On My Soapbox: How Friendship is Magic and Gravity Falls handled the same basic conflict · 5:08am Nov 30th, 2014
While watching the most recent episode of Gravity Falls, "The Love God", it dawned on me that the plot had a lot in common with Friendship is Magic's "Hearts and Hooves Day." For me, the parallels weren't nearly as interesting as the fact that each show resolved the conflict in quite different ways. As a result, the moral takeaway from each episode was very different as well. The plot for each show's episode involved a character who was single, and someone else trying to make them happy by using a love potion to kindle involuntary romance.
In "Hearts and Hooves Day", the Cutie Mark Crusaders are flabbergasted to learn that their teacher, Miss Cheerilee, doesn't have a boyfriend. Miss Cheerilee isn't really bothered about it though, and is content with the love she receives from her students. Despite this, the CMC find her a match and trick them both into meeting. When that doesn't work, the love potion is employed.
In "The Love God", Robbie is clearly not content with being single. He has, apparently, been single for a good length of time and miserable all the while. Feeling sorry for him, Mabel decides to set him up with someone else. When merely tricking Robbie and his intended match into being in the same room doesn't work, Mabel resorts to using a love potion.
The first real differences between the two episodes is the contentment of the characters who are single. Miss Cheerilee is cool with it. Robbie is not. This will be really important to a point that I make later.
Once the love potion is in effect, the CMC think better of their actions and set out to set things straight. They succeed, and learn a valuable lesson as a result. Given the fact that the love potion was more like a love poison, the moral situation seems pretty black and white. Things don't play out the same way in "The Love God" though. Mabel too sets out to set things straight, but when she sees how happy Robbie is, she changes her mind and leaves the love potion in effect.
Since love potions don't exist in real life, the moral quandary they present is none-existant. We don't have to worry about whether it's right or wrong to use love potions. The part that really matters is what each show says about being single and being in a relationship. I'm going to be upfront about this. I think that Friendship is Magic had a good moral, and that Gravity Falls had a bad one.
Brace yourself. I'm on my soapbox.
In subsequent episodes of Friendship is Magic, Miss Cheerilee and Big Macintosh are seen together a lot. I'm okay with that. The two were already friends in "Hearts and Hooves Day" and neither of them seemed all that desperate to be in a relationship. In my opinion, people shouldn't get into a relationship if they're not happy with being single. If they do, they'll become convinced that they can't be happy without romance. This is the reason why some people handle break-ups worse than others. It's the same basic mistake as basing happiness on your good looks, athletic ability, or wealth. When those things disappear, it's going to make you even more miserable than you would have been otherwise.
This is where Gravity Falls really dropped the ball. If we take the love potion out of the picture, Robbie's heartbreak was resolved by jumping right into another relationship. I really do think that this a horrible things to teach kids, or even adults for that matter. There's already so much pressure on people to get into a relationship as soon as they can. Being single is treated like a disease. But it's not. The single years are a special period of our lives. It's a time to reflect on who we are, and a time to mature. That's something wonderful right there, and I don't think that any of us should try to rush past that.
Whether you read through my entire post or not, I thank you for whatever amount of time you spent reading.
-Mysterious Stranger
Yeah, the ending of that episode of Gravity Falls did leave me questioning it. Seems like either way it was a no-win situation after the love potion was used though. On one hand they have been forced together, but an anti-love potion seems like it would make them despise each other. Everyone in the group could patch things up afterwards, except for Robbie with Nate mad at him and Tambry under the effects of the anti-love potion.
They could of easily turned Robbie into a full fledged villain after this episode with the use of the anti-love potion. Him being friendless and a strong animosity towards both Dipper and Mabel would have easily made him into a villain. Not sure how he'd ever be much of a threat without the knowledge from the books, but some determination and all the strange stuff in Gravity Falls could of led to something.
Though all of that is going on the thought that "anti-love" is to be repelled by someone instead of just indifferent.
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I didn't think about that, but you're right. There wasn't really any good way out after Mabel used the love potion. From the looks of it, Gravity Falls is going to treat Mabel's decision like the right one and the conflict will never resurface.
"Two wrongs do not make one right." is what I think best sums up the episode.
Theoretical moral dilemmas are so much fun to think about!