BalanceBrony

But had he not conformed, he would've been forced to anyways. Very tyrannical if you ask me. And tyranny is not love and tolerance. Interesting thoughts, but I do have some disagreements. I do not see the line between reason and love. I would appreciate a little more explanation. Regarding order, I do not see how order follows the Natural Law. Natural law states many different things, depending on who you're reading. But the common holding is that natural law states that everypony has their natural right to self-preservation, and are acting rightly so long as they are preserving themselves. Further, I would argue that existence, being Balanced in its natural state, is an Ordered Chaos. Their are laws which govern it, but at the same time things can happen quite randomly. As for Order being equated to Tolerance... I would disagree most strongly on this point. Order, if it is pure, as in the show, will result in oppression, which is the opposite of tolerance. We see the oppression of the various villains and, in the case of the Changelings, we see Order conflicting natural law and being used to take away the Changeling's natural right to self-preservation. It is not only intolerant with the Changelings, but outright Unjust.

*HEAVY PHILOSOPHY DISCLAIMER, IF UNINTERESTED IN PHILOSOPHY, DON'T WASTE TIME READING* ~Introduction~ So, I would like to bring up a discussion which always interests me. I first had this talk on the RuneScape forums, in philosophical debates about the gods. But it is one that very much applies to Equestria. Is Chaos actually inherently evil? The common argument brought up is that well, in the Equestrian paradigm, yes, Chaos is evil. But I would say that such a view actually is a direct contradiction to the other Equestrian paradigm that Harmony is the thing which society should strive for. Harmony is a subject which is very dear to me, and one that I have spent several years mulling over. I have had countless debates, read numerous books, and written several papers on the subject, not to mention a book which I am working on. As such, I have had much evolution in my ideas. I have made plenty of progress in my thoughts since I first started pondering Balance (a subject related to Harmony) back in the 9th grade, 5 years ago, on the RuneScape forums. And one thing which I have established many times over is the importance of opposites coexisting for Balance to occur, and for Harmony to exist. Existence has many parts. There are Yin, Yang, and Neutral aspects which make up everything. The Universe is a web of these various aspects, and their interactions. There are also different types of interactions which occur. The most notable interactions are called dualities, which are interactions between a Yin aspect, and its complementary Yang aspect. Their are other kinds, but interactions involving neutral forces are not an issue, as they do not threaten Harmony, or Balance. For our discussion here, we are focusing on the two dualities which are most prominent in the Equestrian paradigm. These dualities are Order/Chaos and Harmony/Discord. The Good/Evil duality in Equestria is equivalent to those two relationships, but we are going to examine if that should be the case. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~Order/Chaos~ Now, if we examine the Order/Chaos relationship, Order is Good and Chaos is Bad in Equestria. However, I would posit this: exactly why is Chaos a Bad? Chaos, while it does create some level of misery, is still a necessary part of life. If there was only pure Order, society would have to oppress anypony who deviates, as in the case of Discord (the entity), the Changelings, and Nightmare Moon. Oppression can lead to civil unrest, and leads to injustice. Mind, in Equestria deviants aren't common, so unrest isn't a big problem. But Injustice does occur. Was it right to banish the Changelings for their nature? Why was no attempt made to serve both ponies and Changelings? Was it Just to force Discord to reform? Couldn't he just be given another outlet for his Chaos? Attempts could have been made to be Just, but the pure Order which Equestria supports resulted in tyrant-like actions on the part of the Equestrians. Then the other factor of Order which is negative is that pure rigidity of society makes it fragile, and less capable of handling conflict. Your society might not change, and internally that could work fine. But if an external force works against your society, the lack of variety and innovation could backfire. If we examine history, we know that the greatest advances all came from times of conflict, or a problem which needed solving. A society lacking conflict internally will become complacent. "Why should we advance when things are working fine?" is a thought commonly held by an overly ordered and stable society, Then something new comes along and exceeds its level of innovation, and overtakes it. So Chaos is not only not Evil, but it can be Good at times too. ~No Chaos? An Affront to Harmony~ In the Introduction, I mentioned that the Equestrian anti-Chaos sentiment was actually contradictory to its paradigm of Harmony. How is this so? Well, simply put, Harmony is the state of existence in which all things love together in multiplicity, tolerating and respecting all different paradigms without qualms. As soon as the Equestrians decided that Chaos should be oppressed, they contradicted Harmony. Simply having the attitude that an aspect of existence should be tossed out the door means that Harmony is not the end goal, as Harmony involves tolerating views, not eliminating them. Attempts should have been made at reason and compromise. Oppression is inherently an unbalanced action, and Harmony cannot be achieved be acting against Harmony. Then there is also Balance to be considered as well. Balance is a notion which is related to Harmony. Balance is an overall equillibrium between opposite forces. Existence changes, so opposite forces won't stay equal forever. But in order for Harmony to exist, Balance must be strived for. Opposite forces cannot be allowed to grow to strong or too weak. If we are to take this Order/Chaos duality as an example, we know that too much Order and too little Chaos are both bad things. The inverse is also true, as seen if we examine Discord's reign.Balance means that we should weaken the strong or strengthen the weak forces in a duality, to prevent the scales from going too much in either direction. These Imbalances would help create Discord- a state of existence which has excessive suffering for one or more parties, where somepony or another is not happy. So, in conclusion, I would argue that Equestria has it all wrong. In oppressing Chaos, the Equestrians are causing Imbalance. On top of that, the blind intolerance of anypony who seems to threaten the status quo means that the Equestrians are acting in an inherently Discordant and unharmonious way. I know this was quite a waffle, and I appreciate anypony who took the time to read. But I really wanted to share my ideas, and I would love to hear your own. What do you think everypony? I look forward to reading your responses!

Love and tolerance! The battlecry of Bronies everywhere, and the moral high ground which we argue is but one reason why the show is great. It's covered numerous different times in the various episodes. But there is one place where this message seems to fall short: Villain episodes. Any episode where a villain comes into play, we see the show's so-called message completely shot down. In the Nightmare Moon arc, Nightmare Moon had to be cleansed of the force which corrupted her. But in this case, I will say that this was acceptable. Whatever was influencing her turned her into a tyrant, and with tyrants you need to be forceful. No problem here. I just didn't want anypony saying "What about Nightmare Moon... Derrr." Discord... I have loads to say about him. He is actually going to be granted a thread of his own. But for our purposes here, I only need to point out the what here. The how, why, and should will be elsewhere. But the what is this. For having a different lifestyle and paradigm, he had only two possible paths. He could stay true to himself, and be imprisoned for ever and/or forced to reform, or he could change his own nature. It sure is tolerance to hate somepony for their lifestyle and sense of humour. The Changelings and Chrysalis... These guys are forced by their nature to feed on love. It is injustice to take away their natural right to self-preservation. No attempt was made to try and reach a compromise. They were simply banished for something they couldn't help. This is on par with various civil rights and social issues which I won't detail, but we all know how this kind of thing would be considered wrong in today's society, without at least trying to find a middle ground. So, given these notable examples, what do you guys think? Do you think these episodes have kind of undermined the show's message a bit? Do you agree that injustice is really this prominent in an otherwise great society? Now, let's have discussion!

You can't, plain and simple. I think it has been pretty much fleshed out at this point, so here's a synopsis of why we can't. 1) We don't know anything about them, except that they need love to survive 2) They need love to survive. We can't grudge them for exerting their natural right to preserve themselves. 3) For all we know, Chryssi could be a tyrant who enslaves the changelings. We don't know. 4) Equestria has spare love, doesn't it? And if not, couldn't Cadence work her magic to feed them? And if those aren't enough, one could argue that judging as a whole should not be something we do. Isn't the show's maxim Love and Tolerance? It's almost like a kind of inherent contradiction which we see in Villain episodes. We also see this with Discord. Chaos is not something inherently evil. In fact, as somepony experienced in the philosophy of Balance, I would argue that Discord and Chaos are necessary to an extent. In fact... I'm just going to make a thread about that now... But anyway, judging is wrong, especially when we are talking about the nature of these creatures which cannot be changed.

I still want to know where these roles would go. I mean, Luna, obviously, could definitely be in such a postion, seeing as there is already a confirmed episode centering around Nightmare Moon. But having Vinyl singing... I just don't see where that would be able to apply. Not that I don't want it to happen. I just don't know how it would work with the dynamic of episodes we are used to.

Why would I? I've pretty much liked every episode, with neutral views on one or two of them. I haven't disliked anything done with the show recently. They have delivered very well thus far. My faith is still strong that they'll keep this show going steady, or even getting better, with all the new opportunities provided by Alicorn Twilight.

I've had it easy, as I only joined the fandom in late September. But then I got sick and finished all of MLP and Equestria Girls. I have watched loads of fanimations, but I don't really read fanfics that much, as I do enough reading for school. Aside from that, I have the Mine Little Pony mod downloaded for Minecraft, so I essentially bum around at minigames and hope to bump into other pony-crafters, while listening to my MLP music playlist. I've also made one ponies in minecraft video thus far. Then school, youtube, and anime have been taking up the rest of my time.

I didn't think about it that way. I didn't even realise that the simplest way to work with 1/5 is using, well, 1/5. I've often found this happen, if you've been in higher level math courses, or helped younger kids with the ever-more conviluted methods being developed, the simplest stuff eludes you... Plus I've always had a habit of being over-complicated.

Yeah, I agree. Like I said, I have faith in their casting. But just associations... Nowack is the voice I think of, so it'll be odd, like if one switches from a dubbed anime to a subbed anime.

Interesting, and clearly intentional. But does it equate to 20%? She has 6 rows of 6... making 36. it would be 30 if they were groups of 5 and not 6... So she had 30, meaning 20% (1/5) of her total would be 6. Since she has 6 more than 30, and 20% of 30 is 6, what she has on there now is 120% of 30. Conclusion: Rainbow Dash is 20% COOLER than everypony else.... YEAHHHH! Whoever noticed this is BAWS.

So, a hot topic around here is a rumoured Vinyl Scratch song in season 4. There are numerous discussions about it, but one area which I didn't see touched upon was what role Vinyl Scratch's song will have if it does happen. In the current episodes, every song has an importance, to either plot or character development. The notion of a background pony being given such an important role in an episode doesn't seem to make sense. But from experience, we know that songs are not pointless, and if Vinyl Scratch does have a song, we must wonder why such is the case. My personal headcanon right now is based on other statements about S4. Namely, the one about Pinkie being given a run for her partying money, and the one about the musical episode being focused on Pinkie. Here's my thought. From Vinyl's appearance in Canterlot Wedding Part 2, she seems to at least know Vinyl. Perhaps they work together at parties. So the episode would follow a conflict between Vinyl and Pinkie about partying. Some disagreement arises about how to throw a party. So, they try to outdo each other, and prove that their individual party styles are superior. It's a stretch I know, but it's just one thought I had about how Vinyl can become involved in a large enough role to be treated to a song. What do you guys think? What would be possible circumstances which would make Vinyl prominent enough to sing? And does this mean she will officially move out of the realm of "background pony" and into the realm of supporting characters? If this actually happens, the implications for the fandom will be astronomical. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Well, there is the factor of nondisclosures. Maybe as a trade-off to keeping parody right she's not allowed to talk about it? One can only hope. But if she isn't doing it, I hope they get somepony close to that quality of voice.

Aw, that's disappointing, because she's the only voice I would picture as Vinyl Scratch. Maybe Hasbro could be nice and let her keep her right to parody?

1. Jessi Nowack as Vinyl. ULTIMATE FAN SERVICE. Especially considering there are rumours of a Vinyl singing role in season 4. 2. Grey DeLisle should be in everything. Plain and simple. 3. Tom Kenny is always a nice addition.

You mean right before the rope started turning itself, and a moment before Pinkie helps herself out of a hole? This is a Pinkie scene. No logic, cartoon or otherwise, is applicable.

I'm actually a little nervous about this, because the rumour going around is that Vinyl gets a singing role in Season 4, along with many other ponies. I don't doubt DHX's casting, but as TimeLordRainbowDash said, Nowack's voice is the voice I hear when I think of Vinyl Scratch, so I would only want a voice along the same lines, or Nowack herself (she is a voice actress by trade, albeit less well-known than others). So, in short, if the rumours true, I would want Nowack, or somepony who has a voice of similar characterisation.

I agree with the notion of canon until proven otherwise. It's a notion which I also see on the RuneScape forums. If there is ever any lore speculation, we hold to the rule that a statement of lore by any past or present staff member is considered true until contradicted. I feel that applies here as well. Lauren Faust may not be directly involved anymore, but she is good friends of the writing team, and made MLP what it is. I feel like the team will respect her vision in most cases, in honour of what she did, and what she laid the groundwork for. For example, Faust mentions plot "seeds" which she planted while she was working on the show. These seeds were a precursor to a certain vision for various aspects of the show, so where these "seeds" exist, we can still trust Faust's word on their related plot elements. For other things, we should accept them until they are debunked.

Isn't nowacking a voice actress by trade? Maybe it could be ultimate fan service and hasbro hires her to do Vinyl's voice? But if not, I hope they keep the idea of having an awesome type of voice. Of course, that's all assuming that this actually happens. I don't know what context could warrant a background pony singing. All of the songs thus far have only featured the Mane Six as the primary singers, with the exception of This Day Aria. One might say well, Derpy had a speaking role. But speaking roles can occur without any real importance (although I would argue that Derpy is one of the most important characters to that episode's plot.). SInging roles are quite different. They always contribute to the character development and plot in a given episode. So unless Vinyl was going to move out of the background, I'm not sure where her singing would fall. But personally, unless they get Jessi Nowack, which is unlikely, or somepony with a very similar voice, I'm not sure I'd be thrilled, seeing how Nowack has voiced Vinyl in pretty much every piece of fan content that I can think of. But there's my two cents.

I think that it will obviously be friendship... After all Twilight=Magic AND Friendship=Magic. Ergo, Twilight=Friendship. At least, that's the logic I would follow.

I feel like it would actually make for a decent episode and lesson. Possible lessons could include bossiness (If RD is too pushy and forceful), respecting your teachers (Twilight getting all up in the theory, like Greenfield said), patience (if Twily gets super excited, and wants to go faster than RD wants, or more likely RD wants to go faster and Twily can't keep up). So I see potential here, plus it was stated that we could get Scootaloo involved, making a kind of RD private flight school episode. Either way, Twilight's wings are, for some reason, one of the more interesting aspects of her Alicorn status to me.

I support the idea of Twilicorn. It opens so many new possibilities in the story of the show, as Twilight gets used to her wings, her status, and begins learning how to master the magic of friendship. And the wings. I really like the wings. Is anypony else excited to see her take flying lessons from RD?

Hiya everypony! So, I'm a college student, going for a BA in Anthropology. Part of the requirements for my major include taking introductory courses in the four primary fields of Anthropology. This semester I am in Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. How is this relevant to ponies you may ask? Well, I was just assigned a paper. The subject of the paper is to write an ethnography (a cultural study) about how to effectively participate in a speech community. I am actually lucky to have a unique opportunity to study the Fandom from the perspective of someone transitioning into the community, having been a Brony for only three weeks. I can maintain the perspective of an outsider, while also becoming very much involved. The focus of this study will be examining what knowledge somepony will need in order to effectively participate in the brony community. Specifically, how one is to be effective in more involved fan discussions. So what I am asking is if it is okay for me to study the community here from an anthropological perspective, and research the linguistic trends which exist in the Fandom's community, as well as various rites of passage to transition into full Bronyhood? I know it seems silly to ask, when I could just examine things anyway, but it is considered unethical to conduct anthropological study without letting the subjects know they are being analysed.