Episodes One and Two: The Mare in the Moon

And so a legacy was born.

With this episode, I would like to focus on three topics. First, this episode, as well as the series, can be understand best through the lens of archetypes, an idea first espoused by Carl Jung. In addition, this episode sets up a number of motifs, which provide plenty of material for discussion. As with all motifs, understanding them creates knew insights into the series. Lastly, and possible most importantly, I would like to force you to sit through a short discourse on magic, as well as the vitally important thematic message held within the title.

Archetypes, as described by Carl Jung, are universally understandable characters, sequences, colors, or images, which each have their individual associations. For example, the color black is identified with evil, darkness, and corruption.

However, within the terms of this show, the most important archetypes are character archetypes. Each of the six mane character represents a standard archetype, and has a counter-character that represents the opposite.

Twilight Sparkle represents the archetype of the studious researcher, who subjugates all other personal desires and creates powerful inhibitions in order to continue research and accumulate knowledge. This can be seen even in her appearance, notably her hair, which one might note is brushed perfectly strait, and her normally calm, even voice. Her mane is purple, a color long associated with knowledge and power, two things which these episodes set her up as having.

Often to the initial disappointment of the character, a studious researcher archetype is doomed to character development. Archetypes are so universally identifiable because they represent something within all of us, and unfortunately for the researcher archetype, she represents a failing. Humans are, above else, social creatures, and the destruction of these social desires is seen as a human failing. Such a failing is part of the menace of the lich, a creature who was once human, but subjugated the most human part of itself for its research: its ability to die. As all archetypes that represent a human shortcoming, both must be changed into a purer form. For the lich, this means death and damnation, because a lich cannot be saved. However, Twilight Sparkle can be changed, and as such learns the value of friendship.

Indeed, Twilight Sparkle is analogous of the "Gygaxian" wizard, as first created in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. A compilation of the Tolkien wizard and the "Vancian" wizard from the Dying Earth series and similar stories, the "Gygaxian" wizard is different because it begins the story as a withdrawn figure, seemingly doomed to be lost among books, but eventually must come to open up to the party, and thereby learn the magic of friendship.

This largely developed from the fact that if the wizard of the party failed to work with the fighter, protector of the weaker party members, and the cleric, the party healer, they would die extremely quick. A wizard would usually have no more than 4 or 5 hit points at first level, not advance in hit points or defenses quickly at all, and was extremely easy to hit and kill. Still, that doesn't mean that the thematic influence is any less important.

As stated earlier, each character has an opposite, a counter-character. For Twilight, the intelligent but socially cold researcher, is Pinkie Pie, the inhibitionless, excitable party pony. From her cutie mark to her color, everything about this pony says FUN! Also, Pinkie Pie, as a crazy character, is the only pony with the ability to access things like hammer-space, the ability to hold things in spaces they shouldn't belong, and teleportation to the most humorous locations available.

Besides being enjoyable to watch, having this lovable partier archetype presents an interesting situation. Should anything negative happen to Pinkie Pie, the viewer will enter a depression. Characters like Pinkie Pie are considered "comic relief", because they're hilarious characters used to diffuse overly emotional scenes. This allows the other characters to draw up more emotion without being accused of overacting. However, when something bad happens to the comic relief, the viewer becomes depressed. The reason for this is that the comic relief archetype is representative of all things good and lovable about the world. Without the character, a darker shade falls over all the scenes she would otherwise be in, and does an excellent job of creating a sense of depression in the viewer.

Applejack is a very interesting archetype: the farmer archetype. The farmer archetype is often suspicious, but is also often the most reliable, honest character. This archetype is represented in her profession, but also goes deeper than that. For example, orange, the color of Applejack's fur, is archetypal for stability and a certain reliability.

The farmer archetype is actually one of the oldest archetypes. The first step upon the path of creating a sociology complex enough to contain universal archetypes is agriculture, the ability to stably and safely produce enough food for everyone without having to employ everyone in the production of food. Whenever a society experiences an agricultural revolution, it is often followed by a cultural revolution, as a large spike of new thinkers is introduced into the cultural pool. Eventually, these thinkers are absorbed into the middle class, and carry their ideals throughout a culture.

Applejack's counter-character is Rarity. Rarity, a pompous fashion designer, is a form of the cultured aristocrat archetype, a form stuck in (and dissatisfied by) a small town and/or rural environment. Much like Twilight, Rarity is doomed to character change from the very beginning. A viewer simply cannot stand the idea of a pompous aristocrat for too long, because the pompous attitude is considered to be a failing of the human social drive, the core of all archetype development. That's why books like Pride and Prejudice

One might note that their are other cultured aristocrat archetypes, but they tend to not make likable characters. However, one royal archetype that is likable is that of the benevolent ruler, found in Princess Celestia. Another archetype that is used, the counter character to Princess Celestia, is the malevolent ruler, embodied in Nightmare Moon. The malevolent ruler is also almost exclusively an autocrat.

The heroic sports archetype is claimed by Rainbow Dash. As with all characters in her archetype, Rainbow Dash represents the desire to succeed, a universal desire. We root for her to succeed at her sports and feels bad when she fails because she is such a noble character. The most accurate counter-character to Rainbow Dash would be the devious sports archetype, a character who cheats at sports and competitions to win. The viewer finds himself rooting against the character, and we rejoice at the character's failures. While the heroic sports archetype represents a competitive drive tempered by a moral code, the devious sports archetype represents a competitive drive that has grown too strong and overridden the moral code, the "superego".

The heroic sports character is originally based off of the knight in shining armor archetype. With the death of chivalry during the Hundred Year's War, people couldn't put the same moral bravery into soldiers, who came to represent different things. In order to mend this, people turned to the next most violent yet justifiable thing: sports. Over time, the knight in shining armor became the sports player in your colors. This competition element grew with the rise of nationalism, which split people along country, "state", and town lines. The devious sports archetype grew out of the evil knight, who had subjugated the moral code for success, in this case military success and power over others.

The protagonist counter-character of the bold sports archetype, and therefore Rainbow Dash, is the shy gentle archetype, impersoned in Fluttershy. Fluttershy represents shyness, which is yet another failure of the human social drive. As such, Fluttershy is doomed to character change, character change that will make her a more outgoing character. Unlike Twilight Sparkle and Rarity's character change, this character change must take place over a far longer amount of time, because if it goes too fast we miss the important value of having a shy character at all.

The number one benefit of putting a shy character into the series is that shyness is connected with vulnerability. Seeing ourselves in Fluttershy, we connect with her on an emotional level, and therefore open our emotions up. When Fluttershy succeeds, we feel wonderful, because we see ourselves succeeding. However, when Fluttershy is hurt, we feel hurt, because we see in it ourselves getting hurt.

Motifs are much like archetypes, and often archetypes are used as motifs. A motif is a property, like a color, or a thing, like a location, that has a specific meaning within the context of the show (or book, or play). There are two motifs that stand alone in this show that I would like to discuss, namely stars and rainbows. Many motifs can only be fully understood in their opposite, as they represent opposites of each other. The two pairs I want to discuss are day and night, and Equestria and the Everfree Forest.

Stars are an important and often overlooked archetype in this show. However, they have the greatest impact within this episode. The Elements of Harmony are presented in the introductory story as gems embedded in stars, in a pattern that is almost exactly the same as the pattern on Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark, a single star surrounded by five smaller stars. The stars represent the effects of friendship, as they hang in the night sky as the only thing in opposition to the moon, a symbol connected with Nightmare Moon, who represents the power of hatred. Note that the magic of friendship overcomes the magic of hatred, and in doing so becomes even more powerful, just as the stars shine more brightly when the moon is not in the sky.

One might note that the stars come into importance at one other time in the series. On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars allow Nightmare Moon to escape from the moon. What, or more accurately who, these stars represent is still under question, and will hopefully be revealed later in the show.

A rainbow in the series represents an immensely powerful discharge of energy. When the ponies use the elements of harmony, it creates a rainbow to destroy Nightmare Moon, and when Rainbow Dash pulls off a sonic rainbow later the series, it is a sonic boom, a large blast of energy, accompanied by a rainbow. Rainbow Dash's mane is colored in a Rainbow, and represents the amazing speed and sharp turns she manages to pull off, which require amazing amounts of energy.

Rainbow Dash's mane has nothing to do with her sexuality. In fact, her sexuality is not important. If I ever tell you that Rainbow Dash is lesbian, unless this has been set up in the show, you will know that I've been killed and replaced.

Day and night, light and dark, sun and moon, are all part of a pair of motifs. This ancient archetypal motifs represents good and evil, and for good reason. When the sun is out, one can see, and plants grow. However, most crops will wither and die without sunlight, and the shadows of night are often indistinguishable from evil things trying to kill and eat us. For example, while Nightmare Moon's design is full of black, the only black on Princess Luna's design is her eyes.

Equestria and Everfree Forest are an interesting dichotomy with interesting social and political implications. Equestria is represented as a place with "harmony for all the land", while the Everfree Forest is considered to be "dreadful" and not "natural". However, the harmony is put in place by the royalty, especially Princess Celestia and, to a smaller degree, Princess Luna. The rule of Princess Celestia is notably like that of an enlightened ruler. She tells people how things are and are not, and expects complete deference from her subjects. While she is unlikely to meddle in the matters of others, preferring to watch and collect information, she will act with surprising harshness when challenged. One example of her style of rule is that the only book that contains the fact that Nightmare Moon is about to escape is Predictions and Prophecies. The book she's reading when the story begins tells that Nightmare Moon was banished permanently. The idea that rulers should use knowledge that is hidden from the people was believed in by the Enlightenment philosophes.

In contrast, the Everfree Forest has people who do everything by themselves. This system represents anarchy. Instead of being ruled through an extensive bureaucracy, like the plants and animals are controlled by the ponies in Equestria, the plants and animals in the Everfree Forest fight for the power and right to exist. By setting up this dichotomy, the creators of the show seem to state that the only alternative to anarchy is a enlightened monarchy.

Magic is another motif, connected with hatred and friendship. Gary Gygax, besides revolutionizing the gaming genre, also set up a systematic organization of active magic. Active magic can be organized into three categories: inherent magic, divine magic, and arcane magic.

Inherent magic is the magic that recides within someone because of their species. This exists in the show, as all unicorns are able to use a small degree of telekinesis, usually related to their cutie mark.

Divine magic is magic that is derived from the blessing of a higher power, essentially magic installed in peopleonies from a god or demon's inherent magic. Divine magic is not really an issue in this show, because nopony has magic given to them from blessings.

Arcane magic is magic that must be studied or taught in order to use and control. In this show, very few ponies have arcane magic. In fact, the only ponies with arcane magic are Twilight Sparkle and Trixie. Twilight's magic is fueled by friendship, and therefore becomes far more powerful. More on that later.

People who are familiar with the works of Gary Gygax would incorrectly try to correct me on two points. If you really couldn't care less for arguments on the semantics of a game you may never even have played or even heard of, scroll down past the next two paragraphs. First, arcane magic does not have to come from study, they would say. They would say that sorcerers and warlocks also use arcane magic. I would tell them that the reasons for this are to create a sensible and easy to explain gaming experience. Sorcerers should be using inherent magic, but the designers didn't have the time or money to design inherent magic in addition to divine and arcane magic. Warlocks should be using divine magic, but the designers wanted to separate the powers granted by gods and by demons to create different encounters. A group of players wouldn't want to fight both an evil cleric and warlock if they have the same spells, so to prevent too much spell overlap, the designers made warlocks use divine magic.

The same people would rule that psychic magic is a fourth category, separate from the other three. To that, I would tell them that psychic characters should be using inherent magic, seeing as how it comes from their lineage, but since inherent magic was never laid out like divine and arcane magic, they couldn't go back on this without people wondering why sorcerers use arcane magic. Psychic magic is just inherent magic set up in spell form. I would then kindly but forcefully ask them to leave.

Welcome back, everyone who skipped the last two paragraphs!

These categories describe active magic, magic with a definable source. Active magic tends to do things like defy gravity and teleport people and things places. However, it's opposite is destiny, fate. For this blog, I will be using the term latent magic to describe such magic. Humans feel a natural desire to discover the source of things, and therefore latent magic was replaced in legends with the works of gods, and later explained by science.

Latent magic has importance, however, in explaining the implications of the statement friendship is magic.

Twilight can draw magic from her friendship, making her spells more powerful. However, the inverse effect can also happen, but not active magic. Friendship itself is formed of magic, but more specifically latent magic. In other words, the people you are friends with are the people you are destined to be friends with.

That is the true friendship of magic.