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@Random

I don't think your analogy works. The farmer in your story is doing an action, not making a meaningful statement.

The Derpy incident would be more like if the farmer was a fan of modern art and he decided to hang some weird ink blots on his house as a decoration. Some guy from PETA walks by and when he looks at the ink blots, he sees a rabbit getting mercilessly slaughtered and demands the farmer take it down because he finds it offensive. The farmer should tell him to piss off. He never intended to convey that message with his art hanging, so as a depiction of Rabbit abuse, it is completely meaningless.

If we follow the attitude "If it can be possibly interpreted as offensive, it should be removed" to its logical conclusion, then we have to censor everything ever because literally anything can be interpreted as offensive if you want to. I understand why Hasbro did what they did, but I still don't agree with pandering to idiots in lieu of educating them. If it was a problem Hasbro felt needed to be addressed, they should have issued a polite public statement clarifying that the Derpy scene was in no way intended to offend the mentally disabled. If people decided they still wanted to be offended after that, that's their problem. Of course it's easier to just try to cover it all up instead of making a public stand like that, so that's what Hasbro did.

@Fanon and quality discussion

My point is that fans of some artistic medium have the right to critique and criticize it. Dialogue about what is good in a medium and what is bad is not only enjoyable, it helps art in general to grow.

@Fifths
I've always preferred looking at intent over interpretation.
You can argue back and forth all day about how effective the presentation was, but when an artist says 'This is what I was trying to do,' that should be taken into account more than someone yelling about being offended.

It happened a while back right here on the forum, though I don't remember the specific players now.
One person responded to a comment with a classic 4chan 'faggot,' and someone else took that at face value and was offended.
After a simple explanation of the intent of that statement (as a weird term of endearment nowadays) all was well.

Heck, another example from the show itself:
How many overly sensitive Christians (not insulting the religion as a whole, just these people) have been 'offended' by Rainbow Dash being a clear advocate for homosexuality just because of her color scheme?
Should Hasbro bother listening to these people?

(Oh yeah! I just remembered that old 'Offensive Ponies' tumblr that showed up after the whole Derpy thing that satirized the idea of people being offended at everything. It's still alive apparently: OFFENSIVE PONIES! I do find it hilarious that they have to explicitly say that they're being sarcastic, though.)

@On the lighter, cuddlier side
Anybody like Apple Bloom?

SOURCE
Looks like she's being sold for just $35 plus shipping at the source there, which is a pretty nice deal!
The artist's main page says that he'll also take commissions starting at $35 if you wanted somepony else.

@BSoD, below
Well, here's the main one that I've seen before:

My point was not that it was widespread, just that it existed as Derpy was censored by a very small number of complaints.

@Deadparrot

How many overly sensitive Christians (not insulting the religion as a whole, just these people) have been ‘offended’ by Rainbow Dash being a clear advocate for homosexuality just because of her color scheme?
Should Hasbro bother listening to these people?

Zero by my count. When did that happen?

Also that Tumblr is amazing. I'm extremely offended by its hilarity.

@fifths
I don't have the link, but ask verbose for his explanation on why it was better she was changed. Honestly, despite what some bronies try to say, derpy isn't ditzy. She's mentally disabled and physically disabled(despite what hasbros intentions were). The way she talked and behaved would only be OK if you were drunk off your ass. I know ditzy people and they never act like that. What makes the way she was portrayed worse is the fact that mlp isn't a zany cartoon. Patrick star and Ed can get away with it because those cartoons are silly, but in MLP, Derpy seems out of place and even dash couldn't put up with her idiocy. Really, unless you know the origin of derpy, it can be kind of offensive. It's not needless censorship, it was needed.

Alright folks, I'm going to read My Little Dashie for the first time!

@deadparrot
The difference is that unlike the example of the extreme Christians, the people complaining about derpy had a point.
Lol, lesbian pony sex. I don't know what show he is watching.

I wonder which political group got offneded over Derpy? Republicans or Democrats? Since it was a bunch of soccer moms, my guess would be Republicans.

I saw this picture in the derpy section and would just like to point out some flaws( Atleast in my opinion.
First, Family guy may be a cartoon, but it's racial jokes, black comedy, alcohol drug and sexual content make it a show for adults. Bringing it up in this discussion doesn't make much sense. Why not mention Timmy from south park while your at it.
Now Billy and Ed, yes, they both were in cartoons intended for kids and were plenty stupid, but I still see a difference. Billy and Mandy made a bet with death with Billy's soul on the line in order to save his hamster in the pilot. The series was always pretty dark and took place in a world full of zany characters, so despite his stupidity, he never seemed out of place. Ed also tool place in a world full of silly characters that were crazy in their own way. Be it rolph the immigrant hic, jimmy the bitch with a retainer, jimmy the kid who's best friend was plank, and the rest of the cast. Both cartoons are completely different from MLP. The only thing they have in common is that they are cartoons. Mlp was intended for younger girls and the characters are pretty normal. They may have some exagerated characteristics, but the world is pretty tame. Then comes derpy who is completely different and out of place. Her antics weren't typical of the humor found in mlp. On top of that her eyes were messed. It was just out of place and the joke seemed to be, " hey, look at her being stupid"!
I know that they just wanted to do fan service, but even then I see a problem. I've read a couple fanfics with derpy( including that Sadfic that went around a while ago) and she seems to always have this characteristic that bothers me: she can not get her thoughts across ever. She just can't talk right. Here are a couple examples, "Rhinos and flan,” she said to herself. “Almost time for liftoff. Abort, Houston!"
"SUPER NARWHAL, MY MUFFIN!”
Thats not being clutsy or ditsy, that's a dibilitating mental illness. It's stuff like this that invalidates the whole " people don't get that hasbro was just doing a shout out to bronies, derpy isn't offensive". I'm sure mlp could have a disabled character if the handeld it well, but derpy was handeld clumsily.

Edit: I would like to point out that I actually thought the exact same way as the guy who posted that in the beginning.

@DeadParrot (image on bottom of post)

…

That kind of illogical, paranoid !@#$ is why I'm agnostic.

The thing is, most theists and atheists are stubborn. They get certain ideas in their heads and they don't let themselves get convinced otherwise. They aren't willing to change their beliefs. But if someone isn't stubborn, they can find something that makes more sense or they like better.

That's how it was with me and My Little Pony. At first, I thought; "What? These guys must be bonkers." But later, I thought; "Hey, maybe these guys aren't bonkers." The bronies on the site I first heard about MLP on (BricksinMotion.com) didn't seem crazy when talking about other stuff (I was even friends with one before I became a brony), I didn't realize this until I thought about it. Then I thought; "If they're not bonkers, then that means the show might be good like they say it is." So I watched an episode.

They were right. I became a brony. I had changed what I used to believe and found what I think is the best TV show ever.

So, why are people stubborn? I think it comes from people not wanting things to change. But things change, and you have to deal with changes. Not dealing with changes never got anybody anywhere. But when you're flexilbe, you just might find something new that you like.

TL;DR: Don't be stubborn, be felxible.

@dac
Yeah, I agree. Derpy just doesn't fit into MLP like those other characters fit into their respective universes, especially considering the target audience. Those other shows are aimed at older audience (especially Family Guy, that's not even a children's show lolwut), and of course they would have different values. That was an extremely flawed and logically lacking comparison and it hurt my head reading it.

But I doubt the original Derpy was disabled or had a debilitating mental illness. It was mostly just in the way she talked, which sounded exaggerated to the point of satire. That's probably what some parents took offense at. I'm sure if they used the new, more bubbly voice for her, they could still refer to her as Derpy and no one would care.

Man, that was sad… I didn't cryed for it .I think the last time I really cried for a fictional character was when the Iron Giant went boom. Very well written BTW. The compassion involved is incredible it really makes you feel, but is not that sad.

So: My Little Dashie is good. It is sad but It's not that sad.

Hey, I asked a question, and you guys still ignore me.

@Dac
How's this for a better example?
Anyone remember Bunny from The Powerpuff Girls?


Never heard about any kind of uproar there and it would be difficult to argue against Bunny being literally retarded.
Plus, girl show (kind of) and mostly normal primary characters in terms of personalities

That is all.

Oh of course. The original derpy didn't have down syndrome by any means. She was just a little to clumsy. Add her voice and her eyes and I can see why people might get offended.

@deadparrot

Again, that humor wasn't out of place really. Remember the episode where the professor crossdressed? The realistic guns? The towns people being to stupid in that one episode to realize right away the electricity + water equals bad? The fact that instead of using the magic of friendship or love, they would use the magic of fists to the face? Remember that mlp is for girls around 4-10. The jokes in there must be good spirited and inoffensive. Stop trying to look for examples in other cartoons because it doesn't work that way.

Let's not make political scapegoats here, mmkay? I doubt these so called soccer moms even know how the government works, let alone be able to register for a party.

@Chowzburgerz

1. I don't see how that's relevant or even interesting.
2. There is no need to make 3 posts on the same page for the same thing.
3. If people don't want to answer your post, they aren't interested in it. You can't force people to listen to your demands. Instead, it's better to leave it behind you and move on.

This.

People who get offended at ridiculous things may think they know politics, and may think they know how our government works, but they don't, and probably never will.

Anyways, listen to RandomMan, Chowzburgerz. I hate to say it, but if people don't respond to your post, they just aren't interested. Complaining about how you were ignored and reposting the question is just bad thread etiquette. If the people deem your post worthy, they will reply to it. Trust me.

We've all had posts ignored at some point. There's no need to get your jimmies all rustled.

Did somepony say 'POLITICS?'

Pinkie's got the right idea!
More 'party,' less 'political!'

Back from a short vacation because Summer.

To get caught up on recent events:

@Derpy:

I don't think it matters who got pissed off or why. Might have been trolls, might have been legitimate anger, might have been something else. Doesn't matter. The thing that matters is that Hasbro had to cover their asses over something that could potentially be large enough to cost a lot of money. And that would mean they would have to jump ship on the show, potentially, because it cost money and caused a law suit, which would be immensely expensive, even if it didn't reach courts or if Hasbro won.

Doesn't matter whether it was a Republican, Democrat, soccer mom, troll, or anything else. What does matter is that Hasbro did the right thing and fixed the show so that if anybody was offended, they aren't anymore. You can cry out about how being politically correct is bullshit, but that's the way the world works, and Hasbro knows it. They might not like it, but it doesn't matter.

@My Little Dashie:

I don't know why it did, but it made my cry harder than any other form of media ever has. Ol' Yeller was close, but that was when I was a kid, so it's a lot different. MLD wasn't particularly special, and I've read sadder MLP fics that were better-written, it just made tears jerk out. For an example, Black & White is fucking sad, to the point that it made me depressed for several days, but I didn't cry a single tear.

My Little Dashie is an enigma, kind of. It doesn't have the same level of writing quality of many other fics that are sadder, but it just lines up perfectly.

@The deal with other characters being more retarded than Derpy or whatever:

Again, it doesn't matter. Somebody got pissed off at Derpy, and that's all that matters in this scenario. Were it different, that person could have gotten pissed at Billy or Ed, but they didn't, and they probably won't. Lots of factors in it, and none of them are easy to line up to explain the deal.

MLP is indeed for girls at a young age, but you seriously can't believe that Powerpuff Girls was never intended for an audience of a similar age. Add to that that Derpy was only a minor appearance, while Bunny had a whole episode dedicated to her that completely went over anything that Derpy ever was.

and besides, I always though Snails was way more retarded:

Despite all my rage I'm still just a rat in a cage… So I completely gave up once I heard my lol was posted on 9gag, reddit, and imgur. Now I just don't want to hear about those sites.
So on my path of blind rage I decided to get my revenge by coping someone else's work. Nah jk, But if you've heard I got Sony Vegas, I've made a handful of videos and now I want to see whats the best thing I can throw out. So on that note I am working on a Ripoff video called "Ponies the Collection" Based off Ponies the Anthology but on a way smaller scale. Here's a Horribly made trailer I made for my Facebook group. Yes RandomMan, I'm sharing more stuff again.

Here

I refer you to the point I made to Random about judging something as a thing in itself and judging something as a meaningful statement. If Derpy's personality and mannerisms were imported into a real person and you asked me to judge whether that person was mentally disabled or not, I would definately lean towards the former.

That's entirely irrelevant however. Cartoons are caricatures, they have oversized heads and exagerrated facial expressions. They shrug off mortal injuries like they're nothing. Their personalities are also exagerated. If someone in real life acted like Twilight did when she thought she was going to be late for her friendship report, I would judge that person to be criminally insane. Doesn't matter however, because it's a cartoon. The point of these features isn't to depict a thing realistically, but to suggest at a point. The human archetype the creators meant for Derpy to portray was the clumsiness and airheadedness we all exhibit sometimes. The best way to get this point across was to write it large, nothing more.

Saying a cartoon is offensive is saying that it depicts an offensive idea, and the only way this is possible is if the author INTENDED to depict a offensive idea, which I don't believe Hasbro or studio B did.

As far as mlp not being a zany cartoon…

It's zany enough.

And let me make another point here. You DO NOT have the right to not be offended. The law guarentees you a right to live and work without being physically molested, it guarentees you intellectual freedom, and it guarentees you a measure of social equality, but it does not guarentee that some idiot isn't going to do something that might rustle your jimmies a bit. There was no NEED for censorship, Derpy could have been a nazi pony painting fucking swastikas in Jewish pony blood and there still wouldn't have been a NEED for censorship, not when you can just turn off the television.

Edit: Also, you keep trying to discount examples of retardation in other cartoons, but the more you do it, the more you seem to just be drawing an arbitrary line. Your attempts to justify mlp as a cartoon for really young kids is weak. What exactly is the age when it magically becomes alright to make fun of the retarded? What happens between the years of 8 and 10 that it makes it suddenly go from being not ok to ok?

Sounds u like you're just coming up with excuses to justify what is ultimately a matter of subjective taste.

@Dac below

"No, just no. Also, a couple instances of slapstick comedy doesn’t really compare to billy and Mandy, Ed, Edd, and Eddy in terms of how silly or zany it can get."

I said "Zany enough" not "the absolute pinnacle of zaniness ever to be zaned". My point is that mlp has ample precedence for not adhering to strict realism. It's a show about cartoon ponies going onadventures for Christ's sake.

@fifths
" Derpy could have been a nazi pony painting fucking swastikas in Jewish pony blood and there still wouldn’t have been a NEED for censorship, not when you can just turn off the television."

No, just no. Also, a couple instances of slapstick comedy doesn't really compare to billy and Mandy, Ed, Edd, and Eddy in terms of how silly or zany it can get.

@pheonix

I understand what you are saying. I'm not saying power puff girls is for adults or an older audience than mlp , I'm just saying the way the cartoon was made it somewhat more acceptable to have that I suppose. You can't deny that power girls had more violence and risqué humor.

Really, I'm not saying you should find it offensive. I'm just saying I can see how others might and I think hasbro did the right thing.

Out of curiosity, who do you think should voice the season 3 villain? I'm thinking Jemaine Clement.

You may know him from the band "Flight of the Conchords" or his role as the evil parrot from the movie "Rio"

@Fifths
I see what you're saying about not having the right to censor 'offensive' material (That's basically the First Amendment in a nutshell), but they will always have the right to complain.
Hasbro would be under no legal obligation to change their nazi pony (unless some hate speech law kicked in), but they sure as hell would hit a crap-ton of resistance trying to get it to air and a massive backlash if they somehow did get it out.
For a company primarily trying to make money, it is in their best interest to avoid controversy so I can understand their decision to change Derpy even if it is disappointing.
That said…

@Dac
Yes, other shows have had more 'extreme' styles thus allowing for more wild characterizations, but I still contend that MLP has plenty of history with exaggerated personalities for a clumsily destructive pony to fit right in.
(Hell, Snips and Snails pretty much destroyed the whole town with their idiotic Ursa plan.)
I understand why some people found it offensive I guess, but the whole thing seems far overblown.

In fact, I don't even consider Derpy's actions 'dumb.'
She apologized every time showing that she fully understood her actions and their consequences.
She was just clumsy.
The fact that she kept wanting to help was endearing, too.

@Windigo
He could be good!
He was also the bad guy from the newest Men In Black movie, though his makeup was so heavy that I had no idea it was him until I saw his name in the credits.
He has a good 'evil' voice.

"Isaid “Zany enough” not “the absolute pinnacle of zaniness ever to be zaned”. My point is that mlp has ample precedence for not adhering to strict realism. It’s a show about cartoon ponies going onadventures for Christ’s sake."

Who said anything about realism? It has nothing to do with realism, but how a joke or character fits in the world of the cartoon. You can argue until the cows come home, but the fact is that enough people were offended and they figured changing it was the best thing to do. It might seem trivial to you, but to people with mentally disabled children, it's not. Derpy didn't sound ditzy, she sounded stupid. Add the eyes and rainbow dashes annoyance and it isn't a light hearted joke to some. Plain and simple.
@deadparrot

My cousin with downsyndrome apologizes when he does something wrong. Mentally ill people aren't comatose, just slow. Some would say that's what derpy was.

Dac wrote:

@pheonix

I understand what you are saying. I’m not saying power puff girls is for adults or an older audience than mlp , I’m just saying the way the cartoon was made it somewhat more acceptable to have that I suppose. You can’t deny that power girls had more violence and risqué humor.

Really, I’m not saying you should find it offensive. I’m just saying I can see how others might and I think hasbro did the right thing.

I know that Powerpuff Girls had more leeway in things than MLP but I don't feel that it was THAT far away from MLP levels of violence (Ie, the scene in the S2 season finale where they beat up on all those changelings definitely brought back some old PPG memories) and appropriately, the Derpy joke was far far less than anything the Powerpuff Girls ever managed, including the bunny episode.

I can see how others can be offended.And I understand Hasbro's decision 100%. I'm not mad at them nor do I feel any hate or anger towards the people who got offended but I also feel they got worked up over a completely silly thing. If this was not a fandom created character, I guarantee that nothing would ever have happened.

And the proof is that Snails has every single thing that people found offensive about Derpy: Uncoordinated eyes, slurred speech, stupid mannerisms and NAME WHICH MEANS SLOW.

@DeadParrot222:
Boris the Animal? Aw man, I loved that guy!

I mean he was over the freaking top and had some of the dumbest lines I've ever heard, but he had a really cool design and the way his voice shifted pitch near the end of every sentence made him sound totally badass.

Also @Dac:
For god's sake man, it's "< blockquote > [text] < /blockquote >".
Just get rid of the spaces and it works perfectly for quoting someone.

Who should voice the villain for Season 3?

cracks knuckles

Jeremy Irons (Scar from Lion King)
Liam O'Brien (War from Darksiders)
Morgan Freeman (Need I say it?)
Mako Iwamatsu (Aku from Samurai Jack and Iroh from Avatar: TLA)
Whoever the fuck voiced Skeletor

I could go on…

@burning pheonix
I had a feeling someone would bring up that fight seen. I wouldn't compare it to power puff girls at all. If I remember, sometimes the monsters would be killed. Let's not forget teeth getting knocked out, visible bruiseing, and mojo jo jos brain always showing.
The reason bronies tend to get mad about that is because it's a fandom created character, but I don't think that had much to do with it. Snails, he's kinda dumb and his name implies he's slow, but his eyes are cordinated and he isn't crashing into everything and being a pain while having a deep and exagerated voice while being a girl and obvious derped eyes. It was just derpy was more in your face while snails was ditzy.

@Dead Parrot

That's why I said I understand why Hasbro did what they did, but don't approve of it. They made a choice that was calculated to avoid risk to the company's reputations and therefore its profits, but they inadvertently fed into the growing trend of giving power to the offended party. The soccer moms and their ignorance should not have been vindicated like that. They retracted something not because they thought it was wrong, but because they were afraid it might lose them money.

@Dac

Realism is relevant because it sets the tone for how we interpret things, aka whether a joke will be appropriate or not. The only reason a piano falling on Twilight's head is considered a bit of light comedy instead of a terrible tragedy is because the bar for realism is set relatively low. The piano in this context is a exageration meant to convey the point "Twilight suffered a painful, but mostly inconsequential injury, and painful but mostly inconsequential injuries can be funny. Commence laughter."

In a similar fashion, Derpy's derpiness is exagerated to convey the point "This person is a ditz and she's annoying Rainbow Dash with her ditziness. Ditziness and Rainbow Dash being annoyed are funny. Commence laughter." It doesn't matter that in real life Derpy would probably be considered mentally disabled, her mannerisms are there to convey a point.

And when you say "Enough people were offended", it should be clarified that like ten people were offended. Ten people were offended enough to write emails and this made Hasbro overreact and censor themselves. Stop acting like this was such an open and shut case of Hasbro censoring something that was clearly offensive, if it were, everyone would agree with you and we wouldn't be arguing right now.

Just to clarify what my points are in this:

-Studio B and Hasbro did not intend to offend the mentally disabled so their portrayl is ultimately harmless. Even if it can be argued that Derpy was distasteful, she shouldn't be considered a meaningful reflection of malice.

-I don't think the depiction was even distasteful personally, but a harmless use of cartoonish exaggeration to convey a point.

-I think it was wrong for Hasbro to censor just because a few people decided to interpret the scene as offensive.

Ok, I'm sorry for my outburst. One of my Asperger's side affects is impatience. May I have a group hug please?

Okay, hug time!

(Ignore Scootaloo's face there. She's just in one of her 'moods'.)

Just for tonight, I'm going to read in detail everyone's points before I go and try to address them. There are a few people who think that (or act as if) their logic is infallible, and that never sits well with me.

@RandomMan

What do you think about Derpy’s canon voice, both of them?

Briefly, I don't like either one. I prefer the first one. The reasons I didn't like the second was because it was not quality voice acting that we've come to expect from the show. It seemed rushed and forced in (because it was.) It didn't "fit."

The first had moments that was perfect, but "Nice work, Rainbow Dash" among other phrases was hard to enjoy for me.

@Information

I think people tend to forget that the target audience (including most of the PR) was focused likely for years before the first airing of Mare in the Moon, on little girls and their families. My guess was that they weren't sure what they were going to do at first, then once they knew, they did it. Hasbro didn't (and probably won't) lose sleep that "the bronies are angry." They had a plan for what FiM would be, and they had planned it for a while. I doubt that bronies are main the reason why FiM is still on the air, so losing our favor altogether probably didn't stress them.

@Giga (raging @Pyro)

I love you and your art, but you've really got to learn how to chill. An opinion is fine, but there's no need to put people down. It does nothing but get people mad at you, and it serves no real purpose (unlike this conversation, which could rustle some jimmies, but is good for conversation.)

Same for you, Pyro (although I did give your kramas.)

@Fifths

I'm making a whole post for you, bro.

But this is some light (comparatively to my response to you) reading until I finish. again.

*@chowzburgerz

I'm not much of a hugger, but no blood, no foul. It's cool. I ain't mad at ya.

@fifths
I meant at what point did I knock mlp for not adhering to realism. I didn't, nor did realism have anything to do with the point I was trying to make. I'll just let verbose post what he has to say though.
"ten people were offended"
You know that for a fact, do you?

@Season 3 villain voice:

I think that Frank Welker should voice him. He voices Megatron in Transformers Prime.
Example:

But I don't really care who voices him, just as long as he has a badass voice.

I read somewhere (in the older PG I think) that the voice actor for Derpy thought that the character was male. Derpy's voice was pretty strange, and I'm sure there would be much less complaints if her voice was more in-line with other characters'.

The bit that showed how she ended up wrecking the town to begin with didn't make it into the episode, leaving Derpy jumping on the stormcloud seemingly for no reason at all. Meh.

Anyway, I thought everyone moved on from this whole Derpy thing; episode or not, Derpy is still Derpy.

Actually, I'm not going to post. Fifths won't get it anyway. And it's not worth the time.

See if any of that suits you. If it doesn't, then I'll concede to your superior logic (as you're presenting it.)
 
Because some things are more important than being right.

Boo!!!!

Weak!!!!

Boo!!!!

hey everybody, let's build something and knock it down.

@fifths
"Stop acting like this was such an open and shut case of Hasbro censoring something that was clearly offensive, if it were, everyone would agree with you and we wouldn’t be arguing right now."

What? Don't forget that even though you don't find it offensive, others did and they had valid points. So it was open and shut in that sense. Don't tell me to "stop acting". I'm not trying to force anything on you. If you don't find it offensive, that's fine, I dont really ethier. Others did however, and we should respect that.

Edit: I tried the blockqoute thing but like always, it didn't work. Sorry, but it's not a big deal

Yeah. I read my lil dashie a while ago. It didn't make me cry a river but i did tear up a bit after i read it.

Speaking of which what are the saddest fanfics you guy's have ever read?

@Seal:

Settle down in your chair, this'll be a long one.

My Little Dashie has been mentioned, there's also:

Black & White
Dreaming With Ponies
Bubbles.doc
The Last Crusade (not the best, though it is pretty sad)
Bittersweet
Simply Rarity (for just a few days, Rarity was best pony, and there was no contest)
Final Dream of a Filly
Blood, Sweat, and Tears
A Summer Twilight
Today, Tomorrow, and Forever
Somewhere Only We Know
The Things We Leave Behind
Yours Truly (goddamn, was this a good story)
The Pursuit of Happiness

And for the grand-fucking-slam:

Eternal, my absolute favorite fic. It has sad, happy, funny, deep, mindfucky, world-building, etc.

Now, of course, these are all the sad-fics I've read, not just the saddest, because both sad and quality are subjective. If you guys want me to, I'll fix the links up, but I didn't because, obviously, it'd take a long time.

Mako's dead. He died before the series finale of A:TLA.

@Verbose

I'm really disappointed man, I was earnestly hoping that there could be some intelligent dialogue between us. So I disagree with your viewpoint and you decide to automatically discount me as being unable to "get it" and not being worth your time? Is it because I'm not intelligent enough to comprehend your ideas that others seem so quick to grasp? That's both rude and I hope inaccurate!

Or is it that in order to understand where you're coming from, one has to have a background of experiences which I obviously lack. If this were the case, then you clearly have a form of life that is so utterly alien from my own that there can be no meaningful communication between us. Your ideas would literally be rendered incoherent in the public forum of thought that I come from because such a public forum is predicated on common understanding. Apparently one of us has a set of experiences that is so utterly alien to the rest of the human race that they must not even belong to the same species (Oh God…I think I just outed myself.) If it's true that your viewpoint can only be understood by one who has a specific set of experiences, then you have no right to expect it to hold any weight in public because it's literally incoherent to everyone else. I don't think that's the case however, and I hope you'll change your mind on it as well.

I did read the article you linked me, and here's my response:

Yes, you just need to get over it.

Schopenhaur once made the analogy that human interaction is like two porcupines trying to breed. The porcupines have nothing but good will towards each other, but it's a simple brute fact of their biology that they're going to poke each other now and again while they're at it, and not in the good way. Likewise, when human beings interact in this big complex society of ours, there is bound to be some misunderstandings and hurt feelings.

Am I happy that some people looked at the Derpy scene and were legitimately offended by it? No, I think that's really unfortunate that they were. They made a honest mistake and were reacting against what they perceived to be a social injustice. As I've exhaustively argued however, because Studio B and Hasbro had absolutely no intention to speak out against the mentally handicapped, interpretations of the Derpy scene as offensive are completely meaningless. There is no bad guy to be defeated here, no ignorant hate message to be dispelled. There's just a grey pony with a funny voice that some people took to be retarded.

I dislike how Hasbro reacted because I feel it vindicated ignorance. You say in your article that leaving the Derpy scene up would have reinforced a hurtful stereotype. The exact opposite is true. By taking it down, Hasbro validated the soccer moms' original thesis "Any depiction of clumsy, ditzy behavior is a slight against the mentally disabled and should be taken down" Suddenly it's become a little less safe for cartoons anywhere to depict clumsy, ditzy behavior, which is kind of a staple of cartoons. The fight against discrimination wasn't aided in the least by this, all it did was allow some people to go on thinking a perfectly innocent cartoon character was evil and piss off a few thousand bronies.

Is it a good thing that misunderstandings like the Derpy situation occur? Of course not. Is it a neccesary evil? Yes, because the only way to get rid of it is to get rid of human interaction all together. And you know, that's exactly what's happening in modern society and one of the things that is so wrong with it. People are so scared of misunderstanding that they're beginning to stifle human interaction altogether. Everyone is always so careful when they say something, always sure to hedge their words in "I think"s, and "It's my opinion"s. People are so terrified that, God forbid, something they say might accidentally offend someone else that they're starting to stop talking altogether. That's what the Derpy situation was, terror and censorship all for a simple misunderstanding.

Posting ponies to take up space and switch topics.

This is the internet, nobody is right. Deal with it. Opinions are called opinions for a reason, not facts.

Oh, so we're breaking the image cap, now?

YO, GUYS, WE'RE BREAKING THE IMAGE CAP!

Hmmmm….

Do you think I should add some more Celestia?

You didn't read that, Fifths.

>"Derp" will have a negative connotation, regardless of what the creators meant and regardless of what their intentions were.
>>What you are arguing is that as long as the intentions are good, it allows for matters such as this to go without any change.
>The voice of Derpy was too similar to the sounds some mentally disabled make. For South Park, sure. Not for My Little Pony.
>Just "getting over it" because you didn't mean anything by it will still kill a person slowly. This is my field in graduate school. Allostatic load and whatnot. Derpy's existence as she was portrayed isn't worth it, because she's still in the show. They even made a toy of her.

You're not going to get it, because you're putting your own enjoyment over others' feelings, because you feel as if their logic is flawed. I can't say whether you're right or wrong, but that stance disgusts me, in all honesty. I don't feel like arguing with someone with your current mindset. I know your argument, you know mine. Nothing comes from it.

I concede. I can't argue this with you and not be upset, so I simply should not.

@fifths

Dick Cheney didnt intend to shoot his friends face, ask him how that went. Haha.

Anyways, so guis. Do you know When season three starts?

I remember the teasers said it was this month, but it's probably September again. If it is August, HELL YEAH!!!