Right, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted to this particular blog so let’s do one that has been simmering in the back of my mind for quite some time.

 

As before, let’s start with what we know: In the MLP: FiM cartoon, Starswirl the Bearded is mentioned several times.

 

In Luna Eclipsed, Twilight dresses up as Starswirl in a stereotypical wizards hat and cloak, complete with stars and moons (instead of the more common astronomical glyphs), but with the addition of bells all over the hat. Interesting, and annoying choice for anyone who decides to cosplay. Nobody in Ponyville recognized the costume, except for the visiting Luna who compliments Twilight on the costume’s accuracy. Twilight mentions Starswirl having created hundreds of spells, including an entire category of magic called ‘amniomorphic’, and having a shelf of books dedicated to him in the Canterlot Library. Just as a note, there's some dissent on what exactly Twilight said in this episode. Some saying it was Amniomorphic, and some saying Anniomorphic. There is a big difference. Those that support Amniomorphic say that Amnio means bowl, and morphic means shapechanging, and combined with Bearded makes Starswirl a 'Hairy Potter'. Which is cute, and might actually be what the writers were aiming or, but unfortunately Amnio doesn't actually mean bowl as far as I've been able to tell. It's Greek for 'cowl' as in a hood, and shows up in modern times referring to things that interact with the Amniotic sac that a fetus develops in. So by this term we're saying Starswirl was responsible for a series of magic spells that help with pregnancy. Which actually might be valid now that I've taken the time to think it over. The alternative, Anniomorphic, is a lot more obscure and deals with a fifteenth-century Dominican friar and 'historian', Annio da Viterbo, who was famous for making shit up. Which, as we'll see later also makes sense.

 

In Hearth’s Warning Eve, Twilight exposits how the main character of the panto they’re putting on was mentored by Starswirl. The panto being set in what appears to be a time before Discord, Celestia, and Luna.

In It’s About Time, Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie go to a supposedly secure wing of the Canterlot Library (which might be specifically the Castle library, or the library for the Exceptional Unicorn school Twilight was attending before the first episode, or all of the above, it’s not clear), that is named after Starswirl and contains archives of his work, supposedly dangerous stuff in the wrong hands, at least one time travel spell and a giant sand clock. This is a little more than a single shelf, so we can assume that the shelf Twilight referred to previously was in the public library, not the secure wing.

Then in Magical Mystery Cure, Twilight gets mailed a book written by Starswirl, sent by Celestia, containing an incomplete spell that is capable of manipulating the Elements of Harmony even in its partial state. This book had also appeared at the end of The Crystal Empire, but it was just foreshadowing there and had no explanation. Celestia mentions that Starswirl didn’t understand the magic of Friendship, so couldn’t complete the spell.

In Three’s a Crowd, there is a travelling Starswirl museum, where several other ponies are wearing variations on the Starswirl costume, including several ponies that were present in Luna Eclipsed, so we can assume that in the years (?) since Luna Eclipsed there’s been a renaissance in the Starswirl the Bearded Fandom.

In Twilight’s Kingdom, Starswirl appears in a storybook, described as being ‘young’ by Celestia and interacting with Tirek and Scorpan at about the same time as Celestia was.

That's more than we usually get for theorizing and worldbuilding, but really it's still not much. For more info, we have to look at secondary sources:

In Rainbow Rocks it’s shown that Starswirl banished the Sirens to the Equestria Girls alternate dimension.

 

In the comics, Starswirl has appeared on the covers (not helpful), and in tiny cameos with no relevant info, but in the storyline Reflections in the main comic, Starswirl is shown quite a lot in flashbacks. He’s depicted as the classic bumbling professor type, and is responsible for discovering the means to travel to alternate dimensions using Crystal Mirrors created from the Crystal Caves below Canterlot, and bringing back a variety of objects (magical and otherwise) to the main dimension. There’s another comic in the Fiendship line where the banishment of the Sirens is shown again, and yet one more making Starswirl responsible in a very vague way for the Changelings as well.

 

In the Journal of the Two Sisters, Starswirl is said to be the leader of the group of unicorn mages responsible for the sun and moon movement before Celestia and Luna took over. Plus more details about his time travel experiments, mentioning that his age shifts around a lot, nominally because his spells and possibly energy expenditure are causing him to grow younger or older somewhat randomly.

In interviews with the FiM staff, there have been several mentions that Starswirl was meant to be the Equestrian Merlin analogue, with all the complexities and incongruities that brings along with it. Such as multiple conflicting origins and inconsistent mythologies. However, according the M.A. Larson at some Q&A’s at conventions, several of the original scripts for the episodes listed above didn’t mention Starswirl. He was added in to them by request by Hasbro.

Which is odd as there is a Gen 4 toy released by Hasbro for Starswirl… but as an Earth Pony mare. This matches all the prior generations of the toy line, each one having a Starswirl as a regular Pony mare, not a unicorn. The toy also changes appearance and cutie mark for each generation. In G4, the mare is blue with a purple/pink mane. G3, the mare is white with a dark pink mane (no G3.5 version). G2, the mare is white with a white mane. And G1, the mare is striped pink and blue with a purple and blue mane. This is pretty standard for multi-generation toys, with the appearances rarely being stable. But each is described within their generation as being highly magical in some way.

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So what can we pull from this? Apparently Starswirl was a big deal historically, but a big deal that was obscure until recently. He was involved in a lot of the major turning points of Equestrian history, but in the background and not as a major player. However, now he’s being used as the go-to explanation for everything magical even if he wasn’t necessarily responsible. The not-so-wise mentor figure, non-evil mad inventor, the bumbling professor, etc. Like Gandalf, Merlin, and so on, he’s more a caricature than a character. He’s being marketed to the ponies of Equestria in some kind of advertising campaign.

This is not the first time we’ve seen someone put forward a disinformation campaign for a historical figure. The whole ‘Nightmare Night’ thing looks suspiciously like an attempt to desensitize the population for Nightmare Moon’s eventual return. It’s possible this Starswirl mania is something similar.

To continue the conspiracy theory stuff, the fact is that Hasbro has done something weird here with the toys. This is the only pony from prior generations that changed gender from mare to stallion, and even then the change only happened in the cartoon and comics. Hasbro has put at least some effort into making their Gen 4 toys vaguely resemble the characters in the show. Except Starswirl, which they have left as a mare.

Plus there’s the interesting thing about his name. Starswirl the Bearded. It’s rarely just said ‘Starswirl’, almost always the full name. This is common in some cultures that don’t normally use modern Western-style family names, to use identifiers like that. This could indicate that there were multiple historical Starswirls and the one we are interested in is defined by his beard. Or his beard was in itself more extravagant and luxurious than other ponies were capable, or desiring, to have making it part of his indentification. Or…

Here’s something that you may not know. The term ‘Beard’ in LGBT circles has an interesting meaning and history. Originally many gay men who were in the closet would grow beards to demonstrate overt masculinity, as a disguise of sorts. This term, being ‘bearded’, expanded over time to refer to any visible demonstration of masculinity in a someone who was not necessarily classically masculine. A wife of a gay man would be called ‘his beard’, women wanting to appear male would put on false mustaches, beards, or even just five-o-clock shadows to enhance their apparent maleness. So on and so forth.

Combine this with the toy line, and you get that despite first appearances they may in fact be the same character. This might be MLP’s first Trans character, with the ‘Bearded’ indicating that Starswirl is in fact a Mare who identifies as a Stallion.

Putting aside the conspiracy theories, there is also the disconnect in his apparent age; being present as an experienced and wise figure before Celestia and Luna took over the moon and sun, yet being described as young when dealing with Tirek while Celestia and Luna were in power. All easily explained by the time travel spells and his magical experiments as mentioned in the Journal. This also matches some of the mythology of Merlin where in many stories he is said to have ‘lived backwards’, getting younger over time. It’s very possible that what Celestia and Luna wrote in their journal was the work of an unreliable narrator, and what they put down was what they perceived rather than what actually happened. Meaning that the time travel spells were more responsible than they believed, with Starswirl actually being ‘out of order’ relative to the royal pair, travelling back and forth through time.

Another parallel with Merlin is the crystal caves of Canterlot. Well, Canterlot/Camelot being obvious, but the crystal caves specifically. In many versions of the Merlin mythos, the stories end with Merlin being trapped in a tree, or in Stonehenge, or in a Crystal Cave by Nimue, a character that might be his love interest, his student, or his nemesis depending on the exact story. In any case, he’s stuck there, effectively immortal but never to return to the ‘real’ world.
Some of those stories do put in an escape clause though, that Merlin is free to go to other worlds. With this concept, Starswirl might not be Equestria’s analogue of Merlin. He might actually *be* Merlin. And the Crystal Mirrors his attempts to find a way back to the world of King Arthur and company.

Which brings up the final, and what I find the most amusing theory. There is another fictional character who is said to literally be Merlin in his franchise. Who travels in time, who ages inconsistently and who can radically change appearance and theoretically genders. And who has an MLP analog which has appeared multiple times in the show with call outs and fanservice referring to both his classic and modern shows as well as references to apocryphal stories such as the 1965 feature films. I speak of course, of Doctor Who.

In the episodes collectively called ‘Battlefield’, broadcast in 1989, the Doctor discovers that some time in his personal future he will be known as Merlin, advising the now long-dead King Arthur and his Knights who turn out to have been be dimension jumping crusaders fighting a war against Morgaine and Mordred. In this episode it is implied that all the stories of Merlin, including the one about being trapped in a Crystal Cave, were real and have happened/will happen (time travel is tricky that way).

 

As a minor, but interesting coincidence is that in pride of place within the Starswirl the Bearded Secure Wing of the Canterlot Library, is a giant sand clock. A massive hourglass. Just like Doctor Whoove's Cutie Mark. And every picture or representation of Starswirl has his flanks covered. It's assumed that the symbol on his spellbook is his actual cutie mark, but maybe...

So, Starswirl the Bearded might not just be the Merlin of Arthurian legend. But he might be some future or past incarnation of Doctor Whooves…