weesh

Shouldn't friendly banter actually be friendly? When someone explicitly asks TWICE for people to stop calling them a name they don't like, wouldn't it stop if they actually respected the person? The entire wonderbolts system is designed around disrespect. When you come across well meaning people who are doing something hurtful out of ignorance and habit, the correct answer isn't to just become a duck and let it slide of your back. The correct answer is to confront and correct the problem to make the organization more welcoming, and ESPECIALLY in the case of an organization where the athletes are supposed to be role models.

he isn't blowing it out of proportion, but you seem to be ignorant of the harm caused by this sort of behavior. people who are hazed have detrimental effects on their self esteem, and some commit suicide. I can't understand how you think "rainbow dash is stronger than that", when she clearly melted down after ONE day of the abuse.

So, abuse is ok, if everyone does it, and it is worse in other organizations? This episode took Rainbow past the breaking point. Did she deserve that? Do you think the lesson here is "get a thicker skin Rainbow"? If everyone had a thicker skin, there would be less hurt feelings in the world. But we shouldn't have to, and we shouldn't put up with that. We should be promoting respect, not tolerance to abuse. When someone you don't know taunts you abuses you, that is unfortunate, but hopefully you have a healthy enough mindset to understand that their opinion doesn't matter, and you can ignore it. But when your heroes, those you respect the most, and those you most long to get close to are the abusers...wow that hurts. I don't WANT to build a thick skin against the people I love the most. I want to deeply connect with them.

It wasn't just about being new, it was the WORST guy, in a system that will usually humiliate the newest flier. And that was hardly the worst of the hazing. That part didn't bug me anywhere near as much as the Bolts continuing to use the nickname that rainbow made clear, TWICE, that she didn't appreciate. Taken as a whole, the system is unnecessarily abusive.

I've been wondering while reading these comments if people are just ignorant of the damage hazing causes? Seems like just about anyone who is aware should find this aspect of the episode abhorrent.

I played the MLP trading card game was extremely disappointed. the premise is that you are trying to solve problems around ponyville... But you are in competition to solve them with the other player! Racing to solve a problem first, and being at odds with the other player is a major flavor fail. I wanted to be working WITH them. It's a shame because so much else about the game was VERY right, but this one flaw killed the excitement for me. I'd absolutely buy a collaborative MLP game, but those are quite a bit harder to design and get right.

Well, we are agreed on two things. its as if you think that I'm claiming ALL things related to the craft of storytelling can be broken down objectively, and nothing could be farther from the truth. I'm arguing that SOME things are factual and objective, and you are arguing that NONE are by saying that some things aren't. In the 100th episode, we see the inert fireworks at the beginning of the episode. If we'd never seen them again, that would have been objectively bad, because seeing them and acknowledging the mystery sets up an expectation. They are mentioned earlier precisely to set up that expectation and excitement. That is like film 101. If you see something out of the ordinary, it should matter, or it should be cut from the scene, as it distracts from your story. To claim that such a basic tenant of film craft is subjective feeling rather than a rule on which you can build objectivity is silly to me. That wikipedia article on empirical research defines it as "It is a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience". Knowledge gained by direct observation and experience is exactly what is taught in film school. There are many things in film that are observed the same by all people and are observer independent as required by a useful definition of objectivity.

you quoted a lot of sentences. could you say which specific idea you consider to be hyperbole?

Your standard for "objective" is unfairly high. The insistence that I take facts on color philosophy to the standard of measurable light wavelength isn't helpful. All that does is make it hard to communicate. What needs to be true for something to be objective is that it is easily and clearly supported by facts without personal feelings or opinions influencing the judgement. Check out THIS video in the film theorist craft of filmmaking series. I picked one that deals with color specifically. The narrator is terribly annoying, but he knows his stuff. If you really want to hold me to the "red light is 700nm" level of fact, then we don't have enough common ground to have a discussion. If you are willing to accept that making media has accepted principles that have been studied, analyzed and honed to a fine point, then it isn't hard to make a case that "newbie dash" has SOME elements that are objectively bad. The realities of being a wonderbolt are apparently humiliating nicknames, and punishing the worst flier...as if elite athletes that underperform don't already beat themselves up. You can call it any name you want, make all the excuses that you want, and use dumptruck load of sugar coating, but it is still awful. The wonderbolts should be role models. But instead they are absolutely brutal to Dash...pushing her past the breaking point. Yeah, maybe dash will rise above the level of that humiliation...but someone is still taking it. I could have handled the episode if Dash had stood up to the SYSTEM. But her accepting that level of disrespect, just because everyone was mean to everyone, drives me crazy. I don't want them to change the rules just for dash either. I want them to change their culture for everyone.

bummer. equal opportunity? a team that has been working together for years, throws a newbie into the mix two days before an event with a routine she has never practiced... and punishes the worst flier. yeah, its POSSIBLE that spit fire could have been the worst... but the system is rigged against the newbie. they could have made clean up a team building activity...but instead it was used to isolate and humiliate Dash on her first day with the team.

I think you know what objective means, but don't understand the art behind the creation of stories, and just how objective it actually can be. There are absolutely good and bad decisions that go into characterization, plot, flow, colors, etc that have been widely studied, can be taught, and can be objectively considered right and wrong. For instance, if you show someone in a position of power from a high angle, 99% of the time, you are doing it objectively wrong, because it will tend to confuse your audiences. no one else was called by their nickname during the first 90% of the episode. Dash was singled out both for the abuse, and for the cleaning duty (punishment for being the worst). Also, I find it to be a fallacy that it's ok to abuse one person if everyone is being abused. Had Dash had full knowledge of everyone's painful nickname, maybe it would have tipped from "hazing" to being just generally toxic. Calling someone a name they hate, after they have told you twice to cut it out is just downright disrespectful. If you want to split hairs and give it a different label than hazing, fine, but it was still really mean and unnecessary.

It seems to be hazing to me, but it isn't really clear what your argument is. Are you saying "if the abuse happened to everyone when they joined, it isn't hazing"? because that is EXACTLY what hazing is.

sooooooooooooooooo.... its ok to call someone a mean nickname that they hate.......... because you want to make sure they know it is their nickname? they knew she hated it because she told them TWICE.

agreed. life doesn't end just because you fulfil a dream. in fact, the idea of discussing what to do AFTER you fulfil a dream could make an excellent episode! it would be quite relatable. Very well said. It is certainly possible to like something that is objectively bad, or to hate something that is objectively good, but the creation of media has a lot of study and theory behind it, and to throw all that out doesn't do anyone any good. I'm not going to deny that there is some hyperbole in this thread (even in my own posts), but the episode was poor enough that the superlatives used have not been THAT far off the mark. She was taunted mercilessly...the hazing took her past the breaking point. It's one thing to have a shitty thing happen to you, and it's another for a group to rub your face in it continuously. She was victimized not only by circumstance, but by the whole team. I'd have been fine with it, if they had dealt with it. How awesome would it have been for Rainbow to say "guys, has it ever occurred to you that taunting the new recruits might not be the best way to welcome them? can't we be better than that? we're role models for thousands of ponies...do we want school kids doing this to each other?" But instead, they JUSTIFIED it.

I find that to be silly. the show doesn't revolve around dash, and it didn't' even end when Twilight became a princess.

This is exactly my problem with it. So much anticipation, so much disappointment.

my impression was that they JUSTIFIED it at the end. Rainbow said "wow, 'crash' isn't that bad" If they were trying to show that hazing was bad, they completely missed the mark.

if you treat everyone like shit, it becomes ok!