Adult male fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic were an entirely unforeseen subsection of fandom when the show launched in 2010. They became such a huge part of the show’s fan community that several documentaries were made about them,  numerous articles exploring the phenomenon were written, and they were even the subject of this 2014 comic book satire.

An encounter between two Horse-Hes (this comic’s Brony parodies) at a convention leads to a heated discussion about the ‘real’ lore amidst various versions of My Tiny Horsey. The spat grows to ridiculous extremes, leading to ever escalating situations that spill far beyond the My Tiny Horsey fandom…

This was an absolutely ridiculous, way over the top dig at toxic fandom. Though it’s very amusing at first despite being very on the nose, it kind of loses its way by making both sides as extreme as each other; after all, one of the two fans is chilled out and accepting of all forms of his show, so it seems kind of ridiculous that he’d become so competitive and damaged as the more militant fan.

I wonder what this sort of satire would look like in the midst of angry, algorithm powered toxic influencers. Would the writers still try to ‘both sides’ the satire?’ It’s doubtful, which makes this feel very of its time, and perhaps more unfairly critical of fans who simply enjoy their show harmlessly.

Or maybe I’m thinking too deeply about what ends up being an increasingly silly comic, which has quite the world-shattering climax.

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