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Steroids episode.


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I have an idea for an episode.

After underperforming at a Wonderbolts Reserve practice, Rainbow is tempted to take performance-enhancing drugs.

Alternatively, Rainbow could catch a fellow Reserve using performance-enhancing drugs, and must decide whether or not to tell Spitfire, because she's worried about being called a snitch.

They could have the drug be a vitamin, and say that it makes you stronger and faster.

The temptation to use steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs is something young athletes WILL face, and I'd be interested to see if the show could tackle such an issue.

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How would you justify references to drug use in an explicitly family friendly show?

Something probably could be done with the more general theme of cheating in a competitive event.  Rainbow could be tempted by the blow to her pride of failing to win at something physical, or anyone could be tempted to cheat to win by believing they need to win to save a relationship with a friend or loved one.  (Come to think of it, we got a bit of this in the last Big Mac episode, the name of which escapes me.)

Maybe it could work if it were a spell or potion instead of a drug, though if it were me writing I'd still want to be very careful about avoiding reference to something like steroids.  So I would want something like, making a pegasus lighter so tailwind pushes them farther, or making a pony heavier to resist wind blowing them backwards, or giving an earth pony cloud-walking so they can run across the top of a fog bank rather than having to navigate through it.

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43 minutes ago, DerpRavener said:

How would you justify references to drug use in an explicitly family friendly show?

Something probably could be done with the more general theme of cheating in a competitive event.  Rainbow could be tempted by the blow to her pride of failing to win at something physical, or anyone could be tempted to cheat to win by believing they need to win to save a relationship with a friend or loved one.  (Come to think of it, we got a bit of this in the last Big Mac episode, the name of which escapes me.)

Maybe it could work if it were a spell or potion instead of a drug, though if it were me writing I'd still want to be very careful about avoiding reference to something like steroids.  So I would want something like, making a pegasus lighter so tailwind pushes them farther, or making a pony heavier to resist wind blowing them backwards, or giving an earth pony cloud-walking so they can run across the top of a fog bank rather than having to navigate through it.

The show has made references to alcohol before, and alcohol is a drug.

Also, the show can get dark at times. Just look at the S5 finale.

 

 

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25 minutes ago, VGAddict said:

The show has made references to alcohol before, and alcohol is a drug.

Also, the show can get dark at times. Just look at the S5 finale.

Limited references.  There's never been an episode about alcoholism, or what implications alcohol's presence in a culture can have.

Further, we're talking about illegal substances in particular, no one will have an issue with say medicines showing up in the show.  Alcohol is strictly speaking not illegal (legal when one uses it responsibly) and generally more socially acceptable, as distinct from illegal substances, and just about every part of that discussion involves issues out of bounds for a show meant to be watchable by young children.

Finally, while it's true the show can get dark take a look at how it portrays those sorts of things: the Sombra war is fought entirely with magic and unarmed strikes, and Sombra (presumably) mind controls those he defeats so it's a war with no dead.  NMM lead a pretty clean coup, again with no corpses and everyone we see seems to accept her rule.  The Barren Wasteland is characterized by a plain lack of living things, rather than their removal.  So while there are a lot of possible dark implications, it's all 'kid-friendly' darkness.

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47 minutes ago, DerpRavener said:

Limited references.  There's never been an episode about alcoholism, or what implications alcohol's presence in a culture can have.

Further, we're talking about illegal substances in particular, no one will have an issue with say medicines showing up in the show.  Alcohol is strictly speaking not illegal (legal when one uses it responsibly) and generally more socially acceptable, as distinct from illegal substances, and just about every part of that discussion involves issues out of bounds for a show meant to be watchable by young children.

Finally, while it's true the show can get dark take a look at how it portrays those sorts of things: the Sombra war is fought entirely with magic and unarmed strikes, and Sombra (presumably) mind controls those he defeats so it's a war with no dead.  NMM lead a pretty clean coup, again with no corpses and everyone we see seems to accept her rule.  The Barren Wasteland is characterized by a plain lack of living things, rather than their removal.  So while there are a lot of possible dark implications, it's all 'kid-friendly' darkness.

What parts of the discussion involve issues out of bounds for a children's show?

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26 minutes ago, VGAddict said:

They could have it be a potion, and say that it makes pegasi stronger and faster. Could that work?

It could be a metaphor for steroids.

It's better, but I think it would still be preferable to get away from steroids altogether.  I don't think that's a message we need to be telling people in FiM's target audience.

A fundamental issue revolving around cheating in competition could work pretty well, but I don't think it has to relate steroids.  What is it about steroids that makes you so want an episode about them?

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4 minutes ago, DerpRavener said:

It's better, but I think it would still be preferable to get away from steroids altogether.  I don't think that's a message we need to be telling people in FiM's target audience.

A fundamental issue revolving around cheating in competition could work pretty well, but I don't think it has to relate steroids.  What is it about steroids that makes you so want an episode about them?

I said in my opening post, that young athletes will face the temptation to use steroids. I wonder if the show could do an episode about it.

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Drug episodes have been done in cartoons before and done well. Once again, however, I think it comes down to the target audience of the show. As older fans we occasionally tend to forget that the show is not made for us and never has been. Most preteens are (thankfully) not a target for messages regarding drugs because they're not usually taking them. Plenty of shows targetted for older kids have tackled the issue. When the kids watching MLP now get older, they'll be sure to get that message elsewhere.

Not saying drug awareness episodes are bad, or that Rainbow Dash, out of the ponies, would be the mostly likely target, but it's a bit out if the purvue of the series aim.

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1 hour ago, VGAddict said:

I said in my opening post, that young athletes will face the temptation to use steroids. I wonder if the show could do an episode about it.

Alright, fair point that I missed that in the opening post, but is the most important part of that not covered under a more general anti-cheating theme?  Or maybe something about not abandoning one's ethics to win?  I feel like there's a more universal and less problematic theme that could probably get a similar enough message across.

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