In Defense of the Lost Mark: Diamond Tiara's Agency · 6:19pm Oct 13th, 2015
It's that time of the month again. Although to be fair, I honestly was planning on writing something to this effect at some point anyway.
This go-around, the source is bookplayer's blog opining that Diamond Tiara's character effectively regressed in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" rather than growing. I politely and verbosely disagreed.
Keep in mind, also: there was no character growth other than her gaining agency. There’s no textual reason to believe that what she does after rejecting her mother isn’t what she would have been doing all along if her mother had never existed. Sunset Shimmer and (especially) Discord were presented to us as assholes who had to learn that they wanted to change, then learn that they could change in the face of not just their own questions but the questions of everyone around them about that. Diamond Tiara apparently always wanted to change, so inside she was already not the character we saw.
I agree with [bookplayer's] rationale here without agreeing with [her] conclusion, if that makes sense, and it's because of one element of DT's situation [she] (as well as a few other commenters) neglected to mention: Silver Spoon.
Here's the way I see it: Diamond Tiara is, to a large extent, the pony we've seen her be previously. She is naturally hyper-competitive (read as: a pink pre-pubescent(?) filly well after my own heart) and internally focused, and those characteristics are exacerbated into being negatively aligned traits by her full-blown narcissist of a mother. Until CotLM, she doesn't want to change, because between her innate talent for manipulation and Silver Spoon's unconditional (the big, important word here) support, that antagonistic mindset works out pretty well for her.
While some of this is admittedly conjecture and/or projection, I believe the personality shift we saw in CotLM had two catalysts, the first being Apple Bloom forming (with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo) the Cutie Mark Crusaders all the way back in Season 1. The implication I gleaned from CotLM was that a large component of Diamond's hatred for the CMC stemmed from jealousy of their friendship and, as [bookplayer] said, agency. At the same time, she never showed that outwardly before, because she never really understood why she hated them. As far as she was concerned, her mom didn't like them and that was enough of a reason not to hang out with them--and had Sweetie and Scoots never stepped up to defend Apple Bloom in "Call of the Cutie", that's as far as it would've gone.
Once all three of them cluster together, though, things get personal. Diamond starts deliberately antagonizing them because, on a level she's not conscious of, they remind her of what she doesn't have and has never been shown how to get by any authority figure in her life. All three CMC idolize one-sixth of Equestria's physical embodiment of the Magic of Friendship. Conversely, Diamond Tiara has nobody of the sort to look up to, and instead of blaming that on her crappy role models (whom she's still too young to see for what they really are), she equates it to the CMC rubbing their stupid friendship in her face. As we see when she reacts with hostility towards the CMC's initial olive branch, she has a very stunted perception of how interpersonal contact works, and not enough self-awareness to figure out why their relationship seemed to work so well.
But none of that gets dragged into the light until the second catalyst within CotLM, which is Silver Spoon finally getting fed up with Diamond Tiara's shit. Until that moment, Silver Spoon is a constant in Diamond's life, one of the things she takes for granted because she can't conceive of it ever not being there. From her upbringing, Diamond thinks friendship is based in utility, which Silver Spoon clearly has as essentially her henchman. On Silver's side of things, she thinks the world of Diamond for her initiative and apparent intestinal fortitude, and follows her mostly because of this idealistic thought of Diamond growing to truly like her if she can just become useful enough. (This is the projection part of the program, by the way. Spoilers for how my last relationship went.)
The election is the shiny rock that breaks Silver's back, and once she's gone, there's no buffer between Diamond's overbearing home environment and the unspoken reality of how unhappy she is within it. Diamond no longer has a "friend" in any sense of the word, and the one she did have essentially just told her what the CMC have been saying--and proving with their actions--for years. When that kind of statement is coming from Silver, the one pony she never thought she'd have to worry about losing, it's a monumental break from everything she's always known about how the world works and how she fits into it. This time when her mother berates her for failing, it hurts, because now she has no one to vent to, no punching bag to verbally whale on over how unfair her mother is and how awful the CMC are for making her go through this again. It's the first time that, faced with no other option, she's had to turn the lens of blame inwards towards herself. And that--to use her own metaphor in her own solo song--breaks her.
Going back to the comment of yours that started mine off, there isn't any character growth for Diamond Tiara in CotLM other than her newfound agency, but the reason that alone is such a huge development for her is because before now, she never consciously accepted that she didn't already have it. At the same time, that doesn't mean CotLM functioned as an "asshole eraser", as you phrased it. In fact, the CMC emphasize that themselves in "Light of Your Cutie Mark": as they're chasing Diamond across town, they're trying to convince her that she can redeem herself by helping others, not that she already has or that just not ratting Pip out will fix everything she's done.
On top of that, we really can't declare her as reformed from this episode, because we've only seen organize one good thing that everybody in their class already wanted to happen. Evidence of that will come with future appearances in episodes and the struggles she'll presumably have with continuing to rebuild her worldview, just like it did with Discord--remember, after all, how many people complained about how quickly he was reformed, only to eat their words with every new episode he showed up in.
To sum up, the end result of CotLM for Diamond Tiara was, effectively, admitting to herself that she had a problem. That's the biggest step in any process leading to improvement, but it's not the only one. The fact that the CMC's search for cutie mark both started and ended with Diamond Tiara is far from a coincidence; for five seasons, the process by which Diamond discovered her true self in this way ran in parallel to the process by which the CMC found theirs. Their destinies (a.k.a. cutie marks) really are intertwined to an extent, and thanks to the CMC, Diamond knows personally and has demonstrated publicly that she can be better than she was. Helping her work on that further and more deeply understand her destiny is exactly what I expect to see from the Cutie Mark(ed) Crusaders going forward, and is why I'll be really surprised if this episode was the last we ever see of DT.
tl;dr I'm entirely too invested in Diamond Tiara as a character
I think you hit it on the heas, Aquaman. The biggest thing I took away from that whole interaction was the delicious irony. Diamond Tiara, the one whose defining character trait when she was introduced was lording it over the CMC that she had her mark, and knew her talent and who she was... is miserably unhappy with her life.
It's nice to see the show work the theme that a cutie mark isn't a cure all. They touched on it somewhat with Pinkie, in that her mark still couldn't make her happy staying on the rock farm, and from the synopsis intend to revisit that for the Christmas episode .
Excellent observations.
I've been thinking about Bookplayer's post since yesterday. While I largely agree with her (especially so about Luna and agency), I can't really say I'm particularly surprised to find out that a character who is a schoolfillly didn't always have full agency in their life. She's probably something like ten years old or so, and parents for good or ill have a lot of influence over their children.
She's a great character tho. I pretty much agree with your take on things here. 10/10
This sort of thing is why I feel kind of inadequate when it comes to analysis. I read bookplayer's post, and all I thought was, "That makes sense." I read this and had the same reaction.
Suffice to say, quite well thought out. Thank you for it.
Pretty much what I thought too, but as ever, you explained it better than I ever could.
I have to be honest: when this episode started to show the real path it was taking... I almost wished they wouldn't "reform" or "redeem" Diamond Tiara. She's kind of refreshing. In a show where every villain has been reformed or redeemed, she's just bitchy for the sake of being a bitch. An antagonist with no motivation beyond, "It makes me feel good, so I'll do it."
However, for all the reasons you listed, I was overwhelmingly pleased with the outcome. I look forward to Diamond Tiara trying—and failing, and trying again—to get this whole "nice" thing down.
Just like with anything creative, criticism will take place. The key is being able to discuss and debate such criticism in a professional manner. I think both you and bookplayer make good points and it's up to use plucky readers to make up our own minds.
Agency for everyone!
But yeah, still loving the season, despite the usual grumblings.
From my comment on Bookplayer's blog
Indeed, it is very important to remember that Diamond Tiara had no problem at all associating with them when it suited her, and her father even forced her to hang out with Apple Bloom at the end of Family Appreciation Day. The idea that it was all her mother's influence makes no sense. Diamond Tiara is a bully and likes pushing them around. She's a sadist, and likes hurting them. She's ambitious, and is happy to use them as long as they're useful to her (and indeed, she was fairly nice to them for a while when Gabby Gums was a big success, until they tried to take that away from her).
None of this is really congruent with the idea that it was all her mommy's fault.
Moreover, in this episode, she was portrayed as utterly unaware of what anyone else wanted... which is completely at odds with her previous characterization in literally every other episode. She's very much aware of what other people want. In Twilight Time, she showed she was good at being popular by giving people what they wanted, and knew that latching onto Twilight's coattails would make her that much cooler. In Ponyville Confidential, she has a good plan for increasing circulation (even if she does it by unkind means), and she has a good eye for talent - she picks out a good photographer, assigns him to do stuff to get her the pictures she might need for any occasion, and she recognizes the talent of the CMC as "Gabby Gums" and promotes similar ideas heavily (as well as rejecting their poorly-conceived original columns, which were boring). In Flight to the Finish, she recognizes that the CMC's act might be better than hers and sets out to sabotage them by destroying Scootaloo's self confidence. And indeed, the fact that she's so good at hurting people suggests she's pretty good at understanding what they consider to be important - Silver Spoon is distressed when calling them blank flanks no longer works, but Diamond Tiara merely moved onto another target.
People who are good at hurting people's feelings and manipulating them tend to be aware of what other people want; if you don't know what someone cares about, then you can't twist it against them so easily.
It was just plain old terrible writing with Diamond Tiara being pulled out of character for the episode, with an ill-conceived plot device constructed to make it so SHE'S GOOD NOW REALLY, IT WAS ALL HER MOM'S FAULT. It is reminiscent of the poorly-written Spike At Your Service, where they completely throw out a lot of stuff about Spike for an episode (and indeed, Spike's inconsistent characterization in his focus episodes is a major and persistent problem).
Of course, Diamond Tiara was only part of the problem with the episode - the CMC not receiving characterization themselves, instead being lumped together as the CMC herd from season 1 without any sense of individuality, with their lines not being individualized and their individual characters not mattering at all to the flow of the episode, was another problem. Indeed, pretty much all the problems with the episode fundamentally come down to characterization - it was decently well put-together musically, but the overall idea of "Diamond Tiara reforms by defying her mother" was an obvious ass pull; Diamond Tiara wasn't portrayed in a manner consistent with the confident, competent, manipulative pony we'd seen previously; and the CMC lacked individual characterization in an episode which was supposed to be about them growing as people.
Congratulations on the excellent episode wrap-up on Sunday. I really do hope the Scoota-orphan trope is dead for good, although it's probably too much to hope for.
3467403 I really liked the episode for the most part, but:
I have to agree. It is an easy out, and further bothers me because it is an excuse frequently used in Draco in Leather Pants stories, not to mention that everything from schizophrenia on down used to be blamed on something a person's mother did or didn't do. It's particularly hard to swallow the contempt for "blank flanks." Why would Spoiled Rich even care? I think Dave Polsky did it better when he showed Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon enjoying the pool--all the better for the fillies and colts who want to be there, but aren't invited.
I liked this episode substantially better than some folks ( 3467403 ), and I haven't been following this discussion too closely, but I'm hanging out in airports in my phone with nothing to do, sooo...
I agree that Diamond Tiara gains agency relative to her character as established in this episode. The issue to me (as much as there is one) is that I feel like the episode strips considerable agency out of her character in providing its elaboration of her background, just to give back a limited amount of it later. Obviously we can go viewing all her past actions through the lens of "what we now know", but I think the better counterfactual is to remove the whole episode from consideration rather than just part of it. And I do think that, not only is the DT of the Foal Free Press and the cheer competition a stronger character before we get this new information that her mother is rotten, I think she comes out of this episode weaker than we thought she was when we saw those episodes.
Honestly, I'm okay with DT being reformed. The CMC getting their cutie marks changes the target of their storylines in a way that makes her a less useful villain anyway. But I do think the show writers make plenty of missteps, even when the show is great---nobody's perfect---and I personally do feel that DT comes out of all this among to have less agency than she did going in.
I think I'm pretty content with the fact that we've got a show where it's actually worth talking about significant dramatic issues like this, though.
I agree a lot on how we're shown really the breaking point more than anything. I understand this was a stuffed episode where they had to show so many things in 22 minutes. I think it would have been much less problematic if they had just implied that DT had been discretely hanging out with the CMC at their clubhouse for several weeks, instead of a single afternoon. That would make it a lot more plausible that the Crusader's ethos rubs off on her and gives her the push to stand up to her mother.
If there's one takeaway from this, it's the fandom being too quick to call her reformed. I mean, it's a redemption story, yes, but as you say, acknowledging one has a problem is the first step toward solving it.
People like to bandy about this "agency" thing a lot in this fandom, but a lot of times they do it because they've latched onto one particular explanation for things, decided it doesn't work, and are unwilling to explore any other. It's not hard to come up with an explanation whereby Diamond Tiara bought into her mother's way of thinking, because it had always gotten her what she wanted before, but once it collapses around her, she's left rather lost. This isn't difficult.
3467982 I imagine they'll be doing the Twilight treatment. Where it happens fast, but, we get to see how she adjusts to this this new open chapter in her life much how Twilight grew to start getting accustomed to her wings and being a princess and all that.
So yeah, seeing how her VA is still recording for S6 I have no doubt we'll still be seeing plenty of Diamond and Silver. In what way, well, that is anyone's guess. I just hope she still keeps her adorable headstrong and competitive nature. Girl thinks big, and likes to look at the bigger picture.
I personally believe losing Silver was a huge influence in her final decision. Aside from just not liking being told how to live her life. Heh, I think it's cute to think back that Diamond was rebelling against her mom by being friends with Babs, main reason I believe Babs didn't end up swallowing her own teeth is because she used the Mom card on her. Cuter still how Diamond used the Father card on her mother. I imagine Filthy and Spoiled don't see eye to eye on how one treats other ponies. xD
3468063 There has always been that seperation of those who imitate and those who innovate. Sadly it's why we have so many copies/variations of the same things from Lyra being into humans, Silver Spoon longing for a way to leave Diamond Tiara, Scootaloo being weak and helpless abused orphan that needs RD to take her in.
I get that some people have that whole "I'm a writer, I don't have time or interest in reading what other people write" and yet wonder why their stories are so overlooked or compared to others like their own and get upset or feel like people are not into "good stories".
This has been a thing before Twilight even got her wings. How it takes people to come to this conclusion with simple concepts for Diamond Tiara like this here where she straight up tells us this very point in the latest episode, is beyond me. But happy to say some have gone the extra mile to make some fairly good and entertaining headcanons.
And that's actually what this latest episode basically was. It took like every fanfic ever almost and went that whole 5 sure-fire-way to redemption.
Even with this latest episode, I don't see how people can't write a story with conflict. Diamond has loads of conflicts she can get into now, even more so now that she's friends with the CMC. I still have this one about Sweetie Belle getting jealous of Diamond Tiara and her sister being able to talk and keep Rarity's attention in ways Sweetie never seems to be able to. Her becoming friends with the CMC only make this story easier to write, if only slightly less pretending on Diamond's part to get along with Sweetie to get to Rarity. But otherwise stories with conflict and reasoning behind Diamond's actions aren't hard to come up with if people take the time to invest in creating those reasons.
Yeah, I'm talking too much. But totally agree with ya. Those who complain they can't come up with ways to write Diamond's reasons for bullying are just those who aren't trying. I liked the idea that she used to just misinterpret the adult world and tried to emulate her dad's way of doing business and possibly saw or heard Rarity act in ways that made people think of her as 'worst pony' back during the first two seasons. Diamond Tiara just picked up the wrong ideas, and with the value ponies put into cutie marks, wouldn't it be weird to see there is only one pony left without a cutie mark as being different and weird?
Still lots of ways to write Diamond that CAN fit into canon now, while still being your own thing. Hell, no one I've seen yet has tackled WHAT Filthy Rich could have ever seen in Spoiled. One friend even has Spoiled as the STEPMOM. Nothing 100% says it's not possible she's like a second wife. Gotten on a rebound after a divorce or accident that left him a widowed stallion.
Random bits:
Fun part of the episode: If you listen closely enough to Diamond telling her mom about how she shouldn't call the CMC hurtful names and they are her friends, you can almost feel Chantal Strand almost couldn't deliver that line with a straight face with how adorably hypocritical it was. xD
Ouchy Moment: Diamond Tiara wanting to know "what having real friends feels like" just felt harsh. Sure, DT probably didn't mean it like that, but damn... Glad Silver Spoon wasn't within earshot of that line. lol;
Sorry, got caught up talking ponies and I love talking ponies. Especially when it deals with Diamond Tiara exploring different angles to make sense of the things the show doesn't fill in right away.
The having real friends comment reads more as self critical to me. Silver Spoon isn't really her friend... because friendship takes two, and DT wasn't interested before.
3467280
You and me both, bud. I read Bad Horse's blog on the episode (I'm assuming it's close to bookplayer's sentiments) and came away absolutely miserable for the rest of my work shift. Then I followed the link he left to here and was considerably less miserable, since Aquaman's view is a bit more like mine. Both analysis are agreeable to me, which is prolly why BH's blog rather hurt; it was telling me I was wrong and the evidence provided compelled me to agree. Aquaman also looks at some of the same things, but from a different perspective which is also agreeable. So I dunno. Walking into analysis with your own strong preconceptions isn't the best of ideas, I guess. Best to empty the mind, eh? But this being a little girl's show, it's real easy-like to let your guard down.
I dunno, Foamy. Maybe becoming better at analyzing things involves taking in multiple scopes of things. Taking up different points of view and whatever. Or maybe waiting until everybody else has written up a show analysis before writing up your own, somehow smashing and gluing your thoughts and theirs for something more rounded off and agreeable to multiple people. You can also earn bonus evil jerk points by not crediting the original person for their time spent thinking and reflecting upon their ideas :3
Pssssshhhhh... ok, I'm not kidding on trying to see things from multiple angles thing, though.
Even Sunset does this in Friendship Games. After the archery/roller derby/motocross/wtf school even has the kind of money to run this kind of event, she blows up with Sci Twi and you can see little bits of the alpha bitch she once was spewing from her before Sci Twi runs off and Sunset realizes her mistake. There's quite a few characters in the show like this, like Fluttershy being shy or Pinkie being incredibly annoying and dense at times (best pony), only to show up in another episode and still be like that despite having learned from a previous episode, but it does rather realistically show how change does happen, but slowly and in degrees.
With DT being so young, we are totally going to see bits of that bully resurface far more frequently. Hell, I bet there'll be a thing where DT blackmails some pony for bullying the CMC. Wrong thing for the right reasons, eh? They opened up a lot more doors for DT.
3468063 Thank you for perfectly describing my thoughts.