The Joys of Escapism

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is quite possibly the best thing that's happened to me all year.

I'm the kind of person that obsesses over whatever they happen to be interested in at the time. My biggest one is Clive Barker's Abarat series, which I first read in seventh grade and have adored since. Totally recommended; spectacular series. Anyhoo, my latest fandom is MLP:FIM. I was trawling Memebase a few months back and kept seeing the pony memes, and a few of my favorite artists on Deviant Art were churning out MLP-themed schtuff. I watched one episode with C4 but wasn't't too impressed, but then a few weeks later found out that an actor from Star Trek Voyager was gonna be a villain for the show, basically playing an animated version of his Voyager character, Awesomesauce, right? I didn't want to just see the villain episode and not parts of the storyline I couldn't get without reference, so C4 and I worked our way through season one.

To my surprise, the show turned out to be FREAKING AWESOME! For anyone that's been living under a rock the last two years and knows nothing about pop culture, more than half of the latest generation of MLP's fans are men. Grown men. Grown men, willingly watching a show about talking magical ponies directed at girls age 6-10, watching and loving it! If that doesn't show how awesome it is, I don't know what would. The plot is rich, the humor appropriate for kids but still hilarious, it's full of pop culture references, the characters are engaging and deep and cool and lovable (and occasionally badass). (Except Celestia. She sucks and she's a horrible ruler and Equestria is doomed. Doooooomed!) And the songs? Oh, you'd think the songs would be ridiculously aggravating but they aren't. They're catchy and super fun and awesome.

There are all these stories out there about people going through difficult times, facing illness, depression, war, that kind of demoralizing crud, and through it all My Little Pony keeping them from losing it and doing something rash. I'd always thought it was totally unbelievable, but it's true. Since I started watching MLP my mood has skyrocketed. It's ridiculous. I'm doing stupid shit, but I'm happy while doing it. The show is silly but good, and it makes me happy, happier than I've been in years. Heh. I sound like such a dork. It's true though.

There has been an explosion of art and music made for or inspired by MLP. I'm following a bunch of groups on DA, and my MLP playlist on youtube is nearly 200 songs long. :P There is so much talent in this fandom, and I'm so proud to be a part of it.

If anyone ever wants to fangirl about it with me, just shoot me an email. :)