The Conversion Bureau (according to me) · 9:31am Sep 18th, 2012
Portrayal of Human Liberation Front (HLF) as good and evil
It all depends on the universe. Some times HLF are racist, bible-bashing, bigoted, nutjub murderers. In other universes they are the only ones that care or are willing to die to save humanity, even if the fight is futile they will not die quietly even if everyone else is resolved to. The important parts are:
That HLF is fighting ponification (most of the time violently).
That atleast 7/8THs of their membership is made up of humans (any more than that and its likely just a tolerance group with the HLF name stuck on).
Finally it needs one crazy member in my opinion to give it a bad name in the public eye even if they are portrayed as good in-universe (one apple spoils the bunch as they say).
Well when the original TCB stories were made the HLF were made to be the bad guys who apposed ponification (aka the protagonists) but then when the other TCB fics pick up we just made them the all around bad guys so we could make the main character have an easy protagonist without having to make a new one. From there on in we've pretty much made them the futures Taliban, so they are pretty much the bad guys but we've only shone them like that because no one really want's to write about them.
There's nothing appealing about them and most of them act like, "See pony, me kill pony. Humans good and ponies bad." Then again no one's written about them.
367120 Yeah but the original bureau stories sucked, atleast from what I hear. I would also like to point out every story featuring humanities last stand is technically about HLF. I just wish they played them as good without resorting to humanities immanent death. Instead you are right, most of the time they are a cheap antagonist (protagonist is the good guy). Not only cheap but an insult to anyone even slightly religious since for some reason every member is a caricature of a fanatic zealot. I think if they have to be a bad guy they could atleast not use them as a tool to fuel their bigotry.
Also, more recent work has shown them in a more flattering light, even if they are still terrorist. I would actually be curious to see a conversion bureau story about a pony joining and fighting for HLF. The interactions alone would have great potential. I don't mind them being racist only barely tolerating the pony's presence. The pony stoically taking their racism, because he believes in their cause too.
The best portrayal of HLF (not good/evil wise) is Not Alone even if the are still racists and stupid. hmm perhaps its cause of how realistically they are portrayed, instead of how a misanthropic author wishes to view them.
Anyway, this reply is already longer than the blog so far so I'll stop here.
367136
Not alone is not a good story for the HLF since there is a lot of misanthropy in it (Like a shit ton, and I'm not sure if Starman Ghost knows that or not because he's sticking to the, 'Im right and your wrong because I say so' tactic on everything.). Most of the ponies are crazed zealots (excluding the PER), most of them just go about their days doing pony shit.
But yeah I have a HLF story kicking around in my head, so expect a better version of the HLF besides, "Crush. Kill. Destroy."