Aug
27th
2017
Points of Canon: Legends of Magic #4 · 7:09pm Aug 27th, 2017
I don’t currently have any more of these.
Fortunately, Campfire Tales did not cover any more of them in the first place, so at least, analyzing them won’t be as pressing.
Notably, the cover features Flash Magnus with the shield he got in the story told in Campfire Tales. The shield does not feature inside the story itself in any way.
Framing story
- Starlight insists Sunburst open the door, and actually threatens to tear it down. Subsequent dialogue implies this is a frequent occurrence, but we never saw any of the previous instances. In any case, it implies Starlight visits Sunburst frequently.
- This time, Starlight is visiting Canterlot with Twilight, and they have been there “for two days.” Where have they been staying?
- Sunburst has been incommunicado for the last two days regardless. Starlight knew he’s in Canterlot, though, but she never tells us how. Which would be important to figure out who talks to whom about what…
- Remember my comments about Sunburst’s sanity regarding the previous installment? He’s certainly analyzing those legends in great detail, if they can occupy him for two whole days.
- Starlight explicitly names the story of Flash Magnus among “pegasi folktales.”
- In most societies I can think of, a member of the appropriate sex dropping on your bed and insisting you read them stories is grounds for industrial shipping. Go on, ship away!
- “And do all the voices. That’s the best part.” Does Starlight insist on Sunburst doing this because Twilight does it, or does she just like the idea in general?
Inner story
- But of course it continues the story told in Campfire Tales.
- “In Cloudsdale, the pegasus children are raised on tales of the old Royal Legion…” Cloudsdale existed at the time of writing.
- I’m still not entirely sure why do pegasi need a runway. But either way, the practice of having one is supposedly ancient.
- “All hands on deck.” Wait, hands?
“What’s all this about?”
“I heard it was something about chocolate milk rain.”
“That’s nonsense. I heard it was dragons again.”
I do wonder why just about every fanfic writer who depicts Discord rampaging in any time other than the time frame of The Return of Harmony insists on chocolate milk rain. Especially because the flashback in Princess Twilight Sparkle does not contain any, Discord is not anywhere as predictable. In any case, if this actually refers to Discord’s original rampage, the following is true:
- Discord never ruled anything, ever, otherwise the Royal Legion would know.
- The story is set in post-Exodus time, sometime in the pre-classical period.
- If it is a forgery, it’s a modern forgery, post-Return of Harmony.
Or it’s just a coincidence. Take your pick.
- “There’s been an accident at the weather factory.” Weather factory technology existed at the time of writing. And I really doubt it existed at the time of alleged writing.
- “Anyway, those clouds hit a scheduled warm front and got even bigger.” Wait, how exactly are warm fronts controlled, if one is “scheduled?”
- “Most of the garrison will be going to Cloudsdale as the last line of defense, but the five fastest, including myself, are going to try to head this thing off before it gets anywhere close to Cloudsdale.” Wait. So it’s a big deal. Enough to threaten a cloud city and make seasoned soldiers – they have scars – gasp. And yet, five pegasi are theoretically sufficient to disperse or redirect it? In fact, five pegasi are enough for an international incident? What?…
- “Don’t you fly one inch farther, or you’ll have to answer to me and my team!” Inches existed at the time of writing.
- Griffons have a “Royal Griffon Defense Force.” And the “head” of this organization meets his respective opposite number in the Royal Legion in the field and accuses him of using geophysical weapons of mass destruction. Think on that for a minute.
- “You tell everyone you’re going to help control our weather, and then it just so happens that you let loose a storm like this on us.” I.e. the story implies that a weather agreement of some kind existed.
- Griffons do have at least some weather control ability, otherwise they wouldn’t even try to do anything and would go on straight to counterattacking the pegasi, wouldn’t they? It doesn’t matter for the story, anyway, they fail.
- “That’s where the griffon kingdom stops and the pegasus kingdom begins.” Actually, this solidly puts this story as post-exodus, since pre-exodus no independent or nominally independent pegasus kingdom could have existed. So where’s commander Hurricane?
- So the entire squad disobeys orders for
humaniequinigriffonitarian reasons and gets away with it. Ya heard it kids? It’s okay to disobey orders to save people, Star Swirl said so. - Griffons saved include just about every bird species mixed with lions. Including chicken. I wonder how that biology works.
- Upon successfully dispersing the storm, legionnaires sign autographs. With pencils. Wooden pencils of the early XIX century variety.
- “In fact, while you may hear the story about the dragons more in Cloudsdale, I am told that if you ask about Flash Magnus in Griffonstone, you’ll hear this tale.” Griffonstone, huh? Really? Did that exist at the time of writing too? Because I’m pretty sure it could not, because in this case the book Twilight was reading in The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone is staggeringly out of date.
- Special medals for valor: Once again, we see medals worn on a ribbon around the neck rather than any other way.
- “For their actions brought the two kingdoms closer together and began a trend of young griffons and pegasi attending flight school together.” No comments. Really, I got none.
Framing story
- “So that’s the myth of how griffons and pegasi began training together, eh? I don’t know, it sounds like a plot from one of Spike’s comic books.” The problem with it, dear Starlight, isn’t that it’s a bad myth, though it kind of is. It’s the very assumption that this happens on any kind of regular basis at all.
- “I prefer my stories to be more realistic.” “It’s a tall tale, it’s not supposed to be realistic.” So according to both Starlight and Sunburst the story given is not realistic. They assume it’s a deliberately invented story explaining a phenomenon the actual origins of which are forgotten.
- “But griffons and pegasi do train together.” Once again, do they?
Epic facepalm. No really, I don’t think I have much else to say here.
Runways may not be needed to build up airspeed—we've seen that most if not all pegasi are VTOL capable—but they do make for excellent designated takeoff and landing zones. "Newbie Dash" demonstrates the hazards of landing anywhere willy-nilly. Why the designated zones need to be road-shaped... Yeah, there I've got nothing.
Agreed on the chocolate milk rain. Heck, Discord even employs different food-based weather in that episode, but you never see anyone writing about cola storms.
I feel like you're mixing up those terms. The pre-exodus relationship between the tribes always felt like three nations (or at least three immiscable cultures) in a grudgingly codependent relationship to me.
What's the issue with Griffonstone existing at the time? Its foundation doesn't seem to be linked to any other point of history.
As for ponies and griffons training together... Well, there was that one team of griffons training for the Equestria Games, but other than that, again, I got nothing.
They're trying to justify why Gilda was in Cloudsdale to make friends with Rainbow Dash. So... tradition of cross-tribal training. And this as a Just So Story. Meh. Sounds pretty weak tea, but that's my response to most MLP comics, so oh, well.
4649723
To me, it looks rather that that they recently split, rather than have always existed in this fashion. I am sure I wrote about this…
In any case, it wants to be a classical period story, I’m pretty sure.
Assume the unrealistic 50 years per king and you get that Griffonstone collapsed 500-300 years ago, at least. Much longer if the idol was found earlier.
Doylistically, the only reason this idea even exists is to explain Gilda as a typical rather than unique occurrence. However, we have never ever seen griffons in a pegasus flight camp despite numerous opportunities, so there never was a need to do so in the first place. Gilda is a unique occurrence.
4649723
One name - Gilda. She trained to fly in same flight school as Dash. So at least some gryphons do train together with pegasi.
There's supposed to be a cold war that occasionally flares hot between the Griffons and Pegasi pre-Exodus.
How so? A Pegasi kingdom would seem to firmly put this pre-Exodus, since that would be when the independent kingdom of Pegasi that Commander Hurricane was a part of should have existed.
The same way biology lets a pony with a red coat and another pony with a red coat have a foal with a green coat.
Done and done! Apparently Starlight is so eager to see him her usual routine is to tear down his door!
4649723 Agree on Griffonstone. Griffons still seemed to have lived together before the Idol of Boreas, they just didn't get a king and proper government until it was found. But that giant aerie they've been living in could have been Griffonstone for two thousand years. Of course, they still look back fondly on the Golden Age of Griffonstone, when they had proper kings. On the other hand, those 14 kings could be padded out with a bunch of queens instead.
4650142
So wait. The unicorns send a princess, earth ponies send the chancellor, but the pegasi just send a commander, when they’re a “kingdom” and have a “royal legion,” and nopony else considers this insulting? :)
Coat colors alter, at best, whether whoever eats the pony gets indigestion or not. Beak anatomy and whether the creature has a crop is actually pretty important.
They would need to be padded with about 10 queens. That’s a lot more sexist than we can see griffons today. :)
4650280
I wouldn't be surprised if the Kingdom was like Japan. Hurricane was the Shogun, and whatever the King was, he was like the Emperor, revered but with no power.
Fair enough. But after Gabby calls out "eagle" and "lion," are eagle/lion hybrids considered somehow more "true Griffon" than other hybrids?
How so? I would think having a bunch of queens makes you less sexist, not more. If they had no queens but 14 kings, probably that means only a male can sit on the throne.
4650295
Well, they’d be the only ones mythology supposes here…
It’s that they didn’t count them because they didn’t matter.
4650300
That is a fair point. If it was 15 kings plus a bunch of female "regents," because no male of royal bloodline existed, that would be pretty sexist.
"“And do all the voices. That’s the best part.” Does Starlight insist on Sunburst doing this because Twilight does it, or does she just like the idea in general?" Given heir childhood-friend resumption, i'd say it's a callback to their foalhoods.
"Griffons do have at least some weather control ability, " Not news, cloud-walking pretty much requires the same basic physical powerset as cloud-wrangling.
Royal legion implies …royals. I think howard's bakufu/shogunate explanation makes a good deal of sense.
4649742
"Assume the unrealistic 50 years per king and you get that Griffonstone collapsed 500-300 years ago, at least. Much longer if the idol was found earlier." Assume exclusive count of queens from kings and you can pad it out.
4650142
hey stop stealing my lines ;3
4650295
Gabby looks like a parakeet or cockatiel and her flashback shows clear owl…listed more shown bird-types back in that ep's notes post. Now where did I see those adorable gryphon variants… (though I do like a reverse gryphon rather.)
here: http://iguanamouth.tumblr.com/post/119477162762/kept-getting-requests-for-gryphons-so-heres-a
4650295
Liking this idea for the Pegasus Kingdom. I think it fits well with everything we've seen.
4650423
That's totally true. However, she still says that
"A griffon mixes lion's strength with winged eagle's might." So diverse combinations of Griffons exist, but I think lion/eagle might be an idealized form within griffon culture, considered the "true" Griffon mix.