My Little Pony XXXIX: There is no Pegasus Mafia!

[Sean Mirrsen]

But a meter was originally defined as one ten-millionth the distance from the equator to the North Pole. Given the strange behavior of the sun and moon, can we even be sure Equestria has an equator and North Pole as we'd recognize them? Does the planet have the same circumference as Earth? Is it even round? And let's not forget how the French Academy of Sciences was the organization that initially made that measurement. We know France exists in Equestria, but did the French Academy of Sciences ever exist?

Basically, none of our own measurements should exist in the world of My Little Pony unless it turns out to secretly be a post-apocalyptic setting. The writers can either use made-up units or play the "translation convention" card and use units that the audience is familiar with. Since the show's primary demographic is in the USA, the writers are using Imperial units.

On that note,
(Hurricane Fluttershy episode spoilers)

Spoiler

Show

From one of the teasers for Hurricane Fluttershy, we can at least see them use arbitrary units for wind strength rather than any sort of existing speed or air pressure units, which strikes me as perfectly normal.

I buy the "translation convention" thing, it's easily the best explanation to most if not all such occurences, but I really think it could be done better than that. There was this one picture of Twilight with a huge scroll, which she describes, wrongly, in Imperial units translated into pony conventions, i.e. "hooves" instead of "feet". Despite this being woefully wrong, as unless they are some seriously giant ponies a "hoof" won't be anywhere near a "foot" in length (and judging by the dimensions of the scroll, "feet" were implied, I think), I found it sounding a lot more appropriate.

[Soras Teva Gee]

The Candy Cane was either laziness or carelessness. They could have used the metric system and worldbuilt. Or they could have just said Giant Candy Cane. How it is doesn't make much sense and requires us to think of an excuse.

Except its completely normal to use measurements you or your audience are familiar with. And seriously its completely obvious that trying to work out all the details sensibly is not appropriate for this show. Biggest example: Timeline.

Winter before fall but after summer anyone? And how far in advance did Twilight get the Gala tickets? Where does Spike's birthday fall in this?

Now we can jump through hoops trying to resolve this and work out a "real" order, but that is pure Fan Wank. Its entirely evident that none of the creators considered these sorts of thing very much in any part of the process. This show approaches itself with the ethics of a sitcom. Watchable in any order but always playing fast and loose with their overarching background. Because you only need to worry about what the episode has you worry about.

Lots of us bronies seem to be trying to transmute FiM into a serious show, because its somehow a weakness if its not.

Mine is that the show is being translated from Equestrian into English. And that's why we get some weird terms every once in a while.

I'm not sure our herd of puns applies.

[Trixie]

I just noticed. Ms William often uses the trope of X being jerks to drive her story forward. Rainbow Dash as a jerk in MMDW (somewhat). Different pony clans being jerks to each other in Hearth's Warming. Ponies being jerks to Fluttershy in Putting Your Hoof Down. Teenage dragons being jerks to Spike and other creatures in general.

Eh, 'X is a jerk' had been thrown into our faces all season, and miss Williams is about one of the least offenders in this regard. There were far worse examples.

But a meter was originally defined as one ten-millionth the distance from the equator to the North Pole. Given the strange behavior of the sun and moon, can we even be sure Equestria has an equator and North Pole as we'd recognize them? Does the planet have the same circumference as Earth? Is it even round?

It has moon rotating around it, horizon, round shadow of planet on the moon, so yes, it is round, and meters would made far more sense than feet. Except, you know, one country holding to old units.

Out of curiosity, what measurement units would you guys propose instead? Hooves? Tails? Ponies? Steps? Leaps?

...

Oh, and since page 49, I'll only drop 2 past thread proposals:

"Our most prized thread"
"Luna ruined my XXX"

And ask for votes and new suggestions

EDIT: Make that 3:
"The. Worst. Possible. Thread."

There, I think that's it.

[MCerberus]

I think there's a lot of support for "XL: The Plot Thickens"
with the normal support for "Season Two Ruined my Fanon"

[Welf]

"Luna ruined my XXX"

How about "Celestia saved my XXX"?

Huh. I just noticed there aren't any Celestia ponymotes.

EDIT: Make that 3:
"The. Worst. Possible. Thread."

There, I think that's it.

Sounds good?

[OracleofWuffing]

Let's be serious, here. Any pie chart made to demonstrate the Ponythreads should end up looking like a muffin. And you can fit a lot more muffins on a page than pies, so there's nothing wrong with having too many pie charts.

Also, I found the Princess Celestia ponymotes. They were under "P"!
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/trollestia2.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/trollestia.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/alfalficon2.png[/IMG]

[TheAmishPirate]

I think there's a lot of support for "XL: The Plot Thickens"

Yeah, there's been a lot of votes thrown around, but I think this one's currently ahead.

EDIT: Went back and counted, and it's actually fairly close. I counted:

Happy Tuesday: 8ish votes
The Plot Thickens: 9ish votes

I say "ish" because there were some folks who voted for a suggestion similar to one of these two, without actually voting for it. Those are the explicit votes that I can count.

[Forum Explorer]

Except its completely normal to use measurements you or your audience are familiar with. And seriously its completely obvious that trying to work out all the details sensibly is not appropriate for this show. Biggest example: Timeline.

Winter before fall but after summer anyone? And how far in advance did Twilight get the Gala tickets? Where does Spike's birthday fall in this?

Now we can jump through hoops trying to resolve this and work out a "real" order, but that is pure Fan Wank. Its entirely evident that none of the creators considered these sorts of thing very much in any part of the process. This show approaches itself with the ethics of a sitcom. Watchable in any order but always playing fast and loose with their overarching background. Because you only need to worry about what the episode has you worry about.

Lots of us bronies seem to be trying to transmute FiM into a serious show, because its somehow a weakness if its not.


I'm not sure our herd of puns applies.

There are other shows that play with having a nonchronological order of events. That's not the issue at all, though attempting to figure a possible order is fun.

This is when something happens that just disrupts the immersion of the show. So we come up with explanations to try and explain it away. The thing with using feet as measurement in the show was jarring, particularly for those of us who use the metric system. Yes we know the reason behind it, but we don't like it.

Also that's very punny of you

[otakuryoga]

My Little Pony XL: We Like Big Plots And We Cannot Lie

really? no one has suggested that yet?

http://youtu.be/EwBrQlCujqY

[Welf]

Let's be serious, here. Any pie chart made to demonstrate the Ponythreads should end up looking like a muffin. And you can fit a lot more muffins on a page than pies, so there's nothing wrong with having too many pie charts.

Also, I found the Princess Celestia ponymotes. They were under "P"!
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/trollestia2.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/trollestia.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/alfalficon2.png[/IMG]

Nice, thanks

[Trixie]

Yeah, there's been a lot of votes thrown around, but I think this one's currently ahead.

EDIT: Went back and counted, and it's actually fairly close. I counted:

Happy Tuesday: 8ish votes
The Plot Thickens: 9ish votes

I say "ish" because there were some folks who voted for a suggestion similar to one of these two, without actually voting for it. Those are the explicit votes that I can count.

*sigh* Thanks.

See, that's why old consensus was to always vote on the last 3 pages, otherwise counting who voted what a week ago and who since forgot what he meant with his vote or forgot he voted... Eugh

[Soras Teva Gee]

My Little Pony XL: We Like Big Plots And We Cannot Lie

Yes but do we really want the uninitiated to potentially understand our inside joke? The Plot Thickens is most tastefully obscure this way.

[TheAmishPirate]

*sigh* Thanks.

See, that's why old consensus was to always vote on the last 3 pages, otherwise counting who voted what a week ago and who since forgot what he meant with his vote or forgot he voted... Eugh

To be fair, these are all from the last day or so, and the earliest I found was page 45. So they're not too far off from the three-page threshold.

And here's some requisite pony, (mostly) fresh from the Tumblrverse:

Spoiler

Show

The most dangerous part of a failed stalking mission: Cuddles.


Hobo pony is adorable. That is all.

[Deadly]

I'll re-voice my earlier vote for The Plot Thickens. It'll be a sad, sad thread if it isn't used.

[Kairaven]

Obviously pony meansurements are in hands. Lyra rejoices.

[Soras Teva Gee]

*sigh* Thanks.

See, that's why old consensus was to always vote on the last 3 pages, otherwise counting who voted what a week ago and who since forgot what he meant with his vote or forgot he voted... Eugh

Ehh well it is fairly informal I remember a fewcases where you thought of something better and did that whatever was brought up.

[Trixie]

Obviously pony meansurements are in hands. Lyra rejoices.

Though, that's technically even worse...

Now that I think about it, correct term could be 'toes', seeing a hoof is basically a nail... ^^"

Can you do Venn diagrams that give percentages?

By surface area?

[Anarion]

Lots of us bronies seem to be trying to transmute FiM into a serious show, because its somehow a weakness if its not.

I can only speak for myself here, but this isn't it at all. I don't take the rules of the My Little Pony world as having anything to do with a serious show. Like Order of the Stick, the writers are free to break their own rules as they wish for the sake of a joke or convenient plot point and the world itself is mutable in a number of significant ways.

However, I love talking about the world, speculating about it, and resolving things in consistent ways given existing material. A huge reason I (and I suspect many others) fell in love with Friendship is Magic is because of the beautiful world that they've built and I get a lot of enjoyment from talking about its geography, history, flora and fauna, and all sorts of other minutia.

Yeah, there's been a lot of votes thrown around, but I think this one's currently ahead.

EDIT: Went back and counted, and it's actually fairly close. I counted:

Happy Tuesday: 8ish votes
The Plot Thickens: 9ish votes

I say "ish" because there were some folks who voted for a suggestion similar to one of these two, without actually voting for it. Those are the explicit votes that I can count.

Did you count the white text votes?

Yes but do we really want the uninitiated to potentially understand our inside joke? The Plot Thickens is most tastefully obscure this way.

Agree.


Edited for consistent use of the oxford comma. I'm deeply ashamed of myself.

[Soras Teva Gee]

I can only speak for myself here, but this isn't it at all. I don't take the rules of the My Little Pony world as having anything to do with a serious show. Like Order of the Stick, the writers are free to break their own rules as they wish for the sake of a joke or convenient plot point and the world itself is mutable in a number of significant ways.

However, I love talking about the world, speculating about it and resolving things in consistent ways given existing material. A huge reason I (and I suspect many others) fell in love with Friendship is Magic is because of the beautiful world that they've built and I get a lot of enjoyment from talking about its geography, history, flora and fauna, and all sorts of other minutia.

Quite and its not just bronies that try to fit everything together I just feel it less appropriate here.

And that if what we know can be described as an incomplete cloth with a lot of loose threads, fans try to knot those together and end up warping the material they are working with too much in their attempt to "fix everything"

[Kairaven]

Quite and its not just bronies that try to fit everything together I just feel it less appropriate here.

And that if what we know can be describe as an incomplete cloth with a lot of thread, fans try to knot those together and end up warping the material they are working with too much.

♫~♪ Thread by thread, stiching it together. ♪~♫

[Soras Teva Gee]

♫~♪ Thread by thread, stiching it together. ♪~♫

Yeah but more like the reprise!

[TheAmishPirate]

Did you count the white text votes?

♫~♪ Thread by thread, stiching it together. ♪~♫

If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go beat my head against a wall until it becomes a tuba. I didn't see any white text votes, to answer the question.

[MCerberus]

If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go beat my head against a wall until it becomes a tuba. I didn't see any white text votes, to answer the question.

5 hours later: That's a sousaphone, silly Pirate.

[Soras Teva Gee]

If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go beat my head against a wall until it becomes a tuba. I didn't see any white text votes, to answer the question.

But I need a trombone to stop the parasprites!

[Kairaven]

Yeah but more like the reprise!

♫~♪ new episodes, one more change
I'm weavinging them together, take great pains
Merriweather, you're putting me in a bind
AKR, what is on your mind?
Oh my gosh, there's simply not much fluff
Don't forget, the timelines must combine!
Storyweaving's easy, every brony's call
Brings a whole new revision
Have to pick up the pace, still hold to my fannon ♪~♫

[Soras Teva Gee]

♫~♪ new episodes, one more change
I'm weavinging them together, take great pains
Merriweather, you're putting me in a bind
AKR, what is on your mind?
Oh my gosh, there's simply not much fluff
Don't forget, the timeline must combine!
Storyweaving's easy, every brony's call
Brings a whole new revision
Have to pick up the pace, still hold to my fannon ♪~♫

Your explanation needs to be about 20% Cooler

(Don't listen to Dashie that was awesome)

[Trixie]

To be fair, these are all from the last day or so, and the earliest I found was page 45. So they're not too far off from the three-page threshold.

The rule was written in times where 'one day' could have been 20 pages, for simplicity and to stop arguing. We might have slowed down now, but I'd still ask to mention such things to me/count them if they were on earlier pages. I do miss things sometimes, especially if they are in places where they're not supposed to be.

If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go beat my head against a wall until it becomes a tuba.

QED

[SlyGuyMcFly]

My Little Pony XL: We Like Big Plots And We Cannot Lie

really? no one has suggested that yet?

http://youtu.be/EwBrQlCujqY

Too much double entendre power. I swap my vote to this.

[HalfTangible]

On that note,
(Hurricane Fluttershy episode spoilers)

Spoiler

Show

From one of the teasers for Hurricane Fluttershy, we can at least see them use arbitrary units for wind strength rather than any sort of existing speed or air pressure units, which strikes me as perfectly normal.

I buy the "translation convention" thing, it's easily the best explanation to most if not all such occurences, but I really think it could be done better than that. There was this one picture of Twilight with a huge scroll, which she describes, wrongly, in Imperial units translated into pony conventions, i.e. "hooves" instead of "feet". Despite this being woefully wrong, as unless they are some seriously giant ponies a "hoof" won't be anywhere near a "foot" in length (and judging by the dimensions of the scroll, "feet" were implied, I think), I found it sounding a lot more appropriate.

'Feet' are bigger than feet anyway

[Soras Teva Gee]

'Feet' are bigger than feet anyway

I always think the most bewildering is Farenheit, the guys wife was evidently running a fever while there was one mighty cold snow bank outside.