I had no idea that MLP: FIM even existed. I checked out the episodes on YouTube. I wasn’t too impressed with some of the early ones, but, since so many Dopers liked the show, I thought I’d give it a chance.
At this point, I’m a fan. My favorite episode so far is “Suited for Success.” I also really liked the episode with the parasprite infestation, the episode with Applebloom’s lack of a cutie mark, and the zebra from somewhere in the vicinity of the Lion King.
I’ve been thinking about the political and economic structure of Ponyville. As far as I can tell, Ponyville is a lesbian feminist separatist colony, with a socialist wealth redistribution scheme, community shares in local businesses, and strong environmental regulation.
I’m up to Episode 16 of Season 1. Does Applebloom get her cutie mark in a later episode? Do we see the zebra again? How does Rarity’s business venture go?
I’m still a little confused on how the town managed to recoup after its parasprite infestation. Everything seems to have been perfectly reconstructed remarkably quickly, within the same season.
Yeah, it looks pretty socialist. If they hadn’t shown Applejack handling money in a couple episodes, I’d have figured they’d moved off a monetary system and gone to an idealized to-each from-each model. There’s also the cutie mark thing; they do say explicitly that cutie marks represent talents that ponies both are good at and like doing, but there’s a heavy undertone of “this is what you’re good at, so this is how you’ll help the community regardless of your actual wishes.” That all said, they DO show Applejack and Rarity working for money and there ARE wealthy ponies, so there is certainly some form of capitalism in play.
It’s not necessarily a lesbian society, but it’s definitely matriarchal, and since there’s apparently like a 4 to 1 female/male ratio it’s not unexpected that some female ponies would partner up.
Regarding how quickly they rebuild: there’s little continuity to the show other than the overall Galloping Gala arc that spans the season (the end-of-winter episode comes before the fall episode, for goodness’ sake). Swarm of the Century takes place in a nondescript season, then the episode right after it is the tail end of winter. There’s absolutely no indication it was an immediate rebuild, and there’s simply no way for us to tell.
The thing thats been puzzling me is the pigs. In one of the episodes they show the CMC gang feeding Applejack’s pigs in the barnhouse. But why would ponies keep pigs? They are only shown eating vegetarian food, they don’t normally wear clothes, and the clothes they do wear don’t look like they are made out of leather. So why are there pigs at the farm?
Well, the male: female ratio is remarkably skewed in Ponyville, in sharp contrast to that of the rest of Equestria. We see something close to a 1:1 male: female ratio in in the farmer’s market at Canterlot. There seem to be slightly more males than females in Appleloosa, and the weather factory seems to be at least somewhat male-dominated.
There’s one married couple in Ponyville. They run the bakery (or confectionary shop; I’m not quite sure which it is.) They’re unusual, though. As is Applejack’s brother. I thought he was around because he and Applejack share duties on the family apple orchards. The only other male ponies we see in Ponyville are still children (colts, I guess.) I assume that they’re children of Ponyville residents.
If Ponyville weren’t a group of lesbian separatists, we’d probably see a male: female ratio that’s more or less typical of the rest of Equestria. Or, at least, you’d expect some of the weather factory guys to come around, especially considering that Rarity obviously attracts male attention.
In re: Applejack handling money–I think that the economy of Ponyville is a little like those of many intentional communities, such as the Oneida colony. Ponyville may get most of its income from specific goods and services it provides to people outside of the community.
The traditional business has been apple production, but Rarity’s fashion design business seems to be taking off. Everyone seems to feel a personal interest in Applejack’s and Rarity’s financial success, even to the point of offering free labor to sustain them. That must mean that these businesses play vital roles within the community–most likely by providing the economic underpinning of the whole town.
It’s also notable that, although everyone knows there are richer ponies and poorer ponies, everyone within Ponyville seems to have more or less the same standard of living.
And I can’t believe that I’m actually devoting this much thought to My Little Ponies.
I’m going to point two things out here.
First, there were only like six males in the entire first generation My Little Pony show. They were on a round-the-world race, and they only showed up for one episode. So it’s actually skewing closer to reality in FiM.
Not in the same herd. Horses are harem-building animals - there’s one, at most two, stallions in a ‘mixed sex’ herd, and no mares in a bachelor herd. Any colts or fillies who’ve reached maturity are kicked out by the chief stallion - the colts go to join bachelor herds, or tag along as the secondary to another mixed herd, the fillies go off and join another stallion’s harem.
Yes, of course it is. That’s the overt message of several of the episodes, anyway.
But it seems to me that ponies who are having trouble keeping their businesses running get help from most of the community. That, combined with the lack of significant differences of wealth within Ponyville, makes me think that it’s the apple business–and, more recently, the fashion design workshop–that keep everypony else in hay and oats.
Like I said–I’m probably devoting way too much thought to this. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself.
I already found them, thanks. It’s one good thing about the new naming convention for files over at DeviantArt: it’s immediately obvious which website they’re from.
Someone here in the other thread got me hooked on Equestria Daily and there is a new one in the Cheezburger network called My Little Brony.
I haven’t figured out how much I am into the pony stuff so I know what’s out there for the kids in my life and how much of it might be me liking it for me. The Sweetie Belle wallpaper on my computer right now (it rotates every 15 min) is certainly not seen by anyone but me 99% of the time.
Since Hasbro’s intention (supposedly) is to rake in the big bucks via merchandising, they kind have been doing a poor job of that. Clothes are almost non-existent. Toys don’t match the show all the time and there could be a better variety (like the crusaders, for example, in size relative to the Mane 6). There is no official news on a season 1 release on dvd. There are tons more merchandising things that would be fun (temporary tattoos, spaghettios), but aren’t out there or are regionally specific. Hell, the fruit gummis you can buy are like Princess Promenade generation and not FiM. I am happy with what I have and I don’t need to drown myself in MLP, but I find it weird that if their money is made on merchandising, why are they doing such a sucky job at it?
I do love how the creators answer some questions on DA or make the new ad campaigns obviously aimed at adults, not kids (the Bridlemaids ad, the Equestria Girls song).
I’m fairly certain that the merchandise out now was planned at the beginning of the show’s run before Hasbro knew about the Periphery Demographic. As such, it was designed with kids and kids’ sensibilities in mind.
Can’t believe I’m having a serious conversation about kids’ toys…
Take the Princess Celestia toy. There’s been a lot of grumbling by adult fans because Celestia is pink, not white like she is in the show. Adults care about true-to-show details, so the pink is a negative point, but apparently pink Celestia sells better to young girls than a white Celestia would.
It’s probable that once season 2 rolls out, the merchandising will be a bit more acceptable for older fans. Hasbro’s more-or-less embraced the adult fans and wants their money just as much as they want kids’ parents’ money.
As for what’s out there for kids and what’s out there for adults…it’s safe to say that anything in the stores and on the official Hasbro websites is for kids, and everything else pony-related on the internet is for adults. There’s some decidedly kid-unfriendly stuff out there.
