Introducing Stephen Green’s newest OC pony, Sapphire Lollipop! She may be just a shy little earth pony, but she’s also Hoofington’s supreme confectioner! She’s won multiple awards for her culinary-candy expertise, and has collaborated with Ponyville’s prime party pony Pinkie Pie on several occasions. In her spare time, Sapphire likes to collect volleyballs and play with seashells.
Brilliant!
Been there
(Source: ask-vulpix)
please tell me this is bullshit
NO. Please no. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
That HAS to be bullshit
IT’S BIONICLE: THE MASK OF LIGHT ALL OVER AGAIN
THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING, YES!
Yes, obviously, this is a fabrication—obviously. I will say, however, that whoever trolled the Wikipedia page has a decent sense of humor. I LOL’ed at “Featured Song: ‘I’m actually Discord.’”
(Source: lunaanswers)
paleosteno asked: Really? You're dad's a professor at campbell university in NC? Do you live in NC? o.O
I don’t live in North Carolina, no—I’m currently in Nebraska. However, both of my parents do live in North Carolina, and I do get the chance to visit them every now and then. I actually spent one of those instances touring Campbell University. Here’s my dad’s Twitter account:
twitter.com/johnsone27546
He describes himself as a Southern Baptist and a conservative Republican. If you’ve ever met him, chances are he was handing you a free Bible in his capacity as a Gideon. (He’s aware of my differing ideological opinions, but we get along fine anyway.)
Here’s a funny story: I didn’t realize he was still checking his Twitter account and following me when I tweeted a link to your narration of my “Why Pinkie Pie is Wrong” post. I was talking to him over the phone one day, and in the course of the conversation, he casually mentioned he watched the video—and he thought it was pretty good, because he thought it being critical of psychic phenomena, which he doesn’t believe in. It’s funny how people can be receptive to skepticism only when they think it doesn’t apply to their own particular belief.
In any case, my dad’s introduction to the brony phenomenon was the sound of your voice, so I thought you would be amused to hear that.
And speaking of travel: It looks Bronycon won’t be happening for me this year. Maybe next time.
Have a great day.
Pony Discussion 1 - Why We Love My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (by PaleoSteno)
Well? What are you waiting for? Go subscribe to my youtube channel.
Though seriously, I’m waiting for the subscriber count to go over at least 500 so I can start a new series about Friendship Is Magic and the fan community involving some pretty deep discussions, and I’m going to need…
Audience participation FTW.
While I agree with some factors of the discussion here (such as the idea of promoting the scientific method to attempt to discern what’s going on), there’s also something I have to add on the matter.
Okay, so first off, I think this episode is best seen as part of a pair. The message actually becomes clearer when juxtaposed with an earlier episode, “Bridle Gossip”. In “Bridle Gossip”, the residents of Ponyville, except for Twilight, believe the zebra Zecora to be the equivalent of a Voodoo priestess. They fear and shun her because she’s different, believing that she’ll put a hex on them. Throughout the episode, even Twilight’s skepticism wanes, and she starts to believe that Zecora has cursed her, too, but it turns out that everything could be explained by rational means all along. Zecora becomes their friend.
“Feeling Pinkie Keen” presents a very similar idea, but turned on its head: Twilight is skeptical about something everyone else believes. Over the course of the episode, she gives into the belief. Unlike in “Bridle Gossip”, though, she chooses to believe in Pinkie’s “powers”. The skepticism leaves and never returns.
This seems to be a contradictory message, until you examine further into it. In “Bridle Gossip”, the seemingly supernatural event is a harmful one, a curse. Believing that it is a curse and not questioning causes the ponies to fear and shun Zecora. Their false beliefs cause them to hurt someone else. Compare this to religious views in the real world that take faith and use it to fuel the fires of prejudice. Friendship is Magic warns against this. That’s wonderful.
There’s a big difference between that and the theme of “Feeling Pinkie Keen”, though. Twilight’s skepticism comes across as hostility toward her friend. She immediately disregards what Pinkie says because she doesn’t believe it. The biggest difference here, though, is that Pinkie’s “power” isn’s harmful to anyone. On the contrary, it’s actually helpful. It is an intuition that allows Pinkie to predict when bad or harmful things will happen, and give caution to help her friends avoid being hurt. Twilight, by her skepticism, actually gets herself hurt, and if Pinkie weren’t so thick-skinned, it would hurt Pinkie’s feelings, as well.
In other words, the combined message of the episodes is this: If it hurts someone else to believe blindly, then be skeptical. Do not let your beliefs blind you to the good in others. However, it’s sometimes okay to have faith, and if someone tells you to get out of the way because you’ll get hurt, it doesn’t freaking matter how they know. If it could get you hurt NOT to believe, sometimes it really IS better to believe than to be skeptical. It’s better to be cautionary than to be crushed by a falling piano as you ask, “but HOW do you know?”
I also want to bring up the other half of the lesson here: There’s a fine line between too much faith, or too much skepticism. What people need is a balance between the two, and a little bit of common sense to figure out which is which. I think the video above leans on the side of “too skeptical”, and here’s why: There was a definite hint of hostility toward anything faith-based in the video. It made the automatic assumption that powers like Pinkie’s are always untrue.
Here’s what’s wrong with that, whether you believe or not: The second you automatically start discrediting others’ beliefs because you don’t agree with them, (especially when YOU don’t have any proof that THEY are wrong, either, other than your own skepticism) you’re just being a dick, especially when that other person’s beliefs aren’t hurting anyone (or, in Pinkie’s case, actually helping the other ponies). Twilight was in the wrong for being skeptical like she was, because she was hostile about it. She didn’t go, “Hey, Pinkie. You’re my friend, but I don’t understand how you know these things. Do you mind if I study you to try and figure out how?” Her scientific testing of Pinkie wasn’t to discover how she was doing it. It was to prove Pinkie wrong and herself right.
THAT is what the episode was really trying to get at. It is wrong to immediately discredit your friends if they don’t provide you evidence that what they say is true. I do agree that it would have been nice to hear a line where Twilight said she’d like to keep studying Pinkie’s abilities, but overall, I don’t think the episode was harmful, because it was NOT an episode about blind faith. It was an episode about trusting your friends, and, in a lot of ways, about tolerance of others’ beliefs.
Also, remember guys: This is a show about anthropomorphic ponies, with magical unicorns and flying pegasi. Pinkie’s abilities aren’t the strangest thing to come out of it. Pinkie’s also established as a fourth-wall breaking wild card. It’s in character, and they used this gag to teach a lesson about tolerance.
Thanks for taking the time to provide this thorough, well-thought-out rebuttal. I’ll do my best to address your points.
While I agree that you shouldn’t attempt to “immediately discredit” or become hostile towards a friend because of a difference of belief, I also think that you should refrain from believing any claim—regardless of the source—until sufficient evidence is provided. In the case of “Feeling Pinkie Keen,” Twilight Sparkle had enough evidence to believe Pinkie Pie. She should have believed her because of that—the evidence. However, Pinkie Pie instructs her to “choose to believe” and “take a leap of faith” rather than to think critically and follow the evidence. That is my problem with the lesson of the episode.
You may very well be right when you suggest that the episode is not about blind faith but about trusting your friends and tolerating others’ beliefs. However, even if this is the case, I don’t think it’s a good lesson. “Think for yourself” would be a much better message than “trust your friends.” Our friends and our family can be misled. My parents formed my beliefs early on in my life, and I trusted them; but once I began thinking for myself, many of those beliefs changed. I shouldn’t have been so trusting. Even with the people closest to you, it is better to be skeptical.
As for the issue of tolerance, it depends on what you mean. I certainly don’t believe in being hostile, but if someone you know is wrong about something, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to share your perspective.
You said my argument was “too skeptical” and “made the automatic assumption that powers like Pinkie’s are always untrue.” I wouldn’t “automatically” assume that a power like extrasensory perception, for example, is untrue. The reason I don’t believe it because there is no evidence to support it. If we had enough evidence to warrant belief in extrasensory perception, then I would believe. Likewise, Twilight Sparkle should have believed in Pinkie Sense because the evidence was there.
I also wanted to address this comment: “…especially when YOU don’t have any proof that THEY are wrong.” There is a distinction to be made between not believing and positively affirming a claim is false. To borrow a popular example, I can’t unequivocally disprove the existence of an incorporeal, invisible dragon living in my garage, but it’s reasonable to refrain from belief in such a thing—at least until enough evidence is provided to support it. It would require a substantial amount, however, because extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
As you mentioned in your last paragraph, in a world of magical unicorns and flying pegasi, a phenomenon like Pinkie Sense may not be so extraordinary. Again, it all comes down to the evidence, which is why I was disappointed the writer of “Feeling Pinkie Keen” chose to emphasize faith instead.
I can boil the argument down to just one word: OPINION.
Simple, explainable, and open enough for everyone to accept/understand.
I might go into this topic at a later time in my life, hopefully you are there to hear me out.
Yep, I’m here and I hear you. I’ll be happy to discuss if you have anything else to add.
