State of the Meep · 6:43am Sep 13th, 2021
So I've moved in, settle din well, and very noticeably escaped a rather serious depression. I feel like writing again, but I face a few problems. Let's go with them from most intense to least intense. I'd like your guys thoughts and ideas on how to solve these if you don't mind.
1. I do not feel welcome within the MLP community anymore, and have not for many years now.
Most of you know that I genuinely despise Starlight Glimmer, not just as a character, but as a concept, and also as an addition to the MLP canon in regards to her being a hero. The long and short of it might just be that I'm way older than the intended audience and as a result her actions mean far far more to me than they do to most. What she did is unforgivable, and quite literately something my country has on many, many occasions responded to with military action, black ops, or intelligence operations. It doesn't matter that what she did was easily undone to me. It doesn't matter that she said sorry to me. She did things that are in my eyes truly unforgivable, an immediate and irrevocable death sentence is not just justified for her but required.
Her actions, to me, are genuinely as evil as you likely would find the actions of someone who murdered a newborn, raped it, then cannibalized the corpse... for TicTok clout. No, I am not exaggerating. She's pure evil in my eyes, and so far past the moral event horizon that she can touch the singularity within that inescapable hole of evil.
The fact she's made into main cast without the use of the elements... I can't get over that. It ruins my ability to find the show's world fun or realistic. It makes me incapable of seeing the main cast as good people I want to see happy and doing good things. It makes the leaders of this nation into morons who care nothing for their people. This genuinely pure evil person who is as strong in combat as the ALICORN PRINCESS OF MAGIC, and is Joker Tier insane given her reasons behind her actions, said she's sorry and stopped. Yeah, okay. You can trust that. Till she gets mad at someone fro dropping a spoon too loudly and starts lobotomizing people to make a fear-based cult again.
The fact that this fandom, and the FiMFic community in general, has embarrassed Starlight with such loving reverence and enthusiasm repulses me. It has pushed me so far away that I honestly don't really want to be here... But this is the only place I've ever had people enjoy my writing. It's my home. I built it. I forged a small circle of readers and friends over years of hard work. I don't think that I should be pushed out. I think the new thing should be destroyed for encroaching on my home and never spoken of again.
But that wont happen...
So, what do I do to remain here? I can't filter this site to get rid of anything with her in it. I can't make people stop using her as avatars or on story covers. I can't look at her, or think about her, without feeling real, genuine, actual hate for this place I once loved which has devolved into the sort of degeneracy needed to love a truly evil person. What can I do? I feel my blood pressure rise any time I even see the word Starlight these days regardless of context.
That fictional monster has literately ruined the only place I ever felt at home for me, and most of you guys adore her. You've made it a place that in my eyes is only for people who like a pony who is genuinely most closely comparable to Pol Pot and who also at one point actually quoted Adolf Hitler but no one else seems to care about that... I don't know how to handle this other than to leave and never come back... But I don't want to.
2. I'm having a hard time wanting to continue any of my existing pony projects.
Not just related to point 1, but in general... none of my existing projects have any sort of spark to them to me anymore. Might be because I'm not depressed now and so the core ideas and themes don't jive with this mental state. Might be because Starlight has finished off the last bit of enthusiasm I had left for something which was my world until she existed. I don't know.
But like, I don't have any ideas that make me want to write, even though I want to write literally this very instant. I don't know what to do with this.
3. The general state of fiction as I see it form where I am standing is basically the opposite of what I like or would even define as good.
So, look at the properties that are the biggest and/or newest right now.
- Disney is green lighting a Toy Story TV show, and a Monsters Inc show, and rebooting Lizzy Maguire, annnnd Highschool Musical is getting more shit.
- Netflix's new offerings are the acid trip that is Centaur World, Disenchantment, Sophie's world.
- Random titles I remember: The Owl House, Steven Univerce, Solar Opposites, Rick and Morty, *extreem eye twitches* Thunder... Cats... Roar...
Almost all of them use "lel random!" humor. Almost all of them are shows about just, fucking, sitting around doing stupid normal person shit that I do every day except with people present who are horribly rude and mean to each other yet are somehow friends instead of dire enemies out for one an other's blood. All of them are social focused. Sure Rick and Morty has zany wackey antics and adventures but none of it is played seriously and the real reason you're there is character growth, development, and drama.
Drama.
DRAMA!
Everyone seems to want the god damn social drama these days. Oh and the show has to push a modern day social issue too. Preferably identity politics! What's worse is the shows that try and be big like Steven Universe are hyper predictable. I literally called "Oh Rose Quarts was actually Pink Diamond" on the FIRST EPISODE I HALF-SAW. No. Realy. My ex-roomate was OBSESSED with that show. I heard it all the time. Literately the firs tone I heard blasting too loudly form the living room was in the middle of the 3rd season and I was like "Oh, she was Pink Diamond. This was an attempt to run away form responsibilities." No surprises. Sloppy writing. Extremely obvious foreshadowing...
This crap is anathema to my very soul but it seems to be what people want these days. Know what I want? I want the kind of stories I grew up with to come back.
I want big damn heros. I want truly mosnterious villeins. I want evil minions butchered in droves by heros working against overwhelming odds to save the world from a horrible fate. I want strange and silly concepts played 100% straight. I want worlds that ate vast, sprawling, and leave room for creativity by thousands of fans for decades. I want lore oceans deep and oceans wide in even the most unexpected of shows. I want stories told with passion by people who wanted to tell them and don't give a damn about the focus groups charts.
I want things like SilverHawks, Big Guy and Rusty, Outlaw Star, The Justice League, 2002's He-Man, 2010's Thundercats, Batman the Animated Series, Danny Phantom, Ben-10, Generator-Rex, Tri-gun... and so many more...
I feel that shows like these are dead. That stories like these are dead. That no one wants them aside from me. That there is no place for me to tell these kind of stories, especially not if they don't somehow include ponies. I am no longer depressed... yet this still strangles my soul more than you know.
So... any ideas? Anything you think can help?
I wouldn't let the folks that like Starlight bother you. I ain't a brony and just observe really and keep writing what I write. Just do what you feel you can. Ignore the silliness even if Starlight does bother you remember you can ignore those stories or groups or whatever. Don't let things like this get to you.
Wow. Those are some really heavy thoughts you have on your mind Meep. Honestly, I am not sure how to respond and give advice to this. All I can say is, good luck with your plans.
While I can’t offer help on Starlight I can at least say that she isn’t everyone’s favorite. I personally find her both interesting and repulsive because from my perspective she is basically a psychopath who they try to redeem. In a few episodes I think they do alright showing what would happen if you try to interact with a person with power and a complete lack of empathy or sympathy. For the most part though I think its an interesting concept that never really gets the attention it could have. I admit I laughed for a remarkably long time at the idea of her being a guidance councilor, mostly because she isn’t psychologically fit to be anywhere near a position of authority, especially one that tries to mold children. So yeah, not my favorite, and its only by the grace of a sick sense of humor that I find any amusement out of her.
As far as writers block I can only say that there is little point in trying to continue a project that has lost its spark.
As far as what to watch I would personally recommend maybe looking through the annals of anime. It doesn’t hold to the same structure as modern American cartoons and while everyone’s taste is subjective there are many gems out there. Outlaw Star and Trigun have always had a special place in my heart if you want more of the same maybe give Cowboy Bebop a look. Other ones that I think have at least a little merit for everyone are Ghost In the Shell Stand Alone Complex, Paranoia Agent, Yu Yu Hakusho, and the first season of One Punch Man and Promised Neverland.
Hope any of that might help somewhat, if it didn’t then I can only hope that you receive advice or similar that does.
I will add one more thing. How I handle writer's block. I write like random words and make them into a story that I won't release the best way to break that is to write random words and try to make a random story out of it that you won't release. It works for me at least.
5581286 How can I not? Imagine you really liked Magic the Gathering, and played in a comic shop near your house. Now one day, a bunch of Neo-Nazis suddenly show up and super love Magic and start hanging there every day. Would you be bothered? I imagine so. Do you understand why would be bothered? I think you do. Do you believe your being bothered would be justified? Certainly you would.
This is the same problem I have with them, Megaskullmon.
5581287 Thanks old friend. Sadly, I have no plans as of present.
5581288
I'm not really a fan of Japanese storytelling. I dislike their narrative tropes for the most part, and can't really get into many of their stories. Though I do like a good few. I've seen all the titles you mentioned, for example. Thank you for the suggestions, though.
5581289 It's less writers block and more... I don't know. I can think up stories to tell myself in my head no problem. I'm just as creative as ever. it's the putting them on screen for people to see and enjoy too that I'm struggling with. It's a lot of work... for every little reward (No I dont want money, I'm not motivated by it beyond what I need to survive, which I have without being paid for stories. Also I find selling stories to be not just immoral but blasphemous against the very soul of humanity itself). I just... I dont know what I could do, or read, or watch, to make me want to tap away for ~96 hours to make another novel for people when I dont feel welcome here and also feel like what I like to tell is dead.
I don't get why you're so obsessed with Starlight. But since you hate her so much. Maybe it could be cathartic to write a story where she turns out to have just pretended pretended to reform. And after her double cross she's defeated and receives a horrible fate.
Well, there's always original fiction. The oldest writer's trick in the book, if you can't find anything good to read, write it yourself. You're a zogging good author, and you've a very clear understanding of what you want in a story, from archetype to setting. Why not do it all kustom from scratch?
Think of it, a tabula rasa with no preexisting canon. You want to write about gopniks who sail through interstellar space in asteroid habitats and use mech suits to hunt space monsters? You could write that. Write what you wanna read man.
5581290
Sadly for me, the only thing I really get upset at these days is how Star Trek is treated. Everything else I am just like *Shrugs* Eh. I do understand people's problems with The magic the gathering thing. But hey at least they're not pulling a Games workshop. Now I can understand that too. Just I never focused on it or really cared. But when I do focus on it I start to understand. But I don't really get bothard by it. I help others who are just be happy its still going.
I might be missing the point entirely but if you are looking for a good "story" with just about everything you want. Critical role campaign 1 and 2 might be interesting to you. I'm not sure if you enjoy 3 hour long videos and table top RPGs but if you do it is certainly worth the time investment. (If you do decide to watch, do campaign 2 first.)
5581291 You... you don't get why? Did you even watch the show? She does everything you should need to see her to do truly hate her on screen. She took over a town through fear based tactics, forcing people into a cult against their will. The intention and focus of this cult was to destabilize the government, take over the nation, and push everyone into the same cult-based lifestyle.
A cult-based lifestyle, which, by the way, we directly see on screen involves taking out a piece of the victims souls, preventing them from doing anything at all unique. Pinkie, couldn't, make, jokes. AJ, couldn't speak, in, her, normal, accent. She used *mindcontrol* on many, many, many people for personal gain. Mindcontroll involving LOBOTOMIZING PEOPLE! Oh and she can 1v1 the Alicorn Princess of Magic and WIN, hands down, eveyry time. So she outclasses the GOD OF MAGIC in magical power for NO explained lore reason at all.
And after that was filed what's she do? SHE FUCKS WITH TIME! She induced apocalypses to try and get her way. And what's she do all of that for? One time when she was like 4, she lost a friend when they got sent to a boarding school. She's Joker Tier insane, and a HUGE THREAT to safety.
How can you like this monster? How can anyone? I mean as anything but a villen. Obviously, great villen! 10/10. But a hero? NO! BAD! WRONG! IMMORAL! Super not okay. "Hey kids that insane axe murdering rapist who quotes Hitler at the top of their lungs at 3 am is jsu misunderstood and needs a friend! Go hug them :D" that's what Starlight's character is saying to kids. That is the message behind her.
FUCK. THAT. NOISE. TO. DEATH. WITH. A. CACTUS.
She's a bad decision, CyberDragon89ponies. One that ruins the entire show.
And no. I will not write that. That would involve putting her in my headspace furring one of my most beloved activities of all times and would almost certainly KILL MY INTEREST IN MY MAIN HOBBY FOREVER via association.
Do you understand what hate is? I don't think you do. Please don't take offense to that. I just observe that almost everyone uses hate to mean "strongly dislike". So don't get me wrong. I hate her. I hate her fans. This emotion is not "ugh, them. Ew." it's ... It's what makes an otherwise good person be evil. Look, let me put it this way.
If I was on a jury, and learned the defendant was a Glimmer fan, I would vote guilty because they are a bad person in my eyes just for that. I would leave a Glimmer fan in a burning building, let them escape on their own if they can. Supporting that monster in my eyes means the individual is entitled to none of civilizations' kindnesses as they back a being who is truly evil and call them good.
As for Glimmer herself? I would cut her heart out with a spoon, just so it would hurt more. A rusty spoon if possible, so that if I were to be stopped she would still die of tetanus. After all that's far more slow and painfully than most positions I could easily get. Then again I could execute her via The Boats... but that would require some assistance. But on the upside I could enjoy her agonizing death over weeks, or even a month or so. Depending on how fast the various insects int he local region were interested in eating her alive. And that would being me nothing but joy, cherished memories, and a seance that I had preformed and act of genuine good.
THAT, is hate.
I hate Starlight Glimmer. I very nearly hate her fans.
5581292
I do want to write, but like... I don't like writing for myself. It's inefficient. I can just imagine for myself. What need have I to write it down? Besides, there's no point in telling a story without an audience. I don't want to just... sell a book. I want to tell people a story and know what they think about it and delight in their enjoyment of my labors.
5581294 Already seen that. It was alright. Mat is a great DM and I'd love to be in one of his games but for me personally... RPGs are like the Indy-500. Fun to be a part of, really boring to watch. Though i did learn a good deal from watching Mat so at least it was educational. Now don't get me wrong, ti's great you enjoyed it! I'm glad you have/had entertainment you love. That's a wonderful feeling.
But no! My problem here is I want to create stories, but feel no one wants to hear what I want to tell anymore. I also don't feel welcome within my old stomping grounds for telling stories.
5581290
That's fine with me, you do you.
not sure what to tell you besides original fiction is a thing. I neither hate nor like Starlight but in my three stories Starlight never falls, is stopped at the town by a good old rainbow laser, or is dead. The 1st happens because Sunburst's parents ask if he wrote back to Starlight since he'd just been accepted a short while ago, the second they've dealt with far nastier things, and the last, well, far nastier things dealt with her first.
I don't know what to say about your first point... You have mentioned your stance on Starlight before and it is 100% valid. Canonically ponies seem to be way chiller with mind control and various horrible acts than I'd like. While I'm able to like Starlight to some extent, I can only do so by effectively scrubbing her introduction (both two-parters) and a few follow-up moments from the record. It really doesn't make much sense. The concept of having an evil mage be properly reformed sans Elements is an interesting concept, but the show executed it horribly.
...that might make good fic material, actually.
I really don't know what to say here other than that I understand, at least partially. From what you've mentioned previously, it's not how you work to simply brush aside or ignore something like this, so... I don't know. I certainly wouldn't want to see you leave either, even if I do have your website bookmarked. Your work is great, you seem pretty cool, and you add an interesting voice to the community.
And yet, any option or potential solution I can think of in these last fifteen minutes falls apart in face of your unbridled fury. I... don't have any kind of solution I can present you for this. I'm sorry, truly.
As for your second point, it sounds like you need new ideas? All I can really suggest in that department is to start throwing some concepts at the wall and see what sticks. Make plots, characters, and, if necessary, worlds from there. You have much more writing experience than I do, as I tend to procrastinate the 'I must write!' feeling out of existence when I get it, so my advice here should be salted before consumption.
As for your third point, I agree. There's a reason I don't watch much TV anymore. The last cartoon I've seen that was actually much good was Gravity Falls. I haven't even watched the last season of MLP yet, because I still feel annoyed and betrayed over the ending. I literally just watch people play video games on YouTube or Twitch when I want to watch something. The Hermitcraft community in particular is a big contender.
I only get good, actually deep and interesting stories from books, fanfiction, Internet storytellers, and the occasional anime. The books have only gotten fewer and farther between, as well. At least, it's felt like that. You aren't the only person that wants complex, deep, bombastic stories full of rich lore and world-building that play to classic tropes without so much as blinking. The Pathfinder setting I've been working on off and on now for a year or so now is intended to be every one of those things. I look for, and treasure, those stories wherever I can find them. Why watch whatever is on TV when I can read a good FIMfic? Or explore the monstrous world of Chrysalis, be it through the book or a reading thereof? Or read Girl Genius and marvel at the world it shows us and the fascinating internal implications of every new piece of information? Or I could pick up the physical books I own and read the Railhead series or the Steelheart series. I could watch One Piece, if I wasn't already caught up with it, or rewatch Log Horizon, which I should probably read, actually. Something interesting and compelling, not the rubber-stamped drivel played on standard TV. It doesn't help that everything is becoming its own streaming service, locking away content behind, what? six, seven paywalls? I could sink hours into playing Hollow Knight or Ori instead and come out better for it.
Sorry, bit of a sore subject for me as well. They say that 90% of everything written is trash, and I include TV show and movie scripts in that lump sum. I suppose that makes finding those diamonds in the rough all the more worth it though. The source content for this very site might not be the best show overall, but its community is one of the best, I'd say. And there are wonderful stories out there, waiting to be found.
I lament, sometimes, the amount of beautiful worlds and stories unknown to the world-at-large. How many homebrew TTRPG settings go unshared? How many hobbyist world-builders go no farther? How many short stories vanish into the depths of the Internet or worse, a notebook, never to see the light of interest again? I see some, being subbed to a few TTRPG subreddits, a world-building one, and the HFY sub (which produces the odd bit of glorious sci-fi). Honestly though, it's the Choose Your Own Adventure subreddit, r/makeyourchoice, that drives the point home the hardest. If all who lurk there are but a fraction like myself, spinning a story and a character and an adventure as they go through a build, then uncountable tales are lost in the depths of memory. Most, of course, would be pretty bad even if written down, but it's the concept that gets me.
That was quite a tangent, my apologies. I'll summarize. Let not your story-loving soul be troubled, my friend. There are those who seek such things, and such things to be sought. For does not the hunt make the quarry taste all the sweeter?
Ninja edit: Glad to hear that you settled in well and battled depression successfully! That's no small thing.
5581301
It's okay. I know its a tall order. I'm not neurotypical, so I feel things at intinsities human brains are not meant to experience (and shouldn't, frankly :/). I have genuine hatred for something. It will probably die with me. Its not your fault that I'm like this. Unless it is. In which case, may I please barrow your genesplcing tech and research? I have some patches and updates I'd like to apply to myself.
I have ideas. I don't have the... thing that makes me want to develop them. God I have endless ideas....
157 from me alone. Problem is... I cant write without an audience existent and interactive to me. I dont see the point in telling a story without that.
5581302
Eh, whatever you write I would like to be at least part of that audience. I may not say what I think since I am normally like what to do I say?
5581303 YOud' think that, but I tried. I got a whole 18 views and 3 comments. 2 of which were form people who know I need the fan engagement to not backslide further into depression I was in at the time, and thus were NOT genuine.
5581302
You're full of ideas and the need to write, but don't have anything connecting the two extremes? Agh. Ugh. *various noises of discomfort* That sounds physically and mentally painful. You have my axe. I'mma help you figure this out however I can.
I mean, you aren't wrong. How can writing be fulfilling if not done for the entertainment and preferably interaction of others? Perhaps for some, but not for others. Well, you have a dedicated audience of at least one, probably two or three, minimum, judging by just the present comments. Overall I'd guess you probably have considerably more. At least 30-40 people have visited this blog post within an hour of its creation.
As an aside, after a brief bit of poking around, I've found that your website is down (or at least currently inaccessible to me) which saddens me. I'd just remembered that you had some original fiction there which I was about to slot into my read list at sufficient priority.
That being said, I'd bet if you started posting another story on a different site, whether your own or a more established one, so long as you blog a few reminders/advertisements of a sort here, you'd get a decent audience following you across.
And of course you have a preexisting audience here, should you choose to continue with the pony fics. But it's definitely not impossible to gather an audience anywhere, even outside of any fandom, especially with writing skills as polished as yours.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the engagement and entertainment of an interested audience is what generally drives you to create, right? What if you chose a few of the ideas you are more interested in (randomly, if necessary), and offered a poll of sorts in a blog post? Your engaged audience would literally be helping decide which of your current ideas they would be more interested in reading. Could that be an effective solution to that particular problem?
(Let it be noted, I must sleep. My reply to any further reply will be in the future.)
5581305
My poorness caused the domain to lapse. I got a new domain for it. Change the bookmark to .com and it will work again :3 It wont lapse again.
The problem is... they're here. And I feel distress and discomfroth ere due to Glimmer fans. I think I understand the Red Scare a little now. I'm worried about which of my readers are okay with her, and if I should be doing anything to brighten their days. I'm not Jesus. I'm not mercy oriented. I lean towards justice. I don't think bad people deserve a break. I dont think that outlook on life will ever change.
I couild I guess. If I felt comfortable with this place. It used to be my home. it's... not now.
Reading point 3 just randomly reminded of a show from 2007 called Storm Hawks, pretty interesting world actually, though the story feels a bit like it skipped the prologue since we don't learn a lot about the main cast's backstory until much later.
The villains have a similar problem.
Still, I enjoyed it, not sure how others feel about it
If anyone's interested the video below does a pretty decent job explaining the good and the bad of the show.
Spoiler Warning
Well if you want to keep being here make the story where starlight is the on the side of evil:
make this what she is on the side of. Make other as bad or worse. Take the readers to the dark side of war and or horrors or don't. I never came here because of the ponys. i came to this place for the free reading. alot of really good writers are here. its condensed easy to find because this website is for writing and not anything else. I cant tell you that your world will become one of the massive ones that 100 of people write to add to. this is why i dont write im lost and dont know what im saying anymore, or if my point is even understandable.
While I agree Disney is butchering most of my childhood systematically, and Netflix isn't much better. I do feel a need to defend Centaurworld a little. I won't lie, first impressions weren't the best, and the first episode is a real struggle. Actually, the initial opening isn't too bad (in the human world), but the introduction to the Centaurworld characters is a bit cringe worthy, with too many fart jokes and other low brow humour.
Going forward though, after that poor start, I'd rate it pretty decent. The finale is a completely different animal to the first episode. Episode 2 is a massive improvement all around. And if nothing else, the songs are pretty decent, Daniel Ingram decent. And if you want decent villains, without spoiling anything, the antagonist is, although only briefly encountered, terrifying, visually and as a character. I mean, just listen to the song associated with them that crops up throughout the series (and includes some clever foreshadowing, to say nothing of the unsettling lyrical dissonance).
So I'd say give it a shot. I was just as ready to write it off an yet another Netflix animated misfire, but I wouldn't mind seeing Season 2.
5581318
Bruh, read other comments first. She doesn't wanna do that because it would ruin, just by association, what she still likes about FiMFiction.
I don't have any advice I could give here. If you wish to chat privately, you know how.
Know that you have my support, whenever you need it. So you're not neurotypical. I'm almost certain I am not, either. Need an ear? I'm available. Mostly. State Fair today.
Hi love your work, so I want to help you with some solutions I use myself, to the exact same problems.
2. Don't write more on stories where you can't get into the right frame of mind or don't want to,
it is not good for you and it is not good for the story. Put them on hiatus with a message or with a fast ending, I think it will be better for you and for the people who like the story.
This is my worst solution I think as I have the hardest time with it, and it flys in the face of working hard for your goals. I think the balance lies in clearly deciding what is work and what is pleasure. Also, stories there start out good but have a long drawn out bad ending are worse than stories there start out good, but never get finished.
3. There are just not a lot of good new shows, the only one I can name is Gravity Falls. I think it is mostly media trying to be as accessible as possible by being boring and averages + that for each filter(Youtube/Netflix/country laws or ratings) a media needs to go thou the more palatable/sellable it needs to be...
The only way around this I know is to find fan-made things, directly from artists' things (like HELLUVA BOSS) or old things maybe from other countries (I like the old Ghost in the Shell and Alita Battle Angel).
Until you find something good, my own trick is to not waste time on bad things :P stop watching/reading whatever as soon as it is not good any longer. There is too much free stuff out there to waste your time on something bad. The same can be used for creative exhibitions, like writing, do something small, get to your favorite part immediately, participate in a writing competition, not to win but because they set small goals.
1. I also have it very hard with Starlight and forgo most stories where she is not a villain. Her redemption was what made me stop watching the show. So sorry this may be hash: you should not waste your energy on hating other people, just because you think that they don't share your meaning or that they are not so angry about a bad episode, they may not have seen. I don't mean that Starlight's character or the portrayal of her is very excusable, just that most people have not seen a lot of that part of her. If you just look at Fimfiction both Twilight, Luna, and Celestia have a bigger percentage of their stories where they are evil or morally questionable than Starlight, most likely because they are better characters and are better known. At the end of the day, she is just a fictional character and I have read more than 20 times more about her in fanfictions than I have seen of her in the show, even while avoiding her. Besides people, in general, are super good at avoiding hard things, especially when an easier solution can be found like blaming someone like Starlight or using all your energy on hating on other people/fictional characters. Like how people love to hate terrorists while ignoring that they are just freedom fighters (I don't condone freedom fighters)... ok I will stop here before this becomes even more of a personal attack, sorry about that.
TLDR. Don't waste your time on hating, instead make yourself or the world better (share your creativity(fanfictions), learn something new, fact check your opinions, find ways to help others, or make yourself happy).
I'm not part of your audience (you writing style just doesn't fit my tastes,) but I just wanted to give some support. Hopefully you can find something you want to share with us.
5581310
Fantastic news, thank you. Bookmark address has been altered accordingly.
As for the rest of your comment, I think we may have reached the crux of the issue. Your opinion and beliefs about the character in question are valid and honestly understandable. I, at least, can see where you're coming from. However, the intensity of said beliefs seems to have you projecting that. As you've mentioned, you very nearly hate the fans as well. Problem is, no one that I have ever seen on this site supports her earlier actions in the show. They are either viewed negatively or simply swept under the rug for convenience in writing. Most people seem to be primarily interested in the character as a mage with a history of bad decisions and somewhat dubious morals learning to become a better person, not the logical extension of the character shown in the show before the admittedly illogical heel-face turn.
In short, if everyone saw her the way you did, most people would hate her too. Perhaps not with the same intensity, but still hate. However, in light of the course of the show, most people lens their opinion and mentally rationalize in order to make things fit. Personally, the question I was forced to ask, upon considering the implications of her actions, was, "Why is this canon and how does it fit with the pre-established lore?" From there, I was capable of reaching an answer that let me at least appreciate the character in her later appearances. I actively had to shift my lens from an Earth-standard viewpoint to a canon pony view.
It's worth pointing out that no one has come in here and started to defend the character whose name I am omitting for the sake of your blood pressure. Almost no one (because there's always some idiot), supports her actions. Collectively, we're just ignoring, mentally trimming, or obfuscating whatever we need to in order to make things work for us.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that isn't an option for you. And I wouldn't ask you to do that. However, it sounds like your only option to remain here is to adapt to thinking that other people can like the character in spite of her previous actions without necessarily being bad people through association. Now, I'm not encouraging the active ignorance of horrendous deeds IRL. Those should be remembered and punished accordingly. In fiction, however, especially where canon has such an abrupt heel-face turn, it isn't necessarily a bad thing, although often one accompanied by some awkward mental gymnastics.
If you can't learn to deal with or accept the presence of those who don't hate the character, and maybe you aren't physically capable of doing so, I don't know, then it seems as if your only option is to leave. Keep a presence here, perhaps, but post your fics elsewhere. Fanfiction.net, Royal Road, ao3, Spacebattles, there's plenty of potential options.
You will have an audience. Your skill will gather one. Perhaps a small one, perhaps a large, but an audience will form. And you won't start at zero like you probably did originally. Post where you're going, or dm specific parties if you feel it necessary, and people will follow.
If you are not and cannot become comfortable here, then please, for your own sake, find somewhere you can be.
5581318 No I do not. I don't understand why people keep insisting I should use her and *permit her to exist*. I want her to not exist. I want the entity of this fandom to revert to a per-Starlight state and bypass that entire timeline. I *hate* her. I want her gone. I want her fans gone. I do not want her existent, or in my memories, or anywhere I might EVER stumble upon her ever again. Please, please, PLEASE understand that. Seriously, not joking, no hyperbole, I would weep with joy if the US made it a federal crime to use her character in any way.
5581334
I don't care if you like it, but it is genuine poison to my soul. I despise it. But there's nothing wrong with it, unlike Starlight Glimmer. So enjoy away. No judgment. Just keep that shit away from me and please consume other kinds of media too so that the chart heads in megacorps might throw me a half-eaten bone at least. BTW; I despise music in storytelling... So that's a black mark against the show for me already.
5581340 Thank you for understanding, you are the first person I am aware of who hasn't talked to me about this issue IRL who has understood.
5581394 Thank you for offering genuine solutions. I believe that everything I have which isn't done is on hiatus already. For the record though, Gravity falls isn't new. It came out in 2012, and was over in 2016. It's 5 years dead, and was the last gasp of the 00s, my guy. Hardly new.
"The only way around this I know is to find fan-made things" This isn't a solution for me because of what people seem to like and want these days being largely if not exclusively composed of things I genuinely hate or at least find really annoying in storytelling. It's at the point where I don't want to even look for new content anymore because why would you dig through a mound of pig shit for one snickers bar? I don't want to brag, but I have an insane reading speed as my autistic superpower (Like, Deathly Hallows finished in 3 hours) and by the time I finished high school I had read literately every single book in my school's and public library's fiction sections. I'm pretty sure I am genuinely *out* of fiction that I cam capable of liking at this point.
"Until you find something good, my own trick is to not waste time on bad things :P" Yeah I already don't do that. Problem is... then there's fuck all for me to do. Are you aware of one of the major downsides of Autism? It's called "narrow interests". I have very little that I am capable of enjoying or feeling a desire to do. So if I don't have something to enjoy, I genuinely just sit and do nothing and wait to go to bed.
"you should not waste your energy on hating other people" I literally do not have a choice in this. I don't think I can successful explain that to anyone, so please just accept that it's true. True hatred isn't a choice. It's a chemical reaction that occurs when one's soul mixes with something truly anathema to goodness and decency. I don't get to choose to hate her any more than a dropped brick chooses to fall.
5581437 Thanks, man. May I ask what about this particular style you dislike? I write in several styles and enjoy data on reader preferences.
5581491
This, in a nutshell, is why I nearly hate her fans. If Starlight was real I WOULD 120% hate her fans. Why? Because to me, no joke, not to invoke Godwins law, genuinely, actually, for real, I equate what they are doing to people who unironically and seriously say "Hitler did nothing wrong". Sweeping the actions of a monster under the rug for any reason at all is an act of evil. Did you know that IRL right now a huge group of people on TicTok are trying to get a judge to release a convicted murderer because he's cute? Glimmer fans are that kind of evil, but for a fictional character. It is NOT okay, and the fact that civilization tolerates them is also not okay. It makes the community anathema to me V.V It turned this place from "I feel at home here with my brothers" to "these are not my brothers, these are not my people, they tolerate the existence of evil, if not embrace it as a lover".
If a pony-centric view point permits her to exist as a free and/or living being after what she did, then the fics where a version of humanity comes in to enslave or kill all ponies are right to do so. That belief and viewpoint would make it not only okay to carpet nuke the land into an unlivable wasteland devoid of all life, but a MORAL NECESSITY TO DO SO! She is a being of true evil. She must be purged. No exceptions, no forgiveness, no mercy. Nothing about the situation is okay or acceptable. I would go to war with Eqestria over her not being punished, no matter how foolish that might be, simply because it is right. I would literally start an actual crusade to end her existence no matter the cost. I am talking old school, march an army across the planet on foot if need be, burn everything associated with her, heads on pikes, crusade fueled by righteous indignation. What she did, is THAT wrong!
It literally is not. Are you Christian? Pretend she found the true cross and shit on it for internet fame. Are you Muslm? She blew up the the Kaaba. Are you American? She did 9/11 and Pearl Harbor back to back. I am not being hyperbolic, I am trying to communicate the true depth of the offense wrought against me and my world view by this character. Her. Sins. Are. Unforgivable and unforgettable.
I cannot. Because they are. They are literally equivalent to people who still support Hitler's actions. Insist the Taliban are the good guys. Support the People's Republic of China. Proped up Pol Pot. Were sympathetic to ISIS. The only difference being their mosnterious evil person is fictional.
Let me get this completely straight. There is a line. If you cross that line, no future actions can forgive, mitigate, or make up for your actions. She crossed that line. Anyone who believes otherwise is wrong. Anyone who supports her is a bit evil. Anyone who thinks she's redeemed is wrong. Even if she truly changed and became a good person, she still needs to die for what she did. She marched across the line into irredeemable monster and must be put to the sword.
No. It is. Full stop.
How/why? What's the fucking point? Not to be an ass there but... I only write stories for fan engagement purposes. I don't write for me. Why would I? that's dumb. I have an imagination. If I want to entertain me I just imagine the story and remember it. There's no point to writing it down. That's a waste of my time and energy.
I write, exclusively, to bring smiles to the faces of people who need a smile, and also so I can SEE that smile and know that I am doing good for the world and consequently matter. This site permits that with its active community and semi-scocal nature with the stories. I do not believe any other site has that.
So, again. What's the point of leaving for somewhere else?
It wont be there from the beginning. It just wont. I've *tried* writing non pony stuff in several places. No one gives a fuck about my stories if they dont' contain pones. You visited my site, yeah? Like 18 total people viewed the story I have up there, and I got liek 3 comments. And then it tapered off to nothing. No one cares. No one wants it.
I. Need. An. Existent. Audience. I cannot self-motivate to write without one because I don't write to write. I'm also not motivated by money, so I don't write to earn a living. See the above paragraph.
Besides, if I go somewhere else it's only a matter of time if it's not already true that Glimmer fans are ALREADY THERE... No one seems to think about that. They act like their plague is trapped here forever but they could by anyone, anywhere. The entire internet is compromised :/
5581544
They WHAT?!
...honestly, that's the best analogy for this situation you could give, I think. Ironically, I am actually both Christian and American, and that sums it up better than either of those two examples for me. I am so incredibly frustrated with these people's stupidity right now.
I mean, Royal Road has an active community and a comment system close to FIMfiction's. Spacebattles is literally a forum, often with considerable discussion of the story between chapter posts. There are other sites out there much like FIMfic in community and activity, something I only learned recently myself.
Ok, I'm going to be blunt and potentially insulting. That's paranoia. If you go down that road, you'll never be able to look at anyone on the Internet or maybe even real life in the same way again. One of the best and worst features of the Internet is anonymity. You don't know any given person's political views or religious views or if they're a flat-earther or a nazi or an ISIS supporter or anything unless they say. The Internet has always been compromised, ever since it became public. As much as that leads to echo chambers, it also leads to talking to people you never would have IRL, spreading ideas, knowledge, and stories in a way that nothing else can.
So yeah, the Glimmer fans are everywhere. So are all the other horrible things you could point at, with varying levels of popularity and acceptablity. I can't really say how to deal with that other than the tried and true method of the Internet: assume decency until proven otherwise, then ban as necessary. Apologies if that was harsh.
But, as you said, you can't leave. Agh. There really is no solution here then. Your rage is justified in its origin, incredibly intense, and cannot be managed, which is honestly breaking my head a bit. You cannot write here because the state of this site is anathema to you, but cannot leave because you are reliant on your pre-existing audience to write and your pre-existing audience is here and therefore anathema. This is a paradox.
... I can do nothing here. Your viewpoint is both valid and effectively sound, so I cannot argue against it. You cannot stay. You cannot leave.
You.... you may need a different hobby. It's either that or start from scratch making a new audience somewhere and you already said you can't/won't do that. Might I suggest RPG content creation/gamemastering? It seems like it might be a worthwhile expression of your skills and fulfill your requirement for audience interaction. Animation might not be bad either, though that's a very different set of skills.
5581544
Now that's hard. Take anything I say with a gran of salt, I'm less sure of my tastes then I am good at writing.
My biggest gripe is with how thrown together your worlds and stories feel. There are many ideas and thoughts that are introduced and left by the wayside. There are other ideas that ether don't and anything or hamper the tone of a story or setting, but are added anyway because they are cool.
Edit: Most of my reasons for disliking your writing are purely personal and illegitimate critiques. This might be my only true gripe, or it might be my mind making excuses on why I dont like it.
5581567 Yeah about different hobbies... So Autism has thins thing called "narrow interests". I don't have the luxury of neurotypicals who can seemingly just pick any old thing that exists and go like it and enjoy it and recreate with it. To me, almost everything is... nothing. not even noise, just empty, hollow, nothing. Nothing to care about at all. That or it is EVERYTHING. So, that's also off the table v.v
I don't understand why I should have to leave. Glimmer and her fans are new. Why didn't they have to make their own place? This is like if your neighbors could just demolish your home that you own because they want to sell a bigger home.
I already do this. It's... not as fulfilling and often makes me panic. Direct face to face or mic to mic real time interactions with multiple people are so hard for me that the United States, a nation which thinks that Universal Healthcare is of the devil, and that people must bootstrap themselves up, has decided "Oh shit dude. You shouldn't be a part of the work force. Here's enough money to survive."
As for animation... I can't draw figures. Only graphics :/ Exception for ponies as their art style is cake. They're jsut a fibonachi spiral and a circle.
I guess I should check Royal roads? IDK...
5581568 AH, so my attempts at making the world feel real, lived in, and open so others might decide to tell stories in the setting are what bugs ya. Yeah fair. It's intentionally not as polished as it could be, simply because real life isn't and intrigue and small holes like that, as well as implied world building are what makes people interested in working within a setting.
5581590
Ah. That is decidedly less than ideal. Writing it is then!
I mean, I'd like to say that there isn't a reason for you to have to leave the site, but this blog post and its comments indicate otherwise. Unfortunately, the source material for this fandom is the way it is, and that renders it incompatible with you.
So yeah, time to start looking at other options. Royal Road is relatively similar to here, structurally speaking, so that might be a good place to lean into. Finding a writing subreddit to post on basically guarantees interaction, as those are usually hungry for quality content. That might be a good holdover, or someplace to crosspost for more interaction/exposure. Otherwise, I don't really know. My knowledge of Internet fiction sites is limited.
Ok, I did a little bit of research. It's difficult to locate new internet fiction sites, ironically. This thread seems to cover the common options and their pros and cons decently enough, though they are biased towards RR, being on that site.
5581604
Oh you mean that reddit site where anything I ever post ever is auto-removed by bots because it's somehow off topic for the sub that's about that thing, and if it DOES get posted I just get firehozed with negativity? No thanks :/
5581609
out of curiosity, are you familiar with the concept of HFY stories?
5581672 No, what are those?
5581678
HFY aka Humanity Fuck Yeah! aka Humans are Space Orcs, is a genre for stories in which humanity as a whole and our abilities, knowledge, culture, physiology, psychology etc is shown to be of superior quality or significantly different than what is considered the 'norm'. The genre is often manifested as a subgenre of Science Fiction or Fantasy, but other genres are possible. one of the more well-known examples of this is a story known as 'The Deathworlders'.
there's actually a petty large community around this, and considering your quality of writing, you could probably make some really good examples of this.
5581680 Oh so like, what everyone should be doing with humans in science fiction? Seriously what's with the moping, depress-expresso "Humans are scum" nonsense being spewed everywhere?
5581700
pretty much what it is. for the first thing, not the second.
5581721 Any suggestions on where to post such things?
5581743
uhhh... i know there's a reddit for it, i think that's where most are, not really sure where others can be found though...
5581544
*laughs bitterly*
If you only knew.
5581700
I know right. Bring back the space opera.
I'm so tired of mope I'm writing a sci-fant cartoon that incorporates orbital mechanics.
5581844 Yeah... I'm at a point in my life where I would fully support laws that banned mopey all is lost doom and gloom fiction for at least 20 years. That stuff whittles away humanity's soul :/
<stares at the Sherbert herd>
Hmm...
5581298
I dunno, I've been waiting for you to get back to either the Equisverse or Dash To The Stars for a while now.
I don't hate your newer stories, they just aren't in my interests.
If they're what you want to write for the time being, write 'em. I'll try to be here when you get back to the ones I do care for.
No promises, as life is unpredictable, but if you ever continue those, and I'm still around, I'll do what I can to read them.
5581917
Problem there is, people genuinely find that interesting, like how you love science-fiction/-fantasy. Same with H-stories where the focus character exists for the sole purpose of being humiliated and used, and that shit's supposed to be hot?
Yeah, no.
And yet people eat that shit up like the American Idiots are STILL eating up Trump's bullshit!
5584870 I know they do. What I do not understand is how. Not why. I don't care about why. How. How do people like that? What allows a human mind to even consider that an enjoyable experience? How is it not genuine hell to them, such that putting tooth picks under their toenails before kicking a wall is not preferable to even THINKING about those kind of stories?
5584932
Love, I gave up on that question at LEAST 15 years ago.
Just write starlights name on paper, burn it in a pile of sage, and make her name dead, in all meanings, and anytime you see it, just glaze over all frosty like, till not her is happing.
To projects, I realy like your stoys and what they take, even your fallout book was cool, even if I disagree with the lore you chose. Honestly was hoping for the more derpy stuck traveler in time and space. Like her 1st time in fallout.
Still the story was fun, you always did out do your self with stories,