Whoa, there. Pinkie Pie ain’t no Jar Jar. Them’s fightin’ words.
I must say I don’t really get the love for Rarity and Pinkie Pie. I wouldn’t mind seeing them turned into cupcakes or glue.
Them be fighting words! 
I’m actually just as surprised by the Rainbow Dash love. Rainbow Dash heavy eps tend to be among my least favorite–I find her a little too arrogant.
But there’s one thing that unites all bronies: Derpy Hooves love!
Ohhh, you’re in for it now, buster. 
Actually, what really confuses me about the fandom is the love that some of the peripheral “bad guy” characters get.
I sorta get the Luna stuff, as you get some interesting hints into her personality and relationship with Celestia at the end of the pilot. But Trixie? Gilda? There’s nothing in their respective episodes that hints at “hidden depths” to those characters. Not that this couldn’t change in the future, but I must admit I’m perplexed by fans who hold the position that these characters are actually loyal, brave, and powerful - just misunderstood.
It’s like the shipping between characters who have never even spoken. I find shipping in general a bit bizarre, especially in the context of MLP, but I can at least understand shipping between characters who’ve demonstrated some level of interpersonal chemistry onscreen. But Spike and Apple Bloom? Buh-wha?
I should say: for me personally, as much as I enjoy discussing and dissecting the show, ultimately the stuff I care about is the text of the show itself. All the non-canon stuff - that’s just not why I’m a MLP:FiM fan. So I may just be missing the correct mental context for appreciating these things.
I can’t really speak for anyone (or should I be using anypony here?) else, but Rarity strikes me as a more thought out character than most of the mane cast - Rainbow Dash is the jock, Twilight is the nerd, Fluttershy is moe, Applejack is the workaholic, and Pinkie Pie is the loon. Rarity gives the first impression of being an utter snob, but you can tell there’s more to her than that if you watch a few episodes. Plus, she gets the best songs.
That isn’t to knock the others; I love them all, and I swear sometimes that Twilight’s character was written with a hidden camera on me.
As for the Pinkie Pie love, well… I would not dispute the idea that she’s a long lost Looney Toon.
Spike and APPLE BLOOM? She’s just a filly!
I’m not heavily involved in the fandoms, but I do enjoy the fan art involving Luna. And was I the only one incredibly disappointed not to see her at the Gala (at the Grand Galloping Gala!)?
So you admit to involvement in the fandoms.
Hey, if there’s grass on the field, it’s time for grazing!
And Spike, despite his articulateness, is just a baby…if anything the CMCs are too old for him! They are getting close to getting their cutie marks, and all. (Not that I ship any of the four with anyone, but if I were to 'ship Spike, the CMCs and their classmates would be the more appropriate ponies. Hmm. Spike/Sweetie Belle? Neh.)
Actually, while I generally agree with you, there are hints. You have to infer heavily to get them to be sympathetic, but the logic isn’t unreasonable, especially if you start with the presumption that FiM has deeper characters than you’d expect.
On the surface, Trixie is an arrogant bitch who writes checks her ass can’t cash. If you choose to ascribe deeper motivations, well. Her cutie mark involves a wand; she clearly likes magic and has some talent for parlor tricks, but isn’t very gifted on the whole. But she craves attention, so she talks her meager talent up into something more. Then along comes Twilight, who’s very humble and almost embarrassed about being truly gifted and powerful at magic, and who casually walked all over Trixie even while not being a bitch about it herself. It’s reasonable to extrapolate from there that Trixie’s ego took a massive blow and she might wind up with a fixation on Twilight, either as an adversary to destroy or someone to learn from or a number of other things.
Gilda is a jerk. Plain and simple. But in the episode she’s in, she makes a deal about wanting to hang out alone with Dash and is highly offended at Pinkie being a third wheel. On the surface, this is just because she thinks ponies in general are lame, but Dash is sufficiently awesome enough to be friends with. At the same time, it’s easier to go a little deeper and conclude that Gilda has affections for Dash she can’t make clear, because it would be lame to do so, but at the same time she resents Pinkie’s interference. Dash’s rejection at the end of the episode hurt Gilda badly.
A lot of it comes from both that FiM is deeper than most kids’ cartoons are (though not that much deeper), and we are adults. There’s enough substance there for us to lay adult themes (not necessarily sexual, just stuff kids can’t grasp) over the actions of the characters. And some of these characters exhibit actions consistent with deeper psychological issues which many of us can relate to and sympathize with.
The one-shot characters actually having these psychological issues is wholly a fan invention, but while there’s too little screen time for us to really understand those characters, that same lack of screen time means there’s less to contradict these armchair evaluations.
Personally I think Trixie doesn’t deserve her sympathy because she ran away at the end of her episode without indicating she’d actually learned anything, and Gilda doesn’t deserve hers because she acted like an asshole to Fluttershy when Dash wasn’t around, so she wasn’t just peacocking for Dash’s benefit (although Dash would have fried Gilda on the spot if she’d seen Fluttershy upset). But those aren’t difficult to handwave away if you want to sympathize with the characters.
ETA: I wrote all that out before realizing you were talking about people treating those characters as positive personalities, not merely sympathetic. :smack: Well, I took the time to write it, so it’s staying up.
I like Rarity. She certainly hasn’t done anything I can recall to make me dislike her, and I find her adorably amusing.
I find her to be exactly the right level of arrogant. Like I said, I like Rainbow Dash for the same reason I like Tony Stark - she’s a casual jerk, but she’s funny enough to pull it off.
If we’re really going to get into this… 
Spike is Twilight’s age minus however old she was when she got her cutie mark. However, dragons clearly age at different rates than ponies - one adult was threatening to nap for 100 years, don’t forget.
Based on Spike’s behavior on the show, though, it actually seems that, as long-lived as they are, dragons might actually go through adolescence earlier and more quickly than ponies. Present-day Spike doesn’t seem any less mature, mentally/emotionally, than Twilight and her friends. You could make a reasonable argument that he’s among the more responsible and hard-working members of the main cast (compared to, say, Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie).
And he definitely comes off as far older than the CMC. Even if their ages are similar in terms of actual years, the idea of Spike and Apple Bloom skeeves me out in a way that, say, Spike and Rarity does not, because Spike has the maturity of a high school teenager, while the CMCs are more like first graders.
How have others reacted to your status as a Brony? I am only out to one of my coworkers who finds it quite weird and has difficulty understanding how I like this. I’ve hidden it from others.
You might be right. Lauren Faust has said that the main cast are physiologically adults but are teenagers in terms of maturity levels. Nothing’s been said to contradict the idea that dragons couldn’t be as mature as teenagers when they’re physiologically children.
Our secret shame!
I tweet about Ponies a lot and actually made a convert of sorts. A friend of mine used to think that pony love was weird but she watched an ep (inspired in great part by me!) and has fully jumped on the bandwagon. (I’m expecting my Fluttershy themed toaster oven in the mail any day now.)
I have gotten kind of weird reactions from people…more like, “Hmm. OK.” It’s brilliant, though, and we must continue to spread the good word.
Makes sense. Lots of human teens are physiologically quite mature while often possessing the good judgment level of smaller tykes!
I’m generally pretty secretive about my interests in general around people who either don’t need to know or who I know wouldn’t share the same interests. I did tell my mother about it though. It was really funny watching her go “Oh god, my grown adult son likes My Little Pony.” I got her to watch Applebuck Season, though, and she had to admit it was pretty funny.
What was interesting was she described it as ‘calming’, which is exactly the reason I took to the show so hard. When I’m watching the show, I can just relax and enjoy watching it. Cynicism and Jadedness refuse to watch the show, so they leave the room while it’s on.
Spike’s also been around Twilight his entire life. One of them had to learn social skills.
There’s certainly evidence Spike got out and had fun in Canterlot. He had a present for Moondancer in episode 1, and think about this: how the hell did he convince Hoity Toity to show up in Ponyville to give Rarity a second chance in Suited For Success?
Spike’s got connections, man.
In the original My Little Pony Tv show, were there any male ponies in that show? I cant recall any male ponies in that show.
I like the fact that most conflicts in the MLP:FiM is due to the ponies themselves and not some cliche villain. Do you think they will add a villain later?
I have a Pony demotivator on my cube wall at work, but I haven’t outed myself as a Brony, at least not to work mates.
However all of my friends and family on Facebook know I’m a brony. I make no secret of it there.
Presuming the show matched the toys (wasn’t a fan, remember zilch about it), there were the Big Brother Ponies at the tail end of the original line, but that was it.