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Apr
29th
2021

The Mare in the Moon · 3:16pm Apr 29th, 2021

Two millennia ago Romans looked up at the moon and observed the patches of darker grey on the lighter surface. Using the frame of reference familiar to them at the time, they speculated that those areas were seas. These were therefore called maria, Latin for 'seas,' and even though we now know those dark areas are basaltic plains formed by ancient volcanoes, where the rock composition is less reflective and therefore appears darker, we still use that name for them.

Such as the Sea of Tranquillity, where man first walked upon the moon.

But, I think so as to avoid confusion with actual seas, in astronomical and scientific circles at least it's uncommon to translate the term into English. So the lunar seas are still called lunar maria, even in the modern west, and it's under that name you'll find their wikipedia page.

But maria is a plural.

The singular is mare.

So when 11 years ago a TV show began with a young unicorn looking up at the mottled dark patches on the moon's surface and calling it the mare in the moon, she was absolutely correct.

I mean, of course she was. She's Twilight Sparkle.

Ok, so she was pronouncing it wrongly (it's "ma-ray"), but then she was speaking Equestrian rather than English, and there are plenty of Latin words we pronounce differently to how the Romans did, so there's a fair bit of wiggle room on that front.

One particular mare is 1,100 km across, formed by an impact 4 million years ago, making it one of the largest craters in the solar system. It was formed by the collision of a proto-planet 250km in diameter.

Or an alicorn travelling at very, very high speed.

Friendship is Magic Parts 1 & 2 gets a lot of flak for painting the other mane five in very broad strokes, and making Nightmare Moon particularly one-note as a villain. But in its first nine minutes it pulls out its spellbinding opening fairytale sequence, then shows us exactly who Twilight is (both on her own and in relation to that), drops the best two horse puns in the whole series - this one showing a healthy familiarity with science, and the other with fantasy - and then hits us with a prophecy literally paraphrasing The Call of Cthulhu.

I rewatched a scene from season 1 a few days ago and was surprised at how basic the animation quality was, given the standard we grew used to later on. But with writing this sharp from the moment the show began, the juggernaut it would become was obvious from the start.

Comments ( 5 )

I've always enjoyed that pun. Especially when contrasting the names of some of the maria to Luna herself. The Mare Serenitatis? Tranquillitatis? Fecunditatis? She's not sure what you ponies were thinking, but she has some opinions on the matter.

5509154 True!

I wasn't sure how widely known it would be, so thought it'd be worth making a blog for anyone who missed it like me who only realised it an hour ago!

The first two episodes were SO well written. I went in with some doubt (come on, a pony show for little girls??) But the writing of the first episodes got me hooked. Between the excellent puns, engaging banter, and solid setup... yeah, no surprise it took off XD

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

Yeah, it's always a bit of a shock to go back and see how far the animation came from S1. Especially since it was actually quite competent for its time; there were just so many ways to push Flash once they got used to it. :)

5509371 in 2017 I went to my first and the last Nightmare Nights Dallas (Bronywriter witnessed me get hit by a car! I witnessed Texas’s stupid liquor laws!) and while I had a lot of ups and downs at the con, definitely the highlight for me was watching Jim Miller provide running commentary on the season seven finale.

I remember him saying that some of the scenes with the pillars plus the main six (and starlight) plus the Pony of Shadows were making Flash crash. Given the time frames and budgets and number of people working on it and inherent limitations of Flash, it’s pretty incredible all they managed to animate through the course of the show.

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