Points of Canon: S6x16 - The Times they are a Changeling · 7:06pm Aug 20th, 2016
And that’s the pony I needed. Shall we?
Changelings are decoherent. Meaning, in our case, that there are at least three major interpretations of what they are and how they came about, and while they all permit their prior canon appearances to happen as they did, they also dictate how any of their other appearances must play out, especially ones more serious than the show is likely to touch upon. That’s even bigger in terms of canonicity than Gauntlet of Fire was, because changelings are mentioned in 12.14% of all stories, when, say, Sombra only turns up in 7.62% and Tirek only shows up in 3.96%. Let’s see what this episode finally canonizes and what will it leave of FIENDship is Magic #5. If anything…
- We have trouble with dating this episode seasonally, because it’s set in the Crystal Empire. However, at least a few months have passed since The Crystalling, because Twilight expects Flurry Heart to have grown. Notably, only Spike, Twilight and Starlight are on this trip, making it possible for this episode to occur in parallel with a few of the other episodes of Season 6. Spike explicitly mentions that this is the first trip to the Crystal Empire since The Crystalling
- Starlight refers to the possibility of falling behind on her friendship lessons back home. Dunno about you, but I take this to imply that at least some sort of textbook must exist, because otherwise, the fount of knowledge on the subject would be exclusively Twilight herself, and she’s right here. Starlight has to be getting homework.
- I can’t help but wonder what species Spike expects to be recognized as in his disguise, because, you know, not enough dragons in Equestria and all that.
- As I expected, the primary reason the ponies consider changelings terrifying is the fact that they destroy their trust relationships just by existing.
- No changeling detection/unmasking magic exists as of this episode, and the events of Canterlot Wedding did not lead to the creation of one. Otherwise, it would be used in preference to the sunshine-sunshine routine, which a determined infiltrator could have discovered since the last time it was employed.
- A changeling has been spotted. I.e. someone’s screwed up really big, and this time it’s not Chrysalis herself.
- Sunburst mentions “it’s possible they’ve come for the baby” citing the high levels of love in Crystal Empire since the crystalling. However, I don’t exactly see the leap of logic. How would exactly recovering the baby permit the changelings to obtain love? There’s something they aren’t explaining here.
- Twilight says that Flurry Heart has gotten bigger. As far as I can tell, no, the relative size remains the same, which gives us the limit of cartoon resolution.
- The position of the princess’ Crystaller is evidently one of great trust, because it’s Sunburst who’s holding Flurry Heart’s crib.
- The only thing Spike can tell about changelings is that they can change. I wish we heard Twilight’s answer to this question instead.
- There are no obvious lower mass limits on changeling transformation, since here we see a full size changeling transform into Spike.
1. In the immortal words of the 9th Doctor, “Narrows it down!”
2. I expect the other changelings are called Vexor and Exequror?Finally, for the first time in the series, regular changelings talk when not transformed.1 And they have names, or at least, Thorax2 says he does.
- One interesting thing that differentiates Thorax from changelings seen previously is the color of his transformation effects, which is pale blue rather than the usual green. Also notably, he left the changelings on his own after the scattering in Canterlot Wedding and is explicitly an aberration.
3. The particular problem with being naturally born, rather than created, creatures, but living in a hive, is that it is almost antithetical to infiltration, so the only way changelings can feed is by regular raids. We don’t see many raids.
Changelings live in hives and are born as larva from eggs. I.e. the canonical method of changeling procreation is the least ecologically sound method possible.3 The existence of a hive mind remains in flux – we can’t reliably conclude if if one does or does not exist. If one did, Thorax is definitely too special to be part of it.
4. “Did you know that if surrounded by too much love at once, hungry changelings can no longer hold their disguised form?” Lyra asked Bon Bon. The latter was pacing the room in the most grating fashion.
“Of course I know that,” Bon Bon snapped, looking at her watch.
“They go into something called a feeding frenzy,” Lyra continued. “They can’t help roaring and hissing!”The method by which changeling consume love is still not elaborated. It is pretty clear that changelings can feel the love objectively, but it’s not clear how they would consume it. The uncontrolled reaction of the starving changeling is a predatory hiss and opening the mouth for a bite. And even looking at Flurry Heart triggers the urge to feed that Thorax can barely resist. Notice that this is consistent with the portrayal given in Lyra and Bonbon and the mares from S.M.I.L.E. where changelings are unmasked by radically increasing the amount of environmental happiness and triggering the urge to feed deliberately.4
- The reaction of the guards to the news of a friendly changeling is somewhat odd. How much do they know about changelings, and from where – is it from the news received before the disappearance of the Empire or after its reappearance?
- The guards’ commentary “Crystal Hoof is nearly as entertaining as Spike himself” may refer to the “joke” about the friendly changeling, or it may suggest that Spike’s reputation is itself a joke. I wonder.
- Changelings can transform into inanimate objects. It is not entirely clear how they maintain awareness of the outside world while doing so, but it is possible they don’t.
5. And hearing it, I think I understand why it never happened before. You can’t really sing in this voice.
First time ever, Spike sings a song. This is kind of important.5 It’s also inexplicably efficacious, because everyone accepts Thorax readily after that.
- Thorax explicitly refers to the “Changeling Kingdom,” which is slightly odd, since it would imply a territory rather than a headquarters.
For such a canonically important episode, it should have been better, but oh well. One interesting unexpected takeaway is that I have to conclude, that the changelings have to feed like vampires, whether explicitly biting the victim to do it or not, and cannot consume environmental emotions at all, contrary to popular fandom expectations. Another interesting observation is that FIENDship is Magic #5 remains more or less untouched and the events of this episode do not explicitly contradict it.
The feeding frenzy seems entirely antithetical to a changeling's infiltration strategy. I had assumed it was because of Thorax's extreme hunger, but if this is a trend for the whole species, it feels hugely maladaptive.
4161105
Well, if we accept FIENDship is Magic #5, changelings did not evolve at all, their creation is a natural magical accident.
But other than that, it confines them to a life of raiding, i.e. they have to be more like locusts (with no solitary phase) than any other kind of creature, only capable of feeding destructively and in large groups, and they would necessarily be migratory. Transformation seems almost an atavism in this situation, more suited as a tool of terror (to elicit emotion in the victim so as to feed optimally) than infiltration.
There are further interesting implications if we consider comic changelings as well.
For instance, recall that changelings supposedly did not have holes in their legs originally, but that they came about as a result of a battle with Celestia. In Fiendship, I took this to mean that individual changelings are immortal, just like Chrysalis herself apparently is, because all the modern changelings have leg-holes. Yet, Thorax didn't mention being a part of any previous sieges, and we also know now that changelings continued to be born after the initial creation of their species. So that means that the holes are either some kind of species-wide curse placed on them by Celestia (unlikely, considering her characterisation), or else changelings ritualistically mutilate themselves, possibly as some kind of show of commemoration.
As well, I think Thorax's displays of imitating smaller creatures and inanimate objects is the final proof (if ever we needed it), that changeling disguises are based on illusion magic rather than actual Mystique-style shape-shifting.
And on a final note, this episode did not reference Slice of Life at all, and so further questions are raised. On the one hand, it could be that it was Thorax that we saw at Cranky and Matilda's wedding, but that requires a lot of timeline-warping to work, not helped by Starlight's sporadic appearances. And that changeling seemed unconcerned with inspiring fear in the foals, which is not much like Thorax, who was shown to be very sensitive. On the other hand, if that wasn't Thorax, then we have a second friendly changeling around, and it raises questions as to why nobody mentioned him here. Granted, Twilight and Starlight weren't at the wedding, but Shining and Cadance were, and so was Spike, so why by this episode are they all back to "All changelings are eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil" mode?
Actually, correction, we have seen a changeling detection method. Granted, it was in an alternate timeline, but still.
4161150
Or, which I think somewhat more likely, Chrysalis is the template for their entire species, (If she laid those eggs, who's the father? Is there even a father?) and being magical creatures, they inherit the holes in a non-genetic manner.
I don't think that one is settled very conclusively, mostly because we don't have any on-screen incidents of long term infiltrators being unmasked except Chrysalis, who is special. We don't know which pony attributes a changeling is capable of emulating through bodily features and which they aren't. It does make illusions more likely than they were before, but then, determining identity would not require a sunshine-sunshine routine and a pony who knows it -- a patdown would suffice. It is of course possible that ponies don't know that it would...
The changeling sat in the back row, took his seat after they did, left before them, and they never saw it. :) But that definitely wasn't Thorax. All we have is a tweet from someone on the crew saying he's "a friend of Matilda's," but that's basically worthless...
4161157
Well, yes, you're right, and I did mention that when writing up Season 5 finale, so we definitely know a detection method is possible.
But I think this episode settles that Zecora had no motivation to develop it in the primary timeline, otherwise, this method would have been shared far and wide.
4161167
Not if the illusion spells were more than visual. We know magical force-fields are possible. Impose a tactile illusion over a force-field along with a visual one, and you've got yourself a pretty effective disguise. The only logistical problem with it would be, of course, imitating something smaller than one's natural form, in which case visual illusions alone would have to suffice.
4161578
Sing along - yes. A couple of words here and there. Solo? No, this is the first time.
What a canon-building episode! It definitely looks like Chrysalis is the mother of all the drones. I do feel like this contradicts the comic origins.
It's interesting that it looks like Thorax is neurologically abnormal from other changlings, from birth.
Theory: What if changlings don't eat the love emanating from a pony, but rather the love directed towards that pony. It would explain why Flurry would be such a priority target, and how Chrysalis was able to get some powerful feeding off Shining Armor.
I suspect "changling kingdom " is a rather grand title for a single giant nest.
Agree on the lack of changling detection spell, though I bet Sunburst and Thorax could come up with one.
4161245 The fact that Thorax is able to disguise himself as a small rock, and Spike seems to feel him like that, suggests changlings physically change their shape, and possibly even shunt excess mass into a different dimension. They still may not be able to turn into something larger than themselves.
4161630
Does the Cloudsdale Anthem count as a solo?
That's classic mythological changeling MO, that. Replace a child, and allow the parents to raise and nurture the little unseelie themselves. Whether or not the pony changelings have or would do such a thing, I would doubt, seeing as it seems likely that a changeling feeding would be fairly noticeable, especially if FIENDship is Magic is any indication.
Also, the changeling wasn't immediately accepted after Spike sang his song. Actually everyone in the room, with one very notable exception, seemed to be glaring at him. Once Twilight stepped up in support, the room changed around.
4162473
Noooooooooooooooooooooooo
4162244
Not necessarily. At least, I can imagine at least one sensible changeling lifecycle in which no contradiction with the comic origins occurs.
My best theory so far is that Chrysalis accidentally had a happy thought while laying his egg. That is, he's an abnormal mutation reflecting the fact that Chrysalis is not totally and irredeemably evil despite her origins. Just 99.96% evil or so.
That does explain things. Most importantly, it explains why Thorax believes that changelings can be taught not to feed by loving one another. (We don't know if he's correct or not, since he's a mutant already, others are probably not so lucky.) So in summary it looks like this:
1. Changelings cannot assimilate ambient emotion. They can feel/smell it, but cannot eat it, and smelling can trigger instinctive feeding frenzy.
2. Changelings can assimilate emotion directed explicitly at them, whether mistakenly or not, and can survive on it, though it remains to be seen just how efficient the process is in cases other than Chrysalis, who is also special.
3. Failing that, changelings are forced to feed destructively by draining emotion accumulated in a sapient from others, the way they are depicted to do so in FIENDship is Magic #5.
That sort of brings back some of their infiltration capacity, but still equates them to locusts: Individual changelings may infiltrate pony society by replacing or inventing loved individuals, but this is not sustainable on large scale, and any sufficiently large swarm must feed like a swarm.
4162473
I don't count it as a song! :)
4162596
If the theory described above is correct, though, the idea is that changelings would just eat Flurry Heart for the love accumulated during the crystalling ceremony.
Twilight still comes off more naive than is prudent for doing so, though. :)
4162657
Yes she does. Not the first time the timer on the episode running out caused something like that to happen either. More evidence that songs have a profound magical effect, perhaps?
4162814
Well, considering that I fully subscribe to and exploit the theory that they do, I'm already biased. :)
4162657
On second thought, I am leaning back towards the comic origin. As you've pointed out, the biology of changlings is so needlessly complex, arbitrary and contradictory even in a world of magic that the idea that changlings are random mutants out of a dark magic pool and there are only 1 or 2 generations of them seems far more plausible than they have actually evolved and existed as a normal society since the beginning of history. I also like the old theory that they are corrupted Flutterponies Discord messed with though.
I noticed how Chrysalis was the only adult we saw in the hive, and that's weird. Remember: most of the changling "history" we learn is told to us by Chrysalis, possibly the biggest deceiver in MLP. I think the weird magic pond is the only thing we see from an omniscient perspective, rather than taking the word a notoriously unreliable narrator. So I wonder if everyone but Chrysalis died out in that volcano, and she escaped and bred a new generation on her own to attack Canterlot.
On the other hand, that one changling that Chrysalis threw into a volcano but she says is "probably fine"... that might be the origins of Kevin!
4164234
I count at least three, possibly four generations, but basically yes, comics origin remains largely untouched and actually makes more sense now rather than less. Changelings are an unnatural abomination, that exists because Chrysalis, an unnatural abomination, exists. They are not a nation, not a society, and very barely a culture.
Also, I suspect that at least some shade of a hive mind needs to exist: Changelings have a larval stage. I suspect that the larval stage is carnivorous, while the adult stage are emotivores, and the fangs as well as the feeding frenzy reflex are vestigial by that point. To be fully sapient upon reaching this stage, changelings would need to be educated during the larval stage. And I can't imagine anything resembling normal education between Chrysalis and her larva. But some form of hive mind network of larvae directed by Chrysalis and assimilating knowledge and skills from her while they grow? Easily enough.
4164546 Some sort of semi-hivemind makes sense, and perhaps Thorax didn't attach to it properly...
4161171 Alternatively, maybe Zecora has developed it in the main TL but hasn't shared it because she's afraid it'd be misused? As someone who's experienced ponies' xenophobia, it's possible she'd suspect some changelings might be friendly even if she hasn't met any herself. Or maybe the changeling at Cranky and Matilda's wedding was her friend?
4162657 That summary makes a lot of sense. It explains why Chrysalis would replace Cadance, it explains why the changelings would be especially interested in the Crystal Empire after Flurry Heart's birth, and it even explains Thorax's response to Spike's momentary kindness.
What do you think of Thorax's speculation about changelings surviving off each other's friendship, though? If every other changeling is like Chrysalis, it could be possible and they've just never noticed it before. My guess, though, is he was just speculating and he's wrong.
4168430
I find that a bit unlikely, but why not. In any case, it's a certainty the pony government doesn't have it, or isn't prepared to deploy it.
It's a plausible speculation, but. It remains uncertain whether changelings can generate emotional energy by directing love at others at all, it remains uncertain whether a regular, non-mutated changeling can experience love at all, and it remains uncertain whether such kind of social change can be accepted by the changelings at large. With so much stacked against it, most of which Thorax himself can't ascertain, it remains speculation.