The Reputation of Bronies- EDIT- Derpy Hooves

[EDIT]

I made this blog originally BEFORE I had caught wind of the whole Derpy fiasco that's been going on. I'm a bit slow like that, with my lack of internet. But what I've seen this morning has caused me to NEED to bring this issue up with all of you, so please read this and take it as seriously as you took the previous one.

First of all, what I would like to point out from the previous post is that a lot of people were surprised, some even disbelieving, that bronies were trolling each other. Well, I'm here to show you some of the nasties that I've seen. I will only show you a link to ONE case, but know there are many more.

Someone showed me a deviant who had been brutally harassed by FiM bronies, because she was friends with an animator of the G1 MLP show. This animator was also brutally assaulted verbally, with threats on his life from hysterical bronies who hate the G1 show. Now, obviously, not everyone is like this. But there is enough bronies out there who are "FiM purist" enough to cause people to have to hide from the social media completely for fear of being threatened, or, worse case, actually harmed.

And finally, to the bulk of my edited post: Derpy Hooves.

I'm sure you all know about what's been going on with the lawsuit against Hasbro for Derpy Hoove's appearances, and that they have changed her. Now, I don't know all the details, but I do know this: Someone on Deviant here, has been blamed for the whole Derpy problem completely, and she has come under fire for it.

I speak, of the deviant Yamino. She has spoken out against Derpy, and she has made it publicly known that she is on the side of the Derpy argument that agrees that she should be changed. But this isn't about her trolling, no. Because she's not. She is not going out of her way to troll, or anything of the sort. Her express opinions are defending people, which is something we should all appreciate.  It's about you, the bronies, the pegasisters, the broniettes, whatever you want to call yourselves.

Take a moment to look at Yamino's front comments. Over twenty pages of people screaming at her, because for some reason they assume that the entire thing is her fault alone. This is disgusting. I actually found out about people harassing her from another group's front page, and when I saw it, I was appalled.

Now, let me take a moment away from Yamino's page to tell you all something. I, personally, heavily disagree with Yamino's opinion on Derpy the character, as well as "Derp"/"Herp a Derp" and "Derpy" the memes. I wholeheartedly disagree with her claims on it being an enabling word for mocking the mentally impaired or handicapped.

However, I do not find her to be wrong as a person. I do not find her opinion insulting to me, my way of life or how I see Derpy the character. I do not think that she is to blame for Derpy's being changed, nor do I feel that she deserves to be treated this way. She and I may not share views on this subject, but she is still a fellow Brony and I respect her for standing up for what she feels is true and right. She is entitled to do such a thing and for doing so she has my undying respect.

I know that Derpy being changed affected many of us personally, especially for why/how it was done. But Yamino is not to blame here, nor should she be abused verbally in the way that she has. The way these bronies are acting is not "Love and Tolerance", and the fact that so many people have gone out of their way to insult her, comparing her to Hitler, sending her death threats.

This is the exact kind of behavior I was talking about. I feel personally ashamed for the behavior of every single person who commented on her page, many of them members of my group. I sent her a formal apology from the fandom once I found out, and thus decided that this needed to be said.

Anyone further whom is found out harassing, blaming, threatening the Deviant Yamino, or anyone else who shares her opinion on Derpy Hooves, will be suspended from this group for an undisclosed amount of time. I am dead serious. This is an issue I cannot let pass by without serious consequences. In addition, anyone found doing any sort of behavior of this kind toward anyone else, be it a G1 fan, an anti-Brony, someone against Derpy, or even another Brony for ANY reason will have the same punishment.

This is not a ticket for you to go ahead and show me anyone who's "trolled" you or your friends. I'm talking people who made death threats kind of serious, not "trolling". What has transpired here is beyond trolling within the fandom, it's become downright ill will toward one another.

I know that everyone can't agree, and sometimes one can't just settle for someone else's opinion. And even though Derpy has been changed, she will still be OUR Derpy in our hearts and will always be. Think of it this way: As much as it bothers you that Derpy has changed?

It bothers the people who are against Derpy's depiction ten times as much on how she is. Can't you just accept that if it hurts them that badly, then maybe we can keep her in our hearts as a fandom and just accept that? We should be able to accept people who differ in our opinions on all things, and even if we don't, we should never attack them for it. No matter what it is. No one deserves to be treated this way, no matter how much we disagree with them.




[Original post]

Being someone who is not very deeply ingrained in this fandom, I myself can sit on the fence about certain issues. Mainly; how people outside of our fandom see people within. Now, don't get me wrong; I adore MLP-FIM and I enjoy watching it and, if I had the money I'd be buying customs and plushies and whatnot, but even so, it is not what I think about 24/7 like a lot of the fandom does.

For those of you who do not know, most people outside of the Brony/Pegasister fandom see people within it as one or more of these:

-Weirdos who fap to cartoon horses
-Overgrown men in their 30s who live in their parents basement and hoard toys
-People who sit and scream about love and tolerance but have a hypocritical view of it
-Easy Troll targets
-Manchildren
-Pedophiles

^These are just from what I can tell from viewing what other people who are not in the fandom have said and reacted to. But we all know that these are all misconceptions; or at least most of them.

Which leads me to my actual point: From what I have seen in this fandom, a lot of you seem to be very, very much Troll Bait. Not to say that all of you are; hell, some of you guys even are trolls yourselves, and some of you attempt to be. But most of you are completely innocent in that you react exactly how the troll wants you to.

So I declare that we all make a movement to try and show all the doubters, the pony-phobes, the assholes and the overall trolls who harass fellows in our fandom.

-First of all, if you see someone intentionally trolling? Ignore them. The best thing you can do is just not react. A troll's only reasoning behind what they say is to get a reaction. They oftentimes don't even mean it or know what they're saying even means, just that it will irritate or enrage their target. So don't react. At all. Just ignore them. I know it's hard, but just don't even look at it twice.

-Secondly; If you find someone else has already reacted/replied to a troll, attempt to reason with them privately that it is not worth it  to try and "troll back". No matter what you do, bronies, you cannot troll back. It's not possible. The only people who can troll back against trolls, are part-time trolls themselves, or people who know how trolling works enough to be able to ball it up and toss it back without any recoil.

-Thirdly; Never, ever, ever go to anti-pony groups, forums, sites, videos, anything. Ever. These things are like traps. They are there to make you irrationally angry and have you make a fool of yourself, and you can never take it back. Remember that our reputation developed from a seed of truth, so do your best to defy it.

-Finally: Don't troll each other. I've seen this a LOT. Bronies and Pegasisters violently attacking one another, accusing one another and making rage-journals. This is petty and catty. ALL fandoms do this, yes, but I've never seen it happen so very often in one setting before. For people who like the same things, you sure hate one another a lot. I've seen people go and accuse one another of copying them, of stealing, of being a "fake" Brony, of being "sick" because of a certain pairing or whatever that they like.

I've seen people get trashed on by other Bronies and Pegasisters for their favorite character, or their least favorite character, simply because they stated so. I find that a lot of this "Love and Tolerance" thing to be a bit of a façade; I've seen more friction in this fandom than any other, and I've been in some crazy fandoms. [Long ago I was deep into the Naruto fandom, as well as InuYasha and other anime as that; more recently I am in the Transformers fandom, which has a massive fissure splitting the fandom in half solidly; And there's even more that have a ridiculous amount of ridiculous people] But never have I seen so many people disagree over the simplest of things.

So I think we should all strive to be a TRUE loving fandom and just ACCEPT things. Realistically, the only time you should be angry with another Brony or Pegasister is if they are being wholeheartedly irrational, and even then you should at least attempt to stay calm when handling these things. I'm not saying it's impossible not to fight; hell, I have fights with people on DA sometimes too, but I'm not a "true Pegasister" because I don't tolerate certain things, like thievery, lying, trolling, rudeness or rule breaking.

And, even if we don't do it for our own image: At least try and do it for Lauren Faust. She is trolled as much as all of us combined; all of OUR bad rep gets put onto her, and everyone else who has a large hand in the show, and because of that their online life can become hell. And it's our fault.

What this all sums up to, is that you should remember that naysayers are almost always watching. They will always be here looking for reasons to point out how distasteful this fandom is as a whole. So let's not give them anymore fuel, okay?