Hay, everypony—
We have been watching MLP:FiM together every Saturday for just under a month now, and next Saturday we'll finally be starting season 2. Two weeks after that, i.e. three weeks from now, we will reach the batch of episodes that includes S2E14, "The Last Roundup".
The only problem is, there are two different versions of that episode: the version of the episode as it originally aired, and a later edited version for reruns, official downloads, and streaming. The changes made to the episode concern the scene immediately after the intro — a scene which was criticized for its depiction of an intellectually disabled character.
I hold that the original version of the scene; the context behind the original version of the scene; the backlash to the scene, and the resulting changes to it; and the brony fandom's backlash to the changes to the scene in turn; are all important to acknowledge as a part of the history of ableism and ID representation in children's media, and an important but uncomfortable part of MLP:FiM and the brony fandom's history — in the same vein as we didn't skip "Bridle Gossip" and "Over a Barrel" just because those episodes are fucking racist. So all in all I would like for us to experience the show "warts and all", and to be critical of our own nostalgia for it.
However, this still leaves the question of whether we actually watch the original or edited version of the episode, and how (and for how long) we cover "Derpygate" after the episode. I'll leave that one up to you all.
I agree, frankly. Like the problem with the scene in the show is that Derpy is portrayed as good for nothing, and that RD gets mad at her; the edit just hides the fact that she's disabled, which is just erasure that doesn't fix the underlying problem of the scene.
I really just mean that the scene feels to me like it's written with the assumption that you're "supposed to" sympathize with Dash's frustration, rather than sympathizing with Derpy for being made to do something she can't do, and then getting yelled at when she inevitably can't do it. Rainbow Dash never apologizes to Derpy, and Derpy is never shown doing something she's actually good at, which means that as far as her portrayal in the episode begins and ends, she can't even sit perfectly still without causing problems, and ponies can just freely berate her without consequence. Anything Derpy might be good at is kept strictly hypothetical, and whether Dash's behavior actually was flawed at all is left for the viewers at home to discuss amongst themselves.
The way the scene should've been written, really, at least if I were to write it, would've had a third character intervene, tell Dashie that she's being a dick, and helped Derpy find something that she's better suited for. The scene as-written, on the other hand, doesn't really challenge any stereotypes about ID: if you came into the episode thinking it was fine to be a dick to people with ID, as unfortunately many people would, then you'd come out of the episode feeling no different.
Edit: Cf. the season 7 episode "Once Upon a Zeppelin", which has a character that I read as autistic, who got fucked by his circumstances, and Twilight Sparkle lashes out at him. However, Twilight does apologize by the end of the episode! And I really felt for that character, Star Tracker, I honestly remember getting kind of teary-eyed because his situation reminded me of when similar things have happened to me. I actually kind of disliked "Once Upon a Zeppelin" precisely because I wanted MLP:FiM to just be lighthearted fun instead of reminding me of the hardships of my personal life, but Hell, if you are going to depict this sort of scenario, then that's how you do it.
Are we arguing or is one or both of us misreading the other's intent? I'm already on board with you that many of the fandom's depictions of Derpy are genuinely great and affirming for people with disabilities, and that the edit of the episode erases a disabled character, and that it's better in any case to watch the original version of the episode. I was not particularly concerned with whatever role AKR vis-à-vis the editors and other staff had in making the scene as it aired, nor the purity or goodness of the intentions of any party involved in the production, nor how offensive the name Derpy is. My issues with the scene, for that matter, really hold up regardless of whether Derpy's disability is only intellectual or only physical or if we're being honest both at the same time.
I figured it might've been that, but it can be hard to read intent sometimes...