Love, Hate, Respect of Fanfics · 5:12pm March 14th
Hey guys!
I wanted to make this blog post discussing one very important topic and my overall feelings about it. Fan-fiction and the state it is in currently within the MLP community.
I have a lot of love, hate, and respect for this fandom as a whole and the stories that were written when I first joined were some of the absolute best stories I’ve ever read.
However, to truly understand where I’m going with this blog post, I have to take you back to a younger Pen Dragon before he officially became what you see now.
I joined the fandom in 2013 but I joined the site officially in April of 2014 when I entered high school. Back then I was naive, my writing was shit and grammar was so bad that I was embarrassed of myself back then.
I didn’t know how to write fanfics back then and even though the story isn’t up anymore. My first story was a Dragon Ball z crossover (Also ironic that I bring up that story after Akira Toriyama died earlier this week, but I’ll make a separate post for him later) and it was essentially my first fanfic and I was so excited.
Then I posted it and was met with harsh criticism and I wasn’t expecting that at the time which I should have to be honest. I didn’t space paragraphs properly, I had a lot of spelling errors and so much was wrong with that story that at times I questioned if this was a mistake. Back then I was a little pessimistic but I had the drive to learn and get better.
There were times I wanted to give up on that first story and leave the fandom as a whole. However, there were some kind people who did help me to write and taught me to write properly and whatever you are doing now. I want to say thanks and I am a better writer because of you.
Eventually I did pretty much give up on that dragon ball crossover and started trying to do something different and that’s when I stumbled upon two stories that pretty much directed my attention and writing for the next few years.
A New World, A New Way by: Zeusdemigod131 and Gravity of the Situation by: DJSkywalker
Inspiring me to write my own version of a Displaced story and the rest is history. Where my stories are, more than half of them are Displaced Crossovers and for me in the early days. Writing displaced stories with my friends I’ve met here was always so much fun. For me it was a golden age of writing as so many great stories came out of the woodworks and practically change the fandom forever. Like Fallout Equestria and the fandom spawned within the fandom by Kkat. The Bridge series by Tarbtano who is still to this day building a massive multiverse of Godzilla X MLP to this day.
I can tell you so much about every little detail that happened during my time here, but I’m talking about Fanfics today and the state it is in.
2018 was when the fandom really started to die down and people here were graduating High school, going to college, getting jobs and all that stuff irl. My friends who I was very close to, I rarely speak to them and when I do at most we’ll exchange hellos and ask how the other is doing, if we have the time. I do honestly miss writing with them and if they see this blog, I hope they feel the same.
In the past I tried post a series here but it never drew any attraction and I had to wait it out. In 2019 I posted my Gems Series and managed to complete the first book and had started the second book, trying to make it a memorable trilogy like so many other great stories. However, that never happened and I ended up canceling it altogether sometime in 2020.
During this time I noticed the lack of long running series and mostly successful one-shots or short stories. Nothing wrong with that of course, but any other story aside from a few popular crossover stories and still very long ongoing series that started in the beginning just didn’t have that same passion as it did in the beginning of the fandom. Gen 5 came along and I just couldn’t get into it. It wasn’t the same and I know people love gen 5 and that is fine, but Gen 4 to me is always going to be superior in every way.
For about two years I just stopped writing and focused all my attention during 2020-2022 planning my best story to try and hopefully bring back the same passion and excitement this fandom used to have. I even rebooted my Gems series as I was very nervous about my master piece as it wasn’t like any of my other stories. It was an attempt to try and spawn a fandom within the fandom or inspire a new series or inspire people to make amazing stories again.
That story is Beyond Infinity and for the last two years I’ve been working hard to write and amazing story with new and old friends. I’ve had my ups and downs with this series and it’s been met with mostly positivity and some criticism, but overall it’s been a lot of fun to write this story. It was inspired by Avengers Infinity War and Endgame, but I wanted to do something different. I didn’t want this to be like any other crossover, or a Displaced. The only thing I am using for this story that is from Marvel is the six Infinity Stones, and that’s about it. Anything else is really my idea and aside from a few characters that belong to my friend who graciously let me use them for this story.
One of the few things I wanted to try was do was a poly romance as I’ve never tried that before and I wanted to try and do a slow burn, but I may have had a little too much fun writing Pinkie Pie as the main one since I never really wrote a story with her as the main love interest before and well… I kinda forgot this was a polyamorous story without realizing that so I had to try and get that back on track.
Anyways, I’ve rambled on long enough, I’ll end this with my final thoughts. Personally I still love this fandom despite it not being the same as it used to be and the stories being post nowadays are cool but not the same as it was in the early days so I encourage all of you to write with love, patience and passion. I’d like to see an influx of new stories being made, new fandoms forming within the fandom. Get a whole bunch of your friends and write connected stories, build an expanded universe of stories connected by yourself. Take a chance to make something new, do something dark, something funny, romantic, and more! Show passion for your stories!
Thank you all for reading this ridiculously long blog but I had to say something.
Dude! I think I get where you're coming from. As someone who only reads stories on this site, I'm also starting to see things go downhill a little bit. I love mostly the longer stories and the good ones have been harder and harder to come by these days. Heck, even some of the good ones have stopped being updated after such a short time of being alive! I know that it's to be expected, what with the community kind of slowly dying with the loss of gen 4 and all, but it's still sad to see it go. I know I've toyed with the idea of writing my own stories, but I've never really had the motivation to do so, what with all the craziness that is my life. I mean, I sort of wrote a first chapter to a story on paper and I wanted to post it on this site as a start, but that was years ago and I lost that starting point. I hope to someday make a story on this site, even though it probably won't get anywhere due to the loss of gen 4 and the people in the mlp community. I just want to at least say I tried, you know? Anyways, I just want to say that I love this community soooooo much and I hope it doesn't truly die out! I wish you a wonderful day and I hope for more awesome stories to come!