S4E18 "Maud Pie" Review - Points of Contact · 4:38pm Mar 18th, 2014
I've heard mixed reactions to this episode so far. They seem to be divided between those who like and those who hate Pinkie's elder sister -- Maud Pie.
This makes sense, because the episode is essentially a study in character. Specifically, in Maud Pie's extremely unusual character, and the reactions that each of the Mane Six has to this extremely unusual character.
Now, to begin with, the Mane Six are themselves "extremely unusual" characters. Twilight Sparkle is obsessed with books, lore and magic to the almost total exclusion of everything else in her life. Rarity is a tempermental artist fixated on True Art, social climbing, and meeting Mr. Right, whose mood swings approach manic-depression. Fluttershy is a seriously-damaged mare with some sort of social anxiety disorder and tremendous repressed rage, who actively avoids most other Ponies. Rainbow Dash is even more aggressive than are most Pegasi, and she is utterly obsessed with athletic and military accomplishment. Pinkie Pie, even in canon, is a Cloudcuckoolander who lives in pretty much her own reality, and whose very strange behavior sometimes crosses over into mild psychotic episodes. Applejack is about the most normal of them all -- though she lives by an iron code of honor that has on several occasions caused her to behave with extreme irrationality, especially when she feels shamed by her own unavoidable imperfections.
So, what can we say to describe Maud Pie?
The most obvious thing about her is that she has almost an absolutely-flat emotional affect. One has to pay very close to her tone and expressions to tell when she likes or dislikes something. Even when she is absolutely consumed by terror that her beloved sister is about to be scraped into goo by a huge boulder, all she gets is a look of grim determination. Pinkie, and probably the other members of her family, can read Maud like a book, but I would guess that very few other Ponies can even tell she has emotions.
The next most obvious thing about her is that she is a monomaniac. She is interested in geology -- and pretty much nothing else. Rocks are her life, her passion, her obsession. She actively rejects any topic of discussion other than one regarding rocks. Just watching that episode, I can tell you that outside her family she probably does not have a single friend, let alone lover, who is not obsessed with geology. This is because no one but a fellow rock hound could bear her company for very long.
How does her family stand her? Well, to begin with, consider the family business. They are rock farmers. Igneous, Cloudy, Marble and Limestone probably have long conversations with her about practical geology. By now, they may be deferring to her expertise on the subject. I would guess they find her opinions fascinating, and are very proud to have raised a daughter so intelligent and determined that she is actually pursuing a doctorate in geology. Though I bet even they wish she'd talk about other things as well.
How does Pinkie Pie (who is obsessed with baking, candy and parties, not geology) stand her? Pinkie Pie loves her. And Maud loves Pinkie -- the strongest affects we see Maud show in this episode are related to either fear for or love of her Pink sister. (Or half-sister, in my fanon, but that's a totally different issue). Pinkie Pie is the one Pony for whom Maud is willing to make an effort to do anything not related to rocks.
Maud's obsession has other effects on her character. Though she is very direct, she is also taciturn and possibly even shy. She is a natural introvert, and this is probably reinforced by the likely response she has received from most Ponies when she attempted to reach out to them in the past. I can practically guarantee you that the usual reaction was probably to say something along the lines of "That's nice," and then completely ignore her.
This makes her difficult to reach because she's clearly given up on expecting anypony else to understand her. Thus, when she does talk to the Mane Six about her obsession, she confines herself to the most perfunctory observations, such as "That's a sedimentary rock," the first thing she says to them in the episode.
That, incidentally, may have been a test. Had anypony in the Mane Six expressed an interest in geology and actually tried to talk to her about the rock -- its nature, history and the like -- she might have opened up to her. Actually, based on my experience with shy monomaniacs (many fen are both) the problem at that point might have shifted to getting a word in edgewise. But nopony did, and from that point on finding a point of contact with Maud became harder.
This is all the more obvious a failure because each of the Mane Six actually does have (one or more) points of contact with Maud, but did not realize it.
Twilight Sparkle is a fellow-scientist (science and magic are pretty much the same thing in this world). She could have attempted to learn about geology from Maud. Instead, she tried to discuss poetry. That almost worked, but Twilight didn't like Maud's poetry, and Maud could notice this.
Rarity has a magic talent for finding gems, and is fascinated with gems in her own fashion designes. Gemology is actually a subset of geology. She could have discussed gemstones and other crystals. Instead, Rarity tried to discuss the emotional meanings of fashion statements (Maud's, obviously, is "Don't look at me. Leave me alone").
Fluttershy is fascinated by Nature. Geology is a natural science. Instead, Fluttershy discussed her own monomania (zoology) instead of opening up to Maud's. When she realized that Maud found animals boring, she was too overwhelmed to continue from that point.
Rainbow Dash is obsessed with athleticism. Maud has strength and agility at meta-equine levels. Maud demonstrated this to Rainbow Dash. But when Maud also said that she didn't care about winning, Rainbow suffered what looked very much like not only intellectual surprise but also profound moral shock at this revelation.
Finally, Applejack ignored the one commonality that she had with Maud. Family. Both of them come from large families, have multiple siblings, and in fact are kin. Applejack however focused on her own obsession (apple farming), and didn't know what to say when it became obvious that Maud didn't even know how to peel an apple.
This failure on their part is actually significant because it was a failure of diplomacy. They may someday have to deal with individuals from very different cultures, persons stranger by far than Maud Pie, and ones with whom failures to communicate might lead to dire consequences.
However, Twilight salvaged things at the end by grasping that they were united in their love for Pinkie Pie. This is also significant, because this is a common "interest" in the diplomatic sense. Countries and factions who have no other point of commonality may unite against a common enemy, or in securing the safety of the sea lanes. It is important that it is Twilight, who is destined for a role in national leadership, was able to recognize and take advantage of this commonality.
I think that it is possible that Pinkie Pie set up her own endangerment to give Maud a chance to demonstrate her actual emotions. It is interesting that Pinkie couldn't free herself from that trap -- Pinkie is usually good at getting into and out of any physical location without the need for transiting the intervening space. On the other hand, it is definitely possible that the trap proved more potentially lethal than Pinkie had intended -- her terror at the last moment looked utterly genuine.
What do you think of all this?
Good analysis, especially regarding the mane six each having something in common with Maud.
What can I say, I love Maud. But mostly I love that this episode finally delivered a message I have been waiting for... not everyone is going to be friends. My own read is that Maud was flanderized to highlight exactly why the main six didn't connect with her. With only twenty minutes, we don't have time to watch twi and Maud have an awkward conversation about their different taste in poetry, so we get a vignette of Maud's silly rock poems. Likewise most of the interactions were shorthand for why they didn't get along, I am certain that Maud is not the monomaniac depicted in the episode, but it served the story to only portray her obsession with geology.
But I could well be wrong, Maud is a relative of Pinkie, and look at her obsessions...
Profund analisys, much More that what Have done all that haters of maud. In fact in sure they hated Maud because they don't go beyond the first impresion
So in a way it was Pinkie Pie's enthusiasm that ruined their chances?
They each tried to connect with her based on the aspect that Pinkie Pie incorrectly pointed out as a commonality (books, fashion, etc.) instead of looking for something on their own.
Interesting analysis.
It bears note that the ability to step out of your own frames of reference and consider another person's point of view is not standard for people or ponies, but actually a very complex skill that ties into empathy.
The most empathetic of the Mane 6 is Twilight. (I like to believe that Twilight's skill with friendship stems from her sheltered upbringing; she's never developed the familiarity with others that would allow her to overlook small but important details, so she notices and considers things others ignore.) She at least tried to consider Maud's interests - though she missed the blatantly obvious one - but still had to couch it in terms of her own. The others just went "I like this, let's bond over this". I also felt that their complete inability to understand that others don't always share their interests was exaggerated. It's a lesson they've already learned. (Season 1, episode 8.)
Maud Pie is a entertaining and interesting character in her own right, but the whole setup felt forced. The whole drama is set up around "We must find a way to bond with this strange pony who isn't like us", with the predictable ending (they find it) visible all too early. Hay, Zecora is living proof that they can relate to strange and odd ponies just fine.
Not one of the stronger episodes this season, but worth watching again for Maud.
1935733
I've known monomaniacs, and been friends with monomaniacs. My wife is not a monomaniac, but she has certain interests by which she judges everything she views, and she used to be narrower in this regard when she was in her early 20's (when I first met her).
She loves animals. She likes to study animals and train animals and interact with animals. She extends from this to Nature in general, including zoology, botany, geology, paleontology and evolutionary biology. And everything else she views through this lens.
For instance, until the last few years it was impossible to get her to read or watch much of anything which did not in some way involve non-human animals. Most of her thoughts revolved around non-human animals. And so forth.
If biology, animal cognitive studies, evolution and paleontology were not among my interests, we probably wouldn't have known each other beyond a couple of dates, tops. I doubt we would have gotten married.
So I can really comprehend Maud Pie, and I know exactly what sort of conversational approach would work with her. Now it's possible that she's so misanthropic (misequinic?) that nothing would work -- that she never ever wants to talk to ANYBODY -- but that's not what I was noticing from the show. She doesn't mind conversation -- but it has to be about geology. Or something at least sorta related to geology.
Yes, it was presented in an overly simplistic manner. But remember, we're looking at it from the Mane Six's perspective. And consider -- how easy would it have been to start a conversation with pre-Elements of Harmony Twilight Sparkle, if you knew nothing about magic or its history? Maud's not the only monomaniac on the show.
1935748
To be fair, I can see that Maud doesn't make it easy to make friends with her. But I saw what she was doing and I understood it.
Maud: "This is a sedimentary rock."
That was a test. To pass the test one would need to either (1) ask her about sedimentary rocks, or (even better) (2) tell her something about sedimentary rocks, such as "This terrain is a river valley and in earlier ages the river was larger, so many sedimentary rocks were lain down here."
Do (1) and she might tell you something interesting, and feel encouraged by your willingness to listen to her talk about her favorite topic. Do (2) and she might actually get into a spirited conversation with you, possibly even a debate (she might have some other theory regarding the presence and significance of the rock). Get into a really fun conversation with her about rocks, and a few years down the road you might wind up marrying her. Substituting "birds" for "rocks," that's how I wound up falling in love with my wife.
Why a test? Because Maud has probably had far too many experiences of trying to go on and on about geology and either be ignored as boring or (worse) laughing at her for being dumb enough to be interested in rocks. She's obviously rather shy and introverted in fundamental nature (the opposite of brash, extroverted Pinkie), and she's turned it into a sort of aggressive defiance against a world that doesn't find geology as fascinating as she does. So you have to prove to her that you are at all interested in talking to her about rocks.
This is also Maud's fault, of course. She probably drives away ponies who might be interested in talking to her -- even about rocks, or especially about rocks -- and sometimes in a very unnecessary fashion. But that's what happens when you are a shy introvert with very narrow interests, who has started to get angry about the world not appreciating her.
And yes -- she's definitely angry about it. Look at the challenging expression she gets when she defiantly turns every conversation back to rocks. She's saying "I don't care what you want to talk about. We're gonna talk about rocks."
Why is she angry? Well, do you think she has a lot of friends? Do you think her life has been full of love and acceptance, outside of her family? Heck, she's probably too obsessed about geology for most of her fellow geologists. I don't think she's the world's happiest camper.
And she brings this on herself. But it's hard for her to break out of this kind of cycle, for the obvious reason that she doesn't have a lot of social skills. She's the opposite of Pinkie, who can pretty much get anyone except an out-and-out villain to like her in the end.
1935850
Twilight is also the most cosmopolitan. Notice that in the S1 episodes, before the others have become more experienced in the ways of the world, she's often the only one who can see things outside of the small-town Ponyville mentality. For instance, Twilight gets that Trixie's performance is just a stage act, and that Zecora isn't an evil enchantress but just a member of a different equid species. Twilight has grown up in the capital and around the Palace, where she sees stage shows and foreign visitors as a matter of course. The others are used to living in a small farming community with a very tiny urban core -- few traveling shows, and less foreigners save for monsters out of the Everfree.
Zecora has made an effort to make friends (note her role as a storyteller in "Luna Eclipsed") and has a rather likeable personality once you get past the fact that she's a Zebra. Maud, on the other hand, is uncompromising and not merely asocial, but perhaps a little bit anti-social.
1935815
Exactly. Note, though, that everything that Pinkie Pie said was true. Pinkie just didn't stop and explain the context. Pinkie is often a poor communicator, probably because she mostly lives in her own little world.