What features of some OCs do you really dislike?

[HailTrixie 239]

There are some things that people do when they make OCs that a lot of people hate. What OC features do you hate?

[JacelynUSB 288]

Let's get some out of the way first
Alicorns

Red and Black
"tragic" Backstories

Meme Cutie Mark
Pony Creator (which isn't a bad thing if used correctly_

[Steve Piranha 29,419]

-Outshines the Mane6 because so

-Flawless

-Overpowered as fuck 

-Missing relaive to a main character

-In other words: Mary Sues, specially if those are self insertion   (Note that serf insertion itself not bad as long as they are not MS)

-Steals the spotlight having one or more of the above (If you're making an OC, it's ok for them to have spotlight, but first, make sure they're NOT MS, second, the spotlight has to be shared  :okiedokielokie: )

[Tao 7,540]

Carbon copies of the Mane Six and just tweaking a few things...

Lost Siblings of the Alicorns....

Bad Human ocs turned into bad pony ocs.

Ocs made to be a boyfriend to the Mane Six.

[Yoshi89 5,293]

-Tragic/overly cliched backstories.

-"Seventh/eighth/ninth etc. Element of Harmony".

-Evenly powered or more powerful than Celestia or Luna.

-Same design or talents at the Mane Six, bonus points if they get together.

-Obvious self-insert

[Toast 55]

I'm pretty sure you're going to get an Alicorn vote for every comment here. xD

 

Things I hate? (I prefer to say dislike)

 

-Black and Red characters: I think it can be a bit overused at times as people tend to have those OCs ridiculously overpowered and with a very edgy negative attitude.

 

-Alicorn Siblings: It kind of bothers me a bit when people say their OC is the sibling of an Alicorn Princess from the show.

 

-Overpowered Unicorns: I'm talking about the kind that can over power Celestia and all Alicorns combined. Also when people claim their OC magically extend their life span and can go back in time or freeze it or transform other ponies into animals and stuff like that.

 

And lastly, Earth ponies that can kick down mountains and cause an earthquake with their buck

 

Other than that, that's pretty much it for what I don't like about some OCs.

[Silverhoof 2,844]

-- Tragic backgrounds...especially being abused as a child.

-- Alicorns

-- Immortal ponies.

-- Earth ponies with magic

-- assassins.

-- personally related to an MLP cast character

-- Obsessed with Dark magic,  names like Bringer of Death, incarnations of dark deities...give it up already

-- Clones of an MLP character (mostly these are clones of Rainbow Dash)

-- Unicorns with broken horns, or with no magic spells, or with overwhelming magic power...just pick a few spells, write them into your description.

[Love//Hack 819]

-How the name and Cutie Mark go together. You don't know your talent UNTIL you get your Cutie Mark. It's like saying your OC was born with their Cutie Mark and their parents named them off it but you don't know your talent when you're born.

-Alicorns who only use their horn or their wings or neither of them. If they don't use their horn, make them a pegasus, if they don't use their wings, make them a unicorn, if they don't use either EVER, make them a earth pony. It's pretty simple. Unless you have a good reason why they don't use them and should stay as a alicorn.

-Earth ponies that are OP as all the princesses combinded and can rick down like a entire plot of land down.

-Seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, etc Element of Harmony

-Next Gen OCs who replace the Elements of Harmony

-"The new Elements of Harmony" AUs or new elements taking over the Mane Six's elements. They're worse if they're not Next Gens in my opinion.

-In fact, any AU with different Elements of Harmony with different ponies taking over in general. Such as Dusk's Dawn as a exmaple.

-Human OCs turned into Pony OCs.

-Tragic backstories such as abuse or whatever unless the backstory, such as abuse for example, is written correctly.

-Earth ponies and Pegasi that can do magic.

-Unicorn, Pegasus, or Earth Pony turning into Alicorn princess like Twilight did in Magical Mystery Cure

-Any copies of any pony like the Mane Six as key examples with only a few changes and tweaked a bit.

-Like above but it's worse if they're better than the pony(ies) they're copies of.

-Like above but it's worse if better than everypony in general.

-Red and black OCs. I don't dislike all if they work well but I think red and black look awful together unless it's Halloween or something.

-Ponies with zebra stripes. Unless they're zebra themselves, it doesn't work. And I think it looks pretty bad on some OCs. But some of them work with the stripes, I guess.

-Rainbow or muilt-colored zebra OCs. Make them similar to normal zebras or don't go crazy with the colors.

-Alicorn princess, unless they work and are properly developed OCs.

 

etc...

Edited May 25, 2015 by GoldKingdomFright

[CandyStrike 603]

-becomes romantically involved with Twilight Sparkle

-alicorns without a original and sensible origin story

-new element of harmony

-bad color schemes

[MoltenKitten 341]

-Mary Sue/Gary Stu

-Obvious canon character knockoff

-Nothing more than a recolor of a pre-existing pony

[10InTheTardis 509]

Hello yes it is I lord senpai chan destroyer of worlds, the red and black alicorn OC with a tragic backstory and music note cutie mark.

 

Anyways, Here's some things that hasn't been said a million times by everyone in this thread.

Music note cutie mark: way too overdone. It's alright if your OC has music as a special talent, but try to make their cutie mark more original than just a music note.

 

Sea Ponies: No idea why, seaponies are perfectly fine OCs, but I just go "Ew" every time I see one.

 

unoriginal names/bad names: names that just don't sound right or are just dumb.

 

Bad colour combo: Colours that really don't work together, for example, pastel pink, neon green and navy blue. 

 

Evil because Evil: Villain OCs are usually well done, since it's usually people who are better at making OCs are usually the ones making them, but when there's a villain who's evil for no reason, that's just dumb. Also, villains tend to be the victim of the "overly tragic backstory" problem.

[Memory Lane 131]

Right... well I would say, anything that conflicts with obvious or implied cannon. I'm sure most of us agree there. For those characters created for role playing, this is especially true.

[Gestum 2,493]

• Alicorns
• pegacorns
• unisus 

Not that there is any difference of the three, but some people like to pretend that there is.  

[Black Sabbath 2,486]

 

• Alicorns
• pegacorns
• unisus 

Not that there is any difference of the three, but some people like to pretend that there is.

There's an huge difference. Being an alicorn isn't special enough.

[Jackie Snack 1,498]

My biggest gripe is when people (usually unfairly) criticize OC's. It's their creation, so they can do what they want with it. What I look for is how the OC is presented.

 

Any OC, no matter how OP or ridiculous can be written well. The two most ridiculous ones I saw was one named Faggot Muffin and another named Princess Anorexia, an alicorn. Their profiles were written very well, almost perfectly. I had no argument to their existence, because no matter what, time was taken and care was put into them.

 

That's all that should really matter. Don't judge by content, but how much effort was put into it.

Edited May 25, 2015 by x0jackie0x

[Black Sabbath 2,486]

My biggest gripe is when people 'hate' OC's. It's there creation, so they can do what they want with it. My biggest gripe is how the OC is presented.

 

Any OC, no matter how OP or ridiculous can be written well. The two most ridiculous ones I saw was one named Faggot Muffin and another named Princess Anorexia, an alicorn. Their profiles were written very well, almost perfectly. I had no argument to their existence, because no matter what, time was taken and care was put into them.

 

That's all that should really matter. Don't judge by content, but how much effort was put into it.

I'm surprised someone didn't make a comment like this until now. Seriously tough, by your logic we shouldn't be allowed to dislike anything someone else have created.

[Jackie Snack 1,498]

I'm surprised someone didn't make a comment like this until now. Seriously tough, by your logic we shouldn't be allowed to dislike anything someone else have created.

 

Looking it over again, I realized my error. I typed 'hate' when I should've typed 'criticize'. Had a brain fart.

[Black Sabbath 2,486]

Looking it over again, I realized my error. I typed 'hate' when I should've typed 'criticize'. Had a brain fart.

How is that better? It's basically the same thing.

[Gestum 2,493]

How is that better? It's basically the same thing.

There's a difference. With criticism you help people, with hate you're strongly disliking something.

[Jackie Snack 1,498]

How is that better? It's basically the same thing.

 

Not really, Hate is just a feeling. Constructive criticism is a suggestion, a helpful hint or maybe a point in the right direction. Flat out criticism is calling out their work, always negative. 

 

Sure, it's the internet so everything is a target, but out of courtesy, no criticism should be given unless asked, especially since a few people create these characters as an escape or for a multitude of other personal reasons. I have seen people leave websites because of unprompted criticism.

 

"Maybe they should just deal with it and grow up" is the excuse I have seen others use, which are usually the people who are doing the criticizing, but not everyone wants their work torn apart in front of their eyes. Websites like FiMfiction, where people publish written work, is, 90% of the time, up for constructive criticism. 

 

You ask if they want criticism. That's just common courtesy. Otherwise, it just turns into basic bullying.

Edited May 25, 2015 by x0jackie0x

[J.R. 3,183]

OP

Mary/Gary Sue

Alicorns (Unless they're hella nerfed)

Not being unique. (Whether it's backstory/powers/abilities etc..)

[Gestum 2,493]

Not really, Hate is just a feeling. Constructive criticism is a suggestion, a helpful hint or maybe a point in the right direction. Flat out criticism is calling out their work, always negative. 

Technically, there's no such thing as non constructive criticism. Even things like "Your OC is bad and you should feel bad" are "a point in the right direction". Also criticism is always negative, if it wasn't then it wouldn't be criticism.

[Jackie Snack 1,498]

Technically, there's no such thing as non constructive criticism. Even things like "Your OC is bad and you should feel bad" are "a point in the right direction". Also criticism is always negative, if it wasn't then it wouldn't be criticism.

 

Then, by that principle, it should be defined as 'helpful' or 'not helpful'. 

 

Besides, I hardly find someone asking for constructive criticism and getting help to be a negative thing.

[ThatOneComrade 1,091]

I really don't care about the OC as much as I care about the coloring. It could be a red and black dragon for all I care, but gosh darn people! Don't make it so saturated it burns my eyes! I'm already practically blind, stop helping!

[Steel Accord 6,660]

Note: I can excuse most of these under specific circumstances, but they are the exceptions that prove the rule.

 

-Alicorns with no importance. I don't mind an alicorn that is supposed to be akin to Cadence, Luna, etc. It's the ones that are just alicorns purely for the sake of being such.

 

-Explicit Earth references. Any OC that has media or religious themes of things that just don't exist in Equestria.

 

-Clashing colors. The show has given us a very nice style of how the colors are supposed to work and be put together. Violating that just makes the character look eye searing and unnatural to the setting.

 

-Out of nowhere powers. By far my biggest pet peeve, it truly annoys me when characters have powers that have never existed in Equestria and actively clash with how they've been established to work.

 

-Grimdarkness. Let me be clear, I don't mind backstories involving death or tragedy, but some of them push it into outright parody territory.