Patreon Blog Takeover: Ditzy, Derpy, Dulcinea: On The Personality Morphology Of Bubble-Marked Pegasi (BrumbyRun) · 6:14pm Nov 11th, 2016
So let's see what this one's going to be about...
So, I've thought of, and rejected, dozens of possible blog posts. I've managed to come up with one that interests me, wether it interests you or anyone else I don't know...
Ditzy/Derpy/Bubbles/Muffins Doo/Hooves (Background pegasus X).
What is your opinion of her place in canon (might have to wait until you watch "Slice Of Life" in S5 to answer)?
How do you think she has been treated by the fandom? (Not asking for story reviews, heaven help me if you read my Derpy origin story. But is there a particular part of her fandom characterisation that you like, and/or hate?)
Does she have a place in the Continmmun? Will she ever be player in a story, or is she forever to remain in the background?
I hope that is something you can work with. And I hope your S5 DVDs don't get routed via Guam...
Oh, I see. It's going to be about two headache tablets and a half-hour soak in the bathtub.
Let's try taking it by the numbers
1. Her place in canon.
First off: we are not going to talk about Slice Of Life. Right now, the only way I'm talking about that episode is if I'm paid for it. And I don't mean a Patreon donation, at least not one from the current levels. We're looking at "So, how are you enjoying your new ownership of Amazon?" levels. So if anyone really wants to know what I think about those twenty-two minutes of airtime, back up the fleet of Brinks trucks. Because that's the only way I'm going to talk about something which didn't happen. Did. Not. Happen. I don't cross dimensions to peer at low-probability worst-case scenarios for free.
So other than That Which No One Can Afford, what's her place in canon? Mascot, accessory, sales gimmick, and Where's Poneo.
Honestly, most days, that seems to be about it...
I'm familiar with her origin story: the animation crimp which pretty much put the show's first Ascended Meme on the map. I'm not giving up my S2 DVD set because I'll keep the first script, thanks. But for the most part? She's there to be spotted. Hey, look, we're throwing the adults in the audience a bone! Can you spot her? She's over there! And there! And just about everywhere except the voice lines in the script, but -- there! Don't you want to buy a shirt? How about an official Spotter's Checklist? Pay ten dollars for the document, but the fill-in is free!
Rainbow's arguably the series mascot for the younger viewers: if you look at some of the merchandise, she's got a bad case of what's trope-known as Wolverine Publicity: the face of the franchise to the point where it might become offensive to any ego other than hers. But for the older generation? You could make a fair case that it's Guess Who?, and the product lines reflect it. Once Hasbro became fully aware that she'd been Discovered, the "What can we make them pay for?" corporate gene kicked in. Turns out it's a lot. Who knew? Other than everyone who's ever watched marketing in action.
For the most part, our pegasus is there for the sake of being there. She's expected to appear every so often. Her model use now falls under self-fulfilling prophecy, because you demanded it. Or at least, that level of demand which translates into viewership numbers and merchandise sales. Listening to what's actually wanted? Optional. But hey, just keep buyin' them fluff bits, and they'll keep putting her in...
2. Treatment by the fandom.
Let's take this in two parts.
For those who happily spend on her likeness in two and three-dimensional forms, I think that to some degree, she represents the fandom itself, at least as it's viewed by many of those outside it: imperfect, visibly flawed, but she's still part of this world and she seems to be having fun with it. Don't reject her just because she doesn't match everything around her and might not have been what you were expecting. She's the mascot because to that extent, she reflects a portion of those who've effectively adopted her.
(Follower count dropping by a minimum of 10 people in three, two...)
But that brings us to her treatment by the writers. And in her, we have something very intriguing: a nearly blank slate. Until that bit which we are still not going to talk about, just about everything we "knew" about her outside the physical were things we could tell ourselves. We could come up with excuses for her appearance. Personality, at least the one or two lines of it. That mark? What exactly is that supposed to be? What did you want it to mean? She had just enough filled out to form an outline, and everyone started hanging their own details off it. She begged for explanation, and so a thousand of them sprung up. For the Mane Cast, we had their numbers: there could be permutations and deeper insights, but we knew who they were. With her... we knew what she looked like. The rest seemed to be up to us. And while that can be said for most of the background ponies, we were dealing with somepony so distinctive...
So many pegasi bloomed from a single root, and not much happened to trim the branches. We eventually got a few common elements which many people incorporated into their gardens, starting with her likely being a mailmare. But beyond that (and sometimes not even including that), she could be anything. Ordinary. Princess-in-waiting. Eldritch abomination in hiding. The only one who truly knows what's going on. She calls out for attention, for explanation, and we stand ready to provide.
Is there a part of her fandom characterization I like? Having her as a single mother. Something I hate? Well... has anyone turned her into a serial killer yet? And it's uncomfortable to see someone treating her as having a mental disability, especially if it's purely played for laughs or mockery.
Who is she, really? Who did you want her to be? And clearly if the show says something else, they're the ones who got it wrong...
3. Her place in the 'verse.
For a long time, it was a running joke. She was clearly there: the Bearers, listening to Rainbow talking about the tricky part of lightning being the aim, collectively reflect on a ruined Town Hall. Twilight tells somepony who might need directions to look for the grey pegasus with the bubbles on her flank. Diamond managed to say something that got her to stop shopping at Barnyard Bargains: Mr. Rich notes she's among the lost customers, and says he finds her "so distinctive, even beautiful in some ways..." -- and for Diamond's father to find any mare attractive terrifies his daughter. A book of escort appointments? Is that word Ditzy or Derpy? No, maybe it's just Deli...
She was somewhere in the vicinity. But she was never named. She was never even spotted. Discussed, yes: appeared, never. The ultimate background pony: so far in the background that you can't even see her.
And then came Unnoticed. She went from never being spotted to standing in the center of the spotlight. As said in that Comments section, when it came to her first appearance, she basically put her hoof down and said "Now," for Spike had to talk to someone about how he was feeling, and few ponies know more about existence as a partial outsider than she. It was just time. And that clock won't be reset.
There was a little insight into her local version there, enough that I (or possibly Someone Else) might add a new section to the 'verse's TV Tropes Characters page. Here's a little more, along with a partial recap for those who didn't read her first appearance.
Locally:
* "Derpy" is a nickname, and it's not a kind one. It has, to a large extent, taken over, and done so to the point where many ponies would be shocked to hear she has any other name at all. Her actual name is Dulcinea.
* As previously established in A Confederacy Of Dunce Caps, she's a single mother. She's also a very young one who made the classic error of mistaking a stallion's belief of "I bet I can get her to have sex with me" for something approaching love, and only found out she was wrong at the moment of total, permanent abandonment. She's wiser now, but also considerably more skittish: it's hard for her to even think about dating because once burned, just about forever after shy. If you told her anypony was interested, she'd first assume they were looking to use her, then openly laugh it off while having a few background fantasies of how she could turn it on the user.
* Her public behavior and image...
There's a Hallmark movie called What The Deaf Man Heard, in which the title character is assumed by everyone around him to be both deaf and mute. Circumstances lead to his going along with it from a very young age, continuing well into adulthood -- right up until he runs into a situation where he can't pretend any more, because he's the only person who heard something crucial, and it puts him in a place where he has to speak.
Dulci is the dark reflection of that.
Quite a few ponies assume she's an idiot. And she got sick of it to the point where she decided her best revenge was to go along with it. So she plays stupid. As she notes in the story, it lets her get away with her true mistakes, and she also sees it as turning the joke back on those playing it.
The problem is that she's wrong. She can play stupid, and perhaps she finds some private entertainment in it. She has all the freedom to vent she might wish for, because no one will see it as anything other than another Derpy screwup. But the more she does so, the more those who would have been more open-minded if they'd had a chance to meet the real Dulci are denied their chance to spot the mare behind the mask. By reinforcing the false beliefs of others, she encourages those beliefs to spread.
A very few occupants of Ponyville have some idea of who she truly is. Nopony at the post office itself has a clue, and most of the current staff don't even understand how she got this job. Pinkie will address her by her true name, but the two seldom interact. Spike knows about her (in part because Dulci can have an easier time around children and recognizes his situation), but the two barely get any time together. Dulci's closest connections in the settled zone may be Lyra and Time Turner. The former not only understands something about outside pressure forcing itself on your self-image, but she knows a pegasus mother can't be expected to teach a unicorn daughter about that kind of magic, and so Lyra is serving as a pre-manifest tutor. Time Turner is just the stallion Dulci's known the longest, and their connection can best be described as 'platonic arguments': they horribly frustrate each other, but they do so reliably.
Dulci plays a game with the world because she's tired of fighting, and she calls her form of surrender a final victory. But she's wrong. And eventually, it might all come crashing down on her.
3a. Does she have a feature story waiting in the future?
It's hard to say. I have ideas for her. But as the description hints, a lot of those wouldn't be happy ones. Because I've said the local police have child welfare officers -- and Dulci is trotting very close to the line where somepony might decide she's too incompetent to be trusted as a parent.
At some point, the filly is almost inevitably going to suffer for the deception of the mother. And Dulci hasn't figured that out...
I admit, I do see some of myself in She of the Seven Bubbles, and that's when I'm not writing her. The eagerness to help, the misfortune caused by overeagerness or overlooking something, the occasional misstep that even I look back on and wonder how I managed to fail so spectacularly... I'd say that's why she's my personal favorite, but the truth is that I've been fascinated by her from the very first time I saw her, in a screencap of the 4chan thread that turned an animation error into a meme destined for ascension. Sometimes orchids bloom from even the foulest muck.
You also definitely hit the nail on the head on the intriguing vagueness. There's so much one can do with her, with or without taking "Slice of Life" into account. It's why I love working with background characters. On the show, they're living scenery. For authors, they're a godsend.
As for her instance in the Continuum... tragic, but entirely understandable. I'm genuinely unsure if I ever want to see Dulci's situation come to that head. Still, at least she has a few ponies in her corner. Pinkie might even convince her friends to help the situation. She certainly knows something about the difference between public facade and internal truth.
You really hate that episode that much?
Oh I could see a very intriguing story in a child welfare case springing up essentially from ascended rumor.
Thank you. This was worth the wait.
The grey mare was, kind of, my introduction to the fandom. During that period between seasons one and two, just about everything that wasn't "20% cooler" was the mare with the mismatched eyes. Watching the show for the first time, I didn't quite get the joke. Why the fascination with an unnamed, palette-swap, voice-less background character?
But she was everywhere in the fandom. After I realised how beautiful fanfiction could be (reading The Descendant's work), I started to search her out in this medium.
I was wildly disappointed. Where she wasn't a complete joke, she was smothered with so many handicaps it's a wonder she could breathe without assistance. Stories where she was something more are precious to me. But I am kind of gun-shy when looking for them. There is far too much out there that hurts to read.
So, here we are. Her first speaking role in the 'verse. Just enough hints at the true depth of her character to leave me wanting more. Flawed, but not disrespected. More than just the mare with the mismatched eyes. Thank you for that.
I've no right to ask anything of you. Not as a fan of your work. Not as a supporter on Pateron. It's your 'verse, and she is now your character.
But you did name her Dulcinea, so I guess it's only fair that I tilt at windmills...
I hope she finds a "happily ever after." I've no doubt she will have to earn it. And what you've said in this blog post seems to have her pointing in the wrong direction. But I want to hope that there are good things in store for her.
Whatever may come, for right now I just want to say thank you.
So.....we have someone who's essentially an angry adolescent mistakenly believing that the joke's on everyone else but her. At some point, this WILL bite her in the ass and she'll have alienated ponies who could help.
If you look, her Cutie Mark is unique. Everyone else has either one main object or 3 main objects in their mark. She has 7. Also, their Cutie Mark is at least peripherally connected to their interests. But, what do the bubbles even represent?
There is a story Unwell by Hazamabrony where Twilight has ACMS (Abstract Cutie Mark Syndrome = Pony Asperger's). I think Ditzy might have a less severe version.
Your writings are among some of my favorites. Your verse is darkly realistic but still wonderful.
The way you've written Dulci is fantastic and tragic. It makes me want to come along and try and make her life somewhat better. Nothing like having a pegasus fall out of the sky and turn your world upside down.
Umm...I apologize if I haven't paid attention correctly, but can anyone tell me if we've seen Lyra in the continuum and if so what her role has been so far? :-(
4297530 Look at Season's Bleatings and Goosed! (I can't recall any other appearances.)
This was a great read. I like that her main flaw is that she goes about proving ponies right about their assumptions and doesn't give the actual considerate ones a shot at knowing her. It makes a sad sense that she would just turn it back on them without letting anyone know that is what she's doing. I wonder if her daughter knows why she does it. That would be a rough thing to deal with growing up.
Haha I'm glad I'm not the only one revolted by That Episode. Those unnecessary references...
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She has a starring role in Tales Of The Canterlot Deportation Agency: Melissa, a story that, while in an alternate continuity apart from the Triptych Continuum, shares most of the setting and characterization. If you want to know what kind of person Estee's imagining of Lyra is, you should check that out.
4297530
I may be wrong, but I believe her history matches that experienced by her counterpart in the Canterlot Deportation Agency universe, found here.
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Yeah, that took me aback a bit as well. I loved it, personally, and not least because of Derpy getting some dialogue.
(For the record, I stick with Derpy and I headcanon an explanation that I saw once in a comment on this very website; Derpy is a bastardisation of Thunderpeal, as in " a peal of thunder." Which I thought was just cool. I went one step further with her full name being Thunderpeal Rowdy Tsunami Golden Muffin Do'Hooves and thus covering pretty much every one of her names.
(Least obviously - and most difficult to parse out - Rowdy Tsunami => Rowdy Tsunami => Ditzy))
She just has loads of nicknames because she's not really massively fond of any of her actual names...!)
4297833 Interesting headcanon
Personally, I constantly put an asterisk next to all headcanons including my own, stating: *"Headcanons, especially on a popular subject, contradict. This remains true when the headcanon belongs to a creator of the canon." As inarguable as I find this, happier people than myself ignore it.
Which isn't to suggest I don't speculate. I do.
For instance, I imagine "Ditzy Doo" is the imaginary friend that gets the blame when she messes up badly with only a few complicit witnesses. Because I don't like that being the name her parents gave her. (Though I might say the same for Flurry Heart or Troubleshoes.)
And when Hasbro gave "Word of Cthulhu," as I'll dub it, that her name was "Muffins," I was uncertain how to rank this instance of executive meddling. But really, it solves the same problem that leads me to reject "Ditzy." Because while one word may be older than the other, neither one has an alternate meaning that's nice, or even neutral.
As for her cutie mark?
Well, I think everyone's wrong*. At least, I suspect no one else took my approach. See, most people look at it and think, "It's bubbles. What does that mean?" This contains a small... well, I won't call it a problem, so much as a constraint. For whatever reason, very few people question that the roughly circular units depict bubbles.
I, however, eventually considered that they're not bubbles. Then, since comparing multiple possible abstract meanings would make this exercise quite dull, I assume Muffins's mark is representational. Of course, these two assumptions are about as useful as starting a game of Twenty Questions with "Is it a breadbox?" So I made one more assumption; considering she's a Pegasus, and as such is on the weather team, and that many Pegasi have weather-related cutie marks, then Muffins's cutie mark is likely also related to the weather.
Long story short, it's hailstones.
As for how she got it, I speculate she used hail to put out a forest fire when she was young. The rain clouds weren't working because the fire created an updraft too strong to let liquid water fall. So Muffins flew up and down, up and down, carrying vapor in her wake until it nucleated and froze, then continuing to build up its layers until the balls of ice were heavy enough to land in and quench the fire.
Unfortunately, this brash tactic was unassisted and cost her dearly, for she misjudged her final downswing. She slammed into the ground, and while she succeeded in ending the fire, she has never entirely recovered. So that is also why her eyes don't always line up.
.
..
...
So what do you think?
4297833 Just one question: why Golden?
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"Muffin" needed something to back it up to for the sort of character of persons who would hand out such named to their children, and gold is shiny (which is bright and was as close to getting to "Bright Eyes" as I could manage); also independantly but along similar lines, I once read a story where Dinky's full name was "Golden Ink," (which I also thought was Dead Clever) so partly influenced by that as well.
I once, long ago, read the suggestion that "Ditzy Doo" was a corruption of "dipsy-do", which is a type of flight stunt. From there I came up with "Ditzy" being a nickname and the idea of "Ditzy" Dipsy-Doo, a stunt flier who was known for being a bit of an airhead, but who was left with a few more severe issues after a career-ending accident. Deciding to put that life behind her rather than be pitied for lost potential, as well as other associated personal trauma, she moved to Ponyville.
The name "Derpy" came from Rainbow Dash, who forgot her name when introducing her to other pegasi and guessed it wrong, and Ditzy just rolled with it as part of starting her new life.
She's a single mother and Dinky is her only child. Dinky's father died in the same incident that produced Ditzy's injuries. Amethyst is Dinky's father's little sister.
I have a story for all this. I keep putting it off in favor of other projects.
I've seen her in prominent roles in a few fics, but not used her myself.
Personally, I like to see her characterized as being of roughly average intelligence, generally (but not always) upbeat, loving and lovable. And so she is in this fic I've been enjoying reading called Living in Equestria. It focuses on a man named Dave who finds himself in Equestria, having lost all memory of the fact that the world now around him is part of a television show. Derpy is one of many supporting characters in the story, and she shows herself to be usually cheerful, though she can encounter situations that make her angry, or break down in tears. She is a mailmare in the story, though there's also a nod in conversation to the "Twilight has multiple heavy things fall on her from above" scene in "Feeling Pinkie Keen". Her eyes are explained, but her cutie mark... not yet. I don't know whether or not Blazewing plans to do so.
I have her as very happy and named Ditzy Doo, but asks others to call her Derpy and then laughs. This is because most ponies don't have TV yet and even fewer know the show the name comes from so don't get it's an insult. She's also actually in charge of the Ponyville pegasus service, mail and weather are both just different types of delivery really, and is good at it. She also is epic clumsy, being literally cursed, and thus should stick to her paperwork but really wants to help. She is also thanks to The Doctor immortal and manged to repeatedly meet up with him many times over the years, though the first time was when she was living as a single mother with her two daughters. She is at least reasonably bright and ludicrously well read. Finally her cutie mark is actually a flowchart made of bubbles, meaning she is good managing a large workforce of pegasi, and understanding the flow of time and possibility.