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" :P
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.
Thank you for making the thread!! :lovey:
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.
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. :shrug:
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!
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?
FiM fell off for me because it was trying to do this big thing with world building and villains and it was just... :lookround: 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". :lol:
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. :sly: 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. :lol: 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
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.
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.
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!!!!! :frolic:)
Spoiler
The villian gives me king sombra vibes in a way. I can't wait to see what happens next!!!