Analyzing Lessons - Feeling Pinkie Keen - And other episodes that fail to make a case for the moral they end with
We come once again, to another analysis of the lessons in My Little Pony. Today is a special day, for we'll be discussing perhaps the most controversial lesson in MLP in history.
But before we get to the meat, I'll be starting with a couple appetizers.
Fall Weather Friends
"It's important to remember that the friendship is always more important than the competition."
Hmm, I mean, I could say some friendships are shitty but that's nitpicking.
Instead . . .
I'd like to look at how the episode makes its argument. Why is friendship always more important than the competition? Sure, you lose the benefits of friendship for the sake of a status symbol, but the episode doesn't make that argument, taking it as almost self-evident given all the other episodes covering the value of friendship. They don't so much realize they lost something in how they valued winning over a personal bond as they realize that their behavior was terribly poor.
I think the episodes argument is in the fact that as hard as Rainbow Dash and Applejack tried to win; they lost. And so risking anything in order to win a game is a gamble.
Of course, losing the game was probably the only way Dash and Applejack's competition could've ended. Had they crossed the finish line in the same manner, beating each other up but finishing in a tie, the rivalry may have continued, now with the things Dash and Applejack did to each other to cheat adding fuel, and the friendship could've been replaced by rivalry.
Even as it is, Dash and Applejack could've simply blamed each other for cheating and continued their rivalry.
They learned because Twilight showed them up, and then pointed out their own behavior sabotaged their race. Applejack is, of course, first to acknowledge her awful behavior, being of the stronger moral upbringing, and Dash follows acknowledging her poor sportsmanship.
Next episode is frequently touted as the most relate-able episode for the fandom's artists! Suited For Success
"This week my very talented friend Rarity learned that if you try to please everypony, you oftentimes end up pleasing nopony, especially yourself. And I learned this: when somepony offers to do you a favor, like making you a beautiful dress, you shouldn't be overly critical of something generously given to you. In other words, you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth."
That's what the mane 6 tried to do from the very beginning, but Rarity repeatedly insisted on satisfying their specifications.
The problem with both lessons in this episode is . . . the Mane 6 were pleased with how Rarity tailored their dresses. The problem was that it wasn't presentable at a fashion show. Something that "ends up pleasing no one" would be something that even the mane 6 didn't like.
The mane 6 loved the dresses. The problem only came when Spike ran in saying he'd invited Hoity Toity to the fashion show.
The right thing to do at that point would've been to tell somebody the truth. Either telling Hoity Toity that these particular dresses have been custom designed for her friends and way outside the normal tastes and conventions of fashion, or simply that her friends dresses aren't really what the fashion world looks for in a fashion show, and that she would display other, non-custom dresses.
Instead, Rarity sees a train wreck coming and plows right into it full speed.
Personally, I am very much in favor of looking a gift horse in the mouth. Or at least being honest about how you feel about a gift. Your feelings are going to become obvious eventually anyways. Either that, or you're continue to get gifts you don't like and a loved one will be wasting money, getting lied to that their dollars are making you happy when they aren't. It's like a scam where everyone's the loser.
As for trying to please everyone, Rarity wasn't really trying to please Hoity Toity. Like I said, she saw the train wreck coming and didn't steer away.
But in real art, while people don't try to please everyone, they do try to please the lowest common denominator. And thing is, if you know you're audience and try to please them, than that is absolutely doable.
So know your audience everyone, and be honest about who is and is not part of that audience.
NOW, drumroll please.
Feeling Pinkie Keen
"I am happy to report that I now realize there are wonderful things in this world you just can't explain, but that doesn't necessarily make them any less true. It just means you have to choose to believe in them. And sometimes it takes a friend to show you the way."
Except what we actually saw in the episode was Twilight infuriated that she thought something didn't make sense ("How could that NOT be the doozy?!"), and then suddenly slumping her shoulders and concluding it does make sense. And telling the audience "You just have to choose to believe." She concludes the Pinkie sense makes sense seconds after being angry it doesn't make sense. She just does a 180 for no reason. It looked a lot more like resignation into belief than actual learning, and is such a whiplash that it's like the writers just decided Twilight no longer cares what her thoughts and feelings are. I think that's the reason the episode went over badly.
Also the phrasing of the "you have to choose to believe" bit, implying belief is the choice you ought to make.
I've gone over this episode on Reddit before
This is the clip where she is apparently convinced of the Pinkie sense
After the Hydra attack, Pinkie's sense still goes off and she says that was not the doozy she predicted.
Twilight is miffed. How could that not be the doozy? She's mad because it doesn't make sense.
Then all of a sudden she sighs, slumps her shoulders, does a 180 and concludes it does make sense.
. . . How? Why?
She was ripe to be convinced when the hydra attacked, apparently confirming that the Pinkie sense was responding to a future event, but then it keeps going off after said event, seeming to have no correlation.
For all it appears to Twilight, this should look like a false positive. She should be smugly affirming she was right about the Pinkie sense not really matching up to future events if it keeps going like that.
But no, after being literally flaming angry that the Pinkie sense isn't making sense, she suddenly decides it makes sense. And the audience is told "When things don't make sense, you just have to choose to believe."
. . . What?
Lastly, what is this moral really applicable to? There are things in this world that have evidence behind them that we can't fully explain, I.E. we don't fully know how homing pigeons navigate but we know somehow they do. But the phrase "choose to believe" doesn't really apply since we know they find their home even without knowing how. This applies even to science people struggle to accept. Skeptics of evolution don't need to choose to believe it, they just need to look at the evidence and stop being so stuck in the mud about it.
Then there are phenomena we honestly just can't explain at this time. The less scientific stuff. But I don't think there's any reason you ought to choose to believe such things as opposed to simply accepting you don't know.
The moral could apply to some things like if a friend says they have depression or other experience you don't understand, but you take their word for it as a friend, but I feel like the episode is clearly not about that kind of inter-personal trust.
It's probably just the bad wording. Either way, this episode is the most obvious proof that episodes that fail to support their own moral are not just relegated to later seasons (But we'll discuss season 7 another day).
Submitted June 06, 2019 at 07:01AM by Crocoshark
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/bxggjp/analyzing_lessons_feeling_pinkie_keen_and_other/?utm_source=ifttt
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