Considering darker themes in fetish fiction · 11:37pm Sep 16th, 2014
One of the more interesting things about the whole ABDL thing and MLP deal is that I view it as a hub of comedy stories (and clop). It's not really strange, seeing as the franchise is built around adorableness, and this certain crowd is very, very willing to embrace it. You could say, in a way, that the adult foal groups are not the place where you find a Splinterwood or a End Of Ponies.
Which, from a purely economical perspective I can understand. People want cute little stories with colorfully printed diapers and everybody being cutesy-wootsy about it. The darkest people expect to find introverted mental trips that seep through a fetishist's mind (Twilight's for example). They can relate to that. I mean, I don't think of myself as very dark and edgy when I buy diapers with comic prints on them and I haven't heard of anyone who does. There might be some incontinent hipster out there who buys that kind of stuff to stand out, but that doesn't make him think he's hardcore.
At least I couldn't comprehend if he did.
Now you might ask, why is this important?
Because:
This is a darker take on Equestria, in which Luna rebelled against her sister because she was ugh, like, the stupidest and wouldn't share her make up with Luna. The wounds are never going to heal now.
Actually, I bring it up, because I find it strange how little people experiment. If you take the Regression sub-genre for example, you'll find the majority being tagged 'Slice of Life' and 'Comedy'. This is something I found utterly strange because there is a lot of drama involved with age regression, such as, you know, losing the connection to your work, your friends, your life. You can't go to the places you want to go anymore, can't stay up the way you used to, people stop taking you seriously, etc.
If you get the gears rolling, you could have a serious story about somepony regressing and coming to grips with how it changed their life.
Maybe. I mean, I don't want people to stop writing what they enjoy, and I don't want people to stop reading what they enjoy. I do enjoy light hearted fics as well, but I fear that one day there'll be an over saturation.
I stopped looking into the stuff in the Regression folder because at some point I felt that every premise was same-y. So, I told myself, what's the point reading anyway?
But looking at fetish fic of this kind in general, it gets to the question what I do read. I could say "everything, if it's written well," like the true hipster I am.
I'm not going to. A story with proper grammar and spelling can still be utter BS, just like a story with bad grammar can be utterly infuriating because of how good it would be without the mistakes.
I had the discussion on MBS about endings. So, I dislike sad endings, unless the story manages to build it up properly. I can dig the main character be shot by a random robber if there's a point to prove, just as I can dig a character succumbing to an illness after I learned to love him throughout the story. If I don't have a bond with the character, it misses the point, I stop caring, and the bad ending is merely a nail in the coffin. Fetish fiction is a special case, however.
Again, it's comfy, it's cute, it's not the hardest of fictions. Which is why you will find a lot of non-pony fics where suddenly everybody who knows the main character is into diapers in the end and everything is always fine. And, unless it's this extreme example, I can get behind that. You want the protagonist to accept that diapers are awesome, want to feel validated, want to feel like everything's okay, or at least you want to know that they feel that way. So, happy endings are the way to go.
People like 'em, so they read stories with them.
Again, it's pure mathematics. 1+1=2, that kind of thing.
Unless you go plumander on the people and say it's 1+1=5.
Reading a story, to me, never is about feeling comfortable. Half the reason why I was utterly hyped for Splinterwood was that it's entire existence was based around the fact that it would make the reader uncomfortable. Writing is an art form, art is something that exists to challenge our mind. Writing a story that doesn't do much except put a few characters in diapers is easy, writing a story about these characters can be very hard, especially leading it to a proper conclusion.
Either way, what're your thoughts on darker themes in padded pony stories? I'm seriously interested.
Also, narwhals
There is this story on fimfiction... Four Hooves it's called if I remember correctly. It's very long, isn't known at all, it's characters are really OOC sometimes and it doesn't belong in MLP universe in general due to... well, I won't spoil anything, but it just doesn't. It makes me wonder if it's really a book that a troll has disguised as piece of fanfiction. Regardless, that story has some of the best moments (and main character) that I've ever seen in fiction. Period.
I've actually had an Idea about that involving a serious look at Twilight as she regresses told backwards. So she starts as an infant at the end of the story and ends as an adult at the end. How her life and the lives of those aroud are effected would be the main topic. But again, you are probably the only abdl as author that writes "serious" stories and I'm not a good enough author for that to come out right.
For one regression stories can ruin the lives of ponies, start them over (especially if they keep their adult mind and maybe No one believes them). Lots of stories exist on this site like that... I do find it funny when I find a comedy tagged story like this where a pony is simply told... "Sorry No cure, you gotta grow up again" that is insanely world shattering... for the reader because it's unrealistic.
I enjoy forced regression stories those can be fun... that is my fetish side coming out and sometimes it does not want to leave
MY current fics on my other account 'abdlpony' are examples of everything turning out okay... like you said But I did try to make them different. My only dark story on it turned out too silly, But could forced babying be considered dark? If done correctly sure, But they are hard to pull off. One wrong move and here comes silly story, population: Your cruddy story.
2460536 You never know unless you try. Also, he is not the only one. I think maybe to him a lot of the stories in the Pony ABDL genre seem stale. Lately I would agree, for most anyway.
2460536 you mean used to be the only one, I take my stories seriously, at least that what I say to myself, and even though I seem to do my best writing in comady, I did started my first fetish story as my first serious one. as I am an abdl in real life and very active one, I can't make it all sunshine and rainbows now can I?
but yes, I hear you, so many stories I read and just go "This isn't canon!" or "X pony is into diapers? where is the backstory? where are the reasons? explain!" not to mention the ones where everypony is happy with it, in some fics you get the feeling that 100% of ponies are ABDL, which is BS,
P.S. Your story "The Nightbook" was what made me start reading fan fics, and is still one of the best ones out there, even outside of the abdl stories.
oddly it was asylum that got me start writing, mostly the shock from it and wanting to see a quicker, happier end.
2460460 Yeah, that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about. It's half the reason why I think spelling is only secondary and tertiary in value. The amusing thing about bad fics is that they just tell you an awesome moment is happening, whereas the trick lies in just writing a moment awesomely.
2460536 Go for it, just do eet. You can't become better if you don't post, and taking on ambitious projects can really help you. I'd read it.
2460677 People tend to not take the topic seriously. I guess a lot of people think of it as either "a good ending" or a "funny ending".
A good example for AR done right would be a certain Kammypup on furaffinity. She does a lot of funny and cute regression comics, did so for years. Then she did a single picture about her character thinking about how she'll never age to a proper adult age, just stuck between toddler and teenager.
It's the best piece of that artist to date, at least in my opinion.
And this kind of thing is incredibly important. Just stopping and actually thinking about what is happening to the characters. It's all about adding an extra dimension.
A story doesn't need to be all cuddly. I mean Taboo Feelings wasn't all cuddles and cute, if I remember correctly. And that's just awesome.
2461429 The one cliché I can somewhat accept in MLP fanfiction is that ponies are accepting of it. I mean, it's not very horse-like to accept strange stuff, but with all that harmony stuff going on, I could certainly see them being more tolerant.
Otherwise, yeah, there's some fics which don't explain much of what is going on. A few make it work despite it, because the characters work well together or because the reader gives up and just accepts the smut.
2462115
I'll probably wait til I finish the already ambitious project I've already started. I will release another chapter of that eventually.
2462191 Don't let it lie around for too long. In my experience you start to feel a disconnect to the story at one point, and that makes getting back to it only harder.
2462175 the funny part that even a back story like "I foal set one day and thought it be nice to try a diaper, and never looked back" would be 100% ok, as it happens like that in real life, actully that kinda how most find that part, random moment when they deal with diapers and want to try it out, but even that most stories don't give, and that just lazy,
p.s. there is going to be a abdl charcter in my story that that is basicly her backstory on getting into diapers, and the funny thing is that most of my story is the backstory of how scootaloo get into diapers, yah, I took the part that most writers neglact and made it into the basis of the story! how do you like that apples?
2462245 Hurr, hurr. That kind of thing is fun too. Reading how something like a fetish starts and how a pony deals with it can be pretty nice.
also: It's how do you like them apples.
I never got why, but the grammar of pleb anglais always eluded me. *elitary laughter*
2462257 well english is derived from german, the lungauge with the worst spelling in the world (after franch), the words are so long! thought my german bbbff told me it is very easy to understand and spell, so I have to ask, are most of the words in german just mush up of smaller words?
2462268 We're the only language where you can mash random words together and have it still be correct. So, fuck yes, german language!
I often hear that it's one of the harder languages to learn, being a native, the only thing I can attest to is that many western languages seem easy to learn compared to the salad of rules that is german.
2462278 I heard there is insane amount of terms, like in english you got, past progersive, past simple, past perfect, present progesive... and in all english (talking uk, not usa) it comes up to 11ish, in german there are around 20? I think, btw I know hebrew and I can say, spelling is easy, but due to lack of "it" there are almost no gender nutral words in hebrew, so it can be annoing, also it's a very poor language, so many words and conspets are missing, there is no word for "poke" in hebrew, for example, but spelling is easy, remembering the female and male for numbers, not so much,
2462291 Having all three genders doesn't make it easier if you're not native. If you are, then you basically go with the sound. "Der Sonne", "Das Sonne" and "Die Sonne" sound very different, and since "Die" sounds the most pleasant, that's the one to go with.
It gets very melodious if you think about it.
And if you mean tenses, both languages follow the latin scheme of six.
As for missing words. The only thing is that our language gets destroyed by english terms, especially by politicians who just make stuff up on the fly that makes no sense.
2462124 I've seen a lot of her work... I don't think I found that one, is she crying in it?
Also, glad I was able to write something that made someone think (hopefully?).
2462894 This one, it took me some time to find it, since the purpose of Kammy's alts changed throughout.
Either way, we need more srs diapurr fics.
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2465218 She has an alt account.. of course she does. Just means more art I missed
I am so sick of people making alt accounts on FA and DA... it literally means art people miss.
SIgh
Also, if you want more serious fics maybe we can chat on Skype about it? I could think or work on one...
I think you hit the nail on the head here. A lot of regression or ABDL stories seem designed to be wish-fulfillment. It's supposed to be cute and self-affirming and harmless. But the things that happen in regression stories are often quite dark and serious, and this seriousness is just overlooked.
Imagine an ABDL story about a mother who decides to baby her child and not let them grow up. (Take your pick, there's mountains of stories out there with that premise.) In almost all of them, either the mother and child live happily ever after, or the mother is shown as eccentric but ultimately harmless. But this is child abuse. The parent is actively undermining the child's autonomy, stunting their social development and ensuring that they'll be crippled. A story that took a realistic look at the psychological damage a narcissistic mother could have on their child would be gruesomely moving. But it's not sexy, and it doesn't make people feel good, so fetishists won't write it.
The same applies to regression stories that deal with the internal horror of someone who knows they're regressing, knows they're losing bits of themselves. There's a professional book about just this ("Flowers for Algernon"), and it's well written and thought-provoking, the exact opposite of the same-y repetitive crap fan works and fetish works tend to spew out.
There are few works that aim for that intersection of serious self-examination and fetish fuel, because that intersection has a smaller audience than swinging one way or the other. But if you decide to roll with it and write a serious regression story, I'll be first in line to read it.