The Problem with Hivecanon
Or why Oculus keeps saying “Depends on headcanon”
~
This opinion piece was something on my mind, but I decided to write it after I was informed about a recent post by @anon3053411 which you can see here: What if peta hadn't released the fluffies? (Swiftbitches)
In many ways, its similar to Soulyin666’s pic on the subreddit from over a year ago. Now, whether fluffies should be perfected or not is a separate matter unto itself and deserves its own opinion piece (and hopefully soon) But the one thing that I did take issue with was a particular line said in the entry.
So I’m just going to come out and say something that not many people had realized:
A number of notable people actually do not follow the PETA break-in canon, nor the unfinished fluffies canon. And some do not follow Fall of Cleveland, or had not read it.
And I’m going to name two examples: @Carpdime and @SqueakyFriend
It would be good to establish why this question would even be asked in the first place, and why that line of thought keeps appearing. The fluffy pony fandom had its roots in the MLP fandom (something that was established in this article), and one of the ideas about fluffies being the way they are was that they were “incomplete MLP”. This lore did make sense when fluffies were part of the MLP fandom, as there was a MLP base to rely on.
However, when the fluffy pony fandom became less involved with MLP, it attracted people who were unfamiliar with or never watched MLP to begin with. Carpdime is one example of this – in conversations with him, he has confirmed that during the period when he was initially active on the Booru, he never watched MLP. The one time he drew a Lyra mare and foals was because it was Lyra week on the booru.
From here, it stands to reason that, in his canon, Fluffy ponies were actually a finished product. Yes, it is true that Carpdime drew fluffies as deeply flawed and troublesome beings and also incapable of handling the harsh world around them. But Carpdime did not base his work on a “perfected” MLP. In Carpdime’s canon, one could imagine that the hypothetical “fluffy pony” shows that preceded their creation actually spoke in fluffspeak, and the Hasbio of this setting made fluffies as based upon the depiction in that show.
As to why that matters, and while it could be argued that Carpdime had drawn his art in such a way that different people could have different interpretations of it, Carp did not follow certain ideas that were dominant in the hivecanon, whether it was before of after this time. His fluffies were not based on MLP, and he has also never drawn litterpals, enfie babbehs and foal-to-sketti machines. What some people take for credit as hivecanon may not actually apply to all artists. Even the one time he drew a bloated dam, purely for the fun of it, does not mean that he follows the “bloated dam” hivecanon.
The same would apply to Squeakyfriend. Like Carpdime, Squeakyfriend did not read Fall of Cleveland, and was not aware of the ongoings of that story. So he just treated the Fall of Cleveland like an urban legend, and was unaware of any effect it could have on present-day stories. Even @Booperino had his own ideas on a supposed “fall of Cleveland” which is completely outside with what the actual story was.
The reason why I am putting this out is because I feel that people do take hivecanon for granted. Yes, there are some things that are given about fluffies: that they should be small, speak fluffspeak, have a lot of fluff, and be bio-engineered. But liberties can also be taken with any of these prerequisities. And going further, hivecanon is not a constant thing, its evolving. Some people may follow a basic guideline of fluffies but come up with their own thing, much like what Carpdime and Squeakyfriend did. And this may apply to more artists than we realize. Even simple things such as how much fluffies poop depends on the artist – I have noticed that most hugboxer and hugbox-ish artists don’t depict fluffies as overly shitting. Its why I am of the opinion that people should actually consider an artists work as their own work, unless they acknowledge that they follow an idea that’s popular in the fandom, aka the hivecanon.
