Ugh, so much whining and complaining. · 6:53am Feb 24th, 2023
Warning: Near-pointless Rant Ahead
I don't know quite how to word this, so it probably isn't going to come across right to everyone.
So you don't like Sparky? That's fine.
Don't expect anyone to care.
So you don't like toilet humor or fart jokes? Fine.
Don't expect anyone to care.
All this bitching and moaning that G5 isn't as good as Friendship is Magic is getting so incredibly tiresome.
Get this through your head:
Friendship is Magic was lightning in a bottle.
The chances of Hasbro repeating that are slim to none.
Also, if you're expecting meaningful character development or deep lore explanation within the five-minute confines of Tell Your Tale, you are absolutely kidding yourself. That's not going to happen, period, because you can't do that in five minute episodes. That's the domain of Make Your Mark and the comics.
Thirdly, if you think Opaline going after dragonfire magic repeatedly or Misty being a punching bag or having *gasp* TWO fart jokes in 46 episodes is lazy writing, there's a solution to that too:
Fanfiction.
In other words, do it yourself. It's fun. If you're good enough at it you'll get a small following.
Lastly, if the above solutions aren't suitable, you could always stop watching. Why continue to watch something you don't enjoy when all it takes is a fart joke or two to sap your enjoyment?
Ugh, whatever. Here's to another episode in 2-3 weeks. Because I'm not going anywhere and I enjoy that kind of humor.
Because it's a freaking cartoon.
I'm gonna pass out now.
Exactly because fanfiction that what it there for to write your own stories.
But still wonder when the next lore or hint is in the next special?
But still if Matpad has taught us anything is that no matter how long a episode is there will be lore hidden somewhere in there or at least clues
I agree. No one could predict how popular Friendship is Magic would be, or the massive cultural movement that would spring from it. G5 isn't terrible. It has some real potential. It honestly feels like Hasbro gave the writers such a time crunch while screaming at them "Make FiM happen again!" The character designs are solid, their motivations make sense, the animation is well done and the voice acting is on-point, it feels like the writers weren't given enough time to polish the scripts.
When they teased Opaline, it gave a sense of danger. As Opaline and Misty's characters were being fleshed out, we slowly see that Misty isn't a loyal lackey,but an abuse victim. I hope they continue the slow burn, revealing over time to the main characters and the audience just how much of a threat Opaline is. Opaline is one of my favorite villain archetypes, the manipulator.
Sparky isn't a problem for me. He's an infant dragon, a very clever infant dragon, seeing as he Home Alone'd Misty. I like that they broke away from the norm and made Hitch the caretaker and single parent archetypes. I love the proud daddy vibe he has.
With Sparky showing up, it really gives the world a much bigger feel. It makes me want to know the fates of the other nations outside of Equestria.
Although I'm not one to compare-and-complain, I do at least understand some peoples' perspective on the matter. Some people, they put a lot of stock in the entertainment they consume: for them, it gives them hope, something inspiring and comforting at the same time. Not just for themselves, but to know that it was made-by, and liked-by, similar-minded people. You feel less alone. To lose that - whether it ends or turns into something else - it can feel scary. Especially when they can't find anything else to fill that void quickly enough.
People who talk about about "wheres the character development" honestly overstate how much character development actually happens in G4 anyway. Rarity, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Applejack barely change. Rainbow becomes a little less selfish at best, and Applejack starts to rely a liiitle more on others. Rarity's job grows but not really her.
And what character development did happen for everyone else was over seasons. You don't see the change in fluttershy till season 3 when they reform discord. And then she doesn't really start being assertive to people other than discord till season like 6. The CMC don't get much more mature until season 4. And Most of this was just the result of having so many episodes instead of outright arcs.
G4 having continuity is often mistaken for it having an outright plot. Which it doesn't really unless its a 2 parter. But you have people out here with G5 going "wheres the arcs, wheres the plot wheres the character development" when G4 only kinda had those things. What it had was continuity.
As for sparky I do not at all comprehend how a baby with a silly little gimick gets all this rage from basically everyone. What the heck is he doing thats so angering? I don't get it at all in the slightest. At least with Flurryheart I understood that a lot of the fandom were alicorn purists, but with Sparky it seems like everyone is mad to be mad. They seeth and complain every time they so much as see him and its like bro he's just there.
Hasbro was never really comfortable with the adult audience until later in the series. Especially back in S2 when I joined they almost seemed to go out of their way to pretend we didn't exist, I think that G5 they wanted to retain the popularity but return to their target audience.
Thank you.
my advice to them? give good suggestions to the show and hope for the best, or write your own story. whining is pointless, it makes everyone less happy.
My advice to them is: If you don't have anything nice to say, shut the fuck up and let the people watch in peace
5715052
Exactly.
Well, now that the proverbial cats outta the bag, let me say I 100% agree. It's perfectly fine to watch a show and say that you didn't like it afterwards, don't get me wrong. But after a certain point, it honestly gets lazy. There's no other way to put it, it's just repeating the same thing long after the opportunity for anything deep or insight to slip through had passed because it gets attention.
Now, does G5 have its flaws. Yeah, no ones pretending it doesn't. But you know what else? There's a big difference between a flawed show and a genuinely bad show.
It's Twilight getting her or the first Equestria girls movie. Yes, both initially had their problems, but instead of actually talking about real problems that actually mattered people just kept nitpicking nonsense. And hey, guess what? Nowadays season 4 and the Equestria Girls sequels are considered to be some of the highlights of G4. Will we view the next chapters of G5 the same way? I don't know, but I do that apparently a lot of people think that if they whine hard enough, a megacorp will make their fanfic cannon.
5715019
I honestly think channels like MatPat's are part of the problem. It's not enough for a show to be anymore, no, it has to be a dark, meta deconstruction with enough hidden lore to write a wiki longer than the show itself...
Granted, I think people are finally realizing that this is a problem for gaming (look up Garten Of Banban to see what I mean), but I think a lot of shows and movies have the same problem.
And yes, there are good reviewers/video essayists out there, it's just sometimes it seems like the bad ones keep getting all the attention.
THANK YOU! My thoughts exactly.
5715081
actually the channels like matpat and the recently self-destructed (cancelled) pony theorist sawtooth waves aren't the problem, because theorising is fun for lots of people.
the problem is that some people just complain too much and do not actually solve the problem, and to make matters worse, some of them actually like calling out "bad stuff" for fun or that it makes them feel superior.
the only thing I think we as dedicated fans could do is just give probable advice straight to the source or create good enough things ourselves, other than that we'll just enjoy what we have and be hopeful.
5715094
Fair point. The reason why I brought up theory channels is that one big argument I keep seeing again and again (well, with fandoms in general, but lets stay focused) is if G5 makes since from a lore point of view. Which, honestly, I don’t get, because FiM didn’t really have lore that was that deep, or complicated, or even consistent (just try explaining the timeline of the show, for one thing).
Like the other comments are saying, I think we need to admit that FiM had its problems even in its heyday. Like Miles said, that’s part of the appeal of fanfiction.
5715073
Yeah. Like, I don't keep up with Tell Your Tale bc I'm not interested enough to go hunting down the episodes, but I don't go shouting about how "it's bad" or some shit-
Good way to sum it up, it's circumstance that allowed FIM to happen. Now with the series really popular right now, they are not going to take risks.
While Gen 5 has it ups and downs, it's nowhere as bad as other cartoons nowadays.
5715024
Hey look it’s celestia cousin.
But In all cases we can all agree that opline design looks like a bad OC design on deviantart
5715081
True but we all agree there is potential for a more darker theme mlp for adults?
I mean it could work if done correctly.
Finally, somebody says what we're all thinking.
Thank you miles for pointing this out, amen and amen, you rock😎😆👍
5715133
I do agree that Opaline could have had a much better color palate. I think it would have made her even more entertaining if she had bright, vivid colors while doing her villain monologue and evil laugh.
I actually like Opaline. She has potential to be a true menace because of how manipulative she is. She's a powerful Alicorn. I'm particularly interested in her history with Twilight.
The Mane Five are all great characters. They've been fleshed out nicely. Especially Pipp and Zipp.
Right now I don't care for Sparky. But that could change. I didn't like Pipp right after the movie and she's one of my favorites now.
5715175
Yeah, as more information is unveiled, I'm hoping for more reasons to despise Opaline other than "abuses Misty".
I'm hoping the angle they go with is a Vader-esque "some students go bad". Show that Twilight, even in her ruling years, was fallible and not an absolute perfect judge of character.
Sunset and Starlight were her success stories. Hoping Opaline is shown to be one of her failures.
5715176
I think when Opaline was at her full strength, back in Twilight's time, she was much more terrifying. She forced Twilight to take some extremely drastic measures to stop her, after all.
5715177
And if the toy descriptions are accurate, she's got some Starlight-level magic.
I'm also wondering if she's currently confined to her castle. I kinda want that to be my headcanon, but if that's the case, how did she get Misty?
5715134
Actually, from what I've heard the original My Little Pony specials way back in the 80s actually WAS kinda dark. Stuff like ponies crying out in pain as they're slowly transformed into demonic-looking monsters, a cat-girl with an outright drug problem who tries to sell the ponies into slavery, or and the original Tirac threatening to kill Spike (a child) with an axe.
It's just the later gens toned things down a bit...
5715176
YES. Thank you! Twilight was never meant to be a flawless ruler. She was kinda and brilliant, but she was also a neurotic mess who half the time could read everything but the room. People seem to keep forgetting the second part.
And while we're at it, another cool thing they can do with Opaline is to make her the anti-Celestia of the story.
5715205
"Read everything but the room."
That is such a perfect way to describe Twilight sometimes!
What do you mean anti-Celestia? Can you elaborate? What do you think she'll turn into if/when Misty heel-face turns?
Now that you mention it, yeah. I mean, it wasn't even just the circumstances of the show's creation. If I remember correctly, the brony community originally spawned from 4chan memes dating as far back as seasons 1-2. And believe me, I thought back then, as I still do now, that nothing good can come from 4chan. Hell, I would've said that back then about the brony community too. Back then, bronies were so obsessively plugging and meming the show, I could swear we were like the Jehovah's Witnesses of the internet.
5715213
It was that obsessive plugs and memes that got the show noticed by folks like me, who never go to 4chan.
It was everywhere, and eventually I had to see what it was all about.
It's happening with me again with Bluey.
5715206
I meant that I think she's supposed to be Celestia's foil. You know, both are alicorns rulers who have taken a unicorn under their wing, but Celestia was a benevolent ruler who loved Twilight like a daughter. Opaline, by contrast, is a wanna-be tyrant who treats Misty like slave. Now that I think about it, I guess you could also say the same about Twilight and Misty: both have their matriarchs send them on a mission to meet new ponies, but while Twilight is a talented mage who was really sent out to make friends, Misty has no magic and is supposed to betray the ponies she meets. That's what I think their going for at least.
And as for what I think gonna happen to Opaline... honestly, I feel like once Misty's joined the Mane 5 there isn't much reason for keeping Opaline around anymore. Just show Sunny and Co that the world is more complicated than they think it is, maybe set things up for a new villain, and get turned to stone or something.
5715203
Still wouldn’t mind a return to it.
Man the 80s were different
I wonder how much of this is just shit stirrers just making click bait.
5715302
That's definitely part of it, though I don't think it would be fair to lump all G5's detractors into that group. Like I said, if someone's not interested in a show or watched and decided they don't like it, that's fine. If people are throwing around terms like "complete failure" or "worst show ever made," that means they're just making click bait.
And now that I think about, if they sound like they don't like a show before it airs and then when it does they call it a mixed bag... that's also a red flag.
5715179
The mobile game shows her outside the castle. I think she just prefers to work from the shadows.
For now...