Any character(s) you didn't expect to really glom onto?

[Toastypk 923]

I was thinking about something.

I adore many of the characters in the show for sure, but I've had a particular adoration of Stygian for some time, and that came pretty much out of nowhere. Ever since I learned about his name, knew he had something to do with the Pony of Shadows, wondered what his deal was, and then finally learning his backstory and feeling for him. Since then I've really glommed onto him, made him my userpic, and even participated in the World Cup RP posts as him on Team Ponyville, which has started to get me wondering if maybe I this means I might be ready to get my feet wet into the official MLP Forum roleplay section as him too. And soon, I'm going to be commissioning a plush of him from a plush-making artist on DA who made him one or two months ago!

It's not anything intense or an unhealthy fixation, but it's strong, it came from pretty much nowhere, and I love him.

I know some people here would have particular fixations on particular characters, and I wanted to share mine. What of yours?

[O-78 28,607]

When I first started watching the show, I didn't really care about the background ponies that the fandom has popularized. I was mainly just interested in main and secondary characters. So I definitely wasn't expecting Lyra to rise up and become my favorite pony and my waifu!

I love her so much. 

[DonMaguz 1,023]

While I don't roleplay or have any character specific merchandising, during S1 I would have never thought that Rarity would become my favorite pony. It's not my only fave, but it's the one who got there almost from the bottom of my list.

[Early Sunsets 2,107]

I didn't really like Trixie or Starlight at first, but they became two of my favorite characters in the show before I had even realized it. I'm not sure why, but I think they're great characters and strangely cute, though Trixie goes overboard with rolling her r's all the time.

Rarity and Twilight have a strange ability to make me laugh and smile at points where I don't think the writers meant it to be humorous. It's just the little things they do and the way they say things sometimes that are oddly funny to me.

And, of course, I didn't forget about Rainbow, the best character in FiM. Everything about her is just so god damn perfect. Her voice (including the voice cracks - no, especially the voice cracks), her bravery, her ego (most people consider this a character flaw, but for some reason I really like that about her), her blunt way of saying some things, her dedication and loyalty, and her kindness. And, to top it all of, she's just so friggin beautiful. I mean, just look at this picture and tell me otherwise.

Spoiler

I wouldn't say I'm obsessed, but I'm probably not too far off.

[Here No Longer 5,276]

I didn't really expect to like Rarity all that much, but she grew on me a good bit

Edited March 11, 2019 by ~Dusky~
I misread the topic!

[KH7672 1,604]

Easy, Diamond Tiara. Those stereotypical bullies for the sake of being bully characters are everywhere in children's media. But MLP actually used her bullying with a purpose to motivate the CMC and not just to make the audience feel cheap sympathy for them. I loved watching the growing characterization this little filly had. And while it's clearly over for now, those first five seasons were great while they lasted.

Also I would be remissed if I didn't mention Starlight Glimmer. It's not that I never liked her it's just I couldn't image THIS would be the character I'd have the most fun watching and talking about. To put it mildly this is the type of character I could write a dissertation about; she is just that interesting to me. My favorite pony to discuss viewpoints on that I've never had with any other character.

[Crimson storm 1,837]

Princess Luna, she deserves all the cuddles

[Prospekt 11,018]

Rainbow Dash annoyed the heck out of me when I first started watching the show. I remember cringing so hard at her incessant boasting. But I warmed up to her quite a bit as time went on, and I tend to enjoy Rainbow episodes a lot now.

[Misty Shadow 7,912]

Like a lot of people, Starlight. I really didn't like her rushed redemption arc and the implication that she was actually stronger than Twilight, so I really didn't expect to actually enjoy her more as a secondary character rather than a villain. Even more unexpected to me though was Maud Pie. I used to not get her at all back when I was under the ill misconception of her being some kind of overpowered Mary Sue. Once I got though that she was only being portrayed as a character with flaws that would be unfair not to accept, I started to really like her and even see her as somewhat of an icon. 

[Odyssey 5,716]

Another Starlight fan here. I loved her as a villain, but it has taken a while for me to really enjoy her as a hero at first. S6 was fairly hit-or-miss for Starlight, but I liked a bit of it anyway because her anxiety is very relatable. Then she just got better with every new season. 

When I got back into the show, I never expected to like Spike so much. I didn't care for him then, I cared more about the M6. But going back into the show starting with S6, I didn't expect to love his straight man personality now when I didn't at first. I think he just became very relatable for me, haha. Even then S6 was a very generous season for him and makes a great foil to new characters like Thorax and Ember, so that first impression of him probably helped him become one of my new favourites

[Tao 7,844]

For me when the show started I really liked Fluttershy due to have been like her as a younger person.  Just as the show went on and hit season two,  I really came to like Rarity of all the mane six!  Now I'm not a fashion person at all or even into being ladylike,  what got me was her passion to make her dreams real and doing it after a LOT of hard work.    Also being a writer,   her eye for detail and trying to make things right also got me.     Also the drama she would put on always made smile and being an older sister,  I understand a lot of things she has with Sweetiebell.

Than the other is Starlight glimmer,   with the whole brainwash to outsmarting even Twilight at times.     Just her snarky attuide also got me when it came to laughing at the overall silly points of the show to even after being reformed.   Starlight was the blunt one in anything  (and spike) and seeing her handle herself in having to prove herself just made it more fun when she got her friends. 

[Metemponychosis 1,261]

My favorite character is Princess Celestia, right next to Luna and the Mane Six; but that is something I knew from the first moments of the show.

One character I wasn't expecting to really like was Cadance. And Shining Armor. While she first struck me as bland, pointless and self-serving to the plot of her debuting episode, and somewhat intruding into what I thought was meant to be a relationship between Celestia and Twilight... Really, I thought of her as that bland character you're meant to self-insert into. But she really grew on me as the series progressed and now I really appreciate her. I find her presence in the series to be fun and pleasant most of the time. I think that Cadance is at her best in Princess Spike (which is an episode I don't like, but think she was great in it), and her general presence is usually fun, like in Once Upon a Zeppelin. Not to mention Three's a Crowd.

I think that Shining Armor is better in the comics. He's the only thing I still like in them, with his dorky nerdness. His episode with Twilight is one of the things I'm looking forward in the ninth season. He's just easy to like, I think.

 

[Megas 27,699]

Starlight was one for me, it especially after S6 did a poor job at getting me to like her, felt after that the show's been really improving at how she's handled

[cmarston1 5,959]

I would have to say Sunset Shimmer.  While unlike others I didn't dislike her initially, however I didn't really find her all that interesting in the first EQG movie.  Rainbow Rocks really managed to surprise me with how much and how quickly it was able to make me emphasize with her.  Not only that, but afterwards she managed to become one of my favorite MLP characters in general, which I find impressive given that I didn't care much for originally.

[Dashy 4 Ever 4,835]

I never really cared about King Sombra to be honest here. I just didn't find him that appealing. But, after looking around and looking at fan art, stories, and re-watching his episodes, he quickly became my favorite MLP villain.

[FirePuppy 735]

I was a Fluttershy fan at first, but now I'm starting to care less about her after much deliberation. I kind of wanted her to have an episode with Spike, but now, it seems to me like Smolder is gonna take her place in the adventure to the Dragon Lands (unless we get further words from the highlights).

Edited March 12, 2019 by FirePuppy

[PoisonClaw 8,164]

This may surprise some people, but Sunset Shimmer. When she was first introduced, she was a pretty one-dimensional villain in an average film, but once the second movie and the "My Past is Not Today" video came around, I started to like her more and more, to the point she is now one of my top 3 favorite characters.

I might get a little flak for this one, but I have a strange appreciation for Upper Crust. Yeah, I know she's snooty and stuck up, but at one point I wrote a fic I later scrapped that featured her as a character, and somehow I grew to like her as I tried to flesh out her character a bit.  

[The Historian 516]

Mine is easily Sweetie Belle. From the moment she spoke early on, I was hooked on her. From her colors to her character to her voice, I have been a huge fan. Not only is she adorable, she's thoughtful and kind, though does have a flawed side cause nobody's perfect. There isn't a thing about her that I don't adore. I don't think there's been a moment in the show where I didn't thoroughly enjoy her entire screen time, even when she was being a little hellion.

Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon and Twist are up there too. Despite Diamond Tiara being a bully, she grew on me, which is weird because I got bullied so damn hard as a kid. Just... something about Diamond Tiara stuck out, like she wasn't all bad and she had things a lot harder than the surface really showed. That was confirmed in a later season and I was thrilled when she stood up to her mom. Silver Spoon and Twist... they're cuties with glasses. I can't help myself. xD

[TBD 17,254]

I have many..but Princess Celestria...after these episodes; "The Royal Problem" and "Horse Play"  she is from a Alicorn who just sits on her throne with the most blended personality to one the most adorkable one.  I like her even more so along with Princess Luna. 

 

Tempest shadow will have to be my utmost top favorite. The first time I saw her, with a scar and a broken horn, my first thought was, "damn that is a one edgy pony".  Then after watching her in action, I really like the depth in her character and how she's such a bad ass for a mlp character. "open up your eyes" is the one song that tells the reality without the "cupcakes and rainbow" view on it.  She's the best.

 

[Cash In 22,382]

Diamond Tiara and like most people, it was because of the redemption arc. I will admit, I did like her in Ponyville Confidential, because she was basically the equivalent of a mob boss. 

[Pastel Heart 6,466]

Me when I first say King Sombra: This is like Ganon but pony. I'll forget about him in a couple episodes

Me now: This is peake stallion performance, you may not like it but this is it. Fanworks got him over for me and honestly every time I've seen his episodes he just seems cooler~

[Gaines 1,225]

I actually expected myself to like the Mane 6 or Ponyville background ponies more than others, but somehow I absolutely adored Sugar Belle and she doesn't even show up often!

[ExplosionMare 18,065]

I didn’t expect to like Trixie very much but she became a really cute and interesting character after she became friends with Starlight

[Splashee 28,564]

With Season 8 being as bad as it was, and the introduction to the Friendship School as the main plot device with almost no interesting story whatsoever, I didn't expect to really like and enjoy the character Cozy Glow so much

[baba_booey 4,303]

To be honest, I didn't really expect Rarity to be my favorite pony at first at all on the basis that I didn't feel like I "related" to her, but that definitely changed by the end of Season 2 - when I considered her among my Top 3 in the Mane 6 and later my favorite.

Trixie's an interesting case though, where I went from heavily disliking her around 2013-2014 (largely just on the basis of her being a character I didn't really care for yet being popular within the fanbase) to becoming one of my favorite characters of the show, especially after her friendship with Starlight Glimmer became prevalent following Season 6.