Unlike the Mane Six, the Cutie Mark Crusaders are notable because they are meant to stand in as surrogates for the target audience. I think people have a severe tendency to underestimate the age of the intended audience. While there is definitely 2 year olds watching the show, they aren’t the target, the actual intended audience is much older. Based on the complexity of the plot and other traits, the intended audience is clearly older childhood, pre-adolescent, but fully operational (it’s Piaget’s term). That corresponds with roughly 6-10 years old. The question is where exactly in that rage the CMC were supposed to fall in earlier seasons, and if that still applies now.
I think the CMC have always been supposed to be significantly older than most of us thought. There very first episode centered around Diamond Tiara’s cute-ceañera, which is obviously a parody quinceañera. Those parties are held at 15 years old, however, the CMC were obviously not supposed to be that old at that point. So here is what it really means: the quinceañera is one of many variations of coming of age rituals, which for girls were originally marked by the start of menstruation. 15 is just used as the year because most girls have had their first menses by then. The cute-ceañera works closer to a menstruation-celebration than a quinceañera based on the variable time factor, and indeed the moral of the episode was a veiled message that all kids go through puberty at different times and that’s okay. Still, menstruation is a bit old for the target audience, I think the timing they were thinking of was the development of breasts as that occurs earlier and is more noticeable, which places the arrange of the CMC at around 8-13 as far as that metaphor is concerned. It’s an imperfect metaphor, sure, but the audience is still supposed to be able to relate, and it’s probably easier for the younger end of the audience to relate to someone a bit older than them than visa versa. That’s places the CMC as corresponding to the upper-part of the target demographic, maybe roughly 9 years.
You are viewing: When Do The Cutie Mark Crusaders Get Their Marks
Read more : When Is The Moon In The Seventh House
Now, the CMC are clearly much older. Sweetie Belle’s interests in Season 7 confirm that she’s an older teenager now, as even younger teenagers wouldn’t like black box theater unless they’re REALLY advanced, but they still aren’t adults yet. It’s the last episode though that really struct me how old the CMC have grown. The young six appear to have replaced the CMC as the surrogates for the target audience, but they don’t come across as being as nearly young as the CMC originally did, for example they kinda come across as being in a highschool setting, Sanbar comes across as being fairly mature, but he’s still there, and Smolder went through dragon-puberty before Spike did even though he’s probably the most mature of the younger cast. The most important thing is this episode established that the CMC are SIGNIFICANTLY more mature than the Young Six are. As such, there isn’t really much room to place the CMC other than as upper classmen. Now I’d place them as being roughly 17.
I noticed that when using these ages, the CMC have pretty much aged in real time with their target audience. I don’t think the showtime is quite in real time, I think it’s a bit slower, but that also works. Also, due to the CMC’s role as the original audience surrogate, I think it makes perfect sense for them to age in roughly real time, so they continue to be relatable with the people who originally bonded with them. This contrasts to something like Harry Potter, where the characters ended up aging much slower so the people who were there from the start grew up before they did. By adding the Student Six, they also solved the problem of the CMC getting to old for the target audience, though I think the show has also matured as it went along, just as a deliberately slower rate.
Read more : When To Prune Dwarf Japanese Maple
This leads to the last point, the ages of the student six. I think their supposed to be younger teenagers, just very immature for their age (except for Sandbar, in which case the only thing the CMC have over him is age). Internally this is because they come from backwards cultures (except Silverstream, who is just really immature :P), but the real reason is so the target audience can better relate with them. Smolder might be an exception, but dragon biology is weird. Mentally, Spike is probably supposed an emerging adult at this point, and even if he’s biologically younger than Smolder (though he might not be, who knows, maybe he’s just a slower grower, maybe Twilight accidentally slowed his growth through malnourishment ) he’s significantly more mature, and I’d place him as snarky teen in season 1. That guy is an odd guy to place, but I think he was always supposed to be a bit more mature than the CMC as he’s not as much of a surrogate as they are.
Agree with my assessment? Please comment.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHEN
