May
13th
2015
Pony POV Series: May this be heard and understood! It is not 'grimderp!' · 7:27am May 13th, 2015
Regarding the Pony POV Series! May this be heard and understood!
The Pony POV Series is NOT 'Grimderp' (so grim dark that it twists back upon itself and becomes idiotic).
The entire point of the grim dark elements that appear in the pony pov verse is that they can be OVERCOME and this is a rainbows and sunshine verse no matter what horrors and nightmares that are thrown at the ponies.
I purposely wrote Dark World as depressing as I could make it, and THEN have it become a sunshine and rainbows world by the heroes' own actions!
This entire series is about hugs and rainbows OVERCOMING the gritty and the dark!
i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b581/berryjon/Alignment%20of%20NobleBright%20to%20GrimDark_zpshnf5epkg.png
Dark and Bright describe the Setting. Grim and Noble describe the Characters. Where does Pony POV fall?
You can post things like this all you want, Alex, it won't convince the detractors of the series that it's not. Furthermore, it will likely encourage more responses of a similar nature; that is generally the point of trolling, to get a reaction.
3066310
Most of his characters, especially his protagonists, are pretty darned Noble. The settings vary from Bright to Dark. He's especially good at showing Noble characters overcoming horrendous odds, and making it believable.
I picked up on that idea for Ponykind as a species in addition to everything else I cribbed from him (such as the very notion of the Cosmic Concepts and much of the timeline) for the Shadow Wars Storyverse. The Ponies build high civilizations which are repeatedly smashed by disasters, yet always some Ponies have the hope and strength to survive, persevere and begin the climb back upward. In the process, Ponykind wins the admiration of and alliance with formerly neutral or even hostile Cosmic forces (Celestia, Luna, Discord, Destruction, freaking Cthulhu!!!), and in the end the Ponies reach the stars and begin expanding through the Multiverse.
One of the strong themes of the Shadow Wars Storyverse is that, thanks to the operation of evolution in an indefinitely-iterated positive-sum game, nice guys (or perhaps girls, as my Ponies are mildly-matriarchal) may finish first in the long run; being likeable can be of tremendous survival value. But it's never that easy; niceness may give one a hidden advantage, but while some foes can become friends (Discord), there are always foes who cannot be turned into friends by any amount of niceness (The Night Shadows, Tirek) or at least not by the amount available given the circumstances (Chrysalis, Sombra): those must be overcome in battle.
And yeah, the tone was very much inspired by the Pony POVerse. This was the story I like to write anyway; it's my reading of real history. But Alex Warlorn is the one who showed me that this could be done in the MLP world.
Surprisingly well timed blog post, since I've recently started Season Six.
Anyway, I agree. The point of a typical grim dark story is to make the most horrific situation possible, and then provide no escape- so Cupcakes has Rainbow turned into cupcakes, there are dozens of stories where Rarity gets away with her fashion line/mannequins made of ponies, and the Rainbow Factory keeps on going.
That's pretty distinct from the idea of a story which is grim and dark at times, which I think is closer to what the Pony PoV series is. To put it bluntly, there is a lot of stuff in your series which is disturbing- but you don't wallow in it the way a gore fic would, and whenever you linger on something it's usually for a greater purpose than shock value... and it's ultimately an optimistic story. Showing how "bad" things are makes the positive moments, and your message that things become a "sunshine and rainbows" world more powerful.
(Of course, I haven't reached that part- but speaking personally, after so many chapters of Twilight Tragedy's defeated monotone, her turnabout with Applejack, and the scenes with Spike, Rarity and Derpy were very powerful fist-pump moments.)
I suppose one could argue that it's a question of extremes, that the pendulum is so heavily in "dark and depressing" that it can seem over the top, then swings all the way to "Sunshine and Rainbows"... but I think that is mostly just a matter of reading preferences and interpretations. Frankly, a story where bad things happening doesn't result in a Fallout Equestria-like dog-eat-dog world is refreshing to me, since optimism is something which can so often be in short supply in the real world.
I started with season six, and the fact that it isn't a grimderp story, heck it almost deconstructs grimderp at a few moments, is the exact reason I love it.
Considering the fact that the protags ultimately win in the Dark World by accepting their sins (Elements of Chaos)? Not exactly Rainbows and Hugs winning out in the end.
Oh, it certainly shows Noble People winning out over despair by being ultimately Heroic and Noble. But it wasn't Rainbow Hug blasts that won out.
3067021
That's just it. The Elements of Chaos WEREN'T sins.
For example: The true form of Treachery was FREE WILL!
3066310
It's rather odd to say, since a lot of the CONFLICT is between Bright Noble and Grim Dark.
basically http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids verses http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers
3066697
Thanks!
Honestly the main problem is less with the grimdark and more to the fact that those parts tend to drag far too much in terms of pacing. Honestly I don't really find Dark World/Shining Armor that grimdark save for the last part of Shining.
It's alright to have grimdark to Light stories, which is pretty much par the course for MLP as a whole anyway, but if you drag it on and focus on the HOW it is grimdark then you're gonna start losing people to the long low mood of the whiplash before you can get to the light.
That being said there isn't really anything wrong with Dark World, but at the same time I can see how those that don't like it wouldn't when we get to the point of Twi playing frankenstein with herself. I'm just saying don't drag those elements out for more time then it is needed to set a point
Though if anything, the one I would really, really chew out on is the Wedding arc because I honestly felt you infodump a LOT of things far too early that, when it was revealed in story, I felt would have been fairly good though still sorta expected surprises. Everytime I think of the scene where Chyssy's sanity starts to slip I think it would have been better to learn her backstory AFTER that but before Candanza. I would also complain about the whole ghostly visions thing she did inbetween the current timeline and the inbetween time but I chalk that up to Rota being really mad at Amicitia for the equivient of subverting her job too much which was what the Trio fears. Well this and I still felt Ranger would have been better handled with Shining.
Though it isn't all that bad, at least unlike GW this plot actually moves and changes.
3072612
Thank you for making your comment and criticism in a civilized and polite manner.
the problem is when you make the story as depressing as possible I no longer believe the rainbows and hugs as a logical end of the story as opposed to the author simply deciding it's time to put in the happy ending
3084413
And it was about the reveal that what we saw WASN'T all there was to dark world, the dragons and changelings were still free, and didn't belong to Discord, and the mane six could still be saved.