Jan
23rd
2013
Dark and Everyone tags · 4:33am Jan 23rd, 2013
So for my next one shot, I'm going to attempt a Dark/Horror, yet I still want it to fall into the 'everyone' category. I think it would be awesome if I could pull it off, though I'd jump it up to teen if I felt it was necessary. I think I'll also use Apple Bloom as the protagonist of this one and try to figure her out a bit. If nothing else, this will be a great experience.
So, since I've never really written dark as main theme, if you have any advice/input or anything to say at all, I'd be happy to hear from you.
I hope this works out well,
~SilentBelle
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SilentBelle · 374 views
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Dark/horror, in what ive seen, when paired, tends to explore the human human aspects that are somewhat considered alien to most of ponykind. Death, murder, war, acts that exist only further a goal for gain at the expense of everyone else. But evil unbound by laws, or virtue at all to redeem. And though heroes and protagonists may win, they never managed it unscarred in some manner. Its a defining moment of their life, and never fades, never leaves, but lingers as a contained poison more so. Again, this is what i've seen from the purely dark/horror in writing here. So plenty of salt licks to take that with.
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I see. Thanks for the insight. I should probably look up a few dark stories and see if I can find any good ones in the 'everyone' category and see what they did and how they executed them. I also need to figure out exactly what I want the reader to take away from such a story.
742700 In part, your average pony is often surprisingly capable in the right situation, especially earthen ones, even pegasi in the right context. The issue often runs when they run into magic, or a strong enough magical being that it can overwrite their innate abilities. It comes into play that a lot of unicorns come off snooty for this reason when seeing them or magic ones used as a foe in a situation, given the nature of applied magic to internalized ones that they have. And used right, it can be very hard to stop that. But often times, mages, no matter the type, get used to dealing with problems a certain way from experience. And where a pony of guile, and these tend to get pegged on the fliers for many reasons, but even earthen ponies are quick on the uptake can force them to work outside that zone by introduction of variables. How many unicorns do you think practice catching multiple objects, moving at high speed, over one strong hand? Its usually more practical for the latter than the former. But thats more the nature of applied magic on intrinsic types.
In looking from other angles, you can also explore other races, as an unknown. How they are different, the zebra culture, if based off of the african myth, has many natural spirits that arose, and dealing when them, from any angle, is often strange, and different because its about appeasement more than stopping them. Given their nature of power, most cant be. They have to be worked around, or tricked, which is its own can of worms, so to speak. Many aspects of culture, myth, and history are a great use of the dark and horror tags, yet you can use more urban types with them too, such as the jersey devil, or even natural myths like the wendigo as they do exist. Ponies can very easily delve and break things not meant to be in the attempt to even equalize the slights of magic perceived.
I had got to thinking about it, but really, dark is not willing to shy away from some topics because it might offend, but that its what it is, no matter how gruesome or questionable it might be. Horror is subjective, its true, one thing scary to one, may not be to another. Really, its fertile ground for a good imagination, and open for quite a bit. The everyone tag, hmm, I wish I could define what makes everyone exactly that, but it seems very subjective as well. And sorry for the wall of text reply.
Hmm, I think that combo is like some other western cartoons, you get the feeling bad things can happen, but nothing ever does, not even any real lasting trauma. (Mental being a common exception) Teen is the good guys will win, but ponies can die, and there tends to be a cost. Also considerable blood and at least some talk of sex if appropriate. Mature is everything worse.
742827 Those are some good thoughts. I think I'd say what makes an 'everyone' tag is probably the perception of the characters but not so much the readers. With an 'everyone' tag you can assume that nothing awful or graphic (ie. permanently scarring, deadly, or sexual) will happen to the main character. However this allows for the fic to target the readers and have them guessing away at what the protagonist cannot see. Honestly, I have as strict a fondness for the 'Everyone' tag as I do for 'Adventure'.
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Hmm, well, I'd say 'Tragedy' is what determines whether or not the ponies succeed, not so much the maturity-level of the audience. I also think that a Dark/Everyone story can have death, for example: Bambi. That said, as a general trend, the the more the rating slides toward the 'Mature' tag, the bloodier and deadlier the writing tends to be so it's a fine point.
As a complete side note: I also find it kind of ironic that (at least from my perspective) more of the 'Mature' stories I've seen, compared to the 'Everyone' stories, have come across to me as very childish and silly in comparison. That said, I know there are some really well-written 'Mature' stories out there.
If you want to make a dark/horror story maybe a ghost story is the way?
Dark can be tricky to pull off. One of the best ways to pull it off while still keeping it suitable for everyone is to make the darkness more of a horror or fear of self, not necessarily at some sort of hidden power, but pertaining more to the fear of what a character can become when driven to extremes, to the point where the character forgets themselves. There are few things more disturbing than a character not being able to recognize itself. Also remember that as effective as jump-in-your-seat horror can be, slow and patient horror can be equally and even more effective if correctly portrayed.