My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Season 6 Episode 19: "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks" (SPOILERS) · 4:03pm Sep 10th, 2016
Silly griffon. Cutie Marks are for ponies! 
We open on the Cutie Mark Crusaders offering Cutie Mark counseling to some filly's parents. They're freaking out because their daughter's Cutie Mark is a skull and bones. It creeps them out until they realize she's destined to be a paleontologist when she digs up a fossil in their backyard.
(Episode incorrectly identifies this as "archaeologist".)
"What did you think she was gonna be, a pirate?" 
The Crusaders are getting a little full of themselves with their successful run of Cutie Mark counseling. And then they find a griffon perched atop the clubhouse, watching for them.
Gabriella the griffon is a CMC fangirl, and hyper enthusiastic and excited to meet them!
Gabriella wants the CMC to help her find her special talent and earn a Cutie Mark. Apple Bloom immediately points out the obvious problem: she's a griffon, and, well...yeah. But Gabriella is determined to find out if it's even possible for a griffon to earn a Cutie Mark. Turns out she was watching when Pinkie and Rainbow solved Gilda's friendship problem, then decided to learn more about Cutie Marks, which ultimately led her to the Crusaders.
The Crusaders tell Gabriella the thing it took them five seasons to get through their little skulls: that Cutie Marks just happen on their own and can't be forced. Gabriella is confident they can help her, and asks them to think it over while she delivers Gilda's letter to Rainbow Dash. While Gabby is out making her delivery, the CMC visit Twilight to ask her about the possibilities of a griffon getting a Cutie Mark. Twilight...doesn't have anything good to say on the subject, which disappoints the Crusaders, although they pretty much expected that answer.
The Crusaders decide that even if they can't help Gabby get a Cutie Mark, they can still help her find her special talent. But Gabby's overenthusiasm keeps her from hearing what they need to tell her. Even when they outright tell her only ponies get Cutie Marks, she's still optimistic, so the Crusaders decide to just...try and hope.
Scootaloo's toting this banner higher than anyone, and when Apple Bloom asks her why, it turns out it's because Scootaloo empathizes with Gabby because her Cutie Mark desire is similar to Scootaloo's wish to be able to fly.
Cue the song! And a montage of Gabby doing everything under the sun. And doing it well--SCARILY well. As an aside, I like how Gabby's feathers and markings make it look like she's wearing a bandanna.
After the montage, the Crusaders break the news to her: they can't really figure out what her special talent is because she's good at everything. Gabby flies off in tears.
"For the first time ever"? Scootaloo, you three have failed spectacularly at a whole lot of things for five seasons.
The Crusaders feel bummed out about failing to help Gabby. Gabby bursts into the clubhouse, excitedly showing off...her Cutie Mark? What?!
Gabby's reaction when the Crusaders want to show Twilight what happened tells us it's a fake Cutie Mark. But the Crusaders are so excited they don't notice how shifty she's acting.
When the Crusaders get to Twilight's castle, they find out Gabby dropped off a letter thanking them and then skedaddled. Twilight is overexcited when she hears what the letter says, and starts getting ready for a huge research project. The fact that Gabby didn't show Twilight her "Cutie Mark" tells Apple Bloom something's wrong.
They catch up to Gabby before she leaves Ponyville and learn the truth. It turns out she painted that Cutie Mark on her flank to make the CMC feel better about having failed to help her. They realize that Gabby's special purpose is helping others, and tell her that finding your purpose means finding the thing that makes you feel good about yourself. They make her an honorary Cutie Mark Crusader by carving special Cutie Marks to attach to her mailbags--marks that match their own. Gabby is excited about finding her purpose in life, and on top of that, she's made three new friends. The town throws her a cuteceanera, and she promises to go back to Griffonstone and spread "Crusader values" among the griffons.
This episode addressed a subject I never expected the show to address, and in a way its moral is...rather mature. And I'm sure it's relatable in some way? I mean, what's our lesson to apply to real life here? That friendship across race and religion divides is still possible even if you'll never quite fit in with a certain culture the way you want to? Is that the lesson here? Because if it is, that's a weird lesson to teach little girls.
Or maybe the lesson here is that sometimes, no matter how good you are at helping others, there will be some people you just can't help? Or that helping others doesn't always mean helping them exactly the way they expect to be helped?
Or maybe they're not going for a life lesson at all here, and this one's purely rooted in its own elements without trying to shoehorn in an Aesop at all?
Well, I guess none of the above really matters. This was an amazing episode that did something completely unexpected. I give this one a 10/10.
One thing this episode proved is that whatever the symbol is on Zecora's flank is, it isn't a cutie mark like many others thought it was. I guess Zebra's a born with marks like those unlike ponies.
Gabby was freaking adorable.
Right now I'm trying to decide whether or not this is better than No Second Prances. It's that close between them.
#GabbyRules
This episode deserves that rating, it was definetly a surprise. I'm enthusiastic to see what the fandom, and even the show will do with this new addition the FiM cast.
Many are comparing her to Pinkie, which well, I kind of do understand. But then again many other characters, such as Minuette, Cheese Sandwhich, and Sonata Dusk, are shown to have personality traits like this, so I don't really see the problem. In fact, it could explore new ideas with this character — heck, maybe she could be a Pinkie Pie fan girl, too.
Overall, I'm just excited about this character. I mean, I don't know if she lives in Ponyville now, or something like that, but she's definetly gonna leave quite the mark.
Another great review, as always, Mythril.
I was a *little* bit disappointed that Gabby couldn't get a cutie mark, but what can you do?
What I loved most about this episode was that the Crusaders were essentially confronted with their own past. Gabby is their worst excesses and biggest misunderstandings compressed into a single exuberant package. Her eventual talent underscores that parallel.
I just hope Scootaloo flying one day is more likely than a griffon getting a cutie mark...
4202892
Or zebras count as ponies for the purpose of cutie marks. Kind of ambiguous.
4202909 That would be something interesting for the show to eventually delve into.
Interesting to see that the CMC's reputation has spread so far, isn't it?
Also like the girls' reactions to getting death-hugged by their unexpected fan.
Good episode, though at the beginning I legtimately thought the parents Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were talking to were Scootaloo's parents when they mentioned "our daughter". Not sure if that was intentional, but it was a pretty good fake-out.
I thought Gabby was cute. She did everything awesomely. Man, she just couldn't wait for Gilda to write her letter, huh?
Tender made nice little cameo. You gotta love Twilight's enthusiasm for learning new things.
It was a cute episode.
This was a great episode.
It was really neat to again have a Gryphon put back in front screen and in a really good spot for once.
Let's hope she really come back in the scene, as well as Thorax.
So from the moral of this episode, my purpose is watching movies and making girls feel happy.
I took that to mean that was the first time they failed at something post cutie mark acquisition, which is actually true.
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All in all I really enjoyed the episode though I got called biased. Since I have a mild affinity towards gryphons. I'm surprised you didn't call out the writer for using the CMC abbreviation in show like you did the last time it happened.
4203554 "Calling someone out" for something and pointing something out are two very different things.
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The parents were thinking pirate and I was just thinking:
Um, what's a pleasant term for genocide?
By the way Mythril, you forgot about this:
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Did anyone else notice that one of AB's lines contained the phrase "What the apples"?
4203687 What exactly about Caramel pulling a wagon while ponies hang out in the background did I supposedly forget about that was worth mentioning?
4203709
Eh, you know me Moth. I tend to say stupid things.
Besides, that pony's too thick to be Caramel.
4203687
So they finally put Derpy and Dinky together (I assume) intentionally.
4203881 They've been seen together before this season. It's hardly a new thing.
4203884
I guess not, but it's still nice that they're being even a little consistent with backgrounders.
This episode made me realise something:
I'm still not entirely sure what to think of the Crusaders' special talent. Before they got their marks, there was lots of foreshadowing regarding their individual talents. Now that line of thought is abandoned; it was just a red herring, all three share this meta-talent-talent. Now, to be fair, there was one episode foreshadowing that as well. As part of the process, it even feels to me like they're growing less distinct as time goes by. Or perhaps that's them just growing closer as friends. I dunno.
This is one of two episodes I didn't watch through. For some reason, I didn't find it that interesting, and not being able to quite tell why drives me nuts. It's not about the episode being bad, because it wasn't. Gah, so confusing...
4203884 How about Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon with Pipsqueak?
4204305 What about them? They're there. Lots of ponies show up in the background lots of times.
4204347 It simply(is this how this word is written?) got my interest and i wanted to know if you had any thoughts on that background
4204366 I honestly rarely pay attention to who's doing what in the background unless it's something that draws attention to itself, like Time Turner and Roseluck in the Breezies episode.
I think she meant as teachers.
This probably isn't the right place, but it's the closest thing I could find. Anyway, have you seen this, MythrilMoth? Basically, it's about the lead character designer for the show saying that she doesn't think we've ever seen either of Rainbow Dash's parents. (In other words, the stallion that was somewhat implied to be her father isn't, according to her.) Any thoughts on that?
4208896 Yeah, just read about that over on Summer Dancer's blog. The key word here is "character designer". Anything she says is guesswork and supposition since she isn't directly involved in story creation. Take it with a grain of salt until it's confirmed canon by the show itself or by Haber or another head writer.
4208929 I wasn't inclined to take it very seriously, I was just wondering what you'd think.