Why I’m Excited For Make Your Mark Chapter 4!! · 1:47am May 14th, 2023
Sigh, I just can’t stay away from you guys now, can I? This probably marks the third time I’ve said that I’ll be dipping until the semester ends, but I just can’t help myself from constantly dragging my moon-infested flank back here whenever something of relevance pops up. Well, everything I’ve said before about leaving until June, throw it out the window because I now have great reason to return (at least briefly). We now have official confirmation that Chapter 4 of Make Your Mark will be releasing on June 6!!!!
LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
This has been rumored for a while, but never officially confirmed until now. I know I’m a couple days late to the party, but what can I say? Math is a pain in the 
. I am so excited for this. Because not only is it a new installment in the best out of the two G5 shows, but we are finally getting the culmination of the Opaline arc!! Believe me, when I first read that, I was like: “WHAAAAAAAAT?!!!” That’s because I didn’t expect the ending to this arc to be coming so soon. But at least it assuages my prior fears that Opaline was going to be a series-wide villain. I can now nuke that complaint from my upcoming video. We are finally going to see Opaline’s defeat.
Now before I talk about the main thesis of this post, let me get the obvious out of the way. Despite my obvious excitement, this does put me in a tough spot in regards to the Misty Saga. You all probably know by this point that the last two entries will concern the buildup to and final battle with Opaline. I’m in the process of solidifying the story for Redeemed right now. But with the end of this arc coming so soon…I don’t know. I feel like I have to rush out The Fall of Opaline and Redeemed now to be ahead of Hasbro. I really thought I’d have more time. The last thing I want is for the last two stories to not get much traction because all the craze around Opaline has finally ended. And I don’t know if I can do that. The Fall of Opaline is done, so I suppose I could just release it now. But I want to hold off at least until after this test. I’ve studied really hard and if I just put the rest of my valuable time aside just so I can be ahead of the curve, I don’t think that would bode well for me AT ALL. On the other hoof, if the stories release after, I feel like that would ruin the impact of them. The beauty of the Misty Saga is that it’s my headcanon for this exact arc. Worthless started out as my headcanon as to what would happen if Opaline betrayed Misty and then Misty ended up joining the Mane Five. It was something a lot of people theorized about and that’s what inspired me to take a crack at it. All this has been building up to a grand and epic event story in the same vein as Avengers: Endgame and I was ahead of the actual Hasbro gods for the longest time because we all assumed that they would want to drag out Opaline’s presence and milk her for all she’s worth for the foreseeable future, but nope. She’s actually going bye bye. Now I’m the one playing catch-up and it all feels so weird! I suppose Skystar’s story could’ve been skipped in the long run, but still. I’m in deep trouble now.
I’m not cancelling the Misty Saga, don’t worry. You all deserve the best ending possible. But now I am in a tough spot in regards to this Saga. The novelty of it is in danger of wearing off and it could’ve been over much quicker if I had just stuck to my original three-story plan as intended. Luna dammit!! Why did I have to make a mini-MCU instead?!!! Curse my corporate mindset. Do you guys have any advice on what to do about this?
Anyway, now on to the positives because there are a LOT!!!!! First of all, this has been something people have been waiting for for a long time. Ever since Chapter 2 dropped last year, we all knew this was coming, yet it still feels so exciting nonetheless. Unfortunately I don’t see as much buzz around the fandom as I would’ve liked and perhaps that’s due to not enough people knowing of this special’s culminative nature. We might FINALLY be able to see Misty have her long-awaited redemption in canon and I personally cannot wait until that happens. From the clip showing us the “luma-blooms” in Bridlewood, and the same clip releasing in Spanish, albeit with the wrong audio track, which inadvertently spoiled the battle with Opaline to eagle-eyed sleuths (seriously, was the marketing team for G5 on drugs when they did that? YOU HAD ONE JOB, ROBERT!! ONE JOB!!!!!!), the hype is sure real for this to those who know what’s coming. Whether it’ll be a satisfying or underwhelming ending is yet to be seen, but I personally can’t wait until we actually see it. Plus, if the ending is satisfying, we may see the biggest positive result of all.
The end of the G5 hate.
Now I know I may seem like I’m stretching it here, but hear me out. Despite the show being split into chapters (something which I am not a fan of personally as it can be confusing), all these episodes combined together are without any argument the first season of Make Your Mark. All of this was the introduction. And by playing the long-term game with the villain(s) like in FIM Season 9, the hype has been built towards the conclusion of said season, of which MYM can then expand and deliver us more worldbuilding and lore. So, if the show staff are able to knock this out of the park, people may finally start warming up to G5 after realizing what it has all been building to all this time. We may finally be seeing the end of channels like MLP Fever, Zaid Magenta, and Star Strike, among others, milking the G5 hate for all its worth. If this special sticks the landing, we may finally be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel here. We may finally see the Brony fandom united again. Just like how the most iconic Star Wars show ever Star Wars: The Clone Wars started off as extremely hated and then became an extremely beloved show of which people even campaigned for its revival, G5 has the potential to do just that. This one special has the power to change the entire court of public opinion to the complete opposite. This one special has the power to do what G3 couldn’t for pony fans. And I sincerely want it to. The end of the Opaline arc is a huge event and Hasbro is under a lot of pressure to deliver a season finale that will satisfy all. And I don’t envy that pressure at all.
Of course, if it doesn’t stick the landing for many, I will still passionately defend it to the bitter end (albeit in a separate video as I’m tired of adding on to the original whenever something notable occurs) as I already know that it’ll be at least good. We are well past the days of Make Your Mark Chapter 1, which was simply decent and was the point where Hasbro didn’t quite know what MYM wanted to be. Chapter 2 and 3 showed if nothing else that G5 had finally found its footing post-movie and a big final showdown event like Chapter 4 is too big to fail spectacularly. I WANT Chapter 4 to succeed, I CRAVE its success. It’s about time that G5 has had something as universally loved as A New Generation under its collective belt. Who knows? Perhaps it’ll be a disaster, but we G5 fans deserve something that we can brag about as proof of G5’s quality with the ratings to back it up. People like to base their opinions off of the majority vote, so if this ends up being a success, the G5 hate may finally be forced to end and we can finally return to a happy and positive Brony fandom like it was back in FIM’s peak. My video will be coming out no matter what anyway, and maybe that’ll change the tide of public opinion, maybe not, but wouldn’t it be so much better if an episode was able to do that by itself without some nobody on YouTube having to step in to save the day?
This is a huge deal and I want people to see what I see in G5, what we see in G5. I’ve been anticipating this for months, writing stories, battling writer’s block, dealing with mental stress from school, talking with you guys, and marathoning G5 over and over and over AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER all in great anticipation and trepidation for this chapter. I’m excited for Make Your Mark Chapter 4 and I want the staff to go all out with this, leave no stone unturned. G5 needs a miracle to win the fandom back, and I sure hope this is it.
Opaline, count your days.
The Magic of Friendship is coming for you…for better or for worse.
With that being said, I will see you all hopefully soon. Byyyyyyyyyyyyyeeee!!
Oh
5728118
Oh what?
5728119
I hope it goes well too
5728120
Same.
I really wanted to see the Mane 5 finally meeting Opaline! That was enough to get me hyped.
I’m excited, but I do also have some concerns.
Namely that Opaline and Misty’s story might be a little rushed without the proper build up, or at least the buildup that I would have had.
We’ll see what happens going forward, because I can easily be proven wrong.
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Yeah, that might be a problem. That’s why I thought we would have a bit more time before the finale. But I guess they have a new villain they want to introduce next season and I couldn’t be happier. I adore Opaline as an antagonist, but MLP’s charm (especially with FIM in particular) has always been with introducing multiple villains across each season and I’m glad G5 is continuing that trend, rather than introducing just one series-wide villain. That only works brilliantly with story-driven shows like the Owl House, Amphibia, and Gravity Falls where it’s one consistent story rather than the more episodic multiple-story structure of MLP.
Will the story be rushed? Probably. Unlike in my Misty Saga series, we’re probably getting no dedicated backstory for Opaline or getting to see Misty dealing with her abusive upbringing. But that’s okay. As long as Hasbro can deliver a satisfying finish to this arc, I’ll be 100% satisfied. Just…I hope they don’t redeem Opaline. That’s the only concern I have. If they want to redeem her, they need the sympathetic backstory to prop it up and we haven’t gotten that yet. I don’t know, they probably won’t do that anyway. All we can do is wait and see what happens. I for one can’t wait.
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Same here. It’s about time they figure out what the hay is going on. I just dread what the reaction will be when the Mane 5 find out Misty’s been working with Opaline the whole time, like yikes. Poor Izzy won’t know what hit her with her first ever unicorn friend turning out to be a spy for the villain. Probably nothing along the lines of Worthless or Forgiven, but I hope that thread gets the time it deserves on screen at least in whatever form it takes.
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We’ll have to wait and see.
In fact the clip dubbed in Latin has an error and an audio of the battle between the mane five against opaline (I'm Argentine, I'm Spanish-speaking) is filtered. De hecho el clip doblado en latino tiene un error y se filtro un audio de la batalla entre las mane five contra opaline (soy argentino, soy hispanohablante)
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I know, it’s so hilarious that actually happened. I find it really funny how these supposed professionals at marketing MLP ended up making the wrong choice of audio track, which is why I questioned whether they were on drugs in the post. Like, I’ve never seen that happen before and it’s just so funny to see. Somebody’s probably getting fired at Hasbro. But in all seriousness though, I’m not fluent in Spanish or Latin, so I am thankfully unspoiled. But the poor Latin American viewers.
Also, it’s great meeting someone from Argentina. ¡Mucho gusto!
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I must be one of the few hispanics of fimfiction even uploaded a fanfic that if you see it you will notice my little knowledge of English