This quote sums up my view upon G5... “A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children isn't a good children's story in the slightest.” -C.S. Lewis
@@AxsorXI I don't support Hasbro. They have made to many huge mistakes in regards to their source of income- Customers. But I will never leave the Friendship is Magic fandom. I'm a lifer.
I think what happened between G4 and G5 is that Opaline amassed a lot of power quickly and took advantage of what Cozy, Chrysalis and Tirek started. The idea of any race’s superiority had, to some degree, taken hold. Twilight probably had to use the bulk of her own magic to save Equestria and keep every pony from going on a rampage.
From what Spike said, it look like Opaline initially lost to Twilight and then she attacked and killed Ember and drained defeated dragons of their power to force Twilight into hiding the magic from her.
I would love to see how it happened. The disadvantage of seeing it from the G5 perspective is that we aren’t seeing it from the original players. Spike told us a little bit, but it’s clearly painful to him. Whatever Opaline did was also too much for the next generation of Element Bearers.
@@PeachWookieelol good XD opaline kicked major butt XD finally a villain that does something lol Also twilight is ugly more in Gen 5 she needs her mug smashed XD
It makes me so mad that the G5 movie was so amazing and Make Your Mark in more than double the time has not been able to be even half as good, writing off things set up even in the movie itself and changing characters’ personalities. It boggles my mind.
I am also disappointed in how Make your Mark has been handled compared to how the movie A new Generation was, also I do not like the shorts on TH-cam, I am finding myself agreeing with many who were dissatisfied during the G5 movie. Sad Hasbro is doing this, on the bright side of things, at least Maretime Bay Adventure was awesome, G4 didn't get an official game, so at least G5 has that. But sadly the show just doesn't draw me in like G4, Friendship is Magic did and continues to do.
You should understand that Hasbro is a greedy and incompetent company which doesn't care so much about their IPs' dignity and decency. So please, just try to not support that stupid and awful company.
It's all in the format. G4 has over 200 episodes. G5 has 27 episodes in total over 6 "seasons" with each season having 1 to 6 episodes each. G4 was a weekly series with 26 episodes per season. G4 was meant to be watched over time, G5 was meant to be binge watched in a day. With binge watching, we watch it once then forget about it and many aspects of what we saw. With weekly viewing we had time to absorb what we saw and think about it while we waited for the next episode.
This brings me back to one of the big problems Steven Universe faced with only airing in "Stevenbombs" after the first season or so. The wait was so long and agonizing for new content that people would end up forgetting or giving up on the series until the next bomb. Over and over again.
@@KeanPGalivanI’d like to think I’m putting into words how a lot of people feel about new vs old tv shows that they knew but couldn’t quite figure it out
@@Maieveryday2 IMO it is never a lost cause at least in the scope of "having another generation that has a TV series that is well written, unique in its settings, characters and stories, and is made in a way where a wide audience can really enjoy it / a fandom can grow around it."
@@Maieveryday2Well, if the franchise is still going on fifty years from now, maybe they'll end up creating a decent cartoon by accident. Personally, I don't think we're gonna get another great cartoon out of this franchise unless there's a major creative shake up at Hasbro, and the people in charge become less risk averse and more willing to give the creative teams the time and space to create something good.
I'm still stumped as to why Spike's no longer a chad like how he was in the G4 finale. Also, is there anything in mythology about a flying jaguar/leopard with hypnotic abilities? If it's made just for the show fine, but I'm just wondering
Quadruped dragons in general raise a lot of questions - particularly considering that Sparky's design (apart from being born already having wings) is consistent with G4 dragons. More ammo for those who see G5 as an alternate universe, I guess.
@@rowanrawlz1871 I'm a bit curious about that myself. Clearly a lot of time has passed, between the G4 era and the G5 era. Shouldn't Spike be MUCH larger?
@@wingblade6023 we dont know how old the og dragon lord is so we cant actually answer that. regardless spikes still larger than the other dragons by quite abit
I watch the mlprewatchstreams on cytube every Saturday, 11:14 EST. Each stream is like a time capsule of all the pony content that was made during that time, plus all the new videos of the past week in the end.
I feel like my biggest issue with the new show is the lack of background characters. There used to be hundreds of dragons... now there's like, 7. There used to be multiple cities of ponies... now theres like, one big city, one medium city and 1 few cottages in the forest. Seriously it seems like there's maybe 25 unicorns total.
Empty is definitely how Make Your Mark feels. Opaline's end is definitely darker than ANYTHING from G4, even Sombra being blown up and disintegrated not being as horrific. Sure, Cozy, Tirek and Queen Cheese Legs are trapped in stone at the end of G4... but at least that means they're frozen in time. Opaline is clearly not only left fully aware once trapped, it looked like she's been literally trapped with a space in the tree, so she's either going to starve to death or possibly even suffocate. G4 never went that dark. And Spike's return... that just answered questions with more questions and... yeah, do not like how they barely gave anything to explain anything. And Spike's lack of a reaction to learning how long he'd been asleep, meaning everyone he knew and loved are likely all dead now? Um, what reaction? It never even came up. You know you've screwed up when you have a returning character not even care what happened to their family while they were gone.
Imagine if she's trapped for eternity there, no powers, no one, only her conscious in a claustrophobic nightmare, forever, that would be a fate worse than death.
I dunno. Damning three already defeated villains one of which is a child to a fate worse than death without even hinting at a possible reformation plan is very dark if you ask me once you look deeper into the implications
G5 as a whole has had this problem since its conception. It's in this weird limbo of being connected to G4 but not doing anything with that connection. When the G5 movie came out, everyone wanted to know why the different pony races ended up separated and afraid of each other. The impression I got was that the creative staff weren't particularly interested in exploring the fall of old Equestria and wanted to tell their own story. But by connecting G5 to G4, they had to come up with something just to placate the community, even if it was paper thin. I think the unfortunate truth of the matter is that making G5 take place in the same timeline of G4 was a marketing decision, not a creative one. The defeat of Opaline was a good finale for MYM, but Hasbro had some new toys to put on the shelves, thus "Secrets of Starlight" came to be and was tacked on to Chapter 6.
I do think Opaline’s defeat makes it easier for G5 to be its own thing now. It probably helps since they did have legal issues tying G5 to G4 (thanks to Discovery Family).
I personally hope the series continues after secrets of starlight cause I do not care about the writing I just watch for entertainment. And also because they can’t just end it with a cliffhanger like that especially when we were introduced to a new villain for sunny and the gang to face of against, a new character to get to know, and a possible lore behind allura and starlight ridge and how they came to be.
My thoughts on this... 1. The dragons are design the way they are because it would be easier to create toys that way. While I personally don't mind that the dragons were walking on fours, I did mind that their "claws" looked more like "hooves". Spike also looks like Spyro now. 2. To keep my sanity with the ending of G4 and G5 series, my sister and I believe that both shows are in slightly different universes. In one universe, Opaline doesn't exist. This is the G4 universe. That way, it ends on a happy note. In the other universe, Opaline exists. This is the G5 universe. I don't care what Hasbro says, this is my headcannon that helps me sleep at night. 3. Gen 5 might have been better if it was a movie only series. That way, Opaline can be seen as a threat, the plot wouldn't drag for so long, and each movie would be focused on the characters' growth and lessons. Then again.... the writers may also have screw that up. 4. My Little Pony franchise is targeted for little girls under the age of 10. Not for grown men and grown women who make TH-cam videos about the franchise. 5. G5 never should have tied itself to G4 in the first place. G5 has great potential, however, the shadow of G4 is far too great. 6. Hasbro only cares about the toy sales, not the show. That is why Littlest Pet Shop never went beyond 4 seasons. Infact, I believe that it was cut short in the middle of season 4. So long as the toys are selling well, it doesn't matter how bad the show is. If the toys are not selling, the show gets cut (even if the show is doing well).
Regarding your point #4, just because it is for elementary-aged girls does not mean that it should be in the "girl-show lack of care" area. I mean, Wordgirl (and 2/3rds of Cyberchase, and Peg+Cat, and even Martha Speaks) is a girl-led show for that age demographic and yet it escapes that shame.
@@amesstarline5482 This. So much this. Media targeted towards girls and women is generally seen as less-than and frivolous. It shouldn't be treated like shit because of that fact. G4 had the same target audience, yet it appealed toward a wide variety of people. The issue here is bad writing, bad tie-ins to gen 4, poor character development for most of the main characters, butchering some of the personalities from the movie, boring background characters, limited sets, a godawful villain, Sparky, and so on.
@@UnboxingAlyss Considering how other "girl led shows" even outside of the "for younger audiences" brackets are treated (Most of Disney's recent TV works- including 'helmed by the co-creator of P&F Hamster and Gretel', also Inside Job on Netflix and Nick's own track record- including not adapting Phoebe and her Unicorn), it feels especially potent in seeing the care (or lack) G5 got.
All this tells me is that whomever is in charge of writing G5 clearly had never bothered to watch G4; These new specials feel......lifeless, but on purpose.
Hasbro moved to a different studio and different writers after the G5 movie. In my book what followed was G5.5 and G5.6. So much potential, but in the end, very disappointing.
@@TheLegitAlpha But how could that be possible?? I thought that since they work with Hasbro, all rights to the work would be permissible for use in future projects.
While I love this season does anyone else think Hasbro is contradicting themselves they could’ve ended it with Opaline’s defeat and no portal opening to Starlight Ridge but then they gave us Allura and her bunny Twitch crossing over to Equestria at the end of Secrets of Starlight giving us a continuation and not to mention Tell your Tale episodes are usually five or six minutes
You forgot Allura's mysterious brother, because he's the "actual" proof that My Little Pony: Make Your Mark will continue, besides the true reason why Allura is after that magical star is because she wants to use it to free her brother whoever he is from wherever he's at. And yeah I said it because I happened to be the first to figure out what Allura's true goals are, and her brother speaking to her through via a disembodied voice is the key proof of it.
@@jefferykelsey yeah, I was thinking that too since Hasbro didn’t outright tell us that Make your Mark is ending everyone just took that up to speculation because of a chart saying that Tell your Tale will be the only MLP thing going in 2024.
@@Mirthful_Pandanot to mention that we also had the writer and actors strike so maybe what they had for tell your tale was already done before that happened.
Hasbro is just a greedy and incompetent company which doesn't deserve support by fans. That means not even support for MLP. They're the worst. One of the worst entertainment companies. Please! Support good entertainment, not a stupid and awful company like Hasbro.
The series appears to be spinning its wheels. Like it wanted to have the connection to G4 but seemingly at no point sat down and went through the series of events that lead from there to the current gen. The problem is a lot of older fans of the series aren't just media savy, they're very burnt by this phenomena of media spinning their wheels in order to not answer questions they don't have.
One of the directors for the movie admitted that the idea of G5 being a sequel to G4 was done without anyone figuring out how things got to be the way they were. Which was a really stupid decision. It was a "Are you _trying_ to tank this franchise?" level decision. As for answering questions, even after all this time we still only know bits of Opaline's backstory and I think most of what Spike tells the characters about how she wrecked Equestria are things that the audience already knew. And since Opaline's been defeated, I doubt we'll ever find out much more about her and how she forced Twilight to take such drastic measures to stop her. It's incredibly sloppy.
@@ohsoedgy6888 They can easly take Starlight Glimmer and make her come there to fix the timeline she messed up when she was a bad mare. In other words G5 would be canon only as alternative timeline. G6 could go back to G4 and continue it in proper way.
Honestly, the Starlight Ridge story felt like it was trying to be almost something of an equivalent to the Crystal Empire arc in G4 but just sillier with direction or complete motivation. As for 'Make Your Mark' itself, I agree that it doesn't know what it wants for itself or which direction it's truly going. The G5 movie gave an idea and foundation of what they were going for and it looked there was a splid plan for a future story. However, the series is all over the place with no main focus and the web shorts appear to be the ones keeping it alive and carrying the good lore. One minute it's connecting to the past of G4, the next it diverts to a now plot away from the original plan and then the next it's stick without a direction but tries to make up for it with a song and dance. In regards to Spike, I swear the story rhe gave for an explanation to Opaline, Twilight and this magic madness felt like they just read through the fanbase's theories and put together a story from that. The hilarious thing to me was when Spike wanted to go back to sleep after hearing that Equestria lost its magic on its own after everything Twilight and the rest of the Mane 6 did to keep it in one piece. 'Make Your Mark' looks like it has an idea of what it wants to be through the Movie, however, instead of following through with its original plan whatever it was, it's trying to be something it's not by trying too hard to mimic G4 in some way thinking it'll have the same effect. G4 had its own style and direction which it stayed true to and it made it successful, and G5 will never be able to copy that style no matter how many connections to G4 they add to it. They really need to think long and hard of what they want G5 to be and its direction otherwise its future will be very bleak.
I hate being a downer, but I gave more of a chance to G5 than I did many other shows... And I don't think I'm the only one seeing the wasted potential of good story strings in a jumbled mess accross 3 medias... A bleak future for G5 implies the execs won't shut the whole thing down, now that it's "technically" ended...
My suspicion is SoS was originally intended to answer "what happened to Our Town and The Crystal Empire?" with them fusing into this village up north with crystal unicorns, with the secrets being of Starlight Glimmer, kept by a Sunburst descendant. ...and then without the rights to the late seasons (Discovery Family owns them), but the title set in stone, hasty rewrite made the Sunburst descendant Comet, the villain some writer's fetish-filled fursona (biggest female in all of G5 paired with ugly bunny boyfriend, and her power is mind control to make people so happy they have magic space orgasms, and she's named ALLURE but with an A? Come the hell on on). Everything else is a clear case of corporate mandates (DANGLE TWILIGHT'S CORPSE, FANS WILL COME, MORE SONGS SO WE CAN TIKTOK THE KIDS, WHOA NO YOU CAN'T MAKE OPALINE SCARY SO JUST HAVE EVERYONE LAUGH AT HER AND NOT BE TRAUMATIZED AT ALL, and NOW ADD SPIKE SINCE KIDS LOVE HIM FOR SOME REASON), rushed deadlines, and too many cooks from management watering down the broth in different ways. A really, really fun little tidbit I noticed the other night actually is the G4 leaks show that Daring Doubt, originally had a setup written by GM Berrow, MYM's head writer, where Dr. Caballeron basically did to Dash what Opaline did to Sparky, but S&P shot her down hard over it. GM Berrow is also the reason that the dragons live in the Isle of Scaly, which she developed in her book where Daring Do goes there. GM Berrow mostly did overly-safe stories in MLP kids book prior to MYM, so basically I suspect that everyone else is phoning it in on the writing staff, and GM Berrow is overworked to pump out stories under severe limitations, resulting in this absolute mess that's basically her 2nd drafts using recycled past ideas, with her the only one able to overrule S&P so Opaline can be remotely threatening.
I feel like G5 needs to move on from friendship and harmony and instead explore the following themes: -Freedom -Tyranny -Oppression -Revolution -Survival -Hope -Desperation -Sacrifice -Order -Morality -Sanity -Trauma
Make Your Mark could've gotten into a fair few of these, especially since A New Generation WAS about politics and social change. They could've easily explored themes like freedom, tyranny, oppression, revolution, order. The only episode that sounds any close to these is Chapter 2's Growing Pains (at least where order and freedom are concerned.) And I feel like they kiiiind of explored trauma with Misty, but more under the guise on the subject of abuse and how to break away from it.
That's why I want more content from the series, but he ruined everything and I bet the others bronys youtubers will ruined it too! #MOREMYMCONTEN #G5NOTDEAD #RIPDRWolf
@@albertoromero5075 Doctor Wolf is easily one of the most level-headed MLP reviewers to have tackled G5. Like, even this video, where it's clear that he thought the chapter and show were a mess, he's still significantly kinder and more reasonable than I'm sure any of the actually obnoxious voices that commonly hate on G5 will be when they put out their reviews for this chapter. I certainly wouldn't consider Wolf a downright hater of G5, let alone responsible for Make Your Mark's cancellation.
@@8nicopink868 oh no, don't ever think about cancellation! I want more G5 content and a new equestria girls season!! I don't want the legacy of mlp to sink down like other franchises like ice ages! #G5NOTDEADYET and I still hate DR Wolf, don't ask
I presumed Spike was quadpedal because that's just how dragons grew, starting bipedal then become quadpedal. For example the G4 Dragon Lord, Ember's dad, was one of the oldest known dragons and quadpedal, while most other younger dragons were bipedal. This could be because younger dragons either lack wings or are less experienced flyers so bipedal locomotion allows easier climbing to compensate. Eventually they mature into quadpedal locomotion once flight becomes their main means of movement. Because we know the time difference is a thousand years roughly, this gives us a rough time frame for dragon growth by using Spike as the measurement.
There should be a scene where one earth pony/unicorn/pegasus proclaims him/herself to be the first president of Equestria and declared that democracy has finally come to the nation.
Tbh i understand your frustrations with the series, but it's become my new comfort show. I end up going back and watching episodes, which i never do. The ponies are just so cute, and i love how characters play off each other
Same here I do hope they continue especially when they can’t just end like that not when we were introduced to a new villain for the gang to face of against and a new character and member to get to know, as well as a possible lore behind starlight ridge and Alura.
People always cry "Its a kid shows" for its bad writing Or "Its for the current generations of fans. That is why it has different touched up" which...again, not excuse for the bad writing I mean, if my lil siblings rather watch the previous generations than the "Make Your Mark", it shows how the current shows are really a major downgrade from previous one
This show was all over the place since the beggining. If all that's left from now on is just the youtube series that's good news, it means that Hasbro might be moving on to G6 already.
Screw Hasbro! Don't support that greedy and incompetent company. Just support good entertainment. Not stupid and awful companies like Hasbro which doesn't care so much about their IPs' dignity and quality.
Misty was always great, and the revelation of why Opaline took her in really was intriguing. She knew of friendship's power and wanted to take advantage of it, but couldn't, but still let Misty bring back that connection. It was honestly genius and manipulative. I think they took a bit too long to figure it out while, ironically, not having enough time to flesh it all out. Opaline's plans and actions should have been seeded out more, really binding it all together, but some of the standalone episodes and specials took away from it. They had a lot of time through all of MYM but didn't make use of it. I have heard Discovery partially owns G4 and they need to pay them a fee to use anypony from it, which is why we sparingly see any past characters. I feel like they had big ideas for making G5 a sequel, but that ended up biting them in the ass and by then it was too late. Sure, Spike appeared for a few episodes, but it wasn't like he gave any big flashbacks to everypony else and what happened. And Secrets of Starlight really feels a little underwhelming given what Starlight got people hyped about. In the end, it was never related to Starlight Glimmer. I feel like they should have called it Secrets of Starlight Ridge or something to give us a better idea of what it was. Plus, Allura and Twitch haven't made a strong first impression. Sure, she has an intriguing power that could make for dark and dangerous scenarios, but we don't know anything about what she wants or why outside the portal. There's having mystery, and then just not having anything to know. Opaline gave us mystery at first as a stinger, but then with more appearances we unveiled more along the way, especially as she bounced off Misty. Plus, it feels like they try too hard to make her seem like a threat with her reaction to alicorns being "How cute." It's more intriguing to have a villain aware of the power the heroes might possess and wary of it, but able to overcome it through their own skills rather than merely thinking less of them. Make Your Mark was... flawed. I feel like a lot held it back and then they couldn't quite get a full handle on it as they went along. But there is still a good bit to enjoy about it. Some nice songs, fun jokes, and Misty is best pony of G5.
I honestly believe they had plenty of time. They had 2 series to do it in (and TYT IS canon). They just didn't do it. They focused on too much filler. i'm betting thy figured they had plenty of time to follow through with the plot, but when they heard they were getting cancelled, they panicked and rushed everything.
My favorite parts of the new chapter were Misty standing up to Opaline, the revelation that Opaline took advantage of the friendship magic Misty was manifesting, and Opaline’s defeat. How ironic that a wielder of fire is imprisoned inside a free and lost any feasible way of escaping! Spike using his teleportation fire was really neat too. I enjoyed Secrets of Starlight, Violet and Comet are cute and the Auroricorns in general are pretty! That being said, with even more confusion added to the timeline, I think G5 would’ve been better off as its own iteration like all the other generations.
Rather than seeing another next gen sequel, I feel like they would have had a lot more success doing something like going into the past. Whether that was exploring how Starswirl the bearded met his friends and their adventures, or even Celestia and Luna as young princesses growing into their powers and responsibilities. All the adventures that could have been hinted at in the MLP series plus many more that have never been written down. Maybe they could even have done this while thing with Sunny but in the past before the Windegos when ponykind wasn’t United yet. And if they wanted to add a cameo from the main MLP series, time travel magic is canon and it could be fun having them see the ‘future’.
Something tells me the people behind Make Your Mark were so deathly afraid of not being able to be as good as Gen 4 that they forgot how to make their show good in its own way.
yea i was kinda done when i realized the dragons were designed to use the same rig as the ponies - to me, that just tells me no one gave a crap, because i know people who do rigging for far less pay than you'd get at a professional animation studio for it, so either they didn't have the time OR.... or it was a choice made in service to making the show cheap and easy to produce, or both, which is the direction i'm leading towards. and like, all of the other dragons are literally tinted copy pastes of each other? i'm actually so upset about this, having all these varied fantastic characters animated on the same rig just makes everything about the show feel even more like a generic kids cartoon than it did prior
@@jameslawrenson1208 I consider it a fever dream. I expect it to end with Twilight waking up in bed in cold sweats after eating too many srirasha hayburgers "Spike wheres my antacid!". lol
The series arbitrarily connected itself to G4 because it wanted to carry over G4 fans even when all the lore and canon from G5 either ignores G4 or contradicts it. That tells me this generation was not made with the intention of telling a good cohesive story, it was made with the intention of selling toys at the expense of the story.
So people still have the nerve to call My Little Pony a kids cartoon? .Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis were turned to stone and can still hear everything Opaline is still alive and stuck inside a tree .Sombra got obliterated
Kids are familiar with the concept of death and had worst things happen in other shows or movies that didn't traumatize them. The thing is, there's nothing wrong with liking a kid's show, it's called that because it's the target demographic but still can be for the entire family, kids have heard and seen worse than what's on tv.
I found Chapter 6 to be interesting, But also far from perfect. It was awesome to see Misty finally stand up to Opaline, And imo being trapped forever in the trunk of a magic tree is a fitting punishment for a villain of Opaline's caliber. And even though his MYM design was "bleh" it was somewhat interesting to see Spike in G5, Because as you said Doc lore wise Spike explaining the real story about Opaline and why Twilight created the unity crystals was pretty good. As for "Secrets of Starlight" It was so cool where the Mane 5.6 ended up, Their Auroricorn designs are absolutely amazing! And of course when they first ended up in a new land with an arctic setting, At first it made me wonder if this place is part of the Frozen North. and the Auroricorns could indeed be descendants or a subspecies of Crystal pony, As for Starlight Ridge itself you never know it could've once been part of the Crystal Empire I mean after all pretty much every place in Equestria fell apart when Twilight's reign failed, So it could've happened to the Crystal Empire too and Starlight Ridge could've ended up being all that remained or maybe Starlight Ridge was a new settlement that was built above the metaphorical ashes of where the Crystal Empire used to be. And finally, When I saw the part where Sparky chose to stay with the ponies. It once again reminded me of an episode of the 2012 TMNT series namely the one where Tokka comes to Earth looking for Chompy, But then Tokka lets Chompy stay with Raphael. And then Raph says that he believes that Chompy is destined to return to the stars one day. Well that's basically how it was in Chapter 6 of MYM when Sparky chose the ponies. Because even though Hitch will continue to raise Sparky, I think deep down Hitch knows that Sparky might be destined to live with the dragons someday but it'll be a long time before that happens.
Yeah but opaline should have been smart lol she'd easily have won. She didn't deserve to be stuck in a tree trunk and she should have killed that annoying sunny and then destroy that ugly twilight and avenge the legion of doom. Then the rest of Gen 5 the man 5 (except hitch he's hers XD 😜)😅😂
I feel like most of G5's problems stem from a single issue - the need to have every character star in every episode. G4's episodes, for the most part, revolved around one or two characters at a time, telling a single story about them which had a full 22 minutes to develop naturally. G5's desire to have every main character be the star of every episode just meant each episode was too crammed. Stories didn't have time to develop naturally because they had to share the same 22 minute length with two or three other stories. Since nothing is given time to develop, everything feels empty. We can't explore Spike's feelings of having lost all his friends from G4, we can't expand on Opaline's role as a villain, we can't dive into any particular character any more than what's needed on the surface to make the plot happen. I found it a shame, because I do think there's some genuinely neat stuff in G5. I liked the idea of a more continuous villain with multiple episodes dedicated to them (and after watching episode 1 of G4 I thought that's what it was going to be, and I'm sure I'm not alone on that), but Opaline just wasn't a very good villain. It's quite telling that most G4 villains made a much bigger impact in two episodes than Opaline did in this entire series. Nightmare Moon had an interesting backstory and sympathetic motivations, Discord was super charismatic and fun, Chrysalis was genuinely creepy - even Sombra, for all he gets dunked on, was cool in a mysterious offscreen kind of way. And they were all introduced with major victories, making them immediately threatening from the start. This is so far removed from Opaline being foiled every time right from the start and having little in the way of personality beyond "villain" and the most generic "Power for the sake of it" motivation you can give a villain. I really want to like Allura because she does have a cool, unique design and some interesting potential regarding the voice she hears at the end of the special. But again, starting off by losing in such a stupid way just doesn't bode well. And if the show does keep up its need to tell three or four disconnected stories in the same time it took G4 to tell one, there just won't be time to develop things well.
Imagine opaline getting trapped inside the tree and somehow traveling to the past, that way she avakens and frees herself from the tree as queen chrysalis (as we saw in comics)
I would agree they didn't know where they were going with the series, and to be honest, I think the writers did it only to get their pay check with how uninspired the story was, that seemed to retread G4, for the most part and hurrying up to wrap everything up at the last minute which made the ending feel so much worst. I understanding from the writers strike was that the writing teams just weren't allowed the time needed to plan out a coherent story or develop the characters very clearly, or create a good chemistry between them and weren't really clear if their was going to be a continuation or not. I think the Star light was actually a welcome change with introducing a new villain that had nothing to do with stealing magic, or cutie marks, and the ponies were just a means to an end. I did like Comet which seems be supposed to become the nerdy one in the group which helped add much needed good nature slap stick to the characters which the other just didn't had.
@@shangothunder1055 Same here, my understanding Netflix is extremally tickled when it come about either continuing a show or axe it, and they decide it on the week it's online it makes it difficult to plan a season accordingly especially on extremely tight deadlines. From my understanding from the writers strike in general they weren't even allowed to make higher fully dedicated writers for shows kept on board or do revisions and corrections.
Holy crap, that picture of Spike crouching down a little made me realize the dragons have UNGULATE LEGS. They have horse legs with dragon paws. They are literally just dragon/pony hybrids.
I just got done binge watching G4 i was never a fan of mlp but i see now why the show had so much popularity in the past and i was surprised with the lore behind it and the work that was put in it. Seeing G5 and how much it strays away from G4 doesn't surprise me.... Much of G5 is souless and empty with lazy story writing and it actually bumps me out. I honestly see people moving on and never wanting to talk about G5. I hope the fandom will get something they deserve in the future because this ain't it.
I recently went back and re-watched G4's first 3 seasons, and I felt a wave of nostalgia that the new show cannot do. And once the dear princess celestia letters at the end of each episode begins, I almost choke up because of how much I missed that. There aren't a lot of moral lessons in tv shows these days.
Yup, honestly I'm starting to like more the idea of having a g6 that continues what happened after The Last Problem or the coronation, because g5 it's becoming too convoluted and toy like
Was it ever explained why Sparky's dragon design was so different from other G5 Dragons besides age that is? I mean I understand that Dragons kinda were inconsistent design wise in G4 until much later on too, but here it really stands out.
I don't think it's intentional but my interpretation is dragons are born bipedal then become quadpedal as they age. This can be seen as Sparky and G4 Spike both are bipedal, older teen dragons likes Ember and Smoulder are bipedal and can fly and finally the G4 Dragon Lord was quadpedal. Evolutionary speaking being born bipedal could be a way to compensate for not being able to fly by giving them more ability to climb. Based on how Spike and the other dragons are all quadpedal it could mean it takes roughly a millenia to achieve this adult form. Of course this is all speculation and it's likely just an oversight because they wanted quadpedal dragons and to only build 1 dragon animation rig.
I think all of your criticisms are very valid, and I agree. Though, I gotta say, I actually really enjoyed the secret of starlight special. Maybe it’s a guilty pleasure, but I loved the colors and even though the songs aren’t the best, they were better than some of the stuff in the rest of the G5 series thus far. I liked Comet a lot too and I’m happy he joined our crew. I think Allura is really interesting too. Honestly, if this special was how the show always was, I’d be happier with it. But usually the show is so wooden and odd and the delivery of dialogue is so awkward. And sometimes they say things just to fill the space. It really sucks because this show has moments where it does really shine (the misty and opaline conflict was honestly the only reason I kept watching), everyone else is very one note. Hitch is pretty decent with the sparky stuff though. I also wanted to see sprout grow as a character but they just kept him in his pitiful state. I dunno. I also kind of like the design of the dragons but it sucks having them all look the same when the reason they were so neat in g4 was because they were all so different. They kind of look like they walked out of a Barbie movie here. And the walk cycles are horrendous.
The only thing my brain really got from this ending was Spike talking about Opaline being banished from Skyros, where Sunny says it’s the alicorn lands. And I’m sitting here like “How many ponies got larsoned?” XD
You’re right of all this but it was fun to see spike again and how he explains the true story of Opaline and the Crystals. I Can see why in the newest of IDW comics for the g5 Older Discord wants to not have the magic of the ponies. Because of her.
I was really eager to give G5 a chance after the movie came out, and even stomached a few first seasons, thinking it wasn't too bad. But in the end, I really didn't see almost any improvement at all and it seems the series just decided to drop the ball at this point and become a toddler-type entertainment. Which I can't be interested in.
I feel G4 was forced to end earlier than they wanted. All they needed was a year or 2 break before starting back. There was so much potential for the Mane 6. For example: Applejack in the IDW Comics was seemingly being groomed by Mayor Mare to become the New Mayor of Ponyville (and allow her more access/visits to Twilight through diplomatic/business meetings instead of the once-a-months they now have) but the rushed series finale made her a Granny Smith Stand-In to look after Big Mac's Family whilst denying her a family of her own (Rainbow Dash only stopping by to help out with some chores as AJ helps watch her Brother's kids).
at best i think FIM had one more season in it. what was the point of destroying the Tree of harmony and having the student 6 make a club house out of the remains. it played nothing in the final boss
I feel like they missed a chance to explain what happened to the crystal empire cause instead of going to that town they could have gone to the crystal empire (or what would be left of it) and see the crystal ponies instead of some snowy star ponies
Exactly. The bad thing is that they can't even mention g4 places because of royalties or something. It's so frustrating because at this point it might be a whole different universe. It even makes me depressed to see Spike ending in that state away from everything they built
Apparently they can't have a lot of g4 stuff inserted into g5 due to copyright, I don't know much about the details, but maybe that's the reason? Would be a dream if they could use all the right, that's why the comics seem more attractive, they have more freedom to create stories
There was this AU about Twilight Sparkle going full Nightmare Moon sometime after her friends die of old age out of grief and loneliness and being the one who took all pony magic away, and I kind of wish they really went this route in canon.
Same problem as what’s going on in the MCU and Star Wars, there’s NO vision. No plan in place. Nothing. Lauren Faust had a vision, a foundation put in place for G4. So even when she left, the writers and animators can just run with her ideas and extend upon them. G5 should’ve had one person come in to help set a vision or foundation for the show
I feel like the biggest mistake being made about this show, is that they are dumbing it down for kids a little too much. I get it, the show is (technically) for kids, but they are pushing it to the point where it's just down right bad. The villans don't feel like a threat, more like an inconvenience. There wasn't really a point in any of the episodes where it seemed like all hope was lost, or that the villan had seemingly won. Even when something like that happened, it was way too fast pace back to the whole "happy ending", not feeling like enough time was given to show things play out properly. Another instance about the whole "made for kids" thing, is the dragons. In G4, they weren’t really fond of other creatures, they were mischievous and fierce. In G5... need I say anything? This show is one of those situations where I watch it once just to see what is new, and pretty much never touch again. They really need to work on their story writing.
Twilight Sparkle did said that there are evil forces out there who want to exploit the Magic of Equestria for their own dark purposes, and that is a telltale sign that Opaline Arcana is only the beginning.
The fact that they called the special “Secrets of Starlight” seems a bit like false advertising cause it makes its seem like Starlight Glimmer is going to be a part of the plot
The entire reason I got into mlp was the character arcs, the background lore and the characters themselves....Gen 5 has really been turning me off as opposed to gen 4, so much so that id say g4 was just lightning in a bottle, the right things at the right time.
I personally enjoyed the end of chapter 6, I honestly didn’t felt like it was rushed when I watched it until you mentioned it to be rushed, also with the special introducing Allura I think that just opens up more things for the future of g5, besides I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually we do end up getting more of make your mark, after a while from the tell your tale episodes.
We all know that they didn't have plans for G5 other than "Print money". And Spike was done dirty; should've been gigantic and powerful looking, not look like all the other ugly dragons
At the beginning of MYM, it looked like it would be building up to something pretty interesting, and then as it went on, it kept building so much that I got bored and stopped watching, and now seeing all of the half baked connections between g4 and g5, it felt less like a continuation, than it felt like a different story that was using g4 as a crutch for its lack of personality. The comics are still as good as ever, but they can only carry the IP so far, something needs to give, they need to decide what's canon and what isn't. Because as it stands, having a character that was alive during the canterlot wedding, completely changing how spike and the dragons look, having canterlot ruins be rather close to where this all takes place, insinuating we're on the same continent while none of the places on the g4 map look even a little bit like g5's area, and even the existence of Opaline in general. I feel like they should pick one, make things eons in the future, in a different area or timeline, and don't make g4 something tangible, or just, go all in, make things connect to g4 in many other ways, and not just seem like g4 is inconsistently used whenever the story has dug itself a hole and uses the past to reason a way out. And another thing that was very disappointing is that everyone expected that we would get answers as to why all of the old places were abandoned, and replaced with new ones, how much time has passed, a map of where they are that reasonably connects to g4's map, a reason why all of the other creatures seemed to have just disappeared, a reason that Twilight and Cadence weren't still alive, and many more. It just feels like it promised to answer questions, and then distance itself and become its own story, but it has done none of that, its just mindless barbie adventures with songs inserted because it treats the kid audience as extremely ADHD, nothing like the world building, characters and their motivations, complex personalities and character flaws, and stories of g4. Very disappointing.
To me, the biggest offender of Secrets of Starlight was that it was essentially clickbait. It was announced months in advance and with that title, along with G5 desperately and shamelessly trying to tie into G4’s lore, you would think that means Starlight Glimmer is coming back. There were theories about the special possibly being about how G5 is another alternate timeline created by Starlight (which became my headcanon). I also thought that this would make sense as a desperate attempt at damage control to fix all the continuity errors and lore contradictions that everyone was criticizing the show for doing. But nope, now that this special is out, it’s as if the company is going to “LOL JK! We were actually talking about a different Starlight that has nothing to do with the character!”
I'ts my understanding that the number one rule of writing fiction, or an entertaining true story for that matter, is to answer a question about how to make a principle we care about thrive, and to show a character overcoming a fear and learn the truth about a deep inner lie they've been telling themselves, to accomplish a goal. For example, the MLP: Next Generation movie basically said "harmony and personal empowerment thrives when we accept each other and choose to live in peace. And it would have been even better if it had a more easily identifiable fear and inner misbelief to overcome to accomplish a goal, such as how in Tangled, Rapunzel had to overcome her fear of "breaking her mother's heart" and her misbelief that she was incapable and vulnurable, to be able to see the floating lights, feel like her life "began," and feel free and safe. It would have been wonderful if Make Your Mark had followed these rules. Maybe the question could be about how to make harmony continue to thrive, or they could make the story about the thing about her turning into an alicorn whenever she helps people, and ask how to step into your potential. With those questions, maybe the lesson could be: “Harmony thrives when you help people understand each other’s points of view and continue to look for solutions until one is found that everyone is happy with.” We could see her struggling with forgiving Sprout, worried about how to resolve disagreements with micro-manager Hitch, helping her friends overcome disagreements about how to use the crystal bright house (like how the friends from Twilight’s school struggled with the Treehouse of harmony), resolving arguments between Zipp and Pipp about their mom marrying Alphabittle or about how to tell their mom when they think she’s making a bad decision as the leader, and make and manage a free volunteer service group to help ponies with prejudices or fears to see that the other species of ponies are nice. With Opaline, they could have tried to reform her, and when they couldn't, they could do what you're supposed to do in REAL life when that happens: in her case, work together to beat her and imprison her somewhere. Which they did, but they didn't have a realistic arc about overcoming fear, to do it. You get the idea. A coherent goal. A real principle relevant to real life. And deep character growth by overcoming fears. This would have made the show so much better! And it would have made the movie even better, too.
• “I really am on the same page with you Doc, I just don’t know what to say about this generation. Generation 5 feels like it’s trying to do something different yet nostalgia, but it holds back on crafting a concept series after the film on Netflix. I don’t want to give up on this generation, but I also want to ask them: What’s next for Generation 5? What else is there for Generation 5? As for my perspective, I hope that the My Little Pony community team will find a way to bring back the magic we know and love someday. As I will wait for it and hope for their perspective when it comes.”
I think i spent most of the day pondering the same things you talked about. Their best chance would have been to try and make a new story, and just the mystery of what happened being solved as they did their own thing. But they kept diving back in to G4 so much that they never created their own unique thing. Every time we got some new information it overshadowed any progress the show made in being original. Spike and the dragon designs were disappointments, had he been older and wiser and maybe had some sorrow over what happened then i could feel something but what we got just felt empty and a let down. This whole series outside the movie is just something to sadly forget. Spikes comment about them losing magic just opened more questions.
I found it interesting that even though they never fully refrence Starlight Glimmer, the episode sill reminded me of her. The way everypony in the trance from Alura smiled was pretty similar to how they looked in Starlights village. But yeah, else it was pretty weird that they introduced a new villain, even though Make Your Mark might not continue from here. Them mixing the important stuff between Make Your Mark and Tell Your Tale is kinda weird as well. It makes it difficult to know which episode of which series has to be watched when.
Well, they do reference her but it's blink and you miss it. During the final battle against Opaline, Sunny picks up a heart shaped locket which is presumably one of the magic artifacts Opaline collects as alluded to in her speech comparing her and Sunny. At a later point the locket opens and Sunny looks in it as her picks it up and Starlight's cutie mark briefly shows. So maybe the locket will have some connection to Starlight in the future. My personal theory is Starlight Ridge is the Crystal Empire moved back into whatever realm it was in before it reappeared intentionally as a way to evacuate the Crystal Ponies from Opaline's wrath. Starlight may have helped with this in some way. With no King Sombre there, the realm is safe to live in.
@PlebNC Oh that's cool. I really didn't notice that. I thought the locket was a throwback to an older generation (Rescue at Midnight Castle), where as far as I remember a very similar locket with rainbow inside defeated the villain. Could be that it's instead a refrence to Starlight though. It did seem to have importance one way or another. We'll just have to see if the team behind this actually uses it in the future or not. Maybe in Tell Your Tale if Make Your Mark doesn't get more chapters.
Any villain who sings about how evil they are is instantly pathetic. Being mad with power is one thing, but they, at the very least, still believe their actions are justified. Trapping her in the tree seemed rushed (I almost thought I'd missed a scene) and, assuming she wasn't crushed to death, she's going to die of suffocation within the hour! When I saw Spike Spike I immediately wondered what happened to Ember, Smolder, Gabby, and their kid. And "The Secrets of Starlight" was clearly just a "Let's try to keep the audience interested." tease. If touching snow was enough to break the trance, wouldn't walking through snow have been enough? This raises so many questions that the only logical conclusion I can come to is they just wanted the group to have a snowball fight! Why not just have a Christmas/Hearths Warming special?
I agree that being trapped in a tree (that’s supposed to be a friendship tree of all things) is sooo much darker than anything before it in mlp. I’m also REALLY curious about the other dimension with equestria girls. I mean… SO much was left unexplained, it’s a tragedy. I also felt weird about Spike’s return. They totally redid all the dragon designs. It seemed like only full grown dragons had to walk on all fours, and even they could stand up. These new designs really do feel like a remake of pony designs. I did like that we have a clarification of the elements each of the new six possess. Like how Sunny is the princess of hope. Overall the MLP Make Your Mark series was too all over the place to tell a good story.
It's been a while since I watched mlp. Because unicorns have wings and can use magic. IT'S HARDCORE!!! And I think it's an overused defeat where the villain gets sealed in something for thousands of years before returning to the heroes to get revenge.
Honestly, i am really disappointed. The only good part in this final mym season was us discovering the ponies still could have magic even when their cutie marks and the crystals were seemingly gone. It implies the crystals don't contain the magic, and never did, they're more of a key to unlock the magic inside while also making magic have grown even stronger after. Twilight seemingly predicted this would happen accirding to her recording in the crystals. But also it really throws me off because that means magic could have stayed around, and the only reason it didn't must be something about twilight. Her having been the alicorn of friendship and then her magic being sealed or maybe even gone entirely might have caused friendship between the 3 tribes fell apart. But we don't get anything about that here. All we get is vague ties to g4, spike returning with very little to do beyond exposition on small things like why Sparky might be better off raised by ponies, and a revelation friendship was all they needed to regain magic, even with the crystals out if commission supposedly. The crystals were dormant before and magic was supposedly sealed inside them. And when unity was restored is how they came together and restored magic, seemingly giving ponies magic by connection to the crystals. But now after all is lost including the unity crystals and cutie marks, which have been tied to magic since g4, somehow friendship brings that magic back. What's even worse is sunny almost said the line from g4. She said "and what us friendship?" But never said the full line of hiw friendship is magic. We got so close, but they just didn't do that. I was disappointed that didn't get said at that moment before sunny's locket somehow had rainbow magic in it (older gen, i forget which one, had that). After G5 's movie and the first special of mym, there was hope for the show, even after twilight's message and duscovering opaline was a threat from Twilight's time she had barely beaten and that she was the one to seal magic that way. But as time passed, the shiw gas basically failed on reaching the potential it had. And the inconsistencies infuriated me. All the hints there was a link between sunny's family and twilight with twi's cutie mark all over, but no ties were solidly made beyond her becoming an alicorn and being the last one to believe the stories of the mane 6. Then the crystal chest that once firmed into Twilight's castle and contained the rainbow power somehow being closed again and in opaline's castle. And tons if easter eggs that just made no sense. It's like they took random oarts if g4 and tossed them in at random with no explanation. They don't address the chest at all. There was no real explanation about how Sunny's family knew for sure Twilight existed or how they not only lived in the lighthouse but also had the earth crystal in a lantern. Or what really gappened to Argyle. We know he's dead, or so it seems. We know he knew of a prophecy involving sunny, but didn't realize it was his daughter in said prophecy (tell your tale showed that bit). but as far as i've noticed, there is no real explanation of what happened to him. Did he die of natural causes, did he not really die but Sunny thinks he did because he disappeared for so long? And then there's the comics, which even if they aren't canon to the the shiws and movie lore, they showed things that weren't revealed in the show at all, or that were revealed after the comics came out. Opaline was revealed as "mysterious unicorn" though obviously she's an alicorn. Discord survived without his magic for ages and grew older, and took many volumes of the comic to realize he shouldn't try to stop magic from returning. But then why did the rest of the alicorns disappear, yet discord survived and was not in a magical hibernation like the dragons, clearly. So many questions, so many conflicting bits of lore and easter eggs. And Hasbro knew they'd cause huge hype by having their special be named "secrets of starlight" with a color scheme very close to starlight's. They used that to cause hype and false hope. No way they didn't know what the fandom would think. This could have been great, but they have dropped the ball so often it just feels more confusing than fun. The amount if seemingly important details and easter eggs that never got an explanation just made this series feel like they just took stuff from g4, threw it at the wall of g5 and saw what stuck. I love G5, but the fact they left so many confusing bits in this just really leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I get they want it to be able to work for old and newfans alike. But for old fans, this really confuses a lot of us, and I don't know if newfans would be as interested. Because while the show is able to stand on it's own a lot, you need prior knowledge of g4 to fully feel the emotions intended to be felt by some of the things in g5. Not to mention hiw you need to watch episodes in a specific order between the 2 shows to get the full picture. Like the bright house being a thing shiwn in tell your tale first, and in tell your tale stuff is referenced from make your mark. To properly get the shows, you niw either need to watch both of them and do nental gymnastics to connect what episodes go where in the timeline of events or you gotta go into a guide to know what point to stop watching tell your tale to watch some of nake your mark, then stop and go to tell your tale again, then make your mark again, and so on til you finish. It's like star wars,but more confusing because it also tequires a previous series (g4) to fully understand as well alongside the series you are watching (g5). It's so confusing and complex just for a shiw about rainbow ponies who solve problems in life and friendship, sometimessaving their world from threats.
I honestly liked Chapter 6, and it's ending. Yeah they screwed up Spike's design, but I honestly guess it's just the art style being meshed, and Spike in every generation has seen a redesign so my guess they wanted something fresh despite the continuity error. Opaline's demise being trapped in her own tree she planted is actually a clever way to end her off. Misty standing up to Opaline thankfully wasn't that awkward as she isn't even afraid despite that she knows Opaline will destroy her, and Opaline's teachings of stealing stuff briefly turn on her. Sparky also becomes useful for once, and helps save the day. Honestly I didn't care for Spike's role in this he at least clarifies what Opaline's actual intentions are, and encourages Hitch to keep Sparky giving some G4 nostalgia, and omg I love his voice too! I haven't seen Secrets of Starlight, and from the description it's mid, I'm hoping it continues, but it feels like an odd change of a arc.
We're all disappointed when the lore all became altered. Where's the bloodstone scepter? Who is Spike's wife? Why Ember gave the scepter to him? Also why he's been reduced to become like an adult Spyro instead of being a buffed up dragon like Ember's father? Oh, it's for selling toys.
It's all out of wack the only thing that was interesting in this new season was that spike is now able to tp organic material (sparky and the main 5) with his flame magic but if he could tp them from the start why didn't he just tp the dragons back. There were hypnotized not trapped behind a spell ward.
@@shangothunder1055 fair point but you have spike the walking reference machine, opaline has no character anymore and has just accepted that she's a villain and last you have the talking wing cat with a rabbit sidekick who's power is a pun.
The fact that Spike lived when everyone else is (presumably) dead… everyone he ever knew. Twilight is gone. Rarity is gone. Everyone. I can’t imagine how depressed he has to be
I think that the main problem is that the writers may have wanted to make their own story with their own lore but were held back by Hasbro who said that it must connect to G4. It's especially apparent in Chapter 6 that they probably already had the skeleton for their own lore finished but before they could implement the organs and everything to it, something like this happened: Hasbro exec: This looks great! Just make sure to include G4 into it. After all, we HAVE decided that this will be a sequel to G4. Writers: But we clearly made a new and separate continuity with it's own- Hasbro exec: We have spoken! * wack wack *
In my opinion, if I wanted to make a series, I would start out by making a 'frame' for the whole series before starting on any episodes. This frame (aka: a schematic) would map out the main parts and chapters that would summarize the main struggle, climax and conclusion of the series. It would also include premade storyboard scenes that would play a major role in the series. I would have this frame worked on and polished up at least over a course of a few weeks, if not months, to improve the interest in the story, erase any continuity errors, figure out the best way to develop character growth, come up with interesting plot twists, etc. After coming up with a good frame to work on, I would start building the episodes, specials and movies around this frame.
I got hooked along the last chapters, because of these hints of the past. I thought, hey, those are some good elements, that could be meaningful later on. It has so much potential, because, the longer the show went on, you see broken pieces of the equestria we once knew. It's post apocalyptic in a way and I so wanted to know, how they would tell us, what happened, what elements are further important and what happened to the ones that still should be around. Secrets of Starlight included this snow valley and I actually feel, as if there is a high chance, that this was the crystal empire at some point. The ground has this same snowflake on it and the climate looks rather usual for the crystal empire. The ponies were rather glittery, kinda reminding one of the crystal ponies and their shine. I think they are just a newer version of the Chrystal ponies, because of the looks and the way they have a reaction showing when they're happy. It had all these chances, all the backstory that could have been build out, and they don't use it. They could have just done something completely separated from G4, but they, instead, chose to make these hints and then go into detail, even though it's pretty much clear they would have to, if they build up on the old property centuries after it, where there are so many questions building up, which they just don't answer
That case proves even more interesting, if you know that in every language apart of English, Opaline says something like "well, now I'm gonna sing it in English" and sing in perfect English, returning to chosen language as if nothing happened.
Do you think we will see Sunny Starscout becoming a real Alicorn instead of one with horn and wings made of energy along with being a leader Equestria needs since Spike called her a princess?
The portal opening bit at the end felt like it was meant to be the end of this "season of Opaline" and a hook for the "next season of Allura", but at somepoint during prodution it was decided to stop MYM here and pivot everything to TYT. So we got a special that feels out of place. How we a given G4 stuff in G5 just makes me think back to the Android Arc of Dragon Ball Z... Toriyama didn't want to give or show too much in case he wanted or needed to change things later on... I think Hasbro has not yet decided what (or if) they want to do with the gap between G4 and G5, so we are just not told exactly what happend in case they want or need to change things later on.
the andriod arc was the fact his bosses were not happy with the villians he was makign so had to keep changing them till they were happy. the fact he made it seemless shows he was a good writer
G5 biggest mistake was that they wanted it to be G4.5. If it was another universe with no relation to G4 whatsoever it would have a smoother writhing as it could do new things without limitations. But no, some executive decided, almost at the last minute I bet, that they need to attract bronies so they make it in G4's distant future. And now writers that didn't know anything about it have to struggle to put characters to place that decision
Allura reaction to Sunny Alicorn form sounds like she met Alicorns in the past could be for shading polt line in the future when G5 drive in Allura past
In my opinion, I think they should have just make g5 movie as a new reboot of mlp for the new generation and not be so focused on g4 lore. It's kinda a shame that make your mark ended, it could have been better. The show was at least decent to watch.
On Spike ... ngl, when Zipp brought up Twilight and her spell, the way Spike gasps, and goes "Twi?" - combined the look on his face (and the emotion in his voice)... fuck, it hit me right in the feels.🥺😭🥺😭
I’ve always had the belief that G5 never had a plan. After the movie (which I thought was mediocre), I never really bothered with the rest of G5. It’s just a mess. Personally, I like to believe after the movie, the rest of G5 isn’t canon
i love that theyre bringing in the Wildsiders arc from G4.5. their world is so much bigger than G4 alone showed and its great to see them embracing the themes of MLP through it
![Luster Dawn became an Alicorn?! The Decryption of The Greedy Bat Story. [MLP G5 Hypothesis]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Vt_SpIN-aPo/mqdefault.jpg)
This quote sums up my view upon G5...
“A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children isn't a good children's story in the slightest.”
-C.S. Lewis
Should be directed at g3 more since one minty review has a similar sounding quote from Disney
Match made in heaven?
"What universe is this?"
-Randy Marsh
@@TailsFan369no2 I enjoy G3 despite outgrowing it.
And this friends, is the closest our dear, beloved, Dr. Wolf has ever brought himself close to to saying, "This sucked."
As much as I would say this is how you know it REALLY sucks I still want to watch it for Spike, even if he lost his bulk.
Just move on from MLP. Stop supporting it. Stop supporting Hasbro. Can some people do it?
@@AxsorXIThe company is having a hardtime right now.
@@AxsorXI I don't support Hasbro. They have made to many huge mistakes in regards to their source of income- Customers. But I will never leave the Friendship is Magic fandom. I'm a lifer.
@@joesaotome7572 It doesn't make sense. Are you obsessed by MLP:FIM?
I think what happened between G4 and G5 is that Opaline amassed a lot of power quickly and took advantage of what Cozy, Chrysalis and Tirek started. The idea of any race’s superiority had, to some degree, taken hold. Twilight probably had to use the bulk of her own magic to save Equestria and keep every pony from going on a rampage.
From what Spike said, it look like Opaline initially lost to Twilight and then she attacked and killed Ember and drained defeated dragons of their power to force Twilight into hiding the magic from her.
I would love to see how it happened. The disadvantage of seeing it from the G5 perspective is that we aren’t seeing it from the original players. Spike told us a little bit, but it’s clearly painful to him. Whatever Opaline did was also too much for the next generation of Element Bearers.
@@PeachWookieelol good XD opaline kicked major butt XD finally a villain that does something lol
Also twilight is ugly more in Gen 5 she needs her mug smashed XD
Jesus!! this team needs to be stop, their destroying the legacy
of course, and he comes and ruins everything!
Thanks a lot, DRWolf!!! 😡
It makes me so mad that the G5 movie was so amazing and Make Your Mark in more than double the time has not been able to be even half as good, writing off things set up even in the movie itself and changing characters’ personalities. It boggles my mind.
I don't find it boggling, because many of the people who worked on the movie didn't go on to work on the shows.
I am also disappointed in how Make your Mark has been handled compared to how the movie A new Generation was, also I do not like the shorts on TH-cam, I am finding myself agreeing with many who were dissatisfied during the G5 movie. Sad Hasbro is doing this, on the bright side of things, at least Maretime Bay Adventure was awesome, G4 didn't get an official game, so at least G5 has that. But sadly the show just doesn't draw me in like G4, Friendship is Magic did and continues to do.
I really enjoyed these past 3 chapters don’t know what you’re all talking about.
You should understand that Hasbro is a greedy and incompetent company which doesn't care so much about their IPs' dignity and decency. So please, just try to not support that stupid and awful company.
@@AxsorXI That’s your opinion people that like it will continue to support it and people who don’t; don’t have too.
It's all in the format.
G4 has over 200 episodes.
G5 has 27 episodes in total over 6 "seasons" with each season having 1 to 6 episodes each. G4 was a weekly series with 26 episodes per season.
G4 was meant to be watched over time, G5 was meant to be binge watched in a day.
With binge watching, we watch it once then forget about it and many aspects of what we saw. With weekly viewing we had time to absorb what we saw and think about it while we waited for the next episode.
This brings me back to one of the big problems Steven Universe faced with only airing in "Stevenbombs" after the first season or so. The wait was so long and agonizing for new content that people would end up forgetting or giving up on the series until the next bomb. Over and over again.
Thanks for giving me another reason why I hate streaming services to add to the list. I'm always accepting new reasons.
@@KeanPGalivanI’d like to think I’m putting into words how a lot of people feel about new vs old tv shows that they knew but couldn’t quite figure it out
Considering how lackluster MYM was though, I’m kinda happy they released them all at once
Guess who didn’t take the fast lane
G5 seems more like the toy commercial g4 was supposed to be
True. Will we ever get a worthy successor? Or is this a lost cause?
omg you are so right, how'd I not think of that
@@Maieveryday2 IMO it is never a lost cause at least in the scope of "having another generation that has a TV series that is well written, unique in its settings, characters and stories, and is made in a way where a wide audience can really enjoy it / a fandom can grow around it."
@@Maieveryday2Well, if the franchise is still going on fifty years from now, maybe they'll end up creating a decent cartoon by accident.
Personally, I don't think we're gonna get another great cartoon out of this franchise unless there's a major creative shake up at Hasbro, and the people in charge become less risk averse and more willing to give the creative teams the time and space to create something good.
Nah
I'm still stumped as to why Spike's no longer a chad like how he was in the G4 finale. Also, is there anything in mythology about a flying jaguar/leopard with hypnotic abilities? If it's made just for the show fine, but I'm just wondering
bc thats how dragons age? older adult dragons are quadrepeds
Quadruped dragons in general raise a lot of questions - particularly considering that Sparky's design (apart from being born already having wings) is consistent with G4 dragons. More ammo for those who see G5 as an alternate universe, I guess.
@@hedonismbot1508 did you not watch g4 or...
@@rowanrawlz1871 I'm a bit curious about that myself. Clearly a lot of time has passed, between the G4 era and the G5 era. Shouldn't Spike be MUCH larger?
@@wingblade6023 we dont know how old the og dragon lord is so we cant actually answer that. regardless spikes still larger than the other dragons by quite abit
In times likes these, I realize, its time to re-watch g4, deep dive into original mlp youtube content, and rember the good days.
And also its fun to see why that show worked so well that it did during those early years
G3: and me?
I watch the mlprewatchstreams on cytube every Saturday, 11:14 EST. Each stream is like a time capsule of all the pony content that was made during that time, plus all the new videos of the past week in the end.
I feel like my biggest issue with the new show is the lack of background characters. There used to be hundreds of dragons... now there's like, 7. There used to be multiple cities of ponies... now theres like, one big city, one medium city and 1 few cottages in the forest. Seriously it seems like there's maybe 25 unicorns total.
I've seen this blamed on the show switching over to 3D animation, which makes it harder to make new locations and extra characters.
@Corrector1 they should have kept it 2d then 🤧
Empty is definitely how Make Your Mark feels.
Opaline's end is definitely darker than ANYTHING from G4, even Sombra being blown up and disintegrated not being as horrific.
Sure, Cozy, Tirek and Queen Cheese Legs are trapped in stone at the end of G4... but at least that means they're frozen in time.
Opaline is clearly not only left fully aware once trapped, it looked like she's been literally trapped with a space in the tree, so she's either going to starve to death or possibly even suffocate.
G4 never went that dark.
And Spike's return... that just answered questions with more questions and... yeah, do not like how they barely gave anything to explain anything.
And Spike's lack of a reaction to learning how long he'd been asleep, meaning everyone he knew and loved are likely all dead now?
Um, what reaction? It never even came up.
You know you've screwed up when you have a returning character not even care what happened to their family while they were gone.
oh, now you join that wolf's "Empty" group too, huh!
well, congratulations, you are a toxic coward!!!
Imagine if she's trapped for eternity there, no powers, no one, only her conscious in a claustrophobic nightmare, forever, that would be a fate worse than death.
@@GothremenBhason imagine if we are litary in the Panderverse
@@albertoromero5075 I didn't get the reference
I dunno. Damning three already defeated villains one of which is a child to a fate worse than death without even hinting at a possible reformation plan is very dark if you ask me once you look deeper into the implications
Shoutout to the writers and VA of Spike for mimicking his G4 vocal mannerisms while showing he's matured in his time since G4 ended.
G5 as a whole has had this problem since its conception. It's in this weird limbo of being connected to G4 but not doing anything with that connection.
When the G5 movie came out, everyone wanted to know why the different pony races ended up separated and afraid of each other. The impression I got was that the creative staff weren't particularly interested in exploring the fall of old Equestria and wanted to tell their own story. But by connecting G5 to G4, they had to come up with something just to placate the community, even if it was paper thin.
I think the unfortunate truth of the matter is that making G5 take place in the same timeline of G4 was a marketing decision, not a creative one.
The defeat of Opaline was a good finale for MYM, but Hasbro had some new toys to put on the shelves, thus "Secrets of Starlight" came to be and was tacked on to Chapter 6.
I do think Opaline’s defeat makes it easier for G5 to be its own thing now. It probably helps since they did have legal issues tying G5 to G4 (thanks to Discovery Family).
@@TheLegitAlpha so basicly a company merge screwed things over. shocking
speaking of toys I already am seeing gen 5 in thrift stores.
I personally hope the series continues after secrets of starlight cause I do not care about the writing I just watch for entertainment. And also because they can’t just end it with a cliffhanger like that especially when we were introduced to a new villain for sunny and the gang to face of against, a new character to get to know, and a possible lore behind allura and starlight ridge and how they came to be.
Rly
My thoughts on this...
1. The dragons are design the way they are because it would be easier to create toys that way. While I personally don't mind that the dragons were walking on fours, I did mind that their "claws" looked more like "hooves". Spike also looks like Spyro now.
2. To keep my sanity with the ending of G4 and G5 series, my sister and I believe that both shows are in slightly different universes. In one universe, Opaline doesn't exist. This is the G4 universe. That way, it ends on a happy note. In the other universe, Opaline exists. This is the G5 universe. I don't care what Hasbro says, this is my headcannon that helps me sleep at night.
3. Gen 5 might have been better if it was a movie only series. That way, Opaline can be seen as a threat, the plot wouldn't drag for so long, and each movie would be focused on the characters' growth and lessons. Then again.... the writers may also have screw that up.
4. My Little Pony franchise is targeted for little girls under the age of 10. Not for grown men and grown women who make TH-cam videos about the franchise.
5. G5 never should have tied itself to G4 in the first place. G5 has great potential, however, the shadow of G4 is far too great.
6. Hasbro only cares about the toy sales, not the show. That is why Littlest Pet Shop never went beyond 4 seasons. Infact, I believe that it was cut short in the middle of season 4. So long as the toys are selling well, it doesn't matter how bad the show is. If the toys are not selling, the show gets cut (even if the show is doing well).
Regarding your point #4, just because it is for elementary-aged girls does not mean that it should be in the "girl-show lack of care" area. I mean, Wordgirl (and 2/3rds of Cyberchase, and Peg+Cat, and even Martha Speaks) is a girl-led show for that age demographic and yet it escapes that shame.
oh bravo, good opinions!
here my opinion for you:
*GET A JOB!!!!*
@@albertoromero5075Preach!
@@amesstarline5482 This. So much this. Media targeted towards girls and women is generally seen as less-than and frivolous. It shouldn't be treated like shit because of that fact. G4 had the same target audience, yet it appealed toward a wide variety of people. The issue here is bad writing, bad tie-ins to gen 4, poor character development for most of the main characters, butchering some of the personalities from the movie, boring background characters, limited sets, a godawful villain, Sparky, and so on.
@@UnboxingAlyss Considering how other "girl led shows" even outside of the "for younger audiences" brackets are treated (Most of Disney's recent TV works- including 'helmed by the co-creator of P&F Hamster and Gretel', also Inside Job on Netflix and Nick's own track record- including not adapting Phoebe and her Unicorn), it feels especially potent in seeing the care (or lack) G5 got.
All this tells me is that whomever is in charge of writing G5 clearly had never bothered to watch G4; These new specials feel......lifeless, but on purpose.
Hasbro moved to a different studio and different writers after the G5 movie. In my book what followed was G5.5 and G5.6. So much potential, but in the end, very disappointing.
Actually, they ran into legal trouble with referencing G4 believe it or not.
@@TheLegitAlpha But how could that be possible?? I thought that since they work with Hasbro, all rights to the work would be permissible for use in future projects.
@@rampagephoenix1735 Discovery Family has stake in FiM. It’s joint owned between WBD and Hasbro.
G M would like a word with you
While I love this season does anyone else think Hasbro is contradicting themselves they could’ve ended it with Opaline’s defeat and no portal opening to Starlight Ridge but then they gave us Allura and her bunny Twitch crossing over to Equestria at the end of Secrets of Starlight giving us a continuation and not to mention Tell your Tale episodes are usually five or six minutes
You forgot Allura's mysterious brother, because he's the "actual" proof that My Little Pony: Make Your Mark will continue, besides the true reason why Allura is after that magical star is because she wants to use it to free her brother whoever he is from wherever he's at. And yeah I said it because I happened to be the first to figure out what Allura's true goals are, and her brother speaking to her through via a disembodied voice is the key proof of it.
@@jefferykelsey yeah, I was thinking that too since Hasbro didn’t outright tell us that Make your Mark is ending everyone just took that up to speculation because of a chart saying that Tell your Tale will be the only MLP thing going in 2024.
@@Mirthful_Pandanot to mention that we also had the writer and actors strike so maybe what they had for tell your tale was already done before that happened.
Hasbro is just a greedy and incompetent company which doesn't deserve support by fans. That means not even support for MLP. They're the worst. One of the worst entertainment companies. Please! Support good entertainment, not a stupid and awful company like Hasbro.
@@AxsorXIlet's hope Takara or Lego Buys Hasbro because I heard Lego got a better costumer service and Japanese company like Takara respect the fans
The series appears to be spinning its wheels. Like it wanted to have the connection to G4 but seemingly at no point sat down and went through the series of events that lead from there to the current gen. The problem is a lot of older fans of the series aren't just media savy, they're very burnt by this phenomena of media spinning their wheels in order to not answer questions they don't have.
One of the directors for the movie admitted that the idea of G5 being a sequel to G4 was done without anyone figuring out how things got to be the way they were. Which was a really stupid decision. It was a "Are you _trying_ to tank this franchise?" level decision.
As for answering questions, even after all this time we still only know bits of Opaline's backstory and I think most of what Spike tells the characters about how she wrecked Equestria are things that the audience already knew. And since Opaline's been defeated, I doubt we'll ever find out much more about her and how she forced Twilight to take such drastic measures to stop her. It's incredibly sloppy.
It should be seen as a alternative universe
@@Corrector1 In their minds, kids are too stupid to even notice.
@@ohsoedgy6888 They can easly take Starlight Glimmer and make her come there to fix the timeline she messed up when she was a bad mare. In other words G5 would be canon only as alternative timeline. G6 could go back to G4 and continue it in proper way.
Like equestria girls was in fim.@@ohsoedgy6888
Honestly, the Starlight Ridge story felt like it was trying to be almost something of an equivalent to the Crystal Empire arc in G4 but just sillier with direction or complete motivation.
As for 'Make Your Mark' itself, I agree that it doesn't know what it wants for itself or which direction it's truly going.
The G5 movie gave an idea and foundation of what they were going for and it looked there was a splid plan for a future story.
However, the series is all over the place with no main focus and the web shorts appear to be the ones keeping it alive and carrying the good lore.
One minute it's connecting to the past of G4, the next it diverts to a now plot away from the original plan and then the next it's stick without a direction but tries to make up for it with a song and dance.
In regards to Spike, I swear the story rhe gave for an explanation to Opaline, Twilight and this magic madness felt like they just read through the fanbase's theories and put together a story from that.
The hilarious thing to me was when Spike wanted to go back to sleep after hearing that Equestria lost its magic on its own after everything Twilight and the rest of the Mane 6 did to keep it in one piece.
'Make Your Mark' looks like it has an idea of what it wants to be through the Movie, however, instead of following through with its original plan whatever it was, it's trying to be something it's not by trying too hard to mimic G4 in some way thinking it'll have the same effect.
G4 had its own style and direction which it stayed true to and it made it successful, and G5 will never be able to copy that style no matter how many connections to G4 they add to it.
They really need to think long and hard of what they want G5 to be and its direction otherwise its future will be very bleak.
I hate being a downer, but I gave more of a chance to G5 than I did many other shows... And I don't think I'm the only one seeing the wasted potential of good story strings in a jumbled mess accross 3 medias... A bleak future for G5 implies the execs won't shut the whole thing down, now that it's "technically" ended...
My suspicion is SoS was originally intended to answer "what happened to Our Town and The Crystal Empire?" with them fusing into this village up north with crystal unicorns, with the secrets being of Starlight Glimmer, kept by a Sunburst descendant. ...and then without the rights to the late seasons (Discovery Family owns them), but the title set in stone, hasty rewrite made the Sunburst descendant Comet, the villain some writer's fetish-filled fursona (biggest female in all of G5 paired with ugly bunny boyfriend, and her power is mind control to make people so happy they have magic space orgasms, and she's named ALLURE but with an A? Come the hell on on).
Everything else is a clear case of corporate mandates (DANGLE TWILIGHT'S CORPSE, FANS WILL COME, MORE SONGS SO WE CAN TIKTOK THE KIDS, WHOA NO YOU CAN'T MAKE OPALINE SCARY SO JUST HAVE EVERYONE LAUGH AT HER AND NOT BE TRAUMATIZED AT ALL, and NOW ADD SPIKE SINCE KIDS LOVE HIM FOR SOME REASON), rushed deadlines, and too many cooks from management watering down the broth in different ways.
A really, really fun little tidbit I noticed the other night actually is the G4 leaks show that Daring Doubt, originally had a setup written by GM Berrow, MYM's head writer, where Dr. Caballeron basically did to Dash what Opaline did to Sparky, but S&P shot her down hard over it. GM Berrow is also the reason that the dragons live in the Isle of Scaly, which she developed in her book where Daring Do goes there. GM Berrow mostly did overly-safe stories in MLP kids book prior to MYM, so basically I suspect that everyone else is phoning it in on the writing staff, and GM Berrow is overworked to pump out stories under severe limitations, resulting in this absolute mess that's basically her 2nd drafts using recycled past ideas, with her the only one able to overrule S&P so Opaline can be remotely threatening.
I feel like G5 needs to move on from friendship and harmony and instead explore the following themes:
-Freedom
-Tyranny
-Oppression
-Revolution
-Survival
-Hope
-Desperation
-Sacrifice
-Order
-Morality
-Sanity
-Trauma
Make Your Mark could've gotten into a fair few of these, especially since A New Generation WAS about politics and social change. They could've easily explored themes like freedom, tyranny, oppression, revolution, order. The only episode that sounds any close to these is Chapter 2's Growing Pains (at least where order and freedom are concerned.)
And I feel like they kiiiind of explored trauma with Misty, but more under the guise on the subject of abuse and how to break away from it.
MYM has touched upon the topic of morality. Misty's entire arc revolved around her personal morality (among other things of course).
That's why I want more content from the series, but he ruined everything and I bet the others bronys youtubers will ruined it too!
#MOREMYMCONTEN
#G5NOTDEAD
#RIPDRWolf
@@albertoromero5075 Doctor Wolf is easily one of the most level-headed MLP reviewers to have tackled G5. Like, even this video, where it's clear that he thought the chapter and show were a mess, he's still significantly kinder and more reasonable than I'm sure any of the actually obnoxious voices that commonly hate on G5 will be when they put out their reviews for this chapter. I certainly wouldn't consider Wolf a downright hater of G5, let alone responsible for Make Your Mark's cancellation.
@@8nicopink868 oh no, don't ever think about cancellation!
I want more G5 content and a new equestria girls season!!
I don't want the legacy of mlp to sink down like other franchises like ice ages!
#G5NOTDEADYET
and I still hate DR Wolf, don't ask
I presumed Spike was quadpedal because that's just how dragons grew, starting bipedal then become quadpedal. For example the G4 Dragon Lord, Ember's dad, was one of the oldest known dragons and quadpedal, while most other younger dragons were bipedal.
This could be because younger dragons either lack wings or are less experienced flyers so bipedal locomotion allows easier climbing to compensate. Eventually they mature into quadpedal locomotion once flight becomes their main means of movement.
Because we know the time difference is a thousand years roughly, this gives us a rough time frame for dragon growth by using Spike as the measurement.
I've always said the same thing. All the biggest dragons have been quadrupeds in G4 as well.
There should be a scene where one earth pony/unicorn/pegasus proclaims him/herself to be the first president of Equestria and declared that democracy has finally come to the nation.
Tbh i understand your frustrations with the series, but it's become my new comfort show. I end up going back and watching episodes, which i never do. The ponies are just so cute, and i love how characters play off each other
Same here I do hope they continue especially when they can’t just end like that not when we were introduced to a new villain for the gang to face of against and a new character and member to get to know, as well as a possible lore behind starlight ridge and Alura.
People always cry "Its a kid shows" for its bad writing
Or "Its for the current generations of fans. That is why it has different touched up" which...again, not excuse for the bad writing
I mean, if my lil siblings rather watch the previous generations than the "Make Your Mark", it shows how the current shows are really a major downgrade from previous one
This show was all over the place since the beggining. If all that's left from now on is just the youtube series that's good news, it means that Hasbro might be moving on to G6 already.
Hope not I’ve enjoyed the past 3 chapters and overall characters.
Screw Hasbro! Don't support that greedy and incompetent company. Just support good entertainment. Not stupid and awful companies like Hasbro which doesn't care so much about their IPs' dignity and quality.
@@AxsorXII agree I hope Takara or Lego Buys Hasbro
@@gandalflotr2898 No. Hasbro doesn't deserve to be bought.
I think they will continue the main series with the new villain
Misty was always great, and the revelation of why Opaline took her in really was intriguing. She knew of friendship's power and wanted to take advantage of it, but couldn't, but still let Misty bring back that connection. It was honestly genius and manipulative.
I think they took a bit too long to figure it out while, ironically, not having enough time to flesh it all out. Opaline's plans and actions should have been seeded out more, really binding it all together, but some of the standalone episodes and specials took away from it. They had a lot of time through all of MYM but didn't make use of it.
I have heard Discovery partially owns G4 and they need to pay them a fee to use anypony from it, which is why we sparingly see any past characters. I feel like they had big ideas for making G5 a sequel, but that ended up biting them in the ass and by then it was too late. Sure, Spike appeared for a few episodes, but it wasn't like he gave any big flashbacks to everypony else and what happened.
And Secrets of Starlight really feels a little underwhelming given what Starlight got people hyped about. In the end, it was never related to Starlight Glimmer. I feel like they should have called it Secrets of Starlight Ridge or something to give us a better idea of what it was.
Plus, Allura and Twitch haven't made a strong first impression. Sure, she has an intriguing power that could make for dark and dangerous scenarios, but we don't know anything about what she wants or why outside the portal. There's having mystery, and then just not having anything to know. Opaline gave us mystery at first as a stinger, but then with more appearances we unveiled more along the way, especially as she bounced off Misty. Plus, it feels like they try too hard to make her seem like a threat with her reaction to alicorns being "How cute." It's more intriguing to have a villain aware of the power the heroes might possess and wary of it, but able to overcome it through their own skills rather than merely thinking less of them.
Make Your Mark was... flawed. I feel like a lot held it back and then they couldn't quite get a full handle on it as they went along. But there is still a good bit to enjoy about it. Some nice songs, fun jokes, and Misty is best pony of G5.
I honestly believe they had plenty of time. They had 2 series to do it in (and TYT IS canon). They just didn't do it. They focused on too much filler. i'm betting thy figured they had plenty of time to follow through with the plot, but when they heard they were getting cancelled, they panicked and rushed everything.
I totally agree, there are good things in G5, but there's a lot of flaws too.
i refuse to acknowledge G5 as canon, but about the tree, discord implies that being trapped in stone leaves you concious.
My favorite parts of the new chapter were Misty standing up to Opaline, the revelation that Opaline took advantage of the friendship magic Misty was manifesting, and Opaline’s defeat. How ironic that a wielder of fire is imprisoned inside a free and lost any feasible way of escaping! Spike using his teleportation fire was really neat too.
I enjoyed Secrets of Starlight, Violet and Comet are cute and the Auroricorns in general are pretty!
That being said, with even more confusion added to the timeline, I think G5 would’ve been better off as its own iteration like all the other generations.
Rather than seeing another next gen sequel, I feel like they would have had a lot more success doing something like going into the past. Whether that was exploring how Starswirl the bearded met his friends and their adventures, or even Celestia and Luna as young princesses growing into their powers and responsibilities. All the adventures that could have been hinted at in the MLP series plus many more that have never been written down. Maybe they could even have done this while thing with Sunny but in the past before the Windegos when ponykind wasn’t United yet. And if they wanted to add a cameo from the main MLP series, time travel magic is canon and it could be fun having them see the ‘future’.
Something tells me the people behind Make Your Mark were so deathly afraid of not being able to be as good as Gen 4 that they forgot how to make their show good in its own way.
yea i was kinda done when i realized the dragons were designed to use the same rig as the ponies - to me, that just tells me no one gave a crap, because i know people who do rigging for far less pay than you'd get at a professional animation studio for it, so either they didn't have the time OR.... or it was a choice made in service to making the show cheap and easy to produce, or both, which is the direction i'm leading towards. and like, all of the other dragons are literally tinted copy pastes of each other? i'm actually so upset about this, having all these varied fantastic characters animated on the same rig just makes everything about the show feel even more like a generic kids cartoon than it did prior
G5 would be better if it wasn’t at all connected to the lore/world of G4 and was it’s own separate thing
The only way I'm able to keep my sanity is to think of G5 as a what-if senerio or alternate universe.
@@jameslawrenson1208nah that’s being delusional l.
It already pretty much is. The G4 stuff has no real effect.
That wouldn't make it better. It would just make it easier to ignore. G5's problem is that it is badly written, regardless of being a sequel or not.
@@jameslawrenson1208 I consider it a fever dream. I expect it to end with Twilight waking up in bed in cold sweats after eating too many srirasha hayburgers "Spike wheres my antacid!". lol
Seeing Spike should have been like seeing an old friend again but it came across as lazy fan service.
The series arbitrarily connected itself to G4 because it wanted to carry over G4 fans even when all the lore and canon from G5 either ignores G4 or contradicts it. That tells me this generation was not made with the intention of telling a good cohesive story, it was made with the intention of selling toys at the expense of the story.
So people still have the nerve to call My Little Pony a kids cartoon?
.Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis were turned to stone and can still hear everything
Opaline is still alive and stuck inside a tree
.Sombra got obliterated
Kids are familiar with the concept of death and had worst things happen in other shows or movies that didn't traumatize them. The thing is, there's nothing wrong with liking a kid's show, it's called that because it's the target demographic but still can be for the entire family, kids have heard and seen worse than what's on tv.
I found Chapter 6 to be interesting, But also far from perfect.
It was awesome to see Misty finally stand up to Opaline, And imo being trapped forever in the trunk of a magic tree is a fitting punishment for a villain of Opaline's caliber.
And even though his MYM design was "bleh" it was somewhat interesting to see Spike in G5, Because as you said Doc lore wise Spike explaining the real story about Opaline and why Twilight created the unity crystals was pretty good.
As for "Secrets of Starlight" It was so cool where the Mane 5.6 ended up, Their Auroricorn designs are absolutely amazing! And of course when they first ended up in a new land with an arctic setting, At first it made me wonder if this place is part of the Frozen North. and the Auroricorns could indeed be descendants or a subspecies of Crystal pony, As for Starlight Ridge itself you never know it could've once been part of the Crystal Empire I mean after all pretty much every place in Equestria fell apart when Twilight's reign failed, So it could've happened to the Crystal Empire too and Starlight Ridge could've ended up being all that remained or maybe Starlight Ridge was a new settlement that was built above the metaphorical ashes of where the Crystal Empire used to be.
And finally, When I saw the part where Sparky chose to stay with the ponies. It once again reminded me of an episode of the 2012 TMNT series namely the one where Tokka comes to Earth looking for Chompy, But then Tokka lets Chompy stay with Raphael. And then Raph says that he believes that Chompy is destined to return to the stars one day.
Well that's basically how it was in Chapter 6 of MYM when Sparky chose the ponies. Because even though Hitch will continue to raise Sparky, I think deep down Hitch knows that Sparky might be destined to live with the dragons someday but it'll be a long time before that happens.
@@AxsorXIthat reason why you should hired fans as Writters
It's you again. Hello, TCD.
It all depends on Sparky's choice as he grows up.
Yeah but opaline should have been smart lol she'd easily have won.
She didn't deserve to be stuck in a tree trunk and she should have killed that annoying sunny and then destroy that ugly twilight and avenge the legion of doom.
Then the rest of Gen 5 the man 5 (except hitch he's hers XD 😜)😅😂
Happy to see you everywhere, like in Dead Meat's video's and such :)
I feel like most of G5's problems stem from a single issue - the need to have every character star in every episode. G4's episodes, for the most part, revolved around one or two characters at a time, telling a single story about them which had a full 22 minutes to develop naturally. G5's desire to have every main character be the star of every episode just meant each episode was too crammed. Stories didn't have time to develop naturally because they had to share the same 22 minute length with two or three other stories. Since nothing is given time to develop, everything feels empty. We can't explore Spike's feelings of having lost all his friends from G4, we can't expand on Opaline's role as a villain, we can't dive into any particular character any more than what's needed on the surface to make the plot happen.
I found it a shame, because I do think there's some genuinely neat stuff in G5. I liked the idea of a more continuous villain with multiple episodes dedicated to them (and after watching episode 1 of G4 I thought that's what it was going to be, and I'm sure I'm not alone on that), but Opaline just wasn't a very good villain. It's quite telling that most G4 villains made a much bigger impact in two episodes than Opaline did in this entire series. Nightmare Moon had an interesting backstory and sympathetic motivations, Discord was super charismatic and fun, Chrysalis was genuinely creepy - even Sombra, for all he gets dunked on, was cool in a mysterious offscreen kind of way. And they were all introduced with major victories, making them immediately threatening from the start. This is so far removed from Opaline being foiled every time right from the start and having little in the way of personality beyond "villain" and the most generic "Power for the sake of it" motivation you can give a villain.
I really want to like Allura because she does have a cool, unique design and some interesting potential regarding the voice she hears at the end of the special. But again, starting off by losing in such a stupid way just doesn't bode well. And if the show does keep up its need to tell three or four disconnected stories in the same time it took G4 to tell one, there just won't be time to develop things well.
Why doesn't Spike have hands? Did the loss of magic mutate all dragons? WHERE ARE HIS HANDS?!
Uh at the end of his wrist?😂🤣
Star wars fans know that feeling too well
as do Star Trek fans before them
Imagine opaline getting trapped inside the tree and somehow traveling to the past, that way she avakens and frees herself from the tree as queen chrysalis (as we saw in comics)
I never wanna imagine Chrysalis (my favorite MLP villain) and Opaline (my least favorite MLP villain) are the same person. 🤢
I would agree they didn't know where they were going with the series, and to be honest, I think the writers did it only to get their pay check with how uninspired the story was, that seemed to retread G4, for the most part and hurrying up to wrap everything up at the last minute which made the ending feel so much worst. I understanding from the writers strike was that the writing teams just weren't allowed the time needed to plan out a coherent story or develop the characters very clearly, or create a good chemistry between them and weren't really clear if their was going to be a continuation or not. I think the Star light was actually a welcome change with introducing a new villain that had nothing to do with stealing magic, or cutie marks, and the ponies were just a means to an end. I did like Comet which seems be supposed to become the nerdy one in the group which helped add much needed good nature slap stick to the characters which the other just didn't had.
Don’t get how this story was any less inspired than the G4 two parters.?
What do you think? Are the writers and animators of this show so incompetent or they just don't care so much about its decency and quality?
@@AxsorXI What do you expect when you are overworked and underpaid and there isn't any time for any creative flare.
@@shangothunder1055 Same here, my understanding Netflix is extremally tickled when it come about either continuing a show or axe it, and they decide it on the week it's online it makes it difficult to plan a season accordingly especially on extremely tight deadlines. From my understanding from the writers strike in general they weren't even allowed to make higher fully dedicated writers for shows kept on board or do revisions and corrections.
It doesn't look like Hasbro knows what they're doing. They just think "it's mlp so the kids will love it"
I noticed when Spike called Sunny princess she didn’t think she was a princess after
Holy crap, that picture of Spike crouching down a little made me realize the dragons have UNGULATE LEGS. They have horse legs with dragon paws. They are literally just dragon/pony hybrids.
I just got done binge watching G4 i was never a fan of mlp but i see now why the show had so much popularity in the past and i was surprised with the lore behind it and the work that was put in it. Seeing G5 and how much it strays away from G4 doesn't surprise me.... Much of G5 is souless and empty with lazy story writing and it actually bumps me out. I honestly see people moving on and never wanting to talk about G5. I hope the fandom will get something they deserve in the future because this ain't it.
I recently went back and re-watched G4's first 3 seasons, and I felt a wave of nostalgia that the new show cannot do. And once the dear princess celestia letters at the end of each episode begins, I almost choke up because of how much I missed that. There aren't a lot of moral lessons in tv shows these days.
Yup, honestly I'm starting to like more the idea of having a g6 that continues what happened after The Last Problem or the coronation, because g5 it's becoming too convoluted and toy like
@@Tall_Order sometimes the best lesson is a simple one, especially for us adults.
@@PDD555 vary true!!
Was it ever explained why Sparky's dragon design was so different from other G5 Dragons besides age that is? I mean I understand that Dragons kinda were inconsistent design wise in G4 until much later on too, but here it really stands out.
The dragons look like inflatable tube men.
I don't think it's intentional but my interpretation is dragons are born bipedal then become quadpedal as they age. This can be seen as Sparky and G4 Spike both are bipedal, older teen dragons likes Ember and Smoulder are bipedal and can fly and finally the G4 Dragon Lord was quadpedal.
Evolutionary speaking being born bipedal could be a way to compensate for not being able to fly by giving them more ability to climb.
Based on how Spike and the other dragons are all quadpedal it could mean it takes roughly a millenia to achieve this adult form.
Of course this is all speculation and it's likely just an oversight because they wanted quadpedal dragons and to only build 1 dragon animation rig.
@@rowenlaurel8537LOL
@@rowenlaurel8537it's not that bad
I think all of your criticisms are very valid, and I agree. Though, I gotta say, I actually really enjoyed the secret of starlight special. Maybe it’s a guilty pleasure, but I loved the colors and even though the songs aren’t the best, they were better than some of the stuff in the rest of the G5 series thus far. I liked Comet a lot too and I’m happy he joined our crew. I think Allura is really interesting too.
Honestly, if this special was how the show always was, I’d be happier with it. But usually the show is so wooden and odd and the delivery of dialogue is so awkward. And sometimes they say things just to fill the space. It really sucks because this show has moments where it does really shine (the misty and opaline conflict was honestly the only reason I kept watching), everyone else is very one note. Hitch is pretty decent with the sparky stuff though. I also wanted to see sprout grow as a character but they just kept him in his pitiful state.
I dunno. I also kind of like the design of the dragons but it sucks having them all look the same when the reason they were so neat in g4 was because they were all so different. They kind of look like they walked out of a Barbie movie here. And the walk cycles are horrendous.
The only thing my brain really got from this ending was Spike talking about Opaline being banished from Skyros, where Sunny says it’s the alicorn lands. And I’m sitting here like
“How many ponies got larsoned?” XD
Is this the last we're going to see her or she's going to come back
The dragons look like something out of 'Shark Tail'...
Spike especially...
You’re right of all this but it was fun to see spike again and how he explains the true story of Opaline and the Crystals. I Can see why in the newest of IDW comics for the g5 Older Discord wants to not have the magic of the ponies. Because of her.
I was really eager to give G5 a chance after the movie came out, and even stomached a few first seasons, thinking it wasn't too bad. But in the end, I really didn't see almost any improvement at all and it seems the series just decided to drop the ball at this point and become a toddler-type entertainment. Which I can't be interested in.
I feel G4 was forced to end earlier than they wanted. All they needed was a year or 2 break before starting back. There was so much potential for the Mane 6. For example: Applejack in the IDW Comics was seemingly being groomed by Mayor Mare to become the New Mayor of Ponyville (and allow her more access/visits to Twilight through diplomatic/business meetings instead of the once-a-months they now have) but the rushed series finale made her a Granny Smith Stand-In to look after Big Mac's Family whilst denying her a family of her own (Rainbow Dash only stopping by to help out with some chores as AJ helps watch her Brother's kids).
at best i think FIM had one more season in it. what was the point of destroying the Tree of harmony and having the student 6 make a club house out of the remains. it played nothing in the final boss
I feel like they missed a chance to explain what happened to the crystal empire cause instead of going to that town they could have gone to the crystal empire (or what would be left of it) and see the crystal ponies instead of some snowy star ponies
Let's be honest, the Crystal Empire was just a marketing tool. It only existed and they never did much with it.
Exactly. The bad thing is that they can't even mention g4 places because of royalties or something. It's so frustrating because at this point it might be a whole different universe. It even makes me depressed to see Spike ending in that state away from everything they built
Apparently they can't have a lot of g4 stuff inserted into g5 due to copyright, I don't know much about the details, but maybe that's the reason?
Would be a dream if they could use all the right, that's why the comics seem more attractive, they have more freedom to create stories
There was this AU about Twilight Sparkle going full Nightmare Moon sometime after her friends die of old age out of grief and loneliness and being the one who took all pony magic away, and I kind of wish they really went this route in canon.
Same problem as what’s going on in the MCU and Star Wars, there’s NO vision. No plan in place. Nothing. Lauren Faust had a vision, a foundation put in place for G4. So even when she left, the writers and animators can just run with her ideas and extend upon them.
G5 should’ve had one person come in to help set a vision or foundation for the show
I feel like the biggest mistake being made about this show, is that they are dumbing it down for kids a little too much. I get it, the show is (technically) for kids, but they are pushing it to the point where it's just down right bad. The villans don't feel like a threat, more like an inconvenience. There wasn't really a point in any of the episodes where it seemed like all hope was lost, or that the villan had seemingly won. Even when something like that happened, it was way too fast pace back to the whole "happy ending", not feeling like enough time was given to show things play out properly.
Another instance about the whole "made for kids" thing, is the dragons. In G4, they weren’t really fond of other creatures, they were mischievous and fierce. In G5... need I say anything?
This show is one of those situations where I watch it once just to see what is new, and pretty much never touch again.
They really need to work on their story writing.
Twilight Sparkle did said that there are evil forces out there who want to exploit the Magic of Equestria for their own dark purposes, and that is a telltale sign that Opaline Arcana is only the beginning.
The fact that they called the special “Secrets of Starlight” seems a bit like false advertising cause it makes its seem like Starlight Glimmer is going to be a part of the plot
The entire reason I got into mlp was the character arcs, the background lore and the characters themselves....Gen 5 has really been turning me off as opposed to gen 4, so much so that id say g4 was just lightning in a bottle, the right things at the right time.
I personally enjoyed the end of chapter 6, I honestly didn’t felt like it was rushed when I watched it until you mentioned it to be rushed, also with the special introducing Allura I think that just opens up more things for the future of g5, besides I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually we do end up getting more of make your mark, after a while from the tell your tale episodes.
Is number 7 in Netflix globaly... It sucks but the nostalgia bait is working.
Some of the songs slap
@@daraghokane4236 onlye the movie ones. Like amazing satire. One of the best if not the best I have seen, but like as a show??? Is just meh to me...
@@Bombonribon some of the songs are good there aren't enough songs
@@daraghokane4236 nah. Not my cup of tea though
@@Bombonribon the song when sunny beat opaline was good
And spike was suddenly a dragon lord, that really making me question what happened to Ember? They never mention it
This is precisely why G5 and G4 have to be separate continuities. Everything just gets jumbled in the long run.
I think, with the inconsistances with FiM, G5 takes place in a parallel universe
We all know that they didn't have plans for G5 other than "Print money". And Spike was done dirty; should've been gigantic and powerful looking, not look like all the other ugly dragons
I at least liked that they gave him a pretty deep voice.
At the beginning of MYM, it looked like it would be building up to something pretty interesting, and then as it went on, it kept building so much that I got bored and stopped watching, and now seeing all of the half baked connections between g4 and g5, it felt less like a continuation, than it felt like a different story that was using g4 as a crutch for its lack of personality. The comics are still as good as ever, but they can only carry the IP so far, something needs to give, they need to decide what's canon and what isn't. Because as it stands, having a character that was alive during the canterlot wedding, completely changing how spike and the dragons look, having canterlot ruins be rather close to where this all takes place, insinuating we're on the same continent while none of the places on the g4 map look even a little bit like g5's area, and even the existence of Opaline in general. I feel like they should pick one, make things eons in the future, in a different area or timeline, and don't make g4 something tangible, or just, go all in, make things connect to g4 in many other ways, and not just seem like g4 is inconsistently used whenever the story has dug itself a hole and uses the past to reason a way out.
And another thing that was very disappointing is that everyone expected that we would get answers as to why all of the old places were abandoned, and replaced with new ones, how much time has passed, a map of where they are that reasonably connects to g4's map, a reason why all of the other creatures seemed to have just disappeared, a reason that Twilight and Cadence weren't still alive, and many more. It just feels like it promised to answer questions, and then distance itself and become its own story, but it has done none of that, its just mindless barbie adventures with songs inserted because it treats the kid audience as extremely ADHD, nothing like the world building, characters and their motivations, complex personalities and character flaws, and stories of g4. Very disappointing.
Where's "Sunset Shimmer's Therapy Visit" Dr. Wolf? I'm going crazy!😝👍💯
Same
Generation four: Episode "Trade Ya" will be far more interesting to me and rewatchable than the entire make your mark series ever could be.
To me, the biggest offender of Secrets of Starlight was that it was essentially clickbait. It was announced months in advance and with that title, along with G5 desperately and shamelessly trying to tie into G4’s lore, you would think that means Starlight Glimmer is coming back. There were theories about the special possibly being about how G5 is another alternate timeline created by Starlight (which became my headcanon). I also thought that this would make sense as a desperate attempt at damage control to fix all the continuity errors and lore contradictions that everyone was criticizing the show for doing. But nope, now that this special is out, it’s as if the company is going to “LOL JK! We were actually talking about a different Starlight that has nothing to do with the character!”
I'ts my understanding that the number one rule of writing fiction, or an entertaining true story for that matter, is to answer a question about how to make a principle we care about thrive, and to show a character overcoming a fear and learn the truth about a deep inner lie they've been telling themselves, to accomplish a goal. For example, the MLP: Next Generation movie basically said "harmony and personal empowerment thrives when we accept each other and choose to live in peace. And it would have been even better if it had a more easily identifiable fear and inner misbelief to overcome to accomplish a goal, such as how in Tangled, Rapunzel had to overcome her fear of "breaking her mother's heart" and her misbelief that she was incapable and vulnurable, to be able to see the floating lights, feel like her life "began," and feel free and safe.
It would have been wonderful if Make Your Mark had followed these rules. Maybe the question could be about how to make harmony continue to thrive, or they could make the story about the thing about her turning into an alicorn whenever she helps people, and ask how to step into your potential.
With those questions, maybe the lesson could be:
“Harmony thrives when you help people understand each other’s points of view and continue to look for solutions until one is found that everyone is happy with.”
We could see her struggling with forgiving Sprout, worried about how to resolve disagreements with micro-manager Hitch, helping her friends overcome disagreements about how to use the crystal bright house (like how the friends from Twilight’s school struggled with the Treehouse of harmony), resolving arguments between Zipp and Pipp about their mom marrying Alphabittle or about how to tell their mom when they think she’s making a bad decision as the leader, and make and manage a free volunteer service group to help ponies with prejudices or fears to see that the other species of ponies are nice.
With Opaline, they could have tried to reform her, and when they couldn't, they could do what you're supposed to do in REAL life when that happens: in her case, work together to beat her and imprison her somewhere. Which they did, but they didn't have a realistic arc about overcoming fear, to do it.
You get the idea. A coherent goal. A real principle relevant to real life. And deep character growth by overcoming fears.
This would have made the show so much better! And it would have made the movie even better, too.
• “I really am on the same page with you Doc, I just don’t know what to say about this generation. Generation 5 feels like it’s trying to do something different yet nostalgia, but it holds back on crafting a concept series after the film on Netflix. I don’t want to give up on this generation, but I also want to ask them: What’s next for Generation 5? What else is there for Generation 5? As for my perspective, I hope that the My Little Pony community team will find a way to bring back the magic we know and love someday. As I will wait for it and hope for their perspective when it comes.”
I think i spent most of the day pondering the same things you talked about. Their best chance would have been to try and make a new story, and just the mystery of what happened being solved as they did their own thing. But they kept diving back in to G4 so much that they never created their own unique thing. Every time we got some new information it overshadowed any progress the show made in being original. Spike and the dragon designs were disappointments, had he been older and wiser and maybe had some sorrow over what happened then i could feel something but what we got just felt empty and a let down. This whole series outside the movie is just something to sadly forget. Spikes comment about them losing magic just opened more questions.
I found it interesting that even though they never fully refrence Starlight Glimmer, the episode sill reminded me of her. The way everypony in the trance from Alura smiled was pretty similar to how they looked in Starlights village.
But yeah, else it was pretty weird that they introduced a new villain, even though Make Your Mark might not continue from here. Them mixing the important stuff between Make Your Mark and Tell Your Tale is kinda weird as well. It makes it difficult to know which episode of which series has to be watched when.
Well, they do reference her but it's blink and you miss it. During the final battle against Opaline, Sunny picks up a heart shaped locket which is presumably one of the magic artifacts Opaline collects as alluded to in her speech comparing her and Sunny.
At a later point the locket opens and Sunny looks in it as her picks it up and Starlight's cutie mark briefly shows.
So maybe the locket will have some connection to Starlight in the future.
My personal theory is Starlight Ridge is the Crystal Empire moved back into whatever realm it was in before it reappeared intentionally as a way to evacuate the Crystal Ponies from Opaline's wrath. Starlight may have helped with this in some way. With no King Sombre there, the realm is safe to live in.
@PlebNC Oh that's cool. I really didn't notice that. I thought the locket was a throwback to an older generation (Rescue at Midnight Castle), where as far as I remember a very similar locket with rainbow inside defeated the villain.
Could be that it's instead a refrence to Starlight though. It did seem to have importance one way or another. We'll just have to see if the team behind this actually uses it in the future or not. Maybe in Tell Your Tale if Make Your Mark doesn't get more chapters.
Any villain who sings about how evil they are is instantly pathetic. Being mad with power is one thing, but they, at the very least, still believe their actions are justified.
Trapping her in the tree seemed rushed (I almost thought I'd missed a scene) and, assuming she wasn't crushed to death, she's going to die of suffocation within the hour!
When I saw Spike Spike I immediately wondered what happened to Ember, Smolder, Gabby, and their kid.
And "The Secrets of Starlight" was clearly just a "Let's try to keep the audience interested." tease.
If touching snow was enough to break the trance, wouldn't walking through snow have been enough? This raises so many questions that the only logical conclusion I can come to is they just wanted the group to have a snowball fight! Why not just have a Christmas/Hearths Warming special?
I agree that being trapped in a tree (that’s supposed to be a friendship tree of all things) is sooo much darker than anything before it in mlp.
I’m also REALLY curious about the other dimension with equestria girls. I mean… SO much was left unexplained, it’s a tragedy.
I also felt weird about Spike’s return. They totally redid all the dragon designs. It seemed like only full grown dragons had to walk on all fours, and even they could stand up. These new designs really do feel like a remake of pony designs.
I did like that we have a clarification of the elements each of the new six possess. Like how Sunny is the princess of hope.
Overall the MLP Make Your Mark series was too all over the place to tell a good story.
It's been a while since I watched mlp. Because unicorns have wings and can use magic. IT'S HARDCORE!!! And I think it's an overused defeat where the villain gets sealed in something for thousands of years before returning to the heroes to get revenge.
Honestly, i am really disappointed. The only good part in this final mym season was us discovering the ponies still could have magic even when their cutie marks and the crystals were seemingly gone. It implies the crystals don't contain the magic, and never did, they're more of a key to unlock the magic inside while also making magic have grown even stronger after. Twilight seemingly predicted this would happen accirding to her recording in the crystals. But also it really throws me off because that means magic could have stayed around, and the only reason it didn't must be something about twilight. Her having been the alicorn of friendship and then her magic being sealed or maybe even gone entirely might have caused friendship between the 3 tribes fell apart. But we don't get anything about that here. All we get is vague ties to g4, spike returning with very little to do beyond exposition on small things like why Sparky might be better off raised by ponies, and a revelation friendship was all they needed to regain magic, even with the crystals out if commission supposedly. The crystals were dormant before and magic was supposedly sealed inside them. And when unity was restored is how they came together and restored magic, seemingly giving ponies magic by connection to the crystals. But now after all is lost including the unity crystals and cutie marks, which have been tied to magic since g4, somehow friendship brings that magic back. What's even worse is sunny almost said the line from g4. She said "and what us friendship?" But never said the full line of hiw friendship is magic. We got so close, but they just didn't do that. I was disappointed that didn't get said at that moment before sunny's locket somehow had rainbow magic in it (older gen, i forget which one, had that). After G5 's movie and the first special of mym, there was hope for the show, even after twilight's message and duscovering opaline was a threat from Twilight's time she had barely beaten and that she was the one to seal magic that way. But as time passed, the shiw gas basically failed on reaching the potential it had. And the inconsistencies infuriated me. All the hints there was a link between sunny's family and twilight with twi's cutie mark all over, but no ties were solidly made beyond her becoming an alicorn and being the last one to believe the stories of the mane 6. Then the crystal chest that once firmed into Twilight's castle and contained the rainbow power somehow being closed again and in opaline's castle. And tons if easter eggs that just made no sense. It's like they took random oarts if g4 and tossed them in at random with no explanation. They don't address the chest at all. There was no real explanation about how Sunny's family knew for sure Twilight existed or how they not only lived in the lighthouse but also had the earth crystal in a lantern. Or what really gappened to Argyle. We know he's dead, or so it seems. We know he knew of a prophecy involving sunny, but didn't realize it was his daughter in said prophecy (tell your tale showed that bit). but as far as i've noticed, there is no real explanation of what happened to him. Did he die of natural causes, did he not really die but Sunny thinks he did because he disappeared for so long?
And then there's the comics, which even if they aren't canon to the the shiws and movie lore, they showed things that weren't revealed in the show at all, or that were revealed after the comics came out. Opaline was revealed as "mysterious unicorn" though obviously she's an alicorn. Discord survived without his magic for ages and grew older, and took many volumes of the comic to realize he shouldn't try to stop magic from returning. But then why did the rest of the alicorns disappear, yet discord survived and was not in a magical hibernation like the dragons, clearly. So many questions, so many conflicting bits of lore and easter eggs.
And Hasbro knew they'd cause huge hype by having their special be named "secrets of starlight" with a color scheme very close to starlight's. They used that to cause hype and false hope. No way they didn't know what the fandom would think. This could have been great, but they have dropped the ball so often it just feels more confusing than fun. The amount if seemingly important details and easter eggs that never got an explanation just made this series feel like they just took stuff from g4, threw it at the wall of g5 and saw what stuck. I love G5, but the fact they left so many confusing bits in this just really leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I get they want it to be able to work for old and newfans alike. But for old fans, this really confuses a lot of us, and I don't know if newfans would be as interested. Because while the show is able to stand on it's own a lot, you need prior knowledge of g4 to fully feel the emotions intended to be felt by some of the things in g5. Not to mention hiw you need to watch episodes in a specific order between the 2 shows to get the full picture. Like the bright house being a thing shiwn in tell your tale first, and in tell your tale stuff is referenced from make your mark. To properly get the shows, you niw either need to watch both of them and do nental gymnastics to connect what episodes go where in the timeline of events or you gotta go into a guide to know what point to stop watching tell your tale to watch some of nake your mark, then stop and go to tell your tale again, then make your mark again, and so on til you finish. It's like star wars,but more confusing because it also tequires a previous series (g4) to fully understand as well alongside the series you are watching (g5). It's so confusing and complex just for a shiw about rainbow ponies who solve problems in life and friendship, sometimessaving their world from threats.
get a job losser
You spoke from my heart
My boy Spike still aint getting the respect he deserves
Hearing Spike's new voice makes me go "Look how they massacred my boy".
Why he can't have an adult voice?
Bro sounds like sans undertale 😭
He’s this close to sounding like Kieth David
It would've made more sense to give him a teen/young adult voice like Steven Universe (Future), MCU Peter Parker or Ezra (Star Wars Rebels)
Allura is a jaquin from Elena of Avalor I cannot unsee it--
I honestly liked Chapter 6, and it's ending. Yeah they screwed up Spike's design, but I honestly guess it's just the art style being meshed, and Spike in every generation has seen a redesign so my guess they wanted something fresh despite the continuity error. Opaline's demise being trapped in her own tree she planted is actually a clever way to end her off. Misty standing up to Opaline thankfully wasn't that awkward as she isn't even afraid despite that she knows Opaline will destroy her, and Opaline's teachings of stealing stuff briefly turn on her. Sparky also becomes useful for once, and helps save the day. Honestly I didn't care for Spike's role in this he at least clarifies what Opaline's actual intentions are, and encourages Hitch to keep Sparky giving some G4 nostalgia, and omg I love his voice too! I haven't seen Secrets of Starlight, and from the description it's mid, I'm hoping it continues, but it feels like an odd change of a arc.
finally! Someone who actual gets it!
Allura seems to be based on mythological winged leopards such the Aq Bars and the Shikra.
We're all disappointed when the lore all became altered. Where's the bloodstone scepter? Who is Spike's wife? Why Ember gave the scepter to him? Also why he's been reduced to become like an adult Spyro instead of being a buffed up dragon like Ember's father? Oh, it's for selling toys.
The first time I thought the 'Aurora corn' was the new version of crystal ponies but turns out it doesn't
It's all out of wack the only thing that was interesting in this new season was that spike is now able to tp organic material (sparky and the main 5) with his flame magic but if he could tp them from the start why didn't he just tp the dragons back. There were hypnotized not trapped behind a spell ward.
How was it “whack” compared to its predecessor?
@@shangothunder1055 fair point but you have spike the walking reference machine, opaline has no character anymore and has just accepted that she's a villain and last you have the talking wing cat with a rabbit sidekick who's power is a pun.
@@Spots_Racer Sounds VERY MLP to me don’t know what to tell ya.😂
The fact that Spike lived when everyone else is (presumably) dead… everyone he ever knew. Twilight is gone. Rarity is gone. Everyone. I can’t imagine how depressed he has to be
I think that the main problem is that the writers may have wanted to make their own story with their own lore but were held back by Hasbro who said that it must connect to G4. It's especially apparent in Chapter 6 that they probably already had the skeleton for their own lore finished but before they could implement the organs and everything to it, something like this happened:
Hasbro exec: This looks great! Just make sure to include G4 into it. After all, we HAVE decided that this will be a sequel to G4.
Writers: But we clearly made a new and separate continuity with it's own-
Hasbro exec: We have spoken! * wack wack *
It's like secret of starlight took inspiration from the jaquins in Elena of avalor
In my opinion, if I wanted to make a series, I would start out by making a 'frame' for the whole series before starting on any episodes.
This frame (aka: a schematic) would map out the main parts and chapters that would summarize the main struggle, climax and conclusion of the series. It would also include premade storyboard scenes that would play a major role in the series.
I would have this frame worked on and polished up at least over a course of a few weeks, if not months, to improve the interest in the story, erase any continuity errors, figure out the best way to develop character growth, come up with interesting plot twists, etc.
After coming up with a good frame to work on, I would start building the episodes, specials and movies around this frame.
That is NOT my spike
I got hooked along the last chapters, because of these hints of the past. I thought, hey, those are some good elements, that could be meaningful later on. It has so much potential, because, the longer the show went on, you see broken pieces of the equestria we once knew. It's post apocalyptic in a way and I so wanted to know, how they would tell us, what happened, what elements are further important and what happened to the ones that still should be around. Secrets of Starlight included this snow valley and I actually feel, as if there is a high chance, that this was the crystal empire at some point. The ground has this same snowflake on it and the climate looks rather usual for the crystal empire. The ponies were rather glittery, kinda reminding one of the crystal ponies and their shine. I think they are just a newer version of the Chrystal ponies, because of the looks and the way they have a reaction showing when they're happy. It had all these chances, all the backstory that could have been build out, and they don't use it. They could have just done something completely separated from G4, but they, instead, chose to make these hints and then go into detail, even though it's pretty much clear they would have to, if they build up on the old property centuries after it, where there are so many questions building up, which they just don't answer
That case proves even more interesting, if you know that in every language apart of English, Opaline says something like "well, now I'm gonna sing it in English" and sing in perfect English, returning to chosen language as if nothing happened.
Do you think we will see Sunny Starscout becoming a real Alicorn instead of one with horn and wings made of energy along with being a leader Equestria needs since Spike called her a princess?
I agree I would like to see she a descendant of Twilight Sparkle if they gonna do a da Vinci code parody
Anyone else find it odd how both spike and twilight don't look like their end of g4 appearances with no explanation?
The portal opening bit at the end felt like it was meant to be the end of this "season of Opaline" and a hook for the "next season of Allura", but at somepoint during prodution it was decided to stop MYM here and pivot everything to TYT. So we got a special that feels out of place.
How we a given G4 stuff in G5 just makes me think back to the Android Arc of Dragon Ball Z... Toriyama didn't want to give or show too much in case he wanted or needed to change things later on...
I think Hasbro has not yet decided what (or if) they want to do with the gap between G4 and G5, so we are just not told exactly what happend in case they want or need to change things later on.
the andriod arc was the fact his bosses were not happy with the villians he was makign so had to keep changing them till they were happy. the fact he made it seemless shows he was a good writer
Did anyone else have a major sense of nostalgia when the rainbow of light came out of the locket. I immediately thought of Megan from G1
G5 biggest mistake was that they wanted it to be G4.5. If it was another universe with no relation to G4 whatsoever it would have a smoother writhing as it could do new things without limitations. But no, some executive decided, almost at the last minute I bet, that they need to attract bronies so they make it in G4's distant future. And now writers that didn't know anything about it have to struggle to put characters to place that decision
Allura reaction to Sunny Alicorn form sounds like she met Alicorns in the past could be for shading polt line in the future when G5 drive in Allura past
In my opinion, I think they should have just make g5 movie as a new reboot of mlp for the new generation and not be so focused on g4 lore. It's kinda a shame that make your mark ended, it could have been better. The show was at least decent to watch.
On Spike ... ngl, when Zipp brought up Twilight and her spell, the way Spike gasps, and goes "Twi?" - combined the look on his face (and the emotion in his voice)... fuck, it hit me right in the feels.🥺😭🥺😭
I’ve always had the belief that G5 never had a plan. After the movie (which I thought was mediocre), I never really bothered with the rest of G5. It’s just a mess. Personally, I like to believe after the movie, the rest of G5 isn’t canon
i love that theyre bringing in the Wildsiders arc from G4.5. their world is so much bigger than G4 alone showed and its great to see them embracing the themes of MLP through it