"MLP: FiM" and the Value of History: Further Proof of the Genius of MLP

[Batbrony 16,056]

With Season 3 coming up soon, I was just reflecting to myself earlier this evening on how awesome it is that the season premiere, from what few clips we've seen so far, will deal with the value of history to any society and culture (i.e. the Crystal Ponies song). On further consideration, however, I realized that the show's creators have actually set themselves up nicely for dealing with this topic as they've already made other episodes with this same theme, particularly, "Hearth's Warming Eve" and "Family Appreciation Day," which, I believe, did not simply coincidentally debut back-to-back, but rather did so by design. As you all know, the former deals with the founding of Equestria, while the latter, at least in the second half of the episode, deals with the founding of Ponyville! In this thread, I will pay particular attention to "Hearth's Warming Eve," but both episodes, in different ways, still teach this theme of the importance and value of history. There are a number of things that are impressive about both of these episodes compared to standard children's television.

First, most children's programs do not even touch upon the value of history, much less in a holiday episode, at least in such an explicit manner. In fact, the only show from my childhood that I could recall really at any point touching upon the value of history was "Rugrats," and it does so in a manner very similar to the way "MLP: FiM" has thus far; in a number of episodes, Tommy Pickles' Jewish heritage is touched upon, perhaps, most explicitly in the Hanukkah and Passover episodes, which actually retell the stories behind the founding of both holidays. As a child, this wasn't as impressive to me, largely because I grew up in a Christian household, so hearing Biblical stories was pretty much the norm for me, but I realize now that this was a secular show showing on a secular television network, and that made me realize just how impressive those episodes, in hindsight, were. They teach the value of history by showing why it's valuable; the stories are not simply told, but the viewers see them being told to Tommy and his friends during the celebration of these holidays, so that he understands his heritage and why his family celebrates these holidays! In "Hearth's Warming Eve," MLP: FiM does the same exact thing!!! The importance of the holiday is not conveyed by some message about the importance of giving during a holiday (a standard of many, many Christmas episodes, even on Christian programs, which, although certainly important, does not get at the heart of the holiday itself), but rather, we are shown that the primary way that the ponies celebrate Hearth's Warming Eve is by staging pageants and plays all across Equestria recalling the founding of Equestria, thereby annually reminding themselves about their heritage, where they came from, and the values that their ancestors established Equestria upon as the rock of its foundation, namely, friendship, the binding force that maintains harmony in Equestria. That simply struck me as genius, for, really, that is the main purpose behind holidays themselves, to remind one of why they celebrate the holiday and the heritage that they come from (although Lord knows we humans ourselves forget this all the time! ).

This realization in turn led me to re-evaluate the importance of friendship in the show itself, and develop a second point that made me realize even more than I had previously that "MLP" is a fantastically well-written and very smart show. As I previously stated, "Hearth's Warming Eve" teaches the ponies and, in turn, the audience, that the foundation upon which all order and harmony in Equestria rests is friendship. This, although maybe not apparent at first glance, considering the first 1 1/2 seasons had already dwelt upon the magic of friendship extensively, lifts the importance of friendship in the show itself to a whole new level!!! Before, we'd seen that friendship was simply the binding element between the Mane Six, and while certainly a powerful element, in that through its power they were able to wield the Elements of Harmony, its relevance was relegated to the present. "Hearth's Warming Eve," however, showed that throughout history and in all times, past, present, and future, friendship had been, is, and always will be the binding element upon which all harmony and order in Equestrian society is established!

Friendship, essentially, allows Equestria to be what Plato in his "Republic" calls the "best city". First of all, in "The Republic," Socrates defines justice as people minding their own business, literally, each person sticking to doing what they do best, to the benefit of themselves and society. Prior to Equestria's founding, while the three races of ponies certainly stuck to their tasks, they only did it for themselves, and only cooperated with each other at the bare minimum out of the utmost necessity. It could not be said that they had one "city" even (i.e. one society); they all had their own distinct cultures and societies. The pegasi were essentially timocrats in that they placed the greatest value on honor and martial glory, the unicorns were more or less oligarchs with their love of wealth, riches, and gems, despite their access to great knowledge as well, and the earth ponies were basically (degenerated) democrats (in the sense of the classical definition of democracy) in that they placed a great deal of value on equality (more so than freedom, and as such were all equally poor) and clearly had elected representatives (i.e. Chancellor Puddinghead... like I said, degenerated democracy. HA! ).

However, after the events of the first Hearth's Warming Eve, all three races, due to friendship, truly united and established one society in Equestria, a society where each and everypony does whatever they are best at, mind's their own business, and as a result, both the individual and society are benefitted. This is justice according to Plato and Socrates! Furthermore, it can also be said that in many ways Celestia and Luna are essentially the guardians, or philosopher kings (rather philosopher queens), that Socrates speaks of in "The Republic" as well, for while they certainly allow each and everypony to mind their own business, their own business appears to be ruling the state on account of their wisdom, for they have made their business knowing truth and knowledge, which is the business of the philosopher. In Equestria, logically, the highest knowledge and truth must surely be that which has to do with the magic of friendship, since that is the very foundation of Equestrian society, and who other than Celestia and Luna have been shown to have greater knowledge of the magic of friendship? Therefore, it can be accurately stated that, due to knowledge of friendship, along with all other things, Celestia and Luna are Equestria's philosopher queens, and in conclusion, friendship as the theme of "MLP: FiM" is even more important to this show than I even previously thought it was!!! Seriously, when I came to these conclusions, my mind was blown away!!!

So, what do ya'll think about this? Do you think that my assessments are correct? Can you think of other episodes that have emphasized the value of history, either in "MLP" or any other childrens' shows? Or, are there other themes and lessons that "MLP" has touched upon that surprised you? Please, let me know what you all think in the comments below; I'm quite eager to hear what you all have to say!

P.S. To all of you who read this whole post, and put up with my throwing around all of these Socratic and Platonic terms, I give you an epic brohoof!
 

Edited October 17, 2013 by Batbrony

[aperture_tech 56]

While I give you huge props for such a well researched and well put opinion, I don't necessarily agree with you on the part of your hearth's warming eve example. I mean, it is not based on a real event, thus it cannot really teach much about history. It does put emphasis on the value of history, but overall, I don't think that emphasizing the value of history is not as big of a deal in any cartoon.

[Batbrony 16,056]

While I give you huge props for such a well researched and well put opinion, I don't necessarily agree with you on the part of your hearth's warming eve example. I mean, it is not based on a real event, thus it cannot really teach much about history. It does put emphasis on the value of history, but overall, I don't think that emphasizing the value of history is not as big of a deal in any cartoon.

 

Well that's what I felt the theme of that episode was emphasizing, and I think that it's a very important lesson that not enough children's shows teach. Think about it; if a society does not understand it's history, then how can it understand the importance of its heritage, or learn from its past mistakes as well as its triumphs. In many ways, before people can learn history, or really any subject for that matter, they need to understand the importance of it and why it matters, and children's shows are a wonderful, but seldom employed, medium to convey this particular message to children while they are still young and impressionable, and thus encourage them to educate themselves about their own society's history. Sorry if I did not make that clear enough in my original post; hope this clarifies what I meant.

[NavelColt 22,882]

It's too bad this hasn't gotten much exposure, yet. I'm sorry I took so long to finally say something myself xD;

 

A very thought out theory :3 You did some research for sure, and it's a peculiar way to think about the universe of MLP. Hearth's Warming Eve was always considered by some of the fandom to be nothing but a made up story for the sake of the holiday season, but I don't personally think that way, and it's cool to see other people using it in their theories as something that actually occurred, and isn't just a story.

[Dusty Soul 2,612]

This is one well thought out theory, even though I must say I don't agree with it. It sure is interesting. Hearths Warming Eve always has given the fandom interest, though many think it's just a made up story.

[Batbrony 16,056]

It's too bad this hasn't gotten much exposure, yet. I'm sorry I took so long to finally say something myself xD;

 

A very thought out theory :3 You did some research for sure, and it's a peculiar way to think about the universe of MLP. Hearth's Warming Eve was always considered by some of the fandom to be nothing but a made up story for the sake of the holiday season, but I don't personally think that way, and it's cool to see other people using it in their theories as something that actually occurred, and isn't just a story.

 

Oh no worries, glad you liked my theory! Yeah, like you said, "Hearth's Warming Eve" has always struck me as being very unique, especially compared to other so-called holiday episodes in children's shows, in that the creators of MLP actually bothered to create a holiday (and by extension, build on the history of Equestria) for their show, not just have an actual Christmas episode. Most of the time, children's shows just opt to have Christmas episodes celebrating that particular holiday, even if it doesn't make any sense! I think the best example I can think of is the G3 Christmas special I saw riffed on YouTube, where those gosh-awful G3 ponies, who as far as I can tell DO NOT live in our universe, don't just celebrate, but actually save Christmas!!! OMG, there is so much that is just plain wrong with that!!! But so many other shows do the same exact thing!!!!! So that's why "Hearth's Warming Eve" originally stuck out to me, and it's from there that I built the rest of this little theory I put together. Again, glad you found it an interesting read!

Edited October 6, 2012 by Batbrony

[Starswirl the Trixie 975]

With Season 3 coming up soon, I was just reflecting to myself earlier this evening on how awesome it is that the season premiere, from what few clips we've seen so far, will deal with the value of history to any society and culture (i.e. the Crystal Ponies song). On further consideration, however, I realized that the show's creators have actually set themselves up nicely for dealing with this topic as they've already made other episodes with this same theme, particularly, "Hearth's Warming Eve" and "Family Appreciation Day," which, I believe, did not simply coincidentally debut back-to-back, but rather did so by design. As you all know, the former deals with the founding of Equestria, while the latter, at least in the second half of the episode, deals with the founding of Ponyville! In this thread, I will pay particular attention to "Hearth's Warming Eve," but both episodes, in different ways, still teach this theme of the importance and value of history. There are a number of things that are impressive about both of these episodes compared to standard children's television.

 

First, most children's programs do not even touch upon the value of history, much less in a holiday episode, at least in such an explicit manner. In fact, the only show from my childhood that I could recall really at any point touching upon the value of history was "Rugrats," and it does so in a manner very similar to the way "MLP: FiM" has thus far; in a number of episodes, Tommy Pickles' Jewish heritage is touched upon, perhaps, most explicitly in the Hanukkah and Passover episodes, which actually retell the stories behind the founding of both holidays. As a child, this wasn't as impressive to me, largely because I grew up in a Christian household, so hearing Biblical stories was pretty much the norm for me, but I realize now that this was a secular show showing on a secular television network, and that made me realize just how impressive those episodes, in hindsight, were. They teach the value of history by showing why it's valuable; the stories are not simply told, but the viewers see them being told to Tommy and his friends during the celebration of these holidays, so that he understands his heritage and why his family celebrates these holidays! In "Hearth's Warming Eve," MLP: FiM does the same exact thing!!! The importance of the holiday is not conveyed by some message about the importance of giving during a holiday (a standard of many, many Christmas episodes, even on Christian programs, which, although certainly important, does not get at the heart of the holiday itself), but rather, we are shown that the primary way that the ponies celebrate Hearth's Warming Eve is by staging pageants and plays all across Equestria recalling the founding of Equestria, thereby annually reminding themselves about their heritage, where they came from, and the values that their ancestors established Equestria upon as the rock of its foundation, namely, friendship, the binding force that maintains harmony in Equestria. That simply struck me as genius, for, really, that is the main purpose behind holidays themselves, to remind one of why they celebrate the holiday and the heritage that they come from (although Lord knows we humans ourselves forget this all the time! ).

 

This realization in turn led me to re-evaluate the importance of friendship in the show itself, and develop a second point that made me realize even more than I had previously that "MLP" is a fantastically well-written and very smart show. As I previously stated, "Hearth's Warming Eve" teaches the ponies and, in turn, the audience, that the foundation upon which all order and harmony in Equestria rests is friendship. This, although maybe not apparent at first glance, considering the first 1 1/2 seasons had already dwelt upon the magic of friendship extensively, lifts the importance of friendship in the show itself to a whole new level!!! Before, we'd seen that friendship was simply the binding element between the Mane Six, and while certainly a powerful element, in that through its power they were able to wield the Elements of Harmony, its relevance was relegated to the present. "Hearth's Warming Eve," however, showed that throughout history and in all times, past, present, and future, friendship had been, is, and always will be the binding element upon which all harmony and order in Equestrian society is established!

 

Friendship, essentially, allows Equestria to be what Plato in his "Republic" calls the "best city". First of all, in "The Republic," Socrates defines justice as people minding their own business, literally, each person sticking to doing what they do best, to the benefit of themselves and society. Prior to Equestria's founding, while the three races of ponies certainly stuck to their tasks, they only did it for themselves, and only cooperated with each other at the bare minimum out of the utmost necessity. It could not be said that they had one "city" even (i.e. one society); they all had their own distinct cultures and societies. The pegasi were essentially timocrats in that they placed the greatest value on honor and martial glory, the unicorns were more or less oligarchs with their love of wealth, riches, and gems, despite their access to great knowledge as well, and the earth ponies were basically (degenerated) democrats (in the sense of the classical definition of democracy) in that they placed a great deal of value on equality (more so than freedom, and as such were all equally poor) and clearly had elected representatives (i.e. Chancellor Puddinghead... like I said, degenerated democracy. HA! ).

 

However, after the events of the first Hearth's Warming Eve, all three races, due to friendship, truly united and established one society in Equestria, a society where each and everypony does whatever they are best at, mind's their own business, and as a result, both the individual and society are benefitted. This is justice according to Plato and Socrates! Furthermore, it can also be said that in many ways Celestia and Luna are essentially the guardians, or philosopher kings (rather philosopher queens), that Socrates speaks of in "The Republic" as well, for while they certainly allow each and everypony to mind their own business, their own business appears to be ruling the state on account of their wisdom, for they have made their business knowing truth and knowledge, which is the business of the philosopher. In Equestria, logically, the highest knowledge and truth must surely be that which has to do with the magic of friendship, since that is the very foundation of Equestrian society, and who other than Celestia and Luna have been shown to have greater knowledge of the magic of friendship? Therefore, it can be accurately stated that, due to knowledge of friendship, along with all other things, Celestia and Luna are Equestria's philosopher queens, and in conclusion, friendship as the theme of "MLP: FiM" is even more important to this show than I even previously thought it was!!! Seriously, when I came to these conclusions, my mind was blown away!!!

 

So, what do ya'll think about this? Do you think that my assessments are correct? Can you think of other episodes that have emphasized the value of history, either in "MLP" or any other childrens' shows? Or, are there other themes and lessons that "MLP" has touched upon that surprised you? Please, let me know what you all think in the comments below; I'm quite eager to hear what you all have to say!

 

P.S. To all of you who read this whole post, and put up with my throwing around all of these Socratic and Platonic terms, I give you an epic brohoof!

 

 

Short answer: Yes.

 

Longer: Well, of course I agree with you, as I wrote an essay which addresses those same philosophical points.  It's fantastic to see that other people reached the same conclusion, and that perhaps I am not crazy (I know I still am, though).

 

It's a shame I didn't find this until now (actually, I was linked to the thread by Batbrony after he read my aforementioned essay).  The one thing which I am greatly wondering about is what exactly "friendship" is.  On Earth we give it the simple meaning of platonic (pun unintended), cordial relationships.  But in Equestria it appears to mean something more.  The show's title itself is cryptic: "Friendship is Magic".  But in this world magic is rather mundane.  There are no clear answers to what it means; I suppose it could mean that, since magic in the show appears to be a sort of expression of willpower, friendship, as an matter of will, is magic.

 

Overall, though, you're right that the emphasis on "friendship" is part of the Equestrian government's attempt to build a stable state; "friendship" is really "harmony".  I've always been amazed at Equestria, probably one of the reasons why I like the show so much.  It is a country so brilliantly built in institutions, mythology, moral codes, culture, etc to stabilize the government and ensure that Celestia has absolute power.  It's certainly a despotic nation, though the despotism is not obviously bad, but instead a sort of gray area.  Whether the Equestrian harmony at such a great cost is justified or not is a philosophical debate worth having, but it is undeniable that we should study the example of Equestria to look on our own, human world.

 

And all from candy colored ponies.  Makes me do a double take every once in a while...