Updates, speculation and more complaining · 12:55am Aug 19th, 2017
Okay, got a few updates to the random speculation I posted a while ago. If you don't mind some minor and major spoilers (and also me screaming about the new changelings for the nth time), keep on reading.
First off, an update to that thing I posted about Sunburst's magic being a different color than in the show (being, in fact, green like a changeling in disguise) in the Legends of Magic comics. At this point, I'm pretty confident there's actually nothing going on at all there. Partly because Starlight was in the latest issue and they acted completely normal together, and partly because Starlight's magic was also the wrong color. So it was probably either an artistic choice, or a necessity due to CMYK printing requirements. Oh well, it was a fun bit of speculating.
Onto the good stuff.
I'm going to put spoiler tags on the next part, because it's pretty huge spoilers for the movie. Don't read if you don't want to know which major show character dies!
Kidding about that last part, fortunately (or unfortunately; it would be an amazing way to mix things up). In any case... based on press releases, it was pretty obvious that Tempest was going to end up becoming a good guy by the end of the movie. And there was a picture book of the movie released, and reading through it shows Tempest and Twilight hanging out at the end of the movie. So, pretty much 100% confirmed there. Also, apparently Celestia gets turned to stone at some point. So that's kind of cool.
Anyway, the main point of all this is that I just finished reading the second prequel comic, and there was a line that stuck out at me. Basically, the good guy pirates say something along the lines of "some of us are missing parts, but we're all still friends!" So, rather obvious extrapolation, Tempest will end up joining the pirates and sailing out of the show. I mean, obviously she can't ever really be on the show; I believe her voice actor is rather famous, and they can't keep paying her to make constant appearances. So that's a rather neat way to explain her out of canon (while still leaving the option for her to make guest appearances if she ever wants to).
(no more spoilers)
Speaking of that, I wonder how canon the movie is going to be. I guess I was completely wrong about them using ToonBoom for the show moving forward, so they're going to be keeping the same assets on the show; unless they decide to update places like Canterlot to match the movie. Also, unless I missed her, I haven't seen any Flurry Heat in any of the trailers yet. Kind of makes me wonder if the movie is going to exist in one of those weird nebulous places where it's canon but not really (you know, like Equestria Girls).
One other piece of nonspoilery movie news. Apparently it got a PG rating. Which is nice; I was expecting more of a G, I guess. It means at least we'll probably get some awesome action scenes.
Now for show stuff.
There was a trailer for the second half of the season released recently. Most of it showed the characters from the Legends of Magic comics. The general consensus seems to be that these scenes all come from the Campfire Tales episode. Also, based on what I saw, these stories will probably be the original legends these heroes became famous for—the comics deal with what happened to these legendary heroes after their heroic feats (spoilers: it was more heroic feats).
One thing I've noticed is that these heroes tend to match up with the Mane Six; Twilight is Starswirl, Applejack is the Hercules guy, Dash is the pegasus, etc. Which fits in with the next bit...
The summary of the sixth and seventh issues of LoM was released, and it involves the six ponies from the previous issues teaming up to fight the mysterious shadowy evil that was hinted at in the main comic series, which will also be the villain in the season finale. The episode title of the finale was also released, and it's Shadow Play. So, given that the evil villain was originally defeated by six ponies who are identical to the Mane Six teaming up, it's pretty obvious what's going to happen in the finale.
Which actually ties in nicely to my original theory on the finale. Quick refresher: I said that since the premieres tend to lead to the finales in some way, the fact that this premiere involved Starlight losing control of her anger means she's going to be the one to be possessed by this ancient shadowy evil. But what I completely skipped over was that the other half of the episode was about the Mane Six working together as a team. So if that's something that's going to be connected to the finale in some way, and if the villain was originally defeated by six ponies who are analogous to the Mane Six... well, there you go. We're finally going to get the finale everyone's wanted since like season four: the Mane Six actually working together to defeat a villain, like in the old days. Which I think is both good and bad.
It's good because it looks like we might finally get an episode where the Mane Six actually team up to defeat the villain, rather than having them sit around while Twilight or Twilight Lite do all the work. And frankly, it's about frigging time; the last time this happened was the first time the changelings showed up, over five years ago. Twilight's Kingdom doesn't count, since that episode was about Twilight. In fact, she actually tried to keep them out of the story, and their big contribution was them being used to blackmail her. They only teamed up at the very end for about thirty seconds, after they all got Super Saiyan powers.
What I don't like about it is, of course, Queen Chrysalis. Specifically, that it looks pretty unlikely now that she will actually be showing up this season. What's most likely is that this finale is going to do specifically what I just said, give the Mane Six a finale where they all work together to save the day. Which is great, and good to see, just obviously not what I would prefer.
Although, there is a wild card: The Dazzlings are on the cover of the sixth issue of LoM. Frankly, I don't know what that means. Are they retconning how the sirens got sent through the mirror (or at least explicitly making the Fiendship comic non-canon)? Is this going to be an introduction to the sirens and explain how they got so powerful and evil, possibly due to this evil force? Or are they setting up the Dazzlings to be reformed, and we're going to see them as good guys who just got corrupted during this battle? Or are they just randomly putting the sirens on the cover because they were around at the same time as Starswirl? So many options!
Interesting note: the sirens at full power had the exact same red eyes as the ponies infected by Starlight's anger. The siren's powers were also about infecting others with hate and anger. And they got their powers from stones, and as someone pointed out in the comments previously, there was that whole thing Maud said about being able to rule Equestria with the right stone. Though to be honest, as far as the red eyes go, that's kind of a generic 'this person is evil' thing.
Another interesting thought. As I said, the finale will likely tie in to the second episode from the premiere, where Starlight's anger is infecting other ponies. So this finale villain probably has something to do with spreading hatred and anger. Which ties into the sirens; that's exactly what they do. So maybe they're somehow the catalyst that created this villain, by putting a huge amount of hatred into someone and pushing them over the edge. Which is what leads to, later on, Starswirl hunting down and banishing the sirens. But also... while the sirens turned this pony evil by stirring the hatred in their heart, there's another way to do the same thing. If you had someone who was already angry a lot, and took away their love, you'd end up at the same point as if you'd given them hatred. And we all know who could do something like that, and who they are currently very motivated to do it to.
And now that I've managed to, inevitably, bring things around to the changelings, let's get into that.
The last piece of news comes from two sources. One is the press release mentioning the Changing a Changeling episode, with this line: "Pharynx will learn that love is a strength, not a weakness". And the second is a synopsis, which says that Pharynx is the last nontransformed changeling, and they're there to "teach Pharynx that love is a strength and not a weakness".
So, this obviously puts things heavily on the side of him being forced to transform into one of the newlings. Except... I kind of have to wonder (he said with desperation)...
Because if he does transform, you would think that line from the press release would end with something like "and join the rest of the changelings in their beautiful (ugh, it hurts typing that) new forms". I mean, there's no reason they have to add that in there, but it also doesn't really seem like something they would leave out.
Also, the people running the show are pretty good at walking things back when there's a big enough outcry. At least, when it's feasible. Obviously they can't remove Twilight's wings. I've mention this before, but Flash Sentry very quickly stopped appearing on the show after the one time they stuck him in there. And this is just based on my experience, but changeling-Thorax is still way more popular than moose-Thorax. So what better way to patch things up than to go "Oh look, it's Thorax's brother. And oh look, he's going to stay as an original changeling but still be nice and friendly." I mean, bringing in a character's brother as a replacement is like Soap Opera 101, no reason it wouldn't work here.
My biggest objection, though, is... well, what kind of episode would it be if he does transform? It seems like it would just be a rehash of the last season finale. Not to mention the semi-racist subtext that already existed in that episode would be amplified; this would literally be an entire race rejecting someone who doesn't look like them. One episode synopsis even says they want him to transform because the other changelings in the hive won't accept him otherwise. That seems like a really bad message to send when you could instead say "what matters is how someone acts, not what they look like".
This whole episode is really going to be a bellwether for how things are with the changelings moving forward. If he gets to stay as an original changeling... then you know what? I can almost forgive that season finale. But if he's forced to change... I don't know. This whole thing is already kind of killing the show for me. Earlier when I said I had just read the LoM and movie prequel comics? I read just them before writing this, solely so I could see if they had anything I needed to mention. I only only just watched the three episodes from after the hiatus, and I haven't even watched the Equestria Girls specials. I would have been all over that before, but now I'm just kind of... meh.
Even more, it's going to be Ground Hog Day: will we get an interesting show with a meaningful theme? Or are we going to get six more seasons of "if you're black you're a bad guy"? (I know I keep phrasing things in a way that sounds 'controversial', but come on. Nightmare Moon, changelings, Sombra, Tirek. That's four out of six major villains that are black or mostly black. And even Discord is only partly bright colors).
I mean, I get it. Dark = bad. It's a common association. But is it too much to hope for them to buck the trend and put in a good guy who's dark? We had a major villain who was a brightly colored pony, why not the other way around? It's just disappointing, because I always thought the show was better than this. Hell, Discord looks like more of a monster than the normal changelings do, why didn't he have to transform and grow, like, fluffy paws and turn pink or something?
And the thing that's really messing with me is, I can't even tell which way they're leaning towards having this episode go. I'm almost 50/50 on how it will end.
On one hand, they really seem to be pushing this theme of "black changelings are automatically bad". I really do think there are marketing guidelines they have to follow, and one of those guidelines is that bad guys and good guys have to be clearly indicated. That's why everything that made the changelings changelings—fangs, black color, and holes—had to be removed when they transformed.
On the other hand, the show's always done a pretty good job at staying original. And they've always had good lessons in each episode. I can't really see "If you look bad you are bad" being the theme of this episode, rather than "How you look on the outside doesn't matter". The fact that Pharynx is called out as specifically being the last changeling who hasn't transformed also makes me think he won't. I actually wouldn't be surprised if they go the opposite direction and have some of the transformed ones change back.
Here's another thing. One of the themes this season is family, and we've already seen quite a few episodes emphasizing how important family is, including a few that specifically have a theme of making up with family for past unpleasantness. And in EQD's follow up for Discordant Harmony, there was this line from the reviewer:
"Between this episode, Starlight and Maud's earlier on, and even Celestia and Luna's a couple weeks ago, I'm seeing a major theme for this season emerging: being weird doesn't prevent friendships, but rather strengthens them if you embrace those differences and care enough to cater to them."
If that really is a major theme, then what better way to reinforce it than by having Pharynx accept friendship but not transform? "Everyone can be a friend in their own way" is a great theme. And it helps reduce the creepiness of the changeling's lesson of "how you act literally defines what you look like, and vice versa".
The thing that's really tripping me up here is both of these possible episodes are just rehashes of previous ones. If he transforms, it's basically just the ending of To Where and Back Again. If he doesn't, it's The Times They Are a Changeling. Though I think the second one is more interesting, because it puts Thorax on the opposite side of where he was before—now he's the one rejecting a changeling just because of how they look.
Kind of a tangent/conspiracy theory, but I have to wonder if this is all some big compromise they had to make. Like they wanted to make the changelings good, obviously, but Hasbro wouldn't let them because they didn't look 'right'. So the agreement they ultimately came to was to have half of them turn into bright pretty bugs, and now with this episode we're going to have half of them turning back into the original changelings, and then the whole things will be a big message about accepting others who are different than you and that how you look doesn't have to dictate how you act. It's a super roundabout and backasswards way of doing things, but sometimes that's the kind of shit you have to do when you're dealing with corporations and marketing guidelines and all that.
And despite saying I can't make a guess on which option is going to happen, my gut feeling is that Pharynx is just going to transform and that's going to be that. Mostly because I'm just expecting the worst at this point.
The other thing about all of this is, I can't see where they're going with Queen Chrysalis.
Is the idea to have her be the one irredeemable villain? I've mentioned before that the production book has a quote on her page discussing exactly that, so it's possible. On the other hand, that book is also from several years ago, and things have changed a lot since then.
There's a couple problems with that, though. One is that the show is really good about staying relatively fresh. The changelings have been the only villains to return between seasons, and that took four years. The entire show is constantly moving forward; things rarely stay the same. So I can't really see Chrysalis staying as a persistent villain.
On top of that, she's not really the best choice for it. She has plenty of megalomaniacal tendencies, but she also always had one perfectly reasonable goal: get food for the changelings. That doesn't really scream permanent villain. Plus, she's going from "leader of an army of shapeshifters who want to conquer Equestria and steal its love" to "single villain who wants revenge on a secondary character". That's a pretty huge dropoff in her threat gradient and character interestingness. If you want an unrepentant villain, I'd think Tirek fits that role better, what with his whole "all I want to do is destroy stuff" motivation.
And finally, if she isn't going to be redeemed—then the only option they have left is to kill her. Like I said, they do a pretty good job of keeping the show fresh. In fact, they seem to actively be avoiding returning villains. Which is great, it's something really unique and nice to see. But it also means Chrysalis isn't going to turn into Team Rocket and keep popping up every episode. So at some point, they're going to need a reason why she isn't coming back anymore, at least for a long while. Which means either turning her to stone or blowing her apart like Sombra.
But if she is going to be redeemed and transform... well, that has problems of its own.
First off, how would something like that even come about? Chrysalis is pretty far towards the irredeemable side of things, though not as much as Sombra or Tirek. I could see a grudging redemption, like a grumpy version of Discord, but there's no way in Hell I can see such a huge personality flip as her turning into one of the new changelings.
And second, if she did turn into one of the new changelings—that's literally the same as killing her. It wouldn't be her anymore, it would just be some character with her name. Nightmare Moon turning to Luna was one thing—that's who she was originally, and NMM was there for the express purpose of being turned back into Luna. But doing that to Chrysalis would be the same as killing her off. For all intents and purposes she would be gone.
A small side tangent—what the Hell was going on with the Guardians of Harmony stuff in relation to all this? Like, they released this toy line and comic where the changelings were the big bad guys... and then immediately removed them from the show! Hell, the comic came out a good six months or so after all the changelings were transformed, and it's now been confirmed that every single changeling was transformed. I'm not going to try and analyze what any of that means, but it just seems really bizarre to me that they would introduce this entire marketing campaign around characters that are no longer even in the show.
And to go on another small tangent, who thought the changeling transformation thing was a good idea? Like, at all? They were easily one of the more popular races, characters, etc. on the show, and Queen Chrysalis even more so. To remove them completely from the show, and then take away a huge part of what Chrysalis is, is just... baffling. I mean, I get that writers need to take the story where they see it going. Obviously I, more than anyone, get that. But they write this show season to season. It's not like they had some overarching plan in place that they didn't want to change. And ultimately, you need to give the audience what they want. If they thought this was what people wanted, then all I can say is I've never seen such a massive misread of what an audience wants to see out of a franchise since the Star Wars prequels..
This whole thing is just really depressing. The season six finale was bad enough, but at least there was hope for something interesting after all that. Now that it’s confirmed that there’s only a single original changeling left (which is a stupid enough idea by itself) and they’re likely going to force him to transform… I don’t know. I just don’t care anymore. It’s really sad, but I think if it does go like this, I might be done. That might be what it takes to kill my interest in the show. And as much as it might suck, I think that means I’d be done with my writing here. It’s called fan fiction, after all, and if I’m not a fan anymore…
It’s all kind of strange. I always thought having the changelings be some cursed race or having them transform to be good and pretty was a horribly stupid idea, and I kind of jokingly thought that it would be the one thing that would get me to stop watching the show, but that’s because I never thought they'd actually do it. I thought the people in charge of the show were smarter than that, more creative than that, better than that. And now that they’ve actually done it, it turns out those joking thoughts were actually serious.
Apparently, this is my hill to die on. I was fine with Twilight becoming an alicorn, I was fine with her getting a (slightly ridiculous) castle, I was fine with Starlight becoming a semi-main character, I was even fine with the Mane Six being reduced to a plot point in the season six finale. But that ten seconds when Thorax transformed basically ruined the entire show for me.
The fact that I was fine with Twilight becoming a Princess, enthusiastic about it even, is kind of funny now in hindsight. Because it’s a straight line from Princes Twilight > Starlight Glimmer > changeling transformation. Unintended consequences and all that, I guess.
I keep going on and on about all this, but I’m really just saying the same thing. I’ve tried to condense my feelings about this whole situation into a simple statement, and here’s the best I can do:
“The Times They are a Changeling was everything I wanted when it came to changelings finally returning to the show. It was beautiful episode about judging people based on their actions and not their appearance, and it was the show at its best. To Where and Back Again was a meaningless pile of dreck, a bunch of schlocky drivel that not only drove home the opposite lesson but shit all over everything meaningful from The Times They are a Changeling.”
I’m repeating myself, but assuming Pharynx does transform (thus wiping out the entire race of original changelings) then I am utterly, utterly baffled as to how someone thought this was a good idea. I know they “don’t read or look at fan work”, but I think Slice of Life proves they’re aware of what goes on in the fandom. Did they somehow miss how popular the changelings were? Did they not see how ecstatic a lot of people were when Thorax was introduced and there was a good changeling? Did they think people wanted this lame, watered-down, weak-ass version of the changelings?
The whole thing feels like they tried to get the best of both worlds, and royally screwed it up. They wanted good changelings, and they wanted Queen Chrysalis to stay evil. Maybe they do pay attention to what's popular among the fans, and saw that Chrysalis was, and this was their attempt to get her on the show more while keeping her true to her character. If it is, then their attempt to walk two paths at once ended the way it always does: neither one is satisfying.
What they really should have done with the changelings was just not bring them back. It would have been better than this. To quote the videogame Until Dawn, “Sometimes doing nothing is the best choice”.
The funniest thing is, the entire transformation was pointless. The changelings still eat love, they still transform. They’re exactly the same in every way, except their appearance. All that changed is they decided to get love from friendship instead of stealing it. The lesson is literally “judge a book by its cover”. It sounds like I’m just complaining about something cosmetic, but it’s not that simple. Because when all that changed was their appearance, that becomes the entire point.
And that point is, again, “Judge a book by its cover”. There was an opportunity here to go beyond appearances. To have the changelings reject Chrysalis’s rule and do things their own way, and have it be about their choice of how to act. About choosing to do things in a better, friendlier way. And it could have been about the same thing The Times They are a Changeling, and even the brief moment when there was a changeling at the wedding in Slice of Life, was about—that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like; what matters is what’s in your heart, how you act. And instead we got “you look ‘pretty’ so now you’re automatically good!” And that ruins anything interesting about them becoming friendly.
The Times They are a Changeling meant something because it was about being friends with someone even if you think they look weird and scary. To Where and Back Again means nothing because it was about the exact opposite.
Maybe I’m freaking out about this too much—I mean, the episode airs in two weeks, we’ll know then. And tomorrow’s episode is about changelings too, so maybe we’ll get some hints there as well. But it just seems like every time we’ve learned something new about Changing a Changeling, it’s gotten worse and worse. I’m holding out that we get a surprise ending where he doesn’t transform, but I just don’t have that level of optimism in me to actually expect it.
Although, maybe I do. Maybe my hopeless optimism is just a little bit stronger than my bitter, cynical pessimism. Because there’s a part of me that just can’t see an episode about having a family member who acts different ending with the lesson “that person has to act the way you say or else you should kick them out of your family”. And part of that optimism says maybe they see what a terrible idea it would be to kill off the original changelings, how much more interesting it would be to keep both kinds around, and how terrible it would be to wipe out an entire race as a minor plot point.
On the other hand, we’ve all seen things like this before. Remember when everyone was wondering how Twilight was going to become an alicorn, and then it just kind of happened and there was a rushed explanation that was just kind of “you’re an alicorn now because friendship and magic”? Or when at the start of season four Twilight had to use “alicorn magic” to view the past, and she used that Sombra dark magic and everyone was wondering what that was about and where it was going to go, and then just kind of nothing happened and it was never referenced again? And the explanation for making Flurry Heart an alicorn was “we want to have some mystery around how and why she was an alicorn”. If you think there’s ever going to be an adequate explanation for that, well…
I said once that it was too much of a kids’ show, and that still applies here. What I mean is… there’s no thought being put in. Anywhere. They always go with the simplest, blandest, least complicated explanation and plot possible, because “it’s just for kids and they can’t understand anything more complex”. Which is insulting and demeaning to children, who are actually pretty damn smart, and is probably the biggest reason the show’s popularity has been steadily declining. I don’t know if they simply don’t have a desire to make the show be more than it is, to be what it could be, or if it’s a lack of support/resources from Hasbro. Constantly bringing in new writers isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the fact that they have to work alone and there’s no support for any kind of collaboration between them isn’t great. And that track record is where my pessimism comes from.
Well, enough depressing stuff/me uselessly whining. I’ll end on something fun I noticed while watching Discordant Harmony. When Discord gets back the box of Ginsinging tea, after having sent it around Equestria, take a close look at the postage marks on it:
Apparently Queen Chrysalis is somewhere in Equestria, which makes sense. Also, she didn’t immediately destroy the tea and package. I’d also say it’s interesting that Discord knows where she is, but I’ve always kind of assumed he knew anyway.
Yeah, I agree with you almost completely on this. What I'm really afraid of was the thought that I had when I first saw the episode summary: that this would be, like that one Teen Titans Go episode, one big "fuck you" to fans that disagree with writing decisions, all but outright ranting to the viewer.
Also, the difference between now and when Slice of Life was written is that there have been specifically been staff changes since then, most notably M.A. Larson, who is probably the writer who interacted and was friendly with the fandom the most, and the guy who wrote SoL. So it's possible that the current staff simply don't bother to look at online fan reactions as much as before.
At least it's inspired me to start writing again, albeit a second person crossover about Chrysalis trying to kick everyone's asses and take back the hive with a living weapon.
This is one of the things that can make children's programming problematic. That said, I feel like the degree of change enacted was unnecessarily large, even so. I guess getting rid of the holes makes sense, because even though they're one of the cooler parts of the character design, there's a sort of easy symbolism in making them fill in and making the changelings less 'empty'. But making them even more brightly pastel than the ponies seems like overcompensating. They could have just faded the black to other colors that weren't quite as dark (see Luna).
Oh wow thats a big wall of text
It's interesting how your understanding of children's television as it pertains to FiM reminds me somewhat of how I evaluate and enjoy various Precure seasons. There are a lot of permutations on how writers and directors can work within the constraints of "shill ugly plastic toys" to do
more, and not all of them are good.