Ponies and Profanity · 6:27am Jul 5th, 2014
Profanity is an odd thing to use and encounter in writing fan fiction. Use it heavily and your story will need a mature tag, but use it heavily enough and your readers will start casting doubts on your maturity.
I think that, used well, profanity can enhance a story. It can add color to the dialogue, it can bring the speaker's personality to the fore. It can hint at what the ponies in the story consider sacred/profane/taboo. As I read more fics in this site, I've been noticing the various ways profanity appears.
Straightforward - Fuck, shit, damn...the typical profanity you'd find in fiction, pony or otherwise. At least, the writer's dropped any pretenses. I do prefer some creativity. Come on, this is a world where you get words like somepony. You get the play around with the vocabulary and the culture. So why not even make an effort?
Minced Oaths - Applejack swears on the show. A lot. Occasionally, the others get in on it too. It's just that all of it is in minced oath. Tarnation (Damnation) Shoot (Shit) Heck (Hell) Darn (Damn) have all been said on the show. It shows up a lot in fics too, even the ones that aren't trying to include swearing, just because it's become part of how Applejack speaks.
Buck as Fuck - I looked at wiktionary and it turns out that one of buck's many meanings is, in fact, copulation. So buck can mean fuck. I still think it's ridiculous. How many writers actually use buck for fuck because buck can actually mean fuck and how many writers just use buck for fuck because they rhyme?
Feather as Fuck - "Nopony gives a flying feather about!" New Fluttershy said on "Putting your Hoof Down", evoking "nobody gives a flying fuck". All of a sudden, feather wasn't just some analogue for hair among birds. It was some filthy thing. Life and Times of a Winning Pony loves this one. Feather this and feather that. Curiously enough, the protagonist banged other characters as opposed to feathering them. It's dumber than Buck as Fuck. At least buck can mean fuck. Even if it just meant kicking or throwing someone off your your back, at least it hurts. It's a negative thing. Why is feather profane?
Rut as Fuck - I suppose it is the better ponification of fucking than buck. "They're rutting over there!" leaves little to the imagination while "They're bucking over there!" might indicate sex, farm work, or a violent encounter.
Smurf-style - "I'm your sister for pony's sake!" Twilight Sparkle told Shining Armor in "A Canterlot Wedding". It hasn't really caught on in fanfiction. Which is good as I can barely stand it in the Smurfs.
Faust as God - You know, the supreme creator of Middle Earth is called Eru Iluvatar, not Tolkien. Narnia's magic talking lion Jesus is named Aslan, not Lewis. Yet, it seems a given that if there's a God in the MLP universe, it's Faust. It's an homage, I guess. Or people not bothering to come up with a creation myth. I haven't really seen it developed in fanfics. It's just there. No Church of Faust, or prayers said in Faust's name, or rituals for Faust's blessing. It doesn't feel incorporated into the story if kept at that level.
By an alicorn's body part! - It's easy to use and fits the setting often enough. I use it myself. It'll depend on how you actually place alicorns in your story. How much do ponies revere/despise them?
Other - I haven't read a fic where a pony swore like Captain Haddock from the Adventures of Tintin, taking non-swear words but somehow making them sound like violent profanity.
A good generic one some fics have used is "Alicorns above!" You can use it pretty much regardless of alicorn lore, and its' alliterativeness makes it sound like something ponies would actually say.
I have one thing and only one thing to say.
Go boop yourself.
*Sniggers*.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
On a serious note, I usually use the regular swear words.
Your typical pony swears sound... Well, lame to be honest.
That being said, I have dabbled a little in introducing a little of my own pony lingo.
I.E: "Oh colt, go boop yourself."
See video above.
my name is Arcanix, and i approve this post. alot. A+ stamp of approval. dear gawds why isn't this a sticky? oh. right.. not a forum. well by Celestia's white round flank it aught to be!!
An excerpt from my story Finding Your Place:
At one point in season one of the show Rainbow says "No bucking way" or something similar to that. I think that is where using buck really got started then it just caught on.
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Yeah, that was a good one. Reminded me of Oghren from Dragon Age. "By the tits of my ancestors!"
*urge to use oaths from FoE intensifies*
I disagree that "feather" sounds dumber than "buck". It has a basis in canon, it sounds more like something ponies would use, it's probably not meant to be that profane in MLP's world, and if you're trying to make your fic PG, it's at least not as blatantly obvious what you're trying to say. "Buck" sounds way stupider to me. It has all the silliness of "feather" so that you can't ever take it entirely seriously, but it doesn't even really make a fic more PG because it leaves no doubt at all as to what the author actually wanted to write. It just makes it seem like they wanted to use actual swears but chickened out with that one letter and so decided on an unhappy middle ground that satisfies nobody.
I'd maybe buy it if applebucking was used as a euphemism once or twice in a story, in a context that makes sense, but I can't believe for a second that "buck" is actually a swear that would exist in this world. I mean, think about what this word sounds like in a pony's culture. "Kick you!" "Kick off of you kicking moron." "I am going to kick my girlfriend all night long." And then consider that this word is also used for a mundane job. "Cya, granny! I'm off to go fuck all the apple trees! I'll probably be fucking them all day!"
Dumb.
And nothing else takes me out of a story faster than the "Faust as God" trope, even when they do play it seriously and worldbuild around it. In fact, especially not then, because then a major part of the backstory of your entire world is a fandom in-joke.
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Yeah, but why is "feather" bad? Why is it profane or sacred even in the smallest of ways? Why is it taboo? It's hair for birds. "I don't give a hair!" "Hair you!" "You wanna hair?" "You hair-face!"
For me, buck is at least violent. It's kicking. It's a terrible way to swear, but very,very slightly better than feather.
I'd give props for trying and would suggest that they just drop the name and come up with another. The foundation is already there, just remove the joke. But agreed for the most part.
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"Feather" has its own problems, I agree, but for me, I give it a lot more slack because I don't think it is meant to be profane or sacred or taboo. I mean, consider that its one instance of use in canon came from Fluttershy. I see it as more along the lines of AJ's faux-curses. Or, to give a more accurate real life analogue, it's like when I was still little, and whenever my grandfather would drop something or hit his hand with a hammer and he knew I was in earshot, he'd loudly yell out "SUGAR!"
Due to my current religious beliefs and having a time where I started swearing too much, I dislike traditional swears, but I find that there are times where a character is either so emotional or such a crass/hardened character that it would be weird not to have them swear. I do see it as a cop out to use pony swears, but it's a decent option in my eyes as long as it's not being used to try to get an 'everyone' tag.
Sadly, I've used buck instead of fuck because I couldn't think of anything as short and abrupt as fuck. I think I may start replacing most of them with rut, though I think buck fits better when physical violence is threatened (I'm going to rut you up just doesn't really work in my mind)
I specifically liked when you used 'foal of a nag'. It seemed to fit the reality wonderfully and Dash being called out for saying it around foals resonated with my own bad experiences with swearing.
I completely agree with you: overuse of the "straightforward" profanity does make you seem like some 13-year-old who's desperate to pass himself off as something impressive.
As long as you're considering this question, another question worth asking is why, exactly, you think you need the swear words so badly that you even have to give the question much thought. Only a couple of generations ago, people could express themselves, even angrily, even violently, without cursing up a storm. The reason we have expressions such as "swear like a sailor" or "swear like a stableboy" is because the constant delivery of oaths was something only for the disreputable.
What makes us think the ponies would, or should, swear like us, or need to? Why are we beginning this discussion with the assumption that they must talk like guttersnipes? To my mind, it betrays a certain narrowness of vision, the idea that this is just "how people talk"; but that is not, in fact the case: it is how people talk now, in the most profane culture that has ever besmirched the Earth, but it is not how people talk everywhere and always.
Besides that, it seems to me that the question is already thoroughly answered by canon; since this is the most vulgar generation ever, it has the most vulgar entertainments, including the most vulgar version of My Little Pony in the franchise's thirty-year history. We have already been given a plethora of equine oaths; it is thoroughly established that the ponies swear with a wide array of horse puns and Bowdlerizations.
Are we really so profane that this is not enough for us? Do we actually need more?
Truly the only way to curse while getting it past censors is the Lobo way, as seen here.
bbsimg.ngfiles.com/1/24471000/ngbbs510e386d399f8.jpg
I do have to agree, buck sounds really stupid as a swear word, for all the reasons you and everyone else in the comments stated. I guess I haven't read fics where 'feather' is used as a swear word, and that's probably a good thing. Yeah, using Faust instead of 'insert other deity here' is also a pretty big immersion breaker for me. Minced swears and the occasional real one aren't too bad, but 'by powerful character's body part!' usually is the most immersive for me or it makes me chuckle, so a win either way.
Thank you for this. As much as I personally love Lauren for giving us the best of the MLP Gens and shows, I don't use her in my own fics as the ultimate Creator of Equestria, it's world (and no, I don't hold to the idea (expressed by others) that "Equestria" is the name of their entire world; it (the world itself) doesn't really have a canon name in the show), its inhabitants/citizens; etc.; I use a rather mystic and enigmatic creature (who is female, actually) that I call the Sun Phoenix for such in my own head-canon. She is the supreme Deity of their world, and the protector of all life in it.
And, like the God of our world, She does not often impose Herself on (in?) the affairs of Her Children. But when She does, you know serious stuff is going on.
I'm also trying to do my own bit of world-building in my own head-canon for the MLP-Verse. Still workin' on it, though.........
And as for the swearing thing, I just generally go by the way they do it in the show...or the way that I, myself, do it in real like.
(Though I'm not much of a cusser, really.)
I think I disagree with you slightly on using the vulgar language that we use in our world being used in their own and the power it can convey when aptly used. Of course, I'm a comedy writer, but the point I'm about to make still has merits.
In the end, we are still reading a story in the English language, regardless of how many new words and usage of those words we can add, now that we are writing about cute pastel colored ponies doing an assortment of things. In the end, we have been linguistically and socially trained to know the limits and correct - and incorrect - usages of swear words, and that, by default, carries over into what we read and the context around it. In a darker world, it makes less sense for them to not swear at all, although of course it can be overdone.
Let's take Rarity and bastard, for example. It's a very Rarity word. A very old word with a barely changed meaning, and in fact, seems to be rarely used. Let's say something awful has happened. Someone has kidnapped Sweetie Belle and wants to ransom her on threat of death if the demands aren't being met. What is more realistic and emotional, her saying something along the lines of, "you fiend! How could you do this? To such a young foal?" Or something with a lot more kick. "You... you bastard! That's all you ever were, a bastard. How could you do this? To a young foal? Do you have any heart inside of you?" That emotional response, to me, is a lot stronger with that word.
Why do swears exist? Because they convey powerful emotions, when used, in one word. Entire paragraphs of feelings in one word. It's additional emphasis where neglecting them would otherwise make the situation feel less serious, where pony swears just make it come off as silly. It's even more silly considering the vast majority of people do swear, and it doesn't take much thinking to realize that. Who's to say in a war story they don't either?
That passion can be needed at times. Go to Hell, for example.`Maybe go to Tartarus works, but it doesn't quite have the same feeling. It's all about feeling.
2259931 And this is a sweeping generalization that really, isn't true. English 'peasants' have been actively swearing for nearly two hundred years. Andrew Johnson, our fine president, swore profusely. The last hundred years, not just our modern era, have been filled with vulgar language. Mark Twain swore, and while an appeal to authority is usually not an argument I like to make, if you want some grand master of olden and clean language saying that cursing provides relief more profound than prayer at times, then you have it. I could dive through the Bible as well. Swearing is a part of every culture, and every language in history. I'll even go call my brother, who took five years of Latin. Common Latin is really, really vulgar. Animals and body parts being shoved places was part of every day speech.