Crusaders of the Lost Mark Episode Review · 10:22pm Oct 12th, 2015
Five years ago today, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic premiered on The Hub. It's funny. When you hear the title, you think, “Oh, my God. That's sounds like the most stereotypical saccharine bullshit that I've ever heard.” I'm sure that's what all of us were thinking when we first heard about this show. However, when you really sit down to watch it, you quickly realize that this show isn't like that at all. Yes, the show can get pretty sappy at times, but at the very least they make fun of it. (See episodes like “The Cutie Mark Chronicles” and “The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone” for an example.) This show went out of its way to blow all of our expectations out of the water. What made me and several other people fall in love with this show was its characters, its stories, its humor, its drama, its morals. Honestly, what isn't there to love about this show? To celebrate the fifth anniversary of this show, I don't think you could go wrong with this particular episode. Why? Well, let's find out.
THE STORY
We start off with the Cutie Mark Crusaders in their clubhouse. After a short song (Wow! That was quick!) Pip Squeak drops by to see if they'll help him in his campaign for class president. They agree, then do a high-hoof, with Sweetie Belle using her magic to hoist Pip up so that he can join in. This was a nice touch. I always enjoy seeing my favorite Crusader using her magic. It really shows how much these characters have grown and learned over the years.
After the obligatory theme song, we cut to the school, where the Crusaders are busy trying to get their classmates to vote for Pip. Unfortunately, in comes Diamond Tiara, trying to sway the voters into voting for her . . . again. She does this by way of reminding some classmates that if they vote for her, she'll keep their secrets. Long story short, it doesn't work. Pip wins by a landslide, with only one person voting for Diamond Tiara. Not even Silver Spoon voted for her. When Diamond Tiara questions her about this, Silver Spoon basically tells her that she's fed up with Diamond Tiara's behavior. Needless to say, this pisses Diamond Tiara off and she runs off in a huff.
Despite every logical reason telling them not to, the Cutie Mark Crusaders follow Diamond Tiara to make sure she's all right. Before they can talk to her, we meet Diamond Tiara's mother, Spoiled Rich. Regardless, we quickly learn that Spoiled Rich isn't a very nice pony. Given that this is a kids' show, the writers would never be able to get away with showing Diamond Tiara being physically abused by her mother. The most they were able to get away with was showing Spoiled Rich verbally and emotionally abusing her daughter. This revelation completely puts everything Diamond Tiara has ever done into perspective. It explains why she was so keen on serving as the editor for the Foal Free Press in “Ponyville Confidential”, why she was so eager to win in “Flight to the Finish” and how far she would go to win.
After this, we get a nice song from Diamond Tiara, which is probably one of the saddest songs this show has ever done. Not even “I've Got to Find a Way” from “Magical Mystery Cure” was this depressing. This really helps us understand Diamond Tiara's position. She doesn't like the pony she is. Deep down, she wants to be a good pony who's liked and has lots of friends. Sadly, it is her mother who has been influencing her bullying ways, making it so that she doesn't have any friends other than Silver Spoon, and her best and only friend just walked out on her. No wonder she was in such a lousy mood. I would be too if I just got yelled at by my mom for losing an election right after losing my best friend.
The next day, the Cutie Mark Crusaders invite Diamond Tiara over to their clubhouse. She agrees, seeing as how she has nothing better to do. They explain to her what they do during their meetings, and she says that they're very lucky. We find out that one of the reasons why Diamond Tiara is so angry and hateful is the fact that she doesn't understand what her cutie mark means, confirming some fan theories in the process.
Shortly thereafter, Pip barges in, saying that he needs the Cutie Mark Crusaders' help again. The school board is refusing to fund the school so that Pip can fix the playground. Diamond Tiara sees this an opportunity to get reelected. She races off to the school, being chased by the Cutie Mark Crusaders in the process.
It's here that we have a first for an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. We have a musical number during a chase scene. To my knowledge, that has never been done before, at least not in an episode of this show. The Cutie Mark Crusaders attempt to convince Diamond Tiara to change her mind about getting reelected, telling her that it's not too late to do the right thing. Regardless, Diamond Tiara reaches the school, telling everypony that she has an announcement. Before she can get to that, however, Spoiled Rich comes out, chastising Diamond Tiara for so much as speaking to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It's here that we realize that Diamond Tiara seems to be afraid of her mother. Not only that, but it also appears that Spoiled Rich is the one who first taught her daughter to tease the Cutie Mark Crusaders by calling them “blank flanks.”
It's at this point that Diamond Tiara decides that she has had enough of her mother terrorizing her, trying to turn her into an exact copy of herself. Unexpectedly, she tells her mother off, calling the Cutie Mark Crusaders her friends, something her mother doesn't have. She then gives her mother something to give to her father, which her mother does without complaint.
We then find out that Diamond Tiara asked her father to fund the operation to fix the school's playground himself. We get a montage of Diamond Tiara helping fix up the school playground. In the process, she uses the abnormal abilities of the schoolfillies she teased before to her advantage.
Seeing how happy they made Diamond Tiara, the Cutie Mark Crusaders decide to stop worrying about getting their cutie marks and instead focus all of their time and energy into helping other ponies get their cutie marks by helping them find out what their special talents are. They once again do another high-hoof, sending a wave of energy coursing through each of them. They float up into the air, being surrounded by this wave of energy. After a brilliant flash of light, Diamond Tiara points out how “amazing” their cutie marks are. Yes, that's right. After five years, the Cutie Mark Crusaders finally get their cutie marks. What's of particular interest here is the fact that their cutie marks are almost identical. Their cutie marks look very similar to a crest. If you know your history, then you know that real-life Crusaders were known to carry around their own crests. What's also interesting is that their cutie marks look the same. For example, Sweetie's cutie mark is a musical note inside a star. Apple Bloom's is an apple inside a heart. Finally, Scootaloo's cutie mark is a lightning bolt inside a wing.
We get yet another song, this one joined by Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity, all three saying how happy they are of their respective little sisters. Special mention goes to Applejack, who says that if their parents were around, they would be so proud of Apple Bloom. This more or less confirms the fact that their parents are dead.
We then get a group picture of the whole gang in front of the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse, which then rolls into a nice nod to the opening, showing Spike sending the photo to Princess Celestia and both Princesses viewing it.
Roll credits.
THE CHARACTERS
Diamond Tiara was one of those characters that I never gave much thought to. I always thought of her as your standard one-dimensional bully. It wasn't until “Flight to the Finish” where I truly started to dislike her. The episode isn't one of my favorites seeing as how I'm physically disabled, so you can probably imagine why it conjured up a lot of bad memories for me.
However, this episode completely changed my perspective on her. This is really noticeable considering the fact that most bullies in movies and TV shows don't get this kind of treatment. They're more or less your standard one-dimensional bully characters who aren't given much to do other than be a nuisance and a thorn in everyone's side. The staff of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic took the high road and decided that instead of having Diamond Tiara serve as the bully, they were going to actually do something with her. Given how abusive her mother was, it wasn't hard for me to sympathize with Diamond Tiara, especially considering the fact hat I myself have been the victim of verbal/emotional abuse, but I won't go into details here.
I also really liked Apple Bloom in this episode. Her suggestion for the Crusaders to make sure that Diamond Tiara is okay is noticeable in the fact that Apple Bloom was Tiara's first victim, so she would have more of a reason than anypony else to not even think about going after Tiara. Her worry for Tiara just goes to show what a loving, caring pony she is, and why so many other ponies like her so much. Honestly, she's my second favorite of the Crusaders, but after her display of loving-kindness in this episode, I'd dare say that she's in a battle for the number one spot with Sweetie Belle.
Aside from Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon also got some nice character development here. It's shown that deep down, she doesn't enjoy being a bully, and would rather be friendless than put up with any more of Tiara's nonsense. What's funny about this is the fact that even Miss Cheerilee seems to have had enough of Tiara's behavior as well, as evidenced by the way she reacted when Tiara asked whether or not Pip really won. Speaking of Pip . . .
It was nice to see the little guy again after “Twilight Time,” even if he did unintentionally get the Cutie Mark Crusaders in trouble with Twilight. The little guy has a good heart. He doesn't want to become president because he wants the fame and attention. He genuinely cares about his classmates. His first action when he does become president is to fix up the school playground. This is very much unlike Diamond Tiara, who only wants to become president because her mother told her she had to.
Not surprisingly, the only character I didn't like was Spoiled Rich, Diamond Tiara's mother. Her onscreen appearance has completely destroyed my headcanon about Nurse Sweetheart being Diamond Tiara's mother. Can you blame me? They look identical. Spoiled Rich's appearance actually brings up an interesting question regarding Diamond Tiara: Is she adopted? I ask this considering the fact that Diamond Tiara looks absolutely nothing like her father or mother.
This also calls into question what Spoiled Rich's relationship with Filthy Rich is like. Being a businesspony, he of course has to travel a lot for his business, as seen in “Made in Manehattan.” Does he know that his wife is abusing his daughter? I imagine he doesn't. Being that her mother is the president of the school board, I imagine that Diamond Tiara has much more interaction with her mother than her father. So, it stands to reason that Filthy Rich knows next to nothing about how his wife treats their daughter. Filthy Rich has been shown to be a very kindhearted pony, despite being a rich pony. His wife? Not so much, not by a long shot.
Admittedly, I don't like kids very much, but I can't tolerate a kid being victimized by an adult. It just makes me uncomfortable. Throughout Spoiled Rich's entire rant, I just wanted to reach through the screen and smack her across the face. Yes, Diamond Tiara is a spoiled brat who thinks herself to be better than everypony else, but not even she deserves to be yelled at like that, especially by her own mother. What makes this even more bothersome is the fact that Spoiled Rich is doing this in public. Most of the time, abuse takes place behind closed doors. Also worthy of note is the fact that Fancy Pants and Fleur walk by at one point. As evidenced in “Sweet and Elite,” Fancy Pants is a very upstanding guy, and I seriously doubt he would stand for a child being yelled at the way Spoiled Rich was yelling at Diamond Tiara. I'm sure that he's friends with Diamond Tiara's family, being that the Riches view themselves as being high-class.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you wanted to celebrate the fifth anniversary of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, you couldn't have gone wrong with this episode. This is by far my absolute favorite episode of this season, and may be my favorite episode of the whole series. In terms of writing and characterization, I would put this above “Twilight's Kingdom.” Why?
It's because this episode was one of those episodes that was just perfect. Everything about this episode was great–the characters, the voice acting, the songs, the humor, the heartwarming bits, and everything else that made this episode extremely memorable.
I would like to take a moment to talk about the songs in this episode. You see, when the season first got started, the songs were more or less hit or miss for me. For example, one of the problems that I had with “How We Make This Castle a Home” was the fact that the lyrics seemed to just be describing what was happening on the screen. “I'll Fly” was a little bit better, but not exactly one of my favorites. But ever since season five was resumed back in September, I've noticed that the songs have gotten progressively better. This couldn't have been made any more clear than in this episode. I liked every single song in this episode. Every one of them was great.
I've heard some people complaining about how the episode felt rushed. To me, it didn't feel rushed whatsoever. After viewing this episode more than once, I have to say that the episode was rather well paced. Some have said that Diamond Tiara's redemption was too quick to be convincing. I disagree. In her song, Diamond Tiara clearly indicates that she doesn't like the path that she's on and fears that she can't change it because she doesn't know whether or not there's another way. However, the Cutie Mark Crusaders quickly reassure her that there is another way. It's not hard to believe that Diamond Tiara would jump on the other way that the Cutie Mark Crusaders have told her about in a heartbeat.
To me, this was a brilliant and amazing way to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the show. I know I've given Amy Keating Rogers flack for her previous work on this show (“A Friend in Deed” and “Filli Vanilli” especially), but, like Merriwether Williams did with “Wonderbolts Academy”, she has completely redeemed herself with this episode. This was one of the last episodes Rogers wrote for this show, and I honestly think it's one of her best. It's very clear to me that Rogers worked really hard on this episode. Honestly, I can't find anything to complain about with this episode. Once again, everything about this episode was wonderful! I am so excited to see what kind of new adventures await the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon in the episodes to come up in season six. Maybe they'll join the Mane Six in traveling across Equestria, helping ponies find out what their special talents are and helping them get their cutie marks in the process. Or, maybe it'd just be better if they started out small and helped their classmates in that regard first. Yeah, that'd probably be a good idea.
This episode is my all time favorite, and I don't think it will ever be topped. This puts everything Diamond Tiara's ever done into perspective. And for those who argue that this doesn't excuse her actions, or why she didn't stand up to her mother sooner, well her only friend prior to this episode was Silver Spoon. Most kids who are abused or berated constantly by their parents, especially little kids, often don't realize that there are options available besides lashing out at others and keeping everything bottled up inside.
Diamond Tiara never had anyone who actually cared about her as an invidual, even Silver Spoon was clearly unaware of Diamond Tiara's terrible home life, or she wouldn't have broke off their friendship.
When Diamond Tiara finally had friends who cared about who she was, and who she wanted to be, she was able to realize that she didn't have to put with her mother's abusive behavior any longer. I hope that a future episode either shows Filthy Rich berating Spoiled Rich for being a bad influence on Diamond Tiara, or Spoiled Rich having to re-evaluate her role as a parent when she realizes she can no longer get away with abusing her daughter.
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Given this fandom and how quick they are in terms of posting fanfiction and fan art, I guarantee you that someone, somewhere, has already expanded on those two ideas and written a fanfic on them. I do agree that these would be interesting ideas to expand upon in future episodes. This eoisode nade me eager to see more Diamond Tiara episodes. I do agree that her father seems to be more kindhearted than his wife, as seen in episodes like "Family Aporeciation Day" and "Made in Manehattan." Hiwwver, these episodes implied that he travels a lot, so DT probably spends more time with her mother than her father, so he probably doesn't know about the abuse, which could lend itself to severe changes in DT's appetite, sleep patterns, and weight. Again, this would be an interesting idea to expand upon, if only to see everypony's reaction to her change in size. Finally, whike she does have parents, neither one of them appear to be very affectionate or loving, as "The Pony I Want To Be" pointed out. This could be why DT is so angry. Aside from not understanding her cutie mark, she's also jealous of her classmates who have warm, loving homes. Most especially she would be jealous of Apple Bloom, which could be why DT targeted her as a victim in the first place. This coouldn't have been any more clear than in "Family Appreciation Day", where she goes out of her way to attack Appke Bloom's family in hopes of damaging Apple Bloom's relationship with Granny Smith.
Finally, I do agree that this is my favorite episode of all-time.