Heartfelt Thoughts

I've been meaning to share this rant here for a while now, and it's kind of sappy, but this is the time of year for mushy stuff anyway, so here we go.

I didn’t start watching Friendship is Magic until May of 2016, years after I first became aware of it, and I genuinely wish I had done so sooner. I was by no means expecting to fall for a series about cartoon horses quite as hard as I did; it’s brought me to the verge of happy tears more than once, and I don’t think I can say that about any other work of fiction I’ve ever experienced. It even inspired me to start working on a fanfic, despite the fact that I’ve never really fancied myself much of a writer.

What took me a while was figuring out what exactly made me love the show as much as I do. The characters are well-written, the setting is deep and full of lore, the showtunes are surprisingly catchy, and it’s all animated impressively well despite being done in Flash of all things… but though those are all certainly important, I think there’s one overarching element that really sealed the deal for me: the unabashed optimism.

We’ve all heard the phrase “virtue is its own reward,” and I’m sure most people just roll their eyes at it… but for a long time, I’ve believed it to be true. It’s certainly not always easy, and I’m by no means perfect, but I honestly think that if everyone shared that belief - that we should all do good purely for its own sake - then the world would be a much better place for everyone to live. MLP feels like a reaffirmation of that ideal - of the idea that values like charity, compassion, devotion, and integrity have the power to change the world. It’s an attitude I believe we all need to hold in our hearts, now more than ever.

That, I think, is why it inspires and resonates with me the way it does.

Happy Hearth's Warming, everypony.