My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E13 Hearth's Warming Eve: Difference between revisions

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[[File:hearthswarming2_5157.png|frame|And ''that's'' how Equestria was made! Close Curtain!]]

 

 

 

 

The episode begins with the main characters taking the Friendship Express Train to Canterlot, where they are performing in this year's Hearth's Warming Eve pageant. Despite some backstage bickering over an open window, the mane six quickly start the show...

 

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** Fluttershy plays the Pegasus Private Pansy.

** Twilight Sparkle plays Clover the Clever.

** Rarity plays Princess Platinum.

* [[Are We There Yet?]]: Parodied when Princess Platinum as she and Clover search for a new land. [[Lampshade Hanging|Clover pushes a branch to reveal the castle, pointing out she'd only been walking five minutes.]]

* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: Commander Hurricane.

* [[The Caligula]]: Chancellor Puddinghead is/was a more benign version of this trope.

* [[Call Back]]:

* [[The Cameo]]:

** Jet Set and Upper Crust make an appearance, looking as stuck-up as ever.

** Spike who is an important part of the main cast but often an outsider and observer of most of the action is the narrator.

* [[Character Exaggeration]]: The three leaders are essentially the same as their actresses, but with [[Flanderization|the negative aspects of their strongest personality traits exaggerated.]] As a result the three assistants take their actresses' [[Only Sane Man|beleaguered qualities]] up a notch as well, acting even more frustrated and snarky than normal.

* [[Christmas Episode]]: Or Equestria's analogous holiday, anyway. The decor is ''very'' Christmas, though the holiday itself is more like a combination of Thanksgiving and a national founding day.

* [[Compressed Hair]]: Pinkie Pie somehow manages to keep her tail neatly stuffed inside her costume.

* [[Creation Myth]]: A variant; while the story enacted in the play does not detail the creation of the ''world'', real-life scholarship would recognise in it all the elements of a creation myth, much like it does in the ancient Roman myth about the founding of the city of Rome, to which the same observations apply. The play starts with an initial state of chaos and details how what is currently understood as the cosmos was created to replace it, at the same time giving mythological justification to current values and why they must be preserved to maintain the order of things. It's even (re-)enacted ritually, which is an important complement to mythological thinking in [[Real Life]].

'''Spike''' (aside): "I know, can you believe it?" }}

* [[Crowd Song]]: Everypony joins in singing a holiday carol at the end of the play.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]:

** Smart Cookie to Chancellor Puddinghead.

'''Smart Cookie:''' Heaven forbid that should happen, your Chancellorship. }}

** Clover the Clever also has shades of this.

* [[Every Thing Is Better With Princesses]]: One of the six real characters present in the play is Princess Platinum, daughter of the king, who represents the unicorns as if she as good as is their ruler. There's no explanation for why she's doing it instead of the king himself, who never shows up.

* [[Evil Is Deathly Cold]]: The Windigoes are icy beings that feed on hatred and create winter to make all suffer.

* [[Extreme Omnivore]]: A minor example during the montage of how each tribe is suffering under the Windigo blizzard. One pegasus soldier eats the crest on his helmet, though judging from his reaction it didn't taste too good.

* [[Face Palm|Facehoof]]: Done by Clover the Clever when the three leaders are fighting over a mere rock.

* [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]: Pegasi, as usual, have a Greek bent to their architecture and garb. Their leader is also a commander, suggesting a militaristic culture reminiscent of ancient Sparta. Unicorns and earth ponies both borrow from medieval European cultures, although subtle class discrepancies can be seen between them (Earth ponies look like stereotypical [[Dung Ages]] peasants, while the unicorns can be described as a more romanticized High Middle Ages sort). The unicorn society may also be based off Athens and Ithaca for the earth ponies.

* [[Finish Dialogue in Unison]]

** And later...

* [[Fisher King]]: If hatred spreads throughout the land, the Windigoes turn a communal version of this into an [[Enforced Trope]].

* [[Flat Joy]]: Fluttershy, as usual. "Woo hoo."

** Also foreshadowed by the fact the Pegasi still control the weather and yet a blizzard occurs without warning.

** The open window blowing in the chilly air while the ponies were arguing among themselves alludes to the entire history described in the pageant.

* [[Framing Device]]: The play serves as one to the story itself, with the mane six playing the founding ponies of Equestria.

* [[Funny Background Event]]:

** Derpy Hooves peeks out from the curtains just before the show starts, and then from backstage is berated for doing that.

* [[GASP]]: Everypony's reaction to the fact that the ponies once all hated each other.

'''Fluttershy:''' ''(runs and hides in a box of decorations and props)'' }}

* [[Harmless Freezing]]: Even though all six ponies are imprisoned in ice by the Windigoes, none of them are damaged after they break free.

** When the leaders of the three tribes and their assistants are making up, there are small snippets that are very reminiscent of "Greensleeves" playing.

** And another one of the jingles (used primarily for Princess Platinum) is extremely reminiscent of the opening tune of nothing less than ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsmZeo1Tc9A Exodus]''.

* [[The Lancer]]: The second-in-commands are more reasonable [[Foil|Foils]] and trusted companions to their superiors.

* [[Losing Horns]]: Play after "thinking inside the chimney" line.

* [[Made of Good]]: {{spoiler|The heart-shaped beacon of the Fire of Friendship, which still burns to the present}}.

* [[No Sense of Direction]]: The Chancellor thinks she's supposed to wear the map in order to know where to go. She also thinks she can wear the map upside-down since the Earth is round. After she passes off the map, she manages to fall off a cliff, something she narrowly avoided while still wearing it.

* [[Oh Crap]]: The assistants have this reaction to the Windigoes. Clover the Clever gets a double dose when she realizes ''what'' they are.

* [[Pimped-Out Dress]]: Princess Platinum's [[Requisite Royal Regalia|regal outfit]] includes one. Although it looks like a [[Pimped-Out Cape]], she refers to it as her gown.

* [[Pluralses]]: Pinkie as Chancellor Puddinghead is confused about the plural for "Pegasus": "Pegasusususes".

* [[Scene Transition]]: The episode regularly transitions between the prop-heavy setting of the play and the actual settings they represent.

* [[Servile Snarker]]: Clover the Clever and Smart Cookie both display this towards their respective leaders.

** The fiery heart resembles the one used in [[The Powerpuff Girls|another show that Faust worked on]]. Some fans have also noted its similarity to the stylized heart/moon of [[Kingdom Hearts]].

* [[Snowball Fight]]: The three leaders briefly get into one until they realize that there's a snowstorm coming.

* [[Space Whale Aesop]]: Love thy neighbor, or else a trio of malevolent ice spirits will cover the world in an apocalyptic ice age.

* [[Straight Man|Straight Mares]]: The three second-in-commands to their leaders.

* [[Sugar Apocalypse]]: Hatred, fights and disharmony brought an ice age that destroyed the old world and forced the three Pony races to work together and accept each other to survive. The final scenes of the episode strongly hinted that this could happen again if ponies start fighting again.

* [[Surprise Creepy]]: Considering this was an episode centering around a normal play, it's kind of a shock when [[Eldritch Abomination|the Windigoes show up]]. Made creepier by the fact the first few times we see them there's ''no explanation at all'' and we don't get one until the climax.

* [[There Was a Door]]: When the leaders return home to report the results of the failed summit, Chancellor Puddinghead chooses to enter through the chimney rather than the front door. Apparently she never even noticed that the door was snowed in anyway.

* [[This Is My Side]]: The ponies fight for territory within the cave. Princess Platinum even asserts that an invisible line already exists to mark off their territory. Then they even fight over a small rock that sits on one of the lines.

* [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|What Could Go Wrong?]]: Chancellor Puddinghead says this of her brilliant plan to find a new land.

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?]]: Everypony reacts in shock to the fact that the ponies once all hated each other.

* [[Wendigo]]: Averted in a way that might bear mention; the creatures that freeze over everything by the [[Fantastic Racism]] and hatred found by the three pony races are called Windigoes (a spelling variant), but they actually have nothing to do with the original cannibalistic spirit.

** The Windigoes have more in common with [[Cthulhu Mythos|Ithaqua]], also known as the Wind-Walker and the Wendigo, who ''is'' associated with snow and ice.

* [[Just in Time]]: When Twilight, Fluttershy and Applejack get their whole body frozen, Twilight finally casts her spell that frees them and destroys the Windigoes.

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