Jun
14th
2015
Episode 100 · 7:37pm Jun 14th, 2015
A small part of me was tempted to jump on the bandwagon and produce a quick something about this episode in story format, but I opted out. I will be shocked, nay, amazed if any part of this episode is ever referenced outside of itself ever again, and quietly shuffle most of its facts aside until they get confirmed somewhere outside of Reference-a-palooza land and brony-fan-splosion territory.
Am I alone in this?
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David Silver · 281 views
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You're most likely correct, but that's only to be expected - while this episode was one big love letter to the fans, in terms of world-building or the overarching plot, there's simply very little here to reference.
The events of this episode that could be noted later on were Cranky and Matilda's wedding and the rampage of the Bugbear. The only notable changes or revelations that we had about any of the characters were the aforementioned wedding, Bon Bon's "secret identity," and depending on how much you're willing to read into things, the relationship between Derpy and Dr. Hooves (oh, and DJ-Pon3 and Octavia are apparently roommates). Finally, in terms of history, we got an interesting insight regarding Celestia having disbanded a covert anti-monster organization.
That may sound like a lot, but really it's a small helping of minor tidbits, and in all honesty, I'm not sure how any of these would be worked in later. In effect, this was a slice-of-life episode that was divided into several modest chunks. Given how little slice-of-life episodes that are dedicated to one of the Mane Six get referenced already, expecting these pieces about the tertiary cast members to come up again later is an extreme long-shot.
That's honestly not that surprising, or at least I don't think so. While the fandom (particularly the analysis-focused part of it) may crave things that create/reveal more of the setting's internal logic and consistency, I would imagine that the writers see this as a set of restrictions that they need to abide by when trying to perform their primary duty: to make the show entertaining. While some restrictions are to be expected - and are quite often useful, since coloring "within the lines," so to speak, can fan the flames of creativity - introducing too many only results in them having more and more caveats that they need to keep in mind when trying to make new stories (for an example of that, just look at all of the subtly-conflicting messages we've gotten about cutie marks over the years).
I thought that this was a great episode, overall. It didn't have quite everything I was hoping for, but it hit most of the high points that I wanted, and quite a few others. Moreover, it did add new depth to several characters, reveal more about the world and its history, and made me laugh all at the same time.
For all of that, I'd call it a rousing success.
I think you should at least write in a reference to Fast Change standing in for Celestia at the wedding (she could pull it off). But only because you've made a point of referencing Season 5 in that story. In all, I agree. As awesome as ep. 100 was, it really didn't change pony history and confirmed way more fan-cannons than it broke. I'm sure the 5 bronies who thought Lyra and Bon Bon were not a couple are devestated. But seeing as they basically just made FIM fiction cannon, there's really not much new material. Also, I think "Special Agent Sweetie Drops" should show up in "It's Ok to be a pony", but that's just me making fan requests.
I honestly think the biggest thing that will be taken from the episode, more than anything else, is that Changeling in the background of a wedding.
I'm wondering what stories will come up just from some of the things in this episode. Already at least one about that changeling and I'm wondering if any of the background ponies of this background pony episode are going to be used. I think I saw a unicorn stallion a couple times that looked a lot like Dinky.
I agree that episode 100 will probably be treated as soft canon by the show staff (maybe even non-canon). It was packed with call-backs and references, but it was all basically just a joke. Since they relied heavily on the core cast for voices, it's likely that none of the new characters will ever speak again, either. In most cases, that's all the better for us. For example, too many people are heavily invested in a particular picture of Derpy; it's better if she stays a cheerful mute most of the time. (I know she's called Muffins, I assumed Derpy was just a nickname from the start)
Cranky and Matilda will probably still be married in future episodes, but I'll bet most people already thought they were before.
3152955 She was originally a happy pegasus that was among a crowd of other ponies just as happy to get muffins.
People.
3153089 Well yeah. She still came off easier than Berry Punch, who got branded as a drunk because of that one time she didn't use a cup to drink out of the punch bowl. I don't even see the connection there. It's a little rude, but she didn't take much. Besides that, it was Diamond Tiara's punch; there's no way it was spiked.
3153116 The fandom is amazing sometimes, is it not?
However, I am amused because I am apparently among the former minority that knew of Bon Bon's two names and used both in my fics exchangedly, and said Lyra uses Bon Bon more familiarly, which wasn't wrong.
3153119 I knew. Most popular background ponies have at least two names: the merchandise name and the name bronies call them. Colgate has at least 3 names, but since there are at least 8 ponies that look like that, any development of her should make no trouble for anyone. Apparently, she has an even larger family than Pinkie Pie.