S05:E25+26 - The Cutie Re-Mark

[Castle Bleck 19,327]

I love the story potential for the alternate timeline idea! I quickly put together a map of all the villains locations and what they might control.

 

 

So Discord gets the Everfree?

 

Or does he just sort of drift wherever?

[colt .45 259]

What a great way to end a great season! I only have one very minor not to pick, and that is that I was hoping the episode would address the various sightings of Starlight Glimmer that they teased us with throughout the season. It seems like that should have gone somewhere.

[Midnight Star Gazer 22]

So Discord gets the Everfree?

 

Or does he just sort of drift wherever?

I was thinking he would just drift around, he seems to be more into just causing chaos rather then rule a empire or kingdom.

[Shanks 10,816]

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.

True, but consequences to time manipulation aren't always immediately apparent. we saw far reaching consequences to Sunset Shimmer bringing magic into the human world that carried over into the sequels and we could very well see similar far reaching consequences with Starlight Glimmers actions.It could seem like things are all fixed but problems could still arise later.

[Foliha 395]

... I would have been satisfied if they had ended it here as this season really had a sense of finality to it. ... Where can they go from here?

Bite your tongue!  How can we live in a world without (new) ponies?!  It's bad enough that we have to wait for months to get season 6.

 

Where can they go?  TO EQUESTRIA AND BEYOND!  and  TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NOPONY HAS GONE BEFORE! 

[colt .45 259]

Did the S4 finale have a song at the end? I don't even remember....

 

Yes, it did. It was "Let the Rainbow Remind you". One of the best songs in the series, in my opinion.

[Solar Cloud 493]

Did anyone notice what throne she was sitting on at the beginning? Good subtle detail.

Credit goes to Silver Slinger on twitter. He pointed it out.

[Fawkes The Phoenix 737]

A lot of people say that Starlight's reason was pretty weak and that her reformation was fast, but I have to disagree. First of all, and I quote Rarity, "Isn't friendship magic?", well it is. I don't know if any of you have lost a really close friend because they move on and you don't, but it hurts, and you have to remember she was just a filly back there. Once you feel that pain you earn trust issues, as you don't ever want to feel that pain again, so it's only natural that she'd feel the need to do something about it (Kind of like Moondancer).

 

Second, her revenge feelings were only against Twilight, not the rest of the world. She had good intentions when she decided to start the village, and everything evil she did back there was because she thought that the end justified the means. She's also not dumb, and during all the time she spied the mane 6 she must have realized how being different actually worked on them, but she was "blinded" by her revenge lust. When she saw the apocalyptic future that should have been enough to make her reconsider some stuff, that plus the fact that she opened up to Twilight, and Twilight's words (she has amazing persuasion skills, not that I'd expect less from the princess of friendship) seem more than enough to me to justify her redemption.

[CT-1138 3,182]

That said we need more Sombra-verse Dash. Easily up there with Detective Rarity and LionJack as best outfit of S5

Not to mention that hairdo! 

[Number62 1,258]

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

If the episodes are anything to go by, she's useless to Equestria. I have to wonder how it even managed to stay together for 1000 years with a ruler like that.

[toonami97 25]

anyone fine or think that SG was pretty op while a normal though powerful unicorn she was able to match twilight a alicorn in a magic fight and twilight said she couldn't beat her why did she run during s5 premier if she could pretty much take on the m6? 

[roptiriolg 49]

Let me post this before I get influenced by anypony's opinion:

 

This episode.... was ... PURE AWESOME!!!!! 

 

I always consider Twilight's Kingdom to be the best (2 part) episode of all seasons, but this episode is no lower! I proclaim Twilight's Kingdom (Season 4 Finale) and The Cutie Re-Mark to be the best episodes of all seasons! (at least to me) My favorite villain Chrysalis with the changelings were there, Nightmare Moon was there, Tirek from my so far most fave episodes (Twi's Kingdom) was there, I didn't expect King Sombra and there was Discord, the party is complete! I think we only didn't see Trixie reigning. So many interesting  'what would happen if' cases.

 

The post-apocalyptic plot - I am not from the doom sayers and not fan of such predictions but because I have had so realistic dreams that my eyes were wet with tears when they felt so real in my dreams and after waking up, never thought I would see such kind of plot here, I totally loved the plot - it is untypical for the show but I just love the topic of future and some apocalyptic or simply (everything has changed in this timeline) kind of plot, I purely love this!

 

It was so interesting I was like watching with fear, what would happen next! The way the episode ended was fine - I was all the time expecting that Starlight Glimmer would be banished from Equestria, defeat or somehow would disappear like Trixie, I wonder if Trixie and Starlight ever met, how this would go, that would be interesting in a Season 6. So even though it didn't end that way, I like that the Mane 6 earned her as a friend but the new season would be even more epic if they had to face such situations multiple times and this time with Starlight. Although if she went back to her village, she may make no more than a cameo appearance.

 

I actually had forgotten earlier that she would be in the finale, not that everybody didn't talk about it all the time and her appearances but I was staying away from spoilers and didn't know what to expect. On the final perhaps, it happened too quickly how she decided to turn good and just not do what she couldn't be stopped to do and that may be seen as a downside like again the end came all of a sudden (wow she's so smart, she could really do anything and the future would change into a catastrophe - this was well thought idea of the episode imo).

 

The plot, the dark future, the encounter of all antagonists for me made this two parts the best of all seasons along with the Season 4 Finale. I was wondering, should this so awesome episode be placed as even greater than Twilight's Kingdom but the Season 4 episodes so many things happened that I think they are just so equal, this Se5 Finale had moments and plots that were not present in Season 4's finals and were so great, at the same time some more things happened in Season 4. So to me it is a quite a tie between these 2 finales, and they are just equally the best of all Seasons.

 

Overall Season 5 was a great season with lots of shipping but I liked it for the interesting Luna based episode (Do Princesses Dream of Magiv Sheep), I liked Scare Master, The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone, Make New Friends but Keep Discord and The Hooffields and McColts for funniest,  and I think overall had more of the nice episodes than previous season but I've forgotten how many of the episodes in previous seasons I liked.

[Prince Firemane 309]

Well, then. I rather enjoyed this episode; it's nice to see the occasional time-travel plot without it being all messed up. Starlight was her usual cocky self, she was able to stop Twilight at every turn which was a refreshing change of pace. Although, I do have to admit that I kinda feel that Starlight was given too much raw power just to give Twilight a run for her money. She always had something up her sleeve to deal with the Princess of Friendship; not something manipulative or cunning as we had come to expect, but just a show of pure, raw power that not only rivals Twilight's, but potentially surpasses it. I mean, her introductory episodes showed that she is incredibly powerful, yet it gave her clear limits. It implied that the peak of Starlight's magic was the Cutie Un-Marking spell; every other bit of magic she cast in those episodes was magic we've seen from several others. Fine-tuned telekinesis, shields, blasts, light flares, etc. Those are all comparatively basic. However, the finale thew all that out the window. Starswirl himself couldn't create a time-travel spell that efficent, yet Starlight was able to in a relatively small amout of time. True, she did admit to editing Starswirl's original spell, but the fact that she could do that and then stabilize it, not even Twilight could do that. Twilight was only able to stay in the past for a few minutes using Starswirl's original spell. She also has the ability to fly using her own magic alone, something that doesn't seem that big a deal since it was basic telekinesis, but it's implied that she was able to do so for an incredible amout of time, something that no other Unicorn in the entire show has been seen to do. I doubt that Starlight was the first to ever have that idea, so there's the implication that it's actually rather hard to do for an extended amount of time. Even Twilight was only able to do so for a few seconds, and that was to arest her momentum from a fall. Then there's that laser battle she had with Twilight... that I just don't get. The difference between their battle and Twilight's battle with Tirek is that she fought him to a stalemate. She lost to Starlight. They both exerted themselves, both unleashed a lot of magic in the process. Yet when it ended, Twilight was panting and struggling to stay up while Starlight hadn't even broken a sweat. If that's not over-powered, I don't know what is.

 

I know all this complaining makes it seem like I hated the episode, but I actually rather loved it. Despite the fact that how Starlight was handled ((Including her more-than-rushed reformation)), I really liked the time travel angle. It seems to me that these all were alternate universal tangents branched off the main universe based on what Starlight/Twilight did to stop the Rainboom from happening. I say tangents because nothing happened to Twilight. None of the changed affected her, even though they would've directly done so. Each of these alternate tangents is hinged upon the Rainboom event and the spell transports Twilight to which one is created by this new change. She also used the spell to go back to the same moment, yet we never saw duplicates of Twilight running around. It appears that each time Twilight casts the spell, a new universal tangent is created from the destination moment, thereby giving each Twilight her own tangent without influence from her quantum duplicates. In this same vein, it can be surmised that Twilight can never get back to her original universe. Even though things have returned to normal, she's still not in the universe in which she started. I theorize that she's now in a tangent that is dicated by hers and Starlight's presence during the first Rainboom. However, causality does indeed exist in Equestria, so I suppose she could return to her original universe if they were present during the Rainboom all along... ugh, I'm just babbling now.

[Cleverclover 1,526]

Well, I have finished compiling my thoughts about the finale, which was surprisingly better than I envisioned, yet still nothing great.

 

The first thing I must get off my chest is focus my irritation on is how this finale was essentially Twilight Sparkle Power Hour.

 

Never before have the mane five played such a non-existent role in a two-parter. The only appearances they made up until the ending were simply based around the altered timelines, and served no purpose except to illustrate just how miserable their lives were. Ultimately, it all fell upon Twilight (with some relatively minimal assistance from Spike) to save them from their horrific futures, just as the promo pretty much implied. After the advent of Equestria Girls, these Twilight-exclusive adventures don’t particularly surprise me anymore, yet they do leave me immensely irritated.

 

And the thing that I probably find the most irritating about them is the notion that the opposite will almost certainly never happen. Will we ever get a two-parter that focuses largely on the mane five and their efforts to save Equestria while Twilight is sidelined? Absolutely not. The very notion is just ridiculous to contemplate. Yet apparently, having a two-parter that features only Twilight while her friends are reduced to not even so much as secondary characters is beyond possible.

 

Furthermore, there’s simply nothing that justifies it, neither within the context of the episode, nor the show itself. At all. You might say, “Well, Twilight’s the main character”, and I’ll simply reply with “She’s been the main character since the start of the show, and this has never happened before” and then follow it up with “So, what, is she even more of a main character now? Is this still the Mane Six or is it the Mane One?” There’s no particular justification as to why Starlight is interested in getting revenge only on Twilight when it wasn’t only Twilight who was responsible for destroying what she had built. In fact, Twilight wasn’t even the one who ultimately caused it to fall apart anyway. Fluttershy pretty much holds the responsibility for that when she found out her secret and subsequently exposed her. So why isn’t Starlight really interested in getting revenge on anyone else?

 

That is, of course, only one of the questions I’m left with after watching this headache-inducing finale. There are just so many things I have to question, so many points about this that do not make the slightest bit of sense.

 

First, let’s start off with Starlight herself and the borderline nonsensical circumstances which have inexplicably allowed her to exact her revenge in the first place.

 

Somehow, she has managed to alter a time travel spell, and that alone is something I feel should have been borderline impossible for her to do. But that’s only one of the ways that the episode goes on to imply that she is far more skilled in magic than not only any other unicorn alive, but Twilight herself. She also uses her levitation magic to fly, and though that’s something we’ve seen happen before and something that honestly doesn’t seem it would be impossible when you consider that levitation is a pretty basic ability for any unicorn, Twilight seems to suggest that it’s an ability which is incredibly rare, if not a downright unheard of.

 

This all just leaves me scratching my head. True enough, Starlight was confirmed in The Cutie Map to have an unusual level of power, since stealing away cutie marks is obviously not a common ability, but I’m still left curious as to how she has transitioned to become a near-goddess.

 

Furthermore, why isn’t she the Element of Magic if she has all of these rare abilities, rather than Twilight? For a unicorn to possess power beyond the level of an alicorn, surely this means that some mistake has been made here, right?

 

Anyway, I guess Starlight only knew about the Rainboom by way of Twilight’s speech (which was honestly far more focused on her personal life than it should have been), and she somehow knows that the map will allow her to travel back in time to that very moment. Of course, how she actually knows this is beyond me, not to mention how she knows that the map exists in the first place, unless her stalking of Twilight has included actually breaking into her castle (by the way, I think this episode pretty much confirms that she needs guards). But this is simply one of the many plotholes that are pretty much shamelessly glossed over.

 

But in any case, here’s where we get to the crux of where this finale starts to fall apart. The alternate timelines—Starlight changes one event, and somehow that causes several possible futures to occur. Sorry, this doesn’t make sense, and even the episode’s attempt to explain it doesn’t make sense. The explanation given is that one change can alter the future in several different ways, and that’s just ridiculous. Exactly what circumstances, directly related to the Rainboom, allowed for certain villains to be defeated, but not others? Without any additional variables in place, there’s no reason why altering the same event should not have taken her to the exact same timeline each time. And even if I were willing to except their explanation, why does each bring her to a different timeline with a different villain ruling? I mean, since only one thing has been changed, wouldn’t this simply result in the exact same timeline more far often than not? Why would it be different every single time?

 

But I’m guessing that the plot wants to have its cake and eat it too by suggesting that absolutely nothing changed in the timeline where the Rainboom actually happened. Nope, it doesn’t get to do that. Twilight is most certainly going to find out sooner or later that some of the events in the show never happened. Hopefully, Look Before You Sleep is one of those events. Oh, and Spike at Your Service, too.

 

Anyway, I will say that the alternate timelines were fairly interesting enough, even if they didn’t make much sense. Though I gotta admit, that G-rated battle sequence in the Sombra flashback nearly had me laughing my ass off. So that’s what genuine, non-pie-related war looks like in Equestria? A bunch of ponies doing nothing more violent than simply slapping each other? Honestly, it looked so ridiculous that they were probably better off just leaving that scene out.

 

Of course, Nightmare Moon’s timeline easily made the least sense of all of them. Apparently, we’re supposed to believe that life has been moving on in Equestria without the sun for years. But the true question is, exactly how on earth has she managed to trap Celestia in the moon? This would imply that somehow, inexplicably, she came to possess all six Elements (because that definitely makes sense ) and trapped her that way. I mean, it’s not like there’s an actaul spell for sending ponies to the moon, so how else could it have happened?

 

In any case, after we’ve seen futures where Tirek, Discord, and the Flim Flam brothers (for some reason) are ruling Equestria, Twilight finally makes an attempt to tell Starlight about the effects her actions are having on the future.

 

This begins a chain of events that I like call The McCarthy Villain Downfall (even though this is Haber, not McCarthy). This is the point in the story where stupidity begins to set in and the villain begins to make less and less sense, ultimately leading to their inevitable downfall.

 

It all begins when Starlight confirms that she is completely and utterly oblivious to the horrific timelines she has been sending Twilight back to.

 

I mean, are you effin’ kidding me with this?! :okiedokielokie: You’re telling me that the entire time, Starlight was completely oblivious to these terrible futures? In all this time she’s spent stalking Twilight, she’s done no research whatsoever on the mane six, and remained completely oblivious of the role they played in defending Equestria?!

 

This is just ridiculous, I have to say. It definitely comes as a revelation to me, because all this time I was under the impression that Starlight was well aware of the timelines she was sending Twilight back to. What the hell has she been doing this whole time? She just remained there in the past, never once going back to her timeline once? And this is only the beginning...

 

After a quick detour to Starlight’s past, we are apparently meant to understand that she dislikes cutie marks because she lost her best friend after he got his mark while she remained a blank flank, and she did not care to make anymore friends out of worry that she would lose them in the same way.

 

That really seems somewhat inconsistent as to the reasoning behind that was offered in The Cutie Map. I was under the impression that she was against cutie marks because she believed that a difference of talents made it impossible to obtain friendships due to notions of superiority. This backstory doesn’t really support that notion at all. It makes it seem more like the sole problem lies with the notion that you can't get a cutie mark simultaneously (except in the CMC's case). 

 

Yep, this is all Starlight’s downfall, all right. She’s making less and less sense by the minute at this point.

 

Then we come to the point where Starlight wants to rip the scroll that contains the spell, thus preventing Twilight from being able to go back to the past.

 

Gee, would it have made a hell of a lot more sense to try and do that they very first time she went back, instead of, you know, just waiting for Twilight to come back again each and every time so you can stop the Rainboom over and over again?!?!?!?

 

Ugh, this is getting ridiculous. Haber has really taken after McCarthy with this one. Seems that even when she isn’t the one writing the two-parter, we’re still forced to suffer her terrible villains.

 

In any case, this all leads to Starlight deciding to give friendship another try and viola! Instant reformation! Because why wouldn’t they use the ol’ “Reform the Villain” card again? It's obviously worked out oh so well for the show up to this point.

 

I’m truly left disappointed at how this reformation plays out, mostly because it implies that Starlight was nowhere near as deep a villain as I thought she was. Perhaps she would stop tearing the scroll, purely out of the interest of not wanting to potentially live in one of those terrible futures, but there’s no particular reason why should have given up on revenge entirely. We’re talking about an apparent lifetime of beliefs and ideologies she has built up for herself that are instantly overcome by a simple “It won’t happen again” speech. I was under the impression that these beliefs were far too ingrained in her mind to give them up and trust Twilight on a whim, and directly after stating that her friends are far too important to Equestria to be broken up, a notion that Starlight utterly detests. And hell, for all Starlight knew, Twilight was simply saying whatever she had to say to stop her from tearing the scroll. And even if Starlight believed Twilight was telling the truth about the futures, why wouldn’t she simply try to get revenge some other way? For that matter, didn’t Twilight already try this route anyway towards the end of The Cutie Map? If it didn’t work then, why would it work now?

 

And why o’ why does she have to have a complete, 180 degree turnaround right away? Why can’t it be something that happens gradually? It just feels so ridiculously unnatural when they do it this way. Throughout this entire two-parter she’s shown a great deal of holier-than-thou arrogance in herself, a pony who clearly isn’t going to submit to anyone anytime soon.  But the next thing we know, she’s completely resigned to receive a punishment by the mane six for what she did?! Are you kidding me?!  :scoots: 

 

This reformation really could have been done better, though I sincerely wish that it hadn’t been done at all. Reforming villains has become a cliché at this point. And what's more, Starlight definitely struck me as the kind of villain who could not be turned around after a few simple friendship speeches. At the very most, all I could really see her doing is dropping her desire for vengeance and moving on. The whole thing is just disappointing all around. Ultimately, the pony whom I thought was one of the best-written villains in her premiere episode turned out to be a massive letdown. 

 

Oh, and so now she’s the mane seventh, I guess? Give me an effin' break. I utterly fail to see how the writers will implement her into the show without simply making her seem like a seventh wheel. I have absolutely no faith in this working out whatsoever unless they simply make her a recurring character. We’ve long since crossed the threshold where it’s too late for a mane seven, and I really don't think there's any way that this change can seem seamless or natural, or really anything other than forced. 

 

Ugh. I think I have literally given myself a headache by writing this review, so time to sum it all up.

 

The pacing of the episode was fairly decent enough, I guess. Of course, I have to mention the obligatory laser battle between Twilight and Starlight. Yep. Gotta have that. My guess is that laser battles are now a requirement of all future season finales. Fortunately, it isn’t remotely comparable to the Tirek fight in terms of collateral damage and deadly intent. Dare I say it, but I do honestly think that Twilight at least had to try to take the combative route this time. And plus, the scene where Dash was watching with popcorn was pretty funny. So overall, I don’t have much to complain about here other than the fact that these things are really getting old at this point.

 

I will say that if there’s one thing that I would consider that this finale did right, is properly showing us what could have happened had Chrysalis and Sombra actually won. Now we know exactly just how high the stakes were in those episodes, and that’s something we’ll think about when we watch them from now on. However, not so much Nightmare Moon, since I obviously still don’t buy that one.

 

Overall, I don't hate this one quite as much as Twilight’s Kingdom. It was pretty nonsensical overall, but still did not particularly contain anything that really irritated me to no end, apart from the little involvement from the mane five.

 

I’m really starting to believe that things just aren’t getting better for them, not now that we know that they can be sidelined for an entire two-parter (as well as Celestia, with this being the second two-parter in a row where she has played no role whatsoever). Ultimately, I feel that Starlight will probably come to threaten them further, has her significance to the show next season will likely be placed above theirs, assuming that the writers actually do try to force her into a main character role. But one thing we do know is that no matter what, Twilight will never be sidelined. Even though seeing her sidelined in favor of the mane five would probably be as refreshing a change as there could possibly be on this show at this point, it’ll never happen. 

Edited November 29, 2015 by Cleverclover

[Karma Lightwing 245]

there was so much good stuff in that episode, but the ending might have seemed a little rushed with that last minute change of mind... I still see why she did it and it was obvious that the future she saw was not what she expected or what she had wished for. I felt that overall the redemption idea was really well thought through while the execution felt slightly time-pressured at the end.

[Bodie McCool 25]

Bite your tongue!  How can we live in a world without (new) ponies?!  It's bad enough that we have to wait for months to get season 6.

 

Where can they go?  TO EQUESTRIA AND BEYOND!  and  TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NOPONY HAS GONE BEFORE! 

Personally I had the same feeling myself. Ever since the beginning of season 5, the show has felt like the writers are slowly progressing the main cast along to a grand finale. Like they're planning a wrap up of the series' collective story arc. Especially with how the song ended during the finale, going off with that piano and zooming out on all the ponies.

 

Call it a hunch, but that's just a feeling I've been having as we've progressed through season 5. I also got vibes around the end of the finale that Starlight Glimmer could potentially replace Twilight sometime in the future, when the main cast might "move on" in some way, but that's probably leading more into fanfiction territory as opposed to what'll actually happen.

 

Either way I'm really curious as to what they'll do with season 6. I'm not sure what they can do that much differently excluding Starlight Glimmer being Twilight's student now, so it'll be interesting to see what they do with the show.

[Swick (ded) 436]

How many villains must we reform

 

If they're gonna reform a character, they should at least do it well. Not this instantaneous oh-I-just-left-all-my-beliefs-behind-because-lol stuff.

Edited November 29, 2015 by Swick

[Megas 27,567]

How many villains must we reform

 

If they're gonna reform a character, they should at least do it well. Not this instantaneous oh-I-just-left-all-my-beliefs-behind-because-lol stuff.

We won't rest until we get Tirek to frolic in a flower field happily with the mane 6

Edited November 30, 2015 by Thrillho

[Mesme Rize 15,683]

How many villains must we reform

 

If they're gonna reform a character, they should at least do it well. Not this instantaneous oh-I-just-left-all-my-beliefs-behind-because-lol stuff.

 

 

Watch out. One day, we'll gonna have King Sombra in an episode about sharing things.

[CastletonSnob 3,074]

 

Watch out. One day, we'll gonna have King Sombra in an episode about sharing things.

Gotta reform em all, Ponymon!

[Princess_Bellalatanya 1,053]

starlight glimmer,just wanted her bro back AWESOME FINALE

lot of magic

[AkiraLeeJounouchi 857]

These episodes were wibbly wobbly. I liked them and I would've preferred to explore more of the alternate realities. However they didn't seem as epic as former season finales. Though I did get a series finale vybe from them.

[Mesme Rize 15,683]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEVK3j4wJvU

 

Maybe Twilight should have watch this, before she went into the portal to follow Starlight.

 

I don't know if it would help. But it's worth a try.

[Cleverclover 1,526]

How many villains must we reform

 

If they're gonna reform a character, they should at least do it well. Not this instantaneous oh-I-just-left-all-my-beliefs-behind-because-lol stuff.

 

Exactly. I can tell already that this reformation is going to be infinitely worse than Discord's on the notion that Starlight is jumping directly from villain to someone worthy of being in the mane six's circle. At least with Discord, they actually had to work their way up to friendship, but Starlight apparently gets to skip all that. 

 

It's even worse when you consider how Starlight treated the mane six with far more cruelty than Discord. And I doubt that's ever really going to stop hanging over their heads. 

[Cloud Strife 928]

 

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. 

 

 

I haven't read the rest of this thread so I haven't seen if you've earned any responses. Bear with me.

 

She didn't consider that it was wrong because her point of view was that the reason their relationship dismantled was because of the Cutie Mark. As a result, her world view was tainted, that Cutie Marks, special talents, separated ponies too much, and that if she got rid of them then everypony would be happy - but of course, this turns out incorrect as the ponies practically had no meaning to their lives without the talents to guide them. Despite this, she still didn't learn anything from the experience when they all rebelled against her, thinking that it was Twilight's fault and not actually because she did anything terrible in the first place, so she decided that she would take Twilight down in revenge for what she did to ruin her plan at happiness. It's only when she sees the consequences of her actions that she starts to realize that she isn't handling this the right way, but she stubbornly holds onto that belief for a little while afterward regardless because it's the only thing she has, the only solution she knows to make everything happy again (and this is why I said this redemption is better than the other ones; it's rushed, but it's more gradual and you have a good reason as to why she's open to changing her mind). Eventually she really has to come to terms with the fact that her mentality is doing more harm than good, and that maybe she is partially to blame for how tumultuous her fillyhood was. After all, she didn't approach anyone else back then.

 

As far as everything else goes, I can understand why your personal experience might've tainted how the episode looks to you. It doesn't feel fair that Starlight Glimmer gets another chance, and that she could even have her mistakes reversed, when people like you aren't able to get that for yourself. Unfortunately, the world doesn't have someone like Twilight Sparkle in power, someone who's willing to forgive and show others the right way, and it certainly suffers for it. I wouldn't blame the episode itself for that, of course. I wouldn't even blame Starlight Glimmer. To be fair, she can relate to you, actually, because she was never approached by anyone before Twilight, and even then, Twilight wasn't too concerned why she was doing it for a while, but rather just intent on stopping her. Maybe it's because we're all so quick to rely on the Us vs. Them mentality, to other people who we don't understand instead of attempting to. A lot of us just don't reach out, those who are in need as well as those who aren't but are in the position to help someone who is. We judge an entire person and their history based on first impressions, and it's unfair because every person is multifaceted. Every person has a reason behind their actions, and every person deserves a chance.

 

If you're going to take away anything from my post, let it be this: you're not alone, and you're not the only person to feel this way. And maybe if it's such a persistent feeling that you should find someone to talk to about it. I don't think a random person on the internet is going to be of much help, either; i think a professional would be better in order. I mean, most of this site consists of lost teenagers who have no idea what they're doing with their lives, and come to My Little Pony for comfort. Not all of them, but a very large portion. A professional would better be able to help you through that.

 

 

 

Exactly. I can tell already that this reformation is going to be infinitely worse than Discord's on the notion that Starlight is jumping directly from villain to someone worthy of being in the mane six's circle. At least with Discord, they actually had to work their way up to friendship, but Starlight apparently gets to skip all that. 

 

It's even worse when you consider how Starlight treated the mane six with far more cruelty than Discord. And I doubt that's ever really going to stop hanging over their heads. 

 

Except Discord and Starlight aren't even remotely similar in terms of ambition.

 

Discord is an attention seeker, the type to try to worm his way in and cause a bit of chaos - he's practically a spirit of chaos. Of course he had to take a while to gain anyone's trust because he stayed a manipulative little shit. He didn't become the way he was through any sort of trauma; he just was an asshole, and then learned through gaining a friend that being a jerk doesn't always get him what he wants. Really, that's it.

 

Starlight, however, is not like that. She did what she did because hurt made her view the world with certain colored glasses. She saw her own pain and suffering, and then she applied it to other ponies. She is not a naturally evil character like you're trying to paint her; in fact, she's a well intentioned extremist. She wanted to take Cutie Marks away because it hurt her, and thus she assumed it hurt other ponies, and she couldn't really realize that that's not the reason that her friendship dissolved until after she saw the consequences of removing everyone's Cutie Marks directly. I detailed a bit more why she held onto that belief despite the sight she took in, so you can go back earlier in my post if you want to see it.

 

It makes sense that she joins their circle because she's not a manipulative jerk by nature, like Discord was. She's a pony who's been hurt, and was trying to change the world around her so she, and others, don't have to experience that hurt again.

 

In that light, all of her anger and maliciousness is painted as righteous maliciousness and anger, rather than actual evil scheming. She was determined to accomplish her goals, and got more upset and angry the more that Twilight attempted to take them away from her.

Edited November 30, 2015 by Lady Bow