ponyvangelist

Pink Celestia rankles me somewhat, so I'm glad at least some of the Celestia dolls are starting to turn up in white. Then again, I don't buy or collect dolls, so my opinion of the toys is moot, I suppose. Hasbro sells about $4 billion worth of toys a year. That's a lot of toys. I can't find specific numbers for My Little Pony, but Hasbro's annual report for 2011 does mention the franchise and that sales for 2011 for the franchise were better than for 2010. Whatever the numbers, ponies are a very small part of a very big picture. Within the franchise, we can assume Lauren Fausts' G4 ponies are popular, given the increased sales. Given that the dolls are sold by just about every toy retailer domestically, and by a significant percentage of toy sellers worldwide, the volume of ponies sold each year is probably quite high. Of those sales, bronies -- despite being hyper-dedicated fans, as a rule -- probably account for a tiny fraction of sales. I would suspect less than 1%, though I admittedly don't know. That assessment is based on the fact that there are a lot more young girls in this world than bronies, and the dolls are very popular gifts for girls. Hasbro has shown signs of wanting to cater to the brony market, however, and where the standard girls' offerings tend to be cheap and mass-produced, I would expect brony-oriented dolls to be the high end of the quality and price range, given the nature of the market. Sorry, I'm off on a tangent here. My underlyhing point is various claims made by a vocal minority of bronies that they can somehow bend Hasbro to their will (regarding Derpy) by voting with their pocketbooks seem more like vain braggadoccio than a credible rallying call for meaningful action. Hasbro wants to sell toys, and I'm sure they'll appreciate whatever bronies buy, but thinking they will respond positively to what amounts to cyberbullying doesn't seem very realistic to me. I will admit, however, that if they do offer some really nice high-end models, I may get one for my desk.

It's refreshing to hear a little more about how this came to be, and some of the thinking that went on behind the scenes, but as Ms. Rogers pointed out, the ultimate decisions weren't hers and, unsurprisingly, Hasbro and the Hub weren't interested in going to the mat for a character named "Derpy" if there was any chance it would hurt their business. Whether it actually would hurt their business really doesn't matter, but rather whether they think it would, and apparently they do. In other news... The International Association Of Blondes has filed suit against Hasbro, Inc. claiming the use of the name "Ditzy" for a blonde pony is offensive, perpetuates negative stereotypes and is discriminatory against blondes. Of course, I'm just kidding. Or am I?

Song... returning. Must... resist... gahhhhh! Winter wrap up winter wrap uhhhhhp...

Never was a hater. Not my style. But in this case, I didn't even know there was a new show and had never paid attention to the MLP franchise anyway. It wasn't on my radar at all, never even thought about it. Now it's my favorite show and I can't wait for new episodes to come out. The last time that happened was with Babylon 5, so that's a rare form of praise for me. I often ask myself why I love this silly show so much, and tend to come up blank. I could list all the neat things about it, but still not be sure why I like it this much. So far, my best shot at explaining it consists of two words. Because ponies.

Ah, thanks for the links. I posted on the Shout board as well. Since this likely affects all the discs based on the current master, they may have to do a recall, which would be a major hit to the profitability of the release. If the sales numbers are good, though, they may be able to absorb it, and it hopefully wouldn't discourage them down the road. Considering it's a technical issue and has nothing to do with the nature of the content itself, I doubt they would blame the ponies for it. But still, an ill omen for this first release, and it's not like we need more bad news right now.

I got my copy of the Friendship Express DVD today, and am glad to finally have something pony-oriented on DVD, but there are problems. Specifically, on the two episodes I've watched so far (the first two episodes from Season One), the video and sound get out of sync toward the end of the episode. In Episode 1, the problem begins during the party scene in the library and continues to the end. I estimate it's off by about a half a second, which makes it look like a bad dub. In Episode 2, the problem occurs fairly late, as the mane cast gets to the castle of the royal pony sisters, if I recall correctly. It's not off by as much, maybe a quarter-second, but it really blows the feel of the epic conclusion. I haven't had a chance to watch the other episodes yet, but I saw a similar mention of this problem on Amazon, and this seems like a problem that may well be on the gold master for this DVD, I figured I should mention it and see if anyone else here has encountered this problem.

A Question Of Derpendability I understand the sentiment about some people being too sensitive to the original Derpy, but that's ultimately tangential to the decisions Hasbro faces. My Little Pony is clearly not a brand Hasbro wants to associate with controversy. While I'm not privy to what went on behind the scenes (which, aside from a single statement yesterday through Gawker, was basically everything), it doesn't take too much contemplation to recognize that Hasbro doesn't see Derpy as being worth bad publicity. By "bad publicity", I'm not referring to the Brony community. Bronies are widespread and have a major presence on the Internet, but are still a drop in the bucket compared to the number of people who buy the dolls for their children. I'm sure they want to take advantage of the brony market, but it's at best a speculative fringe compared to their core business. People don't tend to buy dolls for kids as a political statement. They buy dolls for them to play with, and if there's some sort of problem with one brand, they'll buy another. There doesn't even need to be any actual problems with them, just hearing something negative about them on the news is all it takes. If pressure groups are threatening to take this sort of thing to the press, and iTunes (their only digital distributor) refuses to carry the show, that's a major problem for Hasbro. And for what, exactly? A bit player that wasn't even planned for the show in the first place? There's just no reason for Hasbro to take those sorts of sales hits and reputation risks for Derpy. It doesn't add up, doesn't make sense, and there's no incentive for them to have a dog -- or pony -- in that fight. Getting back to bronies, I think cases like this one send a strong message that the community is too volatile to rely on from a business standpoint. Hasbro and pretty much everyone involved in the show have been bombarded by so much hatred over this that they would be fully justified in washing their hands of the whole mess and simply focusing on girls like they have for decades. To be fair, it's perfectly understandable that bronies would be put off by something like this. It's jarring to see a beloved character bowdlerized in what seems like an underhanded fashion. "New Derpy" is like "The Other Darrin", and we really didn't even have a chance to get to know the "Old Darrin". But all the petitions and hate mail in the world (or polite mail, for that matter) are not going to change Derpy back. That ship has sailed. Having iTunes yank the episode again and all manner of special interest groups waving derogatory press releases in their faces again is just not worth it. What happens next is unknown. Heck, even Hasbro probably doesn't know at this point. Maybe they'll bother to change Derpy as necessary in whatever future episodes she may be in (she has become a background regular), maybe they don't even have to change her (that speaking role may have been a one-off anyway) or maybe they'll cut her out entirely. I doubt they'll tell us either way, but as new episodes roll out, I'm sure we'll have a better idea by the end of the season where Derpy stands, if anywhere at all.

Four legs good, two legs bad! Big Macintosh is watching you.

The Last Rounderp I originally had a hard time understanding what made Derpy "offensive" enough to change, but do have a bias that I've held since The Last Roundup. Ironically enough, the new voice is closer to how I expected her to sound than Tabitha's "boy" voice. I also like that Derpy sounds less "dopey" now. So when all is said and done, I have made my peace with it. When we consider Hasbro's point of view, they sell toys. That's their bread and butter, what keeps the bills paid, and why they put up the money for Friendship is Magic in the first place. No toy sales = no Hasbro = no show. I've seen a lot of derisive, stereotypical comments about "soccer moms" and the like. I think much of the hoopla and chest-beating over this would die off if the more indignant among us took some time to consider the bigger picture. Hasbro sells toys to children of all ages. Many of their toys are for girls ages 3-8, for example. When you sell toys to 3-year-old girls, you need to be very careful about what you're doing. It's not something you want to screw up, especially when your company has been selling toys for longer than most people have been alive, and those toy sales are what makes it possible for you to earn money and feed your own kids. My Little Pony is a valuable and iconic multi-generational franchise. Hasbro should not and will not willingly do anything to hurt their toys' reputation for being a safe, sensible choice for young girls. That's priority one for them: protect their brand and business. Hasbro does NOT need any headaches over a fan-driven character they generously allowed into the show as a nod to their periphery demographic (no good deed goes unpunished). The image of My Little Pony is not based on cutting-edge social commentary or rallying around causes. These are dolls for girls to play with, not Che Guevara with brushable manes. I can understand fans feeling betrayed by all this, and feel a strong sense of that myself. But the deed is done, the pony is out of the barn, so to speak, and both Hasbro and the fandom (or fan dumb, in more cases than I care to count) have far more important things to consider than changes to a single Derpy cameo. Let's nurse our grief, make our videos, sing our songs and get it all out, but mail-bombing, threatening, abusing and hassling Hasbro will accomplish absolutely nothing good, only bad. They get the message. Deal with it. Ironically, despite the absurd degree to which they have been demonized, changing Derpy this way may well be Hasbro's attempt to save her and make it possible to develop her more as a character in the future. Instead of revoicing her, they could have simply cut her from the episode entirely, with Town Hall just being run down from normal wear and tear. Only time will tell if this was Derpy's last derp, but if Hasbro isn't, through some miracle, put off by all the hysteria surrounding the character, I'm hoping we'll see her again, and the fan love may once again flow freely. Sure, they could have handled this better, but instead of dumping all over Hasbro for this, maybe we could find it in our hearts to cut them a little slack, and consider that the people who brought us this show in the first place aren't necessary the soulless, corporate drones some of us might take them for. Too much of the indignity over Derpy has turned into vanity, self-aggrandizement and a conceit to bully Hasbro into answering the beck and call of an increasingly self-marginalizing subset of the fandom. I suggest we focus more positively on the merits of the show and the people who make it possible, and less on parading our angst like rioters through the virtual streets of the Internet, hoisting a banner of anger overhead like some twisted icon of self-righteousness and false moral superiority. Some of us are deeply hurt. My heart is with them. Some of us are using this as an excuse to shout obscenities, smash virtual windows and attack the producers of my favorite show. Not cool. They should spend their time and energy more productively, like actually watching, respecting and learning something from this magnificent show instead.

Planet Of The Ponies Many centuries ago, long before the reign of Princess Celestia, humans ruled the earth, and ponies were slaves. The humans used them as beasts of burden, their hides as clothing, their bodies as glue, and even ate ponies for food. One day, while a pony named Caesar was hitched to a plough, his owner shook his reins and told him to "giddy-up". Having been enslaved, overworked and mistreated all his life, something within Caesar snapped at that one crucial moment. He slowly turned his head, looked his master in the eye, and said just one simple word: "No." Soon that one word, that one symbolic spark of defiance, and the story of Caesar spread from one pony to the next, and eventually throughout all ponydom. Inspired by Caesar's stand for freedom, they rose up against their human oppressors, visiting upon them the ruin and indignities that had plagued ponies for millennia. The wars that followed were bloody and bitter, but eventually, after generations of battles, brutalities and atrocities unimaginable, the ponies prevailed, vanquished the last remaining humans, and boldly strode forward to create a new world in which ponies could run free and live happily ever after. And that's how Equestria was made!

I like the idea of Angel having a deep voice. Maybe they could get Blu Mankuma (who did Fluttershy's voice in Bridle Gossip) to be Angel's voice as well. As for personality, I think many fans consider Angel to be mean or rude because of the way he threw a carrot at Fluttershy in the Dragonshy episode, but I think he was frustrated with the way she was over-mothering and hassling him while ignoring his actual feelings. Despite his apparently short temper, Angel seems to really care about Fluttershy and acts as a quiet mentor for her of sorts. If we imagine what it would be like to have Fluttershy fawning over us like that every single day, it's clear that little rodent has the patience of Job. Perhaps the most ironic thing about Angel, however, is the fact that the one pony in all of Equestria who can communicate with just about every animal in the world never seems to be able to understand what he's trying to tell her. I think most people would find that frustrating.

I think there are so many gems because Equestria is the final resting place of the Rhinestone Cowboy.

As The World Derps... Lest my previous post (which was an admittedly odd mix of polemic, critique, satire and apologia) be misunderstood, I guess I should explain what my actual opinions about all this really are. First, I hope it's clear that I'm a big fan of the show. For more on that, here's my "pony tale" from my introduction thread. My commentary can sometimes come off as incisive, but is never motivated by malice for anyone, so I hope I never give anyone the wrong idea. Moving on to Derpy, I'm a Derpy fan. I love the whole Derpy saga, and though I wouldn't consider her my favorite character of the whole series (the competition is fierce and undecided, though Dashie and Celestia are out front), I think she embodies much of what makes MLP:FiM such a unique and amazing show. Derpy's story, and the story of how the FiM fandom and the show's producers have built her up from almost nothing to who she is today, are something I've never seen before, and doubt I will ever see again. For that reason alone, Derpy is a very, very special pony indeed. Like any self-respecting Derpy fan, I've been intrigued and delighted by how Derpy has been increasingly written into the show, mainly as a "Where's Waldo" shout-out, but always coming a little closer to the camera, like when she appeared as a "bag pony" on Nightmare Night, or waved hello at the Hearth's Warming Eve pageant. When she first appeared in The Last Roundup, I felt like I was watching a great moment in TV history. "Did Rainbow just call her 'Derpy'?!?" "Derpy has a speaking part?" "Derpy just trashed Town Hall?" "Oh. My. GOD!!!" I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It blew my mind, and I will never forget that. As an iTunes season pass holder (FiM is the only thing on iTunes I've bought), I wasted no time downloading the episode as soon as it first became available, and thus have an original version safely stored and backed up. My own piece of cartoon history was safely in hand. But not long after, trouble started brewing. Without any explanation whatsoever, The Last Roundup quietly disappeared from the iTunes store. That went on for weeks as rumors spread and ire grew. As with most fans, I had a bad feeling about the removal of the episode from iTunes (and for that matter, Hearts and Hooves Day is also suspiciously weeks late; we now have good reason to assume the worst), and was less inclined to be forgiving as time went on. When the "new Derpy" finally debuted, I was, in a word, outraged. How could they bowdlerize Derpy and ruin a high point of the entire series? I was not happy. But... What I was seeing from some of my fellow pony fans disturbed me even more. I basically followed that first EQD thread live, before the worst comments were removed (and they were hideous). I like to think the absolute worst comments were just trolls from /b/, but I can't lie to myself. I was seeing the Dark Side, the worst the fandom had to offer, and it made me question what the heck I was doing being a part of it. I understand and very much sympathize with the strong feelings of my fellow fans, but too much of the backlash has been just too vicious and mean-spirited for me to abide. It's just wrong. So while I very much dislike how this all went down, and have not a single unkind word for fans who are disappointed and say so without being too abusive about it, I think far too many of us have somehow forgotten the lessons this show has tried to teach us, and suggest that those who most hate Hasbro for this are the ones who most need to go back and watch the entire series all over again, from episode one, and take notes this time. They will need them, because they have a very long letter of their own to write to Princess Celestia.

An Open Letter From Twilight Dear Princess Celestia, Today I learned a valuable lesson in friendship. A long time ago, I met a pegasus who suffers from strabismus. Sometimes her eyes don't line up right, and it tends to make her clumsy. Because of her condition, she often had trouble fitting in among her peers in Cloudsdale. To get away from that, she came to Ponyville, where we accepted her as one of our own. She loved to come to Pinkie Pie's parties and help out around town, and didn't even get sick that one time when Pinkie and Applejack made that bad batch of muffins (in fact, she went back for more). She made a lot of friends in Ponyville, and had a lot of fans who loved her. Eventually, with their help, she even became confident enough to visit Cloudsdale again for the Best Young Flyer competition. But back in Ponyville, she often had trouble focusing on her work, and kept going from job to job, always causing one disaster after another. The last straw came when she and Rainbow Dash were preparing Town Hall for Applejack's send-off to compete in the Equestria Rodeo. She practically ruined town hall and nearly killed Rainbow with lightning, a big post she knocked over, and she even pulled Rainbow into a hole. The last we saw of Derpy was at the celebration, when she fell over backward into the Town Hall basement through a hole in the floor. After the send-off party, Rainbow went looking for her, but couldn't find her. Suddenly, everypony panicked, and her friends galloped everywhere, calling her name. Because she had helped with Applejack's send-off party, the Apple family asked me to help find her. I used a rewind spell to track her back to when she was helping Rainbow at Town Hall again, but she looked and sounded different. The Apple family said they couldn't be sure it was her, and that she seemed like somepony else. I thought only the Apples could see the spell, but somepony else must have seen it too, and that's when the rumors started and spread like wildfire. When Derpy's friends found out what happened, they went on a rampage and stampeded all over Ponyville, putting up posters, painting pictures, telling stories and demanding to know what happened to Derpy. They were worried about how she had changed before she disappeared the second time. Did my spell really do that? It was crazy! Angry ponies everywhere, and some of them were so mad they were saying naughty words I've never heard before. And still no sign of Derpy. We finally gave up looking, and the Mayor ordered the Town Hall basement filled with concrete as a precaution. We don't know if Derpy's still down there, but if she is, she won't be coming back anytime soon. Her friends are still angry, and they've been sending nasty letters to me and everypony else telling how mad they are about what happened to Derpy. I don't understand why they are so mad at me. I was only trying to help. But I did learn something from all this. I shouldn't have used that rewind spell to try to bring Derpy back. It just made things worse. I'll try to be more careful in the future. And I also learned this lesson again: if you try to please everypony, you oftentimes end up pleasing nopony, especially yourself. Your faithful student, Twilight Hasbro

Come On And Smile It's not my absolute favorite of the whole series, but it's definitely close to the top of the list. I do think it's Pinkie's best song so far, and considering how many songs she's sung, that's saying a lot. Of course, most of them are silly little ditties, but still, this one's the best. The orchestrated sequence at the end is just plain awesome. I really like how the music and animation fit together when they show the mane cast prancing in time with the music while carrying Pinkie. There's something about the way everything comes together at that moment: the soft, classical majesty of the strings, the slow, gentle movement of the procession, and the heartwarming symbolism of Pinkie quietly being carried by her friends as everyone else sings. A splendid moment in a splendid song. When the mixed chorus at at the end sings "come on everypony...", however, something about that makes me laugh, not just smile. It seems a bit silly, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

That's the biggest problem with all this: the lack of facts. What fills the vacuum left by Hasbro's silence doesn't tend to be very pretty, and while I doubt anything they say is going to make everyone happy, it would at least put a dent in all the wild rumors swirling around about Derpy.

I warmed up to "Smile. Smile, Smile" pretty quickly (Ingram's deft use of the mandolin is a cheap and easy way to earn my affection). And despite my belief when I first started watching the show almost a year ago that I would never like Pinkie Pie as a character, I've really warmed up to her as the seasons have gone on, and after Party of One (featuring "Pinkamena"), any last shred of not liking Pinkie dissolved forever. I'm with you on the song preferences. When I heard the first few bars of "Find a Pet", I rolled my eyes expecting something silly. And yes, it's a somewhat silly song, but is now one of my favorites (along with the episode -- Dashie for the win!), and I'm having a devil of a time getting out of my head. Probably because I don't want to. And of course "At the Gala" is just plain epic -- and a great set-up for what comes next in that episode.

I'm sure they haven't missed all the fan love this character got as a result of just a few seconds of air time. As with Derpy, they will probably drop her in now and then where it would make sense, and we'll probably see Octavia under the same circumstances. But with all the hullabaloo over the iTunes "Re-Derp", they will probably be more cautious about it than before.