This page will contain unmarked spoilers for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
Sawtooth Waves (formerly known as The Brony Notion) is a non-binary My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic analyst, whose videos consist of theories, fan-made songs, remixes, and fanfiction.
Their Original Character is that of a reformed changeling who defected after the attack on Canterlot and has since spent their time in Ponyville. In 2013, they found a dimensional rift to the Internet and started a YouTube channel to share their thoughts about Equestria.
Sine Waves is the name of their Mirror Pool clone.
They nuked their channel in February 2023 after admitting to grooming a minor, and their content is now only available on third party archives.
Tropes (not necessarily pertaining to Sawtooth Waves themselves):
- Adaptational Explanation: It comes with being a theorist.
- All Your Powers Combined: Their latest stance on alicorns, which they came up with as of the end of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, is that a pony can become an alicorn through obtaining earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn magic, but that it has nothing to do with morality, accomplishment, or right to passage (particularly proven by Flurry Heart and Cozy Glow).
- Alternate Self:
- Their own Chrysalis timeline self.
- They speculate on Discord, Chrysalis, and Sunset Shimmer's possible human counterparts.
- Ambiguously Related:
- They speculate that Luster Dawn is the daughter of Sunburst and Trixie (rather than Starlight as more than a few fans of the show have assumed).
- Because of their similar appearances and cutie mark themes, they bring up that Sunset Shimmer may be Sunburst's older sister.
- They also speculate on Rainbow Blaze's likely relation to Rainbow Dash.
- Author Avatar: Sawtooth Waves themselves.
- Bait-and-Switch: Occasionally used to generate comedic effect to the videos.
- Bittersweet Ending: They believe Twilight Sparkle's rule ended this way: There was an unknown crisis (later theorized by them to be the tear Midnight Sparkle created by the horse statue causing magic from Equestria to leak into the human world), and because of the urgency, Twilight had to create the unicorn, earth pony, and pegasus crystals. In doing so, however, she sacrificed her alicornhood, separating her magic into its unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony components and infusing them into the crystals so that said magic can survive the crisis and be used by further generations in Equestria for years to come. Her un-becoming an alicorn was seen by others the same way her transformation into an alicorn was: with her cutie mark in the sky, which explains the mural in the abandoned station in Zephyr Heights that Sunny, Izzy, and Zipp would wind up coming across. Without the alicorn magic that prolonged her lifespan, Twilight lived out the rest of her natural days as a mortal, the reason she is not around by A New Generation. Even as the pony tribes became separated and Twilight's sacrifice was forgotten about, Argyle's teachings to his daughter Sunny Starscout inspired her, leading her to find the crystals and restore magic to Equestria, avenging Twilight's legacy.
- Breather Episode: On occasion, a relatively light theory will follow a series of heavy ones.
- Chekhov's Gunman: They believe that Starlight can form a team of ponies with the same hourglass cutie mark to help her fix the damages she caused by creating the Bad Future Alternate Timelines, assuming they still exist after Twilight left them.
- Clone Army: They theorize the Royal Guards may be clones from the Mirror Pool and provide an explanation for the increasing variety that happens later on in the show.
- Dream Walker: They believe that, after Luna stepped down from the throne in the Grand Finale, a dream team made it their goal to protect ponies from their nightmares.
- Early-Bird Cameo: They theorize
that Grogar was the group of stars that bailed out Nightmare Moon in the first episode. Even though the Grogar that appeared in the flesh in Season 9 was actually Discord, it could still apply to the real Grogar. - Early-Installment Weirdness: Early videos were much shorter.
- Evil vs. Evil: They theorize the alternate timelines in the Season 5 finale depends on which villain came out on top.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: They were petrified by a cockatrice for many centuries, freed as of the time of My Little Pony: A New Generation.
- Friendly Rivalry: When they're not trying to disprove Dr. Wolf's theories, the two get along pretty well.
- Heel–Face Turn: Sawtooth has a detailed guide to reforming Chrysalis, Cozy Glow, and Tirek after releasing them from stone.
- For Chrysalis, given her view that friendship is a disease stems from the changelings losing touch with their culture and who they once were after embracing it, have Pharynx put up a fight against her, showing her that friendship doesn't necessitate going soft, and break it down to her that the hive still has a place for her. Following her reformation, she can rule alongside Thorax, bringing back the best of what used to be while leaving the worst behind, or become an official advisor.
- For Cozy, the key to reforming her lies in her cutie mark. In addition to manipulation, it has another side to it: motivation. Similar to the process Starlight went through, she can be trained to view ponies as inspirable rather than controllable. Additionally, her realization that helping others feels good in "Frenemies" shows that she isn't a lost cause. Diamond Tiara can make her realize that no amount of power can fill the hole in her heart, only the feeling of mutual care that Cozy never gave a chance can, after relating to her, which can get her to finally embrace friendship and go on to have a bright future.
- For Tirek, given his motivation for wanting power stems from a desire for approval from his father, Chrysalis can help him understand that friendship isn't the disease, it's the cure, Cozy Glow that power will only leave you empty, and Diamond Tiara (again, this time from her experiences with her mother Spoiled Rich) that approval coming with hollow expectations and not what's best for you isn't worth seeking, that he can make his own path. From there, Tirek can finally embrace friendship, give up his quest for power at long last, return to his homeland, make amends with his brother Scorpan (and possibly even King Vorak), and set an example of friendship for his home kingdom.
- Human Popsicle: Sawtooth is brought from G4 to G5 after accidentally getting turned to stone by a Cockatrice in the Everfree Forest, keeping them frozen for centuries.
- I Knew It!: In-Universe. Their theory about Diamond Tiara, the meaning of her cutie mark, and her Heel–Face Turn posted prior to the airing of "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" was spot on.
- Inferred Holocaust: Discussed In-Universe. In their "MLP's Forgotten World" video, they bring up the possibility that, by being present at the Sonic Rainboom via time travel, which gained three extra spectators that weren't there originally, Twilight, Spike, and Starlight did not return to the timeline they left from.
- Inspirationally Disadvantaged: In "The REAL Reason Scootaloo Can't Fly", they call Scootaloo "inspiring" for having given up on her dream of flight without bothering to look into potential workarounds (after showing a scene from "A Cutie Re-Mark" with Rainbow Dash's prosthetic wing, implicitly acknowledging that some such workaround should logically be available to her).
- Jossed: Lampshaded In-Universe. They admit that the threat of new info tearing down their hard work has always loomed over their head, and that has indeed happened several times.
- Karma Houdini: Sawtooth lampshades how Discord wasn't punished for bringing back villains in Season 9.
- Lonely at the Top: According to them, this is what caused Celestia to become Daybreaker. In an Alternate Timeline where Luna started dreamwalking over a millennia ago, Celestia grew jealous of her, as Luna had a personal and emotional connection with the ponies that she doesn't, resulting in her corruption.
- Mysterious Past: The lack of a backstory for Discord and Princess Cadance is lampshaded by them.
- Nice Guy / Nice Gal: Sawtooth is affable, friendly, and serene all throughout their videos.
- Non-Human Non-Binary: They have identified as non-binary, and this doubles for the Author Avatar Original Character.
- Nothing Is Scarier: They lampshade that the history of Starlight's wasteland timeline being unknown is what makes it truly frightening.
- Order Is Not Good: When talking about Discord and Grogar, they bring up that one can spread fear and darkness with an iron fist of order.
- Other Me Annoys Me: They get frustrated by their mirror pool and Chrysalis timeline selves.
- Pungeon Master: In "Happy Hearth's Warming!!!", they do multiple changeling-related puns.
- The Resenter: They insinuate that part of the reason why Cozy Glow wanted all magic drained from Equestria as a result of jealousy over not having it herself, especially when it comes to unicorns and alicorns.
- Rule of Symbolism: Twilight's rule ended the same way it began: with the sparkle in the twilight sky.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Not they themselves, as they aren't evil, but they do theorize that Grogar was the group of stars that aided in Nightmare Moon's escape, having been banished to the sky by Gusty the Great long ago.
- Shout-Out:
- Clips and pictures from other media are at times used, usually for comedy.
- In "Did Grogar Bail Out Nightmare Moon?", they bring up the legend of Cassiopeia to explain that being banished to the stars has already been told in Mythology. The MLP world is mythological and Gusty the Great may have banished Grogar to the stars as well.
- Start of Darkness: They created a backstory for King Sombra through implications regarding the Alicorn Amulet: Long ago, before the three tribes came together, Sombra used to be known as the unicorn king Cobalt, father of Princess Platinum. As much as he resented sharing his power with Commander Hurricane and Chancellor Puddinghead after they did come together, that was nothing compared to what was to come. When the unicorns responsible for raising the Sun and Moon grew too tired of doing so, two young unicorn sisters named Celestia and Luna stepped forward to take their place, raising the Sun and Moon themselves, respectively. The citizens of Equestria poured their light and love to Celestia and Luna, turning them into alicorns, and crowned them whilst overthrowing Cobalt. He went on to pursue dark magic and use it to rip out magic from the three tribes, turning himself into a fearsome alicorn. King Cobalt was dead; he was now King Sombra. Sombra overthrew the royal sisters and ruled over Equestria with an iron hoof, only for Starswirl the Bearded to face him and defeat him by sealing his stolen magic into an artifact that would go on to become the Alicorn Amulet before banishing the now ex-alicorn. Following his banishment, Sombra found a cape and wore it to cover his wingless back. He found the Crystal Empire as well before conquering it, and the rest is history.
- Story Arc:
- "Did Grogar Bail Out Nightmare Moon?", "The Villain that Made Equestria", and "No One's Ever Really Gone..." are Grogar-focused videos in a row.
- "Freeing Chrysalis From Stone", "The Changeling Conspiracy", "Reforming Chrysalis", "Reforming Cozy Glow", and "Reforming Tirek" are part of a topic about freeing the Legion of Doom from stone.
- "If Sunset Shimmer wasn't Defeated", "Sunset Shimmer's Brother", and "Sunburst's Secret Mission" are theories in a row related to Sunset Shimmer.
- "How Cadance and Shining Met", "How Chrysalis Took Over Equestria", "Solving Future Twilight's Paradox", and "MLP's Forgotten World" are consecutive videos pertaining to Time Travel.
- "Discord Visited the Human World", "The Other Sunset Shimmer", "If Discord Was a Human..", "Human Queen Chrysalis", and "Starlight Attends Hive High" are theories in a row about the human world.
- "Did Grogar Bail Out Nightmare Moon?"
- Taken for Granite: They were turned into stone twice. First time by the Talisman of Mirage by another changeling to test it out, the second time by a cockatrice for centuries.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Naturally with being a changeling, but of particular note is their default form of an earth pony with a musical note cutie mark and occasional transformations into a pegasus, unicorn, or alicorn.
- Winged Unicorn:
- Solving alicorns is something they had to give a try multiple times.
- Being a changeling, they can turn into one themselves.
- Solving alicorns is something they had to give a try multiple times
