Forgiveness as the theme of season 5

[Professional Horse 94]

WARNING: ESSAY ABOUT A CHILDREN'S CARTOON INCOMING

 

So recently I finally got around to binge watching all of the season 5 episodes and, like many others, was quite amazed by its quality. Some episodes were a bit hit and miss (*cough*Princess Spike*cough*What about Discord*cough*) but overall it was a pretty fantastic season.

 

And one of the best things about it was how it handled one of its two main themes, forgiveness. Oddly enough, I haven't really seen any bornies talk about it, but maybe that's because I didn't search hard enough. People did notice that cutie marks were the other main theme of the season, though.

 

This wasn't the first time this silly horse show had a theme that was prevalent throughout the entire season, of course. Season 4's theme was friendship and its six elements. But the way Season 5 handled its theme(s) was more subtle, focused and less on-the-nose.

 

So, forgiveness. I want to discuss how it is present in this season and how it is the main theme of multiple episodes. It's also the reason for why this season redeemed more villans than any other season.

 

The season premiere was amazing but didn't really have anything to do with forgiveness. However, it did introduce Heimlich Glimmer, an antagonist whose redemption was then set up throughout the season. This is why GlimGlim's reformation shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone whatsoever, but it was, apparently. Am I really the only one who noticed a pattern and was prepared for it ahead of time? I hope not.

 

The first horsepisode to truly handle forgiveness was Lost treasure of Griffonstone. One of my favourite episodes of the series and the one that reminded us that Gilda was a thing half a decade ago. Gilda was an antagonist from the first season and was redeemed in this episode. How? When Dashie was in trouble, Pinkamena reminded Gilda of her past with the rainbow-coloured horse and helped her realize that they're still friends despite the old argument. She apologized for being a feathery asshat and the two mended their friendship. Then the ponies buggered off and left her to fix an entire kingdom by herself. Isn't that wonderful?

 

Haha, just joking.

 

The episode presented the idea that just because you had a falling out with a friend that led to your friendship withering away doesn't mean that you can never be friends again. Also that being an asshat means no friends while being nice means friends. Both ideas would reappear later in the season, more than once.

 

Do princesses dream of magic sheep? I doubt it, but they do dream of torturing themselves, apparently. This was the second episode in the series that focused on Moonbutt and the zeroeth one that focused on Sunbutt. Dammit, Hasbro, are you ever going to give us an episode on Best Princess Trollestia The Wise?

 

In this episode LunaMoona forgave herself with the help of Twilight. Others had already forgiven her a long time ago, but the angsty one refused to let herself forget her crimes. It was a surprisingly dark episode, but it did teach an important lesson about forgiveness: Getting forgiveness from others is hard, but forgiving yourself is doubly so.

 

Amending fences is the best episode in the series and you're wrong if you disagree. This is a fact, not an opinion, dammit.

 

Alright, maybe not the best, but this episode touched me and made me cry like a little baby. And its main theme? Forgiveness. Twilight did everything she could to make me I mean Moon Dancer forgive her for basically ruining her life. It was a touching episode that also reminded us of how terrible and truly awful being asocial is. Please read the previous sentence in a sarcastic tone.

 

In the end, Miss Sparkle realized that begging for forgiveness was dumb and just said "listen, you don't have to forgive me, but don't let my mistake make your life shit." Isn't that a wonderful lesson about forgiveness?

 

Also, this episode had some brilliant foreshadowing: Moon Dancer was angry at Twilight because she left her without a word and crushed her dreams of becoming a socializer. Then in the finale Starlenin complained to Twilight about her friend leaving her without a word and crushing her dreams of being a socializer. Twilight, experiencing some Deja Vu, told Glitler that she can try again and make new friends, which is pretty much exactly what she said to me I mean Moon Dancer.

 

INGENIOUS!

 

Next up... drumroll please... is the legendary Crusaders of the Lost Mark! While the main focus of this episode was on the Crusaders getting their destiny butt pictures, there was also an underlying theme of forgiveness. This episode redeemed the most cruel horse in the series, Diamond fucking Tiara, giving her an excellent Freudian excuse for her awful behaviour. The CMC realized that she had a reason for being bad and that she wasn't completely rotten, and so they decided to forgive and help her. Again, brilliant foreshadowing for the season finale. At the end DT finally had the guts to say "screw you!" to her mother and realized the true meaning of her cutie mark. And then the most awesome thing in the world happened. I think you know exactly what I mean.

 

That's it for the episodes with forgiveness as the main theme, but there were other episodes where it's present: In Make New Friends But Keep Discord, Brotherhooves Social (many manly tears were shed during Big Mac's apology to Applebloom), Hearthbreakers and Hooffields And The Mccolts.

 

And finally, Cutie Re-Mark. A controversial finale, mostly because Starlin was redeemed and turned into a good horse. Or well, her background was also pretty controversial. However, I think that most of you bornies agree that it truly was an example of a poor Freudian excuse. If you're an aspiring writer and want to give your villan a motive based on their childhood experiences, this is good example of how not to do it. Amusingly enough they also showed you how to do it right earlier in the season.

 

Anyways, the redemption. It was foreshadowed multiple times and it brilliantly wrapped up the season, not only because it was directly related to forgiveness but also because it was related to cutie marks. I was pleased with it, although it wasn't perfect and did happen a bit too fast. Twilight and co. showed that they had learned their lessons earlier in the season and instead of banishing SG to TARTARUS they forgave and befriended her. Amazing.

 

But apparently I'm in the minority here, judging by the amount of Glimhate™. I hope that this wall of text made some of you change your minds about the pink horse's redemption. It might have been poorly executed, but at least you should admit that the setup was golden.

 

Leave your comments down below, bornies. I want to see what you think!

[KatonRyu 1,036]

First off, being an incredible grammar nazi at times, what the hell are bornies? I can't imagine it being typo considering how often you use the word. Is it an in-joke? Should I mention snakes?

 

Anyway, I don't necessarily disliked the fact they redeemed Starlight, just her backstory. Seriously, they could have easily made it better: Starlight's a magical prodigy and her skills alienate everyone around her because she's so good everypony else feels inferior. She hates being different and decides that they should all be exactly the same so she won't be left out anymore. There, done. That story would have even drawn good parallels with Twilight, who was in a similar situation, although from her it was self-imposed. And yet, the mare who didn't want friends now has them and the mare who wanted friends has nothing but hate. This would have created a nice dynamic for Twilight to give a speech over, so the episode wouldn't even have been that different.

 

Another thing about her that vexes me is that her skills match fricking Twilight's. Twilight is quite literally magic incarnate and an alicorn, yet Starlight, a regular unicorn without magical amulet or stolen magic, can go blow for blow with her. Twilight's very cutie mark is magic, and yet Starlight matches her. Also she managed to alter a spell created by Star Swirl the Bearded. When Twilight did that she ascended into becoming an alicorn. Hell, both spells even had direct ties with destiny and cutie marks. Where does she get her power? Why is she that freakishly strong? How did she learn to seal away cutie marks? Don't get me wrong, she's a fantastically creepy villain because of it, but I want to know these things because it's so relevant to the plot and the lore of the world itself. This pisses me off even more than the 'music makes us ponies' in RR thing. (MST3K mantra....it's just a show, I should really just relax)

 

Lastly, I hadn't even noticed the forgiveness theme until you pointed it out, but there do seem to be a large number of episodes revolving around it.

Edited March 15, 2016 by KatonRyu

[Roughshod 721]

I see the point you're making here. I agree that season 5 put a heavy emphasis on the theme of forgiveness as well as just tying up lose ends in the series. The other major theme was that of cutie marks of course, but this one of forgiveness and redemption was more underlying to the progression of the season.  

 

 

 

First off, being an incredible grammar Nazi at times, what the hell are bornies?

They're born-again Bronies. Bronies who have been reformed and sought the forgiveness of Celestia. Hence the tie in with the forgiveness theme.

[KatonRyu 1,036]

 

 

They're born-again Bronies. Bronies who have been reformed and sought the forgiveness of Celestia. Hence the tie in with the forgiveness theme.

 

The fact that this word is a thing makes me very glad I don't keep up with the fandom all that much. Although I'll admit it does indeed tie in well with the theme.

[Roughshod 721]

The fact that this word is a thing makes me very glad I don't keep up with the fandom all that much. Although I'll admit it does indeed tie in well with the theme.

It's not really, I just made that up on the spot as a joke.

[KatonRyu 1,036]

It's not really, I just made that up on the spot as a joke.

 

Just shows my trust in this fandom that I completely took that at face value thoughXD

[ggg-2 3,557]

Reading the opening post makes it hard to take this thread seriously.

[Grtxkkyz 389]

Interesting indeed, after all, each season has had a subtle theme hidden in it, and i really like the way you wrote your essay! A good mix between cute and serious, heh heh heh... 

[cmarston1 5,965]

That is actually a pretty interesting way to look at season 5 that I haven't thought of before and a nice way to tie some of the episodes from it together.

[Aurora Glimmer 494]

There's a difference between "forgiveness" and being "let off the hook." Characters like Diamond Tiara and Gilda were the former, Starlight Glimmer was the latter. Gilda was forgiven because she rescued Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, while Diamond Tiara was forgiven because she made amends with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and got her father to pay for the school's new playground. Starlight did nothing to prove she was worthy of forgiveness, aside from cry her eyes out because of something that happened to her when she was a foal. See the difference? In Diamond Tiara and Gilda's case, they both had to do something to prove they were worthy of forgiveness to the ponies they wronged, whereas Glimmer did nothing aside from feel sorry for herself.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Silvestra Spooner

[snowflame 189]

Excellent essay. I did notice the theme of forgiveness during the season but not all of these examples being part of it (such as Big Mac). Yet I did not see Starlight Glimmer's coming, mainly because there was no backstory for her beforehand. I think the show runners did that in the wrong way additionally because you are supposed to want the audience to happen. Or at least there not being so many previous examples so people are tired of it. Nevertheless I do not mind at this point much.

 

I wonder if Season 6 will have themes, I hope so if they handle them as well they did in Season 5 (the finale excluded).