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S08:E21 - A Rockhoof and a Hard Place


MangoFoalix
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This thread will contain many spoilers about the episode at hand. Make sure to put your spoilers in a spoiler tag regardless so if someone accidentally clicks on it they don't get spoiled by what happens in the episode. Some people use the OP post to find an episode link so it wouldn't be fair to them.

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86 users have voted

  1. 1. Like or Dislike?

    • Rarity *crossly*: "[A teacher] who doesn't ruin an entire class's friendship quilts. Do you know how hard it is to stitch a pineapple pattern?!" (I HATE IT! >__<) 
      1
    • Applejack: "Now this here's a right mash of apples." (I dislike it!) 
      2
    • Spike *scratches head*: "Can you do that?" (…meh…)
      9
    • Smolder: "He's definitely weird, but in a fun way. You never know what's gonna happen next with him." (I like it!)
      26
    • Yona: "When Yona grow up, Yona want to be just like Professor Rockhoof!" (I LOVE IT! <3) 
      48


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My thoughts in the spoiler tag below.

Spoiler

 

I didn't expect to see the rest of the 'Pillars of Equestria' making an appearance in this episode--minus Starswirl of course as he already made an appearance several episodes prior--though I do wish that Stygian had appeared and be given a speaking as opposed to what they did instead. Granted, at least they acknowledged his existence rather than simply writing him off completely. With this episode, you can tell that this is retreading ideas that have been done before in other media--a character from another time trying to fit into the modern world--though here it was backed up with some hilarious moments that could only have been handled by the likes of Rockhoof. I felt sorry for him throughout the episode as his skills as a hero/warrior held no merit in a world where something bad happens when it's deemed necessary whilst Starswirl and the other pillars managed to fit in easily without any trouble.

I do like how they ended up doing things that related to their old experiences--Flash Magnus in particular as it means the Royal Guard might actually become useful given how they are often unable to deal with certain situations--though I was surprised that Mistmane ended up going to the Crystal Empire. Back to Rockhoof, I didn't think Yona of all characters would forge a bond with him but I suppose it should have been expected given that Rockhoof does share some characteristics with yaks such as smashing. His interactions with her were really sweet and she managed to convince him that he had a place in the world when he himself didn't think there was. Sure, telling stories might not be seen as taking full advantage of Rockhoof's abilities but then he makes them all the more interesting because of how much emphasis he places into them.

Plus, he is living proof of ancient Equestria and knows what happened back in those days. Celestia and Luna probably know as well but due to their stations as rulers, they weren't able to go out into the field as often as Rockhoof so he has a true perspective on things. Then we have Twilight and the spell that could turn a living creature into stone. I'm glad she wasn't in favour of taking that path though she did acquiesce to Rockhoof to an extent seeing as he was very compelling in his argument of wanting to become a statue due to not being able to fit in with modern society. Even when Twilight has the spell, she had no desire to cast it but luckily Rockhoof found his calling even if he didn't see it straight away. There were a couple of moments where things became cringe-worthy such as the whole spiel with the hippogriffs but these were minor at best.

Like the previous episode, not everyone needed to be present and were just there for the sake of it. Rockhoof should've been given a bit more focus along with Yona as the two had excellent chemistry with each other, but I suppose they needed the others so as to have multiple perspectives and to provide comedy when needed. I don't really have much else to say about this episode as it was pretty by the book along with being predictable but it did have some surprises that no one would expect on the initial watching. I'll give it a 91%.

 

 

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Did anypony else thought that Rockhoof wanting Twilight to turn him into a statue was a metaphor for...suicide? :sunny:
I mean, he seemed pretty depressed that the others found their place but him, and that nothing made him feel welcome or happy in modern Equestria, and, thus, felt like he had no purpose.

Just sayin'... :huh:

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More captivating than I thought it would be. I like how they finally brought the Pillars back and made one of them a role model for Yona. Up until now, I saw Yona as one of the less interesting members of the Young Six and Rockhoof as one of the less interesting Pillars, and I know I’m watching a good episode of the show when it gets me to care about a character more and look at that character differently. I especially can’t look at Rockhoof the same way ever again. I was genuinely surprised when it got to the point where he legitimately wanted to be petrified, essentially wanting Twilight to assist him with suicide, after he felt he would never be able to fit in with the modern world. Even more surprising to me was when Twilight sort of went along with it and Spike was just like, “Eh.”.  Well, after his moment of gold at least. “I thought you were arguing over ice cream flavors!” This show is getting dark and twisted, but that’s what keeps me loving it. I need to read Me and My Shadow now.

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I liked seeing all other pillars in the same episode, and it's been a while since Star Swirl was the only one seen so far. Good to finally see what was going on with all other pillars as a continuity. What a pleasant episode, 5/5

So far Rockhoof has been from my least fave Pillars but perhaps he is more interesting than Meadowbrook. The episode starts with him appearing like with a time machine in modern world, a plot seen in other shows but interesting to see in MLP, the way he would use his brute strength and realize it is all wrong. Someone who's present in a place (the volcano and the village and whom stories and legends have been told about) to be actually there is a plot almost unreal but interesting to develop.

One question I had when he was given the teacher position of defense (of something), how he didn't demolish the School of Friendship completely :-D

It was expected Yona to be most attracted by his strength, but I must say, the student 6 have reeeally interesting teachers and classes when you look through the season, Discord now this xD School has never been so fun.

I thought the fire was real fire, never heard of dragon contest there but with the different creatures come school facilities for the needs of each creature type.

Looking at Flash Magnus, same character as Rainbow Dash, and the idea of royal army leader is just the right fit for him, like what else. You can see the guards' pride to have him in command behind him.

I was especially intrigued by the new place of Mistmane, she has got to be of my fave or most fave after Star Swirl from the Pillers if not even more interesting. Of course, if she has a quest to do somewhere that would be even more awesome and intriguing. Serving the Crystal Empire and making beautiful landscape, just looks so nice:

 

Spoiler

MLPFiM-Se8-ep190-ARockhoofandaHardPlace.thumb.jpg.b7bed8febabcc749c83d9cd41a59b83a.jpg

 

The scene with Somnanbula's meditation and his crashing the ground in sleep made me chuckle, so did her expression:

 

Spoiler

MLPFiM-Se8-ep190-ARockhoofandaHardPlace2.thumb.jpg.648b27b45da38442be78c870f237528c.jpg

 

And then one I was anticipating, an interaction between the Hippogriff world and the Pillars. Every appearance of Mount Aris raises the coolness of the episode for me. This hippogriff looks familiar on the left/right/left?

Spoiler

MLPFiM-Se8-ep190-ARockhoofandaHardPlace3.thumb.jpg.52bf3cd7ea6a0120a2252d739a27c1b7.jpg

The hippos remind me more and more of elves from (WoW or LotR)  and perhaps that's what they are like and why I find them so interesting. Lore-wise a Hippogriff rider is a Night Elf rider of a hippogriff bird.

 I liked how Yona, Smolder stuck to him remaining with them forever, a small role of a story teller but popular in fantasies and the best that could find him a place. I liked the resolution and it was all very sweet how all supported him, indeed one of my most fave episodes of the season.

Edited by ImpctR
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That was great! I loved seeing what the pillars have been doing!

They all fit real well, and I loved seeing Somnambula's scene.

But even though it was small, the best thing for me was hearing about my favorite of the group, semi-pillar and reason for their being, Stygian!

Spoiler

 

1833415__safe_pony+of+shadows_stygian_tw


 

He's an author now! <3 I just wish we could have seen and heard him proper though...

Is this book based on what happened or is it something original?

Edited by Toastypk
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4 minutes ago, Nye said:

SendVid link? That YouTube video was deleted for copyright. 

 Nevermind, I found it

Oh, I didn't even know it expired. Oops.

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At first, Rockhoof fits in with Modern Equestria like The Lost Vikings in any Time Period other than their own, but as he told his stories and won the hearts of the students, he's become as relevent today as Shovel Knight is on modern game consoles. Wow, that put me in the mood for The Lost Vikings!

Edited by YoshiAngemon
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8 hours ago, gingerninja666 said:

This episode actually makes that story retroactively feel a little better somehow.

It gives his heroism some further context so the audience can better relate to his character during that tale. Perhaps his descriptions of how he fought the Ursa gave insight intro how he must have felt when trying to save his village? In any case, his character needed a bit of TLC compared to the other Pillars, so it was quite welcome here.

 

6 hours ago, gingerninja666 said:

Also, I loved SPike in this one. My favourite gag outside of Yona being thrown was probably the bit where Spike took over class and was clearly still exhausted, and yet he still didn't fall for Gallus' crap.

Heh, Gallus seemed to forget their new substitute is related by family to the head mare. Spike would find it unfathomable for Twilight to not give out homework.

I just love the way his VA reads that line - totally deapanning it and not even giving a moment's pause to think about Gallus' statement. XD

 

5 hours ago, Ganondorf8 said:

Flash Magnus in particular as it means the Royal Guard might actually become useful given how they are often unable to deal with certain situations--though I was surprised that Mistmane ended up going to the Crystal Empire.

I'm hoping the guards become more effective as well, but there's only so much room for them in a show full of heroes. How many are there now? M6+Spike+Starlight+3 CMC+Thorax+Discord+Trixie+6 Pillars+6 students??

As for Mistmane, I guess after Rarity fixed things up at her village in "Shadow Play," she must have decided to leave it in the hooves of her ancestor and try for something more challenging. As long as she doesn't tear down Spike's statue, she's welcome to do whatever redecorating of the Empire she sees fit. :)

Edited by Truffles
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Honestly, one of my favorite episodes in the series. I laughed so much throughout, and I really love how much they branch out Rockhoof’s backstory. His voice is awesome too.

Favorite Quote

Spoiler

Ugh, that apple’s made of wood! What a horrible trick to play!

 

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On 8/24/2018 at 10:12 PM, Truffles said:

Realistic portrayal of how stars work in the universe. That is sure going to cause debate about how the sun and moon works on this world if the stars are like real stars.

Yeah, Twilight says that "stars can move slowly over time", and that "they must look different now than over a thousand years ago", with the implication that the stars must have moved far enough in the night sky to have caused Rockhoof to give directions that steered the ship significantly off course. That got me thinking about whether stars in our night sky on Earth could move that much over time, and if so, whether a similar explanation could apply to the stars seen in Equestria. I didn't know much about that, so I did a little research, and I'll try to explain my understanding of some significant factors that could cause that to happen.

First, over the course of a year, the positions of stars we see in the sky change, because as the Earth moves along its orbit around the Sun, the direction that we face at night changes. (The positions of the stars will eventually "reset" when one year passes.) However, as we look closer to the Earth's north-south axis of rotation, stars will be observed to move in the night sky less over the course of the year. And if there's a north star (or south star) directly over the Earth's north-south axis of rotation, that star will stay in essentially the same place every night. If there isn't one easily identified north star, though, a constellation of stars near or over the North or South Pole will rotate, but will essentially stay close to or over the pole, and could still be used to approximately determine which direction is north. This appears to be what Rockhoof is trying to do by identifying a constellation in "the northwest sky".

Next, if we think about the positions of stars in the night sky relative to each other, those would be expected to change over a long enough period of time. The stars that we see from Earth are orbiting the center of mass of the Milky Way galaxy (and so are we and our Sun), and these stars are different sizes and distances from that center of mass, and thus would have different velocities. However, the rate at which these factors would cause an appreciable change is very slow relative to human timescales; it would take at least tens of thousands of years for the relative positions of stars in the night sky to shift noticeably. Therefore, the shapes of constellations in the night sky for us would not noticeably change over 1000 years. And we also seem to observe that in the episode. Rockhoof is readily able to identify the same constellation in the night sky that he learned 1000 years ago.

One significant complicating factor, though, is a phenomenon called axial precession, caused largely by the gravitational forces of the Sun and the Moon acting on the equatorial bulge of the Earth. Earth's axis of rotation is tilted about 23.5 degrees relative to the perpendicular to its plane of orbit, and this axis of rotation itself rotates about the perpendicular to the plane of orbit, completing one revolution approximately every 26,000 years. This can be hard to picture without a diagram, but if we were to draw a line through Earth's north-south axis out into space, that line would trace a circle in the night sky over the course of 26,000 years. This means that, for example, a different star was the north star (i.e., the star closest to being directly over the North Pole) 5000 years ago than the star that's the north star today. The implication of this is that the north-south axis, and thus the direction of north, will change relative to the star map over time, at a rate of one degree around this traced-out circle in the sky approximately every 72 years, or about 14 degrees over the course of 1000 years. So that could noticeably change the direction of north relative to the star map, but not drastically so over 1000 years.

All of this suggests at least a couple of ways that the stars might look significantly different at the time of this episode as compared to 1000 years earlier. If the stars observable from Equestria are like those observable from Earth, and would only noticeably change their relative positions on a very slow timescale, then the direction of north relative to the star map could significantly change if the orientation of the axis of rotation of their planet underwent a big change in the last 1000 years. Or it might be possible that, if the stars observable from Equestria move at a much faster pace than the stars observable from Earth, then the stars might have significantly changed their positions in the night sky relative to each other, but the stars making up the particular constellation that Rockhoof identified could be traveling at a similar velocity and could have moved through the night sky as a unit to a different position.

Of course, in a universe where the sun and moon are apparently raised and lowered at will by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna (or other unicorns wielding the same level of power), I've also seen what I believe is a fan theory that Luna creates the night sky by placing the stars in the heavens, as well as raising the moon. In that case, Luna - or Celestia, in Luna's absence - could have intentionally or unintentionally changed the positions of the stars when (re)creating the night sky.

With respect to this episode, though, all of this might just be moot when considering why the ship crashed. The problem didn't seem so much to be that the crew of the ship couldn't tell which direction was north, or what general direction they needed to travel in; rather, the problem seemed more that the crew was unable to see immediate obstacles in the ship's path. Even if Rockhoof's method worked in determining which direction was north, that probably wouldn't have helped them to see and steer clear of giant rocks or other obstructions in their path out of the harbor.

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15 minutes ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Yeah, Twilight says that "stars can move slowly over time", and that "they must look different now than over a thousand years ago", with the implication that the stars must have moved far enough in the night sky to have caused Rockhoof to give directions that steered the ship significantly off course. That got me thinking about whether stars in our night sky on Earth could move that much over time, and if so, whether a similar explanation could apply to the stars seen in Equestria. I didn't know much about that, so I did a little research, and I'll try to explain my understanding of some significant factors that could cause that to happen.

First, over the course of a year, the positions of stars we see in the sky change, because as the Earth moves along its orbit around the Sun, the direction that we face at night changes. (The positions of the stars will eventually "reset" when one year passes.) However, as we look closer to the Earth's north-south axis of rotation, stars will be observed to move in the night sky less over the course of the year. And if there's a north star (or south star) directly over the Earth's north-south axis of rotation, that star will stay in essentially the same place every night. If there isn't one easily identified north star, though, a constellation of stars near or over the North or South Pole will rotate, but will essentially stay close to or over the pole, and could still be used to approximately determine which direction is north. This appears to be what Rockhoof is trying to do by identifying a constellation in "the northwest sky".

Next, if we think about the positions of stars in the night sky relative to each other, those would be expected to change over a long enough period of time. The stars that we see from Earth are orbiting the center of mass of the Milky Way galaxy (and so are we and our Sun), and these stars are different sizes and distances from that center of mass, and thus would have different velocities. However, the rate at which these factors would cause an appreciable change is very slow relative to human timescales; it would take at least tens of thousands of years for the relative positions of stars in the night sky to shift noticeably. Therefore, the shapes of constellations in the night sky for us would not noticeably change over 1000 years. And we also seem to observe that in the episode. Rockhoof is readily able to identify the same constellation in the night sky that he learned 1000 years ago.

One significant complicating factor, though, is a phenomenon called axial precession, caused largely by the gravitational forces of the Sun and the Moon acting on the equatorial bulge of the Earth. Earth's axis of rotation is tilted about 23.5 degrees relative to the perpendicular to its plane of orbit, and this axis of rotation itself rotates about the perpendicular to the plane of orbit, completing one revolution approximately every 26,000 years. This can be hard to picture without a diagram, but if we were to draw a line through Earth's north-south axis out into space, that line would trace a circle in the night sky over the course of 26,000 years. This means that, for example, a different star was the north star (i.e., the star closest to being directly over the North Pole) 5000 years ago than the star that's the north star today. The implication of this is that the north-south axis, and thus the direction of north, will change relative to the star map over time, at a rate of one degree around this traced-out circle in the sky approximately every 72 years, or about 14 degrees over the course of 1000 years. So that could noticeably change the direction of north relative to the star map, but not drastically so over 1000 years.

All of this suggests at least a couple of ways that the stars might look significantly different at the time of this episode as compared to 1000 years earlier. If the stars observable from Equestria are like those observable from Earth, and would only noticeably change their relative positions on a very slow timescale, then the direction of north relative to the star map could significantly change if the orientation of the axis of rotation of their planet underwent a big change in the last 1000 years. Or it might be possible that, if the stars observable from Equestria move at a much faster pace than the stars observable from Earth, then the stars might have significantly changed their positions in the night sky relative to each other, but the stars making up the particular constellation that Rockhoof identified could be traveling at a similar velocity and could have moved through the night sky as a unit to a different position.

Of course, in a universe where the sun and moon are apparently raised and lowered at will by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna (or other unicorns wielding the same level of power), I've also seen what I believe is a fan theory that Luna creates the night sky by placing the stars in the heavens, as well as raising the moon. In that case, Luna - or Celestia, in Luna's absence - could have intentionally or unintentionally changed the positions of the stars when (re)creating the night sky.

With respect to this episode, though, all of this might just be moot when considering why the ship crashed. The problem didn't seem so much to be that the crew of the ship couldn't tell which direction was north, or what general direction they needed to travel in; rather, the problem seemed more that the crew was unable to see immediate obstacles in the ship's path. Even if Rockhoof's method worked in determining which direction was north, that probably wouldn't have helped them to see and steer clear of giant rocks or other obstructions in their path out of the harbor.

The implication I got was that if they'd headed the right way "north" in this case, then they wouldn't have encountered any obstacles. That it was a clear path out to open sea.

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6 hours ago, Millennium Shadow said:

Did anypony else thought that Rockhoof wanting Twilight to turn him into a statue was a metaphor for...suicide? :sunny:
 I mean, he seemed pretty depressed that the others found their place but him, and that nothing made him feel welcome or happy in modern Equestria, and, thus, felt like he had no purpose.

Just sayin'... :huh:

The writers can't mention death, but they can mention horrific eternal torments which are much more disturbing when you think about them. 

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5 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

The writers can't mention death, but they can mention horrific eternal torments which are much more disturbing when you think about them. 

Wait till you see the season finale.

6 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Yeah, Twilight says that "stars can move slowly over time", and that "they must look different now than over a thousand years ago", with the implication that the stars must have moved far enough in the night sky to have caused Rockhoof to give directions that steered the ship significantly off course. That got me thinking about whether stars in our night sky on Earth could move that much over time, and if so, whether a similar explanation could apply to the stars seen in Equestria. I didn't know much about that, so I did a little research, and I'll try to explain my understanding of some significant factors that could cause that to happen.

First, over the course of a year, the positions of stars we see in the sky change, because as the Earth moves along its orbit around the Sun, the direction that we face at night changes. (The positions of the stars will eventually "reset" when one year passes.) However, as we look closer to the Earth's north-south axis of rotation, stars will be observed to move in the night sky less over the course of the year. And if there's a north star (or south star) directly over the Earth's north-south axis of rotation, that star will stay in essentially the same place every night. If there isn't one easily identified north star, though, a constellation of stars near or over the North or South Pole will rotate, but will essentially stay close to or over the pole, and could still be used to approximately determine which direction is north. This appears to be what Rockhoof is trying to do by identifying a constellation in "the northwest sky".

Next, if we think about the positions of stars in the night sky relative to each other, those would be expected to change over a long enough period of time. The stars that we see from Earth are orbiting the center of mass of the Milky Way galaxy (and so are we and our Sun), and these stars are different sizes and distances from that center of mass, and thus would have different velocities. However, the rate at which these factors would cause an appreciable change is very slow relative to human timescales; it would take at least tens of thousands of years for the relative positions of stars in the night sky to shift noticeably. Therefore, the shapes of constellations in the night sky for us would not noticeably change over 1000 years. And we also seem to observe that in the episode. Rockhoof is readily able to identify the same constellation in the night sky that he learned 1000 years ago.

One significant complicating factor, though, is a phenomenon called axial precession, caused largely by the gravitational forces of the Sun and the Moon acting on the equatorial bulge of the Earth. Earth's axis of rotation is tilted about 23.5 degrees relative to the perpendicular to its plane of orbit, and this axis of rotation itself rotates about the perpendicular to the plane of orbit, completing one revolution approximately every 26,000 years. This can be hard to picture without a diagram, but if we were to draw a line through Earth's north-south axis out into space, that line would trace a circle in the night sky over the course of 26,000 years. This means that, for example, a different star was the north star (i.e., the star closest to being directly over the North Pole) 5000 years ago than the star that's the north star today. The implication of this is that the north-south axis, and thus the direction of north, will change relative to the star map over time, at a rate of one degree around this traced-out circle in the sky approximately every 72 years, or about 14 degrees over the course of 1000 years. So that could noticeably change the direction of north relative to the star map, but not drastically so over 1000 years.

All of this suggests at least a couple of ways that the stars might look significantly different at the time of this episode as compared to 1000 years earlier. If the stars observable from Equestria are like those observable from Earth, and would only noticeably change their relative positions on a very slow timescale, then the direction of north relative to the star map could significantly change if the orientation of the axis of rotation of their planet underwent a big change in the last 1000 years. Or it might be possible that, if the stars observable from Equestria move at a much faster pace than the stars observable from Earth, then the stars might have significantly changed their positions in the night sky relative to each other, but the stars making up the particular constellation that Rockhoof identified could be traveling at a similar velocity and could have moved through the night sky as a unit to a different position.

Of course, in a universe where the sun and moon are apparently raised and lowered at will by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna (or other unicorns wielding the same level of power), I've also seen what I believe is a fan theory that Luna creates the night sky by placing the stars in the heavens, as well as raising the moon. In that case, Luna - or Celestia, in Luna's absence - could have intentionally or unintentionally changed the positions of the stars when (re)creating the night sky.

With respect to this episode, though, all of this might just be moot when considering why the ship crashed. The problem didn't seem so much to be that the crew of the ship couldn't tell which direction was north, or what general direction they needed to travel in; rather, the problem seemed more that the crew was unable to see immediate obstacles in the ship's path. Even if Rockhoof's method worked in determining which direction was north, that probably wouldn't have helped them to see and steer clear of giant rocks or other obstructions in their path out of the harbor.

 

Also yes stars do move over time, in fact NASA posted information in 2016 that over 80% of people living today should actually have a different starsign i.e. cancer, gemini, etc than they think because they've moved. The really fun part of moving astral bodies is that black holes do it too.

Edited by Senko
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14 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

The writers can't mention death, but they can mention horrific eternal torments which are much more disturbing when you think about them. 

Plenty of kids' cartoons and movies have shown death.

But in kids' cartoons/movies, for the most part, death and, shall we say, physical intimacy, don't exist. :maud:

I'd like MLP to take an episode to discuss about depression and suicide. :mlp_ooh:

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Can't really make a review on my phone, but I'm wondering - anyone else getting a strong Winter Wrap Up vibe from this eppy, albeit in a different situation and with higher stakes?

Edited by Quinch
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First time seeing the Pillars again since the Season 7 finale, and it was nice to see how they've managed to adapt to modern Equestria since then. Here's a bullet list for them in their new roles:

  • Flash Magnus: Has used his experience in the Royal Legion to become the new drill sergeant for the Royal Guard to better train them for future threats.
  • Mistmane: Became the new gardener for the Crystal Empire, allowing her to work with the crystal plants, a new experience for her.
  • Somnambula: Became a motivational speaker back in her namesake town.
  • Mage Meadowbrook: Returned to Hayseed Swamp to resume providing medicine from her old home with support from Cattail, turning it somewhat into a pharmacy.
  • Stygian: Became an author with his books talking about his past, such as the one Twilight got having an image of Stygian and the Pony of Shadows on the cover.

That brings us to Rockhoof, who returned to his homeland to aid in the archeological excavation of it. However, due to his love of finding old relics and reminiscing on them, he proves to be a problem for Professor Fossil to keep up with, so she asks Twilight to have him become a teacher at the School of Friendship. This proves to be a problem when he wrecks the classroom while telling one of his stories to the Student Six, and ruins one of Rarity's classes when he believes Spike and Smolder's fire-breathing contest to be a fire he had to put out to save the School.

To try and help him out, the Mane Six offer him various jobs around Ponyville, but none of them work out. Then Twilight offers to take Rockhoof with her and Applejack to check on the other Pillars and see how they are doing. Despite seeing how his fellow Pillars are doing, Rockhoof still feels downtrodden, even with encouragement from them, and an attempt to have him become a crewman for General Seaspray in the Hippogriff Navy fails when he causes Seaspray's ship to run aground due to the stars having moved from where he last remembered them, forcing the general to dismiss him due to his error, despite how much Seaspray would have enjoyed having Rockhoof in his service.

As a result, Rockhoof decides he's better off in a museum as a stone statue, but when Yona learns of this, she is able to convince him to change his mind, and when Twilight finds him telling the rest of his story to the whole school, including the Student Six and Mane Six, she is inspired to name Rockhoof the official keeper of tales, due to how he's a living record of Equestria's history, so he could tell it to the younger generations and inspire them, along with generations to follow. With both Twilight and Yona's support, Rockhoof accepts his new role in modern Equestria, and goes on to tell another story to everyone.

Very great episode, so I'm giving it a full 10/10 as my rating.

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Overall, I'd say this was an okay episode - perhaps not particularly exciting to me, but it was better than I might have expected, and I don't really have any serious issues with it. Rockhoof's conflict is understandable, and it's nice to see the Mane Six and the rest of the school taking a genuine interest in finding a place for him and making him feel as though he belongs. It's also nice to see what the other Pillars besides Star Swirl are up to, and to see that they're doing well for themselves. And there are other smaller enjoyable details, such as Spike's seeing right through Gallus when substituting for Twilight.

One thing that I'm not totally sold on, though, is the idea of appointing Rockhoof as "Equestria's official keeper of tales". We see Rockhoof want to tell a story when at the dig site for his old village, and he tells a story in class when he hasn't read Twilight's notes for the class yet. But I wouldn't see those instances as necessarily meaning that Rockhoof would want to become a full-time storykeeper and storyteller. After all, essentially everyone has stories about their own lives, and stories of things that they've heard, that they might want to tell on certain occasions. Also, Twilight calls Rockhoof "a living record of our history", but how much history does Rockhoof know, and has he been making any particular effort to remember it? Rockhoof says that his Ursa Major story "was just a tall tale", and at the end of the episode, he's seen to be just making a story up as he goes. In this new Twilight-appointed role, will Rockhoof be recording actual history or historical legends, in addition to making up inspirational "tall tales"? (Also, will Rockhoof be paid for this role through Twilight's mysterious source of funds?) This role for Rockhoof is depicted as better than being turned to stone, which is true enough, but I'm not sure of the long-term viability of this role, and I might think that Rockhoof would want to do something physical that utilizes his strength (a little more on that later).

I don't really have any other bigger-picture observations, so here's the rest of my miscellaneous observations:

After Rockhoof is seen apparently not understanding what the archaeological team is doing at his old village, Professor Fossil goes to Twilight and says "So, you see why Rockhoof isn't an ideal fit for my team". Was Rockhoof "officially" a part of Professor Fossil's archaeological team? Did Twilight or Celestia or somebody send Rockhoof to join Professor Fossil's team, without his fully understanding what they were doing? Was Rockhoof told what the archaeological team was doing, but just disregarded it? Or did Rockhoof himself volunteer for the team?

Smolder asks the other Student Six whether they think that Rockhoof is "gonna be the weirdest teacher at school or just one of the weirdest". Is Smolder just referring to the substitute teachers that Discord and Starlight came up with in "A Matter Of Principals", or does Smolder think that (at least some of) the Mane Eight are weird, too?

So Rarity's entire class's friendship quilts were ruined because, what, they got wet? Are these quilts they're making never supposed to be washed? Is the implication that they were blasted with water and the impact undid the incomplete stitching or something?

Do the mail deliverers in Ponyville always know the contents of the packages they're delivering and what the people who ordered those packages will use them for? Was this one pharmaceutical company from which Cranky was ordering just particularly indiscreet in its packaging?

The Pillars besides Rockhoof that we see in this episode seem to be aware of what the other Pillars have been up to, whereas to Rockhoof, this all appears to be new information. That's another factor that would contribute to Rockhoof's isolation and depression - he appears to have been left out of the loop when it comes to what his fellow Pillars, some of his only friends, have been doing.

Applejack asks why the hippogriffs need ships if they can turn into seaponies, but one answer could be that they might not be able to effectively defend themselves and their home from threats on the seas as seaponies.

Silverstream seems positively gleeful at the (supposed) story that "Rockhoof called down the stars and sunk the whole hippogriff Navy!" - i.e., the Navy of her own society. I suppose that, as a relatively young student, we can't expect her to show concern about the labor and resources it would take to rebuild the whole Navy, or about how such a story might indicate that the Navy isn't as ready to defend their home as they might think.

Spike tells the class that Twilight won't be in because she has to cast a stone sleep spell on Rockhoof, but then when Ocellus asks why, Spike just shrugs his shoulders. Was Spike told by Twilight not to say why she's casting a stone sleep spell on Rockhoof? Is Spike protecting Rockhoof's privacy/dignity/image by not saying that Rockhoof himself wanted the stone sleep spell cast on him?

If Yona is reading to Rockhoof directly from her essay, my first thought was to wonder whether the students at Twilight's school are being corrected/graded on their grammar, but maybe they don't want to interfere with the yaks' culture of speaking/writing that way.

Finally, I made an earlier post here about Twilight's saying that the stars look different now than they did 1000 years ago.

On 8/24/2018 at 10:12 PM, Truffles said:

I liked the spot they found for him, but as an alternative he probably could have joined Cerebus in helping guard Tartarus. Or maybe clean out the hydras and rocs out of the Everfree? :laugh:

My first thought of something that Rockhoof could do was a job in construction/demolition. However, this episode makes a point multiple times that Rockhoof wants to be seen as heroic, and a construction/demolition job might be rather mundane. Digging a tunnel for a new train route through the mountains, for example, might not be viewed as particularly heroic, even if it's argued that that would improve many Equestrians' lives. Your suggestions could provide a little more opportunity for heroism.

On 8/31/2018 at 12:13 AM, Truffles said:

His eyelids were half-closed for most of the time, and what was with the dark circles under his eyes? I didn't get the impression Twilight and Rockhoof were arguing about the Stone Sleep spell throughout the night, and dark circles like those would only be present if he had been kept awake that long.

At least for the last case, maybe the idea is that Twilight and Rockhoof started arguing and woke Spike up early in the morning, a few hours before the time that he would have woken up. Spike might normally have to wake up fairly early for whatever jobs he does at the Friendship School, though, so I'm not sure if that's really a good explanation.

On 8/31/2018 at 12:13 AM, Truffles said:

Also, about the scene with Smolder:

Is a fire-breathing contest the dragon equivalent of a pissing contest? :laugh:
Either of those contests would be better served being done outdoors, one would think.

One thing I noted was that the flames coming out of the windows during Spike's and Smolder's fire-breathing contest are the standard orange/yellow, but we've seen that Spike's fire breath is green and Smolder's is a multicolored pink/blue/orange. So it looks like the flames coming out of the windows are not Spike's and Smolder's fire breath directly, but rather, from something that they lit on fire. If they have fire-breathing contests all the time, as Twilight says, do they normally catch stuff on fire when they do so? I could imagine, say, a fire-breathing contest where the two of them get (essentially) identical flammable objects, and the goal is to use their fire breath to be the first one to reduce their flammable object to ash. However, are they prepared to contain the fires they make so that they don't harm anyone or anything else? It really would seem like something more safely done outside and a good distance away from anyone else.

Edited by Music Chart Fan
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1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Smolder asks the other Student Six whether they think that Rockhoof is "gonna be the weirdest teacher at school or just one of the weirdest". Is Smolder just referring to the substitute teachers that Discord and Starlight came up with in "A Matter Of Principals", or does Smolder think that (at least some of) the Mane Eight are weird, too?

She wouldn’t be wrong. 

 

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On 9/15/2018 at 3:09 PM, Millennium Shadow said:

Did anypony else thought that Rockhoof wanting Twilight to turn him into a statue was a metaphor for...suicide? :sunny:
I mean, he seemed pretty depressed that the others found their place but him, and that nothing made him feel welcome or happy in modern Equestria, and, thus, felt like he had no purpose.

Just sayin'... :huh:

Yup. I felt the same vibe. 

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Not really sure why they couldn't just hire him as a construction pony or something, I mean his problem was a bit artificial and the writers just wanted to show of other legendary ponies. As much as I would like to think that the stars do move in the sky but to be perfectly fair others should have been able to catch his mistake.

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My thoughts on the episode:

I actually really enjoyed this episode being that it was very relatable for me. The episode is about finding that role/job that is out there for you, which is where I am at right now in my life. Being a recent graduate who majored in Cell and Molecular  Biology, it's been very difficult finding a job that I could excel in and at the same time, enjoy. Like Rockhoof, I can't seem to find my place at the moment, despite having all these "special talents" and skills. It's been a few months now and I'm not gonna lie; there were times where I simply gave up and wished that I could just "turn into stone" like Rockhoof, simply because I felt as if I would never find that job I was destined for. However, this episode reminded me that there is that one role/job that everyone is destined for,  a place where we can use our amazing talents and excel. We just need to keep our heads held high, persevere, and have faith! 

Edited by PINOYPONY_30
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