Question · 8:26am Apr 1st, 2016
I figured I ought to ask this before I make assumptions.
Now, I made it abundantly clear that the Reincarnation-Verse's Equestria, compared to most other universes out there, is a Luna-be-damned paradise. In fact, I'm making it clear now that the Hero Souls that came before Twilight actually considered it just that, a paradise after a life of torment and struggle.
My question to you, however, is how far should I push the Rating? I dipped my hands in blood with Pinkie's little madness episode in the beginning of the Ruby Flame arc, but just how far should I go when it comes to the gruesomeness that can come from the type of war I'm prepping them for? Should I try and limit the blood and gore? Should I steer clear of torture-like scenes?
Or should I try and be realistic about just how badly our heroes are gonna get messed up by the trials ahead of them? I'm not saying I want to turn this into some kind of Cupcakes grimdark stuff, - Not completely at any rate. I mean, let's face it. When the Joker comes around it's not gonna be pretty no matter how you arrange it. - but pain and trauma are generally what makes a hero great, because they learn to overcome it and get stronger from it.
Again, I'm not trying to turn this into a Dark story, but some of the ideas I have for Chapter Ten, and some future arcs, are... not exactly fit for an E rating. I can work around them if you don't want blood and gore, but it'll likely delay the chapter, even more, as I'll have to rework some of what I already typed out.
Personally, I say keep the violence done to a Teen level; it's there when it NEEDS to be, but it doesn't reach grimdark levels. And there can also be plenty of light-hearted stuff between adventures to offset the dark stuff in the more major arcs. As you said, this ISN'T a dark story, but an adventure story that just happens to have dark elements when they are needed. There IS a subtle difference.
I agree that upping the rating to teen to be very good idea. With torture a possibility I would use just cutting to out side to the hallway, like they did in Star Wars episode 4. Yes with the Joker the body count will sky rocket, however in Batman The Animated Series this upped his use of his toxin. With the amount of heroes you have showing up and what you have hinted at already in story, I think you should go for it. Just give a heads up with a chapter taged graphic as you have already done.
Yes Equestria is sunshine and rainbows compared to Earth but it should also motivate our heroes to protect this world all the more. With Captain America and Superman souls in the story they both should see just how much better of a country Equestria is but they can also see the state of the world and call them to do better. Looking at Season 5 and what happened with the griffins.
Considering the strength of the heroes? I doubt you have much choices but to up what the existing vilains can do to keep things interesting. After all, the greatest lights project the greatest shadows. Just don't change Discord though. His fun always been to break others appart mentally, and with the Mane 6, I have a feeling he is going to have a field trip without having to do more damages to the rest of Equestria than he did in Canon.
I'm also going to throw in my vote for upping the rating to Teen. It's exactly where I think you want the story to be; still getting to more mature themes and slightly darker elements without fully going into the total grimdark/explicit category and still having some lighter slice-of-life-ish stuff to balance things out. I definitely think your story will be stronger if you aren't forced to censor most of what you want to do.
I really can't add more since what I want to say has pretty much been said already.
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The people have spoken! The rating will hit Teen and nothing more. I can do this. I still have to alter a couple things, but it's not as bad as if I went down to an E rating.