OC pet peeves

[Bastion 414]

when I search through the databases I find these little common touches or things that are always the same, and to be simple they really get annoying.

I'm talking about

• Names that have no match to their personality or design (considering that what can I say XD )
• The Dark past, pretty much everypony in the world now has killed something before...
• They live in ponyville, its a small town! give the place a rest!
• connections to mane six, I do not mind a interaction like a chat with them but family, friendship or even further is annoying.
• Royalty connections, unless you are connected to say the queen of england in reality then in which case I forgive you.
• Modern styles and such, headphones around the neck, left and right. you'd be set for life if you was a electronics merchant in Equestria.
• excessively overpowered. Immortal, no harm can be done, armed to the teeth and can lay waste to you in a heartbeat 

What about you?

[Lightning Bliss 1,674]

Well all of the above I "tried" to avoid due to as you said, has been over used.

 

- Lightning Bliss stands for her personality and love of all things, and how quicky/spontaiously changes from one love to the next. She loves so many things at once, whether be her hobbies, friends, other beings or family, she is blissful and spontaious in all her moods and loves.

 

- But my OC is an alicorn and according to the show alicorns are princesses... so she's low ranked...nopony really knows about her.

 

- She only meets the famed 6 from time to time but has no strong connections with them. Ex: She meets Pinkie Pie while she's grabbing some cupcakes for herself, doesn't really make conversation though other then that she's good foal sitting Pound and Pumpkin Cake.

 

- Yes she resides in Ponyville, but in her defense she was born and raised some in Cloudsdale, and then moved to Appleloosa where most of her family still resides while some still live in Cloudsdale. She lives in Ponyville cause thats where her husband resides.

 

- She's not OP, she's weaker then Twilight in regards to magic and she's certaintly not an immortal. She was a pegasus first before an alicorn, in 3yrs of being one she's only mastered teleportation, levitation and making her horn glow, its nothing we've not seen. Only time she may "seem" OP is when she makes a potion (by zecora this ONE TIME) to turn herself into a dragon, or when her magic of "peace" activiates, creating a scene of peace and sernity. It's not very good for fighting, unless of course she's threaten and gets angry, loses control and the magic condenses into a lazar beam like what celestia does when she fights. Again its nothing new.

 

- I actually tried avoiding a dark past, but unforutnetly I got a reviewer who said she needed to have some past to explain how she became who she was today....and well (sadly) her past is in fact a desciption of my past. Her father died, she moved to be with her mother and step father, she was picked on when she was a filly for how she looked. (My father died in 2010, I was already living with my mother and step father when it happened. And i was picked on and mocked for how I looked in elementry and middle school). So sorry she's got a bit of a dark past. But it doesn't rule her life, if all else she tries to make a better life for herself.

 

- If it's modern to wear steampunk goggles while flying along with a brown hooded cape, then dang my fashion isn't as old or weird as I thought it was.

 

EDIT: That said... Mine would be, Ponies becoming alicorns out of the blue with no backstory.

Edited May 31, 2014 by Lightning Bliss

[Lucky Lass 528]

Color schemes that are extreme or just don't match.

[Carbon Maestro 1,003]

Pet peeves of original character ponies:

• Alicorn OCs
• Mary Sues and Gary Stu backstories
• The anime parent background i.e. The father or mother never there *cough*
• Too complex cutie marks
• Recolor of canon ponies. I find this to be really annoying.
• Too bright colors (Bright green, bright red, bright blue, bright yellow) and dark body color (Makes it hard to see definition on legs-body.

[Ducky 13]

alicorn oc's bother me a lot unless there a mutation like twilight. i guess if a Pegasus and a unicorn has a foal i could see it, but they shouldn't just be as powerful as the 3 princesses are ((also i don't consider twilight a princess, you can just give some one royal blood and she didn't marry into it)). they have to just be a normal unicorn with wings. also if there all dark and OP its no fun. you make a character for fun and if you character can do anything no problem there's never any conflict.     

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,825]

Alicorn "Mary Sue" OCs: I feel that there are too many of these types of OCs, and unless they have a well developed backstory *cough*Lightning Bliss*cough*, they all seem to retain that same "Mary Sue" feel, with the most minimal of faults. 

 

Dark Backstories: I do not like backstories that are extremely dark and don't have a resolution to them, like an OC who was orphaned and left to die and then his house burns down and all that. 

[ghostfacekiller39 23,879]

Alicorn OCs, unrealistically dark backstories, poor color schemes, no flaws, and when they steal the color scheme of an existing character

Edited June 1, 2014 by ghostfacekiller39

[M'aiq the Liar 5,804]

Overly dark stories that you can tell are dark just for the sake of being dark. IE their village was burnt down, their parents killed, and they live with their abusive step parents who make them do nothing but scrub floors all day.

 

Oh, and un-deserved angst. I don't really like angsty characters in general but having them be overly angsty (to the point they are almost a member of the black veil brides) is very annoying.

[PoisonClaw 8,174]

- Alicorn oc's

- Uncharacteristic relationship with Mane 6 (Such as being Twilight's best friend from school)

- Pegasi with mult-coloured wings or feathers not matching their coat (One OC I saw had a brown fur coat with red wings) 

- Rainbow manes (outside of Dash and her possible relatives)

- Neon color schemes that hurt the eyes

Edited June 1, 2014 by PoisonClaw

[Hive King 2,001]

@@Ducky, 

You don't have to have royal blood to have a throne. Plenty of empires have merit based ascensions

[Mr. Critical 434]

-No sense of originality. Seriously guys, some new ideas would be nice.
-the element of "insert nothing to do with friendship here"
-Angst. For Celestia sake guys, lighten the frakk up. 

-Dark for the sake of being dark. I direct you to the previous comment.

-Over powered. Dont give me excuses and weaknesses he has, he can still wipe out half of the planet with his farts.

-Modern day relations. Unless it's a human sent to Equestria, there is no reason they should be carrying 9mm.

-something something Reaper. Death needs no children, assistance, or apprentices so kindly put the scythe down before you hurt yourself.

-"I became a princess because of reasons." Really. Just really.
-Nonsensical. So, why do they have to kill the pony general? Because they killed your parents? But who were those people we just had tea with?

[Ducky 13]

 i guess, im not a pro at monarchy. i just dont really like her anymore 

[Forlong 1,726]

Asking a stranger to name them.  How can you not come up with a pony name yourself.  Or use the pony name generator at least.

[TerribilisScriptor 107]

I may be guilty of meeting the mane six but mainly because terri learned an important friendship lesson through them. And his name may be strange but he IS from a different country and if in zecoras country names are different them in terris it could be the same. ^^ so my oc IS lorefriendly =D

[Alphys Hedge 671]

when I search through the databases I find these little common touches or things that are always the same, and to be simple they really get annoying.

I'm talking about

• Names that have no match to their personality or design (considering that what can I say XD )
• The Dark past, pretty much everypony in the world now has killed something before...
• They live in ponyville, its a small town! give the place a rest!
• connections to mane six, I do not mind a interaction like a chat with them but family, friendship or even further is annoying.
• Royalty connections, unless you are connected to say the queen of england in reality then in which case I forgive you.
• Modern styles and such, headphones around the neck, left and right. you'd be set for life if you was a electronics merchant in Equestria.
• excessively overpowered. Immortal, no harm can be done, armed to the teeth and can lay waste to you in a heartbeat 

What about you?

Time to go through the list.

1. You got me on that one I guess. 'Alpha Hedge' really only was chosen because he likes studying greek things (like me), and he likes hedgehogs.

2. Alpha's never killed anything.

3. Alpha does live in ponyville, but because I thought people would hate me if I put him somewhere else like Canterlot or Manehatten or something.

4. No connections.

5. No royalty.

6. Owns a pair of headphones, and a laptop/phone, but it's not shown off all the time.

7. Can transform into a human, therefore allowing him to use a sword, but not immortal, harm can be done, not armed at all, besides fists/swordplay, takes a while to actually kill anything if he tried.

[Hocus Pocus 636]

• Alicorn OCs: no matter how you slice it, it's snowflakey. In the show, Alicorn status is reserved for royalty, and those who have the highest status in Equestria. It doesn't matter how well its backstory is written, because the design of the character itself is poorly written. It's not impossible to have a good Alicorn, but I haven't seen many if any at all. If you want a guide on how to make a GOOD Alicorn, I've actually made a guide on a previous thread. So, I guess I'll quote myself now

 

 

 

I don't think there's any argument about whether or not alicorns are OP... they just are. This has been proven time and again throughout the show, especially how most alicorns must be ascended to that state through some form of revelation that grants them their true power. The only canon exceptions to this are Celestia and Luna (Which were born alicorns, as shown in the comics)

 

However, I don't think that alicorn OCs are all terrible, horrible, scourges of the earth. Overpowered characters should be handled delicately in any story, and alicorns should be no different. While most alicorns are indeed Marry Sues in my opinion, this gives the idea of alicorn OCs a bad reputation. The problem is they aren't being handled correctly. And while I have not created any alicorn OCs yet, if I do, I will follow my own guidelines which I use to judge the alicorn OCs of others.

 

Rule #1: Alicorns can NEVER be your ponysona... EVER! (With the ONLY exception of someone who is incredibly important to the actual show, such as Lauren Faust or a story board writer for the actual show.). This rule over-rides all other rules. An Alicorn ponysona is pretty self-centered. It either screams"Mary-Sue" or "I think I'm better than all of you". While many have made a fair point of OCs being wish-fufilment, you can easily take it over-board and make an alicorn ponysona that you say takes over Equestria, moves to Canterlot high, and enslaves all the humans too... It's still just wish fulfillment, but it's wish fulfillment in a way that comes off as pretentious (or compensating for insecurity).

 

Rule #2: Alicorns cannot be a main protagonist in an RP. This should go for overpowered characters in stories in general. They are not meant to be an active contributor in a story, but rather an overarching force that is a constant part of the narrative. That doesn't mean they can't appear, but they shouldn't have a very active role on the events that happen (FLCL did a very good job of this with Atomsk, he is the motivation behind a character's actions, but he only shows up for one very short scene in the end of the series, and even Princess Celestia does a good job of this, being a force behind many actions, but rarely intervening and taking direct control over a situation). That's not to say that they can absolutely NEVER intervene, but the moments that they do should be few and far between. I have very few exceptions with this rule, but there still are some; most of which involve some sort of "Chosen one" (Such as in Avatar/Legend of Korra). That said, however,  I do not believe alicorns are one of these exceptions. (This is one of the reasons why I am still against Alicorn Twilight.)

 

Rule #3: While alicorns cannot be a main protagonist, they CAN be A main or even THE main antagonist. An antagonist is meant to be overcome, and the tougher the struggle to overcome that antagonist, generally, the better the story... and alicorns would make a TOUGH struggle, meaning they're a PERFECT villain for MLP... if you can give them a backstory that doesn't come off as pretentious.

 

Rule #4: If an alicorn OC appears in an RP, it must be played by the person running the RP (or if you have special permission to use your own, see rule #5). With an RP, several characters contribute to the story, and if you're hosting the RP, situations may rise where you may need to contribute more than just a ponysona. This means that if you're running an RP, an appearance by multiple of your OCs at once, including an Alicorn OC can very easily happen; however, to better keep with rule #2, the owner/owners of the RP should be the only one to control that OC's actions.

 

Rule #5: Don't bring your alicorn OC into someone else's RP unless there is a good reason to story-wise AND you have the RP owner's consent. Some of the best stories are those that overlap with other stories. And there's nothing that feels more awesome than bringing all the most powerful characters of different stories together to team up (Which is why so many people loved "The Avengers" movie). However, with an OP character, it's downright disrespectful to the owner's story to shove "Snowflake the all-powerful overlord" into their world. This is true of any alicorn as well; they have been shown to be the wielders of the most powerful magic in all of Equestria, and simply having one pop up out of nowhere WILL (not can) derail a story.

 

Needless to say, a proper alicorn OC is HARD to pull off (Hence why I haven't created one yet) however, if done right, they could very well be as endearing as an actual character in the show... anything less than that will seem like a snowflake or marry sue... which is why most alicorns seem to fail so spectacularly.

 

 

I'm not meaning to be negative in any of this or bash any alicorn OCs anypony who is reading this may have. I'm simply saying that alicorns are tough to make... if they were easy to make, I'd already have made one, or even several! And if you want to make one, be sure to handle it in a way that doesn't impose you as being "all-powerful" like many alicorn OCs seem like they do, even if they don't do it intentionally.

 

 

• Self-inserts that are nothing like the person that made them: A lot of the time, self-inserts will have dark backstories, and be mary-sues... Just because you're in you teenage angst phase doesn't mean you live and breathe darkness, or that you're a demon with a chip on your shoulder looking for revenge on the world...
• Overly dark for the sake of being dark, poorly written backstories: Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of dark stuff in Equestria, remember the crystal labyrinth beneath Canterlot? That thieves and greedy ponies were thrown into and left to die, ironically surrounded by the wealth they spent their life pursuing, but cannot use any of it because they're lost in the depths forever, never to see the light of day again? Yeah.... Don't tell me that darkness has no place in Equestria. HOWEVER, having Nightmare Moon kill your parents on NIghtmare night, leading you to you sell your soul to Sombre in exchange for power so you can take vengeance on Equestria is some cringey stuff... Not everything has to be edgy and dark. Even in the grittiest and darkest atmospheres (i.e. Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Death Note, etc.), there are still moments of comic relief, and small celebrations of victory. The reason darkness works in the first place is because you have these things to lose, you have context of the joy that CAN exist in the world. If you just try to write one gritty thing after another, you're going to wind up like Shadow the Edgehog Hedgehog... Riding a motorcycle with a gun, scowling at the camera and looking for that DAMN fourth chaos emerald.
• Overpowered OCs: The reason you make an original character is to make it feel like you can interact with the world the show gives, be it through RPs, fanfictions, self-inserts, or even just your own thoughts... NOT to say "My OC can beat up your OC."... If this is the kind of character you make, sorry to say, but anypony with a hairdryer can melt a snowflake like that!

 

Please keep in mind that these tings are not meant to target anypony in particular, but to give insight to how people will percieve different narrative mistakes. I'm not even pretending that I'm a perfect writer or anything like that, because even I've fallen for most of these when I first started out with writing, and with more things than just MLP. In other words, I'm not trying to make fun of you in particular, I'm just trying to point out some common narrative mistakes in amateur writing. And i use "amateur" as its literal definition, not as an insult... because I doubt anypony here is a professional writer that earns a majority of their income from writing.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Hocus Pocus