Points of Canon: S6x20 - Viva Las Pegasus

Point of canon #1 for this episode: Now we know the correct spelling for this city. :)

There was some confusion about it before…

• The Cutie Map room shows roots, so this happens after Castle Sweet Castle, but we get no Starlight or other markers, and we don’t even know what season it is, because weather in a cloud city is likely not to be much like it is on the ground. However, Fluttershy comments that the map might be “on the fritz again” – emphasis mine – positioning this episode after Spice Up Your Life. So where is Starlight hiding?
• Las Pegasus is exclusively a cloud city, tuned for non-pegasi visitors, and is exactly what you would expect if it is modeled on Las Vegas rather than Los Angeles. It is Las Vegas all the way down to the Strip.
• We don’t see any actual gambling, or at least, the kind of gambling we are familiar with. But we do see games, ostensibly of skill, dispense what looks like payout tickets. It remains an open question whether they play any of the usual casino fare in there or not.
• There’s a green unicorn wearing a lampshade in the corner of a frame. I thought TV safety was no longer a thing?…
• Mr. Gladmane is the first character ever to openly recognize anyone in the Mane 6 without being acquainted with them prior. Notably, Fluttershy is surprised that he is. I suppose this settles conclusively that while the adventures of the Mane 6 are not exactly a state secret (Zephyr Breeze knows, for example) they have been deliberately kept off the pages of newspapers whenever possible, and Gladmane is just well-connected.
• Those animal trainer unicorns have some highly unusual facial bone structure. I wonder if that’s meant to be a reference to anything.
• The arcade includes a low-tech Dance Dance Revolution machine.
• The trapeze dancer uses a belt to fasten her lipstick to her hoof, even though previously ponies were show to have no problem doing that without such devices. Is there some special reason she needs to do that?..
• Flim and Flam have a sizable repertoire of cons. Their first appearance made them out to be underhanded but genuine inventors. Ironically, it might be that it was Applejack’s victory that drove them to the life of crime, rather than their own natural inclination.
• According to Flim, the “grand-matriarch of the Rich family” is one of the wealthiest ponies in Equestria. Previously, we thought Filthy Rich was the head of the Rich family, but looks like this is not so. Unless Flim has been lying, but since Gladmane is so well-connected, I very much doubt that is possible. Also, I don’t think Flim ever mentions her full name in his exposition, but Gladmane knows it already – so there we have Impossibly Rich now.
• Even though Fluttershy never wears earrings, either she has pierced ears or those are clip-ons…

This one is short on little tidbits, but now there’s a whole new city to play with. The most interesting aspect is probably gambling and pony attitudes regarding it, though. Gladmane’s business model has to revolve around means of income other than the admission tickets for the entertainment itself, so it leaves only gambling as the actual source of the bits, but details of that remain somewhat murky for obvious Doylist reasons.

Comments

[seventhreenine]

I took the animal trainers to be a parody of Seigfried and Roy. Not sure if that's what they are but there is a resemblance.

[iisaw]

4214809
I'd have to agree with that. They had that sort of desiccated look to their faces.

There was also a ponified Penn and Teller in the background, but no Hunter S. Thompson, sadly.

[FanOfMostEverything]

The transcript confirms that Flim does identify Impossibly Rich for Gladmane.

I'm still a bit disappointed that this wasn't Los Pegasus, if only because the syllable count would match up better for LA.

[howard035]

Really enjoyed this episode, especially the ending.

That's a really good point about the artist putting on her makeup with some device that attaches to her hoof. While I like the idea of those things, it opens up a huge can of worms. Why don't all non-unicorns use those for holding pencils instead of their mouths, for example?

Nice to hear the DDR machine was low-tech, I was freaking out at the idea of ponies have modern electronic screens.

4214928 That's a good catch. It looks like the Rich family is at least moderately well known outside of Ponyville, if Flim bothers using that name and even remembers it. It doesn't seem automatically likely that Impossibly Rich is a real pony though, Gladmane doesn't act like he has automatically heard of Impossibly Rich before, just that he's informed she is a VIP. (And of course, we now know he was faking the whole time).

In fact, it would be dumb for the Flimflam brothers to impersonate a specific person, when they can just invent a previously unheard-of connection to an existing family.

[Oliver]

4214928

Oops. Well, then Impossibly Rich might not exist after all…

4215126

Why don’t all non-unicorns use those for holding pencils instead of their mouths, for example?

Previously, ponies were repeatedly shown holding small items with their hooves with no difficulty. Some ponies actually write with their hooves! The actual depiction varies somewhat, but their hooves behave as if some kind of limited magnetism exists between the hoof and the small item in question, with tactile and manipulative capability on the level at least approaching a hand in a mitten. When they need to apply a lot of force this way, they tend to wrap the fetlock around whatever item they manipulate, but for small items, this clearly magical mechanic suffices.

So why does an acrobat, who has to have these “fingers” strong enough to do pull-ups on them, use a belt?…

In fact, it would be dumb for the Flimflam brothers to impersonate a specific person, when they can just invent a previously unheard-of connection to an existing family.

Me, I want to see Diamond Tiara’s adoptive griffon brother Richard…

[DannyJ]

4214928
4215126
4215370

To add to the discussion about Impossibly Rich, we should also keep in mind that the entire act was meant to be exposed as a ruse and called out by Gladmane. If we continue to go by the assumption that Gladmane just knows things because he's well connected, and that they don't believe they even could have fooled him with just the impersonation scheme, then inventing a fictional grand matriarch of a real wealthy family makes sense, because then Gladmane would be more likely to smell bullshit and think it a bad con.

[howard035]

4215370 If you watch the way they hold little items in their hooves, it doesn't really look like they have some kind of magical magnetic field, so much as they have really flexible frogs, which they can use for a certain amount of gripping power.

I suppose a performer applying makeup needs more precision than most things, probably an earth pony surgeon would use a similar device to hold a scalpal.

Me, I want to see Diamond Tiara’s adoptive griffon brother Richard…

Now you're just being ridiculous Oliver. It would have to be an adoptive changling or Minotaur, if it was Griffon his name would start with a G, and no one wants to hear about Gritchy Rich.

4215645 That's a good point, in some sense they were trying to get caught.

[Oliver]

4215878

If you watch the way they hold little items in their hooves, it doesn’t really look like they have some kind of magical magnetic field, so much as they have really flexible frogs, which they can use for a certain amount of gripping power.

Nope. I’m aware of manipulators based on that principle, it’s a neat idea, but ponies routinely hold things that such a manipulator would never be able to grip. Typical example: Applejack playing a fiddle in the end of A Canterlot Wedding, by holding it on her hoof, and manipulating the bow with her mouth. They do this a lot, including to very soft objects like pieces of paper.

Just accepting that magic is involved is a saner solution.

I suppose a performer applying makeup needs more precision than most things, probably an earth pony surgeon would use a similar device to hold a scalpal.

Or maybe, training this grip for strength does not correlate to training it for precision…

[Recon777]

Those animal trainer unicorns have some highly unusual facial bone structure. I wonder if that’s meant to be a reference to anything.

It's a reference to Seigfried and Roy.

Seigfried has a face that looks a lot like that. This isn't the first time MLP has changed the flash puppet to physically mimic who the character is based on. In the episode with the food critic, she was voiced by Tilda Swinton, who kind of looks like that.Though the look fits Seigfried much better. I don't know offhand who the food critic in real life was meant to be though.

media.nbcchicago.com/images/1200*680/siegfried+and+roy.jpg

Unless Flim has been lying, but since Gladmane is so well-connected, I very much doubt that is possible.

That was part of the double-con though. He knew Gladmane wouldn't be fooled. They did work a bit too hard though, to make it obvious to the viewers that nobody would fall for that.

[Cursed Quill]

Pretty bare notes-wise this ep, since we've just got so many pop-culture duplicates (Elvis=Gladmane, Siegfried and Roy, Cirque du Soleil?)
❧Twilight has "perfect faith" in the Map. She'll never catch up to Pinkie's science proficiency at this rate.
❧Someone heard of the main cast! covered.
❧"Five-hoof" hoof as star-equivalent, again.

Those animal trainer unicorns have some highly unusual facial bone structure. I wonder if that’s meant to be a reference to anything.

Siegfried and Roy. the tiger-striped shirts, the tiger cutie marks…

since Gladmane is so well-connected, I very much doubt that is possible.

He's counter-conning, though.
4216581

They did work a bit too hard though, to make it obvious to the viewers that nobody would fall for that.

And yet, they called her Impossibly Rich…

…
❧How'd theyget up here again? I think they kept it just off-camera…no, they're standing in the middle of somewhere after that scene-swap.
4215126

Nice to hear the DDR machine was low-tech, I was freaking out at the idea of ponies have modern electronic screens.

Eh. Twi and Trixie both had television replay/CC spells; Twi upgrades to a full on two-sense-minimum complicated illusion spell in S7e1…

[howard035]

4522149

Eh. Twi and Trixie both had television replay/CC spells; Twi upgrades to a full on two-sense-minimum complicated illusion spell in S7e1…

Yeah, but there is a vast gap between what the most skilled unicorns are able to create with spells, and what they can actually permanently enchant into objects. Otherwise there'd be no trains in Equestria, just teleport circles from town to town.

[Cursed Quill]

4522705
That said, the idea of recording A/V and reproducing it on a flat screen exists. (I forget, given all the fanfiction I've read, whether movies per se exist in Equestria.)

Mmm…if I were to do a DDR mockup in Equestria…slow, non-segmented filmstrip with rear projector for the moving arrows; some added lamps/another projector to pop the "stepped on" things. Possibly with some shutters to block out an arrow which was stepped/missed, but that limits the maximum arrow density.
Player-piano reel for scoring would then be difficult to automate.

And…what the heck was up with that attraction in the arcade-row where one pony was in a bubble?

[Cursed Quill]

Crossposting from "Where the Apple Lies" thread…

It's very hard to draw conclusions from that segment because nopony in the scene is acting in earnest.

If we're going to treat it as 0-level (no deception), then an alternate interpretation that doesn't require that assumption is "Gladmane knows Flim&Flam have been all over and trusts their word on who's monied".
Alternately, and with even less assumption, Gladmane has researched AJ and Fluttershy, enough to recognize on-sight. AJ does business with Filthy Rich.
Alternately, there really are only a dozen (at most) towns of note in Equestria. (Implausible, but…) If he's studied Ponyville's history…plausible because AJ has been a target of his study, the Apple family's all over, and she's close enough to the founder Granny Smith.

One way for him to do this research really easily is for Flim and Flam to be disowned/blacksheep Apples, which their cutie marks suggest.

Mmm. I wonder if Flim, Flam, or Fluttershy (or, given Where the Apple Lies, AJ herself) came up with the second-level deception.

[howard035]

4522877 Actually, thinking about it, I don't just think the Riches must be really big shots because Gladmane acts like they are, but also because the Flim Flam brothers expect Gladmane to believe Impossibly Rich must be a big shot because of her name.

[Cursed Quill]

4523032
Trouble is, that requires reading the scene as expecting Gladmane to believe it, rather than expecting him to think it merely a level-1 deception (goal may be achieved by target believing the subterfuge).

Given that the plan is a level-2 deception as well as a level-1 deception (that is, it worked whether he believed it to be the truth OR believed it to be a level-1 deception)…well, we'd have to know whether they intended for the level-1 or the level-2 to be the primary plan, and saying "we planned this all along" afterwards is something you do regardless, so it's not good evidence for what the plan was going in.

I may have played a little too much Mafia at one point in my life. And on forums, there's always time for speaking of the Wine in Front of Me.

[howard035]

4523768

Trouble is, that requires reading the scene as expecting Gladmane to believe it, rather than expecting him to think it merely a level-1 deception (goal may be achieved by target believing the subterfuge).

Orrrr they need to put on a convincing effort at pretending they expect Gladmane to believe it.

Also, never bet against a FlimFlam when Friendship is on the line!