20% cooler

After watching two documentaries about “bronies”, I decided to grab the pony by its mane and watch a few episodes of the series itself, “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” (MLP:FIM for short, sort of).

I admit that it's well produced. It's completely free of cynicism and sarcasm (except in characters explicitly said to be negative), which is a refreshing contrast with the rest of pop culture (LOTR is the only other example of a “serious” and morally “pure” pop culture franchise I'm aware of). These days, even programs geared to a younger demographic can be filled with irony and sarcasm. I also noted that MLP:FIM is too sophisticated for its intended audience of small kids, mostly girls. Apparently, the creator of the series, Lauren Faust, wants parents to watch the episodes together with their children, interpreting the message for them. An intriguing combination of “feminism” (most of the characters in the series are strong females) and “family values”.

The moral message of MLP:FIM revolves around the value of friendship. Two of the episodes in season five promote individualism and attack collectivism. The equestrian heroes visit a village where all horses are equal, but one turns out to be more equal than the others, and runs the place like a cult or Stalinist police state. In another episode, we get to meet griffins who symbolize self-destructive people who refuse to get helped. Destructive guilt feelings are explored and criticized in the episode featuring Princess Luna and the Tantabus. And so on!

While “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” is really too complex for small children (or perhaps just right, if the kids are precocious), it's message should be trivial for college students, so the brony subculture still comes across as very, very weird. Judging by the two documentaries mentioned above, many of the bronies are typical “outsiders”, for good or for worse. It's also intriguing to note that many bronies are males who want to emphasize their “feminine” side, since most of the female characters in the actual series have "boyish" traits, such as leadership roles, nerdy study habits and supernatural powers. Perhaps the cultic following of MLP:FIM see them as androgynous?

Not sure how to rate this little piece of magic, but to create some commotion around here, I hereby award it…four stars.