Opinion Rant Time: Pointless Shipping · 3:19pm May 1st, 2013
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING IS PROBABLY BEST QUANTIFIED AS A OPINION BASED RANT OF MY OWN PERSONAL OPINIONS. YOU'RE FREE TO HAVE YOUR OWN OPINIONS ON THE MATTER AND I WON'T HATE YOU FOR IT OR TRY TO MAKE YOU CHANGE YOURS, BUT DON'T EXPECT ME TO CHANGE MY OPINIONS EITHER. JUST A FAIR WARNING.
Am I the only one a little tired of the Vinyl/Octavia shipping?
I mean seriously people. They can just be friends. Some of the closest relationships I've ever seen have been in a non-romantic way.
I'm talking about this because there's a story currently being featured where Vinyl has died and Octavia's dealing with the pain.
It ends well and everything, but my qualm with it is that it simply doesn't take the risk of having Vinyl and Octavia be friends. No, instead the author has them shipped to the point of marriage. It's as if the only way to truly be a friend with someone is if you are both romantically involved and that the only types of people who feel pain are the lovers of the dead person. Obviously that's not the authors intent, but it really comes off like that in these types of fictions.
And I have a very personal relationship with death mind you. My Grandfather died of cancer when I was seven, and I distinctly remember watching him slowly get thinner and thinner until he was quite literally skin and bone. And all through that, my mother stayed by his side and took care of him.
Why can't we have more sad fictions like that? Who says that just because, say, RD, is dying of cancer Applejack must suddenly express her long suppressed love for her? Why can't Applejack just care for the dying RD as a friend? Out of the goodness of her heart and not some hidden romantic agenda?
No, I'm not about to turn this into a post discussing my opinions on LGBT relationships and such. Let's just say that I don't support it.
Anywho, we're getting a little off track.
I'm basically asking this: Why must every story featuring these two and their relationship be of a romantic nature? Same goes for Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Before, AppleDash I knew was a popular ship and I had no real problems with it. I simply didn't ship it, plain and simple. Queue me just trying to read any good story and that shipping sneaking up and tackling me at every turn to the point where I hate it with a passion. I can't go two fics without it either being mentioned out of nowhere with no real baring to the overall plot or the story suddenly shifting to become a AppleDash shipping story.
Same goes for Vinyl and Octavia. I think it just might be a little overexposed I guess.
Why can't they simply be close friends, or even, as one fic I liked quite a bit, be sisters? We've seen that different species of ponies can be siblings so why not? All I'm trying to say is, try a little variety people. Same with Bon-Bon and Lyra. Constant shipping to the point of torment.
For instance, the story "My Little Human: The Lyra Heartstrings Story" where Lyra is attempting to pitch an animated TV with humans as the focus was derailed (for me at least) by the authors insistence to ship Lyra and Bon-Bon even though it was working just fine that they'd be friends.
All I want to find are some good, non comedy fics where they're quite literally JUST FRIENDS. Honestly, when they're constantly romantically shipped, it just makes everybody come off as a little bit horny if you don't mind me saying. Take the incredibly popular "My Roomate is a Vampire" story, where the last sentence basically can be summed up by this wonderful little image macro:
Now I know that some people might find that a tad over the top in it's bluntness, but really, what else is this last scene supposed to mean?:
We lay in bed back at our apartment, still wearing our suit and dress.
"What ever happened to our little project anyways?"
"Huh?"
"Our little music project," I said.
"Oh, our classical/electro mashup?"
"Yes. We were going to fuse music genres!"
"Ahh, I don't know. We just never got around to it."
"You still wanna do it?"
"Do what?"
"Make music," I said in the most suggestive, sultry fashion.
It went right over her head. "Hay yeah! Heck, let's start! Where's our blank sheet music?"
I rolled my eyes, slowly beginning to slide beneath the covers.
"Octy? Where are you going?" Vinyl asked. "I thought you said you wanted to make musi—OH. Oh. Oh wow."
And then we made music. And it was very, very sexy.
Now you try and tell me that means anything else but the fact that those two then spent the next few hours screwing each other six ways til Sunday. It's not even done in a classy, witty way. Nope, it's quite literally as close to saying "And then they fucked" without actually using the word "fuck".
Man I'm getting angry. Sorry if this sounds overly venomous, but I'm really sick and tired of it. I really wanted to read "My Roomate is a Vampire", but for me, a lot of the enjoyment would have stemmed from the hope that "OH MY GOSH! Somebody wrote a story where Vinyl and Octavia are quite literally just friends! And it has vampires and werewolves in a comedy? AWESOME!" instead, I'm treated to those wonderfully risque last lines. Class act author. Real way to keep up the quality.
And while we're talking about out of nowhere 'coming out of the closet' moments, check this little gem of a scene out:
Big Macintosh led her down a long hallway, into what appeared to be another bedroom. Much to Applejack’s surprise, Pinkie was laying on the bed munching on candy. “Hiya, AJ!” She waved a sticky hoof at her cowpony friend.
“Pinkie? What in tarnation...” Her eyes narrowed as she looked first at Mac, than at Pinkie, conclusions forming in her mind. She’d suspected for some time, but...
Mac looked nervous as he spoke. “Now, afore you say anythin’, Sis, Ah just want ta say I’m sorry Ah didn’t tell you about any ‘a this before. But Ah... Ah think you need ta know.” He took a deep breath. “Ya see, Ah’m-”
“Hold it right there!” Applejack interrupted, unable to stop herself. “Now, Ah know Ah shouldn’t be tellin’ ya’ll who you can and can’t date - Hay, you’re five years older’n me - but Ah don’t think you and Pinkie are right for each other. Ya’ll are just gonna end up hurt.”
Big Mac blinked at her, flabbergasted. Pinkie’s eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, and she stuffed both hooves in her mouth to keep from laughing. “What?” Applejack demanded finally, after several moments of awkward silence.
“Ya’ll thought... Pinkie and Ah... were DATING?” Big Mac finally said, astonished. Pinkie finally lost it and burst out in hysterical giggles, flopping onto her back and laughing uncontrollably.
It was Applejack’s turn to be surprised. “You mean yer not?” she asked. “The way the two’ve you have been thick as thieves this past week, always hangin’ out together all the time...”
“AJ, Pinkie’s mah first real friend since Ah went to school.” Big Mac said, smiling slightly. Pinkie was getting her giggles back under control, and righted herself. “It only makes sense that Ah’d spend time with her. ‘Sides, Pinkie’s been helpin’ me with some... issues, recently. The stuff I asked you here to talk about, in fact. But we ain’t datin’.”
Pinkie was still giggling a bit, but she was able to speak now. “If we were dating, I wouldn’t keep it secret, silly! I’d throw a big party to celebrate! But Mac-alack-apack isn’t really my type, though he is REALLY big and strong and awesome and has a really fun name to say. I prefer fillies, anyway.”
Applejack stared at her pink friend. “You do?”“Sure, didn’tcha know?” Big Mac said casually, causing Applejack to boggle further. “Anyway, as amusin’ as this is, Ah still need to talk to ya. It’s important.”
“Ah’m not sure how many more revelations Ah can take.” Applejack sat on the bed next to Pinkie, her face burning red with embarrassment. Pinkie gave her a hug and offered her some candy, which Applejack waved away. “But Ah guess if it’s that important ya’ll had best get on with it. Ah’ve had a real crazy day, and Ah’d like ta get it over with.”
Now, it may shock you to find out, given my reaction to said scene, that it's from my second favorite fan fiction ever, KoolerKid's My Little Avengers.
The main problem I have with this scene is that Pinkie expressing her preference for fillies over colts is that it feels incredibly like KoolerKid was writing the scene and needed a way to dispel the idea of Big Mac and Pinkie dating. His solution? "Oh Pinkie Pie's a lesbian. It won't have any baring to the plot in any way shape or form and will only be mentioned again in one other scene, but that's why. I mean, what did you think I was going to do? Have Pinkie Pie be dating another colt instead? Pfft, as if!"
In the end, it just felt like one of those "have to have a gay character so I don't look prejudiced." type moments.
And speaking of "only mentions it in one other scene", here's the scene with said pointless line of dialogue in bold red (as before):
Spitfire blinked, her brain trying to process what the energetic mare was trying to say. “So... you think I have something like your... Pinkie Sense? Something that predicts the future? Isn’t that... I dunno, impossible?”
Pinkie shrugged. “I dunno. Twilight said it was impossible and she got really upset about it but eventually she just gave up and said it worked anyway. Besides, I never let being ‘impossible’ stop me, and that was even before all sorts of impossible stuff started happening all over the place!” Suddenly, Pinkie got really, uncomfortably close to Spitfire’s face. “Soooo? Did your Spitfire Sense go off? Any twitches or itches or floppy ears or-”
Spitfire backed up a bit, holding up a hoof. “I... got a hallucination. Or I thought it was. Like... some kind of vision...” Her mouth suddenly went dry.
“Really? That’s so cool! My Pinkie Sense never does that!” Pinkie paused, and cocked her head to the side. “Oh! My hoof stopped itching! That must be it! I better get going now, before Rainbow Dash misses me! She gets kinda lonely at night, you know! Bye!” She bounced away, right out the door and down the hall. Spitfire barely noticed, as the implications of Pinkie’s visit slowly dawned on her.
And before any of you go in the comments complaining about "Bronyman1995, if it's such a problem, why don't YOU write one?", or "Stop bitching about it!" let me just say that I'm obviously predisposed at the moment. I'm not F. Scott Fitzgerald or William Shakespeare or something. I can't write 8 stories at the same time and expect them all to match the very high quality I try to reach when I work on something. Also, NO, I'm not going to stop bitching about it. I WANT to bitch about it. I feel that my opinion must be expressed. Kinda like that kid from "The Emperor's New Clothes" except this time, everybody's just excepting the fact that the Emperor is naked and they hit the kid with a stick when he points out the obvious.
Okay, rant over with. I'm going to go and finish off the new Captain Equestria chapter now. At least that way you'll all have something to enjoy that doesn't require me getting pissed off at other people.
You know, I'm just tired of seeing femslash fics in general. 99% of them are the same thing every time. The constant shipping of Octavia/Vinyl certainly didn't help with that.
And it may help to mention that I have a little mini-series where Octavia and Vinyl are just that; childhood friends. One is already out (not my best work, but I like it), and one is halfway completed. If you're interested, I can link to it.
I sort of agree with you on certain points, such as some of the lesbian ship fics are a little too sexual ( and we've already talked about that sort of thing) but I wouldn't say it's entirely unnecessary. It can add a diversity angle to the plot. I think what you have a problem with is the fact that tons of authors are shoving the lesbian relationships down our throats. I think I've only seen one or two fics that had a healthyish balance of it. It is frustrating when a you can't see one straight relationship in a fic though.
1046794 I'd like to read it.
1046796 Yes exactly. If anything, I quickly grew tired of LGBT shipping because of them being shoved down my throat. I'm practically drowning in them.
And that's true, they're always shown that either one or both ponies are in it for the sex and nothing else. It feels like they looked at each other and went "Hey, you look like a good lay! Let's marry each other so we can enjoy banging each other as much as we want!"
And then when a straight ship is mentioned, it's often in a slightly negative context, as if M/F shipping is unhealthy somehow.
There are dozens of LGBT ship fics that relay on the "Got jiped by my boy friend so let's be girlfriends" premise.
1046794 That sounds interesting yes.
The Punch Bowl
Just a note, this one doesn't have a whole lot of Vinyl in it. The one I'm halfway through is entirely Octavia and Vinyl.
1046805 Epic!
1046808
Thanks!
1046803 Yeah. Sometimes it feels like people seem to think if you're straight you're homophobic.
You Hath pretty much summed up all of my thoughts on the matter.
I wouldn't mind shipping fics if it weren;t for the fact it sometimes feels like they are jammed down my throat. Everyone freaking rights them, and it feels like most of the fanfiction writers just want to get views, not write good stories.
Not that I would ever just write for getting views, hehe, yea, I would never do that!
I really don't like it when I am reading a fic, and then it has to be forced into a romance sub plot. I wouldn't even mind that, but more often than not the romance sub plot takes up to 50% or more of the bloody story! Most pieces of entertainment have romance subplots, and that fact that fanfic writers (likely out of not wanting to make new male characters) ship female character for the subplot doesn't bother me, but what bothers me is that they make it half, if not more of the story. I don't even like romance!
Mind I like romantic type poets, and the idea of romance is something to look at, it is more often than not done in a very overdone and unoriginal manner.
I don't have anything against femslash, gay pairings, or any pairing in general, except for FlutterMac and TwiLuna, I can't stand those two, but I agree that it can get tiring after awhile.
1047530 Oh I LOVE Fluttermac.
But I can see one might be driven to hate it.
Overexposure.
1047542 Yeah, that's probably the reason. When I first joined this fandom, that saw these pairings so freaking much... ahh man my blood boils just thinking about it. This comic perfectly illustrates what I want to do every time I see those pairings.
My favorite ship for now is appledash
I got my reasons
1. with the exceptions of Sombra and Spike the entire male cast of MLP FIM annoy the hell out of me
2. Sombra's Sauron so no ship will work for him
3. Spike is too young to be shipped with most of the characters, however maybe in a future setting Spike shipped with any of the CMC could work preferably with Sweetie-bell or Applebloom just my preference.
but I ultimately I blame On A Cross And Arrow for hooking me on Appledash one of them should of been a guy.
1049231 Oh well see I'm totally okay when they do that.
Like Rainbow Dash falling for R63 Applejack.
I love those shippings.
I'm weird like that.
Oh boy you've going to open up a can of worms.. if this was any other fandom. *shudders* I really hate the shippingwars.
I'm fairly neutral in regards to the ships even if I do have my preferred ones that I sail. But I still have the ones that I dispize, such as the ones that pair off the princesses or the Mane6 with any of the villains that have appeared (excluding Blueblood, Gilda, and Trixie since I don't consider them villains), it shows that the fandom has fallen into the same idea that poisons other fandoms. The idea that if two characters hate each other it means their is UST and they wuv each other very much. Like Celestia and Discord.
I agree that it does get tiresome seeing all the common shipfics and having Rainbow and Luna being shipped with anyone and everyone, while there are some characters with hardly any shipfics outside of the established ships.... Goddamnit I want another Maclestia fic.
For Lyra and Bon Bon, I refused to accept that they are in a romantic relationship based off a single scene (along with Lyra being human obsessed). So my take will annoy the fandom, they are half-sisters and in fact Lyra is married to a nice stallion in Canterlot and has a daughter of her own.
1049864 Huh that's nifty.
Actually I'll admit that I ship Celestia and Discord like this:
Back in the day (before Discord was EVIL) they knew each other. At first, they both had feelings for each other, but Celestia, not wanting to cause problems with her parents, friendzoned Discord. Discord became bitter with her and would constantly attempt to win her back, going to more and more extreme measures until he was locked in the stone.
As for Luna and Sombra, I always figured that Luna was Sombra's teacher, and Sombra had a school-boy crush on her, and since this is right before Nightmare Moon, he emphisized with her, and attempted to win her over with his studying of dark magic.
Of course, things got out of hand, he got corrupted and Luna and Celestia were forced to banish him, with Celestia being the instigator. Luna, angry and bitter over what she precived as an over the top reaction, finally allows Nightmare Moon to take over.
1049909
Which part is nifity?
I used to like Discord/Celestia but as really started to developed my headcanon I started to like it less and less as I worked on the Discordant Era. Discord went from being a Q like being to a true monster known as the Chaos Tyrant during his rule.
1049934 The nifty thing was Lyra and Bon-Bon.
But I can see why if you were to make Discord darker then CelestiaCord might not work.
I did however, always picture him more like Q then anything else.
1050136
Ah... I tend to have a policy of sticking it to the fandom and what better way than make Lyra straight and related to Bon Bon.
Q at least is somewhat benign, Discord would cause the collapse of the world even in canon. I know many will disagree with me but I will still stand by my choices.
1050157 Oh sure I totally understand. And that's why it's awesome.
You stand by your beliefs. I respect that.
1050161
At least someone does, I know if I ever publish it there would be some fans that would want my head on a platter, more so than being a Celestia fan.
And you stand by yours, I would expect nothing less.
1050167 Well, I must admit, I'm also sick and tired of the "Celestia as a dictator/mean spirited troll/evil mastermind/clingy control freak/child molester" trope that infects almost every Celestia fic.
1050484
I've been sick of it since I joined the fandom, I do have a group for you: Protect Celestia, so not every Celestia fic is infected by the Unholy Trinity.
1050508 Awesome.
Oddly, I happen to be writing a fic where Celestia made a huge mistake, and is going to obviously reap the whirlwind as it where.
She's a supporting character, but her mistake is the main thing that starts to mess up all my major character's lives something awful.
You'll have to read to find out what it is
1050523
And I welcome to the group.
As long as she honestly regrets her mistakes and tries to fix it, even if it is in the background, I will have no problem with this even if I never read it
1050586 Oh she does regret her mistakes and tries to fix it.
Of course, the person who gets wrong refuses her help and just makes things worse...
God I love to torture my characters.
It is a MLP/Avengers crossover adaption of Thor. Celestia is Odin and Trixie is Loki. Hopefully you like it if you ever get around to reading it.
1050594
just don't torture them too baddly
fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/171/2/0/my_little_avengers__celestia__the_all_mother_by_kenichi_shinigami-d548fp2.jpg
My Little Avengers: Celestia the All Mother by Kenichi Shinigami
1050617 oh I won't.
I'm not about to have anybody's family murdered. And since Trixie's my Loki, that means she's still going to make her own share of idiotic decisions and totally hate Celestia.
1050617 And actually, that exact piece of artwork inspired the story. Along with the Rainbow Thor one and the Trixi one.
Hell, I've already completed Iron Mare, currently writing Act III of Flutterhulk and started act ii of my Thor one and just started Captain Equestria.
I'm going all out on this.
1050649
Ah...
1050617 And actually, that exact piece of artwork inspired the story. Along with the Rainbow Thor one and the Trixi one.
Hell, I've already completed Iron Mare, currently writing Act III of Flutterhulk and started act ii of my Thor one and just started Captain Equestria.
I'm going all out on this.
1050665 Yup.
Had to try it. If anything, its because nobody's done it before.
1050678
Doing what Marvel is doing I see
1050686
Or at least not without bashing Celestia or Twilight and not making Trixie owning up to her mistakes
1050695 right.
Of course, Trixie will eventually have to pay for her actions, but the point is that I'm not making her one dimentional. She has logical reasons for being angry, she just chooses the wrong way to deal with that anger.
1050757
I tend to be critical of Trixie fics, I honestly don't see the fandom's fascination with her, but if you can add depth to her character then all more to you
1050785 Oh I intend to.
Lots and lots of depth. I have a whole back story for her that explains why she's the way she is.
1050836
That's all I can ask for.