Points of Canon: S609 - The Saddle Row Review · 8:42pm May 21st, 2016
It’s a Rarity episode. Rarity episodes tend to deliver rarely available world-building information regarding what ponies consider polite society. This one doesn’t bring a whole lot, but some of it is useful.
- Once again, no Starlight Glimmer in evidence, making it possible to backdate this episode.
- The episode features four ponies in intermediate body sizes between filly and fully grown, so we now know what teenagers actually look like, finally.
1. Nothing unexpected… and sometimes I feel it’s important to point out the things that are not unexpected, since we could well get something else entirely.
It’s interesting that the review of Rarity’s boutique appears in a newspaper, and not, say, in a fashion magazine. It’s also interesting that it is most likely a national newspaper, since Rarity is reading it in Ponyville, while the boutique is in Manehattan.1 It’s also interesting that they all got home before the article was published, and yet somehow had to rush to Rarity’s hoping to intercept the newspaper, which introduces some strange timing issues.
2. And starts sounding more and more like Washington DC.
It’s interesting how the center of polite society seems to have gravitated from Canterlot to Manehattan over the course of the series. Originally, Rarity would say that Canterlot is the fashion center, but now, it’s Manehattan’s Saddle Row street, and Canterlot doesn’t even rate.2
- Applejack looking for “Stinkie Bottom’s Discount Hat Emporium” casts further arguments against the popular fanon that her hat is a heirloom, not like there was anything left of it by now.
- The Stripes family belongs to the very small subset of pony families with shared name components.
- Once again, we see a security guard with an earphone. Whether it is connected to a radio is anyone’s guess.
- Once again, Vinyl Scratch is referred to as “DJ PON3” in speech, multiple times, both by Rarity and Pinkie, making me think that the name “Vinyl Scratch” is being avoided deliberately and “DJ PON3” is now supposed to be Vinyl’s real name. *sigh*
- Rarity takes Celestia’s name in vain again, “What in the name of Celestia was that?!” making her the character with most profanity on record.
- Once again we hear “Gesundheit” on screen, this time from Rarity – the previous time was Rainbow Dash in May the Best Pet Win. How exactly pony language came by that word remains a mystery.
3. And is going to introduce horrible chronology problems in a season already riddled with them, I just know it. :)
Rarity’s “tonight is the last night of the Fall season” strictly dates the episode within a year.3
- The obvious duplicate of Pinkie Pie sitting next to her remains a visual gag that’s going to be a feature box oneshot in three, two, one…
- Pinkie continues to introduce references to things ponies were not meant to know by having an angel and demon Rarity advising her on alternatives. Thankfully, nobody seems to notice.
- We observe a rare case of actually using spoons. And the actual use is… odd, because it involves tucking them into some band wrapped around a hoof. (?)
- The total amount of clothes involved in this opening, as well as the fact they’re all ready made, precludes the possibility of Rarity sewing all of them herself, unless she is capable of churning out one dress per day or more – there’s about a hundred of individual clothes hangers, not to mention numerous accessories.
The episode itself seems kinda meh. I wonder, whether this is a 13-episode season or a 26-episode season…
There will be a mid season hiatus in about four or five episodes.
Have yet to see this episode.
The Pinkie clone could be a mirror pool copy that got away, a case of just finding a pony that looks just like you, or more likely its a changeling.
An excellent assessment of the episode from the point of view of what it adds to canon. I must say, you have done splendid work with this series of essays thus far. I have found them to be both enjoyable and informative.
Well done my good Sir, and please continue with your rather marvellous work
Manehattan being described as such an important city could be from the reporter's bias.
Also, spoon clothes (or holding bands) seem to be an entirely new thing.
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Oh, there's no question what the double could be -- either work, it's the fact that you can bet nothing will come out of it in canon that makes it a visual gag only. Which is a shame, really.
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Why, thank you. :) It started purely as research notes...
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The problem is that the reporter is Rarity both times -- either the actual cultural center shifted, or Rarity changed her mind rather significantly.
And yeah, spoon clothes are a new thing, but the whole sequence doesn't feel right to me, it's difficult to describe. It's like I've been watching actors trying to explain why using a spoon with a handle a meter long to eat is a good idea and failing.
Great observations as always Oliver. I love that Applejack got her hat at Stinkie Bottoms. And it's definitely weird they would change a pony's name for something like DJ Pon3 from Vinyl Scratch, the former doesn't really sound like a pony name at all.
That's a fantastic point about the volume of clothes taking Rarity a huge amount of time, I hadn't even considered it. Sure, she was able to churn out a "Princess Dress" in only a day per dress back in Canterlot, but that was following an optimized pattern. Here's she designing an entire line from scratch, it probably took her like 6 months, which may be why she is almost late for fashion season.
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3962868 Did Rarity ever actually describe Canterlot as "the fashion capital?" I thought she just said it was glamorous and sophisticated? Either way, Canterlot is probably the town Rarity visited on weekends as a teenager enamored by fashion, so it represents something special to a kid in the Canterlot suburbs, like somone growing up in rural Missouri thinking St. Louis is pinnacle of civilization because they could never afford to travel to New York before now. It definitely appears Manehatten is the cultural center of Equestria, and not just its economic center.
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Gets her hats. The Apples have a whole hats and bows closet, see Somepony to Watch Over Me. :) The fanon that it is a heirloom was very popular for a long time, though.
Maybe not in those exact words, but she's a "Canterlot pony at heart" and previously, most of her dreams revolved around Canterlot. Being the seat of national government, it's hardly St. Louis. :)
3964757 DC has twice the population of St. Louis, so you're right, DC is the 22nd largest city in the country.
Also does Stinkie Bottoms make Apple Bloom's bows? I want to know more about this mysterious figure.
Curious why you use dashes instead of a [hr] in your footnote.
since nobody's saying it outright: Asshats. The writers made a joke about asshats.
Pinkie is one of those things pony was not meant to ken, as Twilight's (wrongly) concludes from FPK.
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She's already got her hoof one one élite center; it's so last decade.
So…was Rarity procrastinating the cleaning of the place until opening day, or was she being painfully optimistic (yet, thanks to friends, not enough to land her in the fire) about how long it would take to make it?
Why the buck are they serving food, especially liquid, around fashion? Is Rarity trying to make a lot on the "you break it, you bought it" market? Or is it just the least damaging way they could deal with little miss nepotism? Especially since they've got a dance floor and thumping beats…
❧Disagree. One escaped…but she's not causing problems, so who cares?
❧The reporter is good at his job; he distracts Pinkie (who one expects to be good at math) from her tab. This leads to…
❧Pinkie is not rich that she can comfortably take this tab she's racked up.
❧"ne'er-do-wells"
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as I'm told editing in a quote doesn't notify,
4509686 *Looks at Cranky wearing a fedora* No offense.