Brony Advice: Your Questions Answered #43, 44, 45!

#43) I'm a casual fan, and I'm afraid to dip my foot deeper into the pool of the fandom. A friend of mine is attending a pony convention soon. Should I attend the convention? I'm still not 100% sure about 'bronies'. Thanks!

<sub>Answer: I think a convention would be the place to go if you're really into the fandom and wish to spend time with other people who are also really into the fandom. I know several people who have attended pony conventions, and they've given me mixed feedback. Some have really enjoyed themselves, and have met some interesting people. Others have found encounters with other bronies to be unnerving and odd (one got pounced on by a guy in a fur-suit). Therefore, to be on the safe side, you may wish to think twice about visiting a convention.

Then again, you have a mixture of sensible and extreme bronies anywhere you look within the fandom, and so as long as you can handle a bunch of people who you may think are taking it too far, you may also have a good time. A lot of these conventions are well-organised and have a lot to offer, whether it's panels, vendors and so on, and so if you wish to delve a bit deeper into the fandom you may find attending a convention to be enlightening. Going with a friend, also, sounds like a good idea; if you aren't enjoying brony interactions, you could just hang around with your buddy for the duration of the event.

Of course, this all comes down to how much you wish to involve yourself in the fandom. If you are a casual fan, be prepared to meet a lot of extreme fans at conventions, as bronies who are willing to travel across the country to an event are likely to be some the biggest fans of the show. Not everyone would attend a convention – I myself have no desire to – but I'd never suggest that you avoid something new and potentially exciting unless you felt it to be the right thing to do.

By all means, attend the convention if you really want to see what bronies are like in person, or if you have a strong desire to meet with members of the staff who work on "Friendship is Magic", which some conventions offer. However, keep in mind that a brony convention is the deep end of the fandom, and so you may wish to spend a bit of time getting more comfortable around the online aspect of the fandom before touching on it in real life. Some people prefer to keep the internet separate from real life – if you fancy merging the two by attending a convention, then good luck to you. Chances are you'll have a fun time...or you may end up increasingly disturbed. Both outcomes would be funny.</sub>


#44) I have some ideas for some episodes I'd like to see made. In one episode I would like to see Derpy Hooves delivering mail but she runs into a problem on the way and needs help. In another episode Luna would have a birthday party. In another Lyra and Bon Bon go on a date together. [Lists three more]. Do you think these would be good episodes?

<sub>Answer: No, I don't. Why? Because the fandom shouldn't try and interfere with the show. People should like "Friendship is Magic" for what it is, rather than what they want it to be. You all became fans, presumably, out of a like for the show in its current form. Y'know: the show that makes only fleeting references to the fandom, but otherwise keeps its integrity intact. It wouldn't be wise to mess with that formula.

A lot of the time, bronies forget that this show, funnily enough, isn't being made for them. It's still a show marketed towards little girls, and therefore episodes exploring some sort of lesbian shipping between Lyra and Bon Bon wouldn't happen. It'd arguably ruin the charm of the show, and, in addition, just because the fandom jumps upon something, it doesn't mean that it would be good as a reality.

As for episodes such as your Luna and Derpy ideas, I can't really condone bringing those characters into bigger roles. Derpy works because of her little cameo appearances; give her an entire episode and her usefulness would wear thin. As for Luna, she already had her episode – people should be content with "Luna Eclipsed". The show-writers are being paid to bring these episodes to us; bronies should be happy with what they receive, rather than striving for more. Just because you may want to see something, it doesn't meant that the rest of the world wishes to.

You're free to come up with ideas for episodes, but keep them as little fantasies. "Friendship is Magic" is fine as it is. Don't you think that it's much more interesting to be surprised every week by what might happen, rather than to come up with bland and predictable scripts between fandom-centric characters that the world doesn't really care about? The idea of deliberately catering to the fandom is a horrible one – when the day comes that "Friendship is Magic" starts to overtly accommodate bronies, I'm jumping ship. The fandom should mould itself to fit with the show; the show shouldn't change for the fandom.</sub>


#45) I got high in the voting of Best-MLP-OCs [the group] but then I lost out to someone whose pony I don't even know. The group has a system where...[I shortened this to make it easier for the purpose of a question] people vote for the best OC pony every month and that pony gets a folder, but in the end people just get their friends to vote regardless of the quality of the pony. I was robbed! What advice do you have for me?

<sub>Answer: I assume you sent this to me because I have a degree of standing within that group, so I know what you're talking about to an extent. Otherwise, what you're saying would be far too specific, and I would laugh in your face for taking things too seriously. However, for the sake of this Brony Advice, I'll attempt to reason with what you're saying. To my understanding, the group in question exercises a policy of getting people to nominate and then vote for a pony OC to get a folder. The pony with the most votes at the end wins. By the sounds of it, you're pissed off because someone beat you, at least in your mind, unfairly?

It's no great secret that people will get their friends to vote for them when they want to win something. There's no escaping it, really; if you want something that requires votes to attain, you'll naturally get your buddies to help out. If someone beat you, it may mean that they have more friends than you. Or, y'know, people actually liked their pony OC. If we play with the first notion, we can assume that, if they have more friends who are willing to vote for them than you, then their pony might just be more popular and well-liked than you thought. Why else would they have so many friends? Or, even if they have friends for other reasons, those friends would likely have seen their pony before, if they're willing to vote for it.

Honestly, short of reforming the group, you'll just have to accept this kind of thing happening. If you feel that you deserve a folder, just do the same thing as other people: get your friends to vote for you, even if they don't really give a crap about the contest. If someone beats you again, chances are it's because they're more popular than you, which is sort of the point of that group in the first place. In a perfect world people would base their opinions purely on the design of the pony, but let's get real: that is unlikely to happen.

The current system that the Best-MLP-OCs group has isn't perfect, but under its current rules, abuses are likely to happen, and people will find ways to get folders purely based on their own popularity. It's just what the group has to be prepared for with its current set-up. However, I know that there's nothing stopping you from trying again for a folder next month, so I'd recommend spending the rest of this month getting your character out there and making more friends, so that next month you can have a better shot at winning.</sub>