With grown-up experience

Sometimes I wonder if some of the things adults deem "too scary" or "too sad" or whatever for children is a result of the differences in life experience - in that, the scary-sad-whatever thing doesn't bother the child nearly to the extent that it affects the adult.

I think of this because I remember the first time I read The Hobbit - I was in third grade or so - and my father asked me if I didn't find the book "scary." That baffled me - it wasn't scary, it was exciting.

When I re-read it a few years ago as a full-fledged adult (I read it a few times as a teen), I realized what he meant - the scenes, especially with Bilbo lost in the caves, from an adult perspective, ARE scary. (Since I discovered that I was somewhat claustrophobic, reading anything that is set in a cave or some other kind of dark, confined area where there's not a clear exit is kind of unsettling).

I thought of this fact that morning watching the finale of (you guessed it) the season opener of My Little Ponies. (And after here, there be spoilers, so if you are watching and haven't seen the episode, be forewarned)

I don't know if this heralds a return to the "Magical Girl" (a la Sailor Moon) type of storyline - which was supposedly one of the original directions of the show but then it got shifted to a more slice-of-life type episodic series (where the episodes could be viewed in any order and still make sense). Unlike many adult Pony fans, who seem to be polarized on the issue, I don't really care - I enjoyed the slice-of-life episodes but would still enjoy more of an Epic Journey/Magical Girl type of thing.

Anyway, to sum up: Discord (a sort of dragon-thingie, voiced by John DeLancie, very much in "Q" mode) is unleashed from his prison (he was turned to stone). One of his first things is to separate the six main ponies from each other. (Apparently these "Mane 6" have become the guardians of peace and harmony in the land, by virtue of some mysterious "elements" that each one exemplifies. Or that exist as jewelry. It's not entirely clear)

Each of the ponies is linked to some kind of positive character trait: Rarity is generous, Applejack is honest, Fluttershy is kind, Pinkie Pie is cheerful, Rainbow Dash is loyal, and Twilight Sparkle is smart (and magical). So Discord's MO is to take those traits from them - Rarity becomes grabby and greedy (and rude: normally she is probably the most mannerly Pony), Applejack starts to lie, and so forth.

Last week's episode ended with all the ponies except Twilight being under the spell (you would tell this because they turned a paler shade than they normally were - in this episode, when things got worse, they actually turned grey).

They return "home" (Ponyville). Twilight is STILL trying to get the malenchanted ponies to work together, without much success. She first gets several stubborn ideas of how they could defeat Discord. Nothing works, because they currently hate each other.

Finally, Twilight gives up. She just admits that nothing she's tried will work. And at that point she turns grey, it starts to rain, she slowly walks back to her home to pack and leave - to run away to the sort of college-for-magical-ponies she used to attend. (And I admit, at that point a small mote of dust must have flown into my eye).

While packing, she comes to a realization of what needs to be done (mainly because her mentor is sending back to her all the letters she wrote - where she spoke of what she and her friends had done, the things they had succeeded at over the past year).

So she goes and finds her friends, and works a "memory spell" (And I admit, a bit of frustration there: "Wait, it was that easy all along?") which largely consists of her touching her horn to their forehead and making them remember the past good times, and remember who they were.

(And I have to say, I think this was the moral I got from the show, even if it wasn't the intended one: "Friends are the people who help you remember who you are, even when you have forgotten." And at that point a considerably larger piece of dust got in my eye).

And of course, once everyone remembers who she is, what her real strengths are, and they're once again friends, they can defeat Discord. And everything is back as it should be.

And I have to admit, that's one thing I like about many cartoons. The fact that at the end of the episode/series, order is restored. Things are back as they should be. I have a very deep need for stories like that - I need to be reminded that Things Will Be Made Right In The End.

Because it looks like so much in this world goes wrong.

I think the episode affected me more strongly than it might your average, still happy-go-lucky 7 year old girl (All bets are off on the ones already sufficiently battered by life not to be happy-go-lucky any more). I've had experiences of losing friends - losing them forever, apparently (Not, as far as I could tell, because of anything that I did...usually a "growing apart" sort of situation. Or something like that they married and had kids and we couldn't relate to one another as easily any more. Or, the first and still painful situation: a friend who was invited to join the "popular kids' table" in school and asked me not to hang around her at school any more, in case of damaging her newfound popularity. (And I will go to my deathbed marveling that I just accepted that. That I didn't have the guts to tell her off, or something.)

And I've probably known more defeat than the average pre-teen girl.

(And I have to admit, the whole concept of "friends are the people who remind you of who you are, even when you've forgotten" kind of killed me, because I don't really have a close friend right here in town right now like that. Not someone I feel like I could expect to always be there for me. (I do have friends, but some of them live distant from me, and some of them are busy enough that I'd feel uncomfortable calling on them for just anything) I realize this is partly my own doing: I tend to follow Ben Franklin's old "Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none." Though I think old Ben was maybe a bit wrong; I think people do need more than one close friend.)

But anyway...I found myself thinking partway through the episode, "Wow, this is really kind of dark for little kids to watch" but maybe not, maybe it's just being filtered through my adult experience. (I suspect the same thing is true of those who would seriously bowdlerize fairy stories; a lot of the stories I remember reading as a kid - yes, from Grimm's or from the Red Fairy Book - that didn't really affect me and certainly didn't scare or (seem to) warp me - are ones that people have deemed to scary or sad or violent for kids today).

I wonder if maybe little kids are more resilient than we give them credit for, and maybe even more resilient than us poor, old, worn-out adults, who have seen too much of the cruelty the world can wreak.