The Good, the bad, and the - you know what I mean.
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Shipping Pinkie Pie - What OC traits are best for Pinkie's love-interest
The Good, the bad, and the - you know what I mean.
Before I start, let's set some criteria of what I think is a good romance and what I think is a bad one - besides the obvious ones like Twilight.
Romances I love include the first 10 minutes of "Up" (like most of us), April and Andy from "Parks & Recreation", Monica and Chandler from Friends", Holo and Lawrence from "Spice and Wolf", Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy from "Amazing Spiderman", Ned and Chuck from "Pushing Daisies", Xander and Anya from "Buffy" (until their 'Wedding' and Joss Whedon screwed it up), Hulk and Black Widow from "Avengers", River and Johnny from "To the Moon", Tom and B'Lanna from "Star Trek: Voyager" - hi, Jerry Peet -, and even Cadence and Shining Armor from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" (mostly from the comic "Neigh Anything").
Romances I hate include a list too long so lets just say the above mentioned list are romances I don't hate.
So what do all these romances have in common?
Well for one it is the lack of drama around their relationship. For most of these romances, the conflict in the story is not directly a result of the relationship. Rather, they are a source for the characters to escape and heal from the drama of the plot. Whereas other so-called "Great Romances" have pretty much all the conflict take place as a result of the romance. Take the Notebook for example, or Twilight, or The English Patient or any Rom-com or Romance centered plot EVER. All the drama of the story takes place because they two characters feel in love. But let me ask you something; does drama make a good relationship? I'm not asking if it makes a good story! I mean would you want to wake up every day with conflict in your life because of your romantic life? Many people ask for excitement in there life. After all, no movie is based on someone quiet and peaceful life, unless something comes to turn it upside down. But admit it, a normal mundane life where your life isn't constantly in danger or thrown into chaos is a lot nicer. We like movies, sure. But none of us would really want to live one. If you want your life constantly thrown in peril, or your everyday decisions to constantly change the fate of history, then I'd suggest you'd seek help. While these kinds of romances make for good drama, they don't make for good relationships.
Think of the most well-known romance of all time; Romeo and Juliet. Now, was there romance ACTUALLY GOOD?! He was like 15, she was 12 or 13, they got a boner from first glance (or "love at first sight" as idiots like to say) and what feels like a week later accidentally commit suicide. Is this really romantic? No. That's because Romeo and Juliet was never about True Love as many people think. It was about young love, and the dangers and naivety that go with it. I don't know if you know this or not, but most romances that start out at a young age, especially with teenagers, almost never last. They're at a time when our actions are heavily influence by rapidly changing hormones, and our personalities change a lot as we go through high school. You can start out high school as a douche and come out as a saint, so relationships are very likely to not continue long as you're probably not going to be the same person as you were at the start of the relationship. Nor do you know what a relationship really is.
As I've made plainly clear, a lot of young people have misconceptions about what romance really is. They think true love is all excitement, hot steamy passion and drama. What true love actually is is safe, secure and solid. And this is the main problem with most writers - the confuse the two and think that a romance full of drama is actually a nice romance to have. While a lot of relationships can cause tension, and it does take work sometimes to maintain, this shouldn't be the norm of your relationships. Your relationship should be, first and foremost, nice. Just... nice. Quiet and relaxing where life with them makes life better. Not harder, but neither should it make you life simpler and easier. Relationships take work as you're not just responsible for your own happiness, but your girlfriend/boyfriends as well. That's another key part of any relationship: commitment to each others lives and happiness. It's something that lasts through the years as the two of you grow fat, old and ugly. If love can't endure that, than it's not love at all.
I know this sounds like basic shit, but the thing is that a lot of love stories feel like they could never pass this stage. That's because they only focus on the first part of any romance; the first attraction. All romance is based on attraction. Nobody can deny that. If it wasn't their looks that attracted you, then it must be something else that keeps making you WANT to see them every day. Maybe they're just interesting, mysterious or funny. Most love stories only ever focus on the Hook that pulls the two together. Not the love that keeps them together. Twilight and Flash liked each other because they were nice and good-looking. But what would have kept them together? I don't know. We never saw anything beyond the attraction stage of there relationship.
Main point I'm making for Fanfic writers is that not many writers focus on anything beyond this part AFTER the two characters get together. So, if you're going to write a romantic OC for one of the characters in your FanFic, don't focus on what gets them together. Here's an idea. Don't show it at all. Keep the early stages of the romance in the background. Have Pinkie and your OC already going out for lunch or pick-nicks regularly as like part of another story where they aren't the main focus. Have it that it could be interpreted by the other characters as either a date or just hanging out, but they're not sure. Overlook all that first kiss/first date bullshit and just have them casually "hanging out". That's how most relationships start out - just casual. And over time, they become more committed and involved with each other. Don't start a romance as something super-serious or super-romantic. Give the characters (and in turn, the readers) time to see if the two work together before you make them an official couple. It's from this that that term "forced relationship" comes from, where the writer puts two characters together and makes them destined-true-loves-for-all-time after just introducing the two to each other without giving them any reason as to why they want to spend the rest of their lives together after spending only a week together.
This can be as simple as waiting until the story AFTER you've already introduced your OC to start the romance. This is why relationships like Hulk and Black Widow or Han Solo and Princess Leila worked so well. All the writers had to do is wait until the sequel for audiences to accept a relationship. Granted, they still put in an effort on-screen to show these characters had the foundations of a working relationship together, but they also let enough time passed since the last movie to tell that the two actually got a chance to know each other better. More than the audience already knows about them. That's an easy way to piss off your audience. If a romantic interest doesn't know more about the character they're supposedly in love with than the fans, then why should we believe that they deserve to be with them? Let's think about Twilight and Flash. We all know Twilight better than Flash does. In fact, Flash knows next to nothing about Twilight. So why should he get to be with her when it's clear that members of the audience know and love Twilight more than him? I'm not saying fans actually have to be in love with Twilight, but the fact remains that - even in the span of just one movie - we've still spend more time with Twilight than Flash. That's why so many people were pissed off at him, or at any character who is brought out of no where and "steals" our main character from us. If you're going to create a romantic interest, at least imply that they've spent more personal time with the character than fans already have, or at least know them more personally than we do. My advice; be patient. That goes for real romances as well as the ones you write. You've got to wait for it to develop. Love is like a flower. It needs time to grow. And if you ignore it, it will wither and die. I know, cheesy metaphor, but not untrue.
Next is another important part of a romance and one that is the crux to creating your OC for Pinkie; chemistry. As I said before, you've got to create a hook that draws your characters together. Something attractive they find about each other. As I said before, it's a bad idea to make your main character be drawn to another character simply based on physical attraction - especially when we haven't seen them show this kind of behavior before. This wouldn't be out of character for somepony like Rarity, but it was for Twilight. Plus, the hook of good looks can quickly dissipate if the the characters don't show traits that also entice them. This is why romances that started out as friendships work out so well, because they've shown that they already possess something that's not physical that keeps the two together. It's finding something that turns that friendship into a romance that's difficult. Again, this is why the seamless off-screen transaction I mentioned before works so well, where it's not clear to the audience or sometimes even the characters themselves that a romance has started to bloom.
But what is chemistry, really. Well, the easiest way is to look at actual chemistry, where one element causes a reaction/change in another element. The greater the reaction/change, the greater the chemistry. Same goes for relationships, but replace physical elements with character elements, such as personality traits. Not all chemistry is good for romance, however. The wrong chemical mixture, or too much, can cause destruction of both elements and anything around them in a giant explosion. Batman and the Joker work well off of one another, but in the worst possible way. When chemistry works well in a romance, it must make both parties appear better. We like the romance because it makes both characters more likable and enjoyable. The Mane 6 all have great chemistry because we prefer to see them interact with each other more than not. The best parts of MLP FIM is seeing these characters interact. But very rarely has a male character been introduced with whom they can interact with and made them more likable.
With Pinkie, the only male character we've really seen her have any kind of interpersonal interaction with was Cheese Sandwich. But Cheese doesn't work well for a romantic partner for Pinkie because his role was that of an antagonist. While not a villain, Cheese's presence was a foil to challenge the stronger aspects of Pinkie's character. He was a great party planner, and that made Pinkie seem like less of a great party planner. This is the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of what chemistry between two characters produces. Cheese's presence brought about doubt, aggression and eventually even regret from Pinkie - none of which of good elements of any romance. Now you may be thinking about after the conflict was done and Cheese revealed his backstory about how Pinkie first inspired him to become a party pony and think this instead would become a hall-mark to start some kind of romance. But no. Cheese is a party planner same as Pinkie. We can only have one party planner in Ponyville. His presence there would only create more conflict. Even if they did join forces at the end to plan Rainbow's party, his continued presence in Ponyville would only demean Pinkie's presence there, making her stand out less as a character. Pinkie needs a boyfriend who will make her more special to us, not less. That's why it's a good thing Cheese left, but also a good thing he was there. Like any great antagonist, he was a reflection of Pinkie that gave her a perspective of herself and a means to better herself. There was no need for Cheese afterwards, as there was no more conflict within Pinkie to resolve. Once again, a relationships should not be solely based on the conflict it inspires. It should primarily be one that helps to resolve conflict - at least twice as much as when it does cause conflict.
So what kind of traits would Pinkie work well off of to make her more likable? And in turn, what kind of colt would be likable for interacting with Pinkie? My solution (and my personal OC) is quite simple: an opposite. Someone who's everything pinkie isn't. Now, this is trickier to explain than people think, as a lot of what people think is deluded by the common saying "opposites attract." Having two characters as complete opposites in a relationship can be both good and bad - bad in the sense when they work only to highlight each others flaws. An opposite character is one who is there to highlight the strong parts of another character's personality. The reason this is so hard is that while you make one character more likable, you could consequently make the other character less likable. This is a very thin line, as using the latter is other a strategy used when creating antagonists rather than romantic interests. If you're making an OC who is dower, serious and humorless to make Pinkie's lighthearted and humorous personality more substantial, all you're doing is make your OC unlikable.
To get a better idea of this, lets think of some examples of character from other shows that I think work well with Pinkie - not specifically romantically, but just in general. In the fanmade spinnoff Turnabout Storm, some of the funniest moments were the interactions between Phoenix and Pinkie. In this case, both characters were funnier together than apart because of how well there personalities complimented each other. Not only that, but the appreciation they had for each other. While their personalities conflicted, they still had a genuine friendship as they both found respect for each other. And in turn, we came to respect them more. Pinkie for her good-hearted and positive nature as she helps Phoenix, and Phoenix for his open-mindedness, tolerance and appreciation of others - Phoenix: "I initially thought you were just annoying. But now I see you're really just a free spirit. Your hearts in the right place." Another example can be seen from the Red vs. Blue series, which I take most of my inspiration for my OC from. In particular, Agent Washington. Introduce in season 6, Wash was what you'd consider to be a normal, level headed and competent solider who was thrown into a crowd of immature idiots. I at first thought he'd be a kill joy, as he had not whacky personality like the others, or even a sense of humor. He's what you'd call the "straight man" or "what happens when you throw a real person into a ridiculous setting with ridiculous people". But Wash actually ended up working well with the Reds and Blues, showing great chemistry with each of the characters, and was one of the most well-developed and interesting characters of the series. He was still the same straight-man he was from the start, but that ended up working well as he grew closer to the Reds and Blues, even going so far as to appreciate them and call them his family, despite the fact that they're a bunch of immature soldiers. It's because he sees more to these idiots than most people do. He appreciates them more than most people, and in turn we learn to appreciate the Reds and Blues more than the bunch of immature idiots we first met. And we also learned to appreciate Wash more, and even started to become one of the funniest characters in the series.
This is the kind of character I mean when I say Pinkie needs a boyfriend who's the Opposite of her. She needs a "straight-man". Someone who's complete normal and sane. Someone professional, competent, serious and maybe with a dark past. Maybe a soldier, or a mercenary, or an assassin. Someone who's job was to bring pain and misery rather than smiles and laughter, until he met Pinkie. Someone who, on his own, you'd probably think of as boring in the MLP FIM setting - without any kind of whacky extreme character trait. And adult, basically. He wouldn't really appreciate Pinkie at first, but grew to understand and ever respect her as a pony later on. And someone we'd grow to like as Pinkie extreme antics worked well off of his deadpan nature. Someone we'd enjoy just watching as he struggled to try and keep up with and comprehend her. This is very much like how the Mane 6 work off of Pinkie, but with a difference. That is that this OC would actually be attracted to her romantically. And she would be romantically interested in him. Why? What's that separation between being good friends to wanting to marry each other. I've already stated it; time and commitment to each others lives. The only advice I can think of is avoid from letting your OC say "It's Pinkie Pie, don't question it". If you becoming romantically involved with each other, then that person will be as much a part of their lives as they themselves are. The mane 6 don't always understand Pinkie's antics, and shrug it off as "Typical Pinkie". Pinkie's love would be someone who never stops trying to comprehend her, just as he wouldn't stop trying from trying to understand himself. He doesn't have to - trust me, nobody will ever UNDERSTAND Pinkie - but he has to keep trying. This means always having him react consistently to Pinkie's antics. You can have him accept that Pinkie is Pinkie, and sometimes she doesn't make sense, but don't let him shrug it off. Make him lose his mind just as he would if he himself were doing the weird crazy shit for no obvious reason.
Above all else, make him someone who admires Pinkie. Someone who wants to learn from Pinkie. Someone who want to protect her, shower her with gifts, make her feel special. Someone who loves Pinkie.