Are the Elements of Harmony misnamed or even really friendship inducing? · 4:59am Jul 28th, 2016
Welp, time for another rant, previous one was on how the Equestrian security system sucked, but now to deconstruct something that has been bugging me for a long while.
The Elements of Harmony, named after the key parts of friendship in their individual parts, are these magical elements really the elements of friendship however? If you read the title I've been thinking they are misnamed. To start the argument off on a more standard note, lets start with the definition of harmony as from urban dictionary.
har·mo·ny
ˈhärmənē/Submit
noun
1.
the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions having a pleasing effect.
"four-part harmony in the barbershop style"
synonyms: euphony, polyphony
2.
agreement or concord.
"man and machine in perfect harmony"
synonyms: accord, agreement, peace, peacefulness, amity, amicability, friendship, fellowship, cooperation, understanding, consensus, unity, sympathy, rapport, like-mindedness
At first glance, the word friendship is indeed included in the synonyms for the second definition of harmony, though it doesn't necessarily prove that these elements are indeed the major parts of 'friendship'. Lets take a look at their effects with the definition of harmony in mind. Starting from the earliest villain they were used against, Nightmare Moon.
One of the first and near last villains in the show to be hit with the elements of harmony directly. In the first episode we are treated to why Luna became Nightmare Moon in the first place. This is heard in the tale of two sisters at the start of the show. Despite calling the alicorn sisters unicorns when their art depicts them as alicorns, it brings up a rather controversial point.
"But as time went on, the younger sister became upset. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her but the bitterness in the young ones heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness. Nightmare Moon. She vowed she would shroud the land in eternal night. Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to pony kind, the elements of harmony. Using the elements of harmony she banished her younger sister, banishing her permanently in the moon."
Aside from the story being contradicted by the stars aiding in Luna's escape in another book, or the later remake of the scene with the magic white juice where they had to return to that history for a short period of time...
The Elements of Harmony have had a few effects over the course of the show.
With Luna, or Nightmare Moon it started with a thousand year banishment that was aided by the stars to escape, when it would of been otherwise, well, forever. This was more of a punishment than a cure. One thousand years of solitude confinement, enough to drive anyone insane and back. We know Nightmare moon was aware of her confinement as well the entire time with comments such as "Did you not see the signs?" back in the first episode. The reason for confinement was because of the amount of fight and devotion to her cause a newly made Nightmare Moon had given, during their fight after all the rainbow laser even struggled for a short bit before banishing Luna, overpowering her, but not so much as to outright change her mindset. This mindset which leads to the second type of use by the elements of harmony.
Flat out mind rape.
Don't believe me? Lets look into the definition of Harmony and compare it to what it does in the show. The second definition is more fitting here than the musical term, as 'Agreement or Concord'. What the Elements of Harmony does however, is not either. Agreement can easily be defined as an arrangement that is accepted by all parties to a transaction. Ie: I agree with you, that eternal night could bring the end to the worlds ecosystem.
What the elements of harmony does however, in the show, is forcibly change the victims mindset. Kindness, Loyalty, Honesty, Laughter, Generosity aren't even in here, the only thing it uses is the primary element of friendship. Magic (My little pony, friendship IS magic). This could of been easy to show with the poneis bringing their best traits to the fore to teach nightmare moon that eternal night is not the right answer, but instead we get an effect that has been abused by none other than the element of magic herself as well.
This is where we go to the sub point of the element of Magic's bearer, Twilight Sparkle. Who commits what many could consider, an extinction level event to not one but two entire species had her plan been successful. Once to the Parasprites and again to the Vampire Fruitbats. Apparently, judging from Twilight Sparkle, it is an accepted and common practice to cause species to starve to death by changing their diet forcibly against their will. Which involves magic changing the inner working of a species mind. Starting to sound familiar? I'd hope so considering this same tactic was used against the villains of our show.
Nightmare Moon was forcibly changed to view her actions as morally wrong against her will and to reach the extreme conclusion of agreement that her actions were wrong. This effect was so strong that in 'do princesses dream of magic sheep?' she was revealed to be hurting herself mentally with dreams of what could happen if she became Nightmare Moon again. The difference between then and now, as to why her banishment wasn't reinstated however, was because one thousand years of isolation has one hell of a kick to someponies resolve.
This effect can also mildly be seen in Luna's face in the second episode of the first season as she has a look of terror on her face when she sees her sister, before crying for their reunion and that she isn't going to be banished again thanks to her benevolence.
With all this in mind, we have two strong points from the elements of harmony, 'imprisonment' and 'violation of opinion' and we can now move onto the second villain to be hit with their direct effects. Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony.
The Elements of 'Harmony' could be considered his polar opposite if they were true to their name. However, Discord isn't just a spirit of Disharmony, but chaos, and he often forgets to mention the 'disharmony' part in favor of the chaos part shortening him down to Discord, Spirit of Chaos. Keep in mind however, that chaos is what causes harmony to have a chance to exist in the first place, since an agreement is an arrangement between two different viewpoints. Something that these elements already refuse to condone with their forcible change of opinions.
With this argument a theoretical expression that best fits. "An unstoppable object meets an unmovable force, what happens?" Theoretically, speaking they phase through each other. Likewise the elements of harmony and discord shouldn't be able to directly affect the avatars of each others as far as to neutralize them, no? However, this is not the case. When Elements met spirit, Spirit lost by a landslide and became a solid statue, another form of imprisonment and isolation with similar repercussions to Nightmare Moon. However the Elements were never able to change their opposites mindset because they lacked something that fluttershy had in common with Discord as a whole, the ability to cooperate.
This is where the misnaming of the elements seem to occur very strongly, for instead of acting harmoniously to find a similar mindset between two separate beings, and befriend Discord, it tries to outright neutralize him, or even attempted to kill him. However, as far as it can go, nothing it did lands a long lasting(by an immortals time span anyway) on it. This effect can hint towards the Elements true nature, which will be referenced later on in this rant. This interaction with disharmony and chaos however cements that the elements can't live up to their name by basic mechanics go however, as we move into another use, an indirect one, but still a strong villain.
Welcome he who stole pony magic, and tricked the spirit of chaos to blindly following his lies, Tirek, every-ponies least and most favorite canon centaur of the series.
Lord Tireks interaction with Twilight Sparkle was the closest that came to 'Harmony' (Keeping in mind that harmony doesn't necessarily mean good or evil since it isn't in the above description). An agreement for the release of Twilight's friends in exchange for her magic which lead to the concord of losing her magic in exchange for said friends.
At this point, Harmony should, by its name sake, when hitting Twilight Sparkle, restore everyponies magic taken by force except for hers and the princesses, which were each given voluntarily to Tirek. Instead, it forces all the stolen magic out, and restores them to their proper owners. Which seals the fate of the misnaming to its true state.
The Elements of Harmony should of been named The Elements Of Order.
Each conflict has been resolved by force, not by managing the chaos to find an agreement. This is not friendmaking, it is forceful reprogramming and redistribution of rights in order to cause a singular effect. Perfect Order. Lets look to the definition of Order before progressing further.
Order
or·der
ˈôrdər/Submit
noun
1.
the arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method.
"I filed the cards in alphabetical order"
synonyms: sequence, arrangement, organization, disposition, system, series, succession
2.
an authoritative command, direction, or instruction.
"he was not going to take orders from a mere administrator"
synonyms: command, instruction, directive, direction, decree, edict, injunction, mandate, dictate, commandment, rescript
verb
1.
give an authoritative direction or instruction to do something.
"she ordered me to leave"
synonyms: instruct, command, direct, enjoin, tell, require, charge
2.
request (something) to be made, supplied, or served.
"my friend ordered the tickets last week"
synonyms: request, apply for, place an order for
In each instance, Order had to be restored from chaos of the events happening at large. Nightmare Moon's chaos that would of ensured if Eternal Night had lasted (Ie: Death of all plant life from lack of sun, and eventual starvation of all herbivores and then carnivores.), Discords chaos uprooting the daily orderly lives of its residents, and Tirek all but stealing everything that makes a pony special with their magic, only to restore that order back by ripping it out of him and giving it all back to their rightful and needed owners. This order is so perversive, that the natural working of the world itself is in jeopardy as now ponies actually have to manually change the seasons in order for the seasons to happen at all. Instruction has to be given to even basic wildlife since with this order they don't even need to hunt, just go to their local master to be given instruction and care.
To those who miss the point of that last sentence, go meet a bear, and see if it gives you a hug when you try to give it a back massage.
Nature simply doesn't work that way.
As my ranting continues, I feel as though I'm missing the main point in all this ranting. To finalize the nail in the coffin, lets take a look at the objectives the map, an extension of the tree of 'harmony' and thus the elements of 'harmony', has offered so far.
*The Reconstruction of the monarchy through Gilda in the Griffin town episode.
*The Restoration of a park in Manehatten through public awareness. (Ie: Restoring order to a disorderly park.)
*The End of a war of disagreements by reminding the war torn sides that they wanted to give order to the local widlife and provide for them, just like the rest of Equestria.
*Acting as a Tardis to all possible chaotic timelines should it's will be defied... I guess (thanks Starlight Shimmer- I mean Glimmer)...
*The restoration of true order to a false ordered town (Hi again Glimmer.)
I sincerely hope that the point is enough for the rest to fall into place, and I await your comments to add to this line of ranting. Thanks again if you read all this. Had this rant going on for a few months and wanted to share what I thought. Just remember kids, with the Elements of Order Harmony, Friendship is Mandatory Magic!
Maybe now I can continue writing on those fics without having to argue with myself about this.
>Elements of Order Harmony, Friendship is Mandatory Magic!
I'd say that the elements are also connected to destiny. Cutie marks are linked to destiny (at least some of them), timelines are alternative destinies and the map is a diagnostic tool for destiny screws.
Which opens a really tough question of how much free will exists in Equestria.
4118298 Free will is not exactly the strong suit of the show, considering how the Elements have worked thus far though.
Sure it seems to be more towards the benevolent side of the alignment spectrum, but seriously traumatizing a princess, and giving a spirit a fate similar to a cockatrice stare seems a bit contradictory towards what they're supposed to represent.
It seems that the Elements of Harmony being misnamed has been given some weight considering one of the IDW comic villains is basically immune to them, so you might be onto something.
...I agree with this wholeheartedly.
4677962
4598845
You know, after the season finale I guess I can say I freakin' called it again. Dang it. First with the Sonata character with my avi's color scheme, then the Changelings wings glowing which was predicted from season 3 or so. Now this. Dang it Star Swirl the bearded.
This is slightly worrying when you remember this Is a show meant for little girls
I've had this exact thought once upon a time; the Elements of Harmony are, not only misnamed, but shouldn't be revered as the 'end-all-be-all' artifacts that can only do good. What they are, as a whole, is a weapon. A weapon that can be used by whoever wields them, as seen with what happened with Juniper Montage in that Equestria Girls special. But here's the thing about weapons; it's not the gun or spear that kills you...but the person behind it. Or, in this case, pony.
It could be that the Elements are simply acting on the desires of their wielder as best as they can. "Stop Nightmare Moon", "Stop Discord", "Stop the Pony of Shadows", all of these are extremely vague instructions that the ponies are, most likely, thinking at the time of use for the Elements. So, the artifacts act on these thoughts and....you get these mixed results that you mentioned. So, I think it's not really the Elements would she pointing fingers at....but the ponies themselves and how they define the word "harmony".
4843183
Also Sunset Shimmer was able to use the element of magic despite it being only for the 'mane six' to use as the chosen ones. This rule was also broken as Celestia also used them all against Luna when luna was in charge of at least half of them. Makes no sense why Spike couldnt use it in season 2
4842994
And let's not forget that some of the male cast are stupid(Snips and Snails), evil(Sombra and Tirek), useless(Shining Armor and Big Mac), or on the butt end of disproportionate slapstick(Spike).
...You know, I'm not liking this train of thought I'm having.
4843705
They're supposed to be "you can only use this one if you have enough of x virtue" things.
Which is fucked up, but I guess a mind-crush beam is less fucked up when only morally good ponies can use it.
4846646
I still consider it fucked up regardless of their moral alignment.
4847878
Well, put it this way. Who would you trust more with the ability to lobotomize people, Superman, or The Joker?
4847896
The former.
4847905
Dear Princess Celestia: I didn't learn anything! I was right all along!
4847986
god there was so much wrong with that episodes morales, in regards to having learned things. Though an interesting note is that you don't need the virtue in order to use it. Since Celestia used the Elements of Harmony v Luna when Luna was established to hold 3 of them. As well as Sunset Shimmer using Magic for Evil in EQG 1
4848621
EQG1 is noncanon like the Broly movies, and Luna and Celestia could use 3 each. When Luna lost sight of those virtues, Celestia had to use all six to banish her sister. But all she could do was seal ponies away, Twilight and her friends were needed to properly purify the pony princess.