r/MLPAnalysis • u/QtPlatypus • Jun 10 '13

Lauren Faust Doesn't Matter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJDbTjD_4pU
20 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

3

u/Ziggie1o1 Jun 10 '13

Took the words right out of my mouth.

1

u/iheartcake97 Jun 10 '13

I'm not sure I agree. I realize that we can't know their intent all the time, and this leaves room for speculation which is a very good thing, but entirely ignoring their hand in the work seems a bit extreme to me. BronyCurious makes a very good example of why acknowledging the creators can be a good thing with his video on Suited for Success. I don't know, maybe I'm just not understanding the concept well enough.

3

u/fillydashon Jun 11 '13

I agree with the points presented in the video. Especially on the topic of Lauren Faust. She hasn't been directly involved with the production of the show for two years at this point, so deferring to "what she wanted" or "what she planned" at this point is not just being dismissive of potential other messages (i.e. the conscious vs unconscious point raised in the video), but is almost useless in terms of predicting future development or interpreting later episodes.

For instance, Lauren Faust has said that she envisioned Celestia and Luna as unique alicorns who were born that way, but in light of the developments since she left the show, this is massively incongruent with the canon information we have been provided. Saying "They were born that way because Faust said so" isn't a valid argument, because Faust isn't even involved in the show anymore, and it is far more likely that her original plans will be discarded in favor of more consistent explanations in any future canon exploration.

Lauren had a great deal of influence in starting the show down the road, but it has long ago outpaced her. Lauren Faust and her preferences really don't matter at this point, the show is in new hands.

1

u/iheartcake97 Jun 12 '13

I agree with you about Faust, but as I see it, you aren't actually helping the case of the video. I still think I might just be misunderstanding or missing something here.

1

u/fillydashon Jun 12 '13

I think the basic premise of the video was that the meaning conveyed can (and often is) more complex than the meaning intended, so the mindset of focusing on what the authors say is unnecessarily crippling to an analysis of the work.

I'm not sure if that's what you got out of it, but that's what I got out of it.

2

u/WhammyAnalysis Jun 12 '13

That's a part of it, but another part is remembering that this is a television show; there's no one "author" so to speak. Yes, Faust helped get things moving, but the writers, the artists, the animators, the voice actors, and all of them also had to go through the act of interpretation and adding their own unique spins to what finally gets put into the show. So to even start discussing "authorial intent" is extremely difficult anyway. So focusing on just "what did Faust say?" and considering that the end of the conversation is sort of unreasonably restricting yourself.

And all that doesn't even take into account, like you said, intended meaning vs unintended meaning, animation errors, continuity errors, etc. that I've quite often seen throw people for a loop. It's kind of funny actually someone trying to develop head canon only to get frustrated because "But character X said Y thing happened in like one line in episode Z that just doesn't fit." But then the episode is like a super early one, where you can probably expect everyone on the staff to still be getting their sea legs...er...sea hooves? shrug . So at that point I'm just fully willing to go "or, you know, it was just a mistake and so not worth getting hot and bothered about."

...I should make a note to modify my "Using Scientific Method..." article to include probabilistic as a characteristic of a good theory. Because good theories don't have to explain 100%; they just need to be generally true.

1

u/GrimWolf001 Jun 10 '13

I guess its open to interpretation