Review of S5E01-E02, The Cutie Map - aka "Cutie Markless" (SPOILERS) · 10:57pm Apr 4th, 2015
(Frequent and unmarked SPOILERS for The Cutie Map)
Introduction
The Season Openers are always fascinating because they set the tone for their whole season. Friendship Is Magic established that the show was going to be about the Mane Six overcoming problems as a group of friends. The Return of Harmony introduced Discord, and that season there were extreme tests of the friendship and sanity of the main characters. In Crystal Empire, the Mane Six accomplished a great deed and took on higher-level challenges, revealing hitherto-unexpected abilities. In Princess Twilight Sparkle, Twilight began to step into her role as a leader of Equestria.
So I was excited to discover what would happen in the opener for Season Five.
I. Starlight Glimmer's Philosophy and Her Threat
Cutie Markless took on some serious political philosophy and was essentially about how an unscrupulous leader can do evil and claim to be acting in the name of good. This was much subtler, and in many ways far darker, than any of the other major threats the Mane Six has faced, in part because Starlight Glimmer is so insidious.
A. A Radical Regime
Starlight Glimmer believed in a Utopian-Communist like theory of happiness. Because Ponies are different from one another, with different personalities, skills and talents, as displayed and enabled by their Cutie Marks, they compete, are discontent and envy one another. Only by removing their Cutie Marks -- and in the process their differences in personality, skill and talent -- can Ponies be made truly equal -- and hence happy.
As is generally the case with radical revolutionary movements, this change did not make Ponies happy. Instead -- powerless before Starlight Glimmer -- they were forced to pretend to be happy while in fact living joyless lives, robbed of their special abilities, dwelling in poverty and squalor compared to normal Equestrians, because nopony could exercise their special talents to improve the lives of their community in the process of enriching themselves. They were afraid to even express their emotions, as doing so might result in their being forced into re-educational brainwashing.
As is also generally the case with radical egalitarian movements, the leader -- Starlight Glimmer -- set herself above her followers. She told everypony what to do and enforced her edicts with imprisonment and brainwashing. She had secretly kept her Cutie Mark, and with it her high-level Unicorn magic, while every other Pony was limited to the most minimal abilities pertaining to their Kind. She could then easily bully, cajole and terrorize her subjects into doing her bidding and enforcing her authority on any holdouts. Some Ponies really are more equal.
As is often the case with radical regimes, the leader had obtained her position by force. Starlight Glimmer had apparently just shown up one day, probably years ago, and started grabbing local Ponies, raping them of their Cutie Marks and forcing them to build her village. Ponies were forbidden to leave, which is why (until the Map sent the Mane Six there) nopony knew what was going on in this isolated little desert community.
As is often the case with radical regimes, the leader was not satisfied with ruling just one small corner of the world. Starlight Glimmer knew that the Cutie Marks of the Mane Six were special, and was keeping them with her rather than in the Vault where she kept all the others. We do not know what she was planning on doing with them, but given the meta-equine powers of the Mane Six, she may have hoped to drain their power to augment her own.
She at one point hints that her goal is the conquest of all Equestria, a goal which would obviously require that she become exceedingly powerful, on the scale of the Alicorns, to accomplish. Given that she was able to overcome Twilight Sparkle -- an Alicorn -- with her magic (though of course by surprise), it is possible that in time she might have achieved this end, if the Mane Six hadn't stopped her.
The show did an extremely good job of showing why radical egalitarianism of outcome (rather than legal status), even when applied almost universally, is a horrible way to run a society. It demonstrated how the refusal to acknowledge and celebrate talent leads to a dour, grim society; how the suppression of talent required by egalitarianism forces hypocritical behavior on its denizens; and how terrible it is to destroy individuality in order to level all differences.
And it shows how the leaders of such movements never intend to live by the laws of egalitarian outcomes they impose on others; they may trade wealth for power to gain the ability to bully others, but they will always make certain that their own position is superior to the commoners, so that they may remain in power. It is because Starlight Glimmer keeps her Cutie Mark, and thus her high-level magic, that she can rule.
B. The Seduction of Fluttershy
It also shows how those who doubt themselves can be seduced by such evil. One of the darkest things in this episode was that Fluttershy was at first starting to yield to Starlight's arguments, before her Cutie Mark was taken. Even after she had been stripped of her Mark and imprisoned for brainwashing, she still felt somewhat drawn by the appeal of egalitarianism.
The reason, of course, is that Fluttershy often feels insecure and inferior, and egalitarianism seemed like a way for her to assuage the pain of her inferiority complex. This demonstrates very directly how nothing more noble than Envy is ultimately at the root of the desire for equality of outcome, and how this can corrupt even the good-hearted.
The point at which Fluttershy truly realized what was wrong with egalitarianism was when she tried to communicate with the bird -- and discovered that she had lost her own special talent, for animal communication. This brought the horror home to her -- Fluttershy's life centers on her animal friends, and losing this talent for good would mean that, even if she escaped the village, she would never be able to again communicate with these friends.
This highlighted an important point about tyranny. Those who make excuses for and follow radical revolutionaries imagine their regimes crushing the things which they don't like about society. They usually don't grasp that the radical regime will crush what the Leader doesn't like about society -- which may include things which the sympathizers themselves value. And once one is at the mercy of a radical regime, it's too late -- the regime will do to one whatever the Leader wishes.
C. Who Is Starlight Glimmer?
Here's what we know about her.
She's a very powerful Unicorn Mage. We know this because the spell she used was obviously a variant of Starswirl the Bearded's formerly-incomplete masterwork, the very one which Twilight Sparkle managed to master in S3E13, "Magical Mystery Cure" -- the spell whose mastery enabled Twilight's Ascension to an Alicorn. We also know this, because when she cast her variant of that spell, she overcame Twilight Sparkle herself. And then the remaining five as a group. And successfully took and kept their Cutie Marks.
Though we also have reason to believe that she was straining her capabilities by doing this. The equals-sign she leaves behind is clearly a power supressor -- at several points, members of the Mane Six struggle to use their special talents and you can see the equals-sign shift and glow as if being strained by the efforts of its victim.
She shares the theme naming of two known previous personal students of Princess Celestia: Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer -- namely <type-of-light appearance-of-light>. This makes me very strongly suspect that Celestia knew in advance that her destined aide and eventual possible successor, the one who could free Luna from Nightmare, would have such a name.
We know that being groomed by Celestia in this fashion is dangerous to one's sanity -- Twilight Sparkle nearly went mad once, in S203 "Lesson Zero"; and Sunset Shimmer was consumed by ambition and later briefly became a Nightmare, in her origin story and in Equestria Girls. And Starlight Glimmer is clearly insane -- though in a frighteningly functional manner -- she denies one of the most fundamental attributes of Ponykind.
She's obviously older than either Twilight Sparkle (who is quite young, probably in her late teens or early twenties) or Sunset Shimmer (whose Pony form is probably in its mid to late twenties). Her voice and mannerisms are those of somepony in her thirties. This suggests a terrible possibility -- Starlight was Celestia's student before Sunset Shimmer -- and she came very close to Ascension.
There are hints of this in her behavior toward Twilight. She is clearly envious and hostile toward Twilight, and may know more about her and the Mane Six than she lets on. It's obvious why, if Twilight succeeded at what Starlight failed to accomplish -- and it fits with the theme of egalitarianism of outcome being motivated by Envy.
She's also scary-cunning, even Genre Savvy. She avoided ranting at the Mane Six until they were at her mercy; even then she carefully maintained the fiction of her benevolence when around her followers (in part, because she probably believed it herself). She did not telegraph her malign intentions toward the Mane Six, until their powers had been nullified and they were surrounded by her minions.
Unlike many such villains, she wasn't that easily unmasked. It took an active effort on the part of the Mane Six, including infiltration and counter-betrayal, to show Starlight's secret to her thralls: only when they realized that she alone had not given up her Mark and talents did they have the courage and unity to finally overthrow her tyranny.
Though I don't expect we'll see Starlight Glimmer for some more episodes (they will probably do some slices-of-life after the Season Opener) she is obviously an arc villain. She lost control of the village, but she was neither reformed, captured nor slain. Instead, she escaped into a cave complex of unknown magnitude, though without the Cutie Marks of the Mane Six. She still believes in her dark philosophy and presumably still seeks power -- and perhaps personal revenge, against Twilight Sparkle.
II. Other Characters
This was very much a character episode, more so than most adventure ones.
A. The Mane Six were handled very well. After completing four seasons, the writers have a very good grasp of the main characters.
1. Twilight Sparkle was in fine form. Even when ambushed and her Cutie Mark (along with much of her magic) taken from her, she stayed calm in the face of demoralizing danger, and she used her wits to figure a way out of their predicament. Twilight's talent is magic, but even without that talent, she showed herself to be a highly-capable leader of her little band of companions. She definitely demonstrated that she does not need to rely on her powers in order to win.
2. Rarity was one of those who noticed that things were very badly wrong in The Village; her fashion sense (which is part of her pattern-sensing talent) let her realize how utterly awful was the architecture, clothing and general decor. She (as always) used this as an excuse for melodrama, but she was picking up on something real important -- a warp in the pattern of the Village's culture and regime, and the impoverishment of their existence due to their loss of their own real talents.
3. Rainbow Dash was hilarious with her hope to encounter a fearsome monster, which rather lampshaded how this was different from the other epic episodes: they did encounter a fearsome monster, but a monster of twisted magic and even more twisted morality rather than the kind with horns and fangs. The notion that "competition is pointless," part of Starlight Glimmer's philosophy, outraged her sporting soul, and she was enraged by having her talent drained. Rainbow did not like facing a philosophical menace: she much prefers to fly fast and hit hard.
4. Fluttershy faced a severe test of character. At first she rather liked The Village: everypony seemed nice, and egalitarianism offered her the prospect of a world in which she wouldn't feel inferior to others. But when it became real, she was horrified to discover that she could no longer speak with animals. And in the end she could not turn on her friends for any reason. She played a central role in uncovering and defeating Starlight's evil scheme, and in fact performed the crucial action in unmasking her deception.
5. Pinkie Pie sensed something horribly wrong from her first glimpse of The Village -- specifically, she was repulsed by the false joy manifested by the inhabitants. As a Party Pony in canon, she knows what true joy looks like -- and this wasn't it. My version of Pinkie would have also been seeing the possible worldlines in which they never emerged from this place with their sanity unshattered. She fought hard against the talent drain, and at several points seemed about to overcome the equals-sign marks that had sealed her powers.
6. Applejack sensed the falseness surrounding her and knew something was very wrong with the place, but wasn't sure what or why. She was very demoralized by the loss of her normal talent for athletics and strength, and this affected even her style. Because, like Rainbow Dash, she relies greatly on her physical abilities and never thought before this too much about the extent to which they were meta-equine in nature. When she recovers her self, she celebrates with one of the most hilariously not-quite-a-dirty-joke lines she's ever delivered onscreen.
APPLEJACK:Yee-haw! Finally, I can buck like a five bit snake herder in an Appleloosa ranch house again!
7. Spike got only a little exposure at the start of the first episode, because he remained back in Ponyville to watch hoofball games with Big Mac. It's nice to see, however, that he and Big Mac have become friends.
B. Other Characters
1. Double Diamond was the first Pony to encounter Starlight Glimmer after she decided to enslave Ponies to her dream, and he wound up her trusted lieutenant. However, he turns on her when he realizes how badly she's been using them all. His talent is skiing, and he is incredibly adept at it. In general, the extent of his talent and those of the others I'm naming here, out of a very small community, makes me think that Starlight was selectively capturing rather powerful Ponies -- and had a darker and more extensive purpose behind draining their powers.
2. Sugar Belle is a talented baker who is also good at throwing pie shaped objects. She is one of the Rebel Trio, because she deeply misses the loss of her much-appreciated baking talents -- now she can only make awful-tasting muffins. She is the first Pony to speak to the Mane Six of the secrets of The Village. Her name makes me think that she may be some sort of distant kin to Rarity.
3. Night Glider is a brave, strong and agile Pegasus, who seems at least 5-10 percent cooler than most of her Kind, and the other mare in the Rebel Trio. She has a rough and forthright way of speaking that is reminiscent of Rainbow Dash.
4. Party Favor is some sort of Party Pony: his talent is the ability to make almost anything out of balloons, including functional objects such as binoculars and bridges. This is essentially a super-power, almost equal to that of those of the members of the Mane Six. Pinkie Pie herself is favorably impressed by his party pony skills. He may be the leader of the Rebel Trio: when Starlight tries to force Fluttershy to expose them, Party Favor takes the initiative and claims to have been the traitor, and the only traitor. The experience of re-education shakes him deeply. If Sugar Belle and Night Glider aren't in love with him after that, they should be!
III. Tone
The tone of this two-parter impressed me deeply. It was, basically, psychological horror.
It starts deceptively light and cheerful, with the Mane Six in the Castle of Harmony, discovering that their council chamber essentially comes equipped with an early warning system, summoning them to where-ever in the land they may be needed. The tone is happy and friendly and optimistic; they've defeated Tirek, they have a castle of their very own; they're on top of the world.
The Mane Six first assume that the threat they were called to defeat at The Village was external; when they find out that Starlight Glimmer is leading what amounts to a cult, they're not sure how evil it is or if they should intervene violently against it. When they discover just how twisted is Starlight, it's too late -- she bursts in on them and fells them with her Sameness Spell.
The next part is very dark. The Mane Six, stripped of their powers, are made captive and subjected to psychological torture -- protein starvation and being constantly bombarded with propaganda, with the implication that they will be imprisoned forever (or worse) unless they join Starlight's cult. Powerless, they must use their wits to learn Starlight's secrets, and figure out a way to defeat her.
The penultimate part is upbeat but still a lesson in powerlessness, because Starlight is keeping the (powerful) Cutie Marks of the Mane Six seperately. The Villagers are freed first, and it is the Villagers (most prominently Party Favor, Sugar Belle, Night Glider and Double Diamond) who must save the day, while the weakened Mane Six can only lag behind and watch.
Finally, with the Cutie Marks of the Mane Six freed, Twilight Sparkle fights Starlight Glimmer again -- this time forewarned of her horrific power. With the advantage of surprise lost, Starlight's magic is no match for Twilight's, and the mysterious mage flees, just managing to make her escape, no doubt to seek her revenge in a future episode.
The episode very much managed to show the horrors of collectivism, egalitarianism and the poverty both of flesh and of soul created by forcibly cutting everyone down to a low average. The Mane Six, trapped in a small room, helpless prisoners, fighting to save their sanity from slow sapping by Starlight's brainwashing, was one of the scariest things I've seen on the show -- in its own way, as bad as kaiju Tirek striding across the land wreaking destruction. (Which is an interesting apposition, given that Tirek and Starlight had a very similar power, save in that Starlight hadn't yet figured out to extract the energy of the Marks she drained).
IV. Theme
This was about the struggle between individualism and enforced comformity, the value of the unique individual versus enforced sameness. On its level, this was excellent -- this might have been a children's story told by Ayn Rand. Starlight Glimmer was, essentially, an Ayn Rand villain, against the Mane Six as Randian heroines. The Village was the anti-Galt's Gulch.
I was very favorably impressed that the show would dare to tackle issues like this at this present political time. We right now have a President who openly scorns the Constitution and has been trying to govern without reference to Congress and in direct defiance of the Courts using executive orders, and is doing so in the explicit desire to transform America into a more collectivist society. Among his threats is to freedom of speech: he has imprisoned at least one film-maker for making a movie which the President disliked, and has very recently been making noises about censoring the Internet. The Supreme Court has never ruled in favor of allowing television, and particularly "children's television," the same freedom of expression as other genres.
In short, My Little Pony has dared to make a season opener directly attacking the same sort of conformist collectivism that is trying,right now, to tear down the Republic in the real world. And dared to do so knowing that they might 's wind up censored, if it doesn't fly utterly past the notice and above the empty head of Barack Hussein Obama. What's more, they've made Starlight Glimmer a major villain, who will probably be in other stories this arc, ensuring that their point is likely to be noticed and taken by at least some on the Left.
I seriously salute the show's courage for doing this. What's more, they must know that -- if they are taken down -- their liberties will find little defense from the mainstream media, both because nobody takes a cartoon about colorful ponies seriously, and because the media would sympathize with the very sort of collectivists the show attacked. There are many allegedly more serious shows which would not want or dare to stick their necks out this far against such powerful interests.
Conclusion
This an excellent opener to what I hope will be an excellent season. A deep and serious premise, blatant psychological horror, an arc villain, and many new Ponies to add to the show's Loads and Loads of Characters. If the rest of the season is anything like this, it will be epic.
It has my whole-hearted approval.
I was about to point out you communism comment, but after double checking I found that you were right and I was wrong about thinking of it as Socialism. Communism is about forced equality on everyone while Socialism was about sharing the spoils of everyone's efforts equally. Also no mention of how the six have a new trouble alarm like the Bat Signal or 'Thundercats, Ho' bit in the form of a Butt Signal?
Starlight's so badass I drew a picture of her. That aside, this is an excellent blog of yours, but I found something...odd. Let me show it thusly:
Yeah, the end sentence isn't complete. Would you mind fixing it up a bit?
That was a very interesting essay on the episode(s) and I'd just like to add (from your three points about the effectiveness of the villain):
A) Equality of opportunity is what is intended in the Constitution of the US. Equality of outcome is what was intended in the old USSR's Constitution
B) It's all fun and games until the people you helped place in power take something you like away.
C) Sometimes it is the most normal exterior that hides madness. (Ed Gein? That quiet young man from down the street? Didn't think he had it in him)
EDIT: talking about Party Favor his attitude towards "missing" his cutie mark suggests that he had been "converted" rather recently and was maybe having second thoughts about getting into bed (so to speak) with the cult of personality.
I can't say I share your opinion of the current US administration, because I don't; instead I thought immediately of our new villain as a ponified Diana Moon Glampers.
You had me until cartoon horse show = secret political commentary
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And, hopefully, the Administration will consider it too silly to crush, as well.
An interesting note about this episode and politics. I don't think it's that subversive-- just off the top of my head, it's a similar message to The Lego Movie. Generally this type of stuff is considered okay for kids as long as the message is "you're special and unique and you should be proud of that."
What makes it different from The Lego Movie, and something special about MLP as a kids show that I've found (in comparing it to other shows I've watched with Trixie), is that MLP is very pro-capitalist and pro-competition in general.
In terms of capitalism, many kids shows have adults that work, but they almost never address why people work, and when they do it's often "because they love doing X so much." The latter part is understandable, you want to encourage kids to dream of being whatever they want to be when they grow up. MLP keeps that part, but in multiple episodes they show characters working to make money. And even more tellingly, we often see the Apples, Rarity, or the Cakes doing parts of their jobs they don't particularly like, or stressed out, or forgoing things that they'd rather be doing because they have to do their jobs.
In addition to that, there are episodes like Putting Your Hoof Down or Just for Sidekicks that show the need for money outside of careers. MLP is one of the few kids shows where money is just a part of life, and can be earned honestly or dishonestly, and spent well or foolishly.
And of course, competition is treated the same way. Rainbow Dash and most pegasi are very competitive, as is Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight in her own way. Competition is usually shown as a good thing that can earn you a good reputation, honor, and money, but also something that can be taken too far if you lose sight of those perfectly good reasons for competing.
So, what makes this episode more subversive than The Lego Movie or other kids media that celebrates how everyone is special is that we see it in this environment where the "sameness" is affecting the economy in the form of the goods available, it's saying that everypony should be winners in a world where we know that sometimes ponies lose and feel bad about it. It's not just that it's creepy in a "Everything is Awesome" kind of way, because Equestria is actually a more nuanced setting, we actually see why it's bad.
That's why I think this will fly safely under the radar. Kids and Bronies are the only ones seeing that Equestria is far more analogous to our own world than Sofia the First or Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and that while this message would be apolitical for those shows, it's clearly political for MLP.
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I thought of her that way too. I brought up the current Administration because this is a dangerously-brave thing for this show to do, given said Administration's demonstrable appetite for trying to censor messages of which they disapproved, and in general doesn't take the US Constitution very seriously. I mentioned the man they sent to jail essentially for making an anti-Muslim movie; they've also wanted to impose political censorship on Internet sites. Historically, any medium viewed as being for "children" is very vulnerable to censorship, because the producers usually have no faith in their message and the public can easily be conned by the cry "Think of the children!"
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I totally agree with everything you said in your post, including why it's slipping under the radar. But the fans ... ah, especially the younger ones -- they will be influenced by it.
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Fixed it ... thanks for pointing this out!
2947166 Anytime :D
The really interesting thing for me was Starlight's rant upon her discovery:
That was after the mask slipped. She wasn't just spouting propaganda to gather cutie marks for some nefarious purpose. She really believes this. She doesn't see the contradiction of the pride she takes in her philosophy of debasement, nor does she understand how harmony can't come from a single note. She is, as you noted, at least somewhat insane, or at least not very good at critical thinking.
(And, of course, there's the subtle greater-than sign worked into her own cutie mark. Her talent seems to be... well, winning through degradation.
)
Personally, I'm looking forward to any run-ins she may have with Discord. Those two should get along like water and potassium, especially given what she did to his friends.
All I can wonder is if her Cutie Mark is supposed to represent her ability to take away other ponies's cutie marks, how did she get it?
Three things, first the worst monsters are those who can hide the fact that they are monsters. Second the problem with what Starlight Glimmer is doing isn't that it is radical egalitarian it's that it is radical egalitarian as pony society is already pretty egalitarian since pony's focus on there special talents making the pretty dependent on each other and (as per the Hearthswarming eve story) if one pony our group ponies start acting as if they are a lot better/superior to the others thing start breaking down. Lastly f a society is not egalitarian you end up with more or less the same result that Starlight Glimmer got just with a different justification.
One more thing Ayn Rands villians tend to be Sunday morning cartoon caricatures and her heroes more than a little villainous (serously in Atlas Shrugged one of the heroes is a pirate who steals food being sent to starving people in third world nations). After all "There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. "
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This is straight up false. That happened when it was based on tribe in Hearths Warming Eve, yes, but we've seen several groups of ponies that act like they're superior to others, including the upper class ponies in Canterlot and Manehattan (in AJ's flashback) and the Wonderbolts. We also know that Diamond Tiara is able to use her money to buy a lot of social capital that the CMC wish they could (and try to, using their connection to Twilight in Twilight Time.)
It's clear that some ponies think they're a lot better than other ponies, and Equestria is humming along fine.
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Existing Equestrian culture could be described as a mix of aristocratic, legal-egalitarian, competitive and compassionate principles. There is a definite aristocracy, but it doesn't seem to have very many legal privileges below the level of the Princesses themselves. Most Ponies are equal under the law, and there is rough equality of opportunity. Ponies are free to explore their talents and compete for success, but society as whole is also strongly compassionate and the abuse of the less competent is very much discovered. This is probably what happens when you get a classical-liberal society among creatures friendlier and more gregarious than are Humans.
Of course, there is discontent among those who believe (rightly or wrongly) that they have suffered inferior outcomes. (I say "rightly or wrongly" because this belief on Fluttershy's part is obviously self-delusion -- she's smarter, more beautiful and of higher status than most Ponies, she just feels inferior a lot of the time). This is unavoidable in any free society, as some individuals will be less successful than others. It's one of the prices one pays for freedom, and most less free societies actually have sharper status differentials (note that Princess Celestia doesn't generally push around Ponies the way that Starlight Glimmer was doing in her little Village).
This discontent feeds the Envy that in turn can make radical egalitarianism seem palatable. Of course, given the existence of Cutie Marks and their important connections to personality and talent, radical egalitarianism works even less well among Ponykind than it does among Humankind; one has to magically-mutilate Ponies to make them all equal in the sense of having equal capabilities. (Humans really don't have equal capabilities either, but at least the evidence isn't worn on us for others to see).
The interdependence of talent is precisely because of inequality of outcome. If each Pony had the exact same capabilities, there would be no comparative advantages between them and hence no reason for trade. If Pinkie Pie makes cupcakes no better than anyone else's (low) ability make them, then what we get are the horribly-bad muffins that Sugar Belle was being forced to make without her talent, and no one else has any reason to compensate her for such products. Trade -- and thus interdependence -- is the result of freedom rather than forced equality.
I've seen real-life Ayn Rand villains: the current Administration is or recently was full of characters who look as if they stepped out of Atlas Shrugged, to an extent that's almost scary. Did Ayn Rand invent the incompetent and treacherous diplomat John Kerry, the wannabe censor Cass Sunstein, the eminence grise and agent of foreign interests Valerie Jarrett, or the shrill and dictatorial Hilary Clinton?
As for Ragnar Danneskjold, note that the shipments he was stealing were stolen goods in the first place. Though he actually was the most extreme and violent of the good guys in the book.
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Yeah, that's the thing about Starlight Glimmer. If what I believe about her origins are correct, she started out trying to achieve what Twilight Sparkle actually managed to achieve much later. When she failed, she decided that the root of all evil was differential success, and hence that equality of outcome was necessary. The consequence was the Spell of Sameness, obviously a warped version of Starswirl the Bearded's incomplete spell.
So she really believes what she's saying. At the same time, it contradicts reality, a contradiction she papers over through force and the implicit threat of force, disguised as community spirit. The very maintenance of her system requires an aristocracy not bound by it. If she tried to extend it across all Equestria, she would need assistants in casting and maintaining the Spell of Sameness, and they would be the ruling class.
What's more, her society of equal outcomes works badly. The Ponies, bereft of their talents, have only a dour, impoverished existence. They live in dreary houses, wear dreary clothes and eat dreary food. Envision this on an Equestria-wide scale, and you'd have mass starvation in the cities. This is in fact what one sees when equivalent policies are tried among Humans. The actual Equestria, by comparison, is a rich and complex civilization full of light and joy where severe poverty is rare, and this is in direct consequence of the freedom the Equestrians have to develop their own individual talents.
Starlight Glimmer's "cure" is far worse than the "disease."
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This works from both ends. The lure of greater success stimulates Ponies to strive; and because Ponies are free to strive, they can produce more than if they were shackled. What's more, Ponies can succeed in different ways: if one Pony is more efficient at farming and another at toolmaking, the Pony who is more efficient at farming can sell food to the Pony who is more efficient at toolmaking, and buy tools from her. This is "comparative advantage," and it means that instead of all Ponies competing for a single height, they compete for as many heights as there is economic room to support specialization. And since no one Pony can supply enough to satisfy all demand, there is room for more than one winner even in very narrowly specialized fields.
That's how a free economy operates, and what it produces is tremendous wealth and great diversity. In contrast, unfree economies produce at best just enough for subsistence, and a dour sameness.
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Indeed. And the two are very different things. Equality of opportunity means equal freedom under the law, while equality of outcome requires in theory the oppression of the capable, and becomes in practice the oppression of most by a small elite. What's more, even that elite lives poorly compared to the elite in a freer society -- they've basically purchased a degree of power unachievable in a free society by giving up wealth.
This is plainly shown in the season opener. Starlight Glimmer can terrorize her Villagers in a way impossible for the Riches or Apples of Ponyville, because the inhabitants of Ponyville are free. But she lives in squalor compared to even the ordinary inhabitants of Ponyville.
Of course national dictators do better, because they parasitize much larger hosts. But only the dictator and his immediate coterie enjoy this wealth, and they pay for it by living in perpetual fear of being destroyed. The mere Party elite generally live worse than do the middle classes in freer countries.
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I think that, like Twilight Sparkle's and Trixie Lulamoon's, it represents magical aptitude in general. It was Starlight Glimmer's choice to become a specialist at stealing Cutie Marks.
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Indeed. And then it's too late, because now they're in power.
The very people on this site who don't mind the current US Administration imprisoning one sleazy film-maker for making a bad movie about Muhammed would probably mind it if it crushed a show they liked -- such as this one. But when they decided that the former was okay, they implicitly authorized the latter. They're not the ones who get to decide on the DETAILS of censorship.
This was Lampshaded on the show by this exchange:
followed by this scene a bit later:
Rainbow Dash doesn't realize this yet, but she's just MET the "horrific monster." One who's basically going to do to her almost exactly what Tirek did. Starlight Glimmer probably got the idea for the Spell of Sameness from Starswirl the Bearded, and he may have gotten the idea for it from TIREK.
And the "horrific monster" is all the worse because she seems to be a nice pleasant mare. At first.
I also think he (and his friends NIght Glider and Sugar Belle) may have been young -- Party Favor's voice sounds as if he's around 16-18 at the oldest.
Excellent review of this excellent episode! I said something similar in another post today because of how impressed I am that the show had the guts to blatantly defy egalitarianism. On my political radar is the attack on gender roles and gender differences (which, if we're honest, is something that the MLP fandom as a whole is on the wrong side off the fence with.
The copypasta argument is that gender roles are bad because men and women are equal. In the sense of what Starlight says equal means, as opposed to equal value which I would agree with. Twilight made an excellent case this episode that our differences, when put together in a group, form something greater than they do alone. And this even covers the supposed injustice of the husband's role as leader.
Twilight's role in her group is definitely as leader (despite whether or not leadership is a natural gift of hers - recall that she's resisted leadership from the start). Her friends support her wholeheartedly in this, and none are slighted because of it. Twilight even used personal pronouns indicating that she knows that she is the leader of her group.
This bold attack against "sameness" is like a breath of fresh air coming from a show that is largely scorned in conservative circles. In the often mind numbingly frustrating effort to explain to Leftists what we mean when we say that gender differences are a good thing or general egalitarianism is a bad thing, we now need no more than to point them to this episode and say "this is what we mean". I agree, this is a most impressive episode!!
I also agree wholeheartedly with you that this episode is very dark. I like the term you used, 'psychological horror'. It really is. When you consider what the mane-six went through in that little room, where they got the 24/7 propaganda loudspeaker, the bare minimum rations, and most importantly, the once a day chance to speak out and change your mind, and if you didn't say something quick, back in the room you went! Very, very dark. Clearly, this is a show for little girls, right?
Now, if anyone suggests that this is a little girl's show, we've got a pair of two-parters to point them to that powerfully says otherwise.
Interestingly, on that topic, I did show this to my seven year old daughter today, and she loved it. I told her it would be creepy, and she said it was a good episode. She's got a strong constitution for that kind of thing though, so maybe not the best example. I can imagine little kids crying at the idea of what happened to the mane-six. If they even catch it. My kid watched Pinkie's face from the start and was all "Pinkie knows they're lying". That's my girl.
2948143
I've never gotten why conservatives hate MLP -- it's about six notably-virtuous heroines living in and defending a rather free society against attack. The show explicitly shows the importance of intelligence and effort, the connection between striving and success, and is one of the few to depict business sympathetically.
This is in fact how real cults brainwash people. Low-protein diet, to tell the person's brain on a biochemical and instinctual level "You're subordinate, submit." Deprivation of stimuli save for those supporting the ideological message. Disapproval of dissent, approval of conformity, backed by force or the credible threat of same.
It's especially dark because we identify with the Mane Six and we're used to seeing them master situations with their formidable powers, skills and talents. Here, they were reduced to below the level of normal Ponies and were almost helpless victims, whose only hope was to trick their way out of there.
2948169
Yeah, that was pretty effective, especially considering that the mane-six just defeated a DBZ final boss type character who was theoretically carrying the cumulative powers of all the alicorns and probably a good portion of the population as well. With their "powered up rainbow state" easily defeating Tirek, it seemed these six would be nigh invincible at this point (especially given the addition of Discord as a bona fide ally). 24 hours ago I was saying that Hasbro is going to have to do more handwaving than Queen Elisabeth to write themselves out of this corner. But no! The mane-six find themselves dependant on the efforts of a handful of absolute strangers at the climax of this episode! Wow. That's a pretty interesting twist.
Regarding conservatives disliking the show - honestly I think it has more to do with the typical fanbase than anything. I mean, in a vacuum without the fans, the show is clearly friendly to conservative values. When you add bronies, well, they're quite liberal minded folks. The show attracts people who are hurting and depressed, and who typically enjoy fantasy worlds, subjective values, and the like. Just looking at John DeLancie's brony documentary will give you a pretty solid idea that the accepted major demographic of the fans is people who lean waaaaay to the left.
2948143
I... have no idea what show you're watching, but My Little Pony does actually argue with gender roles being across the board equal, including outcome.
If you mean that we shouldn't treat women as being physically, emotionally, and intellectually the same as men, the show is actually more fantastically equal than real life is or probably should be. In MLP, Rainbow Dash and Applejack are shown to be stronger, faster, and more athletic than most stallions. Rainbow Dash, as a matter of fact, is faster than all stallions, and the Wonderbolts seem to be a equal (or female dominated) military organization. And the only pony who's been shown to be stronger that Applejack is Big Mac, and it wouldn't be surprising if that was his special talent. Emotionally, Rainbow Dash is possibly the most human-masculine character on the show given a significant amount of air time, including Spike. We also see Spitfire acting in a more human-masculine way than Soarin, and AJ being the "head of the household" for Sweet Apple Acres over Mac (according to Pinkie Apple Pie). Intellectually, Twilight is literally one of the smartest ponies in the world, and in the fantasy equivalent of a STEM field as well. In fact, we mostly see mares as talented magic users (Sunset Shimmer, Moonlight Glimmer, and I would be surprised f the briefly mentioned Meadowbrook isn't a mare) and magic is clearly associated with science, technology, and engineering in Equestria.
If anything, MLP argues that if gender roles are equally allowed and encouraged, the result will be that male and female gender roles will be mastered by females (as well as the reverse that female gender roles will be mastered by males, in the form of Hoity Toity, Spike's sensitivity and interest in cooking, Mr. Cakes equal parenting with Mrs. Cake.)
You can argue that won't be the case in the real world, and I totally respect that and it's a place I'm not certain myself, but if you do you're arguing against the clear message of the show. Which probably explains why I suspect you're wrong about this:
2948227
It's friendly to conservative financial and family values. But it's pretty firmly on the side of "women and men can and should be doing anything they want." Which is a pretty socially liberal message.
There's one thing I noticed in this episode, you could say that Twilight exhibited a measure of growth.
When the mane six were led into the cave, as soon as Twilight realized it was a trap she teleported herself, probably to distract Starlight, but also to give her 2 targets rather than one big one, and hopefully to get Starlight's attention away from her friends. This by itself is new, she's always been one to stick to the group in the heat of it when things get hairy, for the first time her tactical decision is to split, probably realizing she's more powerful than her friends and less likely to be injured or more capable to help her friends depending on what happens.
The second thing, she immediately went on the offensive, didn't try to put up a shield, her defensive measurement was the teleport itself, then she started charging a magic blast like the ones she did against Tirek. She seemed ready to violently incapacitate Starlight, actually trying to shoot first, reacting to the threat rather than to the attack for the first time in the show. If a more dark approach is considered then it may be that she's been through enough fights (specially the last one against Tirek) that she's learned to be willing to kill for the ones she loves, after all, we're talking about an alicorn not even pretending to be holding back against a unicorn that is threatening them.
I say all this cause, you know, they wouldn't put in on the show, but while it was happening all i could think of was "OMG, she's trying to do to Starlight what she did to Tirek, putting forth a magic blast as strong as she can manage".
That does not mean she's blood thirsty or someone that seeks conflict, or is insane or anything, but she's grown into someone that's got more in common with your interpretation of Applejack than even she realizes, and much more dangerous to her enemies too.
2948976
It's occurred to me that she may be well aware how easily her friends might have been killed by Tirek, and she's thus a lot less willing to pull her punches against a dangerous foe.
2948966
I wasn't saying that the episode directly addressed the problem of gender roles/differences being destroyed. I was trying to say that the show addresses egalitarianism in such a way that can be applied to that topic.
Of course genders themselves are misrepresented in MLP - that's unavoidable, really. Males are what, 20% of the population, and never in leadership positions?
But one can take the whole idea of "See how forced sameness and denial of our unique gifts is bad" and use it as an argument that eliminating our unique gifts, traits, and roles as real men and women is just as bad. What Starlight was doing with cutie marks, our society is doing with gender differences. It's a beautiful thing which is being systematically eliminated and denied.
And yeah, I do like how MLP is pro-small-business. Ponies have little kiosks where they sell stuff, and by and large, pony society seems to operate under a free-market system (despite being in a monarchy). One wonders how the Palace gets its funds. I've never seen the concept of taxation, regulations, or even "employees" in MLP anywhere. Seems refreshingly Libertarian.
2950598
I have males being about 3/8 of the population, with the discrepancy due to the fact that stallions are much less likely to make old bones because they wind up in more hazardous and health-destroying professions. If they were one-fifth of the population, they'd be swimming in gravy ("I'll have one of my wives see to it."). My Equestria is a mild matriarchy, with the male disadvantage being their vulnerability to marescent, which until the development of suppressors precluded them from major leadership positions in sexually-integrated environments.
My Equestria has gender role differences -- though it is the mares who are mostly in charge. Mares tend to be the leaders in politics, administration and magic; stallions the heavy laborers and military; other professions are less segrated. The culture is growing increasingly egalitarian, with stallions now having few disadvantages under the law, due in part to the development of suppressors.
Businesses range from large corporations to lemonade stands, but there are few regulations against doing anything that doesn't have clear victims, and licensing fees are minor to nonexistent. The Realm does collect taxes and tariffs, but fairly low ones: Celestia gets how economics works and why high taxes are normally counterproductive at raising revenue in the long run, because they depress long-term economic growth. She was once Generosity, the Element under whose purview falls economic activity.
2950598
Except that you can't, because the same show argues that being a "real woman" can mean being like Rainbow Dash and Applejack, or being like Rarity and Fluttershy? I'm not sure what "real roles" you think I have as a woman, but as long as I've got the same options as of the mane six, I'm good. Because I know human women with human versions of all of those gifts and traits, and I'll be happy if my daughter has any combination.
2950598
2950669
Yes. Each of the heroines is excellent in her own fashion, which is distinct from any other female character's fashion.
Though the show centers a lot on females, we have seen admirable and virtuous male characters as well. Big Mac, Shining Armor, Fancy Pants, and Cheese Sandwich has each been excellent in his own fashion, which is distinct from that of any other male characters.
2950708
Absolutely. The show focuses on female characters, because it's targeted at girls, but I love the range of male characters it presents as well. (And, to get back to my original point, I particularly like Filthy Rich and Fancy Pants being shown as positive (or at least neutral in Rich's case) successful businessponies. I really hope if they ever do more with Filthy Rich they don't use him as an antagonist.)
Two questions I want your opinion on the eppie about.
1) Do you think that Starlight is the beginning of a new type of villian that is not really explored in this show or similar shows like MLP. I.E a villian who is actually all for the magic o friendship and how powerul it is, she just hits it in another way. I mean, Discord, the Sirens, and Chrysalis, they all either dismissed friendship as useless (discord) weren't really close as friends (Sirens), or treated their team as lackeys (Chrysalis). Starlight saw her bond as true friendship, and in a scary way that I don't agree with, she wasn't wrong. The ponies who did not care about their marks, they were happy enough to be Star's friend and as Starlight was concerned, those ponies were.
2) Do you think AJ's farming talent just increased her strenght to beyond normal earth pony levels? This is something I had been thinking about AJ for a while now, as it seems like not even alicorn Twilight can match the gal in raw power.
PS. I want them to please let me know how the frak does the Rainbow Power work, how do they tap into it? Will, all of them, pressing mark? WHAT? I mean my gosh, there needs to be something...
2951176
Yes. She's very different from others in that she understands that the magic of friendship is real; she's just trying to turn it into something else entirely. And for this reason, simply understanding that friendship is real and powerful doesn't induce her to reform. In contrast, when Luna was liberated from the Nightmare and offered friendship, and when Discord had the opportunity to gain (regain in my fanon) true friendship with others, they valued it and it turned them away from evil; Chrysalis, Sombra and Tirek only comprehended that the Magic of Friendship was dangerous to them, not that friendship was worthwhile in and of itself.
The way in which the Mane Six were weakened by the loss of their Cutie Marks leads me to believe that once a Pony gets a Cutie Mark, all the inherent magic she has due to her Kind becomes focused through and integrated with that Talent. Note that none of the drained Mane Six could even use their inherent magic: not only Applejack but Pinkie Pie lost their strength, neither Rainbow Dash nor Fluttershy were capable of rapid flight, and Twilight and Rarity had their telekinesis greatly weakened in both strength and dexterity (if they could do it at all).
2951202
The closest thing we saw them (Rare and Twi) do in that eppie was maybe basic stuff. A lot of other things were just...gone. But you'll note, the moment she got magic back, BOOM! Twilight was in the zone. Interestingly enough, what you said does go with what I think links up to their own talent, for instance Rarity (who somehow is my go to mare for talking about cutie marks) becomes better attuned to what a pony needs and what applies to them speciically.
I ind it interesting that, in a fanfic communtiy as large and great as this one where we have done almost every idea that can possibly be done in the show, we have yet to tackle the above subject. Most of the time, we do follow the show, use a villian (For instance, the "immortal game"'s Titan or "Getting back on her hooves" Checker Monarch) that sees friendship as dangerous, and they are beaten because they lack an understanding. This si not a bad thing as most villians are beaten in such a way in a lot of media. The villian lacks a virtue (Friendship, love, teamwork ect) and the hero has one that allows fro triumph. This goes back as far as mythology like with Persesus or legends like Robin Hood, where the villians usually act selfish for their own gain (Lacking riendship so to speak). But, I always like it when we do see villans with similar virtues to the hero (Xanathos's love for his wife an child in Gargoyles, Narissa's love for her friends in W.I.T.C.H, why are my first two examples Greg Wiseman shows? Or even Kahn's love of his crew in Star Trek II) So to see this is interesting and why I hope to see Star again, maybe with a few friends.
2947155
Except that the message is by no means one that anyone in the Administration is going to have a problem with.
This is a problem with the current Right. Your hatred of Obama (who really has overstepped bounds in a couple of places) blinds you to the fact that the man is just as much in the pocket of Big Corporate America as any president has ever been, and therefore is not going to have a problem with a show that says "communism is bad" in the slightest. The relentless confusion of communism with socialism would be laughable, given how very 1960's it is, if it weren't so pernicious. Socialism, as practiced in every democracy on the planet, including ours, is the practice of deciding that the government can handle certain types of industry better than the forces of capitalism; it is why the government builds roads and lays electrical wire. Most democracies that aren't America came to the conclusion that more categories of industry were better off handled by the government than America has chosen, most notably health care and the payment of bills for it, which as currently handled in the US is perniciously anti-capitalist, as it is impossible for the consumer to make informed decisions when they or their loved ones are dying or in critical condition, and impossible for the consumer to affect the market with their needs and desires when it's not the consumer, but their employer, who is actually purchasing the goods.
Socialism is not bad for an economy that runs on capitalism; it is what prevents the fire department from letting your house burn down because you didn't pay your fire department dues. The question under debate is the much more nuanced "which industries should be socialized". For example, no one in the United States who has any power whatsoever seriously suggests nationalizing the television industry, as England has; our TV may be overall of a lower quality than the BBC but there is so much more of it than a government could ever subsidize, and making it more directly responsive to competition (allowing consumers to directly buy programs they want, rather than indirectly paying for them via eyeballs and advertising) has improved the quality of our television tremendously. Yes, we have awful crap on TV today, but I have yet to see a modern American TV program anywhere near as bad as "Gilligan's Island".
But that doesn't make a good soundbite. So the parts of the media that are controlled by the right make a lot of noise about "socialism" and try to play as if it's the same thing as communism and will destroy capitalism, when in fact every capitalistic democracy in the world practices some socialism and the question is "how much". Communism has other pernicious features that are absent from socialism, such as the concept that no property can be personal (under socialism, even if the government sold you a house, it would be your house; under communism, the government issues you a house to live in, but it's not actually yours because there is no private property), and the idea of enforcing total equality, applying brainwashing techniques to the members of the society, etc.
This story is a good one because it counterbalances what we've been told so far about Harmony. Discord's villainous status tells us that disharmony and conflict are bad. Sunset Shimmer and then the Sirens reinforce the message. Now we learn that total conformity and the suppression of all conflict are also bad and also against the ideals of harmony. This is a great message for this particular show to be sending at this particular time. But it is not at all controversial in America, which thoroughly rejected the ideals of Communism years and years ago. The American Left is so far to the right of the left in any other country it's ludicrous; no part of modern liberal thinking actually thinks it's a good idea to force everyone to be absolutely equal (in fact they seem to perhaps go to extremes in the other direction, demanding that the needs and desires of every single possible different type of person be considered before implementing anything and declaiming that something is a tragic failure if it failed to consider the needs and wants of .02% of humanity before implementation. This isn't "everyone must be the same"; this is "everyone must have the same access to what they need and want even if they are very, very, very different from the rest of humanity.")
2950669
Agreed. The show can't be taken to argue that destroying "real gender differences" is bad because no one, in real life, is actually destroying "real gender differences"; what is being destroyed is enforced gender differences, the idea that because one is a man or one is a woman one has to like certain things or behave in a certain way. While there are a small cadre of radfems who might attack other women for wearing makeup, they are positively drowned out by the messages from everywhere else in the culture, and not even other feminists take them seriously (in fact there is a schism in feminism between the radfems, who are basically female supremacists who hate trans people because they're obsessed with the biological differences between men and women but think women are better, and the rest of feminism, which believes that men and women should be equal and that no one should be forced into a role because of what's between their legs.)
You could just as easily say the episode is feminist because it argues that the true diversity of what lies within the mind and heart is more important than conforming to a socially imposed role that's supposed to make you "equal" to others who are like you.
2948169
Because most conservatives today are not conservative, and are tricking smart guys like you into thinking that they have your best interests in mind and agree with your philosophies, when they don't.
I know from your writing that you don't believe that homosexuals are evil, that you don't believe that a woman who made a terrible mistake and trusted the wrong guy should be pilloried publicly for her bad decision for the rest of her life, that you don't believe that women are inferior to men or that there is a particular social role that must be played by women. The so-called "conservative" movement in America has for the most part been hijacked by people who think that the absolute most important thing is to make sure that everyone conforms to proper gender roles and that women who have sex out of wedlock should be harshly punished for it and that married women exist basically to serve their husbands and pop out babies. These people are against birth control. So they absolutely despise MLP because it says that women don't have to serve men, that they have lives and interests of their own, that they can be heroes... and because there are so many men who like it. Men are supposed to despise women and everything to do with them except having sex! How can men be trusted to help keep women in line if men started genuinely liking women and enjoying their company and enjoying stories where they are the heroes?
You are right that true conservatives, people who believe in small business, and competition is good, and people can get ahead on hard work and natural talent, should like MLP. Unfortunately the majority of so-called "conservatives" in the United States are all for government interference in people's lives to enforce belief in Christianity, make employees and consumers conform to the religions that the leaders of corporations believe in rather than making business responsive to the market, and are against policies that help small business in favor of policies that favor big business (it's to the interest of big business to control healthcare, for instance, because they have the money and the numbers to offer better plans than small businesses can afford, so they can lure good people away from small business or shut down entrepreneurs who might become competition and make them their peons instead. It's to the interest of small business to have universal health care or at the very least markets where the individual can buy policies for the same price they'd have paid under their employer. However, many small business owners threw fits over Obamacare, apparently because they cannot do math. As a small business owner myself, I can say that my business strangled under the need to pay health insurance and did not actually get out ahead until Obamacare kicked in and we didn't need to pay for the partners' health insurance through the business. There are a lot of things about Obamacare that suck, most notably the web sites, but the effect on my bottom line has been entirely positive.)
The truth is that while you and I are ostensibly on opposite sides of the political spectrum, we actually mostly believe in the same things. It's just that you believe conservatism exemplifies those things, and I believe liberalism as currently practiced within America is much closer to promoting and supporting those things than conservatism as currently practiced within America is.
I am actually pretty sure that Starlight Glimmer didn't start out by kidnapping ponies. She's a very charismatic individual, and kidnapping people is not how cults work in real life. Cults prey on people who are unhappy in their regular lives and are looking for something they can't find. My guess is that Double Diamond, Party Favor, Sugar Belle and Night Glider were ponies who didn't have friends where they lived. Maybe Party Favor is what happens when the party pony isn't successful enough to make an independent living and has to move back to the rock farm, or the strict and controlling mama, or whatever. Maybe Double Diamond moved with his family to the south of Equestria where his skiing talents could never be used because it doesn't snow and there are no mountains, and lack of being able to exercise his talent made him miserable, and being miserable led to him having no friends. There are a lot of possibilities to explain why such talented ponies could have ended up in places in their lives where they had no friends... and Equestria runs on friendship, so a pony with no friends is even more miserable than a human without them.
Starlight probably offered them an explanation of why they didn't have friends -- they didn't fit in with the others around them because no one was really like them -- and they bought it, because they were down on their luck, miserable and desperate. And by the time they realized this wasn't really working out... their cutie marks were gone, and the only place they had found friendship was in the village. Turning their back on their only friends is just not something Equestrians do.
Some may have been kidnapped, but it would have happened later, after there was already a village and a good number of inhabitants. In a free society like Equestria, where the government isn't enforcing belief in the cult, the only way cults work is by offering something the victims can't get in their regular lives, and seducing people into it. Then the brainwashing kicks in, and the "you'll let everyone down/you'll lose your friends" if you leave, and convincing you that everyone outside the cult is really miserable and only in the cult can you be truly happy, and at that point you are stuck. Soviet Russia could impose this shit on people against their will, but in free societies, cults seduce, they don't kidnap... at least until they are large and powerful enough to do so. :-)
I noticed there were no foals. Starlight was preying on ponies who are young adults, without families of their own yet, or maybe old ponies whose foals have all grown up and left home. Unless loss of cutie mark suppresses fertility, or unless part of the rules of the cult are that you have to love everyone else equally and therefore having a special somepony is also wrong, the cult hasn't been around long, because ponies in that kind of proximity to each other would have started pairing up otherwise.
2953964
Then you and I have had very different experiences with Obamacare. In my case, the insurance my husband gets through work went from costing us about 20% of his paycheck to about 50%. When our daughter was born, it would have gone up to 75%. However, since insurance was offered through his work, we weren't eligible for a discount on insurance, so the only option open to us was Medicaid. I'd much rather not be costing my friends and family and other taxpayers money, but the new rules for insurers (which drove up the prices so drastically) are making it impossible for my family to do anything else.
So, I'm not as thrilled with liberal policies. I mean, it's saving me some money because you're paying for me (thanks!) but that's not how I like to live (and more importantly, I think it's wrong to live this way.) Not that I like the kind of neo-con, religious right conservative policies you describe any better.
2954117
The problem there is that they enacted a law that said "starting from x date, we're not going to let you perform predatory price increases anymore", resulting predictably in immediate predatory price increases. The law actually doesn't subsidize many people; what it does mostly is enforce the existence of a stable consumer-direct market, without predatory price increases, pre-existing condition clauses, or being unable to get insurance because you don't have insurance. Because I have both small business channels and the indivudual channel open to me, I can tell you that the prices for the individual are now the same as what the small business could get, whereas before they were more expensive to a great degree. So now no one needs to depend on their employer for health insurance, though of course big businesses can still get deeper discounts. But because all those things were intended to kick in at a later date, of course the insurance companies did as much of them as they could right then and there.
In the long run it will be better for all of us, because they won't be able to jack up your prices 20% every year... but the price for that was jacking them up by 50% one year, which is awful. There are a lot of enormously stupid things they did with the law, and not enforcing the ban on the predatory price increases immediately was one of them.
2953896
I disagree, because some in this Administration are radicals even by European standards. Obama himself was raised in part by Frank Marshall Davis. an out-and-out Communist agent; one of his political mentors was Bill Ayers, a traitor and terrrorist who co-founded the Weather Underground attempted to launch armed attacks on the US military in wartime; and he spent twenty years attending the sermons of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, an anti-American, anti-white racist anti-Semite.
Is Obama himself an actual Communist? Probably not in the formal sense, though he's shown a remarkable sympathy for the few remaining Communist regimes, such as that of the Castro Dynasty in Cuba and the Kim Dynasty in North Korea. He also sympathizes with a remarkable degree with the Muslim world -- which would worry Western feminists, if they bothered to pay attention to the true main backers of misogyny in the modern world. I doubt he's actually a Muslim, though. He seems to simply assume that anti-Americans, unless they are actually shooting at US forces (and sometimes if they are) must be the good guys. And he is very, very obviously an anti-Semite, as he's demonstrating right now by condemning Israel for merely refusing to sign on to his suicidal nuclear pact with Iran. He also has a massive ego, and little respect for the US Constitution.
This last is why I would chiefly be concerned. Obama himself is an intellectual lightweight -- a well-creased pair of pants jumped-up to the Presidency by his political handlers -- but if some of his followers realize the extent to which My Little Pony is pro-individualist and pro-capitalist, and reflect that this is helping to condition the expectations of a whole generation of young girls who will be voting by 2030, they might decide to put pressure on the show to "become more socially responsible" or be shut down. (Personally, if I were Hillary Clinton, I would not be amused by Starlight Glimmer ... "it takes a village" indeed!)
You're assuming that I think that Big Business is in favor of Free Enterprise. They haven't been since at least the Progressive Era of a century past: Big Business is usually in bed with Big Government to hold down the competition from smaller but more agile firms. In fact, this is a major source of economic inefficiency, as firms which have expanded to the point of diseconomy of scale are sustained by various subsidies and bailouts from the Federal or local governments -- what's termed "corporate welfare." It's also a major source of corruption, as these bloated big firms are in consequence highly vulnerable to political shakedowns, as they know that they might not be able to survive without active governmental favoritism.
I agree that some goods are better purchased through government. An excellent example are roads and bridges, which convey such immense positive externalites and require such large-scale coordination that it is difficult to imagine how a wholly free market could construct them. On the other hand, I'm not so sure about medical care. either way -- there are good arguments on both sides.
The BBC shows both the advantages and disadvantages of state-run media. They've produced some excellent shows (such as the many literary adaptations of Masterpiece Theatre): they've also killed some successful shows based purely on the biases of executives utterly-unconcerned with anything so crass as profit. You may remember that the BBC was ashamed of the original Dr. Who TV series and gladly cancelled it after a successful run of almost two decades, despite its continued popularity and its growing popularity abroad; it took a generational change in their upper executives to bring back the series.
What I mostly fear is this Administration's impulse toward censorship.
2953964
Well, I'm a libertarian conservative, who believes that all should be equal under the law. Essentially, I'm a 19th-century Classical Liberal.
You're describing the extreme religious right here. That's one of the opposite ends of the Republican Party from mine, on the "libertarian-authoritarian" pole. Likewise, the Big Business Republicans disagree with me on the economic pole -- they tend to be in favor of controlled rather than free economies.
Sadly, everything you said in that paragraph is true -- with the possible exception of the statement that Obamacare favors small business. Under Obamacare, bigger firms can still buy better health programs, and do, and (unlike small businesses) can afford to hire whole sub-departments to navigate the labyrinthine rules.
I'm glad you managed to make it work for you, though. Mostly because I like you.
Very true: our moral values don't seem to be all that different, judging by our stories and comments.
A very astute analysis of the episode. I agree with most of what you say about the plot, themes and character. It would be interesting to see what Starlight Glimmer is planning next, if she is to make a comeback.
That said, though, if she was ever caught by the authorities, legally speaking, what kind of crimes would she be charged with and what punishment does it warrants? So far, the other bronies, base on her deeds in the episode, had found her guilty of crimes from assault, unlawful imprisonment and sedition all the way to attempted murder, treason and crimes against equinity in general. Many are calling for the ultimate sanction against her (Death penalty). But what would be appropriate, though, in Equestria?
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I don't really know. Probably banishment (of the normal variety) or imprisonment. Also, if she is truly redeemed, she might be pardoned.
But yeah -- a magical culture such as Equestria would have to have laws against harming others through magic, which is what taking somepony's Cutie Mark would fall under. Just because it's an unusual or never-known spell would make no real difference in terms of jurisprudence ... as far as I know, no one in America has ever wounded or killed anyone else with a laser weapon, but if someone did (as I'm sure will happen one day) it would fall under the existing laws governing assault with a deadly weapon, or murder.
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As any sensible system would be, I suppose. As for redemption; I don't think that's likely for some-pony like her.
Speaking of little known spells, I believe that it was a shame that Starlight Glimmer's unique spell is wasted on letting her set up her own little cult/dictatorship in the outskirts of Equestria. If properly modified and used, this kind of Cutie Mark Manipulation magic could have massive potential in utility...
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Oh yes. It could be used for more than atrocity. For instance, logically the same magical techniques should be able to permit Cutie Mark analysis and regeneration. It would have tremendous applications in career planning and psychiatric therapy. Starlight Glimmer's Envy was just so overwhelming that she could only see it as a tool for creating an equality of the lowest common denominator -- but, just like chemistry and atomic energy, it can be used for constructive as well as destructive purposes, even though it was first practically employed to create battlefield explosives.