Spoiler

Not in every case:

 

Point. Of course, giving a nod to one of the very popular fan-pairings of background ponies is a lot safer than actually mentioning what the main cast is up to on the romantic holiday. Bon-Bon and Lyra hanging out on pony-valentines day makes fans happy about the fanon nod; Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash hanging out on pony valentines day make fans start shitting bricks.

Funny comic link.

And another:

 

But we've forgotten the most important element of all:



Also, funny Youtube fan-video that got posted on ED (there's an after-the-credits scene, btw).

 

By the way, if anyone's been following the development of Fighting Is Magic, they'll be doing another livestream on Tuesday (details here). Because everyone loves a pony-based fighting game.

 

NEW COLORFUL HORSE EPISODE.

I'm glad that the "Smile" song finally got used (plus there were a few others), but didn't like the plot resolution. I was hoping that Cranky was more like Carl Fredricksen from Up in that he was mourning a dead wife. The ending just felt a little too convenient. I also don't like how cows, sheep and whatnot are also intelligent races alongside ponies. It's been a background gripe of mine for a while now, but now that we have a talking cow like the one in the beginning of this episode it's really bugging me.

I liked the references to previous episodes, like the Cake twins and Rainbow Dash reading.

 

You could've linked it, you know.

 

I was going to wait for the 1080p link to open up on Equestria Daily and edit it in. I'll put it here instead.

 

Have to agree with RA that the songs in this episode were top-notch; "Smile" finally getting used was nice and had great visuals going along with it, and the other short little random Pinkie songs were all fitting. Pinkie herself lampshading the fact that she sings random songs out of nowhere got a chuckle out of me.

Like RA, I liked all the nods to continuity in this episode, especially since the general lack of continuity has been one of the few consistent complaints fans offer. The final plot resolution was a bit convenient, but we got a lot of nice Pinkie moments out of the episode, so I can forgive tying things up a bit too neatly. Plus, it had another Pinkie chase scene; Pinkie Pie is best stalker.

Also, Pinkie's reality-warping really went up to eleven this episode.

 

Just in case the 'Smile' song isn't stuck in your head already...

 

It's good to finally have a video to put to the music.

 

No new episode today, but apparently there's been some controversy regarding Derpy's scene in The Last Roundup. Some retarded cunt on Deviantart started a bunch of shit about how she was offensive, somehow getting a movement going, and recently Hasbro edited the scene on iTunes. Here's a comparison.

 

The new voice is much better. Which makes sense, considering they didn't tell the voice actress that Derpy is female and not male.

Sucks that they changed the rest, though. But no worries, according to one of the animators the derp-eyes aren't going anywhere in future episodes.

Meh. Putting fan shout-outs in the show itself was a mistake from the beginning, in my opinion. People were going to be pissed off no matter what, because "This doesn't match my fanon (Or fucking head-canon, whatever the fuck that means)."

 

Head-canon = The things that aren't exactly established in the show but they're fairly common in the fandom. Like Lyra and Bonbon's friendship/romantic relationship. Or at least that's my take on the phrase.

As far as Derpy's voice goes, I'm sort of iffy. On the one hand, I thought the original voice was just fine because it gave a perfectly good voice that WORKED to a character who everyone knows is clumsy. I don't know about these parents that freaked out about it, but a girl having a deep voice isn't a big deal. The new voice is fine with me, but honestly, they shouldn't have to cater to everyone. Somepony is going to have a problem with every single episode of the show, there's no doubt about that. It's just the very vocal minority being responded to, as usual.

As was said in the uploader's description of that video, "derp" isn't a term intended to insult retarded people, it's a term used for when you do something so stupid the only thing you can say is, well, derp.

Finally, in regards to shout-outs to the fandom, I'm neutral on the topic. I think it's cool that they would do it, and it's just dandy as long as it stays to the background or, at the very most, a one minute scene (Like the one with Derpy). On the other hand, though, it's a very thin-line between shout-outs and pandering, in my opinion, and, so far, Studio B has been keeping to that line.

 

Don't really care much about the whole Derpy drama; I think editing her name out of the broadcast was stupid and unnecessary, but it's not like the fans are going to stop calling her Derpy just because the episode was censored.

As for the voice change, it doesn't bother me, and it isn't surprising since we already knew the voice actress got Derpy's gender wrong. Old version and new version were both fine.

Really, the only thing that bugs me about the whole thing is that since Derpy is pretty much the mascot of the bronies messing with her has some less than pleasant consequences. From the reactions to the edit, it seems like a lot of the bronies see censoring Derpy as an attack on one of the symbols of the brony community.

The whole reason the bronies got so happy over Derpy getting lines/a name stemmed from the fact that it was a very obvious acknowledgement of the fanbase. Censoring the biggest nod the show has given to its fans comes across as a real slap in the face. It's silly and nonsensical, but most things involving symbols usually are.

One vaguely interesting thing, am I the only one who thinks Rainbow Dash's re-dubbed lines sound really phoned in? For that matter, assuming they didn't change Derpy's voice actress, Derpy's delivery seemed a bit flat too. Maybe the voice actresses weren't exactly happy about having to re-dub the lines either, and didn't feel like giving 100%...

 

Hilarious CollegeHumor animation on bronies.

Also, a pair of NSFW Comics.

The first one is actually pretty much PG-13 and similar in tone with the CH video.
The second, not so much.

 

Well, there's finally a semi-official response to the whole Derpygate thing. Link.

Nothing that surprising in the response; most people were just fine with Derpy being Derpy and the response was overwhelmingly positive, but a few folks complained, and the execs decided to change it. Also, some hints that Derpy (or Ditzy Doo, since it seems like that's going to be her canon name from now on) will be still be around and might even get another proper scene somewhere down the line, which will do a lot to calm down the people worried that her character might get cut over the whole fiasco.

 

Honestly, I couldn't care less that they're changing her name to Ditzy Doo, because she'll probably always be Derpy in my head. And, another thing, as I said in an earlier post, these people getting all bent out of shape about it are a very vocal minority, and we're in a day and age where if you scream and yell loud enough you'll get your way.

Which is exactly what happened here. Frankly, I'm a little disappointed in the people at Hasbro and The Hub, because they could've stuck to their guns here and got the full backing of the vast majority of the fandom. In my opinion, they could've gone with a "Don't like it, don't watch it" stance, and suffered no problems from the fandom.

It's times like these I wish George Carlin were alive and I could speak to him, or I had a direct line to him in the afterlife (if there is one). I'm sure his view on this would be amusing, and it'd probably be the cold truth.