Several short topics, some of which may or may not interest you · 2:35am May 23rd, 2015
There have been a few things on my mind that I've felt like blogging about over the past few days but none of them felt substantial enough to give them their own post. So instead I'm combining all of them into one post. If you see something that might interest you feel free to read it, and if it doesn't skip to the next topic. Or don't.
Why I write Rage Reviews
Just in case you were unaware, I'm a fairly active contributor to rage reviews. (That group that "rages" stories, most of them bad or at least flawed, sometimes using captioned images to punctuate our point). As an entirely foreseeable result of this I have personally angered a few people on this website because I didn't like their stories and said so using very unambiguous language.
And the result of that is arguments about the merits of unsolicited criticism and having to respond to accusations that I am a jerk or a troll or that I "just hate good stories" or "other people's success". And so an argument can be made that I should just stop.
But aside from the fact that some people enjoy my acerbic commentary there is a lager, more important motivation at play here. Bad writing deserves to be called out. That's just a belief I have. I know we write for fun, and that there are ways to be nice about criticism, but those ignore the preeminent issue, if you write crap you someone should say so, and sometimes that will be me.
Why I wrote a troll fic
Related to my raging of fics I decided to write a troll fic. The idea came about in the comments section of my last review. I reviewed a narmy Scootaloo story and my previous two reviews were also Scootaloo stories that committed their own sins, the most notable of which was making everything is Scootaloo's life terrible. And this is just a pet peeve of mine.
If I have any reputation at all on this site it's as that guy who writes Scootaloo stories. I've written 13 stories, 5 feature Scootaloo as the main protagonist, one is the troll fic. In addition my top four stories in terms of views/likes are the Scootaloo ones, it's not even close. So yeah, I'd like to declare myself as somewhat as an authority on Scootaloo fics.
I've read a lot of them too. The good ones are the ones that treat Scootaloo as an actual character, and present Equestria as something close to what we see in the show. Yes, she can't fly and yes she longs for a family, but she's also brash and self confident. She doesn't sit around crying all the time and she's not stupid.
And Equestria may not be perfect, but Scoots does have freinds, ponies are generally nice, and if there is some sort of orphanage, foster care system it's probably at least competently run. And if you ignore all that because you want to write a story where Scootaloo is adorable but everyone is mean to her for no reason and her living situation is objectively the worst...then you're a bad author. So A Sad Scootaloo Story is my shot across the bow of people who write bad Scootaloo stories.
Why Keeping Your Promises isn't getting a sequel.
The short answer is I couldn't really think of a good plot. Here are some ideas I had that I knew wouldn't work.
Misty's new boyfriend turns out to be abusive.-so the story I wrote the first time?...yeah no.
Rainbow and Scootaloo go to flight camp and either Rainbow is upset cause Scootaloo doesn't need her as much as she thought or Scootaloo gets upset because Rainbow tries to help other fillies and colts-this didn't feel organic. I put Rainbow and Scoots through the ringer, and the result is they came out the other side with a nigh unbreakable bond, to have it broken by something so petty feels cheap.
Scootaloo starts to volunteer for a charity that helps abused children- and...? I couldn't really see where to go with this. Abuse is bad but we knew that already, it stretches credibility to think that Scootalo would be the only line of defense here. Which means that again I'm kinda writing Promises again
Good news for any Three Gems fans is that the latest chapter is in editing and baring some unforeseen setbacks it should be released soon.
Good to see you're standing you ground on the "no sequel" thing. Sometimes its best to leave things "as is" and move on.
It's probably for the best your not doing a sequel. End on a high note. I still haven't read Three gems yet. I'll have to do that soon.