The Challenge of Adaption: how I created the world of Thomas and Friends: a New Generation · 7:02pm Mar 20th, 2023
(Note: This blog contains heavy spoilers for Thomas and Friends: a New Generation. I would strongly recommend reading the story first before commenting here if you haven't already.)
One of the greatest challenges for a writer is adapting a story from one setting to another, as elements from one will not work properly in another. I faced these challenges when creating the newest iteration of my Equestria Girls story, which take elements and narrative pieces from Generation 5 and apply them to the real world. In this blog, I will look at ideas I retained from G5 and what had to be tweaked (or jettisoned).
Core Themes
The core plot themes of Generation 5 focus around acceptance, avoiding prejudice, and the damaging effects that racism, fear, and discrimination can have on the world (serving as an allegory for human history such as Segregation in the United States or Apartheid in South Africa). Essentially, the citizens of Equestria function at their best when working together, rather than in opposition, with the magic symbolising the value of working together.
Many of these elements would not work when translated to an EqG setting. I personally feel I lack the skill to pull off an effective critique of racism and discrimination, so this was an element I would rather not deal with. Applying concepts such as race and ethnic group to EqG is also rather difficult considering the characters have skin colours that match the coat colours of their pony counterparts. However, I was able to reuse three elements from the concept; fear of the unknown, being innocently insensitive, and standing up for your own beliefs.
Fear of the unknown manifests itself in the form of the Non-Faceless Vehicles. Although we as Thomas and Friends do not find the idea especially odd, it is worth remembering that within my setting you'd need to be at least in your fifties to remember seeing NFVs as a daily occurance. Hence, the fear of the residents of Falmouth in Chapter 4 is not particularly surprising.
Although not to the level of casual racism, another situation seen in the story is innocent insensitivity. Sunny, although not intending to cause offence, does indulge in regional stereotyping (such as offering Izzy an Eccles Cake, a dish stereotypically associated with northwest England). This is not disimilar to how her pony counterpart engages in similar stereotyping when she first meets pony Izzy.
The idea of standing up for your own beliefs is a critical component of both G5 and my own stories. Argyle and Sunny maintain faith in their beliefs despite this resulting in their effective ostracisation from Falmouth society.
Setting those ideas apart, the tensions within other parts of the story did translate well. Sprout, or rather what he represents, can be easily imported to the EqG world. This is because history is littered with people who take advantage of fear to further their own agenda, and those people are often not taken seriously until it was far too late. (I apologise for invoking Godwin's Law here.)
Part of the reason Adolf Hitler wasn't seen as a serious threat was because a lot of his rhetoric was actually par-for-the-course in the 1930s Europe, and most people saw him as an idiot who could be easily controlled. Much like with Sprout, they were wrong.
Plot Thoughts
Other elements of the plot were cut for time or because I was unable to get them to make sense. A good example is the pegasi inability to fly. Humans cannot fly without aircraft or gliders, so this plot thread wouldn't have made sense in the story. Instead, the solution was to change it to being a plot point about the importance of trust and communication.
The ending of the story was also tweaked to try and tie things closer together. The kidnapping of Goldie was added to give the entire crew a reason to be in Falmouth rather than them happening to be there. The other characters were also cut from the final battle as their contribution in the film is minimal at best.
If you have any thoughts or queries about my world-building, feel free to drop me a PM or comment down below.
Damn, this sure was both interesting and a lot to take in. Sounds similar for what I did for my Sciset Chronicles when it came to its order, figuring out how to adapt a ship in a show where it wasn't canon, what her family be like in my eyes, and how it ended. Which was both quite a great and stress reliving job to do.
5719083
Thanks! I'll need to give some of your stuff a read, as it certainly sounds interesting.
5719094
I can send you a link of the correct order if your interested. It's not as good as yours but I still feel proud of what I accomplished.
5719096
Please do.