Hippogriffs · 2:33pm Apr 14th, 2013
It's time for another Equestrian fauna quandary that I have come up with while brainstorming some new ideas.
In Equestria, we see ponies and griffons live side-by-side, more or less. True, the only griffons we've ever seen thus far are Gilda and Gustav, but based on Gilda's backstory of being Rainbow Dash's friend from the Junior Speedsters, it's not a stretch of the imagination to say that there are more relationships like this. Perhaps some more, intimate ones. And that's where the creature we'll be analyzing today, the hippogriff, comes in.
For those who don't know, a hippogriff, by definition, is the offspring of a male griffon and a mare. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that in a world where ponies and griffons constantly interact, there are bound to be a few hippogriffs running around. Heck, that concept of a character with parents of two entirely different species alone could launch a thousand stories.
Only problem is that all of those stories (at least the ones I thought of) are incredibly clichéd and/or melodramatic.
Don't believe me? Here are the ideas I came up with:
1. The "New Kid in School" story
Basically what it says on the tin. A hippogriff is the new kid in Mr. Cheerilee's class and has trouble fitting in. There are multiple ways to go with this plot to be sure (both clop and non-clop), but the premise remains the same.
2. The "Forbidden Love" story
While Equestria is usually very tolerant of different species and cultures, we're not sure if it's the same outside of the principality's borders. I've seen one or two tales about a country of griffons that lies on Equestria's border (usually to the north), and since we've never seen it in the show, the culture of such a place is open to speculation. One such speculation could be that in this griffon country, mating between griffons and ponies is taboo, and hippogriffs aren't welcome. The concept itself is alright, but I fear it has the potential to be very heavy-handed and preachy. For example, the opening scene I came up with for this scenario is a mare either pregnant with or carrying for a hippogriff child, running away from griffons and asking for sanctuary from the Crystal Empire. Point to any kind of prejudice in history and tell me there aren't obvious parallels that would make such a scene appear pretentious.
3. The "Orphan" story
This story can tie into the previous two (the latter more so than the former). A pony finds a baby hippogriff abandoned on a mountain, and decides to look after it him/herself (for some reason, I keep putting Spitfire in this role when I think of this scenario. Not sure why). Besides the fact that this would inevitably draw comparisons to My Little Dashie, the formula has been done to death, up to and including the plot twist where the reason the hippogriff was abandoned was because of the aforementioned Forbidden Love scenario (for extra eye-rolling, make the hippogriff's father a very important griffon who had an affair).
So, here's my question. In the hands of a competent author, is it possible to write a story about a hippogriff in an Equestrian setting without resorting to the above three scenarios? Or if you have to resort to them, can they work without becoming clichéd or overly dramatic?
Of course it's possible, especially when you consider how the hipppogriff's parentage could just be a subplot. i would swing it as the hippogriff being the only ambassador between the griffons and the ponies, as the only one who could prevent them from going to war.
How about the Equestria elite working to make that breed? Like, to make a race of super soldiers or something. Maybe a hippogryph version of Ender's Game.
1007155 That is a good point about treating the hippogriff's parentage as a subplot. I guess I was thinking too much about making it the focus.
The idea of a hippogriff ambassador actually has a lot of promise. It just needs some refinement (for example, the hippogriff's heritage cannot be the sole preventer of war, especially since Celestia herself has been seen acting as an ambassador. There has to be something more substantive to it, as well).
1007160 It's a good idea, but I think it would have to be the griffons carrying this out. Unless we're going with the Tyrant interpretation of Celestia (a concept I really despise), it's not really a project I can foresee any pony condoning, least of all her.
What about a slice of life of a somewhat situational comedy as say hippogriff family living normally and someone decides they want to study/get to know them better? As well I don't see why a hippogriff couldn't simply be a regular character in almost any fic.
1007155 I definitely like your idea of a hippogriff ambassador. I could see griffons accepting them and ponies accepting them too, sort of a "balance between both" idea.
1007861 I think it depends on how you approach it. If it's something dark, then yes, a tyrant Celestia or griffon focus would be best. But it could also be sort of a Manhattan Project sort of thing. All of Equestria might not agree, but a sizable majority see the need for a super-man like protector and so it might be a position of honor. That allows for a racing against a clock story. If it was a matter of forcing ponies, that's pretty dark, but what if ponies are volunteering? What if a noted pony falls in love with a griffon, and Celestia, seeing potential for both happiness and a tactical advantage, sends Twilight and the gang out to find a spell that will allow a child from the union?
1008117 Well, yes. A hippogriff could just be a regular character, but that wouldn't be nearly as fun, now would it?
As for your idea, well, it's not bad per se. It does have the potential to fall into the "New Kid in School" category, so one would probably have to consider that.
1008216 I, don't think that would need a spell. Or at least, there's nothing I found in the hippogriff mythos to suggest that.
I think the Manhattan Project (or Manehattan Project, as it were) concept has to answer the question of "Why does Equestria need a hippogriff protector?" I mean, don't we already have the Mane Six for that?
1008319 I dunno, but that's where the story lies. The Mane Six can't do everything, after all. Most everything is plausible in a fantasy world with the correct explanation. Of course, that is the hard part. My mind immediately goes to "Something happened to all of the pegasus". This might necessitate a new flying species, and griffons lack some vital trait that hippogriffs have. Maybe griffons don't have weather related powers but hippogriffs do for some reason. I'd have to really sit down and consider things in a way that my exhausted brain isn't really ready for right now, but that would be my off-the-top-of-my-head jumping off point.
MLP Cliche No. 376:
The hippogriff is really a changeling.
But seriously, I can definitely see where the difficulty lies with such a character. It's very easy to slip into any of those categories. The only thing I could come up with (that could get past this splitting headache) is essentially a ponified spin on Mel Brook's Blazing Saddles; but even then, it would still fall into the "New Kid" and "Forbidden Love" scenarios.
Why does it have to be so hard!?
I had a short conversation about hippogriffs about a week ago, actually. It wasn't about fan fics focusing on them, though, but rather the idea of them appearing in the show itself. If you're curious, here is the journal where it came up (I'm CrunchNugget in the comments), and here is the picture she drew later than day.
We were mostly just thinking of them as being regular background/side characters in an episode, so a story specifically about a hippogriff would definitely be much tougher, since the very act of singling them out as the main character kinda reflects their nature as an oddity. Either their physical nature doesn't even matter, in which case it could be practically any random story about an OC, or else it does matter, and that almost necessarily becomes the central theme of the fic.
Maybe you could write a fic about how a hippogriff and a dragon-minotaur crossbreed fall in love, and it turns out that mixing so many species is kinda chaotic, and that's where draconequi (how do you pluralize that word?) come from. But then that wouldn't really be very focused on the hippogriff anymore. But it could be a Discord origin story, or a new friend/rival for him.
Ultimately it is very difficult (if not impossible) to come up with something completely original, if you do a good job writing you will get a good story, even if you use an old plot.