Analyzing Lessons - Judging Books By Covers & My Little Pony vs. Hey Arnold
So . . . This is the fifth thread in this series and we're approaching the halfway point of the first season. At this rate, it'll take almost two years to get through the series. But don't worry, I'm sure I'll tire out and start briefly covering a larger number of episodes per entry in a few weeks.
Actually, I'll be brief about the next episode on this journey; Bridal Gossip. With the oh-so common moral of:
"Never judge a book by its cover."
I mean we all judge a book by its cover to some extent. The trick is knowing when to be skeptical of your own assumptions. But on a practical level, you can't read the beginning of every book you see.
Another issue is . . . Everybody agrees with it. Or at least consciously says they do. When Twilight finally concluded Zecora was going to eat Applebloom based on eavesdropping her words, was she judging a book by its cover? Would she have thought she was judging a book by its covered if you asked, or would she have thought she had good reason for her assumptions?
I've also read that scientifically, intuition can actually be very useful, cobbling together minor points of information we may not even be aware of. I think the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell discusses this, but I've only read the description.
For a real life example, one time a man from the street offered to fix a dent in my mom's car for money. I saw a cross he was wearing around his neck and I didn't trust him, but I didn't speak up. I worried my distrust arose out of a prejudice against Christians.
The guy did a shit job, covering the dent in some white stuff then disappeared with the money.
In hindsight, I don't think I distrusted him because of his religion.
I distrusted him because of his big-ass, look-at-me cross he had advertising to everyone his religion. My mom even said he told her how "Christian" he was as a way to seem trustworthy.
Don't trust people who try to use their religion to convince you they're a good person.
I might as well try to convince you I'll make a good friend by saying I'm a HUGE fan of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and like to discuss the lessons from the show.
I'm not a good friend, of course. I'll neglect friendship, fail to resolve things that are bothering me, and be myopic in the things I talk about with you until our connection withers and dies.
Anyone wanna be friends with me though? I promise, you won't have to worry about commitment.
Anyway, I think I failed to keep that brief. Sorry 'bout that.
But not too sorry, NEXT MORAL! Swarm of the Century
"I've learned that sometimes the solution to your problems can come from where you least expect it. It's a good idea to stop and listen to your friends' opinions and perspectives... Even when they don't always seem to make sense..."
This is actually similar to the "Don't judge a book by its cover" moral. In real life though, I think it's more common to know why you don't value someone's input than just assuming they're being "random" or "crazy". For example, they're someone who insistently and predictably inserts their religion or politics or other beliefs into their thoughts, or you know they have no qualifications on the subject.
By the way, ever notice horror movies teach a really similar lesson to this episode? Imagine if Twilight Sparkle wrote to Celestia after experiencing a horror movie in real life.
"Dear Princess Celestia
I've learned that sometime an accurate warning and valuable advice can come from where you least expect it. It's a good idea to stop and listen to the opinions and perspectives of apparently crazy people when you visit a new place… Even when they don't always make sense because they're just yelling "Get out!!" or "There's a death curse!".
That in mind, I agree with other people's critiques that Pinkie should've communicated better, just like Crazy Ralph from Friday the 13th should communicate better.
Anyway, I could keep trying to get to the mid-season point but I want to keep these threads under a certain arbitrary length (which this post will exceed by its end). Also, I wanted to talk more about a recent episode.
Hey Arnold Vs. She's All Yak
Last week, I noticed the past few episodes had plots resembling certain episodes of the old Nickelodeon show Hey Arnold. So I re-watched those episodes, namely the ones that most resembled She's All Yak. It was an interesting contrast.
I thought it be interesting to contrast how My Little Pony and a different show teach similar morals.
In episodes where the character of Helga puts on a fake appearance, such as Helga's Masquerade, Helga's Makeover and Dinner For Four, there's an inciting external problem that provokes the change. Helga gets teased, or she wants Arnold to be in love with her when he's not.
In episodes like She's All Yak, or to an extent the season 1 episode Boast Busters, there is no external problem. All the main character's assumptions and insecurities, and the episode's argue their moral by the main characters being in a situation where they're already loved. Sandbar already has a huge crush on Yona and Twilight's friends are already gonna stick by her.
In Hey Arnold, as I think is often the case in real life, there is more missing in terms of interpersonal connection. It's not all bleak, but the way the episode's make their "argument" is different.
In Helga's Makeover it's her closest friend that tells her she liked the old Helga, and Helga finally snaps at the uncomfortable bizarre-ness of the makeovers she's trying to partake in with other girls. It's partly the familiar pony ending of "Your friend likes you who you are, also, you're special." combined with "Also, normal people are weird. You don't need to be part of that."
In Helga's Masquerade, the ploy of using a costume party for dressing up and acting like a girl that Arnold is in love with just makes the Arnold like her 'cause she reminds him of his actual crush. That said, the ploy actually kinda works, when Helga over-hears. Arnold saying he kinda likes her. Moral: Dressing as someone else won't make someone fall in love with you, but it can make them more fond of you so, maybe kinda worth it?
In Dinner for Four the scenario simply goes completely wrong. Helga uses coupons to go to a fancy restaurant and act fancy and she goes to the wrong restaurant. The results of the masquerade are underwhelming for Helga when he simply says that he's "impressed". A more sincere moment of friendliness occurs between them when shows the honesty to own up to being unable to pay and washes dishes with him in the restaurant kitchen. In this episode, being a plain good person gets one further than pretending to be fancy, and involves less situation comedy.
Hey Arnold isn't quite as feel-good and idyllic as My Little Pony. But I suppose that's part of My Little Pony's charm. Though I do find the aforementioned Hey Arnold episodes more resonant, and I prefer them over their analogue MLP episodes.
(Particularly *Helga's Makeover, which depicts the "normal" people/behavior as bizarre, without making them as cartoonish, mocking caricatures, which is a combination I think a lot of cartoons, even MLP, fail to do.)
Anyway, I feel like in a sense these threads are both covering too much and covering too little. But I still want to give each topic both as much depth as possible and as many NPT views as possible. So . . . Onward goes the analysis train.
Submitted May 23, 2019 at 11:09AM by Crocoshark
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/bs5jgl/analyzing_lessons_judging_books_by_covers_my/?utm_source=ifttt
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