#howdy and skedaddle's aunt

[sg-the-mag-by]

My brain just lit up like a Homewarming tree with Sally perched on top! Everybody, hopefully, remembers the hidden caterpillar on the Welcome Home Site(I don't remember the exact page but it was a blue caterpillar on a leaf with three eyes, or at least two real eyes) and that takes you to the video of Howdy telling Barnaby and Wally about how some of his siblings were having trouble with their cousin Henry and that he needed to go to their Aunt Molly so she could set him right, for whatever he was doing that was causing distress in the Pillar family. Now, in the Homewarming update we got some more of Howdy's family members, though their names weren't what we were expecting. One of those names was for Howdy's Cousin Skedaddle, who clearly is a surfer dude beatnik type. So I'm sure you all get where I'm going but I'll add a little more to this theory stew I'm brewing. When you go the transcripts for Howdy's Holiday Hullabaloo and you read where Gam Gam Sally Tations enters, right by her name(and I HOPE it is still there) is the name Holly. Now I STRESS it is a name because it is capitalized. AS SOON as I saw this and really as soon as I heard everyone's names be greetings of some sort or statements(like Latter's name) I knew something was up. So if Holly is actually Gam Gam's real first name then who's to say all the other family members we meant don't have different names too? Like the only named cousin showing up, who seems to have a different way of thinking things that Howdy and his Siblings don't really understand, who was sent TO AN AUNT of theirs, yeah. Skedaddle's REAL name is Henry and possibly Aunt Toodaloo is Actually Wooly Aunt Molly. And how that I think about it, Skedaddle LOOKS like he'd be a Henry but would probably go by other names too to fit his lifestyle. Now I want to STRESS this is a theory based on what minimal information we have from hidden bug videos(that may or may not show what is actually happening in Home when the cameras are off and showing the truth as well) that have been fully wiped from the website and how all these names were for a song made by Playfellow and Marlo so of course they'd want to make something goofy like this since Howdy's name is both a shorthand for Howard and a greeting, aka Howdyadoo as his mom and aunt call him. Also shout out to @carnivalcarrion for their Welcome Home Winter-Spring Update stream where they pointed out "Toodaloo" possibly being Wooly Aunt Molly before we heard these names, you may have hit the right note there IF this theory has any merit. If not, well I had fun thinking about it and I hope everyone who reads this long theory enjoyed it too and got your own brains turning at what was going on in the Neighbors world and what was going on in the real world.

[punny-buddy-barnaby]

Heyyyyy buddddddddyyyyyyy- what do ya think of howdy’s family?

Well uh...give me a second to pull out the list- I currently only have a quarter of a wiggle but I can tell you what I got-

So uh, we'll start with...Hiya!

Hiya is a very sweet woman, I think she's the kindest bug I've met! I mean, other than howdy but he can be a bit pushy with his sales- plus she makes the best food I've ever tasted! And she ain't ever broke the spaghetti! Still mad at someone for doing that- not supposed to break it-

Biya is nice too but I don't know him as well, I heard he's a clumsy fellow- kind of reminds me a mailman I know!

Aunt Toodaloo is nice and all but I do t like her all too much- she keeps asking howdy when he'll sell his shop and it just irks me, really just irks me. Other than that she's a sweet Lady!

Uncle Adieu is uh....I have no clue what that man is saying!!- plus there was....the incident- no one will believe me but I swear to you he said, in perfect English, said "no one will believe you" when everyone went outside!!!-

Cousin Skedaddle is really nice! Me and him get along! We smoke cigarettes together sometimes! Other than that we uh...we don't got much in common

Oh and Seeya is just a sweetheart, really takes after her mother in that sense, she's wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! She helped me get out of a hole I accidentally dug myself into-

Beeya is great to, really great guy to just mellow out with, he is so calm all of the time! Though I wish him and Seeya wouldn't drop their kids off everywhere, but it's fine, I lover those two trouble makers! Speaking of which!

Howdo and Youdo are the funniest trouble makers I know!! I got them to prank Frank once and it was a holler!! We was on our backs laughing, it was so fun!

And than there's Gam Gam Sally Tations, I don't think she likes me very much- she hits me with the news paper Everytime I come around, I think she hates me infact- she calls me "dumb dog"-

Now, don't tell Howdy- but I did save the best for last!

Honestly Latter is my favorite out of the entire family! Sure his poems are sad and feel dreadful, but they're nicely done I think! Everyone else calls me tone deaf cause of it but I know when I like something! And I quite like Latter, he's really nice!

[taiblogcomics]

We Did, In Fact, Start the Fire

Hey there, the lyrics to "Maneater". Well, I finally got my order in, and we're gonna get right into it, boy howdy. In fact, there's one here we gotta take care of real fast before anything else. It's finally time to review Ponyville Mysteries #3. And honestly, I'm not disappointed~

Here's that old familiar cover style again:

Ah, these covers were always good. Applebloom looks adorable in that little suit. And the mystery is there for you to infer from the cover, as usual. See if you can work it out before we start the review, in the immediate next line~

So we open out in one of Sweet Apple Acres' orchards. The Crusaders and some other fillies are having a campout. I guess what with the local woods being the Everfree, it's really not safe to have a campout there. So the local apple orchard it is! Anyway, it turns out ponies have their own version of s'mores, which substitutes a lightly roasted prickly pear for the marshmallow. Because you know what marshmallows are made of, right? These are called sum'yums, and they seem to like them, though I remain unsure. Suddenly Granny Smith comes rushing up and reports that the local retirement village is on fire. And the circumstances seem suspicious, so she subtly suggests the Crusaders look into it.

The fire's already out by the time the Crusaders arrive, and I just want to say that my headcanon is that Fire Streak here is probably Sunset Shimmer's father, given his colouration. Either way, he's a good firefighter, and he comments to the mayor (which the Crusaders overhear) that the fire may have been set deliberately. Ooh fun, an arson case. Granny Smith puts up the retirees at her house for the night, and one of the old guys comments that he figures Filthy Rich set the fire, since he's been looking to purchase the land. The Crusaders follow up on this lead the next morning, visiting Diamond Tiara at her house. I like this bit, because it shows that while Diamond Tiara has reformed, she's still working at it. She corrects herself from greeting them with "blank flanks". I just enjoy little character details like that. Anyway, she says that if her father really wanted the land, he'd just put up more money than they could ignore, rather than resort to arson.

Needing a new lead, the Crusaders go out the the retirement place itself. The groundskeeper hasn't seen anything, though he remembers overhearing that old man Sand Trap has been complaining about the place since he moved in. They start asking around, stopping in on Pearly Stitch first. They're delighted to discover that she was also a Filly Scout like them in her youth. First troop in Ponyville, in fact. When they ask her if they think Sand Trap is capable of arson, she's like "I dunno, I guess so." She then asks the Crusaders to leave, looking over her Filly Scout photographs wistfully. Hmm, this isn't suspicious behaviour at all~

They continue asking around, and it seems to be an even split over whether Sand Trap is capable of such a deed. Even this Marx Brothers cameo each have an opinion. They wander by the crime scene, where Fire Streak is still hanging out, warning them not to enter. Sand Trap wanders by at this point, having heard that they're asking around about him. He's pretty grumpy about the accusations, and asks that they mind their business. Scootaloo pushes the point, and he replies that he has been hard on this place, he guesses, but he's grown into the place now. It's now his home, and he'd rather not lose it.

So they've lost their two suspects. With nothing else to go on, they agree to come back and check the crime scene that night. They even dress in full black catsuits, and Applebloom even substitutes her usual bow for a black one. That's just adorable. There's a brief moment of tension as they avoid the patrolling night guard, but they stack on top of each other to avoid detection. They find a peculiar scorch mark on the floor, as if someone had started a fire outside the stove. There's also a mysterious goo on the floor, and Scoots gives it a taste. Fortunately, it doesn't taste of grape jelly and mustard, but rather prickly pears and peanut butter. Applebloom accuses her of having sum'yums on the brain. With these new facts, they skedaddle before they get caught.

Back at home--yes, she really has a home, I'm still surprised--Scootaloo goes over the facts with her aunts. Yes, she really has a family, I'm still surprised. They were first introduced in one of the chapter books, and have made the jump to full comic characters. Not unlike the Ponyville Mysteries series itself. Either way, Scoots relays the taste to her aunts, and they remark that the flavour was one used in early sum'yums when they were in the Scouts themselves. The peanut butter was deemed too messy and was phased out in favour of chocolate. This, of course, is exactly the eureka moment Scoots needs, and she speeds back to the retirement center.

After rounding up her fellow Crusaders, they head back into the center. You already know where this is going, right? They walk in, and Scootaloo asks Pearly Stitch if she was the one who set the fire. The reasoning is thus: the old style sum'yums were first made by the original Filly Scouts, using peanut butter. The pears are traditionally roasted over a campfire. With this, Pearly Stitch confesses to the deed. She thought she could contain the fire, and she couldn't get the same taste without it. But of course, she was too ashamed to admit she almost burned down her home. Nopony was hurt, however, so they forgive her. Fire Streak further lectures the Crusaders about entering dangerous locations (but good job solving the mystery anyway). And it all concludes with taking Pearly Stitch on a semi-regular "throwback night" with the Filly Scouts~

Ah, finally we got to review this issue. And honestly, like I said, it was worth the wait. I think this is a pretty good one, with a fairly good mystery. Plus the addition of Scootaloo’s aunts is nice, since now we don’t have to show her living under Applebloom’s porch. The further characterisation of Diamond Tiara was also appreciated, like I said. All in all, this whole issue is mostly filled with good character bits. Honestly, I think it might be a better end to the series than the actual end. So it’s a good one for us to finally close the series out on~

Stay tuned, though, because since I’ve still got plenty of time in the day and a huge backlog, we’re gonna do another review this week, just to make sure we keep on top of things~