S05:E25+26 - The Cutie Re-Mark

[Meushell 52]

I enjoyed most of this episode, but it had a weak ending. The different universes were great and interesting to see, but I wish we got to see more of each. 

I enjoy the bit about Twilight getting frustrated about the “don’t bully” lesson, and boy did she act creepy with young Rainbow Dash.

Starlight’s reason for acting the way she did was very weak. Childhood friends move away all the time. She’s focused on the cutie mark being the reason, but the whole thing is strange. Unless he moved away the next day or something, how did they stop talking? It felt very contrived.

I understand her being talked out of her plan. Starlight didn’t seem to want to cause the harm she did, though how come she didn’t see those other realities? Suddenly being Twilight’s student was too much. 

[bigbertha 414]

I actually really like this episode. I thought it would go the melodramatic and boring approach of taking everything super seriously, but a majority of the episode is much more focused on fun. And it is fun. Every villain that appears hams it up and the alternate realities we see are interesting to watch. It doesn't get repetitive because all three alternate realities we see for a while are different and the others go by in quick succession so they don't get boring. And the parts with Starlight don't get boring because they're filled with Starlight hamming it up, funny jokes, fun action and creative ways of stopping the Sonic Rainboom.

As for the ending, it's not that bad. Yeah, the song sucks and Starlight getting forgiven by her village ruins a story opportunity, but I don't have a problem with everything else. Starlight's motivations make sense when you remember that she was a child when that happened and the episode isn't exactly portraying her as mentally stable. And Twilight taking Starlight under her wing is pretty clever. It allows Twilight to keep a close eye on her in case she relapses and it makes sense to want to control someone as powerful as Starlight. I would have a problem with all of Ponyville forgiving Starlight if they knew who she was before this. All they know is that Twilight and friends approve of her.

Even still, I have a couple issues. The map and Starlight's spell aren't explained. This isn't as much of problem as it could've been since the episode is more focused on having fun, but it's still worth mentioning. Also it doesn't make sense that any alternate reality other than Nightmare Moon's reign could happen. Again, not a big problem, but still. A slightly bigger problem is how Starlight apparently knows nothing about Twilight and her friends. She's presumably been setting up her revenge for a while, so it's kinda hard to believe that she never found out how important Twilight and her friends are. 

 But in the end, my complaints aren't as big a deal as they could've been. A silly and entertaining episode can get away with a weaker plot more than a serious episode. If I'm having fun, I'm happy.

Score: 9/10

Edited February 10, 2019 by bigbertha

[Rushing cash 836]

The episode was very ambitious and had a lot of great moments, however some parts of it felt rushed and off...

Twilight was to oblivious to what was happening for my liking... I mean she is usually smarter then that, this aspect really irritated me.

Starlights back story was kind of lame and cringeworthy, yet it makes sense at the same time. Think about it, this happened to her when she was a kid, and you looked at thing differently at that age. Nobody really helped her to coup with it(later we see her dad, he probably unintentionally made things worse) and eventually she grew up hating cutie marks. The fact that twilight couldn't beat her and her only way out was talking starlight down, making her realise what she may cause. It shows just how intelagent and powerful starlight is. I wasn't a fun of the song/montage at the end, just made it feel rushed, should have saved it for season 6.

The alternative universes starlight created were the best part, it showed us what were sombras intentions and what he could do, it showed what a dreadful world chrysalis domination causes, and has the best moments of nightmare moon in the series. All those futures were dark, especially sombras cause it actually showed what war looks like(not quit as real and serious but close enough) probably one of the darkest moments in the show yet. 8/10

 Although, how flim and flams future was the worst, maybe they didn't caused it but only took advantage out of the situation? 

[SunburstRainbow2019 3]

This episode just made me think of the Bronies React done for this, and if I may quote ACRacebest:

 

"We're gonna forgive her, aren't we?"

[MysticWolficorn 77]

This episode made me a bit annoyed, because Starlight glimmer didnt even get punished for what she did. 

[ZiggWheelsManning 9,946]

A shame that Rainbow doesn't call out Starlight for the evil thing she did in the past.  

[Cloud5001 20]

So when season 4 ended the thing I wanted the most to happen was for the show to introduce a "Sixth" ranger to the cast, adding new main characters can add new layers to existing ones and can add more to the show too. So when this finale ended and Starlight was revealed to be exactly that I absolutely loved the idea. This finale isn't perfect and the fact that this was Josh Haber's first two parter certainly does show but in my opinion not enough to kill the episode for me. This finale still had some great stakes and tension too it, plus this started Spike getting MUCH better consistent treatment with the new writers. The backstory is a bit rushed but i do get what it was getting at and we saw an example of how a seemingly small thing can fester into big problems with Moondancer earlier in Season 5. Really the biggest concern i had was if the writers would handle Starlight's redemption right and in my opinion they did. It does'nt start and finish here it became an ongoing arc, but for this episode I did and still do enjoy it very much. With a score of 8/10 for me.

[JMTV99 1,352]

I gotta say, the Season 5 finale was pretty solid. The time-traveling aspect was a lot of fun and it does feel like a very subversive idea about what if the Mane 6 did not get their cutie marks and never met each other. The idea sounds cool on paper, but the execution was rough and it needs to be ironed out. I feel that we should've give it the villains equal amount of screen time rather then just the popular ones like Sombra and Chrysalis. Starlight's backstory needs to be more retooled because her motivation seems so petty in hindsight and I think they could've executed a little bit better. While I'm glad that Starlight has gotten better as the series progress, some little tweaks would've been nice.

Other than that, pretty good finale but wasn't as good as Twilight's Kingdom. However, I'm perfectly okay if they ended the series right there.

Edited May 3, 2021 by JMTV99

[Astralshy 26,421]

This is definitely one of darkest episodes of MLP and I love it.

As a SciFi nerd I appreciated the time travel aspect of this episode and the creators really executed it well. The meaning of the heroines are emphasized, we visit that event in the past again and the viewer can explore different scenarios and outcomes. Really entertaining to watch.

I also appreciated that Starlight was not just defeated by a deus ex machina moment. Her motivation/backstory was not  convincing for me but I guess it was okay for this kind of show and it doesn't take anything away from the good parts of this show for me.

 

[Newman1651 35]

In the two-part episode, The Cutie Re-mark, there were multiple timelines where Equestria is a dystopia or destroyed with and villains up to that episode who either won or we're winning in taking over or destroying Equestria. The Question I have here is what happened to the Crystal mirror in each timeline? And what happened to the Human world in each timeline? It's undoubtable that they would have the mirror in their possession.

To start off firstly, this meme should illustrate how these villains would see or react to the existence of the Human World:

 

Knowing how egotistic,vain and ambitious these villains on the Equestrian side of the mirror are, they will take any opportunity to invade the Equestria girls world if it presents itself. They will severely underestimate humanity. They will see them as being defenseless and weak as they have no magic to defend themselves from the invasion. They will go down there and raise heck for the humans. I'm pretty ure that they might have invaded or we're planning to invade the Human world. 

Thing is, even if they have the mirror they would recognize the the problems the mirror has. Which is removing their magic power as well as being too small. It's ok, they'll have all the time and patience they need to plan their conquest as well as reverse engineer and build larger and better portals to that world.. one big enough to send armies through and won't strip them of magic.

I'm pretty sure that King Sombra in one of the alternate timelines in The Cutie Re-Mark likely already has the mirror in his possession and was probably planning to or considering invading the human world. He'd have to also build larger portals for his armies to march through and eliminate the magic problem that the mirror has. The crystal empire would in any of those timelines, be invaded and conquered eventually, and these villains would eventually have the mirror in their possession. And they will plan to invade the world on the other side. Even the storm king would have eventually conquered the crystal empire as well and would have also acquired the mirror. Like the rest, he would also plan his invasion and conquest against the Humans.

With that, how successful would they be at conquering the Human world? Either on their own or working together? How would far each villain reach until the humans put up resistance and actually pushes them back? Which ones could actually succeed? Imagine their armies descending upon Canterlot City and immediately proceeding to burn and loot the city as well enslaving and forcibly pressing the human population into their armies against their wil. These villains would surely take extreme pleasure in killing or enslaving the human counterparts of celestia and luna who have no magic to deefend themselves.

another question is who would react first? The Military or The Human mane 7? What would be the repercussions of such an event look like?

 

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

Looking back at this episode, I still put it among my top episodes. 

Starlight is a very interesting character because she wasn't able to accept the change of growing up. Everyone will find their talent/destiny at some point, but, that doesn't mean you give up on a friendship just because one of your friends found their talent/got their cutie mark before you did (which is quite petty if you ask me.)

This episode showed the struggle of Starlight unable to let go of what she believed in favor of Twilight's teachings. Getting revenge, as shown in the episode would do nothing but wipe everyone out, which is what made this episode really dark. 

All in all I liked how this episode played out, especially how it came down to the struggle of Starlight battling her own self, as seen in this screenshot here. 

[North Star 5,222]

Evil Starlight is great in this >:3

AJ and BM's tailnetting in the factory Totally think Tia could have taken 'Cryyyystal Slaaaves' Sombra though.

Brenda Crichlow's battle roar as Zecora is great.

Also Twilight thinks Starlight's motivation is ridiculous and so do I

 

[phantompone1148 126]

This was a great finalie. Tho, my only problem is that the ending felt rushed, but it was still great!

8/10

[MichaelWFX 35]

A

Anyone gonna talk about this?

[Splashee 28,563]

8 minutes ago, MichaelWFX said:

A

Anyone gonna talk about this?

Good find! I didn't know about this one until @LCpony417 brought it up last month:

 

[MichaelWFX 35]

2 minutes ago, Splashee said:

Good find! I didn't know about this one until @LCpony417 brought it up last month:

 

The animation team probably didn't even notice it

[Gale Wind 82]

I did like seeing the potential alternate universes along the way in this episode. It was a decent ep for me.

[Lonstecation 516]

Starlight Glimmer committed a crime
Using the map to go back in time,
Altering the past after Starswirl's spell,
And making the future painful as hell!
Whenever Starlight stops the rainboom,
Equestria is about to meet its doom.
This will make life hard for Twilight and Spike,
Because they always get sent to futures they don't like.
Every time Starlight alters the past,
The future they go to is worse than the last!
This can't go on forever and up.
Twilight knows that Starlight needs to be stopped!
Starlight tells us about her past:
An old friend of hers has been lost really fast
When he got his cutie mark years ago
For the magical talents he was able to show.
So, Starlight thought cutie marks make friendships fade away,
And lived in a cutie markless village ever since that day.
So, Twilight tells her that she got it all wrong:
Friendship is something that is very strong,
Something that, thanks to pony differences, shines,
And something that has nothing to do with cutie signs.
Starlight accepts, makes the battle end,
And now she is Twilight's newest friend!

Edited February 7, 2023 by LCpony417

[Iforgotmybrain 5,509]

These two episodes alone are probably responsible for Equestria at War becoming a thing two years later. Good episodes and lead to the best HOI4 mod being made. Which lead to best OC Posada being made. 10/10.

[Prospekt 11,018]

This is a fun one to revisit with the whole time travel/paradox premise. However, I do wish Starlight had played a role in some more episodes during season 5, not counting cameos. Her journey from cult-leader villain with emotional baggage to repentance feels rushed. At least we get some more context later.

[Antiyonder 1,091]

The episodes are present on this compilation at the 21:45 mark:

The two parter by itself will be posted when uploaded.