Spotlight Review On: The Cutie Re-Mark

Spoilers and spoilers and spoilers again and again and again.

Introduction
This is the season 5 finale for which we have all been waiting, and unusually, both M.A. Larson and Meghan McCarthy have turned the reigns over to Josh Haber for this one. Is the episode interesting? I believe it is. A number of interesting concepts and possible alternate presents are on full display through the episode. If I didn't think so, I wouldn't be about to use some of them in my own fimfic series (spoiler alert, by the way). But if you ask me whether I think it was well executed, I will give you another answer entirely, because I don't think it was. At all. It is my opinion that 'The Cutie Re-Mark' is the worst season finale we have yet to see. While season 5 has set the bar much higher than previous seasons in many ways, this episode could be one of the worst we have seen since 'Princess Spike.' To put my reasoning as concisely as possible, while the concepts presented were interesting, I do not believe Haber showed a good understanding of the two focus characters, Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle. In addition, I do not believe he used time travel well, and this story device is headache-inducing at the best of times. But it is past time to get this Spotlight Review underway.

Plot
We open with Twilight Sparkle practising, and then presenting a keynote speech at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, with Spike's help. Her subject is cutie mark magic, with the Crusaders' and the Mane6's own example up front for all to see. Her audience includes many mares her own age, including known classmates like Minuette and Moondancer, but also, surprisingly, Starlight Glimmer, who appears long enough to startle Twilight. Twilight decides to try to finish her presentation, and then on the flight back to Ponyville, she talks with Spike about seeing Starlight in the audience.

Starlight has taken the opportunity to get into Ponyville ahead of Twilight, and is lounging on Fluttershy's throne when the pair arrive at the Friendship Castle. Starlight taunts Twilight, then uses a scroll to activate a spell using the map. This opens a floating portal with a clear time-theme, and Starlight flies herself through it using telekinetic magic on herself. The portal closes, leaving Twilight and Spike to wonder what Starlight is plotting. Before Twilight can fully caution Spike against it, he picks up the crumpled scroll which Starlight has left behind for them. The time spell is triggered again, this time in Twilight's colours, and it sucks them in.

Twilight and Spike are deposited in Cloudsdale, and it is quickly established that they have arrived just before Rainbow Dash pulled off the Sonic Rainboom while defending Fluttershy's honour against the bullies (see also: 'The Cutie Mark Chronicles).' filly!Dash is about to do just that when Starlight pops up and zaps her with the holding spell she used to neutralize the Mane6 in 'The Cutie Map.' Starlight taunts Twilight, and the time spell sucks her and Spike back to the map, and according to Twilight, to the present. Twilight and Spike are the same, but everything else has been changed by the absence of the Mane6 as the Mane6.

This is a common theme throughout the episode: regardless of anyone else's efforts, without the connection established through the Sonic Rainboom some sort of disaster always seems to have befallen Equestria: war with Sombra's Dark Empire; conquest by Queen Chrysalis's hive; Nightmare Moon's rule; Discord playing with reality; Tirek ripping up the forest in his forceful magic blasts; even Flim and Flam deforesting the area. Somehow without the Sonic Rainboom happening, all of these things are shown to be possible as threats to Equestria.

Each time Starlight stops the Rainboom happening she does so through a different means, including persuading the bullies not to bully filly!Fluttershy in the first place, and distracting filly!Dash with a battle against Twilight, during which the Unicorn somehow holds her own. It seems like no matter how Twilight prepares to fight Starlight and make the Rainboom happen, Starlight simply cannot be stopped, and then the present that she sees just gets worse -- until Twilight finally decides to pull Starlight back to the present with her, and we get a turning point in a desert wasteland.

Starlight's backstory is supposed to be another turning point, as we are supposed to come to understand her motives more, however the 'losing a friend because he got his cutie mark and I didn't' backstory can ring hollow for many. I'll get back to that later.

Finally understanding that there is another way, Starlight lets the Rainboom happen, and then we get a sequence where the Council of Friendship deliberates over Starlight's fate while she waits patiently in the hall. Twilight (with assent from Spike apparently) decides to teach Starlight about the Magic of Friendship, and jump-starts her new friendships by including all of the Mane6 and Spike. We get a musical number, during which they go back to Ourtown and Starlight gets forgiveness from the Diamond Four. And we close on a happy shot of many of Ponyville ponies surrounding the Mane6 and Starlight as friends.

Analysis by Questioning
This episode broke my suspension of disbelief like Godzilla tearing through the Golden Gate Bridge. Even as I watched it I just kept asking question after question, so here are my problems with this episode:

How was Starlight Glimmer able to waltz around Canterlot and Ponyville undisguised for so long, and not get noticed or arrested?
We can assume that Twilight, as fastidious as she is, submitted a report to Celestia after 'The Cutie Map' so everyone who needed to would be aware of the Unicorn who has the capability to steal cutie marks and suppress talents and personalities. This is an extremely dangerous sociopathic individual, and she is still on the loose.

Of course, the animators purposely made Starlight stick out so we, the audience, could spot her in 'Amending Fences' and 'What About Discord,' so that would not have reflected how she looked in reality, but someone should have recognized her for the danger she represented, especially on the day she decided to appear without any disguise at all at Twilight's lecture: there she was plain as Celestia's butt mark and no one but Twilight reacted at all.

And then we learn that Starlight also managed to sneak into the Starswirl Wing at the Canterlot Library and abscond with a scroll containing an extremely potent time travel spell -- a spell that should probably have been kept in Starswirl's private library in the Canterlot Caves, rather than in Canterlot Castle library. To do so Starlight must have been able to evade all the City Guards, the Royal Guards, and the Royal Sisters. In both directions. She then hunkered down somewhere to alter and master the spell.

Starlight then topped this off by sneaking to Ponyville and the Friendship Castle to wait for Twilight in Fluttershy's throne, somehow with enough time to be chillin' like a villain when Spike and Twilight opened the doors.

Through all this, no one recognized, detained, or even approached her to question her. I can understand Twilight being allowed into the library in 'It's About Time' because the guards recognized her as Celestia's prized pupil, but Starlight is a known felon. If she had been spotted by anyone connected to the Sisters' authority, she should have been imprisoned long ago. Yet she wasn't.

How was Starlight able to learn several new spells and set everything up for Twilight's return to her own castle?
This is actually two issues, and the second one is easier to deal with: how did Starlight manage to sneak into Twilight's castle undetected, and then put all of her preparations in place so all she needed to do use the scroll on the map? And she had to be sneaking around, which would take more time. That means at least a disguise on the train, which she did not have at the lecture, because while Starlight seems to have a teleportation spell only Celestia has demonstrated the ability to teleport between Canterlot and Ponyville. Apparently Starlight travels at the Speed of Plot, which is one of the weakest justifications we could use, alongside 'a Unicorn did it.'

The new spells are the bigger issue for me. Way back in 'Boast Busters' Spike and Twilight established that Unicorns generally have limited types of magic at their disposal, with Twilight being an exception. It may be easier to think of all ponies as having a limited number of spell slots, and each spell fills one. General-use Unicorn magic includes telekinesis and light. Using Rarity as an example of a Unicorn with more average magical ability we can add Gem Finder, Material Fusion, and the illusion spell she used in 'Suited for Success' during her fashion show. Rarity has only used some variety of these in the show, apart from when her magic was boosted by the Imagination Manifestation spellbook.

Twilight's knack for learning any spell, as reflected by her cutie mark being the Equestrian symbol for magic, can be explained by her special talent being 'to learn and master any magic about which she reads, or sees.' Sunset Shimmer was set up as a foil for Twilight, and in a way her cutie mark is also a many-pointed star. Starlight Glimmer, on the other hoof, is a foil for Twilight as far as leadership style goes more than in magical prowess. Her backstory also marks her as more or less average when it comes to magical prowess. Besides that, the number of truly gifted Unicorns like Twilight would have to have a fine limit, since Celestia only seems to have had one dragon egg to be used as the admission test, and no other Unicorns are seen walking around with dragon assistants.

Therefore I do not believe Starlight has a potency or versatility in magic similar to what Twilight possesses. This means she should have a limited number of spell slots. In 'The Cutie Map' we saw movement neutralization, mark removal, suppression mark placement, mark containment, telekinesis, light, Spiral Blast, and Circuit Shield, the last of which we hear Starlight telling Twilight she took years to master. Even assuming that placing minor enchantments on the staff and glass jars so Double Diamond could move the marks from the vault in the cave does not count toward Starlight's spell max, she still had a large number of spells, most of them extremely potent. In the first place, standing against an Alicorn should have been beyond her reach, except by cunning and manipulation.

This is because, at least by my theory, Alicorns possess far larger manapools than Unicorns. They also seem to have a multitude of spells at their disposal, not just the Unicorn standards. I believe this greater power comes from the resonance between the Earth Pony, Pegasus, and Unicorn magic they posses. We also know that Alicorn magic is the most powerful because Twilight boosted by three other Alicorns' magic was slightly greater than Tirek with all the magic he had drained, including Discord's and the rest of the Mane6 (but not Spike). We also know from Journal of the Two Sisters that it used to take groups of Unicorns to raise and lower the sun and the moon, in a process that eventually left more and more Unicorns drained of their magic. Even Starswirl, working alone, got drained and aged, but Celestia and Luna were able to raise and lower the sun and the moon with ease, and then restore the Unicorns' magic to them.

Returning to Starlight and her magic, in this episode we get telekinesis, long-term self-levitation, the time spell, movement suppression, Stasis Cube, magic blasts, and Circuit Shield. Starlight should also still posses her cutie mark magic since that seems to be what her own mark relates to, even if she could ditch the rest of her old spells, which I doubt. By this time she would be way over the allotment of spell slots for a normal Unicorn, which would indicate that she is not one. Even Twilight says she possesses more power than almost any other Unicorn, but then that is a character statement, and we have no proof either way.

My biggest problem here is that since Starlight did not use most of these spells in 'The Cutie Map' we can assume that they are new. Starlight said it took years for her to master one new spell, so how did she learn these new spells so quickly? More than that, how did she have the time to study, analyse, and alter Starswirl's spell so precisely for her own needs? I cannot come up with a reason other than 'because the plot demanded it.' I really wish I did not have to resort to that.

Why did the map respond to Starlight at all?
We know from 'The Cutie Map' that it takes the entire Mane6, sitting in their proper thrones, to summon the map. While they can activate it singly now when they respond to their cutie mark calls, no one without their marks should be able to activate it alone. While Starlight activates the map from one of the thrones, it is the one with a characteristic least suited to her (Kindness), but rather the thing for which she was most searching. Still, without at least one of the Mane6's marks, Starlight should not have been able to use the time spell at all. This leads me to ask why she didn't take any of their marks, since she only needs a jar to act as its containment. She probably wouldn't have even needed to put it on herself, but just hold it near the throne while she activated the spell... even if she was powerful enough to cast it without losing herself in the magic of casting, which I also don't believe.

Time Travel: How does it work?
Like I said earlier, it's a headache when used well. When used poorly, it's just... confusing. Unfortunately Haber did not seem to get a good handle on what he wanted the spell to do, apart from trapping Twilight in a loop where she would have to watch Starlight take her friends away from her, over and over again.

Haber has it shown that when Twilight goes to past!Cloudsdale, there are no extra Twilights or Spikes after the first jump. This would seem to indicate that time in Equestria is not a single linear line. If we choose to use multiverse theory, that would mean that each jump lands Twilight and Spike on a different verse's timeline. That could explain the success of different villains, if the other, more powerful ones are removed from play. It does not explain how Starlight gets ahead of Twilight and Spike on each jump, because their jump comes before hers. Even if it takes longer for their jumps to complete most of the time, there should be some times when they get ahead of her due to the failing power of the spell -- that or all of spacetime should shatter due to all the abuse it is subjected to.

The villains in play in the alternate presents are also problematic: if they are all in play, Discord and Tirek should be the last in play as they are the most powerful. To those who say there may be some realities where neither get loose, good luck keeping a magic-siphoning demonic centaur or a reality-bending eternal spirit who thrives on discontent in a cage. Especially during wartime. In the main timeline these villains are not exclusive, but Haber treats them as though they are. It is a neat way to show what might happen if each of them won over the Mane6, especially since Nightmare Moon seems to be able to rule more or less fairly and peacefully, but reasonably they should all have to deal with each other, perhaps leading to that desert wasteland? Or perhaps not. We just don't know.

Another questions is whether the spell really deposited Twilight and Spike back in the present each time, or sometime else. If it is the present, then we encounter my previous problem. If each jump was to a different time, it would explain why different villains were out and about, even though Twilight says this was the present (another character statement, and Starlight could have screwed up the spell). I also noticed that the map's location seems to change, being near a waterfall in one present and in the Everfree Forest in another.

Why didn't Twilight change the rules on Starlight?
Ignoring the possibility that Starlight did not fully understand what the spell actually does (due to lack of testing perhaps) for the moment, Twilight did have the opportunity to properly analyse and change the spell so she would no longer be in Starlight's time loop. This would have allowed her to get the drop on the Unicorn and stop her, but apparently Twilight is not as smart as I am. When did she have the opportunity, you ask? Before she jumped from Sombra's timeline, and a few others where she was not in immediate danger.

But Twilight's smartest play to neutralize Starlight's plan? Do nothing. This is because Starlight's revenge depended on Twilight being there to witness Starlight taking her friendships and cutie marks away, powerless to stop it from happening. If Twilight had used her magic to stop Spike from touching the scroll, and then used just enough magic to uncrumple it, she could have analysed and neutralized or altered the spell to do what she wanted, instead of what Starlight wanted. Doing so may not change what happened to Starlight already, but it would change what would happen to Twilight as she and Spike jumped in, and it would not pull Starlight in to be able to stop them.

And yet both Starlight and Twilight get stuck juggling the Idiot Balls.

Is Starlight 2nd Dimension Doof 2.0?
Seriously, their backstories are so similar in depth (almost none) and my (in)ability to take them seriously. Starlight deserves deeper motivation than that, for certain. Especially since she failed to make a friend between Sunburst and her takeover of Ourtown. My other problem here is in Sunburst leaving for Celestia's School immediately without any consideration for his friend. And if he really was that powerful, surely Twilight or her classmates would have heard of him? Unless... he did something forbidden and was made to disappear? No one seems to remember Sunset Shimmer either, so was Sunburst... personed?

Are these redemptions getting faster or is it just me?
Certainly it could shake a person to see their efforts leading to a wasteland, but even then Starlight seemed set on her path. But then, through simple words and an offer, Twilight is finally able to change her mind? Yeah, no. Discord and Sunset have something to say about that was well. This is a process that should have taken at least as long as Twilight's and Spike's failed attempts to stop Starlight.

Expectations and Reality
The main factor that sets FiM apart from many other series is the passion its creative team puts into each episode and season. That passion spread quickly to the audience, creating a fandom so much larger and diverse than Lauren Faust or Hasbro expected. So the expectation that every writer would treat the characters with the same passion and understanding is a hope that is ever-present, for any fandom. Unfortunately, I do not believe Josh Haber was able to follow through this time. Hopefully next time he will.

On the concept level I give this episode a 7/10, but on the story execution level it's a 4/10.
I will be generous and land this episode with a final score of 5.5/10.

If you have any suggestions by which this episode could be improved, or want to point out something I've missed, please let me know in the comments below. I really do want to see this episode more positively.

Time Travel Done Right
I think there are some example of this in fictional work. One is in the movie About Time, where the male members of a certain family can travel backwards in time by going to a dark place and clenching their fists with their eyes closed. Whenever the main character or his father do that, they inhabit their own body at that time, taking their knowledge and experience with them. They then travel forwards through time normally, living through each moment, so in this movie time was a single, linear line.

In the manga Magister Negi Magi (or Mahou Sensei Negima or simply Negima), the time travel device is a pocket watch that requires a high amount of mana to work. The user can set it forward or backward, and anyone in physical contact with the user goes along too. Negima uses multiple timelines, so that when someone goes back far enough and changes something, it creates a new timeline. This means that when Lingshen joined Class 2-A, and then confronted Negi, she created Timeline #2. When she and Evangeline brought Asuna back from the future to be awake through her graduating years, she created Timeline #3. Incidentally, the sequel series, UQ Holder, seems to take place in Timeline #2, without Asuna.

The above examples are for major changes. When Negi used the watch to travel back no more than a day so he could spend the culture festival with his whole class, he did not create four new timelines. Instead, there were extra Negis and Chamos running around for awhile, and contrary to Mr. Peabody and Sherman, the two Chamos even high-fived and switched places without a problem.

But in the aforementioned movie, when two Shermans touched they fused together into one being to rectify the timeline. Then there was that whole black hole in time thing. Speaking of this classic movie series, however, historical events unfolding as recorded usually depended on Peabody and Sherman interacting with the driving historical figure and persuading him or her to do what they were supposed to. Without the WABAC and Peabody, the show implies history and our current situation would be quite different. In this case they literally made history.

I'm sure there are other examples of time travel used well, but these are the ones foremost in my mind. I hope you can appreciate why they work better than the version presented in 'The Cutie Re-Mark.'

The Cutie Re-Mark and The Dark Wars
You can be sure you will be seeing some parts of the alternate presents used in 'The Cutie Re-Mark' in my upcoming volume, The Dark Wars. Without spoiling too much, I can tell you, however, that I have not even thought to include time travel as a factor. Instead, history and memory will be overwritten directly by a single powerful force. This will leave Equestria in a state unrecognizable to all by comparison, and as Discord will tell Gearhead, without any sort of reset button to change it all back to the way it is supposed to be.

Some of your favourite villains will be there, so I hope you all enjoy it.