"Baptism of Flurry Heart" Backlash and Apology · 7:05pm Aug 9th, 2016
To my fellow readers and writers,
I want to apologize to all of you for the trouble I caused with my recent story "The Baptism of Flurry Heart." Rather than creating an innocent story that deals with the continuation of the season six premiere, I created a story that caused anger and frustration among you by including the Catholic faith. I wanted to bring a little bit of faith into my stories, but as it turns out this was not the way to do it. I want to remind all of you that as of this moment on, except for two of my stories that feature Jesus Christ, there will be no more stories that feature religion or politics at ANY TIME whatsoever. You guys deserve better than this and I know that I can do better do.
As you can tell from my avatar, I manage autism and sometimes there are things that I don't understand about fully, religion being one of them. I am not someone who will take sacred issues and drag them through the mud, because that is not what I do. I create stories that will enlighten, entertain and inspire others.
However, what is important is that we cannot dwell on the past. We must focus on the positive and move on with the good in our lives. We are all human and we make mistakes. When we mistakes, we learn from them and we make sure that it doesn't ever happen again. All I wanted to do was to create a fanfic that focuses on a major celebration related to Flurry Heart. However, what I have planned is being the first alicorn to be born natural, I will have Flurry Heart be crowned as a princess in a big grand coronation ceremony.
If I promise you all that I will never do something like this again, I ask you in return to find it in your hearts to forgive me for what I have done and let us move on to continue spreading the magic of friendship, because that is what we storytellers do.
TwilightSparkle3562
You really can't let others deture you from your own stories. Ignore them, write for you, if they don't like it, they don't have to read it.
4140828 I am aware of that. However, some genres can accept Catholic values and some can't.
I for one, enjoyed the first chapter. Though I must agree that was a bold move to write on a religious matter.
I understand how you feel. They labeled me as "racist" some time ago because I included a gypsy in one of my stories and until I set things up it stopped having backslash from the audience and critics.
Don't let that affect you for a second, write whatever you want. If only I have the chance to read it. Sorry.
4140830 Its the same for me, I got lots of downthumbs because I have stallionXstallion shipping in my story.
Nothing to apologize for, man. Just Kurwa - you taken some of us [most?] aback with this stuff.
4140851 Which is not what I intend to do in any way, I can assure you of that.
4140878 You are writing what implies you want people to read your works. It's obvious. But the baptism thing was too much. The thing abaut Ponies is that re-make evrything in their image and not "localizing" stuff in "Pony.exe" isn't as cool as otherwize.
4140883 Exactly that. I need to know what values can be placed in an MLP fanfic and what values cannot.
I Never read the story, so you won't hear my opinion except for that I won't hate on you for trying to do a Christian Story. If I did, then I would be horrified by myself.
But there's a new story called "The Coronation of Flurry Heart" that's on your list, which makes me believe you've already started rebooting it. Are you?
4140919 Yes, but I linked this blog to the author's notes. You will not see any religious aspects in the redo at all.
4140921 K then.
I dont understand why people would get mad, its just religion
The reaction to your story was pretty childish.
4140977 Well, it was critical to some and childish to some. If I want constructive feedback, give me constructive feedback. Otherwise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGt9jAkWie4
While I didn't get to see any of the comments past my own, and can't speak to whatever hate you got past that point, I want to assure you that it's not necessarily the inclusion of religious values, or Catholic values, that was the trouble. It was a matter of the execution, the manner in which they were brought up and added in, and what lacked in the process. The key issue is that the addition seemed artificial and even propaganda-like, similar to a religious tract, and that soured folks. There's still plenty of potential for portraying the values you hold dear in fanfiction or the fantasy genre in general, but it will be easier with a softer hand and a more subtle approach. Or, alternately, with an even more blatant crossover. To elaborate on the latter for the fun of it, having Catholic ponies could make sense and even make for interesting stories in alternate universes of various sorts, but that would need to be handled entirely differently - first and foremost by world-building. Further, that sort of thing would be best received as an exploration and analysis, a contrasting of typical pony views or values, rather than as a statement of "this is right and as it should be" (which is often seen as unrealistic at best). And it would still need a proper story and characters; Catholicism or its values could be a set-piece or contribute themes, but it's not a story alone.
To put it another way, "Twilight Gets Confirmed and So Should You!" would not make for good reading, while things like "The Crusades of Twilight Sparkle" or "Twilight in the Renaissance" are still overt yet lend themselves more easily to storytelling and could be quite interesting.
4141243 Absolutely, this was a learning experience in the highest order. Thanks also, for your positive feedback on the re-write.
4141261
Oh it's no trouble, all I had to do was be honest. I'm impressed with how quickly you came up with the rewrite, and everything I'd been concerned about in the first fic was fixed in the overhaul; most importantly, the character interaction feels much more natural and evokes interest. It's great to see both not just that lessons were learned but also that that you've not giving up; taking it as a learning experience and moving on is a very good thing.
Honestly, I'd say write what you want. These are your stories. It's always good to acknowledge and consider honest feedback, and if you portray something in a way that someone thinks is unfair then sure, it's worth discussing with them; it's how we learn! In the end though, you'll never please everyone, and you probably shouldn't try to.
The internet being what it is, there's always some fraction of the audience that's going to explode.
What you choose to do is your own decision but I have a policy for myself, write what I want. If you allow others to dictate what you write or choose not to write certain things because of backlash, you are simply taking away the enjoyment of writing from yourself. I wound up eventually blocking someone because of their personal attacks over "Rarity's Revenge." You can't please everyone and what matters most is that YOU are happy with your writing. Yeah it is always a wonderful feeling to see good comments and a good positive to negative ratio but as long as you enjoy writing what you write, that is what matters. Stay strong man, don't let the bullies get to you.