Jan
28th
2013
Democracy. · 8:55pm Jan 28th, 2013
Hello people! Just here with another quick blog, with somewhat of a random question. Input is appreciated here:
What do you NOT want to appear in the story? Whether it be a stereotypical villain or a cliche plot or a badly-written arc with a shoehorned-in character, I'm all ears.
Just anything. Anything that would make you facepalm.
Thanks,
~Ascension.
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Ascension Call · 692 views
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You not writing is making me facepalm.
honastly it dosent matter to me a story is what an author makes it everything in it ts their choice but it is nice to see one asking his readers.
That's a fairly loaded question.
I'm predicting the comment section will be half filled with fairly useless comments like "Don't do stuff badly", and the rest will be flamewars over stupid stuff like whether or not shipping is acceptable, or if Gandalf should become an Alicorn or something.
Red and black alicorn OC.
No, but seriously. You have to really fuck up in order to make me facepalm, and from what I've seen so far it's unlikely to happen. Just write what you want to write, that's how writers do their best work
762413
Hey, I'm writing! In fact, I've got a job for you later.
762415
Hey, thanks.
762419
oh, totally. red and black zebracorn with yellow snake eyes.
762422
it's kinda too early to even have any thoughts about your story. all we've seen of now is a small run-down outpost somewhere in the middle of winter.
The biggest thing what would make me facepalm myself into oblivion would be that some "survivor" from Sauron would be in the story, or even worse.... Sauron himself. If that would happen, I would need to facepalm myself so hard that I would need to call an ambulance before I do it, fearing that I might die before they could help me otherwise.
Aside from that... as long as it's nothing from middleearth, I'm fine with a villain
762422 but of course now im a really bad writer if you look at my story youl see this but i still think that a story is what the writer makes it if somebody/somepony dosent like it casue of content thats their loss. :D just write what makes you happy, write what you feel your story should have.
762422
762418
Well, that's why I asked it.
And I agree with your prediction, but it has not happened yet, thankfully.
762423
Nice metaphor. +10
762424
Hmmm, I getcha.
762428
Don't call yourself a bad writer! Development takes time. Just keep on writing and get help when you need it.
762429
Indeed. Bet you've been bored.
762495 now if only everyone i know that can write anything was not ALWAYS busy life just seems to be trying to get me away from writing but i have not stopped trying far from it i have put my current story on hold and began a new hopefully better one ^^ if you would like to read it or pre read or possiably edit just pm me ^^ but no im far from giving up on writing :D
Just do whatever, as long as it's not even physically real I don't have to care either way.
Any forth wall breaking.
Communism. Politics. Babies. Nothing to do with babies. My testes will explode in a violent way, killing all of the east coast of the USA.
Radagast the Brown and his team of magic rabbits. Except make one of the rabbits really awesome and totally blow Angel bunny away.
Yeah, I agree with Alchemo Arrow. Pinkie's breaking of the fourth wall, will ruin the Tolkien feeling you had created. Besides, after seeing it been used so many times in other fanfics, it has become kind of annoying. No offense to Pinkie, through
.
keep the 4th wall breaking to minimum or none at all
Don't let Pinkie break the 4th wall, no spill over from middle earth (that part of Gandalf's life is over.)
Having Twilight not believing who he is until an alicorn confirms it would be funny since he doesn't have his bells anymore and is out of practice with equestrian magic. In fact the main six thinking gandalf is is old homelesss unicorn who's delusional would be funny as they try to help him/ stick him in the ponyville old folks home, which the staff quite remarkably are able to contain him until he saves ponyville from one of the disasters that befall it. Then have the main 6 think he's a powerful old crazy unicorn, until one of the princesses comes to thank the pony who saved the town and the elements of harmony, only to recognize and confirm his identity.
Dwarfs and elves beinh mythical creatires the poor old crazy pony made up gets you bonus points.
You could even have Lyra visit him in the old folks home to talk about humans, and further damage his credibility.
762424
Why would any one else from Middle-earth ruin the story for you?
If Gandalf found a way to Equestria, don't you think Morgoth and his minions (Sauron included) knows as well?
I don't see why some other entity from Middle-Earth influencing the happenings in Equestria is a bad thing.
I would greatly suggest against shipping anyone with Gandalf. Shipping between ponies would be okay, I suppose, but only do it if you're confidant you can do it well.
I would suggest against using Trixie as a villain. Dunno if you were even intending her to ever show up, but using her as a villain has gotten to be so cliche that it's sad.
I would also suggest against adding too many OC's beyond background plot devices. The point of the story is to see Gandalf interacting with the ponies we're familiar with.
I would suggest that there be as little carried over from middle earth as possible. Again, this is meant to center around Gandalf specifically.
As others have suggested, I would keep fourth wall breaking to a minimum. It would likely mess up the tolkien-esque writing of the story.
Unlike a previous suggestion, I would suggest against having Radagast show up. Again, Gandalf's story. Too many characters will make it lose focus.
I would actually suggest against using Discord as a villain in this particular story. He's far too much of a "comedy" and "wacky" villain with too many gimmicks to pull off well in the Tolkien-esque style you're writing in. If you're going to use a villain from the show, I'd suggest either Chrysalis or Sombra... in fact, I'd probably suggest Sombra before Chrysalis because we know so little about him and he can be interpreted in a number of different ways. Not to mention that his somewhat sorry show appearance just cries out for a fanfiction to make him into a real, credible threat. Then again, I don't know what you're planning.
I would also suggest against bringing back Nightmare Moon as a villain. That's the sort of thing that tends to come across as contrived.
I'm not sure about much else... most things, assuming they're pulled off well won't make me 'facepalm.' But that's really the big condition isn't it? Just pull it off well and you can generally get people to swallow pretty much everything.
763557
Points taken, much appreciated.
And I especially love the first point. I actually once thought about shipping him with Twilight, but it just wouldn't work out.
Now, I want you to imagine clop of that. How much does that hurt?
762873
Awesome.
762547
And I especially agree with everyone regarding fourth-wall breaking.
is it too late to throw my super sayian alicorn gandalf idea from an earlier blog comment into the hat?
I'd love to...NOT SEE THAT!
764073
Oh, it won't happen. He stays a unicorn.
764079
I'll assume that is a response to both the Super Sayian AND Alicorn.
But in all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised if he was an Alicorn. I mean, i'm against Alicorn ocs for no reason, but is a character is just that magically powerful (Like Thor, God of Thunder, or Captain Marvel [Who ironically is a DC comics charecter]) by all means.
And Gandalf is BADASS! I doubt any of your readers would be turned off by him being an Alicorn.
764111
Indeed.
Still, an epic alicorn character seems like somewhat of an overused idea to me.
764133
Yeah, too each their own, cant wait for the next chapter.
Hope you did well on your SATs
764270
Thanks.
And I can't wait for the next chapter either.
763557
763598
Personally I wouldn't hate him having a similar semi-romantic wistfulness to his relationship with Celestia and/or Luna as he seems to have with Galadriel. With the mildly embarrassing (for him) twist that ponies tend to be significantly more platonically affectionate than the races of Middle Earth. Just him getting flustered from the princesses and Mane 6 giving him nuzzles and hugs would be hilarious.
As for things I definitely do not want to see in this story:
1: Crackshipping. eg: Mane6/Mane 6, Gandalf/Mane 6, or Princess/Mane 6. (F/F or M/M shipping is reasonable if done reasonably and relevant to show Equestria being somewhat more progressive than Middle Earth. Or to reference those jokes about Frodo and Sam or Ian McKellen. Or implied at least slightly by canon, like Lyra/Bon.)
2: Main Character death. Rainbow Dash may have played Boromir in Ponies Reenact LoTR, but should not imitate his fate.
3: Darkifying. If they are in Equestria, keep things in the spirit of FiM, if a little more realistic. If they go to Middle Earth then things can be darker toned. But a realm has it's own rules and darkness in Equestria may exist but it differs in how it presents itself.
4: Social reimagining: Please no "herd family", estrus, social engineering, gender role reversal (compared to Middle Earth it's much more equal, but the elves already almost have full equality), dearth of males, weird social norms, etc. Keep it within the reasonable bounds of what the show presents.
764520
You know what? I'm going to agree with most of these points as well. Main Character death is a quick way for me to drop a story myself. I'm okay with a little bit of darkness, but it should still be kept in the spirit of the show, and I can't help but despise "herd family" and other such horselike behavior when applied to FiM. Thanks for reminding me of these, DPV111.
As I said before, I'm okay with a little shipping, but only if it's done well. Though, I must add Mane6/Princess to the list of things that probably shouldn't be in there.
764520
That's funny; after seeing The Hobbit, I wondered if I could've put a tiny-slight bit of semi-romance in there between Gandalf and Celestia, similar to the moments he has with Galadriel. Hell, I remember Ian McKellen straight up saying that there's a bit of romance there in an interview.
A very good idea, hmm.
And you certainly needn't worry about me branching far from the society presented in the show. I'll be sticking to what we've seen, so no "herd family" stuff. Though, could you elaborate further on that one?
Also, no crackshipping. If there's any shipping at all, it won't be extremely significant and will have at least some basis from canon.
Also, nopony will die. Don't worry. Nothing will be extremely dark, either.
764548
Very slight Gandalf/Celestia? Eh, definitely something closer to friendship than romance if I do that.
764616
In terms of Gandalf/Celestia, something like what we saw with Gandalf and Galadriel in The Hobbit.
As for what a "herd family" is... in some stories, the idea is presented that ponies are generally polygamous. A single male will marry numerous females and have children with all of them. For example, I read one story where Rainbow Dash and Twilight were both on a date with the same stallion. (It's suggested that in these stories, Mr. and Mrs. Cake are seen as strange and that Cadance is only Shining Armor's first wife).
764641
Firstly, yes. It would definitely only be something that goes as far as what we saw in The Hobbit.
Secondly, about the herd family...yeah, that would ruin the story for me.
764616
The herd family dynamic involves the fact that wild Terran equine herds tend to consist of one male and several females and their offspring, only the herd stallion is allowed to breed with the females and the rest may not.
A herd family social structure attempts to reasonably apply this to a sapient species while excusing itself with the apparent lack of males vs females in the show. It involves family structures centered around a single male, usually starting with one female who then together seek to add additional females to the family, the assessment of the initial female being the selling point for others, creating a herd/harem familial unit in which the females of the unit are always at least good friends and at most bisexual lovers. Not every family is a herd, and herd can be as small as one male, 2 females.
This was a theme bounced around the fandom since inception but was massively popularized and proliferated by the social reimagining/speculation, romance, and erotica fic Xenophilia involving a human in Equestria (full human, not ponified) running afoul of pony social norms while entering into a romance with Rainbow Dash that eventually expands to a herd including Twilight.
Although I do not care for the original, it has influenced several authors and stories such as The Foal in the Basket and Oh to be Old Again which I do enjoy. I have never found these themes make much sense to me nor can be reconciled with anything presented in the show, and while a good story allows me to temporarily digest such embellishment I do find that for me it detracts from each story which contains it.
764704
Holy information.
But no need to worry, I won't be using that. The theme doesn't appeal to me either.
764704 764719
Oh to be Old Again was the fic that I read that had those themes. Those themes, as well as the freaky gender structures and social norms were what made me stop reading the fic, along with just how unlikable I found the main character to be.
762495
what "metaphor" are we talking about here?
765077
Small run-down outpost in the middle of winter. Perfect way to describe it, really.