S05:E25+26 - The Cutie Re-Mark

[Cloud Strife 928]

That was a rather gripping finale, in my opinion, and definitely among the better ones. All I can say is that if I disliked anything it was that Starlight Glimmer's redemption was rushed as they focused too much on the spectacle, but even then it was handled better than some other redemptions. They are definitely getting better at this.

[Nintenboy195 384]

This is by far my favorite season finale. Quite beautiful and fascinating if  I do say so myself! In all of the different alternate reality, I got a pretty big fallout equestrian vibe from a lot of them, and sonic SatAM. But thats just me. Fantastic job on hasbros part. Season 5 truly was by far the best season in my opinion, and I see nothing but greatness for the future.

Edited November 29, 2015 by Nintenboy195

[Xiflelin 72]

I'm just gonna insert myself here. I'm gonna reach out and hope that someone can understand (and hopefully sympathize with) my crazed opinion.

 

Note: I'm not trying to start any fights, and at this time I frankly don't care why you'd even wanna fight. I'm just a kid wanting to overcome my own feelings.

 

I'm gonna share with you a conversation I had on Skype moments after I watched the ending of Season 5:

 

 

[1:00:12 AM] Rhys Sanguine: So, I just watched the end of mlp season 5, and I know you don't care about mlp, but I feel like I need to talk about this so bare with me

[1:00:55 AM] Rhys Sanguine: The main villian of these episodes (technically one episode) just made me angry, and I don't know why

[1:01:44 AM] Rhys Sanguine: Like, she set the fate of Equestria's wellbeing in her hands, whoopdy-freakin'-do

[1:02:05 AM] Rhys Sanguine: But the thing that made me really mad was her reasoning for doing what she did

[1:02:50 AM] Rhys Sanguine: Like, she lost a friend over getting getting his cutie mark, and being afraid to make any other friend because she didn't want to get hurt again

[1:03:54 AM] Rhys Sanguine: And so, she wanted Twilight to lose her friends over the one thing that nudged them towards each other

[1:04:14 AM] Rhys Sanguine: Which was a sonic rainboom thing that inspired them to get their cutie marks, blah blah blah

[1:04:22 AM] Rhys Sanguine: Point is

[1:05:59 AM] Rhys Sanguine: She made me mad because she did this thing to get back at Twilight and didn't even once consider that it was selfish, or that maybe she was wrong

[1:06:19 AM] Rhys Sanguine: And the real kicker, having people there to help her see it

[1:06:40 AM] Friend: i can see why thats annoying

[1:06:45 AM] Friend: @mlp wyd

[1:07:48 AM] Rhys Sanguine: It pisses me off to no avail because I have to have this war with myself and no one is there to make it all better by saying, "Oh, just make some friends" or something to the extent of, "Oh, just do that thing that you've been putting off, then you can be happy and not destroy Equestria as we know it"

[1:08:22 AM | Edited 1:09:38 AM] Rhys Sanguine: It just makes me freaking infuriated

[1:08:43 AM] Rhys Sanguine: I mean, I don't think I can push this down, it's so bad

[1:08:57 AM] Rhys Sanguine: But like, am I wrong for feeling this way?

[1:10:16 AM] Friend: no tbh

[1:10:25 AM] Rhys Sanguine: Why's that?

[1:10:31 AM] Friend: I can see why thatd be frustrating

[1:10:58 AM] Rhys Sanguine: I'm not even mad because she got off scott-free

[1:11:54 AM] Friend: dang

[1:11:58 AM | Edited 1:13:16 AM] Rhys Sanguine: I'm mad because someone that was dead set on virtually destroying the world gets treated better thanI do just because they live in a land full of rainbows and sunshine powered by the power of friendship

[1:12:25 AM] Rhys Sanguine: And it's so easily solved just because her motives were pure

[1:12:50 AM | Edited 1:13:00 AM] Rhys Sanguine: Well, not easily persay, but comparitively it was easier

[1:14:11 AM] Friend: dang

[1:14:24 AM] Friend: thats??

[1:14:31 AM] Friend: thats freaking wild idk how to help tbh

[1:14:40 AM] Rhys Sanguine: S'fine

[1:15:55 AM] Rhys Sanguine: Welp, I've now gotten to the point where I'm just tired

[1:16:01 AM] Rhys Sanguine: Tired of what?

[1:16:05 AM] Rhys Sanguine: I can't tell ya

[1:16:25 AM | Edited 1:17:36 AM] Rhys Sanguine: I don't know myself tbh (I'm not saying I don't know myself as in I'm a stranger or some crap or that I'm blaming myself, I'm just saying that I'm tired of a lot of things)

[1:16:59 AM] Friend: sleep may help

[1:17:52 AM] Rhys Sanguine: It always ends up like that, all we gotta do is wait

[1:18:03 AM] Rhys Sanguine: Thank you for your time

[1:19:01 AM] Friend: welcome fam

 

For the sake of my friend, I just replaced their name as "friend" and I censored any profanity as best I could for the sake of you guys.

 

To all who don't care, I'm sorry for wasting your time.

 

And the rest of you, please help. I really wanna know how I can stop this. From what I know, the help needs to be consistent. So if you're up for helping a needy kid figure himself out, it'd be greatly appreciated. 

[Justin_Case001 4,881]

A little bit ago, I started a thread about my theory regarding cutie marks--that they are not in fact related to a pony's talents in any way, but are merely an outward representation of the pony's own perception of who they are, which in most cases will be something they're good at.  I believe this theory is not only supported, but outright proven by the events on the show.  I was very antsy about the finale, because I was worried it would punch a hole in my headcanon.  Fortunately, it did no such thing.  I was expecting more cutie mark alteration from Starlight, like maybe she turns all the marks of the everypony in Ponyville into something sinister.  That would have been rather annoying.  What they did was absolutely BRILLIANT!
 

Loved it, loved it, loved it.  Genius.  Gold.
 

They outdid themselves in almost every way.  Epic.  Probably the most epic yet, but as many have said, so much more interesting than the OP god-villain.  The alternate futures were shockingly dark, especially the Sombra future (my favorite, btw.)  In my opinion, that future raised the bar for how dark and serious the show can get, and what they can get away with.  Of course they had to keep the violence light and censored in the war scene, but in my mind, it was brutal.  Like, Battle of Sterling brutal.  The point is, it was freaking awesome.  Of course the whole story was genius, and the creative way in which they brought back all the villains was brilliant.  I only wish that the whole thing could have been longer so they didn't have to breeze past the Tirek future and the Discord future.  And really, there's so many interesting ideas for more alternate futures.  I'll be interested to see what pops up in the community.  I really loved the desolate wasteland future, or whatever you want to call it.  Was all of ponykind extinct?  Whatever happened, it was awesome.

 

Even though it was a small part of the episode, perhaps the best part for me was Twilight's speech at the magic academy.  I always thought that she should actually be a professor of magic at the academy.  This was a huge step in the right direction for me.  She should be doing much more of that kind of thing.  It suits her personality so perfectly.  Better than running errands for the Daemon, really.  Seeing Moondancer there was great, as well.  My headcanon is that they probably hung out and got lunch before or after class.  Just no time to show it.

 

I had a feeling that Starlight would be reformed, and I thought that it was a good move.  It was quick, as reforms usually are on FIM, but that's okay.  Totally excusable.  I do wish they had shown a bit more of her backstory, you know, with Sunbucket or whatever his name was.  It seemed...I dunno, like, a little far fetched that she turned so nuts from losing that ONE friend as a filly.  Like, it would have been better if it had been a pattern, and she had been shown losing multiple friends, but oh well, whattya gonna do?  It was still good.

 

I was a huge fan of soldier Rainbow and guard Rainbow.  Did anyone else notice that her voice was different as the guard in the Nightmare Moon universe?  I thought it was noticeably rougher and more intimidating.  If that was on purpose, it was genius.  It's very believable that a lifetime in that harsh world would do that.

 

I guess the only thing that I'm soured on was Celestia's exclusion yet again.  Yeah, I know she was in the Sombra future, and that was great and all, but it doesn't really count.  No speaking part, and she wasn't in the actual, repaired present.  I really wanted her to be in the ending.  Here's what I wanted to see: after the "deliberation", Twilight comes out and tells Starlight that she thinks she's found a good solution, then we fade out.  We fade back in to see Twilight teaching a class about friendship at the magic academy, and Starlight is a student.  After class, Celestia walks into the lecture hall and tells Twilight that the class was a wonderful idea, and Starlight thanks Celestia for letting her be in the class, and for giving her a chance.  It would be left at that, with her reform beginning, but by no means complete, with the implication that she's well on her way.  I think tying in the magic academy at the end would have been great, and more importantly, I wanted to see Celestia.  I gather that they really are trying to write her out of the show, and it pisses me the f*ck off, to be honest.  I wish they'd bring her back, develop her, and make her a real character again.  I mean, overall, I really love what they've done with S5, but I think it's ridiculous that Twilight never asks Tia for help or advice anymore.  When Twi said that she wouldn't be able to fix this time travel conundrum on her own, I thought for sure she was going to seek out Celestia.  I know that it's her circle of friends that have saved Equestria so many times, but think about it--who might be more well-suited for helping to fix a broken timeline?  The mane 5, that know nothing about time travel magic, or Celestia, who f*cking KNEW Starswirl, and was trained by him?!  Hmm....that's a pickle all right.  So, really disappointed at her exclusion, but it was still a really brilliant episode.

 

I think my friendship class ending would have better, honestly, but the song montage was still good.  Pretty decent song as well, though some of the music was a bit strange.  When it first started, I thought we had fallen into some kind of enchanted toybox at Santa's workshop or something.... .  But then again, what act could possibly hope to follow The Magic Inside?

 

One other thing that made it weird for me was that my dad watched the entire episode with me.  He's never done that before, or expressed even the slightest interest.  He's completely pro-brony and all, but every time I watch the show, he seems to make it a point to deliberately leave the room and watch baseball on MLB.com or something.  This time, he just sat there and didn't move when I put the finale on.  It was really weird.  It felt too weird to say anything, either.  During each commercial break, I just kept shifting my eyes over there and thinking, What is this?  What's going on?  When it was over, he just stood up and said, "Reminded me of The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode, Time and Punishment."

 

To which I simply said,

 

 

 

Lastly, I think a better name for the episode would have been Darkness and Starlight, which the hardcore-est of Final Fantasy fans will recognize as the score to the Dream Oath Opera from FF VI.

 

Well, that's it, my last episode review for, like, a hundred years.  No more FIM, no more Game of Thrones, no more Rick & Morty.  What am I to do??!!  I guess I'm stuck with...ugh...."Supergirl"...for the moment.  It's okay, but kinda dopey.

[Silver Letter 1,832]

 

 

Not only would they, but they have done it in the past (Beast Wars is a good example).

Oh, well I guess I didn't take other shows into account. If they do make three episodes about something, it would be quite the event for FiM.

 

And another thing, I thought this season was the Cutie Mark Magic season. Cutie Mark Magic was even mentioned in the season finale. I think during Twilight's speech.

[GiFTGewEhrSCHutzen-4 8,828]

First Diamond Tiara, now Starlight Glimmer, both landed in redemptionville. Gotta say they did good in making SG a badass villain as she messes with Twilight. And even though time has been altered, I gotta say that it's good to see the old villains back like Sombra, Chrysalis, and we get to see old Discord messing about with the Royal sisters hehehehe. And almost forgot, it's good to see Nightmare Moon back again, and I dig her guards who were bat ponies, oh and Rainbow Dash having bat wings, I'm guessing her wings are covered up with batwing shaped armour. But the best part was the musical at the end and last shot were they show all the ponies facing the viewers at the end. Seeing that there are 7 main characters in EG, is it possible for SG to join the main cast as well? Guess we'll find out in the upcoming season 6.

[cider float 2,537]

Since it's a finale it has to be worthwhile. It's definitely one of the better less cringy episodes on Season 5 but it still didn't skip out on the subtle pandering. 

[VengefulStrudel 1,486]

Well it sure went out with a bang. Loved all the alternate universes, heh. I think my favorite has to be the Sombra one, war-time Dash and Pinkie/Maud were quite badass, hehe. That and the armor of doom worn by the crystal ponies was awesome

 

Interesting that they chose to do time travel though, usually that ends up quite convoluted. Not quite sure how Starlight was able to go head-to-head with the Element of Magic, who's also an alicorn, but I liked it anyway. Twilight would have a lot less problems if she brute forced her way through 'em, but I liked that she couldn't here.

 

And then she was redeemed...can't say I'm surprised, but ah well. What an awesome season this was, congrats to the team! And now for the off-season time, here's to waiting for Season 6.

[Swifty 249]

So the rule of Nightmare Moon wouldnt be as bad as everybody believed.

This was the most interesting part of this episode.

 

And thanks to Josh Haber, Celestia was able to defend herself against four Earth Ponies. Im surprised. It would have been different with the usual culprits, McCarthy and Larson. Most likely lol

[Octavia_Melody2 187]

I was pretty disappointed in this episode. It had a lot of buildup and cool scenes but I thought it fell flat in the end.

 

It would've been nice to see a more lengthy flashback showing how Starlight became so powerful. That would have been interesting. And I thought her motivation in the end was pretty weak. She loses one friend who she doesn't bother to contact and then she goes mad with power? Also, all that buildup to an anticlimactic ending. I don't think Starlight should've been redeemed. Yet another villain given a rushed reformation and instant forgiveness. Are Chrysalis and Tirek going to be everyone's best buddy next season? I was hoping she would use the time travel to unite all the villains against Twilight. That would've been epic.

[UnknownFry 169]

The Cutie Re-Mark Part 1

 

Plot and Characterization

 

"Starlight Glimmer, hoping to obtain revenge against the Mane 6, acquires a spell that could change the past, present and future of Equestria forever."

 

Starlight ambushes Twilight at Twilight’s castle after Twilight returns home delivering a lecture about the importance of Friendship and Cutie Marks, and begins a sequence of time chases where Twilight tries in vain to prevent Starlight from preventing the Sonic Rainboom with each failed attempt leading to increased worse timeline as far as the situation of Equestria is concerned. It was an entertaining first act full of intriguing possibilities with these altered timelines with Twilight’s efforts to prevent Starlight’s scheme.

 

Spike was a nice sidekick who managed to help Twilight from time to time in her earlier efforts.

 

Starlight Glimmer came back for revenge and acted vindictive with her reasons remaining a mystery for such an act. She certainly is no slouch when it comes to magic as she was able to alter some of Starwirl’s spells.

 

It was interesting to see how everyone else fared in the altered timelines,  but one  potentially missed opportunity concerned itself with the whereabouts of Twilight in such timelines, but it is not a gamebreaker. Great start to the the finale and as such this episode scores a 10 in this department.

 

Animation and Music:

 

Background music was solid and fit the episode appropriately enough.

 

Animations wise there was some impressive spell effects, and they really went all out with the depictions of these altered versions of Equestria, and it was great to see the varying designs of the same characters in such altered realities.

 

10/10

 

Voice Acting and Dialogue

 

Voice acting was par for course as it captured the struggle of ideology between Twilight and Starlight well enough, and the episode was ripe with some gems of memorable lines/

 

10.10

Overall this episode nets another 30/30, or another 10. Excellent execution of said premise and excellent presentation sets the pace of this finale as off to a strong start with high stakes and plenty of tension between Twilight and Starlight.

The Cutie Re-Mark Part 2

 

Plot and Characterization

 

"Princess Twilight continues to fight against Starlight's attempts to alter the past, but they fear that their efforts may be in vain."

 

Twilight was her usual self in refusing to give up to Starlight’s schemes even as things were starting to get worse, and the situation increasingly futile, but she managed to hang on while eventually being successful in appealing to Starlight.

 

Apparently this experience was the strangest ordeal Twilight went through before encountering her human counterpart in the human world.

 

If you can’t beat them then befriend them, and that is what Twilight did.

 

Spike was less of a presence in this episode than he was in the first part.

 

Starlight’s motivations were finally explained at long last. Nothing too fancy as she really believed in her ideology after a painful experience with losing a friend due to a Cutie Mark. Starlight’s reformation was widely known before this episode, but she does give Twilight another angle to Twilight’s character after being taken in as her student.

 

Still nice to see how the other ponies fared in the altered timelines, and it was nice to see the four major ponies from The Cutie Map make an appearance as Starlight apologized for her actions at the end there. It was amusing to see the other five ponies show up wondering what happened between Starlight and Twilight.

 

The plot was still exciting , and the clash over ideology was explained as both ponies presented their cases by showing the past and the consequences over the continued time war. The moral was pretty decent and it seems to further add clarification to Twilight’s mission as a princess as other bonds between other sets of friends are just as important to the well being of Equestria as much as the friendship between the Mane 6 is.

 

10/10

 

Animation and Music

 

The background music was appropriate, but the one song they had towards the end there was pretty catchy while fitting pretty well with the theme of these two episodes. Definitely one of the stronger songs of season 5.

 

Animation was superb with the continued depictions of the altered realities and the depictions of the characters therein, an impressive magic duel that wound up in a stalemate, and the depiction of the ultimate fate of Equestria as a result of this back and forth war stood out the most. Excellent.

 

10/10

 

Voice Acting and Dialogue

 

Voice acting was as a sharp as ever, and the dialogue in this episode stood out even more so than the first one especially with the exchange between Twilight and Starlight over the futility

 

10/10

 

Overall this episode scores a 30/30, and another 10 which makes for a whooping total of 14 for me this season (Friendship Games included.) Entertaining and engaging  plot with superb presentation makes this one another winner in my books, and the implications for Season 6 are quite intriguing in regards to Starlight’s character.

[Truffles 2,033]

It seemed...I dunno, like, a little far fetched that she turned so nuts from losing that ONE friend as a filly.  Like, it would have been better if it had been a pattern, and she had been shown losing multiple friends, but oh well, whattya gonna do?  It was still good.

I know, right? I like this idea because I too thought it was a little weak the way it was presented. It's kind of like how the CMC had to wait so long for their cutie marks, except they were fortunate enough to get their cutie marks at the same time. Starlight didn't, and for whatever reason she didn't have anypony around her to support her while she went through this angst.

 

Why do I get the feeling that, like Diamond Tiara, Starlight Glimmer has some really lousy parents? Because if anypony could help her through it, it would be them...

 

Here's what I wanted to see: after the "deliberation", Twilight comes out and tells Starlight that she thinks she's found a good solution, then we fade out.  We fade back in to see Twilight teaching a class about friendship at the magic academy, and Starlight is a student.  After class, Celestia walks into the lecture hall and tells Twilight that the class was a wonderful idea, and Starlight thanks Celestia for letting her be in the class, and for giving her a chance.  It would be left at that, with her reform beginning, but by no means complete, with the implication that she's well on her way.  I think tying in the magic academy at the end would have been great, and more importantly, I wanted to see Celestia.

I love this idea! Having the lectures bookend the finale would have been a far better way to structure the story, and yes, it would have given Celestia some speaking time for a change.

 

While the song was OK, I didn't really think it was needed for this finale. The story was dark enough that having them suddenly sing about it at the end seemed out-of-place. Did the S4 finale have a song at the end? I don't even remember... All I remember is the epic Tirek battle with the destruction of the library and Discord (seemingly) betray Fluttershy. But you get my point - the song was excess baggage. They could have dumped the song to allow for more time to explain Starlight's descent into evil, and the resolution to her redemption.

 

 

So, I'm curious how do you think Rainbow Dash will act in S6 after having learned the entire fate of Equestria rested on her? In "The Cutie Mark Chronicles," when she found out she was responsible for the creation of the Mane 6, she was pretty proud of herself, but it didn't seem to affect her beyond that episode. (Nothing was explicitly stated, anyway, that her episodes of being stuck up were because of her Rainboom.)

 

At the end of the finale, she's again self-impressed that she's now basically Equestria's savior - that the fate of the whole world is precariously balanced on her wingtips. Perhaps she'll again simply take it in stride, or maybe she'll become insufferable next season.

A third possibility is she'll actually brood over it - that is, now she'll worry that anytime she doesn't succeed at something that she's doomed a future Equestria to being a lifeless wasteland. I kind of like this idea since it would make a good lesson for an episode, but we'll see.

[Thaliel 116]

TBH, Sunburst wsn't being a very good friend to Starlight, he neither inveited her to come outside amd celebrate with him, or did he ever come see her/invite her to see him when studying in canterlot. Wherever he is now, he would need a lesson or two from the princess of friendship.

[JH24 385]

 

 It seemed...I dunno, like, a little far fetched that she turned so nuts from losing that ONE friend as a filly.  Like, it would have been better if it had been a pattern, and she had been shown losing multiple friends, but oh well, whattya gonna do?  It was still good.

 

 

True, it does seem a bit weak from a story point that all this happened because she lost one friend, On the other hand, emotions are both complex and unpredictable. She couldn't deal with her feelings and sadness and shifted the blame solely on the Cutie Marks. Her anger as well as her fear to lose more friends began to consume her, and eventually led to an obsession. Yeah, from an outside view like yours and mine it seems odd that all this happened, but Starlight likely just fell deeper and deeper into "darkness" to the point there was no turning back.

 

I like how this explains her outbursts in this season's premiere. She cares about her new friends, she finally had new friends based on her values of "equality" only for Twilight and her friends to come along and --in her eyes-- take everything away from her.

 

I really liked how in the end it took Starlight witnessing a devastated world (I got a kind of Fallout/Metro 2033 vibe from it, maybe there was a war and the ponies destroyed themselves and their world) to bring her back to reality.

 

 

I look forward to re-watch the episode tonight, there's probably still so much I've missed the first time around.

Edited November 29, 2015 by JH24

[SparklingSquirrels 21,332]

Eh... I didn't like it. I thought Starlight Glimmer was redeemed way too fast, and I thought her joining the mane 6 seemed a bit out of place... it would have been better if she tried to make up with her old friend.

But I've never been a big fan of Starlight in the first place. I guess Starlight fans were happy to see more of her.

 

The alternate reality versions of Equestria were probably my favorite part, especially the Chrysalis one with Zecora.

[PoisonClaw 8,164]

By Celestia's mane, was that unbelievably dark! And as someone who likes when seemingly harmless stories go from light and soft to dark, that's saying something!

 

An honest to god WAR with King Sombra including a battle torn Dash? Chrysalis enslaving all of Equestria? Nightmare Moon winning?! And then apparently in the end Equestria is reduced to a barren wasteland straight out of Fallout: Equestria! This... this is a kid's show still... right? I already said this, but this rivals some dark fanfics in terms of dark atmosphere,

 

Although, that does ask the question as to why only one of these events occurred in each timeline. Nightmare Moon's return was set in stone, so that should have occurred regardless, same with the Crystal Empire returning. With all the disharmony produced by the war, Discord would have been free in no time and there's no telling in Tirek would have still broken out of Tartarus. But this could just be me being pedantic, as Zecora does invoke the old time-travel trope that if a single factor is altered, the future may become completely unrecognizable.

 

Moving onto Starlight Glimmer, she was 27 different flavours of crazy back in The Cutie Map, now she's 28 different levels of loony. Her multiple fights with Twilight were well animated and her ways of twisting the timeline each time cements her Magnificent Bastard status. In the end, you could argue that her redemption occurred too quickly, or that her motivation in no way removes her of any guilt (which it doesn't), but to me her redemption does feel kinda more natural than others before.

 

Here, she wasn't thinking about the consequences of her action and how it would effect Equestria as a whole, just that she would be getting her petty revenge. She was so short sighted, that when Twilight finally showed her the disparaged Equestria, the first seeds of doubt took root and quickly flourished. It feels kind of similar to Sunset Shimmer's redemption in a way. Yeah, she was blasted by the Elements of Harmony, but in a way she was still shown that what she had thought was right had been wrong the entire time. Plus, rather than eliminate a possible asset, Twilight invoked the theme of the show and showed that even someone like Starlight is not irredeemably evil. (Sombra, Chrysalis and Tirek on the other hand...) Sometimes talking down the villain is a more suitable response than blasting them with magical laser.

 

Although... considering the varied "laws" of time travel in fiction, nothing says that those alternate timelines were wiped clean when the original was restored. If those worlds aren't adapted into fanfics within a week, I'll be amazed.

 

Overall, this was yet another fantastic two-parter in a long line of them. It had a few pacing issues here and there, but overall it was still pretty good. Though they did never remark on Starlight's cameos in the previous episodes, it would have been nice to see everything tied together.

[anxresi 3]

 I get the feeling that there WON'T be a 'Mane 7' next season, but that Starlight will be leader of her OWN group from her old town, sort of a reserve force in the defense of Equestria. Twilight's quote about protecting the world being too much for 'One group of friends' could prove to be oddly prophetic...

[4april 374]

This episode was amazing! A brilliant finish to a brilliant season.

 

The plot was great, with all the alternative presents. But what was most interesting was Starlight Glimmer. I really liked her back story and finally her redemption. I am looking forward to seeing her more in future episodes. The lesson of the episode was simply the best over friendship EVER in the world.

 

I wonder if Starlight will be in the 2017 movie.

[simba86 1,541]

I loved this episode! all the returning charactors, the alternate timelines and battles, and it is interesting that it seems starlight is twilight's equal in magic or MORE powerful even, and twilight's an alicorn! lots of awesome new faces in this one to!

i love the time travel episodes and they did a really good job on this one!

 

 

[Envy 6,144]

 

Yes, friends. Totally.

 

Anyway, as for the episodes themselves. I don't hate them, but I don't think it was a masterpiece. As with pretty much every other villain redemption in this series, it didn't really feel natural. Nor did her backstory really. Would her friend have really left her completely in the cold? I suppose that kind of thing can happen in real life, though, so I'll let that slide. Just what she turned into, and then how fast she was redeemed. Perhaps its cliche as heck (but this show is altogether, you know!) but bringing her old friend back in, might have worked a little better for me.

 

Also the whole time-travel thing... No, I don't have any problems with time-travel itself appearing in the series. Just as with any other time-travel series - Doctor Who very much included - some things come off as a bit too convenient. In fact, there was a Doctor Who episode I had a similar problem with. (One where one of the assistants has her past changed to where she never meets the Doctor and it shows the future where she had never met him)... Although it's impossible to show the full scope of all that would happen, the Doctor Who episode left a lot of events that happened and would have drastically altered the present much more than was shown.

 

Back to this finale: In this case, it seemed more like they wanted to show a series of what-ifs, as opposed to showing what really would happen. In reality, all of the villains' successes would have stacked up in unimaginable ways... Showing them individually just came off as strange to me. Why does each time only have one villain succeeding? They'd ALL go terribly! Unless the last time was supposed to be when they all succeeded, and the land was just a wasteland... Still, the whole "Lets go through what would happen if each one succeeded individually" takes away from being able to feel fully immersed, as is feels like it a forced story and not something that would actually happen.

 

Also Sombra's storyline felt too dark and like it was pandering. like "Lets make this look like Fallout" or something. Ugh. That just didn't feel like My Little Pony material. The one where Nightmare Moon ruled was the only one that really felt MLP, in fact (that is of the ones that were fleshed out). For the record I *did* actually like them showing what would happen if the Flim Flam Brothers succeeded, because the episode they appeared in completely failed to show how they were villainous at all. (like if they had showed that their quality of cider was lesser, than it would have made sense, but instead the quality of their cider only decreased when they got pressured in the race, and that just isn't something we should count since they would never have been making cider that fast when they were producing it for the townsfolk)

Edited November 29, 2015 by Envy

[Gearbox10mm 794]

Apparently Rainbow Dash is the key to all of Equestria's existence. Without her, shit gets whack, yo.

 

If the whole episode had been set in the Crystal War time line....I'd have been OK with that.

[ggg-2 3,552]

This finale was.....interesting. I don't hate it, but i don't consider it as good as Twilight's Kingdom. (Let's face it, it's nearly impossible to live up to the epicness of Twilight vs. Tirek) And in my opinion there were a few.....shall we say, continuity hiccups. No Twilight, you and your friends didn't defeat Chrysalis, your brother and Cadance did.

[Jora 164]

time to watch the cutie map, amending fences, and the re-mark all in one go. to see her fall from grace, her dangerous stalking nature, and her rise to power/ some what ok redeem.

[Azureth 687]

I really loved it! Seeing the alternate time lines was amazing! Seeing Celestia leading like a General was epic, especially considering it's hard to see her in that light. Also, I didn't notice it when I watched it but DrWolf pointed out Rainbow Dash having an prosthetic wing was a really cool and nice touch. I always wondered with what seemingly seems to be very bare bones medicine what help a Pegasus that lost their wing would get.

 

Also, were the CMC in this? I didn't see them, but it would be sure interesting. Also, not sure if an error or not but I thought only Chrysalis could speak but the others couldn't? Yet you hear one speak disguised as Rainbow Dash speak. I did love this episode but I agree with others that I felt her reasoning for hating CM was pretty weak.

[aoEAF2FBvC0MIo2Q 3,673]

Watched it again. I still think the finale was pretty jarring.

 

Something I have to say about the whole time travel thing. Were all of those alternate timelines really nothing but illusions? Or perhaps really just alternate universes and nothing more? Ultimately, they just ended up back in the original timeline as though none of the other stuff even happened. Think about how this happened from the perspective of the others.

 

Pinkie Pie delivered a cake and didn't find Twilight then went on her way like everyone else and then suddenly, without warning, this bright flash emanates from the castle of friendship. The other rush to the castle and find Twilight, Spike and Starlight appearing to have things sorted out just all of a sudden. In less than a minute they went from seeing a threat to discussing what they were going to do, dashing all expectations of being part of some epic finale. To their eyes, the Starlight Glimmer saga ended on a very anti-climactic note as the problem just appeared to sort itself out.

 

If Chrysalis timeline Zecora is to be believed, alternate timelines are erased from existence once the flow of time is tampered with. Yet somehow the original timeline wasn't erased when Starlight tampered with the timeline the first time and at the end of it, the original timeline was simply re-established... almost as though this is how things had originally happened instead of anything having been in any way altered... and how is it nobody in Cloudsdale remembers magic holograms in the sky with a purple alicorn and dragon falling from it? That's far from routine, isn't it? Maybe Rainbow Dash and the other fillies didn't notice things from being too caught up in the race but I'd imagine that something of the sort would have at least been reported in the local news papers or something.

 

Could all of this have been fated to happen? Were the alternate timelines simply illusions?