Well, now I've seen EVERYTHING.

A My Little Pony episode about capitalism, the free market, and the evils of poor quality control.

Here is a link. (Note if at some point in the future the link doesn't work, you're looking for MLP Friendship is Magic, Season 2 Episode 15 "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000".)

I don't care if you normally like the show or not. Just watch this episode, it really is amazing. I was thinking of making a post about the show as a whole and why it's actually pretty good but then this episode happened and that's what I want to talk about. And I talk about whatever I want to talk about, because this is my blog and fuck you.

If for some reason you can't watch it or don't want to, here's a summary:

- Applejack and her family are making a good living selling apple cider, but mostly due to high standards of quality, they can't even produce nearly enough supply to satisfy demand.

- Enter the brothers Flim and Flam, with both a fancy cider-making machine and a fantastic song in the same style as the classic "Monorail" song from The Simpsons.

- Granny Smith, Applejack's grandma, is sceptical. Perhaps because she's an advocate of tradition, she says there's no way a machine can match the same care that goes into the hand (or hoof)-made stuff.

- Flim and Flam show her the machine's quality control system that automatically rejects bad apples, and then proceed to make a nothing-short-of-extortionate partnership offer to the Apple family, which is quickly rejected.

- In the end they agree to a contest the next day, in which whoever produces the most cider in one hour gains exclusive cider-selling rights in Ponyville. Granny Smith lets Flim and Flam use one of her family's orchards for the apples they'll need, despite that losing the cider business will (somehow) force them to close down their farm.

- During the contest, Flim and Flam's machine is clearly outclassing the Apple family's old-fashioned methods, until Twilight Sparkle and co offer their help (which AJ accepts- not sure if that's inconsistent writing or logical character development) and start producing cider much faster.

- Flim and Flam suddenly realise they may actually lose the contest, and start tuning up their machine- it's not just  taking in apples now, but whole trees! When this still isn't enough, in their bid to gain a monopoly they disable the quality control system and start letting both good and rotten apples into their cider.

- Flim and Flam win the contest. Applejack and family walk away in shame. However, once they start trying to actually sell their cider, it turns out to be disgusting. The crowd, who were previously in favour of Flim and Flam due to the promise of enough cider for everyone, are now angry because they produced something that they don't want to pay for.

- Flim and Flam can't sell their cider and leave town, leaving the Apple family free to take back their business, and now with enough of their own cider to go around.

Now. I'm not sure what I think of the writers using the show to sell their political viewpoints to six-year-olds, but it's not like this sort of thing hasn't happened before, and we could argue that FiM has always been teaching kids about morality and friendship anyway, where exactly do we draw the line between "stuff kids should always know" and "stuff that's just the writer's opinion"? Do we unanimously agree that modern corporations are bad and tradition-oriented family businesses are good? 

It worries me that I'm not sure I can speak for everyone when I say that this episode's message is a good one. I'm not sure I like when kids' shows try to touch on larger real-world issues, and one day I think this practice is going to spread and someone will touch on something not everyone is ok with.

I suppose at least it does teach a viewpoint that I can agree with- corporate monopolies are evil, a free competitive market is best for everyone and the consumer should be treated with respect.

The funny thing is, this show actually only exists so that Hasbro can sell toys. Go figure.