Cutie Mark Crusaders Drama Creators, YAY! [Episode Analysis/Review Response] [SPOILERS] · 4:07am Oct 14th, 2015
Combination of a response to Jake R's blog post, and an analysis of the events of the episode itself.
Witticisms aside, Jake R, you're entitled to your opinion. Even though I don't agree with it at all.
You're gonna just treat their ascension as one big thing in an episode that's mostly about Diamond Tiara's cartoonishly evil mother?
It was my impression that the episode was mostly about Diamond Tiara's confusion with her cutie mark's meaning, similar to Troublehooves in Appleloosa's Most Wanted. Her taking after her mother's example was more a side effect of clinging to the only meaning that was provided for her and that made the most sense, which was taking after her mother's own example: a "special talent" of being a heartless, blackmailing, elitist bully. Much of what we learn and how we act comes from observing and emulating our parents, whether intentionally or not.
It's true that Spoiled Rich took advantage of her daughter's confusion over her mark to try and make DT just like her, but I think the episode was ultimately focused on Diamond's confusion over her cutie mark and the CMC's effort to reverse what her mother was doing to her, not her mother specifically. The focus on Spoiled may have been the way you saw it, but I don't think that was how the episode was meant to come across at all.
The episode's main focus was Diamond Tiara, clearly, but its underlying focus was also the CMC's efforts to redeem her, and help her "see the light of her cutie mark." The CMC's behavior in this episode is not new; I'll reiterate, this is almost exactly the same as to how they helped Troublehooves see the more positive interpretation of his cutie mark in AMW earlier this season. Just with a bit more singing.
Okay, a lot more singing. Especially considering they didn't sing at all in AMW. Oh, whatever.
~~~
Are you fucking kidding me, writers? You're gonna pull this rushed bullshit that strips the CMC of their individuality?
Now you just stunt any chance they have of becoming unique individual characters. Now they're linked together forever, and the possibility of them having futures where they become their own pony with their own lives is gone.
Oh, please. This doesn't "strip the CMC of their individuality." If anything, all this does is solidify their bond as best friends, and nothing was ever said about them stopping all their other dreams immediately because of this. You can have ambitions beyond your cutie mark, despite what Magical Mystery Cure would seem to imply. (Headcanon: extreme side effect due to an unfinished, untested spell making the EoH and timeline go haywire. But I digress) Just like the Mane Six's marks, the CMC's marks are all quite abstract, aside from their obvious interconnection via the shield:
Sweetie's mark includes an eighth note in a star, clearly implying she'll be a "musical star." AB's mark is a heart inside an apple, which is a little ambiguous (yes, I'm also disappointed it wasn't a potion bottle with an apple in it, but again you can have ambitions beyond your cutie mark), and Scootaloo's is a wing with a lightning bolt, possibly implying a future with the Wonderbolts (and inferring that she'll also, finally, fly, something that has been built up just as much, if not more, than Twilight's ascension and the CMC getting their marks.)
I think this is actually an ingenious move by the writers to give them unique destinies while still keeping them connected as "pony friends forever." (And I do mean forever.) I'm sure some viewers were worried that the CMC would start to drift apart after getting their marks and pursuing their own dreams (a fear taken to the extreme in Bloom and Gloom, showing that AB herself was worried about this tragic outcome as well); these marks, on the other hoof, manage to give them an opportunity to have their own destinies without their friendship falling apart, since "being friends while pursuing their own dreams" is their collective destiny now.
~~~
As for this episode needing to be split into two parts, it's hardly alone in that regard. Quite a few episodes would have been better served as a two-parter. Magic Duel, Daring Don't, Too Many Pinkie Pies, Magical Mystery Cure...
I'm gonna be a vain bastard and quote my own blog here, but bear with me:
[...] many episodes, whether they be regular-length ones or two-parters, are about half as long as they 'should', in an older audience's opinion, be in order to properly convey everything in the story to its maximum potential, and suffer from an acute overtone of 'plot compression' that shows drastically in the quality of the show's storytelling.
Even the two-parters' plots are written too broadly in scope to cover them sufficiently in 44 minutes; both The Return of Harmony and Magical Mystery Cure (while not technically a two-parter, it's still a season finale) raise some very interesting existential and philosophical questions about the nature of Cutie Marks and what sort of impact they really have on pony individuality and personality, but these are ultimately skipped in favor of focusing more on the characters as they quickly resolve the conflict; [...]
For the 22 minutes they had to work with, I think the writers did about as well as they possibly could. Diamond Tiara's heel-face turn may seem rushed at first glance, like the CMC earning their marks, but the entire episode was building up to it. She may have seemed quite resolute in exposing Pip's inability to make good on his promises, but only moments before appeared extremely conflicted. I doubt Diamond Tiara even really wanted to do what she was about to do, and only stuck the darker path because it's what her parents (particularly Spoiled) would have forced her to do. "What my family would think, if I ever failed at anything" is a very telling lyric to support this.
"I'm a diamond -- that means you never break", aside from being a genius analogy, is a lyric that holds a lot of implications as well; she's trying to justify her own actions to herself by believing that everything she does is to appease her parents, which, as a child, she sees as the only thing that matters.
What the CMC did in "See the Light of Your Cutie Mark" was force Diamond to listen what she'd already been telling herself but wasn't willing to act on, as she was still intimidated what her parents would think of her. Hearing the CMC's song, and then seeing how Spoiled treated the ponies that had just helped her, was what finally gave Diamond the confidence to stand up to her mother's wickedness.
3468976 That does explain your viewpoint a lot better. Thanks for linking it.