My Ideas for those doing LoHaV · 12:40am Jan 16th, 2015
Greetings my fellow bronies from around the world. Well, I’ve talked about this type of fanfic in Fimfiction before and chances are, you know I’m not a big fan of it. League of Humans Acting Villainous /Heroic are a series of HiE fanfictions where a human, dressed up as the cosplay of a character from an anime, game, movie, show etc, is given an item that happens to be magical. This transports them to Equestria where they have the abilities, skills, and sometimes personalities of the ones they are cosplaying as. When they land, most of the time they end up making a bad first impression and are typically turned to stone for whatever amount of years before getting freed sometime during the show’s timeline. Sometimes these guys are misunderstood people who are just trying to save the world or find a way home, other times they are real villains who are trying to destroy or rule Equestria.
Now my criticism is very much similar to what most people who don’t like this type of fanfic genre say about it. It’s the same formula every single time, the characters are either obnoxious pricks or idiots, while some are completely OC, the main character is a god, or the simple question: WHY NOT MAKE IT A CROSSOVER?!
Still, for all my ranting, while not as big as Chessgame of the Gods, it is very popular and well known genre of our fanfiction community. And, as much as I hate to say it, there are a few of these that… I like.
But the reason I like them is because they are unique or at least written very well.
The ones I happen to like most are:
1. The Mighty Warrior of Epicness: because it’s very funny and has the character interact with the other LoVaH characters.
2. The Black Knight: Because my god the writing is beautiful.
3. Crippled, Beaten, Broken: Because it takes the concept and makes the human, who does terrible things, go through a living hell from an even worse monster.
Now, I have no intention of writing such a concept, but there are ideas that I wish were done differently. Now this isn’t me saying what characters I’d like to see be used, but rather the story's progression on how I think it should be done. So if you’re a writer who is looking to write a fic like this, here are some ideas for you to consider when writing it.
1. “Have the human in a different timeline”
Why does the human need to be in the timeline of the show? Why not have him in the past? Have him deal with the events of Hearths Warming Eve and interact with Commander Hurricane or Clover the Clever. Or maybe during the time of a young Celestia and Luna with Discord still being his evil self. Hell, maybe the human defeats Discord. Or make him defeat Sombra and become the new ruler of the Crystal Empire.
And why stop at the past? Why not be creative and do it 200 years after the series. See the offspring the of the characters, or characters who might be alive at this time. Try new villains, new environments, show your creative side. It would be interesting, and a writer of this concept could tell a story without heavily relying on the show for answers. Use your imagination.
2. “Have the human in a different MLPVerse”
There are tons of MLPVerses out there. We got Fallout: Equestria, we got Equestria Divided, we got Lunaverse, Human and You, Conversion Bureau etc. Have one of those badass cosplayers in an Equestria they know from the fandom instead of the canon. You can also create your own universe.
Have the human land in an MLP where Twilight is a Tyrant. Or the Mane Six were killed by Nightmare Moon. Maybe there is no Mane six or Celestia or Luna or anything, but the races and the world exist and its in a warring states period.
You don’t need to limit yourself to the show. Explore yourself.
3. “Have every other race love the human, but the ponies”
A common trope in the LoHaV fics is the fact that the ponies see the cosplayer as the bad guy. He either did something on purpose or accident that made him look evil, or his cosplay just gives up that “I’m going to kill you and screw your children” vibe. Whatever the reason, he or she becomes the most wanted face in Equestria. You know there is more out there to explore, right? Have the human be smart and leave the country that hates him and journey to other lands where he becomes a worldwide hero. Griffins, dragons, minotaurs, zebras ,other pony lands or whatnot all hail the human as a hero while the Equestirans are baffled by how many love him when they stubbornly refuse to rethink maybe they were wrong.
Then comes the ancient evil number whatever and the world is forced to unite to survive, which means the ponies have to work with the guy they despise, but the world loves.
4. “The ponies are the real bad guys”
Maybe this has been done in some concept with LoHaV, but not that I’ve seen. In this idea, the human arrives in Equestria and while it looks, acts, and feels like the Equestria we know and love, there is clearly something wrong with it and it does acts that most would consider wrong. Maybe it has a convert or die to their harmony idea? Maybe they practice slavery? Maybe they brainwash or force ponies to worship Celestia and Luna as gods? Maybe they are racist?
Thus the human decides to fight for what’s right, and use his powers to fight Equestria’s main heroes for justice. In a sense, this would make him a “villain” by all terms and means, but only in the eyes of Equestria. To the readers though, he would be the hero.
5. “The human acts in the shadows”
Now this might have to be for cosplayers that are with stealthy or chessmaster humans, but what if the human operated in the shadows. As a good guy or bad guy, they either act without being scene or manipulate events without anypony knowing it. And even if they do know it, they don’t know who is doing it and why. Maybe the human reveals himself or gets found out later or maybe they are never spotted. Up to you.
Well, those are my ideas. On the off chance somebody uses them glad I could help. Unlke my adoption blogs, you don’t need to ask permission for these and anybody can take them.
Later
the concept "human gains the power and behavior of character that is disguised" is a rather ancient concept the first time I saw him was in buffy the vampire slayer
the main problem with this genre many authors copied the idea Base
a big misunderstanding and then banished or sealed
the unique stories that break a little with these two
Calming Sigh-- with a Breath of Fire
the hero you use something akin to shadow clone to escape the elements and pretend it was sealed and then escapes from Equestria, and a fake statue is created, essentially fools princesses for thousands of years while he lives his life
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/207484/calming-sigh-with-a-breath-of-fire
Old Birds with Sharp Teeth
the character is a hero or a god for celestia grifin but I fear for the rapid scientific advances that she considered immoral, it is a crossing with the dark glass
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/201081/old-birds-with-sharp-teeth
well the trouble with this i see is that most of these LOHaV tend to be self-inserts and they'd rather like to be the focus of attention in the canon timeline and interact with the mane 6 rather than be more original with their settings.
My thought on it is that I've always seen teenagers or someone older get pulled in there. What if someone younger like a child got brought in like in "All hail, Lord Megatron"
Speaking of creative villains. I need ideas.
If you would like to share them. I'll leave a special thanks.
Also these are really good ideas. I'll end up using some eventually.
2725990
what do you mean by creative villains?
2725994 Anything that could exist in MLP that isn't already a season bookend villain. Or a generic evil/dark alicorn.
2726012
PM me what your looking for and I'll see what I can do