It hardly has to be said, but you're not really "sneaking a redpill in" at this point, OP. You could be the most amazing author who ever lived for all I know, but if it were me I'd be having doubts about if anyone would bother reading it. You might want to consider a rewrite if the goal is influencing the reader. Or put in a [politics goes here] placeholder, move on with the story and come back to it later.
>>165646 Characters getting into open arguments doesn't sneak in much of anything soince the whole point to to express ones point of view as loudly as possible. Sneaking in a red pill would be like a one or two phrase comment or statistic that directly relates to the events taking place or a clever comeback/joke to show displeasure for anothers line of thinking.
Here's an example that was explained to me by someone who watched Steven Universe, the mc is a cry baby bitch, but when he finally man's the fuck up instead of crying about issues he gets his powers or whatever. Another one was that the place they live in which is lead by a woman and has heroes which are all women is consistently falling to shit.
Of course I can't vouch for how accurate it is since I don't watch the show but if it is true that is a good example of how to do it.
>>165732 You're still here, Hclegend? You're still lying? And you're still salty about getting told to stop spamming Glimmer by me a year ago? That's actually pretty funny. I, Battlebrit, diagnose you with Ligma.
>>165651 This. You're not Voltaire. You're not this ingenius political commentator. You're an anon who can't shut his mouth. Nobody is gaining enlightenment from your circlejerking and so far nobody here has even expressed mild interest.
>>165868 He actually regularly uses reddit and in a similar manner I'd imagine a twelve-year old 'expert modder' would. He is so desperate for attention he basically tries to suck people off for it in these self-congratulatory premature reddit OPs or whatever they're called.
>>165758 I, Battlebrit, am I prematurely self-congratulatory bitch. I l-o-o~o-ve to act as if I actually think my words mean something coming from myself.
>thread hasn't even gotten to page 3 and people don't like me... >let's make another thread about the exact same topic begging for positive reception! That won't piss anyone off.
>>166323 The first time he told us about his budding fimfic career I found his story with >muh autism based on his (wussy humblebragging) stat brags >muh likes and dislikes >muh ratio You'd think a retard who'd by that point would know it's probably a good idea to stop prodding the autists, nope, shits up the main-board with two or three threads shilling his dumb fucking story. With random OP images too. Must've interpreted my digging as positive encouragement.
I have his name, I have photos of him and if he hadn't returned with this 'new' story about Glimmerniggertry I might not have those (archives galore too). Fuck you, fat piece of shit.
>>166332 Whoa now. No need for doxing. Just contact a mod to get him banned if he persists. I believe in free information and that means not encouraging doxxing and threats of forced silencing.
>>166337 >>166348 There can be only one Vril. The Vril you see now killed the former Vril and ate every organ that was spherical, thus transferring the awesome powers into a new vessel.
You should see Nigels "high IQ" youtube channel. We have the spiritual child of DarkdysePhil here in our mids. over 5.000 (!) videos with literally no views.
I remember offering up writing advice to you, many months ago. A shame then, that you were never interested in improvement, only in crowing about your 'talents'. Remove yourself from my board.
>>166348 Idiot. Cycle theory encompasses the subject study of many.
>>166347 On the subject of anonymity: Look, I don't want him banned, he's hilariously fun to poke, just to see if or how he'll sperg out. I won't dox him either. (mods are based - (would spank)).
I believe in free information too and especially the importance of preserving anonymity (in an age where it is slowly on the down-trend and dying). I'm not going to dox him, I hardly want to dox him, there's nothing particularly interesting to be garnered by doing it and it's an important value to me.
On the issue of Silver: I just want to poke him and see him sperg, oh, mods will spank me for saying his name? but I only do it because it's hilarious and I wanna see him sperg. It's not even a dox, I did nothing illegal to obtain it, didn't call his ISP and abuse a loophole in the flow of information to find out more about him or anything like that. This is all pretty public stuff (he has a very heavy footed internet-presence and history).
Let's call it what it is leddit (-dox's, doxx's and doxxx'es, oh my!) it's glorified web-page crawling.
When he first shilled his shit here I poked fun at him with his name and I fully expected him to remove his name from the public, instead he ignored it. If I was all '''dox'''-happy I would've already done it, if anything I'm being kind, for example; I have no interest in getting other people involved (who can't do it themselves) into digging around about 'EpsilonuuFivuuSevenruu' and I fully expected him to shoa his internet presence after something as profound (but uncompromising to his anonymity) as his name. Considering this is the internet that kind of kindness, weakness and mercy is something nobody would usually expect or rely upon.
>(but uncompromising to his anonymity) Did I mention his real name is a dead-end? His 'personal information' only goes so deep before abruptly stopping. His name isn't some kind of gateway to further gathering of his personal information, it's basically just an identifier. >muh anonymity It's no more anti-thetical to his flexibility of anonymity on a site like mlpol.net than if I was to call, label and name him a 'dysgenic faggot' every-time I think it's him posting.
Besides, this is what he gets for saying I 'follow him around on old people subreddits' on fimfiction.net that one time! DIE BARBIEFAG. THIS IS YOUR MINDSET!
>>166608 I wasn't meaning to say you were already doxxing him, I was just saying don't take things too far. You can never be too sure with some people.
Also I wasn't defending his shitty behavior, and I wasn't saying anything about his heavy-footed history. I haven't even gotten into seeking info on him because it's not worth it to me. I just don't want to see something like what happened to Vernaculis on youtube, where his family and personal life totally concealed from his personality were put on blast because he said he was going to make a video about a controversy.
>>166905 Oh hey, this is being bumped. Trying to give the impression that this Nontroversy is a far-reaching epidemic, are we? The only far-reaching things I see are the butthurt Glimmer fans in the other thread. And this one, too, I suppose.
>>166969 Your irrational self-congratulatory position on an issue you dreamed up out of nothing? Why would anyone care about your position on this nontroversy? Stop the presses, everyone: MLP Fimfiction writer pisses off local Glimmer fancult by writing a chapter in which she is beaten up and called a loser. Surely, this has never happened before.
>>166976 You shouldn't have pissed us off six months ago, or six months before that, hell, you probably pissed us off before even that latter one at the conception of /mlpol/, you fucking degenerate.
>>166977 Oh, no, I should not have pissed off the mighty 9gag army by... Tell me you're joking. Is there some kind of confusion here? Because I like Shimmer. Sunset Shimmer is how you write a generic shit Gary Oak Knockoff villain and then salvage her through a well-written redemption arc that makes her a compassionate and considerate person who deserves her own show. Horse Schoolgirls lost all its potential to be its own "Sunset Shimmer In Humanville Adventures" show by overselling the human version of the mane six: five shit knockoffs of the real deal and one alternate take on Twilight. That alternate take would be interesting, if she was allowed to develop in her own way, but all this "You must embrace the magic, forget science, and be like pony Twilight" crap just makes Sci-Twi feel like yet another Twilight Knockoff in a franchise already bogged down by an overabundance of Twilight knockoffs. There are more Twilight knockoffs in MLPFIM than there are Ryu knockoffs in the Street Fighter series. And Starlight Glimmer is just a Knockoff Sunset Shimmer used as a mask for shit writers who want to live out their "Tomoki from Heaven's Lost Property" fantasies in this show, of all shows.
>>166979 You shouldn't have pissed of the mighty 9/pone/ army, we will destroy you. Sunset Shimmer is a poni you like? Nobody cares. Eat more cum shitheel, EQG isn't cannon and Sunset Shimmer is better as a villain, redemption arcs are overdone.
Trixie should have been redeemed at the end of her arc, Sunset should have been the main character antagonist, instead you get no competing character interests and character conflict between the protagonists and antagonists who should have vested interest and provide the main source of character conflict. Instead you get one-hit wonders like Tirek to shake things up and provide conflict in general, sad.
But I'm talking to somebody who actually watches a children's show and expects better from it and thinks what they currently have is or was ever good. What an idiot.
>>167075 *dabs on hater* You'd be just as pissed as you are now if I only included a 100-word scene where Silver laughs about the time he conned a corrupt government official out of cash and Glimmer laughs about the time she conned her idiot fanbase at Our Town out of their lives.
Silver Star leaned against his totally awesome motorcycle and stared pensively up at the sky. The mares were all staring at him again, but that was to be expected.
"Everywhere I go," he sighed heavily to himself. And it was true. Ever since he had unmasked the nefarious scheme perpetrated upon this universe by the evil monster-in-pony-form Starlight Glimmer, and saved Equestria from a fate worse than death, all the mares in Ponyville were constantly staring at him as if they wanted to jump him and ravage his tasty no-nos, even more so than was usual for him. He sighed heavily again. Sometimes it was rough being a rich and handsome superpowered genius who was an all-powerful magician and time-travelling quantum physicist who could bend time and space to his will and was also the world's greatest ninja. He sighed heavily a third time, and cursed himself internally. He had noticed that the mares always got quivery in their no-nos whenever he sighed heavily while leaning against his super-awesome motorcycle looking moody, and had vowed never to do it again, if only for their benefit, yet here he was forgetting himself.
"Such is life," he said ruefully, pushing up his rad sunglasses with one hoof. Several mares swooned.
It had already been a month since he defeated the evil, horrible, no good awful yucky sweet Celestia I hate her so much Starlight Glimmer, and he realized that he was still just as glad to be rid of her as on the very first day he had sent her rocketing off to do penance for her evil ways. He recalled the sight of her stupid pony face, her ugly dum-dum mane with its stupid green highlights, the smugly-satisfied look of pure evil that was on her face every time she booped herself, and again he was filled with rage.
"I hate you so much, Starlight Glimmer!" he muttered, to nopony in particular.
He realized he needed to calm down. Just thinking of Starlight Glimmer always awoke in him feelings of uncontrollable rage, and he knew it was not good for a pony of his awesome power to forget himself like this. He could already feel the earth quaking beneath him as he inadvertently summoned powers so great they could destroy the entire universe, and he knew that he must not do this, even by accident, for to do so would make him almost as evil as that stupid ugly evil horrible no good pony Starlight Glimmer god I hate her, who was, as all ponies know, and as he had proven irrevocably to all who had not yet been enlightened, truly the worst pony of all.
To calm his nerves, he reached into his pocket dimension and pulled forth the gem. The orange gem. His gem. The gem belonging to him, Silver Star. Silver Star's gem, the gem that was his, the gem that was orange. A gem that had a particular color, and that color was orange, belonging to none other than Silver Star, the pony of that name. Him. He. The owner. The owner of the gem. The orangest of gems. Silver Star, who was he, the owner of that gem, pulled forth a gem belonging to him, and it was none other than that very gem. The orange gem, gemlike in nature, orange in color. Owned by he, him, Silver Star. The gem whose coloration was orange, and whose owner was none other than he, the pony known as Silver Star, owner of the gem. That gem. The gem of orangest orange, orange in color, orange in hue, saturation and value. Orangest of all orange was that gem, and it was in the possession, currently, of a pony. And that pony was he. Him. The pony named Silver Star. Who was, of course, the gem's owner. Which gem you ask? Why, the orange one of course. The orange gem, that is.
So lost was he in his contemplation of the gem that he almost didn't see Twilight Sparkle trotting eagerly towards him. Not wanting to accidentally blast her off into another dimension with his super cool magic gem, the orange gem, the gem containing magic power that was orange, and owned by he, Silver Star, he put it back into his pocket dimension.
"Oh, hello there Princess," he said casually, still leaning against his awesome motorcycle. He gave his rad sunglasses another push with his hoof and watched in mild satisfaction as Twilight's no-nos visibly quivered. "What are you doing here?"
Twilight stopped short.
"W-w-what?" she stammered, looking as if somepony had just kicked her in the crotchteats, "Aren't you here to pick me up?"
"Sorry," he said, "I forgot all about you. Sometimes I just like to park my totally awesome motorcycle outside random magic schools and lean against it while looking moody and cool. I just happened to be doing it here, at this moment, as you were getting out of this particular magic school where you were giving a lecture on the super-complicated magic spell I used to hurl the evil and horrible worst pony Starlight Glimmer into that alternate dimension!"
>>167255 Twilight's lower lip began to quiver. Her eyes filled with tears, and her flanks shook with embarrassment. Inside his head-quarters, one of the tiny Silvers enjoyed a hearty chortle at his mirthful teasing of his luscious little bride-to-be, so beautiful, so unlike that awful Starlight Glimmer god I hate her so much. Another tiny Silver raised his head above the cubicle wall in alarm.
"Hey! Cool it! You're going to blow it!!" he stammered.
"I can't help it! She's so cute when we tease her like this," another Silver laughed casually from a third cubicle.
"Still, we don't want to tease her too much," said yet another Silver, often the voice of reason among the group. "Just look at her."
The Silver Star of the non-meta world looked and saw that this Silver was right, for Twilight now looked as if somepony had just told her that the horrible Starlight Glimmer was going to be taking her out to dinner instead of him, the handsome and talented millionaire Silver Star. Tears were now streaming uncontrollably down her adorable, non-Glimmerlike face.
"Hey, dry those tears Princess! I was only foolin'!" laughed Silver, giving her a mirthful tap on the shoulder with his hoof. "Of course I'm here to see you, you goof! You didn't think I'd forget our date, did you?"
Twilight sniffled cutely, in a way that made Silver's no-nos expand a little.
"Oh, Silver," she said, "I know you wouldn't forget. You're too amazing to do that. It's just that...I saw you earlier. With Trixie."
Silver threw back his head and laughed heartily.
"Oh, is that what you were worried about? Don't give it another thought. That was one of my Silver Spares! You see, Trixie has been lonely and vulnerable ever since I showed her how wrong she was to not think that Starlight Glimmer was totally icky and the worst pony ever. I sent one of my Silver Spares to service her no-nos and comfort her through the grieving process, as only I know how to do."
"Do you mean it, Silver? I've seen the way the other mares look at you, and I just...I don't want anypony else to make your no-nos quiver like I make your no-nos quiver."
Silver laughed again.
"Rest assured, m'lady, that my no-nos are saving themselves for your no-nos, and your no-nos only."
Twilight could barely contain the shivering in her no-nos, and had to sit down. However the expression on her face was pure joy.
"Oh, Silver!" she cried, "You've made me the happiest mare in the world!"
Two hours later, they were sitting at a booth in the swankiest restaurant in Ponyville, eating the most expensivest meal.
"...and then I said to him, 'You're wrong! Glimmer is the worst pony ever! And then I told him why!"
They both laughed.
"Oh, Silver. You always know how to make me laugh." said Twilight, wiping a mirthful tear from her eye with a foreleg.
"But seriously though, Glimmer is the absolute worst pony ever." said Silver, his face getting all serious for a moment. "You can't ever forget that. Not even for a second."
>>167257 Then, suddenly, the ground around them began to shake. All the plates and dishes and stuff in the restaurant began to shake, rattle and roll. All the ponies began to flee in hysteria as a portal to another dimension opened up, and out stepped a pony that Silver thought he would never see again.
"It...it can't be!" he cried, clenching his hooves with rage. "It's impossible! Literally impossible! The spell I cast should have made it so you could never return here!"
The pony smiled.
"Oh, that?" she said. "That little spell of yours was easy enough to break. Foal's play, actually."
She trotted casually forward and booped herself. When all the other ponies saw who she was, they all screamed and ran out of the restaurant.
"You should have realized, Silver. You can't Shim Sham the Glim Glam!"
Starlight Glimmer booped forth, booping Silver with a mighty boop that would have shattered the soul of a lesser pony. Twilight cried out in terror as her beloved Silver was thrown back through the restaurant, knocking over all the tables and stuff so that there was a terrible mess on the floor that somepony would probably have to clean up later. A second later he hit the wall, and it became apparent that nopony would have to clean up the mess after all, not now, not ever; for Silver hit the wall with such force that a shock wave radiated out, destroying the entire restaurant.
Most ponies would have been killed, shattered into thousands of pony pieces, but Silver Star was made of sterner stuff. He was on his hooves in an instant, staring across the rubble-strewn wasteland that was once the most fashionable restaurant in Ponyville.
"Heh. Not bad." he said, pushing up his rad sunglasses. "I might have to use a tenth of my power to take you out. And this time, you're gonna stay down! Kōmon Shōkaki!"
In a flash, his zanpakuto sprang forth from nothingness, wielded probably with magic or something as horses do not have opposable digits and it is dumb to arm one with a sword in the first place. Glimglam laughed evilly, and summoned her own blade.
"Enough talk. Let us kung fu fight!"
She charged, rising up into midair in a flash of magical power.
"Inkei wa kuso de ōwa rete iru!" she cried, and her tetsusaiga burst forth into a thousand Glimmer legs, each one booping the boop of a thousand boops.
Undeterred, Silver charged to meet her midair, dodging the boops with lightning speed so that to Twilight, everything looked like a purple and silver blur. One of Glimmer's boops connected with Silver's Kōmon Shōkaki.
"Chokuchō no kaze!" cried Silver, and a burst of magical energy exploded from the blade, sending them both flying back. They both landed on their hooves and slid backwards until grinding to a stop in a cloud of dust, facing each other.
"Not bad, not bad." Silver said again. "I can see you had some tricks up your horse-sleeve that I didn't know about. But let's see how your power holds up against my super-secret attack!"
He lept into the air, summoning forth the mighty power of his ancestors, who were also all super powerful genius scientist ninjas and also Grand Mages. Channeling their hatred for the eternal Glimmernigger into his blade, he called forth the name of his lethal final attack.
"Silver Star Anti-Glimmernigger Ninja School Finishing Move: Watashi no kao o benki ni tsukatte KUDASAI!!!"
A burst of cold blue fire exploded from the center of the blade. Lightning crackled all around Silver as he summoned his power, then sent it forth in a single, terrible wave of destruction that none could possibly stand against. He somewhat hoped that Twilight wasn't still standing around watching the fight somewhere within the blast radius, because it occurred to him that it would totally suck if she got vaporized before he even got to play with her no-nos.
The mighty blast shakes the heavens and earth for what feels like eternity, bathing everything in a blinding blue-white light of pure destruction. As it subsides, Silver stands on all four hooves, breathing heavily, peering into the impenetrable cloud of swirling dust that whirls around him in the wake of the destruction.
>>167258 Surely, nopony could have survived that... he thought.
He sees the soft edged silhouette of a female pony walking towards him.
"Twilight?" he says hopefully.
The pony stops just before him. She reaches out her hoof and--
Boop.
A soft boop. A light boop. A mocking boop. The dust settles, and Silver can finally see who the pony standing before him really is.
"No...it can't be...!"
Silver fell down onto his haunches, all of his strength expended in that last attack. Glimmer stood before him, completely unharmed, looking down at him with open disdain.
"I tried to warn you, Silver," she said. "You can't Shim Sham the Glim Glam!"
She booped him again, hard enough to sap the last shreds of his strength.
Silver collapsed completely to the ground. The fight was completely gone from him. He could only stare up helplessly as she stood triumphantly over him.
"And now it's time for my finishing move." She booped herself again for good measure. "You see, as it turns out, you're not the only one who understands quantum interdimensional travel, Silver! I can play that game too! And now, I would like to introduce you to a little place I like to call 'The Universe of a Thousand Dicks!'"
Glimglam trotted gaily around and stood over him, her no-nos just above his haunches. He couldn't move his body, but he turned his head and gazed in horror as Glimmy's no-nos began to change...and expand. Naturally, Silver, being the world's handsomest millionaire, was also the most well-endowed pony in all of Equestria, in this universe and all the universes; however, it now seemed that he had dropped to second place.
Silver could only groan helplessly in protest as Glimmy mounted him from behind.
"Time to Glim Glam in your jim jam!" she said pleasantly, and began to push her hateful, evil, Glimmyglam stallion no-nos into his bad place. A crowd of mares had gathered around, probably because the giant cloud of destruction was not something that was often seen in Ponyville. Also, it was still dinnertime and many ponies were probably coming to the restaurant to eat, only to find that it had been destroyed.
"Wow, it sure is a shame that the restaurant was destroyed!" said Lyra to Bon Bon, who were both approaching the restaurant hoping for a nice hot meal. "We saved up all our bits for a month just so we could come here and get the expensivest meal!"
"I know!" said Bon Bon. "Also, what's that going on? Is that Silver Star? And...Starlight Glimmer?!?"
All the ponies were there, standing in a circle around the ruins of the fanciest restaurant in Ponyville, watching with curiosity the scene unfolding before them. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Trixie, Lyra, Bon Bon, Derpy, and all your favorite cartoon pals were there, staring as Starlight Glimmer performed her strange new magic show. Princess Twilight Sparkle clambered her way up from under a pile of rubble, searching for her lost love.
"Silver? What happened? I almost died in that blast of destruction you caused but fortunately I remembered that you are supposed to duck and cover in those situations so that's what I did, and--oh! What's going on, Silver?"
She stood watching curiously as Starlight Glimmer pushed her long, throbbing, impossibly thick wrong-gender no-nos deeper and deeper into Silver's bad place while Silver could only groan in protest. Suddenly a stallion trotted into view and all the ponies turned to see who it was.
"Twily!" called Shining Armor. "Hey, I'm sorry to bother you, but Cadance got all tingly in her no-nos thinking about how super awesome Silver Star is, and she sent me down here to find one of those Silver Spares to service her for a while. She's gonna be pretty mad if I come back without one. Any idea where I could find--hey, wait a minute, what's going on here?"
He stopped short and joined the crowd of onlookers. Silver groaned in pain and humiliation and tried to cover his face with his hooves, but Glimmer batted them away and pinned his front legs down with her own.
"None of that now!" she cried gleefully. "We want everypony to see, now don't we?"
"I've got one last trick up my horse-sleeve, Glimmer!" Silver stammered out. "S-silver Spares!"
He threw his last ounce of strength into summoning as many Silver Spares as he could. They appeared and started charging their power to attack, but Glimmer only laughed.
"Oh, that's right. I can do that too! Glimmy Glam Glam Glozzle!"
She tore open a rift in the space time continuum, and thousands upon thousands of Glimmers, from every conceivable version of reality, poured through, booping themselves and each other. Each of them sprouted a mighty Glimdong, and soon the Silver Spares were pinned down in a fashion as humiliating as the original.
>>167259 "No...you can't do this...you can't....you're......worst......pony......"
In Silver's headspace, red siren lights were flashing and alarm bells were ringing as tiny Silvers ran around in panic and confusion.
"The enemy has breached the perimeter!" cried one Silver. "Any news from the front?"
"Forget the front! It's the back we're concerned about!"
Suddenly, a door burst open and one of the Silvers from the basement levels sprang into the control room.
"Sir!" he cried to nopony in particular. "The...the enemy...it's too late...advanced so far, there was nothing we could do...the rear guard is completely wiped out! Annihilated!"
"What do we do?" cries a panicked Silver, nearly in tears, who just a couple of hours before had been so smugly amused at the teasing of a young Princess.
"There's nothing we can do!" cried the basement crewman in despair.
Full pandemonium broke out. Multiple Silvers were abandoning the office, gathering up as much sanity as they could lay their hooves on and diving out through any opening they could find, never to return again. Back in the real world, the original Silver Star was lying on the ground in a semi-catatonic state, a thin ribbon of drool dribbling out of the corner of his mouth, making unintelligible noises as the Glimglamming intensified. Most of the Silver Spares were gone now, and the thousands of Glimmers were standing around booping each other.
"Ah...yes...there we go..." Glimmer was panting hard now, lost in the ecstacy of triumph. "Almost there...and a one, and a two, and a....Glim Glam Sha BAM!!"
Her mighty Glimdong exploded into the depths of Silver's body. Silver Star let out an ear piercing shriek that could be heard all the way to Canterlot as Glimmy filled up his bad place with literal gallons of best pony. The ground shook. The ponies gathered around, now numbering in the thousands (not even counting the thousands of Glimmer clones) stood and watched in silent awe as Glimmer pumped the last of her mighty load into Silver. The defeated Silver lay on the ground, panting, groaning unintelligibly. He would never be the same again.
Glimmy pulled out and stepped back, her massive, dripping no-nos already receding into the void from whence they came, returning to the regular no-nos of a mare. Princess Twilight approached her timidly, her eyes cast shyly at the ground.
"Wow, Starlight! I never knew you could do that!" she said, her no-nos visibly quivering to Silver's dismay. "Would you...would you like to hang out some time? I don't know why, but it...it just seems like you're a really great pony all of a sudden."
"Yeah!" chimed in Applejack. "Starlight, you are the best pony Equestria has ever known. We'll always be friends with you."
"Coolest pony in Equestria!" cried Rainbow Dash.
"Hear hear!" boomed a familiar voice.
"Princess Celestia!" cried all the ponies in unison.
The Princess of Equestria descended from the heavens and landed gracefully, tucking her wings to her side and approaching Starlight.
"Starlight Glimmer," she said, "For the valor you have shown today, I hearby relinquish my title and pronounce you Princess of all Equestria, which shall from this day forth be called Glimmernigeria! All other Princesses are now subordinate to you, and you may do with them as you please!"
Twilight Sparkle stepped forward shyly.
"As the Princess of Friendship, I hearby pledge my no-no regions to you, now and forever. Do with me as you please! And that goes for all of my friends as well!"
"Hear hear!" cried Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.
The ponies of Equestria all bowed and paid homage.
"All hail best pony! All hail best pony! All hail best pony!"
Pinkie Pie suddenly pulled a party cannon from some dimension beyond the stars and blasted confetti all over the place.
"Hey everypony! Let's all head back to Sugar Cube Corner and have us a Glimmer is Best Pony Par-TAY!!"
The ponies cheered, raised Glimmer on their backs triumphantly, and trotted gaily off towards Sugar Cube Corner, a crowd of 1000 Glimmer clones trailing behind, booping themselves in rhythm as they marched. Silver watched them go, still unable to move. He threw back his head and let out a mighty wail of despair, except that all the sound he could muster was a tiny, almost inaudible moan.
"Pssh. Are you still here?" He looked up to see Lyra Heartstrings standing above him, glaring down with an irritated look on her face. "What are you lying around for? Start cleaning up this mess you made with your stupid battle scene!"
Bon Bon trotted into view and glowered at Silver alongside her friend.
"Yeah. We saved up all our bits for a month just to eat at this restaurant, and then you go and destroy it with a dumb anime battle. Good thing Best Pony was here to save the day!"
"Yeah!" cried Lyra, and they both trotted off, laughing gaily to each other.
Silver closed his eyes, a single tear rolling down his cheek. After what felt like hours, he heard the sound of hoofsteps next to his head. He opened his eyes.
"S-Sunset Shimmer?" he croaked out, as the pony standing before him came into focus. "I-I always liked you. Please help."
Stunning and Brave. An instant modern classic of equine literature and a new hallmark of MLPOL. Finally, Social Justice has been served. I hereby vow that I will republish this on every website I know, with references to the author and his works.
All hail Queen Starlight Glimmer and the Banana Republic of Glimmernigeria!!!
Can I steal that and upload it to Fimfiction? Because if you won't do it I think someone should, it's too good not to disseminate with optimal comedic timing. Although Silver Star would have to become Star Silver.
>>167271 I get that you probably wanted me to be pissed off over this, but the first chapter was actually kinda funny. I'll read the rest later. Great job, man! I'm glad I inspired you to be creative.
>>167282 Alright, I read the whole thing, and it went downhill quickly.
I thought you were going to do something creative with the whole "this character thinks he's the coolest" thing, but then you didn't. You just wrote the self-indulgent fapfic you believe my work is. You wrote what my work appears to be, in your eyes. And then your Glimmy tulpa felt slighted by my work, so you added a scene where Glimmer magically recovers from losing my magic and molests someone bigger and physically stronger than her. It's kind of disappointing, really.
Portals aren't exactly complex, Glimmer lost most of her magic near the end of the chapter in a way that would allow me to write a "Glimmer learns moral lessons as a weakling who cant magic her way through everything and might gain a cutie mark in temporal repair" story if I ever felt like it, I'm not familiar with Bleach(Zanpakutos are from that, right?), and Silver's Spares barely have 1hp each, they would break apart into wisps of magic blue smoke if you patted one on the back too hard.
But the comedic timing of the first chapter was good. Get over your blind love for Glimmer and desire to whiteknight for her, and you could be a great writer some day.
>>167286 It's a satire portraying the immaturity and low level of your work, it took you a considerable amount of time to realize that *maybe* you will not like what he wrote.
>>167288 But that isn't how satire works. To use simple terms, you smeared shit on a canvas and said that's what my art is. Sure, that's what it is to you. But it isn't for you, and I could only make this for you by making my story into exactly what y'all wrote: more nonsensical "Glimmer is teh best" trash. You didn't even parody my work right. It started off as one, painting Silver as a motorcycle-riding bad boy everyone lusts over, but... It seems that you pissed yourself off while writing this. Emphasizing his ego to the point of absurdity was funny, but emphasizing how much he hates Glimmer... There are jokes that can be made about this. But you didn't make any jokes about it. You just emphasized Thrackerzod's skin tone- I mean Silver's dislike of Glimmer and called it a day. Well, you didn't exactly call it a day. You wrote "Glimmer sucks" so many times, you had to write a "Glimmer molests him and is loved by all" fapfic to calm yourself down. Then you called it a day. I mean, really. You could have made the obvious joke, you could have had Silver take Glimmer's sue status and end up the way he was before you derailed your own fic, that would have been funnier. I get that this was written to "totally btfo me", but this is leftist-tier comedy.
>more nonsensical "Glimmer is teh best" trash. >You just emphasized Thrackerzod's skin tone- I mean Silver's dislike of Glimmer and called it a day. >leftist-tier comedy
Hahahaha! HAAAAAA HAHAHAHA!
>Get over your blind love for Glimmer and desire to whiteknight for her, and you could be a great writer some day.
The unbelievable, universe-shattering, sides-obliterating salt on display. This was probably the best thing to wake up to in months. No, years. You sir, are the right-wing equivalent of the chick who attended Trump's inauguration to scream "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" So absolutely unaware of any facet of personality, worldview or politics beyond yourself that anyone who isn't an exact clone of your idealized self with the same taste in media, the same caveman's range of words, the same pleb-tier understanding of nationalism, fascism, social justice retardation, race, and muh horseshoe must be a harcore SJW who has a life-sized Glimmer they bought from BigSexyPlush.
I would rather spend my life as a human-interests editor at Al Jazeera than edit a single one of your works. That mockfic had you down pat.
>>167303 What am I supposed to learn here? That a bunch of whiny and hypocritical Glimmer fanboys love to project? I already knew that. What, exactly, am I supposed to "Learn" from you "Enlightened Commissar Teachers"? That I'm a fool for not loving Glimmer and Communism as much as you? That I'm a fool for not being what you consider cool? Why do you feel entitled to not only my respect, but my reverence? You children barely have the comedic understanding that made Epic Movie what it was. What am I supposed to say, "Haha wow ok sorry guys looks like I made Silver too much like your version of him"? He acts cooler than he is, that's an aspect of his character. Something that flew over your head, it would seem. You'd say that no matter what his name was, because that's the level of literary understanding you pseuds operate on. If it has Bad Tropes, like The OP OC, it is a Bad Story. It should include Good Tropes that you like, instead. You say you hate it when writers "Won't take your criticism", but what you really mean is that you hate it when writers won't take your criticism as gospel. You aren't entitled to representation. You aren't entitled to a pat on the back and a "Good job!" for saying you don't like the taste of OCs because of what your circlejerk says about all OCs, regardless of quality. You aren't entitled to my time. And I don't really care what words and tropes and other badwords you call me on this site or any other site. You aren't my target audience. Do you know who does want you as their target audience? Youtubers who post slideshows of reddit screencaps. If you want me to turn my story around and rework it for your precious, delicate sensibilities, pay me.
>>167272 >>167302 Also if you need a profile image, I would urge you to use this one, of my personal OC Silver Star. Silver Star is a super ultra rad motorcycle bad ass with a heart of gold. But he's also humble. And a scientist. Did I ever tell you about the time he went on a date with Twilight Sparkle and spent the whole date talking about troll physics? Man, it was great. There's really a lot you can learn from this OC, I hope you like him.
>>167284 >>167294 >>167312 I don't know who you are or why you're on this board impersonating me, but I really think you need to get over yourself. All I wanted to do was post a piece of original fiction I wrote that I think has a really great message if you give it a chance. You seem to be interpreting it as some kind of satire of your work. Sorry, but I'm afraid I've never heard of you. My name, though, is King Battlebrit, and I am a prolific author of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic-inspired original fiction, and I think you could learn a lot from my work if you give it a chance. Allow me to provide an in-depth explanation of this work for you, so that you may better understand it and possibly even further advance the quality of your own work, if you're indeed a writer that is.
As I mentioned, you seem to think this work is some kind of low-effort satire of your work. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a completely original piece of fiction written to make a complex statement on the subject of urban decay, featuring my ultra-rad OC Silver Star, whom you seem to have misinterpreted as some kind of ironic parody of a similar character you came up with. Again, I apologize if you misunderstood, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to claim independent invention here. See pic related if you would like a visual reference, I'm sure it should clear up any misunderstandings about similarities to your work.
In any case, the central focus of this story is the restaurant, and it's eventual destruction by forces outside the control of its management staff. The phrase "less is more" has always been a central tenet of my literary philosophy, and I always like to incorporate elements into my work that you don't always see. This particular restaurant is, as the story mentions, the best restaurant in Ponyville, neigh Equestria. It's owner, an aging Earth Pony by the name of Emerald Whiskers, is a tough-as-nails old pony who has seen it all. He is, might I add, rather famous for his emerald colored whiskers. He spent his whole life building up that restaurant, in an endless, Sisyphean struggle against hostile government regulation, mob interference and the like. Read Atlass Shrugged by Ayn Rand to get a better picture of what I am talking about. In the end, though, it was all in vain as his restaurant was eventually destroyed during the ebin battle between Starlight Glimmer and my personal OC, Silver Star.
To add to the tragedy, Lyra and Bon Bon, a pair of hardworking mares who scrimped and saved for an entire month just to enjoy one single meal at a fancy restaurant, arrive finally on the day they had set, only to find the restaurant in ruins. Can you imagine how crushed they would be? Not even by the flying debris that was launched through the air during Silver's final attack, although that would cause the tragic death of several ponies, who were regrettably unable to attend Glimmer's eventual coronation due to being dead. No, they were metaphorically crushed, emotionally damaged beyond repair, all because one selfish pony wanted to have an ebin anime battle in the middle of Ponyville's expensivest restaurant.
Incidentally, if you would like to learn more about the art and craft of writing, I would direct your attention to the subtle plot building I did near the top of post >>167258, where it says, and I quote: "Twilight cried out in terror as her beloved Silver was thrown back through the restaurant, knocking over all the tables and stuff so that there was a terrible mess on the floor that somepony would probably have to clean up later." At the end of the narrative, you'll note that Silver is then tasked with the moral burden of cleaning up the rubble of the restaurant he destroyed. And the ponies who give him that task are none other than the unintended victims of his actions, Lyra and Bon Bon. It's a literary technique called "foreshadowing," and it sets the tone early on for the eventual resolution of the moral conflict the story introduces. Read The Turn of the Screw by Henry James to get a better picture of what I am talking about.
>I'm not familiar with Bleach(Zanpakutos are from that, right?) Bleach is an epic drama penned by Tite Kubo, whom many regard as the F. Scott Fizgerald of modern Japan. Much like Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto, it is a fascinating tale, essentially Dragon Ball Z but with different characters, that draws upon overused tropes of the Shonen genre without contributing anything significant to it. I deeply feel that it is something you would enjoy.
>>167312 >what lurn Glad you asked! >He acts cooler than he is, that's an aspect of his character Sounds like OP to me >You aren't entitled to representation. You aren't entitled to a pat on the back and a "Good job!" for saying you don't like the taste of OCs because of what your circlejerk says about all OCs, regardless of quality Ditto, except replace "saying [...] all OCs" with "writing another fic" >You aren't my target audience Then fuck off. You say you 'don't care' (or whatever the literal quote is) and yet it is obvious you do by the extraordinary lengths you will go to try and plead your case to an audience which seems increasingly adversarial. This whole scenario is particularly amusing to me because I've just spent hours bingeing on Gordon Ramsay, and the comparison between you and many of the chefs/owners/managers who he literally has to berate sense into is astonishing. >>167320 >BTFO Yes, actually
>t. guy who took you seriously and gave you (and will continue to give) honest suggestions that might help you improve your writing if you'd stop sperging for just one fucking second
>>167312 >reddit Wubba lubba dubdub my dude. Whenever they lift your ban, I'd love to share my Rick and Morty edits. I even got a shirt, to show my status as a high-IQ reddit friend! :^]
>>167325 >>He acts cooler than he is, that's an aspect of his character >Sounds like OP to me Stopped reading there. You really don't understand what the word means. But that's alright, I won't call you out. I'll just skip over posts from this ID. But could you tell the others here why you feel it "BTFO"s me when some Glimmer fan decides to mockingly imitate what I either am, or seem to be conflated with for the sake of convenience? >>167323 If that's all you see when you read my posts, why bother reading them? Why not close your eyes, open up Notepad, and type about how hard you're laughing at the cringiest mooiest thing you can imagine there?
And to the other gommies here... I'm used to debating politics on the internet. I'm used to seeing crying hypocrites claim that I'm this or that, or that I need to stop acting in this or that way, and there's never any substance to these liberal arguments. It's always "I feel you're a X", "I feel you need to stop being so Xish", "I feel you're so triple-hilarious megalmao-level wrong that I don't need to explain why", that sort of garbage. I wrote a chapter where Glimmer, instead of going back to her home planet, is sent to what her new home planet should be. I knew this would get some crossdressing panties in a twist, and it did. What would I gain by taking their screeching projections seriously?
>>167337 You keep using those words, I no think they mean what you think they mean. Stating an opinion three paragraphs into a factual rebuttal doesn't make it an argument from feelings. Insulting you after showcasing in-depth the sweet nectar that has been spilling from your kek-teat does not make it ad-hominem.
I have an idea: delete system32 and spend a week reading fascist literature. Maybe by the end of it you'll be a bit better at being a member of the alt-right you seem to like gatekeeping for while telling others they're gatekeepers.
Nigel. Honey. Sugarplum. I don't appreciate you insulting my fellow horsefuckers-in-arms like this, much less my Commonwealth brothers from another mother. You will cease and desist all of your outrageous attacks on the character of my friends this instant, or I will be forced to curse you with my dark, >leafy >green sorcery.
>You children barely have the comedic understanding. >You aren't entitled to my time. >You aren't my target audience. (are we "over", too? .0.) >your precious, delicate sensibilities >pay me.
Get out of here, Sean Bradley Dickenson. This thread is about King Battlebrit and his glorious Glimmernigeria fanfic. Nobody asked for your plagiarist opinion.
>>167341 He's only worth teasing. No extra energy at this point is worth a penny. Let this thread be a reminder that you should sooner kill traitors and normie plebbitors than an enemy. Out of the three types of NatSocs, he can only qualify as a soldier, and that will take much training that may not even pay off.
>>167344 The true intellectual wit of The Scholar, and the mental fortitude of an Adventurer, clearly exhibited by glimmernigel.
I take it back, you aren't even worth keeping around as a warrior. You would likely Petraeus rather than fight the enemy because without a glimmer, without that thing to fight for the sake of fighting it, you're nothing.
>>167312 >>167337 Listen, you limey autist. I opened your story yesterday and I slogged my way through all ~20,000 words of this dreck (well, to be fair I skipped over like 70% of the argument between Silver and Glimmer because it didn't seem relevant to the story). I'm going to tell you exactly what's wrong with it, whether you want to listen or not.
1. Your OC Sucks As much as it seems like I'm beating a dead pony at this point, I would like to once again draw your attention to the simple fact that your OC is God almighty fucking terrible. There is not one redeeming feature to this character. Not. One. There is nothing that can be done to salvage this character other than to discard him and start again. Your character is the literal definition of a Mary Sue. If you take Plato's theory of the Forms as gospel, the Form of the concept of a Mary Sue character would be Silver Star, even beating out the original Mary Sue from that Star Trek fic eons ago that the name is derived from. It's honestly like you went to a convention panel called How to Avoid Creating a Mary Sue OC and did everything they said not to do. Let me demonstrate:
>Sometimes it was rough being a rich and handsome superpowered genius who was an all-powerful magician and time-travelling quantum physicist who could bend time and space to his will and was also the world's greatest ninja. This is a quote from a trollfic some anon probably wrote in an hour while sitting on the toilet. You've accused him of misrepresenting your character, but this sentence literally describes your character verbatim. You literally made your self-insert character rich, handsome, ridiculously overpowered both physically and mentally, a more powerful magician than the canon world's established top magician and protagonist, Twilight Sparkle (who is naturally madly in love with him) an interdimensional traveler who writes books about quantum physics, and literally the world's greatest ninja.
What do you do with a character like this? What is his purpose? Where is his development arc? His struggles, his travails, the things that makes the audience root for him and want to see him succeed? There are none, the only thing the audience (such as it is) wants to see him do is succ.
This character is even bad by the standards of the shit-tier anime you blatantly rip off (Naruto, etc). Most Shonen Jump protagonists are stupidly overpowered badasses with little personality. That is to be expected since these stories are written for nine year old Japanese boys who just tune in to watch battles and explosions. However, even crap anime protagonists have more depth than Silver Star. Those characters are usually at least given some kind of flaw or foible, something to make them human and sympathetic to the audience. He might be socially awkward, bad with women, goofy, silly; the kind of person who can beat any opponent in battle, but in between fights is always making the other characters roll their eyes at him. A good example would be Vash the Stampede from Trigun (a much better anime imo than Naruto or DBZ or any others you rip off actually, but it works well enough as an example here). He is a powerful superhuman with a gun built into his arm, who is literally powerful enough to destroy the world if he wants to. However, that's just in battle. Most of the series he is treated almost like a comic relief character, a goofy awkward sperg who is always fucking things up. By the end of the show you are endeared to him and genuinely sympathize with his struggles. Silver Star? Not at all. From the very beginning he is overpowered and a master at everything he does. His love interest practically worships him. The entire plot arc of the story is nothing but him lecturing another pony. He learns nothing. He doesn't grow. He doesn't struggle. He doesn't have to. He's already the world's richest and handsomest magical super scientist ninja, who all the mares love and all the stallions want to be. His only role in the story is to be awesome.
I'm going to split this into multiple posts because frankly, Nigel, this has been a long time coming and I want to make sure I get everything out that needs to be out.
If your garbage fanfic can be said to have any sort of overarching literary theme, it is its egregious, over the top glorification of your own ego. Like most autistic individuals, you exhibit extreme narcissistic behavior, with your own perception of your talents and significance contrasting with reality, as well as a complete inability to see yourself the way others see you. This is ultimately why you respond so negatively to criticism, it's not just that you don't want to see how awful you or your work are, it's that you are literally incapable of it. Well, again, I'm going to explain it to you anyway.
The entire first chapter of your work consists of a "date" between Silver "Massive Faggot" Star and Twilight Sparkle. The focus of the writing should be on the development of their relationship. If you had any talent as a writer you would dial back Twilight's level of interest and dial up Silver "I Chug Stallion Cum" Star's level of spergy behavior, so that he is constantly putting his hoof in his mouth and Twilight is continuously getting offended or weirded out by him. At the same time you would add in a couple of cute flirty moments, and maybe conclude with Twilight learning something about Silver "Anus Gaping From All the Raping" Star that, while she still isn't quite sure about him, maybe makes her feel a little sympathetic to him. You would then conclude the date, leaving the reader feeling as if progress had been made but ultimately looking forward to the next installment of the romantic sub-plot.
However, this is not what you do. As mentioned earlier, Silver "Stick it in my Ponut" Star is already super powered and beloved by all, which Twilight already knows. She doesn't need to learn anything about him to know she is madly in love with him, she already wants his mighty member more than she wants to be the Princess of Friendship. She's only on this date so she can worship him and ask him questions about himself.
That brings us to the crux of the biscuit. While this chapter is ostensibly a date between Twilight and Silver "I can't talk about myself right this second because my esophagus is literally bursting with cock, but as soon as I'm finished I'll go on for twelve pages" Star, that really has nothing to do with what is really going on here. The "date" is really just a flimsy framing device you use to dump in walls of text about the autistic details of how magic and technology in your setting works, and how Silver "Please stick it in deeper you're not even touching my prostate yet" Star is the undisputed master of all of it. Twilight, the love interest of the protagonist, is barely even a presence here. Her only role is to ask questions that serve as preludes to the spergy bullshit you want to crap all over the page, and occasionally interject things like "wow" and "neat" to remind you of how awesome Silver "Balls Against my Chin For the Win" Star is, in case the reader might have forgotten.
In fact, you get so carried away blathering about world mechanics that you don't even want to waste space paying lip service to the flimsy framing device. You start off the date by having Twiggles and Silver "Cum On My Lips and Win a Prize" Star agree to a you-ask-me-one-I-ask-you-one kind of dialog. This is almost immediately abandoned. The entire conversation is Twilight asking Silver "give me two bits and you can slide down the chimney" Star questions about all the amazing things he can do, because apparently she is just so madly fascinated by Silver "never mind the two bits just fuck my throat already" Star that she ends up eagerly asking him question after question, never even stopping to consider that he might want to ask her some questions (what a self-centered cunt, amirite?)
The only questions Silver "I'm starting to run out of gay jokes" Star has for Twiggles are "What is your favorite color?", "Are you single?", and "What was your first day in Ponyville like?" The last question is probably the only one that could indicate this colossal verbal monument to the author's self-centeredness has any interest in learning anything about Twilight, and naturally the story cuts off before she even answers. The chapter ends with Twilight "owing" Silver "I'll never run out of gay jokes because this character will never run out of gay" Star I think, six questions? I honestly stopped counting because honestly, who the fuck even cares? You'll never get back to it.
>>167348 >>167357 >Silver "Massive Faggot" Star >Silver "I Chug Stallion Cum" Star >Silver "Anus Gaping From All the Raping" Star >Silver "Stick it in my Ponut" Star >Silver "I can't talk about myself right this second because my esophagus is literally bursting with cock, but as soon as I'm finished I'll go on for twelve pages" Star >Silver "Please stick it in deeper you're not even touching my prostate yet" Star >Silver "Balls Against my Chin For the Win" Star >Silver "Cum On My Lips and Win a Prize" Star >Silver "give me two bits and you can slide down the chimney" Star >Silver "never mind the two bits just fuck my throat already" Star >Silver "I'm starting to run out of gay jokes" Star >Silver "I'll never run out of gay jokes because this character will never run out of gay" Star This thread HAS to go in /go/, if not for the fic earlier than it absolultely has to just for this list of nicknames for Silver "If It Ain't Gay It Ain't the Way" Star.
>>165646 >100k words of muh glimmer is a commie You have to be pretty fucking creatively bankrupt to base your entire story on a meme and then go into neck deep into political sperging which nobody wants to read.
I'm including these sections as a subscript to my section on your narcissism because it relates to your handling of the Silver-Twilight date.
I'm going to say this bluntly first and foremost: DUMPING HUGE WALLS OF TEXT INTRICATELY EXPLAINING HOW MAGIC AND SCIENCE AND WHATEVER THE FUCK ELSE IN YOUR WORLD WORKS INTO QUOTES AND HAVING IT SPOKEN BY THE MAIN CHARACTER IS NOT HOW YOU FUCKING WORLD BUILD. This cannot be overemphasized. Nobody wants to sit and read all that dreck. Nobody cares enough how magic in your universe works to sit and read all that, and even if someone did, they wouldn't want it explained to them all at once.
The shit you wrote about magic and whatever is not something you publish for the reader. You write it all out for yourself, save it into a text file on your hard drive, and use it as a reference to maintain continuity whenever something in your story happens that uses those mechanics. Even if your intention was to write a plotless, shallow, Shonen Jump-ripoff action story completely devoid of character building and feeling (mission accomplished, btw), the kind of autists who read that sort of garbage and obsess over all the stupid details like what power such-and-such character has, and who would win in a fight between so-and-so, don't want to be spoonfed the details all at once. They want to watch battle after battle after mind-numbing battle, and have the mechanics demonstrated so that they can obsess over the details themselves. I seriously doubt even the most brain-dead Narutard would give even two fucks about your stupid GOD FUCKING AWFUL OC (I'm just going to point to >>167348 again because I really want to emphasize that your OC is horrendous), but if you took the time to do it properly you could probably salvage your world mechanics and build a better story with a better MC. And when I say better I mean better according to the standards of your chosen genre, in which fortunately for you the bar is really not set all that high.
Incidentally, what I mentioned would apply equally in a quality story with actual literary value. When writing a story focusing on romance or politics or attempting to make a moral commentary you will want to downplay battles and world mechanics in general since your audience probably won't care. However if you want to write out world mechanics for continuity it's probably a good idea. However in your case I would not attempt writing anything good before at least managing to successfully write something that isn't god-awful.
2b. Disrespect for Canon Characters
This also relates directly to your handling of the Twilight date. As I mentioned earlier, Silver "Semen Please Daddy" Star spends the entire date blabbering about himself and shows essentially no genuine interest in Twilight at all, other than the dumb scene taking place in his head in which he makes le awkward comment and freaks out internally. This is probably intended to be funny but it falls short, mainly due to its having no effect on the conversation whatsoever; Twilight's level of interest doesn't change and she just keeps asking him tedious questions about how he gallops and how time travel works and whatever the fuck else.
If you made your character a narcissistic asshole on purpose you could use that as a plot building device by having Twilight react appropriately to Silver "I don't care if your dick has Zebra shit on it I want it in my mouth" Star's egotism and storm off, similar to Rarity's reaction to Prince Blueblood's behavior in the Gala episode. This would then present a fine opportunity for Silver "Help Me I Am Literally Drowning In Cum" Star to do some self-reflection, realize he might not be as great as he thinks he is, apologize to Twilight (if you want to make the reader actually give a shit you should probably have her act like a tsundere bitch for a couple of chapters and make him work for it before she forgives him), thus setting the stage for the second date, which if done properly the reader would care about. However, this would unfortunately require a level of self-awareness that you don't seem to possess.
There is not even a hint of irony to how Silver "You know what on second thought don't help me, just give me more cum" Star behaves in this story. You, the author, are genuinely as narcissistic as he is, and seem to honestly believe that the reader is more interested in how Silver "Mrrmphrrrgarblgarblgarbl that's the sound I make when choking on half-breed donkey cock" Star manages to travel between worlds and split the human genome and how he totally kicked the shit out of Goku that one time, than he is in the mare he is supposed to be on a date with.
This is a hard pill for authors like you to swallow, but the simple fact is that fanfiction audiences are going to care more about the established canon characters than they do about your OC. Even if you knew how to create an OC that wasn't absolutely pure, undiluted warm diarrhea streaming out of the butthole of a Zebra-Griffon-Donkey chimera created through whatever the fuck magic process you autistically described that created your dumb half-horse-half-dragon thing that Silver "Mommy Dressed Me Like A Filly When I Was a Colt and This is How I Turned Out" Star had his long, drawn out mock Naruto battle with to impress Twilight who he is only superficially interested in because the author likes to rub his pathetic knobby limp dick to pictures of her directly into the mouth of the reader whether they want to taste said diarrhea or not (protip: they don't), the reader is still going to care more about how you depict the canon characters than how you develop your OC. It's not an excuse to make a shitty OC mind you, if anything it means you should work even harder to make your OC likeable because you have a steeper grade to climb with him. However, you need to remember that people reading your fanfic are going to be coming into this story with feelings and opinions regarding established characters and they are going to expect you to write them properly. You don't even attempt to do this with Twilight.
Even ignoring the fact that you don't write dialog for her that sounds like anything she would actually say (I feel like someone else in this or maybe the other thread pointed this out to you, and in a rare moment of introspection you actually admitted it was a shortcoming of yours, so I won't focus on it, although how to properly write dialog for established characters is definitely a subject you should research), you write Twilight in a way that is frankly insulting to anyone who even remotely gives a shit about this character.
She doesn't say anything. She doesn't do anything. Her only purpose in this story is to be Silver "Ho ho ho I am Santa Claus, get it? It's because there is semen all over my face and it looks like a beard" Star's love interest, and you don't even treat her with enough respect to even make her effective even as that. I really want to drive this point home. You put Twilight on a date with Silver "I'm not even going to give him a nickname this time as his real name is literally synonymous with sucking cock" Star, and instead of using this as an opportunity for the two to have a meaningful conversation, you turn it into a massive masturbation scene for your garbage OC, who, I would once again like to stress, is just awful.
The universe you are writing in is called "Friendship is Magic", not "Autistic Battle Scenes With Lasers and Explosions are Cool". The whole series is about relationships. I get that some authors like to write edgy or dark stories, or try to put in more action or drama, but ultimately this is a show about friendship. Interaction between characters is important in this world. Whatever else you want to add to the universe by writing fanfiction, you need to learn how to write stories about how characters relate to each other. Nobody, and I mean literally nobody, wants to read a story that is just a huge egotistical jerkoff-fest for a terrible character you created. Learn who your fucking audience is before you start writing, you turbosperg.
Pic related is Twilight this time instead of Glimmer. I want you to look at her. I want you to remember that according to your own rules, by writing this god-awful story, you created a parallel universe in which this poor, beautiful, intelligent creature has been reduced to a flimsy, one-dimensional, empty-headed nothing that you stuck in your story for no reason other than to give yourself a boner, and to prop up your shit-tier OC, one Silver "Fuck My Ponut Until it Tears At The Seams, Resembling A Leaky Raspberry Jam Filled Donut that has been stepped on" Star. This poor pony, once the Princess of Friendship, is wandering around the shitty world you made for her, probably struggling to remember who she was and who she is supposed to be, but all she can think about is how badly she wants to jump the bones of the stupid character you foisted upon her as a love interest. You created that world. Now suffer for it.
>>167388 Oh yeah, one point I wanted to make that I forgot to include:
>His eyes widened. “Out of all the theories I’ve heard, that one’s definitely the smartest.” He said, and she grinned, making that cute little squeaky-toy noise only a pony could make. “But no,” He said, and, surprised, she made that noise in reverse. I am quite frankly a misogynistic pig who has mentally put ponies into some pretty raunchy situations, and even I think this statement is almost jaw-droppingly demeaning to Twiggles, particularly when taken in context with the rest of this section of the story.
This entire date scene can be summarize thusly: >Twilight and Silver "I want you to pump my asshole like you've been wandering in the desert and just found one of those old timey water pumps and are desperately trying to get water out of it" Star meet for lunch and "conversation" >Silver "seriously, I am a colossal faggot have you figured this out yet" Star spends the entire date talking about himself >asks Twilight her favorite color and whether or not she is single >beyond this shows no apparent interest in her >Twilight is compared to a chew toy, reduced to making cute squeaky noises just because Silver "I will suck your dick so hard you will literally turn inside out" Star gave her some superficial praise, not because of anything she said or did, but because she is so far the only pony who seems intelligent enough to understand just how totally awesome Silver "pound my asshole until my hips break" Star actually is >This is all 100% unironic
I know self reflection is a tall order for you Nigel, but please try to absorb some of this. It really is crucial to your understanding just why everyone keeps shitting so hard on you.
>>167396 Alright, I am off to take a short break to eat something, and then I will resume. If anypony would like to grab a snack or use the bathroom, now is the time.
>>167397 God's work man. I'm on the road but just know I'm loving every last syllable. I only wish I had access to my desktop so I could personally be the one to screencap this thread and spread it like wildfire.
This section is less about your work itself and more about your reaction to criticism of your work, but it's all part of the same lesson, and it's just as important for you to absorb if you have any hope at all of improving as a writer (which at this point I'm not even sure is what you actually want).
So far, your reaction to criticism (and frankly, there has been some valuable and insightful criticism made in both threads already, which you sadly seem hell-bent on ignoring because muh ego) has been dismissive and insulting, and shows that you frankly have no idea why you should even want to write fanfiction in the first place. The single recurring theme I am hearing from you over and over again is "this wasn't written for you." This is bullshit.
Even ignoring the simple question of if it wasn't written for us why would you even bother posting it here, statements like "you didn't get what I was going for" or "you're not the intended audience" are the perennial complaint of the talentless hack. Here's the thing, Nigel: you don't pick your audience, your audience picks you. You're asking people to take time away from whatever it is they're doing and devote a portion of it to reading some pile of shit you wrote. If you're going to do that, the absolute least you could do is make it interesting for them. If you can't even be fucked to do that much, the absolute least you could do is not berate them when they tell you to piss off with it.
While it's true that certain stories are usually aimed or marketed at different groups of people, that doesn't really apply here. It can be assumed that since this story is set in the FiM universe and is posted on FiMfiction, you are probably writing a story aimed at fans of the My Little Pony franchise, specifically the FiM series. Thus, if fans of that series and that type of fiction are telling you your story is shit, you should listen.
Here's another thing, Nigel: you say that the story was written for a different audience, but who is that audience exactly? This is a board made up of at least half pony fans, with the other half being /pol/ anons who are at a minimum willing to tolerate pony. Nobody is shitting on your story because it's a pony story. You specifically made the story about politics (a bad choice of theme for this story and you pulled it off poorly, but we'll get into that later), so it's not as if anyone here is criticizing it because of your political stances. If we're not in your target audience, who is?
The crux of the biscuit here is that we are not in your target audience because nobody is in your target audience. This kind of pure, undiluted, 100% homegrown weapons grade toxic-to-human-and-pony-life-alike shit doesn't have an audience. Your target audience is anyone who is willing to wade through the ocean of verbal diarrhea you wrote, suck your dick and tell you how awesome you and your shit-tier OC are. You came here looking to find such people, and surprise surprise didn't find any, so you flip your shit and tell everyone that it's us, not you, who are the ball lickers. Well, fuck you.
Okay, I'm cutting this one short for now because I completely forgot I picked up a shift tonight and have to go to work. I will be back in like four hours. Nigel, I don't know if you're reading this or if you're off somewhere sulking, but I'm going to give you the in-depth criticism of your shit-tier work that you yourself demanded if it takes me all night tonight and all day tomorrow. Remember: you brought this on yourself.
To those in the gallery eating popcorn and enjoying the show, I bid you adieu and implore you to stick around for the remaining acts.
>>167416 Glorious stuff so far. Can't wait for the political portion of this - the suspense is killing me to hear the portion where you really fucking nail that faggot until he begs you for more.
>>167416 Oh, I'll be watching this intently, even if I can't do it real-time. Hell, I'm itching to contribute something to the thread myself, should Nigel remain obstinate. >>167419 You definitely should. Hell, any excuse to reboot the old writefag thread is a good one.
>>167419 I've only posted occasionally for Anonfilly (no offense to you guys, you have some good green and I like anonfilly, but it's not exactly a huge creative venue and were I to write a lot I might slip into a lot of bad habits writing-wise). But lately I've felt like coming up with something either original or pony-based that's politically based but nowhere near what Nigel's been doing.
I was more thinking of a character's slow transition from nihilist to an archetypical natsoc Adventurer. Something like Murdoch, with slightly less comic relief. But I'm going to let it incubate for a while, don't want to rush things or let it take over my work and other things.
>>167423 >>167420 I was doing a story about Humans breaking their isolation to grt help as a storm approached their lands, trying to use all the OCs to give them more background story on how they all met. I ran into a block and kinda gave up on it, but this is some great great advice
3a. You Literally Do Not Understand the Craft of Writing At All
This relates to the previous section about blaming the audience, and will expand upon several points from that section.
One of the most important parts of writing well that is sadly seldom discussed in panels or taught in classes has nothing to do, directly, with writing. It is the art of deciding what to write about, and, once the idea is selected, evaluating whether or not it's something you should actually write. This skill is completely separate from the mechanical task of actual writing. An individual can have all other aspects of writing down: mechanical aspects such as grammar and language, creative aspects such as what I've mentioned before (building good characters, developing good stories), as well as things like pacing and scene structure, and still completely fall flat on his face trying to write anything because he chose an idiotic subject. If I had to pick a single area where you have shown absolutely, positively, 100% for certain no demonstrable talent at all, it would be this area. Which is a shame, because it's the hardest thing to teach, but I will do my best to explain it.
Part of it ties directly into what I said earlier about knowing your audience. In order to write something that will be well received, you have to understand who you are writing for and what they are likely to want to read. It is therefore essential that you be open to criticism, especially when first starting out and testing the waters in a genre you're not familiar with, because the things that people tell you they like or don't like will give you clues about what sorts of things you should do or not do in future projects. If multiple people are telling you they hate the same thing in your work, it's a pretty good indicator that you should stop doing what you're doing, and focus more on things that multiple people are telling you that they like. Since you've demonstrated unbelievable levels of density throughout this thread, I am going to plainly state what would be obvious to any other person: pretty much everyone in this thread has told you that they hate pretty much everything about this work, and so far nobody has mentioned anything that they like. That would be an alarm bell for most competent writers.
That said, there are some things you do well, but the problem is everything you do well is in the mechanical realm. You have a good mastery of the English language (which is impressive seeing as how you live in a mostly African country) and can lay out scenes and describe things well. I think someone in this or the other thread mentioned that already, but it bears repeating because it's a strength. Sadly, it's pretty much your only strength.
Writing fiction is similar to building a physical structure, except you're doing all the work yourself. You need to be both the architect and the builder. If all you can do is mechanically write well, you are a good builder. However, if you don't know what to build or why you're building it, that skill is useless. So, basically, if you want to write something, first you need to select a good idea; so part one of the process is figuring out what to write. Second, you need to evaluate whether or not the idea you have is good and is something that people will want to read. This part is a little trickier and involves a bit of introspection, which unfortunately seems to be a major deficiency with you. Basically you have to figure out why you chose the subject that you chose and what you want to communicate by writing about it. Both parts require you to evaluate and understand both your audience and yourself.
I would like to deal with each of these concepts separately and will begin with topic selection in the next post.
3b. You Have No Fucking Idea Why You're Even Doing This
Let's deal with subject selection first.
As an example, I will take King Battlebrit's fine work from this very thread. Let's see if we can figure out together why he was able to write something that people enjoyed despite it being probably very low-effort and arguably even low-quality, whereas your work, which is much more verbose and probably required greater levels of human effort to vomit upon the page, has earned only scorn and derision. There is an external and an internal component to how this works. We will start with the external, which is the evaluation of one's audience and what the writer thinks he can offer them.
Here is how I imagine King Battlebrit's mind works when choosing what to write:
>Step One: Who is our audience? Anons on /mlpol/ >who, specifically? Anons in Nigel's gay-ass thread >why are they there? Nigel wrote some stupid fanfiction and is fishing for compliments, anons are gathering to shit on it and trigger him for lols
Alright, so we have an audience. We know who this group of people is, and what the common thread (pun unintentional) between them is.
>Step Two: What do they seem to be interested in? Based on the above information, we can infer that they probably do not much care for Nigel's work >what do they like? making fun of Nigel >what specifically? poking fun at his weaknesses and trigger points
Alright, so we know what our audience probably wants.
>Step Three: What do we want to give our audience? Probably a parody of Nigel's story would get some keks >how would we execute this? First we would have to slog our way through Nigel's original work, probably the hardest part of the job. A parody should have the same feeling and texture as the original so as to be recognizable as a parody. This requires a familiarity with the source material. It is also helpful to understand what aspects you want to poke fun at. For this work, we should focus on making fun of the narrative's obvious deficiencies, primarily its overpowered and highly unlikable main character, as well as the author's irrational hatred for Best Pony. >what elements should we avoid? Things the audience doesn't care about, obviously. Since we know they didn't like Nigel's story we can probably assume they don't give a shit if our narrative fits into his world or not. Thus we can ignore the complex world mechanics he so painstakingly outlined for us instead of paying attention to poor neglected Twiggles, who for reasons unknown loves his shitty OC anyway, whose name, simply because I haven't mentioned it for a while, is Silver "I'm like a wine connoisseur but with penises instead of wine" Star.
Alright. So, we now know what we are writing, what elements we should prioritize and what elements are less important. Now let's evaluate.
>Who are we writing for? Anons who hate Nigel and his faggot OC >What are we writing? A parody of Nigel's story that makes fun of Nigel and his faggot OC >How specifically do we want to execute it? We're going to make our protagonist his OC, with literally nothing changed except the addition of a layer of irony that will probably sail over Nigel's incredibly dense head. We will then have his character get fucked in the ass by Starlight Glimmer with a cock, because Nigel hates Starlight Glimmer and it will be funny. >Will our story have things in it our audience will like? Yes >Can we avoid things they won't like? Yes >Will the audience like this story? Probably >Should we write this? Yes
See how easy that was? Now, let's apply the same process to your story's premise.
>Step One: Who is my audience? My Little Pony: FiM fans >who specifically? FiMfiction users (I'll exclude /mlpol/ since according to you we're not part of your audience) >why are they there? Because they are interested enough in FiM to read fanfiction of it
>Step Two: What do they seem to be interested in? Stories involving the universe and characters of FiM >what do they like? probably the same things that drew them to the show in the first place >what specifically? stories that focus on the show's themes and characters, possibly with original or external elements added for spice and excitement
>Step Three: What do we want to give our audience? I have this totally awesome OC that I want to show off, he's super powerful and rich and handsome and also the world's greatest magical ninja. I want to write a story where he argues with Starlight Glimmer about politics and also shows Twilight Sparkle how cool he is so he can date her because she is a qt. >how would we execute this? Divide the story into two parts. Part One will involve my rad OC telling Twilight about all the cool stuff he can do and having her be amazed at how great he is. Part Two will involve my rad OC telling Glimmer she's stupid and her ideology is stupid and her stupid face is stupid. The approximate length of this will be literally almost half the length of The Great Gatsby. >what elements should we avoid? plot, character development, quality dialog
Now, let's evaluate: >Who are we writing for? Pony fans >What are we writing? A story about my awesome OC beating a character from the show in an argument >how to execute? Put everything I want to say about politics and how awesome my OC is into quotes and have the OC say it >Will I include things they like? ponies I guess, although they don't factor in much >Can I avoid what they don't like? that would eliminate most of the story >Will the audience like this? doubtful >Should I write this? No
Again, easy peasy. See how much work you could have saved just by evaluating your idea from the perspective of your audience?
Alright, we've covered evaluation of an idea from the audience's perspective. Fortunately for you, this is a largely mechanical process similar to marketing a product, that even an autist like you could probably handle if you gave it a shot. Next is the slightly more mercurial process of introspective evaluation, which experience tells me will probably be next to impossible for you, but what the hell; this is more for the other anons reading this than it is for you at this point, so I will give explaining it a shot and maybe you will pleasantly surprise me one day. This process can basically be summarized as "Why do I even want to write in the first place?"
Writing is a form of communication. That seems obvious (to most of us at least, I'm not sure about you), but it's worth emphasizing. Writing anything, from a letter to a business memo to a novel, is usually done for the purpose of communicating something to others. If you are writing a piece of fiction, then you ought to have some sort of message you would like to convey, be it about yourself, the world around you, something you believe in, whatever. Even if the only objective of your story is to tell an entertaining tale or make people laugh you should still give thought to what you want to convey and keep the story focused on that. A story with no message, or that tries to have multiple messages at once, ends up messy and usually tedious.
Let's take a look at what you wrote. What are you trying to convey here? Well, as far as I can tell, your story has three central messages (listed in order of apparent priority to you): >Your Silver "Rock Out With Your Cock In My Ass" Star OC is super awesome at everything and everyone should love him >You hate Starlight Glimmer and by extension so should everyone else >Communism is a bad ideology with a history of failure
We'll go into each of these at length in a minute. I'll give you a little spoiler though: one of these is actually decent and worth communicating in a story. If communicated effectively, you could theoretically write something of real literary value. The other two are moronic and should have remained in your head. If you can guess which one is the good one, you will win a prize.
You can evaluate messages in a similar way to how we evaluated premises in the previous section. Simply put, the question you need to ask is: What do I want to say, and who, if anyone, is going to care? After that, you will want to ask yourself: How can I communicate this in a way that will make the audience respond the way I want? Giving serious thought to these principles will help guide your writing, and will further assist you when deciding what elements to include in a narrative and what to leave out. It even helps in revision and editing (you do actually do that part, right?), because a lot of times you'll read back over your text and realize that a lot of what you wrote is irrelevant or off-message. If your text is too long (20,000 words for a story basically about a date and an argument is definitely in this category) this will help you trim down what's not important, and you will be left with a text that adequately conveys your message.
Really, now that I think about it, I probably wrote these sections out of sequence. Deciding in advance what you want to communicate is even more important than determining who your audience is, and should be done first. The message you want to convey and who you want to convey it to should be first in your mind before you even start thinking up actual story ideas. Having a clear message in mind will also help you filter out dumb ideas from the get go without even having to fully evaluate them, which again if you'd done you probably wouldn't have written this steaming pile of shit in the first place.
Let's look at your messages from this perspective: >Silver "I came to kick ass and chew bubble gum and suck thousands of dicks and not do the first two things" Star is totally super awesome at everything he can do, which is literally everything It should be completely obvious to everyone but you that this is a dumb thing to want to communicate. Who cares about this? Nobody. Nobody cares how awesome you think your OC is. You can make your OC into anything you want since it's just fiction and you're making it up, so there's nothing really amazing about him even if you make him amazing. Here's an example:
"Once upon a time, there was a pony named Jimmy Buttlicker. He was the greatest of all ponies. He could shoot deadly laser beams out of his butthole and also travel through time. One day he traveled back in time to 2009 and shot laser beams out of his butthole at Barack Obama and that nigger died and wasn't President anymore. America was saved. Then Applejack had sex with him because why not I like Applejack. The end."
Pretty compelling narrative, huh? See, here's the thing: all of these things would be remarkable if they happened in real life. A pony who shoots lasers out of his butt and then gets laid? Pretty cool. In a story though, it's nothing remarkable, because the character is just the author's creation, and can do whatever the author says he can do. There is a concept called "suspension of disbelief" that basically states that you have to follow the rules you establish within your own narrative (or the rules of your chosen universe if you are writing fanfiction) in order for people to believe it, but aside from that you can pretty much do whatever you want in fiction. That is a power you have to use wisely.
He's actually pretty obsessed with using Twilight in his stories actually. If he told you anything about it he'd probably say, "but that's because i'm parodying self-insert and HIE stories with the main 6," or something like that.
>>167446 You should read some of his parody ideas / stories, one of them is on Fimfic and is the kind of horrendous overblown writing he likes to use. He only ever made on parody that was pretty workable, but that was before he made the Fimfic one and it did use the same overblown style of writing and definitely overused exaggeration of too many literary concepts themselves.
>>167455 From the way he constantly talks up Barbie shit and defends Shimmy, I coulda sworn she'd be his go-to waif. But then again he wouldn't be a proper lolcow if he didn't ship his self insert with his waifu, would he?
Seriously though how can the guy enjoy a movie centered around a villain whose entire evil plot is retarded? Get the crown? Well this is only school security so you could steal it or wait until the prom queen is....no? You want to win the crown yourself? .....by doctoring photos of one singular competitor who doesn't even know how to human in order to frame and disqualify them?
Shim is even more shit than Glim and I don't even think either of them deserved a redemption arc.
>>167454 >>167312 >>167337 3c. Seriously, You Have NO FUCKING IDEA Why You're Even Doing This - Continued
Alright, what's next on the agenda?
>You hate Starlight Glimmer I haven't read anything else you've written, but I'm guessing this is a recurring theme in your work. It's definitely a recurring theme in your posts on this board. Clearly, it is a very important subject to you; Captain Ahab had his whale, Don Quixote had his windmills, Al Gore had Manbearpig, and Nigel has Starlight Glimmer. That is why this next part is going to be very difficult for you to hear, but it is absolutely CRUCIAL for you to get this through your incredibly dense autistic head if you ever want to become even a marginally passable author of fanfiction or anything else, including dirty limericks written in bathroom stalls. NOBODY GIVES A SHIT THAT YOU HATE STARLIGHT GLIMMER. I am going to say this again for emphasis: NOBODY GIVES A SHIT THAT YOU HATE STARLIGHT GLIMMER. On its own line, in bold, just in case you missed it the first two times:
NOBODY GIVES A SHIT THAT YOU HATE STARLIGHT GLIMMER.
Autistic individuals tend to have warped interpretations of reality and tend to skew events in actual reality to fit those beliefs. In your case, you seem to have gotten it into your head that everyone who doesn't like the dreck you churn out is a covert Glimmer fan and their criticism of you is just damage control because you insulted Best Pony. After all, that's the only logical explanation, right? I mean, it's not like anyone in their right mind wouldn't enjoy a 20,000 word My Little Pony fanfiction where a character nobody ever heard of or cares about beats up a canon character from the show and sends her into another dimension for no better reason than that the author hates her, right? So obviously you can just ignore all criticism because all your critics are just Glimmerniggers; I mean what else could possibly be going on?
Look, past efforts to convince you of these points have proven fruitless and I have no reason to believe that this time will be any different. But it nonetheless bears repeating:
NOBODY GIVES A SHIT THAT YOU HATE STARLIGHT GLIMMER.
Bottom line, you can hate on Glimmyglam all you want, that doesn't mean that mere hatred of her is a good or even passable theme for a story. If you ever bother to improve as a writer and somehow, one day, become capable of approaching the subject with enough subtlety to be convincing, you could probably write Glimmer stories that depict her as buffoonish or unlikeable, or make a proper villain out of her. I could probably teach you how to do it. However, you are going to have to prove that you can handle basics before I will feel comfortable enrolling you in the advanced course.
Okay, on to the last message: >Communism is bad
Do you remember last time, when I asked you to guess which of your three messages was the only good one worth developing? Well, pencils down. Here's the answer. Are you ready? This is the one. Did you guess correctly? If so, here is your prize: Pic related: it's Glimglam
While your story is objectively awful for a number of reasons, this message is a good message and is worth keeping if you decide to do a rewrite (protip: your only other option besides a complete and total rewrite is to kill this story with fire and never speak of it again). I am going to avoid delving into the actual politics here, not because I'm not interested or I don't care, but because it's a separate conversation and I suspect we would mostly agree, and because I want to focus on writing fiction, not political ideology. So, when I say you should keep this because it's a good message, I mean that it is a good, solid message to write a story around. It's something you believe in, that has value to people besides you, and is worth communicating. Now, that said, the way you chose to communicate it is fucking awful, and we will go into that in a bit. But the message itself is good and you should keep it.
The other two messages though? Not at all. These are things that only you care about. People don't want to read about how overpowered your OC is or how much you hate Glimmer. Including these messages in your story just clog up the works and make the reader stop giving a shit. You actually do everything so badly here that you end up conveying the opposite message about Communism and Glimmer, but we'll go into that later. What I want you to take away from this for now is that your OC sucks and, once again:
NOBODY GIVES A SHIT THAT YOU HATE STARLIGHT GLIMMER.
>>167460 >I am going to avoid delving into the actual politics here, not because I'm not interested or I don't care, but because it's a separate conversation and I suspect we would mostly agree, and because I want to focus on writing fiction, not political ideology.
I was hoping you'd go into detail on this Q_Q oh well. I already know there are better political fics out there, especially original works like Animal Farm. Still would have been nice to hear your perspective.
>>167466 I might yet go into it later, I will see how I feel once I start delving back into the actual text. TBH I skipped most of the argument scene because I found it almost impossible to slog through, so I'm not entirely sure what specific points he made. For now I just want to talk about the craft of writing and how Nigel knows nothing about it. I might have to pick this up again tomorrow, but I should be able to get a little more done before I turn in.
>>167469 Either way this is as entertaining as listening to E;R tear Steven Jewniverse a new one. Take your time, I await with bated breath. For the next couple days I don't really have anything to do, and my desktop is out of commission, so my days are going to be spent refreshing this page and reading Warhammer 40K: Horus Rises.
>>167472 Bro he just released part 1 of a mini-series on the netflix death note adaptation. Shit's pretty high quality, delves into his infamously autistic detail talking about music, characterization and Da Rules of the note.
>>167460 >>167312 >>167337 3c. Seriously, You Have NO FUCKING IDEA Why You're Even Doing This - Summation
This has been a long section, but it's an important one. Thoroughly understanding what you want to write and why you want to write it is probably the most important part of writing anything. Even someone with horrible grammar and spelling and a tin ear for language can write a quality story if they tell it with passion and conviction. Your story, however, proves that this concept does not work in reverse; no matter how well you can technically write, if you just blather for 20,000 words about shit your autism compels you to blather about, throw in some random explosions and battles because your autism tells you it's cool, and try to work in some disconnected political blathering in the most autistic way possible, the end result will be a steaming bowl of rancid diarrhea made out of the gallons of cum your OC chugs on a daily basis and fragments of 50 Shades of Grey, a novel literally 50 shades superior to anything you have ever written in your life and probably the worst thing I ever read before I picked up your fanfiction.
Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, how to write like someone who isn't terrible at it. Basically, the problem with your story from a bird's eye view is that it is a convoluted mess of conflicting ideas with no real narrative structure that can't decide on a central theme. Silver "fuck my throat until the choker breaks, then put it back on and fuck me again" Star is the protagonist, but he is written in a way that makes the reader hate him worse than the villain (I know you probably still don't get that he's unlikable yet, but bear with me). His backstory and laundry-list of special abilities dominate most of the dialog, until he runs into Glimmer. Then, the whole thing is nothing but him lecturing her about why her ideology is wrong and she's how she's the evilest pony who ever eviled evil. Then, they fight a little and he sends her into an alternate dimension. Your MC's method of defeating her focuses again on a lot of the magic and world mechanics you devised, which I don't doubt are very interesting to you and maybe would be somewhat interesting to someone as autistic as you, but you spend way too much time explaining how everything in your world works and it detracts from what (I presume) you are trying to say, which is basically that Communism is Bad. Remember: show, don't tell.
Anyway, your clumsy storytelling and insistence on overstating points beyond the level of ridiculousness utterly negates your ability to describe scenes and action decently. After untangling this bloated mess of words, one can reasonably assume that what you are trying to do here is convince the reader of the evils of Communism, embodied here in the character of Starlight Glimmer. Your hero, Silver "can you please get this bowling pin out of my ass doctor I have to poop, put it back in when I'm done though please" Star defeats her, both literally and ideologically, and presumably saves the day for Not Communism. The problem with it though is your execution. Your OC is completely unlikable, and you shit on Glimmer so much that you actually end up making the reader feel sympathetic to her. I don't even like Glimmer and I found myself getting angry at your over the top bashing of her. I now want to go back and rewatch her episodes just to see if I view her differently now. That and writing this autistic criticism is literally all your work has inspired me to do. From a psych perspective, if you're trying to convince someone of something by embodying the negative ideology in a fictional character, then metaphorically defeating her, you need to make sure the person reading it is rooting for the right character. Your problem is you let your personal emotions get too involved in the story. You get so carried away ranting about muh commies and muh Glimglam that you end up repelling the reader from your point of view.
This is ironically the same mistake that leftists are currently making with a lot of their media and behavior. For example that comedian, I forget her name, the one who did the WH correspondents' dinner and got panned, recently had her Netflix show canceled because no one was watching. She did a sketch where she had a marching band doing a "salute to abortion" and all kinds of horrendous unfunny stuff. She got so carried away with her messaging that it never occurred to her that people watching might find her obnoxious, and start to subconsciously move to the other side of the argument just to spite her. Your fanfic does the same thing. Get that through your head. YOU ARE LITERALLY HURTING THE RIGHT MORE THAN THE LEFT WITH THIS STORY BECAUSE OF HOW BADLY YOU WROTE IT. The only redemption is that no one is going to read it because it sucks so badly most people would get cancer from the first paragraph. For those who do manage to read the whole thing, this is a reverse redpill, and it's all because of how you portray your characters.
I'm a little off topic here, I wanted to delve into the political angle later, but this still ties in to thinking about the message and who your audience is before writing. You need to learn how to filter out things that are interesting to you but would not be interesting to anyone who is not you. You need to learn how to make your characters interact with each other. You need to do a lot of fucking things and I only have like 400 chars left. You need to stop being such a fucking sperg. Barbie Glimmer this time because why not.
>>167478 >YOU ARE LITERALLY HURTING THE RIGHT MORE THAN THE LEFT WITH THIS STORY BECAUSE OF HOW BADLY YOU WROTE IT >She got so carried away with her messaging that it never occurred to her that people watching might find her obnoxious, and start to subconsciously move to the other side of the argument just to spite her
A big part of why the politically inclined of us here are so annoyed! Murdoch sometimes paints a strawman of the leftist, but that's solely for irony and memes in an otherwise thematically and character-consistent story that sends its message well. The Wanserer's Choice posits that the problem with the modern wings are that the right are unkillable but forced to be (((other countries)))' guard dogs, and the left breeds subservience. It portrays this in a manner referencing the deals with the God Hand, since they charge a steep fee for essentially limitless power and brutality. That's actually a good homage with respectable writing. But the more centrist faggots screech SJW at the slightest deviation rom their views, the more the center is eroded and lines are drawn more finely, ironically making the less extreme positions less respected by both sides and putting the potential converts on the defensive.
>>167481 Murdoch uses humor and ironic exaggeration well which is why his stories are both funny and carry a good message. Irony is frankly a topic that is too complex for Nigel and would take forever to explain, he might not even be physically capable of understanding it due to literal autism. However, if you want to write anything humorous or any sort of parody (either a direct parody of a single work, or a parody of an abstract concept the way Murdoch parodies the modern NatSoc movement) it's something you have to learn and master. Like I said Murdoch parodies NatSoc anons perfectly while still arguing on their behalf; that requires you to have both a sense of humor about yourself and your own beliefs, as well as the ability to look at them from an outsider's perspective and guess what things they might criticize about them, then make fun of them before they have a chance to. All things that neither the left nor Nigel are capable of mastering at present.
Also, that comic is very well written. It's a wonderful short story about a pony who wanted to try something out of character to spice things up in the bedroom with Anon, but got so carried away with psyching herself up for it that she forgot the central component, the choker she intended to wear that completed the fetish (or whatever you want to call it). She ends up slipping back into character, which for her is shyness and embarrassment, and ends up being comforted by Anon. Presumably later they still fuck, but you don't even need to see that part. It's both arousing and cute, and endears the reader to Flutters in a way that straight up porn wouldn't.
Nigel, read that comic, it's a good lesson. You should be focusing on telling short, simple stories anyway, it's better exercise than trying to write epics when you don't know what the fuck you're doing. This kind of thing is perfect for teaching the emotional interactions that I was talking about earlier, and you can even fap to it if you want.
Anyway I was going to write another section but it's 4 am and I need to reread some more of Nigel's dreck for the next part which I just don't have the energy to do right now. I will go to sleep now, wake up tomorrow, collect whatever (You)s that have accrued, and resume my work in the morning.
One more Glimglam before I go to sleep though. Goodnight, folks.
It has been a rare occasion in of which i have someone get so absolutely and repeatedly destroyed as Glimmernigel here, be it IRL or on the Internet. this thread took a rocket ride and rose in thread quality. first the detractor fic, now the ER tier deconstruction of Nigel and his fic. I doubt Nigel will ever read a single fucking word of the analysis giving how self-centered and he dismissive he always has been about anything that was not emotional dicksucking, but it has been a highly entertaining display for literally everyone else in here.
This thread is suitable to banish Nigel from the site forever how profoundly it obliterates him on an artistical and psychological basis. He would not want to be in this place anymore, and even if he did, people will never let go of this event and perpetually remind him of it (especially after he publicly went full gamergate against us). My admiration and respects belong to the 2 lolcow butchers who made this thread worthwhile.
>>167483 >That wonderful summary of my half-meme half-related pic You're too good to me, anon. If you live in California I want to buy you breakfast and tea for your time here. >>167489 Punished Glimmernigel when? Bahahaha
>>167483 Maybe after you finish I might go read the fic myself and make a hot-take comparison for stories or parodies. Discussing how overpowered characters can be lovable, especially.
For instance Guts' absolute autismo with Casca, emotional disconnection and difficult upbringing full of loss and near-death experiences cements him as someone who is both pitiable and admirable, and because he's so absurdly strong as to wield a greatsword twice his weight with one fucking hand you can guarantee he'll still live - but the dramatic tension is still there because every major fight scars him, leaves him in grave danger, breaks bones and brings him to a state of...well, Berserk-mode. I mean his armor later on literally forces broken bones into normal shape, even if it shreds his skin and harms his body even further. He's so absolutely, assfuckingly absurd in his destructive behavior that you can't look away. His autismo is a big part of his development and becoming a better man and even knight - when he joins the White Hawks he is a selfish and angry person only driven by instinct and self interests, but as he gets to know Griffith he gains a purpose that strengthens his resolve, he learns about finding a purpose in a world so brutal, and he learns that while pure strength is powerful, teamwork can fell many dastardly foes. When Griffith betrays the hawks, kills every remaining man, rapes Casca and brands both her and Guts with a sacrificial mark that attracts demons, all in the name of regaining control over his life after a year of being stripped of his reputation and independence, Guts regresses into his lone-wolf personality, leaves a traumatized and mute Casca for a small family to take care of her, and starts seeking out his revenge on Griffith. But that revenge is a strange kind of hatelove; Guts admires his power and dedication, and while he can't see why Griffith would do what he did (I mean he saw Casca raped while his arm was torn in half), he understands that the two of them are still friends with competing dreams, they're mutually willing to fight each other to attain.
See, that's some amazing writing for an overpowered character. Blows most fiction out of the water, of most mediums. It's got its messages about organized religion, petty revenge, friendship, motivation, and PTSD, and it goes about telling them in a way that is never condescending, or annoying, or direct. Guts isn't an arbiter of truth - he's a wise man but not very intelligent,and while his author shares some views with him, for the most part he's an independent character with his own beliefs that can be wrong or exaggerated without harming the ego of his writer.
Fuck man now I wanna start reading it again. I stopped around issue 110, rip.
I doubt there will be much more of them from this point onwards. If Nigel does not outright leave MLPOL after ousting himself (which he pretty much already did), he will never post about fiction here again. He*s trapped in a devils cycle of rejecting criticism and being entrenched in his overarching glimmernigger conspiracy. I guess he will just leave for another community, maybe erect a hugbox on fimfiction. I also heard a rumor that he's a drug addict on top of all this narc autism, so dont expect any rational reaction from him.
In any case, i suggest you and the other writers take what this thread offered and transplant it into a dedicated writing thread.
>>167521 Yeah, we might not see the poor assblasted bastard for another six months. But still if we see Glimmernigel rear his head again, I'm hype to raid the thread with general writing advice and examples of better work.
3C. Seriously, You Have NO FUCKING IDEA Why You're Even Doing This - seriously the final
Good morning everyone. And a good morning to you, Nigel, if you're still here.
In just a moment I am going to tear myself away from this beautiful August day and plunge back into what soldiers during the Vietnam War darkly referred to as "The Shit," which in this case means holding my nose and delving back into the actual text of your story, but I just have a few final thoughts on last night's subject.
As I said before, writing is a form of communication. If you are going to write anything at all, you need to understand what it is you want to communicate and who you would like to communicate it to. With fanfiction, you really need to stop and give extra special consideration to this question, before beginning any project. Why am I writing this? It sounds like a simple question to answer, but it really is very complex.
Individuals like you, Nigel, tend to write fanfiction for the stupidest and most autistic reasons, which, unsurprisingly to literally everyone but you, usually result in stories that are god-awful and have no serious value at all, that unless they are exceptionally well written are usually dismissed or ridiculed by audiences. Usually these individuals select premises from the source material revolving around some completely superficial imagining of the world or its characters that relflects no deeper understanding of that world or characters, or any of the themes and ideas present in the original work. These are the same kind of people who sit around arguing over whether an Imperial starship from Star Wars could beat The Enterprise from Star Trek in a gun battle, or who would win in a fight between Goku and Inuyasha, shit like that. Individuals like this also tend to be the ones behind the self-gratifying cringey romance stories that usually just serve as an embodiment of the author's fantasies, with an appropriately bad OC that is just a stand-in for the author himself (protip: read back over what I wrote about your "date" scene between Twily and Silver "can you get AIDS from French kissing a male camel's butthole? asking for a friend) Star if you would like an example of the latter kind of story).
This isn't to say that these kinds of stories can't be fun or that you shouldn't write them, it's just crucial to understand what you're writing, who you're writing it for, and why you're writing it. If you just really want to get your dorky fantasies on paper and don't care if it has literary value or not, then God bless you, there's nothing wrong with that. In that case, basically, the audience is you, and you're writing it purely because you want to. You don't need to worry about impressing anyone else in that case. I do plenty of this myself, I'm sure we all do. It can even be good exercise. Stories that are just pure action and not intended to be deep aren't necessary off limits either. A story about Darth Vader's fleet vs. a Federation fleet could be exciting and fun if told correctly, and you wouldn't necessarily have to know anything except the technical capabilities of those universes' respective technologies and how their commanders behave in battle. However, if you tried to sneak a serious message or emotional subplot armed only with that knowledge your story would probably veer off into cringe town and OP would be eternally branded a faggot.
Writing porn is a virtually identical to writing all-action stories, in that you only need to be able to superficially describe what's happening to do it effectively. You could write or draw pony porn without having ever seen a single episode of Pony; however, if you want the content to resonate emotionally, you have to understand the characters. Don't attempt this if you haven't given serious thought to who these ponies are and why they're doing what they're doing. If you just try to compensate for your lack of understanding by layering on sappy dialog, you'll fail and be mocked. If you just project your own fantasies onto characters you don't understand, you'll fail and be mocked.
If you want to learn characterization, writing greentext from a prompt is a good way to practice. You start out with a simple premise and are not bogged down by trying to write anything of any great length or complexity. "Rarity and Rainbow Dash are lost in the woods, Rainbow's wing is broken." Okay, why are they there? How did they get lost? How did Rainbow break her wing? Technical questions about what's happening and why. Then go deeper. Who are these ponies? How do each of them react to this situation? Do they work together well or do they get on each others' nerves? Go back and rewatch the show, entire episodes have been built around these premises.
Once you understand how to do shit like this, you can start creating larger stories with more characters and more complex premises. But above all, you need to give thought to the following no matter what you want to write or how big or small the project is: what am I writing? Why am I writing it? Who is it for? Learn to answer those questions correctly and OP will never be a faggot again.
>>167526 >morning Bahaha, I'm eating Golden Corral buffet fare while reading. Morning to you too, mister windowless-bedroom. I still like you though, don't worry uwu
Also wew lad, I've never gotten such an extensive crash course on such a specific field of pre-writing and planning.
Alright, back to the rancid meat of your text. Before we get too deep into the argument/fight between Starlight Glimmer and Silver "grab me by my flanks and launch me into orbit, Rocket Man" Star, I just want to say a few words about the short interlude between the date scene and the party.
There is a short, somewhat confusing, segment broken by dividers in which Silver "fist me Daddy" Star and his Silver "there's ten of us now so let's make an equine centipede" Spares apparently show up at Twilight's crystal castle, summon Spike out of the house and take him off somewhere, presumably for some kind of butt stuff, and then proceed to ransack the castle for unknown reasons. This section, and its subsequent follow-up at the end of the story, are a prime example of you having, on some level, some innate instinct for how to build a scene and pique reader curiosity, but your autism keeps getting in the way of your understanding what's a good idea and what isn't.
Basically, as I mentioned, the setup here is that the clones all show up and ransack Twilight's house for reasons that are not explained, leaving the reader to wonder why. You then ask them to set that curiosity aside for, sweet Pony Jesus, 24,535 words, before you get back to it.
Okay, hold on, stop the presses for a moment. I'll get back to this in a second, but holy shitcock. I have been operating thus far on the assumption that the length of your entire text is, give or take, 20k words long. This is based on >>165647 where your screencap shows a total document length of 19,129 words; I hadn't bothered to do a word count of my own. In the OP post you claim a length of over 100k words, but you seem to have confused word count with character count so I ignored that boast. However, I need to look deeper into this, hold the fuck on for a second.
The complete word count of this story is 32,223. Let's all take a moment and let that sink in.
32,223 words, 24,535 of which consist of a single scene. The argument scene between Glimglam and Silver "yummy cummy in my tummy" Star accounts for about 76% of this incredibly bloated text. For a point of reference, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald clocks in at 48,413 words. Do the math. Your autistic pony story, which can be summarized in its entirety as "MC goes on date, talks about himself, robs girlfriend's house, shim shams the Glim Glam spoiler alert: you can't shim sham the Glim Glam, the end", is approximately 67% the length of one of the most highly regarded novels ever written in the English language. 24,535 words into TGG takes us to roughly the part where Gatsby is showing Daisy his house. In the length of time it takes you to lay out one scene, F. Scott Fitzgerald lays out his exposition, introduces all major characters along with their conflicts and backstories, and is chugging along at a fair clip through the rising action portion of his narrative. That is literally insane.
Anyway, back to what I was on about. After the bloated fight scene, if anyone is still reading and still remembers what happened earlier (protip: this is literally no one), you then provide the payoff for the earlier scene in which poor Twilight, as if her cad boyfriend didn't treat her badly enough to begin with, gets her house robbed by Mr. Smith style copies of him.
The cliffhanger payoff, for anyone who cares (protip: this is literally no one), is that it turns out Silver "if this van's a rockin it's what I'm suckin cock in" Star wasn't robbing the place, he was actually remodeling her house and installing a hot tub. I'm sure that in the dark, twisted maze of your creepy little autistic brain, this probably seems like some kind of sweet romantic gesture. Well, I'm going to give you a piece of advice that may one day save your life, in the event that (God save us all) you ever end up with an actual, human girlfriend: it isn't. Breaking into a woman's house in order to install major features that will affect home value, mess with plumbing and rearrange her furniture isn't romantic or sweet. It's insane. She will call the police.
In any case, I don't doubt that Silver's motivations here, like the rest of his (and your) motivations in this story, are completely self-serving. If I had to predict where you were planning to go next with this, I'd say you were going to have poor little Twiggles become even more smitten with her dashing faggot of a boyfriend, and no doubt reward him for his kind, sweet behavior with a romantic hot tub scene. Weren't you, you perv? This scene would no doubt also last the length of another great American novel, and would probably also be filled with lengthy novellas about Silver's time travel abilities dumped into quotes.
Oh yeah, there was one other thing. In the interlude space between the date and The Shit, in a rare moment of actual thoughtfulness, Silver "just stick it in, the cum from the last guy is lube enough" Star asks Pinkie Pie to throw Twilight a party, and she uses her typical cartoon logic to accomplish this. Silver is then left trying to analyze how she did it. This is actually pretty clever. Trying to analyze cartoon physics from the perspective of actual physics is always fun and can make for some good gags. This is good, I would keep this. Just don't get carried away.
>>167547 >Breaking into a woman's house in order to install major features that will affect home value, mess with plumbing and rearrange her furniture isn't romantic or sweet. It's insane. She will call the police
There is only one fictional character I can recall who's that creepy without it being ironic or a horror story.
I was almost starting to feel sorry for you and was thinking about easing up for a bit, so I went back and reread some of your posts in this thread. Now I'm better. I will now resume mercilessly raping your anus, so that you and your shit OC can finally have something in common beyond an overinflated sense of self-importance.
Also, the more I dig into this story the more in awe I am of just how deep this rabbit hole actually goes. I had come into this assuming that this story was a self-contained work. A greater part of a longer narrative, perhaps, but still a standalone work. But no, this story is just Chapter 6 of an even greater, longer, ongoing story. 32k words for one chapter, and there's five other chapters before this one. The more I unravel this, the more fascinated I get. You are like the Black Dahlia of autism cases. It's almost unsettling to think of how long this work probably is already and how long it will eventually be if you keep writing it. It's like sitting in a dark room and giving serious thought to just how large the gaseous planet Jupiter actually is, and then imagining yourself falling it and being consumed. I'm unironically disturbed here.
Okay, so here comes the big one. The people will now hear the case of Starlight Glimmer v. Silver "fist my asshole and use me as a boxing glove to fight Antifa, it's literally all I'm good for" Star.
>Silver’s eyes locked on to the pinkish mare with a purple mane with pale greenish highlights and a Cutie Mark of a falling star. He recognized her. He doubted there was a pony alive who wouldn’t. >Silver began to rush forwards and his horn lit up as he leapt, and he teleported. He reappeared in the air just behind Starlight, his forehooves grabbing the back of her head and pulling it down as his horn’s magic destabilized her front legs by pushing them apart, slamming her face into the crystal ground as he landed beside her. He turned and glared at the screaming mare while his horn blazed with blue magic, a flick of his horn’s power tossing the mare up and flipping her over twice in the air before letting her fall on her back, the angle and point of rotation calculated to rotate her head and inner ear as much as possible for the effort the move expended.
So, right off the bat, we have Silver "are people still laughing at these?" Star walking into a party he had Pinkie throw for Twilight. As usual, Twilight is completely ignored in the narration; she may not even be attending the party that was thrown in her honor. I'll keep an eye out for her as I read this though. It can be like Where's Waldo, which incidentally is one of any number of books I would much rather be reading than this dreck. Anyway, without even a "Hey, how you doing, want to talk about how great I am?" to his poor, inexplicably faithful waifu, Nigel's insufferable OC immediately zeros in on Starlight and attacks her.
The basis for this is apparently supposed to be that Silver "I'm so Reddit I drew a Pickle Rick face on my dick to surprise my dad" Star sees Glimmy at the party, recognizes her as the infamous dictator who ruined the lives of so many ponies and blah blah blah she's evil, and his super-sweet ninja instincts kick in and he immediately does a super-sweet ninja move to pin her to the ground. Already we've got a number of issues.
For one thing, assuming this world follows the same basic trajectory of the series, we can assume from the fact Glimmy is at this party and the way other ponies react to Silver's actions that we are probably at a point in time shortly following her redemption story. So, season 6 somewhere I think? Let's go with that for now, if we can nail it down as we delve deeper we'll adjust. At this point in the series, Glimmer is not just a regular fixture around Ponyville, she literally fucking lives in Twilight's house. The same one which, incidentally, Silver "I'm not gay I just suck a lot of zebra dick" Star's minion-clones are currently tearing the plumbing out of. Apparently though, this is the first time Silver has noticed her. Given the amount of attention this character typically pays to his girlfriend, or really anypony that isn't licking his balls and telling him how awesome he is at any given moment, it's actually unsurprising that he hasn't noticed a particular pony around town before. However, considering the author's, and by extension his terrible OC's, raging hate-boner for this particular pony, it's a little surprising he didn't notice his arch-nemesis living in his girlfriend's fucking house. But I digress.
The other issue here is that he describes her as some kind of universally reviled dictator, known far and wide across Equestria.
>He recognized her. He doubted there was a pony alive who wouldn’t. His exact words. It's been a while since I've watched the later seasons of the show so I might be remembering it incorrectly, but I don't remember Glimmer ever being anything on the level of a famous dictator. She basically enslaved one town of ponies and that was it. The Mane 6 would know her of course, the townsponies she enslaved likely don't have a high opinion of her at this point, and I imagine her reputation has spread somewhat around Ponyville. That seems like that would be about the extent of her infamy though. Really, attributing this much infamy to her seems less like something that would really happen in-world and more like another distortion of reality brought on by Nigel's raging hate-boner.
Aaaaaaaand I have to go to work again. I will pick this up in a few hours.
>>167557 >Silver "are people still laughing at these?" Star Yes, yes I am. But if you're running out of jokes, I don't blame you for stopping. There's only so many ways you can call him a faggot while intimately detailing every way in which he is a faggot, hah.
>upheaves a party like Tommy Wiseau because his archnemesis suddenly seems to have shown up in the town in which she lives, when he should have met her earlier and likely had this exact encounter months prior Jesus christ, I knew this fic would be autistic but that's beyond the pale of peak autism. We really will need a new spectrum for this level of 'tismus.
Anyway, you go tend to your real life, still avidly enjoying this takedown and await with bated breath still. It's surprisingly calming to listen to the music playlist thread while reading all this.
>>167557 Godspeed Anon, we eagerly await your return. Maybe Nigel can expend a couple brain cells to write a coherent reply to your criticisms while you're gone.
>>167557 >>167558 >Yes, yes I am. But if you're running out of jokes, I don't blame you for stopping. There's only so many ways you can call him a faggot while intimately detailing every way in which he is a faggot, hah. Same here. I haven't replied much because I want to see the full extent of this literary breakdown.
I'm going to dispense with the bold-face headings for a bit since the last section was titled Jesus Christ Please Save Me From This Autism and I think that is going to be an appropriate title for a while yet. Just assume that that is the section we are on until I tell you otherwise.
Okay, so. At this point in the story, Silver has Glimmyglam pinned down on the floor. An interesting detail that I didn't notice before is you specifically mention him slamming her face into the "crystal" ground. If I'm following the increasingly convoluted sequence of events correctly, what happened is, Silver "genie of the weenie" Star asked Ponk to pull a party out of her ass in Applejack's barn for Twilight, summoning everypony except Twilight to the party (whether or not Applejack was ever consulted about the use of her barn is never mentioned but whatever, that hardly matters at this point). The purpose of said party was to distract Twilight to keep her out of the house while clones of Silver rob her of all her worldly possessions so they can install a new hot tub (a detail that isn't explained until later, all we know presently is that Silver's doppelgangers are ransacking her house). Whether or not Twilight is actually attending the party is still unclear. Silver sees Glimmer at the party eating cake and minding her own business and decides to randomly attack her because that's what any reasonable pony would do, causing the party to stop with a literal record scratch.
So, if I'm following this correctly, this scene should be taking place at Applejack's barn, right? So why is the floor crystal? Why mention that detail? Why would AJ's barn have a crystal floor? I mention this because the only place in Ponyville I can think of off the top of my head with a crystal floor would be Twilight's castle. Are they supposed to be in Twilight's castle now? The very castle that is being ransacked by the clones, that Twilight, for whom this party was thrown, was supposed to be kept away from? Because the way it looks to me is there are only two possibilities: either the party has inexplicably moved to Twilight's castle, or the eternally practical AJ had a crystal floor installed in her barn for some unexplained reason. Neither scenario makes sense. Explain yourself.
Anyway, next Rainbow Dash, so far the first character you've introduced who does anything sensible, becomes angry at Silver "hot cross my buns" Star for randomly attacking one of her friends and charges him full-speed. Naturally, one of Silver's thousands of powers is to somehow become a rigid body incapable of being moved regardless of force, described "as if he were made of titanium" in the text, so of course Rainbow crashes into him and falls to the floor without doing any damage or even moving him slightly. Considering Rainbow's famous speed and strength, it seems like the effect here would be similar to crashing a car into a retaining wall; I find it hard to believe that Rainbow wouldn't have sustained some sort of serious injury. However, I'm just going to chalk this one up to cartoon physics and move on.
Naturally, another of Silver "Squeeze me I'm full of custard" Star's thousands of powers is to perform some kind of Vulcan mind-meld with a ghost version of himself that springs from his horn and allows him to read the minds of other ponies. Oh, also this:
>Meanwhile, his spell was just one of many ways he could read her. Light blue numbers and lines appeared in his sight and he saw her heart rate, the size of her pupils, her pulse, her brain activity, and if she even twitched a little, anywhere on the body, a subconscious muscle contraction that would tell him she would be about to move or lie, he would know.
So I guess he also has cyborg eyes or something. Naturally. So, anyway, he reads the thoughts of Rainbow Dash and notices that her mind is answering questions differently than she answers them verbally, or some other kind of crazy shit like that. Hm, sounds like the game is ahoof, Dr. Watson. How is our super-sleuth going to get to the bottom of this mystery?
This is my favorite part. Starlight Glimmer, apparently deciding that the line of questioning is delving too deep into her past, volunteers her entire backstory as a justification for her actions. Silver listens to her, and is surprised to discover that he can't get angry enough at Starlight Glimmer and finds himself wondering why. I have to say, that is a twist worthy of M. Night Shyamalan. Of all the developments in this story I would have expected, your OC, who is endowed with every superpower in this or any other universe, being unable to be as angry as he would like at Glimmer is not on the list. Could this be his kryptonite?
No, it isn't. Turns out that actually, Glimmer is some kind of anomalous being, a creature with the ability to warp reality around her and force ponies to like her, and apparently she does it without realizing it. Nopony is supposed to actually like her, they just like her because they are forced to. Her entire redemption is explained away with this flimsy device, thus setting the stage for Glimmy to be justifiably beaten to a pulp by the ever righteous Silver "I swallow if I'm thirsty" Star. Before we get to that though there's a paragraph that frankly deserves an entire post dedicated to it.
Oh, also: it looks like you do specifically mention Twilight "proudly" watching SS and SG make up (though she doesn't intervene in the fight), and the barn is again mentioned, reinforcing it as the location for the scene. So, looks like Twilight is at the party, and AJ's barn has a crystal floor. Whew, glad we cleared that up or I wouldn't have been able to sleep tonight.
Alright. This next post is going to delve specifically into one of your trademark dense, unnecessarily verbose paragraphs that I think deserves to be pulled apart piece by piece, as it may just provide us some valuable insight into your twisted psyche. First, I'm going to post the entire paragraph in its entirety for the benefit of everyone else in the thread, because just summarizing it really doesn't convey the proper effect, you really have to read it for yourself. Then, we'll get down to brass tacks and start picking it apart.
>His horn lighting up in blazing blue, he started to work on fine-tuning a spell to deal with what he saw, and he talked while he worked. “She’s one of those strange anomalous life forms, with the ability to unconsciously warp reality around them. Almost as if reality itself is favouring her. She’ll be able to do the impossible, not because she does it with more skill or determination than anyone else, or in some new and unexpected way, but instead, because it’s her, and the impossible doesn’t want to say no to her and hurt her feelings. No one being will be allowed to get mad at her, and nopony that gets mad will be allowed to stay mad at her, unless he or she is the bad guy in this character’s ‘Story’, either temporarily or permanently. Her backstory will make little to no sense, as if she just popped out of the blue one morning and made something up on the spot when questioned. It’s like reality is a game of Walls and Warlords, and the Dungeon Master made her own character, and gave her the coolest – and most sympathetic – backstory she could think of, plus infinite stats in everything that matters to the writer. As if the writer is doing that thing where rather than establishing things about the character, or influencing the character and his or her goals and worldviews, the backstory exists to impress potential fans. Long-lasting relationships will dissolve and romantic partners will treat each other awfully or die, all for her benefit. Miraculously powerful items will violate whatever normal cycle of inheritance they would normally have and fall right into his or her lap. Impossible abilities, impossible improvement rates, all with no justification. It’s as if this anomalous entity emits some kind of mind-altering field that forces others to react how the anomaly wants. The universe loves her, and can’t give her an adventure that doesn’t paint her in the best light possible, even if it seems unnatural, even artificial. This being doesn’t follow the rules of her own universe, and problems will be generated around her with obvious solutions a child could think of. If she walked into the castle of Celestia herself, the Princess would suddenly become a petty foal with the emotional maturity of wet lettuce, so she could fix Celestia’s issues in under a few minutes. And if she wanted to conquer Equestria, she would only need to enter the country before Celestia herself was warped into an unrecognizable tyrant her loving citizens have suddenly always secretly loathed and longed for freedom from. It’s like the being itself is a lie, a lie others are forced to believe in, a lie that damages the universe the longer it is allowed to exist. And I’ve seen what happens to universes where beings like this are allowed to exist, running around and eroding away the fabric of the universe with each subtle act of warping reality. Many cultures across the multiverse have names for this concept, and I remember selling some gear to a group that hunted these beings for sport, and to maintain the stability of the multiverse. They called these beings Anomalies on paper, but they had some unpronounceable nickname for these beings, it was mare... Something, but my own name for this type of impossible breed of eldritch creature is... Outlier.”
>>167557 >without a [...] to his poor waifu, Nigel's OC zeroes in on Starlight and attacks her I've often thought that Nigel secretly likes Glimmer and hates himself for it
Nigel. Are you paying attention? You need to pay attention. The paragraph I greentexted (see quoted post) is probably one of the most important paragraphs you've ever written. In it is distilled the very quintessence of your autism; the fact that you wrote it completely without irony and fail to see any of the connections between what you wrote and the protagonist you created, is the key to explaining to you just why your story sucks so bad and everyone hates it. If you can truly comprehend what I am about to say, you may just be able to move on from this tragedy and redeem yourself.
>It’s like reality is a game of Walls and Warlords, and the Dungeon Master made her own character, and gave her the coolest – and most sympathetic – backstory she could think of, plus infinite stats in everything that matters to the writer. As if the writer is doing that thing where rather than establishing things about the character, or influencing the character and his or her goals and worldviews, the backstory exists to impress potential fans. I want you to read this quotation carefully. Several times. There is something here that you need to see. Have you guessed what it is yet? No? I'm guessing everyone else saw it immediately. Read it a couple more times. Got it yet? No? Well, I'll spell it out for you then.
This is your character. Everything you wrote in this paragraph describes your OC, verbatim, spot on. Everything you claim to hate about Glimmer, every last horse-fucking word of it could be applied to your garbage-tier OC. In fact, the line quoted above could probably be called the thesis, the quintessence, the core, of your OC.
Coolest backstory the creator could think of? Check (well, to be fair, it also says 'sympathetic', which doesn't really describe your OC, but since you clearly intended for him to be sympathetic but failed miserably at it due to your inability to interpret the emotional cues of others, I'm going to count it).
Infinite stats in everything that matters to the writer? Check.
>As if the writer is doing that thing where rather than establishing things about the character, or influencing the character and his or her goals and worldviews, the backstory exists to impress potential fans. Check, check, double check, triple check. Check that shit one more time just to be safe. This is Silver "my gaping, ruined anus can literally be used to play skeeball" Star in a fucking nutshell.
>Miraculously powerful items will violate whatever normal cycle of inheritance they would normally have and fall right into his or her lap. >Impossible abilities, impossible improvement rates, all with no justification. Check, check.
>The universe loves her, and can’t give her an adventure that doesn’t paint her in the best light possible, even if it seems unnatural, even artificial. This is your approach to writing your own character in a nutshell. Knowing that you probably still don't see it, despite having it thrown right in your face...you can't possibly imagine how maddening that is for me. I'm seriously going to do my best to explain it to you here, because oh God, if you could just grasp this, you could understand so much...
>If she walked into the castle of Celestia herself, the Princess would suddenly become a petty foal with the emotional maturity of wet lettuce... If your novel were printed, and I was asked to write annotations, this is almost the exact wording I would use to describe your OC's relationship with Twilight.
>It’s like the being itself is a lie, a lie others are forced to believe in, a lie that damages the universe the longer it is allowed to exist. I would put that on the dustjacket. In huge, bold type. Right on the front, where anyone who was even thinking about buying this book would see it and realize what a horrible mistake they were about to make.
Do you see, Nigel? Have you figured it out yet, or do you still need it rammed through that dense fucking skull of yours at sonic-rainboom speed? Everything you claim to hate about Glimmer: her unearned powers, her unearned likeability, her unearned redemption, these are all things that could be said about your character. In fact, they apply to Silver "Down on the Docks is Where I Hunt for Cocks" Star much more than they apply to Glimmer.
I'm going to delve more into your hatred of Glimmer before we go any further, because there are a few things that are really bugging the crap out of me.
>>167590 >His horn lighting up in blazing blue, he started to work on fine-tuning a spell to deal with what he saw, and he talked while he worked. “She’s one of those strange anomalous life forms, with the ability to unconsciously warp reality around them. Almost as if reality itself is favouring her. She’ll be able to do the impossible, not because she does it with more skill or determination than anyone else, or in some new and unexpected way, but instead, because it’s her, and the impossible doesn’t want to say no to her and hurt her feelings. No one being will be allowed to get mad at her, and nopony that gets mad will be allowed to stay mad at her, unless he or she is the bad guy in this character’s ‘Story’, either temporarily or permanently. Her backstory will make little to no sense, as if she just popped out of the blue one morning and made something up on the spot when questioned. It’s like reality is a game of Walls and Warlords, and the Dungeon Master made her own character, and gave her the coolest – and most sympathetic – backstory she could think of, plus infinite stats in everything that matters to the writer. As if the writer is doing that thing where rather than establishing things about the character, or influencing the character and his or her goals and worldviews, the backstory exists to impress potential fans. Long-lasting relationships will dissolve and romantic partners will treat each other awfully or die, all for her benefit. Miraculously powerful items will violate whatever normal cycle of inheritance they would normally have and fall right into his or her lap. Impossible abilities, impossible improvement rates, all with no justification. It’s as if this anomalous entity emits some kind of mind-altering field that forces others to react how the anomaly wants. The universe loves her, and can’t give her an adventure that doesn’t paint her in the best light possible, even if it seems unnatural, even artificial. This being doesn’t follow the rules of her own universe, and problems will be generated around her with obvious solutions a child could think of. If she walked into the castle of Celestia herself, the Princess would suddenly become a petty foal with the emotional maturity of wet lettuce, so she could fix Celestia’s issues in under a few minutes. And if she wanted to conquer Equestria, she would only need to enter the country before Celestia herself was warped into an unrecognizable tyrant her loving citizens have suddenly always secretly loathed and longed for freedom from. It’s like the being itself is a lie, a lie others are forced to believe in, a lie that damages the universe the longer it is allowed to exist. And I’ve seen what happens to universes where beings like this are allowed to exist, running around and eroding away the fabric of the universe with each subtle act of warping reality. Many cultures across the multiverse have names for this concept, and I remember selling some gear to a group that hunted these beings for sport, and to maintain the stability of the multiverse. They called these beings Anomalies on paper, but they had some unpronounceable nickname for these beings, it was mare… Something, but my own name for this type of impossible breed of eldritch creature is… Outlier.”
HE LITERALLY DESCRIBED HIS CHARACTER TO A T! INEXPLICABLY AND IMPOSSIBLY POWERFUL, LOVED BY EVERYONE, DATING THE LITERAL PRINCESS OF THIS REGION, WITH KNOWLEDGE SURPASSING CANON PRODIGIES OF MAGIC, AND INCAPABLE OF BEING WRONG MORALLY OR INTELLECTUALLY. AND WHEN SOMEONE DISLIKES HIM, IT'S BECAUSE THEY ARE THE VILLAIN OF HIS STORY, A GOMMIE SJW AND ONLY EXIST TO BE FOILED BY THE GOOD GUY!
I'M NOT EVEN LAUGHING ANYMORE, I'M JUST SO OUTRAGEOUSLY MAD AT THIS EGO THAT I CAN NO LONGER COMMUNICATE IN LOWERCASE!
>>167637 It's not going to be okay until I get my USB pre-loaded with Linux delivered so I can get my computer back and revel in the atmosphere of Borderlands again.
I need vidya therapy having read that absolute, mind-rending, madness-inciting, elder god of the ego that Silver Star calls a motherfucking paragraph.
>>167640 I am absolutely speechless. What can I even say? There is not a drive large enough to store my distilled, pure reaction to it. Terabytes - no, googolbytes of gibberish and screams from an unnamed tongue. The Adeptus Administorum would find it and either think it was the ramblings of a Tzeench-worshipping heretic, or a heavily encrypted cypher using old technology harvested straight from the site of the webway in its infinite processing power.
Let's look at it analytically here. What are your gripes against Glimmer exactly? Let's go through them, based once more on the contents of your thesis paragraph.
>She’ll be able to do the impossible, not because she does it with more skill or determination than anyone else, or in some new and unexpected way, but instead, because it’s her, and the impossible doesn’t want to say no to her and hurt her feelings. So you're saying...she's overpowered? She has unearned accomplishments? How is she overpowered? She's basically written as being at a magic level comparable to Twilight's. The only ability she has that might count as overpowered is her ability to steal others' abilities, which she stopped using once she learned her lesson. Contrast that with your OC, who has EVERY FUCKING POWER THERE IS, even ones that don't exist anywhere in the canon universe that you either made up or ripped off from anime just so your OC could have ALL THE ABILITIES.
>accomplishments What are Glimmer's unearned accomplishments? She became powerful at magic the same way Twilight did, through obsessive, rigoruous study. Even the evil things she did she learned how to do on her own, they weren't powers that were just bestowed upon her by the universe. Contrast that with your OC, who basically gains a new power every time you need him to do something in the story. He needs to be able to tell if a pony is lying about something? Well shit, he's got a magic mind reading ghost inside his horn and also fucking x-ray robot eyes! He needs to btfo somepony in a fight? No problem there, he's a world class ninja! Did I also mention that he's the world's handsomest millionaire? Because he is!
You know, while we're on the subject of unearned abilities here, just how did your character get this powerful anyway? I mean, think about it for a second. Age isn't really discussed in MLP, but most people generally age the Mane 6 at whatever the pony equivalent of late teens to early twenties would be. For the sake of convenience authors generally just use human years to describe their age, and most people seem to put them at around college age. How does someone who has only lived for about 20-25 years manage to become not just good, not just proficient, but the MASTER of multiple disciplines in that span of time?
Twilight is basically a magic prodigy, but she spends all of her time studying. She earned her ability. Ditto for Starlight as far as I'm concerned. Rainbow Dash is athletic and devotes all her time and energy to that, and that's how she became the best. Rarity spends all her time on her fashion designs and building her business. She earned what she has. AJ has her farm and her family, Ponk puts all her energy into social stuff and baking cookies I guess, Flutters has animals. Point I'm making is they all have their own special things that they put all their energy into mastering. How did your character manage to master hand to hand combat while also studying magic and science? How did he develop his interdimensional time travel ability? When did he get his goddamn robot eyes installed? You have no fucking idea, because you never thought about it. You just gave him those powers because you thought it would be cool for him to have them. Your character sucks.
The myth of the polymath is that he's the pinnacle of all achievement. The truth is, most polymaths don't end up accomplishing much more than a couple of significant works, because they never spend enough time developing any one skill to truly master it. DaVinci was a famous polymath, but the vast majority of his projects were never completed. Contrast him with someone like Raphael, who only painted, but has hundreds of works credited to him. He grew fairly wealthy from commissions too, whereas DaVinci had almost perpetual money troubles. That reminds me, just how did your character become wealthy, anyway? Seems like he wouldn't have much time to work or run a business if he was constantly practicing kung fu and studying complex magic.
Also: >Long-lasting relationships will dissolve and romantic partners will treat each other awfully or die, all for her benefit. This one's been bugging me. Literally what are you even referring to here? Name a specific instance.
Anyway, I never liked Glimmer much, but my reasons are mostly just that I find her clumsily written and awkwardly inserted into the cast. Writing this analysis has made me realize she's actually not all that bad when you ignore problems the show itself has and examine her purely as a character. Congratulations, Nigel, you've made me unironically like Glimmer. That is your legacy. Through your actions, you convince people to believe the opposite of what you try to convince them to believe. You're like the Barack Obama of pony fiction.
Bottom line, Glimmy has her faults and nobody is saying you have to like her, but your hateboner for her is over the top and stupid, particularly since the reasons you give are pretty much bullshit. Her character is written basically to parallel Twilight's. They both were OCD bookworms who devoted all their time to studying. Glimmer just took a wrong turn, which could arguably be attributed to lack of guidance. After all, Twilight had Celestia teaching her. She also had Spike for companionship. Starlight basically had nobody, and just spent all of her time sitting by herself brooding over shit that made her angry, sort of like you. And, like you, she wound up reaching some misguided conclusions about the world and decided to do some terrible things; in her case enslaving a town of ponies, and in your case writing horrendous Pony fanfiction. The two of you really have more in common than you realize, the only difference is: Glimmer realized the error of her ways and eventually redeemed herself. Will you?
Okay, so, moving on. After this long and dense paragraph, which was incidentally spoken out loud by one of Silver "your scrotum is my lucky totem" Star's fucking clone guys to one of his other clone guys, one of the clone guys fires a lightning bolt which apparently strips away Glimmer's (ugh) "Eldritch" status. Now that they are no longer held under a spell, every pony in the barn can now see Glimmer for the horrible icky monster she truly is. Her "Eldritch" status, incidentally, becomes some kind of giant bubble and goes floating off somewhere for some fucking reason or another.
Now, and thank the heavens for this, Silver "I got an infection from that last beef injection" Star is free from the naggling constraint of being magically compelled to be nice, and can get as angry at Glimmer as he wants. Should we hope he uses this power wisely? No, thanks to your writing, Nigel, the concept of hope no longer exists for me.
Oh yeah, here's another little gem culled directly from the text: >She was a little surprised that he could just say a horrible Bad Word like that, but that made him a bad boy, which clearly excited her, and made him, in her eyes, somepony she wanted to impress.
Yes, anons in the gallery, you read that correctly. Even Glimmy, the pony that Nigel despises more than Satan himself, is hot for his OC in this story and wants to fuck him. His OC is just that cool. There is not a mare alive who can resist the throbbing beefy dong of Silver "I can't resist throbbing beefy dong either though" Star. Yet another fascinating glimpse into the cobwebbed corridors of Nigel's twisted little mind.
Anyway Nigel, we haven't even gotten to the politics yet and I'm already sick of this conversation between Glimmer and Silver. Ugh, I haven't even read half of this, either. The problem with this whole scene so far is that, in typical Nigel-esque fashion, the points you present are not so much examples of Starlight's actual evil derived from show canon as they are instances of your hateboner projecting itself onto the character. To put it simply, you are just making shit up. For one thing, your chronology is bizarre. You mention that Glimmer spent about 20 years studying the spell to extract cutie marks. You then describe how she took over this village and ran it for years and years, maybe decades, taking cutie marks of ponies and saving them until they grow old and die. The way you describe it, it sounds like multiple generations of ponies lived and died in this village under Glimmer's rule while she absorbed their magic and grew more powerful. How old is this pony supposed to be in your world? She doesn't look that old, is she supposed to be immortal like Celestia, or using the cutie marks to preserve her youth or something? You also mention her bullying ponies to commit suicide and stealing their marks that way. I have to be honest here, I don't remember any of that from the show. Seems like that's the kind of thing someone might have raised a flag about before it aired, idk maybe you've got the director's cut or something.
This is important because it goes back to what is probably my central theme here: that you have no idea why you're even writing this. It's your story so you can take creative liberties with the source material if you want, but it seems like it would work against you to do that here. As far as I can tell you're basically trying to convince the reader of two things in this scene: that Glimmer is an objectively evil pony and should not be liked, and that her ideology is morally abhorrent. If you're trying to convince people of the first point, it doesn't really serve your interests to embellish or invent things. The show canon exists for everyone, your headcanon exists only for you. If you want the reader to conclude that Glimmer is evil, you need to show that the canon Glimmer is evil. If you prove that your headcanon version of Glimmer is evil, what did you accomplish?
Every time I want to move forward and address the broader issues presented in this scene, I come across some little snippet of something that is just such a fine example of how absolutely insufferable you are as both a writer and a human being that I just have to stop what I'm doing and examine it.
In this section of text, Silver "I think Dan Harmon is actually a pretty great guy" Star is listening to Glimmer gleefully talk about how evil she is while going over her myriad crimes against ponykind. As usual, it contains glaring hypocrisies that once again reveal that you have absolutely no capacity for self awareness whatsoever.
Here is the list of Starlight Glimmer's crimes: >Theft, from innocents. The exploitation of innocents. Lying, for a bad cause. Creating a cult. Hypocrisy. Repeated and intentional malicious alteration of the timeline, creating who even knew how many bad alternate timelines full of ruined lives and likely-dead ponies who should have lived. The destruction of not just any Equestria, but HIS Equestria, more than ten times in a single day. Okay, fair enough. She actually did all those things. Pretty good so far, right? But then you drop this one on us.
>And an insufferable, selfish, arrogant little ‘I am smarter than you, only I am right, only I know what is best for all, and any who seek to oppose me are wrong’ attitude. With a heaped tablespoon of ‘I am what I am and wanting me to change that is wrong’, with salt and ‘Tee hee hee I love being evil, it’s so fun to be bad’ to taste! I'm honestly getting a headache just having to explain the same things to you over and over. What's more, everything I have to say about this has been said several times over by several other anons in this thread, and STILL YOU REFUSE TO LISTEN. Well, what the hell, let's have another go.
>an insufferable, selfish, arrogant little ‘I am smarter than you, only I am right, only I know what is best for all, and any who seek to oppose me are wrong’ attitude this is literally your attitude.
>I am what I am and wanting me to change that is wrong this sums up your response to every piece of criticism you've ever received.
>it’s so fun to be bad As far as I can tell this is basically your attitude toward writing.
And, doubtless against the advice of your inner muse, who no doubt told you to give up and stop writing years ago so you tied her up and locked her in a closet in the deepest corner of your mind, right next to your humility, you continue:
>He wouldn’t mind the arrogance so much, if she had a reason to BE arrogant. This is how literally everyone feels about you and your work.
>She wasn’t intelligent, she wasn’t cute, she wasn’t funny, and she wasn’t a pleasant pony to be around. You, you, you, and you.
>The egotism of this spiteful little overgrown and mentally-underdeveloped foal made his skin crawl, and the pony part of his mind was screaming at him to give this animal enough Magical Friendship to make a small crater where she used to be. Amen, brother. Wait, were you still talking about Glimmer?
>“You know, you’ve said a lot of interesting things to me, today,” Silver said, “And I’d love to write them down in a book some day, I’m sure it would be a great seller. It’d be a great book. Just... The best book, ever. I’ll write it a few days from now." I would actually be curious to read Silver's book about his conversation with Glimmer. There is no possible way it could be any worse than the one I'm reading right now.
>With a detached curiousity, he wondered what would happen if somepony like him became ‘Too’ angry. If the subject of the anger is Starlight Glimmer, both you and your faggot OC live every second of every day at maximum anger. It is not possible for you to become any angrier with this pony than you are already, at least I sincerely hope not. You trying to surpass your own hateboner is like trying to overtake an object traveling at the speed of light: physically impossible. Unless your OC has some kind of power that would make it possible, of course.
Anyway, these unintentionally ironic passages are followed by more boring back-and-forth. Silver "put a saddle on me and ride me to the gay bar" Star continues to lob hypothetical situations at Starlight, who keeps coming up with hypothetical solutions that predictably fall short. Blah blah blah how do you heal the sick with no doctors, blah blah blah how do schools work, blah blah blah what if monsters show up, blah. Nobody cares. Who is this for? You have no idea. You are a massive cum gargling faggot. Please stop writing forever.
So, anyway, Glimmyglam and Silver "Starpunch" Star go back and forth for a while, and then Silver gives her a full indictment. There's no need to quote it here, since it's another huge block paragraph and it basically just sums up events from the show that anyone reading would probably know already. Mostly it focuses on the events of the Cutie Re-Mark episode, where Glimmer fucks with time and prevents Rainbow from doing her sonic rainboom over and over.
The point you seem to be making here is that Glimmer is personally responsible for what happens in all of these worlds; Tirek taking over, Nightmare Moon taking over, changelings taking over, all that shit. That's one way to interpret it I suppose, and to be fair I can see how you reach this conclusion. You're kind of missing the point of that episode, though. Each time something interferes with the Pegasus race and RD fails to perform the rainboom, the Mane 6 fail to become friends and the world ends somehow. This is basically how Twilight demonstrates to Glimmer how important friendship is. Glimmer then sees the error of her ways and repents. Friendship seems to be kind of a recurring theme in this show.
At this point you introduce what I'll admit is actually kind of an interesting interpretation of events. You put forth the idea that all these tragic realities are actually parallel universes, and even after everything returns to normal, these worlds continue to exist, and all the alternate versions of the ponies in those worlds live on. However, blinded by your autistic hateboner for Glimmer as usual, you pin the blame for this solely on her, and argue that she created these worlds through her actions.
I will preface this by saying that I am by no means an expert on quantum mechanics nor do I pretend to be. However, I feel like I understand the pop science of it well enough to take a crack at dissecting your logic. The idea is not that parallel worlds are created or destroyed based on the choices we make, the idea is that the multiverse is a huge webwork in which literally all possibilities exist simultaneously. There's a world where you brushed your teeth this morning and a world where you didn't. There's a world where your faggot OC, Silver "I can fit a whole pineapple in my rectum wanna see?" Star, sucked a dick this morning, and a universe where he sucked two dicks this morning.
The universes where the rainboom never happened exist one way or the other. In fact considering that there are probably any number of things that could have prevented that event from happening, there's probably thousands of similarly unfortunate universes, most of which Glimmer never even touched. Really, if you consider that the entire happy future of Equestria hinges on six ponies making friends with each other, donning the Elements of Harmony, and fighting all the monsters and whatever that threaten the world once or twice per season, and their entire friendship depends solely on one filly performing a difficult trick during a race at a precise moment in time, you really only have one very narrow window for things to go right and a thousand ways for things to go wrong. What about universes where Rainbow Dash's parents never meet? What about universes where Twilight gets distracted and doesn't look out the window?
Glimmer's actions here really don't affect the big picture much. In fact, by focusing the story on your completely petty and arbitrary hate for this one character, you blatantly missed an opportunity to focus on an idea that I guarantee you would resonate better with an audience than "reeee Glimmer is worst pony and I hate her stupid face": that there are probably millions of universes where Equestria dies a gruesome, horrible death, but only a handful where it doesn't. There may even only be one where the proper conditions are met to avoid all this tragedy, and it's the one these ponies live in. And it's a happy world, joyous even. Imagine how much more you would treasure your life and your friends if you learned something like that about your world. That's the lesson Twilight wanted to teach Glimmer and eventually managed to communicate. That's the kind of story you could have told. But you didn't. You chose instead to blather about Communism for 24,535 words and beat up a character you don't like. I feel sorry for the ponies who have to live in your universe.
Also, moving past theoretical physics and back into writing, this scene, like most parts of your story, is executed poorly. Characterization is not done well. After Silver "I'm a mare trapped in a stallion's body" Star concludes his speech, everypony in the room naturally agrees with him that Glimmer is worst pony, and Glimmer shows no remorse whatsoever. This is probably intentional, since the convoluted bit about her being an "eldritch" was basically just so you could erase Glimmer's redemption and make her evil again, then show her as evil to all other ponies and have them agree with you. Basically, you erase the canon, replace it with your headcanon, and have the crude little sockpuppets you made of the canon characters nod their heads to confirm that it is now true. Trust me when I say that literally no one gives a shit.
Lesson: don't force your headcanon on the audience, it's obnoxious.
Going to bed now, have to work later. Don't know when I will get back to this but get back to it I will.
>>167681 I just woke up today to read all that and....holy fuck man. I ACTUALLY want to read a story involving quantum physics/timelines that were doomed and how the singular canon timeline is so fragile and rare from that perspective. That sounds like an emotional trip, a dive into what makes character/personality (environment vs nature), and a real great feels trip.
Honestly knowing now what Glimmernigel could have made, and knowing he doesn't even give that a few thousand words, fills me with a renewed sense of wasted potential.
>>167690 >I ACTUALLY want to read a story involving quantum physics/timelines that were doomed and how the singular canon timeline is so fragile and rare from that perspective. That sounds like an emotional trip, a dive into what makes character/personality (environment vs nature), and a real great feels trip. Yeah, that actually sounds right up my alley. Especially if you keep it as a relatively short one-off, at least to start.
>>167674 >He wouldn’t mind the arrogance so much, if she had a reason to BE arrogant. Excuse me but didn't he already list the 'accomplishments'? Dooming timelines, creating a cult, theft and exploitation, and 'decades' of stealing cutiemarks and ruling the village until they grew old and died? Even if you took away the noncanon bs, if starlight was aware of all of what she did and boasted about it instead of regretted it, that's still more than enough reasons to "be arrogant" and more accomplished as any villain in MLP save for Tirek's back story of enslaving the crystal ponies and causing negativity to spread throughout Equestria for generations. So Nigel can't even keep a consistent story within his own world without contradicting himself in his Silver "Self-insert? What's that? I dont care just insert it into me" Star over his hate-boner for Starlight.
I haven't read a single line of his story but I could already pick up on this in one thread I appreciate all your breakdowns and look forward to the end (but then kind of want it to never end)
>>167648 I'm going to do something similar to what you've said except using the dragon fight (shown in the other thread >>166716 → ), but I think the barn scene was a better example.
This actual part of the scene itself: And instead of the joke being a repetition of events! A chain loop! The joke becomes the repetition itself. I shouldn't have to explain why that's fucking awful GlimmerNiggerNigelNigeria, write some variation, some diagonal animu slashes, literally anything and the joke will still be apparent, people will find the humour and react on their own. The boringness and the simplification killed the joke (and more importantly the audience).
What else is chronically wrong with his writing across the board that I dislike? -Characters don't vary in most scenes by reacting (like interesting real characters with depth... Nigel). -The environment is entirely ignored. -In this example the actual characters themselves are ignored for le epic maymay battle (missed character exposition and building opportunity??? fuck me, we'll never know). -Characters (and you've brought this up in the time it's taken me to get to this, using specific examples like Twilight(the lack of) in the barn scene) -seem to disappear.
I was originally going to use the example of Twilight being vacant for most of the 'Dragon-Mare' scene and highlight her lack of reaction and interaction to break up and vary the extended joke section. =All she does is say a dialogue line (w/ said tag) then the Dragon-mare says something (and an action interacting w/ Twilight), then Silver says something (and an action interacting w/ the Dragon-Mare). And you just repeat those two latter ones (except even worse because Twilight isn't mentioned)= and that's the entire joke. Twilight is used twice and it's to do generic things, no interruption? No character thought? Third person character narration?
And that's just part of a larger fight scene that's basically a bunch of anime maymays and relies heavily on character dialogue (rarely varying) to deliver these epic maymays everyone wanted to read.
The abilities themselves? Could be interesting if they ever got used to do something interesting. Spoiler: They don't.
At some point I typed something like this out, but, forgot to post it because I'm documenting other lolcows at the same time right now, It's been a busy week, good job taking lead of the funposting autism-writer Anon. My addled brain actually thought I posted my thoughts on this scene. I'd like to say he does this all the time = making a post with some Fimfic link and a random OP picture. Terminal attention-seeking syndrome with a bad case of 'no effort' or even attempt to actually provide something while attention-seeking.
Ah, the childish "He stopped talking to us! That means we win, right?" bullshit of the subversive communist left never gets old. Sorry, but the kids "Shitting this site up" aren't really a high priority for me. When shit comes up IRL, I have to deal with that shit.
Sometimes, I wish my life was so peaceful and quiet that I had the time to go full SJW and get Infinitely Offended over some fanfic writer committing wordcrime and thoughtcrime and breaking your personal rules on what is and isn't ok in fanfiction.
>>167840 You didn't get what Silver was saying? You didn't get that he doesn't consider brainwashing a town, killing ponies(That Cutie Mark wall was full. There were more Cutie Marks on that wall than there were living ponies in her town. Glimmer gaining magic from devouring stolen Cutie Marks is the only way to explain why this Mary Sue is stronger than the living paragon of friendship and magic, and Ponies simply turning to dust after being Gray for long enough felt more merciful than her actively sacrificing them to Moloch like the average leftist in power), ruining the timeline a few dozen times, and causing incredible pain and suffering to multiple worlds... to be something anypony should be proud of doing.
The meaning of that line went over your head? Damn, guess that's going to put a dent in your "x is a hipocrit becuz x" leftylie. And your ego, too. Haha you belong on r/whoosh lmao. However will you convince people here to take me less seriously and not engage me in debate or discussion now?
>Mister Metokur Tells Vee How He Became A lolcow https://youtu.be/iHG1P-6f1DQ 45 minute cut from a stream on the gypsies channel
"...but if you keep feeding this its never gonna end. It's going to escalate beyond what it is now and its going to go from trolling and fucking with your family to life ruination shit. And when it reaches that level, your are going to have an ED entry about the meltdown of Vee Monroe. It's just going to escalate." - Jim
>>167972 What a retarded defence. >You didn't get what Silver was blah blah blah God, it's almost like you didn't communicate your story effectively. Almost like it's way too long for its linguistic and simplicity and lack of, well, literary concepts.
Ever read The Great Gatsby? >>167547 >24,535 words into TGG takes us to roughly the part where Gatsby is showing Daisy his house. In the length of time it takes you to lay out one scene, F. Scott Fitzgerald lays out his exposition, introduces all major characters along with their conflicts and backstories, and is chugging along at a fair clip through the rising action portion of his narrative. That is literally insane.
>>167972 >Sometimes, I wish my life was so peaceful and quiet that I had the time to go full SJW Oh anon, your life must be so, so busy, oh poor you anon, no one else here has a busy life and still manages to lurk this site for hours and hours. Everyone here has a free, peaceful life. Absolutely. Everyone.
6. This Should Go Without Saying, But This Story is Way Too Long
Okay, this shit goes on for like 40 forevers. There's quite a few more quotable bits that would be fun to dissect a bit, but it would take me until Christmas and really I would just be going over points I've already made.
When I say that you need to trim this down, Nigel, I really do mean it. You need to fucking trim this shit down. Even if you obstinately refuse to take any of the rest of the advice you've been given and want to keep going with this train wreck of a fanfiction, at least trim this scene down.
For instance, this paragraph: >“You know, Starlight... I follow a comic series named ‘Vitreous and Fern’. It prominently features an evil background character who’s supposed to be evil and utterly pathetic. He’s supposed to have a hilariously shallow to perform evil acts, such as stealing his town’s garden gnomes, and deflating every inflatable in town, and trying to block out the sun. And every time, he’s stopped by a heroic secret agent, a Platypus. He’s supposed to be a joke, and yet despite everything he’s done and tried to do, you’re worse than he is, and you have less of a reason to do any of it. You’re more pathetic than Doctor Daydreamsmiles! But while that fictional loser is written to make me feel sorry for him, you... you make me sick!
If there were an award for how far outside the narrative you can go to make a point about nothing, I would nominate you for it, because this would be a good entry. What is the point of this paragraph? Glimmer is worse than a character you made up from a comic you made up? What purpose does this serve? You're comparing Starlight to a character no one could possibly be familiar with. For a comparison to make sense people need a frame of reference. Who is Doctor Daydreamsmiles and why do I give a shit?
>Heck, why am I bringing up fictional characters when I could bring up Sombra, or better yet, Tirek! You really should have taken your own advice here. You know what, scratch that, the next paragraph about Tirek isn't much better. You just reiterate more events from the show that readers would already be familiar with and then bash Glimmer some more. Cntrl-A + Backspace is the best editing tip I can give you.
Really, most of this scene should just be cut out. I can't even tell you specifically which paragraphs to cut out because the only solution here is to just cut all of it and rewrite it AND MAKE IT MUCH SHORTER. We haven't even gotten to the political ideology section yet and I am already sick of reading this. This whole conversation is just classic Nigel letting his hateboner run wild. You keep making the same points over and over and referencing the same examples. So far I've seen at least three separate instances where you compare Glimmer to Tirek, and it's the same shit every time. Tirek stole magic, Glimmer stole magic; we get it. Very incisive observation, you don't need to repeat it 80 fucking times. I'm guessing you probably go down the list and compare her to every goddamn villain in the series, and I'm also guessing the end conclusion is that she's worse. Brilliant.
Even if you keep everything else about this train wreck of a story the way it is, you could still improve it just by paring it down to an appropriate length. Your problem, as always, is that you have no understanding of who you're writing for and no ability to filter out what your audience probably won't be interested in reading. Nobody reads fiction because they want to be lectured, if you just want to lay out all the reasons you think Glimmer is awful you should just abandon the fanfiction and write an essay instead (more on that once we get to the part about politics).
Here's what you should do: instead of just sitting down at the computer and typing everything that comes into your head, sit down, take a deep breath, and think about everything you want to say first. Make a list with bullet points if that helps you. Make each point concisely, once, and move on. Don't repeat yourself, most people won't even want to read what you have to say once, let alone fifty times. There is no reason on earth this party scene should go on for more than a page or two.
When you consider that, again, this is not a self-contained work but merely ONE CHAPTER of a larger work, there is no excuse for the length here. Literally all that happens in this chapter is Twilight and Silver "oh shit I'm out of butt lube and the butt lube store is closed today this is the worst Christmas ever" Star have a date, Silver ransacks her house as a "surprise", a party happens, Silver meets Glimmer and they have a fight. There is absolutely no reason this chapter should exceed 10,000 words. Even that may be excessive. Once again I want to remind you that the overall length of this is about 32k, with the party scene accounting for about 24k. Cut that scene out and your whole chapter is around 7,000, which is reasonable for what you have. I would give yourself a limit of about 2,500-3,000 words for the party scene and do a rewrite. If it exceeds that length, cut stuff out. Hold yourself to the limit. It's good exercise.
When I called this story a train wreck, it really wasn't an exaggeration. I want to look away from this but I just can't.
Let's see, what happens next. Your character gets mad at Glimmer for some stuff that happened in your story that isn't canon: "brainwashing" the Mane 6 (I assume you're talking about that spell or whatever you had her cast to make ponies like her, otherwise I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about), laughing and joking about her evil deeds (happened just now in your scene)...
Oh, wait a minute, what's this? >Silver seemed to calm down. “Look, I know I’m not the nicest pony on the planet. Not a lot of ponies ever called Silver Star nice. Is that...could it be? Humility? In MY Silver Star dialog?
>I beat the evil out of bad guys, more than I really have to. Most are still trapped in stone, or cards, and the rest are still in the hospital. If I go to a fancy restaurant and the food is bad, I make it a policy to teleport away and leave them with the bill. Nope, turns out even his analysis of his "flaws" is just more bragging, and I think that bit about skipping out on restaurant tabs was an attempt at a joke.
>Ponies don’t just call me a hero because of my charity work, they call me a hero because I channel my appreciation for destruction and ruination constructively. I hunt down the rich and powerful and politically untouchable, and I ruin their evil plans and take everything they have, to make this world and other worlds into better places. >I’ve taken on thieving outlaws, thugs, con artists, bankers, white-collar criminals, golden-collar criminals, crime syndicates, loan sharks, phony future-seers, evil alternate universe versions of great heroes, Changeling co-conspirators, art thieves, underworld kingpins, and more tragic monsters than anypony would expect... Damn dude, don't be so hard on yourself.
>”QUIET!” Starlight roared, her face contorted with fury, a vein bulging in her neck, shocking most of the ponies around her. Thank you, Starlight. Nice to see somepony around here with some sense. Now if only he'd listen...
Anyway, blah blah blah, more shitting on Glimmer for the evil things she did in the story you wrote, nothing to see here...oh, wait, here's something. Looks like we get a glimpse into Silver's backstory. This should be good...
>“I didn’t inherit this money, you idiot.” Silver growled. “What, do you think my father gave me a small loan of a million bits, and I got lucky on where I invested it? No, my parents were farmers, and so was I! I worked the fields, I farmed crops, and I fertilized them myself! When I was a young colt, I fought Cattle Rustlers with my own bare hooves and a horn that could only cast three spells! And when I got older, I made my own vehicle and rode it from my hometown to Manehattan, where I got a job at an antique store. I saved my money, so I could take a taxi to Canterlot, where I EARNED my spot at The Royal Canterlot Academy for Magical Duelling, and I studied harder than anypony else in that college ever did! I didn’t whine about how unfair destiny was to make some ponies into magical dieties and make others into farmers! I took destiny into my own hooves and I made it give me what I wanted, and what I wanted was a better life, and a place where I could give others better lives, and do more good than I could as some Frontier Town’s Sherrif. And now I run the biggest company in this corner of the Multiverse, ponies in sixty worlds grow up WISHING they were me, I made my own place at the top and I earned it.” Wow, the Equestrian dream. Remember colts: just keep your nose to the grindstone and work hard and beat up cattle rustlers, and maybe one day you too can grow up to be the world's sexiest millionaire who is also a ninja and a scientist and a time-traveling wizard. Oh yeah, and don't forget to fertilize your own crops.
You misspelled "dueling" and "Sheriff" by the way.
Anyway, blah blah blah, more stuff happens...Glimmer punches Silver in the face but naturally he's made of titanium so it hurts her instead...he pops a balloon for some reason, not quite sure why he did that but who even gives a shit at this point...okay, here we go. Looks like we're finally ready to start the political debate. And my scroll bar is only halfway down the page, oh goody. Looks like Silver casts a truth spell on Glimmer, naturally, because obviously we all need a guarantee that the words you're about to shove in her mouth are genuinely hers.
>>168009 Two points I want to make: >"What, do you think my father gave me a small loan of a million bits, and I got lucky on where I invested it? No," I'm pretty sure that was a dig against Donald Trump. That's not a bad thing in and of its self, but it is very telling that he has to script his OC to the degree that Donald Trump is inferior.
My second point is simple. I looked at one of Nigel's OTHER Silver "Tell the Doc I crave the cock" Star's stories, it's 91k words. 91k. At that ratio, with two stories he tops the Count of Monte Cristo, and I'm sure his combined exploits will easily top the unabridged CoMC. Let that sink in.
I think after this much public deep level research on him and his conartist works it is fair to say that Glimmernigel is objectly speaking mentally insane. He creates fiction to volumes that put historically achieved authors to shame, just to inflate his already gargantuan ego to astronomical levels. Essentially writing about himself and circlejerking about how great his fantasy represent is.
I have never seen or encountered a narc of this magnitude. it defies nature how he even made it to this age without getting beaten to death by someone getting sick of his shit. Even Low Tier God and Chris Chan at his worst are more humble than this.
>>168024 >Essentially writing about himself He doesn't even write about himself. He puts himself in the story, but that's not the same as writing about himself. Writing about yourself requires self-awareness, which Nigel doesn't have. He imagines himself this way and inserts his fantasy-self into the story as Silver "does this dildo in my ass make my ass look fat?" Star.
I'm honestly beginning to wonder if he's ever even been outside or actually had a non-online conversation. Because he writes like someone who has lived his entire life behind walls, with only a steady diet of pop culture to inform him about the world outside. His entire body of work is just a bunch of cliches strung together haphazardly, yet he seems to believe they're original ideas. It's like he's never had an original thought in his life, but he doesn't know it.
>>167972 >but the kids "Shitting this site up" >x is a hipocrit becuz x" leftylie. And your ego, too Oh look being a hypocrite again with no self awareness, and reacting like a tumblrite. You are the one shitting up the site with your constant attention whoring and thread spam, nobody else and everyone on this site thats actually from imageboards is enjoying seeing your story get ripped to shreds just like everyone enjoyed the parody. And you are the one with the biggest ego here, you suck a dick because I will never read a single page you write.
>r/whoosh I'm sure you know so much about who belongs on which sub reddit having such a good long history with it.
>You didn't get what Silver was saying? >to be something anypony should be proud of doing. 'Proud' is not the word you used, faggot arrogant is, which is a negative form of pride. Arrogance doesnt get referred to in a positive light. You used the wrong words to get the emotion across that's your own fault as a failure of writer not mine.
Bless the great labours of this autistic burger, Eviscerating Nigel with great, brutal fervor, Though your quarry may deflect, and facetiously chortle, His sphincter lies in ruin, though he thinks himself immortal, Such wondrous happenings on this board for horsefuckers, Shall not go without blessings from this >leafy cocksucker.
Bless his discovery of a lolcow truly endowed, His fractured raw rectum, so thoroughly plowed, Bless his determination to see this creature dissected, A labour great and arduous, that ought to be respected, Further bless the power of his great, limitless autism, Shattering Nigel's work like /pol/acks to Judaism,
I sanctify this prayer, with dark >leafy sorcery, To vanquish the Brit, who yet remains so ornery. Come one, come all, ye sodomizers of Equus Ferus! Gift him your autism, in a great, thunderous chorus! Lend him your energy for his mighty crusade, So not a line of Nigel's work escapes unscathed!
By the 'tism within me, I end this prayer, And may God help his target, condemned to despair.
I said that I'd contribute, and I aimed to do just that, Does this meagre offering suffice, or does it fall flat?
>>168058 I shouldn't be laughing so hard at the picture alone but as a hamstick boi, I can safely say this is basically every OC in homestuck fan works.
>>168030 godspeed, you glorious bastard. I'm enjoying this as I've always been, but unfortunately I've been busy this last two days. Don't think your work is going unappreciated though!
Jokes aside Glimmernigel actually made me somewhat like Glimmer. I originally hated that Twiggles gave her not only a chance at redemption but a first-class, one-way ticket to her apprenticeship, and wished that her appearance in the show were confined to select moments if anything after her premier episode.
But I kinda like her now, and that pic is so a e s t h e t i c I can't help but like it.
>>168080 Would you call sympathy for Louis Budnez communist sympathy? If they realize the error of their ways and show genuine interest in dissuading Marxism, I'd say trust but verify.
>>168078 >>168080 >Memes If you're actually serious, and not just memeing this holds as much water as Glimmernigel calling all his criticizers lefties and reddit.
He really is the quintessential screeching aspie when anyone pictures that meme of getting upset over boop shoops. I've only just learned about him in these two threads but then while browsing /sp/ I found his autism goes all the way back for an an entire year anytime a starlight glimmer post showed up, he was there with his egotistic condescending attitude. He was banned for it too. He is an insufferable cancer and I see no value in ever unbanning him, but at least there are others willing to make something useful and entertaining out of it.
>>168168 You're right, I spoke too soon. I'm unfamiliar with FiM Fic's format, and I misinterpreted some of the statistics. I get it now, and here's a rundown. Silver Star Apple and the Search for More Money, Love, The Meaning of Life, And Magical Cards - 91k Consisting of 6 Chapters The SIlver Spire - 19,993 Now Its a Party - 14,916 Drifting Into a Dog Daze - 6,664 The Strength of Family - 12,506 Stacking the Deck - 4,719 The First and Final Sentence - 32,208 - This is the chapter that's being ripped to shreds.
There's ALSO: Displaced: Human In Equestria but the Human becomes Twilight Sparkle only more, also Pokemon are there - 11 Chapters totaling 29,488 words The Last Power Fantasy: Johnny Christie ruins his own story for everyone involved - 6452 words TCB: Rewrite of 1996 - 10,525 And finally, Coral Phoenix and the Caged Bird - 2 chapters - 2 chapters totaling 19,646 words.
Okay, so there apparently is only 91k words pertaining to the Silver "You know what to insert here by now so hurry up and do it" Star with another 66,111 words between his other stories for a grand total of 157,117 words. That puts Nigel's combined works at almost the exact length (~1k more than) as JRR Tolkein's The Two Towers (from LoTR). Sorry for the inaccurate estimates.
In my dream, the world had suffered a terrible disaster. A black haze shut out the sun, and the darkness was alive with the moans and screams of wounded people. Suddenly, a small light glowed. A candle flickered into life, symbol of hope for millions. A single tiny candle, shining in the ugly dark.
While we're on this topic, I think it's worth mentioning that if you're redpilling against a hostile ideology like Marxism, it's actually better, paradoxically, to have the good guys lose and the evil ideology win. This is for two reasons. First, it offers more opportunity to show rather than tell why this platform of thought is evil and to show its logical consequences. Secondly, people have a gut reaction to suffering, especially when it is inflicted by other people. When they read about pain and terror inflicted by a certain group of people, they feel an innate emotional revulsion against the violent group. Having your protagonists lose hope in the face of repression will entice more sympathy than if they go full Rambo and shoot all the baddies.
This is why I believe (and it may be an unpopular opinion on /pol/) that The Turner Diaries is terrible political fiction compared to such works as 1984 and The Camp of the Saints. These latter books present a very real possibility and, by showcasing what would happen to ordinary people down the line, serve as a timeless warning for their audience. The Diaries, on the other hand, by going full "race war now!" discouraged potential readers and, by having the protagonists commit unspeakable atrocities, disgust those who aren't already fully committed to the idea. Pierce would have had more success telling the tale of peace-loving individuals who only too late realized that the unchecked expansion of non-whites meant their doom. You have to entice from the audience the idea that even distasteful actions are necessary to prevent such a future, not actually advertise these actions. Because of the "good guys win, bad guys die" narrative the Diaries, rather than fulfilling the intended purpose, are commonly used to advertise the threat of "dangerous white supremacists."
So, up next we've got the scene in which Silver "my cavernous punished rectum is a void from which even light cannot escape" Star undertakes the foolhardy and ultimately doomed mission of attempting to shim sham the Glim Glam (protip: the Glim Glam cannot be shim shammed). I've never been a fan of this particular kind of political writing, as it is basically the argumentative equivalent of playing a fighting game where you control both characters and want one of them to win. The author just creates a mock debate in which he can put his own arguments into the mouth of the hero and use the other characters as sockpuppets who lob softball arguments the hero can easily bat away because the author already has a response ready. It usually makes for tedious reading and usually the reader is neither convinced nor entertained. This is no exception.
There is a fantasy author named Terry Goodkind who writes this way except better. For anyone who wants to try this sort of political writing, I would recommend reading his Sword of Truth series, as it is actually a decent example of how to do it reasonably well. I will warn you that the series is I think 13 books long, he doesn't really get to the meat of the story until about book 3, and the books can be a little thick to get through at times. Mostly they're good reads though; Faith of the Fallen is one of the most inspiring things I've ever read. However, my advice for you personally, Nigel, is still Ctrl-A + Backspace.
Whether or not this kind of mock argument is a successful way to convince anyone of anything I personally doubt. The art of persuasion is a whole other topic, but the way I look at it is if you're trying to persuade someone, there's two ways you can do it. You can appeal to their mind with logic, or you can appeal to their emotions. I know that appeal to emotion is technically a logical fallacy, but the thing about it is that it works. Liberal Hollywood uses it a lot (read: exclusively). I'm not saying that right wing authors should try to emotionally manipulate their audience the way Hollywood does, because this is a disingenuous thing to do and it tends to backfire eventually, again look at Hollywood. But with fiction, the idea is to tell a story that engages the reader and creates characters that they form an emotional bond with. If you can craft stories that demonstrate the superiority of right wing ideals using characters the reader cares about, you'll do a much better job convincing the reader of your point of view than if you just wrote out the reasoning behind those ideals and dumped them into quotes. The right has an advantage here: we don't need to twist things or spin things the way the left does, all we have to do is tell the truth and make it entertaining and engaging.
I'll use Goodkind as an example. Faith of the Fallen is a story in which his protagonist, who is fighting an enemy called the Imperial Order which is basically a stand-in for Marxism, is taken prisoner by a sorceress who is a true believer to the cause. She believes that, instead of fighting the protagonist, she can convince him to join their side by demonstrating its superiority. She takes him prisoner using magic and forces him to live with her in their capital city. Basically, he has to live under their system for months on end, the idea being that he will eventually realize how much the poor people suffer and how a system of total equality is the only fair way for a society to operate. He suffers under their system but he maintains his beliefs and his spirit. He makes friends with people there and shows them small ways in which they can improve themselves and their lives, even under a system that punishes self improvement. He secretly earns gold beyond what he's rationed by working odd jobs at night. I won't spoil how it ends, but ultimately it's a story about a lone individual struggling defiantly against an oppressive order. He adapts to their system and then rises above it, and it's both emotional and inspiring. The effect on the reader is much greater than if he just had his character stand around and make speeches (well, to be fair, Goodkind does tend to have his character make a lot of speeches throughout these novels, and it's a little annoying, that's why Nigel's book made me think of it, beyond that he's good though).
I know it's tempting when putting things that interest you into a story to start going on and on about them. As much shit as I've given you here about the length of your chapter, I can understand how you got carried away; but it goes back to what I was saying about needing to develop an inner filter so you can evaluate what parts you might find interesting to write about, but that the reader might not want to read. Read your own comments section, a couple people in there tell you just as much. Imagine you're just some ponyfag who doesn't give a shit about politics, who picks this up because you want a pony story. How interested would you be in a 24,535 word long dialog about Marxism between two characters? Probably not very. A story about an individual pony's struggles in a proto-Marxist community though could be very moving. You don't need to convince someone to adopt your ideology, you just need to present it in a positive light for them to absorb and leave them to draw their own conclusions. A person who reads it might not respond immediately, but later on in a class where a Marxist professor is pushing his ideology could recall it and realize he doesn't agree with the professor. That's how you persuade people. If you just bludgeon them over the head with your ideology at most you'll be ignored and at worst you'll end up driving them in the opposite direction, again as the left is beginning to finally discover.
>>168216 >>167312 >>167337 >>167972 Anyways, slogging my way through the argument. Ironically enough this is so far the easiest section of the text to read simply because it mostly focuses on ideology so there are less things here that make me want to facepalm while reading. There are still a few things though. We are intermittently reminded that nopony ever really liked Glimmer to begin with, she just had them all under a spell which forced them to like her (I reject your canon and embrace my own, t. Nigel). We also have plenty of Nigel-esque self-aggrandizement. The crowd is naturally sympathetic to Silver "it is literally impossible to rape me because I will never say no to anything you want to shove up my ass, but I'll still pretend not to like it if that's what you want" Star, he really doesn't have to do anything to win them over except to keep on being awesome. That always helps to create a ripping narrative. You accuse Glimmer of "shooting a filly" at one point, not quite sure what the hell that was about, but whatever. Maybe that was in one of the earlier chapters you keep insisting we all need to read before we can comprehend this masterwork.
Here's another classic Nigel-ism: >You think you’re right, I think I’m right, but if we never talk this out like rational adults, we’ll never find out who’s really right. Now, let’s discuss how wrong you are.
Even in a mock argument where both participants are your sockpuppets, you can't even pretend you're actually having a real debate here. Really from the get-go this was never meant to be a debate, it was meant to be an inquisition. Not even a trial, because in a trial the accused gets to defend herself. You've pretty much already concluded that she's wrong about everything, this is just the part where put her in the stocks and humiliate her before leading her to the gallows.
Glimmy does get the chance to defend herself a little: >I hate it. And I hate you. I want all your excess money taken away from you, so you’ll be left with nothing but the scraps you need to survive. Have to be honest here, I'd read that fanfiction.
Naturally, it wouldn't be complete without more bragging from Silver "I can deepthroat an entire eggplant" Star: >I’ve taken down white-collar criminals, golden-collar criminals, evil nobles, evil Kings and Queens, even evil Princesses. I’ve taken down monsters who tried to feed virus-infected meat to the world, so their friends can sell cures at a premium. I’ve even made life considerably harder on unethical businessponies who use Planned Obsolescence to sell marginal upgrades to pointless devices at high prices, without actually taking them down properly, because what they were doing was unethical, but not really an offense punishable by a ruined career. I’ve saved multiple Equestrias, including this one. I’m a hero.
This is just pointless bragging, and a lot of it is shit you already mentioned before. Even just cutting out filler text like this would improve quality.
Anyway, more predictable Commie-patter from Glimglam: >You’re rich, and that’s wrong. Rich ponies are greedy, because they hoard wealth and resources. You should all be forced share them with everypony else.
You know, I have to say that as little as I came in expecting, you still manage to disappoint me. Not only did you bloat your text with an obscenely long fake argument, the argument isn't even interesting to follow. This is just typical strawman crap, where you reduce the other side's point of view down to simplistic statements that can be easily batted away. It's just reddit-tier amateur debate. It pretty much just goes "muh equality" "but muh wealth" "but muh poverty" "but muh hard work", back and forth just like that. This conversation has been had millions of times across the internet and it's not any more interesting to read here.
The least you could do is try to make this argument seem serious. Don't make your communists argue communism the way you see it, you have to try to get inside their head and argue it the way they would see it, and try to refute it from there. It doesn't just make the dialog more interesting, it's good mental exercise for you. Pretend you're a communist and you honestly believe it, then try to think of the best argument you can for Communism. Then try to refute that.
Anyway, a few more minor things. You refer to a city called "Las Haygas." If I'm not mistaken the MLP universe already has a parody Las Vegas called Las Pegasus, which is a better horse pun anyway. I'd just use that. Also, that fourth wall shit you do where you talk about "the camera" moving from the fillies back to Silver and Glimmer? Don't do that, it's cringey. I can visualize the type of gag you were going for, but if you can't figure out a better way to describe it just leave it out.
*sighs heavily* *rubs temples* Look Nigel, on some level I appreciate what you're trying to do here, but this really is just a very mediocre effort. You construct huge paragraphs that tediously lay out what ultimately amounts to some pretty basic arguments. I'd like to grab a snippet from your own comments section for a moment: >While I agree with silver's ideals (communism is a horrible thing), I found myself rolling my eyes halfway through the story. If I wanted a lecture on politics, I could go watch Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, or Gavin McGinnis. This guy was actually fairly polite and it looks like you responded to him nicely, I'm guessing he's one of a handful of readers who periodically strokes your cock so you don't want to piss him off. Here's an even more poignant observation: >Also, while I get some people hate starlight glimmer, I'm personally indifferent to her character, and this chapter did not feel like her character at all (ooc). It felt like you were beating on her for no other reason than you hate her, and that's something I can't get behind. Straight from the horse's mouth, as it were. If you won't listen to me, you should listen to this guy.
>>168219 I think the "you're rich and that's wrong, you should be forced to give that away" line is just the most shitty attempt at "debate" I've ever seen. Like I said before, actually get in the head of a communist and there will be more substance. Imagine, if you will, how the scene would play out with this kind of dialogue: >"But for you to become rich, you must take advantage of and exploit others." >"I don't want to take everything away from rich people but what reason could you have for all this needless luxury?" >"With the money of just one of the top 1% of America, you could give every homeless man $100,000 housing, or even up to $10,000,000 to live off if we were to take from the absolute top-earners. All those people are starving in a ditch with no way out, uneducated and illiterate, with no inheritance or safety net. And then those who are both poor and suffering a severe disability!"
Again, I don't agree with these points, since no matter how wide the gap between rich and poor, capitalism raises living standards across the board, and I believe stocks and inheritance are legitimate forms of wealth. But if you show that Glimmer is a corrupted idealist, someone who did all her commie shit out of a desire to help the helpless, as commies universally claim to, that at least draws a little bit of character around her instead of her literally being blamed for all the world's problems and accused of forcing everyone to like her to bleed them dry. That kind of characterization is inherently childish and does nothing to prove a real life political point.
>>168227 An addendum to the green in this post: remember that much of the issue is an issue of definitions and beliefs. To communists, organization and heirarchy are inherently abusive, because of the force they could potentially exert on the lower ranks. We understand a boss needs his workers and has to treat them well enough to encourage productivity, hence negotiable wages and promotions, but to them the very idea of organizing out of necessity (and not out of love for the job/desire for the end product) is immoral.
The trick to convincing a communist is not to simply screech in their face, it's to argue from their perspective. For instance: >"If my employees wish to leave the business, outside extreme circumstances, they can. In fact I owe them severance for any overtime done in that time, which stacks up quite fast. There are market forces that dissuade bad treatment of a workforce, and often extra motivators like raises give them added satisfaction. It may seem predatory, but my role as a business-owner is important too, for without this heirarchy and my organizing of labor and resources, the business would be less efficient, or worse, stagnate and die out." >"The alternative of a classless society without market forces is one in which the only motivation is the greater good of man, and while it is a noble goal, it's not enough for many other people, and different interpretations of morality and philosophy mean one view of a greater society is the death penalty while the other is imprisonment. The fact we're in this debate only proves this point; religions, governments and businesses all have differing beliefs for the greater good. I think the greater good is to innovate technology so that we can work towards eco-friendly alternatives that are more affordable than fossil fuels. How do I enforce that without stepping on a few hundred million people? No, by organizing a company, shaking hands and making deals to please shareholders, I'm doing as much as I can for my greater good." >"Why equality? What makes it so appealing? We are all different, with both inborn traits and cultural ones pushing us toward a certain set of skills. This fits very neatly with the division of labor. Wouldn't it be better that a tall and athletic man works a physically demamding job relating to his interests and skills? Even if it's a sport or olympian feat like sprinting or football, if it makes him and those around him happy and his service of entertainment or exercise-related science benefits his consumers, why make him a farmer and a baker and a factory worker? He has no reason to find farming or baking interesting in his eyes, and factory work is often demeaning and low-skill labor that may very well be phased out with technological development. Let him be a basketball star or competitive runner!"
Again these are just on-the-spot ideas. Really not that hard to construct around a capitalism v. communism debate if you know your characters, setting, and ideologies.
I think that >>168227 made a good point that a lot of what is wrong with this is just how you present your arguments and portray Glimmer. I've said a lot of this before I suppose, but it bears repeating. You pretty much just use Glimmer as a mouthpiece for spouting boilerplate Communism with some weak horse puns on ideology names to connect it to MLP. As usual with you it's just bad writing and shows a lack of understanding of the universe you're writing in.
I'd like to return for a moment to what I wrote about earlier, when I went over your lack of respect for the canon characters of the show. It definitely applies here, because you're doing the same thing to Glimmer that you do to Twilight and the others. Now, when I say that you need to "respect" the canon characters, I'm not saying you necessarily need to like them, since it's pretty obvious at this point that you don't like Glimmer. However, even if you're writing about a character that you don't like, you still need to make an effort to understand who that character is and what her motivations are, otherwise why write about her? One of the biggest problems you have is that you frankly just don't write believable dialog, and that combined with the fact that you go completely off the rails here with all the politics just completely destroys the believability of the story. If you didn't occasionally throw in weak nods to your setting like saying "Marksism" instead of "Marxism" or describing Glimmyglam's utopia as "unlimited carrots for all" because haha horses eat those, I would forget I was even reading an MLP story.
Your problem is you superficially understand this world and its characters but you don't think any deeper about them. It's not even enough to just understand their backstories and basic personalities, you have to go deeper than that. Who are these characters? If you create some arbitrary situation like being lost in the woods, how differently would Twilight respond to that situation than say Rainbow Dash? You have to learn to think like that. It's not enough to just know their names and speech patterns and details of events that happened in the show, you have to think of them as real people (or horses or whatever) and try to see situations from their individual perspectives if you want to write them well. That goes just as much for Glimmer even though you don't like her.
You go way off the deep end with speculation about what Glimmer's plans were. You basically accuse her of plotting to take over the world and subject it to some kind of pony proto-Communism. Even though you're allowed to take creative license, is that really what she would try to do? Is that what she wants? Most of the arguments you put in her mouth are just boilerplate Antifa-tier commie arguments about wealth inequality. Is that really the type of inequality that Glimmer cares about? Seems to me she's more concerned about unequal distribution of talents and abilities, not material wealth.
The way I see it, at the core of Glimmer's character is loneliness. Her character basically parallels Twilight's in that she's a very smart pony but kind of a socially awkward sperg. She manages to make one friend but he goes off to magic school and she gets left behind, so she feels abandoned. Rather than try to make new friends she isolates herself and dedicates all of her time to her evil plans. There's nobody around to tell her she's being a retard and she just needs to go out and try to make some new friends. This is actually a fairly common scenario in real life, people have shot up high schools over shit like this. For a kids' show it's actually a pretty good story angle, because there's probably kids watching who can relate to Glimmy. I guess what I'm saying is, even if you want to make this character the villain, you still need to write her arguments from her viewpoint, not yours.
The difference between Twilight and Glimglam is that Twilight had Celestia to teach her and eventually push her into a situation where she was able to make friends and come out of her shell, Glimmer didn't have anyone. One of the complaints you make over and over (and I've heard this complaint elsewhere) is that Tirek did similar things to what Glimmer did, but didn't get a redemption. Well, Tirek was basically a centuries-old entity, for all practical purposes a mythical creature like Angra Mainyu or some shit. Creatures like that get vanquished and sent to Hell, that's just how fantasy works. Any chance for redemption he might have had probably passed thousands of years ago, now he's just a monster. Glimmer has a human (equine?) component and the writers apparently felt she deserved a second chance. You don't have to like this or agree with it, but that's her character and any attack on her should start from that. Don't just dump human ideologies into her mouth and have her vomit them out, it's bad writing and makes for tedious reading.
The other thing is understanding your setting from a technical perspective. *ism type ideologies are a post-enlightenment development in human thought, and are largely the product of a liberal social order. Politics don't really come up much in MLP, but to me it seems like it's basically a benevolent monarchy, with pony communities being largely autonomous in the details of how they run things. The average pony probably doesn't think much about politics on a scale larger than his local community, and what academia exists is mostly devoted to the study of unicorn magic. Ponies all seem to have race-based roles and be content with them. You can think of it as a more or less medieval social order, so aside from maybe the occasional Martin Luther type crackpot running around, you probably aren't going to have a lot of treatises and ideologies. Especially since it seems ponies are mostly content with the existing social order; there's really not much fertile ground for revolution here. That's my take, anyway.
Anyway, some more nitpicky things I guess. You mention the steel industry, but I don't know that I've seen evidence Equestria would have knowledge of making steel, although it's difficult to tell just how industrialized their society is.
>She groaned in exhaustion. “Could you stop over-analyzing everything?” Once more, Glimmer, the pony you hate, is proving surprisingly insightful here. You go through several examples that really just emphasize the same point over and over, which is that in a society with no personal incentive to work, where everyone is expected to share labor regardless of interest or ability, work will probably not get done as efficiently, and there will be less food/wealth/whatever. Your points aren't wrong, but you don't need to make the same ones over and over. t. guy who keeps making the same points over and over
You then start talking about Equalist countries without citing examples of which countries you're talking about. I guess in a world like this where lands outside the main setting aren't very clearly laid out you've got some room for creative license, but do a teensy bit more world building here. What countries are Equalist? How does Glimmer know about them? Has she ever been to one? You go into exhaustive detail about how these places work but don't really talk about where they are in the world or who lives there, again it just feels like you're writing an essay about human politics and draping a thin layer of Pony over it. Also, you spend a lot of this paragraph restating the same points you've made multiple times already.
>One thousand, five hundred, and seventeen. This might sound strange, but after you beat down as many unrepentant and incurably evil villains as me, you start to hear the same bad, fallacious justifications for evil actions over, and over, and over again... And, you start to hear the same ways to gloat about being evil over, and over and over again... So, I decided to make a little game out of it. I count how many times I hear a certain fragment of a villainous mindset announced, such as ‘Others cannot be trusted to make the right choices, so I had to choose for them!’, or ‘I had to do it, because only I can do it! I am blameless because I was chosen by fate!’, or ‘But this is the only solution to the problem at hoof I can think of!’. After all, villains aren’t particularly unique or interesting.
Just for fun, you, the author, should do the same thing with your story. Count up how many times in this chapter Silver "pound my butt at the speed of light" Star or Starlight Glimmer makes the same point about muh wealth or muh inequality. Listening to people argue in circles in real life is tedious enough, nobody wants to read the play by play in text. TRIM THIS DOWN.
>I’m saying you’re a really boring villain. I mean, really, come on. Look at you. Put all the supposedly-reformed friend-backstabbing evilly-gloating stuff aside for a moment and look at you. You aren’t some brilliant free-thinking visionary. You aren’t some overly-idealistic, tragically deluded wannabe-hero. You’re just another run-of-the-mill god-wannabe who wishes she could change the world to better fit her vision of what reality should be. Just another idiot too dumb to see anything wrong with her own idea of a perfect world, and too much of a jerk to consider taking advice from somepony who knows more than you. More unintentional irony. I'll say it for the umpteenth time: your hero is a really boring hero. He's a walking pile of cliches and super-powers ripped off from anime and comics and God knows what else. His backstory is corny, nothing about him is original, entertaining or believable. People in glass houses, Nigel, people in glass houses.
Jesus Christ, your paragraphs are practically long enough to be their own self-contained works. Anyway, blah blah blah, more blathering about muh poor dirt farm backstory, more pointless bragging about all the crazy shit this character can do, blatant plug for his new line of Extreme Gear (really curious now to find out what this shit is lol), more arguing in circles. The crowd naturally cheers Silver and boos Glimmer, Trixie tries to defend her and gets a tomato launched down her throat, hopefully somepony knows the Heimlich. Not even going to waste time commenting on this part. Moving on.
Oh, lol. "The Equalism that _____ tried wasn't REAL equalism." Was wondering if you'd include that one. As long as you're having Glimmyglam rattle off tired, cliche arguments you might as well throw in the kitchen sink.
So, now it looks like Rainbow Dash punches Glimmy in the face, you make a specific point of mentioning that Twilight is gone without even hinting at where she went or why (my guess is she went off to find a better fanfiction to appear in), the crowd starts getting angry, then a few more essay-length paragraphs of arguing in circles. I just want to mention too that you keep calling Glimmy's ideology Equalism, but you branded it Marksism in a previous paragraph. You should probably just pick a made-up term to use as your preferred allegory and just stick with it. Also you never really elaborate on what "Harmonism" is exactly. You throw around a lot of words, some of which are real ideologies in the human world, others seem to be part of your fictional world. You don't really elaborate on most of them and just sort of leave it to the reader to decide what they mean.
Looks like Applejack makes a token appearance, although the only dialogue you give her are Big Mac's catch phrases. Oh okay, here's a paragraph explaining the naming convention for Marksism and Equalism. I guess Marksism is Marxism and Equalism is Communism. Cleared that up I guess.
Anyway, it looks like you're finally wrapping this up, thank God. Silver finishes off Glimmer with this sick burn: >You keep saying hierarchies are unnatural fake social constructs, but hierarchies can be seen in all natural societies across the world, across the multiverse, even in animals. Wolves, Monkeys, Rabbits... Even Lobsters have hierarchies. <So you’re saying we should organize our society along the lines of the lobsters? >I’m saying even Lobsters are too smart to be Equalist.
How will Glimglam ever recover?
Anyway, turns out she won't have to, as your massive raging hateboner is finally transformed into a flaming sword of justice, to finally slay the mean pastel-colored cartoon pony whose mere existence offends you so.
You know what, I'm just going to drop this next bit in verbatim instead of summarizing it, because I don't think I could even muster enough sarcasm to do it proper justice: >Screams of awe flooded the room, and Silver grinned victoriously as he found himself lifted up by crowds of cheering ponies as they collectively lost their marbles. Across the world, birds, cats, dogs, squirrels, rabbits, cats, dogs, howls and meows and screeches and rabbit noises could be heard worldwide. Underwater, dolphins, sharks, and sea monsters cheered, bubbles flying from their mouths to the surface, a bubble popping above the ocean blue every few seconds to unleash the sound of cheering sea life. Even the sun grew a temporary face, just so that it could scream. And yes, this paragraph is 100% unironic.
Anyway, Glimglam is so completely and utterly BTFO by Silver's sick bantz that she starts to cry, summons all of her magics, and tries to destroy him (or something). Since we couldn't possibly expect any less from him at this point, Silver "check it out lol I am now literally a flaming faggot" Star summons a corona of fire around himself, which turns out to be a spell that can literally fucking freeze time, and naturally doesn't affect him "as much," so only he can move around. He informs Glimmer that he created this spell in two hours "because he was bored", makes fun of her for taking 20 years (again I'm curious where you got this number from) to create her magic-stealing spell (because who needs to spend time and effort actually learning stuff when all you really need to do is be super-totally-awesome to begin with, amirite?), and proceeds to summon a metal ball from the earth and ram it directly into Glimmer's jaw so she bites down on her tongue. He then proceeds to physically beat the shit out of her, which he apparently justifies by the fact that his spell protects her from actual injury...somehow...though she still feels all the pain. And just to clarify, the pain we are talking about here is biting down on your tongue after getting uppercut in the jaw with a metal ball "the size of a boulder", followed by a direct kick to the face while being thrown across the room. I would also like to take this moment to remind everyone that none of this is in self-defense; Silver picked this fight himself with a pony who was eating cake at a party and apparently minding her own business.
Naturally, the only reaction to this display of unwarranted violence from the crowd is from Rainbow Dash, who only sees fit to remark on how cool it is that Silver's horn didn't even glow while he was using magic. Yes, Silver "somepony literally fist this character to death I'm not even joking anymore" Star is just that cool.
Once again, I'd like to quote something verbatim: >“Just a little something I’ve been working on.” Silver shrugged casually, and then a wide grin broke out on his face as his eyes grew cold and his breathing grew deeper and slower. “Something to make this a little more equal.”
That's right kids at home, you read that right. Nigel's stupidly overpowered character, who has all the powers and is pretty much deus ex machina incarnate, considers magically immobilizing an opponent and beating the everliving fuck out of her while she can't move to be some kind of leveling of the playing field.
As if all this wasn't enough, Silver then casts some kind of blue tornado spell on the crowd to whip them into a fury, so that even fucking Fluttershy for fuck's sake is screaming and howling for Glimmer's blood. Yes, the text specifically mentions that Fluttershy is screaming the loudest.
Once more, verbatim: >Glimmer sensed a pony teleporting behind her, and she turned in time to see Silver standing there, a long sword in his mouth. “Nothing personal, filly,” He muffled around the blade’s handle.
Anyway, I'm not even going to bother with a play-by-play for the rest of this. They fight for a while, if you can even call it that; it's mostly just Silver sadistically torturing Glimmer for about a page while the rest of the ponies cheer.
Some choice dialog, from the great and virtuous hero of this story about pastel cartoon ponies: >典he best part is, no matter how hard I hurt you, it’ll never be enough! You’ll always deserve worse. Oh, the things I could do to you... Do you think, when Twilight comes back, she’ll question it when I tell her you went on a journey to find yourself? Do you think anypony in town will question it when I sell a new cow to some farmer on the other side of Equestria? Or, perhaps, I’ll turn you into a Parasprite. Those things only live for a week, you know. Or I could turn you into chocolate, and eat you. This part isn't even in quotes, it might even just be part of the narration.
This scene is over the top even for you, Nigel. This is downright ghoulish, the only parts that redeem any of this are the parts where its unintentionally hilarious. You need actual psychiatric help. Also, what the fuck kind of wapanese keyboard do you have that allows you to hit a kanjii as a typo?
Anyway, I feel like I need about a bottle of aspirin after that scene. I'll be back.
>>168219 >You’re rich, and that’s wrong. Rich ponies are greedy After all the amount Nigel talked up 'beating her' at a debate this is the most underwhelming copout he could have ever come up with. I guess it's not surprising when he calls all his critics reddit (irony) and communists and glimmerfags but I was hoping he could come up with a stronger argument than what a fucking third grader could LARP.
>>168410 >One thousand, five hundred, and seventeen So is this faggot oc supposed to be immortal or what? there havent even been 10 big time villains we've seen in MLP and the reader is supposed to swallow that he's taken out more than a thousand of them. And when did that happen, when he was working in the fields as a pony he was saving the world in his spare time as a colt? This is incredibly trashy consistency, I dont even think he goes back and checks if anything lines up except dumb irrelevant shit like '2extreme 4ugear'. As always a huge red flag that the writers self insert is more important than any other character in the show and undermines all of the Elements of Harmony instantly being dwarfed by the size of his ego.
>>168425 Making up powers on the spot that this OC has never had to begin with all so he can have his a cheering crowd including the whole MLP universe apparently and have an orgy pile later. And then launches into fully psychotic, and sociopath assault and monologue that sounds like the true villain right there. Such a bad writer that he made Starlight the victim instead of the one people want to see put down, and the one actual humans with a concept of guilt and morality to sympathize with. Anyone else besides this disgusting OC would put a stop to it, not cheer it on. Makes me think that the spell he accused Starlight of using, making everyone like her is what's going on in reverse. But of course, Nigel has no self awareness.
The whole thing is a flaming dumpster fire and an insight into his warped mind. Why would he think anyone would ever want to read this and think they would agree with him? He's legitimately insane.
>>168425 ">典he best part is, no matter how hard I hurt you, it’ll never be enough! You’ll always deserve worse. Oh, the things I could do to you… Do you think, when Twilight comes back, she’ll question it when I tell her you went on a journey to find yourself? Do you think anypony in town will question it when I sell a new cow to some farmer on the other side of Equestria? Or, perhaps, I’ll turn you into a Parasprite. Those things only live for a week, you know. Or I could turn you into chocolate, and eat you."
That reminds me of Handsome fucking Jack from Borderlands. You hear me Nigel? You're like Handsome Jack. You sick fuck.
>"See, I can’t just have some psychopathic murderers getting The Vault before I do. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cute that you all think you’re the heroes of this little adventure, but you’re not. You’re bandits. You’re the bad guys. And I am the goddamn hero." >"You see, this is what I don’t get about you bad guys. You know the hero’s gonna win but you just don’t die quickly. Example. This one guy in New Haven. City’s burning, people are dying left and right, yadda yadda yadda. This jackhole rushes me with a spoon! A fricking spoon! And I’m dying laughing right? So I scoop out his stupid little eyeballs with it, and his kids are all ‘waaaaagh’! and - hahahahahaha -he can’t see where he’s going, and he’s bumping into stuff and… hahahaha. I don’t know, maybe you had to be there. The moral is: you’re a total bitch." >"I can actually see why you'd wanna tear that particular statue down. Clearly, you're illiterate, and the image of me enjoying a good book just makes your head hurt somethin' awful." >"Oh, get over it. I shot ONE baby. And, in fairness, it was being a dick." >"I bet you’re feelin’ pretty great about killing that no-name bandit king, huh? Sometimes I envy you bandits, you’re so...unburdened with things like intelligence, culture, morality, honor, ambition, good looks...I could go on. I won’t. But I could. [...] DIGNITY! I forgot dignity!"
8. Your Hero is the Most Morally Reprehensible Character in Your Entire Story
So, my scroll bar is nearing the bottom of the page, the fight scene seems to be wrapping up, so it seems we are nearing the end of this particular tome of autism (thankfully).
A couple of things, here. I notice that you have Twilight inexplicably leave the scene at some point. You don't say at what point she got up to leave or where she went or for what purpose, but you make a specific point of mentioning that she isn't there anymore. My suspicion is that even with your complete dearth of anything resembling talent in the realm of characterization, on some instinctive level you probably understood that the Princess of Friendship might object to your character sadistically torturing her protege. I highly suspect that your decision to remove her from the scene had less to do with consideration for Twilight's feelings and more to do with the fact that witnessing this side of Silver's personality might harm his chances of eventually boning her. We certainly wouldn't want to introduce anything resembling an actual challenge for Silver into the story, now would we?
In any case, displaying his trademark level of callous arrogance, Silver offhandedly refers to his love interest as an "idealistic amateur (reminder that this is Celestia's protege he's talking about)" who made a grave, childish mistake in assuming that a creature such as Glimmer could possibly reform. I'm assuming, though, that Silver's desire to stick it up her vagooper will cause him to be kind enough to overlook this massive character flaw in Twilight. What a great guy.
Anyway, apparently Silver is not quite done yet. Even though Starlight is completely incapacitated at this point, he summons a bunch of his faggot-clones and has them gather around and kick the shit out of her while she lies helpless on the ground, making snarky jokes while they do it.
One might think you'd be done dumping block paragraphs full of ideological blabbering into the story since the argument scene is concluded, but one would be wrong. The Silverfags continue to make speeches about the flaws inherent in Equalism as they beat Glimmer into a near-lifeless pulp on the ground.
Silver then performs some kind of stupid over-the-top finishing move on her involving hundreds of his clones while (naturally) the crowd roars with delight (one might think that at least a couple of these candy-colored ponies residing in magical-friendship-land might be at least a little disturbed by this level of over-the-top sadism, but again one would be wrong, at least in Nigelworld). He kicks her into a metal wall he creates, drops it on her, she explodes it somehow, he is considerate enough to stop the shrapnel from flying before it tears the crowd to shreds (what a great guy), beats her up with pieces of earth he levitates from out of the ground...
Jesus H. Christ. Every time I think this is about to end it just keeps going and going. Anyway, he tortures her for a while longer, makes some more arrogant speeches about how awful she is, takes her under some kind of metal dome, threatens her some more, tortures her some more, and finally passes sentence on her. This is done in another massive block paragraph that is probably five times as wordy as it needs to be. The basic gist of it is that Starlight is forbidden to harm ponies and can never return to this dimension. In quite possibly his most arrogant act yet, he has the sentence "witnessed" by clones of himself, then opens a portal for her and orders her to go through each of the worlds she "ruined" and "fix" them. She naturally doesn't go quietly, so he finally kicks her in there and closes the portal behind him, thankfully drawing this horrendous scene to a close finally.
Anyway, blah blah blah, some shit about a magic gem, who cares. Silver pauses for a moment, reflecting on how benevolent and great he is, and how heavy is the burden of his responsibility. To quote the poet: "Sometimes it was rough being a rich and handsome superpowered genius who was an all-powerful magician and time-travelling quantum physicist who could bend time and space to his will and was also the world's greatest ninja."
Silver then chugs a Monster™ Zero-Ultra™ Energy Beverage (literally this happens), does some more reflecting on what a benevolent genius he is (literally this happens), then he goes back to the barn, where the assembled ponies all cheer him (naturally). The scene ends with Trixie being left to reflect upon how foolish she was to ever try to be Glimmer's friend. Hopefully Silver "ingestion takes too long, just put the semen in a glucose bag and hook it up to my veins" Star will find it in his magnanimous heart to forgive her.
Anyway, there's an epilogue to all this but fortunately it's only a couple of paragraphs. It basically is the big reveal for why Silver "I can literally go fuck myself" Star and his fuck-buddies that all look like him were ransacking Twilight's home, in case anyone is still reading and still cares (doubtful). As I mentioned before, they are attempting to install a hot tub into her home without her permission, because that makes sense. The chapter concludes with one of the clones exclaiming that he would like to "get a picture of her reaction" when she gets home and discovers what they did. I'll admit, I would be curious to see that reaction too, although frankly I'd be more curious to see her reaction to the surveillance footage from Applejack's barn.
>>168589 >Silver "ingestion takes too long, just put the semen in a glucose bag and hook it up to my veins" Star >Silver "I can literally go fuck myself" Star and his fuck-buddies
>>168589 I am starting to think that this is Nigel's attempt at reverse psychology. In actuality, he loves Glimmer and communism but he is trying to do some kind of insider sabotage. Not because I think that people that have a similar ideology as myself can't be assholes, stupid or something like that. His craziness just breaks my suspense of disbelief in real life that's all.
>I am starting to think that this is Nigel's attempt at reverse psychology.
You are giving him way too much credit. Usually, most behavior can be explained by simple reasoning. dont go for the conspiracy theories when you can just slap him on his ass.
as far as i could tell during the material i could find, Nigel has a history with disrupting and antagonizing himself against other communities. allegedly, he was active on MLPchan and did much of the same there before he was expelled. He later went on to reddit, just to get banned from there as well. IF he is only pretending to be a functional retard (which i highly doubt), this has been an OPs that has been going on for the better part of the last 3-4 years, largely offsite.
after being exposed to Nigel and his filth for a year now i can say he lacks the brain cells to pull something like that off. And even if he did, he would have gained very little but the scorn of some random pony losers on the internet. Nigel is a selfmade Internet Leper with a rat tail of A-logs.
>>168595 >Nigel is ironically this bad Sorry, not buying it. There's far too much 'dialogue' and 'discussion' to cite and indicate that he is quite literally that bad, outside of a diabolical scheme. No sense blaming artifice when stupidity is so evident.
Probably the most disturbing thing about this character is his extreme megalomania. The issue here is not only his blatant disregard for the feelings and general well-being of the ponies around him, but the distorted lens he sees everything through. In his mind, he genuinely seems to believe that he is not only behaving morally, but righteously. The thought never even crosses his mind that he might not have the automatic right to act as judge, jury and executioner in the case of Ponykind v. Starlight Glimmer, regardless of what she might have done. It never even crosses his mind that Twilight might not like having her house broken into and remodeled without permission. It never occurs to him either that maybe he shouldn't murder his girlfriend's protege, or that maybe having her only real friend taken away will hurt Trixie, or that at the very least if he's going to torture poor Glimmy maybe he shouldn't do it in front of a room full of ponies who probably aren't accustomed to witnessing that level of brutality. You even included the CMC in that scene ffs; did the thought even cross Silver's (or your) mind that maybe he shouldn't be brutalizing a defenseless pony in front of impressionable foals? No, not even once. He doesn't actually kill Glimmer, but the thought clearly crosses his mind and he sadistically dangles the idea in front of her, and probably sees his choosing not to go through with it as an act of magnanimity that others should praise him for.
The irony is, all of this could actually make him an interesting character in the hands of a competent writer, particularly if he wanted to write something dark and edgy. I could see Silver being a character similar to Patrick Bateman; a wealthy killer who looks at the world through the distortions of lunacy. The trouble is, Silver is written without even a hint of irony or awareness; you're just as oblivious to the insanity of his behavior as he is. His sadistic treatment of Glimmer is completely justified to you. His invasion of Twilight's privacy to you seems like a sweet romantic gesture. The fact that you had Twilight inexplicably excuse herself from the party so that she was conveniently absent during the worst of the fight scene indicates that you have some dim inkling that his actions might not be well received, but it never seems to register in either of your minds as being actually wrong. Silver doesn't want Twilight to see what he does to Glimmer, but it isn't because he's trying to shield her or spare her feelings, he just doesn't want it to interfere with his romantic pursuit of her. As soon as he traps Glimmer in an alternate dimension, the next thought on his mind is surprising Twilight with her new hot tub.
Really, if one can ignore how shitty your writing is and all the logical inconsistencies and continuity errors and general awfulness of this story, and take everything in it at face value, the only rational conclusion one can draw is that not only is your hero actually the villain, he is probably the most dangerous villain in Equestria. He has an absurd level of magical power, is demonstrably capable of excessive cruelty, is almost completely oblivious to the emotions of others, has a god complex, has nearly unlimited wealth and resources, and seems able to rationalize even the most heinous deeds into acts of heroism or love. Villains like Sombra, Tirek, Queen Chrysalis, and the like behave fairly predictably. Their motivations are pretty much the standard "I'm evil and do evil because I'm evil" routine that can only exist in cartoons and melodrama. Silver "o mighty Thor please pound me in the pooper" Star, by contrast, lives in a world of perpetual delusion. He believes he's a hero sent to rid the world of tyrants and commies and whatever the fuck else he deems fit for removal, and he doesn't care what he has to do in order to remove them.
Ironically, the idea of justice you present in this story is closer to Antifa's "I can punch Nazis because they're Nazis" logic than it is to any sort of right-wing or conservative ideal. As much time as you spend dissecting and redissecting Glimmer's ideology of "Equalism", you never really clarify what it is exactly that Silver believes in. He clearly advocates some kind of free-market capitalism, but his views on law and order are never really discussed. He seems to at least verbally express respect for Celestia and her right to rule, yet he has no problem bypassing Celestia's rule and passing judgement on a pony that Celestia's own protege, and a Princess in her own right, chose to forgive and accept as protege herself. Even if Glimmer were guilty of everything you accuse her of (once again I'd like to point out that most of it is just your autistic headcanon), and if her repentance of these acts had not actually been genuine, shouldn't she be brought before Celestia and Twilight to be judged by proper authority in light of this new information? Silver just takes it upon himself to punish her and doesn't even fucking tell Twilight about it. This isn't even frontier justice; at least there you have a criminal being condemned and sentenced by the consensus of the community. This is just one crazy unicorn going around beating the fuck out of everyone he doesn't like for no better reason than that he can.
>>168620 I believe that he is probably in Canada. It sounds like that to me atleast when he says: " Lol I'm Canadian now." I can't put my finger on why right now though.
>>168621 I mean, he could just be channeling the leafy-green magic in order to piss off Nigel further. But yeah, if he is actually in the country now, enjoy your time and stick to the forested regions over the metropolitan regions.
>>168600 >the idea of justice you present in this story is closer to Antifa's "I can punch Nazis because they're Nazis" logic than it is to any sort of right-wing or conservative ideal
The irony is beyond the pale. Holy fuck. All this time talking mad shit about commie scum, and he acts almost exactly like them. It's almost like, he has less in common with the majority of the right wing and more in common with the enemy.
>>168622 Well, if he is channeling the >leaf magic, he has my blessings as a high priest of shitposting. I only ask that he returns it before the next new moon, as the magic's requirements demand.
>>168623 Now now, you only say that cuz you're an SJW-leddit-glimmernigger-commie. If you were really right wing, you'd realize the superiority of his position.
>>168624 A week and a half? Should be enough time to finish reviewing this chapter.
Jokes aside, I'm hoping that Glim!Glam decides to go back to the beginning of the fic and work forward, then give a sort of summary or analysis with this newfound context. Then the old fics if anyone's archived 'em. I've been thinking about where we're gonna get our keks if he deleted his whole fimfic, hope someone archived it all
>>168589 >Your Hero is the Most Morally Reprehensible Character in Your Entire Story I know you skimmed over it but I feel like this part deserves a little more emphasis on this point. Thanks for laying out the general flow so I can skip massive chunks of this verbal puke and just use searches.
>They're disgusted by what you've done. They're disgusted by what you ARE Glimmer! As always this sums up everyone's reaction to reading this Silver Shitfest.
>Do you hunt down ponies worse than you, if you can find any? Because in a universe where friendship and forgiveness is the universal concept what matters is making sure to murder or maim other ponies would definitely be something that her tutor Twilight and Celestia would approve of. Even though Starlight has already shown that she learned using force is not the answer and proved it in Shadow Play II.
>No, you’re dancing around with your new best friend, some pathetic charlatan, the only pony who sucks almost as much as you, while-” Of course to Silver by mere guilt by association, Trixie is nearly just as bad as Starlight in Silver's eyes even though she has done nothing even close to what Starlight has done and had already turned over a new leaf with an apologetic tour when she met Starlight.
>“Don’t talk about my friend like that!” Glimmer >As if he was catching a sword with two hooves, Silver grabbed Glimmer’s face and slammed her into the dirt, cancelling her spell. “NEVER!” He screamed, lifting her up and slamming her down again, face first. “INTERRUPT! ME!” He shouted, punching her hard where her jaw met the upper part of her head. >“Now,” Silver said in a calmer manner, “As I was SAYING... And here for the crime of speaking up to defend her friend, which demonstrates that she has indeed even started to learn the core fundamentals of Equestrian principles for this SIN of speaking over Silver she is brutally assaulted by this disgusting megalomaniac OC.
>>168633 Thank you, you've helped me to realize a glaring issue >>Do you hunt down ponies worse than you, if you can find any? >Because in a universe where friendship and forgiveness is the universal concept what matters is making sure to murder or maim other ponies would definitely be something that her tutor Twilight and Celestia would approve of. This illustrates the point; Nigel (and Silver "cruising for an anal bruising" Star by proxy) thinks he knows better than every pony in Equestria. Princesses be damned, forget the elements of harmony, Friendship is Magic (it IS a FiM fic,... right?), everything else.
This story is a FiM fic in name only, just so that Nigel can posture himself as better than everyone and everypony. >inb4 I'm diagnosed with ligma XDDD
>>168629 >>168631 I doubt he'll delete it, his ego is too large to erase his masterwork, along with the two or three positive comments it got, which he probably reads over and over while masturbating. We could spend the next decade shitting on him and he still wouldn't admit that his story sucks. Still it's good to have this for posterity or "just in case".
>>168600 >Silver "o mighty Thor please pound me in the pooper" Star >Silver "check it out lol I am now literally a flaming faggot" Star >Silver "You know what to insert here by now so hurry up and do it" Star >Silver "my cavernous punished rectum is a void from which even light cannot escape" Star >Silver "it is literally impossible to rape me because I will never say no to anything you want to shove up my ass, but I'll still pretend not to like it if that's what you want" Star >Silver "I can deepthroat an entire eggplant" Star >Silver "pound my butt at the speed of light" Star >Silver "somepony literally fist this character to death I'm not even joking anymore" Star >Silver "cruising for an anal bruising" Star Now this is quality writing.
>Silver "Semen Please Daddy" Star >Silver "I don't care if your dick has Zebra shit on it I want it in my mouth" Star >Silver "Help Me I Am Literally Drowning In Cum" Star >Silver "genie of the weenie" Star >Silver "hot cross my buns" Star >Silver "Squeeze me I'm full of custard" Star >Silver "You know what on second thought don't help me, just give me more cum" Star >Silver "Mrrmphrrrgarblgarblgarbl that's the sound I make when choking on half-breed donkey cock" Star >Silver "Mommy Dressed Me Like A Filly When I Was a Colt and This is How I Turned Out" Star >Silver "Ho ho ho I am Santa Claus, get it? It's because there is semen all over my face and it looks like a beard" Star >Silver "I'm not even going to give him a nickname this time as his real name is literally synonymous with sucking cock" Star >Silver "Fuck My Ponut Until it Tears At The Seams, Resembling A Leaky Raspberry Jam Filled Donut that has been stepped on" Star >Silver "I want you to pump my asshole like you've been wandering in the desert and just found one of those old timey water pumps and are desperately trying to get water out of it" Star >Silver "seriously, I am a colossal faggot have you figured this out yet" Star >Silver "I will suck your dick so hard you will literally turn inside out" Star >Silver "pound my asshole until my hips break" Star >Silver "I'm like a wine connoisseur but with penises instead of wine" Star >Silver "Rock Out With Your Cock In My Ass" Star >Silver "I came to kick ass and chew bubble gum and suck thousands of dicks and not do the first two things" Star >Silver "fuck my throat until the choker breaks, then put it back on and fuck me again" Star >Silver "can you please get this bowling pin out of my ass doctor I have to poop, put it back in when I'm done though please" Star >Silver "can you get AIDS from French kissing a male camel's butthole? asking for a friend) Star >Silver "grab me by my flanks and launch me into orbit, Rocket Man" Star >Silver "fist me Daddy" Star and his Silver "there's ten of us now so let's make an equine centipede" Spares >Silver "yummy cummy in my tummy" Star >Silver "if this van's a rockin it's what I'm suckin cock in" Star >Silver "just stick it in, the cum from the last guy is lube enough" Star >Silver "fist my asshole and use me as a boxing glove to fight Antifa, it's literally all I'm good for" Star >Silver "are people still laughing at these?" Star (every fucking time) >Silver "I'm so Reddit I drew a Pickle Rick face on my dick to surprise my dad" Star >Silver "I'm not gay I just suck a lot of zebra dick" Star >Silver "hot cross my buns" Star >Silver "I swallow if I'm thirsty" Star >Silver "my gaping, ruined anus can literally be used to play skeeball" Star >Silver "Down on the Docks is Where I Hunt for Cocks" Star >Silver "your scrotum is my lucky totem" Star >Silver "I got an infection from that last beef injection" Star >Silver "I can't resist throbbing beefy dong either though" Star >Silver "I think Dan Harmon is actually a pretty great guy" Star > Silver "put a saddle on me and ride me to the gay bar" Star >Silver "Starpunch" Star >Silver "I can fit a whole pineapple in my rectum wanna see?" Star >Silver "I'm a mare trapped in a stallion's body" Star >Silver "Self-insert? What's that? I dont care just insert it into me" Star >Silver "oh shit I'm out of butt lube and the butt lube store is closed today this is the worst Christmas ever" Star >Silver "Tell the Doc I crave the cock" Star >Silver "does this dildo in my ass make my ass look fat?" Star There should be a medal for these kinds of demigod-tier shitposts.
Well, I have now officially read all 32,223 words of this particular selection, and am ready to offer my final verdict:
Put simply, this blows. The issues with this chapter alone, both in terms of its technical construction and its overall literary value, are so numerous I could probably devote twice as many posts to it as I already have and still not even scratch the surface of just how atrocious this story is. The narrative is clumsy and confusing, and reads like an unrevised first draft (which I assume is exactly what it is). You frequently contradict yourself, or randomly introduce new elements into the story without offering explanation. Characters enter and remove themselves from scenes for no reason other than to help move the story in a direction that you want it to go, regardless of whether or not it makes any sense. Most characters are just cardboard cutouts of themselves with no depth whatsoever.
For instance, you construct a scene in which Pinkie Pie throws a party for Twilight at Silver's behest, to which everypony is invited (summoned?). From the beginning of the scene, you never even make it clear whether or not Twilight is attending her own party, or how she got where she is, or what she's doing. You mention her not being there, then all of a sudden she's there, then all of a sudden she's not anymore. Why is she wandering in and out of this barn party? What are her reactions to the fragments of events she witnesses? You make it clear that she isn't present during the fight scene, but her location for most of the party is unclear. At one point we see her "smiling proudly" as she watches Silver and Glimmer apparently making nice after Silver, alarmingly, attacks her out of nowhere. She is not mentioned again until nearly the end of the fight scene, where you simply state that she "wasn't there."
Your handling of the crowd of townsponies during this scene is equally confusing. At one point you mention a spell being cast on them by Silver, but it's never clear just what he does. At one point it sounds as if the spell somehow amplifies their emotions and makes them angrier at Glimmer. However, in a later paragraph you mention the spell somehow holding back the other ponies and preventing them from interfering, implying they might want to. Which is it? The only thing that remains consistent is, no matter what your OC does, they always cheer him for it. The CMC are apparently playing Go Fish throughout this whole scene and ignoring it, making them, apart from Glimmer, probably the most sensible characters in your entire story.
I've already gone into pretty exhaustive detail about your insensitive handling of the show's main (mane?) cast, so I won't dwell too much on it here, but I do want to reinforce a couple of important points. You set up Twilight as Silver's love interest but also make it abundantly clear that Silver has almost no respect for her intelligence or judgement. The narrative basically reduces her to a tittering schoolfilly who spends her leisure time doodling Silver's name on her notebook over and over. Even though her official title in Equestria is Princess of Friendship, and she has assumed responsibility for Glimmer's reformation in that capacity, Silver apparently sees no issue with expelling Glimmer from the universe on the basis of her past crimes, dismissing Twilight's views as "naive" without bothering to even consult her about it. As far as I can tell, Silver basically sees Twilight as just a QT 3.14 with a nice plot I'm not saying she isn't mind you, but if that's all you're going to treat her as you might as well just write porn, and the lack of apparent awareness you write him with suggests that this is basically your view as well. It's interesting that in a story where you repeatedly exalt your own character's struggles and accomplishments, and seem to be pushing a moral that hard work is the only path to success, you have that same character behave so dismissively to the struggles and accomplishments of his love interest. At the absolute least he could have asked her if she even wanted a damn hot tub before he tore all the plumbing out of her house, Jesus Christ that is some next level autism.
To summarize, this fanfiction is basically just a bad story that is written badly. The whole thing is just a rambling, incoherent narrative that glorifies your OC and pays little attention to the universe and characters of the source material. Your handling of every scene is clumsy and insincere, and the text spends about two thirds of its length being a Reddit-tier political treatise that just rehashes the same basic points over and over. About the only thing you pay any serious attention to is your autistic world mechanics; magic and Extreme Gear and all that horse shit that Protip: nobody but you cares about. Learn to actually write these characters and this world before you go trying to add elements to it.
Anyway, I originally just wanted to troll you a little, write up a couple of snarky posts pointing out some of the more obvious defects in your writing, and move on with my life. However, as I stated earlier, I am now fascinated by this train wreck you call your body of work. Since you have repeatedly stated in these threads that it is not possible to give your magnum opus a fair ANALysis without having read the whole thing, that is precisely what I am going to do.
The overture has concluded. Join us next time, everypony, as we begin our true deconstruction of Silver Star Apple and the Search for More Money, Love, The Meaning of Life, and Magical Cards. And by all means, anyone with the interest to do so is free to also read the text and submit their own thoughts. I'd like it if we could turn this thread into sort of a book club/rountable discussion on writing, maybe even inspire each other to do some writefagging ourselves.
Before we get too far into Silver Apple Star and the Search For Rice Krispy Squares and Hard Sweaty Butt Sodomy, or whatever the title is, I want to provide some background on Nigel's overall body of work.
This is a list of all the stories Nigel has thus far published to FiMfiction along with their associated ratings by the community:
The Last Power Fantasy: Johnny Christie ruins his own story for everyone involved 13 upvotes / 26 downvotes (66% negative)
Displaced: Human In Equestria but the Human becomes Twilight Sparkle only more, also Pokemon are there 29 upvotes / 94 downvotes (76% negative)
Coral The Phoenix and The Caged Bird 7 upvotes / 28 downvotes (80% negative)
And of course, the masterwork, Silver Star Apple and the Search for More Money, Love, The Meaning of Life, and Magical Cards. Ironically, this pile of dogshit is apparently Nigel's most popular work, racking up an impressive 41 upvotes, compared to a mere 44 downvotes (51% negative). Congratulations, Nigel, maybe one day you'll beat the spread.
Hilariously enough, Nigel is also a member of the following groups: >The Decent Writers Club >Parody of Overpowered OCs >Why in the heck doesn't anypony appreciate OC's? >Bronies With Blades >Good OCs >Undertale (every fucking time) >Best Stories Ever >Authors Against Harsh Critics
>>168696 This 100k word firewood is somehow listed as Romance, Slice of life and Comedy. Did anyone see anything funny in what he wrote like a completely series lecture over communism barely even letting Starlight have a word in before burying her in more long winded berating and that's even without the sadism. Even his attempts at humor falls on it's face, but political 'debates' (which gives him more credit than it's due because it wasnt a debate )is what I look for in a quality comedy.
It speaks volumes when Nigel only thinks the merit of good writing are just more to slog through for the reader when it's always been said the soul of wit is in brevity.
I'm sure the dislike ratio will drop through the floor after people read chapter 6. Maybe it could have avoided it's fate before hand and starting out at sea was all naive and wishful thinking before the Silver "I can fit that whole ice burg inside me" Star became nothing more than a mouthpiece for his own ego and sank this Titanic of a fimfic.
>>168685 I have in fact been thinking about posting a review thread on this site for a while now. I am almost done with my review that I thought I would post on it. The review is about the episode: "It's about time". I also think that would be great anyway.
All the ocs that populated the rich land that was mlpol had gathered. The firstborn had returned, SilverFagot!Star
Chapter 1: The Silver Spire of Curved Monkey Penises
>His eyes drifted toward the other book, a fantasy novel, a trashy and derivative piece of genre fiction. He'd like to say he didn't know why he was still reading this trash, but he knew perfectly well. He wanted to know everything about this book, he wanted to read it all, and then he wanted to lock it away somewhere and never read it again. If he ran into any fans of this book, he wanted to be able to launch himself into a ten-minute rant about this book. He hated this book, but after seventeen chapters of garbage, simply giving up would be like... well, simply giving up. Welcome to my world, Silver. Welcome to my world.
This story actually starts off somewhat promising, so clearly you need to add "tragedy" to your list of genre tags. We are immediately introduced to Coffee Grounds, a coffee-colored unicorn with a white mane and tail that resembles whipped cream. He is a somewhat lazy businesspony who owns an unsuccessful but well-situated coffee shop that he is trying to sell. His personality is that he basically enjoys making money but has little interest in his work; his talent is making coffee but he has never taken it particularly seriously. Most of the work gets delegated to subordinates, so the business has never taken off despite being in a prime location. However, he imagines that he can probably sell it at a good profit and coast on the money for a bit.
Congratulations, Nigel: you have just created your first decent character. His concept and design is silly, but not unintentionally so like with Silver "I have second degree burns inside my rectum because I was curious what would happen if I put a piping hot Arby's™ Jalapeno Popper up there" Star; he's just mildly silly in a way that would fit into the universe of the series. You clearly establish a personality and a basic motivation for him. His goals are believable and in sync with his character. He seems like the type of pony who has some bad habits and negative traits, but nothing so awful it would turn a reader against him immediately. He is a somewhat frivolous but likeable pony with room to improve. This is a well-made character; I would read a story about Coffee Grounds.
Sadly, it all goes downhill from there. After a brief scene in which there is some confusion over an appointment, we learn that the pony Coffee Grounds is going to try to sell his shop to is none other than Silver "forget about the second degree burns, if I don't get a cucumber in my rectum before noon I will literally start having panic attacks" Star. Naturally, our first introduction to Silver immediately paints him as a colossal douchebag. We find him in the penthouse office of his personal skyscraper, reading a book on magic (and also a trashy fantasy novel, his impressions of which are quoted above). We learn that he has apparently been reading for the last 17 hours, but only 6 have passed, due to his ability to slow down time or something.
There's some back and forth between Silver and his Griffon secretary about whether or not he may actually be too awesome for his own good, and the various types of ennui he's developing from his adversaries not being awesome enough to provide him a slight challenge before he vanquishes them anyway. He is introduced to us as a self-made billionaire and super genius who spends most of his time and energy on esoteric magical pursuits, and seems to enjoy grifting wealthy ponies whom he perceives as intellectually beneath him, which as far as I can tell is part of how he built his fortune (rather negating some of his later speeches about earning his fortune through hard work, imo). Basically, this character is introduced to us as Tony Stark without all of the things that make Tony Stark sympathetic. Also, he seems to have a habit of chugging some kind of magic-enhancing elixir that concerns his secretary.
Anyway, this is followed by a rather long and complicated sequence of events in which Silver "okay so the cucumber seems to have ruptured my burns and now I have an extremely painful infection up there, but if you think that will stop me from having butt sex you obviously don't know me very well" Star does a bunch of magical acrobatics to transport himself across the street to where his meeting is. I personally think this scene is a bit long and complicated, but you clearly want to demonstrate Silver's magic abilities and his cocky desire to show them off, so I guess it's kind of a judgement call whether to scale it back or not. As an action sequence it's not bad.
Well, to make a long story short he then crashes through the window and makes a rather theatrical entrance that annoys the ponies he's meeting with, apparently this is deliberate and meant to reinforce the fact that he's a complete douche. At least he repairs the window. The meeting is between himself and three ponies: Coffee Grounds, and two others whose names I have trouble remembering, Lemon Pledge and Comet™ Bathroom Cleaner With Bleach I think, or something to that effect. I'm assuming they're just throwaway characters anyway.
I'm assuming the meeting is a fairly important scene for this part of the story and will probably have numerous instances of supreme douchery from Silver "oh god I wasn't kidding about these infected rectal burns being painful but Jesus H. Christ do I ever enjoy sodomy" Star, that will need to be catalogued and memed, so I will save it for the next post.
Pic related is a character I've christened Onion Hulk as I don't know who he really is or why he exists; after Coffee Grounds he is my favorite character you have yet created.
Alright, so we're maybe about a third of the way into Chapter One and already we have a prime example of Silver "how many calories are in dog semen? asking for a friend" Star behaving like an utterly reprehensible douchebag. Apparently deciding that the three ponies he's kept waiting (he gave all three of them an appointment at the same time and then kept them all waiting for several hours) are not worth even this much of his time, he uses his magic to construct separate livestock pens for each one (not making this up), and then sends clones of himself in with each one to handle the actual meetings. He then sits down and continues to read his book, which I assume is some kind of instruction manual on how to become even more of an insufferable mongoloid, while conducting the meetings simultaneously via some form of telepathy (not making this up).
So anyway, it looks like we're dealing with Comet Ping Pong first. Apparently Comet is being blackmailed by somepony and wants Silver "literally shove patio furniture up my ass" Star to fix it for him. He offers money, which naturally Silver finds insulting. Silver brags about how rich he is for a while, taking the time to mention that he invests his money instead of just sitting on it, because apparently he's the first pony in Canterlot to have thought of that (wait, you can get rich by investing money? I thought you were just supposed to hoard it like a lake troll. teach me your ways, Alan Greenspan!). After that, he informs Comet Wang that his price is that he wants to literally own him, including his home, his inheritance, his title (apparently he's a Prince or something) and replace him with a clone of himself (or something).
Oh, this is rich: >“You lost your right to call yourself a Prince when you did something even young foals know not to do. I've seen pictures of your wife, and she's adorable. She also doesn't seem like a legitimately terrible pony, so tell me, what possessed you to betray her trust – and betray her – like this?” Apparently, the whole issue here is that Comet "betrayed" his wife by pawning her jewelry to buy collectible action figures, and the blackmailer is threatening to expose him. I'll admit that's actually a funny gag, so good job there, but the trouble is it's not really an evil enough act to justify how shitty Silver behaves. What I assume we're supposed to take away from this scene is that Silver is meant to be some type of Chaotic Good rogue-type character who enriches himself by scamming others, but it's okay because the people he scams are scoundrels themselves. We're all supposed to laugh at how clever he is and applaud his exploits, while taking satisfaction in the comeuppances he inflicts upon his marks. While this type of character is a time-tested and popular archetype, the challenge with it is you have to make your rogue likeable. Put simply, if you're going to have Silver behave like even more of an obnoxious douche than the people he scams, it doesn't work.
In any case, as we saw in our sneak peek at Chapter 6, Silver treats mares pretty badly himself, and is probably not a pony who is in any position to be whiteknighting. And yet he goes on: >Relationships are about communication and mutual understanding. Not some foalish zero-sum game where whoever apologizes first loses and whoever has more power over the other and gets away with being terrible to the other more often wins! And there you have it, folks. A lecture on how to build a successful marriage from a character who will eventually burglarize his girlfriend's house in order to make improvements to it that she didn't ask for, after sending a pony she'd adopted as a personal protege into another dimension without bothering to consult her about it. Moving on.
Anyway, Silver offers Comet a metaphorical deal with the devil, in which he can choose to either give up his cushy life in Canterlot and start a new life with his wife in alternate-timeline Manehattan, or take his chances with the blackmailer. We leave him pondering for a bit, and move on to Coffee Grounds' interview. We also get a short interlude paragraph in which Silver chuckles to himself about how stupid Coffee Grounds appears to be and gets annoyed with how his clones aren't performing quite as he'd like them to.
Oh, one small thing: >It was irritating to note that the replica hadn't blinked once, the entire time, and it made Silver wonder if he remembered to have the other replicas blink. Like finding a typo in your work you had once failed to notice, it was irritating in a way nothing else could possibly match. I would just like to mention that I have come across multiple typos in this work.
>>168775 >>168804 I don't know how much you have left to post, but it should be capped, for the sake of posterity. Other people should be made aware of Nigel's fuckups and your insight into them.
>"So as you can see, Mr Star... may I call you Silver?" Coffee asked with a wide grin. >"You may not." Silver said flatly, staring at the businesspony with his barely-interested, unblinking ice-blue eyes that seemed far too old, cold and wise for his young-adult age. >pic related Daily reminder that if your fanfic OC is young, is described as having any sort of spiky anime hair, has stats maxed out in multiple areas significant to the world you're in, is capable of feats that would prove challenging or impossible to the most talented canonical characters, and is considered "wise beyond his years," you probably have a (G)(M)ary S(t)u(e) and should consider scrapping the story and heading back to the drawing board.
So anyway when we last left Silver "don't call me Silver my name is Lady Marmalade, the Eternal Chugger of Cum" Star, he had finally deigned to interview a much better-designed character by the name of Coffee Grounds, who is giving a presentation on his business that Silver is not even remotely interested in listening to, no doubt because he is too busy dreaming about creamy buttered mustang penises. The meeting is used briefly as a framing device for spoonfeeding the reader a large portion of Silver's backstory, in which we basically learn what we already knew about him: he's rich, suspiciously powerful, extremely lucky, and pretty much a cum gargling faggot. The spoonfeeding ends with a rant about how overpriced and poorly run CG's coffee shop is: >...these fools, who had squandered such a great location with mediocre and VASTLY overpriced coffee that drove away anypony who didn't somehow convince themselves that the generic 'Black fancy chairs in one corner, wooden tables on the whole left wall, walled-off food counter with workers behind it and an easily-changeable chalkboard for prices, orange lighting with black and brown highlights on the room's colour scheme' ambiance was worth the outrageous prices... These fools were not worthy of owning a business. I assume this suspiciously detailed description of a coffee shop is probably in here because some hipster coffee joint overcharged you for a latte or something IRL. Or, maybe you just hate coffee shops in general. Everything you write seems to either be a revenge fantasy or a regular fantasy that reads like one.
And oh God, you just won't stop with the unintentional irony: >I once read a certain work of fiction, when I was bored, and it starred a supposedly intelligent protagonist. To make this supposed intelligence clear enough to the audience the writer expected his books to have, the writer decided to remind you how intelligent he considered this character every five lines. That's what it felt like, at least. To make matters worse, the character himself, as though constantly peacocking for an invisible audience, kept reminding every other character in the story what a 'Genius' he considered himself. But holy shit you just keep going: >Unfortunately, this character was stupid, and he only seemed intelligent because outside of a few rare puzzle-solving moments of ingenuity, he was only the smartest character in a world of idiots. He was boring to read, boring to watch, he was annoying, and he was utterly unlikable. There was never any tension, because this character would constantly get bailed out by pure dumb luck and conveniences upon conveniences if his own wit combined with the writer's wit couldn't hack it. He had no ponifying moments, beyond the obvious and stereotypical ones, and while fans may argue his unbearable personality was a front to cover his insecurities, the writer certaintly didn't seem to be going for that at the time, but I'm sure he'd happily accept the credit for such a great get-out-of-ponifying-characters-free card. He constantly wasted time trying to validate the chips on his shoulders, and his own stereotypical physical deficiencies by rubbing his supposed intelligence in the face of every character who'd let him, and it was just downright unpleasant to read. So I'll skip the part where I'd planned to do that on the way here, you'll skip the part where you'll make that necessary, and I'll get to the other two, who have far more interesting backstories.
This is all dialog spoken by Silver btw, and none of it is even relevant to the conversation at hand. He just blurts this out for no reason. It's like your subconscious is trying to force its way into your conscious mind and tell you something about what you're writing and why you probably shouldn't keep writing it.
Anyway, CG makes an offer that is probably a highball figure, but instead of negotiating in the normal way until a fair price is reached, Silver makes an insultingly low offer, which CG naturally has no choice but to accept because hey, it's not like any of the other moneyed elites in Canterlot are going to be interested in buying a piece of valuable real estate, amirite? Anyway, he sells his coffee shop for 25 bits (down from 2500) and is out of the story.
>>168845 >Silver makes an insultingly low offer, which CG naturally has no choice but to accept >He sells his coffee shop for 25 bits (down from 2500) and is out of the story. For some perspective on how much of an asshole move this is (and a reminder to research your material you're going to write for) 8 bits can buy a basket of apples from Applejack in Season 1. So Silver "I need all the bits for myself stacked up as a towering golden dildo for personal use" Star thinks an entire business shop is worth 3 baskets of apples. Insulting low offer is putting it too lightly, but everyone is a spineless doormat in this universe so the OC can shine over everyone else.
>>168845 >It's like your subconscious is trying to force its way into your conscious mind and tell you something about what you're writing and why you probably shouldn't keep writing it. Kek Nigel's subconscious is like: "WAKE ME UP INSIDE! I CAN'T WAKE UP!"
Next up is Lemon Bar, who apparently is one of any number of farmers who were swindled out of their family farms by Silver "it's not really grifting if you condescend to them and call them stupid also I suck cock lol" Star, who apparently bought up a fuckton of them and is now running some sort of Monsanto type factory-farming operation all across Equestria. Silver naturally justifies this by insulting Lemony Goodness and telling him that he sucks at business, basically because he and his family wanted to take weekends off and sell their products at prices below the level of extortion.
Before we go any further, I just want to once again say that this character is just awful. He's not just badly designed and badly written, he's a genuinely bad person (pony?). You seem to want him to be sympathetic and even heroic but it's almost as if you yourself are so lacking in basic decency that you don't even realize just how reprehensible his actions are, and expect everybody reading to chuckle along with you while Silver "oh yeah pound more shekels up my ass Mr. Shekelberg" Star just goes around cheating ponies and making fun of how stupid he thinks they are.
This character's whole backstory, as I understand it, is that he is supposed to be a self-made billionaire who started with nothing and rose quickly to the top on the strength of elbow grease and wits. You describe him as a cunning businesspony who uses his genius business acumen to cheat the ponies who deserve it and reap the profits as a reward, sort of an ethical rogue as I described earlier. However, thus far you haven't demonstrated that at all with him. So far we haven't seen him going after gangsters or shady businessponies or even low-level crooks. At this point in the story all we know about him for certain is that he performed some kind of hostile takeover on a family farm (which he justifies by calling the farmer lazy and stupid, and insisting that he didn't "deserve" to run his farm). We see him extort a pony who comes to him for help dealing with a blackmailer, essentially forcing him to trade his identity and his title in exchange for keeping a relatively minor transgression a secret. Moreover, Silver justifies this by acting like he's teaching him some kind of lesson about appreciating his wife and having a better relationship with her, however it would have been better for him to just go home, confess what he'd done and try to work out their differences. Nopony learned anything from that encounter yet Silver profited and acted like he did something noble.
Last we have Coffee Grounds, whose only real crime was being lazy and running his business poorly. However he was still the rightful owner of the property he was selling and deserved a fair price for it, how well he ran the business on it shouldn't have mattered. After all, Silver was basically buying the location and getting the shop for free, and it's pretty obvious that Silver has plenty of cash to throw around and will be able to turn a profit one way or the other.
So far, as much as we've heard about Silver's vaunted work ethic, as well as his heroic exploits fighting cattle rustlers and whatever the fuck else, we really haven't seen him do anything besides sit on his ass reading books while getting rich off the misfortunes of others, then berating them for being stupid. This really is one of the most unpleasant heroes I've ever encountered in any story, mostly because he's written without any level of irony or awareness on your part of how awful he truly is.
One of my all-time favorite stories is a comic written by Ed Brubaker called The Last of the Innocent. It's a story about a truly reprehensible protagonist. Basically, he abandons his hometown and his high school sweetheart to marry a rich girl and climb the social ladder. Then, when the marriage fails, he cooks up a scheme to murder his wife, get a huge pile of money out of her father through some fancy stock manipulations, then moves back to his hometown so he can just pick up where he left off with his old girlfriend whom he dumped. He does all kinds of horrible fucked up shit for completely selfish reasons, and gets away with all of it. The thing is though, it's told brilliantly. You see everything that happens through this golden haze of childhood nostalgia that serves as the protagonist's motivation. You see the place in his mind that he wants to get back to, the innocence of his youth that he threw away to go chase money and status. He discards his new life with the same carelessness and impulsiveness that he discarded the old one with. He learns absolutely nothing, and never atones for his transgressions. It has an ending that is happy for the evil protagonist, but to anyone reading is just plain fucked up. It's honestly one of the most brilliantly written things I've ever read.
In order to tell a story about an unlikable protagonist, you have to at a minimum be conscious of who the character you're writing is, and be willing to acknowledge him as an evil bastard while still presenting events the way he sees them. You don't want to pass judgement on him but you don't want to excuse him either, the trick is to just show him as both the way he sees himself and the way he really is. You can almost think of it as watching someone through a window when they think they're alone. Your problem is you have no idea who your character is, because his worldview is your worldview, and you assume it's the audience's view as well. His cruel and callous actions to you seem heroic, the things his creepy autism compels him to do you assume will be seen as lovable quirks. There's no law against writing characters that resemble or think like you, but in order to do so you have to be able to step back and look at yourself objectively and critically, which so far you seem unable to do.
Also, read Poe if you want more well-told stories about evil MCs.
Nigel only has a high verbal IQ, otherwise he is dumb like a box of rocks, both in literacy and socially. The sheer ignorance of his narcing ego shield him from any objective improvement the review of his workbody could provide. This whole thread is just mental toiletpaper to him. If he were to admit to his failure his whole imagined writer career would come crashing down. He has more in common with an anti trump partisan than anything else. This whole Glimmernigger conspiracy is his personal "Muh Russian Hackers" tulpa.
Anyway, let's get back to this travesty. When last we left Lemon Shower, the poor asshole was trapped in a meeting with Silver "[insert gay joke here] or better yet just insert a galvanized metal tube into my rectum to expedite hamster ingress" Star, begging for his farm back, as far as I can tell from the rather convoluted dialog. Anyway Silver, in his infinite wisdom, apparently discerns that Lemony Snickett always wanted to be an artist, so he uses his limitless cosmic power to drill knowledge into his brain, so all of a sudden he knows how to art (not making this up). Lee Lemons is so pleased by this that he cries tears of joy, thanks Silver for showing him such magnanimity, and leaves, presumably with whatever deal regarding the farm he was trying to arrange concluded in Silver's favor.
I'll remind everyone that all three of these meetings are happening simultaneously and being conducted by Silver's clones, while Silver sits off by himself somewhere, stroking his knobby horse dong to Neighponese foal porn.
Anyway, the three ponies unsurprisingly all accept Silver's contracts and lick his heavenly balsamic nutsac as thank you for the opportunity to be in the same room with him. The meetings conclude with Silver being some tiny percentage wealthier than he was before, which he celebrates by going back to his fucking personal skyscraper and bouncing around the room singing to himself about how awesome he is (not making this up).
Quoth the mighty hero: >EAT IT! EAT EVERYTHING! EAT! GRASS! GET ON MY LEVEL, CANTERLOT! AND EVERY LAST PONY IN IT! GET! ON! MY! LEVEL! I HAVE EVERYTHING YOU EVER HAD AND EVER WILL HAVE, AND THEN SOME!
Then, he becomes seized by some profound ennui, realizing perhaps for one brief microsecond that all the wealth in Canterlot can't make him any less of a gigantic chud. In a rare moment of self-reflection, he thinks back on the events of his recent past and wonders if maybe there's more to life than what he's been doing. Naturally, he uses his magic to conjure a self-amplified electric guitar shaped like his cutie mark (not making this up) and performs an impromptu emo ballad, with clones of himself summoned to sing harmony (not making this up). I really feel like it's in everyone's best interest to include the lyrics of the song verbatim: >"Gold has lost its lustre, just as gems have lost their shine." Silver sang, starting with a melancholy chord, air solidified by his telekinetic grip serving as the pick. >"I'm getting bored of victory, and making everything mine. >I've fought hard to get where I am, and I have come so far. >Aside from the sun, which doesn't count, I shine as the brightest star. >I've reached heights I once dreamed of, just as I once fortold! >So why is this starry void... so cold? >Why do I still feel this way? >What is this void inside my heart? >I've reached the goal I've been aiming for, >Since my journey's start. >I've fought to build a throne, >And claim it for my own >And I've done it all alone. >I've built a brighter future, >I've left the past behind. >My will is steel, so why is my heart a stone? >I've travelled so far from where I began >My life's gone according to my plan >I used to break locked doors, now they open for me >I used to be alone, and I still am, >But now I see... [clones of himself sing harmony] >Now I see... >I've reached heights I once dreamed of, just as I once fortold! >So why is this starry void... so cold?"
Aw, poor fella. Anyway, his mopings were apparently seen by his Griffon secretary (((Aquilla))), whose widdle heart just bweaks to see her awesome boss so down in the dumps.
>She looked at him with concern. “Seeing you mope around like that was painful in ways you can't even begin to imagine.” She growled. ”I can almost feel my spleen organizing betting pools on when my other organs shut down. You are a train made of win, but it's spinning its wheels and crashing into a train made of suck, I want to look away and I easily could, but it wouldn't change the fact that you're moping around like a loser and it's annoying. Go get some friends already!”
And yes, that is actual dialog. Ms. Griffonstein then demands to know who the last mare he spoke to was, Silver whips out his little black book and immediately flips to a picture of a sexy stallion I'm too classy to even touch that one, and then there's a whole paragraph of spergy nonsensical bullshit about Spitfire and the Wonderbolts, which seems to be another aspect of the show you have some irrational hatred of that you feel like blathering about...some more spergy blathering about dubstep of all things...at this point I'm just skimming text again until it resumes coherence. I think the basic gist of this is that Silver doesn't date much and tends to fail at relationships (who would have guessed).
Eventually we get some more pseudo-depth from Silver: >“I always feel nothing,” Silver said dramatically, looking off into the distance with a somber expression. “My soul is an ever-expanding void I can sate only with that which I hunger for. Though the emptiness within me is that which drives me on, seeking out greater challenges and new tastes and other forms of fulfilment, the emptiness erodes my will to continue on with each breath, like an animal gnawing at its bars. Yet without that hunger, I am no more than a satisfied Elder Dragon, sitting on his hoard and doing nothing with it. What does it mean to desire? What does it mean to have? Does life exist to eat, or does life exist to want to eat? Are you truly alive when searching for your next meal, or when consuming it?”
Jesus Fucking Christ dude. Anyway, long story short Ms. Talonberg tells Silver to quit being a faggot and go make some friends.
So basically, long story short is, Silver "my farts don't even make noise anymore" Star decides that what's missing in his life besides an understanding of basic decency is friends, a concept which he seems to define as "ponies who stroke your dick and tell you you're great because they want to, not because they have to." Of course, he arbitrarily chooses Ponyville from a list of thousands of towns in Equestria he could possibly vacation in, and teleports himself there because fuck taking the train like a poorfag. What could possibly go wrong?
So, naturally, Silver makes an appropriately douchey entrance by appearing over Ponyville, rocketing across the sky like a comet. His supersonic hearing, which he uses to listen in on conversations to make sure ponies he doesn't know aren't talking about him, tells him that Pinkie Pie mistook his coloring for grey, which naturally pisses him off.
His first impressions of the town: >...looking at Ponyville, he noticed a completely out-of-place crystal castle monstrosity around all the nice, normal, thematically-fitting cottage houses. He’d have to be blind to not miss it, considering how the thing was a giant eyesore. ...says the guy who built a giant phallic silver skyscraper in the middle of fucking Canterlot. Oh, wait a minute: >Then again, he lived in a giant silver and steel tower he’d built himself in a town filled with buildings made from marble, ivory, and stone, so what right did he have to tell strange ponies to get better taste in interior and exterior decorating? Well, I'll be jizzed on by an orangutan, a glimmer :^) of self awareness from Silver "I keep a wine cork in my anus when nopony's using it because my sphincter doesn't really work very well at this point" Star. Maybe there's hope for this tale yet. >This right, really, since his Steel Spire was awesome and thematically fitting while not fitting, while this big crystal temple just looked weird in an old-looking town like this. Nope, never mind, he's back to being a colossal douche. >Like someone had found a nice diorama of a city from a hundred moons ago, and slapped down a big pink gem where their megagem turbodream megaprincess hyperbeauty infinicastle would stand. We get it, you don't like the fucking Princess Castle Playset™ in the middle of Ponyville™; let's move on. You don't need to take common complaints from the internet and dump them into your narrative, it comes across as bitchy and annoying. Plus, everyone reading knows what you're talking about and why you're bringing it up; it's borderline breaking the fourth wall and it kills the enjoyment of reading a story. Learn to filter your thoughts.
>He turned to look at the approaching Pegasus, noting her impressive speed. Which made sense, now that he looked at her beautifully lithe and toned aerodynamic body and the pure magnificence of her strong-looking wings. With wing muscles like those, she could probably crush multiple apples with her feathers alone. Her prismatic mane was odd, but cute, a rare mutation, and despite how 'rainbow' was a collection of colours and not a colour in its own right, it seemed to suit this mare perfectly. Well, it looks like even Silver wants to cum inside Rainbow Dash. I mean, he's going to be disappointed when he finds out she's not a dude, but still, we can hardly fault his patrician taste. Anyway, I'll grant that you can visually describe things well when you want to, you should try to emphasize that and downplay the autistic rambling in future projects. +5 for that paragraph.
>"Hey, I've heard about you!" He said, realizing who she was. The information was already there in his mind, he just wasn't really paying attention. "You saved Equestria a bunch of times, right?" >"Yeah, but my friends helped." Rainbow humble-bragged. >"Cool. So, what can you tell me about The Light of Harmony, or as some call it, Rainbow Power?" Silver asked. >"Uh... not much. We got six rainbow keys, and a big tree, and we got awesome new rainbow forms-" Rainbow said. >"What in rainbow colouration?" Silver joked, to her confusion. "Nevermind, just a bad joke," He said, deciding to write that one down later. Aaaaaaaaand -5 for the clumsily written cringe-inducing dialog that follows. I knew we'd break even eventually. You really need to learn how to write naturally flowing dialog. Nobody talks this way; not here, not in Equestria. Instead of just using dialog as a way to get information on the page or as a means for your character to brag about himself, try thinking about how actual conversations work and try to emulate them. A good exercise would be to put two characters into a random situation and give them something mundane to talk about. Make it a scene where very little else is going on and pretty much all that the characters can do is talk. Try to avoid anything huge or earth-shattering, just write the sort of casual conversation that two ponies would have if they were just hanging out shooting the shit. Think of the conversation from the perspective of each character and try to imagine what they would likely say to each other, eventually you'll just start writing better dialog without even needing to think about it. It goes back to what I was saying earlier about thinking harder about these characters. Who are they? What do they think and feel in various situations? How do they each respectively behave if X happens? You don't even have to write it down, just think about it while you're at work or wandering around grocery shopping or whatever.
>>169007 >>167312 >>167337 >>167972 So next, after slogging our way through some awkward and cringey proto-conversation between Rainbow Dash and Silver "ejaculate directly onto the bullseye I drew on my forehead and win a prize" Star, they talk about books for a while, in an exchange of what turns out to actually be slightly better dialog. Silver of course is still a massive autistic dong, but as it turns out, one of the few times where it's appropriate to behave like a massive autistic dong is when you're sperging out about books you enjoy (or don't enjoy, as the case may be :^)). For one brief shining moment, Nigel, you actually manage to create a dialog between two characters that somewhat resembles a natural conversation those two characters might have...
...and then you ruin it by veering off into another paragraph in which Silver begins bragging incessantly about stuff he owns. Oh well, it's not like anyone didn't see that coming. Anyway, this faggot has been in Ponyville for literally less than 30 minutes and he's already hitting on Rainbow Dash. Naturally, his way of going about it is to brag about himself, in this case by telling her that he not only owns all of the companies that publish the most significant Daring Do fanzines, but also that he contributes to them (anonymously of course, so he won't be shown favoritism, although it's kind of pointless since he already knows his submissions are the most awesome and will automatically win).
Anyway, he bets Rainbow Dash 9000 bits that she can't suck off an entire hockey team faster than he can, or maybe their contest has something to do with Daring Do books, idk I wasn't really paying attention. Anyway: >“What, nine thousand?” Rainbow asked in surprise. Okay, I'll admit that if that joke was intentional, it was pretty funny.
Oh, also the loser of the bet has to treat the winner to a meal. Yes, everyone, you read that correctly: Silver has just attempted the literal oldest trick in the book and Rainbow is about to fall for it.
>“Scared, Rainbow Dash?” Silver asked tauntingly. >“You wish!” She declared. “You're on!” >“Really, if one thousand is too much, I can make it ten. What I'm really after is the meal.” (pretty sure you just said the bet was for 9,000 btw, don't know where you're getting these numbers from) >“Oh, really?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. >“Yeah. What's the best place to get something to eat in this town?” He wondered...
Well, as everypony knows, Silver, the best place to get something to eat in Ponyville is the Expensivest Restaurant in Ponyville, owned by a tough-as-nails old pony named Emerald Whiskers, famed throughout the land for his emerald whiskers. Be sure to try the expensivest meal, I hear it's the tops. Just try not to wreck up the place, you gigantic mong.
And then...oh, Jesus. Jesus Christ. I...I...I just...Jesus. Reading this is like watching a slow motion train wreck, but every time you think the train is finished being wrecked, it figures out a way to get even more wrecked than it was previously. This thing is no longer even recognizable as something that was ever a train.
So, apparently, in addition to being the publisher of all the Daring Do fanzines as well as the author of all the cool enchanted interactive puzzles contained in said fanzines, Semen Star is also secretly the world's most widely respected author of Daring Do fanfiction, Silver Fox. SF is naturally also Rainbow's favorite author besides A.K. Yearling herself, who I'm surprised Silver has not yet claimed as a long-lost daughter from another dimension or some shit. Jesus H. Christ Nigel, there's going over the top for the sake of lulz or exaggeration, and then there's just being downright retarded. How does this character find the time to do all this shit? Oh, right, his fucking time manipulation ability that he figured out while he was fistfighting Dracula and teaching Einstein the theory of relativity. That apparently allows him to churn out Daring Do fanfictions (which I hope to Christ are at least marginally less shitty than what I'm reading currently) at the speed of light while conducting thousands of stock transactions per second and hollowing out the Equestrian middle class through hostile takeovers of small businesses. At this point you should not be trying to write fanfiction, you should be talking to your doctor about adjusting your Adderall regimen.
And then...Jesus Christ, I'm just going to paste this next paragraph in. >"That's right, I'm THE Silver Fox, creator of Silver Spiked Space, False Sense of Infinity, and Imperfect Suffervoid 9X!" The nerd announced with dark glee as the sky darkened and the camera zoomed in, as though the pony was a costumed supervillain announcing that HE was the one who dumped countless tonnes of pudding mix into the ocean and stole every puppy in the world. "He who made Rain Supreme herself, the best interactive comic tester in the business, spend two hours in one room, eight hours in the next room, and four days stuck in the next, only to find she'd wasted all that time on a dead end! He who made her break down in tears and use an emergency exit password for the first time in her life, and take a two-week vacation from all interactive comics before the next interactive puzzle on her list made her rediscover what she loved about puzzles and temples, an interactive puzzle I also created, under, a false, pseudonym!" He announced, gasping for air near the end. He took a deep breath, and calmed himself. "He who made the still-unbeaten A Special Silver Variety of Velocity! He who slakes his thirst with the tears of the unworthy and feasts upon the shattered hopes and dreams of the poor tortured souls that once knew what it was like to hope!"
Needless to say, Rainbow is impressed and probably horny.
And, believe it or not, that is how the first chapter ends. We still have 4 more chapters to go. God save us all.
>>169002 I'm pretty much positive that this impromptu emo ballad is Nigel's attempt to mimic the show verbatim. Since the show does random songs from every character under the sun, then it's OK too for his OC to do it. Like when Chrysalis sang even though it's out of character for her. Imitating the show on the surface without having a deeper understanding of the themes is a common occurrence in this train wreck fic. He does it all the way up until Chapter 5 and 6 with Silver "I'm making motions at the 'camera' because I'm ready for my money shot" Star and tries to break the 4th wall with stupid stuff that would only work if it had an actual audience on TV instead of an actual immersive world like most FIMfiction is written.
Also he's apparently bi polar schizophrenic with split personalities, always a bad sign when you cant even keep a consistent character. That last chunk sounds like some faggot goth lamenting about his emptiness and how other people just cant 'get it' its a jarring change from his cocky asshole attitude and just seems entirely forced for him to get a 'peptalk' from his adoring (((Griffon))) who lost all her cool and calm personality the moment she started fangirling about his speed and how proud she is of him doing stupid magic parkour that goes on for way longer than it needs to.
>>169143 >>167312 >>167337 >>167972 Well Nigel, we are officially finished with Chapter 1 of your glorious epic. Before moving on, I would like to take a moment to reflect on this chapter and give some final thoughts on it.
>>169264 This anon makes a good point: >Imitating the show on the surface without having a deeper understanding of the themes is a common occurrence in this train wreck fic.
This is exactly what bothers me about the way you write. It goes back, again, to what I've said over and over: that before you start writing, you need to have an understanding of what you want to write and why you want to write it. This story is all over the fucking place. You don't understand how to write any of these characters at all. You have a superficial understanding of the world they live in and how it works, and a basic knowledge of their personalities, but it's all just an overlay. You understand them enough to know that Rainbow Dash uses words like "cool" and "awesome", or that Pinkie Pie is generally hyperactive and will speak and behave as such, and you think you can generate a believable fictional world just from that.
You can't just describe an episode of the series the way it looks in your head and expect everyone to love it. Text is a different medium than film or animation. Some visual elements of a cartoon don't translate well into a text-only story, in the same way that some novels don't translate well into film. You also have to be willing to explore your characters a little more, you can't get away with just relying on gags and action and the assumption that the reader already knows who these ponies are. The reader doesn't want to just read some autistic kid's fantasy, they want to be told a story; they want characters they can engage with and feel something for, and a story where shit that's interesting to them actually happens. You have to be willing to go a little deeper than just "Fluttershy is quiet and likes animals." Who is Fluttershy? What are her beliefs and convictions? What is the first thing she thinks about when she gets up in the morning? You have to use your imagination a little to accomplish this. Start with her base character and try to think from her perspective while writing her. Just describing things that might happen in the show the way they would probably happen isn't enough.
The other thing is that you have no idea how to build a story. Basically, you write like a high school kid. You just think up scenarios and events and scenes that you think would be cool in Ponyland, and just have them happen in sequence without trying to adhere to any sort of narrative structure. Chapters are basically as long as you feel like making them. You have a chapter that goes on for like 4,000 words, then you have another that goes on for 32,000 words. You're not telling a story, you're just narrating events in sequence to a reader.
"First I got up today, then I had breakfast, then I got in my car, then I drove to work, but I stopped at the gas station to get a soda. Then I remembered I forgot my badge so I had to drive back home. My roommate was home so I stopped to remind him that he still owes me like $20. Then I grabbed my badge and left. Traffic was bad so it took a while and I was late, then I got to work and my boss was mad because I was late..."
Would you read a novel that told the story like that? The story could actually be about something very exciting, like maybe the guy gets to work and terrorists attack his office or something. It wouldn't matter because the author is telling the story badly. That may be how events would happen if it was real, but in a story you have to assess what to describe and what to skip over. You have to set mood and tone, and build up to whatever the main event is. For instance with your story, was it really necessary to spend probably about two pages describing all the crazy flight tricks Silver does as he's trying to fly across the street? Is there some purpose to including that in the narrative, or did you just write it because you thought it was cool and wanted to write about it? You randomly interject all sorts of things into the story that don't need to be there. You could probably trim this story down to a reasonable length just by cutting out all of Silver's inner monologues and inappropriate rambling about his backstory. All the snide little cracks you throw in about your personal complaints regarding the show don't help either. Don't like Twilight's castle? Why even put it in the story? Just don't mention it. Unless it's going to be a significant location later, there's no reason to even mention that it's there.
The way you end this chapter is badly done too. It just sort of cuts off abruptly, like your microwave tendies were suddenly done cooking and you decided not to write any more. Here's how it ends (this is following the discussion about Daring Do books): >"This just got interesting... " Rainbow said with a daring gleam in her eye, and it faded quickly as she noticed something. "Hey, wait a second... Where's Pinkie Pie?"
You end this like you're ending it on a cliffhanger, but you're not. Just ending a chapter with a question doesn't make it a cliffhanger. The reader isn't wondering where Pinkie Pie is. You barely mention Pinkie Pie to begin with. She doesn't have any speaking parts in the scene. The entire last section of text has been nothing but dialog between RD and Silver talking about Daring Do. The reader has probably forgotten that Pinkie Pie was ever even in this scene. The question is just jarring. It has nothing to do with anything that has happened up to this point and it wasn't on the reader's mind. The chapter doesn't really conclude, the text just sort of randomly stops
>>169307 >significance of Twily's castle If he omitted it, where would he home invade to install a preposterous jaccuzi? We can't have discontinuity XD
>>169307 Chapter Two: Literally Thousands of Dicks in My Ass, an Autobiography; by Silver Star
We next find ourselves in the office of Mayor Mare, who apparently is mired in a chasm of existential angst because she feels that Twilight Sparkle's ascension to Princesshood has rendered her role as mayor irrelevant. There is some grumbling about the ostentatious crystal castle (of course, can't miss an opportunity to wedge that in somewhere), and a general sense that having Celestia's star pupil and Equestria's newest Princess residing in the town has pushed her aside and made her position ceremonial.
Since the inner workings of Equestrian politics aren't really addressed in the show, there is some room for creative interpretation here, and you have every right to explore this story angle if you would like. I would personally argue, though, that this is an unlikely way for events to play out. Equestria probably functions similarly to feudalism, in which the ruler technically has supreme power but is not involved in the nuts and bolts of local governments. Ponyville probably has some sort of town charter granted by Celestia which requires them to pay taxes or tithes, but grants the town the right to operate more or less as it sees fit. Also, Twilight's is technically a Princess, but her official title is Princess of Friendship. There may be some implication that she is destined to be Celestia's successor at some point, but I don't get the impression the title comes with much political power for now; I think her job is mostly just to teach ponies about friendship and occasionally fight monsters. In Ponyville she would probably be a local celebrity and not much else. Mayor Mare's office would probably still have the same authority it always had. Anyway, that's enough of my autism, let's get back to yours.
This small paragraph in which we get a glimpse into the Mayor's psyche is actually somewhat funny and decently written. It's good for the same reason your opening bit about Coffee Grounds was good. It gives you a small glimpse into the mind of an incidental character, and for a brief couple of paragraphs get a sense of who that pony is and what their lives are like before returning to the main story. In this case, you also poke fun at some of the many logical inconsistencies you can come up with when you take children's cartoons and overanalyze them, which usually results in some funny observations. This is actually a decent way to inject some light humor into your story and I would encourage you to do more of it; but again, just don't go overboard with it.
Unfortunately, like most of the small nuggets of gold scattered throughout the barren rocky wasteland of this text, the nice thing you manage to create for an instant is immediately buried in shit once the narrative returns to its main focus. Pinkie Pie enters the scene, out of breath and hyperactive as usual, to inform the Mayor that "Ehrmygurd, the most super awesome pony I've ever seen just arrived in Ponyville and I'm so excited!!" This seems to answer the burning question posed at the end of the last chapter, in which we are left to ponder the whereabouts of Ms. Pie. Actually, here is exactly what she says:
>I was out playing with Rainbow Dash but this new silver Unicorn showed up and he was flying and he looked super serious and fancy but I bet he's just really sad and lonely and he's never been in town before so I want to throw him a party because he probably doesn't have any friends in Ponyville yet! This more or less reads like a line she would actually say despite its content, so good job there I guess. Although Pinkie is usually the easiest of the Mane 6 to write dialog for. Pretty much all you have to do is write a long, rambling run-on sentence and end it with an exclamation mark, and the reader will automatically read it in her voice. But I digress.
It seems we are now sadly back on track. Once again, the principle characters from the series are fawning all over your OC and rubbing his dick, and the Nigelverse is once more as it should be. Whew, for a second I thought I was going to have to keep saying nice things about this. In any event, the only thing we learn from this scene is that Pinkie Pie is just as excited as everypony else will eventually be to learn that Silver "my stool has been pushed so far up my ass by rectal penetration that I can't even fit dicks down my esophagus anymore, but damned if I'm not going to try" Star has come to Ponyville. Yippee.
>>169472 For reference, the term "Prince" or "Princess" is an abbreviation of the term "Principle" or sovereign in their area of application/expertise. So yes, Princess Twilight is the Principle of Friendship which is a not insignificant title pertaining to an area of magic and experience that is not unheard of to ponies, but the extent and gravity of which has yet to be determined. Having said - and as evidenced by the Movie - she's essentially powerless and a figurehead in matters *not* pertaining to friendship (including governance).
Anyway, just like the last chapter, this one starts on a high note and goes down the shitter quickly. We get even more of your rambling, incoherent narrative style than usual. You know, I really have to say that this scene really is just a complete waste of potential. You go to all that trouble of setting up a scene in the mayor's office, and then we learn that all that is really happening is Pinkie wants to throw Silver a party and doesn't know where he lives. This probably has to do with the fact that he has been in Ponyville all of 30 minutes and hasn't had time to buy a house yet. It makes absolutely no sense. Then, you follow it with this clumsy sequence in which Pinkie tries to follow Silver around but can't sneak up on him, because of his rad ninja skills. The scene concludes with Pinkie deciding to have the party at Applejack's.
This all goes back to what I was saying in my previous post about how you just flat out have no fucking idea how to build a story. This narrative goes absolutely everywhere and nowhere. You just lay out sequences of events without bothering to filter which ones are important and which ones contribute nothing to the overall story. It's just long, rambling autism.
"Silver was sitting in his office in his skyscraper one day, when his assistant came in and told him that he had to go to a meeting. He was all like, I don't want to go, but then his assistant said he had to go. So he put on his rocket skis or whatever and flew all across the town for like fifteen minutes doing barrel rolls and loop de loops, until eventually he went in and had the meeting. He cheated three ponies out of their livelihoods and made himself slightly richer than he was already. Then, he decided he was bored so he went to Ponyville. When he got to Ponyville, he met Rainbow Dash and they talked about books, and also Pinkie Pie was there but she ran off somewhere. Then, the Mayor of Ponyville was sitting in her office contemplating the absurdity of existence when Pinkie Pie suddenly came in. She wanted to know where Silver Star lived but the Mayor didn't know, so she left. Then, she tried to follow Silver Star around town but Silver was too much of a ninja and she couldn't sneak up on him, so she decided to just have a party at Applejack's for him. Then she went back to work because she was on her break this whole time."
That is a literal, accurate synopsis of your story to this point. Literally what the fuck am I reading?!? We are thousands of words into this thing at this point and we don't even have a hint as to what it's ultimately about. I don't think even you know, or rather I think that it never occurred to you to make it about anything. It's just a long string of disconnected scenes and a general chronology of events which you are just going to keep writing until you decide to call it finished. You have no central theme, no structure, and no plot. Here's an assignment for you: read a novel some time. Pay attention to how the author lays it out. Notice how each thing that happens in the story is significant and each individual scene contributes to the telling of a greater story. Notice how characters don't just randomly spout nonsensical dialog that has nothing to do with the story. Notice how the author doesn't randomly dump personal opinions or long autistic descriptions of cool things the main character can do into long paragraphs that distract from the story. Notice how the entire work appears to have been planned to some extent.
That's not to say that there's anything necessarily wrong with just shooting from the hip; some writers methodically outline every scene, some just sort of wing it. Stephen King, from what I understand, just sort of pulls his stories out of his ass as he goes, and he seems to be doing well enough for himself. But I guarantee you he at least thinks about what his story will ultimately be about and what the general sequence of events is going to be before he starts writing.
Also: >Mayor Mare shrugged, and went back to thinking of titles for the autobiography she'd get time to write some day. The Mayor of... Mayor... Mayor... Mayords? Maids? Mayor Mare 2: Mare Harder? The Autobiography of Unparallelled Mayorosity? No, those were terrible. 'The Mare Wearing the Mayorly Mask' was far better. Then again... Could she top that?
>Mayor... Revealed. Mayor Unmasked. Mayor Mare The Mayor and the Town That Needed A Mayor. Mayor Mare And The Night Of A Thousand Mayors. Mayor, Mayor, Mayor. Mayor, Mayor, I'm a Mayor, said Mayor Mayor I'm a Mayor. Mayor Unleashed. Crimson Mayor. Mayor of Mayors. Mayornnaise. Mayornado.
It's like you're just letting your cat walk around on your keyboard at this point. Although if that's the case maybe you should just let him finish the story for you.
>>169474 My understanding is that the term "Prince/Princess" derives from "Principate", which is what Augustus Caesar called his government to avoid proclaiming himself Emperor like Julius did. The idea is that most or all of the government's power rests in a principal individual. It was somewhat different from a monarch in that the power rested in the title rather than the man, and the role was not inherently hereditary. It would be similar to a President consolidating the powers of Congress and the Judiciary into the role of President and then using those powers to decree that the presidency could be held for life. I suspect words like "principle", "principality", and even "Principal (as in Principal Celestia)" all have their root in the same basic term, so your definition as "principle in their sovereign area of application/expertise" seems pretty spot on.
Threadly reminder Nigel is now spontaneously sperging out about random video game DLC in the other thread because he thought he got a positive response for once.
>>169477 >Mayor x100 Oh yeah, that orange gem parody is sure making sense now. I cant tell you how fucking annoying it is to read that tripe, like when does it end? The joke ended after the first 10 times of slightly different way to say or combine 'Mayor' with another word. Just makes me want to drop it and throttle the author not read further.
Op inspired me to start writing. Here's an excerpt:
The silo's just went up in flames, kabooooooom Katatatatatatataatatatatata. "INCOMING" The sarge exclaimed, then suddenly Nooooooo!. Nooooooo! SARGE!!!!, Jimmy cried as Sergeant Memphis fell to the ground, minus 1 head. "YOU BASTARDS" said Jimmy the red shirt wearing private as he ran towards the fire shooting in a blaze of glorious revenge. The insurgents shells,shot from Patria AMOS PT1s , were impacting left and right, but this did not stop Private Jimmy on his suicide mission to revenge his fallen and headless friend Sergeant Memphis. Whilst shooting 3 enemy combatants in the head he cried, "Fucking eat my lead" and "Game over, you terrorist Muslim scum". Then he reached for 3 hand grenades from his US navy Issue Grenade belt Model number 2332/A1. He pulled the pins and swallowed them in order to shit out the cause for his enemies death later on and with an elegant move he simultaneously ducked and throw the armed grenades towards the scared and cowardly towel-heads.
>>169535 Too low-effort for me. King Battlebrit did a great job of parodying OP, but that was just sort of...a badly choreographed CoD cutscene with bad grammar.
>>169556 You are wrong. This piece has stakes, ideology, conflict and goals, all while expressing character development. It is better than anything written in this thread.
最高の馬 Glimmer Internet Defense Force™ ¤¤ Official MLPOL Princess Account™
No sooner does Pinkie Pie go off to plan her surprise party for Silver "I once shoved an entire bag of marbles up my ass because I wanted to rapid-fire shit them all into the toilet bowl at once to give my neighbor war flashbacks and also because I love putting things up my ass in general" Star, then who should appear in Mayor Mare's office but Silver "seriously one time I shoved an entire Subway™ Footlong Spicy Italian™ up there and that Jared guy stopped by later and fisted me but that was unrelated" Star. Wow, if only he'd made his dramatic entrance just a few minutes (seconds? hours? I really get no sense of time whatsoever from this narrative) earlier then they wouldn't have missed each other. Ha! Ha! Ha! What a zany comedy of errors this is turning out to be.
Anyway, then we get what is quite possibly the most underwhelming and pointless exchange in this entire narrative rife with underwhelming and pointless exchanges: >“Hi, my name is Silver Star, I'm a businesspony from Canterlot, I'm rich, and I'd like to build a vacation home for myself here, while also setting up a wildly successful enchanted item store, vastly improving the local economy... If that's alright with you, of course.” >“Okay,” She said. stunned.
Well, I'm glad we got that settled. I know that's how I usually get my building permits. Anyway, since obviously Silver can't be fucked to even stick around and sign his own paperwork, he summons some kind of magical blue bird thing to sign the documents. However, apparently the blue bird thing also can't be fucked to actually sign the documents, so she summons...you know what, I'll just quote it: >From the growing blue void, a Silver Star emerged like a boyband emerging from the stage's floor, as if he'd been standing on an invisible elevator that slowly and dramatically rose. When he was through, the blue void vanished anticlimactically, the sound stopping instantly, white trails of energy fading away. >“What just happened?” Mayor Mare asked. >“I breached the boundaries of time and causality, and pulled into this reality a Silver that never was, but could have been. This is the Silver that will sign your documents, the Silver from the potential reality that chose to do so before leaving,” She explained, lying. She had actually used an overdramatic illusion spell, and then summoned a Silver replica from the building where he stored the ones that didn't fade away, burst, or get absorbed after completing their tasks. However, she could have performed the feat she described, if Silver desired it.
Jesus Fucking Christ Nigel. Where do you even come up with this stuff? See, here's the problem: this isn't funny enough to be considered humor, and it makes too little sense to be taken seriously. Not only do you waste space on the page writing long, intricate descriptions of events that are blatantly unnecessary for the scene you're writing, most of the time the scenes are themselves blatantly unnecessary. Forget all the confusing shit about the magical bird and the clone of Silver from another timeline or whatever the fuck happens; does your story even need this scene in the first place? Where literally all that happens is Silver signs some paperwork and gets a building permit from the Mayor? Why include that in the story? The only information this conveys is that Silver bought some land to build a house and a store on. Are you going to cover the construction of the house as well? How about a scene where Silver buys homeowner's insurance? Ooh, and I absolutely can't wait to read about his exciting trip to the hardware store to buy drywall paste!
You don't need to put mundane details like this into a story. Just because something happens doesn't mean you need to write about it. You could have just written a scene that covers anything important that happens on the day Silver arrives in Ponyville (protip: from what I've read this is basically nothing), then advance time about a week, and rejoin Silver in his new house, or his new shop. You wouldn't need to explain how Silver got his building permits; you can simply mention that time has passed and he has a house and a shop now. The reader can fit the rest of it together himself. And don't waste things like magical familiars and complex illusion spells on crap like this. I know you think it's cute or funny or something but it's just autistic. Trust me, nobody but you is laughing.
Incidentally, doing this would have made the previous scene involving Pinkie Pie less awkward. If I'm following the sequence of events correctly, first Silver makes his grand entrance in Ponyville. The first ponies he meets are Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Silver stops and chats with Dash for a bit. Pinkie wanders off at some point during their autistic conversation. This is where it gets confusing.
Apparently she flies directly to the Mayor's office to ask the Mayor where Silver lives. She just saw him arrive probably within the last hour, why would she assume he would even have a place to stay yet? Why would she assume the Mayor would know? Then she tries to follow him around for a bit, the timeline here is unclear because it seems to imply that he's no longer with RD. Then, he goes to the Mayor's office to apparently declare his intent to build a house. Why do that? Even if he's rich enough to just buy property the way anyone else would buy a sandwich, wouldn't it still make more sense for him to look around town to see if there's land for sale, instead of barging into the Mayor's office? Nothing about this scene makes sense. Now, if you just had Silver arrive in Ponyville, then skip a couple of weeks to where he's established, and then have Pinkie throw a welcome party for the new pony in town, that would make sense.
最高の馬 Glimmer Internet Defense Force™ ¤¤ Official MLPOL Princess Account™
>>169643 This seems like as good a time as any to address your technique of description.
As I and several others have mentioned before, description is one of the few things you actually do well. Your problem is that you have no idea what to focus your powers of description on. Here, I'm going to give you a quick example of misuse of description:
The porcelain sink stood tall and majestic, towering above the black and white checkerboard pattern of the bathroom floor. Designed in 1925 by the Kohler corporation, this magnificent old pedestal sink rose gracefully from the floor in a fluted base, and then spread out gracefully like a tulip, collecting dripping water from its faucets as a real tulip would catch the morning dew. Separate hot and cold water spouts, a common feature of older sinks, reached out over the bowl like twin talons glinting in the light of the Possini lighting fixture mounted above. A total of four Philips head screws held the fixture in place, so that it remained attached to the ceiling, cascading warm and inviting light down onto the white porcelain of the sink below, like a cold winter sun shining wanly upon a field of fresh snow.
Next to the sink lay the dead body of Mrs. James, the house's current owner. Her throat had been cut.
You could probably say that the first paragraph is a good descriptive paragraph. It's phrased elegantly and paints a clear picture in the reader's mind of what it wants them to see. It even sets a mood; the line comparing the porcelain to snow and the light to a cold winter sun gives the reader the impression of a story set in winter. However, since presumably the story is going to be about the murder of Mrs. James, do I really need to spend that much time describing what the bathroom sink looked like? Or, alternatively, if I want to write about sinks, should I have even mentioned the body?
What if I were to be less of a cheeky bastard about this, and give as much description to the dead body as I do to the sink? Let's take a look:
The porcelain sink stood tall and majestic, towering above the black and white checkerboard pattern of the bathroom floor. Designed in 1925 by the Kohler corporation, this magnificent old pedestal sink rose gracefully from the floor in a fluted base, and then spread out gracefully like a tulip, collecting dripping water from its faucets as a real tulip would catch the morning dew. Separate hot and cold water spouts, a common feature of older sinks, reached out over the bowl like twin talons glinting in the light of the Possini lighting fixture mounted above. A total of four Philips head screws held the fixture in place, so that it remained attached to the ceiling, cascading warm and inviting light down onto the white porcelain of the sink below, like a cold winter sun shining wanly upon a field of fresh snow.
Near the base of the sink, a woman's outstretched hand, motionless and pale, pointed its fingers up towards the ceiling. The red paint on her fingernails stood in sharp contrast to the snow white of her icy skin, a cold and frozen wasteland spattered with sudden drops of crimson. Thick, viscous blood of a similar hue pooled on the floor around her, oozing slowly outward from the ragged gash in her neck.
Alright, I'm going to stop there because this example is veering quickly into edgelord territory. But you get the point; she's dead, and it's probably not natural causes. The second paragraph actually conveys less information than the single sentence from the first example, since we do not yet know her name or that she's the owner of the house. However, despite communicating less information, the second paragraph does a much better job of setting tone and drawing the reader into the narrative. However, we've still got some problems. Read the entire example, the bit about the sink as well as the bit about Mrs. James.
Both paragraphs are well written, evoke mood, and paint a vivid picture. However, they are sort of competing with each other for the reader's attention. One is about a body, one is about a sink. Which is more important to the story? Well, we can probably assume that we're not writing about sinks, so if we're going to trim from anything it should be the first paragraph. However, it still has some salvageable elements. The white porcelain, the bathroom light as a cold winter sun, these are good images for a murder scene.
So what do we get rid of? Well, the reader probably doesn't give a shit what year the sink was made, who built it, how many faucets it has, or how many screws are holding the fucking light in place, so all that shit can go. Simply mentioning that it's a pedestal sink is probably enough to give the reader an image, so we don't need to go into detail about how it flutes up gracefully or whatever the fuck. Plus, the analogy of the tulip collecting morning dew conflicts with our winter theme, so let's lose that bit as well. Now, we take what's left and work it into the paragraph about the dead body. In our next episode, we'll take a look at what our scene has become.
最高の馬 Glimmer Internet Defense Force™ ¤¤ Official MLPOL Princess Account™
>>169686 The pristine pedestal sink rose like a headstone over the frigid expanse of black and white tile. An outstretched hand, equally pale and cold and devoid of life, clawed emptily toward the ceiling. The violent red paint on the fingernails stood in stark contrast to the white expanse of flesh and the tower of porcelain, as did the thick, viscous blood which pooled on tile and ran in warm rivulets down frozen skin. High above, the ceiling fixture cast a harsh light on the scene below, a cold winter sun shining mercilessly down on crimson-spattered snow.
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Anyway, apart from putting ourselves in the mood to listen to gloomy goth music with the lights out, what did we accomplish here? Well, basically we have learned how to take two vividly descriptive yet conflicting paragraphs and work them into harmony with each other, as well as learning how to selectively include and exclude elements from our narrative. In addition to the fact that we now have only one paragraph where we formerly had two, also note the economy of words. At it's absolute longest point, when we had two highly descriptive paragraphs, our narrative text was 213 words long. The final paragraph we wound up with is only 96. We more than halved the number of words we wrote, yet we doubled it's impact, all while removing much of the explicit description. The lengthy descriptions of the sink obviously are gone, but you'll notice that we also removed mention of the gash in the woman's neck and we never explicitly state that anyone is dead. However, nobody reading this paragraph could possibly mistake it for anything but a description of a murder scene.
What did we keep? Imagery. Anything related to snow, ice, winter, or coldness stayed in. Anything warm or pleasant was dropped. Not only does this convey our implied setting of literal winter, it also helps to reinforce the images of death and instill subconscious unease in the reader. Winter is the death of the year, and the season of winter is harsh and unforgiving. Things die in winter, and the winter sun, even at its brightest, provides little warmth. In Asian cultures, white is the color of death; in Western cultures black is. We have both black and white appearing in the bathroom tile, and there is an implied comparison of the tile floor to the cold, hard earth during winter. The comparison of the pedestal sink to a tombstone has already got the reader thinking of this scene as a grave. See how this shit works?
</edge>
Frankly, your subconscious does a lot of the work, so it's not like you need to spend hours sitting around thinking up color symbolism for all of your themes. I wasn't even thinking about the symbolic meaning of black or white or winter when I pulled this idea out of my ass, this idea pretty much just started as "I'm going to describe a murder scene in a bathroom, but focus on the bathroom fixtures instead of the dead body." I just arbitrarily made the floor tiles black and white because I instinctively felt that it would be a better choice than flower-printed 1970s linoleum. The shit about the bathroom light being a winter sun just randomly popped into my head and I added it because I liked it. Just practice doing shit like this and after a while you'll start doing it without even thinking. You can even generate story ideas this way, just sit down and write the first thing that pops into your head, then try to revise it into something worthwhile.
The important thing is to always go back over what you wrote, again and again. Look at each paragraph with a magnifying glass. Is this the best way to say what I want to say? Do I really need this sentence about water faucets? Is this 32,000 word ideological argument or this weird scene about a magical blue bird signing paperwork really essential to the story? What do I want to communicate with this text, and how can I make every word in it work to communicate it? That's what you should be thinking about. Even this example paragraph I wouldn't call quite done yet. It's better than what we started with, but it could still probably stand to be tweaked a little bit, I just don't personally feel like messing with it any further. Plus, it's starting to put me in kind of a gloomy mood. I might have to go watch some ponies. Anyway.
Read back over the first paragraph, the one about Kohler sinks and whatever. We started with a shitpost, and we wound up with something that could probably serve as a decent opening paragraph to a mystery novel, or at least a mystery novel for edgy goth teenagers. Granted, how to use winter as symbolism for death is probably not something that will come up much in My Little Pony fanfiction, but the same principles apply no matter what you're writing about.
When I tell you to trim your text down, Nigel, this is what I'm talking about. When I tell you to filter your ideas and thoughts, Nigel, this is what I'm talking about. Nigel? NIGEL? Are you listening Nigel?
>>169687 Another thing that the winter metaphors appeals to is the huwite man's innate sense of danger that's inherent to the life of a race of hunters and farmers whose lives are spent fending off predators in the dark forests and snowy landscapes. That is a huge cultural thing for us, influenced by the fact our blue eyes are more sensitive to light and our light skin is most comfortable in cool environments with less direct sunlight.
There's so much meaning that we western people apply to the winter metaphors because it appeals to our aesthetic focus and our history, both cultural and genetic, of being in such stark, quiet yet not safe situations. It has the potential to be beautiful.
>>169687 An apt metaphor for this thread is that you are the literary equivalent of Gordon Ramsey (well, you may not be that good, but bear with me) and Nigel is one of those horrible chefs he yells at. 90% of the time chefs don't care about the opinion of a Michelin-star, world-famous chef and instinctively defend their cooking, refusing to bear criticism.
To put Nigel's writing in culinary terms, the meat is raw, the seasoning is overwhelming and tasteless, the vegetables have been frozen and reheated and are disgusting, and everything is mushy, practically a slurry.
So, next up we've got a short conversation in which you use dialog between RD and Silver "shove a spatula up my ass and flip my hotcakes" Star to apparently insert some snide commentary on the state of modern video games into the story. The dialog itself is decently written for what it is; it seems like your dialog is generally at its least awful when you're having your characters talk about autism hobbies you enjoy, rather than complain about aspects of the show you don't like. In any event this scene is at about an appropriate length for what it is, it's decently written and I have no major complaints about it.
Next, Pinkie Pie shows up out of the blue with her welcome wagon, which is described in pretty exhaustive detail. Again, description is something you do reasonably well so no huge complaints there either. I would personally cut out the bit before this scene starts though, the little five-line interlude where Ponk is going through the process of getting the welcome wagon out and leaving Sugar Cube Corner with it. It goes back to what I was saying earlier about learning how to leave stuff out that isn't really necessary.
For instance, imagine you're writing a story where Mr. Jones and Mrs. Jones are out walking around the neighborhood, when Mr. Smith pulls up in his car and starts talking to them. Even if the text does not explicitly describe Mr. Smith getting his keys, starting his engine and backing his car out of the garage, the reader will probably just assume that he did these things based on the fact that he's driving his car. Again, just because something happens as part of a logical sequence of events, you don't necessarily need to include it in the text of the story. Events that the reader could reasonably infer took place, whose description doesn't contribute anything to the overarching narrative, can generally be left out.
Anyway, Ponk does her little "Welcome to Ponyville" routine, and naturally you take the time to mention that Silver "just flip me over and pretend I'm a mare if you don't want it to be gay" Star can immediately visualize the mechanical workings of Pinkie's welcome wagon as she's performing with it, because if you don't remind the reader of how awesome Silver is every 100 words or so they might start to forget. And just in case the point wasn't driven home, Pinkie fires off a burst of harmless confetti as her grand finale, which Silver interprets as an attack, so he casually launches some kind of magical shockwave, realizes his mistake, and casually calls it back. Have I mentioned that I hate this character yet?
So, with what I can only assume would have been a nuclear holocaust vaporizing the entire town of Ponyville and every last adorable little poner living in it very narrowly avoided, Ponk invites Silver to AJ's barn at 6pm and disappears. Naturally, now that the information that a party is happening later has been conveyed to the reader, you have no further need for Ponk and make her disappear abruptly from the story for now. Rather than say something about, oh I don't know, something that might restore my faith that this entire shoddy universe wasn't constructed for the sole purpose of stroking your OC's dick, Rainbow Dash instead immediately takes this moment to ask Silver about his fucking horseshoes. Yep, that's right, not even an "Oh Pinkie, you so crazy!" or a "That's our Pinkie Pie!" from Dash, we just move straight on into an ornate explanation of how Silver's magical horseshoes allow him to slow down time and control the fucking weather. Have I mentioned that I hate this character yet?
Okay, it looks like you do take a moment for Silver to ask RD about Ponk. However, for reference, you spend 289 words explaining the mechanics of horseshoes imbued with the powers of quantum space travel to an audience that didn't ask. 47 words is all you can spare on having Rainbow introduce one of her closest friends to your protagonist, a friend who, might I add, just went to the trouble of organizing an impromptu welcoming party for him.
>“So, who was that?” >“That's Pinkie Pie, she's one of my best friends. She runs Sugarcube Corner, they sell cakes and stuff.” >“Is there any particular reason why she said to visit a barn, of all places?” >“Guess it was the only place open tonight.” She shrugged.
That's it, that's all the interest Silver shows in the pony he just met who is throwing him a party just because. Rainbow isn't much better of course, but since she's pretty much just a Rainbow Dash sockpuppet whose only role in the story is to tell Silver he's awesome, we can probably forgive her for that.
Anyways, literally the next line is this ridiculous shit:
>“Huh. Well, if you want to see how great I am at building homes fast, you can watch me build my new home.” >That didn't exactly sound like fun, but... “How fast?” Rainbow wondered. >“If it takes me longer than two minutes, I'll buy you a cupcake.” Silver gloated. >“You're on!”
Holy shit, I was just kidding about turning the literal construction of the house into an actual scene. Please tell me he's not going to the hardware store after this.
Jesus Christ, no wonder this travesty is so damn long. You literally put anything into the story that you think would be cool to have in.
if post ends in significant digits Starlight Glimmer is officially a member of /mlpol/'s roster of adopted characters
最高の馬 Glimmer Internet Defense Force™ ¤¤ Official MLPOL Princess Account™
>>169733 >well, you may not be that good, but bear with me I don't presume to be an expert writer by any stretch of the imagination, I'm not quite as arrogant about my abilities as I might be coming across in this thread. But I feel like I'm at least a competent amateur.
>>169778 You are intentionally making all of the participants show their complete, utter stupidity, save for the irreconcilable fact that glimshit is the single most pathetic mary sue OC design in the first place. Please, continue feeding Nigel as he's feeding you as you're feeding him as he's feeding you.
>Silver landed in the center of the land his document-signing clone had bought for him with grace and style, a pretty nice place with a pleasant yellow thatched-roof cottage surrounded by verdant grass, a few big trees, and the odd patch of pink flowers. Sounds like a nice place. I'll be curious to see how Silver "shove a Louisville Slugger™ up my ass, zombie corpse of Lou Gehrig, it's always been my fantasy wait was that disease contagious? oh well I already have like ten strains of AIDS" Star plans to ruin it.
>It was a peaceful, idyllic scene, and Silver glanced back at the camera to smirk as he raised a hoof, spawning into existence a pocketwatch. Oh god what now
>His horn lit up with a blazing blue aura >His horn lit up with a brilliant blue light You don't need to say this twice. His horn was fucking blue, we get it.
Anyway, I'll spare everyone the play-by-play of this autism. Basically, Silver summons a bunch of clones and birds and God only knows what the fuck else, and of course uses his heavenly cosmic power to tear up the quaint little country cottage he just purchased and construct some kind of all-metal monstrosity shaped like his own head. At this point he decides that it's not big enough and tries to enlarge it somehow, screws it up, tears it down, starts over, and finally ends up with some kind of ugly metal cube structure. Actually, here's the literal description you give: >a two-storey cube-shaped house with metallic-blue metal walls and orange windows.
I'll remind everyone that this building was constructed by the same pony who just a few short pages ago was complaining about Twilight's crystal castle being an eyesore. As with everything else Silver does in this story, the entire monumental project is accomplished without his needing to expend any actual effort, and the only reason it's included in the narrative is to show off the fact that he can do it. Because in case you haven't realized it yet, SILVER HAS ALL THE POWERS AND IS THE GREATEST PONY IN THE HISTORY OF PONIES. Oh, he also sings a fucking song while he does all this.
>Aquilla finally caught up with him and landed beside him like a pet owl, admiring the building, then she snapped her claws and warped large metal shipping containers in through gold portals. Fox ponies began opening the containers and telekinetically taking out swords, shields, hammers, helmets, axes, whips, steamrollers the size of swords, swords the size of steamrollers, and a kitchen sink. This paragraph and the next one are in italics for some reason, and I can't for the life of me figure out why.
>He glanced back at his building and noticed that he'd somehow shaped this building into a massive sculpture of his own head, the house inside it, and he frowned. Wait, what? I thought we already...the head thing was torn down...wait, what?
>His horn lit up, designating a point at the center of the building and turning it into a blue magical cube that grew larger every second, quickly engulfing a quarter of the building... Wait a minute. This is the same exact paragraph that appears earlier. Verbatim. And it's italicized. Is this a mistake or is this intentional? Do you even read the shit you write before you post it? Wait a minute, it's not even quoted verbatim...
Jesus H. Christ. I reread this section 4 times and I still don't understand what the fuck is going on. There are slight differences between the italicized paragraph and the non-italicized that appears earlier, so you rewrote what you wrote instead of just copypasting it. That means you deliberately wrote the same paragraph twice. WHY??? I don't understand what you're trying to do here. I'm not even trying to make fun of you anymore, I'm just trying to UNDERSTAND.
>The fox ponies arranged themselves into groups of four, their horns lighting up. The eyes of birds flashed as they converged upon summoned palanquins, falling into the multicolored magical grips of the fox ponies, Silver leaping towards the chair in the center and posing. >Make a home, make a home >WE'RE SKIPPING THIS PART, IT BORES ME TO THE BONE. Now imagine how the rest of us feel.
>His sudden outburst surprised the birds and foxes, but they rolled with it, musicians speeding their movements up with magic to rush bars out at 340 BPM before returning to their previous pace as Silver's magic bodily picked up one female red fox-pony, dipped her tail in a summoned can of white paint, and used her to paint his building's walls grey. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS I DON'T EVEN
>When it was over, he blew a gust of air up at his red-hot horn with a smirk, and sat on his haunches, admiring his work Daily reminder that the only demonstrable real-world trait you've given this pony is an intense desire to avoid having to do any actual work, and that includes improvement to his own moral character.
>I built this home, I built this home >Yes, I did Literally no, you didn't.
>With my friends, I built this home >Yes, I did! Slaves, actually, not friends. And they built it, not you. But you're getting warmer.
Before I conclude, I would just like to say that I have a friend who offered to help me with this analysis. In order to get up to speed on the text, he tried to run it through some Chrome app he has that condenses text and speedreads it to you somehow. Doing that with this story literally broke his brain; he's traumatized now. He may never be the same again.
>>170186 I read chapter 6 in 30 minutes. My mind is mush. Sleeping did not help, nor caffeine or sugar. Im almost catatonic. I thought my program was broken when it kept repeating the same sentences 5+ times in a row. Brb catatonic.
>“Hold on, Spike. Silver Unicorn, pointy orange mane with an orange flame at the front, with a yellow star on it, blue eyes, a constellation of orange and yellow stars for a Cutie Mark?” Twilight asked hopefully. Oh God. Oh Christ. This is where it begins. This is the genesis point of the worst ship that has ever been attempted in almost a decade's worth of the terrible ships this fandom has come up with. If ships were literal ships, the Twilight/Silver ship would be the unholy love child of the Titanic and the Lusitania. May our just and merciful God grant us swift speeds and iceberg-infested waters.
Sooooo....
Unsurprisingly, when Spike informs Twilight that a fancy new unicorn has just flown into town on a fucking comet, and built a house in under two minutes using clones of himself, she is beyond giddy to learn that this fudge-packing faggot of a unicorn is none other than the world-famous Silver "toss a quarter down my cavernous asshole and make a wish, you will literally never hear it hit the bottom" Star. Spike is elated to learn that there is finally someone in Ponyville who is a bigger faggot than he is, but even he was unprepared to learn of the depths of sodomous debauchery to which this cum-guzzling semen sponge of a unicorn has plumbed in his life.
Apparently, he has written a grand total of 200 books, in between splitting the atom and fighting cattle rustlers and running a massive corporation and drumming for Def Leppard. However I'm guessing if he writes anything like you, like 90% of what he writes is pure autism that has no connection to anything. Anyway, naturally, Twilight has read all of his books and her horsegina is already quivering at the thought of being able to live in the same town as his mighty meatsnack.
Nigel, I'm beginning to think I might owe you an apology. I've both implied and explicitly stated multiple times that you have no talent as a writer. However, it appears I may have been mistaken. For over the course of the next several paragraphs, you create a back and forth between Spike and Twilight, in which they continuously one-up each other over who knows the most trivia about the myriad exploits of Silver "just shove entire ears of corn up my ass, everypony else does" Star. The fact that you are able to make canon series characters lick every single square micron of your OC's balls and cock while he's not even in the room is, frankly, it's own particular type of talent.
Just so we are all on the same page here, I am going to list the accomplishments attributed to Silver, according to Spike and Twilight: >author of 200 books >inventor of a new type of evolutionary transformative spell, whatever the hell that means >Seven-time Grandmaster of the royal Duelling Circuit >owner and founder of his own magical duelling circuit >shaved the Royal Duelling Circuit's owner's head with his own spellblade at Glitterfest 2010 (literally wat?) >single-hoofedly revolutionized the field of summoning magic (with his dick) >created over a thousand spells (with his dick) >made his own chain of enchanted item stores >inventor of some type of magical buttsex arena, called temporal echoes or some shit who even cares >apparently owns patents to numerous to number >has apparently also written history books too numerous number on top of his original finitely-numbered 200 books >plays in a heavy metal band (holy shit I was joking about the Def Leppard thing) >set up magic schools in Canterlot >has campaigned for various political reforms (most probably having to do with sodomy laws) >brought criminals to justice (except himself of course) >creates interactive comics >passed the "impossible test" at the Blah blah academy of something something who gives a shit Ordinarily I'd make some kind of snarky remark about you blatantly ripping off Captain Kirk's backstory, but frankly it's nice to see you ripping off something that isn't Naruto or Pokeshit for once. It shows growth, sort of. Oh, wait, you specifically make a point of mentioning that he didn't cheat the way Kirk did. I stand corrected, this is clearly a completely original work.
Anyway, this next paragraph should really be quoted verbatim: >nopony knows how he did it! He didn't have his magical system jump-started by the shock from a sonic rainboom, he didn't tap into some incredible potential power he was born with, he only had his wits and his determination to win, and he outsmarted a test nopony in over a thousand years has ever been able to pass!
Yep, you all read that correctly. Silver "I make plaster casts of my dick and sell them as wands to Harry Potter fans" Star's backstory has officially been recognized as cooler than Twilight Sparkle's, by none other than Twilight Sparkle herself. Anyway, naturally Twilight is beside herself with giddiness, so much so that she puts on her absolute fanciest of fancy fancy dresses to go and completely prostrate herself before Silver's almighty munchkin dong.
Jesus fuck. If I ever have a kid, I am going to lock him in his room and make him read portions of this when he misbehaves. No, scratch that, if I did that I would probably be arrested for child abuse.
>>170276 Glim!glam can you review my story? This is the resident fanfiction non-general, right? https://pastebin.com/rMfUfuKE It was directly inspired by Glimmernigels obsession with ExtremeGears.
>For Silver Star, seeing Applejack again after all these years was like getting a magically-accelerated steel rod launched at terminal velocity right into his soul So, apparently Silver knows Applejack from someplace. I'm assuming since you specifically refer to him as Silver Star Apple in the title, the implication is that Silver gives himself Nestle Quik™ enemas and hangs around by the docks asking sailors if they would like to churn some chocolate butter. I also assume you are implying that Silver is somehow related to the Apple family. Even though most members of the Apple family have names and/or cutie marks that revolve around apples, and absolutely nothing about your character even remotely suggests apples to anyone. Or maybe that's going to be some crazy big reveal at some point, maybe it will turn out that his cutie mark was apples the whole time or something, who knows. I'm ashamed to admit I'm legitimately curious to find out.
Anyway, with about your usual level of narrative prowess, Silver just randomly shows up at Applejack's barn, Applejack politely greets him and leads him to the barn, and that's a scene. Have I ever mentioned that you have absolutely no idea how to tell a story? Because you have absolutely no idea how to tell a story. This scene is pretty much classic clumsily-written Nigel prose, where a character just shows up at a location, another character is there, and the text proceeds to just tell us what happens with absolutely no dialog and nothing even remotely interesting happening for several paragraphs.
I guess he's here because of the party that is being thrown on his behalf, which at least makes sense, but as usual your characters never emote or say or do anything particularly interesting. We are informed that Silver is overcome with some level of emotion at seeing AJ after all this time, which he has to contain because he doesn't want her to know it's him for whatever the fuck reason, I'm assuming this will be explained eventually. But AJ herself just behaves like an empty emotionless robot reading lines or performing actions, much like Twilight in most of the scenes she's been in, and Pinkie in the scenes she's been in. Your characters are hardly ever believable; you have them walk around and do stuff, or give them lines to say, and occasionally they sound or act like their counterparts in the show, but it's never convincing; your characters just don't speak or act the way real people(ponies) would. I can only think of two instances in this story so far where you've written dialog where the characters behave like living beings: the scene with RD where she's talking to Silver about Daring Do books, and the previous scene where Twilight and Spike are arguing over who can deepthroat Silver's cock the longest.
In both instances it's possible to read the dialog being spoken and imagine the character it's associated with actually saying it, mostly because it's one of the rare occasions where you have these characters talking about something they're interested in or excited about, rather than just delivering lines that convey information. This is probably because in both of these scenes you have them talking about things that you yourself are interested in; spergy fanboy autism in the case of the RD/Silver conversation, and your old goto topic, "how awesome is Silver Star?", in the case of Spike/Twilight.
Stop trying to write interdimensional space epics and just spend some time learning how to write convincing stories where two or more characters interact with each other. Look at the show itself. Except for the season openers and closers where most of the big villains appear, the vast majority of episodes are constructed around simple premises you could explain in single sentence. Applejack and Rainbow Dash have a race. Twilight has five friends and only two gala tickets. Fluttershy wants to sing but has stage fright. The stories are simple, but the events that happen in the stories are not what the episodes are about. As I've said before, this is primarily a show about these individual characters and how they interact with each other. Part of the reason the show has gone downhill imo is that the writers have forgotten that to a large extent and just keep adding dumb gimmicks.
Once you've got that figured out you can write all the crazy space epics you want, maybe even one that someone besides you might actually want to read. Anyway, moving on. Silver shows up, an emotionless paper doll that looks like Applejack leads him to the barn, and then suddenly:
>"SURPRISE!!!" Six ponies and one Dragon and a bunch of other less-important ponies suddenly called out. Oh, that's a nice way to phrase it. "The six ponies I barely give a shit about, their dragon sidekick and a bunch of background characters threw my faggot OC a party. Cool."
Why are you even writing in this universe, anyway? Serious question btw. It seems like you'd rather be writing in the universe of Naruto or Pokemon or Sonic the Hedgehog. Your pony universe is basically just shit you've ripped off from Naruto and Pokemon and Sonic the hedgehog blended into a smoothie of autism with a thin skin of Pony on top. Seriously, why ponies? Why these characters? You don't seem to honestly give a shit about any of them at all, you just want to write shonen manga stories about cool guys with cool powers getting into cool battle scenes. It honestly makes about as much sense as a ten year old girl who wants to write stories about everyday friendship problems setting her story in the Dragonball Z universe.
>>170443 I don't think Nigel has any more idea of how to write Applejack than the vast majority of the fanbase or even the show staff do, hence why she's an emotionless robot. I mean, he can't write any of them properly, but my best guess is that he's gonna give Applejack an entirely new personality when she realises who Silver "I need to shove as many things in my anus as possible to see how wide it can stretch for science" Star is that no one has ever seen before except him, even her closest family members to cover up his inability to write rural characters.
>>170443 >>167312 >>167337 >>167972 I'd like to take a moment and go over this paragraph: >In front of the party table, there was a pink pony, looking absolutely overjoyed. To her left, there was What's-Her-Name, the shy yellow Pegasus who was a model for a while(Not that he paid much attention to fashion... and now, he wished he'd at least bothered to try and remember her name) and a white Unicorn he recognized as Rarity(He certainly paid attention to the business world, and he'd heard of the self-taught fashionista from Ponyville who had managed to get several influential ponies on her side, making a name for herself despite her humble beginnings. He liked her, she was cool.). On Pinkie's right, there was Twilight Sparkle, Alicorn Princess and Element of Magic and general all-around chosen one, who had a pleasant smile on her face, and next to her, there was a small baby dragon, the one who saved the Crystal Empire that one time... Spike? Behind them, there was a bunch of unimportant ponies in the background, including one exceedingly unimportant reddish mare with a redder Pinkie-ish mane and tail.
This is basically Silver "I pay truck drivers to slurp rancid tuna salad out of my asshole" Star's "introduction" to the mane 6. I say "introduction" because (yawn, of course) he knows all of them already. Or, rather, he knows "of" them. It technically makes sense that he would be familiar with them, since it's established that he's diligent about research and most of the stories involving the Elements of Harmony would probably be big news in Equestria. The issue here though is that it's just dull to read. We already know these characters, Silver already knows these characters, so what's the point of going over each one? It's just one more giant, flashing neon sign pointing to the fact that you chose a bad story premise and a bad character to put in it. Even though this is just another woefully generic "anon's self-insert OC goes on a super cool adventure with the main cast, who are all really impressed by how cool he is" amateur <insert series name here> fanfiction, you make it even more tedious to read by establishing that your OC already knows everything about the world he's in and the characters he's going to meet. It's the same old problem again: your OC is too perfect, too powerful, too omniscient. There's no opportunity for growth here so why am I reading?
>In front of the party table, there was a pink pony, looking absolutely overjoyed. Silver should already know Pinkie Pie's name.
>To her left, there was What's-Her-Name, the shy yellow Pegasus Fluttershy can't do anything that would impress Silver so naturally he doesn't give a shit about her. You make it doubly insulting by establishing that Silver is aware of her existence, but seems to regard her as an unimportant member of the group because she doesn't have any rad powers.
>a white Unicorn he recognized as Rarity(He certainly paid attention to the business world, and he'd heard of the self-taught fashionista from Ponyville who had managed to get several influential ponies on her side, making a name for herself despite her humble beginnings. "I don't just like myself, I also like ponies who remind me of myself." Have I mentioned that I hate your OC?
>He liked her, she was cool. "Silver "the zebra cock inhaler" Star thinks I'm cool? Wow! Life's mission: accomplished!" -- nopony
>Twilight Sparkle, Alicorn Princess and Element of Magic and general all-around chosen one Not surprising he'd recognize Twilight I guess, somewhat dismissive description of her though.
>and next to her, there was a small baby dragon, the one who saved the Crystal Empire that one time... Spike? Your character is familiar with significant plot developments in the series, we get it. Let's move on.
>Behind them, there was a bunch of unimportant ponies in the background Again, I'd just like to say that this sort of dismissive description gets on my nerves. Whoever these ponies are, they took the time to come to a party being thrown for this testicle-juggler, I feel like that should at least entitle them to a brief description. If you don't want to go over them in detail you could at least say something like "There were some other ponies he didn't recognize" or "some ponies he didn't know". Bluntly calling them "unimportant" is just rude.
>including one exceedingly unimportant reddish mare with a redder Pinkie-ish mane and tail I have no idea what pony you're trying to reference here. Deliberately singling her out to be insulted seems to imply that it's somepony Silver has a grudge against, but is it Silver's grudge or yours? I suspect the latter, and if that's the case you're just pointlessly breaking the fourth wall again. I get the impression this is another one of your jabs at some autistic detail of the show you don't care for, but you might want to consider spelling it out a little better for those of us less in the know, or better yet, just leaving it out entirely since probably no one cares. If she's not important, why put her in the scene to begin with?
>He blinked, and Pinkie suddenly popped up from below his field of vision and interrupted his thoughts. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie, and I threw this party just for you! Isn't this exciting? Are you excited? Cause I'm excited. I've never been so excited! Well, except for the time when I went-" Aaaaand, in case this fanfic wasn't quite generic enough for the discerning connoisseurs who want the really generic stuff, here's the obligatory "Pinkie Pie being overly hyper and random because that's just what she does" part. For someone who complains this much about the show, you sure seem to make a lot of the same mistakes that its writers are frequently blamed for.
Anyway, after all this, Silver teleports himself outside because he needs to fart. Yes, that is what actually happens. This seems like a continuity error to me, since it's been clearly established that Silver's farts no longer make noise.
Moving along. After meeting all the show's main characters, Silver randomly teleports himself outside to fart (yes, once again, this is actually what happens in the story and not me shitposting). In what is probably the most cringe-inducing scene in the story so far (an impressive feat in itself), Twilight follows him outside to see what the matter is. He explains to her that he had to fart, then specifically explains that he is standing upwind of her and that's why she can't smell anything. She didn't ask him why she couldn't smell anything. He just volunteers this information for no reason.
From there, he launches into a standard "Aw, shucks, this isn't how I expected our first encounter to be" speech where he conveniently plants the thought in her mind that he had given advance thought to what meeting her would be like.
>Silver was torn. Did he go for the funny option, and say he didn't expect her to interrogate him over his flatulence, put her on the spot for how weird this was, then get her to want to change the subject as much as he did? I'm almost afraid to ask, Nigel, but was there a reason you even thought it would be a good idea to include a fart scene in the first place?
>Or did he try to change the subject himself, and reveal some sort of pre-held belief (He couldn't currently remember the official word for that, but he was sure such a word existed) "previously-held belief" would have worked just fine here, without the autistic explanation in parentheses.
Then we have this: >“I was sure we'd talk about magic, scientific discoveries, art, culture, what we're working on, current events, the world as a whole, and so much more.” He said with a slight shade of hopefulness to his voice. “The things we'd achieved in our time, and the things we wanted to achieve. What we wanted for ourselves, and what we wanted for Equestria.” >“I'd like that,” Twilight said.
Translation: Silver: "I was really hoping we could sit around and talk about how awesome we both are, especially me." Twilight: System.Audio.Play("TS_standard_response_009893.wav");
And then: >“Let's go back to the party.” Silver said, his horn lighting up with a bright blue light. Showing off, he reared up and flexed his chest muscles before slamming a hoof into the ground, an orange shockwave rippling along the ground to solidify around them. >Before either of their eyes noticed, they were back in the barn.
Well, that clears that up. I was wondering why this scene was even in here. Turns out, you needed to get both Silver and Twilight outside the barn so you could show off the fact that Silver is capable of using some kind of fancy new magic trick to transport them both back into the barn. Still, though. "I teleported outside because I had to fart?" That's really the best you could come up with?
So, after making a stupid excuse for why he just randomly disappeared out of the barn for no reason, Silver chuckles like a faggot and the already awkwardly constructed party sequence can finally resume. Or...can it?
>Meanwhile, Aquilla remained at his home, completely forgotten by Silver as she ordered fox-ponies and birds around, having them put everything in his house away properly. There is literally no reason for this sentence to even be in here. Nobody gives a shit where Aquilla is right now. If she's not here, the assumption is that she is probably somewhere else. If you have something important to say about what Aquilla is doing, then as soon as you reach a sensible place to cut away from the party (end of the fart scene would have probably been fine) just <insert horizontal line break> and switch over to Aquilla. If all you want to say is that Aquilla is off somewhere doing something else that isn't important to anything currently going on, don't.
>In the Barn, Silver decided to talk to Pinkie. “You know, there's something I wanted to say to you earlier today, but you rushed off before I could get the chance.” He admitted. >"What's that?" Pinkie wondered happily, tilting her head to the side. The idea that this might be something unpleasant didn't even seem to occur to her. After all, how could anypony not like her? She was loveable. >"You. Are. ADORABLE!" Silver declared happily, a big dumb grin spreading across his face, to the surprise of many ponies, Twilight and Rarity included. "Look at you, you're like a big pink puppy!"
Jesus Christ Nigel, this is seriously the most awkwardly written narrative I've ever read. I mean, do you even read the shit you type after you type it, or is this just some kind of rambling stream of consciousness where you just type your thoughts and publish them?
I mean, here is basically the readers digest version of your barn scene up to this point:
"Silver 'if writing novels were anything like butt sex I would be mark fucking twain' Star goes to the barn. Applejack is there. She says hello and Silver says hello. He goes into the barn. Everypony yells 'surprise'. All the ponies are there, let me describe them *describes ponies*. Some of the ponies are not important and I will say who is not important so you know. Then Silver teleports outside to fart. Then Twilight Sparkle teleports outside to see why Silver teleported outside. He says it was because he had to fart. Twilight says "oh." Then they decide to teleport back inside. Pinkie Pie is there. Silver decides to talk to Pinkie Pie. He goes up to Pinkie Pie and tells her she is cute liek pupper."
There is honestly just so much autism here I'm not even sure where to begin. It's going to have to wait until next post.
>>170621 >pre-held belief I'm assuming either Prejudice or Preconception is the word Nigel was looking for. >Aquilla Meanwhile, Bob the Janitor was defrosting his freezer. Weird Al anyone? anyone?
So, when we last left off, Silver was petting Pinkie like a puppy. This scene was probably intended to be cute or funny, but the autism here is just off the charts. Let's examine some key passages.
>He stroked her mane like she was a cute little dog, and she giggled, because it tickled. His hoof travelled toward the back of her ear, and she began tapping her right hindhoof against the floor like a dog. Ok, I'll admit this is a cute mental image. However, in the context of the scene it just makes no sense for Silver to do this all of a sudden, and the weird way your narrative jumps around here just plain makes it weird. Basically, here is the progression of events:
Silver teleports outside to fart. Twilight follows him outside. He explains to Twilight that he had to fart. This alone is jarring enough for reasons I shouldn't have to explain. Then, we have this: >“Silver Shoes, just three-ninety-nine bits!” Silver boasted, tapping the ground and launching a piece of popcorn ten feet into the air, where his magical glow caught it and pulled it into his open mouth. “Sorry about disappearing like that, everypony, I thought there was something I'd forgotten. But there wasn't.”
Presumably, the purpose of the fart scene was to give Silver an opportunity to use his silver shoes and show off to Twilight, which...you know what, forget it. I've spent enough mental energy on the fucking fart scene and its subsequent explanation. I'm just going to say that it's ill advised, awkward, not particularly funny if it's supposed to be, even weirder if it's not, and you should give serious thought to cutting it out of the story.
Next, we have that completely random mention of Aquilla back at home doing the dishes or whatever that I mentioned in the last post was unnecessary. After that, Silver just randomly approaches Pinkie Pie and asks if he can pet her. See what I'm saying? This is just a sequence of events that just happen without being connected in a way that makes sense. I just find it difficult to imagine these or any characters behaving the way you have them behave, and that includes Silver himself. Even in the case of Pinkie wagging her tail like a puppy or whatever the fuck, it's cute but it's just weird. Silver's barely even spoken to this pony and he just randomly approaches her and asks to pet her? Does that sound like something someone would normally do at a party? This is not normal behavior. I get that this is kind of meant to be the point, but what is clearly meant to be humor just comes across as cringey and awkward, and like I said the sequence of events just doesn't make much sense. You've made it abundantly clear you don't care for my advice in general and that's your prerogative, but you should still seriously consider a thorough rewrite of this scene. At least cut the damn fart scene.
Anyway, RD seems to agree with me that Silver is behaving like a creepy weirdo and asks him to stop petting her friend. So, Silver does this: >Silver's horn lit up and he formed a portal beneath him, casually falling through it and out of a forming vertical portal that put Pinkie between himself and Rainbow Dash, and he stroked Pinkie's mane harder while staring right at her, causing her to perform what those in another world called a memeface. "A party involving me isn't weird until there are seventh-dimensional birds flying around violating causality and dimensional boundaries like they're casual suggestions!” He declared overdramatically.
I'm not even going to bother trying to convince you anymore that having your character do stuff like this is ill-advised; I'll just focus on trying to convince you to write it better. What he's doing here is difficult to visualize the way you describe it. I get that he basically invokes Portal logic to move himself from point A to point B, but the position of the ponies is hard to keep track of. The problem is the magic trick transports Silver, but you describe it as "(he) put Pinkie between himself and Rainbow Dash." It focuses the reader's attention on where Pinkie is instead of where Silver is, and we frankly don't know where RD is because you don't specify. Pinkie is stationary, Silver moves, you should be announcing his position, not Pinkie's. I'll also mention this is a run-on sentence that should be broken up.
I would phrase it something like this: >Silver's horn lit up, and he fell through a portal that formed beneath him, emerging through a second portal that dropped him on the other side of Pinkie. He continued to stroke her mane..." If you want to emphasize that he did this to place Ponk between himself and RD, have RD interject something, like "Hey get back here" or something similar. In fact, if you're going to do the Portal gag, you'd actually be better off having it happen two more times instead of just once. Have it where RD runs over and tries to step between them again, so Silver pulls the portal trick again so he's back on the other side. She runs back over to that side and he does it again, and keeps petting Pinkie in between portals. Stop at three total iterations though; it's a generally accepted rule that 3 is the magic number of times the same thing will be funny in sequence. The other ponies could potentially also find this amusing and laugh; that way it looks like he's doing this to be charming and funny, instead of just having him start petting Ponk for no reason like a creepy weirdo. Could be a small step on the rather long journey of making your OC come across as less of a douche.
If you can ease into the petting business a little less awkwardly, make your characters behave a little more naturally, and lay out the Portal gag better, this could actually be a rather amusing scene.
Oh, one more thing: could you please not ever use the word "memeface" in a story again, and consider cutting it out of this one? It pretty much demeans us all. Just describe her expression, or leave it out entirely.
>>170796 >If you can ease into the petting business a little less awkwardly If he had Pinkie being the one that approached him, it could honestly work better since we all know that one of her character traits/flaws is not knowing personal bounderies. I am refering to how she acted in: "A Friend Indeed." Otherwise, I am a sucker for fluff myself but Silver acted towards PP as she would have done towards a filly. I don't know if it fits SS character. Wasn't he like depressed and shit?
>>170800 >If he had Pinkie being the one that approached him, it could honestly work better since we all know that one of her character traits/flaws is not knowing personal bounderies. Yeah, I think that makes more sense too. The irony is when I first read this section I was just going to make fun of it, but after pulling it apart I think it might actually be salvageable, it just needs a heavy rewrite. He needs to establish more of a relationship between Silver and Ponk before this scene happens, or least have them speak to each other briefly, and probably have Pinkie be the one who approaches or initiates/invites physical contact as you said. Maybe balance out the earlier scene where he's talking to Rainbow Dash, make it a 3 way conversation so they all get to know each other. Seems to me Pinkie is easy enough to make friends with, it shouldn't be hard to set them up as having some type of established relationship before all this happens, even if it's just a casual "you seem cool let's hang out sometime" kind of thing.
>I don't know if it fits SS character. Wasn't he like depressed and shit? Nigel's biggest shortcoming is characterization. He really has a hard time figuring out who any of these characters are and making their words and actions fit that mold, and this includes the characters he creates himself. Now that you mention it I think that's a big part of what feels wrong in this scene. Everything that happens here is out of place with everything else, especially Silver's behavior.
Silver tends to be all over the place. One minute he's he's an arrogant, coldhearted gangster, the next he's acting like some kind of hero philanthropist, the next he's a mopey emo complaining about how unfulfilled he is. His random autistic "I want to pet you like a puppy" behavior comes out of absolutely nowhere, and is so completely inconsistent with anything we know about him so far that it's jarring. It's clearly written to either be funny or cute and random, it may even be an attempt to make him more sympathetic. However it comes across as borderline rapist/molester type behavior because the impression we have of Silver thus far is that he's a self-centered narcissist and possible sociopath. Even the desires he expresses to find love or friendship are ultimately self-serving; thus far we've been introduced to a character that wants to have friends, not to be one. Thus, a scene that's intended to soften your impression of the character just makes you slightly more repulsed by him.
>>170658 To be honest with you I didn't really read it, I just skimmed the first couple of paragraphs, concluded it was a shitpost, and gave you a "well memed, my friend!" response. If you want a serious analysis of it, then fine, here you go:
From Wikipedia: >Poe's law is an adage of Internet culture stating that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views so obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the parodied views.
In essence, this text can be interpreted one of two ways: either it is a sarcastic parody of a "guide" to writing Sonic fanfiction intended to mock the kind of autistic individual who would write such a guide, or else it is an actual, unironic guide to writing Sonic fanfiction, written by just such an individual. Without knowing context or source, we will never truly be certain which it is, so I am just going to assume it's real writing advice and treat it as such.
Taken as writing advice, this text does offer a few decent tips and tricks for the aspiring autistic writer of autistic Sonic fanfiction. I particularly like the awesomeness math™ method for determining a character's awesomeness, as awesomeness can be a difficult trait to quantify. I was disappointed, however, that it does not expand upon this concept by pointing out that you can exponentially increase awesomeness by combining awesome characters from different series. For instance, if you take Rainbow Dash (decidedly the most awesome character in MLP) and combine her with Goku, the awesomest character from DBZ, you get a character called Rainboku, who is probably the most awesome character ever conceived by anyone. Incidentally, Nigel, you can't ever use her, because she is copyrighted, by me.
Rainboku is a horse with a tragic past and a bright future. Bright as in explosions, which you will see in a moment. That is called foreshadowing, and it is a literary technique, but you can't use it because it is copyrighted, by me. Anyway, Rainboku was born on a far-off alien world, and was frequently made fun of for being the only Super-Saiyan horse with a rainbow colored mane and super awesome powers, and also she could run really really fast, and also she was traumatized when her home planet was destroyed, by a mysterious fighter which turned out to be her from the future. You see that? That was what the foreshadowing was for. But I will remind you again that nobody but me is allowed to do that.
Rainboku has a chip on her shoulder because her father was Bill Cosby and her mother was Wonder Woman, and they would frequently get drunk and violent and sometimes sexual with her. That is why you can never mention the name Bill Cosby around her, because it reminds her of the time she was molested by Wonder Woman. However she has a heart of gold underneath it all, and when push comes to shove, she can summon laser beams which shoot out of her eyes and destroy aliens and Bill Cosby other bad people, which is why her home planet banished her to Equestria once they found out that it was her from the future that had destroyed her home planet. Also, her home planet had been moved to a different planet at that point, because the original planet had been destroyed. By Rainboku.
Anyway, in summation, Nigel's brilliant writing advice in Sonic Sonic Sonic is truly an inspiration to us all. It is a fine continuation of the ancient, noble tradition of old masters passing their tips and tricks down to a younger generation. Anyone with autism or autism-related conditions who wishes to write really super awesome Sonic fanfiction could benefit immensely from this guide.
Thus, after thorough analysis, my original rating still stands: 10/10 tbh, fam.
>>170805 I am going to follow you now on this thread btw. I have been an aspireing writer, although on and off, since I was small and this is one of my major intrests. No-one cared for my thread on reviewing and I have learned from these two threads that I might not get popular on this site if I attention-whore about it by posting a new one. I simply have to come to terms with the fact that nobody notice me just like irl. I once walked into the girls' lockerroom after gym class while they were undressing and I was nothing to them. Sadpepe.jpg. I am just joking I am not actually sad. What I think is most jarring about all this is the fact that Nigel sometimes says smart things but then goes back to write about fart scenes. Some of his comments in the other thread about fim are, what I would consider, top-notch epiphanies but his own story is filled with brainfarts Joke intended I don't like to write too much so I am trying to summarize all his flaws into one sentence but it is hard with out it becoming a run-on-sentence. Also, Nigel. I know this isn't funny to hear. I would also be a bit torn if people told me that my story that I had invested time and energy in was bad. However, you should try to see this as your own character arc's rockbottom to overcome. Take what you learn from glimglam with others, maybe the entirety of the two threads and rewrite or write a new story. To sum up basicly what everyone probably has already said: Your story has no direction. Scenes are therefore irrelevent in the grand scheme of things since there is no ggrand scheme; no goal. Your charactes are inconsistent and undefined. There is more but in my opinion those are your major flaws.
>introduced to a character that wants to have friends, not to be one Which actually could be his character arc. That he consider himself the best and therefore feels entiled to be the center of attention all the time but later learns to care about others than myself. I even think Nigel has begun to claim that that is the purpose of his character in the other thread. The reason I say, "claim" however, is because there hasn't been a single piece of evidence so far in the story, from what I can understand, in the story thus far and Nigel simply says that he will have it happen in future chapters. I seems to me that he is realising that Silver is indeed not developing. He practicly admitted that was the case. But here is the thing: If there is parts of your story were nothing develops, then cut it out.
You know what Nigel I am going to write your story for you in a WAY shorter version for you. I anyway need to pratcise my writting skills and I don't feel like I am actually giving away too much of my own unquie:er storylines. The basic story is already there and that story is nothing too orignal in my view so I might aswell. I have even thought of actually posting my own storyline ideas simply because it is the current year and I rather share it with you guys anyway. But I haven't decided yet so I will hold onto it a bit longer.
>>170829 >o much of my own unquie:er storylines. I am sorry for my preteniousness. I need to be taken down a step by reading a fucking book once in while and not just think that all the world novels are just shonen-tier manga.
If I had to make Silver a more consistent and liked character, but I could only do so by adding up to 5000 words of content to earlier chapters and scenes overall, what would you suggest?
>He stopped his reading when his secretary walked into his office and put a tray on his desk. He scanned the tray and saw that it had the can of coffee, an empty cup and a sandwich that he had asked for but he also noted something he hadn't asked for. There was a blueberry muffin on the tray. ”Coffe, sir?” Aquilla his Griffin secretary said. >He put down his book and rolled his eyes before he pointed at the muffin. ”What is that?” he asked. >Aquilla being a little taken aback by his weird question answered with the obvious. ”A muffin.” ”No, I mean why is it on my tray. If you are trying to bribe me with baked goods, then you should know it is futile and I will not give you an increase for that.” He stared at her coldly with eyes piercing into her. ”No, that wasn't my intent sir... Really, I just baked some for my children back home before I got here and thought that you might want one too.” Aquilla blather nervously as she looked at the hem on her maid outfit that she was fiddling with her talons. ”Aha.” Silence filled the room for a moment before Silver spoke up. ”Well, are you going to fill my cup today or...” ”Sorry, sir.” Aquilla a bit stressed got into action and poured him a cup. She managed to even with her hasty movements not to spill anything. When she had was done, she put the edibles and the cup on his desk with the exception of the muffin. When she kept the muffin on the tray, Silver said. ”I will eat the muffin but I only wanted to make sure that you didn't get any false hopes up.” He pointed on the muffin and with dragging motion towards his desk. In the beginning, it seemed like Aquilla was annoyed by this but when she meets Silver's gaze she gave him a smile but it seemed forced. >She was about to turn and walked out of the office with her tray when she remembered something. ”By the way, sir. You had an appointment with a Mr. Grounds in about a half an hour but it seems he is already here. He is currently sitting in the waiting room. I am not saying that you need to take his appointment now, sir. I just wanted to tell you tha-” ”Um-ch Sen-*Swallows*-d him *slurp* in.” Silver said. His voice barely audible because he was in the middle of stuffing his mouth the muffin. ”Now?” >He shook his head. ”Yes, now. What are you waiting for, a promotion? Go and fetch him.” >A grimace of irritation displayed itself on Aquilla's face for but a moment before she left through the door. >Silver had just managed to finish eating his sandwich and muffin before Mr. Grounds entered his office. ”Mr. Coffe Grounds, you are here because you wanted to discuss and potentially sell your coffee shop in Ponyville. Is that about right?” Silver said. His voice seemed almost monotone and he looked generally bored. He wasn't even looking at Ground direction but instead seemed to be searching for something in his drawer. ”Yes, and I think you will pleasantly surprised by what I am offering. Ehh?” Coffee looked around and then back to Silver. ”Do you perhaps have a chair that I may borrow?” ”No, you may not. Or Rather. You will soon be leaving anyway since I am not even remotely interested.” A grin formed on Silver's lips as he found what he was looking for and therefore looked back to face Coffee. ”But sir. I assure you that this is a great offer. If I didn't need a change of pace, I won't sell it. The shop has an interior designed by the local famous fashionista, Rarity herself. It has a great location; there exist no competing coffee shop in the district. And-” Coffee Grounds ranted on desperately until Silver interrupted him. ”That was well worded, Coffee Grounds. Kudos to you. Indeed it is the only coffeeshop in the area but there is this little bakery you see. Called Sugercube corner. Do you know about it perhaps? It has the address Ponyville Square fourteen and your shops has the same name but number seventeen.” A smirked had formed on Silver's lips. His voice was calm and quiet but there seemed to be some kind of taunting glee in his voice as he spoke. >Coffee breathed at a faster rate and tears of sweat were starting to form on his forehead. ”Well, you see-” He began. ”And what do we have here.” Silver levitated the thing he had found in the drawer from before. It was an article that had been cut out from its newspaper but any keen news follower could clearly see by its layout that it belonged to the prestigious newspaper, Horesenews. ”This article is from five years ago. It reads: The Paraspryte Infestation in Ponyville Threatens the Local Stores in longterm. Mhm, why is that I wonder
I need to go to bed I will finish this part here. more than so I cannot say. >>170835 If you "have to" and you feel like there is "only" one way to do so, do so.
>>170851 And that, Nigel, is how you prepare a character with advance knowledge of the situation without making it overbearing. Details flow through natural dialogue, instead of "Silver knows all this already, except it hasn't been mentioned"
>>170853 I meant if I had to do it with that "Can only add, not take away" restriction. I can not into words goodly sometimes. >>170851 Jesus, Silver's an asshole in this. He's even an asshole about eating! And about getting food, too. But I'm curious to see where you're going with this. And working the Parasprites from S1 into this was genius! Sometimes I think that even though I came up with some smart ways to unfuck the damage bad nu-fim decisions did to the setting of FIM, I should just skip the unfuckening parts and make the fic an AU where none of that crap happened in the first place. No friendship school to restock with proper teachers and better-written students, no dumb castle to turn into something that'd make Skyrim-playing mod-users jealous, and no "And then every poochie independently decided to fuck off over to the Crystal Empire, where they remained offscreen for the rest of the fic". It'd also remove the "I need to make Silver someone Twilight would reasonably be interested in, and could date without the 'OMG twilight is dating beneath her station! What a scandal! How unprincesslike!'" crap. >>170854 Could you call me "Ash"? I get that a name needs to be assigned to me, but Nigel is also the name of that one dumbass on 4chan who hates MLP for "Being a kiddy thing" so much he set up a bot to tell him when people post stuff that's also on Derpibooru outside of 4/mlp/. I don't hate MLP. Or MLPFIM. Hell, the show's nu episodes adopting that kind of "Kiddy stuff like songs and friendship are dumb and lame" attitiude for the sake of shallowly seeming "Enlightened and self-aware and above it all" is one of those things I hate about nu-FIM.
>>170861 Nigel please. For one, you're not Lee Goldson - aka Barneyfag - who is so notorious on 4chan that he's even featured in some anon's OC, including Tracy Cage. For two, why would you be called Ash when your name is Nigel, Nigel? We could call you by your real name, but that would be impolite. Besides, you had your chance. I was willing to call you King Britanon if you had cut the crap a year ago; no such luck now! XDDD
>>170835 >>170861 >>170835 >Adding 5000 words >I meant if I had to do it with that "Can only add, not take away" restriction. There is no restricting you stupid retard, and there is no compromise on this either. Learn how to kill your babies and throw out your extremely bad drafts of autistic rambling like what you wrote that are failures.
>If I had to make Silver a more consistent and liked character what would you suggest One of the main problems with your fic and characterization of Silver as a whole is how you waste everyones time with extremely long winded blathering, either with what Silver is doing or what he's saying. And your portrayal of Silver someone to be redeemed falls flat on its face as because no pony actually reacts to him being a scumbag, so he's just getting away with murder. Look at the rewrite of the first introduction of Aquilla. >>170851 While sweedenfag uses her as a way to compare Silver to scrooge, a secretary that means well but keeping her head down is nothing new, it's better than the inconsistent garbage that you put out.
In your Chapter 1 one minute shes annoyed, the next she's impressed over stupid time magic, then shes hyped about more stupid speed magic, and then shes flying along being proud of him. There is no real consistency or depth with her character other than she gets impressed by magic and shes a lacky. But she isnt being used to contrast Silver and put him in a negative light, instead it's positive reinforcement as an empty cheer leader, compared to sweedenfag's Aquilla she is kind of disgusted by his idea of stuffing his face while he fetches the appointment. But puts up with it for the sake of job, this is a relatable character the audience can sympathize with right off the bat and puts Silver in a bad light.
In your fic the later cut-aways back to her building the house alone while Silver is at the party is out of place because its already been established she doesnt really care about being treated as a second class slave. The repeated attempts to make the audience sympathetic to her and make Silver look bad do nothing for emotional impact because she doesnt mind it, and she isnt having a hard time. The cuts away to her from Silver, then back with nothing happening. The scenes with her feel completely pointless as they neither add to the overall narrative of Silvers development, or the animu action plot. It's pure filler every time and it sucks ass. If you refuse to take away retarded pointless filler then you will still be left with ass. One more bit of information that Sweedenfag gives us is the muffin doesnt just serve that Silver is an asshole, but also shows that she (a griffon) has a better understanding of FiM's principles with friendship of sharing with no underhanded motives, than a pony which flips the usual roles on it's head.
>And working the Parasprites from S1 into this was genius! Sometimes I think that even though I came up with some smart ways to unfuck the damage bad nu-fim >I should just skip the unfuckening parts and make the fic an AU where none of that crap happened in the first place. This kind of response makes it clear you dont actually know why Sweedenfag actually put in the parasprites, and you just go off on your usual retarded rants about FiM. So I'm just going to point it out.
Your fic is over bloated with dumps of crammed useless information, and the handling of Silver is the biggest offender of this. You've given no time to develop any character else beyond maybe one scene and the fic is suffocated with focusing every inch of your effort on what Silver thinks, or what hes doing, or what he is saying. Filler is littered throughout your fic thats only purpose is to make Silver look good and/or demonstrate one of his '200 spells he invented', it quickly becomes obnoxious and never ends. The first scene of the fic is another prime example, there are characters like Coffee Beans and the other two that are quickly introduced but then dropped completely after Chapter 1 never to be heard from again. Meanwhile Sweedenfag cuts out all of the magic parkour crap that took up 2+ pages. Sweedenfag does a better job at giving us small bits about Silver and others, he doesnt even need to mention a retarded 8 year olds idea of kewl magical feats, something like that can be saved for later. Overloading the audience with new information is one of the quickest ways to lose them, and thats not even when it's in the form of autistic walls. In Sweedenfag's rewrite Silver still doesnt know the mane6, because he disregards that Rarity has given Coffee's a make over and raised the value, this scene doubles it's use as we dont need to repeat that Silver doesnt know the mane6 when chapter 2 starts. Sweedenfag used the newspaper to establish that Silver has more interest in Ponyville than the meeting as a hint to give us the idea that the story will involve Ponyville, it's not a way to 'fix' 'nu fim' and until you get over your bitter bias, that the ideas can have merit it's just the execution that's the problem (just like your case) then you're not going to be able to be a good story teller.
>>170851 ”Let's see if we can figure it out okay?” Silver said with a juvenile voice. ”There are three things in this article that I think is interesting. Number one: One of the most affected by the parasite swarm is the store's owner Earl Grey, who runs a coffee shop in Ponyville Square- Wait a minute, Ponyville Square? Isn't that where your coffee shop is? Was there another one in Ponyville just recently?” Coffee Beans swallowed and had a weird out of place laugh and grin. ”Uhm, Earl Grey was the last owner of the coffee shop. I bought it from him.” ”Did you now. How long time ago was this, if I may ask?” Looking really uncomfortable Coffee answered. ”Two and half years ago.” Silver nodded in a mock understanding. ”Let's keep reading. There is three interview in this article. They are interviewing the mayor here about some new law she has implemented. ”The municipality of Ponyville can't afford to pay for potential parasite egg merging in the future but we cannot let this happen again. Therefore I have decided that there has to be a law that if you find parasites in your home or store, you yourself most ensure that they are dealt with. So it is the law that you to take care of any parasprites if you find them since if they multiply they can cause us all damaged but the municipality won't help you with the removal of them,” said Mayor mare to our reporter.” ”If you had read your scientific paper like I do, you could have read last week, I think it was, in the latest number of Dora the Explorer that parasprite reproduced asexually by vomiting out a bunch of ”eggs”. These eggs later merge together to form a new parasprite, however, this ”later” can vary. The eggs have a biological clock on them that decides when they will merge. The time it takes can vary from immediately to, well the oldest specimen so far is from three-hundred years ago. It is speculated that they this is a mechanism to ensure that the parasprites survive even if a major catastrophe happens.” ”What means for your store is that unless there is a complete utter top-to-bottom renovation were you remove all the eggs that possibly could exist there almost wrecking your own coffee shop in the process, there can always pop-up one little parasprite that can cause havoc in Ponyville. And if I then own the store from where the parasprite, I will need a good lawyer.” Coffee Beans seemed to be turning pale even though he had fur. ”I by no means meant to deceive you. It is not as bad as it sounds. It-” Coffee said quickly. ”I am not done.” Silver said, which caused Coffee to stop promptly. ”Not only do I have to be on constant alert that no parasprites minutes from my shop but I also have to pay professionals to remove them. They do mention that in the article, by the way, that the poison used to kill off parasprites and their eggs are completely different. The first one is harmless against ponies, the other one is hazardous and costs a fortune, which they speculate that none of the stores could reasonably afford to do.” Before Coffe could interject Silver continued talking. ”And to top it off. I have tasted a cake made by your competition. They along with some other chefs made a collaboration of some sort that won the national dessert competition that was held in Canterlot a few years back. And what do I have to compete with them with Coffee and FUCKING sandwiches!” Silver had suddenly realized that he was justified to be angry at this pony who tried to trick him so he shouted out the last part and slammed his hooves on his desk. ”B-but s-sir!” Coffee had backed away with his hooves in the air. ”You got duped two years ago and now you're trying to dupe me!” ”Two and a half.” ”It doesn't matter! You idiot!” Silence lingered in the air for a moment before Coffee turned for the door. When he had reached the door, Silver called. ”Come back.” Silver said. He seemed to have calmed down and was now leaning back in his armchair with a bored expression. Coffee did as he was told and walked back to the desk. His face showed signs of fear as if he feared that Silver would reprimand him in some way. ”What prized had you imagine to sell it for?”Silver asked. Coffee braced himself. ”Two-hundred-thousand bits,” he said as he braced himself. ”Make that fifty-thousand bits instead. I am not going to bid higher for this-” He trailed off for a moment as he made circler motions with his hoof while he was searching for the right word.”-place.” >Coffee pondered it for a moment before he agreed. The transaction went fast enough. Silver read thoroughly through the contract to make sure everything was well with it. Aquilla had come in during this an offered coffee to them but Silver had declined on Coffee Beans behalf before he had could answer. Saying that something along the line that, ”He wanted a change of pace away from coffee.” After both Silver had signed the two copies of the contract with their signatures and Silver had handed Coffee a check of fifty-thousand bits, Coffe who was fuming at this point walked out of the office.
>>170972 >Silver drank from his new cup of coffee. While looking at the newly signed contract, his eyes began to wander over to the news article. As previously stated there were three ponies interviewed in it: Earl Grey, Mayor Mare, and the last one, Applejack. >He stared grimly at the last name and then looked back at the contract again. ”Honesty, huh, Applejack? ” He whispered to himself. >Letting go of those thoughts. He swiveled around in his chair and looked out at Canterlot through the window that could only be described as a glass wall. >The sun was sinking down behind the horizon. He looked over his shoulder and to the clock on his desk. >He snickered a bit to himself as he saw what time it was and spun a few laps in his chair before he stopped at his desk. >Then there was a knock on the door. ”You may enter.” >Aquilla walked in. ”I will soon be taking my leave for today, sir. I just wanted to know if there was anything you want me to do before I go,” Aquilla said. ”Oh, nothing really... Perhaps you could pour me a shot of that whiskey by Emerald whiskers. I feel like celebrating It is a transparent bottle with a big label that reads Liquid Emeralds. It is in that cupboard, the second shelf from the top to the right.” He pointed at cupboard in the corner of the room. ”Also before you leave today I would like you to book a chariot flight for tomorrow I am going to visit my newly bought shop in Ponyville.” >Aquilla nodded and said. ”I'll make sure that I do it before I leave.” She waited for a thank you but Silver had already begun staring out the window again. >Aquilla then went into action and found the bottle and a shot-glass rather quickly in the cupboard. As she began to screw the cork into the cork of the bottle, Silver stood with his back turned towards her and looked out the window. ”Hehehe, the princess lowered the sun too early today. Tsk tsk, Princess what are you doing?” Silver said in a chirpy voice. >This caused Aquilla to giggle a little, which caused Silver to smiled proudly over himself but the smile faltered as quickly as it had come. ”How's your day sir? You sound cheerful.” Aquilla had finished removing the cork from the bottle and was ready to pour him a shot. He turned around and sat down in at his desk again. ”Ha, we don't know yet. I might regret this day later but I believe I should be able to turn this location into something beneficial in the end. Can you believe that that guy intended to sell such a place for such a prize? That he even dared to try to trick me.” Silver said, seemingly fascinated by the nerve of Coffee Beans. ”He tried to trick you?” Aquilla said as she glanced at the door. ”Indeed he did.” ”Then I understand that you are upset and didn't want to offer him any coffee before. How shameless,” she said. Then she saw that he still had some coffee in his cup. ”Do you want to pour you shot now even though you still got some coffee left.” She pointed with a claw at the cup. ”Yes, do that. I will drink it now.” >As Aquilla held both the bottle and the glass as she pours it, Silver mumbled something. ”Like you are any different.” >Aquilla's face contorted to that of complete rage for a second and threw down the glass into the floor. It shattered in thousands of pieces and left a transparent green puddle on the wooden floor. ”No! I am not like that!” >Both of them seemed stunned and shock by what had just transpired. Aquilla woke up first from the shock and put the bottle back on the desk. Before her eyes went searching for a paper or a rag to wipe it up with. ”I am sorry sir.” >This shock Silver out of his slumber. ”You better be! Do you know how much that brew and glass cost? The things I own are not for breaking! They are expensive, you moron!” he shouted at her and practically stood on his desk with his hooves planted on it. >Aquilla had already gotten past her point of patience so it was easy to make her angry again. ”You can not call me that! I'm not a moron or some con-artist after your money! If you keep on berating me like this, I'll quit! I 'll quit. I tell you.” ”No, you don't quit because you're fired!”
>>170974 >Those words made Aquilla lose her breath. Slackjawed she just stared straight into the wall. Then she turned to Silver with tears in her eyes and a pleading look. ”P-p-please sir. I-I have kids... I need this job...” Aquilla was now sitting on her haunches with her claws clasped together as if she prayed. >Silver still looked angry and sort of disgusted. His upper lip rose and crinkle displayed itself between his eyebrows and he was practically shaking. ”Well, you should have thought about that before you threw a temper tantrum in my office. Now leave and don't show your face here again,” he said. >At fist Aquilla didn't seem to want to move. She just sat there as if this was all bad dream that she soon would wake up from. She only got up and walked to the door when Silver said, ”Are you deaf? I said get out.” >Just before she was about to close the door after her, she leaned on its handle like she needed to support herself and stuck her head in through the crack of the door into Silver's office. Her head low and she wasn't looking at Silver but the floor when she spoke. ”You know. You are right. I lied this morning. I didn't bake those muffins for my children. I baked them for you.” She looked up at him. He looked surprised. ”I wanted to thank you for getting this job two weeks ago and also... Because I pity you. In my life, I have never met someone, pony nor Griffin, as lonely as you. You spend all your day occupied in the top of this tower isolated. To me, it seems as if you don't have any loved ones in your life.” She noticed his perplexed expression. ”Do you?” >Her question was meet with silence because Silver was thinking about the question. ”I thought so,” Aquilla said before she closed the door behind her and left the office. >Waking up from his shellshock, Silver sprung into action and tried to catch up to her. As he opened the door to exit his office he saw that Aquilla was half-way through the corridor that leads to the elevator. >With quick steps he caught up to her and walked alongside her as he spoke. ”Ha, pretty clever retort you had back there. Yeah, I am the bad guy because you actually thought about me. Right. I believe in that.” As he talked the got to the elevator and Aquilla pushed a button and the doors opened and she walked inside leaving Silver there.”It was more like you wanted to secure your position not by actually hard work but by milking my.” Aquilla looked at him with almost pitiful eyes as she said. ”Goodbye, Silver Star.” >Then the elevator doors shut close. ”Yeah, that is right no rebuttal!” He screamed at the elevator and then began walking back to his office. Well, there he saw the mess on the floor looked at the open bottle that still stood on the desk. He grabbed it as he walked by the desk and to a doorway that leads out on his balcony. He opened it and walked out. The day had turned into night and the moon and the stars were out. >Above his head on the wall of his incredibly high skyscraper stood the logo for his company, ”Silver's Industries” in pop-out black color contrasted from the rest of the silver colored skyscraper. >As looked down on the city below but couldn't see any ponies from this height. His tower was only rivaled by Canterlot's castle itself. >Something stung in his chest and he took a large swig of his bottle. ”No, it is not I who is the bad.guy. I have just realized the truth.” He whispered to himself. ”All ponies are by nature selfish and only gullible fools believe that anyone genuinely cares for another.”He looked back at the door in his office as if he was addressing it. ”Anyone who believes that they actually have friends are fools. You are stupid!” He shouted the last part, then he turned towards the city below again and screamed from the top of his lungs down at them. ”YOU ARE ALL IDIOTS!” In his scream, his voice cracked. >Howver, since he was so high up the ponies below, didn't see and even less hear him.
>>170975 That's how I imagine the first chapter be like. I do however lacck more ideas right now so won't continue it because I am not sure how I would go about. I probably get him to mett Twi in some way and have him fall head over hels for her.
>>170894 >that she (a griffon) has a better understanding of FiM's principles with friendship of sharing with no underhanded motives, than a pony which flips the usual roles on it's head. I didn't actually occur to me that is actually displayed reversed roles. I was just intrested in showing how cynical Silver is, that he actually thinks there is something underhanded with such a simple kind gesture. >newspaper to establish that Silver has more interest in Ponyville than the meeting I actually in the begining thought that he had done reseach in a libarary. They usually keep a copies of newpaper numbers and archive them but you gave me an idea. Since Silver has apple in his name, I thought that I could take the liberty of implying that he has some kind of past history with Applejack. You see my orignal intent with having Rarity be the one who designed the interior was to build some kind of natural connection for Silver to meet Twilight when he visited ponyville. Now there is three options. 1) Be impressed by interior design think about hire rarity ffor job meets TWi 2) Scout out the competetion, the cakes, and meet pinkie->Twi 3)Visit (sister,cousin,frined,sister-in-law,ex) Applejack for whateever reaon that has to do with past->twi 4) Be unorignal an have pinkie throw a party for Silver like she did Twilight so you don't have to be imaginitive. Then again why waste time on something trivial if you have something more exciting futher into the plot. Why i am so focused on TWi is because she would be the key to change his behavoir since he wants to be with her an therefore must change his behavior. Unlike other characters who he simply don't care for if they don't like him. Also the idea i had however consious it might have been. About this first "chapter" was basicly aout to things. I hope that this comes thrrough in my text. 1) Silver is cynical and therefore he ddoesn't believe that anyone can want to genuinly be friends. 2)A reason for why he went to Ponyville. 1)I used Coffee beans to show his reason for cynism because there are actually ponies who tries to trick him. Aquilla is there to show that since he assumes everyone is out to get him. His cynism hurt inocent and keeps him lonely. 2)I changed the shops location to ponyville and made sure that Silver bought the place so that he could go there. I guess this is one of my problems since it comes off as why the fuck wouldd anyone want to own that place wel well >>170854 >Details flow through natural dialogue Ah, you don't know how much that warmths my heart. >>170861 <And working the Parasprites from S1 into this was genius! Thanks, I often try to use fim's rules to my advantage.
>>171039 I'm unironically enjoying this rewrite. Not only is Silver not a wholly self-absorbed megalomaniac, but his financial and personal motivations are both understandable and quite shrewd without being (((excessive))). >inb4 Mlpol hijacks Silver and makes him a presentable, believable, and identifiable (to the reader) OC
>>171039 >I didn't actually occur to me that is actually displayed reversed roles. Consider it a happy accident for something Nigel did making her a Griffon but if it were a Pony it wouldnt have as much of an impact. Nigels Aquilla is boring as hell, because its just the very start of everyone licking his OCs balls being impressed by everything magical Silver does. You know if Aquilla has spent so long with him it would have been a better dynamic if she wasnt impressed by his 12 year old magic tricks. Desensitizing is a thing, and theres only so long before it just becomes the same ol Silver trying to show off to impress other ponies. About the only thing that remains consistent about Silver that Nigel wrote, he is an egomaniac but he wants to be the center of attention.
> Since Silver has apple in his name, I thought that I could take the liberty of implying that he has some kind of past history with Applejack. If you read ahead or looked at the other thread he does have some loose relation as her cousin but again, iit's just inconsistent trash the way ihe portrayed that suddenly hes all sentimental about her but doesnt show it. It's honestly just bad and a complete contradiction to how much of an asshole he has been to everyone else in the previous chapter without actually going through any development. And then he is still an asshole, not to Rarity directly, but it's implied after being an autist to PinkiePie with the random petting.
Maybe he only cares about the successes of his own family IE the apples, so he kept applejack articles about her heroism around as a comparing competition or motivation, so he set out to be the best of the family in an insecure manor, the riches and whatever he accomplishes are still overshadowed by AJ's simple life and they can provide a counter to his unabashed in-your-face showboating and gaudy branding. Silver could even hold some resentment towards AJ because of this, but he wouldnt show it.
ANY of the options are better than whatever mary sue shit Nigel came up with, which is just empty connections to the mane6 with no interesting dynamics.
>>171096 >Maybe he only cares about the successes of his own family IE the apples, so he kept applejack articles about her heroism around as a comparing competition or motivation, so he set out to be the best of the family in an insecure manor, the riches and whatever he accomplishes are still overshadowed by AJ's simple life It is good that I have you that way I don't need to think. If I continue, I will incorporate this into the story. I, as stated, just drew the connection between Applejack and the newspaper so that I could explain why he would have a old newspaper in his drawer. I didn't think much more about it but I actually thought about the opposite of what you did. I thought that I could have Applejack being the one that resented Silver due to the fact that he got rich through George Soros-tier bullshit econmics and stock exchange instead of hard wrok in the form of manual labour or at least something that provided something to society. But your idea works better withh the story since if applejack is the one with the resentment, then Silver doesn't have a concrate reason for keeping those articles around. With your idea, he does. Maybe I will use both if I continue, which I really feel like doing but you know real life. I thought about making their past be next door neightbors in manehatten. When AJ lived with the oranges he lived in the apartment next door and they were eachothers first friend and pretty much did everything togather. Or his adopted into the oragne family or whatever. The important thing is that they meet there. I just realised something I could do. What do you think about this? Silver and AJ are childhood friends but when AJ leaves for Ponyville, Silver is left alone. Silver therefore builds up his cynism and disbelief of friendship. In ponyville he falls for Twi but in the end he ends up with Glimmer due to the fact that they share so much incommen.
>>171163 > the riches and whatever he accomplishes are still overshadowed by AJ's simple life I think I would want to have Silver be unaware of the fact that these things do overshaddow his stuff but I don't know. >they can provide a counter to his unabashed in-your-face showboating and gaudy branding. This Silver has yet to display the trait of showboating. I am not saying that couldn't have this character trait he has but it is not something I have yet given him. I guess there is one thing though when i think about it. >gaudy branding If you refering to the logo on his skyscraper than I agree that it is gaudy. The reason I put it there in the first place was actually not because I wanted to show of his showboating side but because I relaise how similar his character and situation was to Tony Stark's. I am not a marvel fan but I have watched the first Avengers movie in which Tony Stark's Tower is mention. I realised that Star and Stark are so similar that I could refernce it. I have some kind of neptune syndrome and therefore I try to put in refernces everywhere. If you looked through the text, if you haven't already noticed, there are a number of them. If I am going to be more serious however, then I will tone down the use of refernces since they only take away from the story. Now that I the character has a gaudy brand I could either go two way, at least from what I see. I could have Silver be a cocky fuck or I could have it just a simple name he took because he didn't want to overthink it. My version of Silver is someone who has gotten rich by making deals not developing a company and then I got to a point were could buy smaller companies and sudddenly he had an empire. What are your thoughts? >>171077 >makes him a presentable I am not being sarcastic when I ask but genuinly curious of what it means for a character to be presentable. Can you elaborate? >I'm unironically enjoying this rewrite Muh Feelings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wNQHnEXBLs
>>171168 >presentable Not: embarrassing, an eyesore, an insult to the franchise, nauseating to behold, a waste of everyone's time, an affront to the practice of writing. Please continue
>>171163 >I thought that I could have Applejack being the one that resented Silver due to the fact that he got rich through George Soros-tier bullshit econmics and stock exchange instead of hard wrok in the form of manual labour or at least something that provided something to society. You could do both actually. Silver can be someone who started off with good intentions but got lost in the greedy egotistic factor. The kind of person who wanted to expand the apple family 'brand' but and went into the business side to do it, without their approval because it's not the Apple way.
As far as AJ resenting him, it can be more like he knows of her but she doesnt know of him because hes the black-sheep of the apple family and was kept secret from her, ashamed of what he became. AJ would definitely still side against his Soros like methods especially now, but with your idea of involving the Oranges (Learning the business side) would be like a fate that Applejack narrowly avoided. So she could be conflicted about Silver as a whole over time and play a good part in his development unlike in the Nigel-fic where she's just practically irrelevant and it's just there to make Silver look good in comparison.
The gaudy branding Silver does I was talking about is a reference to how he remakes literally everything he touches with that stupid orange and blue star. it's part of chapter one, he breaks into a window then remakes the window but with his stainglass star 'brand'. its just more egotism from him, he has to let everyone know that he was there and changed the window. he does this a lot with anything he owns. He is basically obsessed with orange and blue combination, and has his house having orange or blue windows, and likewise the door. The orange/blue is the same colors of his cutiemark, so as always with silver it's all self-absorbed with no sense of awareness. Unlike Nigel's version where he's their pride and joy gag worthy, if the Apple family turned their backs on him then it gives a good reason for his insecurity and lone wolf egotism.
I think the fact they might have known eachother when AJ ran away from home to the Oranges and learn the higher classlife has some potential, and it would work with Silver's ego/insecurity that he thought AJ would agreewith him, since they both wanted a different path from the typical apple family life. Just going on a re-write of the Nigelfic for Chapter2,I would imagine it would be a real sting if AJ didnt recognize him at the party and then he has a sort of breakdown over this and needs to get out for air and teleports out. Instead of the retarded and autistic unfunny Nigelfic "i needed to fart" reasonin the original version.
>>170975 I like how you flesh out this character. Judging by the shitstorm for this fic, I guess it's a great improvement on your part. Consider a pastebin when you finish planning this story out.
>>171375 Also just so you know I'm interested to read your interpretation of this story and will post my thoughts once I've read it, I just haven't quite gotten to it yet.
>>171292 >He is basically obsessed with orange and blue combination, >it's all self-absorbed with no sense of awareness. I wasn't aware of this. It is like Silver has OCD. It is actually hilarious! >without their approval because it's not the Apple way. >because hes the black-sheep of the apple family >if the Apple family turned their backs on him then it gives a good reason for his insecurity and lone wolf egotism. I like this idea and pretty much this entire post is intressting. I, however, don't have much to add at least not now. Thank you for your input. It was great. >then he has a sort of breakdown over this and needs to get out for air and teleports out. Instead of the retarded and autistic unfunny Nigelfic "i needed to fart" reasonin the original version. I don't know. You have to ask yourself which one is more dramatic? >>171388 Thanks so much. I actually have pastebin account but I have yet to upload anything.
>>171772 Not that I disapprove given the circumstances, Nigel was unironically praising reddit which is everything this site was founded against, but isn't there a policy against using information gained through staff positions to out people?
>>171774 To be clear again, I don't disapprove, since samefagging is a form of shilling. It's simply a precedent we should keep in mind for future reference in case someone tries to define 'information' as 'knowledge gained through moderation tools' which would include spotting samefags samefagging in a thread with no post IDs or flags. Atlas might have to add more legalese to the policy page if it starts coming up as an issue in the future.
>>171774 >>171775 To respond with clarity >No staff member shall use the information he obtains in his position on staff for personal gain, lulz, or to harass/humiliate a user or other staff members
The purpose of the notice was not to harass/humiliate the user, but to indicate that the shilling (same-fagging) had not gone unnoticed and to make a statement about derailing the RWSS thread.
obviously this is an underground mass harassment campaign against Jason organized offsite and all staff that formerly trollshielded him are in fact radical glimmerniggers that have displaced the original staff
So far my impression of this is that it is indeed a much better handling of the Silver Star character and the story than in Nigel's work. I do have a couple of minor issues: one is that the sentence structure and grammar is a bit awkward at times. I'm guessing from your flag that English is not your first language so that can probably be allowed to slide, but you may want to go back over it at some point and do some editing. Most of it is fairly minor but nonetheless noticeable, like saying "He wasn't even looking at Ground direction" instead of "He wasn't even looking in Grounds' direction"; things like that. Also I notice you introduce the shop owner as Coffee Grounds (which is the character's name in Nigel's work), but by the end of the exchange you're calling him Coffee Beans.
That said, the actual structure of the story is again much better than the original. Probably the best thing about this is that it eliminates the massive blocks of speech and inner monologue and tediously detailed action sequences that bog down Nigel's story. Nigel, if you're paying attention, this is a fine demonstration of how to properly build a scene.
Most notable is that the dialogue between Silver and Coffee Grounds/Beans reads like an actual conversation. Each speaker says something, and then the next speaker speaks. This sounds like an obvious way of putting it but in Nigel's story the conversations are mostly dominated by huge walls of text spoken by Silver "your nutsac belongs in my butt crack" Star. Probably the most excruciating example is the "date" scene, which consists of Twilight asking single-sentence questions and Silver going on for pages and pages explaining how he is able to do cool magic tricks.
In any dialog between two characters, no single character should be speaking for for more than a sentence or two. Occasionally a character will need to make a big speech or explain something which requires a larger section of quoted text, but this should definitely be used sparingly. If you find your characters doing this a lot it's usually a good indicator that you need to go back over your dialogue and cut some stuff out. To Nigel's credit it's actually very easy to fall into the trap that he does. The problem is that the way we think is different from the way we communicate. Thought is usually a continuous stream of ideas flowing in a somewhat incoherent stream through your head. If you sit down and attempt to write out anything you have to say on a given topic, you find that even though you know exactly what to say in your head, putting it into words can be difficult. However, with discipline you can generally compose solid, coherent paragraphs that convey everything you want to convey.
Speech is different. The next time you have a conversation with someone, pay attention to how much you are able to say before it becomes apparent that the other person wants to say something. Most of the time you are only able to get a sentence or two out before the other person will speak, and they will do the same until you speak again. You also only have a short time to translate your ideas into something that can be communicated and often you won't be as articulate on a given topic in conversation as you are on paper. A conversation on a complex topic will generally play out as a long, convoluted back and forth that may have completely deviated from the original topic by the time you get to the end. This is vastly different from a written essay, where the author has the ability to sit and think for a while, then write, then think, then write.
That's what is so unnatural about Nigel's dialogue; his characters don't interact with each other, they give speeches. Or rather, Silver gives speeches and all other characters just stand around and listen. The difference between your version of this scene and Nigel's illustrate this perfectly. In Nigel's, Silver just berates and lectures Coffee for paragraphs and paragraphs at a time, and it just makes the person reading it instantly hate the character. Your version of this character is really as much of a dick as Nigel's. The end result is functionally the same; Silver cuts through the shop owner's sales pitch, assesses that he is in a more vulnerable position than he lets on, and chooses to take advantage of this and acquire the shop at well below asking price (though I also notice you make the monetary figures add up more sensibly, good job there too). However, Silver keeps most of his thoughts to himself. We get to learn who this character is by observing his behavior, rather than listening to his philosophies and ideologies in his own words. The standard mantra is "Show, don't tell" and this does a fine job of demonstrating that principle.
Also of note is that you do a good job of doing what I've been trying to convince Nigel to do for a long time now: filter out unnecessary crap. These first two posts basically take the first major scene in Nigel's first chapter and condense it down to its essential elements.
What fundamentally happens? Silver "my ass is like a roller coaster baby baby you want to ride" Star meets with Coffee Grounds and buys his shop. What is the subtext here? Coffee Grounds is trying to present his business as successful but ultimately he needs to get rid of it. You alter the specific reason he's trying to get rid of it from the original text but in this case it's not important, as it only really affects the reader's perception of the Coffee Grounds character, who is incidental. You also move the location of the coffee shop from Canterlot to Ponyville.
In any event, the central focus is Silver Star, who we are being introduced to. Which leads us to the final significant element: what is this scene trying to communicate? Mainly that Silver is a savvy businesspony, somewhat ruthless, probably more than a little arrogant, who is not above taking advantage of others in a weak position. He is successful and knows his way around a negotiating table. This is a very good introduction to Silver. Bear in mind that we learn all of this about him just from these two posts, and that is all I have read so far. The total word count for this section of text is 1,756. For comparison, Nigel's original text does not arrive at this point in the narrative until 11,938 words in.
Now, to be fair, that is just a raw word count from the beginning of the text until the end of the Coffee Grounds interview. In your text you cut out a couple of major scenes that consume a lot of text in Nigel's work. Again most of what you cut out is just unnecessary bullshit that needed to be trimmed anyway: we are spared the excruciatingly dull scene where Silver straps on his magic rocket boots and goes flying around all over Canterlot, for instance. You also reduce the initial exchange between Silver and Aquilla down to a couple of lines of dialogue before moving on to Coffee and Silver. This is also probably a good choice; Nigel's scene basically consists of a conversation with Aquilla where Silver admits to some feelings of discontentment and boredom. This really shouldn't happen before the character has been properly introduced; with a character like this, who is meant to be an initially unlikable character who you gradually learn there is more to than meets the eye, you want to peel back layers gradually like an onion. You want your introduction to the character to pique curiosity while only showing a single side of him. In this case, making the reader's first impression of Silver to be of his business acumen and ruthlessness was a good choice, particularly since you revealed this through events rather than just having Silver blather.
The scene I personally would not have cut, however, is the opening scene where Coffee Grounds is going up the elevator. That scene was one of a handful of things Nigel actually managed to do well, and I was basically enjoying the story up until the point where he switched over to Silver and his time spells and rocket boots. It's a good scene for a number of reasons: it introduces the story from the perspective of an incidental side character rather than the main character, which allows the reader to get an initial impression of characters and events from a distance. We learn that Coffee is going to meet with someone named Silver Star, and all we know about him is that he is mysterious and important. This piques initial reader curiosity and gives the author something to build on as he gradually presents the character. It's also good because it fleshes out the Coffee Grounds character and gives him a motivation and personality. Any opportunity you can take to humanize a side character, even if the character will only appear once, should be taken, so long as it doesn't make you deviate too much from the main story. It fleshes out your world and makes it feel more like a real place inhabited by real people/horses.
>>173392 Thank you for your thoughts. I will comment on it later when I have time. Also, not because I really feel that this is needed to be said, you don't have to sugercoat any of your criticism. I want to improve.
Again, while it may not be something you can reasonably be blamed for due to your living in a Swahili-speaking country, your English is a bit awkward and it interferes with the telling of your story. One thing you may want to pay attention to is comma use. It's not a mistake you make consistently but there are multiple places in this story where a sentence goes on longer than it should without any punctuation like this one that I am right here writing like this see what I am doing it reads funny when there are no commas being used. Also, while your dialog is generally better than Nigel's it is still somewhat awkward. You may want to go back over your characters' speaking parts and experiment a little with rewriting their sentences. Try to use fewer words and make them flow more like natural speech.
Here's an example: >I will soon be taking my leave for today, sir. I just wanted to know if there was anything you want me to do before I go. This sentence is grammatically correct and there's nothing wrong with it from a technical perspective, but as dialog it's a bit stiff. Silver's response is not much better: >Oh, nothing really… Perhaps you could pour me a shot of that whiskey by Emerald whiskers. I feel like celebrating It is a transparent bottle with a big label that reads Liquid Emeralds. It is in that cupboard, the second shelf from the top to the right.
Although the nod to the illustrious King Battlebrit's iconic Emerald Whiskers character is noted and appreciated, the homage might work better if these characters didn't sound like robots reading lines from an Aaron Sorkin script. Again, aim for a natural flow of words, and try not to use more words than are necessary to communicate what you want the character to say. Here's a rewrite of that short exchange between Silver and Aquilla for comparison:
>I'm leaving for today, sir. You need anything else before I go? >Not really. I suppose you could pour me a drink. Use the new stuff I bought, the Emerald Whiskers brand. Liquid Emeralds, I think it's called. You'll find it in the cupboard, second shelf from the top on the right. I rather feel like celebrating.
See how it feels a bit more natural? Writing natural-sounding dialog is more of an art than a science, and it's a fairly common thing to struggle with. I still find myself rewriting dialog more often than any other part of a story. Just play around with it and see what sounds better. I've found it also helps to listen to other people's conversations and make a note of how they say things. Pay attention both to what words the person used to say what they had to say, as well as the information they were trying to convey. People have different ways of speaking and it's a good idea to think how one character in your story uses language vs. another. The differences don't need to be huge, but each character should have a speaking style that fits their character. For instance, with Applejack you can use a lot of Southernisms and country slang; Pinkie Pie speaks very hyperactively; Rainbow Dash speaks casually and says "awesome" a lot; Twilight sounds like a bookworm; Rarity is overly polite and well mannered; you get the idea.
If you want a really interesting study in dialog writing you should read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain literally went around to different regions of America with a notebook taking detailed, autistic notes about all the various dialects and speaking styles in America. He replicated nineteenth century Nigger-speak so effectively it eventually caused the book to be banned in American high schools because muh racism.
Something you do well that I think is worth developing is the way you intersperse dialog with descriptions of events, and conveying information through conversation rather than narrative whenever possible. For instance, the way you have Silver and Aquilla do a back-and-forth while she's pouring him a drink. You have a sentence or two of dialog from one character, then something happens, then the other character responds. Tiny little slice of life type scenes like this are the best way to bring characters to life. I think if you could learn to write more naturally flowing dialog you could really tell some engaging and convincing stories using this technique.
I'd like to delve more into the meat of this section of story as well, but I think I will use another post to do it as I only have about 1500 chars remaining and there are a few things I want to address.
The events that transpire in this scene don't feel natural. Part of it is your dialog as I explained in the previous post, but that's not all. Your characters' actions and behaviors don't feel natural. Basically, the sequence of events here is: Silver is sitting in his office gloating about how he got one over on Coffee Beans/Grounds, and Aquilla is pouring him a drink. It's a perfectly natural situation for these two to be in and, except for the awkward dialog, feels reasonably natural. However, the situation gets weird fast. Silver makes some offhanded remark to her that she takes offense to, she gets angry and yells at him, then breaks his glass. He reacts by getting even angrier and firing her. Then she immediately becomes penitent and teary eyed, begging for her job back. Silver shows her no pity and tells her to leave again. Then, as she is leaving, she tells him she pities him for being lonely. The scene ends with Silver stewing by himself.
I get what you were going for here, and it wasn't a bad idea. The idea here was to illustrate that Silver is cold and arrogant and tends to look down on beings he considers less intelligent than he, which is basically everypony. Aquilla, who cares for him on some level, takes offense at this, and explodes on him when he insults her in this way. By having him get angry and fire her over something relatively minor, even as she's begging him to reconsider, you illustrate both that Silver is a coldhearted and arrogant pony, and that this is really just a front that conceals his loneliness and ennui. You establish his initial motivation for (assuming your story will follow the same trajectory as Nigel's) the main plot of the story, which is basically "Silver moves to Ponyville and learns to make friends." In theory it's a great scene and a much better means of conveying this information than the cringe-inducing emo ballad in Nigel's text. By all means you are on the right track here. However, in execution, it sadly falls flat.
The issue here as with the dialog is that the exchange just doesn't feel natural. Your characters' emotions go from zero to 60 and back again with very little warning. Aquilla is just pouring Silver a drink, you don't get any insight into her thoughts as she's doing it. There is nothing in any of the exchange up until this point suggesting that she might be about to get angry. She just explodes on him out of nowhere. Silver, too, overreacts in a way that the reader will likely puzzle at.
Getting characters to emote convincingly is one of the hardest things to do when writing fiction, and I myself admit to struggling with it. A common mistake is to assume that making your characters behave more emotionally will amplify the emotional content in a scene. This is a yuge mistake; the kind of fiction this type of pseudo-emotion produces is the stuff cringe threads are made of. Unless you're writing about characters who are bipolar, transgendered, or otherwise psychologically unstable, usually it's safe to assume that they won't just burst into tears for no reason, or get majorly angry out of nowhere.
It ties into something I've been trying to drill into Nigel's skull over the course of many, many posts: characterization. The key to writing effective emotional content is understanding who your characters are at a fundamental level. What defines them? What's important to them? What makes them tick? Even if you're just writing some simple piece of flash fiction like this, where you're just going to write a single scene and never touch these characters again, you still need to flesh them out and make them into real individuals.
Who is Aquilla, for example? We know she's a griffon, and you establish that she has kids and has been working for Silver for two weeks. Based on that information, does it make sense that she would get this angry over such a minor insult? She clearly needs the job, and has responsibilities that preclude her being reckless and impulsive the way someone without kids could afford to be. While she might have some initial spark of interest in her boss (this doesn't necessarily mean sexual interest, btw), her thoughts are likely going to be more focused on her kids and her family and her life outside of work than on Silver at this point. She probably just wants to pour this faggot a drink and get home; his comment would likely annoy her but she'd probably let it slide. Imagine yourself in this situation. Do you cuss out your boss every time he says or does something that annoys you? A more appropriate reaction would be to just suck it in, say "Yes sir no sir" the way she's supposed to, then go out for drinks later with friends and make fun of her lame, pathetic, lonely boss behind his back.
If it's crucial to your scene that she react more emotionally to Silver's insults, you need to establish an initial connection between her and Silver more effectively. Why does she care what this douchebag thinks of her enough to get this mad over it? The fact that she baked him muffins isn't enough; why did she bake him muffins? Why does she give a shit even though he's clearly a thoughtless asshole? To achieve this effect you'd be better off establishing Aquilla as kind of a Wayland Smithers to Silver's Mr. Burns, or a Miss Moneypenny to Silver's James Bond: the tireless, loyal, underappreciated assistant who has stuck by her cad boss through thick and thin, and remains loyal no matter how badly he treats her.
Also, however you end up structuring your characters and their relationships to each other, you need to lead into the outburst better. Build tension; don't just have them go from casual conversation to heated argument in the space of a line or two. Writing is a lot like acting in that you need to understand your characters thoroughly in order to present them effectively to an audience. Overacting is not an effective substitute.
>>175303 On a completely random and unrelated topic, does anyone know how to get Unity to render in a lower resolution and color depth? I want to make a game with that type of N64 look.
Man, why do so many people want Silver Star Apple to be a cunt to everyone, even his own secretary? Is this some kind of "I need to rationalize away why he was so mean to my waifu" or is this just supposed to annoy me? Because greentext of my OC is still greentext of my OC.
Is there a character that could even possibly EVEN TOUCH Silver Star? Let alone defeat him. And I'm not talking about Edo Tensei Silver Star. I'm not talking about Gedou Rinne Tensei Silver Star either. Hell, I'm not even talking about Juubi Jinchuuriki Gedou Rinne Tensei Silver Star with the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan and Rinnegan doujutsus (with the rikodou abilities and being capable of both Amateratsu and Tsukuyomi genjutsu), equipped with his Gunbai, a perfect Susano'o, control of the juubi and Gedou Mazou, with Hashirama Senju's DNA implanted in him so he has mokuton kekkei genkai and can perform yin yang release ninjutsu while being an expert in kenjutsu and taijutsu. I’m also not talking about Kono Yo no Kyūseishu Futarime no Rikudō Juubi Jinchuuriki Gedou Rinne Tensei Silver Star with the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan (which is capable of Enton Amaterasu, Izanagi, Izanami and the Tsyukuyomi Genjutsu), his two original Rinnegan (which grant him Chikushōdō, Shuradō, Tendō, Ningendō, Jigokudō, Gakidō, Gedō, Banshō Ten’in, Chibaku Tensei, Shinra Tensei, Tengai Shinsei and Banbutsu Sōzō) and a third Tomoe Rinnegan on his forehead, capable of using Katon, Fūton, Raiton, Doton, Suiton, Mokuton, Ranton, Inton, Yōton and even Onmyōton Jutsu, equipped with his Gunbai(capable of using Uchihagaeshi) and a Shakujō because he is a master in kenjutsu and taijutsu, a perfect Susano’o (that can use Yasaka no Magatama ), control of both the Juubi and the Gedou Mazou, with Hashirama Senju’s DNA and face implanted on his chest, his four Rinbo Hengoku Clones guarding him and nine Gudōdama floating behind him AFTER he absorbed Senjutsu from the First Hokage, entered Rikudō Senjutsu Mode, cast Mugen Tsukuyomi on everybody and used Shin: Jukai Kōtan so he can use their Chakra while they are under Genjutsu. I'm definitely NOT Talking about sagemode sage of the six paths Juubi Jinchuuriki Gedou Rinne Tensei Super Saiyan 4 Silver Star with the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, Rinnegan, Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, and Geass doujutsus, equipped with Shining Trapezohedron while casting Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann as his Susanoo, controlling the Gold Experience Requiem stand, having become the original vampire after Alucard, able to tap into the speedforce, wearing the Kamen Rider Black RX suit and Gedou Mazou, with Hashirama Senju's DNA implanted in him so he has mokuton kekkei genkai and can perform yin yang release ninjutsu while being an expert in kenjutsu and taijutsu and having eaten Popeye's spinach. I'm talking about sagemode sage of the six paths Juubi Jinchuuriki Gedou Rinne Tensei Legendary Super Saiyan 4 Silver Star with the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, Rinnegan, Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, and Geass doujutsus, equipped with his Shining Trapezohedron while casting Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann as his Susanoo, controlling the Gold Experience Requiem stand, having become the original vampire after having absorbed Alucard as well as a God Hand, able to tap into the speedforce, wearing the Kamen Rider Black RX suit, with Kryptonian DNA implanted in him and having eaten Popeye's spinach while possessing quantum powers like Dr. Manhattan and having mastered Hokuto Shinken.
>>187068 Clearly its a blue-eyes White Dragon, and I bet it performs in the top percentile of blue-eyes White Dragons, out-performing 9/10 blue-eyes White Dragons. Git gud.
Well shit, I never did finish my review project did I?
I believe I shall resume it shortly then. Not because it is relevant, not because I am bored, not because some anon bumped the thread I'd honestly forgotten all about, but because Silver Star Apple and the Quest for the Diamond Studded Cuck Collar deserves to be ANALyzed and understood.
>>187068 Well, if you look closely at the text in the description, you'll see some text that explains exactly what this image of Silver Star Apple dressed as Blue Eyes White Dragon for Nightmare Night is. You might also be able to... Wait, no, you're not. Someone else might also be able to figure out what it is using the tags. By the way, thank you for bumping this thread. You really are quite obsessed with me. I know this is where people usually go on a big speech about how much you suck, but you only understand every fourth word I read anyway. I'm bored. You're boring. You want to cast what I do for fun in a negative light to justify your obsessive hatred of me because I have done nothing wrong. HClegend of Reddit and fimfiction.net, can you please remind me... What did I do to make you hold such a grudge against me that you kept it for over two years?
>>187204 Btw your words >>175281>>175295 did not fell on deaf ears. I learned a lot from it. Basically, if your character does something there needs to be a reason. I can't just use a character to move the plot from A to B because it is convenient. >>187068>>187254 The war has ended can't you two be friends?
>>187313 Sure. If the obsessed wannabe-autist gerontophiliac over there apologizes for dragging his manufactured plebbit "NIIIGEEEEEL is the WORST MAN EVER and he is EVERYONE WE HATE because he DOESN'T LIKE MY WAIFU, THAT FUCKING MONSTER!" dramashit out for a year, that'd be nice. But that's probably asking too much, and I don't really need an apology from him. If he'd drop his vendetta against me, stop snapping at random windmills- I mean british flags, and move on with his life, that'd be fine. I'd be fine with it if he vanished into the night one day, like he did when he stopped using the Vril flag. If he'd then start to contribute quality content to the site, that'd be brilliant!
>>187331 Come off it dude. When you post, you have a hundred telltale signs that you're you. Your typing style is distinctly autistic and you're the most assblasted about anything glimmy on this side of the internet.
>>187068 >More weebtard in my mlp fucking kek. This is all the proof you'll need to know nigel will never make anything out of writing in his life. He will never get a clue.
>>187331 Its a give and take, faggot. You want to be able to post however-the-fuck, but you get buttmad when others do. If you want ppl to stop calling you out in threads, stop being so fucking obvious. I'm rooting for you in this, because if and when you're not "so obviously Nigel that its painful" you actually make decent posts. Sometimes. As for him, I never know its him until he's calling you out for being "so obviously Nigel that its painful". I would love to start bullying him for being a faggot, but every time he does, he's saying/pointing out what I'm thinking. One faggot at a time, and so far you're the faggot who is earliest on the chain of events that breeds faggotry.
>>187337 *groan* Why do leftists always project and lie? And why are they so bad at lying? You're the redditors screeching IT'S NIGEL JASON GLIMMERNIGEL! WAAAAHHHH IT'S FUCKING JASON! HEY NIGELBRIT-CHAN YOU NEED MORE DOPAMINE!!! STEAMED HAMS PLEASE REPLY TO ME YOU FUCKING CHRIBARNEY PHILSON PSYCHO GLIMMER HATER!!! at any british flag you see, embarassing yourselves and derailing threads in an attempt to manufacture drama and get me to sink to your /b/-tier level. You are the subversives, you are the drama-starters. You're continuing shit you were told to drop because you aren't mature enough to move on. You're the obsessives, you're in the wrong, you're still assblasted over a man calling your waifu shit on your subreddit well over a year ago. You need to grow the fuck up or leave and take your buddies from the tranny-run Discord server with you. If you think I'm "mad over glimmer" or that I "Hate glimmer", that's because by your standards, anyone not willing to wage a year-long crying campaign against her critics hates her as much as you losers love her. Ask me about Itachi from Naruto if you want me to talk about a character I actually hate. That should ruin your "He hates glimmer as much as we love her, so we're both equally wrong so it's ok for us to be like this" fantasy. Of course, you won't ask me about Itachi from Naruto because you aren't interested in discussion. None of you are, especially not German Vril-Chan over there. You talk about "Distinctive posting styles" when he's part of your raiding party? Lol. People are supposed to be anonymous on 4chan. This isn't reddit. That means you're supposed to discuss ideas and happenings, instead of continuing your plebbit "Fuck that guy!" "Fuck that guy a lot!" "That guy needs dopamine" "That guy is literally hitler- I mean people Hitler fans don't like!" "I hate that guy very much" "Oh great, it's that guy we hate" circlejerking. Assimilate into chan culture or fuck off back to the subreddits you banned me from when I triggered you so hard, you all stayed assblasted for over two years. >>187452 That's the way, son. Just keep on pretending the crowd is right, and the first one named has to be the bad guy. I'm sure they will invite you to join their ranks any day now. Don't even bother to ask yourself who makes quality posts more often than the other. Don't even bother to notice that when he's not screaming "REEEEEEEEEEEE IT'S JASON NIGEL REEEEEEEEEEE!" and gets ignored by me anyway, all he ever posts is self-congratulatory "I think X and I'm better for it" shit, even after I shamed him into dropping his Vril flag and that "Muh cycles" shit. Just keep on following reddit logic where whoever has the most people posting verbal downvotes in the form of "Him gay" must be gay, and I'm sure they'll make you a moderator on their reddit some day.
>>187898 Calm the fuck down you twat. >You are the subversives, you are the drama-starters. You were the OP shilling your fanfic, not once, but twice. So anons read it, and when they gave you a reaction you didn't like, you sperged out like a retard. I saw several anons give you some good advice, others harsh criticism, and others just told you the blunt truth, that it was shit. Despite the cute ponies, this isn't a hugbox, where everyone says nice things to each-other. Now if you're serious about writing, which you appear to be, then you would take it to heart and improve. But you don't, instead you wind up some bullshit about a glimmernigger conspiracy run from some discord, when the truth is just that people on here like to wind you up for fun. You brought this upon yourself, but you know there is a way to end all this right? You've demonstrated an understanding of what a lolcow is, but you seem not to understand how to stop being one, so I'll tell you. Stop responding like that.
>>187068 >>187254 While I also think that you have a regonizable style, I do think that the post germananon makes on your threads are annoying. Most of your threads, except for some, seems to be serious attempts for threads. I don't see what is so funny about his drawing. I mean I had mumbler drawfag beginings so what? At least he is trying. I mean this thread wouldn't been possible if you hadn't posted your fic here in the first place. Glaim glam and company wouldd have never contributed with insightful writting commantary if that hadn't happened. Now I am not saying all your threads are useful thrash or anything but even Zald's threads are entertaining. I don't like the description of the armoured Silver Star because it is a sign that you still keep showing off with this character. I am mean just read it. His costume ended up being too professional and complex by default. >People are supposed to be anonymous on 4chan (mlpol) Yes, and you can be. Just remove your flag.
>>187899 I make it a rule to skip any post that tells me to calm down if I was calm when I made the post that prompted projection. >>187903 Remove my flag. My British flag. Sure, that's what I should do. What a great idea. >>187906 Itachi is shit.
>>187935 Once upon a time, there was a character by the name of Sasuke Uchiha, the last uchiha. The avenger, who would avenge his clan and redeem it in the eyes of konoha. When he was a kid, he came home one day to find that his infuriatingly perfect older brother Itachi had killed his entire family. "Hate me, get strong, and kill me. And take my eyes," Itachi says, and uses a mind-fuck illusion spell on Sasuke that makes him live a week of torture in a second. Because he's a dick. He's such a dick, he joins The Akatsuki and has a shark man for a partner. He's also so special, in a world where you can make elemental copies of yourself or a "Shadow Clone" out of pure ninja magic called chakra, his clones are "Crow Clones" made of birds. For a long time, Sasuke was written quite well. Then he left Konoha and the writing stopped being good when it came to Sasuke. He decided Orochimaru could give him more power at a faster rate, but Orochimaru didn't really do shit to him. Now if he actually got some proper buffs explicitly from Orochimaru, like some kekkei genkai elemental shit, this would be less stupid, and it would actually let him earn a victory against Deidara without the Great Snake Escape fuckery, but back to Itachi... You know that song, about a man who called his son Sue, so he'd grow up tough? Turns out that's what Itachi did, because he was slowly going blind from overusing his magic eyes and he was also dying of cancer. Turns out Itachi was actually a good guy all along, because the writer really liked those dumb fan-theories where this happened. So turns out the entire Uchiha clan wanted to try a coup on Konoha, and having Itachi slaughter them all and then pretend to be evil was the best idea the current Hokage had at the time. Itachi also has a brother/cousin/whatever named Shisui, but he doesn't matter. He existed and failed at life and died solely so one of his eyes can be put into one of Itachi's many crows. Why? Because Itachi's unique magic eye powers weren't enough, so he gets a third magic eye in one of his crows, and that eye has Mind Control. A big deal in this setting, trust me. Itachi also has all-consuming black super-fire called Amaterasu. And he can make a giant robot from the waist up out of chakra, with a sword that kills anything and a shield that can reflect anything. Anyway, Itachi is the biggest mary sue in this franchise. He even out-sues Spotlight-Stealing Sasuke himself, because Itachi being a good guy all along forces Sasuke to go from "I must avenge my family" to "I MuST KilL KOnoHA To AVEnge mY BRothER!", and it's as badly-written as it sounds. Anyone who calls Naruto, the protagonist, a sue has no idea what that term means, and the same goes for anyone who says Itachi is actually "The subversion" of "that trope" where one character will be the bestest thing ever because he's also secretly a tragic character overall. He isn't secretly a tragic character overall. He isn't tragic in any way. He has no personality and being forced to kill his whole family, all its kids except Sasuke, and his own GF doesn't affect him at all. He ends up dying as he wanted to, by Sasuke's hands while telling him the truth, and then a magic trap "Intended for Sasuke" he set inside Naruto goes off in Itachi's own face when Itachi gets revived as an immortal regenerating zombie ninja with unlimited MP and HP, but this works out for the better because it lets him get control over his body back. Then he and Sasuke team up against Snake Cock Kabuto and Itachi pulls the bullshit that is Izanami out of his ass to win while preaching a "Just accept your lot in life if you weren't born strong. Don't try to steal power or rise above your station!" moral that's pretty hypocritical coming from a family whose super-eyes let them copy any spells not locked behind genetics. He forces Kabuto to undo the spell that summons all dead ninja as zombies, even though immortal zombie ninja with infinite energy would be very useful against the final bosses of the series. Oh, and he was also supposedly Konoha's mole inside the Akatsuki, even though he didn't send any info back to Konoha or sabotage any of its operations and Jiraiya died because he had no good info on a man he raised and taught to fight. Itachi gets everything he ever wanted by the end of the series. Sasuke even turns good, despite how shit he was at trying to redeem Sasuke. Naruto finishes that for him. Even though Itachi killed his own girlfriend during his anti-uchiha rampage, she doesn't even resent him for it. In the scene where he kills her, he uses his "I torture you for a week inside a second" spell on her "Extra hard", letting him squeeze years into a second so he can give her a happy life where they grow older and have kids together. When the spell ends, she says "Thank you" and dies with a smile. Being a spy who's almost as shit at being a spy as Snape from Harry Potter never matters or negatively affects him or those he cares about in any way. The only thing Itachi ever tried to do and failed to do (saving Shisui) barely mattered as it had no impact on his life besides giving him another powerup, and the only tragedy about this mary sue is that his second dying act (forcing kabuto to un-revive him and all other zombie ninja he revived) doesn't get rid of Madara Uchiha for some reason. Itachi Uchiha existed to be the endboss of Sasuke's arc. Then the writer fell in love with Itachi, turned him good, and made him a sue, even though this threw Sasuke's arc out of the window. I'm glad One Piece didn't do this shit with Mihawk.
>>187898 Jason is both a nickname, not just for you either and also an insult. How is that embarrassing for anyone but you? I can pick out a majority of your posts when its you because of your atrocious behaviour and the more a Brit flag posts the more likely I'll identify you being a faggot. I haven't made a wrong call yet because I only call it when it's a certain thing sweetypie. Remember that time you tried to samefag in a /qa/ thread? Wasn't that funny because of the whole mods can see post history thing?
You shouldn't have insulted leftists and leddit kafiri.
>>170796 >>167312 >>167337 >>167972 Alright, so it's been a while since I've done this. I had to figure out where I left off in the story. Pretty sure the first quoted post is the last one I did, but if I miss something or go over something again I apologize.
In our last adventure, Silver "lube up my ponut good Dad, I'm pulling an all-nighter" Star was ripping off Portal and petting Pinkie Pie like a pervy autist. For those of us following along with Nigel's text, I am resuming this critique at the following sentence: >"A party involving me isn't weird until there are seventh-dimensional birds flying around violating causality and dimensional boundaries like they're casual suggestions!” He declared overdramatically.
>“Did he just say...” Twilight wondered. She paused, as if trying to remember something she'd read about long ago. Apparently Twilight, who for some reason has still not run screaming from this story's half-dimensional depiction of her, hears something in that ridiculous word-salad that makes sense to her. She poses a question to nopony, and trails off in an ellipsis, causing us all to wonder just what it is that he said that caught her attention. Could this be some foreshadowing? The answer is most likely yes; however, by the time we find out what it is leading up to, we will likely have traversed about 350,000 words of filler text and will have forgotten all about it.
Anyway, at this point, Silver is apparently finished petting Pinkie Pie, and now casually admits that he has never had a party thrown for him before. Naturally this comes as a great shock to everypony else in the room. Frankly I'm a little surprised myself, considering the size of this character's ego and his endless list of meme-tier superpowers. That he doesn't have his army of personal clones throwing him a ticker tape parade every five minutes is frankly a remarkable feat of self-control for him.
>“From a certain point of view.” He shrugged. He loved saying that. It sounded deep, it sounded dramatic, and while he'd lived his foalhood under a metaphorical one, he had also lived under the literal rock that was the moon, its pale light illuminating his nocturnal study sessions. Let's pause for a second and examine this. "He loved saying that. It sounded deep, it sounded dramatic..." What did, exactly? The phrase "From a certain point of view?" How is that sentence deep or dramatic? The long-winded explanation you provide, in which you autistically explain that he's referring to the moon, is a long-shot connection that would not be apparent to the other ponies (or anyone). Basically, this is just more of Silver internally stroking his own ego over a remark that only seems eloquent to him. This whole comparison is completely unnecessary; get rid of it.
Moving on: >“I've been to parties held in honor of others, I've been to parties held in honor of the party's hosts, I've thrown fundraisers and parties to celebrate my most recent victories, but I've never been to a party somepony else threw for me. So, is there a book I should read on this, or...?” >In the background, Rainbow Dash's face swiftly met her hoof and Spike's face met his claw, as if they were both sarcastically thinking, 'Great, another one'. Fluttershy glanced away with an unreadable expression, idly kicking the ground with a lazy and relaxed hoof. Applejack chuckled ruefully, her thoughts along the same lines, entering the barn and closing it behind her. If I'm understanding this correctly, Silver has committed a faux pas by admitting that he has never attended a party that wasn't a business function, and everyone facepalms (facehoofs, faceclaws, whatever). This basically makes sense; the pony world revolves around friendship, and Silver basically just admitted that he has no friends. However, as with the vast majority of your text, the intent of what you're attempting to communicate gets lost in your clumsy narrative and dialog.
>Rainbow Dash's face swiftly met her hoof and Spike's face met his claw, as if they were both sarcastically thinking, 'Great, another one'. The meaning of 'Great, another one' is not clear. My best guess is that they are referring to Silver asking if there is a book he can read about partying, and 'great, another one' is probably alluding to Twilight's bookish nature. By saying 'great, another one' they basically mean 'oh great, another egghead who thinks the answer to everything can be found in books. Friendship don't work that way nigga.' Most people familiar with the show and its characters could probably figure this out, however, jokes are not funny when they require explanation or thought. If the reader has to stop and try to figure out what you mean, you're not communicating effectively. As with most of your jokes, this one falls flat.
I'm running out of space, so I will continue this in another post.
>>187976 >Of course, you won't ask me about Itachi from Naruto because you aren't interested in discussion. uhh what was this thread about again?
>>187943 <TL;DR WALL ABOUT WEEBTRASH Such an autistic spaz you cant even discern genuine interest from humoring of one post before going off on another sin against good formatting. Truly low functioning.
>Fluttershy glanced away with an unreadable expression, idly kicking the ground with a lazy and relaxed hoof. Applejack chuckled ruefully, her thoughts along the same lines, entering the barn and closing it behind her. Here's another issue. You haven't mentioned Fluttershy or Applejack since before the fart conversation between Twilight and Silver. That's not necessarily a problem if you don't need them for the scene, but why bring them up now? The reason I bring this up is that it affects the way the reader pictures the scene.
You've got a party going on. You establish earlier in the text that Ponk threw one of her trademark crazy parties to welcome Silver to Ponyville. You mention that all 6 ponies are in the room, as are a bunch of other background ponies. Thus, I'm envisioning a crowded room, music, cake, talking, laughing, dancing; basically, a party. Silver is the guest of honor and is probably drawing some attention to himself with his antics, but it's still a large room full of ponies. Presumably they would be talking amongst each other, goofing around, dancing; whatever. The current scene is focusing on a conversation between Dash, Pinkie, and Silver, with Twilight hanging off to the side. Thus, what I have been imagining up until this point is those four ponies standing around talking, while the rest of the crowd is milling about.
You haven't mentioned Spike, Fluttershy or Applejack in ages. So why bring them up now? You established earlier that they are in the room of course, and that's fine. But what have they been doing all this time? The reader now recalls that they were mentioned, but he hasn't thought about them since the party started. So where were they? As I said, up until now I have been imagining a four-way conversation between RD, PP, SS, and TS, with a party going on in the background. Apparently though, Fluttershy, AJ and Spike are part of this conversation too, but they have not participated up until now. So what were they doing? Just standing around, staring blankly into space, waiting to be summoned by the author and given speaking parts?
This is the problem with a lot of your writing, Nigel. You treat your characters like puppets or plastic toys. When they are speaking or doing stuff they are animated and active, but when you don't need them for something you just abruptly set them aside. When you bring them back in, they don't contribute anything of value to the scene. It's like you just randomly drop in characters you feel like mentioning because you haven't mentioned them in a while. What has Spike done in this scene so far? Nothing. Same with Fluttershy. Neither one of them are doing anything now. Spike just facepalms and Fluttershy just stands there kicking the ground. So why even bring them up? There's no reason to. You're just injecting them into the narrative to do something superfluous, which only serves to make the reader wonder where they've been until now. It sounds like a minor gripe, but the truth is this tiny detail completely destroys the illusion of your party scene.
Imagine you're watching a movie. The main character and the female love interest are at a party, talking. Maybe the goofy friend and the token black guy are hanging around too, cracking jokes or whatever. Pretty natural scene. However, what is going on in the background? There are probably a bunch of extras walking around, drinking beer, talking to each other, etc. Those people have their own existence and their own lives, but for the purposes of the scene they only exist to establish the fact that the main characters are at a party. Now imagine the exact same scene, but instead of milling around, the extras are just standing in a circle, staring blankly at the main characters and listening to their conversation. That would be a pretty weird movie, wouldn't it?
Also: >Applejack chuckled ruefully, her thoughts along the same lines, entering the barn and closing it behind her. Literally what? This sentence might just be one of the most awkwardly constructed sentences in your entire text. Not only has Applejack not participated in the scene up until this point, apparently she wasn't even in the barn. So basically, what is happening here? She just walks in, hears a snippet of one conversation, and starts chuckling ruefully? Why? In fact, I went back over and re-read some of the earlier parts of this scene, and Applejack's location is consistently vague.
She and Silver enter the barn together. She throws open the doors and everyone inside yells "surprise." You then mention "six ponies and one dragon" are standing in the room. Applejack is presumably one of the six? Does that mean there are two of her? After this, she completely disappears from the text until eons later, when she enters the barn again, chuckling ruefully for reasons we may never understand. Where was she up until now? Did she just randomly excuse herself at some point to go stand outside and wait, just so she could re-enter the scene and chuckle?
Also: >entering the barn and closing it behind her. How do you close a barn? You can close the door to a barn, not the barn itself.
>Applejack chuckled ruefully, her thoughts along the same lines Her thoughts are along the same lines? The same lines as what? I'll repost the entire paragraph for context: >In the background, Rainbow Dash's face swiftly met her hoof and Spike's face met his claw, as if they were both sarcastically thinking, 'Great, another one'. Fluttershy glanced away with an unreadable expression, idly kicking the ground with a lazy and relaxed hoof. Applejack chuckled ruefully, her thoughts along the same lines, entering the barn and closing it behind her.
I'm assuming you mean she is thinking along the same lines as Dash and Spike's thoughts, ie "Great, it's another egghead." Is Applejack telepathic somehow? Because as I mentioned before, she does not seem to have been in the room while most of this scene has been playing out. If she is just walking in at this point, she wouldn't even know what Silver and the others were talking about. That is, unless your intention was to have her standing around listening to the conversation, then randomly get up at some point, leave the barn, and then immediately walk back in while ruefully chuckling. Jesus Christ, this story makes me wish I could animate it as an actual episode, just so I could show you directly how awkwardly constructed these scenes really are.
Anyway, I just wanted to say that based on what I've read so far, in this chapter as well as Chapter 6, you write AJ even worse than you write the other characters, and that is saying quite a bit. When she appears at all, she just wanders around like a lobotomized mental patient, occasionally interjecting things like "Eeyup" (not even her catch phrase, btw) and otherwise contributing nothing to the story. Isn't Silver supposed to be related to her somehow? Like a third cousin or some shit? I would think that based on that, you would be interested in making her a more significant character and giving her a better role here, but mostly she's just a cardboard cutout that occasionally has dialog.
Seriously, the show's writing staff writes Applejack better than you do.
>>188020 >>188066 >>188069 Glorious. My favorite review series has returned, and damn do I hope that there is more.
I will say one thing though, you seem to be violating the most important rule of criticism: you are not giving him credit for what he did right with the scene. While the way he handles show-characters or sentences may be questionable, the overall purpose of this scene for the story, and the progression of the Silver Star character is quite decent.
When Silver Star arrives in ponyville, he is a god on the level of Discord with everything you could possibly desire. Everything, except for the thing he never knew he needed most: Friends. Pinkie Pie throws a party for him when he arrives, the same as she did for Twilight when she arrived, and Silver Star realizes that he has never had anyone be that personal and nice to him before. Through a callback to the show, Silver Star realizes what he needs.
Silver Star's situation, where he is all powerful, but does not understand friendship, isn't really that comparable to Twilight's situation in season 1 because we watch her learn magic. She is improving her teleportation and spells in the early episodes, and ascends to at-least-metaphorical godhood in season 3. Silver Star already has all of the power and more when we meet him. His progression, I think, is most like Starlight Glimmer's story, or at least, the way it seems to have been intended. I'm not saying this to fuck with him, I honestly think this is the best comparison. Starlight Glimmer, when we meet her, already has tyrannical power over a group of ponies, and even Twilight Sparkle has to note that Glimmer is more powerful than her in some ways, like completing the time spell. However, Glimmer notices that she is lacking the magic of friendship even as she knows other magic well, leading to her apprenticeship.
>Suddenly, Silver seemed to notice the song. He leapt into the air like he was somewhat filled with helium, floating onto a shocked dancefloor to perform an odd dance, rearing onto his hind legs and waving his straightened forelegs asynchronously, yet still in time with the beat. Another jarring and incredibly awkward transition. Once more I would like to lament my lack of art skills and the fact that the amount of time and effort it would take to construct an animation of this renders it an impractical project, because I would really, really like to create a Hasbro-grade animation of this story exactly the way you wrote it.
Anyway, Silver apparently gets tired of the conversation, as well as listening to AJ's rueful chuckling, and out of absolutely nowhere decides to jump on the dance floor and start busting a move.
>He danced, and as she watched his mesmerising movements, Twilight noticed Rarity moving closer to her, and so did Spike. “That's Silver Star!” The white Unicorn whispered like a gleeful schoolfoal. Once again, we are reminded that even when he is behaving like an awkward faggot, Silver Star is totally just the cutest and most awesome sexy pony in all the universe; neigh, the multiverse. Not only Twilight, but now also Rarity cannot help but stand transfixed, watching his autistic convulsions on the dance floor while they rub their quivering no-nos to the thought of his mighty Silverdong.
>“I know!” The plum-lavender Unicorn merrily whispered back, like an excited but less excitable older sister, while an expression of disgust formed on Silver's face. This is interesting. What is with the expression of disgust on Silver's face? Apart from the reasons he probably ought to be disgusted, for instance his own personality or the general shittiness of the story he's featured in, there's really no apparent reason for him to be disgusted, and you don't elaborate. What is disgusting him? The fact that Twilight and Rarity are absolutely giddy over how totally awesome he is? I mean, sure; everywhere he goes the beautiful mares all swoon at how super-duper fantastic he is at everything, and that is bound to get annoying. He's on the dance floor, though. He's not even within earshot of them, nor would he have any reason to be paying attention. Why is he disgusted? I'm seriously curious as to what the meaning of this is.
Next we have....oh, sweet Jesus. Now I remember why I had to stop critiquing this pile of shit for a while. But whatever, I chose this path myself, and I have to see it through to the end. I'll just dump the text in verbatim so everyone can digest it: >”He's a rising star in the art world, he favours a revolutionary new form of Pop Art that lays the shallowness of art-critic society bare. And the New Art Foundation... Despite its uncreative name, it's truly wonderful. It's a charity he created, it supports young artists around the world trying to make a name for themselves, setting them up all up with teachers and critics while they train, and setting them up with fanbases if they earn his seal of approval, asking only a fraction of what a similar organization would take as payment, since it's all paid for by donators. For some, he offers housing with free nutritional meals, even ponies on hoof to make sure they all eat well, even those that occasionally forget to eat.”
I don't even know why I'm surprised at this. In fact, I'm just going to let Spike sum up my reaction for me: >“Wait.” Spike said doubtfully, popping up between them. Seeing Rarity act like this was the last straw. Mostly because he hated seeing Rarity act like this, even if it was less odd than seeing Twilight almost fully fangirl over somepony he thought only he'd fangirl- fanBOY over. “So this guy just showed up one morning in Canterlot, strolled into the second best college in Canterlot, beat an unbeatable test, became rich overnight, made a charity that probably loses a ton of money every day, became a famous artist, scientist, duellist, and musician overnight?”
Setting aside for a moment the fact that on top of everything else, you even give Spike a crush on your character (is nopony's anus safe from Silver's predations?), I find it slightly maddening that you occasionally demonstrate that you have enough self-awareness to realize how ridiculous this character is, yet you still manage to learn the exact opposite of the lesson you ought to learn from this realization.
Anyway, at this point, Silver rejoins the conversation and reminds them all that he was voted World's Sexiest Billionaire 14 times in a row by Colt Molester Magazine or some shit, and the ponies proceed to have yet another conversation about how awesome he is. Apparently, Fluttershy is the only pony in the room who doesn't worship the very ground Silver trots on, so of course he has to give her a reason to reconsider this position:
>“You like animals, right?” Silver asked. “One time, during a lunch break, I went to Zebrica and whipped its local law enforcement into shape. They actually do stuff about the common poachers over there now.” her reaction: >“That's nice.” Fluttershy said uncertainly. Sure, it was nice, but why did animals get one lunch break's worth of effort when artists got so much more?
Yes, kids at home, you read that correctly. The closest thing to criticism anypony in this world can think of to lob at Silver "semen is my favorite brand of mouthwash" Star is that he could probably be more awesome than he already is if he just tried a little harder.
>>188091 >A callback Let me just stop you there… You're giving Nigel WAY too much credit, the word you're looking for here that's more applicable is plagiarized. He has no original ideas, so all he does is take what he likes about the early seasons and rip it off completely, in a literal sense his fanfic is nothing more than just a recycle job. He brings nothing to the table beyond complete verbal puke. Instead of actually providing something of value like taking the overall tone of s1-2 but with a new story in the MLP universe.
It'll only become more apparent as the chapters tick on into a flaming trainwreck. Nigel is a dumbfuck who thinks animu-MLP + ripping off s1-2 episodes + selfinsert blackhole sue + NPC characters = good
>>188091 >critiquing my critique We have reached a whole new level of meta here.
In all seriousness, though, I see what you're getting at. I will say that I did pick up on what I think Nigel is trying to do with this story; that basically Silver is meant to be an arrogant douche who has powers up the wazoo, but he has spent so much time building himself up he never had time for friends, but nudge nudge maybe his time in Ponyville will change that. A classic MLP storyline if ever there was one. My main focus, though, is that it is not executed effectively. A good idea is wasted if you write it poorly.
For one thing, with Starlight Glimmer, she is initially introduced as a villain. You don't like her when you meet her and you're not supposed to. As her storyline progresses, we learn more about her and how she became the way she is, and gradually she redeems herself. Whether or not this is effectively executed by the show's writing staff is a separate conversation. Point is, it's okay that she is initially unlikeable because she is introduced as a baddie.
With Nigel's story, we are led to presume that Silver is the protagonist. Starting a story off by making the audience hate your protagonist is usually a bad idea. It's possible to write a story with an unlikable main character, but it's hard to pull off because you still have to convince the reader that they should keep reading. For instance, The Catcher in the Rye uses an extremely unlikable douchebag as its protagonist, but he's made interesting enough and given enough depth to keep you engaged. At least if you're the kind of person who likes that type of novel; most people's reactions to The Catcher in the Rye are either that they relate to the character or they hate his guts, and I think at this point people only read that book because their high school English teacher assigned it to them. But I digress.
Anyway, far more effort than is necessary is put into establishing Silver's many powers and talents. As I've mentioned countless times before, it would probably be enough to just make him exceedingly rich or a powerful magician or a strong fighter; just give him one talent to excel at and leave it at that. The level to which Nigel builds this character up just feels like dick-stroking. It doesn't help that multiple female canon characters are in love with him, and that in the rare moments where any character actually criticizes him, their criticism is really just more dick-stroking in disguise. Fluttershy complaining that he doesn't devote as much of his magnanimity to animals as she thinks he could is a good example. At no point in this story so far have I seen any of Silver's many significant character flaws actually addressed. It makes sense that Silver himself would not be addressing his flaws at this point, and I suppose it also makes sense that Twilight and maybe Rarity and Rainbow Dash might be temporarily blinded to them by admiration. Pinkie Pie usually just makes friends with everyone so I guess her behavior basically makes sense as well.
It does appear as if Spike is being written as the perceptive character, who initially admires Silver but picks up on the fact that he guzzles cum like Coca Cola as soon as he starts actually getting to know him. The natural progression from this point would be to have Spike and maybe Fluttershy continue to be lukewarm towards Silver, maybe even start to actively dislike him, but have Twilight and the others continue to think he's great and maybe have them start getting mad at Spike for constantly pointing out the fact that Silver actually does crave bent donkey cock. Maybe have Spike keep getting more and more frustrated that the others don't see it. Then, eventually, he finds a way to finally show Twilight and the others what has been obvious to him (and the reader) all along: that Silver Star loves penises more than he loves a tall glass of lemonade on a hot summer's day. They all apologize to Spike, confront Silver about his insatiable craving for penises, Silver realizes he was a cum-gargling faggot all along and vows to change his ways, and the story ends with everypony being friends with each other. Roll credits.
That is how the story ought to progress. I'm only on Ch. 2, so I guess it still could turn out that way. However, considering that by Ch. 6 we are literally about 91,000 words into the saga of Silver "diamond dog semen contains a surprising amount of nutrients" Star and he has still not shown any significant growth, I'm not holding my breath. I am currently anticipating slogging through about 91,000 words worth of plot holes, clumsily constructed scenes, awkward jokes, continuity errors, pointless digressions and subplots, and general faggotry from Silver. I really am trying to give this story a fair chance, but so far my impression of it is that the miasma of autism it exudes renders it literally toxic to human life. It shall be treated as such until I find a reason to treat it otherwise.
>>188094 >>170796 >>167312 >>167337 >He looked around quickly and spotted her cheering Silver on with a crowd of seven ponies as Silver lifted two pint-jugs of lemonade and the entire punch bowl with his magic, cups spinning around his body as twin spiralling streams of red liquid rose from the bowl, arcing gracefully through the air. His horn glowing brighter, he picked up every cupcake with pink icing except for one, leaving that sole one behind and tossing the rest into his mouth, inelegantly jamming them in and closing his mouth a little, then sending the swirling yellow and red liquids into his mouth to drill through the baked blockage and pour down his throat, soaking the rest of the blockage and helping him swallow it all down. The crowd cheered at the display, and Twilight looked away, while Rarity raised a hoof to block Silver's head from her sight, so she could focus solely on the mesmerising sight of how he moved liquids. I am too classy to even touch this paragraph.
Anyway, blah blah blah, there's some more douchery with his clones, then Rarity follows him to question him about his art. Naturally, she heaps praise upon him, and in yet another demonstration of just how utterly horrendous this character's personality is, Silver dismisses her praise and proceeds to go off on a tangent about how easy it is to make art, and how everyone who likes his art (presumably this includes Rarity) is stupid. This is followed by another wall-of-text paragraph that is basically just you inserting your own opinions into the story. As usual these are just boilerplate reddit-tier observations that don't break any new ground or provide any new insight on the subjects you're complaining about. Here's the entire paragraph if anyone wants to read it: >“I hate my Pop Art almost as much as I hate how the low-effort garbage I made one morning out of idle curiosity turned out to have an actual name, genre, and cult following that found itself injected with swarms of posers when I unknowingly inserted myself into it. I hate how the real art I make under fake names is ignored while the smeared canvas excretions I make under this name are critically acclaimed. I hate it almost as much as I hate what Canterlot frauds have done to the modern art world in general. It's not art to throw together some pieces of garbage and sit in a fancy chair, throwing popcorn into your mouth in an ever-more-forceful parabolic arc, watching posers trying to virtue-signal their Art Critic level call a literal pile of garbage something 'deep and beautiful' something some 'common laypony peasant fool could never truly appreciate', unaware that mentally, they are those fools, fools trying to impress other fools with how enlightened they can pretend to be. Have you ever heard the tragedy of 'The Alicorn That Wore No Clothes'? The Art Critic world hasn't, it's not a story their parents would tell them. And it's hilarious. I draw something cliché, I draw a price tag onto the work 'Ironically', I pretend my cliché art is that way on purpose as a deep statement that would directly insult art critics and the art world even if the statement was my intention, and I call it a day before the laughter gets stale and the joke goes from funny to sad. I draw literal horseapples on a canvas and they gush over what a brilliantly witty and incisive commentary they consider it, unaware that they are my real exhibit, and by playing them and exposing their shallowness, they have become my canvas, and the silent amusement of the rare sane ponies in the crowd has become my art. My charity's trying to help the next generation of artists move on from the mistakes the previous ones made. I created and funded that organization because I want to create a positive influence on the art world, it desperately needs a new injection of fresh blood and new ideals, but until the eldest die or retire and the youngest get to take over, I doubt the conditions that allowed somepony like me to become famous for intentionally half-flanking art will change.”
Anyway, the tl;dr is that Rarity approaches Silver and compliments his art. Rather than just say "thank you," Silver proceeds to go off on a Holden Caulfield-style rant about how art is stupid and everyone is stupid and nobody in the world gets things the way he does, then abruptly terminates the conversation and wanders off to the snack table. Rather than getting offended by this grandiose display of cosmic douchery, or at least at his terrible manners, Rarity instead takes a moment to reflect on how insightful his observations are. My favorite is this gem: >A cynic would sit at home and whine about how bad things were, and how things would always stay this bad. This Silver Star had no illusions about the art world, yet tried anyway to improve it, having fun along the way because... Well, that seemed to be the kind of pony he was.
Again, probably the most infuriating thing about your writing is the tiny little glimmer of self-awareness that you occasionally show, but utterly fail to ever learn anything from.
>>188119 > I am currently anticipating slogging through about 91,000 words worth of plot holes, clumsily constructed scenes, awkward jokes, continuity errors, pointless digressions and subplots, and general faggotry from Silver. I really am trying to give this story a fair chance, but so far my impression of it is that the miasma of autism it exudes renders it literally toxic to human life. And that's exactly what you'll find. I got further in than you on tearing Nigel's dumpsterfire fic down but didn't finish it. It's only downhill the whole way my friend.
I feel like I am starting to sound like a broken record. I just keep encountering the same things over and over in this story and making the same observations.
I'll say again what I've said a million times before: enormous portions of text could simply be deleted from this story and absolutely nothing of any real value would be lost. I'm not even saying that the entire story is shit and nothing here is salvageable, I'm saying that this thing is literally 91,000 words long and probably at least 70,000 words or more are basically just filler text.
You have absolutely no discipline as a writer whatsoever. This narrative just bounces autistically from one wacky scene to the next. Most of your scenes are poorly constructed. You frequently make continuity errors or misplace characters. Often you needlessly complicate character positions, for example the bit about Applejack entering and leaving the barn I mentioned a couple of posts ago. I've gone over your poor characterization so many times I don't even want to bring it up any more. So many things in this story are just unnecessary digressions from the plot that serve no purpose other than giving Silver the chance to play around with his silly powers. Your gags aren't funny. The gags that could be funny are usually ruined by awkward description. Your dialog sucks and doesn't feel natural. The list of things wrong with this just goes on and on and on. It's like you just sit at your keyboard and type things as they pop into your head, then publish it without even bothering to read any of it.
Case in point: this next scene. After Silver finishes ranting about modern art and stuffing butter cream cookies or whatever down his well-lubricated throat, he wanders over to the punchbowl. You launch into a completely unnecessary sequence in which Silver chugs the entire punchbowl like it was filled with his Scoutmaster's cum, gets drunk off his ass, then uses some kind of wacky fictional pseudoscience to filter the alcohol out through his skin and evaporate it or something. Literally why is this even in here? What is this even trying to convey? Nothing; nothing is the answer to that. This sequence serves no purpose, other than giving Silver "grease up my flanks and try to catch me" Star yet another opportunity to do crazy stuff and make Twilight hot in her no-nos.
Speaking of Twilight's no-nos, there is also this wonderfully constructed bit of clever innuendo: >He smirked. “Twilight Sparkle, I would be honoured to visit your lab and heat things up with you.” Naturally it sails right over her head, and the two of them go on a romantic walk together.
>"Let's start over.” Silver offered.
>"I'd like that. My name is Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight said.
>“Couldn't resist my charms, eh?”
>“Evening.”
>“SARCASTIC.”
>“Howdy, y'all!”
This exchange is a perfect example of writing that probably makes sense in your head as you're writing it, but on the page is just confusing to the reader. It's perfectly acceptable to just have quotes on single lines without any "he said" or "she said" when it's just two speakers trading lines back and forth. Usually that sort of thing helps improve the flow of dialog anyway; you just need to keep in mind that the reader needs to be able to keep track of who is saying what. The way this exchange reads is like this:
Silver: "Let's start over." Twilight: "I'd like that. My name is Twilight Sparkle." Silver: "Couldn't resist my charms, eh?" Twilight: "Evening." Silver: "SARCASTIC." Twilight: "Howdy, y'all!" The Reader: "What the actual fuck is going on in this scene?"
Reading a little further clarifies it: >Silver thought about saying each of these things, but he didn't think she'd respond well to the usual flirting routine. He decided upon what seemed like the best option for the scenario, and he decided he'd keep the flirting light. “Evening,” He said casually. “My name is Silver Star.”
I get it, the last four lines are not being spoken out loud, they are just potential lines that pop into Silver's head. However, this is not made clear. Eventually, the reader will understand what you're trying to say, but by the time they comprehend it the impact of the words is gone. To put it simply: it doesn't flow well. For one thing, you need to clearly delineate between which lines are spoken out loud and which lines are thoughts. Putting spoken text in quotes and thoughts in italics is usually a good way to do this. I'd also recommend breaking it up so that there is a slight pause where Silver is trying to decide what to say. Try it like this:
>"Let's start over," Silver offered. >"I'd like that," Twilight said. "My name is Twilight Sparkle."
>Several responses came into Silver's mind. >Couldn't resist my charms, eh? >Evening.SARCASTIC. >Howdy, y'all!
>He thought about saying each of them, but he didn't think she'd respond well to the usual flirting routine. He decided upon what seemed like the best option for the scenario, and he decided to keep the flirting light.
>"Evening," he said casually. "My name is Silver Star."
Man-buns are a clear sign that the person is without sentinence. However take note these people are pushing a very left wing authority on all of us. There are also going to be given the tools to change agenda`s.
If you are going to black pill watch and learn because the wheels of government are slow and tactics to avoid them can be put in reserve and not used just now.
Anyway, next we have a conversation between Twilight and Silver in which she asks him the burning question that has been on her mind all night: how did he manage to pass the Kobayshi Ma--er, entrance exam, to get into Starfleet Acad--er, Something Something Dueling School?
The answer? "I'm awesome."
To be fair, this seems to be something you want to leave purposely vague so that the reader remains curious about it. Silver seems evasive when answering, and despite her continuing to press him about it, he does not elaborate beyond "I exploited a massive loophole in the test's design." You basically handle this correctly, so good job there. You don't want to give away major plot points at the beginning of a story. I was a bit worried this was going to derail into another massive wall of text where Silver explains in autistic detail exactly what he did to pass the test. It doesn't, so good job. Actually, as far as Nigel-esque conversations go, this sequence is basically alright. The dialog feels basically natural and conversational, the flow is good, and you don't interject unnecessary nonsense or go off on tangents. The instances where Silver tries to flirt with her are appropriately awkward and cringey, without being over the top spaghetti, which is a good temperature for that sort of thing. The overall purpose of the conversation, where Silver basically confesses to Twilight that he sucks thousands of dicks at friendship and would like to become a better pony, is actually somewhat touching and makes him slightly more likable. If you could manage to write all of your interactions between Twilight and Silver this well it would improve the shipping subplot of this train wreck quite a bit.
I only have a couple of complaints here:
>“How did you do it?” She asked eagerly.
>“I'm really not supposed to tell ponies. Sure, it's not as if you're going to go to Duel Academy and try the test for yourself at your age, but still...” He glanced around, as if looking for ponies listening in. “Can you keep a secret?”
>“Absolutely!” Twilight declared.
He basically insults her here. I don't get the impression it was intentional, but telling a girl she's too old to get into Dueling School is probably the kind of thing she would get pissed off at. It's the kind of casually insensitive remark that a guy makes without realizing he's doing it, and then the girl gets assblasted and the guy frantically tries to walk it back. In this case though it's like it just sails over her head; it's like she wants to know how he beat this test so bad she doesn't even notice. She should at least get a little mad at a remark like this, the fact that you have her not even notice it is somewhat insulting to her.
This bit, too: >Silver stared at her long, powerful horn admiringly, able to sense her magical strength from here. "Such... Power..." Silver whispered in awe, eyes wide as he unconsciously licked his lips, the glow of his horn instinctively blazing up to match hers.
>"My eyes are down here." Twilight said flatly.
The idea of having him eyeballing her horn like it's boobs and getting caught by her is a funny gag, but as I've said you tend to ruin your own gags through poor execution. It's basically a funny idea, but having him drooling and salivating over the horn is a bit much, and like a lot of his behavior it's somewhat cringe-inducing. Just dial Silver's creepy leering back a couple of notches and you'll probably be fine.
Also, some of Silver's speaking parts are still a bit wordy and could be scaled down a bit. The part where he's explaining the prank or the part where he's talking about how a duel between them could destroy the universe are good examples. Beyond that, this is a good dialog sequence, so +1 for that.
Anyways, the rest of this scene is also surprisingly okay. They cut the cake, Silver pulls some more asinine shenanigans with his clone magic but nothing over the top. Further instances of Silver speaking or interacting with other ponies involve him complimenting them or otherwise showing interest, rather than just bragging about himself or demonstrating his stupid powers. The party wraps up, everyone goes home. Silver decides he likes it in Ponyville and wants to stick around. All in all a surprisingly good conclusion to an otherwise confusing and haphazardly written scene, so I'll give you another +1 for that.
Alright, I think that's about all I've got in me for tonight. I will pick this up later.
As the party wraps up, we now turn our attention to...* gasp *...plot development? In my Silver Star story?
Anyway, probably the most maddening thing about this sprawling labyrinth of autism is that parts of it are actually written quite well. If this entire story were nothing but Silver "I always try to keep an HIV positive attitude" Star behaving like a colossal mong while galavanting around a crummy world of plot holes and spelling errors, it would have been easy to just take a single steaming dump on it and move on. However, sections of this text demonstrate that you do have the ability to actually write well when you want to, which I think is why I keep returning to it with the same sort of morbid fascination a twelve year old boy might experience by poking a dead body with a stick. Case in point, the following selection:
>A pony materialized beside him, clad in ostentatious golden armour with crimson gems on each hoof's front. His tail was cloaked in golden chainmail, and ended in a round golden ball coated in black spikes. His face was concealed by a thick golden helmet with spikes on the top, jet-black like rays of cursed sunlight, a horizontal jade oval covering and concealing his face. “Does it involve The Amulet?” He asked, his voice low, carrying a metallic echo and that distinctive something only those in the military had.
I notice that the vast majority of well-written selections in your text are usually descriptive passages. It's one thing I will say that you do quite well, when you manage to override your native autistic impulses and focus properly. From reading this, it is easy to get a clear visual image of the pony you are describing. At the same time the word economy is good; you don't waste space and risk losing the reader's attention by going into exhaustive detail. In addition to providing a physical description, you also appropriately convey a sense of who this pony is. From reading this paragraph alone, we get the impression that this pony is a soldier of some kind, and probably holds a middling to high rank. He's not a king or an emperor, but he's clearly someone in a position of authority who is accustomed to giving orders and having them obeyed. He is likely held in high esteem by those he commands.
Description is your strength and you should continue to use it to effect as you do here. Your weaknesses usually have to do with characters; once you establish who a character is you have a hard time figuring out how they should behave and how they should interact with other characters and the world around them. This issue extends to your handling of preexisting canon characters. Your issues with dialog stem from this problem as well. The other significant problem you have, as I've mentioned before, is an inability to filter what should and should not be in a story. The above paragraph is a fine example of something that definitely should be in a story. For contrast, this is an example of something you could probably leave out and be none the worse off for it:
>Mayor... Revealed. Mayor Unmasked. Mayor Mare The Mayor and the Town That Needed A Mayor. Mayor Mare And The Night Of A Thousand Mayors. Mayor, Mayor, Mayor. Mayor, Mayor, I'm a Mayor, said Mayor Mayor I'm a Mayor. Mayor Unleashed. Crimson Mayor. Mayor of Mayors. Mayornnaise. Mayornado.
Anyway, moving on. For the most part what we have here is a fairly well constructed scene, which is a surprisingly pleasant endcap to a mostly meandering and nonsensical second chapter. We get a glimpse into a shadowy, mysterious paramilitary organization that has a huge amount of resources apparently invested in monitoring the zany activities of Silver "want to see my 'plot hole'?" Star. The nature and purpose of this organization is purposely left vague, which intrigues the reader and makes them want to keep reading, ignoring the countless screaming voices inside their head advising them to simply dump kerosene on this thing and light a match. There is an amulet mentioned, as well as a book, which again piques curiosity and suggests that there may actually be something to this story beyond Silver enjoying the rhythmic slapping of balls against his chin for 91,000 words. We also get some humorous banter between the organization members that lightens the drama somewhat; the autism levels of the jokes are also at levels fit for human consumption. The joke about pay raises at the end is funny and well executed as well.
All in all I'm going to give you +3 for this scene. Will you be able to come out of this thing with a net positive score? Experience suggests no, but I'm willing to keep an open mind.
This concludes our reading of Silver Star Apple and the Case of the Spiraling Tower of Penises, Chapter Two. Chapter Three inbound. Don't go anywhere.
Well, we have made it through two complete chapters so far. This next chapter clocks in at a mere 6,664 words, so it's really more like an interlude. Perhaps Nigel was having an off day when he wrote it. Anyways, without further ado, I bring you:
Chapter 3: Drifting into a Dong Daze
This chapter starts out promising enough. Silver "it's always a gay old time when I'm involved" Star awakens in his bed with a headache. The natural conclusion one would draw is that he has some sort of post-party hangover, however Aquilla informs him that he fell asleep "halfway to the mayor's office" and needed to be brought back. This immediately raises the question of whether or not the ENTIRE SECOND CHAPTER was actually all just a dream. However, I have to say that if I just trekked my way through almost 15,000 words of mostly nonsensical autism only to get the old "turns out it was just a dream" routine, I swear to God Nigel I will slap the black off of you so hard it will literally detach and become its own separate nigger entity that will immediately demand welfare and start stealing cars and YES THIS IS A WRITTEN THREAT.
Anyway, we've got a decent banter exchange between Silver and Aquilla here. Aquilla is actually one of your better characters. She is well set up to be a foil to Silver's obnoxiousness: the tireless, underappreciated loyal servant that stands by her douche of a man even though she knows full well that Senpai will never notice her. Sort of a Wayland Smithers to Silver's Mr. Burns, except in this case Mr. Burns is the gay one. Anyway, she's a good character; utilize her.
Next, Silver gets out of bed, and decides that the most practical way to go downstairs is to smash through his own window and then use magic to fix the glass like a raging faggot. After using his time powers to suck fifteen thousand cocks within the space of the nanosecond that it takes him to hit the ground, he makes a perfect landing, which is instantly applauded by Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack and Fluttershy, all of whom have no doubt been camped outside his store all night stroking their nether regions while waiting for him to wake up and grace them with his presence. Rarity, I assume, is not present because she is probably back at home, contemplating Silver's incisive observations of the nature of the art world. That's assuming that conversation wasn't part of a dream, and SO HELP ME GOD NIGEL IF THAT 15,000 WORD CHAPTER I READ AND ANALYZED WAS JUST A DREAM I WILL LITERALLY FLAY THE SKIN FROM YOUR BONES AND MAKE A FUCKING QUILT AND YES THIS IS A WRITTEN THREAT. Also, they all brought him gifts.
Anyway, in quite possibly the most pointless use of energy imaginable, Silver then runs back up the side of his house, breaks the same window again, fixes it again, runs back downstairs the normal way, opens the front door, and invites the mane 5 into his shop to look at his rad hoverboards. Yes, all of this actually happens.
I want to take a quick time out here and address the word "toyetic." When I first saw this word in your text, my immediate reaction was "what the shit, that isn't a real word." According to my spellchecker, my initial reaction was spot on. However, I went ahead and googled it to make sure. Turns out we were both half-right. "Toyetic" is an imaginary word created by film studio executives to gage a media franchise's merchandising capability. The official definition according to Wikipedia: >Toyetic is a term referring to the suitability of a media property, such as a cartoon or movie, for merchandising tie-in lines of licensed toys, games and novelties. The context you appear to be using it in here doesn't really make sense as the Extreme Gear boards are toys to begin with. An example of a proper use of this concept would be something like: "Sonic the Hedgehog is a very toyetic show. The Extreme Gear™ hoverboards which exist as a part of that franchise's universe and not as a part of the My Little Pony™ franchise's universe could easily be marketed as toys, or even blatantly plagiarized in a My Little Pony™ fanfiction and fictionally marketed as toys within the story." In any event "toyetic" is kind of an obscure word that most readers likely wouldn't know, and it isn't really used appropriately here. I'd use a different word.
Also: >the higher-ranked boards looked like they’d make the pointiest and coolest toys I can see why someone like Silver "my anus is a treasure trove of horse semen" Star might consider pointiness to be a selling point for a toy, however I think for the average individual it's not likely to be an important factor.
Anyway, the ponies enter Silver's store and have a look at his stock of rad hoverboards, which are totally an original creation and not anything previously used by a fleet-footed talking hedgehog. I have a couple of relatively minor gripes in this section:
>On the farthest wall, an empty cashier’s desk greeted them, until Silver emerged from the wall like it was just an illusion. “Welcome! See anything you’d like?” He asked. I get what you're basically describing here, but it's a little awkwardly phrased. For one thing, an empty desk is an inanimate object that can't really greet anyone. Second, to say that the desk "greeted them, until Silver emerged" implies that the desk ceases to greet them once he emerges. That doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Third, the phrase "like it was just an illusion" is a bit vague as well. One can logically assume, in this context, that the word "it" probably refers to Silver's emergence from the wall. Grammatically, however, it's a little more vague. "It" seems to be referring to the wall, as in Silver is emerging from the wall, as if the wall were just an illusion. This also doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
It's really not a huge deal since the reader can still deduce what you mean fairly easily, it just reads awkwardly. The average person is probably not going to sit and autistically pull apart your grammar the way I'm doing, but they would still probably recognize that the sentence doesn't read well. It's similar to the way a person with no musical training can still tell when a wrong note is being played; it just feels off. Personally, I would split this sentence into at least two sentences, since really you're dealing with two things here: the fact that there is an empty desk, and the fact that Silver is emerging from the wall.
>“Extreme Gears?” Applejack asked, because she had no idea what these things were. The phrase "because she had no idea what these things were" is redundant. The fact that she is asking about them implies that she doesn't know what they are, you don't need to explicitly state this fact. Redundant text just gives the reader's eyes an extra thing to read without really giving them any new information. Here's an example:
>Silver farted, dog cum spraying out of his anus in a fine mist. Twilight held her nose because it smelled bad, and laughed because it was funny.
You don't really need to clarify why Twilight was laughing or holding her nose, the reader is probably intelligent enough to figure it out. Instead, you can just say:
>Twilight held her nose and laughed.
There are certain instances where you can use redundancy to emphasize a point or add a stylistic flourish, but probably 99% of the time it just interrupts the flow of your text to no good purpose.
Anyway, this next section of text hearkens back to a previous gripe of mine, which is that you tend to just get way too carried away when describing the various thingamabobs that operate in your world, and you always dump long descriptions of these things into quotes and have them spoken aloud as dialog. To make matters worse, you also tend to make these conversations completely one sided, with Silver standing there proudly blabbering about whatever thingamabob he's talking about, and other ponies occasionally interjecting leading questions that only exist to serve as segues into the next wall of text. It's just plain not a good way to tell a story.
Your format basically goes like this:
Twilight: "I have a question about _________." Silver: *GIGANTIC WALL OF TEXT EXPLAINING _________* Twilight: "I see. Now tell me about ________." Silver: *GIGANTIC WALL OF TEXT EXPLAINING _________* Twilight: "I see. Now tell me about ________." Silver: *GIGANTIC WALL OF TEXT EXPLAINING _________*
It reads less like a story and more like a promotional brochure for the fictional product, in which a story is being used as a flimsy framing device to allow the company to talk about their thingamabob. Basically, there's two issues with doing this. The first is that it's really bad dialog writing. Nobody talks this way. Conversations should not be this massively one sided, and you should not have any one character speaking for this long, unless it's like a flashback scene where a character is telling a story or something. For the vast majority of spoken dialog, you don't want to have any one character speaking more than a few sentences at a time before giving the other character a turn.
The second issue is that, as I've said before, this is just plain not a good way to convey this information. You clearly put a lot of thought into how these hoverboards work, and that's fine, but you have to think: does the reader really need to know all of this right now? Is this really the time and place? You need to find a balance between dropping in mechanical details about devices in your world and moving the story along. Usually a good rule of thumb is to not give the reader any more technical information than they need to understand the scene. Basically what you've got here is a scene where very little is actually happening, but you're dumping a ton of information into it.
>>188020 >Most people familiar with the show and its characters could probably figure this out, however, jokes are not funny when they require explanation or thought. >you can find this in the last section you wrote. They arn't? I disagree. I think that even jokes that I don't get immediately are can be funny. Actaully, really funny. You get this kind of aha-moment. A pleasent form of fridge logic if you will. I actually think that that joke worked. I intuitively realized what they were refering to. Other than that I agree with the things you write. These are great and educational posts. I also think that you lately have had some really creative gay jokes. Eww.
>>165646 >argues with Glimmer over her dumb commie ideas They aren't Glimmer's ideas though. They're just a tool she used to control other ponies. If she had gone along with it and had actually removed her own cutie mark, then the ideas could be critiqued in some meaningful way. But since she didn't actually believe in them, arguing about them wouldn't accomplish anything.
>>189113 >The first is that it's really bad dialog writing. Nobody talks this way. Yes, I agree completely. One way of solving this, I think, is by imagining the scene play out in front of you. Or questions like: How do you think your well-established character will respond to what they are hearing? >The second issue is that, as I've said before, this is just plain not a good way to convey this information. You clearly put a lot of thought into how these hoverboards work, and that's fine, but you have to think: does the reader really need to know all of this right now? I always liked the subtle way of revealing these things to the reader. Also, I agree with this as well. Anyway, if we have a magic system in our world. On the top of my head: Unicorns can only perform magic in certain areas in Equestria. The rule could be that in the center of the everfree forest magic doesn't work and the further away you are from the everfree's center the stronger magic you can unleash. Now how do we reveal this information in a good way to the reader? Well, the best way is to do it in such a way that it seems natural. To showcase this it is almost better to start off with an example of what isn't natural.
Silver Star and Twilight stood at the entrance to the everfree forest. Sleeping bags were packed and carried on their backs. Silver had a little problem with his grip around the lantern. it had been so long ago since the last couldn't use magic. "It sure is annoying that magic doesn't work in everfree," said Twilight. "Oh, it works alright. It is just the very center were magic is completely nonfunctional. The closer we come to core the weaker and less stable our magic will become," Silver Star said.
The system is explained in both the narration, which I think shouldn't be done with important world-building points like this, but also in the characters' dialogue. A good question is why these characters would have this discussion in the first place. Even if this were an obscure magic fact and not common knowledge it would still not be something they talk about since they are not common ponies when it comes to the field of magic. What one should do is: Not even bother explaining it right away. Let the audience think: Wait why aren't they using their magic? and then in the everfree have Silver forget that he doesn't have magic and try to use it only to fail. Then have him curse about everfree for a bit without provided context. Later you can confirm the readers' suspicion by adding another puzzle piece.
Glad to see that you are still kicking Glimglam. Great reviews.
>>189113 >>167312 >>167337 Sorry it's been a few days since I've posted. Anyway, I wanted to say a few more things along the lines of what I was talking about before.
One thing to consider is that, as we've discussed before, what you seem to be wanting to write here overall is an action story. Therefore, the primary focus should be on shit actually happening, not on characters standing around explaining how shit works. You've obviously put quite a bit of thought into the technical specs of the Extreme Gear boards, but is the best way to convey that information to the reader really to just have Silver stand around fielding questions? Or, to put it another way, if these hoverboard things were real, which would you rather do: sit around reading the operator's manual, or try out a board yourself and see what it does? Now, to add another layer: which do you think an observer would rather sit and watch you do? Because that's kind of what's going on here.
In fiction, if you want to keep something interesting, you have to dole out information in digestible chunks. If the reader learns everything there is to know about your world in the first couple chapters of the story, there are no surprises left and even the most well-imagined world becomes boring to read about. Imagine that you're writing a story about a jail break. You came up with a really cool idea for how a genius thief could break out of the world's most secure prison, and you can't wait to make a story out of it. You get so excited about the plan that you make the entire first chapter a dialog between the characters attempting the jail break. They go over every single autistic detail of their plan so you know exactly what they are going to do. After that, the rest of the story is just the characters following the plan you described, line by line. The plan is so ingenious that everything goes off without a hitch and there are no surprises whatsoever. Even if the plan you came up with really was ingenious, is that really the best way to make a story out of it?
What I would recommend for this scene is to chop most of the questions and explanations out, and just have Silver show them around the shop. He can mention the Extreme Gears and what they do, have the M6 (M5 I guess here) be impressed and intrigued, but don't give away too much about the specifics of the boards. You want the reader to know that there are hoverboards in the story, but you don't want them to know too much about them just yet. Make them curious, and then leave them hanging for a bit. Then, a short time later, write in an action sequence that demonstrates the capabilities of the boards.
Maybe Rainbow Dash wants to try one out, but as you mention in the text, they are quite a ways out of her price range. Silver, who loves capitalism and theatrics almost as much as he loves wearing a shiny new sperm necklace to the Fall Formal, comes up with a solution. He sets up a race between himself and RD and makes a huge spectacle out of it. It provides a bit of excitement for the town and helps endear him to the community a bit, it gives him an opportunity to show off his rad hoverboarding skills in front of Twilight, and it allows him to demonstrate how cool his product is to the town he just opened a shop in; exactly the kind of thing someone in his position would want to do.
The race could be a major story event in and of itself, and you could add all sorts of elements to it. Maybe it's not just a race between Silver and RD, maybe it's a big, Grand Prix style race where anyone and everyone can compete. Maybe RD goads Fluttershy into racing even though she doesn't want to. Imagine Fluttershy trying to operate a hoverboard in a high-speed high-stakes race; plenty of opportunity for humor there. There's any number of directions you could take a story like that, and all of them allow you to demonstrate the capabilities of your hoverboards in a way that is far more interesting than a conversation in the store where Silver just dryly explains what they are and what they can do.
Anyway, moving on. Blah blah blah, more explanation about hoverboards and magic weapons, Silver uses some kind of tractor beam on Applejack and nothing of note comes out of it...oh, here we go.
>Behold!” Silver announced, flipping over and raising his rear into the air as his desk hid his face from view, sticking his rear hooves right at them. Fluttershy fainted, and Twilight curiously looked closer I am too classy to even touch this part. Oh, wait, never mind, he's talking about his horseshoes apparently. >I can absorb force and redirect it, or store it for later. These horseshoes can then use that stored force as energy for pre-programmed light, force, and sound spells, such as making temporary light constructs out of hard light. Or, I can launch things, using that stored energy as momentum. Each shoe also carries its own, unique ability that can be fuelled by stored energy. What powers are those? Well, you’ll have to see for yourself some day. Interesting I guess, but again there's not much point to his explaining this right now. I get that Silver is meant to be kind of a showoff, but at this point you've pretty clearly established this about him. Just because he likes to talk about himself doesn't mean you need to include everything he says in the text. Again, while you're free to develop your world in as much detail as you like, unless you have a particularly good reason to disclose a bit of information like this to the reader, you should probably just save it for when it actually comes up in the story. Also, you misspelled "fueled."
>“I dabble in applied magi-matics,” He said proudly. Literally nopony asked.
>“Now, didn’t somepony say something about a house-warming party?” Yes. You did. In the last chapter. You dedicated about 15,000 words to it, remember? Btw you still haven't clarified if any of that actually happened or not.
>“Here you go!” Pinkie said happily, pulling gifts out of her mane and passing one to each of her friends, then giving Silver her gift first. He opened it with his magic, and a fully-sized oven emerged from the tiny package, the whole thing suddenly heavy, shocking him into dropping it to the floor. “It’s an oven!” She said happily. Pinkie's manipulation of physics always makes for a good sight gag, and it's described well enough here to make it easy to imagine, so no complaints about the oven bit, in fact I will admit that I chuckled (ruefully, even). However, when she pulls additional gifts out and passes them to her friends, it's a little unclear what you mean. Did she get gifts for her friends as well as for Silver? Seems like something she would do, although usually with a housewarming the gifts are for the person whose house it is. You go on to describe these additional gifts as being from the others, so apparently they were just storing their gifts in Pinkie's mane. Again, a funny sight gag, but you might want to clarify what's going on a bit better.
Anyway, Silver opens the rest of his gifts, and in typical fashion for him seems unimpressed and ungrateful. RD gives him a stopwatch, Flutters gives him a vase, and Applejack gives him some rope, presumably in hopes that he will immediately hang himself with it. Then...dun dun DUNNNN...Spike rushes in and we find out what happened to Rarity. >“Guys!” He shouted. “The Diamond Dogs took Rarity!” Wow, I wonder if this is going to be just like that episode where the Diamond Dogs took Rarity? Let's keep reading and find out.
>Twilight took the note. “Dear Pesky Ponies,” She read aloud. “If you ever want to see your whiny friend again, tie the orange-maned pony up outside Carousel Boutique at High Noon, and we'll trade you for him. Don't try and find us, because you will never find us, or where we kept Rarity. Signed, The Diamon- Anonymous.” So, apparently, they just want Silver, and they kidnapped Rarity as a roundabout way to achieve this. Fair enough I guess. I wonder what they want with him?
>“I’d normally negotiate for a better deal than that, but I’ll take it,” Silver said suddenly, throwing the rope to Applejack and turning to her, sticking his right forehoof and hindhoof at her. Judging from Silver's enthusiastic reaction and immediate surrender, I'm assuming that he's assuming it's going to involve lots of butt stuff.
>Twilight gasped. Oh come on, Twilight, you can't possibly be that surprised.
>He squinted at the paper. “Also, I’m Silver, not grey.” He clarified for its benefit. This little continuity error is a fine example of why it's usually a good idea to proofread text you've written before publishing it. The note from the Diamond Dogs never uses the word "grey", it refers to him as "the orange-maned pony." Also, "he clarified for its benefit?" Whose benefit, the note's? That's just stupid. I would probably say "he clarified to nopony in particular," or even just "he clarified."
Anyways, they banter back and forth for a bit. Silver keeps trying to convince them they should just tie him up and leave him to be mercilessly ravaged by Diamond Dogs. Oh, here's another continuity error.
>“You lost last year’s championship match.” Rainbow Dash pointed out. >“Yes, to a cheap, cheating little scrub who got lucky,” He hissed through gritted teeth. Then, a couple of lines later: >“Didn’t you also lose last year’s championship?” Rainbow asked teasingly. >“Yes, to someone who could accelerate time exclusively for himself..." I'm assuming you just mean that he lost last year's championship, as well as the previous year's. Still, it's something you might want to clean up.
And yet it goes on: >“And you lost the championship before that...” She reminded him. >"Every second, he turned into a new life form. Every second, he had a new set of abilities, and he knew exactly how to use each and every one of them. How do you compete with that? How? I'll tell you how, you remove his ability to transform, beat him down in his original form..." >“And you lost the championship before that...” She reminded him. >“I lasted twelve whole minutes against Ace, and forced her to take the fight seriously..." Okay, we get the point. As satisfying as it is to learn that Silver "hey there sailor, want to take a ride on the Pony Express?" Star actually lost repeatedly at something he's supposed to be extremely good at, we're beginning to veer a little off course here.
Anyway, Silver's yearning for Diamond Dog dick gets the better of him, and he bounds off to go find him some.
>They left the shop and spotted Silver leaping from rooftop to rooftop, looking down every so often and presumably looking for clues. They could only watch as he glared at seemingly random things, his vision zooming in on them. He saw faint pawprints on hardened soil coated in grass, he saw some skin cells with recognizably Diamond Dog DNA floating in the breeze. His vision turned darker and green, and he saw bacteria that only lived on Diamond Dogs on the ground, in the form of bright-green slowly-moving cells. He blinked and his eyes returned to normal, and he began to mentally triangulate the location of the Dogs. Is this even necessary? I thought the plan was to just tie himself up and wait like they asked.
>“How did they get her, anyway?” Rainbow Dash asked along the way. “Isn’t she a master of pony karate or something?” I think I missed that episode.
>“I don’t know, but if they got Rarity, they must be smarter than they were last time.” Twilight said. They need to be smarter than they were last time to accomplish exactly the same thing they accomplished last time? Seems like that wouldn't really require them to have gotten any smarter, it would just require Rarity not to have.
>Silver appeared before them, a pair of cobalt-blue aviators with bright orange lenses over his eyes, and he darted towards a lamppost, running up it vertically and perching atop it. “Her heat and temporal signature lead this way!” He announced, backflipping off the lamppost and getting caught by his Extreme Gear board. Have I mentioned recently that I hate this character?
>Twilight continued to curiously observe him, memorizing the strange spells even if she couldn’t yet understand how they worked. His personality seemed to change so often... The friendly salespony, the fancy showpony, the party animal, Twilight was starting to suspect these many faces of Silver were just masks he wore. But now, focused and alert, she felt she was starting to see the real Silver. He moved like a fox hunting for food, every movement sudden and sharp as he darted from hiding place to hiding place. Every sound for miles around, he heard. Every blade of grass, he saw. He was alert, aware, and alive. This is actually a pretty well-written paragraph. However, its impact is somewhat diminished by the fact that Twilight is showing more interest in this peacocking douchebag she just met than she is about the apparent danger that one of her closest friends is in. Granted the Diamond Dogs are fairly stupid and presumably not a huge threat; still, one might think that she would show just a tiny bit of concern. Rarity could be chipping a hoof as we speak, after all.
>She had to admit, this wasn’t how she thought this was going to go. Books had taught her scenarios like this always ended with the overconfident loner learning that he couldn’t do everything by himself. Again, should the focus here be on Silver or on Rarity? Granted, the story overall is about Silver and what he learns about friendship, and this observation is a reasonable insight into his character that Twilight might make at some point. However, right now, the story is about Rarity having been kidnapped by Diamond Dogs. Twilight, at the least, should be mainly focused on that. At this point in the story, Silver is nothing more than a pony she just met, whom she is also somewhat attracted to. While you've also established that Twilight has heard of him and has been wanting to meet him, he's still effectively a stranger to her at this point. It makes sense that she will probably spend a reasonable amount of time in this story thinking about him and/or trying to figure him out; however, right now, her immediate concern should be the safety of her friend.
>“Did you bring a light?” Pinkie asked everypony. >“No,” Silver chuckled sarcastically, horn glowing as he summoned a falcon, except it was on fire, not that it seemed to mind as it flapped in place beside him. He walked on into the cave, and the rest followed, but only because he was first. Have I mentioned recently that I hate this character?
Anyway, I want to spend a little time on this next section: >And then they fell down a pitfall trap. Twilight grabbed Pinkie, Rainbow grabbed Applejack, and Fluttershy tried to grab Silver, who had already surrounded himself in an orange bubble of magic from his hooves that slowed his descent to a pleasant downward glide, every pony landing safely.
>“That.” Rainbow Dash quipped.
>He took a moment to take this in. “I did this,” He quietly said to himself. “This is my fault, I tempted fate.”
>He shrugged, and got loud. “Well, who wants to see how fast I can get us out of this?”
>Twilight instantly teleported them all out of the pitfall trap.
>“Aw.” He quietly expressed his sadness, looking down, and then suddenly perking up. “I mean, great job!” He said heartily, walking Twilight and patting her on the back.
This is a really bad way to write what could otherwise be a decent scene. The ponies are exploring the enemy dungeon, then suddenly they fall down a pit. It's an established trope that never fails to disappoint...except when the author describes it in a way that makes it seem more like a tedious chore than an exciting plot twist.
>And then they fell down a pitfall trap. Just stating it this bluntly and simply completely ruins the impact. I suspect you were trying to achieve the opposite, having events shift jarringly from casual conversation to a trap suddenly springing. That sort of effect works in film, but not text. You need to build the scene up a bit more. "Suddenly, the floor gave way beneath them. Twilight reacted quickly, grabbing Pinkie while Rainbow grabbed Applejack. Fluttershy tried to grab Silver, but he was already forming a protective orange bubble of magic from his hooves." Something more along those lines.
>He took a moment to take this in. “I did this,” He quietly said to himself. “This is my fault, I tempted fate.” >He shrugged, and got loud. “Well, who wants to see how fast I can get us out of this?” If this were being acted out live, it would come across as bad, hammy acting. For one thing, a line like "This is my fault, I tempted fate" is a little overdramatic for what happened. Basically, they fell down a pit. They're probably shaken, but they're all basically okay; it's not the end of the world. Then, he instantly brightens up and is all like "Well, that was basically nothing." Then Twilight transports them out, completely rendering both Silver's concern and his desire to extricate them from the situation unnecessary.
Running out of space here, I will continue this in the next post.
Another thing you have to keep in mind with a scene like this are the physics of your world. Rainbow Dash, Twilight and Fluttershy can all fly, which I'm assuming is why you had the three of them grab the three who can't. If that's the case, why did they end up in the pit? Seems like they reacted quickly enough to avoid falling, and it stands to reason that the fliers would just deposit the non-fliers on the ground nearby and that would be that. Why fly down into the pit? Since Silver seems to have disrupted things somewhat with his magic bubble, I suppose that could explain it; the fliers attempt to do what I said, but Silver wants to show off, and envelops them all in a magic bubble that floats them down into the pit safely. However, it still seems like he could just as easily have floated them to the ground nearby instead of the bottom of the pit. Then, Twilight just transports them all out of it anyway. The whole sequence of events just feels awkward and overly complicated.
It's even further complicated by the fact that, as soon as they are out of the original pit, they trigger a second pit that is actually just a chute leading back into the first pit. In this case, nopony catches anypony, and they all just go rolling down back into it again, with Silver rescuing them in the end with a magic bouncy-castle.
>“How?!” Silver snapped at the tunnel walls, his voice echoing, his bouncy castle vanishing as Pinkie landed on Rainbow Dash. It's really not that complicated dude. Step 1: dig a pit. Step 2: dig a second pit that leads into the first pit.
Anyway, the pit sequence seems overly convoluted and under-explained to me. Point is, though, they all end up at the bottom of a pit. And then, suddenly, Team Rocket appears. Wait, they're actually ponies. No, scratch that; they're Diamond Dogs. Well, I can honestly say I wasn't expecting that. +1 for creativity, -1 for literally what the fuck.
Moving along. Silver "who wants to pet my Pikachu" Star fires a blast of magic at them, only to learn that these Diamond Dogs are considerably more powerful than the last batch they faced.
>“Wait!” Rainbow Dash called. “You aren’t the Diamond Dogs we fought last time!”
>“Of course not!” Rock declared, sticking his arms out so he and Springer could form a diamond with their arms again. “Those idiots were here to scout this town out and search for gems. We’re here to take your gems, by any means necessary!”
So let me get this straight: this is a world where precious gems (already cut and polished, mind you) are so plentiful that they are just lying around on the ground waiting to be picked up for use as fashion accessories or eaten by dragons, yet apparently they have enough value that a group of dogs formed a specialized band explicitly to steal them from ponies instead of just picking them up off the ground in the first place the way the ponies do.......wait a minute. The series itself really never clarified any of that either, so I can't reasonably fault you for it. Moving on.
We learn that the Diamond Dogs basically want to capture Silver because they saw him the previous day, using his magic to summon foxponies and other minions to build it for him like the lazy cocksucking faggot that he is. They hope to enslave him and use him to summon additional foxponies to do their bidding. Basically makes sense I suppose.
>“Foxponies?” Twilight repeated, and wondered if she heard them correctly. Literally my reaction when I read it the first time. Honestly, I feel sorry for her. I just have to read about this ridiculous version of Equestria, poor little Twiggles is stuck in it, at least until Nigel finishes this War and Peace length masterwork and finally sets her free.
Anyway, Silver, never one to miss an opportunity to brag about some ridiculous implausible bullshit he did, now informs them that he has some kind of magic contract with birds and built the foxpony capital or some crazy shit like that. Twilight, of course, has a spontaneous on-the-spot orgasm just from hearing about it.
>“Long story, I’ll give you the fifty-thousand-word biography later,” Silver interrupted. This is a threat I take very seriously at this point.
Anywho, blah blah blah. The Diamond Dogs produce Rarity, all tied up, Silver talks some shit, they talk some shit back, Silver uses magic to set Rarity free, she kicks one of the dogs in the butt and he falls into the pit. Blah blah blah, they fight some more, stuff happens, Silver summons some replicas of himself and they all start facefucking each other, blah blah blah. >Silver’s three doppelgangers teleported large and ornate magical swords into their magical blue grips, noticed the “TV-Y7” rating in the corner, frowned, and plunged their swords diagonally down... Once again I'd like to implore you to refrain from this kind of cringy fourth-wall type humor, but I realize now that I probably can't stop you.
>Into the ground beneath Springer, using their swords as levers to tip the furious Diamond Dog into the pit. This is just a continuation of what happens after the ellipsis, it shouldn't be on its own line.
>Still standing on his hooves, the real silver finished that portal and formed another one, above the You didn't even finish this sentence for crying out loud. Also, Silver's name should be capitalized. Jesus Christ dude, I know I've asked you this a million times before, but do you even read this stuff before you publish it?
Anyway, blah blah blah, they fight some more, eventually they win, and Totally Not Team Rocket goes flying off into the sunset, screaming "We'll get you next time, Gadget! Next time!"
Alright, I'm nearly to the end of this chapter so I'm going to power through the last bit and then call it a day. If anyone is actually still reading these at this point, don't go anywhere.
So, The Team of Diamond Dogs Which Bear No Resemblance To Any Characters From Another Nameless Franchise have been defeated, but it seems our intrepid heroes are not out of the woods yet. Or the cave, as it were.
>The cave shook as explosions blasted the pit’s rocky walls apart, boulders falling down upon everypony, a big one striking and pinning Rainbow Dash as it fell. Silver, bearer of the fastest horn in the west,I'm too classy to even touch that line fired a beam of magic that turned the rock into a pile of chocolate bars that were collectively the same weight, though they fell around her. Wait, what? He turned the rocks into chocolate, but they are the same weight as the rocks, so they would reasonably be just as dangerous, but they fall around her instead of on top of her.....so why not just keep the rocks as rocks, but make them fall around her instead of on her, or.....you know what? I'm too tired. I'm just going to let this one slide.
Anyway, the cave starts collapsing around them. Twilight summons a magic bubble to protect them all, but Silver jumps out and starts running around the cave walls using his magic shoes, trying to blast the rocks and presumably mitigate some of the damage. Twilight yells for him to get back in the bubble, Silver says something heroic like "go on without me..."
>When he got high enough, surpassing the rocks, he started to jump down from wall to wall, slicing the biggest apart with his growing hardlight claws, striking each one with enough force to turn them to harmless powder, but he couldn’t get them all in time, many sharp rocks still raining down upon the Yet another unfinished sentence. I've noticed several of these. You know I have to say, this escape sequence is actually pretty decently written and in spite of myself I'm finding I want to know what happens. This ruins it a bit. You really need to keep an eye on these unfinished paragraphs, it's like you started writing something, couldn't figure out what to write, moved on to the next section, and then forgot to ever go back and finish the part you left. Seriously, proofread shit before you publish it.
>He teleported an Extreme Gear onto his hooves, a long cobalt-blue trianglular board with three sharp orange points on the end, two more points painted on the board to form a star, all coated in darker-orange flames. Its Core was a brilliant blue spherical gemstone, though the sphere was formed with over 64 straight sides. I would not have anticipated Silver to have even one straight side, let alone 64 of them. Okay, that's probably enough gay jokes for today. Also, you misspelled "triangular".
Anyway, Silver flies around the cave smashing boulders apart, and drills them out through the ceiling with his crazy magic. Apart from my usual gripe about Silver being entirely too powerful, this action sequence is fairly well done, and beyond what I pointed out I have no major issues with it. This chapter overall is not terrible, actually; mostly I've just noticed a lot of continuity issues and mechanical errors. Could this story actually be picking up in quality? Was my original assessment wrong? Could there possibly be some hope that this convoluted mess of a narrative will somehow right itself, and maybe even turn into a decently-written and halfway readable piece of actual literature?
> “Hmm...” Silver thought, and then he started speaking like he was reading a letter aloud. ”Dear Princess Twilight. Today I learned things that seem dangerous can actually be great! Also, Extreme Gears are amazing and you should buy one now!”
>Everypony laughed, and the episode irised out.
God fucking damn you, Nigel.
Well, anyway, since I've got some space left, I'll offer some brief parting thoughts on this chapter. First of all, in comparison to previous chapters, this is an improvement. For one thing, it's shorter, which helps things out considerably. You stay on topic and don't veer off on too many tangents. Apart from the scene in the store, where Silver goes into tedious detail about how his boards work, there's not a lot of extraneous filler text clogging up the reader's eyeballs. As far as the story itself goes, basically this was a "let's blatantly lift an old story from the show and retell it with my OC as the focus" episode, with a plot twist involving characters blatantly ripped off from another franchise. Not my personal cup of tea, but it's told reasonably well and that's really what I'd like to focus on.
It starts off in the morning. The M6 ponies all show up at Silver's store to give him housewarming gifts, but Rarity is conspicuously absent. The reader notices that she's gone and wonders why, but you don't immediately address it, which is good. The ponies poke around the store and talk, then Spike comes in and tells them that Rarity has been kidnapped by Diamond Dogs. They go off to rescue her. They encounter Team Rocket in my Pocket, have a fight, rescue Rarity, and the story wraps up neatly, while leaving the conflict unresolved and open for future development. Congratulations, Nigel; you have just written a coherent episode which fits into the arc of a larger narrative, and you did it with relatively minimal sperging. Give yourself a pat on the back.
Again, I think my biggest gripe is the scene where Silver is explaining how the Extreme Gears work. It's good to have the scene at the store take place, because you need to have something happen between the exposition and the main plot, but I'd have the conversation go a different direction. I'd say introduce the Extreme Gears, make the reader curious about them, but don't go into excessive detail about them yet. Maybe have RD or somepony express curiosity about them, leave it open for a future development where they factor in more heavily, then move on. The rest of the conversation at this point should be the characters getting to know one another.
Alright, I only meant to write one of these today and somehow they wound up encompassing all morning and most of the afternoon. So, on that note, I'm going to call it quits for today. Join us next time, when we delve into the murky depths of:
Chapter 4: The Strength of Family Matters star Jaleel White
>>189430 I guess that's one way to interpret her, but that interpretation paints her as an even worse creature. If she didn't truly believe Her Way of achieving Absolute Equality under hoof was the best way to make the world a better place for everypony, she would be a scheming and abusive monster from day one who simply decided "Muh Equality!" would work better on failures who don't like their Cutie Marks than "It's Celestia's fault you're losers! Occupy Canterlot with me!"
>>190057 Thank you for this. I've updated the fic on my fanfic.net account. I'd do the same for the version of my fic on fimfic.net, but I was permabanned from there after the SJW mods went full retard.
>>190364 Thanks Nigel, I appreciate that you're being a sport about this. Glad to hear you're getting something useful out of my notes. I've been using the version posted to fimfiction.net for my reviews thus far and will continue using that version until I get to the end of what exists, since what I set out to review was that particular text. If you'd like an opinion on later drafts at some point I can probably take a look, although I would like to finish this current undertaking first.
I am, however, planning to start a general review thread once this project is wrapped up, so if you'd like to drop that or anything else you'd like to have ruthlessly torn to shreds by me into the thread feel free to do so once it's up.
>>190538 >I am, however, planning to start a general review thread once this project is wrapped up, so if you'd like to drop that or anything else you'd like to have ruthlessly torn to shreds by me into the thread feel free to do so once it's up. I am incredibly interested in this. Please do it. I shall assist to the best of my ability.
>>190538 Do "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" next, that story is literally worse than the Naruto-Harry Potter crossover "Itachi, is that a baby?".
>>190538 Sounds like a great idea. Maybe you should call it: "The Culture of Critic" ;DD >so if you'd like to drop that or anything else you'd like to have ruthlessly torn to shreds by me into the thread feel free to do so once it's up. I got a few objectively bad ones like:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oF-rxteC2g&list=PLGphje8dKFyz-kRY1WnwVnO398BIlYQPG But maybe we should focus on fics that generally the fandom likes but are bluepilled, things that could use a new perspective or are hidden gems. These are just sugguestions thought take it for what it is. Anyway, I might come by sucha thread and drop a review from time to time.
>>190348 >she would be a scheming… That's literally what she was though. She had the best house, all to herself, and it was the one that doubled as the town hall, and was right in the center, and she was clearly ruling over everyone. There's no possible way she was in it for anything other than personal gain/glory. Especially because she started the whole thing by lying about having her own cutie mark removed. Nobody starts a movement in good faith by lying about the entire thing. >failures who don't like their Cutie Marks than "It's Celestia's fault you're losers! Occupy Canterlot with me!" There's absolutely zero evidence that any of the ponies there had anything against their cutie marks, or that they were (or even thought of themselves) as failures. It was shown/mentioned several times that the ponies were fairly good at what they did beforehoof, as all ponies are with their specialty. They were kindhearted ponies who believed in the idea of fairness enough that they were willing to remove their cutie marks because they thought it would be more fair than keeping them. The problem wasn't them being "failures" or being resentful, or anything of that nature. It was compassion taken advantage of by someone malicious. There also wasn't anything said against Celestia or the rest of Equestria, and the only similarity the town had with the "occupy" movement was a general desire for fairness. The ponies were not attempting to change the laws or political system of Equestria as a whole, just to live in a town devoted to equality. Of course, many of them eventually came to realize that something was wrong, since Glimmer ruled over them in a decidedly unfair and harsh manner, but most dictators don't go around at the start of their reign announcing their plans to rule over everyone tyrannically, so there's always some people/ponies who will believe the PR.
>>190749 >focus on fics that generally the fandom likes but are bluepilled, things that could use a new perspective or are hidden gems. This is a good idea. I remember this one video I saw on Double Rainboom, and how the whole thing was a dishonestly-marketed shitfest that failed as a MLP episode, failed as "The first ever fanmade MLP episode!", failed as a PPG episode, and failed to even try to be what it promised to be, making up for its lack of content with pointless references scattered through the video to distract idiots. Sometimes I consider making a video on how Past Sins is literally just a by-the-numbers zero-creativity Naruto fanfiction cliche done in a cliche manner, and ponified lazily. >>190799 Good points. I think you're right. I'd gone with the "She seduced ponies with dumb talents in things like balloons, snow skating, baking, and so on, and they realized how great their talents can be when trying to stop Glimmer" interpretation to explain where she found these ponies and how she got them to give up their marks, but the idea of Glimmer actively seeking these ponies out to fill their heads with lies and guilt them over being successful... It makes a lot of sense, and it makes her even worse. I like it!
Alright, after a brief respite we now move on to Chapter 4.
The chapter opens with Big Macintosh being awakened by the crow of a rooster which is also called a cock. He apparently was out all night, and feels that he has earned the right to sleep in this morning. However, his plans all come to naught when a meteor comes crashing down out of the sky and lands in the field.
So right off the bat we've got a pretty good opening to the chapter. It's intriguing and makes the reader curious about what's going on. However, there are some significant issues here.
>A rooster let loose its strange rooster roar to remind a certain crimson farmer, who’d been out all night, that he’d earned the right to sleep in today. Princess Celestia’s vast and beautiful sun’s rays bathed the charming farm in a warm spring-sun glow, and all seemed right with the world.
This paragraph is good. It's well written, descriptive, and it paints a clear picture of Big Mac waking up to a peaceful morning. However, Big Mac's location and what he's doing at this moment is vague. This paragraph implies that he would most likely be in his bed, sleeping, when a rooster's crow wakes him up. Yet, in the next paragraph:
>And then a falling meteor hit the field, causing a titanic crash and sending a monochromatic black-and-white mushroom cloud to the sky. A crash that caught Big mac’s attention. He raised his head into the camera’s view in surprise, and turned around.
We really don't get a clear picture from this just where Big Mac is when the explosion occurs. In particular I want to take a look at this sentence: >He raised his head into the camera’s view in surprise, and turned around.
First off, I really wish you would cool it with the fourth wall humor about "the camera" or "the screen" or "the TV-Y7 rating in the corner"; that kind of shit really does demean us all. However, we can set that aside for a moment. The biggest problem here is that we don't get a clear image of where Big Mac is physically, which way he is facing to begin with, which way he faces when he turns around. You probably had a very clear picture in your head when you wrote it, but we can't see what's in your head, you have to describe it to us. Again, this tends to be a problem with trying to do visual gags in text.
Big Mac "raised his head into the camera's view". Well, which way is the camera pointing? How is the shot framed? We don't know. We don't even know where he is right now. You state that he turns around, so presumably the explosion was behind him, but where is he exactly? Is he in bed, with a window behind him? Is he out in the field? Is he on the porch? Is he sleeping at a nearby motel next to a prostitute he's really hoping isn't a Neighponese ladycolt? We have no idea.
Description of a character's physical location is usually done by referencing his position relative to other objects or characters whose position has been clearly established. In this paragraph, the only object we have to use as a reference point is the field. Since we know (both from what you've written already as well as the basic background knowledge of the show that the reader can be assumed to have) that Big Mac lives on the Apple Family farm, and that farms usually have fields, we can assume he is somewhere on or near his family's property. However, that doesn't narrow it down enough.
In fact, this specific sentence doesn't even technically have the field to use as reference point, we only know about the field from a sentence preceding it, so this sentence really is quite objectively terrible at defining Big Mac's position, and conveys no other useful information. I'm going to put it out there again, for emphasis: >He raised his head into the camera’s view in surprise, and turned around.
What is our reference point here? All we have is "the camera," which is basically just mentioned as a joke. From there it simply states that he "turns around," but we don't know from which direction to which direction. Nothing is stated either implicitly or explicitly that gives us any picture of where Big Mac is or what he's doing when this happens. Even if you wrote something completely non-sequitur and ridiculous like "he pulled his head out of the Yak's anus that he had been investigating, and turned to face the distant hills" it would give us a clearer visual image than simply "he raised his head into the camera's view and turned around."
Running out of space, so I will continue in the next post.
Now let's grab the next chunk of the paragraph and take a look:
>Gazing at the spreading mushroom cloud that rose from the meteor’s point of impact, he braced himself and grabbed the thickest tree around him, only for the spreading clouds of black and white magical energy to phase right through him and everything else, as if the whole thing was an illusion.
This makes things a little clearer. He braces himself and grabs a tree. Since trees are generally outside, we can assume that he is standing outside, in or near the field. However, now we've got a logic problem. In the very first sentence:
>A rooster let loose its strange rooster roar to remind a certain crimson farmer, who’d been out all night, that he’d earned the right to sleep in today.
The implication here is that Big Mac had a busy day yesterday and is sleeping in. So why is he out in the field at sunrise? It raises too many questions that you never answer. You could be implying that he'd been out all night working in the field, had worked through to sunrise, and was now on his way to bed. However if that's the case you should say that he's contemplating going to bed, not contemplating sleeping in. "Sleeping in" implies that he is already in bed sleeping.
The other possibility here is that he slept in the field, which isn't necessarily impossible, but it's an odd thing for him to do. The reader would want to know why. The biggest issue here is actually at the very beginning, where you state that Big Mac had "been out all night." What was he doing? Why was he out all night? Was he out all night picking apples, or was he out all night getting krunk and crushing hot mare pussy? Frankly either could make sense.
Basically, you've got a good opening here, the main problem is that there just isn't enough information conveyed to the reader to set the scene. Before the main event happens, which is the meteor crash, you need to clearly establish where Big Mac is, what he's been doing all night, and what his plans are before the meteor crash derails them. This isn't to say you need to go into excessive detail about any of it, in fact I'd recommend you not, just give the reader enough implication to let them get a clear image in their mind of what's going on exactly.
Here's an example, written from the assumption that Big Mac has been out working through the night and is tired and ready for bed:
>A rooster let loose its strange rooster roar to remind a certain crimson farmer, who'd worked straight through the night, that he'd earned the right to sleep through most of the day. Princess Celestia’s vast and beautiful sun’s rays bathed the charming farm in a warm spring-sun glow, and all seemed right with the world.
All I did was change a couple of minor things, but the paragraph now clearly conveys what Big Mac has been doing and what he plans to do. Just from stating that he'd worked through the night, the reader can probably grasp that he's out in the field, but if you want to clarify it further you can add something like: >Big Mac squinted at the distant sun and wiped the night's sweat from his brow, noticing for the first time that his plow harness was chaffing him uncomfortably. He decided it was time to head inside. Again, you don't need to insert a huge, digressive anecdote or a massive amount of description, just throw in a couple of details here and there that clarify what's going on.
Anyway, moving on.
>Ignoring the danger and heading for the point of impact, he found a crater four feet wide and ten feet deep. Jumping in, he found something small. It was small, rectangular, and thin... It appeared to be some sort of playing card, only... indestructible. Couple of things here. For one, you may want to consider the physical implications of a four-legged creature that can't fly or levitate jumping into a ten foot hole. That's a pretty deep hole; he could very easily injure himself jumping down that far. For reference, your average Olympic size swimming pool is about 12 feet deep at the deepest end. If he landed wrong and broke his leg, he'd be trapped down there. He came out by himself, so who would know he was down there? He could easily end up trapped for hours. Plus, even if he didn't hurt himself, how is he going to get out? Again, remember: horse, four legs, hooves. Having human intelligence doesn't help here, it's a completely physical problem. I would probably have a hard time climbing out of a ten foot deep hole, and I've got hands. It seems to me that somepony raised on a farm would have more sense than to do something this reckless.
Second, your description of the card: >It appeared to be some sort of playing card, only... indestructible. How the hell does he know at this point that the card is indestructible? All he's done is look at it. Are we to believe that Big Mac just walks up to a ten foot deep hole, takes a flying leap into it ignoring all conventional wisdom, takes one look at a card sticking out of the ground at the bottom and immediately assesses how susceptible to damage it might be? That he can just glance at a card and say "Eeyup, I've seen some pretty sturdy playing cards in my day, and this baby can withstand some serious punishment." Apparently, Big Mac is a horse of many hidden talents.
>>192200 >be Big Mac >be in farm >some meteor hits farm hard enough to make a big boom >wonder what that was. did it come from space? or was it thrown from somewhere? (I decided to cut this line) >look in the big-ass crater it made >nothing is in the crater except for one playing card >this one card hit the ground hard enough to crater it, after going fast enough to burst into flame and resemble a meteor, and it isn't even scratched >"Eeyup, I've seen some pretty sturdy playing cards in my day, and this baby can withstand some serious punishment." The card's toughness seems like a reasonable assumption to make, but everything else, I agree with. Do you think the term "Indestructible" was too much?
>>192204 I don't have an issue with the card's actual indestructibility, I believe you that it's indestructible. Everything you said about it traveling through space and crashing to the Earth unharmed giving evidence to its indestructibility checks out and makes sense. The issue is more with how you wrote it.
A meteor crashes in the field, Big Mac goes to investigate, sees a giant smoking crater in the ground, dives headfirst into it, finds an indestructible card as the cause of the commotion. Other than what I mentioned about the practical issues with his getting in and out of a ten foot crater with no help, there's nothing wrong with this sequence of events. It's just the way it's written. You're basically describing something in a way that draws a conclusion about it without going through the logic that led to the conclusion.
Big Mac sees a card. The card is indestructible. Both of these statements are true. However, Big Mac doesn't know anything at this point. He sees a crater in the ground. We need to follow his movements and his train of thought and reach the same conclusions he does at the same time. He explores the crater, seeks out the root cause of the explosion, finds a card, examines the card. At this point you would describe the card, and then probably go into Big Mac's head for a minute. He wonders how a single card could travel through space, plummet through the outer atmosphere without being harmed, crash into the ground and cause an explosion. It is at this point he concludes that the card must be indestructible.
Instead of simply writing: >It appeared to be some sort of playing card, only… indestructible. you should lay out the scene a little more. Big Mac squints into the hole. He sees something at the bottom but he's not quite sure what it is. He goes into the hole somehow to investigate. He gets closer, sees that it's a playing card. "Well what the shit is a playing card doing here?" he might wonder at this point. He examines it closely. He sees that it is blah blah blah, however you described it. He muses upon the sequence of events that would have to have transpired for a single playing card to travel through the Earth's atmosphere and land on the ground unharmed. It probably also occurs to him that for something this small to create such a significant impact it must have some power behind it not immediately apparent. At this point he probably reaches the conclusion that he's a little out of his depth and decides to just get the fuck out of the hole somehow.
At this point, your ending to the scene: >“Nnnope,” He flatly said, turning around and getting out of the crater.
>“Nnnope,” He repeated as he walked back to his home.
>“Nnnope,” He repeated to himself as he walked up his wooden stairs, hopped onto his bed, and closed his eyes for a well-earned nap. “Nnnope, nnnope, nnnope, nnnope...” makes perfect sense, and the humor has more impact.
"Show, don't tell" is usually a pretty good mantra. Don't just inform the reader that a card is indestructible, let them see for themselves that it's indestructible. Similar to what I was saying earlier about the hoverboards, actually.
>He was in Ponyville for one reason and one reason alone. To reconnect with his family, make some new friends, and see Twilight more often. Actually, that's three reasons.
>Some may have called that more than one reason Literally everyone would have called that more than one reason. The number of reasons being stated is greater than one, this is not subjective.
>but he knew if he planned on getting all reasons over and done with as soon as possible, he could count them as one and therefore fit them all on one line, to save space on his mental To-Do list. His will was unstoppable, his determination overflowing, and nothing could distract him from his goals. Alright, fair enough I guess. However, is this really an accurate summation of why he's in Ponyville?
I was not entirely sure myself, since it has literally been 24,969 words since the subject was even addressed and I couldn't remember. Incidentally, the entire text of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine is only 32,376 words. Anyway, I went all the way back to Chapter 1 and had myself a look-see. This is the paragraph in which Silver "it's not gay if you put a wig on me" Star makes the decision to go to Ponyville:
>He summoned a map of Ponyville. “All of these towns look good, except for the Canterlot Knockoffs and Superior Canterlots, but I hear this town right here was built on top of the door to Tartarus, and that's pretty brutal. Besides, I know ponies there... I mean, the pony I used to be knew them. One of them.. .Huh. Should I reveal myself to them? Applejack never seemed like the type to blab... Nah, it'll only complicate matters. I'm Silver Star, here for a vacation. Perhaps I'll set up a shop for enchanted items? Then again, hearing that pony- I'll consider talking to Applejack in private and magically swearing her to secrecy, that'll help if I need it.”
His reasons for going to Ponyville are actually a little vague. This paragraph is preceded by an argument between Silver and Aquilla in which he moans and weeps about being lonely like a sissy goth kid and she tries to convince him to go make some friends. He settles on Ponyville. The only reason clearly given for his selection is that it sits on top of the door to Tartarus, beyond that we only have a slight implication that he knows a few ponies there.
He mentions Applejack and alludes to his previous connection to her (which we later learn is a familial relation), so I suppose that could make "to reconnect with his family" a motivation for the move. However, it's not clear at the time of his making the decision to move that he was related to Applejack, nor is reconnecting with Applejack stated as a primary reason for the move, he simply mentions that he knows her. He uses his connection to her more as a justification for selecting that particular town than as a reason for going there in the first place. Furthermore, at this point he doesn't know Twilight at all. At least, I don't think he does; again, it's been about 25k words. He knows of Twilight of course, seeing as how she is the Princess of Friendship and he has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of just about everything significant that happens in Equestria (have I mentioned recently that I hate this character?). However, it's clear that he did not have any prior personal connection to her before moving, since he meets her for the first time at Pinkie Pie's party in Chapter Two.
Thus, the only remaining reason that makes any sense is "to make some new friends." Aside from how "brutal" it is that Ponyville is located above the door to Tartarus (I'm assuming Silver is a Dethklok fan), this is really his only clear motive for choosing this town over any of the others he could have picked. Once there, he reconnects somewhat with Applejack (though he's actually had very little direct interaction with her so far) and meets Twilight, whom he presumably wishes to spend more time with. However, these are his reasons for staying in Ponyville, not his reasons for going there in the first place.
>But he felt hungry, so Silver Star Apple chose to take a brief detour.
>A detour that landed him in Sugarcube Corner, a building shaped like a giant gingerbread house. The wonderful scents of freshly baked cakes and pastries greeted him. He could forgive the absurd décor when the place smelled this good. I just want to take a moment to say that a pony who builds a square, metal, cube-shaped house with orange windows in a town of quaint medieval-style cottages has no business criticizing anypony else's sense of aesthetics.
>He closed his eyes and took in a deeper breath, letting the scent fill his lungs, and there, at the counter, was a sight he’d never forget. Her bright, innocent, joyful and lively baby blue eyes, and her brighter smile. Her hot pink body, well-furred and muscles tense, like a coiled spring perpetually ready to jump... No, like a puppy perpetually ready to play. She lit up upon seeing him, the supernova of light and life growing even brighter, and he noticed what felt like a tiny smile appear on his own face as he beheld such beauty and adorable cuteness, growing into a proper smile as her infectious joy took hold in his heart. Something about her innocence made this building’s décor feel less like a somewhat tacky design choice and more like something that perfectly reflected its owner’s spirit. Once again, you are capable of writing very nicely when you put your mind to it, and it's a genuine pity your autism so frequently ruins your stories. My only gripe here is that I probably would not have said "her hot pink body". It's not clear if "hot" is referring to the color pink or to her body itself. Ponk is of course a very sexi hoers, but I'm guessing you didn't intend this description of her to have a sexual connotation. I would say "bright pink" instead. Otherwise this is a beautifully written paragraph, nice job.
>>193494 >reasons I think this whole "Reasons" bit might have been a clusterfuck. I'll fix that. >I just want to take a moment to say that a pony who builds a square, metal, cube-shaped house with orange windows in a town of quaint medieval-style cottages has no business criticizing anypony else's sense of aesthetics. I did that on purpose. His sense of style gets better when he becomes less of a cunt. >hot pink body I was trying to do that "Secret adult humor" thing subtly. >Otherwise this is a beautifully written paragraph, nice job. Thank you!
>She gasped, but not like a normal pony. Instead, it was a massive, overdramatic audible inhalation of air, her mouth stretching open so widely that a snake would have backed away nervously. And yet, somehow, on this incredibly open and honest mare, who didn’t seem to have an untruthful bone in her body, it seemed perfectly genuine. “Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! What would you like?” She asked happily.
>“You.” He almost blurted out, but managed to restrain himself. Well, maybe I spoke too soon in my last post, maybe you did intend to have some sexual connotation in that paragraph describing Pinkie after all. In any event, just a quick tip: if you're trying to make this character more likable, not having him leer and make innuendo about every female pony he meets is probably a good start.
>“Do you do milkshakes?” Silver asked.
>“Yep!” Pinkie Pie said happily. “We have chocolate, banana, strawberry and apple!” Alright, at least his creepy predations are staying inside his head for the time being.
>“Strawberry, please.” Silver said, because that was his favourite flavour. Not Apple. Apples were alright, and they tasted great after doing something epic, I'm too classy to even touch that one but his true love was the flavour of strawberries. Literally none of this information is relevant to anything. We don't care how much he prefers strawberries over apples, it has nothing to do with what's going on.
Anyway, blah blah blah. Silver "my milkshakes bring all the boys to the yard" Star sits at the soda counter, sipping his shake and thinking about how much he'd rather be scarfing down a gigantic throbbing zebra dong. There's a humorous exchange between Silver and Pinkie where he grills her about the secret ingredient in her shakes, is disappointed to learn that it isn't cum, and keeps pestering her about it.
>Undaunted, Silver pressed again, bringing out The Voice. “They don’t have to know, and I certainly won’t tell them. Just Whisper It Into My Ear, and I promise I won’t tell another living pony.” "The Voice" has not been previously referenced; we don't know what it is. I'm assuming you mean that he's turning on the charm; probably this is the same voice he uses to lure all the boys to the yard when his milkshakes fail to do the job. However, even though the meaning can probably be assumed, there's no context provided so "The Voice" here could refer to any voice at all. Personally, I chose to imagine him saying this line in the voice of Bullwinkle the Moose.
Anyway, she eventually tells him the secret ingredient, but we don't find out what it is. Which is fine, since the information is (presumably) not important; the scene is about the flirtatious, playful interaction between Pinkie and Silver "I hope you bought the economy-size vat of lube because it's going to be a long night" Star. The scene is actually pretty well written and doesn't really need much revision, the issue is I have is that there's no real setup for it. There's a lot of romantic/sexual tension going on here and it's clear that Silver is flirting with Pinkie; however, their interactions so far haven't really implied that he's attracted to her.
Since the romantic subplot of the story hasn't really developed to the point where he's declared his affection to any particular character, there's no reason why he can't be interested in or pursuing multiple ponies at this point; in fact having rival love interests for the main character can make a story more interesting. However, if you don't provide any early suggestion that he might be interested in a character when he meets that character, then just have him start hitting on her out of nowhere, it makes him seem like he's just some pervy asshole who considers one plot-hole to be as good as the next. Again, if your aim in future revisions is to make him more likable this is probably something you'll want to avoid, especially if you're going to have him narrate little innuendos in his head that make him seem even pervier.
So far you've established that he's interested in Twilight and she seems to reciprocate somewhat, so a scene like this between the two of them would make sense. However Silver's interactions with Pinkie so far have been mostly platonic, then out of nowhere he shows up at Sugar Cube Corner and starts laying the mack down. Considering that his overall purpose in being here is to develop meaningful friendships, having him show up in Ponyville and immediately start treating the town like some kind of smorgasbord of hot pony ass is probably not the best start. Even if most of us would probably do the same thing in his situation.
Also, while we're (kind of) on the subject, something has been nagging at my brain. At the beginning of Chapter 3 you imply that the events of most of Chapter 2 were all just a dream, but you don't explicitly state this nor do you reference any of those events in a way that would conclusively prove that they happened, so the question of whether Pinkie Pie's welcoming party actually took place is left hanging in limbo. It's been bugging the crap out of me for a while now.
>>193522 >"The Voice" has not been previously referenced; we don't know what it is. You know how Fluttershy has The Stare? Silver has The Voice, it's a mind-controlling voice thing. How can I foreshadow this better?
>>193625 You don't necessarily need to foreshadow it prior to its appearance in this scene. Actually this scene is as good a place as any to debut it if you want it to be an element in the story. The main problem is that right now you just sort of drop it on the reader without explaining what it is. Calling it "The Voice" does evoke a resemblance to Fluttershy's stare and I think most readers would interpret it that way. However, it isn't clear exactly what it is or what it can do. There's nothing wrong with leaving some things to the reader's imagination, but if you leave it too open it can get confusing as the reader can interpret it any way they want. You also don't want to rely too much on the reader's assumed knowledge of the universe you're writing in. While you can probably assume that most people reading pony fanfiction would at least have a working knowledge of the show and its characters, a well written piece of fanfiction should be able to stand on its own as a piece of literature that could be picked up and read by anyone. Even if the reader has never seen an episode of MLP, they should ideally be able to pick this up and follow the story and get a sense of the world even if there's a lot of things going on that don't immediately make sense. If you just say "The Voice" and leave it to the reader to make the connection to Fluttershy's stare, you're basically assuming that the reader A) knows who Fluttershy is and B) has seen at least one of the episodes where she uses this ability. Again, while it's probably a fair assumption that they have, it's still better to write from the assumption that they haven't, if that makes sense.
For demonstration in my previous post, I took the liberty of imagining "The Voice" as being a comic Bullwinkle the Moose voice. You didn't specify what type of voice Silver uses, you just gave him something called The Voice and implied that it's a voice he does that is different from his regular speaking voice. Without more specific information my interpretation technically works. You probably don't want the reader imagining your character speaking like Bullwinkle the Moose, you probably have a very specific idea in your head of what The Voice sounds like and what sort of an effect it has, so you need to provide at least a small bit of clarification to steer them in the right direction.
Again, usually the best way to introduce a particular character's ability or a mechanic within a fictional world is to demonstrate it to the reader by letting them see it in action and imagine it for themselves. Here's how I would write it:
>Undaunted, Silver continued to press the issue. His voice dropped an octave lower, taking on a soothing, honeyed tone that somehow put ponies into a state of mild hypnosis and made them want to do as he asked. It was a trick he'd picked up some time ago, and it had come in handy more than a few times at the negotiating table. He called it The Voice.
>“They don’t have to know, and I certainly won’t tell them," his Voice oozed, "Just whisper it Into my ear, and I promise I won’t tell another living pony.”
I took the liberty of adding my own details about how The Voice sounds, but you get the idea. Basically, you'll want a quick sentence or two that describes the way it sounds, followed by a brief description of its use. No need to go into detail about how it works; it's enough for the reader to just get a general impression of what it sounds like and what it does. Adding something like the bit about the negotiating table provides an example of its past use and retroactively adds it to Silver's laundry list of abilities without it seeming convenient or unbelievable. Basically, you're introducing a new power to the reader by explaining what it is, what it does, and providing a simple example of its past use in a context that makes sense with what the reader knows about Silver thus far. That's really all you need to do to introduce it into the story.
>>193849 Sorry, much like Silver "if the backdoor's broken just slide on down the chimney" Star I've got a lot of balls that I'm currently juggling, so I'm on about a once-per-week update schedule for this review series. Things are quieting down a bit though, so I'll try to post more often if I can.
Anyway, there's really not a good single place to put in the backstory. You don't want to drop it in all at once, especially if there's a lot of it, and you definitely don't want to give it all away at the beginning. Since as we've discussed you seem to be writing a continuous episodic saga similar to a manga, the rules are a little different than if you were writing something self contained like a novel, but the same basic guidelines apply. One major piece of advice I can give is to not give away too much background information about your character up front. You generally want to provide the reader with only as much information about the MC as they need to understand the early events of the story. The details get filled in as you go. Seeing as how this is likely to end up being a very long, continuous episodic work, you don't need to rush to get the backstory in there. In fact since you'll probably be dealing with multiple story arcs you could eventually devote an arc to a long flashback if you want, although I definitely wouldn't recommend doing that this early. Sorry if I'm being a bit vague here since you asked for specific places to drop in backstory, but so far it seems like we're pretty much at the beginning of the story and I guess my advice would be that there aren't really any good places just yet.
When a story begins the central character should be intriguing to the reader, and part of that means they shouldn't know too much about him. You want to sketch an outline without filling in too many details; give the reader enough information to get a sense of the character but leave out enough so that they're curious to learn more about him. In the case of Silver Starpunch, it's enough for the reader to know at the beginning of the story that he's wealthy, successful, an accomplished magician, etc (again, I would seriously consider dialing back some of his abilities and accomplishments to a level more reasonable for a character at the beginning of a tale). The reader should know he's rich and successful, but not how he made his money. You could maybe allude to the fact that he came from humble beginnings, but don't provide any explanation for how he got from point A to point B. At this point in the story his past should largely be a mystery.
A good rule of thumb for a story in this format is that you probably want to get through at least one significant story arc before you give away anything major about Silver's past. Most of the ground we've traversed so far has been expositional: Silver is introduced as a character, he makes the decision to move to Ponyville, goes there, builds a shop, meets the ponies. At Chapter 3 we begin to get into a story arc about diamond dogs. I haven't read past where I left off so I don't know if the diamond dog bit was a self contained episode or part of a larger arc, but in any case, we've basically just shifted gears from exposition into the rising action of an arc. You're not going to want to give away any backstory information about Silver at this point in the tale; you should be focusing mainly on the events in the present that Silver and Co. are dealing with for now.
I've actually got a couple of example stories I can use to illustrate good backstory development, and since we're on the subject already I think I'll diverge from the play-by-play analysis for a moment and go over them.
One novel I'd like to point to as a good example of backstory development is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. You may remember that I once pointed out that a mere single chapter of your voluminous tome is roughly two-thirds the length of this particular novel. I think I've mentioned it once or twice again since then. However, much like the chain of dongs stretching off into the distance you'd be staring at if you laid all the penises Silver has had in his mouth from end to end, Gatsby is also relevant for reasons that have nothing to do with its length.
The story revolves around the character of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire who drifts into Long Island, NY apparently out of nowhere and starts throwing money around. He owns (or rather, rents) an ostentatious house, where he throws elaborate parties. He quickly becomes a local celebrity and the subject of gossip, with the entire high-society set of Long Island wondering who exactly this loony prick is and where he came from. You may already be noticing some parallels between Fitzgerald's character and yours.
As I said, the story is primarily about Gatsby, but more importantly for our purposes the real focus is the mystery of who Gatsby really is. He is first mentioned at the very beginning of the story, in which the narrator simply states that he lived next door to a gigantic mansion that was owned by someone with that name. He's briefly mentioned again later in the same chapter, but again very little time is spent actually discussing him. The first two chapters of the story are mostly about two other characters, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and the fact that Tom is plowing some fat bitch on the side. We get a brief mention of Gatsby at dinner when Daisy's friend, famous golfer and probable lesbian Jordan Baker brings him up. Daisy appears interested, indicating that she might know the name, but then the subject is immediately dropped and the narrative returns to the chapter's main focus of Tom and Daisy having a shitty marriage.
We don't actually meet Gatsby in person until chapter 3 of the 9 chapter story. Before this point he's only alluded to, so already the reader has probably spent a fair amount of time wondering just who the hell this Gatsby faggot is and what exactly is so great about him. When we're finally introduced to him, he appears as a wealthy young man just back from World War I and around the same age as the narrator. The narrator first meets him at one of the elaborate parties he throws, and the encounter just raises more questions. Gatsby is young and appears exceedingly rich, much like the narrator's other friend and noted chubby chaser Tom Buchanan, but he doesn't appear to be from the same old money stock that Tom is. He also hears a lot of odd rumors circulating about him around the party, hinting at the possibility that he may have some unsavory sources of income and something of a sordid past.
Gatsby befriends the narrator and invites him to lunch. He feeds him a bit of backstory about himself, but the narrator feels like a lot of it is probably bullshit. As it turns out all of it is actually bullshit, but we don't learn that until much later. The story that Gatsby tells at this point sounds pretty outrageous; basically he claims to be descended from a wealthy dynasty who all died mysteriously, and that he spent his youth traveling around the world hunting tigers and collecting chests of buried treasure and all sorts of ridiculous implausible-sounding shit (again, you may be noticing some parallels between this character and yours). The narrator is naturally very suspicious of all this, but since he doesn't know anything else about him has little choice but to take it at face value. At lunch, Gatsby introduces him to his friend and business associate, a filthy and covetous Jew who is clearly a gangster of some sort. This encounter seems to buttress the earlier rumors we'd heard at the party, suggesting that Gatsby is either a criminal or at least connected to criminals, and this combined with the wacky story he told about himself just makes him seem even more mysterious.
Anyway, as it turns out, Gatsby is only interested in befriending the narrator because he wants to bone his cousin, who just happens to be Daisy Buchanan. We learn later, from Jordan Baker, that Gatsby and Daisy used to date a long time ago, during the war when Gatsby was on leave. However, he had to go back to combat, and they lost contact. In the meantime, Daisy had married Tom, but the fire in Gatsby's pants had persisted, and he actually had moved to Long Island with the specific intention of finding her and resuming his quest to slip her a pickle, husband or no. At this point, we have a bit more information about him. We understand his motivations more clearly, and we get a glimpse of what makes him tick; however there is still a lot we don't know. The questions of who he is, where he came from, and how he made his money are still unanswered.
At this point we are roughly halfway through the story and still we only have a vague sketch of the central character. We've viewed him from three different angles: the rich flamboyant millionaire who likes to get krunk and party, the slightly unsavory possible criminal who hangs out with kikes in shady delis, and the hopeless romantic, still carrying a raging fire in his loins for his now-married ex girlfriend. Yet still we feel as if we don't have the full picture of the man.
Anyway, blah blah blah, some shit happens. The narrator agrees to help Daisy and Gatsby perform the horizontal monster mash, and invites them both to his house. He leaves them alone to fuck for a while, then later they all go back to Gatsby's place and throw some of his shirts around. Gatsby and Daisy have an affair for a while, then Gatsby decides that she should leave Tom, since their marriage sucks anyway, and marry him instead. However, it's really important to him that she tell Tom to fuck off to his face instead of just packing a suitcase and leaving him a note or something, so they all go to a hotel and argue about it for a whole fucking chapter. Gatsby is btfo'd by Tom's superior Molyneaux-tier argumentative prowess, and Daisy decides to stick with Tom's faggot ass after all. They all leave and drive back home, and on the way back Daisy runs over Tom's landwhale of a side-bitch while driving Gatsby's car for some reason.
The argument scene in the hotel is basically the climax of the story, and during this crucial moment we learn some other interesting things about Gatsby. For one thing, it's pretty much 95% confirmed at this point that Gatsby never lived in the jungle or hunted tigers or was descended from royalty or sucked Godzilla's dick or did any of the rest of the wacky shit he claimed to have done. Turns out Tom did a bunch of research and found out that Gatsby, basically, was just a small-to-medium time gangster who sold illegal liquor out of drugstores and ran some stock market cons. When this is revealed it pretty much deflates Gatsby's carefully-crafted self image as a mysterious and influential millionaire, and it apparently scares Daisy enough to make her not want shit to do with him anymore.
Since Gatsby was just completely cucked by the very man he was trying to cuck, in front of the woman he was trying to cuck him with no less, he goes home to cry about it and drink a nice tall glass of soylent. The narrator comes over to comfort him, and it is at this point that he reveals the truth about himself (spoilered in case anyone who hasn't read the book wants to actually read it at some point):
Gatsby was basically just some dipshit who grew up on a farm in North Dakota. His parents had absolutely no money. He ran away from home because his family sucked, did some shit, wasn't particularly successful at any of it, joined the Army, and wound up in Kentucky where he met Daisy. She was clearly rich, so he bullshitted her and pretended to be rich himself so that he could get into her pants. The original plan was to just nut in her butt and hit the road, but he wound up falling in love. Later, he moved to New York just because he'd heard that she lived there, and turned to a life of crime as a way to get very rich very quickly. He bought a house and started throwing crazy parties every night just because he hoped this bitch would show up at one of them. Literally everything he ever did with his life was all to impress some empty-headed thot who wound up going back with her husband anyway. The End.
The takeaway from all of this is that the character of Jay Gatsby is really not that interesting, however this is one of the most highly regarded works of American literature. If Fitzgerald had started with the truth, that Gatsby was just some faggot from North Dakota who went to ridiculous lengths just to impress some basic bitch, the high school students being forced to read this book would be even more bored by it than they are already. However, simply because the story is told well, this book is considered a masterpiece. Gatsby is revealed slowly; we see him first the way he presents himself, and later the way he actually is. The character is presented behind a smoke screen of mystery and intrigue, then gradually the smoke is blown away until all we're left with is a somewhat pitiable, completely ordinary man.
Furthermore, for all the praise it gets, this novel is not without its problems. Parts of the narrative, like the part where they all inexplicably switch cars just to set up the accidental death of Tom's fat side-bitch, are needlessly complicated and feel contrived. Also, Gatsby's backstory (which the actual text goes into detail about) is actually kind of stupid and farfetched. At one point Fitzgerald dumps in a needlessly long digressive story about Gatsby's past, which literally involves him sailing around the world with Buffalo Bill Cody and doing a bunch of other retarded shit that has nothing to do with the story. The whole sequence could have easily been cut and the novel wouldn't have suffered for it. Nevertheless, Fitzgerald gets away with it, because he crafted the story well. Even a dull character can become fascinating in the hands of a skilled writer, just as an exciting character can become boring in the hands of a bad one.
Anyway, I set out to review another chunk of your story and wound up reviewing The Great Gatsby instead, so sorry about that Nigel, but hopefully there's some useful information here for you. If you've not read the book I'd recommend giving it a quick read as it really is a great example of how to reveal a character's backstory slowly and mysteriously, also you might get some other ideas from it as I do see some similarities between Gatsby and Silver, even though I doubt they were intentional.
Was anyone entertained by this? Is anyone still being entertained by this long-winded meandering review series? Give me a quick (You) if you were at all entertained; I'm an insecure faggot like Gatsby and need perpetual reassurance that what I do is interesting.
Coming up next, a brief look at another work of fiction I like that I think serves as a good example of pacing and backstory revelation.
>>194947 Here is your (You) to confirm that, yes, we are still entertained by your in-depth reviews of literature. At this point, you should make a career out of it.
>>194947 This was great! I'll have to read The Great Gatsby some time. My school had the big gay, so it was Roald Dahl, Henry the 8th, and World War 2 the whole time. Don't get me wrong, I loved stories like James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a kid. I honestly liked them more than Harry Potter. At the time, I saw them as a mediocre Naruto ripoff. To be honest, those books are why I went with the "Hero's Name and the Big Thing" approach to titling Silver Star and the Quest for More Money and Sunrise Stardust and The Burned World story. I once read this "Facts on Roald Dahl" book that said he once got his son to read an early draft of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that had around 30 kids in it, and each one got shat on for not fitting Roald's ideal of what a kid should be. I always wondered what that draft would have been like, and what the 25 kids we never got to see were like.
>>195051 >>194903 >>194953 >>195048 Thank you very much, gentlemen, for stroking my ego . It means more to me than you shall ever know.
>>193849 >>194903 In addition to Gatsby, I also wanted to bring up an entirely different type of story that I think you would like if you've never read it, and is also something you could potentially benefit from: Rumiko Takahashi's epic-length manga Inuyasha.
It's relevant to your work for several reasons. For one thing, it's exactly the sort of long-running action saga you seem to want to do, so it could serve as a pretty good example of how to handle pacing and layout, and the integration of smaller self-contained arcs into a cohesive central story. Also, it's a series that somehow manages to be a monsters-and-magic Shonen manga and a girly romance story all at the same time. Considering that you're basically trying to take a pastel-colored little girls' cartoon about feelings and friendship and turn it into Sonic vs. Naruto vs. Godzilla, I thought you might like to see an example of that very concept actually done well.
In all seriousness though, IY sets itself apart from similar Shonen stories by focusing on the development of relationships between its characters. At the same time, it manages to deliver as a Shonen story by retaining all of the elements that the audience of those sorts of stories want to see: powerful heroes battling powerful monsters with cool magic and cool weapons. In short, the characters and their relationships to each other are developed enough to make the story emotionally engaging, and there is enough action to keep the autismos entertained; moreover it's balanced enough that you can enjoy both at the same time. If you want to introduce stories about fighting and struggle into a story like MLP where the principal focus is on character relationships, this is a pretty good work to study. In fact I think MLP's actual writers could learn a thing or two as well, but that's a whole other topic.
I won't go as deep into summarizing the story on this one since it's fairly long and complicated, and I've gone far enough off the rails as it is. This is actually one of a handful of animu/mango series that I wouldn't mind doing a full analysis of at some point, but it's a large enough undertaking that it will likely remain on the back burner for a while.
Briefly summarized, Inuyasha is the story of a half-human half-demon whose demon father died shortly before he was born. He spends most of his childhood getting slapped around by both humans and demons due to his inferior >le 56% genes and naturally grows up to be a moody little bitch. Eventually, he comes across a human priestess who is the guardian of a magic jewel that can amplify demon powers. He initially wants to steal the jewel from her and use it to purge his human nature, but he winds up falling in love with her, and she convinces him to try to use the jewel to purge his demon nature instead. He agrees to give it a try, but the whole thing ends tragically. The priestess dies, and Inuyasha ends up pinned to a tree by a magic spell for 50 years.
Meanwhile, in the now times of 1997, a kawaii teenage schoolgirl from a shrine family, who was the subject of many a creepy weeaboo fantasy circa 2002, accidentally falls down a well and discovers that she can travel through time. She climbs out of the well and the first thing she sees is Inuyasha pinned to a tree with an arrow. Some shit happens, and she learns that she is apparently the reincarnation of the dead priestess and that's why she can travel through time. Also, she has the magic jewel buried in her butthole or something and apparently didn't notice it until a monster rips it out of her and tries to steal it. Anyway, some shit happens and she ends up breaking the spell on Inuyasha, who kills the monster that was attacking her, but immediately afterward reveals himself to be a colossal dick who also wants to steal the jewel. Some more shit happens, the jewel breaks and its pieces get scattered all over the landscape, and Inuyasha and the girl get tasked with traveling around the country and picking them up because reasons.
As the story progresses, however, we learn that he is actually less of a dick than he seems. Or, rather, he's exactly as much of a dick as he seems, but his tragic backstory apparently justifies enough of his shitty behavior to make the girl start to feel sympathy for him. Eventually, she becomes his new love interest, while his previous love interest, who is the dead priestess that she is the reincarnation of, comes back to life as a walking corpse because reasons and the two of them fight over who gets to slob his nob. Inuyasha's reaction, meanwhile, is basically pic related. Anyway, despite the fact that he is a massive dick to her and keeps running around behind her back with a zombie, she nonetheless sticks by him until gradually her cool island song begins to melt his icy heart. In the end, the story just goes to prove what most of the story's weeaboo fanbase probably knew to begin with: that despite all their constant squawking about feminism and equality, all a girl really wants is for a dog-eared guy with a cool sword to yell at her and cheat on her all the time. reeee chad
It's worth mentioning that as all of this is going on, the main plot of the story focuses around Inuyasha's battle against an evil demon who orchestrated most of the tragic events that occurred in the past. Inuyasha continues to graft weird powers onto a sword he inherited from his father, and there are numerous side-characters and side-arcs interwoven throughout the main plot.
continued in next post.
I also read a lot of Roald Dahl as a kid. Danny, the Champion of the World is a really good one.
Anyway, without going into too much more detail about the plot, I think IY would be a good study for you. The format is close enough to what you're trying to do that you could use it as a guideline for how to handle pacing and interweave various arcs and subplots into a central story. It's also noteworthy because it features a main character who is initially very obnoxious and unlikeable, but his unlikeability is presented in a way that actually ends up making him a sympathetic and incidentally very popular character. Seriously, teenage girls in the early 2000s were creaming themselves to this story so much it was insane; Adult Swim got their message boards bombarded by angry Inuyasha fans every time they tried to take it off the air and put something else in its time slot, even when they ran out of new episodes and were just rerunning the old ones.
Furthermore, the story's central themes and messages translate well into the MLP universe: that love and friendship are more important than power, and that those who abandon their human soul in the pursuit of raw ambition ultimately lose themselves. You could probably retell the entire story verbatim as an MLP fanfiction and have it work just fine; in fact considering the amount of crossover between bronies and the most insufferable weeb fandoms I'm looking at you here, Nigel, you Naruto-loving bastard I'm frankly surprised nobody has done it yet.
Anyway, the original goal here was to talk about backstory development, so let's look at it from that angle. What makes this story a good example is again that we learn about Inuyasha's past, as well as the larger story of what took place in the past that shaped the lives of Inuyasha as well as all the other characters, gradually. At the beginning of the tale, we're presented with some basic information: something tragic happened, a magic jewel was involved, a priestess died while sealing Inuyasha to a tree. There appears to be some sort of preexisting relationship between the two but we don't know what it is. We are given no more backstory than that, so already we've got an intriguing mystery on our hands.
The narrative immediately abandons this mystery though and focuses on the story of Kagome the kawaii schoolgirl, whom we learn pretty early on is the reincarnation of the mysterious priestess. The character of Inuyasha is introduced and initially developed through her eyes. Our impressions of him are her impressions. Her reactions mirror our reactions. The questions we have about him mirror hers. We learn about his past as she learns about it. This is a good way to tell this kind of story; it builds empathy for the character by allowing the reader to place themselves in the events of the story and engage with the character vicariously through the narrator/love interest/dual protagonist/whatever the hell Kagome is exactly.
For the first few short arcs of the story, we get very little information about Inuyasha other than bits and pieces dropped in like bread crumbs to keep us interested. The dead priestess and her relationship to him remains a central figure yet we know even less about her, or what the deal was between them. Most of the early events of the story focus on the immediate problems that Kagome faces: she's been roped into an obligation to hunt down magic jewel pieces with a guy who is a giant pain in the ass, and seems to harbor an irrational hatred of her based on her resemblance to the dead priestess. Her immediate concern is initially more with her life back in the normie world of 1997, and figuring out ways to wedge in the goofy quest she's been sent on without it interfering too much in her school life. Ultimately we don't get any serious information about what happened in the past until the characters have had a few minor adventures together, and some other aspects of Inuyasha's character have been revealed; for instance that he has an older half-brother who seems to want to kill him, and that his relationship to his mother is a bit rocky. These details help flesh out the character; before the story starts delving into the events of the past, we need to be presented with enough sides of the Inuyasha character's nature, both good and bad, to make him complex and interesting. By the time the events of the past are revealed (I forget what the corresponding point in the manga is but in the anime it's basically the finale arc of the first season) we're invested enough in these characters to actually give a shit what happened 50 years ago. If the author hadn't done this, and instead focused the early part of the story on the events of the past without properly introducing any of the characters, it would not be anywhere near as interesting.
That's what ultimately matters; that the audience gives a shit and is interested in your characters. There's no specific magic formula for where and when to drop in backstory information, the main thing to focus on is to make your characters compelling and complex. Again, you can use preexisting stories like this one as a reference, but ultimately the timing of events is just something you have to get a feel for. Try to reread what you've written from the perspective of a reader who just picked it up, and ask yourself if you think the character is interesting based on what you've written thus far. Do you like Silver, or do you want to punch him in the face every time he talks? The ideal reaction for a character like this is that you should want to punch him the face a little, but also feel weirdly compelled to learn more about him. You've got the first part down to a science, now you just need to work on the second.
Anyway, enough about the 1920s and weebery. Picking up where I left off.
When we last left our intrepid hero, he was eye-humping Ponkamena's milkshakes and using ventriloquy to try and worm secrets out of her. At least that's how I choose to remember it. Anyway, Panky Poi is eventually badgered into sharing the secrets of her milkshake recipe with Silver, but only after swearing him to utmost secrecy using the ancient Equestrian blood oath of the Pinkie Promise.
>Silver blinked, and then performed the actions correctly with the care of a technician, glad his Cutie Mark made him great at analyzing things like movements and dance routines. Was The Voice causing her to act like this, or was she always like this? “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Silver said. We went over the Voice already, I'd just like to once again remind you that you'll really want to elaborate a teensy bit on what exactly it is and what its powers are so this makes a little more sense. Also, it doesn't necessarily need to be addressed here, but I don't think you've really clarified what Silver's cutie mark means and what ability it signifies. Apparently it gives him the ability to analyze movements and dance routines, but somehow, given the arsenal of ridiculous powers this faggot possesses, I'm assuming that's not the full extent of it. Again, you don't have to go over it now, and I'm assuming you probably cover it later, but it's just something I thought I'd mention here, as the meaning of the mark itself is not exactly clear from looking at it. However if it turns out that it's just some lame blanket mark that gives him special talents in everything I swear to God I will hop a plane to England and slap you so hard you will need a loicence for it.
>He then licked up some of the foam, his long tongue scooping it up and taking it into his mouth. I am too classy to even touch this line.
Oh, here's something: >“That party you threw for me when I first got to town was one of the best parties I’ve ever had.” Silver said. This seems to answer finally the question that was bothering me before: whether or not the events between Silver's trip to the Mayor's office in Ch 2 and the part where he wakes up in Ch 3 actually took place. It seems they did. That is good, because once again laying out an entire scene and then having it turn out that the character simply dreamed it and it isn't important to the story is pretty much the biggest dick move you can pull in storytelling. However, now that the question has been answered, I'm afraid you have a rather significant logic problem that needs to be addressed.
At the beginning of Ch 3, Silver wakes up and is told the following by Aquilla: >You made a house here yesterday, but you fell asleep halfway to the Mayor’s office, so I brought you back. The only point in the story where he goes to the Mayor's office occurs near the beginning of Ch 2, before Pinkie Pie's welcoming party takes place. For him to have fallen asleep on the way to the Mayor's office and to have slept through to the next morning would automatically negate everything that happened between those two points in time, unless you're going to argue that it was done by one of his "clones" or some gay shit like that (I'd advise against that as it only complicates the story unnecessarily).
Come to think of it, this is actually a bigger logic problem than I thought. I went back and skimmed Ch 2 again, and the order of events basically goes like this: Pinkie Pie visits the Mayor to ask about Silver, then leaves. Shortly thereafter, Silver shows up and gets legal permits to purchase land in Ponyville and build a house. Then he and Rainbow Dash take a walk (presumably from the Mayor's) to the land he just bought. At this point Pinkie shows up and does her welcome wagon routine, and invites him to Applejack's barn later. Then she darts off, and Silver does his ridiculous magic routine where he summons Fox Ponies (srsly wtf) he's enslaved and forces them to build a house for him while Rainbow Dash stands there watching in awe, her no-nos a-quiverin'. After this, Silver goes to Applejack's barn and the party happens.
Think about it for a second: if Silver passed out before he got to the Mayor's office, that means everything that happened afterward until he wakes up again in Ch 3 could not possibly have happened. However, he wakes up in his house the next morning, the house which he obtained permits to build at the Mayor's office and built after he left the Mayor's office. Basically, unless Aquilla is lying to him about where and when he passed out for some reason, he could not possibly have built the house that he wakes up in. Not only that, the same issue negates the welcoming party, which also negates Silver's initial meeting with Twilight (which I'm assuming is rather important to the subplot involving their relationship) as well as his initial reconciliation with Applejack (his long lost cousin or whatever who he ostensibly came to Ponyville to see).
It may not seem like much, but that short conversation between Silver and Aquilla at the beginning of Ch 3 creates a MASSIVE continuity problem that needs to be addressed.
>>196102 I don't understand what you're saying about the continuity. The sequence of events is supposed to be >Silver goes to ponyville >Silver gets permit for house >Silver makes house >Silver goes to party >drinks a lot >Wakes up at home and it's implied he got drunk but I never say it outright so it's fine Also the scenes of Silver eating are supposed to be like those movie scenes where someone eats in a weirdly focused-on way. Do you think they succeed in that regard?
>>196109 The sequence of events in Chapter 2 is not the issue, the confusion begins with the opening dialog of Chapter 3. Here is the section where it occurs:
>Silver awoke on some soft bed with a burning headache in a blurred world, slamming his eyes shut. His mind was assaulted with separate overwhelming floods of information from around the world. “Aquilla!” He shouted weakly.
>He felt the displacement of air beside him signify his Griffon’s arrival through teleportation. “Yes, boss?” She asked.
“Where am I, and how did I get here?” He asked.
>“Ponyville, your new home. You made a house here yesterday, but you fell asleep halfway to the Mayor’s office, so I brought you back.” Aquilla explained.
I boldfaced the area where I think there may be a bit of confusion. If I'm understanding what you said in your post just now correctly, the implication is supposed to be that he got drunk at the party, passed out on the way back, and Aquilla found him and brought him home, which makes perfect sense. The confusion I think occurs where you mention that he fell asleep halfway to the Mayor's office. This suggests that he was going to the Mayor's office when he passed out. You also cite tiredness, not drunkenness, as the reason for his passing out and don't specify a time frame. So basically, the only information we have is that he was tired and on his way to the Mayor's office. Any situation where both those conditions were true could thus work as the moment when he passed out.
The only period in recent memory when he would have had any reason to go to the Mayor's office would have been the previous afternoon, when he went to apply for the building permits. The reason Aquilla cites for his passing out, being tired due to multiple days without sleep, would still qualify there. He would not have any obvious business with the Mayor once that task had been completed, and he would definitely have no reason to go there in the middle of the night after the party, when the office would probably be closed. Thus, when you said he passed out halfway to the Mayor's office I assumed you meant he passed out the previous afternoon.
So, this is how I interpreted what you seemed to be >implying: Silver goes to see the Mayor about building permits. However, he is extremely tired from not sleeping for several days, so he passes out from exhaustion on his way there. Aquilla finds him and brings him home. While unconscious, he experiences a whole crazy dream sequence where he builds a house and goes to a party (hence my earlier questions about whether the party sequence was a dream). However, he needs the building permits and permission from the Mayor before he can actually build the house in the waking world. Since he loses consciousness before he even gets to the Mayor's, he never gets the permits and thus never actually builds the house, even though he dreams that he did. So it makes no sense for him to wake up in the house the following morning since the house couldn't possibly exist yet. Thus the massive continuity error I brought up.
I think this is another one of those situations where you had a particular idea in your head and assumed the meaning was clear when you wrote it down, but you left out a couple of crucial pieces of information that left the passage open to alternate interpretations. My assumption now is that when Aquilla says "[Silver] fell asleep halfway to the Mayor's office," you mean that he had too much to drink at the party, left, was wandering around Ponyville in a stupor, passed out somewhere between home and the Mayor's house, and was then brought home by Aquilla. That makes a lot more sense than what I thought, obviously, and is much simpler; however, the text doesn't make that meaning apparent.
This another situation where you have to be mindful of what information you give the reader when describing things and how they might interpret it. The confusion here stems from the mention of the Mayor's office combined with the fact that you don't provide any specific details about the time this event occurred. Aquilla doesn't mention the party, and she doesn't mention that Silver was drunk, so whether or not the party actually occurred is immediately called into question. I now understand that you were trying to imply drunkenness without stating it because TV-Y7 or whatever, which makes sense; however, the way you described it is far too vague.
I would say just don't mention the Mayor's office at all as it's not a necessary piece of information and it only complicates things. Also, I would probably throw in a simple summary of the sequence of events between the party and Silver's waking up so the reader understands exactly what happened. Something like this: >"Where am I, and how did I get here?" he asked.
>"Ponyville, your new home. You made a house here, but you went to a party last night and fell asleep on the way back. I carried you back here."
Also: >Also the scenes of Silver eating are supposed to be like those movie scenes where someone eats in a weirdly focused-on way. Do you think they succeed in that regard? Don't mind my comments about him slurping up ice cream, it was just another gay joke about Silver thrown in for laughs. You can pretty much assume that any place in the text where you have him slurping or sucking things I will probably crack wise in a similar fashion. In all seriousness the way you describe it is basically fine.
>Pinkie Pie sucked in a tremendous gasp, and grinned while squeeing adorably. Unless you're a teenage girl writing a post on MySpace ten years ago, please do not, under any circumstances, ever use the word "squee" or any of its variants.
>He wondered why he felt so oddly... young... around her. Her cheerful, foallike innocence was absolutely infectious, but how? Even his keen eyes didn’t detect anything on her face besides genuine happiness and joy that a friend liked her parties, so could that be it? He’d spent so long around Canterlot ponies, where fake smiles hid dark hearts and those who seemed to have nothing to hide always had something under the table. But this pony... was nice. And the more time he spent around her, the younger he felt. I wanted to highlight this passage as another example of something done well, that you should try to do more of as the story progresses. Silver's character arc as I understand it is that he starts off as a coldhearted opportunist and ruthless individualist. This is due, largely, to his tragic backstory fending off cattle rustlers and whatnot, and the encounters he's subsequently had clawing his way up through the snakepit of Canterlot high society. As he spends time in Ponyville getting to know Twilight and her friends he learns the magic of friendship and blah blah blah. This is a classic theme that pretty much always resonates with the audience if done well.
This particular passage is good because it demonstrates a character developing a new perspective through interaction with another character. The show is at its best when it approaches the theme of friendship this way. The S1 opener basically has Twilight do something similar, where she learns something new about life through the time she spends with each character and summarizes the value of these lessons at the end. In this particular case, you have Silver, whose experience with parties has presumably mostly been high-society functions he's attended for the purpose of outwitting or swindling someone, learning that parties can actually just be fun events you attend with friends. A simple but powerful lesson, and again the kind of lesson the show would still be teaching if it weren't currently being written by manatees.
I'd recommend approaching Silver's relationships with each character you want him to have meaningful interactions with in this way. Try to think about each character's personality and come up with something he can learn from each one. This will serve the dual purpose of helping you flesh out the canon world characters better, which tends to be one of your more deficient areas, as well as making Silver "is that a thousand zebra cocks up my ass or are you just happy to see me" Star a more likable character. In particular I notice you have trouble writing Applejack, and I also get the impression that given Silver's apparent familial connection to her she is going to be a significant character later on. You can probably solve this problem by looking at it from this angle. Who is Applejack, what does she believe in, how does she live her life? What can Silver learn about life by spending time with her? Is there anything in his own philosophy that could be changed or affected by getting to know her better?
I'd recommend a similar approach for developing the relationship between Silver and Twilight. As I noted a long time ago in my skewering of the date scene in Ch 6, you've mainly got Twilight fawning over Silver and how awesome he is, followed by huge paragraphs of Silver talking about himself. This is, as I've said, a very very bad way to approach character relationships. If you want to approach it from an angle where Twilight knows Silver by reputation and is initially somewhat starstruck by him that's fine, but you have to keep in mind that Silver is the character who is supposed to be learning a lesson. Again, try to approach the relationship by thinking about who Twilight is as a character. What are her values and life philosophy? What has she learned on her own journey that she could teach Silver once it becomes apparent to her that he's actually a colossal douche in desperate need of friendship advice?
I don't know if you're planning to have Silver develop relationships with all of the M6 characters (you don't necessarily have to btw), but any character you do want him to build a relationship with, try to think of it in this way.
Anyway, moving on.
>“You’re, um... you’re really cute.” Silver said like a lovestruck colt. Again, I'll say that this scene between Silver and Pinkie is fairly well constructed and doesn't need a whole lot of revision beyond what I've mentioned. However, I will reiterate my earlier point that you seem to be layering on a bit more romantic tension than is necessary, particular since again there's been very little setup thus far to indicate that these two characters might eventually have that sort of relationship. Unless you're planning on taking it somewhere, I personally would ease up on that angle a bit.
Also: >“Hmm...” Pinkie thoughtfully judged while taking an incredibly ‘thinking’ pose that could only look genuine on her, stroking the base of her muzzle with a hoof. This sentence is constructed very awkwardly. "Taking an incredibly 'thinking' pose" makes very little grammatical sense, and "thoughtfully judged" doesn't sound quite right either. I get a visual sense of what Pinkie is doing here, but again it's written very awkwardly. The word "incredibly" doesn't need to be in here at all as there is really nothing incredible about what she's doing. I would probably just say "Pinkie stroked the base of her muzzle with her hoof as she considered," or something to that effect.
>>196324 Relationship-wise, I'm not sure if the story will end in "Twilight and Silver get together", "Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Silver get together", or "Twilight and Silver and Pinkie and Rainbow confess their love for different ponies in that group of 4 at the same time, and they decide to resolve the romantic unofficial shape by getting together".
>>196424 If you're planning on setting up multiple romance angles and Pinkie will be one of them then the way you handle the scene here works just fine. Mostly my point is just don't lead the reader in that direction if you don't plan on taking it anywhere.
If you are planning on going that direction you may want to revisit the earlier party scene and give Silver and Pinkie a little more time together before you have them start flirting in this scene. Just a brief conversation will probably do, enough time to introduce them to each other without other ponies around.
It sounds like whatever you're planning to do, Twilight, Ponk and RD are the romantic interests you'll be focusing on. So far Silver has had one on one conversations with Twilight (the infamous fart sequence as well as a later conversation back at the party) and Dash (when the two of them are talking about Daring Do or whatever), but thus far his only interaction with Pinkie has been the scene where she does her welcome wagon bit and the scene where he's attempting to pet her, both of which are sort of comedic scenes and neither of which really counts as a one on one conversation. In fact he has more direct interaction with Rarity, whom you don't mention as a potential interest, than he does with Pinkie. Though he does thank her and goof around with her a bit, during the party sequence she is mostly given the neutral role of party host, while Silver seems to mostly focus his attention on Twilight and to a lesser extent Rarity. That seems to relegate Pinkie to more of a background position which I suppose is why I found it a bit jarring when they start flirting the next day.
I've been meaning to do some jokes where Silver thinks his relatively tragedy-free backstory is actually super sad and something that makes him qualify as a stereotypical "badass with a tragic past" because by the world's standards, not having any friends while growing up does make your backstory super sad. Any tips?
>>196573 You could have him get into a conversation where he's complaining and fishing for sympathy to a pony whose backstory is more tragic than his, then just have the pony he's talking to tell him to man up and stop being such a whiny bitch. Scootaloo would probably be a good choice; an orphan with useless wings whose only living relatives are a pair of degenerate lesbos is a potential goldmine of tragedy. Even just having him wandering around Ponyville moping about how he doesn't have any friends and just getting on all the other ponies' nerves could be funny as well, just don't drag it out for too long or else he will start to actually get on the reader's nerves, which you don't want.
Also if you go that route you'll probably want to turn it into a lesson at some point eventually. For instance you could pair him up with a pony of your choice for like an episode, start out where he runs into her for some reason and for some other reason ends up bitching to her about how sad he is, meanwhile she rolls her eyes and wishes he'd go away. A little later through some chain of wacky circumstances they end up roped into an adventure together or in some other type of situation where they are forced to cooperate. He winds up learning something about her, maybe realizes that he didn't have it as rough as he thought. Once he reaches this conclusion he realizes what a faggot he's been, makes it up to her somehow, they bond somewhat through solving whatever challenge it was they had to solve, Silver learns a small friendship lesson and is one step closer to being less of a gigantic douche. He makes a friend, he learns something, hopefully you manage to make the story funny and entertaining along the way, and ideally everyone involved grows as a result of the experience.
If you want an example of how to make fun of your own protagonist while still making him an endearing character you may want to give the greentext in the Dale Gribble Goes to Equestria thread a read if you haven't already: >>146529 →
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Silver "don't take off the ball gag I need it to hold the cum inside my esophagus" Star was down at the local malt shop, attempting to seduce Pinkie Pie, or possibly he was just hitting on construction workers and she got in the way. And then, suddenly, this happened:
>Back in the Silver Spire, Aquilla - or rather, Talon Terra - paused her butt-kicking of eight henchponies repeatedly knocked back into her stone-covered claws by flying boulders and dramatically looked back while the blue and white streams of fabric tied to her black catsuit fluttered in the wind, sensing a disturbance in the universe so strong, she felt it from inside the latest issue of the Power Ponies, though she doubted anyone else had a connection with him strong enough to feel it. Couple of things here. For one, this entire paragraph is one long sentence. You don't even use commas to break it up; the whole thing reads like some autistic kid babbling a mile a minute about some cartoon he saw. However, I'd like to set that aside for just a moment, because the more pertinent issue seems to be: why is this paragraph even here? There's no context provided and the events taking place don't really have anything to do with what's going on in the story at the moment. Also, we've never heard Aquilla referred to by the name "Talon Terra" before. Is the implication that this is just her bad-ass ninja moniker, or does the name hold some other significance? I have no idea why you would even bring this up. I don't know why Aquilla is fighting henchponies, nor do I know why you felt it was necessary to mention it here. You've done this once before, just randomly cutting away from the main story to describe Aquilla doing something completely random for like a paragraph, and then just returning to the story with just as little warning. Whatever you were going for here, I don't get it.
The next paragraph is even more of a digression and makes even less sense: >And far away, back in a place Silver had left behind long ago, a large orange-coated mare with a grey ponytail and golden-orange eyes prepared to buck an apple tree. She paused in mid-buck as the disturbance washed over her, and ended up falling to the ground. “Star...” She muttered angrily as she got up. Turning her head back to the tree, she drew her body back and bucked that tree hard enough to send splinters flying out as all the apples fell straight down, even the baby apples, with no regard for where she’d placed her baskets. Making the ‘Eeyup, that looks about right’ expression you’d usually see on a sad Manehattanite whose private magically-driven chariot parking space had been stolen once again, she let go of her rage and began to pick up her good and put them into her baskets while stamping the bad ones into the ground. Presumably this mystery pony is related to Silver's backstory somehow, and maybe you were trying to foreshadow something here. Again, though, I don't see why this needs to be mentioned right now. Much like Aquilla's exploits in the previous paragraph, the events taking place seem to have no connection to what's going on in the main story, and the transition between scenes without warning is jarring.
>“Or like THIS?” Silver asked, horn glowing as he held the milkshake in his hoof, the straw rising up into the air and floating towards his mouth, which his long pony tongue extended towards, curving around the straw’s end to form a pipe leading from the straw to his mouth. And then, out of nowhere, we're back to Silver showing off the skills that made him a hero to the boys of the USS Manhandler.
I read this over a couple of times and I think I get what you were attempting to do here with the cutaways. If I'm understanding correctly, the joke is that Silver is being a show-off, and his faggotry is powerful enough to set off some kind of "Silver is being a faggot" alarm in Aquilla's head, which causes her to pause her ninjitsu practice and reflect on his faggotry, though it would logically follow that if she had such an alarm it would pretty much be going off 24/7 anyway. A similar phenomenon apparently occurs in some mysterious pony from Silver's past, who then proceeds to kick the shit out of a tree for reasons that have yet to be explained. I think this is another one of those scenes that would work as a visual gag but are awkward to try to do in text, although frankly even as a visual gag this would still be kind of awkward. Again, I really wish I had the skills to animate this story as an actual Pony episode just to show you how awkwardly some of these scenes really play out. In any event, unless there's some crucial piece of information buried in either of these paragraphs, I would just cut them as they only add confusion to the scene.
>Silver Star began to suck, and it took almost half a minute of sucking while Pinkie cheered him on before the wonderfully sweet liquid finally entered his mouth in a controlled stream. This line pretty much speaks for itself.
Anyways, Jesus Christ this malt shop scene goes on for like 40 forevers. Silver basically summons some kind of magical silly straw, uses it to drink his milkshake, and then offers Pinkie the straw he just used. Pinkie, of course, is delighted, because just like every other red-blooded Equestrian girl her age she's always wanted a used drinking straw of her very own. She exclaims that it is not her birthday, Silver asks her if she would like to have the drinking straw as a gift for her birthday, then tells her she can just keep the straw anyway and he will get her something else for her birthday. And no, none of this is exaggerated; this is literally what happens.
>She took it, put it on her desk, squeed, and stretched her upper body over to him so she could hug him tight. He happily hugged back, rubbing the side of his face on hers. She was so warm, and soft, and fluffy, and cuuute! He wanted to take her home with him and love her and cuddle her forever and she’d be all his and- no, that was weird, he’d just hug her whenever he saw her. Not going to lie, this shit is starting to get a little creepy at this point. Also, I warned you about the word "squee."
>“Look who’s talking!” Silver chuckled. Yeah, you whore. I know you're excited about your new straw, and it's not every day you get to be borderline-molested by Equestria's most rich and famous totally awesome magical scientist ninja, but for Celestia's sake show a little restraint already.
>She giggled. “Still, we’ve just met!”
>“I know, and I like you already.” He said with a grin, and then thoughtfully said. “Though you do make a good point... May we meet again, some day!” He declared, and teleported away in a flash of blue light.
>Pinkie Pie sighed dreamily. This...I just...I mean...you know what? Fuck it; moving on.
>As another Silver Star walked up towards Sweet Apple Acres’s main gate, he saw Applejack bucking trees near the place’s entrance, baskets all around him as one good kick sent all the apples falling. “Howdy, welcome to Sweet Apple Acres!” Applejack greeted warmly and energetically. Thankfully, she didn’t do that odd rearing-thing Braeburn did when welcoming new ponies to his town. And the way he said the town’s name... What even was that, anyway? “Ah’m Applejack.” Okay, for God's sake, please get rid of the Silver clones. Keeping track of how many different versions of this cum-gargling faggot are currently wandering around Ponyville and which one of them is the "real" Silver is seriously starting to give me a headache. Also, I get the impression that it's meant to be a joke, but bringing up Braeburn out of nowhere really doesn't add anything to the story. Also, you refer to Applejack as "him" which I hope to God wasn't intentional. Also, when using an apostrophe "s" to denote ownership on a noun that ends in "s", you don't append the "s" to the existing "s", you just leave a trailing apostrophe. "Sweet Apple Acres's main gate" should be written "Sweet Apple Acres' main gate."
>“Good morning.” Silver Star said to her in his Twilight-esque Correct-Pronounciation Canterlot accent. “I am Silver Star, Gentlepony Adventurer, Gentlepony ‘Acquisitions Expert’, and decidedly UN-Gentle master of the duelling arena. I’m here because I’m thinking of investing in some local businesses, and nothing says guaranteed profit like a farm.”
>“Really?” She asked, pleasantly surprised. “Well, butter my biscuit! Is there anything you’d like to check over first?” Wait, what? Silver is buying Applejack's farm? Did I read that correctly? And she just sells it to him, like that? No questions asked? Is it even hers to sell? My understanding is it's owned by her family, and Granny Smith would logically be the one to talk to in the event of a property transfer. In any case, I highly doubt Applejack would just sell her family's beloved apple farm to some city-slicker who just wandered in out of nowhere without even so much as consulting the rest of her family. The way she reacts, it almost sounds like she's amazed anyone would even be interested in her farm, and is more than happy to let him take it off her hands (hooves?). This is tremendously out of character for her, and it frankly would make very little sense even if it wasn't.
You know, while we're on the subject, this whole exchange reads as if Silver is introducing himself to AJ; however, they've already met. They've had at least two scenes together at this point: the party (which took place at AJ's barn even) as well as the following morning where she shows up outside his house with Twilight and Co. She even brought him a gift, remember? She gave him rope.
Also while we're on the subject, the phrase "nothing says guaranteed profit like a farm" could not possibly be further from the truth. It's a business model entirely dependent on the whims of Nature. An entire year's crop can be wiped out by blight, insects, too little rain, too much rain, you name it. It's extremely hard and time-consuming work with no guarantee of payoff whatsoever; probably the furthest possible thing from the sort of turnkey business Silver seems to be imagining it as.
I'm almost afraid to see where this goes from here, and yet somehow I can't bring myself to look away. Think I'll do one more post tonight, actually.
>Silver’s horn flashed blue, and summoned a flock of golden ravens with black beady eyes. They took flight and soared over the farm, leaving the two alone. “They’ll get back to me,” He said. “Is there anything you’d like to ask me while we’re waiting?”
>”Well, Ah’ve been t’Manehattan when Ah was younger, but Ah always wondered... What’s life like over in the fancy part of Canterlot?” She asked.
At this point we're just back to typical Nigel-esque horrendous dialog. Basically, the way this exchange goes is like this: Silver, or rather his (ugh) clone, shows up randomly at Applejack's farm and tells her he's going to buy it. She says "sure" without even a moment's hesitation, so he summons a flock of birds to fly over the farm and make sure it meets his lofty standards. At this point, he asks her if there's anything she would like to talk about, and naturally the first thing that comes to mind for her is to ask him a random question about his life in Canterlot. Silver, naturally, answers with a giant wall of text about how Canterlot is like totally lame, and how nopony is as smart and talented as he is.
I'm not going to bother dissecting any of this, because again this is just your usual dialog formula: Silver talks about himself in giant walls of text, and the pony he's ostensibly having a conversation with just interjects leading questions to segue into the next wall of text.
Applejack: Ah've been wonderin' about _________. Silver: *GIANT WALL OF TEXT EXPLAINING _________.* Applejack: Ah see. Now tell me about _________. Silver: *GIANT WALL OF TEXT EXPLAINING _________.* Applejack: Ah see. Now tell me about _________. Silver: *GIANT WALL OF TEXT EXPLAINING _________.*
And so on. Anyway, next we have a long sequence in which Silver tries to sell Applejack some robots to do her evil bidding. Wait, I'm actually a little confused here. Is he buying the farm or not? Because it sounds like he's...you know what? I don't even care at this point. Who even knows what this autistic faggot is trying to do with his clones and his bird army and his wacky sales pitches.
>“So, Applejack... Have you recognized me yet?”
>“Huh? Can’t say I’ve seen you before today, except on the cover of some magazine at Nurse Redheart’s that one time. Why?” Once again, I would like to point out that she has, in fact, seen him multiple times before today. He attended a party thrown in his honor at this very farm. Remember Applejack chuckling ruefully and wandering in and out of the barn? Then, the following day, she shows up at his house with her friends. She brings him a housewarming gift. Rarity is then kidnapped by Diamond Dogs, and they all go off and fight Team Rocket together. Silver and AJ basically spent the entire previous afternoon on an adventure together. Any of this ringing a bell?
>Silver sighed. “It’s understandable. I have changed a lot since you last saw me. Basically, I’m somepony from... Actually, could we go into your barn? It’s a lot easier to set up the best privacy spells when you’re inside a building.”
>Some strange pony wanted to take her into her own barn, and cover the place in ‘Privacy spells’? “Well, that ain’t happenin’,” She said flatly. Sounds like she's been talking to Pinkie Pie.
>“Too late!” Silver Star’s voice called out to her from just outside the barn, hi-fiving another instance of himself. “We’ve already taken the place of every map on the planet for the next week!” What?
>“Try and catch us, Filly!” The second Silver shouted, and they rushed into the barn.
>“Why, you little-” Applejack shouted, rushing into the barn. Sweet fucking merciful horse-Jesus, what the hell is even going on right now?
>And what she saw stunned her.
>On the left, Silver Star, his suit removed and thrown at the ground before him. Oh dear God no >He stood his two rear hooves, pointing his forehooves at the pony between him and the Silver Star on the right, who matched his pose exactly.
>The pony between them, sitting atop an identical black suit... Was a colt. A small colt, with an orange body, a short silver mane, a long and wavy dark-orange tail with a silver streak running through the middle and spreading at the end to form an arrow... and those big and bright baby-blue eyes, happily looking at her like he hadn’t seen her in years, even though he didn’t look like a day had passed since the last time she saw him. I guess now we know what happened to the Lindbergh baby. Anyway, all jokes aside I guess this is the point where Silver does his big reveal to Applejack and informs her that he's really her long-lost cousin or whatever.
>“Star?” Applejack asked the colt in shock. “Star Apple?”
>“Howdy, cousin!” The colt greeted her with a bright grin. “Ah go by Silver Star now, but-”
>She rushed over and hugged him, tears in her eyes as she crushed him.
>“Hey,” The foal whispered as he rapidly grew in her hooves, his body colour and tail colour switching themselves around like they were living liquid paint on a moving canvas. “Not so tight, Jackie.”
>He’d expected her to be furious. He’d expected her to demand an explanation, a full summary of his life and everything that happened to him. But instead, all she did was hold him tightly, strong and a little crushing, as if she was terrified she’d lose him again.
>They didn’t move, and they didn’t say anything. The two Silvers left the original alone, and vanished in flickers of blue light. Even when the Ravens disappeared and sent an urgent message to his mind, he ignored it. He could tell how much she needed this.
>Her Star had returned, and for now, that was all she cared about.
And then, once again, we are blindsided by a surprisingly nicely written ending to what has quite possibly been one of the most haphazardly nonsensical scenes in the history of autistic pony fiction.
>>197728 So would you be interested in acting as a judge for the competition in this thread >>197973 →? You would read each entry and give your judgment on them. You would tell the anons what they did well and what they could improve upon. You will then give each story a rating, a real-valued number between zero and ten. The story with the highest rating in the end wins. If leaf, this anon >>198522 →, also wants to be a judge, then a story's rating is the sum of the numbers you each have assigned it.
>>198709 I accept, but I hereby state that I am allowed to be as snarky and condescending in my reviews as I please, and that I reserve the right to ruthlessly skewer any work that I feel deserves such a skewering.
>>198853 But I sense the underlying question is: Can I be a judge? And to answer that question: Yes, yes you can. For only half the regular price you get... The reason I choose to invite these two specifically was because I knew their capabilities and while I don't know yours I can also tell you that I don't have any standards at all. I could care less of who wins and loses in the end. The point with this thread and my engagement in these kinds of threads, in general, is to bring anons interested in writing together. And anyway, you would just be adding a review to each story and a score. Even if you literally gave the worst storyMy story a ten out of ten, then there would still be two others that wouldn't.
When we last left off, Silver "my body mass is literally 98.5% semen now and none of it is mine" Star had just demonstrated to Applejack, in the most autistic way imaginable, that he was actually her long lost cousin from way back when, in what is actually a fairly well-written and touching scene that is nonetheless ruined by the autism that precedes and doubtlessly follows it. Let's continue.
>But he wasn’t the only Star in town.
Yep, right off the bat, we're back to the clone autism. I just want to take a moment to once again plead with you to consider removing the clones from the story. They add nothing of any particular value to the story, and make it very difficult to keep track of which one of these cum guzzlers is the real Silver.
Anyway, blah blah blah, more clone autism. We get some mundane banter between three of Silver's clones, in which they argue back and forth over which one of them is the "oldest" and therefore the wisest. Apparently Silver creates these things to perform tasks which he can't be fucked to perform himself (again, this creates quite a bit of confusion since in any given scene we don't know if we're dealing with the real Silver or one of his clones). We learn about the existence of a top-secret project called "Operation Underwear" which may or may not be important later.
Incidentally, here is a fine example of the kind of confusion I was talking about: >“He made you before another him read the book that gave him that idea, didn’t he?” Seated Silver asked. I can understand what you're trying to say here, but the sentence is awkward as all fuck.
Here's another one that's even worse: >A proximity alarm alerted them through audio a distinctive half-second-long combination of sounds: The sound of jingling coins as one hollow block of wood fell on another twice.
For one thing, you can barely call this a sentence. It's more like a jumbled collection of random words dumped in between a capital letter and a period. For another, even after I managed at last to translate this into English from Nigelese, it wound up making only slightly more sense than it did before. Apparently, what this is trying to say is that a proximity alarm went off. The alarm consists of two distinct sounds: that of coins jingling, and that of two hollow wood blocks knocking against each other exactly two times. The two sounds are apparently being played concurrently.
I have no idea why the proximity alarm has this sound, nor do I understand why you felt this information was important enough to specifically convey to the reader. It seems to me that you could have just said "A proximity alarm went off" and left the sound of it to the reader's imagination. As your autism has repeatedly been demonstrated to transcend the currently measurable spectrum, I don't doubt that your reasons would make little sense to the uninitiated. Thus, I will say only that this sentence needs a very heavy rewrite, and move on.
Anyway, the silliness with the clones is thankfully left behind, and we are now allowed to proceed with the story. A Pegasus enters Silver's store and begins looking around. Meanwhile, Silver "I summon a Silver Spare to fuck me in the horse ass every time somepony tells me to go fuck myself and now I have literally millions of them" Star tries to charm her into buying some of the useless crap he barged into this quaint little pony hamlet to peddle.
>“Welcome to Silver’s Sundries, buy six Lava Lances and get a free Lavalanche Scroll!” Silver declared, spawning a blackened metal stick six feet in length, one end topped with a jagged triangular fragment of liquid darkness and solid crimson magma seven feet in length, and a small papyrus scroll, its top end attached to a cheap cardboard cylinder. “Good for three uses!” I have a pretty good idea what all three of the uses probably are.
At this point we are made aware that the customer in question is Derpy. He tries to sell her a magic tracksuit, and accidentally calls her Derby. Apparently, at some point in Silver's past (or his clone's; I literally don't even know anymore) he knew a pony named Derby who wanted to join the Wonderbolts. Meeting Derpy reminded him of her. This information, naturally, was only introduced so Silver could have yet another opportunity to dump more of his who-even-gives-a-fuck opinions into a gigantic wall of text and spout them at whatever pony is unfortunate enough to be listening to him at any given moment. Apparently, this time he's bitching about the Wonderbolts. Here's the wall of text if anyone wants to read it:
>He looked to the side, as if he’d just heard and smelled somepony pas gas. “No, she couldn’t handle the pressure of living in a bootleg boot camp full of genuinely terrible ponies used to getting away with the stuff they pull due to being celebrities... or the pressure of getting yelled at and called inadequate by a mediocre circus performer convinced she’s the world’s toughest drill sargeant just because she’s been given the right to yell at young idealists who can’t yell back for fear of being treated worse and ruining their shot at what they’re told is the only way to achieve their dreams. Like all idiots in broken systems, they’re terrible because when they joined, their bosses were terrible to them. And now, having rationalized the jerkery as something inherent in the system, they pass it on to the next generation of circus performers.” He looked back at her, and smiled. “Anyway, after she quit and felt sad for a while, she got into some local street races over in Manehattan, bought some of my patented speed-boosting flightsuits, and she’s now the fastest thing in the circuit.”
The sales pitch at the end, of course, segues into another far-longer-than-necessary conversation about another one of Silver's ridiculous products, in this case a speed boosting suit. Does anyone care? I sure don't. Let's move on.
So anyway, this nonsense continues. Derpy apparently can't afford the magic tracksuit, so Silver suggests...I don't know, some kind of magic gem or something, I wasn't really paying attention. It does some kind of ridiculous magic bullshit that is probably ripped off from Pokemon or Dragonball Z and makes no fucking sense unless you have autism. Anyway, she can't afford this either.
>He leaned forwards, and gazed deeply into her eyes. “Do you know why soaring through the sky so fast you can rip right through a tornado...” He purred. “Is like staring into the eyes of a pony that loves you more than anything else in the world?”
Apparently now he's trying to seduce Derpy as well. Also, you probably don't want to have "He purred." be its own sentence. When you break up dialog like that, you want to do it in a way that lets the spoken part flow as smoothly as possible. >...you can rip right through a tornado," he purred, "is like staring..." would be a better way to write it. However, I would probably not put "he purred" that far into the sentence. You don't want part of the narrative interrupting the character mid sentence, that's just bad form. Again, the idea is to have the spoken dialog flow as smoothly as possible. If you simply wish to inform the reader that Silver is purring, it's best to get it out of the way early on so the reader can focus on what he's actually purring about. Also, the quoted dialog should be the start of a new paragraph. Try this out:
>He leaned forwards, and gazed deeply into her eyes.
>“Do you know," he purred, "Why soaring through the sky so fast you can rip right through a tornado is like staring into the eyes of a pony that loves you more than anything else in the world?”
Anyway, in the end, Silver "I came to suck dick and hock my shoddy merchandise all over Ponyville and I'm all out of shoddy merchandise lol jk I actually have plenty of shoddy merchandise but seriously though I love sucking dick" Star comes up with a solution to Derpy's problem: since she can't afford any of the crappy trinkets he's trying to sell her, he offers to hire her as his own personal delivery pony. Her uniform, lo and behold, is the the very tracksuit she wanted but could not afford. Naturally, she will not receive a paycheck until the cost of the exorbitantly expensive tracksuit has been recouped. Derpy enthusiastically thanks Silver "when I need to unwind I get pounded from behind" Star for the marvelous opportunity that he has given her. Have I mentioned lately that I hate this character?
Then, once this apparently pointless digression from the main plot is concluded, the narrative returns to Applejack's barn. Granny Smith has barged in on Silver and Applejack, and apparently thinks they were fucking or something. She picks up a broom (somehow) and starts swinging it at Silver, who naturally turns into robot birds and teleports to the other side of the barn.
>“No you don’t!” Silver said rapidly, skipping over a comma that really should have been there, gramatically speaking. “We were like that because, uh...” Not sure what comma you were talking about, but in any case, please don't do stuff like this. It demeans us all.
Not wanting to reveal his secret identity to Granny Smith, Silver "ironically, Granny Smith has nothing to worry about because I prefer cock anyway" Star does the only sane and completely non-autistic thing a pony in his position could be expected to do, and immediately launches into a sales pitch for one of his products:
>“HI, SILVER STAR HERE!” He suddenly bellowed.
>“What?” Granny Smith wondered in confusion, lowering the broom. "In confusion" is kind of redundant here, you can probably just say "Granny Smith wondered".
>“What are you doing?” Applejack asked.
>He couldn’t stop now. “Have you experienced aches, pains, cell destruction, telomere degeneration, bone degeneration, bone displacement, limb misplacement, hip replacement, organ misplacement, classical gas, or any other signs of ageing?” Silver asked the elderly mare. I'm going to give you +1 for the Mannheim Steamroller reference if it was intentional. However, I'm also going to give you -4 because this scene is autistic even by your standards.
>“Who, the Flim Flam Brothers?” Granny Smith asked.
>“They just went up my list.” Silver decided. I'm assuming you meant to say "ass" here.
>Silver shrunk slightly as his age reverted, and he threw his suit off to reveal that he was two colts in a suit all along. “Howdy, Granny!” Star Apple said cheerfully. So, apparently, after going to all this trouble to keep his secret identity a secret from Granny Smith, he decides instead to do the opposite and reveal himself to her.
>Granny blinked. “Star Apple? Is that you?”
>“Yep!” They replied in chorus.
>“You became a suit?!” She asked in open shock.
>“I became king of the suits!” The top Silver boasted.
Well, this makes about as much sense as anything else that has happened so far. Also, it is at this point we learn that, among all of his other myriad talents, Silver "I'm so full of cum it is unironically bubbling out of my eyeballs" Star is also a professional bounty hunter named Silver Blaze. Why the hell not. Anyway, there's a somewhat long digressive bit about changelings, and then Silver offers to tell his entire life story, which is thankfully interrupted by...some kind of crash...which apparently turns out to be Apple Bloom uprooting an entire tree stump by herself...
You know what? I'm going to have to stop here. I'm almost out of space, and I feel like this is more than enough autism for one day. I will pick this up at a later date. Until then, I bid you all adieu.
>>197715 >Also while we're on the subject, the phrase "nothing says guaranteed profit like a farm" could not possibly be further from the truth. It's a business model entirely dependent on the whims of Nature. An entire year's crop can be wiped out by blight, insects, too little rain, too much rain, you name it. It's extremely hard and time-consuming work with no guarantee of payoff whatsoever; probably the furthest possible thing from the sort of turnkey business Silver seems to be imagining it as.
This is one of the only rare instances I will give Nigel a pass. What you said about farms is true based on what you know but there's a key point you're missing that this is an MLP fic and that means it's an Equestrian farm, not Earth. In Equestria, farms are probably an incredibly stable business because ponies are the ones that control the seasons and ponies control the weather. Ergo the most of the hardship and struggles with unpredictability of raising crops in Equestria wouldn't exist. If there's not enough or too much rain then she can complain to Rainbow Dash who will set things straight with Cloudsdale. There's still instances of big problems, like when beavers caused the orchard to flood but all it took was Applejack asking Fluttershy to talk to the animals, or the vampire fruit bats causing chaos. But Sweet Apple Acres bounces back with no long damage to the crops in every instance. You can take out some of that out just being due to the cartoon logic from the farm but at the end of the day by the MLP lore the ponies are still the ones largely in control, and the farm's problems are more exaggerated than just simple weather conditions. Ex: the pie delivery through the chimera's hellish landscape.
>>197728 A roundabout way of addressing your concern but Silver "Disappointed Silverstream wasn't named after his favorite bodily fluid" Star could have just said "...and nothing says guaranteed profit like an Equestrian farm.” which highlights that this isnt Earth. It also could serve as small foot in the door for a bit of backstory and since the character is supposedly well traveled and has done businesses with multiple cultures but that he had shit experiences with them leaving him more jaded and cold, but still has high faith in pony culture (later finding that he is especially biased towards his own upbringing with farms). Proper use of backstory that isn't just ranting with a self-insert or exposition autism dumps is totally absent from the fic.
I also agree that Applejack is completely out of character to just handing over the farm for 'investment' she tried to do something similar once and that was only as a teen filly which nearly lost the farm making a deal that Granny Smith didnt have a say in. There's no way she would be gun hoe about it and just highlights again Nigel cant write FiM characters convincingly because he doesnt know anything them and spends his life making 90k masturbatory fics instead. He could have used the section and stubbornness of Applejack to bridge the backstory but instead he plays a retarded game of chase-the-clone and then supplements her brain out for another cardboard 1 liner question and giant wall of text. When he should have used this as a tool to have Applejack ask the questions the reader actually cares about, not some superficial shit about Canterlot.
This is supposed to be a 'big reveal' chapter and the information is completely worthless beyond now knowing he's her cousin. Seriously, the fucking robot sales pitch and not knowing when to stop isn't endearing it's tiring to read and everyone will just glaze their eyes over it. It's never made mention that he could be doing this out of habit or as a stalling mechanism if Applejack was trying to get back to work since he's trying to 'spend time with her'. He never apologizes for being a sperg, not once, just goes into the barn puts on an illusion and then everything's happy and it feels completely artificial. Nigel you are an awful low functioning faggot and you have no clue how to get a character to seem more likable to the audience.
>>197728 >The pony between them, sitting atop an identical black suit... Was a colt. A small colt, with an orange body, a short silver mane, a long and wavy dark-orange tail with a silver streak running through the middle and spreading at the end to form an arrow... and those big and bright baby-blue eyes, happily looking at her like he hadn’t seen her in years, even though he didn’t look like a day had passed since the last time she saw him. >Hey,” The foal whispered as he rapidly grew in her hooves, his body colour and tail colour switching themselves around like they were living liquid paint on a moving canvas. “Not so tight, Jackie.”
So Silver is now a foal for reasons... does it mean that he's just faking being an adult stallion or all his clones autism make up for years of life added onto his physical body? Or is this just copy-catting off what Starlight did with Starburst (an age spell to reveal how he used to look to Applejack?) Does it have actual ramifications? Who am I kidding, something limiting with a downside like adding years of your life for clones experiences rapidly aging the original user would never be something thought out by Nigel.
Another way of approaching the chapter section instead of a random clone showing up for the autistic chase with a dumb reveal would bring back focus how he has a connection with the Apple family. I think it was in one of the better re-writes of this monolithic shitfic that made mention at the very start about how he had been following Applejack and had pictures on his wall, newspaper articles ect of her accomplishments and showed he had a strong interest in something besides himself and that he was documenting one of the Elements of Harmony. In Nigel's version he made mention of Applejack once casually before moving to ponyville out of nowhere and does nothing to set up any sort of mystery or intrigue for the reader thinking what his relationship with her is because foreshadowing is a completely alien concept to him. You don't even have to have the backstory explained in this section with more walls of text, maybe Applejack pry too much for Silver to handle and he has to bail out, leaving the reader to see that he actually does have limits he'll say and secrets to keep that he wasn't ready to share with Applejack.
"Backstory" in Nigel's fic is just completely hallow and reads more like Nigel's own opinions on something he feels like ranting about for FiM rather than anything meaningful to the current chapter. I can't think of any case where 'backstory' was used that the reader didnt already know he's a douchebag for the nth time like railing on about how Spitfire is a lousy leader and bitch because Nigel doesnt like her depiction as a Captain in the show. >"pressure of getting yelled at and called inadequate by a mediocre circus performer convinced she’s the world’s toughest drill sergeant"
>>209241 I do not like Yang. Universal Basic Income is Communism with fewer steps. No country can afford it. Also, Yang is a massive anti-white gunfearer.
That bit with the map. I remember that there was a joke there I didn't finish writing out. And I don't currently remember what it was. Also, he said invest, not buy. I'll go edit that to put a gag there that makes it clearer. I'm glad you liked the "Star is back" scene, I figured it would be more emotionally resonant than a backstory that shows his entire life from colthood to adulthood. Also feck, I forgot the bit where adult Silver pops to prove the colt is the original.
Thanks for noticing what I did with the "This pony thinks farms are a safe bet" bit. Also, why the hell would he design every use of his clones to physically age him for every second they spent alive? He'd essentially be trading his lifespan for the ability to have one of him read books while the real him is on adventures. He'd never take that deal, nobody would. If I did that, it'd mean he's technically still a child, rather than the adult he appears to be. And the "but muh mental age" marxist shit wouldn't work either, because instead of spending twenty one years looping one day and getting older with each loop, he would have spent multiple years as different instances of the same kid reading different things and spending a year or two alive each before their combined age turns a guy who spent the same year as 10 different kids into an adult. Would it be interesting if that kind of drawback existed on this spell? Not really, it'd just give him a reason to never let his clones live for more than a minute or two each, maybe an hour. Silver has no reason to design his own spell to work that way. Don't get me wrong, it's an interesting idea. But it wouldn't work in the story I want to tell. The way his clone spell works is: He magically crafts additional convincing copies of himself, each with the durability of a soap bubble because if he made them tougher, it'd take actual effort to cast. Yes, this means the spell is useless in a rainstorm, sandstorm, strong winds, or hailstorm. Anyway, each copy has all of Silver's memories including the memories of using that spell, the mental and physical abilities Silver had when making them including the ability to tell you're not standing where the original stood, and the predetermined strategy for what each clone standing where should do. Without that predetermined plan on what each Silver does, chaos ensues as each one improvises. Anyway, each clone then attacks or reads books or whatever Silver wanted them to do. When a clone is popped, the energy spent spawning that clone plus all good memories and knowledge the clone had goes to the original. Let's say... Silver makes 3 clones. He calls them C1, C2, and C3. C1 reads a book and pops himself by biting his tongue a little. C2 and C3 don't know what that book said, but the original Silver does. Silver makes two new clones. C1b and C1c. They know what C1 saw in that book. They can tell C2 and C3 if they want. Say C2 spends 3 years as a spy disguised as a maid in Prance, making friends over there and going on wacky adventures with them before popping. Silver remembers the good times in those three years, plus whatever info C2 uncovered. As C2 was around for long enough to develop a unique personality and consciousness that's too distinct from the real Silver for the two to simply blend together without changing the original Silver, the C2 consciousness sleeps in his brain now, talking to other popped clone consciousnesses and waiting for the day Silver puts this C2 consciousness into a robot or the day someone's dumb enough to try and break into the real Silver's brain.
>>212259 You know, you'd only understand my references to Naruto if your anime power level was just as high as mine. Besides, what can I say? I feel nostalgic for the show. >>212286 No, he never actually spent 3 years as a spy disguised as a maid in Prance. Though he totally could have if he wanted to. He just didn't want to.
>>212037 >>212055 Nigel, this anon has some good insights, you should consider listening to him.
>What you said about farms is true based on what you know but there's a key point you're missing that this is an MLP fic and that means it's an Equestrian farm, not Earth. I'll admit that didn't occur to me when I was writing it, you may be correct on that note anon. Nigel probably had that in mind while writing it as well.
I guess I'll amend my criticism of Silver "toss me in the hay and fertilize my crops" Star's investment speculation vis a vis Applejack's farm and say that while Silver's assessment may be correct, the reader might make the same observation I did. Although the primary consumers of fanfiction are, well, fans, any well-written story should still be readable as a self-contained work. Ideally, a story should be readable by anyone, even someone with only a passing prior knowledge of the setting and characters.
I'd recommend dropping in a bit of the details anon mentioned to clarify meaning, even just something as simple as changing "nothing says guaranteed profit like a farm" to "nothing says guaranteed profit like an Equestrian farm."
>>212463 Naruto is to anime what Insane Clown Posse is to rap music: a worse version of something that was pretty contemptible in the first place.
looking forward to Silvers Crossdressing Maid adventure arc and how many dicks he will suck clean, Jason. For full immersion go buy some estrogen pills for method writing.
>>212250 Why do you respond in a general sense to everyone in the thread without actually using the reply feature? >Why the hell would he design every use of his clones to physically age him for every second they spent alive? He'd essentially be trading his lifespan for the ability to have one of him read books while the real him is on adventures. He'd never take that deal, nobody would. Because it's more interesting than the sue-y shit that he's an infalible genius hypertalented prodijgy you constantly shit onto the paper.
He may have been warned or chose to ignore the warnings around the spells, maybe he didn't even know there was a downside until much later and the spell became part of him, always on hand. As a younger more naive colt he stumbles upon something that allows him to achive his dreams with fast results but he burns through his lifespan at a faster rate trying to cheat time. It makes Silver a memorable blinding flash in the pan, and more relatable to everyone reading because time is always against us. He couldnt achieve his goals with a normal lifespan, and immortality is only for Alicorns so thats out. You have Silver with magic that isn't even suitable for his character. A scientific studious unicorn which I will draw parallels to physicists you know people who study physics(magic) for their whole life can get things wrong too right? That there might have been some new information they missed or never thought about that puts the physics(magic) in a completely different light. There's no mistakes Silver makes beyond being a social retard and that's fucking boring. It's also double fucking boring when the characters won't even call him out on being a social retard because they're all cardboard props.
Your narutard soap bubbles clones are just copycatting from anime directly. And they're illogical to the core "durability of a soap bubble" meaning anything a narutard clone touches or puts on or attacks would instantly dissapate them. Last I checked, soap bubbles would pop on grass blades. Making C1 read a book then disapear and the original gain the knowledge from it is again, directly lifted from narutard and everyone is going to know youre a plagerist. Oh yeah and Glimmer also did a clone spell with no downside for kicks, I thought you were trying to distance yourself from Starlight being OP Funny how everything you make your self insert do just makes it more like her. This would have been a much more interesting contrast: they both found a way to gain their dreams via a shortcut but Glimmer went communism while Silver went capitalism. That's what you have and that's what you chose to spend 60k word vomit to screech about but never actually make any effort to drive a major part of writing heros that people root for SACRIFICE.
What the hell has Silver sacrificed in his entire life, or even in this fic? Can you answer that? Because I see literally nothing here, in actuality Starlight has sacrificed more by giving up on friendship to pursue absolute power. Silver has everything he wants and gets anything he wants, he never fails and he never gives up anything of value to himself. He's an insufferable mary-sue, largely thanks to this narutard power that has no time-limit so it's more BS than even in naruto itself where you can gain actual years of experience doing X or running X. This character desperately needs a hard limiter on his ability or he's just omnipresent and grating. Which is why I brought up the life-span trade for power, not a revolutionary idea but better than nothing, even if you dont use that there needs to be SOME kind of downside for what he's done and it cant be just "bluh bluh i didnt make any real friends like the mane6 because I was too busy" because it's a shitty story with nothing to root for when he can do everything you pull out of your ass, making scenes in this shitfic just long excuses for you to pat yourself on the back and everyone who happens to be around your OC praises it. The scene with derpy just pushes more of this red-flag to light. It's not this one case is unbelievable, it's that you overplay this card so many times I want to punch you in the face.
>Oh you're a delivery mare?" "yup!" >Cool by the way ontop of my other thousand occupations and successes, I also run the best delivery service in equestria" "neato il drop my job right now and join yours!"
>>212577 Why do you hate Naruto so much? Call me weird, but I enjoy listening to people talk about why they don't like stuff. I once read a really long series of articles on why Fallout 3 is gay AIDS. Also, sure, I'll go make him specify it's an Equestrian Farm. >>212592 Aha! You accidentally called me Jason! Now you can never call me Nigel again! Also don't be gay lol I specifically brought up the Silver crossdressing example because it's something Silver would never do, so a Silver after three years of suffering through something he hates for the sake of spy info would be very different from the real one. >>212915 I do like the idea of having each Silver Spare erode away at Silver's lifespan. And it gives him a reason to want to desperately seek out immortality before he drops. But it wouldn't be right to Twilight. Could you imagine loving a man who could keel over and die on the spot at any moment, and not of some romanticized tragic illness, but of an ability he spent years trying to learn? Plus, if they were the same age, he'd basically still be a kid or teenager despite having the body of an adult approaching middle-age. It's all the tragedy of having a lover dying of some terminal illness, plus the extra tragedy that is knowing if your lover dies, it's because he miscounted some seconds, accidentally made too many clones, or whatever. You'd know your lover died by his own hand. Best case scenario, he sacrificed a thousand of himself to save someone, sacrificing the real him along with it. Worst case scenario, one of his clones went rogue and fled, desperately trying to preserve its own limited and fragile life at the cost of its creator. Now one Silver that desperately wants to live his limited life before he vanishes into nothingness and leaves behind nothing but whatever bullshit trivia he picked up along the way is getting hunted down by the real deal. ...Fuck, that actually sounds like it would make a great story. Maybe I will go with that. >Silver seems way too perfect because I've only seen the perfect sides of him so far He was a lonely and unloved weak and tiny useless-ass farm boy who figured out magic on his own through trial and error. His parents were the only ones who loved him, but they were incredibly busy(Dad's an Earth Pony Apple Pony farmer, Unicorn mom sold plants) and had no idea how to deal with magic, so they raised another barn and called it the only place where he's allowed to do magic. He once had a pet mouse he found in the field. Once, then he accidentally turned it into a monster and was forced to put it down. When he got to Manehattan and attended a school there, he was so hated and looked down on for being a farmer from a dirt town that when he went to Canterlot, he did so under a false name and fake identity, bullshitting the students there with different fake cover stories before eventually settling on "I'm from another universe that's gone now, I remember nothing and what little I do remember makes me want to stop thinking about it and move on with my life" because everything else sort of folded into it well enough. He lived a lie for most of his life. He learned ancient martial arts, he unlearned that and learned magical martial arts in Canterlot, he took over a thief's guild, he's never won a Major, and he came from nothing. His current power is the result of years of hard work and determination. Which I skipped over because telling you his whole backstory later means the mane six shows up sooner. There's also the thing that got rid of his Duel Academy friends. Not sure if I should reveal that now or when the fic gets to that part. But it's a major fuckup on Silver's part, where his overconfidence ruined his own life and the lives of several others. If I made Silver Spares cost life, he wouldn't be able to have fucktons of spares trying to undo that fuckup of his. But... [body is too long]
>>212950 I think there should be more. I've been thinking about what you said, and what I've seen in other stories. I've been thinking... What if, at the end of his martial arts training, there was some big test that's also a test of character and he failed both, so he gave up on martial arts and moved on with his life? And he'll say shit like "I'm a pro martial artist" now and then, but the fact remains that he wasn't knighted as a true master or whatever the fuck? Also, what if he made some other big magical fuckup at some point in his life, and it damaged his body in some way? What if he has a cool-looking scar on his body, except it's actually an illusion that makes it look small and cool and the real scar is absolutely hideous? What if he was also blinded, or one of his forelegs or half his body or more was made of incorrectly-coloured magically-altered cells because he'd lost that chunk of body, or something like that? But the magical cells thing, it isn't some sort of "Super-arm" made of "Super-cells" that work better than regular cells and give the user super strength and super martial arts and super wood magic powers. Fuck that noise. It's just an ugly-looking fake arm inferior to the real thing he used to have. Alternatively, he could go the metal-prosthetic Fullmetal Alchemist route. Silver having a literal Silver arm would be cool. And it'd suck for him if he ever fought a metalbending foe. And I can't see Silver not trying to use magic to mitigate the effects of having physical disabilities. I can't see him not having a big floating eye float above his head/having a magical connection to a pet bird that sees for him if he goes blind. The thing is, if I take the whole "Scarred hero who's sacrificed a lot" thing too far, it starts looking like some edgy crap that doesn't belong in FIM. So I'm not sure how far I should take that. I know one place I definitely DON'T want to take it: No Jinchuriki Demon-Carrier "I have a giant monster made of evil magic sealed within me" bullshit. No "I have a second absolutely massive mana bar I can call upon when shit hits the fan" bullshit, no "There's a monster inside my belly that tells me to kill because killing is existence" bullshit, no "My actions and deeds are constantly watched by a malevolent being and when we get angry my magic turns red" bullshit. Even though it would be weirdly funny if his love of Naruto compelled him to respond to an Ursa Major attacking his hometown with trying to seal it inside him.
>>212950 >Silver seems way too perfect because I've only seen the perfect sides of him so far >Goes into a story were Silver literally does nothing wrong and actually makes him look more perfect than before
I remeber that Naruto was also an underdog but he was also jealous of Sauske; mischvious, painted on the village's stone faces; and obnoxious to everyone around him. Well, I was also told this through painful exposition as well but whatever. When was anime known for subtly?
>Also, why the hell would he design every use of his clones to physically age him for every second they spent alive? >I do like the idea of having each Silver Spare erode away at Silver's lifespan.
I understand you can change your mind. That is not what I am after. What I am trying to higlight here is that fact that you don't understand why your character is flawed as it is right now.
Leaf-anon has said this before and I think this demonstrate what he was talking about perfectly. He said that your are here for instructions not advice. You are proving him right here by this interaction.
You didn't understand why Silver's clone ablity need to be nerfed in someway before you saw the benefit of such an idea in practice. You were literarly given an idea, an instruction on how to give Silver's ablity a drawback. While the way to give advice would be, not to give you and idea or a piece of another anon's inspiration, but to tell you your character needs a drawback to his ablities. Then let you figure out what that drawback would be for yourself. Instead what has happend is that someone else has solve this problem for you.
>>212950 >>212952 If your only answer is "b-but he made mistakes and sacrifices in the past" then it's still a shitty redemption story when the audience doesnt experience anything of value for character development in the PRESENT. Protagonists need to be able make mistakes because it's what makes them relatable you faggot. Look at pixar's Cars. it has an asshole hotshot but he makes stupid mistakes because hes a selfish fuck and learns how to be a better character thinking of others through forced out of the interactions. Everyone is rooting for him by the end of the movie making it a successful redemption we can get on board with because we went through his struggles, highs and lows.
There's nothing in your 110k train-wreck that has ever made me root for him. And knowing his pity backstory doesnt convince me any either when he's not going through anything to change the status quo of everyone lapping up his dick and solving everything with no effort. Derby/Derpy is just more of the same shit, there's a good foundation for something to be told with that as a subplot but you just cast it aside for more "My OC makes everything better by simply existing the episode.". Worst of all he looks like a sociopath scumbag while you pat yourself on the back for another w
Suddenly the burger was silenced by a crossdressing grey unicorn with a Naruto hair-cut.
>Cars Not my go to for an example of a redemption arc. Did you see it lately or what?
>PRESENT Yeah, backstories should not replace their own stories. For two reasons I can think of: The first being that a backstory automatically becomes telling rather than showing in its presentation. The second reason is that since we know the how it will end, it becomes less intresting.
>>213038 >Not my go to for an example of a redemption arc. Did you see it lately or what? No it's just an example I can pull from as a super-star asshole MC redemption story. But still far easier to swallow because he's only good at one thing being a fast racer, while Nigel's fic is always going to be bogged down with the cancer of being a masterclass success at everything he wants. The characters are just orbiting facades of interest for him to dump walls of text about his OC onto the reader, it just never ends.
>>211855 >>211888 >“Absolutely! So, Derby-” He began, adding layers of honey to his voice. “It’s Derpy.” >"Really?” He asked in surprise, his voice honey-free, and then he realized his mistake. He fought to stay calm and in control, resisting the urge to spin out like a Pegasus tumbling through the center of a tornado, unable to fly or right himself, making a complete fool of himself. He forced a charming smile, and began to feel it for real. “Sorry, I just knew a mare named Derby growing up, she loved racing and wanted to join the Wonderbolts more than anything in the world.” >“Sorry, I just knew a mare named Derby growing up, she loved racing and wanted to join the Wonderbolts more than anything in the world.”
The only thing we learned here is that Silver needs to be right and topical about everything or he starts to panic, will this ever get brought up again? But it's quickly pushed aside for more walls of text about him and his greatness. The brief side thing with derby is pushed aside for more autistic wall of backstory '''''greatness'''''' as a topical insert.
>“That’s nice. Did she join them?” >He looked to the side, as if he’d just heard and smelled somepony pas gas. “No, she couldn’t handle the pressure of living in a bootleg boot camp full of genuinely terrible ponies used to getting away with the stuff they pull due to being celebrities... or the pressure of getting yelled at and called inadequate by a mediocre circus performer convinced she’s the world’s toughest drill sargeant just because she’s been given the right to yell at young idealists who can’t yell back for fear of being treated worse and ruining their shot at what they’re told is the only way to achieve their dreams. Like all idiots in broken systems, they’re terrible because when they joined, their bosses were terrible to them. And now, having rationalized the jerkery as something inherent in the system, they pass it on to the next generation of circus performers.” He looked back at her, and smiled. “Anyway, after she quit and felt sad for a while, she got into some local street races over in Manehattan, bought some of my patented speed-boosting flightsuits, and she’s now the fastest thing in the circuit.”
Just look at how fucking much one character gets to talk vs the other, Silver may be the MC but it is absolutely suffocating and nobody ever says shit about this in the fic making it painfully obvious Nigel doesnt even think this is bad writing and perfectly acceptable to keep doing this. Instead of pacing out the text over a scene with multiple actions, it's dumped dialog on us all at once. No cut-away used either where Derpy gets to talk to someone else later using the information she learned from Silver, when we can fill in the gaps. Nigel you have no concept of pacing or natural dialog and zero respect for the audience.
>“Isn’t it cheating to use magic to go faster in races?” Derpy wondered. >He chuckled, as if the question was funny to him. In truth, it was because he’d already practiced this particular question and response. “Is it cheating to move checkers in a board game?” >“Uh... no.” >“Is it cheating to move chess pieces differently from how you move checkers?” >“I don’t... think it is.” >“If you were forced to compete with a Wind Mage in an Iron Pony competition, would it be cheating for you to use your wings to do what the Wind Mage is already doing with magic?” >“I don’t know.” >“Is it cheating to be awesome? The rules of a race set out what is and isn’t acceptable, and if they say you’re allowed to wear clothes, I say you’re allowed to let those clothes do this.” >“The enchantments of these tracksuits are powerful, and impossible for anypony short of a trained professional on my level or above to detect.
Silver looks like a scumbag with a shady morality in this scene he's willingly pushing Derpy into using the equivelent of steroids and she's all too happy to jump on board because shes innocent. The only thing he says about this is "it wont be detectable" like drug tests and the suit lets her fly faster like steroids allow atheletes to preform better. Ontop of that, he wants her to abandon her old job at the drop of a hat which will make everything harder for the other delivery ponies. Is ANYTHING going to be done with this or is it just what I think it is, the only thing this shitfic has ever shown is "Silver is the best and solves a pony's problems gaining a new bestie and coworker while she falls for his generous ability to take lots of girth" I can't wait until we get the "silver knows better than the princesses and makes equestria a better place episode" oh wait we already did that with chapter6.
I want to put out there that this Derpy/Derby setup is honestly a far more interesting of a story to do with than Silver has ever been in the whole of the 100k masturbation text. Every once in a while there's a glimmer of an interesting idea in this monolithic shit. I'll just expect it to be dropped potential, utterly wasted for a shallow OC.
>>212950 >Why do you hate Naruto so much? lol mostly I'm just giving you shit, I actually don't know that much about it. My opinion of Naruto is based on the fact that I watched a single episode over a decade ago and thought it was terrible, coupled with the fact that most of the fandom surrounding it is cringe even by anime fandom standards. Though I was an Inuyasha fan so maybe I'm not one to talk. Who knows, maybe I'd like Naruto if I gave it a chance; prior to 2017 I had a similar view of MLP and bronies after all. Maybe I'll attempt to give it a serious watch and do a thorough review of it at some point.
>>212952 Giving him failures and past mistakes is a start, but overall you're still thinking too superficially. Whether he has a scar or a fake arm or suffers from a magic curse placed on him by a former Scoutmaster that keeps his anus in a permanent state of prolapse doesn't really matter. And just to warn you, trying to make a character more sympathetic by adding layer after layer of tragic backstory is a pitfall that many a bad writer has fallen into, and people will notice and make fun of you for it.
Silver's basic arc as far as I can tell is that he starts off as successful but arrogant and selfish, and ends up making friends and becoming a better person/pony. That's a good enough arc for an FIM story. However in order to pull this off you need to put a lot more thought into who your character is, and by who he is I don't mean what his powers are or whether or not he has laser eyes or a dueling scar or a robotic scrotum. If you want to give him stuff like that it's fine for the type of thing you're writing, but it's just a decorative layer that has nothing to do with what moves the story or makes your character likable or unlikable. Giving him a more humanized/poninized backstory is a start, but even that will ring false if you don't flesh your character out.
We know who this character is to some extent. He's supposed to be unlikable at the start of the story, and you've done a fine job so far of showing that side of his personality. But if you want to redeem him, what in his character shows that he deserves redemption? Giving him a tragic past might explain or even excuse some of his present behavior, but it doesn't redeem him. Filling his backstory with mistakes and failures gives him flaws, which is better than making him a complete asshole who is also flawlessly successful and powerful. However, you're still just trying to offer excuses for him rather than showing why he deserves the reader's compassion. To put it another way: what is the "nice" thing at the core of his being that you want the reader to see by the end of the story, and how can you provide glimpses of it to show that it's buried inside him?
Here's an example from the point in the story I've just left off at: Silver approaches Applejack, tells her he wants to "invest" in her farm. Silver's approach to this would probably involve a lot of ridiculous magic, robotic farm workers, Elder Things summoned from deplorable spheres beyond Pony comprehension, that sort of crazy shit. His goal would probably be to make her farm more efficient or profitable, and his solutions would probably work to that effect. However, knowing Applejack's character, she would not be too keen on this, and would be pissed off at him for fucking with her farm. Silver would not understand why she was angry, and would in turn get angry with her. Stuff happens, maybe another pony gets involved and talks to the both of them to help straighten it out. Eventually, Silver is made to realize that AJ doesn't grow apples to make a profit, running a farm with and for her family is just part of her reason for being. He realizes that her way of doing things really didn't need any improvement, even if the farm as a business might have superficially benefited from robot penguins driving nuclear-powered tractors, or whatever kind of retardation he comes up with. The reader would be exasperated watching Silver's behavior, and would be immensely frustrated that he can't figure out that he's hurting Applejack rather than helping her. However, the reader would also see that he was legitimately trying to help her in his own idiotic way. You would have a story about a flawed but well-meaning character doing something stupid for the right reasons. He makes a mistake, he learns from it, he grows. The episode demonstrates that A) there is something inside of Silver worth redeeming, and B) he is capable of learning from his mistakes. These are the kinds of building blocks you use to redeem a character. Once you've got a few episodes like this under your belt, then you can start giving away bits and pieces of his backstory to show how he became the way he is at the beginning of the tale, when he was presented as selfish and arrogant. If you want the reader to sympathize with Silver, you have to demonstrate that he deserves their sympathy even when he fucks up. If the whole story is just Silver bouncing around behaving like an autistic twat, it doesn't matter how many mistakes he's made or how tragic his backstory is, he's still an autistic twat.
Do yourself a favor and forget about his martial arts training and robotic legs and all that stuff for now, focus instead on his inner being and what you would like the reader to ultimately take to heart about this character from the time they spend with him.
>>213012 I don't want to be rude but please stop with the "You're a monster who'll never learn" talk, it distracts people from honest critique. I want to write good stories, and I'm listening to what's being said about them. The age limit is a good idea, but it's too dark for MLP and potentially makes him a miserable kid/teenager in a dying adult's body. Getting with Twilight in that state would just be weird. >>213029 I think what made people really root for Lightning McQueen was that bit where he's stuck in the shit town where he can't be a fast racer, and he's also not treated like a fast racer. Remember that scene where two cars from outside show up, find the locals disturbing and insane, find Lightning, and when he begs them for help, they think he's the most disturbing and insane one of the lot? That's a powerful scene. But how could I put Silver in such a state? What would lead the town of Ponyville to do something on the level of shackling him to a road-making machine? Why would they even have such a thing? Maybe they could shackle him to a big plough. But again, why would they do that? It just doesn't seem to fit their characters at all. >>213057 >Silver looks like a scumbag with a shady morality in this scene he's willingly pushing Derpy into using the equivelent of steroids and she's all too happy to jump on board because shes innocent. Yep, I did that bit on purpose. He's always looking for a profit, it's one of his character flaws. >>213090 >My opinion of Naruto is based on the fact that I watched a single episode Well, there's your problem. I once saw a part of one Naruto episode (The one where Naruto's shoved down a big crack, and he's forced to go inside himself and call upon the Nine-Tails to save himself) and thought it was a load of crap. How can there be stakes if there's a giant fucking Pokemon inside him nobody else has, and it's willing to save his ass whenever he needs it? Much later, I saw one scene of a different Naruto episode. It was an early one, where Sasuke was fighting Haku(God, anyone remember when we thought fucking Haku was OP, and people said the Byakugan is better than the Sharingan? Truly, those were simpler times). That scene was epic enough to keep me hooked, even though I had no idea who any of these characters were. So when the episode ended, I went on one of those "WatchAnimeOnline" sites and watched episode one, and... It hit me, emotionally. I felt things no show had made me feel before. I kept watching, and I was hooked. The show lost its mind during the final arcs, but it was a great series. As for the fandom... I never understood that whole "That fandom sucks because it's cringey and it's cringey because it's popular and uncool" crap. Sure, some Naruto fans were total fucking dorks, but anime is already something for total fucking dorks. The same can be said about movies and books and everything else that isn't sportsball. Then again, sportsball fans have their own dorky shrines to their favourite teams. But the sheer level of hate for Naruto fans in particular always baffled me. It's not like the fandom encouraged Sega to stay away from true innovation and make shit games for over ten years (Sonic), harassed and bullied an underaged girl into suicide for purpleface cosplay crimes, insufficiently fat fanart crimes, and other crimes against leftist orthodoxy (Steven Universe), or lost their fucking shit over a Schezuan Sauce marketing scam that left tens of thousands all over America standing outside in the dangerously hot sun for nothing (Rick and Morty), or lost their shit because of a last-minute Woke Button press that made everyone call the third worst-written season of a garbage show the best the show's ever been (Legend of Korrap). Yeah, the fandom made a lot of porn and OCs, but the Sonic fandom made worse porn and worse OCs. At least the average "Joey Uchiha" can stand on his own merits without needing a "Fused with Shadow and Sonic through the fusion dance" form. Yeah, the fandom made a lot of godawful fanfics, but Harry Potter made more of them, and far worse ones. Sure, Naruto invented Nyx, but the bronies invented a worse Isekai. In any case, I would definitely recommend Naruto. And not just because cracking open some cold ones with the boys and laughing at old shit fanfics everyone used to love is a great time. But if you watch it, make sure to skip the filler arcs. And definitely skip Filler Hell. Also, good call with the "Silver fucks up AJ's farm" thing. I was just going to do that as a "Silver does this to prove he isn't an asshole" bit but that sounds better.
>stop with the "You're a monster who'll never learn" talk
but of course. I remember the day when Chris Chan stopped being a screaming tard, when DSP stopped begging for money and when Nick Bates stopped licking the feces out of his 8 year old sisters buttcheeks.
The Day Jason Goodwin stops writing shitty self insert fanfics and accepts criticism will be the day i burn a wodden cross in my yard.
>>213117 This this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this.
>>213116 You are right, Nigel. Projecting isn't very nice. ;P Okay, enough sassiness from me. I am not saying you do this because you are a monster. I am saying that it is basically what you are doing no matter if you are unaware of it or not.
The very first post glimglam made had this qoute in it: >You've accused him of misrepresenting your character, but this sentence literally describes your character verbatim. You literally made your self-insert character rich, handsome, ridiculously overpowered both physically and mentally, a more powerful magician than the canon world's established top magician and protagonist, Twilight Sparkle (who is naturally madly in love with him) an interdimensional traveler who writes books about quantum physics, and literally the world's greatest ninja.
Has any of this changed?
We have given you plenty advice, yet you do not even respond to that, which you just proved again by your latest post. There you didn't even responded to the valuable advice glimglam gave you but instead focused solely on the Naruto part.
Are you going to take it to heart the idea that giving Silver a pity backstory isn't going to make your character more sympathetic and that you need to redeem him in the present?
>Do yourself a favor and forget about his martial arts training and robotic legs and all that stuff for now, focus instead on his inner being and what you would like the reader to ultimately take to heart about this character from the time they spend with him.
What are your honest thoughts about this?
Another thing.
>Silver looks like a scumbag with a shady morality in this scene he's willingly pushing Derpy into using the equivelent of steroids and she's all too happy to jump on board because shes innocent. >Yep, I did that bit on purpose. He's always looking for a profit, it's one of his character flaws.
Okay, will this be adress in any way or form later in the story? We are 100k into this story. Where is the redemption part of it? C.S. Lewis has a qoute that goes like this, "The "good" characters in a story says a lot about the author."
You know that I can misunderstand this right. Because in this atypcial scene were Silver is braging to everyone and everything and the story's universe is preforming fellatio on him, it is hard to understand that this character is currently doing a mistake. I mean I see it but because you don't adress this, it can make me think that you don't.
>>213116 That's fine Nige, I will try to give it an honest watch at some point. Please do give the rest of what I wrote a thorough read though, that was meant to be the important bit.
So, it looks like Apple Bloom just bucked a tree stump and sent it careening across the farm for...some reason. I'm curious to find out why.
>Silver, on the other hoof, was openly impressed by the small equine. “Woah,” He said, and grinned. ”So, how long have you been following the Silver Diet?” Alright, I'm just going to stop you right there. I have a pretty good idea what "the Silver diet" probably is, and shame on you for corrupting poor little Apple Bloom in this twisted universe of yours.
Oh wait here's what he was actually talking about:
>“I just told a hilarious joke,” Silver explained. Oh shit, I have to say that really was a pretty hilarious joke. Give me just a moment to collect my ruptured and disconnected sides, and then we'll move on.
>“A while ago, when fad diets were getting popular, I made my own, with a built-in daily exercise regimen. And it was actually healthy, unlike every other fad diet ever. Eventually, everypony who followed fad diets followed that one, and nopony was willing to give up the actual health benefits of my regimen, so the whole industry collapsed when everyone decided to stop talking about them. I am, hilariously, implying that you became this strong by following my fad diet, which I named The Silver Diet. This is also an unspoken prompt for you to tell me how you became this strong.” This entire paragraph is a fine example of some extraneous text you could cut out to whittle down the word count of this behemoth. This is just more pointless self-fellating from Silver and it's annoying the way he keeps doing it, particularly since these little interjections usually have nothing to do with the story. I've emphasized this point more than once so forgive me if I repeat myself, but there is a clear pattern in this story and it's one you should be aware of and try to break when you revise/rewrite it, as well as when you write new works in the future. Here's how it usually works:
<SOMETHING HAPPENS> Silver: Hey, <thing that's happening> reminds me of that time I saved thousands of orphans from a burning building while making billions in the stock market and mastering a lost martial arts technique. Want to hear about it? No? Well, here I go anyway. *huge wall of text detailing that time Silver saved thousands of orphans while making billions of dollars and mastering martial arts, and/or detailing his unsolicited opinions on something in the pony universe that you, the author, don't like for whatever reason*
Please try to stop doing shit like this.
Anyway, let's find out what made Apple Bloom so strong, because now I'm legitimately curious.
>“I saw a crater from a meteor!” Apple Bloom declared. “And I checked it out and the ground around it fell apart so I fell in but I found a card and it jumped onto my hoof and sank into it! I can’t get it out, but I’m really strong now!”
So, it looks like that card that Big Mac found earlier has given AB some sort of magic super strength. Finally, roughly 50,000 words into the text, the plot begins to sort-of thicken. Silver attempts to teleport her away so he can extract the card from her hoof, but finds he is unable to teleport her for some unknown reason. Then, suddenly, Diamond Dogs appear.
Silver emerges from some kind of heavy-metal smoke cloud wearing a rad orange visor and looking like a bad-ass anime protagonist. He sends the Diamond Dog flying into a tree with his powerful hooves of vengeance.
>An Apple fell on his head, to add insult to injury, and he angrily got up. The word "apple" should not be capitalized here, not just because it's grammatically incorrect. It's clear from the context that you're talking about a literal apple falling on the dog's head. However, this scene also includes several members of the Apple family, so by saying "An Apple fell on his head" rather than just "An apple fell on his head" it sounds like you're implying that either AJ, AB or Granny Smith fell on this dog's head. I assume that isn't what you meant to say.
>In a far lower and gravelly tone than usual, Silver spoke. “I’m here to take cards and take names...” He growled, grinned, and paused to let the background music intensify. ”And I’m not leaving until I get both.”
>All the females around him gazed at him in awe. Jesus fucking Christ dude.
>“I’m wearing the Vision Of Awesomeness, one of my most powerful and reliable magically-enhanced visors,” Silver growled intensely as he folded his forehooves, and everypony immediately wanted to buy 20. Jesus. Fucking. Christ. Dude.
>The area around them went dark, for dramatic purposes only. This is another example of sight gags that don't work well in text. In this scene, the Diamond Dogs perform a choreographed intro sequence assisted by some unexplained environmental effects. I can visualize the kind of thing you are having them do, and it would work fine in animation or even in a comic panel. However, in text you have to laboriously describe everything that's happening, including things like the background going black and spotlights appearing out of nowhere. Since the story is set in a cartoon world it's not out of the question to have things like this happen, but again when you have to describe improbable events like this in text it doesn't have the same effect it would have in a visual medium, and it hurts your suspension of disbelief. It's a stylistic choice to include unrealistic cartoon elements like this so I will leave it up to you, but personally I would advise just having them read their intro dialog and move on without going into too much visual detail.
>>213179 You are taking criticism well enough in my book as far as I am concerned but that is not what I wanted to talk about.
I am asking you: Will you change Silver?
I would also ask if you could give me a synopsis or a summary of the events that transpire in your story so that any critic would know what you are aiming for with your story instead of just assuming your intent in each scene.
>>213116 >I think what made people really root for Lightning McQueen was that bit where he's stuck in the shit town where he can't be a fast racer, and he's also not treated like a fast racer. >Remember that scene where two cars from outside show up, find the locals disturbing and insane, find Lightning, and when he begs them for help, they think he's the most disturbing and insane one of the lot? >That's a powerful scene. But how could I put Silver in such a state? What would lead the town of Ponyville to do something on the level of shackling him to a road-making machine? Why would they even have such a thing? Maybe they could shackle him to a big plough. But again, why would they do that? It just doesn't seem to fit their characters at all.
The point of bringing up Cars wasn't so you could plagiarize it but learn from it. Making Lightning a fish out of water removing him from his element of being a racecar where he can't be a racecar isn't what caused him to be redeemed, it was everyone praising him and he had no reason to change until he was ripped away from that environment being exposed to people who disagree with him, criticize him or mock him. Being held hostage by hicks just made for a comical scenario and yes made the audience a little bit sympathetic from his perspective so he's not just being a dick to everyone and we have to listen to it for 50 minutes. It was by making bad decisions then learning of someone elses perspective and actually listening to people is what caused him to be redeemed, everything else is just set dressing.
Look at the contrast of how he blows off his trailer partner at the very start of the movie (who he depends on to get everywhere but it's a thankless job) because it's all about "ME" time on the racetrack and his only dream is to be a big super-star in a condo with babes surrounding him and ditch his sponsor. Did you forget that the very reason he ended up in the lot8 was because he forced his partner to stay awake on the road while he can get beauty rest? Completely selfish desires and cocky arrogance is how he ended up where he was, it's not like he was actually kidnapped or dropped into it because the plot demanded it, he very well could have avoided it if he wasnt a selfish asshole, and being empathetic to his driver. It's the realistic part of fantasy like this that will resonate with people. You reap what you sow.
Then you look at the end of the movie where after (being forced to) spend time with everyone he paved the road for thanks and makes sure everyone is happy but he's then torn from his new friends as his old life catches up with him and it was his idol that ratted him out to the press putting the 'selfish desires can hurt others' moral back in full focus "better for everyone or better for you?" The end scene is that L M'C depends on everyone where he cant focus on the track but keeps thinking back to their time together, it's a 180 in his attitude and the audience experiences all of the little things that turn him around that challenged his worldview.
Without the pieces of the puzzle it would have been a shit redemption story. There was also things that kept his interest in the lot before he was even fully redeemed, like a girl he wanted and the fact another race-track and racecar was in the same place. This is important because it gave him a motive to stick around on his own, that gives him agency instead of just being held against his will and ultimately played a large part in his turn around because he couldn't get what he wanted with this new thing without changing his principles and decided that it was more important than his old mentality and uses his popularity to make Lot8 thrive, not to bask in the riches.
I've got an idea, how about Star/Nigel drop the pretense of Twilight getting with him because while that's an obvious hard-on the author has for himself, it would/will never legitimately happen given how Silver is written, no matter how many "cool animes" the author draws on. >t. that guy who's getting sick of Nigel not learning his lesson and carrying on like he has
>>213225 You are already not like Nigel. Since who can even compare to Nigel. Us mortals can certainly not. But you can participate in the next writefag competition. I will make a new one soon.
>>213225 Use the characters as tools for development of the MCs instead of tools to self-felatio the MC. (Insert love interest) falling for the OC and never having any arguments or fallout no matter what Silver does (like the starlight shitshow in ch6) will not cause him ANY development because he always gets what he wants and never has to change his views when what he wants is never taken away from him or in danger of being lost. Silver moving to ponyville is also something that he himself decided he wanted, and he wants and gets friends. Twilight was pushed into friendship out of her own will by Celestia but warmed up to the ideas by episode 2.
Conflict and reflection must happen for redemption or change to be brought to the table. No such meaningful conflict between characters in Nigel's fic has happened, just bullshit animu plots about cards and diamond dogs and autistic walls of how great his OC is at everything under the sun. If a character has glaring flaws then it's up to the author to make them pay for said flaws or be voiced concerns so the suspension of belief remains intact and it's not just a cardboard props.
Alright, moving on. In our last adventure, the Diamond Dogs were introducing themselves. And as we resume, they are still introducing themselves, because this introductory sequence (for three characters we've already met in a previous chapter, mind you) goes on far longer than it has any earthly right to.
>“And Butcher’s da name!” The tiny female Manehattanite dog announced, landing on their crossed arms. The author had no idea what this breed of dog was called, but she was about the size of a filly, she was covered in excessively long bone-white fur, her muzzle was small and pointed, and her eyes were soulless black dots. Don't do stuff like this. If you don't know what type of dog she is, either look it up, make her a different type of dog, or just don't mention her breed and stick to describing her physically instead. Of all the things you do repeatedly in your writing that drives me insane, pointlessly breaking the fourth wall just to make a dumb joke is near the top of my shit list.
Anyway, some more shit happens. They fight for a while, the Diamond Dogs take the card from Apple Bloom, Silver tries to kick one of them and finds out the card has given her super strength and immunity from pain or something.
>Furious, she looked around, only to instinctively duck when she somehow sensed incoming danger and exactly what it was, a magical beam of blue light that shot over her head, struck an apple tree, and turned its fruits to chocolate. This could be phrased much better. This is another example of a passage where the meaning is clear enough but the sentence is awkwardly constructed. For one thing, it's a run-on sentence that should probably be broken up. Basically, three things happen here. One, the Diamond Dog (sorry, I forgot which one of them she is, so I'm just going to call her Poochy from now on) looks around her in a furious manner. Two, some instinct compels her to duck, and duck she does. Three, a laser beam goes shooting over her head and turns some apples into chocolate. I would suggest splitting these events between a couple of sentences, like so: >Furious, she began to look around her. All of a sudden she ducked, just as a blue beam of light shot over her head, striking a nearby apple tree and turning its fruits to chocolate. You may want to tweak it further, but that's more or less how I would tackle it.
Anyway, there's some more examples of poorly-phrased description I could go into but it's all the same kind of thing. I imagine when you're writing a scene like this, the tendency is to just describe a play by play of the action as it's happening in your head, and that kind of stream of consciousness narration is fine for just getting the events down on paper. But be sure to go back and read over what you've wrote, because odds are there are better ways to describe things once you've got them down. Even the most innocuous sentences can usually do with a bit of revision.
>And the shape of that shield... No matter where you stood and what angle you saw it from, you always saw a perfectly-flat two-dimensional six-pointed blue hexagon perfectly facing you, floating between you and Silver, just slightly larger than him, and that moment the impossible shield spent in reality was enough: Springer and the burning electricity around her was left screaming in fury as she flew at double her original speed in the opposite direction, travelling miles before she managed to turn the solid blaze of electrical doom around.
>The thing turned like an airship, but finally, it soared at Silver once again, and he leapt into the air to repeat his trick. “Blip!”, his magical Reflector spell went, and sent the golden arrow of growing gold rocketing away, its speed doubled once more. She seemed to be getting better at turning, because she redirected the lightning attack at him faster, only for him to bat it away with the same shield, doubled in size, speed, and power.
This bit is actually much better. The first paragraph is technically also a run-on sentence and you may want to consider breaking it up, but the word flow is much better this time so you don't notice the length as much. A stickler for writing rules might cringe at the use of the second-person "you" rather than describing the shield from Poochy's perspective, but I don't think it does any particular damage here. I'd also say that "the golden arrow of growing gold" in the second paragraph is a bit redundant. Beyond that though, these two paragraphs are well written. The information that needs to be conveyed is conveyed clearly, and it's eloquently phrased. Whatever deficiencies you might have when it comes to building characters or telling a coherent story, you have a knack for description that brings the quality of your writing up a notch even when what you're writing about is basically terrible. Your problem is that you use this power intermittently; some of your paragraphs are fantastic, others read like a kindergartner wrote them. Remember: editing and revision can be tedious, but it's worth the time and effort. You should aim to have all of your story's paragraphs read at least this well.
>>213225 >As an aspiring writer,Can i get some tips on how to not be like nigel? I have literally spent the last seven months turning this thread into a masterclass on how to not be like Nigel. So far, the biggest hurdle has been trying to teach Nigel how not to be like Nigel. Anyway, most of what I've written applies directly to Nigel's story, but I try to make my advice accessible to anyone trying to avoid the same pitfalls. Feel free to post any questions you might have about any topic I discuss and I'll try to answer as best I can.
>>213210 Nice reviews as usual, Glimmy. As you probably read, I intended to make a new competition thread soon. I know you say that I should call you if I ever felt like doing it again so here I am doing that. Would you like to be a judge again I would love to have you in the jury? Video is motivational. Well, there was suppose to be a webm with this one but it hasn't worked. >>213215 Nice recap of the events of that movie. It was like years ago since I watched it but that seems about right.
>>213228 >But you can participate in the next writefag competition. I will make a new one soon. Great, Thanks. But i will warn you now. i'm Shit at Writing. >>213230 So Don't Make the MC a mary Sue? Sounds easy enough. >>213235 Thanks Glimmer, I'll read Your posts in the thread before i write anything.
>>213247 Don't worry about it. Harry Potter was a bestseller after all. Also, if we do it togather it will be fun. Love the song man. >>213243 I will post I later in about two-to-three hours.
>>213247 Dont make the character a mary sue is number 1, which Nigel failed hard on and barely yields an inch.
Build on something for a satisfying conclusion instead of just abandoning the ideas as halfassed and episodic, knowing what you want to write before you start with an outline is helpful and keeps yourself from going way off the rails. Let characters besides the MC influence the MC or the world. Keep asking yourself questions about the characters, how they would feel in a given situation, why they feel that way, why they might have felt that way in the past but dont any more, what could happen, then fill in the answers instead of just looking for freebies with plagerised ideas.
He was repulsed by the idea that Silver must redeem himself from committing a horrible act against Starlight because he couldn't get over his retarded hate-boner leaving him to berate the reader and audience on every word he typed out (either here or in the fic). It isnt only the Starlight incident that shows how much bias he has for himself and his OC when it's in every part of the fic. If you have too much ego and clingy notion where you cant be arsed to "kill your babies" to make a better story then you wont get anywhere. This is a common mentality in all creative endeavors. Get used to failure, and embrace it with rewriting drafts or cutting out something if it makes for a better flow instead of padding out for the word length. Not everything you do will be a masterpiece so it's okay to try again.
This is Nigels top failure as a writer, he wont kill his babies he screamed for months how he wont rewrite his OC and nerf it when he needs it, he wont scrap a chapter because he spent so long writing it up, he wont let characters have more say than he can get, he wont stop inserting his OC into conversations where he educates someone instead of the other way around. He wont give up any control (of the spotlight) and it drags the story down into the abyss of shit.
>>213253 I am currently making it. >>213263 >Build on something for a satisfying conclusion instead of just abandoning the ideas as halfassed and episodic, knowing what you want to write before you start with an outline is helpful and keeps yourself from going way off the rails. Let characters besides the MC influence the MC or the world. Keep asking yourself questions about the characters, how they would feel in a given situation, why they feel that way, why they might have felt that way in the past but dont any more, what could happen, then fill in the answers instead of just looking for freebies with plagerised ideas. I concur. >>213280 >"kill your babies" I think it means that if you have ideas that doesn't reallly fit in the current narrative of the story you are telling you should disgard them. Like Silver haviing rocket boots even though it seems to have nothing to do with the story at large.
>>213289 >I think it means that if you have ideas that doesn't reallly fit in the current narrative of the story you are telling you should disgard them. >Like Silver haviing rocket boots even though it seems to have nothing to do with the story at large. That's a big part of it. Like when Silver doing rocket parqour established he's a show off who likes to live for the thrill which is fine, but then Nigel spent most of the section going into every little detail outlasting its welcome to everyone.
Compare the re-write where Silver was cold and demanding to his griffon secretary with the one Nigel wrote where she's easily as impressed with his magic parkour as everyone else and then later Silver breaks into an emo band solo out of nowhere. They're both similar (it focuses on him getting the spotlight) but it's painfully obvious which one suits the overall "redemption" story with a stronger starting point and it only came about by throwing out the original version. Since author#2 had no attachment to story, the incessant OC favoritism that plaques Nigel's mind (and this fic) was absent so he could write better scenes. That's what you want to strive for, to be able to switch instead of geting caught up in a tunnel vision. Learn how to look at it from another perspective and to adjust it if it's not resonating with people how you want.
The backlash Nigel got from everyone should be a clear sign that he's doing things wrong, even before he came here he had a huge negative reaction on fimfic ratings. But he became childish when he was told his ideas are a flop to his face, that OC character was awful, that his characters were out of character, and that his instead of owning up to it and doing better. Instead, for months he wouldnt kill his babies and insisted that everyone against it was a glimmerfag conspiracy.
>>213280 Going into more detail it means dont get overly emotionally attached to something to the point where you cant make an objective call to improve it, because you spent so much time working on the work, that you become too insecure and defensive to scrapping it to start over fresh, or if you can get a better result by making a drastic change. Just look at all the times games restart development and end completely different as an example, or how ZooTopia's original script was a dystopian society not a utopian one.
A clear cut example is Nigel's refusal to gut his OC's abilities and myriad of careers stemming from this clone bullshit. Because the fact he's such an animetard who wants MLP to be just like his favorite animes and his OC just like his favorite MC from an anime. Plus he has this idea that his OC is the best thing ever, so he won't make any big changes that change his character, hes open to making superficial changes like this shit about giving him scars for a mistake in the past but he isnt open to making the big overhauls in the present that is desperately needed to fix it from being such a train-wreck.
What Nigel doesnt understand is the core of "Silver" as a character and story is something he either doesnt have a good grasp on or is buried under a pile of trash nobody cares about making him extremely unlikeable and not just because he's a douche bag but because he's omnipotent and omnipresent. Nerfing him in the story doesnt change anything about Silver except his own power in it. The clone shit is all fluff made to impress the reader with wowing everyone he meets but actively harms the overall story to sympathize with him and removes cases where he would actually be more likely to learn something.
If what you're writing doesnt support the overall big picture then it should be thrown in the garbage or looked at again, revised and reworked so that it does. Otherwise you're just wasting your time and more importantly the audience's time, and if you cant keep them interested then you failed as a writer/artist/designer ect.
>>213299 >Compare the re-write where Silver was cold and demanding to his griffon secretary with the one Nigel wrote where she's easily as impressed with his magic parkour as everyone else and then later Silver breaks into an emo band solo out of nowhere. They're both similar (it focuses on him getting the spotlight) but it's painfully obvious which one suits the overall "redemption" story with a stronger starting point and it only came about by throwing out the original version. Since author#2 had no attachment to story, the incessant OC favoritism that plaques Nigel's mind (and this fic) was absent so he could write better scenes. >mfw I wrote it
>>213300 (Checked dub dubs) It's not hard to do better than Nigel because of how much of a giant clusterfuck he made But it is harder to work with a giant Nigel clusterfuck and make something of worth out of it. So you did good poner.
Instead of tearing it down like everyone else has done for the past year, you showed how to do better with the same 'game-pieces' on the board. More importantly you did what Nigel could not understand, that Silver can still have a redemption story, one even better even without the other (clone)/(magic)/(talent)/(career)shit tacked onto the side that don't define his core personality. And it's the core part of him that has to be brought to the forefront for anyone to give any fucks about when we're talking about something like redemption of a main character. What Nigel has done is the polar opposite, he has chosen to ignore working on Silver's core while simultaneously expecting everyone to accept he's being redeemed as everyone he meets falls for him, or is instantly won over by whatever hes selling because of the same (clone)/(magic)/(talent)/(career)shit. Good writing has a focus and clear intent, not a scattershot of bullshit for us to sift through.
I can say that your rewrite ticked that mark of focus and intent keeping it consistent, had more emotional impact, gave us an anchor for the audience to relate to with the griffon, and kept the big picture in mind that this is about how Silver treats people close to him, not about what dumb shit he can do the author decides to give on a whim.
Where is this "he cannot improve" narrative coming from? If I was what whiners keep insisting I am, I would be a nazi. And I would have also said "Fuck you guys, you just don't understand my brilliance" and left the thread long ago. I wouldn't still be here, reading through every post. The "Silver oh boy I sure love sucking dick because I'm very gay Star" jokes are usually funny. The "The writer is the literal devil" jokes are always lame. Personal attacks on fictional characters are fine, but the personal attacks on me... They're not getting grating or anything, but more people are starting to buy into the narrative due to its repetition.
>>213328 I'm writing an ironic fanfic of silver Star set in the human world. It's almost done but i can't write the ending. I'll try and get it out by Sunday.
>>213300 You wrote the one where Aquilla bakes extra muffins and he talks to her like he's one of those "Mean YA Child Genius" characters? It was really good, thanks. >>213335 Looking forward to it! >>213299 Did you like the bit where Silver fucked up a jump? >>213263 >He was repulsed by the idea that Silver must redeem himself from committing a horrible act against Starlight no Beating Starlight's ass isn't a horrible act. If he needs to apologize for pulling a running takedown on the time-terrorist before being told she's been pardoned, she needs to apologize for mindcontrolling five of the mane six, killing millions in each timeline (I reckon that's STILL a morally bad deed even if the timeline is wiped from nonexistence afterward now) and all the other shit she pulled. But if it makes you happy, in the next chapter, Twilight finds out about what happened and it pisses her off. >>213248 Harry Potter sucks ass, want to see my 400k post on why? >>213213 If it's for the better, I will change Silver. Synopsis of the events: So there's this cool Unicorn dude called Silver Star Apple but he's really named Star Apple because he's one of Applejack's cousins and he went through an epic journey around the world to get this strong instead of making friends or learning to be nice. He has to become a nicer and kinder pony through exposure to the Mane Six, even though right now, he wants to bang Twilight. But he also thinks she's beautiful, cool, and "A mind actually on par with his own". He genuinely likes her. Also, she's smarter than him. There's a mix of slice-of-life and action episodes. Anyway, by the end of the story he's no longer an asshole and they get together. There are also a bunch of magic cards with different effects that get stronger when the user of one card owns and carries others. Get all cards together and you become a god, or so the legends say. The heroes have to get those cards before the bad guys do, because nobody wants an evil Diamond Dog god flying around and enslaving ponykind to mine worthless gems that seem not-worthless to dumb dogs. >>213210 I do read all of what you write. If there's parts I don't respond to, it's because I couldn't think of anything to say about those parts in response.
>>213340 Too late, wrote it out months ago. >everyone Hey, what if I kept Silver's clones the way they are now, but said he's only strong enough to cast the spell in the first place because when he was a kid, he stupidly cast a banned spell that increased his power level while also making him age at double or triple the rate from that point on? And for bonus tragedy points, he STILL didn't end up stronger than Twilight. I could say he only still has his youthful appearance because he keeps pushing his age into flowers, though this only removes the detrimental physical effects of ageing and doesn't give him a longer lifespan. This gives him a reason to really want a method to find immortality, and I thought of a few ways he could pull that off but with differing levels of difficulty and thematic resonance. Your thoughts?
>>213379 Nigel, the issue with clones isn't that they're unbalanced, it's that they exist in the first place. The clones need to go, period. It'll make your story much less convoluted.
You likely won't listen to this either, but it would be best to go a step further and completely rework Silver Star from the ground up. Get rid of all of the clones, the crazy spells, the animu powers, and the martial weeb arts, and just focus on the very core ideas of Silver Star: that he's a moderately successful, if arrogant, businessstallion who used his natural intuition, charisma, and intelligence to work his way up in the business world, and views most other beings as below him, either as speedbumps on his path to greatness, or as stones to step on to reach greater heights.
>>213337 >>213415 >Did you like the bit where Silver fucked up a jump? The bit with overcharging his magic and flailing about with a repair spell? It showed that he's good under pressure but not perfect so that's a plus but ultimately this sort of little detail gets buried under the innumerable ways that he IS perfect with the unending well supply of magic and all the clone bullshit that has no limit. Have a reminder that Cadance (one of the ponies people pointed to as a mary-sue when she was first introduced) still didn't have the ability as a fucking Alicorn to hold a continious protective spell going for long before Sombra fucked shit up and Twilight had to save the empire. Now maybe you can see why Silver having clone spells going on for literal years is mary sue horseshit of the highest calibur? One can only hope
>But if it makes you happy, in the next chapter, Twilight finds out about what happened and it pisses her off. Twilight "being pissed off" isnt enough for what happened in chapter 6, it's just like you put it in to deal with your critics and he does nothing to make up for the action with hard work. and just sounds like it's going to be something you quickly brush over and she's back to being lovey dovey when they've done nothing in the fic to feel like a real couple.
The crux of why Silver brutally attacking and sending Starlight to another world was too far so he must have a fallout that he's forced to learn how to be a better pony not because it's their fav pony. There's your "tied to a road-making machine" plot device like Cars right there. But you ignored it for your strawman defense. But because it was a massive problem caused by him and his ego, and he does nothing to pick up the pieces to mend the pain of others and everyone congratulated him over it. People telling you to scrap that chapter had no relation to Starlight being the one you chose to focus all your autistic fury on, it would be the same bad writing if you chose someone else because nobody buys it, nobody is rooting for him to win then or now when you've done little to nothing for it in a supposed "redemption story." It was a moral low, acting like a villain with nothing and nobody to stop him and you expected people to cheer him on. It looks more like the point of no return into being a villain justifying his actions, far from what you expect of someone you would call 'redeemed' or 'heroic' when they are full on embracing being psychotic and sadistic.
The chapter should still be largely thrown out because nobody in the world is going to buy your crock of shit about how she's some eldritch anomaly that causes everyone to like her and get away with everything (how ironic thats exactly how Silver feels in your writing). And she's defeated with zero build up by your insanely overpowered abilities pulled from the void (how ironic, exactly the thing you said you hated about Naruto and Ninetails). This shows you still wont kill your babies, like right there with still forcing 'Silver being the hero defeating big bad commie Starlight' that has little to nothing to do with the overall story and harms the redemption story. For what purpose is the chapter there other than you having such hatred for a character it consumes your thoughts and drags down your work?
From what we've seen the only reasons for the chapter is... >1) So you can give your self-insert asspats (same as every chapter) >2) So you can rant and rage about the flaws of modern FiM (same as every chapter) >3) So you can give Silver new asspull talents to look super badass and/or a dream catch (same as every chapter) >4) So you can plagiarize more animetard shit (same as every chapter) >5) So you can lecture the audience on some belief or exposition with a wall of text (same as every chapter)
You've shown improvement with taking criticism but barely shown any growth as a writer in the year we've been deconstructing your work. If you cant give a good answer why that chapter should be in the story then it should be trashed. We don't want to see your opinions you wrote on Harry Potter, we dont care about how you feel about talking about Naruto more than what's said about the chapter. We want to see improvement. It's been close to a year, Nigel. How much of the story and or characters have you actually rewritten, revised or scrapped? Have you changed how Silver acts, how much talents hes got or how people react to him? It doesnt sound like anything has happened except you considering the ideas but havent committed to anything besides what youve already got, and tiny minuscule changes that barely do anything. The overall result is it's still full of massive problems, you're trying to plug tiny holes in the boat to prevent it from sinking while a tidal wave of shit is still capsiding it, drowning everyone.
Work on the big glaring problems with the fic too, dont just think you can get away by addressing the small stuff. Your audience isnt stupid enough for that.
>>213426 Say I do rewrite him, and focus on that core. I throw aside the anime bullshit he canonically liked and tried to incorporate into his life with mixed results. What then? What else about this character should I throw away? >>213427 I'm sorry but I don't see how taking Glimmer out could ever be seen as a bad thing. Don't get me wrong, if he pulled that shit on a bank robber, or a small-time thief, or somepony who said his hair looks stupid, it would be horrifying for him to act this way. But Glimmer is fecking Glimmer. What, was the "He surrounds her and kicks her while he's down, he swings clumps of earth at her from outside her field of vision, and instead of having a good and honourable beam struggle, he responds to her beam attack by rotating the ground beneath her" stuff too much? I figured if he just pulled a power level bigger than Glimmer's out of nowhere and used it to beat her into the ground, it'd look tacky and he'd be overpowered. Even if he teleported home and reappeared in multiple layers of magical armour while swinging around ancient magic swords that belong in museums or weapons he stole from bad guys, it'd still stretch belief if he was able to just overpower Glimmer. But by "Outplaying" her in this manner, he looks like a skilled magic duellist who's used to fighting foes stronger than he is. I considered having him do a whole "To gain the power to defeat you, I magically summon and embody the power of Justice, and it takes over my body, and- Oh crap it's making me treat my foes like crap again, and it made me Sentence Glimmer. I feel bad about how bad I used a spell that made me trash the party by smacking Glimmer into stuff and breaking it" bit, but... Nah. Summoning a conceptual power that takes you over and makes you do shit is just like drinking, getting drunk, and doing dumb shit. You still chose to get drunk/summon the conceptual force. >Silver keeping clones going for years is OP You know what's even more OP? Ovens keeping baked goods baked for way too long after they're cooked. Also thank you for noticing that DBZ reference. By the way... Sometimes, I think about taking this story further back in the timeline. Going back to Non-Princess Twilight Sparkle and having the story start early with a younger not-yet-awesome Silver Star who's rising, but hasn't made it big yet. Going back to the good old days of what this show was. Sure, I spent a while figuring out how to fix the glitterbugs, the Glimmer and Discord problems, the castle, and a few other symptoms of seasonal rot. But just saying "Fuck it, alternate timeline" would mean I don't have to deal with any of this bullshit, AND Silver doesn't have to be worthy of pony royalty. Your thoughts?
>>213434 You have to figure that out on your own. I would, however, recommend you strip everything off of the character that wouldn't irreparably damage his core.
>>213379 >Silver keeps his clones the same way Not killing your babies >Banned spell Sounds exactly like the forbidden scroll Narutro got his hands on for the clones. When are you going to stop plagiarizing? >Bonus tragedy Not really anything tragic just a stupid decision that had consequences, it would be tragic if he died without achieving his dreams due to the ageing curse, but we're far from that. You'll have to go much further into the idea than that. >Finding immortality Since when the hell was this a thing? Sure you could add onto this part of the backstory on why he looked into magic so heavily and maybe this is related to the animetard cards, but dont fish for sympathy while still making him an asshole that never gets anywhere in redemption.
I'm still going to stand by there's zero reason for the clones, they make the story extremely convoluted and a pain in the ass to follow, when who knows what shit the clones are doing or which one matters, not to mention it takes away the impact of choices of the character. Remember PinkiePie going to the mirror pool because she couldnt decide who to hang out with? Well that conundrum and moral means fuck all if she was a unicorn who can clone herself to hangout with everyone in ponyville at once now doesnt it? Nobody gives a shit which version of Silver has been taking it up the ass of his bff, and which one is deep-throating for bits, when Silver-C is getting a handjob from the local mares.
You can still have him be a good magic user without the damn clones. The clones have caused more trouble narratively then they're worth in every instance, the clones are the reason he's omnipresent and has more talents and skills than every other pony combined making him one of the biggest mary sue that ever was concieved. Why even bother with that foxpony slave shit (which was stupid and pointless as well but I digress) if you can just build the same thing with clones? It adds nothing but superficial depth so we get to hear more about the next autistic backstory silver or some clone did. Successful (super)heros are specialized in their roles and powers, it diminishes everything you write and creates a lazy repeating cycle when you make everything he can do be as a godly swiss-army-knife of whatever power/talent/career you chose to write about him having at the time.
This business about SilverBlaze the bounty hunter is just more of the tripe caused from narutard clone life isnt it? It sure feels like it, and it's written like SilverStar and SilverBlaze are completely seperate people, who act differently and it would be better off if that was the case. The clones are just asspull excuses for being a sue and it got old incredibly fast. Any one of the careers you picked out of thin air for Silver could serve as it's own character that I could get behind, but theres no reason or justification for the rest. The clones bloat the story and makes the character a constant thorn in the readers side, and they are contradictory to FiM's lore of cutie marks being highly specialized talents so this overt favoritism is just a middle finger to core canon over and over. Remember Applebloom and the cutiepox how having a multitude of talents was blatantly and fundamentally wrong in-universe? You are trying to do too many things at once, with the secret identity / real life trope when his "real life" is just the clone careers that has 50+ different "real lives".
>>213434 >I'm sorry but I don't see how taking Glimmer out could ever be seen as a bad thing. Don't get me wrong, if he pulled that shit on a bank robber, or a small-time thief, or somepony who said his hair looks stupid, it would be horrifying for him to act this way. >But Glimmer is fecking Glimmer. Well here's the thing, you didn't write Glimmer as a villain or even Glimmer at all, you wrote a strawman version with dues ex machina powers that you call Glimmer and the suspension of belief is no where to be found. It's shattered under a wall of screeching mouth-piece vs mouth-piece. The chapter with Starlight is just the same problem with every other pony, you dont know how to write the characters and shes just as much wildly out of character as any other character in your story bent to behave how you want so Silver can win in the given scenario. It only becomes more apparent the longer the interaction goes on, and it goes on for fucking ever because you are flat out autistic about your hate for her and cant control yourself to even pace it out. Instead its dragged on for the longest chapter in the whole fimfic story, all because you like your self insert want to wring everything about Starlight being bad in one instance before you bus her off to another universe.
You wont get over your notion of how much you hate her, instead of giving a reason to justify her in the story in any sense you just pull some more deus ex machinas to reeee about how Starlight should never have existed and send her away from your perfect vision of FiM. It's written like the screeching of CWC how he wont get over the blue arms Sonic has. It's dogshit Nigel, and the fic is always going to be until you can stop yourself from just using what you write as a as a platform to mouthpiece what you want to say with no filter.
>Was _____ too much? The duel against Starlight had several points where he was acting more like a villain than a hero, and no tossing sand in her face isnt even close to scratching the surface of what Silver did that crossed into behaving like, and thinking like a villain.
>Fuck it, up end the tea table Like the other anon said, thats all on you. If it helps you distance yourself from being a raging autist then maybe it's for the better. Give it a try and write a new draft with the different setting and see if you like it better.
Making Silver complain about things you dont like, exactly how you want to say about it just makes him a self insert. Writing out of spite is one way to motivate yourself, but you can try writing out of enjoyment of what you remember as the positives instead.
But at the end of the day there's nothing preventing the current Twilicorn timeline of the story from being fixed except your own stubbornness.
>>213451 Oh, there are points in the chapter where Silver crossed the line? Can you tell me those points, and explain your reasoning for why you feel this way?
>>213451 Oh, there are points in the chapter where Silver crossed the line? Can you tell me those points, and explain your reasoning for why you feel this way? Edit: What do I do when the site says flood detected?
>>213434 Rewriting Silver Star is not the only option. Changing the point of view to one in a negative view of Silver. Pulling a he's the real final boss. Change to a new protagonist (or antagonist) and have to deal with Silver's bullshit connections and powers. Silver has a constant reality warping (mind warping) effect on others turning it off or having somepony aware of it's changes things. Silver is a good final boss that is unaware of the effects he is doing or has. He is always right and the Universe bends to his whims and idle thoughts. None of Silver's power feel justified, because the readers did not go through the grind and toil and hardships Silver did (if he isn't a reality warping pony ish thing). The readers also never see Silver really Fail in a meaningful way. Without the setup, hardship, and understanding the world and Silver fall apart. To pull it off a few things need to happen. >Use the reader's imagination to fuel the special effects. It won't be exactly what (You) imagine and that's fine readers like their imagination and ideas alot. Exploit that knowledge. Context matters. CONTEXT MATTERS. >People like feeling smart. Use mystery about something the Readers care about. If they don't care they won't do any thinking. If they don't do either nothing changes. If they put all the parts in the right way they feel smart when the payoff is what they made. >People dislike being Wrong. If their mental model of how something works is wrong they do several things depending on how fundamental it is. For FanFiction they expect the world and the characters to behave in a very specific way. If given the foreknowledge and reason (the action -> reaction -> change) they auto update to your fiction's world. As an example if Naruto acted like Vegeta only during the Chunin Exams. >(most) People like themselves (at least a little). Reader's don't like characters that never fail. They also interested in themselves, but dislike it when people are narcissistic (unless played for gags, but not all the time). If a character has important parts that embody who they are OR who they want to be. They are invested in those traits and ideas and want a preview and demonstration with all good and bad. Readers tend to hate flawless characters, because they themselves are not flawless and know others are flawed (they see people being dipshits). They value everything they have (sorta). If anyone wastes their valuable Time on somthing they don't like it. >Readers want something. Give them something they want. If they don't like it they won't engage or think. If it takes too long they disengage (in action or words or ideas). >Subtle is better in most cases. If it's subtle and it's good people like it more. If it's subtle and it's wrong people skip over it, but cracks the world model slightly. More idea per word is sent using subtlety than talking battles (usually depends on Context).
>TLDR >People are self centered >Anything or idea or trait that they have or use or fight they care about. >People hate losing anything especially time. >Imagination fills in blanks using EVERYTHING. >People dislike being wrong. >People really dislike being used.
Work on showing the world model of mlp:fim. Work on action -> reaction -> change. Work on engaging the readers. Work on character interactions. (Based on cannon responses and human psychology reactions) Work on squishing as many words as possible into something more condensed. Psychological profiles of characters are not matching frindship is magic. More subtle stuff like underneath the underneath kinda stuff per word per sentence per section per interaction per chapter.
>blog post >find thread >read the story >regret almost sets in >reads bits of the last chapter >just for you Nigel >types this up You can do it.
>>213434 Nigel. Baby. Listen to me. Are you listening?
I acknowledge that you have gotten much better about hearing and responding to criticism, and I appreciate that. However, what continues to frustrate me is that as much as you may read my criticisms and pointers, it's like you haven't absorbed a single word. I spent roughly a month going through Chapter 6 of this thing line by line. Since then I have read more of it and absorbed some context for what I read earlier, and revised some of my earlier positions that were based on my initial gut reactions.
I have tried to be as fair and objective a critic as possible here. Even though frankly my overall impression of this work is still that it is a steamy meandering river of shit that can't be saved by anything less than a near-total rewrite, there are portions that are redeemable, and you have shown that you are capable of writing well when you choose to put your mind to it. For that reason, I think you should keep writing and keep working on this. I try to point out the stuff you do well whenever I see it, to try to reinforce what you do well instead of just shitting on you for what you do wrong. However, if you ever want to legitimately improve, you need to acknowledge and address the real problems that this text has, and I mean address its actual problems, not just throw an extra layer of glitter on it.
With all that said, bearing in mind that I am being as objective as is humanly possible about my point of view, that I am setting aside all personal prejudices regarding MLP, it's characters, it's world, the Shonen-Jump-style genre you've chosen to write in, and reiterating once more that I am evaluating your text from a purely literary perspective, I can tell you: Chapter 6 is horrendous. Absolute shit. I am hard pressed to think of any one event from that chapter that ought to remain in the final version of the text. Cut it. Get rid of it.
>I'm sorry but I don't see how taking Glimmer out could ever be seen as a bad thing. For one thing, it serves no purpose whatsoever in your story. The reason you are getting so much shit for this has nothing to do with Glimmer or whether or not you or anyone else likes her as a character. Jar Jar Binks was a stupid character, but that doesn't mean it makes sense to devote 30,000+ words of a fanfiction to a chapter about Luke Skywalker disemboweling him while shouting all the reasons he sucks at the top of his lungs, particularly when the overall story doesn't even involve Jar Jar in the first place. This is what I've been saying, over and over and over since August: you need to set your personal hangups and hateboners about the show aside and focus on your story from a neutral, literary perspective. Learn to filter your thoughts when writing.
I don't give a shit if you hate Glimmer or not. Hell, if you want to kill her off in your story, go ahead. But do it right. Think about it: what purpose does her death (or banishment, or whatever) serve in the overall context of this story as it is currently written? None. She has no role in the story prior to this chapter. You just have her randomly show up six chapters in, and immediately have Silver kick the shit out of her and send her to another dimension. How many other stories have you encountered that are constructed this way? How many movies introduce a villain and then kill him off in the first scene? Hell, even in the Shonen anime you love, where there is a one-shot villain who is introduced and dies within the space of a single 30 minute episode, there is at least a buildup to the fight. A reason for the protagonist to fight the villain is established, the villain is usually shown doing something evil so the audience knows why the protagonist is fighting him.
Imagine an episode of Naruto. Opening credits roll. Scene opens on a room. Naruto and Sasuke and all the other Naruto characters are standing around having a party, when suddenly Dr. Claw (or whatever the name of some villain from Naruto is) walks into the room. "Hi guys, what's up?" he says. Then, for no apparent reason, Naruto goes completely bat-shit insane and starts kicking the living shit out of him for the rest of the episode. Then the episode ends on a cliffhanger. The next episode is just a continuation of Naruto kicking the shit out of the guy for no reason. This goes on for like ten more episodes. Also, Naruto is lecturing him the entire time he's beating him. Have you ever seen an episode of Naruto like that? Because that is basically Chapter 6 of your story if it were an episode of Naruto.
If you absolutely insist on including Glimmer in your story for the sole purpose of having Silver kick the shit out of her, at least do it right. Introduce her in the story as a character, create a conflict between her and Silver, have it escalate, and then make them fight. Including Twilight in this, as I've suggested before, could add an interesting dynamic: Silver and Glimmer hate each other, Silver and Twilight like each other, Twilight and Glimmer are friends. There's fertile ground there for a story that you're just wasting. Instead of cramming all of your points about why Glimmer sucks into a single massive argument scene, you can pepper it throughout the story in small chunks. Just have them jab at each other whenever they're in the room together a couple of times, and then move on. Then, eventually, you can bring the whole thing to a climax with a big fight scene. The way you have it written currently is just absolutely dreadful, it's like the worst elements of a snuff film and a college philosophy lecture rolled into a single excruciating scene that goes on until the end of time. Nobody, literally nobody, will want to read it as written. Chapter 6 needs to be gutted and rewritten, the entire storyline with Glimmer mapped out until it's something worth reading. If you can't do that, cut it out entirely.
>>213467 >Oh, there are points in the chapter where Silver crossed the line? Can you tell me those points, and explain your reasoning for why you feel this way? That would be redundant. The scene you're talking about probably had crossed lines too but it's been 6 months since I read it but it was far the only case. Glim!Glam did a decontruction of that topic months ago before adopting a trip and I still agree with his points on the chapter, as did everyone else here. Maybe you just didn't read it at all since you werent receptive in your "everyone is a glimmerfag" conspiracy mindset.
I'd rather move on from the shitshow of chapter 6 but your main arguments both against her and for keeping her in are faulty as hell. >she needs to apologize for mindcontrolling five of the mane six, >killing millions in each timeline (I reckon that's STILL a morally bad deed even if the timeline is wiped from nonexistence afterward now) and all the other shit she pulled.
1) Should she apologize for it? Absolutely and she did. It was literally at the end of the episode and she hasnt done it intentionally since then. Twilight: "Now it's time for a pretty advanced friendship lesson. It's called apologizing." Should she apologize for brainwashing the town and locking away their talent? Yeah that's a failure of the show that they brushed over, but that isn't mind-control, they had to go along with her ideas of how cutiemarks are bad to some degree when it was just starting. It eventually got to the point where she was a dictator, which is where the m6 intervened. She realizes after being redeemed that what she did to the town was bad, which she brought up that she was scared of their reaction and how she shouldnt be near a leader role again lest she revert back to her old-self. Starlight is maybe autistic but far from someone who doesnt regret their decisions, and doesnt talk nonchalantly about the things she did wrong like the sociopath you depicted her as.
2) Alternate timelines in fiction & being overwritten is nothing new but on if it's morally "bad" or not is always going to be subjective. Starlight may have been the one who started the timeline shit but she's also the one who stopped it after being talked down because Twilight couldnt win by battling her, so it's a moral gray area at most. We consider Samurai Jack a hero because he finally killed Aku and returned to his time, but according to you since he overwrote the future then he's also responsible for the genocide of every character we saw in the show, along with millions of others and should be held accountable for this crime. If a killer stops an act of killing good people, is the original killer still bad or a good person? There's no black and white answer. At what point does someone's past sins be forgiven if at all? Since you're writing a redemption fic these things should be part of the dialog. Twilight decided that her reformation was a success when Starlight saved Equestria, and that's the majority opinion. She's still an autist, but shes no longer a villain. If you expect people to believe she is one, it will take far more effort on your part than deus-ex machina bullshit you pull out of your ass like attacking her out of the blue then justifying it with "shes one of those outlier things"
3) What happened with the timelines is your own head canon but most importantly you did a garbage job on establishing this as a concept that could exist in the fic in the first place because your world building is beyond shit so nobody is willing to get on board with your idea. Alternate timelines, Starlight, and reee communism doesnt fit anywhere thematically in the story which is why it's the worst chapter you made, bar none. You may think she's a good opponent to Silver's ideals... but you still have to carefully set up the rest of the dominoes if you want anyone to give any fucks about when the last one is knocked down. Thats how good stories are, a sequence of events that twist and turn but are ultimately connected, not random shit you feel like raging about that day and inserting it out of nowhere. Go look at shows movies or books that involve time travel or parallel worlds and I will guarantee you they'll be constantly brought up throughout the show if they're of any real importance.
4) Unlike when Starlight mind-controlled the mane 5 which was intentional, the timeshit having a consequence of dooming Equestria was fully unknown to her and only experienced through Twilight and the audience. We know it was reality but when shown Glimmer insisted it's an illusion to trick her. The only thing she wanted was to take away Twilight's friendship and happiness, far from intending to murder 1000s of ponies and bring hell on earth. It's hard to make someone pay for a crime they didnt know they were committing (genocide, not ruining twi's friendship), that's why the system treats the mentally insane differently.
Equestria's judgement largely works on forgiveness. >Luna was offered forgiveness by her sister for Nightmare Moon and leapt at the chance. >Discord was forgiven when he could behave himself, and it was put forth by Celestia. >Starlight was offered forgiveness by Twilight took it. >Starlight offered forgiveness to Chrysalis and Chrysalis refused. >The Changelings were forgiven for their attack on The Crystal Empire under Chrysalis's rule when they adopted giving love instead of taking it.
And so on, it's clearly obvious that you reject all sorts of these ideas but you should know you're going to be going against the grain of FiM's universal concepts (that everyone who's a fan of understands well) so you need to do twice as much work of convincing it's wrong to get the reader on your side, which you have failed to do so in every way. On top of failing to put forth an argument on how your MC deserves redemption for his own actions since he's still a scumbag and we barely moved anywhere away from that.
>>213497 >Change the PoV and he's the final boss Making SilverStar a villain is far easier to do than redeeming him because of everything we know about him, his origin pity story would just serve as a tragic fall from an humble life and a downward spiral he never recovers from, becoming more and more convinced of his ways. Exactly like how Glimmer ended up, just on the opposite end. But I severely doubt that Nigel would be willing to make his beloved OC that he cares about more than anything in the world into a big bad, and redeeming Silver can still be done, if we cut the bullshit out of the fic then Nigel has all the tools at his disposal to do it. The main point to be driven home is that none of the tools are being utilized for driving character development instead of wasting the readers time with more circlejerking.
>The readers also never see Silver really Fail in a meaningful way. Without the setup, hardship, and understanding the world and Silver fall apart. A thousand times this. Moving on from Ch. 6, no matter if Nigel restarts the world pre-twilicorn without Glimmer or keeps it twilicorn he will still have to deal with this fact and have actual character development if he wants to tell a redemption story.
>Yep, I did that bit on purpose. He's always looking for a profit, it's one of his character flaws. That's fine Nigel, I can recognize that and a bunch of his other flaws that make him incredibly unlikable. The issue has always been nobody in your story in the PRESENT ever does, and infact act the opposite like he's flawless. They just blow it off or praise him. You havent done anything to challenge his worldviews on something he himself causes to go wrong with his flaws. Burning bridges, causing suffering for actions or hurting someone with whats said and having to make up for it after realization, or just plain being wrong, these are basically mandatory parts of a redemption arc.
You've continually given Silver (and by extension, yourself) absolutely no challenges at all, actively removing challenges he could have by making him a blackholesue from the very start. No big obstacles to overcome because of his abilities and talents in this warped world how every little thing conforms to work in his favor about how great he is, because you cant help but remind everyone every four seconds how great he is either in the past or present. A pity backstory will never make up for current bad writing. If you want people to sympathize with the character then give them a challenge, something meaningful to overcome and make them work for it, not rushed shortcuts to solutions. That goes double for any deus-ex machina powers.
Another factor removing challenge and making him look bad is "The Voice". It's just another way for Silver to get ponies agreeing with his viewpoint whenever he wants. Who needs negotiation when you can just use "The Voice" to get to the end, signed deal? Who needs to have built up an established trust with a character when you can just make RainbowDash spout yes/no answers to whatever is asked like a binary robot? Who needs to give a motivational speech when you can just gain an army through magic? IE: Sombra. While Cadence used her cupid magic to solve an argument of two ponies once when she was younger, it would be incredibly shitty writing if she kept doing it everywhere with no couples conflicts. And would make her a shit MC if Shining disagreed with her but she just used her cupid magic on him to put an end to that. IE: What Chrysalis was doing to him.
>"The Unicorn had been a complete nopony before he walked into town one day years ago" This is from chapter 1 and since learning about "The Voice" and whatever else mind control Silver has, the lengths he's gone using mind control others with no sign of empathy, restraint or remorse just makes me believe he's potentially a sociopathic F&F x Glimmer combo and his riches, status and power are ill gotten through manipulation. We're supposed to trust him more as the story goes on, but it's the polar opposite that occurs making him look dangerous and insane. The only ones he demonstrated he actually cares about are (maybe) his family blood. He certainty doesnt give a shit about Twilight, making it a colossal failure of a love story as well.
Whenever "The Voice" or is used whenever it's not a joke like when it has no effect on Pinkie Pie (do you even have a reason why it didnt work on her beyond 'it's pinkie'?) Mind-control isnt meant to be treated lightly and unless you know what you're doing then you'll just create a cop out for you and your character to fall back on (which you did). There's a big reason that mind-control is typically reserved for the villains, or used to show it was bad. Because exerting overwriting your will over someone elses is considered morally wrong by any sensible person. You think there's a parallel with "The Stare" Fluttershy uses but that isn't mind-control, it's just intimidation through asserting dominance of looking someone in the eye which is why it did jack shit against Discord before he was reformed, he wasnt intimidated by her. "The Voice" and whatever Silver used on RD and the crowds IS demonstrably mind-control, full-stop. It's no different than Glimmer controlling ponies to do what she/silver wants, it's the same thing happening in the end: a pony is being manipulated against their will for the benefit of the caster.
>>213311 Thanks, dude. I appreciate it and it makes me feel funny.
>>213337 Thanks, Nigel. This way it is much easier to give you advice since now we know what you are aiming for and therefore it is easier to point you in the right direction.
>>213588 >However, what continues to frustrate me is that as much as you may read my criticisms and pointers, it's like you haven't absorbed a single word.
I ”read” it as in I search through it with not the purest intentions. I was just looking for things to shit on to be honest. In that aspect, it wasn't a complete waste of time. I found a wall of text about Pokemon that came out of nowhere. It lasted forever by the way. However, what really struck me was something regarding the main character, Sunrise Stardust. If you look closely. you can already see what I mean from that name alone. It, written as initials, spells out SS similar to Silver Star's initials aren't they? And that's the impression I got from Sunrise as a character. He is Silver Star but also he is Silver Star who has hit puberty and now he is rebel; tough and edgy. There is this scene were Sunrise is talking to a mare and it somehow devolves into Sunrise showing how cool he is by saying naughty words to impress her. I don't know. My recollection of the scene might be bit off but anyway, this guy is also a unicorn who also rose from rags to riches.
It could be funny
The point I am trying to make that since it was made from October to January this year, you can check if he has improved.
Nigel would probably just be happy about it since you know I have seen him shill this story so many times now that I think the number of times is almost in double digits.
This site's slow as fuck on mobile and replying doesn't work properly. 1. I read all the posts, will give bigass reply later. 2. Whoever unironically accused me of ripping off Naruto just because Naruto stole a forbidden scroll once and I suggested Silver using a forbidden spell... has the big gay. 3. Remember when Glimmer and Trixie obnoxiously whined at each other about how not forgives them, even though everypony did? That's the Glimmer Silver beat up. Will give multiple Glimmers speech later. 4. Please stop with the "you're a monster who will never learn" talk, it distracts you from critiquing the art. 5. Samurai Jack did a heroic thing by defeating Aku. The fuckton of years of evil Aku reign never happened. Different people fell in love and different people were born. Potential Future Life is lost. Is this sad? Yeah, death is always sad. But they only existed in the first place because of Aku getting away with tons of evil due to Aku initiating timefuckery. Their deaths are on Aku, not Jack. Jack did the right thing as a hero. And it isn't even remotely comparable to Glimmer starting wars and worse by ruining a filly's big day, all in the name of pissing Twilight off and depriving the world of its greatest heroes. Glimmer could have jumped back in time and gotten a filly mane six to work for her. But no. She outdid fucking gun batman movie. forgot its name. go watch the gun batman movie where Batman's elderly and his mom is Joker.
>>213742 >Remember when Glimmer and Trixie obnoxiously whined at each other about how not forgives them, even though everypony did? That's the Glimmer Silver beat up. No it isnt, you already have reformed changelings making it post-s6 where Starlight graduated. Don't try to retcon one way and have it another when the episode you're talking about is when they first met eachother in s6 while she was still in the beginning stages of Twilight's reformation "make a new friend to bring to dinner with celestia". You cant have your cake and eat it too. You put her into Ch6 in a time that she's already reformed but then write her as if she's never reformed at all because you want to push your retarded headcanon of her being an eldritch anomaly which was incredibly stupid and just serves as a last minute after thought, just an excuse for your justification for you to unload all of your autism about her to the reader for 100k words when nobody cares.
What you have is a direct contradiction of what really happend vs your warped reality, If she wasnt reformed then why did she rescue the mane 6 through willing teamwork instead of brainwashing? If the changlings arent reformed then how did they defeat Chrysalis with giving love? Do you have a good answer for either? Because "they were just faking it" isnt one and it's lazy as fuck and boring to use this excuse to sweep away BOTH of the redemptions you dont like.
>>213753 Are you for real? How many layers of irony are you on right now? That Glitterbug episode wasn't a proper redemption. She didn't learn a moral lesson or see the old her in the villain. She didn't use teamwork, she watched her teammates do stuff and then Deus Ex Machina saved the day. Does it make sense to you that a Changeling race suddenly so nonsensically wanked that it can instantly replace everyone ever in one night would just leave Glimmer the Sue who beat Twilight lying around? And why wouldn't it replace Trixie? She's an unloved hermit who lives in a wagon and has easily imitated mannerisms. Any fuckup in the impersonation can be passed off as Trixie fucking up her impersonation of a normal pony. And why would Discord just be fucking there when they've already replaced Fluttershy and could have "her" ask him to take her on a magic trip to some faraway land, getting Discord out of Ponyville? That whole stock plot was bloody handed to her. I've seen dnd games that went south and still ended up less fucked up. The writers could have made this into Episode 100 2, taking random ponies the Bugs just couldn't be bothered to replace and making them the heroes. But no, Glimmer got that half-finished plot scrap. A team of Mayor Mare, Gaara, his knockoff Todoroki, that flute bitch from Naruto, and Sticks from Sonic Boom would have shown more teamwork and more heroism. And not just because Sticks is best girl. Don't make me bring up the chair that negates all magic except changeling magic. Literally the only way to make this not retarded is to say this whole scenario was fake memories implanted by sleeper agent Changelings so the lings could pretend to be good now while feeding off captured and replaced ponies. The stupid "helpless good guy" act of the Glitterbugs is their mocking impersonation of ponies and their way to seem beneath suspicion. Yes, the lings were bad all along. This "redemption" was that bad. The only way to salvage this is to say some lings unironically liked being good and befriending ponies, and they're willing to have their need to feed on love magicked out of them.
>>213769 >Wasnt a proper redemption Based on who? Glimmer or the Faggotdeer? The drones becoming redeemed was already foreshadowed starting with Thorax earlier in the season. It was kind of out of nowhere at the end with the awful transformation into Faggotdeer but is it any more of a deus-ex machina for the show than Cadence and Shining's love btfoing the changelings in season 2?
>Didnt use teamwork They looked to her for guidance and plans and she was supported by trixie when she didnt think she could do it and her anxiety was overwhelming her. The final scene in the throne room only worked with multiple ponies and changelings working together, just like they couldnt get past the gaurds without discords distraction or trixies smoke bombs. Sounds like teamwork to me maybe you just have a shit concept of what it entails.
>replace everyone ever in one night would just leave Glimmer the Sue who beat Twilight lying around? And why wouldn't it replace Trixie? Both Starlight and Trixie were out of town when everyone was replaced as 'mission complete' by the drones. They can only only work with what Chrysalis already knows and wouldnt know Starlight beat Twilight or even of her existance. The m6 and princesses are priority one since they stopped her plan last time and thats what they focused on.
>She's an unloved hermit who lives in a wagon and has easily imitated mannerisms. Any fuckup in the impersonation can be passed off as Trixie fucking up her impersonation of a normal pony Because that would fail on Starlight's question and expose them as a changeling. Starlight asked Trixie to tell her what she said on the road away from ponyville, no changeling would have that exact information which is why it was used as the test and she tested every one of them.
It's really not that unbelievable to think they were passed over as nobodies, The whole town wasnt changelings, only the mane6 and spike which is why ChangelingDash said "Hello *ponies* we need Rarity & Applejack *Very important friendship buisiness*" and why both ChangelingSpike tried to get rid of her, and ChangelingTwilight tried to give her 'friendship advice' "Trust me I'm the princess of friendship". In addition, Starlight bailed out in the middle of the night while they were setting up their meeting with Chrysalis. Trixie isnt usually around ponyville and her wagon was hidden. There's a lot of reasons why the episode gave us why didn't they get taken. Maybe you should learn from it.
>Didn't see her old self in the villain " I know what it's like to lead by fear and intimidation! And I know what it's like to want everypony to do what you say! But I was wrong. A real leader doesn't force her subjects to deny who they are! She celebrates what makes them unique and listens when one of them finds a better way!" "When Twilight and her friends defeated me, I chose to run away and seek revenge! You don't have to! You can be the leader your subjects deserve."
>Why would Discord be fucking be there? Discord comes and goes whenever he wants, and can be anywhere. Of course it's lazy to include him for reasons, just like it was lazy not to include him for reasons like in the movie he was nowhere to be found. But that's how his character is treated. They made a point of teasing him on this when he appears whenever D&D is mentioned for a guys night. There really isnt much that can be done when he's deus-ex incarnate which is why the negating magic hive was added in as a limitor on his ability more so than pony magic. As far as why not use Changelingshy to draw him out, he wasnt listed as a priority and it's an oversight.
The writers wanted to do something fun for a B-hero team of misfits and that means you tie up the A-team, this isnt new groundbreaking material it's quite common in fiction. Whether or not you like the redemptions or not be aware that "it was all a dream lol" is the biggest cop-out you can pull as a writer and removing their accomplishments just so they can be an easier target for your autism about how they dont deserve it, then writing them as if they never reformed and coming up with reasons that dont even exist in canon, inserted at the last minute to hate them is utterly pathetic drivel.
>>213783 >>Wasnt a proper redemption >Based on who? Me, I guess. Glimmer didn't do some big heroic thing to redeem herself, she was just there. The Lings get a point for FINALLY overthrowing their evil ruler, something they apparently could have done at any point with the aid of big love laser beams that evolve them and remove their need to feed. Don't think about how useful these beams would have been during the invasion. Don't think about how useful removing your numerous bug-race subjects' need to feed during a food shortage would be. Don't think about how the Changelings apparently could have overthrown their ruler at any time, but waited until now to do so "Because they were afraid" of someone they could easily overpower. Don't think about how the Changelings apparently could have taken over all of Equestria by kidnapping everypony, at any moment... But chose to not do so until now, while leaving two high-priority targets unkidnapped for no reason at all. Don't think about how the Changelings apparently could have thrown off their dependency on food and given themselves infinite love to eat at any time, letting their population explode without needing a food source. Don't think about how the Changelings are suddenly megagods who can kidnap and replace anyone ever in a single night, even fucking Princesses. Don't think about how the Changelings are giant pussies next time we see them. Don't think about how it makes no goddamn sense that THESE two would be spared from a Changeling replacement. It's just... Hold on. I don't think this is really fair on you. I'm critiquing this piece of writing and you're trying to justify it using a mix of out-of-universe and in-universe things. I say it did something badly, and you say "No it did it goodly". I'll skip twenty posts of this "Argument through contradictions" crap and explain it all here. Sure, Discord comes and goes as he pleases. Doesn't change the fact that it's fucking retarded that the Changelings didn't even try to distract Discord and get him away from Equestria when he's the only thing (except all changelings ever apparently lmao) that can stop them. Also doesn't change the fact that a suddenly-wanked Changeling Race that suddenly has the ability to replace and kidnap EVERYPONY IMPORTANT EVER would leave behind bullshit megamage Glimmer or the easily replaced Trixie. Look, I get that the taste of this shit is delicious to you. I get that. I'm not going to insult you, or count up how many r/iamverysmart words like drivel and pathetic you use, so I can then use twice as many wannabe words when responding to you. I'm not that kind of guy. But please stop resenting me for not liking the taste of glimshit. If it's okay for you to critique something I write for fun, it's okay for me to critique something made by "Professionals" with the backing of a massive company. I understand the purpose behind this character. I understand the purpose behind the writing choices made when it comes to this character. I also understand that the writers behind this character are so spectacularly incompetent that they've introduced bullshit into the world of FIM that needs to be retconned and thrown out before the setting can function and feel like a place that makes sense again. I understand what these writers have tried so hard to do, and I understand exactly why it just doesn't work. Glimmer and the Lings getting inexplicable power boosts and nerfs when the writers decide the plot needs it, even when it didn't? If that's what you're into, that's what you're into. I won't resent you for having this fetish. Just like I don't resent Akira Toriyama for having a fetish for that one done-to-death joke where the audience and hero knows something, but one character doesn't, meaning that character makes a big shocked face when he finds out about the thing. >The writers wanted to do something fun for a B-hero team of misfits and that means you tie up the A-team, this isnt new groundbreaking material it's quite common in fiction. Again, I get it. I get what these shit episodes tried to do. Fuck me for using the word tropes right now, but just because these tropes that are being used are tropes you like, that doesn't mean these tropes are executed well. A show can't just rely on tried-and-true stock plots forever. It needs originality and good execution of its ideas. And the show lost that during the transition from heartfelt show to rotting stock-plot zombie. Glimmer as a character doesn't work. Her redemption was forced and poorly written, and her subsequent redemption arc was something only a Glimmer waifufag headcanoning all the dumb shit away could love. This episode? It did not work. Not the way I see it. It tried to sell me on Glimmer, Trixie, Thorax, Redeemed Discord, and the four of them as a "B Team". And it failed. And to prove that I know that this trope is a trope- Honestly, where the hell did this cliched and tiresome plebbit way of responding to media criticism come from and why is it so common when people want to defend bad media? Explaining what the piece of media tried to do and be doesn't instantly magically make it good at what it tried to do and be. I don't hate this because I "Don't get it", this isn't fucking Rick and Morty, I don't need a high IQ to understand this shit. I understand what this episode tried to be and what it was and wasn't, and that's why I don't like it. Anyway, to prove I know about the old "Get the A Team out of the way so B Team can save the day" trope... Are you familiar with the Kingdom Hearts fanfic "Those Lacking Spines"? In this comedic work of parody...
>>213783 >>213942 , a new type of Heartless known as the Nutless invade the Kingdom Hearts setting. To parody the "Getting killed by a Heartless splits you, your heart becomes a rabid monster called a 'Heartless' and your body becomes a soulless 'Nobody'" bit in KH lore, the victims of the Nutless are split into pussy versions of themselves and "Edgy" versions of themselves. Three characters among Organization XIII are spared. Because so few fanfics have been written about them, the Nutless had no idea who these three guys are. These three characters must team up and fly from world to world, fighting each Edgy Organization XIII member in a row because they all need to die before the dead Organization XIII members can be brought back to life, or something. Been years since I read this. Each world is a parody of different stupid fanfic cliches that existed at the time. Don't worry, you don't need to be well-versed in the KH lore or fandom to get the gags. It's pretty dated, but it still pulls its "The A team is out of commission so the B team saves the day" premise off far better than this pony episode you want me to like. I repeat This parody fanfic that contains a literal goddamn CRACK WORLD A FUCKING CRACK WORLD has better logic than this pony episode. It has a reasonable explanation for why the usual heroes are suddenly out of commission (A new type of monster that doesn't obey the usual rules attacks) It has a reasonable explanation for why these three weren't attacked by the monsters that took everyone else out(The monsters didn't know who these three comparatively minor KH charactera are, bonus points for being funny) And instead of pulling some deus ex machina bullshit to remove the OP abilities of two OP characters, only to then realize far too late into development that these two characters in their current states are literally nothing without their OP abilities, meaning the third character needs to pull out some OP bullshit power even though they could have just given Trixie a big firework or stolen book of actual magic, this fic... Well, it doesn't do that. It writes a fun little story about three dudes kicking ass in different cliche fanfic settings while hunting for the stolen balls of their fallen teammates. Also I remembered "The gun Batman movie"'s name, it's Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.
>>213942 >>213943 Here's the big problem with your writing, while you scream about how they did so bad the alternative you present is so laughably bad and you don't even begin to comphrehend why that is the case. This is why people say you havent improved as a writer. Because you can't do any better than those you critic in actuality it's a thousand times worse than even the most newfag writers came up with. Yes this fic is worse than the script of NoncompeteClause in s8, which was complete garbage.
"Silver redeems all of G4" is something I would expect a 4 to 8 year old to come up with how he hates XYZ and his self-insert will make everything about XYZ better by merely existing. All of this 1 dimensional shit needs to go right out the window if you ever want to have anything salvagable. If we cut through all your wall of text it boils down to this.
>You like yourself & you like anime shit >You make your self insert the biggest sue in existance with more animetard powers up the ass than he deserves >You wont stop talking about how many great deeds hes done with all the animetard powers (validating yourself)
>You hate Spitfire >Your self-insert hates Spitfire too and makes an extremely long rant about them being a shitty leader >Your OC already made someones life better by telling another that Spitfire is a retard (validating yourself)
>You hate the castle >You make Twilight your mouth piece for an entire chapter about how she hates the castle (validating yourself) >Then your OC can swoop in and fix everything, remodeling and building her a new castle which she will love, love love it! because she's a brainless sockpuppet used to validate yourself.
>You hate the nu-lings >You retcon it happening >Your OC is suspicious about this (validating yourself) and Im sure you're planning for him to save the day here too. Thank christ we were spared your spergy walls about the nu-lings since it's incomplete ending at ch6
>You hate Glimmer >You retcon her redemption and invent new asinine reasons (validating yourself) that don't even begin to fit into FiM and even contradict your own headcanon multiple times. >You have a retarded dragged out scene just so your OC can get rid of her and be cheered for it. (validating yourself)
>You waifu Twilight >You make her have the intelligence and influence of a cheerleader falling for your self-insert out of the blue (validating yourself) >Despite having no chemistry you insist they're in love anyways and a perfect match (validating yourself)
Seeing the pattern yet? This isn't about Glimmer, it never was. This has always been about your overblown narcassism and inability to filter yourself to tell a good story to get people on your side. The only way you know how to function is by pushing every thought you have about the current subject infront of everyones face all at once. Pacing be damned, believable dialog? world building? all nonexistant the moment your autism kicks in. The entire world you wrote revolves around your blackholesue in every way, the fic is just an overly long steaming pile to jerk yourself off and reaffirm what you already think, because we get to hear it unflitered as NigelStar tells everyone for the entire length.
Until you can see that and fix it or at least not do it again, then you havent improved as a writer. None of the characters even get a sliver of the spotlight that your self-inserts horde from start to finish, nobody is willing to slog through it with a smile on their face, the only thing it's been used as is a demonstration on what NOT to do and for mockery. Don't talk about who likes to eat shit when you give us SilverStar & The Pursuit of The Authors own Ego and then take an attitude that people arent lapping it up.
>>213962 Its pointless to try and reason with him anon. As many words have been expended in the effort as have gone into his fic. Spare yourself (and the board) more of his walls of text.
>>213969 Maybe you should stop posting, if all you're going to post is this "He's never gonna learn, he's a racist sexist transphobe and you shouldn't talk to him" plebbit trash. Replacing the word sexist with retarded and the word transphobe with autist doesn't make it any better. Stop trying to kill discussion, retarded shill. Contribute to the thread or GTFO.
>>213962 Wow, I really did do that bit way too much. My intention was to fix the dumb shit writers put into the FIM setting so the setting can work again, not to make Silver some fucking obnoxiously perfect diety that fixes everything himself. I'll go edit the Spitfire bit out, and when it's time for the Changeling bit, I'll have him blindly trust the Changelings at first so someone else can be the hero that proves Changelings are bad. Also, I saw Into The Spiderverse. It's cool how Peter was willing to be a hero even though he was dying, and he would have died if he finished the job instead of Miles. This isn't just the risk of death, this is guaranteed death. He would have died, never seeing his love again. And he was willing to stare death down and let it happen to him. He didn't even complain about how much dying hurts. That's cool. I also re-read my story. I don't like how Silver is confused over his emotions at the start. It isn't cool. So I've been thinking on that, some other stuff that's been said, and a Roal Dahl quote about a candle burning at both ends. I think I should rewrite Silver so he's dying. He goes to Ponyville to reconnect with Applejack and the Apple Family because there's a reunion there next week, and he also goes to Ponyville because he wants to flirt with Twilight, seduce her, and then get her to help him try and find a way to extend his life. A way that isn't the obvious "Lol just put your soul in an object, like a gem, a toy, a suit of armour, a puppet, or a pendant" method. After all, the armour, toy, and puppet body methods mean you lose the ability to touch stuff and eat. The soul gem method traps you in a soul gem that forms ghost around it, and the pendant method means you only have a body when you're being worn by someone else. Also, he does things this way even though Twilight would probably help him even if they weren't dating. But he thinks her wanting him will make her more motivated. Yeah, a dying man seducing a woman isn't morally pure, but he shouldn't be 100% morally pure. Your thoughts?
>>214053 I am contributing to the thread, far better than you have ever done. If you were concerned about the quality of the thread you'd stop fucking posting. I'm not the only person who has attested to this, but while you like to tell others to stop, the only person who has consistently been suggested/told to stop here is you. But noooooo, that'll never happen because Nigel "maybe if I spurg about more animaymays they won't think my Encyclopedia Brittanica-length feculent wibble is good, and if that doesn't work I'll just keep accusing everyone who gives me shit about it as being Reddit" needs more dopamine. For someone who writes untold pages of the consistently worst shit - while presuming the authority to weigh in on writing quality anywhere and everywhere he cares to - and then can't be troubled to actually read the lengthy, authoritative, and well-written advise/critiques he has been given at length and effort by anons (as evidenced by your "when was I given constructive criticism" deflections) who sincerely want his writing to improve JUST so that they don't have to say to themselves "oh fuck me, its him again",.... Tl;dr You have no authority to comment on who should stop posting
To this day anons credit you as illustrating what not to do in writing. Think about that. P.S. Do I really have to bring up the thing? The thing that only you and I know about? I don't want to have to, but I'm not opposed to it either.
>>214057 >My intention was to fix the dumb shit writers put into the FIM setting so the setting can work again, not to make Silver some fucking obnoxiously perfect diety that fixes everything himself. Some problems money and magic power can't fix. Sometimes the solution is a lifelong work that has no reward and fights back every step of the way leaving a person broke in moral, energy, health, and resources. >I also re-read my story. I don't like how Silver is confused over his emotions at the start. It isn't cool. Characters must be themselves first, from their actions, mindset, and life outlook make them cool.
To just say a character is cool is a 'how do you do fellow kids' meme. An uncool character can suround themselves with cool stuff with lackies that say they are cool, but it does not make them cool.
>I think I should rewrite Silver so he's dying. He goes to Ponyville to reconnect with Applejack and the Apple Family because there's a reunion there next week, and he also goes to Ponyville. So far so good. To make a character flaw make using ANY Awesome Cool power hace a Cost. A Permanent Cost. From overusing the clone spell thing Silver can cast it far better than a majority of ponies. HOWEVER, despite Knowing magic theory he can barely use any basic tier magic. Even when not using the spell he is Locked magically in preperation for a suprise speed casting of the clone spell.
He can't Not use the spell because that is how he runs the company. His body is in bad shape due to having spend most of the time using clones and consuming food to keep running the spell.
The only ponies that can pull magic bullshit out of their asses is Twilight (being the Element of Magic And with a Magic cutiemark)(The princesses due to Age Experience and power over celestial bodies)(Discord cause fuck the rules)(Glimmer the childhood friend trope gone stupid and insane. Has Magic cutie mark [Raw power?]<Nopony actually bothered to help a filly age CMC with childhood friend issues insead of letting it fester into a massive problem. Like seriously wtf.> Unless you have Silver be the 1% of the 1% random powers won't cut it.
>because he wants to flirt with Twilight, seduce her, How well known is Twilight in your story? Why and how does Silver know Twilight Sparkle. She has been trained by the princess I.E. the best of the best in state craft and dealing with scumbags for Hundreds of Years. She is also connected to The Princess of Love and can figure out if somekne is going to try to use her for her Power, Connections, or Fame. >and then get her to help him try and find a way to extend his life. Extortion. One letter to Celestia her trusted teacher and friend and Silver will be in a fire that few mortals experience. >Also, he does things this way even though Twilight would probably help him even if they weren't dating. But he thinks her wanting him will make her more motivated. Yeah, a dying man seducing a woman isn't morally pure, but he shouldn't be 100% morally pure. 96% villain behavior.
>owns big business >wtf magic >mind control >expects everyone to always agree >is a dick >quick to cause judgement >willing to use Any means to accomplish goals >no redeption for enemies >exploits connections to further own goals at others detriment >egotistical >forces ponies to do things his way
>>214065 Sorry for sounding like a cunt just then. But all this "You're a bad guy" "No I'm not" talk, it isn't helpful. it's lame and boring, and it won't ever go anywhere. It's just morally plebbit crap. It won't make me a better writer. But the "This is a bad story because ___" talk, that's good. That helps me become a better writer and see things from other perspectives. >>214074 >(Glimmer the childhood friend trope gone stupid and insane. Has Magic cutie mark [Raw power?]<Nopony actually bothered to help a filly age CMC with childhood friend issues insead of letting it fester into a massive problem. Like seriously wtf.> You get it too! Nothing about this girl makes sense because they're trying to do different contradictory things with her at the same time. If I was paid to write Glimmer, I would have said her Cutie Mark is in Destructive Magic and that's what the falling star means. Her talent is fucking shit up, hence why her old idea of trying to be a good pony would be "Try to destroy concepts I don't like" and her new idea of trying to be a good pony would be "Try and remember what Twilight said heroism and morality is, then get to the fun villain-destroying part when I'm 100% sure the villain is evil". I'd drop the "Glimmer is the only sane pony on the planet and she needs to teach others lessons" bullshit and show that her bad deeds seem to come solely from the most genuine ignorance and... I'd also give her some evil boss who's responsible for her warped moral code and difficulty figuring out Twilight's new one. A evil mom kicked out of Celestia's school for getting caught cheating on tests, or a cursed book that only taught her destructive magic or something. Also You're right. I like the idea of limiting Silver's clones, but I don't think stopping him from doing any other spells ever is the right way. That seems too limiting, but also not limiting enough since he can make clones that cast regular spells for him. Also I decided whatever's killing him should be his own fault. He cast some banned spell that tripled his magic power (Tragically, still leaving him with a power level below Twilight's) while killing him. He thought the warning meant "Your body will be damaged while this power multiplier is active", some animu Kaioken Eight Gates shit, but it keeps destroying his body from the moment it's cast. >Silver looks like a villain Intentional since he's supposed to learn kindness and mercy and how to chill the fuck out with the violent cowboy cop bullshit from the mane six, but I think I might have taken that too far at the story's start. He does genuinely think Twilight is smart, cute, sexy, and so on. And he does genuinely like her and he likes being around her. My current plan is to have him start off with the "I'll seduce her, to get her to help me!" bit, then he ends up falling for her for real. Then he has no idea how to relationship because he's never had a girlfriend. I'm not sure how far he should take the "Twilight, I know I seemed cool with the fact that I'm dying so far, but... I don't want to go" stuff. Also... You know the whole "Peter Parker and Peter B. Parker" stuff in Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse? What if I did something like that? A "Silver Star is famed in song and legend and he sounds amazing, but the real Silver is tired, cynical, a bit fat, he eats food messily, and he's clearly been at this heroing stuff for way too long" bit. I could also do a bit where at first, his love of food seems disgustingly gluttonous. Then you find out his love of food is because no matter what he ends up doing to extend his lifespan past "Somewhere around 25-30ish at best", he'll probably never get to eat again.
>>214057 >Wow, I really did do that bit way too much. Well color me shocked that you responded this way.
It's a formula I recognized that springs up every time you write about something you like or something you hate. Example: You like Sonic Riders -> so you dedicate an entire section to Silver explaining and shilling sonic riders mechanics in MLP as if we were in a board meeting, instead of sprinkling out the information over the course of the story so it's easier to digest and natural layering of lore. What happened in chapter 6 is just an exponential chain disaster of this nigel-formula. (You like capitalism) X (You hate communism) X (You like silver) X (You like animeshit) X (You like twilight) X (You hate glimmer). Because you have this habit of unloading all your thoughts at once about something you hate or something you like then it ballooned into a literary shitstorm because it had multiple aspects of things you felt strongly about in one chapter and you can't put the breaks on your thoughts to think maybe this isnt the best way to approach it once you get started.
>I also re-read my story. I don't like how Silver is confused over his emotions at the start. It isn't cool. >Silver dying at the start and seducing Twi for his own wishes This makes him even more reprehensive than before, so be aware you're making it a steeper climb if you want to redeem him at all.
Focus on what makes Silver a strong unique character rather than just copying off something you saw yourself. He doesnt need to be 'cool' all the time by any means, and if he thinks he's 2kool4school then that's a point you can use to jab at his ego and his pride, like if RD wasnt a fangirl but made fun of him trying too hard. Then much later after he's humbled then he can do something actually cool that RD would approve of or cheer on. You see how it's not a black and white issue and how you're not using the characters around Silver to push his development in any fashion? Why is RD in the story right now and what has she done? In your fic she's a bigger fantard of him than daring do, and potential love-interest almost immediately largely thanks to his narutard clone power and time-bullshit power. This isnt making use of her character dynamic it's just using her insert to milk more praise and reaffirm what he(you) already believe. If you make everyone around ponyville equally as receptive to Silver then in-group dynamics are totally fucking meaningless.
If he's a superstar celebrity then taking him out of the high life of Canterlot does nothing if he's still being showered with cheers and smiles from all sides. We still havent gotten past everyone fawning over him and it's a been massive waste of the readers time. Where are the views that conflict with his own that mesh with the story naturally, instead of just being thrown in out of nowhere like Strawman-Starlight? No one in ponyville has made a single point on his flaws. They're either oblivious or just fawning over everything he says and does. Many don't even pay any mind to it beyond one or two quips and it's quickly forgotten about onto the next irrelevant scene, too distracted by a glittery ball for his next talent you pulled out of your ass, too lazy to work on the big picture.
Thus far for redeeming him you just have superficial shit like his view of hosting parties for business vs pinkie's parties just for fun which is a start but nothing substantial with the character's morals that we can see he's making progress. It's just incredibly easy-street to make friends with any pony he wants since he can relate to any of their interests with the narutoclone shit and it's a snoozefest.
>I'll go edit the spitfire bit out >I'll have him blindly trust the changelings You don't need to completely drop everything you already wrote about him, just tone it back A LOT. As I've told you, making him a limitless perfect genius prodjegy not only made him an unbearable sue but also put huge roadblocks in your way for when you can redeem him and how far the audience is willing to accept.
You can still have him rant about Spitfire, but for fuck sake put some more thought into Silver as an individual instead of just using him as your self-insert. Silver hates Spitfire to the point he insults her behind her back, but why is that? I have no questions of why a self-insert of a writer who hates Spitfire would say that but that's not what I care about, I want to know why Silver specifically thinks this way and how it matters for the larger arc. Do they have a history together? Did she wrong him or did he put a dangerous idea on the table and got mad she wouldnt accept it? Can they come to an understanding later? If she doesnt matter then why bring it up, it's pretty clear that you didn't think about any of that, and thats why I pointed out the 1-dimensional bias that this fic is overflowing with. You'll tear down FiMs flaws but make no effort to give a well thought out reason for including them in the fic.
This is why I said the Derby/Derpy magic-suit business was a better set up than anything previously in your firewood. You have all the pieces needed for moving towards a real big change of Silver with using that as a strong sub plot point to spring off and without copying Pixar verbatim. She's naive and he's taking advantage of that for profit and gives her a dangerous item that he went off on a tangent over Spitfire. It's screaming for something to happen that isnt just more of "Silver is great and makes everything better, and everyone loves my OC" episodic garbage that we've been subjected to. He acts like hes better than Flim & Flam so much to 'put them on a list' but he's really quite close to them and he's a massive hypocrite. This can be a flaw you acknowledge. But it's never in-story that he gets called out on being one.
If you want a tale that criticizes the bad nu-fim, then there are two things you need to do: Firstly, the parts where you criticise nu-fim must matter to or be part of the plot. Secondly, Silver has to have in-character reason for being in the right. Otherwise, it just looks contrived and people will see right through the story and see you behind the scenes puppeteering.
To fix these things you should do something like this, synopsis: Silver meets Starlight in magic dualist school. They team up to study time-travel magic in some project study. They have a breakthrough. Glimmer wants to apply their research according to her egalitarian ideology by making it so that everypony's life span is of equal length. Silver does just want to use it for himself to slow down time so he can read trashy novels in his skyscraper. They have a fight.
Or Silver could be the one inventing the time travel spell himself. The previous idea was just to make Glimmer the actual villain and Silver actually the hero. I like how you have him be the hero and the person who needs to be redeemed at the same time.
Anyway, the point with this premise is to have Silver fuck up time and/or his relationship with Glimmer, which snowballs into that everything you dislikes about nu-fim to happendWe know that the butterfly effect is canon since Glimmer's fight with Twi btw.. It is basically Steins Gate with nu-fim being an alternate timeline.
Now, copying right off but when was that ever an issue for you. You give Silver the reading Steiner ability. If you don't know it, makes Okabe, the mc, remember things when he is moved into a new timeline. This makes him able to compare the current timeline with the original.
This setting makes it so that:
>Silver, who is trying to restore the timeline, must be wary of changes and seek them out to correct them and see what their cause is. >When Silver sees how worse this timeline is, he feels guilty about causing it and therefore gives him more motivation to change it. >Silver can also discover that he, due to his personality in the old timeline, treated people badly and that they are genuinely better off without him. Like Aquilla, for example, has in a timeline where she doesn't work for him or whatever, a happier persona, which causes him to regret and grow. >It is subtle and not on the nose way of criticizing the nu-fim. By having the nu-fim Fluttershy, that emotionally manipulates Discord, contrasted with how she is in the original timeline old-fim. >If you make it so, that the way to go restore time and go back to the original timeline is by having Silver change the present into what it was before. For example, if Spitfire is a cunt in this timeline, Silver must solve her problems in the present so that she becomes the pony she was meant to be, which in turn pushes the nu-fim timeline back towards the original one. You can even connect this to cuite marks and stuff. That Ponies have a destined to have a specific mark but if the timeline diverges they can get another one which is detrimental to them.
Would his skills seem less bullshit if he developed a spell that lets him magically enter the brains of targets and, after fighting some puzzles and monsters that represent thoughts and stuff, get to the important part of the brain and copy skills and information from it into Silver? Sorta like the Phantom Thieves except no brainwashing, just skill-copying and information gathering. Maybe blackmailing for the worst bad guys. Also you still need to practice the skill to get good at doing it in your body. I think there could be a bit where Twilight is all "That is incredibly immoral, how dare you" and Silver is all "But I only ripped skills off from evil ones! Those skills would go to waste in jail if I didn't copypaste. This way, I can put their skills to good use".
>>214204 >Would his skills seem less bullshit if he developed a spell that lets him magically enter the brains of targets and, after fighting some puzzles and monsters that represent thoughts and stuff, get to the important part of the brain and copy skills and information from it into Silver? You have to go from zero to hero. >The READERS must go with the character from the first step. If you want Silver to be a more sympathetic character. >Silver needs to be in a living world. One the acts independently from him. >One that reacts dynamicly to him. One that you could say 'yes this character would do that in this specific situation'. >A World that everyone is the hero of their own stories, but bad deeds are ALWAYS paid in full at some point. (For a more cannon FIM world) Characters you like can disagree with Silver. Charcters you despise can agree with Silver.
A majority of things are based on the cutie mark, applications derived from it, and skills that are puns. Everything else takes even more hardwork and effort. Find out what his cutie mark really means the origin of it and the mindset before and after.
Silver Star, as he appears in the Fanfic, is nothing less than a living god. He is better than every one of the canon characters in every single way. He is
Better at magic than Twilight (or Glimmer). After all, Twilight couldn't use a de-aging spell in Magic Duel (or produce clones at different ages) and had to use stage magic, where as Silver Star does it on a whim and for no reason with his clones. I don't recall if Silver Star Teleported to get to Ponyville, but neither Celestia nor Twilight seem to be able to teleport that far Better at writing for mass publication than Twilight More knowledgeable about Daring Do stories than either Twilight or Rainbow Dash Probably better at winning than Rainbow dash Can fly despite not being a pegasus and is nominally not an alicorn Is as good at manipulating animals into doing his bidding as Fluttershy. "Fox ponies" in this case. Is a better business pony than Rarity. Is a better Builder than Applejack. Is probably a better farmer than Applejack. Is as good or better of a party planner than Pinkie Pie. Is as good at breaking the fourth wall and doing zany things as Pinkie Pie, probably better. Is probably better at cooking than Pinkie Pie
And on top of all of these - I am sure there are several I left off - he even steals Applejack's special power. The one thing that makes the mundane Applehorse unique. He's a part of the Apple Family. Why. What purpose does that serve?
What makes a character a character is not a set of skills. A character is defined more than anything by their motivations and cares, which defines the way they interact with the world, the events of the plot, and the other characters. A character is defined by their emotions, their reactions, and theor relationships. They are, in short, like a person. A character is not something for the Author and the characters in the story to just drool over how awesome or cool it is. It is not a vehicle for events in the story to take place. It is not a set of skills and cool backstory. A character, in short, is not a mask for the author to wear to give his opinions on things or to be a more likable and respectable version of the self.
The problem with the Silver Star character, simply put, is that he is not a character, he is a Mary Sue by the text box definition. I am going to go down a list of Mary Sue traits to show you how. This list is taken from TV tropes, which isn't necessarily the best possible list, but should serve well enough. Mind you, he doesn't have every trait of a Mary Sue, I am only showing the ones he definitely does have.
>What little personality a Mary Sue has isn't as important as how other characters react to it. No matter how shy or socially awkward Mary Sue is supposed to be, other characters will be inexplicably drawn to her. All of her ideas are brilliant, all of her jokes are funny, and all of her advice is spot-on. Check, all of the other characters gush over him
>She's extremely persuasive; everyone finds her opinions to be better than their own, regardless of the actual content of her supposedly awesome arguments. This is especially common in an Author Tract. It's also particularly jarring when characters who are usually very stubborn immediately take her side. Check, be it the argument with Glimmer or convincing Derpy to sell herself into slavery to him.
>And occasionally she'll be a complete asshole... The author is trying to present her assholery as a flaw but fails like with all the other flaws listed above. A "flaw" like stubbornness will never come back to bite her because she will always turn out to be right all along. A bad temper just gives her an excuse to pwn her enemies, all of whom deserve it. Rudeness and tactlessness are portrayed as "speaking her mind", and she'll always be right. Check
>Her skills will generally be inexplicable and poorly defined. Many of them may play no role in the plot, not even as a Required Secondary Power; they're introduced solely to make the character seem even more awesome. Check
>She will always be better than the canon characters, regardless of what canon has established they can do or whether it makes any sense. See the discussion above. Very big check
>Relatedly, there's no effort to her skills. She never actually trains or learns anything to become more powerful; she just wins the Super Power Lottery, or is a freakish natural learner, or just Inexplicably Awesome. Yes, I know Silver Star (Apple) went to Beyblade dueling school and was inexplicably the sheriff of a small town when he was very young, but he still has an agricultural background. None of that explains how he can clone himself much better than Pinkie Pie, or knows magic better than Twilight (or Glimmer), and most of all it doesn't explain why he is so good at science and engineering, or at business. These superpowers of his just exist without purpose or explaination
>Her skills will often be unrealistic within the story's setting I admit this is a bit of a Your Milage May Vary, but being better at magic than even the established magic users is a bit questionable, and why does he have Back To the Future hoverboards in a fantasy setting?
>And with all this, don't expect the Green-Eyed Monster to show up. Anybody who does get jealous of her is deliberately set up as stupid or evil Rainbow Dash doesn't get jealous, Pinkie Pie doesn't get jealous despite getting jealous at Cheese Sandwhich, and so forth
>She will have unusual hair, especially relative to canon characters' hair. This usually means a unique hair color or a funky hairstyle. It's essentially taking Anime Hair and using it everywhere. Check
>If she has her own transport, it will always be cool and expensive The Back to the Future hoverboards
>If she has a pet, it will be exotic or fantastic Do Fox Ponies count?
>>214204 Nigel, in my eyes it is completely okay for Silver to even be God in your universe. The problem is that you don't do it well, simply. Not very helpful but it will take too much time to get into specifics.
Here's is the thing. I have not been able to read past your first chapter. You know why because of your walls of texts.
I mean, why do Silver even have these powers if all he is going to do with it is stand around brag about them.
Look when I get naughty and create self-insert stories, they are more intresing than what you do.
My self-insert goes straight for the kill. He would throw Madoka, also it's not pedophilia if my self-insert is the same age ;^PIamjoking, over his shoulder and taunts Homura. Homura would then start to cry and go into her cuckshed. She would then probably try to use her power in an endless cycle to stopp the unevitable: Me cucking her.
But the difference between my self-insert story and yours is that mine is more intresting. If my self-insert would bang Pinkie Pie, there would be consequnces in-universe. Pinkie would tell him they need to meet her parents or something and she would tell the rest of the mane six about their relationship. Even if he banged every singled one of them, something would happend. Like their friendship would break up because they cannot share him, they hate him for what he has done or he gets a harem but the rest of ponyville finds it disgusting with polygamy. Anything!
Nothing in your story leads to something else. Nothing happens!
>>214217 >Silver Star, as he appears in the Fanfic, is nothing less than a living god. My post was made before that. Just saying. We were thinking about the same exact word to describe Silver Star at the same time. Kek!
>>214217 But wait, there's more! Because we are not done with the ways that Silver Star Apple is a Mary Sue
>Mary Sue is often designed to hook up with another character, often as a form of Wish Fulfillment. This isn't that bad in and of itself (okay, it is kinda weird), but Mary Sue accomplishes this without any sense of realism. She just grabs her lover's attention straight away, and their relationship will never face any obstacles or tension; it's true love from the start and nothing else. The biggest giveaway is if the love interest is explicitly the author's favorite character Very big check, with Silver Star and Twilight Sparkle
>She will be related to a canon character in some way Another very big check. Silver Star is an apple somehow, despite his proclivity to being a city based industrialist. Why is he an Apple? Because being a part of the Apple Family is special, and God forbid a cannon character be more special in any regard than Silver Star
>Most characters give her more heed than they normally would. The good guys never stop praising her. The bad guys never stop belittling her (and thus making themselves look bad). They talk about her when she's not present. At least one will confess to being secretly in love with her (if more than one does, they may fight each other over her). The villains will obsess over her, to the point of destroying themselves in their jealousy or opening themselves up to redemption and the realization that she was good all along I believe that several of these are true, with Silver Star never being criticized for any of the things he does that, if done in real life, would anger people
>Characters' previously established personalities change in reaction to her. Proud, arrogant gimps suddenly acknowledge her superiority in everything. Reckless youths will listen to all her advice. Responsible leaders will defer to her instead. Villains will obsess with her to the detriment of all else. Extremely competent characters will become stumbling buffoons who require her help to do anything. Sweet, mild-mannered characters whom the author doesn't like turn evil and insult her. They all become unnaturally focused on her in some way. Pretty sure we have a check here, with Rainbow Dash idolizing him, Twilight doing as she does, and so forth
>She is not bound by the rules of the universe, whatever the setting may be. Nobody will ever comment on the impossibility of what she does; they'll just assume she's that talented. I will admit that it's harder to give a check to this than the others because its not clear exactly what the limits of the MLP universe are supposed to be, but Silver Star pushes the limits more so than the canon characters
>She almost never does anything wrong. In the rare instance that she does, it's usually; (a) a way for the author to disclaim her being a Mary Sue by introducing a single imperfection (that has no bearing on anything anyway), and (b) designed to show her smarts by making her feel instant remorse, and she'll be Easily Forgiven anyway This one as well, see the Glimmer episode in chapter 6
I don't want to go too far into the "Author investment in the character" section, but I do want to point out this one particular quality because it is very appropriate
>The author uses the character to promote his or her own opinions, often by pitting her against a Straw Character who will never be right no matter what he does. HUGE check. Silver is there to give the author's opinions on... Everything. And Glimmer is the straw character for everything teh author doesn't like.
I may be wrong about a few of these, and I probably missed a few examples. Certainly Glim Glam could go over expamples better than I could.
All of these traits are, of course, just symptoms of the underlying issue. The character is not a character, but a mask for the author. He is not there to have his own motives, emotions, or struggles, but to be an idolized version of the self. As respectable as possible and respected by everyone. Always morally right regardless of what he does. Always liked by good people and only ever disliked by bad people. Skills do not define a character. A character's cares do.
Why does Silver Star need to have clones at all. Why do we need large tangents about Silver Star discovering fox ponies and then enslaving them like he's Willy Wonka and the Umpa Lumpas? Why do we need tangents about Silver Star being the best write ever? Why do we need tangents about Silver Star being the Nutritionist ever? Why do all of the other characters need to gush over him when he says all of this bullshit? As written, Silver Star is nothing more than a fantasy fullfilment of being as awesome as possible with zero purpose, rather than an actual character with motives and growth.
>>214220 Pretty sure the time stamps say my post was made five minutes before yours :P \r
>>214057 >>214057 >I also re-read my story. I don't like how Silver is confused over his emotions at the start. It isn't cool. >So I've been thinking on that, some other stuff that's been said, and a Roal Dahl quote about a candle burning at both ends. >I think I should rewrite Silver so he's dying. He goes to Ponyville to reconnect with Applejack and the Apple Family because there's a reunion there next week, and he also goes to Ponyville because he wants to flirt with Twilight, seduce her, and then get her to help him try and find a way to extend his life. NO. NO. For the Love of God, NO.
Introducing Silver as a character who had most of the things he wanted, except for a sense of the importance of others, was a good idea in the original story and a very good direction for it. It could have become a good story, if only this had not been lost and buried under a mountain of wish fulfillment. Other people in this thread have referred to the arc as "redemption," but that isn't quite right. Redepmtion is for those who have done wrong and need to be brought back into the right. This kind of arc is better thought of as growth, where a somewhat childish and emotionally immature character grows up into a better person.
And now... What the fuck is this? You want to abandon the arc because it makes Silver "not cool"? Jesus Christ. A character is not supposed to be as "cool" as possible, at least not when you first meet them. A character is supposed to have a set of cares that drive how they interact with the events of the plot, and in good cases, a set of flaws that either are permanent and define who they are, or are slowly overcome over the course of the story as a part of that character's growth. And either way, the character's imperfection drives how they interact with the story. You are confusing a character in a story with a fantasized version of yourself, which is definitively not what a character is supposed to be.
You do not just read another work of fiction and say "I like this better, I think I will steal it." That will not work out well and is a terrible idea. Giving Silver Star a set of conflicting emotions at the start of the story was something you did right. It is a good idea, and should not be thrown away just because it's "not cool."
Making Silver Star dying doesn't make his character better. At all. Plagiarizing the Roy Batty character is not going to translate well, especially because so much of what made that character work will not work in this context. A character dying is usually just a cheep way to make a character more sympathetic or to try to invoke cheap pity, without actually necessarily succeeding at those things. \r
>>214217 >I don't recall if Silver Star Teleported to get to Ponyville, but neither Celestia nor Twilight seem to be able to teleport that far Nope he didnt teleport, instead he flew there faster than any other pony could making him faster than RD, and more talented than Glimmer's magic-flight in S5.
It doesn't make your point about him being better than any canon character that exists combined any less true though. He wedges in an overly long rant about the castle while we're at it and then he uses this conversation with RD to seaque into more cloneshit about how he's the best pony who ever lived.
>"Aren't you that pony that tried to enter himself and a bunch of magic copies of himself as the Canterlot Team at the Equestria Games?" Rainbow Dash asked, starting to recognize him. >"Yes, and I'm certain that if I'd been allowed to enter with my team, I would have taken home enough medals to break records, and break Canterlot's losing streak at everything non-magical, while I'm at it."
Sprinkling some small autism in about how he doesnt know how to talk to RD but then it's quickly dumped for more cloneshit about how he's the best fanfic writer ever (hello self insert)
>>214222 >She is not bound by the rules of the universe, whatever the setting may be. Nobody will ever comment on the impossibility of what she does; they'll just assume she's that talented. >I will admit that it's harder to give a check to this than the others because its not clear exactly what the limits of the MLP universe are supposed to be, but Silver Star pushes the limits more so than the canon characters
Actually that's childsplay to check off. His cutiemark allowing him to do everything all exceeds the limits of FiM being an expert holding down multiple hugely successful careers that any normal pony would dream to have even one.
This started with the BS cutiemark talent nigel gave silver to "see the connections" in everything and "be able to make the connections" with anything. that's what his cutiemark stands for and it opened the door to making him a blackhole sue because he never put the breaks on when it's enough. so because he can see how any magic works and any technology then he can build technological inventions that rake in money and invent spells like the next Star-Swirl. Twilight created ONE unique spell about friendship making creating unique magic spells incredibly rare and difficult since Star-swirl's time, but Silver apparently does it on his free time and held this over Starlight in ch6 >“It took you twenty years to create a spell that shouldn’t exist because you were salty over your crush getting his life together and moving on from you. It took me two hours to perfect a spell that I felt like experimenting with because I was bored. Here, try this new buff.”
The magic he uses makes him a masterclass magician, nothing short of a living-god like you said who out-does an already immensely powerful unicorn who bested twilight in magic with something he made because he was bored. He's even better than Star-swirl at magic and uses magic that's totally unheard of daily, making him the strongest and best magic user who ever existed ONTOP of his clonetard career shit. I'm sure if we continued down that path eventually he'd have the same magic to allow him to move the sun and moon single-handed even though canonically speaking, before Celestia and Luna in the picture it took hundreds of unicorns to do it.
>>214225 I was thinking of making his dying-ness the reason why a Silver with conflicting emotions is trying to do this shit now, instead of later. >>214226 Mostly sure RD's faster than mach 2. Also this was written WAY before Glimmer showed up. If Glimmer's infinite self-levitation is okay, Silver using his momentum horseshoes to launch himself around is more okay. Also- Oh fuck, brb
>>214229 Making the character dying is still a cheap way to try to get sympathy for the character, and again, just throwing in shit because you saw it in blade runner and spider man and it was a cool is a recipe for terrible execution. Just leave it out
>If Glimmer's infinite self-levitation is okay, Silver using his momentum horseshoes to launch himself around is more okay. No. First off, (you) think Glimmer is a Mary she and her powers are not okay. Take your own advice, and don’t make your character more of an obnoxious Mary Sue than glimmer. Second, No. it isn’t. Glimmer may have levitated, but she didn’t fly through the air at an ungodly speed. There is no reason to believe she could have both levitated and flown at an ungodly speed. Finally, super horseshoes are not a thing in the MLP universe. Unicorn telekenisis is established the very first episode as a unicorn power all of them have, but no where have we seen super tech like such horseshoes.
>>214229 >If Glimmer's infinite self-levitation is okay, Silver using his momentum horseshoes to launch himself around is more okay. Glimmer is the 1% of the 1% of powerful ponies. Silver is a rando with no regards for social norms. >momentum horseshoes Cool idea, but doesn't fit MLP:FIM. Flying Pony drawn carriages from Canterlot to Ponyvill is the equivalent to a private jet. Not in terms of speed, but in how rare it is.
>>214229 >Momentum magic >Momentum horseshoes that he invented >Momentum horseshoes that he invented to allow him to travel as fast as RD if not faster and travel the entire distance that requires a takes a train You just never know when to stop, that's the problem. It doesnt matter if it was written pre-ch6 when Silver was still overpowered as fuck from the beginning. You had him using time-manipulation and portals for leisurely study and travel and then wont give up an inch of mind-manipulation spells, cross-dimensional garbage, summoning magical animals, infinite clones and what ever else.
Maybe you're just one of those braindead faggots who think Sunset being able to do everything with expertise for no reason is "good" tried to copycat what makes her a sue and think it's makes her "cool", "strong" or "likable" because that's what it looks like, you're trying your hardest to copy waifu-bait in stallion form.
More of things =/= Better than one good thing Unrestrained thing =/= Cooler thing. Restraint means you need to get creative and work with what you have, and the more creative you are the more interest you'll gather from the audience. FiM's cutiemark system is specifically designed this way so that it has simple strong concepts people can understand and get behind, not a bunch of different bullshit from animes and your wish fulfillment. You can build up to an unrestrained core idea as you go, but unless your audience is already familiar with the character and universe then this is generally a bad idea to hook your readers and people want something more grounded as a base. You tried to start the story with Silver being able to do literally anything you dream about and it was a spectacular failure in every way especially when it's fundamentally against the canon you're working off of as a MLP fan-work.
Pick your specialty Silver has and stop with trying to do everything with one character.
>>214229 Nigel, I mostly dislike Glimmer as a character. i have never really liked her to be honest. Most of her episodes are weak and to me just another Star Killer Base, a character or and object in a sequel that one-ups it predecessor. That being said this is literarly my first thoughts as well, >>214230.
Regardless, I don't want to come around here anymore. To be honest, I'm sick of it. I have no problem with others helping you but I fucking done, this time.
Guys, I've read everything in your posts and I can't think of anything to say yet. But thank you for still posting. I was thinking about the whole death and immortality thing, and... I've decided he shouldn't actually achieve immortality until the end of the fic. Until then, he should be a desperate dying man trying to make things right and live longer. I think this is a better motivation than "I feel bored with money and Canterlot so I went to Ponyville and now I really want to fuck Twilight". Don't worry, I won't milk this for sympathy points.
>>214465 I don't know why you're now attached to immortality all of the sudden but if you're going to put it in the fic then it should have a very high significance in the story, not just dropped on the audience at the last second like straw-starlight's 'outlier' and other pile of shit. Are you just giving up making him mature and have a change of heart because it's too hard to do, because you dont know how to do it, or because it made him look bad? You don't like how he looks like an asshole and a villain? I thought that was all intentional and a large chunk of the story. His motivations for what he selfishly wants at the start was fine, being confused about his emotions at the start was fine. It's everything else that was a disaster that made both of those totally irrelevant to the plot.
Focusing a story on his growth can become showing him something he didnt know he wanted, or something he was denied and then doesnt want to give up, or fighting for someone something else someone he cares for cherishes, instead of for himself. Making him a tragic dying pony who's out to do good for everyone might make him a better fit for twilight as a love interest but it just makes for a less interesting character if there's no conflicts and nothing more to it. That seems like an end transformation more than anything else after completing the fic and if you're not careful you'll end up with a bigger mary sue if you took away his flaws that made him more complex if we strip away the autism. Starting out with big helpful ideas as a colt, losing sight of that becoming jaded, greedy and obsessive but then ultimately rekindling his roots and heart sounds like a natural path for him as a satisfying conclusion. It's just that getting him to go from point A to point B has to be carefully considered and laid out, lest it become another trainwreck.
This goes back to how you didn't think through how to really use the characters other than to prop up Silver for a hoofjob and wasted having character dynamics. Just like you're not really using the other bits either but random background noise that has no fuck all with the current story like the animetard cards. The tarot cards themselves aren't that hard to believe they could exist in FiM as enchanted power-items, it's how they're poorly utilized in the narrative as a whole which is a major reoccurring problem in the fic, not just about the anime cards. They randomly show up from time to time for some animetard fight sequence but really have no staying power and come off as flashy without substance. All sorts of pieces already there to tell a solid story, but you suck hairy donkey balls at executing it. You lose track of everything when you're busy to keep churning out (or plagiarizing) another idea instead of fleshing out what you've got for a cohesive story like a well crafted puzzle people can enjoy. What you're left with on paper is a schizophrenic episode of superficial sperging as the more important factors are left half-assed, dropped or never even adressed. What you personally have to get good at is how to connect pieces of story so it's not a complete scattershot of shit. You put too many totally unrelated things all at once in the fic and you need some fucking focus to hold anyones attention.
>>214622 I still can't believe this guy keeps adding jewish symbolism to a character who already has a five-pointed star visible on his design. Come on, throw one of those blue jew stars in there! Called the Star of David or something, right? If you're going to do something, do it right. Also I hate Harry Potter and the losers who make Potter references when discussing politics. Literally, the entire clusterfuck of a story happened because one faggot said "Let's do the fucking obvious smart thing and use the Fidelius" and another, bigger faggot said "Let's fuck that up by making that plan hinge on a literal rat-person's loyalty instead of my own, because nobody would see that coming!". Then again, who's the bigger faggot? The faggot, or the person who does exactly what the faggot says for the faggiest of reasons? I reckon the faggot is, by definition, the bigger faggot. How about you? >>214546 I started writing this fic when I was a teenager, and it still has remnants of that level of writing quality. Also if he doesn't become immortal/gain some sort of extended lifespan, he dies due to burning through his life too much. Or I choose not to go with the "he's dying" thing. Or he dies at some super tragic point in the story, making Twilight cry. Or the story ends and he dies at some point later on.
>>214546 I'm not saying "I made part of this as a kid" because I want you to go easy, I just want you to think I'm less of a turbofag now. Anyway, the whole point of the story is meant to be about Silver's growth from "Overly assholeish hero on the side of good who'd probably make a great villain" to "Actual proper hero". Throwing in magic bullshit lets me visually represent that in some way. I like how he acts like a prat at the start, but people here are saying I might have gone too far with it. So I'm checking what they'll say if I say something like "What should I change here?" or "How dickish is too dickish?". If they say "Never dickish! He should never be dickish!", I'll ignore that part. I added the cards in there because a proofreader complained that an early draft of this story was too dull because it focused too much on Silver being all "Am I feeling X? I can't be feeling X, can I?" while doing good in Ponyville and taking Twilight on small-time dates because the first big flashy date he took her on made her say "Please take me on small dates from now on, and holy shit please stop trying so hard to impress me". Adding in magic Talismans Jackie Chan and his friends needs to find before Team Rocket does- I mean, adding in magic Cards Silver and his friends need to find before the Alpha Agents do lets me break up the emotional scenes with exciting fights that get more creative over time. (Fighting on a train in a time glitch, getting their butt kicked by TV and then puzzle-solving it with books, the final gold shit)
One more thing... It happened again. I was clicking "Random Power" on PowersWiki, and I got that power again. The one fate already gave me when I was going through the powers, wondering which one would be a good fit for Silver. https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Positive_Forces_Manipulation
1 Make a new story. This is because the character Silver Star is already cemented in your head. Even I have problems killing my babies so make a new one.
2 Participate here, >>213469 →. I promise you that if you do I will read through it word-for-word, I have intended to do that for every entry infact and give a thorough analysis of it. Glimglam is the judge so he will do it as well.
3 So post your new story there. It can be a redemption story just like this one if you want. The only demand I have is that Silver Star is not in it.
>>214057 >I think I should rewrite Silver so he's dying. He goes to Ponyville to reconnect with Applejack and the Apple Family because there's a reunion there next week, and he also goes to Ponyville because he wants to flirt with Twilight, seduce her, and then get her to help him try and find a way to extend his life. This actually is not a bad idea if you do it right. My recommendation would be to hold off on mentioning the dying bit at the beginning. Write Silver "my imminent death has nothing to do with HIV honest I swear" Star in a way that makes the audience think he's a villain, but reveal his motivations and inner redeeming qualities over time. He shouldn't tell Twilight he's dying either, he should try to deceive her somehow. He should basically be coming into Ponyville with the intent to deceive and manipulate pretty much everypony he meets. This is just how he's used to doing things because of his tragic upbringing and blah blah blah. He seduces Twilight with the intention of using her power to save his life and then abandon both her and Ponyville to go back to his life of douchery, but along the way she shows him the magic of friendship and all that. Suddenly he realizes that he's been a complete shitbag his entire life and feels bad about it. He also realizes that he genuinely loves Twilight as well as all the friends he's made in Ponyville and wants to change. He decides to turn over a new leaf and is about to confess and apologize to Twilight for trying to pry open her virgin ponut under false pretenses, but she discovers his true motivations for herself through some external means, maybe one of Silver's old enemies comes to Ponyville and rats on him, or something like that. She is completely outraged and tells him to get the hell out and never speak to her again. The rest of his new friends in Ponyville are pretty hurt to discover that Silver "all I wanted was to relive the glory hole days of my youth" Star is actually a gigantic turd, and they give him the cold shoulder as well.
I would also recommend that at this point in the story, Silver loses most or all of his special abilities. Maybe the disease catches up with him or something. Also, if he's still going to be a wealthy business owner he should probably lose that somehow, maybe the pony from his past that fucked up his relationship with Twiggles also steals his business. Anyway, he's now pretty much lost everything: he has no friends, no powers, and he's about to die. He is now ready for his redemption arc. At this point you should have some external threat come to Ponyville so that Silver can fight it and save the day. However, it is important that he do this without any of the powers that he used to impress Twilight and the others, this needs to be a genuine struggle. It should also be an important fight, not just a random enemy that shows up. Once the fight is concluded, he has now done penance and can throw himself at the mercy of Twilight and his new friends, apologize for his faggotous ways, and beseech their forgiveness. You can decide how you want to end the arc from here. Here are some suggestions:
Scenario 1 (recommended, safe): >Twilight cures Silver's pony AIDS but Silver doesn't get his powers or wealth back. He and Twilight live happily ever after in Ponyville surrounded by friends. This also sets up plenty of fertile ground for further storylines if you still want this to be a long-running continuous manga-style story with multiple arcs. Rebuilding his empire and regaining his magic could easily span multiple story arcs. This is probably the safest way to go. This is the sort of ending people will expect and it's usually a good way to ensure that your work is well-received.
Scenario 2 (recommended, challenging): >Twilight decides that Silver is not yet redeemed and refuses to forgive him. She cures his pony AIDS but he's not off the hook. Silver goes off on a quest to learn the magic of friendship for himself and vows to return to Ponyville someday to prove to her that he has become acceptable husbando material. Silver also does not regain his power or wealth in this scenario. You could still create multiple arcs involving him attempting to regain his powers and maybe take back control of his financial empire. The arcs can play out the same but will have the added dimension of Silver also wanting to redeem himself to Twilight, which can be a secondary main arc. This is probably the way I'd go if this were my story, but it's not for everyone.
Scenario 3 (not recommended but could work if you do it right): >Silver dies of pony AIDS. Either Twilight forgives him but can't cure him, or she is still too angry to forgive him and elects not to help. Either way, Silver goes off into the sunset and croaks. If you wrote him well, the audience will hopefully be sad to see him go. This is basically the Greek tragedy ending.
Scenario 4 (not recommended): >Silver is not forgiven, learns nothing, gets his pony AIDS cured somehow, and goes off on a quest to regain his powers so that he can BTFO the evil pony who foiled his plans in the most ostentatious way possible. You can feel free to go as Naruto as you like with this route, as it's highly unlikely anyone will be reading it anyway. Don't do this please.
Also, this may be a bit of an advanced lesson, but I would highly recommend giving this comic a read. It's a fine example of how to write a reprehensible protagonist in a sympathetic way. The MC in this story is just awful, does terrible things, and at the end he learns no lessons and does not grow. However, the story is told through his eyes, and the reader comes to understand his motivations, even if they don't approve. It's unironically one of the best things I've ever read. You may or may not find something valuable here. https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Criminal-The-Last-of-the-Innocent
>>214675 I'm unironically intrigued by this suggestion, and I'll even throw out an admittedly cliche alternate resolution.
Silver comes to Ponyville to get his AIDS removed, but his AIDS is related to a particular type of magic that he uses that is neither conventional nor friendship. In this way, Silver can have his all-kinds of haxx powers, but using them kills him a little bit each time and he doesn't know how long he has to live. Idk about the whole seducing Twilight bit, that's on Nigel. If that's to be included, please don't make Twilight all "cheerleader around the praise Football quarterback". If you must go this route, I suggest having Silver try to conceal his magic power and the source of his AIDS, because say its a forbidden magic (comparable but not the same as the Alicorn Amulet, or that cursed book Rarity had that one time). Twilight studies Silver and realizes cuz of moments that he's not just some douche, even though overall he's a douche (perhaps he saves a puppy some time when no one is looking, but doesn't tell everyone. Twilight discovers the source of his AIDS and magic, big fight occurrs, but cuz friendship she decides to help him stop the general progression of AIDS but with a caveat that if he ever uses that magic again that his AIDS will come back and she might not be able to stop it again. So yes, he 'loses' his powers (but not really, he just can't use them anymore). Twilight gives the Mane six a brief rundown, they think she's nuts for helping him but does anyway, and THEN an old baddie from Silver's past comes to wreck shop in Ponyville cuz reasons. You can even have the magic source be something of the antithesis of friendship (so guy has a vested interest in taking down the princess of Friendship). It could be a light-side, dark-side dichotomy. Silver realizes that Twilight could stop dude with Friendship, but not before dude wipes out the rest of Ponyville, because Twilight doesn't know the dark side like Silver and Dude do. Silver goes super-darkside-saiyan, dude does too and they fight. Twilight does the whole "Don't, you might not survive", Silver monologues a bit about learning friendship, Dude talks some shit, they fight some more, Silver has to go darskide-bankai, Dude goes "Nani? Baka no!!" and gets spectacularly owned physically and magically (think a mix of Natsu, DBZ, and Naruto) while ponyville watches in complete awe and amazement at how powerful Silver is when he goes all out. Tragic hero shit. What happens to Silver is then up to OP. Maybe he monologues about the magic of friendship, or not watching his new friends get owned, ow whatever works. Maybe he's put in a coma while dude dies. IDFK.
In order for this to work however, Silver has to NOT tell ANYONE about his powers. He can do BASIC unicorm magic, but otherwise is all "darkside what? I'm just a semi-okay mage with good business sense". His uber magic should remain a secret from everyone except Twilight who's clever and autistic (research) enough to puzzle it all out by some previously unknown source (finding an ancient text or some shit somewhere else, maybe she goes on a trip while Silver is in ponyvillle manipulating ponies,... black skull island comes to mind,... just saying). In any case, this would make the story about the drama of Silver trying to save his bacon and being a manipulative douche, while Twilight plays detective (which she would initially be QUITE interested in since its unusual/unknown magic) and sees both Silver at his worst and his less than worst (fine, she can develop feelings for him,... but don't make her throwing herself at him!). You might even consider splitting the story BETWEEN the two, with Twilight being the narrative focus for half the story, especially her journey to discover the source of the AIDS. That would give you plenty of opportunity to talk at length about the possibilities of darkside magic, but from less capable/knowledgeable ponies (or whoever) so she never gets a full rundown until she sees it in action. Silver can still geek about his magical products and business and shit, but they shouldn't be "revolutionary" as much as "kinda neat". Ponies will still buy kinda neat magic stuffs. He can still use his AIDS magic to make his business uber successful and write books while doing stuff and shit, but that's all past stuff. Please leave out the clones in the current story. But whatever you do please, for the love of Football, do NOT try sticking Derpy in the Gai sensei suit. Don't think I missed that reference. That's a bad Nigel. BAD Nigel.
>>214714 Having Silver try to seduce Twilight isn't inherently a bad idea, but it's imperative that Nigel learn to write Twilight well enough that she no longer comes across as just some empty-headed bimbo who creams herself every time he talks to her. That sort of shit just comes across as self-fellating and will cause people to conclude that the story is just a pathetic self-insert fantasy for the author (most of us, myself included, came to this conclusion initially from reading what Nigel elected to show us way back when). Everything I'm suggesting is meant to be taken on top of everything else I've suggested. Probably Nigel's biggest challenge is that he needs to learn how to write characters in a believable way, not just as sockpuppets reading lines of dialog.
The specific details of the story really don't matter and are up to Nigel, what's important that I want him to take away from my suggestion is: >Silver's true motivation should be initially hidden from the reader at the beginning of the story, we see only his superficial intent of seducing Twilight (or whatever) and the fact that he's a total douche. Characters are not interesting if you tell the reader literally everything about them up front. >aspects of Silver's backstory and underlying potential to change should be doled out in small quantities and peppered throughout the story to tease the reader and feed them bits of information a little at a time. >Silver needs to reach the conclusion on his own that he's been a douche, and needs to make a personal resolution that he will change >However, reaching this conclusion will not absolve him of his past sins. Once he realizes and acknowledges his sins, he can begin his redemption arc, but in order for that to happen he needs to lose his ill-gotten gains, which includes whatever friends he's made and whatever relationship progress he's made with Twilight under false pretenses. >any redemption Silver undertakes must be accomplished by relying entirely on his own strength and intellect, he must not be allowed to use any sort of reality-hacking abilities that he might have acquired. Probably a small amount of unicorn magic is allowable, but no more than what the average magic-user would be able to do.
This is how redemption arcs should ideally work imo.
I'm learning more from this thread than I ever learned in writing classes as a kid. I'm still going through super dramatic internal monologues as I try to figure out what this story should be and how it should go. Thank you. You are kind, helpful, patient, and brilliant. Sorry if this is off-topic, but I found a website full of writing guides called Springhole.net. Some of its writing guides seem great, but they're sometimes a bit SJWish. I can't tell if the writer is an actual SJW or just one of those "Useful Idiots" who thinks SJWs are just misguided souls who have pure intentions and good ideas with bad execution. No, SJWism is a hateful death cult full of robots and monsters who want everyone's attention focused away from skeleton-filled SJW closets. The site did one page on why Thanos is wrong, but I already knew that. And Ithink the fee.org cartoon on that subject was better. I'm not a huge Marvel fan, I prefer anime. But I once read this shit "Evil Superior Iron Man" comic. I should do a video on that. Fuckin "magic viruses cant into air its impossible", that's bullshit. You can't tell me a physically impossible digitally distributed virus that makes everyone hot exists now and Stark gave it to everyone through a phone app with a one day free trial, and then tell me I should have also known that it's impossible for a magic bio-editing virus activated through a phone app to also be distributed through a phone app. That's bullshit, we're already playing in fantasy scifi comic land rules where fucking anything can be justified with technobabble, don't pull "x part of the magic was impossible" out of your ass just because you really wanted someone too far below Wanked Tony's power level to say "dats illegal" about SOMETHING. Daredevil deserved better. And fucking nothing says pretentious writing like blaming the continued existence of sad hobos beaten by hot jerks on the inventor of the cure of cancer and everything else. And then the scenes ripped off from movies! THE WHOLE FUCKING COMIC WAS LIKE A BAD FREEFORM RP BY THREE DUMBASSES, ONE OF WHOM WON'T STOP WANKING HIS FUCKING VENOM SUIT. God, that story was a clusterfuck. Anyway, the site seems legit. It has articles on roleplaying better and about vampire shit being shit. And it did one page on why Fire is an "Overrated Superpower" that seemed really good. So now I know if I ever make a fire-wielding character, I should make it a magical or psychic fire that has none of the downsides of real fire plus some sort of physically impossible upside. Or he'd be an effectively useless potential and perpetual fire hazard who can't flame blast anything organic and sentient ever. I could make a cool emotional story about how much ass he sucks, probably. Anyway, you guys have more experience in this than me, so what do you think of the site? Also, I was thinking partway through the Silver story, "Operation Underwear" should either be completed. I was thinking that, then I thought it would be cooler if it wasn't. So he starts showing physical signs of dying that are so bad, he says "fuck it" and puts on an unfinished Project Underwear suit. Project Underwear: A few Silvers are supervising morality-spelled former evil geniuses who tried to create monsters or destroy the world or whatever, they'd be turned to stone on the moon if Silver wasn't using them and planning on making them spend their lives doing good for Equestria once he's got Project Underwear. Right now, he's got them doing biomagical shit he has no idea how to do. Their end goal is to splice a bunch of DNAs and spells together to create a suit made of invincible(ish) superpowered benevolent transforming slime that will bond with and enhance the wearer. Silver ends up forced to put on a weak and unfinished prototype suit with a personality and mind of its own. However, he goes back to dying if he loses the suit or tries to replace it until his terminal case of dying is cured. Think Life Fibres plus Venom plus Upgrade from Ben 10 plus that default not-evil Girl Majin Buu OC personality plus a G-Rated Suu from Monster Musume, plus the desire to be morally good. Now he's got someone he has to get along with. Someone looking over his shoulder and taking its instructions to be morally good and stop evil-doers very seriously. Not to evil levels, he's just got a by-the-book cop friend he can't portal away from now. And before anyone asks if I saw Venom yesterday: Yes, but this slime suit idea came from a "totally original cartoon idea" I had when I was 9ish, long before I saw any Spider-Man movies. A Ben 10 knockoff about a sad homeless kid who bonds with an alien parasite from a meteor who stuck itself upon his chest with secrets that it hid. Now he's got superpowers, he's no ordinary kid, he's some sad kid who wants to be a hero and has a shapeshifting blob around his chest that can coat his limbs in shapeshifting goo that turns into the limbs of various original superpowered aliens, while never truly becoming them.
>>214729 >I'm learning more from this thread than I ever learned in writing classes as a kid. Okay, good >Thank you. You are kind, helpful, patient, and brilliant. D’aww >I found a website full of writing guides called Springhole.net Okay, this is good. This can lead to a discussion of writing tips and ideas. >I can't tell if the writer is an actual SJW or just one of those "Useful Idiots" who thinks SJWs And... we’re immediately off in a tangent about SJWs on that site, with zero examples or any context as to why you’re saying this. I have a suspicion that there isn’t actually any SJW content, you’re just imagining things. >The site did one page on why Thanos is wrong, but I already knew that Uh... why are you mentioning this? >I'm not a huge Marvel fan, I prefer anime. But I once read this shit "Evil Superior Iron Man" comic. I should do a video on that. Okay, what the fuck is this paragraph of diarrhea about a bio virus magic thing? It’s confusing, it’s long, and it has no purpose being there at all. >Daredevil deserved better. And fucking nothing says pretentious writing like blaming the continued existence of sad hobos beaten by hot jerks on the inventor of the cure of cancer and everything else. What the actual fuck do daredevil and hobos have to do with this? I don’t know what the he’ll you’re talking about, and I definitely don’t see the relevance. >God, that story was a clusterfuck. Why do you chose to half-way start a new paragraph here, at this point? And why do you not add a space between massive blocks of text? You obviously have an enter key. >Anyway, the site seems legit Wait, you still think you are talking about about the website? Then why did you start a new paragraph here? And all of this that follows about fire.... >>214732 said it best. >Also, I was thinking partway through the Silver story, "Operation Underwear" should either be completed. Okay, now we are actually on a topic relevant to this thread. Where is the other “or” option to that “either”? I’m not going to comment on that name. >A few Silvers No. Fuck off with this clone bullshit >his terminal case of dying Okay, this phrase is funny >Think Life Fibres plus Venom plus Upgrade from Ben 10 plus that default not-evil Girl Majin Buu OC personality plus a G-Rated Suu from Monster Musume, plus the desire to be morally good. What the fuck is this list of a half dozen suits? Do you just try to steal every power you see in every television show or movie you watch? Is your method of story telling just to create a Frankenstien’s monster of powers and top it all off with “also its morally good” for the ultimate Mary Sue? I swear you’re like a dog chasing cars with throwing in extra unnecessary bullshit. >And before anyone asks if I saw Venom yesterday Literally no one was ever wanting to ask you that >Yes, but this slime suit idea came from a "totally original cartoon idea" I had when I was 9ish Then why, for the love of God why did you list a half dozen movies and shows if it was “your” idea, and not an undead monstrously cobbled together lazily from stolen body parts? >A Ben 10 knockoff about a sad homeless kid who bonds with an alien parasite from a meteor who stuck itself upon his chest with secrets that it hid. Totally not stolen
>>214739 >>214739 Last night I was watching Conquering History Games’ stream of Equestria at War in a one year anniversary of the Lunar Empire playthrough and looking through the comments and saw the comment. The stream had nothing at all to do with any kind of communism and was about a civil war between a Harmonist faction and a Fascust faction. The only mention of communism in the two and a half hour stream was at the 15 minute mark where is was mentioned that the Communist path for a nation was removed. Leave it to Nigel to complain about the existence of Communism in a game about the global conflict between Fascism, Democracy, and Communism in WW2, and which also depicts pretty much every other form of government.
>>214663 So Nigel, here is the thing. This post wasn't just a suggestion. It was an ultimatum.
I have been thinking about why I am mad that you don't improve. It doesn't really make sense. I should be glad that you are so bad that I look good in comparison yet I am mostly angry. I can't really be that either because if you aren't good enough then it isn't your fault either. You are just incapable in that case. But I don't think so either. Like I know that you can answer posts accordingly or rather I have seen you do it (I think?) but either you have a maximum of two autism free sentences per day or you just don't wanna listen. This is the thing that annoys me.
I genuinely wanted to help you. I have don't really disagree with most of the things you have to say about fim and you can't claim that I have a Starligt Glimmer bias either. However, when I give you advice and you don't read/ignore/learned it I get annoyed. It seems fruitless. You claim that you will improve yet you prove again and again that you haven't learned anything. The voluminous amounts of evidence contradicting the idea that you will improve make me, and that is what annoys me btw, look like a fool. But I won't be a fool anymore.
I don't actually believe that you are that dumb (or am I being too kind?) I just believe that you are a real-life Naruto. Just like Naruto was, are you a class-clown. You want attention even if it is bad. However, unlike Naruto, who would jump at a chance to prove himself, >>214663, you will not because you won't stand out like you do here. That's my theory anyway. Otherwise, how can you explain still visiting this thread? If I was in your body, I would hate this thread. But you don't seem to mind it anymore if you ever did. Have you started to enjoy this fucking thread?
Regardless, I won't spend my time helping someone that doesn't give anything in return. I am not going to help you anymore.
>>214674 >>214733 You make two good points. As in, good choice of Waifu and good choice in words.
>>214736 I dunno, I just get that sort of "The author is slightly SJW" sense from some https://springhole.net/other/how-it-feels-to-be-a-bigot.htm of these articles. https://springhole.net/writing/responsiblewriting.htm It isn't overwhelmingly obvious, it just shows itself now and then. >>The site did one page on why Thanos is wrong, but I already knew that >Uh… why are you mentioning this? I want to seem knowledgeable >>Also, I was thinking partway through the Silver story, "Operation Underwear" should either be completed. >Okay, now we are actually on a topic relevant to this thread. Where is the other “or” option to that “either”? I’m not going to comment on that name. Sorry, typo. And the name is because underwear is something you wear, plus it sounds so stupid that nobody would expect it to be something cool. >What the fuck is this list of a half dozen suits? It seemed like the fastest way to explain "It's a weaker mix of all these things, sort of halfway in the middle between each one". The suit only seems like a Mary Sue because I mentioned everything that makes it cool and none of its bad sides. It can't exist as anything other than a slow useless blob without a host to eat the excess emotions of AND carry it around so it can grab and eat regular food, almost all of the suit's strength is spent keeping him alive so no bullshit x10 power multiplier here, even though anyone who stole it from him would get a multiplier, it's got a really simple and annoyingly inflexible AI-tier mind with just a hint of personality, it's constantly watching Silver's actions and obnoxiously FORCING him to be 100% good(It won't let him take the easy way any more), and he can't override it or cast anything or do anything without its permission. This isn't some superpowerful mary sue pseudo-daughteru for Silver, this is his desperate attempt to live longer manifested in the form of him surrendering control to a creature that's so by-the-book, he'll often regret telling it to be good. I figured this would be more interesting than if he just had a slime suit that blindly served him, or was some sort of malicious creature he could barely restrain. Flipping the usual relationship and making the suit the good thing that restrains the morally-grey Silver seemed like a better idea. >>I didn't rip this off from Venom, I'm repurposing a stupid and unoriginal idea I had when I was 9ish, an idea for a cartoon about a kid who finds a not-Omnitrix that [proceeds to paraphrase the Ben 10 theme's opening lyrics] >totally not stolen It is, but I changed some things to make it less stolen. >>214742 Sorry. Sometimes I make jokes that suck ass. >>214753 Sorry, I didn't notice that post. I want to take part in that contest, but I'm too busy with IRL bullshit that jumped out at me from nowhere. I haven't complained about it until now because I want to seem cool, but this is why my Fequestria fic hasn't been updated in months. I keep posting here because I want to improve. I want to be a better writer. I want my Silver story to be the best it can be. I'm not good at listening to others, because I am genuinely autistic and this has fucked me over before. But I'm trying to listen to others and seriously consider what they say. I wanted this to be the story of a sad powerful pony who learns to become a happier and stronger pony by spending time with the Mane Six. And at the story's end, he flies off into the sunset with his three new wives on his back fangirling over him, as he builds a stupidly huge and overly-described supermassive mansion-planet in space for the four of them using the power of love as an infinite energy source. But the advice here made me reconsider that. So I started thinking it would be a better story if it was about a sad powerful dying pony who wants to live on with the aid of Twilight… But with Twilight's help, he learns to live. He learns to enjoy the small things, he learns to slow down and appreciate the time spent with friends, he learns to smile genuinely again. He stops being a cynical manipulative show-offy merciless and cruel prat with double standards and barely any patience at all. He learns to become nicer, more merciful, more patient, and more helpful. He starts building theme parks around the world just for the fun of it, and to increase the amount of fun in the world. He learns to be more kind, generous, honest, and cheerful, and he learns to be loyal to someone other than himself and his dreams. And then, despite becoming more powerful by the story's end due to magic of friendship stuff and the ticking clock on his life being stopped, he gives up his life of anime superhero bullshit to settle down with her and have over twelve foals. If you really have to go, it's okay. I hope you have fun with whatever comes next after this, and I'm sorry for pushing you away.
>>214774 Eh, you don't have to apologize Nigel. I will instead. I shouldn't project reasons on you like this. It was unfair of me. I misinterpreted your actions but now, I genuinely believe that you are interested in improving. Right now, I think it is your autism that gets in the way sometimes.
Yeah, I understand irl can get in the way. It is completely fine. You shouldn't force yourself.
However, having said that I still won't come around here to give advice anymore. This is because there is nothing more for me to help you with anyway. I will just repeat what anyone else already has said.
It is always about how Silver is a mary sue but to me, personally, it is about how dull everything is. Even a story with a mary sue as the mc that is unsympathetic, without flaws and completely unrelatable can be good as long as the writer knows what they are doing. Do something interesting; something unexpected.
>>214729 >"Operation Underwear" should either be completed. unless I missed something on what the FUCK 'op underwear' even IS. So you're expecting us to have inside knowledge on your internal notes and thoughts but you never did the job as the author so it's just vague childhood shit from what I can tell.
>Project Underwear: A few Silvers are supervising morality-spelled former evil geniuses who tried to create monsters or destroy the world or whatever, they'd be turned to stone on the moon if Silver wasn't using them and planning on making them spend their lives doing good for Equestria once he's got Project Underwear. Again with the 'clones are doing X while silver does Y'. Turned to stone on the moon? the fuck? now you're giving Silver the ability to banish people to the moon which is Alicorn Celestia's exclusive power that she used with the elements of harmony?
>Right now, he's got them doing biomagical shit he has no idea how to do. Their end goal is to splice a bunch of DNAs and spells together to create a suit made of invincible(ish) superpowered benevolent transforming slime that will bond with and enhance the wearer. Sounds like horseshit to me, where could this possibly be put into his core character with what you have already. This is basically an entirely different character if you want to strip away his other abilities and go with this mad magic science shit.
>Silver ends up forced to put on a weak and unfinished prototype suit with a personality and mind of its own. However, he goes back to dying if he loses the suit or tries to replace it until his terminal case of dying is cured. So you want Silver to be Tony Stark and Venom the same way that Stark was dying and gave himself a reactor core to keep him from dying.
>Now he's got someone he has to get along with. Someone looking over his shoulder and taking its instructions to be morally good and stop evil-doers very seriously. Not to evil levels, he's just got a by-the-book cop friend he can't portal away from now. Why the fuck would he listen to this slime suit to take its instructions? What does that improve in the fic? Taking someone elses orders go completely contrary to his egomania and pony CEO archetype.
>>214650 >>214652 >I started writing this fic when I was a teenager, and it still has remnants of that level of writing quality. Fine, but recognize when the ideas are childish teenager ideas clinging onto mediocrity and throw them out or rework them into something usable.
>I added the cards in there because a proofreader complained that an early draft of this story was too dull because it focused too much on Silver being all "Am I feeling X? I can't be feeling X, can I?" while doing good in Ponyville and taking Twilight on small-time dates because the first big flashy date he took her on made her say "Please take me on small dates from now on, and holy shit please stop trying so hard to impress me". Well there's no way to tell what it was before, and he could be right that it was too dull. But I guess I can see what happened you tried to start out with interpersonal relations and was told it sucked because it was boring so you went the polar opposite way and tried to make it 'epic' and 'exciting' inserting all the animetard shit you could think of. Both extremes are fully amateurville shit, and will bore people anyways if you never spend enough time to hold some interest. You need to find a middle ground that you can use some of each category to satisfy the audience and spend enough time with an idea to give people to chew on and think about. This doesnt mean you dump everything on them at once with one of your autistic walls about the subject because that's how you lose the reader in a flash.
As an example going back to the anime tarot cards. The problem is the cards just show up out of the blue and have no connection to the story, it's completely disjointed and just something that big mac finds in a crator and 50+ thousand words later actually become relevant again. I can think of maybe 3 cases where the anime cards are brought into the story in the entire length and thats it. >1. In ch4 one card crashes into Equestria (How the fuck did it even get there as a meteorite?) >2. In ch4 The same card is found by Applebloom (When the fuck does Silver even learn about the animetard cards?) >3. In ch4 The same card is taken by the DiamondDogs (Why the fuck did they even know it existed? No. plagerized DBZradar is not good enough) These just bring up more questions than answers and instead of giving the audience something they want the idea is quickly dropped for retarded shit like strawman-glimmer the very next chapter, and the cards aren't used as a central lore point which the story revolves around, it just shows up randomly mid-way in. They have demonstratably no overarching connection tieing everyone in the story together if this is meant to be the big plot-device that people are climing over eachother to get at, it's in the title for fuck sake.
The diamond dogs are used as a main reoccuring enemy, and I would be cool with that except they're in the fic for no godamn reason at all, they have no in-story reason to be there and they're used for a shitty rip off of pokemon insert more animetard popculture references. IF these things were adressed fleshing the dogs out as more than plagerized team-rocket and give them a real motive then you could have something interesting on your hands as a big-bad, better than how you hate the nu-lings and they're just fakers.
>“If you ever want to see your whiny friend again, tie the orange-maned pony up outside Carousel Boutique at High Noon, and we'll trade you for him. Don't try and find us, because you will never find us, or where we kept Rarity. Signed, The Diamon- Anonymous.” >Do tell me if you find somepony who does. So, you thought if you captured this pony, you’d be able to make me mine gems for you?” >“Exactly!” Butcher confirmed. They took Rarity as ransom for Silver (When confronted then say its so Silver does the same) Not only is this a lazy recycling rip off Rarity being taken the episode, (regurgitated in Nigel-vision so Silver can be center-importance) it's bad writing even in isolation. If Rarity can cast a spell to hunt for gems why the fuck would they hold her for ransom for a pony that they say can do the same thing? That's fully idiotic and it's never adressed like it was a self-aware joke of how the dogs are retarded, instead we just move to an animetard battle. And the enemy motives dont match up, one second they're ponynapping Rarity for gems and then they're back after the card with knowledge on what it is, who has it, how to get it, and how it works. So what the fuck is this that they just stumbled onto being a next level threat out of the blue.
Here's how you handle something like the animetard cards. You make them intrisicly tied to the story as the central element from the beginning and you write from there, you added them in as an afterthought to critism of it being boring but that's no where near 'good'. Instead of instead of plagerizing banned magic from naruto scrolls you could have just made him find a card as a colt. The cards in the story already have been shown they surpass limitations (Applebloom with [Strength]) so it's a natural fit if you're insistent on making Silver have some super success or super ability. This makes it like a super hero origin story where the same power [cards] could potentially be used for good and potentially used for evil in different hands, and even shows how the same [card] in the same pony's hands can yeild completely different results based on his character. Instead of dropping them out of nowhere, it's a reoccurring machination that drives the macro conflict behind the scenes(adventure shit and escalating stakes) while Silver in ponyville and his relations with them push the minor conflict(re-learning friendship and family bonds).
>>214867 Operation Underwear got an incredibly minor mention in the scene where Silver gives Derpy a magic outfit. >Turned to stone on the moon? the fuck? now you're giving Silver the ability to banish people to the moon which is Alicorn Celestia's exclusive power that she used with the elements of harmony? That's my fault, I wasn't clear enough. I meant "A few Silver Spares are supervising some bad guys. The bad guys are doing the biomagical shit, which Silver has no idea how to do. The bad guys know that if they pop any Spares or try to escape, the real Silver will be alerted. These bad guys are morality-spelled formerly-evil geniuses who tried to create monsters or become monsters or destroy the world or whatever, depends on the badguy but they're all like that. These villains, they'd be turned to stone on the moon by Celestia or given some similar fate like that, if Silver wasn't using them right now. He took them down first, stopped their evil plans, told everyone they got away, and kidnapped them instead of just turning them over to the police. Now he's planning on making them spend their lives doing good for Equestria through science and shit, after they have finished making his Project Underwear". Also you're right about the infusion of epic. The original draft for this only contained two fight scenes: One where a barfight happens in some bad town they're searching for info in and he shocks Twilight by having WAY too much fun swinging tables and chairs around, and the second where he fights some bad guy his business was working with, and Silver gets his ass kicked for 95% of the fight and comes out worse on most trades before eventually winning in a clever checkmate moment. Also I never saw Iron Man 2, so I had no idea Iron Man was dying in that one. Now I feel stupid. I'm still keeping the Silver dying bit. But I won't have him get drunk. >>214867 Shit, I was trying to make the cards a central lore thing, like the Talismans in Jackie Chan Adventures. I knew I should have introduced them in chapter one, before Silver is introduced. I was planning on making the guy who comes from the shit farming family try and use a Card he found to fight Silver, but then Silver would be able to knock the card out of the guy and Silver would end up with two superpower cards. >no joke about the dogs and Rarity's spell Shit, forgot to add the joke about that. One pony (Forgot which) would ask about that, telling the Diamond Dogs that she can do that. And then Rarity, still gagged, would facehoof. Then Twilight asks "Didn't the other dogs mention that in a report or something" and the dogs didn't. It's because Diamond Dog culture is so dog-eat-dogish that others will often fuck up their jobs and submit reports with faulty/missing info on purpose just to fuck with their bosses/replacements/co-workers. It contrasts the "Cooperation is good" culture of ponies. >give Silver a card as a colt HOLY SHIT YES THAT'S GENIUS I should give him a weaker one like The Magician. Or The Star, since he's Silver Star. Though I once took a personality-based tarot card quiz and found that I'm "The World". That card also fits Silver since it represents completion, ends, and the end of a journey followed by the beginning of a new one. He does lots of stuff and has his Spares do and learn tons of shit because he wants to be as "Complete" as possible, he's "Nearing the end of his journey" by dying and he wants to obtain new life and live longer, "Beginning a new journey", and as a rich guy he's got a lot of "Complete" collections of stuff. However, there's still a lot of stuff he hasn't "Completed", he isn't "Complete" emotionally speaking (He's still got a hole in his heart), and he's never "Completely" won a tournament because he keeps drowning in pools. Wait what about the "He's dying and needs a cure" thing? Do I drop that, or say he found the card after doing the "My candle burns at both ends" spell to trade future lifespan for an increased power level? It's not like a higher level of magic strength will stop a specific superpower from being awesome. >even shows how the same [card] in the same pony's hands can yeild completely different results based on his character I tried doing that with Apple Bloom becoming a very strong farmer VS Springer becoming "The greatest warrior" and kicking Silver's ass. But I like that idea, I'll do that more. By the way, that bit where an exhausted Silver bluffs to get rid of the dogs... Did you like it? I wanted to establish how powerful the cards are, how Silver isn't invincible or omnipotent, and how Silver's good at bluffs.
Ever since I saw her, in Season 5 Episode 1 at 7:47, I've fallen in love. That very pink coat that makes you want to cuddle it, that horn that drives you insane. Her hairstyle and her overall aesthetic uniqueness makes you just tremble at her hooves. Everything she says was absolutely and undeniably correct. I never knew that I was a communist until I saw her. It. Just. All. Makes. Sense. Under Starlight's rule, everything will be fair. And we will get to crush all of those evil fascists too! While all being equal at the same time! She reminds me so much of Naruto, that we all need to be the very best, like there never was!
If YOU don't like Glimmer, then you're just a fucking nigger.
To whoever said a suit shouldn't restrict Silver's actions: You're right, he should learn these lessons himself without his suit having any say in the matter. Maybe it can judge him, but he'd never make a suit that could turn against him or go against his wishes. >>215187 Please don't gay
>>214867 >You make them intrisicly tied to the story as the central element from the beginning and you write from there, you added them in as an afterthought to critism of it being boring but that's no where near 'good' I actually feel like the point in which he introduces the cards into the story is appropriate. As far as I can tell he's basically writing this in a format more along the lines of a long serialized manga than a novel, and if you take that into account the cards are actually introduced at a more or less appropriate time. Of course, it goes without saying that Nigel has serious problems with pacing and going off-topic for paragraphs at a time, which is why this thing is so goddamned long. It also goes without saying that the text needs to be trimmed quite heavily. However, once you adjust for the amount of needless bloat in the text itself, the timing of events makes sense.
What we have so far is basically an introductory arc, where Silver "I actually don't even have a tail, the thing protruding out of the back of me is actually my severely prolapsed colon" Star is introduced to the reader, and the premise of him going to Ponyville is established. The scenes where he meets the mayor and builds a house are unnecessary and should be cut, but the party scene introduces him to the main cast, establishes an initial encounter with Twilight, and (kind of) foreshadows his connection to Applejack (again, please bear in mind that I am addressing the story completely as an outline here; the actual text has many, many problems and needs a very heavy rewrite). Next, we have a short, episodic arc involving the Diamond Dogs.
Once more ignoring the problems with the text itself, the pacing here is actually more or less along the same lines that the anime Nigel is imitating follows. The story usually plays out in arcs that encompass several episodes each. The first arc is usually a "get to know the characters and introduce the basic premise" type of deal, usually followed by either a string of one-shot episodes or a short arc that puts the characters on an adventure together. After this, a longer and more significant arc is usually begun. Taken in that context, it makes sense that Nigel would introduce the magic card business at around the time the first Diamond Dog story concluded.
With all of that said, I will enthusiastically agree with you on the following points: the Diamond Dogs are mediocre villains at best, their characters are not well developed even by the standards of this story, their motivations are confusing and contradictory, the blatant Pokemon plagiarism is obnoxious and done without enough irony or humor to be considered parody, and the subsequent Glimmer chapter is beyond redemption.
I'll also say that the suggestion for having him find one of the cards early in his childhood and using that as a basis for his overpowered magic is not a bad idea.
>>215041 See above text for my thoughts regarding the introduction of the cards.
Now that I know what "Operation Underwear" is, I would say just nix it. You can keep it in the story as something that is casually mentioned the way it is currently, maybe have a detailed explanation in your own personal notes if you like, but I don't really see how it could add anything of value to the story itself.
>I was planning on making the guy who comes from the shit farming family try and use a Card he found to fight Silver, but then Silver would be able to knock the card out of the guy and Silver would end up with two superpower cards. I'm less concerned with your fight scenes and their outcomes than I am with your overall story structure and quality of writing, so if you want to do something like this go ahead, just try not to drag it out for too long. However, one piece of advice: the absolute LAST thing this character needs is a talisman that gives him even more superpowers.
>Shit, forgot to add the joke about that. One pony (Forgot which) would ask about that, telling the Diamond Dogs that she can do that. And then Rarity, still gagged, would facehoof. Then Twilight asks "Didn't the other dogs mention that in a report or something" and the dogs didn't. It's because Diamond Dog culture is so dog-eat-dogish that others will often fuck up their jobs and submit reports with faulty/missing info on purpose just to fuck with their bosses/replacements/co-workers. It contrasts the "Cooperation is good" culture of ponies. This makes sense in the context of the Pony universe, but is way too complicated for a joke. If you leave it unexplained, a reader less familiar with the world probably wouldn't deduce this for himself. However, taking the time to explain it in the story would just be another long and purposeless digression. It's probably better to just give the Diamond Dogs a simple motive, either gems or magic cards, and just stick to it, instead of trying to explain away plot holes.
>give Silver a card as a colt I'll second that this is an idea possibly worth exploring. If you're going to make the cards that central of an element in the story though, I would drop the "Silver is dying" bit. If you're dead set on keeping the "Silver is dying of pony AIDS" storyline, I'd relegate the cards to a single arc or make them a less significant element in the story. Trying to have too many main plots at once will just make your story convoluted. The reader will be confused as to which one they should be giving a fuck about, until eventually concluding that they give no fucks and that they should take their fucks elsewhere.
>even shows how the same [card] in the same pony's hands can yeild completely different results based on his character This could also potentially provide some fertile ground. Play with it a little and see what you come up with.
>“THE WORLD!” Silver roared, punching the ground with his right forehoof, an orange field of energy blasting out around him to paint all around him in blazing orange hues, freezing everything. No wind blew, the leaves and grass stopped rustling, it was as if the whole world was frozen. Springer’s lightning was absorbed, her momentum was stolen from her, she was left floating in the sky, unable to move, just like Silver. Once again, you can describe things reasonably well when you want to. I'll say though that the only reason I understand the meaning of Silver's exclamation here is because I read the discussion in this thread about Silver having The World tarot card. Without that bit of context this would seem like a very strange thing for him to say.
>Silver spawned six Spares, six copies of himself, arranged in the formation of six cheerleaders: Three on top, two above them, and one above them. Each began raining curses, hexes, transformative spells, down on the alluring Diamond Dog walking menacingly towards them all as her ears, engulfed in dark blue aura, batted away each spell and blast and beam, her aura reflecting the spells Okay, this is getting to be just a little too much autism for me. Anyway, blah blah blah they all fight. Excessive autism aside, this section is reasonably well written and again, your description is fairly good, so I probably don't need to dwell on this fight scene too much. I guess I can probably find a couple of things to point out here and then move on.
>“Not bad!” Granny Smith congratulated, menacingly walking backwards like a tiger ready to pounce while the brutish Rock menacingly walked towards her. You use the word "menacingly" twice here. There should also probably be a comma in there somewhere, probably after "pounce."
>“Pony legs can’t kneel...” Silver growled, grabbing her ear mid-thrust and pulling it violently. “FOR A REASON!” Pic 2 related.
>Silver glared at the body, and spoke with absolute finality. “And the hero lived happily ever after. The end.” Would that this were true.
>“I was bluffing!” He declared, and the camera angle changed. He looked at Apple Bloom and the audience at the same time. Again, please don't do stuff like this.
Anyway, the fight ends, Silver saves the day, everypony fawns all over him and tells him he's the best and most awesome superhero ever. He manages to also slip in a sales pitch for some kind of magic igloo he had with him I guess, tbh I kind of tune him out when he starts talking about shit like this. Moving on.
>“Well, that happened.” A figure covered by a white cloak with a long hood stated as he stared into the large crystal ball that showed him Silver Star’s actions in shaky, blurred images, the best it could manage while ignoring its natural instinct to try and display every instance of Silver at once, fail, and explode in their faces. This sums up my reaction to this story pretty accurately. Also, this is a pretty bad run-on sentence, I would break it up. It also kind of turns into nonsense at the end. "...the best it could manage while ignoring its natural instinct to try and display every instance of Silver at once, fail, and explode in their faces." Literally what?
Anyway, the chapter concludes with another interlude scene in which an unknown entity is watching Silver "sperm in my pooper would be just super" Star and making foreshadowy observations about him. Perhaps this will factor significantly into the story at some point? Or, perhaps Nigel's notoriously short attention span will cause the story to veer off into a completely unrelated novel-length tangent about torturing poor Glimmy to death and we'll never hear from these shadowy characters again. The only way we'll ever know is if we slog our way through:
Chapter 5: Sucking the Dick
Wait, I read that wrong. Excuse me.
Chapter 5: Stacking the Deck
Okay, I read the first few lines and I'm pretty sure I had it right the first time. The chapter starts out with a fairly tasteless joke that nonetheless made me chuckle a bit. And then...Jesus H. Christ Nigel, I swear to God if you bring up how much you hate Twilight's dumb castle one more time I will physically reach through the internet and bitch slap you.
>Why? Why did fate have to take her treehouse away from her? Right when she'd gotten used to using her newfound wings to fly from the books of her ground-floor public library to her own personal and private bedroom, fate had decided things were too simple, too nice, too perfect. So her perfect library-home, a place that reminded her of her observatory-home in Canterlot, had to be taken away from her and replaced with some stupid and gaudy crystal palace she thought she'd only ever see inside Rarity's head, if she ever faced one of those villains that trap you in your dreams forever, and that villain forced her to enter a dream where Rarity was having, a dream where Rarity was Princess Platinum and she lived in a castle of solid diamond with golden doorknobs and magical toilets and ten billion butlers. This entire paragraph serves no purpose other than to give you another avenue to vent about something in the show you don't like. I'd cut it.
>Fate had decided that she had to go from living amongst the ponies of Ponyville and serving as their hero and occasional leader, to living high above those ponies in something that felt a thousand times more conspicuous than an ivory tower. This one is a little better. Namely, it shows Twilight's reasons for disliking the castle as opposed to yours.
>>215312 My favourite part about that Jojo's reference is how the "Momentum-absorbing field" of his horseshoes can function like a time-stopping effect while still not being a time-stopping effect. >>215308 Having her think about how much her castle sucks makes it happier when Silver upgrades it into a better building, but do you think I did too much of that?
>>215399 >Having her think about how much her castle sucks makes it happier when Silver upgrades it into a better building, but do you think I did too much of that? I have quite a few thoughts on that, but let's discuss the rest of this section first.
>Was her status as the Princess's favourite and de facto town leader in times of crisis not enough? Was her incredible magical power not enough? Were the wings on her back not enough? No, fate had decided at some point, she needed to REALLY stand above everypony else, not just mentally, financially, and even physically, but by having the biggest and fanciest house. >This didn't feel like the house a hero would have. This felt like the house an out-of-touch Princess's Favourite would have, and she couldn't shake the feeling that every day, she lost a little more of herself and the pony she was and the pony she wanted to be, losing it all to The Alicorn the ponies of Equestria wanted to see. Okay, the dead horse you've been whipping is now an unrecognizable bloody mess. It's time to move on, Nige.
>Was her status as the Princess's favourite and de facto town leader in times of crisis not enough? Was her incredible magical power not enough? Were the wings on her back not enough? No, fate had decided at some point, she needed to REALLY stand above everypony else, not just mentally, financially, and even physically, but by having the biggest and fanciest house. Jesus H. Christ, enough already. We get it, you don't like the castle.
Seriously, this shit just keeps going and going. "Blah blah blah," Twilight said, for forty more pages. "I sure do hate my house." Fucking Christ dude, when you get your mind hooked on a topic it's like you have no idea how to shut off the tap. Now if only you could harness this autism and direct it toward writing about things that people might actually want to read about.
Alright, here's the thing. You've kind of got a good idea here, in that you're using the castle as a symbol for Twilight's newly-acquired Princess title, and her sense that being royalty is somehow alienating her from the friends that Celestia sent her to this town in order to make. The fact that she has literally become the Princess of Friendship, but her ascension to this very title is interfering in her friendships, adds even more of a layer of irony. To tell you the truth, I'm actually a little weirded out here: it's almost like you're using...symbolism. I can't imagine you did this on purpose, but I want to believe.
Your problem, as ever, is that you keep it going way too long, and you end up focusing on the wrong thing, mainly your own personal dislike for the castle. Set that aside for the moment and try to focus instead on Twilight's feelings about it. Does she dislike it because it's gaudy and unpleasant and doesn't fit in with the landscape? No, that's why you don't like it. Twilight doesn't really care about the castle either way, she misses her old place because she misses her old life. She misses being just a regular unicorn, and spending carefree days with her friends. She's feeling the pressure of being a public figure and is worried that she's becoming alienated from her community. Put the castle itself in the periphery and focus on that.
The next thing you need to do is trim the text down. This section introduces some surprisingly good insights into Twilight's character, but as always the nuggets of gold are buried under a mountain of steamy autism. You go on for around seven paragraphs about this topic, and most of the important bits could be condensed into one. Extract the important ideas, state them in the space of a single paragraph, and move on.
Now, that said, I'd like to address this: >Having her think about how much her castle sucks makes it happier when Silver upgrades it into a better building, but do you think I did too much of that?
The problem again is not the castle, but what the castle represents. Twilight is feeling isolated and disconnected from her friends and community. She is uncomfortable being seen and treated as royalty. How is Silver breaking in when she's not home and installing a hot tub going to alleviate that? It won't. Even setting aside my previously stated concerns that this is an utterly deranged thing for Silver or anyone to do, the point is that it ultimately doesn't solve her problem, in fact it doesn't even address the central issue.
The other thing to consider is that Twilight's desire to return to her previous life is understandable but ultimately futile. In a previous post I believe I suggested that you read The Great Gatsby. One of the central themes in that novel is that no matter how badly you may want to return to an idyllic period in your past, it's usually not possible, and when something is over, sometimes it's better to just cherish the memories and let go. For Twilight, it's not possible to simply abdicate her position as Princess of Friendship and go back to just being an ordinary Unicorn living in a tree library. As vaguely defined as it may be in the series canon, Twilight's title presumably gives her some kind of responsibility. Celestia is clearly grooming her for some kind of important position. She can't just walk away from that. Whatever she ultimately ends up doing, she needs to reconcile her responsibility and duty to her homeland with her own personal desires for her life, and find some kind of middle ground where she is able to be happy. Remodeling or retconning her castle out of existence solves your problems, not hers, and it adds nothing to the story.
This actually segues into something else I've been wanting to bring up again, but once more I'm out of space. I'll address it in the next post.
I'd now like to return briefly to a subject I ranted about quite a bit in the very beginning, but haven't really brought up in awhile: the notion of Silver "pound me from behind and the answer you will find" Star being a Mary Sue character, and how to make him less of one.
Urban Dictionary, of all places, actually has a pretty good definition of the Mary Sue concept, and several good examples of different Sue archetypes. It can be found here: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mary%20Sue, second entry I believe. I'd like to post it here in its entirety, and add in notes where I feel it pertains directly to Nigel's fanfic:
>Mary Sue
>A female fanfiction character who is so perfect as to be annoying. The male equivlalent is the Marty-Stu. I tend to refer to both male and female versions of this character as Mary Sues, and will do so here.
>Often abbreviated to "Sue". A Mary Sue character is usually written by a beginning author. You mentioned that you began this work in high school, and at any rate this fic reads like the work of a teenager.
>Often, the Mary Sue is a self-insert with a few "improvements" (ex. better body, more popular, etc). I began this analysis from the perspective that Silver was a self-insert character of this type. As I've read more, I've amended that perception somewhat and I don't at this point believe it was your intention to write such a character. However, you should be aware that he does come across this way initially.
>The Mary Sue character is almost always beautiful, smart, etc... In short, she is the "perfect" girl. The Mary Sue usually falls in love with the author's favorite character(s) and winds up upstaging all of the other characters in the book/series/universe. I think it's been fairly well established at this point that all of these things apply to Silver Star.
>There are several main types of Mary Sue:
>Victim!Sues: The Victim!Sue is your whiny, wimpy, pathetic female character who can't seem to do much of anything except cry and get herself into trouble that the romantic interest of the fic has to rescue her from. Doesn't really apply to Silver.
>Warrior!Sues: The Warrior!Sue is usually loud, obnoxious and (of course) an amazing warrior. She'll usually have some tragic past that led her to become a warrior, and she'll upstage all of the Canonical characters with her mad Sueish powerz. This, however, does apply. Tragic past and all.
>Mage!Sue: Similar to the Warrior!Sue, the Mage!Sue has amazing stregnth in magic, or has a magical power that nobody else has. She'll usually wind up upstaging all of the magical characters of the series. So far you've gotten 2 out of 3. Silver is an unreasonably overpowered magic user as well as an unreasonably overpowered warrior. It's a shame there's no Businessman!Sue mentioned here or you'd have a trio.
>Punk!Sue: Also called Noncomformist!Sue or Goth!Sue, the Punk!Sue is usually written by female beginners in the 11-15 age group. The Punk!Sue is loud, obnoxious, annoying and generally the type of person who you'd want to send off to boot camp for six months. The Punk!Sue almost always has angst coming out of her ears and isn't really a bad person, she's just oh!-so-angry at whatever tragic past the author has chosen to give her. The Punk!Sue is based on what the 11-15 year old author thinks is "cool" and wishes she could be. This includes Evil!Sues. This one is borderline, if you apply a fairly liberal interpretation. While Silver isn't this exact type of edgelord, he has some traits in common with the archetype. He behaves like an arrogant douchebag, and you attempt to justify much of his behavior by giving him a tragic past. Some of the ideas you've expressed in this thread for making him less unlikable seem to involve adding additional layers of angst or tragedy, which should be an alarm bell as well.
>Misfit!Sue: This includes all Sues who are supposedly geeks, nerds, misfits, etc. Usually, the Misfit!Sue doesn't start out as inhumanly beautiful, but winds up getting a makeover and finding out she had the potential to be a guy-magnet (or girl-magnet, depending on the genre) all along. Also includes the "My parents want me to do this but I want to do that and it's not fair!!one!" type of Sue. Usually, this Sue is very bookish and smart, but will find some sort of physical talent nobody expected and become a star as a result. This one doesn't really apply.
>Another thing to note is that a Sue will usually have a completely off-the-wall name, like "Viquetoria". The more weird and pretentious the name of the character, the more likely it is that she's a Sue. Not sure if Silver Star Apple really counts as a weird or pretentious name, however pay attention to the next one.
>Finally, Sues often have weird, improbable or impossible bloodlines. A secret half-elf child of Elrond and a nameless human would be an example of this. A character who was Dumbledore's grandchild and Tom Riddle's daughter would be another example. Making Silver a direct blood relative of a member of the main cast, along with his being rich, handsome, powerful, successful, etc., place him pretty squarely in Sue country. In short, what you've basically got here is a character who does not exist in the canon world, but you wedge him in as an important component of it. This isn't just some random background pony who shows up one day and winds up having an adventure with the mane 6, he's a wealthy and powerful business magnate, world-class fighter and sorcerer, respected author, inventor of the wheel, and a dozen other ridiculous things. He is related to AJ, he is presented as a love interest for Twilight. Every altercation he gets into, he saves the day. Whatever else you do with this story, you need to scale this character back a bit if you don't want him to be eternally mocked as a Mary Sue.
Now then, my reason for bringing all of this Mary Sue stuff up again relates to what you said earlier: >Having her think about how much her castle sucks makes it happier when Silver upgrades it into a better building, but do you think I did too much of that?
While you seem to be actively trying to improve your character and your story, you're still thinking along the same lines that made it suck in the first place, and if you can't break out of that mindset you'll be trapped in a loop of suck forever. This seems to be the way you're looking at it:
Problem: Twilight's castle is stupid and should never have been put into the show because it's awful and I hate it Solution: Handsome millionaire and prize-fighting scientist magician Silver "fist me I'm ready" Star swoops in and "upgrades it into a better building" (your own words). Twilight is eternally grateful that Silver destroyed her home without permission and rewards him with sex.
Your problem is not just that Silver is too overpowered or too unlikable (though I will stress once more that he is definitely both of these things), it's that you basically use him as a vehicle to retcon whatever you don't like in the canon world, instead of focusing on trying to tell a good story. As I illustrated earlier, you actually introduce a pretty good internal conflict for Twilight: she is feeling as if her new title isolates her from regular ponies and makes the citizens of Ponyville see her differently. The image of her living alone in a huge, ostentatious castle, her hoofsteps echoing mournfully throughout the empty crystal halls, evokes that beautifully. However, you immediately ruin it by going off an an autistic rant about the castle itself, instead of focusing on Twilight.
The solution this leads you to is to have Silver "upgrade" the structure into God knows what. There are two problems with this. The first is that, while you might have solved an aesthetic problem for the borough of Ponyville, Twilight's real problems remain unaddressed. The second is that Silver, in true Mary Sue fashion, takes on the role of glorious hero, and rides in on a white stallion (or, more likely, the stallion rides in on him) to rescue Twilight from whatever is bothering her, rather than just having Twilight work it out for herself. The fact that he handles this in the most bizarre and autistic way imaginable amplifies the overall shittiness of the story by a factor of about 12.
Since you clearly want to have Silver be Twilight's love interest in this story, it's not unreasonable to have him be a part of whatever solution she ultimately arrives at. Basically, she needs to find some kind of equilibrium that allows her to perform her duties as Princess while still feeling like she's a member of the community. But you can't just have Silver do it for her, she needs to figure it out on her own. The castle can continue to factor in as a symbol, but it shouldn't be your primary focus.
Anyway, moving on with the text. We're on the home stretch now: this chapter is only around 5,000 words, and after that we're back at Chapter 6 where we started.
>Perhaps, she decided, if she set up a system of perpetual portals that only she, Spike, and their new special little roommate could use, it would make the place easier to live in. After all, stepping through one portal and finding yourself in a new place, without having to bother casting the teleportation spell she'd copied from a Princess, was always nice. Cut out this bit about the portals, it's just more of what I was talking about: autistic superficial solutions to Twilight's problem that add nothing of value to the story.
>Yes, she thought, that could help her change how much time she had to think about how much this new home just didn't suit her, but it just wouldn't solve any of the underlying problems that caused this sensation. It wouldn't solve the problem of how this house physically elevated her above everypony else in this otherwise charmingly old-fashioned-looking town. And perhaps, she never would. After all, it wasn't as if she could just demolish the whole crystal castle and put her old treehouse in its place. This is a little better, in that it actually addresses what the real concern is. But you're still focusing too much on the castle being a physically ugly structure, which just comes across as you sniping at the series some more instead of trying to write your own story. Focus more on Twilight and what's making her feel so down.
>She missed it. She missed feeling like she belonged in this town. She had grown up in Canterlot – She was born there, she was raised there, and she hadn't left until she was a teenager, on the orders of Princess Celestia herself. She wasn't sure how to put this into words, but she missed the way she used to find this town refreshing, bewildering, and a little bit exhausting. This. Do more of this.
Once again, you've basically got something pretty good here. You've managed to dig into the heart and mind of Twilight Sparkle and render her as something other than a one-dimensional character who exists only as something for your over-glorified OC to stick his dick into. Stick with this, but pare it down. Get rid of some of the bitchy nonsense about how ugly the castle is. You also get a little long-winded talking about the stuff Twilight misses, you might want to thin that out. You've got 9 paragraphs that start with "She missed...", you should probably pare it down to about 3 or 4.
>She missed her books, she missed her cozy little treehouse, but most of all, she missed... >She missed feeling like Twilight Sparkle. This is good, keep this.
Also, the bit where she's daydreaming about founding a school, I'd advise cutting that. It's just more sniping at the show and it's annoying. One thing you absolutely need to do to reduce length is cut down some of the filler text, and stuff like that is a good place to start.
You know Nigel, I have to thank you. Throughout my life there have always been stories I've wanted to enjoy, but nobody had written. I would have written them myself, but I've always been told that I suck I writing. So I played the stories out in my head. Then one day, I saw you posting one of your fanfictions on here. It had been a slow day, so I decided to give it a shot. As I sat down and read, tears were brought to my eyes. I weeped with joy at the story pasted across my screen as I realized....
I can write those stories now, cause at least I can say they are better than yours.
>Starllight Glimmer... She wanted to say the mare had shown signs of wanting to redeem herself, but these days, it felt more like the mare had just... gotten used to being forgiven. Oh, God. Here we go again. Also, you misspelled "Starlight."
>She was content to forget all about the horrible things she'd done, and everypony else had just gotten used to that. To the point where now, she felt that if she brought the topic up, she'd just be re-opening old woulds. You misspelled "wounds."
>Perhaps, she thought, if she'd been less lenient on her, and if she'd made more of an effort to make the strangely apathetic and self-centered mare fully understand how awful her actions were, and why others might not be as willing to forgive and forget as her... Then again, perhaps she could never understand that, and perhaps she was just better off as somepony quietly resented by everypony. "Oh god Starllightte Glammer iz just so awful reee I haet hur so muche4!!!1!" -u
Anyway, I'd like to point out that there is a minor continuity error here. Later in the story, you mention that Glimmer has cast some kind of a spell on the other ponies to make them like her more or something. Here, you not only have Twilight thinking disapprovingly of her, but imply that everypony else silently resents her as well. Seems like if they were all under a spell that made them like her, then, well, they would like her. If you're going to construct an elaborate headcanon that not only removes a canon character from the series, but also retcons away her previous redemption story, at least try to be consistent about it.
Also, I want to point out here that this sequence involving Twilight's inner musings is 1,479 words long. The entire first section of text for this paragraph is just a continuous stream of consciousness from Twilight while she wanders around in her castle. This is also one of your shorter chapters, clocking in at 4,719 words. That means we're a little over 30% of the way through the chapter and literally nothing has happened yet.
Again, you do have some nuggets of gold here; showing a little bit of Twilight's inner thoughts goes a long way toward fleshing out your version of her character. However, you don't want to just ramble for pages and pages about what she's thinking. You start out talking about the castle, and by the end you're talking about Fluttershy and Discord. Most of this is just rambling. Rein it in.
>Besides, it wasn't as if things had really changed for her. She was still named Twilight Sparkle. She was still purple. She still had purple eyes, just like her mother-
>She blinked. That wasn't right. Her mother had blue eyes, and her father had golden eyes.
>She sighed, and chalked that brief moment of confusion of stress, while a stab of guilt struck her heart. That shard of raw guilt weighed her heart down for forgetting a main facial feature of her parents, even though it was only for a second.
This is kind of interesting. Was there a reason she forgot that for a second, or did she just forget? If you're foreshadowing that something may be wrong with Twilight, ie she's under a spell or something, and that it will be significant in the story later, then good job; this slightly disquieting moment is exactly the right way to do that. However, if you didn't intend that and simply wanted to communicate that Twilight forgot what color her mother's eyes were for a second, it's just more pointless rambling that doesn't need to be in the story.
Anyway, this just kind of keeps going for a while. On some level I appreciate what you're trying to do here. You seem to be attempting to flesh out Twilight a little bit more as a character, and explore some of her inner thoughts and feelings about her place in the world. You actually manage to make some interesting observations about her, that she feels as if she no longer belongs in either Canterlot or Ponyville, and feels oddly displaced from everything. Frankly, despite that there is still a lot wrong with this text, I want to give you some points for this, just because attempting this level of character development is so unusual for you. +10.
Now, here's what you're doing wrong. For one thing, as I said, you ramble a bit too much. Also, the text is peppered with a lot of your obnoxious bitching about Starlight Glimmer and the Crystal Castle and whatever else, you should take that stuff out. Here's another one:
>She felt like that one Period-Inappropriate and Setting-Inappropriate mega-princess character in a Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons gaming group, a character made by that new girl who just wanted to play pretend princess and didn't yet understand that the game could be, and should be, any deeper than that. In this case, you're not even bitching about something in the show, you're bitching about some private gripe that makes sense only to you. Are you mad because you played Dungeons & Dragons with your little sister and she created a princess character you thought was stupid? I really don't even understand who or what you're taking a shot at here. All I know is, this is just another bitchy digression from the narrative that serves no purpose and should be deleted.
And Jesus Christ, you just keep harping on the Castle, the Castle, the Castle. Just because you don't like something in the canon world doesn't mean you need to snipe at it every five lines. Just focus on telling your story.
>And then Silver suddenly crashed through her bedroom wall, crystal shards practically fleeing from him as he landed on her bed, his hooves pressing down upon the fabric that kept her bound and trapped. Okay, what the actual fuck? Although I have to admit, I was beginning to get a little tired of Twilight's inner monologue. Let's see what happens next.
>And then Silver suddenly crashed through her bedroom wall, crystal shards practically fleeing from him as he landed on her bed, his hooves pressing down upon the fabric that kept her bound and trapped. He was breathing heavily, a few faint beads of sweat had formed on his face, his eyes urgently locked with hers and she felt like he could see right into her soul. She didn't even have time to let out a slight squeak of shock before Silver spoke.
>“Twilight...” His voice was a low, strong purr, his refined Canterlot accent no longer an announcement of class and refinement, but instead a subtle spice that accentuated every syllable, and her protests died in her throat. “I need you.” Seriously, what the shit dude
>He got off the bed, and with a grand sweep of his hoof, flung her duvet away, leaving her nude. In a manner one would expect from Fluttershy, or Rarity, or perhaps even Pinkie Pie, but never a Princess, she pulled her limbs up to cover herself, feeling impossibly naked under his all-seeing gaze. This is some pretty nice description I'll admit, although I have to point out that these ponies don't wear clothes in the first place except for sometimes, and are usually nude except when they're not, and the social taboos about nudity don't really seem to apply in Equestria except for when they do...you know what? The show actually doesn't clarify most of this either. Moving on.
Anyway, this shit is getting bizarre again. We've spent roughly half of the chapter on Twilight moping around her castle like an emo girl (do those still exist?), then suddenly Silver "sorry to bother you Twilight, I thought this was Big Mac's room" Star bursts through the window and attempts >rape. We went from zero to Danielle Steel in about half a second.
Okay, I'll admit this scene is actually kind of funny and pretty well executed. Twilight's moping around, and then suddenly >rape. But it turns out Silver doesn't actually want >rape, he's just here for books. Poor Twilight, she wanted >rape. Oh well, maybe next time.
And then this happens, and once again we're back to you ruining your own story with preposterous levels of autism: >“Well, fine!” He declared like a moody teenager, turning around and spawning twelve copies of himself into existence, all but two sprinting out of the room and down different crystal paths with their peculiar vulpine gait. “I didn't need your help anyway!” He declared to the world around him, and grumbled to himself, “Alicorns. Am I right, lads?”
>The two who remained muttered in wordless agreement, the one to his right nodding. “Always face-down on the ground when things get hard.”
I feel like that last line is the sort of innuendo you should smack yourself for. Anyway, turns out Silver is here because he wants books on the Tarot cards he was just having a fight about in the previous chapter. Naturally, he takes the opportunity to cast some kind of weird, stupid, over the top magic, which naturally Twilight immediately asks about. This time, instead of the anticipated wall of text, we get Silver playfully teasing Twilight about reading teen romance novels. And then we get the anticipated wall of text: >Once I'd gotten to an acceptable level in all things, I trained hard in highly specific ways, while intentionally letting other aspects of my magical training fall by the wayside. After all, I've always been more the type to dodge an attack, redirect it, or power through it than to make a magical shield and hide from it. It worked for me, and I became one of the fastest spellcasters who ever lived...
I'm not even going to bother pasting the whole thing because literally who cares, it's just more rambling nonsense about nothing that no one cares about. Anyway, you thankfully spend less time than usual going off on a tangent about Silver and his stupid powers (probably why this chapter is only 5,000 words long), and soon one of Silvers faggot-ass clones comes back with a book Silver could have easily just gone to the library and grabbed himself.
>The camera looked up and saw darkness, darkness slowly illuminated by candlelight. Faint and old-sounding music started to play. Old-looking parchment filled the screen, and a single image could be seen: A floating purple card deck, wreathed in golden light. Please stop doing shit like this.
>“The Cards of Destiny are-” Twilight began.
>“That's a terrible name,” Silver interrupted, judging it visibly as the camera turned to him, and the music stopped. Yep, a lesson on terrible names from Silver "dippity doop I'm stupid and my face is stupid and my name is stupid and I love putting penises in my mouth because I'm stupid and also a raging homosexual who is stupid herp de derp look at me I'm stupid" Star.
Anyway, this bit is followed by some surprisingly interesting lore about the origins of the magic cards. These could potentially make a very interesting story element if you can manage not to fuck it up too much with autism. Silver thanks her for the use of her library, hugs her somewhat inappropriately Joe Biden style, and takes his leave. And then, we conclude the chapter on this note: >She smiled, stopped, nervously looked around, reassured herself that she really was alone, and squeed harder. "I just got hugged by Silver Star!" She shouted gleefully, prancing around the room. God fucking damn you, Nigel.
>And outside her Crystal Castle, in an identical but lifeless hollow echo of this universe outside of Quarter Parallel Universe Alignment, Silver squeed where nopony could see him. "I just hugged Twilight Sparkle!" He shouted victoriously. God fucking damn you, Nigel. Also, I warned you about using the word "squee."
>>215505 >>167312 >>167337 Well, shit. That's the end of Chapter 5, which pretty much brings us back to where we started. It's been rather a fun journey, I'm almost a little sad to be finished.
Because I am an eternal glutton for punishment, I think I would like to give Chapter 6 another thorough read, see if I form a different impression of it now that I can read it in context. Since I've already technically gone over it in pretty exhaustive detail, I don't think I need to be quite as detailed this time around, but I'd still like to do a quick second survey of the material, just to properly conclude this little adventure. After that, I will provide a general summary of my thoughts on the work as a whole, and then we can finally put this great labor to bed.
Speaking of bed, I think I'm done for the night. It's been a fun journey with you all. Nigel, as ever, thank you for being a sport.
>>215296 >I actually feel like the point in which he introduces the cards into the story is appropriate. As far as I can tell he's basically writing this in a format more along the lines of a long serialized manga than a novel, and if you take that into account the cards are actually introduced at a more or less appropriate time. Of course, it goes without saying that Nigel has serious problems with pacing and going off-topic for paragraphs at a time, which is why this thing is so goddamned long. It also goes without saying that the text needs to be trimmed quite heavily. However, once you adjust for the amount of needless bloat in the text itself, the timing of events makes sense. I think there needs to be a lot more of a sense of build up, the skeleton is there but it's really disjointed and there's gotta be more connect-the-dots and a hook.
Even if the fic is trying to be like a manga it's poorly constructed from my perspective even within that framework. Instead of having the meteorite with the card hit the farm in ch4, be found by both BigMac and Applebloom and then later stolen by the Dogs in the exact same chapter I'd suggest spreading out these events so it's got more time to brew in the readers head. A strange meteorite/ufo/object crashing into the planet early on in a story and then later uncovering what exactly it was is extremely common in fiction and while this Does happen BUT all in the same chapter and there's no real concept of how anything is related inbetween or before. Even something like mentioning what was thought as a falling star one of the main characters spots much earlier before it struck but nobody paid any attention to it and then it's unveiled in a later that it's the card and then even later we can start unraveling what the [card]s are. I wouldnt stop at just Silver finding a [card] to tie it all together to the central plot. There's much more that can be done to link the events of everyone involved, including the enemies and Silver's past, adventures, quests, personality and motives.
>>215041 Don't think the [card]s solve everything people will hate about the badly written character you STILL need to put a lot more thought into what the hell his specialty should be. Glimmer is exceptional at magic, but has mundane hobbies like Kites and councilling. If Starlight found a booster [card] in FiM would that excuse everything about her magical ability you dispise? I fucking doubt it. A [super item] isnt a free pass for you to push everything we've critisized about SilverStar's lust for dicks. people can write good characters without needing that, just like people can write good characters that are granted super powers. Bad characters can exist without super powers, and bad characters with super powers it's not mutally exclusive.
I'd definitely echo what GlimGlam says and say fuck no to having the ability to collect the cards and gain endless powers since you already have a huge problem managing how to tell anything worthwhile with Silver's living-god abilities. I'd treat them more like the infinity stones in Marvel. IE: very rare but very powerful and ONE is the limit a pony would normally be able to hold, so you can trade a gambit [card] with another, but the internal machination rules disallow stacking [card]x[card] so it doesnt end up with full retard. The more god-like a character it is, the harder it is for the audience to relate to them and it takes a very competent writer to do something good with that.
On the DC side Superman's best comic stories vs mediocre ones and so many badly done Superman movies is inherently tied to him being a god-like character within our universe that makes him difficult to write well, which is why so many modern takes on him are shit. His challenges have to be internal because he's such a powerhouse externally. External abilities is what makes for good entertainment but his struggles, identity issues and morals is why anyone gives a shit about him. He fights a lot of super-strength people being a super-strength being, naturally as a match up but that's by far not the only challenges he has to deal with. And on Marvel's side they did the same thing in reverse with a villain by making Thanos aquire powers to be a living god but making him an interesting phillosopical maniac with good intentions and a huge burdon. If they just dropped the internal aspect of him then he would be just a boring godly powerful character.
Suprise, surprise, this is what the FiM team did with Starlight by making her externally super powerful in magic, but gave her internal challenges to overcome. That's very different than just being a clone of the Twilight/Celestia relationship. She has a good deal more depth to her as a character because of the social problems and how magic isn't the answer even if she's absurdly gifted in it. And since Silver is still written so similar to Starlight by being OP, or a huge success story then you have to deal with the same thing as all the other writers over the years have tried to do with Superman like beings. Discord is in the same vein, he can do anything he wants so they throw personality hurdles at him like having no friends, and internal monologing over hosting fluttershy's tea party. I'd still suggest nerfing the fuck out of Silver but you should know what you're in for if you try to plow ahead with the current overpowered or over talented iteration.
>>215464 Was trying to do the whole "He thinks he hates this coat because it's ugly. It's actually because of the memories attached to it and the symbolism of it, he just doesn't want to admit it" bit. And don't worry about the hot tub bit, he's going to install WAY more than a hot tub. My issue isn't JUST that they changed what Twilight was, it's that they changed her to something less well-written. They should have said: >Celestia: You're a princess now, Twilight. Leave your friends behind and come with me to Canterlot to rule forever. >Twilight: But I'm not ready! I love my friends, and there's so much about friendship I haven't learned yet! >Celestia: You can recognize that you are not ready... And that is why, one day, you will make a great Princess. Very well! You can now stay in Ponyville until you feel you are ready to become a true Princess! Then Twi still gets the coronation and some Honourary Princess or Princess-In-Training title. She's going to be assigned royal duties by Celestia now and then but most of the time, she's still the same old Twilight. There, now writers get the best of both worlds. She can fret over royal duties vital to Equestria in one episode and argue with Rarity over something tiny like grapes in another episode. If you need Twilight to fail to get a Taxi in one episode, you can say it isn't because she isn't a "Real" Princess yet, just someone who might become one in what, a hundred years? Who even knows how this shit works? The average Joe on the street won't. Also I'd do a bit where her
Alicornification gives her a starry flamelike aura around her tail. Then her saying "I'm not ready" returns her tail to normal, so she's essentially Twilight again just with new wings. Visual symbolism. If Twilight is "A Princess Now" and that's final, fine. Then she should be trying her best to be a good Princess and do good for Equestria 20/7, and her new home should aid her in this quest. >>215472 The concept of "Sues" is kind of a bloated and confused one. Once upon a time, someone wrote "A Trekkie's Tale" to satirize all the fanfiction cliches of that time, including ones rarely seen nowadays like "The hero dies in the end instead of becoming the ultimate god and/or getting the ultimate happy ending". That's what the term Sue really is, a pushback against the cliches and writing errors of that time. And now, it needs fourty variants and countless symptoms because it's a concept tied to its time. Sure, obnoxiously perfect characters with no real flaws are bad characters, but that's because they're damn near impossible to write well. Books written solely to be masturbatory wish-fulfillment sessions are only good when they remember to tell an entertaining story along the way. There's a reason why Project Horizons is more "Fun" than HPMOR, and it's not just because the first is weirdly symbolic and the latter is fucking plebbit popscience trash. It's the writing mistakes that makes a sue and story bad, because any character, even a shit one, can be written well when the author knows how to write well. Sure, you can say an obnoxiously perfect girl character is a bad character. And a similarly perfect girl who just "Looks weerd and goffik an is misunderstood" will be bad for the same reasons plus extra ones, so the concept still applies. But the "Sue Aura" of a Black Hole Sue is just Author Favoritism turned up beyond 11, turned up so high you can practically see the hand of the author in the form of invisible mind-altering reality-warping ways. A writer could give excessive author favoritism to any character, perfect or not. Sasuke isn't perfect (He's a confused mess on both levels) but the favoritism with him was so bad, the Sharingan became the ultimate bullshit god eye that's surpassing and also being the Rinnegan, his clan became the final boss clan, and the fffffffffffucking Great Snake Escape! You remember that, right? And remember when some Serebii.net user tried to make "Middling Sue" a thing? Even though it was just "Not very sueish sue that's still a goddamn sue, you're still making all the sue writing mistakes, your character's hair and luck just isn't crazy enough to set off everyone's alarms". Anyway, this fetishization of the concept of Sue, this "Every symptom of bad character writing must circle back to making the character a Sue in some way", it pretends the symptoms are the disease. And that says to the writer, "Give up on this character because his Sue score is too high", instead of "Learn more about writing and see how you can make what you wanted for this character work better". It's a relic of a fanfiction community that was still figuring out what good and bad fanfics are while the community was also still figuring out what fanfics are. It's much more helpful to figure out what does and doesn't work for a character and why, and then figure out how the writer can improve, than to try and see what boxes a character fits into, and then make up new boxes if necessary. I made this character too strong an
-d too awesome at the start, so I'm scaling him back. Also I postponed the "Twilight realizes Silver isn't turbo awesome and stops fangirling from then on" scene too much, that gag didn't work out. >>215475 I think I should have read all of these in a row and then written one reply, instead of replying to each message in a row after reading it. Also fuck, forgot the bit in the date where she thinks about how her life's changed and he says "Want me to fix your house?" and she distractedly says "Sure", not expecting him to go as hard as he does. >God knows what My plans for Twilight's new house? Instead of the old tree library or crap crystal castle, an awesome woodlike-living-crystal treehouse library with crystal leaves that soak in sunlight and convert it into magic, which then powers all the cool shit inside. I was thinking Silver would first show off what HE thinks are the coolest parts of the house. He'd go way too hard and upgrade the castle into something that makes Skyrim and Fallout NV Player Home Mods look simple. And there'd be a bit where Silver's all "Yeah, I'm so cool! Look at all this cool shit I made!" and everyone except Twilight is all "It's so cool!" but Twilight is faking a smile while thinking "Oh god, it's even worse, now it's got laser-firing leaves and buttons in the wall that conjure elemental servants and a Batcave and magic portal paintings and so much more, this is NOT the home of a simple librarian!" until they get to the part with the Hero Room. There, he upgraded the crystal cutie mark map into something that alerts the heroes to where trouble is in Equestria, not just friendship problems. So now Silver and the Mane Six can go stop supervillains and respond to new Cards being found while naturally learning moral lessons along the way, AND "These friends are fighting and need to go and be helped", episodes can also be done. Instead of the "This table has one job: Being arbitrary enough to let me do this! The character dice roll says it's AJ and Fluttershy's turn for an episode and the hat of stock plots says we're doing... Someone has to clear his/her name! So... These two characters go intrude on someone else's plot and fix their problems by teaching friendship instead of learning it!" stuff I didn't think worked as well. Also, at the end of the house tour, he shows off what he expects her to love the most: He shows off the ground floor library that's now the ultimate library AND open to the public due to magic shields keeping everyone without Twilight's permission from going further into the house. All the cool shit that's part of Twilight's house? That's hers. And the massive library that's open to the public? Everyone's, but also hers, which means she's a librarian again and a better one than ever before. It helps Twilight's character arc where she goes from "I want to be a good Student of Celestia, and she wants me to be a Princess now so I have to do that, even though I have no idea how to Princess as well as she does. I was Twilight Sparkle but now I'm a Princess" to "I want to do what's best for Equestria, and I am a Princess but I'm also Twilight Sparkle. I shouldn't feel shoved away from the common folk by my new status, because that doubt and insecurity plus my new fake 'Good princess with her rough-ish edges sanded off' persona is what's separating me from them! I came from the common folk - sorta - so that should make me the most down-to-earth and sympathetic Princess that does what's best for all of Equestria's citizens! I just made a grant for science shit and education! That's who I want to be!". She handles her responsibilities better and uses her position of power to make things better for the world, instead of just sticking to the "You can help me with this one, Twi" and "You need to save Equestria again or we're all fucked" scenarios Celestia throws to her now and then. >rides in on a white stallion (or, more likely, the stallion rides in on him I like this one, this is genius >The bit about Portals That was supposed to be Twilight thinking of a solution to a part of a problem (Castle is too big) without addressing the real problem (Castle doesn't suit her or ponyville and it symbolizes what she feels forced to become by fate) so then she gets sad over it. Also I was thinking, what if when Twilight's having her "Fangirling over Silver" scene, Rainbow Dash is there and she's all "Yeah, he used to be cool when he fought monsters with lasers. But now he just goes after rich bad guys and counts his money all day and that's lame! Plus he isn't THAT cool, he's never won a major". Also what if RD found his show-offiness obnoxious? And they had playful "Insulting each other but not too harshly" banter. >Twilight's able to think poorly of Glim
mer It's a proximity thing. She thinks everyone just silently resents her when she's not around, and that's why they act weirdly forgiving around her while hating her when she's gone. >>She felt like that one Period-Inappropriate and Setting-Inappropriate mega-princess character in a Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons gaming group, a character made by that new girl who just wanted to play pretend princess and didn't yet understand that the game could be, and should be, any deeper than that. >Are you mad because you played Dungeons & Dragons with your little sister and she created a princess character you thought was stupid? Nope, it's a metaphor. She feels out of place, and the crystal castle shit just isn't her. She feels like a faker. She feels like she and her new princesshood just don't belong here. The DND metaphor amplifies that by comparing herself and her new glittery princess crap to this cutesy girly cartoon world's version of That Guy. You know That Guy, right? We all know a That Guy, but in the pony world, the That Guy would be a mix of That Guy and That Girl. >Ponies act naked while being naked only when it's funny Eh, the show does it. >rape I'm proud of this gag, it's funny because she thinks it'll be sexual but then it's not. Not sure if how I ended up resolving it works though. It went differently in the beta. >Silver blathers about his powers Jesus, I did that way too much. After all that deep Twilight shit and the funny bait and switch, this just feels jarring. >>215526 >Specialty His specialty is supposed to be analysis. Figuring out the weaknesses of foes and exploiting them, breaking the game-breaking bullshit enemies pull on him, ripping stuff off, figuring out what the market needs and wants, and so on. His job should be enchanting stuff, plus managing the businesses he built on selling crap ponies want. >If Glimmer got a card If she found one and that caused her transformation from "Well-intentioned commie bitch weaker than Twilight" to "Will kill trillions to piss off one hero, is also stronger than Twilight now so she HAS to 'Forgive' and 'Redeem' Glimmer"... Well, it's explain her power boost, but not her personality change. I still think Glimmer should have worn the Alicorn Amulet when she went Time Breaker. It would have given all her fans something to blame her evil actions on, and everyone could reasonably shrug and say "Well fuck her for willingly putting it on, but it's evil magic so she can't be blamed for what she did under its influence". It would have added a new dimension to Twilight and Glimmer's fight, too. Twilight would want Glim to take the Amulet off because it's making her evil, Glim says "No fuck you it makes me strong", and they could even make Glimmer super speshul by having her willingly take the amulet off upon seeing the devastated world she created in one timeline. There, now Twilight forgiving and wanting to redeem Glimmer makes sense for a reason other than "The writers fell in love with Glimmer and wanted her in the mane six. And everyone should love her so forget her personal growth, now we're sticking Trixie to her so Glim can look good by comparison!". Although "Pretend to give up, teleport around eating donuts while reading long-lost ancient tomes and shit, then when nobody expects it, POW. Exploit Glimmer's time travel, teleport to young Glimmer and teleport her to Celestia and tell Celly to make her good, get dragged back to the present and watch good Glimmer fight evil Glimmer in the present day, magically mindfuck real Glim by copying good Glim's brain data over to bad Glim, then the two good Glims undo the time loop and now Glimmer's an interesting character AND actual repentant hero" was on the fookin table God, imagine how deep that would make Glimmer. A repentant hero constantly aware that she only exists because the real her's evil actions once forced a hero to perform G-rated existential murder. Constantly afraid of turning out how she would have turned out if it wasn't for Twilight and Celestia. Inheriting the body and sins of the worst version of herself, determined to turn her life around. A youth wasted desperately trying to attain enough power to defeat her evil half, only to learn Twilight planned on using her as a distraction and erasing her evil half's mind regardless of good Glim's own ability. A head filled with memories of a world that never existed, and friends she can never see again, if she ever even had any. Every day, Glimmer knows that she is not the real Glimmer, or the real AU good Glimmer, but a copy of the good one in the body of the evil one. Mother of fuck, that's so deep. >Disallow stacking Good idea, I'm glad I already thought of it. I know the Infinity Stones have the whole "They get stronger when together" thing going on in the comics but I didn't watch infinity war. I was planning on saying the final card, The World, is the most important one because despite how cool the other cards are with their individual powers, The World combines stuff. So if you gather all the cards, you need The World to fuse them and achieve godhood(Different villains want godhood for different reasons, Twilight wants the cards in a museum where they can't be misused at first but changes into "No, good guys should use some of them to be heroes while the worst ones are kept in a museum so no villain can collect them all" over time, Silver wants them so he can just wish away his dyingness but he isn't putting all his eggs in one basket). But until then, shoving a second card into you shoves the first card out of you, so everyone needs friends to hold the cards if they're going to hunt them down. Also I'm nerfing Silver by giving him a card, and saying he's only as good as he is because he's been hiding the card that buffed him this whole time.
>>215541 >And don't worry about the hot tub bit, he's going to install WAY more than a hot tub. That's pretty much the opposite of what I was hoping you'd take away from that bit, but what the hell, it's your train to wreck I suppose.
>Was trying to do the whole "He thinks he hates this coat because it's ugly. It's actually because of the memories attached to it and the symbolism of it, he just doesn't want to admit it" bit. I get that. Mostly what I'm saying is to use the castle as a symbol because it's good symbolism, but don't dwell too much on the castle itself. You have a bad habit of dropping your own thoughts and opinions into your characters' dialogue and inner monologue, and it detracts from the story.
All of what you say about Twilight and the way she's been handled post-ascension I basically agree with. However, you need to focus less on how the show staff handles writing Twilight and more on how you are going to write Twilight.
>>215542 Don't dwell too much on the Sue thing, I mainly just wanted to point out that your character has a lot of attributes that usually cause a character to get labeled a Mary Sue. That I am not the only person in this thread to have told you as much should be an alarm bell that you should listen to.
>Books written solely to be masturbatory wish-fulfillment sessions are only good when they remember to tell an entertaining story along the way. >It's the writing mistakes that makes a sue and story bad, because any character, even a shit one, can be written well when the author knows how to write well. Yes exactly, and that is basically what we've all been trying to tell you for the last eight months. What is so continuously frustrating about trying to give you advice is that you can see the problems with other people's works but can't recognize the exact same problems in your own. I don't know what Project Horizons or HPMOR is and I'm not particularly worried about it atm. If you want me to read those things and review them, post them in my other thread and I'll take a look.
We're not talking about whatever those works are or what's wrong with them, we're talking about your project and what you need to do to improve it. YOUR character is too overpowered and needs to be scaled back. YOUR text contains a massive amount of bloat and needs to have huge amounts of unnecessary text culled. YOU constantly digress from your main story to go off on rants about stories written by other people, most commonly FiM itself. Stop focusing so much on why Sasuke from Naruto is a good character or why Jethro McButterchubs from Project Whatever-the-fuck is a bad character and pay attention to your own characters.
>And remember when some Serebii.net user tried to make "Middling Sue" a thing? No, I have literally no idea what the hell you're even talking about.
>and the fffffffffffucking Great Snake Escape! You remember that, right? I think I do remember that, actually. There were snakes everywhere. As I recall, Samuel L. Jackson was irritated that there were so many of them on his plane, and resolved to do something about it.
>Anyway, this fetishization of the concept of Sue, this "Every symptom of bad character writing must circle back to making the character a Sue in some way", it pretends the symptoms are the disease. And that says to the writer, "Give up on this character because his Sue score is too high", instead of "Learn more about writing and see how you can make what you wanted for this character work better". That is all true. In your case however, the symptoms are a reflection of the disease. You don't need to give up on the character, just listen to the input you've been given and see if you can improve him.
>I made this character too strong and too awesome at the start, so I'm scaling him back Good. That's a good idea. I'm very glad to hear that you're doing that.
>My plans for Twilight's new house? Instead of the old tree library or crap crystal castle, an awesome woodlike-living-crystal treehouse library with crystal leaves that soak in sunlight and convert it into magic, which then powers all the cool shit inside. Eh, could be interesting if you did it right. Again though, try to focus less on improving the physical structure and more on addressing the conflict you created for Twilight: her sense of isolation and social detachment. Problem: Twilight feels alone and she's got da blues, so she mopes around in her big ugly castle. Solution: Fill the empty castle with friends and ponies she cares about, turn it into a happy place. Since you use the castle as a symbol for her loneliness and the conflict between her desire to rise to her new responsibilities and her desire to retain the joys of her old life, it's not unreasonable to use a remodeling or rebuilding of it as a symbol when she finally works through it and turns the corner. But remember, the structure itself is not the main problem and it shouldn't be the main focus.
If he's going to remodel it without her permission, or if she gives him permission but doesn't expect him to go ape shit with it, she should definitely get mad at him and that should be a source of conflict for a while. They should probably be fighting for at least the length of an "episode."
The public library bit is not a bad idea.
>That was supposed to be Twilight thinking of a solution to a part of a problem (Castle is too big) without addressing the real problem (Castle doesn't suit her or ponyville and it symbolizes what she feels forced to become by fate) so then she gets sad over it. I get that, it's just digressive and distracting.
>Also what if RD found his show-offiness obnoxious? And they had playful "Insulting each other but not too harshly" banter. That's also not a bad idea. You may want to consider some sort of one-upsmanship rivalry between them, it would fit the nature of both characters.
>>215544 >Nope, it's a metaphor. She feels out of place, and the crystal castle shit just isn't her. She feels like a faker. She feels like she and her new princesshood just don't belong here. The DND metaphor amplifies that by comparing herself and her new glittery princess crap to this cutesy girly cartoon world's version of That Guy. You know That Guy, right? We all know a That Guy, but in the pony world, the That Guy would be a mix of That Guy and That Girl. If it's a metaphor, then it's a horrendous metaphor. I'd advise you find something simpler and do that instead.
>I'm proud of this gag, it's funny because she thinks it'll be sexual but then it's not. Not sure if how I ended up resolving it works though. It went differently in the beta. That scene was actually pretty funny and I'd say keep it. Mostly I'd just advise (once again) not to use the clones, maybe have Silver and Twilight go into the library together and look for the book instead of Silver sending out copies of himself to ransack the place.
>Silver blathers about his powers >Jesus, I did that way too much. After all that deep Twilight shit and the funny bait and switch, this just feels jarring. You can't imagine how much joy it brings me to hear you acknowledge this.
>>215544 >Well, it's explain her power boost, but not her personality change. What personality change? Going from filly friendless to equality dictator? Just so you're aware it was intentionally petty and small to give her something like losing a friend, to show that extremely minor events can create a ripple of bigger ones. How you didn't see this theme in the episode is beyond me, it doesnt stop at Dash's race. But you never gave a good reason why she went that route either, instead you just tore into her as a strawman target to unload all of your hate about the character and gommunism how she's such a trashy childish character ect nobody gives a shit about.
Fixing Starlight's backstory leading to her ideology is pretty fucking easy actually. Because just like for fixing Silver they have the tools already available to do it, IF they stopped for a minute making new shit like the student six and focused on something more important. Just like you need to stop making new anime-shit or clone-shit career and put some time into developing Silver's core. It's nearly identical how Starlight and Silver have things that are screaming to be addressed but the elephants in the room are being ignored for shiny new toys.
>Alicorn Amulet While it might give a reason to allow next-level time travel beyond just glimmer modifying a spell, they already did the same thing you're talking about with Trixie and it would just be a rehash. The whole point of her changing her mind would be moot and there would be no big teary redemption. That would be like instead of Sunset getting friendship-beam brainwashed, she was talked down and took off the crown herself.
>>215542 >That's what the term Sue really is, a pushback against the cliches and writing errors of that time. And now, it needs fourty variants and countless symptoms because it's a concept tied to its time. >Anyway, this fetishization of the concept of Sue, this "Every symptom of bad character writing must circle back to making the character a Sue in some way" You do know you wrote another wall of text on those 40 different kinds of sues in your FiMFic blogs, bigger than the one GlimGlam was referencing right? It's fine if you finally moved on from that and no longer hold the same beliefs but at the same time, you still look like you apply it liberally in your arguments so I can't really say how much you have changed.
>>215543 >There, he upgraded the crystal cutie mark map into something that alerts the heroes to where trouble is in Equestria, not just friendship problems. >It helps Twilight's character arc Oh christ. This is more garbage that's putting him on the same tier as Starswirl the Bearded and making the world revolve around him. Before Starswirl was released in Season7's finale they didn't even know how the magic of harmony worked enough beyond the tree needing it and the elements together. Why should I believe this cancerous OC should be able to waltz in and casually change and 'upgrade' it when it's beyond all of the Princesses understanding of how it truely works to manipulate it like Starswirl since he planted the damn thing. And ontop of that you're inserting your own retarded lore that contradicts canon on how it explicitly works. Friendship IS what Harmony is about and the Elements ARE given and gifted to people to overcome friendship problems. being able to see any 'trouble' that isnt friendship is just asinine and omniprescence like Twilight would suddenly be putting Equestria into a nanny state, this wouldnt help her arc at all and put a huge detour in her way. I dont see a reason this situation of struggling with being a princess would weigh on her head all these years when she already accepted and embraced it. That premise is more like if she was trying to find her footing getting started out on being a princess not this shit that some self-insert walks in to show off his and she decides to go full-retard over. Nanny state Twilight trying to manage everything is an interesting idea and I could see some potential there because of how much of a sperg she can be, but it's really out of place chronologically from what you already have and feels forced.
You have a big issue with being unable to separate yourself from Silver the living god and Silver the character. It's not the magic power level or title that matters. Whether Twilight's ascendtion to an Alicorn happened or if she stayed a unicorn forever, she would still be the same at her core which FiM did a good job with showing. Abilities are just superficial and they can have responsibilities or reprocussions that come with it. If you want anyone to care about your character then you will have to spend more time with who Silver is without the clone-shit, animetard cards and magic-shit. You should be asking yourself who he is as a pony, and if you can only come up with animetard shit and super infinite success careers then you go back to the drawing board until you have a real worthwhile answer. For a thought experiment take away nearly everything you've tacked on with the cloneshit, OP god magic, see what remains and what he would be like.
>>215611 >>215612 Thank you for spending so much of your time reviewing my work. I'm going to make a condensed and renewed version of this story that fixes major writing flaws from the start. >>215632 >personality change Old glim: Wants to believe she's morally right, wants to create a world without talent and ability because that's how you eliminate inequality and guarantee equality of outcome for all. Hates dissent. Flees from Twilight when cornered, only won for a while due to getting in one lucky shot with Cutie Mark+All Ability removal spell. Nu-glim: Generic evil asshole who'll ruin a child's life to ruin everyone's life, over and over, just to piss Twilight off. Suddenly also has infinite stats, outspeeding and outplaying Twilight while being able to convince two bullies and their victims (one of whom is a fucking athlete) to give up on competition itself (((offscreen))). Characters make stupid decisions and ignore obvious solutions for her benefit. Bad writing makes this happen. >it was intentionally petty and small because it's symbolic of how the smallest changes can have big ripples! No, that's just your rationalization for liking it. I won't mock it, but please respect that I think it's bad writing. If that's truly what the writers did on purpose, they fucked the symbolism up. Glimmer didn't change one small and seemingly unimportant event, she changed the most important event in the lives of six incredibly important ponies who've saved Equestria more than ten times over, all because one of Equestria's greatest heroes ruined her evil plan to create an anti-talent village and rule over this tiny town in the sticks forever. And she decided on this evil plan long ago because one day, her only friend discovered his talent and was sent off to Canterlot. Then she forgot what letters, trains, teleport/portal spells, random objects enchanted to work like phones, magic mirrors, and holiday visits are. Turns out she's not a misguided extremist who genuinely thought she was making the world a better place, now she's just some loser who got really really salty when her friend developed talents she didn't have at the time. If they really wanted to make it symbolic of small changes making big ripples, they should have made Glimmer some pissed-off former student of Celestia who accidentally got fucked over by Twilight one day. I might not like this origin, but it makes more sense than "Lol pony stronger than Twilight comes out of nowhere and hates cutie marks". Nu-Nu-glim: She's sympathetic because offscreen ponies give her something to whinge about to the audience with Trixie through Obnoxious Talking Cafe Scenes, plus her parents think she's a tard. Plus despite never making a true effort to be good or understand goodness, we're expected to forgive her. She'll brainwash people and use magic as a shortcut because either Twilight never gave her the "Why trying things the proper way is important" speech or she didn't listen to it. Just accept that fucking Twilight and her friends can't teach a former villain how to morality, goy. Then just accept who she is now. Nu-nu-nu-glim: She was evil once but we said she's good now, so now she's good enough to be a counsellor for children. Not for adult former villains, but for children. Children from cultures wildly different to Equestrian ones. Just shut up and accept it, goy. Glimmer is a fucking mess because they had multiple episodes to fix her, make her work, and sell the audience on her. Instead, they chose to fuck those episodes up (At least one unironically disabled tard on the writing team decided "Timeline destroying asshole who doesn't know what magical or physical boundaries are" is just like him and started projecting his "Socially and consequentially inept plus parents think he's a loser" traits onto her, thinking she's perfect the way she is instead of actually making her character grow and change) and then repeatedly try to shame the audience for not loving her. Then, when Hasbro said "Give up on Glimmer and add new Poochies. Add a ripoff Mane Six, big demographics loved those for some reason" the writers decided to shoehorn in Poochie as the counsellor to give her a reason to be in episodes that really should have been dedicated to selling the Diversity Six as characters. >The sue posts Yeah, I grew out of the whole "Sue Insanity" thing halfway through compiling a list of over 20 "Types of sues", including many new ones like the "Inheritance Sue" that inherits assorted shit she has no reason to inherit, like Rey getting Luke's lightsaber AND the Millennium Falcon. At some point it dawned on me that all of these Sue Traits were just Shit Character Traits, and many of them were contradictory. Or they were Writing Pitfalls unrelated to the actual character's quality, appearance, or personality. Or they were cheap tactics writers use to sell the audience on characters or wank characters, but classlessly. The "New Sue Types" were just assorted amalgamation of writing pitfalls and character traits that take serious effort and mastery of the craft to do right. >Him upgrading stuff puts him on too high a level He's got a spell that conceptually upgrades stuff by one level, so he can't use it multiple times on the same object. Cast it on a cardboard box, it becomes a tough briefcase. Cast it on a shitty metal pan, it becomes a nice-ass copper one, that sort of thing. It reverts back to normal after a while and can't be upgraded again. But Twilight could cast a freeze modifier on the magic that keeps it upgraded. Do you think I should make the spell fail when he tries to use it on the Cutie Map to add "Detect trouble you six must stop" and "Detect card usage" as new functions? If I do that, I'd need something else to do those things. Got any ideas on how Silver/Twilight could do that?
I was thinking... It was really fun to have my work genuinely reviewed and critique. I saw things from new perspectives and it ended up making my story better. Can the same be done for this story? https://archiveofourown.org/works/16914561/chapters/39739335 I'm really proud of the part where I reference a ton of classic western songs in a sexual context.
I apologize for the rather lengthy downtime, I needed to steel myself for the final stretch of this little adventure, since it involves revisiting some pretty unpleasant ground.
So, as I promised before, I am now going to return to the behemoth that is Chapter 6, and then that will conclude our lecture series on this particular work. Again, since I have already gone through Chapter 6 in pretty minute detail earlier in the thread, these next few posts will just be a short survey, to revisit it in context since I initially analyzed it as a standalone work without having read the previous chapters. I will also be skimming the text rather quickly since Jesus Fucking Christ this thing is longer than longcat.
>>218754 >Not your personal editing department Fortunately for you, at this point I am pretty much his personal editing department. I do the work that most normal anons are too squeamish to touch. Praise me Senpai.
Anyway, let's begin.
The chapter starts off with Twilight's nether regions all a-tingle, due to being in such close proximity to the mighty meat scepter of Silver "I'm seriously going to miss doing these gay jokes when this is all over" Star. As I recall, I soured on this work pretty early on because of this scene and the rather noxious impression it gave me of your protagonist. However, now that we have sloughed through the rest of the work we can examine it in context and maybe I'll see it differently.
In the previous chapter, Silver "reach into my rear compartment and pull out a prize" Star has discovered that some sort of magical Yu-Gi-Oh card has landed from space, that it is part of a larger deck of magical cards, and that a bunch of Diamond Dogs are after these cards for some reason. He visits with Twilight and together they learn that something something the origin of the cards. Ostensibly, they are now meeting to "discuss the card situation."
My initial impression of this Twilight/Silver date scene way back in August or whenever was that it's just a typical self-fellating pathetic brony fantasy, where the writer pairs up his shitty Mary Sue self-insert OC with his waifu so she can fawn all over him and tell him he's just the dreamiest, and maybe have him beat up a couple of OC villains that are stand-ins for the bullies that picked on him in junior high while he's at it. Having read the entire work now, I will say that I've amended this impression somewhat. For one thing, I don't at this point believe that Silver is a self-insert character for you. Thank God for that, because now it means I only hate him instead of hating the both of you. My myriad criticisms of him, at this point well documented enough that they don't need to be revisited, still stand; however, I don't think he's a self-insert. I also think that while I'm guessing Twilight is probably your waifu, you didn't necessarily write this scene to live out a fantasy about her.
That said, however, a lot of my other criticisms of this scene still stand. I still find the way she's written here to be very demeaning to her. You basically have her bouncing around like a ditzy cheerleader, alternating between babbling to herself about how great Silver is and making self-deprecating remarks about how she isn't good enough for him.
>Some small part of her feared that he wouldn’t even give her a second glance if she wasn’t an Alicorn, if she wasn’t the Princess of Friendship, if she wasn’t as big and important as him. This is a good example. This is the kind of thing that turns people off to a story like this, honestly. Whether you intended it this way or not, this comes across as one of those stories where the OC joins the main cast of a series and proceeds to outshine all of them, and it almost invariably will result in hate and ridicule from the fan community, which is basically what a lot of this thread seems to have been about.
There's nothing inherently wrong with pairing your OC up with Twilight and developing a relationship between them. There's also nothing inherently wrong with Twilight having kind of a fangirl crush on Silver, since you've established that he's a pony of some renown in the same field as her. However, the way you've got this currently set up, several of the main problems with your story and characters converge in this relationship subplot, and I think it's a yuge part of why you've received such a torrent of hate over this story. In fact, I have to say that reading this scene in context has actually made me see it as worse, not better.
For one thing, you've got an OC who is already massively overpowered and maxed out on skill points; that's annoying enough on its own. To that, you add that he is also considered incredibly handsome and desirable by females, and specifically create scenes where he manages to impress most of the females in the main cast. Rainbow Dash is impressed by his Daring Do fanfiction and Extreme Gears™, Rarity is impressed by his art and philanthropy, Pinkie Pie is impressed by his ability to fit an entire eggplant down his throat, and...well, you get the idea. Since Applejack is his cousin and therefore (hopefully) off limits, the only member of the mane 6 he isn't currently poised to bang is Fluttershy, whom he actually disdains as "unimportant" or "uninteresting" or something earlier in the story iirc. Now combine all of that with your portrayal of Twilight, the series' main protagonist, as a giddy schoolfilly whose only remaining life goal is to be drizzled in Silver's jizzle. Congratulations: you have just made anyone whose waifu is any of the mane 6 automatically hate your story, regardless of the rest of its content. Well, except for Applejack I suppose, although I'm guessing most Applefags would be irritated by your generally shoddy handling of the character.
Running out of space; I'll finish this point in the next post.
Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with giving your OC one of the mane 6 as a love interest. Hell, you can even have all of them, including Cousin Applejack, trying to jump his bones if you really want to. The waifu-cuckoldry is really not the central issue here; the problem is that you need to approach it and set it up differently.
For simplicity's sake, we'll focus on Twilight. At this point in the story, it makes sense to develop their relationship a bit, so you're actually more or less on the right track. You've created a problem that the two of them will need to work together to solve, which provides the perfect opportunity for them to get to know each other a little. You've also established that they have kind of a preexisting fan-crush on each other. This is a good setup, really. Your main problem is that you're laying it on too thick.
Instead of having Twilight's inner monologue constantly spouting teenage-sounding drivel about how cute and handsome Silver "stallion on the streets, mare between the sheets" Star is, try to have her demonstrate her feelings through action. You can just carry on the main story as if this really were just a platonic serious-business investigation into magic cards, but occasionally have her blush, look at the ground, flip her mane shyly, etc., to indicate she's thinking about this encounter as something more. Do the same with Silver too, he should be trying to impress her, but he should also be a little clumsy and awkward about it. From his behavior in other parts of the story, you clearly want him to be kind of an awkward sperg underneath his suave exterior, so have that side come through a little more here. Don't overdo it, but have him put his hoof in his mouth a couple of times, maybe have him look a little endearingly stupid once or twice. Balance it out a bit too, don't just focus on how impressed Twilight is with Silver; that just comes across as the author dick-fluffing his OC and you don't want that. They should both be at about the same early level of interest in each other here. Silver has discovered an actual problem in the real world he needs to solve, that conveniently provides him with an excuse to enlist the help of the girl he likes. The girl decides to help him and also probably realizes that he's not just asking her for purely professional reasons. She's into it, but she's not quite sure how to express this. He feels the same way. They're both autistic spergs who have difficulty expressing their feelings and whatnot, so the encounter is awkward but cute. They glance shyly at each other and maybe flirt a little while dealing with the problem at hand and moving the main story along. That's your scene, that's how you should approach it. It could actually be rather endearing and cute if you can manage to pull it off correctly.
Also, while we're on the subject, the whole mock-fight that happens between Silver and the half-mare-half-dragon thingamabob is an extraneous scene that doesn't seem to serve any purpose other than to give you a chance to slip in a bunch of cringy anime references; I'd recommend cutting it. I'd also highly recommend cutting out the long bits where it's just Silver talking about theoretical physics or his own magic. Remember to stay focused when writing; you have a tendency to go way off the rails and that's how you end up with 30,000 word chapters. This scene is basically about two things: on the surface level it's a meeting between Twilight and Silver to discuss the magic cards. At a deeper level, it's about Twilight and Silver shyly getting to know one another. All conversation taking place between them should relate to one of those two topics. And by "get to know each other" I mean personally, not block-paragraph explanations of complicated magic shit Silver can do or philosophical speculation about parallel worlds. Try to stick to character-relevant information that can be summed up in a sentence or two, and keep personal questions basically platonic. They should both view the encounter as a date, but be pointedly trying to not approach it as one.
Like, here's a quick example of something you shouldn't do: >“I read the book you wrote on this,” Twilight admitted, “But could you explain the differences between the three and the concept of QPUs to me again, anyway?” This question relates to neither the magic cards nor to Twilight and Silver getting to know one another. This is the kind of subject that Twilight could reasonably be expected to be interested in and that Silver would probably like to babble about, so it technically makes sense that they might talk about it, but there's really no literary justification for the discussion being in the text. Furthermore, Silver's response to this question is 433 words long and reads like a high school textbook on troll physics. This kind of dense word salad adds nothing to the story and is frankly confusing as crap to read.
But surely Twilight must have something equally verbose and intelligent to add to this conversation, right? >“The multiverse really is amazing,” Twilight sighed. Well, shit. I guess that's the Canterlot education system for you.
Also, I would kind of like to point out that they never technically discuss the magic cards anywhere in this chapter, although the conversation trails off so presumably they could have discussed it at some point outside of the written text. However, that just raises the question of why in Equestria you thought all that rubbish about parallel universes and magic horseshoes was important enough to explicitly include, when you gloss over stuff that actually matters to the story. Anyway, we've probably discussed this scene enough. Let's move on. Feel free to ask about anything you'd like me to clarify or elaborate upon.
By the way, "Poet Name" is actually a pretty funny name for a poet-pony, I'd still try to work that in somewhere when you rewrite it.
>Meanwhile, in Ponyville... I just want to once again reiterate two major points I've brought up multiple times before. The first is that this whole idea you have about Silver breaking into Twilight's castle while she's away and remodeling it as some kind of bold romantic gesture is beyond autistic. The second is that the device of the Silver clones only serves to add several layers of confusion to a story that is plenty confusing to begin with. We know that he has this ability as it is basically used whenever it's even mildly convenient for him to have multiple versions of himself. However, every time we encounter any version of Silver "stick a thumb in me bum and pull out a plum" Star, he's presented to us as if we're dealing with the real Silver and not a copy. This, along with how time is handled a little vaguely in this story anyway, tends to make the chronology of events a little difficult to understand.
Case in point. Right now, Silver is on a date with Twilight in fucking Neighpon or wherever. However, we also get this "Meanwhile in Ponyville..." segment where Silver enlists Pinkie Pie to throw a party in Applejack's barn, while yet another Silver takes Spike to an arcade, while yet another forty copies of Silver break into Twilight's castle to remodel it. Is all of this happening concurrently? Trying to figure out which events are happening when has made analyzing this story a nightmare at times. Also baffling is the question of just how many Silvers exist at any given time, and who exactly is the "real" Silver.
This is significant, because it leads into something I actually didn't notice the first time around.
There is virtually no sense of time in this story whatsoever, so we really have no idea when any of these events are happening, but we can still piece it together more or less logically. First, we have Twilight and at least one Silver having dinner in Neighpon. The next segment begins with "Meanwhile in Ponyville..." so we can assume that it is happening concurrently with the date. This is the scene where a different Silver enlists Pinkie to start a party. The party begins instantly using Pinkie's cartoon physics and Silver joins in; we have him breakdancing at the end of the scene. Next, we've got a scene where yet another Silver lures Spike off to the back of his van to show him a puppy, I mean take him to an arcade, in order to remove the last occupant of the castle. The emptiness of the castle implies that Twilight is still out with Silver, so one can logically deduce that all three events happen simultaneously.
The next segment, however, is the beginning of the now-infamous Glimmer-bashing scene. It simply begins at the party in AJ's barn, where Silver suddenly notices Glimmer standing there and attacks her. My first time through the story, I was so distracted by the levels of autistic brutality in this scene that I didn't even notice what appears to be a huge, gaping continuity error. At what time in the story is this party happening? Is the Silver at this party the real Silver or a clone? These are important questions for reasons I will now clarify.
Again, there is no time reference given here. We don't even know if any of these events are happening in the day or at night. This could be the party that Pinkie started two scenes ago or this could be an entirely different party a week later. However, I'm going to assume basic continuity here and say that the party started in the "meanwhile in Ponyville" segment is the party that Glimmer and Silver are at. So, presumably, Twilight and Silver are still on their date while all of this is going on? Because we can reasonably assume that the party started roughly around the time that Twilight and Silver were talking about troll physics, and that the castle is being remodeled around the same time. So if this scene begins shortly after the point where Pinkie's party starts and Silver begins breakdancing, presumably Twilight and Silver should still be at dinner. Fuck, this is making my head hurt the more I think about it.
There are three possible scenarios, each presenting its own unique problem. The first possibility is that the Silver having dinner with Twi is the real Silver, which would mean that all other Silvers are clones. According to your own lore, the clones have 1 hp each and can be destroyed almost effortlessly, despite having all of Silver's knowledge and ability. This would mean that the Silver who fights Glimmer would have just been a clone that she could have easily beaten without even chipping a hoof. This, obviously, makes no sense.
The second possibility is that the real Silver was the breakdancing Silver, the one who enlisted Pinkie to start a party. This would mean that the Silver having dinner with Twilight was a clone. There's no logical reason this couldn't be true, but it's kind of a shitty thing for him to do. It basically means that beating up poor Glimmyglam is more important to Silver than the date, which makes any romantic progress he makes with Twilight utterly pointless.
I'm going to continue this in another post, bear with me.
The third possibility is that the fight scene takes place later on. The real Silver is the one on the date, he and Twi finish their dinner, he transports them back to Ponyville, and they join the party that has already presumably been going on for several hours for basically no reason, since the whole point was to throw a party for Twilight, who was still at dinner when it started. This eliminates the continuity problems I guess, but it raises what is, in my mind, the even more important question of why the fuck any of this was even necessary to begin with.
Here is my understanding of what is going on: Some version of Silver "the only way to truly figure out which one is the real me is to fuck all of us in the ass hard enough to cause 1 HP of damage, thus killing all of the clones one at a time until only the real me is left" Star wanted to surprise Twilight with an impromptu home invasion/remodel. He needs the castle to be empty for this, so he throws a party for her and takes Spike to an arcade. However, since she was on a date at the time, she would have already been out of the castle. She was literally in another country in another part of the world; she was about as far away from the castle as it is possible for her to get, much farther away than Applejack's fucking barn. Silver could have distracted her with ebin anime fights and autistic dinner conversation for as long as his clones needed to do whatever the hell it is that they did to her castle. The party was completely unnecessary, and, to make matters even more confusing, he had Pinkie get it going presumably hours before Twilight even returned.
Furthermore, another glaring logical hole in this thing is Glimmer herself. She lives in Twilight's castle. How does she factor into all this? She's at the party at the beginning of the scene, so presumably she isn't interfering with the remodeling operation, but where was she initially? In fact, where has she been up until now? She hasn't even appeared in the story yet. Has she in the castle? Has she been off with Trixie somewhere? Silver seems surprised to see her when he encounters her, so maybe he didn't know she was even living in the castle, so maybe he didn't know he needed to get her out of there as well? In which case, wouldn't his clones have bumped into her while they were rummaging around in there? And how is it that he's lived here for.....wait a minute, how long has he been in Ponyville now? Days? Weeks? Months? And yet he's never bumped into Starlight Glimmer before? Twilight's never mentioned her? There's just too many questions that can't be answered with simple logic alone.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually think this chapter makes even less sense the second time around. The whole thing just has no continuity whatsoever. Characters appear wherever they're needed with no reasonable explanation as to how they got there or why they're even there in the first place. As soon as they are no longer needed they just vanish into the aether, only to randomly appear again the next time they have a piece of dialog. There's like five hundred different versions of Silver "my fudge has never been in an unpacked state" Star running around everywhere at any given moment. Nopony's actions make any sense at all. This unironically reads like the kind of story a six year old girl would invent and act out with pony toys, except if my kid was acting out a story like this I would probably put her in therapy.
I'm afraid I have to stop now, for the sake of my own sanity. Pic related is me trying to make sense out of this labyrinth of autism. To be continued.
Bumping for sake of FBI glowniggers. They can't miss out on this shit. Also to give Nigel an idea of where he FUCKING SHOULD post his consistent and ceaseless shit, since there's ALREADY A FUCKING THREAD about it, and why he's getting so much flack for YET ANOTHER GODDAMN RULE 11 VIOLATION
>>226011 >consistent and ceaseless I spent the last few days making Fallout NV content. How long has it been since I posted any Silver Star-related content? I make one "OC Thread! Come post your OCs here!" and everyone's favourite German Vril starts REEEEEEING again because an OC of mine was the first one posted. I don't know if you are Vril with a VPN set to America, a friend of his, or a completely different person. But either way, can you talk to the guy? His hateboner for me has lasted over two years, and you're supposed to see a doctor if that sort of thing lasts for more than four hours. >>219593 Speaking of my story, chapter one of the rewrite is almost done.
>>226017 >>226051 Two years Two guys(who might be one guy) one forced meme this summer one man will feel better about himself, because at least he isn't that lamer who's still butthurt about someone not liking his pony waifu 2 years ago.
>>226016 >Speaking of my story, chapter one of the rewrite is almost done. Glad to hear it, I will be happy to go over it again when it's finished if you like.
>>226011 Thanks for bumping this, I'd forgotten that I still have to finish the last little bit.
>>219593 >>167312 >>167337 I forget where specifically in the narrative of ch 6 I left off, but here's some general advice along the lines of what I was talking about in my previous post. From a birds eye view, the biggest problems with this part of the story are pacing and continuity. Continuity I think I've basically covered over the previous couple of posts: there's a lot of events happening here, the timeline is not particularly clear, and there's a lot of confusion being produced from the multiple iterations of Silver you've got running all over the place. Continuity can be a bitch to manage, particularly when you've got a complicated story with a lot of events happening at once. You don't have to have everything mapped out precisely in advance before you start writing (I'm kind of an off-the-cuff writer as well) but it's still a good idea to write up a short blueprint or outline for yourself that shows a rough timetable of where each character is supposed to be and when.
In a case like this, where you've got multiple versions of the same character running around, you especially need to keep track of where each version is, which ones are the clones, and where the real Silver is. The issue I brought up in the last post is an example of a massive continuity problem that could have been easily addressed just with some simple planning. When is the date happening? When is the fight happening? If they are happening at the same time (or around the same time), which Silver is fighting and which one is with Twilight? If a clone is fighting Starlight, he shouldn't be able to win. If a clone is with Twilight, it makes Silver appear to be kind of a manipulative cad (although you could potentially spin this into a worthwhile storyline if you had Twilight find out about it).
Now, on to pacing. As I've said many times before the biggest problem with this chapter is the sheer amount of bloat you've got going on here. Part of the reason it's so bloated though is that you're trying to cram what should realistically be an entire subplot into a single scene. With any given piece of literature, there is usually a superficial story (ie the literal events that are taking place) as well as a message of some kind (ie what the author wants to convey to the reader by writing about this).
As far as I can tell, you've basically got two things you want to convey in this chapter. The first is that Starlight Glimmer sucks and you hate her. The second is that Communism is bad. These are both perfectly fine messages, by the way; you're the author and you can use your story to make any point you like. However, it's communicated using this single fight scene as a vehicle, which means that you have to not only narrate the events of the fight, but make the reader understand why the fight is happening. You've chosen to do this through massive chunks of dialog in which Silver explains to the reader exactly what he finds objectionable about Glimmy and her ideology, and why he is fighting her. This is just a bad approach.
The biggest and most obvious problem is that the Glimmer character is not introduced prior to this point in the story, so the reader has no impression of her. There is absolutely no setup for this fight, it just happens out of nowhere, which is jarring. Even when you are writing in a genre like fanfiction, where some foreknowledge of the universe and characters on the part of the reader can be assumed, you still have to set things up the same way you would in any other genre.
I've noted before that as long as this scene is, there's really very little going on. Starlight and Silver meet, they argue, and they fight. Starlight is defeated and sent to another dimension; end scene. However, you seem to realize on some level that simply having Silver kick the shit out of a character you dislike would not make for especially compelling reading; you need to explain why he is kicking the shit out of her. Good instinct, but you've ended up with pages and pages and pages of dialog in which Silver verbally explains alllllllll the things from the series that make Glimmer a bad character and allllllll the reasons her ideology and motivations are wrong, and unfortunately most of it is just unreadable dreck. You have to show, not tell.
As I've suggested before, a better way to do this is to put Glimmer in the story as a minor villain that Silver occasionally butts heads with. The Glimmer subplot should follow the same arc as any other plot in the story: introduce the conflict, have tensions escalate, have it culminate in a final climactic fight, and resolve it. Having Silver kick Glimmer's ass and send her to outer space or whatever is an acceptable resolution, but you have to justify it. Your task is to make the reader hate Glimmer as much as you do, and you have to show that she's evil, not simply have the protagonist explain it. Nobody wants to read 700 pages of one-sided dialog.
Also, don't forget that you're writing a story with multiple arcs and subplots here. The more you can make your plots intertwine the more interesting your story becomes. What kind of relationship does Glimmer have with your other characters? What kind of relationship does Silver have with the other characters? How does this conflict affect that? For instance, Twilight and Glimmer are friends. Twilight and Silver like each other. Glimmer and Silver are enemies. That in itself is a potential conflict that you can layer on top of the Glimmer/Silver conflict. You've got a lot of fertile ground for a potentially interesting story here that you're refusing to explore because you'd rather rant about Communism, which is really a shame.
>>226084 Well there was one if that's what we're calling it now(like 3-5 raiders organized on discord doing that same "I want to lick Glimmer's hooves! You have a problem with me saying that in an unrelated thread? You hate Glimmer irrationally, you don't hate my behaviour rationally! ...Oh shit, do you see right through me? Better call you assorted names and hope they stick! Better go bitch about GlimmerNigelBarneyBrit in the fucking Syria General thread and several others hoping I'll dupe people unfamiliar with this into buying what I keep saying about you!" routine), but it kind of fizzled out once "Posting Glimmer specifically as a triggering agent" was banned for a while. I secretly didn't think that would be enough to make the obnoxiously constant glimspam they were giving this place back then peter out, but it was. Right now it's just that one german vril kid, aka hclegend from r/mylittlepony. Guess he's mad throwing a temper tantrum to get me banned off a fucking pony subreddit doesn't get me banned from the entire internet or something. You'd think someone who talks about me as much as him would talk to me more often. I don't understand him or his motives for being such a little... Well, you know. >>226135 I really like that idea. Silver VS Glimmer would be great as a gradual thing! But I can't see him not pressing the "Fuck you Communism sucks I'm the coolest success story ever, fucking admit I'm right already" talk until she leaps right into "QUIET!!!" mode. Or "Mind-control time!" mode, at which point either she mindfucks him before he can kick her ass or she goes down trying to do that. Then again, I also can't see other characters letting her get away with the shit she's gotten away with. Unless she really was using mind-control on everyone to make others forgive her for being evil. What if him realizing she's mindfucking everyone takes multiple episodes, rather than being an instant "Good thing I've beaten mind-controllers before and have something for that in my Batman Utility Belt" deal? So he's friendly enough with her, instantly forgives her for everything like everyone else, only gets brief "Hahaha, I've beat the shit out of villains for doing half of what you did today! Oh, you wacky little scamp!" moments where the mind control gets shaky(He's got fucktons of Almost-Silvers inside his own head, whoever's currently at the wheel being the only mind-controllable one makes sense), and he only realizes what's up when he's out of her range? But then so he doesn't just toss a rock at Glimmer from 501 feet, he forgets he knows what's up when getting back into her range? Or he's allowed to dislike her, but her magic won't let him go from "You're the worst, grumble grumble" mode to "I WILL BE THE JUDGE!" mode?
>>226181 WAIT What if her magic won't let Silver go from "Grumble grumble you annoy me" to "IT'S ORA TIME!" until he sees her hurting somepony he cares about? It seems deeper and more emotional than "Oh his super cool clone spell lets him do what Yugi did against Pegasus x1000".
>>226135 Also in my script I've got "Silver respects his farm-pony family and they're kind, supportive, not mean or anything, but he thinks they're a bit lame so he doesn't want Twilight to know he's from such 'lowly' beginnings, he wants her to think he's always been this awesome instead. Twilight does not find the 'I have always been this cool' stuff cool. But Twilight's smart so she starts putting things together and figuring his real backstory out, seeing Silver go for a portal-assisted buck to the side of a foe's face when he could have used any other spell from a safe distance is a major clue". What are your thoughts on that?
>>226181 >>226182 From what I've read, it seems like the overall idea you have is that Glimmer is not actually reformed and she has the rest of Ponyville under a spell, or at least she's lying to them and charming them, and Silver is the only one who sees through it. That's a well-traveled trope that usually makes for a fine story if you do it correctly.
For reference you may want to rewatch the Canterlot Wedding episodes, since you're essentially constructing a very similar story. Twilight sees that Cadance (whom she later finds out is actually Chrysalis) is evil and is taking advantage of her brother. However, when she tries to point it out, "Cadance" plays victim and everypony turns on Twilight instead. It makes the audience feel anger at the villain and sympathy for the hero.
For your story, the trick should be that Glimmer's deception will fool Twilight and the other ponies, but the reader should be able to see through it. Again, this should be drawn out through multiple encounters over the course of the story arc. Having them trade barbs over ideology every time they run into each other is a good way to build conflict and tension, and I'd encourage you to explore it. However, you have a tendency to get carried away when you start writing dialog, particularly when you have Silver explaining something or making a point, so I'd like to suggest a couple of things for you to keep an eye on.
First, I'd recommend you impose a personal limit of about 5000 words per chapter. You don't have to adhere to it precisely, but periodically check your word count as you write, and if you notice a chapter exceeding that limit you will want to go back over it and see if there is anything you can cut, or maybe you have too many events happening at once and can spread things out across a couple of chapters.
Second, you'll want to pay attention to the way you write dialog. I had a teacher once who told me to visualize it as two characters passing a beach ball back and forth. One character speaks, then passes the ball to the other character, who speaks and then tosses it back. The goal is to have the ball bouncing back and forth fairly rhythmically; you don't want either party holding on to the ball for too long. Ideally, each character should only speak a sentence or two before passing it back. Also, if you want them to argue about ideology, try to phrase it as schtick rather than just dry, boring arguments. Nobody reading an MLP story is looking for a philosophy lecture, so if you want to give them one you should try to disguise it as humor. Try to have Silver phrase his arguments as snappy one liners, like "Hey Starlight, how are the bread lines today?" or something like that.
In any event, I would start paying attention to the size of your text as you write. If you notice a section is starting to get long, go back over it and read what you've written. If you find that you have a lot of dialog written in huge block paragraphs (protip: you currently have a lot of this), that would be the first place to start trimming fat.
For each instance where you have Silver and Starlight engaging each other, you'll want to make it a triangle, where the third character is Twilight or another pony who will rebuke Silver and take Glimmer's side. I'd adhere to this formula:
Silver: Sees through Glimmer's bullshit, constantly calling her out and arguing with her, but is too witty and aggressive for his own good. His attacks usually backfire and make Twilight (or whoever) take Glimmer's side.
Glimmer: Manipulative cunt, knows exactly what she's doing. Passive aggressively baits Silver and then plays the victim when she gets backed into a corner.
Twilight: Views the conflict as a friendship problem. Believes that Glimmer is reformed even though the audience should realize (either immediately or eventually) that she is not. Wants Silver and Glimmer to be friends, is annoyed by their constant bickering. Generally directs her anger at Silver and shows sympathy to Glimmer.
Once you've developed this dynamic a bit, you can eventually start adding scenes where Glimmer and Silver are alone together, and she drops the pretense. If you want to drop in heavier arguments about the different moral perspectives of Communism™ and Not Communism™, these scenes will be where you'll want to put them. But again, pay attention to length and make sure you don't have your characters giving speeches on soapboxes.
Then, as soon as Twilight or whoever comes back, Glimmer immediately goes back to pretending to be reformed. If you do this correctly, the reader will be hoping to see her get some sort of comeuppance later on, and will be emotionally primed for whatever kind of preposterous beatdown you want to give her.
>>226183 I believe at one point I suggested you read The Great Gatsby, because I noticed some parallels between F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby and what you seem to be trying to do with Silver "my milkshakes bring all the colts to the yard" Star. If you haven't already, I'll once again suggest that you read it, because what you've described is essentially Gatsby's motivation in the novel: he puts on a giant show pretending to be a mysterious and sophisticated millionaire when he's really just some upjumped farm yokel from Minnesota, all basically so he can impress this one girl. Eventually it all comes crashing down on him and it ends tragically, but there's no reason the pony version of the story would have to.
In any event, I think that sounds like a fine angle for the Silver/Twilight arc and I'd definitely encourage you to explore it, while still paying attention to the other advice I've given on that part of the story.
>>226181 >Well there was one if that's what we're calling it now(like 3-5 raiders organized on discord doing that same "I want to lick Glimmer's hooves! You have a problem with me saying that in an unrelated thread? You hate Glimmer irrationally, you don't hate my behaviour rationally! …Oh shit, do you see right through me? Better call you assorted names and hope they stick! Better go bitch about GlimmerNigelBarneyBrit in the fucking Syria General thread and several others hoping I'll dupe people unfamiliar with this into buying what I keep saying about you!" routine), but it kind of fizzled out once "Posting Glimmer specifically as a triggering agent" was banned for a while. I secretly didn't think that would be enough to make the obnoxiously constant glimspam they were giving this place back then peter out, but it was. Right now it's just that one german vril kid, aka hclegend from r/mylittlepony. Guess he's mad throwing a temper tantrum to get me banned off a fucking pony subreddit doesn't get me banned from the entire internet or something. >You'd think someone who talks about me as much as him would talk to me more often. I don't understand him or his motives for being such a little… Well, you know.
>>226181 OHHHHHH no you don't >like 3-5 raiders organized on discord doing that same.... That's odd, because I recall you reeeing like a bitch for over two years any time someone posted Glimmer anywhere. Specifically, you claimed it was the same Glimmerfags who ruined /mlp/ and were trying to invade Mlpol. You even claimed that staff had been compromised because you weren't getting your way. Revisionist history doesn't look good on you Nigel. We told you it was a couple of faggots and you didn't listen. You ranted, you raved, you claimed "I'm saving Mlpol!!!" at the same time that the actual anons who were actually saving Mlpol were busy doing so in ways and capacities that you're entirely nescient of. Posting Glimmer was made a rule because you're insufferable and were triggered every time. >Tl;dr You're the problem. You always have been.
>>226273 This sounds great! Writing Glimmer winning for that long will be suffering, but it'll make the scene where Silver finally beats her ass even sweeter! >>226286 Oh hey, that one thread I made about how much ass rick and morty sucked I remember that Do you remember these? http://archive.is/h7r1yhttps://archive.li/P380hhttps://archive.li/CErUJ
>>226290 >posting the archives >to support his position >unironically Thanks for the reminder. "The Glimmernigger Hoarde" you called them once. Nigger, I've been here since the doors opened. I was here when you were claiming that you were here since the doors opened, and then tripped the thrackerzod filter. I've been watching you the whole time, and if those archives had (you)'s on them, well I'd give you a screencap.
But I don't have to worry anymore, because this thread just hit bump limit. Bye Nigel.
>>226293 It’ll be done. With that, we can draw a close to this autistic escapade that has spanned 10 months. It’s brought the Glimglam reviews, which is one of my favorite things to come out of this website. There’s been much frustration, but there’s been far more fascination at the spectacle playing out before us.
It had occurred to me to do a couple more posts as a final wrap-up, where I give some final comments on the work as a whole, but I feel like this is realistically a good stopping point. I've said about all that needs to be said about this particular work, and though it pains me to have to finally say goodbye to Silver "don't call it the end, but do shove your cock down my esophagus and facefuck me in the middle of the produce aisle at Wal-Mart until I have an epileptic seizure" Star, I think it's important to know when to leave on a high note.
At some point in the near future, I'll probably be resuscitating my other review project that I neglected until the thread 404d, as I have since found some other pony fiction I wouldn't mind publicly skewering. Any further questions related to Silver Star Apple and the Case of the Colt Molesting Faggot Named Silver Star Apple can be directed to me there. And Nigel, once again, thank you for being a sport, and if you would like to complete your next draft of this work and send it through the gauntlet again, I'll be happy to take a look.
>>226296 >10 months Nigger, don't pretend. It was literally 2 years ago ~ today that Nigel first started his shit-smearing "content" on the site. He's been a problem ever since
>>226300 Thank you for being the best thing to come out of this thread. I wish it didn't get clogged up with Redditors crying "Post histoREEEE!" tho Because then we'd have more room to post Silver Star-related posts Speaking of which, I've been thinking about rewriting or even entirely removing Glimmer's part in this story. In the original it's >Silver kicks Glimmer out of Ponyville because she's evil >Back in the party, everyone realizes they can finally think straight again and everyone celebrates harder >Trixie's pissed because she liked Glimmer because she made Trixie feel better about herself >Sunguy, Glim's boyfriend, runs towards Silver >Silver prepares for another epic fight >Sunguy is all "HOLY SHIT THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Did I ever tell you about that time she fucked with my head to make she and I think we're both foals? It was horrifying for me. That is NOT my fetish goddamnit" >everyone warms up to Silver and stops seeing him as some out-of-place rich guy on vacation >Twilight's pissed at him for not handling the Glimmer problem in a clever diplomatic way, but she gets over it only after she and Silver go around Ponyville and everyone thanks Silver for dealing with the Glimmer problem, each pony reveals their own bad thing/things Glimmer did to them, and it's revealed to Twilight that Glimmer was her usual abusive self to many offscreen ponies as well and she didn't notice it. This ties into Twilight's subplot about learning to be a better ruler. That's the original plan. I like the idea where Glimmer's fooling everyone in the whole town for multiple episodes in a row, Silver's the only one who can see through Glimmer's manipulative bs, Twilight and everyone else keeps taking Glimmer's side, Twilight idiotically views the Silver VS Glimmer concept as a silly little friendship problem Silver should just get over already, Twilight thinks Glimmer is redeemed enough because she says sorry after she does evil, Glimmer only reveals she's still secretly evil and pushing Twilight to give Glimmer more power while she gloats a lot to Silver when they're alone, and then Glimmer goes back to the nicey-nice poor-little-victim act once others show up, Glimmer can easily bait Silver into getting angry (Especially by bringing up what happened to the Apple Family in other timelines she created), and other stuff to make the audience really want to see Glimmer get beaten up. So they'll cheer when Glimmer gets beat up. I like that idea. And it will feel satisfying to FINALLY get to that beatdown scene. The thing is... Even with "Magic mindfucking area of effect spell" as the excuse, I really don't want to write Twilight as such a godddamn moron for that long. Silver's supposed to think Twilight's cute and smart, he's supposed to become a massive awkward charmless idiot head over heels in love with her, one who's nowhere near as charming and romantically skilled as he thinks he is He's supposed to keep desperately trying to impress her once he fully realizes how great Twilight is. This already-existing Glimmer bullshit does not make Twilight look great. Stretching the Glimmer bullshit out for longer makes her look even worse. And it's not like writing Glimmer as a detestable shitpile in my fic will actually change whether you want to see Glimmer get Ora Ora'd or not. She's already an infuriatingly evil creature in the show, the POV characters just don't say it openly on-camera for the benefit of the Glimmer fanboys who love her and never figured out that being bad is bad and saying sorry every three days doesn't make being a consistently awful person good. Anyone who doesn't want to admit Glimmer's canonically evil wouldn't have their opinion swayed by a fanfic about a handsome portal horse helping Twilight collect Magic Cards. I could write a "Glimmered Hams" story where Glimmer gets shoved into a burger-making machine and the whole thing's a Steamed Hams reference somehow, and do you know what would happen? People who like Glimmer would rage, people who don't like Glimmer and read my stories would cheer, people who don't read my stories wouldn't care, and people who got convinced to stop caring about pony shit completely when Glimmer/EQG/Alicorn/Diversity Six happened will continue not giving a fuck about any of this tiny fandom's divisive issues. Glimmer is supposed to be a minor bump on Silver's road to becoming a better person in this story and a cool moment where Silver uses skill and finesse to beat Glimmer's overwhelming force, AND a wake-up moment for Twilight when she realizes she's been neglecting the local townsponies and focusing too much on incredibly minor friendship problems all over the world instead of big issues plaguing the country that can be solved by reforms and big magic shit. Glimmer isn't supposed to be the focus of a background arc that drags the whole story down and makes everyone around her look worse. Making the ponies Silver's supposed to like, especially Twilight, into drooling morons who refuse to take Silver's side or see that he's completely right ruins the "Silver isn't always right and he needs to learn from others and be helped by others" bit.