Exactly. After all, he was stressed beacuse he's asked to NOT Drop it because it's important. It's more the stress that was messing with his head and tus making him worry-which makes it more likely he's trying to keep his back at a perfect angle, which is making the cake harder to handle.
There's also the interesting fact that in the episode where Twilight and Fluttershy pack and go to solve the dispute between 2 families, Twilight is shown having an easier time carrying a lot of weight whereas Fluttershy doesn't. It makes me wonder if that's the Earth pony aspect of being an alicorn.
Twilight can levitate. It's possible she was slightly levitating her bags (it would be nice of her to levitate Fluttershy's as well but whatever). Also, Fluttershy is usually physically weaker unless adrenaline is in effect.
Possible but dont forget Twilight is yoused to carry houge amount of Books and other stuff around. Fluttershy on the other hand is Physicly pretty weak when she isnt angry as hell.
fictionfan0 A similar thing to Earth Ponies and their strength. Analysing an average unicorn's magical capabilities and an average pegasus' flying capabilities. You might think that the show's already showed us enough of that, but you never know what some analysis can uncover, with Game Theory being a prime example of this.
Can we acknowledge that Zecora, who is not a unicorn, has a magic related cutie mark? That little swirl on her flank with the triangles around it? That's a sun. From what the show has shown, magic specialist cutie marks relate to celestial bodies, like it does for twilight, sunset, and sunburst. Zecora has shown to be capable of magic as well. She made water appear in her cup with just a wave of her hoof in Magical Duel. Heck she trained Twilight! This comment will probably be lost in the comment section and never acknowledged, but hey, I can take things too seriously and get my thoughts our there.
ACKWNOWLEDGED! =) Zecora training Twilight I read was a nod to Star Wars, with the whole master/pupil thing. I went to double check where I read that. Here's TVtropes take on it. Homage: The similarities to The Empire Strikes Back fall just short of a Whole Plot Reference but run far deeper than a mere Shout-Out... Twilight takes on the role of Luke, the talented learner. Zecora is similar to Yoda as the Mentor Archetype in the wilderness. She doesn't have the inverted syntax but she speaks in rhyme and quotes a Yoda line word-for-word, telling Twilight "You must unlearn what you have learned."), With her new red magic aura and dark cloak, Trixie looks a lot like a Sith Lord. She tries to use a lightning-like Agony Beam on Rainbow Dash.
i might be missing something here but whenever i see that scene of big mac carrying the cake i just think that considering how important it was and all the stress and emphasis pinkie was putting on not dropping the cake had freaked big mac out and just made him even more nervous about carrying it anyways this is so good! i hope therell be more on the unicorns and pegasi like this in the future ;o;
Also is that all his muscle and everything he's built up is likely mostly set around PULLING heavy items, such as a plow, behind him. It takes an entirely different group of muscles to hold something up then it does to drag it behind you. He might have just been dealing with the weight in a way he's not used to and so had to strain a bit. And that's not even getting into we don't know how long he had to hold it up, what is easy enough to do for a minute or two, can get harder the longer you hold those muscle tight.
This is *exactly* what I keep telling people. Usually on the side of "Earth ponies have only agricultural or strength abilities." People forget that a lot of what makes up an Earth pony's magic is cutie mark-based. Remember, it was shown in Magical Mystery Cure that Pinkie does not have the magic to buck apples properly.
The defense I have for Maud destroying that Boulder and not push Holder's Boulder is simple: Adrenaline. Pinkie was in trouble and Maud reacted to save her sister's life, whereas the former had no real danger. That's just my two bits.
No real danger? You're trying to push a gigantic boulder up an incline about a story above you. You slip up, and there's a possibility of being crushed.
kyuubinaruto17 True, but it didn't roll, and, like Adrenaline, it's only used when it's a real emergency. That, and all I can think of is the Futurama scene where Bender pushes a large block on the Egyptian planet.
You forgot to mention that we can infer that earth ponies also have connections to plant life and/or the ground, allowing them to grow bigger, faster, explaining why Applejack spends most of her time harvesting and can grow apples to such large sizes.
Ok for anyone who wants to know at 1:35 it says "Totally not a dragon egg" , at 1:40 it says "Yeah you push that boulder, Maud. You push the shit out of it." At 1:54 it says "*RETCON" 2:55(for the slow readers) says "I'm Batman"`, at 4:16 it say "Busy stroking his cannon" don't ask me how many times I had to rewind to get tmost of those. Did I miss any FireBrand?
I love it when you bring math, science and engineering into your analysis Josh, it makes things so much more intriguing and realistic while expanding upon what we can gather/assume/know! xD I'm considering doing a geeky/nerdy series with a lot of that at some point, to help practice my Engineering skills that I'll need as I'm studying it. But... there is one thing that many of us neglect or assume with this show... We're still starting from the basis that their laws of physics/thermodynamics operate exactly the way ours does. It makes it easier for us to come to conclusions, certainly, but we can't rule out the possibility that... what if their acceleration due to gravity is a completely different constant? Or, what if it's localized and only constant within a certain area of their world? OR, what if that new discovery on our part of gravitational waves further challenges absolutely EVERYTHING we also currently know about gravity in such a way that it might be best to start from scratch? In which case, would that explain why some of the physics we've seen in this show don't make sense?!? OR even more crazy... explain why many of our current understandings of our universe are filled with holes?!? OR explain why we've been unable to do certain things that we wish we could do, but have sort of written off as impossible according to our own laws simply due to our core basis for those laws being slightly off?!? Like teleportation of matter? Or a portal gun?!? Or time travel?!? ... I think I hurt my brain, but there's something valuable in all that rambling... I just know it... Despite it being a hypothetical rant from me at 2:31 am... which is when I've decided to enjoy your vids apparently... Thanks for all this hilariously entertaining and insightful analysis btw! I HAVE FAITH YOU CAN CATCH UP IN EPISODES!! CHARGE FORTH AND DO IT JOSH!! FOR NARNIA!! FOR EQUESTRIA!!! :D Ah well. Perhaps I'll be able to better tackle it when I take some extra advanced physics courses that explain gravitational waves and quantum mechanics and such after completing my degree haha! xD :P
Good examples, especially the whole, having to keep in mind we are mostly seeing ponies that are outliers on the high end of the bell curve, like Twi and AJ, or are on their entirely own graph completely like Pinkie. Not base line, average ponies. Though, from what we've seen I'd say Rarity would be a good indication of "Average" unicorn ability. Noponies ever commented about her magical abilities being at all strong or anything. Some good points, if not fully extensive, such as not getting into the whole "only they could grow the food" aspect and how they seem to have some form of Floramancy at work. Also, the speed thing, the takes in the assumption they are moving straight line A->B at speeds, and not doing some weird teleporting like thing, or folding space or some other means of moving from A to B without passing through the space between.
I'm so glad someone finally pointed out that the apples always fall in the nests. I've seen so many videos that try to explain how earth pony magic works and no one has ever pointed that out.
I'm not sure about the strength turning on/off thing. I may be wrong. What's the maximum that Mac carried on his back in the show comfortably? Generally speaking as a horse person, horses can pull a lot more than they can carry, and I've only ever seen Mac pulling things. Draft horses, which are the big muscle horses that are bred to haul things (Clydesdales, Shires, Belgians, ect.), actually have a harder time being ridden than a saddle horse (Arabians, Thoroughbreds, Saddlebreds, ect.) because they aren't bred to carry weight on their backs. I'm not quite sure showing Mac struggling with a heavy cake was justifying his strength.
Imma be honest with ya, the part where you mentioned Big Mac having that cake on his back, I wouldn't say that he turned off his strength. I had actually seen another video talking about Big Mac's strength, and they mentioned the cake one as well, but they pointed out that it was more of Big Mac struggling to keep the cake balanced on his back. I mean seriously! Look how tall that cake is! Takes a lot of concentration and effort to keep something like that balanced while trying to move it, and with that, it's understandable he'd get all sweaty and wibbly wobbly.
Film Theory: How does magic in My Little Pony work? feat. Firebrand. A four part series explaining unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, as well as magical conditions of all sorts, like a broken horn or magical diseases.
Here's something ya overlooked: longevity. It may be possible that on average, Earth Ponies live longer than Pegisi and unicorns. Twilight said that Ponyville was founded over hundred of years ago and Applejack said Granny Smith was there. Dr Whooves said he had 100s of years of research and Pinkie Pie said she planned her parent's anniversaries hundreds of years in advance
Or you could do what I do and like them all so much that you can't possibly decide on one pony type, so you create a separate OC of each type to represent certain traits, talents, abilities and personalities of yourself!.... Wow that sounds a lot deeper and more introspective than I realized till I put it in words... Or it sounds like I have tri-personality disorder.... I have no idea lol! xD
Yep, I like all 3 types of ponies too!! It's one reason why I'm so fond of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. You sound like an interesting person!! :D ...Err, did that come off as creepy?
So good to know that I am not the only one to notice the earthponies' power. I mean it's obvious that they are strong but I think this is the first time I've seen someone take on the magic in earthponies. It's also nice to know I'm not the only one loving math in this world of idiots. P.S. You are my favorite reviewer/analyst please continue and the jokes are great. 😊
Wow, your theory on earth ponies is almost the exact same as mine. Question: Do you think that their magic is more latent? To me that would explain why Tirek went after them last, since it was harder to get at without him being re-energized to a degree.
I'm with you on that, honestly. After all, in the Hearthswarming Eve play, it was shown that Earth Ponies seem to have some sort of connection to the Earth. After all, a sapling GREW in Smart Cookie's hooves when she said it was 'fertile soil', meaning that they can sense good soil for harvest when they are farmers. Thus Rock Ponies like the Pies could potentially know what rocks have something of ACTUAL worth or, in smoe cases, are actually edible. (I am gonna guess the 'edible rocks' are actually a frm of edible clay that they make into 'rocks' since they can just chew it without trying)
I think they're like Earthbenders, who, on top of their great physical strength, have heightened senses based in their environment. But in this case, those skills come more naturally rather than being something you have to learn and master.
you have a valid point. in "Applebuck Season" at the end wherw the rest of the Mane 6 finally help Applejack with the harvest you can see Rainbow Dash buck a tree and the apples do not all fall perfectly into the bucket/wagon and many fall messily around the tree
Apple trees here are growing with arborist around. So they could be groomed so that the apples fall in specific planned spots. Our harvesting methods are more crude so it will be messy. Humans usually do use something like a drape cloth to collect after falling. This is also true of trimming trees and bushes. I’ve found cleaning up the mess is a lot more difficult off the ground without a cloth or net to catch this. Like you said we never got a baseline for most ponies.
5:21 was the moment I immediately thought up an earth pony martial artist grand master who can break every bone in an opponent's body with a single tap. Of course, such a technique would take many decades to master and I can't imagine many earth ponies actually wanting to learn such a brutal skill but it's awesome to think about and seems possible by the logic presented in the video. What do you guys thinks?
ahh yes, a content fit for a Fire brand video title. Dude, even i thought you are taking this too seriously. And I NEVER THINK THAT! haha anyway had fun with this one :3
1:50 Is there any chance that it was "Fallout Equestria" reference ? You know, Littlepip learning about trains in Applelosa and all about " why do they even pull engine if it doesnt work " ?
Since Earth ponies are not the only ones who can farm they are no longer the master race but unicorns are but when the Equestria was young they were because they were the only ones who could grow food
Whoo. "Yeah you push that boulder, Maud. you push the shit out of it." That's got to be on screen for like, one frame or something. Also "*retcon" and "Busy stroking his cannon."
Big Mac can carry that huge cake he's just afraid to topple it. Earth ponies ( and donkeys like Matilda and cranky )have a connection to plants and the earth. To flowers to trees, and to sense danger like pinkie in feeling Pinkie keen
Years later I add. Remember when AJ hit the strength-test machine so hard it disintegrated? Remember when she noticed RD conveniently under an apple tree, stunned at seeing it? Then with an offsides single leg buck, she directed a single stream of apples precisely onto RD's noggin? Yeah, them Earth ponies got contact telekenesis.
Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns do have different biologies. Earth Pony- denser bones and stronger muscle fibers Pegasi- lighter bone density and more flexible joints Unicorn- pretty much middle ground in their bodies but they do have natural magical abilities Now just cause these are the standard biological differences doesn't mean that an individual of a species can't go against the norm. Like Bulk Biceps, even tho he's a pegasi he trained himself to be able to match an earth pony like Big Mac.
and good to seeya piccolo! yeah, ive figured Earth Ponies are pretty darn cool. comapred to the other pony types they have something both more direct and subtle. that analysis of apple bucking is a good way to put it. thats some learned but IMPRESSIVE precision.
Something I think needs to be acknowledged is that the rest of the mane six were shocked to see Maud pulverize that boulder. I think it's safe to assume that Maud, and perhaps even the rest of the Pie family who spent their entire lives working on the rock farm, is the exception and not the norm.
Rarity is a good example of an average unicorn. She uses levitation quite heftly, especially with regards to sewing, and we saw Snails use his magic to create a small light in Boast Busters. But I'm fairly certain the abilities of Pinkie Pie and Maud Pie are exaggerated for comedic effect.
Josh, or whoever edits this: For the love of Celestia, PLEASE make those flashes of text at least a little longer. I should not have to take 10 attempts each to pause at the right time whilst double-clicking to cover as much footage as possible. It's irritating to the sun!
in regards to your analysis to the ponies pulling the train let's not forget that the world of MLP does have its own set of Physics as explained in 'Cart Before The Ponies'. They have at least some form of Newton-base physics i.e. Kinetic, Potential, Inertia Momentum. So surely there could be tensional force at play within the ropes between the train & the stallions
MLP:FIM likely follows the D&D idea of Linear Warrior & Quadratic Wizard. The idea is that Warriors at lower levels are better than Wizards at lower levels, but as they both level up, the Wizard eventually overtakes the Warrior. To the point that Wizards run circles around Warriors. This likely means that an average earth pony is better than an average unicorn. However, once they reach the level of Starlight and Twilight, then it is better to be a Unicorn. However, not all poinies are like them. My guess is that Trixie, Rarity, and Sweetie Belle are the base line for an average unicorn. They are never shown to do anything amazing in terms of magic. How do Pegasus fit in all of this? Pegasus are likely the most flexible of the ponies, except when Unicorns over take them. Pegasus and Earth Ponies are case of them neither being good or bad, but having different traits that help them in certain situations. It is likely not until near the end where Pegasus over take Earth Ponies, but they do not over take Unicorns. However, while Unicorns are powerful, they seem to not have a lot of endurance. In the magic duel between Starlight and Twilight, they both were using powerful magic but they eventually became tired. Tried to the point where Twilight couldn't use magic. This suggests that while Unicorns are more powerful than Pegasus and Earth Ponies, they trier quicker than they do. And Unicorns need to study a lot to be able to perform high level magic and that is if they are magically gifted. As Sunburst couldn't perform any powerful magic skill even though he studied magic most of his life. Finally, we do not know the demographic structure of Equestria's society. I've seen it suggested that Equestria is made up of 1/3 Earth Ponies, 1/3 Pegasus, and 1/3 Unicorns. However, that doesn't make much sense. It is more likely that Earth ponies are the largest of the three, but smaller than the two combined. Since Earth ponies are the ones who farm, and Earth ponies like AJ and Bareburn don't use advanced technology to plow their fields, they likely need a large population to farm them. We know that AJ's family is pretty big and Pinkie Pie's family is made up of 4 sisters (including Pinkie Pie). This seems to suggest that Earth Pony families are large in size. Pegasus' families have both been shown large like Sky Stinger and small like Vapor Trail and Fluttershy's family. This makes sense as Pegasus were focused on military. In a military culture, Pegasus were likely encouraged to produce a lot of babies to ensure that there were a lot pool to draw on during war time. As they had to draft them for war. However, as a large military force is not needed, Pegasus are having smaller families, but not all of them do. So a large family is likely a by product of when their culture needed a strong military. We can also see this through the Wonder bolt as they are likely paramilitary. We can see this through the outfits of the Wonderbolts which are military in design (at least the older outfits were). Unicorns are the smallest in size as we know that Twilight and Rarity have small families of only one brother or sister. We also know that Unicorns used to have royalty and there are wealthy unicorns. As royalty and wealthy families tend to not have that many children (the more children you have, the more the family wealth gets divided), this likely means that Unicorns are the smallest spices. I'm willing to believe that Earth ponies make up 40% of the population, Pegasus make up 35% of the population (they were likely even with Earth ponies until recently where it has been slowly shrinking), and Unicorns make up 25% of the population (population is stable or shrinking as they aren't producing 2.1 children). So, yeah, those are my thoughts on the three species of Equestria.
If I could add something to the train bit. If this is anything like trains and horses in real life, the first diesel locomotives (which replaced steam power) were generally much smaller than the steam locomotives they were designed to replace. Steamers themselves were designed to replace horses on small mine systems. Since Equestria is an equine-dominant society, it's not too difficult to imagine that they didn't see a reason for steam locomotives as early on as humans did; this most likely explains why their modern trains are STEAM powered and (with the exception of the Crystal Royal Train) look equivalent to the ones built in the mid-19th century! So, when steam locomotives actually came about in Equestria, I can easily picture it being able to pull as much as four ponies could. After all, Earth ponies are known for endurance more than speed. And also in real life, horses could handle pretty heavy loads as well, just at lower speeds, and that was most likely for safety reasons.
I think Big Mac wasn't struggling to lift the cake. He was just worried about it toppling over.
Exactly. After all, he was stressed beacuse he's asked to NOT Drop it because it's important. It's more the stress that was messing with his head and tus making him worry-which makes it more likely he's trying to keep his back at a perfect angle, which is making the cake harder to handle.
Totally! Tho I think earth ponies also can turn on anf off their stuff anyway so
Szczurzysława Well, they are social so they likely don't want to hurt someone or break a flower if they are gardners.
And the fact it was done for comedic affect.
Why not all of the above?
There's also the interesting fact that in the episode where Twilight and Fluttershy pack and go to solve the dispute between 2 families, Twilight is shown having an easier time carrying a lot of weight whereas Fluttershy doesn't. It makes me wonder if that's the Earth pony aspect of being an alicorn.
Twilight can levitate. It's possible she was slightly levitating her bags (it would be nice of her to levitate Fluttershy's as well but whatever). Also, Fluttershy is usually physically weaker unless adrenaline is in effect.
I think twilight has a lot of practice carrying books, and fluttershy is generally weak
Well Twilight also overpacked the bags too which did'nt help.
Longevity. Granny Smith, Dr Whooves and the Pies have all shown to have longer lifespans that what we would think of unicorns and pegisi
Possible but dont forget Twilight is yoused to carry houge amount of Books and other stuff around. Fluttershy on the other hand is Physicly pretty weak when she isnt angry as hell.
Expecting "Taking Pegasi too seriously" and "Taking Unicorns too seriously".
And what do you take too seriously with that, exactly?
fictionfan0 A similar thing to Earth Ponies and their strength. Analysing an average unicorn's magical capabilities and an average pegasus' flying capabilities. You might think that the show's already showed us enough of that, but you never know what some analysis can uncover, with Game Theory being a prime example of this.
fictionfan0 did you watch the video 🤔🙄😏
Dam it. Now I want matpat to do an mlp theory. *sigh*
Omniorcus matpat only does theories for movies and video games
Can we acknowledge that Zecora, who is not a unicorn, has a magic related cutie mark? That little swirl on her flank with the triangles around it? That's a sun. From what the show has shown, magic specialist cutie marks relate to celestial bodies, like it does for twilight, sunset, and sunburst.
Zecora has shown to be capable of magic as well. She made water appear in her cup with just a wave of her hoof in Magical Duel. Heck she trained Twilight!
This comment will probably be lost in the comment section and never acknowledged, but hey, I can take things too seriously and get my thoughts our there.
ACKWNOWLEDGED! =)
Zecora training Twilight I read was a nod to Star Wars, with the whole master/pupil thing.
I went to double check where I read that. Here's TVtropes take on it.
Homage: The similarities to The Empire Strikes Back fall just short of a Whole Plot Reference but run far deeper than a mere Shout-Out...
Twilight takes on the role of Luke, the talented learner.
Zecora is similar to Yoda as the Mentor Archetype in the wilderness. She doesn't have the inverted syntax but she speaks in rhyme and quotes a Yoda line word-for-word, telling Twilight "You must unlearn what you have learned."),
With her new red magic aura and dark cloak, Trixie looks a lot like a Sith Lord. She tries to use a lightning-like Agony Beam on Rainbow Dash.
Huh. Now I wanna see Star Wars!! :D
Hi
zecora is not a pony and that's not a cutie mark also even if it was its not magic is called alchemy u know primitive chemistry
@Madfox r u dumb have you not watch the show if she was a pony why where the ponies of ponyville treater her like a monster u dumb bat
i might be missing something here but whenever i see that scene of big mac carrying the cake i just think that considering how important it was and all the stress and emphasis pinkie was putting on not dropping the cake had freaked big mac out and just made him even more nervous about carrying it
anyways this is so good! i hope therell be more on the unicorns and pegasi like this in the future ;o;
Also is that all his muscle and everything he's built up is likely mostly set around PULLING heavy items, such as a plow, behind him. It takes an entirely different group of muscles to hold something up then it does to drag it behind you. He might have just been dealing with the weight in a way he's not used to and so had to strain a bit. And that's not even getting into we don't know how long he had to hold it up, what is easy enough to do for a minute or two, can get harder the longer you hold those muscle tight.
7Seraphem7 ahhh that makes sense too! ;o;
Purrfect Perrine to be fair, it was probably extremely difficult for him to balance something on his back, especially a cake that size.
Purrfect Perrine The stress that the Pie family'd be feeling trying to move they special family egg-rock.
This is *exactly* what I keep telling people. Usually on the side of "Earth ponies have only agricultural or strength abilities." People forget that a lot of what makes up an Earth pony's magic is cutie mark-based.
Remember, it was shown in Magical Mystery Cure that Pinkie does not have the magic to buck apples properly.
The defense I have for Maud destroying that Boulder and not push Holder's Boulder is simple: Adrenaline. Pinkie was in trouble and Maud reacted to save her sister's life, whereas the former had no real danger. That's just my two bits.
No real danger? You're trying to push a gigantic boulder up an incline about a story above you. You slip up, and there's a possibility of being crushed.
kyuubinaruto17 True, but it didn't roll, and, like Adrenaline, it's only used when it's a real emergency. That, and all I can think of is the Futurama scene where Bender pushes a large block on the Egyptian planet.
Kane Aquino But Bender doesn't produce Adrenaline. Because he is Mr. Roboto.
I know I'm late but Maud likely is trying not to break Holder's Boulder by accident.
I think it's a family ability known as adrainilan burst activated with true love which pinkey has a lot of causing her hyperactive nature
Dang it, Josh. I came here expecting theories, and all I got was math.
NOBODY SAID THERE'D BE MATH!!
Hey! I like math!
I BLAME OUR SCHOOLSSSSSS~
I like Math.
You forgot to mention that we can infer that earth ponies also have connections to plant life and/or the ground, allowing them to grow bigger, faster, explaining why Applejack spends most of her time harvesting and can grow apples to such large sizes.
Ok for anyone who wants to know at 1:35 it says "Totally not a dragon egg" , at 1:40 it says "Yeah you push that boulder, Maud. You push the shit out of it." At 1:54 it says "*RETCON" 2:55(for the slow readers) says "I'm Batman"`, at 4:16 it say "Busy stroking his cannon" don't ask me how many times I had to rewind to get tmost of those. Did I miss any FireBrand?
I love it when you bring math, science and engineering into your analysis Josh, it makes things so much more intriguing and realistic while expanding upon what we can gather/assume/know! xD I'm considering doing a geeky/nerdy series with a lot of that at some point, to help practice my Engineering skills that I'll need as I'm studying it.
But... there is one thing that many of us neglect or assume with this show...
We're still starting from the basis that their laws of physics/thermodynamics operate exactly the way ours does. It makes it easier for us to come to conclusions, certainly, but we can't rule out the possibility that... what if their acceleration due to gravity is a completely different constant? Or, what if it's localized and only constant within a certain area of their world? OR, what if that new discovery on our part of gravitational waves further challenges absolutely EVERYTHING we also currently know about gravity in such a way that it might be best to start from scratch? In which case, would that explain why some of the physics we've seen in this show don't make sense?!? OR even more crazy... explain why many of our current understandings of our universe are filled with holes?!? OR explain why we've been unable to do certain things that we wish we could do, but have sort of written off as impossible according to our own laws simply due to our core basis for those laws being slightly off?!? Like teleportation of matter? Or a portal gun?!? Or time travel?!?
...
I think I hurt my brain, but there's something valuable in all that rambling... I just know it... Despite it being a hypothetical rant from me at 2:31 am... which is when I've decided to enjoy your vids apparently... Thanks for all this hilariously entertaining and insightful analysis btw! I HAVE FAITH YOU CAN CATCH UP IN EPISODES!! CHARGE FORTH AND DO IT JOSH!! FOR NARNIA!! FOR EQUESTRIA!!! :D
Ah well. Perhaps I'll be able to better tackle it when I take some extra advanced physics courses that explain gravitational waves and quantum mechanics and such after completing my degree haha! xD :P
I love it when people try to string together multiple writers interpretations. when its just bad continuity
Good examples, especially the whole, having to keep in mind we are mostly seeing ponies that are outliers on the high end of the bell curve, like Twi and AJ, or are on their entirely own graph completely like Pinkie. Not base line, average ponies. Though, from what we've seen I'd say Rarity would be a good indication of "Average" unicorn ability. Noponies ever commented about her magical abilities being at all strong or anything.
Some good points, if not fully extensive, such as not getting into the whole "only they could grow the food" aspect and how they seem to have some form of Floramancy at work. Also, the speed thing, the takes in the assumption they are moving straight line A->B at speeds, and not doing some weird teleporting like thing, or folding space or some other means of moving from A to B without passing through the space between.
Plus Applejack can kick a tree with a force of a school bus hitting someone at full force
I'm so glad someone finally pointed out that the apples always fall in the nests. I've seen so many videos that try to explain how earth pony magic works and no one has ever pointed that out.
Please tell me I'm not the only one to giggle when Josh showed that clip of the tree being shaken by that weird claw machine thingy!
I'm not sure about the strength turning on/off thing. I may be wrong. What's the maximum that Mac carried on his back in the show comfortably? Generally speaking as a horse person, horses can pull a lot more than they can carry, and I've only ever seen Mac pulling things. Draft horses, which are the big muscle horses that are bred to haul things (Clydesdales, Shires, Belgians, ect.), actually have a harder time being ridden than a saddle horse (Arabians, Thoroughbreds, Saddlebreds, ect.) because they aren't bred to carry weight on their backs. I'm not quite sure showing Mac struggling with a heavy cake was justifying his strength.
Imma be honest with ya, the part where you mentioned Big Mac having that cake on his back, I wouldn't say that he turned off his strength. I had actually seen another video talking about Big Mac's strength, and they mentioned the cake one as well, but they pointed out that it was more of Big Mac struggling to keep the cake balanced on his back. I mean seriously! Look how tall that cake is! Takes a lot of concentration and effort to keep something like that balanced while trying to move it, and with that, it's understandable he'd get all sweaty and wibbly wobbly.
🎵IT'S FILM THEORY!!! WHOO OOH! CHARTS AND DREAMS SHATTERED PONY DREAMS! FILM THEORY!!!!! WHOO OOH!!!🎵 Oh wait, It's FOB Equestria
what the...math? Real world facts? Did Matpat write this? I can dig it.
Film Theory: How does magic in My Little Pony work? feat. Firebrand.
A four part series explaining unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, as well as magical conditions of all sorts, like a broken horn or magical diseases.
Here's something ya overlooked: longevity. It may be possible that on average, Earth Ponies live longer than Pegisi and unicorns. Twilight said that Ponyville was founded over hundred of years ago and Applejack said Granny Smith was there. Dr Whooves said he had 100s of years of research and Pinkie Pie said she planned her parent's anniversaries hundreds of years in advance
I like that you built off of the theory from your Feeling Pinkie Keen review, keep up the good work!
Earth ponies: The master race.
WORSHIP THE EARTH!
Unicorn master race BOW BEFORE OUR GODLY SHIT
Should I change my OC from Unicorn to Earth Pony?
Or you could do what I do and like them all so much that you can't possibly decide on one pony type, so you create a separate OC of each type to represent certain traits, talents, abilities and personalities of yourself!.... Wow that sounds a lot deeper and more introspective than I realized till I put it in words...
Or it sounds like I have tri-personality disorder.... I have no idea lol! xD
Yep, I like all 3 types of ponies too!! It's one reason why I'm so fond of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
You sound like an interesting person!! :D ...Err, did that come off as creepy?
So good to know that I am not the only one to notice the earthponies' power. I mean it's obvious that they are strong but I think this is the first time I've seen someone take on the magic in earthponies.
It's also nice to know I'm not the only one loving math in this world of idiots.
P.S. You are my favorite reviewer/analyst please continue and the jokes are great. 😊
1:36 - Totally not a Dragon Egg.
1:43 - Yeah you push that boulder, Maud. You push the shit out of it.
1:56 - *Retcon
4:16 - Busy stroking his cannon
Wow, your theory on earth ponies is almost the exact same as mine.
Question: Do you think that their magic is more latent? To me that would explain why Tirek went after them last, since it was harder to get at without him being re-energized to a degree.
LOL! Loved the joke with Dr. Hax and his ban-hammer!
I'm with you on that, honestly. After all, in the Hearthswarming Eve play, it was shown that Earth Ponies seem to have some sort of connection to the Earth. After all, a sapling GREW in Smart Cookie's hooves when she said it was 'fertile soil', meaning that they can sense good soil for harvest when they are farmers. Thus Rock Ponies like the Pies could potentially know what rocks have something of ACTUAL worth or, in smoe cases, are actually edible. (I am gonna guess the 'edible rocks' are actually a frm of edible clay that they make into 'rocks' since they can just chew it without trying)
This is awesome love your videos
Lps Midnight I love Josh
Me too he's awesome
aside from the near subliminally fast text flashing, this was a good video.
I think they're like Earthbenders, who, on top of their great physical strength, have heightened senses based in their environment. But in this case, those skills come more naturally rather than being something you have to learn and master.
you have a valid point. in "Applebuck Season" at the end wherw the rest of the Mane 6 finally help Applejack with the harvest you can see Rainbow Dash buck a tree and the apples do not all fall perfectly into the bucket/wagon and many fall messily around the tree
Might as well name this "Pony Theory" now.
Aaron Olden or mare theory
That means Firebrand's a mare.
It's only a name
The event premonition power that pinkie has shown must be to help defend against falling and rolling rocks
LOOK WHOS BACK!!! OUR FAVE FLAMEY SASSY UNICORN!!!!
Thank you i missed your voice FJ keep up the good work
I waiting for a Taking Alicorns Too Seriously video in the future. If you want do in the first place of course, Josh. ;-)
Boy do I love analysis videos.
I'd say that the train would be about half the size of a normal train, but that's still 57.65 tons per pony.
Apple trees here are growing with arborist around. So they could be groomed so that the apples fall in specific planned spots. Our harvesting methods are more crude so it will be messy. Humans usually do use something like a drape cloth to collect after falling. This is also true of trimming trees and bushes. I’ve found cleaning up the mess is a lot more difficult off the ground without a cloth or net to catch this.
Like you said we never got a baseline for most ponies.
first of all. I love all of your work firebrand
second of all. Noone told me there would be mATH!!!!
NEW INTRO!!! LOVE IT!!!!
Ooh, the Leanbox theme from the first Hyperdimension Neptunia game. Neat!
Enjoyable video as always Josh :)
The fact that this video was posted a few days before Pinkie Pie was announced to be fighting Deadpool in a deathbattle is ironic.
5:21 was the moment I immediately thought up an earth pony martial artist grand master who can break every bone in an opponent's body with a single tap. Of course, such a technique would take many decades to master and I can't imagine many earth ponies actually wanting to learn such a brutal skill but it's awesome to think about and seems possible by the logic presented in the video. What do you guys thinks?
ahh yes, a content fit for a Fire brand video title. Dude, even i thought you are taking this too seriously. And I NEVER THINK THAT! haha
anyway had fun with this one :3
Looks like commander firebrand forgot the most important lesson of all.
DODGE!
nice analysis Josh.
I love you and your work.
2:42 - Wasn't expecting a cameo from Dr. Hax.... #RIPDasBoSchitt #RIPGModIdiotBox
Love the new intro.
Thanks for doing the math for me, Josh. If I remembered anything I learned from high school, I'd do it myself.
Speaking of equines pulling a locomotive: What are your thoughts on Spirit and his herd pulling one, at least thrice the size of your example (1:46)
I kinda figured their super speed came from magically repelling the earth beneath their hooves
You could say the locomotive bit was a translation to literal "horsepower."
1:50 Is there any chance that it was "Fallout Equestria" reference ?
You know, Littlepip learning about trains in Applelosa and all about " why do they even pull engine if it doesnt work " ?
Nobody said there'd be math.
Overall good theory using evidence and math to back it up. Well done
Since Earth ponies are not the only ones who can farm they are no longer the master race but unicorns are but when the Equestria was young they were because they were the only ones who could grow food
Whoo. "Yeah you push that boulder, Maud. you push the shit out of it." That's got to be on screen for like, one frame or something. Also "*retcon" and "Busy stroking his cannon."
"We've seen strong feats of unicorns and Pegasai that have been explained."
Uh... what? When was Starlight's massive buff to alicorn levels explained?
Ever thought of working in the research team for Screwattacks webshow Death Battle?
1:20 My favorite part by far.
When you put it that way, earth pony magic makes sense! BTW my oc is an earth pony. Love what you do, man! Keep going!
Big Mac can carry that huge cake he's just afraid to topple it. Earth ponies ( and donkeys like Matilda and cranky )have a connection to plants and the earth. To flowers to trees, and to sense danger like pinkie in feeling Pinkie keen
Years later I add. Remember when AJ hit the strength-test machine so hard it disintegrated? Remember when she noticed RD conveniently under an apple tree, stunned at seeing it? Then with an offsides single leg buck, she directed a single stream of apples precisely onto RD's noggin? Yeah, them Earth ponies got contact telekenesis.
Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns do have different biologies.
Earth Pony- denser bones and stronger muscle fibers
Pegasi- lighter bone density and more flexible joints
Unicorn- pretty much middle ground in their bodies but they do have natural magical abilities
Now just cause these are the standard biological differences doesn't mean that an individual of a species can't go against the norm. Like Bulk Biceps, even tho he's a pegasi he trained himself to be able to match an earth pony like Big Mac.
I'm an Earth Pony. Col. Crimson Wander of the Thestral Royal Guard.
You didn't factor the best horse friend power. The train ponies could be friends
and good to seeya piccolo!
yeah, ive figured Earth Ponies are pretty darn cool. comapred to the other pony types they have something both more direct and subtle. that analysis of apple bucking is a good way to put it. thats some learned but IMPRESSIVE precision.
Something I think needs to be acknowledged is that the rest of the mane six were shocked to see Maud pulverize that boulder. I think it's safe to assume that Maud, and perhaps even the rest of the Pie family who spent their entire lives working on the rock farm, is the exception and not the norm.
LMAO I got MatPat vibes AWESOME!! MATH AND PONIES WHAT HAVE YOU DONE! 😂
cool new outro Firebrand
Firebrand has become the new Game Theory with all that math.
1:35 to 1:36 and 1:43 to 1:44 and 4:16 to 4:17 (what dose it say here)
DasBoSchitt reference, ouch that takes me back.
Man do I miss this series XD
When I should be asleep but watches josh do math
Maybe in the episode where Apple Jack knocked the boulder over, they didn't want to break or damage it since it meant so much to them.
Rarity is a good example of an average unicorn. She uses levitation quite heftly, especially with regards to sewing, and we saw Snails use his magic to create a small light in Boast Busters. But I'm fairly certain the abilities of Pinkie Pie and Maud Pie are exaggerated for comedic effect.
I think Earth Ponies super strength is like Rock Lee's opening his Chakra gates.
Then we have Twilight and Rarity carrying a giant boulder when Discord corrupted Rarity.
I think maud breaking the rock was more Adrenaline for saving pinkie than anything else
If you all want to see OP Earth Ponies, I recommend checking out the Savage Skies series on Fimfiction.
1:19-1:23 why the fudge did i replay that part so many times???
Because you have a mind that enjoys seeing blood and guts
3:20 the mane ships
Josh, or whoever edits this: For the love of Celestia, PLEASE make those flashes of text at least a little longer. I should not have to take 10 attempts each to pause at the right time whilst double-clicking to cover as much footage as possible.
It's irritating to the sun!
As I just found out yesterday, you can use the comma key to go back individual frames.
we see many exsamples of ponies with diferent power levels. Trixie as one exsample from season six.
in regards to your analysis to the ponies pulling the train let's not forget that the world of MLP does have its own set of Physics as explained in 'Cart Before The Ponies'. They have at least some form of Newton-base physics i.e. Kinetic, Potential, Inertia Momentum. So surely there could be tensional force at play within the ropes between the train & the stallions
and this video is the exact reason why my pony oc is an earth pony
trying to measure pinkie's speed, you forget your own rule
I love videos that make me think... And look up references like Bloomberg!!!
MLP:FIM likely follows the D&D idea of Linear Warrior & Quadratic Wizard. The idea is that Warriors at lower levels are better than Wizards at lower levels, but as they both level up, the Wizard eventually overtakes the Warrior. To the point that Wizards run circles around Warriors. This likely means that an average earth pony is better than an average unicorn. However, once they reach the level of Starlight and Twilight, then it is better to be a Unicorn. However, not all poinies are like them. My guess is that Trixie, Rarity, and Sweetie Belle are the base line for an average unicorn. They are never shown to do anything amazing in terms of magic. How do Pegasus fit in all of this? Pegasus are likely the most flexible of the ponies, except when Unicorns over take them. Pegasus and Earth Ponies are case of them neither being good or bad, but having different traits that help them in certain situations. It is likely not until near the end where Pegasus over take Earth Ponies, but they do not over take Unicorns. However, while Unicorns are powerful, they seem to not have a lot of endurance. In the magic duel between Starlight and Twilight, they both were using powerful magic but they eventually became tired. Tried to the point where Twilight couldn't use magic. This suggests that while Unicorns are more powerful than Pegasus and Earth Ponies, they trier quicker than they do. And Unicorns need to study a lot to be able to perform high level magic and that is if they are magically gifted. As Sunburst couldn't perform any powerful magic skill even though he studied magic most of his life. Finally, we do not know the demographic structure of Equestria's society. I've seen it suggested that Equestria is made up of 1/3 Earth Ponies, 1/3 Pegasus, and 1/3 Unicorns. However, that doesn't make much sense. It is more likely that Earth ponies are the largest of the three, but smaller than the two combined. Since Earth ponies are the ones who farm, and Earth ponies like AJ and Bareburn don't use advanced technology to plow their fields, they likely need a large population to farm them. We know that AJ's family is pretty big and Pinkie Pie's family is made up of 4 sisters (including Pinkie Pie). This seems to suggest that Earth Pony families are large in size. Pegasus' families have both been shown large like Sky Stinger and small like Vapor Trail and Fluttershy's family. This makes sense as Pegasus were focused on military. In a military culture, Pegasus were likely encouraged to produce a lot of babies to ensure that there were a lot pool to draw on during war time. As they had to draft them for war. However, as a large military force is not needed, Pegasus are having smaller families, but not all of them do. So a large family is likely a by product of when their culture needed a strong military. We can also see this through the Wonder bolt as they are likely paramilitary. We can see this through the outfits of the Wonderbolts which are military in design (at least the older outfits were). Unicorns are the smallest in size as we know that Twilight and Rarity have small families of only one brother or sister. We also know that Unicorns used to have royalty and there are wealthy unicorns. As royalty and wealthy families tend to not have that many children (the more children you have, the more the family wealth gets divided), this likely means that Unicorns are the smallest spices. I'm willing to believe that Earth ponies make up 40% of the population, Pegasus make up 35% of the population (they were likely even with Earth ponies until recently where it has been slowly shrinking), and Unicorns make up 25% of the population (population is stable or shrinking as they aren't producing 2.1 children). So, yeah, those are my thoughts on the three species of Equestria.
You know the saying: ''Friendship is Magic'' XD
Oh no, my worst enemy..................MATH!!!!!
Also, cool video. Should definitely do Pegasi and Unicorns next.
If I could add something to the train bit. If this is anything like trains and horses in real life, the first diesel locomotives (which replaced steam power) were generally much smaller than the steam locomotives they were designed to replace. Steamers themselves were designed to replace horses on small mine systems. Since Equestria is an equine-dominant society, it's not too difficult to imagine that they didn't see a reason for steam locomotives as early on as humans did; this most likely explains why their modern trains are STEAM powered and (with the exception of the Crystal Royal Train) look equivalent to the ones built in the mid-19th century! So, when steam locomotives actually came about in Equestria, I can easily picture it being able to pull as much as four ponies could. After all, Earth ponies are known for endurance more than speed. And also in real life, horses could handle pretty heavy loads as well, just at lower speeds, and that was most likely for safety reasons.
AWESOME video!!! Very interesting & makes a ton of sense. :D
Sounds like Death Battle has a new fact checker!
I'm surprised you didn't close out with 'But hey, that's just a theory. A PONY theory! Thanks for watching!'
First KP, now FOB Equestria! Will Tats release their newest count down on SCP-Js soon?