I Still Don't Write Monsters or: Garbagehorse Empathy That’s Probably Undeserved But I’m Doing It Anyway · 6:14pm Dec 16th, 2018
Note: this was originally a tumblr blog in February 2018, written in a fit of hormonal pathos, sleeplessness, and empathy, saved here for posterity because tumblr's eating its own head tomorrow. It's raw and rambles and just restates a bunch of stuff I've already said in previous blogs, so feel free to ignore it.
With just the epilogue to go for Menace to Propriety, this seemed like a relevant time anyway. I promise I'll finally blog aout something else soon.
Of the dozens of characters and secondary characters to dump all my insecure and messed up raw emotions onto, I somehow ended up with the one character that was built from the ground up to be universally despised. I ended up doing this not once, but twice. (EDIT: and now, thrice). Somehow, Spoiled ended up as my go-to character to expunge and exorcize whatever nasty gunk of an emotion’s clogging up my system. (That probably means something, but I’m not sure what. Self-esteem issues??? idk)
I know to some extent (okay, a big extent), it’s because what I’m attached to is specifically MY version of Spoiled Rich, who had no choice but to be rounded into a three-dimensional character with her own motivations thanks to the story she got jammed into. I can’t help but like everyone I write about, that’s just how I work, but sheesh I didn’t expect to like her this much. I think part of the reason is this… contrarian empathy that strikes up in me whenever a character’s universally dunked on. It happened with Diamond Tiara, and it happened again with her mom. But Diamond always had a handful of folks in her corner.
Virtually nobody–and I mean NO-heckin-body–inside or outside canon likes Spoiled Rich. Her daughter doesn’t like her, nopony in town likes her, and I’m positive she doesn’t like herself very much either. There’s Filthy and… that’s about it.
And that’s fine because like I said, her job is to be hated. But what always bothers me in these cases are the quick assumptions the fandom takes to get there. All statements, no questions. Is she out and out abusive, an overbearing helicopter mom, or bad-tempered mare who had one bad day? Does she love her family? And if not, WHY not?
It bothers me that in an episode that flipped the assumptions of a school bully and gave depth to her motivations, we automatically did the same thing again. This character’s not a total monster, but her mom totally is and there can be absolutely no reason why aside from being a demon from hell. (It’s not like abuse comes in cycles or anything amirite?)
I’m not saying Spoiled's not a bad pony. In all likelihood, she’s an awful person, but Friendship is Magic is full of awful, awful ponies that we’ve been willing to explore and humanize (equinize?) The garbage horse is garbage. But that doesn’t mean she’s doomed to stay that way.
The Riches have problems. The kid’s under immense pressure and manifested it into bullying. The dad’s a workaholic and a bit of a pushover. The mom’s status-obsessed, self-absorbed, and kind of an asshole. After the events of Crusaders of the Lost Mark, I don’t think the Riches, as a family, are better from the place where they were. I like to think they’re trying, though. Trying is something.
Redemption is overrated. Redemption, more often than not, is the simple turnaround of "this mean character is nice now" and nobody--viewer OR character--needs to worry anymore about how or why the character ended up so awful in the first place. That approach is just as dismissive.
I don’t want redemption, I don’t want punishment, I don’t even really want vindication. I want to see characters realize they’ve done wrong. I want to see them try to be better, and then BE better. I think Spoiled’s at least gotten that first part down. Maybe she can get the other ones too. Eventually.
All that aside, the real reason for this sort of contrarian empathy is because I remember what it felt like to be the person nobody likes. I know how it feels when nobody gives you a chance and assumes the worst off the spot, and I think everyone deserves to have somebody in their corner. Their mom, their dog, themselves... somebody. Maybe that's naive or silly of me, I don't know.
So yeah. I like Spoiled Rich: Supreme Garbage Horse. I like her a lot. I mean, somebody has to.
Naive? Maybe. Then again maybe if more people thought that way the world would be that little bit of a happier place.
On a less sappy note I find that that's one of the things that makes fanfiction so enjoyable, exploring the motivations and backgrounds of those characters that don't get that treatment in the show.
I love your take on Spoiled Rich, and I love it when writers take what are one-note characters from the show and give them some depth, making them relatable and deserving of empathy. I've only done that a couple times, most notably with Cloudy Quartz, but I very much appreciate what you've done with Spoiled's character.
Your empathy for garbage horses is one of the big things why I love your stories.
..just a thought: in fiction/imagination we can see characters (or themselves, may be) from angles and times we never see them (us) in real-life, because...some connections/talks/meetings (where we can heard or learn some important part of their story) never started, some words never said (at least to specific single persoor his/her circle of friends) and so on ...so it sort of simpler to build something for imaginable being than for real (human) here in reality, because many of those important details never become clear enough ..still, playing around with those ideas might help you/someone ..some ..way. I hope. I think I still like the idea about ...helping poorest one around, because if not you then who?
We all desperately want the stone that was cast away to become the cornerstone.
Unless, of course, we did the casting-away. Then to hell with it.
“People adore monsters. They fill their songs and stories with them. They define themselves in relation to them. You know what a monster is, young shade? Power. Power and choice. Monsters make choices. Monsters shape the world. Monsters force us to become stronger, smarter, better. They sift the weak from the strong and provide a forge for the steeling of souls. Even as we curse monsters, we admire them. Seek to become them, in some ways. There are far, far worse things to be than a monster.”
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What's this from? I like this quote.
Also, this blog hits home with me. There's a lot that gets left out because of show runtimes and whatnot. It's the fandom that creates and then perpetuates much of the wonder and adventure we love about the show.
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It's from the 13th Dresden Files: Ghost Story.
But the gist of how I meant it is that there is no shame in writing monsters. Some people, whatever their reasons, whatever their motivations, are monsters. You can explore their character, find redeeming qualities, and learn to understand and empathize with them. But in the end they may still be monsters. The problem arises when someone is labeled a monster and dismissed without an attempt to understand them.