S5 E18: Liveblogging · 10:01am Oct 11th, 2015
Knowing absolutely nothing about this week's episode, except that Bradel was quite insistent that I watch it with zero spoilers, I sat down in front of a computer when I got back from tabletop gaming tonight, and opened up Notepad and a video link. I present the results for your amusement.
FOR THE LOVE OF BEST PRINCESS, DO NOT READ UNTIL YOU'VE WATCHED THE EPISODE.
(Here's a link to the episode on Youtube.)
(spoiler space)
Alright! Let's do this.
"Crusaders of the Lost Mark": Liveblogging
What's the "All the songs in the end of the episode!" annotation on the video? Is this ... another musical episode? :D
Oh wait, this is a CMC episode. Now full of varying levels of want.
The (first?) song's ... uh, alright.
Pipsqueak! :D
Okay, cute little scene with the hoofbump. What's up with his accent? Or lack thereof? Okay, slightly Bittish, I guess I can accept that.
omg he's doing a fundraiser for playground equipment destroyed by Ponyville's crises. Called it a year ago.
Of course, Diamond Tiara.
"Spoiled Rich" is her mom? That explains so much
omg what the hell was that Silver Spoon expression
that will become *so* exploitable
It is so totally teasing another song
... yep, there it is.
I have to kind of wonder why Pipsqueak isn't one of the CMCs by this point. (Aside from meta-continuity reasons, anyhow.) I mean, he's obviously close enough to them to ask for their help, and is unmarked, and is so very freaking cute.
wat
that Tiara face
this episode will spawn a thousand memes
DT's half of the song is pretty uninspiring. Though it is offering yet more crazy foal memefaces.
The CMC's half of the song reminds me of "Hearts Strong As Horses," which is nice, because I liked that song, but did we really need to hear it again?
... obligatory Button Mash cameo? :\ And is that filly an R63 version of Truffle Shuffle?
The Ponyville schoolhouse's voting booths are like more professional than the ones half of American adults use.
CURSE YOU EQUESTRIAN UTOPIA FOR RAISING OUR STANDARDS!
Okay, that moment of schadenfreude was kinda nice.
"That is not the face of a winner."
... CURSE YOU MLP FOR GIVING ME A REASON TO FEEL SORRY FOR HER
"As a rich pony you must always think of your social standing." Okay, yeah, villain of the week material here. Class issues ignite.
... yeah, this being a musical episode is starting to grate on me. :(
(1:08:01 AM) Bradel: What, you don't like musical episodes?
(1:08:08 AM) Bradel: But Fugue State!
(1:08:24 AM) horizon: No, I love them, but I equally dislike the CMCs D: And DT is really not the character to wrap songs around
And this week is confirmed for the show's DT redemption episode. :|
Okay, her 11:30 speech was pretty touching
sweet luna's flank the *faces* in this episode
Really wishing I could just skip this third song. Oh Ingram, what hath thou wrought?
"See the light that shines in you, you can be somepony else" ... augh the plothammer
Well, that was a quick turnaround. :(
Yeah, this is really not one of my favorite episodes, but I do at least appreciate the message inherent in the message of her mark in "getting ponies to do what she wants" having actual non-skeezy applications. There's some nice thematic material in there about responsiWHAT
(1:17:11 AM) horizon: WHAT
(1:17:12 AM) horizon: WHAT
(1:17:14 AM) horizon: THEY DIDN'T
(1:17:18 AM) horizon: THE F**K
(1:17:27 AM) horizon: OMG HASBRO
*pauses and steps away from the computer*
(1:21:18 AM) horizon: I feel a great disturbance in the force, as if thousands of screaming headcanons suddenly went silent
(1:21:44 AM) Bradel Bound: Thankfully all of mine were already conveniently in an AU.
(1:21:48 AM) horizon: PLOT DEVELOPMENT
(1:21:56 AM) Jesse: ...
(1:21:57 AM) Jesse: you're fired
(1:22:00 AM) Jesse: forever
*unpauses*
"Wanna just focus on helping others find their cutie marks?"
... you know, in hindsight, that was probably the only way they could ever resolve that, keeping the status quo while moving the show forward in time.
and there's a final song but my brain is still too full of wat
"An adventure that has only just begun," okay, nice
"If mom and dad were here they'd be so proud of you" oh god confirmed as dead D:
Okay, I'm tearing up a little at the retrospective and I don't even like the CMCs all that much.
...ffffffff okay reusing the credit princess sequence was gold. Gotta give them that.
(1:32:32 AM) Bradel Bound: So I take it you were actually surprised this happened?
(1:33:42 AM) horizon: TBH I thought that the CMC getting their Marks would be one of the signs of the End Times. That they were done with the show and wrapping up.
SO!
On reflection, I think the ultimate message of this episode was: "Musical episodes = major freaking character advancement."
(... which, come to think of it, fits the Fugue State mold all too well.)
And since I haven't found anybody else making the pun yet, have an exploitable:
"Maybe we should help other ponies earn their cutie marks!"
SFX: (Fast-forward noises)
(Three unfamiliar juvenile horses are tied together on the top of a ziplining platform.)
Horse: Are you sure about this, Scootaloo?
Scootaloo: This is the exact path we followed.
Or they could, you know, actually change things.
Though quite frankly, I think this was a huge mistake as now you've got the adults AND the kids doing more or less the same thing... which... isn't really good. The kids finding themselves while the adults help other ponies out seems like a better split of work.
Of course, you've probably already found my blog entry complaining about the episode. :V
Oh, and expect a Diamond Tiara themed story from me tomorrow. Because uh, I already submitted it, and it will probably be on the site by the time I wake up.
Funny how they got to float for their butt tattoos. :o
The thing about the "musical = major plot development" theory is that it implies that Pinkie meeting Cheese Sandwich was as momentous an occasion as this episode.
I am entirely okay with this.
One thing that occurs to me about this episode is that their marks clearly aren't just for helping ponies find their marks, but also for helping them interpret their marks since that's what they did for Diamond Tiara. That could theoretically even include their own marks, both the larger meaning of being helpful with mark related issues and the character specific meaning of Sweetie's note, Scootaloo's wing/lightning bolt, and Apple Bloom's oh so uncreative apple.
An additional takeaway is that it is possible for a pony to earn a mark without really understanding its meaning for their life, or at least without understanding how to use it for the general benefit of society. Maybe something that'll come up with the in-progress Starlight Glimmer story arc?
Another thought, it's interesting how unprepared Pipsqueak actually was for the campaign and the position of school president. He accomplished nothing himself other than being able to find ponies who could get him elected and who could make the playground equipment happen. If anything, his contribution to the episode was a demonstration that Diamond Tiara was the correct choice for president all along.
Also, I find the number of people who simply didn't enjoy the music to be an interesting example of how much tastes vary. I've always enjoyed the music as one of my favorite parts of the show, and yesterday's episode did not disappoint in that department. The interplay between the animation and the music in various places has had me rewatching the song parts specifically multiple times over already. (That backwards running & singing sequence, oh yeah.) This could easily be a side effect of my lifelong association with musical theatre.
Ooooo, one more thought: group cutie marks are now a thing. Is this a common event? Rare, but not unexpected? Rainboom level of "what the hell just happened" rare?
Darker question, if you're supposed to get a group mark, what happens if one of your other grouped foals dies in a childhood accident ahead of time? I suppose this may just be a question of Equestrian butt destiny magic not working like that, or being able to work around it as needed.
There are not a whole lot of things I accomplished yesterday, but I did manage to help horizon be surprised that that happened. So I'm pretty happy.
Also, in the interests of more content, presented for y'all's reading pleasure is the following. I didn't live-blog but I did have bookplayer pushing me to watch the episode ASAP in Skype chat yesterday. This is how it fell out:
[10:07:58 AM] Bookplayer: Bradel... episode.
[10:10:38 AM] Bradel Bound: I heard it was good, and that I don't want to risk spoilers. I'm guessing I may watch this online before I can download it, just to get it out of the way.
[10:10:51 AM] Bookplayer: Yes.
[10:10:59 AM] Bradel Bound: Anyway, 50 minutes to kill before finalists get announced, and I'm not going to review any more before then.
[10:11:27 AM] Bookplayer: This is way more important than writeoff, especially if you haven't been spoiled.
[10:12:34 AM] Bradel Bound: Okay, doing two quick things, then watching.
[10:18:49 AM] Bradel Bound: WOW, this is song-packed.
[10:19:20 AM] Bradel Bound: Also, based on reactions I'm very suspicious there's going to be some cutie-mark getting in this, especially with how the episode opened. But we'll see. Back to watching.
[10:20:34 AM] Bradel Bound: Ugh! Commercial!
[10:20:43 AM] Bradel Bound: I hate how DailyMotion shows stuff.
[10:20:54 AM] Bookplayer: AdBlocker.
[10:25:18 AM] Bradel Bound: Okay, somepony is getting their fucking cutie mark in this episode.
[10:25:23 AM] Bradel Bound: THREE SONGS IN NINE MINUTES.
[10:25:56 AM] Bookplayer: :D
[10:26:32 AM] Bradel Bound: FUCKING ADS IN THE MIDDLE OF SONGS.
[10:26:53 AM] Bookplayer: Yeah, AdBlocker. For real.
[10:32:43 AM] Bradel Bound: Four songs, another commercial.
[10:33:01 AM] Bradel Bound: I don't wanna go get adblocker for the next 6 minutes of episode. :-p
<Shit goes down, y'all.>
[10:40:09 AM] Bradel Bound: Yep, fair amount of crying there.
[10:40:26 AM] Bradel Bound: I wanna watch that one again later when I'm a little more prepared for it (and when my video doesn't suck).
[10:40:59 AM] Bradel Bound: I wonder if I'd have been so sure they were getting their cutie marks if everybody wasn't talking up the episode...
[10:41:20 AM] Bradel Bound: I'm kind of guessing I would have, just based on narrative structure and the "Magical Mystery Cure" precedent.
[10:41:46 AM] Bookplayer: Yeah, I think so.
[10:42:16 AM] Bradel Bound: ..and I was hoping to do a story or two before they got them. :-p
[10:42:43 AM] Bradel Bound: But thankfully, it turned out a while ago that the whole batch of stories that might want me doing that are going to need some weird AU-tagging, and it doesn't really matter.
(Woo hoo, AU!)
3461377
I don't remember who I saw making this point, but somebody blogged yesterday with a fairly detailed argument about how the CMC demonstrably changed their "destinies", looking at the paralleling between "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" and "Magical Mystery Cure". I liked that argument, so my view would be that this sort of thing couldn't happen. The cutie marks would adjust or whatever.
3461350
And for:
Trouble Shoes, too.
Mike
3461114
Centuries later, historians would discover the real truth behind the disappearance of the Saddle Arabian people, and the reclamation of the Horse Kingdoms by Equestrian immigrants.
3461350
... based on your argument he's a perfect politician.
3461119
I agree, which is part of why I was convinced they wouldn't do it (along with narrative inertia). This closes their character arc, and a possible failure condition of whatever arc replaces it is exactly what you mention. But, you know what? The fact that they were willing to pull that trigger, combined with the way they've handled the changes thus far, is enough to give me some faith in the show writers. They've made creative decisions I've disagreed with, they've made some I wish I could forget (Rainbow Power D: D: D:), but they've repeatedly taken risks to push the story forward rather than the easy path of an Inspector Gadget eternal moment, and they are not idiots. That failure condition is not a guarantee, and it's such an obvious one that it's worth assuming it's been discussed into the ground at MLP HQ. Executive meddling may ruin it, but I am willing to believe we'll see something interesting come out of this.
3461159
Theory: They had accumulated so much undirected butt-tattoo energy for so long that it had to come out with side effects.
3461188
That's strangely fitting, yes.
3461918
While Rainbow Power designs were, uh, ugly, I didn't think they were actually problematic in any way - it was very much a POWER OF FRIENDSHIP thing and it lasted all of a couple minutes, so it wasn't like it was something stupid that's super persistent and had major narrative consequences down the line.
I'm generally more worried about things like the cast herd (when they have the main 6 or the CMC act as a group and don't show much individuality, just kind of being there) and inconsistent characterization (the Diamond Tiara thing this episode bothered me in much the same way that the Spike episodes frequently do when he acts at odds with his characterization elsewhere).
I'm glad they're willing to push the story forward, but the danger is always that if you stumble on a major plot point, you can really put people off. Fortunately, I'm not like, super upset by this, but I know one person who quit the fandom because they felt that this episode was very lazily written and that giving the CMC all the same cutie marks was just an extension of the "lack of individual characterization" that they find aggravating elsewhere (though, admittedly, it was the final straw for them).
I'm less worried about the overall consequences of them getting cutie marks (though it was kind of a let-down for me), and more that the reason the CMC became fun instead of annoying kids was because they were presented as individuals and this kind of flies in the face of that.
3462368
Music is:
The metaphor here for me. As individual singers, the three have undeniable strengths and weaknesses, but it's only by singing together that they can create harmony.
Mike
3462778
But the Mane 6:
Do have coordinated cutie marks. They all got them at the same time and under the influence of the same event, after all. And it was the CMC who made the Mane 6 realize this, too. Helping them see a new dimension to their marks, a new way that they were all connected even before they knew each other.
That's what the CMC are about now, seems to me. They see connections that others don't.
Mike
3463966
That's a very good point. It's not just DT and Troubleshoes they've helped with Cutie Mark issues, but the Mane 6 as well. I'm definitely interested to see where they go next.