TicTacKitKat

Huh, you learn something new everyday!

Yeah, i'll see what i can do with that, I might just put a good ole question mark for her over all age and probably have her hatch at least half a year before shes found, maybe a full year. Also I think a changeling egg could handle some stretch, they are basically gooey sacks right? Kind of yes? The claw part would be where an actual dewclaw on a cat would be only shifted a little more behind, but instead of being like the rest of the paw its a fully formed talon. Specifically a raptor's (the bird raptor, don't worry im not adding dinosaurs) 4th talon that allows them to grab things. So her plaws, which was my feeble attempt to mash up paws and claws lol, would function kind of like if you taped all you fingers together and left you thumb free. They're one of the things I probably should have draw separate but in the photo you can kind of see it peeking out of the fur at the back of her foot.

@Will Guide I think the use of Disney magic and stories is really creative! I don't do so well with reading because of ADHD but I don't think the concept is screaming Gary Stu. That said, never feel bad about wish fulfillment, even if others may not read it, writing down and reading your own stories is a lot more fun than people let you believe. but uh... be careful... don't wanna get sued by the Didney mouse lol

@SharpWit I could never really find a good source on how long a moon is in our time. I was just going with what little i know about the lore. But her egg was chosen as the heir sometime after the changeling's first appearance in the world and before the first changeling invasion attempt. And the fast larvae stage does seem a little too extreme to just explain away with a different life cycle due to her being an heir. Maybe I could have here hatch earlier as well as her having spent so long in the egg? I think it would make sense that if she spent so long she'd be a bit farther ahead than most changelings when they hatch. So do you think all of that together could work? I think I'll just have her completely immune, if want her to be fire-y she does have her Nirik form after all. If I really reaally wanted the plaws is there a way I could do that? My thinking with it was mostly that all the magic got jumbled up enough that it would be pretty surprising she didn't have more misplaced traits. If not I'll probably just give her normal Griffon claws. My idea with it was kind of the same as with the plaws, species aren't meant to be this mixed up and what happened with her was an anomaly. Like with Ligers, they're a cross of two species perfectly adapted to their environments, but the Liger itself suffers a ton of issues and they can't live in the wild. Of course, I don't want her to have such serious problems like that but different creatures would have feathers where they needed them, mash that up and throw in some where neither would have them and flying is going to get tricky. That said I probably zeroed in on the feathers a bit too much. I didn't mean that the other features have no effect (my goof). Yeah, not sure why I didn't register the straight horned ponies in that episode. Either way, that subspecies would be the reason her horn has the pattern and function as a Kirin horn but looks like pony horn. Now that I think about it the curve probably also comes from the Kirin magic. By crystal pony traits I'm talking entirely about the sheen. As with many of her other traits, they aren't a complete sample of where they came from, they're bits and pieces. But maybe instead of having her be part crystal pony, I could say that her time in the empire gives her a connection to the hearts somewhere between normal ponies and crystal ponies? Like we know that when the Heart does... whatever it did when the M6 saved the empire that normal ponies will get the sparkle, so maybe thats a sign of the Heart connecting to them as well as crystal ponies? If so I'd use that to explain why she doesn't have the sheen unless she's in the empire, she's more connected than non-crystal ponies but still not connected enough that she sparkles outside of the empire. I know what you mean and it's actually why I put so much into her story. She's more of a personal character for me, only really for my private take on the show and the very rare (like dodo bird levels of rare) occasion someone wants to role play in that alternate world. That said I don't think changelings take on the powers of the creatures they transform into, at least not at the same level. Like if a normal changeling had tried to pull off the Cadence thing they'd have failed because (among many, many other reasons) they wouldn't be able to fake Cadence's magic at the same level. So Thorax as Spike would have some resistance to fire, and be able to breath some, but like swimming in lava would hurt him and he wouldn't be able to breath a ton of fire you know? And I would argue against her being a Mary Sue, but she's definitely more powerful than any character has any business being. She does have more setbacks, they just tend to be more internal with my characters. Perfectly capable characters that struggle entirely because of mental restraints are kinda my jam. Overall though thank you, I was really worried people would ignore what I was asking for help with in favor of telling me to scrap her for being too OP (I mean she's not that godlike). You brought up a lot of good points and even lead me to realize gaps you didn't directly mention, so thanks!

So I'd like a little help with Chima here and the head canons surrounding her, just to make sure I tied up any loose ends you know? Specific questions at the bottom of the post. My current favorite is my ponysona/self insert to my version of the canon. Think copying a google doc and adding your own stuff to it. She's more of a fun exercise with my creative abilities and pushing the limits of the lore we're given then anything else. Name: Chima Species: Changeling (Heir) Gender: Female Age: A thousand moons give or take (as an egg)/ barely a year Cuite Mark: Seed of Harmony Some of the species and their effects on her: (these are found when she meets the Young 6 who work these out by appearance alone. It can be assumed there are traits from other creatures, but these are the most notable) Dragon: The horns on her wings and by her ears as well as her stomach plating and tail. She also has the two small horns by her main one and the dragon magic in them makes her spells natural firey. She is immune to fire in the sense that it will not burn her. That said she still feels discomfort (sweating, dizziness, etc.) and famable parts of her will catch on fire, it just tends to go out quickly and won't burn anything away. Griffon: Her front legs are normal horse legs until you get to her plaws. They're like normal cat paws, if the dew claw was a talon. She can pick things up, but any thing requiring fine motor skills is a no go. Her wings are also longer and sharper like a griffon's. Hippogriff: All those long feathers on her wings, back legs, sides of her face and tail. She has difficultly flying because of them, and she mostly just uses her wings to glide and as a boost. Kirin: Kirin horn, tail hair and ears (with feathers at the tips). She can transform into a Nirik and when she does her feathers take on a more blue tone and her hair/fur takes on a more pink one. Pony: Her horn is curved back and thin like an oriental pony (Mistmane's people) and her mane is like a normal pony's. She also has crystal pony traits only show when she is in in the Crystal Empire. When in the borders of the empire she assumes a crystal from no matter what she shifts into Changeling: Despite her looks and abilities, she is a changeling, and has all the abilities of one. She can shape-shift, and feeds on love. She has a thin frame like most changelings, but her feathers and fur make her seem bulkier. Her irises and pupils are typical to a changeling, but much like with Chrysalis, they don't take up the whole eye. Nonspecific Traits: (the young 6 weren't sure where they came from) Her coat: When the young 6 find her they at first conclude she doesn't have any yak traits but Yona objects. She mentions that while Chima's coat is short like a pony's, it's much softer and thicker than all of their's except hers. Cloud Walking: They do quick tests to try and find some less obvious traits and find that she can walk on clouds. Not really a surprise given that most winged creatures are shown being able to do this, they just aren't sure which creature it's from. Personality/FunFacts: -She's shy at first but very eager to learn about everything she can. When shes meets new ponies she's very nervous about the impression she makes but is happy and carefree around the Young 6. -She fears becoming like Chrysalis and doesn't forgive what she did but she still feels love for her mother. She considers both the Spirit and Chrysalis to be her mothers. -Quite clumsy and very apologetic about it. Her tail and wings knock over a lot and when they do she'll curl up into a little ball and hide. -She loves to swim but is very slow and has to set her self on fire to dry in a timely manner. -Because of her thick coat and feathers she prefers the cold even if she can withstand high heat. -Her writing is attrocious. She can't quite get the hang of mouth writing and her tendency to set anything she uses magic on alight makes levitation a no go. She usually just uses her plaws as best she can. ------ So it all starts with my head canon on how changelings survive off love. Basically if friendship is magic, and love is a big part of friendship then love magic must be a thing. I'd say this is supported by a lot of episodes with the changelings in which love does actually manifest magic or make it stronger. So love is an actual type of magic and changelings siphon it from creatures they trick to take back to Queen Chrysalis, who then divides it between the rest of the hive. Because they are giving another creature's love, this doesn't count towards reform. I also think that this is how they maintain their ability to shape-shift. All creatures presumably have a slightly different kind of magic, like a magical fingerprint, and if this is in the love magic it's not unreasonable to say that this diverse range of magic allows changelings to mimic other creatures forms. In a sense, if that creature can love, then changelings can and probably have stolen that love at some point. So what if the exposure to this in their eggs is what gives them that power? What if direct love from another creature, and not the love filtered through grown changelings, could permanently affect the physical form of one still in the egg? When the changelings were first brought into the world I like to believe they weren't intentionally malicious. I assumed that they merely realized they needed love to survive and so giving love was too much of a risk. They wouldn't know right away that love wasn't a finite resource or that they could create it themselves, so their selfish nature came out of fear more than anything else. I mean Chrysalis has stated openly on more than one occasion that it is her duty to protect and feed the hive and that's why she's after Equestria. She snapped when they were all reformed but up to that point it was all about the benefit of her subjects. So I think that way back when, a Chrysalis who loved her people, even if she never gave that love out (If she gave all her love she could run out and starve, then who would protect them?), decided she needed an heir. Someone with her power she could raise to help protect her people or even help lead infiltration on a larger scale. We see how the old changelings are clearly incompetent on their own and the Canterlot invasion required her to leave the hive vulnerable to attack. She selected one of the normal eggs and began to feed it personally. She gave it larger portions of both love and normal magic even going so far as to cast spells onto it. There were probably changelings specifically charged with distributing love among the hatch-lings so they would grow, and this transfer of love from changeling to Chrysalis to changeling to egg (or maybe even more steps) might have helped filter out some of the species specific magic and prevent changelings from taking on traits in their actual form. Now while receiving the less filtered magic did have some effect on Chima I'm not saying that was the source of such extreme differences. That comes from Chrysalis's screw up. So, much in the ways that bees feed a different kind of honey to larvae that will become a new queen, Chrysalis was giving a different kind of magic to Chima, who she had named Sarynxis. Along with just straight up power magic and stolen love magic, she was also receiving the smallest bits of love magic unbeknownst to Chrysalis. Again, I don't believe she is expressly evil at this point, just incredibly focused on the protection of her people at any cost. If she had remained in the Changeling Hive I head canon that the metamorphosis would have happened before any major pony-changeling conflict. What happened instead was that Chrysalis began pouring way too much magic and the little barely formed changeling inside couldn't contain it letting the excess leak out wildly. I mean if a young unicorn can't control their magic how would a Egg? This manifested mainly in the egg repeatedly teleporting itself and other changelings, a fact that Chrysalis disregarded as harmless. Only one changeling, the one tasked with overseeing all of the egg care and a special talent for connecting to the eggs themselves spoke up. She warned the queen that the heir couldn't contain the magic and that she should focus on giving her enough love to hatch, but by this point it was too late. Even though Chrysalis listened and stopped casting spells not all the magic had leaked out. It was at this time that Changelings began coming in with more love than ever before. They had found Equestria and the abundance of love that came with it. Unfortunately for the heir, this love magic came with far more power magic attached that only served to push the Egg's capacity closer to the limit. The straw to break the camel's back was when one particular changeling had managed to trick Celestia into believing she was dreaming about her sister returning. The amount of love he gained was immense and upon his return Chrysalis fed it all to Chima, hoping this would be enough to hatch her. It didn't but the residual magic was enough to spark a burst so powerful that the Egg was teleported far from the Changeling hive, leaving no trace. Chrysalis couldn't sense her, The hatching managers couldn't sense her, not even the one who warned Chrysalis could sense her, and every party sent to find her failed. Chrysalis was furious and in that rage blamed every creature in sight, herself (even if she would never admit to it), the Changeling who brought the magic (he was banished) the hatching managers (all banished save for the one who warned her, she kept her in case she was able to sense the egg again) and most of all, Equestria. Her desire for revenge crossed with the clear gold mine of love that Equestria was lead her to launch her first attack on the kingdom, and then normal chronology follows. As for Chima, the burst of magic was enough to teleport her from land to land not just once but multiple times. Her egg was strange and unnerving, but in each place there was some creature that decided to pull her out of the cold and see what happened. These acts of love weren't enough to help her hatch, as an heir needed far more love than a normal changeling, but it did have a unique effect. As Chima was still in her earliest developmental stage, the direct, willingly shared love from the many different species heavily affected her form. This is where we see the mashup of traits. Her time on Mt. Aris gave her the longer feathers, her time with the Kirin gave her her Nirik form and horn, the time in the Dragonlands permanently changed how her magic works and so on and so forth. She still maintains her ability to shapeshift as a changeling and her increased power as an Heir but the thousand or so moons spent receiving direct love from so many species overwhelms the few she spent in the Hive. Somewhere along the line she pops into Ponyville, with the magic is running out and her getting closer to hatching. Deep in the Everfree forest, the spirit of Harmony notices this and uses it's power to direct her next teleportation to the tree. The spirit sees her need for care along with her potential destiny but also realizes the likely hood that she will not be protected should the ponies find her, given all the Chrysalis has done, and resolves to hatch her itself. Through this she forms a connection to the tree, seeing it's true from (head canon related to a species I made, not really relevant here) and learning how to understand ponish. As she is still in her egg, she's too young to learn anything complex so the Spirit mostly just communicates feelings of love and care to her. She hatches and remains by the tree's side. (I mean no one ever, and I mean EVER looks behind that thing). As an Heir the length of her life stages are another thing that varies greatly from changeling drones, with heirs spending more time as eggs and advancing to the age of the CMC/Young 6 within a matter of days. Avoiding spoilers she is eventually found by the Young 6, and Ocellus is the only one able to communicate with her. This is another head canon of mine; that changelings are born able to speak a language of hisses and such but must be taught ponish. Chima can understand and think in ponish, but cannot speak it, at least not at first. The Young 6 are told by the tree to only introduce her to the princesses and other ponies if they really believe she will be safe and so they agree to keep her in the forest until they think out a plan. She got her cutie-mark when the tree did the thing (the first one) and represents her destiny; to join the young 6 and truly unite the many species and kingdoms of Equestria, she is essentially a walking seed of harmony that will grow off the magic of the elements that manifests through the Young 6 to become what the tree was. In my personal universe she catalyses Chrysalis's reform but that requires a lot of S9 spoilers and is still very work in progress ------ So here's what I need help with; -Are there any lore points I'm directly contradicting? Especially with my head canons because those are integral to making her work. -Are there any things I'm missing? Like is there something that my head canons fails to explain or gaps it fails to fill? -Any ideas for her character? Other species that could come through in her personality or actions? Ponies she would get along with or dislike/fear? -Where should I post her, if anywhere? I understand that it's highly unlikely anyone will allow her in a role play regardless of how much I insist she won't be a power play, but does that mean I can't submit her to the Character sheets?

@Meson Bolt That's what I'm trying to say. I have no issue with people kicking a MS or GS out of a role play or being hesitant to add one in. I also have no problem with people helping a young author who made one and wants help to fix it. I mean it's just like you said, OP characters ruin a role play for everyone and I didn't make this to say we should let them run wild. I realize my post was pretty scatterbrained and I admit I didn't make my point very clearly. What I essentially meant to say is that not everyone wants to make realistic characters. Not everyone wants a character that could fit into the canon universe. Some of us want to make a new main character, some of us want to make characters of myth or legend, and a lot of times the people who do want to share it. They want to say "Hey! look at these headcanons I used to make a new god!" or "Look at this character I made to explain some lore!" and instead of people looking at the character for what they're meant to be, they always take a writer's perspective. People need to stop assuming everyone wants to make a character to fit perfectly into the current mlp canon and start look at them for what they are, just good fun. To use a personal and quite recent example: Chima, my current OC. I will be the first to say that I do not want to see her in the show. Like, at all. She doesn't belong there and that's not what her purpose is. What is her purpose you might ask? It's that there were too many species and I couldn't decide who I liked best so I decided to use them all. From there I asked myself how to to work her into my personal version of the show and what headcanons I would need to do so. And when I showed her to the community (not necessarily this specific website) I faced the exact same criticism I faced 3 years ago for other similarly powerful characters. That she's too powerful and doesn't fit the show. Which is useless criticism because she's not meant to. I share these characters to show my own creative side, to show the headcanons I created, how I worked within the shows rules and got around them in some places. I want to talk about Chima and those head canons and it frustrates me to no end that I can't because no one can get past the fact that she's not meant to be able to fit into the show. And since I feel like I definitely strayed from the point again, I do agree with you

"It's not magic, it's bluetooth, you heathen"

My point is that it doesn't matter if it's bad writing or even if it annoys you, heck I've seen some mary sue ocs that give me an actual headache, but I was saying that we need to put that aside and recognize that people make mary sues as an escape, and unless they're trying to take over a role play or something, it's an escape we shouldn't take away from them or make fun of. edit: just to clarify I'm talking about Ocs only, I agree completely when it comes to an actual show or book that mary sues/gray stus are harmful to the narrative, but that's not the issue i'm bringing up here.

Ah yes, the Mary Sue. Ever powerful, ever perfect, ever obnoxious. But what makes a Mary Sue? The power? The perfection? The lack of perfection? Why are there so many? Why are they so bad? Hi, I'm Kat and I can say with relative confidence that I am have made my fair share of Mary Sues, even if I don't consider them that.. My self inserts stand on wobbling towers of head canons and are surrounded by main characters. They've always got a hidden destiny, a secret, something leading to them save the day with power no one else can match. So with my bias out of the way, here's what I think of Mary Sues and how we treat them. Mary Sues are important. End of story. If you look, a lot of them are from younger people and that not some immaturity thing. A lot of kids, especially young girls, can feel like they have no power. I know I've definitely felt like a background character in my own life at some point. Goodness sake, I felt it last week. That's where they come from, they're a way to cope, to escape or express. Every 'bad' Mary Sue I've seen to this day, can be explained if you just think about why they made them. A powerful MS that's pretty and perfect and rich and omg everybody just loves her? Well, I'll bet her creator feels a least a little bit ugly, a bit like a failure, maybe doesn't have the best financial situation, could feel unloved. The bad MSs you see? They're projections, all of them. The emo MS who hates everything and is super mean but it's justified? I'd say her maker is probably bullied to some extent. Neglect is also possible. Heck maybe they just really want to have a cool unique character that's beautiful and has the power to change the world. I know I do. There are gonna be exceptions, there will always be exceptions, but a MSs can say more about a person than anything else. That's why we need to stop demonizing them, stop making fun of them, stop telling people to throw them out because whether you mean it or not when you tell someone to throw out a Mary Sue you are telling them to throw out themselves. It's why their makers always get so defensive when they're critiqued, because it's not critiquing a character. Mary Sues aren't characters, they're people, dreams, projections, there is not disconnecting, no breaking that link. So what do we do? I mean, even i'll admit a Mary Sue in a role play SUCKS, but how are we supposed to handle this? Be kind, understanding. Show them how to change a Mary Sue, into a power OC. Not a normal oc, not a roleplay oc. A Power OC. A functional character with growth, and flaws, but still fulfills they're needs. A Perfect Mary Sue? Show them how to take a flawed character and build an arc where she becomes that 'perfection'. Fantasy shouldn't have to be realistic, it shouldn't have to fit canon. In fact, powerful OCs can have some of the most creative backstories. There's a lot I haven't said here. But I think this is a good start. We need to rethink what a Mary Sue is, and realize why they exist, because they don't come from nowhere, and with a few tweaks, the worst Mary Sue can become a source of joy, relief or even inspiration. So what do you guys think? Do you agree? Do you disagree? Let me know, I came here for a discussion, after all! Note: Be civil, and actually read before responding. If something wasn't clear, ask for clarification.

My current WIP OC. It shows my love of art and head canons

Sorry to hijack this, but I don't want to make a new topic when my question is so similar, what do I do If there's no "drag files here to attach" thing? I just have the option to insert other media.

It's not a grudge per se but a few years ago this girl I was friends with got diagnosed with depression. She got really graphic and would text us all at ungodly hours of the night crying and telling us it was over and she was giving up. She wouldn't take any of our advice and eventually some of us started leaving. I remember turning my back on so many friends because she told they had bullied her or said they didn't care about her illness. She would talk about how they betrayed her and that they would be in her note all the time. I know now that all of us still cared about her, we all still do, they just realized they would never be able to help her without giving up everything. The breaking point for me was when she called me at 10 pm and described... a horrific scene. I won't go into detail but lets just say it was awful enough to convince my sister and dad to drive to her house and check on her. I lied to her parents and said I needed to talk to her about homework and when I got to her room... there was nothing. Nothing that she described. Not even a speck of evidence except for our texts, the call log, and some tear marks on her face. I managed to keep it together and played the role of concerned friend but the second I got home I was furious. Because by that time she new I was going through the exact same things, she new that phone calls, especially unexpected ones, caused me freakish amounts of anxiety. And that scene she made up? Had all of my triggers. All of the ones I had told her, confided in her. Every. Single. One. And even after that it took me a full year to finally put enough distance between us and really start healing. It's been almost 4 years and I'm still finding evidence of her influence. So I mean, I wouldn't call it a grudge, but I also wouldn't say it isn't one. She set my recovery back by years and even if I smile at her in the hallway and ask her how her family is I will never, ever be able to call her a friend. This is probably way TMI but honestly it feels good to get it off my chest. I do still worry if I'm being selfish or close-minded to not let her back in. She clearly wants to be friends again but I can't let go of what she did...

I love making characters and I'm an big advocate for the support of Mary Sue characters (out of roleplay of course). I've created numerous species and am constantly making more and elaborating on their background, but I am hesitant to share them and my characters due to past struggles with art and character theft. That said I am always happy to brainstorm and theorize with people and with time I'm sure I can find the courage to share my creations with this community!