(I didn't, largely since I've never watched a single episode, but the psychic damage and whiplash of Wholesome Pony Show having said this line was too fuckn much for me)
EDIT: More replies than upbears now. It’s probably an official struggle session now (although most of it is that one person). One must imagine SisyFEWs happy.
The hatred of My Little Pony's was the precursor to modern online fandom discourse. People's online response to this show (good, bad, or indifferent) warped how the internet talks about fandom in a major way and online culture as whole in a lesser extent.
On a positive note, though, I think it was also legitimately a gateway to questioning gender norms for a lot of people.
If the My Little Pony fandom was your gateway to questioning gender norms and eventually realizing you're a trans woman...
...Does that mean you got horsefemmed?
Who is this character? [genuine]
deleted by creator
Anne Boonchuy
By Jove I really am falling out of the loop with the popular cartoons nowadays, aren't I?
The MLP fandom died because all the people who liked it because they were closeted eggs realized they could just be trans and all the people who liked it because they were closeted furries realized they could just be furries and all the people who liked it because they were closeted fascists realized they could just be fascists.
It was a weird path to a win, but a win regardless! Living one's truth because a cartoon helped get one there is just as valid a reason as any other in my book.
I think a lot of the backlash was rooted in misogyny. "Oh no, how dare men like girl thing"
Remember that a big chunk of the historical fandom was weirdo fascist edgelords who wanted to fuck the ponies and wrote horny violent fanfics about them. One of the longest fanfics about anything (FOE:PH) is basically "Made in Abyss but it's ponies and set in a post apocalyptic wasteland."
Oh God, I remember hearing talk about how terrible this was and having a peek out of morbid curiosity. I made it maybe a quarter of the way through the first chapter before I had to dip out at the exhaustively described fever dream of what MRAs imagine a society run by feminists would look like.
deleted by creator
That was all of the Fallout crossover fanfics
deleted by creator
The most infamous of those is the one I mentioned, Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons, but the original Fallout Equestria was also pretty bad just much, much more tame than FOE:PH was.
deleted by creator
It predates it, but it is similar in tone and grotesqueness. Although thinking about the full depth of the problems with Made in Abyss that I covered exhaustively in a post last night, FOE:PH isn't as bad. It's a gratuitous, edgy spectacle that handles problematic themes poorly, but it's merely making an exploitative spectacle of them while Made in Abyss is even worse. AFAIK most of the characters in Project Horizons are adults though, though I think there's some nonce stuff in there too.
deleted by creator
I compulsively consume problematic slop, and was even worse about it a decade ago when I was in the process of rebuilding my schema from the ground up after dismantling twenty years of calcified repression brainworms, which is around when I read part of the then-incomplete FOE:PH specifically because of its reputation. Made in Abyss has to be the only thing that's actually made me sick to watch, however. I can't emphasize enough how even the people who condemn it undersell just how vile it is; it's in a league of awful all of its own. Like I feel even my "Made in Abyss is the worst thing anyone has ever made" rant is too soft, because I couldn't stomach really dredging up the specifics.
deleted by creator
I think there's generally three fuzzy categories problematic content can fall into in mainstream works: presents [bad thing] and condemns it, clearly establishing that it's bad; presents [bad thing] and shows that it's harmful but takes no overt stance, leaving the audience to infer for themselves that it's bad; and presents [bad thing] and really revels in how the spectacle of it being awful in a crass and gratuitous way.
Made in Abyss is a fourth category altogether: presents [the worst shit you'll ever see] and revels in it, and narratively treats it as normal and ok. It transcends the whole "showing things are bad vs making a crass spectacle" spectrum by becoming a de facto endorsement of what it's showing off.
Fuck, I really need to find something to take my mind of this and hope the brain poisoning from engaging with it wears off soon.
you mentioned watching utena, did you ever finish it? it handles a lot of the stuff that you described in made in abyss but like. it is good at condemning the way children are groomed and exploited in patriarchal societies, and never sexualizes them, and has all the characters grow and change over time
I have not gotten back to it yet, I'm still working my way through Sailor Moon and nearly through the third season.
how is that? i remember the 3rd season being my favorite, but i'm a very different person now
sailor moon might be better at washing away the made in abyss, so that might be smart
It's ok. The earlier half of the season was better, I think, because Haruka and Michiro are more interesting characters when they're being people instead of standoffish edgelords without a fraction of the conviction they claim to have, and they get worse about doing that after the season's turning point. The fact that the story's being driven along by poor communication on all sides is also more frustrating than anything and brings the story down a bit - the back and forth between Haruka's "grr I'm so edgy and brooding, no one has my strength of conviction! I would sacrifice anyone and anything to save the world!" and Usagi's "Noooo that's bad actually!" just feels kind of hollow in the context of the main characters all literally dying in the first season and Usagi in particular having sacrificed her life no less than three times already by that point (well, I think she actually only died twice and the other time she just nearly died, but still). Chibiusa is also just an extremely grating character, though Usagi's character growth in starting to actually act like her mother is sweet and the one redeeming part of her inclusion in the story.
deleted by creator
It's also written for 5-year-olds though.
Mario and Pokemon are for children too and nobody gives a shit if you like them as an adult
Mario is the tale of a union man taking mushrooms and rescuing his side piece from a human trafficking dinosaur. Pokemon is about a kid winning a series of cockfights and taking down the mafia. For kids? Hardly.
Tell me how good Dragon Tales is next.
Removed by mod
You clearly don't actually know anything about the show and you're just going off of either your own assumptions or what other people have told you. I'd explain why you're wrong, but I've dealt with enough people like you to know you'd just double down. You don't have any good reason for believing what you believe. You just want an excuse to feel superior to other people.
Removed by mod
There's the misogyny! Thank you for helping prove the point of my original comment
deleted by creator
Removed by mod
You know, my trans roommate likes MLP. She used to live with her abusive family who tried to force her to detransition. Among many other ways they abused her was ridiculing her for liking MLP and forcing her to hide her interest in it, and their attitude towards her interest in the show is a lot like what I'm seeing from you right now.
deleted by creator
Holy shit the person we were arguing with went into the megathread to passive-aggressively call us out
It's a good thing we have people like that around to show all the babies what a shining example of maturity looks like
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
Please stop namedropping cartoons you watch.
deleted by creator
My nieces and nephews watch owl house, it seems like a cool cartoon
deleted by creator
Actually, please list out every cartoon you've watched and also plan to watch.
you have an anime pfp
deleted by creator
irony poisoning, not even once
I hate that I understand and fully agree with this comments point. I spend too much time on the internet for my own good
deleted by creator
Jeez, someone needs a reeducation in the magic of friendship and harmony...
deleted by creator
No, I spelt it the non-sexist way. Histerical. Treatlords, begone.
deleted by creator
Removed by mod
deleted by creator
This is a great comment. Keep giving the weirdo losers detention, hopefully they'll get better
Honestly, unless you're talking about MLP as it existed before or after the 2010s, I just don't see how you can conclude that so confidently. Friendship is Magic was better written than half of the shows that adults are supposed to like.
I didnt watch all seasons of it but the first 3 seasons are a pretty fun kind hearted show. Gonna finish it one of these days.
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
It was originally written by the same person who wrote Powerpuff Girls and a lot of the humor is similar in the sense that it appeals to both kids and older viewers.
This just in: Lauren Faust being Craig McCracken's wife was a conspiracy all along; she is actually his drag persona
I thought she was a writer for that as well though?
I had tried to edit with a clarification that she wrote for both series but that McCracken was the actual creator of Powerpuff Girls, but maybe that didn't load on your end.
Ah, ok. In that case I should clarify that while she wasn't officially the show creator, I do think a lot of the writing and jokes are similar between the two.
From what I've seen, you're absolutely right about that.
The show's sudden widespread popularity always felt like a western version of Japanese otaku culture to me. People were making their own comics, fanart, radio plays, etc. It was like doujin circles. They even would stalk the voice actresses like creeps.
It's always been interesting to me how closely otaku and western nerds will come to imitating one another without significant contact with the other. There's like a platonic ideal of weird creepy nerd they're all drawing from in the ether. They even have their own weird fascist contingents. Japan invented incels too like in the 80s.
Really makes you wonder. This has to be the latest iteration of a longstanding phenomenon, yeah? Cus I just cannot imagine that sort of personality was just spontaneously generated by access to the internet.
I mean this painting exists
I've always thought there had to have been weird obsessives in like 1850 who spent too much time on the telegraph
You're always clacking away at the teleprinter, why don't you go out and make some friends?
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
What the hell have I wrought
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
Maybe it's rooted in weird gender coding stuff? I do find it odd the selective salty-ness of the net being weirded out by one children's animated television show but not another. I'm not even on the "let people enjoy things" tip, but it's just weird the show about unicorns, rainbows, and friendship gets mad hate but if it were a show about kiddos fist fighting against the forces of evil and you get a pass.
It's always just "You are grown, you are watching a show for girls." It's never any valid leftist critique one could probably make in a integrious way like the original poster talking about centrism for example.
Personally I don't rock with MLP. However, I dig lots of the new generations cartoons like "Adventure Time" and "Rise of the TMNT" which are "for boys" but no one bugs out about that. Which is kinda telling to me.
As if we all didn't go see Barbie by the way. A movie about a product "for babies".
A lot of it is, "girly" media are constantly ridiculed and villified to an extent that hypermasculine Vin Diesel shlock never is. but ima be honest here, what put me off in regards to MLP where the fedora guys fantasizing about horse ass all day.
deleted by creator
I feel like I've seen both of these films by way of people's reactions to them
I've actually seen neither
This is how I see most films these days
deleted by creator