Why are Alicorn's such a Tabbo?

[Dark Heart 284]

Ever since i join this forum something caught my attention,

Alicorn's are rare or rather there not seen to kindly upon certain topic at the very least.

 

I tend to be on the Game section most of the time, yet one particular comment kinda reminded me of something when i made a character database where one of the guidelines for role playing is to stay away from Alicorn if possible because they intend to OP and such.

 

So my question is Why do RP's or people on general dont consider alicorns on the same level as other "Tribes"?

Granted they can fly and used magic, but only 4 alicorn have been showed 2 of them were Originally something else.

 

Time and time again Alicorn's have been portrait as something powerful but yet as we have seen its the reverse.

 

Examples: Celestia was kidnap by nightmare moon, then defeated by crysalis, did nothing against discord and by season 4 we seen that she was again kidnap, this time by a tree >.>, and in the fight scene against NM, possibly couldn't defeat her own sister, Give or take she didn't want to fight her at first, still even when she uses the "EoH" the magic clash seems somewhat even.

Celestia and luna can control the sun and the moon, yet how's that help during a battle, if anything twilight and shinning armor have proven that they are more capable of protecting and defeating enemys than the alicorns.

 

Now, are alicorn's OP in reality or are there just been OP by the the ones who make OC as alicorns, and create them whit stupidly more powers than superman. 

 

Granted that alicorn have the potential to be powerful, but in all honesty i dont seem why, Cadence is a alicorn and as far as i have seen she as 2 or 3 forms of magic, Twilight, well she had her powers before becoming an alicorn, so can anypony explain to me the scorn over alicorns? 

[repsol rave 2,963]

it's because most (unexperienced) RPers that use a alicorn OC tend to be very,very overpowered.

some examples of this:

 

A team of OC's is stuck and outnumbered on a battlefield, now normally they would either retreat or get captured, right?

wrong. one of the OC's is an alicorn and is also a super good flyer and luna's right hand man. therefore he slaughters all opponents in one RP post.

 

two OC's are racing in the air. one a pegasus, the other an alicorn. now they should fly at pretty much the same level, right?

wrong. the alicorn uses magic and defeats the pegasus in under two sentences of the RP.

 

overall the posts with overpowered alicorn OC's make for really terrible RP's

 

that is the kind of stuff alicorns are hated for.

Edited December 17, 2013 by repsol rave

[Scootalove 10,689]

In the terms of roleplaying, alicorn OCs are able to just take the rules and throw them out the window by being as overpowered and not being able to have a weakness. Everything has a weakness, so that's why we have a no Alicorn OCs rule to avoid being beaten in just one swoop with no effort at all. They are hated for being overpowered with no personality in RPs.

[Lightning Bliss 1,674]

Topics had come up on exactly if not closely to what you say, that Alicorns are view as disliked, Mary Sues, or perfect ponies that are created by brony members who are too lazy to make up their mind on being an earth, peg or uni pony.

 

However that's not the case at all I believe with those alicorn OC's, and myself, who actually take the time to develope their alicorn OC and make a good orginal design. Take my OC for instance:

 

I am currently doing an RP with my friends, orginally my OC was a pegasus pony, but I recently ascended her into alicorn status on both a personal level and for the RP benefits as well, although we haven't finished up on my RP storyline yet. But here is my OC's story in a nut shell:

 

Lightning Bliss gets married to a shape shifting dragon named Night Lights, before hand however, the Nights mother, Pyra, found out about the marriage and sent dragons to prevent the marriage in any way possible because dragons (from the northern lands of equestria) viewed ponies as weak and inferior beings not worthy of dragon relations. On another side though, the Gryphon Empire and its seize of terrorits, found out also about the marriage, and saw it as the dragons and ponies uniting together so that they would have a bigger army and conquore the gryphon kingdom. As a result both dragons and gryphons fought in a sacred location where Bliss and Nights were going to get married. But through hidden powers she didn't know she had, and courage by herself and her friends support as well as Nights, she brought peace to the battle field, nearly at the cost of her life. The wedding proceeds and she gets married to Nights. As they kissed it triggered her ascention, because she discovered the power of uniting, the power of all beings working together in peace and harmony and she was the anchor for that power. An alicorn with the power to encourage peace between dragons, gryphons and ponies. (Details better found in my profile)

 

My point is, if alicorn OCs are created well with a good story line, they are usually great OCs just over looked by the bad critics. Some OC alicorns are terrible to be admitted and are just made for the sake of looking good to others. But for me my alicorn OC and back story had alot of personal meaning.

 

For the record though my OC alicorn is not as powerful as celestia or luna, but she's more like twilight in learning her alicorn powers being a pegasi pony orginally. She doesn't know how to control it and her powers are mainly focused on one special talent, bringing others together. If she were to do battle with say a powerful unicorn like Sombra, she would defeitnly struggle, maybe even out matched, not saying she's completely helpless, but she's not the perfect alicorn others would think.

Edited December 17, 2013 by Lightning Bliss

[BlueHoodedHero 101]

It's not the Alicorns so much as the irresponsible little kids who rp them. They tend to be mary/gary sueish unfortunately. I have no problem with alicorns at all, but people have a tendency to abuse it.

[LittleMissBloo 101]

As it's been said, most are used by people who want to take the easy way out.  I personally have an Alicorn OC who is very dear to me, however I treat her as any of my characters.  She has feelings, she has things she's good at, she has things she's bad at, and she has flaws.  A lot of people make their alicorns 'Perfect' who can do no wrong.  The largest stigma against them is because they're so rare in the show they seem almost untouchable, and most who do, do a very poor job of it.

[Frith is Magick 1,471]

First of all, I think the problem is no Alicorns, but any over-powered OC in general. Over-powered OCs remove some of the enjoyment of a challenge, making things boring and repetitive. An OC from any tribe can be over-powered, but Alicorns are inherently more powerful, making it easier to go overboard. Another reason Alicorn would not be well liked is that they are meant to be royalty. Having a large number of Alicorns devalues the status, and let's face it, having a hundred assorted kings, queens, princesses, princes, etc. running around wouldn't make sense. Minimizing the number of Alicorns keeps thing more orderly.

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

Alicorns are not invincible or flawless, but it's quite plain that they are generally more powerful and special than most anypony else. Twilight was ridiculously overpowered as a unicorn as well, true. But the others can control celestial bodies, use high level magic, raise shields around whole cities, and generally do things that are out of reach of most ponies. Not that I've ever run a RP or even taken part in one, but I can see how having something like that running around could make things less fun for everyone.

 

Also, alicorns are treated as something extremely rare and special in the show. In a roleplay, I wouldn't want to have to pretend otherwise and just assume that random alicorns are hanging around to be part of whatever adventures/daily events my character was a part of. That'd mess up some of my perception of how Equestria works. Now granted, some people add plenty of other details that would be equally or more out of place than random alicorns to their stories, but I'd personally prefer a more natural feel. Shrug. To each their own.

[Denim&Venöm 19,366]

A trend that tends to follow Alicorns is repetitiveness, namely that the Alicorn OC is Over powered, is red and black and has a tragic back-story. 

[Solid 1,327]

For Princess Trolles- cough cough, Celestia, she is really just there to give mane 6 a hard time.

 

Nightmare moon: "I can totally own my sister but I'm just gonna let her do whatever the hay she wants for this time."

Reason for "trolling": plot requirement, need to do so for mane 6 to bond.

 

Discord: "I will just sit back and yell at a glass painting while mane 6 is getting corrupted."

Reason for "trolling": Plot requirement, mane 6 needs to do the finish off.

 

Chrysalis: "I will just lie down and relax while an entire army of changeling take over Canterlot, trolololololol."

Reason for "trolling": Plot requirement, Cadance and Shining Armor need to do their magic nuke thingy 

 

Sombra: "Just let him scream for crystals, while I'm gonna troll Twilight and her friends with a 'test', ha!"

Reason for "trolling": Plot requirement, the "test", scenario needed for wife throwing ("GOOO my waifu!!!")

 

Forest: "oooh tentacles, I wonder if *faaaamph*."

Reason for "trolling": Plot requirement, Twilight needs to be trolled, after getting trolled for quite a lot of times.

 

Alicorn taboo, well it's b/c Alicorns are the typical "ruler" type , it's much harder to create an OC alicorn then other 3 types, b/c other 3 aren't the "ruler divine" kind.

[Kaska 30]

How to see if you have a Mary Sue OC

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Mary_Sue

 

You might die laughing.

[Geek0zoid 1,468]

Whenever there's a big ruler, tyrant, or anything of the sort, it's usually an alicorn. Sometimes a unicorn, but mostly an alicorn. Alicorns are pretty much the master race of Equestria, giving them ridiculous power over the other three pony types. 

The reason why they're so taboo is because the people that create them as OC's are often, like I said, too powerful, having the character put little to no effort into almost anything they do. They're especially taboo in roleplays. Rarely do I see a roleplay that allows alicorns.

[Clover Heart 978]

If you're RPing, that kind of affects other people. If you're going to play with other people, everyone needs to come to a general consensus on the rules. I believe I said this in another topic, but when you play as an alicorn character, you're kind of like that one kid in the play group who keeps making up special powers as they go along, tilting the game in their favor. If they were going to have alicorns in RPing, I imagine there would have to be some pretty strict ground rules, like a limit on number of spells and the strength of those spells or mainly leaving them out of the action but having dealings in the political side, or something like that. I think most people don't want to go to that extent, however, just so people can make up alicorns. It's easier to make a rule banning them altogether. And by that logic, it's probably also easier to maintain rules in-game as well.

 

Outside of the realm of RPing, though, I think people should just leave it alone. If you want to write a story about an alicorn, go ahead. If you want to make your avatar into an alicorn (heh, like me,) more power to you. What you do with creating characters on your own is up to you and I think that people need to respect that.

 

(Also, I don't know the first thing about RPing, so if I'm completely off, you'll have to forgive me.)

Edited December 22, 2013 by Clover Heart

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

This is because the amount of alicorns in the show is proportionately much rarer than the other pony races. We see entire civilizations of earth, pegasus, unicorn, and crystal ponies running around. But alicorns? There's only four. They're meant to be in a position of power, not normal ponies. The race itself is strongly hinted to be an elevation of all of pony kind, especially with Magical Mystery Cure revealing that at least for one pony, alicornhood is EARNED. This fact that it needs to be earned indicates that it is not to be taken lightly. It's not just some everyday thing that anypony can be. Only those who have shown themselves worthy, a cut above the rest, can be alicorns.

 

I think that's part of why alicorns are such a tabbo. Their role and even their powers are overpowered within the context of the world, and elevated. They can fly AND use unicorn magic, as well as probably also do earth pony things like cultivate the land as it has been said they have the powers of ALL ponies. By having an alicorn character, particularly a ponysona, you imply that you think you're a cut above the rest. And it becomes quite annoying to many. 

 

Even if you try to depower your alicorn by saying they can't use magic or can't fly, then it's pointless for them to be an alicorn in the first place as that is what alicorns DO. Their entire point IS to be overpowered. The only reason they don't break the story in MLP: FiM is because there's so few of them and they're typically too busy with royal duties to really affect the plot for the most part. It'd be more fruitful to make them the other kinds of ponies. 

 

The only time I myself think it's acceptable is when you create a character who is MEANT to be an alicorn, one who is royalty and controls some aspect of nature. (Friendship, Love, Night, Day, etc.) One with a clearcut theme. Rather than just making an alicorn for the sake of them being an alicorn.

 

Of course, these are just my personal opinions. Even if I roll my eyes when I see what I consider to be an unnecessary alicorn character, I still think that people can do whatever they wish. It doesn't hurt anyone and it certainly isn't my business.

[Hive King 2,001]

Alicorns seem to have the powers of all three races, that alone is putting them into the OP territory. I have an alicorn OC, but he's not even really an alicorn, he's a demon that chooses to take that form and even then, he has gotten the snot kicked out of him multiple times

[Moonbacon 384]

i have an alicorn oc but she isn't overpowered not one bit she can easily injure herself in battle. 

[Castle Bleck 19,383]

"The Angel Of Equestria" by Robobrony has the human protagonist "ascend" after dying from wounds and fatigue after defeating 5 other alicorns honorably.

 

Bobby "The Brain" Heenan: "He URNed it!"

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlzaNtzLrF8

[Lightning Bliss 1,674]

Well even now recently I've updated my OC to an alicorn, I've described my backstory of it all on my profile. Point being I might as well be a pegasi pony who just suddenly got a horn on her head and don't have a clue how to use it, only out of instinct! And besides that, to face let's say... a powerful pony villian like King Sombra for example, my character would only be able to put up so much of a fight. She for one has a magic for peace and uniting others together, she's against war and battle so to throw her into a situation where she'd have to fight? You think my OC would stand a chance against Sombra? no way jose! She'd struggle and would need help from her friends Skylar and Polaris and her lover Night Lights hehe. Point being I don't boost up my OC just cause she's an alicorn, I changed her because she's entered a new phase into her life by realizing a new power in harmony, uniting together in peace despite our differences.