Are the friendship lessons of the show meant to be taken seriously?

[FlareGun45 2,221]

Sometimes I kinda wonder about the lessons of friendship in this show. Is it meant to be taken seriously? I do take it seriously! I treat everyone as my friend, cause they are, whether they like it or not! But sometimes I just don't see it within the fandom or even the staff completely. I mean here I am trying to have just a decent conversation with one of the staff members, not even talking about the show, just life in general, and some of them don't say a word to me. Not that it bothers me, I'm sure this show is just a paycheck for half of them and they don't take their morals seriously. Hey, their choice! The fandom too! I mean I kinda take it a little more personally here cause I thought this was place a safe haven from the tyrannies of aggressive dislikes, or getting ignored, or feeling leftout or an outsider, and be there for us whenever have problems. Does the "love and tolerance" symbol of our fandom mean anything to you? I'm sure it does! I always give people the benefit of the doubt!

I mean basically the show is telling us: everyone is friends, and if they're not, they're antagonists! I don't really care what the show is "implying" cause implications can mean anything! Unless the actual words are said, then friendship will always be magic! Have a great day, ol buddy o mine!

[PaulBron 173]

I don't take the friendship lessons serious, and I don't follow to. For me that kind of friendship represented in the show, is just in the show 

[imawesome 451]

Well, I believe it just depends on what the staff are trying to do with an episode: tell a great moral or an emotionally driven story or just have a fun, comedic ep.? Obviously some morals will be greater than others and some morals just won't click with you. For example, although I enjoyed "Sisterhooves Social", I can't really understand or appreciate the moral because I've never had any siblings, yet I love "Flight to the Finish" for how it addressses bullying and disabilities, two issues I struggle with. It all depends on how you look at it. 

[Dark Qiviut 22,606]

Yes. FIM may have slice of life, adventure, and character-driven conflicts, but it's still edutainment. The show WANTS kids to take 'em seriously and apply those lessons whenever possible.

[Misty Shadow 8,201]

Of course. The show has many moments of comedy, but it's not all for laughs. The friendship lessons with the letters to Celestia at the end may have been done to comply with network standards, but they're still messages meant to be taken seriously both by the young and old. For example, Flutter Brutter had a serious lesson about the importance of working hard and being independent, It Isn't the Mane Thing About You had a serious lesson about dealing with losing what's important to your identity, and Sounds of Silence had a serious lesson about the importance of civil discourse and letting out your emotions, all lessons that obviously were not just aimed at kids. I highly doubt deep messages like that are things the writers themselves weren't taking seriously when they wrote them. 

[Sepul-Coloratura 765]

There is no safe haven on the internet. What matters is the person behind the keyboard.

And the friendship lessons of the show, only take them as a reference, filter them by yourself. It wasn't written by the voice of god coming down from heaven, it's written by people. And it's getting more confusing especially these days.

11 hours ago, FlareGun45 said:

I mean basically the show is telling us: everyone is friends, and if they're not, they're antagonists!

Are you serious about that conclusion? Hope you're joking. Maybe you should reconsider thinking about what exactly the show is telling us. Probably more like : everyone is friends except the antagonists? Or re-watch the Cranky episode?

[Goat-kun 2,531]

The last thing I need is to follow life lessons created by a bunch of inexperienced and redundant mooks who are writing uninspired episodes for a toy company. Young or old, one should take those lessons with a mountain of salt. I sincerely hope most of us are here just cause cute talking animals. Enough hope in humanity has been lost already!

[Sondash Studios 4,866]

It sometimes depends how important it is and on the age the lesson is directed to.

[RDDash 19,246]

It really depends on what kind of lessons they are trying to teach, I mean let's take on the very first Gilda episode. Yes they probably tried to go for the toxic friend route, but to be fair it took awhile for Gilda to blow up because of Pinkie Pie and the combination of other factors. As a result Gilda went away for nearly five+ seasons.

 

In the episode where Rainbow Dash is trying to be too heroic, her friends just got a bright idea to embarrass her with their own made up superhero. I don't know, did they tried talking to her first.

Edited January 30, 2019 by R.D.Dash

[n1029 229]

Yes. If this is really the quality entertainment we want to prop it up as, the execution of its morals - its main reason for being - should be evaluated at that standard. 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2019 by n1029

[KikiTwilight 90]

Morals are an important part of the show. Actually, with Fame and Misfortune I think that's exactly what the creators were trying to tell us: "Fuck off with all the pointless complaining and focus on the lessons, that's what the show mainly is!" (just to make it clear, I don't agree the lessons are the only or even the most important aspect of the show).

But they are an important part. Actually, most of the episodes have a good morale that's applicable in many real-life situations. Some of them are light hearted and fun, some are surprisingly dark (Luna's self-harm episode or Tanks for the Memories which is obviously planned to show how to deal with death),  and that's one of the aspects I enjoy in the show. I actually even liked when they did the lesson in a more explicit form (letters to Celestia) because they were a nice way to summarize what happened in the episode and give a nice conclusion. And even if the letters were sometimes cheesy (I hear you, Spike), they were mostly heart-warming to hear. And they used to remind me of how much I appreciated having my friends in my life. The show makes you feel so far from the real life but still connected to it. And you can apply what you learned alongside those ponies you love so much. Geez, now I'm getting cheesy.

That being said, I don't really agree with "let's talk to everyone" conclusion, nor do I think that was the show's intentent. Yes, Pinkie enjoys it, but she's pretty much the only one in the group. Twilight and Flutters are obvious introverts who don't like being bothered by anyone outside their inner clique, and even they sometimes point out that Pinkie might be over the top with the whole thing. Sure, be nice to people if possible, but "being friends" with everyone just doesn't work... for everyone.

Edited February 8, 2019 by KikiTwilight

[ShootingStar159 2,157]

Absolutely, we should always -Always- remember Applejacks greatest lesson.

”I didn’t learn anything!”