Quilla's History Lesson Time (With Potential New Part Excerpt!) · 6:15am Nov 29th, 2015
I've always tried my best to put a bit of the theatrical spirit within If You Give a Little Love, and just for fun, right now I'd like to show you a little bit of how a slightly more obscure play made it into the story. If you don't care about this sort of thing, please feel free to just read the new excerpt, ignore my Twilight-style lecturings about the history hidden behind the passage, and skip straight to the stars at the end for something that I want everyone to see. But if this is the sort of thing that interests you, I'm here to provide!
First off, here's the passage we'll be looking at. It's an excerpt from the new part I just started working on, which I have (tentatively) titled "Innocent Malice":
Rarity,
I fear that this may be a lot to take in, because it certainly was for me. You told me a few weeks ago to send you a letter if anything goes wrong, and honestly, I fear that any help I might try to send you will end up coming too late. That is, assuming I’ll even ever work up the courage to send you this in the first place. If by some odd chance you receive these or any of the letters I plan on writing later, you have my word that my sending them to you means that there is no other way for me to avoid this situation on my own. I’ve already relied on you far too much, and have learned above all else that I should only turn to ponies like you in real emergencies. My only regret is that I had been able to realize that when Scene and I were still friends.
I also don’t want you to see this unless the situation requires it because what I’ve been doing in Manehattan isn’t anything you’d be proud of. I feel like, for all the changes you’ve made in my life, I’ve just ended up going straight back to how I was before, and I’m not sure if I can reverse them this time. But above all, if you read this, just know that I’ve failed you. I might just have ended up failing everypony around me.
You see, I’ve found that when you spend long enough in the theatre, you begin to think of your life as a play in and of itself, and with what’s going on now, I mean this in the most literal way possible. One of the only ways I’ve been able to cope with the current situation is through a particular production we put on years at the Midsummer Theatre Revival. To put it basically, it’s the story of a mare and a stallion, two lovers from noble families who got along fairly well until the family honor of one of them was threatened. In a desperate attempt to regain his reputation, the stallion kills his marefriend’s father and goes on to become the hero of the land. For all the glory he receives, the mare continues to struggle with her emotions, looking at him with a mixture of love and scorn, unable to choose between family and romance.
Looking back at it, I always thought it was an awfully simple decision: if being with somepony means ignoring what they did to your family, any happiness that could come out of it wouldn’t be worth it. I always wanted to reach out to the actress on stage and tell her that she could be saved from so many struggles just by realizing this. But now I realize just how simplistic that way of thinking is, to assume that there would be no roadblocks stopping her from doing otherwise.
If this isn’t the sort of story you wish to hear, about a distant friend who may have just sacrificed everypony she loved out of fear, then read no further and continue on with your life. I’ll do fine here, I’m sure of it. But if you really want to sink that far into it, know that in the real world, the hero of the play isn’t really a hero at all. He may groom himself like one, and even though he doesn’t have me convinced anymore, I know that most ponies don’t have the chance to know him the way I do. I myself almost never saw it.
If the unavoidable emergency occurs, I’d like to request one simple thing. Please do everything within your judgement to keep your friend Applejack from seeing this. While you may see it as being necessary at first glance to inform her of the situation, please realize that she above all will likely still see the champion of Manehattan as the stallion he pretends to be. It’s beginning to sink in, just how terrible it is to go against one’s own family, and the last thing I would want is for Applejack to have to experience the same feelings I am right now, after seeing the real Mosely Orange. No, the last thing I ever want is to hurt anypony.
At least, more than I already have.
--Coco Pommel
Now, from a distance, this letter may seem relatively simple, and it is. That is to say, I didn't mean for this to signify any Huge Symbolic Tripe™, and you can read into this without knowing the historical context behind the play Coco's mentioning. For the most part, it's operating only as a coping mechanism for her (a bit like in my other series, Separate Ways, which I'm really not sure I'll continue, but that's for another time) and has no other role beside being a way for her to internalize her situation. But since I know some of you are history buffs and/or might just be curious about if the play really exists, the story behind it is actually pretty interesting.
The play Coco's referring to (or its human equivalent at least) is called Le Cid, a title that doesn't translate directly from French but is instead taken from yet another language, that of the Moors. Basically it means "the lord," and it's the honorific title given to its swashbuckling hero in battle. Le Cid itself is a pretty big jumble of cultures: in addition to its foreign title, it's written in French (by a playwright named Pierre Corneille) and it was taken from a Spanish legend. It was hailed as simultaneously the best and the worst work of Corneille's lifetime by scholars and still is, to some extent, seen in much the same way today. Its very existence spurred a debate amongst theatre scholars, playwrights, and the public that can only really be compared to the way us bronies get after any season finale that isn't Twilight's Kingdom, A Canterlot Wedding, or to a lesser extent, The Best Night Ever.
But alas, this is not a discussion of the S5 finale and how I totally dodged a headcanon bullet yet again by Hasbro deciding not to include Mosely, but rather one of 17th century French theatre which I really only know or care about because I am a massive nerd when it comes to literature and/or the French language. Coco herself actually explains its plot pretty well--of its five acts, about three are dedicated just to the female lead, Chimene, mulling over whether or not to marry the guy who killed her father. The male lead, Rodrigue, had a pretty good reason for doing it, though, as Chimene's father provoked him by insulting his own father, the worst of fighting words in that era. Rodrigue in all other respects is a gallant, gentlemanly, standard-issue swashbuckling hero, and he insists that all that he did wrong was for the honor of his family.
But here comes the huge question: does that make defending family honor always right, or can it be corrupted? There's a reason why Coco compares somepony like Mosely to Equestria's Rodrigue, after all: they both fought under this same justification. Mosely's reasoning for abandoning Babs, after all, was that she was (in his eyes) a disgrace to the family. You could argue that the two are operating under the same logic. But could you argue that what Mosely's doing is right?
From fan reception of him, and my personal opinions, the overwhelming response is no? In fact, that's a lot of the problem people had with Le Cid. While some historians dismiss the Quarrel of Le Cid as being caused by structural abnormalities within the play itself or by its glorification of dueling (something that the ruler at the time was attempting to abolish), a lot of the debate about it was that, no matter how good Rodrigue was as a person, he still killed Chimene's father, and when she chose to marry him (which she does eventually), she messed up big time. So, from their perspective, killing or committing a crime for honor should still be seen as a crime no matter who does it. That doesn't, however, prevent us from venting onto certain characters who go to greater extremes for it than others...
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If you've noticed I've been referring to finales, it's because I'm worried. While I myself tend to have faith in the writers and stay out of the various uproars the fandom can have (and while I personally liked it myself), I've noticed there have already been some people leaving the fandom over it, and I'm concerned. I know we go through this every season, but lately it seems like MLP is becoming slightly old news and as someone trying to make their mark in fanfic for it, it's a bit troubling. Maybe it's just me, though, since I frequent sites that tend to prefer another cartoon over MLP and if I were to go on others, I would see the same fire from before.
I'm not telling any of you who are questioning not to quit. It's your choice. I just want to take the pulse of those who read my stories to see if they will be holding on to the fandom. I for one will, and would love to continue to have friends to discuss it with. That's all. 
Oh, there's always a little bit of this after any finale. I wouldn't take it seriously. Most people seemed to like it with at most a few reservations.
3577880
That's what I tried to tell myself, but I've never had to go through a finale with a popular fic I'm trying to promote, so...
Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places, because those I saw were really mad about it. Then again, the Internet really seems to increase these emotions in people. We rage all the time online as a fandom, yet when I go to cons, I have yet come across any drama on that level.
These problems remind me of this quote from Jaime Lannister in the second book in the A Song of Ice and Fire Series, A Clash of Kings
As well as the Star Trek Game Klingon Academy where you play a Klingon cadet going through the command academy just before Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country. At the Academy they are simulating a full on war wit hthe federation with each level of the game being one of the operations of the campaign. Eventually it gets to its Kobyashi Maru i.e. an unwinnable scenario where the candidates can either preserve their personal honor or fulfill their duty to the Klingon Empire, but not both. Basically a Tholian ambassador has been murdered and are now threatening war with the Empire, a war which would interrupt the current string of successes against the Federation. You eventually learn that your superior officer and a fellow Klingon committed the crime, so you are forced to either protect your superior by hiding this information, and thus preserving your honor by not ratting out your fellow warrior, but then ensuring that the Tholians will go to war against you; or you can send over the evidence and condemn your superior to his fate at the hands of the Tholians, ensuring all resources of the Klingon Empire are pointed at the Federation but staining your honor as you handed over a fellow Klingon to the enemy.
In short while its regrettable their will be times when oaths clash, should you worry more for your duty to your family or to the state, and what do you consider the state, its people as a whole, its leadership, the spirit of its laws the letter of its laws? Oaths and honor can easily tie one up in a knot and force a clash.
3579115
While I have yet to read A Song of Ice and Fire, the examples you give are very interesting to consider in the scope of this question. I figured you'd appreciate this sort of discussion.
I personally loved the finale as it really hit home for me, since I do see some of myself in Starlight and it was a fun and engaging story. Honestly, every season finale of this show has something. The last season didn't have that many, but there are some who didn't like it. Yes, there have been a growing vocal group dissing this season, but I don't listen to them. This season has been my favorite and I've connected to it so much, especially with the hard times I've gone through lately. I wouldn't worry about it, though. Come the next movie/season, it'll pick up again.
3583875
Thanks a lot for the encouragement. I feel like there's a lot we can do with this finale; the fans just haven't quite realized its full potential yet. Last season's was pretty tough to follow, too.
3583878 HOpefully, it'll calm down in a few weeks. In the mean time, there are plenty of people who did like it. It's just they aren't as vocal about it.
3583889
That's what I'm hoping, too. It's a bit selfish to think this way, but a part of me wants a decent size of the fandom to still be around not just so I can have people to enjoy the show with, but to read my fics as well.
3583901 Oh I feel the same way. My own Shimmerverse is something that I've worked long and hard on and, well doesn't get that much attention. The same with some of my other works, like a fic where Chrysalis is the siren's mother. {Silly little headcanon of mine} There'll always be fans, but yeah, I hope they'll stick around. There is still so much to enjoy here.
3583905
Ooh, your fics look interesting. I think I've seen them around before, so I'll have to check them out.
And I'm all too familiar with weird headcanons. Not only do I consider changelings, windigoes, and sirens to all have descended from the same original species, but the minute I saw Coco's last name and how much it looked like the French word "pomme" for "apple," I headcanoned her as being related to them through adoption. And here I am, with a popular series about it...
3583913 I hope you enjoy them. {And I seriously need to set some time up to get to yours. I've been meaning to, but life's been hectic.} Anyways, I love strange headcannons honestly. They're always fun.
3583915
Well, I guess we'll have to go into each other's fics together then. That'd be really nice, actually.
3583919 Yeah, it's honestly always relaxing and neat to pass the time with another writer's work. I don't usually get to talk with other writers that often, save a couple friends.
3583923
Then I'm glad we happened across each other.