I like clop · 4:00pm Nov 11th, 2012
There, that should get your attention.
Now that that's out of the way, I thought now would be as good as any to talk about this.
Firstly: No, I didn't always like it.
Secondly: No, I don't like clop for the clop.
My Little Erotica is an incredibly interesting mental exercise for me. Sex is undeniably a huge factor in everyone's life. Denying sexuality to a character is to deny them what makes them human, er, pony.
(Un?)Fortunately MLP can't explore that in canon. Ever.
That's where clop comes in.
Clop can be an absolutely amazing way to see that extra, third dimension to the characters. Sex is when our morals, our flaws, our attributes, our raw soul itself is on display, there is no point where we are more naked to the world at large, to our partner and to ourselves.
Admittedly, I still mash the space bar a few times in a clop to skip past the heavier scenes. Sue me, I'm not a prude, but I'm not in it for the clopping. It's just a unique and un-rivalled way to get a new, definitive glimpse into the characters for me.
My name is Mr Danger Numbers and I approve of clop...
I am willing to admit this for all to see because Danger is my middle name.
I would also add that in a romance seeing how a couple makes love is to me as exciting emotionally as the cliched first kiss. It says so much about the couple. To me the term clop is applied far too widely. Anyone who has read Princess Molestia knows that it is hardly sensual, yet it shares a category with the likes of romance reports.
I agree with you on how it is a disservice to a believable character to ignore the fact that they are a sexual being. But I consider it just as great a disservice to focus on that one aspect.
I like sex, but I don't especially like clop. Too many clopfics are just porn and not erotic literature, and too much erotic literature in the fandom is all about the sex rather than the characters, and even worse, romance genre.
Sex, as a theme, and as a character aspect, is part of a whole, and while a hugely important part, rarely the most important.
I mean it's not like there aren't plenty of stories that address character love and sex without feeling the need to write an entire story about that one thing, or descend into pornographic detail.
And it's not like there aren't plenty of examples of accomplished authors allowing their characters to love, make love, or just get laid, without their work being classified as erotica.
I will never understand why this fandom finds is so incredibly hard to find a balance instead of sliding constantly from extreme to extreme.
I actually find it hilarious how erotic stories like Romance Reports and Xenophillia wind up being more about sex, wrapping an entire narrative arount that one subject, than simple clopfics which tend to only be a window view into a few hot and sticky moments of a character's life.
494126
I hate clop (the term).
"Clop" is a ponification of the word "fap". This defines every single fic labeled "clop" as having no merit other than to be masturbated to. This fandom really needs to grow up out of and away from it's internet 4chan meme roots.
494365 I'm with you. I hate the term as well.
Furthermore, I wish there was a category separate from Clop. Because there are some legitimately romantic stories out there that happen to feature a sex scene or two, yet they are thrown in mature with all of the horrid stories with no real point other than "Lets put two ponies in a room and watch them fuck."
494373
On that note, I don't feel sex scenes need to be relegated to thr romance genre. For that matter I don't feel romance needs to be relegated to the romance genre.
494380 Well naturally, any story type can feature sex. But there is that assumption that if sex is involved the feelings are of necessity romantic, which is not always the case. As for romance not being regulated to romance... well oftentimes it is not. A romantic subplot often appears in stories and that does not of necessity need to be tagged romance. It depends on how much it actually affects the story. Wings as you recall had a Rarijack and Ocelestia subplot but they did not have a major impact. So I did not tag it romance.
MrNumbers, hath thee no shame?
But you actually make a really good point, and I'm going to use that in future
I generally don't like stories that go into detail with the sex (A bit of romance never hurt anypony, except for Shining Armor's Hornpes).
That being said, I find stories like Cootershy hilarious and a good read, with with it going into a bit more detail than I'd normally read.
In the end I think it's about moderating the amount. If you turned all the ponies into humans, would it be a raunchy movie or porn? That's what I feel is the deciding factor.
494405
Remember kids, always watch what your cutting!
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I sort of agree with you. I don't mind clop when it's used as a storytelling technique, a way to further define a character.
I slightly mind clop for the sake of being clop, like a quick and dirty one-shot just to show it with NOTHING else.
Read a few, one is more an erotic thriller/rape fic with Rarity and a character you can't quite be sure is Spike's alter ego or such or a completely different perp. The other is a fun piece called Changeling Brothel, which I sorta scuffed at. To my chagrin, it turned out to be pretty enjoyable and filled with some great mix of world building, if an evolved insect society sorta worked that way. Then there was a few others I can't really explain... Mostly, due to the confusing nature of the story being just a discovery of one's sexuality in the fic, growing up dealing with all the mess one made during those discoveries, and ending pretty messed up like.
Clop? I still hate that term... The stories I read with 'fap' material, usually have far more going for them than the two or more ponies sticking things or rubbing on each other off, have going for it. Like Changeling Brothel and that RariSpike thriller/rape fic.
Your story is either intended to be a romantic date fic with nothing such as sexually explicit levels detail, or a complete unrestrained fap fic that works more on the gooey details than the inbetweens.
My question is, what happens to the fics that DO work the betweens? Are they forever doomed to be cast as fap fics or romance? How would one even decide if their story is even eligible for the Slice of Life of everyday love life fics that have a good mix of character building and has the grownup parts that you only see on HBO/Cinemax after night?
In any case, I used to label all clop fics as just someone's sexual fantasies for wanting to bang a pony, most HiE really are, but I've learned to not judge a fic by it's cover some time ago now. Don't get me wrong, I still dislike most of them... but I at least have the good nature to skim through a few to judge if they are worth the effort to read through.
Already knew you did so this is no surprise.
And I have read 1 or 2 myself. Not for the clop, but for the writing in which you said was
which I will not argue. There is of course the skipping over the scenes with the actual clopping in them but the 2 I've read weren't that bad.
Still not planning on masterbating over MLP porn or anything similar