There's a bit of a disconnect, though. Wouldn't someone be considered greedy if they would potentially leave someone to die just because that person doesn't have the money to pay to be saved? 

There's a bit of a disconnect, though. Wouldn't someone be considered greedy if they would potentially leave someone to die just because that person doesn't have the money to pay to be saved? 

For a scene like that, that is greed, because he's more focused on his income than Dash's life. The problem is how the episode paints a very broad brush that they're all as greedy as him. Griffonstone is still in disarray, and the griffon population still have to get any income so they can survive through the next day.

You know, when I watch the show, one of the last things that come to mind is resource scarcity so the interpretation went very differently. The availability of resources always seems like a given in the show.

Although thinking about it, the idea that Griffonstone is in a state of economic decadence does make sense. On the other hand... If we were to interpret things like IRL, some signs point to the griffons being fine when it comes to resources. For one, at least the younger ones don't show signs of being in ill health. Nobody seems to be sick and most aren't even wounded. 

Another thing: where's all the fighting? They just come off as cold and not particularly interested in duking it out at the first sign of hostility. The atmosphere itself comes across as nonchalant as opposed to dangerous. Had the griffons been watching the ponies like hawks, that could have been taken as a sign. What's more, they made no attempt at all to try and force them out of their bits. If the griffons were that desperate, I'm pretty sure that's what they would have done as opposed to passively waiting ask for bits, not even caring whether or the chance arose. That's very much the opposite of what I would expect from a community that faces serious deprivation problems.

However, your point still stands. The least the writers could have done is definitively and unambiguously show that Grifonstone is fine when it comes to resources and wealth, boiling it all down to lack of will and only a lack of will. Shoving even basic economic considerations to the side oversimplifies the episode's morals very arguably to the point of invalidation. 

 

 

While others such as Ponyville and Canterlot thrive, Griffonstone looks war-torn, reminding me personally of how Germany looked following World War I.

Walp, we all know what their solution was.

While an interesting take, I'll admit that I got a bit of a different moral from this episode than you did. If you'll be so kind as to listen for a moment...

To me, Rainbow and Pinkie represented the wrong way and the right way to help Griffinstone, respectively. Rainbow just wanted to get the idol and go, thinking she could just slap a band-aid on the problem more or less. Pinkie, however, did much more than spread friendship. She taught Gilda how to make Griffin scones, a skill that she could use to make money and improve her community. There was even a bit of a joke about this, if you remember these lines (well, something along these lines).

Pinkie - "Your scones are missing an important ingredient!"

Gilda - "What? Friendship?"

Pinkie - "Umm, no. Baking soda."

Maybe it's just me wanting to see the good in an episode, but the way I saw the moral, or at least a more subtle part of it, is that you can't just throw money or stuff at a community in crisis and expect everything to be fine and dandy from there. You have to help them help themselves, economically (the scones) and socially (the friendship).

That's my two cents at least