S02EP12 - "Family Appreciation Day"

[Starfox64x]

I wanna zapapple!

So yeah, the first half of the episode was fun and kooky, but i really like the back story... i think i prefer continuity stuff rather than slice of life stuff... i like to hear about the history of their world as opposed to 'Problem occurs, problem gets solved, lesson learned, never speak of this again'.

I thought that it was a fun back story about Granny Smith and how she got here.

[BlackFang]

the world WILL end this year..... Big Mac said something besides yyup-nnope :!:

Sweetie Bell got THUNDER'D (ok, that was lame)

the pioneer setting was great

timberwolves, sweet

my face when Granny Smith finished her speech was mostly the same as all the fillies' on the class.

magical electricity-grown rainbow-colored apples (and derivatives)... although i cant even begin to imagine how that tastes.....

@Jason, its magic, i aint gonna explain sh**

also, there wasnt a letter because Applebloom wasnt on the "you girls too write a letter" part of lesson zero, how would she know?

[JasonTheHuman]

@Jason, its magic, i aint gonna explain sh**

Heh, I'm a fanfiction author. Believe me, I know.

[RarityDash]

Zap Apples will spawn tons of Epileptic Trees. Look up the term if you're not familiar, basically means "crazy nonsensical fan theories." Here goes: Among the other magical properties of Zap Apples, they can prolong a pony's lifespan if enough are consumed. Based on what Twilight tells us about Winter Wrap-Up, Ponyville was founded hundreds of years ago. Granny Smith is actually about 300 years old. Other ponies haven't eaten as many Zap Apples as her, so their lives haven't been affected in any significant way. Cartoons with loose canon are SO MUCH FUN.

Twilight could have been speaking of traditions going back before Ponyville was formally founded. The line could be tying the tradition more to earth ponies in general than to Ponyvile specifically. And of course there's also the chance that Twilight doesn't know the full story of the founding of Ponyville; she is a newcomer to the town after all.

Ponyville strikes me as too small and quaint a little town. Personally, I can't see it having had a very long history.

[Thoth]

also, there wasnt a letter because Applebloom wasnt on the "you girls too write a letter" part of lesson zero, how would she know?

Actually, in Cutie Pox Apple Bloom wrote a letter to Celestia.

I suppose either Morrow forgot (HIGHLY doubt), or the script just didn't warrant it?

[Parker_Izing]

I like if the letter is omitted by a good reason (like episode time constraint) the letter sequence eats like 30 -50 seconds, so I understand it being omitted. Think in "Eclipsed Luna", instead of the letter, the scene with Rarity could be somehow fit

[Astalakio]

Okay, so, we've got

Some great comedy (the Granny Puppet scene almost had me in tears),

Awesome animation and magic-y stuff with the zapapples,

Cool new monsters in the timber wolves,

A moral I thoroughly approve of (even if it wasn't spoken about directly),

And that epic little lecture from Granny Smith. At the end of it I was gawping with the rest of the class, thinking 'Wow. Granny Smith is kind of a badass!'

Pretty nice episode in all.

But it needs MOAR FRIENDSHIPS.

Seriously, only ONE out of the SIX mane characters? Their interractions are becoming more and more sparse, and those are the characters I watch the show for. I like the Cutie Mark Crusaders well enough, and I've got nothing against Applebloom, but I miss when every episode had the mane friends actually interracting with each other in some way more than a passing encounter or a song On second thought, maybe it's just Twilight I miss in every episode

So the agreement is that there was no Derpy today? That's fair enough - her last appearance was in-your-face enough to warrant a break from the derp, I think

I was disappointed that Big Macintosh didn't have more to say, though. He's my favourite non-mane-cast pony, and in the first few minutes of this episode, I saw him and said "Don't say Eeyup", and he went "Eeyup!"

Why won't they give you more dialogue, my red-coated friend? Why?

I know he said *something* at the beginning, but it was all mumbled in with Applejack's and Applebloom's saying the same thing.

[NorthernStar]

AAAAWWWWW YYYEEEEAAAAHH!!!

First episode of the year!!

I dare to say that this was the best CMC episode to date!!

[brianblackberry]

I adored this episode, it was fun, hilarious, and touching.

Magic!

What I liked especially is the featuring and confirming of other types of magic outside of pony magic and quite probably outside of control of the princesses; I speak of the Zap Apples. It was strongly implied that the annual magic energies that make Zap Apples eminated from the Everfree Forest, an area not under pony control (magically or weather wise). Who know what anicent and mysterious magic energies deep within that mysterious domain causes this annual occurance, or why. It has so much RP and story potential.

Also, new magic creatures! Timberwolves!

History!

We learned that Ponyville is two, three, possibly four generations old. This depends on two things.

• Granny Smith's relation to Aj and her siblings. She most likely is their grandmother, but it is possible, given her age, that she is their great-grandparent.
  
• Applebloom is considered part of the next generation from the mane six. Although AJ and Abby are sisters, depending on how old the mane six are (very young adults versus old enough to have their own families).
  

In any of these cases, Ponyville been around for less than a century.

What about "hundreds of years"? Well alas cartoon canon is pretty loose. The Occam's Razor explanation is Twilight Sparkle was misinformed, not being from there.

Something to think on: Granny Smith's father had an acorn cutie mark and her mother a sewing machine cutie mark, (the other two males, probably brothers, had three horseshoes and a banjo respectively). It is possible that Granny Smith is the true matriarch of the Apples and before her, the family linages were something else.

Map!

You can bet I heard about this fast enough:

I feel both glad and terrible here. On the plus side I manage to get the direction of Canterlot aright, although I show greater relative distance (if the map Granny Smith is holding is meant to represent actual distances rather than just realitive locations, the latter being quite possible). Also stuck Ponyville between a bunch of hills and low mountains (like in a valley), which seems to sync up with her map as well.

What is off of course is the Everfree, the location is to the southeast, where I had it closer and to the west (because it always came off in the show that one only had to travel mere minutes by walking to get there, also from the episode, it appears virtually next to the original farmstead). It is probably the map in the show doesn't represent true distance, but not sure what to do about direction here, I guess it depends how important it is to people here (also made the Everfree huge, to represent it almost as an entire other realm of mystery). It is possible the Everfree has shrunk because of pony cilivization, once wrapping around to the south of Ponyville, now only to the west.

Cloudsdale would be the easiest to move, simple move it to the west of where it is (did guess to the north of Ponyville right).

One Last Thing!

Filly Grany Smith is Adorable!

ADORABLE!

[Dessa]

Oh wow, You could just swap the everfree forest and whitetail woods, then promote the hills to the west into mountains and bam, it all works.

[RarityDash]

I'm not sure switching the forests positions with each other would be a wise solution. I know the proximity of the Whitetail Woods to Canterlot is something that's come up in multiple RPs of mine. I'm sure I'm not the only one either. Moving it out of the Canterlot region entirely might cause problems for a number of characters in the RP.

[Mojo]

This comic from DA pretty much sums up one of this episode's unmistakable conclusions:

[BlackFang]

Actually, in Cutie Pox Apple Bloom wrote a letter to Celestia.

ooohhhhhhhh, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggghttttt.....

meh, whats the worst that could happen to her? be sent back to magic kindergarten?

[Bubbly Snacks]

Sweet episode was AWESOME.

[Davroth]

Oh hey, I just noticed. When Diamond Tiara proposes that Granny Smith should come for family appreciation day, she says, and I quote, "Applebloom's granny Smith". See that? Granny actually means just that. She's Applejack's and Applebloom's grandmother. I suppose unless they ever mention that she has another (full) name, this wont carry much weight anywhere, but I still think it's kinda neat.

On the subject on the map: It does seem that Ponyville was founded either in, or pretty close to Everfree, and we see that they get wood from the forest, so it's entirely possible that there used to be parts of the Everfree Forest to the south east, but it just isn't there any more.

[Ginger Mint]

hi hi

This episode was 100% pure magic! I loved it.

I think most of the points have already been covered already, Timberwolves, Great Granny Smith's withering glare, Silver Spoon not being as bad as Diamond Tiara, cute Filly Smith and THAT MAP. But I've got a few more to add to the list.

• Its interesting that Granny Smith discovered all the ways to cook Zap Apples, which is perhaps a subtle indication of Earth Pony magic at work?

• Mischievous CMC's: Wow, Sweetie Belle really stole the spotlight when it came to devious plans this time around.

On the topic of the map: My heart goes out to you Brianblackberry. I don't know what all you're going to do, but I couldn't help but notice that if you rotate Granny Smith's map 90% clockwise, it matches up a bit better... and there's no North indicated on her map.

On the topic of Ponyville and Granny Smith being hundreds of years old: It was not an uncommon fan theory back in the early days of MLP to think that because Princess Celestia lived for such a long time, that perhaps ponies had very long lifespans in Equestria as well. Alternatively, the Equestrian year might be shorter than a human year. I mean, they wrapped up winter, and then it was fall again in no time flat.

On the topic of Applejack/Big Macintosh/Applebloom's parents. I don't think you can really infer from this that their parents are dead. The fact that Applebloom came along after the point when it was just Applejack, Big Mac and Granny Smith on the farm (Cutie Mark Chronicles) leads me to believe that the Apple Parents are simply forced to live elsewhere. Perhaps they work as foreign dignitaries and they wanted their kids to get their schooling in Equestria.

[Whitehawke]

About AJ's parent's: Lauren Faust said that she thought about having them passed away, but figured it would have been deemed too sad for a children's show. They also had a brief discussion about making them explorers/traveling salesponies, but it was not needed in any episode and therefore never made official.

So it's still up in the air whether they are gone or not.

[Ginger Mint]

hi hi

I guess someday we'll find out... or not.

Also, someone else mentioned this elsewhere, but I thought it was an interesting thought and worth bringing up here. Perhaps one of the reasons why they don't use magic to clean up winter on the apple family farm is because it upsets the Zap Apple trees.

[DashieInTheDark]

Going to watch this tonight. Without spoilers, what's the episode about? The synposis is a bit vague for me. I'm trying not ot read your guys' posts, because I don't want any spoilers.

[Angie Cakes]

Going to watch this tonight. Without spoilers, what's the episode about? The synposis is a bit vague for me. I'm trying not ot read your guys' posts, because I don't want any spoilers.

it's best to just watch this particular episode with no idea at all.

[Mojo]

About AJ's parent's: Lauren Faust said that she thought about having them passed away, but figured it would have been deemed too sad for a children's show.

To quote Pinkie Pie from 'Over a Barrel': "HAY! THAT'S WHAT I SAID!"

I did say that (in different words) in a discussion on this website a while back. Thought so!

[Ginger Mint]

hi hi

Ah reckon that "I considered it but decided against it," is a fair bit different than "definitely yes." Least, thats the way I see's it.

In other news, I noticed that other than Diamond Tiara, Twist was the only pony actually paying attention to Filthy Rich's presentation.

So Applebloom is a dictionary, and Sweetie Belle is an encyclopedia. Do you think Scootaloo is going to become some form of book, or is she doomed to stay a chicken forever?

Also, did anyone see the totally awesome background pony with the striped mane that was standing in line for Zapapple Jam at the end?

[princebluemoon1]

they are show the episode at the sukoshi anime convention in sandestin florida as part of the anime/animation showing.

[JasonTheHuman]

As far as Applejack's parents go...

The dynamics of the Apple family are VERY close. The very first episode showed it was a huge family, and that became one of its basic characteristics. I really think that the parents are probably dead, because it's the only reason they'd never show up. Even if they were "traveling salesponies" they would have been at that reunion in the first episode.

Of course, the show itself is the final word on what's canon or not. I mean, lightning apples? Sure, why not?

[Snowshoe]

Oh hey, I just noticed. When Diamond Tiara proposes that Granny Smith should come for family appreciation day, she says, and I quote, "Applebloom's granny Smith". See that? Granny actually means just that. She's Applejack's and Applebloom's grandmother.

Before I get to my thoughts, I just want to say that Granny Smith apples are a type of apple, so are Macintosh apples. It's possible that given Granny Smith's age, being part of the first founders of Ponyville, Granny Smith is just her name, and she's not literally AJ and AB's grandmother, but more likely their great-grandmother perhaps. That's what I see it as being, and the voice actress for DT just misspoke (or in character didn't know the Apple family dynamic...assuming their parents are dead, perhaps the family just doesn't talk much about the family make up to avoid bringing up the subject?).

In any case, for the episode: floor, meet jaw. Jaw, meet floor. That history lesson was /amazing/, and this rates highly as one of my favourite episodes for the entire series. I'm LOVING the trend toward world building episodes...they're not required at all, really, given the style of the show (separate, self contained episodes), and it seems these are more geared both toward having good lessons for kids (work together and don't fight [Hearth Warming's Eve], never underestimate or be ashamed of your family members [Family Appreciation Day]), and toward the fandom: why else would they put in that much detail (like a map) and bother with writing a backstory to the world? I can't wait to see if they continue the trend: I would love to see an episode about the princesses and how they got to power (and more Luna, hell yeah), and maybe where Discord came into the picture.