Season 5 Premier Review… Also, hi, been a while! · 11:43pm Apr 4th, 2015
Hello everyone, Souldin here, returning to my dear Fimfiction account. It’s been a long while, I mean, a really long and totally unplanned absence of my part. I missed updating the blog once or twice and ended up forgetting about updating. I’m really sorry about that.
In any case, it’s been a while, but I do intend to start doing things around here once again, at least on the blog side of things. After all, there is a new season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic premiering, and I did love writing up my episode reviews.
Now I’ve just got one quick question… what’s My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic?
The Past and Future
I kid of course, but I will be honest, I haven’t really had anything to do with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for quite some time. I’ve kept up to date with scowering for FlutterDash content on Derpibooru, but in regards to season 5, I pretty much know nothing. I haven’t kept up with any news in regards to it, and the fact that it came about in April was quite a surprise. The season premier almost went by without me ever knowing about it.
So then, what on earth have I been up to lately? Well, not faniction, that’s for sure. At least the writing of fanfiction. I had originally intended to use my time away from MLP to continue writing my ongoing SSB fanfic, Smashing Reactions. Three things however got in the way of this; taking time to help a friend with judging for an SSB fanfiction contest, being generally disappointed with my time with Super Smash Bros for Wii U, and focusing on Grin Brothers.
The latter matter plays a bigger part, as the Grin Brothers channel is run on a separate profile to my current laptop, thus stopping me from accessing any of my fanfiction files as I upload and render videos. I will say that in future, I do plan on revising how much time is spent on Grin Brothers, due to how daily uploads seem to have so far been unsuccessful in drawing viewers in, and getting a notebook laptop so I can have my fanfiction documents at the ready whenever my current laptop is being utilised for Grin Brothers. Such things though are a latter matter due to my on-and-off job being currently off, and I kind of need money for the notebook.
To note though, I do wish to get back to writing fanfiction. While my main focus will be on finishing the current SSB project I have going, as well getting around to doing the SSB fanfic I’ve always wanted to do, some of my attention will be on getting back into pony writing. If I do come out with anything this year, expect it only to be a one-shot though, nothing major. Of course, this is depending on things go well and if I can manage to juggle even more things as I start up even more Grin Brothers projects. I’m pretty sure I was crazy when I decided that running a YouTube channel was my best chance of ever earning a standard wage and living, but given my lack of ever having a permanent full or part time job outside of Sunday paper round, it still seems my best route. Anyway, wish me luck, and I hope I’ll be able to provide with you plenty of content for you to enjoy; be it MLP, SSB, or Youtube related. Now then, I think I should review this Season 5 premier, don’t you think?
Episode Review of The Cutie Map
There’s a funny thing about this episode, I still have no idea what it’s called. On Wikipedia, the Season 5 premier is listed as The Cutie Map. On Equestria Daily, they’ve been referring to it as Cutie Markless. I probably would know what is the correct name for this episode if I had actually kept up with the news on season 5. In any case, for now I’m going to call this episode The Cutie Map, but if it turns out to be called Cutie Markless, I shall edit it at some point.
So then, let’s start things off with a quick spoiler free summary of this two part premier. The Cutie Map starts off with the Mane 6 and Spike hanging out in the main room of Twilight’s new castle, a castle to which Twilight questions the very purpose of. Conveniently, the castle sprouts a large table with a figurine map of Equestria at this very moment, and glowing cutie mark symbols of the Mane 6 appear by a location on the map. So the Mane 6 head off to this location and find a town wherein creepily smiling ponies all share the same cutie mark. Their leader is a unicorn named Starlight Glimmer, and she explains that the ponies of the town have gotten rid of their cutie marks, and in turn their special talents, to end their differences and become equals. The Mane 6 stay in town, conflicted on whether something is truly wrong with the town, whilst Starlight and the town ponies try to convince the Mane 6 to give up their cutie marks. That will do for the basic summary, even though it admittedly only covers part 1, anymore and we’ll be entering spoiler territory (and given I write up these reviews so soon after the episodes, I feel it’d best to avoid that for anyone whose yet to watch it).
If I remember correctly, this is where I start talking about the positives of the episode, starting off with the first positive thing that occurred. In The Cutie Map Part 1’s case, the first positive beings with a funny line from Fluttershy wherein she agrees with everyone, including a sleeping Spike who obviously hadn’t even said anything. It gave me a giggle, and there are numerous of other lines of dialogue and small moments throughout both parts that brought a smile to my face like this. Whilst the humour varies overall, it is consistently of good quality, with some stand out moments occurring such as Applejack’s loss of countryism. If that doesn’t make any sense to you, good, it’ll make that moment even funnier when you get around to it.
Another positive quality that occurs within both parts of the episode is the vibe. The whole town, the smiling ponies, and all the talk of abandoning one’s talents to become equals, all has a creepy undertone to it. Said creepiness perpetuates every moment in the town, and has some scenes when the creepiness goes through the roof. Said creepiness though also feels rather subtle, never dramatically rising thanks to continual presence. Some of the creepier moments of the episode are actually rather subdued, be it the rather unique In Our Town song, or how even the ponies of the town with doubts to the whole equality matter manage to make the equalisation sound like a good thing. Which is another thing I’d add, the whole equalisation matter is not instantly assumed to be a bad thing, even by the Mane 6. Twilight even considers that the town isn’t suffering from any problem, given that the town ponies weren’t forced to lose their cutie marks, and actually gave them up willingly. Whilst the ideology is flawed, there is also a layer of truth to it and the equalisation matter does have good intentions. Admittedly, this is somewhat lessened by events that occur in part 2, but that is something I may address later, if I feel I can do without spoiling things.
The other big positive I’d like to talk about is one I can’t go into detail on for fear of spoiling the episode, but I will say that you should pay good attention to Fluttershy in The Cutie Map Part 1. It comes into play in part 2 in a surprising manner that I felt worked really well.
Aside from smaller things, such as interest in the establishment of Spike and Big Mac being good friends, this is where the positives end and the negatives begin. I’d first off like to mention, as a continuation of my final positive, that the episode doesn’t truly warrant being a two-part episode in my eyes aside for that one positive. This is something I shall try to make apparent later on.
Now this shall not serve as much of a spoiler as it’ll be quite apparent, but the main villain of The Cutie Map Part 1 and Part 2 is Starlight Glimmer. Starlight Glimmer is the least impressive and most boring antagonist of all the two part episodes. Yes, even more so that King Sombra, who at least had a wicked design that made him come across as big and menacing. Now that’s not to say Starlight Glimmer isn’t a completely terrible antagonist, she just come across as a threat better suited to a singular episode, not the two part premier of a new season. Her design feels rather generic, and her character just feels like a less entertaining Trixie. It’s actually extremely disappointing how her character turns out, as a big (predictable) reveal leads to the whole ideology of the equalisation losing any credence. Much better things could have been done in regards to addressing the matter if Starlight had been a more unique villain, and less of a predictable, egocentric one as she turns out.
Another negative that looks to Starlight Glimmer, though is to be blamed on more than just her, is that the whole of the season premier feels rather underwhelming. You’d think an issue involving the removal of ponies cutie marks would feel more threatening to the stakes of Equestria as a whole, but due to the focus of the episode within a single location, as well as the absence of all supporting characters, nothing ever feels like a big deal. Celestia makes no presence, Discord makes no presence, and despite Starlight saying the conversion of Twilight to their side would allow their influence to spread, it just doesn’t get properly conveyed as a big deal.
Reaching the conclusion here, there are certainly good moments to this episode. Some very moments of dialogue, and each of the Mane 6 come across great through this episode, with their differences and personalities made clear and vibrant. There are some neat morals within the episode, but unfortunately some hold less weight given they are utilised through a supporting cast introduced within the episode, and whom don’t really endear themselves to the viewer in any spectacular way (although one one pony doing some fantastic things with balloons). The episode has great concepts, but ultimately are not executed as well as they could have been, and more interesting ideas are passed up for some easily predictable turn of events. The main villain is underwhelming, the events feel isolated, and even given all the good and great moments, little truly comes across as outstanding. The Cutie Map Part 1 starts off with plenty of good ideas and some decent build up, but disappoints for the most part within part 2, albeit still providing an okay experience. I regard The Cutie Map Part 1 as a 4.5/10, and The Cutie Map Part 2 as a 3.5/10, both are graded as Average episodes.
What do you mean by that? I can upload to YouTube and access files on either another google account on drive or other users on this pc either by doing into users on the SSD c:/ or just by signing into another login on this pc and leaving the other running :o
I'm just watching it now. Haven't seen a single second of mlp since the season finale of s4...
Well zero/10 for the intro, must be a hard task adding wings to Twilight and updating the models away from the pre production ones which don't even look like the show and never have
I think Starlight's the best villain the series has had yet. A villain doesn't need to be a hulking or threatening monster, and that's what made Starlight so great; she's just an ordinary pony. Evidently there's a back-story here that hasn't been revealed yet, and I'm interested to see how it turns out.
To me, the idea of a villain that uses cunning and trickery to not only make problems, but also to take power is better than a brute that stands there until being defeated. Sombra, whom you claim was a better villain, had no lines other than "Grr", "Ponies", "Crystal Empire", "Heh heh heh', and the arbitrary final "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"
Albeit predictable, she was ten times more mysterious than any of the previous villains. There's no way you can tell me that a queen of nightmares, twisted creature of chaos, queen of soul-sucking bug-things, a king of... a kingdom, and a giant centaur that uses giant laser-beams are unique. They all had the exact same bloody goal; take over the world. With violence. And chaos.
Starlight didn't want to take over the world, she wanted to make everyone to stop arguing and be friends; making her goals good, but her methods twisted and dark. Not to mention, she was smart enough to get the hell out of dodge instead of standing there screaming in horror.
I know it's incredibly defensive, and I don't mean to get angry, but I take scores seriously. 3 out of 10? Really? You didn't even say the episode was that bad!
When I see a score like that, I think of video games with scores that low. Lula 3d. Aquaman: Battle For Atlantis got a 2.7/10. Mindjack got more than that. Sonic Boom and Sonic 06'.
No.
2946641 Yeah I actually really enjoyed that too.
My 3/10 would be Modern Warfare 3. It's like the others without any of the unlocks, maps, challenge, reason to play, variation, fun, interest and really the list can go on for a very long time.
2/10 is Ginger Lager
1/10 is tasting whatever the incredibly sticky thing is under this table
0/10 is being stabbed
2946553 What on earth is an SSD? Also, moving away from the YouTube upload process halts the upload, at least it has for me. Also, whilst I do have Google accounts in order to access YouTube, I've never really used the Google accounts for anything else. I'd be quite worried if I could access the Word documents from my personal profile on this laptop with the profile I share with my brother and use to upload videos.
I think I've seen the odd clip or two of MLP related stuff since the end of season 4, helps that I did attend a pony convention after season 5 ended. Otherwise, I too have not watched any MLP related matter until just recently. Anyway then, thanks for the comment, topKEK.
2946641 Alrighty then, I best address this first:
My scoring system for my reviews works on a 10 out of 10 system, but due to the high average quality than My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has, the 10 out of 10 applies somewhat differently. There are 4 grades I give episodes, Poor, Average, Good, and Fantastic. A 0-2.5 measures as Poor, a 3-5 measures as Average, a 5.5-7.5 measures as Good, and an 8-10 measures as Fantastic. As noted, this was done because of the overall great quality of Friendship is Magic, there are not many episodes I'd consider poor (only 7 in fact), and if I did not rank them as such then the majority of episodes would be given the same rating or clumped up within the same area. That makes it harder to compare the episodes. For an example, please feel free to check out My Episode Ranking List, which can be seen on this very profile page.
Now then, to clarify on my problems with Starlight Glimmer, is that once again she's an ordinary pony standing in the role of a season premier antagonist. I note she'd have worked fine as a regular episode antagonist, but having a goomba in the role of Bowser doesn't make raise concern.
Starlight does use cunning and trickery, but these things are nothing new. Each of the villains have used plenty of cunning and trickery, in fact they rarely go with a forceful tactic, with King Sombra being the only one who went with a forceful approach throughout his plan. Part of the reason I found Tirek such an enjoyable antagonist was because he managed to use both, when weak he utilised cunning to get his strength back, and once powerful again he went with a forceful approach.
My claim to King Sombra as the better villain is not one of praise, more of how little I consider Starlight. Sombra had himself a menacing and unique design, he stood out and struck one as powerful, and his form upon turning into pure darkness was quite creepy. He also displays an interesting power-set through the fear door trap he had in place. There isn't much to derive personality wise, but then I get the impression that he's been driven mad. Meanwhile Starlight not only looks like a background pony, but her character is as noted 'like a non-entertaining Trixie', particularly given her outburst of egotism once her plan had been revealed.
I'd argue that the mysteriousness of each the previous main antagonists due to the very entities they are, and particularly worth mentioning is the mystery of Chrystalis disguising herself as Cadance within A Canterlot Wedding, outweighs that of the mystery of Starlight. For the real mystery is only in the plot itself, the character of Starlight has little to know mystery surrounding, at least none of which you couldn't easily predict from the outset.
Her goal is somewhat different, though ultimately it does in turn lead to dominance over Equestria (as she would be the only one with her cutie mark, although how this would apply to the non-pony races, I do not know), and that is good, but she doesn't feel truly committed to her goal hence her egotism. A far more interesting approach would been to try and present her as more sincere in her intention, make her almost sympathetic in having her only keep her cutie mark out of necessity of requiring it in order to remove cutie marks. It could be that is what they were going for, however I feel they certainly failed to present that given her reaction and the tone of the scene.
It appears that are opinions differ quite a bit, but I'm glad you appear to have enjoyed the episode so much. I hope despite the difference of opinion, that you still managed to enjoy this review, and I thank you for commenting, Saintgat99.
2947617 You could make another Google account for work, I have like 10 google accounts lol it takes about 30 seconds to make one :P
If you move away from the upload process it halts it, so just open another tab lol. The pc doesn't just stop working if it's uploading a video x)
Another tab, another window or anything else behind that can be done while uploading a video, just don't close the uploader
An SSD is a solid state drive, like a hard drive only faster and more reliable. A LOT faster.
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Most people don't have SSDs, but they are popular for performance users who need speed or laptops who need boot speed and don't really need much drive space. Also has lower power usage.
Desktops are huge so you can fit multiple drives in as you can see in my PC (physical size of drive isn't an issue) but laptops can often only fit one.
SSDs are far more costly too, but about the best upgrade you can make.
My SSD is hidden behind the 5.25 drive bay to the right middle, you can see the "120" poking through the grate at the side.
Ah I understand your confusion, I kinda forgot I was on FimFiction.
Normally I'm around PC techy guys online so I'm just in the habit of referring to the C:/ drive and adding on the drive type, no idea why I actually added that part in on here.
Basically on my main c:/ drive I have an SSD which has windows, then my E:/ drive is my Hard Drive which just has my other files and games that don't need the extra drive speed of an SSD for load times.
Also unless you actually have a genuine reason for need a notebook / laptop because you move it around, a couple of hundred can bring you home a nice old gaming PC which opens you to the entire world of pc gaming
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The one on the left is the new one (took these pictures when I first built it a few weeks ago), but the one on the right is my old pc which has a nice GTX560TI GPU a Phenom II 1090T hex core CPU which will still beat an Xbox One in performance and it's from 2010/11!
For the price to performance those kinds of PCs are a far better prospect than cheap laptops :P.
With a fresh windows install and an SSD it would absolutely fly around the internet and just general windows stuff like loading and turning on is cut by an incredible amount.
Also rendering on a Phenom II 1090t with a GTX560TI would be VASTLY shorter as programs can take advantage of GPU rendering acceleration alongside the hex core CPU, so really some old pcs are still really amazing for the price.
Hell it can even still play Battlefield 4 on High, not too shabby at all.
Lifeguarding is a great job if you can swim, the course to get trained is not hard at all and for a job you don't intend to keep forever with 100% flexible hours the pay is very reasonable. Looks great on CVs too, especially if you've saved people "also I've saved multiple lives" maybe an old fat guy would hire you just in case he kicks the bucket and needs you to resuscitate him on the job eh :D?
Hello! X3 Been a while!
Anyway, so it's been speculating that Starlight Glimmer may very well be an overarching antagonist this season. Like she'll maybe appear once or twice, then once again in the finale. They already took an interesting approach with her, so I wouldn't be surprised if they did something like that with her. But it's very hard to say. Though I'm imagining that may be what they're trying to do.
While she wasn't very much compared to previous MLP villains, I still really liked the approach with her. She's an average pony, enforcing what she believes is equality, and is able to use certain kinds of magic to her advantage. It really opens a lot of questions and headcanons to bring up! So that's pretty much why I liked her in this. I can understanding finding her underwhelming or even confusing, though. Still, it was a very neat approach. Because they're not up against a bombastic, destroy everything, take-over-the-world kind of villain this time. Not that I mind that, we've had great villains throughout the show, but I liked the more low-key and very EERIE approach with her and the entire setup of the village ponies.
But yeah, that's my thoughts on the matter. XP