People have been asking “so how was your summer?” Typically, my result is a grunt and a “meh”. I then proceed to explain that, since I didn’t have a weekday job, I didn’t do a whole lot, and stayed home most of the time to avoid spending money.
The one problem with that sentence is that the internet exists and I have a plastic card to spend with.
If you want to dig deeper, than there is a bigger problem with that sentence, and that all lies in the fact that I did do something. I was at the forefront of a cultural shift of theOtaku, or at least for more of the regulars in Chat. And I don’t think I was even intended to be the target of this.
For this, we have to go back, way back, to about April or so. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was sweeping Chat, and I wanted nothing to do with it. I had been forced to watch the first two episodes of the show and thought it was mind-numbingly boring and girly, so I stayed away.
Come May, I was out of school and had very little to do. So I did what any addle-brained person does, and lurked in Chat like the non-smelly hobo that I am. Eventually, the topic of ponies was brought up, but mixed in with all of this were conversations of the Who kind.
Doctor Who was already a bit of a thing among some of us in Chat, especially after the 46-hour New Years marathon from a year ago. But it wasn’t a thing between most people, and that was the issue.
There were basically two camps in Chat: One that was Ponies, the other, Who. Each camp constantly badgered the other to watch each others series, with no progress actually made until one person actually took the step.
I think that was me. I’m probably wrong about that.
I mean, it just so happened that one day, I woke up early enough to catch an airing of MLP: FiM at 12:30. “Winter Wrap-Up” was the episode, and I thought it was pretty neat. Also, there was a Doctor Whooves sighting, was which was exciting enough for me.
One of the arguments I was getting about watching Doctor Who, and I agree, is that it’s a lot to digest. Where to start, what to avoid, who to listen to - it can be overwhelming. I gave my sound advice of starting with season 5, and most people ended up taking said advice.
Suddenly, the walls collapsed. Some strange mentality took over the groups, with the thought basically being, “Well, they’re watching what I like, so I might as well give it a shot”. It was a fair trade, and it seemed every week, more bronies joined the herd and more people wanted to travel with the Doctor.
It really didn’t hit that all this was going on until I realized that conversations about Doctor Who were becoming increasingly common not only in Chat, but in the Skype calls I was in. Questions, theories, and jokes referring to the British show were coming from people I never thought would view the Who. On the other side, we drew ourselves as ponies, told tales of braving the pink aisle to buy the toys, and did our best to provide intelligence to arguments as to why the pony show wasn’t just for little girls.
It was all strangely fascinating.
The real key point for me was just getting people to understand why I love the show I do as much as I do. The bonus was people embracing it as much as they did. Once drawings, wallpapers, and comics started appearing in my backroom, I knew it was a success.
So what did I do this summer? I led a cultural revolution. It may not have any impact on the country at large, but it did affect me and a bunch of the people I call my friends, along with adding a few more to that last.
Now avoiding spoilers is a whole lot harder than it used to be.
