In MLP fanfiction, there is certainly a trend of fanfictions which follow a similar concept or setting, be it Rainbow Dash breaking her wings and end up in hospital, humans in Equestria, etc. I can stomach most of them okay, but there is one type of fanfiction that really GETS to me, in how much I just don’t like it but it’s still widely used and eaten up like candy. This is the Changeling Apologist fanfic, otherwise known as “make the Changelings the majestic, victimized race and the ponies the fucking Third Reich”.

You all know this fic, it’s the one where basically Changelings are the main characters and how they’re not all villains, and you know what? That’s actually pretty good an idea. However, the problem is that almost every single fanfiction that does this entails these other two factors: the victimization and woobification of the Changelings as victims of oppression by Equestria, who are made out to be the MLP representation of the worst of humanity. So basically, instead of just showing that not all changelings are bad, these fanfictions basically switch the good-evil alignment around in extreme directions.

Again, I want to stress that it is not really the way the changelings are portrayed that is the key factor in this issue, because I really do like seeing another side to Changelings aside from what we’ve seen from the show and comics, but it’s how the PONIES are portrayed.

The ponies as a whole in stories like this are often portrayed as one of or both of the following: a self-deserving, ignorant, cowardly and snobbish elite (haves to the changelings have-nots) who believe they own the world and looked down on any other species as dirt on their hooves, OR as blind, fiery-eyed racist/speciesist genocidal monsters and with this one, it’s almost always played up to eleven; I’m talking lynch mobs, executions and pogroms, basically the ponies want to squeal maniacally as they dance in Changeling blood. Using the aftermath of the Changeling invasion as a basis, the ponies become the most hate filled creatures possible in these works, going as far as instigating a genocide like that in 1990s Balkans against Changelings with CELESTIA of all ponies openly backing or supporting it, part of the whole tyrant Celestia schtick. Celestia and Luna become genocidal, maniacal tyrants the likes of Hitler, Shining Armor (if he’s in it) becomes Himmler, the guards become a Gestapo/SS, and almost every single pony outside of the OC the Changeling OC befriends and the Mane Six, are made the most corrupt, two-faced creatures possible.

No matter to what degree, from either type mentioned, the ponies are almost always portrayed as being the ones at fault somehow, while the Changelings’ actions are either justified, excused and glanced over.

Sorry, for the lengthy rant, it just really gets to me, but it’s not even my real point, and that is the question of why? Why do we like portraying the ponies this way when it comes to a fanfic where Changelings are shown as not being an Always Chaotic Evil species? Why can’t both species have good and bad in them instead of one being completely horrible and one majestically good with only a few exceptions for each? Is it only to make the Changelings look better? Or because we like a good underdog story?

While I'm a huge fan of this trend, I feel I must agree with you. All bad and all good isn't really the best way to go. This made me take a look at my own changeling fic, and now I'm wondering whether I should change it up a little.

I look at such fanfictions as being written by a changeling, as changeling propaganda.

I tend to write my changelings as having a decidely alien view of morality. If the ponies are food, the only real options for a changeling are to be a predator, a symbiote, or a master over the Equestrians. Meanwhile, the ponies have to see changelings as weird for the way they act and think (in particular, the Canterlot Invasion seems a tad dumb to a being that sees itself as more than just a resource).

...didn't I already reply to this in the other group?

Anyway... I do no such thing in my fic. To hell with Chrysalis! In fact, I'm generally opposed to any kind of villain redemption (though there are always a few pretty well-written exceptions to that on the site, of course).

To be honest, the "changeling helpless in Equestria after the botched invasion, is suddenly not an evil monster anymore" cliché bothers me more...