It's always been my impression that she's slowly learning. Notice her body language over the course of the series. In S3, she is seen elevated for a few seconds.
oh yeah! but that filly must be a prodigy in the making. future rainbow dash, maybe? to be able to fly at such a young age. xDDDD
Back on topic... I think just about any oc can be good depending on how they're done example I have a vampire oc and she is the oc I use for mostly dramatic effect and grim dark rps she can be unnesisarilly violent and cold... She does have artificial wings but they're used to supplement her broken horn
DUR. My totally original character I came up 100% with is Rainbow Dash but he's an alicorn and black and is the son of Luna and is faster than Rainbow Dash and does magic better than Twilight. He's also married to Derpy Hooves and his name is ShadowDark. HUUUUURRRRRRRRRR. He's got 50 bracelets that increase his power and speed, fangs, stripes, and dragon wings. And I almost forgot about his Vinyl mane.
I think a bad OC is one that isn't original at all. Recolors bother me if they don't have any change but the coloration. I think alicorns can be good OC's if they have an acceptable backstory. Good OC's need to be realistic, imo.
Speaking from my experience. I based my OC off of me in the design. My hair is indeed pink and white, and at the time, it was quite long and the Fluttershy hair style suited how my hair was. I had an idea of what I wanted and used the Pony maker to do my first couple of designs to really give me an idea of what I wanted. After that, I did my own stuff in Photoshop- but I don't have a tablet, so all my original drawings are on pencil and paper. I had originally wanted a Pegasus, but when I was writing my characters story, I decided against it and instead made her a earth pony and made it that her being an earthbound pony that wanted to fly as something she would work to overcome. Some people make the mistake of making things too easy for their character and just like people, your characters need challenges to grow and become interesting. I think what makes an OC bad is lack of character depth. Many times bad oc's are just a result of laziness and wanting their ponies to appear cool. I think many people chose an Alicorn because they don't want to have to choose between a character that can fly, or have magic, and earth pony is usually off limits. You can base it somewhat off yourself, which is why my OC, Nova, is an Astronomer, she thinks Luna is fantastic, also and has a very weird best friend- so self inserts aren't completely off limits, just make it interesting. However, if you are going just for design, I think you should have no more then three different colors. Many neon ponies are very hard on the eyes. Sticking with a color palette that is used in the show, making the coat a lighter color helps in making it more visually appealing. Also clashing colors aren't good for an OC. I think people often go for black and red because it's easy to color and also it looks intimidating. It's hard to look badass when you're pink. Use a color wheel to help you find complementary colors. I think some of the worst characters I've seen are ponies that people make that are "sociopaths and you read things like "____ hates love and friendship. _____ loves knives and killing". I'm not saying you can't explore with having a pony that's evil, or mean, but give a reason, why do they love killing, explain. I think people looking to make an oc should take the Mary Sue test, then they can evaluate the character and make it better if that's important to them. But no matter what fandom you're in, we're all going to have to tolerate OC's, but I don't want to discourage people from using there imagination and making characters. Making good characters takes practice and until you know what you're doing, you're going to turn out alot of piles of crap. Color Wheel: http://theworkingwardrobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/486465_thumbnail.jpg Mary Sue Test: http://www.springhole.net/writing/marysue.htm
A bad OC to me is anything with too much going on. Alicorns are fine but don't give them all this extra stuff like a fancy horn design and an intricate cutie mark. If I can look at it and go "I could see this being a character on the show" then it's an okay OC. Design is a big issue. If you have clashing colors then of course it's going to be a bad OC. I like OC's with background stories to go along with them. Simply stating this is my OC "Darklight" (one of my OC's) doesn't give me enough to relate to your character. Even if it's really short, a background story helps. Don't make your OC out to be the 'best' or 'greatest' OC ever. Even if you try not to make it appear so, if you really feel that way then your character is going to come off as that type. So then the flip side ... what is a good OC? A good OC has enough going on to catch attention but not to much as to overshadow the other aspects of itself. It should have a background story so that others may relate to it. Design your OC well so that it looks appealing. You can not throw a couple colors together. You need to pick and choose your colors wisely so that they won't conflict and then become unappealing. You OC should come off like just another pony. It can be special and modest at the same time. Creating an OC is an imperfect art. It takes time and quite a few attempts to get it right. Don't expect to hit the nail on the head the first go round. I'm still not done with the OC's I have. I may still change a few things and fix a few holes. Anyway, that's my thoughts on OC's.
Design-wise, the worst OCs to me are the ones that have too much going on in terms of color schemes, accessories, etc. Generally speaking, the more simple a design is, the better off it'll be...assuming it's not so simple that it just comes off as bland. It's the ones with 3-4 toned mane colors, bright neon colors that grate on the eyes, red and black color schemes (grossly overused), convoluted cutie marks, and tons of jewelry/pendants/other bling that really make me cringe. Oh, and speaking of things that make me cringe, heterochromia iridis has plagued the OC scene - human, anthro, pony or otherwise - ever since Final Fantasy X exploded in popularity. Noticeable heterochromia is pretty damn rare in real life, so it just rubs me the wrong way to see what seems to be 1 out of every 10 OCs with it. I swear, the fastest way to get me to file your OCs under 'Mary Sue' is to give them differing eye colors. Please don't do it - trust me, it's not as "unique" as you might think it is. As far as things like alicorn OCs go, I have no grudges one way or the other. Simply being an alicorn doesn't carry any inherent Sue-ness as far as I'm concerned, although it does make it easier to fall into the Sue trap, if that makes any sense. Basically, as long as the story behind an alicorn OC is believable and well-written, I'll buy it. Besides, in my mind, Equestria's four (and so far, only known) alicorns can't be the only ones in the entire world; my headcanon dictates that there are others out there, and I do have one alicorn OC of my own that rules over his own nation, but I totally digress. Behavior-wise, it's a lot more complex. Many people have differing views of what exactly makes for a good character and what makes for a Sue, but for me, it all depends on A) whether the character is relatable in some way, B) their flaw-to-perfection ratio, and C) whether they're being challenged enough. Using the Mane 6 as an example, I find each of them relatable on some level, even somepony as feminine as Rarity (whom I relate to on an artistic level, just so you know). It tends to be the less 3-dimensional characters that people can't identify with in any respect, and those whom you can't identify with usually end up alienating audiences. None of them are what you'd call perfect - in fact, each is seen acting quite out of line with her Element at some point or another. This makes them flawed, which in turn means that they've each got a fair bit of developing to go through. Characters that are too flawed become nothing more than klutzy, scatterbrained ditzes who fail at everything, and ones that are too perfect...well, you know. And whether each on their own or all together, the Mane 6 have faced quite a few grueling challenges; never has it seemed to me that they blew through any of their hardships without breaking a sweat. Characters that you can use any of the following adjectives with - undefeated, unstoppable, unbeatable, unmatched, too powerful, and a crap ton of others - are the type that never seem to lose at anything. And as we all (should) know, there is no fun in a game you can't lose, ergo there is no inherent drama associated with a character who knows he/she can't lose. At the very end of the day, one needs to look at their OC and ask: "Would this character fit within the world painted by the show, or would they stick out like a sore thumb?" If the former, you've done the job of creating a good OC. If the latter, I humbly encourage you to take a step back and think of what changes you could make in order to make them fit in. No point in trying to force a square peg into a triangular hole, right? Anyway, those are just where my standards regarding OCs lie. Sorry for the wall of text...didn't really think I'd have this much to say on the matter, honestly.
In my opinion, any OC that ISN'T a Mary Sue is a bad OC. Not bad in that it's badly made, but bad in that it's useless to me as a person looking to undermine humanity.
I think most people make original pony characters to represent themselves. Course I don't get why people are so furious when someone makes something that is clearly a Mary-sue since you can just ignore it. Yeah, it's annoying at hell to read sue's because they're usually a result of bad writing, and bad writing pisses me off more than an all perfect character. But I rather like seeing some of the bizarre and weird as hell characters people come up with.
While I don't like blatant Mary Sues, and I can't stand obvious self-inserts, there is something to said for putting a little of yourself into your characters. Many of the best characters ever created have a little bit of their creators in them.
Even Stephen King is guilty of the self insert type character- all authors are to some degree. I think if it's a serious story, I can't stand a self insert or sue, as the characters don't have much depth and the writing is usually ****. Even on fan fictions, I still think you should put effort into making your writing good. I personally see fan fictions as a great means to practice writing and gain experience for when you write your own original stuff, and sues and inserts don't allow you to stretch yourself. But for purposes of just hanging out on a web forum or whatever, I really don't care. Although some of my friends that role play absolutely want to burn all sues and inserts, at the stake. Sometimes though, when I see bad OC's, I want to see just how bad, bad can get. *rubs hooves together evilly*
If that's the case, I wonder if either of you have heard of a guy called Dakari-King Mykan? If not, and you're looking for some horrible stuff, look him up. It's beyond cringeworthy.
As far as this fandom is concerned 1. A relation to any in show character, maybe neighbors isnt that bad, but being the abducted sister is too much 2. OC's that are supposed to be you, but clearly with the mind set you are the greatest and infallible 3. A copy of an existing character, repainted, renamed, same personality, CR free 4. Cant find a middle ground on background, either they sat in a room for twenty years or they saved the world every few minutes examples given are not to reflect anyone I personally know, any similarities to individuals is purely coincidental
(Is this thread even still alive? Bit of necro here, but okay.) Character entirely devoid of a personality beyond "I am better than you all, look! Super (Strength/fast flight/powerful magics)!" don't usually make for very good OCs, mostly because they also demean every other character around them in a blatant display of egotism. They also have very little originality to them, since what supposedly sets them apart from others is pretty much a carbon copy of either existing characters (Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle), and of existing original characters. Alicorn OCs alsao usually don't go down well because they tend to break canon, and again, be walking, talking display of "I'm better than you all.", though, not to say that they all are. If you throw enough original content into your character and their potential back story (keyword being original; clichés are bad, unless you're explicitly striving for the!), any character can be alright. In all cases, how 'bad' an OC is viewed as is something completely unique to the eyes of each beholder. There's no formula for originality, or for making 'good' OCs, since there will be people who like and dislike every potential one. Though, most often, they'll simply have no opinion on the subject. Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk
One more thing I will add on this subject is that I find odd the distinct lack of consistency in the mindset that self-inserts are necessarily a bad thing. Namely, I've noticed that a lot of the most vocal critics of self-inserts tend to be the very same people who positively squee whenever Stan Lee or Stephen King write characters into their universes that are nothing more than self-indulgent references to their own awesomeness. Sorry to break it to you, folks, but the fact that Lee and King are famous does not make their self-inserts any better than an amateur writer inserting him/herself into fanfiction. What does make one self-insert better than another is how blatant they are and how well-written they are as a standalone character (i.e., if you just ignore the fact that they're a self-insert to begin with). I'd go as far as to say that a vast majority of "main" characters in fiction are, in some capacity, a reflection of their writers, since - speaking as a former amateur writer, myself - it's quite difficult not to put a good deal of yourself into the characters you write. If the writer writes his/her "avatar" as one that doesn't blatantly mirror him/her, has both strengths and weaknesses, faces challenges and ultimately develops over the course of the grand story arc, then congratulations; a good self-insert has been accomplished. By contrast, Stan Lee's self-insert in Ultimate Spiderman, for example - a SHIELD agent named Stan (subtle, I know) - is an example of an atrociously blatant and atrociously written self-insert. Which is why I personally hold ire towards those who say "Boo, self-inserts!" and then pull a 180 whenever a more famous author does essentially the same thing.
If an OC has bright and/or clashing colors, I'm not fond of it. The same thing goes for Changlings and other 'weird' OCs. However, I don't take it upon myself to judge whether an OC is 'bad' or not. People have their own tastes. I don't care.
Well I figure I'd chime in on this again. A bad oc In a general sense is an op or ridiculously irritated or mean character. Pretty much any character can be a good one as long as it doesn't have either of those traits. I haven't seen an alicorn oc I think is good, but they are possible. I may be guilty of having a bad oc. She is kind of op, but shes a vampire, so I think a little opness is reasonable, but she also has a seperate personality of the original little girl she used to be, so she has some things to round her out. ANYWAYS! Back on topic. Self-inserts aren't all bad, if done well then it's not really that much of an issue. I personally have one of myself. He is an artist and he takes romance VERY seriously. He is loyal to his girlfriends to a fault (much like me, I have an issue and I'm trying to work it out), and he is extremely friendly, willing to be friends with anybody, but he has never been very good at talking to girls, which creates a conflict of interests. Alright! I keep getting off track... I don't like characters with horribly bright, flashy, or clashingly colored ocs... This is just kind of a preference thing, but I don't like any neon colors in any designs... I don't think neon looks good anywhere to be honest...
