Did My Little Pony just go Galt?

Fan art courtesy of gimpcowking on Deviantart.

So I admitted during a previous post that I was something of a soft brony, not obsessed with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic but it was and is a show I watch and enjoy regularly. And though it's taken a slight decline in quality over the last few seasons, Friendship is Magic is comfortable among its contemporaries as excellent children's programming that treats kids maturely and is willing to address some more serious topics than usual for fare of its kind. It's not afraid to show that maintaining relationships between friends can be difficult and sometimes answers to problems aren't obvious and pat. That's something I've always appreciated about Friendship is Magic, that it could tell stories about adult responsibilities and problems but in a way that younger audiences could understand and they didn't sacrifice whimsy or humor to do so. It's one of the things that helped attract it's now massive fanbase.

But while watching the latest episode, Canterlot Boutique, I was struck by the thematic subtext of the plot. Yes, I know how silly I sound talking about the thematic subtext of an episode of My Little Pony but just go with me here. In particular, what stood out to me were the similarities between the conflict of the episode's main character Rarity and that of Howard Roark, the protagonist of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. It wasn't an explicit homage by any means but I noticed enough parallels between the narratives of the episode and the novel to wonder, did My Little Pony just craft a piece of Objectivist Propaganda?

Atlas with the world on his shoulders,
 a key symbol of Objectivism.

Now some of you are probably unfamilar with the philosophy of Objectivism, or only know the broad stereotypes. This is understandable as its a somewhat complicated and obtuse school of thought. You ever play Bioshock? It's like that, but without the mutants. To give a very condensed definition, Objectivism values the individual above all else. Individual will and desire are paramount goods and any attempts to force comformity are absolute evils. To Objectivists; the individual deserves 100% of the profit for his work, artists should not be subject to the demands of censors or fickle audiences, and science should consider no field of study off limits. Virtuous selfishness is the name of the game. Now in the abstract these sound fine, to a certain degree, but in practice Objectivism has mostly been used as an excuse by rich, arrogant jerks to justify their being rich, arrogant jerks. That's where a lot of criticisms for it come from, that being that just because you're not obligated to care about and be nice to other people doesn't mean you shouldn't.

Anyway, getting back to ponies. Objectivism's dedication to artistic integrity and absolute control of one's work has often been attractive to creative types, even if they disagreed with many of its other tenets. One needs only look at any story of Hollywood executive meddling to understand why. It's this point that creates Canterlot Boutique's connection to The Fountainhead and the main thrust of it's plot. The episode centers around Rarity, one of the main cast of ponies and an ambitious fashion designer. She's finally gotten the opportunity to open a boutique in the capital city of Canterlot and has put all her heart and soul into a new line of dresses inspired by the city. Rarity's hope is to create a name for herself and use her new line as a jumping off point to design even more extravagant and unique fashions. But Rarity's plans clash up against Sassy Saddles, a domineering pony she's hired as boutique manager who's seized control of their marketing and convinces Rarity to put all their focus on a single dress design. It works and their boutique becomes more successful than ever, though Rarity feels no accomplishment or satisfaction. Her love for her work and her creative pursuits have turned into mechanical drudgery because of the public demand for a single design that Sassy has created. She no longer feels any of the joy that crafting fashion used to give her when she did it only for herself. Here, let Rarity herself explain in song. To this end, Rarity decides to close the boutique instead of continuing. She deliberately rejects her success because it is not success on her own terms.

Now, you can already kind of see some Objectivist elements to this story. The beleaguered artist who must compromise their vision to public opinion in the name of success, only to throw off the shackles of that opinion to restore their personal integrity. But it also parallels and kind of inverts one of Ayn Rand's foundational texts of Objectivism, The Fountainhead.  The plot of the novel follows Howard Roark, an ambitious young architect looking to make a name for himself in the big city of New York. He finds little success though due to the public's distate for his style of architecture and his unwillingness to compromise his designs and artistic vision for his clients. Roark finally gets the opportunity he's been looking for when a rich patron gives him the contract to design a new apartment complex. He agrees, but only on the condition that his final design for the building not be altered in any way. The patron assents to his condition. But upon returning from a long vacation, Roark discovers that the deal was broken and the finished building was changed to suit public taste. Enraged, he dynamites the building instead of letting a compromised work of his stand. He destroyed his shot at success and recognition because it compromised his integrity as an artist. There's a bit more to the story than that, but that's all you need to know for our purposes.

Rarity, crushed beneath the demands of the
unthinking proletariat sheep.

I mean an easily led conformist public, not actual sheep.
I know it's that kind of show.

From that summary, we can almost read the plot Canterlot Boutique as an opposite telling of The Fountainhead. Rarity, unlike Roark, is willing to somewhat compromise her artistic vision in the face of public opinion. So where Roark found himself shut out from success, Rarity becomes surrounded by it. But because of the compromise she made to achieve it she is in no position to enjoy her success. It has simply turned her passion into monotonous labor. So ultimately, she does the same thing Roark does. They both destroy and reject the publicly approved but compromised work that brought them recognition (or would have in Roark's case) because it didn't truly represent them and their vision. Both wanted to succeed on their own terms, not by creating work to be popular and fit a pre-existing mold but by creating work that was true to them. Both even have a seemingly reasonable antagonist, Roark's patron and Sassy Saddles respectively, who try to convince to them to give into public opinion and just give people what they want. Do that and success is guaranteed, has already come in Rarity's case. But what these antagonists don't understand that success isn't about money or popularity, it's about recognition for their vision even if it's unpopular or not focus-grouped and widely advertised. The success Roark and Rarity crave is more personal and artistic. What Rarity crystallizes in the song as the moment a pony sees one of her dresses and realizes how perfectly it will look on them.

Of course this is still My Little Pony and so there is a happy ending. During the going out of business sale at the boutique, the ponies of Canterlot finally see all of Rarity's dress designs that Sassy Saddles has been keeping out of their marketing. They fawn over them and every dress sells out, prompting Rarity to call off closing the boutique. She finally got that recognition of her artistic vision that Roark had to stand up in court and deliver a dreadfully overwritten speech to get. Sassy Saddles realizes her error at focusing all their marketing on a single design and apologizes for putting Rarity in a situation where she had to sacrifice her integrity and process. Rarity forgives her and the episode ends on a good note as Sassy promises to run the boutique Rarity's way while Rarity returns home to Ponyville. A tad convenient but overall a satisfying conclusion.

Rarity Shrugged?

Now the episode isn't entirely Objectivist. It lacks the kind of contempt for herd mentality and mass opinion that are inherent to most works based on the philosophy, along with its militant atheism. Canterlot Boutique also lacks the characteristic demonization of "parasites", or anyone who benefits from an individual's work without directly contributing to it. In an explicitly Objectivist work Sassy Saddles would fill this role and would probably only exist as a Strawman caricature whose viewpoint would be proven wrong at the end. Instead, the episode takes a more nuanced approach. Sassy is clearly well-intentioned in her actions, only wanting to make the boutique prosper the only way she knows how, so the conflict comes from how her vision for that and Rarity's vision clash. The resolution comes from Sassy realizing that her plans weren't taking Rarity's feelings into consideration and Rarity being more assertive in questioning Sassy's business model despite how well it seemed to be working. They both realize they wanted the same thing and should have been more collaborative in trying to achieve it. So really, Canterlot Boutique is using a common Objectivist narrative, the artistic individual struggling against the conforming masses to achieve their own personal vision, to deliver a very un-Objectivist message. That teamwork and empathy can help you both achieve public success and your personal vision. No man is an island, and yes sometimes you do have to compromise, but by being open and honest with your partners, by not being afraid to disagree with them or question their methods, you will be all the stronger for it. Especially if you're the leader of a team. Hell, even Roark for all his individualistic bluster needed help. He wouldn't have even gotten the chance to design that apartment complex if it wasn't for his girlfriend.

So, is Canterlot Boutique Objectivist? Not really, despite what it may seem. But it is My Little Pony, through and through.