My Top 6 FAVORITE Episodes Of Make Your Mark + MAJOR UPDATE!!!!!!! · 8:10pm Jan 16th, 2023
What is up, everypony? This is Admiral Producer here fresh off of writing my chapter for bookhorse125’s collaborative community fanfic: 40 Years, which is (as the title suggests), a celebration of My Little Pony’s 40 Year Anniversary with an epic adventure spanning ALL five generations!! I am so proud to have been an integral part of this passion project and I definitely encourage you all to help out where you can as well. A link to their blog post in order to sign up will be available below as we need all the help we can get in order to bring this epic story to life. With that being said, I sincerely apologize for not being active as of late. I’ve been quite busy with my chapter for 40 Years after all. But considering you all were supportive as heck when I ranted at nauseam about the downward trajectory of this fandom due to the toxic nature of many G5 haters, I wanted to follow-up with something similar, only in a more positive light, plus give you guys a massive update on what’s coming next.
First, I’m going to list off my favorite episodes of Make Your Mark. You guys probably know that I LOVE the direction G5 is headed and I will defend this iteration to death, but I haven’t really listed the best episodes in the series yet, have I? There’s a reason why I find the first season of Make Your Mark so compelling and several steps up from FIM’s first season. I hope this list will give you some indication as to why.
1. Portrait For A Princess
What else is there to say about this one? It’s emotional, heartfelt, and an excellent representation of strained sibling relationships. The way Zipp and Pipp’s personalities and priorities clash is entertaining as all hay, (as is Queen Haven’s song “Pony Love”), the argument in the cave just feels so raw and realistic, and the “Portrait Day” song just wrecked me emotionally and is the perfect resolution to Zipp and Pipp’s relationship. This is the power and potential of G5’s story all summed up in one episode. It’s practically Pixar level. Don’t @ me, you know it’s true. More episodes like this, please Hasbro.
2. Ali-Conned
This one might surprise some people, but yeah, this episode is actually really good. After so many episodes not placing a proper focus on Sunny Starscout (who is the main character, I might add, not Zipp), we finally get one and it was amazing. This episode really hits home if we think of real life. How many of us have been manipulated at some point or another by those who want to take advantage of us due to our status? Sunny’s alicorn transformations are played off as an allegory to the poor outcast suddenly becoming the wealthy socialite. Ponies only give Sunny attention when she’s an alicorn (again, rich people allegory) and the Filly Four are perfect examples of materialistic, false friends who never gave a flying feather about you to begin with. The part with Opaline manipulating Sunny isn’t really given a proper resolution, but I think that’s all down to the fact that it’s a plot thread that will be used later down the line. And hey, if nothing else, the Misty Saga will provide a proper resolution to that thread. Sunny’s friends comforting her when she’s crying may come off as cliché, but the message still rings true and is a good moral for kids to not let what others think of you define you and is one of the only times we’ve seen Sunny actually cry in G5. She’s got a lot of insecurities due to her opinions and viewpoints being mocked and belittled by the townsponies for YEARS and this situation just brings all of that to the surface and does justice to it. And the ending with Sunny’s friends building her the Community Garden she always wanted is just PERFECT!! This is every bit a perfect follow-up to Sunny’s character arc in the movie and more.
3. Growing Pains
Low and behold: it’s an episode about Hitch Trailblazer!! This actually would’ve been a better way in my opinion to start off Make Your Mark with a bang than “Izzy Does It,” but that episode is still fine. I particularly love how this episode really acts as a follow-up to the movie, just as “Ali-Conned” does, with Hitch’s arc here. While not as good as “Ali-Conned” (in my opinion), it comes pretty dang close. Hitch has always been the responsible one and that is no different here. Magic is now more unpredictable than ever and Hitch’s reason for initially banning it and wanting to pull out the earth pony crystal, although certainly extreme, is perfectly sound. He just doesn’t want anypony to get hurt and that makes total sense with his character. When he became sheriff, he operated in a town that didn’t have magic and now that it does have magic, so many things can go wrong, and Hitch has to learn that just because he doesn’t understand something, it doesn’t mean that thing is awful or in need of being banned (You hear that, G5 haters?). We as an audience who watched G4 know that magic is totally normal for ponies, but the characters don’t due to so many years being without it. Expecting the unexpected is a part of life and perhaps one day, magic can become normal and a part of society again just like it used to be. Solid episode.
Edit: Oh, and I also forgot to mention the REAL MVP of this episode: TWILIGHT SPARKLE MAKES A CAMEO, YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!! Definitely looking forward to seeing how the rest of the Opaline storyline pans out. Just please don’t make her a series-wide villain, Hasbro. Have the confrontation after the first or second season and introduce new villains from there. Get creative with it, I know you can do it.
4. Hoof Done It?
What is this? ANOTHER Zipp and Pipp episode? And it’s really good?! Hmm, are you sure they’re not the real main characters of this generation, Hasbro? In all seriousness though, this was REALLY good. Once again, I really like the sister dynamic and the moral lesson here. Sunny’s lantern goes missing and it’s up to Detective Zipp to solve the case!! Only…wait a minute. The lantern was already found?! What?! I for one love how this episode subverts the mystery genre rather than playing it completely straight like “MMMMystery On The Friendship Express.” We already know who has the lantern for the majority of the runtime, even if Zipp doesn’t. It’s Pipp, and she took it (after Misty initially stole it) because she saw how much fun Zipp was having while solving the case. It’s a classic case of doing the wrong thing for the right reasons and even after Zipp thinks the whole case was for nothing, Pipp reminds her that as long as she has fun doing what she loves, that is what ultimately matters in the end. Fantastic!!
5. The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover
Okay, okay. So if Sunny walked up to Izzy Moonbow and asked her: “Are you happy, Izzy?” (Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness reference completely intended), she probably would’ve said “Are you kidding, Sunny?! I totally am!!” But here’s the thing. She’s not really. Think about it. She moved from Bridlewood (a town full of unicorns) to Maretime Bay (a town full of earth ponies) and the way she truly felt about that hadn’t really really been brought up before. Until now. When Opaline sends Misty on a mission to Maretime Bay, she ends up meeting Izzy, who immediately befriends and welcomes her. This is explained as Misty being Izzy’s first unicorn friend ever and it works, mostly because this episode is 100% an allegory for homesickness. Now before any of you accuse this episode of being a ripoff of “Castle Sweet Castle” and “Uprooted,” the situation is handled much, much differently. First of all, there’s a difference between being homesick for your old house and being homesick for your old life. And the episode revolves around Izzy teaching her friends Bridlewood traditions, all the while Misty does Misty things. Now we as an audience know that Misty is not from Bridlewood, but Izzy doesn’t. And considering Izzy is so happy about Misty’s company, we don’t want her to find out the truth. And after the sleepover goes horribly wrong and Izzy admits that she’s homesick, her friends band together to build her a little piece of Bridlewood in her own room, which is just so sweet. This episode is also an allegory for fitting in and moving to a new place/adapting to a new environment. The episode picks up on a loose thread A New Generation set up and just runs with it and the result is just great! It’s a perfect example of learning others’ traditions, as well as having friends who will be there for you in their time of need. Izzy being homesick here works because that’s the normal response you’d expect from moving to a new place. This episode was the inspiration behind Izzy’s arc in Forgiven and I can’t give it enough credit for tackling a hard topic so maturely and respectfully.
6. Have You Seen This Dragon?
This was a close call between this and “The Cutie Mark Mix-Up” because although I really love the latter episode due to it being all about Hitch and Sunny and their iconic hoofshake from the movie being reprised, this one is just stronger emotionally and just had more going for it. This one really is about fatherhood/parental responsibility. and Hitch’s desire to protect and find Sparky hopefully rings true for a lot of parents out there. We as an audience already know that Sparky is in the closet with Misty and we actually get her motivations fleshed out here. It’s a very interesting choice, having a young adult (teenager, maybe?) unicorn without a cutie mark seeing as how we’ve never had that before in G4 and it also provides fascinating thematic ideas of belonging and abusive relationships seeing as how Misty views Opaline as practically her mother and Opaline seeing Misty as simply a means to an end to GET. THAT. DRAGON!!!! I don’t think MLP has EVER attempted an abusive relationship like this on this big of a scale before. Sure, they’ve shown it in brief spurts, but never explored it long-term like this. It’s always been in certain episodes in select situations. Here the abusive relationship thread is dragged out throughout the series and that’s a real bold move right there as the MLP is aimed at kids. They even have Misty cry at the end, like WOW!! The kid gloves were officially off with this episode and I love it!! In fact, the entirety of Make Your Mark’s first season seems more mature, heartfelt, realistic, and poignant than anything in FIM’s first season (save for like I think two or three episodes, which come close). I’m pretty darn impressed. Also, watching Hitch go full on Batman during the search for Sparky is so funny and I sure hope that isn’t a one and done joke. It should be brought up again in another situation. In fact, why not have an episode where Hitch actually becomes a vigilante superhero or something? Superheroes are still dominating the mainstream market this decade, so it would be the perfect opportunity to capitalize on that. Seeing Hitch worry so much about Sparky was heartbreaking to see and the themes/messages about fatherhood and to an extent, overprotectiveness, was wonderfully done here. A fantastic way to cap off this first batch of episodes.
So that was my list. Let me know yours and do try and keep it civil. You all have demonstrated to me that there is hope for this fandom to recover, so keep up the amazing work. I look forward to reading your thoughts. With that being said, I have a couple major announcements to make. One of them is the rest of the Misty Saga and what comes after. Don’t worry, it is NOT cancelled!! Although I am concerned about its relevance now that Misty stories aren’t dominating the FIMFiction algorithm anymore, I will see this overarching narrative to completion as promised. I’m currently targeting a February release date for both The Fall of Opaline and Redeemed, with the Saga-closing Izzy Moonbow Beyond The Multiverse of Randomness possibly seeing a release date in early March depending if I’m able to keep up with college and all that. After that, the Lunar Literary Universe officially begins!! Contrary to what I told you all before though, it will NOT actually start with Guardians of Harmony: Friendship is Magic. Instead, the first story in this universe shall be set in the far future, on Earth no less! This story will be called: Daughters of Justice Part One and will be sort of a prologue to everything else, basically sort of a non-linear precursor. You all will be confused by some (or all) of the characters and that’s perfect as events will be mentioned that haven’t happened yet. This may seem unorthodox and downright heresy in the world of writing, but hear me out. Daughters of Justice is meant to be a trilogy, but the other two entries will not come out until ALL of the other entries in the rest of the phases of the LLU come out. Think of Daughters of Justice 1 as the prologue and Daughters of Justice 2 and 3 as the epilogue, the closing phases. Due to this, my Phase 1 bookshelf will undergo some slight restructuring, so if you all found that as the easiest way to access Guardians of Harmony…sorry about that, the story is going to be removed from there until after Daughters of Justice comes out. My apologies in advance.
The second update I wanted to mention was that I’m considering bringing a certain Star Wars-MLP crossover story back from the dead. This story has been sitting in Limbo with the Pony of Shadows for the better half of a year due to all the downvotes my comments (and the story itself) has received. But, I’m happy to say, that I’m now confident enough in my established audience (you guys, of course) that I can safely bring the story back to life and continue it!! That story is called: Star Wars: Trials of the Force. Although it has Part One attached to it, the chances of the other two planned sequels actually happening are highly unlikely unless this revival succeeds in bringing in more interested readers and comments, and I don’t want to get everyone’s hopes up yet. Thank you to users spiders123, SonicStreak5344, and Ocellus The Changeling for liking, favoriting, and commenting this story and/or asking me about it, therefore inspiring me to continue it. I will hopefully be updating this story every Friday (or Sunday) while quietly working on the other stories in the background. I’ll be making some minor edits here and there and yes, while the Equestria chapters do set up the world of G5, this story was written when only A New Generation had come out and therefore anything in Make Your Mark and Tell Your Tale is strictly not canon to this story’s universe. Just wanted to clear that up in case anyone gets confused about the events that happen.
Thank you all for reading through this (very long) blog post and here’s to a bright new year on this site and a fresh decade of pony. See you all very soon!! 
Link to participate in bookhorse125’s 40 Years: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/1003492/my-little-pony-40-years-update
Link to read bookhorse125’s 40 Years: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/529135/40-years
Interesting episode thoughts.
I liked them
5709071
Thank you so much! These episodes were real standouts to me in particular. What are yours?
My top 5 is
1. Have You Seen This Dragon? - For the reasons you mentioned and since seeing Misty is always a win. "A Special Tune" made me cry. The lyrics hit home for some reason. And since it seemed like more than just a lullaby song for Sparky, I hope they use it again but for Misty. Like when they're bringing her to their side. I feel like it could resonate with her.
2. Traditional Unicorn Sleepover - Another Misty episode. I liked the snippet of history they gave us when it came to the crystals. I also liked that Izzy had more of a personality and it was realistic.
3. Cutie Mark Mix Up - This was just a cute episode in general and I really like Starblazer so seeing those two interact and do their secret handshake at the end was just- AWWWWW :'D
4. Portrait of a Princess - I don't have a sister (just brothers) so sister dynamics have always drawn my attention. "Portrait Day" was beautiful and seeing them make up brought me to tears. I'm also glad we got to see Queen Haven.
5. Hoof Done It - Another sisterly episode plus Misty was in here. The tension mixed with silly moments makes this episode enjoyable. I'm glad Pipp wanted Zipp wanted to enjoy herself as much as possible.
5709072
My top favorite is Growing Pains, cause of Sprout. My favorite character in the show after Pipp and Izzy
I wrote my own reviews of the first six episodes when I first saw them:
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/213399/the-official-generation-five-site/thread/503308/my-review-of-the-first-six-episodes-of-make-your-mark
5709074
I completely agree. Those episodes are really good. Believe me, if I was doing a Top 10, then “The Cutie Mark Mix-Up” would’ve certainly been included.
5709075
Yeah, Sprout is cool. Sucks that he doesn’t have much screentime in the show proper. Hopefully that’ll be changed going forward. I in particular would’ve liked to see what he was up to after the events of the movie. Until then though, I do have Sawtooth Waves’s theory video to take as tentative canon.
5709078
Yeah, I remember reading those. Very informative, although I do disagree with certain low ratings for select episodes. Also you’re right on the money with the townsponies in “Ali-Conned,” those good-for-nothing, backstabbing- You get the point. That episode in particular really made me feel for Sunny.
5709159
Same with sawtooth
My list:
#1: Portrait of a Princess.
Same reasons as everyone else. That song is just too emotional for it’s own good
#2: Have You Seen This Dragon?:
BatHitch is probably one of the best things this show has done comedy wise.
#3: Cutie Mark Mix Up.
Really fun
#4: Growing Pains
Hitch’s struggle manages to come off as believable and not just him coming off as a stubborn idiot
#5: Izzy Does It
Izzy is just too cute for her own good
#6: Ali-Coned
This episode has some depressing implications I feel will be brought back later.
#7: Hoof Done It?
I might come to like this as more episodes come out, but I’ll say that I really hope this doesn’t ruin all of Zipp’s suspicions of Misty.
#8: Traditional Unicorn Sleepover
IDK, this episode just doesn’t have much for me. It’s ironically funny everyone is upset at Zipp for nagging Misty when we know she deserves it. Guess it’s probably bias on my part. Making my favorite pony look bad loses many points.
And if you wonder about the specials, WWD would be at the top (did not disappoint in a good way) and the pilot is in the middle (it’s when Zipp officially became my favorite)