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Description
Exceptions always exist of course, as people are diverse. Especially characters like Fluttershy, who are designed to be atypical for their race intentionally and to deliberately contrast their personality. But I’d say a solid 80% of each race adheres to a good chunk of these associations.
I encourage you to ponder these sorts of things yourself and to try to come up with ideas that make sense to you. .
I encourage you to ponder these sorts of things yourself and to try to come up with ideas that make sense to you. .
Source
not provided yet
Yeah I made ‘em (literally in MS Paint). You can use them if you want, I don’t normally upload and I’m not actually an artist or whatever anyway.
@SomeponyElsesProblem
Yeah I mighta been a little waspish too, so sorry ‘bout that.
My take on all this is that ALL characters express at least a couple traits indicative of ALL races in some way. People are complex, they have a lot of dynamic aspects to them. Being of one race will never mean you don’t express attributes of the others, and perhaps many of those attributes. But they will pretty much always lean one way, and to me it seems the way most characters lean appear to line up fairly well with the chart.
Being a Pegasus is probably the least “appropriate” race for Fluttershy, among other examples, but still it seems to me that most of each race adheres for the most part to these common patterns of behavior and theming. You can of course stretch things and make arguments for just about any character symbolizing anything, but this thing really ain’t meant to be that deep of a guideline.
I tried to come up with the themes logically though. Pegasi can fly — okay, so what does that mean? It probably means they’re used to and value freedom, would need courage to deal with the dangers associated with flight, would need to be fast and to react fast to things happening in front of them, would seek adventure because they have the natural desire to explore, would mean their choices matter more to them because their movement is uninhibited etc.
Edited
Y’know, I thought that was kinda over the top, but on re-read I see I am being pretty harsh to some random passion project which is doing no harm to anyone. Mostly I got started doing the bit and couldn’t not follow through, but, alas, the tone didn’t come out at all like I intended. My bad, you didn’t deserve that.
I do stand by my point about the vagueness, though. Let me try making the point in a less abrasive way:
Take Rarity. Clearly she’s got drive, aspiration, risk-taking, and purpose. Running a business, after all. You only have to give her a stage to see how intense she can be, she showed a lot of courage standing up for her friends in the Garden Party Incident, and as polite as she may be, she does not back away from a challenge (“It. Is. ON!”). So she’s got pegasus themes.
Again, the Garden Party Incident shows her substance and inner strength, the way she uses her art to try to bring out the best in everypony shows her commitment to community, the way she made two sets of Gala dresses for all her close friends shows conscientiousness, reliability, and endurance. All very earth pony themes, according to the chart.
And of course, she takes great pains to showcase her beauty, she aspires to literal and metaphorical nobility, she is both sensitive to others and sensitive to criticism, her art requires intricate and meticulous work and is frequently intended to make the subject splendorous or inspire awe. So we have the trifecta.
I could probably fit in a few more, but that’s enough to give you the gist of it. It’s a cute chart and all, and there do seem to be a few common threads, but I’m not really convinced that they fit together so neatly.
You come off strongly as a bitter and intractable individual who’d probably find something to complain about for anything, but I suppose I’ll try to address your points squarely anyway.
The words on the side aren’t meant to be personality traits at all, though I will freely admit they did certainly bleed over into that territory. They’re meant to be THEMES common to that race, as well as pervasive qualities. Beauty isn’t necessarily saying Unicorns are beautiful, it’s saying beauty is a common theme that’s important to them, like a beautiful aesthetic or a beautiful heart. Strength is a THEME — strength of character, strength of conviction etc. Stability is a THEME. Courage is a theme/common aspect. Astronomy isn’t a “job”, Unicorns literally VERY FREQUENTLY have astronomy themes. MOST Unicorns are named after some sort of star/constellation or celestial phenomenon.
Again theme. It’s not saying they literally have magic (which they do), it’s saying that Unicorns are frequently designed to embody magic in some way, or themed after magic. Likewise swiftness doesn’t need to literally mean they’re fast, it can also mean they are quick to react to danger or quick to complete a task etc.
Nothing on this chart is meant to be gospel and it could’ve been better, (maybe slimmed down a bit), but the non-perfectness isn’t important to me and I did actually sit a have a THINK about most of the things on here, y’know.
Edited