The EG human world · 6:18pm Jun 19th, 2017
This has been something I've been meaning to talk about in relation to Neighbors and Sisterhood. The nature of the human world. It's something I'd have to tackle eventually, and instead of handling it piecemeal in the comments section I figured it would be better to do it here all at once. Some of this may be covered in the story itself later, so there may be a slight risk of spoilers.
*tl;dr at the bottom.
There are a lot of interpretations of the human side of the mirror, from tiny pocket dimensions to literally Earth. In this story, the human world is not Earth. It has some parallels to Earth, of course, but so does Equestria (Manehattan, Las Pegasus, Saddle Arabia, etc). But for all intents and purposes, in this story the human world is a parallel Equestria, not a parallel Earth.
I had a number of reasons for this, of course. Names like Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle don't sound like Earth names, and if someone is walking around with blue skin they are probably very sick. I may occasionally throw in someone with a more human sounding name, as a joke or cameo, but there's a precedent for that too with characters like Gilda, Gabby, and Matilda.
More to the point, I want to keep things like religion and politics out of the story. I avoid swears that use the word "God" in favor of the more generic "gods" you would find in most fantasy works. This not only allows me to avoid the implications of real world religions (Like crusades, jihads, and inquisitions), but it also just kind of makes sense. Equestria is a fantasy world, with beings that control the sun, moon, and even reality itself. If they believe in gods at all, it would be those beings, and their swears, curses, and prayers would reflect that. In the mirror world, it's more of a challenge, since the human world seems to operate on a more natural, scientific level (Random Equestrian magic aside). Generally, I just have the non-Equestrian characters use different swears, or not swear at all, depending on their personality.
Brief breakdown:
-Sunset (and any other Equestrian ponies who might happen to visit in the future) would likely swear by Celestia.
-The sirens would have been enemies of ponykind, so they would not swear to an alicorn, but more likely to other powerful beings like Discord, Tirek, or even themselves. Or, thanks to their time in the human world, they would use a more generic term like "gods" that they picked up from some of the older civilizations they interacted with on their initial arrival.
-The human characters would simply use modern swear words, minus anything religious.
From a writing standpoint, this is safer as well. Neighbors is about the characters, not the world. It's supposed to be sometimes funny, sometimes heartwarming, and generally a relaxing and enjoyable read. There is no need to bring in real world politics or religioous controversy.
Now, before it comes back to bite me, there will be references to things similar to what is in the real world. For instance, Adagio's reference to romancing both a sheik and a priest. Some of it will be expanded on, some will only be mentioned in passing, but none of it is meant as commentary on the real world.
*tl;dr: The EG world is not Earth, though there are similarities.
Sounds good to me.
This desire to play it safe is understandable and common -- upstart authors do not want to alienate some of their readers, so they avoid controversial topics. But it gets tricky, and ultimately hinders creativity. Let me ask you this -- will you ever include a homosexual relationship in your stories? If no, why not? After all, those are a part of life, and EG does have regular relationships. And if yes, then why sidestep religion and politics, which are also a part of life? But of course, I know why -- because this is how your readership is. In the brony community, as far as I can tell, the topic of homosexuality is much less contentious than religion. Thus, if you write a story about BonBon & Lyra, you are far less likely to angry anyone here than say, Pinkie Pie's dad trying to teach her spiritual virtues of sexual abstinence. In other words, an author tends to go where his/her readership wishes them to go.
Personally, I love the real world EG. I love EG where people can die, where they have to deal with issues WE have to deal with, not some silly mirror magic and monster on rampage per day. I like them asking philosophical questions and making tough decisions. And you know what? Things like silly names don't break immersion at all, if the story itself is engaging. Read this guy, for example. https://www.fimfiction.net/user/254398/Nico-Stone+Rupan
He writes stories with an underlying idea that Sour Sweet is a schizophrenic. In one of his stories, she sits on a couch and watches a documentary about the WWII. Get this -- it works beautifully!
What I'm getting at is don't try to play it safe. Don't be afraid of alienating readers by writing something you think some will not approve of. Of course, it's a different story when you YOURSELF don't like certain topics or disagree with certain visions. Not everyone likes the real world EG. I've seen authors claim that it does not work for them. Personally, Adagio mentioning Tirek as the Devil does not work for me.
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If you'll check out my M stories, I think you'll see that I have written lesbian relationships more than once.
I'm not afraid of writing darker stories. I've done it, here and elsewhere. But that's not for this story. As for writing politics and religion, it just doesn't interest me. I read fiction to get away from real world drama. I prefer fantasy, mythology, and slice of life generally.
Thanks for the reading recommendation though, that looks pretty interesting.
As a counter-opinion to K Nielson, I personally find it extremely silly most of the time when "real world issues" and various "serious" and, for the lack of a better word, grimdark and edgy (relative to the show's usual style, at least) elements are brought to the show's world. I find it completely destroys the tone that makes the world work, and without the original lighthearted tone I can't take any of this seriously whatsoever. Usually end up annoyed with fics where there's more drama and overly high stakes and gradually stop reading them.
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Thats closer to my own opinion, in this kind of story at least. I dont mind darker stories when I know what Im getting into ahead of time, but I hate being blindsided by it. The occasional reality check isnt bad, but it shouldnt change the whole tone of the story.
I love your avatar, by the way.
I think which approach works best depends on the story, and my outside judgement would be that that's completely the right call for this story.
Paralleling Equestria rather than Earth makes some bits easier and some bits harder (Wonderbolts, for example, or Nightmare Moon), but it's a surprisingly unusual way to go, and so I'm interested to see how it turns out. I've come to appreciate in recent months that I think the idea behind the EG series is closer to what I'm guessing you meant when you said 'pocket dimension' - it's not so much that it's a humanoid world, but that it's Equestria reimagined as a high school, with the principal as the ultimate authority, the antagonist who returns once every couple of seasons just as a classmate most don't really like, and the Crystal Empire as a rival school. By extension, there, the Wonderbolts would be the sports team, and Zecora a guidance counsellor or something.
I like the idea of omitting religion, as it's not present in the canon material, but the EG world operating without it entirely can cause some problems when you look at it more closely. Still almost certainly the best fit for the story, though.
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That was basically my thought process. I've seen great fics that deal with the sirens in a darker setting, one of my favorites is THIS. But that's not my goal. I wanted to do something with the tone of Principal Celestia Hunts the Undead or Jay-The-Brony's own EG continuity.
For the purpose of the show, I can definitely see where that theory comes from. It definitely seems like the entire EG world revolves around CHS, and more importantly the portal. Just look at the official map, it's tiny! Definitely does not feel like part of a larger world. But of course for this story it is part of a wider world, just like pony Canterlot is.
As for religion, yeah as long as its not a part of the show or movies, it won't play a major part in the story. (Even if they did introduce a religion to Equestria I probably still wouldn't use it, because fictional religions are usually pretty stupid.) But, I do plan to play with it just a tiny bit. Namely, I'm going to expand on the preacher Adagio mentions in Hitting the Streets.
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Haha, thanks.
And yeah, I would say knowing what to expect tone-wise is pretty important for me too. Not only tone-wise, either. For example, if a story is set in an AU with the defining difference advertised in the description, I really don't like it when late in the story more differences from the canon universe pop up unexpectedly and without a good reason. Or with shipping, when a story is a shipfic about one particular couple, I prefer it when the author doesn't also pair a bunch of other characters together according to their own personal shipping tastes just because the story is tagged "romance".
Anyway, I guess saying that I don't like dark stories at all would be too much of a blanket statement, but IMO it has to have a point. Like a short one-off centered around a dark idea, or an AU like BronyWriter's stories where Rarity is a serial murderer, or even when there's some big looming threat that's the focus of the story and it brings with it an atmosphere of darkness and despair. But when the story doesn't require it, it always feels wrong when there's suddenly gritty real world stuff. If it isn't integral to the story, I don't like it being there.
"Poket dimension" -- what a boring concept! Might as well cram all the characters into a hamster cage.
Those who want flowery kiddie stuff already got MLP. EG could be much more.
Look at this example of the Real Earth EG and tell me it's not brilliant.
http://uotapo.deviantart.com/art/99-Luftballons-684858315