Something that always bothered me about Fluttershy’s element

[Kaitlynne 110]

Her element is kindness when Rairty’s element is generosity. Isn’t being generous also being kind? Especially after the fact that she cut off her tail to help someone in need. Wouldn’t sympathy or comfort be more fitted to Fluttershy?

[SharpWit 2,472]

Good point.

I guess it's more about going above and beyond what's asked in Rarity's case, rather than offer aid whenever possible for Fluttershy.

I find Rarity to also be the most selfish of the Mane six which seems like a direct contrast with her element at times.

[dead account 2,703]

Fluttershy's kindness is giving on a personal level, while Rarity's generosity is about giving on a materialistic level. This is how I see it.

[Kaitlynne 110]

26 minutes ago, SharpWit said:

Good point.

I guess it's more about going above and beyond what's asked in Rarity's case, rather than offer aid whenever possible for Fluttershy.

I find Rarity to also be the most selfish of the Mane six which seems like a direct contrast with her element at times.

Yes like at the gala when Applejack offered her free food when the money was going towards helping the Apple family. Wouldn’t it be generous to give her the money.

[Oleks 1,983]

Even according to the dictionary, "generosity is the quality of being kind and generous" and "kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate". But it's worth pointing out that Rarity was originally meant ot be the element of inspiration. That was Lauren Faust's idea, and it made sense for Rarity, but it was considered "too tough for kids to wrap their heads around." Again, the assumption that kinds are dumb does no good.

[Kaitlynne 110]

23 minutes ago, Oleks said:

Even according to the dictionary, "generosity is the quality of being kind and generous" and "kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate". But it's worth pointing out that Rarity was originally meant ot be the element of inspiration. That was Lauren Faust's idea, and it made sense for Rarity, but it was considered "too tough for kids to wrap their heads around." Again, the assumption that kinds are dumb does no good.

Wow inspiration sounds way better. Friends are supposed to inspire you.

[mlploverlizzy 289]

4 hours ago, Heasol said:

Fluttershy's kindness is giving on a personal level, while Rarity's generosity is about giving on a materialistic level. This is how I see it.

Completely agree with this

[Misty Shadow 7,085]

Making someone laugh when they're having a bad day, isn't that also kindness? Part of Fluttershy's journey of learning how to be truly kind was learning how to be brutally honest...but isn't Applejack's element honesty? Obviously, it's nice to be generous, but it's also nice to just be a good human being in general, so the separation of kindness and generosity makes sense. 

[Venomous 18,813]

@Kaitlynne

My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) is for discussing the FiM 2017 film. Any and all talk regarding canon/theories of FiM belong in FiM Canon Discussion. As such, your thread has been moved there.

[Kaitlynne 110]

Moments ago, The Wife of Kaeya said:

@Kaitlynne

My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) is for discussing the FiM 2017 film. Any and all talk regarding canon/theories of FiM belong in FiM Canon Discussion. As such, your thread has been moved there.

Thanks for moving all of my posts. I’m new so I didn’t know where to post them 🙃

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

The Elements probably all tie into each other in some way. You can be loyal and honest, share laughter and kindness, etc. To say generosity and kindness are similar isn’t a stretch. I do agree with what most people have said so far in that kindness is typically a nonphysical gift like time or compassion, while generosity typically is a physical gift such as money or food.

Who is to say kindness and generosity have to be limited to this, though? You can be kind by giving a friend a physical gift and you can be generous by giving someone your time. This thread makes me wish this sort of thing was elaborated more in the show to teach kids that qualities are not limited to one type of action. It would have also been interesting to see an episode where the Mane 6 are criticized for going “off their Elements”.

[Kaitlynne 110]

29 minutes ago, ExplosionMare said:

The Elements probably all tie into each other in some way. You can be loyal and honest, share laughter and kindness, etc. To say generosity and kindness are similar isn’t a stretch. I do agree with what most people have said so far in that kindness is typically a nonphysical gift like time or compassion, while generosity typically is a physical gift such as money or food.

Who is to say kindness and generosity have to be limited to this, though? You can be kind by giving a friend a physical gift and you can be generous by giving someone your time. This thread makes me wish this sort of thing was elaborated more in the show to teach kids that qualities are not limited to one type of action. It would have also been interesting to see an episode where the Mane 6 are criticized for going “off their Elements”.

👆THIS

[SharpWit 2,472]

A kind person may be there to listen and let you work things out as you need to. A generous person may hear your problem out, and then offer solutions. Fluttershy and Rarity aren't excluded from doing either as I'm sure they've done it plenty over tea, but they may be more prone to one over the other.

Thanks to @ExplosionMare for that thought 

[They call me Loyalty 1,941]

All those aspects you mentioned could fall under kindness. Rarity is the problem. I always thought of her as the element of creativity or inspiration. And imagined her character would take a turn for the spiritual, as to discover the internal beauty that lies beyond the guise of garments and external luxuries.
But, unfortunately, I don't think many of the character traits were tested as for them to break free from their archetypes.
Unless the opposites are met, a higher truth cannot be conceived into the greater realization of the universe. And, thus they remain one-dimensional. They remain characters. Twilight being the worst example of this... molded after the figure of the rising sun.
It is the character that writes the writer. Not the other way around. A true character is alive. It opposes the whims of the creator so the creator can know itself. Sorry... I diverge, as always.

[Kaitlynne 110]

2 hours ago, They call me Loyalty said:

All those aspects you mentioned could fall under kindness. Rarity is the problem. I always thought of her as the element of creativity or inspiration. And imagined her character would take a turn for the spiritual, as to discover the internal beauty that lies beyond the guise of garments and external luxuries.
But, unfortunately, I don't think many of the character traits were tested as for them to break free from their archetypes.
Unless the opposites are met, a higher truth cannot be conceived into the greater realization of the universe. And, thus they remain one-dimensional. They remain characters. Twilight being the worst example of this... molded after the figure of the rising sun.
It is the character that writes the writer. Not the other way around. A true character is alive. It opposes the whims of the creator so the creator can know itself. Sorry... I diverge, as always.

Wow that’s really deep

[Orchid_Fiore 199]

On 2/9/2022 at 11:29 AM, SharpWit said:

I find Rarity to also be the most selfish of the Mane six which seems like a direct contrast with her element at times.

Because she was originally planned to be the "inspiration" element, but the writers considered that kids would not understand it, and switched to generosity. In a nutshell, Rarity'selement does not fit with Her.

Edited February 11, 2022 by Orchid_Fiore

[SharpWit 2,472]

@Orchid_Fiore yeah, I wouldn't get inspiration either. Personally that sounds like an element trait for a leader,  (Of course any character can have their time under the spot light) and I think Twilight usually needs her friends to rally her up to a challenge more often than not.

[xLuneti 55]

On 2022-02-09 at 12:14 PM, Kaitlynne said:

Her element is kindness when Rairty’s element is generosity. Isn’t being generous also being kind? Especially after the fact that she cut off her tail to help someone in need. Wouldn’t sympathy or comfort be more fitted to Fluttershy?

The elements of harmoany doesn't make any sense in the show

 

the moments of weakest from Rarity are because she is too generous

the bravest and best moments of fluttershy are when she is not-so-kind and she steps up

rainbow dash is not loyal at all, if anything, she is the less loyal mane 6

we never got a proper "why is important tell the truth" episode from applejack, and she lies sometimes

 

the only ones who make justice to their element are twilight and pinkie

[Kaitlynne 110]

16 minutes ago, xLuneti said:

The elements of harmoany doesn't make any sense in the show

 

the moments of weakest from Rarity are because she is too generous

the bravest and best moments of fluttershy are when she is not-so-kind and she steps up

rainbow dash is not loyal at all, if anything, she is the less loyal mane 6

we never got a proper "why is important tell the truth" episode from applejack, and she lies sometimes

 

the only ones who make justice to their element are twilight and pinkie

How is Dashy the least loyal out of the six?

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

20 hours ago, Kaitlynne said:

How is Dashy the least loyal out of the six?

She’s chosen the Wonderbolts over her friends on multiple occasions and often takes winning and fame too far.

[Props Valroa 26,048]

Thing that bothers me about Fluttershy is - You don't have to be shy to be kind. If anything, Kindness is a rather powerful and empathic thing. So why did they make her shy?

[xLuneti 55]

2 hours ago, Starforce said:

Thing that bothers me about Fluttershy is - You don't have to be shy to be kind. If anything, Kindness is a rather powerful and empathic thing. So why did they make her shy?

Well that's her personality, we can say at least she doesn't let her shyness to be over her kindess, there's a lot of bravery for a pony to befriend Discord, and she did trust Cavaleron in season 9.

[Props Valroa 26,048]

5 hours ago, xLuneti said:

Well that's her personality, we can say at least she doesn't let her shyness to be over her kindess, there's a lot of bravery for a pony to befriend Discord, and she did trust Cavaleron in season 9.

True, I personally find her personality to be way over-done. It never meshed well with me and sometimes I find it kind off putting. Sometimes it works, but I feel like she is a bit too one dimensional.

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

@Starforce

You could ask the same thing about why they made the Element of Honesty stubborn, or the Element of Generosity posh (the posh thing is what really gets to me because you don’t have to be rich to be generous).

I think that the Mane 6 should have strived to embody all of the elements to a degree. The Element of Magic couldn’t exist without the other elements so if the Mane 6 didn’t practice each friendship quality, they wouldn’t have the magic of friendship.

[Props Valroa 26,048]

@ExplosionMare

Rarity's poshness kind of off puts me as well, I feel like they could have thought about the characterizations a lot better and not have them be so one dimensional. I don't know, I feel like the flaws of certain things is almost hard for me to ignore.