did you ever in you life imagine that you will like a show like mlp?

[Vocal Analyst 665]

If this was many years ago, I would say no. Mainly because when I was younger, I always was told that girls should watch girl shows and vice versa and all of that nonsense. It was mostly just from everything I saw on TV, so at that time, I never would have pictured it.

 

This is exactly the case for me.

 

As a kid growing up in the late 90's and early 2000's, surrounded by arguably some of the greatest cartoons ever made... I never watched any shows that were directed at a female audience or made to highlight girls toys. Was it because I'd been trained by gender norms to only have an interest in male orientated cartoons or products, and that all girly things are considered bad as a result of not being made for me? While I did enjoy watching Powerpuff Girls, I got ostracised and made fun of at school for being a guy who enjoyed what was considered a 'girly' show in their eyes, despite all the ass-kicking involved. It turned me off any shows with female protagonists and any female-centered shows as a result, trying to fit in with the established gender norms as much as possible. 

 

Over time though, as I grew up, it became apparent that I love cute things. So some shows that never used to appeal to me, suddenly did (mostly from an aesthetic perspective), and those 'girly' shows from my childhood did have SOME appeal, even if I didn't think a lot of them had strong enough characters or stories to warrant my full attention. Even with that though, I NEVER imagined myself liking an MLP series of any kind, because it played to all the tropes that make it overly homogenous with most female series. Friendship Is Magic's first season did little to change that opinion, which is why I never connected with it. Thankfully the other seasons showed me that the show had distinct quality to its writing and character design to STRAY AWAY from those tropes and be something worth my time. Amazingly, this all came together after Faust stepped down, stopping her from continuing to make the series as a homage to the MLP of her childhood. Make what you will of that statement.

 

The girliest thing about the show is the intro, which is where most people probably get their initial opinions of the show and what it may or may not be about.

 

Exactly. I always DREADED the sound of "My Little Pony... My Little Pony" on pretty much every advert break when I was a kid, so liking a show with THAT as its opener, made me really question whether I SHOULD like this show, and whether I WOULD like it knowing I'd have to get through it to reach the rest of the episode. Thanks to that innate disgust, I still have trouble getting through the intro after 5 seasons of FIM. Which explains why, at the Season 5 Finale Meet in London, I groaned, cringed and was thoroughly embarrassed by it, while almost everyone else there sang the theme tune... OUT LOUD! Ugh... looks like regardless how much I grow and mature, some things never change. 

Edited January 14, 2016 by Vocal Analyst

[That Guy with the CMB 5,873]

No - this was evident through my initial reaction. I tried to keep up a tough-guy act and I didn't like it. I might have forced myself not to, or I only liked it because it seemed so juvenile and fun to make fun of. Then I loved it the next day.

[Shou 100]

I would have never imagined it. Not the kind of thing I would usually do back then

[SteveMorison 404]

Tbh before the brony fandom I only loosely knew that MLP even existed. I remember the toys being advertised on Nickelodeon when I was a child, can't quite remember if I didn't give it a second thought or whether I found it abit annoying.

[----- 477]

Since I am older...not really.

But I guess it would have been pretty normal for me to watch MLP if I was still a child. 

[O-78 28,605]

No. Back when it first came out in 2010, my 8-year-old self dismissed it as just another lame girly toy commercial.

Even in 2016, the year before I became a brony, I was aware of the fandom but I couldn't see the appeal in it.

It was only when I was feeling really desperate and bored that I decided to give it a shot in May of 2017. Needless to say, MLP infinitely exceeded my expectations!

[Phosphor 11,528]

No, but I'm actually not too surprised. I'll pretty much watch any cartoon if it's decent.

I did make some wrong assumptions about MLP:FiM before I became a fan.

[Lord Midnight Madness 1,543]

No I was always a manly type who wouldn't be caught watching a show like this. I now love the show and I'm still a man just a man who watches a show about little ponies.

[Luna's Admirer 945]

What's a "show for girls"?

[Denim&Venöm 18,723]

Kinda yeah. I watch sailor moon and power puff girls. This isn't all that much of a leap. 

[BornAgainBrony 2,397]

Would I have thought I would like a show like MLP FiM? Absolutely. Did I ever think I would like the MLP brand? Absolutely not. I still remember G1 as a kid and just... not... getting it. The show was pretty girl-centric to a gratuitous degree (still haven't figured out what the deal has been throughout history with little girls wanting ponies), and I was more of a sci-fi kid than a fantasy kid, or at least needed something more hybrid. I did however watch some other shows that were more gender neutral, such as Rainbow Brite and Care Bears (though a lot of people saw that as girls-only too). As I got older I started to realize that I was forever doomed to be a sucker for the infinitely cute. FiM evaded me for a long time though for a myriad of reasons, sometimes I'm not even sure if I knew there was an actual show or if the whole thing was an elaborate 4chan meme. I even used the Flufflepuff dancing on rainbows video to troll conservatives from time to time, having absolutely no clue where the inspiration for it came from. I was also very disillusioned by Hollywood: Reboots 99% of the time ALWAYS suck more than their predecessors.

TBH, I think MLP FiM has a lot more in common with Care Bears than it does MLP G1 (setting and inhabitants aside), especially after Season 4. I now wish I'd liked G1 as a kid. I would've been much more likely to pay attention instead of missing out on what easily would've been the best decade of my life.

[Fasu 551]

To be honest I never thought I'd like anything like this. Even so, when I first saw pony-content for the first time at 2012, which was actually just a meme, I've been brony ever since. Can't let it go. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

Never would've guessed.

[PaulBron 173]

Never, that show took me by surprise 

[Dreambiscuit 9,623]

I'm not surprised that I like the show, but I was surprised, once I watched it, at just how much I liked it! I usually keep an eye out for great new cartoon shows I might like, but this one flew under the radar until I finally gave it a try with 'Lesson Zero.' It was so much better than expected and topped everything else I've seen for years. What a find! 

[MangoFoalix 24,944]

Probably, I was in the Sonic fandom back in the early 2010's, so it's not too far-fetched.

[lua 106]

No because I never thought I'd ever like a kids show, I thought it was just for weird neckbeards and nothing more. Until I started to watch it and I got really into it.

[TheRockASaurus Rex 50,744]

I never ever thought I would be so into a show like My Little Pony or be so into the brony community.

 

But I’m so glad that I am and I don’t regret a thing.

[CypherHoof 26,482]

That would presume there are shows like MLP other than MLP

Seriously though, I took a liking to Anime because the story arcs were more detailed than the episodic format of most cartoons, the characters had more depth, and so forth.  Pony is somewhere in between - certainly more plot and character development than your typical cartoon, but also aimed at a younger market so not as much of the adult themes as you see in Anime - which can be a good thing, given the constant fanservice aimed at teen boys gets irritating after a while, and really, tends to hinder rather than help that development (and after you have seen one season of tenchi or its knockoffs, you have seen them all, really).

So yeah, MLP falls into a range of things that I watch or read, with no real surprises there.

[Here No Longer 5,276]

I never gave it any thought until around 2011 when I first heard about it on a teen forum (I was 14 back then). But when I first heard of it I was actually quite curious, and I was thinking about checking it out for the longest time until I finally did a couple of years later and I REALLY enjoyed it, and it actually helped me through a hard time. That may not be nearly as hard of a time as... now... but hey it helped then, and I binged the series. From then, I became a fan of the show.

[heavens-champion 1,905]

To be perfectly honest, it never occurred to me.

[The MegaBrony 219]

Seeing Reisen Udongein Inaba from Touhou ponified before FiM foreshadowed me becoming a brony.

[kazamacat 64]

Sure. It's cute and fun, and I like cute and fun things.

[Laurel Crown 112]

Not even in the slightest. I actually started out as a straw hater towards MLP because I followed the hate bandwagon without giving it a chance. If it wasn't for the curiosity it led to, I wouldn't even be here writing this