Should I remove the 'Dark' tags from my stories? · 3:20am Jul 16th, 2013
I ask because I put the Dark tag on a couple of my fics, but all things considered I don't know if they really qualify, and I'm afraid I might be turning off readers who would otherwise enjoy them. On the other hand, there are some themes in play that could qualify, and I want to be honest and upfront with the tone that readers can expect.
The thing is that for both of the ones I'm concerned about, the 'darkness' is primarily in the backstory. For example, in Warrior of Love, Sweetie Honey! most of the Mane6 died from the events of a devastating natural disaster followed by a war, and the main story is set several years afterward. It's based on the anime series New Cutie Honey so the tone is dark compared to most good pony fics, but I certainly wouldn't call it grimdark by any stretch.
The other one I'm concerned about, Lunar Eclipse: The Rock Opera is part of an AU series I'm working on where the Mane6 are putting on a stage production about the distant past when Luna was trapped in a thousand-year coma instead of turning evil. The events depicted in the stage play are rather dark and tragic, but all of the present-day action is generally more Slice-of-Life in tone.
I'm seriously looking for help on this matter, so please offer any input you can on the subject. I just don't know which way to go.
I'd remove the dark tag from the rock opera. It's like a high school episode about putting on a Hamlet play where things keep going wrong. Sure the play is something dark, but thats not really the main focus, it's the actors and what's going wrong.
The way I see it, a "Dark" story is one where there are only two shades to everything: grey and black. Nothing is ever happy, everyone and everything is brutal, vicious, and demoralizing, and there is no possbility of hope for a brighter tomorrow. All one can hope to do in life in a "Dark" setting is survive. Think of the world in Frank Miller's Sin City--now that is Dark.
Now, I haven't yet read Lunar Eclipse: The Rock Opera, but I can certainly speak to the other work, Warrior of Love, Sweetie Honey!. While it is true that the setting for Sweetie Honey is a few shades darker than canon MLP:FIM (which was true for New Cutey Honey as well), I don't think it quite merits a "Dark" tag. If your story is anything like the original (being only one chapter so far, I can't with certainty), than the focus is less on the dark, unsavory aspects of the setting and more on the bright shining light that comes forth to erase that darkness. As Whiteeyes stated below, tags (typically) indicate the focus of where the story lies, not necessary the window dressing wrapped around it. Yes, your story has elements of death, violence, and pathos, but those were present in canon MLP:FIM too, albeit in far more muted forms.
Anyways, that's my two cents. Hope that helps!
1214065>>1215042 Thanks guys. Between you and some others who responded to a forum post elsewhere where I asked the same question, I've decided to remove the Dark tag from those stories.