Dez's Rant on Bad OCs - Guide to Good OCs

[Descant 1,898]

Okay, this actually started out as a rant on Facebook against someone who was calling someone else out for calling an OC bad. "Who is anyone to judge an OC as bad?" They said. Well, I guess I'm one to judge an OC as bad, and I'm only allowed to because generally the community at large decides on what makes a bad OC bad, and I was only the messenger.

Here's my little rant. Feel free to comment, to disagree or add something you think I miss. I post it here for future reference, because why not? Maybe somebody can actually take something from it.
 

I realize I'm late for this discussion, but I'd like to put my two cents in.

 

TL;DR? I'm qualified to answer this question. Everyone knows what makes a bad OC, it's common knowledge. OCs should be one of the three main races of pony, should fit into the show, and should have flaws. OCs should definitely distance themselves from main characters of the show, should not look like shit, should not be overpowered, and should not be abnormal, i.e. an Alicorn, a Batpony, a Seapony, or anything else not strictly pony. (Griffons and Zebras are okay, I guess.)

 

As a writer, an artist, and an all-around decent brony, I like to think that an OC is bad if the community at large deems it as bad, and most bronies are fully aware of what makes an OC a bad OC. Here's a short list of qualities that are typically agreed to make an OC a bad OC.

 

1. Poor design:  mismatching and overused color schemes, ugly cutie marks,  multichromatic coats, and atypical body parts like bat wings, metal wings, broken horns, etc. 

 

For the most part, design is the most obvious flaw in what determines a bad OC. Some of these qualities, specifically the bit about wings and horns, can be okay in certain situations. For example, metal wings are okay in steampunk RPs, but not anywhere else, since metal wings are not proven to exist in the show. As for batponies, Bats! determines that that's not really a thing outside Luna's immediate contingent of guardsponies, and as we have no proof to the contrary, that batponies are actually a real thing, make no sense. Broken horns are only acceptable if explained well. Ponies with common color schemes or designs are easily avoided if you are careful to tread lightly around pony creators. An AJ-colored Rarity is not original, nor are any other ponies that share a color palette or design with any canon main character or supporting character.

 

However, there's no excuse for having a pony with a green-and-red striped coat and a blazing SUV or an AK-47 or a swaztika or a CD inside a pair of headphones inside a gear as a cutie mark, for mutliple reasons. Firstly, such an OC would make eyes bleed from a design standpoint, and even if a decent color scheme was picked for this striped coat, half-zebra-half-ponies (for zebras must always be black and white) are unconfirmed. Even if they were a thing, they'd be different shades of one color and have mohawkish manes. As for the cutie mark, guns and cars are non-canon, which I'll discuss later. The swaztika alludes to a real-world ideology or concept, and is therefore is pointless as a cutie mark due to the non-existance of anything even remotely resembling naziism in the show. And what would the talent of a swaztika-marked pony be? As for the last one, the CD-Headphones-Gear. Well, that's just too damned hard to look at. A cutie mark should be simple and clear at expressing what a pony's talent is.

 

 

 

 

2. Flawed personalities: Mary Sues, overly powerful talents and magic, or Debbie Downers.

 

These should be obvious too, but not everyone really knows how to make a character believable. Personally, I find OCs with these flaws the least bearable, because the owners of OCs like these blatantly fail to grasp the concept of uniqueness. They make their OCs extreme, in every sense of the word, and therefore impossible to RP with. Mary Sues are perfect, and nothing ever seems to go wrong for them. They're omniscient, everyone seems to like them regardless of canon dispositions, they always seem to win fights, and bluntly, Mary Sues are just unbearable to play with. See the My Immortal fanfic for an example of how Mary Suism is just terrible for storytelling. Similarly, Debbie Downers are equally terrible to interact with, just from the opposite end of the spectrum. Who wants to spend time with a character that spends all the time moping about how tragic their backstory is and how they're broken forever by it and how they hope to find somepony to look past the scars? And I feel that having godlike powers in whatever field your pony calls theirs is just self-explanatory in every fashion. If a unicorn's talent relates to plants on a whole, her magic should be weak in anything not relating to plants, and only moderately strong as pertaining to plants. If her talent is something more specific, like tea or gemstones, then yes, her magic will be very powerful in regards to that one subject, but weak with everything else.

 

 

 

 

3. Canon-breaking elements: like Alicornism, personal relationships or even shippings with characters from the show, or any involvement with the plot other than noticing its effects, or allusions to real-world.

 

The last point I've briefly covered, as ideologies, beliefs, and et cetera like Communism, Naziism, Judaism, the Peace Sign, or Homosexuality are just pointless to make for pure talents, because they are not relevant in this world and not something that someone could be talented in even if they were. Allusions to real-world tech is pointless, too, especially if said tech cannot be even agreed fanonically to be in the show. As such, the gun and the car are unacceptable, although things like catapults and wheels may be. 

 

Alicorns are canonically royalty and nearly impossible to create, and are fanonically demigods, so any alicorn OCs are basically and blatantly breaking canon and making themselves flawless fanonically, which I've also covered. Therefore, alicorns are out of the question. Relationships with show characters and involvement with the plot, while perhaps making for an interesting fanfic, have no place in the actual character of an OC. Such a relationship ruins the entire point of an OC - disassociation from the show gives an OC room to grow and evolve independantly, and allows the OC to create its own story, which is kind of the whole point of having an OC in the first place.

 

 

Yeah, these are qualities I personally consider make a poor OC, and I elaborated a bit on each of them. Reference Article.

Aaaand.... That's it.