Things I Hate in the Fandom · 12:39am Jun 16th, 2014
Being part of a fandom is an odd thing, full of its own ups and downs that can sometimes stretch beyond the nature of the media that started the fandom itself. Sub fandoms, fan interpretations, shipping, bitter arguments about the nature of characters...all of it comes together to form the tapestry that is fandom. And fans, naturally, decide what they like, and what they don't like.
And because I'm in somewhat of a punchy mood this weekend, here's some of the fan fiction trends connected to the My Little Pony fandom that just hack me off, in no particular order.
#1.) Grimdarkification
A word that has caused no end to its own debates at times, I've found grimdark to be very easy to define in regards to My Little Pony. While some of the more well known ones are your things like your Rainbow Factories, and your Cupcakes and your Cheerilee's Gardens, they're hardly the only ones. There's also the wide variety of fics out there where the princesses banish Twilight, or are tyrants themselves. These kinds of fics have always hacked me off. They start with character assassination, and tend to head into piling bodies.
I don't understand the appeal, honestly. I can understand maturing concepts seen in the show, or slipping some restrictions that TV censors would put in place, but there are limits in my mind. All I know is that if I see one more fic where a normally nice character turns into a mass murderer, GreyGuard's gonna slap someone.
#2.) Zombie Apocalypse
This one might technically fall under the first one, but, screw it, I hate these things so much they're getting their own category.
Now, if I am being fair, this is a genre that I was mostly apathetic on until the explosion of zombie related media in the last few years, and the insidious way that its just been injected into every last damn thing under the sun. For me, it reached the zenith of insanity before I got into the My Little Pony fandom, with the atrocious Star Wars Expanded Universe book Death Troopers. Cause that's what I wanna see in heroic space opera, a retread of The Walking Dead.
And now its followed me into this fandom too.
At this rate I'm gonna have to write a fic where Twilight Sparkle tries to avoid the over-saturation of zombie media during her normal day in Ponyville.
#3.) The Conversion Bureau
Dear lord, where can I begin with this one. Unlike some of the other things on this list, there's a core idea fragment, buried deep within the misanthropy, the Chatoyance fics, the counter fics, the revenge fics, the kill em all fics, that could be interesting to chase. But, I think that it would require some more nuance on behalf of the writer.
Like, I do imagine that if you could combine magic with human technology, there would be other options than full on ponification. Like an infused magical immunity. Then the story becomes a mix of more conflicting factions. People who will just take the minor alterations, people willing to go the full pony, people who try to go halfway and get unicorn magic use as well as immunity.
But, that's not where this particular sub-set of the fandom is right now, mostly content with back and forth angry hate fics.
#4.) Human Cosplay Fics
Why? Just....why?
I swear, these ideas are crossovers by the very laziest means. Its' really easy to throw a human into a costume, make them that character, and then throw them into Equestria. Doing a full crossover requires work, because you have to closely examine both things that you are crossing over, looking for the bits where they neatly interject, and the places where you can make the differences stand out. That's the fun of the crossover game.
But there is no way I can classify these Cosplay fics as anything but lazy.
All right, that's enough bile for one day. Back to writing fics and being productive.
Gonna agree with you wholeheartedly, Grey. But I must point out that not all tyranny fics are grimdark. Take Lines and Webs and its two sequels, done by the illustrated Airstream. Celestia in Lines and Webs especially is a tryant of a sort, but the fic isn't really all that dark at all. Sure, it has war and some blood and whatnot, but its manageable and it actually allows better story immersion. Aside from that. I'm gonna agree with you on all points and add one more:
Fallout: Equestria and its uncountable spin-offs. FoE is the only really "grimdark" fiction I've read, and that was only because I was curious. And I did finish it. It was very well written, certainly, but I really had a hard time of some of that stuff in that fiction happening to cute pastel ponies-- even if the author didn't want to portrait the characters as such.
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See, Fallout: Equestria is an odd one for me. I am a fan of crossovers, and I've always been a fan of the Fallout games. But I feel that it misses the mark compared to the other crossovers I do like, because it doesn't have much of the My Little Pony idealism working on it either. A good crossover should find that balance, I think.
And, really, the biggest strike against it for me is that all the characters I like are long dead and gone, victim of a war that's always had some logical flaws in it to me. I mean, the sheer amount of chaos a war like that would have caused, should have cracked Discord's prison like an egg shell.
And somehow, I don't see him going for that much raw death in the world. Where's the *fun* when everypony is dead and gone?
I'll take a look at Lines and Webs though. See if it changes my mind on the whole Tyrant thing. But I do tend to dislike Tyrantlestia, even outside of grimdark.
I can't comment much on 1 and 2, but for 3 it is kind of interesting depending on which versions you read. The fact that the world is doomed and there is a time limit does make it a bit harder to develop more than one option once one is found so usually only the first one found is used. You can dig a bit deeper into how some of the stories decide to do it, but generally once an option is found finding another is usually abandoned by the majority.
For number 4, well I mostly just found a few of those entertaining as it can add in the interaction of the human mind conflicting with the cosplayed forms mind. It isn't always done but is still a possibility. I can see how it is annoying as it's basically 'I want to invade X reality but don't really want to be a part of it.' I think I've only seen one where it wasn't quite like that and the cosplay form was basically overlaying a pony form.
2209835 Well, that was my opinion on Lines, really. Sat on my read later list for months and months. Was going through that list the other day and decided I was bored enough to read it. I blazed through that one, its completed sequel, and the third incomplete one in about three days. We're talking 128 chapters across all three, and the third is still a WIP. I've not read like that in a very long time.
And I will agree, that is what disturbed me the most about FoE. All of our favorite ponies were long gone, victims of a war that really just didn't seem all that important and kind of flimsy. I just couldn't see the Zebras all out declaring war because they thought Princess Luna was still Nightmare Moon.
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Part of the problem with the CB as I've found it, is that it's really kind of devolved into this self perpetuating misanthropy salad. The only one I've really found interesting, has been The Other Side of the Spectrum, and that's mostly because of seeing the Canon universe reacting to this twisted reflection of their universe.
And I would agree that the human mind clashing with the character's mind would be an interesting thing to explore. I just think that then adding that into My Little Pony feels like an additional thing that just doesn't click well. Now, someone cosplaying as a pony and then becoming a pony could work, cause at least there's then a more one to one connection to the universe if that makes sense.
2210006 True on the last part, but then you could add the hilarity of someone cosplaying as Celestia/Luna/Other meeting the real one in that universe as well with the mental aspects added on top of it.
Reads #2. "Oh, I see how it is." :P
I agree with you most on #4. Those cosplayer in Equestria fics are ten kinds of obnoxious and nearly always poorly written. I still need to finish that oneshot parody I might have mentioned to you already.
As for #'s 1 and 3, most of my ire is for violence for the sake of violence and excessive genre drama, respectively. Mature fics and gore are fine with me, but not when it's some preteen writing them to vent just because they got picked on at school for picking their nose all the time.
In other news... Hi, Grey! How are you doing?
Tell me, would a fic retelling the story of a dark anime, such as Attack on Titan, or Puella Magi Madoka Magica fall into the first category of fanfics you hate?
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To be fair, I'm not really talking about your main fic, and more the ones where we have a zombie apocalypse happening in Equestria. I don't really find stuff where Rarity has to make the agonizing decision to kill Sweetie Belle before she becomes a zombie, cause she was bit, compelling.
I'm not sure you told me about that parody fic, but I would totally be for seeing that get done! I nice old lampooning of the whole ridiculous idea.
And, I will admit, that there is probably a balance to find somewhere. It just feels like a lot of what lands in the featured box these days doesn't find that balance.
And I'm doing all right. I'll send you a PM later with more details.
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Well, if its a particularly dark anime, I'm probably not a fan with the original series, let alone one where you swap out the main characters for ponies. I have a particular distaste for Madoka Magica, and that little pick of a bunny cat.
2211466 Don't worry, I figured that's what you meant about zombies in the first place. Just wanted to give you a little sass.
I look forward to your PM. It's been a little while.
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Heh, fair enough. I'll try not to take offense that you wrote off my retelling of Madoka Magica without reading it.
(I kid, I kid
)