That awkward moment when something in the show contradicts the planned narrative for your fanfic and you're forced to rethink important characters and roles.

THIESSEN...!

Comments

[UseFistNotMouth]

There is nothing wrong with fanon contradicting canon. Nothing. As long as characterizations are based on canon or have reasonable explanations for deviating, it's fine.

[Violet Droplet]

79338 Yeah! Like how I still love fanfictions that feature old Luna above Nightmare Night Luna. The fans didn't really know any better at the time, so they can't be faulted for using a completely different character now can they?

[UseFistNotMouth]

79346

Exactly. If even BIG deviations like that are forgivable, small ones are irrelevant.
I do not think there is a single fanfic that does not contradict canon in some way.

[Posh]

79351 Oh, in all seriousness, it doesn't bother me. I knew that this would happen when I started writing the story. Part of the problem about writing a story about a series while the series is still ongoing is being contradicted by canon. What am I going to do, angrily demand that the writing staff remove elements from episodes that contradict my crossover fanfic? That's just silly.

I think it would be, I don't know, disrespectful, on my part, to contradict something from an episode of the show because it's not convenient to my narrative. It's one thing to have something you wrote/drew/created/what have you be de-canonized by a new episode. "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying," for example, has been thoroughly decanonized by Nightmare Night, but that story, and its Luna, predate Nightmare Night, so changing the way the rest of it is written to conform to the newly established canon would be disingenuous. It'd ruin the story.

The difference between that, and with what I've been doing, is that that Luna was already established before Canon!Luna, whereas certain elements that I have planned, but have not yet incorporated, are not established. They could be contradicting canon, not the other way around. I understand tweaking canon, taking creative license for the purposes of storytelling (for instance, that damned castle, which I'm still trying to make heads or tails of), and I do that with gusto. But there are certain things about the finale which make writing Pony Gear Solid a little troublesome, things that I have to figure out.

Like I said, it doesn't bother me so much. I welcome the challenge, in fact. It's just going to be somewhat difficult to reconcile what's just been established with what I've had planned, that's all.

[UseFistNotMouth]

79377

That's what the Alternate Universe tag is for. Not that it isn't already forgivable being a crossover. If you want to tweak things to better flow with canon I agree it can be a good idea. But if it comes to choosing between your story vision and appeasing canon... Well it's YOUR story.

[Posh]

79394 True, but my story is based off of someone else's work. I think it's important for me to keep that in perspective, as a fanfic writer. I have a story that I want to tell, but my creative vision, if you want to call it that, rightly takes a back seat to the work of Kojima and the FIM showrunners.

I do sort of adapt and tweak things as the show goes on, but this is the first time I've had to outright rethink certain elements.

[UseFistNotMouth]

79539

I understand where you're coming from, but I believe being true to the source in spirit is more important than following it strictly.
I strongly agree in using "canon sense" when crafting any derivative story. After all, if the story does not resemble FiM I don't see the point in writing it in the first place. (This is why I rarely read far future, far past, or BGP/OC fics.) But in my mind "canon sense" (the homage) is like the glass you pour the water into. The container defines the contents only so much, as it should.
I especially disagree with following FiM's canon too closely in that it often presents it's canon in a contrived fashion, adjusting it as needed to suit the story for a specific episode.
Fanon is fanon and canon is canon.
Comparing the differences in fanon and canon is as redundant as comparing the differences between two fics.

[Otaku1995exe]

79338 Course it's a problem! All the best fanfics must follow the rules of Canon. Otherwise the fanfic will look retarded and will be considered "lame". If I saw contradictions in a fanfic, I'd bet the fanfiction police would arrest the writer for canon violation. The best thing to fix it is to edit back earlier chapters before you get sent to fanfiction jail. Trust me, you don't want to go there.

[UseFistNotMouth]

80399

True. Fanfiction jail is srs bsns. You might end up with Tortura as a cellmate.

[Posh]

80538 "Now, if you deviate too much from canon, the fan fiction police will come and shoot you with their canon cannons."

[GITPSilverbolt]

Now I'm really curious what you had in mind for PGS that Canterlot Wedding made you reconsider...

[Posh]

81440 Ah ah ah, a gentleman does not story-plan and tell.

[GITPSilverbolt]

81448

Well, of course. :) Maybe an author's note/blog entry after the new chapter, though...?

[Posh]

81453 Oh, definitely. But we're quite a ways away from it becoming relevant. Could take a while.

Whet your curiosity! Whet it, I say!