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Is MLP elitist?
A. Cows, donkeys and mules don’t have cutie marks.
B. Only alicorns get to rule. -
I’m guessing that all six of these fillies are the human equivalent of 16 so why is Applejack the only one living with her parents?
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Apparently the parents of several of the characters were psychic. Twilight Sparkle? Fluttershy? Rainbow Dash?
Scanning the forum list, I first read the thread title as “Thinking WAY too much about My Little penis,” but luckily double-checked before moving it to MPSIMS …
Dr. Freud will see you now.
The O.P.'s username/thread title combination seemed rather Freudian to me.
Different species, different traits and, presumably, social customs. As they are all sapients, they undoubtedly have their own arrangements.
Alicorns are the obvious compromise candidates, embodying traits of all three pony subspecies. 
Besides, ponies of other subspecies do hold other positions of authority, just not the actual throne–which has only ever been held by one pony (two, if you count Luna as sharing it). One might as well say that only Celestias get to rule.
Why would you place them at that age? Applejack doesn’t live with her parents–who are never seen, and are presumed dead–she lives and works on the family farm, which she runs along with her brother, and looks after her elderly grandmother. The others all live on their own and, with the exception of Twilight, have jobs or their own businesses. Twilight appears to be in a position similar to a grad student–a scholar pursuing independent study and research.
These are all adult positions. If you want an equivalent age, I’d put them in their early 20s, though I believe WoG indicates that ponies grow up faster than humans, so their actual chronological age might be late teens.
Possibly. Or they consulted someone who was. Or pony names are flexible, and those names were given to them after relevant aspects of their characters began to emerge.
I SWEAR this is the truth … when MLP was big some years back, I conceved of a related series of products called, “My Little Pants Pony.” There were little heads that could be put on like caps, along with clothing that could be wrapped around or slipped over.
I trust I don’t need to be more explicit than that.
Unicorn master race! But not really. The three pony races are important to maintaining their civilization: pegasus do weather, earths grow food and tend the land, and unicorns…put giant castle cities on the side of mountains. Or whatever, scholarly magic stuff.
Just an accident of nature. It doesn’t seem to stop them from being part of society. Although the subtle-racism towards mules is kinda funny. Real life mules are sterile offspring of female horses and male donkeys, so them being a bit of an outcast is kinda understandable (race traitor!). He seems good natured about it at least.
Cynical fanon aside (TO THE MOON!), it’s a benevolent dictatorship. They protected their subjects from ancient evils and overlords before the mane6 showed up. They’re full of wisdom and know how best to guide their society. And it seems like a pretty nice place, so no need for an uprising. Basically Plato’s Republic.
Practically speaking, if there was a 12 foot tall woman who lived for thousands of years and could control the sun she’d probably get to call the shots in our world too.
Have a Pink or Rainbow kid? Easy to think of those names. Twilight is the color of her coat, that twilight is also between the day/night is one of those weird heroic destiny things I suppose.
The part that makes no sense are last names. Most don’t have them, but some do (Pie family, the Cakes). Their paperwork must be messy.
Fluttershy is an odd one though, with her personality in her name like that. We haven’t met her parents, so who knows. Maybe shyness runs in the family? Or maybe “shy” was used in a different context, like “one flutter shy” of a goal. Like her mom is a disgruntled racer who always came in second place, hoping her daughter would do what she couldn’t. Maybe that’s why FS is so screwed up in the head, always taking abuse from her disappointed mother. How’s that for fan wankery?
I think the “alicorns get to rule” thing being elitist is disproven by the fact that one can ascend to alicorn status. There are still some weird caste issues with MLP, but I don’t think alicorn rule is one of them. And as mentioned positions of authority are held by all types of ponies.
The main cast were stated by Faust to be about early-mid twenties in human terms. Just starting their careers. In Twilight’s case she’s basically the equivalent of a grad student. (This makes that one movie I never saw where their alternate universe selves are in high school questionable, but whatever).
As for the naming, it’s a cute criticism, but it’s just a fiction thing. I mean, look at Harry Potter. Remus Lupin was basically doomed him to be a werewolf (Remus from Romulus and Remus, from the founding of Rome – involved with a wolf; Lupin as in Lupine meaning Wolflike). Writers tend to have a thing for theme naming.
Unless they have a Y chromosome. Equestria is a full blown matriarchy, from the crown down to farms and bakeries and city mayors. Makes sense though, that’s how horse herds are AFAIK. And it’s charming, makes it different than the vast majority of shows. I wonder how many episodes don’t pass the Bechdel test inside of 10 seconds. I wonder if there’s even five that pass the reverse-Bechdel test.
Heh, I remember when the show started to get popular MRA types complained males were hardly ever seen (9:1 ratio?) and were obedient guards, big silent brothers who perform manual labor, or hen pecked husbands. Or Spike, who is just a subservient beta butt monkey led around by the nose by Rarity.
I don’t think that’s the case. Wasn’t the mayor of the old west town male? Big Mac also doesn’t seem particularly inferior or superior to Applejack. I guess you could argue Granny Smith probably “owns” the farm, but Applejack and Big Mac seem to pretty much have the same job, and whatever authority Granny Smith has she seems to defer to Applejack and Big Mac anyway. I also never got the sense that Mrs. Cake was above Mr. Cake. Wasn’t one of the “best in the world” fashion designers Rarity wanted to impress also male? Twilight’s brother is captain of the guard (though I guess that’s like saying that a female character owns a dress shop in a male dominated show – kind of stereotyping).
I do get the sense that perhaps it’s sort of a reverse scenario to women in the US, where there are a few men in power but they largely suffer from a sort of “glass ceiling effect” and are less numerous (ignoring the diarchy which is obviously female-only), but overall I feel like it’s pretty equal.
I guess it’s true that there’s a lack of prominent male characters in leadership roles, but hey, demographic side effects.
I think someone–probably Faust–actually paid quite a bit attention to real equine social behavior and structures. Fun exercise: can you think of any “herds” among the stallions equivalent to the various mare herds (friendly associations like the Mane 6, the CMC, and the flower trio, not professional groups). The only one I can think of is the trio of pegasus jocks…and among real horses, bachelor herds are generally made up of immature males.
“Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs. What are the odds?”
I think I read somewhere that ponies aren’t named until their cutie marks manifest, which of course contain significant hints to their personality and destiny. Don’t know if it’s canon, but it seems plausible, for a race that has cutie marks to begin with.
Don’t forget recurring character Donut Joe, who apparently owns a restaurant and is all set to go head-to-head against Pinkie Pie in the baking competition. And a number of the Wonderbolts are stallions, as is the doctor who treats Rainbow Dash in Read It And Weep. Oh, and it goes without saying that Flim and Flam are dicks.
Yet the CMC all have names, when their schtick is that they don’t have cutie marks yet. The marks manifest late enough that it’s not practical for them to go without names until then.
You could argue, I suppose, that they are given temporary names prior to getting their marks, and may or may not change them when the mark manifests. However, we’ve seen several cutie mark manifestations, and none have been accompanied by a name change.
That doesn’t make any kind of sense within the show, though–all three of the CMC have names. You might argue that they get re-named after the cutie mark manifests, but Apple Bloom’s little friend Peppermint Twist didn’t seem to change her name when she got her cutie mark.
In the context of the toys, even the newborn ponies have cutie marks, so basing the name off the mark would make sense.
In the CUTIE MARK CHRONICLES flashbacks, Rarity and Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle all apparently had their names pre-Cutie-Mark, and it’s implied to have been the same for Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.
OK, I must be misremembering, then.
Yeah, my Brony daughters are a bit squicked about the difficult distinctions between boring cosplayers like them and the rather more…interesting furries at MLP:FIM cons. Can’t tell the players without a score card.
Am I a furry because I like MLP or am I a furry because I like looking at pictures of naked (humanized) pony girls? Why not both?
I heard there’s going to be a MLP spinoff called “Equestria Girls” were they’ll have the human counterparts of the MLP characters. I’ll watch it out of curiosity BUT I only continue to watch it if it’s interesting and funny. I don’t care if the characters are ponies or humans.