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Would Changelings "need" to feed off love?


jreidsma

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Hi everyone :)

 

I am into science and biology pretty much. So understanding parasitology comes pretty easily to me but applying it to ponies can be a bit confusing at times :lol::P

 

So changelings "feed" off "love" somehow. But what does "feed" mean in this sort of relationship? Are they actually eating it like food? Or is it just making them more powerful?

 

Perhaps what I am asking is this. Could a changeling live without feeding off a ponies love. Or would it die without love?

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Hi everyone :)

 

I am into science and biology pretty much. So understanding parasitology comes pretty easily to me but applying it to ponies can be a bit confusing at times :lol::P

 

So changelings "feed" off "love" somehow. But what does "feed" mean in this sort of relationship? Are they actually eating it like food? Or is it just making them more powerful?

 

Perhaps what I am asking is this. Could a changeling live without feeding off a ponies love. Or would it die without love?

 

 

I was thinking about this earlier when I replied to someone's topic about whether or not Queen Chrysalis and the changelings could be reformed like Discord was. 

 

In my opinion, they don't need to feed off of love. I believe that it is a choice. The thing is, love is what binds a society together. If no one cares about each other or themselves, it would be impossible to form an organized society. Everyone would just be off doing their own thing. Banding together for survival requires some form of agreement to work together, and if the changelings are capable of that, then surely it is possible for them to truly love others. 

 

Here's an analogy that I thought of earlier. Someone who lives in the city and is able to buy food at supermarkets does not need to go out into the wilderness everyday and hunt deer. If someone chooses to do so, they are unnecessarily killing deer when they could just be buying their food at the store. So, those people would not need to kill the deer to survive, but they would do so anyway. (This is not a statement against people who like to go out and hunt. This is a hypothetical example involving someone who does nothing to get food other than hunt, when they would not need to do so for survival.) 

 

In the same way, the changelings could be choosing to feed off of love, because they want to, when they really do not need to for survival. 

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I think that since they gain the love through decipt, they are not in a two-way relationship with the prey. Chrysalis said, 

  • "Ah! Shining Armor's love for you is even stronger than I thought! Consuming it has made me even more powerful than Celestia!"
  • "Ever since I took your place, I've been feeding off Shining Armor's love for you. Every moment he grows weaker and so does his spell. Even now my minions are chipping away at it!"

This sounds like she not only grows more powerful by leeching off love, she weakens the prey. I wonder if she could drain the life out of them? Hmm...  :huh:

So, I think that they don't need it to live, or changelings would have died out a long time ago judging by Chrysalis's generally hateful manner. Maybe if they were all cute and fluffy they'd love each other to explosion from excess power. :lol:

Edited by Amber Sands
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Well in my eyes the way it seems the changling queen put it as food so I kinda assume that they need it to live.

 

Plus if their parasites I Imagine that would mean they need to feed off of something to live, which in this case is love.

 

I don't know for sure though, regardless they'd still be craving constantly. To the point where they may as well die if they don't feed off love.

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I'm going with the view that Changelings, individually, can live off of normal food. But love is the elite of foods. Like potatoes and celery vs steak and cheese.

 

I'm also going with the idea that's vital in some way to them. Maybe they need it to grow their young or something. Families or small groups of Changelings could sneak into towns one by one and siphon off the love they need for their life cycle.

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I'm going with the view that Changelings, individually, can live off of normal food. But love is the elite of foods. Like potatoes and celery vs steak and cheese.

 

I'm also going with the idea that's vital in some way to them. Maybe they need it to grow their young or something. Families or small groups of Changelings could sneak into towns one by one and siphon off the love they need for their life cycle.

I think there is a minimum of 'love' for a changeling to consume to stay healthy, but it's instinct to crave more love because they grow stronger. That said, I feel like as long as there is more than one changeling, their love for each other is enough to keep them going, but in order to gain power of course they need more. And as a group, you would much rather have power so at least you can defend yourself (and others).

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I would suggest that there is a minimum level of "love" that a Changeling needs to survive, but any feeding above and beyond that point starts giving them "power". As a real life example, it's pretty obvious that there is an amount of food one needs to keep on living, if you are a "normal" person or a gold-level Olympic athlete. But a person who is only eating enough to reach that limit is still not going to be able to run a marathon, whereas someone who has "more" food than their body needs can actually do it.

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I would suggest that there is a minimum level of "love" that a Changeling needs to survive, but any feeding above and beyond that point starts giving them "power". As a real life example, it's pretty obvious that there is an amount of food one needs to keep on living, if you are a "normal" person or a gold-level Olympic athlete. But a person who is only eating enough to reach that limit is still not going to be able to run a marathon, whereas someone who has "more" food than their body needs can actually do it.

Although your analogy to food is good, it isn't accurate (or so I believe). Unlike food, the love which changelings feed off of is limitless, meaning there can never be too much. Also, they might have a minimum level of love, but I think that's granted to them and in no way do they need to acquire it.

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Thanks everyone :) All very well stated

 

So it sounds like it would just be better off to assume that they need love to feed off of in some sort.

 

I was reading the thread about reforming the changelings also and this came to mind (along with the fact that I am using two alicorn like changelings in a fanfic...) and I have not mentioned where they are getting "love" from. So maybe the mysterious machine in the background could be mass producing synthetic love... (lol what the hech am I rambling about?) :P

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I think feeding off love kind of makes them high. They seem to abuse it like a drug. I come to this conclusion by the fact that they somehow survived without love waiting for the opportunity they had in "A Canterlot Wedding". However, they really want to, and when they are "feeding" off of love, it appears to make them happy. For that reason, I'd assume they use love recreationally.

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I think feeding off love kind of makes them high. They seem to abuse it like a drug. I come to this conclusion by the fact that they somehow survived without love waiting for the opportunity they had in "A Canterlot Wedding". However, they really want to, and when they are "feeding" off of love, it appears to make them happy. For that reason, I'd assume they use love recreationally.

More like steriods. Shinings love made Chrysalis beat Celestia with zero effort. It makes them stronger. But unlike steriods Love doesnt seem to have side effects

 

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The fact that they can change into other ponies could mean they lack an identity. Maybe they don't know how to get love the normal way as well. So they resort to coercive actions.

Edited by poniesforfun
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  • 1 year later...

I know this thred is over a year old but I was thinking of doing my OC back story. I do like alot of the opinons on how they need love to live. I do think  that if a changeling drains to much love they could kill there pray. This thoughts comes from the comics from IDW made. In one where the changelings invade Ponyville. In the 3rd part you see how they feed  on loving cats and some of them may be dead or unconscious. The other piece of evidence I think may prove this is when Queen Chrysalis drains a cat in front of the CMC in the same comic part. Then in the 4th part she threatens them to put them out of there misery. I also agree with Flicker on how they get more powerful and there pray weakens but I think somepony with high will power can resist it more. As for needing love to survive I do think they need some love but they can eat other foods to survive . But this is what I think. The comic name is The return of Queen Chrysalis. If there are any spelling errors sorry.

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Love is a kind of magic, we've seen that when Shining Armor and Cadence used their love to kick out all the changelings from Canterlot.

Additionally,  from Tirek's effect on draining magic from ponies, we see that they need that to live, in addition to normal biology. Twilight received a lot of power from other alicorns, but that only caused an increase in power. It may be the same for changelings.

Also, we don't know if they have any other source of sustenance. The only one we know of at all is love.

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