SPOILERS? Mariusioannesp Reviews: "The Cutie Re-Mark Parts 1 and 2" · 8:14am Nov 30th, 2015
Just so you know, there are SPOILERS here for “The Cutie Re-Mark.” Probably doesn’t matter that much since it’s a day late.
Now, without further adoobly-do, here is my review of “The Cutie Re-Mark.”
Starlight Glimmer is back with a vengeance! That’s right! In this season’s finale, Starlight has altered Star Swirl’s time spell to hijack the cutie map to go back in time and alter the one moment that led to Twilight Sparkle and her friends getting their cutie marks. Doing so changes the very fate of Equestria for the worse in a number of different ways. Twilight does everything she can, but Starlight is far too powerful, even for her. There’s only one way Twilight can stop her. Will Twilight be able to convince Starlight to give friendship another chance.
So, what’s the verdict?
Honestly, I don’t know what to think about this episode. I mean, don’t get me wrong. It has a lot of awesome elements and a number of interesting concepts. That is until the ending. The ending isn’t bad per say; it was just what you’d expect. There are no surprises or major game changers here.
I and possibly many of us were hoping for a finale as awesome as “Twilight’s Kingdom” last season. “The Cutie Re-Mark” in no way comes close to that. This is kind of like “The Crystal Empire” of finales. (Rather ironic isn’t it?) It had the potential to be really awesome, but that potential goes untapped.
The most surprising thing is that despite all the epic stuff it contains, this was quite a low-key finale. However, being low-key doesn’t mean it was a bad finale.
So yeah, I liked it. I didn’t like a lot, but I still liked it. It’s got that going for it.
We begin with Twilight Sparkle preparing for a lecture she’s been asked to give at her alma mater Celestia’s School of Magic. Wasn’t it Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns? Whatever. Anyway, Twilight wants it to be perfect so she’s going over it with Spike over and over and over again.
So, Twilight gives her lecture on Cutie Mark Magic. She even brings up the Cutie Mark Crusaders and their simultaneous acquisition of nearly identical cutie marks. 
The effects of which still need to be determined according to Twilight. 
Hey, look who’s here! It’s Moon Dancer! It’s not that surprising she’s here. I still get invites to attend lectures at my Alma Mater Fordham.
Spike messes up with the slide after accidentally falling asleep.
Oh the sky will be blue, and you guys will be there too
When I finally do what dragon things do in summer!
And even when he gets it right, it’s still upside down.
Wait, that’s the photo they ended last season with! 
Moving right along, Twilight discusses her own connection through getting their cutie marks as a result of the same event. Long ago, it was Rainbow Dash’s sonic rainboom during a race to defend Fluttershy’s honor that led to Fluttershy realizing her love of animals, Applejack realizing she needed to return home, Pinkie Pie realizing she needed to leave hers, Rarity discovering her sense of fabulousness, and Twilight herself getting into Celestia’s School and becoming her pupil. But we all know that having seen “The Cutie Mark Chronicles” way back in Season 1. She can’t to begin to imagine what her life would be like if that hadn’t happened.
Just as Twilight is saying that, she notices something or rather somepony in the crowd.
Starlight Glimmer!
But then like that, she’s gone.
Later, once Twilight and Spike arrive in Ponyville, Twilight shares with Spike how she thought she saw Starlight Glimmer in the crowd at the lecture. Spike suspects that Starlight is out for revenge but then assures Twilight that it’s probably nothing. They return to the castle where Twilight is sure that no matter what happens with her friends by her side everything will be alright.
That’s when they see her, chillin’ like Chilli Palmer.
Starlight Glimmer!
Yes, it’s Starlight Gilmmer. She quickly unleashes the magic within a scroll in her possession that hijacks the Cutie Map and opens some kind of temporal vortex.
Starlight flies up into the vortex. Yes, Starlight Glimmer, despite having no wings, can fly by use of her magic. Spike grabs the discarded scroll and suddenly he and Twilight are sucked into another vortex.
Next thing Twilight and Spike know, they’re at flight camp and a blank flank filly Rainbow Dash is flying past them. They’ve gone back in time! But that’s impossible. The only time-travel spell they know of, Star Swirl the Bearded’s one from “It’s About Time,” could only take somepony back a week and only for a few minutes. Checking the scroll, they realize that Starlight has altered that very spell. Here’s the thing though, in Amy Keating Roger’s book The Journal of the Two Sisters, Star Swirl the Bearded already has a spell for traveling through any point in time. Could Starlight just not find that spell or something? Anyway, Spike and Twilight find that they’ve gone back to the day of the race where Rainbow Dash did the sonic rainboom that led to the Mane 6 getting their cutie marks. They go off to see Rainbow do that very rainboom. We then get some reused footage from “The Cutie Mark Chronicles.” 
That is until, during the race, Starlight Glimmer rears her ugly head… Literally.
Starlight uses her magic to stop Rainbow just as she’s about to break the rainboom barrier. No sonic rainboom. Fluttershy doesn’t commune with the animals. Applejack doesn’t realize she needs to go home. Pinkie Pie doesn’t have a reason to smile. Rarity doesn’t find the gems inside the rock. Twilight doesn’t pass her entrance exam for Celestia’s School. Starlight Glimmer has just torpedoed the Mane 6’s destinies! That can’t be good. Another vortex opens and sucks Twilight and Spike away. They are returned to the Cutie Map in what appears to be the present except the castle is no longer there. The map no longer makes sense either; the Crystal Empire now takes up half of it. Twilight realizes she’s going to need her friends’ help if she’s going to take on Starlight Glimmer. She and Spike head into Ponyville, but everything is different. Most of the buildings, like the Carousel Boutique, are boarded up. Sugarcube Corner appears to be solely a bread shop. 
They go to the place Twilight thinks could never change, Sweet Apple Acres. However, that is also changed. It’s a factory farm… Literally. 
When Applejack comes out, Twilight tries to find out from her what happened to the rest of their friends. However, this Applejack doesn’t know any of the ponies Twilight mentioned nor does she know her! Well, she does recognize Rarity’s name, but she moved to Manehattan to help in the war effort against King Sombra and the Crystal Empire. Hold on, what? Twilight tries to explain to Applejack how they’re all supposed to be friends, but she’s not buying it though. Twilight though can prove it by showing Applejack the Cutie Map.
Well, it’s not quite a Cutie Map anymore. It has become a PARADOX MACHINE!
Twilight explains how Starlight Glimmer changed the past and caused all this to happen. Applejack then explains to them how the current present came to be. When the Crystal Empire came back, King Sombra returned with it.
King Sombra has returned! But does he say anything?
Nope.
Sombra forced his Crystal pony slaves to fight against Equestria. 
They’re in all out war with each other but they don’t even have any weapons.
There’s Rainbow Dash! She’s got a nicked ear and a metal wing! She has a freaking prosthetic!
And Pinkie Pie and Maud Pie are part of some Earth Pony Earthbending Earth Corp!
Even with Princess Celestia leading the charge, it takes every pony working day and night to keep up the war effort.
Fluttershy is shearing sheep for their wool.
And to your left is a naked sheep.
Rarity is sewing that wool into uniforms.
Twilight vows to set things right. She’ll use Starlight’s spell to go back a little earlier than before and stop her before she realizes Twilight’s there. They go back, but before they can do anything, Starlight traps them in some kind of crystal. Turns out, Starlight designed the spell so that she will always there when Twilight uses it. Starlight starts monologuing about how she left the scroll behind so Twilight could watch her destroy the one event that links all her friends together. It’s the perfect revenge for Twilight taking away Starlight’s village of ponies with all the same cutie marks. Eye for an eye; tooth for a tooth; cutie mark for a cutie mark. Starlight tosses Twilight and Spike in their crystalline prison off the cloud. Twilight and Spike are able to escape, and look around trying to spot Starlight. Spike spots Starlight stopping the race from even happening by talking the bullies out of teasing Fluttershy, telling them how great it would be if they lived in a world where everypony was equal.
Twilight is not one to give up though. She tries to convince filly Rainbow to race her or at least try to do a sonic rainboom. Filly Rainbow doesn’t even believe a sonic rainboom is possible. She’s also the only filly who actually notices that Twilight is an alicorn.
Okay…
It would behoove you to take the Nostalgia Critic’s advice there Twilight.
Well after that failure, Twilight and Spike are sucked through another vortex to the present but this time end up in the middle of the Everfree Forest. There, they encounter a feral group of ponies, including Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, who accuse them of being Queen Chrysalis’ Changelings. Fluttershy even says they have to be destroyed. Destroyed?! That’s pretty harsh. What happened to you in this world, Fluttershy?! Twilight tries insisting that she and Spike aren’t Changelings.
That’s when Zecora shows up.
Wait, Zecora! We’ve barely seen her this whole season. It seems she’s the leader of this ragtag group of ponies. She rubs Twilight and Spike with a salve to prove they aren’t Changelings; it’s apparently the same goop all these ponies are covered with. Not only does it prove they’re not Changelings, but from the unearthly glow that surrounds them, Zecora can see that they’re all living in an altered timeline. Twilight explains to Zecora what’s been happening as they walk to their camp, but she wonders how changing that one moment in the past differently caused things to be so different. Zecora explains how time is like a river where even the tiniest changes can cause a whole cascade of events downstream. They arrive at Zecora’s camp, but all of a sudden Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity rush into the camp claiming Ponyville has been attacked by Changelings. Zecora sees right through this though for Applejack is not really Applejack.
It’s Queen Chrysalis! Chrysalis is back! And not only that, she has an army of Changelings with her.
Zecora sends Twilight away to the map. Twilight and Spike rush back to the map with Changelings on their tail. Once they get there, they are transported once more to the past. There, Twilight once again tries her best to get the upper hand on Starlight. Their battle becomes so intense though that it draws the attention of filly Rainbow Dash and the bullies, and they actually stop to watch Twilight and Starlight’s battle. A vortex opens up once more and Twilight and Spike are transported to another alternate present. Spike notes that oddly enough it’s now night despite the fact that two previous times they’ve returned to a present it was day. They get chased by chased by timberwolves and take refuge in the Castle of the Two Sisters. However, it’s a lot more put together than they remember.
They find Rarity there changing the tapestries.
Unsurprisingly she doesn’t know them. Twilight tries explaining to her what’s going on, but her talk of time travel piques the interest of somepony in the shadows.
It’s Nightmare Moon! Nightmare Moon is back!
Nightmare Moon rules over this present after having banished Celestia to the moon.
Look Bat ponies! We haven’t seen those in quite some time. And they’re quite a bit more colorful than the last Bat ponies we saw. Perhaps this means Bat ponies are more colorful than we’ve previously thought.
And Rainbow Dash is one of them now. Wait, how does that even work? Well, she’s not exactly a Bat pony; she just has bat wings. But how?
Anyway, Nightmare Moon wants Twilight to tell her about this time travel magic. Twilight has no other choice than to take Nightmare Moon to the Cutie Map. As added insurance, Nightmare Moon also chains up Spike. 
Twilight takes Nightmare Moon to the Cutie Map, but Twilight then suddenly teleports Spike and herself onto the map and open another vortex to the past. Twilight tries again to stop Starlight, but Starlight is still able to trip Rainbow during the race. Twilight and Spike are then transported to a present where Tirek reigns supreme!
Yay, it’s Tirek again! Even if it was so brief.
Twilight and Spike return to the past where Twilight unsuccessfully stops Starlight because she accidentally traps filly Rainbow in a crystal thingy. 
Congratulations Twilight. You just earned a slow clap.
Twilight and Spike are then transported to a present where Discord reigns supreme! 
He’s even got his own Discord cane! And look there’s Screwball.
Anyone else miss the “Discord” song? It’s just not the same now that Discord is reformed.
Twilight and Spike return to the past where they find Starlight helping Fluttershy through the obstacle course, once again making the race completely unnecessary. Twilight and Spike are subsequently transported to a present where the Flim Flam Brothers are cutting down all the trees.
Um, excuse me, I have a question.
Twilight and Spike return to the past to face Starlight once more. Twilight admits to Starlight that she can’t beat her, but she can’t stop her from trying. Starlight thinks it’s worth it as long as she can keep Twilight and her friends from getting their cutie mark connection. Twilight tries to explain to Starlight that she’s changing more than just cutie marks. The littlest change made in the past can snowball into an avalanche of trouble in the future. The fate of Equestria literally hangs in the balance, but Starlight doesn’t believe her. Starlight zaps Rainbow out of the race. This time when the vortex opens again, Twilight grabs Starlight so she can see the future she has wrought. Twilight, Spike, and Starlight are transported to a present that is a great formless wasteland. 
Starlight doesn’t believe it. How can the fate of Equestria rest so much on one group of friends? She actually tears up a little seeing this formless waste. That’s the moment I knew they were going to reform her. Anyway, Twilight brought Starlight with them in hopes of changing her mind. Starlight though just loses it! Twilight doesn’t know anything about her! Starlight was happy until Twilight and her friends put an end to her equal cutie mark village. Twilight doesn’t understand what happened to Starlight to make her start a town free from cutie marks, but she’s still sorry it had to be done. Starlight then decides to show Twilight why it is she thinks that way. She uses the spell to once more take them to the past, but instead they go to Starlight’s own past. There, they observe a filly Starlight Glimmer playing with her best friend Sunburst. 
Interestingly enough, Sunburst is the name of G1 pony toy, one of the few male ones. 
It even has an ever so vague resemblance to the young pony we saw in today’s episode. Anywho, it turns out that Sunburst got his cutie mark in what appears to be magic before Starlight did. Because of his special talent, he was sent to off to Canterlot, and Starlight never saw him again. Starlight never made any new friends either, too afraid their cutie mark would take them away from her too. Starlight takes them back to the day of the sonic rainboom and threatens to destroy the spell. That way once Starlight stops the rainboom, Twilight can’t come back to try to stop her. Twilight tries to convince Starlight not to go through with it. She’s seen what the future holds, but Starlight still doesn’t believe her. She can’t believe how one group of friends who are so different can be so important to the fate of Equestria. But for Twilight, it’s precisely those differences that makes their friendship strong enough to take on anything. Starlight always though she and Sunburst were the same but their difference drove them apart. Twilight insists that Starlight just has to try friendship again, and when something they can’t control happens, they have to work through it together. That is what friendship is! And it’s a lesson I can stand behind. And it’s not just Twilight’s friendships that are important. Everyone’s are. Starlight’s friendship with Sunburst ending is what led them here in the first place. It’s just up to Starlight to prevent any of her future friendships from coming to an end. Rainbow does the sonic rainboom just as it was supposed to happen, and Twilight, Spike, and Starlight are sucked back up into another vortex.
They finally arrive in the present that we are all familiar with back with the Cutie Map inside the Castle of Friendship. Yeah, Spike just name drops the name of the castle. Pretty low key how we found out what’s it’s technically called. The same kind of low key way we found out why the Twelfth Doctor has the face he has in “The Girl Who Died” a few weeks ago. Anyway, the scroll gets sucked up another vortex on its own that explodes with a bright flash of light into the sky. This attracts the rest of Twilight’s friends to the castle to see what’s going on, and we see they’re all back to normal as well. They’re wondering though what Starlight Glimmer is doing there. Later on, Starlight is waiting outside the throne room as the Mane 6 deliberate what is to become of her. Twilight has explained to them everything that happened and suggests that since friendship connects all of Equestria, undoing just one group of friends weakened its magic overall. Starlight Glimmer has proven herself to be particularly magically powerful. Twilight couldn’t even defeat her with her magic; she had to convince her to stop on her own. Because of that, they just can’t send her away, but Twilight has something in mind. They call Starlight before them, and Twilight decides that they will be teaching Starlight everything they know about friendship.
That’s when Starlight Glimmer starts to sing. Yep, this season is ending exactly as last season ended, in song. It’s a little song called “Friends Are Always There For You.” Unfortunately, it’s not particularly memorable. There’s also a montage of Starlight Glimmer hanging out with each of the Mane 6.
We even see her reconcile with the ponies of “Our Town” from the season premiere, bringing the entire season full circle. And that is pretty much how this season comes to an end. Where it began.
Let’s start my final thoughts by discussing Starlight Glimmer, who is obviously a very big part of this episode. In my opinion, Starlight Glimmer was MLP’s second best villain so far. Her initial similarity to real-world totalitarian dictators made her stand out significantly among a rogues gallery of magical malefactors. And now she’s lost her villainous status through her reform. To be honest, her reform was not surprising. It seems to be MLP’s modus operandi to reform villains, particularly the most compelling ones. So, I’m not really that upset about it. Plus, it seemed to have been indicated by the fact that one of G.M. Berrow’s future books will deal with Starlight Glimmer as a student of Twilight Sparkle, though Berrow did try to brush it off. Starlight’s reform though wasn’t as badly executed as Discord’s in “Keep Calm and Flutter On” or Diamond Tiara’s in “Crusaders of the Lost Mark.” We got enough backstory for why she believes the things she does about cutie marks. Interestingly enough, Starlight’s situation strongly resembles that of Moon Dancer in “Amending Fences.” Not only that, losing friends over cutie marks was also one of Apple Bloom’s nightmares in “Bloom and Gloom.” Starlight’s history is tied intricately with this seasons themes concerning cutie marks and friendship.
Also, Starlight’s arc of development vaguely resembles that of Equestria Girls’ Sunset Shimmer.
I don’t know how I feel about that. This makes me think Starlight Glimmer exists because, despite MLP’s Makers’ vague answers to the topic, we may never actually see Sunset Shimmer crossover onto MLP proper.
In the end though, Starlight Glimmer started off as Amon and then became Zaheer. She can even fly like Zaheer can! I just can’t help thinking of Avatar: The Legend of Korra when I think of Starlight Glimmer.
Others may criticize that Starlight Glimmer was forgiven too quickly for her misdeeds. MLP does have a habit of too easily forgiving its characters’ misdeeds. That’s never bothered me though. I’ve always seen it as an exercise in the ideals of Christian forgiveness. (But of course, emphasizing mercy over justice is itself injustice.)
That’s what happens when you mess with time! You get beat up by fourth-dimensional testicle monsters. Seriously, if you’re not watching Rick and Morty, go watch it now! You got to do something during MLP’s hiatus.
One question I have about this episode is why is this called “The Cutie Re-Mark”? What Cutie Marks were Re-Marked? None. Whenever we see one of the Mane 6’s cutie marks in an alternate timeline, they have the same cutie mark. I get the sense that when they came up with the idea for this episode, they had something more ambitious in mind. Perhaps each timeline would feature the Mane 6 with a completely different set of cutie marks. I understand why they didn’t do that. If it were up to me to do it, I would probably spend many a sleepless night obsessively and compulsively agonizing over it, trying to get it perfect and logical. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. But perhaps this does have the effect, whether unintended or not, of suggesting that one’s destiny is unchangeable. Even changing the events of one’s life doesn’t change one’s destiny. That’s an interesting philosophical point. Despite all of that though, the title’s lack of connection with what happens in the episode is probably this episode’s biggest flaw.
I must say though that many of these alternate timelines were interesting. Derpibooru already has names for them: Crystal War Timeline, Chrysalis Resistance Timeline, Nightmare Takeover Timeline, Tirek’s Timeline, Chaotic Timeline, Flim Flam Industry Timeline, and Ashlands Timeline. Some of these, like the Crystal War Timeline and the Nightmare Takeover Timeline, are more interesting than the others. I look forward to the fandom potentially expanding on any of these timelines, possibly explaining how they came to be and such.
As a finale, “The Cutie Re-Mark” probably ranks at just about almost equal with “A Canterlot Wedding” in my list of best finales. And that’s right below “Twilight’s Kingdom” for me.
Overall, “The Cutie Re-Mark” was a middle of the way finale that brought the season to an end not so much with a bang but a series of pops. All things considered, it’s probably the best way the season could end given how many exciting developments took place during the season from “Slice of Life,” the CMC getting their cutie marks, and Shining Armor and Cadance having a foal.
What did you all think of “The Cutie Re-Mark”?
Too many ponies! Too many ponies...
Well, here we are at the end of another season and the end of another season’s worth of mostly-live episode reviews. Just as I did for last season, I will do a retrospective on this season most likely later this week. I’ll also be looking back at some of the predictions I made after last season and see how well they held up as well as make new predictions for next season. As for future blogs, I might still do one once in a while during the hiatus. Mostly, I’d like to dedicate myself to writing that fanfiction I’m still working on. I’d also like to spend some more time blogging on non-MLP topics on my other blog The Second Thing by MariusIoannesP. If you’re interested, please check that out. So far, I’ve written just about Once Upon A Time, and I plan on writing more on that soon like how I think Tangled will show up on OUAT. But there will be more like how I think Gravity Falls’ Blendin Blandin is a grown up Morty from Rick and Morty or how I think Rick from Rick and Morty started the Mushroom war on Adventure Time. Or pretty much anything else! The you can’t possibly imagine what I’ll come up with! Anyway, I’d just like to say thank you so much for reading my inane ramblings about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. I hope we can continue this journey for the seasons and movies to come.
God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.
As you already know from my own review, I felt MUCH more positively about this finale than you.
For me, the surprise was Twilight taking Starlight under her wing. I, along with DrWolf, saw this as potentially adding Starlight to the main cast. If this is true, I think that would count as a game changer. But, even if that isn't the case, not every finale needs to to be a game changer in order to be great. In fact, most of the finales aren't games changers that much. The finales for Seasons 3 and 4 were. Seasons 1's finale was almost like another average episode. Season 2 introduced Shining Armor and Cadance but nothing really big shook up the show's status quo.
For me, this finale wasn't low-key and all because of all the epic stuff it had going on. If anything, I think a better description would be a personal finale. This was very much a personal pair of episodes for Twilight, Starlight, and even Spike with the other characters along for the ride.
I suppose that's a fitting comparison.
Yeah...I was thinking the same thing during that scene.
Right?! But at least each of her appearances this season have been awesome.
Personally, I wouldn't consider the Twelfth Doctor remembering where he got his face as low-key as it was treated as a fairly big reveal and given a fair amount of attention. This is different from Spike naming the castle as it was just in passing.
Hey! We both mentioned The Legend of Korra in our reviews!
...Sorry about that spoiler BTW.
As you already know, I am. It's been a very interesting experience. One episode I can feel total sympathy for a character and the next I might want to slap that same character with a frying pan.
I think the title could be a play on "replay" or "redo", as in we're seeing a replay of the Mane 6 getting their cutie marks.
As you can probably tell, I found it to be quite a bang. And, as of now, I do consider it to be my favorite finale. I'm a sucker for a good, zany time travel/alternate timelines story. Granted, I could still be riding on my first impressions thoughts. I guess we'll see how I feel once I've given it a couple more watches and some time to think before I write by season overview.
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It didn’t really occur to me that the ending indicated that Starlight might be joining the main cast. I wasn’t too sure of the order of the events in the final song, but the moment when we see Starlight reconcile with the ponies of “Our Town” I figured that meant she would be returning to them. I don’t doubt though we will be seeing Starlight again next season.
At this point, it’s probably my own fault for not watching it by now.
Wubba lubba dub dub!
Yeah, I still don’t get it.
Nice review!