Anyone else really dislike the "Bonra" push?

[Ponyboat 62]

I agree if you want to ship some ponies you'll see what you want to see and everyone's free to draw their own conclusion considering there's no concrete facts about their personality.. However slice of life, in my opinion, was Hasbros shipping of Lyrabon. I'm just saying I don't look at my friends like that lol.

Edited September 4, 2015 by Ponyboat

[GuyNamedEarl 1,332]

being the artist of the pic, I don’t see anything wrong with it at all. It's a kiss on the eye as Sunset Shimmer cries- as chaste as a kiss on the cheek or forehead. Parents or relatives kiss tears away off a crying child under their care, don't they? Does an onlooker ship that, when they see it happen?

 

http://duomochiaro.deviantart.com/art/Let-me-be-the-one-you-call-525865761

Looking at the full size image, don't see how one could interpret it as ship fuel.

I've never seen your pic in detail, and I just first noticed that sunset is crying.

[BastementSparkle 20,334]

It doesn't bug me really. Lyra and Bon-Bon are cute as friends, and they're cute as a couple too. The show is probably never going to outright make them a couple, since a bunch of people would throw a fit if they did, so it's open to interpretation. They could be good friends who are just very close physically. Nothing wrong with that. Hugging, rubbing and even kissing on the cheek/forehead/etc. don't have to specifically be romantic. Or they could be a couple. I like them either way.

 

 There's nothing wrong with shipping characters. There's nothing wrong with not shipping characters. It's not some battle that needs to be won, or some war that must be fought.

[DavidTheZettaNerd 32]

I kinda like it. If only because it's a gay couple that doesn't have the mane 6 in it, so everyone will be happy.

[cider float 2,539]

THANK YOU!...

 

I cannot STAND it personally.

 

I may get a ton of hate for this...but legit. It bugs the heck outta me!

 

Personally, they're friends...not "frieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeendzzzzz!!!1111" like some people imply...

 

Just...Friends...unless the story officially says otherwise, you take it literally, or not at all...

 

there's SO MANY PEOPLE using it to propogate their belief system, and "push things" on others

 

using the pair...I mean like...I don't care if you're gay or not. I treat everypony equally...but at the same time

 

the propaganda side of it and reactions seem sooooooo insanely forced, which gets annoying.

 

And on the topic of shipping...I'll just post what I've always posted.

 

You ask around 90 percent of shippers if they are against arranged marriages? Most of them will strongly say yes.

 

What is an arranged marriage?...a person who pairs two people together who he/she thinks is compatible

 

against their wills in order to satisfy his/her beliefs or goals.

 

What's a shipper?...a person who pairs two characters together who he/she thinks is compatible against

 

their wills in order to satisfy his/her beliefs (headcanons) or goals.

 

But then again, that's just my opinion, you are 100% free to disagree...

Yes people are quite the hypocrites.

[BrilliantVenture 334]

Whoa, really? Aren't you taking it a little bit too seriously? They are FICTIONAL characters after all, you know...

of course they're fictional...however, the concept is the same. Please excuse my use of hyperbole.

It just makes me wonder sometimes how the actual writers feel when stuff like this goes down.

I mean, if we look at hearts and hooves day for example, a lot of people feel that the episode is kind of the

"Shipping parody" of the series, and I agree! I guess also, that one of the reasons I am biased, is I actually know a lot of shippers

who don't limit themselves to just fictional characters, they do it to real people! I know that's not everyone of course, but

those that ship "everything and anything and anyone" just make things...uncomfortable sometimes, especially when people are already in relationships, or even already married to someone!

I guess when it comes down to it, it goes back to being respectful. If you like shipping, fine that's great! just please don't

rub your ships in everyones faces, and be mature about your posts! It's like people who take politics way too seriously, and make their signatures controversial conservative or liberal stances. Or fill their cars bumper stickers with all their political/religious beliefs...it's like...sure, it's okay if you believe in that, more power to ya, but keep it to yourself eh? if people ask, you may tell...but if not, just keep it to yourself, or post it on a shipping website/blog.

 

Personally I guess I'll sum it up like this...

 

out of respect, I'd much rather see this:

 

Normalbronyposter : I like the idea of lyra and bon bon, at least in my headcanon.

 

Vs.

 

Megashipper114OTP : ZOMG, THEY TOUCHED CHEEKS! THEY'RE SOOOOOOO IN LOVE, LYRABON4LIFE #OTP #CANON #SHIPPERSUNITE.

 

There's a difference there. however, one of those examples is seen a TON more online than the other...which is why I believe some people get upset over it. It's like, who cares?...if they are? great. if not? great. It's up to the writers, and nothing is canon until it's canon.

[CP3_P0n3 170]

Lately, they are kinda like those typical teenage girls I've seen in the movies so I take it DHX intended them to be friends. I mean they are perfect as friends. Their clashing personalities and what not, they go well, to me.

 

Please, don't let shippers ruin your view of them, they are innocent.

[Surprise 1,003]

of course they're fictional...however, the concept is the same. Please excuse my use of hyperbole.

It just makes me wonder sometimes how the actual writers feel when stuff like this goes down.

I mean, if we look at hearts and hooves day for example, a lot of people feel that the episode is kind of the

"Shipping parody" of the series, and I agree! I guess also, that one of the reasons I am biased, is I actually know a lot of shippers

who don't limit themselves to just fictional characters, they do it to real people! I know that's not everyone of course, but

those that ship "everything and anything and anyone" just make things...uncomfortable sometimes, especially when people are already in relationships, or even already married to someone!

I guess when it comes down to it, it goes back to being respectful. If you like shipping, fine that's great! just please don't

rub your ships in everyones faces, and be mature about your posts! It's like people who take politics way too seriously, and make their signatures controversial conservative or liberal stances. Or fill their cars bumper stickers with all their political/religious beliefs...it's like...sure, it's okay if you believe in that, more power to ya, but keep it to yourself eh? if people ask, you may tell...but if not, just keep it to yourself, or post it on a shipping website/blog.

 

Personally I guess I'll sum it up like this...

 

out of respect, I'd much rather see this:

 

Normalbronyposter : I like the idea of lyra and bon bon, at least in my headcanon.

 

Vs.

 

Megashipper114OTP : ZOMG, THEY TOUCHED CHEEKS! THEY'RE SOOOOOOO IN LOVE, LYRABON4LIFE #OTP #CANON #SHIPPERSUNITE.

 

There's a difference there. however, one of those examples is seen a TON more online than the other...which is why I believe some people get upset over it. It's like, who cares?...if they are? great. if not? great. It's up to the writers, and nothing is canon until it's canon.

Sums up how I feel and more. Believe me that I can't browse on DA weekly without seeing ships that I don't want to see or asked for. Things like that really forcing me down to see when it isn't even official gets under my skin. OCs made by others are fine as well but it's the shippings I just can't seem to avoid when I'm looking through images or discussions.

[PacificGreen 1,163]

Well, I'm not really much into shipping anyway. I feel like most ships tend to be shallow. Romance is something that needs time to develop, you know, and a lot of ships seem to come out of left field. Or I just haven't been reading enough fanfics. Probably the latter.

 

Plus, what The Coffee Pony said, some of it leads to flame wars (such as over who is a better match for X, or if a pairing is canon or not).

 

The only ships I could possibly see myself supporting ATM are Cheerimac (they already had H&HD, and Filli Vanilli dropped a hint at it) and DoctorDerpy ('cause I kinda like Doctor Who). I don't know, I kinda feel like those two pairings have a lot of chemistry.

 

Of course, this is coming from someone who shipped Crane and Viper in the original Kung Fu Panda movie when nothing in the movie supported it.

Edited September 4, 2015 by PGNatsu

[Buck Testa 5,505]

I agree with one of the posters above in that the writers need to give them more personality traits than being each other's friend. I mean, the show was the one that started the sitting Lyra and drinking Lyra and creepily smiling Lyra memes, the fandom just pointed them out. That's why I kind of like the new short, because I think the show is finally taking advantage of its chances for spontaneous shenanigans with these two.

I second that, ship or no I would love for those two to get fleshed out more. 

[Daring_Do 552]

I second that, ship or no I would love for those two to get fleshed out more. 

Might get that wish with the G.M. Berrow book announced for next year..

[Sugar Cube 4,843]

I happen to think LyraBon is pretty intentionally shippy, seeing as the two characters are literally dependent on the other and don't stand out as characters otherwise. The nature of their "friendship" is far more touchy-feely and borderline lovers than anything you'll see with the Mane Six. If you want to perceive them as being just best friends, then you can do it. I doubt the narrative will ever confirm them as otherwise, but when even the voice actresses of the two characters make jokes that imply romantic interest, then you can't help but question the authorial intent. The characters are incredibly minor, and probably would never have been a thing if the popularity and fan demand for background ponies wasn't so ridiculously high. I mean, fans were shipping LyraBon since the first season and its popularity has always been fairly high, and with the show incorporating a lot of fandom ideas these days, it's not surprising that it became "canonized" so to speak.

 

It doesn't really bother me. Again, they're minor characters that we only see briefly every once in a while. They're not doing anything offensive, and you can choose to perceive it any way you want to spin it.

[Conred 274]

They didn't even canonized the straigh couples like Fluttercord or CheerieMac but they would canonize LyraBon? Highly unlikely. They will pretty much keep their relationship the same way it is now for the rest of the series. Perhaps give a hint toward romantic shipping in the last episode like in Korra, but that's it.

Edited September 5, 2015 by Conred

[Megas 27,835]

I'm pretty much neutral on the issue. I couldn't care less if they're a couple or just friends. What I'm annoyed with is DHX having these VEEERY Shiptastic scenes that can easily convince you that they're a couple and then the staff flat out says "No, they're not a couple, and they'll never be a couple. Shipping is a fan thing, we're not interested. They're just best friends and that is ALL they'll ever be, whether you like it or not" whilst continuing to add shiptastic scenes" leading to intense flame wars with one side screaming "Homophobes!" to those who say the ship isn't canon and the other side screaming "No-life basement dwelling shippers!" to those saying the ship is canon. This is effectively making both sides of the debate look like complete idiots.

 

Seriously DHX, the f**k are you doing?

Pretty much this. I'd be less annoyed with the push if they didn't beat off to the "we're juuuust friends" crap so much

[Blique 211]

I'm caught up with the series and everything, but I think I must've missed something? Have Lyra and Bonbon done anything other than hug in the series? I don't remember anything past that. 

 

And if they haven't done anything past that, I don't understand why OP thinks hugging is romantic yet kissing is platonic.

 

 

@@BrilliantVenture

I concur. I think the general consensus ethical-wise is that shipping real life people is bad, because it's a form of harassment to the people being shipped. RL people shouldn't be shipped unless they give explicit consent to it. Shipping fictional characters has no negative effect on their mental/emotional health (though if it's a situation where the character's creators specifically say "Don't ship them!", then I can see that being unethical as well). I don't think most creators care what you do, and a whole lot even seem to like people shipping their characters. Creators are shippers of their own characters after all.

 

I think the issue with shipping being "in your face" is really just a matter of search engines and whatever media source you use for MLP content. Search engines show the most popular results at the top, so that can't really be helped.  -_- You could try asking the media cites to tag anything you don't like, if they have a system that lets you block tags you don't wanna see. Other than that, not much to do about it sadly.

[ManaMinori 4,146]

Pretty much this. I'd be less annoyed with the push if they didn't beat off to the "we're juuuust friends" crap so much

I think I might feel the same. Even if I'm none too fond of their designs and characters, the push with them by Hasbro is annoying. Why can't we see them being all touchy feely best friends with other ponies. Or people? How many other ponies have we seen in Ponyville? I know I've seen Lyra chilling with a stallion, in "Filli Vanilli".

 

I might feel more comfortable with the vibes of these two, knowing they're all googly eyed and hooves on with others as well.....

[Blique 211]

I think I might feel the same. Even if I'm none too fond of their designs and characters, the push with them by Hasbro is annoying. Why can't we see them being all touchy feely best friends with other ponies. Or people? How many other ponies have we seen in Ponyville? I know I've seen Lyra chilling with a stallion, in "Filli Vanilli".

 

I might feel more comfortable with the vibes of these two, knowing they're all googly eyed and hooves on with others as well.....

 

I don't understand why hugging automatically means romance. I know plenty of girls who are "distant" with their circle of friends, yet extremely clingy and close with their one best friend. It may just be that they're both introverts who can only handle one main friend at a time. Also, by googly-eyed, do you mean this?   If so, that's common close friend behavior, and the Mane 6 do it with each other too. If you compare Cadence and Shining Armor's interactions with Lyra and Bonbon's interactions, you'll notice that they're different, because one is romantic and the other is something else.

 

I think it's just that the fandom and its marexmare shipping culture is influencing people to see it even where there isn't any, especially since a lot of the fandom likes making Lyra and Bonbon romantic. It's a reasonable cause for confusion; usually I see shippers force together male and female best friends, but given that the cast of MLP is mainly female, they probably just altered their ships to adapt.

[cuteycindyhoney 13,316]

being the artist of the pic, I don’t see anything wrong with it at all. It's a kiss on the eye as Sunset Shimmer cries- as chaste as a kiss on the cheek or forehead. Parents or relatives kiss tears away off a crying child under their care, don't they? Does an onlooker ship that, when they see it happen?

 

http://duomochiaro.deviantart.com/art/Let-me-be-the-one-you-call-525865761

Looking at the full size image, don't see how one could interpret it as ship fuel.

First, I really love the picture. I didn't know you drew it, and you should feel proud of how well it came out. It's quite lovely. Second, to me it shows two ponies that love each other. Shipping doesn't only mean "Hot sweaty times" after all. Third, I have no problems in real life with same sex relationships, being on both sides of the fence myself. I see nothing wrong with fans projecting an intimate relationship onto Lyra and Special Agent Sweetie Drops. (I love that as her code name!)   The gentle kiss on the eyelid you depict with two ponies of the same age implies a subtle sensuality to me. That's just how I see it.  I see nothing to suggest a mother kissing away a child's tears in the image.

[dekutree64 713]

Lets be real though: Heterosexual couples will ALWAYS, ALWAYS have the majority in everything, because most people are indeed straight.

That's not necessarily true. Many straight males prefer F/F ships, and many straight females prefer M/M ships. With the ridiculous number of shows and movies produced nowadays, and large number of potential viewers, eventually someone is going to realize that rather than trying to appeal to everyone and doing a mediocre job of it and getting drowned out in the crowd, they could appeal to a subset and do an excellent job of it and rake in the cash. Het couples are almost a liability... shippers are indifferent to them, and non-shippers don't want romance in the first place.

 

But the trouble is, TV writers don't know how to do romance. They always skip over the important parts, and make the relationship a source of conflict rather than treating it more like the BFF style relationship featured in many shows. There are countless fanfic writers who could turn shows into masterpieces of shipping goodness, but on the rare occasion that a show actually canonizes a couple, they invariably wreck it with bad writing. So it's likely that things will continue as usual, because whoever does gamble their show in an attempt to appeal to shippers will probably go down in flames. But that's precisely what makes shipping so much fun... the intensity of emotion. If done right, the satisfaction would be unprecedented.

 

But getting back to the actual thread topic, as long as they don't rule out the possibility of Lyrabon romance, I'm reasonably happy. I wish they could kiss on screen, but I guess keeping it ambiguous is for the best, so as not to offend anyone too badly.

Edited September 6, 2015 by dekutree64

[Buck Testa 5,505]

That's not necessarily true. Many straight males prefer F/F ships, and many straight females prefer M/M ships. With the ridiculous number of shows and movies produced nowadays, and large number of potential viewers, eventually someone is going to realize that rather than trying to appeal to everyone and doing a mediocre job of it and getting drowned out in the crowd, they could appeal to a subset and do an excellent job of it and rake in the cash. Het couples are almost a liability... shippers are indifferent to them, and non-shippers don't want romance in the first place.

 

But the trouble is, TV writers don't know how to do romance. They always skip over the important parts, and make the relationship a source of conflict rather than treating it more like the BFF style relationship featured in many shows. There are countless fanfic writers who could turn shows into masterpieces of shipping goodness, but on the rare occasion that a show actually canonizes a couple, they invariably wreck it with bad writing. So it's likely that things will continue as usual, because whoever does try to appeal to shippers will probably not do it right.

 

But getting back to the actual thread topic... as long as they don't rule out the possibility of Lyrabon romance, I'm reasonably happy. I wish they could kiss on screen, but I guess keeping it ambiguous is for the best, so as not to offend anyone too badly.

I wish those people were the majority but they just aren't unfortunately. for every one person I've met that liked M/M or F/F there was a hundred others that couldn't stand that "unnatural stuff" And there will always be those petulant people who will try to construed simple love stories as "indoctrination" and "pushing an agenda" because they can't figure out that its not different from any other romantic movie they have seen. Movies and shows are business, and they have to gauge whether being at odds with the homophobic/religious types is worth it or not. 

 

If Hasbro sees Lyra/bon as worth it they will give it a try, they are already testing the waters a bit with them, and a m/m pair in Eqg

[GuyNamedEarl 1,332]

I don't really care. It's kind of stupid, but it let's the fandom know they are acknowledged by the creators.

[LHfunk 422]

I like them. At first I didn't care (I really don't like shipping), but after Slice of Life, I really like them. They have nice personalities and are enjoyable to watch. And how could they do anything to the friendship image of the show? It help a lot.

[ThatOneComrade 1,091]

I never got the ship, honestly, but  I got a fun EqG clip out of it, so I'm cool with it even if I don't ship it.

[Trixie Heartstrings 434]

You can tell how I feel about one of them just by my profile picture and username. This shipping in particular is my favorite background pony shipping, but if you don't like it, I can respect that. I know the show hasn't confirmed that they're lesbian, but it hasn't confirmed that they're straight either. For all we know they could be asexuals. I'd love it if the show had ANY homosexual paring done right. The reason is because as someone else stated, if you think having a homosexual couple is "shoving your values down others throats", remeber that there are THOUSANDS of movies/shows/etc that have heterosexual couples, yet I don't see any of you complain about that. We already know the backlash behind Derpy when she first talked, there'd be even more backlash over a homsexual paring since this time, it'd involve religion and probably politics. As one person put it, "parents don't care what their kids watch unless it features a gay or disabled character." I'm surprised there wasn't any backlash when Steven Universe did it.

[Sidral Mundet 1,666]

Eh, more of a mild dislike more than anything else, at least for the ones in the show, for two main reasons. 1) The 'have your cake and eat it to' approach when it comes to if they're in a relationship where they'll say they're friends but push them so close into relationship territory that it's so freaking obvious but because they said they're just friends it's not there. Just make up your damn minds with it already. 2)They're fan characters.  Sorry but I don't care for the background ponies and that they are getting such prominence over secondary characters that have been here since Season 1 ticks me off.