RUINED FOREVER! · 1:33am Oct 13th, 2015
So I just saw Crusaders of the Lost Mark (spoilers, natch) and it totally obliterated my headcanon for Time Crusade. All my carefully laid plans for the Crusaders and Diamond Tiara, destroyed in one crushing blow by the cold iron fist of canon! Curse you, Amy Keating Rogers! You've ruined me! Ruined! 
Due to this unfortunate development, I will now permanently cancel Time Crusade. 
...Haha. Relax, I'm just messing with you guys. I'm not one of those writers.
Seriously, though, I am I little bit annoyed that I can no longer say my most ambitious fanfic matches the show canon. I was always kinda proud of my ability to match things up. It's just that Time Crusade was kinda sorta based on the idea that this day would never come, because I didn't expect them to actually have the balls to pull this off. Seriously, I did not see this coming, like, at all.
That said, I actually kinda loved the hell out of this episode. It was a bit too quickly paced for such a game changer, but the songs were great, and as a fan of both the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Diamond Tiara I found the whole thing completely adorable. If anything, this actually made me want to get back to writing even more. I mean I really want to write on Time Crusade now. It's weird, like this just made me more eager to tell my version.
The one thing I did not like that much was the design of the actual cutie marks in question. I mean I'm not opposed to the concept, even if it did kinda make all the hints they dropped throughout the five seasons come across as some seriously long term trolling. Really, I just think the designs look... wrong. As in, I don't think they really look like cutie marks, and I'm not sure they actually suit the Crusaders aesthetically speaking. There's just something about the size and positioning and colors that rub me the wrong way. It's going to be really weird seeing the CMC parade around with them on their flanks from now on.
Oh well, hopefully I can adjust to that. All in all, great episode.
It would be in contrast to canon. If you, you know... wrote the whole thing.
3465933
Hey, it's still in the works. The delays just keep dragging out, that's all.
I calculate that the final chapter will take approximately ten years to finish.
The CMC cutie marks are without a doubt some of the worst in the show. I mean, they even have outlines. Like, what the hell guys, cutie marks aren't supposed to have outlines
And let's not even speak of the colors
But yea. Either way, can't say I cared much for this episode, but I would definitely appreciate some more Time Crusade
I'm glad you're going to continue. I get frustrated with writers who say "story canon made my story invalid, I quit!" which is a real shame, because it's like they think their stories are canon. Every story I read is a little pocket universe where we get to see things happen that we may never see in the show. In my stories, Rainbow Dash and Applejack fall in love; Do I expect to ever see that in the show? Pfft, no. Yet I continue writing, why? Because I want to tell my story my way, with the characters I love, and that's what you should do. Keep up the good work!
3465963
I don't really see it that way - I don't actually like thinking of my stories as separate from the canon proper. I think that if I do my job right, my stories shouldn't contradict the canon in any noticeable way at all.
I mean, I have shipped Applejack with Rarity, and Rarity with Fluttershy. But in my mind, I always kept my shipping stories in a sort of "what if" parallel universe to my primary headcanon, which is where all my fics that are actually supposed to match the show happen. Time Crusade, unfortunately, was kind of a big part of said primary headcanon. So now I'm not really sure where this leaves me.
Still, I may be able to fix it. With time shenanigans.
There's a very good reason I like to call that episode Death of a Million Headcanons.
3465992 - Ah, then I wish you luck on your shenanagling (shenanigan finagling).
I know exactly what you mean about the long-term trolling... I think at some point the writers changed their minds on what to make the CMC's marks look like. Back in Showstoppers they made some pretty clear inferences as to what AB, Sweetie and Scoots were each good at. I highly doubt that the current plan was on the minds of the writers at that point (which I think were different writers altogether; I dunno for sure because I don't follow 'who wrote what episode' as rabidly as some of the fandom does).
I think I get why they did this though; it creates a situation where they can continue to call them the Cutie Mark Crusaders, for one thing, and it allows them to write future episodes both in the traditional 'try a bunch of shit and see if some random guest star blankflank gets their mark in one of them' style, as well as the newer 'help somepony who already has their mark find their true place in the world' style without having to spend half the episode setting up the story.
(SPOILER'D FOR A REASON; BE YE WARNED)
I was actually figuring that the CMC were going to get their marks as part of whatever time loop shenanigans Starlight Glimmer is planning to pull in the season finale, only to have them become 'undone' when Twilight inevitably set things right again.
3466047
Their marks still represent those talents. Musical star, Lightning wings, heart apple... Well okay, ya got me on the heart apple. Regardless, these are the FIRST dual purpose cutie marks ever.
3466047
It's much worse than that, actually. In Bloom & Gloom, which was this season, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo are clearly dreaming about their much hinted at talents. So it's not like the writers forgot about it.
Hell, that even suggests they subconsciously knew what their talents were fifteen episodes ago. Except, no, turns out that's not it.
Actually, that's another thing that worries me re: Time Crusade. I had to invent a whole new model of causality just to make time travel work with the canon established in It's About Time, and that ended up being the entire basis of the plot.
I really hope they don't make it so that Starlight's time shenanigans just blatantly contradicts Twilight's previous time shenanigans for no damn reason. But even if they work around that, it probably won't be the same work around as I used.
3466070
). I'm not even going to ask what a 'heart apple' has to do with building/repairing things, as Applebloom has demonstrated a talent for on several occasions.
Sweetie's musical note, sure, but Scootaloo's 'lightning wings' is, at best, an indirect reference to her overall agility (and one in somewhat poor taste since her wings are, as far as we know, still underdeveloped and unusable for their intended purpose. I mean imagine if that one paraplegic pony from Trade Ya had a cutie mark of running shoes?
I do get what you mean though, the writers tried to tie the 'new' marks back into their existing talents, but I think that somewhere along the line either someone in the art department didn't get the memo, or Hasbro nixed the first draft of the new designs in favor of something their marketing department told them would sell better on toys.
3466090
I have a feeling that's more or less what's going to happen. Even if Twilight states at some point that what Starlight is doing shouldn't be possible, the explanation might be as simple as another character stating that she must've found some way to make it possible. Maybe I'm wrong and they'll give us a bit more than that; that would be nice.
3466154
1) I am struggling to think of something she's done to build/repair things besides fixing up the clubhouse. If that's her talent, she certainly has no ability to direct others when working with them. (Hammer, hammer, hammer... we were making a table?) Though their float for the summer harvest parade was pretty sweet. Twice. I suppose that counts. I think fans are missing the mark on her talent, though. I think it has more to do with bringing ponies together, which would explain the heart. I haven't thought too heavily about it, but the building/fixing talent always seemed off to me due to evidence to the contrary, whereas we've never gotten much in the way of contrary evidence to Scootaloo's talent doing stunts or Sweetie Belle's singing voice.
2) I think the wings on her cutie mark are quite uplifting, not to make a pun. She flies better than most pegasi on her scooter. Her little wings are quite speedy.
I don't think anyone didn't get a memo, nor do I think any plans were nixed. I think later in the development of these characters, the writers, likely under the watch of Meagan, decided that the CMC should have matching cutie marks that symbolize their unity as the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The writers have been easing us into this for a while with a concept that makes a heck of a lot of sense to a lot of people, and that is that it can take a long time to truly know how to use your talents. We saw it with Trouble Shoes, we saw it with Diamond Tiara, I even theorize that Starlight Glimmer is horribly misguided with what she should be doing with her cutie mark. This season has been full of this stuff. I've seen a lot of pony fans come up with "ponysonas" that are blank flanks, stating that they haven't yet found their true talent. Maybe they would have gotten their cutie mark already, though, and just not know what it means completely.
The CMC still have a long way to go. They are still the crusaders, just with a different mission. They still aren't sure what to do, but their cutie marks will help guide them. They had the right idea all along, but they were being selfish when actually part of their calling was to help others.
I personally think it was beautiful.
On a related note, to anyone reading this, I just don't get why people are so shocked at this joyous eventuality. I expected it to come, and when they said this season was going to have a lot to do with cutie marks, I guessed that it was gonna happen this season. Sure, your storyline might have been shoved to AU, but that doesn't make it any less worthwhile to write. I even have a story where one of them gets their cutie mark, and I still love that story.
Anyway, point being, if you didn't see this coming, I feel bad for you, but at the same time, it shouldn't affect people so much.
BTW, FimFiction is about the only site I've seen much hatred for this episode on :P Fanfic writers are so into their headcanons, it's scary sometimes. Don't get my started at the rage I Feel when people whine about the direction Celestia and Luna have gone in the show. Sheesh.
Take canon, accept canon, accept that you don't have to follow canon, move on.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/10/11/1000128__safe_scootaloo_sweetie+belle_apple+bloom_cutie+mark+crusaders_cutie+mark_crusaders+of+the+lost+mark_spoiler-colon-s05e18_redesign_the+cmc%27s+cutie+marks.jpeg
3466190
You left out Showstoppers, where Sweetie designed/created the sets and costumes, only for Applebloom to give her proper advice on how she really should have gone about both. In the same episode we see Sweetie effortlessly compose and sing music, while Scootaloo demonstrates uncanny agility, both on and off her trademark scooter. The fact that almost everypony who discusses their planned act with them (most prominently Applejack throughout the episode and Twilight in the closing scenes) seems to already recognize what each of them is good at and are just waiting for the CMC themselves to figure it out is an exceptionally strong tell in the narrative.
That was way back in Season 1, when the show's writers weren't even sure if there would be a second season. It's entirely possible--nay, likely--that no one back then was even thinking about what the CMC's actual cutie marks would look like. Five years later, with so many changes to the writing staff and the meteoric popularity of the show, the current storytellers decided to take this aspect of the show in a different direction than what the original team (or even Lauren herself) might've envisioned. Maybe they simply didn't like the way it was heavily implied before and chose to ignore it in favor of something they felt was better (and I'm not saying it isn't). Maybe Hasbro handed down a request that the CMC get their marks so they can start reselling new versions of their toys (you can't say it's not a possibility; using the show to sell merchandise is basically the reason they continue to pay for its production, after all,
); who knows? Maybe someone will ask about it at the next major convention and we'll find out more straight from the horse's mouth (/snicker, 
).
Totally agree with the cutie mark design. Like anything, it'll take some getting used to. I can'y believe they finally did it. So bizarre. Now I can actually say: "Remember when they didn't have their cutie marks?"
3466241
The colours on those look much better. There are still some things I would change though.
--Sollace
3466660
Yeah, I know. It was someone else's take on at least making the colors so blurry. The shield will still force the inner shapes to be smaller than I would like at a distance. If it could be made to be large the same way Shiny's is, it might help.
3466944
The size really bothers me, actually. Practically all cutie marks are much larger, occupying the majority of the flank.
3466944
I might make my own version sometime. I've thought about it and I think I have an idea on what I want to do.
--Sollace
I have to agree on the the aesthetics of the crusader's cutie marks being off. I think a big part of it is that they're definitely too small. They needed to scale them up about 50% larger. Should be pretty easy to do, so maybe they'll fix that part at least.
The other part, I think is the colors, though it doesn't bother me as much as the size; they used their mane colors for the three colors of the shield, but that just means that only 1/3 of each shield matches each of them, color wise.
As for your story... You really need to get on that...
It's understandable. It does somewhat suck when regular canon makes the story you want to do impossible.
I had a few stories i had to re-write once Twilight became a Princess, and Call of the Cutie pretty much makes 1 story I'm working on almost impossible unless I want to make it AU.
Seems that we sit on common ground when it comes to the cutie marks.
That being said I'm very confident that they'll either go through a minor redesign to make them look better and a bit more unique, or will at least have them properly sized and integrated with the the CMC models. I get the feeling in this episode that things were a little rushed when it came to the design phase (just pasting them over pre-existing CMC models) since it was relatively only a small portion of the episode, so I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing happens as what occurred with Luna from season 1 to season 2.
3469439
So basically, we're now at a point where we are hoping that THX will continue to ignore their own continuity.
That's actually kinda amazing.
3469683
Not at all. I'm talking about very minor changes but still keeping the overall design of the cutie mark. Shifting the size, maybe toying with the colors a little. That's it, and that's fine with me. I like the symbolism and design, just not the sizing and color.
3470190
I get that. I just think it's ironic that we're actually hoping they messed up, and are shameless enough to correct it retroactively. You know, as opposed to these cutie marks being exactly what they intended.
3470463
I think that what they did was exactly what they intended. The issue I see is that the animated models for the CMC weren't made with cutie marks in mind. Hence, it would take time to go back and shift these models around to properly integrate the cutie marks so they fill the right space and look good when they're moving and such. They were under a time restraint, so had to do something temporarily (just copy and paste and leave it at that), while in season 6 they'll probably have all new models.
Heh. Well... I'd like to encourage you in the notion of letting go of canon. Honestly, we here at fimfiction tend to take canon way, way too seriously. Much more seriously than the show itself does, in fact. If they cannot be expected to adhere to their own continuity, then how can we? Especially if we have superior stories to tell. And let's be honest—most of us do.
Reason I want to encourage you in this was because of something you (goodness, I hope it was you) said in a post about Derpy which caught my eye. The fact that her canon name is now Muffins should not dissuade us from calling her Derpy. Nobody even called her Muffins in the episode, and everyone knows that the only reason she isn't called Derpy in the credits is because of legal reasons relating to the fandom. So it's really the fandom itself (us) who are the reason Derpy cannot be called Derpy legally. Therefore, it makes no sense for us to start calling her Muffins in some sort of desire to adhere to canon.
Similarly, many (most?) of us have written content in our own stories which has gotten decanonized because the show (amazingly) is not aware of our awesome stories, and has for some crazy reason forsaken our interpretations of how things ought to go. So I say, if the CMC have different cutie mark origins in your story, then so be it. I know in my own story, Apple Bloom's cutie mark is two silver gears. I'm not about to change it just because of this...
pre01.deviantart.net/4afe/th/pre/f/2015/283/e/f/cmc_cutie_marks_by_xebck-d9cll7k.png
Look at those fugly things!
You're absolutely right in that they don't look like cutie marks. Look at those horrendous colors. And those horrendous layers. It's just awful. They couldn't have done worse if they tried. Look at everyone else's cutie marks and line them up next to these. These miserable badges stand out like a mugger in a lineup of nuns. The awful, gawdy pink and purple contrast of the center icons? About the only thing that works with them is the symbology. Like a musical note in a star. Nothing wrong with that. But then to put them all inside those dumb shields? And the shields themselves are all tri-colored in further awful contrasting colors. Everything about them is just wrong. Here... I'll open up Photoshop and see if I can fix these in less than five minutes:
i.imgur.com/CMf4Rd7.png
Okay, six minutes. That was bare-bones and no frills. No outlining, etc. Just... something to make them actually look like cutie marks. See, Hasbro? It's not that hard.
you see, if everyone was to get angry at contradicting headcannon, we'd never see IDW comics...
we writers face the risk every time a new episode comes out.
but to be fairly honest... its a relief when you can finally stray from canon. no story is "impossible, in fact time travel stories have a pretty good excuse to their "non-canon" existence. please, please don't stray from this story! its just to juicy to let go!
4197913
Actually, after I made that blog post I thought about it for a while, and it's not quite as much of a problem as it seemed. I mean, it's not ideal, but I can work with it.
I don't like "straying from canon" for a few reasons, chiefly because it goes against my philosophy of fanfiction but also, in a more general sense, because I think it's an unhealthy attitude for a writer. We shouldn't be too stubborn and inflexible to change our approach as soon as it becomes inconvenient, to adapt when things change. That's just vanity. I understand not wanting to have to worry about it, to just let it go, but facing a problem and finding a solution is actually very motivating.
As for Time Crusade, my urge to continue it comes as goes in regular intervals. It is still kind of my magnum opus as far as My Little Pony goes, and it's very dear to me. I'm just a bit stuck at this next chapter, and there are so many other great stories I really want to write as well. I'm always more enthusiastic about new ideas, it seems - I guess I'm just not cut out for very long stories. Mostly, I think I'm at a point where I need to seriously outline the whole thing, since this is where the plot gets kinda convoluted and I'm a bit worried about writing myself into a corner if I'm not careful.
4197966
believe me, I with you, you get an idea, write a few chapters, then just as you think your about to dive deep into it... you stop,
all three of my stories have yet to get picked up of the ground because I, for the most part, am not very good at story flow, so I have no idea where im gonna go with it.
then you stop writing
then you have to work on other things
and you come back only feeling horrible because it feels like you've neglected it for too long.
im with ya 100%
now off to read some good SweetiexSpike novels for you have re ignited my shipper engine!
keep this ol' guy informed though, i don't wanna miss a thing!