Do you think the inclusion of the student six is a political statement?

[Sepul-Coloratura 756]

Do you think the settings of season 8 and 9 like the School of Friendship and a new racial diverse cast are a political statement? The inclusion of a authority with racial bigotry as the main villain adds to this.

Or do you think it’s just a natural progression of the show as the lore expands?

[SharpWit 2,472]

Yes and no, definitely not in relation to current events.

Traditionally, Equestria has had a very exclusive isolationist society. The era the show takes place in with Twilight at its head is one of significant cultural change. A world with many sentient species is an extremely competitive one, and Equestria has been getting by via subjecting other species. This strategy has been successful for them for the most part, but their prosperity is an attractive target for those aspiring for power, and it's been proven to work in our own world by eliminating other hominids. Reaching out however, has the opportunity to spread that prosperity, and prevent the sudden rise of villains, but that can be subject to change.

[Landi 597]

I definitely sensed a bit of a political undertone in the last two seasons of the show. I think the idea was that the school of friendship supposedly represented diversity, but I'd argue we already have a representation of that with the three pony tribes. They are all ponies, but they have differences which set them apart. The fact that we see all three types of ponies interacting together and being friends is diversity in it of itself. The school of friendship and the non-pony characters just seemed like excess statements.

Plus, in the show, these creatures (except Hippogriffs) have wished or attempted harm on ponies. A little bit of skepticism seems reasonable. Of course chancellor Neighsay was bad, taking things way too far, being racist, and just being a jerk overall. But a bit of caution wouldn't hurt.

Basically I'm just trying to say yes. I did sense politics in the last two seasons, which I don't like. I think politics should be left out of kids shows, especially this one, but oh well. At least we got seven great seasons before.

[Will Guide 21,325]

What a load of Nonsense! I just see it as a chance to see more non Pony races in the show. Why must people automatically assume a show is trying to be political just because they show characters that are not the usual character types.

Neighsay may have been a jerk, but he did have his reasons for being distrustful of non-ponies. Even the Hippogriff Queen refused to help save Equestria from the Storm King, which pretty much condemn the ponies to enslavement. Of course it was wrong of Neighsay to treat ALL members of the non-pony races with contempt just because of what some bad members of said races did, but his reasoning is understandable. Of course, it made the fact that one of the biggest threats to Equestria turn out to be an ordinary Pegasus Filly all the more eye-opening to him that even his own group can produce evil people.

[Cwanky 17,442]

2 minutes ago, Will Guide said:

What a load of Nonsense! I just see it as a chance to see more non Pony races in the show. Why must people automatically assume a show is trying to be political just because they show characters that are not the usual character types

Precisely! Imagine if we applied this standard to any movie or show featuring a minority and/or non mainstream character, like The Force Awakens.

No one complains the billions of times white actors play main or supporting roles, even if it's mediocre, but suddenly there's this outrage about tokenism, SJWs, and PC agenda if a minority character is highlighted, often regardless of how well they are portrayed and developed. Even if it is a political statement who cares? The writers are fully within their rights and discretion to do so. FiM is a show that emphasizes themes of harmony, friendship and understanding anyways, which include and cover topics like diversity, equality, and tolerance.

[Megas 27,038]

Kinda? The students maybe not, but the school of friendship(beyond it's concept being really dumb) as well as Neighsay definitely were

Spoiler

leaks showed the writers admitting Neighsay was a stand-in for Trump, with them occasionally jokingly calling him Donald Trump on occasion. Only difference is that Neighsay is smart and Donald is dumber than bricks lol

 

[Splashee 28,537]

I see no politics in MLP. The student six were added to bring something new to the show, however I think they failed quite badly. They were not overpowered, but smarter than the Mane 6. Their friendship was decided from the beginning, and didn't build up over time. Just like a villain that is bad from the start, with no backstory. You cannot make an interesting show with that.

It is like making Twilight an Alicorn in S01E02. No more to build story around.

So, if we are talking rasist politics because the bad guy didn't like non pony races, then that gas nothing to do with the student 6. I saw no politics statements in the bad guy either. It was Princess Celestia's wrong doing to appoint a rasist as the leader of the school board. She should have seen it

[HereComesTom 2,232]

I haven't seen enough of seasons 8 and 9 to be certain, but I figure it's mostly worldbuilding and branching out.  If there was a political statement mixed up in it, it's probably secondary to the show branching out and getting more characters/giving the world more depth.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,201]

Even if it was some kind of statement, I don't see telling people "Hey, don't judge other people just because they are different from you." as a bad statement to have. Me personally, I see the student six as something that was terribly forced and wasn't worth adding. It just clustered everything until they basically gave up on the whole concept which makes me wonder what the point was.  

[Will Guide 21,325]

1 hour ago, Splashee® said:

. It was Princess Celestia's wrong doing to appoint a rasist as the leader of the school board. She should have seen it

Where's your evidence that she was the one who appointed Neighsay as the leader of the board? She clearly said in the episode S9E1 that she had no authority over the school board and who's in charge of it

[Ittoni 536]

I think equal opportunities shouldn't be a matter of politics because it's obvious that it should be a thing. 

As for the show and this matter I think it was a logical natural progression. It started all the way back with unicorns, pegasus and earth ponies uniting and understanding each other, working together. So the natural step was other non pony races as intelligent life forms that also live in the world. Seeing how they were mostly treated as either something they didn't understand at best and as enemies at worse it would have been awkward to keep with that trend. So I'm glad they did it. It's also relevant to our world problems but I see that more as a plus than a deliberate political speech using the show as conduit. 

Edited August 15, 2020 by Ittoni

[Misty Shadow 7,057]

No.  One thing I greatly respect about MLP: FiM is that it was very faithful to the golden rule of "Don't get political.". There are subtle morals in the show that certainly do not sit well with certain crowds of people, but that's exactly why the show was always smart to be subtle about them. The Student Six are only there to show that even people from entirely different cultures and backgrounds can get along. There are no scandalous implications of it dictating to little kids how they need to feel. 

[Ittoni 536]

NeiNei was actually, not right but justified to a certain degree to be racist towards other creatures. Changelings were active enemies, dragons are known to eat ponies and destroy their homes out of fun, yaks pretty much declared war over cultural appropriation, hippogriffs and griphons are neutral but given the great number of enemies ponies have in their sheltered view of their world, their prejudice, their distrust over any new race they encounter like zebras, how can they not think that way even if it's misguided. Ponies are racists in the context of the show given how much friendship and understanding they preach. It's a lesson that was coming one way or another when you start to actually meet your "enemies" and understand them or make friends with them.

Edited August 15, 2020 by Ittoni

[Jesse Terrence 2,963]

It totally is. And a poorly done one, to be honest.

And a marketing strategy, too (and mostly that). Hasbro's way to go wake to cover a wider market by sacrificing the quality of the show they deemed as a weekly 20 minutes long ad.

[Miss 6,211]

I mean not really. Being a different race (species) is not political. 

There are some things (race, sexual orientation, etc.) that people call political but when you think about it, it's not. It's very on basic stuff. So just including different species, a diverse cast, and acceptance doesn't make something political and it's a bit toxic to have that mindset imo. "There are other creatures! This is political." has similar vibes to "There are non-white and lgbt characters in this show. This is political. It's only neutral if everyone is white and hetero and cis." Messages about acceptance is very standard stuff. Of course, people who might be against certain acceptance want to do everything in their power to label it as "political" so they could discriminate.

Bigotry in mlp is not new. The ponies constantly verbally attack other species and other creatures do the same. Sometimes they physically attack or threaten as well. It's actually strategic that the show would evolve in this way, spreading friendship across Equestria and then some ponies are against the idea.

So this might be where politics come in, but even so, it's still very standard. Neighsay sees creatures that were always represented in a bad light. Sees those creatures behave in a bad light therefore they are all banned as Neighsay's ideas of "benefitting Equestria" are very fragile. This has some merit in reality as older people will see the young doing something bad once (especially if they are visually different from them) and then use this as confirmation bias, but this of course isn't explained in that way just my own deductions. 

I will say the only thing that might be able to be cited as politics is the fact that civilization relationships are at stake, but other than that everything is very much surface level. 

That's pretty much season 8. Season 9 doesn't have anything political at all from what I reviewed. 

Tbh, I would say the most political the show has ever gotten was "Over a Barrel" where the episode is supposed to be reminiscent of Native American and European settler relations, of course it's done very horribly, back in season 1. 

Edited August 15, 2020 by Miss

[Will Guide 21,325]

14 minutes ago, Miss said:

Bigotry in mlp is not new. The ponies constantly verbally attack other species and other creatures do the same. 

That's right. if all bigotry is meant to be political then there was already such things all the way back in Season 1 when we first met Zecora the Zebra where everypony hid from her because they never met a Zebra before. Because she came from the everfree forest which the ponies saw as unnatural, her pawing at the ground can make real horses think she's going to attack them, and her speaking in another language all made them wary of her. 

[Miss 6,211]

Just now, Will Guide said:

That's right. if all bigotry is meant to be political then there was already such things all the way back in Season 1 when we first met Zecora the Zebra where everypony hid from her because they never met a Zebra before. Because she came from the everfree forest which the ponies saw as unnatural, her pawing at the ground can make real horses think she's going to attack them, and her speaking in another language all made them wary of her. 

Bigotry isn't political tho. Unless it's bigotry for political reasons. 

For example, Zecora voted for democracy and the ponies wanted monarchy. And now they discriminate against her. Now it's political. 

[Will Guide 21,325]

4 minutes ago, Miss said:

Bigotry isn't political tho. Unless it's bigotry for political reasons. 

For example, Zecora voted for democracy and the ponies wanted monarchy. And now they discriminate against her. Now it's political. 

I know; that's why I said "IF ALL bigotry was political", which it's obviously not

[Miss 6,211]

2 minutes ago, Will Guide said:

I know; that's why I said "IF ALL bigotry was political", which it's obviously not

Ohhhhh you were agreeing with me. I thought you were trying to be like "gotcha." XD my bad

[Pentium100 2,053]

5 hours ago, Will Guide said:

Neighsay may have been a jerk, but he did have his reasons for being distrustful of non-ponies.

Yeah, also he made a lot of sense because the show handled "friendship" in a convoluted manner.

Apparently there is the normal friendship (people getting along), but there is also a type of friendship ("friendship is magic") that is pretty much the equivalent to nuclear weapons - the type that Cozy Glow wanted to get. It was never explicitly stated which type of friendship the school was teaching or if they are separate at all.

All of the different species live in their own countries that may or may not be on good terms with Equestria (especially seeing how close some of them came to declaring war over a missing student).

Now, would you want those countries to get their hands on nuclear weapons? Probably not and Neighsay made sense. Probably a lot of people would have problems with a school teaching how to build nuclear weapons and inviting students from Iran, North Korea or even friendly countries that do not have nukes yet.

But the Student Six did not jump out at me as being "for diversity" and such, so, I guess if they were, good job at making it not obvious.

Edited August 15, 2020 by Pentium100

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

They’re trying to say friendship is for everyone and make peace with other creatures so they can make allies in the future. In a way it’s political, but mostly the ponies just wanna spread their friendship.

[CameoShadowness 251]

19 hours ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

Do you think the settings of season 8 and 9 like the School of Friendship and a new racial diverse cast are a political statement? The inclusion of a authority with racial bigotry as the main villain adds to this.

Or do you think it’s just a natural progression of the show as the lore expands?

I say- they trapped themselves in a corner with lessons so they had to expand... also Twilight was being a racist as well "Look at all these other places- they must not know what friendship is!" like that isn't her exact quote but that is messed up as all hell.

[Goat-kun 2,490]

Student S6 are as bad as get woke go broke content so I honestly can't tell. I'm more irked by how the state (pony princess) wants to insert itself into private life by peddling its brand of social interactions that don't even have anything to do with friendship.

[Will Guide 21,325]

3 hours ago, CameoShadowness said:

Twilight was being a racist as well "Look at all these other places- they must not know what friendship is!" like that isn't her exact quote but that is messed up as all hell.

You can blame the writers not Twilight for that poorly written line. I think a better line would be "What if we build a place where we can have everyone come together for social interaction and getting to know each other?" Wouldn't that have helped?

[CameoShadowness 251]

5 hours ago, Will Guide said:

You can blame the writers not Twilight for that poorly written line. I think a better line would be "What if we build a place where we can have everyone come together for social interaction and getting to know each other?" Wouldn't that have helped?

The issue is that even though the writers are to blame- Twilight still said it in the show and NONE of them caught how messed up that was but that line you suggsted would have been perfect.