Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Pony Thought of the Day: The Downside of Fanworks Month

If I keep doing Fanworks Months between seasons, sooner or later I'm probably going to have to read Cupcakes, won't I?

11 comments:

  1. Not necessarily. A lot of analyzers skip over the actual fic and just talk about some of the somewhat-better-written atrocities that have spawned from it. Case in point, the DigibronyAfterDark analysis of the Ask Pinkamina tumblr.

    You're welcome. >:)

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  2. Bleh. Either way, I'm probably going to have to read grimdark at some point, aren't I?

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  3. Also, yargh! Too much pony analysis is in video instead of text form. Videos are so slooooooooow compared to reading!

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  4. You're in luck. Digibrony posts text transcripts of all his videos, and links to them in the video descriptions.

    I kind of have the opposite problem from you, actually... a lot of the analysis touches on the visual aspects of the show, and I've always been a very visual thinker. I've been meaning to compliment you on having a distinct enough style (in both writing and areas of analysis) to make the text format work. With most text commentators on MLP, I feel like I have to open the episode(s) in another browser tab just to understand what they're talking about.

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    1. Thanks for the compliment and the heads up about transcripts!

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  5. I wouldn't think so... there's 3 season breaks so far, so that's 12-14 weeks or so. There are more than 14 non-grimdark fanworks in the fandom of note. Between musicians, fanfics, animations, physical products, there's lots of stuff out there. Even with just fanfics, I can probably think of 15 or so popular, quality fanfics before getting to the grimdark stuff. (Flight of the Alicorn, My Little Alicorn, The Patronage of the Great and Powerful Trixie...)

    Actually, maybe you'd enjoy reviewing 'At the Grand Galloping Gala' (or the Lunaverse in general)? With all the complicated ethical/writing discussions that sprang up in the comments/on the Lunaverse board about AtGGG, the gamechanging nature of the story, and all the themes and such in the story itself, it might be right up your ally.

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    1. It's actually going to be a bit more than that, because I don't want to start Season 4 articles until Season 4 is over. Which, if it's a full 26 episodes, and starts in December, means that it probably won't finish until June or July. That's about 75 weeks from now, and I've only got 39 episodes to cover in that time.

      As for the Lunaverse, I'm torn. I really like it and would like to write about it, but at the same time my views are at least partially compromised because I've written for it.

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    2. The Lunaverse's most prominent reviewer is InsertAuthorHere, who has also written for it -- he wrote a story for the Hearts & Hooves Day Challenge which got accepted into canon, and he's also writing Eye of the Hurricane (which, briefly, is about Raindrops trying a new technique to control her temper, and the zaniness that ensues). The group was generally very positive, even for his more negative reviews, and his regular commentators didn't say that anything was untoward about his reviewing the group.. So it likely wouldn't be a problem.

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    3. While nobody else would likely have a problem, I feel uncomfortable reviewing/analyzing something I had a part in. That said, I think I probably could safely review a Lunaverse story I didn't contribute to.

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  6. I wouldn't. I was introduced to Pony last summer by an artist who is well known in the furry and Pony communities and when I entered the Herd he told me to be careful with fanfics, which I have been. Heard about "Cupcakes" early on and know what it is though I have studiously avoided it. On the other hand, I read "My Little Dashie" and saw "Snowdrop" and bawled my eyes out at both.

    In the interest of full and fair disclosure, I am considerably older than most bronies - by at least a couple of decades - and am diagnosed Asperger's. I also have more than a touch of the aversive/avoidant personality issues you have discussed. I don't respond to emotional cues IRL - I just don't pick up on them or process them, but something like "Dashie" MLPFIM itself or other well-done fictional storytelling can reduce me to a puddle of tears and deep sadness.

    What really disturbs me is what goes on in the psyches of people who sit down and think "What can I do to brutally torment these sweet, lovable characters?" I know there are plenty of bent arrows walking around out there, but I have heard of some incredibly sick and twisted shit produced by the fringes of this fandom. I live in a certain state of low-level fear that these people exist.

    I am not much of a blog reader, and got here via Equestria Daily. I have to say that you are a very incisive and thoughtful analyst of the show and its context/metacontext. You have put into words many things I have felt and thought about this marvelous show since finding it last summer.

    I can't say that I was surprised when I learned from your profile that you are a leftist Social Democrat and an atheist. I can recognize a kindred spirit from their writing very quickly.

    Great work, and I look forward to reading you regularly.

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    1. Thanks very much for your kind words! It means a lot to me to know people are liking what they find here.

      As for the people who write things like Cupcakes, I dunno. People can write some seriously twisted things and yet, in their regular life, be the sweetest, nicest people ever. (Not that I'm astoundingly sweet or nice, but I've written some seriously dark stuff on bad days. I just know better than to put it on the Inernet.) On the other hand, people can write absolutely lovely things and yet be horrible in real life (by all accounts, Tolkien was a complete asshole, for instance).

      At the same time, yeah, as I've said before on here I really don't care for "Darker and Edgier" interpretations of ponies. I rather think it misses the point.

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