My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Analysis - One Bad Apple

Hoping to get three of these done by the middle of July, let's see how I do! Here's the first of three!

Bullying's always been a bit of touchy subject with people. Some greatly dislike it, some were very badly affected by it, etc. so when I first learned that an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic would be about the issue of bullying, I was curious to see how they'd do it, and scared of the reaction from fans. Let’s ignore the latter for this write up though, and say that after I watched the episode, I was very surprised by it. Even though the episode was clearly about bullying and overcoming it, I took away a completely different theme from it, and one that caused me to really like the episode for what it did. So with that in mind, I would like to offer my own interpretation of the events of the episode titled One Bad Apple, and what I thought a key theme of the entire experience was, and how it connects to bullying.

So what did I see as the central theme of this episode? Well, let's go through the episode real quickly. The Cutie Mark Crusaders find themselves being bullied by Babs, who they thought would be a good friend. Unable to find a way out of it, and not wanting to ask Applejack or anyone for help, they settle on getting revenge, only to find they have become bullies themselves in doing so. They realize their mistakes when Applejack tells them about Babs' past, which then leads them to prevent Babs from being hurt by their revenge plans, and in turn she is touched by their tale and can't help but relate to it, and then chooses to be their friend and we get a happy ending!
 
Now before I offer my answer, I'm curious, what sort of moral or theme would you interpret from this scenario? What would you take away from this? Think about it for a moment, before reading what I took from it, and let's see how our opinions compare and contrast.
 
So, what would I say was the central theme of this episode? After much thinking, I would say it was; communication.
 
I found it very interesting that coming to Applejack to talk about Babs popped up numerous times throughout the episode, and every time it did, the Cutie Mark Crusaders shut it down. I thought that obviously meant something and was some sort of foreshadowing. And the way I interpreted it was, we saw this idea so much because it is exactly what was the main problem with our heroes, the Cutie Mark Crusaders never once thought of asking others for help and advice, and never once considered the situation of others, and in doing so were consumed by their own negative feelings and thoughts, so much so so that they became bullies themselves.

Think about it, not talking to Applejack didn’t only mean that they never learned who Babs really is, it also means that they were never able to get any advice or help in general with their problem, and this also meant that the Cutie Mark Crusaders were unable to share their hurt feelings. And because they went to no one for help and advice, and only dwelled on their negative feelings, never opening up to anyone about them, they became consumed by them, so hurt that they thought the only way to stop their pain was to cause pain to others. Really, it’s exactly what happens when you don’t get help or don’t share your hurt feelings, wanting instead to hold them in, which can lead you into doing dark things, so I really liked that.

 
But the Cutie Mark Crusaders aren't the only ones to make the mistake of not communicating, Babs is as well! Because Bads didn't open up to the CMC about her insecurities towards being a blank flank, when push came to shove, in not sharing her feelings she became consumed by them, and sought to punish those who reminded her of herself, the CMC.

But this isn’t the only time Babs does this. At the very end of the episode, we see Babs tell Applejack that she’ll talk to her family (sister technically) more about her bullying. That very line there, says it all. Babs was hurt so much by the bullying she went through in Manehatten, and one reason for that was that she hardly told anyone about them. By hiding her insecurities she became even more scared and afraid of bullies and blank flanks, which led to her going down such a dark path in the episode. If either Babs had been more open about being bullied and being insecure about being a blank flank, or the CMC had been more open about not liking the way Babs was treating them, then the whole mess of the episode would have been avoided, that was the main problem, there was a lack of communication.
 
But communicating with others and not holding things inside wasn't the only theme here, no I thought there was a bit more to it then that. For a loss of communication isn’t the only mistake we see throughout the episode multiple times, there are also a few times in which there is a theme of jumping to conclusions. Right off the bat when Applebloom hears her cousin is coming and is a blank flank, she immediately assumes that she will happy, bouncy, and excited to see her cousin and join her club, and will be happy to be a blank flank just like her, despite the fact that Applebloom was once ashamed of being a blank flank. Even though Applebloom knows nothing about Babs nor takes in the fact that this is her very first time in Ponyville, and that she's bound to be shy and not perfectly stable, she and her friends bombard her when she arrives telling her about how she will join the Cutie Mark Crusaders and will have a good time. And when Babs isn't too excited about the whole thing, the CMC immediately think that it's because they need to show her even more cool things and be more in her face. Tying in with the main theme in such a nice way, if the CMC hadn't been so pressing on Babs at the start, and let her talk and communicate, they would have been able to learn of her insecurities of her flank, and help a lot of the problems that went down in the episode.
 
And when Babs decides to turn on the CMC and bully them, Applebloom again jumps to conclusions by seeing Babs as an evil pony that must be taken down, and never thinks of her side of the story and why she would be doing this. The CMC also mistakenly jump to conclusions when pondering the idea of telling Applejack about their dilemma and getting help, and again, if Applebloom hadn't tried and forced Babs to be like her in their group she might not have been so hesitant about it, and if she hadn't assumed the worst of Babs she and the CMC wouldn't of tried to get revenge, and the whole thing would of gone much better.
 
In the end, what saves the CMC from well, themselves, is when they unintentionally learn the truth about Babs through communication. After this, you get a nice little proof that they've learned this lesson in the fact that they then tell Babs everything in an honest fashion, telling her why they were bullies, why they didn't like her, and how they were really feeling. And as is in our very nature, when one side is able to show honest communication, it's much easier for the other to as well, and we see that exactly here, when Babs confesses what she was going through to the CMC after they confess what they were going through, and it shows how to encourage others to communicate very effectively I think; by communicating with them first.

I rather like the parallel the episode goes for here with Babs and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Both find themselves in a difficult situation about being bullied, both make the mistake of not mentioning it to anyone or getting help from others, and both as a result become bullies themselves. And I like how the CMC aren’t even shown to be better than Babs, since they didn’t see how bad their actions were just like Babs, they just happened to be at the right place at the right time for Applejack to open their minds and show how wrong they have been, which could have happened with Babs as well. It was merely a stroke of luck that saved the Cutie Mark Crusaders, showing that, well, we make mistakes, and you know, they’re children, who are bound to make mistakes, and sometimes those people we see as bad aren't so different from us.

And continuing the parallel, once one party realizes the errors of their ways and invokes the method known as communication, then the other party does the same in response, and in both doing so, they both learn their lessons and get to the correct path they should be on, tying the whole story together in a neat well put together package.
 
In the end both parties learn to communicate more and not hide and dwell on their negative feelings, and both also learn to keep an open mind of each other and not make assumptions. With this in mind, I thought it did a very good job of getting the message across, and showing what happens when you don't communicate and jump to conclusions. It also did an excellent job of showing where these characters made mistakes, and then showing them both learn and grow towards being a better person, and then seeing the result of that newfound communication as they join as one group, no longer separated. And I also thought this tied into bullying very well, since indeed, while talking may bring about some bad consequences, there are few ways worse to respond to bullying then not telling anyone about it, and hiding your feelings. So I thought it was an excellent message to have about bullying, and pulled it off very well, in a way I can't help but relate to, and again, I'm reminded why I love this show so so much; it teaches me about myself and life, and always gives me much to think about and learn from. I hope you enjoyed this, and I'll see you for the next one, thanks for reading and ta ta for now!