What did you think of Bronies before you started watching the show?

[BrainyBrony 252]

To be honest, I kind of thought that they were creepy. But when I became one I became a lot more open minded, so it's all helped. But I hadn't heard of Bronies that much since I became one. I did have one friend who kept bringing them up, and this was basically my reaction to him:

 

 

[Durandal 623]

I had no idea they existed. I believe the first exposure I got to the show was some girl I knew from a small RPing community telling me about it, and I believe linking MLP's KYM page. At first I was like 'what the fuck is this and how did I not know this existed'. I believe most of the first season, if not all, were available to me when I figured out what what the fuck it was, so this places things in roughly the summer of '11.

 

Anyways, an entire season later, I'm like 'not bad', and started getting into the fandom. Not much more to it.

Edited July 28, 2013 by Durandal

[Ihei 713]

I thought they had no lives whatsoever except for fanboying over a little girls' show. I clearly think otherwise now, of course. :3

[The Pony Alchemist 70]

Basically my opinion was indifferent. When people would start talking about it, i'd be like: "really?  what do you even see in that show?" but my feeling was never hate. Before I started watching MLP I thought it was only among people my age. If I had heard then that people as old as my dad watched the show, I may not have even joined the fandom.

[Untitled Goose Q 5,137]

I can't say I thought much about them to be honest. I guess I just thought of them as another fanbase really.

 

And then I found out a friend was one.

He recommended the show, I was bored one day (Thursday 18th April 2013 ) and started watching it. Now I know what great people Bronies are on the whole.

Edited July 28, 2013 by Questioner

[Serbon div 386]

 

 

However, I never hated in them. What's the point in that? Let them do their thing....

Me neither, I was pretty open minded, I mean, if something so "girly" can attract so much male adult fans, it must be epic, so after 2 days I became one of them, but I wasn't in any forum until recently.

But for those 2 days I thought of them as very good people, since some of my closest friends from "Yoyogames" became bronies. I think that was 2011.

[Remi 1,309]

"girly"

There is no such thing as manly or girly, it is all a matter of perspective. We view for some reason that firearms and gore is manly, while bright colors and good morals is feminine. It is how society believes things are, and it is un-comforting how sexist/divided society can be.

[ShadowRose2k 271]

I really had no strong feelings one way or the other.  If ya like a show that I don't it has no real impact on me.   Even If I feel that that show is horrible.     I am also open minded enough to take a look at a show or movie before I make a firm choice on if I like it.   Like when a friend took me to see Final Destination 2,  and I now know that I Hate that movie.

[MLPForums Phanact 1,374]

I knew one Pegasister before I got into the show which was my girlfriend and I used to think it was really cute that people liked this show but I was adamant that I would never enjoy it... Turns out I was wrong xD

[Lunas Husband 2,777]

Ah noting really, said that's cool they like this show good for them must be damn good! Then my friend told me about it and told me he was a BIG brony so yeah.....

[Golurk 468]

I was initially neutral on the matter. I figured people have a right to like what they want, even if it involved cartoon ponies.

 

When my friends started pushing it, however, I took a much more antagonistic view. They were, after all, putting their all into twisting my free will. I didn't really like that. But, time eventually calmed me down enough to give it a shot, and here I am. 

[Serbon div 386]

There is no such thing as manly or girly, it is all a matter of perspective. We view for some reason that firearms and gore is manly, while bright colors and good morals is feminine. It is how society believes things are, and it is un-comforting how sexist/divided society can be.

I completely agree, that is the reason why I used quotation marks. By the way, by girly I meant for little girls, not feminine or something.

[Inactive01 5,299]

In all honesty, I didn't even know they existed! All I did was just watch some Youtube poops, thinking that it was just another interesting YTP source. My brother got hooked and he did mention bronies, but other than that, I didn't even know they existed until I got hooked on the show a few weeks later!

[CT-1138 3,182]

I wasn't a hater, but I honestly did think it was a little odd. Granted, the curiosity of what could be the cause behind it was part of what got me into the fandom in the first place. 

[Shift 4,272]

I actually thought it was rather unique. After seeing 'Turnabout Storm Pt. 1' I decided to watch the show. I became hooked. That and I had a good friend on another website who was a brony.

[Jeniac 5]

I hate to admit it but I easily comply with other's opinions - or, well, more like prejudices in this case.   In addition, I had never been anything not even near to an active part of a fandom more than once, but with that thing (not alluding to MLP now) I had to keep it all to myself in the end because of the massive amounts of strongly elitist minded people and the fact how the size of your collection of merchandises judges your rank as a "true fan".

 

So, I was foolish enough to think that every fandom would be like that, and I didn't plan to make an exception for Bronies. But, well, failed with that plan, and thank God (or, well, it was my girlfriend actually) I did. Also clarifying the first sentence of this message of mine a bit, what made everything easier to me to "give in" to MLP was that even if I might had shared my "opinions" with the general haters before, being a furry I never saw anything weird with people being fans of the show about cute ponies.

 

So, maybe I could say I just went with the flow until MLP decided to give me it's first life lesson about judging something you know nothing about.

[Mr. Critical 434]

I really didn't care. I thought it was just another fad like bieber. And as long as they left me alone, they could do as they please.

[DaReaper 1,944]

I was quite disturbed by what a brony was at first, i couldnt believe that adult men liked this show i remember mlp as being only for girls

[--Thunder Bolt-- 534]

Stage 1:

 

*Sees a pony avatar with a common caption* "'I'm a Brony.  Deal with it.'  Well, OK.  What's a 'Brony?'"

 

Stage 2:

 

"How come everybody on this site [another forum I'm on] is using pony avatars and sigs all of a sudden?  A new My Little Pony show?  Huh."  *Google image search for modified ponies*  "Maybe I should use this pony Rorschach because, hahahaha!  Nah, I'm too lazy to copy, crop, and save to Photobucket so I can change my avatar for a temporary internet fad."

 

Stage 3:

 

*Starts reading Friendship is Optimal and Friendship is Optimal: Caelum est Conterrens because of a referral from the author of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality*  "Maybe I should watch the show so I'll get the references."  *YouTubes 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,'* starts burning through episodes in hours-long sprees*  "This show is awesome!  What's with all the warfare in the comments?"

 

Stage 4:

 

"Whelp.  I guess that's all the episodes they've got online.  I know, I'll go find out what's up with the whole 'brony' thing, see what they're like."  *Googles 'brony forum,' finds this place, pokes around a bit, joins*

 

Stage 5:

 

"Well, alrighty then.  Guess I'm a brony.  Darn, I wish I'd used that Rorschach avatar."  

[Smarts 1,622]

I laughed at the word "brony", but never laughed at them. The word just sounded kind of funny when I said it. I respected them though because I thought it must take some real guts to proudly say that you enjoy watching this show, knowing that there are people who will get on your case for it. I applauded them for their courage.

Edited July 28, 2013 by SmartyPants

[Shanks 10,816]

While I thought it was a bit strange that so many teenage and adult men liked a show about cartoon ponies I knew even back then that all the irrational hatred and accusations were a big fat load of bull because when you get right down to it is just a show and watching a show that just so happens to fall outside your "target demographic" dosen't really mean anything than you just happen to like that show. I saw the friend who first told me about it and tried to get to watch the show no differently than I saw him before he mentioned it although I did wonder if he was joking at first when he actually told me he was into MLP.

[LMW-YBC 102]

Me: "You watch My Little Pony? Cool."

 

I honestly didn't care. They watch a TV show targeted at little girls, so what? I'd really make myself look like an idiot if I did respond negatively, because it would only be prejudice of me to do so.

 

Granted, I only knew about bronies a few days before I became one, but I usually don't change opinions that often.

[Fluttershyfan94 5,742]

I had never heard of bronies before, when I first enjoyed the show it felt weird for me. I honestly thought I was one of the few people that did. It wasn't until I saw a comment on one of the videos that I realized that the fandom existed. It happened pretty much the same day I first realized how much I enjoyed the show. I'm sure that my opinion on bronies would have been negative but my brother was already into the show and he didn't know about bronies either. So I didn't judge him for it, it was weird but nothing more and I knew if he liked it that it must be a good show. He constantly asked me during last summer to give it a chance and I never watched a full episode I saw parts and I liked it but nothing more.

 

So that's it, I just didn't know that bronies existed but when I found out it was a positive reaction and it felt awesome being a part of the fandom.

[SpectrumStar 15]

I thought that bronies were annoying, to be honest. I didn't really care what they watched or what they did or anything, but just having them pop up everywhere raving about a show I had no interest in watching was kind of irritating. But then I actually watched the show...and I adored it. Now that I'm a brony though, I try not to be too up in other people's business about it, because if I thought it was annoying than other people probably do too.

[Dark Horn 430]

Perhaps two years ago, I scoffed at pretty pink ponies. A year ago, I used it as a way of trolling others, as in squealing and dancing and saying, "Twilight Sparkle is the best pony!" I had no clue whatsoever who Twilight was, but it shocked others and made them giggle, so I kept doing it.

 

And then, of course, I became a brony, and I saw things... differently.