Could Starlight Glimmer have been originally right?
For a long time, I've wondered at just how feasible Starlight Glimmer's original concept of a cutie-markless society would be; while it's now a long-since-moot point, the question has still hung in my mind: Could her original dream have actually worked? Was there any hope for her ideal of a society unbound by such magic?
Now, for the sake of the discussion, we need to differentiate her goal from her means: There's no doubt that brainwashing ponies and violently ripping their marks off without consent was a bad choice - let alone her revenge plan! Not just because of morality either; it all produced objectively bad results. However, what about just looking at the concept of a mark-less society in general?
I present four points of data that suggest Starlight's goal may not have been so far-fetched as one might think:
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One, The Saddle Arabians: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it but critical entry, the Saddle Arabians are important because they are also very pony-like - yet apparently have a civilization important enough Celestia was personally interested in impressing their delegates. Moreover, cutie marks have not appeared in their later appearances, even as new sprites were designed for them.
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Two, Gabby the griffon: Featuring in an episode whose entire point was that you don't need a cutie mark to be 'complete', Gabby was shown to be quite adept at a multitude of tasks despite not bearing a cutie mark.
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Three, the CMC themselves: Despite their quest, the CMC were repeatedly shown to be reasonably competent at various tasks even before they got their marks - developing skills unrelated to their ultimate marks. Most of their failings came from childlike haste - something that would presumably have faded with adulthood, mark or no mark.
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Lastly, it has to be noted that Starlight's objectives can be differentiated from her means. Unlike Nightmare Moon or Sombra - whose goals were more or less inherently tied to evil and whose ascents to power we now know with certainty to be catastrophically bad for Equestria - Starlight Glimmer still had multiple options towards her goal.
So, what say you? Was there ever hope for Starlight's plan? Could it ever be more than a dream? What would a mark-less but peaceful society look like?
Submitted March 02, 2017 at 10:05AM by Logarithmicon
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