Analyzing Lessons - The two major themes of the show
In the first installment this series I brought up how people sometimes bring up bronies that don't listen to the lessons of the show. This is usually in reference to the rare brony who is nasty or bigoted but I talked about the much more common brony who watches a show about friendship . . . and doesn't really try to make friends.
In this thread, I'd like to discuss a similar disconnect; the closet brony, as "be yourself" is a major theme of the show.
If I were to more accurately sum up the major theme(s) of this show, it would be learning to respect and appreciate, for lack of a better word, "humanity". Many of the show's lessons, at least early on, could be divided into either "seeing the best in others" or "seeing the best in oneself".
Often a combination of the two.
Continuing from last week, the next three episodes in this series about the morals of the show demonstrate this trend, particularly seeing the best in others. This is the moral for Boast Busters.
Boast Busters and the morals of self expression
*"I was so afraid of being thought of as a showoff that I was hiding a part of who I am. My friends helped me realize that it's okay to be proud of your talents, and there are times when it's appropriate to show them off... Especially when you're standing up for your friends." *
How the lesson was learned: By a fear tested and not coming true.
This is something I've already written about this moral:
This is the first of the show's many "Don't be afraid to express yourself" morals.
I wonder about some of these morals, because the main character so often realizes them because when she expressed herself she found acceptance, and in real life that acceptance isn't guaranteed. There are episodes where that acceptance isn't universal, such as Call of the Cutie and Suite and Elite.
In both episodes the reveal happens in public, at a party, so you could interpret the lesson as "If you have a sensitive secret, do it in a large group of people. You'll find someone who's cool about it."
But I guess less literally the moral would be "There's always someone who'll be accepting, and those are the people that matter."
On further thought after writing that, and on the larger subject of closet bronies, I feel like this show is the social equivalent of a show about heroes overcoming more physically threatening conflicts. Just because someone likes a show about superheroes, doesn't make them brave or raring to face danger. Likewise, just because someone watches a cartoon where everything turns out alright socially, doesn't mean the audience sees themselves with such good odds.
In this episode, I think the conclusion is pretty reasonable; nobody's gonna call Twilight a show off for saving a town unless they're already an asshole with a vendetta against her.
Like the first episode, and many episodes of this show, the moral can be seen as summed up as "Trust your friends to not be shitty or useless."
But perhaps a more accurate description of the moral would be to give people the chance to not be shitty or useless. After all, the lesson of this episode is learned through an act that is both heroic in a traditional sense, and from Twilight's perspective, socially dangerous. The lesson was only learned because her fears were tested.
Maybe the message of the show is . . . Don't be afraid to learn.
A word about Trixie
Before I move on, since this is an episode-by-episode series on analyzing morals, I want to give my two cents on the episode's portrayal of Trixie as in the wrong. Fans have pointed out that Trixie was just being a showpony, and the mane 6 were being rude and heckling.
First, I'd like to point out the cultural difference. This wasn't like a magic show on earth where everybody understands the illusion of it all. She was misleading audience members with straight up lies (or maybe snips and snails were just dumb). This isn't even like Houdini, who promised amazing feats and than delivered. Magic is a common ability, and Twilight's friends just banished Nightmare Moon with magic a few days ago and the sun and moon are moved by magic every day, so Rarity and AJ are probably thinking "'Greatest feat of magic seen by pony eyes', may flank.
Also, they were talking among themselves when Trixie challenged them (Was she just standing silently on stage listening to them?). They weren't exactly booing directly at her and throwing tomatoes. Trixie challenged them, talking about how ignorant they were for not knowing she was the greatest unicorn in all Equestria, "Anything you can do, I can do better.", smugly egging Twilight on to a challenge ("Well, little hayseed?") with the expression of someone itching to show her up. Then she focused more on humiliating her challengers then outdoing them fair and square.
Unlike stage magicians and performers in our world, her show was not focused on entertaining the audience, but proving her own ego. She was not acting professional.
This show promotes valuing oneself, but not to the point of arrogance and bigheadedness. Trixie's boasting reached the point of putting everyone else down.
For the purposes of covering more than one episode per entry of this series, next episode is Dragonshy.
Dragonshy
"This adventure has taught me to never lose faith in your friends. They can be an amazing source of strength, and can help you overcome even your greatest fears."
This adventure taught Twilight to never lose faith in her friends? 'Cause she seemed to have faith in Fluttershy the entire time, having her dragged up the mountain despite all signs of her uselessness. If she had actually needed to learn this lesson in the episode, Fluttershy would've stayed home.
The beginning of this moral sounds like it's talking about the perspective of those observing Fluttershy (never lose faith in your friends, aka Flutters) and the end is about friends helping you overcome your greatest fears (What Fluttershy learned from her friends).
Anyway, the moral here seems to translate to "Take the trembling coward on scary adventures. Anybody can turn into a hero; you never know."
Or maybe it's "Don't listen to the person saying someone should be left behind for not being useful"? That moral isn't so bad . . .
This episode demonstrates the show's theme of having faith in others, whatever the circumstance.
Submitted May 09, 2019 at 07:15AM by Crocoshark
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/bmjoet/analyzing_lessons_the_two_major_themes_of_the_show/?utm_source=ifttt
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