When characters shine · 12:59pm Sep 20th, 2013
It's been a while since I did an analysis-type blog here. Well, it's been a while since I really did anything here, but that's beside the point. I've been thinking about the mane six and various moment when they shine--what I consider their strongest moments, and I thought I'd share my thoughts with you.
For me, a character shines the most when she is forced to choose between two or more of her deepest desires. Take Dash in "Wonderbolt Academy," for example. She's dreamed of being a Wonderbolt her whole life and finally has her chance, but she begins to realize that Spitfire's idea of what makes a good Wonderbolt conflicts with her personal and deeply held convictions of loyalty and justice. These are convictions she's built through the course of the series, as is her desire to be a Wonderbolt, so for the audience, her internal conflict is clear. When forced to chose between her lifelong dream and convictions, she sticks to her guns and quits the Wonderbolts. Of course, this action ends up changing Spitfire's perception, and Dash ends up becoming lead pony.
And that's the beauty of the choice--it doesn't always have to be a real choice, but rather a perceived one. Twilight's choice in "Crystal Empire" was like this. Her greatest desire throughout the series had been to make Celestia proud through academic excellence. However, growing throughout the series was her knowledge and understanding of the value of friendship and the importance of looking out for others. So when she's trapped in the tower, she had a choice. She could try to do what Celestia wanted by delivering the crystal heart herself while putting everyone else in jeopardy, or let Spike deliver the heart, thus failing Celestia's test but keeping everyone else safe. She chose the second, thus showing how her priorities had changed. It later turned out this is exactly the kind of thing Celestia hoped would happen, but for Twilight, the choice was very real, and it showed a great deal about how she had grown as a character.
Often, this is what the choice shows--change. This could be over the course of the series, like Twi's and Dash's, or over the course of an episode, as Rarity showed in "Sisterhooves Social" when she chose to forego her own scruples to mend her relationship with Sweetie Belle. However, sometimes it's about a character sticking to her guns to the very end, as Applejack did in "Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000." I've analyzed AJ in this episode already, so I suggest you give that a quick read to see where I'm coming from. To sum it up, AJ decides to stick with what she believes is right despite what others said. Even after losing the bet, she held true to her values and stuck to her word that the family would give up the cider business, thus making their farm unsustainable. Once again, catastrophe was avoided because Flim and Flam's cider was terrible, but AJ's choice (and the rest of the Apples') was still there.
A much better example of all this, in my opinion, comes from Fluttershy in "Keep Calm and Flutter On" because it shows both a culmination of character growth and a character's fidelity to her own beliefs. Fluttershy's main challenge throughout the series has been believing in herself and overcoming shyness. She begins in "Dragonshy" by overcoming her fear of dragons to help her friends. She does this again in "Stare Master," building on the lesson she'd previously learned and building her self-confidence as well. Skip ahead to "Putting Your Hoof Down," where she appears to have fallen back on old habits and finds help in the form of Iron Will, which turns out to be terrible. Here, she learns how to find the balance between doormat and bully, a struggle I understand pretty well as a former doormat myself. Then we get to "Hurricane Fluttershy," where she learns to believe in herself and do her best, even if she doesn't think her best is very much.
Which leads us to "Keep Calm," where the main conflict is really in Fluttershy's head. Celestia has tasked her with reforming Discord. Discord is taking advantage of her and seemingly impervious to her plan to change his heart through kindness. Meanwhile, the other mane six constantly tell Fluttershy to give up and take the easy way out, which is what she's done her whole life. Fluttershy decides to stick to her guns and keep trying to reform Discord, but at the same time, she makes it clear she won't put up with his shenanigans. This produces exactly the effect she'd hoped--she gets inside Discord's heart, thus truly changing him. She is able to show confidence in herself and her beliefs despite pressure, and she does so to the very end, eventually coming out successful.
Well, that's all I have time for for now. Your thoughts?
~Scribblestick
I often disagree with you, but here I think you've got something good. I would frame it in terms that involve moral uprightness as well as competing desires.
Take for instance Rainbow's "wrong choice" in Return of Harmony. She had to choose between competing desires, but the outcome was tragic rather than heroic because her choice was ultimately morally wrong: it was un-loyal.
If you see moral choice, as I do, as the essence of any good character-based conflict, then it becomes almost a tautology to say that a character's best moments come precisely at those points of choice. For those form the climaxes almost by definition. So... yeah.
On a slightly related note, I find other moments just as interesting but for different reasons: I mean moments where you would expect the characters to delay or have some hesitation in making a moral choice, but they in fact do not, and instantly both judge what is correct and take steps toward accomplishing it. I'm thinking of moments like Rarity's gift of her tail in the pilot. She sees the problem, understands the solution, and never hesitates or looks back on her way to accomplishing it despite the fact that the solution she saw might justifiably be seen as 'too extreme' or 'unnecessary'. That sort of moral certainty leading to decisive action is something I've seen very little of anywhere else, and to me, it says a lot about the world of Equestria.
1363523 I'm glad we finally found some common ground!
I've always been intrigued by Discord's methods in "Return of Harmony" because he uses those competing desires to his advantage. AJ's strong bond with (and consequent fear of losing) her friends, Pinkie's constant but fragile optimism, Rarity's vain streak and Dash's loyalty are all used to turn them against each other.
Dash's choice interests me because, at first, I find it hard to say she chose "wrong." Her friends needed her, true, but so did her family and childhood home (at least as far as she knew). So either way, she was going to be disloyal to someone.
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The moral quality of loyalty seems to me to have much to do with one's specific station in life. One generally has many competing claims on one's time and energy, after all, but loyalty involves sorting through those claims and obeying those to which you most immediately owe a duty before any others.
This is why at the beginning of the episode, Rainbow Dash says something about there being a cola storm in Cloudsdale, "but don't worry, I'm not leaving you until we get control of Ponyville!" This is said as a quick and dirty illustration of her element, much as Rarity giving Twilight the umbrella is probably supposed to be generous. The idea being that Rainbow most immediately owes a duty of weather control to Ponyville, because of her current station in life.
I'm sure real-world examples of this principle would be easy to enumerate as well. One shouldn't disobey one's parents to please one's friends; one shouldn't disobey one's government to please one's parents; one shouldn't disobey the moral law to please one's government. In any scenario in which loyalty is tested, the test will always take the form of competing desires (and hence competing objects of loyalty). Proper prioritization is therefore of the essence of loyalty.
Oh, and when I called Rainbow's choice "wrong", I was just quoting Discord. "A weighty choice is yours to make," etc.
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I know. I figured that's why you put it in quotes. Also, I love it when I'm able to follow your ideas, because they're great.