Apple Bloom · 11:32am Oct 22nd, 2016
I just wanted to talk a bit about something that has been on my mind recently. It's about the Apple family. Spoilers for Crusaders of the Lost Mark and Where the Apple Lies below. Turn back now if you haven't seen 'em.
So, we're all pretty sure that Applejack's parents are dead, right? Yes, yes we are. After all, when Apple Bloom got her cutie mark, Applejack said, "If mom and dad were here, they'd be so proud a' ya." She didn't say, "When mom and dad get home from that really, really extended vacation, they're gonna be so proud a' ya." So they're not expected to be back. But not only have they never appeared in present day, they've never appeared in flashbacks. They've never been seen at all. Ever. I mean, those two shooting star thingies in Apple Family Reunion were supposed to represent them, according to the show staff, but that's as close as we've ever come.
According to Jim Miller, Applejack's parents were on vacation during the events in the flashbacks of Where the Apple Lies. Okay, that explains why they weren't there... except, the context of the episode doesn't really support that. When it's said in front of Granny Smith that AJ and Big Mac have been arguing over who would take over the farm, Granny rebuffs them by saying, "I ain't goin' anywhere anytime soon." Zero mention of the fact that, even if she spontaneously combusted, their parents would be running the farm anyway. The parents are treated as though they don't even exist, at that point. "Word of God" claims they're alive, but evidence from the episode itself implies otherwise. As a strong supporter of Death of the Author (both as a reader and a writer), I'm gonna go with what's actually in the show and draw the conclusion that they are, in fact, already gone at this point. DotA (huh, that acronym might get confusing for gamers) is it's own whole can of worms, but this is the perspective I'm speaking from. Feel free to call me a jive turkey for it.
And what about The Cutie Mark Chronicles? The parents aren't there to see Applejack off when she leaves her home to go and live with her aunt and uncle, and they aren't there to greet her when she comes back. Do these two just live on vacation, or what? And young Applejack wonders to herself what Granny and Big Mac are doing while she's hanging out in Manehattan. No mention of what her parents might be doing. Again, there's no evidence of them existing back then, either. I think it wouldn't be a huge stretch to gather that they're gone by the time AJ gets her cutie mark, too.
So if that's the case... where in the world did Apple Bloom come from? She wasn't in the cutie mark flashback, and she wasn't in the lying flashback, nor was she mentioned in either one. Was she adopted sometime after the latter incident? It's possible, but there is that fun bit of color theming that she shares with the other three Apples. Her coat is the color of AJ's mane, her mane is the color of Big Mac's coat, and her eyes are the same color as Granny's (all three are very close matches, anyway). There's a whole other argument to be made about family resemblances not being a thing when it comes to ponies, but this color coordination is something I find just too fun to sweep aside entirely. Also, adultery and adoption are always possible reasons for ponies not looking much like their parents. I'm looking at you, Mrs. Cake.
So if Apple Bloom is still closely-related to the other three, whose foal was she? I always just thought it was a funny and silly bit of scandalous headcanon that she might actually be Applejack's daughter and everypony is just pretending she's her sister, but it's actually looking to be a not-so-implausible idea, these days. Though, that might make Applejack a bit older than the 18-22 age range that many suspect she's in, depending on when ponies reach sexual maturity. Perhaps she's Granny Smith's foal, though. That sidesteps a couple issues, but still makes it a lie that she's AJ's sister. The brief thought that maybe Granny Smith is AJ's real mother crossed my mind (Granny Smith is a type of apple, after all, and thus may simply be her name and not her title), but the line about their parents not being around indicates otherwise. One can argue that it also goes destroys the idea of Apple Bloom's mother being AJ or Granny, but again, they may simply be lying, or AJ may have simply meant her own parents weren't around. This is beginning to reach and stretch with word-lawyering, though, so I'll stop this line of reasoning and just leave it at the idea that it's just a ruse; I mean, I ain't saying that maybe they want to keep it under wraps because AJ had a foal out of wedlock or even that Apple Bloom is also Big Mac's daughter as well, but... maybe?
The point is that Apple Bloom does not appear to have a known point of origin based on what we've been shown, or even a plausible mother to generate her that doesn't appear to have vanished before Apple Bloom's birth. What, did she just fall out of an apple tree, one day? Or are Apple Bloom's parents deadbeats who were never around, and their kids just rarely ever seem to talk about them? Yes, yes, I know, they can't confirm they're dead because Hasbro, but just refer to what I said about Death of the Author. I feel that the most important things are what's in the show itself. You can give me all the explanations about why the show staff are leaving them out, but the end result is that there's no evidence in the show that their parents have existed outside of AJ and Big Mac supposedly being their kids. Regardless of the reason, that's the world as they've made it. That's the product as created.
Or maybe I'm just nuts, and their parents just happen to conveniently be on vacation every time we get a flashback and Granny just forgot they existed for a moment. There haven't been many such flashbacks, I suppose. Occam's Razor, and all that. Or maybe they didn't work on the farm at all. Or maybe the staff really are planning on revealing that they were never dead and they'll come back in a future episode. Man, that'd be another base breaker, no doubt.
Thoughts?
TL;DR: Apple Bloom might actually be a canon incest baby. Maybe. Probably not.
Honestly it's probably just another of those 'whoops, we forgot' moments... an inconsistency like the one where Winter Wrap Up tells us that says Ponyville's been around hundreds of years while Family Appreciation Day tells us Granny was there for the founding (leading to some people who don't accept that the showmakers can make mistakes to theorizing that ponies live hundreds of years... which then causes issue with that fact that it would have only been a few generations since NMM was banished, which then calls into question how terrible ponies must be at recording/passing down their own history, and that brings up the inconsistencies seen in the Hearth's Warming play, and... you get the idea).
Anyway, I'm sure if they had thought of it during production they would have included a shot or two of the family taking care of a still-in-diapers Applebloom, which is how I choose to think of the situation. There wouldn't have been much reason to involve her if she was still an infant and had to real relevance to the story.
Well, maybe her parents just travel around the world and they just dropped her off at the doorstep when they were in Ponyville. That, or my theory that their parents are literally stars and all their offsprings are technically star spawn is true.
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Hmm, they don't exactly look the part, though.
On a side note, it's not that implausible. Like, if you ditched the incest part, it'd be pretty much Jack Nicholson's story:
The best theory I've heard is that Apple Bloom's parents died right after Apple Bloom was born, right after Cutie Mark Chronicles and maybe 2 years before Where the Apple Lies. With just Granny and two teenagers supporting a baby was too difficult, so a relative took in Apple Bloom for her first couple of years. Notice how in Where the Apple Lies Big Mac mentions that he was just talking to Braeburn last week? My guess is that it's Braeburn's parents who raised Apple Bloom in her early years. This would also help explain why Apple Bloom doesn't know Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo in season 1, if she only moved back home a year or two ago instead of living in a small town with them her entire life.
Oh, and given Spoiled Milk the fiancee, it appears quite probably that Diamond Tiara is a year or two younger than Apple Bloom.
4266237
Yes, they really do this sorta thing a lot. The lack of good continuity in the series has always bugged me, 'cause good, solid continuity is something I've always been very fond of. But like I said, mistakes or not, that's what has happened in the show. And it's not like they couldn't retcon them (they have retconned a few things) or even change the episode itself to fix a "mistake" (The Last Roundup's un-Derpy-fying). Though, I'd imagine that's quite a bit of work, and it's probably not worth it just to appease the nerds.
Some things can be rationalized away, though. The conflicting claims of Ponyville's age, for example. Twilight has been shown to be totally wrong about things she should already know several times, so she may just have been wrong about the town's age. Or it could be that Granny Smith is freaking crazy and the story she told was wrong. I mean, a big chunk of that Family Appreciation Day episode was spent making Granny look batty, after all.
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If the Apples are star spawn, this may make Pinkie's relation to the family make a bit more sense. And yeah, could totally be like Jack.
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I'm inclined to agree; that's the best theory I've heard for it. It avoids the sticky situations that they probably don't want to deal with in the show.
Or Spoiled Milk had Diamond before she was married and they just kept it quiet. Maybe hoofed her off to Randolph to take care of until they'd gotten married and used their money to quiet anyone who publicly pointed out how old Diamond appeared.
You should start a Youtube channel called FIM Theory... or something.
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I have actually thought about doing that. I mean, those who can't write become show analysts, right?
Don't kill me, everyone.
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Sounds about right to me.
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Pinkie: I am the daughter of Uranus! Wait, that came out wrong...
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Igneous Pie: "No, that's rather akin to what happened."
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To think about it, imagine Colour from Outer Space happening in the rock farm. Maybe with Holder's Boulder.
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Well, most of the family is already kinda gray, and nothing seems to grow on their land. The only one who isn't gray is the one who left a long time ago...
4267815
It all makes sense now...
how's this: Apple parents die shortly after the birth of baby AB, under the pressure and stress of a big brother who never listens and a baby sister who never stops fussing, Applejack runs off to the city. AJ doesn't wonder about Applebloom because she's such a new addition to her family, it hadn't really sunk in - esp since the newness meant accepting that her parents are really gone. Homesickness brought her back but didn't solve the issues, including Big Mac always blathering on. Ensuing flashback episode is just flashbulb incident where it all came to a head, which actually occurred within some measurable time of leaving for Manehattan/getting her cutie mark.
*shrug* as long as I'm making it up as I go along, others must be too. I agree the continuity is something that could use some work, though honestly, I'm often giddy at the fact that they're even trying... too many cartoons are just one-shot episodes that wouldn't merit anywhere near this level of brainwork to discredit universes.