Notes/rant on 'The Last Crusade'. · 5:54pm Jun 16th, 2019
I finally got to see what has got to be the most spoiled MLP episode ever.
Warning, this is chuck full of spoiler material!
Much ado about nothing.
Yay, Scootaloo's aunts are canon. That they're a gay couple is not. Not yet. Yes I know, there is a buck tone of people all saying they are a lesbian couple. No, sorry, the show did not say that the two are a couple. Sure, saying they are actually sisters may be a stretch, but so too is saying they are a lesbian couple without further evidence. The show only said that the two are Scootaloo's aunts and that they live together. Given the political flack being fired off by both sides on this matter is it any wonder that the show creators were so careful not to come right out and say, yes they are a couple? I also can't help but wonder if the homophobes who are all up in arms about the episode have even watched it. There have been plenty of other shows with same-sex characters sharing a living space, nor is such an arrangement all that uncommon in today's housing market. The real issue the critics are missing is MLP's tendency to opt for absentee parents rather than just use the 'they were simply off camera or had to be away that day' excuse for all those important life moments that they missed.
MLP got it wrong.
Scootaloo's dad, Snap Shutter, is pony Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. Her mom, Mane Allgood, is Terri. In the MLP FIM series we never once saw any parental figure for Scootaloo other than her big sis Dash, and this episode confirms that Scootaloo's parents are never around. The real Irwin family were not absentee parents. Sure the depiction of absentee parents might be more realistic in today's world, but the Irwins were not. They took their children on many of their adventures with them. They also lived together. Steve had a day job - that is to say one within easy commute and was not out in the field all the time. Scootaloo's parents while apparently having a home in Ponyville are by admission never there. Scootaloo's Aunts don't live in Ponyville either. We are given the excuse that Scootaloo's aunts would come to Ponyville to keep an eye on her whenever her parents were away for an extended duration. Which seems to have been for the better part of the last eight years/seasons. And this while maintaining a home in a different community. Scootaloo had to take a train to go to her aunts' house. This is too convoluted even for me. Quite frankly I'd have been happier if Scootaloo's parents were pencil pushers who commuted to Canterlot every day. Making Scootaloo a latch key child/filly who's parents worked all day and half the night would have worked a lot better.
"What does this mean for my present AU story?
The easy answer is nothing is going to change. If I've a mind to include any of the material from this latest episode I will have Scootaloo's Aunts living in Ponyville, and make them individuals who were in some way connected to Sunset Shimmer. Maybe even know that Sunrise Shimmer is Sunset using an assumed name, and why she would do that. Possibly even make them foster parents of several foals.
If I ever chose to acknowledge the Crocodile parents it will be in an alternate dimension, and they will be a tight family unit just like the real Irwin family.
The episode itself had me cringing, screaming, crying, laughing, and all at the same time. Oh, and they threw us a wonderful 'awww' moment between Scootaloo and Dash. In that one brief moment, they reaffirmed who Scootaloo's parental figure has been all along. 
Edit: I am aware that individuals within the franchise have said that the pair are a couple. The point is that they never committed this to the show.
Snap Shutter= Hugo Arndt Rodolf, Baron van Lawick and Mane Allgood= Jane Goodall, not the Irwin Family, as we both know that Steve and Terri were and still are some of the most loving parents any kid could ask for! That is my interpretation of their characters at least.
5075517
They studied primates, primarily, and also brought their children on many of their expeditions as well. The episode starts out with a cragadile nearly eating Apple Bloom, and then a Pony who looks a bit like a caricature of Crocodile Dundee leaps in and wrestles the cragadile while using a bad Australian accent... ya, that's the Irwins, or at the least, a composite adventurer character based on them.
5075546
Fair enough.