What's With All of the Orphans in FIM?

[LZRD WZRD 1,929]

Applejack, Applebloom, and Big Mac are orphans. Fluttershy's entire family is missing and judging by her personality (it is my expert opinion that) she would appear to be an orphan. Spike's an orphan (unless Celestia kidnapped him :/ ). Scootaloo ain't got anyone. No mention of Rainbow Dash's parents (other than a childhood memory). And if this is all explained in the comics don't be raging cuz ain't nobody got time to read those things

 

To add to that, do you think there's any reason why there are so many orphans in this supposedly lighthearted show?

Edited July 22, 2014 by LZRD WZRD

[Fractured 2,684]

Well, I don't know about orphans... but a lack of parents makes for great personal growth. It's like killing the mentor without wasting all the extra time- you have a blank slate to start with. It happens a lot in media, it's kind of Disney's MO.

[Megas 27,764]

It's been pretty much confirmed at this point that AJ, AB, BM are orphaned(though I'm pretty sure that Granny Smith counts as a legal guardian).

 

We'll hopefully see some sort of confirmation on where FS, RD, and Scoots stand this season. Personally I just want to see them crush the Scootaorphan canon once and for all

[Jeric 46,860]

It's been pretty much confirmed at this point that AJ, AB, BM are orphaned(though I'm pretty sure that Granny Smith counts as a legal guardian).

 

We'll hopefully see some sort of confirmation on where FS, RD, and Scoots stand this season. Personally I just want to see them crush the Scootaorphan canon once and for all

 

This. Their loss (the Apples) would be more like a traditional situation where both parents pass and another family member raises them.

 

I do not buy Scootaloo being an orphan. I bet money on one parent not being a Pegasus (which is why she has a earth bound house). Hey story can be sad without her being orphaned. FS and RD ... don't know where I stand. Basically I think that too many orphan stories are a bit much.

 

 

Dash should have an adventurous and traveling family.

 

FS Dad is Angel Bunny ... brought on my a curse.

[Pastel 7,630]

We have no proofs Scootaloo, Spike and Fluttershy are orphans, and we have already seen Rainbow Dash's parents in a flashback.

The only orphans I see are Applejack, Apple Bloom and Big Mac, who are in the same family.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Blobulle

[LZRD WZRD 1,929]

We have no proofs Scootaloo, Spike and Fluttershy are orphans, and we have already seen Rainbow Dash's parents in a flashback.

The only orphans I see are Applejack, Apple Bloom and Big Mac, who are in the same family.

So if Spike isn't an orphan, he was kidnapped, correct? Edited July 22, 2014 by LZRD WZRD

[Pastel 7,630]

So if Spike isn't an orphan, he was kidnapped, correct?

That would be weird, but that's a possibility. Or they found his egg somewhere.

I wonder where does the school for gifted unicorns find the dragon eggs for the entrance exams.

[LZRD WZRD 1,929]

That would be weird, but that's a possibility. Or they found his egg somewhere.

I wonder where does the school for gifted unicorns find the dragon eggs for the entrance exams.

 

Well since Celestia is not god, it would appear that she does not create them herself. So I guess she either rescues abandoned ones (orphaned) or steals them. Hmmm

[SFyr 1,982]

I kinda wonder if dragons are, in MLP, one of those species that don't really care for their young after they hatch. Overall the species seems to be more intelligent, and prone to being grouped by rough age or situation--seeing as the teenage dragons were operating under purely their own desires rather than the guidance of an adult (and given their actions, I doubt they had been given much of it in the past either). They even kinda took in spike, so maybe it's just a normal thing. Dragon is born, discovers their own way, and simply attaches himself to a group or sticks it out relatively alone (with the community still within reach).

 

If so... maybe being an orphaned dragon is more the norm, and the fact Spike was adopted into an actual family would be the rarity that pretty much only ponies would be willing to do?

 

 

 

Also: I think shyness can also be a sign of being sheltered, or given many available fall backs in life. When you have a family, there can be more of that. When you're on your own, sometimes you have to buck up and make things work because you can't look for help elsewhere.

I personally like some of the fanfic ideas of her having a really strong and commanding mother/parent that produced a near inverse-personality child--with a similar inner fire when things get serious.

Can't speak for scootaloo. Overall pegasi parents just seem to be... less visable. Maybe they migrate from home more, or are more independent.

Edited July 22, 2014 by SFyr

[baltoist 303]

It's TV show logic. Deal with it.

[Pinklady 346]

I think there's a very logical explanation for the fact why there are so many orphans.
They would have to make a bunch more characters, create a lot more storyilnes and the whole show would be incredible crowded if they would have to introduce all the parents of every single character.

[Pastel 7,630]

I think there's a very logical explanation for the fact why there are so many orphans.

They would have to make a bunch more characters, create a lot more storyilnes and the whole show would be incredible crowded if they would have to introduce all the parents of every single character.

Not necessarily, the parents can be background ponies with no backstory, that can work.

[Pinklady 346]

Not necessarily, the parents can be background ponies with no backstory, that can work.

You do have a good point there.

[GenderIsAnIllusion 2,177]

Granny's is a guardian, Fluttershy (and the mane six) are adults in pony society, scoots... Ok you got me on scoots.....

[IridscentNionios 1,420]

Nah they just haven't been considered important enough to be mentioned.

[Wind Chaser 4,768]

From a writing standpoint, taking parents out does afford opportunities in character development and personal freedoms. In MLP, whose focus is on friendship rather than family life, the writing takes a more practical approach by only mentioning family when it has bearing on the plot. In the case of the Apple Family, I really have no idea why writers love killing off parents so much. It comes across as messed up when all of the other parents are off-screen most of the time.

 

In the case of Fluttershy, she's an independent adult and as such, there hasn't yet been a need to bring up her family in terms of story. But, it's a high curiosity and they'll need to address it sooner or later.

 

It really bothers me the most that Scootaloo remains the only Crusader with no known family. Even in "Sleepless in Ponyville", they avoided bringing it up. I'd like for them to clear this up once and for all.

 

The fact that both Fluttershy and Scootaloo remain the only characters with no known family and the fact that the current whereabouts of Rainbow Dash's parents are unknown really opens a can of theories on Pegasus culture (everything from "abandoning the nest" to Spartan-influenced intensive training), and eventually this will have to come up. I think Dustykatt has been noticing this for a long time, he's been calling for this since the middle of season 2.

[Fractured 2,684]

From a writing standpoint, taking parents out does afford opportunities in character development and personal freedoms. In MLP, whose focus is on friendship rather than family life, the writing takes a more practical approach by only mentioning family when it has bearing on the plot. In the case of the Apple Family, I really have no idea why writers love killing off parents so much. It comes across as messed up when all of the other parents are off-screen most of the time.

 

In the case of Fluttershy, she's an independent adult and as such, there hasn't yet been a need to bring up her family in terms of story. But, it's a high curiosity and they'll need to address it sooner or later.

 

It really bothers me the most that Scootaloo remains the only Crusader with no known family. Even in "Sleepless in Ponyville", they avoided bringing it up. I'd like for them to clear this up once and for all.

 

The fact that both Fluttershy and Scootaloo remain the only characters with no known family and the fact that the current whereabouts of Rainbow Dash's parents are unknown really opens a can of theories on Pegasus culture (everything from "abandoning the nest" to Spartan-influenced intensive training), and eventually this will have to come up. I think Dustykatt has been noticing this for a long time, he's been calling for this since the middle of season 2.

In the case of Applejack, her Mom and Dad would still be with her, which would take away from the relationship between her, Scootaloo, and the rest of the Apple family.

Pegasi are a mysterious case. Fluttershy, RD, and Scootaloo all have parents who are MIA, and all three would be considered poor fliers(Rainbow, at least, as a filly, dropped out of flight camp). The pegasus theory might indeed have some ground to it.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Shimmer5000

[pony.colin 156]

I kinda wonder if dragons are, in MLP, one of those species that don't really care for their young after they hatch. Overall the species seems to be more intelligent, and prone to being grouped by rough age or situation--seeing as the teenage dragons were operating under purely their own desires rather than the guidance of an adult (and given their actions, I doubt they had been given much of it in the past either). They even kinda took in spike, so maybe it's just a normal thing. Dragon is born, discovers their own way, and simply attaches himself to a group or sticks it out relatively alone (with the community still within reach).

 

 

From a writing standpoint, taking parents out does afford opportunities in character development and personal freedoms. In MLP, whose focus is on friendship rather than family life, the writing takes a more practical approach by only mentioning family when it has bearing on the plot. In the case of the Apple Family, I really have no idea why writers love killing off parents so much. It comes across as messed up when all of the other parents are off-screen most of the time.

 

In the case of Fluttershy, she's an independent adult and as such, there hasn't yet been a need to bring up her family in terms of story. But, it's a high curiosity and they'll need to address it sooner or later.

 

It really bothers me the most that Scootaloo remains the only Crusader with no known family. Even in "Sleepless in Ponyville", they avoided bringing it up. I'd like for them to clear this up once and for all.

 

The fact that both Fluttershy and Scootaloo remain the only characters with no known family and the fact that the current whereabouts of Rainbow Dash's parents are unknown really opens a can of theories on Pegasus culture (everything from "abandoning the nest" to Spartan-influenced intensive training), and eventually this will have to come up. I think Dustykatt has been noticing this for a long time, he's been calling for this since the middle of season 2.

 

Mostly these ^

 

In the case of Spike, it's always been wondered how he came into Celestia's possession.  We don't seem to have many Dragon eggs lying around and I one time made the joke that Celestia just found him lying on the side of the road. There was an older thread that asked if dragons abandoned their young or only bothered to take care of them up until very young adolescence.  Got various responses and theories.  Spike has always been the special case, because it seems like he's the only dragon living amongst pony society (and it's been sort of addressed, but his exact origins never understood). One theory was that he was willingly given over to Celestia by his own parents others suggested he was acquired by Celestia by accident etc.

 

I'm not convinced that Fluttershy is an orphan and I'm more convinced by the theory that:

 

Nah they just haven't been considered important enough to be mentioned.

 

Like others have said.  I have serious doubts that Fluttershy is an orphan, and right now, she's an independent adult pony, so it wouldn't be that much of a surprise if we absolutely don't get to see her family (until the plot gets around to calling for it).

 

Rainbow Dash isn't an orphan either, that one pegasus in the flashback I would guess is her father. He's probably around somewhere, but like Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash is living independently on her own, so it's not like he's living with her currently.

 

Scootaloo: (inb4 I completely screw up this logic): the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. What I'm saying is, just because her parents have not shown up doesn't mean she's an orphan.  Because we can't get rid of the possibility that, the reason Scootaloo's parents haven't shown up is because, plot doesn't require them to show up.  (same case with Fluttershy etc).

 

Applejack, Applebloom, Big Mac: okay this is the one elephant in the room that we keep tossing back and forth.  I think (someone has to double check) originally Lauren Faust wanted Aj's parents to be legitimately confirmed passed away in the series without any confusion.  And I think Hasbro said no to that idea, so what happened was that it was never ever addressed in the series.  The two stars thing is a very sketchy nod to the analyzers to say, we acknowledge that they are passed away, and we'll do it in a very subtle manner so as not to say the "d" word in a kids show.   Here's the problem with that - you required an outside source to say that, not something that was outright spoken upfront in the series.  If Sisby had never acknowledge it on twitter, it would still be stuck in speculation. She did, but that was only to answer the question of older audiences who would even bother asking this question.  The target audience is never going to do that much research on their own to ever make this conclusion and whether or not they accept such a conclusion either.  Like I said, never say the "d" word on a kids show.  Will we get a future episode that outright bluntly shows us, with refutable evidence that confirms that  AJ's parents are confirmed passed away?  I'm cynical and saying, probably not, because at this point, I'm thinking people are going to accept the two stars thing as the far as it will go, and thinking that people think, it's a deadhorse to beat over now.

 

 

The others will probably need to be addressed sooner or later (especially in the case of Scootaloo and Fluttershy.  For Spike, I'm not so sure.). (Although if anyone wants to put into perspective for Spike, remember how he received PeeWee, the pet phoenix from the Dragon Quest incident and later it's implied that he returned Peewee back to his family? Funny to put that in perspective with Spike).

Edited July 22, 2014 by pony.colin

[Wind Chaser 4,768]

the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence

This is true, I guess we should be using this more often. In the case of Scootaloo, I tend to use a headcanon that says that her parents aren't dead and they didn't abandon her. I believe that they could possibly be workaholics, to use the best excuse.

 

There's also this interesting correlation between the main Pegasi of the show and the status of their families:

Pegasi are a mysterious case. Fluttershy, RD, and Scootaloo all have parents who are MIA, and all three would be considered poor fliers(Rainbow, at least, as a filly, dropped out of flight camp). The pegasus theory might indeed have some ground to it.

Could they all have been shunned by their family because they were poor fliers, or were they left alone by their families to take up new paths in lieu of their flying ability? Given the Spartan influences on Pegasus culture, maybe they do value productive fliers above all else like the Spartans did warriors. Otherwise, they might value self-sufficiency above all else, and that's why their respective families may have left them alone.

 

There's really a lot of possibility for some backstory here that the writers are missing. At the rate they were doing backstory and worldbuilding in season 4, this wouldn't be entirely out of the question in season 5, but there still is the possibility they could dance their way around it like they did in "Sleepless in Ponyville" (notice how they stop short in that episode by having Scootaloo only say that she doesn't have a big sister rather than having her say whether or not she even knows the rest of her family).

[mars 4,862]

It's TV show logic. Deal with it.

I hate it when people just shrug and chalk it up to: "it's just a TV show guys lol"

 

But, I really hope Scoots isn't an orphan. I always thought her mother was a pegasus and her father was an earth pony and they lived happily.

 

I don't think Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy are orphans either. Just because we haven't seen their parents yet doesn't mean anything. I mean we didn't see Rarity's parents until season 2 and no one thought she was an orphan.

[M'aiq the Liar 5,804]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeceasedParentsAreTheBest

 

To put alot of the bigger posts into this thread into a nice tl;dr wiki format, alot of it is because of this trope.

And as for most of the "orphans" the only real confirmed orphans we have on the show are the royal sisters (as the journal of the two sisters mentioned that there parents were "gone" and they were raised by a combination of unicorn royalty and StarSwirl) and the Apple family. But I would like the elephant in the show, mainly scootaloo's parents, be addressed at some point. 

[TheCopperCoin 0]

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash's parents are both mentioned, but I agree with Scootaloo and the Apples.

I think Scootaloo is an orphan because--when Rarity is unable to chaperone the CMCs sleepover--they just assume that is that, probably because Apple Bloom's family would be busy with farm chores. Also, Scootaloo was so touched when Rainbow Dash and her parents were chanting her name and supporting her, as if it was the first time in her life that she had that.

[CelticFish 1]

On 7/24/2014 at 3:44 AM, M'aiq the Liar said:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeceasedParentsAreTheBest

 

To put alot of the bigger posts into this thread into a nice tl;dr wiki format, alot of it is because of this trope.

And as for most of the "orphans" the only real confirmed orphans we have on the show are the royal sisters (as the journal of the two sisters mentioned that there parents were "gone" and they were raised by a combination of unicorn royalty and StarSwirl) and the Apple family. But I would like the elephant in the show, mainly scootaloo's parents, be addressed at some point. 

Wait where did you learn about what the journal said? It wasn't in an episode was it? I dont remember hearing anything like that and I've been wondering where the sisters princesses came from