Apr
14th
2018
Points of Canon: S8x05 - Grannies Gone Wild · 6:52pm Apr 14th, 2018
Well, now we know why the Apples have their farm mortgaged.
- Chronology markers: Friendship School appears on screen and is directly referred to as something that is expected to occupy Rainbow’s time, requiring School Daze to have completed. Rainbow Dash is a Wonderbolt, requiring Newbie Dash to have completed. Most of the other usual markers never appear.
- Fleetfoot is carrying a bag in her teeth, a traditional (for us) roughly cylindrical sports bag shape, which we haven’t seen ponies actually use otherwise, I believe. Notice this is an official Wonderbolts bag – it has a logo on it.
- Notice that Rainbow is dressing for flight, while Soarin, Fleetfoot and Misty Fly have just finished undressing as this conversation starts – they’re moving towards the exit rather than anywhere else. I wonder what their flight schedule looks like for this to happen. I also wonder why does Fleetfoot drop her bag as the conversation starts, because she doesn’t utter a word even then.
- “You can’t really call yourself a Wonderbolt if you haven’t been on it.” Riding this particular rollercoaster was a traditional activity for the Wonderbolts up until now, as evidenced by the corkboard with photos.
- “First, you strap yourself into the cloud rocket car,” Further episode demonstrates there is no actual rocket anywhere in it, but notice that it does appear to be made out of some manner of cloud material – and riding the Wild Blue Yonder rollercoaster is very definitely not exclusive to pegasi.
- A picture shows Misty Fly playing chess with Spitfire while riding, but notice that the board is only 6x6 squares, and I think they’re holding it wrong, too. We have previously observed a much more normal board in Cutie Pox.
- Rainbow’s lessons in the Friendship School are conducted in what appears to be a gym, at least this time, judging by the markings on the floor.
- So what is Rarity measuring Angel for? Also notice the measuring tape marked up in what has to be inches. This might be a chance to correct or utterly wreck pony size scales.
- “The ride closes this week! Forever! But I can’t go to Las Pegasus because I have to teach at Twilight’s school.” That’s the first, and so far, only time when anyone acknowledges teaching this school takes up their time. Nevertheless, the time for the subsequent visit to Las Pegasus mysteriously materializes.
- Actually, why would a ride be closing when there’s such a huge line to ride it?
- “Can you cover my classes?” Covering classes is a thing. It’s still a huge problem for Fake It Til You Make It, because that episode happens while the school is active, but occupies the entirety of Mane 6. Starlight can’t cover all classes. Or can she?
- “I mean Granny Smith and the rest of the Gold Horseshoe Gals.” Granny’s friends circle has a name. How old is that CMC clubhouse again?
- Stop. So if Goldie Delicious is a member of Gold Horseshoe Gals, which had to have been a thing for decades, how is it that Applejack has never met her up until Pinkie Apple Pie? Because we know she didn’t, but Applejack immediately continues with “Why, I’m sure they’d be plumb tickled to have you join their annual grandmare’s trip to Las Pegasus.” This trip is explicitly an annual activity, which would require Applejack to be present for the departure in, say, Year 1 or Year -1.
- “Have you seen my cranky flank cream?” Have you seen my what now?…
- Cherry Berry is explicitly the balloon pilot for the entirety of this episode. She also has a new balloon, instead of the usual purple one. Notably, unlike all previously observed balloons, this one has an obvious burner unit, which Cherry lights by pulling a rope, implying it to be a hot air balloon, and it is, in fact, referred to as such in text by Apple Rose: “This hot air balloon ride reminds me of the time I climbed a tree.” However, this size of the envelope is way too small to lift so many ponies with just hot air – about ten times too small. Is the burner used to heat up the cloud inside or something?…
- “Make sure they get their naps…” Rainbow is using her wing to manipulate the list scroll.
- “And you might even learn a thing or two about havin’ a good time from these old gals.” The grannies took about four times less luggage than Big Mac was shown hauling earlier, though when they disembark, the amount of luggage quadruples again.
- “Back when I was a young filly, I was afraid of tree-climbin’.” Notably, we don’t see ponies climb trees pretty much ever. Walk up trees, occasionally, climb, not really.
- “Have you ever had the hoof sweats?” Pony hooves can sweat. I am not sure horse hooves can.
- Rainbow chooses not to pull the balloon to make it go faster, despite clear and present need and ample opportunity.
- Lemon Hearts, Minuette and Twinkleshine are waiting in line for their balloon ride down as the Gold Horseshoe Gals arrive.
- “My pores are crying for a mud mask at the Prison Palace Spa!” That, actually, is the first time ponies use the word “prison” that I remember. Prisons exist! Somewhere.
- The
casinohotel hosting the rollercoaster is the one operated by Flim and Flam, seeing the numerous statues and depictions of both brothers. Why would Granny Smith pick this one after her numerous run-ins with them is anyone’s guess. Seeing as how the later episode implies that they have a long-standing deal with the casino, it was definitely arranged before the brothers took it over, though. Notable entertainment in the hotel includes:
- Horseshoe toss and various other tossing carnival games. One has a basketball hoop and is equipped with a glowing timer. Notice that this still does not require digital electronics to be made. The timer reads “00:00” – see RTAC #13.
- A mechanical equivalent of Dance Dance Revolution, which we saw before.
- A puzzling variation on a duck hunting shooting gallery with no obvious guns.
- An instant photo booth.
- Multiple variations on the Ferris wheel, carousel, and other vomit-inducing rides.
- Several crane games.
- At least one arcade game – the most definite one has a rocket and a sun on the cabinet, and is controlled with a joystick. The screen is never visible, so it can still be electromechanical.
- A whack-a-mole game.
One other thing to notice is that most of the staff in the hotel are non-pegasi. For obvious TV-Y reasons, if the hotel contains any gambling entertainment, we are not going to see it, so the jury is out on whether it has any.
- “Welcome to our Gold Horseshoe Suite.” Since I very much doubt the suite is named after the Gold Horseshoe Gals, I must assume that the reverse is true, and this suite is the source of the name for the Granny Smith friends circle.
- The way the porter trembles as he picks up his tip suggests that handing it over in this fashion does have some sexual connotations, which is something ponies very rarely display.
- “You sure your name’s not Apple Saucy?” “Saucy” is an euphemism. Not a given!
- “One ticket for the coolest rollercoaster of all time, please!” It’s a pretty interesting shape for a ticket – it has a tear-off tab – but more importantly, Rainbow abandons this ticket upon seeing the line and it just remains there.
- The line contains Rick, Morty and Walter White. Possibly a few other throwaway reference jokes. Also, two of the Fluttershy-critiquing ponies from Fame and Misfortune.
- Rainbow interrupts Lyra and Bon-Bon, who are, for a change, obviously on a date and trying to get pictures from the instant photo booth.
- The unicorn stallion which fishes Rainbow out of the crane game has a cutie mark with packed paper money on it. Paper money is a thing, apparently.
- “Can good old Goldie Delicious and the Gold Horseshoe Gals break the all-time resort record, folks?” The announcer is using a microphone with what looks like a switch on it, suspended by an obvious wire.
- One of the prizes is a parasprite plushie. What the aerial intercourse?
- “In that case, let’s paint the town candy apple red!” As I previously mentioned the last time this idiom came up, it is believed to refer to an actual historical event. I wonder who painted a pony village red.
- “I love me some nachos.” Ponies have nachos. Notably, this is a dish that is credited to a specific individual in our world, and is dated to 1943. Also notice that this is yet more evidence of the rarely directly observed, but culturally significant Spanish-like minority in Equestria.
- Not only Donkey Doodle is present in the buffet, arguing with the cook, he is wearing the black wig. The one Pinkie destroyed during A Friend in Deed and which was subsequently replaced with the orange one. What’s going on here?
- “I’m quite a legend when it comes to rhumba.” Ponies have a dance called rhumba.
- Those records Vinyl is spinning appear to be a whopping centimeter thick or more. Both of them. Whut?
- Svengallop is sitting alone in the dance club.
“Here’s five complimentary VIP tickets to our most amazing trick in the Ponet Fantastique Theater, just over there.” We don’t know for sure which of the two magicians is Jack Pot and which is Big Bucks, since naming them is not necessarily left to right, and neither’s cutie mark provides a clue. According to the episode credits, Jack Pot is voiced by Alex Zahara, and Big Bucks is voiced by Tariq Leslie. Judging by the samples I could locate on YouTube, it seems to me that the unicorn’s name has to be Big Bucks. Can anyone confirm?
That’s not the important part, however. The unicorn one is suspiciously similar to Trixie – in fact, he is more similar to Trixie than most known parent-child and sibling pairs:
- His aura color is identical.
- His eye color and coat color are identical.
- His mane color is not entirely identical to Trixie’s but very, very close.
- His smoke bomb retreat trick is also identical to Trixie’s and likewise ineffectual.
- Even his mannerisms are very much Trixie, he moves very much like her.
You’d almost think it is Trixie, or at the very least, her twin, but his cutie mark is a mysterious three stars in a row, and the voice is quite a bit older. What exactly is going on here?…
- “Say, how would you Gold Horseshoe Gals like to bring some of that good energy into our magic show tonight?” Referring to the grannies by that name implies they’ve been acquainted for quite a while. The response “Sugarcube, we never miss your show” confirms.
- “Oh, now don’t be a stick in the mud!” Ponies have that idiom. See Mudbriar.
- The set for the magic show includes a seapony. With a hook on one hoof. And a bra. No, really, it is most definitely a bra, and it is way off the location where the pony teats would normally be found in. What the aquatic intercourse?
- The shot depicting the tank flooding is not very conclusive, but it looks to me like the grannies are not actually getting wet at all – there is no way a puddle would flow quite like that if they were. Which implies that they mostly got wet because Rainbow interrupted the trick.
- Lyra and Bon-Bon are watching the magic show too - and for once, they’re sitting together.
- “This is a magic show! We’ve seen it a thousand times! Everypony always escapes.” Goldie is obviously exaggerating, however, you would expect her to have seen it at least four times to say something like that, which would, once again, require the tradition of Las Pegasus vacations to have started prior to Year 1. Applesauce further says that “We’ve been waiting to be picked as the lovely assistants in that trick for years!” likewise implying this is a long standing tradition.
- “Well, fish-flavored kitten kibble.” Kitten kibble comes in fish-flavored variety, which would require ponies to, well, fish. We’ve seen them do it, too, but not on an industrial scale.
- “We’re Gold Horseshoe members. The most exclusive club in Las Pegasus.” Gold Horseshoe is an exclusive club, rather than just this particular group of grannies – or if it is just this particular group of grannies, they are entitled to preferential treatment and special deals anyway.
- “We’ve been comin’ here every moon since we can remember. Even some we don’t remember.” Goldie misuses the word “moon,” even though previously the trip was referred to as “annual.” I expect there’s a bloody lot she doesn’t remember anymore.
- Lyra and Bon-Bon ride the rollercoaster together.
- “Sugar, you probably want to hold on ’bout now.” This is not Granny Smith’s first time on the Wild Blue Yonder, is it?
Some general observations:
- Applejack is a troll. I wonder if we can say if this is new or not.
- Applejack’s past is the muddiest of all Mane 6 and I need to write an RTAC on it.
- This whole trip had to have been quite expensive, gambling or not. Yet it’s also pretty clear it is a regular thing. Notice that early seasons tend to portray the Apples as poor, and occasionally struggling and in debt…
"A picture shows Misty Fly playing chess with Spitfire while riding,..."
I think that's related to a meme I've seen of people who ride roller coasters and get their pictures taken with the weirdest of costumes/events.
"Not only Donkey Doodle is present in the buffet..." Um. You may want to rephrase that. Besides, he has a brother. And about fifty cousins. They're in the wig business, obviously :)
"Notice that early seasons tend to portray the Apples as poor, and occasionally struggling and in debt…" I've known farmers like that, but it's more a modern-ism than a rural pony-ism. Remember, at $800 an acre and a thousand acres, you're talking about a million dollar investment just in land/loans/improvements that you *have* to make (whatever the going rate is for interest) + living expenses off just to break even. And that's a small farm. A farmer can buy a third of a million dollar combine just to run it two weeks a year, and that's just one hunk of hardware.
4840062
It’s actually a very old meme, and the chessboard is a popular variation, no surprise there. The surprise is the 6x6 board.
Of course she could. Not only does she know a spell combination that can put her in two places at once (accelero + similo duplexis), she has access to the Mirror Pool.
4840081
That sounds like a disaster movie waiting to happen.
Also a fic idea.
4840082
You're welcome.
4840083
Nah, I have too many ideas I don’t have time for, so we have to find somebody else to write it. Because I would read it…
You sure they're not just playing Minichess?
4840088
Yes, if only because they probably glued pieces to the board like everyone else.
Presumably so she doesn't have to hold it for the whole conversation. Ponies may have impressive neck muscles, but still.
I interpreted this as Rarity rushing to complete her entry for the Royal Fashion Show in a thin margin of time when she didn't have to conduct classes, hence why Twilight was revising a curriculum rather than, say, teaching.
You do raise a good point on the disconnect between Goldie's hermetic existence and annual trips to pony-Vegas. Odd bit there.
Presumably similar to wing balm, in terms of relieving muscle aches.
It could be an issue of the distances involved. No point in getting them faster if Dash is too exhausted to enjoy the coaster when she gets there.
Not the first time we've seen them. See the toy store in "A Flurry of Emotions."
Spike made them in "Twilight Time."
Jim Miller has offered a rather distressing response to the question.
And I've got nothing on the seapony bra. Even seaponies don't use the things!
4840102
I.e. a trolling answer, like just about every single tweet for the past what, three years? Four?
I’m not treating them seriously anymore, and I suggest you don’t either.
The only idea that comes to mind so far is that this is a painting done in alteration stages. I.e. originally, it depicted something other than a pony, something on which a bra would make sense – like, possibly, a female minotaur, which is the only potentially viable option I can think of, since we’ve never seen one, and no other species was caught wearing a bra that I remember. The presence of a hook on one of the hooves suggests it had been a pirate then.
Then, at some point, the set needed repairs, because some idiot flooded it with water. The painter didn’t feel confident redrawing minotaur legs, so the bottom was painted over with a seapony tail.
Successive repairs like that resulted in the current nonsensical look.
EDIT: Kind of like this:
outsidethebeltway.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ecce-homo-restoration.jpg
Maintenance costs are probably through the roof (literally). I've seen profitable capital go down before for that reason, especially if they can do something else with the space.
4840130
Alternately, there’s only a huge line because the ride is closing.
Ticket sales had been down for years, so the management decided to replace it with something more popular. Then they advertised the upcoming replacement, and suddenly the impending deadline got a lot more ponies interested in riding.
Alternately alternately, the Flim Flam brothers apparently are the management at this hotel now, and they’re no strangers to making stupid decisions. So shutting down this rollercoaster might actually make zero business sense, and that would be perfectly in character for them.
So this is the end of the Wonderbolts, then?
Trixie confirmed for daddy's girl.
Was there ever any doubt?
4840102
"Hermitic." "Hermetic" means something different.
Perhaps Goldie Delicious is only a recent member of the Gold Horseshoe Gals. Heck, Rainbow Dash became a member of their little club after a single trip, so any of the other ladies could have gained their membership just as abruptly.
So: Granny Smith, Apple Rose, and Auntie Applesauce have been making an annual trip to Las Pegasus for a decade or longer. Meanwhile, Goldie Delicious decides (after the events of “Pinkie Apple Pie”) she needs to stop being such a hermit. As part of her efforts to get out of the house more, she starts going on Granny Smith’s annual trip. This episode is just Goldie’s second or third trip. (Also, move this episode a year or two into the future, if needed.)
4840102
I’ve seen an even weirder possibility suggested elsewhere: both of those magicians are Trixie’s dad. Big Bucks and Jack Pot couldn’t have a foal the normal way, for obvious reasons, so the unicorn got himself cloned. How did the clone end up as a mare? Good question. I don’t know.
Also, if Big Bucks and Jack Pot are a couple, why were they flirting with Granny Smith and her gang? Maybe being Ladies’ Men is just part of their stage personae, and they refuse to break character. Or maybe they’re just bisexual swingers. And that’s a sentence I never thought I’d write about this cartoon.
ANYWAY, on a Doylist note, I bet this stallion being such an obvious clone of Trixie is a nod to the fact that, in the earliest drafts of “Boast Busters”, Trixie was herself a stallion.
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(looks at the door) Not really.
4840321
Is that actually a fact? Any documented evidence, instead of random tweets? In the show bible, one can find a sketch of a female Trixie.
Well, sea ponies created by magic of magic pearl so their anatomy could be vastly different from normal ponies.
I not sure if that the case here but there is a possibility.
Honestly to me this sounds like a brand new fad a few wonderbolts jumped in on and peer pressured the rest to do. That's kind of the way these guys operate.
I'm also pretty sure this roller coaster wasn't here, taking up half the hotel, the last time we were in Las Pegasus.
We don't see anyone casting cloudwalking on passengers. Possibly an inner material to hold passengers, outer material made of cloud.
Which suggests teaching has to be a part time job, if Applejack can do both her and Rainbow's classes at the same time.
See above, plus Twilight teleporting the group around means only Rarity and Fluttershy miss more than a few hours.
That is a dilemma indeed. Maybe for some reason every year before this the GHG met up at someone else's house, or in Las Pegasus itself? This might be the first year Cherry Berry was offering commercial ballooning services in Ponyville.
I was really surprised this didn't happen. I figured balloons move extremely slowly without Pegasi, but apparently someone once flew a balloon from Alaska to Canada in 2 days, so I suppose it's actually possible.
I wonder if they've settled down, or realized there is no such thing as a con as profitable as running a casino.
Plushie or taxidermy?
I believe they prefer the term Southern-Equestrian.
I'm gonna go with Jim Miller that Big Bucks is Trixie's deadbeat dad. Though it's hard to believe Trixie and he don't know each other, considering she probably learned smoke bombs from him.
Makes sense. Magic tricks that rely on audience members have to be really easy to get out of, and have much less risk of danger than escape tricks the magician is performing themselves.
I was really hoping we would see them talking to an Elvis impersonator...
I think this indicates these gals have been coming here for decades. Another subtle hint about gambling: hotel resorts do small things for valued customers, but casinos do a lot more, since they want to comp regulars who gamble a lot and spend tons of money. Don't forget the GHG are apparently staying in one of the nicest suites in the hotel.
Applejack is still extremely protective of her family. She probably tells this stuff to Big Mac every year too. The difference is, the GHG are easily able to manipulate Mac, sneak around and have all the fun they want. The fact that the grannies immediately understand Applejack is behind Rainbow being boring says a lot.
That said, the speech she gave to Rainbow was extremely manipulative. The way she closely tied the Granny's health into Rainbow getting to ride the coaster was quite well done, and shows just how well Applejack knows Rainbow. Maybe that means she's a jerk, maybe she's just a little paranoid about losing the last parental figure she's got.
4840062 Yeah, breaking even as a business is usually something people worry about on a larger scale than their living expenses. The fact that Applejack was acting crazy at the first GGG so she could buy Granny a new hip while Granny was staying at luxury suites in Las Pegasus and probably gambling off-screen doesn't make Granny look great though.
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4840321
I think the Wild Blue Yonder is the big attraction Flim and Flam came up with to cover for fewer performers in Pony Fantastique. And in true Flim and Flam fashion, it's a clever business plan that attracts attention, but is probably not sustainable, in this case because the safety inspector told them that rollercoaster made of clouds will fall apart after only a year or two. The difference between this Flim and Flam and earlier Flim and Flam is that these days Flim and Flam actually have to care about customer safety, just because they can't pack up their casino and flee town.
4840321 I also considered the possibility that both magicians might be Trixie's dads, if only because I was thinking about Siegfried and Roy. But in the comics we've seen a mare who is pretty clearly Trixie's mom taking her to the CSfGU.
4840785
Possible. But wouldn’t it be fun if the ride closing down meant no more Wonderbolts?
Good point, it definitely wasn’t.
I’m just thinking this is further evidence that solid-for-non-pegasi construction cloud is possible, even if it isn’t particularly durable.
The solution offered above by Meta Four mostly works: Goldie Delicious was inducted into the group after Pinkie Apple Pie, something like a year or two ago.
Either is iffy. I mean, can you imagine Australians buying rabbit plushies, sometime in early XX century, when the rabbit infestation was at its worst?
Definitely not. No objects seen so far in Somnambula appear to use any Spanish words, and no other regions are labeled “Southern Equestria.”
At the same time, the apparently Mesoamerican ponies seen protecting Ahuizotl appear to actually be clustered around Vanhoover. See PoC for Daring Don’t.
And since Pony China is somewhere in Pennsylvania anyway…
If he is her dad, he is the only father ever that looks identical to his daughter in so many traits. Literally, no other father-daughter pair even comes close to this level of similarity.
See above regarding solid clouds. :)
4840826
Maybe. Of course Spitfire has to get her picture taken playing a fake chessboard on the ride, so that instead of enjoying herself, she's making herself look cooler than all the other Wonderbolts who rode this.
Oh definitely. If all those big metal machines in the cloud factory can be held up, an earth pony should be held up too.
I thought about that. The problem is Goldie is the one who says " We've been comin' here every moon since we can remember. Even some wedon'tremember." She's also the one the announcer refers to as "Good Old Goldie Delicious." It seems like Goldie has been doing this trip for quite a long time.
I lean towards clone spell with an R63 mishap. Whether that's because he and his partner wanted to have a kid, or he once really, really screwed up a teleportation spell as part of disappearing act and Trixie is his Tom Riker, unknown. Might explain why Trixie, who is devoted to becoming Equestria's greatest stage magician, never seems to travel to the logical place for a stage magician to become famous.
Ooh, just remembered the most important part:
Blanche Devereaux = Apple Sauce
Rose Nylund = Apple Rose
Dorothy Zbornak = Goldie Delicious
Sophia Petrio = Granny Smith
4840510
Twitter and DeviantArt, actually. And I misremembered: Trixie was a stallion in the initial premise, and was changed to a mare at Hasbro’s request before the first script was written, if I’m interpreting correctly. Probably before anyone would start making character art of him/her.
And why this skepticism of anything not documented in the show bible? You noted before that it looks cobbled together from bits and pieces from varying stages of the show’s development, so is it really surprising that some details fell through the cracks? If Faust had said, “We changed Trixie to a female at the last possible second, and had to rush to get her new design done on time,” then the female Trixie art in the bible would be suspicious. But the behind-the-scenes story we’ve been given is exactly the scenario where a lack of artwork could be expected.
Yes, the writers tweet out sarcastic or otherwise incorrect stuff all the time... but that’s always when someone asks Watsonian questions or tries to get a scoop about future episodes. (It’s almost like they realize the futility of saying anything Watsonian, and they’re teasing us for constantly asking anyway.) Have they ever lied in response to Doylist questions?
4840957
Mostly, because while it is cobbled together, it contains story blurbs that turned verbatim into many Season 1 episodes – but not Boast Busters, and yet, it contains a sketch of the female Trixie. With the way it was assembled, it seems to me that it had more or less everything that had been available at the moment it was assembled, so…
4840102
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4840785
Funny update. A blurb from My Little Pony: Ultimate Guide already gave away the truth of Trixie’s parentage last year:
4841012
Great research!
The real shocker is it appears that the episode writers actually did the research and went out of their way to respect secondary canon.
Props to this episode's writer for doing their job.
4840963
Ever since leaving the show, Faust has been pretty insistent that she isn’t a good source of information about MLP canon anymore, and she doesn’t know where the show’s going any better than we do (Watsonian concerns)—but that she can answer questions about the development, and where she’d hoped to take the show before she had to leave (Doylist stuff).
4841037
Faust might. Miller, though…
Where's Duffel?
A mind-control-shaped hammer will fill any sort of marepower problems.
manipulate,ultimately from manus (hand)…
yeah. And then the Golden Girls did all those bipedal dances, on hips that probably don't like being bipedal, etc. etc.