With the recent post about cannibal fluffies, hunter fluffies, and a few other posts The image of a group of old disgruntled men comes to mind. “When fluffies first started they were X, X,and X therefore they have to be X, X, and X.” ect. I feel that this attitude (while with the best intentions) will ultimately hurt the community and scare away potential creators thus stagnating the art pool.
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Well spoken, for a world eater…
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I’m of the opinion that if people can do it well, then go for it.
Most of the comments in the cannibal thread weren’t “We should never have cannibal fluffies” but more “I’ve never seen cannibal fluffies done well.” and “When you have X in your headcanon, Y kinda contradicts it”.
Like, zombies are a classic horror trope. Zombie movies tend to be horror movies. Do zombie movies have to be horror? No. Zombieland is flippin’ amazing as a comedy. Do you know how many other zombie comedies have come out? Quite a few. But none of them were good so they just meekly passed by the wayside. It’s not movie-goers were stamping their feet saying “STOP MAKING ZOMBIE COMEDIES” - it was simply those movies didn’t appeal to anyone and they fizzled out.
So, yeah. Anyone and everyone can make cannibal fluffies, vampire fluffies, cyborg fluffies, martian fluffies, whatever. But don’t be surprised when people just pass over your stuff because it isn’t done well enough. And then people think back on it with faint air of cringe. Novelty alone doesn’t make something good.
Edit: For example, I’m not a big fan of the long-leg variety of fluffies. I like the stumpy little guys that look like plush toys. But then @Somethingcheeky comes out with an altogether unique llamafluff, and I love it. I don’t love them because they are long-legged. I love them despite that. That’s what you would have to do with cannibal fluffs/magic unicorns/flying pegasus fluffs. Do it in a way that’s fun and is different enough that it doesn’t draw comparisons, rather it is its own thing.
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True but when whole treads seem to just beat down a idea as “uncreative”, or just unappealing. It can make people not want to even try to make it their own thing. I.E “If nobody is going to give it a chance anyways, why should I waste my time?” I feel that can be very detrimental to the growth of any fandom.
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Well, it’s always good to be able to take criticism. Try dissecting why people think it’s “uncreative” or “cringe”. Is there a way you could do an offshoot fluff without falling into those tropes or cliches? If so, then you’ll probably be able to surprise and please a lot of people. If not, wait for the pendulum to swing back your ways. I finished the Hickory Series just as the Poopie Babbeh wave died down. Now if you try to do a poopie-babbeh story, you’ll get chided for being uncreative. But in a few months when there’s a drought of poopie babbeh stories, someone will chime in with a really good one and the fad will start up again.
It’s all about cycles and this fandom is no different. Hellgremlins are hated now, but they’ll probably be a time when they are in fashion again. Non-justified abuse was absoluted hated a few months ago. The only way you could have an abuse post was by doing a smarty or poopie babbeh/alicorn whiteknighting story. Punishing “innocent” fluffies was a no go (it’s why a took a break for a few months during the summer).
My point is, don’t worry. Do you what you want. If you do the style/writing well people will like what you do regardless of the content. 
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It’s less about the possible criticism because if you have holes in your world building or head cannon they do need to be addressed. It’s just the overwhelming tone of even if it’s done well I’m still not going to give it the time of day which would demotivated possible creators in my opinion. It’s just a personal pet peeve of my mine that’s all. I don’t like conformity when it comes to thought.
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When I started, the first thing people said about my art, was that it wasn’t accurate. It was upsetting to say the least. It’s easy to focus on that sort of thing I suppose, easy to take the opinion’s of othere as gospel. In fact the first thing I did when I read those comments was redraw them and apologize for it. Luckily there was a commenter there who said they liked them, made me rethink how silly I was being. But if there wasn’t I probably would have stopped right there.
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I can see being prone to discouragement, and I relate, but it’s something that has to be accepted. People will have different opinions. Someone will love one trope and someone else will hate it with every fiber of their being. Even really petty, tiny little details, things you wouldn’t think people would feel strongly about, there’s someone out there super passionate about that one thing (be it negative or positive).
You’re going to get people who love cannibal fluffs, or hate them, or even just feel ‘meh’ about them. Me personally, I definitely plan to use them.
While it can be discouraging, negative feedback can still be useful. It can even be seen as a challenge. One point I saw was that natural cannibal fluffies took away from the desperation of regular fluffies being forced to eat each other. That can be seen as an acceptable loss (tropes have pros and cons, that’s normal and fine), or it can be seen as a challenge to invoke that desperation even if cannibal fluffs existed in the setting (like a normal fluffy resorting to cannibalism to stay safe among cannibals, to be seen as one of their one).
I’d say, if people complain on stories for having cannibal fluffs, that might be crossing it. But otherwise, people should have a place for being able to gripe about things
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I’ll agree with that statement. People should be able to gripe about tropes but I feel it should be done in a constructive manner. I.E “I hate hunter fluffies” making it seem that no matter what or how well written they wont like it as opposed to “I hate hunter fluffies because X, X, and X” helping a prospective writer be aware of previous problems with the trope. That being said some people will not like them just for the simple fact they are “X” like you said. I just think that reasoning behind statements will help the community grow. Cause at the end of the day that’s what we all want.
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Exactly my my meaning. When you have people that have been around since the beginning saying you aren’t doing it right it’s really disheartening.
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