Changing a Changeling · 7:01pm Sep 3rd, 2017
Well, that was pretty much about as bad as I thought it was going to be.
I mean, bonus points for trying to make Pharynx's transformed form look at least a little bit not like an even more pastel horse, but it didn't work. Honestly, I think it might actually be worse than Thorax's design. You can't just take one of the other changeling's colors and turn down the saturation. But admit it—I had a point about the smaller antlers making the whole design about 300% less stupid looking, didn't I?
And while the original changeling's transformation was ridiculous, Pharynx's was even worse. There was literally zero reason for him to transform. He didn't learn a single thing. If anything, he was the one who was right the entire time. He even said that he loved the hive well before he transformed. There wasn't a thing about him that changed. The entire transformation, like always, was a pointless cosmetic change because 'black = bad' and 'colorful = good'.
So again, our lesson is "You can't be a good guy if you look scary". Great job, guys. Well done.
Seriously, Pharynx's transformation is so tacked on and senseless that all I can picture is the writers finishing up the episode with Pharynx staying the same and still being accepted by the hive, and then suddenly someone from marketing tackles them while screaming "NO BLACK GOOD GUYS" and scrawls 'then Pharynx transforms' at the end of the script.
A few mildly interesting things from the episode, at least.
We're back to a changeling hive now instead of a pack. Still not sure what that was about.
Also, Thorax called Pharynx his 'broodmate'. And he said that Pharynx was teaching 'little' changelings to growl and hiss—not newborns. So like... 95% confirmed that Chrysalis is the mother of all changelings? Pharynx and Thorax came from a brood, they were all raised by Chrysalis, there don't seem to be any new changelings... I'd also say we still haven't seen any female changelings, but it's hard to tell. Some of the changelings in the 'feelings circle' sounded like girls, but then again they also sounded like guys who had just inhaled a bunch of helium.
But really, the main point of this whole episode is that we're still stuck with 'the only way for a changeling to be good is for them to transform'. So I'm just hoping that Chrysalis gets killed the next time she shows up, rather being turned into one of those things. That's the point things are at: I literally want one of my favorite characters to die because that's better than any of the other options.
Hooraaaaay.
And you know, I had a bunch of my usual wild speculation I was going to post here, but I just deleted it. Because we're clearly not going to get anything more interesting than 'good guys are bright colors, bad guys are dark'. So fuck it. Who cares.
Still alot of plot holes. Like why Thorax and Pharynx both looked unique as regular changelings. And how changelings can transform into creatures several times their size, even as a child. The Canterlot Wedding Invasion would have gone alot better if all the changelings turned into giant monsters, as we now know they can. And its not just an illusion, pharynx fighting the monster at the end showed that he had that creature's strength and abilities.
And, yeah, the little changelings with still no explanation about where they came from, or if they are reformed or not.
Also the hippie changeling kinda took to that role really well, alot quicker than you would have thought after undergoing a coup and a species change.
He transformed because he changed. The show is basically being literal about changing. It's like when a villain stops wearing all back outfits after they decide to change their ways. It's unnecessary but this is a kids show they aren't interested in subtlety. Besides he was rejected for his actions not how he looked.
It also helps differentiate between a reformed changeling and a non-reformed one.
Stop worrying about how the show treats changelings. Canon is only worth observing if it's good.
Have to agree about the Brother. I kept agreeing with him the whole episode and...jeez I really kept rolling my eyes at how the Skittles now we're complete cowards after having formerly been beings who took over the capital city of Equestria....it was just....WTF?
4657442
unfortunately as writers one can't really just disregard canon because we don't like it as it's sort of the lore of the world. It's be like writing a series where the second books disregards what the first book said was fact. It's poor writing.
4657442
Now you know why I stopped watching after 5 season
As far as I can tell, the show's logic is that once the hive stopped hating him and started to love him, then he stopped resenting them and loved them back. But this time, he didn't love the abstract concept of "the hive", he loved the members as individuals, and this is what triggered the change.
I'm not commenting on the validity of this idea, but I think that it's what they had in mind.
The new changelings actually look pretty cool imo, not that the old ones didn’t look cool.
4657509
Not only can we, we must. The show writers aren't producing canon anymore, they are making content. You'll notice a dramatic shift in the quality of ideas past season four. Hell, even past season 3 but at least we still had good writers left on staff. What we have now amounts to newer writers who are writing sanctioned fanfiction of the older episodes, adding their own mary sues and telling us that changelings can totally be the good guys if they just share love, man. Their mary sue is like, totally more powerful than Twilight Sparkle, and she beats Twilight at magic but only stops when offered friendship because friendship is even stronger than magic! Then she makes friends with the mane six and Trixie and—
You get the idea. Don't get me wrong, Starlight got better as time went on, she had a decent character arc, and other writers helped flesh her out (She's still powerful, but now there is balance, which takes her out of sue territory), but that doesn't make the ideas present good at their inception. At this stage of the show, I would encourage any writer to ignore canon past season 4 and only to cherrypick ideas past there that they like. The writers we have on staff aren't there to make canon anymore, they are there to make a paycheck.
4657836
Ah you are one of those types.
4657863
If you mean I care about the quality of material used to craft stories and won't accept ill-conceived crap as the means to do so, then yes. I am one of those types.
Mind you, I still enjoy the show, but I also enjoy many other fanworks that I don't consider canon. We're unfortunately past the point where show staff had any unifying vision. They are just building onto a structure whose blueprints were finished long ago, now.
4657873
Yeah, we're pretty much screwed until (unless?) a writer like Larson comes back. Oh well, at least I have a well of spite to draw on for writing. Hatred is magic!
4658267
Well, in fairness, not every idea that has come out since season 4 is a bad one, but that just means you really have to cherrypick for your own headcanon. Trying to follow canon these days is futile because the current writers don't feel beholden to the older ones to maintain continuity, which is why we end up with Alicorn babies and both Princesses saying "We have no fucking idea what's going on."
I actually hoped for return of more old changelings, because I specifically avoided promos and spoilers for this episode.
...instead... yeah
But I agree if Chrysalis changes, I will be really pissed.
When we got cadance in second season I seen marketing for a mile, instead we got one of the coolest villains in show and she and changelings became incredibly popular.
We have amazing fanfics with great backstory and history for them.
Please do'nt take her from us
Chrysalis is the best Queen
4658279
Ah, right, that. The mystery that really didn't need to be a mystery since they could just say "well her mom's an alicorn and she was born next to an incredibly powerful magical artifact" and be done with it. And... uh... did they ever bring up that they have no idea why she's an alicorn past that or did they completely forget about that plot thread?
4658370
They forgot. Flurry is an alicorn, it has no bearing on anything, and to make that happen they called existing canon into question.
4657438
But... he didn't change, at all. In fact, he was the one who was right the entire time. If more of the changelings had listened to him, they could have taken care of the mole-thingy long ago. He was so not-changed that the first thing he did was start laughing about how he used to make Thorax hit himself.
I can understand your point about subtlety, and it being a 'costume change'. But the thing is, the show can do subtle, and it can do complex, mature topics. Look at Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? and Perfect Pear, and even The Times They are a Changeling. The first two dealt with some delicate subject matter perfectly, and Thorax's introduction was pretty much exactly how the changeling reformation should have gone, what with the whole 'just because they're changelings doesn't mean they're bad' and 'they don't have to steal love, they can earn it' themes.
Compared to all that, everything with changelings since the season six finale sticks out like a sore thumb, since it's all just been 'durrr, all dark characters are inherently bad'. Even when both Thorax and now Pharynx have shown that its possible for changelings to be friendly and care about others while not transforming.
4657777
Yeah, I got no problem at all with the new look, at least not too much. I mean Thorax looks a bit wonky still, but Pharynx isn't too bad (I have to retract what I said about his color scheme. I watched the episode on youtube and it wasn't the best quality. Now that I've seen some decent screenshots, it actually looks okay).
The problem is, it's replacing something that's better. It took something cool and unique, and watered it down to the point where they're just ponies with shells and different eyes. It took away instead of adding.
4658394
Changing doesn't always mean changing who you are it can also mean how you think. He changed by being more open to the new way of doing things but that doesn't mean he was completely wrong as the others came to understand. His change was to stop fighting the new way of things and instead work to make things even better.
Yes the show can be subtle but the changelings were designed to look evil, they could have done the change some other way but that would have meant devoting alot more episodes to get across the point that they aren't evil anymore for example when Discord was reformed you didn't immediately think he actually changed just because the show said he did it took several episodes for the idea to finally stick. The new look gets the idea across much quicker.
4657836
I mean, I love a lot of the show from season five, six and even seven. Some of my favorite episodes are in there.
But when it comes to 'canon', to lore and big changes to the show, yeah, I can agree they've dropped the ball a bit.
A lot of it is that the show was only supposed to run through season three, so from that point on they've kind of been on their own, without Lauren Faust and all the lore and such she had written up for the show.
And another part is that the show's kind of been a victim of its own success. A lot of the original staff has gone onto other things. That's kind of the paradox of a show like this; it does really well, so everyone involved gets promoted to bigger things—I think one of the original producers or designers or something is now like the head of product development, and one of the writers went to go work at Disney . But then that means that all the people who made the show such a success are gone, and you're left with everyone else trying to pick up the slack and new people trying to fit in.
Hopefully now that the movie is done and a lot of the big names will be coming back to the show—I hesitate to call them the 'A' team, the team right now has done some great stuff—maybe the quality of some of the larger themes of the show will pick back up.
4658326
I mean, I don't know how anyone could be so blind to fan opinion as to think getting rid of the Queen would be a good idea. She's easily as popular as Discord was after his appearance, and he got to be reformed while staying himself. It was 4-5 years before she ever made a reappearance or even got mentioned on the show, and I don't think her popularity dropped off at all.
I don't want to be 'that guy', but I've heard the ratings are abysmal this season. And I kind of wonder if that can be traced back to the end of season six. They shoved Starlight, a polarizing character who'd barely had a chance to find her place on the show, into a position of importance above the main characters that everyone loves. And then on top of that, they took away some of the coolest character designs and villains on the show, and reduced a popular major villain from the Queen of a kingdom that had defeated Equestria twice to a two-bit reoccurring villain who runs off yelling "I'll get my revenge some day!" I can't help but feel that may have affected some peoples enthusiasm towards the show; I know it sure did for me. Reforming Queen Chrysalis like the rest of the changelings would, I think, kill all the enthusiasm I have left.
And the thing is, there are so many better options. Again, why are 'looking scary doesn't mean you're bad' and 'how you look on the outside doesn't reflect what you're like on the inside' bad lessons to have? Why can't we have good changelings who don't transform (you know, like Thorax was for his entire life until that one moment)? Or, maybe Chrysalis did transform already, and this is what she looked like afterwards. I mean, there has to be some explanation for why she looks so radically different compared to the rest of the changelings, right? Even Thorax and Pharynx don't have eyes like her, and her horn is completely unique.
Or hell, just give her her own new hive, and they're now enemies of Thorax and his hive. The only problem there is, you get into crusade territory pretty quickly. "We must convert Chrysalis's changelings! They are heretics!"
4658370
If I recall correctly, there was an interview or panel or something where one of the show staff said "we did it because we wanted to add a mystery to the show".
So... it's literally a mystery because they wanted it to be so they could force speculation to occur.
(That said, I really do kind of like Flurry Heart now. Making that teddy bear growl and then trying—and failing— to wink? Fucking adorable.)
4658394
Thorax's strategy would have worked if Starlight Stupid hadn't interfered.
Know it's an old blog, but I just had to second this. Chrysalis needs to go out as her glorious self, not some twisted mockery.
Find it funny how the show pushes a 'don't judge people by their looks alone' in multiple episodes, then feels the need to turn the only tolerable species (imo) into 'rainbow barf'. I mean, I know 'don't judge them by their looks', but they just look so...
Disgusting.