Aug
6th
2017
Points of Canon: S2x05 - Sisterhooves Social · 9:01am Aug 6th, 2017
Do it faster makes us stronger
Ah, the episode which triggers so many timeline problems.
- In her smell-induced dream, Rarity mentions carrot pancakes – which, if it is what I think it is, is a recipe that requires a powered blender.
- This entire scene establishes that Sweetie Belle does not normally live with Rarity, and neither do her parents. The insides of their particular dwelling still haven’t turned up.
- Rarity’s mother belongs to the short list of ponies who wear pants.
- “I didn’t know you could burn juice.” Comedic effect notwithstanding, how exactly can this possibly be achieved? Especially considering that at this point in the series, Sweetie Belle can’t magic pretty much at all. Notice that in the dream, Rarity is dreaming of “spiced warm apple cider,” so some heating was involved.
- Cookie Crumbles, whose name we only know from a trading card of all things, says, “I’ve been giving her lessons.” Which means she probably doesn’t really realize everything is burned. I guess that’s why Rarity doesn’t live with her family…
- “Vacation? Is that this week? As in ‘starting this very instant’ this week?!” Today is a Monday.
- “Let me guess: apple sauce?” “Nope. Toast!” Sweetie Belle can liquefy toast.
- “I’m gonna go grab my stuff from Dad’s wagon.” Wait a moment, what kind of wagon and where is it? And, if they live in town, why a wagon is involved?… And more importantly, minutes later the parents leave in a taxi, which wouldn’t be “dad’s wagon.”
- Ponyville has taxi service.
- Sweetie Belle, at this period in her life, packs exactly like Rarity.
- Rarity chops up a carrot for the breakfast, and does not appear to use it afterwards.
- Notably, Rarity’s version of the breakfast is based on eggs.
- If the clock above the window is to be believed, the breakfast and the resulting cleanup took Rarity all the time to ~14:00 to sort out.
- …Looks like Carousel Boutique has two entrances, and only one of them – the back one, presumably – has a doorbell.
- Among the things Sweetie Belle washed, beyond the unfortunate sweater, we can see a frilly saddle with a hearts pattern and socks. Neither object Rarity was ever seen wearing. And socks wouldn’t be easy for the pony to wear, because they have toes. How did that get here?… Rarity has at least two pairs of these.
- “But, but these are extremely rare baby blue sapphires!” This is actually the first clear statement that some gems are more rare than others. Rarity still buys them by the kilogram, though…
- “I need them for an outfit for an extremely important client!” Who would that client even be?
- “We could paint together, we could ride bikes, play chess, sing a song, catch frogs, pillow fight…” Ponies play chess and ride bikes. I do wonder what they would do with frogs they caught.
- “Geez Louise, can’t I do anything right?” For starters, you could tell us who Louise is.
Rarity has a different sewing machine in her bedroom – different from all other appearances as far as I can see, including subsequent ones. This one is green.
- The most commonly seen one is the one we remember from Suited For Success. It’s red and has a different table base – it also turns up in Stare Master, Green Isn’t Your Color, Cutie Mark Chronicles – both outside Rarity’s flashback and within it. It also features in Secret of My Excess and Ponyville Confidential and Just For Sidekicks and Magical Mystery Cure and For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils and Maud Pie…. She keeps using it even in the Canterlot Boutique.
- The one in 28 Pranks Later looks just like the red one but is purple.
- Honest Apple features several identical beige ones.
Try as I might, I couldn’t find the instance of this green sewing machine being reused. At the same time, halfway through the episode, much later, the red sewing machine floats through the air… and in the ending of the episode, it’s back in its usual place.
What’s up with this?…
- For whatever reason, all the Gala dresses are on a rack in the main boutique area.
- Rarity refers to her work room as “my inspiration room,” and there’s little to no doubt that’s where she sleeps and where her bed is. Hm.
- Among other things, the room contains paperclips.
- “This wasn’t a mess! It was organized chaos!” You’d think with attitudes like that Rarity would have a better reaction to Discord.
- The Sisterhooves Social poster contains a rare case of writing which is in lightly mangled Latin letters but is not readable at all.
- Sweetie Belle knows Apple Bloom already, but strangely, Scootaloo never shows up.
- Notably, Apple Bloom already knew that Sweetie is spending the week with Rarity and calls this a “sleepover.”
- Applejack uses her tail to slap an apple towards Apple Bloom, repeatedly.
- “Since we can’t sell the bruised apples, we gotta collect them all for the pigs to eat.” Point for the theory that pigs are primarily meant to be trash-to-fertilizer converter.
- “You’re… making… grape juice?” I am pretty sure that grape stomping is primarily done for social rather than industrial reasons. But if you tell me the Apples don’t make wine after that, I won’t believe you. As a side note, most grape stomping festivals I could observe fit between August and October, but damn these earth ponies with their cross-seasonal agriculture.
- “You coulda just a-a-a-asked.” Sheep talk. As a side note, chapter books agree. And in response to this line, Applejack rudely slams the door on them.
- “As Celestia is my witness, I shall never be sisterless again!” I think that is the point where Rarity starts taking Celestia’s name in vain. She never stops. Notice that this is explicitly profanity in the original form – that is, calling a deity-figure to be a witness to an oath.
- “Sweetie Belle! Oh, I have been galloping all over looking for you.” Considering that Applejack and the girls are camping out with a tent, and presumably planning to spend the night out there, it’s an interesting question how the hell did Rarity even find them.
- “You want me to go home with you, so we can do what you wanna do?” Interesting throw-forward to Forever Filly, that.
- What exactly is the role of pigs in the Social?…
- Granny Smith uses a powered megaphone and calls it a “confangled modern doohickey.”
- The crowd includes Lyra and Lemon Hearts. Later on the seats, Twinkleshine and Minuette join, but Lyra leaves – until we see another spectator group, containing multiple duplicates.
- This year’s event only has five teams, according to Granny. That’s not a whole lot of sisters for a town of ~4000!
- All adult ponies and most fillies are routinely capable of what has to be a 4 meter long jump.
- It looks to me like Rarity bumped Berry Punch as she was walking out of the chicken coop, making her lose the egg. Kinda like Big Mac did later on…
- Notably, the first part of Rarity Sweetie Belle chooses to clean up to identify her is the rump with the cutie mark on it, rather than, say, the face.
- The montage at the end shown while they are dictating the letter to Spike would require multiple days. In fact, while the scene starts with Rarity insisting they should celebrate with a visit to the spa, they never come out of the spa with bows in their hair. It’s still possible to backdate the core of the episode by assuming that Rarity and Sweetie Belle choose to write to the Princess upon realizing that the events of the last Sisterhooves Social were a friendship lesson.
The big stumbling point about this episode is the chronological position: When the hell did it happen?
- Suited For Success is a hard lock, because we used these a lot already as such.
- Sisterhooves Social is a yearly event. Brotherhooves Social has to be on a yearly boundary with it.
- Brotherhooves Social explicitly occurs simultaneously with Made In Manehattan, and that episode concerns the event called “Midsummer theater revival” – so has to happen at “midsummer,” whenever that is for ponies.
- So Sisterhooves Social has to happen at “midsummer” too. But it contains a letter to the princess from Rarity, which has to happen after Lesson Zero.
- But most people seem to agree that Lesson Zero is best explained with post-Discord trauma.
1. Summer 1 is the start of the series. Since we don’t know the calendar year boundary, it’s Summer-Autumn-Winter-Spring from there on.
That would put this Sisterhooves Social in Summer 2,1 and that would make it post-Twilight-Apotheosis and push the Brotherhooves / Manehattan pair a year later…
I won’t write the whole cascade out, you have my chronology tool to play with it. But regardless, this episode creates a huge mess in the timeline through all the indirect links it has.
After much deliberation, my stance is that most of this episode happens in Summer 1, while the actual report happens when Rarity and Sweetie Belle get a chance for another sisterly get-together in Spring 1, and it’s Rarity’s turn to write something to Celestia to keep Twilight from going bonkers. This is further suggested by the presence of a completely unique sewing machine and bedroom layout significantly different from all other episodes, which suddenly goes back to normal while Spike is writing the letter.
Actually, this one is quite easy - something simillar happens with my family.
Rarity is close(r) to the station, so her father parks the wagon at the Boutique and takes a taxi to the station, rather than pay parking charges at the station for a week.
Likewise, the wagon is involved because Sweetie Belle has a lot of luggage.
Or they are very indulgent parents - I do get the impression that Sweetie Belle is at least heading towards being the spoiled baby of the family. Fortunately it doesn't seem to be reflected in her personallity.
We do get to see Sweetie's room in "One Bad Apple," and it's strongly implied that the flashback in "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils" takes place in their parents' house.
Normally I'd say "boil the juice until it becomes a syrup, then burn the syrup," but given the bubbling, liquid ash in that glass, your guess is as good as mine.
Why? Going by some calendars, weeks start on Sundays, and even then, no day of the week is specified.
This isn't the first time we've seen such socks. There's one in Rarity's garbage in "Party of One."
Hey, dreams can be an inspiration.
I believe the key word there is "organized." There's a method to the madness when Rarity does it. When Discord does it, it's just for the lulz.
Presumably, not every sister pair in Ponyville participated... though if I recall correctly, they all return for "Brotherhooves Social," with no new participants.
As for the issue of chronology, do take into account that "Call of the Cutie" has to precede this episode for Sweetie to know Apple Bloom, which may pose some issues with it being in Summer 1, depending on when the school year starts. This is part of why I so despise the "three seasons, one year" model; there's simply not enough time for all of the events in those seasons to happen!
Incidentally, do you have an index page for the Points of Canon series? IT'd make cross-referencing what you've already observed a lot easier for the rest of us.
You've never heard the phrase, jeez Louise?
Actually, where did that come from outside the context of the show?
4625412
It's just rhyming slang, I think. Technically profanity due to the jeez part, actual origin seems to be a late Twenties song called, appropriately enough, Louise.
Oliver, I think the Midsummer aspect of that Manehattan revival may be more nostalgic than chronological. IE, it might have been actually in very late summer. Not like theatre people are known for being particularly in tune with the seasons.
<Insert clopfic>
<Insert... clip... fic... ?>
4625408
Mmm… Oh, yes, that crazy US week. Ok, moving on.
Already accounted for. Did you actually check the chronology tool that I link to every time? Maybe you should. :)
No download no nothing required.
Just enough.
…Did you check my profile page?
4625412
I have never heard half the words I use daily. But that’s beside the point:
How could ponies come by this particular bit of rhyming slang?
4625425
Alternatively, the theater might be named “Midsummer”. It’s not entirely clear from the context.
But the cops are wearing summer uniforms…
At least 500 of those are time-variant copies of the Canterlot friends.
4625425 4625475
Even if a theatre season is centred on midsummer, it might still last for 5 months. And since it's fallen out of favour, we can't say anything for sure about when Made in Manehatten is set other than "probably summer, give or take".
Put a container of frozen juice concentrate in a microwave oven and set it for fifteen minutes on high while you go and take a shower. This is not a hypothetical situation. The resulting semi-liquid detonation and fire made my niece's dorm room uninhabitable for weeks. The smell of burned orange juice (mixed with fire-extinguishing chemicals) is indescribably awful.
She has since left college and is studying to be a wedding planner.
4625527
…which is also something Rarity did engage in.
Any ideas on how to liquefy toast?
4625534
There must be a gene for this...
As for the toast, I imagine that setting it on fire, and extinguishing the blaze with seltzer water might produce something like what was in that bowl. Might even account for the bubbles.
4625473
I looked up this particular turn of phrase, and it seems the best guess of it's origins is Thelma and Louise, but no one knows for certain.
But then again, I suppose Louise wouldn't be a particularly common name anywhere in Equestria.
I like the idea that the letter-writing can occur at a completely different time from the rest of the episode, because the Mane 5 quietly agreed to space them out so Twilight still feels like Celestia is getting a report on a regular basis.
Also, Jeeze is the son of Gosh, as everyone knows. Celestia witnessed the whole thing.
My brother burned soup once. Left it boiling on the stovetop so long that all the water evaporated away, and the leftover solids burnt. Sweetie could have done something similar, though that raises the question of why she was boiling juice in the first place.
4626288
She was trying to produce some variation on mulled cider.
Come-to-life spell, if it's not just a Sorcerer's Apprentice gag that is taught at CSGU as a cautionary tale, and also a simple blade-on-a-bearing would be options for effecting one.
Three people's luggage, especially when "Sweetie Belle, at this period in her life, packs exactly like Rarity" make it make more sense to use their own cart. It doesn't matter at all if they leave Dad's cart at Rarity's. But, they don't want to pull their own load on vacation. So, taxi. "Starting right this instant" indeed. (This has a slight issue of 'why not just grab stuff from the parents' domicile as-needed'…but Rarity s a working pony, so they're being considerate, perhaps?)Or they'd have to hire a moving service, effectively, for all of Sweetie's luggage, and why bother?covered by 4625387The Rarity of Gems, and Rarity's knowledge thereof, is thrown into doubt later by Maud.
Geez, of course, is a minced oath of Jesus…to us. What is it to them?
Assuming:
you get about 3-4% of population in the age group "old enough to participate" without "old enough to be uncool to be with a sibling" and also Just on the sex distribution angle, sisters with older sisters is going to cut it roughly in four. That brings us to about 40 possible teams…assuming each pony has one sibling in an appropriate age bracket to help, which will give us some small relief from the 1/4 bit in larger families…except that only a very few families have more than two children: Apples, Pies, and IDR if Oranges were. So, it thins further.
(Yes, the rules are "spiritual rather than blackletter" according to Brotherhooves Social, but his Orchid gambit seems based on ths not being well-known.)
Then you lose ponies who don't know about t, those who don't want to get in the mud, those who have jobs to work.
5 teams seems pretty reasonable.
…on second thought, if the schoolhouse is the Sole School of Ponyville, and there aren't rotating classes, 5 teams is high.
Far greater distinguishing details there…once you get branded. Makes me wonder if facial recognition is anywhere near as important for ponies, societally and neurobiologically. Is that why they have such big eyes, to better focus on plot developments?
4630186
Yes, but see the discussion in The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well regarding electric power and power cords.
She might be going off market prices.
A question I always ask and everyone tries their best to laugh off. :)
We’re pretty sure rotating classes of some kind are involved for other reasons, though.
Their eyes are actually only as big as their cucumbers. We’ve yet to see any particularly large cucumbers…