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ponichaeism


"I've kissed mermaids, rode the el Nino, walked the sand with the crustaceans...."

More Blog Posts40

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Oct
10th
2015

Thoughts on "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" · 11:55pm Oct 10th, 2015

So, there was a thing that happened. You know the thing. Spoilers below the break, obviously, but first, just let me say....

What a giant pile of pu.


(Funfact: The Crusaders were meant to be the stars of a spinoff where they try out different jobs to find their marks, but that fell by the wayside)



No, not that kind of pu.

The uncarved block, full of potential. The state of least resistance. The naturalness people should aspire to, so they can follow the way of heaven magic of friendship with a pure heart. "Go with the flow," writ metaphysically. As I've been predicting for years, the moment -- the moment -- the Crusaders let go of forcing themselves to find their marks, let go of the unnatural, overly-forced mindset they put themselves in, that's the moment they finally find out who they are, once and for all. It couldn't be any other way. This show has always been about letting go of your weird emotional hang-ups and getting in tune with the harmony.

And so, the Crusaders find out that the thing that makes them special is knowing all the ways to get a cutie mark, and set out like little sages to help others "do all without doing". So, technically, I guess this means they're still Cutie Mark Crusaders. Just not, y'know, their own.


But, moving on....their cutie marks are kind of....well, bad.

They're tiny, for one thing; most cutie marks are twice that size. They squash-and-stretch weirdly when the Crusaders are walking, like they're not properly sync'd with the Crusaders' models. And the designer used the same color scheme for all three; while it fits in with Scootaloo's color palette pretty well, I'm not sure about the other two. I definitely thought they looked like bad Photoshop at a few points.

Maybe they'll just take some getting used to.


I was completely thrown for a loop by this being a musical. They hyped "Pinkie Pride" up so much, but this one blindedsided me completely. Was there any advance word of this?

The songs were pretty slick, even if there wasn't a lot of variety, style-wise; the whole thing kind of flowed together like a symphony, full of reprises and continued motifs, to the point it seemed more like one extended song than eight different ones. Still, it went down smooth and easy, and that's all that matters in the end.


I know it's not fair to blame this episode, but the whole time I was thinking, "Hmm, 'Northwest Mystery Mansion' did this a little bit better." Gravity Falls has always skewed older, though, so it can offer a comparatively more nuanced take on the "spoiled rich girl breaking the influence of her domineering parent" thing. Plus, bleeding skulls that bleed real blood (on Disney!).

So DT is good now, I guess, which is kind of a shame, because I liked how absolutely soulless and evil she was. Like a shark going in for the kill. I hope they find some way to keep at least a little bit of her edge intact.

DT's mother is named Spoiled Rich, and, Good God, I thought Amy Keating Rogers had stuck in some risque puns before, but that one takes the cake. It's almost like she was the head writer for The Powerpuff Girls or something....

And speaking of Spoiled Rich....so she's a total WASP and a snobby racist, and she tells her daughter not to lose the election to the "foreign transplant"? Right after a song with the lyric "Vote for change!" I....I don't know what to think about that one. Maybe it's just a coincidence. Maybe. Though I will say, if it was intentional, Rogers threw us all for a loop by having the foreigner be the one with the ridiculous made-up hair that no real person would ever have on their head, ever.


"Stop! Wait! Listen!"

Geez, Crusaders, why didn't you just throw in a "Hey!" while you were at it, just to harass DT that extra little bit?


I can't remember any spectacular gags or lines, to be honest, but I never got the feeling this episode was going for that sort of thing anyway. It knew it had a job to do, and it zeroed in on that job with laser-focus, delivering a surprisingly memorable musical episode, made all the more delightful because of the game-changing twist it dropped, here in midseason, completely without warning.

:pinkiesad2: I'm gonna miss you, Amy K. Rogers....

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Comments ( 11 )

Of course it is a bad Photoshop job. I mean, look at their cutie marks; the marks in the middle of the shields were clearly the cutie marks they were originally going to get, and then they added those big ugly purple shields to them.

That's why they're so butt ugly.

I'm surprised the animators didn't recognize them as being bad; the devices are difficult to make out, and the colors just don't have enough contrast.

Really, the episode was kind of a mess as far as character went. The songs and animation were quite good, and there was some clear craft which went into the episode, but it didn't do a very good job with the, you know, people.

3459458

Yeah, I agree the characterization was kind of thin. The fact that nearly all the CMC's lyrics were delivered in chorus was pretty telling.

Hmmm....I feel like I'm forgetting something. Something important, momentous even, about this episode....

Something....

"10/10/2015"

HASBRO YOU CLEVER BASTARDS YOU

pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw8246-32147.gif

vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/f/f9/Apple_Bloom_"what_do_you_say"_S5E18.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/640?cb=20150917185706

"You've come such a long, long way...."

This episode.... right now I'm stuck between great episode... and what the buck were they thinking???

Right now there cutie marks seem to indicate they need to work together to help others, ala the shield look to them and how similar they are. HOWEVER !!!!!!!!!!!!! <---- can't emphasize that enough.

A LOT and i mean everything hinges on how they explore there new marks and discover what they truly mean to themselves and to others. There gona need a few episodes where the crusaders can discover what they mean individually. I read a story on this site once where they founded a group of buildings around equestria to give foals the chance to learn what there special talent was having everything from a stage to perform plays on to skate parks and etc... think YMCA with extra's.

Now disecting the cutey marks. There all shields with the same tri colors matching there manes/tails. Then there is the individual portions... Lightning bolt in a wing, Music note in a star, Heart in an apple for Scootaloo, Sweety Bell, and Applebloom respectively... There is a whole lot of interpretation for the marks left to discover.

3459458 I think of this as like a two-part episode, the first half was Apple Bloom's dream episode, which showed Sweetie Bell, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom all expressing their individual talents, but not being really happy with them. Maybe the point of this is that now they are destined to be crappy guidance counselors, but they will be able to do it as a group forever?

3460023

Not to mention the symbols ON the shields mean they aren't restricted to just helping others find their special talents.

Remember Bloom and Gloom? Their dreams were showing their talents, this proves that even if they're going to be the Cutie Mark Crusaders together forever etc., they'll still have individual talents otherwise.

Still, I agree with the size thing MAKE THEM BIGGER OMG.

3463486 Sure, they can do whatever they want, but they're not getting the magical boost from their cutie mark for things like alchemy or singing, the way they would have gained if they'd gotten those specific cutie marks. Presumably they've got a magical boost to helping other ponies understand their own cutie marks instead.

3463822

Yep.

Still, nice dynamic.

3463865 Yeah, I actually think they were calling that out when Scootaloo was all "I don't care if I ever get my cutie mark as long as I get to keep hanging out with my friends."
So now Scootaloo is probably never going to be a famous daredevil, and Sweetie Bell will never replace Sapphire Shores at the top of the charts, but they'll open up offices as the Cutie Mark Counselors and work together for many decades to come.

3463902

I'm actually picturing them as a cutie mark A-Team, where they all use their special skills as some kind of rapid deployment cutie mark helping squad.

"Scootaloo, we're gonna need ya ta get us inta the estate undetected. I'll whip up a knock-out gas potion. Sweetie Belle, ya'll distract 'em with a lullaby. Syn-cra-nize!"

3464065 I'll allow it, but only if the CMC are accused of a crime they didn't commit and have to go underground. If you have a cutie mark problem, if nopony else can help, and if you can find them.... maybe you can hire the CMC.

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