Luna Reviews FIM S3: 04. One Bad Apple · 1:55am Dec 12th, 2014
I continue to be amazed by the number of people—both ponies and humans—who suffer under the delusion that childhood is meant to be a period of innocence and simple happiness. Nothing could be further from the truth: childhood is brutal. Furthermore, childhood is supposed to be brutal.
Learning is most efficiently accomplished by making mistakes, the more painful the better. And children are uniquely constituted to handle punishment. Both in body and in mind, they are able to bounce back against traumas that would destroy an adult. Break a child’s ribs, and she or he will be back up again in a matter of months. Break a child’s trust and, assuming that the betrayer is sorry and does some token thing to ask forgiveness, and that forgiveness will be given. But for an adult, the physical injury could easily lead to death, and the mental one to an entire life dedicated to mistrust.
So bullies exist in childhood, just as they do in adulthood. And they need to be dealt with in a manner that is not only kind, but more importantly fair. Every childhood bully could potentially grow into someone who helps instead of hurts, if only shown the error of their ways, the possibility of a better way, and a necessary goad to turn away from their former path.
The results of not learning these lessons in childhood are disastrous. Instead of handling setbacks fairly, the maladjusted adult could respond with a devastating over-reaction. And, until it is far too late, such an individual will always see themselves as the victim, not the aggressor.
“One Bad Apple” is an episode about bullying. It doesn’t know what it is talking about and in a culture where bullying leads to fatal consequences, that is more than lamentable. It’s practically criminal.
Notes
00:10: Ah, finally, an Apple Bloom episode!
01:19: Same freeze-frame as always: That’s Cheerilee in the corner. We had an interesting conversation once, about spreading Equestrian concepts of educating the young to Earth. Or maybe it was about the death of disco. ...I didn’t say it was an especially useful conversation—but it sure was interesting.
02:04: “I’m just so excited I could burst!”: That much cuteness shouldn’t be legal.
(Hope: That’s good, I hope it isn’t illegal, because it certainly brightened my day.)
02:13: Apple Bloom spots a pony with pastel paramecii on her flank: Either that’s a microbiologist, or a quilter. I never did understand how it was that somepony saw a paramecium on a slide, and decided that it would make a great design to put on a wall…
(Hope: You mean the paisley cutie mark? I agree. It’s an odd shape and I wonder how it developed before microscopes.)
02:17: Apple Bloom looks at the bearded conductor, and thinks for a moment that it’s her filly cousin: That’s laugh #4, show.
02:20: Apple Bloom looks over at the cow, and…: Laugh #5, and maybe 5 ½, given the cow’s expression.
03:17: Babs covers her flank: Uh-oh. Trouble.
(Hope: The conflicts and drama of childhood seem to carry across every race and world.)
06:17: I...I don’t like where this episode is going.
(Hope: I don’t like how childhood goes. Sadly. But it should get better!)
07:29: A musical number. In a depressing episode about bullying and intimidation. The idea is so horrible, yet I can’t look away…
(Hope: It’s so cripplingly cute and catchy!)
09:25: Hey, that was actually quite good! Bravo, Pinkie, bravo!
(Hope: Pinkie? I don’t... Is the time stamp for this comment right?)
(Luna: Pinkie has written all of the songs in Friendship Is Magic since the very first episode. Her alias in the credits is incredibly obvious. I mean “Pipper Pink”? Really?)
(Hope: Gotcha!)
11:40: “That must be what Rarity uses on her emergency edible boots!”: Did they just…? I...I don’t even want to think about it.
12:55: “Hot carrot crepes!”: Oh hey, it’s...that carrot-related pony. Again. I really need to find out if she’s real or not.
14:30: Applejack completely ignores the CMC’s evil chuckling: Now this is just playing into the universal fillyhood belief that all adults are clueless morons. Either that, or we’ve just wandered into a horror movie…
(Hope: This is the CMC we are referring to, there’s a good chance that they do the evil chuckling at regular intervals.)
15:10: The fillies suddenly feel sorry for Babs. Ugh...wrong. I’m not even motivated enough to spell out my reasons. Also, of course, nopony snitches. I could try to apply this to the rise of Nightmare Moon, but it would just get too depressing.
(Hope: You know... You could talk about it if you want. These are your posts.)
(Luna: With all these strangers reading over our shoulders? No thank you.)
15:13: “Now we’ve turned into bullies, too!” What?! No! Wrong! I mean, the whole “teaching her a lesson” thing was doomed from the start, considering that you weren’t planning to put her in the hospital, but really, “snitching” was the correct answer here.
(Hope: That’s true. Snitching is such an odd term, since usually it’s the right thing to do.)
16:59: “Veggie salad!”: Eh, not one of Pinkie’s better puns.
17:25: Wait, so this plan could put Babs in the hospital? Let it go, fillies. You gave her a chance. I mean, there’s no way she’d be seriously injured given the height and angle of that hill, and a maybe a chance to reconsider the direction of her life to this point may have dividends. Like, you know, her actually getting help for her bullying problem? Ugh, I don’t know. It’s probably a good thing that I was never a parent.
17:53: Aw, that wasn’t even bone-breaking! The author of this episode seriously wimped out.
(Hope: Injuring children usually isn’t received well in television shows.)
(Luna: Oh, don’t get me started on that! The young, both of ponies and humans, are a great deal more resilient than most adults give them credit for, and there’s a good reason for this. Childhood is when you’re supposed to make your big mistakes, the ones that might get you...or somebody else...killed if it were done by and to adults. And sometimes the only way you can teach a particularly stubborn individual a lesson is through their own self-inflicted pain. There aren’t that many ways in which I am proud to be old fashioned, but that is one of them.)
19:05: “This could have all been avoided if you came to me in the very beginning”: YES.
20:32: “And I promise to start talking to my big sis about the teasing back home.”: Also yes. Much, much too late, but yes.
(Hope: Sometimes getting help is the best thing to do, to prevent big mess-ups.)
Chat with Hope
Luna: Hope, I wish to ask your opinion on something.
Hope: And I will do my best to provide my opinion honestly and helpfully, Luna.
Luna: Do you think my readers would be too terribly unforgiving of me if I decided to just skip this episode? I just don’t feel I have anything helpful to say about it.
Hope: Well, you’ve already said quite a bit, not necessarily about the episode as much as about how it made you feel or reminded you of certain things. Those musings matter more than your reflection on an episode that has a script shorter than your normal reviews.
Luna: Yes, yes, but I hoped to include wisdom in those reviews as well. For the Sombra episode, I could provide useful commentary on the historical inspirations. And for the Pinkie Pie episode...well, that episode could use all the help it could get. But I can’t help here. My personal experiences are nothing but negative examples when it comes to the central subject of this showing.
Hope: So, if I may be honest, it sounds like you have plenty to talk about when it comes to becoming a bully, but you don’t want to put it to paper, or digital script in this case.
Luna: I’m not particularly interested in dragging myself through the mud, no, especially with all the voices in the press that are always willing to do it for me. I think I took the “bully thing” to its extremely illogical conclusion. And most of those extremes could not be survived by one such as this Babs Seed.
Hope: You’re right, and I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say you should bring yourself down in all this. I suppose I was more thinking of the input you had being valuable when it comes to bullying in general, maybe I shouldn’t have been as specific as “becoming a bully” as it would be easier and more helpful to talk about bullying in general. You spoke on letting the young make mistakes, which I agree with! But perhaps you could delve into the reasoning behind this? The driving force behind a desire to see the young learn lessons dependent on their own actions.
Luna: Yes, I suppose I could work with that. Wander a bit afield from what was shown to the sorts of things that should have been shown. Thank you, Hope. I think I know what to do now.
Hope: You’re welcome, Luna.
Luna doesn't really like the show it seems...
I do not really have much to say... First time viewing it I liked it but I see where you are coming from. Although I think this is a round about way of saying that it is okay to tell. Interestingly enough I was known to tell about bullies, yet, by the time I was in High School I was under the protection of the bullies. SO I cannot comment any more about this. All I know is that telling on bullies work. Really does work.
2648305
I have to disagree on that. Telling doesn't work. It just makes the bullies come back stronger. Even if your teachers or parents protect you, there'll be times where they can't. And then they'll make you suffer. It's better to just grin and bear it. Also, if you've done anything, anything at all against the bullies, they will use it against you. Make it seem like they're the victims if you tell. Blackmail you with it. And then you'll be too scared to tell again, even if you've done it before. They'll turn the whole class against you, no one in school will help you for fear of being picked on by the bullies for siding with you. Perhaps a teacher is nice to you, but he/she can't be there all the time. And not all teachers will be so good. Your parents will usually underestimate the bully and do little to help. Every waking moment is a torment. Even if the bullies do nothing physically, it is even worse to have your heart wounded by the psychological bullying caused by being socially outcast in one's class or school. Even if the original bully leaves or is seperated from you, new ones will come to take their place, like scavengers preying on a weakened foe. Either you remain the victim, suffering continously, or turn into a bully yourself, trying to find those even weaker than you.
Sounds depressing, but unfortunately true. I only escaped this by moving on to secondary school, leaving most of the bullies behind, although the social outcast role is a hard thing to leave behind, even if only one or two classmates come over with you. I guess i have made a few friends that I can count upon, making life a bit easier. Friendship really is magic. I guess. Having them is pretty much the only way to escape bullying, although it is pretty hard to come by good friends, especially when you're being alienated.
I guess my point here is there really is no good solution for bullying. Get lucky with friends, and hope for good teachers/parents I guess.
2649028
Hence why I feel bad that I cannot add to the discussion. I count my self lucky. I am sorry that you had that happened. I know it may not be much but I offer a Virtual hug if you want one. I am sorry you went through that. I truly am, I despise bullying and well, I cannot add anything more.