Reevaluating a Character's Likability · 12:21am Jul 15th, 2018
It turns out there is no better way for me to change my opinion on a character than to convince myself I had to write them, because wow I did not like Wallflower when I first saw Forgotten Friendship and a few thousand words later I can say that I have no idea what I was thinking.
Seriously, just look at her:
Now, I figure most of the people who might be interested in this have already seen it, but just in case: a few months ago, I entered a competition about cheating and wrote what I think is the best story I’ve published yet, and then, quite recently, the Royal Canterlot Library featured its inaugural siren fic, as they put it. Some people seem to think that’s kinda cool.
So, I thought I’d celebrate by taking my own advice, trying something new, and writing a story that has no sirens in it. Yes, none. None at all. No, not even the cute one. Or the angry one.
Or the blue one.
Basically, Wallflower has been afflicted with the arduous task of filling the siren-shaped void in my heart for a few thousand words. It’ll be tricky for her, but I think she has what it takes. The story’s currently in the “bang it with hammers until it looks pretty” stage of editing, but hopefully it’ll be popping up here kinda soon-ish 
I was really glad to see you post this; I always thought it was a shame you didn’t like her, when she was so much fun in canon snarking around and making the heroes look like terrible people when they forget about her
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I still really don’t like how they handled her at the end, which I think soured my opinion of her quite a bit for a little while. But complaining about her because of a horrible role in the ending of the special would be kind of like saying I don’t like Adagio because she totally should’ve won at the end but didn’t, and clearly that’s not true, so...
She’s far from my favorite, I think, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon, but I think I’m coming around and judging the parts she had up until the ending less harshly now.
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She... kinda is, yeah? I dunno, I think she’s cute, but I think other characters are, at least for me, quite a bit cuter
4903424 Yeah, I think there’s a difference between who she is and how the plot handled her. There’s definitely some overlap; things like her entitled nature were unavoidably her, but the simple fact is that if you can blame that on the writers and keep her good bits, you’ll probably like the character more.
I think, when you compare her to the other recent alternatives, of the selfie girl I don’t remember the name of and Juniper Montage, who I sadly do...
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).
I’m inclined to agree, she’s perhaps the best canonically sympathetic antagonist Equestria Girls has had thus far (Although I guess Gloriosa might beat her ever so slightly, if only because her turn from villainy was so much smoother? I shudder to praise LoE much, but...
Really, though, I think I’m just so tired of characters that’re forgiven at the drop of a hat that it’s been harder and harder to take any of them well, Wallflower included. And perhaps that drags her down as a character, still--it certainly makes her less enticing to write, if under the assumption that she’s just another presently-nice-former-villain character, but I do agree, it’s good to keep in mind that there’re still things to like about her.
4904730 I agree with every word
Gloriosa has one advantage over the others, and that’s that I don’t remember much of her at all these days. I rewatched her song a few months ago; haven’t been inclined to watch anything else from her since.