Deus Ex WaitWaitWhat? · 4:00am May 16th, 2014
The other day, I was reading a review of Ponyfinder. (Because reasons.) In one of the comments, someone indirectly described the Elements of Harmony as a Deus Ex Machina. Which--to be fair--is absolutely true. But there's also more to it than that.
Out of all the times the Elements have been used[1], there's one common thread. And it's not the villains, otherwise they couldn't have freed Discord, and it's likewise not some sort of "last-minute activation" nonsense. What I'm seeing in the Elements is an Artefact Of Plot Resolution, powered by character development.
(I should clarify. Here I mean "character development" in the sense of the character growing, not in the sense of we learn more about the character. Some could argue that I should have said that instead.)
When did the Elements kick in against Nightmare Moon? When Twilight realized she not only needed, but wanted her new friends' help. Until then they were inert lumps of rock. When did the Elements work against Discord? Not until after the team went out of their comfort zones doing things they didn't think possible, just for the sake of putting the team back together. I could even argue that in these cases, the fundamental victory was already accomplished within the main six, and the Elements simply projected that victory out onto the world.
This also means the Elements wouldn't have helped much against Chrysalis, even if they could get to them. None of the main six got the kind of character development it would take to power them. Oh, Twilight may have learned a thing or two about backing her assertions, and the rest may have learned a lesson about trusting (or rather not dismissing?) their friend(s), but that's not character development. Now, if the changelings had attacked the foundations of their friendship by replacing one of them... actually, that sounds like it could make a good alternate episode fanfic.
(I have a harder time fitting Discord's release into this model. Maybe the character development needed was the trust/faith/whatever-you-call-it to go through with the idea? But that seems too easy. Maybe the Elements exist in non-linear time, and can be powered by character development that comes after their use so long as it's related to their use? Then the could be powered by Fluttershy's determination and refusal to give up, the rest of the team's acceptance that Discord isn't all bad and/or something about seeing the good in everyone/everyone can be redeemed, and Discord's own character development.)
[1] As of where I'm at still in season 3, anyways. If someone wants to toss in season 4 points that'd probably be helpful. Except for, you know, spoilers.
Bonus item:
I was reading the D&D4e DM's guide recently, and one of the things they have rules for is Artifacts. Artifacts are exceptionally powerful, semi-sentient magic items that give lots of flavor to the world and can help the player characters--for a while, before they "move on" on their own. For what Artifacts are in D&D, this is completely sensible--you almost always don't want the players to be able to hang onto them too long.
While I was reading this, it occurred to me that the Elements of Harmony probably count as Artifacts in the D&D sense. And so I wondered, "What happens if they move on? What emotional effects would that have on the main six?"
(If this is related to that "harmony tree" spoiler I've got, then I don't wanna hear any more about it. Convenient though it may be.)
Aww, don't just 'because reasons'. You read that review because of me!
I'd like to think that the Elements of Harmony have their activation threshold change based on circumstantial factors. In particular, I think redemption is one of the most harmonious things you can do, since it basically amounts to finding a way for something disharmonious to become harmonious. The implication here is that almost anypony could have wielded the elements to unpetrify Discord on that excuse. It's the reverse that takes a heroic effort.
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I'm not going to implicitly invite all my followers to join our game just because they happen to read this!
Wait, crap.
Speaking of redemption, I honestly don't remember who I stole this idea off of (I don't think it was even on fimfiction), but someone mentioned that they thought the way the Elements worked against NMM was to show her what she was/had been doing was wrong. (Combine this with some of Georg's headcanon on bat-ponies, and I find myself trying to write a fic which attempts to show Celestia as just as culpable in the Nightmare Wars as Luna.)