G5 Netflix MLP Make Your Mark Discussion

[Ragamuffin]

Right now I feel fine about MYM! I saw some of the bigger spoilers beforehand and thought "oh no, is this going to be more of G4?" and, as far as this special is concerned, isn't. It definitely feels more kiddie which is a plus in my book, I wouldn't mind the adventure being a bit simpler than G4. I saw something saying Hasbro's target audience for G5 is ages 3 to 6, so that's preschool-kindergarten age, which would be grouped in with IPs like PAW Patrol and PJ Masks, right? Those shows don't have evil villains or a Good vs. Evil narrative or big action scenes or stuff, nothing more intense than "kitten falls out of a tree, we gotta save it!". I don't remember where this was from or if it was even from *Hasbro* but I Want To Believe

FiM fell off for me because it was trying to do this big thing with world building and villains and it was just... I lost interest in FiM after season 5 or 6 or so but still continued to watch, I don't remember much of what happened in the later seasons! There are ways I could word this better as always but here goes, at the best of my ability for the moment:

It went from "look at these silly characters doing silly things! I love it when silly characters do silly things!" to "omg what if Rainbow Dash really meant blablablablablbalbalabla when she did blabla and this character is related to this character and blablablablabla". Like "generic geek franchise" level of speculation and whatever, all thanks to the... "generic geek franchise" direction FiM went, favouring world building and conflict over "two ponies have a tea party". Not saying it's a bad concept for a show as a LOT of media do this, but it's the SHIFT of what FiM WAS to what it BECAME. And yes, there was always speculation and analyzing in early FiM, but it wasn't like... "that kind" of analyzing. Like everyone was trying to make MLP so deep and it's affected how people view the previous gens as well as G5. Everything HAS to be connected, everything HAS to be deeper than it first seems, etc. G3 and G2 are bad because they have no lore and conflict. G1 is OK because it has connection with G4, and it has some conflict. And so on.

FiM started out as being a more kiddie show. The adult characters being "dumbed down" a bit to learn lessons as simple as like, "sharing is good" and whatever, and having the moral laid out in black and white at the end of each episode. It went from being character focused, exploring the ponies' relationships with each other and how they get along, you know, actually being friendship related? Social skills or something? And then it turned into friendship *in the show* being this ultimate magical force, and they *talk* about friendship a lot, but never *show* it. Mane 6 lacks in actual chemistry and I don't remember them ever hanging out as *friends* in later seasons.

Granted I've only watched through FiM once while it was airing so I haven't seen episodes in YEARS, but I just don't remember the Mane 6 being really *friends*. So far G5 improves on the actual "friendship" aspect of it, I feel like the Mane 5 all have good chemistry with each other and all of them could hang out and have a good time. I don't think there's any reason why Pinkie and Rarity would be friends, given what was actually shown in FiM without relying on headcanons and fanfic. It also helps that it's not really focused on "friendship", rather simply "getting along" and "racism bad". Friendship is such a personal thing you can't force upon others, and "friendship" and "love" mean different things to different people, but decency, open-mindedness, and respect is something that kids should learn. I can't remember how they worded it in the special but it was probably still called "friendship".

But I guess I interpret FiM's concept of "friendship" as the personal relationship between two or more people, as that was the point of the show in the first few seasons, Twilight learning basic social skills. As FiM went on, I still had this... expectation? That they were still referring to the same "personal friendships" dynamic, which is why a lot of scenarios ended up feeling weird? I bet I could explain myself better if I actually rewatched FiM but I'm so burnt out from it lol. G5 sets expectations, for now, that it's about "getting along", and so far, it's been just that.

I guess these last two paragraphs about what "friendship" is is a more subjective criticism/observation, as I probably view the concept of "friendship" differently from others.

As for their personalities I agree with Zapper, there's more room for the characters to actually do stuff. And we're only so far into the generation where we could explore them even further, and HOPEFULLY. Not "flanderize" them. Pinkie really only had her party thing going on, her past on the rock farm was never really explored. Izzy, while similar, has her art, trouble fitting in, like how she never really had friends before Sunny & Co. came along. That's at least TWO things, instead of ONE. Izzy is more "weird girl" like how I remember S1 Pinkie being, instead of being "SCREAMING IS FUNNY I LOVE BEING UP IN EVERYONE'S FACE SQUEALING ABOUT BEING HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Even if Mane 5 has similarities to Mane 6, I think, at the moment, they're handled more maturely.

But Pipp is a good character, sorry. Objectively Zipp is the best, but Pipp is... I don't know. I just like this type of character, haha. What Sunny's character is as it stands, no idea. Her only trait in the special was "sorry everypony! I can't control my alicorn magic" and doesn't do much more outside of that. She was more endearing in the movie because she had to work towards her end goal but I can't say her actual personality was strong. In this special she did nothing until the very end. Typical Determined Main Character With No Flaws. Not necessarily in "Mary-Sue" territory. I don't dislike her, and I'm not annoyed with her like I was with late-FiM Twilight.

Spoiler

As for the villain, idk! When I saw her being called "OMG new villain!" that's when I was like "ugh, here we go again, FiM 2". But now that I've actually watched the special I'm more open to her inclusion. I've only watched so much of Filly Funtasia and we've only had like 5 seconds of screentime of the new alicorn, but she kinda reminds me of the Funtasia villain. As long as she's a more kiddie villain, I'm fine with it, I think?

But that's the tiring thing about having a villain being revealed. People are going to expect big fights and battles with her. People are speculating, of course, what her ties are to Sombra and other G4 ponies. The comic teased about Discord, but I haven't seen anyone talk about the comic, nor have I seen anything from it, nor do I have any motivation to read it. Back on the "everything must be deep and connected" thing.

People have been thinking that the comics are for an older audience, which I don't think I would mind, as it's relatively more niche and the medium is better-suited for an older audience. It would be ok if they go more "serious" in there, I think.

Edit: Misquoted something :p

[Dragonflitter]

LOL it's funny how differing G5 opinion is. Some fans see things that are the direct opposite of how I see them, and visa versa. (I guess that's true for any place that discusses any media at length!) For example, I don't see much friendship in G5. I see them talk and talk and talk about how "friendship is so important omg we should all be friends!" but then never back it up with actual action. When the G5 ponies actually need their friends' support, they're not there to support them. Like, if the Mane 5 are such friends, why did Hitch hide the egg from them? Isn't that something you would confide to your closest friends? It would have at least showed some depth to their friendship if Hitch hid it from the town but told Sunny and the others.

Sure they hang out together, bake together, do arts and crafts together, but this is all superficial stuff. When one of them is sad or upset, the others dismiss their worries or--even worse--don't even notice.

And I really don't understand people who always say "G4 ponies aren't even really friends, they don't have anything in common, why would they even hang out together?" Maybe it's just because the people I am friends with in real life aren't anything like me, so the Mane Six always made sense to me. In my social group, our differences are what makes us strong. We support each other. I'm an aroace introvert with no interest in kids, my best friend is an extrovert single mother of three who thinks her kids are her entire world. When her kids run over her, I'm the one who says "You should take a break and come have lunch with me." When I'm oblivious to other people and wrapped up in my own head, Dorothy is the one who says to me "Did you notice how our waitress was sort of limping?" And then she talks to her and finds out how her day is going, which I would never do because I'm very shy and don't talk to strangers.

The two of us are complete opposite personalities and we met by attending a random event where we started talked to each other only because we were the only two females there. No special fate or shared personality traits brought us together, but that was our Sonic Rainboom moment and we've been friends for seven years now. And yeah, we fight and we "reset" our issues all the time. Dorothy always wants me to be more bold and speak up to people in public. Sometimes I do, because I've grown some over the years, but not often. And I always want her to get a spine and discipline her kids more, but that ain't gonna happen.

But anyway, this isn't a thread about G4 characterization and I don't want the thread to get locked because we're getting off topic, so that's the end of my G4/G5 comparisons. It's obvious the franchises are going to be very different, because the target audiences are different, so comparing them doesn't really help any, anyway.

It's true this is just the beginning of G5. It's harder to create a coherent storyline when you don't have regular episodes and instead just some random movies and shorts to string a narrative together, so I should probably give them more credit than I have. Maybe the G5 characters will actually develop friendship later on instead of just spouting words with few actions to back it up.

[starscout]

It's so refreshing seeing people not bash on G5 for being too different from G1 or G4. MYM does have its issues, sure, such as the wonky animation and the voice acting can be off at times. However, the series is just beginning, so hopefully that can be straightened out a bit with time. As for the characters, I like them all. Well, for the most part, anyway. I liked Hitch in ANG, but the new personality shift is honestly kinda jarring. He seems like a completely different character. As for Pipp, I don't hate her. I actually like her quite a lot. I've seen a lot of people paint her off as shallow and obnoxious. She really doesn't come off like that to me, though. She does have the whole diva thing going on, but I don't think she's really a jerk about it or anything. If anything, she comes off as a positive role model for the ponies that look up to her. It's also nice that they made the celebrity character short and chubby rather than going with the more supermodel-esque bodytype FiM did with its high-class characters. I also LOVE the new Posey! Her hairdo is so cute, and she's a genuinely interesting character to me. I saw some people complaining about her "character assassination," but she actually isn't too different from MLP 'n' Friends counterpart. There was an entire episode of that show about Posey being xenophobic!

Spoiler

I do agree that I didn't like her being "redeemed." Afterall, she wasn't entirely wrong about Earth ponies being disadvantaged compared to unicorns and pegasi.

[Zapper]

But Pipp is a good character, sorry.

Yeah, I dodn't mean to bash anyone's fave. To me she is just horrible the same way Pinkie was horrible to me in G4. Happy-go-lucky, "always look on the bright side" "sing and dance no matter what" type of characters just make my brain melt. But I get what's endearing about them to others. Especially kids.

LOL it's funny how differing G5 opinion is. Some fans see things that are the direct opposite of how I see them, and visa versa.

To be honest, I don't actually have very strong feelings towards G5. I am just happy to talk pony again (along with looking forward to Basic Fun retros).

I think so far G5 is comparable to Filly Funtasia and I don't hate Filly Funtasia, so...

I guess a lot of us are giving G5 writing, characters, toys, etc. a more favorable review because we are still remembering the backlash G4 had. Some of us are just glad to see something that isn't FiM and are happy to eat those breadcrumbs

[sd_dreamcrystal]

I saw a clip talking about the new possible antagonist and it brings up a question...

If Gen 5 is related to Gen 4 (just set in the future).... Where the heck did this winged unicorn come from?! (yes I still dislike the other term).
In Gen 4 it was Princess Celestia, Princes Luna, Princess Cadance (magically made assumingly), Princes Twilight (magically made), and Princess Flurry Heart (born as one from a magically made WU and a Unicorn).

It's obvious that Twilight and Cadance isn't around as it seems magically made WUs don't have immortality, while it's possible Celestia and Luna are still around unless their immortality was tied to something else. Flurry Heart doesn't also seem to be around any more either? Which brings in another question on how Celestia and Luna were pretty much immortal if a natural born WU isn't possibly immortal.

The new WU's colors reminds me of Mane-iac but that could just be the color trope with those color combos being specifically for villains.

[SweetNightmare]

Unfortunately the special carries over the problems of the movie. I haven't really talked about the issues of the movie so I'll try and write what I didn't like about it.

I'm bad with writing my thoughts down, so hope you can understand my ramblings 

My biggest issue with g5 overall is the connection with g4. I would much prefer if it was stated clearly that g5 is a separate universe and all g4 references are just that references and in universe they could be treated as "legends" or stories.

Unsure if I should leave more under the spoiler but I'll do it just in case.

Spoiler

One of my issues in the movie is the lack of strong motivation for the characters to bring magic back. It looks like in the earlier drafts all ponies used magic so when it disappeared it would have made sense for the main characters to try and bring it back.
In the final movie the motivation isn't really strong. It really boils down to "We need to bring magic back so unicorns and pegasi feel better" but there's really no urgency or a reason for earth ponies to really help since magic doesn't benefit them in any way. It would seem that it actually may make it harder for everyone to get along since earth ponies are clearly less powerful compared to "magical" ponies. 
It didn't really make sense for everyone to get along so fast, I feel like it might have been better to show that most ponies are unsure about magic and the unity.
That could leave room for the tv series to show how new mane 5 introduces more and more ponies to friendship and magic episode by episode. But they really wanted to wrap it up fast at the end.

I also wish there was also a stronger motivation for Sunny to be so "pro friendship" with other races. Like the only reason she seems that way is because her dad taught her so. It's a good starting point but it doesn't feel strong enough for me. I guess if her dad actually was friends with other races of ponies (I thought that a good fix would be to show that when he was a child he befriended Queen Haven and Alphabittle but lost contact with them when Phyllis Cloverleaf exposed them to adult ponies and ended their friendship, I feel like it would have also made the final scene in the movie more powerfull) it would have made her more sense for her to be working so hard towards peace. Also maybe getting letter or letters from Izzy back.

There some smaller nitpicks but I feel like those are the big ones

I haven't watched (and I refuse to watch) any of Tell your Tale so I'm unsure if story progresses in that show, I did assume that I can just watch Make Your Mark and be caught up with main storyline.
The animation is fine, the writing however, not so much.

Spoiler

I'm really sad that Sunny, Pipp and Izzy gotten much less to do and their personalities just became more watered down. I did hope for them to develop more but they just seemed to blend together into "nice and cute characters" with little differences in personalities.
At least Zipp and Hitch had more to do, their arcs were pretty okay.

With all the friendship talk it was disappointing to see that no one takes Zipp seriously when she said that the crystals are acting off. Also, I wish that the crystals didn't start to act off every time someone has a slight disagreement with their friend. It must be so stressful knowing that a small misunderstanding may cost you your magic abilities.

It's interesting that they brought Posey to say " Hey, not everyone feels safe with lots of ponies that have magic powers and could easily harm us if they wanted to" but everyone just brushes her off with "She just needs friendship and magic" without actually trying to calm her and show her that that no one wants to harm earth ponies.
Also when the earth ponies get magic she is just "fine". I guess knowing that now everyone is able to use magic puts her at ease but it's just so too fast.

I am still mostly interested in toys but I was hoping that the animated media is gonna be at least a bit better. But I'm still positive that they will develop the characters more later on.

[Zapper]

I saw a clip talking about the new possible antagonist and it brings up a question...

Spoiler

If Gen 5 is related to Gen 4 (just set in the future).... Where the heck did this winged unicorn come from?! (yes I still dislike the other term).
In Gen 4 it was Princess Celestia, Princes Luna, Princess Cadance (magically made assumingly), Princes Twilight (magically made), and Princess Flurry Heart (born as one from a magically made WU and a Unicorn).

It's obvious that Twilight and Cadance isn't around as it seems magically made WUs don't have immortality, while it's possible Celestia and Luna are still around unless their immortality was tied to something else. Flurry Heart doesn't also seem to be around any more either? Which brings in another question on how Celestia and Luna were pretty much immortal if a natural born WU isn't possibly immortal.

The new WU's colors reminds me of Mane-iac but that could just be the color trope with those color combos being specifically for villains.

If they really wanted to tie this into G4 lore they could make her a descendant of the Cadence and Flurry family tree to shake things up a little. But she could have just as well turned herself into an alicorn using the same crystal magic as Sunny, just in reverse because evil. I'd love it if she was the evil grand-grand-daughter of Cadence, tho
Cadence guarded that crystal heart in the crystal kingdom and evilpony was surrounded by crystals in what seemed a crystal palace.

[Rainlove The Pegasus]

Here are my thoughts on Make Your Mark:

I like the general appeal of the show. Its okay. I can tell it is 3D just by the looks of everything. The characters seem normal like the G5 A New Generation characters. This show makes me happy again knowing that MLP is changing but still going.

Izzy: It looks like to me that Hasbro still kept her general personality. I did see that the lantern that Izzy made was infact Sunny's original broken carousel lantern from the movie. And it is a toy now in stores.

Pipp: Pipp is more sassy not like she was in the movie. I loved the song Pipp sang. I wonder if Hasbro will release a soundtrack or something on it?.

Zipp: Zipp is more sneaky and uses her "Medium Sneaky" phrase from A New Generation. Hasbro also added Zipp with an Ipad/phone device. She never had one in the movie. Zipp also when she was "spying" on Hitch at the beach was definitely interesting.

Sunny: I really like Sunny's alicorn shabang still. Its really amazing how it looks. Sunny's hair is also rainbow and curly. Its pretty and very vibrant.

Hitch: I liked how Hitch understands animals at the end, kinda like Fluttershy!!!. He is also more gentle about situations like in the beach scene.

Cutiemarks: I still don't like the cutiemarks on one side. It should be both sides for the cutiemarks. (Come on Hasbro!!!!!  )


 

Spoiler

The villian gives me king sombra vibes in a way. I can't wait to see what happens next!!!

[Cbaird]

I watched the new  G5 movie and have been trying to watch the series but just can’t get into it.
Personally I don’t like that they linked it to the G4 franchise with the story line they have for the show.  G4 did a great backstory about how harmony was dependent on the ponies working together and the consequences when they don’t.
The G5 series seems to have completely ignored that

Catherine

[serena-hime]

I was not impressed, I couldn't get through the whole special honestly. A lot of weird writing, stiff dialogue and unnatural, lifeless exposition dumping about the previous movie and the animation, while not bad, just felt a bit too off and I think they would have been better off doing a 2-d special (not in the style of the webisodes though).

 I didn't like Izzy's new voice at all, and she was one of my favorites in the movie.

It's kind of a shame because the movie genuinely makes me cry every time I watch it, but I really didn't love this.

I ADORED the little chibi anime drawings during the scene where they explain what an alicorn is, kind of makes me wish we got a TV series in a more detailed version of that with lots of pastels and sparkles!

[KarentheUnicorn]

I started it but only watched the first few minutes. For some weird reason, the animation and voice together looked a bit strange. I tried again and watched up till about 9 minutes in and it still, something looked stiff in the animation for the mouth movement and words just don't seem to work together right. I don't remember noticing this in the first one. The story also feels a little meh for me so I guess I need to give it a good try to watch the whole thing but I don't find the story/plot that appealing/interesting.

[Goanna]

I watched a (long!) review of this special from a technical/animation point of view the other day, which I would recommend watching. The guy, who is a 3D animator, goes into detail about why the animation of the special looks so off- a lot of it is to do with the lighting and the shortcuts they took to generate said lighting.

I'm not sure if youtube links are allowed, so I'll just say, look up "My MLP Make Your Mark Special - Thoughts" by DJTHED

[Kitcatepic]

The movie to me felt like a new hope for mlp
But that quickly died with make your mark
They had way too many subplots so it was very hard to tell what's happening at any given time also a lot of people complained about pipp having about two lines in the movie but I feel like it was better that way because I find it really annoying that she has to reference social media every two seconds the only thing I enjoyed that much about this movie was the songs but they only made 2
I still think this can turn around but at this point it seems unlikely

[DreamvalleyMLP]

The movie was okay, but I couldn't sit through the whole Make Your Mark special. It's just so uninspired and bland. Same goes for the toyline. G4 was a decline for MLP, but G5 is just straight up Happy Meal level nonsense.

The movie being number 1 on Netflix will turn out to be just a flash in the pan IMO.

[Leave a Whisper]

The movie was okay, but I couldn't sit through the whole Make Your Mark special. It's just so uninspired and bland. Same goes for the toyline. G4 was a decline for MLP, but G5 is just straight up Happy Meal level nonsense.

The movie being number 1 on Netflix will turn out to be just a flash in the pan IMO.

You're mostly correct on that, except that happy meals change up their toys to keep the kiddies (and kids-at-heart) invested.