Cupcakes (The My Little Pony Fanfic)

Going through the Content Violation Reports, I've noticed that Cupcakes was flagged. Now, I'm just wondering what we should do with this page. I mean, it isn't pornography, nor is it pro-pedophilic, but it is a very, very violent fanwork. So, I'm just asking: should we keep the page, or should we scrap it?

I say keep it. Yes it's extremely violent, but it's ridiculously so. It's so ever the top, Clive Barker would go "Ew."

Huge YMMV on the ridiculous part. I'd nuke that piece of crap from orbit if it was my decision, torture porn for the sake of torture porn is just... wrong.

If your only objection is violence, then it's a keeper.

If it's sexualized violence, that's a different story; see Agony In Pink. (Or don't, if you value your mental health.)

edited 29th Apr '12 7:56:27 PM by Ramidel

Yeah, it only counts as torture porn if there's actual porn in it. Unless it's like Gun Porn or Food Porn and the porn is the torture.

edited 29th Apr '12 8:11:27 PM by Psyga315

Maybe just lock the page, and have people keep an eye on it?

Since I flagged it, I should probably explain my reasoning. I flagged it because I read it and was completely sickened by it because it seemed so... lovingly written. On the other hand, though, other works like it - I'm thinking Cannibal Holocaust in particular - are also flagged for what I imagine are similar reasons, and I wouldn't want Cannibal Holocaust gone because of what an important horror film it is, being the progenitor of most found footage features. Eh, I myself am torn over Cupcakes.

I've read the story before. While the focus is indeed the (highly graphic) violence, I get the impression that the author intended this as an incredibly macabre Alternate Character Interpretation as opposed to torture porn with an Excuse Plot.

edited 29th Apr '12 8:39:49 PM by Shortcake

Taking a character and completely changing its main characteristics to make it a cold killer sounds like a cheap Excuse Plot for torture porn to me.

I'm under the same reasoning as Largo.

edited 29th Apr '12 8:47:03 PM by Elbruno

This post was thumped by the Merciless Hammer of Doom

Well, you have to keep in mind that this story was written in the middle of the first season, before her character was very well-defined.

But I think the real issue at hand here is whether extreme violence of this nature is acceptable, not the intentions of it.

edited 29th Apr '12 9:25:17 PM by Shortcake

It sounds like an Excuse Plot for torture, but what makes that into torture porn? Just how "lovingly" is this written, and are any of the torturers depicted as enjoying it in a sexualized manner? If so, that might count (solo porn is probably still porn after all)

From what I remember of it no Pinkie wasn't enjoying it in a sexual manner. I do think she found it funny or some such. It has been a while since I read it though. I myself didn't think it came off as porn. Merely something very violent and GRIMDARK.

edited 29th Apr '12 9:41:01 PM by Aondeug

The violence is shown in pretty explicit detail, but it never goes totally out of its way to be sadistic, nor is it described extensively to the point that it could interest nobody but the gore fetishists. There is no sexualization of it.

But even though it's not as bad as it could be, the torture is still very much present, so I wouldn't be opposed to taking action against the work.

You know I'd bet that the author was getting off in some way when writing this.

That's unimportant. It doesn't matter if the author got off on this, what matters what is we are presented with.

What I mean is that it seems like the sort of thing designed to appeal to gore fetishists.

If it was designed to be arousing, there wouldn't be a cartoon pink pony giggling and cracking jokes while ripping out the internal organs of a cartoon rainbow pony.

"I don't like this" isn't really a valid decision metric as to whether something is porn or not.

At the time when I recommended this be looked over, there was serious discussion of combing through the more explicitly violent works on the site as well, which is pretty much the only reason why Cannibal Holocaust is also on the flag list. The question isn't "is this porn", because it's not. It's just incredibly, incredibly hard to pin down WHAT, exactly, this is, torture porn, gorn, or psychological fuckery, and if it's something we want on the site.

Have the P5 been given the okay to look at works with extreme violence? I'm not against reviewing violent works and I imagine the P5 will be asked to review them eventually.

On Cupcakes: I fell into the hype and read a bit of it. My conclusion? It's torture porn and like all torture porn works, it's made to get off to. Now I'm not talking about sexual titillation, I'm talking about sadistic titillation. It might not be meant for sexual arousal but it's still porn at heart. Creepy, creepy porn.

I wasn't using "I don't like this" as my argument.

Maybe it's because I don't watch My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, but umm... it wasn't that scary. It needs way more intensive detail in order to satisfy a real Nightmare Fetishist like myself. IMO, it's just a lame Psychological Horror, not anywhere close to Gorn.

I think the story tries to be "shocking" or cause Schmuck Bait instead of trying to cause sadistic pleasure on the reader. There's nothing in it that points to titillation.

Personally I hate those kind of stories but my personal opinion doesn't mean it's inappropiate for the site.

I haven't read the fic in question, but it seems to me like violence is not the same thing as porn.