Analysis

James R. Carman

The 2-parter episode The Return of Harmony uses irony and details to reinforce the episodes central theme: that “friendship isn’t always easy, but its always worth fighting for”.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a reboot of the my little pony series that came out on 10.10.10 and has recently become increasingly popular, not only within its intended demographic, but outside it as well, in fact rather far out of it. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic intended demographic was for 12-15 year old girls, however its actual viewing demographic turned out to be 18-24 year old men. Surprisingly, the show has taken off with surprising speed, with hundreds of conventions starting up around the globe, and hundreds of thousands of fans, my little pony friendship is magic has become a pop culture phenomenon. Those adults watching the show, began posting things about mlp on 4chan under /b/ which is where the term /b/rony (Brony) comes from; Later on the female members of the fandom adopted the term Pegasisters.

Although the fans are often times hated by other people; the fanbase’s themes are love and tolerance. There have even been documentaries about the Bronies and Pegasisters, about everything from the beginning of the show to the multi-million dollar conventions every year for it.

The show consists of 6 main characters (the Mane 6): Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Each pony has a mark on their flank that corresponds with their specific talent; this symbol is called a cutie mark. Unicorns can only use their magic for what their specific talents are. Twilight and Rarity are unicorns, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are Pegasi, and Applejack and Pinkie Pie are earth ponies. Twilight Sparkle (the central character) is sent to Ponyville to learn about the magic of friendship, and since she had always been a bookworm, she never had any friends.

The show is mainly about Twilight Sparkle learning about the magic of friendship through her friends and others. At the end of every episode, Twilight sends a letter to princess Celestia telling her of the lesson about friendship she learned that day. However, as the show goes on (especially in the third season) the show begins to be more and more about twilight just learning how to deal with stuff. This all builds up into the season 3 finale in which she writes new magic and Princess Celestia turns Twilight into both an Alicorn and a Princess.

The Return of harmony one and two is easily the most famous episode in all of season 2. The reason for this is mainly the villain: Discord. Discord is a Draconequus, a creature similar to a chimera in the way that he is made up of many different animals body parts. Throughout the episode, Discord runs around  causing literally Discord throughout Ponyville. He turns houses upside down, the roads into soap and the day and night cycles into random, sometimes lasting mere seconds. He plans to turn Ponyville into literally “the chaos capital of the world”. This forces the Mane 6 to use the elements of harmony against him. The elements of harmony are a sort of magical weapon used to maintain harmony throughout Equestria. They can only be wielded by ponies that truly represent the elements they stand for- the Mane 6 respectively.

Discord goes about causing havoc and eventually manages to change each of the Mane 6 into the opposite of their individual element of harmony, rendering the elements useless against him. Twilight sparkle then is able to overcome the spell and revive her friends from the spell as well and use the elements of harmony to turn Discord into stone.

These two episodes show the central theme of friendship is worth fighting for through their use of irony. Throughout these episodes, Discord uses his magic to turn all sorts of things ironic of their usual selves, such as rabbits that have eight foot legs, cotton candy clouds that rain chocolate milk, and filling a glass with chocolate milk then drinking the cup and throwing the milk only to have it explode. These things are ironic because they act in contrary of our normal idea of what they would do. Discord himself is the ultimate representation of irony, because of his love to make things chaotic, or in other terms ironic. This irony proves the central theme of friendship is worth fighting for because the irony in these episodes is primarily used to characterize Discord’s evil. The theme friendship is worth fighting for is proven because if it wasn’t fought for, all of the evil ironic things that Discord was doing to everypony would have not only continued, but gotten worse.

These two episodes represent the central theme that friendship is worth fighting for through their use of certain details. Instances such as when the Mane 6 use the elements of harmony against Discord, the power of their friendship is incarnated as a massive rainbow that rains down upon him, turning him to stone, it then splits into two and encases all of Ponyville, returning it to the way that it was before Discord arrived. This proves that friendship is hard but is always worth fighting for, because if they hadn’t fought for it then Ponyville would still be the chaos capital of the world, Discord would have taken over all of Equestria, and Ponyville would not have been saved/ reverted back from the damage from Discord.

In conclusion, the two parter episode the return of harmony represents the shows theme of friendship is worth fighting for by showing that the power of friendship can overcome the irony of Discord’s deeds, and by showing the details portraying the ponies’ friendship as being the sole savior of Ponyville.

Works Cited:

"the Return of Harmony: Part One" My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. the Hub. Hasbro. Pawtucket, Rhode Island. September 17th 2011. Television.

"the Return of Harmony: Part Two" My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. the Hub. Hasbro. Pawtucket, Rhode Island. September  24th 2011. Television.