Help! My Heart is Full of Pony! - Cutie Map · 5:33am Apr 8th, 2021
Cutie Map: (Parts 1 & 2) are truly remarkable episodes. I'm tempted to write a whole essay simply to praise how well they managed to tell a dystopian story - how clever it was to use cutie marks to explore Orwellian themes of individuality in a way that kids could understand. I could write in depth about how effectively this story weaponized the show's natural cuteness to make the villagers legitimately creepy. How this was a landmark episode for Daniel Ingram, as he was finally allowed to compose lyrics from scratch, rather than shackle melodies to rhymes inexpertly composed by screenwriters. (MLP:FiM had an amazingly talented writing staff, but let's face it, dramatic storytelling and songwriting are two different skillsets, and none of the screenwriters could ever have come up with a genius line like, "You can't have a nightmare if you never dream").
There's so much to be praised in Cutie Map.
However, all of that ground has been covered before. Everypony knows these strengths. The episode even got recognition outside of the bronysphere, and earned a nomination for the prestigious Hugo Award.
What struck me about the episode upon re-watching it, is that it would actually make a great introduction to the show. If you've never seen My Little Pony before - if you know nothing about the characters or the universe - this is a surprisingly good place to start.
Obviously, the pilot is the best place to begin your journey through equinity, but hear me out. Not everyone is going to have the patience or the commitment to watch the entire series. Not everyone is going to get sucked into the universe right at the beginning the way that we did.
The Ensemble
Cutie Map features all of the Mane Six. It explores who they are as individuals, and how they interact within the group. We even get to see them contrasted with their former selves after their cutie marks are removed. Every character shines brightly here. Fluttershy's general agreeableness is depicted as both a virtue and a fault, and utilized as an actual plot point when she becomes the one who must pretend to have adopted the ways of Starlight's equality cult. Pinkie Pie's love of smiles is used, not just for her cheap jokes, or to establish her as the peppy jokester of the group, but to clue the Mane Six in that something is wrong in the first place! Her distrust of phony smiles makes her the first to sense that something is terribly wrong. Rarity's flare for style becomes a lens through which to view the sub-par living conditions of the villagers. Applejack is wise and sensible, and has a great deal to offer the group. Dash's love of her own individualism provides the perfect contrast to the villagers' way of life, and her big fat mouth not only creates tension, but gives voice to what the others are thinking.
A lot of MLP:FIM focuses on conflicts of personality, and teaches lessons about how to resolve those kinds of conflicts. Episodes like Look Before You Sleep pit Applejack against Rarity, Feeling Pinkie Keen contrasts Pinkie Pie's outlook with Twilight's. Etc., etc., etc. In Cutie Map, we get to see all six of their personalities clash, and we get to see how these contradictions actually makes them all stronger as a group.
It's a rare ensemble piece where everypony's role is equally important.
What a great introduction this would be to these likeable characters - their strengths, their flaws, what they have to offer one another!
Cutie Marks
If you knew nothing at all about cutie marks at the beginning of this episode, you'd come out with a pretty good idea of just how cosmically important they are. Cutie Map takes the show's themes of friendship, and really fleshes them out. It explores different concepts of what "friendship" is through the eyes of the village ponies who'd been taught to value conformity rather than individuality. That alone makes a great message that translates equally well to the adult world, and to the lived experiences of children.
There's something haunting and iconic about the way that Sugar Belle sees the Mane Six arguing, and approaches them with terrified eyes, asking if their friendships are ending. That moment encapsulates everything great about the episode - its fearlessness in going someplace dark and weird, without ever losing its sense of hope and faith in ponykind.
A Turning Point
In a way, that weirdness was just what the show needed. After the Golden Oak Library got trashed in Twilight's Kingdom, and Twilight got in her Super Saiyan Battle with Tirek, there were a lot of questions amongst us. "Where is the show going to go from here? Where could it go?" The answer was Cutie Map - proof that MLP:FIM would have lots more original stories to tell.
Discuss.
-Sprocket
If you enjoy essays like these, please consider supporting my work on Patreon. You can also follow Heart Full of Pony on Tumblr
Agreed on all points. And Starlight really is a great villain. For once, it isn't an ancient evil sealed away for centuries and emerging only to take a rainbow to the face. She's just a mare. A mare with her own twisted concepts of friendship and harmony, who loses everything to strangers' interference and escapes to wreak her vengeance.
Starlight did grow on me over time as a protagonist, but she was outstanding on the other side.
5493037
Starlight definitely was a good change of pace. I'd say the episode's only major flaw is that it didn't really do a good enough job of setting up why Starlight was able to remove cutie marks on her own. Over the course of the series, we had time to get to know Starlight, and as they developed her as a character, it became obvious how she would be able to pull that off. On first viewing, however, I was a little confused because she'd managed to accomplish something that we'd been told was impossible.
I absolutely loved her in the Season 5 finale.
"How this was a landmark episode for Daniel Ingram, as he was finally allowed to compose lyrics from scratch, rather than shackle melodies to rhymes inexpertly composed by screenwriters."
Oh, wow. I didn't realize he was having to do that. Impressive what he managed to accomplish anyway!
re these episodes as an introduction:
Hm. Like many ideas you bring up here, not something I believe I've thought of before, but aye, I can see that, I think!
And definitely seeing it, and more, after you explained your reasoning. :D
Thank you, as usual, for sharing your comments and insights. :)
5493624
I'm glad you enjoyed the essay. As for Ingram, there was no grand announcement as to how they were handling it, but if you look in the earlier seasons, the songs are credited to "Daniel Ingram and [Name of Screenwriter]." A lot of the rhymes back then were very clunky.
Maybe I only notice these things because I'm a lyricist and songwriter myself, but there definitely was a world of difference when Ingram got more freedom.
5495884
Ah, thanks!
Ah, though checking the wiki, it does look like having other people write the lyrics did return at some point. I checked The Place Where We Belong, since I'd remembered noticing that one as clunky to the extent it stuck in my mind to this point (though I hadn't remembered the title, just that it was the song from the building of the treehouse), and that had, at least according to the wiki, music by Daniel Ingram but lyrics by Nicole Dubuc. It looks like a number of other Season 9 songs had that division, though with different lyric writers, and some in Season 8; I'm not sure how extensive it was, as I didn't do an exhaustive check (or look before Season 8).