Hello & welcome back to Trotting Through Life. Last time, I took a look at the fanfic, My Little Dashie. And overall, I liked it. I thought there some hiccups along the way but for what it was. It was okay and as I mentioned last time, this is one of the most popular MLP fanfics out there. Just Google My Little Dashie and you'll get the story, fan groups, fan art (such as above) and stories and trailers for fan movies in production. inspired by My Little Dashie but why? That is what I am going over today. Why is it so popular? Now there is the obvious answer, it's good but the has to be more to it then that. Right? My belief on this is rather quite simple and it can be summed up in one phrase: self-insertion. Now this may sound like a bad thing but I don't think it is. To understand this theory, we must go back and take a look at The Dad.
If you'll recall, when I reviewed the story last week, The Dad was never referred to by a real name. Because he was never given a name. So this is where the self-insertion comes into play. I do not know if it was the author's intent when writing the story but it is my belief that many of the readers viewed themselves in the role of The Dad. Thus they felt as though, they were the ones raising Rainbow Dash and at the end, they were the ones saying goodbye and letting her go. And that would explain why so many cried at the end of this story because it felt so real to them that it crossed over from being a story into something more. I can't say I had this experience, when reading it. But that is perhaps the biggest reason, this story is so popular. Now going off this, I want to try a little exercise here. Let's use my theory and readers insert yourself into The Dad role, what would you do? I'm going to give you two options here. Let Dash go or go to Equestira with her. What would you choose? Neither choice is wrong but let me explain why I would stick with the original ending. As hard a choice as it is, I feel that this is the right choice because even though, this is not the choice, I would want to make. Sometimes decisions cannot be weighed down by what we want as we instead have to look at what is needed. Why do I bring this up? As I mentioned last time, some fans have taken it upon themselves to write alternate endings to My Little Dashie. And I'm not really a fan of this idea. Because as I said last time, I feel the ending is the one the story needed. Now the two alternate endings I read kinda left a bitter taste in my mouth. Why? Well, I'm not trying to say they missed the point of the ending of the original because I do not know their intentions for wanting to write an alternate ending but trying to give this story a happy ending, doesn't really work for me. The basic jist of both of the alternate endings had The Dad going to Equestira to live with Rainbow Dash. Now why don't like the idea of this ending goes back to the last line.
I still have a lot of life ahead of me, and I plan to make the best of it.
It is my opinion that The Dad was happy at the end and as I said, last time, his life was not over. Even though that part of it was. He was willing to let go and move on. So, that's why I don't like the alternate endings but again, let's go back to why. As in why would people write these endings. Simple, they loved the story but wanted to give it a happier ending. Even if I don't agree with that decision. Now there is one thing I also want to take a look at. Stories inspired by My Little Dashie. And again, the why. Well, my belief on this is that people love this story so much but Dash may not be their favorite character. So they may want to show their love and affection for their favorite character using the MLD format. I mean, I've gone through one of the groups and done some research on my own. Turns out if your a character in MLP, you have a My Little Dashie clone. Well except for Discord and Trixie. Someone get on that. Anyways here is a link to the group page that has the fics inspired by My Little Dashie. Now I have thought about what my MLD clone would be, if I wrote it. Well first off, the main character would be Fluttershy. I would most likely keep the ending the same and as for the title, it'd be My Girl, Fluttershy. As I have used that term in the past. Now I actually want to take a look at one fic inspired by My Little Dashie that I really enjoy. Now this story is not yet done as it is still being written and only the first three chapters have been written thus far. It is Scoot Along Sis. And here is a link to that story.
Now while this story is inspired by My Little Dashie. It does a lot of things different. The first one is that in this story, My Little Dashie is just a story that our main character has read along with many other stories. Also the title reveals something different. The main character in this story actually has more of big brother/little sister relationship with Scootaloo. Something that I haven't seen before and I believe that part of that comes from the fact that he is still living with his dad. And guess what, the brother/sister relationship is beautiful and works really well. Another thing I give this story credit for is that even though The Brother hides some aspect of the fandom from Scootaloo, he doesn't hide all of it unlike The Dad in My Little Dashie. Because there was one point in chapter 2, where little Scoots was crying and he wanted to cheer her up. What did he do? Bought her a Rainbow Dash plush. Here, just read this line.
“Hey Scoots, there’s someone for you to meet.” I held out the plushie for her to take into her hooves. “This is Rainbow Dash, the coolest, fastest most awesome Pegasus that ever lived. She’s going to be your big sister one day, like I’m your big brother. She’ll teach you to fly Scoots, oh the things you two will do.” At this point I knew I was talking more to myself, Scoots was occupied with trying to hug the life out of the Rainbow Dash plushie anyway
Now there is one other thing I really like about this story. The Brother as I said has read My Little Dashie and knows what may happen in the end but he tells himself that he would do anything to keep Scootaloo with him. So, we have a bit of an internal conflict going on. Quite honestly, I think this story is better then My Little Dashie. It just feels more fleshed out. Now yeah, we are only three chapters in as of right now but I'll be honest, this story is so eliciting more emotion out of me and almost bringing me to tears more because of the fact that The Brother knows what could happen from experience reading the other stories. So I highly suggest this story as it is my opinion superior to My Little Dashie. And if stories like this can come from My Little Dashie, that's great.
So there you have it, my look at why it is popular, why people would write an alternate ending to the story and stories inspired by My Little Dashie. Now join me next time as I close out this look at My Little Dashie as I take a look at some of the fan content produced from My Little Dashie.
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