Character Orientation, Canon, and You · 2:56am Jun 30th, 2015
First, let me suggest a song for you to listen to.
Lets stop and pretend for a moment that you, gentle reader, are an author. You may not have written any stories yet, or maybe you've written several. Maybe you're interested in shipping. Whatever your preferences may be, I'm going to assume you're here because you have some question about how characters could possibly like each other. How or why do people keep putting so and so with so and so? How could such and such ship work?
Take a step back for a moment. If you've been listening to my song suggestion, you should be familiar by now with the song, if you weren't already, and may have noticed that it contains some rather imaginative lyrics. It paints an image in your head of some really weird stuff going on. As a writer, you have open, free license to do the same. Gravity? Fuck that noise. Write about things flying around willy nilly. Biology? Pfft. Weaksauce. Write about marshmallows with eyes spinning around fountains of rainbow explosions. Yes. Fountains of explosions.
Write about whatever the fuck you want.
I think a lot of people forget that rule. Writing is art. If you can imagine it, you can write about it. The art is to get others to see what's in your head, share in your imagination, and have a good time doing so.
Now, that all said, some people do prefer things to make sense. Not everyone is as charismatic as John Lennon, and many might argue that the written word doesn't lend itself naturally to the kind of bizarre imagery that song and more visual arts can sell. You have to entice images out of your readers, and starting from a common ground lets you bring them along to your vision more easily than asking them to start cold turkey.
Your readers might have trouble grasping it, or understanding why it is beautiful or important, but if you say there is a sentient marshmallow dodging fountain-borne explosions of the essence of rainbows among a gravity-less void, then that is what happens in your story. Anyone who tells you that can't happen can fuck off. Anyone who tells you that you should have a piece of caramel instead of a marshmallow can similarly fuck off. If they want their caramel among the rainbows story so bad, they can write it themselves. While fucking off.
So what does this all have to do with pony pony pony and making with the kissy faces?
We're all here, writing fanfiction about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Since we're writing about something someone else created, a lot of people make the assumption that there are certain rules you have to follow. Other than the rules you have to follow in order to get your story published here on Fimfic.net, no there really is not. See again rule #0. Write about whatever the fuck you want.
That said, canon is useful. Canon is like a big old box of Legos. There are neat bits, pretty colors, and they can be pieced together to make wonderful stuff. If some of you reading this have somehow been deprived of Legos all your life, then think of Minecraft then. Not as good, but still gets the point across. Lots of blocks, and you can do all kinds of things. Your imagination is more or less the limit.
Canon serves as a handy way to start with a common ground with your reader. If you present to them Twilight Sparkle, then you can generally expect them to have a pretty clear picture of what she looks like, what her voice sounds like, and what kind of things she is interested in. What kinds of things are important to her. Your story then will go wherever it is you want it to go, making use of Twilight Sparkle from the show as a familiar starting point. You could still wind up with marshmallows and rainbow explosions, but doing it this way might be something you'd enjoy doing. How you get from the start to that end is entirely up to you!
Now, I promised kissyface horses in this blog, and now is when I deliver. So setting aside the (admittedly really cool) story idea of marshmallows, rainbow explosions, fountains, and spinning in freefall, lets say instead you want to write a romance. Or you might prefer to call it a shipfic. Or a clopfic. I won't judge. See rule #0. Write whatever the fuck you want. If you decide you have this image burning in your head of Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle locked in a passionate embrace, then write about it. If you have this vague idea that maybe some kind of sad thing happens to one pony, and another pony wants to cheer the first pony up, but you don't know which ponies to use, or what sad event, or any of that, you still have a story idea. However you start your story idea, rule#0 is there for you.
Once you have your idea, look at canon. What bits and pieces will make your story better? With the TwiDash idea, you could look at episodes that have both characters interacting. Get a feel of how they act around each other, and the kinds of things they're interested in. If you just have a vague cheerup idea, you have even more options to pick from. Pinkie Pie likes cheering ponies up, so that might be a natural fit. Who might she want to cheer up? Anypony! So who do you like? Pick anypony, figure out a reason they'd be sad, and the story practically starts writing itself. This is a romance idea, so maybe Pinkie Pie cheers them up and things turn amorous. Whatever floats your boat. Write whatever the fuck you want.
If you haven't figured out by now, some of you may be thinking to yourself, "Cryo, I already know this. I already do this. This is how I come up with my stories." Cool beans. So if you already knew this, or are learning this brand new, either way, take a look at the process I have described so far. At any point do I mention "headcanon?" Nope.
I keep seeing people asking the same question, in various contexts, that basically translates to: I have developed this headcanon, and such and such is impossible, because my headcanon says so.
Fuck your headcanon. Obey Rule #0.
While we're looking back at what I've written so far, have I mentioned at any point that you should look at something from canon and declare anything impossible to do? Again, no. Fuck canon, Obey Rule #0.
Canon is a pile of options and tools and pieces. Canon is not a set of rules you must abide by. MLP:FiM already contradicts itself. Writing a story that is "impossible" because of some event or occurrence in canon does not and should not prevent you from writing whatever the fuck you want.
So, the term "orientation" is in my title too. As is fitting for romance stories, sex and sexual attraction are often important. A lot of people might wring their hands and fret about such things, but again I'm not here to judge. Romance novels before the internet came about were more or less porn. I see no reason to cry about digital romance stories being porn either.
A lot of people seem to ask a question, not unlike the other question I destroyed above, which states, "MLP characters are not gay. Why do people write them gay?" (Fill in whatever orientation is relevant. Lesbian is the most commonly complained about one).
First, in order to come to any conclusion at all about the orientation of any character in MLP, you have to develop headcanon. See above. Fuck your headcanon if you can't be bothered to remember or scroll up.
Even if two characters are happily married, have kids, and truly love each other, one or both of them could be an orientation other than the one suggested by their relationship. It happens in real life. Men figure out they're gay well into their 50's, and wind up having to come out to their grandkids and introduce their boyfriend. Women with children from a prior marriage can end up marrying a woman later on. Or someone thinks he's gay, has several boyfriends, then discovers that he actually is attracted to women.
Attraction on the whole, and orientation in particular, are really complicated and often vague things. Far too complex for a little kid's show, and certainly nothing you, a fan of the show, are even remotely qualified to diagnose or assert one way or the other.
And, even if you are, fuck you, Rule #0.
If you want to write about Cadance and Shining Armor having a wonderfully sweet romantic story, with both of them happily straight, then do so. Rule #0. There are bits and pieces from canon you could find useful to your idea.
If you want to write about how Cadance keeps finding herself looking at mares, and while she still loves, cares for, and respects Shining Armor a great deal, she can't help but be attracted to mares, and not him. Could make for a story packed with drama and conflict. Rule #0, and whatever bits and pieces you can find in canon to make your story, awesome. But do note: their being married doesn't create some kind of rule that says your lesbian Cadance story cannot exist, or even that it should not be written.
For the "heteronormative" crowd, see the explanation on headcanon I've written twice already. When some writer decides they like Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and think they'd explode some rainbows together in a really cute idea, they're not following the same process as you. They're not starting with "all of Equestria" and weighing the details of a biologically sound ecology. They're not attempting to recreate Earth, but allow for magical colorful ponies. Someone simply likes Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. They like the two characters, and feel like writing a story involving them being best friends.
If you want to write a story that speculates on and explores your hypothesis on the orientation-normative qualities of Equestrian culture and biology/evolution, knock yourself out. If you want to write some cutesy straight-fic between whatever mare and stallion catch your fancy, do so. Rule #0.
But when you complain about other people writing about whatever the fuck they want, when you start complaining that their stories don't fit your headcanon, and when you start trying to decry some story because it "violates canon," I have but one response for you.
...well what is it
COME ON DON'T LEAVE ME IN SUSPENSE HERE
3193797
This is very true. And it can make for a great story.
Only please, please, whatever it is, try not to make it suck. And that applies no matter how "canon" or "non-canon" you think that pairing is. Do the work. Don't decide that since Cadance and Shiny are married, you don't have to establish how their relationship works, and if you want to write that lesbian Cadance story, don't just hand-wave her marriage to Shiny and stick him on the bus to Tartarus. There is no such thing as an "obvious" or "easy" pairing.
Very solid arguments in and of themselves, yes. It's true that as writers, we have the full right to write whatever we like. On the other hand, as writers on a public site, we're expected to write things the readers can agree with, or they will stop reading. Depending on how much we care about the readership, we may have to adjust our writing. (I know people who keep soldiering on even as the downvotes and negative comments pile up. I guess that's... brave?)
Given that we're writing fanfiction with established characters and established setting - as opposed to our very own characters in an original setting - we're expected to at least honor their established characterization. If we want to make drastic changes, you have to explain how it fits into the narrative. You can't, for example, have Twilight suddenly beat up Fluttershy and call her unmentionable things and just treat this as normal behavior, because it isn't. That's not Twilight, and the readers won't think "This writer is taking Twilight in a new direction!", they'll think "This idiot can't write Twilight properly!" You have to make the readers see that you're changing things for a reason. You have to convince them to believe it. You can't bruteforce their acceptance with "facts" and "canon" anymore than they can yours.
One thing that bug me a lot is completely out of nowhere shipping. When a writer pairs up two characters without any attempt to explain why. Like suddenly Rarity and Applejack are a stereotypically cute couple with no explanation why or what they see in each other or how they make it work with their different lifestyles. Or Fluttershy and Big Mac, out of nowhere with no mention of how they managed to speak up long enough to deal the deal or how their personalities affect the relationship or anything. Just "They're a couple, it makes sense to me, now care about it." Why should I care if the writer can't even spend half a page justifying it?
So yeah, you're free to write whatever you like with zero regard for anyone else's headcanon. But if you want people to actually care about it, it still has to make sense on a certain level. To compare it with The Beatles: Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds certainly paints a surreal and strange scenery, but it's a scenery we can comprehend and the lyrics make a clear attempt to present it to us properly. It's not dadaistic gibberish or Cuil theory.
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3194068
"Do the work" is, in essence, required for every story and any story written by anyone. It applies behind every topic.
I agree it is a thing which must be done, but it is a much broader scope topic than what I intended to cover in my blog. I somewhat touched on it with my depiction of how to properly make use of canon as a box of Legos, and also in the concept of common starting ground with your readers.
Playing a bit of devil's advocate here. You're right in the context of a story about Cadance and Shining Armor/Rarity and Applejack. Your story is about their relationship, then you should tell a story about their relationship. You get it, I get it, and some other people get it, but you're right that a lot of people miss this obvious thing.
But you're not necessarily 100% right.
It is actually perfectly acceptable to throw, for example, Rarity and Applejack into a relationship together, do little to no work explaining that ship, in a story that isn't about them. If the story is about Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, you're going to want to focus on their dynamic and characters. But on the basic principle that anyone can realistically be shipped with anyone, you could toss a side Rarijack pairing. Perhaps simply as a thing the main couple observes occasionally (in which you really ought to do an efficient job of showing RariJack in action at least on a surface level). Or they might play a supporting role, whom the main characters go to for advice, double date with, or so on. In that instance, you wouldn't need to show the getting together, private thoughts, or even spend very much wordcount on them. Only enough to fill their role.
A step further from that, you could, for example, toss Lyra and Bon Bon into the background, as scene dressing. Maybe it is Hearts and Hooves day. They're just some random couple nuzzling in the park. You don't have to really do any work at all.
Couples, much like characters, fit into categories. They can be presented as static background, supporting, or main characters. The amount of work you need to perform is based on that more than anything else.
I've met quite a few people whom that bugs, unreasonably so. Some, because they dislike a ship excessively so. Others because "but my heteronormative society!"
So yes, do the work, but do not expect more work than is necessary for the story to work.
3194123 As supporting characters, yes. And actually, if you want to start a story that IS about them after their relationship is already a settled thing, that's cool, too. You don't have to give me the gory details on how they got together, their first kiss, their first fight, how they became a couple, how they got married blah blah blah. You could, if necessary, start with a married Applejack and Rarity arguing about how to rebuild the barn after it's been knocked down for the eighty-fifth time, and Rarity insisting that just this once, they're going to paint it in colors she selects. In fact, I'd like to see more slice of life fics with established couples. Just show them interacting well and I'll accept the premise. If it's an adventure fic or a mystery, I don't require as much as if it's a ship fic.
On the other hand, there are the fics that ship everypony. You see this a lot in Next Gen fics, where I just have to accept ten different couples because of reasons. Or right in the middle of a Flutterlestia fic, Fluttershy says to Twilight, "oh, and what about you and DISCORD???" (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). Where did that come from?
It's even worse when the secondary ship is there for no other reason than to get rid of a popular pairing. An example might be a TwiDash fic in which Fluttershy is brought in to talk about Discord, Flash Sentry gushes about his new special somepony, and Applejack strolls in with a bushel of apples and announces, "Welp, I made it official with Fancy Pants. Just tossin' that out there, y'all." The writer's so paranoid that the reader won't accept TwiDash that it's necessary to dispose of Applejack, Flash, and Fluttershy. And that just doesn't work for me. If you want to write about TwiDash or FlashPants, write about it and make me believe in it. That's enough work for any writer, and it's all I expect.
3194123
Yeah, this bugs the living hell out of me mainly because of what 3194162 says--I have never seen your philosophy, which is otherwise nice and idealistic and stuff, used to any ends but laziness, cheap fantasy, and desperation to pair the spares (usually to make sure everyone's "out of the way" for the author's chosen couple).
Side-couples are fine, but throw some kind of bone towards making the side pairing believable (or at least appealing) aside from the base declaration of their togetherness, or I click out of your fic, full stop, no exceptions. Work must still be done. You don't have to explain, but you do have to show (as opposed to simply telling, and then expecting us to believe it).
Way too many people don't get this, which is dangerous because incorporating side-couples without jarring readers can actually be tougher than establishing the main couple simply because you're working with less. And the less work you devote to a pairing, foreground or background, the dumber it looks far as I'm concerned. I actually don't believe in named-character pairings that exist within a mere sentence or two.
Also, never advocate the devil. S/he will never return the favor.
3194123 It all boils down to "Don't expect the readers to care if the author's lack of effort shows they don't". If you're just throwing in a pairing for the sake of having a pairing, there's no point. It's not that I won't believe it's there and an established fact of the setting. I can accept that Mr and Mrs Cake are a couple by canon, but unless the story actually gives me some fodder for it, I won't really care.
It's the same for any other attempt to evoke emotion without making the effort. In Frigid Winds and Burning Hearts (which sucks, by the way), the writer tries to justify one character's jerkass behavior with traumatizing experiences from the war. Unfortunately said war is not relevant to the plot and has no impact on the setting, is not elaborated on and is only brought up to justify said behavior. Predictably, it falls flat, because the characters he's bullying (some of our main protagonists) have established traumatic experiences from the show (and thus we feel for them) while he's got nothing solid. I can't feel as strongly about it as the writer wants unless they make an effort of it.
The Devil is a loser, anyway. Who climbs up a tree and then gets stuck because some farmer draws a cross on it? Seriously!
Thank you for this. It's a good answer to the question that I previously posed and good advice in general. Had I phrased things better, I expect I'd have gotten this in the first place.
Live and learn, I suppose.
Is it okay to have more than one headcanon? Like, say, in one Rarity is with Applejack, while in another she's developing feeling for Twilight but afraid to act on them because she doubts the purity of her own motives. (I'd throw in a straight one, too, but all the guys that seem like they'd appeal to Rarity seem to be either already taken (such as Fancy Pants or Shining Armor) or a huge mistake just waiting to be made (she already knows Blueblood was a mistake, but it's not clear if she's over her crush on Trenderhoof yet).)
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Headcanon is an intangible, impermanent thing. Have as many as you like. Make them as detailed or vague as you like. Headcanon is, essentially, another word for "opinions."
That all said, fuck your headcanon(s).
If you are interested in using either of those examples as the basis of a story you plan to write, be sure that you show us the things that make that headcanon tick, and the things that make it appealing. Unlike canon elements, you can't simply expect readers to simply get it the way you do.
Furthermore, discard those headcanons when you go reading someone else's story. Let them tell you the how and why of Rarity's romantic inclinations, and rate how well they convinced you within the scope of their story.
You don't need to be permanently convinced that Trenderhoof and Applejack are the greatest pairing ever. But you really should decide with an open mind if the author of the story you're reading has done a good job convincing you that these two do indeed love each other, and so on. Going in with the mindset that "the two would be horrible together, and that is final" is an abuse of headcanon. Going in to such a story and saying they can't be together because Applejack would clearly be better off with Rarity is, again, abuse of headcanon.
Have as many headcanons as you like. But recognize that is all they are, and recognize they are useless for practically anything.
3275984 I mentioned those merely as examples. Basically, what I meant is "Is it okay to write two stories with contradictory premises?"
And let me rephrase, there's no straight pairing for Rarity that I think I could do properly, for the reasons I mentioned. If someone else wants to pair Rarity with Bulk Biceps or whoever, I have no intention of discouraging them.
3278274
Every story you write, unless it is a sequel or prequel, has no dependency on any other story you write.
3278585 Thanks. I'm just worried about confusing potential readers.
Not that it matters, since I'm currently pinned under a giant case of writer's block. Where's Tank when you need him?
3278839
Hibernating.