The Cutie (Re)Mark (Spoilers) · 12:45am Nov 29th, 2015
Wow it's been a while since I did one of these.
In what is likely to be a minority opinion, my reaction to the episode was distinctly 'meh.' It's not that it was a bad episode per se - there was a lot of good character moments and development bits for Twi, and it was fun to see the old villains. But...there was just too much that made me go bwuh.
I can buy Starlight Glimmer being more powerful than unicorn-Twilight-Sparkle. But not more powerful than alicorn-Twilight-Sparkle. Even so, Twilight is sufficiently naive that I could buy Starlight Glimmer locking them into a sort of Groundhog's-Day time loop thing that was literally impossible to get out of without the solution presented (i.e., convincing SG to call it off). But once inside it, I'd expect Twilight to be a little more...competent. That's probably the major thing I didn't like about Twilight's character this episode. She was less competent than she should have been.
Beyond that, okay, the Mane Six have saved Equestria multiple times. But surely without them the only other option is not complete failure. Were there no backups, no other heroes, other plans? Perhaps they won but with greater losses? I know that couldn't be shown in the context of the time loop but it still bugs me. Even Twilight seems boggled by it with her comment "I don't know why we're so important!"
Perhaps I shouldn't read too much into it. Time travel never makes sense, and Alt!Zecora remarked that the world itself was perhaps somewhat less than real. Perhaps the magic involved accentuated things beyond all reason in an "It's A Wonderful Life" style message. But you know, dammit, SG needs to do some atoning for her fuckups. I don't expect her to be imprisoned or exiled if she's willing to change, not in pony society, but she still needs to make amends. That could and should be part of her tutelage under Twilight but I'm still...not super happy with it.
What do you think about Starlight becoming part of the main cast?
3575883 I can't tell yet. As I said she has a lot of atoning to do. That can be used to make a strong character. Or they could completely gloss it over, in which case, it's...profoundly distasteful.
Agree 100% on all your points. I did like a lot of Twilight's expressions though—all in all, the animation has been really top notch this season.
…and I'd rather have Sunset Shimmer a part of the main cast than Starlight Glimmer, but really… apart from maybe occasional appearances, I think they both shouldn't be added to the show at all.
3575896 ohhh its time travel my idea was twilight was sent to a alternative universe where the sonic rainboom never happened so the ponies got diffrent or no cutie mark
3576017 The difference between the two is more or less academic. Divergent timelines, alternate universes...as I said time travel never makes sense, so it's probably best to not read too much into it.
I personally did not like the season 5 ending.
Twilight was a complete push-over, she should have been a stronger unicorn than SG from the get-go, and once ascended to alicorn hood? Her fight with Tirek was epic, her fight with SG wasn't nearly as awe-inspiring and even if she's somewhat depowered from it, she still should be able to wipe the floor with any other unicorn.
Then there's SG somehow getting access to a Starswirl spell, somehow modifying it, and then somehow making use of a seemingly eldritch greater artifact (The Harmony Table) to get the whole thing to work... I call Plot BULLSHIT! Let alone she shouldn't have had access to the spell or the table, or knowledge of how to do it at all...
Though, something to be said that she was able to screw around with cutie marks before, so I could see her having some sort of long lost Starswirl spellbook... seeing as another spell of his screwed up the mane 6's marks... That would explain why/how she was able to bottle them up... but still... OP SG much?
The entire cycle of histories was a bit backwards, and it would have been better if there was some rhyme or reason with the alternate histories, but that would take too long. The whole redemption thing though... I have serious problems with, and if SG becomes a more permanent member of the crew I will dislike it even further. She kept a town in a state of near slavery and forcefully indoctrinated anyone that came by. Granted, she also returned to said town during the montage, so with luck she'll stay there.
In every timeline save the Nightmare Moon one, the previous crises were presumably overcome without Twilight and the Elements, one way or another. So yes, I guess so.
3576053 okay plus how did you find it
I really wasn't a fan. SG was a pretty meh villain and making Twilight into a pushover is just lazy writing.
I'll pretend underpowered Twilight was the result of the casting of the time travel spell taking a lot of effort on her part. Starlight Glimmer got away with this on the first round thanks to surprise and every Twilight casting after that just put a strain on her magic and leveled the playing field for SG. SG's casting also had the full-powered map/table to use whereas Twilight got to use a more, uh, 'disconnected' one.
How much rationalizing does it take for it to be too much?
3576086 I came here to say that! (My mind to your mind...
) But the backup plan is obviously not as good as the plan A, and so somewhere along the line, in every timeline, the backup failed just once. Though I have no fricking idea what could have happened in that final one, that was scary.
3576405 I would assume the World of Dust would be the one where they all failed in succession. We have no idea just how powerful the crystal heart could be, and an all-out war between Sombra's empire and Nightmare Moon, followed by Chryalis usurping a weakened Equestria and accidentally releasing Discord in the process, followed by a confrontation between two powers that have no concept of collateral damage, with no sun (and possibly no moon)...