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Success is often a bitter thing. When one has everything, then what worlds are left to conquer, after all? Rarity has expanded her business into every province of the Principality and is known in every city. She has everything that a much younger Rarity dreamed of, and yet absolutely nothing satisfies.
We must imagine Rarity happy, no matter how impossible it seems.
Forgot. Sorry. This was written for the Barcast's "Make Rarity Not Garbage" contest.
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This was a solid, solid read. There's some great insight here.
Also, bonus points for usimg Queensryche as the title/chapter header
Is this written for the Rarity contest?
8431016
There's a Rarity contest?
8431031
Here. I'm surprised no one told you.
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212308/the-barcast/thread/331919/the-barcast-writing-contest-2-make-rarity-not-garbage-with-guest-judge-monochromatic
no, rarity, success isn't hollow, you're just shallow
8431222
I uh
I'm not sure you got the point.
8431226
I hate rarity's character she is shallow, cares only about her looks, is the kind of person that would go behind men's backs and talk about how they are just "broken women" and lives by an obvious double standard as constantly promotes creativity and freedom of expression, yet expects every living breathing thing to look and act exactly like her
of course she would be unhappy with success, she's a terrible person
8431235 The things you are complaining about aren't in her character so much as how she is written by individual writers and authors. Strip everything else from her and at her core Rarity is a dreamer, she chases them constantly, love, career, fame. Then she catches them and finds they pale in comparison to what she dreamed of.
Of course that is going to lead to despair. But her beauty is that she finds a new dream to pursue. She never gives up.
This was wonderful. A few minor errors bothered me a little bit, but they weren't enough to pull me out of the story. You never disappoint.
8431235
Of course characters are gonna be shallow if you only analyze them at a surface level. That doesn't mean they're actually shallow, it means your analysis is shallow.
People are not shallow simply because they attend to their appearance. Maintaining a good self-image is key to having confidence in yourself. Rarity realizes that, and the whole point of her being a fashion designer is to try and bring out the beauty in others, because she wants it to inspire confidence in them like it inspires confidence in herself.
Have we ever seen her do this before? No. What does this have anything to do with being invested in your own appearance? You're making assumptions about what she thinks of other mares based on… what, her interest in fashion?
This is literally anathema to her entire persona. There have been multiple episodes that have completely disproved this.
Besides, if this were true, she wouldn't be best friends with such a diverse cast of characters, would she?
The defining theme in almost all of her episodes is the precarious line between success and personal integrity, a line that almost any professional artist worth their salt must walk. That doesn't make them terrible people for trying (and occasionally failing) to walk it. It's not an easy balance.
The massive irony here is that, by judging her solely on her interest in fashion and her appearance, all you're doing is demonstrating that you're just as shallow as you claim her to be. How is judging others based on their interests any different than judging others based on their appearance?
8431518
This is a solid comeback and I don't know why I'm so impressed by it.
8431518
Don't forget Suited For Success, one of the best Rarity episodes ever! If Rarity was the kind of shallow fashion-addled prissy girl stereotype people sometimes mistake her for, the ep would have been about her trying to fit all of her friends into the same standard of beauty, and the morale would have been her realizing that it was a bad idea.
Instead, she starts by designing and crafting individualized dresses for each of her friends, meant to emphasize their unique traits and make each one look better and more beautiful, but in their own way. And the morale turns out to be a 50-50 mix of "If a friend generously does a good thing to you, respect that and don't demand more" and "Let the experts and creative artists do their jobs, and don't meddle when you don't know what you're doing!"
Edit: Am I imagining things, or is the Rarity in this story implied to be transgender?
I want to smack the bellend who came up with the idea that Rarity's name has a Belle on the end.
8431580
She is.
8431677
Ah! Then that adds a whole another layer of meaning to her musings. Nicely done!
Rarity's always known that the mirror never lies, it would seem.
Oh shit, a trans Rarity fic made front page!
8431751
Y u p
8431790
why was this put in the RariTwi group if there is no RariTwi romance> Hell Twilight isn't in the story
This was very well written and thought out. Good job <3
8431827
If you didn't get that Twilight and their failed relationship is a big part of this I'm not sure what to tell yoi
8431222
What did Marshmallow ever do to you?
I remember now,
8431620
With a sister named Sweetie Belle, it was kinda inevitable.
That takes on a much more bitterly ironic meaning after the denouement...
8432146
If anything, her last name would be Crumbles or Flanks.
... Now that I think of it, Rarity Flanks sounds hilarious.
8432234
Maybe, but we didn't get the names Hondo Flanks and Cookie Crumbles until relatively recently; by comparison, we've had Sweetie Belle since almost day 1.
(And yeah, that would be hilarious
)
8432146
Of course, just like Applejack Bloom. And Twilight Sparkle Armor. And Fluttershy Breeze. Ok, that last one doesn't sound quite so bad. But still.
8432414
These aren't directly comparable: "Rarity" is one part, whereas "Twilight Sparkle" is two parts (hence "Twilight" for short, and her family is frequently called "the Sparkles"), and "Fluttershy" and "Applejack" can be read as two parts: it's not all that unusual to see mentions of Fluttershy's family as "the Shys" (Mr. and Mrs. Shy is one I see pop up with some regularity), nor to come across Applejack written/treated as "Apple Jack" (though while her family is "the Apples", it's also the case that no one refers to her as "Apple" or "Jack" for short, just "AJ" (or maybe "Jackie", if you're Pinkie Pie or a romantically-involved Rainbow Dash/Twilight Sparkle)).
Note that I'm not personally advocating for any of these, or arguing that any of them are correct (the examples we have suggest that human-style family names are something of a rarity in Equestria anyways - in fact, the only example that readily comes to mind for me is the Cakes, and that easily could have been coincidence for Mr. and Mrs. Cake, and a thematic choice for their twins), just pointing out what the fandom has more-or-less adopted. You're way too late in the game to be able to actually do anything about them at this point, though obviously that shouldn't stop you from using whatever referents you personally prefer - just don't expect anyone else to care for whatever you decide on.
8431518
I just never really liked rarity's character.
at all.
something about her just rubs me the wrong way, and she feels way too much like every female stereotype Lauren Faust wanted to break in this show, not to mention that I hate fashion designer characters that aren't Raven Baxter
plus what she did in LofE didn't help either
8432664
Lauren wasn't really trying to break stereotypes as much as she was attempting to show that girls are complex and can have different interests.
Anyways I find your comment's existence confusingly pointless. Why go out of your way to be vitriolic about a fictional character?
8432664
Rarity is one of Lauren's favorite and most nuanced characters, and it was actually a sore point for her that she had to spend so much time defending Rarity against people who simply judged her based on her surface characteristics and kept missing the entire point of her character. You should read Lauren's interviews where she explains why Rarity is so important to the show's dynamic, how Rarity exists to defy the stereotype, and why Lauren herself personally loves and relates to Rarity so much.
Here's some highlights:
In a society where little girls are constantly being raised to glorify the superficial, Rarity exists as an example of how you can create meaning out of meaninglessness, how you can rise above superficiality and transform your passion into something important and impactful. She exists as a paragon of the fashion world, someone who can engage in high society and yet still not compromise her personal integrity. And she exists to prove to little girls everywhere that just because you're interested in fashion doesn't mean you have to be shallow.
She was created by Lauren to be a deconstruction of the very stereotype you claim her to be guilty of. To make that claim is an insult to Lauren's vision.
8432565
Point of order: Cup Cake's maiden name was in fact Chiffon Swirl.
8432384
Do remember also that ponies do change their names, as seen with the former Chiffon Swirl becoming Cup Cake when she got married, and of course the unfortunately named Spoiled Milk becoming Spoiled Rich. For all we know Rarity was born into the world as Curvy Flanks, or Nice Flanks.
8432735
didn't Lauren say that the producers forced her to make Rarity a fashion designer cause of focus group testing and "reliability to it's audience" (which is probably why she irks me to this day)
8433250
Not so much, no. Rarity actually owes her fashionista roots and her accent to Rainbow Dash.
Now, part of her basic concept didn't make it past focus groups:
Inspiration actually would have made more sense, but she also does manage to embody Generosity.
8432947
8432996
Aah! I wasn't aware of either name change (Cup Cake's was revealed in season 7, according to the wiki, and I'm guessing Spoiled Rich's was as well), so thanks for pointing them out to me. This does change things to be sure, though without explicit canon confirmation that any given pony still uses their birth name, or has changed it at some point, it's mostly limited to the options available to fanfic authors and similar, and maybe headcanon explanations of why some ponies have multiple names.
I admit that I've grown a little tired of the Rarity that I find so often in fanfics: the cold, calculating mare, treating every conversation as a a burden that she must endure for some reward. So, the first part of this story had me bored. I've read about this Rarity too many times before for all the words about her to have much of an impact anymore.
Luckily, because it's your work, I kept reading.
At that moment, the meaning behind the rest of the story changed. Honestly, up until this point I thought that we were dealing with an older Rarity who was using magic to maintain her youthful image. To find out that she was changing her appearance for the purpose of passing, well, it certainly does put a different spin on things.
Well done.
This story was... wow. No words. I love what you do Cyne. Because you do it so well.
Gods this was beautiful.
So, because I'm the type of idiot who can't work anything out until he's beaten over the head with it: why did Rarity end the relationship with Twilight? She seems to think very fondly of her.
Well this was bleak... I take it nobody ever got Rarity into the diplomatic corps? I've always thought she'd make a fantastic ambassador
Great Prufrock reference.
8572363
I adore early Eliot. Despite what he might claim it is the personal honesty of the first poems that gives them power.
8572862
I'll also be super honest here and admit what a baby I am when I say that your writing makes me tear up for the fact that it's just so damn good. I love everything about your Rarity--everything. I look forward to reading more of your work.
Pretty much what several years of trying and succeeding in Canterlot has done to Rarity. Poor girl.