May
27th
2017
Points of Canon: S1x17 - Stare Master · 9:05am May 27th, 2017
Let’s keep going, I’ll be done with Season 1 soon.
- Among the items Rarity is handling are bucketfuls of assorted gems and balls of yarn. We so rarely see her knitting.
- Sweetie Belle reaches for the ribbon by climbing onto the desk, which tilts the sewing machine, ensuring that it is not built into the desk, and making it pretty certain it has to be electrically or magically powered.
- Sweetie Belle should have gotten a cutie mark in Rube Goldberg machines for this incident.
- Rarity refers to filling an order “without complications,” and the bolt of cloth she just put into the sewing machine is the same color as Twilight’s Gala dress, but this is not the Hoity Toity order: “I’ve got twenty of these special robes to make tonight! They’re due in Trottingham tomorrow morning.”
- Which means that they can get to Trottingham overnight. I hope for Rarity’s sake it’s by pegasus courier, but later in the episode she says “just delivered them” as if she did that herself. But they don’t celebrate Nightmare Night in Trottingham, and the map says it’s on an island all the way out in the Celestial Sea! Maybe she misspoke.
- Fluttershy did some kind of “grooming” on Opalescence for Rarity, but it’s not clear which particular procedures were involved. Fur trimming? Opalescence kind of looks and definitely behaves like a Persian…
- Rarity directly refers to Fluttershy’s Stare, and notably, she uses “The Stare” as a specific term. While the earliest time she could have learned of this ability would have to be Dragonshy, the ability is not named in that episode, and in fact the word “stare” does not occur in the transcript at all.
- Rarity manufactured that gold silk on her own somehow, presumably from a regular silk. I do wonder about the technology/magic involved.
- Sweetie Belle made the Crusader capes in this episode, they’re a minor temporal marker.
- Rarity says “handful.”
- Fluttershy refers to the CMC as “sweet little angels,” upon which they sprout halos. While I guess we can agree this is just an expressive device, just how are halos connected to angels in pony culture? This happens twice in this episode.
- According to Fluttershy, a sleepover consists of tea, braiding tails, coloring something – presumably a coloring book – and telling fairytales. All nice activities, but here’s a thing: We never, ever see a pony with a braided tail, and I don’t remember a braided mane either.
- Twilight says, “I’m heading to the Everfree Forest to Zecora’s to get some of my favorite tea.” I wonder, what kind of tea would Zecora have that a regular tea shop or failing that, general store would not? Where would Zecora even get a tea? Could it be some other kind of plant entirely, like it is in herbal teas? Or is “tea” an euphemism for something?…
- Another interesting bit is that Fluttershy’s cottage is definitely next to the Everfree forest, or at least in the same direction – see Swarm of the Century as well as later in this same episode. So why were Twilight and Fluttershy going in opposite directions?
- That bag of feed for rodents seen in Swarm of the Century is gone, but the bag of birdseed is still there.
- The more systematic practice of crusading for the marks, when the CMC actually devote multiple hours to investigate an activity in depth, clearly has yet to be developed. The stuff the CMC do in this episode is much closer to simply playing – dressing up as “a creature” and then deciding they aren’t creature catchers because the game ended in an accident being an example.
- “Creature catcher” is probably a profession, isn’t it?… It is at least something one might get a mark in.
- The CMC Carpenters sequence is interesting in that it mocks a specific surgery practice: the surgeon calling for tools and the assistant delivering them. Looks like ponies do that too, but where did the CMC learn that this is how it works? Was it a movie or a book?
- Also, ponies use stethoscopes and head-mounted mirrors.
- I have seen stories that treated Fluttershy’s statement that she’s the world champion at “Shhh!” seriously, but she’s obviously lying: Competing in anything would involve meeting lots and lots of new people and an audience. The interesting part of this statement is that world championships have to exist at least in some sports. That would involve an international federation in most cases.
1. Rock farms still include a “mine,” see Hearthbreakers.
Apple Bloom says, “Cutie Mark Crusader coal miners?” While this does not preclude the possibility of coal being grown on rock farms,1 it has to be grown underground.
- Among interesting objects in the bedroom we can see yet another fireplace with a log in it, an object shaped like a kerosene lantern, unlit and with no obvious fireflies in it, and a mechanical desk clock. Fluttershy is also using a candle for lighting, instead of said lamp. Candles are very rare in early seasons.
- Lullabies are a thing. Notably, the one Fluttershy sings is not an improvisation – Sweetie Belle knows it already.
- It’s interesting that the moment Sweetie Belle starts singing, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo jam their ears closed without an obvious provocation. They’ve done something like this before.
- The song montage shows one of the very few instances of a crescent moon, though this obviously isn’t a real moon but an expression device. The real moon seen in the sky is full that day, anyway.
- Fluttershy’s chicken coop is surrounded by a wire fence. Notably it’s a welded mesh fence rather than chain-link fence, and requires some kind of spot welding technology. Most of that is electrical.
- Fluttershy uses the Stare on the chickens at the earliest provocation. Either the Stare does not work on parasprites, or she started applying it much more liberally after realizing that it would have helped her against them…
- What exactly made this hole in the fence, I wonder.
- This episode is the origin of Scootaloo chicken meme, of course. The Crusaders are typically not seen teasing each other anywhere as much in later episodes.
- So Twilight got caught by the cockatrice and got petrified. I do wonder why didn’t Fluttershy notice that Twilight didn’t come back from the forest, but probably, the CMC are responsible for that one.
- The CMC do not know what a cockatrice is.
- Apple Bloom says “I thought only one escaped!” The only way she could know that is by seeing only one set of chicken tracks, right? But that means the tracks are really more readable than you could and should expect…
- For that matter, the CMC’s own tracks are very horseshoe-shaped, though we don’t really know if they are wearing nail-on horseshoes or not from that alone.
- So what do cockatrices eat? Presumably not stone, or Twilight would be nibbled halfway through by now. Why is this cockatrice actively hunting the chicken then?…
- Not looking into the eyes appears to be an effective defense against the petrification. I wonder if mirrors work as well or not.
- Petrification appears to be a process dependent on the mental reaction of the victim. Fluttershy does not order the cockatrice to un-petrify Fluttershy herself, but the halfway complete petrification gets dispelled anyway.
- “You’re like the queen of stares.” Well, queens exist. Actually, Gilda used the word earlier in Griffon the Brush Off.
- Twilight comes in asking what happened. Victims of cockatrice petrification are definitely not conscious while stoned.
Not a very lore-rich episode, but all the possible uses for cockatrices have since become a staple in more involved fanfic.
'Tea' is an old beatnik slang term for marijuana. Oh, geez. I just realized that Twilight goes off looking for tea, and then is found later, stoned. It's an oblique pot joke. I missed that when I saw the episode.
Rarity almost certainly is talking about her delivery deadline to the shipping company, not the eventual delivery deadline in distant Trottingham. After all, that town is distant in both absolute and relational terms. We haven't even met any Trottish ponies by this point in the show.
4548699
This is your brain.
This is your brain on “tea.”
So far, most creative use I've seen for a cockatrice has been petrification as slow-path time travel.
4548720
Medical uses to preserve the heavily wounded for transportation to a proper hospital are also common.
4548724 ...That just seems inefficient and potentially life-threatening.
4548726
Not when the nearest proper hospital is on another continent. This is essentially an equivalent for cryonic preservation, and the use cases are similar.
4548727 Fair enough, I guess.
Braided pigtails were one of Starlight's approved manestyles in Our Town, to say nothing of the style Granny Smith employed in her youth. Indeed, she even braided her tail.
Pretty sure the rancor trainer in "Trade Ya!" qualifies as one.
4548861
Doesn’t that mean that Fluttershy is incredibly old-fashioned, then? :)
Dunno, I’m kind of thinking of Bon-Bon’s allegedly dismantled organization instead.
I'm sitting waiting for an appointment and almost laughed out loud at this.
The map …okay, the first map wasn't until post-S2, but still, Trottingham's not on there, nor is the transoceanic rail line. Nor the Undiscovered East…perhaps the map evolution deserves its own post?
Cloth-of-gold is quite old. However, it could also be sea silk…likewise precious and rare, but not quite the literal gold color, I think…
Watch AJ carefully…or her grandmother, as was pointed out there 4548861.For once, uncontrolled Pegasus lightning is feasible for this; I've heard of lightning welding things…admittedly in a A:tLA fanfic, but Embers had research notes and everything, so…
Reproduction. Cockatrices and basilisks (depending on which tale you ask) often require chickens…though it's often a cock, not a hen, who must lay the egg.
I think it's that Stare-magic is making the cockatrice afraid and, lacking the continued pressure of its petrifaction magic, Fluttershy's natural magic is reversing the process. Or the cockatrice can unpetrify and is trying it because maybe then, it'll stop being Stared at…
4548699
HA!
4548720 4548724 4548727
I had the notion it could be used as ersatz cryogenics, and I haven't seen that…
but i guess yinz have? Where?
4548966
Hot Coffee?
Possibly what she means is "I just dropped them off with the courier to be delivered."
Fast-forward to "The Saddle Row Review" where Pinkie imagines a shoulder angel and shoulder devil offering her advice.
Wikipedia tells me that the halo icon arose independently in Greece and different parts of Asia. So it makes sense that ponies could have also independently come up with their own equivalent. (Though the halo as a three-dimensional gold ring comes from Medieval/Renaissance artists translating a two-dimensional icon into more realistic 3D space.)
Considering how their ruler is so closely associated with the Sun, perhaps pony artists would paint the Sun behind a figure's head to symbolize "the wisdom of Celestia" or something. And then it got simplified over the centuries to a gold ring.
Pony Steve Irwin, I'd imagine. I've seen some fanfics suggesting that's what Snails' cutie mark signifies.
I'd interpret it that she's the champion among her family and friends, and calling herself the "world" champion is just a fanciful exaggeration.
Maybe it's just a jerk.
4549030
Iisaw’s trilogy of four, Reality Check’s works, a few other places that don’t spring up to mind immediately.
I would like to point out that Fluttershy and the cockatrice were playing a more or less literal game of Chicken.
Maybe she's just aware that Twilight gets cranky if you interrupt her "tea time" with Zecora? (sorry)
4549030
Unless coffee is risqué, forbidden in Equestria, or just a safety hazard around Pinkie (which clearly is possible), I'm pretty sure we're not talking about coffee.
4549119
I think you meant to direct that at 4549030 .
And I'm pretty sure they were referencing the infamous Hot Coffee mod, and therefore implying that "tea" is being used as a euphemism for sex. As a Twicora shipper, I'm 100% okay with that interpretation.
4549129 Heh, whoops! Sorry, you're quite right - my bad. Fixed!
Thanks for the reference - never heard of that since GTA isn't in my stable of games.
Twicora is an interesting ship, and not at all unlikely depending on how you interpret Twilight.
4549134
'm also reasonably certain that "come in for a cup of coffee" is a euphemism for/prelude to sex.
4549168
Just about everything has been used as an euphemism or prelude to sex in a human culture somewhere.
I don’t think ponies are quite as interested in sex in general, though…
4549175
That, I'm gonna persist in laying a Doylist explanation on.
4549179
I have a Watsonian one, actually. While in humans, sexuality seems to have been one of the primary drives towards sapience, because it necessitated a complex brain for handling the social relationships involved, for ponies, it was the conflict between herding instincts and the cutie marks, which existed before they were actually sapient. (See also dinosaurs with cutie marks that pop up in ‘Reflections’…) At a certain age, the mark appears and makes a pony special. That pony has to become smarter to keep using the herding instincts. If herding itself were the primary drive towards sapience, the resulting culture would never look so close to a human culture, but with cutie marks, they arrive at a very similar state by a completely different path.
So it’s not that the ponies “don’t f
ck," it’s that they are less interested in it than humans. About 10-20% less is sufficient to cause the divergences observed.
4549186
Aha. Cutie-mark as social replacement for puberty…with all the implications both ways sorted out. How very you.
4549168 No doubt.
4549175 At least not on-screen, though there certainly is a lot to latch onto. Still, it's nothing that could - of course - be entered into 'canon'.
4549175 4549179 Re ponies' lower interest in sex, I like Jordan179's explanation that ponies still have a monthly estrus cycle and are only hormonally into it for several days every month... and maybe not even that much, now that they're advanced enough to have spells suppressing it.
Several other thoughts while reading the post...
IMO, "tea" is clearly a broad term. Maybe Zecora is gathering bits of some Everfree Forest plant for tea, or maybe it's a plant from Zebraica. Or, hey, maybe she did bring actual tea plants with her.
Perhaps the halos are meant to symbolize rings of magic? Or - wild and crazy idea - they're confused cultural reminiscences of the Rainbow Power?
My guess: Fluttershy is the "world champion" at Shhh in the same way that the baseball championship played between North American leagues is the "World Series." I wonder just how few rabbits and mice and owls joined in the game?
I'm guessing the cockatrice's spell is unstable till it's finished, and so Fluttershy was automatically freed when its concentration failed. Or maybe it un-petrified Fluttershy upon realizing what sort of pony she was?
4549671
iNdeed, humans have the far-less-common mode in that regard…but that raises problems for Pedestria.
Tea already has a very broad meaning on our side of the screen. To go by Apple oVerlords' dictionary, the primary meaning is an infusion of dried, crushed tea-plant leaves in boiling water, but it also means any other boiling-water leaf, flower, or fruit infusion (and consequently their ingredients ready to do such).
They got Stared.
Like "Feeling Pinkie Keen's" make rocks, garland, stick into top hat, tuxedo, cane transfiguration…
4551125 What problems does it raise for the EqG world? I've always presumed they have the same lesser monthly cycle as real humans, which difference would go a long way toward explaining Twilight's sudden romantic interest in Flash. On the other hand, nothing canonically excludes them from having estrus as well.
4552172
Portal changes their bodies. Having your hormonal cycles drastically changed is often overwhelming to those not expecting it.
I keep deciding not to watch the Pedestria Girls things. Wonder if I should.
4552985 I haven't seen them either... but from what I've heard, isn't that pretty much what Twilight goes through?
4549671
Sudden thought: "Angel" is an archaic word for Celestia's pegasus messengers. They would be "blessed by the sun" - i.e. have a halo, that eventually got stylised into that ring, they would be white, because they would be the Royal Guards selected for the purpose and have the regulation white coat one way or another. And they would be exemplars of good behaviour, because they were tasked with delivering diplomatic messages of peace.
In the unified Equestria, they are not commonly seen anymore, because peace between pony kingdoms is a long-standing fact, but the archetype lives on in stories.