Tell Your Tale: Canon or Not? · 2:32am Jul 31st, 2023
I've seen this question going around every now and then. While it was apparently confirmed that it exists in the same universe as A New Generation and Make Your Mark, there are some that are convinced that Tell Your Tale is a separate universe.
Personally, I'm one of these people. Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part (after all, I'm choosing to see G5 as a separate universe to G4), but given the more comedic nature of Tell Your Tale, the difference in tone stands out significantly from Make Your Mark. And, well, some moments in TYT just seem too random and ludicrous for me to believe they actually happened.
But besides that, there have been moments in the show that suggest it isn't canon after all:
1. Certain characters in TYT being absent in MYM (eg. Rufus, Fifi & Flare), and vice versa (eg. Toots & Sweets).
2. Based on the wanted poster outside Hitch's office, Sprout is presumably still a fugitive in TYT.
3. Phyllis' only appearance so far retconning her character in the movie. In A New Generation, she was just a misguided but protective pony who was blinded by fear and paranoia like everyone else and was only looking out for her citizens, and by the end she was on the verge of turning over a new leaf. But in TYT, she's a strict critic with a reputation of shutting down various businesses in the past with harsh reviews, and seems perfectly content in doing the same to Pipp. Her interactions with her and Sunny even imply that she doesn't know them personally.
4. In The Unboxing of Izzy, Sunny didn't know how to disable the unicorn trap when she did in the movie.
5. Izzy's uni-cycling cart being introduced differently in both shows. In TYT, she already had it before the events of MYM Chapter 1 since she was shown repairing Sunny's lantern at the time. But in MYM, she finds it for the first time in Izzy Does It in Chapter 2.
6. In Baby Critters Club, the alicorn mirror that Opaline uses to spy on the Mane 5 is shown to work inside the Brighthouse, while it was established that it couldn't in MYM.
7. The Marestream being introduced differently in both shows.
8. Zipp and Pipp finding out about their mother's relationship with Alphabittle was shown differently in The Jinxie Games.
Now, of course, there are moments that are consistent or at least explain events in MYM: the introduction of the Brighthouse, the debut of Senor Butterscotch, Maretime Bay Day, the battle with Opaline, etc. Because of this, I can understand why some people would consider TYT to be canon.
So, what does this mean then? Is TYT canon or not? Well, in my opinion, I would say that some of it is. Some of the episodes may provide some more context to the events, while others just provide some light-hearted humour that stand on their own. To put it another way, look at the episode I've Seen Fire And I've Seen Rain(bows). That was basically a recap of the battle with Opaline in Missing the Mark, with Pipp and Izzy providing said recap and Zipp questioning certain details of It. If you ask me, I think there were some meta undertones to that episode. The way I see it, I think Pipp and Izzy represent the writers of TYT, while Zipp represents people in the fanbase who point out how certain details are inconsistent to the events of MYM.
This sums up my thoughts pretty well. Tell Your Tale may have some connection to Make Your Mark and sometimes provide more context to the events (if only in a more exaggerated way). But in the end, it's just a fun show that stands on its own for the most part.
As always, feel free to comment. I'm interested to know what your thoughts are.
For me, TYT is firmly in canon with Make Your Mark and it’s obvious that they exist in the same universe alongside A New Generation. The early episodes did in fact suffer this continuity problem as you pointed out, but none of them are so egregious for me that I consider the whole show to not be canon. A lot of elements do line up perfectly and what I think we have is the two writing teams not communicating properly on certain episodes. I notice that TYT seems to be improving with this recently (case in point: the recap episode being very faithful to the events of “Missing The Mark” with a couple of comedic gags because of the different tone), and the wanted posters can be explained as being old and they didn’t get taken down. Sawtooth Waves even pointed out the wanted posters were in Make Your Mark as well, so that’s an element that lines up perfectly with the two shows.
Some characters from TYT disappearing in MYM isn’t a problem as not every character needs to appear in an episode if they don’t benefit the story. Nothing about Phyllis’s interactions with Pipp and Sunny struck me as a retcon and the fact that she closed her factory down in Chapter 4 makes me think she’s trying to bury her past by changing jobs. In Make Your Mark, they mess up the detail with the Alicorn Mirror too, so it’s not something that differentiates the two. While I can’t explain everything as there are legitimate continuity errors that I really don’t like such as the Marestream being introduced twice, it’s pretty obvious that the two shows are connected firmly in one canon.
As I stated before, TYT appears to be improving with this as most of the errors you pointed out seem to be relegated to the earlier episodes, so only time will tell if we stop having these problems. Hope that clears it up somewhat.
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I get what you're saying. While I still disagree with some of your points, I respect your opinion. Like I said, I'm open to the possibility that some episodes are canon, while others I just consider to be exclusive to TYT.
As of season 2, it might as well be canon