What's With This Brony Thing Anyway?

Let's get started, and I know what some of you may be thinking. What is a Brony? So in the simplest terms a Brony is a fan of the television cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.  Now where did the term Brony come from exactly? And well that's a bit more complicated, simply because there are two trains of thought on the matter. One being that it originated on the online message board 4chan's page/b, so b-ponies became Bronies. But here's where it gets confusing, because how did b-ponies become Bronies and not bonies besides for the obvious innuendo-y reasons. Therefore I present the simpler and more logical explanation: bro + pony = Brony. Now what you might say to yourself isn't bro a primarily male term? and though there is an unusual amount of the fan base that is male some of the female fans did want their own title that they could identify with, thus pegasister (Pegasus + Sister = PegaSister) was conceived, though that term is not universally accepted by the female fan base, and some still prefer the term Brony.

So why is there such a big deal surrounding a cartoon meant for little girls. Well besides there being an unusually high adult viewership, it is at the best word to describe it, a wholesome show. The characters are varied and they find themselves in mostly semi-relatable situations for young people. The show displays a more realistic portrayal of friendships than many shows around. And as a throwback to cartoons of old the episode usually ends on a high note with some sort of a moral message.

With saying all that you might be asking "where's the controversy?" and it spawned from where much controversy currently lives: the internet. That shouldn't be all too surprising though considering that 4chan is part of their history, and if you didn't know 4chan was responsible for the semi-recent past's largest leak of stolen celebrity photos known as "The Fappening", or at least that is where the leaking began. Now that you know where it came from, on to what it is. The generalised explanation that I can give is that the actions of the few extremists write the perception of the many. An explanation amongst the Bronies is that there is a faction that the others wish would not exist, and therefore do not talk about. These of course are the fans that choose to sexualise the ponies, and not just in their minds which is bad enough, but also in drawings, fanfiction, etc. then they proceed to share these with the internet, where anyone can find them. The people who end up finding the sexualised pony stuff (because I can't think of a better way to put it) unintentionally just happens to be the shows intended target audience, small children mostly little girls. And thus it is assumed that all adult fans (Bronies) sexualise the ponies and transform a wholesome show into something perverted. And that of course is the primary reason behind their poor reputations.

So, why are people doing this? Well that is a simple principle: People are weird. I am not ne to judge people on their sexual preferences, but in this case I am reconsidering. Now I know that I may have mentioned here previously that at a young age I found myself enamoured with several animated characters myself such as Jean Grey, Mary Jane Watson, and Ami from Sailor Moon. And later on I would find myself infatuated with television and literary characters. I see nothing wrong with that in practice; it is okay to develop crushes on fictional characters, from what I can tell it is a natural and normal behavioral practice. This is assuming that you also must realise that fictional character are not real and that they are not a substitute for a possible real tangible person. I think that is where this sub-group of Bronies has gone wrong they are using these animated fictional characters as surrogates for the real thing. Though two sided relationships may be hard, both to find and to keep, and giving a real person the power to hurt you may not seem like the smartest thing to do, but still favourable to something that is literally just in your head that you choose to unleash upon the internet.

If we're being real there are more interesting "children's" cartoons on right now. Such as Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, or Steven Universe. Don't be ashamed to like what you like, or watch cartoons hos intended target audience happens to be small children. Just be careful about what you decide to post on the internet, you never know who will see it. Also don't sexualise cartoon characters.

Post Script: Now, I wouldn't call myself a Brony, I'm not against the show, I liked it. Also I finished filing my first notebook. And this is the first post written originally in my new notebook. I just ant to thank everyone who visits and reads these things I post. If you ever have any comments, just let me know. 

Rules (number one): The online to offline transition.

I find it a little odd even if it's about myself, but I like rules... most of the time. But the problem with rules is that there aren't clear rules about everything in life, so I've decided to write some of my own. I'm gonna start with something I know a little about. So these are the rules about making the transition from knowing someone online to knowing them offline as well.

Rule #1: Be close. If you want to transition to an offline relationship of any type whether it be friendship or romantic the first thing you need is to be in relatively close proximity to the person. Now what is relatively close is a matter of personal preference, but you can't be considered in an offline relationship if you only meet once and that's it. But I'm not saying that meeting someone offline for the purpose of meeting them is bad because it isn't it could lead to a stronger online relationship or even it could lead to the desire to make the transition to offline.

Rule #2: Prepare for disappointment. When meeting someone offline prepare yourself for the possibility of being disappointed (or just surprised). Now I will split this into two parts. First visually, second personality.
Visual: I think this is obvious but people are not their profile pictures. One thing I've noticed is that very often profile pictures are people at their best, as well a photo also does not always show the entirety of a person. So when you meet the person they could be having a bad hair day, bad breakout day, or something else that has them not looking their best. You also have to take into account that not all profile pictures are always recent. They could be using their favourite photo of themselves from high school, university or something of that sort and you have to  ask yourself how long ago was that photo taken. Also profile pictures don't give you whole view, they aren't in 3D and sometimes they are just parts of their body or face leaving parts out. Not to mention the possibility of photoshop. In this way you can never judge a person by their profile picture.
Personality: People are not always the same offline as they are online. Just think about it, we are internet people where the tiniest voice can be perceived as being gigantic, where someone shy offline can be a social butterfly online. There are also those people who are just more comfortable with communicating textually over communicating vocally. And then there's the nerves, oh the nerves. I'm not sure about you but personally I get nervous quite easily, and that can affect everything. But what I find that might be useful for those awkward first encounters offline, just go back to elementary/primary school and pass notes. It could also cause laughing fits which is a great ice breaker.

Rule 3: The most important rule. Now I consider this to be the most important rule because it applies not only to the transitions of relationships but to every aspect of life. Well maybe not everyone. But it applies to a reasonable amount of situations. This rule is as follows "Be nice, and don't he an ass". (This is actually a variation of Wheaton's Law, which is "Don't he a dick".) I know this might seem like common sense but it can be the earliest rule to break and forget. But it's simple schoolyard logic if you're not nice people don't like you. And easily enough if you're an ass, then you suck.

Post Script: I'm not sure if I will end up writing a series on rules that I think up about life and stuff but I do like the idea of doing it.