G5 Netflix MLP Make Your Mark Discussion

[Zapper]

I figured I'd make a separate thread for this.
So Netflix is releasing the Make Your Mark series one episode at a time, or "chapters" as they call them.

Chapter 1 released today and because today is a holiday I have already seen it

Non-spoilery first impressions:

• I already like it better than the movie because it focuses on one pony per chapter and not all on Sunny. Animation is of course cheaper but I can deal with that.
• I still don't like how they only have symbols on one side and how small they are. It's hard to make them out and makes the ponies inhabiting the world look like color swaps without any personality (speaking roles being an excption).
• Posey looks so saturated I had to squint when she was on screen.

Spoilers behind the cut:

Spoiler

I really only like Zipp out of all the new characters, so it was nice the series started out with her. I have said it before about the movie, but I like how the new characters are not all one-note like the G4ers were. Zipp is not just rebellious princess or trick-flier, she is also a detective now. Boy-pony isn't just the policeman, he is also a caregiver to animals and as per this episode he received a more miraculous baby dragon he can't communicate with. Which creates a problem for him and can lead to some character growth.
So the writing is already a little ahead of what we saw in G4, where characters were constantly reset to play out the stereotype they were created with.
There seems to be an ongoing storyline that could have been a movie plot, which is always good because it means there will be an end to this eventually, not an endless continuation with resulting world building holes like FiM.

G5 will probably never be my favorite gen, especially because I dislike the Tales kind of setting with modern technology and un-ponified living conditions. But since I still lve to watch kids stuff in my old age (TM) I enjoyed myself. It really feels like something made for kids in mind and not "kids and their parents and the parents unmarried 30 year old siblings who spend their nights on the Dark Web"

I'm also looking forward to seeing the new antagonist just because of the design. She already reminds me of Queen Beryl from Sailor Moon, and not just because of the hilarious anime villain laugh.

I disliked that Posey came around so quickly and that an Earth Pony couldn't be singing their Earth song. They really continue this nonsense from G4 where Earth ponies are obviously disadvantaged but have to agree to let Pegasi and Unicorns lord over them because "harmony". Earthlings couldn't even walk when the magic shortened out. TF? They could walk just fine without magic. I was hoping Posey would continue to call out the obvious. It would have been more interesting.

Nitpicks:
Pipp is still the worst, she is so annoying and daft. I really just plain hate her, from her color scheme to her songs to her obvious influencer/pop star character. I hope they'll be giving her some type of conflict, too. She seems like she just exists so the show can have songs.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Thank you for making the thread!!

The animation bugs me sometimes (Mostly the weird white spots around their lips?) but it looks fine, as I expected from a CGI show.

Spoiler

Posey is such a fun character. I love that she isn't Fluttershy 2.0. If she stays a bit skeptical I could see this bringing a lot of good ideas to the table.

Pipp is actually my favorite because I think she's hilarious and want to see her grow! I could see inklings of this in the comic, hopefully they make her a bit more empathetic in the future.

[LadyAmalthea]

I watched it with my girls this morning. I liked the Posey character. My daughters were excited to see her...they recognized her right away from G1 fame. I hope they continue to focus on other characters like this, rather than just the 'Mane 5'; the only one of the main characters that doesn't annoy me is Zipp. (Hitch is okay, I guess...I just don't know why he had to be so weird and secretive about the egg.) Even if they just introduce one new character per episode. I'm always curious about the other residents of Maretime Bay, Zephyr Heights, and whatever the unicorn city is called.

Anyone know how often new episodes will be dropped?

[tailrustedtealeaf]

We will get new episodes in September with a winter-themed special as well (or to follow? I forget and am too lazy to check). We should get more episodes after that in Spring. The first episode drops will be in sets of 8.

[LadyAmalthea]

We will get new episodes in September with a winter-themed special as well (or to follow? I forget and am too lazy to check). We should get more episodes after that in Spring. The first episode drops will be in sets of 8.

That long? Wow, I thought maybe they would release one every week for 8 weeks or something. Hard to get too excited about something that far off.

[Zapper]

We will get new episodes in September with a winter-themed special as well (or to follow? I forget and am too lazy to check). We should get more episodes after that in Spring. The first episode drops will be in sets of 8.

I hope the long break won't hurt them but I guess they're indending to fill that gap with the youtube show.
What are the odds that

Spoiler

the villain character

will get a toy?

[Dragonflitter]

Wow you guys are all way more lenient about this than I was after watching this. I was really turned off by this special and it made me dislike G5 as a whole. I gave the initial movie leeway because I knew it was aimed at a younger audience and they were taking time to introduce all the characters and the world, but by now they should have had a better grasp on their characters and their plots. More specifics under the spoiler protection.

Spoiler

1.) I disagree that the G5's are not one-note Not only are most of them one-note, but they are mostly cookie-cutter copies of G4 characters. Sunny is just Twilight without an obsession with books. Izzy is just as crazy as Pinkie Pie. Hitch's obsession with animals is just a copy of Fluttershy--including his new magic ability to talk to them. Pipp especially is just very vapid and a flat personality. Zipp has the most variety of things to do but really the only strong personality things she has going for her is that she is determined to investigate things and she avoids her mother because she doesn't want to be burdened with responsibility.

2.) I was also really turned off by how all these supposed "friends" never once stuck up for Zipp or took her concerns seriously until the end. They didn't act like friends at all. They never supported her or showed understanding of her feelings. Pipp does a song for Zipp where the lyrics are basically "don't freak out, just chill" which doesn't support Zipp's concerns in any way. Even Sunny apologized to Zipp but then in the next breath rolled her eyes and dismissed Zipp's idea that the magic was glitching. This isn't friendship. (Yeah I know they apologized to her at the end but like how are these five supposed to even be an example of friendship when they act like this?)

3.) All the ponies of Maretime Bay act so infantile, I really find it annoying. The arguments all come down to "You did that on purpose!" "No I didn't!" "Yes you did!" Back and forth, saying the same thing over and over again. These are arguments preschoolers would have, not adult characters. And then on the beach, Hitch does not step in like he should as a person of authority in the town, instead he just makes an excuse and runs away from the ponies with problems? I understand this is the beginning of the series and we need some character growth from everyone, so probably Hitch will become more confident as the series goes on, but can these characters do ANYthing right or act in any sort of responsible way?

4.) Pipp's auto-tune signing is also really annoying. The music in this chapter was not even close to G4 standards. Or even the standards of the previous movie.

5.) The characters do things that don't make sense just to stretch out the plot. Why does Zipp avoid her friends and make excuses to them when she wants to investigate the magic glitch? Why doesn't Hitch support Zipp when she brings up the magic glitching on the beach? Why does Hitch hide the egg like it's illegal to have it or something? Posey claims she and her crew won't go to Maretime Bay Day unless magic is banned, but then shows up anyway with no mention of it again?

6.) Also the entire plot that arguing between the three pony races leads to storms disrupting the area, was directly ripped off from G4... I mean, I guess you wouldn't say ripped off, because this is the same world, albeit many generations later. But why just do the same thing over again?

7.) The resolution with Posey was not only wrapped up too easily, but really didn't have any sort of moral lesson for children viewers. Posey was antagonistic and rude because she felt left out for not having magic, and she was jealous. She was distrustful of pegasi and unicorns because they were different from her. Then in the end, she got magic. After that she wasn't rude anymore. It's not like she learned a lesson, she just got what she wanted and so she stopped acting that way. (I know the pegasus Windy risked her life to save Posey when she fell in the hole, so maybe that was supposed to contribute to Posey's change of attitude, but she didn't even say thank you to Windy or acknowledge that Windy risked her life for her? So it really came off as her changing her mind just because she got magic too.)

Anyway, it wasn't 100% awful, I liked some of it. I guess I just expected characters who actually support each other and a plot that makes sense.

[Zapper]

Spoiler

1.) I disagree that the G5's are not one-note Not only are most of them one-note, but they are mostly cookie-cutter copies of G4 characters. Sunny is just Twilight without an obsession with books. Izzy is just as crazy as Pinkie Pie. Hitch's obsession with animals is just a copy of Fluttershy--including his new magic ability to talk to them. Pipp especially is just very vapid and a flat personality. Zipp has the most variety of things to do but really the only strong personality things she has going for her is that she is determined to investigate things and she avoids her mother because she doesn't want to be burdened with responsibility.

I guess we have different interpretations on what "one-note" means then. Having similar characteristics to the FiMies was obviously done on purpose to keep the core interests on what the toy/brand makers think the target demo wants (and has proven profitable).

One character has to be an animal keeper so they can make playsets with pets, one has to have a beauty thing so they get to make themes using that, and so on.
Each character having a gimmick is not what I consider being one-note, it's when the character gets reduced to that and constantly resets to the default because they can't break out of their archetypes. It's something FiM really struggled with after a while because the characters all had to go to extremes and go "crazy" at some point.

The G5 characters are much more toned down and varied in that regard, overall.
Of course that can change as time goes on but so far they are already adding traits to the characters we didn't see in the movie. It took FiM several seasons to do this. I think Twilight only ever learned to relax two episodes before the end of the entire show That's why I used Zipp as an example. Her entire thing in this episode was discovering a new trait about herself that wasn't linked to being a princess or flying.

[Queen Sophie]

Spoiler

It wasn’t the best, it felt like Sunny wasn’t that much involved in the story expect for the ending, Hitch is over the top too joyful compared to the movie! Zipp was the best character since she had more going on and more into the story, (I especially related to her being annoyed by her mother haha) The other things that happened the problems didn’t felt built up? It was like “problem, sorry, problem again!” Expect for the main plot with Posey and the ending nobody was expecting an alicorn looking over the ponies which raises many questions! Which we might get answered get in the next part, overall I give this special a C-

But regardless of my review, I’m more interested in collecting the toys!

[Koudoawaia]

My husband and I watched it and I agree with him that it was reasonable.

[Goanna]

I find Izzy's new voice very grating :x She's gone from being my 2nd favourite character to my least favourite haha. I don't mind the new voices for the other characters, but Izzy is just..bleh.

I agree with a lot of the points Dragonflitter made haha. Especially about the music. The songs in this special and in Tell Your Tale have just been...not very good, which is a shame since the movie had some great songs. It can't just be down to budget either, since G4 had wonderful songs all through the show (which I still listen to from time to time!). I don't know why they wouldn't hire a good singing voice for Pipp? She's meant to be a famous popstar, but her singing voice sounds worse than her backup dancers! In G4 many of the main characters had different VAs for when they sang.

I am glad Zipp continues to be the best character She's great.

[Dragonflitter]

But regardless of my review, I’m more interested in collecting the toys!

Oh man, you're right! What if they make a toy of the

Spoiler

new villain we see at the end!? And her little henchpony?

I would love that!

[Koudoawaia]

I find Izzy's new voice very grating :x She's gone from being my 2nd favourite character to my least favourite haha. I don't mind the new voices for the other characters, but Izzy is just..bleh.

I actually cringed when Izzy sounded  just like Pinkie Pie in one of her lines.

[Dragonflitter]

I know what line you're talking about! I heard it and I was like "Wow... that's exactly how Pinkie Pie's VA used to deliver lines."

[Koudoawaia]

Yeah I'm never going to be a fan of the overly bubbly characters with super shrill voices x.x