The Last Bronycon Video Sucks

• 1 October, 2026
• My Little Pony
• Opinion
• Sexism
• Transphobia

After I came home from my yearly dermatologist appointment, I got recommended the video, The Last Bronycon: a fandom autopsy by Jenny Nicholson. As I've always been a major fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, I figured to finally give this video a watch. I've been meaning to sit down for years to watch it, so now's a good as time as any, right?

The video sucks. Bad.

The Elephants in the Room

At the time, the video highlights many clips of the infamous pedophile, BlackGryph0n, who met the voice actor for Sweetie Belle, Michelle Creber, as a child and married her when she was an adult. I could excuse this as her not knowing any of this, especially because even in 2020 that information wasn't as widespread as it is now. It was often suppressed by people such as SaberSpark, who also left a comment on the video. And whaddya know, Nicholson left a big ol' like on the comment. But, hey, maybe she didn't know. However, it is kind of pressing how there no mention the topic of predators within the fandom. This was a major red flag for me, but as I continued watching, I hoped this would be brought up.

Later, she talks about the rampant sexism and homophobia in the fan spaces. Most of my life as a fan I identified as a cis girl, so I can attest to the rampant sexism. She even describes an instance of sexism she perspnally experienced, where a group of bronies shunned her for being a fan of the franchise long before generation 4 on the basis of her being a girl. Homophobia was definitely a problem too. I was a fan and bisexual longer than I was bi and "straight," but funnily enough the only homophobia I saw was from those who insisted Rainbow Dash was not a lesbian. People loved to ship the girl characters with one another, even before some of them got canonized. People loved AppleDash, RariJack, FlutterDash. People even shipped the background characters, all the time! However Nicholson claims the sexism and homophobia came elsewhere.

Accidental Sexism and Potential Transphobia

Starting halfway through the video, she praises Tara Strong for being a "wonderful, passionate" fan and voice actor of the show while in the very same breath denouncing John de Lancie, calling him rude and ungrateful. I was open to hearing why she was so against him, but the more I heard, the more furious I became.

Tara Strong has been known for years, even in 2020, for being a zionist, openly horny about Twilight Sparkle, an anti-vaxxer, and more. Meanwhile, de Lancie's crime was a failed brony documentary with Tara and apparently not liking bronies to the point of trying to "exploit" them. However, the whole documentary failed because of people leaking it and openly spreading it, and instead of being upset at people spreading backer exclusive updates... Nicholson is mad at de Lancie for being upset about it?? Even worse, she highlights how in said documentary, many men were upset to be mislabeled as gay or effeminate for liking the show. She took huge problem with this, saying how it's not a bad thing to be gay and effeminate. And while this is true, personally coming at it from the perspective of a transmasc, I get the men's upset.

Imagine you are a straight trans man. You feel happy in your skin as a man, enjoy being percieved as a guy. You also happen to like content meant for women, such as My Little Pony. Now imagine expressing your like of this, and being called effeminate and gay for it. I would be livid to have my masculinity revoked from me like this. "Oh, but isn't being gay and effeminite as a boy okay!?" Yes, not my point! Being mislabeled is dysphoric, period. Trans or not, it is understandable to be upset at this! Why is this framed as being irrational by Nicholson??? Swap the genders: if a woman is being labeled as masculine for enjoying a show meant for men and is upset by it, why is it a problem with her? Imagine this happening to a trans woman!! The problem isn't these people being upset over being mislabeled, the problem is people using femininity and being gay as an insult! Dude!! Come on, why is it these people's fault for not enjoying people using femininity and homosexuality as an insult?

What caused me to stop watching the video and leave a dislike was when the documentary touched on a young kid named Lyle who really wanted to go to Bronycon, but was afraid of his conservative father hating him for liking the show and calling him gay. De Lancie offers to help the kid and his mom with this by tagging along and introducing the con to the family, especially since he is a man himself. Nicholson takes this and instead frames it as de Lancie enforcing how manly and masculine he still is, acting like a figurehead for a sexist community.

How do you take such a genuine, kind act by de Lancie, an effort to not only make the kid feel more safe but help his father understand and become supportive of his son, and interpret it as de Lancie enforcing sexism and toxic masculinity??? Hello?? I bet you have lovely opinions of transmasculine people. This is, word-for-word, some of the exact bullshit I've heard from radical feminists, especially trans-exclusionary radical feminists. Nearly word-for-word, she says, "Oooh, look how manly and masculine you are for having a beard while watching My Little Pony!" Okay.

I hate this video. My opinion of Jenny Nicholson has fallen into the dumpster as a long-time fan and it makes me sad because Friendship is Witchcraft was a really fun series I think about often. Oh well.