Unpopular opinion time

@Itsthinking  
And to them I would respond “The show should not resort to the same methods.” Seriously, sometimes the show just goes out of its way not to have male characters for one shot characters. A game inspector. Female. A fashion designer’s assistant. Female. A genealogist. Female. A rival for Dash at the academy. Female. All of these characters and more could have been male characters in a show lacking them, but instead the writers chose to make all of them mares instead of Stallions.

@Trickquestion  
Yeah, and I call them that sometimes too. But you can’t look at everything so black/white. It would be one thing if people said that Native Americans should be able to take back their ancestral land and kill however many white people that they want, it’s another to make one show where the gender imbalance is reversed.
 
We’ve got characters like Mr. Cake, Fancy Pants, Shining Armor, and Spike to represent good male characters. And Big Mac if you extrapolate his characterization based on what he does and doesn’t say.

@Background Pony  
Wasn’t the genealogist voiced by Peter New? And the only one of those that isn’t just nitpicking, IMO, is Harshwhinny.

@Background Pony  
It’s probably because they’re just more used to drawing female characters. I was going to put “writing,” but you shouldn’t write characters of different genders differently.
 
@ClownDicks  
Yeah, Peter New voiced Goldie Apple. And to be honest, I don’t think she was a good example of a female. They clearly went for the “crazy cat lady hoarder” angle with her.

@ClownDicks  
She was still a mare. At least I think she was O_o
 
Anyway, I know it might be nitpicky, but the show has very few male protagonists. The main antagonists are split 50/50 in gender (Sombra and Discord vs. Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis). But when we look at our main characters, including the two monarchs and the 3 CMC’s, its a 11/1 split on the side of girl characters. I know it’s a girl show but Yikes.

@Itsthinking
 
There have been a lot of new and unique stallions shown this season. But they’ve all been expendables that aren’t meant to be cared about. They have no excuse not to come up with crazy new designs with all the assets and templates they have. The only problem they have is actually making them protagonists.

@Background Pony  
Perhaps it wouldn’t feel like an issue if the male protagonists were more capable and better characterized.

Nevermind, misread that.  
:p

@Bolan  
Come on, we’re at least part of the problem. Do you really think Coco Pommel would have been as popular were she a stallion instead of a mare? People would make the same “wow he’s whipped” jokes and forget about him.
 
Funny thing about both little girls and twenty-something males: they both like (nearly) all-girl cast shows.

@Itsthinking
 
Like the bell boy, who was repeatedly awarded by Rarity’s kindness? He was totally…I see your point. People just want more fuel for their lesbian fantasies (we still in the unpopular opinion thread?) To some insane bronies, strong male characters are a threat because they can get closer to the main characters than they can, so they get ignored. Luckily for them, that’s how the show just happens to work most of the time. It’s not malicious, it just allows that kind of fan culture.

@Bolan  
Yeah, two of the most points people bring up about Spike (one track mind, yay!) are either that they are intensely jealous of him for being so close to the cast or see him as a “beta” that they could easily compete and win their “love” against. Honestly doubt the latter one, but that’s just me.
 
Stuff like this is common in anime and anime subcultures. Only males you’ll see in a lot of the really popular ones are either more romantically hopeless than the people who the show’s romances are made for or are completely uninterested in women.

@Itsthinking  

 
Pics or it didn’t happen.

@Bolan  
Please, don’t even get me started. People are allowed to ship what they want, but it bothers me slightly when all of the Mane Six are portrayed as lesbians. Especially Rarity, who has displayed an interest towards stallions in the show. This is always countered by shippers with either 1. She is bisexual (Which is used by fans as more of a plot device than an actual sexuality) or 2. Blueblood ruined men for her (Which I don’t have to even explain the stupidity of this statement).

@ClownDicks  
Numerous threads on /mlp/ whenever someone brings his character up, almost always is the mention of how someone doesn’t like him because he’s close to the main cast.

To paraphrase the old feminist mantra (with no small amount of malicious glee on my part,) the show needs male characters the same way a fish needs a bicycle and I genuinely would not care, and probably would not notice if there wasn’t a single one.
 
A lot of us, myself included, like to jump on social justice warriors for using fallacious arguments and demanding constant appeasement of whatever subset of humanity they are crusading for and frankly in a lot of these arguments for why the show needs to treat male characters better I’m seeing the same attitude, just reversed. The idea that the show runners are under some kind of moral obligation to do your gender right, and that anything short of an hour long special about them getting blown is an insult.
 
I do not watch the show in hopes of seeing nameless bellhop get an epic adventure, I watch it because of six relatable _female characters and hang the goddamn gender politics. I put female in _sub for a reason. Because it doesn’t matter. Good characters are good characters regardless of gender, and unless you can point to an instance that was deliberately insulting to men as a gender then I can’t even see this as an argument for a character to project onto, just “men’s rights” wankery.

@gasmaskangel  
You. I like you.

@Bolan  

 
What I want to know is why. Why Big Mac? Why not Granny Smith, Cheerilee, SA, or even Twist? Why are you concerned with this one in particular, and not all the others? What do you see in him? I genuinely want to know.
 
@gasmaskangel  
You are now one of my favorite derpibooru member.

@Grieffon  
You know, I actually want to know more about Twist. She’s like, in my top ten ponies I’d like to know more about. She’s AB’s friend for one episode, then gets dropped like a sack of potatoes once Applebloom puts together her blank flank club. What happened to her?

@gasmaskangel  
I understand where you are coming from. You have definitely illustrated a great point and you are absolutely right. Gender or race or sexuality don’t make a great character. Their actions and personality make them great characters.
 
What irks me about the whole situation is that the show is said to have been created partially in response to the lack of strong female characters in children’s media. If I remember correctly, this was stated by Faust to be one of her goals. So for the show to exclude, for the most part, male protagonists from its roster seems almost hypocritical.

@Grieffon  
I think people are just calling for him now because we just had an episode with him.
 
Really, every background pony gets their turn to get called for.
 
It just happens to be Mac’s turn right now.

@Grieffon
 
As George Mallory said, “Because he’s there.” Give me a character who doesn’t say much, and I’ll want to hear what it has to say. It’s all a part of being immersed in a show’s universe. I don’t care what the gender is.
 
SA? He came out of nowhere to sell a toy- don’t care.  
Granny Smith? She got her fair share this last episode and in others.  
Cheerilee? Yes, she’s being neglected and I wouldn’t mind seeing her get more of a character focus, that doesn’t involve CMC exposition. She wasn’t even promoted to the intro photo.  
Twist… She was exiled after getting her cutie mark. I would love for a follow up on why they suddenly aren’t friends anymore. Bring it on.
 
The point is, I chose Big Mac because he seemed like an interesting minor character with a story to tell if he got the chance. Fanfiction made it interesting. I thought he was an underdog when in reality he was nothing at all. I was wrong.

@Bolan  
Twist was only AB’s friend because they were both blank flanks, and that was enough for Bloom to overlook the fact Twist is unbelievably, shockingly racist. She will grow up to write the pony version of the Turner Diaries.

@Grieffon  
Because he’s one of the main characters’ family. Lives with her and everything. And that other stuff?We got Family Appreciation Day for Granny Smith, and there are plenty of people who want more SA and Cheerilee. And people who want more Twist, but those people are idiots because Twist is objectively The Worst Pony Ever. It;s a scientific fact.
 
@PonyPon  
An episode with the whole Apple family, where he got shushed when he was about to say something other than yes or no.

It’s a new day. I feel better now.
 
In any case, unpopular opinion: I’m starting to understand where the haters are coming from. Specifically, the haters who think we’re obsessed with the cartoon horses and only watch the show for the pretty colors.

@gasmaskangel  

 
Go to a place in which a bunch of feminists are discussing misogyny in media, and post this exact same argument. See how that goes…
 
But I agree that this show doesn’t need new male characters, its too late for that, it would do more harm to the show than good if they add a new character. IMO what they need to do is develop the main male character that the show already has. cough cough Spike cough cough
 
@ClownDicks  
Yeah, I also can see where they are coming from. Sometimes I think those talented brony artists, musicians and animators should move on from pony stuff and make their own original stuff.
 
As an aside, I think I lost interest in watching the show, I havent watched any episode past the season 4 premiere. Why the fuck I’m posting here? I have no idea LOL