Alicorn OC's and universal destruction of cannon. My thoughts on them. · 5:55pm Feb 12th, 2015
So I've noticed that ever since Hasbro pulled two new alicorns out of their magical money pooping butt's that people have been talking about alicorn oc's a lot more. Now I don't know if princess Stirling or Princess Gold Lilly are going to be good, or bad characters, I really hope that they are awesome. This topic however is not about those two (although I got my hopes up for Stirling, she looks awesome!) this about alicorns in general, especially about how they fit into the universe.
The big problem here is that a lot of people believe that adding a new alicorn will destroy the universe, that because they hold great power and great responsibility, they will suddenly be so overwhelmingly important to the universe that everything revolves around them. Why?
Honestly why does it matter if someone is an alicorn? I mean the universe was just fine before they introduced Cadance right? Lets look at it this way, Twilight didn't have a brother, nor was their a 'daughter' of Celestia before they introduced this all in the end of season two. I'm fairly certain that up until that point Celestia and Luna were really special, gods of the sun and moon. But now with Twilight, and Cadance, what it means to be an alicorn has shifted a little. It's less godly then it once was, and now its more like they are just royalty.
This being said it shouldn't ruin the universe to add in another princess, the big problem with the show here is that the mane six have such a tiny little view into the world as a whole. They live in Ponyville and almost never hear any news of what's going on outside of their tiny little town unless it involves one of their family, and even then it takes months to actually get any information. So new alicorns shouldn't be surprising, they were always there, we as the viewer's just didn't know about it until we see it.
So that covers the first part of what's going on with the arguments I see about alicorns. The second part is the fact that people think alicorns are overpowered. I don't believe that alicorns are overpowered, I do however believe that the universe is overpowered. Lets put it this way, King Sombra had to be taken down by two alicorns and he was just a lowly unicorn who didn't even have a magical amulet. Next we have Starswirl who from all the information I can gather has only been 'missing' for a few hundred years implying that he has lived for centuries. Not to mention what Inkpots is capable of and she's a half blind old unicorn.
Finally we have the way that people treat alicorns. Frankly put they are treated as rulers of their country. Although a few humorous references are made, no one actually worships Celestia, in fact when she screws up they treat her poorly. And alicorns are far from perfect, if you look at Luna you get the strongest examples of them just being human, but even Celestia has faults if you look for them.
In the end I personally feel that although more powerful then the average unicorn, and long lived like a dragon, an alicorn is simply another race. Nothing too special when looked at under the right circumstance and still special for their own traits. There is just one thing that you need to remember when writing about any character's, cannon, oc, or even alicorn. They are people, with gifts, and faults. They could be loved by all, but secretly suicidal, or very talented but socially awkward. In the end you can write awesome alicorn oc's all you need to do is make them human, more or less.
(Sorry about the rant, I'm just getting sick and tired of reading these forums and groups where they all consider the words; alicorn, and oc, to be the most sinful combination of words ever created. I honestly love alicorn oc's just look at the Fallout Equestria universe, especially Project Horizons. Alicorns rock, but not any more then an earth pony, a unicorn, or a pegasus. Thanks for reading guys, and feel free to leave comments on this subject. I'd love to hear from you all.) XD
I think this is reversed. They are princesses specifically because they are special. For example, Cadence was only a pegasus orphan originally. After she proved herself is when she was adopted by Celestia and became an alicorn princess.
To quote from: Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell.
We are aware of exactly four alicorns. Two of whom recent, both of whom were teleported into Celestia's personal realm for their final step. Which is why it is the sort of thing best left to cannon writers, so nobody can argue with it. (And even then it takes a while. I don't think the Alicorn Twilight crowd died down until they could switch over to Library Reservation.
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I agree in regards to King Sombra. Though we know very little about dark magic, it does seem significantly more powerful than normal, generally at the price of a pony's personality. Starswirl accidentally miscast a time travel spell on himself, which appears to have made him timeless. I'm not sure what you mean with regards to Inkpots, I only recall her creating and animating a monster rabbit desert.
However, thanks to Tirek, we've seen that the magic power of a mere 4 alicorns was sufficient to at least equal the magic power of every pony in Equestria put together. That's quite a pretty significant amount. So, yes, overpowered might be a reasonable word. That's ignoring the more obvious 'imbalance' of simply having all the best traits of all three races, without any downsides. (Having an adjustment period to the change doesn't count as a downside.
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Agreed, they are people. As far as how Celestia is treated, the amount of 'worship' she gets appears to be inversely proportionate to how well someone knows her. For example when Celestia appears early on, the manesix bow, but they are less concerned with formality later on. When you look at how Celestia's former students treat her though, Sunset Shimmer openly resented her, and the former students now turned parents in the magic school have no problem angrily voicing their discontent with her choices. Twilight is the exception to this, as Twilight is much more familiar with Celestia than most, but keeps acting formal. Which seems to indicate that Celestia herself works hard to have ponies treat her normally, but the general culture is to show reverence towards her.
Yes. As is the case for any character, writing them well is important. It is frightfully easy to fall into a the Mary Sue trap, or be perceived as doing so. Part of the issue with resenting OC alicorns on sight is a numbers game, one that also contributes to people disliking OC's in the first place. Say that 60% of OC's suck and are uninteresting, then 90% Alicorn OC's suck and are uninteresting. Add on top of that the idea that people might well be more interested in seeing cannon characters explored than they are in seeing OC's explored. (Though I think that is not an issue with side characters, but mostly with the main role.)
You forgot "Black and Red" as colors for ponies.
2792862 So far they have not introduced the two new princess's into the show or any movies, but I'm willing to bet they will appear somewhere in season five. I would still really like to see them be cool characters.
A quote from Twilight Sparkle doesn't make me feel any better about the world of alicorns. Twilight tend's to be missing a realistic view of the world, though I do love her for that.
I also forgot that Shinning Armor was increadibly powerful, he might be even more so then Cadance. They both used the same spell, but it was less taxing on him, and he possibly used it for longer then Cadance did in the Crystal Empire episodes (on top of having his magic being drained by an evil changeling queen). Though because time doesn't work properly in Equestria we will probably never really know.
Now when it comes to Lord Tirek I have my doubts as to whether he had managed to get everypony in equestria. I am willing to bet that there was a army of ponies in hiding trying to wait out the apocalypse. Also Celestia and Luna are exceptionally powerful in their own rights, I believe that they could have defeated Tirek much more easily if they had simply attacked him head on.
And yes, the most wonderful piece of the cake. The most evil colors for anypony ever. Red and Black!!! I guess it was over used or something and that's why people hate that color, but personally I really enjoy the colors myself, so long as they are toned down. Gray and red seem to work better in my mind.
BTW thanks for the comment, it's always nice to wake up and find one or two of them on my stories or blogs. XD
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It's not certain if they are actual characters. If they are though, I hope we get to learn something of alicorn lore. Cadance was such a random "Hi, have a new alicorn. No, we're not telling you anything." moment.
I think Chrysalis drained Shining's love, not his actual magic. It's been a while since I saw the episode though. I wonder if Shining's special talent could be defensive spells. That may explain why he was so good at it, but so useless at everything else.
Honestly, I have no idea what the plan was against Tirek. The entire endeavor was retarded. But I'll spare you the rant.
I'm not entirely sure why it is so despised to have a Black+Red pony, but perhaps it is because black is not a color we see on any ponies? Like, it does not fit into the color pallet for ponies. We do see gray. (Aside from the notion that they are usually some sort of dark evil edgy type.)
Always happy to spout my opinions, though I am kind of shocked you replied, that's awfully rare lately.
2793074 sorry about the lack of replies. I have been pretty drained from my work and I can only hope that it hasent affected my writing to much. I also feel as though I need something insightful to say when I make comments. I will try and comment more in the future though.
Well let's face it. I agree with you on this whole thing especially about how the world was fine without a line of succession of alicorns.
But here's where things truly get interesting. I recently commented on a story cause some guy said the skull canon in this fan base is so damn high that the whiplash would break your neck. While I do agree with the canon of this fan base being awfully high compared to others, there is a reason for it. It's a story in a world full of MYTHICAL creatures. How can it not have tons of head canon when Hasbro it'self gives only half ass descriptions of the creatures and no explanation of the depths of how they live or function.
Changelings, the sirens, hell even how 'magic of all races' works in general. As for overpowered alicorns. Chrysalis beat Celestia on her own. Granted if Luna was there considering how close it was I bet the two together would have won. But that still proves your point. Chrysalis was barely strong enough to beat her in the magic beam off.
Also who's Ink Pots?
So I get where you're coming from. I hate it too. MOstly the overpowered alicorn thing. But heh, what can you do in a fan base, base off a show of mythical creatures with half ass explanations on how everything about them works? Make sense?
2795224 Those are some great points. Personally I love to read people's fan cannon in stories. Especially if they do weird things like add dragon ponies, or children of alicorn's, or even strange god like creatures to contend with the mane six or other beings.
I have read a lot of great fan fiction, some okay fan fiction, and a few pieces of terrible fan fiction. The thing I love most about this fandom is our creativity and how easily inspired we are to write about the ponies. I have great love and respect for OC's because that is the beginning of a true writer; someone who wants to create something entirely new. That's why I love stories that star oc's or at least feature a few main characters as OC's. It's always a surprise when you learn about who they are, and what they are like. XD
There are a lot of poorly made OC's out there, and I hate it when someone falls into the trap of a marry sue character, but we've all been there at some point (My first sessions of DnD had lots or Marry Sue's about six years back, I've learned a lot about story telling sense then). Heck I've read about anti marry sue's that take the opposite approach to the extreme. As for OC alicorn's well if you are going to go that far, why not go all the way and explain where they come from, who they are, and why alicorns exist in the first place?
Interestingly enough, the poor explanations given by the tv show are exactly what drives some of us, myself included, to write some of our fanfiction. So as much as I hate not getting answers, or even having certain questions being asked in the first place. I have to admit it's given me plenty of material to write about.
PS: Inkpots is a character from the comic series who won Celestia's friendship after getting permanently injured while defending Canterlot against Shadow creatures. Inkpots comes off as being insanely powerful, though she is old and has earned her power.
2797365 I can respect the thoughts on OC's. I have three in my story Wonderbolt my Heart. They're interesting to say the least. BTW, I figured you played DnD by your name and comments in blogs and other things I've read. What edition do you play? I played 3.5 originally as a monster character. Yuan-ti ranger, death knight, dragon rider, ranger. Now 4th edition.
What about you?
2798557 I've played a lot of forth edition, I have also played a bit of pathfinder (also known as 3.7) and I've played numerous other systems such as RIFTS, vampire, fudge, nero, call of cuthulu, and some more that I can't remember the name of right now. I usually DM for my groups, so I've had lots of time to learn how to tell stories with more realistic characters. Role Playing a great way to learn about many things, especially story telling. XD
2798625 I agree. I base my story skills on fimfiction based on the same principles I use for DnD when I DM. I also played World of Darkness which is one of my favorites.