Headcanons: The Crystal Prep Shadowbolts · 4:18am Apr 15th, 2018
Hey everyone.
This is a new thing I thought I might start on the blog here:
Headcanons.
Fandom is a funny thing. We gather to watch, enjoy, discuss, critique and sometimes bash a certain show or work of fiction. And in that process, we tend to end up developing our own perceptions of the characters and their world. They can be widely accepted among the fandom, or they can just be little personal theories of our own making.
Headcanons can spring from all manner of origins. It could be to fill in gaps in the material that the writers or creators have not yet explained. It could be something as simple as giving a name to a memorable character who was never addressed in the story. It could be as complex as making an entire backstory for someone.
While I haven't gotten to that last point yet, here are some personal headcanons that I've had about...
The Crystal Prep Shadowbolts:
Sour Sweet
- Due to the character's mood swings in Friendship Games, some people have headcanoned Sour Sweet as having some kind of mental illness. (Bipolar disorder is a common candidate.) Let's just say, that I really don't like that idea. I think it's rather cheap, and also rather insulting too. My own headcanon pertaining to Sour Sweet's mood swings is that she has some anger and stress issues. After all, Crystal Prep Academy is definitely a high-stress environment, given its ruthless perfectionism, rampant bullying, and sociopathic head administrator. Even if she may have been one of the top dogs there, I can definitely see that pressure really weighing on someone.
- I've seen a couple of different headcanons about Sour's family life. One story I read had her as being part of a very large family, with several siblings. It's also a popular headcanon that she's related to one of the majorettes who appeared in Rainbow Dash's rally song at Canterlot High... (I personally can go either way on it. It's never been much of a consideration for me, but I don't mind it.) My own headcanon about Sour's home life owes a lot of inspiration to EchoWing's Quiververse stories; there, Sour's anger issues stem from having a horrid Stepford Smiler of a stage mother. It's something I can definitely see happening. Echo's take also has Sour's father be absent from her life, although I kind of lean towards the idea of her parents being separated. Perhaps they divorced, and Mr. Sweet got custody of one daughter, and she goes to CHS? (I don't know, I have no clue how divorce law and custody works.)
- In the Friendship Games, Sour was in the archery challenge, and is a very talented archer, given her ability to prime and fire multiple arrows at once, while doing a combat roll at the same time. That takes skill; and also a hell of a lot of strength too. I also headcanon that Sour's archery skill has to do with her anger: specifically, that she uses practice as a kind of stress relief... taking that anger and frustration, and focusing it on a target...
- Similarly, I have a joke that she's a disturbingly good shot at those carnival shooting galleries.
Sugarcoat
- Sugarcoat's one of my favorite members of the Shadowbolts, thanks to her hilariously blunt and deadpan personality. The movie made her memorable, and the work of writers like DragonShadow and MythrilMoth only made her even more enjoyable. That being said, some other speculations about her personality rub me the wrong way. Like Sour Sweet, some people have speculated that her blunt and brutally straightforward personality points to some sort of disorder - and again, that really rankles me. My own take on her personality is that she values the truth very much, and simply has no patience for others' bullshit or wasting time with irrelevant pleasantries.
- One of the surprising things that came out of the tie-in book Twilight Sparkle's Sparkly Sleepover Surprise, is the idea of Sugarcoat having a fondness for animals. While it baffled me at first, one second thought I could understand such an idea. My own belief being that Sugarcoat probably likes animals because they aren't people and don't really waste time talking. They have simple needs and instincts, and can be managed and cared for. (Plus, I do like the idea of the cool and stoic girl having a secret soft spot for cute little critters. XD)
- Similarly, I have the view that Sugarcoat likes machines because they can be controlled, modified, and repaired. Hence why she'd be in the Motocross portion of the Friendship Games.
Indigo Zap
- Although we never saw her in canon after the movie, I really quite like Indigo for some reason. Probably it has to do with some really good stories that I've read with her (Bookish Delight and Commissar AJ have some good ones). With this ultra-competitive sporty girl and foil to Rainbow Dash, I took a different approach in imagining her life outside of Crystal Prep. While I figure that most of her classmates are probably rather well-to-do, given the whole private-school angle of Crystal Prep, I ended up imagined Indigo coming from a bit more average middle-class background. Like Sky Stinger, she’s from a family that has a large number of siblings, and part of her hyper-competitive attitude is from getting her parents’ praise/attention for doing well in sports. Similarly, then, why she's so driven to succeed in school and sports too.
- Although she's most obviously known for her sports skills and motocross talent, I headcanon it that Indigo also has a talent and fondness for chemistry (based on her wearing her sports goggles in the chemistry portion of the Acadeca).
- She’s a gearhead with a passion for motorbikes and enjoys tinkering with her own motorcycle (and has threatened painful death on anyone who touches it).
- And also, just for the hell of it, I have this silly little joke about her being a secret fondness/love of some old cartoon show, that she’d probably be deathly embarrassed by anyone discovering. The idea was partly inspired by Rainbow Dash's old embarrassment over reading the Daring Do books, but I also just think it’d be really funny if Zap were a secret fan of the EG version of Scooby-Doo or something. XD “Spooky-Boo”?
Lemon Zest
- Lemon Zest, the wild child of the Crystal Prep Five. She's been a hard one for me to come up with original traits for, but one idea that came to off the bat is that she's (by Crystal Prep standards) a slacker. Lemon has a ton of energy and could apply herself to be top of a lot of classes, but instead chooses to do just well enough in class. (Even if that's still "obscenely well" compared to an average high school.)
- Her teachers have tried to catch her off-guard or daydreaming, but unfortunately for them Lemon has a powerful talent for memorization (born out of memorizing song lyrics and musical stuff) and has yet to really get in trouble for it.
- For a person who was kind of meant to be a foil to Pinkie Pie, Lemon doesn't exactly have a lot of Pinkie-esque traits. Aside from her initial "Hey, listen to this!" moment with Twilight in the movie, which I could see happening with a Pinkie-type character. Due to her headphones, lots of comparisons to Vinyl Scratch came up, so I went with that in thinking about her character. While the gag in the movie has her jamming to hard rock at very loud levels, I have it in mind that Lemon has a LOT of different types of music on her devices, and probably has a tune for every conceivable mood or situation. (Including some soothing tones to help one of Sour's bad moods or rages - an idea I got from Metool Bard's "The Reformation Brigade".)
- As such, Lemon puts a lot of care into her headphones and spends a lot of money keeping up with music-related tech.
- Her roller-skating is both a skill for the Friendship Games, and a genuine hobby. Lemon has a lot of energy to release, and likes to have fun skating around... she can even dance and do really good tricks on her roller blades.
Sunny Flare
- Befitting the counterpart of Rarity, Sunny Flare is the most "aristocratic" of the Shadow Five. She's also the richest and lives in the biggest house. She might have a butler, similar to how Diamond Tiara has Randolph and such.
- Her ability to roller skate started out of a childhood talent with ice-skating. She competed and won contests, before taking up roller-blades too after coming to Canterlot City. (A little headcanon of mine is that she moved to the city with her parents, and isn't from Canterlot originally. That's just me though.)
- Very loosely inspired by Rarity's own romantic tendencies, I have a headcanon about Sunny having a (deeply) hidden romantic side to her. Although it isn't seen much at Crystal Prep, as she finds most of the boys there unlikeable, either due to them being academic rivals or just snobs. (She's rather jealous of Twilight/Sci-Twi for getting a boyfriend in Timber Spruce; a gag I was inspired by after reading Shadowsnake89's story "Forgive the Past" on FanFiction.net.)
Anyway, that's it right now for my headcanons on the Shadowbolts.
I may do something like this for other characters. I've kicked around some thoughts on Sunset Shimmer, the Rainbooms, Flash Sentry, Canterlot High School (the students, Principal Celestia and Luna) plus a few others...
Anyway, hope this offers some food for thought, and maybe invites a bit of discussion. We'll see.
Not bad, and thanks very much for the plug.
Out of all of the Shadowbolts, excepting Sour Sweet, the one that I have the most developed headcanon for is Indigo Zap. I don't imagine her as having a big family, but I do like the idea that she's got at least one sister - specifically, Lightning Dust, and that's mostly due to her role in the film originally being that of a human version of Lightning Dust in some early drafts. In my mind, both characters were raised in a very competitive environment, and thrive on competition and on winning said competitions, but for whatever reason, one ended up on top in one world, and one in the other. I also like the idea of Wind Rider being related to them, possibly even being their grandfather.
Sugarcoat...again, I don't see her tendency towards brutal honesty as being the result of some disorder. She's tactless, and probably doesn't always consider the other person's feelings, but it's less about not caring and more about the belief that she's not responsible for how other people think, feel or act. While not entirely wrong, that doesn't mean that she isn't entirely right. The events of the Friendship Games could very well have been a wake-up call for her. How she got that way doesn't seem implausible, however - something tells me that she had a very structured childhood. Your idea behind why she likes animals, however, does make a lot of sense, beyond Cuteness Proximity.
Lemon Zest is probably my second-favorite of the bunch, thanks mostly to the fact that she was the least antagonistic towards Sci-Twi. She probably got her love for music from her parents, and also not implausible that one or both parents might themselves be musicians. I also like the idea that she might have a fondness for animals too - she could very well have seen Spike in Sci-Twi's bag, and like Sugarcoat, opted against ratting her classmate out as a result.
Sunny Flare...I dunno. I like the idea that her dad might be the EQG-world's equivalent to Steve Jobs, thus explaining those gizmos around her wrists. That being said, I dislike the idea that's been bandied about that Abacus Cinch might be her mother, though that's less on Sunny and more on Cinch, as the latter doesn't seem the type to marry or have children.
4840446
No problem, I was more than happy to do so. ^_^
I understand that about Indigo Zap. Giving her a big family was kind of my own personal distinction, to do something a bit different from her connection to Lightning Dust. Nothing against the idea (in fact, I've considered having LD be one of Zap's relatives, either the eldest sibling or a cousin - either way, there's probably rivalry there), but I wanted to do something different with her. The idea of Wind Rider being related to them is something I can definitely see - there's a really good comic somewhere of Lightning as Wind Rider's granddaughter. I think it's on YouTube...
Sugarcoat... I definitely understand that idea. Especially about her childhood. She does seem like someone who came from a very regimented household. (Glad you like my animal idea, btw.)
As for Lemon Zest - I do like that she was the least mean to Sci-Twi. Really, the whole headphones thing was a legitimate accident and not some kind of dickishness. And I can definitely imagine one of her parents as a musician, or having some connection to the business. Maybe if they aren't musicians, they might have some kind of managerial role to a rock band, and that was how Lemon got exposed to rock music?
Yeah, Sunny Flare was the hardest for me to characterize. Basically, I just went with the "rich girl" angle and tried to think of stuff to do with that. The fan-artist Uotapo has done a few comics joking about the gizmos on her wrists having to do with her being a fan of the Fallout games, which I both approve of (big fan of those games)... and yet, also can't quite imagine fully. I think if she were into gaming, it'd be something very different.
Also, yeah, the whole "Cinch is Sunny's mother" headcanon. No idea what that's about. I don't see it, I don't really care for it... the only place I tolerate it is in Jay David's stories, and that's because he actually pulled it off (and Cinch redeeming herself) fairly plausibly, so kudos to that. But anyway, I really just can't see a woman like Cinch having a family or a child, so that's a piece of fanon that just baffles me every time it pops up.
Nice. Thanks for the shout out to my story.
I love making up head canons for the characters. Can't wait to see your take on the CHS students. I've made head canons for quite a few of them.
4840526
No problem, I was more than happy to make the reference
Headcanons are often quite fun. I'm looking forward to writing up mine on the Rainbooms and the students (plus faculty) of CHS.
I'll have to get back to you
4916876
Sure! ^^
I can get behind most of it. But I think Sunny Flare are Cinch are related by blood, see the scene when Sunny questions Cinch running away when Midnight Sparkle makes her debut. That to me seems familial, at least aunt and niece if not mother and daughter.
4919407
I can buy them being aunt and niece, but not mother and daughter. Abacus seems too "married to the job" for me to ever imagine her taking the leave to have a child and all.
Glad you can get behind most of the others, anyway. ^_^
4919410
Given what see we at Crystal Prep, her husband could be a stay at home father, or Cinch could hire several nannies and such.
4919441
True, but... Eh. I just really don't see it, man.
4919442
To each his own
Sugarcoat’s bluntness isn’t because of a lack of social graces I feel, the opposite in fact. She knows it’s rude. She just doesn’t CARE. What are going to do? Report her to the Principal for being RIGHT? For not beating around the bush? For getting to the point? Oh no, what a nightmare, call the cops. The more annoyed she is, the more sarcastic and sassy she is. And if she explodes? Expect her to verbally rip you a new one.
5042689
Yeah, I can see that all right.
5042771
I imagine Sour Sweet actually does boxing in her spare time BECAUSE she knows she's got a short fuse, so she boxes, usually against a bag, to blow off some steam without breaking anyone's face. I imagine Sugarcoat also does martial arts, both to help with self control (can't go wrong with being better at not exploding at people) and because that way she has a way to defend herself should it come to that. She's yet to need them, but, better to have it and not need it than vice versa. Plus since her family's rich, somebody could think she would make a nice hostage, ahahaha, yeah, BAD move.
5042858
I like both of those ideas. A lot. Especially for Sugarcoat. I think there was a scene in one of Jay David's EG stories where Sour was introduced to boxing - or at least, to using a punching bag - by Rainbow Dash. (Aria Blaze has a similar hobby. I headcanon her as a boxer too.)
5042863
Aira has steam she needs to blow off, being able to hit punching bags helps.
5042867
Most definitely, yes. *nods*
And it's better than hitting people.
5042868
Unless the person hitting you had it coming, or it's a martial arts/boxing thing and that's the POINT. But those are both very different stories.
5042871
True enough. But those are again justified examples, rather than just hitting someone for the hell of it.
5042875
That is fair.
5042877
Right.
Any other thoughts about some of the other Bolts? Lemon, Indigo or Sunny? I kind of see Sunny having taken martial arts, though I'd see her more into it for graceful purposes or such rather than the idea of explicitly kicking ass. *shrugs*
5042879
I can see Sunny taking it. She makes it a point that, much like Rarity, she doesn't start fights. She ENDS them. She's probably the richest of the group, and thus she can throw her metaphorical weight around, as such. She doesn't usually because she's in a school of rich kids where they'd respond by doing the same and causing that much chaos would get Cinch's attention, and yeah, fuck that. Indigo probably does SOMETHING, though I don't see her doing martial arts since that involves a degree of self control, of self discipline, it's a spiritual thing too, and, her competitive nature would likely get the better of her.
I imagine Lemon Zest and Vinyl "talk shop" online, without actually realizing who the other is, but I doubt either one would mind too much, at worst it'd be "Wait, YOU're the person I talk online to all the time? Huh. That's, gonna take some processing." Neither strikes me as caring THAT much about the rivalry between their schools. Provided they have their fun, they have other shit to worry about.
5042882
Well said. Honestly for Indigo... I'd probably imagine her liking some kind of wrestling or MMA. I think that would really appeal to her 'ooh-rah' competitive nature.
And for Lemon and Vinyl... yeah I can see that. Honestly, that bit in the blooper reel of them swapping headphones seems like it could very well be canon to me.
5042885
Both of those seem pretty fair.
5042891
Glad you think so. ^_^
I would like to think Indigo and Lemon as the least, or not really jerkish of the five. Mainly because Lemon just wanted to share music with Twilight, and Indigo just wanting pump up Twilight for the games. I know they still were part of Release the Magic, so... Don't know how to make sense of the two being the only friendly ones to Twilight, at least in the main continuity.
The ideas I have for some of the gals can come across as AU. Like, Indigo and Lemon being the only friends to Twilight, while Sour, Sunny, and Sugarcoat just mind their own bussiness. Indigo would protect Twilight from bullies, and Lemon would cheer her up. They're personalities are still intact, such as Indigo's love of sports, Lemon's love of music and parties, Sugarcoat's bluntless and deadpan sarcarms, Sour's mood swings, and Sunny's... Well, given that she didn't had much character in Friendship Games, I accept the headcanon of her being the counterpart of Rarity. Only way that the five are together is because they have been choosen to represent Crystal Prep in the games, along with Twilight, and other students.
5095110
Hmm, interesting thought. I definitely agree that Lemon's moment with Twi wasn't really bullying, just her being thoughtless and "Oh hey ya gotta listen to this!"
The thought of the Shadow Five and Twi interacting is always gonna be of interest to me. I don't know if I'd personally see Indigo protecting Twi from bullies (then again, I think in the movie, she did come forward when Sunset started to confront Twi at the welcome party, so... *shrugs*) I know some people see Sugarcoat as having been an intellectual rival to Twilight, which I can sorta get. Sour and Sunny I kinda see as "friends," or at least as close to friends as CPA gets before the events of the movie and Dance Magic.
Thanks for commenting. Nice to see that some people are still noting these headcanon posts of mine.
5095124
Oh, I have plenty of interesting ideas, mainly for a fic I have in mind. Heck, I want to see more of characters that catch my attention, like the Shadowbolts.
5095129
Oh yeah? Best wishes with that fic. Let me know when you get it posted, I'd be happy to give it a look! ^_^
Interesting head canons for the Shadowbolts you have. I've been working on my own set of head canons for them, but it mainly focuses on there parents.
5102630
Oh really? Interesting... let me know when you get it finished, I wouldn't mind taking a look at it.
5103009
I most certainly will. When I finally get motivated to finish it and find somewhere to put it.