Derpy Hooves is one of the biggest deals in fandom character adoption we have ever seen. Of all the background ponies over the years, she has always been one of the most significant to both the fandom, and the show staff. Things got a little rocky back in 2012 though, right at the peak of the brony craze!
Below the break, lets dive into Derpy Hooves and how we eventually saved her!
(In other news, we have a schedule for these pony history posts now. Expect them on Sunday, Tuesday, and thursday!)
First off, we need to review the video up above that really started this entire drama-filled event. The awesome people over at DHX, for the first time ever, adopted a fandom character and gave her an entire scene and speaking role. Outside of a bit of confusion over her voice being somewhat on the male side, people loved everything about it. The fandom literally exploded in happiness for weeks!
Something was broiling behind the scenes with the head honchos over at Hasbro though. Apparently a few people that weren't so fond of everyone's favorite clutzy mare decided to send them angry emails, citing that she was offensive and should be removed. Back then, Hasbro really wasn't sure what to make of the brony fandom, and their focus remained on keeping the soccer moms out there appeased without much thought for what we were up to. Really, only The Hub and DHX had anything to do with us.
The iTunes copy of the episode was removed, and a week later re-uploaded with the entire scene modified. Derpy's name was axed, eyes corrected, and voice changed.. We Love Fine had to remove shirts with "Derpy" in the name, and it seemed like Hasbro had flown into full on damage control mode.
And thus, SAVE DERPY began!
Through petitions, angry emails, boatloads of sad pony images, videos, and more, the fandom collectively bombarded Hasbro with pro-Derpy messages. A battle of words was fought, and eventually it seemed like there was some light at the end of the tunnel. Amy Keating Rogers (the original writer for The Last Rounderp) responded to the event, giving us some insight into what exactly went into bringing her into the show. (We even got all those comments back with the Disqus switch if you want to read them!)
Eventually, Hasbro began opening up. While never formally dropping any kind of press release, Derpy merchandise started to appear again. We Love fine was able to relist the shirts (with the name "bubbles" instead), and SDCC 2012 had an exclusive figure on the way. The war was seemingly over, with only her name being the casualty. Around the halfway point for season 4 after a season of silence, they straight up had her join Rainbow Dash in Rainbow Falls to the surprise of everyone.
Episode 100 is sort of a testament to what we accomplished here. A beloved fandom character was blacklisted, and we got her right back! I, for one, welcome our new wall-eyed overlord.
