My biggest problem with Starlight’s Village

[ShootingStar159 2,156]

Where did the foals come from?!

 

Seriously, it’s the only big loose end for the town, where did they come from. Party Favor said everyone in the village came there on their own to try and find something they thought was missing in their lives. So did these foals manage to cross a wasteland to find a town in the middle of nowhere? It doesn’t seem very likely. Are they children brought or born by the villagers to the town? It doesn’t seem very likely they were born there, the timeline doesn’t really allow that.

Maud Pie ran into Starlight’s village during her rocktorate studies, which she left for after S4E18, only 8 episodes before The Cutie Map, and this is what the village looked like.

 

The village isn’t even half built. Even if we give an absurd time gap of 1 year to 8 episodes, (I think three months is likely, and six months is pushing it) that’s still nowhere near enough time for these foals to be as grown as they are. So what if the foals were brought along by their parents? Well, for one thing, that seems like a lot of parents dragging their kids to the middle of nowhere, but even if that were true, where did they all go? I’ve looked through the episodes with the village after the Cutie Map, and this is the only split second shot of what could either be a foal, 

 

or it could just be a small mare, I have no idea. So where did the rest of them go?

 

Maybe they were kidnapped by Starlight and returned home after she ran off. Maybe they were orphans or runaways Starlight took in, and the villagers turned them over to the proper authorities because they couldn’t really take care of them. Maybe they were never really real to begin with O.O

 

Or, maybe they were just an addition by the storyboaders/animators that wasn’t thought out all the way through, and were retconned out of future episodes. Who knows? But it’s just one of those background details that doesn’t really matter, but still bugs the heck out of me anyways. What do you guys think?

[ShootingStar159 2,156]

Just now, Califorum said:

Maybe they were born there, you know naturally? 

Did... you even read what I wrote? I made an argument for why that wasn’t likely, do you have a counter argument to make?

[ShootingStar159 2,156]

Just now, Califorum said:

"the timeline doesn’t really allow that." Go on.

Okay. So, the village is only half way built, and the foals in the first picture could be about five to ten years old. So you’re suggesting it took the villagers five to ten years to build one half of the village, but only 8 episodes (whatever that is) to build the other half? That’s how old the village would have to be in order for what your suggesting to be the case, and that’s only if the foals were born around the time the village was founded. So you think it took them a decade or more to build one half of a village, but only a couple of months to build the second half?

[ShootingStar159 2,156]

Just now, Califorum said:

Maybe foals have a different procress of developing than we think. Magic could play a role in that, they could develop faster than we thought. Or its just...background stuff being background stuff.

Well, the cake twins have been infants for 6 seasons now, so the idea of super fast growth seems unlikely. Background stuff is probably the real answer.

[Victoria Sponge 1,017]

The village wasn't halfway built, they construct a new house every time they get a new family. The houses that are fully constructed could have been there longer, long enough for foals to be born in them. Starlight could have been operating the village a long time before she met Maud, I mean she had since she was a filly to set this place up.

[ShootingStar159 2,156]

4 minutes ago, Battenberg said:

The village wasn't halfway built, they construct a new house every time they get a new family. The houses that are fully constructed could have been there longer, long enough for foals to be born in them. Starlight could have been operating the village a long time before she met Maud, I mean she had since she was a filly to set this place up.

Well, first, the village is only half built, this isn’t a debatable fact, only half the houses of the finished village in The Cutie Map are built. And, once more, there is only eight episodes, at most, for the rest of the village to be built since this moment takes place somewhere between S4E18 and S5E1&2.

So you think it took 5-10+ years to build half the village, but only a matter of months to build the second half? How do you explain the extreme influx of people that arrived relatively overnight compared to the rest? And that doesn’t answer the second question, where did they go afterwards since the foals aren’t seen in the village anymore?

[ShootingStar159 2,156]

3 minutes ago, Califorum said:

Maybe those foals were inside the houses or something afterwards. 

All of them? In the middle of the Sunset Festival while all the adults are having fun decorating? How cruel...

If the question had an easy answer like that, I wouldn’t consider it a problem.

Edited January 6, 2018 by ShootingStar159

[King of Canterlot 9,603]

This is an interesting theory, I guess when you think about it, those fillies from the screenshots above seem to be the only fillies shown in the village during episodes, so therefore considering the small number of fillies that are shown, and considering how many houses are in the village, even though there's not many houses, it would still be enough so that during episodes, maybe the fillies are just in one of the houses at that particular moment. One way or another the fillies did get to the village, as they are obviously seen in the episode, how though? Its up for debate if you really want too, though my personal opinion is that they were just simply born in the village, though others will have their own opinions about that.  

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

Hum... I need to rewatch Hard to Say Anything to find any filly during the episode, the episode happened in the village afterall...

[Will Guide 21,360]

@Lambdadelta

Actually, the picture in the first post on this topic comes from the first episode that features the village, S5's The Cutie Map. Just a simple correction.

Also, @ShootingStar159, to simply answer your question of where the foals come from:

They don't have to have been born in the village. If Starlight was able to convince the bullies not to pick on young Fluttershy in the time-traveling episode, then she can most certainly convince fillies and colts (likely orphans that found their way to the village) to join her misguided village of "equality".

Honestly, you gotta keep your mind open. 

[Jeric 46,851]

In universe explanation

There are missing pieces of information allowing several judgements and interpretations of things. The timeline presented assumes "heading off to get her Rocktorate" can't be reconciled separately with Maud doing earlier Rocktorate Dissertation research. We already know, though played up for humor, that a Rocktorate isn't following the same general track as a PhD program. So that's a possibility that there are legs or phases of research and Pinkie may have been referring to final post research analysis. 

The most likely answer is that they were children of other townsponies. 

 

Real explanation

The writers don't worry about those details. The younger ponies helped sell the facade of a normal town. That's it. Nothing more complex that a visual license. 

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

@WiiGuy2014 Yes, i know. I just find another episode took place in the village to find any filly/colt...

And i found one colt, in Hard to Say Anything, in around 8 minute mark. So i think kids still exist in the village, they just didnt appear in particular moments.

[Will Guide 21,360]

@Lambdadelta

1 minute ago, Lambdadelta said:

@WiiGuy2014 Yes, i know. I just find another episode took place in the village to find any filly/colt...

And i found one colt, in Hard to Say Anything, in around 8 minute mark. So i think kids still exist in the village, they just didnt appear in particular moments.

Okay, but please remember that any episode taking place in the village AFTER Starlight was first run out of town, the townponies no longer do the = cutie marks thing; it's just a normal town now.

[Goat-kun 2,527]

My biggest problem with that village is that it's literally just there for the plot. You can't lore this shit with logic. It's a wasteland. They don't mine anything, they don't grow anything, they don't harvest anything, and they are not located on any trade route. This cult was full of useless hipster anarcho-socialists who were bad at everything so how the heck were they able to buy building material, food, and water? Foals are just the tip of the iceberg, their existence being a mistake or otherwise. Just look at them as one would look at a glitch in the Matrix. Our glorious writers and their handlers don't give a damn about consistency, lore, or aesthetics for that matter.

 

And don't get me started on the name. Comparing its name to Manehattan is like comparing a dog turd to a chocolate cake with Manehattan being a roundworm-infested dog diarrhea among fantasy names.

 

This whole place is a monument to hubris and incompetence of our glorious writers, nothing more. The sooner it is taken by oblivion along with the rest of their feeble abominations the better, but not before their noses are introduced to its stench.

[Will Guide 21,360]

5 minutes ago, Goat-kun said:

And don't get me started on the name. Comparing its name to Manehattan is like comparing a dog turd to a chocolate cake with Manehattan being a roundworm-infested dog diarrhea among fantasy names.

Uh...the village NEVER had a name. Ever. Sorry, but your argument is not strong.

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

 Fillies and colts who go out of their town by themself exist (like Cheese or Tempest) in Equestria. Those kids could be some kids who being isolated in their society so they left their town to find their own hay, instead of become some villains, they met Starlight, she showed them Equality is the only way. After Starlight society collapsed, they left the town to find their own hay again. That my headcannon

 

[KrazyDashie 1,847]

17 minutes ago, WiiGuy2014 said:

Uh...the village NEVER had a name. Ever. Sorry, but your argument is not strong.

well the only name given is "Our town" but there probably is a proper name. the equestrian map only shows the village as "Starlight's village"

[Will Guide 21,360]

Just now, KrazyDashie said:

well the only name given is "Our town" but there probably is a proper name. the equestrian map only shows the village as "Starlight's village"

When they sang that song, I thought they were being generic and NOT actually calling the place, "Our Town". Besides in-universe, they had never called it "Our Town" outside that 2 parter.

That would be like calling your dog, "Dog" with a capital D: redundant and confusing AF.

[Crypty Scribbles 5,020]

They came with adult pones. Classic!

[KH7672 1,604]

2 hours ago, Goat-kun said:

This cult was full of useless hipster anarcho-socialists who were bad at everything so how the heck were they able to buy building material, food, and water?

Their cutie marks didn't make them bad at everything, it made them equal at everything. Every character builds the same, cooks the same, stitches fabric the same. Looking at how the Equal Mark reacted on the Mane 6, it doesn't take away your special talents or else they wouldn't remember how they worked initially, it suppresses them slowly as to accounting for each and every anomaly that would be different from another. Granted it would have been more interesting is the mark accounted for each anomaly and instead, integrated that new trait into every individual, which still keeps them equal, but that there's downsides to that as well.

As for the topic. I mean who says these aren't families with foals drawn in by the allure of the friendly community. You don't really go walking around in this area for any reason other than to get away, so it's possibly families lost in life or as another said they could be orphans.

[Will Guide 21,360]

4 minutes ago, KH7672 said:

Their cutie marks didn't make them bad at everything, it made them equal at everything. Every character builds the same, cooks the same, stitches fabric the same. Looking at how the Equal Mark reacted on the Mane 6, it doesn't take away your special talents or else they wouldn't remember how they worked initially, it suppresses them slowly as to accounting for each and every anomaly that would be different from another. Granted it would have been more interesting is the mark accounted for each anomaly and instead, integrated that new trait into every individual, which still keeps them equal, but that there's downsides to that as well.

As for the topic. I mean who says these aren't families with foals drawn in by the allure of the friendly community. You don't really go walking around in this area for any reason other than to get away, so it's possibly families lost in life or as another said they could be orphans.

Exactly. When the Mane 6 were "='lized", everytime they tried to do something they're best known for, the = Mark would glow, supressing the talent. It neutralize Pinkie's enthusiasm to Muad-levels (in the wrong way), took away Fluttershy's ability to talk to animals, Rarity's sense of design, Rainbow Dash's speed so she could no faster than the others, Applejack's habit of making expressions out of her country lifestyle, and Twilight's ability to do complex spells that the average unicorn wouldn't be able to do.

Once everyone got their Cutie Marks back at the end of the 2-part Season 5 premiere, it was totally possible to run a simple town again. They even planted a tree where Starlight's house used to be. It can easily be seen in S6 Finale "To Where and Back Again" (the one with the "Sunset Festival") And if a tree can be planted there, then so a civilization can function. 

@Goat-kun

[ShootingStar159 2,156]

6 hours ago, Jeric said:

The timeline presented assumes "heading off to get her Rocktorate" can't be reconciled separately with Maud doing earlier Rocktorate Dissertation research. We already know, though played up for humor, that a Rocktorate isn't following the same general track as a PhD program. So that's a possibility that there are legs or phases of research and Pinkie may have been referring to final post research analysis. 

I admit that’s not something that ever occurred to me, though that’s largely because there’s nothing in how Pinkie or Maud discuss it in Maud Pie that makes it sound like her going away for her dissertation is a regular occurrence. If Maud has been leaving to go on her dissertation research regularly, why is this the first time Pinkie is introducing Maud to her friends? The reason Maud is coming to visit is very clearly explained that she wants to visit with Pinkie before leaving on her long research trip, so why visit this time and not any of the other times before? And even if this is the case, the fillies in the first pic are still clearly 5-10 years old, meaning that if they were born in the village, then it’s taken Maud that long to work on, and not even finish, her doctorate research? (there’s still two full seasons before she graduates) I could buy one year. I could buy two, maybe even three. But half to a full decade?

Lets also keep in mind, Maud is the one who told Starlight about the Vault Rock up in the caves. So was there just a long period of the town’s history were the vault didn’t exist? If so, where did they keep their Cutie marks before that, and why wasn’t that solution good enough for Starlight that she had to find a more permanent one?

Im not saying it’s impossible for the foals to have been born in the village, I’m only saying the way the timelines line up, especially the foal’s ages, makes it unlikely.

 

6 hours ago, Jeric said:

The writers don't worry about those details. The younger ponies helped sell the facade of a normal town. That's it. Nothing more complex that a visual license. 

This is what I believe to be the real answer, especially since we never see any of these foals again after the adults cover their ears while the main six argue. They were just kinda forgotten about.

[They call me Loyalty 1,948]

An associative representation between the familiar or communal aspect of cults and Starlight's social experiment.

Their objective was to provide referencial context.

 

[Goat-kun 2,527]

8 hours ago, WiiGuy2014 said:

Uh...the village NEVER had a name. Ever. Sorry, but your argument is not strong.

Lurk more.

6 hours ago, KH7672 said:

Their cutie marks didn't make them bad at everything, it made them equal at everything. Every character builds the same, cooks the same, stitches fabric the same. Looking at how the Equal Mark reacted on the Mane 6, it doesn't take away your special talents or else they wouldn't remember how they worked initially, it suppresses them slowly as to accounting for each and every anomaly that would be different from another. Granted it would have been more interesting is the mark accounted for each anomaly and instead, integrated that new trait into every individual, which still keeps them equal, but that there's downsides to that as well.

As for the topic. I mean who says these aren't families with foals drawn in by the allure of the friendly community. You don't really go walking around in this area for any reason other than to get away, so it's possibly families lost in life or as another said they could be orphans.

Would YOU eat those muffins? Now use the same logic for every other task.

[Hierok 11,831]

I think they just came with there mother there. On there own could also mean as one family.