TBC Comment Drama: A partial apology and an explanation · 10:46pm Jun 18th, 2017
There has been some drama in the comments over on this story. A lot of it's coming from me. I'd like to apologize to my readers for the tone I've taken with some of you, and explain why I'm aggravated.
OK, two things here:
1. The Shimmercorn debate.
OK, I'm gonna be blunt here.
Justice3442 makes Sunset Shimmer an alicorn, nobody says a word.
I make Sunset Shimmer an alicorn, I get people coming out of the woodwork arguing about it.
Now, a lot of that is probably a timing thing, Mirror Magic contradicting my story and all, but given that I'm getting this flak when another author isn't, you can see why I'm...well...pretty annoyed by it, especially when in the author's notes for the first chapter I did, specifically, ask you all to just roll with it.
Most of you are being cool about it, and bless you. But some of my readers are kinda being obnoxious about it, and it's kind of frustrating.
2. The One Year Theory resurfacing
This part of my apology is almost exclusively for ScyBlade, who didn't deserve that rant I went off on.
ScyBlade, you mentioned the One Year Theory, which happens to be my single biggest pet peeve when it comes to fandom arguments. My temper was already frayed, and then you brought up the one thing I hate the most in terms of "established facts" fans like to bandy about. I went off on you. For that, I apologize.
I'm not editing the comments I'm apologizing for. I'd prefer to leave them as they are, despite the poor light they shed upon me. I'm a flawed human being with a short temper, and things like this, I need to be able to look back on and remind myself why I need to try harder, each and every day, to get a handle on my temper. Because as much of an asshole as some people seem to think I am today? A long time ago, I was much, much worse, and I do need to remind myself, on a regular basis, of what I used to be so that I can try to do better tomorrow.
Again, sorry for the drama.
I don't really see the issue myself, I guess stories could just stick an alternate universe tag in there whenever alicorn Sunset is involved in the future if that will make people happy.
4574921
That isn't what the AU tag is for.
4574932
lol I figured that, though I don't know all the rules when it comes to tags. In the case of your story I figured it falls in the gray area since until recently nothing said Sunset couldn't be an alicorn after Friendship games.
I guess with the recent EQG special its a bit of an active topic again, but still don't see the fuss. Its not like "Sunset returns through mirror, shocked by wings" hasn't already been done a half dozen times in other fics. Not that I'm saying you're being unoriginal (sorry, no offense), its been a popular (I think?) theory ever since Friendship Games' epic showdown finale.
And gasp, a fanfic on the Internet doesn't match up exactly with the show! The horror!!
(That was sarcasm, just to be clear). Good luck with your temper and the rest of the fic. Everyone has different opinions, and you never know who will decide to respond, for better or worse.
4574954
It wasn't a big deal before because there was nothing that said she couldn't have become an alicorn after Friendship Games but now we know for sure she didn't. I still don't think its a big deal but I guess people only bring it up because the special is still fresh on everyone's minds.
One day, I want to be able to reply to complaints like you've been getting with a simple, "That's nice, dear."
I don't imagine it would actually defuse the situation, but I'll bet the resulting overreaction would be hilarious to watch.
Just "fans" of the show that wants to make drama because what you wrote doesn't pander to their specific views of what a story should do and not. TBH you shouldn't even bother apologizing for this to them. I understand you got frustrated on the comments, but you're nowhere as bad as something like this being required.
Sometimes people just piss others off for the worst reasons. I'm sorry for the drama that seems to happen to you a lot. Even at your worst I wouldn't call you an asshole, just a passionate fan that expresses his opinions in ways others might call "extreme". But I like you because most of your headcanon ideas are similar to mine, and you seem like a good person.
I haven't read TBC yet because I haven't gotten around to finishing the Equestria Club. If I had been reading it, I might have argued in your defense that every fanfic is an "AU" no matter how much they try to follow canon (which is why the tag is only used in certain cases, or it would be pointless) and since this is fan fiction you should be able to do whatever the heck you want. It's not like anyone is forced to read it. People get way to hung up on "canon" nonsense. If you have an imagination, pretty much anything in the show can be explained away, as 4574941 demonstrates.
Of course, then again I might not have bothered because I don't like putting time into people who aren't going to see reason, which is why I tend to agree with 4574965 on this one. "Pearls before swine" and all that jazz.
4574941
Eh..I guess it's plausible? Not a fan of it myself, but it's plausible.
4574943
The AU tag is for completely alternate universes from canon (see: Persona EG, Tomodachi wa Mahoushoujo, Skygun among my own stories), not for minor contradictions to established/emerging canon.
4574965
Eh, I felt like I needed to because I have been MUCH more hotheaded today than I'd have liked and I have no valid excuse beyond "These people got on my nerves". I'm self-aware enough to recognize when I could have handled something more delicately, and today, I failed at that.
But yeah, it takes a spark AND tinder to start a fire, and it DOES annoy me that it's always ME who gets this kind of crap, especially when you look at Justice's Shimmercorn fics and there isn't a trace of this shit anywhere.
4574973
Aww, thanks ^_^
4574965
To be fair, ScyBlade's comment really was fine. They weren't trying to pick a fight or anything, they weren't rude at all.
4574999
I agree that you probably don't need that. And I was a little disappointed Sunset didn't get a set of wings of her own. Maybe the writers didn't want that to overshadow the Glimmer Power Hour since Sunnycorn would've dominated the narrative for certain.
4575017
The true story is probably that they won't make anypony an alicorn unless and until they get the directive from Hasbro's toy makers.
4575017 I generalized to avoid pointing fingers at specific people. You're right in that not all comments are made the same.
4574999 I absolutely understand. Hell my own AlicornShimmer barely got a comment on that kind of thing—I guess the thing is, don't compare what people complain and not in other author's work when it's unjustly applied to your own... that way lies madness!
Uh, that's weird. I suppose you could chalk it up to the two of you having different fans.
4574965
I just figured he was apologizing to the ones who were initially polite about it (nothing wrong with "Why do people think Sunset was an alicorn?" for instance), or to that one poster who commented on how they heard that the series only takes place over around a year or two. In those cases, yeah, I can totally get the apology. I can see how he might feel like he overreacted to that. But the people who were doing stuff like "correcting" him by pointing to the new specials despite an AN at the beginning of the fic specifically addressing that he knew it conflicted with the specials? Screw that. They were just being dicks for no apparent reason.
4575069
Actually, we have a significant cross-share of followers, if you made a Venn diagram of our follower base. The difference is I'm, for whatever reason, an asshole magnet. I've been an asshole magnet since preschool. Seriously, if someone is going to decide to be an asshole for some inane reason, they're going to aim it at me. -_-# It started with the little black girl who told the teacher I said a bad word (I was reading the side of a UPS truck out loud; I was four and the only kid at my preschool who could actually read) and it hasn't stopped in 35 fucking years.