lopoddity
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Evil Enchantress, Does Evil Dances
🕑 Added 2020-08-30 20:47:21 +0000 UTCconcept art, figuring out how i'd like to draw Zecora
I've made no secret that I really can't stand Zecora's entire concept. She spends the entirety of her debut episode being framed as spooky and foreign. The Mane 6 spend the episode being terribly racist and xenophobic, even calling Zecora's stripes "garish". When a magical mishap occurs, they immediately blame Zecora, break into her house and destroy her things, and ultimately it is Zecora- an innocent bystander- who is tasked with teaching these small town rubes not to be racist. It's a clumsy attempt at an anti-racism parable, made all the worse by the over-reliance on poorly researched stereotypes (Zecora is a mash-up of Hollywood witch doctor, voodoo priestess, indigenous shaman, plus a dash of the Magical Negro trope). Zecora never really gets to be a character all her own, just a device to spout wisdom for the real protagonists. Zecora is also the only zebra we ever see in the show, and lives isolated and segregated in the forest, outside Ponyville.
It racist.
It seems the first of the MLP "Season 10" IDW comics are going to tackle a small Zecora character arc, in which she and Applejack return to her homeland. Although we get some fun tidbits (a new cool zebra character design, the reveal that Zecora's rhyming is not typical for zebras), the rest is......ah. Dumb. Really dumb. Besides the one new zebra, we don't see any more. Not one. Instead, Zecora apparently hung out with a small herd of strange mythical creatures (abadas, kelpies). Zecora also hates them for reasons unexplained and flees at the sight of them. (To be continued, says the comic).
Dumb.
Sooooo I'm just gonna toss alla dat out the window. Zecora is a Vodun medicine mare hailing from West Zebrica. She is the sole survivor of a relentless dry season that slowly destroyed her herd. The foals and the elderly were the first to succumb to the heat, and then came mysterious illness, striking down herd members so quickly and mercilessly that Zecora, despite her tireless efforts, couldn't discover a cure in time. Her grief and feelings of failure were unbearable. From each home, she took a totem to remind her of the lives that slipped through her hands, then fled as far away as she could, to start anew, somewhere she could be alone in her mourning, somewhere she could study the magic of alchemy and commune with the ancient spirits. She is not at all an evil enchantress, and is instead perfectly polite to anypony willing to extend her and her culture proper respect and dignity. As ponies as a whole kinda fail to do that and view her as a spectacle, Zecora is content living alone within the Everfree Forest. She is a dear friend of Fluttershy's, Twilight, Discord, and Applejack, and is always willing to aid any in need of her help. She's entertained a number of apprentices over the years, including Twilight, Apple Bloom, and Midnight Abyss.
I based her garb on that of ceremonial voodoo practitioners in Glidji Kpodji. This is a ceremonial/leisurely look for Zecora, she tends to dress in more conservative, comfy clothes when out and about.
bonus hc: Zecora's eyes are naturally brown, and light up blue when she's performing magic. Her rhyming is a vocal tick, often done to lull the otherwise-skittish ponies....and as an easy way for her to slip actual encantations into what seems like a goofy witch-doctor shtick. Beware, beware, you pony folk.
Comments
SmilesPerHour
That’s very true.
Dragon Turtle
Which crew, lol? I'm pretty sure that the combination of writers at the start of the show was utterly different by its end. I think there was improvement down the line, with the direction of wanting to hang out in other countries. The Student 6 (minus Sandbar) are improvements just by the sake of being actual characters, compared to Zecora. The highlight for the series concerning skillful depiction of racial imbalance was probably "She All Yak." Really illustrates how the lack of representation in a child's media diet can convince them that they have to change themselves to fit in.
Amaris
I’m very excited to see more of Your Zecora version. She had so much potential for the show but it was completely wasted.
SmilesPerHour
Thank you for improving Zecora’s characterization. I never liked Bridle Gossip for how sloppily the ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ trope was handled, and how the mane six just smash up Zecora’s hut and accuse her of cursing them, but I didn’t grasp the full gravity of her entire characterization and usage in the show until you pointed it out. I much prefer your characterization of the zebra race. I wish the mlp team would take notes from you about how to properly and respectfully represent other races.
I love your depiction of Zecora! I got to meet her VA, and she is such a lovely lady (and can do rhymes on the fly??); it is such a shame they have done Zecora so dirty canonically. I look forward to seeing what you do with her!
Lopoddity
Thanks! :) And yeah, I was pretty surprised at the poor characterization in the comics. Zecora's so melodramatic and angry all of a sudden? And she doesn't even rhyme consistently? That's like Zecora's main trait and they don't bother to do it correctly. The dead mom jab didn't even make much sense in context and is just SO unnecessarily cruel. And it's not even doing anything to heighten the tension, it just feels like crummy fanfiction, which is unfortunately endemic to the IDW comics. There's literally a panel where Applejack says she's lying in the dark for dramatic effect. The story is already too complicated, with far too many characters, and I can tell the plots gonna drag out over like four-five issues when it could've really been contained to two, or even one. I'm immensely disappointed that the writers chose a gang of mythical creatures over giving Zecora zebra friends, for one, the whole appeal of the comic was to see more zebras, and secondly, I think the designs are just....bad? The designs are busy, the color palettes are muddy, and it's not very clear what animals they're even supposed to be. What's so wrong with actual African animals? Zebras, gazelles, antelopes? Instead we get whatever these characters are. :/ Also they're all really friendly, so I'm gonna bet the big twist is they "betrayed" Zecora but it was really just some big dumb misunderstanding. I feel REALLY disappointed by this comic, and I'm not even a Zecora fan.
Lory
Also it's a crying shame that they set up Applebloom as Zecora's apprentice with a knack for potions, and they never did anything with it. Applebloom just got another "applemark" and kept doing the same thing, and Zecora was left to be nothing but a outcast character that was never allowed to do much of consequence.
Lory
First off, this looks AMAZING and I can't wait to hear your further thoughts on Zecora! I could be totally wrong about this, but the current characterization of Zecora seems weird. In the first few pages, I didn't really care for how Zecora snapped at Applejack. It's not like we get a lot of character out of Zecora, but it seemed...extra mean. Zecora even brought up AJ's dead mom for leverage over something that didn't end up being a huge problem. It feels like they just made Zecora yell at AJ for the sake of establishing drama and mystery. I haven't read all the way through the comic, but that just caught me off guard.
Vio_dacreator
I still felt a little sad that Zecora is still stuck alone. Like the show could of given her a companion. Or how how about a head cannon were Zecora takes in a zebra orphan and raise them that be kinda sweet. It could be like a anne of green gables storyline where Zecora learns about the love and curiosities of raising a child.
Feather
Thank you for this! The writers have not gotten better with the racist aspects of MLP. Just look at the "creature" 6 and Chancellor Neighsayer. Sometimes you just have to say: "fuck canon"
