'God does not matter

Now that I have offended those with weak constitutions with that title, lets get down to business:
 
Word of God is what I want talk about. For those whom don’t know what I mean by this, I’ll give you the first paragraph of this article, as it will give you the gist of what it means:
 
A statement regarding some ambiguous or undefined aspect of a work, the Word of God comes from someone considered to be the ultimate authority, such as the creator, director, or producer. Such edicts can even go against events as were broadcast, due to someone making a mistake. Can lead to Creative Differences.
 
If you’ve followed anything I’ve said either here or twitter, you will note that I’m not really a big fan of this trope. I come from the SF Debris school of thinking, meaning that for the most part, the narrative itself should answer most, if not all, the questions it asks.
 
I don’t mind word of god for minor things, like background details, and anything else that doesn’t have a major impact on the narrative.
 
Why do I bring this up? Because I’m tired of people criticising things in the show by starting with the following sentence: “Well, Lauren had only ever intended for…” for which my response usually is “So what? It wasn’t stated or strongly implied within the narrative, therefore it isn’t canon”
 
Now that I’ve said what I think of the trope, what are everyone elses opinions on the word of god?
 
(Hopefully this wasn’t too discombobulated)

i agree that if the author or anyone able to use the word of god on a work feels the need to use it, it may suggest the work itself wasn’t enouth clear to bring the reader/watcher to realize it on themselfes, which if we’re talking about fiction it isn’t a good thing  
unless the unclearness is an intended feature of the work, in that case the use of the word of god is out of place since it would dispell the unclearness which is a feature of the work, basicallly removing one of the features of the work
 
coming to your point, the speculation on a show is as important as the canon/word of god on it in my opinion, and forcibly removing the possible speculations by word of god only removes one of the possible ways to enjoy the show
 

 
 
ps. the title may actually be misleading for some which would bump with your intended topic (assuming they won’t even try to read your first post)  
“‘Word of God’ does not matter” would be more clear i think
 
for anyone planning to jack this thread in a god debate here’s my reply in advance:
 
“please lets keep the god adolescential dilemmas out of this forum
 
i hereby declare the only gods to be talked about in these forums will be Celestia and/or Luna
 
Cheers”

What Lauren says doesn’t matter anymore in the context of the show’s universe. She doesn’t work on the show, it’s not her call. The end.
 
On the subject of the actual staff, though, they tend to lightheartedly troll the fanbase so often on Twitter (Meghan I’m looking in your direction) that there’s very little we as fans can say should be taken seriously outside of what happens on the show itself. What was it, a few months ago… that pegasi control the weather with farts or something? And that earth ponies fertilize the ground with their own um… leavings? So yeah.

@Ananonymous
 
Fair enough, though I sometimes get the feeling that word of god is used (not necessarily on this show) as a writer’s get-out-of-jail-free card regarding keeping track of everything going on in a story.
 
For example, if you get a high enough EMS and choose Destroy in Mass Effect 3, you get a scene of Shepard taking a breath. The scene itself is ambiguous…but not according to the people at bioware. To them, it means that Shepard definitely lives, even though going on the narrative itself, there is not enough evidence to support that.
 
This to me, is an example of word of god being used badly (trust me, I have much more egregious examples from the ME3 ending debacle)
 
And as for the title…yeah, in hindsight I should’ve chosen something better. I do apologise for my poor choice of words, and like you, sincerely hope that it doesn’t turn into a debate regarding religion or the existence of god et cetera.
 
@Nightweaver20xx
 
Did it matter even when she was working on the show? What she intended was one thing, but what is within the show is another.
 
She intended for there to be only two alicorn princesses, fair enough…but, it was never stated or implied anywhere within the show that it was the case. It’s all good and well to have intentions for a creative project that you’re working on, but it’s generally considered bad form for you to leave your readers/viewers/players second-guessing your intentions

I too am kind of tired of people who bring “Well Lauren wanted…” She’s not even in the crew anymore. She’s no power, or no say. Though, from my perspective it seems that in a few cases the show is still loosely flowing in the direction Faust wanted.
 
Twilight’s one of the bigger cases in the all-mighty bitch fest of Lauren-canon. It’s been made known she wanted her to become the successor to Celestia. How’s the best way to do that? To become a princess, which in turns means becoming an alicorn. By this presumption, Twilight’s STILL slated to be the heir. However, I guess it only shocks people because we don’t like Alicorns, and we’ve decided to declare it a different direction than her original intention.
 
Sure, it may deviate from how it’s done. But I don’t see how it’ll change an event we’ve yet to reach.
 
For the other pones: I don’t see there being any significant change, or it’s too early to declare they’ve long sense left the Faustian path. So it really seems Word of God is something people like to throw around because they hate change.

I think George Lucas single handedly disproved that Word Of God is a good thing. :p

Yeah Lauren’s ideas don’t matter anymore because she doesn’t have any direct influence on the show anymore.
 
Also I’d recommend a title change if that was at all possible.

I tend to be in the “it’s good for filling in the gaps, but what actually happens on the show takes precedence.”
 
Like I’m all for the writers filling us in on the details of how the world works and such, but people shouldn’t complain about what happens if they change things for the show. Basically it’s interesting to hear about what Lauren has to say, but if the current showrunners do something else, I’m not going to complain unless it’s dumb.
 
Also, yeah, you might want to change the thread name. My first thought when I saw it was “Oh, this won’t end well.”

This thread is interesting. I don’t care who is making it really, as long as it entertains me.
 
A bit sick of the “but it’s not what Faust intended” excuse as well. The people behind the show have clearly shown their intentions to follow her direction.
 
I’ve seen people pull BS like McCarthy saying “all little girls want to be a princess” and then saying she backpedaled by saying that she was implying it was like Leia. Yeah, even Faust herself said the quote was taken out of context and attempts to use it against the team were unfair.
 
This is unrelated, but I find generally it’s not the concept of a princess people hate. It’s the idea of a damsel in distress that doesn’t do anything that people don’t like, which none of the princesses of Equestria are.

@Itsthinking
 
“This is unrelated, but I find generally it’s not the concept of a princess people hate. It’s the idea of a damsel in distress that doesn’t do anything that people don’t like, which none of the princesses of Equestria are.”
 
Funnily enough, the “princess” thing is something I’m going to bring up on these forums (mainly focusing on the baggage that the word has acquired, as well as what it means in-universe)

A truly nonsensical phrasing to describe something that can be described using correct.