Derpy · 10:12am Dec 6th, 2014
Well, time to write some dialog for a new character to the story. When I get ready to write in a pre-existing character, I always like to take a moment to study them a bit first so that I can get the characterization right. Interesting thing about Derpy though, is that she really doesn't have any canon characterization, other than perhaps being clumsy. Perhaps too clumsy. I'm sorry but I refuse to write a comic klutz like Jar Jar Binks into my story. I just don't think such characters are even remotely realistic or even really funny.
The only thing we know about Derpy is that she's been the center of controversy back in 2012 or so, when the social justice warriors all decided that somehow that she was offensive. But after much fan protesting and some rather effective hashtag campaigning, Derpy seems to have made a recovery, albeit without a speaking role in the show, apparently because that's the only way they could avoid seriously offending one group or the other.
So much fan sympathy has been generated for this one character, it's truly unbelievable, and quite impressive. It just goes to show how a fan community is willing to rush out and (even if it's virtual) generate support for an oppressed and rejected character. Derpy herself has become the personification of every rejected person out there, all wrapped up in one character.
And yet, the fans turn it right around and portray the character with amazing perseverance. As someone who loves everyone and has a perpetually optimistic outlook on life. Someone who never takes the bad things too seriously, and cherishes every moment.
And then there's the relationship with the Doctor, which takes the character to a whole other dimension (literally).
Which resulted in their daughter Dinky, who was automatically assumed right from the start to be one of the most cherished foals ever born. She even gets a major part in my story, which I'm pretty excited about.
So yeah, there's a lot of fan art over this particular character, and surprisingly little canon material to go off. Lots of people love Derpy and think of her as a certain way, clearly. There's also lots of stories featuring her - an unusually high percentage which use the name Ditzy Doo for some reason).
I think that while her role in my story is quite small, I will still attempt to characterize her in a way that these fans would appreciate. Initially there won't be much interaction at all. Perhaps later on in the story I can fit her in more prominently.
It's generally accepted that Derpy is fully functioning with no mental inhibitions, and the fanon is that she has a condition called 'Strabismus' which is a neurological condition which makes her eyes all wonky. It is that which effects her depth perception, and thus causing her clumsiness. As a thought, write her as a normal pony, but be comical about her mistakes, such as bumping into a wall and so on like that.
Also, my heart gave out from looking at those pictures.
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The challenge is coming up with a speaking style for her as well as how she regards and interacts with everyone else. Every character in my story has a speaking style which I can imagine as if it were real. Doesn't have to be the same as in the show - for example I don't characterize Daisy anything like her MLP depiction. But for Derpy I'd like to keep her consistent with how many of the fans see her.
What's really interesting about her "condition" is that I actually have a close friend who has a little blonde haired girl whose eyes do the same thing as Derpy's. She's a very smart kid.
regardless of whether or not she has a disorder, the one thing that is canonical to Past Sins is that Derpy is a devoted mother.
How devoted? well in Past Sins Derpy did not hesitate to offer herself to the hydra in a desperate attempt to save Dinky.
Past sins chapter 18 : " a mare against Monsters".( note that Pen Stroke uses her alternate name " Ditzy" Doo):
Like any mother worthy of the title, Derpy did not hesitate to give her life for Dinky. In the story I am writing, Nyx, In flashback, recalls this moment as the exact moment she realized she could serve as a shield to protect ponies.
From the one week overdue super rough draft of " tale of two cutie marks" :
basically for me, Derpy/Ditzy is a personification of motherhood. She has limitations but she is willing to do anything she can to protect Dinky. If you play this up, I think you will get her down. It is more a question of getting the" feel " right than any particular style of dialogue or incident.
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Yeah, pretty much. But not just any mother. A good mother. For this reason, I am specifically avoiding any sort of "overprotective" tendencies in her (unlike the worrisome, yet well meaning Twilight Sparkle). When Dinky tells her mother that she will be joining Nyx and her friends as part of their team, Derpy is happy for her, and focuses on the fact that she will get a chance to spend more time bonding with her friends and doing important things like saving ponies. She is confident enough in her daughter that she will be able to take care of herself and not be put at unnecessary risk. Derpy isn't a worrier in my view. She loves her daughter to pieces, but she knows Dinky must get out there and experience life, and the best way to do that is with her close friends.
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You know, thinking about it, I think this is probably one of the main reasons I dislike the name "Ditzy Doo"
Derpy is a term which is more of a physical description which may include being clumsy or goofy in actions. But Ditzy is a mental or character description which strongly implies the character to be a simpleton, or air-head. Ineptitude. Clueless. Etc. All the things which we don't want associated with this character - all the maltreatment of the character which raises the hackles of the fans, is embodied in the name "Ditzy".
Why Fo:E chooses to use this name, I do not understand. Especially considering the part where the small child at the settlement teasingly refers to her as "Derpy" and the child's mother corrects him, saying that's not polite. Really? I find it the opposite. Besides, consensus seems to be that Derpy is her official name anyway.
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Maybe write Derpy based off of your friend's mannerisms??
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His daughter is completely normal every way (except perhaps being smarter than most kids her age - she is 8 or 9 years old I think). The only odd thing about her is that you can't tell what she's looking at because she has eyes quite similar to Derpy's.
I'm pretty happy with how I've written Derpy in the story so far. I've got a good amount of dialog written but again she is not a prominent character in the story, so there won't be the need to flesh it out too much.
2636568 I know right? T_T
I really feel for the derpy TwT
Back when people were claiming she was offensive I was actually kinda outraged. I grew up my whole life working with and around the mentally challenged, and do you know what they wanted more than anything? ESPECIALLY the ones that had just mild disorders... they wanted to be treated like everyone else. They didnt want pity or to be brushed away, Just like my brothers who come back from the desert missing eyes or hand and feet. They dont want to be on a pedestal or in a closet They want what is theirs, the right to be treated as a normal bloody person. They are not so weak that they need to be defended in that way, nor are they some sort of anomaly that the world NEEDS to know about them. They are people and deserve to be treated as such. Granted shame and embarrassment occur a lot, one of my greatest friends left the navy with severe brain damage. He was 20 and just developed Alzheimer's He could not even remember his wife's name. The ONE thing he wanted more than anything after he came to terms with the crap going on was to be treated like a person. All the fools in the mess decks mocked him and all the chiefs acted like he was so handicapped he could not even remember how to eat his food.
SO yeah, I really got hit with the feels when I saw Derpy's struggle. I was and am fully aware that its a fictional character, but I was utterly livid at the entire ordeal. The character may have been fictional but the offense was quite real and struck home pretty damned hard.