Theoretical Rant on the workings of the STARE!

How Does Fluttershy’s Stare induce a schizophrenic episode in Karyn in the FIMFiction Story Lyra's Human 2= 23: Stareway to Derpen.

SPOILERS IN THIS BLOG
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

TL:DR = My theory is that it has to do with internal harmony of the psyche. Humanity's internal harmony is much worse off than Equestrian's internal harmony. I will explain briefly, but first we need to have some foundation laid for this theory to stand upon. I do expect you to use common sense to fill in some of the blanks. If common sense is uncommon to you, see the statement about emergency exits below.

So, strap yourselves in for this wandering ride through equinity theory (don't care if it's made up sounds funny to me).

IF YOU MUST LEAVE: The emergency exits are located at the top of your screen. They are the menu buttons that take you away from this page.

Still here? OK! Let us begin you gluttons for punishment!!

So let’s look into some of the things that we can extrapolate from the Equestrian universe and our own.

Postulating from show canon, all animals in Equestria appear to be sentient, sapient, and intelligent. This is supported by Fluttershy’s ability to communicate with them in an intelligent fashion, as well as the creatures reactions to various stimuli throughout the series. With this they must have a sense of self similar to what we humans normally perceive. So Humans and Equestrian beings have a similar sentience and sapience. And while Humans have much more knowledge about the functions of our universe in our world, most of Equestria’s beings could come to understand just as much with time and schooling. So the intelligence potential, as far as we can surmise, is also on equal terms.

Fluttershy’s Stare has been hypothesized to be something akin to a “Ki” or Force of Will attack. Utilizing her inner energy/ will to influence a change in another beings psyche under threat of an action that would be detrimental to the target. As far as I can tell, the Stare first happened in S1:E7 Dragonshy. It was not even given the name of “The Stare” until Rarity called it that in S1:E17 Stare Master. Fluttershy said that it wasn’t something she could control at that point. Though, during the episode she called upon the Stare 2 times. Throughout the rest of the series she seems to be able to call upon the power at will. Even attempting to use it on Discord at one point.

This idea that the Stare is Fluttershy’s Force of will doesn’t fit well with this story though, in my opinion. And I do not like the general explanation either. It works in canon... yes, but to me there must be more to it. To me it seems to be more of an Element of Harmony boosted power than anything else. An ability that can be used to force a return to harmony event in a person’s psyche. Also, there is no information showing that she did or did not have the ability before she became an Element Bearer. Still she was able to use it more after she became an Element Bearer. It might be that her status as an Element Bearer caused her Stare to take on Harmony powers.

My theory is that Fluttershy's "Stare" now works on removing an “imbalance” inside another emotionally sentient creature's psyche, causing a Return to Harmony Geas* in the act of the use of the Stare. Her Stare is a method for her to use to restore harmony to a creature’s Psyche. Another way she can fulfill her role as an Element of Harmony.
*(geas-”ɡeSH”=noun: geas; plural noun: geasa (in Irish folklore) an obligation or prohibition magically imposed on a person.)

For example, Fluttershy used it originally (from our point of view) on the overabundance of selfish ego in the case of the dragon, forcing him to realize his actions would cause disharmony and would hurt things. This was against the dragon’s true nature though. Like Fluttershy said, He wasn’t a Bad Dragon. He just made a bad choice.

The destructive intent for the Cockatrice as another. The cockatrice biology/ecology in the FIM universe is not explained at all other than its ability to turn creatures to stone. In fact, it seems that other than its ability to kill with a gaze/ petrify with a gaze, nothing else is really known about the creature. Some could say that the gaze attack is a defensive one. And the cockatrice in the S1:E17 Stare Master, was not using it as such. This is why I come to the conclusion of the cockatrice's stoney glare being used in a non harmonious / intentionally destructive way. Yes this is self serving and allows a Geas of Return to Harmony to work and influence the creature to once again to return to it’s own harmonious self.

SO! If Internal Harmony is the key to the Stare’s effectiveness, then we could posit that the reason Fluttershy's Stare didn't work on Discord in the series could be attributed to his inner harmony. Since Discord knew his place as a cause of discordant things, he was in harmony with himself. There was not enough disharmony in Discord’s sense of self (psyche) for Fluttershy's Stare to latch onto to try and balance/ correct, even though he is supposed to be the antithesis of harmony. (Isn't that an ironic theory!) Being a creature of Chaos is who he was at that point. Still being a creature of chaos and disharmony affecting the world on a larger scale allows him to be affected by all the Elements.

Most Equestrian beings seem to be very much in harmony with their own sense of self, though. As well as the world around them. They know where they fit in. Ponies know what they are to do in life, or know that they will find that special thing that defines them eventually. (Some of them less than others but for the most part they are very close to an internal balance that only a small percentage of humanity has been able to imitate/ reach.) Equestrian beings must have a much more well defined sense of self than most humans do as well.

That is an important factor as it means that Equestrians rarely stray far from a balanced psyche. Ergo, why most of Fluttershy's recipients of her stare (sounded better than victims) are usually fine and better off afterwards. They require something more like a nudge to get back to harmony than a shove.

And that internal harmony is why the stare doesn’t seem to function quite like before in the case with Karyn.

Karyn’s reaction was different in this story. All Fluttershy did was call her a meanie. Quote:
“Excuse me, Miss interloper-from-another-world. You do NOT throw my beloved Angel around the room. I knew that you would be trouble from the moment you set foot in here. Angel might have a concussion, and you’re worried about a little nibble. You’re nothing but a big MEANIE!”

That does not seem to translate well to how Karyn describes her experience being the recipient of the Stare. Quote:
“It was awful. I saw Fluttershy’s eyes, and all of a sudden this feeling built in me, like I’d done something so horribly wrong. Like guilt, only ramped up a thousand times. And I knew that I could never take it back, that I’d hurt someone, and that nothing I could do would ever make up for it. And I knew it was wrong, too. It’s like, most people, most of the time, when they do something wrong, they have an excuse to justify it, but I couldn’t latch on to any rationalization. Every time I tried to think, there was a voice saying that I was evil and I knew it. I wanted to kill myself, but even then the voice said that I didn’t deserve to, because it would ease my suffering. I don’t know if the voice was Fluttershy’s or my own.”

If the stare was a force of will on Fluttershy’s part, then this would mean that the voices telling Karyn those devastating things would have originated from her. Fluttershy has the potential to be mean, but has so far demonstrated an active aversion to willfully wishing suffering on any creature. That is why I don’t think that the Stare is a force of Fluttershy’s will. I believe it is a Geas to Return To Harmony.

This is where we tackle the "so why did the Stare have that effect on Karyn?" Not so easy to do, though.

Well... Maybe our own internal mercurial nature is to blame? Explanation time!

First we have to take an objective look at our species.

Our species is an omnivorous, problem solving, tool using, pack animal capable of independent survival in times of dire need with use of an amazing internal instrument: our brain and its ability to think outside the box. We can use imagination to create things that were not going to occur naturally. We can create items that help improve our ability to survive, and drastically reduce that ability to survive. We fight against our own mortality and yet do things that speed us directly towards the end of the game. We are our own contradictions at times. Annoying, isn’t it?

Do we humans know what our correct internal harmony is? No. We have no clue. Ponies on the other hand know what they are supposed to do to maintain balance in their world. Even if sometimes they go against it. They still have a very good idea of how to maintain harmony in their world.

Humans do not know what balance is right for us. We try to achieve balance through morals when dealing with others, trying to have little impact on our environment to making a big impact on our environment so that we can live peaceably amongst our own kind.

But... our morals are taught to us by external stimuli in order to survive in whatever environment we happen to be living in. Unfortunately this can produce some moral codes in one region that completely clash with the moral codes of another region. one of the reasons why Humans have so many conflicts.
ALSO: We don't get a cutie mark telling us what we will most enjoy devoting our life to and have great aptitude at. Sometimes we get a Eureka moment, but I myself after 3 decades in my life have no clue what my unique talent is. I am far from alone in this situation. If we had that our own internal strife might not be as pronounced as it can sometimes get.

It was most likely due to the mercurial nature of humanity’s internal balance (and perhaps our ability to "be our own worst enemy") as to why the Stare did not function as expected.

The Stare, in my theory, tried to correct the imbalance in Karyn. It turned out that Karyn was not as close to harmony as we would have liked to believe. So a drastic realignment attempted to take place and this manifested in the self loathing and self destructive episode. Her brain shut down into a catatonic state as a survival response before the geas could fully complete the return her psyche to harmony. As Karyn said: “...you’ve got to remember that there are a lot of bad things in the human world, things that we can be guilty of. Our sense of guilt might be tuned higher than yours.”

I'll explain this a little deeper:

If we were subjected to the Stare our "guilt" would be brought into the light of our own consciousness to be immediately dealt with via magical force. Humans solve problems by taking in information and processing it over time to come to a resolution. Normally, a desire to solve the problem and a deep understanding of the parties and the underlying causes of the dispute will usually allow us to resolve conflicts before they become violent.

The Stare did not allow time for the psyche to use anything more than what is has available at that moment to solve the problem. A 19 year old human going to college for Information Technology probably does not have enough understanding of their own psychology to achieve the level of understanding required to resolve their internal strife constructively. Now, from here I would hypothesize that Karyn's psyche failing at constructive resolution would then grasp at the more destructive methods to try and solve the problem. A Violent solution if you will.

Hence, why after she was hearing the voice calling her evil, then progressing to the thought that suicide would be a solution to try and solve the problem. BUT the Geas prevents suicide because she is still being forced to Return to Harmony and suicide goes against that goal. So now the subject is not able to fully understand why it cannot follow that path of self destruction, and returns to the state of self loathing as a means of explaining why suicide is not an option. This is the point at which her own mind constructs the conclusion that she has not suffered enough. At this point, I believe that Karyn went into the catatonic state as a survival reaction for her own sanity. Her shut down probably stopped the geas as well. She still resolved the immediate conflict, but not any of the deeper problems that caused the overload.

If my theory is correct then Fluttershy does indeed have quite a power there. One that if understood could become a great boon. But one that could cause great problems in humans from this realm.

Or heck! It could just have been that because Karyn had no magic at all that she also had no magic resistance like the other creatures in Equestria. Mr. Muffinhead better behave himself as well in that case!

Do you think that I might be right? Completely wrong? A fool? (well of course I am!) You can PM me your constructive criticism/ additional insights.

Comments

[pjabrony]

I think that chapter is the most controversial thing I ever wrote, and I honestly didn't intend it as such. I thought it would be cute and playful and it would be over quick. But people really didn't like what I did with Fluttershy being so anti-human. Anyway, there's nothing here I disagree with. It might all be true, but I was thinking of it a little simpler, as just a bad reaction to some rough magic.

[Coyote Fire]

2668233
Hence, why I put that 2nd to last section in there! No magic resistance = It's Super Effective!