Late Thanksgiving-y post. · 2:36am Nov 28th, 2015
Going to ramble for a bit.
I've been thinking a lot about why it is that I'm so obsessed with the Dazzlings, and came up with some reasons. Which is good, because spending months thinking about these fictional characters and only coming up with an "I'unno, I really like their hair?" would have made me feel like a complete gibbering lunatic. Possibly. I'm not sure because I don't feel that way right now.
Hehe.
Anyway, I'm thankful for the Dazzlings because they're pretty much perfect writing material for me. Here comes a verbal stumbling to explain why.
1. They're bad guys, or at least they were at some point.
Not sure if that'll stick, what with having lost their power and any hope of potency while staying evil, give or take finding out about Twilight's magic doohicky-making skills. I don't have a lot of faith in the EQG writing staff right about now, so best I say no more about it and get to the actual point of this... number-point. Villains usually get a very different perspective from the protagonists, they can offer ideas and viewpoints your standard, relatable hero-types might never have considered on their own, which makes them many times more interesting than the good guys right off the bat. They've been to the Dark Side, they've opened Pandora's box once or twice, read the forbidden books, stood alone in a haunted house just to see what happens when you stick around long enough, giving them experiences that may have been part of what shaped them into what they became. Villains can point out things that the main characters carry on in cheerful obliviousness to, making for some interesting conflicts if the heroes' moral armor isn't as thick as they think it is.
Even if there might not be any way for her to have known about it I'm hoping that someday, Lightning Dust will confront Rainbow Dash and say something like "Hey, you remember me, right? That crazy bitch that almost got a lot of ponies hurt or killed through selfishness-induced recklessness? Oh wait, that wasn't just me, was it? But hey, it's cool. I mean, they fired you too, right?" (Context: Tanks For The Memories)
I enjoy writing Sunset Shimmer for the same reason, though she's probably a bit more subdued about it by now. I say that because heroes can, in theory, point these things out too, they just rarely do. It just seems to be a bad guy thing, possibly for reasons relating to shaking the status-quo at all, or making people think about ugly, uncomfortable truths for more than two seconds. Not always the case, I know.
2. They're a comic trio.
Not as much to explain here; there's three of them, their personalities make for some funny interactions when rubbed up against each other, up up and away we go.
3. Human characters are a bit easier to write about, I think.
Maybe that's just me and my fondness for comparatively laid-back slice-of-life-iness. I don't particularly care for the big, dramatic spectacle episodes of the show, you see, Twilight's battle with Tirek did nothing for me. Amending Fences, however? That kind of thing I like; characters with personalities and problems working things out, not beaming everything to death with Deus Ex Machina lasers again. No Equestria, no magic, or at least not as much, meaning the focus is easier to keep on mundane things like adapting to their now magic-less lives, or even just cutesy romance. I used to watch anime a lot and I can tell you the mechas and giant swords and sniper rifle-ing things from across town didn't really win me over. Like things quiet and simple in my stories, I guess, at least to start.
Of course, I still write stuff other than simple life-slicing pie dishes, but it's still a reason. I think.
4. The sirens are interesting in their own right.
As usual, we know next to nothing about them because beyond "These guys bad, better go stomp on them" the show sheds very little light on its villains, and that comic really didn't help. Are they from an undersea civilization, long dead by the time of the show? Are they primordial song spirits that were corrupted somehow? Were they ponies that came in contact with those gems and changed somehow? I've got a bunch of theories I hope to share by medium of Story some day (which is why I'm not going deep into detail here), but right now I'm writing a blog post instead of more Story. Sorry about that.
5. They're cute.
Would be lying through my teeth if I said I didn't think all three could easily be adorable, even Aria. (Especially Aria!) Maybe they were specifically written to have no redeeming traits in the movie so it would be harder to empathize with them, but that we can anyway feels like a good sign to me, given the title of the show. Don't have a whole lot to say on this one, I like cute things, wouldn't be as much of a fan of these colorful ponies otherwise. Three teenage girls and their shenanigans makes for pretty easy d'aww-worthy escapades, I guess.
6. The sense of humor.
Specifically, it's very easy to write a trio of seductresses as being fairly open about sex, which, being something of a taboo in our society, can easily make it funny. More specifically, Adagio fits the bill of a shameless tease, and while I don't always write her that way (what we saw in the movie might have all just been part of the act), I usually find it to be a blast. Sonata strikes me as the sort who's pretty honest with herself too, which makes it easy to use her to blindside people with sudden dirty jokes, doubly funny if they assumed her ditziness immediately translated to innocence.
Aria, however, I get a different vibe from. She dances right along with the others while showing no signs of discomfort, but outside of when she's performing (with Adagio as the lead, mind), I can't shake the impression that she'd be either painfully casual about all things bedroom related, or a prude. Maybe it's the way she periodically seems to conflict with Adagio, but I wouldn't be too surprised to learn she had a crippling fear of sexuality, at least when it's not completely within her own control as it might have been when they had their magic. It's not quite a headcanon, because I really have nothing concrete to base it on, but that's how I usually end up writing her. That, and I guess it makes things more interesting if they have different ideas and viewpoints about things, Aria working nicely as a straight character to the other two in certain situations. The two libido-driven Boke's need their grumpy, pouting Tsukkomi, right?
7. They've got that reflection thing going.
You've probably seen it a dozen times by now:
Sonata - Pinkie
Aria - Rainbow
Adagio - Rarity/Sunset/Fluttershy on rare occasion.
Different shades, equal but opposite, however you'd like to spin it, these three have that angle.
There might be more, but I'm feeling all good and rambled-out now, so I should probably go do something productive. New SFaCF chapter tomorrow.
You know, I'll give you Sonata/Pinkie as something I've seen as a reflection and Adagio/Rarity makes sense, the way Rarity sometimes flirts to get her way and they both wear eye makeup, unlike virtually every other character, but Aria/Rainbow Dash is a little less clear.
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Both can be abrasive, tomboyish, and are generally considered tough, for lack of better words, though it is a little bit of a stretch. Aria is the least Rainboomish, but it still felt worth mentioning.
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Speaking of Aria headcanon, I have to admit my picture of Aria has been heavily influenced by Justice3342's Cafeteria Control, despite it being a crack parody and coming out before the movie (thanks to the magic of trailers and preview excerpts). Or rather, I know it's probably not accurate, but it's too good for me not to favor.
Especially this bit:
I don't know why but for some reason I find the idea of Aria futilely air-kicking at the sun after it annoyed her adorable as well as humorous.
2 random thoughts regarding Dazzles
1. If in the 4th movie they will return in the form of the most vicious of villains imaginable – harmless teenage girls, how the show staff will handle their possible redemption and, more importantly, how sirens' whole situation will be interpreted? SFaCF made me question infallibility and judgemental capabilities of the Element Bearers, Equestrian approach towards justice, favoritism, etc. I wonder if the movie will decide to take an "easy" way out by dumbing down the whole conflict to "Dazzling were 100% wrong all the time and got what they deserved, but they are still getting the redemption because our heroes are so good and are always right. Also friendship, and no uncomfortable questions asked."
2. How would the finale of Rainbow Rocks go, if destroying sirens' gems removed their voices complitely, rendering them mute.
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1. That kind of approach wouldn't surprise me at this point. I'm not counting on it or anything, but I wouldn't be shocked if it was that, or having them stay villains and devolve into Team Rocket, only popping in so Sunset and the rest consistently have someone to make them look good. Both of these outcomes are really pessimistic, though, and LATEST EPISODE SPOILER: the way Starlight Glimmer was handled makes me think there's definitely still hope that the "I win because rainbow-lasers" thing is finally on its way out the door, or at least won't be used ALL the time. I'll stop right there because the rest of my thoughts are ranting when I could be writing more stories instead.
As for me, I think I started doubting the perfection of the Elements after reading a fic whose name escapes me, but it was about Octavia becoming a graffiti artist. Faith-shaking spoilers for that: While Octavia's spraypainting began in anger and hurt over the biggest night of her life (The Gala) being trashed by the Element Bearers, she eventually shifts to just wanting to make art, painting pretty things to make ponies smile. Discord's first rampage happens, the Elements eventually stop him, Octavia and the other ponies that had hunkered down in a basement waiting for exactly that come out and find that all of Discord's chaos has been wiped away... along with Octavia's biggest project yet, one that, while it hadn't been hurting anything, the Elements (not the bearers, mind, the world-'fixing' magic itself) decided it was chaos and had to go. Discord had even pulled Octavia aside to taunt her about having helped him break free with her 'artistry' because it had been causing a buzz in Canterlot, that he got a kick out of it all.
In response, Octavia is enraged, and I forget the specific details, but she paints the words "I REJECT YOUR HARMONY" in big, big letters somewhere for all to see. She already despised the Element Bearers by this point, and I'm probably not doing it justice, but that was the scene that made me really question just how 'good' our Perfect Rainbow Friendship magic really was. Octavia winds up going off the deep end and becomes less and less justified in what she does later, but her descent into madness offers some interesting perspective.
The event in question was all fanon, yes, but I think it fit with what we've seen so far. That next to decidedly canon events I might not even need to mention by this point paint our heroes and their crystal tree in some less-than-perfect light.
...Look at that, didn't quite rant, but went on and on with something anyway. D'oh!
2. The Dazzlings would have likely gained about three times more sympathy for their already-incredibly-screwed-up situation, possibly marking the Rainbooms as borderline villains if they did nothing to help.