Alicorn Ocs

[Burn]

What's your opinion on them. Personally, I don't mind some of them, but most are horrible, marry/Garry sues, or are created by people who can't take one hate comment without getting butthurt.

As long as an alicorn OC has a good back story, personality, name, and design, it's OK.

Oh, one more thing, pet peeve, OCS WITH NO NAME/ CREATED WITH PONY CREATOR, not saying pony creator is bad, but (from experience) before you make an OC, have a back story and name ready, but I digress. But seriously, what's your opinions on alicorn OCs?

[DerpRavener]

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with alicorn OCs.

However, I do suspect there are a lot of people who make alicorn characters either because they can't decide between or want both of pegasus and unicorn abilities, or because alicorns are generally portrayed as being both distinct and highly capable.

But then, I think in that case it's a poorly designed character, and it being an alicorn is incidental to the larger problem.

 

My rule of thumb, whenever I'm making an alicorn or similar character, is to come up with some sort of karmic consequence that goes along with alicorn status or abilities.  Possibilities include things such as a difficult leadership position, where the character has to make choices they might not want to make and which doesn't give them much time for their own interests, or interests from outside powers which which end up manipulating them.  And even if they get rid of one of these, another one comes along to take its place, attracted by the potential the character has.

Basically, come up with something that doesn't necessarily such power bad, but does give it a real cost.

[LostSanity]

If they have a good back story and it makes sense then sure there's nothing wrong with them.

[Whichi]

I must admit to having made a few Alicorn OCs in my time.  Though, predominantly they are used as NPCs in the table-top RPGs I run.  There have only been two (and one of them still hasn't surfaced in a campaign I'm running at the moment).

 

But yeah.  If you have a solid story, and a name, then they're perfectly OK.  I do like DerpRavener's idea of "karmic consequence", and I hadn't really thought of it before.  It certainly makes for more interesting, detailed characters.

[QuickLime]

-draws a cross in the air-

Just no

 

-shivers at the memories-

[SilverSwirl]

Ehhh... The potential for great OCs is there but the pitfalls of poorly designed OCs is much more pronounced with Alicorns.

[Dubstep]

Alicorn OCs have always been a hot button topic, ever since the days of Skywind and his father ALICORN BLACK STALLION. Which is, in my opinion, when the Alicorn OC hate really started. They were horribly executed and obnoxious, pure Marty Stu territory, and so mocking any and all fan made Alicorns became the thing to do. And while yes, there's a large quantity of them that, like Ravener said, that just exist because the player can't decide on Pegasus or Unicorn or they seem like a good balance, there's also always some hidden gems amongst the chaff.

I became of the mind that, it's not an OC that's bad, it's the execution. If you were to say, have an extremely powerful Alicorn in a slice of life setting like FIM, it would feel awkward and out of place, but if you have it in an AU setting where power and strife may be the norm it can fit quite well. With any character like that, it's about making sure it can fit in with your setting. And as Silver said, there ARE quite a few pitfalls you can fall into with Alicorn OCs, which means making them and making them believable is a difficult task.

I myself have a small handful of Alicorn OCs that I use in a setting a friend and I work on. No real deep connection to any established characters, a singular domain of influence, flaws, positive traits, etc. I think that making a good Alicorn OC actually takes a lot more effort than making a good Unicorn, Pegasus, what have you, if only because there's so many ways to go 'wrong' with it (now mind you this isn't saying that it's not hard to make other good OCs, just that making a good Alicorn OC has an added difficulty). It's become extremely rare to see GOOD Alicorn OCs, because Alicorns have been seen as the OC for newbies or RPers with poor skill, so anyone with a good idea for an Alicorn becomes afraid to work on theirs for fear of being lumped in amongst the bad side. Which only makes the bad Alicorns more prominent. Perhaps once people can see that good Alicorn OCs can be made if you take careful planning and make sure they fit where you plan on putting them, we'll see more nicely done ones.

[SunsetSombra]

Here, have a glorious Alicorn OC I made way back when...question not how he came into being, but merely bask in the glory of...

 

 

Backstory? He don't need no freakin' backstory - LOOK at him!

[Dubstep]

And then Robi comes out of nowhere to show everyone up! THANKS FOR MAKING EVERYONE FEEL INADEQUATE ROBI, GOSH!

[SunsetSombra]

It's what I do - you're welcome!