Things You Can't Write About In The Pony Fandom, But Anywhere Else It Would Be Perfectly Okay: · 3:59am Jul 23rd, 2014
There are quite a few topics in the Brony fandom that will get insta-downvotes no matter how good it is. This is the hard part of being a fanfiction writer; pleasing the fans. Each fan has a favoring pairing, way they think the characters should act, personal headcanon(s) (some take theirs not as theory instead of fact), and just are very critical about how they think the show should be. Your job as a fanfic writer is to please those fans without triggering their butthurts.
Here are some of the things in the Brony fandom that are perfectly okay topics for story plots, but always deflate some raging URL Badman's nerdboner:
1. Breaking up a pairing. Let's say that in your story, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are dating, but then they break up. It doesn't matter if one of them get together with another pony in the end; you broke up FlutterDash. You just told every Brony who ships FlutterDash that their ship is a bunch of bullshit. It doesn't matter if your story had a touching moral at the end, it doesn't matter if your reason for them breaking up was spot-on accurate, it doesn't matter how relatable your story was for people who have been in the same situation as the two before. You broke up FlutterDash and deflated hundreds of boners by doing so. If you write a book about two characters dating and then they break up in the end, nobody would get mad, and very few boners would be deflated. It might get slammed for being 'depressing' and 'making teenage girls wet their beds in the non-sexual or urinal way', but it's still a well-written story with a great moral.
2. Having a character commit suicide. Self-harm and suicide stories have always interested me, and I would love more than anything to write a story about it to deliver a moral to help encourage people considering/doing self-harm or suicide to try to find happiness (hell, my favorite movie is Secrets Cutting. It's a great movie and if you haven't watched it, you should.) But I can't write about it, I tried writing a self-harm story once, and it got terrible ratings. This is one of the top 10 rock-bottom things you can write about. It's considered an overused topic by most fans. Another reason why some may find this topic disturbing is because they believe that Ponyland is all happy-happy-sunshine and lollipops, and if a giant reality-nado comes in and wrecks their perfect horse world, the person who did so is satan. How dare you bring reality into a show about talking horses who use the power of friendship to defeat cheese-legged immortal beings?
3. Incest. Okay okay, I know that incest is also pretty taboo in the real-world, but this fandom doesn't ever even give it a chance unless they have some weird fetish for it. I honestly have no problem with it, since I ship ElsAnna. If you write a great story about two Apple Family members falling in love, it'll get at least more than five downvotes.
4. Princesses that aren't canon, or apart of any popular fan-works. If you write about a princess character, comments upon comments will flood your inbox, calling you names and saying that the character is a Mary Sue just for the fact that she is royal. I understand the problem with writing about your own personal OC that reflects your personality as an alicorn, but if you create a good character with understandable flaws and a likable design, but give her both wings and a horn, you'll get downvotes like a motherfucker. It's completely possible that there's more princesses, queens, kings or princes in the pony world; I mean, Equestria is just a small portion of the pony world. Though the fandom seems to have no problem with alicorn ponies in popular fan works. Example: Nyx. Maybe Pen Stroke put some kind of cocaine in Nyx's character when he was writing her, I don't know. I personally disliked her character, due to her being basically the ultimate Mary Sue figure and being loved for that very reason.
It's interesting how the Brony fandom works.
(Note: When I say that I'm not a Brony in my bio, I'm not being sarcastic. I am actually not apart of the MLP:FiM fandom in any way, I just watch the show and write shit.)
I've never seen backlash on a story that broke up spike and rarity. It actually had some unique ships, too.
The incest one, that's partly a "ew, wrong' thing and partly a "ew clop" thing. I'm sure there are incest stories that don't rely on crazy pony sex, but more often than not, incest will have pony penis and vagina.
I'll say, I didn't mind Nyx in Past Sins. I don't feel she was particularly loved at first in that story, and by the end of it, she had quite a few still not liking her. I mean, Twilight and her friends and close family liked her, but that's a very small group compared to others. And it was shown that Shining Armor had some very serious issues with the little alicorn.
Suicide is just a really touchy subject. I don't know of a tactful way to approach it, really.