S5E1-S5E2 -- "MlP: My Little Pony" · 4:05am Apr 9th, 2015
(The following contains spoilers for the Season 5 premiere. Yeah, we're doing this again. I really needed to get my head together before saying anything. I'm still not sure if it's entirely re-glued. But a lot of stuff I say might be irrelevant come a few days from now, so here we go.
It's also long, so you might want to get a snack and a drink, if for no other reason than that you'll likely spit-take at least once during some stuff I have to say while reading this.
Yeah. We're going lots of places.)
"Basically, all my friends were saying, 'well, I think I'm the only one who seems to think this, but...' and then they would just say a completely different opinion than I'd seen before. So everyone who liked it felt alone, and everyone who didn't like it felt alone, and I wanted to reach out and just connect those souls together and go, like, 'look, guys, you have happy families you can go to!'"
~Internet Personality Vangelus, HJU Radio #61 (Subject: POWER/RANGERS)
I usually try to take the middle ground when it comes to critique (lol), because it is my true belief that the usage of hyperbole for judgment purposes is for suckers.
But this time, I just can't.
I both despise and adore this premiere.
I'm going to go ahead and establish some things right off the bat, lest people get the wrong idea. And to do that, I'm going to say some things that are in stark contrast to what might be suggested about me by my usual demeanor and output.
I really like psychologically dark stories. I like stories where characters' hearts and minds get hurt bad. I like stories that involve mind control. I like witnessing eerie emotional lows that force me to look away and curl up into a ball. I like losing myself in a good cry brought about by a depressing story or a character's plight. It's cathartic. In the few moments of vulnerability where I actually look for fics to read around here, the Sad tag is totally one I check.
Sometimes crying with someone helps you deal with your own pain, you know?
I'm also a fan of well-done Fridge Horror. (This is one of the reasons I follow Horse Voice.)
Meanwhile, I greatly enjoy the antagonists of MLP, and never really got on the bandwagon of hating them because they're "bullies" or whatever. I'm sure said bandwagon has valid reasons, it's just that none of them apply to me. I grew up literally five blocks away from the set of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, including during the time it was filmed. I've sold video games in the Deep South on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. I've had my life threatened simply by refusing to hock someone's smashed and broken video game system for full price. Once you've been through that kind of stuff, Diamond Tiara ends up being put in perspective.
But I'm getting off track.
(Though before going on, note that I said psychologically dark. I don't like visual horror or horror tropes. I find them equally trite and genuinely scary. I'll break minds all you want and I love me some suspense, but show me a Boo from the Mario games and 50/50 odds I'll run the other way. No, I'm not kidding. That's how bad I am.)
I think the MLP antagonists are not nice people, sure, but I also think of them, and of psychological unrest, as wonderful characterization tools and fascinating things to explore. And on the occasions where one doesn't get utterly stupid with these tropes, the hurt/comfort they lead to is always, always nice. 
I've put all that stuff in my stories if you look at them closely enough. The last thing I released was a Rarity who was completely at the end of her rope. That stuff takes a lot out of me to write, but I can do it and enjoy doing it.
But.
But.
In my love of this stuff, I have exactly one, large, catch.
The catch is: in all things, balance.
This fifth season premiere... was the last thing I ever would have expected.
Except I also halfway expected it. I mean, when you plot the show out on paper, it makes sense. Every premiere and finale up to Twilight's Kingdom has been ramping up the "power battle" factor, and S4 gave us Pony Ball Z and Sailor Sparkle in a single 22 minute space. The premieres and finales, with the exception of the very first premiere (which, non-coincidentally, still happens to be my favorite of the eight), tended to be where FiM, a shoujo show at heart, allowed for a little leeway to let shonen tropes in for the sake of a sense of scale.
I never quite agreed with that philosophy (though I do agree with Equestria Girls leaning towards the seinen side of things, but that's another blog). But again, getting ahead of myself, back on track.
We've had four years of increasing scale. If you're trying to keep a show fresh and grounded, you don't want to try and top something like Twilight's Kingdom. You want to go lower, more personal, perhaps even more psychological. If you want to go personal while still keeping some sense of life-and-death stakes, then you want to do something like, say, I dunno, Nightmare Rarity (please can we have Heather Nuhfur join DHX please).
Otherwise the show spirals into ridiculousness. FiM has always been about interpersonal relations anyway.
So, taken as a piece of entertainment, I get what they were trying to do with this premiere. I get why it took three writers. And on the whole, I thought it was fantastically executed. My critic side really likes this premiere, and thinks it's far and away the best we've had since the original pilot.
But it freaked me the hell out, man. I can't do it. I can't do this. I can't watch this. What in the bloody-
- A whole town in the middle of nowhere filled with half-zombified creepy-face ponies with smiles frozen in place like they're all on Joker Toxin!
- Suggestions (and the eventual reveal of) an oppressive regime!
- Cutie marks, the representative and in some ways the soul of who a pony is, forcibly ripped from your very being!
- A psychological torture chamber designed to break ponies while they're already down!
- Hive and lynch mob mentality being used to control groups!
- The Apple Computer commercial!
- And finally, a chase and cornering of someone who we now can clearly see is a certified damaged mare!
And that's where we end, since our Villain of the Week Year actually managed to get away. No catharsis. No joy of friendship. No joy, period. We get some mild jokes and moments of levity sprinkled amidst the proceedings, but they all last seconds compared to the disturbing stuff. The mood and tone and thematic nature of this premiere is heavily weighted in favor of repeatedly hitting home a whole bunch of imagery and suggestion that runs the gamut from mildly unsettling to utterly terrifying.
No.
These are not the ponies I want.
It's been fairly hard to talk about this premiere with people--even the ones who agree with my position, since there's just so much to be creeped out about and people will do so to varying degrees (EVERYONE seems to hate the PA room, though). But meanwhile, every single person without fail that I have seen online or who I know personally who really liked this premiere, points to the other adventure episodes and goes "but MLP has always been dark!"
Whether they're right or wrong is irrelevant (besides, once again, it's both), but I will say that that reaction is the exact reason that the glut of Fimfiction's output is what it is.
Allow me to elaborate.
Still FiM's best "adventure" story.
A Friendship is Magic episode contains lots of stuff under the hood, but we're only going to concentrate on the "big" ones today.
Yes. My Little Pony has contained "dark" themes before (excluding the fake "dark themes" that fans really, really love to bring up as a result of them reading too much into the show). They've actually run rather rampant. As much as I like to envision Equestria as a joy-and-sparkles utopia, that ship sort of sailed around the time the M6 treated Zecora like a boogeymare back in Season 1.
However, one of the most beautiful things about Friendship is Magic for me is how it indeed does manage to take the darkest concepts, the biggest issues, and the most contemporary morals (but no headlines, thank goodness), and wrap them in a coating so saccharine that you don't know that the heavy things are being fed to you until the end of the episode, or well past. I can watch the episodes, enjoy my lady-positive ball of happy, then sit back, reflect, and get my mind blown upon realizing what was truly communicated on the sly. It's awesome.
It's why I cut the writers (even Merriwether) way more slack than I see most people cut them. Doing the above is a monstrous feat. No matter how crazy or ridiculous or incredibly sad an FiM story might get, somehow there's always an upturn to make sure you're right back where you started, and end the story with at least somewhat of a smile.
Hell, it sometimes happens right in the middle of things.
Discord technically "mind-broke" our ponies, yes (and oh gosh was it exquisite to watch I had happy chills the whole time it was happening) but upon taking over Equestria? Dude has nothing better to do than to turn it into an eternal cartoon funhouse. Meanwhile, said "broken ponies" are hilarious (Liarjack? Tom? Everything about Fluttershy?). Double meanwhile, Discord is "a god of chaos imprisoned in stone for thousands of years?" Yeah, so's every other evil fantasy sorcerer in kids' stories.
For heaven's sakes, HE'S VOICED BY Q. HE'S THE HAPPIEST, SMUGGEST "ULTIMATE EVIL" EVER.
Nightmare Moon? Wanted to create eternal night. Eternal night would certainly bring a world to ruin. But we're never shown the consequences of what that would entail. We can only speculate. Same with the fact that Nightmare Moon's a mind-broken Luna. The show doesn't dwell on that. It instead concentrates how the positive values of friendship can break a spell that dire.
Queen Chrysalis led an evil army, mind-controlled a prince and imprisoned a princess, and got a kingdom to turn against a character every Internet nerd sympathized with at the time. The whole thing was mildly dark, I suppose, but you're too busy drowning in Disney and tokusatsu tropes to care, and the whole thing is LITERALLY RESOLVED BY TRUE LOVE.
Sombra? Ooh, now we're getting somewhere. The mere presence of him actually made me mildly uncomfortable, and the infamous Door Scene made me misty and shivery. It toed the line. But again, they actually held Sombra back through the whole two-parter. I actually complained a storm about this when The Crystal Empire first aired--I wanted him to get in, take over, and show us a completely darkened and depressing Crystal Empire! But upon reflection I'm starting to think the show actually knew what it was working with there, and thus denied me my wish.
Meanwhile, Tire-LOL YOU KNOW WHAT I'M NOT EVEN GOING TO WASTE THE WORDS
Other supposedly "dark" things in FiM are a braggart semi-celebrity, a backstabber who stole creative secrets, Rainbow Dash, some Mean Girls, Rainbow Dash, Hotness Incarnate, and an awesome evil economic duo who live to screw hard workers out of their money and livelihood via shysterism and the march of progress--something that happens to real people every day.
Oh, and said shysterism is heralded by the most hilarious song and dance ever.
Like, even the episodes I can't stand have adhered to the above rule up to this point. The Best Night Ever centered around deflating all of the dreams of the M6 at once because SUBVERSION1!111!one But it was also about finding solace in that fact, and let's be real; the consequences of all those dreams being broken was hilarious. Cartoon pandemonium all over the place.
Magical Mystery Cure is an episode that is about nothing but joy and celebrating your friends' true natures. Sure, 22 minutes got cut from it, but the message is still there.
Even that one episode of Friendship is Witchcraft that somehow made it to the airwaves is about a frickin' apple vampire, for crying out loud. An apple. Vampire. 
All that stuff above is what I mean. The show loves to explore themes that hit hard. But in doing so, the show also knows when to pull back just as much, to achieve balance. For four entire seasons, it was never in question that the writers, even when they weren't at their best, were trying to make a show that was positive and joyful at its core. No matter how off the rails or into the darkness we were led, we would always get back on track so we could reflect, and there would always be a comparable, if slightly greater, amount of light.
It's this push-and-pull that makes the show beautiful. It also takes an immense amount of skill, finesse, awareness of the show's thematic core, and--I'm just going to say it--maturity.
All of this changed last weekend, however. The tarp was lifted to the point where even the people who LIKED this premiere were talking about how dark it was.
Then you have people like me, who signed up for this show due to its joy and light-in-the-darkness factors, both of which this premiere lacks.
Meaning that, even if this is a one-off? I now know what DHX is willing to do, and can no longer trust the show to keep to what it has for the last four years.
That's why I despise the premiere.
Not because the premiere was badly written (the opposite, actually, and it was plain to see that everything contained within was intentional and laser-pinpoint. The writers knew what they were doing, and did it with gusto).
It's not that the premiere was "dark" (as established above, I revel in darkness, within reason).
It's not even the fact that the premiere's overall message, while noble, is muddied and sometimes even pushed aside by said darkness, and thus will sadly be is already being misinterpreted by a great many people.
It's because for the first time since 2010, Friendship is Magic forgot its smiles. It forgot its balance. You switched out your rapier for a baseball bat. To use an extreme, world-stretching analogy that only five people will get: sure, you made Puella Magi Madoka Magica for your openers and finales for four years... but then you went and opened Season 5 with the Rebellion movie.
And if the show continues along this path, I won't be here anymore. Not because out of any sense of entitlement, but because episodes about MLP that drain me and bum me out kind of make it hard for me to write the kind of stuff I do. I've already felt more and more alone over my years in this fandom in this regard, as the critics and writers rush to read and write "deep" stories and clop and dark/grey area "interpretations" of the property. To see the official writers lean in this direction as well, however mildly? Not gonna lie, it hurts a little. I'm sure a lot of fans are happy about the envelope being pushed in this regard and I'm happy for them, I guess? But it was really hard for me to distinguish The Cutie Map/Cutie Markless/Whatever We're Calling It This Week from any other "clever" twisting of MLP's themes and messages I've seen on Fimfic and dA since 2010.
I was scheduled to do a lot of collaborative pony writing the weekend of the premiere. Then the premiere happened, and I canceled everything. (My apologies to those affected--I'll be back on the horse in a day or two.) I just had no clue what to think, and no will to write about the property at all anymore. That's how this stuff affects me.
I have enough sources of stress in my life. I come to ponies for the opposite.
And yet?
And yet.
I am but one--and not even one of the targeted.
How can I write the ultra-sappy stories that I do? Well, a big part of it is that my mind has the Care Bears theme song on loop.
...no, the good one.
FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE
Really, messaging in media during my youth was way different from what it is now. We had things like Revenge of the Nerds, which demonized jocks (and was hilariously sexist in hindsight). We had ultra-super-duper equality-deifying stuff ranging from Captain Planet to Power Rangers. We also had shows that wore their hearts on their sleeves, like Rainbow Brite and Punky Brewster.
Litmus test: if your heart doesn't gush at this intro, it's because you don't have one.
But the times are changing, the generations are changing, and parents are in transition. We are only now slowly coming upon the first atoms of an age where young girls are every once in a while being told that they not only can be anything they want from a young age onward, but that they can like whatever (and even whoever!) they want, and that concepts of femininity and womanhood are malleable and all-encompassing.
You like sports? Play sports. You hate pink? Screw pink! You like pink? That's great too. You want to go into engineering or IT or make video games? What the hell are you waiting for? The world's first coder says to get over here already!. Art, singing, math, chefery, office work, medicine, caretaking, support, law, leadership, no pursuit or desire denied!
But this is still only happening slowly, and the word is spreading just as slowly. Cliques still happen in school. Conformity is still encouraged. Parents are still paranoid. Glass ceilings are still a thing. Image is still WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY a thing. Meanwhile, don't rock boats. Maintain decorum. Don't disagree, or you'll be ousted.
This premiere says "yeah, no, screw the previous paragraph," and for that, it garners my absolute loudest applause.
Differences in opinion, as stressful as they are, lead to enlightement exactly as much as they lead to strife. Meanwhile, differing interests are what make us special, and what help us as people prop up and support each other. What one is weak in, another's strength makes up for it.
What isn't constructive is stifling. What isn't constructive is dismissal. And this very much includes the people who are soft-spoken and/or insecure as well as the ones who are outspoken and/or highly confident. Individuality and collectiveness are far more linked than either concept apart would have you believe.
(Apropos of nothing, I'm actually rather curious as to what the reaction will be once this is dubbed and reaches Eastern shores. I'll have to talk to my friends across the pond.)
I have way different opinions about various things from even the friends I have in this fandom, to say nothing of the fandom at large. But at the same time, getting exposed to so many mindsets here, and asking people to explain them, has helped me understand and appreciate them, and even personally incorporate some of their strengths as opposed to... well, just lashing out at stuff different from me, which was what I always used to do.
Imagine if children learned to value and incorporate each others' strengths (and compensate for each others' shortcomings) from a young age.
Due to parenthood being in transition, this might (or might not, if she's lucky) be the only time for years that some growing girl--or growing boy, for that matter; god forbid a dude spies an Easy-Bake out of the corner of his eye at the toy store--gets to see this sort of message. The disturbing way it's shown may well be to drive home the point of how horrible the alternative feels when you're not allowed to be yourself because of some unseen (or seen) power presence.
Have you ever lived under the thumb of a value system opposite to yours?
It's kind of like being in a little locked room with that value system playing over and over, droning into your mind 24/7.
It's kind of hell.
This is why I adore the premiere.
This show may rend my heart in multiple directions every time I watch it, but you know what? This is way bigger than me. More than ever, The Cutie Map reminds me that this show is important.
So yeah.
"Let them write."
Thumbs-up, DHX. Y'all did what you had to do.
I'll just be over here in a ball in the corner, but you did what you had to do. Good on you.
AND NOW, PARTO TWO
"More, darling! MORE!"
WHAT?
YOU THOUGHT IT WAS OVER?
WE HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN CRAZY YET!
Oh, the review may be done, but there's way too many things I liked about this premiere amidst all of its gonzo! Yes, as much as I am opposed to the delivery of its story on personal principle, there was a lot to love. It's why I was conflicted and afraid to post this in public, really.
But I've gone this far now, so screw it. SCREAMING FAN MODE ENGAGED
OH MY GOSH did you see Fluttershy actually got to be a thing? Like, almost an actual solo hero for once! We haven't had that since Season 1 and she didn't have to transform into another version of her psyche this time to do it! And she was the only one immune to the town's effects which is completely in character for her conflict-avoidance self.
Pinkie Pie was, like, the one awesome thing to look to when all seemed totally lost looking for any semblance of joy in this premiere! And she's allergic to sugarless things! (Splenda is her Kryptonite. :D)
Rarity had hilarious crises of creativity and imagination the whole way through!
And Rainbow Dash was, justifiably, totally creeped out by her individuality and personal strengths being constantly pushed down--okay maybe RD fans didn't like it that much but gosh it was just interesting to see her completely out of her comfort zone for this and I may or may not have reveled in every second of it ^^;.
twilight was there too I guess
And wow. Just WOW. Check out that characterization of some seemingly background ponies!
OUR NEW ELITE FOUR, EVERYPONY! GAWD I WANT TO WRITE Y'ALL SO HARD
For once this show woke up and got me to pay attention to some stallions even in the face of some new and ultra-cute mares. When Double Diamond found his skis and said "this is where I met Starlight Glimmer" I was more engaged at that moment than almost anything else in the premiere. It was the one point where I had inspiration and wanted to write a thing! THAT'S how you get me to pay attention.
i still don't get the supposed joke in his name though someone help
Meanwhile everything about Party Favor was fantastic and OH MAN DO HE AND CHEESE AND PINKIE NEED TO BE A TRIO YESTERDAY
OR PUT HIM WITH TRIXIE
I DON'T KNOW
JUST DO SOMETHING
WITH HIM
PREFERABLY THAT INVOLVES PARTY FAVORS
BUT NO SHIPPING
IN THIS CASE THAT'D BE LAZY AS HELL
Meanwhile, these two cuties? 
On the left we have Sugar Belle and on the right we have Night Glider. They were cute and I liked them buuuuuuuuuut not nearly as much as the fandom seems to. And truth be told, I'm more a fan of Night Glider.
I do, however, utterly adore the idea of them together. Sadly, it's not so much that I think they're a perfect couple as it takes both of them in the same vicinity together to get me to care. Alone, they rank slightly above "meh" for me.
That said, they are, however, my new background pony OTP until the show gives me something better. Pretty sure it won't. So yeah, fandom? Please ease off writing Vinyltavia and start writing the awesome kissing-laden adventures of Sugarglider plzkthx. I want to find them interesting beyond their cuteness, and I need your help. 
Seriously, though, if these four don't come back in some capacity, it will be a crime.
And now we come to the part where I lose, like, thirty followers.
But I gotta be me.
And as far as Me is concerned, there is one element of this premiere that, far and I away, I adored beyond everything else. Past the not-so-background ponies, past the novel treatments of all but one of the M6, past the awesome message wrapped in a creepy shell.
And it's this.
i wouldn't mind being equal under her is what I'm saying
This is Starlight Glimmer.
And I love her.
Welp, looks like I've only got a few minutes before I'm burned alive. May as well say as much as I can!
My love is conditional for the moment, for reasons I will soon explain, but at said present moment, I am completely smitten with this mare.
I will say for starters that I am drawn to this design to a degree unlike any other I've been exposed to yet in this show. Seriously, it's like the designers locked themselves in a room and swore not to leave until they'd gotten everything right--then scrapped what they had (because it looked too much like Coco Pommel), and proceeded to get everything right again.
AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH SO RIGHT I CAN'T
This mare is gorgeous. I love her mane and her body language. Her demeanor, both in confidence and insecurity, makes me swoon. Her voice is like honey and every time she was onscreen and talking, I was on the edge of my seat.
No wonder she recruited an entire town.
Gosh, it's a good thing I'm not wired for horses, otherwise I'd be in big trouble, huh? 
But OH OH IT GETS WORSE IT GETS SO MUCH WORSE
As usual, with me, physical attributes are only the surface level of what draws me to any character. There's always something deeper.
Except with Starlight, this depth can aptly be described as "rabbit hole to Wonderland."
Because I actually find her to not only be an immensely sympathetic character, but also the first sympathetic antagonist that FiM (the show) has ever had. There's no need to put this one in Leather Pants like the fandom did with Chrysalis and Discord and pre-MD Trixie (and to a lesser extent, Luna). She comes prepackaged with and wearing those Pants already, and they might even be on too tight.
Idealism is dangerous. I know this, as it is my personal philosophy. Optimism, when applied to humanity, is also dangerous. Again, I know this, because see previous statement.
I came into this premiere expecting your usual generic villain, like I'm sure all of us did. But as she kept appearing I paid closer attention to Starlight and noticed something which nearly made my head explode:
Her actions and words were consistent.
And pitch-perfectly utopian and idealistic--except fallen completely into the naivete that idealism can so often breed.
Let's go over some choice quotes (since looking over the transcript is only 20% less creepy than watch the episode!):
First from the Equality Song:
"In our town, in our town/We dare not compete/Winning only breeds the worst/Ego-filled conceit"
"Life is a joy in our town/We're all equal here/No one is superior/And no one shakes in fear"
"Other ponies argue/Do you ever wonder why?/When you think your talent's special/You don't see eye-to-eye"
"There's just too many differences/That lead to disarray/But when you learn to act as one/It's like a holiday"
Unless you're someone who's very in touch with their ego (and I know I have readers who are this, I've talked to you; not calling you out, just saying an objective point), this actually sounds not so bad. Is there any wonder Fluttershy took to the place so well? There's some creepier lines in there like "you can't have a nightmare if you don't dream," but you get the clear idea from the tour of the town that everyone's willing to make the sacrifices needed nomatterhowmuchituhrts because anything's better than the alternative--a world full of arguments and pain.
Stupid cutie marks.
But aren't cult leaders, especially in fiction, ousted as people who deliberately take advantage of their followers while living the good life? Aren't brainwashers usually simply using their subjects for grand ultimate designs?
Hmm. Let's keep going.
From Sugar Belle: "Different talents lead to different opinions, which lead to bitterness and misery." Starlight herself says that there are "no judgments" in their village.
Aaaaaaaand then we've got the ultra-creepy Room 101 scene. Which I hate. But which is important.
"In sameness, there is peace. Exceptionalism is a lie. Free yourself from your cutie mark. Choose equality as your special talent. Difference is frustration. To excel is to fail. Be your best by never being your best. Conformity will set you free. Accept your limitations, and happiness will follow. You're no better than your friends."
The philosophy of this village, and of Starlight, holds fast to "sacrifice all you are for happiness and a life of non-suckitude." Some of the sentences above actually sound pretty great (speaking for myself as well here!). But then you look closer, and at other sentences, and you see the catches that can only come by ideals that have been regrettably twisted.
Why did these villagers join Starlight? How bad were these ponies' lives before she came along? How little confidence in themselves did they have before Starlight came along?
Here's the final conflict between Starlight and the village, including choice lines.
Double Diamond: You said cutie marks were evil! You said special talents led to pain and heartache!
Starlight Glimmer: They do! Don't you see?! Look at them!
Sugar Belle: Then why? Why did you take ours and not give up your own?
Starlight Glimmer: I... I had to, you fools! How could I collect your cutie marks without my magic?!
Night Glider: But the staff has all the magic we need!
Starlight Glimmer: The staff is a piece of wood I found in the desert! It's my magic that makes all this possible! You'd all still be living your miserable lives thinking you're better than everypony else if it weren't for my magical abilities! I brought you friendship! I brought you equality! I created harmony!
Double Diamond: You lied to us!
Starlight Glimmer: So what? E-Everything else I said is true! The only way to be happy is if we're all equal!
Party Favor: Except for you.
Starlight Glimmer: They think they can come to my village and disrupt my life? Let's see how they like spending the rest of their lives without their precious cutie marks!
Starlight Glimmer: Spare me your sentimental nonsense! I gave these ponies real friendships they never could've had otherwise!
Misguided "friendship" till the last.
Okay. Controversy time.
I've seen some of the arguments against Starlight and none of them add up in my eyes. I've seen her painted as yet another villainess, someone who's "evil", be it supervillain evil or everyday evil... and I don't buy it.
At worst, Starlight Glimmer is comparable to a cult leader (and quite the charismatic one at that~). Simply by way of method, that still sets her apart from every villain on the show. And even if she's a cult leader, we've seen that she's the kind who actually believes her own madness, and really just wanted to be left alone to live a life where everypony was equal and just left her and hers alone.
Why keep her cutie mark while taking away everypony else's? Someone has to be the Snowball. Ever seen an asylum run by inmates? Or a zombie-infested town (not unlike what we got here)? Doesn't really work. To restore order (if you even want it) once things have gotten that far, you need outside influences. But for that matter, if the position of power was so important to her, then why paint her own cutie mark so that she would fit in with the others, and lie about that fact? Why go through all that trouble? Why make the house of cards that big?
Why hold onto Twi's cutie mark so hard? A princess joining the cause means status and validation--but not everyone might agree that Starlight's way is the best way. What if Twilight brought other alicorns around? That could be trouble.
Through her words and actions, we see that Starlight is selfish and conned a whole bunch of people. Through her words and actions, we also see that the concepts of friendship do exist in Starlight Glimmer, potentially to a level comparable to Twilight herself. But they have been twisted and warped and turned into something they weren't meant to be.
And she created a whole ecosystem around it that seemed to be content with just existing on its own. True to character, no boats were rocked. If Starlight was planning to "take over" anything, she was sure taking her sweet time. She even kept an open-door policy with her citizens (public cutie mark vault, even!) and really kept one and only one secret from them.
The dumb Room 101 aside, that doesn't come from generic villainy. That doesn't even come from what we've gotten thus far, which are a cut above generic villainry (Tirek and Sunset notwithstanding.) That comes from deep-seated issues.
Calling it now: Something happened in this mare's life. Either something big, or several little things over time, ending in a back-breaking straw.
Calling it further: Starlight Glimmer isn't "evil."
At least, not consciously.
She's broken.
Damaged goods.
She doesn't need wrath. The other villains we've had up to now? On differing levels, they needed and deserved wrath (yet usually got mercy due to the way this show works, thank goodness). But for the first time, we have a villain who has a serious problem and needs help.
This may well be the best idea DHX's writers have ever cooked up for this show.
...well, okay. 
but only b/c u asked so nicely
I say "may well be" because things haven't completely played out yet. Usually when we get a new villain, the show tries to stuff an entire movie's worth of plot into two episodes, and that includes exposition on the villain's backstory, followed by their subsequent Deus Ex Machina defeat. That doesn't happen here. Starlight Glimmer gets away by the skin of her teeth.
She's going to be back. The writers are planning again.
Me, I have my own theories. Most fans are comparing her to Amon from The Legend of Korra right now, but there's another character analogy which I think might be a slightly better fit. I also have my theories about her backstory and future actions, but I'm going to hold these to my chest. It's too early--you can see this from people trying to theorize now and kind of stumbling over themselves. Hell, I might've overplayed my hand already with the "broken" bit.
Two things I don't want the show writers to do, though?
- Make her yet another manic villain trying to take over the world. 'Cause I'll be disappointed.
- Make her puppet to a greater villain who wants to take over the world. 'Cause I'll be utterly pissed.
...gosh I am over the moon with this character right now. I could write a book on her. But I can't write word one until I know exactly what her deal is, and for that I will potentially have to wait until the end of the season! 
Sigh. The things I do to ensure quality and avoid the feature box. :(
NO BOOKISH NO NO IT'S TOO SOON TO START SHIPPING WE DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HER NO AUGH TOO LATE THEY'RE ALREADY IN TWILIGHT'S PLAYCASTLE BEDROOM ;_;
So, to summarize:
"The Cutie Map" is a pair of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episodes that I greatly do not enjoy watching. You probably will, and I feel no need to get on anyone's case for that. Case-getting s'dumb. I just come to ponies for a different tone. You've read my stuff, you know this already.
However, unlike other episodes of this show which I do not enjoy watching, I don't wish that it were stricken from the record. I enjoy its message, respect its gumption (even if there might have been too much of it) and really like its guest stars.
Finally, I am head over heels for its anti-antagonist—and in confessing as much, depending on online consensus, I may also have ousted myself as a member of Team Plasma.
Which would suck, because Team Plasma is weaksauce. Team Galactic for life, yo.
We good? This hole deep enough? Great! I'm gonna go lie in it. Here's the shovel, just scoop over the dirt as needed.
You know, I promised myself I wouldn't blog about this season? Damn it all.
See you this weekend, I guess.
~B
INCOMMING!!!!
a.dilcdn.com/bl/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2012/11/are-you-a-night-owl.jpg
(this is a Sugarglider, for those who might not already be aware...)
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That's a good start! Needs more pastel colors and kissing, tho.
Also more horses.
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I've put in 46.5 hours at work since Monday; cut me some slack, bosslady,
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(*hug*)
A lovely thing you have made just now! But yeah, I am curious as to what they'll do with her next. Considering she's the first villain to actually get away, I'm kinda wondering if she'll be the first arc villain. Where the arc is in trying to reach her and take care of those issues.
Let's see what the next episodes bring!
(Spoiler'd for shameless plug.) Well, why didn't you say so? That means my very first story is Safe For Bookish!
Anyway, I'm glad you're sticking around in spite of feeling conflicted. We may not have much in common, but I'd miss that unique Bookishness. (How apropos.)
Better watch out. GaryOak would call that "horsefucker talk". Of course, he says that about a lot of things.
"Double Diamond" referrs to the difficulty rating assigned to skislopes. It's the hardest.
...this is exactly why I won't be writing a review of my own for this opener. Overall, I'm about as conflicted as you are, but to a lesser degree. Almost nothing in the episode really made me like it or dislike it, honestly, with the two things swaying my opinion at all were Pinkie's antics throughout the episode (for) and the brainwashing chamber (against). It was interesting reading your opinions, though, Bookish!
As far as the MLP premieres go, I rate it 3/5, placing above Crystal Empire and Friendship is Magic but below Princess Twilight Sparkle and Return of Harmony in my opinion. I hope you find the remainder of season 5 more enjoyable, though. If what I've heard is any indication, the Harrison Bergeron level creepy factor won't be sticking around, and we'll be back to our regularly scheduled fun times for a while.
Quite a good read on a number of different levels. So much here to try taking in all at once though, heh.
And Cryo beat me to it with the double-diamond reference. ;)
2963350
That new group tho...
And yeah, I was up until 1am working at home last night myself. Know that feel.
I'm not conflicted about the episode at all:
It's the creepiest episode of the show so far, but its the best premiere out of the 5.
I feel that the humor of the episode actually balanced out the creepiness. Despite that, it's not the funniest episode, that title still goes to "Pinkie Pride"
The reason that it was the creepiest episode is because everything about the town, and Starllight, was unsettling, but subtly. Unlike Lesson Zero, they didn't go over the top with it, which is why that episode was all funny, while this episode was half creepy, half funny.
Starlight Glimmer is also my second favorite of the "main" villains. If she appears enough times, she might beat Tirek for my favorite.
2963350 The name alone makes this ship inevitable. Well, not necessarily, because no one has yet written a GOOD Mac n' Cheese, but I'm willing to be convinced by SugarGlider, because SugarGliders are so cute.
I was sitting back and expecting for PartyPie to be a big thing, but initial rumbles seem to be moving towards PartyDiamond, and I'm cool with more M/M ships. I'd like to see them, in fact. Meanwhile, I'll be over here revising my theories about party pony magic, which is what interests me anyway. We've got a NEW one, and a unicorn at that, and that is very awesome and will you LOOK at that balloon bridge and--
derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/4/8/868599__safe_photo_human_irl+human_irl_balloon_nightmare+fuel_spoiler-colon-s05e01_spoiler-colon-s05e02_party+favor.jpeg
. . . what, there was an episode that had something in it besides Party Favor? Really?
I loved Fluttershy in this. Actually, what it reminded me of most was kindergarten and the lower levels of grade school. If you're a shy, easily picked on kid, like Fluttershy, everyone being treated the same and being equal is a relief, right up to the point when you're not allowed to be good at something or bring your best friend a card because it will leave everyone out. And I went to Quaker schools that valued cooperation over competition, so I didn't relish the idea that friendly cooperation sucks and is for losers. And I guess I keep coming back to the wisdom of Pink Horse: those smiles are FAKE. Says the pony who literally IS friends with everypony--you cannot force everypony to be friends. It was really interesting to see Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie on such opposite sides of this, and not really something quite along the lines of extrovert/introvert.
I'm still trying to decide what I thought of this episode.
2963371
Is this better?
bit.ly/1IM0XAq
2963552
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
I KNEW IT
I KNEW SOMEONE WAS GONNA FUCKING DO IT
2963556
HAAAA SIKTIR!
I am very happy I was the first, in that case.
Ciao, bestie.
I don't know if it's the best Season Opener or two-parter -- I'd say that the best Season Opener was Season One (Nightmare Moon) and the best two-parter Season Four's Closer (Tirek). But it was one of the best, because of the tone of psychological horror, which is difficult to do right. Plus, they are probably setting up a recurring villain, and the last such was Discord. Who did a Heel Face Turn on his second appearance.
I think that Starlight Glimmer was a previous student of Celestia's who broke down in a different way than Sunset Shimmer. She felt so bad about failing Celestia that she decided that the world would be better if nopony had to compete with any other pony. The result was The Village.
Wait, are you saying there are people who do not like the most equal pony of them all? I guess they need a refresher on their equalization process.
Wow. That is indeed a pretty deep Rabbit Hole t'wander down, but I suppose I wouldn't still be here if I wasn't willing to explore such a thing, and besides, your thoughts are always just so worth engaging with.* <3
* It's so fascinating to me to get these deeper insights into the particulars of your thought process and the methods and basis by which your opinions and reactions to this show are formed. Because in a weird way, I actually found the fundamental heart of this episode to be very positive; I touched on this mildly in my own review, but think about it: in "Return of Harmony" or "Twilight's Kingdom" or take-your-pick, when the girls got hit by whatever Magical Evil Whammy the villain/threat had up their sleeve, that was it; they were out of commission until something came along to fix them. Here, though? Even after having their Cutie Marks stolen, they never gave up trying to find a solution; they stuck together, and stayed in solidarity, and held out hope. And as a result, they created a symbol of strength and unity so strong that the entire town finally found the courage to rally around it. That is some Superman-level shit right there, and I found all of it extremely satisfying, and empowering enough to counterbalance a lot of the darker, scarier stuff the episode had.
But I also was only in the head-space to feel that way because of the particulars of how I form my opinions and reactions. And looking at your take on it, I realize just how close the episode really did come to being exactly the same for me as it was for you. I honestly have a deep, intense dislike for those 'fics you describe here, especially the kind that seem to go out of their way to defy the show's ethos, to deliberately and often explicitly point at the underpinning ideas of Friendship and Love and Goodness that inform the show's writing and say "this is stupid, and you're stupid for believing it", which feels like it comprises a far-too-large portion of the output on this site, including and especially some of its most popular stories. I'm not completely averse to "Dark" in my Pony, as you know, but the kind of "balance" you talk about is extremely important to me too, so I can only imagine how upsetting it must have felt to feel that balance betrayed by the show itself. It didn't quite happen t'me, but it feels clear t'me now that's more a matter of subjective chance than anything concrete.
* I've seen some very interesting interpretations of the core conflict at the center of this episode, the struggle between Identity and Conformity on the path to Happiness, but none of them have been anywhere near as convincing or compelling as yours. The notion of this story occupying the fascinating moment of transition we are seeing unfold all around us in our culture as ideas about Gender and Identity slowly but surely begin to really progress is not one I have seen before, but it's beautiful, and it fits like a glove.** It's doubly satisfying because it actually puts a finger on something I myself was struggling to pin down, which is why the conflict managed to work as well as it did; far too often, this sort of storyline fizzles out really badly for me, and this one comes close to doing so, it manages to hold together better than almost any other example I can think of, especially because it actually makes the smart choice of having our Stepford Ponies acting the way they do out of choice.
Back when we got our first glimpse of this episode through the SDCC animatic, I thought I had a pretty clear idea of where it would go, but once it became clear that all taking the Cutie Mark away does to a Pony is strip them of the talent it represents (and the parts of their personality tied up in that talent, a la Pinkie's sense of humor or Applejack's "countryisms") and the "It's A Good Life" mentality only set in as a matter of conditioning...that really strengthened the story for me, but up until now I couldn't quite grasp why. You've basically nailed it right on the head, though: it's because that allows the conflict to ultimately express ideas about Social Pressure and how that plays in to our fundamental sense of selves in a way that fit the show's style and world. And for me, at least, that's pretty freaking special.
* A Godzilla 2014 reference and a PMMM reference? Together in the same review? Be still my beating heart. <3 ***
* I'll admit upfront, on an aesthetic, surface-level, I'm nowhere near as fond of Starlight as you. She just sort of looks like Suri Polomare with highlights t'me, and the name irks me if only because it's the second "Twilight-esque" name we've gotten in a fairly short amount of time which feels way too much like the other "Twilight-esque" name. In both cases, though, I don't really hold either against her too much; the name fits, especially in light of her Dirty Little Secret, and the design is likewise a key component of what makes her so fascinating as an antagonist: she's literally just another Pony, no Grand Destiny or Greater Evil behind her in any way, shape, or form.
Getting deeper, though? Yeah, I've got t'agree. Something happened to this girl. Something bad. I dunno exactly what, even in the broadest sense, but there are too many hints in terms of her plan and a lot of her voice-acting which suggest that her actions seem to stem from a Bad Place in her history. Where I'm a little more...agnostic than you, I guess, is how much she's genuinely concerned for other Ponies' happiness or not. I'm not saying it's beyond the pale, mind; you make a pretty compelling case that it's present in her mindset. I'm just saying, in the same way I get the sense that there is a Tragedy in her story somewhere, I also get the sense that she may honestly have been concerned less with making others' lives better, and more elevating herself by dragging the bar down to the level where she can step over it more easily. It's fascinating to consider how much that concept gets tangled up with the "Happiness for All" factor, if at all, and that very nuance definitely makes Starlight the best overall antagonist, in my mind, since Chrysalis.
Enjoy your hole, my friend. I am more than happy t'share it if you'd wish. ^_^
*also, for the record, a review for "Generosity Travels" should be forthcoming sooner rather than later, but given how unpredictable/full my schedule has been this week, I don't wanna make any promises.
** I'm also going to take this moment to again mention "Steven Universe"; I actually dunno if it's a show for you, since Hurting You is a big part of what it does, but it occupies that same moment in some VERY powerful ways and is probably my favorite show on the planet right now.
*** though your comments make me suspect if we ever do end up talking about "rebellion", the conversation will be...spirited. X3
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Indeed. And your darkness keeps things never dull around here! As does your taste in music.
I'll stay around long as I can. Star-Wars-Worst-Case scenario, I've still got Equestria Girls and Friends Forever.
(Looks at Gary's Published Stories list) ...yeah, I guess he'd be more familiar with the concept than you or I, huh?
2963611
Short review of Rebellion: much like Bats!, I can't acknowledge it as part of the series it supposedly belongs to. Otherwise it breaks said series.
PM me so we can talk about Godzilla 2014 and I can yell about how it is beautiful and perfect and everyone complaining about it was wrong
This is a fantastic point, and one that showcases our girls' growth since their early days. Thank you for making it. It actually helps me deal with the episode a tiny bit.
Oh, I'm completely sure there's a lot of the latter in there. In making sure that everyone you see is your Friend(tm), you lower the chances for conflict and stress, thus making life more bearable. At least, that's always the plan.
And you know what they say about plans.
EDIT: Noted and filed on the story reviews, and thanks! Been loving those, they're still really helpful. :)
2963458
Oh, wow, thanks! I seriously would never have caught that in a million years.
My first and only attempt at skiing was... yeah I don't like to reminisce.
I...I just don't get it... I'm sorry but I don't get it. Yes, I read all of your points, and yes, I can see where you're coming from, but personally, when I sat down to watch the premiere, I saw nothing different (Using the term broadly) than what we've seen in the show in the past. I've seen plenty of people who said they were creeped out, saying that it was perhaps TOO dark... but I wasn't creeped out, I just thought it was amazing how they were able to handle such serious subject matter.
It actually kind of frustrates me, because I can't understand what people are seeing that I'm not.
Edit: I should say, If it makes any sense, I thought the whole atmosphere and everything was creepy and oppressive, yes, but it wasn't the kind of thing that gave me chills or made me uncomfortable or anything.
It was one heck of a premiere, to be sure! I understand your conflicted feelings, because this was both a pretty dark episode, and dark in a different way than usual. The enforced conformity, the cult brainwash aspect, the whole thing about misguided idealism curdled into evil... It's full of stuff that hits us adults hard, I think. Probably harder than the core demographic of kids.
Double Diamond is absolutely the break-out pony of the episode; the rest of the Equal Four are cool characters, but DD seems to have caught the fandom's attention like few ponies since Vinyl and Octavia.
I'm withholding most judgement for when I've seen a few more episodes, because starters are always grandiose and aren't really too indicative of the rest of the season. I don't think they'll scrap the Slice Of Life formula just yet, because there's still a lot of potential in the standard mixture.
I liked that Starlight Glimmer didn't get magic-laser-redeemed right away. (It actually doesn't happen that often anyway. Certainly not compared to, say, The Care Bears. Happiness Is Mandatory, Friend Bear.) She got away, and that gives her opportunity for future reappearances. Which is how Trixie got started. (Not that I think they're the same; Starlight is idealistic, in a dark manner, while Trixie is mostly just selfish and conceited. What, you didn't think I could say bad things about Best Pony? Flaws are part of a complete character. Which is why Glimmer's possible future redemption will have to be handled differently.) Having her turned "good" - aside from being unrealistic, because people with her deep-seated convictions don't change that quickly - would complete her arc and render her finished and unusable for further material other than a heel-face-turned villain (like Sunset Shimmer). And throwaway villains aren't nearly as fun.
Glimmer needs to have her proper return, reveal her grand plan (or her part in the grand plan), have her points undermined by the truth and the message of the show, doubt, and be defeated for real and accept it, before she's done. Frankly, she deserves no less. She is a very interesting character.
While I agree that she must have suffered some kind of trauma to set her down this path, I'm not going to write her off as a broken woobie as an excuse for all she's done; I hate the Freudian Excuse, and I hate it when villains make excuses for their behavior - it takes away their integrity an agency. (As far as I remember, Trixie never made any excuses for her behavior in Magic Duel, even when she apologized. She accepted that it was all on her.) I wholeheartedly support the notion that Glimmer believes in her actions and choices. She thinks she's doing the right thing. Whether she genuinely thinks she's helping others, or knows that she's just helping herself while lying to others, she's not stepping off the path before the end. And to me, that makes her a far better story character.
I absolutely loved The Equal Four (sometimes referred to as The Cutie Finders, which doesn't make sense to me). It was refreshing to see somepony other than the Mane Six or a guest star get to do something decisive for once. Double Diamond may have had an irritating way of speaking, but he was decidedly cool, as were the others. Looked cool, too. Party Favor showed more character value in one episode (okay, a double episode) than Big Macintosh has shown over four seasons. I definitely hope to see more of them later; or, if not, other likewise interesting characters in future episodes.
I also like that the show continues to debunk Twilight's implied status as a game breaker. Yes, she has alicorn magic, but she's not infallible and can be taken unawares. She's good when the chips are down, but she's not playing rock-paper-nuke. And that's good, because it makes her still on the level of her earlier-season self, as far as a writable character goes.
And one piece of fanon that, frankly, annoys me is the idea that Twilight, once become a princess, now must act like a "princess" - i.e. have "royal duties" (usually undefined but somehow important), treat others like they're beneath her (which goes against the core of her being) and surround herself with royal guards all the time and have them do her bidding. Yet for all of her time in office to date, she's never bothered with any of those, and routinely go into dangerous and uncertain situations with not Canterlot's best and bravest by her side, but her true friends. And while I'm aware that this is in great part due to the writing (having generic guards do things and fight baddies on-screen means less time and opportunity for the more interesting characters to do the same), I think it says a lot about Twilight that she's a hooves-on, I'm-fixing-my-own-problems, my-friends-are-all-I-need kind of pony princess. And I'm so glad they didn't seem to change it for the new season. (Of course, I may have jinxed it since the next episode will be about Twilight dealing with her Fortress of Filitude and the trappings thereof. We'll see.)
This season can go either way. To quote Albert Einstein after he assassinated Hitler: "Time will tell."
uhh.... I'd not seen the season 5 premiere yet... I might just give it a pass, now, with how badly Rebellion screwed with my head..
Wow. A beautifully in-depth exploration of both the episode and your reaction to it. Thank you for this excellent exercise in metacognition.
I have to agree about Starlight. The best villains are the ones who think they're heroes, and she has a full-fledged messiah complex. (I gave you friendship! I equalize ponies! I bring harmonious utopia!) And in order for her to hold the "first among equals" contradiction in her mind without even realizing it? Yeah, she's messed up.
Personally, I see an interesting parallel between her and Discord. Both have a vision for Equestria that's very different from the status quo. Both attack the Mane Six on a deep, fundamental level, with similar visual effects. Both sit back and enjoy their creation when they think themselves triumphant. Both twist psyches into unrecognizability. The difference is that the spirit of chaos and disharmony is more sane. It's fascinating. I had to have them interact.
2963556
Darn, you beat me to it.
The thing that makes Starlight so different from every other villain thus far, is that she already seems to have an ideal for what friendship is supposed to be.
None of the other villains have had that.
And I definitely second your opinion that something has happened to her to make her the way she is. Personally, I'm betting that she was apart of her own inverted Mane 6.
Anywhoo, see you next weekend.
For me, the opener is what it always has been, the girls staring down a dark spot and coming out of it smelling like roses all the while. Anyone else would fallen for it, but these gals? Nope, they stood strong, they kept to their beliefs,and came out the other side like a boss.
Which is why I can't wait for this weeks.
2963935
For me, Twilight has been the same type of royalty that would go out and fight. The royal who does something type of character. IT's just who she is, its what she always is. To do any less would be the equilivant to seeing Superman seeing a purse snatcher and going "Its the police's problem". Or the Flash finding a burnt down building and not fixing it (God I love that comic. Its right up there with Superman saving a jumper in terms of "this is who the hero is!" well, that and that one episode o the Flash where Barry saves that woman from a burning car.) Then again, when I refer to our OCD, paranoid, maniac princess, I always like to use the term
And if you get that term and who it is reering too, you'll see some more of my tastes in anime.
2963935
"I've been to many worlds, and seen many different kinds of justice..."
Probably no shock given our talks, but me, I love a Good Freudian Excuse. Soooort of.
I've seen precious few really good ones in my lifetime, but the one here is set up so beautifully that it'd be almost a crime not to use it. But in contrast to you, I find "done evil with no regrets and full responsibility, get punished" to be incredibly boring (I allow it in, say, tokusatsu, because it's a nice security-blanket formula (and even toku will use FE half the time anyway). There's merit in that, sure, but I've just seen it so much by now that it's hard for me to get excited about it anymore except in the most intensely-well-done cases. So those end up being my throwaway villains--the ones that just were, y'know?
There's always a reason. Heck, in Lulamoon's Castle, I foisted half of Trixie's troubles on Celestia and Twilight.
I just spun it in a positive manner to fuel Trixie's personal drive. There are times when the wrong is on you, and times when you don't think the wrongness is on you but you will never believe it until you're hit with a giant slap to the face.
I want Starlight to get slapped, hard, but still be able to reflect on it.
I know this isn't a stance taken usually by fans, but as usual I'm kind of weird. I want the Freudian Excuse, without the Excuse. Starlight still did bad stuff, and has a screwed-up world view. She needs to experience equivalent anguish for that, know what she did, and be brought to some kind of justice for it. But far as I'm concerned, the suitable justice, in this case, really should be more akin to the Luna/Sunset/Trixie sort than the Chrysalis/Tirek/Sombra sort.
If she's just rainbeamed and everyone crows about how the witch is dead? Suddenly we have the worst message this show's ever sent.
I don't want her to be Excused Just Because She Had A Sad A Long Time Ago. But what I desperately, slaveringly want, more than anything, is for her to be given a full examination. They crafted a character I want to know more about, wherever the path takes us. The show is playing with something big here, and I find that compelling on its own, and I want her to have to be brought to face that stuff, because that's half of how she's going to be helped. And hey,even if she does have a sad past (looking forward to it! :D) it doesn't need to paint her as a woobie and use that to say that her actions up to this point need to be tossed aside. Trust me--I'll do (the first half of) that myself.
I actually really love woobies who deserve what they got. It's a delightfully tasty paradox. It's why I love Woobie Sunset Shimmer even though it's almost impossible to pull off well. BUT IMMA DO IT.
Yeah, Sunset! That's the perfect example here.
Putting Starlight aside for a sec: what we're dealing with is a series containing a villain who actually brainwashed people against their will, got rainbeamed, repented for five seconds, and was then allowed to stay where she was so she could angst about how the people she brainwashed no longer like her and how that's terrible. AND WE ATE IT UP LIKE CANDY. FANS LOVE HER NOW. SUNSET SHIMMER IS A GIANT WALKING PLOT HOLE and really no one cares because the message that you can bounce back from your mistakes is a much more uplifting one than the annoying "do bad, pay for it, cut, print" thing we can see in real life and constantly gets drilled into our heads already. Yet, by becoming the Eternal Atoner, she kind of got her just desserts anyway.
Redemption has been abused for years with the DILP trope in the face of a huge amount of contrary evidence, and it sucks and I hate it. My position is just calling a spade a spade--but when you give me a spade this interesting I want that spade looked at from all angles, and then stuck into the ground, hard. This is one of the few cases where if the show just went full Freudian Excuse, given the setup, that'd honestly be all right for me. Haven't had one of those in a while. Me, I'd probably try and go even deeper into Starlight's madness, but as has been painfully made clear over the years, neither you or I are DHX. ^^;
...wow, I hope that made sense. And yeah, as you say, time will tell.
As for the rest of your comments? Every time Twilight doesn't solve a problem via Super Saiyan Magic, through Expert Timing, or By Royal Decree, a "power-levels"-obsessed fan cries (I've seen them!) and you and I dance.
She Twilight. Let her do her Twilight thang, yo.
2963935
Um...this. I can't really articulate it as well as you have, but I agree with basically 100% of your post, sir. Or madam. Not really sure.
Either way, I think that Glimmer is on the level of Trixie, as far as an antagonistic character with loads of storytelling potential! I'd still like to see Trixie come back, since she's the best pony. And there is SO much more they could do with her...for instance, like the story Lulamoon's Castle, what would her reaction be to Twilight's ascension?
I bet it'd be great.
And now, I'm going to bed. Stay awesome, friends!
2963637
Yup. We're gonna have a very spirited discussion about this someday. X3
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFOKYEAHI'MMAGETRIGHTONTHAT
Aww, now I'm all blushing 'n' stuff; glad t'help. ^///^
They love it when they come together? 8B
Excellent, excellent, excellent. <3
2964499 Spot on. See, my big beef with the Freudian Excuse is that it's so often used to reduce, summarize and simplify a character who could be so much more complex. "She was an ordinary happy person until X happened!" Like everything hinges on one single thing, which also gives the writers a simple, single point of attack to "fix" the character. ("She was never loved as a child, so the hero shows that he loves her, and everything is okay again!" "His tricycle was stolen from him as a child, so by returning it he becomes happy again and gives up on his evil ways!") But real-life people aren't that simple; each and everyone of us has had countless experiences that has shaped us into the people we are. And while we can't know Starlight Glimmer or Twilight Sparkle or Fluttershy (or any other person, real or fictional) nearly as well as we can know ourselves, it's a disservice to try to reduce them to a two-dimensional model just to say you can "understand" them and promptly put them aside.
Glimmer has the potential to be explored as a character, yeah.
2964499
Okay... I was about to write a comment articulting my thoughts on the ideas presented... and then I saw this and realised you beat me to it. I'm not sure how this makes me feel.
To quote Linkara: "There's a difference between having [or, in this case, implying] a sympathetic backstory and actually being sympathetic." I don't doubt that Starlight has had a pretty dang screwed-up life. It might have been due to things beyond her control, or it might be due to her own character and reactions to the events in her life... or, as it should and would be, a combination of both.
However, she is still ultimately responsible for her own actions. She still had a choice in what she'd do. She's insane, certainly, or at the very least psychologically-not-alright, but she still needs to be held responsible for what she's done. That doesn't mean pure punishment, it just means, as you say, it should not be excused. In fact, if you think about it, saying that the only reason she is as she is is because of her background, implying her to be nothing but the sum of her experiences or a slave to her situation, is more of an insult than any restitution would be.
That said... I'm not sure how confident to be in the show handling this right. Given the three major "redemptions" we've seen (not including Luna, since, as you say, the issue of her possession/corruption was kind of downplayed), I'm not sure how optimistic I should be.
I mean, I'm okay with Sunset Shimmer, just about, since she did seem genuinely sorry for what she did... kind of. But when Trixie was "better", it consisted of possibly the single most half-hearted, casual apology I've ever seen, and as for Discord's "reformation"... well, if I started talking about it, I'd never stop, so I'm just going to express my anger and disgust by hammering my keyboard for five seconds.
jmgtksbgkjrNAKGNF;HVKSANGF;JNHSGN ; nb'oigmjtrn g;jfn KIHGOJFIJM'[winiknmkin'iNJMOPNOIJMinoinmopnmgtolinaonigonmt;'inm
Starlight's further development, (assuming they do it, which they probably will) may work, but... I don't know.
Also, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who notices the show's seeming obsession with mind control, what with every major villain except Tirek utilizing it in some capacity (although, again, NM's was downplayed). I just wish I could enjoy it as you can. That's not a criticism, I just have... problems with mind control as a concept. I wouldn't exactly call it a phobia, since I have one of those as well, and that's a much more physcial reaction, but... I suppose you could say it's a trigger for me - at best it makes me uncomfortable, at worst it actually makes me feel physically ill. Again, not a criticism of the series, just makes me wonder why the obsession with it is all.
Also, I'm curious as to what you think of Starlight's name- I'll be honest, my first reaction to it was "Really? Really?! At least "Sunset Shimmer" had an alliteration and cadance that sounds plausible as a name, and it took me a few minutes to realise the parallel, but "Starlight Glimmer"? Just call her "Not-Twilight", it's about as subtle."
Also, does every vaguely magically capable unicorn have a parallel name to Twilight Sparkle? Although, I suppose when you think about "Trixie"... yes, every vaguely magical unicorn DOES have a parallel name to Twilight Sparkle!
Also, I was going to say something about Party Favour, and how we now have the potential for an nteresting counterpoint to Pinkie, but I rather enjoy not being torn limb from limb by CheesexPinkie shippers, so I... Ooooooooh damn gottarunbyeee!
P.S. Sorry about the long and rambling comment, I... yeah.
I never thought the actual show would get this philosophical. An episode that is a clash of ideals, and nothing more. Two ponies with completely different ideas of what friendship is, and niether willing to compromise. I could feel the sincerity and tragedy behind Starlight's words. All the little audio cues that make things seem "evil" or "sinister" are positioned carefully. If you ignore them, the episode becomes very different. I'm pretty sure that was the intention the entire time. A subtle message about idealism and bias. You want to root for the protagonist, you want them to win. Visuals and sound support their cause, emphasize their emotions, show how they see the situation. You get so swept up in the moment and the emotion that you never realize they are doing exactly the same thing as the person they are trying to stop.
Starlight will return at some point. She will return, for that cathartic moment. Twilight will have spent a season spreading her idea of friendship throughout Equestria, facing issues that turn out grayer and grayer every time, to the point where she isn't sure what's right anymore. Then Starlight will appear, and they will confront each other once again, culminating in the realization that the two aren't so different, after all. Cue the crisis of faith. And then we can have the epic sappy moment we came to watch the show for, and it will be even stronger because of all the pain and torment Twilight had gone through.
Then again, I could just be projecting my desire for more philosophical and mature themes for the episodes. I do hope they readdress this conflict of ideals in the later episodes. What do you think?
Don't misunderstand, I agree with everything you said, but I generally prefer my villains over-the-top and flat. I like shiny objects, and shiny objects with missing pieces are even better. My interpretation of them is different from everybody else's, and I can mold it and shift it and play with it as much as I like. That's why Queen Chrysalis is probably my favorite. Miss Glimmer is definitely in the top five, though.
Good to know that we can pay more attention to stallions now, and that's not so we can set sail to ship them.
It's always good to look in the psyche of a character even if it can lead to dark repercussions, which is why we can't get enough of learning more about them inside and out.
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No prob! Glad you enjoyed. You and I agree greatly about Starlight and Discord, though it took me a whole day (and a couple of recs) for me to figure out your line about "having them interact" meant you'd actually done a fic.
...as you've likely seen by now, it ultimately wasn't my cuppa, but eh, these things happen. Still, why the heck haven't I followed you yet?
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Heck if I know. I'm just glad to see debate in the comments that actually has something to do with the story, as opposed to the terminology of totalitarian regimes and the state of modern feminism. And constructive criticism. Constructive criticism is always nice to see.
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(sigh) Yeah, no kidding. That was what I said to myself when Aurora showed up--"at least we're gabbing about the story for once."
You know what I said about people hitting the ground running misinterpreting the premiere's imagery and messages? The mind-clouding is real, and I'm kind of seeing it in every Starlight-based story I come across, both in-story and in-comments. The conversation's too fresh, too raw in everyone's minds, and no one's thinking straight.
I may have to tip my writer's hand earlier than expected. And I hate doing that.
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Gonna let you in on a secret, hon: EVERYPONY in this premiere was Party Favor!
OH MAN MIND BLOWN
Party Favor strikes me as "Party Pony + Magic" as opposed to Pinkie's "Party Pony Magic", but that's just me. I mean, adding actual magic powers to Pinkie/Cheese's mojo is kind of overkill. ^^; But you're more of a scholar on the subject than I am.
I really hope you put your thoughts of the premiere to paper, because yours is one of the few that I think really get both sides. You're totally right about Fluttershy and why she would take to the city. I know I had the same reaction as she did to start.
(That stuff about Quaker schools is... wow :o) But ditto goes for your Pinkie philosophy, and why it's really the perfect counterpoint. It took a friend of mine trained in the ways of Pinkie (who said the EXACT same thing you did) to snap me out of it, because up until then... yeah, I was actually not sure who to root for, to put it mildly.
I'm seeing very few analyze what's going on in this premiere on those terms save for a couple of people, and, commendably, the canon itself.
Right now on Fimfic I'm just seeing a whole bunch of "Noooooooo, Starlight's misunderstood, leave her alone, who cares what bads she did?" and "Starlight offended me/my world view, blast her with a tank/a rainbeam/the closest powerful Equestria figure! Good thing she did a couple bads to "justify" my stance!" Nuance, people! I'm definitely going to keep your words in mind for
ifwhen I write something based on this premiere, so thanks for them.2964823
I wish I could upvote a comment multiple times. Indeed, I find the scenarios you describe to be equally as rote and boring. People are shaped by their experiences, but their lives are shaped by their actions (and reactions to said experiences), and both are far larger in number than any comprehensible piece of fiction could cover.
But we owe it to ourselves and those characters to at least try. Otherwise you get most of what's here right now.
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I kind of regret letting get as out of hand as it did. Of course, when the very first comment is about Internet feminism rather than the story, I'm not sure how much I could've done to waylay it. Some trains were never meant to stay on track, as my DM-ing experience can attest.
On a less frustrating note, I agree with your assessment of Party Favor. After all, if a party pony is one that twists reality for the happiness of others, how can you tell a party unicorn from a nice one with an entertainment talent?
And I can do nuance! I had the demigod let her off with a warning!
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I'm increasingly seeing that no one is of sound mind directly after an episode airs--not even a happy episode. I like striking while things are fresh in peoples' minds too, but sometimes the conversation that results just isn't worth it/doesn't have anything useful in it, for the above reason. Sorry your story got flooded with it.
(You're not wrong about DM-ing, at least to hear it from pals I know who do it)
Indeed! Hence why I suggested putting him with Trixie for a day.
See what happens.
I suppose that's the most I can ask from people until the show shows us more of Starlight's deal, yes.