Mind the Gaps. · 5:28am Feb 13th, 2018
It's probably no surprise to you, dear reader, that I am something of a nerd. I mean, it takes a special sort of personality to write hundreds of thousands of words of fanfic based on a kid's cartoon, right?
Also, I dig Star Trek. Or, uh, parts of Star Trek. I hear good things about Discovery, but I maintain that the best Trek show was Deep Space Nine. And the best character on Deep Space Nine (if not all of Star Trek)?
Morn.
Morn's biggest contribution to the Star Trek mythos is just being ... there. He never gets any spoken dialogue, even in his "spotlight" episode, Who Mourns for Morn? And y'know what? That is awesome. For one, the running gag of just some random alien at the end of the bar is never not funny-- but on top of that, Morn's very presence hints at a bigger universe out there, beyond the scope of the main cast, and the cameras following them around.
Basically, Morn is Derpy Hooves. Just without the alarming amounts of Rule 34 fanart.
I hope. Seriously, I'm not gonna look for that.
But yeah. I just so happened to re-watch Who Mourns for Morn? earlier tonight, and it got me thinking about fanfiction and metatext and so on, because I am a pretentious ass. Lots of people write lots of fanfic for lots of different reasons-- but often, it can boil down to "write what you want to read." Basically, the fanfiction writer takes a look at a particular thing, and then writes their own take on it ... just with the addition of, well, what they'd like to see from that particular canon. More often than not, this takes the form of shipping in its various and terrible permutations (just look at the featured box on any given date, with your mature filter turned off). Hell, that's more or less my own schtick as a pony author, adding in booze or raunchy jokes or LARPing or historical fiction pastiches or ... well, you get the idea.
BUT.
I dare say MLP:FiM is unique, for multiple reasons. For one, there's a vibrant fan community (read: this website) based around the concept of silly pony stories. On top of that, MLP is well suited for fanfic, because there's a metric shit-ton of background ponies for writers to latch on to. There's a lot of wiggle room for aspiring authors to fill in with various adventures-- either from the Mane 6, or the myriad selection of background ponies hanging around. And while the pony cartoon certainly has some continuity to it (which is one of its more appealing aspects), there's still more than enough room for other stories, adventures, or even new characters.
It's that fine line between canon and fanon that makes a difference-- in contrast, something like the Harry Potter series is a lot more solidified in its plot and structure. The likes of something like, say, The Lord of the Rings is even moreso. Which isn't to say one can't write HP or LotR fanfic (honestly a basic google search will prove me wrong on either of those), but ... that kind of limits things. Like, there's room to write a short fic detailing the bromance romance between Gimli & Legolas ... but at the same time you've got to jump through some hoops to make a "Gimli & Legolas save Middle Earth" fic work, because by the end of the books, Middle Earth is already saved.
Also if you write Draco Malfoy as any kind of romantic hero I will judge you so hard.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've also found that most comic books aren't very amenable to fanfic, simply due to their open-ended nature. The standard DC and/or Marvel superheroes are continually having new adventures, wearing new costumes, developing new relationships ... which can be fun, but this can make finding a generally accepted 'reference point' difficult, unless you start saying stuff like "This fanfic takes place before Issue 148 but After Issue 140." Which again is getting into fandom wankery.
So yeah. That brings us back to these silly pastel cartoon horses. The show's still going (for now) ... but at the same time, there's a sort of freedom in adding in elements that the show would never bring up, because then it can't contradict you! Or something.
Though, even with this in mind, my general philosophy of fanfic is "This could be canon, if you have a few beers and squint." I guess I'm boring, in that I'm less interested in seeing "The Canon, but different" so much as, well, more of the same adventures and characters that I enjoyed in the first place.
It's just a matter of finding where those extra adventures fit in.
A nerd! *GASP!* Oh, the horror! (You know I am writing a Hogwarts crossover, but I promise I won't put Draco in leather pants. Or chaps.)
Yeah, I loved the way the writers did Morn. Quark complaining that he never shut up. Odo suspicious of him because he didn't seem to have a source of income, but spent all his time in Quark's bar. He was even there during the occupation, and with the Klingons. Mark Allen Shepherd did a masterful job of portraying him without a word.
I was just a touch too young to really get into the complexities of DS9, to my ever-increasing regret these days. I'm going to have to binge it at some point.
But yeah, Equestria feels optimized for fanwork. Just enough structure to provide the foundation without so much that it stifles innovation.
I love how there was an unspoken consensus to just ignore the celestia-luna fight flashback where NMM reign last 90 seconds. Everyone accepts that any other backstory would be better so no one bats an eye at that contradiction.
4795726
DS9 is DEFINITELY worth checking out. It takes a little while to get going, but once it gets underway in season 2 or so, it just gets better and better. (The last season was a little uneven, but still). Which isn't to say it doesn't have any horrible episodes (that's almost a Star Trek tradition), but it's pretty solid nonetheless. Plus, the whole run's available for streaming, so get to work! :)
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DS9 was definitely the best Trek. They were able to do multi-season arcs and dramatic war stories without... you know... being all angsty and dark and depressing. I think I'd agree with 4795935 on the show's best character, but I do love Morn. I've actually started rewatching Cheers, where Norm, the character that Morn is a tribute to, is my favorite character.