Modern Changeling Behavior & S7E17 Reflection · 9:19pm Sep 5th, 2017
I've been seeing a lot of mixed feelings for certain aspects of S7E17 - specifically how the changelings were handled and portrayed. While most people really enjoyed Pharynx, a great deal of people seemed confused as to why the changeling drones behaved the way they did, citing that their activities, yelling, dialogue and general behavior felt 'over the top', 'cringey', 'G3-like', etc.
I'd like to go over some points, because, as always, I have a great deal to say when it comes to bug horses. 
The Facts: As 'To Change a Changeling' has demonstrated, the changelings have flip-flopped from the way they used to be. Where before they were a ruthless pack of predatory creatures operating like a hive-mind, now they are self-sufficient creatures that have begun to form a society that recognizes individuality.
The Dilemma: Why is this happening? Why are the changeling's reactions/behaviors so extreme? Why did they suddenly lose the confidence/ability to defend themselves? Why is soup changeling so adorable?
Point 1: I don't believe a lot of people fully grasp that the changelings are likely still getting used to feeling and regulating emotions, as opposed to feeding on them. They literally have AA meetings for discussing their anxieties.
The changelings are creatures based on emotion. Under Chrysalis's reign, they needed love as sustenance to presumably stay alive. With this in mind try to imagine what happened after they transformed, and suddenly began to share their love and emotions with other creatures, as well. I believe it was a huge shock to their systems, as big a change for them mentally and emotionally as it was for them, physically.
Throughout this episode the changelings would break out into yelling in either excitement or fear, and the Feelings Forum itself was a place to discuss their concerns in a 'safe space'. On the surface these things may be comedic, but dig a little deeper. It's not hard to see that they're struggling with anxieties and how to display their thoughts and feelings. They even have coping mechanisms for dealing with these anxieties - the new activities that Thorax has introduced the hive to.
"I used to [have concerns] but craft time has given me such a creative outlet, I feel great now."
"Yeah, everybody loves craft time."
Point 2: Chrysalis's reign forced changelings to be uniform warriors who lived for a very select purpose, leaving little room for individuality. Right now we can accurately describe the changelings as going through a bit of a renaissance. They are discovering hobbies, interests and other creative passions that they presumably never got to explore before.
Feed. Hunt. Patrol. A changeling's life didn't consist of much during Chrysalis's reign. Thorax proves this when he says, 'I'm trying to start some new activities, since the only thing we did before was hunt and patrol.' Combined with being an identical look-alike with a shared purpose as every other drone in the hive, the changelings truly were void of any and all self-identity. These are real issues that are found not only in LGBT/transgender communities, but in actual militaries as well.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm a blue changeling, sometimes I feel like I'm a purple changeling, but here I am - a green one."
All of these themes were put under comedic covers. Trixie capitalized on the changeling's yelling by calling it ahead of time. There was a hippie changeling leading the Feelings Forum, and Thorax's reasoning for starting it was for simply, 'letting changelings better understand one another'. But these comedic and/or subtle covers are not all there is. I believe a lot of people do not dig deep enough to see the themes the show demonstrates when it's tackling bigger topics.
Point 3: Thorax's new paradise for changelings was too perfect, and what began as support turned into enabling. Pharynx's entire role in the plot is to provide strength to balance out with Thorax's love.
The changelings disliked Pharynx, and even when he made a very good point in the hive's lack of interest/ability to defend itself, they still called for his ousting. Why would they do this?
I believe that the changelings, struggling to regulate and display their emotions, began to cling to the perfect paradise Thorax had built for them. Thorax, being a cinnamon roll, wanted nothing but absolute care and love and understanding between all the changelings. The changelings grew complacent with this cozy, easy lifestyle and clung to it, until not thinking about or dealing with anything dangerous became the goal of the hive.
Naturally when Pharynx (who was already the black sheep of the hive) began to call for change in their complacency, they rejected him, only focusing on his actions on the surface. Which yes, is definitely their fault (also a bit of Thorax's for enabling them), please just keep in mind it may have been coming from a sense of onset fear from their unstable new emotions, not from implicit laziness or cowardice. Once they all moved past their fears and worked together to achieve a goal, they realized their fears were baseless.
--
Thorax is love. Pharynx is strength. Together they create balance.
Pharynx was the real hero of this episode, sorry Glim Glam and Trix. 
AHHHHH I ONLY HAVE NETFLIX AND HAVE TO WAIT MONTHS TO SEE EPISODES :(
But I don't mind being spoiled
Bug Ponies look adorable as always though.
4659502
You don't have Youtube? It's literally there, my friend.
4659503
*puts finger over lips*
Shhhh, quiet my friend, there are camera's everywhere.
Exactly my thoughts!
I believe almost all of Pharynx's destructive actions could have a reason beyond jerkness: He captured Trixie and Starlight because he believed they were a threat to the hive, tried to take down the vines because they could be used as a hiding place or a weapon, he made spears on craft time, and threw the black paint over the other changeling in order to make him intimidating to their foes.
4659503
Does this mean you plan to introduce Pharynx to the story?
4659550
Well of course, he's an extremely grey character. To the drones, however, he was just being destructive, because they didn't want to see him having any kind of point, rhyme or reason to what he was doing.
4659562
Of course, I'm just trying to figure out how I want to do it. What it's leaning towards right now is a mini-arc of two or three chapters taking place after the events of this episode. Really don't want to advance the plot any further until the season finishes, because the finale I'm sure will introduce even more stuff I need to work with.
This was actually my first thought as well. Given what we've seen in the show, the changelings really didn't have any culture outside of being Chrysalis' private army, and now they're trying to build a new, complete culture from scratch and form personal identities while they're at it. There's bound to be issues along the way.
Another thing that occurred to me is that they might be overcompensating, so to speak, in trying to not be like what they used to be under Chrysalis. From what I understand, it's not an uncommon trend in situations where people free themselves from disliked or overly controlling authorities. Basically, they may have thought "Chrysalis was a terrible ruler, ergo what Chrysalis did must be bad, Chrysalis liked military strength, ergo militarizing is bad" and ended up taking it too far.
On a vaguely related note, one thing I liked about this episode is that it helped answer a question that's been bugging me since "To Where and Back Again". When the changelings underwent their redemption, one of my first thoughts was "okay, and now what?" They were, to be frank, pretty flat characters. They were evil, deceitful love vampires and... that's really about the extent of their characterization. Once they were redeemed, that went away and... there wasn't really a whole lot left, as I saw it.
It's why I don't think Diamond Tiara's own redemption was handled very well, either. She had no real character outside of bullying the CMC and being kind of an awful person, and once she stopped being that she didn't really have any character traits left, which is why I suspect we haven't seen her since. Discord, by contrast, had personality and traits beyond being a tyrant and manipulator (he hates order, he's nigh-omnipotent, he is highly irreverent towards everyone else, he's kind of nuts, etc.) that could be built on and expanded upon once he was redeemed.
Back to the changelings and my point, I was somewhat worried that were just going to drop off the radar for lack of anything to with them anymore, which is why I love that this episode helped flesh out their culture some. If nothing else, we have some idea now of what they do in their spare time, what their society is like, and what their future might be like. I especially like to headcanon that, in the future, hoof-made pottery will become one of their major exports as a direct result of Thorax's craft time, to Pharynx's immense irritation.
4661429
I hated Diamond Tiara's character, then hated it twice as much when we got into S3 and 4 and she continued to do absolutely nothing new or different. Some characters work well as one-note wonders (i.e Chrysalis), but Tiara was obnoxious from the start, then they started throwing her in the majority of CMC episodes while doing nothing new with her character, and made it worse. I also agree that her redemption didn't make sense. I loved the episode itself, I thought it was really great, but the redemption, in retrospect, does not really flush out well. 5 seasons of bitchiness is explained from one quick scene with her mother? Sorry, gonna take more than that.
As for Discord, his redemption (at least the initial one in Keep Calm and Flutter On) felt rushed as all hell, but in the long run yes it was certainly the best direction to take his character in.
Finally, back to the changelings, I've also been waiting for this kind of episode since the S6 finale. All I've wanted to see since then was the new changelings, how they behaved and interacted, and how they interacted with Thorax. Literally all three of my pony fictions I've made within the last several years were done recently, and because of the S6 finale. I love Thorax's character, I loved he was getting a chance to be with his kind again, I loved that the changelings were getting a chance to get away from Chrysalis and be their own things, and I love the idea of Thorax acting as a kind of surrogate parent to changelings in addition to being a ruler. Which isn't too terribly impossible a concept, given the episode.
Something about Changeling eyes freaks me out a bit. They have this slightly darker patch of color under the dots of light reflection in their eyes. Makes it a bit hard to tell where exactly their line of sight is or what part of their eyes is the pupil, then again, they're very much an alien species with an alien mentality, so, maybe that's on purpose? I don't doubt Changelings struggle to tell where another Changeling's line of sight is, I suspect they'd probably consider human or pony eyes to be similarly weird.