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MLP:FIM S5E25&26 - "The Cutie Re-Mark" - Grading & Discussion

Episode Grade

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Episode Title: "The Cutie Re-mark"
Air Date: November 28th, 2015, 11:00 AM Eastern Time (4:00 PM GMT/UTC)

Summary: "A vengeful Starlight Glimmer returns with a spell that could alter the history of Equestria forever."

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REMEMBER: NO OPEN SPOILERS UNTIL 3 PM ET (8 PM GMT)

=-

Ruminations:
This is it! The season 5 finale of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic! The only details I'm dropping here are that it involves Starlight Glimmer, and it seems to involve some kind of either time travel or time manipulation, and that's all I really know, because I have worked very hard to stay spoiler free, despite almost every Brony website just spouting everything they can about the episode. I don't want to know! This is the big showdown, the final countdown, and it happens tomorrow! I'm so nervouscited!

I'm also a little sad at the prospect that we won't be seeing any more pony for months, maybe even a year. As I mentioned elsewhere, some rumblings indicate that MLP will be on hiatus for a year. I'm not certain on that, but no one has stepped forward to either confirm or deny it, so that makes me a bit nervous. So enjoy this episode, folks, it may have to last a while!

On a final note, since this is the season finale, we use the big voting option system. Make your choice, and make it wisely!
 
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Annnnnd with that, goodbye show and hello EQG from now on, fuck no. Little Miss Mary Sue can just get lost.
 
Could have done without
Starlight suddenly being accepted and all being fine in five seconds
, but otherwise, it was a lot of fun!

Strange how each time the timeline changed, only one victory was erased. It would have been interesting to explore a world where Sombra, Discord and NMM were all vying for power...
 
Yeah, Starlight is shown being responsible for the deaths of thousands to millions in each timeline over a fucking playdate and they let her in?

What is even happening?
 
^Of course Twilight might make the argument that since the timeline is restored, those deaths do not occur. I mean... let's put it in Trek terms. If the Prime Timeline is restored and Nero never travels back from the late 24th century to the 23rd, is he responsible for the deaths of everyone?
 
Intent is vital in most court cases today. Twilight is 1/4 of the legal prepresentation of the Equestrian Legal system whether she likes it or not.

She wouldn't even hold Sunset's hand, after breaking a wall. Starlight was about to take away her entire life, her friends, plunge Equestria into ruin under tyrants, darkness and total destruction for one little childhood kneescrape of a "reason".

Seriously, she threatened Equestria in a way few other villains in all of MLP have done, and gets the biggest reward?

What kind of fucked up moral is that?

I'm not going to win this argument, I learned that last season. I just, I can't.
 
Enjoyable episode killed by the ending. Still gave it "A" overall, still the ending almost knocked it down a two grades. Missed chance though. They could have done a whole season on Twilight restoring the "Prime" timeline instead of a single episode; wasted chance.
 
***SPOILERS AHEAD***

I'm conflicted. On one hand, the episode had some awesome moments, where we got to see and interact with our favorite ponies when they were fillies. We also got to see characters we love in different situations (Zecora leading a rebellion against Chrysalis? Badass!). The ending, though, that flipped things over. We had this great buildup to something really awesome, a showdown that would make or break Equestria, but then... it was over.

Starlight Glimmer is hellbent on destroying people's lives because... a play date was canceled by a friend getting their cutie mark? If I approach it from my most generous position, I get that even small things like that, as a child, can lead to issues one has as an adult, and on that level I understand her desire to make everyone "equal."

Mass genocide, embroiled war over all of Equestria, though? No, there's no excuse for that, and making a friend isn't going to change it in all of 5 minutes. That's the sticking point for me. They built up this excellent story, but then resolve it in under 5 minutes with a "we'll be friends!" I mean, granted "we'll be friends" is a powerful statement in the land of Equestria, but Starlight Glimmer is determined to destroy Twilight's friendships.

You might say she didn't believe Twilight when she saw the wasteland in which they stood upon returning to the present, and that it worked on her while they moved through time, but again, maybe over days, or weeks, she realizes what she's done, but a few minutes? No, there's just no way. If they would have started early in the episode, maybe, but it occurred in the last few minutes.

As much as I loved those adorable pony faces staring at me at the end, and as much as I wanted to accept Starlight Glimmer's change of face, it just wouldn't click for me. I fully expected her to tear up Starswirl's spell, and when she didn't, I thought "uh-oh," and then suddenly it was all smiles and "we're friends now!" which was too much too fast.

I mean, we've seen things wrapped up quickly before, but this was way too fast for all that had happened. It really was a "I hate you! <villainous cackle>... no wait, I'm sorry, I want to be friends!" without any malice whatsoever. I damn near had whiplash from the sudden change-up.

So for the story all the way up until the last 10 minutes or so? A+. It was awesome, and there was a lot to enjoy. Unfortunately, the last 10 minutes dropped dramatically, and so the final grade for me is a C-.

It's a shame, because I want to give it an A, but that ending was far too fast, and it tarnished an otherwise excellent finale.
 
I think she's on parole for the moment. This is rehab. And the scene of her going back to the town she damaged tells me that time passed. I'd have loved to see a three-parter at least, showing her really dealing with what happened.
 
Peach Wookiee said:
I think she's on parole for the moment. This is rehab. And the scene of her going back to the town she damaged tells me that time passed. I'd have loved to see a three-parter at least, showing her really dealing with what happened.
Click to expand...
That's the problem, though. Everything vital to the moral of the story happened in the last 5 minutes. It's like having a war movie and having everything resolved in the last few minutes. It's like, oh wait, Hitler didn't mean to kill millions of people, he just needed a good friend! *Hitler, Churchill, and Roosevelt skip through a field of flowers together singing a song of friendship*

Even when other villains were redeemed, it took time:

In the very second episode of the series, Nightmare Moon was rainbow blasted into oblivion, leaving Luna to deal with the aftermath over many episodes, the effects we saw as recently as this season.

Discord was turned to stone, and then over a couple of seasons was "reformed," but even he goes back to old habits sometimes.

Chrysalis was catapulted into parts unknown, and as of yet hasn't been seen (in prime timeline).

Sombra was blasted into oblivion by the Crystal Heart.

Tirek was cast into Tartarus, imprisoned for all of eternity, and we have yet to see his return.

Starlight Glimmer was stealing the very identities of ponies, taking their whole purpose of being, and forcing them into a cult of sameness. She escapes from justice, and we expect over the course of the season to see how she will be brought down, and finally, in the finale, she alters the course of Equestrian history, resulting in worse and worse timelines, millions of pony lives at risk of being destroyed, the very foundation of Equestria split in two, evil has taken hold and all that was good is gone from the world, friendship replaced by war, and it takes Twilight's very hard work to save the timeline each time from a horrific fate.

Yet in the last 5 minutes goes from heel to contrite filly just needing a friend? It shouldn't have passed the smell test but Twilight, and all of her friends, immediately agree to it. Yes, Twilight is the Princess of Friendship, but she still treats Discord with suspicion.

In the EqG movies, I believed it from Sunset Shimmer because she was blasted with the Rainbow of Harmony, leaving a very distraught, very broken girl in its wake (much like Luna from the first season). Twilight's steps to friendship were a healing process.

That doesn't happen here with Starlight. She hasn't changed. That willingness to destroy all of Equestria over a missed play date and bitter feelings? It's still there. It's just buried under a temporary friendship fix. That's what bothers me.
 
^Which may come into play, I suspect.
I noticed that in this season, we had a couple of "There, but for the grace of...(insert appropriate deity here), go I" moments for Twlight. And we didn't see what became of her in many of those alternate timelines. Evidently, the other girls still got their respective cutie marks, but what of alternate world Twilight? What of Spike? We didn't see that. What if Twilight was on the side of the enemy? What if she was part of chaos rather than harmony? We saw this past season how her actions hurt Moondancer. She knew what not having a friend can do. Or how a friend can hurt you. She might've been too sympathetic, but at the same time, she knew she wasn't strong enough to stop Starlight on her own. She was in the past, without her friends or rainbow power or the Elements of Harmony or being loaded with all the alicorn magic in Equestria. The only chance she had was to keep Starlight talking long enough for the timeline to be restored. Then she could figure out how to deal with Starlight if Starlight got angry again. Fortunately, seeing Equestria destroyed and talking out what happened in the past was enough to calm Starlight down.
 
I don't know, I think we're done with the Starlight Glimmer angle for now. Jayson Thiessen's moving on from the show to do the 2017 MLP film, so I'm curious where they plan to take things on the TV series. I mean, they wrapped this episode up very neatly, very quickly, but in the process, they left a mess (IMO).
 
Just to add, I do love the episode, save for that last 10 minutes. There was so much epic everything!
 
A+

I thought it was AWESOME! :D

All those alternate RD hairstyles! :lol: Each time it was like some big reveal!
 
Exactly, each villain in the show has been "absolute" evil and therefore removed from Equestria in some way. Or took a wrong path in life into dark magic and very self absorbed sociopathic actions that after a magical intervention, realised where wrong.

But Discord is not really all that different over two seasons later, Trixie is likely still off somewhere seeking attention, Chrysalis is clawing her way back somewhere in the Badlands and Sunset has spent the current two movies being bullied back and suffering an identity crises and anxiety trying to be a better person.

Starlight, it was like they flipped a switch and showed us a montage meant to imply she spends days or weeks just being a superbestfriend in seconds. No one goes from being willing to take a sledge hammer to time knowing it will have drastic actions on an entire planet to wipe away a group of people to baking cakes with them a few minutes later.

Not even in MLP before now has this sudden a turn been seen. It's a totally new occurance.

And lets not get started on that having more power than an Alicorn bullshit.

This episode really upset me and it's been hours just to be able to post without being overtaken with pretty bad feelings or crying, it was just so badly made I can't believe it's part of the same season we've been watching so far.
 
Chemahkuu said:
Exactly, each villain in the show has been "absolute" evil and therefore removed from Equestria in some way. Or took a wrong path in life into dark magic and very self absorbed sociopathic actions that after a magical intervention, realised where wrong.

But Discord is not really all that different over two seasons later, Trixie is likely still off somewhere seeking attention, Chrysalis is clawing her way back somewhere in the Badlands and Sunset has spent the current two movies being bullied back and suffering an identity crises and anxiety trying to be a better person.

Starlight, it was like they flipped a switch and showed us a montage meant to imply she spends days or weeks just being a superbestfriend in seconds. No one goes from being willing to take a sledge hammer to time knowing it will have drastic actions on an entire planet to wipe away a group of people to baking cakes with them a few minutes later.

Not even in MLP before now has this sudden a turn been seen. It's a totally new occurance.

And lets not get started on that having more power than an Alicorn bullshit.

This episode really upset me and it's been hours just to be able to post without being overtaken with pretty bad feelings or crying, it was just so badly made I can't believe it's part of the same season we've been watching so far.
Click to expand...

Indeed. It's that flip switch that bothers me most. All I could think during the montage was "guys, what if she hasn't changed at all?"

Believe me, I'm aware friendship can do powerful things, and I love that aspect of the world in MLP, that friendship is so powerful it literally changes lives, but this isn't that. Starlight Glimmer became who she was because a friend got his cutie mark first, and it made her feel bad because she felt like a lesser pony. Yes, that can lead to darker turns later, but that's what they showed us, and my initial reaction was "um, is this it? Is this why she turned super evil?"

Because let's not pretend she wasn't super evil. She was a cult leader in the season premiere. Even if her intentions were good, and clearly they were not because she was purposely hiding her own cutie mark from her followers, there's the whole "attempted to obliterate the established timeline" action she took in the finale.

I don't know, the ending just really rubbed me the wrong way. The rest of the episode was fantastic, but that last 10 minutes or so really brought it down. To me the message was "even if someone tries to destroy your life and your friends, grant them amnesty when they seem contrite over it minutes after the fact."

That's not a good lesson. There's forgiveness, and then there's capitulation. I think, in some way, Twilight capitulated to someone whom she should have held to a stricter standard. If Starlight really had that kind of magical ability, then she is dangerous, and while reforming her should definitely be a part of the program, instant trust and welcome into the circle of the Mane Six? That's a hell of a jump!
 
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