Why "The Cutie Map" is Secretly Brilliant · 3:01pm Aug 26th, 2021
It's because of Discord.
Hear me out...
What does Discord represent? "A lack of harmony between friends," as Cheerilee put it. What does that look like? Well, arguing, having different views, not being on the same page, hanging out with surprisingly unconventional types of ponies. In other words: diversity, arbitrariness, randomness, chaos.
Consider the fact that most cliques usually have common interests and hobbies, a theme hammered home in the spin-off Equestria Girls movie (a major part of the first movie involved Twilight breaking the traditional cliques to encourage non-standard mingling). The logical extrapolation is that harmony, or equality if you will, can be exaggerated to a monocultural, inflexible, overly strict order, i.e. the opposite of chaos.
Everything Starlight did in Our Town was either a genuine egalitarian movement gone too far, or a straightforward power play done by a scheming totalitarian. Regardless, the result is that Starlight imposes an extremely narrow order so destructive to inspiration and creativity that it becomes pale, stagnant, wan, unhealthy, and reduces everything down to a zero. No special baking, no creative fashions, no deviation from a null state.
OK, now what happens when Discord tries to be normal? Say, in "Discordant Harmony"? He reduces down to a zero. No spontaneity, no wild inventions, no wonders or surprises or even any real-world impact. If it weren't for Fluttershy, he'd have vanished altogether.
Also, by the time we reach "The Cutie Map", we'd just come off a season which focused on Discord's difficult reformation so that he could tone down his unpredictability (i.e. his ability to switch from friend to enemy easily) and become a genuine friend at last. What's the first thing we're greeted by after that epiphany? An example of what happens when extreme order takes friendship so far the other way that it too is not genuine. "The Cutie Map" is basically a cautionary tale, using hyper-moral order to balance out the lesson against amoral/immoral chaos.
Basically, while harmony (and thus order) are important components of friendship, so are spontaneity, surprises, differences, diversity, chaos.
Oh, and Fluttershy and Twilight play major or prominent roles in both cases, though that's probably just coincidence.
What do you think? 
Impossible Numbers, out.
Great write up. This has always been one of my favourite premieres of the show and you solidifed that.
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There are loads of reasons why I enjoy it so much (Starlight in prime villain/anti-villain mode being one of them). This was more an "And another thing!" idea that recently went click in my head.
Well I’ll be. Helps I just rewatched this one, so it’s super fresh in the mind!
Just another interesting angle to the single episode(s) that, I’d wager, have the most layers to unpack. One could honestly write many, many words on the morals, balance between harmony and chaos, and so on in “The Cutie Map” and still not cover everything. It’s such a cautionary tale, and amazingly, despite the heavy subject matter, the moral horror and thematic density still comes through fully in a TV-Y cartoon.
Helps that unlike most of Season 5, which frequently strained with scattered ambition or lack thereof in adapting to the changes in the show, this barely has such issues. It’s the start of the season, but is almost fully a self-contained adventure, with only the bare minimum of scenes tying in the before and after. Add to that such a good villain, and you truly have a fantastic two-parter. Like yourself, I find only “Return of Harmony” might equal it - and I do say might.
It’s also the rare two-parter where the minimal input from most of the Mane 6 actually doesn’t hinder the end result whatsoever - Twilight isn’t shuffling them into background extras, even if she does say more then any of the others just because she’s the leader.
More importantly, because we already care so much about the Mane 6, we don’t need lengthy emotional scenes or arcs with them here - just watching them struggle against the horrors and morality, and bring change to these other ponies, is plenty satisfying. Also, it gives a brief starring role to Fluttershy, and if there’s one thing more two-parters really should have done, it’s been brave enough to shake things up and highlight one never for a short spell as the plot dictates.
Em, yes. So, “The Cutie Map” is fantastic, then.
I've always viewed harmony as the balance and interplay between the extremes of law and chaos. It's important to remember Discord's full title, as he himself says it in the Season 2 opener: Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony. The two are distinct concepts.
Yes, Harmony can go too far, and some of the symptoms resemble those of Starlight's excessive order: No deviation from the norm, no innovation, no unique viewpoints. It does allow for some individual excellence, but responds even worse to unexpected outside influences that disrupt the delicate equilibrium. One could argue that Celestia's Equestria was approaching that point by the time of the Nightmare's return, with Twilight offering a crazier, less predictable, yet paradoxically more stable alternative.
But yes, Starlight and Discord act as fantastic counterparts. And by horseshoe theory (heh,) their extreme approaches have similar effects on ponies, rendering them dull, no longer in touch with their true selves, and unable to accomplish anything meaningful.
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Definitely, there's plenty of layers to unpack in this two-parter, though I think I'll save that for Loganberry's blog recap when we get to it. Briefly put: this really is one of the most nuanced episodes of the show!
Helps a lot they get their own individual reactions - Fluttershy's the most obvious, but Rainbow and Pinkie in particular get some excellent focus.
Although it was surprising to find Fluttershy wasn't originally supposed to play such a major role in the original plan (I think you showed me the behind-the-scenes plan there?). It's immensely fortuitous for my little comparison that she does play said role in the final version.
Aw man, I could have saved a lot of trouble by just posting that.
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Admittedly, I tend to lump "Harmony" in with "Order", and interpret "Chaos and Disharmony" as (physical) chaos and (interpersonal) disharmony, but...
I suppose a good analogy would be the way living tissue and organs "harmonize" in an organism's body, even though the parts at first glance look so disparate and unlikely. Then again, the mishmash of order and chaos, etc. works awfully well at any level of biology: chaos is inventive and full of surprisingly good tricks, but too much randomness causes a messy catastrophe, whereas order is functional and disciplined, but too much leaves stagnation and can't adapt properly to change (or ever improve what's already there).
The difference between harmony and order is something I intend to explore, one day...
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Apart from harmonics, set theory, and chaos theory all being different branches of mathematics?