The good parts:
They do point out the original Big Hollywood article was needlessly insulting and over generalized.
Bill Whittle has excellent points on the increasing trend of escapism and Peter-Pan syndrome. And that My Little Pony is no different from Starwars obsession and mentions his own past Star Trek cosplay. Kinda wish Bill put up a photo of him wearing Spok ears.
Referencing Obama's base via rainbow-farting-unicorns.
The bad parts:
No footage at all from the show itself. That shows a pretty thin setup on exactly why someone might actually like it. And betrays a deep ignorance of the show itself (like how the main characters are actually adults with careers and responsibilities and the like).
Misuse of the term "Brony" which means any adult fan instead being used to talk about people dangerously obsessed with the show.
A lack of realization that the series creator Lauren Faust intended the show to have broad appeal.
All together it comes off like saying all Star Trek fans are basement dwelling loners. Or all anime fans are emotionally stunted perverts. Or that D&D players are all garage-living Satan worshipers.
I got a real Mazes and Monsters vibe of people who have no idea what they're talking about recoiling at folks having fun with something they find really strange.
Which is a shame as Whittle has a really good point.
One problem I see with us Bronies is being too aggressive getting people to watch and defensive with critics. The latter is self-explanatory, but the former is interesting. Very few Bronies started out as fans of My Little Pony, and most can't stand to watch the previous generations of the show. They are much worse with insipid characters and hideous animation.
So for the vast majority of the fans there was a conversion from hating MLP and not wanting to watch, to being apprehensive to watching, to watching, to being a fan. Thus many Bronies see any non-fan as a potential fan.
Which is not true, and can be a bit annoying to non-Bronies.
4 comments:
Came here from the comments at Vodkapundit, didn't have any reason to say anything up until I saw that the Trifecta had been linked at Equestria Daily.
I'm probably in the minority on this because I can see both sides of this issue, and I'm more or less equally unhappy with both groups.
I agree with most of your points, especially on the generalization of Bronies as all having the qualities of the worst of them. To be fair, it's possible I'm unhappy with their statements because they may in fact apply somewhat to me, but if it wasn't this my time would be occupied with something else.
On the other side, the comments (that I could stand reading) at Equestria Daily are mostly the same thing with a different viewpoint. For a community that supposedly practices love and tolerance they don't seem to be showing it all that much.
Personally I think there could be a certain amount of common ground here if both sides would come to the discussion with an open mind. I'd work at it myself but I doubt I'd have the patience to do so. Even writing this out isn't normal practice for me.
Yeah, I was a bit shocked that Equestria Daily even bothered. I think that comes from an innate (and partially justified) defensiveness on the part of the community.
And yeah that's something conservatives and Bronies have in common. I think there's a lot of crosstalk here.
That's the thing that struck at me was that the show can be put into a very conservative reference frame. Given the values it exposes and the nature of the main characters.
Ah well.
I did find it a real disappointment as I've corresponded with Green in the past and respect the hell out of Whittle.
And what's worse is that both sides have a valid points but more and more I'm leaning to my original "Mazes and Monsters" vibe.
Group A sees Group B engaging in something they don't get, and assumes the worst.
For less depressing comments, the comments to the Trifeca video itself are pretty good.
So far as it being posted at Equestria Daily, I'm guessing it's due to their policy of posting anything even remotely pony related.
It's true that some defensiveness is probably justified, but I'd say it'd be better to engage, or failing that, to ignore them. It isn't like I'm going to stop doing anything I do because someone else has a low opinion of it, so if I can't change their minds, why get upset about it?
I was pretty surprised by the amount of positive comments at the Trifecta page, although the comments section there is kind of unwieldy.
Indeed. I commented here because i had linked to Steven Green the day before, and I'm a regular reader and could see Whittle's point.
It also gave me a chance to say some of my own thoughts (always a good ego).
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