Really disappointing lack of Student Six shipping variety... · 12:32pm Mar 3rd, 2020
Something I noticed with S6 ships is that no one is really willing to experiment with their possible shipping dynamics the same way we do for the Mane 6. Seriously, dig around for a bit, and you’ll find hundreds of fics for literally any arrangement of the Mane 6 paired off. But for the Student 6? It’s pretty much just Gallstream, Yonabar, some Gallbar for flavor and Smolcellus simply because they’re the only two left. I can think of maybe three Smollus fics in total that I have seen on this site. There were quite a few Ocelbar fics, but those seem to be going extinct now, and I have no idea why?
Like, where’s the variety?! Where’s Gallyona? Sandstream? Smolbar? Gallcellus? Silvyona? Smolyona?
And it is unforgivable that there is only one, ONE poly-shipping fic with these knuckleheads.
Seriously people, let’s step up our game here!
I think it's mainly due to how well those pairing seem to work. Plus with Yonabar being basically canon it's somewhat hard to pair up the remaining 4 in ways that work well. I do understand how well Gallus and Smolder work together, and it does surprise me that there is a large lack shipfics with them together aside from a good 4 or 5 (some of which are in the purgatory known as incomplete). But in all seriousness, Gallstream, Yonabar, and Smoldcellus work so well it's basically like pairing toast and peanutbutter. With the mane 6 they work so well with each other that the need for all the different ships was needed to fully explore what each had to offer, even after S3 when Twilight became an alicorn the ships still worked because of how dynamic her friends personalities were. The Young 6 have such different and stacic character types and personalities that it's hard to do something good and experimental with them without the same old 3 ships slipping in by accident and thus making it feel forced and awkward for the reader.
you have to consider the lack of variety stems from the sheer lack of content at this point. Here's the numbers by character tag
Compare that to the numbers in the tens of thousands of stories per character for the Mane 6, and there's no wonder there's no variety. There's just not enough stories for there to be any variety.
So the takeaway is: Post more stories about the Student 6 in general?
Challenge accepted
Same here. Heck, I just wish I could see more fics involving Ocellbar and Smollus. And if not that, then just more Student 6 fics. I would post more, well anything, but college is sucking my soul dry at the moment.
Do it yourself!!!
I think its also partly just the sheer force and power of the popularly accepted fanons--everybody assumes these popular ships as "canon" (even if its not actually) and to diverge from them is thusly seen as sacrilegious.
And while it's true there are a wider range of ships with the Mane 6, I've noticed they still tend to gravitate towards certain ships more than others, because that is the accepted "fanon" among most of the fans, so it happens there too, it's just not always as obvious.
It's a practice I've long thought unfortunate and to be discouraged, personally, as it stifles creativity. If it can be confirmed as canon, then by all means favor it more, but if there's room to question it in the canon, then why not diversify from time to time?
To that end, I'm apparently one of those few who writes Smollus, and that mostly just came about because nobody else was.
Yeah I was kind of hoping season eight and nine kind of do something with those kids and I've always been very interested with those kids but like Hasbro they keep forgetting about them just like most of the characters and creatures they mentioned and completely forgot about them