Make Your Mark Chapter 2

Make Your Mark released eight more episodes, and while I had some misgivings about Chapter one, Chapter two is a noticeable improvement. First off, I guess the animators needed Chapter one as their rough draft because a lot of my complaints about Chapter one is noticeably fixed in Chapter two: the animation looks faster and more livelier, the colors pop more, the lighting is better, and even the writing is noticeably funnier. We see so much more of the Mane 5, and they are all so lovable. I also appreciate that since MLP:MyM is on Netflix, the writers now have more leeway to create an overarching story over multiple episodes, and I have to say, the show's new villain is very interesting. Now that we've seen Opaline, I can safely say she could be a good villain. I especially like the inclusion of Misty, giving us a more sympathetic character to cheer for. I also like the reveal that there's some kind of barrier over the ponies. In my blog on Chapter one, I theorized that the ponies are the descendants of colonists in a faraway land. Turns out, I was half right. If Opaline's side of the story is to be believed, there is a barrier isolating the ponies from the rest of Equestria. I like this idea. It's a better explanation than everything set back to zero with little to no explanation. Not to mention it creates some interesting debate on what the world looks like outside of the barrier and whether or not Sunny and her friends can find a way through the barrier. And finally, I like the show's explanation for why earth ponies suddenly have magic, that magic itself evolves and changes as time goes on. That certainly fits with the magic we saw in MLP:FiM.

There's honestly few complaints I have toward Chapter two. There were some bits of animation that is off, but not too bad, the ways the writers kept Misty's secret hidden was creative but highly contrived, the fact that the Mane 5 can't seem to see through Misty's deceptions despite what an atrocious liar she is an eye-rolling cliché and doesn't make the Mane 5 look smart, and I'm not hugely fond of Sparky. Sure, he is cute, but there isn't a whole lot of stories that can come from a baby character. I'm just concerned he's going to be like Flurry Heart, a character where stuff happens around him, but he's never the focus, making him pretty uninteresting in my book.

Other than that, Chapter two was a welcome improvement over chapter one, and I certainly look forward to seeing Chapter three.