Some people operate under the assumption that pony fans have a specific vendetta against Ted Anderson and his IDW My Little Pony comics. Those people would be surprised to know that while Tedly is the most frequent offender, he's hardly the only comic creator that fans take issue with.
Enter Jeremy Whitley, writer for My Little Pony: Friends Forever #14, an issue he personally described as being "the most socially and politically conscious pony comic you ever read" mere minutes after its official release.
He was right.
And that might not be something one should strive for.
Yesterday's release was fraught with the typical dissections of the plotholes and inconsistencies that usually accompany any MLP comic book release. For those of you who didn't read it, we've compiled the major grievances here:
1) Princess Luna references Twilight having a recurring dream "since she was a filly" and how Luna would sit and watch her. Readers point out this implies that Luna was cognizant of Twilight's dreams even when she was Nightmare Moon, locked away in the moon.
2) Dragons are found to have a thriving non-violent community living within Fillydelphia, and according to text clues have been for quite some time. This flies in the face of what Twilight told Spike in the beginning of Dragon Quest when she tells him that "It's hard to believe but ponies know next to nothing about Dragons. Apparently they're too rare and too scary to talk to or try to study"
3) ALL THE POLITICS
This isn't exhaustive, as other complaints such as "why does a dragon have hair?" and "why would a dragon know about Sombra, and therefore the Crystal Empire, and have no idea who Spike is?" would only detract from the conflict we're about to show you.
1) Princess Luna references Twilight having a recurring dream "since she was a filly" and how Luna would sit and watch her. Readers point out this implies that Luna was cognizant of Twilight's dreams even when she was Nightmare Moon, locked away in the moon.
2) Dragons are found to have a thriving non-violent community living within Fillydelphia, and according to text clues have been for quite some time. This flies in the face of what Twilight told Spike in the beginning of Dragon Quest when she tells him that "It's hard to believe but ponies know next to nothing about Dragons. Apparently they're too rare and too scary to talk to or try to study"
3) ALL THE POLITICS
This isn't exhaustive, as other complaints such as "why does a dragon have hair?" and "why would a dragon know about Sombra, and therefore the Crystal Empire, and have no idea who Spike is?" would only detract from the conflict we're about to show you.
He begins by responding to questions regarding the plotholes by claiming to not be offended, only to tweet messages indicating the opposite shortly later.
He then proceeds to lay out his inspiration for the comic, and references the fact he himself has a "little brown daughter". He claims that he finds the "idea that Spike had to change his race to be decent" to be "uncomfortable" and "toxic".
Now, instantly, many people began to argue against this line of thinking as it establishes a narrative where pony/dragon species relations are akin to black/white race relations in our world. Some find this to be fundamentally flawed as Dragons are a fictional animal species with a perceived inherent identity as monsters within the show's canon. Commenters cite Zecora's knowledge of Spikes growth being correlated with greed being natural for a dragon, and numerous other moments such as his interaction with the "teenage" dragons in Dragon Quest. Anons argue that being a fictional species of monster, a writer can imply that all members of that group are inherently ill-tempered and not have any racial connotations whatsoever. Because magic and dragons.
But others point out he may have missed the point of Dragon Quest entirely, or found a different personal meaning than others.
One commenter writes:
"So from Dragon Quest he got "dragons are being cast in bad light because they aren't like ponies, Spike who acts like a pony is cast in good light"
Not the ACTUAL message "your race doesn't determine who you are, you are who you are and you should be proud of your individuality".
Wow, good job seeing your own agenda."
While the original message of Dragon Quest is technically a contested issue, as is every "interpretation" issue, one thing is certain which is that by "race" he means "race". This fact brought with it some of the most heated discussion the fandom has seen in quite some time, and came down to a single very succinct post:
The problem with making an openly political story, is that readers are going to openly read it politically, and as-is tradition with politics, your message if left open to interpretation can be lost by the recipient.
In one tweet he directly refers to dragons who migrate (dragons who don't associate with ponies) as being "jerks", whereas the dragons who live in a pony city "want to live decent lives", a factor which undermines the entire platform the political stage was built upon, and creates some very unfortunate circumstances. Usually debate is a mere byproduct of comics, but this one seems to have been engineered to drive discussion about racial politics.
This comic is not only divisive for the political interpretations, but for the enjoyment of fans in general. Many were happy to see Dragon Quest "retconned" and praise the comic on that fact, others wish there was a better way to handle the issue.
And then there are just some who hate that Spike might have a new ship that isn't Rarity.
To Jeremy, or any other writer for that matter: Just remember to take it easy on the political hammer. Some readers are tired of being bludgeoned with that particular instrument, especially in something as escapist as a magical pony story.
Update:
Um. Dragons are a completely different species from ponies, not just a different race. If he's trying to compare this to real-world racial issues, he's basically saying different races are different species.
ReplyDeleteThere you have it, an IDW writer just called black people inhuman.
Not necessarily. One could make the argument that Blacks are the only "humans".
DeleteAnyway, we are all humans but we have VERY different DNA, and often times certain humans can be categorized into groups, of which the majority act in a very distinctive way that only someone who is either retarded or indoctrinated since Kindergarten to completely ignore (or perhaps "rationalize") could not see. Sometimes there are outliers (such as Spike to his dragon kin), but that's all they are—outliers.
>Negroid
>Mongoloid
>Caucasoid
>Australoid
And here we should remember what Curnow said about the comics. They are not canon. Thank goodness.
ReplyDeleteAren't there people at these publishing companies that are supposed to read over this stuff to figure out if it's appropriate for the demographic?
ReplyDelete...Wait
Considering curnow flat-out SAID he doesn't see anything wrong with advocating abuse, and stating that their fanbase should be killed, I'm sure he finds this appropriate for the demographic.
DeleteLink please.
DeleteThat was on the IDW forums, and was removed ages ago because they remove anything that isn't asskissing.
DeleteLauren Faust must be spinning in her grave.
ReplyDeleteIt's all a big ploy by the comic writers, they're trying to fuck up the Ponyshow as much as possible so Faust is forced to return.
DeleteBut considering things getting fucked up was why she left in the first place, that would just make her want to stay farther from it. If they wanted her back, the best way to do that would be to FIX it and offer her full creative control.
DeleteAnd paying her alot more than what she was being paid for. Greedy fucks hasbro.
DeleteBullshit. You know well that Faust is just the same breed of a demon as all the other SJWs are. The show would inevitably turn into political drama shit if she wasn't kicked out.
DeleteNice damage control, Jeremy.
Delete>the show would inevitably turn into political drama shit if she wasn't kicked out.
DeleteIt's already happening with the S5 opener, if the subtext is anything to go by. Faust deserves a little more credit than that; she regretted the religious subtext of FPK when people pointed it out to her on her Twitter.
@Anonymous at 00:20
DeleteFaust actually left because she wanted the show to have adventure stories like G1 MLP and Hasbro refused.
Unless I'm reading this wrong, this white dude is basically saying "if you're black, brown, red, or yellow you're race doesn't matter. It's not who you are. Only you are who you are!" Gee, thanks white boy. Thank you for telling me me being Asian isn't who I am. Thank you for telling me to ignore my cultural history and identity.
ReplyDeleteI swear to jesus, liberal whites like Curnow and this Jeremy douche still don't fucking get it.
And once again my refusal to read the comics is vindicated. Honestly, are they even capable of NOT shitting the bed?
ReplyDeleteMy OCD forces me to buy the TPBs. Fortunately, I can buy used copies to avoid giving money directly to IDW.
DeleteThis reminds me of Furybelle. Someone needs to warn Equestria about the SJWs. Let them know that SJWs are evil incarnate, a two legged virus that seeks to destroy everything and must be stamped out ruthlessly.
ReplyDeleteOkay, THIS is just drama.
ReplyDelete"Political Controversies in My Little Pony Comic Lands Writer in Hot Water" would make just the most beautiful headline ever.
ReplyDeleteEugh. Why do the MLP comics get all the SJW writers? People like this douche shouldn't be making children's entertainment. They simply don't belong there. It's not their calling. They so clearly want to make political newspaper cartoons, so why aren't they pursuing their real dreams instead of polluting a series that has the potential to actually be good with their bullshit?
ReplyDeleteThey don't want to make political cartoons because then they're admitting that ass-tier social commentary is the full extent of what they actually have to offer to society. They want to at least pretend that they're being Creative(tm).
DeletePony's kind of seen as an inherently-feminist property, what with the piles of female protagonists everywhere, so I guess that's why the white knights seem to specifically swarm around it like flies around a fresh shit
Don't forget the fact that he only added a comic book story and made Mina a comic book geek so he could have a reason to insert his little rant from Princeless about how comics and female protagonists.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, Mina's rant matches almost word by word one of his whinning tantrums about the same fucking topic and then he goes all butthurt once he's caught and called out on it.
On top of that he's a fucking coward who spammed the block button to avoid dealing with people calling him out on his bullshit.
The message I got from Dragon Quest was "What you are doesn't determine who you are." It's a bit of a leap to go from that to "Minorities are bad and you need to act white." It's kind of like when Feeling Pinkie Keen came out and everyone got assmad because they took it as an allegory for blind religious devotion.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the people who found Dragon Quest offensive also disliked Secret of My Excess, an episode which says pretty unambiguously that dragons are predisposed to greed and require wealth to grow. It's reasons like that that you can't treat dragons as being a perfect symbolic equivalent of race.
Er, I see it the opposite. Ponies are nice people are dragons are assholes. Be a pony. Ponies aren't assholes. Feeling Pinkie Keen was similarly as blatant about it's message, given the language it uses.
DeleteMind you, this doesn't mean I dislike FPK as an episode. It's one of my favorites. So is Secret of My Excess, even though the "growth by greed" mechanic sounds dumb and nonsensical. The reason I didn't like Dragon Quest was because it could've been a much better episode, given it was all about an entire species. Instead we got a mundane high school bullies episode with cheesy metal and cheesier bruiser accents.
When the episodes ends with a line like, "I'm gonna show you what it means to be a pony," it's a little hard not to take away the basic message that "ponies good, dragons bad." I think the episode should've ended on the family note, because that's what ponies gave Spike and dragons didn't (not that we know if he was abandoned or not): "You guys aren't just my friends. You're my family." So instead, Spike should've said to Pee Wee, "Welcome to the family!"
IDW MLP comics are shit and carry SJW messages? What a novel concept!
ReplyDeleteBut seriously though shouldn't we just stop looking at that shit? At this point you guys should know going in that it is gonna be shit. Always.
"the abomination that was Dragon Quest"
ReplyDeleteDid people really hate that episode that much? I specifically remember watching that episode after wondering if the series was declining in quality, and liking it.
I didn't think Dragon Quest was that bad either, but some people definitely didn't like it. I haven't heard any specific reasons why, but I think it's one of those cases where general sloppy writing meant a lot of little things piled up that a lot of people couldn't ignore. I for one remember being annoyed by Twilight and the other ponies standing on two legs and putting their hooves up like they were humans in a boxing match. That was dumb.
DeleteI'm pretty indifferent to DQ, since I've never been a big fan of Spike. But the way this guy misread the actual episode message and go as far as calling it "toxic" is ludicrous. He basically shat on Merriwether Williams and everyone who was in charge of the show back in S2, and he even thinks he's the one on the right side. If I ever needed a confirmation of how self-righteous and oblivious SJWs can be.
DeleteWell to be fair Merriwether did deserve to be shat on, so I'm absolutely okay with that!
DeleteDragon Quest, the boxing stance Anon mentioned was one of my main issues. Another was Rarity seemingly unironically making such a horrible dragon costume and calling it a masterpiece or whatever the fuck that was. I didn't particularly hate the episode either, Merriwether can do emotions well and Spike curling into an egg at the start was pretty good, overdramatic or not.
It was just... meh, methinks, nowhere near deserving to be called toxic. I have no clue how one could misunderstand the message of that episode so, so badly.
Because it was written by Merriwether Williams, for some autists it's a reason good enough to hate it.
DeleteThe reason was the morale behind it.
DeleteSpike get laughed at for being too girly, which causes him to meet real dragons to find about his true nature, but then he meet jerks dragon, and so decide that ponies are better and accept his feminine side just because of that.
Tries to apply it to anything in real life and you can see it being iffy.
@Anonymous Don't use autism as an insult.
DeleteJesus... what's his problem? Why is he so passive-aggressive (or just super defensive) all the time? He's got to the point of throwing shit to other writer's work, that's not professional at all, I know, a lot of readers probably throw shit at him, but not writers. What a shame that such an unprofessional person is working there, talk about somebody that can't take criticism the right way.
ReplyDeleteAlso, he states the political thing on twitter (implying that he knows it will cause different opinions on different people) and expects nothing to happen from he fans? He should get his shit together and not touch the political stuff more if this is how he'll handle it. That's what I think.
>Blocked
ReplyDeleteThat's it, he admitted his defeat.
"You are blocked from following and viewing Tweets."
ReplyDeleteWhat's even the point of that when you can read the tweets without logging in? I don't use Twitter, so that's not a rhetorical question, is this anything more than a mild inconvenience?
It's an inconvenience if you use Twitter a lot, because for people who prefer to remain logged in, it means they have to log out just to view the tweets of the person who blocked them. Or use a different browser where they're either not logged in or logged in as a different account.
DeleteI'll celebrate by burning a copy.
ReplyDeleteNot if he steals it.
DeleteIf I were to burn ALL the copies, THAT would still be giving them what they want.
DeleteUnless I burn down the store.
>caring about IDW comics
ReplyDelete>caring about friends forever
*grabs dog food*
DRAGONS NEED TO GO BACK TO AFRICA!
ReplyDeletePonies be like this.
ReplyDeleteDragons be like that.
tl;dr bronies are into SJW and gamersgate
ReplyDeleteand dragons are awesome
I don't even follow pony shit, I saw this from /cow/ and remembered that MyNationalistPony existed
ReplyDeletewhat happened to that guy, he was cool
And so Jeremy became immortalized as a whinning crybaby who tries to fill a kids' comic with politic and mouthpieces and then gets all butthurt when he is called out for it.
ReplyDeleteToo bad. I really liked the first micro comic he wrote. Wasn't amazing, but it was a nice issue.
DeleteNow I realize he's just as whiny and justice-y as Ted Anderson. Great.
What a great comic. Here's my idea for a follow-up:
ReplyDeleteSpike joins a dragon-only club where he and his fellow dragons talk about pony privilege, the pony gaze,
and how ponies oppress their fellow dragonkin. Spike and his pals go to Canterlot to protest, saying that
Celestia and Luna should resign from their royal positions because they're perpetuating the oppression of
non-pony citizens of Equestria. Celestia promptly sends those fuckers to the moon for their treasonous actions.
The end.
P U R P L E T R A N N Y !
ReplyDeleteU
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Nothing racist about white guy making a comic about an angry black woman.
ReplyDeleteWhitley racist....why hasn't this prick been fired from IDW? My God, he is the WORST writer for the MLP comics ever!
ReplyDelete