Apr
13th
2019
Points of Canon: S9x03 - Uprooted · 7:13pm Apr 13th, 2019
No, I’m not going to warn anyone about spoilers anymore.
Chronology markers:
- The destruction of the Tree in The Beginning of the End, as well as the events of What Lies Beneath form the premise of this episode, so that’s our lower markers, a bit redundant. Notably, it’s still summer break, though we don’t know just how many days exactly have passed. According to Spike, it’s at least long enough to make orders for highlighters, which would imply at least a few days until school.
- This episode results in the creation of a chronology marker: The Treehouse of Harmony Playset.
- “You’re officially the first non-Pegasus Wonderbolt!” Now, this is a dream sequence, but it means that as far as Silverstream knows, there has never been a non-pegasus Wonderbolt, right? It’s still a question whether she’s correct, of course.
- “Silverstream, somehow I missed a class all year and the final is today! If I don’t pass, I can’t graduate!” School of Friendship has finals: There’s no way for Ocellus to even know what these are otherwise. I think we knew that already, though, but writing it down just in case.
- “Good. You have all answered my summons.” Notice that this means that Luna is not the only creature in Equestria that can create a shared dream: the Tree just did – despite being, technically, dead, and at much larger distances than the last time we saw Luna do it in Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep, because at the moment the Student Six are supposed to be at their homes all over the world, rather than at school. For that matter, where is Luna? You would expect her to get involved in something like that.
“We only have twenty highlighters and they’re all orange!”
- Highlighters are a subspecies of a felt tip pen, and are somewhat rare on screen. As previously mentioned, making highlighters – especially like these – requires a substantial knowledge of chemistry. See chemical industry.
- The School of Friendship supplies students with highlighters. That feels somewhat unusual.
- “Why are you all here so early?” The question Twilight doesn’t ask – and should – is, why are they here simultaneously. The episode involves one more round trip to their respective nations, and that seems to complete very quickly as well. Nobody explains how, of course.
- “Don’t feel bad it didn’t reach out to you. We kinda have a special connection with it after last year.” Notice that apparently, Twilight was never told about the events of What Lies Beneath, just like Cozy Glow asked. Twilight doesn’t follow up on this revelation either.
- “Sombra destroyed it!” Even if the attacks on the Crystal Empire and Canterlot made national news, the destruction of the Tree and the Elements explicitly did not.
- “We’ve got that part under control, and Sombra won’t be coming back, so… some good news, right?” They never elaborate just how is the forest being kept under control. I guess Star Swirl is sitting in a cave somewhere chewing on the roots?…
- “It must’ve used the last of its magic to make sure we come here and keep its memory alive!” Notice that it’s Sandbar who originates the idea that the tree called them because it needed a gravestone. I can’t help but think the entire notion is extremely bizarre, but apparently I’m in the minority, and the Student Six immediately latch onto the idea and run with it without thinking.
- “Ocellus!” Ocellus transforms into a rock. I’m not sure if the eyes are actually on it or not. If they are, it would give us a hint about how such transformations work.
- “There you are!” Notice that Thorax came with Twilight, but apparently, Twilight didn’t give him any explanations regarding why did the Student Six go all the way there. Never mind that Thorax wasn’t willing to wait for them to get back.
“You want that permission in triplicate or is one enough? What? I like to be prepared.”
- This line is a bit of non-sequitur if Gallus does not currently have a permission slip, and the subsequent montage shows he does not.
- Which would mean that what he’s showing is permission slip forms, right? They have those. So why does Gallus have them and why did he only take enough for himself?
The whole permission montage is strange:
- Dragons arm-wrestle. Why the hell is this a requirement for Ember to sign the permission slip I haven’t the foggiest.
- Yona requires only one signature on her form, despite her family shown in The Hearth’s Warming Club including two more children, two parents, and an extra generation. Compare to Silverstream’s sequence, where Terramar signs the form, even though for the prior, field trip permission form, his signature was not required.
- For that matter, Silverstream’s family requires a complete lecture on the workings of the Tree of Harmony, never mind the current events. Nobody else’s family cares.
- Gallus has to get his permission from Gruff, who gives it without a care in the world, when previously he would threaten war when Gallus went missing.
- Ocellus’ entire “family” – to be honest, I’m not convinced they are actually her family, I rather suspect that changelings imitate family just like they imitate Hearth’s Warming without fully understanding how it works and what it means – signs Ocellus’ form.
- “Since I live locally, I figured I’d do a little cleaning up while you were gone.” We still don’t know just where does Sandbar live and how local it is exactly. This would involve hauling several tons of stone out, though, that’s hardly unprecedented for an earth pony.
“Step right up, walk this way!”
- Sandbar immediately puts earmuffs on the sapling he’s tending to. Now, sure, the sapling might not like the noise, but how are the earmuffs supposed to help?
- Up until now, hardly anyone even knew the Tree exists, let alone where it is, and already Gallus drummed up two tourists somehow. In the middle of Everfree. And one of them is wearing pants.
- “Grown from the tears of a basilisk, and tended day and night by pony magicians!” According to Yona, neither of this is true, which we knew. But notice the first mention of a basilisk to date.
- “I’m not finished yet!” For some reason, Smolder is not using any tools for this sculpture.
- “And, honestly, I’m kinda having a hard time remembering what the Tree looked like.” Ask Gallus. He’s selling toy-sized copies just a few meters away.
- “These are the emotions its loss made me feel, dancing with the representations of Elements of Harmony!” Silverstream almost talks like these emotions were positive.
- “This fountain is heavier than I thought.” Where did Ocellus even get it, though? This is not the fountain from the courtyard of the School of Friendship, nor it is the Ponyville fountain. And it has water in it, implying she swiped it somewhere where it was working before.
- “I got some help and guidance from the councilor at our feelings forum back home.” That is, Ocellus went back home again for that guidance.
- “Headmare Twilight is gonna be so mad when she sees what you guys did to the Cave of Harmony!” Silverstream also uses paper bags when hyperventilating.
- “It’s impressionism!” And once again I wonder why do any inhabitants of Pony Earth even have abstract art. But notice the use of an explicit term “impressionism” – which does not describe what Silverstream actually drew.
- “You mean the Tree of Harmony lives on in our friendship!” If that is true in the literal sense, it could mean that the Tree is capable of manipulating the dreams of the Student Six and of surviving purely by inhabiting their friendship gestalt. Something to theorize with, in any case.
- “I can’t believe we just got schooled by a yak.” Gallus said something racist. Nobody noticed.
During the montage:
- Student Six reassemble the original Elements of Harmony – which, apparently, nobody even bothered to pick up.
- “If things don’t fit, there’s lots of glue” Only certain glues would glue together crystal, though…
- The soil in the cave has an unusual purple top layer of unclear origin, but is your usual brown color underneath it.
- Smolder and Garrus misuse a pulley hook. No, I have no idea why.
- Say hello to the Treehouse of Harmony Playset that makes any future restoration of the Castle of the Two Sisters impossible.
- “The spirit of the Treehouse would have perished without your selfless deeds and caring.” This phrase is strange, because it would imply that the spirit of the treehouse existed before the treehouse was actually built.
“I felt a burst of magic all the way over at the school!”
- This is actually a very rare admittance that ponies can feel magic. Generally, they almost never talk about any potential feedback mechanisms involved in working magic at all.
- Notice that Twilight apparently teleported – together with Spike – all the way from the school.
Travel times don’t have any meaning anymore, apparently, and yet, permission slips are still required for some reason.
You would not believe what happened when I watched the BN stream for of this episode: During when the episode was playing, the EAS system for BN King went off during the episode, which caused some to miss huge chunks of dialogue.
I will tell you though..... that has to be the most rarest thing that has ever happened for any MLP stream!
In civilised countries, schools have the budget to supply kids with the equipment they need, without having to worry about whether they can afford to eat.
I used to live in one of these countries. I don't any more.
</politics>
Assuming there even is such a thing as national news, it's understandable that, "Harmony's greatest defender murdered! Equestria is defenceless!" isn't a good headline to put in it. Even so, you'd expect the news to get out around Ponyville.
So this is really just a chronology marker, telling us that the news hasn't reached any of the student 6 yet, and that they didn't linger in town long enough to hear.
Gallus is the rogue. He's practicing how to forge official documents.
Ponyville is a tourist town, it probably wasn't too hard.
Here's a question, where is Star Swirl? He felt the Tree's destruction before. He presumably stays in the Everfree now to contain it. So he should be sensitive to the surge of magic and physically closer than Twilight. Yet, no sign of him.
5043948
I’m telling you, he’s in a cave somewhere nearby chewing the roots so they don’t go invading everything else again, he can’t leave.
5043937
I caught that too, it was a strange thing to witness! We don't have anything like that in the UK. The weirdest thing was the voice distortion. I get that you might want to use a computerized voice for an automated system, but this just sounded like some guy's voice had been pitched down a few times. I wonder why they don't just use a normal sounding voice if they're trying to send out a message that they want everyone to hear and understand.
5043952
So he's turned himself into Níðhöggr?
5043981
That would get him out of everyone’s collective manes for the rest of the season, I’m sure everyone voted in favor.
5043970
Yeah, the chat was saying it sounded like Satan
Honestly, I just assumed timeskips.
That one I feel can be explained by Gruff being furious at the thought of Gallus being lost and possibly in danger, but having zero interest in regulating or overseeing what he choses to do in his own free time.
That one I just chalked up to Sandbar being... kind of a doof.
Again, I assume this episode omitted a lot of monotonous travel and construction time.
Why wouldn't they?
Eh. After a millennium of erosion and ruin (and five seasons since any restarting attempts were so much as hinted at) I figure it was a lost cause anyway.
Sure. It's the same spirit as was in the Tree.
The weirdest thing for me in this episode has to do with the fact that the show doesn't have a very clear idea of what state it wants the Castle of the Two Sisters to be in. In the pilot it's a wrecked shell f its former self -- it's a collection of ruined walls overgrown with soil and vegetation, with no remaining trace of roofs or upper floors in any but a few areas here and there. It looks like what you would expect a ruined structure to look like after sitting for a thousand years exposed to the elements in the middle of the wilderness -- a ruin.
In most of its following appearances in intervening episodes -- in "Castle Mane-ia", for instance, or in "School Daze" -- it's suddenly in much better conditions, essentially looking like it's only been abandoned for a few decades or so. The upper floors are all back, to begin with. Books, carpets and tapestries are still intact and clearly salvageable -- they can still be moved, handled and read with ease, instead of being the piles of soggy mulch they'd have become after a century or two of exposure to mold, bugs, plants and rain. The suits of armor are still assembled and intact instead of being heaps of weathered rust, the secret passages and traps are in perfect condition and still wholly functional, the stonework is pristine except for some chipping and stains here and there.
Then here, we go back to the disjointed walls and pile-covered heaps of rubble from the pilot. It's highly confusing.
God this felt awful, mostly because it felt to me like most of the students' ideas were basically very similar, so their entire conflict felt forced.
An extra point: Ocellus turns into her gigantic form pretty explicitly because it is stronger than her normal form. Suggestion/confirmation that changlings gain some measure of the physical strength of their adopted shape.
Anyone else feel like maybe Gallus wanted a roadside attraction to make money off the tree because he doesn't actually miss it? I mean, he's still having claustraphobic nightmares that the tree triggered. Not that he's going to say anything about that when all his other friends seem to really miss the tree.
5044016
Check out Bad Horse’s blog index, in particular, the post series titled “How I took a literary theory class and accidentally stopped hating Republicans” – as well as others in the “Literary Theory” section. To put a long story short, no matter whose point of view you adopt, the modern tradition of abstract art evolved in fairly specific socioeconomic and political circumstances, probably would not have evolved without them, and there is no evidence whatsoever that ponies, or any of the other inhabitants of Pony Earth, had anything even remotely similar.
So why use the word “Treehouse” as if it is not originally the spirit of the Tree.
We got to this state considerably earlier, in the first episodes of Season 8.
This isn’t the first time the show fluctuates.
5044019
He’s also the first one to mention he has a “special connection” with it, though.
Here we go!
After how long it took for RD to get in, Silverstream is hired this quickly? Was there a TON of offscreen training, or is she a diversity hire? (Oh, it's a dream.)
Ocellus's baby 'siblings' are adorable. Curious that Twilight told everyone to get permission from their 'kingdoms' but everyone but the dragon (whose name keeps slipping my mind) just has their parents or guardian sign it.
Impressive that even young dragons can work stone with their bare claws! Earth ponies can smash or buck hard, but I wouldn't expect a claw swipe from a dragon this size to deliver nearly enough force.
Did Ocellus's VA change or is this just what she sounds like when she's not being shy and nervous, which has previously been basically never? And did she just steal the fountain from the school's courtyard?
I was wondering when someone would think to ask Sandbar just what he did with the tree, exactly. It's not like he could have magically vanished it.
I wonder what happened to the parts of the tree that grew underground, though? That thing reached all the way to the caverns beneath the school...
Who exactly is going to use this treehouse? The Everfree Forest is more dangerous than ever... I assumed Twilight teleported the student six here, but where did the two tourists Gallus was showing around come from, anyway?
It's the crystal castle playset 2, coming soon to a toystore near you!
Honestly this episode was pretty meh. I liked the Tree of Harmony better as an alien force of order rather than... what even is the point of a house in the middle of the Everfree.
I wonder how pissed pony archaeologists will be that it grew right through the ruins of the sisters' castle...
Well, it IS a school being run however Twilight thinks it should be run rather than following EEA guidelines. I bet she magically duplicates textbooks for students too rather than making them pay through the nose for them.
That Gallus had some paper on him -- possibly even the magical equivalent of carbon paper -- actually ponies are pretty good at chemistry they can probably make carbon paper huh -- seemed plausible, and I forgot about it after the following sequence, but... hmm. Maybe the School of Friendship has generic permission slip forms, and he only thought about it enough to grab some for himself but not personally carry enough for all of them?
Dragons are still about personal strength; perhaps the arm-wrestling contest was more about reassuring people that, as... what'sername is going out on her own rather than for the 'school' project, she can adequately display the strength of dragons to outsiders? Or maybe Ember and the other dragons were just bored.
I got the impression that the permission slip only required the signature of the parent or legal guardian, but either A. the form doesn't actually state this and each family draws their own conclusions, or B. other family members figure that if one signature is good more signatures are better. In any case, the student six certainly want their whole families to be okay with it even if only parents need to sign.
I figured Silverstream was volunteering the information rather than her family demanding a presentation -- this episode shows she has kind of an arts-and-craftsy bent so maybe that's just how she wanted to explain it.
Oh wait, it's not?
So does this mean Silverstream doesn't know the word 'abstract', or the writers don't? I don't know enough about the history of abstract art to know why ponies (or other given sapient species) wouldn't have it...
I figured that even if the 'tree' part of the tree was smashed, it still had that massive root system and was living on in that...
Ponies in general, or skilled magicians? I'd expect Twilight, Starswirl, and the royal sisters to notice things others wouldn't... Although, they didn't respond to a 'burst of magic'...
Yeah... I assumed timeskips at first though, but with all the back-and-forth here this all happening in the time right before school starts seems implausible.
Sounds right to me.
5044029
Hate's a connection.
5044037
Gallus, the secret traitor?
5044016
Applejack has also talked to trees.
5044116
The issue isn’t talking to trees, it’s expecting an earmuff would protect a tree from the noise.
Could Luna do it? She struggled in that ep, but that was explicitly due to just how many dreams she was combining together. Also, I assume Luna wouldn't show up in their dreams at home, given not in Equestria, but does she watch over them while they are at school? Secondly, could she have popped into the dream by showing up in Sandbar's? Did she miss this because she's gotten so used to even his worst nightmares being so boring she never notices his dreams?
Or magic.
Not with Twilight being the one running things.
Thank you! Someone else that finds that part so damn odd. The time thing, eh the show's used to doing timeskips without making that clear how long it's been, like building the school actually taking several months according to writer tweets.
Well, yeah, barely anypony even knows it exists in the first place after all.
Basic trial by combat. Dragon A wants something, to prove themselves worthy of it, they beat Dragon B at some competition.
But did he really have to? Twilight might have just told them 'get your family to sign it' and Silverstream (And Ocelus) assumed it meant ALL of them, while Yona realizes she only really needed the one in charge of things to do so.
Like above, did they need that, or was it just Silverstream being Silverstream and giving them the lecture while asking for permission?
I get the feeling that was less concern over Gallus himself, and more a matter of principle/'honor'.
Didn't they say in the last hearhtswarming ep that he lived in Ponyville?
yeah they did
I thought it was from the ruins of the castle above them.
Or she had the idea for doing this from the start and asked about it while getting her form signed.
To be fair, how many people actually understand this outside of people into art?
Well, that Twilight can at least.
No mention of the revelations on Yak culture? All things are temporary, so enjoy smashing.
5044031
To be fair, last time they ran off without telling anyone where they went, their kindom's nearly went to war over it.
5044472
We don’t know – the sample size is too small, it was only done on screen once before. That she didn’t might be an argument, though.
Please take a look at my prior comprehensive survey of technology observed in Equestria. The amount of products requiring advanced chemical industry – disposable products, many of them – is such, that should they be produced purely through manual labor, every unicorn would be employed doing it twice over. There simply has to be a factory somewhere. Or factories.
Those factories may in fact employ magic as part of the process, though, and very likely do, to keep the pollution down. We don’t know any details and are free to imagine whatever makes sense.
Damn, I went to school in a wrong country, didn’t I?
No clue. :)
Possible. But the show canon has been consistent about insisting that griffons care primarily about bits, though, ever since The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone, which is why the idea of honor seems so out of place.
Maybe they aren’t really as greedy as they want everyone to think, after all?
Right, they did. Nice catch!
I wonder for how long, though. Living in Ponyville would have some interesting effects on the development of adolescents.
Notice it has the six pointed star on top, though. Also, I don’t remember seeing that fountain there before…
Possible, and at least saves one round trip…
I didn’t think they presented anything particularly new in this episode, did they? Nothing jumped out at me, at least.
5044481
Well, it does seem they have a bit of a penchant towards naturally being covetous, but a good portion of the issues with Griffonstone were because it was such an utter shithole it created a looping cycle where no one cared about anything but their own wealth as a means to survive/get out of that place, thus nothing ever improved.
But even then, I mostly meant 'honor' in the sense that "You took something that belongs to me, give it back" type thing. It didn't matter they didn't really care about him, just that he was theirs and someone took him.
As to the Yaks, there is the bit about how
That opens up a lot about why they are like they are. A kind of, acceptance in the impermanence of things, thus seeing no reason to not smash and destroy things that will eventually be destroyed anyway. Or, is life just so harsh in the northern wastes, they've grown accustomed to loss and so see smashing just to rebuild and smash again, as a way of keeping themselves ever ready to accept that loss?
Also explains why Yona was the one who didn't go off the deep end and get caught up in things, since she was the one best equipped to handle the grief and move passed it without getting hung up on things like the others did.
It's distractingly obviously a metaphor, and the full artisitc statement here is really complex for this show. It's rather bizarre.
My impression is that this is part of some sort of Activities (a celebration? Ember trying to spread friendship through friendly competitions?) she was supposed to be taking part in, and Ember requires her to get in at least some participation before taking off.
She's just excited about what she's participating in and wants to tell everyone about it.
I think he was threatening that because everyone else was. Can’t show griffons being pushovers compared to changelings. I'm slightly surprised Gallus doesn't already have permission and encouragement to stay at the school indefinitely.
Honestly I expect her "parents" to be themselves siblings. Thorax is just importing pony culture.
If it doesn't have invisible ears, how would it hear it when you read it bedtime stories?
5044029
The Tree always thought of itself as a treehouse in spirit. The Pony Sisters misunderstood it and built a castle above it, then for a while it lived vicariously through Tree Junior (AKA Castle Bookfort), but now it finally realized its dreams.
As for the time involved in multiple trips: What about the episode where Fluttershy had to go back and forth to run Rarity's Manehatten store multiple times in a single episode while customers were waiting?
Travel times make about as much sense as a lightbeam across the universe -- the light beam sees no time passage.