Thoughts on Crusaders of the Lost Mark · 6:11pm Oct 11th, 2015
Some of these have been posted elsewhere, but I decided I should pull them together in one place.
• I love the dialog and lyrics in this show so much. "I see the light that shines in me, I know I can be my better self."
• It's funny how much the ending blindsided me. I had resigned myself to yet another CMC episode with no marks as none of the girls were really individually standing out as the one who would receive the mark for helping Diamond Tiara, and then this happened:
• I love how the overall CMC story arc was brought full circle. They started out forming their club as a reaction to Diamond Tiara's bullying of Apple Bloom, and in the end they got their marks helping her with hers.
• In spite of most of the lyrics of their ending song, the CMC's new marks clearly aren't just for helping ponies find their marks but also for helping them interpret their marks. That's what they did for Diamond Tiara (which is incidentally probably the meaning of the episode title, she was the one with the lost mark, so to speak), and as Augie pointed out, that is what they did for Trouble Shoes, too. This 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 star/note, Scootaloo's wing/lightning bolt, and Apple Bloom's apple/heart.
• An additional takeaway is that it is possible and maybe even common for a pony to earn a mark without fully 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?
• 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.
• Following up on that, Diamond Tiara's mark is really about leadership. In the episode she describes this as "getting other ponies to do what I want", but I think we can take a slightly less manipulative view of it for charity's sake. We've seen this in the past for her, such as her role as the quite successful school newspaper editor in Ponyville Confidential.
• I've seen plenty of stories work around the issue of why AJ/Rarity/Dash don't just sit the girls down and give them some direct pointers about what their marks probably are (usually about Sweetie and singing), and now I think we've seen why they didn't all along.
• 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?
• Related and somewhat dark question, if you're destined 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 just not working like that, or being able to work around events as needed.
• I find the number of people who simply didn't enjoy the music or thought there was just too much 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 (Winter Wrap Up was the moment I knew I was hooked for good), 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.
Personally, my favorite part was all of it.
Now if only I had a good reason for implementing that in my 'verse.
Thinking that, taken to the logical extreme, what if everypony in Equestria had a linked mark? Sounds like a story waiting to happen.
Good post!
This episode was by far one of the best I've seen yet. It's a good callback to the moral of the show to begin with, and done in a way that also provides a very good example of what it really means to control our own reactions to the things that happen around us.
I thought it would be another episode where DT acted like a stereotypical rich girl bully but I ended up feeling bad for her and even relating to some of her problems, so kudos to the show runners.
Nice read.
They do have a group cutie mark, it sounded like in the end they were basically saying they care more about having the same cutie mark/pursuing something together than pursuing their own individual passions. However, I bet their magic still works on an individual basis, each one has some sort of magical intuition on the cutie mark problems of others.