Excuses Given For Slash Fics

Over the last year or so, I've read hundreds of fics on this site. Most of them were good, a lot were silly, and a few were some of the best fiction I've ever read. Often, the last topped that which has been written by professional writers.

And then there are the slash fics.

Now, I know that there have been posts against this before, most notably by RealityCheck; however, my views on what defines a slash fic are a great deal more literary and less defined than his. And this is not to say that some slash fiction isn't enjoyable; most clop falls under that category as well, and there's some of that that's pretty decent.

No, I have real standards as to what makes a good fic. And there are a few things that some authors have done that have caused me to label them as slash fiction.

The biggest pet peeve I have is when some writer uses some flimsy scene as justification for their story, then use said scene to make the characters go as OOC as possible. Then they try and use the AU tag as justification as to why their characters are OOC

No world building, which doesn't take much. No explanation. One or two scenes to establish the theme, then straight into the OOC.

Just so you know, the AU tag is a flimsy excuse to write an OOC main character. That is not what it is for, in my opinion.

Now, I know that I and others have written the main characters in ways that would seem out-of-character. However, in both cases, great effort has been done to try and keep their personalities intact. And when those change, the change is documented over several scenes.

Now I know that there is such a thing as one pivotal event that sets an individual down a path of darkness. Or at least, that's what people believe. I don't buy it personally; after all, Rome wasn't built in a day. No, one event can start a person on a steep decline, but it and of itself is not enough to set them up for a fall.

This is even more true in fiction, especially fimfiction. I get that people have ideas for fictions that are more realistic, but that's missing the point. Not only that, it defines the pinnacle of slash fiction; the desire to make a nasty, tawdry piece of garbage that brings out the very worst in humans.

Whenever a writer tries to mix ponies with something like Daxter- which I absolutely abhor, no matter who he's killing; makes no difference, as he's still a sociopath -they get something like Cupcakes. And that invariably involves Pinkie Pie.

Granted, there are times where real life events are thrown at the main characters that actually work. Again, great effort has been taken to keep them in-character as much as possible.

If I were to enumerate the litany of faults in this form of fimfiction, this would be one long blog. I'll just list the top tropes that are abused the most.

1. Out-of-character characters. I've already explained this one, but it bears repeating; making characters that do actions that they otherwise wouldn't do, but showing them struggle with said actions don't count.

2. Bringing real world violence into a story as a flimsy way to push the story along. Now, there are a few fics that have done this that were tolerable; however, there was a great deal of world-building prior to this point, and afterward, the way they deal with said events moves the story along.

3. Killing main characters off in a senseless, violent way. Not as part of a story progression, but simply as justification for later scenes. This is a personal pet peeve, as I find crap like this supremely disrespectful to the spirit of the show. I've given down votes to fics because of just this point; one of them was an otherwise well-written Twishy fic that I down voted simply because Spike was brutally murdered. There at least needs to be a greater reason than just to make Twilight sad, and something that is so obviously trite has no business being in fimfiction.

4. Clop for the sake of clop, with OC's that are obvious self-inserts. Now, I'm not bashing clop, as there is some out there that I do read. However, I steer away from Humanxpony because most of that is just needless, senseless bestial porn. I really only go for it when it's part of a greater story.

5. Cupcakes. Need I say more?

6. Equestrian Trainers Society. This one would be higher, except I don't even bother with stories like this. I don't even like anime that features this sort of thing, unless it's in such a way as where the bad guy gets his/hers in the end. I also don't like this sort of thing because if it were in real life, the individuals would be arrested. And in some countries, writing this kind of fiction can get you arrested.

7. Mary/Gary Stus. This one needs no further explanation.

I'm starting to get tired of seeing the AU tag as an excuse to write a poorly executed piece of fimfiction. If you have an idea for something like that, run it by someone before writing it. Chances are, you will be able to write a much better story.

For those of you that like these sorts of things, by all means- read them all you want. Criticize me for my opinions all you want as well; I just wanted to get this off my chest.

But if you want to accuse me of writing slash fiction myself, at least read a few chapters of my stories first. I do my level best to try and remain as in-character as possible.

That's more than can be said for the majority of slash fiction, be it fimfiction or tawdry table-side books.