Apocalypse Now [non-spoilery episode discussion!] · 6:34pm Nov 28th, 2015
I did some soul-searching, and I realize the problem with The Mane Attraction is Coloratura. She's got Princess Cadence Syndrome. Here, let me show you what I mean.
A Canterlot Wedding
Me: "Hey, who's this Princess Cadence supposed to be? Why should I care about her?"
Show: "She's an alicorn princess!"
Me: "Um, excuse you, there are only two alicorn princesses, I do not want another. Also, she's a bitch."
Show: "That's not really her, though!"
Me: "Okay, so tell me again who she is and why I should care about her."
Show: "...She's marrying Twilight's brother?"
Me: "Who the fuck is that?"
The Mane Attraction
Me: "Hey, who's this Countess Coloratura supposed to be? Why should I care about her?"
Show: "She's the biggest pop star in Equestria!"
Me: "Um, excuse you, Sapphire Shores is the Pony of Pop. Also, the Countess is trying not to be a bitch and failing hardcore."
Show: "She was friends with AJ!"
Me: "Okay, so tell me again who she is and why I should care about her."
Show: "...She awakened the flower of true lesbian love within a young Applejack's heart?"
Me: "...I'm down."
I maybe got a little sidetracked there, but you see what I mean. It's the same kind of obstacle every OC has to hurdle.
This problem stretches all the way into the music, even. I mean, it's really clever that "The Spectacle" and "The Magic Inside" set up a thematic character arc for Rara to run through, but it is not effective. I don't care about her, so I don't care about her arc. And frankly, if not for all the otherwise great songs (and a memorable performance from Pinkie), this episode would be as boring as What About Discord.
As for The Cutie Re-mark... The hour-long season five finale...
My main thought going in was "will it be more epic than Twilight's Kingdom"? It wasn't, but that's not a bad thing. Time will tell which I liked better, but right now? Right now, I don't care. I watch the whole thing with a mute smile on my face. There's not a thing I would change about this episode. Good on ya, Josh Haber!
Rating: Top-Tier
Amending Fences
Crusaders of the Lost Mark
Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?
The Cutie Map
The Cutie Re-Mark
Rarity Investigates!
Brotherhooves Social
Make New Friends but Keep Discord
Hearthbreakers
The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows
Castle Sweet Castle
Canterlot Boutique
Appleloosa's Most Wanted
The Hooffields and McColts
Scare Master
Tanks for the Memories
Slice of Life
The Mane Attraction
What About Discord?
The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone
Made in Manehattan
Bloom & Gloom
Princess Spike
Party Pooped
Our Town
The Magic Inside
The Pony I Want to Be
The Spectacle
We'll Make Our Mark
I'll Fly
The Vote
Make This Castle a Home
The Rules of Rarity
Friends Are Always There for You
Equestria, the Land I Love
Sisterhood
Hush Little Sister
Light of Your Cutie Mark
Dream Flower Song
Stay tuned for Present Perfect vs. Season 5, coming next Norsday! :V
The finale was great in my opinion.
So far the only main criticism I'm seeing is the way the ending was executed; it's definitely the steel link in an otherwise-adamantine plot chain.
Very good episode. I was waiting for Twilight to solve the missing rainboom problem by making one of her own, thus completing a causality loop. Alas, no.
The only thing that disappointed me was a fairly weak closure of Starlight's arc. She pretty quickly decides to take Twilight's advice that friendship will solve all her problems if only she'd give it another chance, and of course the other elements back that up by being accepting of her, but I would have liked to see that resolved on Starlight's terms, like Twilight takes her to reconnect with Sunburst. Twilight also made a big deal out of Starlight having very impressive magical abilities and really seemed to be implying that that was part and parcel of how they'd reform her, yet it had nothing to do with it. Since that's what took Sunburst from her in the first place (he was an early bloomer, yet she presumably turned out to be more talented in the end), she got to where she wanted anyway, and losing the one friend didn't derail that, and she can find more friends. I was even halfway expecting that she'd arrange to have Starlight become an instructor at the School for Gifted Unicorns, since it played heavily into both her and Twilight's lives.
The litany of villains was nice, but I didn't get Flim and Flam's. For its position in the sequence, it's implied to be one of the worst, but how did they even get to that point? The rest were villains that were a real threat, had formidable powers of their own, and were a match for Twilight. If she simply magicked the brothers' machines so they didn't work, what would they do about it? It's also the one scenario where it doesn't make sense how Celestia and/or Luna would have been kept from preventing it.
My favorite part? Really clever of them to prevent the rainboom in one of the instances by having Starlight convince the bullies they were wrong to pick on Fluttershy in the first place, because Twilight can't argue with that. She can do an "ends justifies the means" thing and prod them into being cruel for the good of Equestria, I suppose, but I don't think she could make herself do that. It was Starlight's most powerful moment as a villain, because she's actually right.
Great ep to end the season!
This is the kind of quality blogging I expect from you. Keep up the good work!
Season 5 confirmed for best season, IMHO.
The resolution felt rushed. Starlight goes from "I will reduce the world to ashes just to see you suffer" to "Is it can be friends time now plz?" way too quick. Awesome stuff on display, yes, but it feels like the story was shoved to the side for a boss rush.
I think my biggest issue is the song. If they'd ended with Starlight taking the first steps in the right direction, it would've been quietly powerful. Instead, I got a montage rammed down my throat.
3574518
Best single villain moment so far. Unlikely to be topped, IMO.
3574528
I'm inclined to agree, sir!
3574530 Yes. She saw what had become of the world and at first thought it was a trick, but then didn't care. If they cut out that second step to where she was immediately horrified once convinced, I could see a quicker conversion, but she's hard-core once that's established, and then she goes for the quick friendship sell. It's pretty jerky.
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3574530
The song was just kind of eh, I'll admit. But Starlight's quick turnaround doesn't bother me in the least. I was expecting it, number one, and come on, she saw the end of the fucking world, that'll do things to you. It was just a matter of the implications worming their way into her head.
3574801
Hmm. I suppose what looked like arbitrary skepticism could've been a form of denial. Bearing that in mind, the turnaround does feel a little more natural, but we never see the struggle in her mind. Yes, her redemption was probably inevitable, but this still felt forced.
Don't get me wrong, I really want to enjoy this episode more than I do, but I just keep seeing so much to nitpick.
3574863
As more journals are posted, I'm starting to feel like I'm the outlier once more and most people are irritated to angry about this one.
Whatever. <.< Y'all're butts. :V
3574530
My biggest problem with Starlight is that she went from happy filly to "Must destroy all cutie marks! Maybe Equestria too if necessary!" just because of some childhood friend. Man, that escalated quickly. Overly attached marefriend much?
"Sorry Starlight, you're just too clingy"
"IT'S ALL BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE A CUTIE MARK ISN'T IT?"
"No, you're literally clinging to me and it's very annoying"
"YOU WALKED OUT THE DOOR! WHAT ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO DO??"
"I was just talking to my parents!"
"IT'S ALL THE CUTIE MARK'S FAULT, I WILL DESTROY THEM ALL, AND THEN WE CAN BE TOGETHER AGAIN!"
In fairness though, it appears she would have been happy to just keep running her town and having her own little cult out in the middle of nowhere until the mane six came along.
She's also better at magic than unicorn Twilight was, like, alicorn Twilight is evenly match with her and supposedly she's better and more powerful at it now. Maybe having too much magic is conductive to some forms of psychosis, we know Twilight was not the most mentally stable unicorn either.
Given all that her turning around as fast as she did was like, the least of it.
We must prepare for Nightmare Twist, though, who knows what's been brewing in her mind after Apple Bloom ditched her for getting a cutie mark.
3574495
The ending was rushed and ill thought through. That is, sadly, traditional. I'll be really bitter if -this- is their solution to having shortsightedly written Twilight into a position where they can't use her.
Countess Coleratura had those problems because the episode was written like a lot of annoying celebrity cameo episodes are in a lot of shows, the celebrity always comes off like an annoying Mary Sue.
I liked that, thematically, the episode served as an antithesis to Starlight's philosophy in the season premiere. Starlight Glimmer neither believes in individualism nor exceptionalism, so changing the fates of six poinies, no matter how special those ponies are, should not have such a huge effect on history. Remember that throughout the episode only Twilight gets to see the dystopian futures that result from Starlight's actions, so Starlight does not realize the consequences of her plot until Twilight brings her back to the present. After Twilight convinces Starlight that messing with her fate will doom Equestria—and perhaps more importantly, after Starlight remember the power a broken friendship had over her own fate—she willingly gives up her plot to ruin Twilight Sparkle's life.
Friendships can change the world. That's quite a good message on which to end the season.
I've got a whole lot of episodes to watch, now that we're at a good spot for me to catch up.
3576101 It did, but it kind of raised questions for me about her mentality. When she first said the thing about "how could you be so important?" I literally wondered aloud if she'd ever read a freaking newspaper or something. Given that it seems she was stalking Twilight, you'd think that she'd have done the background research to see this pattern. And at that point (in her case I guess we can just say "pants on head crazy") you'd think there'd be at least some kind of thought into ideas of how things might prevent the world-changing disasters Twilight and co handled.
On which note, it seems to me like Twilight could have just kept going back (absent the weird issue that she needed the physical scroll for . . . reasons) without even trying to stop Starlight. It was different each time, and at least a couple of them suggested that probably all but one of the problems were in some way prevented or resolved without them. So with enough tries, who's to say they wouldn't end up in a pretty okay timeline?
3576730
I find myself agreeing with Starlight Glimmer here. Sure, Twilight and her friends have done a lot to help Equestria, but are they really the only ponies in the world capable of defeating those threats? Consider a hypothetical that many put forth: if you went back in history to kill Hitler, would you prevent the holocaust and World War II? I would argue no. The historical forces that led to the rise of Hitler would still be present, and some other leader would have risen and led to the same result. Were FDR, Churchill, and others like them the only individuals capable of leading the allies to victory in World War II or would others have also been capable? Did the outcome of WWII turn on their exceptional abilities to lead, or was it more due to the underlying economic advantage of the allies once the US joined the fight? The episode views the world though the "Great Man theory of history" that singular individuals determine the course of history, whereas I look more toward broader social, political, and economic forces as guiding the fate of the world. (But this is why I don't write childrens' stories: Friendships don't change the world; broader social, political and economic forces change the world is a bit too cynical a message for most kids).
In the end, I'd go back to the season premiere for the answer. When the Mane Six are incapacitated by Starlight Glimmer's cutie mark spell, the residents of Our Town—Sugar Belle, Party Favor, Night Glider, and Double Diamond—step up to save the day. Even if Twilight and co did not exist, I would still expect some other ponies to rise up to face the challenges facing Equestria (which as you note, had to have happened in many of the AUs).
3576836 To some extent yes, to some I disagree. For one thing, Nightmare Moon, Discord, Sombra, and Tirek had nothing to do with big social forces. I just don't think that argument applies in this setting as regards those events. A variant might, but it's much more tenuous, and if you admit that singular individuals can play unique and devastating roles on the side of conquest and chaos and destruction, then it's harder to justify the contrary for harmony without something else backing it up.
I think you do need, at minimum, a new Element of Magic. Whether that's easily replicable is uncertain, and perhaps Twilight could even still end up as it in some alternate timelines (note that in the Changeling case, Applejack and Rainbow Dash apparently had their same cutie marks). There are certainly cases where it doesn't seem to need to be them. Could have had Sunset, for instance, with NMM and the other EoH cases, had things been different. (Or Trixie, because why not pretend it's the first hiatus?) But it seems to me that there's every indication you need six main-race ponies or some number of alicorns to use the Elements, and they need some kind of something for them to work. We don't know how strict, but there are at least some standards there, as seen in "Return of Harmony." So while maybe it doesn't need to specifically be them, it's evident on its face that perfect equality and substitutability isn't going to fly. And so while it doesn't require them in particular to be the special ones, someone has to be. Drawing back to your example, maybe it didn't have to be them, but the countries almost certainly needed somebody in the upper tiers of the civil and military hierarchies, and probably for most of them to be pretty competent. (And in some cases, there might not have been anybody else; it's hard to say.) Basically, you can get at best a weak form of Starlight's overall ethic, and even that is heavily based on hoping that something that didn't show up in the timeline of the show does.
As for the season opener, it's true. Against what was presented as a decidedly lower bar to clear. It's indicative of possibility, but hardly of certainty.
Again, with the AUs, I agree. It turns out that she was right-ish. But the fact that that is the case seems to clash with the moral, so I'm not confident that was what they were going for. But taking the attitude that "eh, something will work out to prevent these devastating catastrophes" is a deeply irresponsible and monstrous line of thought. Which, incidentally, is why over time (and particularly where the season three opener was concerned, and kind of with bringing back Discord) I've disliked the way Celestia seems to have handled things. Also Fluttershy and Twilight, who have both on at least one occasion come out in favor of or actually implemented preemptive unilateral disarmament in the face of a current or former foe capable of causing immense harm (see Discord, Tirek, Chrysalis, and possibly more).
I guess one unrelated thing to take away is that it's pretty clear that Equestria can work fine in a world of eternal night. Actually, out of all of them, that might have been the one with the least positive indication of things being really bad.
It could very well be that Nightmare Moon would be a benevolent dictator. I mean her whole point of angst was that no pony gave the night enough credit, so she might be perfectly happy to let most of Equestria go on about their business so long as they gave her lip service and followed her whims.
3574530
I'm not sore about how Starlight's face turn was handled because it was still less abrupt than Twilight's ascension or Sunset's face turn.
I'm in a weird place where this finale is going to interesting places that I wanted this show to go pretty much from the beginning, after I kind of stopped wanting it so badly. It's a good episode, and this has been, I think, the second-best season of the show, but still.
3574559
Alternatively, don't have her stop thinking it's a trick until Twilight convinces her to try making friends. I could have sworn that's how it actually went down, but my memory might not be the best.
3575026
You're right; her initial motives for villainy are shakier than her coming back around. Now I want to see a full-fledged fic in the style of My Full-Sized Goddess Horse showing us how Starlight and Sunburst's falling out really went down.
I really, really liked the first three-quarters or so, but that ending....ehhhhhhh.
I mean...I don't hate it, not as much as I did at first anyway. I feel like all of the elements of a really good ending were THERE, but they just didn't pull together quite right. Take the wasteland scene, for instance. That is a REALLY powerful moment, thematically; SG seeing up close and personal what her petty quest of revenge has done, all the innocent ponies she's hurt because she couldn't let go of her past bitterness. Just her, all alone in the wasteland she made with Twilight - the pony who has everything she never got.
THAT should have been where she broke down. THAT is where she should have finally hit rock bottom and seen the error of her ways. THAT is where Twilight should have come in with the breakdown speech ("Will this really make you happy? Do you want to leave the world like this forever?") If that scene was her redemption point I would have bought it hook, line, and sinker and called it the best finale MLP's ever had, no contest. But they just had Starlight dismiss it and shoehorned in the backstory afterwards instead; and, as other people have pointed out, it's jarring when she's ready to burn equestria one second and is in tears the next, all because of a Twilight plea that wasn't really all that different from the other ones. If you just switch the backstory and the wasteland scenes, SG's turnaround is suddenly a lot more believable.
Speaking of the backstory, I feel like it could have worked; a single broken friendship having a profound effect on someone's life fits well with the episode's message. I just wish they'd spent a bit more time actually breaking the friendship. Sunburst left, yes, but what about letters? Visits? There isn't really a valid explanation as to why they lost touch. There are any number of ways they could have shown it as a really bad break; he turned into a bully, his friends and teachers told him to not bother with her, he just didn't have time for her with all his studies. But they just kind of leave it unexplained. It's a serious plot hole, and at the worst possible moment, because, for me anyway, it undercuts the emotion and sympathy of the scene with thoughts of "Well then SEND HIM A LETTER, you moron!" It just leaves her looking petulant, clingy and kind of unhinged. Put just a couple more seconds into it (maybe trim that nonsense with the timberwolves) and it would have been a lot more effective.
That's what really frustrates me about this; they had the buildup, they had the right pieces, it was all RIGHT THERE in front of them, but they fumbled it in execution.
That's how I feel about it anyway, there are a lot of people that it clicked perfectly for. But it just didn't work for me.
3581689
I have a feeling her modus operandi would be big on "You obey me without question!" and maybe frequent festivals in her honor. Lots of adulation and so forth, with a side order of control.
3582740
I really believe that the wasteland scene cracked her resolve, but she beat it back because she was still running on anger fumes. She could deny it outright because she hated Twilight that much, but lacked the strength to withstand more and more pleading being heaped on her.