I love video essays about topics I don't understand or have never thought of, where the OP is absolutely deranged with hatred or love. Explain your passion to me! I don't care what it is, I care about how you feel. Help me see your world, tinged with red.

Im interested in the brony analysis community! I used to watch Pony Notion years ago, idk if he was a part of it

oh man i didn’t think anyone would actually ask. ok so keep in mind most of this is me recollecting stuff from when i was 12 and i stepped away from mlp and the analysis community after season 5

basically, the brony analysis community was, as the name implies, a loose group of internet reviewers circled mainly around MLP content (the show itself, fanworks and fan theories, and the community in general), though some branched into analyzing other topics such as other cartoons and anime.

most everyone spoke through a rantsona/ponysona, talking over clips from the show. given that it was such a large group, there was a smorgasbord of quality. from what i remember, most of them DIDN’T fall into the trap of “angry person yells a lot” but that just might’ve been that i wasn’t watching the ones who were. notable personalities include Silver Quill, Dr. Wolf, Tommy Oliver, Voice of Reason, Antony C, ILoveKimPossibleALot (aka KP), Ink Rose, Josh Scorcher, Digibro, AnY Pony, The Mysterious Mr. Enter, Cellspex, Saberspark, and Lily Orchard 

there were quite a few collabs between reviewers, since a lot of them had become friends through the community. collabs/creation that have stuck with me the most include: A Lethal Halloween: some people make Danganronpa AUs of their favorite content creators. the brony analysis made one of themselves. i mostly include this bc it got me into danganronpa at the ripe young age of 12.

Let’s Go Meet John de Lancie: A tribute to actor John de Lancie, an actor most notable for his role of Q in the Star Trek franchise, who voiced Discord in the show who tried to make a documentary about bronies that was canned when it became clear that 1. no one outside the community wanted to watch it and 2. every brony was pirating it. KP, a HUGE John de Lancie fan, wanted to cheer him up and show appreciation. Naturally, this act of goodwill had unforseen reprecussions! Accusations of stolen art and overworked animators abounded. At the time, very few people in the community spoke up in KP’s defense (Antony C being a notable exception - his video on the whole debacle is pretty good) but eventually the matter was settled and KP retained her role as a prominent member of the community. 

TF2 Analysis Series: ngl i didn’t really give a shit about tf2 so i didn’t watch these, but they made a 142 episode series about their ponysonas in the world of tf2 which. holy shit? i have to respect the effort.

of course, no fandom community is complete without drama, and the brony analysis community is no exception. i ignored as much as i could, but most drama happened when someone left the community (usually in spectacular “this is the reason you all suck” fashion) but there was some more serious stuff like the majority of fans of the community shipping Josh Scorcher and Ink Rose’s OCs even tho Ink Rose was 1. 6 years younger than Josh and 2. a MINOR + the revelation of toonkriticy2k’s crimes which i don’t feel like remembering so here’s a playlist if you HAVE to know (and as i’d mostly distanced myself from the fandom at that point, so most of my knowledge of that particular event comes from Lily Orchard, who was one of the few i was still watching at that point.)

speaking of lily! i have more sympathy for lily than most because she was my idol when i was 12-15, she was the first trans youtuber i watched and i credit her with me eventually coming to realize that i’m nonbinary,  and there’s a lot of bad faith criticism of her that is thinly veiled transphobia. however, there’s a lot of valid criticism of her as well. most of her infamy comes from the “Steven Universe is Garbage and Here’s Why” and “The Legend of Korra is Garbage and Here’s Why” vids + her twitter thread of 100 writing tips. of special note is her calling rebecca sugar (who is jewish) a nazi sympathizer for her redemption of the diamonds. and she wrote underage pony porn. she mostly distanced herself from the brony analysis community after her public fallout with josh scorcher (which tbh she was in the right about, i don’t blame her for not wanting to associate with an outspoken republican) but she’s probably the most famous person to come from the community barring saberspark.

most of the community still make videos, with quite a few still primarily focused on MLP! i can’t attest to how those vids have changed as the only one i still watch from that era is Cellspex (who is lovely go watch her). if i were to recommend any channels based on what i remember of their quality, i’d probably recommend KP, Antony C, and Ink Rose

this took me like an hour to type up. i am so sorry. but in my defense, you asked for it. if u have any questions, feel free to ask! and take everything with a grain of salt - like i said, it’s been a few years, and i was 12.