Afterthoughts: P.P.O.V. · 9:21pm Oct 11th, 2016
art by AssasinMonkey
Ah! A Rashomon episode! Fun with unreliable narrators!
We hadn’t had one of these on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic before. Given that we are nearly to the end of the sixth season, this surprised me.
The Rashomon style of storytelling is common enough that most of us have seen episodes done like this on other television shows or in movies. It is great for mysteries, but it is probably best employed for characterization. We learn a lot about a character by seeing how they view the other characters around them.
But we know Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie so well, and have seen them paired up and played off of each other often enough, that their perceptions of each other – while fun – didn’t offer any new insight. We already pretty much knew this is how they saw each other.
Last week, we saw a pony whose anxieties had trapped her within her very small comfort zone, and how her very bad decisions wrecked havoc with her friends. Now fitting that the very next episode sees three of those friends deciding to explore outside their own comfort zones and try something new.
Only, that’s not really what they were doing. Rather, each of them decided to use the opportunity to help the other two get the most out of the adventure, while remaining firmly ensconced in her own comfort zone to do so.
I don’t really have a lot to say about that. That portion of the episode’s lesson simply reiterates the one in “Every Little Thing She Does”, so I have already given my opinions in the Afterthoughts on that episode. However, there are other lessons that the episode can teach.
art by GaelleDragons
The lesson outright stated by Twilight is the need for friends to communicate. This lesson shouldn’t be a revelation to anyone, even the youngest of the show’s audience. But it is still one that the oldest of us will occasionally forget. More than occasionally for some of us, which is tragic.
Even the best of friends will find strife if they do not keep lines of communication open. Misunderstandings can cut deep before they are recognized as what they are, and the wounds can still hurt long after everyone involved has realized the mistake and all is forgiven. It isn’t rational, but humans are emotional creatures.
Unspoken, but just as important, is the lesson that we should not assume the worst of each other. Common decency calls for us to exercise such assumptive restraint with everyone, but this is especially vital amongst friends.
Likewise, we need to remember that other people don’t see things the way we do. And it isn’t because they are “wrong”. Or, at least, no more than we are. People have different upbringings, different biases, and different educations (both formal and experience-based) that inform how they interpret the world around them. Whether it is a position on the economy or a perception of somebody else’s accent, each of us are approaching things from a subjective reality.
I am not saying there is no objective reality. Nor am I suggesting that all viewpoints and opinions, being subjective, are equal. Those informed by misinformation or lack of information are not equal to those informed by fact. Viewpoints that grow from bigotry, self-entitlement or other poisoned soil should be condemned. Echo chambers lead to extreme disconnection to reality.
art by WhiteDiamondLtd
Conversely, a greater breadth of experiences will give a person more tools with which to craft their perception of the world. More education will given them a greater foundation to build their beliefs on. And more friends will give them alternate sources of input and alternate viewpoints than their own, allowing them to get a better view of how things really are.
And that brings us full circle to the girls’ desire to get out of their comfort zone and try something new. Their intentions are completely laudable. Even their individual efforts to help each other at the expense of broadening their own experience is to be commended, although with reservation. Generosity and self-sacrifice are virtues, but it strikes me that each of them were avoiding what they were ostensibly boarding that ship to do. As Spike told Starlight the week before, they were each focused on entirely the wrong thing and “missing the point”.
art by cheezedoodle96
Little treasures:
We got some nice world-building in this episode, including a new creature: the tri-horned bunyip. This bunyip, I note, is a whole lot friendlier and more cuddly than the classic Australian monster.
from Paranormal-Encyclopedia.com:
The bunyip is a mythical creature — a lake monster — from Australian folklore; the word itself means “devil” or “spirit.” According to Aboriginal legend, the bloodthirsty bunyip inhabited swamps, riverbeds, billabongs (the stagnant backwaters of a river), and even wells, and lay in wait at night to devour any animal or person lurking nearby — although it was said to have a particular fondness for the sweet flesh of women and children.
Lucky for the ponies, this one preferred cucumber sandwiches. (It can have all of mine. I don’t like cucumber sandwiches.)
Ahab Applejack was awesome... at least when Rarity’s descriptions weren’t going totally overboard. At first, I thought that Applejack was just really getting into a role for the adventure, which I thought was a very cool approach. I could easily have enjoyed a whole episode of Ahab Applejack. (And there was no question what this Afterthought’s header image would have to depict.)
Rose Rarity was also fun to see. Rose Calvert’s dress looked right fine on Rarity. And I hooted at seeing her on the bow doing the classic Titanic pose.
I was really impressed with much of the design and animation this episode. The water animation during the storm caught my eye. Definitely a cut above what you see in a lot of cartoons.
The new setting, Seaward Sholes, was a great addition to the world of Equestria. I really hope we go back to it. I immediately wanted them to go explore that shipwreck which Applejack spotted through her spyglass. And I really loved the look of the town itself.
For that matter, I loved the boat. Clearly, despite Rarity’s language, this wasn’t a proper cruise. Rather, it looks as if they were renting or borrowing the boat. That is one heck of a boat to be able to rent. I love all the little details. Check out that flag! And the little carved apples on the tops and bottoms of the railings. Between those and the apple sail, I am imagining that it is an Apple family relative’s boat. Although I swear that I’ve see the design before…
OMG! They sank Gabby’s boat! 
art by thediscorded
OMG!
That is Gabby's boat!
While I usually end up whole hearted agreeing with you and thinking bye same way before reading these, I have to say I think you understated the fact of how inconsistent it is for them to stay mad at each other as long as they did. Twilight had trouble getting three of the mane six to be friends again! That sounds like an accurate and intriguing episode summary that would make me click it. And what's mildly shocking is the recurrence of Gabby's boat! Why? Just to recycle assets, or is there a slight chance it's purposefully story integrated?
Ehh... I sort of took a different approach, that of to much of a good thing. Its sort of like how kids spend too much with one friend and end up fighting. We see the mane six in pairs or all together normally, so with three the dynamic shifted.
.... okay
Kkat! I'm shocked! How dare you suggest this fine young ladies concise and poignant reasoning to the idea that others having the right to their opinion and the expression there of is not equal to, you know, actual human words!
HATE SPEECH!
Little did I know in my youthful days how much Jason Alexander would be relevant in the well being of this nation...
Can't stomach them either.
I don't really have much to say on this episode. It was enjoyable, but I don't think I'll return to it anytime soon, unless it's to try and spot the small details I missed the first few times. Hopefully we get to see more of the town, which for whatever reason reminds me of this DLC from Borderlands 2.
I hope she had boat insurance (and got an apology card).
I have never actually had a cucumber sandwich, but kind of want to try one.
As to the rest, as always, spot on and fully agree, especially the parts about subjective realities, and the follow up.
That said I don't think the views in these stories is REALLY how these three view each other, I'd say it's highly likely they were exaggerating, and over playing the things they do notice and dislike because they were angry, letting their emotions color how they described things and making it come off harsher then they truly felt.
4251871
Common consensus appears to be that such an amalgamation of various members of that huckster food pyramid result in an unparalled taste sensation that shall leave you saying "wow... I can't believe I stuffed this inside me."
4251888 The ones I had were good, although they were really cream cheese sandwiches with cucumbers in them.
Hehe could always do Far Harbour in FO:E now.
hi hi
Kurosawa was such a genius, and I always thought that one of the great twists in Rashomon was that every point of view had reason to seem like the correct one, but they never reveal one as being the true version. And at the same time, even though they don't learn what really happened, the characters taking shelter under that arch still learn some truth about being human.
We can never learn the whole, 100% complete truth, but a better understanding is still, well, better than not.
Seaward Sholes would make a great location for a Far Harbor inspired story.
4252007
4251871
I just realized this is the longest conversation I've ever had and the most I've ever had to say on cucumbers.
.... this is our lives gents. Talking food on the blog post of the second biggest fallout freak in all of pony fandom
4257016 Yes, behold the wonders of Pony, it can lead to stuff as odd and bizarre as this.
This episode taught us something true and absolute:
There isn't one true story, there are only various sides to the same story.
Huh... now I wonder what Calamity and Velvet have to say regarding Littlepips veracity when she told her story.
4257899
No doubt at one point Pip one day was arisen from her bed by a fuming pair of positively acrimonious ponies
Velvet: WHY IN THE NAME OF FUCK DID YOU TELL PEOPLE YOU WALKED IN ON CALAMITY GIVING ME ONE?
Calamity: WHY DID YOU RUB ONE OUT WHILE IN THE SAME BED AS MY WIFE?
4257945
>Queue a pony literally dying of laughter.