St. Thomas on Friendship with Horses

St. Thomas and Rainbow Dash: Pony Friends Forever!

According to the Philosopher (Ethic. viii, 2,3) not every love has the character of friendship, but that love which is together with benevolence, when, to wit, we love someone so as to wish good to him. If, however, we do not wish good to what we love, but wish its good for ourselves, (thus we are said to love wine, or a horse, or the like), it is love not of friendship, but of a kind of concupiscence. For it would be absurd to speak of having friendship for wine or for a horse. -- Summa Theologiae, 2.2.23


I think Aquinas is right here that one cannot be friends with horses, since the usual equines we find lack the rationality humans have.  As creatures of reason, we can will the good of one another, as we can know what is good for us through the intellect. If others reciprocate this good will, what we have is friendship, mutual love. Nevertheless, one can indeed have affection for a horse, as one loves other faithful animal companions, like dogs.

However, St. Thomas never knew about the anthropomorphic ponies of Equestria from the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic show, for whom friendship, that is, willing the good of another, is sort of a big deal...

Fluttershy and the Virtue of Gentleness

Fluttershy the gentle pony

I'm not sure how I overlooked this post on the virtue of gentleness by Brandon. But the descriptions from Aquinas (ST 2.2.157) of gentleness as "the moderation of the passion of anger in accordance with right reason" and from Hugh Blair that it "makes us unwilling to give pain to any of our brethren" dovetail nicely with my own posts (Part 1 and 2) on Fluttershy and the virtue of friendliness (amiability).

When it comes to not wanting to cause pain to anypony, Fluttershy is a very good exemplar (her character description on Hasbro.com mentions her as the "gentle" member of the Mane Six). Of course, her tendency towards agreeability can sometimes become a vice; witness how she normally responds to disagreement:

I have to admit, my natural temperament isn't too dissimilar, especially when I consider how philosophical debate can sometimes become "blood sport." I wouldn't want to become an angry, disagreeable Nastyshy either, especially to my friends:

Perhaps someday I will let go of my timidity and find the mean.

MLP and the Virtues

A pretty interesting memetic summary of my MLP Virtue Ethics Project (HT: Christian Memes):

Of Union and Discord

Union/Harmony vs. Discord

This post by Brandon, part of his interesting "Poem a Day" series, is worth reading, especially for Bronies like me who are familiar with the magic of friendship and the dangers of Discord.

MLP: Friendship is Xenium

Brandon suggests we use the words "xenodochial" (friendliness towards strangers) and xenium (a gift for a guest) more often. So, today I thought I'd rewrite the description for the MLP: FiM episode "A Friend in Deed":

The Xenodochial Pinkie Pie tries to become friends with new Ponyville resident Cranky Doodle Donkey. However, the donkey absolutely refuses to become friends with her, no matter how hard Pinkie Pie tries by giving him xenium.

Xenodochial Pinkamena gives Cranky Doodle Donkey a xenium wig

If that's not enough over-the-top super-hyper antics for you, as a token of my xenodochial disposition I give you the "Welcome Song," the perfect xenium for all new visitors to your blog:

                                  

What is Friendship? Some Criteria from Aristotle

Obviously after two seasons, the Mane Six had plenty of time to bond after their rather rushed friendship-making in the first two episodes

According to Joshua W. Schulz's article "Kierkegaard's Tragic and Comic Lovers" in the Spring 2012 ACPQ, Aristotle considers a relationship to be a friendship only if it meets the following five conditions:

1. Each person recognizes some excellence in the other person.

2. Each person wishes well (some good) to the other person, for the other's sake, in respect of the excellence recognized in (1).

3. Both (1) and (2) are reciprocally known.

4. The relationship has developed over a sufficient period of time.

5. The friends have become familiar with each other, i.e., have been found lovable and trustworthy.

As I've written before, friendship requires a mutuality of love, of wishing and doing well by another, in addition to an equality of virtue (a common recognition and pursuit of the good), as can be seen in conditions 1-3. However, friendship requires some time for potential friends to get to know each other, for familiarity. As Aristotle says, a friend "lives with another and has the same tastes, or shares the same sorrows and joys with his friend" (NE, IX, 4). To know another person's character, whether their tastes match yours, is not usually something you can do with mere acquaintances you run into at school, work, or Facebook (where physical proximity usually doesn't enter the picture). Potential friends are in it for the long haul in order to build loyalty and trust.

Update: Of course, as Kevin Rossiter of the Facebook Thomistic Discussion Group reminds me, friendships of virtue contain elements from the other two kinds of friendship, utility and pleasure. Therefore, in the "perfect" friendship of virtue, friends are good (virtuous), useful and pleasant to be around.         

Friendship and Discord

States, it seems, are maintained by friendship; and legislators are more zealous about it than about justice. This is evident from the similarity between friendship and concord; but legislators most of all wish to encourage concord and to expel discord as an enemy of the state. If people are friends there is no need of justice, but just men do need friendship. Likewise what is just seems to be especially favorable to friendship. -- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1155

If you want harmony in your state, it's a good idea to get rid of this guy...

Applejack and the Virtue of Truthfulness: Part 1 (of 3)

         [As today is the feast of St. Augustine, whose definition of lying as "speaking falsely with the intent to deceive" I incline towards, I think it's fitting I begin my series on the virtue of honesty and the vice of lying.]                                        

                                                           Character Overview

Applejack

Applejack in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a country pony with a southern accent and like all the members of the Apple family (her brother Big Mac, her little sister Apple Bloom, and Granny Smith) AJ’s special talent is apple harvesting. Unlike her lazy friend Rainbow Dash, AJ is adamant about hard work (sometimes too much, as in her attempt to single-hoovfully buck all the apples in Sweet Apple Acres). AJ’s stubborn pride sometimes gets her into conflict with the other Mane Six (she won’t accept busybody Twilight’s help, she can’t get along with the prissy Rarity, she is extremely competitive with the athletic RD).

The Apple Family

Applejack also embodies the Element of Honesty. As the Hasbro.com description tells us, “Applejack would never stoop to tell a lie and this makes her a beacon for those seeking advice.”

"You've never told a lie? You honest, AJ?"

There a few episodes in the series in which Applejack's honesty comes into play and in these series of posts I'll focus on "Friendship is Magic: Part 2," "Party of One," The Return of Harmony: Part 2," and "The Last Roundup." In addition, I'll look at "Green isn't Your Color," which, while it doesn't feature AJ, still focuses on the importance of keeping promises.
                                             
                                                Applejack, Don't Lie to Me

We meet Applejack in the first episode of FiM. She invites the newcomer Twilight Sparkle to an Apple family reunion. AJ, of course, teams up with the rest of the Mane Six to look for the ancient pony castle to find the Elements of Harmony to defeat Nightmare Moon (my previous posts on FiM Episode 1 and 2).

In the Everfree Forest, amongst all the trials the new pony friends face, AJ emerges to show her quality: honesty. Twilight almost falls off a cliff, held only by AJ's hooves. Applejack tells Twilight to let go and promises she'll be safe. Being skeptical by temperament (and no doubt afraid of heights), Twilight asks AJ to honestly tell her if she means what she says. AJ responds that she's telling the "honest truth." Twilight decides to trust AJ and does indeed let go. Before she can hit the ground, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, both pegasi, catch Twilight. Therefore, Applejack is true to her word.

Long live the Princess...

Applejack does not appear in the episode "Green isn't Your Color," but her zany friend Pinkie Pie is a suitable substitute. Most of the episode is concerned with the dress designer Rarity’s attempts to gain the notice of Equestria’s famous fashion photographer Photo Finish. Rarity needs a fashion model and the closest candidate is the bashful pegasus Fluttershy. FS is initially reluctant (no surprise) but agrees to help.

While Rarity attempts to find the right dress for Fluttershy in Carousel Boutique, we see Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Spike (Twilight’s baby dragon assistant) mention one of the episode’s themes: keeping promises. Spike agrees to reveal a personal secret to Twilight and Pinkamena but tells them to promise to tell nopony else… He has a crush on Rarity! Twilight doesn’t seem willing at first to keep quiet but Pinky interjects. She tells Twilight that, “You promised Spike you wouldn't say anything. He trusts you. And losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend forever!” As if for emphasis, Pinky adds an emphatic, “FOREVER!”

After Photo Finish finishes her shoot, she announces that she intends to make Fluttershy, not Rarity, the new fashion star of Equestria. Rarity is visibly disappointed, but nevertheless tells her friend Fluttershy to promise not waste this opportunity at fame.

Forever!

However, alone in her thoughts, Rarity is still a bit jealous over not being picked to be Equestria's next top fashion model. After revealing her wish for Fluttershy to fail, Rarity makes Twilight promise not to tell FS. Fluttershy comes into the spa, missing Rarity's departure, and decides to confide a secret to Twilight, making TS promise not tell Rarity that she does not want to become a fashion star but only proceeds because of her promise to Rarity. Twilight desires to break her promise to Rarity and tell Fluttershy how Rarity really feels but stops after a side-glance from Pinky, the element of honesty in this episode.

Trying to unravel the tangle of promises, Twilight comes up with a plan: sabotage Fluttershy's fashion show, ruining her career and thus making it so that Rarity will no longer be jealous of FS. Of course, Twilight makes Pinky Pie promise not to tell anypony.

Twilight's plan goes well until Rarity arrives and uses her charm to sway the crowd into cheering for Fluttershy. Not only is FS back to square one, she's even more popular than before! Rarity walks in on Fluttershy and Twilight having a conversation in the dressing room. Twilight has to keep herself from breaking either of their promises. Luckily, both Rarity and Fluttershy finally reveal what they think to each other. Rarity is jealous of Fluttershy's success and wanted her to fail and Fluttershy never wanted to be a model in the first place. "If we just told each other the truth," Fluttershy says. Rarity and Fluttershy promise never to keep their feelings secret from each other again.

No more secrets between us...Wait, is that 'Lady Gaga' in the background?

Twilight eventually reveals Spikie's secret, but everypony already knows he likes Rarity, so nopony minds, though Twilight still apologizes to Spike anyway...

The episode "Party of One" tests Applejack's honesty as the Mane Six plan a surprise birthday party for Pinkie Pie. Of course, a surprise birthday party requires the birthday pony to be unaware of the party or, as Pinkie puts it, "then it wouldn’t be a surprise." Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack proceed to play a game of deception to keep Pinkamena in the dark while they plan the festivities. Unfortunately, Pinkie Pie plans a party the exact the same day (completely unaware of her own birthday) and is confused at her friends declining to attend and then avoiding her all day. All of the Mane Six offer an "excuse" (and avoid divulging the plan) for not coming to Pinkie's party, including AJ.

Why are all my friends lying to me today?

Pinkie Pie finally gets suspicious and follows RD (with birthday present in tow) to AJ's barn, where the Main Six are setting up the surprise party.  Of all ponies, AJ, the honest one, finds herself dealing with the Pinky at the door. Pinkamena asks AJ what the Mane Six are up to in the barn and AJ responds that they are doing some "construction" work, complete with fake sound effects. Frustrated by the evasiveness and lying of her friends, Pinky misinterprets the Mane Six's intentions to be no longer including her in their social circle (the end of their friendship) and, already being a little crazy to begin with, she edges ever closer to complete madness.

It's all fun and games until Pinkie loses it...

After literally being dragged all the way to AJ's barn by RD, Pinkie Pie accuses her friends of avoiding and lying to her to drive her from the group before finding out that the Mane Six planned to throw her a surprise birthday all along (hence her surprise!). RD also admits that the Mane Six lied but only to keep the surprise. Of course, Pinkie Pie isn’t exactly the moral exemplar of honesty herself… Anyway, Pinkie regains her sanity, the friends reconcile, and the Mane Six get down to serious party business as the episode ends.

Her blood lust sated, Pinkie has a good time at her surprise birthday party

[Next post I'll look at two episodes from season two, "Elements of Harmony P2" and "The Last Roundup, before finishing the series on honesty and lying with some help from Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas.]

Mark Shea on Friendship

The Catholic writer Mark Shea looks at the nature of friendship. Shea highlights a problem DGD, Dr. Phillip Blosser, and I noted before, our society today tends to conflate Eros with friendship, to the detriment of the latter. Thus, close friendships between persons of the same sex are seen as homoerotic. Here's a sample in which Mr. Shea distinguishes between romantic love (Eros) and friendship:



Our culture’s hostility to friendship and our ugly tendency to reduce it to eros or mere animal sexual desire is even more acute and destructive when it comes to friendships between people of the same sex. It is now routine to declare that any close friendship between two persons of the same sex is “really” homoerotic. This blind insistence on casting all friendships in the mold of eros is soul-crushing, because it short-circuits the truly vital and nourishing role that true friendship plays in a healthy human life.

Precisely the joy of friendship is that friends are, if you will, not thinking about each other, nor seeing themselves reflected in the eyes of the other. Eros, properly, has the other as the object, and (as a sort of side benefit) we discover that we can be precious because we are precious to the one we love. In friendship, all this sort of thing is out of place.

Friendship is emphatically about something other than our friend. Friends come together because they share a common love for stamp collecting or Civil War re-enactment or politics or literature or God. Friends can become lovers and sometimes do. But friends, as friends, dwell in an entirely different kind of love from eros and, very often, would be appalled at the thought of their friendship ever being eros.

Update: Did you know Mr. Shea is also an actor? He plays the role of Innocent Smith in a movie version of G.K. Chesterton's book Manalive. Here's a preview:

On Love and Tolerance: Part 1

More to follow, but for now some preliminary thoughts on the popular Brony slogan "Love and Tolerance," inspired by DGD's recent blogging on certain Brony misunderstandings of sex:

If we understand love in the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition (of which, the Christian virtue of charity is the culmination), then a certain relationship with toleration follows:

1. If to love is to will the good of another.

and

2. If to tolerate is to respect (or put up with) another's differing ideas or lifestyle.

Therefore

3. If you love someone, you cannot tolerate that which is contrary to the good of another.

If the argument is sound, the relationship you have with another person determines the amount of tolerance you can give to another person's disagreements in ideas and actions.

To be continued...

Eve Tushnet on the Death-Haunted Art of Friendship

Eve Tushnet shares a few thoughts on the relationship between friendship and death, along with the idea of friendship as a Christian vocation (Parts 1, 2, 3 are up with Part 4 forthcoming). The series as well as Tushnet’s blog are very much worth reading.

***

Also worthy of notice are the writings of the Georgetown professor Fr. James Schall, a Jesuit. Among the sundry things he has written, and that are not to be missed, are meditations on Aristotle's philosophy of friendship, including the observation that perhaps his students' favorite section of his class on Aristotle's Ethics are books VIII and IX. He is a fan of Charles Schultz's Peanuts comic strip.

Fluttershy and the Virtue of Friendliness: Part 2

                     Friendship Report: Aristotle and Aquinas on Friendliness or Amiability

Well, I did like this episode. It’s a bit fun to see Fluttershy acting out of character. However, what I find more interesting is that “Putting Your Hoof Down” is a kind of a moral lesson on the virtue of friendliness or amiability, as identified by the two prominent virtue ethicists Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas.

Aristotle, Aquinas, and some guy named Plato

Before I get to the specific virtue, allow me some words on virtues in general. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that:

1804 Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good.

The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and seed of morally good acts; they dispose all the powers of the human being for communion with divine love.

Summarized roughly, the virtues are dispositions towards doing the good, for morally right actions. A disposition (or habitus in Latin) is a firmness or stability in doing something, as opposed to random behavior – “A virtue is a habitus that is always for good” as Aquinas says (ST 2-1.55.4). Therefore, somepony who exemplifies the virtue of honesty, like Applejack, is disposed towards telling the truth, instead of just sporadic truthfulness some of the time. (We can get into the further issue of the consistency of AJ’s honesty in the series but that’s another post for another day, not to mention it'll lead us back to that whole debate on the Catholic blogosphere a year ago on the definition of lying and whether lying is always wrong, which I think is the case.)

AJ, be honest, have you told any lies lately?

As virtues dispose us towards the good, their opposites, vices, dispose us towards the bad. More specifically, while virtues perfect our powers of the soul (the rational soul in us humans), as Aquinas notes (ST 2-1.55.4), vices work against the perfection of our powers.

Cultivating virtues is then just like learning to ride a bike, you practice and practice until the action becomes easy to do, or second nature.

Two further points, though. First, it is important that the Latin term habitus used by Aquinas translates as “disposition” rather than “habit,” as a disposition, while firm once acquired, is still voluntary, that is, we freely chose to exercise the action. Second, both Aristotle and Aquinas see the good as the fulfilling of the end of something (my buddy DGD mentions “final causality” in connection to MLP-related matters here). In the case of humans, rational animals in Aristotle’s definition, the good for us is the perfection or fulfilling of our rational nature; the virtues help us in the journey towards this end, which is happiness, be it intellectual contemplation in the case of Aristotle or the beatific vision for Aquinas.

Virtue theory usually divides the virtues into the intellectual, moral, and theological, the first two (potentially) acquirable by human effort and the third only attainable by God’s grace (though for the Catholic all virtues require God’s help in some sense). However, for the purposes of this post, we focus only on the moral virtues (or “cardinal virtues”). The cardinal virtues divide into prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. Prudence guides the other virtues and is a kind of moral common sense that allows us to discern the right goods to purse along with the right means. Justice is concerned with giving what is due (to both other men and God). Fortitude is firmness in pursuit of the good. Temperance is a balance in sensual pleasures, like food, drink and sex.

Since the virtue of justice concerns giving what is due to our neighbor, and since humans are social animals as Aristotle points out, it is of great importance what sort of relationship we have with others in society (and with God). We owe a debt of honor of truthfulness in our words (honesty) and actions (friendliness), without which society could not survive (ST, 2-2.114.2). As Julie Davis of Happy Catholic blog reminds us, it all boils down to following the commandant of Christ to love, to “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12). The just man, then, lives in harmony with his fellow man, which brings us back to friendliness, a satellite virtue of justice…

                                        Fluttershy the Element of Amiability

Among the moral virtues considered by Aristotle is one to which he gives no name that deals with our relations with other people, but can be called by us friendliness or amiability. First, Aristotle considers two extremes or vices related to friendliness - obsequiousness and disagreeableness:

Some men seem to be obsequious in association with others and in interchange of words and deeds. They praise everything for the sake of pleasantness, and never contradict anyone, being of the opinion that unpleasantness ought to be avoided. 

Others, on the contrary, always find fault, taking care to emphasize anything unpleasant. They are called perverse and quarrelsome. (NE, IV, 816-817)

In other words, obsequiousness is being a “doormat” or “pushover” with others, being overly eager to please and not cause offense, especially in matters in which disagreement is necessary. While with her general agreeable disposition Fluttershy is always in danger of this vice, in “Putting your Hoof Down” she definitely slides over in obsequiousness. At the start of the episode, when her dealings with other ponies call for her to point out an injustice, she instead backs down, not wanting to displease anypony.

Fluttershy the Doormat

On the other hoof, the opposite vice of disagreeability doesn’t give a flying feather what others think, be it causing offense, criticizing, and arguing at every opportunity. Therefore, the new Fluttershy, fresh off her assertiveness training, is nasty towards the other residents of Ponyville, even her own friends, harshly criticizing any mistakes, flaws, or quirks that cross her path, regardless of what pain it may cause or of the necessity.

Nastyshy

Aristotle next tells us the mean between the two extremes:

These habits being reprehensible, obviously the mean habit is laudable—that habit according to which a person approves what he should and also disapproves what he should. (NE, IV, 818)

Amiability or friendliness boils down to being agreeable with others when necessary and disagreeable when necessary. Aristotle further elaborates that the amiable man “aims to cause no offense and to give pleasure” but “will refuse to give pleasure and will choose to cause pain over what is dishonorable and harmful to himself or to the person doing an injury or a great wrong” (NE, IV, 825). In other words, the friendly or amiable will usually be pleasant around others and seek their good unless an injustice or an evil performed by others calls him out to cause pain in the form of criticism or correction.

By the end of the episode, Fluttershy returns to this mean (the old Fluttershy), no longer being a pushover who is okay with everything or a “Flutterbitch” who fights everypony over every little thing. As Rarity points out, “You can stand up for yourself without being unpleasant about it,” which is the Element of Generosity’s way of saying that we should be agreeable to others. But what is being agreeable to others other than friendship or a sign of friendship? For friends seek and will the good of one another, and, thus, sometimes it is necessary for a friend to cause another friend pain in the form of disagreement or criticism if that friend should falter in the pursuit of the good, but this is done out of amor amicitiae, the love that is friendship.

Old, amiable Fluttershy returns

Or as Fluttershy tells us in her “Friendship Report” letter to Celestia:

Sometimes it can be hard for a shy pony like me to stand up for myself, and when I first tried it, I didn't like the pony I became. But I've learned that standing up for yourself isn't the same as changing who you are. Now I know how to put my hoof down without being unpleasant, or mean.

Other sources worth noting:

Brian Davies, The Thought of Thomas Aquinas

Peter Kreeft, Back to Virtue

A Link to the Past II

I have a few posts from around the Catholic Blogosphere to highlight today, some dealing with friendship, of course!

- From Father Dwight Longenecker comes an interesting meditation on the biggest problem of all...lack of love, or rather, the perceived lack of love. (HT: Waiting for Godot to Leave)

I am convinced that at the heart of all our problems is an empty or a broken heart. What I mean is that there is a 'love lack.' Our problems stem from the fact that we do not have enough love–total, unconditional, over whelming love. Somewhere along the line an ache like a hunger pang developed in our heart and we sensed way down deep that we were not loved, or at least we were not loved enough. From that perceived lack of love we developed our problem.

-  Mark Shea tells us about "magic" of friendship in his own way:

Friendships can be deeply transformative experiences. A deep and true friendship with another person or a circle of persons can completely revolutionize a person’s life — and the lives of many other people.

Friendship has been at the core of some of the greatest human achievements of all time. Perhaps nowhere is its power more potently seen than in the founding of the Church: It was a band of friends Our Lord sent into the world to announce the Good News. 

- Wondering what I mean when I say I'm a "Bad Catholic"? Well, Shea, John C.Wright, and Marc Barnes help explain with the help of Hillaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton, and Walker Percy.

Hillaire Belloc on the Catholic Church: 

An institute run with such knavish imbecility that if it were not the work of God it would not last a fortnight.

- The Thomist James Chastek shares his philosophical bugbears (or pet peeves). I have to admit, I might have committed quite a few on his list in my youth and inexperience. As if the readers who remember my quote from Aquinas on "avoiding small errors that might have big consequences" need any more reminding, here's a clip from MLP that shows what might happen if you ignore Chastek's advice:

Just as the errors of modern philosophers like Descartes and Kant brought down the house of A-T metaphysics, Derpy Hooves’ clumsiness brings down Ponyville's city hall!

Discord: The Most Dangerous MLP Villain?

[I'll definitely need to expand on these thoughts, but here's a quick and rough post on the villains of FiM.]

As I 've mentioned before, DGD regards the villains of MLP:FiM as pushovers compared to G1 antagonists. However, I've been wondering if the villains of FiM can be considered formidable threats from a different point of view, I mean, as threatening the heroes in a different manner than simply being satanically wicked both in look and act like Tirek. Since the main theme of FiM is friendship perhaps what Lauren Faust intended to do is  have the villains try a new approach: fomenting internal conflict between the Mane 6 and indeed all of Equestria, instead of simply going around destroying everything and enslaving everypony.

Trixie: master of BS

Who is the greatest villain we've encountered so far in two seasons of MLP: FiM? Princess Luna? Well, she did threaten to stop the sun from rising on two occasions, but she only does so out of a misguided desire for love; she didn't exactly set out to destroy Equestria. Besides, as DGD pointed out to me, the most dastardly thing she does in the first two episodes is cut off one half of a dandy dragon's mustache. Gilda? She's a jerk. Trixie? Well, besides her "Great and Powerful" traveling show BS, she didn't exactly pose too much of a threat to peace. Oh, yeah, she can sometimes inspire overzealous fans, such as Snips and Snails, from inadvertently bringing on a Ursa Minor attack. Queen Chrysalis? Well, she did come close to taking over Equestria and emptying it out of all love. But let's face it; Chrysalis only made it that far due to Princess Luna choosing a bad time to oversleep.

Discord: Enemy of friendship and sower of conflict 

Discord, on the other hoof, seems to be the biggest threat to the harmony of Equestria in "The Return of Harmony" episodes, for he seeks nothing more than to bring chaos, discord between the ponies. Instead of directly fighting the Mane 6, he turns the ponies against each other. The Elements of Harmony begin to break up before our very eyes, while Discord simply kicks back on a lawn chair watching the fireworks fly. Even Twilight, the element of friendship, briefly considers never seeing her friends again. Discord wants, in other words, the complete opposite of friendship, enmity, to prevail throughout the ponyland.

The Elements of Disharmony

As the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre tells us, for Aristotle (and his teacher Plato), the greatest evil than can befall any society, whether Athens or Equestria, is conflict:

Aristotle's belief in the unity of the virtues is one of the few parts of his moral philosophy which he inherits directly from Plato. As with Plato, the belief is one aspect of an hostility to and denial of conflict either within the life of the individual good man or in that of the good city. Both Plato and Aristotle treat conflict as an evil and Aristotle treats it as an eliminable evil. The virtues are all in harmony with each other and the harmony of individuals is reproduced in the harmony of the state. Civil war is the worst of evils. -- Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue, 3rd ed., 157

I should add that Aristotle considers friendship to be one of most, if the not the most, important virtues for the harmony of society, for a society united in the pursuit of the common good. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that Equestria, once free of Discord, fits the good society as envisioned by the Philosopher, assuming he could get past the whole talking horse thing. Or as the Ponysopher Twilight Sparkle tells us, "I'll tell you what we've learned Discord. We've learned that friendship isn't always easy. But there's no doubt it's worth fighting for."

The harmonius society as it might appear to Plato and Aristotle

The harmonious society ponified

Octavia: Behind the Music

There apparently is more to the Octavia and Vinyl Scratch story after their unlikely pairing. (Disclaimer: non-canon fanfic ahead!)

 

Octavia: "I was going to be first-chair cellist for the Royal Canterlot Symphony...how is this my life?"     

DJ-Pon-3: "Don't worry everypony... I GOT THIS!"


At first it seemed that Pinkie Pie had single-hoofedly caused Octavia's fall from the Canterlot musical elite...
 
Pinkie Pie: "Yo, Octavia, I got a song request. Do you know how to play 'The Pony Pokey'?"
Octavia: "I mostly only know classical music, but I could give it a shot..."
 
Big mistake!
 
Octavia: "My bow tie, my cello, my career, nooooooooo!"
 
Miraculously, Octavia and her cello survived the precipitous drop, her future prospects for Canterlot gigs, alas, did not...

...forcing Octavia to move to Ponyville, die her hair and mane, adopt country manners, and forge a new musical career as a fiddle player. She boarded with another musician, Vinyl Scratch, who went by stage name "DJ Pon-3." Despite their differences in personality and musical taste, the two became the fastest of friends. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and letting another pony eat the rest of your sandwich is one of them.

The devil went down to Ponyville... and made a bet with Octavia. Turns out he's a fiddle player too...

...The devil bowed his head because he knew that he'd been beat.
He laid that golden fiddle on the ground at Octavia's hooves.
Octavia said: "Devil just come on back if you ever want to try again.
"cause I told you once, you son of a gun, I'm the best there's ever been."

Octavia must have impressed a music agent attending the Nightmare Night celebration since she received a new gig to play at a Canterlot party and she didn't even have to sell her soul to do so!

Octavia's a pretty good fiddle player, in fact, she's the best, but the cello's always been her true passion... wait, who's that clone next to her?

Octavia and her band (the Royal Canterlot Symphony) once again became one of most sought-after acts in Equestria and she made enough bits to move back to Canterlot. Thus, reluctantly Octavia and Vinyl parted ways, ending their odd-couple fellowship... They still kept in touch, of course, because everypony likes happy endings.

What of her friend Vinyl Scratch? Well, after defeating Discord with her bass cannon, she was given the great honor of DJing at the wedding party of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, and DJ Pon-3 even showed us her eyes, AH YEAH!
 
And the ponies lived happily ever after... until 4 a.m. in the morning, when the pegasus guards were called in to break up the party for disturbing the peace.

Friendship is a Sandwich

Octavia, the classically trained cellist of MLP: FiM, shows Vinyl Scratch, aka "DJ Pon-3," that the magic of friendship is expressible in even the simplest of gestures, like sharing a delicious sandwich!

Check out the rest of the fan-produced video for more epic wub action! (HT: The Sci-Fi Catholic)

Make Some Friends! Lauren Faust on Philia: Part 2

[Fr. Z points out that today is the Summer Solstice, the first day of summer. I guess it makes sense to make this the time to post the second part of my review of  My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, considering the ponies themselves mark the occasion  in the episode with a "Summer Sun Celebration." The first part of my review is here.]

Friendship is Magic: Part 2 (Character and Plot Overview)

Luna and Celestia

Now, I neglected to mention the prologue to the first episode of MLP: FiM in the previous post so I’ll remedy that oversight right now.  The first episode begins with a narrator telling us the back-story to the Friendship is Magic series. Apparently, two alicorn (unicorns with wings) sisters ruled over the ponyland of Equestria with tremendous power. The older sister, Celestia, moved the sun, while the younger sister, Luna, moved the moon. Peace prevailed throughout the land until the younger sister started to feel a little sad. It seems that most of the admiration of the pony subjects went to Celestia, in fact, the common ponies seemed to shun Luna, staying awake only during the day and going to sleep at night. Right off the bat we see the moon princesses’ main motivation, which Nate Winchester identifies as “a lack of appreciation.” Luna thinks she got the raw end of the regency deal and decides to make things right…by shrouding the land in never-ending darkness and moonlight so now everypony can admire her at all times. Celestia stops Luna’s rebellion and banishes her to the moon using the Elements of Harmony.

Celestia stops Luna with Love and Tolerance!

A thousand years later Luna (or “Nightmare Moon,” both names are interchangeable) returns to Equestria and once again plans to bring about “nighttime eternal.” Since Celestia disappears for most the second episode (DGD speculates she was banished to the sun), it is up to the “Mane 6” to Save the World ™ this time. What’s that, you say? How can Twilight suddenly become friends with other ponies despite showing no interest in friendmaking the previous episode? Well, the first two Friendship is Magic episodes do serve as a pilot for the series, so they carry the burden of establishing the world, characters, and relationships. So we find the Mane Five breaking into Twilight’s home, kidnapping her, and forcing her to become their friend at hoofpoint…no, I mean Twilight finds out the secret of the Elements of Harmony can be found in some ancient castle in the Everfree forest and departs, the rest of the gang sort of tagging along.

Twilight Sparkle accepting 5 new friend requests on Facebook

Before she left, Twilight mentioned six Elements of Harmony, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty, with the final element unknown. Thus, the journey to the ancient pony castle allows a chance for each of the mane six to display a particular virtue. Applejack, the country pony, is the element of honesty, as she tells Twilight the “honest truth” about letting go of a cliff and being safe. Next, Fluttershy, the bashful one, displays the element of kindness by calming down a Manticore, essentially a lion-scorpion cross, with her gentleness (and taking a splinter off the lion’s paw doesn’t hurt either). Pinkie Pie, the party animal, giggles in the face of danger, the menacing trees of the Everfree Forest no match for the element of laughter. A song and dance number follows but for our purposes we move forward to the glamorous unicorn Rarity, the element of generosity, who graciously gives up part of her tail to a dragon guarding a river, who happens to be missing one half of his mustache (Luna’s doing).

Once past the river, the Mane Six run into, well, another obstacle, a cliff separating them from the ancient pony castle. Rainbow Dash, the element of loyalty, remains true to her friends by ignoring Luna’s illusionary distractions to extend the broken bridge across the cliff. Finally, our heroes arrive at the ancient pony castle, where Luna awaits. An epic battle follows where the six and final element is revealed: friendship, duh. When Twilight finally acknowledges her friends, the element of friendship magic is unleashed, which not only gives the Mane Six new fancy jewelry, but the ability to wield the power of the Elements of Harmony to banish Nightmare Moon once again.

Nothing can stand against the power of friendship!

Princess Celestia finally makes an appearance to congratulate our heroes, where she reveals that she knew all along that Nightmare Moon would return! The solar princess groomed Twilight to defeat Luna but the purple unicorn lacked only the magic of friendship. What better way to celebrate than a party thrown by Pinkie Pie! But, first, another friendship to renew, Luna (now shorn of her Nightmare Moon guise) agrees to work together once again with her big sister.

Luna and Celestia: S.B.F.F. (Sisters, Best Friends Forever)

Celestia gives Twilight a new task, to stay in Ponyville and write regular friendship reports.

Um, princess, didn't Aristotle already write you friendship reports? Oh well...

      Review

Well, overall, I did like the first two episodes.

First off, I’ll mention some criticisms. Nate is partly right to point to some of rushed aspects of the pilot. Based on how unwilling Twilight is to talk to any other pony in the beginning of episode 1, she does seem to befriend the other Mane Six rather fast. Ponyville must be the friendliest place in Equestria, where if you stop in Sugarcube Corner for only a minute to buy some banana muffins you’re already somepony’s PFF (Pony Friend Forever)! I also kind of share DGD’s complaint that the FiM villains are pushovers compared to the baddies from G1. Nightmare Moon just doesn’t give off the same sort of menace of a Tirek, who doesn’t think twice about enslaving ponies to turn into ferocious dragons. Still, Luna is an interesting villain in her own right, similar to a classic tragic character, done in by a serious flaw, in this case her misguided manner of loving others. Plus, she really does know how to make an entrance.

Luna by day, Batman by night

What can I praise? One aspect in which FiM is superior to previous MLP shows is the characterization, among several commendable aspects of the writing. Faust gives us six distinctive, appealing characters. For an interesting comparison, watch G1 MLP and just try to remember the names of any of the ponies (Megan doesn’t count). The moral lessons on friendship given at the end of episode are obviously praiseworthy, but more on that in the next part of the post...

The Theme: Friendship is Magic

What do we learn from the first two episodes of FiM? Yes, as Twilight Sparkle suggests, friendship is magic, but what precisely does this statement mean? What is friendship along with the other elements of harmony?

Friendship, according to Aristotle (NE, VIII, 1561), is simply the mutual willing of the good of another person, loving others for their own sake. Notice that the popular Brony phrase “Love and Tolerate” takes on a new light when the nature of friendship is clear. To love someone, to be a friend, is to will the good of another. Therefore, if someone were truly the friend of another, that person would not tolerate that which goes against the good of the other (in the same way a friend does not bear ill will and do bad against a friend). For example, a friend does not put up with another friend’s disordered will (such as drunkenness).

Friends, don't let friends drive drunk or be drunkards, for that matter

The “tolerate” part of the Brony phrase refers to putting up with the non-moral quirks of friends, such as Pinkie Pie’s hyperactiveness, Rarity’s prissiness, Fluttershy’s bashfulness, Applejack’s country mannerisms, and Rainbow Dash’s tomboyishness.

Now, if only Bronies could start distinguishing the love that is friendship from lesbianism

What Twilight Sparkle discovered at the end of the two-part episode is that the “magic” that friendship consists in is simply love. Luna’s mistake involved misunderstanding the nature of love, especially the mutuality of love. The moon princess wanted other ponies to love her, but didn’t seem to have any clue how to reciprocate. Perhaps Luna desired honor (appreciation) instead of love. As Aristotle puts it, “Because of a desire for honor most people seem to wish to be loved rather than to love” (NE, VIII, 1639).

I’ll cover the “Elements of Harmony,” the nature of virtue ethics, and the meaning “the good” in a future post.