(T>B) Flexible history - plus or minus? · 3:21am Jun 5th, 2021
Getting back to recycling my old opinions for whoever reads this blog. This time from this thread: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/50/the-writers-group/thread/432218/flexible-history-plus-or-minus
One of the things I've always liked about the show is how it tends to present historical events in a secondhand, or even more distant, manner. A legend in a book, a traditional play, stories around a campfire... we rarely actually see events older than a pony lifespan firsthand.
Now normally, I'm the kind who loves flashbacks and prequels and the like. But this abstracted method not only fits FIM well stylistically, but is also very fandom-friendly - suggesting and inspiring without binding, it allows for numerous different takes not limited to the show's rating.
However, I recently spoke with someone who had an opposite view, considering worldbuilding which told us nothing concrete a failure. In particular, they didn't see the point in Hearth's Warming Eve when there was no way to tell fact from fiction - reproducing part of their complaint
It wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that we have no way to know if the leaders were really that shallow, or if it's just the mane six acting. And even then we don't know if it's acting for the sake of the play, or acting because of they personally interpret the roles. Even the windigos are something we at the time couldn't tell if they were real or not. And everything else about the play becomes indecipherable because we can't tell if we're to immerse in the play actually happening or see it through the lenses of a play.
Now you see, I agree with most of what they say there - but would swap the words "so bad" for "as good". What they saw as a big minus was what I liked about it. And so I figured I'd ask - what are other people's takes on the subject. Do you like the past passed down in perhaps-unreliable tales, or revealed outright like in the Season 4 premiere flashbacks?
