Nov
3rd
2017
Points of Canon: S4x13 - Simple Ways · 8:55pm Nov 3rd, 2017
Rarity has no luck with stallions whatsoever, doesn’t she.
- “I can’t believe how many ponies showed up!” Well, Lemon Hearts is here, for one. And Bon-Bon came four times. Lyra only came once for some reason. Minuette turns up a bit later.
- The committee selecting the Pony of Ceremonies includes Granny Smith and two other elders, and I’d love to know more about the other two. Notice that, say, Filthy Rich is nowhere within earshot, even though for him, the Ponyville Days festival has to be a big deal.
- “Ponyville Days celebrates the founding of Ponyville, and she was right there.” Which is actually a rare corroboration of the story in Family Appreciation Day.
- This here is a very rare appearance of Vinyl Scratch in Ponyville crowd not associated with playing music.
- Mayor Mare is speaking into a microphone. No visible wire, but no visible antenna either.
- “This year’s applicants were all exceptional,” Why exactly are ponies in costume during a ceremony that only announces a festival that starts in three days? Also, the clown costume I get, but who are these two supposed to be dressed as? This kind of armor is not historical, if we believe all the later episodes and comics. There’s also a Wonderbolt trainee uniform and this guy in a hat which supposes five celestial bodies – neither of which is Sun or Moon, and two are ringed – sporting an optical system that shouldn’t work.
- Pinkie inflates and flies. Nobody even bothers to be surprised anymore.
- Amethyst Star gives Rarity a bouquet upon the announcement that she was selected. That’s kind of unexpected and I’m not sure how to interpret it – nothing of the sort happens in other similar situations.
- Spire rolls in a huge diorama of central Ponyville. Since it’s Spike doing that, Rarity has to have made it beforehand, and I’m wondering what would she do if she was not selected.
- Look at this water basin on the far left of the screen, midway up. How do you imagine it is used?…
“This year’s Ponyville Days festival, designed by Rarity, will feature various high-class events such as… a silent cider auction and tasting.”
- Notice that Rarity also drew this entire presentation.
- Cider is served from a bowl with an apple floating in it.
- Rarity is wearing a huge ring with a gem in it on her horn. This is actually pretty unique, we almost never see ponies do that. And I think it draws attention away from her cute earrings.
- “The festival is in three days!” I don’t think there are breaks between the announcement and this scene, since Rarity had that diorama prepared already – so that’s our time limit on this episode, three days, plus however long the festival itself took.
- “Creating a Ponyville Days festival fantastic enough to impress… Trenderhoof!” There’s a very high chance that she applied to run the festival to impress Trenderhoof in the first place, isn’t there? That shrine right in her primary public area certainly implies so.
- Nopony else appears to know who Trenderhoof is.
- Rarity’s shrine to Trenderhoof contains numerous photos, a lock of what has to be his hair, some other difficult to identify items, and a stack of paper. I really wonder about that stack of paper, because it’s not a stack of magazines. Is it letters? From whom to whom? I also wonder how she came by the lock of hair. And that bottle with liquid in it is really strange.
“Trenderhoof is only the most amazing, handsomest travel writer to have ever traveled or written! Before Las Pegasus became an Equestria travel destination, he wrote about it! Before the culinary revolution in Trottingham, he discovered it!”
- Las Pegasus is a travel destination, and we only saw it a long time afterwards, in Viva Las Pegasus.
- Trottingham is famous for its cuisine. Notice that the UK… isn’t.
- This whole thing had to have been going on for a while – Rarity is, of course, exaggerating when she says “I’ve had a crush on him ever since the beginning of time” later, but still, a considerable time, though probably, not simultaneously with the crush on the imaginary Blueblood. And none of the Mane 6 knew.
- Minuette, Lemon Hearts, Bon-Bon and Lyra arrived on the same train with Trenderhoof, as if being in town already wasn’t enough.
- Trenderhoof’s sweater (or is it a cardigan?) is interesting: it has a side pocket with his hair comb, and the opening of that pocket is oriented upwards, rather than forwards. Most cases of ponies having pockets on their outfits place pockets on the chest, so they look like human clothes, but not this sweater – that one is specially adapted for a quadruped.
- Trenderhoof’s glasses have no visible ear loops.
- “Hello, Mr. Trenderhoof. I am Rarity, and I have been chosen as pony of ceremonies for the Ponyville Days festival.” I think this scene only works if this is the first time Rarity is meeting Trenderhoof face to face. So how did she get that lock of hair?
“Reminds me of the ‘Spring Fling meets Manehattan Wedding’ I wrote about in Gallop & Prance”
- “Gallop and Prance” has to be a periodical.
- So what was the “Spring Fling meets Manehattan Wedding” event anyway?
- “And finally, Sweet Apple Acres. Ponyville’s core, heh-heh, so to speak, where our quaint little hamlet began.” And yet, apparently, outside city limits. See Hypothesis #2.
- “I’ve heard about it of course, but to see it in vérité, to stand on the soil of a working farm… You can really feel the authenticity.” Where, exactly, would one have to travel in Equestria, to avoid a working farm for the entirety of one’s career?
- Applejack is dirtier than she usually appears. Cartoon resolution, I expect: she’s probably that dirty all the time.
- Rarity managed to literally cry a river, or at least, a very shallow stream. Certainly enough for Spike to locate her by the trail of wet floor.
- “Trenderhoof doesn’t like you? That’s ridiculous!” Yep, Spike doesn’t believe anyone can dislike Rarity.
1. See Aporia, Conversation 21
“Oh, Spike, how could you ever know what it’s like to be totally obsessed with a pony only to find out they’re obsessed with somepony else?” In fact, this whole scene, and particularly the expressions Spike reacts with to this line, is probably a better argument for my interpretation of Blueblood1 than many of the ones I actually used. Notice, that by the time of this episode, Spike is quite conscious about his obsession, and has, apparently, learned to keep it in check.
- “You know, I have such respect for the work ethic of Earth ponies.” That sounds tribalist, but Applejack accepts it as a compliment.
- “I once had an apple so rare, they thought it was extinct. I ate four of them.” And they let him? How exactly did that happen anyway?
- Rarity wears boots on all four hooves this time. And then she adjusts her mane with a boot.
- “She’s the one of my eye / That fruit-hauling pony named… Applejack!” Trenderhoof can’t rhyme worth a damn, which is hardly a surprise, but I wonder why doesn’t Pinkie Pie break into this scene. Because she rhymes with “eye.”
- Rarity has never had the occasion to observe how does one plow a field, which would only be possible in Ponyville if she were deliberately avoiding such occasions.
- “I am perfectly familiar with the apple-bucking process, thank you very much. But while you seem to rely on raw power, I believe a certain amount of style is required. It’s really more of a dance, if you ask me.” Ineffectual as she is, Rarity can buck apples. Trenderhoof later successfully acquires an apple with a punch, for lack of a better word. We’ve seen Rainbow do this in Applebuck Season as well, and possibly Fluttershy too, so I do wonder how exactly does the process work. Specially trained trees?
- “And I don’t know anypony who’s that interested in farmin’. Not even me!” Numerous conversations regarding farming have to have happened off-camera for Applejack to say that.
- “Rarity, that is the silliest getup I have ever seen!” It is also one of the rare cases of pants on ponies.
- “If you want to be real simple, more is more.” And Apple Bloom acquires boots for her front hooves, but not for the rear ones.
- “I love being covered in mud!” Hello pigs, haven’t seen you in a while. Just where did you come from, though? Also, at which point did pigs get transferred to hang out outdoors as they do in Applejack’s Day Off?
- “Oh, it’s, uh, one of yours.” Rarity has so many dresses, she doesn’t recognize them all anymore.
- “I’ll need three gallons of boiling water and one ounce of detergent, stat!” Water is measured in gallons, and weights are measured in ounces. And ponies have detergents, but with all the other chemical products we have seen, it would be really silly if they did not.
- “Being the most interesting pony in Equestria is exhausting.” I don’t always accidentally, but when I do, I accidentally the whole thing.
- Notice that in this barn, there are four horseshoes above the doors, horns up. Compare to Flight to the Finish. Apples really are experimenting!
- The actual Ponyville Days festival is full of Canterlot ponies.
- While Rarity narrates her Friendship Journal record for this episode, and it matches what she narrates verbatim, she is never shown actually writing and the record could have happened at any later moment.
Less useful stuff than I hoped, and lots of unanswered questions. Also, consider this one…
In Fame and Misfortune, Rarity is cited for organizing “the” Ponyville Days festival:
Certainly she did a fine job setting up the Ponyville Days celebration, but does she really believe it was a success just because of her?
But Ponyville Days is a yearly festival, it celebrates the founding of Ponyville, and Mayor Mare explicitly says “this year’s applicants.” Unless we’re dealing with another misuse of “anniversary” like in Pinkie Pride, and it only happens, say, every five years, that requires that there is less than a year between Simple Ways and Fame and Misfortune, and that is murder on chronology, not to mention sanity…
There been an idea that main income for Ponyvile come from being a travel destination for Canterlot tourists. Which could explain numbers of different festivals and stuff.
4716217
...That's actually the best explanation I've seen for Rarity running an independent business in Ponyville instead of rising through the ranks in Canterlot proper.
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Considering that I have been pushing this idea for close to two years now, it'd better be a good one.
4716228
In our defense, you push a lot of ideas.
4716228
I can't exactly remember where or when I read this Idea. I think that I read it on Jordan179 blog but I can be wrong.
I think the best part of the episode is Tabitha's voicework with Rarity! Near the end, as Rarity starts going off the rails, her real fake accent leaks out through the fake "country" one she's been trying to put on. That can't have been easy to pull off.
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I’m sure I wasn’t the first one to suggest it, anyway. The first one was apparently Lauren Faust: “Stemming from it’s apple producing roots, Ponyville’s town square has become what you may call a bit of a tourist trap.”
This was definitely the episode that made me think Ponyville is a tourist trap for Canterlotians.
Applejack seems to me like she's slightly bothered by Trenderhoof's tribalist comment, but she's waving it off.
Also, how old is Trenderhoof? Like, if Las Pegasus was not a big vacation destination before he discovered it, it must have changed rapidly or he discovered it decades ago.