I remember the dislike of black and red alicorn oc's which I don't get why they're so hated. But what makes a good alicorn OC?

Is this a thread about OC's in general or is it just about alicorn OC's. The only reason we have the black and red OC is because of Sombra's supposed reputation as a badly written OC.

4053186 Hmmm. Well, to me alicorn OC's are notoriously difficult to write in a way that doesn't drive folks crazy. The reason being that, from the show and common fannon, alicorn's are a very special class of ponies. They are incredibly gifted with magic, representing many of the good qualities found in ponies, and are thus placed in positions of power. Now, think about it this way, adding an alicorn OC is like adding a god as far as the ponies would see it. They don't just let anyone become an alicorn, therefore, you shouldn't let just any OC be an alicorn. They must be balanced, aware of their flaws, but also able to overcome those flaws. They must be willing to sacrifice for the greater good. In essence, alicorns are the caretakers of Equestrian society, bringing order into a world that doesn't necessarily have it.

In my headcanon, alicorns are incredibly powerful because they can access the source of magic directly rather then only via channels like unicorns, earth ponies, or pegasi. This allows them to wield vast amounts of magic, but also leaves them open to corruption. I feel that a good alicorn OC should struggle with this power on some level. Not to the angsty, or depressive level, but enough that it challenges who they are as a character. Never give your character a free ride, make them work for whatever they're given. If they're an alicorn, they should mean they worked REALLY hard to get there, and weren't just made that way because you wanted them to have wings and a horn.

My advice. Don't know if that helps or not.

4053186 The idea of an OC is a really good concept, however there are a number of things to consider for them to be seen as good characters that fit into the Equestrian world.

This is especially true with an Alicorn OC, and it is a massive can of worms to open The thing is, in the fandom, Alicorns are essentially the "gods" or higher beings of Equestria, and there are only 4 Canon ones (so far). Because they are such powerful and revered beings, there are only supposed to be few of them...and if one were to introduce a new one in a fan-fiction, it would be like writing in a new god for the world. which can easily be written off as just a Sue, self insert or something along those lines. If you're going to use an Alicorn OC, then they're going to need to be fleshed out VERY thoroughly, have a detailed back story and exist in a way that is believable and makes sense. I think that it's ok to have one, but just be wary that using an Alicorn OC needs a lot of care to be seen as good and not just put readers off from enjoying the story they are in. I hope this helps to answer your questions

Alicorns are too powerful; they're an excuse to be better than everyone else. Black-and-red or black-and-purple or black-and-green... Basically black-and-anything is edgy as hell and makes you come off as a special-snowflake scene kid. Tragic backstories are usually a cheap jerk at the reader's heartstrings that means nothing to someone who doesn't care one bit about your character.

What makes a good OC, in my mind, is the ability to fit in yet stand out; the perfect balance between being a unique and interesting individual and being a normal, believable character; earning what you have and getting what you deserve.

I'd expand upon a few of these points, but I'm far too exhausted to think right now. If there's anything you'd care to ask, go ahead; I'll answer when I wake up a bit.

Good luck with whatever you aim to do, jack.

4053186

Personality, quirks, relatability, strengths, and flaws.

Backstory, who they are, where they come from, what they look like, and what they do all take a back seat to those five things.

You've got to give the readers a reason to care about the character, and you do that through personality, quirks, relatability, strengths, and flaws. Not by how crazy they look or how dark their past is.

For instance, my oc is an light blue pagasus with a brown mane. Nothing flashy about his looks, he's just a really big pony too. I define him thorugh his personality, not his physical appearance or where he's from, i don't think i even mention that in my bio for him.

Calm Wind is a large, oversized pegasus. The only pegasus in a family made up entirely of earth ponies. He spends all of his time either lifting weights or writing stories. Despite his intimidating appearance and muscular build, he is quite passive and one to join conversations rather than start them. He's alright when it comes to talking to other stallions he just met, but when confronted by a mare he doesn't know he becomes ridiculously shy and doesnt know what to say. His mind tends to wander which because of his large size often leads to him bumping into others by accident as he moves. He is very protective of those he cares about and is quick to step in and guard others even in situations where it may not be necessary. Because of his large size and weight he actually has trouble taking off (despite his larger wings) and needs to take a running start before he can fly. However, he doesn't mind because he loves sprinting.

In short, he's a big, shy softy that spends too much time in the gym.

Simple, effective, and easy to understand. Yes i do bring up his physical appearance more than once in the bio, but it's to supplement his personality traits and quirks.

Alicorn OC's are no different. you're just going to attract haters who have nothing better to do than cry foul at alicorns.

4053186
Well here's an example of an Alicorn OC done good.
Fun personality.
Not boastful of her abilities but does acknowledge them.
Good color scheme and design.
Also she's from another planet, making her unique and distinct from Celestia and Luna (and Twilight and Cadance but meh).

Personally, Alicorns are harder to write in my opinion because there are always plot holes when it comes to problems. Alicorns are powerful, which causes problems actually figuring out a problem, and this concept also happens A LOT with Discord, mainly because he has flight and major magical powers, which are supposed to make everything so much easier, when in writing makes it difficult to actually write stories. I think if you want a Alicorn, make it a villain because they are supposed to be powerful to cause trouble in the first place, but that concept has been used a lot too. As for black and red OCs, they make the character more "scary" and those colors combined represent evil, and used on most villains.

4053186

Storytelling.

Everything else is decoration.

4053186
Humility, give your OC real concerns and problems. Don't have them be perfect. For example people love Luna because she has a dark side and a trouble past. Making your character the 'perfect' pony isn't compelling.

4053186
I think the best thing for alicorn OCs is background story. How does he or she fit into the world of MLP? It just doesn't make *POOF* and another alicorn is born. Even the show gives us the further option that there is transcendence into alicornhood. So: Is this OC a born alicorn or a transcended alicorn? What are the intentions, life history, experiences? Were there any hardships making this OC bad? What is the special talent?

For instance: If you read my stories, you will find the term alicorn war sooner or later. This was my way to open up a gateway to introduce alicorns into the story, that weren't in the equasion before. Since this happened waaaaaaaaayyyyyy before Equestria, the result of the war was final (no spoilers here, read the story. ) and the survivors only young alicorns, this is an isolated case of background story.
And of course there are a lot of hardships to face for the young versions of Celestia and Luna and the other ones. Since both of them have little background story other than the Nightmare Moon Incident, this was my way to bring in some origin as well. Some may face hardships in kindness, while others face harshness. This makes different characters and is fully comprehensible.

But it is not until Book Two of my story to fully introduce the other alicorn OCs, who where only shadows in the dark until then. Their deeds, goals and ambitions layed out, this makes them characters you can relate to or despise them.

They say that a man without past has no future, this goes for OCs as well. Give them a background story, that one can believe and you can have a lot of fun with them.

But there are of course even more complex things than pony OCs... If you have a completely new species, you have to think of so much more than just background story. You are then creator of an entire culture. And nothing is harder. We are not talking about shadow ponies, bat ponies or vamponies here, we are talking about something so different like griffin different like a humanoid feline or lizard, a completely new thing. This is OC in its finest.

4053186 The reason why black and red alicorn OC's are hated, is that the creator seemingly just thought: Hey, I need an evil superstrong antagonist. Alicorns are superstrong, and Sombra looked pretty evil.
People think that they did not think about a greater backstory, and Alicorn OC's should not exist, because there is already the grudge against the 4th alicorn. But actually, I knew that would happen from Episode 1 Season 1.
But back to the topic, even if it would be a great OC, most people wouldn't give him / her a chance, because of how thoughtless they look.

What makes a good OC?
A good OC is fun to read, because:
1. He / She / It has an interesting, partially good-thhings-happening and partially bad-things-happening backstory, maybe only 1 of both are said by the OC himself when telling his backstory, but I don't think there only have happened bad things in their lives. You could make from 1 point on only bad things happened.

2. He / She / It has an reasonable colourscheme, and with that I mean a colourscheme not to tell his personality, but for his backstory or name. Gaia as an example is green, because the most plants seen in the nature are green. But she also has some old accessoires, underlining her age and with their colour the not-green plants and animals in the nature.

3. There does NOT have to be a tragic past for somebody to get evil. Somebody could have dared him to steal something, and then he realised how easy life is and got more and more evil. And the same goes for the good people, but everyling knew that.

4. The personality, this contains the reaction to certain situations, a part of the flaws and a part of the good things about him, has to match his backstory.

5. You have to think about his physical limits, containing the rest of the flaws and good things.
4053366 GAIA SHALL LAST FOREVER!
4054160 I think you mean ascended instead of transcended.

4054259
I think both terms fit.
To quote wikipedia:

In religious experience transcendence is a state of being that has overcome the limitations of physical existence and by some definitions has also become independent of it.

With all the "Oh my Celestia", "Thank Celestia..." and other phrases exchanging God with Celestia, the religious aspect is given. Also Celestia and Luna look the same as they did a thousand years ago. We have visual proof of that in the flashback visions Twilight has due to that odd potion of Zecora. Which means they are no longer bound to the concept of age, if they were at all. Of course Twilight ascends to alicornhood from being a unicorn. But as we see with the episodes, Twilight is no longer bound to the limitations of a "mere" unicorn and can begin to fathom and wield powers she couldn't comprehend before, such as raising the sun in the sky. A thing no unicorn can hope to accomplish alone by itself. Of course this was due to Celestia's power given to her, but a "mere" unicorn would be fried by such power.

Alicorn OC's are given a bad reputation because they're often written by people who aren't experienced writing, and use them for incorrect reasons: people have a tendency to make characters alicorns when they don't see an other way of coming up with an interesting way of making the character special.

Now, if the story required a character to be an alicorn, then that's a different story. However, those cases are rare, since it's more likely that you can just use one of the existing alicorns instead.

Basically, if you can answer 'why does this character need to be an alicorn' then you're well on the way to writing a decent alicorn OC. It's not the beginning and end of it, but it's a start.

4053186 I'd say it's more alicorn ocs in general because they're seen as gods/godesses, perfect, without flaws, all powerful. In other words, they're seen as Mary Sues/Gary Stues. Similar to red and black ponies in general, which are seen as generically evil without any reasons for being so. Combining the two could either be one of the best ocs ever or the worst mistake anyone could make. Depends on how you make the character. For example, if you have to make it evil, make sure there's a good reason for it or, if you're just playing the alicorn angle, make sure it isn't perfect - give it some flaws and don't have it be over-powered.