Nightweaver20xx 
Evil
I’m going to be very careful about what I say here.
Let me preface this by saying that I understand and respect the fact that the MLP voice actors are professionals – that is, they get paid to voice characters, and may or may not have any personal connection to them, or be working on numerous other shows at once. I know for a fact that some are. They get paid to do a job, and they do that job wonderfully. Let’s just get that out of the way immediately.
But I happened to just watch a video in which one VA (I won’t name who) shut down a fan who was admittedly being rude and out of line by asking about some aspects of the fandom I’m certain the VAs don’t want to discuss. That being said, I felt the way they did it was upsetting, by essentially repeating the party line from Hasbro, stating their name, what character they voice, and how happy they are that they made such a positive impact on so many people. I have never seen a bus that had the wheel grabbed so hard and steered back onto the road in such an obvious way. To be fair, the guy was discussing things like molestation, completely inappropriate given that there were surely juvenile fans in the audience, and one VA who I’m sure is still underage on stage with this other.
Here’s the thing, though: I’m starting to get the impression that Hasbro is beginning to regret welcoming the adult fans of MLP into its fold with open arms. It seems like they expected us to be happy we were watching ponies like the kids do, and keep everything family friendly, and that would be the end of it. But that’s not how adults are sometimes, unfortunately. Some of us are involved in the darker aspects of the fandom – porn, politics, gore, etc. – and we want to talk about those. Also unfortunate is the fact that this does not seem to mesh with what the VAs expect we’re going to ask them about at cons. It almost feels like these VAs are being told explicitly by Hasbro in their contract that they are not to discuss anything adult in public or risk their jobs. So there’s the sometimes awkward, ugly and passive-aggressive interactions fans have with VAs in person and online that really upsets me.
So I guess TL;DR what I’m getting at is do any of you think that some VAs are being rude by doing the professional equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears and going “LA LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU LA LA LA” or am I simply reaching too far by expecting that people who get paid to voice cartoon characters should embrace the good, bad AND ugly of the fandom?
Let me preface this by saying that I understand and respect the fact that the MLP voice actors are professionals – that is, they get paid to voice characters, and may or may not have any personal connection to them, or be working on numerous other shows at once. I know for a fact that some are. They get paid to do a job, and they do that job wonderfully. Let’s just get that out of the way immediately.
But I happened to just watch a video in which one VA (I won’t name who) shut down a fan who was admittedly being rude and out of line by asking about some aspects of the fandom I’m certain the VAs don’t want to discuss. That being said, I felt the way they did it was upsetting, by essentially repeating the party line from Hasbro, stating their name, what character they voice, and how happy they are that they made such a positive impact on so many people. I have never seen a bus that had the wheel grabbed so hard and steered back onto the road in such an obvious way. To be fair, the guy was discussing things like molestation, completely inappropriate given that there were surely juvenile fans in the audience, and one VA who I’m sure is still underage on stage with this other.
Here’s the thing, though: I’m starting to get the impression that Hasbro is beginning to regret welcoming the adult fans of MLP into its fold with open arms. It seems like they expected us to be happy we were watching ponies like the kids do, and keep everything family friendly, and that would be the end of it. But that’s not how adults are sometimes, unfortunately. Some of us are involved in the darker aspects of the fandom – porn, politics, gore, etc. – and we want to talk about those. Also unfortunate is the fact that this does not seem to mesh with what the VAs expect we’re going to ask them about at cons. It almost feels like these VAs are being told explicitly by Hasbro in their contract that they are not to discuss anything adult in public or risk their jobs. So there’s the sometimes awkward, ugly and passive-aggressive interactions fans have with VAs in person and online that really upsets me.
So I guess TL;DR what I’m getting at is do any of you think that some VAs are being rude by doing the professional equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears and going “LA LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU LA LA LA” or am I simply reaching too far by expecting that people who get paid to voice cartoon characters should embrace the good, bad AND ugly of the fandom?
