How My Little Pony Relates to the Furry Fandom

Lately, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has “overtaken” the furry fandom, and this has been upsetting to many furries, but it is upsetting to me that so many do not see that MLPFM -is- furry, possibly even more so than any other “talking animal cartoon” that has been aired to the public, and is the biggest current event in furry.  Obviously, this case requires further explaining so, please, my fellow furries, hear me out as I delve into the past and future of our fandom to explain the present.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a cartoon aired in 2010 that was created by Lauren Faust based upon her childhood pony world after seeing the original My Little Pony series from 1984.  This is possibly the most important clue as to why MLPFM has effected the furry fandom so greatly.  It is not greatly discussed among furs, but the furries who write fiction for the fandom often started the same way in their childhoods: writing to give substance to an alteration or continuation to a cartoon that had obvious plot holes, continuity errors, could have been written better, or just plain needed to be longer.

MLPFM is truly unique because the studio listens to the fans' desires for the show, and this is probably because the creator(s) shared a similar experience in their youth as many writers and artists in the fandom did;  I am apt to believe fanfiction writing is nearly universal among furries in childhood because we have all wanted to share our ideas for the development and continuation of a plot.  For those who have not sent twenty or more letters to a studio trying to share your ideas, let me tell you, as one who has, how disheartening and belittling it is to receive “the letter of damn” stating little more than the following, “We are not excepting unsolicited material.  If you are applying for employment in the [name of product] department, please visit our offices...”  Such replies were a slap in the face for those of us who had put our time and effort into a show, comic, video game, or whatever else the art may have been, that we genuinely cherished.  I for one believe that it was this artistic frustration, in all of its many forms, that drove the now furry artists, writers, and fursuiters to hone their skill to manifest in this world a “more real” representation of what was refused to them, and this desire to experience more and share what one had made spawned the modern furry fandom.  Whether the creators of MLPFM are furry or not, their similar experiences drive them to, as best they can, hear the desires of the fans.

I call MLPFM the biggest current event in furry because of a very simple reason that probably all of us have felt, but probably forgot and that is: we are experiencing this furry cartoon together now.  It is a common experience among furs that while sitting in the back row of a convention movie room we see a show or cartoon that we've never seen before and wish that we were experiencing it brand new so that we may share our feelings, opinions, hopes, and dreams about it with others who feel it just as new and exciting as we do rather than a late fan who usually has to suffer being ignorant to what others would consider “common knowledge”, and even though this happens in current events it is considered more “forgivable” for new things rather than long standing ones.

Some would say that what makes the difference between a “talking animal cartoon” and a “furry cartoon” is how well it is remembered and appreciated by the fandom, but it is not hard to see that MLPFM has “the spirit of furry” and will be cherished through the passing of time.  When MLPFM the cartoon comes to an end, the hype shall dissipate, and the fans who remain shall turn to furry, whether they were before or whether this is merely the beginning of their furry origin story.

Many people of all nations, furry or not, feel the need to reject that which is new and popular exclaiming that they don't want to follow “the crowd”, and although it is never good to follow something mindlessly, it is just as sad to have rejected something without experiencing it because it was new and different.  Furries, who constantly deal with misinformed, uninformed, and prejudicial hatred from those who fear furry or want it gone, shouldn't have to be told how wrong it is to hold in one's self that same misinformed, uninformed, and prejudicial hatred toward anyone else.