Changelings are terrible at imitating personalities

[Kaitlynne 110]

They get the voice and appearance down perfectly. But when it comes to personality they are awful at imitating that. They can never get the original person’s personality right. If they had been able to master this then they probably would have been victorious every time they tried to take over Equestria.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Kaitlynne

[Props Valroa 26,044]

They should realistically have been able to if the writers thought about it better. That would have proved a far more worthwhile and interesting challenge. Imagine if one of the mane 6 was a changeling all along, that was hiding their true form.

[Tom Gallagher 33,521]

Yeah, I always noticed that.

[Pentium100 2,057]

Well, the ability to change their appearance is natural to them, but not all changelings are good actors. Also, even if the particular changeling is a good actor, he may not know the minute details about the pony he's replacing. It's not like, for example, Chrysalis could have ever known about the "special greeting" between Cadence and Twilight if 1) Cadence only performed it with Twilight and 2) Cadence has not met with Twilight while she was followed and observed by changelings.

Making yourself act like someone of different nationality etc is probably very difficult, but it is extremely difficult to impersonate someone that others know. Let's say someone tried to impersonate one of my friends (over the phone obviously) using voice changing technology etc. I think I would be able to notice something "wrong" about the fake after having a onger conversation and then would try to "test" him.

Chrysalis was able to impersonate Cadance by using mind control (on Shining Armor and probably some others) and by appearing stressed by the upcoming wedding and probably by avoiding spending too much time with ponies that know Cadance too well, like Celestia. 

Maybe normally changelings either create an "OC" and use it to get love from others or just replace someone who does not have many friends and just mind control the victim's spouse.

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

That probably has to do with them barely knowing anything about the ponies they're masquerading as, and because they're "EEEEEVVVIIILLL!" (please don't take this too seriously, lol), they have a hard time pretending to be good-natured.

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

Their ability to imitate personalities depends on how long they've studied their particular subject. If they know said subject inside and out, imitating them would become simple and therefore they'd be much more believable. If they barely know the subject, the disguise is way less effective to the point where even a minor sleight could expose them.

[They call me Loyalty 1,941]

Yeah, it would have been cool for them to take over society until there is only one pony left. And he starts to realize that it is the only one real. And they have kept it alive as an experiment. But soon after it realizes the terrible secret, and discovers that all the ponies are being cultivated under pony village to keep the changelings impersonating them, alive. Then, it comes the moment of the final decision, when he is surrounded by all these strangers wearing familiar faces, and he is given a choice. Whether to return and pretend to have a normal life among the changelings. Or to rebel, and end up like the rest of the ponies. Here, there is a sudden cut, and then it resumes to the normal life of the character. But we never get to know whether he accepted the offer, or rebelled against and was taken and replaced by another changeling. The episode ends there.

[Fluttershutter 2,118]

they are they are they are 

[Oleks 1,983]

Well, they may be bad at imitating ponies, but Thorax was somewhat convincing as a rock.

[Kaitlynne 110]

On 23/2/2022 at 19:21, Oleks said:

Beh, possono essere pessimi nell'imitare i pony, ma Thorax era in qualche modo convincente come una roccia.

That’s because Thorax is awesome 

[Will Guide 21,325]

19 minutes ago, Kaitlynne said:

That’s because Thorax is awesome 

You got that right

And beside there's plenty of fanfiction where the punchline is basically everyone has been replaced by Changeling but they've been acting like who they imitated that they forget that they themselves are Changeling.

 

Also, within this particular fan fiction story, known as Change by Tom117z, where they're about 20 different Changeling hives in the world (a few of which want to conquer the world while others wish they could get along), one of the evil Changelings actually kidnapped the pony that he's imitating and would repeatedly come back to the cave where he's being kept to steal some memories in order to pass himself off as the real deal. The pony prisoner despite not being able to do much did manage to boast that good ponies and Changeling are out there that will save the day

On 2022-02-22 at 1:39 PM, Kaitlynne said:

If they had been able to master this then they probably would have been victorious every time they tried to take over Equestria.

Yeah but that would have been too easy for them and remember this is still technically a children's show