History YMMV / TriptychContinuum

* RealsimInducedHorror: The author notes in a comment on ''Unstable Sale'' most of the spectacularly DarkerAndEdgier fanfics are clearly impossible, either in terms of the canon continuity itself or, at their most extreme, in real life. In comparison, the Continuum's embrace of SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome to the point of landing on a more cynical interpretation of the setting brings it to a point that leaves it alarmingly close to real life for some readers. There are people reading the Continuum who've been on the receiving end from abuse of power, who were afraid to move on from a situation, who've just had one bad day where no one wanted to buy from them, a petty vandal hurt them for fun, or a pet died. This means that the Continuum can be "too close" to reality, hitting discomfort spots that some of the more famous grimdark pieces don't.

* BrokenBase: There are those among the audience who feel that the occasional touch of realism and nod towards long-term consequences makes the overall body of work into an interesting one. And there are a very few who believe it's just the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism most cynical, depressing thing]] ''ever'' created in the fandom, ''because'' of that attempt towards realism. (Yes, more cynical and depressing than [[Fanfic/TheKillerRarityverse absolutely]] [[Fanfic/BackgroundPony everything]] [[Fanfic/{{Cupcakes}} else]].) It's generally a minority opinion, but it's a rather vocal one. (A lot of this tends to be blamed on the presence of an active press.) Furthermore, some antagonists seem to come down to just being racist jerks...and a ''lot'' of the fics could be viewed as a TakeThat at a specific type of real-life person.
** Actually justified/rationalized by the author herself in a comment on ''Unstable Sale'': most of the spectacularly DarkerAndEdgier fanfics are clearly impossible, either in terms of the canon continuity itself or, at their most extreme, in real life. In comparison, the Continuum's embrace of SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome to the point of landing on a more cynical interpretation of the setting brings it to a point that leaves it alarmingly close to real life for some readers. There are people reading the Continuum who've been on the receiving end from abuse of power, who were afraid to move on from a situation, who've just had one bad day where no one wanted to buy from them or a petty vandal hurt them for fun or -- a pet died. This means that the Continuum can be "too close" to reality, hitting discomfort spots that some of the more famous grimdark pieces don't.

* WhatAnIdiot: Zigzagged with the character of Gerald Gristle. He's not that bright and tends to repeat his mistakes (when he's not just finding new ways to make the same ones), but he's also working with information which doesn't apply in Equestria. The ponies of the Griffon Republic are perfectly used to the scent of both cooked and raw meat. Equestrians... not so much.
** This is a recurring theme in the author's work. Many antagonists in the various stories are not just mean or cruel, but are mean or cruel in a particularly short-sighted and self-sabotaging manner. Side characters who are unhelpful or obstructionist because of some irrational point they won't let go of are also common. Then there are the stories in which the heroes sabotage themselves via some combination of stubbornness and tunnel vision.

** Actually justified/rationalized by the author herself in a comment on ''Unstable Sale'': most of the spectacularly DarkerAndEdgier fanfics are clearly impossible, either in terms of the canon continuity itself or, at their most extreme, in real life. In comparison, the Continuum's embrace of RealityEnsues to the point of landing on a more cynical interpretation of the setting brings it to a point that leaves it alarmingly close to real life for some readers. There are people reading the Continuum who've been on the receiving end from abuse of power, who were afraid to move on from a situation, who've just had one bad day where no one wanted to buy from them or a petty vandal hurt them for fun or -- a pet died. This means that the Continuum can be "too close" to reality, hitting discomfort spots that some of the more famous grimdark pieces don't.

** This can also be compared to the Pony POV versions...who treat the crusade mostly as a joke, and something fun. The only people they hurt is themselves, and it mostly just ends up with them covered in tree sap.

*** She defiantly cares about them, as of Duet of Land and Sky shows that she is not well right now. Though it is worth noting she hasn't actually apologized yet, for no immediately apparent reason.

** And now we have Emery Board from [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/444884/like-a-well-oiled-machine Like A Well-Oiled Machine]]. Apparently a good part of the fandom was just waiting for [[Creator/RLeeErmey this guy]] to get two extra legs.

* BaseBreakingCharacter:
** The Cutie Mark Crusaders, especially Scootaloo, who is subtly pushed forward as being responsible for their foolishness in her position as ringleader. The bitter argument reigns over whether or not Estee is justified as pushing them into their status as Ponyville's Disaster-Makers; whilst the verse's depictions of the things they've done do weigh heavily towards the justified scale -- they've destroyed property, hurt ponies, stolen things (and usually broken them in the process), all of it without any sign of guilt, for three years without stopping -- there's the complaint about whether or not this really ''is'' a "realistic" extrapolation of their canon behavior.

** As of the most recent chapter of Triptych: Is Luna a flawed person whose just trying to make sure Twilight doesn't repeat her own mistakes, or just hurting Twilight to get her to [[spoiler: reconcile with her sister.]]

** As of the most recent chapter of Triptych: Is Luna a flawed person whose just trying to make sure Twilight doesn't repeat her own mistakes, or just hurting Twilight to get her to [[spoiler reconcile with her sister.]]

** As of the most recent chapter of Triptych: Is Luna a flawed person whose just trying to make sure Twilight doesn't repeat her own mistakes, or just hurting Twilight to get her to [spoiler] reconcile with her sister. [/spoiler]

** There is a strong division in the fandom as to whether Applejack's keeping of the Secret from the other Elements is a justifiable outgrowth of her strong ties to her family and the intense emphasis on the Secret in earth pony culture or a contemptible betrayal of her friends and her status as the Element of Honesty.
** Similarly, some argue that the Secret is an understandable reaction to FantasticRacism from the other tribes, while others argue that [[SelfFulfillingProphecy the other tribes only regard the earth ponies as contemptible clods because they've spent a thousand years convincing the other tribes that that's exactly what they]] ''[[SelfFulfillingProphecy are]]''.
** There have also been some discussions about the antagonists of the main work: some feel their actions make them irredeemably evil, others feel their past and motives explains their actions at least sufficiently enough to hope for their redemption.

** Applejack is also a strongly contentious character, with many fans regarding her as the least-likable of the Mane 6 due to her traditionalist nature leading to her FantasticRacism attributes and self-righteous attitude.
** For that matter, more than a few of the fans have stated that the general prejudice against earth ponies is [[KickTheSonOfABitch an entirely justified reaction to their concealment of their earthspeaking powers]].

*** ''Pony Up A Tree'' attracted a lot of arguments in its comments section debating over whether or not the Mane 6's interactions were believable or justifiable, and ultimately whether or not Rainbow Dash's karmic punishment was good enough. It turned a lot of people off of Rainbow Dash as she's depicted in this 'verse, due to the perceived DisproportionateRetribution of her interactions with Rarity.

*** ''Haunted Hayride'' is to Applejack what ''Pony Up A Tree'' was to Rainbow Dash, particularly given Applejack is already a BaseBreakingCharacter. Many readers complain it combines the "humiliate your friend into learning a lesson instead of talking to them" angle of disliked canon episodes like ''Mare-Do-Well'' and ''28 Pranks Later'' with a shocking twist, arguing that Applejack initially seems like she's just picking up the challenge of "your hayride isn't scary" only to then throw the "you disrespected ma pah!" out of nowhere halfway into the story. Add in similar DisproportionateRetribution complaints as to ''Pony Up A Tree'', with Applejack deliberately invoking Rainbow Dash's biggest weaknesses and fears to provoke her, and it's become one of the most contentious parts of the Continuum.

* CompleteMonster: Invoked with Sombra. Per WordOfGod, the three rules for writing Sombra in the Continuum are "No softening, no humor unless it's [[GallowsHumor graveyard]], and ''no redemption''." The Crystal Empire under his rule is described as "imagine if the Warsaw Ghetto had been combined with one of the Concentration Camps", and the current state of the Empire is likened to the survivors of the aforementioned horror-show being told they have nowhere else to live ''but'' in the pit where they had been imprisoned, despite their tormentor being dead. He was a mass-murderer who conducted hideous experiments on living ponies and butchered the dead to experiment on their corpses, created an ever-shifting array of rules to furnish himself with a constant supply of prisoners to use for his experiments, practiced {{necromancy}}, BloodMagic and all manner of BlackMagic, and littered the city with both grotesque torture dungeon-laboratories and hidden booby traps.

*** ''Haunted Hayride'' is to Applejack what ''Pony Up A Tree'' was to Rainbow Dash, particularly given Applejack is already a BaseBreakerCharacter. Many readers complain it combines the "humiliate your friend into learning a lesson instead of talking to them" angle of disliked canon episodes like ''Mare-Do-Well'' and ''28 Pranks Later'' with a shocking twist, arguing that Applejack initially seems like she's just picking up the challenge of "your hayride isn't scary" only to then throw the "you disrespected ma pah!" out of nowhere halfway into the story. Add in similar DisproportionateRetribution complaints as to ''Pony Up A Tree'', with Applejack deliberately invoking Rainbow Dash's biggest weaknesses and fears to provoke her, and it's become one of the most contentious parts of the Continuum.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: The Cutie Mark Crusaders, especially Scootaloo, who is subtly pushed forward as being responsible for their foolishness in her position as ringleader. The bitter argument reigns over whether or not Estee is justified as pushing them into their status as Ponyville's Disaster-Makers; whilst the verse's depictions of the things they've done do weigh heavily towards the justified scale -- they've destroyed property, hurt ponies, stolen things (and usually broken them in the process), all of it without any sign of guilt, for three years without stopping -- there's the complaint about whether or not this really ''is'' a "realistic" extrapolation of their canon behavior.

** Actually justified/rationalized by Estee herself in a comment on ''Unstable Sale'': most of the spectacularly DarkerAndEdgier fanfics are clearly impossible, either in terms of the canon continuity itself or, at their most extreme, in real life. In comparison, the Continuum's embrace of RealityEnsues to the point of landing on a more cynical interpretation of the setting brings it to a point that leaves it alarmingly close to real life for some readers. There are people reading the Continuum who've been on the receiving end from abuse of power, who were afraid to move on from a situation, who've just had one bad day where no one wanted to buy from them or a petty vandal hurt them for fun or -- a pet died. This means that the Continuum can be "too close" to reality, hitting discomfort spots that some of the more famous grimdark pieces don't.
** Some of the specific stories themselves particularly stand out. ''Pony Up A Tree'' attracted a lot of arguments in its comments section debating over whether or not the Mane 6's interactions were believable or justifiable, and ultimately whether or not Rainbow Dash's karmic punishment was good enough. ''Unstable Sale'' caused a veritable explosion of debate between those who felt the treatment of the Crusaders was currently unjustified except maybe by the author's embrace of CharacterExaggeration and those who argue that it's perfectly justified by what has been established for the verse's take on the Crusade. The Crusade has caused property damage, hurt ponies, resulted in them stealing (and almost inevitably breaking) things, all of it without a shred of guilt. People get mad at kids, and three years of this makes it perfectly understandable that adults would respond by giving them the cold shoulder.

* BaseBreaker: The Cutie Mark Crusaders, especially Scootaloo, who is subtly pushed forward as being responsible for their foolishness in her position as ringleader. The bitter argument reigns over whether or not Estee is justified as pushing them into their status as Ponyville's Disaster-Makers; whilst the verse's depictions of the things they've done do weigh heavily towards the justified scale -- they've destroyed property, hurt ponies, stolen things (and usually broken them in the process), all of it without any sign of guilt, for three years without stopping -- there's the complaint about whether or not this really ''is'' a "realistic" extrapolation of their canon behavior.

* BaseBreakers: The Cutie Mark Crusaders, especially Scootaloo, who is subtly pushed forward as being responsible for their foolishness in her position as ringleader. The bitter argument reigns over whether or not Estee is justified as pushing them into their status as Ponyville's Disaster-Makers; whilst the verse's depictions of the things they've done do weigh heavily towards the justified scale -- they've destroyed property, hurt ponies, stolen things (and usually broken them in the process), all of it without any sign of guilt, for three years without stopping -- there's the complaint about whether or not this really ''is'' a "realistic" extrapolation of their canon behavior.

** The author herself lamphshaded the possibility of this happening to "Harem Fantasy", a sapient [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheBook harem fantasy romance novel]] that Discord awakened/created

* BrokenBase: There are those among the audience who feel that the occasional touch of realism and nod towards long-term consequences makes the overall body of work into an interesting one. And there are a very few who believe it's just the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism most cynical, depressing thing]] ''ever'' created in the fandom, ''because'' of that attempt towards realism. (Yes, more cynical and depressing than [[Fanfic/TheKillerRarityverse absolutely]] [[Fanfic/BackgroundPony everything]] [[Fanfic/{{Cupcakes}} else]].) It's generally a minority opinion, but it's a rather vocal one. (A lot of this tends to be blamed on the presence of an active press.) Furthermore, some antagonists seem to come down to just being racist jerks...and a ''lot'' of the fics could be viewed as a TakeThat at a specific type of real-life person.

** This could be argued as a recurring theme in the author's work. Many antagonists in the various stories are not just mean or cruel, but are mean or cruel in a particularly short-sighted and self-sabotaging manner. Side characters who are unhelpful or obstructionist because of some irrational point they won't let go of are also common. Then there are the stories in which the heroes sabotage themselves via some combination of stubbornness and tunnel vision.

* HarsherInHindsight: TheReveal that Pinkie Pie suffered from AbusiveParents in this series is a lot worse now that we've seen them in canon and learned that, for all their "fantasy Amish" style traditionalism, they're very non-judgmental, accepting of their daughter's differences, and deeply love her.

* BrokenBase: There are those among the audience who feel that the occasional touch of realism and nod towards long-term consequences makes the overall body of work into an interesting one. And there are a very few who believe it's just the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism most cynical, depressing thing]] ''ever'' created in the fandom, ''because'' of that attempt towards realism. (Yes, more cynical and depressing than [[Fanfic/TheKillerRarityverse absolutely]] [[Fanfic/BackgroundPony everything]] [[Fanfic/{{Cupcakes}} else]].) It's generally a minority opinion, but it's a rather vocal one. (A lot of this tends to be blamed on the presence of an active press.) Furthermore, most antagonists come down to just being racist jerks...and a LOT of the fics are TakeThats at a specific type of real life person, who can't be handled by The System.

** This is actually something of a recurring theme in Estee's work. Many antagonists in the various stories are not just mean or cruel, but are mean or cruel in a particularly short-sighted and self-sabotaging manner. Side characters who are unhelpful or obstructionist because of some irrational point they won't let go of are also common. Then there are the stories in which the heroes sabotage themselves via some combination of stubbornness and tunnel vision.