Friendship is Card Games: Have You Seen This Dragon? · 1:07pm Nov 20th, 2022
Alright, time to close out Make Your Mark. Surely the season finale will have some dramatic confrontation.
Surely.
Ah, opening with the puzzle piece butterfly from the previous episode. Appropriate given the focus on Sparky and his flames.
… Wait, was this an all-nighter or does Hitch usually sleep on a pullout bed/file cabinet? He explicitly has a paid-off mortgage. Was it on it the police station itself?
Hmm. Who made the doodle of Hitch and Sparky? I could see an argument for either of them, or Izzy.
I do have to wonder what those trophies are for.
… How did that crab get on top of the police station’s giant star?
I should probably be more focused on Sparky’s whereabouts, but it’s obvious to the audience who took him.
Izzy does not sleep. She waits.
It’s funny. “As soon as pony-possible” feels gratuitous, but I’d accept “As soon as ponily possible.”
I’m curious how Hitch:
1. Thinks Sparky might have gotten to the moon.
2. Expects ponies to check the moon
3. Plans on reaching the moon in the unlikely event Sparky is there. (Though, to be fair, moon dragons are hardly unheard of. Consider the Discworld.)
“Flash of light? That’s unusual.”
Is it? This is a dragon we’re talking about.
“I protect him the way I protect all the ponies and critters in Maretime Bay, as if they were my own family!”
Looking back, this actually explains a lot. While Celestia was Equestria’s mom, Hitch is Maretime Bay’s dad. And I find myself wondering what his own family life was like. The only relative we know about is the grandmother he’ll be visiting in the upcoming holiday special.
So Misty was hiding behind an unstable pile of crafting supplies. Questionable strategy, but it still worked. More questionable is why she went to the Brighthouse of all palces, but from the sound of it, she never actually secured Sparky and ended up chasing him there, presumably barricading herself in that closet before Hitch arrived and woke the others.
Also, Sparky apparently didn’t react to any of the ponies calling out to him. Also also, I wonder who those comics belong to.
Sparky woke up today and apparently chose violence.
Also, Misty does face a unique challenge in sneaking the dragon out of town, given that he is the only dragon in town and everpony therein knows he’s Hitch’s responsibility, not some unicorn rando with a suspiciously scribbled-on cutie mark (not that she even has that much at the moment.)
I’m kind of curious how Zipp could compromise styling products. I’d be more worried about Sparky eating them.
I appreciate the blue-red debate between Zipp and Izzy on careful forethought vs. immediate action.
Sorry, Sunny, but megaphones trump freindship speeches… until the third act, anyway. (To be fair, there is something to be said for covering more ground, especially when everypony has a phone and can stay coordinated with one another.)
Oh, that’s the risk Zipp presents, an almost catlike propensity for knocking things off of shelves. I see both sisters got some degree of their mother’s self-centeredness. (And couldn’t Rocky and/or Jazz tail her to keep everything intact?)
Pipp, she might care more if you told her how much it costs. Per ounce.
I do appreciate that plant getting a magical infusion from Sunny apologizing to it. I shouldn’t be surprised that someone so closely attuned to interpersonal bonds has a level of botanical empathy.
“Mischievous” is apparently Doting Father for “Willing to torch a fool.”
Misty is not the best at thinking on her hooves.
“But I did find… a super-old broken down tram car which I have plans for.”
We’ll get to that soon. For those who haven’t been following the Tell Your Tale shorts, rest assured that that is genuine foreshadowing and not just wacky fun non sequitur.
Sparky Sparkeroni’s blanket is named… Blankeroni. I don’t know what I expected.
Ah yes, the blanket Sparky’s never been without… that we’ve never seen prior to this episode. Of course.
I see dramatic faints have become a mainstay of unicorn culture. Or at least Izzy’s.
Zipp’s monocopter scanner is apparently named… “Pony-Drone.” That’s disappointingly lazy.
Good to see Pipp leverage her social media presence for good… though given how we’ve seen her star power waning over the course of the series, it’s not clear how much of an impact that will actually have.
“So you somehow rigged this whole place with traps in two seconds.”
That or Sparky’s been planning this Home Alone death room far in advance and just needed a few seconds to activate everything. (I’m reminded of the hypothesis that Kevin McCallister grew up to become Jigsaw.)
And yeah, Sparky appears to be quite the budding young dracogenius. Equal parts intriguing and terrifying.
Ah, the perils of a limited data sample. Zipp clearly needs to scan more reptile tracks.
Izzy… Honestly, I think she has the right idea with the dragon lure. Sunny’s biggest mistake was standing between her and her destination. Unfortunately, acting as Maretime Bay’s answer to the Unipiper doesn’t help with the online component of the search.
Apparently the police station doubles as a Kinko’s. Handy.
Interesting that Canterlogic is referred to as “the old defense factory.” I have to wonder what’s happened to it in the meantime. You’d think it’d be repurposed for less hostile manufacturing. At least, I would.
Sunny, rather than complain about everypony getting in each other’s way—and I’ll note that Zipp seems to be doing fine aside from covering ground that the others are already patrolling—maybe do something about it? You’re the one with a strong track record for organization and coordination. (Of course, she may have already tried doing that, but it’d be nice to see it for ourselves.)
Credit to the composer, that music does create an air of menace even in spite of the name “Operation: Glitterbomb.”
Pipp. Record somewhere else. You’re supposed to be good at this. I do despise plot-mandated incompetence.
“Good, we have their hooves full,” says Misty, as though she had anything to do with the main cast getting in each other’s way.
Hang on, did they reuse the dragon lure model for the junk pile? That’s definitely the same bass drum. Come on, guys, you must have other resources available.
… Where and how did Sparky get a laser grid!?
Ah, the duality of Reflex saves. A natural 1 can easily follow a natural 20.
On the one hand, good to see Sunny finally trying to actually coordinate her friends. On the other, as Izzy noted, skating in circles did not help.
I do wonder how Hitch roped some Zephyr Heights guards into his quest for vengeance.
“Culprit, I will find you, and I will make you pay… with litter pick-up duty.”
It’s honestly kind of comforting to know that even at his most grimdark, Hitch is still a very soft touch in terms of discipline.
As I said, the friendship speeches start working in the third act.
And vigilante Hitch is resolved before he could actually do anything interesting. Though they’ll definitely want to make sure Zoom and Thunder get the memo… though at least they’re performing an actually effective search pattern.
Speaking of which, searching further shouldn’t be an issue, Zipp. You’ve all been casing the same patch of town for, what, the past hour? You have conclusively demonstrated that Sparky isn’t here. Move.
“We completely forgot about music!” says Pipp, when Izzy is wearing and operating a one-mare band. (Poorly tuned, yes, but there’s still a bunch of instruments at work.)
Oh, Misty. Thinking that Sparky will survive whatever process Opaline has in mind. Though it’s that that same naivety that has her convinced that the alicorn will (and even can) actually give her a cutie mark.
Still, she’s wise enough to know a musical deus ex machina when she hears one.
Pipp apparently never told Hitch about a lullaby she wrote and has performed for Sparky. 
Ugh. How hard is it to introduce plot points in advance?
Interesting. Pipp’s mark glowing the performance makes sense, but Izzy’s is unexpected. I guess her talent covers more forms of artistic expression than I anticipated.
Ah. Or it’s a case of musical harmony amplifying magical Harmony. Far from the first time that’s happened, especially in a relatively low magic environment.
And somehow a wicker picnic basket is able to contain a firebreathing dragon. 
Ah, Zelda bottle logic. You got Green Fire! Assign it to X, Y, or Z in the Inventory Screen.
Ooh, nice detail with the visible grit in Hitch’s frogs.
“To the ends of Equestria? That sounds tiring.”
It also sounds vastly more interesting than anything we’ve seen in Make your Mark thus far. Not sure if that one’s foreshadowing or not.
“It’s been hundreds of moons since I’ve last seen dragonfire.”
Oh no. Let’s not get into that mess again.
Nice work, Misty, you turned your boss into a junkie.
I’m very curious how Opaline came to the conclusion that alicorns should have sole dominion over magic. Heck, Twilight claiming that kind of authority was how the world got into this mess to begin with. Could there be an influence from Cozy Glow here?
“No more of this unity and equality stuff!”
And a reaction against Starlight. Very curious.
“The citizens of Equestria should fear and love their immortal rulers.”
Shades of both Sombra and Cadence. It may be a stretch, but this could be support for Opaline being a Nightmare Flurry Heart. A born alicorn having this attitude would explain a lot.
And Misty starts to realize just who she’s been dealing with, especially when contrasted against the unconditional emotional support she’s gotten from the ponies in Maretime Bay.
As I said, it’s important to turn off your town-wide manhunts once you’re done.
“Nothing can surprise me anymore.”
You’d think Zipp would know better by now.
Someone’s going to need to move that rusted tram cart before the next one comes around.
In all, this was a frustrating blend of bumbling incompetence and actual plot progress. This show desperately needs either a more active antagonist or more active protagonists. One lurking in the shadows and the other reacting to the plot of the week does not a satisfying viewing experience make. (Actually going outside of Maretime Bay would be nice, but there’s the question of whether the budget can handle another 3D environment.) After eight episodes, I can say that the story may have officially begun.
As has been noted in the comments, the key issue is that none of the main cast really have a character arc to explore anymore. There are glimpses here and there—Sunny finding what it means to be an alicorn, Zipp exploring the science of magic, Hitch adjusting as the rules of reality get rewritten—but nothing is ever build upon. Twilight’s message lingers in the background, but nopony tries to do anything about it beyond aimless fretting. More than anything, this has been Misty’s story; we’ve just been focused on side characters for most of the runtime.
There is the argument that I’m expecting too much of this given the target audience and the lightninng in a bottle that was G4. My answer is that if I wasn’t supposed to have had the same expectations, then they shouldn’t have made it a direct continuation of that generation.
Still, it’s providing plentiful idea fodder. For example:
Masked Harrier 1WW
Creature — Pegasus Soldier
Flying, vigilance
Morph XW (You may cast this card face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)
When Masked Harrier is turned face up, tap up to X target creatures.
2/2
Hitch, the Flameguard 3W
Legendary Creature — Pony Soldier
Partner with Sparky, the Wonderflame (When this creature enters the battlefield, target player may put Sparky into their hand from their library, then shuffle.)
Lifelink, vigilance
Remove two +1/+1 counters from among creatures you control: Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn.
2/4
Whim of the Dracogenius 1U
Instant
Counter target spell unless its controller pays X, where X is the total number of instant and sorcery cards you own in exile and in your graveyard.
Jump-start (You may cast this spell from your graveyard by discarding a card in addition to paying its other costs. Then exile this card.)
Stalwart Captain 3U
Creature — Pony Pirate
Flash
When Stalwart Captain enters the battlefield, untap all Pirates you control.
“All hooves on deck!”
3/3
Willy-Nilly 5U
Instant
This spell costs 1 less to cast for each creature its target controls.
Tap all creatures target player controls.
Too many cooks, and they’ll forget what they were trying to make in the first place.
Quest for Vengeance B
Enchantment
When Quest for Vengeance enters the battlefield, exile target creature card from your graveyard.
Whenever a creature dies, put a quest counter on Quest for Vengeance.
Remove three quest counters from Quest for Vengeance and sacrifice it: Return the exiled card to the battlefield.
Drastic Measures 2BB
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice X creatures.
All creatures get -X/-X until end of turn.
Hitch was willing to tear apart everything he’d worked to protect if it meant finding Sparky.
Dragon’s Mischief 1R
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has menace and “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn.”
When a creature with mana value 6 or greater enters the battlefield, you may return Dragon’s Mischief from your graveyard to the battlefield attached to that creature.
Irritated Whelp 1R
Creature — Dragon
Menace
Ward — Pay 2 life. (Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays 2 life.)
Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for they find your screams amusing.
2/1
One with Dragonfire 2R
Sorcery
Discard all the cards in your hand, then draw that many cards. One with Dragonfire deals damage to each opponent equal to the number of cards discarded this way.
For one blissful moment, Opaline was restored. The crash left her colder and more bitter than ever.
Skate Scout 2R
Creature — Pony Scout
Haste
Whenever Skate Scout attacks, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
“Reckless? How can I be reckless? I was wearing a helmet when I jumped that cable car!”
2/1
Heat Beam Trap 4RR
Instant — Trap
If an opponent had two or more creatures enter the battlefield under their control this turn, you may pay 1R rather than pay this spell’s mana cost.
Heat Beam Trap deals 3 damage to each creature target player controls.
Coordinated Effort 3G
Sorcery
Domain — Distribute X +1/+1 counters among creatures you control, where X is the number of basic land types among lands you control. Creatures you control with +1/+1 counters on them gain trample until end of turn.
Many hooves make light work.
Dragonlure Performer 4G
Creature — Unicorn Bard
Reach
When Dragonlure Performer enters the battlefield, each opponent may search their library for a Dragon permanent card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
Whenever a Dragon enters the battlefield, put three +1/+1 counters on Dragonlure Performer.
3/3
Bridlewood Flute 5
Artifact
X, T: Search your library for a noncreature, nonland card with mana value X or less, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
Every song is the faded memory of an ancient magical feat.
Scrapwork Behemoth 5
Artifact Creature — Construct
Trample
When Scrapwork Behemoth attacks, sacrifice it at end of combat.
Unearth 4 (4: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step or if it would leave the battlefield. Unearth only as a sorcery.)
6/4
Moon-Warped Hellkite 11
Creature — Eldrazi Dragon
Emerge 8RR (You may cast this spell by sacrificing a creature and paying the emerge cost reduced by that creature’s mana value.)
When you cast this spell, it deals 4 damage to each creature, planeswalker, and opponent.
Flying, haste
7/6
Work Backwards (gu)
Sorcery
Investigate. (Create a Clue token. It’s an artifact with “2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.”)
Retrace (You may cast this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)
Present leads to past leads to truth.
Opaline’s Dismissal U(ub)B
Instant
Counter target spell unless its controller pays half their life, rounded up.
“Worthless. Incompetent. I could have done better without even trying if I had my true power.”
Misty, the Undefined 1UB
Legendary Creature — Unicorn Rogue
Misty, the Undefined can’t be blocked.
Whenever Misty deals combat damage to a player, exile the top card of that player’s library. You may play that card for as long as it remains exiled.
T: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a spell exiled with Misty.
2/2
Garden Advocate 1RG
Creature — Pony Druid
When Garden Advocate enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 green Dryad Forest land creature token.
Land creatures you control have haste.
Earth ponies had talked to their plants for generations. Some weren’t even surprised when the plants started answering.
2/1
Sparky, the Wonderflame 1GU
Legendary Creature — Dragon
Partner with Hitch, the Flameguard
Ward 4
All spells cost 2 less to cast.
Whenever a player casts a spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Sparky.
1/3
Trending Topic 2(gw)(wu)
Sorcery
Each player draws cards equal to the number of creatures they control.
The Canternet is a source of information too great for any one mind to contain.
Opaline Reforged 4BRG
Legendary Creature — Elemental Noble
Alicorn (This card is also a Pony Pegasus Unicorn.)
Flying, haste, trample
At the beginning of each player’s end step, choose a card type from among permanents that player controls. They sacrifice a permanent of the chosen type, then reveal the top card of their library. If it’s a permanent card, they put it onto the battlefield.
6/6
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Moon-Warped Hellkite avoids damaging itself only because "when you cast" resolves before the original spell. It doesn't even exist yet and it's already destroyed everything in its path, because that's how the Eldrazi roll.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Neither of Sparky's written-out abilities care who's casting the spell. Your opponents will get the discount, but they'll also feed the hungry child staring them down.
That's what I've been saying since day one.
Personally, I found this episode to be one of the less insufferable of Chapter 2, if only on the grounds of having a few more pleasurable grace notes than usual. That, and while all the character are still dumb and passive as all get-out, they're not as blind as in the prior episodes. Still, coming at the end of an eight-episode run really serves to highlight how virtually nothing has happened in those 248 minutes. Stretching out content to more episode than it should be in is nothing new for shows – heck, it's close to the norm for most streaming shows, especially on Netflix. But even within that, this is ridiculous – I harbour no love for bringing in G4 or the message from Twilight, but straight-up forgetting about it after Ep. 3, ugh. Not that FiM didn't ignore its overarching plotline, but that was in an era when shows of its calibre on network television couldn't be serialised, and thus nearly all non-arc episode in a season just did their own thing, rather then having the main plot lurking in the background and moving at a snail's pace. And of course, it was invariably entertaining and fun, two words that, with very few exceptions, do not apply to this show. And as noted, the generation connection demands we hold it to same level of quality.
All the other major shortcoming shave been hashed out by many folks, myself included. The series-killing one is, of course, how poorly-written, unsympathetic and uninteresting the Mane 5 are now, with Misty and her arc are just about the only thing eliciting curiosity to continue watching. So I won't repeat that. But between the whiffy humour atypical of smudgy Canadian cartoons, the show's writing and visual construction drawing the maximum attention to how this world makes no sense and is so constrained; constant inconsistencies not just between episodes, but in the same episode; plotting and characterisation so juvenile it's daring you to nitpick in; and the budget and schedule restrictions bringing out the shortcomings of the visuals far above and beyond their strengths (not that the strengths and effort aren't present onscreen, they're just hard to notice or appreciate), there really is almost nothing here.
What with the circumstantial evidence that the show may end late next year (Hasbro's recent published schedule only lists 45 TYT shorts for next year, rather than the 52 they would have, and given the advance planning for all of this, there's no way they wouldn't have already decided what Pony content would fill all of 2023), and that MYM may thus end with only 23 regular episodes and 4 specials, we'll have to see where it gets by the end of that. Can't say I have much hopes in the way of anything; even if the animation continues to minutely improve, the scale enlarges slightly and the plot shifts into second gear, it's still going to be a nothing slog.
I think the problem is people forget how G4 started out and expect G5 to immediately be like it's later seasons where the show got alot more self aware and self referential.
G5 is still too new to get away with that without just fully using G4 as a crutch. I'm willing to see how S1 plays out, so far it's not amazing but the potential is there.
TBF, she has a history of trying to organize community goals. It's only recently that others started to listen.
Oh, come on! Seriously?! Hello!
My Little Droney?
Come on, people, this stuff writes itself!
Gotta say, while my attitude was to this show, after initially trying it and not finding myself especially enticed, was always to wait, listen to the buzz and whatever snippets of it come up and see if anything happens to get me watching... it really doesn't seem like I'm missing much.
Not that it seems awful or anything - I haven't encountered many people who actively loathe sitting through the show (though, admittedly, looking for people watching the show who hate doing so seems like a pretty obvious bit of selection bias). I mean, from what I've seen and gathered, there's some stuff that's cute, some stuff that's funny, some stuff that's pleasant...
Unfortunately, I have seen absolutely nothing that I'd really call interesting. Even the stuff with Misty, which seems to come the closest, doesn't seem like anything we haven't seen many times over, even discounting intra-franchise examples. I mean, it's all fine enough, just... not particularly engaging.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to turn around and claim FiM was some perfect, flawless work of genius - the show had plenty of problems (to me, at least), some minor, some major... but whether it was good or bad, it was usually good or bad in an interesting way. Not always, it had its fair share of the dreaded meh, but usually. Heck, even the episodes that I despised, I at least cared enough to despise.
Again, I'm not making any judgement or pronouncement on current show - I'm not going to go into any deep castigations of a show I haven't seen, I'm exclusively judging the bits I have seen. I apologize if I'm coming off otherwise, but... all I'm looking for is a reason to be interested and I haven't found one... beyond these always-entertaining blogs, of course.
It isn't a great start when the animators couldn't even make a pillow for Hitch, so his head is just stiffly floating above nothing while he sleeps.
Whose tablet computer does Hitch pick up after he...
You know what? I can't bring myself to care. Once again, the episode was all over the place, ignoring narrative cohesion and character development all for the sake of forcing yet another moral of "it's better to be unified."
This this this, so much this. What is the purpose of this series? Is Netflix just looking for additional mindless kids' content because parents are burning out on CoComelon? Either commit to being a kids' series that also offers something for adults or go ahead and lean into being a soulless merchandising grab. Because this middle ground is a waste of the audience's time, Hasbro's money, and the animators' morale.