Heya!

As you know, tomorrow we're going to have the episode "The Times, They Are a Changeling." I'm actually really worried about it. They have potential to seriously screw it up, and it's worse for me because I actually am in the process of writing a fanfic involving the changelings, but I just hope they don't do something stupid like having them all be male apart from the Queen, having none of them speak apart from the Queen, or even worse, pulling some dumb BS from the comics into it. Ugh...

Anyway, any thoughts?

5436848 Having multiple fics about Changelings... yes.

Though my stories are already labeled as AU, so I'm not terribly worried... Even after all of this time, I doubt that they will go too in depth into Changeling Society. But I am worried... Yes.

5436848

On the contrary, I'm pretty excited. We don't really have much solid canon on the changelings so something like this was sorely needed. Hoping we'll learn some interesting stuff.

5436848
Don't be worried about new canon ruining your fanfic. It's already in an alternate Equestria by virtue of it being a fanfic, so there's no pressure to conform strictly to what the show does.

5436848

having none of them speak apart from the Queen

The episode trailer already disproves this particular theory.

5436865

Well, depends on your philosophy when it comes to fanfiction. Personally I think it's important to stick to the canon as closely as possible.

Frankly, I haven't really written about the changelings much simply because there isn't enough to work with.

5436848

having none of them speak apart from the Queen

Oh no, my friend, they speak. Apparently, they speak as well as, shock and horror, a normal pony. No interesting accent, perfectly crisp twenty-year old male american voice...

5436848

I'm more worried it'll turn out exactly like a Changeling fanfic.

5436848 It's your story. It doesn't have to conform to the show, comic, etc. Heck it could be even better than what they come up with. All fanfics are alternate universe stories anyway. So just enjoy writing the story and sharing it with folks!

5436848 This episode features my favourite character, Spike, my favourite species, Changeling, and I still am worried about if they somehow screw this up. That says something.

5436862
The way I see it, sticking to the canon as closely as possible would restrict you to writing episode transcripts.

5436848

I just hope they don't do something stupid like having them all be male apart from the Queen, having none of them speak apart from the Queen, or even worse, pulling some dumb BS from the comics into it.

Funnily enough, the comics do neither of those things.

5436848 I reserve my judgement until I actually see the episode. Can't get a perfect picture with just a piece of the puzzle, right?

5436928

Well, the way I see it, if all you want is to make stuff up on your own, you should be writing original fiction rather than fanfiction.

5437028
So there's no playing around with familiar characters and concepts, then? Either use the toys the right way, or don't touch?

5436848
Dude, they;re just gonna leave that stuff vague anyway...
Don't worry too much. All we know is that his name is Thorax.

5436848 This episode will ruin my novel. I just know it!

5436848

I think I'm co-opting this as the discussion thread! It's official now!

This episode was written by Kevin Burke & Chris Wyatt, who, um, haven't written any episodes for mlp. Again. I guess they usually work as a team. The wiki said this for their previous writing history: "Previous writing credits include The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Avengers Assemble, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Ultimate Spider-Man.".

You can keep discussing it now.

--Sweetie Belle

A Storm is Coming

5437149

5437166
[youtube=gHMBs5yZDEc]

--Sweetie Belle

5437031

Nah, I was just using an extreme generalization ironically because you did it first.

I just think that emulating the original is the whole point of fanfiction, so worrying that ones story is not consistent with canon is a valid concern. The best possible outcome is that the fanfic is completely consistent with the setting and continuity it portrays, so that the readers never have encounter any canonical dissonance. Put another way, part of our job as fanfiction writers is to create the illusion that our stories could be canon, even if it's only imitation. Of course, achieving that isn't always possible, since we creative types who write what we are inspired to write, but it's still an ideal we should strive towards.

I can see the appeal in just ignoring whether or not your story is canonically consistent, but I have seen where that sort of thinking leads. Eventually you are just using fanfiction as a handy template for your own ideas - a crutch to save effort and reach an already established audience - and canon is treated like an obstacle rather than the medium with which we craft our stories. At that point, I'm not sure what you are doing can really be called fanfiction. It just seems lazy, and bit disrespectful.

5437056 Sees the title totally official If it wasn't for the fact that it was added by you... I'd probably roll my eyes right now

5437246
Well, I was getting ready to just post the usual episode discussion thread, but it's supposed to be the one discussion thread for it in the Writer's Group, and there was already a thread going about it. So I just decided to make that one the official discussion thread instead, even though it meant not writing up everything the way I usually do...

--Sweetie Belle

5437251 Well, better utilize one that's been made instead of making another right?

5437254
Right!

And it wouldn't really be fair to close this one in favor of an official one when this one came first, and having two running at the same time'd be confuzzling...

--Sweetie Belle

5437261 Indeed

5437056

This episode was written by Kevin Burke & Chris Wyatt, who, um, haven't written any episodes for mlp.

5437278

Well, if they can write about turtles, I guess they can write about ponies? And Spiderman and Spike start with the same three letters!

--Sweetie Belle

5437291
As long as the episode isn't filled with shell puns or cringe worthy voice overs, I'll be happy.

Oh look, somebody made this the official discussion thread. Cool.

5436861 Yeah. I remember that I was writing a story where we visited the Pie family, and I wrote one chapter for it... then Hearthbreakers came out, completely nixing my portrayal of the rest of the Pie family. I'm still debating on whether to rewrite that chapter or just continue it and add the AU tag.

5436862 I would have been more excited if not for the slew of episodes this season ranging from "meh" to "BOOOOOOOO", like last week's. And also if it weren't from a new writer who's inexperienced in writing the characters.

5436880 Phew! I was afraid this episode was going to go full retard.

5436882 ...aaaaaand there's one thing I have to change for the new episode.

5436865 5436898 I'm only concerned about that because there are always those purists who feel a need to complain whenever a fic doesn't follow canon. Like how most fics with the AU tag are downvoted to hell and back, and how my own fics have been rejected from multiple fic feature sites and boards because they take place back in season 2 but use elements of season 4. Most notably this mare:
(That was one of the reasons that one of them was rejected from Equestria Daily.)

5436881 See? This is exactly the kind of thing I was just talking about above!
(I'm sowwy, pwease don't hate me for this Ferv)

5436952 I know. Which is why what the comics did is a separate part of the sentence. "I sure hope they don't do [thing], do [other thing], or even worse, have the comics' changeling lore become canon." That's what I meant.

5437045 I feel like you are mocking me.

5436895 Oh come on.

5437043 Thorax, eh? That's an odd name.

5436912 I'm always worried about MLP episodes, because it seems every season now has at least one that just screws everything up. I'm not gonna name specific episodes because I know a lot of people are passionate about them, so I'll just be really vague by saying I'm mostly thinking of a very specific Fluttershy episode in season 4... no, not that one. The other one.

5437056 Oh boy. This is gonna be a doozy. I mean, we've all seen what happens with newcomer writers writing for the show, right? (We're still dealing with one of them now... )

I think I'm the only person in MLP fandom who doesn't have any particular headcanon about changelings. At most, I'm just sorry about his name. M.A. Larson said the one at the wedding was named Kevin.

My only story about changelings is about Mirrorverse changelings, so whatever it is isn't going to make much difference.

I thought everyone would be all excited about episodes with dragons, episodes with griffins, episodes with changelings, but so many people only feel apprehensive. I don't get it.

Oh, yes, and these guys:

They remind me of something, somehow.

I've enjoyed most of this season. It could be that I'm just very easy to please.

5437328 I feel like this is also aimed at me.

5437331 I had a much broader target in mind. It doesn't have to apply to you if you don't want it to.

5437328 It doesn't help that the writing this season has been very lack luster.

5437227

Nah, I was just using an extreme generalization ironically because you did it first.

But I didn't use an extreme generalization. You said ‘as closely as possible’; I was just showing what that meant. If you only meant ‘reasonably close’, you should have said so.

I just think that emulating the original is the whole point of fanfiction,

Making enjoyable stories with the characters and settings we are familiar with is the point of fanfiction. I'm not sure where you got this emulation thing from; if we want the show, we watch the show. Fanfiction is for playing around with ideas, not reciting them rote.

The best possible outcome is that the fanfic is completely consistent with the setting and continuity it portrays, so that the readers never have encounter any canonical dissonance.

The best possible outcome is that the fanfic is enjoyable. If that involves purposefully switching the roles of Twilight and Spike, or ignoring the Crystal Empire so your desired plot can happen, so be it.
Most readers don't come to fanfiction with the assumption that it will be the show in written form; and the ones who do are annoying.

Put another way, part of our job as fanfiction writers is to create the illusion that our stories could be canon, even if it's only imitation.

I shall repeat: The job is to make an enjoyable story. No more, no less.

I can see the appeal in just ignoring whether or not your story is canonically consistent, but I have seen where that sort of thinking leads.

So, slippery slope argument? Yeah, not buying.

5437390 I hope I don't seem annoying by jumping in here, but I have seen some authors use this argument as an excuse to either not do their homework, or write, say, Twilight unrealistically falling in love with their OC. "Well, it's fanfiction, so I can do whatever I want!" Yes, but it's also fanfiction, so you should have a good justification if you do decide to, say, switch Twilight's and Spike's roles, to use your example. It's great to play around with the world, but good fanfiction justifies it. OTOH, some authors can go to the other extreme and abandon a perfectly good fanfic just because an episode aired that made it not fit canon. In that case, the better option is to stick an AU label on it and continue writing as if the episode never existed, or at most working in a few nods to the new canon.

5436848 Apparently you haven't seen the trailer. Changelings talk!

5437308 Don't know man, this Season has been amazing for me so far. It just focused on Slice of Life more than adventure, which isn't a bad thing at all.

5436848 And I'm not worried about today's episode at all, I'm actually pretty excited. And I'm sorry, but hating an episode just because it ruins your fanfic/headcanon is just stupid. The writers can't and don't have to care about every single fanfic writer and avoid ruining their fics Not to mention that the show writers aren't even allowed to read fanfics.

5436848

Don't worry about it. Most people's headcanons are going to be wrecked, especially if they base the changelings on any real social insect populations. I'm pretty sure most bees, termites and ant populations are mostly female, so a male changeling completely wrecks any headcanon that was made with real nature in mind.

5437347 Personally, I've enjoyed a lot of it.
5437471 Same here. At worst, there have been a few I found a bit tedious or which didn't grab me a lot.
5437505 You get a huge award just for saying that! In so many films, all the ants/bees/whatever are male, except for This One Girl. They do have drones, though. I guess we'll find out more about Kevin Thorax shortly. It would be cool if he could feed off all the love and harmony in Equestria without having to cause harm in order to do so. In my Mirrorverse fic, changelings eat the negative emotions that we call "love," like jealousy, possessiveness, anger, obsession, and "change" or transmute it into something clearer and purer. The bad thing is that their hosts sometimes find that process painful, but feel much better afterwards. The changelings leave more love behind than they take:they're symbionts with a beneficial effect, not parasites. But the Mirrorverse is different, and there I can have fun and no one can stop me.

5437542 Hmm, I see you're fan of the Reflections comic arc, just like me I'm planning to use the Mirror version of Changelings, which is Flutter Ponies (it's just my headcanon), in a future Mirror-Verse fanfic of mine.

5437418
The ‘good justification’ for ignoring canon is to make a better story. This goes back to my point about fanfiction being about fun. Fervidor makes it sound like a chore.
In short: Yes, since it's fanfiction, we can do whatever we want.

5437600 I guess what I mean by "justification" is how much thought and effort the author puts into creating a good story. I can spot the difference between smart creativity and uninspired wish-fulfillment. So ultimately I say do whatever you want, but put a lot of effort and imagination into it.

5437600 I'll also add that with a series like MLP, slavish adherence to canon is impossible when the show itself has retcons, certain characters that appear inconsistently written, and things that just don't seem to fit with each other.

I don't care what anyone else thinks. I'm loving this.

So, my live feed cut out just before the climactic reveal. Great timing.

This is a cute episode for what it is, but I think I'm going to ignore it for the most part when fanfic-ing. Changelings can be so much better than this.

-Twilight does not approve of sarcasm
-I still don't get why Spike is so popular. He literally did nothing.
-I guess everyone else heard there was a changeling in the Crystal Empire and stopped going there.
-Twilight showed that dance to Chrysalis, actually. The changelings could easily know it.
-Spike is unable to feel the difference between his hands and ice. Guess he is a lizard. In the arctic. Would probably be close to freezing to death by now. Actually bugs probably wouldn't do well in the snow, either.
-That's not a very changelingy voice.
-So love makes him evil. That's pretty interesting.
-I dunno that pony looks like kind of a doofus. He might be better off as a changeling.
-I'd say I expect more from Spike, but I don't. Guy's crowning moment of glory was immediately dropping a crystal that was passed to him.
-The changeling invader doesn't want to see you? That sounds like it's exactly what we want!
-His name is thorax? Isn't that kind of like naming someone 'butt'?
-Spike song? Errrrrrr. No thanks.

Well that was pretty straightforward. Guess it was good for a Spike episode.

What did I just watch?