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Why is the Brony fandom so obscure compared to other fandoms?


Plonkett

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There are various fandoms like for Star Wars, Star Trek, Rick & Morty, Overwatch, Harry Potter, Dragon Ball, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Marvel, DC, etc. Question is, why is it that Bronies are forced to have their own sections of different sites like message board threads and Youtube channels? Why can't the fandom have the same acceptance as all other big franchises?

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Your question seems to be why the brony fandom is segregated, not why they are so obscure. If anything the segregation means we are well known, if not for the right reasons.

Remember we live in a world where there is a perceived fundamental difference between children’s entertainment and “adult”/mainstream entertainment. 

Especially if that children’s entertainment is also seen as “girly.”

Edited by OptimisticNeighsayer
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Because we are considered freaks and horse f*****. We are not normal and blah blah blah.

We belong in the shadows for the most part, and that's OK.

 

 

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In all honesty this fandom has its issues just like the others, and since it is a bunch of people liking a show that was originally intended for little girls, you can see where many of the issues with this fandom lie in that, but all fandoms have their fair share of issues too.

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18 minutes ago, Odyssey said:

"MLP Fandom"

"Obscure" 

You can only pick one. It has died down a bit in later years but still. 

I have to agree with this. MLP was literally everywhere just 5 years ago now. I've mentioned it to people in their 60s and they know about my little pony and it's fanbase. It's been pushed into it's own little subsection for a couple reasons. I'd say this is due to the fact that most fanbases survive as part of bigger collections of communities (tumblr, twitter, etc) whereas the MLP fanbase used to be so big that it created several dedicated websites to it which (as the numbers diminished) caused MLP to pretty much disappear off the face of the planet. If bronies (I hate using that term now) were more integrated with other websites I imagine it would be more relevant today. 

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On 12/27/2018 at 6:17 PM, vgmaster9 said:

Question is, why is it that Bronies are forced to have their own sections of different sites like message board threads and Youtube channels?

I'm sorry, but I can't for the life of me figure out what you mean. 

Are you saying that Brony related content is kept segregated from other content? Because that's hardly the case. 

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It never seemed to me that the Brony fandom was all that obscure to be honest. Obviously it isn't as vast as Star Wars or stuff like that, but it has a respectable following among pop culture fandoms. Remember that MLP only became HUGE with FiM and hasn't had as long as some of the other franchises to gain steam. It also lacks the bottomless promotion afforded by Disney for its many properties like Marvel, etc. I'd say we're doing pretty well as Bronies, and that'll only increase if G5 continues the MLP universe in respectable fashion. 

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On ‎12‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 12:44 AM, Dreambiscuit said:

I'd say we're doing pretty well as Bronies, and that'll only increase if G5 continues the MLP universe in respectable fashion. 

Chances are, G5 will be in a different universe entirely and not take place in Equestria.

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I don't mind. It's kind of refreshing to be somewhere and not feel like you have to be adept in every single nuance of every piece of modern pop culture. 1000 different Anime/Manga series, every sci-fi show, every super hero show and movie, post apoc, medieval, etc in this over-saturated market.

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  • 1 year later...
On 12/27/2018 at 6:17 PM, vgmaster9 said:

There are various fandoms like for Star Wars, Star Trek, Rick & Morty, Overwatch, Harry Potter, Dragon Ball, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Marvel, DC, etc. Question is, why is it that Bronies are forced to have their own sections of different sites like message board threads and Youtube channels? Why can't the fandom have the same acceptance as all other big franchises?

In a modern world where even Furries are allowed to get married.... Wait, are we there yet? Too far into the future. :lie:

 

MLP is a very specific brand. It is a toy brand.
The Bronies kinda claimed that the show was a breakthrough, and it was so big and different, that other fandoms might have gotten tired of "us". It was big, don't get me wrong. But kinda obnoxious at the same time (coming from someone who liked MLP before G4, and got to see everything happen so quickly).
I like Star Trek, Dragon Ball, maybe a little bit of the old Star Wars before it became too "Disney", as well as some older Marvel before it became too "Disney". However, I don't belong in their fandoms. I do belong here though, and I can feel it! It just had to calm down a little, and become more normal, not so unique and world changing (read obnoxious).

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On 12/28/2018 at 12:17 AM, vgmaster9 said:

There are various fandoms like for Star Wars, Star Trek, Rick & Morty, Overwatch, Harry Potter, Dragon Ball, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Marvel, DC, etc. Question is, why is it that Bronies are forced to have their own sections of different sites like message board threads and Youtube channels? Why can't the fandom have the same acceptance as all other big franchises?

Because our fandom is not that usual. We were banished from 4chan when the show was launched because people were annoyed

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On 12/27/2018 at 11:17 AM, vgmaster9 said:

There are various fandoms like for Star Wars, Star Trek, Rick & Morty, Overwatch, Harry Potter, Dragon Ball, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Marvel, DC, etc. Question is, why is it that Bronies are forced to have their own sections of different sites like message board threads and Youtube channels? Why can't the fandom have the same acceptance as all other big franchises?

As the user above me stated, we made /b/tards upset.

Truth is, the original G4 fandom was merely a shitposting machine acustomed to 4chan's ways. We started as a collective joke but for whatever reason, we made click with the show and its lighthearted nature and it slowly made us better people.

In a dramatic way, we were wastelanders that found a little, bright oasis in the hellish landscape we were used to travel.

Problem is, we were sooooooo excited about it we couldn't help but spam our newly found light EVERYWHERE, and people got sick of us quickly. Let alone we were known for being /b/tards ourselves and our posts were still shitpost quality, people isolated us right away without a second thought.

But that was actually good for our fandom. Getting isolated massively is what made us bloom. We kept ourselves together and our places tiddie and the enviroment became friendly and supportive, and a lot of our fellow bronies grew better and better on their hobbies and interests. That's something that got lost after we became a trend and what poisoned the fandom and made it the sad thing it is today.

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  • 3 months later...

I don't know if there even is a Brony fandom anymore. I think there are a few MLP toy collectors out there, but people that actually are bronies and state so on other forums and message boards, I haven't seen. That was 2011-13 more or less

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Probably because it’s so unusual unlike something like a Marvel fandom. It isn’t too weird to like Marvel characters at an older age but I lot of people think liking little ponies at an older age is weird.

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As someone who's only been a brony for about five minutes and knows nothing about 4chan-specific historical details...

MLP was never obscure. Quite the opposite frankly. I've been aware of the show and the fandom for probably as long as either existed. For comparison, while I recognize all of the shows/games OP listed (even the ones I haven't watched/played), half of their fandoms I simply have never heard anything about. Which is what you'd normally expect: Who has time to learn about the fandom of every show/book/comic they ever like?

Even in the comic book chat room I spend most of my time in these days, one of the regulars turned out to be a brony who'd simply never mentioned it until I talked about having binged the show myself.

Incidentally, comic book fandoms are also full of the "people I talk to think it's for kids" "well those people are dumb, everyone I know is cool with it" thing. I can imagine MLP gets it a bit worse since there's also the "for girls" angle, but "it's weird for adults to like it" is definitely not unique to MLP. (Ironically, the comic industry has a serious problem with not enough kids buying them any more, which AFAICT is unique to comics)

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