And 'bronydom' explodes...

(I started a new sweater this weekend. Pictures and knitting content and possibly quilting content to come tomorrow)...

Okay...in this morning's episode of MLP, they did two big things:

1. Confirmed that the "canon name" of the ditzy grey pegasus is Derpy

2. Had Derpy speak.

It's funny, lurking around a few of the Pony fansites, to see the reaction to this. There is some pearl-clutching, some triumphant gloating (mainly over the Derpy/Ditzy name controversy), a lot of hyperventilating over "OMCelestia, they listened to us" and that kind of thing.

I have to admit some of the gloating and such puts me off this kind of fandom a lot. I like to enjoy stuff. I like silly stuff. I don't like arguments, especially those that rapidly descend into name-calling/speculations on the anatomical shortfalls of one's opponent. I don't know. I guess hardcore fandom of anything really isn't for me; it seems that at times it brings out some of the uglier aspects of human nature.

That said, I'm not sure I'm in love with the voice they gave her. I'm hesitant to voice stronger criticism than that; one poster speculated they were trying to go in the direction of making her a "Special" pony (Down syndrome being the situation suggested). I don't know; I didn't hear that. I just heard, "Oh, it's the stereotypical dumb-girl voice, and it's deeper than I'd like."

Also, I found the level of clumsiness that they gave her kind of painful. (Especially if they're going to go the "Special" route with her...I've never known someone who was THAT clumsy and destructive because of some kind of challenge they had.)

I don't know. I wonder how this will affect her popularity. I have a hypothesis: subsidiary characters on shows (as Derpy was) become popular because they're often kind of a cipher. The fans of the show can overlay their own ideas over what little information they have about the character. And I'm not alone in that; in the Origins of Derpy Hooves, the writer notes: "One of the more enduring features of Derpy is she isn’t overly locked into a personality as many of the other background ponies are. " (Actually, I think they meant "endearing" instead of "enduring," but, whatever).

There was an enormous amount of fan commentary about Derpy, where some thought of her as a "challenged" pony, some as a pony who had met with some sort of accident (sometimes as a result of time-traveling she did with the Dr. Who-in-pony-form that is also a fan-favorite character), as a spy who only ACTS "derpy," as a character who is actually brilliant but suffers from some bizarre form of aphasia or speech impediment, or as basically a ordinary pony who sometimes has little glitches and scatterbrained moments.

And I have to admit, that last way was how I imagined her. (So either she was having a REALLY Bad Day in today's episode, or she's not merely a scatterbrain - that she's some kind of Disaster Girl or else she is being destructive under the guise of being merely inept).

I also imagined her voice differently - more high-pitched and "bubbly." I saw a bit of "Born Yesterday" a few months back and realized that how Judy Holliday's character spoke - kind of a high-pitched, slightly "dizzy-blonde" voice, maybe even a little "tone deaf" sounding - was how I imagined Derpy's voice.

But after re-listening to it a couple of times (You can see it here, at least for as long as YouTube allows that clip to stay up), I don't totally HATE it. Another commenter noted that it sound a bit like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer's voice in the old "Animagic" special, and I can hear that. (Oh, and gentle readers: Language warning for the comments that follow that post over there. Yeah...uglier side of human nature indeed.)

(And having known a few people with Down Syndrome, I don't quite hear the claim a couple people were making that they were trying to take her in that direction. If they think that was a "Down syndrome" voice they have a fairly stereotypical idea about it. But I could be wrong...though I think if the show did go that way, they'd be treading on eggshells to avoid offense. And I also have to admit: as well-intentioned as the Very Special Episodes of any comedy show have ever been? They've been kind of heavy-handed and overdone...I really don't want to see MLP go in that direction.)