What's In MLP?: My Full, Uncut Thoughts on Season 5 Episode 25 · 4:05am Nov 29th, 2015
It's been five years since My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic aired on television. Before then, nobody could have confidently predicted that the show would draw in so many people to culminate in one large fandom that spans across the globe in millions. But what has the show done in order to attract so much attention? Clearly something was done to hook us all into this wild ride of ponies. Many would say it was the charming aspect of friendship that brought them in while others say they're in it for the comedy or normalcy of it's take on the slice of life. However it's quite clear that not all episodes are created equally and each has contributed to the show in their own unique way, but as of a result, an episode can't appeal to all. This reason is why I want to take a look at one and digest it all before determining what's great and/or wrong about it and explain my thoughts of the episode to you all.
Today, we're going to be taking a look at the second to latest episode of FiM Season 5: The Cutie Re-Mark Part 1, and I must warn if that this blog post IS going to contain major spoilers to the finale of Season 5. If you haven't already watched the episode, go do that and come back here later to read what I've thought about it.
The screenshots of this episode are taken from the uploaded video of MylittleBronieDE, so if want to watch the episode now, click here. With that out of the way, shall we begin?
The episode opens up on Twilight Sparkle standing behind a lit up podium, appearing to be giving an inspiring speech to a silent crowd listening to her every word. However there's a pause as Twilight seems to have forgotten what to say next so she finds the next card to read off of. After finishing off the last words, it's revealed that she was actually reciting it to Spike for practice and has done so for twelve time, which in indeed one more than eleven times.
He notes this fact and assumes she's nervous about giving a speech to an audience of Celestia's School of Gifted Unicorns, but Twilight affirms that she doesn't have the stomach butterflies and actually wants to be top notch in order to set herself as a good example to the future magical graduates of the school. Clearly it's been shown here that Twilight still considers herself to be flawed but won't stop in order to improve herself. That aspect of her character hasn't changed one bit, implicating she still has a way to grow. I feel this is a good indicator that there are still areas of Twilight the writers have yet to cover and that these will be covered in future episodes.
Speaking of writers, I'd like to point out that this episode has been written by Josh Haber who is known for his work on the Equestria Girls: Friendship Games movie and the MLP Episodes Bloom & Gloom, Leap of Faith, Simple Ways, and Castle Mane-ia. Each of these mentioned episodes and the movie are well received by the majority so it's a good indicator that this finale won't disappoint, but let's try not to get too far ahead. There's still a lot to cover.
After the opening credits of the show, the full context of the Twilight's speech is shown to be about the magic of friendship and its relation to cutie marks which acts as a foreshadow to the theme of the two episodes. During the speech, something amiss comes across Twilight as she seems to have noticed a past adversary among the audience, but after a second check the signs were no longer present. Due to her present circumstances, she continues the speech to avoid causing confusion to the rest of the ponies in the room.
Back home in Ponyville, Twilight lay bare her concerns to Spike, worried what Starlight Glimmer's plans might be. Spike speculates she might mean to cause trouble for revenge, placing an unsettling tone within Twilight's soul. However she reassures herself that as long as her friends are there for her, nothing can go wrong. Unfortunately she's proven wrong as the season's big time villain makes her first major appearance in the finale inside Twilight's very own home.
Sitting upon Fluttershy's seat, which is a clever allusion to the Butterfly Effect, Starlight Glimmer taunts Twilight before using a spell scroll on the Friendship Table to enact her huge plan. Immense magical rings rise up from the rims of the table, servicing as some sort of energy feeding into a portal forming above it as well as a shield against Twilight's magic. Starlight crushes the spell scroll and utters a victorious laugh before making her ascension upward into the time portal she conjured, holding a hoof up high. The large amount of smug confidence behind Starlight indicates just how long she must have been planning for this one key moment, and after executing it pretty damn well there's no doubt that Starlight was feeling very successful. This scene is pretty much the payoff from all the secret Starlight cameos appearing throughout Season 5 since her initial defeat in the first couple episodes of her debut, and more or less she's not done yet.
Twilight and Spike soon follow after he touches the crumpled scroll which results with both of them being sucked into the portal against their will. They find themselves in the past back to the moment when Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy have yet to receive their cutie marks. After noticing this, Spike makes a longish remark referring to what I've just mentioned, only it was more "structured" for people who didn't remember the Sonic Rainboom episode. Spike's line of dialogue may come off as a little peculiar to those who already know what's going on, but it's also a reminder that this show is accommodating for younger generations as well. However this moment gets balanced by other bits that are great and subtle references done well such as Spike dropping through the cloud layer due to not having a Cloud Walking spell on him and Spike pulling back Twilight from saving a fallen Fluttershy, knowing that Twilight would have drastically altered the timeline if she did. Once again a good hint of the Butterfly Effect, which will mark its constant presence in the finale episodes as an obstacle and challenge to our two protagonists.
During the approach of Rainbow Dash victory in the race, the plan of Starlight Glimmer become to unfold as she rises from the cloud that served as her hiding spot before striking, which I find it to be an implication to the way she operates from the shadows. As you may have remember from what I've noted earlier, we've seen many examples of this happening from her short, hidden cameos throughout Season 5. It has also occurred to me that this was her way of doing things as well since her first debut. After all, nobody would notice a small little village in the middle of nowhere. But apologies, I digress.
Once Rainbow Dash loses the race to the bully pegasus, a montage of the rest of the Mane 6 Fillies are shown in what should have been their key moments but instead are met with monotony. The tone of disturbance really settles in as we see each of their disappointment, including Filly Twilight Sparkle at the moment she couldn't access her true potential of magical power. After that, the consequences of Starlight's actions begin to unveil themselves after tossing Twilight and Spike through the portal and the Butterfly Effect finally shows itself.
In this alternate future, Twilight and Spike discover that the Friendship Castle is no longer present, the Friendship Map has changed, and they soon find a disheveled Ponyville surrounding them. Despite finding abandoned building after building, Twilight still holds onto hope that they could still find their friends and goes to the one place she believes has stayed the same. However this is not the case and we find the farm has hybridized into a factory while Applejack acquired a war camo outfit.
Twilight drags Applejack towards the Friendship Table and gives her the explanation behind why she believes they're friends. While most characters wouldn't believe in Twilight's word in this situation, Applejack still works as the right character for Twilight to interact with since she was destined to be the Avatar of Honesty. Even if that destiny wasn't fulfilled in this alternate timeline, it's interesting how Applejack seems to trust Twilight's honesty with composure.
So here when Twilight and Spike return to the past, they get caught seconds later by Starlight and are continued to be mocked at by her, and soon the motives behind Starlight are finally revealed. Starlight is still pretty angry that her dystopian society fell apart fro the actions of Twilight. Now the motives are very expected as many would believe since Twilight and her friends took away her safe place: Our Town. After all, Spike alluded to the revenge plot earlier. After that, Starlight taps their crystal prison and allows them to fall to their doom and we get a bird's eye angle on their descent, showing how far their disparity will go. However Twilight fights on and frees herself and Spike, showing us that she's not ready to quit. She then saves Spike and moves upward to track down Starlight. This next part we get to is very important and I want you to keep that in mind as I explain.
Twilight once again nails down Starlight's location, only to find her actually settling down a conflict between Fluttershy and the bullies. Now in this scene, Twilight assumes that the Starlight is only doing it in order to prevent the Rainboom wouldn't happen as Fluttershy wouldn't be bullied. However there's one thing during Starlight's speech that struck me as odd as she sort of emphasizes on the teasing part. It's as if she was really talking from experience. I mean yeah sure she emphasizes on equality too, but the talk about teasing leads me to believe that despite Starlight being a powerful unicorn in the present, there was moment when she was at her weakest during her life and she was sorted out by her peers as the odd one for that. Keep that in mind for later as this part foreshadows something deeper within Starlight's psyche.
Anyway after Twilight finishes that confrontation, she soon pursuits Rainbow Dash in order to push the Rainboom event to happen. Here we can see that Twilight is getting incredibly more desperate and even the speed lines flying past the two fliers show how intense the situation is getting. However Filly Rainbow Dash reveals her doubts in performing such an act, which tells us as the audience that most of the confidence we see in Adult Rainbow Dash originates from the moment she actually made the Rainboom. I think that was a pretty good move on the writers for showing just how far Rainbow Dash grew as a character even as a filly.
Overall this episode was pretty great as a first parter in the finale. It starts and sets up the foundation of challenges Twilight will have to face pretty well and we get to know more about Starlight pretty well as a character. Her sassy side is also really great. The use of the Butterfly Effect was pretty great as well and its foreshadowing I found to be extremely clever. Weirdly ironic how the plot of this episode seem to have started and ended with Fluttershy. Next time on this analysis of What's In MLP, we'll get to see if Twilight and Spike get impaled by a blood thirsty Fluttershy.
I would also like to say that while not as great or completely analytic, this blog post series is inspired by Geoff Thew's What's In An OP video series where he analysis many anime OPs down to the minuscule details. If you enjoyed reading this episode analysis and enjoy anime, you'll definitely love Geoff Thew's work. I highly suggest checking out his Youtube channel: Mother's Basement, as well as watching these two videos where he covers the four OPs of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
Be Warned That These, Like This Blog Post, Are Spoilery.
Hmm...
If you shortened the recap in the intro paragraph, it might've had a stronger impact, and I think you meant "others".
The music that you included wasn't as good as the music I was already listening to, and having a youtube embed instead of a link wastes space and makes the page load a bit more slowly.
Now, reading the actual review part, you seem to be making the same mistake a lot of new reviewers make, which is repeating the episode. I just watched the episode, so I really don't need a recap. Maybe if the paragraph contained much more of your opinion/analysis than recapping, then it'd be good.
For example, most of the first two paragraphs of your review could've been rewritten into two sentences:
It doesn't need to be in that voice though.
As for the rest of your review...
Well, I skipped it. It's several pages of the episode in written form, told in a much less captivating way. The grammar is good, the points seem pretty good from what I've read, and the use of pictures is nice, but I've still read more captivating textbooks.
3577095 Thank you. I'll keep those notes in mind. However I did title this as "uncut" and naturally I did what I promised. Next time I'll go at it from a shorter, different approach but the goal more or less is trying to analyse the episodes, spy whatever symbolism I can find, and point out both the good and bad of the episode. Pretty much this sort of style actually does need some recapping so I can tell what my interpretation is of the meaning behind significant parts of the episode. I'm not actually reviewing with this blog series.
Yes, yes, I know. What I've just said is pretty much what reviewing sounds like... but I'm not.
However I'll admit that I wasn't very good at actually telling you guys my interpretations of these significant moments. Of course it'll take more time to analyze if I choose to dedicate more time to each post.
3577199
You're welcome.
Huh. It seemed like it was a review. Oh well.
Anyway, I reassured myself of my opinion when I thought of the popular youtube reviewers, but I might've forgot about doctor wolf, since he takes a different, slower approach. Still, I don't think he talked about what happened in the episode as much either.
Then again, I suppose rewriting the episode is a more fun to write but not fun to read thing, since I've done it before... maybe you could separate the sections and still write whatever you want?
3577246
Mmmh yes I think I should do that. Sounds perfect actually. This should make recapping the episode a whole lot shorter while I can still pick and choose moments in the episode that I want to analyze the significance behind.
This- This right here. This is what I'd expect from one of those high-and-mighty analysis types over on Youtube.
I've got conflicted feelings on the episode, so here's hoping the conclusion part can help me sort them out.
3577434 Haha dunno if that's a compliment or an insult, but I'll take what I can get. Although I know that my format is a little messy and while it may be okay for a video script, it ain't for a blog post. In the next one I'm planning on separating the episode recapping from my actual analysis of certain moments in each episode.
3577095 Just outta curiosity, how far did you listen into the intro song? Cause the first minute and a half is a quiet buildup to the main part of the song.
3579345
I don't know... maybe a minute? That is one long intro. I also skipped through different parts of the song though.
I think the voice samples could use a bit of remastering, but mostly it's just not the genre that I want to listen to right now. Also, it's annoying to read text while having to ignore the lyrics from the song.
3577327
Glad I could help.
3579479 You got a point about lyrics. I'll go for music next time instead of songs.
3579342
It's kinda both, honestly.
But seriously, you're the first person I've seen put pen to paper this coherently, so to speak.
3579665 Well thanks, m8. But there's also other Fimfic-ers out there who do episode analysis as well such as Harmony Charamer and Insert Author Here. You should check them out as well.