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I love being a brony.
Nov. 6th, 2011 08:48 pmOn October 22nd, the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episode "Luna Eclipsed" aired. This episode was the first appearance of hugely popular character Princess Luna since the pilot. As presented, the character differed hugely both in appearance and behavior from how fans had depicted her over the previous year.
Despite much worry, fan reaction was almost entirely positive. Many fans called for the altering of said fan depictions to suit the new canonical depiction, and nearly all fanart and fanfic portrayal of Luna since is in line with how she appears in "Luna Eclipsed" (or at least makes an active effort to explain deviation).
Recently, a new set of "blind bag" MLP toys were released. One of these toys resembles a background character that has appeared in several episodes, a green unicorn with a lyre Cutie Mark. This character had no canon name (and is officially labeled "Incidental Pony 2" in the animator's Flash files according to one of the staff), but is very popular with the fandom, who had dubbed her "Lyra". The toy is named "Heartstrings".
Much argument and debate has ensued, as fans have discussed whether the toy should be considered as Lyra (the toy is a recolor of Twilight Sparkle) and what this means to the vast amount of fanwork featuring her. There are several camps, including those who refuse to accept the "Heartstrings" toy as accepting Lyra, and one that has renamed her "Lyra Heartstrings" (as the show has presented evidence of characters with first and last names - Pinkie Pie's full name being "Pinkamena Diane Pie", for one).
To put this in perspective: a major character being nothing like her fanon depiction results in acceptance. A background character getting named differently from fan expectations results in massive confusion and argument.
I fucking love this fandom.
Despite much worry, fan reaction was almost entirely positive. Many fans called for the altering of said fan depictions to suit the new canonical depiction, and nearly all fanart and fanfic portrayal of Luna since is in line with how she appears in "Luna Eclipsed" (or at least makes an active effort to explain deviation).
Recently, a new set of "blind bag" MLP toys were released. One of these toys resembles a background character that has appeared in several episodes, a green unicorn with a lyre Cutie Mark. This character had no canon name (and is officially labeled "Incidental Pony 2" in the animator's Flash files according to one of the staff), but is very popular with the fandom, who had dubbed her "Lyra". The toy is named "Heartstrings".
Much argument and debate has ensued, as fans have discussed whether the toy should be considered as Lyra (the toy is a recolor of Twilight Sparkle) and what this means to the vast amount of fanwork featuring her. There are several camps, including those who refuse to accept the "Heartstrings" toy as accepting Lyra, and one that has renamed her "Lyra Heartstrings" (as the show has presented evidence of characters with first and last names - Pinkie Pie's full name being "Pinkamena Diane Pie", for one).
To put this in perspective: a major character being nothing like her fanon depiction results in acceptance. A background character getting named differently from fan expectations results in massive confusion and argument.
I fucking love this fandom.
