The reason I respect the MLP crew so much, and the reason I thought we all shared, was that they give a damn about their fanbase. Are people actually trying to get mad about that? It really is something you have to willingly try hard to do, getting mad about people respecting your opinion. I wish these mentals could just say “thanks” and then get on with their lives.

@Takashi.0  
I wouldn’t class Trixie as even CLOSE to “pandering” re-using or bringing back characters/“guest stars” in a serial TV series is done constantly. Actually it’d be nice if they did it more I think, so we could maybe have some background or supporting characters with a bit more depth. The laser like focus on the main cast can be a downside in that regard I think. More stuff like the pseudo-Cheerilee ep with Hearts and Hooves Day would be nice, to kind of flesh out some of the others we see around often.
 
That though according to some however would seem to fall under “pandering”, or, perhaps more accurately, under “they might contradict my beloved fanon, so I’ll just make some some excuse why doing this would be awful and horrible in order not to seem like a selfish, entitled tool”. Which I think is the REAL source of a fair bit of raeg at the comic particularly the background pony stuff.
 
Derpy I consider entirely Hasbro’s fault for being such a bunch of spineless cowards they couldn’t tell a tiny, TINY minority of whiners to go look up “slapstick” in a dictionary. The real crap storm their only happened when they censored it because of that handful of whiners, not when they aired it.

@Tk3997
 
From what I understand, it means that the writers start doing so many nods to the fandom that it overtakes the show and the quality starts to suffer as a result (despite the fact that the staff says that the primary audience still is and always will be the little girls).
 
To this day, I can think of only TWO instances in the show where these accusations are even remotely plausible.
 
The first is Magic Dual because Trixie came back. And even then, it was written 2011, before the fandom reached the absurd size it has now, let alone before Trixie became ridiculously popular. If they REALLY wanted to turn into “Bad brony jokes: the episode,” they would’ve had Trixie eating pinecones while being stalked by Sethisto’s ponysona.
 
The second is Derpy being canonized in last roundup, and not only do we all know how that went down, but it only lasted like two minutes anyway.
 
 
The comics are far, far, FAR more guilty of pandering, and yet I never see /mlp/ bitching about Katie cook being a hack.

Pandering is such a dumb word anyway, how do you even define it? Based on the most of the nonsense I’ve seen it would appear to be “Any form of continuity or acknowledgement that certain background ponies appear more then others and are liked by fans”. I really just don’t get fandoms sometimes… I mean for me when I see that creators are aware of what we like and putting nods and allusions to it into their works I’m thrilled.
 
I mean what do you want instead? For them to be utterly indifferent, not care at all what fans like and just hurl darts at a wall hoping something sticks? It’s like if they just do whatever with no regard for fans or consistency they get yelled at, if they try to acknowledged fans and reuse characters and such they get yelled at.
 
Then again I stopped expecting rationality from fandoms long ago, so I’ll just sit here and be happy to be acknowledged and get the references. The other guys can sit in the corner sperging about how acknowledging the enormous active fan base for the work is ruining the enormous active fan base of the work…

Really, by now they should release a toy with that costume already

I like derpy best as a mailmare who likes muffins on the side rather than being obsessed with muffins who may or may not deliver mail sometimes.

And as for pandering within the comics, there really is only two places that I even think it gets close and that’s not even that much:
 

@K_A  
Yes - this was an on-the-spot (or possibly pre-arranged but drawn-on-the-spot) commission request. If the cover has either that logo or the border of the same pony around it, it’s a blank cover for the artist to add in.

@RIG  
That’s OK, Background Pony doesn’t either.

(Not that the whiney plebe would read that because I banned him for spamming.)

(And because it’s custom done by the artist, of course it would have shout-outs.)

I thought these editions were directly drawn and painted on the spot by the artist. If not, I must have been missing out on some awesome covers….

@Itsthinking  
What “fandom artist” got to draw a cover besides Yamino?
 
And seriously, who the hell cares? It’s just the cover.
 
Also, I haven’t seen any storylines from the show be reused per se. I’ve seen the micros use general concepts certain episodes have also touched upon, concepts that are, frankly, pretty universal and would inevitably be covered in both.
 
As for me, I like the callbacks and “pandering” Katie and Andy put into the backgrounds of their issues and wish the other artists would do it more, simply because it makes panels more interesting to look at.

i am grateful i can’t understand the concept of pandering.

@Background Pony  
These covers don’t even have anything to do with the comic.
 
Personally, I think it’s the blatant reuse of storylines in the micro and allowing fandom artists to draw covers that is weakening the comic.

@Background Pony  
No it really hasn’t.
 
Now take your bans like a man.

@PonyPon  
The quality HAS been sacrificed.

Pandering is okay if you don’t sacrifice quality for it.

@Takashi.0  
The people who like pandering are the ‘entitled’ ones.

@Background Pony  
Have fun missing out on quality entertainment, you entitled piece of shit.

Pandering is one of the many cancers that is killing My Little Pony. I won’t be buying any of the comics.

@SpacePaladin  
Yes, let us engage in the drinking of /mlp/’s tears.

Such pandering.
 
More please.