Good writing trumps all

Over the last few months, a surprising fandom has formed for the latest My Little Pony series. The TV show, which is headed by the venerable Lauren Faust, has gained a following among young men aged 15-30. They formed on the notorious website 4chan, which is most known for its spinoff group of hacktivists Anonymous, and were more or less wrestled off the website by angry moderators for flooding the site with captioned pony pictures.

They call themselves "bronies" and have fled to a new home, ponychan.net, where they are free to spread the pony love.

I admit, I was skeptical about the new MLP series. I have made the mistake of re-watching 80s cartoons and learning how horrible the animation and storytelling was. But I figured that hey, why not, it's a Lauren Faust series.

I was frankly surprised. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a testament to the importance of solid characterization and good writing. Good writing trumps everything - genre, intended audience, animation, even generational and gender prejudices. The characters are unique, genuine, and believeable, and each offers a positive role model. A major overriding theme of the show is to embrace your own natural talents, rather than try too hard to be good at things you're not really suited for. To that end, there are tomboy ponies, fashionista ponies, bookworm ponies, at least two small businesswoman ponies, and a pony who loves to party whose sole job seems to be catering and coordinating parties for other ponies.

If you have a girl under the age of 12 you can get away with watching this show with her, and she will probably enjoy it and you will be shockingly delighted at how good it is. If you don't have a girl under the age of 12 handy, then watch the episodes on YouTube, alone, if you are afraid of anyone seeing it.

As a female anime fan I brazingly watched it in the living room on YouTube, much to the consternation of my husband. I also went and bought ponies for the first time in twenty years.

Thanks, Hasbro, for bringing on Lauren Faust. Good writing really does transcend all.