Let's Talk Fandom Crap That Probably Only Irritates Me (Part 2) · 7:37pm May 17th, 2018
Getting back on the rant pony for a bit.
One of the criticisms I see lobbied frequently at Equestria Girls is that there's too many "slice of life" episodes.
As opposed to what in FiM? Just about 80% of the given episodes could be a "slice of life" stories. Yes, even ones where a character is called by the map. The big climactic events are the outliers, not the norm. Seriously, how many "big" events have we had over the course of the series?
Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, Sombra, Twilight's ascension, Tirek, Starlight's introduction and revenge, Chrysalis again, and the Pony of Shadows.
10 events. 19 episodes out of 182 (so far. The second half of Season 8 is not included in these calculations, and I'm waiting to see what happens in "The Mean 6" before I qualify it). Plus one movie if you want to include the invasion of the Storm King.
I can't even make the case for "The Crystalling" actually being a big event, because it's all largely due to Flurry Heart being an unexpected born alicorn with uncontrolled magic. It boils down to "new parents and their friends try to deal with the challenges of a new baby." And the Friendship School, while a change in the status quo, is still just a larger scale slice of life episode. So claiming that EG does more slice of life stuff than FiM is ridiculous, and once again, is usually spouted by people who have a bias against EG anyway.
Of course, not all of my problems with fandom perceptions are just the FiM vs. EG "debate." I have problems with some things that fans have chosen to see as the gospel truth in FiM without anything really there to back it up.
For example: Why does the fandom continue to assume Celestia and Luna are all powerful goddesses incarnate? We have no evidence of this. The ponies of Equestria revere them, yes, but they don't seem to worship them. Yes, they move the sun and the moon, but as has now been firmly established, unicorns used to do this before they came along.
Alicorns are obviously the most powerful of all ponies, the show's established that pretty well by now, but that doesn't mean god like. And just because they can move heavenly bodies doesn't mean Celestia and Luna are goddesses, or even Demi-goddesses. All we know for certain about them is that they're both over 1000 years old and they have great power. Well, that may not be as impressive as it sounds. We don't know how long the average pony lifespan is. For all we know Alicorns may be longer lived than the other tribes, but without definite timeframes involved, a thousand years may not be that unusual. Longevity does not equal immortality. So all the assumptions that Twilight will outlive her friends (and the subsequent nonsense that followed after Meghan McCarthy tweeted that she wouldn't), is based on assumptions that the show has never stated in the first place.
It could very well be that pony lifespans are ridiculously long compared to ours. And if this is the case, it would go a long way to explaining why the Equestria Girls counterparts to the Mane 6 are in high school where the pony versions are employed and living on their own. The ages ARE equivalent if ponies have lives that can span a century or more. (Additionally, it may also be that Equestria's school system isn't as prolonged as the human world's, especially since most schools we've seen in Equestria don't seem to go much beyond a middle school equivalent. Yes, even Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.)
So to sum up: Alicorns: not immortal, not deities, not worshipped by ponies. Just more powerful. And as we've seen several times, there's ways to deal with that power. There's always a bigger fish somewhere.
This next thing isn't so much a complaint as a question: I've seen in a lot of pics lately the idea that Sunset Shimmer was jealous of Cadence during her time as Celestia's student. Where did this come from? Is it a fan creation? Is it in one of the books? Someone enlighten me please.
To Be Continued...
I assume that Celestial and Luna remain divine in the fandom despite all evidence because ‘twin goddesses of the sun and moon’ has a huge appeal. It’s just such a classic you know? And a lifespan that outlasts civilizations has great storytelling potential.
As for Sunset jealous of Cadence, it’s fab made but it makes complete sense to me. Sunset wants to be an Alicorn, Cadence ascended relatively recently and is closer to Celestial, and such.
I've always considered the Slice of Life aspects to be the best parts of both FiM and EqG (well, that and the Dazzlings). The major events, while exciting, really only offer changes in the social landscape for them to continue evolving their lives and interactions.
I can see why you don't like the idea of the alicorns being considered all powerful goddesses or whatever, they have certainly been shown to be fallible. I can't really say one thing or another about pony ages, but we do k ow that the average pony can die, and for instance no one expected the Pillars to still be alive after a thousand years, or the Crystal ponies for that matter. So I think it's reasonable to assume that the average pony does not live a thousand years or more. Abd as for moving the sun and moon, okay maybe it seems less impressive when you consider that it was formerly done by unicorns, but it has been shown, or at least suggested, that it takes several unicorns to do it.
So the princesses are likely longer lived than most, and can accomplish feats alone that normally takes a much larger group. Conservatively, let's say they live twice as long and have the strength of ten ponies. That's pretty much the basic demigod formula. So even if that's not what they're called in "canon," I think it's fair to consider them as such.
And especially in Greek myth, which FiM draws a lot of inspiration from, the gods were not all that impressive, and were more than fallible.
I agree that most of the show is SoL but to be fair there have been other episodes that fall closer to the "Adventure" side of the spectrum such as Dragonshy, A Dog and Pony Show and Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? to name a few.
Celestia and Luna are often treated as goddesses because of how Celestia was largely portrayed in Season 1 and 2 where she seemed all powerful and divine (course she also didn't really have much of a personality). From a story telling perspective having them be gods is just alot of fun and I definitely prefer it over them being portrayed as completely useless.
Sunset being jealous of Cadence is definitely fan made. Since she ascended sometime prior to Twilight becoming Celestia's students alot of fans like the idea that Sunset probably would have known her and given how Sunset was back then it makes sense she wouldn't be happy about a new alicorn literally appearing out of nowhere.
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Funny enough they did recently explain this in the episode Horse Play:
Course it is implied Celestia being able to do it is simply because it's her talent rather than being a measure of power.
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I do need to see that episode. Cool to have a more in depth explanation. I love how Star Swirl is apparently in a class all his own.
Ok, fair point about the cutie mark thing, but I think power is also a factor. Twilight's cutie mark is for magic, and she is considered very powerful because of it. And cutie marks depicting celestial bodies generally imply talent or skill in magic. See again Twilight, or Starlight, even Sunburst, though his is closer to magic knowledge. Sunset too is usually assumed to have a special talent in magic, if it wasn't stated outright.
We have seen measures of Celestia's power though, buth against Chrysalis and against Tirek. Chrysalis herself obviously didn't think she could win against Celestia, and they made ot pretty clear that she only did because she herself was unusually powered up from Shining. They also made it a big deal to keep her magic away from Tirek, because it was far more power than they wanted him to have. And that power very much did make Twilight stronger. And gave her the ability to move the sun and moon, even though she presumably did not inherit the other alicorn's talents with their magic.
And actually, Celestia was able to move the moon for a thousand years, even though it wasn't her talent. So I do think it's a power thing, not just a cutie mark thing.
...caaan't really find anything much to add to this. Your position is like mine. The Action/Adventure moments stick out to a lot of the older fans more because they often expand on this beautiful and creative world we all love to see every week. Other than that, not much else to say.
However...
(1:11 - 1:18)
Memes aside, I think I have an answer to the whole "Alicorn equals Goddess" thing. (Open the spoiler box if you care)
If you think back to the play put on by the School of Friendship, it was specifically stated that only the most powerful Unicorn Mages could move the celestial bodies, but it came at the price of being forever cut off from their magic. The only known exception was Star Swirl the Bearded, though how much longer he had in him before the sisters came along is anyone's guess.
The sisters earned their Cutie Marks by moving the sun and moon(in one of the books), and they were able to accomplish it while still retaining full access to their magic. Add this on top of them being the perfect combination of all three common Pony Races, and one could assume that certain individuals would consider them as something more, something of a higher existence. They say that Twilight ascended for a reason, after all. Considering the amount of time Celestia and Luna have been around, it's easy to believe that some long-past religions have sprouted up about them. And it's not too far a stretch that some hidden groups out on the boarder towns of Equestria would still worship the sisters as something holy. After all, Starlight was able to keep her presence hidden for who knows how long before The Map pointed out where she was. There could be any number of other crazy cults out there.
But now we're over one thousand years after Celestia became the mis-labled Queen of Equestria (one thousand one hundred and eleven, to be exact). At this point in the world's history, Science and Magic are essentially the same. There are some aspects one could say are still more spiritually based than others (such as certain emotions providing boosts to certain spells, as stated by Starlight to Trixie in Season 7). but other than that, most Unicorns see Magic as indisputable fact rather than something to be believed in. So it would make sense that, over time, the sisters could prove that they're just as mortal as any other Pony. The reverence is still there because they're royalty and can do things that would put too much strain on a Unicorn; even if there are no "churches of the sun" on every Ponyville street corner.
TLDR, it makes the world more interesting, and so much time has passed that it's easy to imagine that such a thing would be believed even if it wasn't true. These are Equestrians we're talking about, after all. They can be easily led on by any stupid rumor, no matter how insane it is to any reasonably well-read Pony(Zecora before she was well known).
As for Sunset and Cadence: Not sure. I was under the impression it was a fandom created thing. They seem to be about the same age, and we know that Sunset was dead-set on becoming an Alicorn prior to her reformation. If Cadence was around during Sunset's studies, and if she ascended before Sunset left, it wouldn't be too hard to imagine that just adding fuel to the fire.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. So many people complain about Celestia and Luna being useless even though they’re supposedly Gods. Which is dumb because they’re not. It’s never been stated in the show, the fans were the ones who put them on that pedestal. Now they bitch every time canon does something opposite of their headcanon. Basically, it boils down to people being unable to separate their headcanon from actual fact.