Let's Talk Fanfic Tropes I Can Do Without

The following is a list of various elements of fan fiction on this site that I truly no longer have any interest in. While exceptions can be made on a case by case basis, by and large, if your story contains one or more of these, I can guarantee you I will probably not read your story or may abandon reading after the first chapter (or shortly thereafter if said element(s) show up later in the story).

This list pertains to me and me alone. I am not dictating what others should and shouldn't write, nor am I insisting that these tropes are bad. They are just ones that I personally have no interest in.

• SunLight Shipping -- At this point, just about every possible permutation of this relationship has been done. We all know how adorable our favorite smart girls are together, in both pony and human forms, but seriously, enough is enough. Pick another couple already.
• Human Sunset Shimmer -- In nearly every story I've seen where the human Sunset Shimmer has been a character, she's been boring, bland, or worst of all, turned into the author's ideal fantasy girl. One author I read claimed their version of human Sunset Shimmer was based off their wife. Then they killed her off and proceeded to mutate canon Sunset into that version and did SunLight shipping on top of it. Blech. Unless you can find something truly interesting to do with the concept (and no, having her suddenly appear and claim canon Sunset "stole my life!" doesn't count) just leave it alone.
• Stories where the main character is an OC. -- I read MLP fic for the same reason I watch MLP: I want to see new adventures of the main and supporting cast we know and love. I'm even fine with taking named background characters and turning them into the main character of the story. But your random OC being the main focus of the story? Sorry, don't know them, don't care about them. OCs as supporting cast or antagonist, I'm cool with that. But if your OC is the main character, then I'm sorry, but I'm not interested.
• Anything involving Anon -- A meme is not a character. I'm sorry, but it's not. I get the idea is for the reader to put themselves in Anon's place, but that's the problem. Either Anon is so bland as to be forgettable or has so much personality that you might as well have just made him an OC and have done with it. Yes, even for the stupid porn fics.
• Displaced/Human in Equestria stories -- Don't care in the slightest about how some random geek/soldier/criminal mastermind/whatever ended up in Equestria. Very few of these stories can pull off the concept in any meaningful way that isn't "Oops! I'm in Equestria now! Hope there's no wacky shenanigans!" Tired, predictable, and boring.
• Fallout: Equestria -- Never played Fallout. Don't care about Fallout. So why would I care about Fallout through an MLP lens? Plus, from what I can gather, it's all mostly OCs anyway, so who cares?
• Anon-A Miss -- Can we PLEASE put this trope to bed now? I like Equestria Girls more than FiM, so it irks me to no end that this preachy, pathetic, hackneyed FOUR YEAR OLD comic story has become this ubiquitous THING that springboards EQG stories on this site. Most of them aren't interested in exploring the concept in any meaningful way, instead choosing it for cheap angst, easy algorithm gaming to the Featured box, and what seems to me like the authors gaining fictional revenge on their own experiences being bullied in school. There are a few... VERY FEW... fics that can use Anon-A-Miss effectively, but by and large, the majority are complete and total dreck and I wish people would move the fuck on from it.
• Badly written porn -- I like smut as much as the next person. (I refuse to call it "clop.") But I want interesting, engaging smut. It may be porn you're writing but at least act like you care enough about it to tell it. Use actual punctuation and grammar, please. Make me care about the setup and why these two (or more) characters are having sex. If it seems like you don't care enough to put the effort into writing it, why should I put in the effort to read it?
• Shipping in general -- I've read so much shipping in my 30 years on the internet that, frankly, I'm tired of it. It's not as much of a deal breaker as some of the others on this list, but if the shipping is the only point of the story, rather than being part of it, you better have something new and interesting to do with it. Any use of common anime tropes as shortcuts here are the fastest way for me to lose interest, so try to do something better, okay?

Again, the above are simply my preferences and my own opinions and should not be taken as any sort of statement that you shouldn't write or read any of these. These are just tropes I feel are overused and overrepresented on this site and are presented here in a (probably futile) effort to raise awareness of their ubiquity.

Comments

[Reallyrealusername]

I can name 663 people that think Anon-A-Miss is just fine.

[shallow15]

4997212
Good for them.

[DragonxFlutter]

SunLight Shipping -- At this point, just about every possible permutation of this relationship has been done. We all know how adorable our favorite smart girls are together, in both pony and human forms, but seriously, enough is enough. Pick another couple already.

I'm more of a SciSet than a SunLight, but I can see where you're coming from. Because of the similarities between the two characters, the shared experiences, and the chemistry they have (Sunset playing the straight man to SciTwi's crazy/nerd-out moments), the appeal is there. But Sunset works with the other Rainbooms as well, so we could stand to see other ships.

Human Sunset Shimmer -- In nearly every story I've seen where the human Sunset Shimmer has been a character, she's been boring, bland, or worst of all, turned into the author's ideal fantasy girl. One author I read claimed their version of human Sunset Shimmer was based off their wife. Then they killed her off and proceeded to mutate canon Sunset into that version and did SunLight shipping on top of it. Blech. Unless you can find something truly interesting to do with the concept (and no, having her suddenly appear and claim canon Sunset "stole my life!" doesn't count) just leave it alone.

The thing is, though, is that we don't really have any basis for Human Sunset's personality. So she's as flexible as a potentially canon character can be without going out of character.

Stories where the main character is an OC. -- I read MLP fic for the same reason I watch MLP: I want to see new adventures of the main and supporting cast we know and love. I'm even fine with taking named background characters and turning them into the main character of the story. But your random OC being the main focus of the story? Sorry, don't know them, don't care about them. OCs as supporting cast or antagonist, I'm cool with that. But if your OC is the main character, then I'm sorry, but I'm not interested.

I'm with ya, there. If an OC is gonna be a main protagonist, then you better give me an origin story to read first. Otherwise I'm not interested.

Anything involving Anon -- A meme is not a character. I'm sorry, but it's not. I get the idea is for the reader to put themselves in Anon's place, but that's the problem. Either Anon is so bland as to be forgettable or has so much personality that you might as well have just made him an OC and have done with it. Yes, even for the stupid porn fics.

That meme character? Eh. Really depends on my mood.

Displaced/Human in Equestria stories -- Don't care in the slightest about how some random geek/soldier/criminal mastermind/whatever ended up in Equestria. Very few of these stories can pull off the concept in any meaningful way that isn't "Oops! I'm in Equestria now! Hope there's no wacky shenanigans!" Tired, predictable, and boring.

Same. I've never once been interested in these.

Fallout: Equestria -- Never played Fallout. Don't care about Fallout. So why would I care about Fallout through an MLP lens? Plus, from what I can gather, it's all mostly OCs anyway, so who cares?

I tried reading Fallout: Equestria a long time ago, but I fell out of it. Now I can't even find the original story again.

Anon-A Miss -- Can we PLEASE put this trope to bed now? I like Equestria Girls more than FiM, so it irks me to no end that this preachy, pathetic, hackneyed FOUR YEAR OLD comic story has become this ubiquitous THING that springboards EQG stories on this site. Most of them aren't interested in exploring the concept in any meaningful way, instead choosing it for cheap angst, easy algorithm gaming to the Featured box, and what seems to me like the authors gaining fictional revenge on their own experiences being bullied in school. There are a few... VERY FEW... fics that can use Anon-A-Miss effectively, but by and large, the majority are complete and total dreck and I wish people would move the fuck on from it.

I can see where you're coming from. I'm a sucker for seeing Sunset pull herself from the ashes, but I can agree that there are too many that are done wrong. But I'll make an exception for those that try to take the piss out of it, like I tried to.

Badly written porn -- I like smut as much as the next person. (I refuse to call it "clop.") But I want interesting, engaging smut. It may be porn you're writing but at least act like you care enough about it to tell it. Use actual punctuation and grammar, please. Make me care about the setup and why these two (or more) characters are having sex. If it seems like you don't care enough to put the effort into writing it, why should I put in the effort to read it?

Smut is a tricky thing to get right. Some like just skipping to the faps, some like the buildup, and some like both but have the skill for neither. This is really a case-by-case basis thing, imo.

Shipping in general -- I've read so much shipping in my 30 years on the internet that, frankly, I'm tired of it. It's not as much of a deal breaker as some of the others on this list, but if the shipping is the only point of the story, rather than being part of it, you better have something new and interesting to do with it. Any use of common anime tropes as shortcuts here are the fastest way for me to lose interest, so try to do something better, okay?

I'll admit that I'm a sucker for some cute fluff every now and then, but the more substantial romances are more satisfying in the long run.

[Maldarach]

Before starting, even if I agree with most of your points, I think it doesn't mean that all authors who are working on those trends (or beginning with) aren't without talent or should be the ones to receive all the hate.
Writing a story like that isn't really a mistake or a bad thing, just that it has become commonplace, and bringing change would be nice.

About the SunLight shipping, I think that Oroboro's last Contest worked and made a difference, with plenty of new stories with different characters. One of my favourites :
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/419408/paint-on-the-wall

I'm not sure how many stories are involving human Sunset (I mean that this is not a character often introduced in a story, that the concept isn't used that much) but it seems only a few.
Maybe because there isn't stories depicting her good enough to be noticed, or that I didn't valued them worth it.

I'm not fond of Second Person stories, usually involving OCs.
So yeah, no big change.

When there is an Anon tag, it convinces me to not read it.
I don't think I've read a single one either, so I didn't miss a lot.
Not as your point, but because it doesn't feel fitting.

Stories where everything goes fine but then when one single element interferes whether EQ to HW/HW to EQ, that's just ruining them.

Same thing for Fallout.

With how many known and great people/authors (you included) are trying to get people to understand that AaM needs to stop here, I feel convinced more and more.
But as I said, it doesn't mean they should be ignored or deserving only contempt.
Don't know if we can blame them for trying, but it's sure we had enough.

I wasn't used to plain sex stories before, just simple ones, and I was kinda avoiding the raw ones (or the badly written, that exists just for the "sake" of writing bland porn).
For example, I thought the Beanis Cinematic Universe was more of porn than, as I see it now, a whole comedy.
I don't regret having to read it, because it changed my mind and I've been more open on that matter.