Talk:The Cutie Map - Part 2/@comment-10390252-20150409090730

Tommy Oliver has posted a very good review that highlights two notable weaknesses in this episode:


 * 1) Starlight Glimmer's early victory was very arbitrary and not really necessary for the plot development other than to place the Mane Six in a position of peril that wasn't strictly required to tell the story; it was't even really needed to emphasise the sinister malignity of Starlight's regime;
 * 2) Spike was written out for no other reason than he would break the above plot device by the simple fact of his presence in Equaltown. He doesn't have a cutie mark and dragons are highly magic-resistant anyway, so he could probably have broken the Six out of their cell and stomped Starlight's tail with little or no effort.

I agree that neither are deal-breakers. However, I have to agree with him that maybe it reveals a weakness in DHX's script-writing/editing process. A few more drafts or some brain-storming might have tightened up the story considerably.

That said, I think he also correctly identitified what may be a running theme this season: The Mane Six are not going to be so much the heroic liberators but the counsellors teaching ponies to solve their own problems. With this in mind, forcing a situation where the Equaltown ponies had to save themselves could be considered part of setting up that theme.