To answer my own question:
I gained a newfound appreciation for mythology, especially unicorns. I also gained an appreciation for horses in general. I learned so much about the storytelling process from analyzing the show. I also discovered my favourite fictional character:
And while it’s not the greatest movie ever, it’s probably the one whose attention to detail I appreciate the most. Lastly, it gave me a steady supply of cute, wholesome things.
As for the fandom, there are so many things that I might not have discovered without it, that I couldn’t possibly name them all. The major ones are that I’d have never played Dark Souls, and the two game projects I’m working on wouldn’t exist. I’d have also never gotten into music theory and composing.