Keeping Friends on Their Toes · 8:52pm Nov 17th, 2019
Does anybody know why there was a Feats of Friendship in August and a Feats of Friendship in October but no Feats of Friendship in September? Because I don't.
In any case, let's talk about Feats of Friendship #2 before you think I've left you out.
Our moral here would seem to be that friends fight sometimes, but that doesn't mean they're not friends. Swift Foot can drive wedges amongst the Student Six, but they don't last because the Student Six have a strong friendship. It's not easy to break up a group that was almost cast into another realm against their will together.
At the same time, though, we're still building up the moral that if you want something, you really ought to try asking. It's plain to see in Swift's imagination that King Thrace wasn't denied the right to approach the fire; he just got pissy because he wasn't invited in by the ponies who didn't know he was there. And perhaps Princess Platinum, Chancellor Puddinghead, and Commander Hurricane would have done the same in his position; excessive pride is a common affliction among those in charge, and that can lead ponies to do ridiculous things like hide out in the storm because others should just automatically know that they're there. But the other leaders had the good fortune to be trapped in ice where they couldn't do anything stupid at the critical moment. King Thrace had nopony to save him from himself, so he continued to behave in the same senseless manner that had brought the windigos in the first place.
So obviously now we know that Twilight actually had representations of the challenges drawn on the blackboard.
But I still have no idea what comradery's picture is. I just know that it's supernatural. And it presumably involves those pillars that were so much trouble to put up.
In the first challenge, it's Yona's turn to be the one who should be annoyed at the teachers. It's not her teammates' fault that no carts were supplied that were suitably sized for yaks. (Or at least so I assume from the fact that Yona's not using a huge cart like she was while helping to set up.) Certainly Swift Foot's cart wouldn't fit Yona.
I just can't set aside how artificial Ocellus's problem feels. Nocreature is telling her not to change. Nocreature minds other than those she specifically aims to frighten and Chancellor Neighsay. Nocreature but her.
I do wonder how the bridge-building challenge was going to be scored if it had gone right. It is still supposed to be a competition, after all; if you give everycreature the same good score for winning, they might as well have all lost together. It's entirely possible that the real winning move is to rely on no other team figuring out the challenge and building a better terrible bridge than any other team.
I have to disagree with Ocellus: bullying can be teamwork. It's hardly ideal, but if one team member knows what needs to be done but cannot do it and another can do it but doesn't want to, pushing to get it done is what effective teamwork for the situation requires.
"Bullying is not teamwork" carries some extra layers when coming from a survivor of Chrysalis's regime. I imagine changelings are still sensitive to anything that feels like her tyranny.
The real initial moral is that, in olden times when you are a leader exploring a strange land, bring along a competent yet humble underling who can dig you out of the ice when you get frozen.
I mean, there are many more questions about Thrace. How are they a "4th tribe?" Aren't they just earth ponies like Puddinghead's crew? More importantly, why do the Thracians care? They believe they are better off without friendship, on their stupid island. So why don't they just ignore Equestria? Also even without friendship, this small tribe of earth ponies on a shitty island thinks they'll be able to conquer Equestria?
It does seem like maybe Twilight and friends were kind of hoping that all teams would just spontaneously decide to work together and they could declare everyone a winner.
5156944 Quite true. It's also seems like Yona believed herself and Sandbar the earth pony were strong enough to drag the chimera into the largest cage, but that Sandbar himself got scared and then made Ocellus do it instead of helping himself. I mean, Sandbar was kind of right in retrospect, once he yelled at Ocellus it seems like she was able to defeat the chimera with little effort (reformed changlings OP, please nerf), but I question the motivations behind his actions.