Early meaning of "cutie mark"?

[Broken Irishwoman]

I hope this is allowed; I asked this question in a different thread, but it got locked. Anyway!

I always thought "cutie marks" were the hearts on the hooves of G3 ponies? I see it being used everywhere as a synonym for symbol now, but for some reason I seem to recall the hoof hearts were actually called cutie marks. This must have been around 2008, 2009. Anybody who can confirm/debunk this?

[Saphy]

In the show g3 was the first to actually use the word it didn't have all the fim meaning of talent and destiny but it was still on the flank. Dunno about the toys though.

[starberry]

Yup, I also vaguely remember this. It would actually make more sense because they were like beauty marks but on hooves. 

[pinkkittywinks]

I always thought hoof hearts where called hoof hearts?

I can't really remember when the term cutie mark came into use, but I think it was with the G4 ponies.

Love pkw xxx

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

No, it was definitely G3 that started using it. As Saphy said, it was in the G3 cartoon

[Sunset]

For G3, Hasbro started using the term but they were unclear at first about what it was supposed to stand for.  Since the hoof hearts where a new thing for MLP, it was assumed by many that "cutie mark" was supposed to mean the hoof hearts.  I think at some point, it became clear that it was meant to describe the symbol but most of us collectors thought (and still think) that it's too cutesy of a term and proceeded to ignore it.  Which was easy to do because it still didn't have the significance that the term took on during G4.

At least that's the way I remember it.

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

Hoof heart is the name for the hearts. Cutie mark is definately the symbols. IIRC they say their name in one of the Core 7 cartoons, there's also some books that call symbols in G3 cutie marks.

[Carrehz]

For G3, Hasbro started using the term but they were unclear at first about what it was supposed to stand for.  Since the hoof hearts where a new thing for MLP, it was assumed by many that "cutie mark" was supposed to mean the hoof hearts.  I think at some point, it became clear that it was meant to describe the symbol but most of us collectors thought (and still think) that it's too cutesy of a term and proceeded to ignore it.  Which was easy to do because it still didn't have the significance that the term took on during G4.

At least that's the way I remember it.

Yup, this! I think that's one reason "cutie mark" didn't catch on really until G4.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

I think Hasbro stuck by it, cheesy though it is, because they didn't have an official and potentially trademarkable term for the symbols before that point.

Speaking of the significance Cutie Marks are given in G4, I think that may have been inspired by something in G1. Specifically, Baby Ember. She was the original baby pony and her original toy did not have a symbol, only the later Ember's Dream toy had a symbol.

[Safflower]

I think Hasbro stuck by it, cheesy though it is, because they didn't have an official and potentially trademarkable term for the symbols before that point.

Speaking of the significance Cutie Marks are given in G4, I think that may have been inspired by something in G1. Specifically, Baby Ember. She was the original baby pony and her original toy did not have a symbol, only the later Ember's Dream toy had a symbol.

Yeah, I think by G4 Hasbro realized that they needed a word for symbols, and cutie mark was already there.

Your idea about Ember is interesting, but it doesn't quite make sense. Nothing was ever said about her symbol. (They didn't actually ever specify if she was the same pony or not. We have seen other ponies with the same names, but they are still different ponies.) How could the significance of cutie marks in FiM have come from that?

[sd_dreamcrystal]

Being someone who came back into MLP towards the end of the G3 era, I have heard of -I refuse to say the term- starting in that era. I didn't watch the show so I didn't know and stuck with symbols because it makes more sense to me

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

@Safflower Notice that I use the word inspired. I envision the thought process being something like this: "Hey, this foal character started off without a symbol but a later toy of her had one. Let's craft a narrative/lore element based on that."
I'd say the odds are good for Ember's Dream Ember being the same character since unlike most other intragenerational other name reuses she's the same age group of pony, the same species, the same pose, and shares a body color with one version of Mail Order Ember and hair color with another version. Plus she's from the very next year instead of there being a gap.

[Ponyfan]

In Rescue at Midnight Castle/the first My Little Pony special Ember was the only Baby pony featured in the cartoon and the only pony that didn’t have a symbol. Hasbro used one of the mail order Embers for Ember in the cartoon. None of the mail orders had symbols. Rescue at Midnight Castle seems to indicate that each pony has a talent or ability that is different from the other ponies. Bowtie can jump further than the other ponies and Twilight is the only pony who can disappear and reappear (later all unicorns could do this. )

Ember and Twilight have a brief dicussion where Ember asks if she’ll ever be able to fly, disappear or jump far and Twilight tells her that one day Ember will grow up to be own special my little pony. Hasbro seemed to drop that idea by the time Escape from Catrina was developed because all other Baby ponies seem to be born with symbols. I think it was mentioned at one point that the CMC were inspired by mail order Ember.

In my opinion Star Ember is a different baby pony since she has a symbol and can see things in her dreams before they happen.

I just recently found out that Cutie Mark was first used in G3. I thought it was a G4 made term.



Ponyfan

[Safflower]

Ahh, that makes sense. Sorry if I came off as rude!

[LadyMoondancer]

Officially (i.e. according to Hasbro) cutie mark meant the same thing in G3 as it did in G4.  It's the symbol of the pony.

Collectors often referred to the heart mark on the hoof as the cutie mark, but nah, the cutie mark was definitely meant to refer to the butt symbol.

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"Pretty jeweled cutie mark."

Also, yes, the idea of baby ponies starting out blank and getting symbols later was inspired by mail order Ember, based on Lauren Faust's childhood playtime with Ember (and probably RaMC, I think she mentioned having watched that as a kid).  Hasbro itself didn't really care much about developing pony lore, I think.  Just selling toys.  So all the initial world-building came from Lauren Faust.  Like Cloudsdale is actually inspired by the Waterfall playset.

The only reason Hasbro came up with "cutie mark" was for marketing purposes.  ("Our newest line of ponies feature shimmering cutie marks" or whatever.)  I agree that they just kept the term around for G4 because, hey, it was already there, why change now.

Here's a picture of Lauren Faust's childhood collection (plus a couple G4s):

https://io9.gizmodo.com/lauren-faust-shares-her-childhood-my-little-pony-collec-1473997423

Under the picture of Ember it says something like "100 points to you if you know who this is and can guess what character she inspired."