starswirlthebearded

I always assumed it was due to a mandate from the Princess to NOT treat them as heros, but rather ponies doing their royal duty. She honored them and that was it. I'd assume Princess Celestia did that to avoid them letting the hero worship go to their head. Twilight Sparkle is still her protegee after all.

There was a lot to that decision, and it wasn't due to lack of popularity. Family guy was already a widely popular show, it just gained more notoriety on sister channels.

I'm not sure what you mean... The trend has been happening if you mean rebooting old series... Thundercats, pretty much every superhero cartoon, especially Batman and Spiderman (seriously, how many shows are those two gonna get?), TMNT, GI Joe, Transformers, Pound Puppies, Strawberry Shortcake... If you mean making shows more ambiguous for boys and girls (ieL shows meant for girls that boys can enjoy, or shows meant for boys that girls can enjoy)... That is where things get murky, especially for the former. Lauren Faust has a gift. My friend and I have a joke that she is related to the original Faust, and that is how pretty much every show and movie she touches turns to gold. (And if I make it to BroNYCon and she has a Q&A panel, I'm totally asking her that question, and if you are not sure what Faust is, I encourage you to Google it, great German legend). That said, I really hope she does more shows. Really, I'm wondering why networks aren't allowing her and Genndy run wild. The two of them are geniuses, and deserve to be set free from the shackles that the networks put on them. Both have had an amazing history of making wildly popular shows that have become legendary and won awards. What are networks afraid of with those two? Better ratings? Attach either of those two names to a production and people will watch just for that (at least I know I would). Symbiotic Titan was just phenomenal, and needs to be brought back. And I NEED to see Galaxy Girls (with all the fan buzz, why hasn't it happened yet?) Sorry for the OTness... Quite frankly, I would love to see three reboots in particular... Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates (They should axe Jake and the neverland pirates for this), Pirates of Dark Water (I MUST SEE THE END), and Sonic SatAM. Oh and maybe ReBoot, just for the punnie. Sorry... been up all night and am a bit crazy

That is a great response from Amy Keating Rogers. Really a fantastic read, and it is nice to know that she had some input. I know I have said this before, but my only wish for that scene was that it would have gotten better editing. The editing was atrocious and that, and only that, is what I cannot forgive. Everything else is cool in my book. On a side note, I would love to see them release a directors cut, or an extra that has the story board for the extended scene!

Class act that Gawker. Misspelling a source's name. So, at least we can believe them now... Seems legit. I want to contact her and ask her why Gawker of all places...

Interesting. I'm just looking for confirmation to be honest because I don't trust Gawker. If it was almost any other news outlet I'd not have questioned it. The quote itself does seem legitimate though, which is why I contacted the Hub's PR department for confirmation. And I agree, it is a logical choice from a business stand point, except the lack of effort on the edit. But I suppose I can live with that since I have the original. I'm more angry at the quality of the edit rather than the edit itself. I'm a stickler for quality (Which is why I refused to believe it was entirely Hasbro's doing) Perhaps Hasbro told the production team to do it, and THEY weren't happy with it, so they put no effort in. I've just been trying to make sense of the awful edit basically... I actually don't mind the voice (I do wish it was less generic though). And I could care less about the name tbh. It is a fan name and should have remained as thus.

I'd really like to see some of these emails... I just emailed them myself questioning the validity. If it is legit, fine, but I really wish they would have chosen a better news outlet than Gawker, who are really known for being trolls.

Funny you should mention that. I couldn't find her name on any Hasbro Press Release... I wanted to email her, couldn't find her email address anywhere. Edit: I found other Hasbro emails from their PR team and used their set up to contact her. And big surprise, it was rejected. I'm going to contact their Media contact information.

They don't have good rep period. Their business model is very simple (along with their other sites)... 1) Make article that is offensive or emotion provoking to people or a group. 2) Broadcast this article everywhere getting people to read the tripe by clicking their site 3) ??? 4) Profit (OK so 3 is really getting clicks for ad revenue) The only site that has some merit (not much mind you) is LifeHacker. But even those articles are 90% from Reddit. Seriously. I don't read Gawker or anything else from any of their properties. They have the journalism skill of a monkey. They make Fox news look talented and unbiased.

Hasbro apparently responded. Though I'm curious why they choose Gawker, whose credibility is worse than Fox. Seriously, why not contact EqD directly? They would have been the better choice. It was their choice to change the one episode.

Put simply? Yes. In fact I showed my friend both clips, and she instantly picked out the original, and she has not yet seen the show. The edit was a hack job that wasn't up to snuff. Simple as that.

That picture made me laugh more than expected. Good show Brian! That said, I'm not sure how many people are panicking anymore. It has already happened, so panic time is over. Really, now it is deliberating what exactly happened. We really can't blame either side for doing what was done. Amidst controversy, action had to be taken, Perhaps most would have preferred a public statement explaining the chosen characterization as well as the meaning of the word "derpy," but unfortunately we have no say. In the end, either Apple or Hasbro decided to make this scene PC. Either way it happened, Hasbro signed off on it begrudgingly or not, and made the changes. Was it just for iTunes? Was it across the board? These are the questions that most people are wondering. And really, we won't know until Hasbro steps out and either says something or we see the episode reaired. @Riverhippo: I agree, except that I think fans want closure more than anything. The censorship happened, but we know nothing else. Petitions have been signed, and I'm sure Hasbro and the Hub were both emailed to death by irate fans. So I certainly agree, we have done enough. Also, if any fan thinks like that, I'll be sorely disappointed in this fandom. If the name returns, the censorship should be viewed as a fluke to appease the outcry. And the return of the name should be viewed as Hasbro and co's respect for the fandom, not caving in or "losing." This isn't a battle to be won. In fact, the only reason why I'm annoyed by the edit is because the edit is atrocious. It looks like it was thrown together and neither VA seemed terribly invested in it. It was poor work. If they rereleased it a 3rd time with better editing I'd be extremely pleased, despite the name being cut out and the voice changed. Derpy will *always* be Derpy, whether it is acknowledged by the show or not. As I recall, they released a toy of Lyra with the name Heartstrings, yet, it seems to me that most fans seem to refer to her as "Lyra" still. So even if they change the name to something else (which I don't think they will, as they have used the name publicly before and most of the creative team seems to like it), within the fandom Derpy's name will not be changed, which is where the character and all of her lovable clumsiness really was born. Even the dropping of the furniture on Twilight in Feeling Pinkie Keen was a nod to the fandom, because that was after she was named and had tons of material written and drawn about her.

It was indeed. For fun, I'll give a quick reply to your revised scenario... It really depends on the situation (again). If it was the same situation as Apple and MLP, then yes, the same thing will happen. Car is shipped with defect, defect becomes known. Company refuses to do anything about it, it is up to the distributor to refuse to sell it, until the situation is rectified. If you sell a known defective product, you are just as liable as the manufacturer whom produced it. On the other hand, if the distributor is unaware of the situation, then it is not their fault, but the manufacturing company specifically. But if that defect becomes known, it is again up to the distributor, with or without the notification of the manufacturer to cease sales. Thanks for the cookie Here is a brownie as an exchange

Car company eh? Depends on the situation... Like the whole Toyota brake debacle from not too long ago. People got into accidents, and the cars had passed QC. Toyota claimed it was a nonissue, until it was found that it was. People, before learning the truth, did in fact blame Toyota. So yes, it is possible to blame the car company depending on the situation and range of scope. However, that is not the same as this issue at hand. A more accurate comparison with cars would be if say a car company released a car with a rainbow colored paint job and issued a recall on that based on people crying foul for homosexuals (regardless of the actual intent of the paint job in question). It is a PR problem, not an issue with individual views. Which would happen and the cars would be immediately repainted with a public announcement apologizing for any offense caused (Something that is oddly missing in this story here). That said, I agree. I think we have both argued our respective views admirably, and neither of us are actually sure of what is happening. So lets agree to disagree until the end of March when we will hopefully have the answer to all of this when they reair the episode. And if they don't, I'll be quite cross at Hasbro/Hub for just sweeping this under the carpet.

Fact: Actually... Hasbro is a publicly traded company, so you should be able to find that information somewhere. From the looks of their executive structure it is exactly as how I described. It is a top down system with one section leading back to one executive (pretty standard in business as far as I know). Just about everything can be found on Hasbro's corporate site. Pretty much everything I read on http://www.hasbro.com/corporate/ lead me to that conclusion. But I accept the fact that it is late for me, and I can't read through 100s of pages of information, so I may have missed something or misconstrued something. Opinion: Reputation is more important to most companies than a slight loss. They would rather lose $1 million now, than lose thousands of potential customers because of some issue with media. You have to think about it this way... What will cost them more (considering that they saw this as a big enough issue to revise the episode and rerelease it)... Taking the $1million hit by ceasing distribution of the potentially harmful material, or potentially losing x number of customers because they refuse to buy products from a company that is so insensitive to people with mental or physical disabilities (or what ever the issue was)? Companies take losses all the time to prevent potentially harmful media. They would rather take a slight hit, than take a huge one from people refusing to buy in the future because of some scandal. If they printed out say 50000 copies of that DVD, and 12000 landed in the hands of parents or fans whom were offended, that is potentially 12000 less people who will buy from them in the future. And that money ads up far faster than $1million from the start. I believe the business term is "Acceptable Loss." And yes, it is a more common business practice than you may think.

Rosewind, they get money from all sources. Ad revenue from their site and on-demand, and people buying from iTunes. Either way there is money involved. And I cannot see the two being separate, unless you are suggesting that there are multiple distribution teams (one for TV, iTunes and Internet). And if that is the case, are they autonomous, allowed to disregard the ruling of Hasbro? Seems unlikely to me. Though usually companies have one team for each area, though the size of said teams can be quite large (PR, Distribution, Legal, Corporate...). It is unlikely that they were simply "missed," because of the size of Hasbro. They have teams of people searching Youtube to ensure that no episodes are posted there, do you really think they don't have the man power or foresight to check their own property? I think you are underestimating Hasbro. There must be a reason for this oversight, it doesn't make sense to me. If it is an oversight, it would have been corrected by now, unless you are suggesting that they didn't care enough to not at least take the episodes down from those sources, regardless of changing them. Which again, seems unlikely if they cared enough to expend more money to do the edit (which does cost a bit of money in studio time, animation editing department and sound editing department). I don't know, this all seems strange to me. I really hope we get our answer next month... Also Apple could have done it of their own accord to avoid being wrapped up in the situation. Believe it or not, distributors are also blamed if they are distributing something that they know is offensive. If Hasbro refused to act because they didn't see an issue, the public's eye would easily turn to Apple whom was selling the product and didn't take it down. It has happened before. And btw, ceasing distribution wouldn't cost them that much. All that would happen is that the DVDs would end up in a warehouse somewhere, never to see the light of day. Hasbro is a 4 billion dollar company. I think they could handle a couple of million dollar hit if it meant preserving their reputation. I mean it has been done in the music industry too. Just read up on the Black Flag debacle over their CD Damaged. And that was back when internet didn't exist so people actually bought physical media. So with iTunes revenue set and in tact, why do you think they would care taking a small hit in ceasing distribution of that DVD? (BTW, I do understand what you are saying, it just doesn't make sense to me personally, and likely won't unless Hasbro comes forward and says something)

As I said, both companies have an image to protect and don't want to be caught up in a controversy, the question is which one acted on it. Apple has the right to pull material they feel is unsuitable for their services. It has always been that way. So was it Hasbro who requested it? Or was it Apple that acted of their own accord. The latter seems more likely, unless someone can explain to me why the episode was not removed from the Hub site when it was removed from iTunes, and why I can still access the unedited episode from the Hub On-Demand service on FiOS. For some reason I think that if it was Hasbro's doing, they would have taken it down from everywhere, and changed it everywhere. You know, issued a recall on the DVDs, taken the episode off their site, and off THEIR joint network with Discovery Communications. It would seem to me, that would be the first thing they would change it on since THEY directly control it, unlike iTunes which is maintained and controlled by Apple. Please, everyone who is blaming Hasbro explain this logic to me. I'm clearly not getting it. Changed on iTunes, but not on the Hub On-Demand? (Seriously, I'm highly confused by this train of logic, I'm watching the unedited episode this very minute on Hub's on demand service) Regardless, if the Hub is going to follow the current pattern for reruns, we will have our definitive answer the week of March 12th or 19th. The episode should have reaired by then.

We really don't know who is responsible. Both companies are interested in their own self image and likely did not want to be caught in a controversy. However, I'm leaning towards Apple for the sole reason of quality. If it was Hasbro's decision, I feel like they would have made more of an effort. The edit job is atrocious. I can't see a production company putting out such sub standard work willingly. It has been a few days since the episode was put back on iTunes, I'm going to check on hub on demand again to see if it is changed there, which is directly controlled by Hasbro as partial owners. If it isn't changed there of all places why would we assume it was their decision? It doesn't make sense that they would leave the unaltered version on their network on demand and have an altered version for sale on iTunes.

That is just it... Most anime is NOT hand drawn anymore, except for a few key frames. The rest is done by COMPUTER. I really wish I could drive that into the minds of anime fans. In any given episode of anime, you might see only 10 hand drawn frames of thousands. It is far too expensive to have hand drawn animation anymore. And for anime, that nearly died in the 90s and was saved by American and Canadian licensing companies, they would not waste money on doing hand drawn animation. It looks like it is hand drawn likely because of the key frames, but in reality it is not.

That is pretty much what I said, lol. It was a product of the time. It isn't done anymore for any number of reasons. I don't see why since the generation that was pretty liberal with deaths and violence in kids media (read the generation I grew up in) came out fairly unscathed. In only brought up Transformers because it was a PG movie released by Hasbro that had one of the most graphic and shocking deaths of any animated movie. Regardless of parents having input in it, I don't think anyone saw that coming, and had a profound impact on kids. BTW, I'm not sure if you watch the Nostalgia Critic, but... he did an interview with some people involved with the Animaniacs, and said exactly that. A lot of what they got away with probably wouldn't have flown today, and hell, they were surprised that they were able to get away with it then. I don't think we'll reach a point with death any further than we already have in the series (Phoenix death, and random coffin). Off Topic: Your Mike the TV avatar is awesome! It makes me want to rewatch ReBoot!

Just so you know the production values of most those series are much lower than that of mlp. Professional? I doubt she knows the meaning. Most Anime these days are CG with only a few particular key frames are actually hand drawn. I like Anime as much as the next guy, but to write it off as an unprofessional animation job due to the choice of animation method is ignorant. However, trying to get that through the head of such an Anime fan as your friend is impossible. Anime production teams are notorious for cutting corners, and especially for using seeping shots and close ups so that they don't have to animate as much. Not to mention quality dropping in a lot of series. I actually hate watching Anime for the art anymore because of that. I'll read the manga for the art. There are very few exceptions. Not to mention that none of those are even remotely realistic. The situation is likely hopeless for her though. You can tell her everything I said and she won't listen to a darn thing. She is so locked into the thought that Anime > western animation that she'll likely disregard everything. I know because I used to be like that, until I realized the truth. It is worth noting that I consider the interpersonal relationships in mlp more realistic than most in Anime save a few series.

Yeah, it was probably Apple. They probably told Hasbro that it was staying down until the changes were made. So Hasbro caved in, and did the worst job possible. That said, it is still on the Hub's On-demand untouched. If it was going to be changed, they would have done it there first since it is in their direct control. In fact it would have been there first, as it wouldn't have had to pass through Apple.

I'd agree, except for the lack of editing on the official Hub On-Demand. That would be the nail in the coffin for me with this story. I think this was Apple's doing, and it could have been in their contract that they were allowed to modify the content for iTunes. So I suspect if Hasbro and the Hub release any DVDs, it will retain the original edit. @Ashton: I'm not sure. I wouldn't be surprised though.

Not what I mean... Ashleigh is the VA for RD, and that is whom I was referring to...RD. She seemed weak in the new scene. Her voice was stronger in the original. It felt like they took second best here, just to make it PC. This is clearly a half***ed effort to PCify the scene, and it shows. The flow is entirely off. I'd have had no issues with it, if it were the same quality. Its like Ball was saying "Ugh...Really? you are making me rerecord this scene for THAT stupid reason...? Fine... Just pay me the money -_-" edit: You know what? I think it might actually just be an Apple edit. That would explain the poor voice of Ashleigh Ball, and the poor voice direction. Also would explain the fact that it is still the same on the Hub On-Demand. So... Yeah... Apple is just being Apple most likely.

Look at it this way... The original is still out there. We knew this was coming, because it is a corporate tactic. I wish it wasn't, but hey... What can we do? Also, I kinda don't mind the new voice, I wish it was less generic, but its not bad overall. However they botched up the flow of the scene. That is bigger issue. Also... Ashleigh Ball doesn't seem to be into it. Her voice felt stronger in the original. If you are going to change something, at least make sure its of the same quality, which they apparently didn't do... Oh well, I still have the original...