You guys need to chillax, and try to distingish true trolls like Jenga from people who are actually trying to understand you like Esquire. Even if said understanding process comes srhouded by a veil of condescending *pats Esquire*
But that's nonsensical to compare MLP to those shows. It's one thing to say you like MLP, it's another thing to say it's on par with LOST, 24, etc. I get you guys like the show, but you're getting a little carried away.
We are not comparing this show to the likes of Lost, 24, or, say, Breaking Bad or BSG. We are comparing the fanbases. What we mean is that we are fans that like this show just because of how good it is. Not because "it is a fad", or because "we feel hipsteronic", or "for the lulz". We do it because we legimately enjoy the show, period, as much as the Treme or Chuck fanbase enjoy theirs.
We are not saying "My little pony has as much of a dramatic depth as the Sopranos" or "it has a plot comparable to Breaking Bad's", or "their character arcs are on par with Mad Men". No. What we are saying is "this is a show with good qualities of their own, and one can legitiametely like it". Because it has great musical numbers (I would put some of them on par with Glee, for example), an incesant wealth of animation talent (just look at the gifs), great voice cast, a smart, innocent yet humorous script that one can easily compare with Azumanga Daioh, and an extremely well built charaterization, which really can be pitched against some more mature and adult series (albeit you would need to watch several episodes to get the complete picture).
Our defensiveness comes from the implied (or imagined) assertion that if you have to like this show necessarily due to to its "fad status", or because we like to mock it (as it was the case with Lazytown) and not because it has some actual verifiable quality and weight of its own. It can really get on your nerves when someone tolds you that you can't actually like this or that, or that you like it but "deeply inside, you are doing it for the wrong reasons / the lulz / because you want to be accepted inside a group / because of repressed childhood memories / whatever". We like it because there are things in this show to like. And if you give it once chance, you may also see them too
This "acceptance" of the show is what I'm talking about when I say you like it because it's "popular." If people made fun of you for it, maybe you wouldn't be so open about your enjoyment of the show.
This is what you fail to understand, and one of the things that makes the whole "brony" phenomena a wonder to behold: there has never been any acceptance, even with boards like GAF of Penny-arcade being exceptions. The fanbase was mocked from the day one. People made fun from us form the very beggining. Some still do (see also: Jenga). People raised funds in order to put preassure on moderators so they close the MLP treads (I never saw that in my life with any other fanbase), and in many forums the treads were locked on sight without a warning. I have never seen so much vitrol going on for something as banal and harmless as a children cartoon show. What amazes me is that the whole fanbase and phenomena exist despite this show not having even the slightlest sliver of "acceptance" needed for any other thing to be accepted. We just don't give a flying fuck about it it. It is truthly a fascinant case of "the internet VS the societal customs" were said societal customs gets buttfucked in the end. And good riddance, I say.
