S05:E01+02 - The Cutie Map

[Aura 120]

Have the possible social catch-22s of what equality stands for been brought up in this thread yet?  There's some real-world issues on my mind --though I don't know that can be talked about here.

[smitty121325 64]

If you go back and watch "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" and then watch "Cutie Markless" within the context of that episode, the two-parter really becomes a problem. This is especially bad considering the fact that M.A. Larson was a writer on all three episodes. How do you screw up your own continuity this badly? The premiere seems to imply that one's special talent cones not from the individual themselves, but from their cutie mark, which is the total opposite of what "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" said. This becomes horrifying when applied to the CMC, as it basically means that they're not talented at anything at all. Yes, they will get their cutie marks someday, but not because they've discovered what their special talent is. It's because destiny said so. Ugh! This is starting to remind me of why "Magical Mystery Cure" was such a huge headache-inducing problem.

Edited April 4, 2015 by smitty121325

[Night Mist 151]

I'm not sure what I think of this. On one hand it was really cool and I liked the song, on the other something just seemed off. I don't know how else to put it. Also for the people who pointed out apple Jack's voice seemed deeper it sounded the same to me. However this story has left me confused on cutie marks.

[Jon the VGNerd 842]

The episode is known as The Cutie Map instead of Cutie Markless. Hope the OP will change it! 

 

As for the episode? It was awesome! I bet The Joker is freaked out at the ponies' weird smiles.

[Persona22 205]

In case you missed the episode or live in a country that does not premiere the show's fifth season today, here's a download link. It's in low res but it's better than nothing.

 

http://www.mediafire.com/download/a8887bo48k050p9/fims5ep1.mp4

Edited April 5, 2015 by Persona22

[OtakuBrony 349]

Howdy folks!

 

Well this was pretty good.

 

Nice way to kick off season five.

Twilight and the girls are off on another adventure in Friendship.

 

I liked The Cutie Map than Cutie Markless IMO

 

Another great tune by Daniel Ingram.

 

Kelly Sheridan as Starlight Glimmer is one  twisted villain.

(Wanna bet she'll be back later in the season?? Finale maybe?? HMMMMMMMM)

 

Rebecca Soichet as Sugar Belle is cool..

 

Brian Drummond (Double Diamond) & Sam Vincent (Party Favor) were pretty good as well.

 

I liked when Rarity said Miss Pie

 

Pinkie was being Pinkie.

 

Cant wait fer the next episode!

[Persona22 205]

Hmm...then I guess it is an accurate representation of what it can lead to, but it never specified that's the way it had to be and made no attempt to even imply as much, so I can't say I agree with the execution entirely - I still get the impression that Communism could be a great thing if not for people like Starlight Glimmer, but it's people like her that make it like that. 

 

I will take that into consideration when I begin to perform an actual analysis of the episode, though, instead of just my initial thoughts. Thanks for the feedback, man.

I agree with you on some aspects. However, every system has flaws. The flaw of Communism is that it's a system that is vulnerable for people like Starlight Glimmer, or Stalin, to take up power. It's not supposed to, but it happens.

The flaw of Democracy, on the other hand, is that it provides the people with the tools to destroy itself. If people are misinformed or stupid, or both, they will end up voting some idiot that will end up eroding the very freedoms that Democracy is supposed to uphold.

 

What I do believe, however, is that one should use different systems for different things in one huge conglomerate of systems.

For example: Use communism in Healthcare, Education and Infrastructure. That way you can assure that everyone will have the same opportunities to have a good and productive life.

Use competitive capitalism to develop bussiness, that way you can guarantee that technological and monetary progress is being made and also that a good quality of life can be provided by having products being developed and improved.

And finally, use Democracy to elect leaders, just as long as they do not do anything that will hinder the other two, and considering you have a free education system it will be hard to fool the population.

 

Basically, what Sweeden or Norway are doing.

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

Tried to listen to the Intercom, that was playing in the cell.

 

“In sameness there is peace.”

“Exceptionalism is a lie”

“Free yourself from your cutie mark”

“Choose equality as your special talent.”

“Difference is frustration”

“To excel is to fail”

“Be your best by never being your best”

“Conformity will set you free"

“Accept your limitations and happiness will follow”

“You’re no better than your friends.”

(Repeats order) “In sameness there is peace…”

There are a few missing.

 

Jesus, that's some 1984 stuff right here.

 

"If i say 1+1=3, do you really think it's 3?"

[SteveMorison 404]

Cutie Markless: Mane 6 meet G3 MLP!

[FlutterDash4072 189]

I'm not going to say much new here. I love how the episodes brought a fresh and darker vibe. We get a break from "an ancient evil reawakens" (seriously, they use that trope WAAAAAAAYY too much ) and get a villain who's threatening because she's a normal pony who uses her charisma (with a side of brainwashing) to convince other normal ponies to follow her. And on top of that, she's got some pretty powerful magical abilities as well. I also love how they've set her up to be a recurring villain, Twilight's needed a rival for a while, and Starlight Glimmer actually makes a better one than Trixie or Sunset could imo.

 

And like a lot of people have said before, the line "You can't have a nightmare, if you never dream" really stuck with me. Deliciously creepy.

 

Another little detail I liked in the song that wasn't mentioned as much was when Starlight Glimmer braided that mare's hair because it was different than the rest, and the clearly hurt expression she had hidden underneath her fake smile.

[Rainboom Dash 1,055]

A cracking opener. Starlight was one of the most inventive villains, hope she comes back soon. Also enjoyed the much darker bend on the story. Definitely one of my favorite openers.

Edited April 4, 2015 by Rainboom Dash

[Glaive9Gko 82]

That was, by far, the most creepy episode of MLP they've made! Like srsly, they really laid the cultish, Harrison Bergeron-esque distopia on pretty thick! Also, recurring villain potential! YAY!

 

 

And like a lot of people have said before, the line "You can't have a nightmare, if you never dream" really stuck with me. Deliciously creepy.

IKNOWRIGHT!? And the way all the ponies were saying "weeeellcoooome~" with those fake smiles...*shivers*

[Ace O. Jade 122]

Tried to listen to the Intercom, that was playing in the cell.

 

“In sameness there is peace.”

 

“Exceptionalism is a lie”

 

“Free yourself from your cutie mark”

 

“Choose equality as your special talent.”

 

“Difference is frustration”

 

“To excel is to fail”

 

“Be your best by never being your best”

 

“Conformity will set you free"

 

“Accept your limitations and happiness will follow”

 

“You’re no better than your friends.”

 

(Repeats order) “In sameness there is peace…”

 

There are a few missing.

 

Jesus, that's some 1984 stuff right here.

 

"If i say 1+1=3, do you really think it's 3?"

 

Thanks for that, I was wondering. That scene was just such a blindside that My Little Pony suddenly has introduced a "conform or be reconditioned" society to a previously-unseen extreme, and I loved it so much.

[Jon the VGNerd 842]

A cracking opener. Starlight was one of the most inventive villains, hope she comes back soon. Also enjoyed the much darker bend on the story. Definitely one of my favorite openers.

 

Oh, she'll come back... just not in later episodes.

[Ace O. Jade 122]

If you go back and watch "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" and then watch "Cutie Markless" within the context of that episode, the two-parter really becomes a problem. This is especially bad considering the fact that M.A. Larson was a writer on all three episodes. How do you screw up your own continuity this badly? The premiere seems to imply that one's special talent cones not from the individual themselves, but from their cutie mark, which is the total opposite of what "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" said. This becomes horrifying when applied to the CMC, as it basically means that they're not talented at anything at all. Yes, they will get their cutie marks someday, but not because they've discovered what their special talent is. It's because destiny said so. Ugh! This is starting to remind me of why "Magical Mystery Cure" was such a huge headache-inducing problem.

 

This is certainly an interesting thing to notice, but I think that this viewpoint is incorrectly looking at a pony and their cutie mark as two separate entities, when really they're both components that when put together create a whole single entity ("Your cutie mark is a part of who you are.", as the show has reiterated plentifully). In actuality, I think it goes something like this:

 

Every pony has a special talent, or destiny, or whatever you want to call it. This is a core part of who that individual is. When it is discovered, they get their cutie mark. This cutie mark is not actually the embodiment of this ability, but more a representation of it; the ability is still wholly part of the pony. What Starlight Glimmer did was not take their cutie marks away, but she took away that part of their being. The cutie mark, again, was simply a representation of this part. The fact that the CMC still don't have their cutie marks is not because they haven't gained a special talent yet, as I believe your viewpoint is implying, but because they haven't discovered what it is yet. When they do, they haven't necessarily gained it, they've had it all along, but they gain a cutie mark as a representation of it.

 

I think looking at it in that light sort of clears up the issue you're talking about, but perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to say.

[Marimo 555]

Yes.

And one of the few things our lesser party functionaries were alowed to do is to trawel to the western countries and bring back home some jeans or VHS. Bet, it doesn't soud like much of a luxury to you either, does it? Yet, for us it was, first and foremost, sign of unequality, hipoctrisy and corruption.

I suppose I'm just thinking that it didn't show Starlight keeping and using her talent for just her own benefit. Her magic was only seemed to be used to take away a pony's cutie mark, we didn't see her using magic just to make her life easier that would require more energy than an equalized unicorn would have.

 

Yeah Starlight is the  worse villain of MLP so far, she's a ripoff other villains,nothing more 

Discord was openly Q, right down to using the same actor.

 

I'm wondering about how the mane 6 didn't guess that Starlight Glimmer still had her cutie mark. It was evident in the town that if you didn't have your cutie mark, all your colors would become more grey and Starlight Glimmer's color was bright all throughout the episode. Even when the mane 6 were robbed of their cutie marks, their colors darkened so it seemed obvious that something was up with Starlight Glimmer. 

Ponies don't tend to notice color things like that. Only Spike and Pinkie seemed to have brought up the gray thing in Return of Harmony, and those were more throwaway lines.

 

I seriously wonder why nopony would follow Starlight into the cave though... maybe there's something really dangerous about it?  Then again, what would the ponies have done if they caught her? Have the royal guards send her to the dungeon? lol

I imagine the cave just has too many tunnels and paths to find the one path Starlight would take to escape.

 

 

 

and the fact that they didn't even give the town a name comes off to me as lazy writing.

 

I thought it was intentional, like it's not the sort of place meant to attract too much attention, just something a few ponies end up stumbling upon now and then, and the ponies wouldn't need a name because it's a place that they wouldn't leave. Names are the only thing used to differentiate ponies in their town, and they wouldn't need their town to have name to differentiate if they never went to other towns.

 

If you go back and watch "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" and then watch "Cutie Markless" within the context of that episode, the two-parter really becomes a problem. This is especially bad considering the fact that M.A. Larson was a writer on all three episodes. How do you screw up your own continuity this badly? The premiere seems to imply that one's special talent cones not from the individual themselves, but from their cutie mark, which is the total opposite of what "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" said. This becomes horrifying when applied to the CMC, as it basically means that they're not talented at anything at all. Yes, they will get their cutie marks someday, but not because they've discovered what their special talent is. It's because destiny said so. Ugh! This is starting to remind me of why "Magical Mystery Cure" was such a huge headache-inducing problem.

It's not just their special talents. The spell seems to take anything away from a pony that could make them too different, like Applejack's countryisms, or how even their ability to run was hardly better. I imagine it's like this: cutie marks are just a way of showing the visible part of a pony that makes them special. However the magic that removes the cutie mark isn't the same thing as just shaving hair, it also takes along with it all of a ponies' unique abilities and in its place is the equal sign cutie mark that tries to curb any personality differences.

Edited April 4, 2015 by Marimo

[GrauWitz 1,010]

Oh my Celestia, this episode was FANTASTIC! Seriously, it has become my new favourite episode of MLP. Everything about it is great, in my opinion. The story is top-tier, the main villain is brilliant, all of the Mane 6 are perfect and for an MLP episode, it was surprisingly mature. The whole story of the episode feels very George Orwell-esque, especially the scenes in the jail cell where propaganda blares from a loudspeaker. The village itself felt like a creepy Communist cult, which is pretty awesome, especially for an MLP episode. The ending also implies that Starlight will return, and I hope so, because she's one of the best MLP villains so far! I also just LOVE the moral of this episode. 100% equality is impossible without taking away what makes us special.

 

Overall, I LOVED this episode and I look forward to more Season 5!

Edited April 6, 2015 by GrauWitz

[LZRD WZRD 1,929]

Amazing episode. I really did love it. It's one of my favorite episodes and the best two-parter by far.

[dekutree64 711]

This is certainly an interesting thing to notice, but I think that this viewpoint is incorrectly looking at a pony and their cutie mark as two separate entities, when really they're both components that when put together create a whole single entity ("Your cutie mark is a part of who you are.", as the show has reiterated plentifully). In actuality, I think it goes something like this:

 

Every pony has a special talent, or destiny, or whatever you want to call it. This is a core part of who that individual is. When it is discovered, they get their cutie mark. This cutie mark is not actually the embodiment of this ability, but more a representation of it; the ability is still wholly part of the pony. What Starlight Glimmer did was not take their cutie marks away, but she took away that part of their being. The cutie mark, again, was simply a representation of this part. The fact that the CMC still don't have their cutie marks is not because they haven't gained a special talent yet, as I believe your viewpoint is implying, but because they haven't discovered what it is yet. When they do, they haven't necessarily gained it, they've had it all along, but they gain a cutie mark as a representation of it.

 

I think looking at it in that light sort of clears up the issue you're talking about, but perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to say.

You beat me to it That's pretty much how I see it. Cutie mark removal is sort of like a lobotomy. Your brain is just a body part too, right? But removing part of it (at least functionally) takes part of your mind/soul with it.

 

I thought that last little stretchy bit of Twilight's mark being torn out of her was a great visual representation of how it might feel.

Edited April 4, 2015 by dekutree64

[darkwingmare 1,296]

I absolutely adored the new episode. It was just as I had expected! FINALLY the mane 6 didn't solve everything with their "superpower-undefeatable-rainbow-magic-of-friendship", but they actually let other ponies help them out and defeat the villain.. Well, basically FOR them. I have been waiting for this, and I had hoped for it, IT HAPPENED! Thanks! I'm so satisfied with this season premiere!

 

I love the animation, I love the story telling, I love the new concept, I LOVE that they are bringing forth new background characters, I LOVE that they made a real-life scenario out of the premiere. I really like the idea of bringing communism into the show, or at all anything related to different ways of ruling and I loved how Glimmer lied about equalizing her own cutie mark, I really saw it coming though.. It was still cool! I LOVED PARTY FAVOR! And the other cute baking pony with "Belle" in her name. Adorable. Lovely! I can't wait to see more!

Edited April 4, 2015 by darkwingmare

[Happy Spark is King 331]

Ok so was the episode called cutie markless or the cutie map

[smitty121325 64]

This is certainly an interesting thing to notice, but I think that this viewpoint is incorrectly looking at a pony and their cutie mark as two separate entities, when really they're both components that when put together create a whole single entity ("Your cutie mark is a part of who you are.", as the show has reiterated plentifully). In actuality, I think it goes something like this:

 

Every pony has a special talent, or destiny, or whatever you want to call it. This is a core part of who that individual is. When it is discovered, they get their cutie mark. This cutie mark is not actually the embodiment of this ability, but more a representation of it; the ability is still wholly part of the pony. What Starlight Glimmer did was not take their cutie marks away, but she took away that part of their being. The cutie mark, again, was simply a representation of this part. The fact that the CMC still don't have their cutie marks is not because they haven't gained a special talent yet, as I believe your viewpoint is implying, but because they haven't discovered what it is yet. When they do, they haven't necessarily gained it, they've had it all along, but they gain a cutie mark as a representation of it.

 

I think looking at it in that light sort of clears up the issue you're talking about, but perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to say.

Let me see if I can simplify my argument. The episode seems to imply that the Mane Six's talents aren't natural, as if their talents come from their cutie marks. It's like they're saying, "You discover what you're good at when you get your cutie mark," whereas "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" said the exact opposite: "You'll get your cutie mark when you realize what you're good at." I mean, for crying out loud, Applejack couldn't even talk right. This is in complete contrast to "The CMC", where it was shown that these ponies had these special abilities all along, long before they got their cutie marks. How getting their cutie marks taken away strips them of all personality (in the case of Pinkie, anyway) and ability makes no sense. Edited April 4, 2015 by smitty121325

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

The season 5 premiere episodes were soooooo good and so worth the wait!!! OMG the opener is amazing and I love it!!!! Also I loved seeing the new location introduced and the new ponies and villain introduced. Starlight Glimmer is such a creepy and charming villain and is truly manipulative and seeing her manipulate the others and taunt Twilight and her friends about getting their cutie marks back was eerie. I also love the song that was featured and the message of the two episodes. I can't wait to see the rest of what this season has for us!!!

[Cleverclover 1,525]

I realize that the notion of balance between the mane six has been almost entirely eroded, but there's something that really rubs me the wrong way about this statement...

 

 

Twilight: "But the map didn't send me, it sent us. You're a part of me, all of you. And there's no doubt you're a part of my mission to spread friendship, too." 

 

Interestingly enough, a similar statement was made by Twilight towards the end of Twilight's Kingdom. 

 

So this is what it's come to? That the mane five are simply accessories to Twilight who can receive no praise or gratification unless it comes through her first? That she alone has to be the one singing their praises, because everyone else only sings for her? 

 

Or, is this pretty much the show's way of stating: "See guys? They many not be alicorns, but those other five ponies are important, too!" 

 

That's really annoying. We cannot seriously be at that point where the show has to actually remind us that it's not The Twilight Sparkle Show, can we?   
 

Other than that, I admit that this premiere was pretty damn good. 

 

 

Celestia, you're out of a job.  

 

[Gearbox10mm 794]

Can you imagine how mind bucked you would be if this was the first episode of MLP you'd ever seen?