• Member Since 21st May, 2013
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FamousLastWords


"Late night, come home. Work sucks! I know!"

More Blog Posts310

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Mar
19th
2018

Favorite Episode Countdown #5 - The Cutie Map · 6:48pm Mar 19th, 2018

THE CUTIE MAP

Oh boy, I cannot say enough about this episode. In my opinion, this was the best season premiere we've had so far. It had a great antagonist, great writing, a surprisingly bleak plotline with rather mature themes and a great climax. One of my favorite episodes, bar none.

Let's me start with talking a bit about the plot. Although I do agree there were undertones about leadership and politics, from a strictly surfaced perspective, it was a lot of fun. You've got a pony dictating a village because she doesn't like others being better or worse than each other. Manipulation, fear, dominance - those were all traits Starlight used to her advantage and the ponies had to find a way to stop it. Up until this point in the series, all of the main villains were decidedly doing evil things, very black and white. However, Starlight was a bit deeper than that and really showed us something new.

Another great thing about this episode was all the doors that it opened for future episodes and the potential it gave us for fanfics and such. The show writers knew they were getting near the end of what they could do with the characters they had at hand. What better way to freshen things up ten bring in the Cutie Map and an entirely new way of solving friendship problems. Gone were the days of randomly stumbling upon small problems until a big one showed up. Now, it almost feels like they're superheroes, using their individual talents to solve serious problems. It's a great element and it really stepped the show up a notch.

Now, there once again is one reason this episode is so great...

I.
Love.
STARLIGHT!

She is far and away a top three favorite character for me. Right up there with Trixie and Rarity. She's funny, clever, snarky, smart and has a vulnerable side that just makes her endearing and adorable. Not to mention how she tends to blend out with the other characters. For the most part, she still seems like the awkward one trying to fit in from time to time, which is awesome. But you know who she does fit in with? My girl Trixie and my boy, Spike. That just makes things all the more awesome. Suffice it to say there's a reason I try to include her in my writing as much as possible.

And we wouldn't have her without this episode.

And oh yeah, one more thing. This gif:

Anyway, that's all for this episode. Stay tuned to see what my fourth favorite episode of the show is!

-Famous

Comments ( 7 )

I liked the episode up until the writers thought that the only argument the kids could understand against enforced uniformity and unexceptionality was making the antagonist a straw hypocrite followed by EVERYONE abandoning the world view they'd had for years. (Remember kids! People who think differently from you are all secretly hypocrites, all you need to do is expose them and everyone who thinks differently from you will change their world view on the spot!)
And later stories change it from her founding a cult to her "taking over" an already existing town! (Reminds me of the Hysteria cartoon where the cartoon acts like Hilter and his Nazis kicked in the door and took over Germany at gun point instead of popular election.
This is what makes Canterlot Boutique IMHO a better episode that delivers the message of how soul crushing things get when everything is expected to be exactly the same for the "good of everyone."

And whitewash her actions later "totally evil" rather than the far more dangerous "misguided good".

4820383
Yeah, man, I completely understand where you're coming from. I might disagree a tad, but we all have our tastes.

For example, a lot of people like Amending Fences, but I despise it. Like, from my point of view, it glorified the viewpoint that it's okay to let one lost friend dictate how you view others as opposed to just going out and finding some new friends. I didn't really understand why Twilight had to go above and beyond to apologize for a simple error and why Moondancer couldn't get over it.

It's probably just my personality because I'm extremely extroverted and I don't really understand it, but at the same time, a lot of people disagree with me.

That's what makes this fandom great, though, in my opinion. All the different thoughts, ideas and interests that people bring to the table created a vast variety of entertainment and media for us to enjoy.

Thanks for the comment, sir!

4820384
Thank you for responding with maturity.

I was shocked when I saw this episode, as it's something I never remotely expected from MLP. It had some considerably more mature stuff. The almost socialist-like undertones of the society as well as the introduction of the awesome new character Starlight Glimmer for me was a nice breath of fresh air. I agree, I think this is the best season premier of the series.

You seem to have a knack for choosing the divisive episodes :pinkiehappy:

I'm always glad to see another fan of Starlight, and especially her first appearance. When I first saw the episode, I was super excited to see a villain that couldn't be brought down with a friendship laser, not because she's too powerful, but because it would have been severe overkill. Plus, she actually managed to outsmart them, something so one managed since Chrysalis (who immediately turned around and screwed it up). Alex makes some good points though about how the show has handled her past since then, it's a shame they didn't leave in some more of the grey tones that made her so interesting to begin with, but that just comes with the territory I guess. It's still nice to see her stumbling every now and then, between brainwashing her friends, or literally any time she talks with Trixie.

Her interactions with the cast have been some of the best things in the show, as well. I mean, I think most of Spike's best moments in the series have been because he was playing off her, and of course Trixie might not have returned at all if it weren't for Starlight. And of course, seeing more of Maud is always a treat! (Someone on the writing team really likes Maud, she's shown up a lot lately). Plus we got Sunburst. Now, I'm not a huge fan of the whole backstory there, I thought it could have been a lot more fleshed out at least, but as a character he's great. The show only had two, maybe three notable male characters before he showed up, but since then I feel like they've been putting a lot of effort into balancing the cast out more, which is kind of nice.

4820450
I agree. A bit more balance is always nice. And I really just love Starlight. She's awesome.

I had quite a time with this episode. But, then again it took me along time to get used to Starlight in general. Only until recently it seems were you able to really see her use something other than magic to handle her problems. I wasn't surprised that though she turned out to be a phony. There did seem to be a good old fashioned bit of revenge thinking and a power trip involved there and not so much a genuine belief (which in some ways was disappointing, though forcing a belief like that on others can never be justified). Since then, I have grown to appreciate her a bit more (though I had to grown at the thought of her switching the princesses cutie marks...arghhh).

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