Hello everypony, this is a thread basically discussing how I feel about the cliches of MLP fanfics. Now I know that were was a thread a while back listing all the cliches, but this is how I feel about them. Let's get started shall we?

I don't necessarily hate cliches, as sometimes there are moments where you may feel uncreative at times about how you should approach certain situations. Cliches aren't by all means bad, but annoying. I enjoy Cliches if they are done in a creative way. Let's say we take the whole "Celestia is a goddess (which she isn't) and therefore she knows everything about every species, and race, and world that ever existed" cliche for a moment. This isn't a terrible cliche (unless you call her a goddess that basically already knows what's happening or what the situation is), if you know how to approach it. How would Celestia know about humans? Or their world for that matter? Did she happen to stumble upon something from their world that explained their history, such as...I don't know, a history book of some kind? Did something from an alternate dimension happen to appear in Equestria, thus sparking her interest into looking for parallel universes or other dimensions?

This is actually my most despised cliche that people abuse the fuck out of (as far as I have seen). Nobody tends to be creative about it, but just assume that because she is a "god-like" entity (emphasis on god-like), she already knows, or has known.

I digress from the real topic at hand. Keep in mind that I don't hate cliches so much that they should be done away with. Just be creative with it.

How about the whole cliche where the human character gets bucked by Applejack? Okay we established that humans aren't a creature that have been seen in Equestria before. Okay good start there. Now what is the ACTUAL REASON for her attack? "Oh I was scared that it was a monster trying to harm my family." Oh my god can't you be anymore unoriginal? Have the reason be that the Human character was stealing from the farm or something! I don't know...YOU decide that! Or better yet, the human was in a panic and struck first because he/she thought they were going nuts, or is nuts, something like that. I might get back lash for this, but this is just from what I have read some fics so far. It seems to be a trend on other fiction sites. Plus this is just a suggestion to make the situation a little more believable. I hope you guys understand what I am trying to get at by this point.

All in all, cliches aren't terrible, but just misused. Or rather used too much. Cliches are good if you need something to help kick-start your story, but don't keep planting them in there throughout the whole entire story. It gets old really quick, and I get agitated by it really fast. I should say that a lot of us here get agitated by it, really fast.

We all want to avoid the cliches, but sometimes it is inevitable. Don't let that bring you down, just kick it in the balls and tell them whose daddy! Because you have the power to turn that cliche into an actual, believable situation. I could do YT videos about this, or do livestreams, but I don't get the viewership to do something like that.

If you like to use cliches in your stories, that's fine. BUT PLEASE...AND I MEAN! FOR FUCK SAKE........please don't hop on the bandwagon and use the cliche just because you think it works the way it is. I hate it, it makes me want to give bad reviews, and give you a dislike on your story. Which I hate doing!

I would like to hear your thoughts about what I had to say here. Also, tell us how you truly feel about the cliches. Don't be afraid to hold back. Just go all out. Jake, out!

1134021 I think we should all just write more stories where the ponies do drugs and have trippy adventures

1134028

Are you kidding? Or are you serious? Because the internet can't determine that :)

1134028 Ponies on Shrooms!

1134031 It's Regidar, for Chrissakes.. He can joke and be serious at the same time.

1134031 I never kid
except when I do

All in all, cliches aren't terrible, but just misused. Or rather used too much.

Erm... yeah... that's kinda why they are cliches. Also what you are describing aren't cliches but tropes. (cliches are very broad, while a trope is a very specific situation)

Tropes and cliches have a very important role in fiction, they are the glue that keeps a story together. Only through cliches the reader can access the situation, allowing him to fill in the details that the author had to leave out due to constraints (volume, lentgh etc.).
That being said, if you use to much cliches the story becomes uninteresting cause the reader allready knows what's going to happen. As a author your goal is to achieve a balance between well known, and new twists to make the story good.

PS: Just ignore Regidar, he'll go away once he grows bored.

1134037

Point. But I guess I was just pointing some situations that the cliches are associated with. They annoy me a lot.

1134039 Only one thing you can do then. Write a better story. :P

1134021
I completely agree with you. Though a lot of people clearly don't like it, I try to be creative with my writing. I also have a massive hatred for Goddess Celestia as anyone who has ever read my blogs (1134035) can attest to.
1134028
But they don't need drugs to go on trippy adventures, all they need is magic and friendship and shit. Then again, I wanna see a fic where the ponies smoke fruit bats.
Now that I think about it, I just seem to have a massive desire to see any fic where the ponies abuse fruit bats in some way... They're almost like fluffy ponies.

1134046 except fruitier!

1134059
Smoothies anyone?

1134028

1134065 oh yeah Lyra you suck that cup

1134072 I think I just evolved

1134078

Into what...?

1134081 into Regidork

I always went with that Celestia/Luna/Discord were gods in the Greco-Roman sense. Those gods had their rears handed to them on an almost regular basis due to arrogance and were often outsmarted. As for HiE the only reason she knows about humans is that the main character was not the first to arrive.

As for the Applejack kicking something because she is scared for her family, that is so out of character. Yes she would try to protect them, and it could be written well. The most obvious way would be to have the human and Applebloom become friends and then have AJ arrive. She reads the situation wrong and thinks the human is threatening AB so she "saves" her.

1134021
What about when rainbow dash dive-bombs the human going half the speed of sound?

and lets say the character isn't a human? What if he's the ambassador of the jabberwocks on his way to Canterlot when suddenly *BAM* side-swiped by rainbow dash/ bucked by Apple Jack. attacking an ambassador is an act of treason.

Celestia: how was the journey here, ambasssador?

Jabberwock: it was going well until some CRETIN assaulted me!

and then apple jack and/or rainbow dash spent the rest of their lives in prison

1134085
holy shit, i feel like an idiot. until now i've always read your username as "Redigar

It's a lot more fun to satirize cliches than to use them seriously. As such, I hope the community keeps doing it to give me more fuel for my psychotic, random ramblings.

1134028 dude serously not cool drugs are dangerous and very bad if you over dose on them.

Here're the cliches I don't like:
Human obsessed Lyra
Gamer Luna
Scootaloo being an orphan
Applejack's parents being dead

1134021 dude not all human fanfics are like that, I'm not and do not write my human fic that way....well I guess it all depens on the story line of the story and besides it doesn't bother me if there are cliches in stories or there are errors made. It does not bother me as long as I can understand what's happening through out the story and why it happens.

And as for Celestia being a goddess well everypony is In titled to thier opion .

Also I don't care what misstakes are throught a story as long as I can enjoy reading it.

And dude don't dislike a story because it has errors, only dislike it if you don't like how the story turned out.

Basically what I'm saying is next time you read a Mlp fanfic, read with an open mind and don't push the dis like button right away.

1134021 I completely agree with everything you said, but especially the stuff about Applejack bucking the human. There's no reason for her to do that! She's not some xenophobic hick who bucks first and asks questions never.

If anything, she'd probably be the first one to introduce herself! In fact, I did just that in my story. Applejack FTW

Yes I know the cliches and try to avoid them, in my story Humans are the last creation from before Discord turned to stone first time. Headcanon Parasprites also creation from him.

1134185

point :O

1134141

Okay that first part of your comment, that actually seems believable. However the whole misunderstanding thing kind of turns me off. Then again, it is one of those inevitable moments. It is a believable situation, so I can't really bitch about it all the way. As long as there's a way of being creative with it, or if the person really had no choice I can't really complain. If that whole misunderstanding situation with applejack actually is my biggest complaint, then there isn't much for me to complain about. Especially that.

1134189

1134492 dude seriously not cool drugs are dangerous and very bad if you over dose on them and don't get to read the comments right

1134640

How did you get your profile name by the way? I also like your pic. I have never seen someone use a jinjo as their picture before :)

1134031>>1134028
you have apparently not met Regidar

1137051

by this point, I don't really care xD

1136220 Mix a love of Banjo-Kazooie with a night of drinking and subsequent hangover and... well, I think you can figure out the rest.

Kind of just came to me really.

1137073

1134492 Exactly! That's why marijuana is used as medicine in some hospitals!