What Creeped You Out the Most about The Cutie Map?

[Dark Qiviut 22,388]

There are so many adjectives to describe how great The Cutie Map is. Philosophical is one of them. When I think of TCM, I think of "creepy." There are so many parts about this opener that made me physically shiver. While Castle Mane-ia is more campy, TCM uses allegories of Orwellian societies, strict communist countries, and the Third Reich and thrusts them into a TV-Y program. Even worse, a lot of the techniques used in this show are very authentic. The loudspeaker used to brainwash the Mane Six after getting stripped of their cutie marks is very similar to how North Korea uses loudspeakers to wake up everyone in Pyongyang and spread propaganda. The Cutie Map wasn't just filled with suspense. It was a horror story because of all the psychological games played on the Mane Six, the townsponies, and especially the audience.

 

What creeped me out the most were as follows:

1. In Our Town: This is such a mesmerizing song. Very catchy with plenty of optimism. But the little details in both the animation and lyrics really bring out the psychological horror. The marching is very synchronized, similar to marches by armies during the World Wars. The music itself is inspired by WWII propaganda. When Glimmer used her magic to bow the mare's hair back together, the unnamed mare smiled very nervously.
   
   Lastly, This meter: "You can't have a nightmare if you never dream." From my analysis of the two-parter:
   

   What makes it scary is how there's truth into this line. The idea that dreams are describes as an inherent nightmare; in order to have a true good night's sleep, how about giving up the ability to dream? It's a scary question to ask, but how the song's written and delivered creates a mirage of how this may be one of the best ideas out there. The line offers serious implications over how you can tackle this internal conflict.

    

2. Starlight Glimmer's voice repeating through the loudspeakers. The Orwellian language is one reason to feel scared. But when I think of it, I think of how North Korea keeps its brainwashed citizens under control. Loudspeakers blare over the country to wake them up and remind them "how great their leaders are." When these messages are hammered while they're secluded, the propaganda becomes extremely convincing. It's an authentic brainwashing technique. To have it transitioned so seamlessly into FIM is spooky.

3. Starlight Glimmer herself. She's not some all-mighty magical being. But a villain who honestly believes she's delivering some level of justice in an injustice world. We know she's evil, but she doesn't see herself as evil. Instead, Equestrian matriarchy was evil. She believes in the Magic of Friendship, but believes how the only way to achieve it is to be one of the same. Discord was previously the best villain because his humor provided a great mask over his villainy while accentuating it. Currently, Glimmer overtakes him: Magic notwithstanding, she's a villain that can exist in real life.

Your turn. If you found it creepy like I do, what elements from The Cutie Map spooked you the most? Please describe your answers.

Edited July 29, 2015 by Dark Qiviut

[The Pink One 595]

I have just realized how right you are ... creepy indeed. Now I will need to watch all of MLP season 1-5 again just to get that out of my head. Or I might just get nightmares ... very creepy stuff.

However what spooked me was that Starlight Glimmer took all of the ponies individuality and what made them unique away, they were all shells of their previous selves. And were unable to excel. What is scariest is that some countries in the real world are run by people like Starlight Glimmer and that is truly scary, seeing that until she is exposed she has complete control over the ponies, by force or otherwise.

[Snow Frostflame 3,568]

it didn't really creep me out.... of anything it gave me ideas...

[Winona the Dog 1,984]

Honestly I think Starlight is just lying to herself with the whole "WE ARE ALL EQUAL" bologna.

 

Yeah I know it's a parallel to communism.

 

Although I have to admit the brainwashing thing was legitimately creepy especially with the mane 6 loosing their usual characteristics.

[Jangocoolguy 433]

"In Our Town"

 

Upbeat, catchy music and lyrics, but with an undercurrent of something sinister like propaganda songs of old. Not to mention how the marching bit reminded me Nazis (and the hyena march from "Be Prepared" from the Lion King)

[Knight Hadron 372]

What creeps me out is that instead of a mythological creature that I knew the mane six would blast with some fantasy power, this was down to earth and real. I couldn't see a way out of it until Flutters took charge; usually, in MLP, I could predict what was gonna happen with the finales/premires.

 

These episodes took real stuff and popped them into a children's show. It was amazing.

[Megas 27,592]

That vein popping from Starlight Glimmer's neck when she was going crazy. Popping veins was the last thing I expected from something like FiM

Edited April 6, 2015 by Megas75

[Photon Jet 5,491]

The one scene that got me in Cutie Maps was when Starlight shouted "QUIET!" with a menacing look on her face. She totally took me by surprise there. 

[AmberDust 1,118]

"So nopony sees see what happens next!"

 

That could have taken a much more...graphic turn.

[baltosaa 86]

Well, none of it seemed creepy until now.....

 

thanks ^.^

[Pineapple Bloom 511]

The creepiest is the voice repeated through the loudspeakers... I'd go crazy listening to that. She was literally trying to brainwash them.

[power strike 198]

it didnt creep me out but it freaked me out that when spike stomped on pinkie pies home and she cried i thought she was going to scream ! i can already tell there going to use that scene in the next anthology ! lol.

[Shanks 10,816]

The cult like atmosphere combined with the numerous close paralels to the Soviet Union, Maoist China, Nazi Germany, North Korea and other totalitarian regimes. 

[Wind Chaser 4,768]

The craziest thing about this has to be Starlight Glimmer's raw skill. Ironically to the point of her plan, she has many gifts and knows how to use them, and enacts a layered plan that shows an amount of foresight that would make King Sombra jealous.

 

The fact that Starlight Glimmer managed to influence all of these ponies and kept them under control for so long is proof of that. Her plan was virtually flawless had it not been for her rudimentary cutie mark disguise. It is also implied that the other ponies may have voluntarily converted, so their sincere loyalty made them a collective force to be feared.

 

Once the revelation came up that the Staff was a lie, we saw another layer of the plan. Glimmer had used every sort of psychological weapon; the threat of force, indoctrination, manipulation, etc., but the actual force itself was on Twilight's levels of potency and extremely dangerous. When intellectual and physical muscle are combined, defeating this force seems to be even more of an uphill battle.

 

Starlight Glimmer calls to mind every great dictator in history with the full package she had; Caesar, Hitler, Stalin, Saddam, the Kims, etc. Power is nothing without might, and she definitely had it all. In all truth, @Dark Qiviut, you cannot have the song and the Orwellisms without an exceptionally twisted mastermind behind it to bring it all together, and that's what Starlight Glimmer was. She was the perfect despot, living by the delusion that she was doing right in the world by demoralizing ponies.

[Shikilicious 69]

Well, if you analyze the song this way, you'd also need to pay attention one of the lines at the beginning

 

 

"we don't have to look around, to know that we all here"

 

As it implies that the town is a place you don't, or perhaps can't, leave.

 

If you interpret it like this, it also gives another parallel to most communism systems in which inhabitants are not allowed to leave the country at their own will.

[Fractured 2,684]

3. Starlight Glimmer herself. She's not some all-mighty magical being. But a villain who honestly believes she's delivering some level of justice in an injustice world. We know she's evil, but she doesn't see herself as evil. Instead, Equestrian matriarchy was evil. She believes in the Magic of Friendship, but believes how the only way to achieve it is to be one of the same. Discord was previously the best villain because his humor provided a great mask over his villainy while accentuating it. Currently, Glimmer overtakes him: Magic notwithstanding, she's a villain that can exist in real life.

Was she really evil, though? I find this to be similar to the IDW comic The Good, the Bad, and the Pony. Obviously, the way she went about achieving her goals was wrong( i.e brainwashing), but the ideas she was going for was perfectly fine (at least, to me). Personally, that's one of the creepy parts to me; it's far enough in the uncanny valley of moral grayness that I can actually say I want to believe her.

 

#2 would probably be the fact that we all watched as Starlight Glimmer was psychologically shattered. Literally, her entire life unfolded in real time, and we're not supposed to feel bad for her. Sure, she's the bad guy, but that doesn't make it any better. For reference, it's essentially this scene toned down, with Edward playing the Twilight Sparkle.

 

So then #3 would obviously be that we don't know what happened to her. She escaped, and now there's now a highly unstable, magically gifted unicorn running around Equestria with nothing to lose. This will not end well.

[That One Pone 584]

The second point in the OP is what got me big time. It just seemed really... creepy. No other way to describe it.

[Omar 692]

The smiles... THE SMILES!!! The way that they all smiled was really creepy.

[PoisonClaw 8,164]

The copious amounts of cult undertones such as the forced smiles that even bothered Pinkie, the unnerving chipper and clearly false attitude of the townsfolk, the way Night Glider described have her cutie mark removed almost like it was a euphoric experience and the loudspeaker room that attempts to indoctrinate ponies like we saw with Party Favor where he basically begged for forgiveness for ever even considering wanting his cutie mark back.   

Edited April 6, 2015 by PoisonClaw

[Sugar Pea 2,682]

:rarity:Starlight reminded me of a dictator...kinda like Hitler or something, that's what made it freaky to me. Other than that, it didn't really freak me out...made me sit and think about it, though.

[Black Sabbath 2,486]

The whole brainwashing thing was rather creepy.

[simba86 1,541]

the thing that creeped me out was all the brainwashed perpetual smiles and stares LOL

[Hovershy 3,814]

Honestly, the thought of being locked in house with propaganda playing through the loudspeakers until you submit to it is pretty creepy. 

[Cleverclover 1,526]

Probably Party Favor. 

 

I mean, come on, the balloon binoculars were farfetched enough, but the bridge?! That was pretty damn contrived. 

 

Another thing would be how quickly Starlight turned on her friends after being exposed, to the point where she actually fired a death laser beam at them. That really made her display a level of psychopathy that no other villain in the show had ever really displayed before. 

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

The overall creepy nature of the townsponies. The whole town just had a creepy atmosphere. Those ponies always had a smile on their face and were practically like zombies. It actually makes the nature more creepy to see the mane 6's reactions to them.