On Your Marks · 4:21am Jul 31st, 2022
On Your Marks is truly extraordinary storytelling. It's the first crusader episode to follow up on the CMC's after they earn their marks.
In this story, Apple Bloom suffers from an existential crisis. The Crusaders all got their cutie marks in helping others with their cutie mark problems, but in reality, cutie mark problems are actually relatively rare. This begs the question: what are the three of them supposed to do now?
After a meeting, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo decide to go their separate ways - to try new interests - to explore other hobbies and experiences purely for the joy of it.
Scootaloo is excited to try bungee jumping. Sweetie Belle is thrilled to experiment with crochet. Apple Bloom, however, is embittered and heartbroken at the idea of having to do things on her own. She sings a melancholy country ballad about it and everything!
She even gets so wrapped up in her own lonliness, that she fails to recognize a cutie mark problem when she sees it.
Of course, it all gets resolved in the end. After much misunderstanding and drama, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo finally manage to get Apple Bloom to understand that they're still friends - that separating to try new things every once in a while doesn't affect their friendships - that it's healthy to pursue their own hobbies.
The three of them rush to solve that cutie mark problem that had been hiding right under Apple Bloom's nose - a young colt who loves to dance, but lacks the courage to perform.
This episode will be remembered mostly for how well it set the tone for the crusaders' future development, and of course, for its triumphant climax at the dance recital. I see in it, however, a profound insight into Apple Bloom's psyche.
If you think about it, the whole reason that the crusaders formed in the first place was because of Apple Bloom's existential crisis. All three of them were eager to earn their marks, but Apple Bloom is the one who seemed most desperate to fill a void in her life. To see that same desperation resurface even after they have their marks? To see that Apple Bloom is the only crusader to have these sorts of identity issues? To view the world through her eyes, and see her terror, resentment, and depression at the prospect of doing things alone - enjoying them for enjoyment's sake?
It shows us that Apple Bloom has issues that run far deeper than mere cutie marks.
Children who lose parents or siblings at an early age often grow up feeling like something is missing - even if they can't rationally explain what that something is. They become questing personalities.
Apple Bloom will always be prone to existential crisis because she lost her parents when she was so very young. The void in Apple Bloom can never truly be filled.
But this doesn't make her a hopeless or tragic character. After all, everyone has some baggage or another. If anything, it makes her ultimate path as an instructor all the more noble. Apple Bloom defines her own meaning in relation to others - not just amongst her friends, but also her cutie mark clients. Helping others find meaning in their lives is what infuses Apple Bloom's own life with meaning. Her eventual career path at the School of Friendship will give her countless opportunities to lead, and to teach, and to quench her psychological thirst.
It's a calling. And it's beautiful. Apple Bloom's devotion to others is a light that shines all the brighter because of the tragedy it comes from. The show never explicitly states this, but in hindsight, it couldn't be clearer.
-Sprocket
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The thing about Apple Bloom is that while she's never known her parents, she's also never really been alone before. Even before the Crusade, she was still a member of one of the largest yet most tightly knit extended families in Equestria. (And heck, even at school, she at least she had Twist.) Any time she's been on her own, there was some clear goal involved, like clearing Zecora's name or getting a delivery through the fire swamp. Having nothing to do and no one to do it with is terra incognita for Apple Bloom at this stretch in her life. No wonder it takes her a while to find her way through it.
To be clear, I'm not disputing your point about the unfillable hole in her heart. That makes a depressing amount of sense. I'm just considering things from a supplementary angle.
Still hate those marks. Biggest let down of the entire series
Three cheers for nepotism
5676401
Poor filly kind of got kicked to the curb huh? Like we literally never see her again. I like to think she merely left to pursue a apprenticeship that leads to a vivid and wonderous existence as a top tier confectioner and leave the grim derp to more embittered and lonely souls then I.
5676812
Twist did remain a background character—she even shows up in the last musical number, post-timeskip—but I don't believe she ever got another line.
5676873
Again, I prefer my theory then Applebloom simply being a little bitch, like she abandoned her the second she had two new friends, or the same but because Twist got a mark and didn't want to associate with riff raff
Thank you, as usual, for sharing your thoughts. :)