Points of Canon: S5x24 - The Mane Attraction · 10:38pm Jun 21st, 2016
I need to take a break from writing, which isn’t going particularly well, so here’s another retrospective canon combing attempt.
- As a general note, Season 5 episodes can be divided into those involving the Cutie Map, and those not involving it, which affects their possible placement in the timeline. This one doesn’t.
- Applejack says she has never been involved with setting up a concert, but has been involved in organizing a rodeo. It’s notable that canon never shows her actually doing the latter that I remember, unless you count the Iron Pony competition in Fall Weather Friends, which appears to be at least superficially related.
- Judging by the amount of apple trees and the characteristic fence, as well as a barn suspiciously similar to the one commonly seen as part of Applejack’s farm, it’s clearly somewhere on Apple family land.
- Twilight refers to “Pinkie’s connections organizing the Ponypalooza Rock Concert,” which is notable because it is one of the very few references to a chapter book in primary canon – the said rock concert is described in Pinkie Pie and the Rockin’ Ponypalooza Party. Which has the same kind of compatibility problems as other text printed media and which I probably should tackle next.
- “Helping Hooves Music Festival” is constantly referred to as a charity event, which settles that charities exist. Not that this was in doubt, with the general attitudes observed in ponies, but at least it implies that there are disadvantaged ponies who would be the subject of charity.
- It’s interesting that Applejack, upon hearing that Pinkie booked the “biggest pony pop star in all of Equestria,” immediately thinks of Sapphire Shores, rather than Countess Coloratura. If there is a widely adhered to ranking of pop stars, Applejack is not aware of it, (or of Coloratura herself, even when everyone else is) but since nobody else seems to think of Coloratura immediately, there probably isn’t.
- Applejack thinks that it’s unlikely for two Coloraturas to be the same, which implies that duplicate names at least could occur.
- I mentioned this before in RTAC #2 but it’s rather important to reiterate – “Countess” is not a noble title, but a stage name, explicitly invented by Svengallop. In an Equestria with any kind of actual titled nobility, it would be illegal or otherwise unacceptable to do that. Applejack’s “Well, I don’t think it’s the same pony, since my friend wasn’t any sort of high-falutin’ countess.” implies that the idea of a noble title is not unheard of, though.
- “Camp Friendship” provides us with what appears to be the equivalent of boy/girl scouts, uniforms and badges and summer camps and all. Both Rara and Applejack have their cutie marks in the flashback, which positions the event after the first Sonic Rainboom. Notably, no other Mane 6 members are present in the flashback, which does not exactly rule out them being in the camp, but at least makes it rather unlikely.
- I think this is the first appearance of Applejack with a guitar. Or rather, an ukulele, which somehow sounds like a guitar anyway.
- Camp children can be seen playing cards. Card games exist.
- The lyrics of “Equestria, my home,” position the ideas of friendship and harmony as an important, explicit part of pony ideology. So does the Hearth’s Warming Eve traditional play, but the song clearly marks the ideas as more pervasive than a repeated yearly event can be.
1. It’s worth noting that Zesty Gourmand also wears clothing that hides her cutie mark entirely. And so does Sombra. And Starlight Glimmer’s actual cutie mark is hidden behind the painted-on equals sign. I would even say it’s like hiding your cutie mark is a sure sign of a villain, except that the Mane 6 occasionally wear dresses which do the same. Maybe dresses, in particular, don’t count.
Svengallop is one of the very few ponies to wear pants. Even Fancy Pants doesn’t. In this particular case it is notable because we don’t see his cutie mark.1
- Rara is not from Ponyville or anywhere nearby, since communication with her required Applejack to write letters, and she is also not from Manehattan, because that’s where she went to start her singing career. It’s also interesting to note that they only interacted face to face during camp, but not otherwise.
- I’m not sure which particular silly custom the whole “hoofsies” practice is meant to imitate, but from the way everyone’s taking it, we can conclude it is a thing.
- Rainbow Falls exports bottled water. Royal Canterlot Garden sells floral arrangements.
- Pinkie has the biggest drinking straw collection in Equestria, or at least says she does.
2. The separated cherries are clearly a reference to Van Halen and their M&Ms, which is a fun little story. Check out this site for a large collection of riders, some are quite amusing.
It’s interesting that Coloratura’s rider sheet includes crystals from Crystal Empire among food items,2 and yet there are no visible dragons in her crew. Either these particular “crystals” are in fact a subspecies of candy, or earth ponies occasionally supplement their diet with gemstones like the Pie family eats rocks.
- Coloratura mentions a trailer, which shows up on screen only much later. Notice that Trixie’s approach to solving the same problem is rather different.
- Svengallop cites Appleloosan oats as “top of the line,” which has to be a relatively new thing, since when Appleloosa showed up on screen, they were exclusively growing apples. In any case, Appleloosa is at most 2-3 years old at the time, which is a short time to get your oats considered premium.
- The CMC already sport their cutie marks, which is important for placing this episode in the timeline.
- Applejack has a pedal powered apple peeler and the corresponding apple corer. You would imagine we’d see them earlier, considering how many apple-based dishes she’s cooking all the time.
- Alicorn Twilight is capable of projecting color video from memory.
3. It’s a shame she doesn’t end up using it, because it’s the cutest thing she wore all day.
Coloratura’s second stage outfit – presumably, Rarity’s work, because she’s chasing Coloratura with the accompanying diadem – includes platform heels on all four hooves.3
- Twilight referencing the “opening night” of the festival implies it’s a multi-day affair.
- As of this episode, Sweetie Belle is capable of levitating light objects at least three meters away.
This one had some far-reaching consequences.
Noble titles known from foreign dignitaries, Canterlot nobles while having no actual title, affectation of one is perhaps not unheard of.
I found myself wondering if ponies wore platforms so they could emulate the princesses in height.
Interesting thoughts on the nobility. It sounds like there is evidence for and against. From what you're describing, it sounds like maybe there still are some ponies who can claim a noble title, but they don't have special protections under the law these days, particularly in areas like les majesty. If someone used "Countess" as a stage name in the UK today, would that be considered unacceptable? Would people really care?
Regarding the hiding of cutie marks: I think there's a simple reason for this. Cutie marks function for the audience as a way of quickly summarizing a pony's talents, hopes and dreams, they are a fantastically efficient way of humanizing characters to the audience. But the risk for the writers is if we see the cutie marks of antagonists, we might wonder what their special talent and destiny is, and then we could end up thinking of them as characters and people in their own right. Notice how everyone on that list was written as an extremely simplistic one-dimensional villain, except Starlight Glimmer, who showed us more of her character only after her true cutie mark was revealed?
If we see Svengallop's cutie mark, it might represent management, and then the audience would wonder why a pony with a special talent for management would interact with the people responsible for his client's happiness so poorly, or not understand that charity work is a vital part of brand building for any popular celebrity, or otherwise start to ask why a pony who has been so sucessful for so long as a manager is doing such a crappy job during the episode. If Svengallop's cutie mark does not represent management, on the other hand, the audience might think he acts rude to others because he feels denied the opportunity to follow his own passions, and we might sympathize with him, and now shades of grey have been introduced into this black and white morality tale.
4041563
No, because it's a continental title. In the UK, that would be an Earl. :) But it is of questionable legality nonetheless - some got away with it, others did not.
Mind you, RTAC #2 had other arguments against -- the bigger one being, if Jet Set and Upper Crust actually had titles, they would definitely use them when signing Rarity's formal invitation, and if anyone actually has a title, it would be those two. :)
Also, I doubt Equestria actually has lese majeste laws at all, seeing as how they take Celestia's name in vain once every fifteen episodes on average.
4041624 Yeah, Sweet and Elite made me think the same thing. Rarity would certainly know if Fancy Pants had a title, and would use it to describe him.
…and its audio, as these aren't necessarily the same…but…
Trixie used this spell [in Magic Duel], though with a much smaller projection, and with a much-longer gap between observation and replay.
Twilight has previously shown the ability to learn other ponies' signature spells, as opposed to circinate book-spells.
…actually, the existence of this spell, along with the memory spell, establishes a means for movies in Equestria entirely sans film technology; Princess Luna then may become Rendermare.
4312945
Distribution without film technology would be problematic, because it would require the caster to be present on site. But using film to capture magically rendered images surely is an option, and there’s little doubt that this is how they do special effects in the movies in general – Rara’s stage and vocal effects are clearly magic as well.
4314349
You'd need a caster just like you need a projector. IT would fit in with the S1 "train pulled by ponies" vein of thought. And it's not like that lack of projector would be odd; use of a film projector would be the step that stops requiring someone with a special talent in the field to operate a theater. This seems like something that would be considered Wrong Tech, in helping prevent Cutie Mark Destiny Magic from being exercised. Also in this tangent, Luna could make a hell of a distribution channel, possibly sidestepping logistical concerns entirely, dependent upon the range limits of her dreamwalking ability.
In a related note, the users of collegiate, circinate¹ spells are sufficiently few in primary canon to have only Ability as the Plot Demands and not really establish much how book-spells work, are recorded, are used in culture, etc.. And we have that dreadful bit where Twi learned Rarity's gem-highlight spell…
D'you think you want to infer from this episode that pop-star dances are bipedal or just leave that as an audience sop? Or perhaps it's an exotic trick, signature to her backup ponies.
4314417
Which was a highly isolated occurrence.
Perforated film does exist, see One Bad Apple for example. So projectors obviously exist. Ponies do have the technology otherwise – see, for example, slides in The Cutie Re-Mark – ponies do have movie theaters… I don’t see the need to make it any more pony than it already is. :)
Pony dancing involves standing on only two appendages often, and this is seen all over the screen canon. Ponies are not incapable of walking on two legs only, they just clearly don’t find it convenient to walk like that for an extended length of time.