....is true to its name.
This show is magical.
Nothing can describe how I could feel this way about this show except that it's because of MAGIC.
Uh yeah.
So. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. What in the world is it?
(The picture above is not mine. Courtesy to whoever made it. Found in google image)
It's a show revolving around the life of six mares (and a baby dragon) in Ponyville, Equastria. Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Apple Jack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy (and Spike, the baby dragon). It starts with Twilight Sparkle quest for friends, sent by Princess Celestia to Ponyville but at the time, she was overwhelmed with the thought of the resurrection of Nightmare Moon and busy searching for the Elements of Harmony. In short she found the Elements of Harmony with the help of her new friends and managed to stop Nightmare Moon BUT ANYWAYS.
That's not what I want to talk about here.
You see, the reason why I start watching this show in the first place is because I'm curious of what the hype is all about. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has a enormous fanbase mostly consisting male viewers. Which is odd, because My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic's demographic is mainly girls. Little girls even. I know that lessons for love and friendships are for everyone, regardless sex or age but it's not about the male viewers (well that too) but mainly the idea is that MLP: FiM has an ENORMOUS fanbase. An enormous fanbase consists of periphery demographic. I mean, this show is just a show about life of ponies and its lesson about love and friendship and sometimes more that is intended for girls. Just how "awesome" could it be?
Very. It turns out.
Whatever it is, people are hooked and whatever the reason, it must be something awesome. So I started watching.
Note that I'm watching with cynicism and anticipation. But mostly anticipation. Because of the hype? And cynicism, you know, people might be overreacting.
So yeah. I watched it sometime in March last year, I was totally hooked with the complexity of a plot that I don't expect from the pilot episode (and the song, I downloaded it right away), but I think because I watched it online, it's soon forgotten and I didn't continue watching. But I start watching again earlier this year.
So yeah, I watched the show. I mean, it was okay. The plot is great and original, the characterizations are great, the songs are nice and catchy, the animation is fantastic, it's colorful and cute and everything nice but you know, it's not like it has super unexpected twist or something. It's predictable.
I can't say that it's awesome... Okay who am I kidding.
I really don't get it. I really really don't get it.
Those things are in my mind, until I realized that I think with pony voices. You know? Mental voices you have in your head? But with pony voices?
HOW CRAZY IS THAT.
I snapped hugging knees staring at nothing with mental voices sounds like ponies. It's like this show casted a spell on me. Can't sleep because of earworms. The songs became earworms. I heard that the way to banished earworms from your head is that you finish the song. I did so. But then it come again, a new song, but still MLP:FiM song.
And then I started crying over episodes that aren't even sad. I teared up and
WHAT IS GOING ON WHY AM I CRYING WHAT JUST HAPPENED swirled in my head.
I thought it was just an okay show... until those things happened.
I don't even know why!
I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW IT HAPPENED.
For unexplainable reason it grows on me. It affects me in a way I can't imagine happening.
BUT IT HAPPENED.
IT'S WEIRD.
IT'S MAGIC. I can't think of anything other than magic to reason these behavior. And magic isn't even reasonable! Seriously. I have never found (not that I remember of) a show that is so influential to this extent.
But okay. People don't buy this. Fine. I understand. I cannot comprehend either. How a show can do... ugh. That. But sure. Objectively speaking...
The plot is great and original. Yes, it's predictable (it's children's show, duh), but it's not about the predictability or anything that makes it special. The plot is not there for complexity, but the plot is not so bland that it has no conflict. The plot is somehow relatable, based on problems you faced in your daily life, except that it's wrapped up in a universe where ponies are the main actors. Not just that, it's highly entertaining, it's so well-written that some of it really, really knock you in the base of your heart that even though the idea is really, really simple, it affects your inner conscious. And even though it is episodic, means that you could really just watch any episode without needing to watch others to understand, it has this sense of continuity that makes it fun to watch as a whole. And the show really grows on you, like little by little you undertand how things works there, what is life there, what ponies do, what are they like, and cumulatively makes the show harder to put down the more you watched it. And this goes to the second aspect why this show is special.
The characterization is exceptional. It's awesome. Well yeah, each ponies represents something (as it's described by the Elements of Harmony) and you can see what kind of ponies they are by looking at their cutie marks and manes, and they're so distinguishable you know which is which right away. But that's not it. What is great about these character (or what I think the most notable) is that they are not perfect. They are not... "nice and kind" all the time, or "strong and awesome" all the time. They have their time being wrong; make mistakes, learn from their mistakes. Being jealous, panic over nothing, being greedy, sometimes not... very nice. They do all that things without being out of character. The characterization embraces flaws and imperfection so perfect that what they do (bad things they do) is justified. And did I say the plot is relatable? The characters are also relatable. They're lovable, even if they are annoying sometimes. Or most of the time.
Okay. The songs are nice and catchy. I love the songs. Everypony has lovely voices. And the lyrics, they're so rad! The song is not just as fillers, but they actually strengthen characterizations
(mostly Pinkie Pie and Sweetie Belle) and other than that they also complement the show very, very, awesomely. The songs are not there for you so you can fast forward it and go to the next scene. The song IS the scene. It has its story and it explains things so if you don't watch the sing played you'd probably miss something important!
And did I mention the animation is fantastic? Sorry. The animation super-ultra-mega-incredibly-omega-fantastic. Why? Because it's PERFECT! Now, the animation I'm referring to might not the technical something-something animation (because the thing I know about that is next to nothing) although I'm very sure that it's also awesome in my mediocre eyes, but it's because they're so very accurate! Remember that this show is a show about ponies. Ponies don't move like humans do. And in animation, movements and all that jazz is.. you know. It's animation so everything animated can move like whatever because.... the animators can make that happen. Right? Yeah sometimes that's fun too. But what is appealing in MLP: FiM is that because the animation is so very accurate. Okay I know this through some other resource but they really Shown Their Work. They know their animals. The movements of ponies like how their joints move, or what they do when they intimidate people, showing excitement, or being stubborn, nervous, even the anatomy for the fashion stuff is true! (Or so I read). Like, do you know horses sit on their rump when they don't want to be moved? Well now you know! And don't let me start with the colors. I love them.
What else? WHAT ELSE?
This show's awesomeness can only be known by watching it. I don't know, but for me, crying over things that aren't counted as sad is one proof of a work being emotionally moving. I don't even notice. All my skepticism is washed away by all this rain of love and friendships. It sounds very narmy and corny and cheesy but... watching this show, it doesn't seem or sound or feel like it's narmy or cheesy or corny at all. DUH. This is a show about love and friendship for girls that don't make boys (or me) watching it want to shoot themselves. I don't get it, I don't understand, but what I get from watching this is just a heartwarming feeling of satisfaction. A warm fuzzy feeling. And a smile that I don't remember made its way to my face. This show is invading brains and inner conscious and FEELINGS, damn it! AND I LOVE IT.
So.
Yeah.
Now I proudly declare that I consider myself as...
a brony.
