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Bleh, I'm surprised no one complained about Crackle or the mental patient pony.

I know that a lot of people have said this, but Derpy isn't "dead", and probably will never be, to the fandom. The fact that she got a speaking role is just a nice bonus. Derpy isn't like your average TV show character. She's a far-background still that became the ultimate realization of the Ascended Extra, going from a total still muted-color second-long shot, to quick shots with derp eyes, to straight up camera focus, to a VA'd extra, all within a season and a half. Yet, at her core, she's just a background character that never had an official name, and was nearly a different pony entirely in her speaking appearance. She never needed to be in the episode, but she was. It just happened that the guardians of the core demographic found it offensive, and like it or not, they're more important. We tend to forget that, since we're the ones that get all of the public attention.

But we don't need official appearances to keep Derpy alive. Go to DeviantArt, search Derpy, and look at the pages upon pages of fan art. Go to Welovefine, and browse the amount of Derpy apparel that rivals the amount featuring each of the Mane 6. When you get down to it, Derpy is a fan character, and perhaps that's how it should stay. I'll enjoy it if DHX gives us another Derpy cameo, but honestly, I don't need it. I'll enjoy my Mailmare messenger bag and Derpy fanart all the same, whether we get one or not.

Related.

Ugh, I'm irritated and tired. I better get off before I snap and say something I'll regret.

You know what annoys me most about calling Derpy "dead" over of a lack of appearance? How that logic somehow doesn't apply to every other background character.

Trixie, Nightmare Moon, Gilda, Vinyl, Braeburn…None of those characters appear anymore. And they might not never reappear again. But they are certainly not "dead" in the fandom and that shows no sign of changing. Derpy is no exception

Look, as far as I'm concerned people who think Derpy as we know her is dead, as in completely out of commission, no longer canon, never be referenced in any significant way again have got to be blind.

I don't even understand where this idea is coming from, they censored one version of one episode for legal reasons. Since then there's been a hundred cameos ranging from subtle to completely in your face obvious, loads of licensed t-shirts and merchandise, and even custom figurines commissioned just for us. Not to mention she's front and center on practically half of the official comic series #1 covers.

Derpy is not dead, Derpy is bigger then she's ever been, you people are just looking for an excuse to panic.

Dark Magic Twilight is getting a bit popular lately.

Dark Magic Twilight scares me a bit

Eh, I wouldn't make too much of that, chowzburgerz is always saying that kind of stuff.

But then again, let non-bronies/haters/others catch fans making those kinds of statements, and man will they run with it, so, be careful I guess.

It annoys me slightly that I simply do not have the time to post any decent responses to what anyone is saying at the moment. Oh well, have a cute comic instead.

By the way, you know that pony game for android and iOS? Derpy is seriously the most adorable thing in that game. It's kinda lame how far they go out of their way to not name her, while still making her an integral part of several objectives, but hey, I'll definitely take what I can get.

Dark Magic Twilight scares you?!
Um, hello?
Have you met her?
Yeah, that's pretty terrifying (and awesome! …Terrifawesome?)

Then again, dark magic is pretty damn scary even in the most unambitious of hooves.

@Dan
Huh, they're still not using her name?

My half asleep mind just ran weird with that.

Well, Hasbro went ahead and called her Derpy because of us. And they removed all mentions of that name due to moral guardians. But really, what is in a name? Especially one that started as more or less a nickname.

She's had various names of varying canonosity over the couple of years we've known her. First just Derpy, then Ditzy Doo, then Derpy Doo, then Derpy Hooves.

At this point, does her having a canon name even matter? We know who you're talking about regardless of which name one uses, and at this point, when Hasbro is refusing to mention any name at all, she could very well be the protagonist of an early Final Fantasy game. Having a canon personality, but easily swapped out name.

…not that it should be done though…

…

I forgot where I was going with this… Something to do with all her possible names being right, as evidenced by how easily I tried to blend them all together into one long "Full Name". But that's not exactly a strong finish is it?

Oh well.

Okay, since some people were curious about what I was thinking on doing yesterday:

Well, since I suck SO MUCH at drawing, I was thinking on opening a DeviantArt account or an ask blog like those where you draw a character and answer random questions with more drawings of the character (or BOTH!) to practice my style a bit, or maybe even try another style.

But… I don't know.
Should I?

I know those sites are a lot better than Doodle or Die, since I can draw whatever I want (as soon as I respect the rules, obviously) instead of being limited to descriptions, but I'm still quite afraid of doing this. It's just a feeling, I don't know…

Hey, if you've got your own art style (or even if you just use vectors), I'd say go for it. Ponies are fun to draw! There's no better way to practice art than by drawing stuff often.

@Derpy
Really? Must we have this discussion every second week? She's not going anywhere, and is certainly not dead. Don't worry about it.

>every second week
>can't remember once since june

I say that it's a discussion topic we can talk about. If we aren't going to stop the monthly clop argument (and that really has been more or less monthly), I don't see why we can't have the occasional Derpy discussion, especially if it's for a newcomer who shouldn't have to sift through 1100 pages.

Twilitlord:

I say that it’s a discussion topic we can talk about. If we aren’t going to stop the monthly clop argument (and that really has been more or less monthly), I don’t see why we can’t have the occasional Derpy discussion, especially if it’s for a newcomer who shouldn’t have to sift through 1100 pages

I suppose so… Hm, now that I read it over again being slightly more awake, my post may have sounded a little harsh. I'm just saying it's a topic that comes up very often.

I say go for it. I should be working on polishing my own skills too (I'm currently in a bit of art style soul searching) but I'm just sitting here posting ponies…
Hey, look! A pony!

@Millennial Dan: That's what irritates me the most. Things like the iOS game, things like the vinyl figure don't mention her name, it's just frustrating to me.

Eh, I think much of the fandom would rather not have the name retconned, and Hasbro is too afraid of getting some people upset over something like this. Its not an issue of if the term "Derpy" is offensive, so much as is it perceived as offensive by some people.

I think if they really needed to use her name, they could always use use Ms. Hooves. It is is unoffensive, would not actually retcon anything, and most of the fandom (save for some of the shippers) I think would be fine with this. However, even without saying her name, she certainly has become more integrated in adult oriented merch, so I am fine either way. Hasbro seems to know how important she is to us, and compared with what could have happened, could have done much worse.

As long as she continues to be almost sickeningly cute, I really don't care very much about what her 'official' name is or is not.

Just in case anyone is still wondering though, the lack of the word 'Derpy' in any official capacity is absolutely down to 'The Lawyers.'™
The creators and show staff however still call her 'Derpy' all the time and without hesitation in candid interviews (Tara yelled "Where's my Derpy?" multiple times during her panel at EQLA when talking about getting merch from Hasbro), so for most intents and purposes, it is her name.
It just can't be printed for legal reasons.

In fact, I'd almost say that I really appreciate what Hasbro has done in the aftermath.
If put into that same situation, another company could have (and would have) easily written the whole thing off as a horrible mistake and never used or mentioned her again.
It's not like Derpy was important in any way to the actual show or brand.
She was just one of the random filler models that was designed without a lot of thought and that some people just latched onto.
It would have been easy to 'kill' her if they wanted to do so.
Hasbro has instead made a clear commitment to the character (and her fans) even if they are barred from using her specific name by some legal technicality.
That is unusual in a lot of ways so I must commend them for it on some level, even if I do wish that more could be done.
They were put in a tough situation and I think they are handling it better than most multi-billion dollar companies would, so that is something at least.

…

This post needs more cute!
Bring out the Scootal-

Geez, sorry…

Meh

I find it odd that Rainbow Dash gets shipped with Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie quite often, but Rarity significantly less often. Even if still done a fair bit.

So… as a shipping gag for a comic, I sketched up a little scene… Technically, it's not even a "Real" event in the comic, as it took place in a dream. And Rarity was the last of the group kissed… So I don't risk ruining much with this.

So, here you go, for your expert opinions, a section of a page in progress… Rainbow Dash Kisses Rarity:

If you're wondering, this is the same comic series as what I may have posted a while ago about Rainbow Dash training to be a Knight.

@ZeroBlue

Well, you're sorta treading upon "Questionable" lines when you post shipping here. Similar rules apply to the forums as they do to the image galleries, so 1) people may not want to see kissing at all here (although I guess it's fair game,) but 2) it's fine as long as it doesn't go too much further. Just a heads up: as of the last time I checked, people don't really want to see kissing ponies here. That may have changed, but I'm sure the responses to this will tell you how people feel.

Second, I think a lot of people ship Applejack and Rarity (Rarijack), especially with WhiteDiamonds' art being so good and well-known (although I haven't seen much from her recently.)

Third, Rarity's fanon (or any character's canon portrayal) tends to be the foundation for their fanon. We already know that Rarity likes stallions, so she's at least bisexual. But I think most people see her as being straight. That may be why we don't see Rarity shipped all that much.
 
Now if you're asking about the art, then it looks fine to me, but I'm no artist nor am I a connoisseur of art. It's hard to say without seeing more than just these two panels.

Related:

Being straight in a town that's nearly all female must be hard on Rarity.

@Zero
Yeah, you may be skirting a line there.
I doubt it's directly against the rules and I'm certainly not bothered by it personally, but you may want to think about using spoiler buttons or links for 'saucy' content in the future, just as a form of consideration for those people who really don't like it.
That said, those are some pretty good sketches!
Certainly better than anything I could hope to draw.
Keep us apprised of your progress.

As for the lack of RariDash shipping, I think it is simply a case of having little to go on.
Honestly, Dash doesn't have a whole lot of solid character interaction with Rarity, or at least not as much as they have with the other characters.
Dash and AJ have a cool friendly rivalry thing going, Pinkie and Dash are fun-loving pranksters, Twilight helped Dash discover reading and is a nice contrast to Dash's 'cool' persona, and Dash protected Fluttershy in the past and helped her with her confidence in the present.
All of those have good areas for shippers to latch onto.

Dash's main interactions with Rarity have involved getting mildly annoyed at her dress-making and saving her from dying a couple of times.
We just haven't really seen them talk or argue for any significant amount of time.
Then again, shippers have done a lot more with a lot less so who really knows the reason.
Rarity did seem to be getting pretty 'touchy-feely' in the new episodes though…

Oh we're having this discussion again are we? I guess there's only one thing to do.

I do love that picture of Fluttershy, but I just thought I'd say that since someone mentioned Rarity being straight and yeah, Ponyville's majority is female.

Also, my Ponyville is Great and Powerful as it has Trixie in it.

Oh no you don't!

You're not going anywhere!

A couple things.

One, Ponyville's male/female ratio is simply a result of technical limitations, since all the main characters are female that have quite a bit more female art assets to work with when designing background characters. But if you've noticed as the series' budget has grown more and more art assets have been added and the ratio has evened out considerably. Not to mention in the official comic (which is considered canon by DHX and Hasbro by the way) there are no animation limitations at all, as a result the ratio is pretty much 50/50.

Two, none of the characters are sexually active unless explicitly stated otherwise, especially Rainbow Dash. Lauren herself stated that to assume RD is a lesbian because of her look and personality is incredibly sexist and offensive, are you saying that girls can't act somewhat masculine, or enjoy things that aren't particularly 'girly' without implying that they're into other girls? This is a kids show, sexuality is not, nor will it ever be a factor in these character's personality.

I F**KING HATE SHIPPING! Do whatever the hell you people want in fanfiction, but there's no place for that in intelligent show discussion.

Ponies are like spiders, the females eat the males after mating.

All the colts you still see are either virgin or gay, that's why there's an even rate of colts/mares in kindergarten. Adult colts are most commonly gay. The Crystal Empire had so many colts and no fillies because all those years of slavery allowed no moments for pleasure or copulation.

Thanks Random, now I'm having Spiderses flashbacks.

Also EqD reports that the season premier did well

I laughed way too hard at these

Look Twilight, look with your special eyes.

@RandomMan
A nice theory, but ponies actually reproduce through an asexual process known as 'budding.'

Males are just a semi-rare genetic aberration from the female norm.

@Iamslow
"I have taught you well, my faithful student."

And for no reason besides funny:

I usually bypass the issues of anything regarding gender, sexuality or otherwise by plunking them down in a setting where 90% of the time, none of that means diddly squat. Such as fusing Equestria with Golarion (Pathfinder RPG), which the creators of say "unless otherwise stated, everyone is bisexual".

As for the line "Do whatever the hell you people want in fanfiction, but there’s no place for that in intelligent show discussion."

…Well…

Isn't fan-fiction the entire point of Shipping? For most fandoms anyways?

Think about it, any and all conversation about MLP shipping will probably never see the light of day on the actual show. So why do it?

…Because people want to write fan-fiction.

You're right in saying it doesn't belong in show discussion, but it does help Fan-Fic authors learn how to make a… um… convincing romantic scene.

So, I personally see Shipping conversations as more a fan-fic building discussion than a show discussion. And I'm sure not adverse to fan-fic discussions.

…Unless it involves gore.

Now then…

If anyone wants to know what I normally ship… well..

I ship everything at once… No really.

It's worse than Homestuck, they only had to deal with each character pairing up with 4, some forms of which aren't even love.

Me?

I go up to 12 paired with each character… and sometimes beyond.

It gets to the point that a single Twilight Sparkle could be in a relationship with 3 alternate Timeline versions of herself, several incarnations of Rainbow Dash, Trixie, Spike, all three Princesses, and her brother. ALL AT ONCE.

And that is probably the simplest relationship set to describe.

You don't even want to know why Bon Bon would let encourage Lyra to get away with perform a similar stunt in my mind.

No, really you don't. It's not a safe for work Discussion. And I'll probably only ever hint at it in my fics.

A little reminder, this is all fan-fiction and whatnot. So as the rule goes, I can get away with that. But I doubt anybody will take me seriously for it…Not that I need to be taken seriously though.

I feel it's time to bring up the topic of weather or not evil tyrant Trixie would be out of character.
I've heard a bunch of bronies say that Trixie would never be evil or how she just wants love et cetera, et cetera. While I understand the possibility that she might actually be redeemed, I also find the idea that she'd never do anything bad or evil ridiculous. In the one episode she was in she did nothing but insult the other ponies and prove that she has a serious superiority complex. Twilight, in saving the town, crushed Trixie's reputation and, likely enough, her sense of self worth. Therefore it's not unlikely that Trixie sees the only obstacle between her and her previous sense of self is Twilight. Once Twilight is knocked down a peg, Trixie will cease to have any doubts in her own talents (a feeling she probably never had before Twilight showed her up).

As an example how a rivalry can push a person (or unicorn) off the deep end look at the current wars between Edison and Tesla. As a campaign against the use of Tesla's AC currents Edison started publicly electrocuting animals to death (stray cats, horses, an elephant, etc.), just as a dig against Tesla.

I swear, if people chant "out of character" when the Trixie episode comes out I'll flip.

Heya folks. Just dropping by for page 100. Seeya around.

@Iamslow & Deadparrot

OH lawd, that face is hilarious. It was funny when I first saw paused the video on it and it still is. I demand more!

@Shipping & Zeroblue

Did you draw that or are you saying that's part of another comic you selected? If it's yours, well done. I like to see that finished.

I like seeing others attempts at artwork, even it's shipping. I'm one of those people who really doesn't give a damn who makes out with who. I'm not some squeamish prude (so long as it's cute and not gross). Ship away.

@Gak

On a slightly different subject, it looks like all the Gak hype is finally dying down. Things are looking good for my 1 week fame expire time I gave it. But does anyone think it might remain as a lasting joke in Fandom specifically?

@Bob

Hi Bob!

…bye Bob

@Windigo with salad

Oooooohoohoohoo, I can't wait for that episode! Just like Luna's pre season 2 fanon personality I have a feeling a massive chunk of Trixie's fanon will be obliterated before our very eyes. There'll be outliers screaming that the writers broke some pre-existing character continuity that never actually existed of course, and that's always hilarious. But again, like Luna I'm sure Trixie's fully realized canon character will be every bit better then the popular fanon one.

Don't get me wrong, I love fanon and I love the community, but some times they have reaaaaaly bad ideas. *cough*derpy'sfullgrownunicorndaughter*coughcough*

The sketches of Dash And Rarity Kissing were Mine, yes. It's part of some stuff I'm working on over at my Deviant Art account

The Comic Starts Here But it tends to vary in quality and style a lot. Considering I'm only just getting serious at this.

The Sketches you saw can be found Here

Really though, those sketches are the first of the bunch that actually look right to me.

Anyways, not many pages yet, currently working on the rest of the page the sketches are from. Which would be… Page 8.

So 7 pages for now.

@Gigatoast: Sparkler/ Amethyst Star being her "daughter" was something that was around before I came into the fandom. The best way I made sense of it has to do with the constant Doctor Whooves/ Derpy pairing (plus the later "evidence" that puts Derpy in weird places at weird times [filly Derpy in modern day, a picture of a pony in a bookk that looks very much like Derpy from the paleo-pony period]). Not saying it really makes sense, but when have fandoms ever really made sense?

Ugh, Giga's on his anti-fandom kick again.

@Iamslow & Deadparrot & Those that demand more

Made one myself:

I don't get it, what's wrong with Sparkler being Derpy's daughter? It's not like we know her age, and I've argued repeatedly that ponies don't grow old as quickly as humans.

I remember a while ago, some users were saying that the villain was hasbro trolling and I ( as well as others) were dumb, well ha ha.
Man, he looks kinda goofy and lame

Meh, don't mind Giga, he hates fandom stuff. It was really bad before Luna Eclipsed aired.

As for the Trixie issue, I'll post about that when I'm at a computer.

I've read a couple fics where Sparkler was sort of "adopted" as Dinky's sister, not so much as Derpy's daughter but just to act as a sister figure to Dinky. Personally, I think Sparkler is maybe just a close friend of Derpy, but still young enough that she could have been an older sister to Dinky if Derpy were a bit older. Or, at least, that's how it'd go down if I wrote a fic with Derpy in it. #headcanonswag

Trixie returning? In my ponies?

I've never had strict views or opinions of Trixie, so I have no problems with her returning from that standpoint. Whether or not it will be a good call remains to be seen, but I'm ready to wake up and smell the ashes.

Just putting the concept of time distortion aside, it's a colossal stretch. Let's look at the facts.

-Sparkler is a full grown adult.
-Dinky is a school age filly.

They're arguably the same age as Rarity and Sweetie Belle, which would make their mother middle aged, and thus she should look like this.

Based on Derpy's appearance and voice, both of them, there's no way she's that old, in fact there's no reason to assume she's any older then Rarity. It's just a completely contrived concept with little benefit to the fandom as a whole.

JUST SO YOU KNOW, I no longer have a problem with the idea of Dinky being Derpy's offspring, as of episode 213 I can buy it. Sparkler on the other hand… that's just going too far.

@Exudes:
Now that's a concept I can get behind, that seems like the much more logical explanation and less of a desperate jumping to conclusions.

I'd still like to know who made you fanon police.

Shameless 5,000th post GET.

The same person who made you the opinion police.

But seriously, just because I'm critical of a lot of fanon concepts doesn't mean I just flat out hate the stuff the fandom comes up with. I love fanon, I run a tumblr that's features exclusively fanon, I just hate it when people fall into the same tired tropes. "Oh she's a villain, so obviously she's just a misunderstood sadsack who just wants to be loved as opposed to say, an interesting character, or god forbid what the writers actually made her out to be!" GAH! It's too much!

Even worse is when the uninspired, contrived fanon is inevitably destroyed by the actual continuity and it's followers refuse to accept it. They come up with the laziest explanations as to why their ideas are still better then the writers'. It's disrespectful to the characters, to the writers, and to the rest of the fandom who's willing to move on.

I love fanon, why the hell do you think I hate bad fanon so much. If no one bothered to be critical of other people's ideas we'd be swimming in a sea of bisexual Nyx clones!