art by AssasinMonkey

Ah! A Rashomon episode! Fun with unreliable narrators!

We hadn’t had one of these on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic before. Given that we are nearly to the end of the sixth season, this surprised me.

The Rashomon style of storytelling is common enough that most of us have seen episodes done like this on other television shows or in movies. It is great for mysteries, but it is probably best employed for characterization. We learn a lot about a character by seeing how they view the other characters around them.

But we know Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie so well, and have seen them paired up and played off of each other often enough, that their perceptions of each other – while fun – didn’t offer any new insight. We already pretty much knew this is how they saw each other.

Last week, we saw a pony whose anxieties had trapped her within her very small comfort zone, and how her very bad decisions wrecked havoc with her friends. Now fitting that the very next episode sees three of those friends deciding to explore outside their own comfort zones and try something new.

Only, that’s not really what they were doing. Rather, each of them decided to use the opportunity to help the other two get the most out of the adventure, while remaining firmly ensconced in her own comfort zone to do so.

I don’t really have a lot to say about that. That portion of the episode’s lesson simply reiterates the one in “Every Little Thing She Does”, so I have already given my opinions in the Afterthoughts on that episode. However, there are other lessons that the episode can teach.

art by GaelleDragons

The lesson outright stated by Twilight is the need for friends to communicate. This lesson shouldn’t be a revelation to anyone, even the youngest of the show’s audience. But it is still one that the oldest of us will occasionally forget. More than occasionally for some of us, which is tragic.

Even the best of friends will find strife if they do not keep lines of communication open. Misunderstandings can cut deep before they are recognized as what they are, and the wounds can still hurt long after everyone involved has realized the mistake and all is forgiven. It isn’t rational, but humans are emotional creatures.

Unspoken, but just as important, is the lesson that we should not assume the worst of each other. Common decency calls for us to exercise such assumptive restraint with everyone, but this is especially vital amongst friends.

Likewise, we need to remember that other people don’t see things the way we do. And it isn’t because they are “wrong”. Or, at least, no more than we are. People have different upbringings, different biases, and different educations (both formal and experience-based) that inform how they interpret the world around them. Whether it is a position on the economy or a perception of somebody else’s accent, each of us are approaching things from a subjective reality.

I am not saying there is no objective reality. Nor am I suggesting that all viewpoints and opinions, being subjective, are equal. Those informed by misinformation or lack of information are not equal to those informed by fact. Viewpoints that grow from bigotry, self-entitlement or other poisoned soil should be condemned. Echo chambers lead to extreme disconnection to reality.

art by WhiteDiamondLtd

Conversely, a greater breadth of experiences will give a person more tools with which to craft their perception of the world. More education will given them a greater foundation to build their beliefs on. And more friends will give them alternate sources of input and alternate viewpoints than their own, allowing them to get a better view of how things really are.

And that brings us full circle to the girls’ desire to get out of their comfort zone and try something new. Their intentions are completely laudable. Even their individual efforts to help each other at the expense of broadening their own experience is to be commended, although with reservation. Generosity and self-sacrifice are virtues, but it strikes me that each of them were avoiding what they were ostensibly boarding that ship to do. As Spike told Starlight the week before, they were each focused on entirely the wrong thing and “missing the point”.

art by cheezedoodle96

Little treasures:

We got some nice world-building in this episode, including a new creature: the tri-horned bunyip. This bunyip, I note, is a whole lot friendlier and more cuddly than the classic Australian monster.

from Paranormal-Encyclopedia.com:

The bunyip is a mythical creature — a lake monster — from Australian folklore; the word itself means “devil” or “spirit.” According to Aboriginal legend, the bloodthirsty bunyip inhabited swamps, riverbeds, billabongs (the stagnant backwaters of a river), and even wells, and lay in wait at night to devour any animal or person lurking nearby — although it was said to have a particular fondness for the sweet flesh of women and children.

Lucky for the ponies, this one preferred cucumber sandwiches. (It can have all of mine. I don’t like cucumber sandwiches.)

Ahab Applejack was awesome... at least when Rarity’s descriptions weren’t going totally overboard. At first, I thought that Applejack was just really getting into a role for the adventure, which I thought was a very cool approach. I could easily have enjoyed a whole episode of Ahab Applejack. (And there was no question what this Afterthought’s header image would have to depict.)

Rose Rarity was also fun to see. Rose Calvert’s dress looked right fine on Rarity. And I hooted at seeing her on the bow doing the classic Titanic pose.

I was really impressed with much of the design and animation this episode. The water animation during the storm caught my eye. Definitely a cut above what you see in a lot of cartoons.

The new setting, Seaward Sholes, was a great addition to the world of Equestria. I really hope we go back to it. I immediately wanted them to go explore that shipwreck which Applejack spotted through her spyglass. And I really loved the look of the town itself.

For that matter, I loved the boat. Clearly, despite Rarity’s language, this wasn’t a proper cruise. Rather, it looks as if they were renting or borrowing the boat. That is one heck of a boat to be able to rent. I love all the little details. Check out that flag! And the little carved apples on the tops and bottoms of the railings. Between those and the apple sail, I am imagining that it is an Apple family relative’s boat. Although I swear that I’ve see the design before…

OMG! They sank Gabby’s boat!