The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => LBT Fanfiction => Topic started by: Malte279 on November 14, 2004, 12:47:17 PM
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Hi!
Again I broach a topic which is difficult to deal with. Though this is not my intention it may set some of you against me, as I cannot totally deny a certain aversion against the topic I want to address, an aversion which I hope won't appear as arrogance to those of you who oppose my view.
Reading through the land before time fanfictions at fanfiction.net and elsewhere I sometimes feel really very, very sad at times. It is because the huge majority of the stories there seems to have little in common with the land before time except for the maincharacters and sometimes the locations.
Many of the land before time fanfictions I've read so far include sex affairs among the characters, gory massacres, invasions of humans, or zombies, or aliens from outer space, or all of them at once; these fanfiction may contain whole dialogues from other movies (e.g. Star Wars) or actions such as Littlefoot fencing with a sharptooth using a stalagmite as a sword. There are fanfictions that culminate in the characters singing songs such as "My heart will go on" or "Only Time" whose connection to the land before time I really don't get.
Few people ever came up with stories that didn't contain any of the things listed above. It makes me wonder if people would approve of these things appearing in an actual land before time movie. Why is it, that the majority of fanfiction writers won't try to write a story within the certain limitations provided by the early (or even within the wider range provided by the later) land before time movies?
I hope this is not taken as an offense, and authors of such fanfictions who know me better will hopefully know that I really like them personally and don't mean to have a go at them. Still it really saddens me to read these stories and it makes my wonder why so few give it a try to write a story which could realistically be made a movie :cry
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Those writers ren't satisfied with what Disney is dishing out to us with allt he sequels (don't deny that Disney is involved, or else there wouldn't be so many sequels). Its that some of them lack the writing skills and imagination to get away from the films very well.
I have half a mind to make my own series about LBT that is about what happens after they reach the Great Valley at the end of the first one. Basically, my own idea of a collection of sequels that are not just 'darker' versions of what we have. Just new and original ideas altogether of how their Post-Great Valley Arrival adventures could have been instead.
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Well, my opinion on the matter is a fanfiction is a story written by the one who creates it giving them the freedom to write it based on the story they're after. It does not have to stick true to the plot or places they are basing it on.
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In my opinion, there are many different factors to these "distinct" LBT stories in any fanfiction. Most of the stuff in the fics you mentioned are by people who writes them depending on the mood they're in or in the style those people desire. Some of the stories containing sexuality, violence, or any other not-for-children material are by those would write any fanfiction in that method, since I have seen Pokemon, Digimon, and Disney stories written that way (I fell into a few websites that were too much for my tender virgin eyes :p (Seriously, I went into them on accident)).
It is really hard nowadays to find someone who writes fanfictions of something they really like. The only story I read so far in fanfiction.net that has a strong grasp to LBT was "The Big Quarrel" by you, Malte. I haven't read ALL the LBT stories, but yours is number one in my book :DD .
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^ Thanks a lot. The only thing is that it is rather poor English (I translated it before I got deep into English language) and that it doesn't contain any new characters. I never put the end of the story up at fanfiction.net. If you are interested in this I can send you the whole story and if you like to a second one I finished as well.
I guess I'm sort of conservative about LBT stories. I just can't imagine Littlefoot turning more violent than we have seen him in the movies. The story I'm writing right now, does contain violence. It even contains the death of a character (none of the characters we know from the movies of course) and it mentions cases of violence which happened before the begining of the story (e.g. the Pterano incident). Still, reading the display of violence in many fanfiction.net LBT fanfictions I think that I'm dealing with it in a different manner.
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The ending wasn't put up...? :blink: I think I overlooked that... And please send! :D
That is understandable. I can't see any violence in Littlefoot myself, that's why I put the action with some new characters. But please, send the story once you're finished!! :D
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Hi Mirumoto_Kenjiro!
I'll gladly send you the stories I've finished so far. I just need to know your email address. In case you don't want to post your email address here in the forum, you can send your address to me via email. My address is malte279@t-online.de. As I'm tied to a computer with a very slow connection right now it may take a few days (until) I come past a computer with a faster connection, before I can send you the stories, but I shall do so as soon as possible.
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WHich reminds me, Malte. I received your's, but it was all in computer gibberish. I cannot translate that.
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Computer gibberish? You mean it was disfigured into a chaos of meaningless signs? I sent it as a zipped Word document. Do you use microsoft word? Maybe it is a result of the zipping and unzipping, but I never had that problem before. I shall try to send it to you again, as soon as I get to a computer with a faster connection than the one I'm using right now.
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Files can grow corrupted over time. I looked at a document I did four years ago and it's already "breaking down" or turning into computer gibberish in the middle of it. :p Thankfully I have a hard copy so I knew what was written there.
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My email addy is soulblade@earthlink.net . And I have Microsoft Word so it shouldn't be much of a problem.
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Oh yeah. Make sure that the topic of the email is LBT or Land Before Time or Fanfictions. My box gets loaded with spam, so if you already sent to me, I might have accidently deleted it. :unsure: :blink:
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The original topic of this thread was very quickly replaced by something else. However, the issue is still quite current and in both the N54 and the GOF messages have been posted of lately which provide new fuel for the debate about originality of land before time fanfictions. I don't mean to offend anyone by posting the following message in the hope to reincinerate the debate but I feel I cannot keep what I'm going to write to myself. Screaming (LBT 3) doesn't do for me.
The huge majority of land before time stories contains so many elements that are really not from the land before time. Elements such as:
The intestines of Cera's Dad scattered over the floor of the Great Valley, Littlefoot slaughtering a whole tribe of sharpteeth by stabbing them with a stalactite (reciting Anakin Skywalkers speech from Episode two afterwards), Aliens from outer space attacking and murdering about each and everyone, zombies attacking the Great Valley, humans all over the place, Littlefoot and the others brought into our time to fight Godzilla or to be involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor, cases of rape...
I mean come on! Not a single one of the elements mentioned above is a product of my fantasy. Every single one of them is part of either a land before time fanfiction or of messages in which people announce their writing of such stories. I know I have not the right to tell anyone what to write and what not to.
But still, even with the strongest attempts to see this from an objective point of view, I cannot believe what I see.
Folks, is this really the land before time to you?
Is this what the land before time means to you?
Is this the gist of the land before time?
I doubt anyone can resonably argue the fact that I do have a good reason to feel frustrated and sad at reading such stuff. :cry
Where have all the treestars gone?
Is there anyone out there who feels he or she is willing and able to write a land before time story that could easily be made into a movie without contradicting previous movies or violating the atmosphere created by these previous movies?
I want to emphasize again that I am fully aware it is not for me to tell people what to write, but I would be dishonest if I just smiled and nodded at all those stories. I am no good pretender. And I think if you are honest to yourselves you too will have to admit that fanfictions of the said content are no real land before time stories. But just something done to elements of the movies.
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Yeah, all this sci-fi junk sickens me. I mean, we can have action without all that!
Look at the first flim. You can't tell me that thoese scenes with the Shaptooth didn't
have action. If you want action, throw in a nice Sharptooth attack or somthing, and
please, don't make it a gory massicur (sp) with blood and guts flying all over the
place. There's examples of this insanity right here an this site. Look at the LBT
RPGs (especily the first and sceond) and you'll find halfway through they turn into
somthing you'd see on the Sci-Fi channel. "The Great Lake" managed to make
futher, but near the end, they had to through in not only the extinction, but
humans trasporting them to the future. I almost burst out laffing when I saw that.
So next time you make an RPG or a story, try to keep it to LBT, and whatever you
do, don't add Star Wars.
@\Raptor/@
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Hear hear, Malte. :) What some have created are creative mixtures of elements, that don't fit into one category or another, but make their own. Therefore, that particular piece of writing cannot be truly considered a "true story about blah blah blah" because there are pieces being brought in from other sources that are unlikely to be found in the original writer's thoughts.
I did try a LBT story once (once mind you many years ago) and I blended elements from LBT and the TV series, Captain Planet (you know, with those rings and all that use natural elements of the earth). Could I have made it strictly LBT and forget about these abilities to work with nature and all? Sure....but without them I saw my story as dull and lifeless....that addition brought something unique, though it would fall under Malte's critical review.
Surely, not everyone can be pleased, but for some blending elements is their way of making their imprint on the story, using elements that have some meaning to them, even if it changes what could be found in the official script or film.
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I can understand what you mean exactly with such a term. However, one must understand that the more mature writers out there put in violence and swearing as a way to make the fic more 3D.
When it comes to violence and language, it's got to have the right mood. Otherwise, you just end up giving such bad material a bad name.
High description with violence has become a common practice among fanfics. Advanced writers understand something though, some readers lack imagination. As such, no matter what the situation, high description is key. I know it may be hard to believe, but it is true that some people have NO imagination. Just a simple description of the charcter dying is rather lacking. In order for one to understand how the charcter died, they must describe it in its fullest content. It must also be to the letter and to the point.
It's true guys. Just one person who said he had NO imagination started the whole increase in description thing.
However, there is one element I have yet to see maturly done on... Sex.
I have read many sex fics and basically, they disgust me. It's not because there's sex in it, it's basically because of how its done. All of which I have read are done rather immaturly. Sure, they're descriptive and many come out of love, I'll give them that, but with how they describe it and all, its just not right. They end up going too far as it were with description. Doing one maturely is very difficult, but highly possible. It takes full understanding of what it is and the right motive to really make it work. With sex, there's only so much one can handle. Also, it can't be done robotic like. It has to be done as if only love, instinct and a higher purpose made it happen. (In all truth, sex is only right if it's to start a family. One, mind you, that will be raised by love.) It is true that I will be putting a sex scene into my upcoming fic, but understand that it will revolve around these three elements and that it's purpose is all for good and nothing more.
In short, I allow such elements for fics. I leave the writer to their imagination and let them do what they want. However, if they don't do it right, they just disgust me and I lose all intrest in the end.
Trust me, a good fic can be made with everything that seems to destroy the basic criteria of the subject it revolves around, it just needs to suit the reader's tastes.
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Note that I am not trying to advocate for banning violence from LBT. The land before time is not utopia. There has been violence ever since the original movie and some of the scenes in the movies are very dark and nasty actually (for example the execution of two unconscious sharpteeth who were burried alive by Littlefoot's grandfather and Doc while the kids were cheering. After the lessons they learned in LBT 2 and 5 I would at least expect them not to cheer about this cruel murder of defenseless).
However, there is a difference between telling the sad story of the death of Littlefoot's mother, or such thrilling scenes as various combats with sharpteeth throughout the series and the description of how (quite litteraly) the inside of Cera's Dad is turned out! I do see a clear difference here.
There is a difference between describing violence and its consequences for story purposes and indulging in it in what seems a kind of mental murderous frenzy.
The story I'm writing at the moment does contain violence. It does contain the death of a character, and it does mention the deaths of characters who died before the story began (e.g. the dinosaurs who went with Pterano on the way to the Great Valley).
If it comes to involving humans, science-fiction characters, travels through time etc. I really don't think it got anything to do with the land before time anymore and yes I do think that those who are unable to work without any of these elements in a land before times story are lacking fantasy and the ability to work with what they got.
There is so much potential left for land before time stories that do not contain elements that don't belong into LBT. And I'm talking of long, good stories here, which are full of new ideas rather than being mere repetitions of what we have seen in the movies already. Why is it that nobody tries to write such stories?
As for sex in the land before time stories, I know there are many such stories "focused" on this and I agree with you about them being rather disgusting. The fact that puts me of from considering sexual descriptions in the land before time is that the characters are KIDS! Would not describing anything "going on" between them (anything more physical than what is going on between Ali and Littlefoot) be close to pedophile fantasies? Kids are taboo!!!
I also seriously doubt that anything between the grownup LBT characters could be involved for "purposes" different from the purposes of the writers of the stories you described as disgusting yourself.
But apart from my stand on this in combination with the land before time I think that I think more liberal about sexuality than you do.
I definitely disagree with your statement: In all truth, sex is only right if it's to start a family.
But this I think is a topic for the After midnight forum rather than this one.
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Note that I am not trying to advocate for banning violence from LBT. The land before time is not utopia. There has been violence ever since the original movie and some of the scenes in the movies are very dark and nasty actually (for example the execution of two unconscious sharpteeth who were burried alive by Littlefoot's grandfather and Doc while the kids were cheering. After the lessons they learned in LBT 2 and 5 I would at least expect them not to cheer about this cruel murder of defenseless).
Indeed, I must agree with you all the way that LBT isn't one of those peaceful movies out there. They give kids a relistic view and make it fit the tastes of overprotective parents. I too agree that such elements of darkness have been put in, however, they are just the right way as to not really affect kids. (Oh, and btw, the difference there is that those two in 6 tried to have them for a meal. While the ones in 2 & 5 actually protected them from the danger. I'm pretty sure that the kids have a basic idea of which are their friends and which are their enemies. And what happens to enemies in kid movies that would otherwise destroy you? They die.)
However, there is a difference between telling the sad story of the death of Littlefoot's mother, or such thrilling scenes as various combats with sharpteeth throughout the series and the description of how (quite litteraly) the inside of Cera's Dad is turned out! I do see a clear difference here.
There is a difference between describing violence and its consequences for story purposes and indulging in it in what seems a kind of mental murderous frenzy.
When it comes to death, you've got to give it the realistic view of it being good or bad. You've got to give to the reader the cause of the death. (Which in some cases is your insides being pulled out.) One thing I've seeing missed though is the affected charcter's view of witnessing a death. Indeed, I must agree that there seems to be no purpose of the violence with such stories, except for them to basically exist. There are some cases I can forgive, (ie killing someone as a means of defense.) but please, don't do it pointless, it's just not worth it. (I've had such a similar experience.)
The story I'm writing at the moment does contain violence. It does contain the death of a character, and it does mention the deaths of characters who died before the story began (e.g. the dinosaurs who went with Pterano on the way to the Great Valley).
Well, all I ask is that you do it right. Otherwise, you can expect me to just not read it. (I don't flame someone for what they do in a fic, though I sometimes have a tendancy to actually want to kill them for such a thing.)
If it comes to involving humans, science-fiction characters, travels through time etc. I really don't think it got anything to do with the land before time anymore and yes I do think that those who are unable to work without any of these elements in a land before times story are lacking fantasy and the ability to work with what they got.
There is so much potential left for land before time stories that do not contain elements that don't belong into LBT. And I'm talking of long, good stories here, which are full of new ideas rather than being mere repetitions of what we have seen in the movies already. Why is it that nobody tries to write such stories?
Well, like I said, even with such things you can make a good story, regardless. One such fic I've read is Pokemon Master. (A Pikachu turning into a sword? Yeah right!) Despite everything within a story that is meant to turn away readers who stick too close to the basic nature of the subject, the writer did such a good job, that it hardly mattered. And get this, it was the first Dark Pokemon fanfic made. It had everything that could basically destroy it and made it live. (That's a big accomplishment in the end.)
As for sex in the land before time stories, I know there are many such stories "focused" on this and I agree with you about them being rather disgusting. The fact that puts me of from considering sexual descriptions in the land before time is that the characters are KIDS! Would not describing anything "going on" between them (anything more physical than what is going on between Ali and Littlefoot) be close to pedophile fantasies? Kids are taboo!!!
I also seriously doubt that anything between the grownup LBT characters could be involved for "purposes" different from the purposes of the writers of the stories you described as disgusting yourself.
But apart from my stand on this in combination with the land before time I think that I think more liberal about sexuality than you do.
Well then, I must say that all the charcters that are involved with the sex thing are all grown up in my fic. When it comes to sex, it must be done maturely. You only attract perverts if you put in something like that with no purpose whatsoever. With sex, either make there be a soul or forget it.
I definitely disagree with your statement:
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In all truth, sex is only right if it's to start a family.
But this I think is a topic for the After midnight forum rather than this one.[/QUOTE]
Sorry, that was a religious opinion of mine taken a bit too far. Very sorry there.
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That's alright pokeplayer. This is indeed a difficult subject to discss, because so many people have strong opions on it. But I agree, sex is not something that should be in the LBT,after all, the main characters are children, any any relationship between them is purely innocent and 'freindly'. i think that those who try to mature the LBT characters so they can engage in 'intimate' relations, are twisting the story to suit thier 'older' desires.
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Indeed, I must agree with you all the way that LBT isn't one of those peaceful movies out there.
Well, all I ask is that you do it right. Otherwise, you can expect me to just not read it. (I don't flame someone for what they do in a fic, though I sometimes have a tendancy to actually want to kill them for such a thing.)
:lol: I beg your pardon, but I think we are about to switch roles. I was the one granting the fact that LBT is not a non-violence story to those he may write or enjoy fanfictions of the kind. And it was I who asked for people to consider writing land before time stories without the excessive amount of violence I described. The two quotes look like it was sort of the other way round.
Oh, and btw, the difference there is that those two in 6 tried to have them for a meal. While the ones in 2 & 5 actually protected them from the danger. I'm pretty sure that the kids have a basic idea of which are their friends and which are their enemies. And what happens to enemies in kid movies that would otherwise destroy you? They die.)
Chomper's parents would have eaten Littlefoot and the others too had it not been for Chomper and Littlefoots couragous rescue of him. I see no reason to think that the sharpteeth who were killed in LBT 6 were any different from Chomper's parents with the only exception that their eggs did not end up in the Great Valley on hatching day by accident. Now it is of course a kind of a dilemma. Kill the sharpteeth and some little Chomper's may starve, don't kill the sharpteeth and some little Littlefoot's may loose their mothers. I guess in general I wouldn't object to the sharpteeth ending up death. But the way it was done was nasty. It was not a fight for live or death (as in case of the original movie's sharptooth) but an execution of two defenseless, unconscious sharpteeth. Furthermore I consider being burried alive a particularly "unpleasant" way of being murdered, and murder it was. If at least Littlefoot and the others hadn't been standing there cheering the execution. After what they learned with Chomper I would have expected them to have a little more respect for even a natural enemy's live. I wouldn't have them crying their eyes out over the sharpteeth whose deaths sure were a relief for them at that time and in that situation. Yet I would have expected the sense of decency from them not to get all too merry over it.
When it comes to death, you've got to give it the realistic view of it being good or bad. You've got to give to the reader the cause of the death. (Which in some cases is your insides being pulled out.)
I think land before time stories written by authors trying to keep up the atmosphere of the movies can well do without forensic descriptions of death causes. Unless it is of any importance for the story I don't see why writers of a land before time story should go almost as far as describing the contents of the split guts that have just been ripped out of the boddy of Cera's Dad!!!
It is of no relevance for the story while usually emotions of characters are. Detailed descriptions of twitching innards seem to come from sheer bloodthirstiness in a story like land before time.
Well, like I said, even with such things you can make a good story, regardless. One such fic I've read is Pokemon Master. (A Pikachu turning into a sword? Yeah right!) Despite everything within a story that is meant to turn away readers who stick too close to the basic nature of the subject, the writer did such a good job, that it hardly mattered. And get this, it was the first Dark Pokemon fanfic made. It had everything that could basically destroy it and made it live. (That's a big accomplishment in the end.)
I wasn't talking about stories in general, but about land before time stories and ONLY land before time stories. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more Pokemon fanfictions reflecting Pokemon atmosphere due to the fact that Pokemon leaves the reader a greater range of freedom of action (as far as I can judge with my very limited knowledge of the Pokemon universe) than land before time does. I understand why some people may find it difficult to write good stories about characters many of whom don't even have hands which are so important for many actions we are accustomed to, about characters whose main desire is to live in peace and harmony with enough to eat and to drink.
Yet I do not waver in my point that even in the stricktly bordered LBT universe there is a huge potential for totally new and exciting stories left, but nobody dares to give writing them an attempt.
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It might just be me, but it seems that this topic, the way its going, should be moved to the After Midnight section. Do you guys agree?
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Actually I think that it should stay where it is. It deals mainly with fanfictions and their content. If that content is what people post in the fanfiction board I don't think that debating it there would be less appropriate.
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At the end of the day, it's all down to the author. As a reader, you can either look at it or ignore it. I'l admit that my fanfic's by no means has the right kind of content to be a LBT movie plot but it's all about being given the freedom to do as you want. There's no way I'd approach a LBT worker with my story, I'd just get it flung back in my face and get laughed at. It's all down to the imagination of the writer. I'm sure everyone who writes a story has some means of inspiration from something else that's already out there. My story will never become a plausible plot for a LBT coz I've included so many other seemingly incompatable features to it but I've still centred it around the LBT cast and their world.
I can understand why Malte's having a moan, but just because it doesnt perfectly model what's already been established as the norm for the LBT world doesnt mean it's crap! Slight variations make it more interesting. I mean why does everyone naturally assume that Littlefoot and Ali will fall in love with each other?! Coz he's a boy, she's a girl and they're the same type of dinosaurs?! It's that simple is it?
Dont get me wrong, I'm not have a go at anyone, but I dont think it's fair to judge a story just because it's not a clone of movies. The writer can be very good at what they do but being shunted for the content is an injustice I reckon...
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I see your reasoning littlefoot. I would go even further. Not not are they are thry of the same species, they're about the same age as well. However, we must remember any relationship between them is only in the very early stages .As much as we'd like to see what happens , we can only guess at this point.
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I dont think it's fair to judge a story just because it's not a clone of movies.
I have to agree on that, with your own story being a proof of the fact. I am not flattering you, nor do I deny that personally I by all means prefer land before time story without humans and zombies and all that.
However, having read a great part of your story ("Battle of the Sacret Essences") I must say it would be very unfair to even think of putting it on the same level as other stories from which I gave examples before. There is a great deal of emotion in your story and exciting storys too. The way you describe the friendship between Jason and Littlefoot is very, very moving indeed. I sent you long reviews about your story.
Still the great majority of the stories written without care for what could and what could not appear in a land before time movie also show an extreme lack of such elements as those I appreciate about your story. Many a story resembles a mere repitition of other movies with LBT characters in the roles of people who are mainly busy killing, killing more, and killing even more. Some of those storys resemble almost lists of atrocities rather than stories.
To come back to the quote which introduces this message, again I do agree with it. Yet I never ever demanded clones from the movies. There is nothing more pointless as mere repetitions of storys that have already been told. You will find that I clearly excluded them from the kind of land before time storys I'm speaking up for:There is so much potential left for land before time stories that do not contain elements that don't belong into LBT. And I'm talking of long, good stories here, which are full of new ideas rather than being mere repetitions of what we have seen in the movies already. Why is it that nobody tries to write such stories?
It is really quite sad for me that virtually no one seems to feel like giving an original land before time story a try.
The newest idea from the N54 forum is a North American P51 D Mustang appearing in the Great Valley. I am interested in WW2 planes (as sure enough you remember from our visit to the science museum, don't you Littlefoot-1616 ;) ) But what business do they have in LBT. Another message their told about a dream in which littlefoot lost his lower left leg beneath the knee. I would not be surprised to read this as part of a fanfiction soon.
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those parts have no place in LBT. Yet, i too have added elements that are not native to LBT, and unfortunately, my imagination being quite expansive, the RPs have not worked due to my imagination putting the LBT characters (and the characters I've added in situations that are not native to LBT.
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Yet, i too have added elements that are not native to LBT, and unfortunately, my imagination being quite expansive, the RPs have not worked due to my imagination putting the LBT characters (and the characters I've added in situations that are not native to LBT.
I mean no offense to anyone, but what you wrote stirs up a rather provoking question.
Does having an expansive imagination require people to go beyond the set borders in this case (by including non LBT elements into the stories)?
In that case the reverse would say that I lack imagination.
Or else should not an expansive imagination enable people to make good stories of the limited rescources (possibilities) they have in case of LBT rather than taking the easy way and just include whatever they like?
In that case the reverse would say that all those unable to write an LBT story within these borders lack imagination.
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In that case I lack imagination :P: to be honest, I find it difficult to stay within the relatively limited range of LBT stories. I am used to reading stories of great expanse, where characters are very complex and diverse. However LBT is relatively simple, the characters have no desire or need to leave a location that is safe and provides them with enough food anf water. Of course as the films have shown, other elements that are not part of LBT have been added(the Rainbowfaces come to mind IMO) and the stories themselves have been simplified(take the 'harmless' Sharpteeth for example.).
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No...that's not true Malte! You don't lack imagination and in actual fact, you are very brave to sit down and try and keep utmost control over your thought and imagination process and NOT to go overboard. You've take on the challenge of constricting yourself to the barriers laid out by the LBT world and work between them. That's no lack of imagination my friend ;) That is a very noble and if not, difficult task to try and fulfil. It's very easy to want to include absolutely everything you like into a story but it's much harder to work to strict guidelines that are already in place! :) A very commendable effort Malte! One that should not be frowned upon just coz it doesnt include bit of modern technology ;)
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littlefoot has a point. Having the ability to work with guidelines when writing a story is a good thing... :D
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No...that's not true Malte! You don't lack imagination and in actual fact, you are very brave to sit down and try and keep utmost control over your thought and imagination process and NOT to go overboard. You've take on the challenge of constricting yourself to the barriers laid out by the LBT world and work between them. That's no lack of imagination my friend ;) That is a very noble and if not, difficult task to try and fulfil. It's very easy to want to include absolutely everything you like into a story but it's much harder to work to strict guidelines that are already in place! :) A very commendable effort Malte! One that should not be frowned upon just coz it doesnt include bit of modern technology ;)
Where's the champagne when I need it? That right there is worth a toast! :D
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Thank you all very much. :)
But I wasn't fishing for compliments. Much rather would I have a toast on the efforts of somebody else to write a land before time story trying to stay within the limits the movies set.
Gee, I am pesky, am I not? ;)
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wouldnt say it if it weren't true! ;)
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RRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!
People who know me that I'm quite peaceful a character, but today the newest idea of a writer of so called fanfiction made me hit the roof and crash right through it! Because of the many recent suggestions about fanfictions of the kind which I find got nothing to do with LBT I thought what might be the worst of all ideas. The most loathsome idea possible for an LBT story. I thought that involving the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima would be the most hideous of all ideas and having thought of this, I was confident that nothing people might off about LBT could upset me anymore.
I was wrong!
Today a so called fan in the N54 forum drew a line between the land before time and... Auschwitz!
I think it is the first time I ever used nothing but capital letters in a response to a message. How sick can people get! Is there no decency left in those people?
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OK...cant defend that one! There can't be any ground for reasoning on that one! That's just beyond idioicy :angry:
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At least the post is now gone so nobody else has to read that crap. I can tolerate Star Wars, since that's fiction....but not that. :angry:
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Well, I must admit that I've come up with some idiotic ideas for LBT fanfiction myself. :P:
I had one idea, back when there was only LBT1-5, that the gang travel into the future to fight off an evil alien, and gain superpowers. At the end, I had the gang end up back at their own time with no memory of it, and dying because THE METOR hit right where they were. -_-
These days, I look back and ask, where did I come up with that STUPID idea? :(
The newest ideas I've come up with will probably be the closest I'll ever get to making a LBT story that works with the movies. :)
EDIT: (And why does my Avatar keep showing as a big red X? :angry:)
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There are a few days when I wish I could write a fanfic that stayed within the limits of LBT, but truth be told, I cannot do this. I have tried before to write G and failed miserably, and only sucessfully made a few PG rated fanfics. If I cannot even stay within G, then I don't see how I can make a "true" LBT fanfic.
I do believe that violence can be despicable if used in the wrong way. With my fanfics, I am very careful not to overflow the fanfic with too much descriptive violence, otherwise the plot would seem to disappear. My fanfics are normally PG-13, but sometimes they have risen to R, and always due to increased violence.
But to be honest, another reason why I would have trouble writing a "true" LBT story is because staying within the boundaries would be too difficult for me.
I'd love to post an LBT fanfic here sometime, but due to how I write my fanfics, I have my doubts I'll be able to, sadly.
And about the big red X, I'm not sure. Maybe the link is broken.
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There are a few days when I wish I could write a fanfic that stayed within the limits of LBT, but truth be told, I cannot do this. I have tried before to write G and failed miserably, and only sucessfully made a few PG rated fanfics.
Do you ever wonder why you have trouble writing G- or even PG-rated fanfics? I agree that this does indeed place limits on the freedom available, but this goes back to something my music teacher taught me in high school:
I tended to go overboard with the variety of themes in my music compositions in high school. My music teacher talked to me about this and taught me the importance of theme, and staying within the boundaries of my own work.
I believe this applies to any form of art, even a fanfic. The atmosphere of the original piece can be related to more directly if similar themes are used, either in a similar style, or in variation. To me, the LBT universe has certain 'themes' that should probably be adhered to, in order to preserve the LBT feeling of the fanfic. Drifting too far from the basic theme results in a situation simiar to what my music teacher was talking to me about; something along the lines of:
"Goldilocks is wandering through the mountains and runs into 3 bears who get chased away by the three little pigs who get shot by the 7 dwarfs who are then killed by malificent throwing apples at them." :lol
It gets so out-of-context that the original idea of Goldilocks is lost. This holds true for fanfics as well. If the LBT atmosphere is desired, the story must stay withint the 'theme' boundaries. This includes keeping it more-or-less family-oriented, as that is a major part of the LBT universe.
But to be honest, another reason why I would have trouble writing a "true" LBT story is because staying within the boundaries would be too difficult for me.
Perhaps you simply need more practice. Writing doesn't come easy to me, but if you honestly wanted to learn to write a G or even PG-rated LBT fanfic, I'm sure you could with some effort. Just give it an honest shot. If you get stuck, think about Why you get stuck. There must be some reason that keeping it G-rated is so hard for you. Consider this and solve the problem at the source.
Just a thought. B)
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I guess the best way for me to explain why G is so hard for me is because I quickly lose interest in the idea. While there are times when I wish I could write within the boundaries, I also know it wouldn't be a good idea for me to do so, as I am no longer fond of some elements of the movie series.
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I guess the best way for me to explain why G is so hard for me is because I quickly lose interest in the idea if it stays G.
That is probably why many people "outgrow" the LBT series; it just become too elementary for them. They move onto longer, more complex stories with more 'mature' content.
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So blood, sex, and gore are all that can keep you interested? Should not the land before time movies, the way they are, be the perfect counterproof? They don't have any extreme violence and if there is any, it is usually the one caused by nature's design of carnivores. How often did you try to write LBT stories within the boundaries? Looking at the writings at fanfiction.net I don't get the impression that very many fans ever thought about an LBT story that doesn't include humans, aliens from outer space, blood, gore, violence etc.
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I never said that blood and gore were the only things that keep me interested, nor did I ever say that I liked sex....
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I apologize for my harsh tone.
It is excessive violence in particular however that makes stories PG rather than G, so when you write, that G is so hard for you because you quickly lose interest in the idea, this does sound like the elements I named are what alone makes stories interesting enough to be written.
I admit that I'm kind of radical on this, but there is almost not a single land before time story out there which sticks to the limits. When I read about the atrocious things supposed fans of LBT want to do to the characters it really makes me wonder about them. When I read fanfictions whose whole text and action is nothing but a star wars ripoff (with stalactites serving as light sabers and the author not even telling how Littlefoot is supposed to hold one when he uses it to slaughter a whold tribe of sharpteeth) I really wonder if those people are completely incapable of thinking of their own stories, and when I read about the obvious incapability of anyone to keep humans, aliens from outer space, and other non-LBT elements out of such stories I really wonder whats so extremely difficult about this.
There are many fanfictions out there which, as a devoted fan, I can consider nothing better than... (censored).
This wouldn't be so bad if only there were at least some attempts from some fans to write actual LBT stories, but nobody seems to be willing to give it so much as a try. Sometimes it makes me fear that a majority of LBT fans is actually a rather violence loving, bloodthirsty lot, taking unexpected delight in the innards of LBT characters! :angry:
Does this sound offensive? I suppose so. But looking through those supposed fanfiction you will find that I have at least some good points for getting such an impression and if you (everybody) cannot share my frustration at least you may be able to see where it comes from.
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I do believe it's harder to write a story stuck to the limits than it is to be free to write what you wish, how you wish. When you don't stick to the standards, your imagination is more free, and there are more options. But confined, it's harder to come up with a story that sticks strictly to the limits. That's what I believe anyway.
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well the fact of the manner is that Fanfics are what they are Fanfiction story's if you give someone a piece-o-papper and ask them to write a LBT story and told them to be creative they will evidently write a story that they love-to-death but you might not like but amazingly I have to admit theres storys on FF.net and other sites that turn my stomake once I read a story where someone wrote a story were the gang was killed buy the metior and died a horrible and in most cases disgusting death. that was verry painfull for me to read it. but I did not allow it to effect me cause I can tell this story was to one day be deleted.
as for my storys I must also admit they are PG-13 even R rated at times but I have the hart to makesure the main charactors in the story are delt with respect.
in almost every story theres a certain respect you just have to read it to find it.
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Same with me. I never just kill off a character for the heck of it. Nor do I allow any sort of dislike toward the character affect my decision of what to do with them in the story. I'm not a character basher.
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right. I'd never do something to dishonor the charactors nor the folk who put there blood, sweat, and tears in the saga. I.E. if I make a LBT story R rated it doesn't mean I'm gonna kill of the main charactors. I'm also not a main charactor basher I love them no matter what.
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I do believe it's harder to write a story stuck to the limits than it is to be free to write what you wish, how you wish. When you don't stick to the standards, your imagination is more free, and there are more options. But confined, it's harder to come up with a story that sticks strictly to the limits. That's what I believe anyway.
This goes back to what I was saying about the importance of theme in the art world. If the theme keeps changing, the audience becomes confused as to what world they're in. The ability to keep a consistant theme and keep the audience within the world that the story builds for them, is key to making strong, powerful art. The randomness and lack of structure and theme found in many LBT stories tends to cause the story to completely drift from its original intent (as an LBT universe fanfic) into a random, unknown world where events can occur that no reader can prepare for or understand. This is because the story is outside of the theme (universe) of the LBT world, and LBT fans can no longer relate this story to the LBT world. In short, its effect as an LBT-based fanfic, is lost.
The ability to write within limits, I believe, separates the good artists from the great artists. A good artist can come up with a theme and progress it in a direction. A great artist can vary and move the story (or other form of art) while remaining within the central theme of the piece of art.
That is what I believe.
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forgive me Action9000 but I don't get what your saying. do you think FanFics go out of topic with LBT or does the storys go out of topic with them selfs?
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I'm saying that many fanfics drift away from their original idea. They start off with one idea, then jump around so erractically that the original idea is completely lost on the reader.
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OH ok. simply put the storys go OFF TOPIC I read you now.
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We just had this same thing pop up at another board I happen to have a considerable charge over....the purists vs. the ones who want to change a thing here and there. A compromise was sort of reached where a bit of extra stuff not seen in the original source would be allowed in a role play, but not so much that we had lost our original vision. I'm sure there's a fine balance in fanfictions too.
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I really wonder if those people are completely incapable of thinking of their own stories, and when I read about the obvious incapability of anyone to keep humans, aliens from outer space, and other non-LBT elements out of such stories I really wonder whats so extremely difficult about this.
I think the truth is, most people simply don't want to, or don't have an interest to do so.
It honestly seems to me that the 'war' going on between the advocates of "Pure" fanfics and "non-pure" fanfics is based around a simple concept:
Pure fanfics are written by people with mindset A, for people with mindset A.
Non-pure fanfics are written by people with mindset B, for people with mindset B.
In other words, they are almost completely different styles of writing, written by different people, written for different people. It simply seems that more people have mindset B than mindset A, and comparing them directly is very difficult.
If people with mindset A don't like mindset B's fanfics, I suppose the As have to live with that. And vice versa. The main reason the people in mindset A are fighting this so hard (mainly Malte, but I am a strong supporter of pure LBT fanfics, myself, at least to the point of taking a role in the strict LBT RPG and arguing the value of an pure LBT fanfic in this forum), is because there are so few people with mindset A. Malte stands basically alone in this fight, and I do say, I admire his ability to stand tall, while surrounded by people who may not understand his reasoning.
A problem we have in today's world, is that LBT world has expanded so far that perhaps some people have a hard time drawing the lines between "LBT Element" and "Non-LBT element." After all, the series has had its share of odd incidents, such as freakish weather (LBT 8), dinosaurs that don't exist (LBT 11), dreams shared among all longnecks (LBT 10), the crazy sky during the eclipse (LBT 10), flowers which seem to heal instantly (LBT 4), and even aliens (LBT 7). Who can honestly say what is reasonable in the LBT world anymore? How does a writer know exactly where to draw the line? I think it just comes down to reasoning and consideration of the logic of the story element, but there is no definite way to define what could be in an LBT story. The artist needs to internally understand where the line is if they wish to write a pure LBT fic. I think many of us know when we see an element that is clearly gone out of the LBT world, but I think it's impossible to define clearly what can and can't be in a pure LBT story.
I would just like to say, Malte, that I am with you on this matter; Perhaps not to the point of being against Non-Pure fanfics (while I do prefer pure LBT fanfics myself, I see no strong reason to argue against non-pure fanfics), but I agree that pure LBT fanfics have a special feeling about them, the psychological feeling of being connected to the series while having fresh and new ideas. In my eyes, a pure LBT fanfic feels like an extension of the series we know and love. A non-pure LBT fanfic feels like nothing more than a fictional novel or story using existing characters. It takes much effort and talent to create a fresh idea while keeping such strong ties to the original film, and I respect you, Malte, for supporting the idea. B)
To everyone on side B (the non-purist side) of the fanfic realm, let me just say that I respect your work and waht you do. You are a different kind of people than those of us on Side A, and you write for a different audience. There is a good share of strong, non-pure LBT fanfics out there as well. Keep up the good work, but keep the work relatively clean for this forum. B)
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I'm going to extend my ideas of my last post a bit:
This is a bit of a 'leap of faith' if you will, but I'm going to attempt to dive into the minds of each side and try to explain what each side *may* be thinking.
The purists (aka, Mindset A):
"I'm going to write a pure LBT fanfic for all LBT fans to enjoy. It's important to me to keep the feeling of the original films in my fanfic, so the reader can become attached to my story just like they become attached to the originals."
The Non-purists (aka, Mindset B ):
"The LBT world as we know it is so limited, but it has so much potential for expansion. Why not use it, and everyone can appreciate my fanfic's unique creativity and people can enjoy the LBT characters in brand new situations? Why intentionally limit my options when there is unlimited freedom in the world of art and fiction? I don't necessarily intend to disturb people with violent content, nor do I necessarily approve of excessive violence. I want to bring a new level of creativity to the LBT universe and use it to its full potential, like a great novel or hollywood movie."
The problem is that the purists tend to believe that the non-purists are heartless killers with no respect for the original characters, and the non-purists believe that the purists have limited thinking, and see no reason to limit creativity. After all, isn't art supposed to be boundless and expressive?
The fact is, I don't believe that non-purists have an overly violent or agressive nature, nor do I believe that purists have poor creativity. It seems as though both sides have misinterpretted the other sides's artistic expression. Just because Spielberg's films have violent content, is Spielberg, or are his writers, violent, 'evil' people? I think not; it is there for the sake of the art that is being shown.
I will agree that some non-pure LBT fanfics are very violent in nature, but that is the way the writer intended it to be. The world has its share of R-rated films. Fanfics deserve to have this same freedom. If one person doesn't like the violence, then that story probably isn't intended for that audience. Every piece of writing is written to a select audience; I have been taught this concept since about grade 5 or 6. Also, just because the audience who reads a violent fanfic enjoys it, that does not mean that the reader is overly violent or aggressive. Heck, I enjoyed the movie "Con Air" which is quite violent. For those of you who know me, I'm not a violent person. :P:
I understand that the violence itself isn't the issue; ths issue is the detail in which it is expressed in some fanfics (such as describing how various parts of a character's body are mutilated). A few of us worry about what sorts of people it must take to write such detailed descriptions. The truth is, while a shread of violent nature may be a factor, I believe such writers are experiementing and trying to develop their skills. I'm sure that some writers were taught to describe a scene in its entirety, as some people lack the imagination to create the scene in their minds for themselves. I've heard of such a writing style being taught before, and it wouldn't surprise me to see such writers among us.
Fans of the LBT characters tend to want to experiment with different circumstances, away from the "same old, same old" of the film series, at least that is my theory. Purists love the series as it is and desire to see what the fans can come up with that works in the world they already love. They are two distinct groups who will probably never agree. Nevertheless, I believe we can live in harmony and understand each other for who we are.
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^ That sounds a lot like our very long MSN convo the other day. :P: Too bad I didn't save it...should've posted it here...I think a lot could've been learned from it.
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Brilliant and thorough summary of the whole issue Tim.
It honestly seems to me that the 'war' going on between the advocates of "Pure" fanfics and "non-pure" fanfics is based around a simple concept:
I hate to think of myself as a "warrior", but I must admit that my own stand on the whole matter has become ever more radical the more radical the fanfictions I read became. This is something that worries me very much. I don't tend to be radical and I usually have very great respect for ideas and opinions different from my own. This respect has become ever less in case of LBT fanfictions.
The main reason the people in mindset A are fighting this so hard (mainly Malte, but I am a strong supporter of pure LBT fanfics, myself, at least to the point of taking a role in the strict LBT RPG and arguing the value of an pure LBT fanfic in this forum), is because there are so few people with mindset A.
I guess this is one point. Another is the nature of the stuff usually added to LBT names in the fanfictions. The stuff usually picked up for LBT fanfictions, is usually so extremely far from the land before time. Humans, Zombies, Cyborgs, Robots, time travels (suggestsions such as placing Littlefoot and the others at Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941 and even (get this! :angry:) in Auschwitz!), lots and lots of Aliens from outer space (kinds that don't even look like dinosaurs as those rainbowfaces did), lots and lots of weapons and characters using them with lustfully, and tons and tons of dialogues which are very poor rip offs from movies like Titanic and Star Wars.
If indeed it was so much about the writers being so creative, why is it that so often the result is a mere patchwork of different movies with little to no own ideas at all? Wouldn't it be much more creative in this case to come up with an entirely own story? Creating an own world in which the author is the one to decide about rules following only the own laws?
That way there wouldn't be any limitations whatsoever, you would be the only ones to be credited for the content of your stories, and the difference to the LBT fanfictions I'm refering to would often be so marginal that there would be little more than a change of character names.
I'm being very unfair if I write as if every fanfiction write who doesn't stick to the rules had no fantasy or talent. Many of you definitely do.
I read most of Jason's Battle of the Sacred essences, a story which on the one hand contains almost everything I disapprove of in LBT stories, yet is on the other hand so well written, so excitingly told, with so interesting characters, and so strong emotion that even I cannot deny its charm. The story is well written and Jason deserves all the credit he can get for that.
And still such stories always leave the impression for me that two non-fitting parts of a jigsaw puzzle were taped roughly together. This impression is much stronger in case of the fanfictions which are not written with as much passion as Battle of the Sacret Essences. I regret I have to repeat that in many of the stories the authors can't seem to wait for their massacres to begin. Again I'm not saying that all writers of LBT fanfictions with non-LBT elements are that way, but many are.
A problem we have in today's world, is that LBT world has expanded so far that perhaps some people have a hard time drawing the lines between "LBT Element" and "Non-LBT element." After all, the series has had its share of odd incidents, such as freakish weather (LBT 8), dinosaurs that don't exist (LBT 11), dreams shared among all longnecks (LBT 10), the crazy sky during the eclipse (LBT 10), flowers which seem to heal instantly (LBT 4), and even aliens (LBT 7).
All too true (except (off topic) that in fact there are two Triassic species which very much resembled the Tinysaurs). I suppose it is difficult for everyone to draw a clear line between what would be possible in an LBT movie and what wouldn't. Yet a vague line is possible, and I don't think I'm too subjective when I claim that all the human-, zombie-, cyborg-, slaughter stuff would be way beyond even a very vague line marking the possibilities of what might happen in an LBT movie.
The problem is that the purists tend to believe that the non-purists are heartless killers with no respect for the original characters, and the non-purists believe that the purists have limited thinking, and see no reason to limit creativity. After all, isn't art supposed to be boundless and expressive?
While I'm not yet quite there, I must confess that my view about the writers of the fanfictions I'm talking about is shifting ever more in that direction, the more of these stories or story ideas I'm reading. I'm ever more under the impression that people will cheer just everything provided it quenches their thirst for blood and science fiction in a not overly violent, non-science fiction genre. I would love to be disproven by those authors, or much rather by the stories they write.
As for the question of art, I'm rather sceptical about taking a shade of somebody elses art and then add plenty of stuff to it that doesn't fit at all. This is being done in many fields of art. Depending on the different messages sent by the art (or in this case the stories) the result is sometimes something that deserves to be labeled a "perversion" of the original idea (a process which can be observed not only in arts).
I will agree that some non-pure LBT fanfics are very violent in nature, but that is the way the writer intended it to be. The world has its share of R-rated films. Fanfics deserve to have this same freedom. If one person doesn't like the violence, then that story probably isn't intended for that audience. Every piece of writing is written to a select audience; I have been taught this concept since about grade 5 or 6.
And this is where I gradually become scared of myself. I used to be able to just shrug off the fanfictions with non-LBT content and say "why would I care?". I'm afraid I'm loosing this stoicism more and more. It would be better if I could care so little about the non-LBT LBT stories. There is almost no possibility to evade them however. Look at the fanfictions that exist, look at the threads about new story ideas, look at the RPGs... the non-LBT stories, even in their extremest form, are to be found at every inofficial place that may be interesting for LBT fans, while on the other hand it becomes more difficult to find pure LBT stuff at those places.
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Hmm... a friend of mine, Cunomon I like to call her, is writing a Land Before Time fanfic. I told her about this place and she said she'll post it here. You might like this fanfic, Malte, because it's very close to being, what you call, a true LBT fanfic. The only difference is that it takes place a few generations after LBT.
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Well, I like to think of LBT 4's so called non-ture element to be very true.
The way I look at that is simple. Grandpa Longneck had a certian illness and only a certian plant could cure him. Of course, there is the concept of the plant making him feel so good right away. However, I've known certian things, such as caffine and cocaine, to have the side effect of making one feel incredably good almost instantly. Maybe that was a possible side effect of the Nightflower. You immediately feel better, but in reality, you are not. Overtime, the Nightflower kills whatever illness it is. That's at least the way I think of it. :)
dreams shared among all longnecks (LBT 10)
That may not be as much of a non-true thing as one may think. I have discussed this before with Malte, though at that time, I did have somewhat of a different POV. It is said that when more than one person, as well as multiple times, has the same dream, it means something important is going to happen. However, there is one concept with this that doesn't seem to fit. Now, I can understand Grandma, Grandpa, Littlefoot and Bron to all have the same dream. In their case, one would believe it was meant to help them all be reunited. Sue had the same dream, and ended up finding the love of her life. As for the rest of the longnecks, it seems to be only becuase of the Solar Eclipse. I understand that to be quite a wonderful thing to witness. Chances are that you'll be lucky to see it even once in your life. However, it is still a question of whether it was so important that a dream should occur, depicting it happening.
So, as you can see, that LBT one is still questionalbe. :^.^:
I'll discuss more later. I've got to go now.
See ya. :)
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Hmm... a friend of mine, Cunomon I like to call her, is writing a Land Before Time fanfic. I told her about this place and she said she'll post it here. You might like this fanfic, Malte, because it's very close to being, what you call, a true LBT fanfic. The only difference is that it takes place a few generations after LBT.
I'm really looking forward to read this story :yes
Also I'm looking forward to meet a new member here in the GOF.
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I Myself am in the B camp, as anyone who has read some of rrs can attest. However I don't see this issue as one of :war' but rather a difference in vision. While I agree that most of us here include non-LBt ekements, we try to keep the non-lbt elements from pre-dominating the story. Many fanfics, unfortunately let that happen. The story becomes a vechile for the release of all their inner passions and feelinds, and they end up having the characters involved in mature or unrealistic situations. Good writers can mitigate this, and produce a story, that while not hewing to a pure LBt storyline, is still an enjoyable read.
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I was thinking about writing an lbt fanfic where not like people from star wars go and bring the gang on a adventure and the gang gets stuck in a war or whatever, I was thinking about having like some human from the future find out that the government got the ideas in lbt movies from writings on walls made by cavemen and made them into movies to make money. It is now the time of lbt 1,223 and the stories are still great except in the most recent one, the gang got eaten by a sharptooth. The human finds this to be what actually happend 20 million years ago and travels back in time to prevent that occurance and meets the gang and assists them in their struggles through the course of 40 years. Finally, the gang meets the sharptooth and the human from the future helps the gang kill it. In the course of 40 years, they could have many adventures except the gang would have assistance from advanced technology such as transproter capabilities, abitlities to project force fields, and the help from the human from the future since he would have a lazer sword. I sorta like this idea but it would be really hard to explain it all. There would be no sex, blood, or gore. All there would be is the gang having adventures with futuristic technology. Anyone else like the idea?
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I really hate fanfictions where like Littlefoot and Ducky have sex. That's just disquesting in my opinion. Not to mention that in is physically impossible without causing Ducky serious injury. Has anyone run into that sort of crap?
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After reading the last 4 pages, I must say I'm impressed with everyone's P.O.V's.
It has definetly given something to think about.....however on the subject of non LBT elements in our fan-fics, I believe the closest my fanfic comes to would have to be physical and spiritual re-incarnation....don't worry I will most likely stay within the basic boundaries of LBT
Although I tend to aim more towards group A, and pure LBT fanfics, I feel that if an author needs to include non LBT elements, then they sould feel free to do so....but I can only take it so far...
But that is the author choice....and I have no say in that
And now to shut up! :DD
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I think that a person should have the freedom to write what they want to. We don't have to like it though.
The only thing's I do not approve of is sexual things relating to LBT, and horrible stories where the gang is murdered or some other crap like that. I think that some of them involving star wars is quite funny, but I don't want them to put anything like that in the LBT sequals or anything. It's sorta fun to step out of the box for a while and not just have LBT, but mix it with other things like star wars. I personally would love to read a Littlefoot/Ali romance so long as there was no explicit details or anything. A kiss or whatever is okay, but that's about it. I'm more interested in their parents reaction to them being in love and their friends reaction as well. It would be interesting to see how they would live together, how they would get along in stressful times, and how deeply their love would go (to an acceptable level of course). Now that would be a good fanfic.
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I'm not quite sure what made me revive this, but I did. Anyways, I have a story that I may or may not post, which has one point where one of the "villians"(a Dromaeosaurid) dies. He is flung off a cliff and is impaled on numerous sharp rocks. However, this is not described. The only clue to what happened is the gang's reaction, written as "They winced as the terrible sound of the Fastbiter's landing tore the air." This, I believe, would be acceptable, because the event is only implied. I do not describe every gory detail, I simply imply what happened.
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However, this is not described. The only clue to what happened is the gang's reaction, written as "They winced as the terrible sound of the Fastbiter's landing tore the air." This, I believe, would be acceptable, because the event is only implied. I do not describe every gory detail, I simply imply what happened.
That works very, very well! I actually look forward to reading this, even if you PM to me! :^.^:
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Yeah, all this sci-fi junk sickens me. I mean, we can have action without all that!
Look at the first flim. You can't tell me that thoese scenes with the Shaptooth didn't
have action. If you want action, throw in a nice Sharptooth attack or somthing, and
please, don't make it a gory massicur (sp) with blood and guts flying all over the
place. There's examples of this insanity right here an this site. Look at the LBT
RPGs (especily the first and sceond) and you'll find halfway through they turn into
somthing you'd see on the Sci-Fi channel. "The Great Lake" managed to make
futher, but near the end, they had to through in not only the extinction, but
humans trasporting them to the future. I almost burst out laffing when I saw that.
So next time you make an RPG or a story, try to keep it to LBT, and whatever you
do, don't add Star Wars.
@\Raptor/@
Well, this makes me feel better about myself! :lol:
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I'm going to extend my ideas of my last post a bit:
This is a bit of a 'leap of faith' if you will, but I'm going to attempt to dive into the minds of each side and try to explain what each side *may* be thinking.
The purists (aka, Mindset A):
"I'm going to write a pure LBT fanfic for all LBT fans to enjoy. It's important to me to keep the feeling of the original films in my fanfic, so the reader can become attached to my story just like they become attached to the originals."
The Non-purists (aka, Mindset B ):
"The LBT world as we know it is so limited, but it has so much potential for expansion. Why not use it, and everyone can appreciate my fanfic's unique creativity and people can enjoy the LBT characters in brand new situations? Why intentionally limit my options when there is unlimited freedom in the world of art and fiction? I don't necessarily intend to disturb people with violent content, nor do I necessarily approve of excessive violence. I want to bring a new level of creativity to the LBT universe and use it to its full potential, like a great novel or hollywood movie."
The problem is that the purists tend to believe that the non-purists are heartless killers with no respect for the original characters, and the non-purists believe that the purists have limited thinking, and see no reason to limit creativity. After all, isn't art supposed to be boundless and expressive?
The fact is, I don't believe that non-purists have an overly violent or agressive nature, nor do I believe that purists have poor creativity. It seems as though both sides have misinterpretted the other sides's artistic expression. Just because Spielberg's films have violent content, is Spielberg, or are his writers, violent, 'evil' people? I think not; it is there for the sake of the art that is being shown.
I will agree that some non-pure LBT fanfics are very violent in nature, but that is the way the writer intended it to be. The world has its share of R-rated films. Fanfics deserve to have this same freedom. If one person doesn't like the violence, then that story probably isn't intended for that audience. Every piece of writing is written to a select audience; I have been taught this concept since about grade 5 or 6. Also, just because the audience who reads a violent fanfic enjoys it, that does not mean that the reader is overly violent or aggressive. Heck, I enjoyed the movie "Con Air" which is quite violent. For those of you who know me, I'm not a violent person. :P:
I understand that the violence itself isn't the issue; ths issue is the detail in which it is expressed in some fanfics (such as describing how various parts of a character's body are mutilated). A few of us worry about what sorts of people it must take to write such detailed descriptions. The truth is, while a shread of violent nature may be a factor, I believe such writers are experiementing and trying to develop their skills. I'm sure that some writers were taught to describe a scene in its entirety, as some people lack the imagination to create the scene in their minds for themselves. I've heard of such a writing style being taught before, and it wouldn't surprise me to see such writers among us.
Fans of the LBT characters tend to want to experiment with different circumstances, away from the "same old, same old" of the film series, at least that is my theory. Purists love the series as it is and desire to see what the fans can come up with that works in the world they already love. They are two distinct groups who will probably never agree. Nevertheless, I believe we can live in harmony and understand each other for who we are.
Thank you! I'm personally of mindset B, and I believe LBT is a good and wholesome universe to write about, not to mention compatible. I mean, the characters are perfect for crossover fanfics. They all have had defining experiences of their own and have all gone on many adventures, but they still are young and have much more space for developments in their lives. They are pretty nonviolent, but we have seen they will do whatever they must to win the day. They are usually friendly to any newcomer as well, making them all the more endearing to a crossover.
I've noticed violent content as another point of contention about crossovers. LBT is a "childrens" series, and therefore has very little violence of its own, but I don't believe it is that farfetched for battles and fighting to take place regularly in an LBT story, as long as it isn't too gory. Anyone can be pushed to violence, as we see everyday, and if peace or innocents in LBT were threatened, I know anyone from the LBT universe would use every option to ensure the evil would be stopped, including fighting said evil force and killing it.
Sexual content, on the other hand, has very little place in an LBT story. Sure, I can imagine Littlefoot and Ali having kids or something, but please, not too much detail in that aspect.
I know not everyone will agree to this view, and there will no doubt be serveral critics of this, but everything has its place. Even if a crossover sounds bad, you might want to read it before dennouncing it.
(Sorry if this offended anyone)
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Hi!
Again I broach a topic which is difficult to deal with. Though this is not my intention it may set some of you against me, as I cannot totally deny a certain aversion against the topic I want to address, an aversion which I hope won't appear as arrogance to those of you who oppose my view.
Reading through the land before time fanfictions at fanfiction.net and elsewhere I sometimes feel really very, very sad at times. It is because the huge majority of the stories there seems to have little in common with the land before time except for the maincharacters and sometimes the locations.
Many of the land before time fanfictions I've read so far include sex affairs among the characters, gory massacres, invasions of humans, or zombies, or aliens from outer space, or all of them at once; these fanfiction may contain whole dialogues from other movies (e.g. Star Wars) or actions such as Littlefoot fencing with a sharptooth using a stalagmite as a sword. There are fanfictions that culminate in the characters singing songs such as "My heart will go on" or "Only Time" whose connection to the land before time I really don't get.
Few people ever came up with stories that didn't contain any of the things listed above. It makes me wonder if people would approve of these things appearing in an actual land before time movie. Why is it, that the majority of fanfiction writers won't try to write a story within the certain limitations provided by the early (or even within the wider range provided by the later) land before time movies?
I hope this is not taken as an offense, and authors of such fanfictions who know me better will hopefully know that I really like them personally and don't mean to have a go at them. Still it really saddens me to read these stories and it makes my wonder why so few give it a try to write a story which could realistically be made a movie :cry
I do understand what you are saying, some of the LBT fanfic writers try to put things that everyone knows would not be in the movies.
I think reason why people do that is because they want to write a more mature theme to LBT since the producers never will. And I think the whole Sci-fi/LBT thing is really over rated, I see too many LBT fanfics that have that stuff within them so I really don't bother reading any LBT fanfics.
However, I did come across LBT fanfics that were "puritan". Like:
Search for Pterano (I seriously could imagine that story being a fanfic, AND it is rated G.) Here's the link:Search for Pterano (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1662339/1/The_Search_For_Pterano)
I'd Give to Change-Here's the link:I'd Give to Change (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1491990/1/Id_Give_to_Change)
Courage to Believe:Courage to Believe (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2638138/1/Courage_to_Believe)
So, yeah, there are still fanfics out there that are realistic for a LBT movie.
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Good point. I suppose staying true to LBT is next to impossible with a crossover, but then again, I suppose people have different definitions of "staying true". I personally believe that LBT falls within the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre, and that other franchises in the same genre can go very well with it. Pure LBT fics are great, but I believe a crossover allows you to develop both universes' characters into something greater than they were.
And as for the songs, I think if the song even loosly fits the situation, then by all means, have them sing it! I know Littlefoot and the gang might be rockin' out sooner or later in my fic! B)
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I personally believe that LBT falls within the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre, and that other franchises in the same genre can go very well with it.
How does LBT fall into that genre? I always though that LBT fell into the "cartoon" genre.
Also, crossovers are a gamble. They come out into a thrilling tour de force or a shocking failure. In particular, the chiasma (sorry, my AP Bio student is coming out! :lol) (Here it means the place where the 2 universes meet) of a crossover story can make the story into the tour de force or screw it over.
As for why I called it the chiasma: I made a pun with the process in meoisis called "crossing over".
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I personally believe that LBT falls within the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre, and that other franchises in the same genre can go very well with it.
How does LBT fall into that genre? I always though that LBT fell into the "cartoon" genre.
Also, crossovers are a gamble. They come out into a thrilling tour de force or a shocking failure. In particular, the chiasma (sorry, my AP Bio student is coming out! :lol) (Here it means the place where the 2 universes meet) of a crossover story can make the story into the tour de force or screw it over.
As for why I called it the chiasma: I made a pun with the process in meoisis called "crossing over".
I guess it's fantasy because, as far as we know, it didn't happen! :) I know crossovers are risky, and some really do suck, but if the writer is skilled and the other franchise is compatible, then it could turn into somthing awesome. As for keeping the original "spirit" of LBT, that's not too much of an issue for me because once LBT is crossed over with something else, the entire mood changes. All you have to do is make sure the change is good.
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Still the great majority of the stories written without care for what could and what could not appear in a land before time movie also show an extreme lack of such elements as those I appreciate about your story. Many a story resembles a mere repitition of other movies with LBT characters in the roles of people who are mainly busy killing, killing more, and killing even more. Some of those storys resemble almost lists of atrocities rather than stories.
To come back to the quote which introduces this message, again I do agree with it. Yet I never ever demanded clones from the movies. There is nothing more pointless as mere repetitions of storys that have already been told. You will find that I clearly excluded them from the kind of land before time storys I'm speaking up for:There is so much potential left for land before time stories that do not contain elements that don't belong into LBT. And I'm talking of long, good stories here, which are full of new ideas rather than being mere repetitions of what we have seen in the movies already. Why is it that nobody tries to write such stories?
It is really quite sad for me that virtually no one seems to feel like giving an original land before time story a try.
The newest idea from the N54 forum is a North American P51 D Mustang appearing in the Great Valley. I am interested in WW2 planes (as sure enough you remember from our visit to the science museum, don't you Littlefoot-1616 ;) ) But what business do they have in LBT. Another message their told about a dream in which littlefoot lost his lower left leg beneath the knee. I would not be surprised to read this as part of a fanfiction soon.
This is a quote from Malte from a few years ago. he makes some very valid points as to why the majority of crossovers suck.Yes too much blood and gore can sour a story(but certainly not a movie. I cite 300 as an example), and those damned WWII atrocity stories drive me up a tree with their pointless seriousness and overall aura of disgust. But there was one thing he said that disturbed me a little. Here it is.
There is nothing more pointless as mere repetitions of storys that have already been told.
That statment is odd, considering that I could say that all modern movies, including LBT, are the same old stories in different packaging. While I do not believe this, I think that repitition is a useful tool in storytelling and can be used to great effect if the story combines many different elements from other tales. Just because something is repeated in other stories doesn't mean all the other stories who use roughly the same scene are crap and just clones of one story.(Example:someone in my English class told me Star Wars was just a sci-fi copy of Homer's epics. I quickly proved them wrong.)
P.S. What is N54?
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P.S. What is N54?
It's one of the LBT forums that this links to. It's link is above the fora proper.
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P.S. What is N54?
It's one of the LBT forums that this links to. It's link is above the fora proper.
Thanks!
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Hi jedi472!
That statement I made is somewhat ambiguous. What I meant to say is that I do agree with the supporters of LBT stories that are mixed with non-LBT elements that it would be pointless to just repeat exactly the same LBT stories over and over again with just minor changes of character names and nothing really new happening at all. I do agree that if basically the same story is told over and over again it is bound to become dull. However, many of the supporters of non-pure LBT fanfictions also claim that it is practically impossible to write LBT stories within the limits set by the movies and still avoid exactly that kind of repetition.
This is where I strongly disagree. Of course it is a lot more difficult to write a land before time story within the limits set by the movies, but it is quite possible to do so without merely repeating stuff. I admit that with the many elements told by now through the TV series it has become much more difficult than it was by the time when I made the statement, but it is still not impossible. Looking at the ratio of LBT stories with non-LBT elements and strictly LBT stories it seems like hardly anyone wants to bother writing a land before time story that could theoretically be turned into an LBT movie. There are really very, very few stories where this would be possible.
The N54 LBT Forum (http://www.network54.com/Forum/26773/) is the oldest successful land before time forum existing (for all I know). It was very active for several years and the roots of the GOF partly go back to the N54 forum. Many of our members used to post there. Meanwhile it has fallen mostly silent as the GOF is just more suitable for the larger number of members and is a lot more clearly arranged. Nevertheless the N54 forum still includes many interesting old messages and discussion threads. The earliest posts there date from 1999.
One thing that should be noted with regard to violence in LBT is, that in spite of LBT movies being made for children in particular, the stories are not without violence and a purist LBT fanfiction certainly doesn't have to go without it either. Just imagine what the Pterano incident of LBT 7 or the Mysterious Beyond landscapes from the original movie and LBT 2 and 3 (very dark places full of decay and dinosaur skeletons) would read like in a story? In many cases however violence is put into LBT stories in a manner that just doesn't fit. The LBT characters are no humans. I really don't believe they would think in a manner so similar to us when it comes to "war" (a concept which they probably wouldn't understand at all).
For example sharpteeth would have absolutely no benefit from attacking the Great Valley in large numbers trying to kill everyone. That would be a very human thing to do. The sharpteeth however don't want to eradicate leafeaters. If they hunt down a good "piece of prey" they have no reason to attack anyone else anymore until the prey is consumed. The larger sharpteeth are very unlikely to form large herds (or an "army" as described in many fanfictions) as it would require just much more prey than they are likely to catch. This is just one example.
The only thing I can think of that might get LBT dinosaurs into a kind of fight that may bear some resemblance to a human kind of war is the racism which we have seen in various degrees since the original movie. I have been writing on a land before time story about this topic which I think goes as far in this direction as possible (and I am not always certain if I didn't exaggerate it myself).
As for crossing overs, I do not deny that they may be well written. Jason wrote a land before time crossing over with such narrative quality as I can barely hope to ever obtain. It is a story though that mixes LBT with elements from Resident Evil, Zelda and I think several more stories. I really must say that, in spite of the excellent style of the writing, I could not see such a mix as a real LBT story.
The same goes for LBT and Star Wars. I love LBT and I really, really like Star Wars a lot, but I don't think they make a match.
Maybe I'm ranting louder about non-pure LBT stories than most people would like me to, but there are just so few people who write pure LBT stories and so many who would want anything to be mixed with LBT. If two tasty but totally different and unrelated kinds of food are mixed the result would all to often not be tasty.
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Yeah, I guess everybody likes their own thing. (BTW, Battle of the Sacred Essences was a huge inspiration for my fic. That right there is the single best crossover I've ever seen!)
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Look...I can see and support many different things in fanfictions, but things I just can't stand or tolerate are:
*Fanfics with horrible grammar
*Fanfics that are all one mashed paragraph
*Fanfics that don't use quotes when a character is speaking
*Fanfics that involve explicit sex scenes (in my opinion, there's absolutely NO reason why words such as d***, p****, or f*** should be used in a so called "romance" fiction. That's not romance. That's a disgusting sex fic that's written so people can get off on it.) :x
*Fanfics that involve any type of sexual relations between two different species. I'm not against inter-species relationships, but PLEASE don't include any sex! That's just sick and unrealistic. If you want them to be in love that's fine, but that doesn't mean they need to be engaging in physical relations.
*Fanfiction authors who mold the characters to their story instead of their story to the characters. The characters are already set in stone. You shouldn't be allowed to change them too much. If they do something they would never do in the book/movie the fanfic is based off of, it's just not good anymore.
*Really short fanfics. If you're gonna write a fanfic, at least make it more than 500 words. It's just stupid. I didn't go to FF.net to read a paragraph about a couple of characters in a book/movie. Unless you can get 10,000 words or more then don't post it. If you can't get that many words then you need to develop the story a little more or add more details.
*Fanfics that have two different species mate by having one of them transform. It's just too unbelievable and the transformed character is no longer the character that's in the book/movie the fanfiction is about, so what's the point? Instead of doing this, why not develop your own fictional character that's similar to the two characters you want to be in a relationship and make them the same species? Sure it'd be harder, but transformation is just ridiculous.
Other than that I can pretty much handle anything. Big list of things I don't like, but there's a lot of crummy fanfics out there too. Didn't want to leave anything out.
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Thanks for the tips, LBTlover. Those seem like pretty good guidelines for any LBT story, and I think I follow most of them, except perhaps for 6. I'm not quite sure if I've changed the LBT characters personalities in my story. I don't think I have, but I am a little biased in this situation.
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Well everyone has their influences. Even original authors have influences, whether intentional or subconscious. I think crossover fanfics just pop up naturally because of the love of other stories/movies and the desire to share them with everyone else.
Of course...sci fi does seem a little off :p
I agree with grammar being a terrible problem. I know lots of people don't speak or write perfect English, but i also think spell-checks and read overs aren't done as much as they should be.
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Other than that I can pretty much handle anything. Big list of things I don't like, but there's a lot of crummy fanfics out there too. Didn't want to leave anything out.
Good guidelines.
And SF (I can't stand the abbreviation "sci-fi" :x) does seem bizarre in an LBT fan fic but it works surprisingly well sometimes. I believe Threehorn's story was a combination of post-apocalyptic SF and LBT and it was marvelous.
Let's see what I have followed:
Fanfics with horrible grammar. - followed
Fanfics that are all one mashed paragraph. - followed
Fanfics that don't use quotes when a character is speaking. - followed
Fanfics that involve explicit sex scenes. - followed (no sex)
Fanfics that involve any type of sexual relations between two different species. - followed (no sex)
Fanfiction authors who mold the characters to their story. - Definitely didn't follow. (War story in LBT and Stone Age tech.)
Really short fanfics. - followed (60,000+ words)
Fanfics that have two different species mate by having one of them transform. - followed (no sex)
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I've just been reading through this thread, and it's stirred up something in me. It's challenged my fanfic, my view of LBT, and even my writing skills. I've really begun reconsidering things because of it.
I completely get the "pure LBT" view, and it does seem like it would take a lot more creativity/repression of wild ideas to write something like that. To be honest, I don't even know why I decided to write my fic in the first place.
Maybe it's because sci-fi is so easy to work with. In a sci-fi story, virtually anything can happen, and all you need is a psuedo-scientific explanation to make it sound good. Take an idea I once had of a Star Trek Voyager/LBT crossover.
It's staged during Voyager's sixth season, and Voyager's crew has a new plan for getting home. By momentarily slipping into a transwarp conduit run by the cybernetic race known as the Borg and latching onto a passing Borg vessel with a modified tractor beam, they would be able to potentially hitch a ride across the galaxy. All they'd have to do is catch a Borg ship going in the direction of Earth and they'd be home free. Of course they try this plan, and the ship they latch on to just happens to have the Borg Queen aboard. Naturally, she tries to shake them off, but somehow they manage to resist her efforts. As a last-ditch manuever she sends the ship into a temporal vortex (basically a time travel thing that the Borg have been known to create), and both ships are hurtled back in time. Suddenly, they both drop out of transwarp. The Borg ship has broken apart due to the stress of reentry on its hull, but Voyager's tougher superstructure is able to withstand it. The Borg fall into the gravity well of a nearby planet and break up in the atmosphere. THe crew of Voyager realize that the planet is Earth, but they soon realize that they went farther back in time than they thought-about 65 million years farther. They decided to beam down to Earth and see if they can recover any bit of Borg technology that might help them return to their own time. Upon beaming down, however, they find themselves surrounded by five young dinosaurs.
See what I mean? It took me five minutes to think that up. Sci-Fi is immensely easy to work with because it has no bounds. I'm not saying it's good or bad, but that might be the reason why it's so popular.
Another point mentioned is the fact that most crossovers do not blend the fandoms equally. This certainly applies to my fic, and it's only going to get worse. Right now, the ratio of LBT content to Star Wars content is about 1:2, and, if I follow my vision for the story, it's only going to get more Star Wars-y. It's just that the Star Wars universe is so much more vast than the LBT universe, and I see so much more possibilities with it. I wish I could keep it more LBT, but I feel as though the LBT characters, over the course of my story, sort of undergo a transfer. The line between the LBT and Star Wars universes is removed, and each mixes with the other.
The songs are also an interesting note. While I agree that having the LBT characters sing modern songs is more than a bit strange, I think that LBT songs are written specifically for the situation in which they are sung, and most people simply can't write their own songs. Including modern songs seems to be the next best thing.
I know this is getting really long, but I just have to get this down before I forget!
The sharpteeth armies are a particular point of contention as well. While I agree that sharpteeth would probably never form "armies", but it seems to me that the predators livng in the lands around the Great Valley might not be getting enough prey, due to the fact that all the herbivorious dinosaurs live in the Great Valley. Perhaps the smarter predators, like raptors, would come to the realization that, in order to surivive, they would need to enter the GV and remain long enough to eat their kills. This would require subduing most of the defenders of the Valley, i.e. Mr. Threehorn or Grandpa Longneck. To do this, they would need many of their own kind to attack at the same time. Then, if the packs of raptors outside were able to enter at about the same time and attack, the wave of raptors entering the GV might seem something like an army from the plant-eaters perspectives. Again, this is still a huge strech.
So what does this mean? Because I combine LBT with Sci-fi or other elements not seen in LBT, am I less creative? Is my writing worse than I thought? I didn't think so at first, but the more I think about it the more I question myself.
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No. You are not any less creative for fusing non LBT and LBT, while it is easy to toss them together, it is much more difficult to get them to work properly and to get something totally non LBT to mesh fairly well with LBT is quite frankly amazing (I'm looking at you Threehorn and Jedi!).
While sharpteeth armies break the canon, it can be fun to write about them. Believe me, it is fairly hard to write a decent war story set in the LBT universe. You can't just have battle after battle, you need some other twists as well. It is very difficult to come up with those twists and not repeat them.
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I am also worried about the patchwork effect Malte mentioned earlier. I look at my outline for my fic, and quite frankly I think at least 70% of it is not my own. The real thing that's bugging me? I'm OK with it.
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As long as you can get it to work it doesn't matter what is yours or not.
I look at my fan fic and I realized that: the idea of an LBT war story is Falcon88's, the Great Valley Air Corps is also created by Falcon88 (I just elaborated), a major plot twist belongs to Brek, the name for one of the locations is almost ripped from Jurassic Park, battle scenes are inspired (in some cases ported almost exactly unchanged) from various movies (the Matrix Trilogy and Lord of the Rings in particular).
Does this make me any less creative? I do not think so, as I feel it takes quite a bit of imagination to take battle scenes from a SF cyberpunk movie and a high fantasy movie and get them to work WELL (key word) in an LBT fic.
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I'm not gonna change my story or anything. (I like the way it is) I just feel like I ripped off people to get it. Yes, it does take creativity to take LotR battles and put them in LBT and still have a good story, but then again, it's not like the LotR characters are in your fic.
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My next two fanfics are major crossovers so I really have to get it to work.
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It's not like I think crossovers are bad now. (BOSE II is fantastic!) It's just that I feel like I failed to respect the balence between the fandoms.
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I'm not sure what you mean by balance. There is no magic formula for a crossover. It is not necessary or in some cases, even desirable to have a 1:1 ratio of LBT:non LBT.
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I do not want to "prohibit" anyone from from writing anything. I never had the right or authority to do so. Its just that it is kind of sad for me that there are extremely few pure LBT fanfictions out there while most of the others (splendidly written as some of them unquestionably are) end up in the excesses of violence committed by dinosaurs who think exactly the way humans would but not in the terms of LBT dinosaurs.
Rather than discouraging people from writing such fanfictions I would encourage them to give the pure fanfictions a try. It is more difficult of course, but therefore it is also a more rewarding challenge to overcome ;)
The sharpteeth armies are a particular point of contention as well. While I agree that sharpteeth would probably never form "armies", but it seems to me that the predators livng in the lands around the Great Valley might not be getting enough prey, due to the fact that all the herbivorious dinosaurs live in the Great Valley. Perhaps the smarter predators, like raptors, would come to the realization that, in order to surivive, they would need to enter the GV and remain long enough to eat their kills. This would require subduing most of the defenders of the Valley, i.e. Mr. Threehorn or Grandpa Longneck. To do this, they would need many of their own kind to attack at the same time. Then, if the packs of raptors outside were able to enter at about the same time and attack, the wave of raptors entering the GV might seem something like an army from the plant-eaters perspectives. Again, this is still a huge strech.
Then again, would it not be much easier and with much less of a risk for those raptors to just go after migrating herds or any other place where dinosaurs are less protected than they are in the Great Valley? Even within the time it would take to spread the news and gather that army outside the Great Valley before the attack that army would have to be fed lest half of them dies from starvation with the other half either becoming very weakened before entering the Valley or else having no more reason to do that in case they don't have a problem to feast on the corpses of their starved comrades :confused
There are many much easier and more riskfree ways for sharpteeth to make prey; that, I think, is the real protection of the Great Valley, more so than even the big wall; for which intelligent raptor would go the dangerous and difficult way when there is a less dangerous and easier alternative?
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Oh my I never thought it would be so bad. Even though I never read the stories I would believe that the stories would be based on something sexual or some that seems inappropriate. But there should be some Great story writers out there.
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excuse me malte can u send me your LBT stories my email is fullmetal_136@hotmail.com
or
fullmetal_136@msn.com
i can't remember which one works :(
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Sure thing :yes
But I must warn you, the early two stories are rather tricky to read because my English really sucked by the time I translated them; some sentences may be impossible to understand as a consequence. I sent you the first LBT story I ever wrote, The Big Quarrel, via email. Here (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=394.20) are some images I drew for that story. Much of the second story titled The Cold Time can be found
here (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=110.0) along with some images I drew for it (if you prefer I can send it to you via email too of course. The third story "Old Threehorns" has not yet been finished and I'm afraid it has become just too long winded. Of all the people whom I send the story only one ever read it to the end (and I'm very grateful to her for doing so :yes). If you are interested I can send you that one too (the quality of the language is better than in case of the earlier stories).
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^ The email I sent you was just returned to me. Is everything correct about the address? Maybe you cannot receive large attachment files?
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Okay, here's something else I can't stand: Hatefics referring to Spike as "mentally challenged" or "retarded" or "too dumb to..." :anger. For one thing, anyone who calls someone a "retard" is a total dumba** :rolleyes:. Also, anything with sex (already mentioned, I think). There was one recent hatefic (it's been removed, praise the Lord) that was terribly sexually graphic posted on FF.net. It consisted of Yoda putting Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky and Petrie under a spell and making them a bunch of nymphomaniacs and engaging in a foursome aka orgy :x. It was so disgusting yet so freakin' stupid (Cera saying she has a certain male anatomical part :rolleyes: :slap), and it mentioned Spike could only get off on himself 'cuz he was "too *censored* retarded to know how to do it." How ignorant! I know I should not rant about these things, but this was so wrong, and the fact that kids could see this was so wrong! Dangit! I have seen enough crap out there in LBT hatefics, but I think this one about took the cake :anger. What exactly drives folks to put stuff like that on the Net anyway, especially on a site like FANfiction :blink:?
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Okay, here's something else I can't stand: Hatefics referring to Spike as "mentally challenged" or "retarded" or "too dumb to..." :anger. For one thing, anyone who calls someone a "retard" is a total dumba** :rolleyes:. Also, anything with sex (already mentioned, I think). There was one recent hatefic (it's been removed, praise the Lord) that was terribly sexually graphic posted on FF.net. It consisted of Yoda putting Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky and Petrie under a spell and making them a bunch of nymphomaniacs and engaging in a foursome aka orgy :x. It was so disgusting yet so freakin' stupid (Cera saying she has a certain male anatomical part :rolleyes: :slap), and it mentioned Spike could only get off on himself 'cuz he was "too *censored* retarded to know how to do it." How ignorant! I know I should not rant about these things, but this was so wrong, and the fact that kids could see this was so wrong! Dangit! I have seen enough crap out there in LBT hatefics, but I think this one about took the cake :anger. What exactly drives folks to put stuff like that on the Net anyway, especially on a site like FANfiction :blink:?
A sick joke that's not even funny. That's all you need to know.
And why won't the homicidal one die like that one did? Seriously, it deserves to die just as much, if not more.
The moronic haters just want their moment of fame, even if it means hating them, and the worst part is that we're giving it to them right now. They win no matter what we say.
At least when a fan makes a character hurt, it's more enjoyable, and we actually feel that individual's pain, even if it's in the area of something we don't like.
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I just never really saw the point of adding humans into my stories. If I did that, then it would just take the focus off of the main plot of the story.
I will admit that my fan fic may be a bit violent, but hopefully not over the top. I'll also be killing off two characters, (none of them are Universal's), but my own characters.
A few months back, I had actually started writing about a great idea that COULD be made into a film!
Basically, the main plot of the story is that Ozzy finds a mysterious egg, and the hatchling confuses him as his mother. With the help of his brother, Strut, the two Egg-Stealers decide to raise it.
Sadly, I don't really think that Universal would even think of using this idea, mainly because it has absolutely nothing to do with the main canons, and the fact that they don't allow characters to make a return that often.
I'm sort of glad that it won't be used though, mainly because I don't want them to mess up the story line by adding Littlefoot and the others into it. If they did, it would all just seem so awkward.
I've already got chapter 1 written of it up on FF.net, put it's rather short and not all that well written. I've been trying to find time to write chapter 2 of it, but I guess that I just need some more time to plan it out first...
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I've never written fanfiction before, but I feel now might be a good time to give it a try. I think I"ll try to write one that has one human in it, but otherwise following the lbt universe as best I can.
I had the idea in my head for a couple weeks, but now I think I'll try to write it.
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Many of the land before time fanfictions I've read so far include sex affairs among the characters, gory massacres, invasions of humans, or zombies, or aliens from outer space, or all of them at once; these fanfiction may contain whole dialogues from other movies
If it comes to involving humans, science-fiction characters, travels through time etc. I really don't think it got anything to do with the land before time anymore and yes I do think that those who are unable to work without any of these elements in a land before times story are lacking fantasy and the ability to work with what they got.
I found this as a very interesting topic Malte279, and I know you want us people to keep on writing and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I am starting to rethink my LBT Fanfiction because it contains a Human, Sci-fi, Time Travel, and the main human character gets injured and has a little blood.
Although this will not change my writing styles and themes, it was interesting to see people who want to read FanFictions as though they were a detailed synopsis of an actuall movie
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I think I"ll try to write one that has one human in it, but otherwise following the lbt universe as best I can.
Is the human so integral a part of the story. I realize that I sound like a zealot or missionary here. I have absolutely no right whatsoever to tell people what to write and what not to. But because there are so very, very few fanfictions out there that stick to LBT as we know it from the movies while on the other hand every time there had been a movie or episode which we did not approve of fans ended up shouting that fans could write better stories than that I'm always out to encourage our talented writers (and with all my harsh criticism I want it to be clearly understood that the quality of the writing as such is very good in many fanfictions) to try to write land before time fanfictions that, if turned into a movie, would leave people with a good feeling about it without upsetting the whole land before time universe.
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I just feel that isn't too much of a stretch, since there were aliens in the 7th movie (most believe those rainbowfaces were aliens). Besides, I was going to try to make all of the lbt characters be in character. There would be no dinosaur in that universe trying to start a war or anything like that. I was not going to deal with things like the dinosaurs learning of their ultimate demise, or learning how humans act like they are above every other living thing.
Also, The human won't be talking about where he comes from much. I don't even think he'll say he's from a different time. He says he's come from a far away place to study places and people (aka scientific research) but that's not really the reason he came. It's still very early in my fanfiction. but I was going to have the human come in with prejudices of thinking more highly of human life than dino life. He is going to slowly change over time. The main idea of my fanfiction would be of a very different and unclean person coming to a clean world, and being changed by it, not the other way around (what I feel most lbt fanfictions with humans in them are about.).
Maybe this would never work in an actual lbt movie, but it's what I want to write about.
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I didn’t read every single post in this thread so far; my good eye was starting to complain. So if I say anything that was said already, I apologize, as I did it without my knowledge.
I’ve written a bit of both. Some that fall into pure Land Before Time material and some that do not. It can be saddening to some to see LBT characters amidst things that one would have never imagined based off of the movies. When I see a fantasy LBT story myself, I often see it as an original piece with LBT elements. That makes the style more comfortable to read. Still, a lot of fantasy elements can come about that have explanations tied to the official storyline. The Legend of the Story speakers had some magical stories in them. Movies seven and ten left a lot of to question in a sort of magical, mysterious way. I think that therefore whether a fan fiction is canon or not is more up to the writer to decide and not so much the viewers.
Sharptooth Valley has a lot of fantasy, but it is supported by an element introduced in the movie series- The Stone of Cold Fire. If I story can be backed up by a movie or episode, is it really so outrageous? Just because content would never appear in a movie doesn’t prove its impurity. There are thirteen movies, all following a base set of rules that we can recognize. Therefore, having seen a formula so much, there are many readers who want something new to keep the theme fresh. Are there really readers out there that want to see Littlefoot and company running through Reclaw’s legs every time he nearly gets them? Do they really want Redclaw to keep wasting his time roaring and staring than actually moving forward to nab the kids? New content, I agree, is not for all. But one cannot deny the popularity of fantasy in the LBT world.
Out of the Shadows has hundreds of reviews, to my knowledge, more than any other LBT story on fan fiction.net. No pure story has come close. A story can have many purposes: to teach, to explain to persuade, to entertain, and more. If a LBT story is loaded with magic and whatnot, yet it successfully manages to entertain quite an audience, I call it a success and more power to it. I think being sad about a lack of pure stories is like being sad that your backyard is full of trash. If you don’t like something, make a difference yourself. Instead of staring at the garbage, like staring at impure fan fictions, go out and pick up the garbage, or in another context, write a pure story or two of your own. And, if you can’t write your own, that is even more of a reason not to find qualms. “You can’t throw that rock very far at all!” “Oh yeah? You can’t throw it at all!” “…” Writing content within certain boundaries makes a lot of people feel trapped. Sure, some content makes even me raise a brow sometimes, but writing is about being yourself, not trying to imagine you’re one of the writers of the films.
There is one sure fire way to ensure you aren’t bothered by impure LBT stories: simply read the summary, and if the theme isn’t to your liking, then don’t open it. If someone decides to smoke a cigarette, is it the cigarette’s fault or is it yours for making a conscious decision to experience it? I doubt anyone here has been forced to read fantasy LBT stories solely from being forced with a gun to your head. Besides, if you want to guarantee you’ll get the real deal, then simply watch the real deal! Now, I am aware that a few fan fictions out there come across as pure then steer off very differently as the content goes on, but once you realize it, it’s as easy as X-ing out of the internet window. Complaining about reading an impure LBT story is like eating tons of candy then saying, “Mommy, I feel sick!” Only you decide what you read, so if you don’t like something- don’t read it!
Now I’m not saying that people shouldn’t voice their dislike of something. If you have an opinion, by all means, let it be known. However, complaining that a story isn’t your thing should not be confused with complaining that you read a story you didn’t enjoy. If a story isn’t for you, you have the right to explain why it didn’t suit your fancy; everyone does. But to say you are unhappy from reading a story you didn’t like, well, the only fault there lies with the reader for staying with it. No writer can please everyone. I say that if it interests enough people, it was a success, no matter how many did not like it.
Actually, I did something just for you, Malte279. I created a community just for LBT stories that have no out of the ordinary elements, like magic, humans, and wars. I frequently find more to add to it, so if you ever have a hankering for a pure story, here’s the link: http://www.fanfiction.net/community/Canon_...Fictions/89679/ (http://www.fanfiction.net/community/Canon_The_Land_Before_Time_Fan_Fictions/89679/). I hope that I offended no one with my comments, and I apologize if I did.
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I really hate fanfictions where like Littlefoot and Ducky have sex. That's just disquesting in my opinion. Not to mention that in is physically impossible without causing Ducky serious injury. Has anyone run into that sort of crap?
I know, I hate that too! What's even worse, is that they have pics of it!!!
BARF!!!
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There is one sure fire way to ensure you aren’t bothered by impure LBT stories: simply read the summary, and if the theme isn’t to your liking, then don’t open it. If someone decides to smoke a cigarette, is it the cigarette’s fault or is it yours for making a conscious decision to experience it? I doubt anyone here has been forced to read fantasy LBT stories solely from being forced with a gun to your head. Besides, if you want to guarantee you’ll get the real deal, then simply watch the real deal! Now, I am aware that a few fan fictions out there come across as pure then steer off very differently as the content goes on, but once you realize it, it’s as easy as X-ing out of the internet window. Complaining about reading an impure LBT story is like eating tons of candy then saying, “Mommy, I feel sick!” Only you decide what you read, so if you don’t like something- don’t read it!
:exactly
Personally, I don't mind mild amounts of violence, magic, or death in LBT fanfictions. I'm a huge fan of Out of the Shadows, and I enjoy reading crossovers. After all, LBT is not fully free from death or magic. I remember being milding creeped out by the plethora of skelletons in the original Land Before Time when I was little, but I watched the entire film and loved it. The same goes for the fight between Littlefoot's mother and the original Sharptooth. Magic and science are both elements of The Stone of Cold Fire. The stone was believed to be magical, and one of the rainbowfaces held a model of an atom. After all LBT is not fully free of magic, violence, and death. Aliens have appeared in LBT 7, so why not humans?
Now, about crossovers, I hold no discrimination against them. I feel like bringing in new characters from new worlds can enlargen the plot and give the writer a greater degree of freedom and creativity. The writers can fully utilize their creativity to entertain the reader.
But guys, please remember, it is your choice if you want to read a story or not. If you don't like a story, just click the red X in the upper-right corner of your screen. At long as it's not a hatefic, I believe that someone will like the story.
I have to admit that I've been writing my own fanfic. It is now 10,000-words long. But I still hesitate to post it, because I received a lot of opposition in the beginning. I can not speak for all fanfic authors, but personally, I find writing stories a challanging task. Maybe it's just because I'm writing a technothriller, but I'm constantly looking up locations in Google Earth, researching facts about geographical locations and vehicles, and skimming LBT movies in order to maximize the realism of the dialogue. For proof, just read my article on the possible locations of the Great Valley (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=7703). I put a two page description of the Great Valley into my fanfic. I wrote everything from the elevation of the mountains to the names of the creeks on Google Earth. I even painstakingly plotted a possible 880-mile route that Littlefoot could have taken, and I even flown that route on the flight sim to check for possible landmarks that coincided witht he landmaks in the movie. This was no small task. I believe that the least I deserve is a few good comments, and I don't want my fanfic to get criticized just because it contains humans.
I don't like violence. I'm a vegetarian, and I'm the president of the Vegetarian Club at my school. I also mediate, and my friends and teachers tell me that violence is wrong. But they also told me to not force my ideas onto others. I continuously have to urge the members of my club to distance ourselves from PETA, because I do not agree with their expansionist ideology (although some of my members really like their ads). Although many people tease me for being vegetarian, I never strike back, because I believe in tolerance. I believe that the same goes for fanfictions. I don't like the practice of eating meat, but I never talk back to omnivores, because I believe that they have to freedom to do what they want. It's the same thing with fanfics. If you don't like them, just don't read them.
I've read a great quote from my AP Euro text book from Friedrich Nietzsche. It reads: "“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”
And The Friendly Sharptooth, it was really nice of you to make that website. If a LBT purist doesn't like such a wonderful gift, he has no soul. Thanks, the Friendly Sharptooth.
Also, like the Friendly Sharptooth, I hope that I offended no one with my comments, and I apologize if I did.
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I admit I do have a dislike towards the idea of a vegetarian diet. To me, a vegetarian diet doesn't make much sense for humans. If we were meant to be herbivores, shouldn't we have stronger digestive systems? We can't digest as much plant material as, oh say, a rabbit (correct me if I'm wrong). The concept of a vegetarian diet has always baffled me.
Anyway I'm getting off topic. Back on topic. The idea of a place where pure LBT fanfics can be posted sounds interesting. I might check it out, though I don't have any pure LBT fanfics to post up.
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Going along these lines, you have absolutely no right to criticize an author for the subject matter they write about, no matter how controversial it is.
You have the right to disagree with them or tell them why you did not like their story but you do not have the right to tell them or even dissuade them from writing something.