Ok, I've not been on the site for long (joined about mid January this year) but I've noticed that there are certain story trends that seem to come and go all at once. About a month ago (I think) there seemed to be a wave of '[Insert character name here] is a changeling' stories. Right now I'm noticing a lot of 'The Elements of Harmony failed, Nightmare Moon emerged victorious, Twilight and the others fight for their lives' fics.

So I'm just wondering, if it's not just a complete coincidence then what causes this? Are certain story themes requested somewhere? Or are people simply 'jumping on the bandwagon', so to speak?

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I have a problem with any of this, a lot of these fics are actually really good, I'm just curious. Is this a common thing or me noticing something that isn't really there?

865946 Human in Equestria (Tried)
Ponies on Earth
Pokemon in Equestria (Tried)
Human dies, 'Death' appears, sends him/her to Equestria
Grimdark (Tried)
Shipfics
Clopfics

865946
Yeah, there are certian genres of fic that are popular. 865952 mentioned most of them, there's also fallout and halo crossovers. Had a bit of a mass effect explosion a few months ago, but that seems to have died down. I've also seen a lot of "waking up as a character" fics. There are some epic, tolkien stlye adventures, but thats not too common. Space faring humans in Equestria makes up most of the sci-fi stuff.

Yeah, there are bandwagon themes.
Clops
Ships
Blank is a changeling
Luna>celestia
Emo immortality
Lunar guards
H uman in rquestria
Conversion bureau
Nightmare moon romance
Tyrantlestia
And thats all i can think of. Generally theese all suck and i avoid them like the plague.

865964 Clops? Check
Ships? Check
Blank is A Changeling? Haven't ever seen that.
Luna>Celestia? I suppose
Emo immortality? This has hardly been done.
Lunar guards? What?
Human in Equestria? Check
Conversion Bureau? Overdone, but I still enjoy the series.
Nightmare moon romance? Meh..
Tyrant Celestia? A couple.

865946 Yep. Certain story ideas trend. Sometimes it is coincidence, and sometimes it is inspired by some new development in the show (hence the advent of Fluttershy X Discord stories or So-and-so is a changeling stories that popped up after those episodes), and sometimes a popular fan story can inspire a wave of like stories (such as the My Little Dashie imitators).

This happens in original fiction too, not just fanfiction. Right now zombies are all the rage. The success of Harry Potter has opened the door for publishers to take a chance on similar stories (which is why we have things like the Percy Jackson and Charlie Bone series).

865946 People finally got the hint that a human that WANTS to go to Ponyville and gets there through some BS occurence isnt original anymore. So they threw in a new, creative twist where the guy DOESN'T want to be there. It blows my mind every time I see it.

865964>>865952>>866014
yay I've written none of those things!
I feel like such an artist

866024 UGH! And those cheesy space pony stories! Lame! Not enough lasers

865946 Let me see if I got this right, we are questioning why changelings doesn't have names? One cause for that would be that they all look identical so they would get confused as to who is called what. A other thing is that they are meant to be sort of simple servants. Thirdly there are a thousand of them and a thousand identical ponies is easier placed under one common name than give them each one a name.
With the normal ponies it's easier since they look and act different from each other.

866030
I got you covered, bro

Noa has 20% more space lasers!

866052

Lots of fantastic feedback :D I am not disappoint. Thanks all, at least I know it's not just me making assumptions that certain stories are almost exactly the same.

865946
Bandwagon for damn sure. While there are writers that are creative the vast majority on this site are as about as creative as a rock.

Makes me very pleased that I used none of these in mine :D I feel special

865967
Luna Guards are the Batponies, and the Emotality fics popped up big time after the end of Season3.

I would hardly call clopfics and shipfics bandwagon themes...

Out of uncreative ideas spur the most creative things. You just gotta know how to tell it in a way that makes it interesting.

866179 Ah, those. I only saw very few of the 'batponies' fics, and nearly the same for "emortality" Fics.

866242
That is true, but the trick is to be creative which is at times a hard thing to do. Like am I the only one to look at all the SE/NLR or Tyrantlestia fics and see the summaries all sounding exactly the same?

866249
They're there. The Emotality fics have the problem that they sound nearly all alike

866240 Yeah, they're more like genres, really.

866268
To be honest, and this will surprise you, I wouldn't mind reading one if the Tyrant followed the Evil Overlord's Handbook, so there wouldn't be the hidden book of the hidden history in the hidden room in the hidden basement, in the hidden library that is connected to the hidden chamber.... Ok I will probably still not read it but lets be honest if a tyrant was able to hold onto power for 1000 years they have to be smart.

Don't forget the ever-present "_____ is secretly a psychopathic serial killer" storyline. I have read very few stories in this vein that are really well done (I don't consider stories like Cupcakes or Rainbow Factory to be well-written.) Some of them have interesting premises, but too many of them focus on the blood, rather than the characters losing it. If I don't give a shit about the characters being gratuitously slaughtered, then I'm not gonna give a shit about the fact that they're being gratuitously slaughtered.

To be fair, though, this doesn't seem like a bandwagon-ish story archetype. It's more of an eager first-time author archetype. Doesn't mean that it isn't overdone, though.

866489
Bingo. Funny thing with the NLR/SE thing is the ones that take place after Luna's return... why do they think that Luna would support a republic? I mean 1000 years ago Equestria was probably a feudal realm and that is what she would be use to, perhaps apart from stories of the old tribal governments no pony would even know what a republic is.

866785
Celestia would advocate for a constitutional monarchy at least. One reason why in universe we didn't see Luna until more than a year after coming back is so she can learn about the new government when she retakes her place as Diarch.

865964 Opinions are like food holes. Most people have them.

866814>>866785

Ive seriously been saying that for fucking monsths, i am glad someone else actually has the intelligence to understand that.

Republic, by definition, is, and i qupte from google, "A state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president..."
Why on god's green earth would the fallen goddess, who wanted to have HER way over the night, who screams at her subjects to bow down before her and kiss her feet, and follows her rules from the past EVER want to step down and not have absolute control? Did they never think of that while they made the name? Shit, if it were real, Luna may as well have the words, "Insert Knife Here" on all their backs.

But the best part, that i love the most about all the fics where Celestia is beaten or banished by luna is the fact that NO ONE GIVE A FUCK! she gets banished, no matter if Luna made her look bad or not, and EVERYONE is just like "Oh, Shit happens." and just goes on with their fucking lives? Shit, Clinton almost got impeached over lying about a blow job!
anyway, in a fic im writing and waiting for my editors to be done proofing, I go into deep detail at the end where I take cheap shots to the balls of everything i dislike about our fandom, and in the end, both sister look at each other and ask, "why do our ponies think we hate each other?"

865967
With Bat ponies and Luna's guard stories are all practically the same. bat ponies are like the "HEY, YOU RACIST CUZ IM DIFFERENT!" or they are always better because of their wings... which makes no fucking sense... Or its just about Emos who have a creepy obsession with the night.
regardless, many Lunar Guard stories are just copy pasta about A. Lunar Armor turns them into super ponies, B they become superpowered because because they are in Luna's inner circle, or C they got that way because they sold their soul or some magic shit. Regardless, plot aside the common theme is that they are better than the royal guards or the Solar guards at everything... and a common overdone trait is that they are stealth masters...when in reality they don't do anything stealthy beside stand in a shadow....even though their eyes glow.....

regardless, even though ive had people go out of their way to correct me on saying they aren't all Mary Sues, they are still poor characters who are overpowered and full of angst.

867352
Dance... are you having a bad day. OK look call it a republic in name only, which is kind of what I go for when Nightmare Moon usurped the control of Equestria from Celestia and the Concordiat, and named her new nation the Lunar Republic (yes that is a way I'm taking a pot shot at the whole conflict). I think the NLR/SE thing can be summed up from a quote from the Honorverse book series:

Never mind that we've got a participating democracy, as well, and the Peeps don't. [...]They're a 'republic,' and we're a 'kingdom,' and any good oatmeal-brained Solly ideologue knows 'republics' are good guys and 'kingdoms' are bad guys!"

867574
I know, its kind of like how the "Federal Reserve" has little to nothing to do with the federal government of the United States.

Back on topic:
For a short time after the initial success of "On a Cross and and Arrow", gender bending ponies was the rage for a while, but it never really took off. I must say, one that i really like in that genre because of how not serious it is is definately "The Unexpected Love life of Dusk Shine".

Now, Disregard what i have to say now.
867574
Also, the whole batponies shit always gets my blood a boilin' like granpappy's heart medication. To be honest, there is a scene in the story i always hint about but never show anyone outside of the editors and proofers where the main character, who is actually a certified combat veteran, participating in several theatres of war and losing several of his ponies along the way, meets Luna's two guards. He can tell that they have no experience in fighting even though they are big and storng (they are actually private contractors, and Luna hired them not knowing that the whole "Knighting" thing had died a long time ago in Equestria.) Anyway, the two, thinking theyre badasses, finally get to duke it out with the main character, in a special virtual reality sim. in short, he takes them both down, unamred, then rips off the last one's wings and... well..... Quan chi will help me with the rest...

then, later, He meets the two ponies who pull Luna's chariot... and it turns out they are his two best friends from highschool... who are womanizers, drunks, drug users, and chronic partiers... so.... Charlie Sheen.

Anyway, when i eventually get time, I swear I WILL make a one shot of "A day in the life of the Lunar chariot Pullers", explaining how they got thier job because their dad is the Royal Lawyer, that they still live in their house, party at College frats, smoke dope with kids, and at one point almost start a war when they call a griffin a Chicken because they are tripping balls on LSD.

Hey! at least that has more personality than just the normal story so far, tha the Lunar guards are "BEST OF THE BEST OF THE BEST OF THE BEST OF THE BEST OF THE BEST, SIR!"

867676
Ah... I suppose I have a different approach for Luna's Own. They are honorable members of the Guard and have been since the founding ERG 20 years after the War of Eternal Night.

866300 It was a bandwagon in this fandom a while back but died down some time ago by now. Still, gore sells (not quite as well as sex) so writers who want to get featured tend to bring it up.

867352 Not all batponies are mary sues doesn't mean that most aren't. I've read a couple reasonable takes on the concept (one's unfinished though so I can't swear by it, the other I could honestly see an argument for mary sue if you don't include "poorly written" as a defining trait of a sue). I just don't like hating on a concept because it's popular with bad writers. It could still, theoretically, be done well.

868244
Im not afraid to admit it, im to the point that ive read enough bad stories about bat ponies and Lunar guards that i just don't care anymore, that they are all the same. But to be honest, the authors don't try and make them believeable. they give us.. say.. one example of why no one would see them, and then thats it! they are practically invisible.
Their mentality is that of making a character for Call of Duty. we bet a faceless mute character, we slap on a military branch, and immediatley assume they are a badass.

I can't lie, ive made a super sneaky character for my story, but i make it believeable by thinking outside the box. Without tellint their entire bio, they had been trained since a young age to be stealthy, their special talent is using a spell that changes their color and form... but i don't stop there! not only can they change to blend into the dark, they can stand agaisnt walls and match the color, they can change their gender and species to adapt and fool their pursuers or targets, and hell. At one point, this OC stands on a pedestal, rears, changes form to look like Celestia, and then turns their coat color to that of stone, practically becoming a statue!
Is that better than just
"Oh, in the dark, can't see me."

866683>>866814
I'm of the opinion of this- (And this is baisically the entire premise behind my story Trials of the Republic) Celestia has been in complete and total power for a thousand years. Look at dictators like Stalin and Hitler- just the mere taste of such power drove them completely bonkers. (Of course, I'm pretty sure Hitler was a nutcase anyway...) Failing that, plenty of midevil rulers started with good intentions but ended up being corrupt, evil bastards. It doesn't even take ABSOLUTE power to corrupt- look at almost every one of our elected officials.

Anyway, baisically it's a case of now that Luna's back Celestia doesn't feel like sharing that comfy seat she's gotten used to. Most of my stories, wheather or not I actually post those stories, stress this in varying degrees. In TotR, this has caused her to go completely Hitler-style bat-crap crazy. Of course, I have some other elements hidden in there that really help to push her off the edge that I haven't mentioned yet in the story (It involves changlings, Dark magic, a friend's death, and Twilight Sparkle) But that's the big one.

BUT! and this is a big but. (he-he-he. big butt. ) THese are FICTIONAL characters. In a CHILDREN'S SHOW. So that makes most of any theory regarding the saneness/power hunger/political leanings of ANY character based mostly on the personal interpretations/assumptions/political leanings of the AUTHOR. So pretty much any story based largely off these things is basically a load of crap. Including mine.

869654
At least you acknowledge that it would never happen with canon characterizations and events. You sir have my respect for that, and my ire is not directed towards you.

869666
Thank you.
But feel free to trash my theory anyway.

869678
The fact that you are willing to allow me, a devote Celestia supporter, an chance to rip into your theory increases my respect for you. I

869685 Long as your logic makes sense and you're prepared for me dishing out as good as I get.

869693
Ah logic a word you don't hear often, especially in regards to the NLR/SE crap.

No there is no need to argue right now, yes you have written a Tyrantlestia fic but you recognize that Celestia really isn't one in canon.

869709
All right.
I'll be happy with that.

869061 I think you missed my point. To be totally fair, I didn't do a very good job making it. Let me try again:

Just about any concept can work if it's written well; any concept can fail if it's written poorly.

1) Not all batpony-featuring stories are poorly written. I will not argue about ratios or statistics here; I will grant you that a) there are a lot of bad ones and b) one way to avoid bad writing is to avoid concepts that seem popular with bad writers. So if you avoid batponies because of the signal-to-noise ratio, I don't blame you.

2) I could make the same argument about stealthy characters that you are making about batponies: I've read a number of fics (here and elsewhere) and any time I see a character who's both stealthy and badass, I seriously reconsider reading. They almost always end up having no real flaws as characters and defeat all their enemies without being interesting people. I like James Bond, but tend to hate James Bond knockoffs. (and despise Solid Snake knockoffs) I will give your story the benefit of the doubt; you seem aware of the pitfall of the trope you've chosen, but you must admit there's a lot of way to screw it up.

My thesis, again, is that it's all about the quality of the story overall: good writing can make nearly anything work. All I ask of you is: don't hate the tag, hate the story.

caveat 1) It's quite alright by me to say "I'm not going to try any more (batpony, HiE, stealthy character) stories until someone I trust recommends it because there's just too many crappy ones out there. (as opposed to "All batponies suck")

caveat 2) Second person is an abomination, and anyone who thinks they could write it well deserves a steel-toed boot to the nuts. Steven King isn't that good. Terry Pratchett isn't that good. Mark Twain wasn't that good.

Is that clearer?

870998
like ive said, batponies generally suck, but ive read 2 that don't immediatly trip off the "Oh gawd kill me" reflex immediatley. I usually dont name names, but i don't think they'll mind. 1. was about the pullers on Nightmare night, how they are smoking cigarettes in a field and inadvertantly spook a giant moth towards ponyvlle, and they save the day. the two have real lives and aren't badass commandoes. and the other one is The Golden Armor, which ive read a small portion, but the bat pony was a change of scenery because... for lack of bettter words, how much of a slut she was!

I do agree with you, though, anything can be done well if it is written correctly, just like how anything can be in MLP if we can imagine it right, from guns to helicopters, cannons to aircraft carriers, we need to give them proper explanations to work them.

Also, i feel generous, so ill share my "Sneaky guy" who is only a background character in the main fic, but the star of the prequel.

Now, I wont lie, without a full knowledge, this has every trapping of the biggest mary sue ever. No joke, and i knew this, so i spent a incredible amount of time in figuring out how to make him work, passing the weakness, realistics, and life swap test, making sure that even though he is MEGA OP, he is understandable.

Now, on to... him.
His name is... he actually doesent have a name. he was born in "the old knigdom of Trotvia", which is the MLP equivilant of the Soviet union. records of his parents were destroyed, and he was born into the "Alicorn Project", where the researchers believed that, with enough births, they would eventually create an alicorn. (even though it is impossible.) Now, he was born a winged unicorn, a mutation of a unicorn with wings, like Cadence, and at 3 weeks, they began filling his body with all sorts of nasty chemicals. reccords estimate that he would be 1.6 times stronger than what he should be based on his wieght and size should naturally dictate.
Luckily, being one of the later patients, the project was scrapped, the mortality rate of the patients was about 85% and they had zero successes. so instead, they shipped him to a new project with the other failures from different projects, inititive "Sunblock".
Now, here he was given his first name, his serial number P34C3, and as they other ponies later called him, "Peace". at Sunblock, the young children were taken by the instructors and had any sense of humanity and emotion beaten out of their system, turning them into fearless, merciless, shells of ponies. from their , they began to be trained for their true purpose, to be disposable assassins for the Trotvian Government.
One day, durring an excercise when the guards would pursue and beat any of the ponies they caught, Peace learned that he could change hsi form, gender, and color. and he almost gets away, until the head master of the Program picks him out for trying to copy one of the other trainees.
Anyway, this headmster, comes to him one night, and begins to make him their protege... which makes his hell of a life turn to MORE hell.
In the end, he exits the program as a shell, intelligent, merciless, ferocious, intuitive, and deadly. He becomes the personal grim reaper of the head of the Government, who himself is going crazy with brain cancer, and will follow out any order that he is given by the crazy ass ruler, to the T.
stallions, mares, and children, give him a name, he returns blood.

now, wihtout giving away the entire list of hits he has carried out, he eventually Defects to Equestria... but that is a story for another time.

more or less, this "Stealth type" is more based on agent 47 than MGS or Sam Fisher.
anyway, he's a badass, he's stealthy, i rationalized it correctly, i keep the tale interesting between his fight with his broken personality and trained instincts, and the tale is interesting. Also, he passes the Life swap test because, lets be honest, who would want that as a life?!

871158 Okay, I'll give that one a try.

EDIT: Golden Armor is one of the 'well written batpony' stories I was refering to earlier. The other's one of the better Nyxverse stories, but I know some people hated Past Sins (I gave it a meh, but RealityCheck's follow-up have been generally good).

871192

I know some people hated Past Sins

Im one of them, main story Nyx was an emo pussy. Ive heard side story nyx was better, except i wont read any because i bet its the same thing, besides that someone told me that in one of the side stories Shining Armor is protrayed as an antagonist for being weary over his sister's life?
what? Really? the bitch who almost killed his sister, and he HAS to go goo goo over her?

and plus, I despise the fact that she got off scot free at the end of the story when she recklessly put hundreds of lives in danger, caused untold amounts of property damage, and performed a deed that should be punishable by death.

So yeah, I really dont like nyx.

872229 That's not an illogical opinion.

871192

871158

My bat pony is NOT a slut!

878021
forgive me, but when i read it (which feels like a month ago) i managed to pull up a chapter on my phone, between exams... and also on the same week that i was stressed out over 2 30 minute presentations that i had to make.
anyway, i call em as i see em, and to be honest Angel(?) reminded me of my best buddies ex girlfriend.

878863
That still doesn't make her a slut.