Aug
20th
2014
Humanized · 12:36am Aug 20th, 2014
So I've tried for a while, but I don't really get the appeal of humanized versions of these characters. I mean, besides that it makes it somewhat easier to write porn.
Aside from that, what is the appeal to you guys that are fans of humanized ponies? It seems to me that the ponies are already human enough in all the ways that matter, so what does the actual shape really matter? I'm genuinely curious here. I just can't seem to come up with a good reason why I would make a humanized story rather than just one about regular ol' ponies.
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xjuggernaughtx · 329 views
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My best guess is it's the personality people want more then the physical character. Plus for some I'm sure it's easier to write what you know then either making up stuff or working within fan cannon.
I'm writing a few humanized stories, and it's honestly just because when I was plotting out the scenes in my head and figuring out what I wanted to do, they manifested themselves as humans. :/
I've always been big on reimaginings of things, and the easiest one for ponies is figuring out what they'd look like as people, EQG notwithstanding. There's been a great deal of variety in the humanized art, ever since season 1, and it never fails to entertain.
Also, I prefer boobs on the chest, let's be real here. :B
Boobs, probably.
Aside from porn? Off the top of my head, I can think of four reasons:
1. Equestria Girls fanfic. (Not sure if that's what you had in mind, but it technically counts.)
2. Exploration of the Many Worlds theory. (There humans and ponies and anthropomorphs and hyperintelligent shades of blue...)
3. The fact that the characters are human are a plot point in a way that doesn't fall under reason 1.
4. Sometimes, for some people, ponifying everything is hard.
I'd venture to guess that sometimes it makes things easier for people to write their fics just how they want them without having alot of trouble with equine termonology/
In my case, I have a pretty narrow view of Equestria in terms of how dark it can get. Isolated incidents of violence or evil behavior, or institutional negligence are pretty much my limit-- so I can write something like To Tell the Truth, where one pony committed a horrible crime, but that has to be the exception for pony society. Or I can buy the idea of the Wonderbolts encouraging unsafe practices out of ignorance, but not out of corruption.
To that end, I like humanized stories because I'm comfortable with them going someplace darker. If you're going to sell me on tyrant-Celestia, or a character trapped in an abusive home by an corrupt social system, or a drug ring in Ponyville, I can take it more seriously if the characters are human. (Along the same lines, humanized adds guns and cars, both of which can contribute to "grittiness")
My go-to example is always Fool's Gold, the collab by Peregrine Caged, Merc the Jerk, and Jake The Ginger. The plot is basically the mane six pull off a bank heist to earn money to save Sweet Apple Acres and fight back against a corrupt government. It does a great job exploring their reactions to the crime and violence, and the desperation that drove them there. I just can't see it working with ponies, but humans in an AU Equestria makes the setting feel correct to me.
Beyond bookplayer's reason, I can't really see the appeal, myself. Beyond, of course, porn.
That said, if you've ever heard of the clopfic Ponyville University (I read it for the Twilestia), the chapter by Device Heretic does some hilarious and inventive worldbuilding out of the humanized element in the story. Spike is Celestia's adopted daughter, and Luna's betrayal takes a very different turn without any magic involved. Dash is a drifter, Twilight is a down-on-her-luck university student, Fluttershy is an arts major, etc.
So I can see worldbuilding being an idea alongside making darkness much more believable. But even then, it's mostly boobs.
When I realized that Equestria Girls was going to be a really real thing for real, one of my first thoughts was that they might actually portray Rainbow Dash as a lesbian.
To me, it made sense. They were shooting for a older audience, one that wouldn't care so much what their parents thought. Basically I thought that EqG would be more in the vein of contemporary teen stories like the sort that John Green and Rainbow Rowell write (though I didn't realize this until I played Gone Home.) So kinda what 2384187 said.
Well, we didn't get that, but I'm still very much in love with the idea. Most TaviScratch stories come pretty close tonally, at least.
My two cents!
I like ponies that become humans, not really the "always were human" type of humanized. I just can't make the connection to the characters when their description is so different from how I know them. On the other hand, when they start as ponies and I "see" the transformation it's easier to have the "this is Twilight with fingers" feeling. Also it's fun to "watch" them flail about as they try to be humans. 
I've never understood why some writers feel the need to go with humanized ponies.
My thoughts:
A human in equestria? Awesome, I could introduce some complex moral situations that could make a fascinating story.
A pony on Earth? Great, let's explore how they react to our world for better or for worse.
A world where everything is exactly the same except that every pony now looks like humans? Why the hell would I do that?
The show is called My Little Pony. This site is for fanfiction about ponies. I don't see why that needs to be changed. Does this mean that I have anything against the humanized ponies? No, not at all. It just isn't my thing.
2384105 I'm sure that familiarity is a big factor in this stuff, but that kind of feels like a cop-out to me. It's like saying that I want to write stories about Link and Zelda, but I don't want to bother with all that fantasy stuff, so I'm just going to move them into my hometown and give them both a job at Denny's. I mean, that's fine and all, but why even write about Link and Zelda at that point?
Still, there are a million ways to be creative. I'm not the arbiter of what is right or wrong in storytelling. It's just weird to me.
2384111 Hmmm. I'm not sure what to think about that. I mean, I don't really have a problem with it, but it's odd to me. It's like taking the Game of Thrones characters, but thinking of them as cats. There's nothing wrong with it, but it would never occur to me. Interesting insight, though. I'd never have thought of people just naturally turning them human. I figured there was a motivation there.
2384122
2384135 In any fandom, it kinda always comes back to boobs, doesn't it?
2384137
1) My issue is that something like EQG doesn't need to be humanized. Well, I don't think it does. I could be talking out of my ass, since I haven't seen it, but from the little clips I've seen, it doesn't look like a story they couldn't have just told in Equestria with some tweaks. To me, it looks like the humanization is there as a novelty, rather than a necessary element of the story.
2) But what do those forms bring to the table? If it's Twilight acting like Twilight be with thumbs, why not just read about Equestria? I guess new locations do bring new challenges, though. I can see that moving thumb-having Twilight to a remote Martian colony would give you interesting options. It just feels weird to me. Why not just make up new characters at that point?
3) If there is a good reason offered by the author, I'm 100% behind anything they do. If humanization is logical, that would be fine by me. I just want to feel like it's necessary for the story.
4) ... I got nothing on this one.
2384167 Well, like I said, it probably helps when writing porn. I go get annoyed from time to time when I'm writing ponies because it's hard to make them physically expressive. They have four hooves on the ground, so they can't really walk and gesture at the same time. I end up doing a lot with their eyes. Being human would certainly help in that regard.
2384187 This makes a lot of sense to me. I've been thinking of it from a necessity standpoint, but you're talking about an emotional, what-the-reader-brings-to-the-table sort of thing. I could definitely see that altering the ponies physically would kind of remove them from the standard Equestria setting and allow the reader to accept things well outside the bounds of what the show has show to be allowable.
That's one reason why I've set all of my dark stuff during the reign of King Sombra. It's the one time in Equestrian history when we are conclusively shown that things were really, really bad for the ponies. Even within the reign of Discord, we don't see what the ponies thought of it. The crystal ponies can't even bear to think about Sombra's reign. That historical precedent gives me the leeway that I need to write horrible stuff as long as it's in that time period.
2385522
It's likely a law of the internet.
2385540
The problem with trying to put ponies in EQG is that the setting is actually quite different. The tech level and society are decidedly in the 2010's rather than some vague point in the twentieth century. The characters are at different physical ages and thus have different goals, priorities, and societal expectations than their analogues in Equestria. The magic level is so low as to be almost nonexistent (though not quite,) which further alters matters. The inherent, unavoidable divisions and expectations imposed by the three tribes are removed by virtue of everyone being moderately evolved apes. Celestia and Luna are administrators of a single school rather than god-queens responsible for the celestial spheres.
So, yeah, there are actually a number of striking contrasts.
2385543
They also have mobile ears and expressive tails. And a far superior sense of smell to humans.
2385704
(*nods*) Mind you, I think there's more going on there than is apparent on the surface -- Celestia seemed remarkably unfazed by demons and angels fighting in front of her school. I think that this is a Secret Magic Urban Fantasy kind of world and that Celestia and Luna are running a school for some very special young people. With maybe a hidden program using the bulk of the student body as cover.
2385805 I do talk about ears a lot in my stories, but I could do a much better job about using tails. I'll have to keep that in mind!
Well, if we're talking story-wise, I'm in the same boat as you. As far as art, I find it charming. Examples:
fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/106/d/6/twilight_commander_easy_glider_by_racoonkun-d7eqeb8.png
fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/173/d/0/i_don__t_always_become_a_human____by_sallymon-d54cde3.png
2385543 yea no argument there
2386715 Art doesn't really bug me. It's fine. I just don't see a lot of need in stories. Equestria Girls is referenced above as a story that uses the human factor well, but I'm pretty sure that you could make minor adjustments and have essentially the same story with ponies. Being human is the novelty there, not a necessity. It's the hook of the story, but they are essentially the same characters doing the same stuff, if we take out the "Twilight has to learn to walk on two legs" kind of scenes. Since I haven't seen that movie, I have no idea how much of that goes on, but from what I can see, Luna and Celestia are still in charge, but in the background, Cheerilee is still a teacher, the six friends are still friends, and Twilight is still the leader. They are still six girls solving problems by making friends and bringing people together.