@ J Teeth, yeah I agree with that assesment, we really dont know how Changeling "feeding" works, if there's alternatives they can use for sustance, but love just gives them the most power...what. With out knowing if it's even physicaly possible for a changeling to survive without feeding off love, hard to say if there are ones that don't

but yeah I'm going with No Always Chaotic Evil till proven otherwise, if they physicaly CAN survive without hurting other creatures, some of them will choose to do so. But the Queen is just a full on bitch.

edited 24th Apr '12 1:51:19 PM by Seraphem

It took me years to figure out bass was pronounced as base.

they tell her it's just practice, and have her faced away from the crowd with noise canceling headphones that screen out everything except the music.

I won't deny that Chrysalis was evil, but I'm still not so sure about her minions. They were just soldiers after all, and it's difficult to tell how much most of them enjoyed it. And we're not really given any evidence that their 'eating' the love is in any way harmful - it wouldn't really make sense for it too, and parasitism isn't always harmful to the host, simply not beneficial in any way.

The other thing to consider is that, while one family member gets removed from the family, they could easily get taken in by another couple of changelings, who then feed on them.

what it comes down to is how harmful their parasitism is to the host - I don't see any reason why it would be, though they likely could 'drain' their host if they wanted to(Though again, they've no reason to and just because you can, doesn't mean you will). And even if it is harmful, I think it's still Blue and Orange rather than true evil.

I think the best analogue is The Yeerks. As the series progresses and becomes less morally clear it is pointed out that the Yeerks are actually very kind parasites, and several have actually formed fairly good relationships with their hosts. I think that the changelings should be seen as the same. They're not harmful as a rule, and the invasion is just their means of gaining food, so they can't really be viewed as evil. You can hardly be blamed for wanting to fight them off, but if diplomacy could be reached they would be by no means harmful.(and yes, I am aware that because of the Yeerks colonial mindset this doesn't quite work, but you'd hardly call the british evil either)

edited 24th Apr '12 1:53:48 PM by kegisak

bass = fish, base = instrument

edited 24th Apr '12 1:56:07 PM by storyyeller

@Chad: despite knowing how it should be pronounced, I still occasionally flub and pronounce it like the fish, rather than "base".

edited 24th Apr '12 1:58:34 PM by Drenius

Perhaps Fluttershy can be a groupie.

@Kegisak: The main thing that bugs me and keeps me from seeing them is good is the invasion aspect; I don't really care if the parasite isn't harming me (and in this case I think it definitely is harmful in some way, given that absorbing the love energy apparently results in separating the host from their loved ones and replacing them with a fake), it had better get my permission first. The changelings are basically going "yeah, we could set up a mutually beneficial situation, but screw that, let's invade". I mean, yeah, it's not a rule for the species as a whole and there are probably individuals who don't fit that mold, but from what we see the majority are on board with the idea.

That and I think that they do have other means of feeding that aren't harmful, and they're still going with the invasion option, but that's just headcanon stuff that we really can't argue about.

edited 24th Apr '12 2:00:13 PM by JapaneseTeeth

I liked the idea someone came up with that celebrities or anyone with obsessive stalkers would hire changelings to impersonate them for those stalkers. That way everyone's satisfied!

I'm more figuring most Changelings are pretty nasty, but NOT becuase it's in there nature, just becuase they are simply following the example of there leader. And yeah she took WAY to much joy in what she was doing and being a bitch for it to be blue and orange, Values Dissonance for some of it, sure she still knew she was being evil and she ENJOYED it.

But given a better example to follow, I'm sure a lot of changelings could be perfectly fine...but it all depends on the physiology and whether they CAN even survive without harming somepony.

I'm of the opinion that they can, it's just easier not to, hence the ones that took part in the invasion plot are the less nice variety.

TL;DR we don't know enough to say anything and it's all up to headcanon.

EDIT: I'm going to get food. Be back later.

edited 24th Apr '12 2:02:27 PM by JapaneseTeeth

@Bad: I like that. I think that she should also hear about the Fires of Friendship, but not get an oppertunity to gain a pegasus ally until late in the story where she'll have to pass up rescuing her mother or another pegasus.

edited 24th Apr '12 2:03:22 PM by Sereg

Hey we haven't seen penguins yet!

parasitism isn't always harmful to the host, simply not beneficial in any way.

You may be thinking of Communalism, in which one gains benefit and the other isn't affected. Parasitism always has negative effects for one.

Heya everyone!

Anything juicy?

I don't even think their feeding off love is necessarily harmful. They don't seem to drain at all if they're just feeding passively(Since SA still manged to go pretty strong for a while and keep his barrier going while being fed off of)

I also really don't think that the invasion means that they're all eager to invade - I mean, that was the army. They're just following orders, and it was likely just a show to make the subversion easier. And I'm inclined to think that if they tried to make open dealings with Equestria it wouldn't really work out - the ponies haven't exactly proven themselves to be all that morally mature. They probably wouldn't accept anything looking like the changelings do as 'good'.

And of course there's always the difficulty of being ruled by a single person, and she's the only one we've seen thus far. If she hadn't been bad we would have been inclined to think that all the changelings were good, wouldn't we?

Morality debates!

edited 24th Apr '12 2:07:37 PM by kegisak

Yeah by diffention Parasitism harms the host, you talking about a symbiotic link, that's the type that's not harmful at all.

@kegi Oh...

I'm no good at those. Everyone else can word their arguments better than me...

@ Kegi, again we're all agreeing not to assume Always Chaotic Evil, we just don't know enough about there physiology to mak any real assumptions.

also Ginger...Avatar progress?

Good man.

also......holy mother of Celestia..a pony/Starcraft crossover fic......this....I gotta see.

Ah, so I am. Though it's actually Commensalism, communalism is a form of government. Well, no terms were used in-show so we've got a free pass.

NVM mis read that

edited 24th Apr '12 2:12:51 PM by Seraphem

Bass is not a fish!◊

Yeah, as noted there just isn't enough evidence to make a real claim either way. It basically all comes down to headcanon, and everybody is just going to take whatever ideas they like and run with them.