Does anyone hate stories where the Ponies act with a hive mind?

[Bendy 1,821]

Does anyone here hate fan fiction, where the Ponies act with a hive mind?

 

As in obeying a very out of character and overpowered Celestia without question, or dare not stand against her.

 

Celestia: Let's invade another universe and kill another weaker sapient species than us down to the last child just for the fun of it.

 

Ponies: Yay! Let's kill them all! 

 

Many don't even give a mind control explanation even.

Edited September 6, 2013 by Rush

[Scootalove 10,689]

I do hate those stories because, ponies would think for themselves and argue against Celestia without hesitation. But, since Celestia is trying to oppress them they would not argue back at her without facing any consequences.

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

Considering that puts Celestia wildly out of character as well(most every cannon media portrays her as a wise ruler that treats her subjects like her own children and cares for them as such), I'd say that's bad all round. 

 

Of all the fannon versions of Celestia, Tyrantestia is generally the only one I'll rage about. 

[Agent505 661]

Words and other things...

 

I have to admit, I don't often look at many things on the forums, but the ones I do look at with the interesting titles, 110% of the time it's a post by you complaining about something in TCB  

 

Alas, I do agree with you this time, if they're going to be told to do something and they just do it without question, it's out of character and annoying as hell, not to mention unrealistic. Let's forget about the talking horses for a minute.

Then again, I like my porn to have a story, so maybe i'm just weird. 

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

I really dislike when authors do this. They think that putting Celestia beyond her personality as a "perfect" despot is just plain stupid. Forcing ponies to do stuff and using mind control, sooo old. 

[Bendy 1,821]

I do hate those stories because, ponies would think for themselves and argue against Celestia without hesitation. But, since Celestia is trying to oppress them they would not argue back at her without facing any consequences.

 

That's why I like very few Conversion Bureau stories. I only like stories where it's explained how Ponies were turned into monsters, mindlessly obey their leader, and the very rarely seen militant organization known as Ponies For Human Life in those fan fictions. 

[Mr. White 71]

That's why I like very few Conversion Bureau stories. I only like stories where it's explained how Ponies were turned into monsters, mindlessly obey their leader, and the very rarely seen militant organization known as Ponies For Human Life in those fan fictions. 

The thing is, the way the ponies act is a perfect representation of how modern people are willing to back nearly any war. It's almost like humanity's flaws are what kills humanity in those stories.

[Bendy 1,821]

The thing is, the way the ponies act is a perfect representation of how modern people are willing to back nearly any war. It's almost like humanity's flaws are what kills humanity in those stories.

 

I think it's mostly idiot governments ruling us. Not modern people.

 

The way the Ponies act is I think far more evil than what Humans (in our universe anyway) can do. If anything, I'd conspire what the TCB Ponies do to something like the Reapers from Mass Effect.

Edited September 6, 2013 by Rush

[Thrashy 2,800]

Does seem a little contrived, I'll admit. I dunno, the whole "hive mentality" thing just seems like a supreme cop-out on the part of writers to avoid actually giving people any kind of ideal to fight for, IMO.

 

I don't care how much I love my commander-in-chief, if he came up to me and put an AR-15 in my hands and instructed me to "Exterminate all weaker races", I'd laugh and walk off saying "Thanks for the heavy-artillery piece, bro!"

[aoEAF2FBvC0MIo2Q 3,673]

Hm, seems like I have a different idea of what a hivemind is than other people 

Guess to most people it means all individuals sharing real-time thoughts in a sense. For me, a hivemind is more about individuals following simple rules of thumb and using simple techniques where the interactions that happen just somehow translates into swarm intelligence. What you described is very ordered and deterministic. Swarm intelligence or the kind of "hivemind" you see in nature is much more chaotic and random because even though individuals follow the same rules, there are many different interactions being made with different information being taken in by different individuals at any single point in time. Furthermore, colonies of social insects including bees and ants do not have a leader. The "queen" is merely the reproductive organ of the colony or hive; not a leader or authority figure. Take out the queen and the colony or hive will continue to function just fine before the bees or ants start to die off from predators, disease or age-related disorders with nothing to replace them. Guess I should refer to this as swarm intelligence instead. Speaking of which, you can just sorta pick up a swarm intelligence from the mane 6. As a group, they are quite formidable in responding to environmental challenges, aren't they?

 

Heh, no wonder I thought the thread title sounded weird then because the concept just described would be rather interesting, wouldn't it?

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

I probably would, if I had ever read or even heard of one. Are they really so common? The show doesn't act that way at all, and I think most fanfic authors don't have a desire to write stories where that is the case. It sounds severely limiting and boring.

[~Silver Essence~ 2,625]

Pretty much.

 

I mean, if that's what it's all about, there's no fun in guessing what will happen next because it's obvious.

 

I personally don't read stuff like that. 

[Winona the Dog 1,984]

Yes, I hate TCB universe stories by that sole fact. Ponies wouldn't kill anything anyway because they're a peaceful race not a violent one.

[Shanks 10,816]

I don't understand why someone would write something like that because it sounds incredibly boring, but I suppose fans are going to do what fans are going to do. It seems extremely out of character and not the kind of out of character that sometimes works in certain parodies which makes it fall flat. The only way I could see a hive mind scenario would be through some very extreme brain washing, and even then it seems an established villain like King Sombra would be far better suited as a character to do something like that.