Why didn't Twilight launch an investigation into the EEA?

[CastletonSnob 3,025]

This is something that's been bothering me about S8.  Why didn't Twilight launch an investigation into the EEA? Neighsay almost caused a race war, and accredited Flim and Flam's Friendship University only because it only taught ponies. Surely that would have been enough for an investigation, and Twilight has the power to launch one.

[EpicEnergy 22,074]

Not sure, maybe the EEA is a special organization that is immune from investigations.

[Stardust Balance 7,716]

It's really been super unclear exactly what kind of authority Twilight held as a Princess, especially compared to the other alicorns. Maybe it was outside her jurisdiction. 

[Splashee 28,537]

Season 8 was all about And less about lawsuits

[CypherHoof 26,479]

On 2022-06-07 at 3:03 PM, CastletonSnob said:

This is something that's been bothering me about S8.  Why didn't Twilight launch an investigation into the EEA? Neighsay almost caused a race war, and accredited Flim and Flam's Friendship University only because it only taught ponies. Surely that would have been enough for an investigation, and Twilight has the power to launch one.

Until she succeeded Celestia, That was outside of her remit and for some reason Celestia believed the EEA had authority over her school (and hence her!) so Twi was clearly not even in the running.

I am assuming it was a case that, as headmare of a school, Celestia was subject to the EEA's authority but as Princess Celestia, she wasn't - but Princess Celestia didn't want to abuse her authority to get special treatment while wearing her other crown as a headmare.

[Pentium100 2,056]

It would be a conflict of interests for Celestia. Her government created the EEA and gave it power over schools. This would include Celestia's school as well. While Celestia could force the EEA to make her an exception (replace the pony in charge with one that's more easily persuaded) it would look bad, basically "rules for you, but not for me". Instances of this are frowned upon in the real world, even though they happen. 

[Stardust Balance 7,716]

4 minutes ago, Pentium100 said:

It would be a conflict of interests for Celestia. Her government created the EEA and gave it power over schools. This would include Celestia's school as well. While Celestia could force the EEA to make her an exception (replace the pony in charge with one that's more easily persuaded) it would look bad, basically "rules for you, but not for me". Instances of this are frowned upon in the real world, even though they happen. 

That's an entirely different issue, though. Twilight wouldn't be attempting to make her school an exception to the rules, just launch an investigation regarding corruption and malpractice within the EEA system. 

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

She believed the EEA held higher power than herself, so she probably would have felt wrong investigating it.

[Pentium100 2,056]

32 minutes ago, Stardust Balance said:

That's an entirely different issue, though. Twilight wouldn't be attempting to make her school an exception to the rules, just launch an investigation regarding corruption and malpractice within the EEA system. 

And it would look like "a Princess did not get what she wanted and is not trying to get back at the EEA".

[Stardust Balance 7,716]

3 minutes ago, Pentium100 said:

And it would look like "a Princess did not get what she wanted and is not trying to get back at the EEA".

And since when did political scandals prevent the girls from ultimately doing the right thing in the end?  

[HedonismBot 217]

On 2022-06-16 at 10:47 AM, Pentium100 said:

And it would look like "a Princess did not get what she wanted and is not trying to get back at the EEA".

Not likely. "School Daze" ended with Neighsay making blatantly xenophobic remarks right in front of Celestia and the representatives of the non-pony nations. It would be painfully obvious that there is a legitimate reason for an investigation.

And it's not about making an exception to the rules for Twilight's school, but making the perfectly reasonable request that the EEA rethink their rules.

[Justin_Case001 4,855]

I think an investigation like that probably would have been a little... um... boring and tedious for a kid's show... perhaps?  But as for me, oh man, I would have loved to see a lengthy, detailed, realistic legal investigation with, like, court hearings 'n' sh*t.  That woulda been awesome!    Can we just have, like, Law & Order: Equestria please? 

On 2022-06-15 at 8:46 AM, Stardust Balance said:

It's really been super unclear exactly what kind of authority Twilight held as a Princess, especially compared to the other alicorns. Maybe it was outside her jurisdiction. 

That's a really good point, and it makes me suspect that grown-up ruler Twi probably disbanded or reformed the EEA.

[Pentium100 2,056]

4 hours ago, HedonismBot said:

"School Daze" ended with Neighsay making blatantly xenophobic remarks right in front of Celestia and the representatives of the non-pony nations.

And within the show and its handling on what "friendship" is it actually kind-of sort-of made sense. 

On one hand, friendship is the way we understand it - a good way to live, being friends etc. However, in the FIM world, friendship is what allows the main characters to shoot rainbow lasers at stuff (basically, how Cozy understood it, a literal "power of friendship"). So, Twilight's school can be understood as "school for learning how to be friends" or "nuclear weapon building school" or a combination of both. A lot of people IRL would object to foreigners being allowed to learn how to build powerful weapons and then bring that knowledge back to their countries.

Edited June 17, 2022 by Pentium100

[HedonismBot 217]

18 hours ago, Pentium100 said:

On one hand, friendship is the way we understand it - a good way to live, being friends etc. However, in the FIM world, friendship is what allows the main characters to shoot rainbow lasers at stuff (basically, how Cozy understood it, a literal "power of friendship"). So, Twilight's school can be understood as "school for learning how to be friends" or "nuclear weapon building school" or a combination of both. A lot of people IRL would object to foreigners being allowed to learn how to build powerful weapons and then bring that knowledge back to their countries.

That begs the question of whether it's even possible to use those rainbow lasers for evil. Any creature who attempted to do what Neighsay is allegedly afraid of would no longer be motivated by friendship, so whether the rainbow lasers would still work properly is highly debatable.

Not to mention that in the long run, an attitude of "We can't make friends with other species because they might turn on us" would more likely than not increase the risk of war.

[Pentium100 2,056]

5 hours ago, HedonismBot said:

That begs the question of whether it's even possible to use those rainbow lasers for evil.

Depends on what "evil" is. Would the rainbow lasers work against an invading army? How about as part of an invasion? It seems like the only required friendship is between the parts of the laser (there was no friendship between the Mane 6 and Tirek).

So, depending on the above, the rainbow lasers could be used against Equestria if Equestria invaded the other country first or if that other country decided to invade Equestria as long as there was friendship among the soldiers of that other country.

5 hours ago, HedonismBot said:

Not to mention that in the long run, an attitude of "We can't make friends with other species because they might turn on us" would more likely than not increase the risk of war.

Friendship between a pony and a griffin would be OK, the problem is that griffins would now know how to be friends among themselves which would possibly aid them in a possible war against Equestria.

The show does not differentiate the two types of "friendship is magic" and Neighsay used the definition of "friendship is magic weapon/power", while Twilight most likely used the definition of "friendship is magic feeling".