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Do you think time has moved (quickly, slowly, about right?) in MLP:FIM series


pony.colin

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(edited)

Hmm, I wish posted this one earlier.

 

So about four seasons in, how do you feel the series has advanced? In terms of time? In terms of in-universe time of the series (not outside things). 

 

Do you think things have moved rather quickly? Rather slowly? Or just at about the right pace? (or slightly slower, slightly fast, etc)

 

I ask because, it's rather difficult to gage about how much (in-universe) time has passed between when Twilight first came to Ponyvile and when Twilight inherited her new TF 2 (Tree Fortress).  How much time has passed between those things? And are the things in Main Cast's lives advancing slowly or quickly?

 

For example;

 

I always assumed that Rarity had dreams to eventually move to one of the "bigger" pony cities like Canterlot or Manehatten.  Where she could really get a head start on making her fashion design dreams come true and make ze magicks! She's been to both cities several times, and we've seen her get closer to that dream in 'Rarity Takes Manehatten' but she didn't stay, (granted she had Coco Pommel work for her on her behalf at the end).  But actually moving there, she could do any time now really.

 

Or Rainbow Dash, where she seems to be very slowly inching closer to getting into the Wonderbolts (surprised at how long it's been dragged out for now).  When she gets in, is she going to be more away from her friends after that? being busy and unavailable?

 

Twilight seems like she'll be sticking around Ponyville for now. (how she gained Princesshood in 3 seasons is amazingly quick)

 

And what of the Cutie Mark Crusaders? About how long do you think they will be crusading? When do you think they will get their cutie marks and do you think it's about time they should? Four seasons in and we only partially addressed Scootaloo's lack of flight ability, and that was really brushed off as, we'll we don't know for sure, maybe you might still need to grow physically before you can fly kiddo, cop-out scenario.  About how old is Scootaloo anyways? 

 

I mean, how much time has passed between Twilight's initial move to Ponyville and end battle with Tirek, just think about it for a bit (surely it has to have been at least 1 year or more inbetween everything?).  Do you think things are advancing quickly, slowly, about right?  How much time do you think has passed (in-universe)?

Edited by pony.colin
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We know from the Season 4 premiere that that was exactly 1 year after she came to Ponyville because that was the first Summer Sun Celebration since Celestia's reunion with Luna.  So I think it's been a little over a year... maybe like a year and 3 months to a year and a half.

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Interesting question. :) One thing I don't like in MLP:FiM is that everything is going too fast in my opinion, except the CMC. For example:

In only 3 seasons, Twilight changed from Celestia's student to a princess alicorn...

Rainbow Dash is already about to become a Wonderbolt since she passed the test, while it was her biggest dream in the season 1.

 

In terms of time: I have no idea.

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A year is oddly both a rather long yet short period of time for change. Overall I think for most things in MLP, the speed of change has been moving at a decent pace. I think the only questionable action would have to be Twilights ascension into alicorn prince and discords reform, however I think by the end of S4, we can simply explain the reasoning for alot of this as right time, right group of people and more or less people having already doing most of the growing off screen.

 

Is we accept that Twilight had enough (bare minimum) training to begin her training as a princess and with her friends the time was right to push her into that destiny since her mucking around for more years as a unicorn won't allow her any insight to alicorn magic (her talent is magic after all) nor would it push her into the leadership role she needs to take. If we take for canon Cadence ascension story from the Crystal Heart book as true, Twi was twice her age when she ascended and has a group of friends to help carry the burren of ruling now that they will be forming the council of Friendship/Harmony, thus the wham bam thank you ma'ma way they went about it makes alot more sense, since Twi was kind of over due to becoming a princess in the long road or rule.

 

As for Discord...honestly if we combined all the media (sadly not much, but at least the comics are trying), I think we can simply see the end of S4 and discords arc in two ways.

 

Way 1: He really did learn what friendship was and everything can be held at face value.

 

Way 2: All of it was a test, since Discord more or less knew that the box was for the girls and was working with Tia since she let him in on the fact that bigger things are coming and the girls need whatever was in the box to make sure that the odds were in their favor.

 

Personally, If you take a little from both columns you can more or less get a complete picture and what happened over a few months time from the end of S3 to the end of S4 when it comes to the Discord arc.    

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(edited)

Well judging how 9 months passed from Winter Wrap up to Fall Weather Friends, I'd say it has moved rather fast (Or they were out of sequence, but that's still at least 3 months if you swap their order).

 

I honestly have no clue how long this is and I have serious doubts about ONLY one year or so passing. Although I don't think the writers care so it's just about impossible to judge. As for the amount of episodes, yeah I'd say 65 episodes was a good amount of time for Twilight to become an alicorn. I honestly don't see why people think it was TOO early, I think they timed it perfectly (and yes, I like alicorn Twilight. I think it was a smart direction for the show to go).

Edited by LZRD WZRD
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Well judging how 9 months passed from Winter Wrap up to Fall Weather Friends, I'd say it has moved rather fast (Or they were out of sequence, but that's still at least 3 months if you swap their order).

 

It was stated by writers that the shows ep are out of order, so more or less outside of the S1 openers, S2 Lesson Zero and S3 end everything in between can be moved around as you please since more or less only a handful of episodes have to come after certain other ones.

 

One year is not all that outrageous if one thinks about the fact that Equestria more or less has 4 seasons and most likely follows our month schedule so... everyone do the math.  50 weeks in 65 eps is more or less we have 1.3 eps per week, which is honestly not so bad, especially if you throw in the comic arcs that happened before Twilicorn.    

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It was stated by writers that the shows ep are out of order, so more or less outside of the S1 openers, S2 Lesson Zero and S3 end everything in between can be moved around as you please since more or less only a handful of episodes have to come after certain other ones.

 

One year is not all that outrageous if one thinks about the fact that Equestria more or less has 4 seasons and most likely follows our month schedule so... everyone do the math. 50 weeks in 65 eps is more or less we have 1.3 eps per week, which is honestly not so bad, especially if you throw in the comic arcs that happened before Twilicorn.

Well it looks like you've given me a project :D

 

I will try to create an approximate timeline of the show and figure out just how long it is B)

 

My hypothesis: The show takes place over two years.

 

I'll post back here the day I figure it out

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(edited)

Well it looks like you've given me a project :D

 

I will try to create an approximate timeline of the show and figure out just how long it is B)

 

My hypothesis: The show takes place over two years.

 

I'll post back here the day I figure it out

 

Good luck brave wizard. I know for myself I have tried and am still going over where I think things should be. 

 

There have been some other bronies who have tried and they make for good reference in deciding where things might be 

 

http://tobyandmavisforever.deviantart.com/art/MLP-FIM-episode-timeline-part-1-358803712 - their timeline is alright, however there are some issue here and there since there not taking into account for Lesson Zero friendship letter change. 

 

http://tobyandmavisforever.deviantart.com/art/My-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-timeline-UPDATE-419868115 this is their updated version 

 

- rather solid season 1 timeline, a good starting point and a possible base to add to. 

 

From my own studies the most important thing to the timeline flexibility is the placement of Lesson Zero as an early episode. Before LZ only Twilight could send letters to Celestia, after it, anyone could. Placing this ep early in your timeline gives you the most flexibility of placing episode of S2 and 3 before S1 episodes. The content of LZ could easily work within S1 since Twilight freaking out over her letters would very much be something early season 1 Twi would freak about since she has just made her friends and doesn't want to leave ponyville, and in addition at that point her friends would be careless enough to not be sensitive to her freak outs due to not knowing Twi well enough. 

Edited by TeaCrumpet
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It was stated by writers that the shows ep are out of order, so more or less outside of the S1 openers, S2 Lesson Zero and S3 end everything in between can be moved around as you please since more or less only a handful of episodes have to come after certain other ones.

 

One year is not all that outrageous if one thinks about the fact that Equestria more or less has 4 seasons and most likely follows our month schedule so... everyone do the math.  50 weeks in 65 eps is more or less we have 1.3 eps per week, which is honestly not so bad, especially if you throw in the comic arcs that happened before Twilicorn.    

It would be pretty interesting to figure out the approximate order of the episodes as the occurred, instead of by air date.

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We know from the Season 4 premiere that that was exactly 1 year after she came to Ponyville because that was the first Summer Sun Celebration since Celestia's reunion with Luna.  So I think it's been a little over a year... maybe like a year and 3 months to a year and a half.

 

That's a thing I've questioned really about.  Is this the first Summer Sun celebration that has occurred since the series pilot episode? I wondered if maybe it's been two years, a possibility I can't exactly refute.  The only curve ball I get is really the holiday season episodes, (winter wrap up and hearth's warming eve).  I mean, it's assumed, that from episode pilot to episode 'Princess Twilight Sparkle' that that is the first Summer Sun Celebration and we use that as a guide mark for being at least one year ago since Twilight moved in, but it feels more like as assumption as well and I can't entirely refute the idea that maybe, it might be 2nd year Summer Sun Celebration since Twilight's move in (I'm wanting to look for some evidence to either refute or suggest otherwise) not saying your wrong, just want some compelling evidence/suggestions.  (It's never said out right that it's been 1 year from those two episodes, just that the Summer Sun Celebration is taking place again.)  The only other reason for keeping a 2 year gap is because that seems more reasonably paced out (maybe to me, don't know, at least considering events in s2 and s3).

 

 

A year is oddly both a rather long yet short period of time for change. Overall I think for most things in MLP, the speed of change has been moving at a decent pace. I think the only questionable action would have to be Twilights ascension into alicorn prince and discords reform, however I think by the end of S4, we can simply explain the reasoning for alot of this as right time, right group of people and more or less people having already doing most of the growing off screen.

 

Is we accept that Twilight had enough (bare minimum) training to begin her training as a princess and with her friends the time was right to push her into that destiny since her mucking around for more years as a unicorn won't allow her any insight to alicorn magic (her talent is magic after all) nor would it push her into the leadership role she needs to take. If we take for canon Cadence ascension story from the Crystal Heart book as true, Twi was twice her age when she ascended and has a group of friends to help carry the burren of ruling now that they will be forming the council of Friendship/Harmony, thus the wham bam thank you ma'ma way they went about it makes alot more sense, since Twi was kind of over due to becoming a princess in the long road or rule.

 

As for Discord...honestly if we combined all the media (sadly not much, but at least the comics are trying), I think we can simply see the end of S4 and discords arc in two ways.

 

Way 1: He really did learn what friendship was and everything can be held at face value.

 

Way 2: All of it was a test, since Discord more or less knew that the box was for the girls and was working with Tia since she let him in on the fact that bigger things are coming and the girls need whatever was in the box to make sure that the odds were in their favor.

 

Personally, If you take a little from both columns you can more or less get a complete picture and what happened over a few months time from the end of S3 to the end of S4 when it comes to the Discord arc.    

 

A 1 year time period for Twilight's ascension is .... I'm kind of in the middle of that and can go either way (feeling it could possibly be done, on a very squished timeline or really needs to be longer).  But I don't feel great using that as an indicator for time passage because Twilight's ascension wraps itself in questioning how much pre-determinism and/or fatelism are an overarching factor in the mlp:fim universe and that's been question a couple of times (from ponies naming their foals too descriptive names and how and when cutie marks appear).

 

And for Discord, I would lean on way 1, because I'm doubtful Celestia would ever let Discord in on her plan. And I can't determine if she can see the future or not (again not sure if we are going for the pre-determinism or fatelism route).

 

 

RLYoshi does a pretty good job for ordering S1, I was accepting of most of where he placed things and most of the reasons he gave for doing it.  A couple of episodes still feel that the might be interchangeable in chronological order, going either way. (Interested in how he'll pace in the other 3 seasons).

 

The curve ball comes back when you incorporate S2 and S3, and the thing that's on my mind the most, is Hearth's warming eve.  Yeah, you could set that up and say that Hearth's Warming Eve comes before Winter Wrap Up, but it just feels squished at that point (Season 2 + 3 must be crammed into a Spring and Summer months to make it fit all the way up to S4's opener).

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That's a thing I've questioned really about.  Is this the first Summer Sun celebration that has occurred since the series pilot episode? I wondered if maybe it's been two years, a possibility I can't exactly refute.  The only curve ball I get is really the holiday season episodes, (winter wrap up and hearth's warming eve).  I mean, it's assumed, that from episode pilot to episode 'Princess Twilight Sparkle' that that is the first Summer Sun Celebration and we use that as a guide mark for being at least one year ago since Twilight moved in, but it feels more like as assumption as well and I can't entirely refute the idea that maybe, it might be 2nd year Summer Sun Celebration since Twilight's move in (I'm wanting to look for some evidence to either refute or suggest otherwise) not saying your wrong, just want some compelling evidence/suggestions.  (It's never said out right that it's been 1 year from those two episodes, just that the Summer Sun Celebration is taking place again.)  The only other reason for keeping a 2 year gap is because that seems more reasonably paced out (maybe to me, don't know, at least considering events in s2 and s3).

 

No it's the first one... Celestia spends the entire episode talking about how this is the first time she'll be able to enjoy the Summer Sun Celebration since before it represented the defeat of Nightmare Moon and now it represented the return of Luna.  Plus she made that announcement again at the celebration itself... if it were the second year since Luna's return it just wouldn't make sense that she would be so focused on the fact that Luna was back for this Summer Sun Celebration, so it has to be a year.

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No it's the first one... Celestia spends the entire episode talking about how this is the first time she'll be able to enjoy the Summer Sun Celebration since before it represented the defeat of Nightmare Moon and now it represented the return of Luna.  Plus she made that announcement again at the celebration itself... if it were the second year since Luna's return it just wouldn't make sense that she would be so focused on the fact that Luna was back for this Summer Sun Celebration, so it has to be a year.

 

Reading over the transcripts again, the first time Celestia speaks about it, I can have open room for interpretation, the 2nd part where Celestia ends the two parter, seems to be feel more compelling to suggest, yes this is the first Summer Sun Celebration etc, and probably been one year.  Unless the Summer Sun Celebration is not held annually and is held every other some odd year. But that's other possibilities that are being added.

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Reading over the transcripts again, the first time Celestia speaks about it, I can have open room for interpretation, the 2nd part where Celestia ends the two parter, seems to be feel more compelling to suggest, yes this is the first Summer Sun Celebration etc, and probably been one year.  Unless the Summer Sun Celebration is not held annually and is held every other some odd year. But that's other possibilities that are being added.
The summer sun celebration is celebrating the longest day of the year, so it logically follows that it would be held annually.  Plus I believe they said that it was the thousandth summer sun celebration in the first episode, which also indicates it's an annual event since we know Luna is gone for 1000 years.
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The seasons seemed to have gone by faster than they realy have. As for how much time has passed since twilight first came to ponyville, I do not know.

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I would say they are moving at an alright pace. Sure the timeline is out of order from our perspective, but more or less it is moving along jsut fine. Certain story arcs need to slow down and others need to speed up, but for the most part everything is moving at a fast enough pace.

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Some slow, some fast, depends on the topic.

For example, Twilight and the mane 6 moved fast because in a year she's a princess and they're ambassadors of friendship or whatever they're called, I forget.

Buuuut, the CMC have moved pretty slow. Haven't shown any body or age progression + still no cutie marks.

I really hope there's a cutie mark episode come S5.

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