Analyzing The Cutie Map's Foreshadowing · 10:14pm Jun 16th, 2015
A picture on Derpibooru sent my mind racing. Take a look at this screencap from the season premiere.
The one-eyed skull. It's Arimaspi, from The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone.
Now, this isn't entirely consistent - in the episode itself, the point on the map marked as being Griffonstone is under Pinkie's face in this screencap (notice the cutie marks swirling around it), but the skull-marked mountains are over by Rainbow. That's quite a long trip from Griffonstone to the Abyssmal Abyss.
Still, this is such a subtle but specific detail, it can't be an accident. The showrunners purposefully planted the skull on the map with intent for it to be visited. Also, while the skull is located south of Canterlot, the point marked by the cutie marks is across the sea to the east, precisely where the official map of Equestria says there are griffons. Given how many other familiar landmarks there are on the map, there was clearly thought into making it accurate to a degree. I think it's safe to say the map pointed out the proper location of Griffonstone, and the skull is a fluke. Or maybe it's Grogar who's gonna be the villain of Season 6, I dunno.
I decided to analyze screencaps for a closer look at the map, to see what other little secrets are hiding in plain sight. First, a close-up of the map for easier viewing. As a reminder, the mountains near Twilight, with the stepped waterfalls, is where the map sent them in the premiere to Starlight Glimmer's town, and of course the rainbow in the middle is Canterlot.
Also, reminder of the leaked Season 5 episode titles, which apparently are legit.
12.Amending Fences
13.Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?
14.Canterlot Boutique
15.Scare-Master
16.Rarity Investigates
17.Made in Manehattan
18.Brotherhooves Social
19.Crusaders of the Lost Mark
20.The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows
21.Hearthbreakers
22.What About Discord?
23.The Hooffields and Mccolts
24.The Mane Attraction
25.26.The Cutie Remark Part 1 and 2
The first one that caught my attention is #23. The Hatfield-McCoy feud is an infamous feud between the two families in Virginia and Kentucky in the mid-to-late 1800s. Kentucky is part of the Appalachia region, and in the show we have the southern desert-based town of Appleloosa. Looking at the map, we see can see the familiar desert of Appleloosa near the middle, as well as regions nearby like a hilly area to the west. My money, our ponies are headed down south again to take care of some feuding fillies.
Crusaders of the Lost Mark. After five seasons I'm almost desensitized to the bad puns. (Almost - looking at you, Prancy Drew.) I'm not big on Indiana Jones, but Wikipedia tells me the titular Ark was found in Egypt. So, do we have an Egypt-like region on the map? Yes we do, far to the east, an arid white region with odd trees. Okay, a stretch, but that could certainly be a desert. It certainly isn't the cacti region in the middle of the map, because Egypt doesn't have cacti, and the showrunners have proven themselves smart enough to deserve the benefit of the doubt that they'll get that right in an Egypt-analog region.
Hearthbreakers. Hearth's Warmings Eve, perhaps? I wouldn't mind seeing them revisit that episode, it took a novel to reconcile the discrepancies between that story and the mythos of Celestia and Luna. The frozen north is definitely on the map, and the Crystal Empire is a recurring location - could it be we'll take a trip there to revisit Equestria's mythological origins? We haven't seen much of Cadance and Shining Armor lately, Slice of Life notwithstanding, it would be due for them to make an appearance.
Made in Manehattan? Yup, Manehattan is on the map too. In tandem with the TCG hinting at the return of Coco Pommel, it seems a sure thing we'll be heading back to see her again and help her with a friendship problem.
The other episode titles are a bit vague to try and figure out the plots of. So let's look at the map itself. Here's a screenshot of the map from another angle.
Between the apparent location of Griffonstone and Starlight's village, is another mountain range that looks like a tower of sorts, and another range near it has a crescent moon near it. There's a better view of the two landmarks in the foreground of the above screenshot. Seems both are a bit of particular formations to just be overlooked. Speaking of that screenshot, is that an island cave on the far left?
The showrunners have clearly put a thought into more serialized storytelling, and in tandem with that comes more foreshadowing than previous seasons. Let's keep an eye out for when that map calls on our heroes again and see if any of my observations hold water.
Whoa! You noticed all those cool tiny details! Now I'm even more excited for Season 5! Thank you for posting this!