There`s been a lot of talk about pet peeves we have as authors. But we`re not just authors, we`re also readers. So, what pet peeves do we have as readers?

N.B. - I`m not talking about dislike for specific genre or pairing here. I`m talking about plot clichés, conventions and mechanical errors that immediately make you foam at the mouth.

For example...

I loathe to see "Read to find out" in summary. I absolutely hate it, when it`s the only thing in the summary.

I dislike miscommunication as a plot-driving device. When used in moderation, it`s fine - in fact, a plot revolving around an honest mistake can be unbelievably captivating. But many authors neglect to exercise restraint and crank the miscommunication up to eleven, generously handing out idiot balls to characters just to prolong the misunderstanding. There`s a certain line past which no suspension of disbelief can be maintained.

While we`re on the topic, I generally dislike it when author suddenly parts with common sense in the middle of story. Until a certain point, everything goes fine, story is interesting, characters behave in plausible and reasonable ways - and then suddenly, an idiocy is committed, and NONE of the characters comment on it. None even care to take notice of it - the glaringly idiotic action is left unchallenged and characters suffer it`s consequences without ever daring to call the perpetrator out on it.

I`m sure I`ll remember more of my reading pet peeves as the ranting continues... So rant away, people. Let`s hear what you hate to read in your daily munch of electronic words.

'No bad comments plz.'
'First fic' isn't great either, especially if someone uses that as justification as to why it's not good.

374207

Hear, hear. Those little notes make my blood boil. Damnit, if you know your stuff sucks, don`t beseech people to pretend it`s good enough - fix it instead!

374208 I actually used 'first fic' myself... and then told my readers to tell me if they wanted the story destroyed for poor quality. They didn't.

My biggest pet peeve, as an author is bull crap comments where people talk about t.v. shows and such that have nothing to do with mlp, or my story! In each chapter, I clearly state "no bull crap comments, please!" but yet there is always that single person who doesn't read it and comments on anything and everything else that has NOTHING to do with the story.

I'd have to say I only got one real pet peeve. Every time I see it either in the summery, or just pretty heavly implied, it kinda makes my eye twitch. Human in Equestria stories have it in abound. It's the "Man, this world sucks, people suck, and I think Equestria is perfect I wish people were nicer," syndrome.

I hate it when Equestria is turned into this Mary Sue topia, where a characters dreams are handed to him on mountains of ice cream. I've always envisioned the place being more or less like earth; there are jerks, monsters, and, on occasion, a bit of magic.

Bad English.
Well, that or psychic characters. If nopony told somepony about an event she didn't attend, she doesn't know about it, period. If somepony thinks something, then she must first tell the others before they can know about it, dammit!

If I have to name a third, Mary Sue alicorn self-insertion OCs.

As a fourth, misunderstandings where the whole story revolves around something that is misconcepted as sexual but is completely innocent. I mean, there's much fun to be had with that kind if it's well executed, but there's just so many of them that I can now smell that kind ten miles against the wind.

374221 An annoyance to me as well.

374207 I know what you mean when you say "bad comments". It's not bad comments I hate. It's just stupid comments. Stuff that has little to no relation to your story. Comments that shouldn't even be considered comments; Just spurts of the mouth! I can take negative comments like "it was rushed" or "it escalated too quickly". Those are alright. You know what I'm talking about?

374229 Well, yes, I do, but I've never really recieved any comments of that sort myself.

While I do not see this often and it doesn't really detract from the story itself, it strikes me as odd when someone says something along the lines of 'don't worry, this is not a self-insert'.
We shouldn't have to 'worry' about that now, do we? It should be explicitly mentioned if the main character is a self-insertion, but otherwise, why mention it at all? While it is true that many self-inserts are at best, mediocre (like mine), I can't understand why people find that necessary.

374230 I have! Sometimes, it starts off serious but then, somebody comments on his comment; Anyways... Then you wake up the next day and you have, like 20-30 notifications. (This has happened to me before) You go and see that almost all the notifications is from a story that you haven't updated for at least two days. You go in and it's a discussion between 2-3 people talking about bull crap! I mean, it was about monty python for crying out loud! I'm like really? really?

374241 Wish I ever woke up with that many notifications. Now that I think of it, I've recieved two pointless comments. One about some guy's cat, and another acknowledging a reference another commentor made, but that one was kind of relevant.

Terribly rushed pacing.

Under-developed, one dimensional villains.

Mary Sue/Gary Stu syndrome.

Weakling ponies (particularly the mane 6...)

Consistently bad grammar/spelling.

Blatant misanthropy ("Humans are the real monsters").

But I think almost everyone hates those. A pet peeve that is particular to me, albeit a very minor one, is when an author makes the ponies seemingly weigh like 40 lbs. A real 3.5 foot tall Shetland pony weighs 450 lbs.

Now, I don't expect people to write in that Twilight weighs 300 lbs or anything... but, for god's sake, your scrawny, bullied, teenage self-insert shouldn't be lugging them around like they're Corgis! And he/she certainly doesn't present an actual, physical threat to the creatures whose first instinct when faced with a giant manticore was to charge in and buck it in the face.

374244 I've Gotten tons of bull crap comments. But, what are you going to do? I just give them a warning that in 15 minutes, I will delete all bull crap comments and leave it at that. then they ask why, and I tell them to read the first comment of each chapter. 5 minutes later they usually say "whoops! Sorry, didn't see that." and I'm like "yea... I KNOW!" It really gets under my skin. But I digress.

374250 Some of those pet peeves are actually in my story "the stallion without a mark." But it's still a really good story in some people's eyes. Though... You might think differently.

374250 Weakling ponies! I second that notion. If anything, they're all very strong combatants. Except maybe Rarity. Fluttershy's Stare is powerful. Rainbow's extreme speed causes tons of damage, and that's making no mention of her apparent durability. Applejack's kicks are very, very strong, and she's about as hardy as Rainbow. Twilight? I don't even have to explain how badass Twilight's powers are. Pinkie? I don't know, but that agility and party cannon would definitely help in a fight. But Rarity? I dunno, but TK is powerful in and of itself. Also, she's got a horn which could be used as a weapon in a pinch. This assumes you're talking about ponies being weak in combat, though.

In my stories, a weakling self-insert character pushes Rainbow off of him twice (no, not what it sounds like, she's trying to kill him--it makes sense in context, okay? And no, it's not because she hates humans), I reason that pegasi are simply lighter because they have to be able to fly, and also that the character was experiencing an adrenaline rush in both instances.

What I hate is when a show character is turned evil just because and it's not set in an Alternative universe and it is something meant to be taken seriously. Yes I get it that it can be interesting to see a character turn sides, but I need a bloody good reason before I buy it. Magic? Mind Control? Magic Mind control? Snapped mind after years of torture? Something? Just give me something.

Even an evil alternative double has to have some reason why in his or her universe he or she turned evil. I love alternative universes but even so I do not let that be a short cut just to have the characters different. I need reasons before I accept, even if it's only mildly implied, that's at least better than "evil just because it's an alternative universe."

And I also hate the "Humans are the EVIL."

I hate it when stories don't add actual physics and reality into certain things. And when they do, they get it all wrong.

374213

There`s actually a separate thread for things that annoy us as authors. In this one, I would like to concentrate attention on what annoys us as readers - and hopefully, accumulate some of the definite "do not"s for public perusal.

374221

Mary Sue the world, eh? Yes, annoying as hell. I mean, if you were a loser on Earth, what makes you think you`ll do any better in Equestria?

374227

I would say that Mary Sues are pretty bad in general. Didn`t include it in my original post because I thought they`re universally hated as is.

374240

Because in 99% cases, "don`t worry, this is not self-insert" means the story contains a Mary Sue of worst kind.

374250

Good points. I`d probably have an issue with weakling ponies too, but I abjectly hate all of HiE notions, so I haven`t encountered this particular peeve blatantly enough to make me notice.

374282 sorry, just pointing it out.

I hate reading a story with a wonderful idea that is executed with the grace and tact of a raging bull.

374316

Ah, That`s certainly grating. Personally, I tend to rewrite the story if I like the idea but hate the execution. Most of this stuff stays buried on my hard drive, but some of the rewrites were liked by original authors, and so they are floating on the net somewhere.

374316

Guilty as charged, friend.

A pet peeve of mine is when the Main 6 are called "The Elements of Harmony". They are NOT the Elements, but the bearers of the Elements. Or else Celestia would have been Harmony in and of itself while Luna was trapped in the moon. Yeah...but maybe that's just me?

374467 I think referring to the bearers of the Elements as the Elements themselves is canon, as I believe I recall it being said. Could be wrong.

374467 374494

I'm of the opinion that the Elements of Harmony are just strong essences of magic that live in their bearers, and the physical objects are channels for that magic (much like a unicorn's horn).

As for a pet peeve, it completely shakes me when people have a description that has more effort put into it than the story itself. If the description reflects the story in poor effort, it won't earn a dislike from me because I won't read it in the first place. A good description with a mediocre story makes me irate and disappointed.

374467

Ostensibly, Elements of Harmony are bound to their bearers for life, thus making the pony as much of an element as the corresponding jewelry. Also, we don`t know how exactly the elements were used by Celestia against Nightmare Moon the first time. It could be that elements were bound to six different ponies back then.

On a side note, whenever someone writes "seventh element", I see red. No, damnit, just no. Why the bloody hell one needs another element? How could any kind of harmony be achieved if there was one more element that was missing?

374494>>374499

On the whole "Elements" thing: I understand why most people write it as they do, it just kind of bugs me. I would go into more detail on it, but that would take too long and be very boring.

Another pet peeve? Gary Stew/Mary Sue. I know it's already been mentioned, but it bugs me like nothing else.

I just recalled one more pet peeve of mine that makes me cringe.

Ponies being thrifty. I can understand subplots that deal with money. Hell, it`s a canon that Applejack is trying to make some extra dough to afford a treatment for her grandma. However, and this is a big however, it pisses me off whenever someone pictures ponies as being either cheap to extreme (One rather egregious example is Rainbow Dash asking for the cheapest there is in brothel. Which turns out to be Applejack. ) or very clueless about how much money they have on them (More then a few situations where pony in question attempts to purchase something and lacks exactly one bit to cover the price or something similar - used as a device to inject "a moment of kindness", even if it does not contribute anything to the story per ce.)

374250
Interesting view on the weight of ponies. I tend to put them around 150+ for their size. I wonder if that's enough.

As for me, I don't know why, but when Applejack is made into an overbearing living lie-detector. Am I wrong in it? I don't know.

374514 As a person guilty of such stupidity myself, I see why people do that (other than for wish fulfullment, which is something I tried to avoid. My success is subjective), I mean, making another Element for their SI/OC/whatever. It's to make a character more important, to give them a connection to the main cast, or other such silly things. As to what Element is being added, either there could be secondary Elements, ones created for a very specific purpose, or some bull like simply another Element, like the 'Element of Will Power' or 'Element of Hope'. Usually it's the latter, and usually it's awful. Makes me cringe too.
Sturgeon's Law is proven right in this case yet again, and nearly all such stories are rediculous, including my own. I make no attempt to shield myself with reasoning, it's a bad idea to give an OC (or even a background character) an Element, unless there's a damn good reason. And even then, it's a good idea not to, I agree.

374530
That was Jack/Off, right?

Also, I see the 'Elements of Harmony' as a title, perhaps an entity, as well as objects. These Elements choose their bearers, and those bearers gain the title 'Element of _____'. As an entity, well, that's speculation.

374537

The problem is not in identity of pony that gets the element. The problem is that author introduces seventh element, which is supposedly an equal and important part of harmony on par with other six.

This COULD be accelerated into story. Examining on the darkest implications that some of the Equestrian customs suggest and ultimately painting a picture of dysfunctional utopia made so by mad goddess by removing one of the necessary parts of harmony that allows advancement of civilization in cohesion with others.

The problem is that I haven`t seen a single fic mentioning the seventh element which treats this element as anything but a ticket to join Mane 6 on equal footing.

374541

Bingo. I`ve been interested by the premise, but Rainbow`s incredible thriftiness had driven me off the story firmly.

374548
I'm surprised I even remember that story. I'm also surprised that you can get driven off of a story for just that.

Also, if you stopped reading, it apparently wasn't a brothel.

374557

You see, it`s... extremely out of character for Rainbow Dash, of all ponies, to be thrifty. Rainbow Dash is boastful and prideful. She wouldn`t be caught dead admitting to lacking the money. Her natural response would be to disparage whatever it is she can not afford, and to bend over backwards earning money just to blow it in one blaze of glory when she finally gets to the aforementioned brothel.

In fact, Applejack herself is the pony most likely to openly admit something`s too expensive for her or ask for cheaper option.

Details like that make or break the story. I couldn`t continue reading because I kept facepalming at Rainbow`s unnatural behavior. It`s unseemly to ask for cheapest in brothel.

___

Speaking of which, ponies committing social faux pas when they REALLY should have known better also piss me off. Vinyl Scratch suffers this treatment quite often, and Lyra gets her share as well. But still, DJ Pon-3 is the one who gets the worst of it, two barrels, point-blank. She`s often paired with Octavia, and just as often is pictured putting Octavia`s employment chances or her relationship with parents in danger by behaving as if she was born in cave and lived there her whole life.

374569

Yes! Being out of character in a small, but noticeable, way really throws me for a loop too.

It ticks me off when Rainbow Dash is portrayed as a lesbian for no good reason, or something like that. Maybe it's because of my headcanon being mostly synchronized with show canon, but I don't like that notion. Or any notion of pony sexuality, for that matter. But when a perfectly good adventure randomly has Rainbow as a lesbian, it's a turn-off for me. I have no problems with homosexuals, indeed, I have never met one I disliked as a person, but...
If I wanted to read a shipfic, I'd go read a shipfic. Romance doesn't add anything to a story for me, it just seems like... filler, unless it's the point of the story, in which case I find those stories to mostly be view- and thumb-grabs with completely predictable, cookie-cutter storylines. Ever compare two Octa-Scratches? Or two AppleDashes? They're like the same story in different words most of the time. (With exceptions, of course.) And they're still popular. Kind of bugs me to see that. Where's the originality?
No offense to writers of such, I just don't like it.

I come off as rude and biased, but that's how I think of that matter.

Wait- I forgot an important one. In most cases of this, I get really annoyed. Few of it, I can stand because it's well written/used. And fortunately, use of it has kind of dwindled a bit:

Let's kill Rainbow Dash! Poor RD. Most fanfic deaths out there.

374581

Ineptly delivered ship is indeed less then pleasant. The devil is in the details, as they say, and many a ship lacks exactly that. It could have been interesting if it explained things, or worked the romance from psychology angle or something. But a fair number of fics don`t go further then "omg, they love each other".

However, romance delivered as a part of bigger story can have it`s charms - IF author is skilled enough to make it an integral part of story instead of sidestory-like thing that can be read separately without any loss or effort.

374583

Well, Rainbow Dash is usually killed off in a reasonable manner, at least. A victim of accident or serial killer or something equally abrupt. Fluttershy, on other hand? When authors decide to kill her off, the sap, it overwhelmeth.

374583 374592 I've seen a fanfic, a Digimon crossover, of all things, that just kills all of Ponyville except for the main cast and has Celestia beaten almost to death in an unnecessarily gory way. I did not like it, but had to give it a review as part of the Author Support review team.

So yeah, killing off the ponies is not a thing I like, especially when done in a wanton manner. At the end of my first crossover fic, I killed both of my protagonists. There was a reason for that, though, and nobody complained about it because it made sense in-universe. So it can be done okay, I guess, and it's far easier to pull off when your protagonists are both OCs.

374592
That's why I said most. There are in fact stories that use it very well. There was one story in particular that revolved around the aftermath of such event, and it was especially good. Don't know if the author ever did the rewrite, though.

Here was an interesting situation for me though. A sad fic one-shot. I believe it was about AJ going down everyday to play the guitar. I knew it was because Rainbow died. Never explained how though. Overall, the story was good, but there was this weird feeling that didn't sit right with me because Rainbow died.

374598
I don't have any problem with killing off ponies (even on the main cast) as long as it's executed well. Done right, it can be a good tool and plot device. Especially in the emotions department.

Even though I myself can't drive myself to kill off a main cast character, even if it's very in-context and would work to good effect.

374603

The problem is that killing off a character is a powerful plot move. Too powerful for most authors to handle well. Now, I`m not saying that author absolutely must experience a loss of someone close to veritably describe that kind of situation, but... Many of the authors have nary an idea about reaction to great loss and ways of coping with it. And therefore they create abominable stories that were written with intent to evoke tears, but instead evoke nervous laughter and questions a-la "What did you smoke?" and "Who let the retards out?"

This, by the way, folds neatly into my bigger peeve - authors writing about things they have no bloody idea about. (Guns are commonly maligned objects in that regard, but blatant disregard for people is not uncommon either.) Seriously, if you do not have an extensive knowledge on the matter, if you`re in doubt - fire up your browser, check the wiki at least.

374628
A big second on the unfamiliarity peeve here. So big, that I'm stealth tracking a fic just to see how long I can contain myself from screaming about how inaccurate and nonsensical it is.

Also, I propose an aversion to the 'first fic note' peeve. What if the author is just using it as a note that says that he just wants feedback, and is fairly confident about their story. Example from what I said myself:

"Sweet Celestia, my first fanfic! Throw me your criticisms!"

Sadly, not a single criticism.

374637

Well, the problem with this one is simple - if author is confident enough to ask for criticism, it usually means that story is executed solidly enough to discourage casual criticism.
Usually, the issues brought to attention are bad grammar, bad spelling, glaring logical mistakes in plot or sheer unadulterated suckitude of the fic. All of those things tend to be readily evident to the author as well, and anyone confident to ask for criticism won`t let such obvious things stand.
Or in short - authors who ask for criticism are usually too good to give much to criticize in the story.

374647 Well, that explains a lot, actually.

374647
Well, authors of varying degrees of skill always ask for criticism in their first fic note. In my opinion, what really matters is how you express it (along with the story description, if the note is included with it). It's easy to find two fics that are completely at opposite ends of the scale that was a first fic and asked for criticism, sometimes even saying basically the same thing word for word.

It's annoying when you want secondary opinions to lay down a baseline for you to base your performance on, and there's no response, even though you yourself knows the story is good.

374861 You misspelled principle. Adding on to that, incorrect grammar in titles, like no capitals or punctuation that doesn't fit. Grr.

I hate straw-skeptics in stories, y'know how in supernatural stories there's always this guy who insists that everything has to have a natural explanation, even when the vampire-demons are dancing a merry jig right in front of them? It's easy to make fun of skeptics when you can engineer the world around them to make them wrong.

A more sci-fi related pet-peeve is the "Frankenstein story" Scientist creates a robot or genetically engineered being, the creation turn against their master, and the status quo is reaffirmed. Is that honestly the only science-related story that people can tell?

I kinda get annoyed when people dismiss criticism with "I didn't really put a lot of effort into this," even tough the point I bring up has nothing to do with the scope of the story, like a logical problem or grammar/spelling.

I dont get annoyed by it, but im kidna amused how many popular stories are 2nd person romance fics now. It's like the logical concluion of the whole shipping thing, why bother to choose a character to stand in for you, or even create an OC? just make the main character "you". The first person to find/write a 2nd person romance fic with Iron Will gets a special Owloriffic No-prize!