“MLP: Immanetizing The Equestrian”, 2018-10-24 (; backlinks; similar):
A meditation on subcultures & review of the cartoon series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, focusing on fandom, plot, development, and meaning of bronydom.
I watch the 201014ya Western animated series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (seasons 1–9), delving deep into it and the MLP fandom, and reflect on it. What makes it good and empowered its fandom subculture to produce such a wide array of fanfictions, music, and art?
Focusing on fandom, plot, development, and meaning of bronydom, I conclude that, among other things, it has surprisingly high-quality production & aesthetics which are easily adapted to fandom and which power a Westernized shonen anime—which depicts an underappreciated plausibly-contemporary capitalist utopian perspective on self-actualization (a utopia people actually want to live in), reminiscent of other more explicitly self-help-oriented pop culture movements such as the recent Jordan B. Peterson movement.
Included are my personal rankings of characters, seasons, episodes, and official & fan music.