My Thoughts on "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" · 9:57pm Oct 10th, 2015
Thoughts, spoilers, wow, Jesus Baby Christ, this week's episode, Crusaders of the Lost Mark.
Spoilers. You've been warned.
This episode had a few things going against it. A Crusader episode coming off of a meh Applebloom episode. And it involved the most universally hated fillies in the entire series. Despite all of this, and the Diamond Tiara thing was a really huge thing against the episode, despite it all, this episode was my absolute favorite episode. Not my favorite of this half of the season. Not my favorite of Season 5. Not my favorite CMC episode. Not even my favorite episode that didn't involve the Mane Six.
My favorite. Episode. Of all time. Period.
Despite all the reasons I had prepared in my head to dislike the episode, it broke down every wall I put up to protect myself from this episode. First of all, it was looking up from the very beginning, when there was a song before the theme even played. I really like Pipsqueak, his accent, his weird proportions. To see him go from nothing to something in ten seconds flat was fun to see, even if it felt a bit rushed. As soon as the Crusaders agreed to help Pip run for class president, I knew that Mahlyenki Dyavol would find a way to try and ruin it for him. Sure enough, DT ran against him, just throwing her money around to try and buy her way into office. However, and I didn't see it coming, none of the other students were having it. Even Tiara's foil bailed on her after a bit. Then, we got the sob story everyone expected and thought about, but it happened in a slightly different way than I think most of us anticipated.
Filthy Rich has always been the target for the headcanon of Diamond's broken home. I always thought it was her pop's that was the one puppeteer-ing and manipulating DT into the harsh, remorseless bully she was. I never once considered that maybe her dad is totally fine. I never thought that it was possibly her mum.
The music was stellar, and it never overstayed its welcome. It didn't feel like it was overloaded with music, because the songs were of decent length, they were well-composed, and by God, was the singing excellent. Even, maybe even especially, Diamond Tiara. Something about her was so wrong this episode, which made her so right. I watched in horror and morbid curiosity as Diamond Tiara slowly went from my idea of Satan to a pitiable, understandable, even likable character. It was bizarre. But, truth be told, it was amazing to see her interact with the CMC as something a bit more than enemies, but still not quite friends. I especially liked DT's scene in the clubhouse, where she went from spilling her guts out about her troubles to denying that she had problems at all. Her facial expressions were among the funniest in the series, and to see them come from Diamond Tiara, who is currently the saltiest thing next to the Dead Sea, made everything about the moment seem somehow both hilariously absurd and startlingly genuine. She comes around, as we all expected, and then it happened. The Crusaders finally achieved Cutie Mark status.
This is the part of the blog where I gloat about how totally right I was way back when.
You may recall a while back, in my review for Appleoosa's Most Wanted, I predicted that The Cutie Mark Crusaders would earn their Cutie Marks in helping other people earn and understand their own Cutie Marks. That is exactly what happened, and I was simultaneously overjoyed and terrified by the idea of the Crusaders achieving success. While I was enthralled to see them grow into, well, them, I am scared that this will be the last we see of the Crusaders. I always felt that it would be a double-edged sword, and that as soon as they fulfilled their goal, they would fade away into the background. However... I believe that this may no longer be the case necessarily. The Crusaders could have their own arcs throughout the series or, maybe, even their own spin-off (something else I may have discussed previously). I believe the CMC are going to become much like the Mane Six in this episode: Heroes from a distance. Instead of going on wacky adventures to get their own Marks, they're going to take on a bit more of a passive role and simply give other confused fillies & colts (or maybe even grown mares and stallions) to understand their destiny.
There was one more little scene in this episode that genuinely brought me near tears. A bit before the inevitable celebratory "Hell yeah, we got our motherbucking Cutie Marks, Burn in Our Light!" song, Applejack said something that really punched me in the heart.
"If Mom and Dad were here, they'd be so proud."
Oh my god, how can I get these level of feels for these small, colorful horses? That line really got me, because I had just reread an interview or tweet from Lauren Faust that she put out a while back in regards to Aj's parents. She said that, in her mind, they are very much so dead. However, since this was a show for kids, they would likely never bring it up, at least, not like that.
I think they just brought it up.
Overall, I rate this episode at a perfect 10 out of 10. I have exactly 0 bad things to say about this episode. I loved everything about it. I loved this episode even more than Slice of Life, and this episode will remain number one for the foreseeable future. Jesus Hot Sauce Christmas Sh*t, this episode was godly.
My thoughts on the episode, as per usual (with the exception of last week). Be sure to let me know some thoughts of your own, and I'll see you guys next week when I talk about an episode that will no doubt pale in comparison to this week's, but will still probably be pretty great, the episode The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows. I think I know what this one is about, and it has something to do with a certain toy that was released around Season 4.
I couldn't find a way to work it into the post, but I also really liked the way that it went full circle like that, with Spike sending Celestia and Luna the picture of the Crusaders. What a nice little touch, don't you agree?