My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 5 Finale: "The Cutie Re-Mark" (SPOILERS) · 5:05pm Nov 28th, 2015
Season 5 started after a lengthy hiatus, had lots of highs and lows, took a ridiculously long mid-season break, and had the season finale spoiled by the last scene of Friendship Games. We've seen some incredible changes to the status quo this season, including the Cutie Mark Crusaders finally getting their Cutie Marks, character development for Diamond Tiara, and the announcement of Cadance's pregnancy.
And now, here we are, ending the season the same way it began:
Starlight Glimmer.
The season finale begins with Twilight being her usual OCD self, endlessly and relentlessly practicing a speech for the School of Gifted Unicorns, much to Spike's consternation.
Moondancer and friends cameo! Also, Twilight mentions the CMC getting their Cutie Marks at the same time, which...well, a lot of us have written fanfics based on that.
Being a comic book fan means Spike is more savvy about messing with time than Twilight. Makes sense to me.
Using the Cutie Map, Starlight Glimmer Biff Tannens Twilight and her friends, casting an amplified time travel spell, traveling back to the day Rainbow Dash raced the bullies at flight camp to defend Fluttershy's honor. By simply binding a filly Rainbow Dash with her magic, Starlight prevents Rainbow from creating the Sonic Rainboom, which in turn prevents the Mane Six from discovering their destinies.
Which, in turn, changes the very fate of Equestria.
Thanks to Starlight's interference with the past, Equestria is now a wasteland at war with the Crystal Empire, ruled by a fully restored Sombra.
Yes, friends, for the first time ever, we're seeing an actual pony war. It isn't the first time war has been alluded to, but it's the first time we've actually seen one.
Twilight tries to use Starlight's spell to go back and stop Starlight from interfering with the past, but it turns out it's not that easy. On top of being insane and psychotic, Starlight is dangerously genre savvy, and wrote a recursive booby trap into her spell. Twilight using it pulled Starlight back in time too, so Twilight can't ambush Starlight at the point at which she changed history. Worse, Starlight's doing even more damage to the past, and Twilight's haphazard attempt to "jiffy fix" the past just leads to giving poor Filly Dash an I Need An Adult moment.
The next time Twilight's sucked back into the present, instead of the epic pony war with the Crystal Empire, she finds the natives of Ponyville have gone REALLY native. They're all dressed up in tribal jungle gear, wielding stone spears, and apparently are at war with the Changelings now. Also, Tribal Fluttershy is mildly terrifying.
Predictably, Zecora is an expert on the effects of time travel and changing history.
Returning to the past once again, Twilight tries the direct approach: fighting Starlight. All she accomplishes is sidelining the race when Rainbow and the bullies are distracted by the epic magic duel...and tiring herself out against an opponent who really shouldn't be able to outlast her like this.
The third altered reality Twilight and Spike travel to is an Equestria ruled by Nightmare Moon. The next one, Tirek has destroyed Equestria. Then, Discord's kingdom. Again and again, Twilight tries and fails to stop Starlight, each new altered past featuring its own horrors. Finally, Twilight tries to reason with Starlight by dragging her through the time portal. Even though Starlight sees what her actions will cause...she doesn't care. She's so determined to ruin Twilight's friendship connection with the others that she's willing to destroy Equestria to do it.
And we finally learn WHY Starlight Glimmer is this way. And her motivation for every evil she's committed is...
She had a friend. He got his Cutie Mark. His parents sent him to Canterlot and she never saw him again.
That's it.
That's the entire basis for the psychotic monster that is Starlight Glimmer.
Starlight finally listens to one of Twilight's friendship speeches. Twilight FINALLY gets through to her, and Equestria is saved.
The Mane Six discuss Starlight, who is simply too powerful with magic to be allowed to go on her way. Ultimately, they decide to give her the Sunset Shimmer treatment.
Guess we'll be seeing more of her in season six, as a reformed villain in the same vein as Sunset.
I'll be honest: I'm not entirely cool with that. I feel that Starlight Glimmer is one villain who should have been treated with more severity. Actions have consequences, and not every villain should be let off with "friendship healing". Especially given her list of very disturbing crimes.
Anyway, that wraps it up for season five.
Up Next: Moth's Season 6 Wishlist!
(Addendum: At the start of this week's LPS, Blythe was "riding" a plush Applejack as part of her Halloween costume. I laffed. 
)
It was awesome
Fun fact: This episode was the first time Chrysalis' name was spoken in the show.
Also they got her voice all wrong.
This is easily my favorite of the finales so far.
It was very interesting to see the past antagonists again, even if only for a few minutes for each.
I agree with you. Starlight was one of the worst (damage-wise) villain in this show, right up there with Tirek. She didn't even get a slap on the wrist, or anything. They just kinda went, "You were bad, but because we talked to you you're okay now"
Little Starlight was cute, but she really shouldn't have let herself get worked up like that, just because her friend got his cutie mark and was sent to Canterlot. It's really crazy to think that it all started because Starlight's friend got his cutie mark, it didn't mean he would've forgotten her.
I can see how one bad experience could've been the start of Starlight's darkness, but the issue was resolved far too easily. Given all of the buildup, all of the spite, turning Starlight into Moondancer the second feels kind of cheap. And yeah, Starlight's kind of a Villain Sue at this point.
(Though speaking of Moondancer, this does explain why Starlight was seen in "Amending Fences." "what About Discord?" foreshadowed the time travel. "Amending Fences" foreshadowed her motivation. After a friends abandoned her, she forsook friendship. She just did it even less healthily than Moondancer.)
The only thing that was off for me was when it showed FlimFlam. They ran out of villains.
So, why was the world a wasteland on the last visit to a ruined future? Was it a flipped-out Celestia, aka Solar Flare? Did Trixie lead everyone down the path of destruction? Or maybe the Cutie Mark Crusaders, in their search for cutie marks separately, all decided to experiment with nuclear power and atomized the place?
3573962 Eeyup.
3573987 Eeyup.
Just like with Diamond Tiara, I am still GREATLY on the fence about her redemption. She has already passed the Moral Event horizon THREE TIMES OVER, and I still want to see a proper punishment. The only reason the universe didn't rip itself apart was for plot convenience. Am I the only one tired of that? Starlight caused TWO TIME PARADOXES in the span of 20 minutes!
ALSO!
Starlight: But what I am is a Cutie-Marxist with a thing for causing time paradoxes.
Doofenshmirtz would have been proud of her. Especially the backstory.
3574109
Well his AU counterpart at least.
3574070 I personally think that was starlight glimmer future. Where she takes everponys cutiemark. The clue is in the map.
3574109 I dunno. To be fair, Starlight's entire backstory is just one little thing. With Heinz, it's a culmination of a very shattered childhood. SECOND DIMENSION DOOFENSHMIRTZ on the other hand, now THAT'S an inconsequential event.
This episode pretty much justifies a lot of hate some people have a had about that blasted table. Apparently it can also be used to enhance spells...and there's even less security on it than the Starswirl the Bearded Wing...whose security is also confirmed to be crap even to ponies not Princess Celestia's student, and especially to WANTED CRIMINALS.
Also, Twilight REALLY needs to get some better battle magic, since her only moves seem to be teleport, blast, shield, and copy whatever her opponent is doing.
3574221 Plus, Doofinshmirtez had to work a lot harder to put things right after he realized that everything he wanted was not everything he needed. Because even with all the power at his disposal, he couldn't really rule the Tri-State area, or keep his daughter from moving away.
If you look closely at the end, you can tell that there's some... time-passing during the musical number. Rainbow, at least, remains suspicious right up till the "fly through the rings" scene. It may very well be that they pull an 'unboxing the summary' next season, where we KNOW Starlight will be redeemed but she has to go through it first.
Honestly. This was my favorite final-episodes so far through the entire show, even better than Chrysalis and her invasion of Canterlot IMO.
Everything was awesome, not a moment went by where I got bored and I constantly was either on edge of excitement or just plain amusement of what was going on.
Loved every second, which I can't say for many episodes in this show.
Bleh. Great season finale right up until Starlight gets off scott free for the hell she put Twilight and Spike through, as well as each new timeline she created, however temporarily they lasted(to us). In terms of damage villains have done, she is pretty damn high up there. The only mitigating circumstance in her favor was the fact that the damage was undone. I was honestly hoping she would be irredeemable, or at best in her favor she sees the light at the last possible minute and sacrifices herself in some selfless manner appropriate to the intended audience' age, as well as the theme of the show.
She really should've been turned to stone, or sent to Tartarus though. Her motivation was absurdly petty, which to me reeks of bad writing, but also paints her as an extremely unstable individual. Couple that with her level of magical power and skill, and it just seems insane she would be forgiven. I'm also pretty annoyed she's apparently going to be a fixture in the shows future seasons now. Bleh. I did mostly enjoy the episode though. But was anyone else a littke disappointed we didn't get to see a future where Sunset Shimmer rules Equestria as some kind of a demonic alicorn? I mean we got the Flim-flam brothers somehow Loraxing the country- as if THEY of all ponies couldn't be stopped.
3574806 A future ruled by demon Sunset would've been impossible if Twilight Sparkle had never obtained the Element of Magic.
3574845
Ah, yeah good point.
3574136
Oh? When I see the map, the only areas left are the far west and far east - and by far, I'm talking griffin country in the east, not Starlight's town and caves - they weren't that close to the edge. All of Equestria is wiped out.
Copied from my blog:
She just straight-up overreacted to an easily resolved problem. The appropriate response to the event of 'my friend is moving away because they got accepted to boarding school' would be to congratulate them on their success and agree to keep in touch through the mail, not to immediately denounce friendship entirely and become a literal soul-sucking communist. It took me like five minutes to come up with a much better backstory that explains her villainous nature much better, without even going into stuff too dark for the show:
Starlight Glimmer was born into a noble unicorn family along with her older brother Silver Shine. One day, Silver got his cutie mark, but much to their parents' dismay, it was for his talent as a waiter in the foodservice industry. In anger and disappointment, they disowned their son. Starlight loved her brother, and begged her parents to reconsider, but they refused and scolded her for questioning their judgment. It was then that Starlight realized how awful cutie marks were, and she pledged then-and-there to create a society where everypony was equal and she could reunite with her brother without being subject to social stigma.
In this case, her scheme in the finale would be motivated purely by revenge. This would still allow for Starlight's reformation, but Twilight would have to go about it differently. She could say something like:
"I'm so, so sorry that happened to you, but that's no reason to erase all cutie marks! A cutie mark expresses a pony's individuality; it's what makes them unique! You loved your brother because he was special to you, would you really take that special happiness away from everypony? Just because your family wasn't caring enough doesn't mean everypony is against you! Just make some friends! Friends are like a family you can choose, and they're there to support you when you need it, even when the whole world seems against you!"
And BAM, she realizes how stupid she was being and the story's ending is the same. Except not nearly as poorly conceived.
#endrant
I need to watch this like in the next few minutes.
This is sounding like they nerfed Twilight, the supposedly most powerful unicorn of her time, now an alicorn, and as such one would think with far more power then any unicorn should have access to. Not to mention she's a nerd with access to a millenia old library of magical texts. Her skill set, range of spells should be mind boggling.
They have been dragging out this whole "am an alicorn, what do I do, how do be one" thing for two seasons. Its getting old.
Starlight is insane, from what ive read she needs therapy/incarceration. Not a carte blanche act of forgiveness and acceptance as new friend who will take Twilight's role within the mane six.
I have to say, I'm slighty disturbed that they forgave Starlight. Not only is the reformation card overly used at this point, but that they used it for a character that resorted to actual torture (isolation and brainwashing) is just too stupid. I get why they forgave her, but she shouldn't have gotten away scot-free.
Speaking of stupid, and I'll say this once and stick to it: Nightmare Moon with the fangs being ever-present looks stupid.
Will Starlight's reformation affect your "Great and Powerful Friendship" fanfic? You seem to make it pretty clear she is beyond help in that story and you don't have an AU tag on it. I guess the season finale was okay. It was a fun two parter for a great season and I'm willing to give Starlight a chance at redemption, just like I did for Discord, Sunset, and arguably Trixie. I think we just need to see where this leads.
3575725 It won't, and that isn't what the AU tag is for. The AU tag is for when you change something fundamental to the established canon, not when emerging canon happens to contradict something you've already written.
3575809
Makes sense to me! Cool.
3575809 Many people will add a note to the description when such things come to be though. Otherwise there's little chance that there won't be people that hadn't read the story before such things came to light complaining in the comments about the author not taking them into account.
3575212
Starlight Glimmer was not a communist. She was a cult leader.
Holy shit guys, really? Why is everyone so eager to inflict these harsh punishments on Starlight? Shes not really evil, she just needs serious psychiatric treatment for her insanity and possible other mental issues. And, you know, friends. Besides, this is, first and formost, a kids show, which means they can't really lock her in a dungeon and throw away the key.
so thru the five or so years twi and company have been together , apparently no pony in equistria realizes there importance as national heros. odd not to see shiny during the battle against sombra(either that or i miss him ). honestly i thought whole thing would of been more like bttf2 change the past be top dog in the new time line , not staying in the past like she's stuck in purgatory trying to thwart twi friendship linked cutie mark appearance for all time. loved the ending image of the cast .
would of been nice if one of the alt time lines would of been alicorn sunset shimmer. funny how a couple months ago the solar flare / nightmare sun card was considered to be a possible spoiler for this season1.bp.blogspot.com/-QwgHhiCAoHQ/VTsSh-1jg7I/AAAAAAABRjc/IbKNfTR6Xig/s1600/881951__safe_princess%2Bcelestia_card_ccg_enterplay_solar%2Bflare_spoiler-colon-s05_absolute%2Bdiscord_nightmare%2Bstar.png wondering if this is a throw away or something for season 6
3576315 Bullshit. If they can show her brainwashing ponies, actively attempting to destroy the lives of six ponies whose only "crime" was to put a stop to HER OWN CRIMES, and was willing to let Equestria burn just to get her petty revenge against Twilight Sparkle and friendship as a whole, then they can absolutely show her receiving realistic consequences for her actions. Hell, they've shown us Equestria's version of a maximum security prison. They've put one criminal BACK there. Remember Tirek? He's in a cell in Tartarus for his crimes.
Starlight Glimmer's crimes absolutely warrant the same treatment.
3576592 As I've pointed out elsewhere, an alternate timeline with alicorn Sunset would have been impossible because Twilight Sparkle's friendship with the others directly resulted in her obtaining the Element of Magic, which Sunset only returned to Equestria to steal. No Element of Magic, no Sunset Shimmer revenge plot.
There was a line Twilight mentioned in this finale about how something small can snowball into an incredible tragedy. She even did a little cloud diorama demonstration.
This is that little snowball moment that led to the great icy behemoth that became Starlight Glimmer.
For those with very few to no friends, a single friend is a very precious thing. But if circumstances cause them to leave, and never be heard from again... the mind goes places when it's quite lonely.
And you've seen the results right here. Believe it or not, one can become quite monstrous when they have no friends, or even think they have no friends.
3576705 Let me get this straight. You would prefer, in a show FOR LITTLE GIRLS, that Starlight be thrown in literal hell? Can you actually visualize this being animated in show style, with Twilight just laughing it off and going back to her castle to do whatever? I don't remember anyone treating Discord this way when he was redeemed, and he brainwashed ponies. He also, you know, FRICKING RULED EQUESTRIA IN THE PAST! If you can honestly tell me that you think Starlight is worse than Discord, you might have missed a few things about the shows core concepts.
3577033
Except that every other villain that has been redeemed has also at least suffered some consequence from their actions prior to being redeemed. There was no such consequence for Starlight. Also, while the writers are trying to make her sympathetic and she definitely does need psychiatric help, Starlight at the minimum was at least sane enough to acknowledge that her actions will result in very bad things happening to Equestria and states that she doesn't care as long as she gets her revenge. This alone would warrant her receiving some form of punishment, though not necessarily one as severe as some others might have suggested.
As is, this resolution is at risk of giving the impression that you can get away with doing horrible things with no consequence if you have a sad backstory. That's not exactly something that you'd want little girls to learn either.
P.S Unless I missed something, canon mostly treats Tartarus as a supernatural maximum security prison; the show at least has not shown it to be a literal 'hell'.
3577033 I didn't miss anything, but apparently you did. You apparently missed how Starlight has been treated, thus far, as a much more realistic, subversive, and dangerous criminal than the god-mode villains of the past. It's not unreasonable to expect her to be meted out criminal consequences for her actions.
Perhaps not Tartarus, but absolutely the dungeons of Canterlot.
3577089 3577114 I agree she got off easy. Maybe have Twilight calling Celestia around and Celly putting Twilight in charge of Starlight, like she did with Flutters and Discord. But she clearly has unresolved mental issues if one broken friendship sent her off the deep end. Locking her up, while she might disserve it, is something I doubt Twilight could do in good conscience, especially since Starlight's issue is, at its core, a friendship problem. I just feel like throwing her in the dungeons and forgetting about her is not really a solution Twilight would consider. Does Ponyville have a psychiatrist? Because Starlight needs one. Badly. Her crimes may be atrocious, but the first time she really thought what she was doing was right, and the second time she had no idea of the repercussions of messing with the Rainboom, and while still awful, she wasn't intentionally trying to destroy Equestria. Besides, we all know the real reason that Starlight joined the Mane 6 is because Hasbro want to sell some more of them toys!
3576803
I've been there (best friend found his true calling and moved to Mongolia to pursue his career) and its not a pleasant experience (depression never is). Fortunately, the 'never be heard from again' part is averted thanks to the existence of telephones and the internet.
3577169
I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm not suggesting that they throw her in prison and forget about her. What I am suggesting is that something is done to keep her from doing any more destructive things while she's getting psychiatric help.
To be frank, so does the majority of the mane 6 and the residents of Ponyville (alternatively, somepony's getting rich selling a ton of booze)
Mostly agree with you on this one, but her motivations there can also be interpreted as being rather selfish (my friend got his cutie mark and moved away, so I'm going to take away everyone's cutie mark and force them to be my friends)
It may not have been her intention, but once she has seen the end results, she still doesn't care as long she gets her revenge. This again points to a rather selfish and self-centered world view (only my desires matter, nothing else does!)
So yes, she needs help, but she needs to be locked up/kept from doing any more damage while she's getting that help.
I would love to see Starlight Glimmer get more reformation. Of course, her crimes were never as bad as Luna/NMM, who got her throne back immediately, but it would still be great to see Starlight doing community service or something.
3577293
This is debatable, considering the potential consequences of Starlight messing with the timeline. Also, while Luna did get her throne back immediately, do keep in mind that she has already spent a thousand years in the moon; so she's already suffered some form of punishment (and as this season's Luna episode demonstrates, she thinks even that's not sufficient punishment).
3577340 Perma-locking the moon was going to wipe out all life anyway. And that thousand years on the moon was for her first attempt to kill her sister and then wipe out all life, she received no punishment for her second attempt.
3577426
And changing the timeline so that there's no one to stop the various big bads from wrecking everything would ultimately have the same result. As for NMM's second attempt (which didn't get very far thanks to the mane 6), Luna's been busy punishing herself as shown in 'Do princesses dream of magic sleep'.
Point is, none of the reformed villains to this point got away with no punishment whatsoever(there's Sunset Shimmer's case, but events in Rainbow Rocks indicate that she didn't exactly have an easy time showing that she's truly reformed ).
I'm all for redemption (and would like to see Starlight Glimmer redeemed), but the fact that she suffered no repercussions for messing with the timeline doesn't feel right.
I had hoped for a much better backstory and it felt contrived. So he never came and saw her again - she has hooves! She could've visited him. Or wrote, idk...
While Alicorn Sunset mayhem would've been cool to see, I understand why it couldn't happen
but what I'm actually disappointed in about that is 'Sunburst' is such a close name to 'Sunset' and they had a similar color scheme... it would've been so easy to have Sunset in place as Starlight's friend! then so many things would click together in a neat fit: of course Starlight never saw her again after she left! Sunset was too busy with studies to care about friendship, and then she hightailed it to the mirror world and still hasn't returned
speaking of that world, I'm disappointed that Friendship Games came out first with its little tease at the time jumps since it didn't add anything to the movie, but would've been a clever nod after-the-fact. plus, there was too much similarity in the whole 'talking the villain down' thing
and for a punishment... I think it'd be fitting for Starlight to get the whole reformation friendship - after they drain her of magic (what is her special talent anyway? how did she get her cutie mark?). I mean, they're worried 'cause she's too powerful to let off scott-free (which they do, really), then why not set some limits on what she can do?
It still amazes me to this day just how fucked up this show has become. For kids, you say? If kids like seeing an alternate future where THE ENTIRE LAND HAS BEEN COMPLETELY ANNIHILATED BECAUSE ONE PONY LOST A FRIEND AND BECAME A PSYCHOPATH. WTF
Just the way I like it.
3577440 She didn't immediately get handed a throne at least, take comfort in that. And she was punished the first time, just like Luna. She was banished from the village she had built up from nothing, and lost all her "friends." That's why she was so angry in the first place.
3578506
Since she was still free to plot her revenge after that, i wouldn't call it punishment. Yes her plot was stopped, but she was nowhere near being redeemed and was left free to do whatever she wanted.
I like the fact that she's being redeemed. I just don't agree with how the redemption is handled. That her backstory makes her come across as being incredibly selfish, petty and unstable doesn't help.
That being said, there's still hope that season six can fix some of the problems with this issue.