Pet Peeve

[TicTacKitKat 12]

Does it bother anyone else when people take liberties with a species, and don't provide a reason why they did? I see this a lot, especially with Kirin ocs. Like the only Kirin we've seen so far are naturally colored, wingless, and have a unique antler-like horn. As for the Nirik form, the coloration is the same for all of them and the only differentiation seems to be with horn shape. 

So why is it that I see so many people making "earth Kirin" or "Pegasi Kirin", Kirin with pink manes and orange fur, or different colored fire in their Nirik form?? I'm all for head canons and stretching the boundaries of the show for a unique character, but so many of them have no explanation whatsoever. The Kirin are not a race of pony, they are a species of their own and you don't get to change the fundamental traits of that species without good explanation. It's lazy at best and willfully ignorant at worst. It'd be like giving a Hippogriff a cuitemark. Hippogriffs don't get cutie marks and (as far as we know) Kirin don't have wings.

And I don't even think it's bad to put a fun spin on canon to make it more original, Celestia's sake, that's the entire point of my ponysona, but I explain how it works. I explain the liberties I took and what I added to make it work, if you don't it's just... bad character creation.

Tl:Dr There's a difference between being creative and going "Oh that looks cool, I wanna make one of those". It infuriates me when people do the latter.

[cuteycindyhoney 13,283]

59 minutes ago, TicTacKitKat said:

"Oh that looks cool, I wanna make one of those"

Actually, I find nothing wrong with this. I like all kinds of fan art.

[TicTacKitKat 12]

13 minutes ago, cuteycindyhoney said:

Actually, I find nothing wrong with this. I like all kinds of fan art.

I like the art too, my pet peeve comes when it's not just art, but an oc. It's less of an art related pet peeve and more of a story one, you know?

[cuteycindyhoney 13,283]

I still find nothing wrong with it. people can make up whatever OC they like, in my opinion.

[SharpWit 2,472]

See, I was going to agree with your sentiment until I found the explanation to why your OC is the way it is, and I personally don't think it's a good one. Although I'm against it, all one has to say for a Kirin to have pony like qualities in more varied colors and magical capabilities such as flight or earthly power, is to say they're a Kirin Pony Hybrid as a result from parents of different species coming together, and the Kirin physical traits just happened to have been more dominant in this case. Super simple, and much more reasonable than what you came up with I'm afraid.

As @cuteycindyhoney said, there's nothing wrong with it, and ultimately that is the truth. To quote specifically, "There is no wrong way to fantasize" - Princess Celestia.

[TicTacKitKat 12]

@SharpWit fair insight, I do have to ask something though. How would you suggest I improve my Oc? She's still a work in progress, so I'm always looking for feedback!

[SharpWit 2,472]

@TicTacKitKat I think you crammed way too much into one character.

A thousand moons is reasonable, that's still less than a century, thousands however, that's pushing it even for someone who was as powerful as Chrysalis. At that point, especially with her superiority complex, she's no reason to consider heirs. So I'd suggest making her not an heir, or better yet, shorten the timeframe you've set up.

You've explained her abilities from being exposed to different kinds of magic, but just saying magic doesn't really explain anything. How was this magic obtained? Was it directly stolen from captures? Rerouted from the Changeling throne? Abusing ancient artifacts? Heck, with all of those abilities you could sum it up to chaos magic, ooh here's an idea if at some point you decided Chima grew up within the hive, a "Golden Apple of Discord" could come into her possession. A remnant fruit from when the lord of chaos reigned supreme. Love shortages do have a habit of making changelings go hungry, perhaps to the point of willing to try consuming something physical. I'm not sure how changelings feel about food, the only clear memory I have is when Chrysalis tried something Applejack made when disguised as Cadence, and she disliked something that should have been better than fine,,, sorry I went on a brain storming tangent, but a further explanation to the source if the varying magic would be nice.

Using the tree to hatch the egg and after having teleported to so many places seems too contrived. Beyond having the egg stolen, perhaps by some changelings who see the current way of doing things as unsustainable, or maybe they just want power for themselves so an heir changeling can be used as leverage or as a puppet leader, but otherwise I don't have any alternative ideas for the moment.

Overall, there's a Mary Sue-esque feel to your OC. They're highborn, have special abilities, and although you haven't specifically done this yet, you have set them up so they can essentially be the character to save the day. You don't need all of this. Most characters only start out with one or none of these traits, and they go on a journey where they earn or gain another. Twilight had a special connection as Celestia's protégé, but otherwise was a nobody before arriving in Ponyville, which has been a key aspect to her character, and we've watched her grow into a mare who may very well be leading the country. That's quite a step up. If we met her having been where she's at now, she'd be the most boring pony in the entire show. Sure Chima doesn't know she's an heir, but the other two things are already there. Just ease their significance back a bit. If they have a major role, let them come into, don't shove them.

Whenever I create a character, I ask myself, how would they fit in this world, and do they stand out in a way that doesn't line up with what we know? There's room for alteration, afterall, things get changed. I loved the idea of an Egyptian styled location but what I had in mind is not compatible with Somnambula from the show. For storytelling, we can change things such as this, but only so much. I had a thing set up for a nation that hunts down dragons. Questionable with them being a sentient species, but near outlandish in the current setting with a society of them. We can take things away so what we wish to include doesn't go against what exists, but if we add things that don't really fit in to begin with, they stand out in a bad way.

Hope this was helpful, but do what you will.

[TicTacKitKat 12]

@SharpWit In my defense, the explanation I posted wasn't a full description. And I feel that a lot of your critique, while very useful and something I will certainly think about as I better flesh out her character (definitely got to work on her age), stems from this. My thought process on the magic is that because love is such a vital part of friendship, and friendship is magic, then love and magic are closely linked (all love is magic, not all magic is love). To me personally this helps explain changelings diet better, as well as better supports her background. It never really made sense to me how a species could consume something as abstract as love, but if love is inherently linked with magic, that's something we can work with.

As for how she obtained it, she needed love magic to hatch, and if she had remained in the hive, Chrysalis would have provided it. However, as she wasn't able to, her egg began absorbing the small amounts coming off of the creatures around her. The reason she doesn't show more traits of other creatures is because these were the species she spent the most time around, and therefore absorbed more of the magic. If they had just passed her egg, it would have barely any affect, and seeing as a changeling egg isn't the most common thing, I feel it's not unreasonable to assume that some curious creatures decided to take it to their home. 

As for the Tree hatching her seeming contrived, it's kind of meant to. We know the tree has a mind of it's own so I don't think it's that crazy that if she teleported to ponyville through some coincidence the tree would notice her presence. I mean it was able to hear Gallus and respond to him in What Lies Beneath. I think the tree would have recognized her trouble and used it's magic to provide her with the love she needed to hatch while also regulating her magic bursts to prevent her teleporting away again.

And about her being the one to save the day, she isn't meant to. MLP is about how no one person can save the world, that you need teamwork to get things done right. As a self insert, I want her to have a significant role, but also keep with this message. To me the Tree represents Love as the source of the elements' power, and what unifies them. Friendship is nothing without love, and as a result neither is magic. Chima's purpose is not to be their access to the elements, we know they exist without the tree, but to be a representative of that harmony. As she grows and progresses she will take on the mantel of the tree, controlling the everfree forest and helping keep the balance. Key word here, helping. She cannot use the power of the tree alone because one pony cannot properly represent all the elements and the love needed to access their power (we see celestia do it but it's clearly not as strong). The element bearers all have a strong bond with one another, and Chima serves as the lock to that key. 

As for easing her into the role, I don't think that'll be a problem. She comes in after season 8 but before season 9 and for the most part her time is spent trying to learn ponish and adapt to her "mutations". They may look cool but as with a lot of extreme mutations they can be quite difficult to manage, in this time she meets the young 6 (ocellus first and eventually the others) and as they help her, they all grow closer. It is only after The Beginning of the End that she adopts the powers of the tree but no one realizes it for a awhile and even after they do it takes a lot of work to understand it. Not to mention the fact that  she is eventually going to have to confront her mother something I'll have to work on as we see more of season 9.

Thank you so much for your feedback. You made a lot of really good points that I'll certainly keep in mind, if you have any other suggestions I would love to talk more so just send me a message!

Edited April 19, 2019 by TicTacKitKat
spelling

[Goat-kun 2,498]

If strictly sticking to canon I have to play most non-pone OCs as Goblin Slayer or they're shit at doing anything against lol-so-random canon magic. Buck that shit.

[Will Guide 21,325]

I thought this topic was about pet peeves, not whether or not an given OC is good enough.

My main pet peeves are:

When people miss the point of my posts, especially when it's intentional. You don't have to agree with me, just hear out the point of my message.

People who do nothing but look for negative things to complaint about in any form of media and never even acknowledge the positive things.

[TicTacKitKat 12]

@Will Guide

Yeah sorry it was sorry about that!

I'll be sure to keep it on topic even if it's already a dead post

[EpicEnergy 22,072]

It doesn't upset me when people do things like that, I love it when people are creative like that.