Wedigos: Truth behind the myth and the disturbing implications for Hearthswarming

[Denim&Venöm 19,261]

So far, what we know about the Wendigos is that they're spirits that feed on hatred and disharmony, bringing bitter cold anywhere there's conflict and mistrust.  

The actual Wendigo of Algonquian Indian myth differs quite a bit. From being depicted as a pale, literal skin and bones, almost zombie like monster, to a skinless giant with a rotting stag skull for a head  The only similarity between the two and the equestrian counterpart is their affinity for the cold. 

 

However, the main difference is why they show up and what they do. Wendigoes emerge during the harshest winters and times of great famine. Spirits of the lonely places, malevolent spirits of greed. Knowing a hunger that cannot be sated. It is said that the Wendigo could possess someone, warping their mind to madness through endless nightmares, turning their heart to ice and filling them with an endless hunger. A hunger for the flesh of their fellow man. 

Yes, the Wendigos were spirits of cannibalism, either driving others to eat their fellow man or the end result of one who committed cannibalism. A folktale passed on during the harsh winters and times of famine when such things could happen again. It was even used as plea from other Algonquin who murdered and committed cannibalism. They were possessed by a Wendigo. 

 

Which brings me to the point of Hearthswarming and it's tale. Wendigos appear during harsh winters and famine. So what were the pony tribes faced with during hearthswarming? Winter and famine. What if the truth was that the endless winter wasn't a cause, but a symptom? What if there was a bad harvest from the earth ponies, and/or weather that couldn't be tamed by the Pegasai? What if it got very cold and little food was available? What extremes would that have driven early ponies to? 

What if in reality, things got so bad that just to survive, early ponies resorted to cannibalism?  Seeing a thinking, feeling fellow pony as nothing more than just a meal to sate an unending hunger. It's the antithesis of friendship. And what if that total lack of empathy summoned the Wendigo spirits? Or worse, what if those cannibal ponies, lacking any love or compassion in their hearts of ice, became the Wendigos? 

It would be a grim history worth covering up by those who survived. And it'd make sense for them to be truly defeated when the survivors of the tribes valued their own friendship over their own survival. 

Still, a rather morbid choice of mythological creature for the writers to involve in a holiday special. 

 

 

[JonasDarkmane 19,788]

So you also watched Extra Mythology, nice to know. 

Spoiler

 

To participate in the topic though, what we have seen in the show about them is that they seem to freeze up everything, especially where strife is rife. 

If ponies turn into Wendigos, it might be that they have chosen to rely completely on themselves and argue and fight with others rather than choosing cooperation and friendship to try and survive. Perhaps if the 3 leaders of ponykind had completely frozen over beyond return, they might have turned into wendigos? 

[cuteycindyhoney 13,315]

In My Little Pony, it's Windigoes, not Wendigoes.

[SharpWit 2,704]

I think the endless winter was a symptom, but it's one that creates a cycle of more strife through cold and famine that feeds into itself until there's nothing left to fuel it but by then the world is entombed in ice.

As for cannibalism, I got excited when I thought Twilight had mentioned them in "My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Forgotten Friendship" but that turned out not to be the case. I'm not sure if the ponies could even handle a diet of themselves based on no confirmations of them eating meat in the show and for a real life comparison, horses will sometimes but quite rarely eat birds and rodents if something is lacking in their diet or in Iceland and maybe the Nordic countries, a few salted herring will be given out during the winter.

There are myths and tales about man eating horses though which isn't a far leap to cannibalism in a pony dominated world with several creatures and monsters from our own. It's a great concept to delve into.

[Misty Shadow 7,943]

Don't forget sirens from Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks. In the actual mythos, sirens were voluptuous sea creatures who would seduce sailors with their singing and attractive bodies before drowning them or eating them. The same way the lore for the sirens had to be toned down from hypnotizing people with sex appeal to just hypnotizing people with the sound of their voices to keep things kid-friendly is probably the same thing that happened with the windigos (and yes, @cuteycindyhoney is right, it's a parody of the original lore, not the actual creature from the lore  ). Think of it this way, instead of implying that cannibalism actually happened in the MLP world, they were just toning down cannibalism to a nonliteral idea of cannibalism. The ponies hated each other so much based on their differences that they were metaphorically eating each other alive. 

[Goat-kun 2,528]

They still fit what one would call an air elemental. Spirits. And we're back to the gaping schism between the impartial ferocity of nature and the crystalline order of Harmony. No matter the theory it always comes down to this simple truth: ponies alone can do nothing but kneel before the might of primordial elements. Even the power of Princesses and powerful unicorns is insignificant compared to the raging storms of the north, and those storms are, as far as we know, mindless. Whatever lies beneath their fanciful winter charade, it may be connected to something that can control what Storm King could not.