Help! My Heart is Full of Pony! - The EEA · 9:37pm Jan 27th, 2021
When first I saw School Daze (the Season 8 premiere), I thought, "who the buck is the Equestrian Education Administration" and why do they have so much power?" Rewatching it now almost three years later, I find myself thinking the exact same thing.
For the first seven seasons, Equestria is depicted as a nation with an absolute monarchy (at least on the national scale; it clearly has democratically elected leaders on the municipal scale). Princess Celestia may cater to delegates from different political factions throughout Equestria, (and in Princess Spike, we see that even Twilight Sparkle has similar duties). However, it's always understood that a princess' word is law.
In this episode, we learn that not even a princess can overturn the authority of the EEA, which, on the surface, seems like an oddly specific detail to introduce eight years into a show's run, and kind of silly if you think about it too hard. However, it carries with it a certain logic that the show's intended audience is sure to understand on a primal level.
A child's first real dealings with bureaucracy is in the school system. A child's first real dealings with authority figures outside of the home is in the school system. With that experience comes the first real dread of a sphere where the family doesn't have total control. If you get in trouble, Mom can't always fix it.
So yeah, when viewed through that lens, I'll totally buy that a princess' hooves are tied when it comes to confronting the administrators of the EEA.
Discuss.
-Sprocket
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That's a very interesting way to look at it that I never even considered.
5442972
A child views the principle as the ultimate authority, so a kids' show inevitably brings in one as a supervillain.
Interesting! I don't recall encountering that view on it before. As usual, thank you. :)
I think it's more a case of Celestia could overrule the EEA if she really needed to, but makes it a personal policy of not doing so. She certainly is the type of ruler who wants to be as hooves off as possible and give her little ponies the room to grow and learn on their own. She'd very much go for the idea of letting agencies like the EEA function independently rather then just rule by fiat.
Also.... they do not actually have as much power as they seem to think. Given the ending, this isn't Equestria's version of the Department of Education, this is their version of a collage accreditation board. The only thing Twilight had to do to open her school over their objections was simply accept that it would be unaccredited.
Seems like over time the EEA, being the only major centralized body for education,just kind of took on more power and control then then then then technically had because nopony ever challenged them on it till Twilight.
5443359
Yes and no.
The Chancellor put a magical lock on the school. The only reason that Twilight was empowered to open an unaccredited school at all was the use of force.
Their horn magic was more powerful than the EEA's, so Neighsay could not do anything to prevent the school from opening.
This is actually the whole reason I rewatched this episode and started writing about it.
The third essay is to be about checks and balances - the point that I originally wanted to address, but got sidetracked with a couple of revelations while writing.
5443759
That seemed more just a case of the whole, over stepping actual authority thing. It's been so long since anyone has tried to open up a school and not gone by what the EEA said they got used to being the de facto authority on if they can or not. If there was legal authority behind it, then her just breaking the lock wouldn't have done anything about the underlying issue.