After seeing the preview of the second comic, I have to say, I like how they've done Chrysalis' awesome diggs. I much prefer the East European gothic castle than to the baseless fanon hive or hive-mind. Okay, if you know me, you know I've gone on about this a thousand times, but check the title, because this is what this topic is going to be about that very subject.

So as states, yes, I hate the hive-mind idea that many have come up for the Changeling species. Why? I mean, after all, the Changelings are insectoid and so a hive-mind does make sense, right? Well, yes and no. True, the Changelings are at least part insect and the whole Bee People, Hive-Mind concept has its place in popular culture, but not all insects have a hive mind of system and the Changelings are also at least part equine; the ratio just isn't definite. The truth is, the hive-mind/sytem for the Changelings has no concrete canon evidence to really back it up, so it's a tad confusing why so many people in the fandom think of it as fanon, or canon, or whatever (I'm not all that great with those terms).

However, whilst there is little evidence for it, there is also evidence against it and reason why it shouldn't be so for the sake of the Changelings themselves and the plotlines.

Okay, so what's my personal gripe about the theory? Mine is mostly because of how much them having a hive-mind/system limits what you can do with the Changelings in terms of writing and story. A hive-mind or them all being her children (which comes with the hive-sytem) takes away the ability to show Changelings as individuals and in their own groups of friends and family. If it were a hive-mind, the only way to show one as an individual is to have him break out of it (don't think that's possible), but even then, that isolates him from his own kind and we don't get to see how they interact with each other.

I just think we can do so much more with the changelings than just saying "they all live in a hive, have no individual thought or character except for Chrysalis, and are all her offspring. Done."

There are other points made by fellow fans I've talked to about this issue.

Alondro

"Not to mention, it makes it far too easy to defeat the changeling race. Kill queen = game over. And to offset that, there has to be all sorts of rigmarole written in to prevent that from happening too quickly. You can't have direct confrontations with the Queen, because any pony with any sense of strategy will do everything possible to kill her the instant she's in view. And the Queen, if she has any brains, will never let herself come into view of any pony for that very same reason. Even seemingly secured, one can't be sure that the pony prisoners don't have a secret, undetectable assassination weapon or spell.

Now, that could be offset by having other changelings assume the form of Chrysalis to draw out the assassins and reveal their secrets... but at that point everything gets really complicated and you have to wonder, "Why am I writing this story with colorful ponies again?"

Because honestly, that type of story doesn't work at all with the setting. It's like crossing Care Bears with James Bond."

That, and Chrysalis would then be living in a constant state of panic and fear of death, knowing that hundreds, if not thousands of ponies are actively plotting to kill her and that if she does die, then her entire species goes out with her. She'd be a jibbering wreck.

--

Twilight is Magic

"It makes perfect sense for changelings to be independent individuals. After all, in order to simply feed, they have to infiltrate a society of sentient beings, and each case of that infiltration is necessarily unique. A single hive mind simply wouldn't be able to handle so many simultaneous, highly complicated individual cases. Their very being necessitates being capalbe of independent judgement and action, and also quite a bit of 'people (pony?) skills'.

While changelings may very well have some sort of way of contacting each other and/or the Queen, it would only make them a species of individuals with some telepathic abilities. It'd also make for a greater coordination. In A Canterlot Wedding, they didn't display much of that coordination, which is evidence against both the hive mind theory and this telepathy.

The changelings in my so far only story sort of straddle the line. The rank and file changelings are isolated individuals, but Chrysalis can contact the Changeling Commander and thus give orders to her army while not being physically present. Based on their actions in A Canterlot Wedding, when the changeling army attacked at just the right time without any real way of seeing why the time was right, their actions could possibly be explained by this sort of 'uplink'."

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Wow, this is getting lengthy, best wrap it up. So this is my and a few other fans reasons for not believing in the hive-mind theory for changelings, and by the looks of the comic, it may not either. What I ask you reading this is what you think of the theory? Do you have other arguments against it or alternatively for it?

/opinions

I agree that there needs to be a canon set for whether the Changelings are Hive-Mind or not, but in head canon and stories, who cares? Limiting things like that limits what and how you can write, and you end up with a story that's sub-par from what it could have been.

All it takes is a simple explanation as to what the author's head canon is for a story to work, as long as it isn't too out there.

The way I write them, changelings are individuals who happen to possess a FORM of hivemind. Chrysalis seems to fluctuate throughout the changeling invasion, between a super-genius who infiltrated the household of a freakin' goddess to an impatient, petty tyrant. The other changelings go from incredibly organized, determined invaders to fools who confuse the mane six for one of their own.
I saw this as a sign that the changelings depend upon others of their kind to maintain the level of intelligence and organization they are used to. This gets so bad that a few would be idiot savants without it--able to remember pony shapes down to the last detail, but totally useless for PRETENDING to be said ponies (again, fight with the mane six). So, not exactly a "Great We", but still a Hive of sorts. In my fanon, changelings are alien-minded, magical creatures, distant kin to parasprites, rather than to bees, butterflies, or ponies.
My inspirations: Wraith of Stargate Atlantis and Mars of A Miracle of Science.

PS: I hope you don't mind that I said all this, guys. Just wanted to say why I had a hivemind of any kind in my stuff.