Evolution of the morals

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

Note: Because season five is halfway through, I edited the OP.

 

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One of the lasting elements of Friendship Is Magic's story structure is the moral. At the end of each episode, the audience gets to figure out what the final lesson actually is. Normally, it's said through the friendship report, but there are also secondary morals that often get lost in the shuffle.

 

Over the course of the series, FIM has undergone a huge evolution in the morals they teach. Early, they were simple and occasionally clichéd. "Don't be stubborn and let others help you," "don't jump to conclusions," "compromise to get the best results for everyone," and "don't judge the book by its cover" are some of the more obvious from season one. But that doesn't mean there weren't always mature ones. "Don't assume she's a damsel in distress just because she's a woman" is possibly the most mature in season one thanks to Faust's feminist visions.

 

That branched in season two thanks to the removal of the E/I rating, and the morals crept into some that are still absolute, yet a tiny bit mature. One of the best came from Hurricane Fluttershy: "Your contribution to a team and friends is always important, even if it's small."

 

Season three kinda stagnated that with the exception of one: Sleepless in Ponyville. This episode kinda bludgeoned the moral of "face your fears," But that's merely a surface moral. The true moral is to not let your fears deter your relationship with others you care for. This is a very mature moral for this show back then because this lesson rings true for everyone. It rings true for Scootaloo. It rings true for me. It rings true for just about everyone else here in this thread.

 

But if there's one problem about the morals, it's how absolute they often were. They had a very matter-of-fact tone and didn't offer any depth in case this kind of solution doesn't work. Some were two-dimensional, but they never got over that humph to make the moral very deep.

 

This changed in season four. Right from the start, you had a guess that the direction of the morals was going to be really different. Instead of being totally absolutist, the themes and conflicts were deeper and more complex. More importantly, the morals were maturer, deeper, and occasionally grayer. There were extra layers in the conflicts and approaches to them, creating layers to the morals.

1. Flight to the Finish's moral is fantastic. In essence, "No matter who you are, you're great as you." Because of Scootaloo's perceived disability, this was huge because it doesn't talk down to her nor the audience. Often, a lot of kids and adults with disabilities feel ostracized by society because of how society treats them. Western society has a very ableist tone. This moral and the overall treatment of it was a slap to the face to this dangerous culture.
2. Rarity Takes Manehattan: Don't let someone's ability to take advantage of you cause you to abandon your biggest quality trait and, specifically, who you are. Suri used Rarity's biggest character quality — hr generosity — for her own gain without care for Rarity's feelings. When a lot of us are taken advantage, we feel reserved and question whether we should keep up with that trait, for trust is fragile.
3. Pinkie Pride: Don't let your pride hurt others. Pinkie had every reason to feel jealous and discouraged because someone else came to Ponyville. Cheese not only had the same qualities as Pinkie's. But he can execute them much better. She learned her lesson once the piñata crashed on top of Dash.
4. Breezies: Sometimes the kindest thing you could ever do may be the toughest solution.
5. Toils: Actions have consequences, and rash and careless decisions risk hurting others. Think before you act.
6. TT123: One way of learning may work for one person, but possibly not for someone else. Each person learns in their own unique way. This is my favorite complex moral of season four because it's also one of the best and presented in one of the show's best conflicts. What also makes this moral so complex is how much it legitimately affects everyone. Kids aren't the only ones learning this lesson. Adults learn it and understand it just as much. Kids and adults can really relate to a moral like this one.
7. Equestria Games: Your biggest critic is often yourself. Although I hate how the episode's executed, there's no denying how great this one is. We all have our doubts, and we often criticize ourselves extremely harshly because we always feel we can do better.
8. Although Rainbow Rocks isn't written well, their moral is also really good. It's okay if you don't have all the answers. Try to allow others to help you solve your problems.

These complex morals aren't exclusive to the TV series, either. They're found in three Micro-Series issues.

1. Rarity's tells you to set aside your personal discomfort to help those in need.
2. Thanks to the overall theme, Pinkie's Micro offers one of the best morals in this series. Even if you can't possibly do them personally anymore, it's never impossible to continue to be involved in what you love doing.
3. CMCs: Friends aren't toys. They have feelings. Never take advantage of them. Let them grow up at their own pace.

Season five not only continued the trend of very mature morals. But they're even grayer than last year's.

1. The Cutie Map: Friendships don't have to be like-minded. Every single one of us is different in one way or another. This two-parter used the cultish themes, Starlight Glimmer totalitarianism, and creepy atmosphere to help accentuate it.
2. Castle Sweet Castle's morals are in relation to Twilight mourning her library. The first is simple: don't plug in your desires onto others. The second (to echo Voice of Reason): Home is really where your heart is. But the biggest one is the deepest: It's not the tangible object that makes your house a home, but the memories from within. Consider the fact that Twilight had to relocate because the Golden Oak Library was destroyed by a villain who wanted to kill her. Moving into a new home isn't as easy as you think it is.
3. Because of the allegory of death, Tanks for the Memories's moral is related to death. Don't be afraid to mourn. Let all of your emotions and grief out. Don't keep your grief bottled up.
4. Possibly the most complex of the season comes from Amending Fences. Like Toils, each action has at least a consequence, but it twists it very differently. Sometimes you think your actions are inconsequential. But you don't really know how your choices will affect others. Your actions might seem simple or petty to you, but they could really impact other people's lives wither for the better or worse. To help bring the moral home, the moral wasn't dictated; you had to figure it out through the conflict.
5. Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? revolves around the concept of self-harm. Luna tormented herself because she couldn't forgive yourself. This is followed by the moral similar to Equestria Games: you're your own worst critic. But they twist it by instead of being critical of yourself, it's about being able to forgive yourself despite having others forgive you.

Prior, MLP's morals were very straightforward, black and white, way too vanilla, and oftentimes filled with unfortunate implications (like Princess Promenade's implications of friends not being equal if one's a princess). FIM still has the simple morals, and the implications still exist if the connotations are there. But there was more care in making sure the morals don't talk down to the audience for the most part.

 

But once more, one of the biggest evolutions so far is the complexity of the morals in seasons. Quite frankly, it's something a family cartoon like FIM desperately needs. When you're delivering a complex moral in a show with a very young base demographic, you're telling kids, parents, and the entire periphery demographic you treating them like intelligent human beings. You're not talking down to kids when you're writing a mature moral. You're saying that they're just as capable of learning and understanding deep and mature morals as adults. Kids may not have the complex brain maturity that most adults have, but they understand respect: Three-dimensional morals give kids the respect they deserve and ups the overall quality of family TV altogether. Considering this franchise's dumbed down past, feminine background, very young base demographic, and family-friendly/gender-neutral atmosphere, all the more important.

 

Hopefully, this experiment continues into the second half of season five, six, and the subsequent film. Kids deserve high-quality cartoons, and one way is to deliver and execute mature morals well. Young kids need these morals so they can grow into maturer human beings and look up to this show for guidance. I've said this often, and I'll say it again: Kids see fictional characters as role models, and having them learn well-executed, complex lessons will only help them. Likewise, their parents need family shows with mature morals so they can give kids the option to watch these shows and not worry about their kids' intelligence being dried out.

 

---

 

So I have several questions:

1. What do you think of the evolution of the morals in this show? What works? What doesn't? Explain.
2. Are you looking forward to the idea of very mature and deep lessons in the second half of season five and beyond?
3. What is your most favorite complex moral in Friendship Is Magic? Not moral altogether. Just the three-dimensional moral. Explain.
4. What mature morals do you want FIM to show, deliver, and have the characters learn firsthand? How do you want them executed? Please provide examples of how the characters learn them.

Edited July 19, 2015 by Dark Qiviut

[Dulset Tarn 441]

I don't see the difference.

 

Though I will praise the second moral of Bats!, if only because it was my favorite line from Harry Potter 1.

"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies. But it takes a great deal more to stand up to your friends."

[LZRD WZRD 1,929]

Yeah the evolution of the morals is something I noticed too. In fact I've just recorded a video where I discuss them in season 4. Looking forward to season 5, I'm really interested to see what they come up with. Flight to the Finish and TT123 were my favorite morals in S4 for the record. Both were relatable for me and extremely important to teach to people of any age.

Edited February 10, 2015 by LZRD WZRD

[RainbowTashie 378]

 

One of the lasting elements of Friendship Is Magic's story structure is the moral. At the end of each episode, the audience gets to figure out what the final lesson actually is. Normally, it's said through the friendship report, but there are also secondary morals that often get lost in the shuffle.

 

Over the course of the series, FIM has undergone a huge evolution in the morals they teach. Early, they were simple and occasionally clichéd. "Don't be stubborn and let others help you," "don't jump to conclusions," "compromise to get the best results for everyone," and "don't judge the book by its cover" are some of the more obvious from season one. But that doesn't mean there weren't always mature ones. "Don't assume she's a damsel in distress just because she's a woman" is possibly the most mature in season one thanks to Faust's feminist visions.

 

That branched in season two thanks to the removal of the E/I rating, and the morals crept into some that are still absolute, yet a tiny bit mature. One of the best came from Hurricane Fluttershy: "Your contribution to a team and friends is always important, even if it's small."

 

Season three kinda stagnated that with the exception of one: Sleepless in Ponyville. This episode kinds bludgeoned the moral of "face your fears," But that's merely a surface moral. The true moral is to not let your fears deter your relationship with others you care for. This is a very mature moral for this show back then because this lesson rings true for everyone. It rings true for Scootaloo. It rings true for me. It rings true for just about everyone else here in this thread.

 

But if there's one problem about the morals, it's how absolute they often were. They had a very matter-of-fact tone and didn't offer any depth in case this kind of solution doesn't work. Some were two-dimensional, but they never got over that humph to make the moral very deep.

 

This changed in season four. Right from the start, you had a guess that the direction of the morals was going to be really different. Instead of being totally absolutist, the themes and conflicts were deeper and more complex. More importantly, the morals were maturer, deeper, and occasionally grayer. There were extra layers in the conflicts and approaches to them, creating layers to the morals.

1. Flight to the Finish's moral is fantastic. In essence, "No matter who you are, you're great as you." Because of Scootaloo's perceived disability, this was huge because it doesn't talk down to her nor the audience. Often, a lot of kids and adults with disabilities feel ostracized by society because of how society treats them. Western society has a very ableist tone. This moral and the overall treatment of it was a slap to the face to this dangerous culture.
2. Rarity Takes Manehattan: Don't let someone's ability to take advantage of you cause you to abandon your biggest quality trait and, specifically, who you are. Suri used Rarity's biggest character quality — hr generosity — for her own gain without care for Rarity's feelings. When a lot of us are taken advantage, we feel reserved and question whether we should keep up with that trait, for trust is fragile.
3. Pinkie Pride: Don't let your pride hurt others. Pinkie had every reason to feel jealous and discouraged because someone else came to Ponyville. Cheese not only had the same qualities as Pinkie's. But he can execute them much better. She learned her lesson once the piñata crashed on top of Dash.
4. Breezies: Sometimes the kindest thing you could ever do may be the toughest solution.
5. Toils: Actions have consequences, and rash and careless decisions risk hurting others. Think before you act.
6. TT123: One way of learning may work for one person, but possibly not for someone else. Each person learns in their own unique way. This is my favorite complex moral of season four because it's also one of the best and presented in one of the show's best conflicts. What also makes this moral so complex is how much it legitimately affects everyone. Kids aren't the only ones learning this lesson. Adults learn it and understand it just as much. Kids and adults can really relate to a moral like this one.
7. Equestria Games: Your biggest critic is often yourself. Although I hate how the episode's executed, there's no denying how great this one is. We all have our doubts, and we often criticize ourselves extremely harshly because we always feel we can do better.
8. Although Rainbow Rocks isn't written well, their moral is also really good. It's okay if you don't have all the answers. Try to allow others to help you solve your problems.

These complex morals aren't exclusive to the TV series, either. They're found in three Micro-Series issues.

1. Rarity's tells you to set aside your personal discomfort to help those in need.
2. Thanks to the overall theme, Pinkie's Micro offers one of the best morals in this series. Even if you can't possibly do them personally anymore, it's never impossible to continue to be involved in what you love doing.
3. CMCs: Friends aren't toys. They have feelings. Never take advantage of them. Let them grow up at their own pace.

Prior, MLP's morals were very straightforward, black and white, way too vanilla, and oftentimes filled with unfortunate implications (like Princess Promenade's implications of friends not being equal if one's a princess). FIM still has the simple morals, and the implications still exist if the connotations are there. But there was more care in making sure the morals don't talk down to the audience for the most part.

 

But once more, one of the biggest evolutions so far is the complexity of the morals in seasons. Quite frankly, it's something a family cartoon like FIM desperately needs. When you're delivering a complex moral in a show with a very young base demographic, you're telling kids, parents, and the entire periphery demographic you treating them like intelligent human beings. You're not talking down to kids when you're writing a mature moral. You're saying that they're just as capable of learning and understanding deep and mature morals as adults. Kids may not have the complex brain maturity that most adults have, but they understand respect: Three-dimensional morals give kids the respect they deserve and ups the overall quality of family TV altogether. Considering this franchise's dumbed down past, feminine background, very young base demographic, and family-friendly/gender-neutral atmosphere, all the more important.

 

Hopefully, this experiment continues into season five, six, and the movie two years from now. Kids deserve high-quality cartoons, and one way is to deliver and execute mature morals well. Young kids need these morals so they can grow into maturer human beings and look up to this show for guidance. I've said this often, and I'll say it again: Kids see fictional characters as role models, and having them learn well-executed, complex lessons will only help them. Likewise, their parents need family shows with mature morals so they can give kids the option to watch these shows and not worry about their kids' intelligence being dried out.

 

---

 

So I have several questions:

1. What do you think of the evolution of the morals in this show? What works? What doesn't? Explain.
2. Are you looking forward to the idea of very mature and deep lessons in season five and beyond?
3. What is your most favorite complex moral in Friendship Is Magic? Not moral altogether. Just the three-dimensional moral. Explain.
4. What mature morals do you want FIM to show, deliver, and have the characters learn firsthand? How do you want them executed? Please provide examples of how the characters learn them.

 

I think we as humans are constantly learning everyday. Even if this is a show for little girls i have taken a lot from it especially in putting your hoof down i have often had a couple of deep breathes and recited assertive fluttershy in my mind before standing up foor myself. So I really don't think the morals in the show have much they need to improve on. The deeper the better i agree but ho didn't love the reminder that Zecora gave us with all the racism in this world it is still completely relevant.

[WriteCodes46 178]

Over the course of the series, FIM has undergone a huge evolution in the morals they teach. Early, they were simple and occasionally clichéd. "Don't be stubborn and let others help you," "don't jump to conclusions," "compromise to get the best results for everyone," and "don't judge the book by its cover" are some of the more obvious from season one.

"Don't be stubborn and let others help you" was from Daring Don't, in Season 4. Which means they are still using simple morals in the in the lastest seasons, even if adding more complex ones.

 

("don't judge the book by its cover" was from Season 2, and if you take The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 and Read It And Weep as continuous, there's the implicit moral of "don't drink and drive/fly". So they did have some mature morals back in Season 2.)

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

 

 

"Don't be stubborn and let others help you" was from Daring Don't, in Season 4.

That was definitely a moral from Daring Don't, but there was another more important one: Don't put others on such a pedestal that you marginalize yourself. It's an important moral since so many of us young and old do the same thing.

[Pastel 7,627]

I don't see the difference.

Same here, I don't think there's a difference, or at least not a big one.

However, I'm not sure to see how a moral can be more mature or more complex than another... To me, they're all simple but relevant friendship lessons.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Blobulle

[Pinkie-Guy 563]

Same here, I don't think there's a difference, or at least not a big one.

However, I'm not sure to see how a moral can be more mature or more complex than another... To me, they're all simple but relevant friendship lessons.

 

I think it's that they're subtle.  The episode throws a headline moral at, but that's not all.  It says other things too, some quietly or implied, that also fall under the morality of the show.  I, for one, am a huge fan this.

[Dulset Tarn 441]

I think it's that they're subtle.  The episode throws a headline moral at, but that's not all.  It says other things too, some quietly or implied, that also fall under the morality of the show.  I, for one, am a huge fan this.

But is that done any more now than it was in the past? I don't think it is.

[Shanks 10,811]

A lot of the early morals were indeed fairly simple yet still quite valuable of course the more complex implicit morals have their place as well and I am glad to see their inclusion. In season 1 and 2 I remember the letters and while it is a good thing to use occasionally they kind of start to lose their power after a while and am pleased to see they are now use occasionally instead of almost every episode.

[Dulset Tarn 441]

Can anyone explain what the actual difference is?

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

Same here, I don't think there's a difference, or at least not a big one.

However, I'm not sure to see how a moral can be more mature or more complex than another... To me, they're all simple but relevant friendship lessons.

There's a really big difference. When you glance at the majority of the morals from the first two seasons, they're often really straightforward and simple, sometimes absolute. But seasons four, and now five, demonstrated layered morals. Rather than be very simple like "Don't jump to conclusions," you got ones with a lot of depth, like RTM's: It's okay to feel hurt, but don't abandon your biggest qualities because someone took advantage of you.

 

Sometimes, it has to do with the mature conflict. Sometimes it has to do with the way the moral is approached. Think of Toils; the surface moral is expressed halfway, but shown throughout. But like I wrote in the OP, they really expanded it by demonstrating about how you shouldn't let your anger do something you'll eventually regret. This is a very invaluable moral for any age, and it's not spilled out for you. Season five's morals are more subtle, as they no longer write a journal or letter to Celestia to reflect the morals they learned. Amending Fences is one such example.

 

---

 

Because we're halfway into season five, I edited the OP to reflect it.

[Wind Chaser 4,767]

The kind of morals I've really fallen for are the ones that are very relatable but very few other works touch. "Testing, Testing, 123" is one that borders on social commentary given how its message aims at both kids and adults and takes aim at a widespread issue in society that's very important, but not many really talk about; accommodating different learning methods. Such morals have a great subtext applicable to real life. This applies to the kid studying for the big test just as much as it does for the people who fund the schools.

 

One of the main reasons I'd put for this, in tandem with the show's growing fanbase and the natural passage of time, is how the characters have developed from learning roles to roles of leadership and as role models. This is not only within Equestria, but in the real world as well, as the ponies play to a wider and increasingly more diverse fanbase.

 

In addition, some of the morals that came up in the later series are arguably rather simple if you take them at face value. As great as "The Cutie Map" was at waving the banner of individuality, it's an extension of one of the most common messages in kids' media; "be yourself and not who someone else wants you to be". "Equestria Games" tackles self-esteem, which many other episodes in this show, let alone the countless others who have tackled self-esteem as a main moral. I had already touched upon the prevalence of jealousy as a plot device as it was in "Pinkie Pride".

 

However, what's refreshing is how much deeper MLP goes into them. It doesn't take the morals at face value. "The Cutie Map" metaphorically represents the crushing repression the expectations of others can enact on your own self-image. Similarly, "Pinkie Pride" showed us that feeling when we're being one-upped by that one guy who's better than us at our favorite thing in its visual manifestation. Cheese Sandwich's visual and characterized similarity to Pinkie Pie is a manifestation of common feelings towards such people who better us, as not being so different yet so much luckier to be more talented and more appreciated. "Equestria Games" relied on filler and a plot convenience for its finale, and similarly "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" suffered from a lack of focus and poor pacing in its third act. However, both episodes tackled self-doubt, to which I can attest from my own experience is extremely tough to resolve or even talk about. In those cases, they're a sort of excusable considering the difficulty of writing it as a concept to be resolved within 22 minutes, so it's the thought that counts.

 

One that wasn't mentioned in the OP was "Bloom and Gloom", which I personally related to very much as visually manifesting the pressure to "grow up" and "find yourself". "Bloom and Gloom" illustrated the fear that social pressures can lead to that moment of finding yourself being disappointing rather than fulfilling, a notion which had never really been explored in the show. Many times throughout Season 5, some episodes seemed predisposed to deconstructing Equestria's focus on self-identity through cutie marks, which had been treated very idealistically throughout the first four seasons. It's a very welcome, more realistic change that many in fanbase can relate to, including the original target.

Edited July 19, 2015 by Wind Chaser