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MoonlitBrush — Derpy and Faust
#fim #hooves #mlp #derpy #mlpfim #fausticorn #mylittleponyfriendshipismagic
Published: 2014-12-19 01:18:07 +0000 UTC; Views: 9927; Favourites: 423; Downloads: 0
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Description
When the creator meets something never intended to exist, yet could never existed without the creation of everything else. And if it takes thousands of people to make an accident come alive, who is the parental figure? The people who love them as they are? The people who overlooked the error and permitted it to exist? The one who made the initial mistake? The ones who set up the system which created the error?Or is it the one who made the error possible to begin with? Who does Derpy view as her parents?
Took a background ZuTheSkunk left lying around, to represent "world building" going on in the background. I wanted to do more endless expanse and ground shooting up into mountains, but I'm super short on time at the moment so this will have to do.
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Comments: 36
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Wow, I never thought about Derpy like that. Gives you quite the perspective on how sometimes small things lead to something huge and beautiful.
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Now that I'm done waxing philosophical about things, I'd like to say that this is a positively lovely piece. Your style gives your subjects such grace, and even with the talented use of light and shadow still manages to blend them with their surroundings.
The concept here is so very touching and subtle as well. The creator is busy creating when she is surprised as one of her creations reaches out to her. It is as adorable and heartwarming, and it was a favorite almost instantly.
You've earned yourself a watcher.
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Thanks, that was entirely the intended idea of the piece.
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I think one needs to take a slightly broader look at this phenomenon to answer these questions.
Once upon a time, a woman named Bonnie contracted the services of a sculptor named Charles to create a prototype for a toy figurine to be called 'My Pretty Pony'. It was very successful, but it was decided it could be more so with a reduction in size and under a new name: 'My Little Pony'. A few years later, production began on an animated series to accompany the toy line, though Bonnie had no part in the project.
Under the creative direction of a man named Jules, this animated series saw enough success to last two seasons with 65 episodes before being discontinued. It was picked up some years later, again under Jule's direction with the help of someone who had worked with him on the original series, Jay. Unfortunately, 'My Little Pony Tales' saw only one season before being discontinued as well.
I could go on about all the people who kept this idea alive for the next two decades, but the point I'm really trying to make is that the woman named Lauren, brilliant as she is, is but a link in a chain of individuals that culminated in characters such as Derpy Muffins. The primary difference this time around, however, is that the fans have never had a greater impact on the material, perhaps starting with Lauren herself, who would not be as qualified as she was to lead this project if she had not been a fan of the franchise growing up.
I'll save us all an even more obnoxiously clogged comment section by directing you to this excerpt . Whenever the subject of an artist's work taking on a life of its own, I always think of Aulë creating the race of dwarves in The Silmarillion. In the excerpt, Aulë breaks one of his creator's cardinal rules for the chance to have children of his own, to teach and to love. Ilúvatar has stern words with Aulë, and though Aulë explains that he is no different from Ilúvatar who created all the gods for similar reasons, he is sincerely repentant and offers up the fate of the dwarves, even readying his hammer to destroy them. But Ilúvatar points out that he has already given the dwarves life, which was beyond Aulë's power, and that though they will often quarrel with Ilúvatar's own children, they will have a place among them.
In a sense, Aulë is the maker and father to the dwarves, making Ilúvatar a grandfather. In that same sense, Bonnie is responsible for all things My Little Pony, and her work has filtered down through the years and through the various incarnations and mediums, until one day, one of her creation's biggest fans, a child of her inspiration, was tasked with continuing her work, and more specifically the directors and producers of series' past. And from that duty- and that of the many dedicated individuals that took part in its fulfillment- spawned the most successful addition to the franchise yet, which continued to be so even after Lauren had moved on. And through no intention of Bonnie, Jules or Lauren, the work took on a new life entirely in the minds and hearts of the fans, whose sincerity was so striking that, bit by bit, and then all at once, that life was granted to these previously blank creatures by the creators themselves.
Ditzy Muffins is so much more than anyone's child, and no one person or even one group of people can be termed her mother or father. She, like any other character in this series, is a phenomenon. A concept that was gathering pieces and momentum even before Friendship is Magic was a note scrawled in a notebook. An idea that, with the slightest provocation grew too fast and too strong to contain. And now, she has become a symbol of the power of imagination, of what beautiful things can come out of what seems like chaos, and of the even greater power of what unity can achieve.
We can theorize forever over who is to blame or thank or credit for this strange creature, but in truth, Derpy came from everyone and no-one. A flawed and yet perfect manifestation of both a series of chance events, a long and winding lineage, and perhaps most importantly, the sheer crushing weight of human imagination all coming together to condense themselves into a single form.
Licenses, copyrights, credits... they're just things, shriveled and artificial in the face of something so grand as what has manifested before us. Bannie gave us toy ponies, Jules gave us a cartoon, and both were kept alive long enough for one of their biggest fans to give us something bigger than any one mind could have ever imagined. Even Lauren can only perplex at what has become of the creation she had nurtured from something so small. There are things that confuse her, and even things of which she disapproves, but in the end, it is going to go where it is going to go, no matter what she says.
... Actually... that's exactly what parenthood is like, isn't it?
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Sorry Your Majesty, you didn't create this one, we did, she's ours, not one of yours
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Derpy is nobody's creation, her life began as an error in a show created by someone who wanted to fix girl shows, who was inspired by the poor quality of shows in the past and her own imaginary adventures as a child, inspired by folklore and tales from lost kingdoms and dead civilizations featuring great beasts and mythical creatures.
Derpy is the stuff of life, where things just come together perfectly to create it and then persist in spite of hardship. Fragile, yet strong. Not fragile like bubbles, but the conditions she came from could easily have been undone. Now that she exists it would take a herculean effort to get rid of her... which I guess means she's that tough. That's a good trait for a representative of life. Also, a good fit for a mother figure, which is also a representation of life and its continuation.
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Emergent complexity. Simple rules can give rise to complex phenomena. If you're writing the rules, they can have results you don't expect.
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Your description caused me to shed a tear. So deep and touching...
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To me Derpy (Ditzy Doo) is not an error. She is one of the "variables" that make up life! It's wonderful that she is a sweet natured variable! As all things...She comes from the hearts of many. All who live and love. If we were all the same, this life would not be worth living....Give us our "variables". Have Fun! (Nice work!)
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Hun?
WE'RE her parents and creator gods. You and me and the entire fandom. We spotted her in the crowd and loved her and named her and adopted her and gave her a story and a life to live. We all nurtured and fed her life in our imaginations.
Isn't is beautiful?
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The fans gave her a daughter, the creators of the show gave her daughter a sister. We both gave her purpose, and for a little while she was given a voice. However, the nature of her existence relies on the existence of the show, and all the little accidents leading to her conception. We may have nurtured her, but her creator is not us.
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Error is the fuel in the engine of progress. In the metaphor of parentage, everyone has flaws. In nature, nothing is 'intended'; intention itself is an artifice wrought from the error of Abundance. We can AFFORD to attach meaning and purpose and deliberation to our world... but our world is not dependent upon these things.
While a world like equestria is often thought to be a world of pure artifice, the creatures that fabricated it--we ourselves--are the result of that maelstrom of happenstance, tirelessly working to organize itself, from which stems all life. Which is to say... Equestria and many of its 'planned' residents are the fertile foundation, but Derpy is an example of true emergent growth.
Faust and DHX are more 'parent' to her than they are to the *rest* of Equestria. They are not the parents of Equestria but merely its assemblers. Equestria was "Made". DERPY was BORN.
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I don't imagine there's a ton of overlap between MLP and Rick & Morty fandom, but I can't help being reminded of this heartbreakingly beautiful speech of Morty's (trust me, in context it's a tearjerker):
"Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's going to die. Come watch TV."
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I tracked it down.
wow.
That's the thing about that show. It goes through some extremely scary content. More than any other show, it seems to capitalize on mood whiplash to a startling extreme. It always portrays itself as though it's going to be all silly and funny, but never fails to out of NOWHERE give you a brutal gut-punch of existential introspection, tearing away the curtain of "adventure" and "fun" to deconstruct before your very eyes and show you the true soul-rending terror and trauma its characters are going through.
Somehow, you're right. It IS a tear jerker.
Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody 'belongs' anywhere. Everybody's going to die. Come watch TV? (Please?)
It makes me feel, possibly ironically, that it's even more important to create purpose, to welcome one another into our own idea of 'belonging', to embrace life while we still can. And stop worrying so much.
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a wonderful piece about such a world-changing subject
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World War II is a world-changing subject.
This is not.
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World War II was world-changing, so was the anti-knock agent used in cars from the 1920's to the 1970's. Another world-changing event was the concept zero developed by India.
While a single television series isn't enough to alter the world to such a degree as these things, nor a single character from the series, it is still unusual in a world where lawsuits are a huge problem for creative works.
It is better compared to the discovery of penicillin, where unusual uncontrolled circumstances lead to something new being created. While not life-saving, people can be inspired by Derpys existence once they learn exactly what it took to make this extraordinarily popular character.
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i meant the world of this fandom… geez, calm your face
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It's applicable to both.
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That depends on the world we are talking about.. the term world-changing does not automatically assume our world.. every story creates a world.
The accidental creation of the pony coined Derpy, did indeed change the world of MLP.
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