Don't need to write a new blog post, because someone did it for me! EQLA, seaponies, Lauren Faust, and the Journal of the Two Sisters · 7:52am Oct 3rd, 2015
You know how once in a while, you've been meaning to write up something, but other stuff gets in the way, and then someone else says almost everything you meant to say?
Well, then, Elric of Melnipony's blog post The good bits.
To which I can only add:
He said an AWFUL lot of what I wanted to mention. And right up at the top is seaponies.
I remember being at BABScon, and some guy stood up and said to Meghan McCarthy, "I'd like to thank you for not putting in seaponies." And this rankled, somehow. Why? What exactly is wrong with seaponies? Is it because it's just too darned close to G1 and (shudder) little girls? And this is often the same kind of person who claims that everything went totally downhill after Lauren Faust left the show, and her sacred vision has been muddied, and it has become "toyetic." It's the same kind of thing as objecting to Breezies, just because they were in G3. Hey, why not give the show staff a chance to show what they could do with Breezies, instead of objecting to them before you've even seen it?
Well, apparently, seaponies were always part of the plan. She just didn't get to them. That doesn't mean "there must be seaponies" or "seaponies are canon": just "seaponies are not contrary to the way Lauren Faust thought the show should be."
Also, the whole Scootaloo is a miserable orphan who will never learn to fly? Also not part of the plan. Quote:
"There is nothing tragic about Scootaloo."
Read Elric's post on this one, but that doesn't mean that Scootaloo will or will not never learn to fly, plus of course the show has gone on since Lauren Faust left. The critical thing, though, is that those Scootabuse fics, the ones in which she's a little chunk of misery? Not canon, not ever gonna be, and way out of character. Scoots tackles stuff head on.
The last thing is courtesy something I asked Amy Keating Rogers. I took The Journal of the Two Sisters for her to sign, because why not, and while I was there, I asked her about how closely it was connected to the show bible. I shrugged a bit sheepishly and asked, "y'know. . . .is it 'canon,'" knowing perfectly well that it was sort of a silly question. She said, "well, of course, Meghan's read it . . . "
Ok, I thought, the expected answer.
" . . . but there was an awful lot to explain! Some of the things about Hearth's Warming Eve and Luna Eclipsed--they just don't line up! And how could that work with the Castle of the Two Sisters, when Luna talks about the Royal Canterlot Voice? So I had to talk to someone about it . . . ."
And to make a long story short, she brainstormed it all with Lauren Faust.
Yep. The Starswirl stuff, the alicorns who brought up Luna and Celestia, the castle, all of that was brainstormed together with Lauren Faust.
I said, "Y'know, some people think of Starswirl as having ritually sacrificed all those unicorns to raise the sun and moon."
She looked horrified. "What? No!"
"Some bronies have dark imaginations."
Does that mean you have to accept it as canon, and every single one of your future fanfics has to line up with it? Of course not. I think of the secondary material, like the comics and the chapter books, as helpful material. In fact, I think of them as big goldmines for an enterprising fanfic writer. What does interest me, though, is how close it is to the show bible as of Seasons Four and Five. The Journal is written to intertwine with Season Four. I wondered how closely future shows would adhere to some of the ideas in it. And at least as far as griffons are concerned, it's pretty darned close.
Anyway, go enjoy Elric's post while we wait for our minds to be blown once again.
There are so many revelations in this post that just make me really, really happy. Thank you.
Thanks for the promotion.
It's always nice when someone enjoys my
writingrantingblogificating enough to link to something.Surprised you didn't use this image, though.
Huh. I need to read the Journal of the Two Sisters at some point. I really only know a few of the highlights.
Also, very happy to hear about the lack of tragedy in Scootaloo's life. I'm still hoping that she'll get a sort of magical growth spurt when she finally gets her cutie mark.
Total agreement. Part of the point of Scootaloo's character is that she's brave and cheerful, she doesn't let bad things dominate her. Even if she was an orphan and crippled for life, she'd make the best of what ilfe had handed her and try to build something good on it, instead of wallowing in her tragedies.
I think Scootabuse fics are something the fandom has grown out of, I haven't seen one written after 2013. But heck, we got to see 3 seaponies in the movies and they were awesome! (I would definitely have loved a kraken villain though, or some sort of c'thulhu villain down there.)