Why I Dance(or why canon can go buck itself) · 1:37pm Feb 17th, 2013
Howdy, all!
Okay, so I got into to work today, and of course, the first thing I do is the most important thing I can think of: Open FIMFiction and start reading poni fiction. Upon doing so, I notice a blog post by Anonymous Pegasus, who is one of my favorite authors on the site. He says that he is rewriting his longest story, and one of my favorites, Antecedent. His reasons are two-fold: he is unhappy with the quality of the earlier chapters, and while I somewhat agree, I still say he could have worked with it. The second reason struck a chord with me: Twilicorn. Because Twilight is now a princess, and possibly immortal, it jacks with his canon.
Now, this is very sad, as again, it is one of may favorite stories. However, it made me think. Under A Luminous Sky, and Finding Your Place both now fly in the face of canon, and as I said, I care not. Allow me to reiterate this by once more dancing my, "I Don't Care That My Stories Fly In The Face Of Canon" dance: 
Many may say that this is wrong, that since this is fan fiction, I should stay as true to the source material as I can.
This is the issue when writing fan fiction for an ongoing Intellectual Property. See if you can follow me here. If we were writing for a "closed canon" let's say... Star Trek, then this would never be an issue. That canon is set in stone, and unless George Lucas buys it, it will not change. Therefor, authors can run roughshod with it, because they have a static base from which to jump.
Not so with poni.
See, our IP is from an ongoing source. For the foreseeable future, and even longer if we are lucky, the show will continue to air new episodes, and with them, new changes to official canon. As an author, this a bit nerve-wracking, as every episode brings the fear that the intricate world you have built may come crashing to the ground.
This leaves us with two options:
A) Go back into every story and painstakingly retcon the shit out of it to make it fit canon.
or
B) say, "Fuck it."
This is especially true for my stories, as the7y both take place in the future from the show. Now, I COULD go insane trying to make up reasons why Twilight lost her wings, gave up her title, and went back to being a librarian... or I could just say, "Fuck it."
Or look at the last chapter of Finding Your Place. The whole second half of it is based around the drama that Spike will greatly outlive Twilight. Now, I COULD go back and change it, have it be TWILIGHT speaking to Cadance about her outliving Spike... or I could just say, "Fuck it."
These are our choices as authors. I have heard lots of people, including EqD pre-readers and FIMFiction mods talking about what to do about the fact that half the stories ongoing now fly in the face of canon. My suggestion:
Say, "Fuck it."
We can do this dance forever, constantly going back and making room for canon, changing our visions as authors to fit what the show runners do, pulling our hair out trying to work around these issues. All this will accomplish is jading authors to the point where they no longer care and quit. I remind you, half the fun of fan fiction is seeing characters you know and love in situations that they could never be in in canon. You're never gonna see the Mane Six fighting a guerrilla war against a god, or Rarity, AJ, and Dashie go on an epic quest to save Twilight, or see Twilight and a pale stallion chase a serial killer.
Well, now we can see where the show would have gone had they NOT made Twilight an alicorn.
So, to sum up? I love Friendship is Magic. It truly is an amazing show made by amazing people. I care for it deeply, as it helped ME find MY place. In my time in this fandom, I have made close friends, gotten out more, been inspired to write fiction, and in general I have been more happy that I ever was. I owe a great deal to this show.
But fuck it, I'm gonna keep going with what I got. And you know what? I have a few stories planned that will ALSO say fuck it. I have several plans for my little universe, and I will NOT drive myself crazy trying to pull some insane reasons out of my ass why Twilight is no longer a Princess. If you don't like that, then I'm sorry.
Best advice so far
The main reason that I'm rewriting Antecedent is because of all the problems. I feel that some of it is immature, and simple amateur. I can make it better. I can avoid the mistakes I already made.
The whole Twilicorn thing allows me to change elements of the story, and though it does fuck with my canon (like having Celestia beg Chitin to be Twilight for her), it also gives me a more solid reason to restart the entire story other than 'I'm not feeling it'.
838528
Understood. I've been thinking of going back and fixing some of the derps in my story. I just wanted to state my opinions on the issue as a whole, and possible point a few people in the direction of a fine author.
I never felt canon ever really mattered to fiction authors anyway. I think there are two ways this can be approached:
1) there is no definitive timeline for when each episode happens, so there could be weeks or even months (maybe even years!) between episodes. So, in theory all you'd have to do (not you specifically, since Spike being huge is kinda impossible to explain) is say a fic takes place before the S3 finale, but after whatever episode the author chooses.
2) Fuck it. This is the one I choose to do as well!
3) The Alternate Universe tag could theoretically solve all these problems.
Have fun at Vegas convention!
Funny thing, Twilicorn boosts the canon for one of my stories and yet completely buggers it up at the same time. Created an interesting mental dichotomy that did.
It was Guiding Light, where I had a realm very similar to the spacey star place Celestia takes Twilight, and it fits with the idea that she - or something - could ascend a regular pony to be an alicorn. Twilight doesn't become an alicorn though. Then again I'd marked it as AU to begin with so it's not a problem, and never was.
But then I've always stuck to the idea that canon is there to be ignored. By that I mean the author can work within the world they've chosen but they aren't bound to stick to every last ludicrous detail and contradiction and they can add to it, take away from it and tweak it all they want as long as it still maintains the overall character of the world they're working from. In other words "ignore canon" isn't a license to write some sort of "omg they're all highschool students now and Rainbow Dash is totally lesbians with a sink! and they all talk like my teenage friends!"
Fuck, wait, Hasbro just- god dammit!
838567
And you, good sir, have just made my day.
I've never been worried about canon...It's never worth it. Many of the stories here on the site are too mature (not talking about clop
) for the intended audience of the show anyway. Anything with an idea in it that would be darker than rainbows and cotton candy would not be canon, therefore I've always ignored it. 
Either way. Right on brotherman and keep on keepin on.
Sir, I like your atitude, sir! I'm sorry. I'm not actually in the military, but it felt appropriate.
Thank you for posting this. This is exactly how I feel about this whole issue >: (
I'm with you. Fuck it!
I am happy with not saying "fuck it", only because my story isn't that far along right now, and it would be easy as shit for me to bring Twilicorn in.
Not to mention that her lessons in leadership could greatly help a certain other character in my story.Spoilers.Hahahahahaha! You good sir have exactly how I feel!
I have planed to write my own fiction for quite a while now and I COULD change those basic ideas into cannon but I won't. Her being an alicorn kind of kills more mundane situations and stories plus unicorn just feels better to write about.
To compress all text above is that:
I say BUCK IT!
I agree... with fanfiction with a show that's still in production I feel like trying to rewrite everything so you fit cannon perfectly is pointless. It will be an endless dance until either you give up or they close the IP. So at this point in time I say "{pony censor] it!"...of course I DO need to do more writing and less reading...
No I would not have. Thank goodness for "Fuck it."
I agree. I don't think there's any reason that existing stories, or "author universes" such as yours, should be rewritten to fit with new canon. I'm curious, however, if most future stories will feature Twilicorn and, if so, how sudden a shift that will be?
Personally, I'm just glad I wrote an AU story to begin with (a universe without alicorns, no less) so I never really had to deal with it. Not that I predicted the emergence of Twilicorn (although that was always a possibility) it still feels pretty good for it all to fit
Well, it's nice that Hasbro made a liar out of me when I said "they wouldn't break the status quo like that". But, seriously? "Fuck it" is the proper mindset. Like I've said before, you can't "future-proof" fiction based on an ongoing franchise. Any reader who can't deal with this reality is invited to fellate a weedwhacker (or try to do the job themselves... the weedwhacker would be kinder).
I, however, have come up with an idea to work all this into Desperate Times, alongside a random idea that I wasn't sure how to use before. Ha ha ha... hahahaha hahaha hahaha.... HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHA
(Sorry, I don't know where that came from. No insanity here!
)
...I KNOW, RIGHT
Yes. Exactly this.
True this. I don't care about cannon, fimfiction is generally BETTER than cannon. I say fuck it, fuck it all.
fukitol.com/images/fukitol.jpg
no but seriously, I think all authors should try to stay in character and such, but if cannon wrecks your shit, or if you need to venture away from cannon THATS OK, JUST FUCK IT! Seriously, no shippings are officially cannon anyway, so.... i mean if that doesn't prove something...
George Lucas = Star Wars
Gene Roddenbery = Star Trek
Trust the Trekkie, Star Wars fan, and overall sci-fi buff who wrote this comment.
870683
George Lucas constantly changes his films. The joke is if he bought Star Trek, he would change it to add CGI to Wrath of Khan.
I would have thought that would be obvious.
870734
Okay, it seems you know what you're talking about. But it was still a mistake on your part. Although your representation of fan fiction in Star Wars wasn't entirely correct. Star Wars fan fiction is always officially licensed and is also considered canon in that universe.
871098
I never even mentioned Star Wars! I said Star Trek! The only reason Wars is even in the conversation is because of the George Lucas quip, which is fully applicable in jest. Trek fan fiction is far from canon.
871136
Well if you'd never said George Lucas, I never would've though you'd said star wars.
-------The joke------>
[Garbo802's head]
871427
But then there wouldn't have been a jo—
You know what? Never mind.
871098 871427
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/001/582/picard-facepalm.jpg
You failed, badly. Please allow me to dig a hole in my desk with my forehead.
Personally, I both retcon the ever-living bejeezzuss out of my story(ies) and THEN say, "Fuck It!" But, that's just me.
*giggles like a madpony*
Fanfiction is alternate universe. People should deal with it. Unless Hasbro starts hiring authors to write random adventure fics.