TailsIsNotAlone

I like the Season 4 finale because it was the most epic thing the show has ever done, but I like the Season 5 premiere more. I think the writing was a lot better, and the villain stayed interesting the whole time and showed a ton of future potential--two things I can't say about Tirek. Twilight's role in the premiere is also less prominent. She doesn't gain any new powers, she doesn't save the day, her usual speeches are completely ineffective, and her friends get as much attention as she does. Almost all the things that bothered me about 'Twilight's Kingdom' were absent from 'The Cutie Map'. Instead we got strong new characters, excellent pacing, an unforgettable song, and a more normal but no less fascinating villain. It was everything I could have wanted.

This was the part that creeped me out the most, actually. For a moment I didn't know what was going to happen down there. Starlight Glimmer and her society intrigued me at first, then surprised and unsettled me. I didn't see the twist coming at all, and I was expecting something like magical mind control. Instead I saw an Orwellian cult society that brought back memories of reading 1984 and Brave New World in high school. Doublethink is everywhere: they're all equal, but Starlight is the leader. It's a utopia, but they're in near-poverty. Cutie marks and special talents are evil, but I need mine to run this town. (Though this is not a perfect example of doublethink in Starlight's case because she was aware of the contradiction and reacted with pent-up rage when it was pointed out, as if she'd spent many sleepless nights agonizing over that very problem.) But as for being genuinely creeped out, it wasn't the society itself that did that. Even "you can't have a nightmare if you never dream" didn't bother me much. Perhaps it's a subconscious reaction to my fear of nightmares that now, I no longer recall any of my dreams--though I assume I still have them. What creeped me out was the basement scene, the Mane Six's pain and helplessness when their marks were removed, and afterwards the fact that I couldn't stop thinking about Starlight Glimmer for so long after the episode. I'm still thinking about her, actually.

Great questions here. Before the Mane Six can hope to deal with her again, they need to know why she is who she is as Dark Qiviut says. As for the methods they might use, I have a few ideas. Sociopathy is marked by reckless, ruthless intent to get what you want at all costs, superficial charm or false displays of emotion intended to manipulate others, disregard for any rights and freedoms not their own, and an inability to learn from one's mistakes. Starlight so far has displayed three out of four; can she learn from her mistakes? If so, there is hope for her. If not, she IS something of a monster, committed to her vision and unable to accept that any part of it is wrong, because that makes her wrong. If you're sociopathic, that doesn't compute. The only thing that stops you from doing things society considers "wrong" (also does not compute) is the consequences of getting caught at it. If Starlight is indeed this kind of pony, then consequences are the only thing that will make her change her views and her approach. What kind of consequences? Since this is MLP, I think being forced to occupy the body and emotions of one of her former followers, experiencing all the negative aspects of the lifestyle she mandated and not just the positive ones she preached, is a possibility and something that could work. If Starlight is not this kind of pony, and only borderline-sociopathic, then things will be easier and she can learn how wrong her methods were via personal journey. She must be shown that while cutie marks and differences led to unacceptable conflict in her experience, it is not so everywhere, and most of Equestria is getting along just fine without her idea of equality.

There's some sort of message in every form of media. If you have no message, you have no content. I beg to differ with your interpretation of the episode. It was made very clear why Starlight was running the equality village: she believes different cutie marks lead to different special talents, which lead to some ponies having advantages and abilities other ponies don't, which leads to conflict and pain and potential disaster. Her vision and her reasons, which the village also shared, were repeated throughout the episode. Nobody had to come out and scream at us that the general concept of equality "had merit." It's the 21st century. That's self-evident. Fluttershy approved of the idea and what she saw of the end result; Twilight initially wondered why they'd even been sent out there, because nothing seemed to be wrong. Unfortunately, many things were wrong. And while the writers seemed to take clear inspiration from the writings of George Orwell and the USSR, that doesn't mean they were falsely representing the entire concept of socialism or communism in order to tear it down. That's pure speculation. What they presented us with was a specific type of communal society that was poorly thought out, maintained via extreme measures, and had dishonesty at the top that made the whole system fundamentally unequal. Starlight failed for the reasons all villains on the show have failed: overconfidence, lack of integrity, and a flawed or absent understanding of friendship. The fact that her system had political elements does not make it, or her, a straw man. The one thing I agree with you on is that the moral (not morale) was overly simplified. Double Diamond yelling "let's go get our cutie marks back" as soon as Starlight retreated, and the whole village stampeding to the vault to do just that--abandoning their whole worldview and lifestyle en masse--was completely unconvincing and a poor writing decision. To me it stood out as the only weak moment in the episode. Unfortunately, they needed it to happen so that Starlight could be caught and they would get their cutie marks back. I guess they didn't have any better ideas.

Sorry to hear that Wingnut, but you have to do what's best. I shall wait patiently to be given your spot so I can enforce mandatory Silver Spoon worship on the entire board.

I don't quite follow. If these two situations are so similar, why do they yield opposite results? People in the entitlement culture think mainly of themselves and go through life expecting to get all the breaks, while Starlight's followers thought and acted collectively with no such expectations for themselves. That's the whole problem. Many people in my society think far too highly of themselves. I see them every day, and rich or poor, it's just the same. Their whole world seems to consist of whatever commodity or favor they desire at the moment. They're determined to be heard, even aggressively, even when it's counterproductive or they have nothing relevant to say. They are so conditioned not to function as a group that it's almost impossible except in the wake of some huge disaster--terrorism, mass killings, a tornado. They throw "socialism" around as a pejorative label (when in fact many of them couldn't pass a middle school social studies test on what socialism really is). If a bunch of people dedicated to NOT getting along is a "hive mind," okay, I can kind of see that--but it lacks many of the beneficial characteristics and advantages of such, so they're screwing themselves even more. The ponies of Nonameville, while having forgotten the benefits of individuality, live every day as if their town has just been hit by a tornado. They smile, they help each other out, they build houses for each other; they share unglamorous food, clothing, and housing and nopony complains. As Dekutree says, "mediocrity is a step up from pain." The community is an ongoing rebuilding project, mirroring Starlight's intention to rebuild pony society from the damage of the cutie mark system. Unfortunately, Starlight takes drastic measures to ensure that the project continues so that nopony ever leaves or achieves success, because any success not shared by the entire group at once is antithetical to her vision. She takes it all WAY too far, but when she's not going off the deep end, she's fostering a kind of unity among her followers that most of us will never experience. I'm not sure I would want that for myself, but it's hard to deny the appeal.

That's not really a valid reply to my post, though. I already agree that mindless slavery is out of the question. There's a gray area between total chaos and total order. Starlight made a lot of mistakes, and one of them was failing to acknowledge that gray area. Well, I don't think the writers are thinking about EQG when they write for the regular show. If anything, Lightning Dust exemplified the theme you're talking about in Season 3, and very well at that. That's true and I understand it very well. I just choose to withdraw because conflict is too much for me. That puts me in a position to understand some of Starlight's views and see her as potentially redeemable. But I still prefer this system to being a zombie, don't worry. I am not advocating mandatory zombie friendship. If Starlight learns to equalize without erasing, then she'll really have something.

Season 5 spoilers, although most of you have probably seen 'The Cutie Map' by now. Something is eating at me. I can't get Starlight Glimmer out of my head. I agree with her, but I don't. Here's what I mean: I agree with some of the things Starlight Glimmer said; I disagree with many of the things she did. First, here's the stuff about her I don't agree with: brainwashing, manipulation, lying, violation of individual rights, and cutie mark stealing. These things are wrong. Starlight was willing to resort to all of them, plus violence, to impose her agenda on other ponies. That is bad. Bad, Starlight. But I also agree with some of the things she said. In one part of the song, she sung these words so beautifully and with such conviction... Other ponies argue Do you ever wonder why? When you think your talent's special You don't see eye to eye. ...that I can't help but stop and think about them. A lot of people don't see eye to eye for that very reason. I don't know if being from the USA has anything to do with it--maybe--but more times than I can count, I run into people who think they're really special. I'm not just talking about "self-esteem," I'm talking entitlement gone berserk, to the detriment of common sense and our capacity to coexist with others. People (those under 40 especially) seem to go around seeking as much attention as they can get and thinking they have a right to never be offended or uncomfortable. Too many chiefs, not enough Native Americans. Friendship is a good thing; everyone can agree on that. But Twilight Sparkle has been fortunate enough to make all sorts of friends despite her differences and special talents. Apparently, Starlight hasn't. Neither have I. On the Internet, yeah, I have some really cool people I talk to, most of 'em here. But in real life, it doesn't work. Hasn't worked for years. All I see is people fighting, lying, over-complicating their lives with commitments they can't handle. I can't deal with these people. Starlight keeps things simple, creates a very basic common ground for everypony, and watches over them to make sure things run smoothly. That part (NOT the rest) is good. Good for you, Starlight. It doesn't excuse your journey down the slippery slope to authoritarian cultism, but at least you tried, sister. Starlight is dangerous in a way none of the other villains were, yet at the same time she's not pure evil, either. She has good ideas about organization and equality, but she has to be reasonable. There is plenty of good that can be done without taking away ponies' individuality and dreams, enough that I kinda hope she comes around at the end. People expressed great skepticism when the Mane 6 reformed Discord, but prior to that, he was the most popular villain on the show. He earned so much respect from us in his first appearance that we wanted to like him. That's what I'm experiencing with Starlight Glimmer. She has some points to make, and if she accepts that she is wrong now, she might make herself right someday.

There's a lot more I could say about this, especially in light of the premiere. But basically: cutie marks started out as a simple and nice idea to denote what a pony is good at. The weirdness of them having names related to their talents before they even found out what they were was always noticed, but we let it slide. Magical Mystery Cure took that nice idea and made it extremely problematic by throwing "destiny" into the mix. Suddenly ponies' cutie marks did not just symbolize their talents or paths in life, they were their talents and paths in life. I can't emphasize enough what an incredibly BAD IDEA this was. G4 and its basic canon were founded on Lauren Faust's dream of a simple, quality show that tells little girls they can be anything they want to be. Destiny does not fit that vision. But they threw it in there anyway and now they have to deal with it. And in the Season 5 premiere, M.A. Larson did deal with it. He and Scott Sonneborn wrote an episode that followed the unfortunate "cutie mark=identity" path and made something great out of it. They also introduced a villain who subtly acknowledges the monster he created two years ago and says, "the entire cutie mark system is wrong"--although she has her own reasons. The new cutie mark canon will never be okay with me, but at least in this season, they are trying to make the best of it. -_-

Well, the kind of magic that can remove another pony's cutie mark must be extremely powerful. But I also got the impression that Starlight intended to seriously hurt or kill them with that particular spell.

This echoes my own opinion that the Simpsons was an absolutely great show for its first 8 seasons, then fell off a cliff in 9 and 10 and has been pretty much worthless ever since. There were still good things and episodes worth watching. But this one, as you say, was terrible. The episode that really ruined things me for me personally, though, was 'Simpson Tide' later in Season 9, where Homer and his friends find themselves in command of a Navy submarine for no reason other than so the audience can watch them f*** up for a very sad, crass, empty 20 minutes. After sitting through that disaster, I knew it was only going to get worse and I was right.

Warning, long post coming up! I agree it was an amazing 2-parter. It presented "the town" as a mini-dictatorship with cult-like elements--which, as you point out, isn't really working. I get the feeling the place has only existed for 2-5 years, so it had limited resources to work with. But the town is poor, rundown, and uncomfortable. No one is prospering or having a good time, not even Starlight. Her ideology is her life. That makes her a more dangerous villain in the long term than Tirek, Discord, and Nightmare Moon, because she's not an obvious threat and she bends (or breaks) other ponies to serve her purposes. I think it would've been worth mentioning that although keeping her cutie mark (and thus her magic) was hypocritical and the society is a flawed model built on deceit, I think it's reasonable to conclude that Starlight did need her magic to remove other ponies' cutie marks. If she could have been honest about it instead of using the staff as a prop, that would have helped her in the end. Imagine if, at the climactic scene where Fluttershy exposes Starlight's mark, she acts totally unconcerned and all the villagers just smile their eerie smiles and say, "IT'S OKAY. WE ALREADY KNOW." 0_O To her credit, Starlight doesn't accumulate riches and live apart from the rest of the town. She doesn't delegate all her responsibilities to middlemen who act with impunity. And she doesn't allow things to get out of control. Saying that she could be worse only goes so far though, as she is still a "sociopath" with "no respect for others' rights or feelings" who I wouldn't want anything to do with in real life. So I'm not really sure why I like her so much. It's certainly not her world view or her methods. =_= I guess it's because she's well designed, committed, and a perfectly realized character with tons of future potential whether she reforms or not. Finally, on to the video itself: what allows your message to get across is that you understand how to make a good commentary on Youtube. I've seen a lot of people who don't. They record themselves on a moldy potato, they throw in distracting elements, they freak out and rant just for kicks, or they have a totally unsuitable voice that I can't bear to listen to. Your recording quality is great, you keep things simple and easy to follow, your comments are reasonable and focused on the show, and your voice is more than adequate for effective narration. It's really refreshing to see a video review as well done as yours. I will check out more of them in the future!

Excellent review as always, DQ! I didn't like the staff's name either, but everything else was spot-on. I think this is your best analysis yet because you cover so much ground that other people haven't: a possible reason and meaning for the town being nameless, the significance of such a mature theme being presented so well on a kids's show, Starlight's rejection of the cutie mark system itself echoing ongoing debates in the fandom, and how MMC's idea of "stolen/wrong mark = stolen/wrong special abilities" that took a wrecking ball to continuity and helped destroy that finale from the inside out, was actually used well and worked to the show's advantage here. I'd be very interested to see video reviews from you, but I understand your reasons for not doing them as yet; they're the same as mine. But you already have good ideas for how to do a video review, and that's the first step. I welcome a further analysis of the song 'In Our Town', because it's easily one of the most well-conceived in the show's history.

Good point. It's not that Fluttershy is oblivious--it's that she doesn't want there to be a problem, ever. This means that she is willing to overlook strange situations and rude treatment from others until she has no choice but to acknowledge a conflict. When Starlight stole her and her friends' cutie marks, Shy no longer had the luxury of hoping everything was fine. In the end, she summed up the grim situation more bitterly than her friends (actually using the word "brainwashing") and put herself on the line to undo Starlight Glimmer. Not just because of the evil plot, but because Starlight betrayed her optimism and caused a problem she couldn't ignore. Fluttershy resented her for that as much as anything else.

It's remarkable work. The curve of the poster on the wall looks near-perfect. Starlight's body is well-shaped and proportioned. The only weak point there is her front hooves; the right one, in particular, is reaching out to the poster at an odd angle. The poster itself is also an inspired work of art. I assume the OC pony is meant to be Lenin? (And where is his right ear?) Although some bronies would disagree that Starlight's philosophy had much to do with communism as we understand it, the idea is very well presented. You should be proud of this.

Wow, that's hard. They were ALL interesting characters. Not a dud in the bunch. In fact they were one of the episode's many strengths. Personality-wise, I would have to say Sugar Belle. She was so earnest and worried for the Mane 6 from the very beginning, and obviously was never completely taken in by Starlight's "utopia". Design-wise, I have to go with Night Glider. Her look is freaking awesome, whereas Sugar actually looked less cute after she got her mark back. Still cute, but not like Night. But the writers and animators put some love into all four of these background ponies, and I have no doubt the fandom will too.

I think Starlight will be a villain for a while longer. She may relent and learn the true meaning of friendship at the very end, or maybe she'll stay this way forever. Either way, she fascinates me. I can't wait to see more of her. I don't know if she buys into her own philosophy 100%, but if she really believes she's doing the right thing, that just makes her interesting on a different level from any of the other villains.

Starlight Glimmer with her real cutie mark. Stop looking at me like that. You evilly beautiful thing. STAAAAAHP

I think Starlight Glimmer is far scarier than any villain on the show so far. She combines the social structure of a religious cult with the darkest elements of communism. She uses brainwashing, fear, and hypocrisy to ensure a false and forced harmony, where every pony is equal but no pony can be special. She finds them as they stumble upon the village in small groups and takes their cutie marks by mental conditioning or force. Then she tells them where to live, what kind of job to do, and things just continue interminably from there. Had the society grown much larger, secret police would have been just around the corner. Just HOW forced the whole thing was becomes clear when Starlight's followers abandon her as soon as they discover she still has a mark. It surprises me that without the whole "equality" thing, the other ponies have no real attachment to her. I can think of three reasons for that: (1) She wasn't in charge for long enough. (2) She lacked the charisma to build a cult of personality around herself and ensure personal loyalty. (3) The writers were just a little too eager to demonstrate that she was wrong. In any case, there wasn't time to show their apostate revelations. The Mane 6 needed the villagers to help them get their marks back and they came through. So is all this a good lesson for the kids? Yes. On the plus side, they'll still think of individuality as a special thing. (On the minus side, the idea of individuality will still be mass-marketed to them as if they were fools...but that's another can of worms. ) I have no doubt that we'll be seeing Starlight again.

I could do without Spike being made to look like an idiot once again. I mean I could really, REALLY do without it. I don't mean the torch thing, I mean the stuff after that. Why on earth would he think he had the power to start fires with his mind? And why would he even try to sing the anthem of Cloudsdale once he realized he didn't know the words? All he had to do was say "but my throat is sore tonight, so instead, here's FLUTTERSHY!" Even that would have been a better option. I really wish they could give the little guy some dignity after four seasons. The games themselves...well, you could have blinked and missed them. Season 3 spent two episodes developing them as a big deal, and yet they're an afterthought here. It was disappointing. They spend all this time making Twilight look special by herself, and making Spike look foolish more or less by himself; why can't we just have an episode about both of them where Twilight is Twilight and Spike is a solid character like the one we saw in Secret of My Excess, The Best Night Ever, and Lesson Zero? Closest thing we got to that was the S3 premiere and those episodes had issues of their own (like Spike's greatest fear being glossed over in a 30-second throwaway). I'm not sure about Dave Polsky yet...I'm just not sure. :okiedokielokie:

Agreed. That's more important than what kind of dark magic was contained in the book and whether Rarity was fully in control of herself. The only thing I didn't like was the absence of a conversation (or rather, confession) between Spike and Twilight about what was going on. We were just left to assume he had told her off-camera. And dragons must have really good digestion. Although Spike telling the truth neutralized the magic, I guess his stomach also neutralized the book itself. And that's probably for the best. Rarity achieved a balance between funny and creepy and was a treat to watch the whole time: uninhibited, unhinged, yet still as classy as ever. One can only imagine what other unicorns would have done if they got a hold of that book instead. I wonder if Twilight would have been as easily affected.

I agree. I would've been fine with five seasons because that's as long as most TV shows can go without a decline. Stretching it to six is a gamble. But if they have enough ideas and can keep up the quality, I'll be happy.

Not at all. There are a lot of technicalities, but capital punishment is still legal in 32 states and many of those practice it regularly. Texas does have the most executions, however.