Do you think the show has ever had a BAD moral message?

[Azureth 687]

I know this show is based around telling good moral messages, but do you think it's ever had a message that was actually bad?

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,288]

Newbie Dash immediately springs to mind. Maybe they were going for something totally different but the show's "moral" seemed to revolve around hazing and simple "dealing with it", as it were. It just made the whole episode so mean spirited and it pretty much ruined Dash's introduction the Bolts of Wonder, making most of the other members of the group seem like jackasses. The moral may not have been what I said, but they used that premise to get whatever the moral was across to us, which kinda doomed it out of the gate.

[Here No Longer 5,276]

Stare Master's moral was absolutely terrible. I mean seriously it basically tells us never to try anything new.

[Metemponychosis 1,258]

Not bad morals, but it may have missed the mark once or another. That episode about bullying comes to mind.

[BastementSparkle 20,323]

I don't think there's any bad morals in the show in terms of concept, at least none I can think of. I think all the morals themselves are fine, I just think the way some of them are presented in the episodes aren't always perfect and can sometimes be taken in a way that isn't intended and thus negative. Episodes like Mysterious Mare-do-well or Matter of Principals are both episodes with good messages, but because the way the episode is written they can easily be misinterpreted or come off the wrong way.

17 minutes ago, DusksuD said:

Stare Master's moral was absolutely terrible. I mean seriously it basically tells us never to try anything new.

I'm pretty sure you're thinking of "Scare Master" not Stare Master. Stare Master was the season 1 episode with the CMC and the Cockatrice and has nothing to do with trying new things, it's about not biting off more than you can chew. Also, that's...not really the moral of Scare Master at all? It's more about how it's okay if you try something new and don't like it, that's okay, and you don't have to enjoy everything with your friends. By the end of the episode, Fluttershy had genuinely tried to participate in Nightmare Night via scaring her friends, but had decided even when she found a part of Nightmare Night she was a good at, she still didn't like it.

Edited June 6, 2019 by BastementSparkle

[Here No Longer 5,276]

5 minutes ago, BastementSparkle said:

I'm pretty sure you're thinking of "Scare Master" not Stare Master. 

I actually am thinking of Stare Master. The problem was that the moral clearly suggested that she should never have tried to babysit, even though she didn't even really do that bad of a job at it.

[Floppy Snow 279]

I think the show has very good morals, the one that really bothered me however was "Not Asking for Trouble" when Pinkie Pie goes to Yakyakistan in season 7.

I understand it as : if someone really doesn't want your "help", sneak inside their house without authorization and do whatever you think is best. Hey, you're so generous with helping them, it's totally sure you are doing all the things right like they would! Right? 

The real good moral in this episode was that, sometimes, people won't see or accept they do need help from others. But the way Pinkie and her friends found a drastic solution still bothered me somehow. I expected more talking perhaps. A bit more like in "Applebuck Season" in season 1. 

Edited June 6, 2019 by Floppy Snow

[RDDash 19,151]

I stopped paying attention to morals when the ponies were done with the Friendship journal, and those archaic seasons when Twilight had been writing letters to Celestia. Dear Princess Celestia today I learned such and such.

For me, this days, thinking about the show being some kind of moral guide book is wrong and outdated way of thinking.

[FlareGun45 2,221]

Princess Spike, definitely!

Give the dragon assistant a stressful task, princesses are somehow never around to help except for Cadance who seems to be just pestering him, and when things go wrong, have the dragon be blamed for the delegates' stubbornness.

[Lucky Bolt 35,061]

8 minutes ago, FlareGun45 said:

Princess Spike, definitely!

Give the dragon assistant a stressful task, princesses are somehow never around to help except for Cadance who seems to be just pestering him, and when things go wrong, have the dragon be blamed for the delegates' stubbornness.

Yeah, I agree on this one. 

[Denim&Venöm 18,570]

• Don't think too hard about something you can't explain or understand ( Feeling Pinkie Keen) 
• If your friend is getting too full of themselves, the best way to reason with them is to upstage and embarrass them (mysterious mare do well)
• It's in the very nature of your idols to act like jerks (Newbie Dash) 
• Everything you've accomplished is thanks to your parents being overbearing and clingy (Parental Glidence)
• Friends are more important than your career, even if they're to blame for almost sabotaging it (Rarity Takes Manehatten) 
• You're justified in being an overbearing older sibling, regardless of the negative behavior it spurns on (Somepony To Watch Over Me)
• Never admit that you're in over your head, no matter how close you are to breaking down (Baby Cakes)

[Twilight Luna 31,334]

It's alright to laugh at your friends and make them feel left when they don't get inside jokes. Then it's alright to get revenge on them. (What About Discord?)

It's alright to use your friend as a slave. (Spike At Your Service)

[DonMaguz 1,023]

Yakkity Sax is the only one for me. But not because of the moral itself (supporting a friend who likes something she's not very skilled at), but because That's not how the problem was shown!

They showed a problem about a friend being disrespectful of the rest of their friends by interrupting and sabotaging their jobs, and told us that the problem was her skills being poor??! No sir, the problem was her timing and disrespect!

At the end, the moral, which is actually a good one, had nothing to do with what the episode showed.

Edited June 6, 2019 by DonMaguz

[Misty Shadow 7,813]

1 hour ago, FlareGun45 said:

Princess Spike, definitely!

Give the dragon assistant a stressful task, princesses are somehow never around to help except for Cadance who seems to be just pestering him, and when things go wrong, have the dragon be blamed for the delegates' stubbornness.

This one, I concur. For a kid, Spike really didn't do too bad with the hand he was dealt. 

The popular choice of Feeling Pinkie Keen (though not in this thread so far), I do not concur. The message is about discouraging arrogance and encouraging self-acceptance of the fact that you aren't going to find an explanation to everything in this world. If you can't find the answer to something, that doesn't give you the right to say it doesn't exist or doesn't make sense, and developing that kind of humility is important for fostering friendships. 

My least favorite moral in the show has to be in A Canterlot Wedding, the only thing about the episode I never liked and still does not hold up for me. "Just go with your instincts after I condemned you for doing that!". What the flub Celestia. 

[RDDash 19,151]

1. Feeling Pinkie Keen: it's okay to put things you can't explain on faith, and never question them
2. Dragonshy: when you are afraid of something you should just get over it by facing your fears in a forceful kind of way.
3. Griffon the Brush off: when your friend that you never seen in years suddenly decides to visit you, they are 70% toxic and don't deserve you
4. Boast Busters: When the street performer comes to your town it okay to humiliate them and destroy their income 
5. Yakity-Sax It's just an stupid music instrument, get over it  Why would you abandon your friends, your home town, people you spend years with?
6. The end in friend:  you are a ruffian and I am a fashionista, we have nothing in common with each other even though we spent a few years being friends with each other.
7. Friendship U: The university is a scam because they force people to pay for their education. They force people to pay for books, and uh, they are evil okay.

_______

And that just the 2 out of 8 seasons . The list goes on

Edited June 6, 2019 by R.D.Dash

[Twilight Luna 31,334]

50 minutes ago, R.D.Dash said:

1. Feeling Pinkie Keen: it's okay to put things you can't explain on faith, and never question them
2. Dragonshy: when you are afraid of something you should just get over it by facing your fears in a forceful kind of way.
3. Griffon the Brush off: when your friend that you never seen in years suddenly decides to visit you, they are 70% toxic and don't deserve you
4. Boast Busters: When the street performer comes to your town it okay to humiliate them and destroy their income 
5. Yakity-Sax It's just an stupid music instrument, get over it  Why would you abandon your friends, your home town, people you spend years with?
6. The end in friend:  you are a ruffian and I am a fashionista, we have nothing in common with each other even though we spent a few years being friends with each other.
7. Friendship U: The university is a scam because they force people to pay for their education. They force people to pay for books, and uh, they are evil okay.

_______

And that just the 2 out of 8 seasons . The list goes on

7. I guess Twilight’s school being free makes it so much better. It must be funded by magic because I don’t see the dragons, changelings, hippogriffs, and yaks using bits. 

[Thrond 3,263]

I can't think of any intended messages that I took issue with, and I think the show always has good intentions, but there have been moments that I thought the show accidentally suggested something I found troubling. 

A few examples:

"Green Isn't Your Color" - 'Never share a secret, even if it would make everything easier for everyone.'

"Luna Eclipsed" - 'If someone is making jokes about one of the most traumatic periods of your life, you should just go along with it.'

"The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" - 'If your methods are inefficient, you should still oppose any innovation.'

"Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" - 'If you're depressed, just get over it.'

"The Mane Attraction" - 'Pop stars are all phony and we should judge them for having such glitzy images." 

"Parental Glideance" - 'If you don't like the way your parents are behaving, you should never ask them to stop.'

Edited June 7, 2019 by AlexanderThrond

[Megas 27,550]

I could just say "any moral that deals with bragging, humbleness/humility, or knocking anyone down a peg" because they're usually really fucking shit and it's a really easy answer, but honestly I'm of the opinion that most morals in the show are well intentioned, even Boast Buster, MMDW, and even Newbie Dash, an episode I rip into every chance I get, even though their morals are terribly delivered, I'm at least willing to give them the benefit of the doubt......

28 Pranks Later is the one exception to this. This is the one episode, the one moral, that feels outright vindictive and hostile, outright going "if you don't the way someone is acting, get revenge and show them how it feels. An eye for an eye", and plays it completely straight. Most other stories that do this, always has these backfire to show that, yeah, you're being much better, and you might be doing more damage than them. But not here, just straight up "revenge is good!"
 

2 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

"Parental Glideance" - 'If you don't like the way your parents are behaving, you should never ask them to stop.'

Rainbow Dash waited until she bottled up her frustration and just exploded and ripped into her parents. Up to that point, RD was the only one with any actual problems with them, they didn't think they were doing anything wrong, no one else thought they were doing anything wrong, not Scootaloo, not the CMC, not even the WBs, and most importantly no one told them they were doing anything wrong. And given how the end of the final show played out, they probably would have been understanding if she just calmed down and talked to them instead of getting angry and letting loose

2 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

"Daring Done?" - 'Don't ever worry about the consequences of your actions. If anyone criticizes you, just ignore them.'

The episode literally ends with Daring Do taking everyone's criticisms to heart and repaying for the damage she did to the town

Edited June 7, 2019 by This Whomps

[Thrond 3,263]

33 minutes ago, This Whomps said:

The episode literally ends with Daring Do taking everyone's criticisms to heart and repaying for the damage she did to the town

Never mind, I shouldn't have mentioned this one. I barely remember what happens in it. 

35 minutes ago, This Whomps said:

Rainbow Dash waited until she bottled up her frustration and just exploded and ripped into her parents. Up to that point, RD was the only one with any actual problems with them, they didn't think they were doing anything wrong, no one else thought they were doing anything wrong, not Scootaloo, not the CMC, not even the WBs, and most importantly no one told them they were doing anything wrong. And given how the end of the final show played out, they probably would have been understanding if she just calmed down and talked to them instead of getting angry and letting loose

OK, I think I'll need to explain this one a bit more. 

Firstly: I enjoy this episode a lot and I agree that Rainbow Dash was in the wrong for exploding like that. The fact that nobody except Rainbow is bothered by the parents' actions is very important. I even think it's good that the episode talks about not taking your parents for granted. That's absolutely something Rainbow Dash needed to learn.

However: I still think the parents should have learned something as well; if they did, the episode really glosses over it. Did Rainbow think they wouldn't be understanding? If so, why didn't she bother talking to them? Instead of answering those questions, the episode has a final scene with Rainbow joining in shouting support for Scootaloo: the parents are vindicated and Rainbow's complaints are dismissed. 

[Dark Qiviut 22,378]

There are quite a few, though not that high in number.

• Feeling Pinkie Keen: Thanks to muddled language and a contrived Pinkie Sense plot, the audience is mistakenly believed that someone’s beliefs shouldn’t be questioned, even if it’s BS.
• Dragon Quest: Spike concludes that as a result of a small group of rude, reckless, and selfish teenage dragons, he thinks that it’s okay for him to throw away his identity and stereotype his race. This episode and its moral justify racism and xenophobia, and given the right-wing climate both in the U.S. and abroad, this episode has aged far worse.
• One Bad Apple: Two of them were atrocious. It literally states that defending yourself makes you the bully and then offers a simplified, black-and-white solution of telling an adult to solve it. Childhood bullying isn’t that streamlined, and adults have not only ignored the bullying, but often cause or exacerbate it.
• Somepony to Watch Over Me: AJ’s overbearing babysitting directly contributed to delaying her pie transport, and because of this, Apple Bloom ran away and almost got herself killed, leading her to believe that AB set the perfect example of letting her be on her own. Seriously?! The one time where AB more than justified her overbearingness, she went the opposite direction? Talk about teaching bad babysitting lessons.
• Lost Treasure of Griffonstone: Griffonstone is a perpetual wasteland of greed, bitterness, and misery. Nigh impossible to grow crops or create an economy. Yet Pinkie concludes that friendship is the key ingredient to solving all their societal problems?! Countries and societies in such dire straights don’t have easy solutions. To narrow it all down to missing friendship is insulting for two reasons: treats the resolutions of widespread corruption with a bandaid and implicates that thrusts bullshit imperialism on a country by recommending them to adopt one of their values.
• Magic Sheep: Depression is a serious motherfucker. Sometimes the mental pain’s so great that they’ll cut themselves to cope. For Luna, the Tantabus is the equivalent to cutting, and her temptation to punish herself is the allegory of depression. What’s BS here is the moral it teaches to help solve her mental illness. Depression is nowhere nearly as simple to deal with. Sometimes people will fight depression throughout their lives. Here, The lesson is how telling yourself to move forward will cure it. It’s too simple and doesn’t understand the concept at all.
• Newbie Dash: @Kyoshi pointed this out. It makes hazing (a form of bullying that remains a really gigantic problem in the military) as harmless good fun to deal with. Hazing has caused serious and irreparable harm to so many people around the world. It’s NOT okay to treat it as no big deal.
• 28 Pranks Later: The classic “eye for an eye” moral. FIM has shown repeatedly to go above and beyond this type of ideal; look no further than Lost Mark. This moral is worse than ND, as while ND’s is more of an unfortunate implication, the episode actively teaches it’s okay to plan revenge, even at the cost of your friend’s trust.
• Fame & Misfortune: The big one here is how it celebrates a person’s flaws. In fiction, a character’s flaws makes them entertaining, but in real life, flaws can make or break a relationship. Saying you love people for your flaws manipulates the audience into believing that people shouldn’t work to improve and evolve. That you stay stuck in a loop and never learn from your mistakes and flaws. This message not spits on the very backbone of this show (the characters actively grow and improve themselves), but it’s also destructive to children (who are impressionable and may take it to heart).

[The Nth Doctor 661]

TvTropes has an entire Warp That Aesop Page for MLP and it's hilarious

[Goat-kun 2,527]

Let's just say that FIM's version of friendship is pretty much as real as your waifu.

[Ruddboy Olaf 10,628]

28 Pranks Later: If someone pranked you, it's okay to get them back by traumatizing them for life. 'Cause it's just a prank, bro.

[RDDash 19,151]

Part 2 out of 3

Some of the episodes is humourous critique, so don't take it seriously. Some of the episodes have a really good moral but executed brutally, so I am skipping those. Some of the episodes I don't actually remember, skipped as well.

• A friend in Deed: when someone refuses your offer in friendship make sure to bother them until they give up. There is good chance that you will find the long lost girlfriend.
• TSSCS6000: What did you learn from this episode? Absolutely nothing
• The Mysterious Mare Do Well: when your friend acts as a nuisance, don't bother talking to them, they never listen.
• Magical Mystery Cure: Today I played God, also today I grew wings.
• One Bad Apple: some bullies are just plain evil, some of them are just socially misunderstood.
• Leap of Faith: Endangering your elder would not make her happy, just stop it.
• Three is a crowd: he is just pretending to be sick for his own amusement, what the lesson suppose to be?
• Crusaders of the lost mark: it was our destiny to reform a school bully that all of us hated and made our lives miserable.
• Party Pooped: Diplomatic Immunity! Its not actually an exuse for rude and criminal behavior.
• Princess Spike: putting a pressure on a child would not backfire on you at all you selfish . 
• Appleloosa most wanted : children it's okay to talk to strangers that you don't actually know, that might be dangerous and creepy.
• Tanks for the memories: Crimes are okay as long as it for the good cause. 

Edited June 7, 2019 by R.D.Dash
Minor edits

[Thrond 3,263]

Oh yeah, "Feeling Pinkie Keen" goes without saying - that's the rare case where I'm confused as to how else I am supposed to interpret that moral.