[video=youtube;jJh8i1OffR0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJh8i1OffR0[/video] What stages did you go through and for how long?
My Development: What? Men of my age watch MLP:FiM...but it looks so commercial...why do they like it? *watches first episode of own free will* "Wait...now I have to watch the next episode!" *nine episodes later* "Hold on...I'm on episode 10? When did that happen? Oh well" *Episode 19* "Hahahaha! I freakin love Rarity! she's so cute and funny!" Really I didn't even notice the transition from stage to stage but while im not open about it yet I have accepted my love for the show completely!
Me: Hmm, what is this? *watches a random episode* Me: Hehehehehe, that was clever. *surfs channels looking for the show and finally find it* Me: Okay I have to watch just some more, let me record the series. *weeks later* Me: When I was a little filly and the sun was going dooooown....
A friend of mine talked about nothing by MLP for a few weeks, insisting that I give it a chance. After awhile, I watched the first episode and wasn't impressed. Then he made me watch the episode with Owlowicious (please, someone tell me how to spell that) and I fell in love and watched the rest of the season in 3 days. It's all been a beautiful friendship from there =]
hmm the owl episode, that's actually one of my least favourite, surprised he choose to show you that one first.
Stage 1: Denial. I believe this stage only lasted a few days for me. At first I thought, "How the hell can males of any age like this? Adult men? No way! You've got to be kidding!" However, the fact that a large group of adult men liked it intrigued me. I blame the older generations for this stage even existing for me, because, probably like many others, when I heard "My Little Pony" I automatically thought about the older show and all the girliness that followed. Stage 2: Anger. I don't think I was ever really in this stage at all because I never had anyone try to convert me. I'm the only one I know IRL that knows about it, so this stage isn't really applicable to me. Stage 3: Bargaining. This stage only lasted probably for about an hour or so. After seeing several pony images and even a thread about it, I figured, "Oh, what the hell, I'll give it a try. I bet I won't like it though. I'll just watch an episode or two and I'll never even think of it again." Stage 4: Depression. This stage lasted the longest. I'd say for about two or three weeks. As I mentioned in my introduction, I lurked these boards and EPR for a few weeks before joining. One of the reasons I lurked was because I was having trouble accepting it. I couldn't believe that a guy my age was actually enjoying this show and enjoying a part of the community that I haven't even accepted being a part of yet. The name "brony" didn't seem compatible with me. I even tried thinking, "I'm a brony," but all my mind thought was, "I'm a br— NO! DON'T GET SUCKED INTO IT! RESIST!" Eventually, after lurking long enough on EPR and the forum, I gave in. I just said "Screw it, I'll join. This community seems really nice and I hope they welcome me with open arms." Stage 5: Acceptance. That's when I joined Everypony. I guess July 10th would be the date that I finally accepted it, but I don't go around IRL saying I like it. Maybe I'm not fully at Stage 5, perhaps I'm at 4.75. If someone asked me if I liked it, I'd like to think that I'll admit it, depending on who it is. Personally, I've accepted it. I'm a brony now. Probably not one of the most involved, but I can't deny that I absolutely like the show and I like the community that I have chosen to become a part of.
I started when one of the of my friends on facebook pointed it out. I tried it. When I saw it was by Lauren Faust, and I saw how well written it was, I couldn't exit my browser. I even scrambled for a charger when the computer was low on power so i could watch more. I faced the bargaining stage for about 3 hours. Then I entered the depression stage.... It was hard to accept the fact that I became a brony. But one of my female friends caught me watching it, and she gave it a try. She became a brony practically twice as fast as I did. I tried Equestria Daily, and that caused me to see how happy I felt with all the fellow lovers of the show. I began working on PMVs, and I also began seeing Ponies in my daydreams (That is rare though). When one of my videos was requested to be shown here, I gave EPR a try. I tune practically every day. SUPER LONG story short, I am now Proud to be brony.
My story: *le wild Ponybeat appears* What madness is this? Good pony music? Is confuse. Lol, w/e, time to link on stream. *links* Brony on Stream: LOL Stebbins makes pony music? Approve. 2 DAYS LATER *cue argument about whether Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is the most life changing animu out there. Brony claims Ponies. I claim lolwtf?* 2 WEEKS LATER Me: Oh, yeah, I forgot, I wanted to watch ponies. Might as well. 2 PILOT EPISODES LATER. Me: EPICNESS. WHY DOES THIS HAVE IT? 2 MINUTES OF CHAT LATER *Cue first brohoof* I learned to tolerate a LONG time before I was a brony, sometime when I got into Touhou (1.5 years or so ago) and was convinced to watch PSG. So my total time of being converted to a brony is about 2 weeks, or about 3 hours if you only count the time where I wasn't forgetting about the thing. BY PHASE: Denial: 10 seconds while I was being lolwtf at the song, and the time to took for my brony to reply. Anger: 5 minutes of arguing whether ponies are more life-changing than Gainax animu. Bargaining: 2 weeks and 20 minutes for 2 minutes after the argument, and then 2 weeks of forgetting about the existance of ponies. Then halfway throught pilot episode 1. Denial: the next 10 minutes. I was facepalming at the random hinting. Figuring out the entire plot? Do not want. Acceptance: about 20 minutes to finishthe episode and then go on mah chat to brohoof. I also approve of the hidden 6th, Obsession stage. For a few weeks after Acceptance, Personally I had my Obsession stage. I could literaly do nothing but ponies. And schoolwork of course, but still ponies. Then, after a week on EPR, It ended, and then I entered my current what I am, which is a milder form of obsession. I can now survive without permanent pony. Now, to go make more bronies...
1. Noticed a lot of people talking about ponies on 4chan, etc. Thought it was just a meme or something. Quite liked it. 2. Found out people were hating on ponies, so, always the one to defend the hated, immediately took a liking to them. Found out a bit more about the phenomenom, then just had to watch the first episode. 3. Watched the first episode. Then watched them all in the space of about 3 days. 4. Changed my Desktop to ponies, knowing my mum and stepdad would see. First indication of brony pride. 5. Allow ponies to completely dominate my life. Pony bed, pony iPod, pony phone, ponies ponies ponies. Despite what I tell people when having to explain why I like the show, I never at one point had any issue with ponies. I've never had the 'I can't believe I'm watching this' mentality most people have had. No one had to convince me, it's almost as if I converted myself.
Well I could see it was a fad right from the beginning; pictures of ponies most everywhere I went! I didn't have a lot to do with them then; I was too busy worrying about my exams. But this is where it all started for me: http://www.gopinball.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1106 Yes... I started, as Stimpy had suggested, with Episode 7. I liked it! So, I watched Episodes 1 and 2. Loved them. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 again - yah-HAH! In no time at all, I was a Brony!! But, wait! I needed to keep it under control. But even watching a few episodes of The Flintstones, I just couldn't get them outta my mind. When I started nosing through the fan-fiction, I found myself tangled in a web of bloodshed and lust! (among other things). No, for me, it wouldn't mix! Fortunately, by this time, my good friend Yetione had become a fellow Brony (hey, get it? "fellow crony" - "fellow Brony"?) and, having helped me out of one episode of upset back in December, I had the idea he could help me out of this one - even though he didn't understand my babbling most of the time. Regrettably, though, an incident took place in a dA group I was a part of, and for a while I was in total fear of ponies. I went steadily downhill afterwards; that horrible sight plagued me; I couldn't bear to close my eyes for about a week, except when sleeping. And with more people hating on ponies, I had a philosophy: one of them is at least 10,000 of me. I wanted to cut down. I couldn't. So I turned, once more, to Yeti, and he gave me a few words of comfort and assurance, which almost certainly made me feel better. I also referred to my counsellor too; he wrote back with his views: "Do you think it would be better to just enjoy watching the series and not getting too into the fan sites? Maybe just talk about the show with people you know who have the same views and avoid searching for the views or opinions of people that you do not know." And well - Gawd knows I'd be willing to try. Today, being a Brony is now safely on the plane of reality I understand, however I've kept it secret from everyone other than me mam and the aforementioned counsellor. Granted I've watched three of the 26 episodes on Boomerang, but now that the summer vacation's started, I can't take that risk. Can you imagine what would happen if my elder sister caught me watching the show, even with its fandom!? All hell would break loose!!
@FrankT: yeah I get it lol ok, so these is how it was going for me: stage one: first time I came across mlp:fim was on Miles24's signature back at Two Tailed Fox Forums. Dough I didn't say anything to him, I was like "Dude, Seriously?" and I knew Miles24 closely before, and I knew he was normal intelligent guy so I was like: "ok, so I suppose that cartoon is somewhat similar to Powerpuff girls, but that much that guy like him can be such big fan of it?" stage 2: memes since I like memes (and am member of cheeseburger network), I saw that there was growing number of pony memes. I was like. wow, these animation looks good, kinda remands me on Skunk Fu! (Cartoon I like from before). Maybe I'll watch few episodes one day so I can understand what jokes are about. (one day. undefined amount of time) stage 3: ex gf ok, so after about 9 months of not talking to her, I started to talk to my ex gf (who is from USA btw). Meanwhile she became a brony. and well, everyday she'd somehow talk about mlp. Also, irl, Finals season on my collage was about to start so I was all in my studies. So I was like always:"yes, I plan to see what is it about, but after finals on collage." Then one day, when I was over with all pre finals labs, and did all work for that day. she again talked about mlp and I was like: "ph, ok, ok I'll watch one episode now (didn't say: just to make you happy)". *watched episode 1*. "hmmm. now I'm interested". @ ex gf: "brb give me 20 more min." *watch episode 2* "wait, that's it? main enemy is good now?, now what?" *watch episode 3* "wow these show is good" stage 4: lol ponies since I have luck that I go to collage where people are very open, and well, know much about computers and Internet (it's computer and electric engineering collage after all), I announced to one friend that I'll make "mods are asleep, post ponies move" during test season spam topic on collage forum (which is collage tradition). he was like: "ok, whatever man". at that time I liked show as somewhat Internet fenomenom, at the time I watched about 7 episodes. stage 5: more ponies about 2 days after announcement, I was about 2-3 episodes from watching entire season 1st time (currently watching entire season 3rd time). Test season begun and I started to post ponies (as just for fun). at first people didn't much notice my posts, then after they were like mlp:wtf?, then some people started to join me in posting ponies. at that time I started to realise I like that show more than other shows I regularly watch. stage 6: I'm a brony at these stage I realised I really really liked show and am as big fan as I'm Tails fan. I started to talk about ponies on TTFF, and joined at one topic that Miles24 made meanwhile there showing I'm a brony. also, on collage forum there was "show off your desktop topic" and about that time I've installed Ubuntu 11.04 on my laptop, and showed off my new desktop on that os. I didn't have any pony wallpapers at the time, and I had Best Ed wallpaper at the time. so after 2 friends from collage saw I didn't have pony so they made me Y U NO meme telling me: "Yeti, Y U NO HAVE PONY WALLPAPER?" (I know those guys irl also). then I downloaded FlutterRage (by Miles 24) wallpaper and posted it titling it just for them 2. At these stage I made my brony ID card (by Miles24) and having more and more mlp wallpapers. I knew, I'm a brony, and well, I didn't care about it, I just like the show. stage 7: full brony at the time I knew I'm full grown brony, and was already watching mlp:fim 2nd time. finals spam topic was almost over and as collage tradition we always hang out all after all tests are over. when I come to the meeting, I hanged out with one friend I knew from before collage, and, well, he didn't know who I was online. after a while he asked me what's my nick and I said Yeti. he was like: "Why did you infect me with ponies?!". he showed me few of his friends that became bronies because of me. I was like "lol". also, one girl brony, came with pinkie pie cup cakes and shared them to bronies only. they actually called me hypster brony: because I liked mlp:fim before it was mainstream. anyway, I knew then, well, I saw that I'm not only one (actually I saw that online too, but I knew that people would like it since I like it and I know I'm normal). Eventually I changed my avatar (who was before that Ed from Best Ed (also kids show)) to Spike (same one I have here) and so on and so on. I eventually came on everypony, so I would meet some new friends because I know bronies are nice people. note: even dough I tend to be responsible I'm know to like childish things like cartoons and some video games. but I still tend to keep myself young in hearth, but do everything as I should (all responsibilities). also, if I can choose, I would rather wear something childish, and cool in same time than some macho thing. (for example, atm i'm wearing Neff t-shirt with big Neff kid logo which looks kind of like cartoon character, but t-shirt is still cool ,and it gets also in touch with my extreme sport side) (I also have Tails and Ed highback socks for my bindings (part of snowboard). atm thinking of making one mlp related one (maybe spike)) just for the record: I watched all mlp:fim episodes in 5 days, during test season, and still passed all tests, and passed academic year with 4.2/5.
Stage 1: Denial. Started to hear about it from artists that I occasionally watch online. I immediately thought, "You're drawing this girly stuff? Really? And putting a lot of your other art I enjoy on hiatus as a result? D:" Shortly after, I promptly forgot about it. Stage 2: Anger. Lasted maybe a minute when the artists I watch started to draw ponies instead of the art I was originally watching them for. Stage 3: Bargaining. Was reminded about ponies about a month or so after having forgotten them when I heard they were taking over 4chan. My thought process at this point: "Hmmm, if the show is meme worthy enough to take over 4chan, then maybe it's not as girly as I originally thought?" I still wasn't quite ready to watch the show, until a friend of mine on another forum linked me a YouTube video of a Pinkie Pie compilation. I was skeptical at first, but once the 9 minutes of nonstop Pinkie Pie were done, I thought, "Wait! Why am I suddenly reminded of Gir from Invader Zim?!" I mentioned this to the person who linked me the compilation, and they said the show was like a lighter, happier Invader Zim, but still had very clever humor. I finally broke down and started to watch the show, beginning with Episode 1. Stage 4: Depression. This stage lasted about a second when I started watching Episode 1, thinking, "Here we go. Down the rabbit hole!" Stage 5: Acceptance. Before I knew it, I was several episodes in! Then I hit the song Art of the Dress, and was like, "OMG! Stephen Sondheim!" I was fully converted at this point. After finishing Season 1 and then watching it again all the way through, I heard about Brony Appreciation Day here on EPR. And that's how Equestria was made! Maybe next time I'll tell you all about my five stages of Brony development!
Not sure how I can fit this in to five stages, but I'll try my best! 1.) My first exposure to ponies was on a Pokemon forum I went to. One of the staff members there had them in their signature, cycling through different quotes from different episodes. then more of the staff members their started outting them in their sigs. During that time I was thinking "What is this? My Little Pony or something?" The thing was, when I thought this, I didn't mean it in a positive or negative way. I've never seen any episodes at the time, so I couldn't judge something I've never seen before, could I? 2.) Later, I hear my little brother watch something on another computer. I ask him "what are you watching?' he says "My Little Pony: Firendship is Magic". Then I say to him "You know, there's some staff members at Bulbagarden (the previously mentioned "Pokemon forum") have images in their avatars/sigs that might be from that same show! What does the animation style of that show look like anyway?" He shows me and it was the exact same animation style. 3.) One day, my brother had some friends over, and he decides to watch a few episodes of FiM. It was at this moment that I just, on a whim,decide to watch it to see what all the fuss was about. The episodes he played were Sonic Rainboom and Fall Weather Friends. After seeing those two episodes, I said "hm, I guees that show was alright." The next week (back when Over A Barrel was the newest episode) my brother asks if I want to watch the new episode. I say "sure, I suppose. those two episodes i watched last week were alright." This was the episode that got me in to FiM. Yet, I still wasn't really a full-fledged brony. 4.) Over the next few days I watched every episode starting from the beginning. After that I was officially a brony! 5.) Then I come across Everpony and haven't looked back!
I only went through through the first stage... and it took about 3 days for me to watch the first episode... and from there I willingly accepted my new addiction as something good and enjoyable and down right epic! I also watched it non-stop [or as non-stop as I could on top of having some form of a life... at the time] for 3 days til I had seen every episode.... eeyup!
Stage 1: This is such a girly show. No one is gonna watch this Stage 2: *Curiosity hits me* THIS SHOW IS AMAZING! I MUST TELL THE WORLD!!!!! Only 2 steps for me! xD
I didn't go through stages like those. I'm easily distracted, so it went in two stages: Stage One: Curiosity Me: So, techdude, where can I see this show? You've been talking a lot about it and I'm starting to get curious. Techdude: *links to episodes 1 through 5* Stage Two: Hooked Holy crap this is epic.
Stage 1:*finds images of ponies on multiple forums* BWAHAHAHA!! What the f's this ****. Are trolls posting these pics?? Stage 2: *investigates big deal* People are saying this show's good?!? HAHAHA, more trolling!! Let me watch the first episode... Stage 3: *while watching episode 1* Well, the animation's good....voice acting is ok too.....she's meeting the different ponies....ok.....who's this yellow one.....O___O......D'AAAAAWWWWW.....WAIT, wtf did I just do?!? The episodes a two parter?! Uhhhh.... Stage 4: *after episode 2* This can't be....I should stop RIGHT NOW.....but Fluttershy is adorable....what should I do....I like all the characters....this doesn't make sense....*watches episodes over a few days* Stage 5: *at about episode 7 or 8* ponies ponies ponies ponies....look at how much fan art there is.... Fan fics too.....wow..... I. Love. Ponies. Stage 6: I LOVE YOU FLUTTERSHY!!!!! Pretty much went like that....
Thanks to meticulous record-keeping [well, that and file download dates in the ole Pony folder] I can track my stages of development to the date. May 25th, 2011 A long day at home off work, tracking a High Risk tornado outbreak from the comfort of my bedroom. A sporadic 4chan lurker, I was aware of the pony phenomenon, but had brushed it off as something that I probably wouldn't find much interest in. Actually, I had considered watching it for many months, since I like anything to do with equines, but I had reservations due to the inherently girly nature of G1-3 MLP's. I realised that this was said to be much different, but nevertheless I didn't watch the series while it was still active. Remarkably I had already stumbled across R34 of poni before even knowing the character names... wtf. Anyway, that evening, I was a bit bored as the weather was not quite as active as I had expected. That night, not long before midnight, I was looking randomly for things to download and watch to entertain myself while I stayed up late yet again, and somehow wound up on Episode 1 of MLP:FiM on Youtube. I cannot recall exactly what led me there or why, but shortly before midnight I had my first actual interest in watching the show. May 26, 2011 I watched E1 at around 1am, expecting very little. And for several minutes, that was what I got. Nothing interesting. Rather embarrassing that I was actually watching this. But the episode got better, and by the end I was thinking "Wow, that Nightmare Moon sure made a dramatic appearance for a children's show. A young children's show." Since it was a two-parter, I figured I might as well watch the second one. It was in this episode that the brony button in the brain was pressed. What was it that got me? "It was under E-E-E-E-E-EEEE!" For some reason that made me laugh aloud, and for quite a while. These characters were genuine and so well-developed - and endearing! The plot was actually fairly deep! And by the end of E2, I was rather enjoying myself. I love adventure/epic type episodes, and as such I loved the plot to E2. Once I woke up, I downloaded E3-10 to watch later. I had the house mostly to myself as I tracked more storms that evening, and I watched several episodes in secrecy. That afternoon, I was a brony. Only 12 hours after discovering the series for myself. The denial and anger stage was extremely short lived and not very pronounced. I was a bit embarrassed for a few days though. May 27, 2011 I made use of the mall's faster (and free) Internet before and after work (during which I found myself obsessing over Poni) to get the rest of the episodes, to watch at home. And indeed, that night, I watched more pony. I started my pony folder in fact. And probably about that time discovered Ponychan and Equestria Daily. May 28, 2011 I spent a lovely Saturday indoors, watching 15+ straight episodes of MLPFiM with breaks only to go to the restroom, feed the IRL ponies, and grab a snack. Several hours straight of watching MLP episodes I had never before seen - a moment of bliss I will probably never be able to re-experience unless I fall into a coma 'till the end of S2. By that night I had seen all 26 episodes, many of them multiple times. I went to bed that night happy, and content in the knowledge that I was a brony. I haven't looked back since. And there you have it. Not a dramatic story, but my entire story posted on the Web for all to see.
Stage 1: Denial. Not sure if I went through a denial stage - more of an ignorance stage. Started seeing the memes about, and just thought, "Oh, are they doing another My Little Pony show? That had to be one of the worse cartoons from the 80's. Didn't really have a Stage 2 or 3 period. Just kept ignoring it, until one day I stumbled across a MLP version of 300. Chuckled at that, then watched a MLP version of Dark Knight. Really liked the rainbow colored horse. And the animation in general was so rich, so perfect! So, after much hesitation, I watched Episode 1, and then 2, just to see the second part. I was surprised! I thought Nightmare Moon would be the series antagonist! I didn't expect her to be cured! Well, maybe she wasn't. Better check Episode 3. Then 4, 5, 6, etc. Did go through a bit of Stage 4, where I spent about half a day wondering what the hell I'm doing? I'm spending all my time downloading pictures, clips, songs, and episodes (of course), and I'm even walking around saying, "It needs to be 20% cooler." WTF?! At the end of that day, I hit Stage 5, where I said, "This is who I am. No shame in liking a well-done show . . . even if I do obsess a bit . . ." Oh, and EquusStorn? Not only is your story posted on the Web for all to see, but for all time! I wonder what they'll make of us in five, ten, twenty, or even one hundred years?
