Sep
3rd
2012
Poll: Tags on Past Sins · 3:30pm Sep 3rd, 2012
After having a bit of a discussion with Poultron, I want to hear some opinions
What tags do you feel are appropriate for Past Sins? In my opinion it doesn't fit any of them perfectly, that's why it had a "Normal" tag on Equestria Daily when it was originally posted. It's not a straight up sad story, it's not straight up slice of life, it's not pure tragedy, comedy, or etc... but it has elements from all these.
So, I wish to poll those who watch me and may see this blog post. If you were to pick one to three tags for Past Sins to have, what would they be?
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I'd say sad, comedy, and slice. I'd have to read it a third time to give any better judgement. But, yeah. The Normal tag fit well.
I think that the sad tag fits. And maybe the adventure.
Maybe Adventure, Slice, Sad, and Normal? Not entirely sure myself.
At least slice and sad, but I'm not sure what else fits.
CMC. For. Dinner.
I'd say adventure. It's pretty much a story on Nyx's road to self discovery.
I think sad and slice of life fit it best, that's the impression I get when reading it.
Slice, Sad, and Adventure.
Slice and... maybe adventure even though the characters don't go very far away from Ponyville.
Sad, Sad, Sad, heartbreakingly sad, and maybe slice
I would say simply adventure.
AU perhaps since it is different than canon... then again I believe all fanfiction is AU. Slice-of-Life, Advenutre, Sad, Normal I guess
Why not tragedy, adventure, slice, comedy, and normal?
The Problem is that its so long, and parts of it fit different things.
Parts are sad, parts are funny, parts are dark, parts are adventure, parts are from everyday life, and so on. The only thing thats not in there are romance and human, and since its made to fit into (current) canon, Alt Un dosent fit either, and i dont think theres ever enough tragedy to fit the tag. As for an answer....
Dark, Slice of life and Adventure. The problem is that what would be needed is a tag that combines the last two, meaning something like "an epic adventure, but not a journey of going places but of conflict/(self)discovery/heroism in the here and now."
Normal.
Adventure.
Slice of Life.
I would say Adventure, Dark, and Alternate Universe.
Adventure, because despite not going many places, it is the same kind of story. Only the adventure is one of self-discovery, and later redemption for Nyx/NMM.
Dark, because although it's not Grimdark, it's certainly not your standard Pony fare. Things get pretty bad for all the protagonists, and the later chapters of Nyx/NMM fighting against herself - in more ways than one - imprisonment, and execution really call to mind the sort of dark, depressing reality that the return of NMM has created. It's not really super dark, but I'd say it's a good tag to have so that readers are aware that it's not all fluff and marshmallows.
Alternate Universe... Well, this goes without saying, quiaff?
Too bad there's no "philosophical" tag.
I'd say adventure, slice, sad, and dark.
EDIT: You said one to three tags. If you're only putting three there, I'd drop dark, leaving adventure, sad, and slice.
i would go with sad and adventure.
slice of life and adventure.
Slice of life an normal sems good to me.
Slice of Life, Sad, Adventure, Comedy. Tragedy might work as well.
I can't comment because I haven't read it yet, but this just proves that we need more tags.
Definitely *SAD*, the amount of angsty drama in this fic is thick enough to cut. It almost borders on *TRAGIC*.
The early chapters are very *SLICE OF LIFE* in theme and style, and even the later chapters with Queen Nyx are still oddly ordinary, focusing on topics as mundane as her still crusading for her cutie mark.
Maybe *DARK*, the topics this fic deals with are pretty intense. It may all work out for the best in the end, but the characters almost have to go through hell and back to get there.
...
The real problem with all the above though is it that it largely neglects just how uplifting and heartwarming this fic is. Adding the *COMEDY* tag to the mix might help, but the story while funny at times isn't really ever overtly gag oriented.
*ADVENTURE* doesn't seem right. There aren't really any epic quests involved. Nyx's major journey is one of internal self-discovery.
Trying to categorize this fic is making me realize just how limited the variety of tags we have available her on FiMFiction is. Part of me thinks that you should see if you can leverage the admins into adding some new tags; something like *dramatic*, *heartwarming*, or *emotional*.
Sad and/or Tragedy: Part of how what this story is about is how a mother is forced apart from her daughter by both herself and her teacher and how the daughter is forced to do things she desires not to do by her own reputation. Even a mother's love for her child could not overcome the prejudices originally (of course, if they did, you wouldn't have a complete story) and she unintentually condemns her child to a life of misery.
Adventure: Another part of this story is about Nyx's self-discovery through what she has or has not done. While she did know what she wanted originally, she was pulled from her life and later tries to regain everything she had.
Possibly dark because of the whole "nervous swallow" thing.
Other tags could be used as needed.
A "Redemption" tag would work well here if one existed.
I am sure the tags SAD, ADVENTURE and SLICE OF LIFE are fully in use for Past Sins, but you do have elements of COMEDY and some parts can be considered DARK.
Adventure. Sad. Slice of Life. And Epic because it is.
Sad, Adventure definitely.
I really wish FiMFiction had a "Grimdark" tag so we could seperate the two. "Past Sins" is Dark, sure, but its not "Cupcakes" kind of Dark.
Tragedy (maybe ?), really comes down on how you define it. Classic tragedies do not have a happy ending, whereas modern tragedies can have a happy ending.
Sad?
Oh come on, the story is about the discovery of one self. It has to have sad momenta but is not a sad story. You can't put the sad tag to every single story with a sad part.
I'd say Slice and Adventure.
Dark and Adventure would be my vote, or maybe Dark and Slice. A recent blog post by Alexstraza made me think that the mods (is he a mod? I don't know) will look a tad unkindly upon the paired use of Adventure/Slice and Sad/Comedy.
Adventure. Sad. Slice. .... yea, that about covers it.
Normal, Adventure, Sad, and Slice of Life.
I for one doesn't think its dark, it got close I guess but not enough to warrant a tag.
It's' definitely Dark. I'd call it pretty Sad too. And it's fairly Slice of Life when nothing huge's happening.
333002
This guy had the right idea.
Adventure, sad, and slice.
Adventure, Sad and Dark. Slice and Adventure are quite conflicting. Dark fits the backstory of Nyx.
332945 nah they don't allow Adventure and Slice of life to be placed together on a story. There was a mod post about that just the other day.
333104 Really? huh, well that torpedoes the one little side project I had. Was going to write slice of lifes of my foal characters going on adventures
I'm still in the process of reading it for the first time
So I have no idea
I would say sad and slice of life. I would say tragedy, but this has a happy ending.
333111 You can still write a story like that, you just have to decide on which tag to use. Heres how the mod put it
"As soon as they go on an adventure it stops being slice of life, just because you have some slice of life in between doesn't mean its slice of life." So i'd tag it adventure and go nuts with whats in the story. Also i'm just paraphrasing on what the mod said, I don't remember it word for word.
Dark, Comedy, Slice of Life perhaps, Adventure. The slice of life tag holds true up until the point of the school play, after that it becomes a solid story arch of Nyx is Nightmare Moon. This is especially prevalent after the second summoning where Nyx gains her true form.
Tag | Y/N | Why
Adventure | No | In my mind, Adventure tags indicate the characters going on some epic quest far beyond Ponyville.
There is some pretty dark stuff here.
Comedy | No | There is plenty of funny moments... But they aren't the main focus
Dark | Yes |
It was night for over half of Nightmare Moon's reign.Normal | Yes | Well, it's like an Adventure, only it doesn't really go beyond Canterlot.
Sad | Yes | While no Tragedies, there are plenty of moments that will hit you right in your feels For Massive Damage
Slice of Life | Yes | Half of the story is in this format, up until NMM's second revival.
Tragedy | No | Many sad moments, and it ALMOST gets this at Twilight's hanging, but it ends on a happy note for all involved, so this is invalid.
So in short I'd give Past Sins [Dark] [Normal] [Sad] and [Slice of Life] tags.
Going to steal the websites FAQ description of each tag that seems to get suggested a lot.
Sad: These are stories whose primary purpose is to make the reader feel depressed or sorrowful, yet are not "tragic." This is a tag that is pretty exclusive to the fandom.
Tragedy: This tag should be reserved for stories that are more dramatic in nature, in which the main character is brought to ruin through some tragic flaw or weakness of character.
Dark: A story which includes "dark" themes. This can include light horror, or more graphic depecitions of things like violence and rape.
Comedy: Stories whose primary purpose is to make the reader laugh. These kinds of stories are generally light-hearted in tone, though this tag can also apply to "dark comedies."
Adventure: Any story wherein the characters go on a grand journey or an "Adventure," if you will.
Slice of Life: A story wherein the situation is primarily that of a mundane, everyday experience.
So just based on these descriptions, I would say Dark, Slice of Life, and a toss-up between Sad and Tragedy. I would say it includes both of those, despite the FAQ saying it should be one or the other, but if I had to choose one over the other, I would choose sad.
Adventure, Slice and SAD.
It should have the 'Past Sins' tag. A story like this cannot be labeled.
333210
Because of this, I suggest "Tragedy" over "Sad" as the ruin is brought to Nyx through both her and Twilight's character and/or reputation.
333273
You have no idea how many times I've edited that comment switching between "Sad" and "Tragedy". One of the main focus of the story is choosing between being Nyx or being Nightmare Moon. While for Nyx, it certainly had it's fair share of tragedy, but for Nightmare Moon, it was more sad story of redemption. And since it ends settling with Nyx and NMM being one and the same, I more firmly believe that it should have both tags.
But since this is more about why I chose sad over tragedy if I had to choose. I finally settled on "Sad" because from what I understand/remember from literature, a tragedy is more like Romeo and Juliet, the movie Titanic, or Twilight (I've never read/watched it, I just consider its very existence a tragedy) where there is no redemption or happy ending.
Sad and Slice-of-life IMO.
I think sad/slice of life was pretty accurate, really.
Dark: To avoid spoilers I'll just mention the scene where Twi is standing before a big crowd, everybody is sad and Nyx is looking from the window. Granted, it's not dark-dark, but light-dark.
Adventure: Well it's quite a journey if not so much on the physical but on the emotional plane.
Slice of Life: It definitely fits for the beginning of the story even if it turns into an adventure down the road. They do kinda contradict each other and if I'd have to choose I'd go with Adventure.
Alternate Universe: I'm not sure about this. The events in the story quite heavily affect Equestria as a whole. Then again the base is mostly the Equestria we know and love.
I'd avoid Sad or Tragedy since while tragic and sad themes are present in the story the end result is neither. Maybe you could hint about these in the synopsis?
my gut feeling was adventure.... but not sure that anybody goes on a journey.
As for Sad, i dont know, it doesn't feel right for the same reasons i never thought it felt right in the case of " Eternal" , sure your feels will get a work out , but is the "main" point of this story to make the reader feel depressed or sorrowful"? I don't think so.
Even more so for the "Tragic" tag. This story ends as happy as it can possibly given the circumstances.
Slice of life applies, but it undersells the story, since so much happens in it.
Dark is the only one i think that does apply.
If i had to vote i would say " Dark" and " Slice of Life". If you do put "Sad" i would also put "comedy" . the presence of these contradictory tags would indicate that the situation is more like " your emotions will get a workout" and less " depressing".