Another Annoyance · 1:03am May 31st, 2016
While working on the next chapters of The Thousand Year Change, I decided to take a break and catch up on some fanfics I have wanted to read. Sadly I wasn't too happy an so I'm writing this.
Banishment fanfics!
Now don't get me wrong, I love these kinds of stories. As long as they make sense. Naruto and Bleach gave some of the best examples that highlight how they can work. If you have never heard of one the story works by having the main character being banished but later his or her friends go looking for them. These stories go deep into betrayal, abandonment, and a cap ton of other emotions that can tell an epic story.
One of the problems with doing that in MLP is that they feel rather repetitive. If it's a OC character that character is usually banished due to diplomatic immunity. What's messed up about this is that I have never seen one seems possible. They all seem to have a jerk attacking another in broad daylight or in front of a group of others. In one story I read, a griffin was trying to kill Rainbow Dash in the middle of Ponyville and the one who stopped it got banished. Yeah. What makes this worse is how Celestia and Luna handle it. I wouldn't mind it so much if they defended the Pony or tried something, but they always say they have to banish the OC for the sake of peace. It gets even worse when it's a guard. The stories never address the backlash in these kinds of situations, especially when a member of the night guard is the one banished.
When it happens to Twilight it's even worse. All the stories I have read shows this happening after the wedding. So, it gets a little boring but I can live with that. The problems come from the fact that Twilight is one of the ELEMENTS. So basically Celestia is banishing one of the only ponies who can activate the ultimate weapon. But even then what annoys me to no end is what happens after. The best part of any Banishment story is when the characters meet up again. However the stories I have read just do the blame game even when the rest of the mane six comes looking for. But rather than face the betrayal and admit what they did or anything, they all act like jerks.
I think a good story with this premise should deal with the hurt feelings. Like having Twilight who has been waiting for years to come back only to find out that she's been brought back to deal with a problem and showing the hurt she's feeling.
Like you said, the main problem with the Twilight banishment fics is that they make no sense from the get go. And too often the writers of those fics tend to go the friendship is magic route to eventually fix things, and never really touch on the emotions anypony is feeling. I've read some halfway decent attempts at it, but I can never really wrap my brain around the banishment in the first place.
Ugh. There are some TERRIBLE banishment ones. I think one of the worst was "Twilight is banished after having to kill Chrysalis because no one would listen" or some other obvious "Twilight does something out of character but for a believable enough reason and everyone else is mind-numbingly dumb."
I think the biggest problem is part and parcel of why tragedy and even most sad stories in fanfiction for MLP and similar properties fail hard (IMO): They go for cheap shots that require mass stupidity and OOCness. From everyone. I'm not saying there aren't some good tragedies, and it's easier to do sad ones, especially if you assume, oh, Fluttershy has some kind of "I want my beloved to be happy" deal going on. But people want to shoehorn them into situations they don't match, and the good tragedies are almost always big ones because it takes time and work to get the story to the point where it's believable.
To use a recent example, I'm sorry, but I feel no sense of (in the technical meaning) angst or tragic reflection when someone writes that Scoots has been homeless on the streets or squatting for three years because it makes no sense that it be that way. And another one had Minuette basically be able to see deathtimers and hear alarms when they were near-- and not only was that it, but her cutie mark, which is supposedly the sum of her personal drives, goals, and skills, was the sign of it. I'm not even going to go into how OOC Celestia was in there.
Real tragedy, and really, any kind of serious conflict like banishment only works if you make enough negotiations with or offerings to the readers' suspensions of disbelief. Most of these don't. Most of them are about as believable as "Twilight shot herself in the head because her secret love for Sassy Saddles could never be fulfilled. She survived, but was forced onto a prison chain gang for firing a gun without a license in city limits." Which I could see as black nonsense comedy, I guess? But you're not going to get me to believe it, and if I don't believe it's the characters you're expecting me to care about... I'm not going to.
Which is I suppose the other thing: AU, sure, and out of characterness for a story purpose has its place, but one of the things about fanfics, especially shortfic or in media res ones is that we borrow characters and attachments not merely from the owners, but from the minds of the readers as well. It's not deep or "subverting expectations" if it doesn't mesh there; it's just lame.
So yeah-- in a banishment story, you'd have to spend time building up a believable cause, a believable sentencing, and then the believable consequences and actions. I don't think most of the people who write these are willing to do so.
I find it difficult to read banishment fics mostly because they tax the suspension of disbelieve past the point of breaking.
Celly banishing Sunset sounds more and more like it was a miscommunicated forced sabbatical rather than actual exile.
And Banishing Twilight would require some pretty hefty crimes to justify.
Or an ancient nonsensical situational binding legal mandate.
(Sorry Twilight, gotta banish you for ridiculous offense X, otherwise Y occurs due to treaty Z I signed before your ancestors were a glimmer in the world's eye. To be honest, I never thought tapioca pudding and marmalade would be involved in a diplomatic incident though...)
Eh, there is this one Twilight banishment fic starting up...
Except she wasn't actually banished.
She was kicked out of the wedding as normal and no one bothered to correct that issue when the dust settles.
So a rather confused and upset Twilight wanders off feeling rejected while no one notices because they are try to salvage a looted city.
Its a weird segue into a Twilight gets stuck in EQG under Sunset's care, and there is a LOT of muddled miscommunication.
The author seems to have bitten a lot more than they planned to chew, though.
I've only read one banishment fic and though it hasn't ststrf ehst happened yet as it littrlru starts with her falling to her death (alah Megamind) then jumps back to her retelling ehst happens from.getting bansishrd. One of the reason then story has interest is that it is set in an AU equestria so the rules can be a bit nudged and characters relationships tweeked to male the banishemt believable (such as Twilight not being the keys to a super weapons that is kind of important) and such.
I think one of the better ways to do a banishment fic is to crest an AU Equestria because the reason I already said as it gives you the freedom to actullu pull it off if you are running with the mane six being banished though then you have to do some world building to male it all make sense and such.
3985295 Do we have any indication that Sunset Shimmer was banished in canon? I thought she just skipped town.
3985534
It is assumed through unreliable narrator that she got in a fight with Celestia and was removed from the castle.
And instead of complying she beelined for the active mirror.
At no point do they outright STATE Sunset was forever banished from Celestia's tutelage.
In fact they heavily hint it was more of a "take a walk to cool off" type of removal, taken extremely out of context.
Seriously, Canon Celestia's been handing out "Get out of jail free" cards for 6 seasons.
I find it difficult to believe Sunset gets the shaft for lip, when Glimmer gets a promotion for breaking time.
3985582 Huh. Is this stated elsewhere than in EqG 1? I don't remember it ever even being that well defined, and I guess I'll have to go check again.
3985586 THIS is the only "canon" scene where it is vaguely spoken of.
"Turned cruel and pursued her own path."
Even then it indicates Sunset would have been welcome to come back if not for the grand larceny thing.
Edit: Apparently Celestia did outright say it in the comics. Which are dubious in continuity.
Still not sure how ironclad it was supposed to be.
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/5/5c/MLP_Annual_2013_page_7.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140322055848
I think that very well is this subject pictured in Upheaval series from Visiden Visidane
if you don't know Upheaval, peeps, try it, it is epic work that makes you reconsider what you know, and it made not only own backstory but also history myths and universe around
I second the recommendation for Upheaval: Breaking Point. You may or may not want to follow the sequels (and side stories) but the first one is rock solid.
You may also want to try Echoing Silence which deals with the exact issues you were talking about. There is one major sticking point — the characters are
almostclinically retarded when it comes to reading between the lines. There is also one red flag that isn’t; it’s all too easy to assume (especially considering the characters’ inability to read between the lines) that Celestia is a horrible pony in this story. She’s not but the elephant in the room isn’t talked about until about the seventh or eighth chapter, some 35,000 words into the story.