#mylittlepony - #Analyzing Lessons - Green Isn't Your Color, Over a Barrel, and A Bird in the Hoof

Analyzing Lessons - Green Isn't Your Color, Over a Barrel, and A Bird in the Hoof

Got a secret

Can you keep it

Swear this one you'll save

Better lock it

In your pocket

Taking this one to the grave

If I show you

Then I know you

Won't tell what I said

Because two can keep a secret

If one of them is dead

If you haven't guessed, we continue our journey through the show's morals with an episode about secrets . . .

Green Isn't Your Color

"Being a good friend means being able to keep a secret, but you should never be afraid to share your true feelings with a good friend."

The "You should never be afraid to share your true feelings with a good friend" part is a theme that comes up repeatedly in this show and elsewhere; that you should always express yourself, and if someone's a good friend, they will by definition understand. If they don't, they're not a good friend.

Or "If someone reacts badly to you expressing your feelings, you shouldn't consider them friends."

That attitude will definitely cut out some "friendships" where someone doesn't allow someone else to have their own feelings and treats people as indebted to them, but there are still relationships that can be considered worthwhile, where people still take things the wrong way.

People can also want to stay in contact with people that don't qualify as "good friends", for reasons. Sometimes you may even rely on your relationship with someone, though that's more an issue with family then friends, but could apply to the latter.

But these thoughts of mine are more general. Fluttershy and Rarity in this episode aren't actually afraid of losing their friendship, but of hurting their friend. And in this case, the conclusion of the scenario is an outlier. Usually, when you're afraid of hurting your friend, there's a much more real chance of actually hurting your friend. This episode only shows that things are okay because of both parties completely misunderstanding the other's feelings, which is still a valid lesson about communication, but a scenario where a pony is not so completely off in their prediction might be in order.

About the episode itself, this episode is an early, though not too bad/irritating, example of an obvious solution hanging over the characters that they don't just consider. In this case; Twilight could've insisted to both of them that the other would accept their feelings, that it really would be the right thing to be open and that they should trust her on that as a mutual friend. You don't need reveal the actual secrets to say that this advice is based on conversations had with the other party.

Over a Barrel

"Friendship is a wondrous and powerful thing. Even the worst of enemies can become friends. You need understanding and compromise. You've got to share. You've got to care. And like the path cut through the orchard, there'll always be a way through."

What's depicted in the episode is establishing trade and commerce between two parties, not quite friendship. That said, from what I've read, free trade between countries DOES reduce their likelihood of going to war.

The friendship aspect, and the part that's applicable to real life, is that both parties gave the other value. The buffalo liked the ponies' pies, and the ponies gave value to the buffalo's desire run on their ancestral land, or at least value to their patronage. In a historical analogue sense this episode is about colonialists taking someone's land and than making them pay to continue to use it, and the native people being happy with this arrangement. They gotta share.

That's kinda messed up.

Back to the moral itself;

CAN the worst of enemies become friend? More importantly, how likely are they even to be motivated to make the effort? How likely are you to compromise with your worst enemy?

. . . Can a serial killer and the family of one of their victims become friends? I'm . . . asking for a friend . . .

A Bird in the Hoof

"I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. Next time I'll ask before taking matters into my own hooves."

Playing Devil's Advocate, what if Celestia really was neglecting the bird, and pointing it out just makes her hide the bird away for PR. Kinda paranoid, sure, especially since Celestia wouldn't do that. But in real life, nobody will be dealing with Celestia. Of course, in real life pointing out a problem could also raise awareness of it and ensure it gets handled.

But yeah, this lesson is legitimate. If you see an animal that appears to be abused, talk to the owner before stealing their pet. The appearance of being abused is probably just part of their natural life cycle.

Either way, stealing pets is bad. That being said, did Celestia ever consider how it would look to bring a featherless, dying bird to a Ponyville lunch? Should they even be travelling at that stage in their life? And shouldn't Celestia have given some reassurance to Fluttershy when she saw the bird? Maybe she assumed Fluttershy already knew about Phoenixes.

That said, whatever Celestia's faults, that's only shifting the topic, This is a show where the main characters realize how they can grow, rather than just faulting someone else. I wonder though, about the many ways less reflective people could walk away from some of these lessons. Honestly, I'm just padding out this section 'cause it's shorter than the others.

You guys have any interesting thoughts?

Submitted June 20, 2019 at 06:59AM by Crocoshark
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