartstrings

[Lisa 5,553]

Star vs. The Forces of Evil: Back in February I saw the intro promo for Star vs. The Forces of Evil and it seemed like a pretty cool cartoon so I got excited for it and got hooked on it instantly after the first episode came out. 

 

MLP: A friend of mine who I used to play Garry's Mod with told me about it. I watched it and I actually liked it.

 

Adventure Time: Back in 2012 I saw an episode on Cartoon Network late at night as I was going to sleep. (I sleep with the TV on, watching shows ;p) And I continued watching it each night until I'd seen all of the current (at the time) season's episodes.

 

Fallout: After I'd finished Skyrim (and I mean fully finished, I'd explored everything), I wanted to play more games like it, so I got Fallout: New Vegas, played that for ages, then got Fallout 3.

[GuyNamedEarl 1,332]

MLP: One of my friends told me to watch it. I did, and I fell in love with it.