Examining Flaws in Human in Equestria Stories: The Lack of Aliens · 4:01am Feb 25th, 2016
I’ve ranted in the past about how FiM breeds wish fulfillment, and how crossovers fundamentally violate the Law of Conservation of Detail. I mentioned in the latter that Human in Equestria has similar problems. Oddly, despite having similar problems, HiE also has other problems that are all its own (despite crossovers often involving humans anyway). Today, I’d like to rant meander discuss another fundamental issue with HiE: The lack of aliens.
What does this mean? It may seem like a clickbait euphemism, but I assure you that it is an actual description of the problem. To explain, we have to look at another, more developed genre that covers a similar topic. Science fiction as a genre has many permutations and expressions, but one of its many themes is how an encounter with a sapient, non-human species might look. When you think about it, HiE is ultimately a take on this idea: the idea of two fundamentally different cultures colliding and interacting. Fantasy covers this topic too, of course, but let’s stick to science fiction for now.
How science fiction approaches this topic varies wildly. The alien species in question can take many forms. They can be menacingly and bizarrely inhuman (biologically, culturally, and/or psychologically); think the Thing or the Alien from the movies of the same name. They can be extremely anthropomorphized, but with key aspects clearly different from humanity; think the various alien species from Mass Effect or Star Trek. They can even be so incomprehensibly different from humans that most of the plot involves explaining and exploring their differences; think the tri-gendered aliens from The Gods Themselves. They can be anything in between and beyond.
Yet all these variations have one shared characteristic: the aliens are unfamiliar to us, the audience. In one way or another, they are mysterious, difficult to understand, alien.
So how does this highlight fundamental problems with HiE as a genre? Well, because the “alien” species in HiE can never truly be alien. Whether the point-of-view is from ponies or humans, we the reader can never be truly surprised by any of the characters. We as humans will always understand the human character. And despite any quantity of headcanon or speculation, we will also understand the ponies, both because of our understanding of them and emotional connection from the show, and because of how anthropomorphized they are.
This means that HiE fundamentally has problems telling its story. The way the two cultures interact will always lack the sort of mystery and “otherness” that defines aliens in science fiction. They may be able to act as foils to each other, or create impossible situations that couldn’t exist otherwise, but they cannot create creatures that are properly alien.
Now, you may be asking a specific question: “Why does this matter? After all, not all HiE stories use humans/ponies in the same role as sci-fi aliens. There are stories where their ‘otherness’ is a non-issue.”
And you’re right, this is certainly a valid question. To answer it, however, I will direct you to that previous blog post. HiE (or PoE) stories tend to have the same problems as crossovers: their story role doesn’t need to be filled by humans, and slotting humans into that role creates problems with conservation of detail. The explanation of why humans are there bogs down the story for little or no payoff.
Thanks for reading. As always, comments, counterpoints, and criticism are welcome.
I dunno, I think you're reaching for a problem here. "HiE is bad Sci-Fi" is both true and entirely irrelevant to the intended audience. "HiE is bad literature" is the same. There's a clear market for stories with certain content, and in order to fill that niche writers have to jump through certain hoops to make it work. There's no good solution to this and, really, very little demand for one. It's the same concept as Equestria Girls. You're handed a bad premise, and you do what you can to craft a story that works around it. If the problem is the premise itself, well, tough. You either use it or the story doesn't get made.
3776356 I agree. This seems more like an opinion blown way out of proportion. There is no issue raised here that can't be addressed by simply being an above-average author. And ultimately, that's what I think this is really about. You can't do these things by rote and have them work effectively. That's fine, but it says absolutely nothing about whether you can do them at all.
Pretty sure you can sum the whole thing up as 'don't use conflicts inappropriate to your setting'.
No, but this makes a lot of sense. It hardly covers every HiE, but I see what you're getting at.
It's true that writing decent Human stories is basically Hard Mode. That's why I encourage people to try it at least once, even if they don't publish the result. It's a good exercise to stretch the boundary of what you're comfortable doing, if only to see what you can learn.
And let's be real here: To make Human stories good, you have to think way outside the box. Few enough people ever even try that.
Obviously if you're trying to invoke a sense of wonder in your pseudo-sci-fi writing, merely tossing a human into Equestria or a pony onto Earth is going to be hard.
That's not really what you want to do with these sorts of stories though. I mean, there are ways of messing with people's perceptions, and maybe you could pull it off, but ultimately, what you're really going to have to do is rely on other tropes to do it. Arrow 18's main attraction is the character's struggle with overcoming the language barrier, humor at his (correct and incorrect) vision of pony society, general exploration of Sci-Fi/Pony themes, ect. It is a first contact story, but its primary axis of attraction is, I think, elsewise.
There aren't a huge number of great Pony on Earth/Human in Equestria stories. A Diamond and her Tether, Biblical Monsters, and Something to Look Forward To are all commentary on human nature which make use of ponies for various reasons and in various ways. I think using it for such can make sense situationally.
But if you're just starting out with "I want to write a human in Equestria/a pony on Earth story", that's not a story - that's an idea. Honestly, that's the fundamental flaw with almost all HiE/PoE stories - they're ideas, not stories.
3776356 3776446 I think you've taken away the wrong thing from this post, though that may be my fault considering the way I phrased it. I understand that some people like to read and write within niches, and they don't mind the fundamental flaws in their preferred genres. This isn't here to belittle or correct them.
Like all my meandering musing posts, this is meant to provoke thought. Since HiE lacks the otherness that defines similar fish-out-water stories, what does that mean for the construction of their plots and characters? Is there a way to broker that familiarity into a similar plot with similar strengths, or does it require other considerations? I think 3776570 makes a good point, along those very lines.
3776539 I suppose that depends on how you define "outside the box". It's even harder in this fandom, since some of the more awkward/unusual/different approaches to HiE like the Conversion Bureau or cosplayer transformation fics ended up spawning their own subgenres, and their ideas thus became formulaic very quickly.
I actually tried to write an "outside the box" conversion bureau fic, but then the moderator of the group threw a hissy fit because it didn't match their ideals--perhaps there's some irony there
3776535 "No" to which part?
3781809
No, but sometimes I use 'no' as just a way to start a sentence. :B
3781934 Like, you Ohioans and your, like, awk speakin' styles.
3782520
Hey, I know where my bread's buttered at. >:B Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go to Aldi's because my face needs fed.
3781809
It's a simple solution, but difficult to pull off: Figure out what people expect, then do the opposite. If you have an unusual moral for the story, so much the better.
I call it the "Miyazaki Method."