Patreon blog takeover: The Many Annoying Viewing Habits Of Occasionally-Effective Ponies (Wolfstorm) · 1:18am Aug 29th, 2018
Would there ever be an equivalent to tv tech-wise in your 'verse and if so, what would the mane six watch the most? I figure there's easy answers to that, like Fluttershy watching nature documentaries, but idk.
Let's take this one moderately sideways.
First: I have no plans to introduce anything along the lines of television, and I would equally hesitate before announcing radio. Frankly, I'm reluctant to bring in anything more complicated than the tin-can telephone. And part of that is because I want rapid communication and dissemination of information to be truly scarce. When trouble hits, it takes time to get the word out -- even if that's the minutes required for the many desperate teleports needed to relay themselves between a dozen gatehouses. And that's presuming you have a unicorn with the working, range, and necessary intermediary points memorized. Calling for help isn't a casual enterprise, and it's seldom a fast option. Without magic which transmits information, ponies need to deliver the word in person. Newspapers take time to cross the continent, and printed words often wind up being distorted. A long relay chain of mouth to twitching ears can be worse.
In some ways, every settled zone is just a little bit on its own. The first response has to be theirs. And it also makes the culture for each area just a little bit more different, because there isn't a mass media imposing outside images on local beliefs. Something like Trotter's Falls can exist partially because it's so isolated, while Ponyville can easily feel the weight of Canterlot's shadow. It turns Equestria into a weak reflection of what it was before the Unification. There's a single nation -- but you get a lot of regional differences, to the point where it can feel as if multiple realms are simply working under one banner. Manehattan isn't Las Pegasus, which isn't Cameo Cumulus, which is never going to be Appeloosa. As Rainbow discovers in A Series Of Egotistical Events, the most foreign country of all can be right below your hooves.
Television and radio change that. It's not just the ability to talk all the faster: it's the capacity to spread stereotypes.
Think about the typical image of a New Yorker. Get that image in your head.
Got it?
Good. Now: which movie/sitcom/drama provided it?
...right. Ponies hear about how those in other settled zones act: this group is rushed, another trots about with snouts elevated. But now they're seeing things, and the exaggeration of fiction starts to become what they know. The false view of a Manehattan pony becomes what the viewer truly believes about that area -- as some degree of that distorted culture starts to be taken in by a few of the locals. Movies are already starting to do that. The other media would make it faster.
So no television. Period.
...besides, we already have a pretty good idea of what Murdocks would do with it.
(Sun and Moon help us all once somepony comes up with the weekly newsreel.)
However, we do have the cinema.
As noted in Anchor Foal, Ponyville's is a one-screen, built by an investor who wasn't initially sure this was going to catch on. However, in order to keep the locals from heading into Canterlot for increased variety, it hosts multiple films at different showtimes, and so is one of the few businesses in Ponyville to be just about 24-hour: they need a lot of operating time just to recoup some of the multiple reel rental costs. It gives the residents a decent choice of shows to see.
(Ponyville also has one minor advantage: it's a test audience market. Directors who aren't quite sure about their final cuts have been known to sneak a false premiere on the second end of a double bill, then take notes on pony reactions before risking the true debut in Canterlot. If the showtime just says 'Special Feature,' there's no telling what you're about to get.)
The Mane Cast attend the cinema. Some do so less than others: time constraints, problems with a personal budget. But they all go, and so their viewing habits can be discussed -- at least for the versions of them which exist in the Continuum.
However... it's been said that Chapter 11 of Triptych is a primer on why our 'verse mares aren't necessarily the best ponies to date. Guess what? If you do manage to get them into a social outing, there's a place you might want to leave off the romance starter list...
Twilight
When it comes to movies, Twilight is the Internet before the Internet existed.
Prior to her Ponyville arrival, Twilight really didn't go to movies. Even now, she generally attends with a friend -- if that friend is willing to put up with everything that's about to happen, which usually requires quite a bit of time to have passed since the last movie. She does have her favorite genres, of course: she'll be curious about some categories of documentary, and she'll occasionally decide to indulge in thaumic fiction. But for the most part, what Twilight goes for are adaptations of classic books. And since she hasn't done a lot of recreational reading since her fillyhood, those tend to be stories from her youth.
But the book is the pure form. The movie is an adaptation. Things change between page and screen.
Guess who rather frequently has a problem with that.
Twilight will comment (usually quietly, but a truly horrible transgression of literary or thaumic rules will get a scream) to whoever she's attending with. She will also spend much of her time taking notes.
99.9+% of the population is unaware of what Spike's transport flame can do. Some of the exceptions are screenwriters who have learned to live in dread of a green flash delivering a query on just how that subplot could have been cut out when it was clearly so crucial to everything, and they'd better send an answer out via conventional post rather quickly or there will be a followup. Anypony who fails to do their research on how an extant spell would operate is going to receive both criticism and corrections. The ponies who merely speculated their way to something new will simply find themselves being given new interpretations of what one viewer saw as the underlying theory. But don't worry: they all get the chance to explain exactly why and how they were wrong...
If you're looking for somepony to just get lost in a movie with, don't bring Twilight. She may wind up frantically scribbling all the way through the end credits, looking for the proper ponies to blame. And yes, igniting your corona during the show is rude, but it's hard to mouthwrite in the dark and something must be done...
Rainbow
As might be expected, Rainbow's tastes run to adventure serials: the pony equivalent of the old Republic offerings would have her in loyal attendance. She's also into longer-form jaunts into the genre, along with horror movies and the most lowbrow of comedies -- preferably ones where the jest is on somepony. Classic dramas would put her to sleep (in the best-case scenario) and she's not exactly into sophisticated wordplay added to comedies of error, but if you want to have her openly howling about what she just saw for days afterwards -- and possibly some ill-advised attempts to replicate parts of the scene -- include a fart joke.
(However, the first Daring Do movie is likely to make her go full Twilight, right down to the how-could-you-let-this-happen! scroll sent to the original author. She will also see anything which has a flying stunt segment, and may take notes.)
Rainbow, as the one with the most free time pressed between her hooves and a salary which just can't carry over to the next pay voucher, may see more movies than anypony in the group. And if others know she'll be in attendance, she might just see them as something very close to an audience of one. Because during movies, Rainbow talks.
Worse: she shouts.
Advice, usually.
"Don't go in there! Why are you going in there? Nopony with any common sense would go in there without -- and he went in there. Well, he's dead. Who's the next moron?"
...right. She's one of those. And after the characters ignore the advice which they couldn't hear anyway, she might just kick something at the screen. Rainbow goes through a lot of snacks during movies, and very few of them have actually been eaten. She's actually been banned from the cinema a few times: short-term time-outs which are meant to teach her a lesson. It generally sticks upon readmission, at least until somepony made of flickering light does something exceptionally stupid. Given the typical Republic serial, that's about five minutes.
You will know when Rainbow is seeing a movie. You may also learn that the cinema has a surprisingly flexible jamming-a-foreleg-against-somepony's-mouth-to-shut-them-up policy.
(One more issue: with multi-reel productions, she has a lot of trouble staying still for extended periods. Some of her comments may come from the upper levels of the cinema. And popcorn tends to fall out of paper feedbags, raining down on those below.)
Fluttershy
Most of what Fluttershy's seeing is probably what her friends wanted to see when they invited her. The issues are both fiscal and temporal: she can't afford that many tickets, and it can be hard to get away from the cottage for long. Still, everypony needs their recovery time, along with sanity breaks: it means she does get to a few showtimes.
Nature documentaries are her wheelhouse, but she also enjoys the quieter level of comedy: things which climax in that single awkward look can resonate with her -- although she may spend most of the trip home wondering just how often she's done that. Oddly, she's rather resistant to horror, at least when it comes to fantastical monsters. Show her a pony creating nightmares and it'll get to her -- but as also seen in Anchor Foal, put a new collection of limbs and waving sensory apparatuses on the screen, and she may just spend the rest of the film puzzling out its biology. This also happens because she's perfectly capable of distinguishing potentially real from fully fictional: that creation of half-rendered illusion imposed on poorly-made rubber suits isn't ever going to exist, but ponies stalking those who once hurt them... that could happen, and she may spend a trembling night rechecking the locks on her doors.
And if something truly does get to her? Well, as instructed, she memorized all the In Case Of Emergency exits when she came in, and she's going to use one of them. (Anything between her and said exit may remain conscious exactly long enough to regret it.) Fluttershy has a number of films which she's seen most of, and the rest of the Bearers have learned to be very careful about taking her to the deeper dramas, especially when there's violence in the final act.
Oh, and if there's cruelty towards animals in that script? Spike's going to have a very busy scroll-sending night.
Pinkie
The main factor keeping Pinkie from seeing more movies is an already-overcrowded schedule. Among the Bearers, she's the one who loves the very medium the most: it's something which celebrates imagination, and so it can be seen as something which offers a chance to have a few more hours of childhood for as long as the lights are down.
She'll take just about any comedy offered (although she can be critical of the results): slapstick always resonates with her, but she can find the humor in multiple scenarios. However, she's also the one most likely to sit through a period drama, because somepony is telling her a story and she's curious to see how it comes out. Just about any genre of fiction might appeal to Pinkie, at least when it's being offered as film: she might reject that same period drama in its original form because hundreds of pages is days of time committed, and the movie is two hours.
Pinkie is the best audience in the group: she understands the rules of the cinema and she wants to be a good guest at somepony else's party, so she's the most likely to just sit and watch -- until the film gets a true emotional reaction out of her. When that happens... well, just about everypony in town can hear when Pinkie's happy, and the same very much applies to a film getting tears out of her. A sincere Pinkie response to a scene can occasionally come across as so over-the-top to everypony else as to drown out the film, and she really throws off the attempts to 'read' the audience at test screenings. But otherwise, she'll be quiet -- if she's by herself. If she's with a friend -- well, it's also rude not to participate in what your friend is enjoying. You'll get movies where she's telling Rainbow to be quiet and let everypony else enjoy the film. But if she gets too caught up in what her company is going through, you'll also get choruses of advice: empathy has a certain way of backfiring. Pinkie alone can be calm and attentive: Pinkie with somepony to mirror can double the trouble.
Oh, and don't take her to something with subtitles. It's not that she can't keep up: it's that she tries to teach herself new words in other languages this way. She doesn't always guess correctly on the correspondence.
Applejack
More than anything else, Applejack just wants a good story. She's generally not all that interested in documentaries because it's something she can read about, and serials don't get her attention because who can show up week after week? But if the tale is a good one, she might give just about anything a shot -- after she's determined it's good enough to see. Applejack isn't going to waste her time on just anything, and that makes her the pony who spends the most time with Canterlot's newspapers, comparing and contrasting reviews until she's sure she's got a good one. She has critics she trusts more than others, she has found nopony who's completely in line with her own views, and if there's a major conflict between how the columnist felt about the film and the way Applejack regarded it, then somepony needs to bring Spike a few more gems. In many ways, she's the one most in touch with the film scene itself: actors on the rise, award contenders, and projects still looking for studios to carry them.
So she'll see dramas, comedies, romances -- as long as the story's good, that's what matters. (Stuffy characters will annoy her, and getting her to see two hours of do-nothing nobles complaining about how little there is to do -- it's a mistake you make once.) But she doesn't get a lot of time for films (except in winter, when she binges): she has to be fussy. And she'll take off her hat to clear the view for others, no problems there -- but she's a mutterer. Rainbow might shout: AJ is usually more limited to some darkness-piercing 'Aw, come on...' or 'Willya look at this fool?' The commentary is softer, but it can be a lot more frequent. And when it comes to twist endings... well, as a filmmaker, you'd better have set up everything perfectly or you'll have just given Applejack the distinct impression that the whole movie was lying to her. It's the sort of thing which can send a mare marching off to see Management, at least after she's kicked a few choice words at the screen. And, following Management being unable to do anything about it (again), it's time to see Spike!
(She's also the most likely to smuggle food in. She's seen theater prices, she can cook for herself, and anypony asking to search her saddlebags has pretty much earned whatever happens next.)
Rarity
Kind of saw this one coming, didn't you?
Rarity harbors a secret passion for sports films. (They're not all that common yet, and still they're just as cliched as if they'd been around for decades.) It's hard to escape all the interests of your parents, and she'll happily take some time to check out such things, often with her father at her side. She also enjoys travel documentaries: far-away places which she has no other way to see -- except, of course, that as a Bearer, one never knows.
But for the most part, she wants romances. She wants to see just about every romance which passes through the cinema. She's ignored critics because darling, if it reached the screen, then somepony must have seen something worthwhile in it, and so she shall do the same! And sometimes she does. Sometimes she also writes ten-page letters full of ink-evaporating anger regarding the quality of the performance she just had to suffer through and at this point, Spike probably needs to take a nap.
Rarity wants romances, or things which have romance as a significant subplot. It's most of what she sees, and she arguably sees a lot of them.
In fact, she's seen enough to work out the tropes. And it's starting to annoy her.
Rarity can call out the second-act breakup before it happens. She's seen enough meet-cutes to turn the bulk of them into watch-nauseous. She wants something new, while still having it remain a romance. But film runs in ruts, and once you spot that well-worn groove, you can't unsee it. She still wants romance, she needs to see love on the screen while still hoping for her own -- but screen love is becoming boring. And a bored Rarity is a Rarity who is going to tell ponies she's bored. Loudly. Sometimes for hours on end, across the frantic ears of anypony unlucky enough to be trapped in the Boutique the following day. Romantic film bookings often don't last for more than a weekend in Ponyville. Wonder why?
Oh, and if your film's costume designer made a mistake...
*shudder*
Pray. Just... pray.
It won't accomplish anything, but it's something to do before the storm hits.
Spike
Assuming he's recovered from sending all those letters...
The idea of the child-targeted film is still catching on in Equestria: it's adults who are seen as having most of the disposable entertainment income. Twilight's also careful about what she lets Spike attend, although she doesn't have much control over the times he goes out after ignoring her. (The concept of the minimum admission age hasn't caught on yet, and there really isn't a ratings system for general content.) Some of that takes place when she's asleep, taking advantage of her rest and the late showtimes -- but at his age, Twilight's first reaction to waking up and finding an empty basket when there's a major production in town is to sigh, then head out to once again carry his dreaming form back home. He can try to wake up at one in the morning to reach a show, but there's no guarantee his eyes will be open when the final credits roll.
Spike gets enough non-fiction at home, thank you: when it comes to film -- especially after he's refused to take Twilight's notes for her this time, because he doesn't need to hear her whispering through the entire movie -- his first preference is fantasy. Daring knights and swooning damsels, although it's okay if those aspects are the other way around. Going to serials with Rainbow is fun, and he has the advantage of being able to throw things at the screen. He's also at the age where part of him feels that confronting illusion will brace him for reality, and so he's the other horror fan in the group -- which can backfire. Or rather, frontfire, because it's still possible to truly startle him, and a truly startled, frightened little dragon -- well, Spike has his own permanently-assigned seat in the cinema, and the bench in front of it has a rather high, very fireproof back.
He has one additional interest: he will see anything with a dragon in it. Speculations on their lifestyles, movies which only have them for a few frames... anything at all, looking for something he might recognize within himself.
(In part, it's also to know what the Trio is going to be believing about him for the next week.)
And that's the movies.
We won't go into plays.
We've seen what happens at plays.
Introducing mass media like television in a setting with weak or no libel laws seems like a recipe for trouble.
Hm.
Headcanon accepted.
"Pinkie! Would you quit laughing? It's supposed to be a tragedy!"
"Welp, I'm leavin' now. Just wanted to see the newsreel and the Buck Rogers serial, on account of not seein' them this week yet, and they'se getting changed out tomorrow."
"I tell you it's unfair that the movies show a travesty like that. She dragged that dress through mud, and in the next scene, it's flawless! Twilight, darling, could you pull your nose out of your notes for a moment and tell me if you know a spell to keep a hem that tidy after being dunked in river mud? And if not, would you terribly mind checking back at the library to see if there might be one lurking behind a shelf?"
"Spike, could I please borrow just a few tiny kernels of your popcorn? Miss Theatre Mouse here has a family to feed."
Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn.
So, which Director is going to end up handling The War Of The Words?
There was another green flame, and another, and another.
OOOOOOO----RAAAAAAAA.
Poor Spike. I can just imagine him after the latest major new release has hit the screen.
“Here’s a stamp. The post office is that way. Dragon flame is for world ending disasters only, unless you have a sapphire the size of your hoof. This means you too, Sparkle...”
And how many stunts has Rainbow crashed out from, before being told about trick photography and editing?
You know, I put stuff like Thunderbirds will catch on big in Equestria. Model sets are easier to make than full illusions, and I bet puppets are easier to manipulate with magic.
4927456
FAB
And now I’m picturing a Twilight-Brains ship...
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lyrics+money+pink+floyd&&view=detail&mid=00C73ADD715E32CFE80500C73ADD715E32CFE805&&FORM=VRDGAR
Hollywood saying: Take the money & run for the plane
Simply amazing to me that there are people out there old enough to run for President & this is before their time.
Heard this about some old-time studio head.
He was nearly infallible at picking hits. When asked his method, he replied. "It's simple. Watching movies makes my ass fall asleep. If the movie is good enough to make me forget this, I know it will be a hit"
Some writer's comment on this "So, who appointed him the monitor ass of the universe?"
Let's just hope Twilight doesn't devise the Internet solely so she can complain to more ponies about the changes she didn't like...
Never mind how many takes and/or jump cuts the stunt involves, I'm sure.
And that's how Spike set records for both Youngest Dragon to Terrorize a City and City Terrorized from Furthest Range.
I wouldn't have guessed Applejack being a film buff, but I do like the idea.
This makes me sincerely happy.
Which leads into questions of the factual basis on which those fantasies are built, and Equestria's history... but that's a discussion for another day.
Fascinating stuff all around, especially Pinkie's Applewood-based foreign language correspondence course.
4927456
That raises the question about how illusion magic works in Estee's head-canon and how it interacts with cameras. Is it the magical manipulation of light to create a kind of "hologram?" Is it a form of mind magic that projects images into the viewer's head? Some combination of both? If it's the "hologram," version does the movie illusionist have to adjust the technique to account for the difference's between a pony eye and a film camera?
eyup, i can certainly see Twilight complaining about inaccurate/unrealistic spells, the way some people would complain about unrealistic physics in a sci-fi movie.
i also remember a silly short story where Twilight tried to make a magical version of the internet using lots of crystal balls networked together...
but...
in the first minute someone spammed everyone!
resulting in everyone throwing the Balls out the window...
I have to add a quote from my 1940 fic where the POV character is watching The Wizard of Oz in the theater and somepony in back doesn't exactly like what is going on.
“That ain’t the way apple trees act in noplace! Castin’ aspersions on our fine product! Ah ain’t gonna settle down and eat my popcorn, Big Mac! That’s unfair treatment!”
4927484
I just thought that hiding a field is easier than finding an illusion specialist.
4927465
4927493
That’s magnificent!
You know, I often like to imagine how the ponies would react to movies while I'm rewatching them, and they often take the form of Estee's interpretations. This will be helpful, so thank you for that (although I am worried that they're going to complain a lot now).
Now I wonder how Shining Armor would react to an adaptation of any of his comic heroes? I think Cadance and Rarity would suffer the same problems with any romantic movie.
Something new for Rarity? I wonder what she would make of a Bollywood ActionRomanceDrama?
4927485
No one wanted to hold onto all the balls?
...I'm not sorry.
4927517
This Equestria barely has comics yet, and it'll probably develop more towards Graphic Novels if the industry grows. I also imagine that unless they get a Jack Kirby type, superheroes will develop in Mazin or the Griffonlands.
Sidenote: Do we know exactly what Griffon magic is? Something to do with hunting?
"Manhattan isn't Las Pegasus, which isn't Cameo Cumulus"
"Manehattan isn't Las Pegasus, which isn't Cameo Cumulus"?
Interesting as usual. :)
4927484
For the record: pony illusions can be recorded on film, although the majority will look like exactly that: photorealism is the realm of true experts only. Changeling 'shapeshifting' can't: a picture will show the true form -- at least once you're out of that changeling's range.
4927706
I knew it!
I wonder what the CMC are into. Scootaloo probably watches movies little fillies are not supposed to watch.
4927706 So it's a form of mind control/perception manipulation?
You know, I just had a thought. If we were to show the Mane 6 and Spike a movie, we'd want one that:
1. Has no magic to critique.
2. Is a fantastic adventure.
3. Has animals in it.
4. Has a load of great humor.
5. A really good story which either has no twists or a well set up twist.
6. Has at least romantic elements to it.
So . . . Pixar's "Up" would be the best movie to show them all, right?
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Twilight might critique the balloon count.
You know, I would rather enjoy seeing your take on one Trixie Lulamoon trying to find a more legitimate job as a film reviewer. After all, if anypony knows crap entertainment when she sees it...
Sorry for such a late response!
This was a great read. I love how we get more lore even with a silly blog like this.
I understand not wanting to try and incorporate mass media into the continuum, it'd naturally have to be a far-flung hypothetical future kind of thing anyway. Weirdly though, that's the part that has really been a point of fascination for me the past week or so: imagining how your Equestria would look with modern media.
Like, the herd mind would already exist as is, so how does that affect how news is invented eventually? Does the concept of the telephone evolve totally differently thanks to the lack of hands in most of the world? What about the issue of libel law, how would somepony actually get any passed someday?
Man! Sorry for all the questions; they're just rhetorical. I get over-excited, lol. Idk how you feel about people writing weird niche AUs either, so hope this isn't too weird.
Anyway, onto the actual blog topic, it was really fun to read about the six's film habits. It's tough to decide who to go with; some of those pros would be really fun, but the cons... intense. Pinkie would be the best audience; and I love how you thought it out and really considered how she would be drawn to films for the whimsy that she never got the chance for. Twilight would totally be the most obsessive nitpicker and stubbornly stick to her guns no matter how many times you tell her no one wants to hear about how changing the eye color ruins the character. Good shit, man.