MLP:FiM Megathread: Does anyone even watch this show anymore edition

[MJN SEIFER]

As I mentioned earlier, I am really interested in cutie marks, so I am going to attempt to reply to a lot of you at once here, so this may or may not be a long reply, so brace yourself for it, I hope you see it though.

So my wife and I were discussing the CMC. We were talking mostly about how and when they will get their cutie marks. We both agree it will be pretty far in the future, especially since they seem to love making CMC eps (especially in S2).

Where were sort of diverged was on whether they would get them all together or at different times. My initial thought is that they will obviously make some episode where everyone's special talents shine through in their very different ways to solve single problem (sort of the like the fire episode) and in the end, will end up with cutie marks relevant to the skills they used.

My wife wonders if they will potentially have them get them at different times causing strife and dissent between them. At first I wrote this off as not possible since the other idea seems more marketable and happy go lucky for the "intended audience."

However, my wife argued that many elements have already been thrown in (especially notable in S2) that are obviously aimed at bronies and an older demographic in general since so much of the audience has gone that way. I guess I could see them going that route, but I'm curious (and she's curious) what other people think.

Will the CMC get their cutie marks all at once, or at different times?

I think it's most likely they'll get their cutie marks all at once, similar to how the mane six got their cutie marks around the same time when filly Rainbow Dash performed her first sonic rainboom. I kind of view the CMC as the Mane Six Redux as two of them are younger siblings of two of the members, and each kind of ponies are represented in both groups. I just think it's only natural that the CMC will each get their cutie marks at the same time.

I've been thinking of this for a long time myself to be honest, and ever since I watched The Cutie Mark Chronicles I've always personally hoped that they would in some way do a similar thing with the CMC (without blatantly copying the rainboom thing, but basically doing a cool history repeating it thing). The ending of TCMCC is still one of my all time favorite endings ever, as what could have easily been a throw away twist ending ended up being a really aww and sentimental ending for the show. I just like the idea of them being connected before they knew they were, as I'm interested in that sort of thing. I wish I could explain it better why I like it. I would personally prefer it if the CMC got their marks at the same time, or at least in the same episode (bonus points if it's all triggered by the same event - though whether it will be done by a CMC themselves remains to be scene.) I will admit an episode where one CMC gets her mark first, and the others become jealous did cross my mind, but after seeing The Cutie Pox it seems unlikely.

My thoughts are mostly on the irrelevance of one’s Cutie Marks and how irrelevant they seem to be on a whole, and are rather just a small aspect of the ponies themselves.

I personally disagree with these, as I find at least the mane six's cutie marks to be relevant, and actually a key aspect to the ponies, in a way that goes further than it seems...

For example, Rarity's talent is Gem Finding. Mind you that is far from any one of her defining characteristics, and her living is made by fashion, which is supplemented by the finding of Gems, but really that just helps her cut out the middle man.

Rarity's talent is actually that she can use the gems she finds in her fashion design. This is more relevant to her character. Yes, she is good at finding them, but her real talent lies in what she does with them; in her flashback she gets her mark once she realizes that gems were the certain "it" she needed to make her designs perfect and unique - the flashback implied that she had been experimenting with fashion design for a long time, but wasn't pleased with what she had made. If her finding gems had been her talent/cause for her cutie mark she would have received it when she found them, but no, she received it when she realized that gems were what made her costumes stand out - she realized she had a talent for using gems in her designs, not finding them.

Applejacks special talent is something related to apples, I haven't really pieced exactly what together, but yeah. However she is highly praised mostly for her athletic ability other than some apple related ability.

This is harder to define without being somewhat contrived, but her talent seems to be that she tends to the Apple Acres more than anything. I think however, that Hasbro (and maybe Lauren herself as she would have had the deciding vote on this) just wanted to keep the apple theme going on this version of Applejack's character as she was one of the few "classic" ponies that Hasbro could include in the show without running into copyright issues with themselves (yeah, doesn't make sense to me either), so maybe they just kind of built the character around what they had, and just said "she needs to have an apple cutie mark, no matter what we do with her." Yeah, I warned you it was contrived.

Twilights talent is magic, yet she is also an encyclapedia of all sorts of information ranging all sorts of topics, and clearly shows superior management and organizational skills then all the other ponies.

Well I don't know if OCD is really a talent In a more serious matter, I think that the title of the show Friendship is Magic is actually meant to be taken more literally than it seems and there's all one big metaphor waiting at the end. I think also that because Twilight has talent in magic she's able to put it to use and incorporate into what she does.

I know Pinkie Pie has her own theory on her cutie Mark, but she's crazy and any story she tells should be taken with a grain of salt.

As random as Pinkie is, I think she's more aware of what's going on that she gives the impression of - she knew how to handle the parasprite situation, but told everyone about it in a weird way that didn't seem at all connected to the disaster (though to be fair, nopony made half an effort to even try to understand what she was saying...). I think that on the whole she's meant to be more perceptive than she seems, just hyperactive to go with it. Even with doubts on how she got her mark, it still makes sense that partying is her talent, which brings me to my next point;

I actually think that the Mane Six's cutie marks are supposed to coincide with their elements; Pinkie's talent is partying/making parties, which would lead to laughter, Rarity's talent for designing with gems allows her to make dresses, and other varieties of clothing for others, which would lead to her generosity, Twilight's element is magic whether you look at it literally or figuratively given the show's title, Fluttershy's talent linking to her element is so obvious I don't think I need to even point it out. I have a much longer answer planned on how Dash's talent fits into her element, which includes a theory on the rainboom itself. Applejack's is the only one that I can't link her talent to her element (which is honesty), but again this maybe because they just forced themselves to give her a literal cutie mark of apples, which is what she always had in every version she was in, even before they were important and were just "symbols".

I don't think the CMC are ever going to get their cutie marks during the show's run. I could see it happening if they ever made a movie, though.

I kind of hope they do, but we'll have to see. A movie would be awesome though.