Reactions and Updates · 12:35pm Apr 8th, 2019
I was going to write a blog post about my dragon headcanon, but then I read that there is going to be an episode set in the Dragonlands, so I decided to hold off until that episode airs in a couple of months.
For the first time in about a year, I watched an MLP episode the day it aired, and it was good enough to make me feel optimistic about this show again. It certainly gave me a lot to chew on if nothing else. If you haven't watched the episode yet, or if you are FOME (because most of this was taken from a comment I wrote on his blog), you should skip down to the Writing Updates header.
I think that the Cutie Map may still work without the Tree of Harmony. Maybe the Tree transferred its consciousness into either the Map or the cave below the school before its original form was destroyed. Then again, I don't know if the characters strictly need the Map any more than they need the physical Elements. The Map was always just a plot device to get the characters to go to new locations, and now I think the Mane Six and Spike have bigger problems to worry about. Still, it's worth mentioning that Sombra murdered a sapient being, which is dark for this show.
Another thing I noticed is that when the Mane Six used the weaponized friendship beam, Twilight had an ethereal mane, and I believe this is also the first time the other girls besides Twilight had glowing eyes, although I could be misremembering. It's as if they're all leveling up. Eventually I expect Twilight to be the size of Luna and the other five to look like Twilight does now (wings and horns and all). I'd like to think they are the living embodiment of the Elements instead of just the Bearers, although the ending to "School Raze" sort of calls my headcanon into question with the Tree choosing the Student Six.
In the episode, Pinkie calls herself and her friends "protectors of Equestria" and later Celestia calls them "defenders of Equestria." I think that either one would make a good job title once the Mane Six do become the nation's leaders.
Writing Updates
Well, I started a new short fanfic in response to the season premiere. If all goes well, I'll upload the story before the next episode airs. But I also finally started rewriting the final chapter of "So You Escaped From Limbo." As you might remember, the file for the first draft of the chapter had become corrupted beyond recovery, but now I finally feel inspired to write a new version. As for "Earth Ponies Are Blessed With Suck," I'm taking a break from writing it at the moment. I have an idea of what I want to happen, but I'm not satisfied with the pacing at all. However, reading about G5 gave me idea for the third and final story in what would be the OP Earth Ponies trilogy. Which is . . . kind of insane. Maybe it's a symptom of chronic sleep deprivation.
*Instantly stops reading, and will not continue until season 9 is over*
No spoilers please. Not even small, vague ones like that. Not without a big "SPOILER WARNING" in the title. I've had enough spoilers for the premiere already, which completely ruined it for me entirely.
Those were literally the two single most stressful episodes to sit through thanks to undesired foreknowledge. Not enjoyable for me at all, thanks to that. Just a complete anxiety-fest.
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Um...I'm sorry, but you and I have different definitions of the word "spoiler." I didn't even reveal any information about the episode's plot or title. You might as well avoid this site altogether for the rest of the series if you don't even want the slightest hint of what's coming next.
Edit: I'm not being unreasonable am I? I'm sorry if I upset you but it seemed overly cautious to put a spoiler warning for something vague that most fans could have predicted anyway.
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), an entire month before the episode even aired.
Sigh... No... It's not your fault. Sorry, I guess I'm still ... well, yeah, I am extremely sour still. I've just had a horrible time sitting through the s9 premiere that's been ruined for me by people shoving spoilers into my face, in part on the frontpage of fimfiction (
Yeah, I get that Hasbro released a trailer that pretty much gave away everything. They always do. OBVIOUSLY I never watch those, as would all who'd rather not get spoilers. "Hide season 9 news" on Equestria Daily, Hide "spoiler:s9*" on Derpibooru. Abstain from all social media entirely after episode release, until I've seen it. Avoid going too deep into Youtube's recommended section.
As a fanfic writer, I love to speculate and interpret, over-analyze and whatnot. The problem is - I can't turn that off.
So when I already knew the Tree of Harmony was going to die, and the Princesses going to retire, but with no further context than that - and an entire month for my subconscious to extrapolate all the possible implications for the fanfiction scene that come with that, possible patters predicting further events later on that may come to pass that could spell disaster, trivialization of important fanon-elements, etc, and all of that for a month, well.......
"You win some, you lose some" - but until I've seen the actual episode, I won't know which, and how much, and how exactly, what we get in exchange, if it is an equal exchange, does this change impact your own works, can you write around the problem if there's one? Are other writers going to lose their motivation over this? The devil is often in the details - and as long as you don't know the details, all you can see is the "lose" part. For a month.
The actual episodes were, of course, not quite as "bad" as I feared. But that doesn't change the fact these were the two least enjoyable episodes I've seen in the entire shows run. A total anxiety-fest I just couldn't enjoy.
And only now do I see other people going "wow" and "omg", and it hits me what was taken from me.
So yeah, not your fault... Just... really easily upset and overly cautious right now.
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YouTube comments sections are the worst. Everyone talks like everyone's already watched whatever they're talking about even if it's been less than 24 hours after the release.
Spoilers are really subjective because I saw the same spoilers you did and I would say that they only slightly took away from my enjoyment of the episode. It probably helped that I was mostly unimpressed with S8 so my expectations were lowered. I'm sure I have seen spoilers that ruined another episode for me, I just can't think of any off the top of my head.
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And you keep running into that stuff completely at random in places you didn't expect spoilers at all, right?
"Spike gets his wings".
A video clip from the big season 8 leak showed up in my Youtube Recommendations. I'd gone five months after that leak with no spoilers. I didn't even need to watch that video - ironically, the thumbnail didn't even give away anything, it was just a vaguely "Spike-shaped" rock - but the title was all the information that was needed to ruin what would have been this big, momentous occasion, that big "OH MY GOSH!" moment, akin to the CMC getting their cutie marks. It didn't ruin the episode, but it turned what was supposed to be "this special moment" into "just another episode".
The s9 premiere spoilers - that's a different story entirely. Celestia retires. The Tree of Harmony dies. These are XK-class canon-shifts. The biggest change since... since... since Twilight Sparkle became an alicorn, actually.
It didn't simply ruin the "moment of revelation" for me, it completely wrecked those entire episodes and not only brought my hype train for s9 to a screeching halt - it put it in reverse, fearing what else the writers might do.
The tagline on my account is "I watch it for the fanfiction. No, really."
Those are my actual priorities. The show is pretty much secondary. Has been since season 3.
Not because the show got "worse" or anything - but because the fanfics kept getting better.
The trouble arises when the show changes canon in some major way which affects peoples' writing motivations, can get stories canceled or unpublished stories canned, break immersion when you contradict reader's expectations working with outdated canon, and, on a more personal level, cause unpublished stories or chapters I've had in the works for years to go up in smoke if the show makes one wrong throwaway gag. (Yes, I am a very slow writer, can't really change that, sadly.)
As I said, as a fanfic-writer, I can't help myself but to over-analyze. And "Celestia retires", "Tree of Harmony dies" set the stage for a plethora of really unpleasant possible themes in this season.
I of course didn't expect Celestia would postpone her retirement plans at the end of the episode, so I expected a big theme this season being Twilight having to "move on", as she (inevitably dragging her friends with her) and the others have to juggle a school, teaching positions, ruling a kingdom, and their regular lives --- but having to give up their role as the adventurers in the process, and having an entire season to hammer that in repeatedly.
"We don't need you to be a hero, we need you to be a teacher", like Applejack said to her foalhood hero Rockhoof in s8. Outsch.
We've already seen the "next generation" of adventurers is ready to save the day. It all checks out, it all falls into place.
So, hypothesized end state after season 9: Celestia and Luna have left the throne, Twilight and friends have given up adventuring. Themes of "moving on" and "closure" all throughout season 9. Complete XK-canon upheaval. It'd be impossible to write any fanfic that doesn't have to address this somehow. And with "closure" as a theme, there's no guaranty any closed plot-thread even would leave open the possibility for fan-continuation. "When one door closes, another opens." What, if this time, all the doors just close?
The problem is: I don't want closure. I want to be able to write about these characters going on adventures, I want to read more about these characters going on adventures. The end of the show is not the end of fanfiction, but the implied theme here seemed to be one of "closure", and if they wrapped up all the lose plot-threats in-canon, then what the Hay would we be left with to write about?! I could see so many people losing their motivation.
And that was, what those spoilers did. They made me afraid of what season 9 might do to the fanfiction community.
I am so glad the Mane 6 shouted "Protectors of Equestria!" in that one scene. And that the as-of-yet-not-retired Princesses showed up to help out (with Luna putting on emphasis on how much she enjoyed this). It means "leaving the path of the adventurer" is not the theme here, and that entire string of reasoning is cut off at its roots.
Thank god.
...Like I said. I had a month. A month I really rather wouldn't have had.
So... yeah. Spoilers are subjective, I suppose.
I still think Alicorns should be "Paragons" of ponykind a fixture and manifestation of an inherent virtue to thrive and inspire other ponies and perhaps other species too. But this would mean that being an alicorn would be a state rather than a race( and Flurry Heart is contradicting this a bit).
About the last part perhaps the tree was giving out sparks for others to grow and the Student six stood for Unity encompassing all races whereupon the Elements were formed to counter Chaos with Harmony.