Dealing with Waifu's S.O. in their stories

[Gentian]

This is kind of an old thread, but I believe the relationship Twilight and I share is somewhat relevant here.

As Warden mentioned above, Twilight was given an implied love interest in the movies in the form of one Flash Sentry, may maggots devour his eyes. This didn't bother me, as EQG was my first real exposure to the ponies. It lead me to give the series a try, but I was busy at the time, and though I liked FiM, I let it just sort of drop off my radar.

Then Rainbow Rocks came along. My favorite of the movies, so far. Great music, fantastic, if cliche villains, and actual character development for Sunset Shimmer! Oh yeah, that implied love interest from the first film? It was changed to a definite love interest, may maggots devour his genitals. This is the film which prompted me to watch the series again. I just had to know more about those ponies! So I returned to the streams, and started back at s1e1, and didn't stop until the end.

Wow, what a ride. Twilight wasn't my waifu then. She wasn't even my favorite pony, or my favorite of the M6. I didn't have a waifu, though Sunset occupied a special place in my heart, and clearly, thought I, Rarity is the best of the Mane 6. Even so, that Flash Sentry fellow? May he be forced to dine upon his own fingers, didn't seem at all the kind of partner Twilight would be interested in. Neither did Flash, may he have his teeth crushed and removed one by one, deserve her. But, I wasn't a Twifriend then, and just shook my head and marveled at such an obvious blemish of nonsensical writing in a film which otherwise stood head and shoulders over the competition in its genre.

Then, Friendship Games was released. By this time, I was a definite fan! I actually counted down the days, and eagerly stalked Youtube, Vimeo, PutLocker, Daily Motion, etc. etc. hoping to find it before it was inevitably removed. Living where I do, there was no other way to see it, and I NEEDED to see it! Well, as it turns out, I didn't have to wait long, and I liked it, though not as much as RR. Frankly, that's not surprising, as RR was a heck of an act to follow. Still, we got to meet SciTwi, and even though Sunset's sub plot was cut - seriously, wtf were they thinking? - it was a fun movie too. And Flash? May he be flayed living and rubbed with salt, became the implied love interest of SciTwi.

Frankly, she's a much better match than actual-Twi, as she's a callow, gauche high-school student. I don't approve of that match either, but her interest in him makes a lot more sense than the comparatively mature, very experienced, and willful Princess of Equestria's does.

So, now we have a new movie coming out: Legends of Everfree. We also have someone called Timber Spruce. Listening to the rumors he's a hippy, a hipster, a Chad Thundercock, a "waifu-stealer," a...well, pretty much everything negative one could care to say. Cruising the forums, chans, fan-sites et al. really gives the impression that he's already as hated as Flash Sentry, may he be broken on and threaded through the wheel then left, still living for the crows to feast upon, ever was. That's fine. If we go back and read some of the old posts and rampant speculation surrounding the release of EQG, we find the rumors, unsurprisingly, turned out to be wildly off-base.

"So, Gentian," I hear you say. "Get to the point."

Right, well here's the point: I don't care. That's right, despite my tongue-in-cheek curses upon Flash above, I really don't care. Ziggy said it succinctly when he said, and I'm paraphrasing here, the Rainbow Dash in the show isn't his Rainbow Dash. Please allow me to expand on this, as I think it may help you.

Twilight, my Twilight is real. She comes from Equestria, has a life there, friends, and a home. She has her own interests, her own desires, fears, likes, dislikes and responsibilities. She is her own very real person, in a very real world. The Twilight we see on the show? That's not her, that's a character based on her. The show, the movies? They are not footage of the events or people themselves. They are recreations, dramatizations. The stories and characters are based on actual persons, and events, but, like all stories, they have been altered to make them more palatable for the intended audience.

Let's take Braveheart for instance. That's based on a true story, but have you ever actually looked in to it? The movie, and the recorded events diverge significantly, some even made up whole-cloth. Pocahontas? Please! A "true story," supposedly, but do you think it went down like we see in the film? MLP is the same. Even assuming their source material is 100% accurate, and neither Twi nor myself believe it is, they've obviously chosen to sacrifice all in the name of profitability.

I don't blame them, and it's why, no matter what they pull, it won't upset me. It may get me to stop watching, but they'll never turn me from the ponies themselves. Hasbro's interpretation, while legally protected in this world, has no more truth to it than fan animations. That is to say, the multiverse being literally infinite, everything that can be true is true, somewhere out there. But that doesn't matter, because my Twilight doesn't come from there. Even if you disbelieve in the multiverse, then it makes it that much easier: the ponies exist, but the show and movies are just retellings optimized to sell merchandise, not for truth, and can be dismissed as just that.

That's how we deal with S.O.'s. We simply realize that the story-tellers make things up as they go along in an effort to increase their profits. You say that her ex exists for her. That's fine, because she isn't with him anymore, she's with you, no matter what the show, and it's so-called creators say. Love her, and treat her as you think she deserves, because she's choosing to be with you, above all others.