Friendship lessons: sometimes complicated?

[Harmony Spark 265]

The friendship lessons while brilliant and realistic, I finding it difficult to understand them. For example, in Luna Eclipsed the lesson was to give friendship to others and help them find it themselves. How can you give friendship? Friendship isn't an object. And how can you help people find friendship?

 

Also, some of the lessons can be clarified a bit because the messages are unclear.

 

For example, the lesson in Feeling Pinkie Keen was misinterpreted and Lauren Faust said that she would clarify it further, but since she left the staff to work on another show, we still get confused about it.

 

So, my point is are the friendship lessons quite hard to understand or am I being a dumbass?

[Shanks 10,816]

Some of the lessons can take a bit more thinking than others but most of them are fairly simple. In the case of Luna Eclipsed I think what they mean by "giving friendship" is to not prejudge others for their differences and when someone is in need to try to be there for them and try to be their friend. Sometimes all someone needs is someone to talk to and to try to understand them, and that is exactly what Luna needed in Luna Eclipsed. In Feeling Pinkie Keene people made it out to be way more than what it was with all these complicated theories about religion and philosophy when all it really boiled down to was that just because something dosen't always have an apparent explanation dosen't mean that it does not exist or is untrue.

[~StatesTheOblivious~ 1,795]

@@Harmony Spark, You are definitely NOT being a dumbass.

 

As with everything in life, the interpretation of the friendship lessons also depends on your own perspective and experiences.

 

Your two examples for an instance.

 

Giving friendship means offering it to somebody. Not directly, of course, but to allow yourself and grant the other one the opportunity to actually "build" a friendship. Since friendship is somethig that can only exist between people that are ready to share it, you can help finding it by sharing it.

 

And about that lesson from "Feeling Pinkie Keen"... Well, many people misinterpreted it as a lesson focused on religion. I think this is wrong. It is an universal lesson about trusting people you call your friends because they are your friends and you should accept them how they are, no matter what they believe (not just religious) in AND that there are things, no matter if religious, scientific or philosophical, that you can't answer.

[RrVPfX9cPtw59FpC 1,304]

You're not being a dumbass. Although there is usually a good theme to all episodes, there is sometimes just a really good plot that one of the writers thinks of, and they have to write it, even if they can't think of a good lesson to come from it.

[Scootalove 10,689]

Your definitely not being a dumbass. In life, when we try to learn lessons usually it isn't easy to understand at first but when you learn the concept of what the lesson is trying to send across as a message then you start to understand the lesson. In some episodes, there aren't any lessons to be learned. So Harmony Spark, your not a dumbass at all.

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

That's one of the things I like about the show, it has REAL lessons that actually mean something rather than idiot-proof stock lessons

 

On Pinkie Keen, I have my own interpretation about the lesson. There's sometimes a fine line between being logical and open minded, and making the mistake of being to confident and comfortable with what you think you know to accept there may be things you don't yet understand.

 

Twilight wasn't representing a skeptic, she was representing someone who had become so dependent on her view of how the world works, she refused to accept something she saw right in front of her because she couldn't explain how it worked. Essentially, don't mistake close-mindedness for healthy skepticism, a skeptic is willing to believe what can be proven to them, someone close minded is not.  

 

It's a lesson about finding the balance between logic and trusting your own senses. Just because we don't understand something, doesn't mean it's not there. It's kinda hard for me to explain.  

Edited August 5, 2013 by Shoboni

[Zygen 6,066]

No your not being dumb, the lessons are actually quite deep alot of them, if you think about them.

 

I think by giving friendship it means offering friendship to people regardless of their first impressions or something along those lines.

 

I guess helping them find friendship could maybe refer to helping introduce others to potential friends, or maybe having them find friendship in yourself.

 

As for Pinkie Keen its been brought up before by people as a Religious based episode, but i honestly don't believe thats the case.

 

I think its more based on you should be open minded to the thoughts and opinions and stuff other friends have about things, and not restrict to your own methods.

 

Of course if people want to take it as a Religious based message they can, i mean the episodes lessons are really up to personal interpretation if you want, but I personally think it just causes religious arguments and ruins some of the charm for the episode, and i'm a Christian myself.

 

But yes the friendships lessons can actually be quite deep, even some that seem simple at first can be quite deep upon further investigation I think, which I think actually makes the show quite cool, i mean heck it also makes it easier to apply to your own life, which just I find makes the show better .

[GhostPony750 959]

If there is something I'm missing from the show now, it's the letters Twilight Sparkle used to send to Princess Celestia.

They just disappeared at the beggining of season 2!!!

 

It was a great way to understand the lessons, and a great way to end an episode...

 

I know they won't put it back, but I really miss this.

[MLP Moth 224]

Some people say FIM is going to end when they have ran out of lessons about friendship but, there are thousands of lessons to learn about friendship. I hate my best friends sometimes.

Edited August 5, 2013 by Rarity_Luna