Has anyone ever found MLP actually kind of depressing?

[ManaMinori 4,144]

Just some examples- the situation with Queen Chrysalis, and Spike (looking at "Secret of My Excess" and "Dragon Quest)

 

First, Chrysalis and the changelings.

 

Looking back on “A Canterlot Wedding” and the MLP IDW comic, “Return of Queen Chrysalis”, I can't help but notice that Twilight and friends respond to the Changeling Queens' threat in the wedding with violence, rather than attempting to try and understand the situation, rather than seeing reason and that the Changelings need to feed off love to survive, and working out a compromise. Instead, they use the Elements of harmony to send the entire Changeling army Luna knows where, thus dooming thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of living creatures in the colony- and their Queen- to starvation, and get rewarded for their actions.

 

In “The Return of Queen Chrysalis”, Twilight goes off on a tangent about how Chrysalis doesn't know what its like to have friends, or to love and be loved in return, how Chrysalis' motivations are selfish, and how she and her friends have things worth fighting for, and Chrysalis doesn't, and how Chrysalis just envies the Mane 6 for what they have....umm....ok, whaaaaat? I can't help but think Twi and friends are totally in the wrong here, again- because Chrysalis has to have known love- I'm sure she loves her changeling children else she wouldn't bother trying to feed and provide for all of them, and would only be caring about her own needs. If she didn't care, she'd have long since left the colony and done things alone. And I'm sure that her babies love her in return, for trying to provide for all of them. So I think Twi's wrong about Chrysalis not knowing love and not knowing what its like to BE loved. She loves her baby changelings enough to put herself and her babies in dangerous situations to try and provide for them, and her baby changelings love her and support her. Case closed.

 

Funny, too, how in the comics, AJ also mentions Chrysalis doesn't know anything about a good day's work. Ok, like it's not a job in itself, trying to provide for thousands, hundreds of thousands of mouths to feed? Chrysalis knows more about work, ironically, than AJ will ever know.

 

What Chrysalis is doing isn't selfish as Twilight and friends seem dead set on believing- it's what's necessary for their survival as a species. What do you think about the show and comics supporting the Mane 6's actions in depriving an entire species of nourishment and still making the Mane 6 out to be 'heroes' in that regard?

 

Moving onto Spike.....

 

 

In 'Secret of My Excess', it was hinted at that it was Spike's first birthday in Ponyville, but before he moved there, he had other birthdays in Canterlot, at least a few of them, given how Spike said Twilight always gave him a book for his past birthdays. Spike starts getting greedy and trying to get his claws on more and more items, which cause him to grow into a teenaged dragon and have his voice changes as puberty kicks in, than into an adult dragon. Zecora specifically tells Twilight Spike's growing up, with the more he's allowed to collect (which is natural for a dragon), and even after knowing this, Zecora even encourages Twilight to stop Spike's natural age process, by preventing him from collecting, and Twi and friends eventually succeed in doing just that, thus changing Spike into a small, baby dragon, for their own purposes.

 

In a later episode, “Dragon Quest', it's after Spike decided he'd join the dragon migration in attempt to find out who he was, the first thing his pony friends tried to do was stop him. Twi straight up lies to Spike's face about understanding why Spike would want to go and look for answers for who he is, elsewhere, and her believing that he needs to go on his quest. (after what she was with Spike in “Secret of My Excess', can we really believe that?) And again lie, as Spike sets off, by saying they have faith in him, when they plan to follow him, from the very beginning- and try and stop Spike from growing up yet again, even out of Ponyville, and as he should, with other dragons, where he could hoard and undergo puberty and adulthood.

 

Spike is, in fact being prevented from growing up due to being kept in pony society – and even when he tries to leave it (with his friends following and throwing a wet blanket over a dragons' natural development) where he can't properly grow, physically, due to pony society condoning the greed, which is, as we've seen, in a dragon's nature and rightfully so, as allows their bodies to mature, I, too, would like to see Spike can grow up and become an adult dragon. We've seen him have a birthday at last once, so we know he's capable of aging, but so long as he's with the ponies, he'll forever be a 'baby' dragon, which is kind of a sad fate for Spike. He'll have birthdays and grow age as time passes, but forever trapped in a baby dragon's body. Almost seems cruel, when you think about it. And the ponies, obviously, know this.

 

Anyone else find it kind of depressing how the ponies (and Zebra) are tampering with nature; preventing an race from feeding to sustain themselves; preventing dragons from growing, as nature intended? (I'm sure there's other examples), but things aren't all bright and cheery in Equestria as it seems, once you look close enough....

[rainbowsmash13 53]

In dragon quest they flowed him because they were worried about his safety. They wanted him to learn about who he is but they were worried that the dragons might injure him if they did come the 3 dragons at the end might have killed him for that egg or else forced him to smash it. And maybe changelings don't need love to survive just to become stronger they ate animals in that comic. And maybe the queen just uses her changelings to get more power and doesn't care about any individual one of them just like to rule something.

[Frostgage 7,972]

I can't say I find these scenarios depressing. You can't blame people (or ponies) for trying to protect themselves and their loved ones. I would have done the same thing.

Edited September 15, 2014 by Frostgage

[Darker 1,351]

I don't really know how you can find that depressing...

 

It's not even sad...

[Banul 3,831]

I might sympathize more with Chysalis if she wouldn't twirl her villain mustache so much. The way she spoke, it less 'I have to do this for the sake of my people" and more "Im gonna eat your love! Muhahahaha!" Its hard to sympathize when she seems to love the destruction that she causes. It always baffles me a bit when people try to make Chysalis seem like shes just misunderstood. They way she ruins everyone's day at the wedding is almost gleeful, she clearly loves being evil. 

 

In Spike's case, I think he decided on his own that he didn't want to be like the other dragons. The ponies followed him, sure, but he seemed uncomfortable with what the teenage dragons were doing all on his own. The ponies definitely influenced him so that he would be that way, but I don't see this as a bad thing. 

[TheJLeeTeam 914]

In Crystal Empire, the thought of a city being gone for 1,000 years sound very depressing for me. I wonder what it felt like to be a Crystal Pony that vanished into thin air for 1,000 years.

 

If I was a Crystal Pony who got vanished along with the empire what would it feel like? Would it feel like being asleep for 1,000 years with tons of nightmares?

Edited September 15, 2014 by TheJLeeTeam

[Hive King 1,998]

The parts that are depressing is stuff like Discord being betrayed

 

A power hungry, sadistic vampire being kicked out is not

[M'aiq the Liar 5,804]

The more sad moments for me are ones like when Scootaloo comes to the realization that she may never be able to fly, and thus will never be like her idol and surrogate older sister Rainbow Dash. The crushing knowledge that she may never be like her idol makes for a far more depressing scenario than a stereotypically evil villain tying helpless maidens to the rail road tracks while twirling her mustache of industrial evilness. And because Scootaloo is a relate-able character, her trials and tribulations make for a far more emotionally involving set of events than a Queen who lives off life forces and positive emotions.

 

 

Also, she literally eats happiness. And is a bug, and you know what they say about bugs

 

 

 

The only good bug, is a dead bug.

[Cosmic Nexus 21]

I've only found one single episode really depressing, Party of one, which lead to WAY more depressing fandoms such as Pinkamena and other related creepy pastas...*Shudders*. 

Edited September 15, 2014 by AM Awakening

[ManaMinori 4,144]

The more sad moments for me are ones like when Scootaloo comes to the realization that she may never be able to fly, and thus will never be like her idol and surrogate older sister Rainbow Dash. The crushing knowledge that she may never be like her idol makes for a far more depressing scenario than a stereotypically evil villain tying helpless maidens to the rail road tracks while twirling her mustache of industrial evilness. And because Scootaloo is a relate-able character, her trials and tribulations make for a far more emotionally involving set of events than a Queen who lives off life forces and positive emotions.

 

 

Also, she literally eats happiness. And is a bug, and you know what they say about bugs

 

 

 

The only good bug, is a dead bug.

but though they may be parasitic bugs that need to eat off others' love to survive, there are such parasites that exist in our world as well, because they're parasites. I don't find it acceptable what treatment Chrysalis and her changelings got, just for doing what nature programmed them to do, and the ponies shoul'd've understood that and worked out some sort of agreement that wou;d benefit them both. Blasting them away and leaving them to potentially starve in the middle of nowhere i pretty harsh, when when they were just trying to feed themselves. Same with Spike. they're intentionally hampering a dragon's nature and not allowing Spike to grow up. Yeah, he learned that his pony friends are his family and all, but family is with you wherever you go. I feel its best for him not to just age emotionally, but physically, also, as nature intended, and the ponies are holding back Spike from.

[M'aiq the Liar 5,804]

but though they may be parasitic bugs that need to eat off others' love to survive, there are such parasites that exist in our world as well, because they're parasites. I don't find it acceptable what treatment Chrysalis and her changelings got, just for doing what nature programmed them to do, and the ponies shoul'd've understood that and worked out some sort of agreement that wou;d benefit them both. Blasting them away and leaving them to potentially starve in the middle of nowhere i pretty harsh, when when they were just trying to feed themselves. Same with Spike. they're intentionally hampering a dragon's nature and not allowing Spike to grow up. Yeah, he learned that his pony friends are his family and all, but family is with you wherever you go. I feel its best for him not to just age emotionally, but physically, also, as nature intended, and the ponies are holding back Spike from.

So? They are parasites, and ones that live off literal happiness. I'm sure you could make a moralistic argument that says from their prospective they deserve to live, but they are evil to the point of comedy. They have no redeeming traits, or do they seem to be a essential part of any ecosystem. And blasting them away is far better than Humanity would have done, lest we forget how we treat the ungainly parasites that feed of us. They are the definition of evil parasite, and as such should not be tolerated by Empire, Human or Equine. They displayed that they are sapient, and thus have will. They used their will to attack and attempt conquer, they deserve their fate.

 

Suffer not the weakness of mercy, for your enemies will use it against you

Let not the parasite to live, for their life always comes at the cost of yours

Suffer not the Xenos to live, for they are the unclean, the tormentor, the enemy of life and Empire.

 

 

 

 

And as for spike, while they were objecting to him leaving, they did allow it. And did not directly interfere with his time spent with the dragons. It was his personal choice, so I cannot fault the mane 6 as it was his personal choice to leave after having conflicting morals with his biological cousins.

[GearheadWilliams 64]

Well, I kind of understand the Chrysalis one; but I disagree with your point on Spike.

 I mean, what Zecora said is that it's in a dragon's nature to be greedy and lazy; but she never said anything about it making him grow naturally. I actually believe piling up a bunch of things like the adult dragons we saw in the show just accelerates their aging process and locks them at adulthood if they keep it for too long. Spike would just age normally with time, since he accepts the fact that greed makes him a monster. Maybe their age proportions are big compared to ponies, so a dragon that's 12-ish is still a baby; because teenagers are around 80 years old. Stuff like that.

 Also, I believe that Spike becoming an irrational adult dragon is a metaphor for what greed makes out of people who can't control it. I think that was the point of the whole episode.

 As for the Dragon Quest part, it's been made clear that Spike doesn't want to be like the other dragons himself; and that Twilight was just worrying for his safety.

[Wind Chaser 4,767]

I've always had what I called the "Pony Master Race Theory" which does sound pretty terrible for the other species if you come to think about it.

 

Unfortunately, as portrayed, Equestrian dragons are biologically predisposed to greed being their only mechanism for growth. Spike is imbued with mental characteristics closer to that of a pony rather than a dragon because of his upbringing, so it is kind of hard thinking of the possibility that Spike might have to remain a "baby" dragon forever. However, there is the chance of emotional maturity, but sadly poor writing makes that seem to be a bit of a stretch.

 

If Spike proves to have this kind of trouble overcoming biological predispositions, this begs a question about changelings. If there was a good changeling that didn't steal others' powers of love, would that mean he becomes perpetually frail and weak, thus meaning he must be evil in order to survive? It actually is kind of dark if you think about it.

 

I further my "Pony Master Race" theory on the fact that regardless of whether or not there are other countries in Equestria's world, it is Equestria's rulers who control the sun and the moon, and furthermore, Equestrian ponies seem to be the only beings imbued with magical properties such as cutie marks and the abilities to control nature itself through Pegasus weather control, unicorn magic, whatever it is Earth ponies do, taking care of crops and animals, etc. It seems as if many intelligent non-ponies in Equestria such as donkeys, buffalo, and griffons could be seen to be second-class citizens. Further still, the sheep and the cows seem to be intelligent enough to talk, but are still treated as livestock.

 

Well, the franchise being named "My Little Pony" and mainly focused on ponies really makes this a bad place to be a non-pony, especially with the ponies representing love and harmony and the other mythical species representing concepts not so positive in nature.

 

I could also go on to the ponies themselves, with the possibility of having an undesirable cutie mark or special talent, but I'm too burned out by this post, as long as it is already, to keep going on...

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,354]

I have not had many moments like this, but one springs to mind for me: In Pinkie Pride when they all completely disregard her work in favor for Cheese's work. That part is quite sad honestly. However it did set up a wonderful shift in tone during her song, which started out sad but then quickly became incredibly uplifting. Gah, I love that episode. :3

[ggg-2 3,550]

As he's one of my favorite characters, seeing Shining Armor lose his magic was rather depressing for me. though on the flip side, imagine how happy I was when he got his magic back. (now if you'll excuse me, I've got a Tirek-shaped punching bag to obliterate....)

[Blue The Pikachu 537]

Season 3 Finale... Not because of the Alicorn thing with Twilight, just overall what happened... ESPECIALLY that song Twilight sang, I don't remember what it was, but you know the one..

[Visual Spectrum 1,932]

Not Friendship is Magic, but Generation 1 has a lot of depressing moments. The ponies get their homes destroyed, The flutter ponies almost died, actually, there were a lot of near death experiences in G1. 

[rainbowsmash13 53]

When I first started watching it I assumed it was dark and depressing. My friends and people on this sight convinced me that there are undertones of darkness hidden in the show. One of my favourite line from the show is 'never look a gift horse in the mouth. I saw this episode after the Sombra episode so I was convinced that slavery was so common it was joked about. And with slender man in the back round I was convinced that the show was getting darker and they were building up to a episode were he revels him self. I also believed that discord was evil and was using the main 6 in threes a group he got twilight and cadence to destroy a plant at the edge of Equestria I thought that it was making a force filed for Equestia and the plant can only de destroyed by alicorn magic and he faked his second sickness. This show is dark just use your imagination look for things that aren't there

[Hive King 1,998]

On the subject of Changelings, they don't need love to survive. Cadence's wording is very different

"They gain power by feeding off your love for them"

In other words, love is more like a steroid cocktail, which makes sense, considering how rounding ponies up while snarling like savages doesn't inspire love to come flowing freely

[Omega Centauri 316]

Ponies in mlp are allegorical to humans.

 

Our needs come before the needs of other species, that's the way the world works.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Omega Centauri

[ReverseFaller 2,483]

Changelings are mama's and papa's too, they try to feed their young just like the ponies do. Oh, if only Fluttershy would sit down and think about the poor Changelings. She can forgive Discord, why not Chrysalis? I would love to see a Fluttershy/Chrysalis episode. Anyways, I think it would have been more reasonable for Chrysalis to try and reason with Luna, and Celestia rather than to simply try and invade a city. I understand her reasoning, but I think she could have gone at it differently. 

 

I never really thought about Spike that way before. They're purposely keeping him as a baby dragon, aren't they? Poor little guy. Oh well, he seem's happy enough I suppose.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Mikami

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,298]

I find sad Dashie moments quite saddening, but she always gets off of her raincloud before the episode ends.  So she's okay, and I'm okay.  But, for the most part, I find the show to be quite the opposite of depressing: uplifting.  Positive and hopeful.  Sure, the characters have their flaws, there are obstacles and villains to face, and "Magical Mystery Cure" was an actual episode that really aired.  But then ponies sing and there are moments of triumph and Rainbow turns that raincloud upside down (makes no sense but just go with it).

[Untitled Goose Q 5,136]

The only depressing thing about the show, to me, is how hard it is to get to Equestria.

[Hive King 1,998]

 

 

Changelings are mama's and papa's too, they try to feed their young just like the ponies do

"Nazis are mamas and papas too, they try to help their children like we do"

Do you see the logic behind that? The Changelings may be similar to ponies in many ways, but all the ones we saw were fully under Chrysalis's control and giggling like sadistic goblins

 

 

h, if only Fluttershy would sit down and think about the poor Changelings. She can forgive Discord, why not Chrysalis?

Because the most Discord did was play with people's minds, Chrysalis was commiting rape and attempted murder while smiling

 

 

Anyways, I think it would have been more reasonable for Chrysalis to try and reason with Luna, and Celestia rather than to simply try and invade a city. I understand her reasoning, but I think she could have gone at it differently. 

That would be like Tirek going

"Hey, Celestia, can I get in there and drain power solely for personal gain?"

Because Changelings don't need it to survive, it's just a steroid

 

 

I never really thought about Spike that way before. They're purposely keeping him as a baby dragon, aren't they? Poor little guy. Oh well, he seem's happy enough I suppose.

The last time he became an adult dragon, he went on a rampage and destroyed several buildings. Even Spike doesn't want to grow up 

[Gernia 690]

The only episode that depresses me, or at least doesn't sit well with me is "One Bad Apple" and that's due to the fact that it involves bullying, as well as Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara (I cannot overstate my dislike for them). Overall, it seems like a good episode, but seeing all the crap that Apple Bloom and her friends go through makes me feel a mix of anger and sadness.

 

The only other part I can think of that made me feel sorrow was seeing Twilight's tree get destroyed in the Season 4 finale.