Trouble in Ponydise

mccarty.tim — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 11:17:39 -0800

The internet phenomena of My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic [pre-vi-ous-ly] has been through a bit of a stir last month. Beloved fan character Derpy Hooves has become canon. And then her entrance was edited, much to the chagrin of fans. Fans of the show, aka "bronies," first invented the character of Derpy upon catching an animation error or injoke where a grey pony in the background had wall eyes. Fans eagerly named this pony Derpy Hooves, after the chan-slang term "derp." [The definition of this term is at the core of the controversy] As fans began create art and fiction around Derpy, as a public original character, her character evolved, despite being nothing but a peculiar screencap. They inferred from a brief clip that Derpy was obsessed with muffins, and from her eyes that she may be mentally handicapped, and from a filly unicorn with a similar eye error that she was a mother. Animators began to work in more injokes and references to this pony as the series progressed. In Winter Wrap Up, Rainbow Dash complains of Ditzy Doo flying the wrong direction to migrate southern birds. In Feeling Pink Keen, the grey mare is seen accidentally dropping shipments on Twilight Sparkle. Being a background character, there is an appearance of Derpy in most episodes, growing more and more in-jokey over time, with the most prominent in the aforementioned cameo in The Last Roundup. Naturally, the fanbase was ecstatic with their name becoming canon. But not everyone was happy with the name. While the screenwriter of the episode was not aware of the connotations of "derpy," there was concern the chanspeak term could be a slur against those with mental handicaps. The episode was edited after emails came in requesting a change, and Derpy's name was removed and her voice were changed in the iTunes version of the show. Fans were horrified at this change, starting a Save Derpy campaign and Change.org petition to restore the original scene. A scapegoat was found in DeviantArtist and Tumblr user Yamino, who made a post complaining that Derpy's portrayal was ablist. Bronies began sending hatemail and death threats to Yamino, believing she organized a campaign to get rid of Derpy, with a creator from the show asking them to stop. The rumor of Yamino being a trans female was also spread.

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Trouble in Ponydise