My Little Pony: Cleanup Is Magic

I see.

There are mules in the canon show but not much is said about them.

Anyway, My Little Pony states that Friendship is Magic is an Adaptation Distillation, but I am not sure if it applies.

Edited by Delibirda on Jun 23rd 2021 at 6:17:19 PM

Oh, Mixed Ancestry actually sounds excellent. If no one objects, I think I'll try to do a little cleanup and change examples of Mix-and-Match Critters/Half-Human Hybrid/etc. to that.

Edited by Theriocephalus on Jul 22nd 2021 at 12:22:59 PM

As far as I know, there is no mixed ancestry whatsoever in Equestria. At least, not explicitly. I don't think the writers thought that one mule couple through that much.

I can't even think of interspecies reproduction in MLP canon. Only different types of ponies reproducing, and those don't create hybrids.

Um, feedback?

Adaptation Distillation, according to the laconic, means removing elements to create a shorter adaptation, not melding ideas from previous adaptations together. Remove it.

Taking a closer look, the whole G4 section appears to need a rewrite, but I don't have the time for that.

I'm removing them.

This Magnum Opus Dissonance entry was deleted twice without edit reason.

• My Little Pony: Friends Forever #14 was self-described as "the most socially and politically conscious pony comic you ever read" within 10 minutes of its release on writer Jeremy Whitley's twitter...who went on to fiercely defend it and even blocked the author of the scathing article that pointed out the many problems and complaints of the issue, which was almost universally disliked. Compare and contrast his Fiendship Is Magic issue that featured King Sombra's origin which, despite releasing with much less fanfare was praised as not only the best of the entire Fiendship series but one of the best issues in the entire IDW comics run.

The only argument I see for removing is the writer says it's their "most socially and politically conscious" work as apposed to "best", otherwise the discrepancy between their praise of it and audience option seems valid. Is this an example? seems to lean to it being valid but said to take here. Thoughts?

Edited by Ferot_Dreadnaught on Jun 23rd 2021 at 1:06:16 AM

I think there might also be an issue of the example not specifying what the audience thought was the best work, only that they disliked this particular comic, but is that really a hard requirement for the trope? If not, then it just might be that "socially conscious" doesn't necessarily translate to "best", like you said. But otherwise I'm inclined to agree it's valid.

So I also found this under Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters:

• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic's Queen Chrysalis has undertones of this since her primary goal is to feed her Changeling subjects. Fans tend to exaggerate the trope and run with it, justifying making her out into an Anti-Villain or even Anti-Hero just because of that while conveniently ignoring the fact that the Queen is also sadistic, cruel, possessive, and just not a good person by any stretch of the imagination. She would later be revealed as exploiting the changelings for her own benefit, as while they need to feed, Chrysalis would horde most of the gathered love, leaving most of them starving, and that by sharing love, the changelings' ever-present hunger could be satiated without harming anyone.

So, there are a couple of problems I have with this entry, like the Justifying Edit-esque phrasing while attempting to sound neutral (been seeing a lot of "while conveniently ignoring" or similar language), but more importantly, this example is explaining fan interpretations of a character rather than how different perspectives are presented within the work (which is what I believe this trope to be about). While YTAOFF isn't outright In-Universe Examples Only, it is NRLEP, which makes me think this entry has no business being on that page and would better be suited under Alternate Character Interpretation. Thoughts?

Edited by PacificGreen on Jun 24th 2021 at 8:22:13 AM

I'd cut it. Fandom issues should stay in YMMV, and Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters isn't that.

Later episodes did go into some of that, namely that the Changelings themselves only wanted food (in the form of love), and that it was Chrysalis who manipulated them into being love vampires.

True, but it's never really brought up from a "freedom-fighter" angle. The Changelings are not really presented as fighting back against some sort of oppression, perceived or otherwise; they just say "we do what we have to do to survive" until they're shown a better way.

Edited by PacificGreen on Jun 24th 2021 at 10:37:15 AM

That reads more like a Draco in Leather Pants entry (which would be valid cuz Chrysalis does get that treatment).

Edited by mightymewtron on Jun 24th 2021 at 12:58:12 PM

Good point.

If no one else objects, I think I'll go ahead and cut that entry, possibly integrating it into Chrysalis's Draco in Leather Pants entry instead.

There is an element of Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds to the Changelings.

: Yes, but "A Canterlot Wedding" didn't treat them like that, there was just a throwaway line from Chrysalis about needing to feed that gets no emphasis compared to her evildoing with the changelings being treated as Mooks. The changelings were Unintentionally Sympathetic as the woobie/well-intentioned aspects were not intended, not acknowledged by sympathetic characters, and not relevant to their debut. It's only due to Ascended Fanon their sympathetic aspects became acknowledged nearly half the series afterward.

YMMV.My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic IDW had the following Fanon Discontinuity examples removed/commented out arguing they were just fans disliking them as opposed to pretending they didn't happen. (This thread agreed "Newbie Dash" isn't FD despite it's contentiousness, but I'm not sure those reasons apply to said comics.)

After I replied in said cleanup they removed the entries despite my arguing against or being unsure.

Fan thoughts on the matter?

I'm here! I only cut Reflections and The Root of the Problem because they're the ones I know the most about. I wasn't sure if the ones I commented out were valid, since I don't see many people talk about those comics in general besides the Equestria Girls one.

Pretty much this. A big part of the trope seems to be an acknowledgement of the other perspective either by the guilty party or by sympathetic characters, and a juxtaposition of those perspectives. Both of these I think are lacking in the changelings' original appearance.

This pointed out Square Peg, Round Trope states "Fanon Discontinuity is supposed to refer to cases when a sequel or episode just screws up our mental image of the plot".

I'm not yet 100% about the removal's, but this raised a bigger issue I'd like to look into. I'd be this as it distinguishes FD from Fan-Disliked Explanation and Ending Aversion.

As I said, some people use Fanon Discontinuity as a Parvum Opus substitute — an audience reaction for "the worst instalment" that was cut years ago for being too unclear and complainy.

Fanon Discontinuity's definition is rather clear — it only covers situations where a fandom reacts to an unpopular installment by largely pretending it doesn't exist. In the comics' case, there are enough references, discussions and derivative fan works that that very clearly isn't the case.

That's the first half of the sentence. The second goes ", so the fandom collectively decides to ignore its existence."

Edited by Theriocephalus on Jun 25th 2021 at 1:32:00 PM

Interesting point. MLP is pretty popular throughout this site, so shoehorned complaining is not suprising.

Edited by Delibirda on Jun 25th 2021 at 8:31:29 PM

Honestly it's a pretty extreme trope, so examples should be pretty few and far in-between. Seems to me like this FD is mostly reserved for episodes like The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well (though someone may want to confirm that). It's earned quite the reputation in the brony fandom, doesn't generate a whole lot of fan art, and almost all mentions of that episode I've seen get tossed around are ones critiquing it or debating how bad it really is. I may have even seen in a couple of places that some fans pretend it never happened.