G5: Make Your Mark chapter 4

So, it's that time again. Make Your Mark chapter 4 is out and I've managed to snort the episodes. I've been extremely critical of previous chapters and while after some rewatching and thought my opinion of them improved a bit, they're still sub-par at best.

HOWEVER, I think chapter 4 is actually good and worth watching. I don't know if the writers are learning as they go along or there were some serious changes to executive oversight, the characterization of almost everyone is significantly stronger, and... I had to check just now because I thought C4 was half the amount of episodes but it wasn't. The fact that watching 7 episodes FOR ONCE felt as if I watched 4 instead of a bland eternity tells me that it finally was fun. No spam of forced jokes and no pointless conflict brought on by characters being nonsensically stupid and forgetting everything that's happened until now.

STORY (in a mostly non-spoilery way):

They finally managed to mix the slice of life focus with the grander conflict in a way that doesn't feel like adding lego bricks to cake batter, and in my opinion that's mostly by throwing meaningful interactions between Opaline and the world through Misty in much more often and in a manner that fits what happens in the episodes. And considering that characters finally react to slice of life events in a way that shows they know each other it makes even the "non-plot" events fit into the world. It's really difficult to write down how much of an improvement C4 is in terms of how everything fits together.

CHARACTERS (the good and the bad things):

MISTY:
It's much clearer that the main character is Misty and not Sunny. I mean, the name "Make Your Mark" should have made it obvious a while ago, but until now the writing was mediocre at best so missing that would be understandable. Her moral conflict is the main plot and her moments now convey pretty well why she's acting the way she's acting. I'm vague for non-spoilery reasons but it's a conflict between hope and certainty. Misty is hard carrying this chapter.
IZZY:
After Misty, Izzy definitely gets the most refinement in C4, and she needed it, especially after how she was written at the end of C2 when they reused Pinkie's randomness into one of her most annoying "gags". Izzy's hyperactivity and randomness have been toned down a lot and now she doesn't insert herself into every situation with some grating nonsense like late-G4 Pinkie. She's still Izzy, though, more the original movie kind of Izzy and not the TYT/C2 Izzy, and I think tht not spamming her in every scene makes her moments much funnier and her deepr moments a lot more impactful.
PIPP:
Pipp is pretty much the driving force of the slice of life part most episodes. While my pure hatred of the extreme of social media lifestyle that G5 is based on burns bright, C4 finally does it in a satirical way that does show it's a bad thing. Pipp doesn't really receive any major development but is toned down a little so that she's a pony and not just the most extreme version of Rarity's focus on clothes/manes with criminal instagram addiction. All in all, a small change in her writing but a meaningful one.
ZIPP:
The plot development pony. Overall, Zipp remains the stable anchor of the group and mellows out a little, especially for the "Definitely-Not-Grand-Galloping-Gala-Inspired-Episode". Just like Pipp, the changes made to her writing make her a little warmer to others in a way that keeps her who she is while taking down her stand-offish "I don'T want to do anything that's not cool" Rainbow Dashness. Like I said before, she is what RD could have been if she was written well and didn't devolve into a caricature of her original idea. Overall, Zipp remains well written.
SUNNY:
Aaaand now we get to the bad parts. Sunny was presented as the main character of G5 and her role in the movie was the pony bringing everyone together, and I finally realized in C4 what was bugging me about her since C2. Sunny has zero personality of her own. I know people used to joke that Applejack was a background pony, but that's where Sunny is right now and she's the famous "hero alicorn". With the overall story writing improving and erasing forced, unnecessary conflict, Sunny has lost her role. Or more accurately, Sunny fulfilled her role and brought everyone together, now what? I think that her finding her role in a more peaceful time would be a great plotline for later but in this chapter she's the "inspiring speech mouthpiece" like twice and that's all. SPOILER:Buuut we get a kinda cool fight between her and Opaline at the end
HITCH:
Whoever is writing Hitch makes me more annoyed with every chapter. The competent Hitch from the movie remains buried in an unmarked grave, and instead we get to keep the bumbling idiot. Not much to say here, really. I know the focus of the show is girl power but they really don't have to make the only guy a moron barely capable of dressing himself.
OPALINE:
Aaaand here's where the threads of G5 go in two directions which don't work well with each other. There's a saying that "a story is only as good as its villain" and said villain doesn't have to be any concrete being (For example - In They're On Holiday the villain is basically the history and culture of the changeling hive) and Opaline WOULD be a great villain if she was shown to be even remotely competent and a threat. She is very funny, she looks cool (at least her powers), and she behaves like the most stereotypical villain ever, but her problem is that it lands flat when combined with her being entirely incapable of doing anything. She just sounds like a boastful idiot. Take original Discord for example - funny, cool design, background where he turned Sunbutt and Luna into his toys, and an absolute beast when first encountered. He had it all, and Opaline was on the way there, if only she was able to do ANYTHING. I understand that she loses at the end due to the power of friendship, but she should have had several victories under her belt to raise the stakes of the final episode of C4. Hell, she can barely climb a hill, and while her dialogue is corny in the best funny way possible, she doesn't fit the big bad evil boss of the plot.

THE ENDING/HOOK FOR NEXT CHAPTER - SPOILERS

I don't think Misty should have joined the group just yet. They had the perfect hook for some subterfuge and cloak-and-dagger operations after the Opaline fight and Misty cleaning the place up, but I guess they want to go more the slice of life way of Misty between other people. It's fine. Of course, the final scene doesn't have to mean that Misty escaped from Opaline for good, but it seemed like that to me so until proven otherwise I'll take it that way.
The awakening of more dragons would feel impactful, yet again, if Opaline was competent on her own and didn't rely on Misty with everything. I'm kind of worried that if they go with the purely evil Opaline for further development and lose the genuniely funny aspect she has now we'll just get and even blander Tirek, especially if Misty really left.