Friendship is Dragons
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Page 872 - Inn Consistency
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37 Comments:
alt GM line: "you are interested in the world building NOW?!?"
Newbiespud, your mistake is simple: You expect cannon to /make sense/. It doesn't, and it never has. :D
Pssst... 'canon', as in 'canonical', not something you shoot confetti out of.
Unless they're Pinkie Pie's.
And she had the nerve to tell Pumpkin Cake that "we do not put anything in our mouths that we cannot safely and properly digest"
My headcanon on the tech levels in Equestria is that while it exists, up to and including a hydroelectric dam, ponies don't care for it.
Earth ponies come from hardworking farmers, and place great value on the quality of their work. They LIKE working up a sweat and getting their hooves dirty. Fancy enchanted stuff is seen as frivolous and frou-frou. Note that the Apple family DOES use a rustic woodburning stove.
Pegasi on the other hoof are descended from a military culture. They tend more towards a spartan lifestyle, and with the exception of the weather gear, don't have much use for much beyond a few momentos and the like.
On the third hoof, Unicorns are descended from a monarchist society, and like fancy little devices, especially since they can easily maintain them.
Side note: the Princesses became rulers because they were popular with the Earth ponies, impressed the Pegasi with their prowess, and were regal enough for the Unicorns.
Anyway, the fourth hoof: ponies are... A bit clumsy. Stuff breaks. Speedy blue pegasi can crash through a wall or ceiling without somepony yelling at them about the damage done. It is ROUTINE. So having an expensive piece of fragile equipment is a risk. Don't get too attached to it.
Earth ponies come from hardworking farmers, and place great value on the quality of their work. They LIKE working up a sweat and getting their hooves dirty. Fancy enchanted stuff is seen as frivolous and frou-frou. Note that the Apple family DOES use a rustic woodburning stove.
Pegasi on the other hoof are descended from a military culture. They tend more towards a spartan lifestyle, and with the exception of the weather gear, don't have much use for much beyond a few momentos and the like.
On the third hoof, Unicorns are descended from a monarchist society, and like fancy little devices, especially since they can easily maintain them.
Side note: the Princesses became rulers because they were popular with the Earth ponies, impressed the Pegasi with their prowess, and were regal enough for the Unicorns.
Anyway, the fourth hoof: ponies are... A bit clumsy. Stuff breaks. Speedy blue pegasi can crash through a wall or ceiling without somepony yelling at them about the damage done. It is ROUTINE. So having an expensive piece of fragile equipment is a risk. Don't get too attached to it.
OR, they don't mind tech at all, but they DO mind mass-production, so tech stays boutique and rare
I'd buy the notion that despite their technology they've never really had an industrial revolution for various reasons so basically everything is individually made. That, and ponies are industrious and good at making do with what they have, so "Mother Necessity" isn't really a factor.
Magi-tech is a really good excuse to have schizo tech when you think about it. Our technology is the result of thousands of years of advancement, each building off of the ones that came before it (though in the past hundred or so years it's really started to accelerate). In order to get to things like radio headsets, we had to go through all of the preceding technologies involved in such a device, and the preceding technologies involved in those devices, and so on. But when you use spells to get the same effect, you might end up... skipping a few steps here and there, leading to devices that are significantly advanced when compared to the overall level of understanding of the culture. As well as still-widespread use of less advanced technology.
Great, thanks spud. Now whenever I see that background pony all I'll be hearing in my head is microsoft Sam going "John Madden! John Madden! Football! AEIOU"
If they have headsets but not cars, maybe making things louder is easier than animating something? (It probably is; Twilight is able to boost her voice, but animating a hoof-driven cart goes horribly wrong. Mind, she'd had a few more years of practice, but it still seems effortless when she magnifies her voice)
Really, looking at how both magic and tech is in Equestria, it seems like 'Equestrian Magic' doesn't play well with complex mechanical structures.
Either that, or complex mechanical structures are an 'earth-pony' thing, and it's rare for much effort to be put into mixing the magic-first inventions of unicorns with the magic-free earth-pony things.
Some progress, sure, but the 'combined' tech might be several decades behind the more focused sides.
There could also be MORE progress in some areas; Even with our modern science, our engines are pretty big (and heavy).
While we've said equestrian magic doesn't seem to play nice with anything as complex as a car, maybe it can handle just rotating a single gear fine?
Especially if the tech is built around it; If magic engines have an unreliable output (sometimes the magic's stronger, sometimes it's weaker), then OUR cars would have trouble since they work best with a steady power, but THEIR cars could plan ahead with automatic gears and such (not to mention magic-sensors that can turn down the engine when it's in a magic-strong area)
In short: Their tech might be different because it's based on different rules.
The first rule is "make this intuitive to little girls"
The second rule is "sell toys"
The second rule is "sell toys"
At the same time, a lot of tech wouldn't interfere with either.
Just because it's a toy-selling show doesn't mean there aren't creative decisions that are more complex than 'is this good for toy-sales?'
Oh, but we did see a telephone in Rarity Takes Manehattan, so apparently they have wired transmission tech.
There's also the fact that in real life ponies are designed to travel longer distances than people. (Horses were after all the vehicle of choice before the automobile) Things like cars might not exist simply because there's no call for them. Short trips like to the store are easy walks and long trips are handled via train.
As opposed to humans, who were busy surviving/getting rich/whatever.
As in, it's not that horses are better at running - Humans are pretty damn good at long-distance running too, though it's possible we still aren't quite as good as horses.
It's rather that a horse can be trained to run faster, for longer, while carrying a human, than a human could if most of their life is devoted to things that aren't running.
Besides, the rider would rather tire out the horse than themselves.
Heck, there's the 'Rickshaw', where a person drags another in a seat on wheels; That's powered by another human, yet a lot of people use them.
For one, the rickshaw-driver is better trained in running, for another it means the passenger doesn't need to exhaust themselves.
No, humans are better runners than horses. Don't get me wrong, horses can run faster, but they're built for speed, not endurance.
Humans used to *hunt* by chasing their prey until it dropped dead of exhaustion. Learning how to track game and carry water were huge for early humans.
Wolves come close to us in endurance, but when you consider that there is something called an 'ultramarathon' that people do recreationally...
Humans used to *hunt* by chasing their prey until it dropped dead of exhaustion. Learning how to track game and carry water were huge for early humans.
Wolves come close to us in endurance, but when you consider that there is something called an 'ultramarathon' that people do recreationally...
A lot of 'reactors' and general reviewers have commented on the weirdness of them.
Technically true, but it's worth noting that per-pound of body mass, ponies can haul more than humans, and hauling stuff is one of the purposes of cars.
Perhaps more to the point, though, is the PERCEPTION by most people (including the target audience) that horses can do long trips better/faster than humans. Hence, Equestrian ponies, which are based more on perception than biological reality, can do long trips better than humans.
Perhaps more to the point, though, is the PERCEPTION by most people (including the target audience) that horses can do long trips better/faster than humans. Hence, Equestrian ponies, which are based more on perception than biological reality, can do long trips better than humans.
But the perception is also that humans aren't very good at those things to begin with.
Perception is important, yes, but being better than a bad thing can leave you still inferior to something that's inferior than a good thing.
As in, if Equestrian horses are superior to how humans are perceived to be, but humans themselves are underestimated, then Equestrian horses aren't necessarily actually better.
...I am very glad you added that last sentence because it would have taken me awhile to parse the previous one.
I have to slightly disagree, though. While it's true that people don't realize humans are that good at it, they tend to think you can go through the desert on a horse with no name with no trouble. Consequently, in-universe we have things like a couple of horses pulling a train not being significantly slower than a coal-fired steam engine. 'Course, we also have Earth Pony super-strength at play there, but that's a different discussion.
I have to slightly disagree, though. While it's true that people don't realize humans are that good at it, they tend to think you can go through the desert on a horse with no name with no trouble. Consequently, in-universe we have things like a couple of horses pulling a train not being significantly slower than a coal-fired steam engine. 'Course, we also have Earth Pony super-strength at play there, but that's a different discussion.
In addition to the telephone, in "Gift of the Maude Pie" we finally see a camera roughly equivalent to a polaroid from say the 1980s. Also, Twilight had the Special Relativity equations on her board in "Twilight Time". Combined, these indicate a certain understanding of light, and since light is an electromagnetic wave it's not too much of a stretch to suppose that they have at least rudimentary knowledge of electricity.
However, since most of their houses don't use electric lights, it seems they don't have those. Likely because, as suggested, magic substitutes when needed. They can't use magic to make photographs, but they CAN use it for a light source. They can probably even "hang" a spell, since Tank's propellor works without constant unicorn intervention. You just gotta take your light to charge every so often. Still, they seem to prefer candles in most cases.
Also, lightbulbs require vacuum tube technology, which they might not have, to be viable. It's not obvious what that relates to and we don't see anything else (like TVs) that would require it.
I tend to assume most of their tech level is roughly early-to-mid-20th-century, unless demonstrated otherwise. They have telescopes in observatories consistent with those created in the early 1900s, coal power, and cameras, but no cars.
However, since most of their houses don't use electric lights, it seems they don't have those. Likely because, as suggested, magic substitutes when needed. They can't use magic to make photographs, but they CAN use it for a light source. They can probably even "hang" a spell, since Tank's propellor works without constant unicorn intervention. You just gotta take your light to charge every so often. Still, they seem to prefer candles in most cases.
Also, lightbulbs require vacuum tube technology, which they might not have, to be viable. It's not obvious what that relates to and we don't see anything else (like TVs) that would require it.
I tend to assume most of their tech level is roughly early-to-mid-20th-century, unless demonstrated otherwise. They have telescopes in observatories consistent with those created in the early 1900s, coal power, and cameras, but no cars.
> There could also be MORE progress in some areas
Ponies are <i>way</i> ahead of humans in the fields of weather control and airborne cities.
Ponies are <i>way</i> ahead of humans in the fields of weather control and airborne cities.
Maybe Pinkie Pie uses a modern-looking wood-burning oven.
Meanwhile Pinkie Pie lives in a town with ponies of various sorts who could likely run maintenance or power such appliances.
Also just word of DM - ie 'I say these guys have it and these don't! I dare you to stop me!'
I've always had a fan theory that this is a post apocalyptic world, with ponies evolving intelligence (plus gaining magic and wings, etc) after 'the end'. And all the tech that seems out of place is really reverse engineered from the remains of human tech they've found.
In a year or so old pirate campaign, my character enchanted a room with cold to keep meat, and fruit fresh.
Just to make a comment on the names, Spud - for minor background characters, what seems to be happening lately is the staff behind these publications - which includes the Enterplay card game - look at the fan names they've already been given on the MLP wiki and use them, if they're appropriate.
WRT the Wonderbolt Academy Handbook... the names might be right but I'm hesitant to take anything in that book as canon because it made the very elementary mistake of claiming that the Sonic Rainboom had been in the Wonderbolts' repertoire for years, when the first episode to mention it specifically said no one had been able to do one in so long that it was considered a legend.
There are ways to finesse that (such as colored smoke making a 'faux-rainboom'), but I really think it's just that the author didn't bother double-checking for consistency the way, say, Berrow does.
There are ways to finesse that (such as colored smoke making a 'faux-rainboom'), but I really think it's just that the author didn't bother double-checking for consistency the way, say, Berrow does.
Wut?