May the muffins be forever in your favour."The Point of No Return" Review: How Guilt can mess with your Perception · 7:34pm May 5th, 2019
Sometimes, when I watch a new episode or read a new comic issue of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, what I see in it lines up perfectly with something that has happened to me before. "The Point of No Return" is one of these episodes. Even much more so than in the past, since I found myself in a similar situation as Twilight literally only a few days before it aired.
Some of you who read this review have maybe also read this personal blog entry (make sure to read the update too) I wrote a couple days ago. Among other things, I have explained in it how the trying time that me and my friend went through has caused her to develop suicidal thoughts.
A few days before I wrote this blog entry, when the event happened that caused me to write it, I was very worried when I saw what she did to her Derpibooru artist tag and her Twitter account and thought that she did this to prepare committing suicide. I feared she could do this as consequence of everything that happened. I didn't exactly understand why I had this fear, though, and it was "The Point of No Return" that opened my eyes.
When I watched the episode on the day it aired, I thought about how Twilight's feelings of guilt over not having returned the book in time made her believe that Dusty Pages got fired.
She interpreted the words of First Folio in the wrong way because she felt guilty for the overdue book and then she persuaded herself into thinking that Dusty Pages is depressed and unhappy because she felt guilty over seemingly having gotten her fired. And when I thought about that, it made click in my head. I realized that, just like Twilight worried that she got her favourite librarian fired because of the guilt over not having returned the book, I worried that my friend could kill herself because of the guilt I felt over the events I described in the blog entry.
For the first time, I finally understood why this fear is there exactly and Twilight's guilt-induced worries have helped me to understand this.
And this realization will help me further. In the same blog entry, I have also described how my guilty feelings have made the situation worse and worse over time. And even though I was finally able to put the tendency to show these reactions behind me, now that I know how my guilt is affecting me, I can deal with it easier, which means I can deal easier with my friend, no matter how many dark thoughts she should express.
There are many things I can and have to thank My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for, but this is the most important one yet. The obvious lesson from this episode is "Perfection is not all it's cracked up to be and being too perfect can make you miss other opportunities in your life." (which I can relate to a little, as well, I have developed a similar tendency to perfection lately), but there's a whole other lesson hidden in this episode that is even more important than this one.
Another surprising thing about this episode is a little bit of insight into Spike's mind. It comes off as a joke in the episode, but if looked into it, it reveals a lot about how Spike feels and thinks.
When Spike and Twilight looked for First Folio and came into the Tasty Treat for that (it was so good to see this place again!), two mares saw Spike and thought he is a waiter, so they ordered from him. This is interesting, because it means that Spike has served Twilight as her assistant for so long, that he apparently radiates a servant attitude. Even so much, that ponies who don't even know him can feel that. The most interesting thing, however, is his reaction. He attempted to clear up the misunderstanding at first, but then gave up almost immediately, pulled out a notebook and a pen and took their orders. He eventually brought them their food and then did the same thing for another mare that was as a guest in the restaurant.
Apparently, Spike has become used to serve so much, that he does not even question it anymore and just willingly obliges when a pony wants something from him. This is a concerning development, because it makes you wonder about Spike's self-perception. This reaction by him has shown that he is more than willing to accept a subordinate role to others and, in the long run, this can't be good for him.
Spike has apparently developed the view that his only purpose is to serve ponies and does not take his own needs into account enough anymore.
And, at the same time, we've seen him laughing and joking about Twilight a lot in this episode. So much that we saw him doing this to that extent the last time in "It's About Time" during Season 2, I think. He clearly did not take Twilight serious when she was freaking out and even used the situation to amuse himself at her expense. Could it be that Spike subconsciously resents Twilight for having made a servant out of him and does the resentment manifest this way?
I am wondering if there will be enough time left to see this being the focus of an episode.
Another thing that caught me off-guard was the package that Celestia sent to Twilight, with things from her old home in Canterlot. For one, this means that Moondancer never moved in there, even though Twilight gave her the keys, and that she apparently still lives in her old, broken-down home. And it also means that Celestia and Luna have started to clear out their own belongings from Canterlot Castle, because Celestia told Twilight in the letter that she "conducted a thorough cleaning of the castle".
They are really very serious with their intent to retire and that Celestia clears out Canterlot Castle really drives that home. It makes me feel choked up, because this retirement will bring such a huge change, for all of Equestria and for us as well.
Speaking of Moondancer, it was really nice to see her again and even with a speaking role! That's something I did not expect to happen after more than three and a half seasons and almost four years. And we even saw the Tasty Treat again, which I welcome a lot, because Season 6 was a wonderful time for me and this brings me a lot of good memories!
And thinking about that, we've already seen shards of Chrysalis' throne in "Sparkle's Seven", the same throne we've seen in the Season 6 Finale.
I'm getting a feeling DHX will deliberately show us many things from past seasons for Season 9, before everything is over. This will be a very emotional and tear-filled season while we trot down memory lane.
And this got confirmed right away, because we have seen two ponies from "Brotherhooves Social" again in this episode, Tender Brush and Rainbow Stars! What surprised me a lot about their appearance in this episode is that they weren't seen in Ponyville. They opened the doors of their houses when Twilight knocked to ask for Dusty Pages' whereabouts and then we've seen that Twilight was on a small, remote island when she visited them.
Since Tender Brush and Rainbow Stars participated in the Sisterhooves Social with their little sisters Sugar Stix and Rainberry, it seemed clear that they live in Ponyville but, apparently, that's not the case! This is a huge surprise.
This also lets us find out something new about the Sisterhooves Social, it accepts sisters as participants from all over Equestria, not just from Ponyville. And since we know that at least Blue Ribbon lives in Ponyville, as we've seen her delivering newspapers early in the morning in "Flutter Brutter" during Season 6, this means that Rainbow Stars travelled all the way to Ponyville, from a place that might be far away from it, to participate in the Sisterhooves Social with her little sister. She might be doing this every year even.
This is a very serious dedication to her little sister and shows how much she loves her to do this for Blue Ribbon. I bet Sweetie Belle wished for a sister like this before Rarity finally agreed to join the Sisterhooves Social with her.
Other than them, we've also seen Apple Rose again this episode and know where she lives now, in the same retirement home that Dusty Pages lives in, too.
This episode has unexpectedly helped me a lot and exactly when I needed it, a perfect occurrence that makes me doubt the existence of coincidences once again. It also made me nostalgic a little, with things and ponies from Season 5 and Season 6 seen in it.
I would now go and say that I'm wondering if the next episode will have such moments, too, but since I've already seen it because I have to write this review belatedly, this won't be necessary. In case you didn't read it yet, here's my review for "Common Ground":
The next review will come in time again (unless more stuff happens, but I don't want to jinx anything, so I'll be faithful), next Saturday. See you there for more!
Guilt can be very difficult to control, that episode showed it well. It can help things to be better, or worse depending on the situation and what you do. But in the end, it's part of life