Sep
3rd
2016
Points of Canon: S6x18 - Buckball Season · 6:00pm Sep 3rd, 2016
First we had “hoofball.” Then, in Friends Forever #24 we got “boffyball,” which is a game primarily popular outside of Equestria, at least, according to Rarity.
But now there’s “buckball,” and I’d really love some more detailed description of all of them for my records.
Lots of little bits in this episode which aren’t too far reaching, but can make or break a theory or two anyway.
- Applejack tests for wind by spitting on her hoof. Hooves, or at least the frog of the hoof, have to be more sensitive to temperature than I thought for this to work at all.
- You’d think that “buckball” differentiates itself from hoofball by restricting itself to bucking with rear hooves, but that’s not it at all.
- Rainbow Dash can fly with one wing folded, giving further fuel to the notion that pegasi flight has nothing to do with aerodynamics whatsoever.
- Negative karma points for Rainbow for not knowing about a new sport. The only way I can imagine this happening is when it is exclusively an Apple family thing. Which it can’t be, because it apparently mandates the presence of a unicorn and a pegasus on the team. Is it just me, or the unicorns kind of seem well outside the core gameplay? Just how do the balls caught by the unicorn affect scoring anyway?
- Fluttershy misuses her tail as an appendage again, repeatedly. Notably, earth ponies do this often, pegasi occasionally, and unicorns never do it at all.
- The verb canonically used for telekinesis is “to float,” and it took us whopping six seasons to ever find that out.
- Snails has impressive telekinetic ability, particularly for his age, somewhere on Rarity’s level, and probably a bit beyond her, seeing as how he’s sitting on a bucket he’s holding up. (And why didn’t they call Rarity?…)
- That Fluttershy doesn’t handle pressure well is no surprise, but Pinkie being so affected kind of is.
- The colors everypony is decked out in to show their support do not seem to have appeared in this combination before. Purplish blue, lighter blue and near white blue? Oh come on.
- Bon-Bon went to Appleloosa with the train and left Lyra behind, but then they both reappear together in Appleloosa, painted up. Argh.
- Not only the Friendship Express has a baggage car, you can hide in it without breaking locks.
- Snails’ phrase “I don’t think about anything. EVER.” seems to suggest that rather than just stupid, he has reasons to avoid thinking in principle. I wonder what those are.
- Bulk Biceps’ body type is not unique among pegasi, the pegasus lady on the Appleloosa team is quite similar.
- Twilight, Spike, Starlight Glimmer, Friendship Castle (!) never appear on screen. Rainbow Dash never refers to being a Wonderbolt. Cutie Mark Crusaders never show up. Just when did this happen?…
The facial expressions in this episode are something else.
Given how Snails had no counterpart during the final practice match, it seems that unicorn buckball players are little more than glorified goalposts.
There is at least one instance of a unicorn displaying prehensile hair: Rarity kept the cake constricted in her tail coils during "Party of One."
As for chronology, I would think that this has to at least take place after "Griffon the Brush-Off" and "Over a Barrel." Before the former, Dash seemed to view Pinkie as more of an irritant than a friend. Before the latter, Braeburn had far more important things to worry about than a friendly competition with his cousin.
Buckball Season was chronologically the first episode. It takes place several days before Twilight came to Ponyville, which is why they never think of getting her. I know that everyone seems to know each other, and that they reference Celestia possibly showing up, and that Braeburn and Appleloosa appear, but that can easily be explained by a time-space distortion that rendered the laws of cause and effect moot.
4189525
Well, one way or another it's exceedingly rare...
Those are obvious. But can you find any later hard constraints? Because I couldn't...
Did Snails grow a little (physically), or is that wishful thinking? He looks taller than previously.
4189531
Your transparent attempt at irony has been logged. :) Sure, good idea!
4189536
Hard to say without comparing screenshots, but to me it looks like he didn't. He was always kinda tall for a child.
4189535
Only thing I can think of is how Snails could barely light his horn in "Boast Busters." Given his finesse here, I would think a decent amount of time had passed between then and now, but I can't give any sense of just how much. Part of me wants to say this happens after "No Second Prances," once Trixie is welcome in town to give him pointers, but she's not the only unicorn who could train him. I just like the idea of her being the one to do so.
A rather enjoyable slice-of-life episode all around.
I thought she was just watching spittle to see in which direction the wind blew it.
It sounds pretty close to this. No one outside the Apple family in Ponyville has ever heard of this sport, apparently it's an "Apple family favorite." It's certainly possible that unicorn and pegasus are cousins or married in or are othewise part of the Apple family too. My guess is Braeburn invented the sport on the spot at the last family reunion, where everyone playing it had a good time. Then he went home to Appleloosa and some Pegasi and unicorns complained that it was for earth ponies only, so he changed the rules to give them a role (the way unicorns and a wooden pole are interchangeable seems like a hint here). Then he wrote a letter to Applejack bragging about how great his brand new team is, because he needs someone else to come to town and actually play him. I would not be surprised if Braeburn invented the whole thing like a month ago.
Well, we know ponies have a solid ratlike tail inside all that hair (with bones inside), though there have been allegations that Fluttershy is using performance-enhancing tail extensions.
The fans took a later train (for some reason), that Bon Bon on the train was the changling/cousin who looks like Bon Bon.
Pinkie loves games and sports, but now she thinks the entire town will be sad if she doesn't win. Weird that her halloween costume was the same as her sports outfit though.
Ponyville is Ravenclaw, Appleloosa is Griffindor, and obviously Canterlot is Slytherin.
She's an homage to the female player on Ben Stiller's team in Dodgeball.
4189531 We can safely date this episode 20 years in the future, after the Canterlot Crystal Castle was blown up by Nightmare Skyla with Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Spike, Starlight, and the CMC inside. Rarity's last wish was that Ponyville adopt some pleasing blue colors for the town's official color-scheme.
4189741
It all fits.
4189741
That might well be the case. I think it's pretty definite that Applejack didn't invent it, because otherwise Rainbow would know about it well before the match was in the cards at all, so Braeburn is probably it.
On a more serious note, I'm pretty sure that this is the primary way earth ponies use magic: By channeling it through hair. (and probably, hooves) So do unicorns, for that matter, since horns are keratin with bone core.
Random slightly more serious timing idea: The leg Braeburn hurt in Appleloosa's Most Wanted was actually hurt while practicing for a rematch.
One interesting point was the pegasus on team Appleloosa; she shares the same physical proportions as Bulk Biceps. This is the second time, to my knowledge, we has seen a pegasus of that build other than Bulk.
From a Doylist standpoint, it is obvious that they want to make use of the flash assets, but from a Watsonian view, it may be that ponies with more exotic body shapes are more common than was once thought...
4189873
Given that hair, hooves and horn are all keratin, we come to the logical conclusion that keratin is magic.
As for the timing, I'd argue that "Scare Master" is a lower limit. That episode taught Fluttershy she shouldn't let her friends pressure her into situations she's uncomfortable with. She demonstrates learning this lesson when she actually works up the nerve to tell AJ and RD that she and Pinkie are not going to play in the Buckball game.
4190776
Magically conductive. :P And possibly, keratin loses these properties over time, which is why hooficure and hornicure (presumably. We never heard the word, but we saw them do it) are a thing.
Not a hard limit, but the logic is sound.
Post-watch check-in!
Well, they are a major blood-flow spot, iirc…
Well, it's the friendship express. It's not the thievery express. Though, there has been a problem before…a MMMMystery, even.
I wonder if there're any goaltending rules.
That sure is another HULK of a pterippus.covered❧
Huh. RD really can hover with one wing behind her back.covered❧more winghanding!
❧
but also, Prehensile tail…on PEGASUS.covered❧Pinkie Pie has a unicorn "costume"; those dirty looks treat it like some kind of distasteful thing? Is transtribalism perceived as terrible?
❧
Ponyville colors: cyan+indigo (+white?)covered4522131
We have seen what has to be
animation errorsalicorn costumes before…