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fubarobfusco comments on Mortal: A Transponyist Fanfiction - Less Wrong
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David Brin has an essay about how fiction tends to depict society as unrealistically bad — full of incompetents, corruption, and general dumbshittery. Because society as a whole is holding the Idiot Ball, the heroes get to save it.
MLP doesn't do that. Ponies are good at what they do, they cooperate with each other, and they even have both respectable and respectful authority figures. The heroes face problems originating with misunderstandings, personality conflicts, or external threats — not a society that is assumed to be broken. So there is a stark contrast with a lot of fiction, even fiction written for a children's audience.
I agree with Brin on that point.
I've found a few stories where the menace is ended by the authorities stepping in.. Here are the two I remember, plus a spare: Jura Jr Jrer Erny ol Jvyyvnz Onegba (ynobe ynjf ner vzcebirq) naq Qnex Ybeq bs Qrexubyz ol Qvnan Jlaar Wbarf (gur rivy gbhevfz ohfvarff vf fuhg qbja). Cbr'f "Gur Cvg naq gur Craqhyhz" vf va n eryngrq pngrtbel-- gur engvbanyvfg ureb whfg oneryl fgnlf nyvir hagvy uvf sevraqf fnir uvz.
Offhand, I think the premise that everything is corrupt (at least locally) came in with noir.
Me too.
The climax of Shaun of the Dead ends with the surviving main characters rescued by the British Army.
The film version of The Mist has the U.S. Army fighting back the monsters that arrived with the titular mist... but they're too late to save the main characters. Similarly, the monster in Cloverfield is indeed eventually taken down by the U.S. military as well - offscreen, after the fate of the main characters has already been determined.
And Lord of the Flies, of all things, also ends with the children being found and rescued just as things are at their worst... by, ironically enough, a military pilot who soon goes back to fighting a war.