I'm especially disillusioned because with this place because I expected a place like TV Tropes to provide good critique considering the sort of site it is.

@Story, I don't write fanfiction, I write.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:25:08 PM by MousaThe14

@Blue Aside from struggling with greed in the face of easily obtainable shiny objects (which isn't something you just learn to get over, and has to always be actively resisted), what mistakes does Rarity repeat over and over again? I can't think of any. She's (IMO) one of the best developed characters in the cast.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:27:35 PM by PerpetualLurker

What about pony politics?

With Rarity though, it's always the same problem over and over.

@Perpetual: Selfishness. Rarity is supposed to be the Element of Generosity but pretty much all of her episodes deal with her struggling not to put herself before her friends.

I totally had a dream about that once.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:28:51 PM by Bluespade

@Kyler - Ponitics?

@Blue Episodes with that premise:

• Sisterhooves Social
• Sweet and Elite

Seriously. That's it. And both of those episodes deal with different enough things (compromising with your family vs honesty with your friends) that they don't really overlap.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:31:59 PM by PerpetualLurker

So. Fucking. AWESOME.

Honestly, this should be the official trailer.

@Blue: It's honestly not all that different from Fluttershy's inability to get over her shyness (except that it's less endearing).

There was also what happened in Secret of My Excess. Though that is it's own can of worms.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:33:58 PM by Mio

@Lurker: Also Green is not your Color, Sonic Rainboom, The Best Night Ever (although it didn't have anything to do with her friends this time), and Secret of my Excess.

Yeah, your right, I didn't say other characters don't have the same problem. Rarity is just the most noticeable to me.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:35:24 PM by Bluespade

Puddinghead is best Chancellor!

@Tigger's talk about a 7th Element of Harmony: I's there so you can unite the Seven Chaos with the power enriched by the heart, of course.

@Blue, Lurker: But that's the fun about Rarity. She's learning to be a better pony and moderate her own weaknesses.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:37:16 PM by AceOfScarabs

Again, I ain't denying that. Rarity is my second favorite character.

@Blue Okay, missed Sonic Rainboom, but Green is Not Your Color's conflict was caused by Rarity hiding her feelings and encouraging Fluttershy, not her selfishness (which she kept entirely in check). Best Night Ever was about overblown expectations. Secret of My Excess was not about Rarity nearly at all, no focus whatsoever is giver to her struggling with selfishness, and she was not portrayed as being in the wrong at any point in the episode. My point still stands.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:39:18 PM by PerpetualLurker

But she is generous. Remember the time she worked her plot off making free dresses for everyone, and then made a whole new set at their request even though it risked her career? What about the time she volunteered to be a test subject for an unknown spell in order to help Rainbow Dash? Or the time she gave Twilight her umbrella while it was raining?

Really, that contrast is why I like her character so much. She's unambiguously generous (you don't over to make dresses for all your friends free of charge if you aren't), but she still struggles with her own desires. I think it makes her one of the most well-rounded characters. Goodness knows I struggle with stuff even though I actually know better. Like Perpetual said, you don't just "get over" something like that.

She's both generous and selfish. And what makes her interesting is that unlike most of the cast, she has to actively try to live up to her element rather than just naturally being like that. Like AJ is just naturally honest, Fluttershy is naturally nice, etc. Rarity is selfish but she knows it and tries not to be. That's why she qualifies to be the element of generosity.

@Mousa: Writing, and writing fanfiction differ only in subject matter. The only appreciable difference is that in fanfic you have a framework to work within, and in original work you have to create the framework yourself.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:45:47 PM by JapaneseTeeth

People's flaws never go. They must struggle forever. That is what builds their character. That is what makes them beautiful.

Some flaws never leave, but sometimes they do. I mean, what's the point of personal development if you can't actually eliminate some of your bad points?

I'm not sure if you can ever eliminate them, only become aware of them and account for them. And in context of the show, it's kinda impossible that she'll never fully eliminate that aspect of her character; it's too much a defining point of her personality. If this were a more continuity-heavy series, yeah, I'd expect her to get over it, but given that the episodes are largely standalone, you can't change up the personality that much.

@J Teeth, i know, it's a thing I'm getting over, I have a whole childhood I'm trying to distance myself from, I can't stand to look back at all that stuff I tried to write within the frame work of other universes when there is so much more freedom and opportunity for publishing in doing it yourself. Besides, one of my curses back in the day was making a whole crowd of original characters in the old universe, that considering fanfiction seemed even more pointless.

I mean when I was little I thought I was going to be the maker of the next Digimon season. I cannot look at the very idea of fanfiction without thinking about how stupid and delusional I was. DBZ: The new Crew, Shaman King: America, Pokemon: The freaking Zodiac league...

It is not about making them go away. It is about repeating it less and less and not letting it stop us from doing what we think is the right thing to do.

Here's some intreasting personality/role reversals for the mane 6. Tell me what you think.

http://immortaltanuki.deviantart.com/art/Fluttershy-and-Rainbow-Dash-Reversed-253442832

http://immortaltanuki.deviantart.com/art/Pinkie-Pie-and-Twilight-Sparkle-Reversed-244279898

http://immortaltanuki.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-and-Applejack-Reversed-230802863

edited 5th Sep '12 6:50:41 PM by marston

Well, at least she's developed enough to teach Sweetie no to repeat her own mistakes by Ponyville Confidential.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:56:00 PM by AceOfScarabs

RD and Fluttershy/Rarity and AJ reversed have to be among the eeriest things I have ever encountered...

But Pinkie and Twi reversed is just adorable.

She has the honor of being the only adult to act reasonably in that episode.

I dunno. This is just me, but I'm not sure I can live within a paradigm where I can't completely remake myself if I choose to, with enough effort and willpower and whatever else it takes.

This coming from someone who often falls into self-loathing, and wishes they could reprogram themselves the way they can reprogram buggy source code.