On The Inevitability of Attack on Pony · 3:36pm May 7th, 2013
Within the next month, I expect at least two crossovers between My Little Pony and "Attack On Titan" to be submitted to this site.
The reason I expect this isn't so much a sense of anticipation as it is one of mixed fascination and dread. The MLP fandom is now firmly connected to all the varying branches of geek, and as a net result it's become very common in this fandom for crossovers with just about anything in pop culture to emerge. I've seen crime drama, golden-age style mystery, Kamen Rider, and more in my browsing today alone.
And that's not even considering the fact that it's already a meme to mix "Attack on Titan" with anything. Sometimes with amazing results.
I bring this up because as long as the theme of this blog is apparently "Scarlet bitches about trends in fanfiction", it's worth using the inevitable Attack on Pony as an example case of a problem I have with fanfiction sometimes- using the tools at your disposal to create a strong atmosphere.
I only just began watching Attack on Titan this week- I hear the surely-hundreds of anime geeks who (don't) read this blog booing me- and what struck me instantly about it was the atmosphere and tone it created. Attack on Titan's characters on their own aren't anything particularly memorable in the grand scheme of things, Eren is a delightfully nuanced hotblood but he's not really unique in that regard when you compare him to characters like Simon of TTGL fame, or Iskandar from Fate/Zero. Before fans of the show tar and feather me for suggesting this, what makes Attack on Titan unique is the way it contextualizes these characters. Titan is a very, very brutal show, far more so than most saturday-evening fare, and it makes the most of that. Humanity is constantly in a state of near-extinction, and this is not something we are simply told- we are shown, in gruesome detail, the damage the Titans have done and are doing and will continue to do unless stopped. We are not simply told to empathize with Eren's desire to join the Survey Corps. and see the outside world, we are shown the cramped and starved conditions humanity has been forced to live in. Attack on Titan does not pull its punches, nor does it simply allow the bravery and pluck of the protagonist to be a catch-all solution to the problems he faces. By the same token, however, this makes every simple act of bravery in the series become magnified a hundred times over. As an audience, we learn the stakes and in learning them we come to appreciate the actions in a new light. This is what makes "Attack" such an instant classic, along with its fluid animation, memorable score, and already-minted meme.
But I didn't come here to talk about why, if you're at all strong of stomach and a fan of titles like Berserk or Claymore, you should check this series out. I came here to talk about how a potential Pony crossover would necessarily need to be different from the original.
A common problem I've seen in crossovers is the assumption that you can just throw elements alien to Equestria into the world of MLP and expect them to work the same way. This is not the case. Attack on Titan's premise leaves no room for magic- humans use grappling hooks, swords, and cannon fire to hold off Titan attacks. There is no magic. Bravery and friendship may let you keep your head in the face of danger, but they won't save you. The Titans will eat you one way or the other.
In Equestria, magic is a fundamental part of existing. Giant creatures are not news to the inhabitants of Ponyville- Ursa Major and Ursa Minors have been known of by ponykind for centuries, and dragons exist as well. This is to say nothing of creatures that live in the Everfree, like Timberwolves. If creatures like that exist in Equestria, it can kind of be assumed that Equestrian society has ways of dealing with them- ways likely involving a great deal of magic. In Equestria, friendship and bravery and loyalty and even love actually can and have been weaponized and used to repel ancient god-like beings and invading forces. In short, the moment you drop ponies into the world of the Titans, or Titans into the world of the ponies, you have several elements on the game board that weren't there previously- and your story's atmosphere needs to work to reflect that. You can dodge certain bullets by giving Titans an innate magic resistance, but not all of them- pegasus ponies can fly, unicorns can levitate, the tactics in the face of a Titan invasion are going to be a lot easier in the land of Equestria than in the human world. Even a pony somehow transported to an alternate universe (Note: write blog post on this genre at some point), unless you threw an earth pony and only an earth pony at the problem, you would be looking at a very different playing field. The story needs to reflect the elements of both works being incorporated, not simply cut and paste the tone of the original.
Chuck Finley (who is potentially reading this. Hi, Chuck! I'm not stalking you, I swear, it's just that you're my only regular follower!) wrote a blog post regarding the reasons he dislikes his own crossover fanfic, "Banishment Decree". While I think he's entirely right about Decree's shortcomings as a crossover work, as an independent work judged on its own merits the story manages to overcome those shortcomings, and kind of takes on a life of its own separate from its many, many inspirations. This is another path to a decent story, if not a good crossover- don't play the story as Pony + Titan, play the story as an independent work influenced by both sources.
I'm not sure what I've actually accomplished here by saying this, and it's entirely probable I'm just gushing here because Titan really did blow me away, which is not normal for such an ostensibly-grimdark and brutal show.
So in the meantime, have the inevitable conclusion of the meme.
Aside, just how the hell did the Wonderbolts slice Spike's ridges off like that?
Talk about a fulfillment of destiny.
I really enjoyed the anime. But a little after the point it left off on, in the comics, things really went off the walls (no pun intended). It's only recently that it's become more clear on what it's trying to be about. I'm hoping the anime is actually able to rise above the source material, at the very least by ordering all the plot threads differently. It already has a good track record.
The anime is superior to the print in conveying scale and intensity, which as you've pointed out is a key aspect of appreciating the story. Not just because of the advantages the animated medium has, but just because this particular anime series is so well done. There is a subtle, but very significant story change concerning Eren's transformation; in the manga, Eren's Titan form is him turning into a giant, and after some trust issues, no one has any problem with giving him orders, or standing right next to him. In the anime, it's clearly more of a Hulk situation; the Titan form just hones in on what Eren hates the most, the Titans. It doesn't attack humans (that don't mess with it), but it doesn't spend any time checking to see if it's stepping on anyone, or where the debris flies. The Survey Corps tries to keep a block or so away from him when necessary. It might be able to comprehend English (we get it's inner monologue), but it never communes or listens to anyone..
That one change has a huge ripple effect on how we perceive events. That, combined with the excellence of the series so far, leaves me with some hope that the show staff can make improvements, since even just some cutting and editing (as we often see in anime adaptions) could have improved how things went in the manga.
Reading your old babby blogs is something I've been meaning to do for a while, and so I came here to comment and say you totally read this one, right? :D