@Background Pony #E65A
 
Ah, now I got what you meant. Your issue is with the term. Well, I think ‘alternate design’ could be seen as a more fitting description, but the person says headcanon because the show’s simple art style isn’t clear about such details so there’s room for interpretation.
 
It’s not like cloven hooves or sligtly longer tails clash with the show in any significant way. Even official material has used it:
 
https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/4/18/876625__safe_comic_edit_lord+tirek_artist-colon-tonyfleecs_text+edit_spoiler-colon-comicfiendshipismagic2_sendak+the+elder.png

@Background Pony #B510  
Did I ever say there was anything wrong with artists having their own interpretations? No, and in fact, I said there was nothing wrong with it more than once, try reading my comments again maybe. I think the problem here is you’re under the impression here I’m criticizing something, which I’m not and never did. I said I don’t know how anyone can “headcanon” such designs that are very obviously different from the actual, official, canon designs, not that alternate designs are bad to make.
 
In this case it’s not really a “headcanon” if it clashes with something official, like classical unicorn tails and cloven hooves on unicorns ponies (and they have specifically called them “unicorn ponies” before in the show, maybe to differentiate them from other types of unicorns, like “classical unicorns”. See there’s a headcanon). Obviously the ponies don’t have those things and it’s not a matter of it simply being Flash animation since characters like Gilda do have lion tails and other non-pony ungulates have had cloven hooves, so in that case, it’s a totally different design that contradicts canon (you may as well make them cows or make Pinkie green or a pegasus, like I said before). That kind of thing, that contradicts the show isn’t a “headcanon”, it’s just an alt design, like an alternate universe fanfic. It’s not bad or wrong but it can’t be a headcanon if the show has proven it to not be true from the beginning, does that make sense?
 
If that doesn’t make sense then I give up, or any way I guess there’s no more point in my commenting on this anymore.

@Background Pony #B510
 
Though maybe I’m being a little harsh on my last point. It’s still a headcanon that the show hasn’t confirmed or denied, as you said, so who am I to say?

@Background Pony #E65A
 
The show style is very simplified to work with Flash, and there’s nothing wrong with artists showing their own more detailed impressions. It’s much more interesting to see differences amongst the races, for example, than to have the same stock vector, don’t you think?
 
The headcanon part comes from that: the show doesn’t give us detail about the body types or height of the characters, but it does imply some things like some are fitter and physically stronger than others, for example. So some artists run with that and portray AJ as more muscular and Pinkie as being the shortest and most chubby, for example.
 
Also, I dare say the headcanon about Celestia raising Spike before handing him to Twilight doesn’t really fit in with the show as it is. We’ve seen them interact before and his reaction to Celestia is completely formal, to the point where he falls to the floor bowing to her in PTS. He certainly doesn’t see her as family.

@Background Pony #B510  
Right. But in the show they don’t have drastically different proportions, feather clusters on their rumps (the pegasi), curved horns, “classical unicorn”/lion tails etc. So yeah that is drawn “wrong” as far as not matching up to the actual show designs, like I clarified in my last post. Again I’m not saying it’s wrong for an artist to imagine the characters any way they want, I just don’t understand how someone “headcanons” something that blatantly contradicts the actual show. Headcanon as I always understood it was having a theory or interpretation of something until (if it ever is) that thing’s contradicted by official source material. Like headcanoning that Celestia raised Spike in Canterlot like Lauren Faust hinted… so far we have no idea how he grew up so that’s a valid headcanon until the show gives us more information (if it does), either confirming that or breaking that headcanon. But in this case with these designs, the characters obviously don’t look like this in the show. So, I don’t get how they’re “headcanons”, I’d say they’re just alternate designs.

@Background Pony #E65A
 
But the characters aren’t drawn wrong here? They’re just drawn with slight differences in height and body type. And the classical unicorn tails of course.
 
The headcanon part comes only from the author imagining who’s shorter and taller, heavier and skinnier in the group.

@Background Pony #B510  
How do you figure it’s not the “definitive one” if it’s the official source? How much more “definitive” than that does it get?
 
And there’s nothing wrong with personal style in fanart, never once said there was. I said I don’t get how somebody “headcanons” a design when it’s obviously completely wrong as far as not matching up with the actual, official, canon designs (it’d be like me “headcanoning” that Pinkie’s green or a pegasus, obviously she’s not). That’s not a “headcanon”, that’s just an alt design.

@Background Pony #E65A
 
The designs on the show are just one way to represent the characters, not the definitive one. Aside from alicorn Twilight, all the characters in the show have the same body type, and many artists prefer to represent the differences in race and body visually.

How do people “headcanon” stuff like this anyway? Headcanon is for theories and ideas, not for visual designs like this because obviously everyone sees and knows the characters look nothing like this.

@FanOfMostEverything  
Necks? Necks?! Have you seen the legs on those unicorns?! They wouldn’t be able to reach the ground even with the neck of that length!  
I wonder how many times per day they break their legs…

my little giraffe

I love seeing diverse pony body types, but these necks are really long.