"My Little Pony: A New Generation" is afraid of its own politics · 12:16pm January 28th
Recently I've been thinking a lot about what's wrong with My Little Pony's newest generation. Or, well, about why I didn't like it, because different people value different things in art, and what is important to some others can easily ignore. And the first aspect I want to analyse is how "My Little Pony: A New Generation" tries to talk about politics and avoid it at the same time.
Now, "politics" here means themes of organization and leardership in large communitites rather than commentaries and references to modern real life politics (altough they seem to be present iether). In "A New Generation" there is a corporation built entirely on racist hysteria. Ponies get captured and put to jail solely because they belong to another race. The dreadful word "activist" from an interview with the movie's creators was indeed referring to a lonely naive protester trying to outvoice a well-funded propaganda. We also see how capital and racist hysteria empower a dictator, how lie is used to maintain political power which then crumbles immediately after the reveal. But in the end, none of these contributes to the movie's conflict on a level it could.
Let's begin from our main antagonist - Sprout Cloverleaf. He takes over Maretime Bay with the help of his mother, who also happens to be CEO of "Canterlogic" and the city's supreme brainwasher. He ramps up the fearmongering, starts to command even "Canterlogic" workers and orders to build a huge pony-mecha-tank which he then uses to attack Sunny and her friends. But all of this is undermined by the fact that the people of Maretime Bay don't contribute anything beyond constructiing Sprout's superweapon and confessing that they are all stupid.
Sprout's song "Danger, Danger" says openly that his power is based on an angry mob ready to defend the town from perceived threats. But that mob immediately falls apart at the slightest perspective of fighting. They began to listen to Sunny, who is supposed to be an outcast and who should be rejected even more now when everyone is super brainwashed by Sprout. And what a speech Sunny delievered! She said that the other races don't have their scary magical powers, and she's going to bring them back. Would it be seen as something good by a racist, either genuine or induced, who also believes that these other races are inherently evil? But it is seen, and Sprout doesn't even point out how insane Sunny's promise of friendship sounds. He just desperately yells "They're all brainwashed", which sounds especially cheap in this context.
Next, Phyllis Cloverleaf herself, who eventually goes into conflict with her son and confronts him in the final battle. First she easily steps down in an arguement, which is literally "But it's my factory" - But it's my city". And next she steps in front of Sprout's mecha-pony-tank for... what? Her power and wealth are literally based on racism, so why would she defend outgroups when continuing the campaign would bring her even more money? Maybe she thinks it wouldn't and doesn't want the actual war? This wasn't established either, and judging by "Canterlogic"'s production and assembly line she doesn't care about earth ponies too.
Additionally, the relationship between Phyllis and Sprout seems to remain entirely personal, which doesn't contribute to the whole deal with the dictatorhip either. For someone who is supposed to be power-drunk, Sprout doesn't invoke his power enough. And all of this mess could be easily fixed without substantially changing the plot by adding a bunch of enthusiastic bullies who would try to drag Sunny down from the scene at the beginning and then become Sprout's most loyal minions. When Phyllis defends her workers, Sprout could first invoke the contract beween the city and the corporation and then, when Phyllis points out that it doesn't give him rights over the factory, take it by force. She would be then found by Hitch in the shefiff's office behind the bars tell him what happens and where is the weakpoint on the mecha-pony-tank. These events would show that Sprout, however incompetent he is, is evil enough to put his own mother to jail on a ridiculous charge, that angry mobs can accept any reason to see one as an outsider worthy of attacking, and that Phyllis, being the most materially invested into the status-quo, could abandon it, but not in an instant. Same for Sprout, who, by the way, was awkwardly forgiven and forgotten in the end of the movie. Put him to jail along with his minions or just make him work like you did in "Make Your Mark", but show that not everypony has been magically converted into not being racist, people actually do something on their own and starting a war has meaningful repercussions.
On a side note, there is a line about Zephyr Height's royal family and their downfall at the hooves of Sunny and Izzy. Yes, it is on a side note, because it ends with nothing. It is implied that queen Haven knows about the disappearance of magic and the impotrance of the crystal and cares about her people or at least pretends to care. But when her conspiracy with faking flight is revealed, she is overthrown and captured, then flees and in the ending is implied to be the pegasi leader despite her authority supposedly has been destroyed. Why could't she remind the rebelling people that she still cares about them, confess about the lie and the crystal and then go on a search to retrieve it from the non-pegasi thieves who have also taken her daughters? This adds more weight to Haven's decision to believe her daughters and convert to friendship, shows her as a strong and reasonable leader and shows the pegasi folk as important both for Haven personally and in terms of political power.
In the end, in the movie about overcoming prejudices ingrained in the society nobody actually holds them. Even Sprout, who went as far in confronting the friendship team as to assault them in a pony-mecha-tank, is motivated not by belief in the evilness of other races, but by envy to his boss. And everypony except several focal characters has no thoughts of their own and just listens to leaders. Or, rather, they subconciously agree with the protagonist but are brainwashed by evil (and also incompetent) demagogues and then somehow turn to the light side in a moment. "My Little Pony: A New Generation" is a movie about everyone's stupidity, where the conflict is established as "society versus society" but comes down to "hero versus villain" while common people don't do or decide anything.
It's worse when you read the comics and watch some episodes of G5. While it's aimed at a MUCH younger audience (Near Toddlers who watch CocoMelon), the actual backstory for G5 is that Twilight destroyed everything she and her friends fought for.
To make a long story short, she gathered all 3 pony races magic and put them inside the 3 crystals. Then Discord came along to "Help" by taking the crystals away, so they wouldn't be stolen, but he didn't tell anyone, so ponies had assumed it was stolen, and started to blame each other, leading to Pony segregation that we saw in G5. And you may be wondering "What about the Wendigos?". Well G5's locations are all set under a large magical dome made by Twilight. So essentially, the world is a frozen wasteland, and practically every creature has died off as a result.
And perhaps Discord didn't know, but separating the crystals stops all magic, so you can only imagine the huge casualties that happened at first because of the loss of magic. And you may think everything went back to normal, but here's the catch; there can't be any conflict. And I don't mean like "Oh, ponies being racist towards each other again", but when there's a single argument, magic will cease to work, and black holes leading to a void will open, sucking everything up. So ponies have to apologize and make up on the spot immediately, with no opportunity to grow (and robbing us the audience any actual entertainment)
5765457
I read and watched, but where did you get that Discord stole the crystals before the races separated and magical dome could protect from windigoes? As far as I know, Discord only stole one crystal after they had been reunited to break it and remove magic forever, and the dome is so specifically anti-Opaline that we never see any signs of its existance. And there was no signs or mention of windigoes or frozen wastelands either.
5765457
That's fucked up, by any standard.
5765461
It was in the comics, assuming that the G5 comics are actually gonna follow the G5 Show(s), and not contradict each other like G4 did for the longest time.
And I am safely assume the Wendigos are involved, with the world being a frozen wasteland. If G5 is a sequel to G4, then the Wendigos are a bit of an omnipresence, coming out when the pony races start to segregate and fight each other instead of being united. And we clearly see that the major locations G5 isn't a frozen wasteland, despite all the pony racism at the start of the movie, and learning it's all under a dome, the world at large maybe a frozen wasteland. That, and I doubt the animators will have characters of G5 explore the ruined locations of G4 in the show, save for the comics.
The only other theory is also a stupid one; Wendigos are just a bad side effect of magic. To get rid of them, just get rid of magic. Makes them seem more like an annoying computer virus where all you do is turn off and restart the computer, making not just Twilight, but everyone in G4 a major idiot for not doing this in the first place.
5765555
Where in the comics did Discord take the crystals away so they would't be stolen? As you said in your first comment.
According to "Hearth's Warming Eve" windigoes appear specifically in the places where pony racists are activaly fighting each other, and according to "The Ending of the End" they appear in the places where pony races are separating out of racism. However, in G5 while there was racism, there was no magic, and the condition to have magic is no racism. Which means that windigoes can't appear over the G5 Equestria anyway, assuming their food was actually magic which can be produced by hate like it is produced by friendship.
5765559
Issues 2-10. Though a lot of it is filler
And this whole thing is, very likely, either the writers of G5 not giving a crap about continuity, or being forced to turn G5 from it's own continuity into a forced sequel for G4. Either way, it's not great.
5765709
Again, nothing about it.
Unless I missed something as search for Discord was growing more and more stupid. What was there is Discord stealing ONE crystal, from SUNNY AND HER FRIENDS, to REMOVE MAGIC FOREVER.
5766255
That's in the lore.
And all because "No Magic means everyone will be equal".
Ironically, the things you stated about the themes and morals of this movie are among the reasons for why I prefer Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” more. Along with the characters, of course.
5770569
What is ironic here? I mean, I seem to miss some context.
5770621
Well, both “Raya and the Last Dragon” & “My Little Pony: A New Generation” have similar storylines, themes, and messages. But, whereas MLP: ANG felt like the animation-equivalent of a rambling political lecture that didn’t keep itself straight, Raya appeared to address the political-related aspects & problems of life without getting preachy about it. It also felt like Raya was genuinely teaching the importance of community and friendship in the process.
5770622
Well, my impression was quite the opposite. ANG looks like it wants to avoid anything which can lead to the label "political" (hence the name of the post). It is understandable, seeing how a lot of people here turn their brains off when they see "MLP" and "politics" in one sentence and proceed to mokey-screaming "no politics in cartoons!!!". So the writers decided to not focus on the communities at large, but this ended up in showing background ponies as non-people, because them voicing their opinions or turning into actual mass movements behind protagonists and/or antagonists would be too political. Though, seeing how they continue this in MYM even when the episode is about artists and audiences, I think there was something else.
P. S. Can you clarify what you meant by "politics"? As I said in the post, to me it can mean both "themes of organization and leardership in large communitites" and "commentaries and references to modern real life politics". This leads to two different interpretations of your despcription of ANG as "political lecture".
5770638
What I mean by this is that the film appeared to be leaning too much into the politic-based side of things. It just seemed like MLP: ANG was leaning too much into Leftist-advocacy pushing. Particularly the ideas of Socialism, Communism, and the “One World, One Nation” complex.
Like I said, it hardly seemed like the film was encouraging the ideas of Friendship and Community in the first place.
5770675
Well, this didn't help. You explained "political" using "political", which makes no sense. Anyway.
From what I know about your impressions from ANG, you are probably talking about the crystals. I think they are just a broken metaphor for why friendship is good. Same as with windigoes and Elements of Harmony (which turn friendship into magical beams of punishment). There was no deep thought behind them, especially considering the other failures in the movie's writing. I doubt the writers even treated Twilight as a character-person: she was just a symbol of the past Equestria where everything is good. Otherwise Sunny should react at seeing the stained glass with her cutie mark and the crystals having something to do with the paragon of friendship. Well, technically Sunny being fine with Twilight and a magic-controlling device in one stained glass can point to your interpretation, but this isn't a damning evidence.