The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone

So welcome back my few but growing watchers and clickers, it’s time for the next episode of our latest season! Now I warn you this week it MIGHT be a bit heavy for some of you or dare I say offensive to some in terms of religion. I want to preface this by saying no one is right and no one is wrong for being any religion, each person has the right to choose and follow their own desires, devotion and path. I make no judgment as such. Two very close friends told me when I was at ends about posting my thoughts this week that there is far too much censorship already in terms of “possibly” offending someone and to go ahead. They also, for various reasons, wish not to be thanked by name 😛

We start out with everyone’s favorite party girl, Pinkie Pie, where she’s about to bake a rather large cake based on the recipe she riffles off to her alligator. Before she can really get started, the new Bat-Phones that each of the Mane 6 (or does Sunset count yet?) have in their booty now. It beeps and flashes and reminds us of the Phone to the Mayor’s office in Powerpuff Girls (Wouldn’t be too unheard of, as the show’s creative force is the wife of the creator of the three protectors of Townsville and the art style is similar) and away she goes to find out what’s wrong in Gotham this week!

Arriving at the castle of friendship (That still sounds silly :P) we see that the Map that’s been sending our girls all over the place is now sending them to the Throat of the World er I mean Griffonstone. It seems that the mission only requires Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash since, for whatever reason, the holographic magic display only hovers their marks over the destination.

 

Those of us who are long time fans know that the only Griffon we’ve seen for the most part (save the Equestria Games) is Gilda! You remember Gilda?

She was in season one’s episode about how sometimes our friends just won’t get along no matter what we do. She was also the first and only griffon Pinkie Pie ate according to the infamous fanfiction “Cupcakes”.

I wouldn’t go reading it unless you’re into psychological thrillers, it explores the idea that Pinkie Pie actually has a very serious mental condition. We see elements that supports this in “Party of One” season 1 where when left alone and isolated for even a small amount of time, her minds begins to shatter and objects talk to her, despite the fact we see SHE is the one moving their mouths, ect. Though if you can stomach a bit of deeper character development and are a fan of psycho-thriller-killer novels and movies, it’s worth a read. Just go in knowing THATS what your getting. I also recommend Rainbow Factory but that s another day and another review. I can only assume the writers finally came to use Gilda again since they can then say for a fact Cupcakes didn’t happen, I personally disapprove but that’s me.

Now, after a few more scenes that are meant to remind us that Twilight’s still in charge, and to inform us of Gtiffonstone’s back-story, our two friends venture towards Griffonstone!

Apparently Griffonstone was an awful place of coveting thy neighbors…everything before a king united them via a golden idol! (Wait, I get back to that later :P) and isn’t very social, so an updated report on the culture is not available, so the last real book on the matter informs they are flourishing under the idol. Predictably, the place is…a dump.

Gilda and Dash run into each other and she quickly delivers the final part of history. Apparently the king lost the idol during a battle and it fell into a chasm nearby, hence without it, the society, with nothing to idolize and stand behind, collapsed into disarray. As we find out that the griffons are basically all grumpy and for whatever reason, all named with a name starting with “G”, we also discover that Pinkie and Dash have two distinctive ways of solving this mission problem.

Rainbow Dash declares that they need to find the idol and that will fix things, to which Gilda immediately mentions that her idea is “Typical Pony Hero Complex” which tells me that ponies seem to be viewed as a giant superpower that shall be remain nameless. One who tends to try and solve the problems of the entire world? There’s something to think on isn’t it? 🙂

Pinkie decides that there’s a problem to be solved via the Library (Twilight’s idea) so she heads over to the destroyed library and runs into Gilda again, who we find is baking scones to raise money to just plain leave the area. The two arguably never had any real time to get to know each other last time mainly due to Gilda’s personality and the need for the writers to make her one dimensional at the time (Hey, they didn’t know we would go nuts over the show then :P) so the following interactions let us see “Why the grumpy griffon is so grumpy” through a series of half forced exposition where we find out breaking out into song is forbidden (The one idea I agree with so far 🙂 ), there’s no party store, and not even a bakery! Pinkie’s stumped and loses several teeth on Gilda’s less then properly baked scones!

Rainbow Dash’s side of the story shows a more adventure / Daring Do / Indiana Jones like adventure, for the kids who are getting bored by this point of the show. It deals with her repealing down to the chasm where she intends to bring back the idol that’s down there.

Pinkie Pie has the same realization that the audience does when Gilda mentioned no one’s friends in the town and she DID have a friend once (Dash) and it didn’t turn out so well in the end. The two collide after Rainbow Dash breaks her leg (Remember Horse Hospitals? :P) and is stuck, unable to fly or escape. Pinkie Pie decides to help her by throwing her a rope, and I think we all know where that gag was going before she threw it. 😉

The story elements combine when Pinkie runs to get Gilda and tells her Dash needs help and reminds her that she was once her friend. Naturally since impending doom is present, we go to a flashback where we see the most adorable itty bitty griffon befriending lil Dashie back in the day. Those of you from the beginning remember the motto they chant at the end of the flashback, it’s like a small Easter egg. My favorite element occurs when Pinkie Pie talks to us, shattering the fourth wall again and re-affirming my suspicions of her actual nature.

The climax of the film should make Indiana Jones fans go “Oh I see what you did there” when Dash, Pinkie and Gilda all end up tied to each other on a ledge that’s apparently made of rock candy since it’s unable to hold weight for more then a minute. The only thing missing was someone yelling “Throw me the whip; throw me the idol!” and Gilda going “I can almost..reach it…Dash..” as she grabs at the idol that turns out to be real.

Naturally instead of letting them fall, Gilda learns her lesson suddenly and pulls them both up, letting the idol fall and confessing her friendship for them both!

Now here’s where I’m going to get to the point that I was afraid of mentioning. Lets now do a thought experiment in terms of what we’ve seen in this episode and apply it to previous episode lore.

The main “practice” (I use that world loosely in this case) of Ponies is the concept of “friendship” and how it can essentially fix everything, right? We see this time and time again. This mighty thing called friendship has beaten back Discord’s attacks, Sunset Shimmer, the Sirens, and every other B-Card villain between finales and movies. It seems infallible, conquers all, and it’s apparently the most dominant idea as ponies seem to be the majority.

Stay with me here.

So this magical map that’s telling the mane 6 to go places and “fix” things for lack of a better term came to them after friendship helped them beat a seemingly unbeatable foe. It’s now semi sentient, and sending them to a town that, according to legend, prospered after the culture (Griffons) began “worshiping” a golden idol. The moment the idol was gone, they turned on each other.

They had nothing to “believe” in if you will. So this map sends them to a land of “non believers” and has them show the town that everything associated with the idol they worshiped leads to nothing but trouble. After all that trouble it recently caused is solved by one of the griffons turning to “friendship” the town seems back on track.

Now take a step back and think with me: the main deity responsible for “friendship” being accepted so much with ponies is Celestia, and her little sister. Celestia then painstakingly creates an civilization based on her ideas and it spreads. Maybe not far enough, so she wants to expand to other cultures to embrace her ideas, but doing so by force would not be viable in this case as it’s counter productive. So being immortal, she waits and finds the perfect “student” to send out with her own band of friends. After testing their resolve, she finds them acceptable and gives them more power and abilities over time, not too fast or it’ll show her cards to them. Finally they best an awful powerful foe and show that given absolute power, the student will return said power to her teachers. The perfect apostle, per say.

Now, with more resources at their disposal, they begin to spread the lessons taught to them about “friendship” and slowly, the way of life spreads.

I ask you now, as a deity, wouldn’t that be easier to do if you had immortality and the time to sink into it. Much easier then dominating the land via force and risking a rebellion?

Anyway, it’s food for thought. I don’t think one way or another in this matter, I’m here to present ideas, concepts and ways of thinking. I simply ask if you go somewhere with it, give me proper respect in the matter 😛

All in all, I give this episode a 7 out of 10. I enjoyed seeing more parts of Equestria and thus, new cultures, new ideas. It was nice to see Gilda again despite the fact my head canon keeps Pinkie’s psychological state is unstable.

 

Until next time,

-Watchfire