Okay, here’s my rant about the My Little Pony lore. And maybe someone has brought this up before, but I’m about to bring it up again.
For all those people that are like “Why is AJ the element of honesty, she lies sometimes?” or, more often, “Why is RD the element of loyalty, she’s super independent and ditches her friends all the time?”, I need to remind you of two things:
1) Like Twilight, every one of them is LEARNING how to best use their element. They don’t just come out knowing how to be perfect personifications of virtue.
2) There are many different ways the elements can present, not just the shallow interpretations that we usually have.
So let’s go through the Mane Six, shall we?
Twilight Sparkle is the element of magic. Magic in this universe is a scholarly subject, with entire schools dedicated to it. Twilight is very academically gifted, and has natural talent, but no practical knowledge of using that magic outside of a classroom. That’s why she can’t imagine making or needing friends — because academic magic is competitive and is studied alone. Therefore, like an academic musician, she knows all the scales and notes, but she hasn’t had the freedom to express them, leading to a severe gap in her magical knowledge. Therefore, her element is flawed, and she has to learn about teamwork and “field use” — as well as friendship — in Ponyville.
Fluttershy is the element of kindness. Of course, hers is the most obvious: she takes care of animals, has a soft voice, and, especially in the beginning, has trouble standing her ground. But, despite her sweet nature, she shows unkindness in different ways. She isn’t kind to herself, and doesn’t express her desires. She sometimes doesn’t think of the long term consequences when she enables creatures to stunt their growth, like with Zephyr and the Breezies. If she feels like she is not needed or if her kindness is not getting her anywhere, she loses her temper, like at the Great Galloping Gala. Throughout the series, she slowly starts to let her boundaries be known, has expectations of growth, and is more willing to cut someone off if they are not respecting her (like Discord). But, even after she learns more and more about showing real kindness, she doesn’t purely express her element 100% of the time.
Pinkie Pie is the element of fun. She is Ponyville’s party pony, and is really good at it. She makes ponies laugh, is good at cheering ponies up, and is generally a, well, fun pony to be around! However, the main gripe with her is that she doesn’t really know when to come down. She thinks that wild happiness should be a default state, which means that when it comes to comforting other ponies, listening to their boundaries, or doing quiet activities don’t come easily to her because they aren’t “fun”. Let’s just say she’s great at throwing a party, but not so good at cleaning it up afterward, even if it is a natural part of having said party. But this also means she can be a bit of a people pleaser, feeling like she’s failing or useless if she can’t make people happy, even if there are other ways to connect. Luckily, she is able to learn more about empathy in the coming episodes, even if she still remains a little chaotic.
Rarity is the element of generosity. Though it’s not as obvious as some of the others, I feel this still fits her well. She is always willing to devote time and materials to make clothes for her friends, even to a fault (such as when she overextended herself trying to make perfect dresses for them). What she’s not so generous with, however, is with her acceptance. What do I mean? Well, this may be a bit far-fetched, but Rarity is not very giving when it comes to giving certain things a chance. When something is hers, she gives it away with no issue. But she has trouble allowing her thoughts to be more “generous”, or all-encompassing. She thinks, both with fashion and other things, that there’s only one way to do it. She tries to gentrify an Indian restaurant. She dresses Yona for a dance to make her more pony-like. She has a general dislike for things that aren’t chic or fancy. So, on this way, she is generous with material things, but not with her world view. But this does change, as Yona becomes the owner of her shop. But still, that doesn’t make her element perfect, and she makes mistakes well into the later seasons.
Now, to one of the more controversial ponies, Applejack, who’s the element of honesty. She is not only usually honest with her words (though she occasionally lies, like everyone), but she believes in honest work. She believes in making a good product, living a good life, and supporting those that she loves. She doesn’t want shortcuts, she doesn’t want wealth, she just wants to do her part. You know what kind of honesty she’s bad at, though? Introspection. In other words, she’s not honest with herself. She works herself past her breaking point by ignoring her needs, doesn’t investigate certain personal habits (like needing to do a list of useless things to complete a task), and she has a certain sense of pride that she doesn’t want tarnished, and will lie to keep it up (like when she lied about coming in second in all those contests). The only reason she was ever dishonest is to keep things how she believes they should be, and honest, simple life where she is the provider. That’s why she’s “too eager to please” in “Flawless” — she will do anything to please her family and keep up her parental image, even if it’s against her previous morals. She does improve (though I don’t think she’s as explored as the others), but she isn’t flawless by a long shot (which is why I hate she had that “physically unable to lie” thing for a while).
Now for the “mane” event, and the whole reason I made this post: Rainbow Dash, element of loyalty. And you know what, I get it. She is fiercely independent, has ditched her friends, and seems to be doing things in her best interest all the time. BUT! Loyalty can be expressed in other ways. You know who RD is loyal to? RAINBOW DASH. That’s why she’s so stubborn and self-sufficient. Because she stays loyal to not only herself, but to her ideas and goals, like being in the Wonderbolts. That’s why her threatening to quit the team in one episode is important — because it’s pitting two ideas that she’s loyal to against each other: that she’s meant for the Wonderbolts, and that other ponies are most important. And that is the turning point for her obvious flaw, the constant battle between her stubbornness and her moral compass. Because she is so loyal to herself, she often forgets to be loyal to other people, especially her friends. She can ignore or forget their needs, dash off to do activities she likes more, or put her need to be cool above being a good friend. She does swoop in when things get really tough, and she her friends are still very important to her, but she is not great at showing it. She’s better at big, grand shows of loyalty than constant, less exciting loyalty, especially in the beginning of the series. But, as discussed above, she does get better at this, even if she is never a perfect embodiment of loyalty.
Thank you for coming to my Purebred-Talk.
