Friendship is Imperialism: How Celestia has systematically cemented her control of Equestria and expanded its influence over the world
Hello r/mylittlepony. For today's No-Pics Thursday, I'd like to go in depth into an interesting development I've noticed in the show, starting from way back in season 3. You've all read the title. You know what I'm trying to get at here. Let's jump into the first case I've noticed.
(Disclaimer: made for fun, no real life intentions intended)
First example: The Crystal Empire
Installing a family member as ruler of another nation is one of the oldest forms of ensuring your control over said nation. And one of the newest forms of justifying such an intervention is decrying the "oppression" of the other countries' leader. It doesn't hurt that your newly installed puppet ruler's husband just so happens to have been (or still is?) a leader in your army...something that I'm sure will help him keep order in the Empire.
The Crystal Empire: Vassalized and added to Equestria's Sphere Of Influence.
An ideology that opposes the 'natural' order of things and the princesses? Better send in our crack special forces agents to disrupt their system and make sure it can never threaten us or our rule! Er...I mean, help those misguided ponies see the True Way Of Friendship! (™)
Our Town: Smothered in the crib.
Third Example: The Competition for Dragon Lord
A dragon, born and raised in pony tradition, is sent to intercede in a foreign government's election process to at least ensure one candidate loses, and at most seize power himself. If not for Spike's lingering dragon sympathies, Equestria would have had another vassal under Celestia's wings. As it stands, a respectable leader was chosen for the dragons...one we can deal with, anyways. (because honestly, how can you expect those savages to choose the right one themselves? We HAD to do it for them…)
Should keep an eye on Spike, however. His loyalty to Equestria might be in question…
Dragon Election: Successfully meddled with.
Fourth Example: The Changelings
Admittedly, I think we can consider the Changelings an actual problem that Celestia was justified in getting rid of by repeating the "install a friendly leader" tactic. Just because Equestria happened to be on the good side doesn't mean it wasn't imperialist though. See: France and UK after WW1.
Changeling Threat: Dealt with like the Entente dealt with the German Empire
Fifth Examples: Yaks, Griffins, and other races I don't remember right now
Any time the ponies visit another people it becomes a chance for the ponies to sprout off about how good their system is and why the other races should just get with the program already. Sometimes token concessions are made, but something tells me Empress...I mean, Princess Celestia doesn't book any shit from the Yaks when she deals with them.
Building off of that, the last example is clearly the "School of Friendship". It's nothing more than the arm of the Friendship propaganda machine. How many examples can we think of wherein education was used to exploit and manipulate populations in the ruler's favor?
(Post-Script: There are some things I forgot. There is prior evidence of Equestria's imperial ambitions before season 3. Think about Equestrian attitudes towards the buffalo or the diamond dogs!)
Submitted May 10, 2018 at 01:09PM by 2ndPonyAcc
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/8ihei9/friendship_is_imperialism_how_celestia_has/?utm_source=ifttt
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