...Or does anyone else sort of prefer Sugar Belle BEFORE she got her cutie mark back?

I don't exactly know why, but to me she just seemed to have a more interestingly dynamic personality. The obvious discomfort in her facial expressions while the M6 argued, and her genuine confusion that they could still be friends in spite of it. Her obvious enamor with the M6's cutie marks, how she missed her own and was all too aware that her cooking sucked without it, yet all while steadfastly holding to her false profit's philosophy that she should be happier without it.

Maybe it's just that her markless self got a lot more screen time to develop, whereas her "true" self barely got to do much of anything outside being one more participant in the climactic chase scene. Plus while everypony's appearance got brighter when they got their mark back, I just sort of feel like hers changed too much. I could clearly still recognize both Night Glider and Double Diamond, but it wasn't until around half way through the chase scene that I realized this bright pink pony with a curly purple mane was actually Sugar Belle.

4246340 True, I liked her previous design, but then again, I like her both ways.

4246340
You're definitely right on the last part. I rewatched the the scene where they changed at least three times before I realized it was her.

As for the development, I agree that the cutie markless version had much more time to develop. However, the newly changed version leaves many opportunities for a backstory, personality, and family. During the period when she was brainwashed, it would be nearly the same as the other equals, but someone could make a story where she first began to want her cutie mark.

In a way, I prefer the before version because of the deeper development. In another, I prefer the new version because of all of the opportunities to characterize her. Even though that probably doesn't make much sense, (sorry) that is my take on it.

4246615
I don't know if I'd go quite as far as to say she'd be entirely identical to any other markless pony, since well, she was something of a subversive if only minimally.

Moreover though, while yes, her re-marked version is technically a more "complete" pony and therefor obviously has more potential, I just sort of can't help but feel like it's a more generic potential. As one of the markless she had quirks that set her apart from the crowd despite her obvious aspirations for conformity, but with her cutie mark restored she just ended up feeling rather blandly ordinary with nothing much to distinguish her from any other background pony -- or at least that's how it felt to me.

Again, it's also partly because of how much more drastically her character changes. She lost all of her previously reserved demureness, even her voice was hard to recognize. Maybe that's all just because she was preoccupied chasing down a villain. I mean, FLuttershy also changes quite a bit when she switches to her assertive mode, where she can stare down dragons and cockatrices. The problem I guess is that we ONLY got to see that aspect of re-marked Sugar Belle, so maybe she would still have been more recognizable as herself in the aftermath if we'd actually gotten to spend some casual time with her during the epilogue.

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Personally, in my current work in progress, "We Have Muffins", she is going to be shown in her equal form, and how I prefer her. I would also like some help on it so as not to make the pacing feels akward or rushed.

4246340
Yeah, I liked her more that way. Maybe because I like darker ponies, or maybe because there was something uncanny about her, which was making her interesting.

4246340 I liked her with her cutie mark. Idk why. I just do.