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Oct
27th
2014

Dearest Marsupials · 7:39am Oct 27th, 2014













Now that I have your attention...

I was wondering if you would all be willing to do me yet another favor.

Would each of you mind listing the things that you believe are...

-Stereotypical of grimdark ponifiction
-Stereotypical of erotic ponifiction
-Stereotypical of out-of-character poni poni poni portrayals
-Stereotypical of Rainbow Dash tropes
-Stereotypical of Scootaloo tropes

I'm not asking for finger pointing or shout outs... just things that you believe are overdone, or things that you are tired of seeing so much and would like to see less of.

Believe it or not, this is to be utilized for a specific project. Not like I'm notorious for ruining promises... right?

"I was into dashing apples before it was popular!"

Boo
-SS&E

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Comments ( 46 )

Grimdark- beh. Others will tell you.
Erotic - Assertive females against males
Portrayals - u wot
RBD - Gotta go fast, loyal, bullheaded, stubborn, lazy, hot headed, vain, immature.
Scoot - tomboy, orphan, lolcantfly, loyal to friends, star stuck, smarter than she lets on.


Course I am drunk so take the above as you will.
Blargh.

Stereotypical for erotic ponifiction? The word "throbbing".

For grimdark: somepony dies.

RD acting like an idiot and ALWAYS spoiling for a fight. Never waiting to hear the full story, etc.

Scootaloo being very...well dumb. (Seriously people, I know she is a kid, but
yeesh.) acting unloved.
boo to you too.

1: :pinkiecrazy:
2: :pinkiehappy:
3: :trollestia:
4: :rainbowhuh:
5: :scootangel:

Meh, I'm tired. I'll make a more serious and thought-out comment in the morning.

Grimdark - Variation of :pinkiecrazy: Cupcakes/Rainbow Factory
Erotic - Uncomfortable Sex
Potrayals - ....what. :derpyderp2:
RD - "Oh, I'm an egocentric tomboy who thinks she's better than everypony but will do anything for friends." :rainbowkiss:
Scoots - Orphan, lolcantfly, RD stalker, fowl

-Stereotypical of Scootaloo tropes

Well, I get annoyed at just how far the "Scootaloo is a chicken" meme has gone. Anytime I see it anymore, it either fails to get a reaction from me or I lose interest in what I'm reading.

-Stereotypical of grimdark ponifiction
Anarchists with egos.

-Stereotypical of erotic ponifiction
Applying obscure, unrealistic fetishes to cartoon characters.

-Stereotypical of out-of-character poni poni poni portrayals
Violence, bigotry, and abandonment of virtues and values.

-Stereotypical of Rainbow Dash tropes
There is nothing stereotypical about Rainbow Dash tropes. All are applied in equal measure.

-Stereotypical of Scootaloo tropes
See Rainbow Dash.

Also plz no. I didn't want to know what uranus sounds like.

Most overused Grimdark thing: Oh noes! Somepony killin' teh foals cause that's shocking.

Most overused EFF thing: Massive geysers of female ejaculate from every single sexual encounter that only increase in volume and intensity over time, regardless of 'reload' time.

Most overused OOC: Otherwise smart ponies who go from zero to 'love' in a relationship with no or next to no state anywhere in between. Seriously, this is a show about the value of friendship, is the friendzone really so bad a place to put them.

RD Tropes: The most overused thing we see with her is the idea that she earns little to nothing for her job as a weather manager despite the fact that the entire pegasai economy seems to be built around such jobs.

Overused Scoots: Just the idea that she needs some sort of handicap before she becomes an interesting character.

Grimdark: unnecessary gore. Gore can work, but grimdark can include scary or disturbing without having to go into full on descriptions of disembowling ponies.

Erotic: first time. Why does every character have to be a virgin with that hesitant attitude? I mean, like gore, it can be done right, but it's just so common that it seems more like waifu wish fulfillment.

General OOC: backtalk the Princess. I'm not saying it shouldn't be done. In fact a large number of stories wouldn't work if everyone just followed Celestia blindly, but the show directly implies that almost every pony is so enraptured by her mere presence that they bow on instinct, which would make questioning her leadership not really possible IC.

RD Trope: accepting failure. I'm not talking about a stunt or a show, but failing to be loyal. Any time a story covers her failures of loyalty they have her accept it immediately and then she gets depressed or something, when a real person would try to live in denial for as long as possible. No one can lie to us better than ourselves. :rainbowderp:

Scoot Trope: Not touching this one. It's all the same tropes everyone knows. (chicken, cripple, orphan, hero-worship, etc.)


Hope that helps! :scootangel:

Oh dear, I'm afraid that you're going to take everything on this list and put it in a story and we're all going to love it :twilightoops:

I uh, I'm not really sure. I try to forget about the bad ones. I suppose there's too much gore in grimdark stuff. Somepony gets mutilated and it's totally unavoidable, or they get lost in the everfree and come back bloodied and unable to remember where they were. Ooh, actually, one of the biggest things I see is some mysterious power originates in equestria in the everfree forest, then attacks some filly who wanders in there for whatever reason, then comes and slaughters the town, starting with Sweet Apple Acres. I hate those. :ajbemused:

For erotic, vaginal tearing always frustrates me. People don't understand that that's not a normal thing. There doesn't have to be blood, even if it's her first time. The next thing is how everyone is always expert at eating out and the female always squirts. It's like they're all written by virgins or something. Can we have like a totally awkward one where the stallion is terrible because he's never done this before? And there's a way you have to do it to make her squirt and it's not usually something people just instinctively know. In fact, most females aren't aware they're capable of it, and often get embarrassed when it happens because they think they're going to pee.

Out of character is just out of character, man. When a character just totally knows the perfect way to handle something and everything goes off without a hitch, but it's difficult to see them talking in that voice. Bothers me, man.

I swear if I read another story about that rainbow maned pegasus who's going to be a wonderbolt someday and knows spitfire and soarin' personally I'm going to throw something. Granted she's spoken to each of them a number of times in canon, it's not like they go to the bar or something.

Scootaloo is not helpless. I am so tired of watching her get rescued by Rainbow Dash. She's a strong filly and I really wish people would realize this.

-Stereotypical of grimdark ponifiction
Healing magic as a way to keep the protagonists alive despite them having been reduced to puddles of red goop at the end of each chapter (especially true of grimdark action adventure fics).

-Stereotypical of erotic ponifiction
The perfect first time. Nopony's nervous and everypony are having multiple simultaneous orgasms. Also, futa dicks.

-Stereotypical of out-of-character poni poni poni portrayals
Love makes you lose your mind. Lovesick ponies are the source of all problems and conflicts, but also the solution.

-Stereotypical of Rainbow Dash tropes
»I just have to remind myself of how loyal I am and I'll stop being an impulsive, arrogant braggart in a heartbeat.«

-Stereotypical of Scootaloo tropes
Hardship is beautiful.

For Grimdark, I'd say the one that bugs me the most is the pointless death. Its like a bad Hollywood "Horror" movie where all they do is kill a ton of people in gruesome ways, and expect that to make up for things like, oh idk, a plot :ajbemused:

Erotic you got to split in to two categories. Romance, and clop.
The first one I'd say is the fact that the said sexytime adventure has little effect on the rest of the story's world or characters. Like a bad vampire romance novel, it 's only made so that subject A: could fall in "love" with subject B: and fulfill some kind of wish for the writer.
The thing I hate the most about clop is that if one party accosts another, no matter how wrong or violent, the victim "begins to like it" :eeyup: ... Thanks Japan :facehoof:

I don't have a problem with ponies being OOC as long as there's some character building to lead up to it, or at the vary least to good excuse for it.
The one that dose get old though is the "I'm going to act like a Cynical, sarcastic teenager" for no reason, even though this is not how ANY of them has ever acted before!
(Most often seen in OC HiE fics)

Rainbow dash is not a walking Stereotype! She suffers from Flanderization worse in fanfics then any other Pony. Just because she sometimes picks fights, or is overly arrogant, dose not mean that that's the Only way she's aloud to act!

With the Chicken. Her :heart::scootangel::heart: for :rainbowderp: makes me :facehoof:
I mean, is that her one and only character trait?

-Stereotypical of grimdark ponifiction
*I don't read a ton of grimdark, but it's often an excuse for torture porn and/or gratuitous gore. Judging from your choice of pictures, I think you have a handle on how to do dark well, by utilizing the uncomfortable realistic rather than the fountains of blood.

-Stereotypical of erotic ponifiction
*Futa. Because apparently sex isn't possible without dicks. So tired of this.
*Other random, stupid fetishes. Not stupid because people legitimately have them, but stupid because they take center stage and it isn't realistic that they would be so powerfully expressed, and so casually accepted. Stupid because the story becomes about the fetish (or worse, the list of fetishes) instead of making any one aspect actually appealing.
*Porn-star virgins. Not one single bit of awkwardness from first timers, and the first time is the most powerful orgasm either of them had, and it just keeps getting better from then on.

-Stereotypical of out-of-character poni poni poni portrayals
*Depicting the mane six as not actually friends with each other. Especially true if one or two of them fall in love, they suddenly get the idea that their friendship is going to suddenly end (it typically doesn't anyway).

-Stereotypical of Rainbow Dash tropes
*Injury, either serious but temporary or permanent crippling, especially her wings. I'm really tired of seeing this one.
*Dash gives up her dream of being in the Wonderbolts in favor of romance. Treating her dreams as an obstacle to romance, because no one ever made that work ever.
*Rainbow Dash is gay because of her hair color, not because she's into other mares. Probably one of the single-most idiotic tropes that shouldn't exist, but people are fucking stupid.


-Stereotypical of Scootaloo tropes
*Scootaloo is an orphan.

Hap

-Stereotypical of grimdark ponifiction: Dunno, don't read it. I skimmed through "Rainbow Factory" and "Cheerilee's Garden" early on, didn't care for the first, was disturbed by the other. If I had to pick something, I'd say "ponies acting out of character by being murderous."

-Stereotypical of erotic ponifiction: Dunno, don't read it.

-Stereotypical of out-of-character poni poni poni portrayals: Dunno, I stop reading if something's too OOC and there's not a reason why. There's usually one moment where it breaks the flow of a story, and that's when I leave.

-Stereotypical of Rainbow Dash tropes: I... can't actually think of any Rainbow Dash stories I've read besides yours. Hm, there's only one in my favorites that's tagged with Dash.

-Stereotypical of Scootaloo tropes: Same. Single-minded devotion to either Rainbow Dash or to getting a cutie mark, with no other personality traits.

This incredibly unhelpful reply has been brought to you by the letter "coffee."

Grimdark
Hollywood-esque levels of damage resistance. (Simply sustaining a blow capable of knocking someone out is dangerous and can seriously impair a person afterwards).
Scars are Cool -- Bodily wounds don't impair a character's ability to pull off crazy stunts.
Death and suffering as a substitute for conflict and real emotion.

Erotica
Exaggeration of sexual acts.
Use of the phrase, "Sweet juices." Like, god damn, if you want to show that you have no idea about what you're on about, or that you aren't confident in your ability to show sex for how it really is, please, use this phrase.
Randiness transcends relationships. I.e. the "Let's throw two characters together, who normally wouldn't touch each other, and make them fuck. Why do they do it? They're horny" trope.

Out of Character Portrayals
Exaggeration of a particular trait for the purpose of the story. (Note, it can be, and has been, used well).
Ignoring certain character traits because they do not mesh with your story. I.e. turning a three-dimensional character into a two- or one-dimensional one so they fit into a specific role.

Rainbow Dash
Playing up the idiot-ball. Sure, the girl's not academically brilliant -- I imagine she failed more than a few tests in school -- but people like her tend to be pretty street smart, aware of the Do's and Do Not's when it comes to getting by.
Rainbow Dash is a bad-ass Scratch that. RD is a total boss.

Scoots
Neglected child.
Homeless.
Orphan.
Exaggeration of her idolisation of RD to the point where it becomes her defining character trait.


I dunno. There's probably more, but this is what I thought of on the spot. Hope it helps.

-Stereotypical of grimdark ponifiction
Gore. Like, I fucking love Grimdark stuff, but just making everything really gory and explicit doesn't make it grim OR dark. It just sounds like 'babbys first scary movie'

-Stereotypical of erotic ponifiction
They just suddenly think the other is the hottest thing ever. Like, there's no real relationship progression, it's just "I SUDDENLY THINK YOU ARE SEXY" "I THINK THE SAME OF YOU" (erotic times occur).

-Stereotypical of out-of-character poni poni poni portrayals
Pinkie/Rainbow not being good friends. Like, they wouldn't be elements of harmony if they couldn't tone it down as needed.

-Stereotypical of Rainbow Dash tropes
Being mindless. Like sure, she's pretty tunnel-vision, but it'd be a shitty time being a flyer if you couldn't pay attention to your surroundings and how others are handling stuff.

-Stereotypical of Scootaloo tropes
Being an orphan. I mean, I dont really read scootafics, and I cant think of anything -better-... but she's -always- an orphan, so it's the most stereotypical trope I can think of.

-Stereotypical of grimdark ponifiction:
Gore, a serial killer hiding under a nice persona that target unsuspecting person (or at least that's what I read, I don't really read many grimdark).

-Stereotypical of erotic ponifiction
A femdom or female domination (dominatrix(?)). Where the female was in heat and fuck every stallion she sees.

-Stereotypical of out-of-character poni poni poni portrayals
Background character that becomes the bearer.
Fluttershy who gets too assertive (especially when in heat).

-Stereotypical of Rainbow Dash tropes
Appledash :rainbowwild: JK
Lesbian.
Dreaming to be a wonderbolts.
Lazy.
Awesome.

-Stereotypical of Scootaloo tropes
An homeless orphan that happy go lucky which she hid from her friends and refuse to get help.

-Stereotypical of grimdark ponifiction
Blood and viscera everywhere, characters OOC to the point of unrecognizability, no hope allowed, everything good that ever happened ever was just a dream created by (insert villain of choice here.)

-Stereotypical of erotic ponifiction
Estrus excuse, characters discovering they have the same fetish, second-person viewpoint, logistically improbable intercourse, consent issues, "orbs" and the admiration thereof (both optic and gluteal.)

-Stereotypical of out-of-character poni poni poni portrayals
Fluttershy treats "Um" and "if that's okay with you" like punctuation, Rarity is a vapid bitch, Pinkie Pie is an annoyance, Dash is the lovechild of Worf and Sonic the Hedgehog, Applejack is an incestuous bigot, Twilight is an amoral mad scientist who can't correctly cast a spell to save her life, Spike doesn't show up in the story, Celestia is an uncaring tyrant, Cadance is a serial rapist, and Zecora can't maintain her rhythm.

-Stereotypical of Rainbow Dash tropes
The Wonderbolts are somehow involved, Gilda and/or Lightning Dust are somehow involved, Dash is shipped with someone, (Corollary: Dash is oblivious to romance,) Dash breaks a wing, Dash plots revenge over the Mare-Do-Well incident, Dash's attempts to take a nap are repeatedly frustrated, Dash dyes her mane, Dash struggles with or against her femininity, Dash realizes her sexual identity, flight camp story, childhood story involving Dash's dad from "Games Ponies Play."

-Stereotypical of Scootaloo tropes
Scootaloo is an orphan, Scootaloo emphatically isn't an orphan, Scootaloo becomes an orphan, Scootaloo is adopted, Scootaloo dies somehow, Scootaloo is homeless, (Corollary: justifications are given for how the house seen in "Flight to the Finish" isn't actually her house,) Scootaloo gets her cutie mark, Scootaloo learns she will never get her cutie mark, Scootaloo's first flight, Scootaloo deals with being flightless, being Scootaloo is suffering, tree sap, Rainbow Dash idolatry (possibly with shrine,) flightless bird jokes.

Hope these help. :scootangel:

2558053
I was writing exactly this, so I'm going to be lazy and say "what he said". This list is nearly comprehensive.

Grimdark: Gore. Lots and lots of gore do not a scary story make. You can make something spooky without a single dead body or drop of blood. I'm sure you know of this, but it's the best I can think of since I'm ot a fan of dark.

Erotic: Vore. Lots and lots of vore do not a sexy story make. Kidding. Anyhoo, I'd say that the worst thing about some clop is fetishes. Not that it's bad to have them, we all have some things that tickle our sexybone, it's just that I've seen a million stories about a potion or spell that gives character X (usually Twilight) a fully-functioning dong. It's almost an excuse instead of a plot element, if it even does have plot. It's the same with any fantastical fetishes, it's always a spell or potion or whatevs. Sometimes they don't even bother to explain it.Some more extreme fetishes just ruin it for the uninclined and can be downright gross at times. Just stick to good ol fashion lesbian horses.

OOC Horses: Oh Christ, there have been so many takes on every character, I don't even know what's OOC or not. Just write it as you feel it and everything will be allright.

RBD Tropes: Lesbian!RBD, Tsundere!RBD, and anything involving the numbers ten or twenty.

Scootatroopes: Scootaloo is an orphan! That's all I got really.

Notimuch to go on, as I am no expert on characterization or anything of the like. Hope it helped anyway.

-Stereotypical of grimdark ponifiction
Eh...everything? :rainbowwild: Death and gore, for the sake of being extreeeme. :pinkiecrazy: Actually :pinkiecrazy: too...not that you can't extrapolate flat-hair Pinkie into something interesting :pinkiesad2:, but it's way too heavy handed in most attempts.

-Stereotypical of erotic ponifiction
Lack of understanding of basic anatomy (both general and sexual), and underplaying of species' physical differences. Overuse and overplaying of 'heat', especially turning mares into basically rapists or otherwise disabling their frontal lobes. Hornplay. Wingplay & wingboners (I mean, if you look comparatively, they're basically an extra set of arms and 'webbed digits'...I don't lose use of my limbs when I'm horny, and shoulder massages are nice but not orgasmic).

-Stereotypical of out-of-character poni poni poni portrayals
Extreme bigotry. Failure to talk to friends. Failure to trust friends/loved ones/immortal demi-gods for no apparent reason (it's fine if a less-than-shiny interpretation or view is laid out alongside).

-Stereotypical of Rainbow Dash tropes
I sometimes think it's cliched at this point to overplay her internal insecurities. Like, she has her 'moment' at the flyer competition, but the show at least tries to show some amount of character growth over time. Maybe she started drinking chamomile tea or something in the meantime? Or did some cognitive behavioral therapy? You'd think she would actively seek to stomp out such inadequacies. Meh.

-Stereotypical of Scootaloo tropes
Scootaloo is just like Rainbow Dash in every way! Scootaloo wants to be just like Rainbow Dash in every way!

Alrighty then. For realzies now.

1: Shock value is the thing that everything in the story should lead up, and if you have to make the atmosphere and characters drag behind, then so be it. Because it's shocking the readers that make grimdark, uh, grim. Blood, fights, death, whatever. Also, you gotta make sure there's no hope for the protagonist whatsoever. This is grimdark after all. Kick 'em to the ground and keep 'em there.

2: I'm not the person to ask about this.

3: Forcing dialogue, especially when it comes to phonetically spelling a character's dialogue. I'm looking at you, Applejack, and your godforsaken "Ahs." There's nothing more annoying than when an author has to beat over the reader's head who's speaking, even though "Fluttershy said" is right there. I'm not saying every one has to be identical, but they needn't be so varied. Let actions speak, dammit.

4: Is a dolt, finds everything funny, is an ass-kicker, struggling with her sexual identity and/or relationships, secretly insecure, can't keep a secret, is a bit of a dick.

5: Orphanloo has been kicked into the ground enough, would walk 500 miles for Rainbow Dash and then 500 more, is a dolt, sad over the lack of a cutie mark, depressed, flightless bird jokes, Scootaloo + Rainbow Dash = happy ending

- For Grimdark, the most common I know is that the show is actually superdark and terrible and we just never see it. Though, The Everfree is apparently full of horrible, dangerous things that everyone just accepts and lives with is common too.

- Painfully wooden and cliche sex scenes. Overly stretchy anatomy, since ponies have no bones, they're just marshmallows they can clearly insert objects that are three times their body size without issue , they have built in bags of holding y'know.

- Exaggerating character traits. So, Twi loves books more than her friends, Rarity is a selfish wench to the nth degree, Fluttershy never has a spine and will walk into certain death to see an animal, etc. Also that friendships are rock solid, unless you need to trust each other/talk about things in which case they may as well be dripping acid.

- Dash only acts big and tough, inside she's a total wuss and one offhand criticism will totally bring that out and reduce her to a weeping wreck. Also the Dash has to choose between her friends/relationship and the Wonderbolts. Because LDR relationships, vacation days, and such don't exist.

- Scootaloo will blow off everything to hang out with Rainbow Dash, she wants to be juuuust like her, who needs unique personality traits? Also she lives in a box/in an abusive orphanage/with abusive parents/with no parents in her own house/she's a chicken. Also she's never going to fly without a miracle so let's either use her for cheap sympathy, or give her a miracle.

I skimmed the comments and tried to not include stuff other folks came up with as repetition doesn't make it more true.

Most of it has been listed, one other thing comes to mind:

OOC Ponies: Characters not /talking/ like their character. AJ or Dash will not go into a highly technical speech with plenty of scientific terms. Twi will not talk like Pinkie does. The princesses talking too casually. Stuff like that. Had another example but I've forgotten >_>

2558188

Suddenly the world turned brown and green and other shades of brown, signifying the work going guimdark. Steam began to rise from manholes that were previously unseen, giving Ponyville a very dark and mature atmosphere and making this fanfic something you wouldn’t be embarrassed to admit liking, unlike that lame pony show. It’s dark, man. Guimdark.

Anything in the silent ponyville series. That just about sums it up.

Particularly fucking dream seqeuences.

Stereotypical of erotic ponifiction

things that you believe are overdone, or things that you are tired of seeing so much and would like to see less of.

Fuck me, where to begin?

- Dumb convenient handwave excuses to have your ship characters alone together.
- Dumb convenient handwave excuses to dismiss Spike in the most condescending fashion possible.
- Characters 'suddenly' can't stop thinking about each other in romantic/sexy ways.
- Characters are humanized/anthro/rule 63/Futa/AU in some way 'just because,' in order to facilitate the erotica/kink du jour.
- Stories that are barely a couple thousand words long, most of which is going straight for the 'erotic' part.
- Stories where (homosexual pony)'s family disapproves of The Gay.
- Stories starring an anonymous "you".
- Stories that go with the assumption that these ponies have an estrus cycle/mating season, yet grown-ass adult ponies are utterly ignorant of/shocked by being stricken with it like it's never fucking happened before.

That's probably enough to start with.

The only thing I have to add is on the Scootaloo front. I've read a few where she isn't an orphan, but then her parents are ALWAYS away or abusive.

2558179 I just realized that is so true :rainbowlaugh:

2558235 Just throwing my weight here. Agree 100% on this. While there are instances it can and might happen, as a regular thing? Nope. Not without serious character changes.

Everything else I wanted was already ranted upon, so just gonna thumbs up them.

The Scootaloo being a cripple thing isn't even a trope. It's what was part of her character design according to Faust some years ago. It was always intended. She is meant to be the scrappy little hothead who can't fly and doesn't let it get her down.

People acting like it's some sort of aberrant abomination just because they want to see their headcanon.

A lot of the things I'm seeing on these lists seem more like personal bias than actual objective issues with stories that people have read... to the point I'd agree on a personal level, but beyond that it's just annoying to see.

-Stereotypical of grimdark ponifiction

Lots and lots of gore.

-Stereotypical of erotic ponifiction

Chicks with dicks.

-Stereotypical of out-of-character poni poni poni portrayals

Rarity - Darling.
Twilight - Overemphasizing her psycho tendencies.
Fluttershy - She has three consecutive heart attacks when someone steps on a twig. But then when the bedroom is involved she's suddenly a sex goddess.
Applejack - Howdy y'all! Apples!
Pinkie Pie - HIITALKLIKETHISCAUSEI'MHYPERACTIVEALSOCUPCAKES
Rainbow Dash - See below.

-Stereotypical of Rainbow Dash tropes

Making her overly hostile and/or a dumbass.

-Stereotypical of Scootaloo tropes

Orphan Scoots and Scootadopt. Enough has been said.

-Stereotypical of erotic ponifiction

Everypony is a gifted, goddamned prodigy at sex, regardless of what their sexual experience is purported to be.

Good questions!
Grim dark: Death, a pony acts totally out of character, a good character becomes a bad one, more death, death death death grim dark is death.
Erotica: innuendoes, maybe? I don't read that stuff.
Out of char poni stuff: Pinkie Pie is completely insane, and can do ANYTHING she wants, Trollestia/Dictatorlestia/Molestia, Luna randomly becomes nightmare moon, Fluttershy loses it, Twilight loses it, Big Mac is a loudmouth, Applejack is an idiot
RD tropes/Scoots tropes: RD adopts Scoots, scoots is an orphan, RD is a lesbian, Rainbow acts like a douche

-Stereotypical of grimdark ponifiction: "X" snaps because reasons and murders "Y" in a fit of psychotic rage. Also a presence of characters who are there to die and serve as filler. If you want me to give a flying F**K when somepony dies, give them dialogue and set up a character. Make me like them, then I'll feel feels when they die. (Why I'M telling YOU this is beyond me. You're the best author here.)

-Stereotypical of erotic ponifiction: I don't read much of that, but I'm willing to bet that there's a degree of contrived plots to get to the other plots.

-Stereotypical of out-of-character poni poni poni portrayals: I wrote 3 paragraphs of examples before realizing they were all just saying to avoid "flanderization" of the characters.
-Stereotypical of Rainbow Dash tropes
Don't make her say any of the freaking meme quotes. For De Lancie's sake don't do that. I have NEVER seen that come off as anything more than awkward and ham-fisted.
-Stereotypical of Scootaloo tropes
Aside from the overplayed orphan angle, none jump out at me.

Overall, just don't flanderize them. For those that don't know, flanderization is the process of taking a single trait of a character and expanding it until it consumes all the other traits that character had. Pinkie Pie is the one that this is easiest to do to. A flanderized pinkie would be: lol so randum all teh time and never has a serious thought or action.

Pretty comprehensive list already, but here are a couple of impressions from my first month here-

Grimdark- just because a character goes 'dark' doesn't mean they instantly kill/hate all their friends instantly, completely change personalities, and become idiots as well. Already sick of lazy 'wragh kill everything' OOC darkfics. Every character can go dark and stay in character. Go read some Lovecraft/Shirley Jackson and learn some subtlety.
Also Pinky. So overdone.
Erotic- 'winking' mareparts. eww. I have never seen this word used in erotic fiction before coming here, and I don't know why it's in so many stories. I just picture a big blinking eye under their tail.

The rest seems well covered.

-Stereotypical of Rainbow Dash tropes
This:

If I were in a heated game with a friend or family member, I too might be tempted to throw a pillow at them or something. Disconnecting a controller just seems... 'harsher,' or more unfair some how. Does that make sense? I sort of see it as if AJ and RD were racing. I would be okay with RD trash talking AJ to distract her, or cutting her off, but I wouldn't be cool with actually knocking her over. But what I truly dislike about this moment is how AJ objects to this without sounding angry or spiteful, only hurt and justifiably objecting. Dash then dismisses her, saying with total confidence that AJ must be delusional, while buying into her own false projection of self confidence. Of course, this movie doesn't feature a romantic relation between these two, and stars a teenage version of Rainbow Dash who's had only a fraction of the growth as the Ponyville Weather Manager and Wonder Bolt reservist. So although I feel like RD's faults were laid on pretty thick, I'm not sure if she would make my top 5 neighs with Rainbow Rocks. I felt Rarity, my favorite pony, was the most flanderized and useless of the Mane 6... 7.... 8. Still nice to see it wasn't Pinkie or Spike occupying that position though.

-Stereotypical of Scootaloo tropes
I can take Scootaloo being an orphan just fine, even though I'm always happy to see someone try something different. What I cannot stand (anymore) is making her a hobo from the Great Depression! If she were shacked up in a derelict building, it would be ridiculous to portray her friends, authority figures*, or another parental figure in her life not picking up on any of the subsequent health issues or strange behavior, then rectifying the problem immediately. Especially in a well off setting such as Ponyville!

Let's assume that Scoots really is an orphan. You still have to acknowledge this scene:

Meghan McCarthy‏@MMeghanMcCarthy
I think we all learned a valuable lesson today. Scootaloo is not homeless #MLPseason4

That house is owned and maintained by the government or a functioning member of society. If her parents are dead, she's either living with other relatives, or is housed at an orphanage. I would accept stories that put her in a dangerous, unsafe position if they were:
-->Conceptualized/published early on in the show's history, before the people around her knew her for so long, and before developments like RD promising to be a big sister, or when she was tutored by a friggin' princess. Also,
-->if the story went into detail about how Scoots has maintained the lie, while demonstrating her acceptable physical and mental health. Again,
-->I'm not against a character struggling, but I'm against good friends and family being oblivious. Which is why,
-->It must be reasonable as to how they could have missed out on a few things, and must be properly stunned and upset at not just the revelation of this information, but at the revelation of how misinformed they were.

Lordy, I'd like to summarize a lot of what's above me, to acknowledge how I wholeheartedly agree with them, but there's so many... Also, most people have filled out all five categories, and I don't feel like I can get behind each bullet point as eagerly. But I'd like to draw attention to
2558766
Even though I'm not a follower of erotica, I still encounter those stories, and saucy scenes in other types of work. Unexplained prodigies of intimacy and/or physical pleasure really make me roll my eyes if a lack of experience has been established (or the logical assumption has been set in place). I also think that can be a damaging precedent to set, since the most precious and memorable moments in life are rarely perfect. Often, they're anything but.

*This goes hoof-in-hoof with another Scootaloo trope that can be overplayed, Scoots misbehaving and performing poorly and school. You can't really have these two cliches at the same time. Why wouldn't Cheerilee try meeting with Scoot's parents when a certain point was reached? And if the argument is that this is the same Cheerilee who doesn't wrangle in Diamond Tiara at all, by talking to her or Filthy Rich, then the argument is that Cheerilee is an inattentive teacher.

Grimdark - Taking scenes, locations or themes from a comedy show without a great deal of depth and interpreting potential absences of explanation/context therein to create an apparently credible 'dark' take on MLP:FIM. Examples include Pinkie/Twilight's single episode 'mental breakdowns', the Everfree Forest in general and the nature of rule used by the Princesses. If not, usually variants of ground-hog day scenarios, someone or everyone has died or miscellaneous Fallout: Equestria fics.

Erotic - You've got the classic self-insert OC's/humans getting lucky with various cast members by the virtue of their inherent sexiness (or in several cases, pheromones or some other contrived biological bollocks), various character traits of the main cast being exaggerated and placed in a bedroom context (Pinkie's gets it on with everyone, Rarity's a sadist, Rainbow's a masochist), the most morally sound way of justifying two characters getting it on ever (heat cycles) and other such wonderful stereotypes.

OOC - Usually just a typical case of taking one trait shown by a character across the series, or even a single scene, and either exaggerating it to the extreme or creating a one-dimensional character based around said trait. At its best used for comedic effect, at its worst just a mistake on the author's behalf.

Rainbow Dash - Lesse... RBD gets shipped with everything and the kitchen sink, RBD acts cocky on the outside but it actually very frail on the inside, before the show discredited it a typical one was RBD as either an orphan or a product of asshole parents. RBD losing her wings or the ability to fly certainly used to be prevalent as well as playing up her idiocy for comedy value. Oh, and the I'mnotgayjustbecauseofmyhairbutactuallyIam thing.

Scoots - Orphan Scoots and disabled Scoots are the usual suspects, along with various allusions to chickens. Various accounts of her creepy adoration of RBD are also Scootaclassics. Didn't the word scootabuse used to be a thing? Other than that, I've got nothing, but writing about Scootaloo always leave me with KFC cravings...

I'll write these without looking at the other comments so's to be fair, so there may be a lot of duplicates.

-Stereotypical of grimdark ponifiction
Loving, yet terribly written, scenes of gore
Black-and-red OCs
New villains out of keeping with the themes and feel of the show
Villains from the show made more competent/powerful and vastly more depraved
(TW) Rape for funsies
Celestia and Luna are easily overpowered, rendered powerless, conveniently got out of the way, or otherwise brushed under the carpet for the sake of more gore
Peaceful cartoon characters suddenly develop hitherto-unknown badflank fighting skills
Totes Original(tm) shout-outs to Cupcakes and/or Rainbow Factory
People thinking it's serious, even after it ends up in the Trollfics group
Humans

-Stereotypical of erotic ponifiction
A crush we're told is pre-existing that makes no sense within canon
Pones are lesbian due to the paucity of interesting male characters
Or male OCs are introduced as an alternative to lesbian pones for the same reason
MULBERRYFUDGING second person writing
Main character is called Anon
Crotchboob
Pones have human-like, uh, 'romantic anatomy'

-Stereotypical of out-of-character poni poni poni portrayals
Too many exclamation marks while not being Pinkie Pie
Sudden, completely incongruous swearing, threats or actual violence while not being Fluttershy-pushed-past-her-limits
Teen-angst phrases like "I'm broken! I'm worthless!"
Secretly angsting over something that was resolved, or not a big deal, in canon
Twilight being ignorant or OC being more knowledgeable than Twilight
Pinkie's hair goes straight and all of a sudden she's a serialkiller!baker
Applejack is relegated to afterthought/background character
Idiots who can't write correct ye olde English for Luna, but it doesn't stop them trying :twilightangry2: (sorry, particular bugbear)

-Stereotypical of Rainbow Dash tropes
LESBIAN
Joins Wonderbolts
De-aged, put in cardboard box, sent to Earth for no bloody coherent reason
Lazy
What-ifs examining the consequences of her fillyhood sonic rainboom not happening
Stupid

-Stereotypical of Scootaloo tropes
ORPHAN
SECRETLY ABUSED AT HOME
Never learns to fly/wings are actually deformed rather than slow developer
Relationship to Rainbow Dash doesn't change as she grows up; remains starstruck fanfilly
Grows up to date Rainbow Dash
Tree sap

2559412 Regarding the 'winking', supposedly it's based on real horse mating habits. I don't quite dare google that to see if it's correct, tbh. :twilightoops:

2560212

-->I'm against a character struggling, but I'm against good friends and family being oblivious. Which is why,

EDITED! I meant that I'm NOT against a character struggling.

Seeing how many of these you used makes the story all the more amazing.

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