Friendship is Card Games: The Roots of Evil · 1:34pm Dec 3rd, 2023
It’s time to deal with the Opaline situation.
Yes, in the middle of the chapter.
No, I’m not kidding.
Yes, I’m afraid I’ve been spoiled on this one after seeing the broad-strokes summary in Tell Your Tale. Still, let’s see what got glossed over.
I admit, seeing Opaline corrupt Together Trees makes for a striking visual, especially the one Misty helped plant. There’s something grimly poetic in the master twisting the prodigal student’s attempt at redemption.
Huh. A pervasive network of arboreal tendrils reaching out across known existence and consuming all uniqueness in the name of an egomaniac’s vision of a perfect world. I thought we were done with March of the Machine.
Also, I do appreciate the pegasus guards whipping out another tennis ball. Desperate times and all.
I can understand the impulse to panic, but really, once the tree’s taken your cutie mark, there’s no danger in sticking around. It already has what it wants.
(Also, I wonder what the breezies think of their storefront getting coopted like this.)
Poor Spike. I’m not sure how ponies viewed dragons when he went into hibernation, but it was certainly better than this. Still, it has been centuries. Also, shouldn’t somepony have mentioned this on the flight over? Heck, where are the main characters? Did they fall off halfway back?
… Oh, they just didn’t bother to include them as the dragons landed. Looking back, they tried to present it like they were being coy with camera angles… but no, there’s straight-up no trace of the ponies until they become dramatically relevant. The dragons are too thin to completely block out their passengers.
Thank goodness for the tidal surge that allowed Sprout to poke his head back up over that guardrail for the sake of his reaction shot.
“Our friends just rode into town on flying dragons!?”
“And Pipp’s hair is still fabulous!”
No catastrophe will stop Rocky’s sycophancy. Probably angling for a prime political position a few years down the road.
Thank you for that completely unnecessary aside, Izzy. And whoever wrote that. And whoever decided to leave it in. Brilliant work in bringing the dramatic momentum to a screeching halt.
Knowing that “fire alicorn” basically means “demon” recontextualizes a lot.
Also, Sunny, bubuleh, you were there when Opaline harvested Sparky like she was juicing an orange. Of course she has more than pony magic.
Ah. I see. This was Sunny suffering short- and long-term memory loss in the name of a recap. Brilliant work, guys. Especially Jazz’s contribution, just in case the audience forgot what happened literally two minutes ago.
Now that Sunny’s put it out there, I’m kind of surprised that Opaline didn’t try to grab the Unity Crystals while she was in Maretime Bay. Why wait? (It’s clear she didn’t, because Zipp can still fly.)
I appreciate the desire to give Misty a chance for a dramatic speech, but the setup is… lacking. Especially since this generation has done so little to establish what cutie marks mean. Reflections of the individual’s personality, yes, but going to the logical leap of losing the mark means losing that personality…
Well, a crueler person might say that they’d have to have personalities first. 
Still, it’s not clear how much really is lost with the mark, attitudinal or magical, and this episode hasn’t bothered to answer that question yet.
“You’re all smart and brave and kind.”
Citation needed.
“Any of you would do anything to help your fellow pony.”
I’m not sure what’s funnier, having Posey in frame as Misty says this, or the following “Even you, Sprout!” (Also, have Misty and Sprout ever spoken in canon prior to this? This really highlights the missed opportunity for her to expand her social circle beyond the other main characters.)
“Nopony can take away what makes you special on the inside.”
Not without dedicated social conditioning, anyway. And Opaline doesn’t have the patience for that on such a massive scale.
I sincerely hope Izzy’s plan actually comes into play later. It would be a shame if the only use the writers have for her in a climactic pseudo-finale would be time-filling zany digressions. At least Pinkie’s tended to be shorter.
Ah. Yeah, abusing the Dragonstone would logically have consequences comparable to the Unity Crystals falling out of harmony. Shades of Chrysalis; Opaline’s plan is nothing but insatiable hunger for power without any concern for long-term sustainability.
“That stone doesn’t belong to that… ‘Opaline.’”
Really weird line read given how Spike was the one who provided the most reliable rendition of Opaline’s history in the previous episode. Here it seems like he’s hearing about her for the first time.
I do like the idea of Sparky being the key to rob Opaline of her ill-gotten power. After all, in that case, it’s just reclaiming what’s rightfully his.
Also, Sparky backflipping onto Spike’s foreclaw is far more hilarious than the writers intended, especially given how seriously the show is trying to take this moment. Though his dawning realization after Hitch gives him his badge does help recover some of the intended tone.
Okay, Spike laughing at a young alicorn insisting she’s not ready to be a princess brought a smile to my face. Old, familiar territory for him.
“And Hitch? Promise me you’ll be careful too.”
There’s a potential romantic read to this, but it strikes me more as Sunny’s perpetual fear of losing more family, Hitch being the overbearing, responsible brother she never had.
Oh, I do like reclaiming some of the old Canterlogic talking points. Fear is fine, so long as you are all united and standing against that which inspires that fear. (Also, it does seem like virtually al of the non-earth pony residents of Maretime Bay have gone missing, excepting Rocky and the Pippsqueaks.)
That said, I do wonder what Hitch thinks they’re actually going to accomplish by standing in front of the Together Tree, beyond possibly acting as an early warning system and/or brief delay should Opaline return.
“She must not be able to enter the Brightouse still. She never could do that.”
I mean, we know Opaline was never able to scry on the interior of the place, but before now, she wasn’t able to enter the Brighthouse because she wasn’t able to enter all of Equestria. This was not an obvious conclusion.
Looking back at my review of “The Manesquerade Ball,” I’ve already questioned why Zipp only recently noticed a feature of the castle where she’s lived most of her life. One that, it must be said, drew her notice before she learned of the Together Tree network. At best, I assume she was too hyperfocused on whatever she wanted in the castle library to look at the ceiling until that night.
While I do appreciate the semblance of continuity and Zipp showing some degree of investigative acumen, the Columbo formula of “show the crime, then the protagonist figuring out how it happened” really drags when stretched out this far.
Ah. Izzy can also point out terrible tactical decisions when it’s too late to do anything about them. That works.
Also, what was the rationale for using the Together Tree as a rallying point, anyway? I missed that part.
“Ah! My essence!”
Speaking as a reader of the Triptych Continuum, this is funny on a very disturbing level.
Haven having one of Pipp’s songs as a ringtone for Pipp is a lovely little characterization touch.
“Did you leave a message?”
“She doesn’t know how to check her messages!”
Funnier and less disruptive to the pacing than almost anything Izzy’s done this entire episode.
Nice to see the crafting scooter make a comeback, and I do appreciate a good diegetic use of the theme song.
That said, it seems safe to assume that the time has passed for trying to warn the other cities. I appreciate the heroic impulses, but this is, pardon my phrasing, shutting the barn door after the horse has escaped.
And there go the Unity Crystals, almost on cue. If I had to guess, it’s a similar issue as the Dragonstone. Opaline’s using magic faster than it can be produced.
Also, really would have been nice for you to share this information earlier, Misty.
A dragon who hates dungeons. There’s an irony there, especially when it’s one of Spike’s subjects. Indeed, I have several questions about Fountain’s past dungeon experiences, especially if she’s been asleep for centuries.
I understand that they’re conserving limited resources, but this is still far more careful infiltration than I expected from dragons on the warpath.
Yeah, that clearly wasn’t going to work. Still worth the effort. I do have to wonder when and how Opaline knew the dragons were in her castle, but silent alarm spells can certainly be a thing.
“Friendship. Ha! They used to tell me that was magic.”
Thank you for setting up the ironic hubris that will be your downfall, Opaline. We’ll get to that shortly.
“You know what I think is magic? Power.”
Mark one in the “Opaline is Cozy Glow” column. Yes, I know we’ve gotten the official party line. I’m still dubious. Also, there’s a lich with opinions on “easy come, easy go” power-ups…
Misty being Opaline’s attempt to spoof friendship magic for the sake of her Together Tree makes a horrible kind of sense.
There’s a fascinating… well, opalescent effect on Opaline’s chest during her villainous monologue. I’m not sure how much of that is her actually standing in a decently lit room for once and how much is all the stolen power her body’s trying to contain.
The “Bing. Bong” is a bizarre dialogue choice. Is Opaline mocking Bridlewood superstition? Does she even know about it?
Interesting to see that Opaline seems to have gained some degree of Sparky’s transmutation magic, turning the golden pumpkin—and wow, that thing’s lasted for an impressive length of time—into a personalized protagonist cutie mark holder. One that subtly mocks Celestia and Luna’s regalia, no less. I admit, it’s a stylish way to shove a middle finger in the faces of heroes past and present.
“This is all my fault!” says Misty, as though she was privy to Opaline’s monologue. Though her guilt complex certainly justifies the exclamation.
“We should have stayed here and protected Equestria!”
That’s all well and good, Sunny, but how? (Indeed, the question of how they plan on getting out of this hangs heavy over this whole scenario… or would if it hadn’t already been spoiled.)
Seriously, I could do without Sunny and Misty competing to see who can feel the worst about her actions in hindsight. It feels like at least half of this episode has been either a desperate recap of all the plot-relevant information that’s come before or a synopsis of everything they couldn’t find time to mention before now.
“I’m not a leader. I’m just a pony.”
I could also do without the kind of self-doubt that got old when Twilight Sparkle was going through it.
I must say, Opaline having such an impact on Misty that the latter can sense the former in her very soul is a very nice touch.
Alas, Hitch’s grief made him miss the brief window where he could have encouraged the dragons to run. Though he would have to convince them to listen to a pony. Still, the fact that Lava and Jade snapped to lucidity is interesting… but we’ll see if it has any consistency with the rest of the dragons.
You need to find a different tactic, Hitch.
So… are those bystanders going to run? Jog? Saunter vaguely towards an effort at evasion?
Ah. Only when Hitch makes a sacrifice that’s rendered meaningless seconds later. Outstanding work, really.
I have to say, this is Hitch’s finest moment in Make Your Mark. There’s even a sense in him coming full circle by so heavily relying on the magic he tried to legislate out of existence in Chapter 1. He’s just outclassed in every way, shape, and form.
… Wait, you mean Misty and Sunny weren’t already running to the tree from the moment Misty sensed Opaline’s arrival? Also, Sunny, feel free to travel as the alicorn flies. (Mind you, Misty being terrified to face Opaline again is entirely valid.)
Yup, the Prisbeam requires some degree of pony magic in addition to providing it. Take the marks, take the beam.
As far as darkest hours go, this one feels rather unearned. This is the narrative equivalent of cranking out an essay the night before it’s due when you had a month to work on it. (Again, I thought we were done with March of the Machine.) Now, let’s see how it gets resolved.
“Opaline… she’s here!”
You said that last episode, Misty.
… Wait, are they just retreading talking points from the previous episode rather than doing a “Last time on My Little Pony”? That’s… a choice.
Opaline flying face-first into Twilight’s cutie mark is satisfying.
Misty’s gambit is a delight to see, but it’s undercut by her being petrified at the thought of facing Opaline less than two minutes ago.
I’d say “less taunting, more running,” but when the first option involves running from dragons… Yeah, neither choice is a good one here. I get the sense that Misty just wants to go out on her own terms. And possibly deliver her two seconds’ notice in the most cathartic way possible.
Ah. She survived. And Sunny spent the dearly bought time… sulking. Of course. 
Okay, “This room has terrible acoustics” made me smile.
Ah, the old airship bay. I can’t help but feel like I’m looking at the bones of G5’s wasted potential.
Also, I’m surprised Opaline didn’t destroy the stained glass window of Twilgiht’s cutie mark the moment she saw it.
Again, we’re getting some of the main cast’s finest moments here, but they’re sullied by the knowledge that they could have been doing more of this and not the time fillers most of Make Your Mark has been. This is meta-frustration; part of my irritation stems from being irritated when given what I’ve wanted.
“Not so confident or courageous now, are we, princesses?”
I do like the visible frustration as Zipp tries to work past the psychological impact of losing her mark. Plus, this may be the closest we get to a direct demonstration of the tangible effects… though there’s still the question of how much is psychosomatic.
Misty genuinely pitying Opaline is fantastic. I’m happy to say that, at least for me, this bit is a genuinely satisfying payoff. No real plan for Opaline shrugging it off lest she admit any kind of weakness, but still a satisfying culmination of Misty’s arc.
… Oh, God. They’re in the trees. Seriously, that whispered chorus of bing-bongs is one of the most menacing moments in G5.
Oh good, we are getting payoff for Izzy’s plan.
Huh. Have we seen the flying pig before? It feels familiar.
Also, it’s kind of sad that it’s not the company town that weaponized itself against invaders or the city with an actual army that’s best defending itself against Opaline, but the superstitious forest yokels. Mind you, nopony in Equestria seems to understand the concept of an actual weapon, but that may be the constraints of the target audience. (Still, at least the Canterlot Royal Guard had spears. Pointy sticks are apparently a lost technology in this era.)
… Okay, I take it back. Izzy understands the concept of vehicular ponyslaughter.
Sure is convenient that the rest of the unicorns stopped harassing Opaline and company once Izzy entered the fray directly. The show could’ve at least shown them running out of ammo.
“I’m the only one left.”
Indeed. Want to do something to prepare other than feel sorry for yourself?
“What are we going to do without cutie marks?” asks the mare who delivered a speech last episode about how cutie marks aren’t everything. Seriously, between the repetitions and the contradictions, I’m genuinely surprised this has the same writers as Part 1.
I haven’t brought it up before (largely because I wasn’t sure how it would be done) but I have wondered why nopony tried to exploit and subvert the connection between the trees, much as Opaline did. Kudos to Pipp for thinking of it. It’s a natural mode of attack for her; she just usually does it to other streamers’ fanbases.
Ah, finally a good reason for cell phones in Equestria.
“I have nearly all the magic in Equestria!”
So we’re just confirming that every other species is dead? This is what happens when you try to establish continuity with the past without thinking things through.
I adore Sunny’s expression as Opaline projects her obsessions onto her. No, Opaline, craving power is not the natural state for alicorns. You’re just a jerk.
Ah, yes, use the same capture spell Sunny already broke, except this time it works because of dramatic necessity.
I admit, Opaline’s wings of rainbow flame do make for a striking visual.
“I’ll shut down every protection spell in Equestria!”
Well, that could certainly lead to interesting trouble down the line… if this weren’t the penultimate episode of Make Your Mark. Also, have fun with any and all surviving inmates of Tartarus, Opaline.
“And I’ll rule over all you powerless little ponies for all eternity!”
I’d ask what Opaline gets out of that, but the answer is clearly “the gratification of her ego.” Still, I’d give it a month at most before the actual necessities and responsibilities of rule made her decide to incinerate everypony instead.
Heh. I thought Pipp’s song was suspiciously appropriate for these circumstances. And the fact that she cued up the music on her phone would mean that she’d already released the track.
“Princess of Hope” does work well for Sunny, even if it’s a bit of a retread from Somnambula. Still a fitting virtue for the times and her own attitude.
This might be the first time Posey has ever been happy to be within speaking distance of one of the protagonists. Though Hitch is the one she’s least mad at.
A rainbow in a heart-shaped locket? Oh, we’re going for the deep magic. Opaline’s getting the Williams Special.
Ha! Spike’s fire does what it’s always done, teleportation. And centuries after his pony friends have died, he sends one bright-eyed young creature to the exact place where they need to be to make everything right. Somehow we hit a Fallout: Equestria reference on top of everything else. (Hopefully Sparky won’t get shot nearly as much as Littlepip…)
Mind you, the thought does occur that if a viewer unfamiliar with G4 might see this as coming out of left field…
“But… but… You’re under my spell!”
I’m a bit sad that Spike didn’t have a reply to that, though the one that comes to mind would mean acknowledging Equestria Girls. Probably a bridge too far even for G. M. Berrow.
Turning a key part of the enemy of ponykind into soap bubbles. Even Majesty is getting a nod here.
There is the question of why Twilight couldn’t do all this friendship magic, and I think the answer lies in her last resort. Freely available, ambient magic made Opaline unstoppable. Restricting access to it was the best Twilight could do with the available resources by the time she realized that. (Plus, the original Rainbow of Light was still somewhere in the fae markets at the time.)
Huh. I’d never noticed how the pegasus guards have chess-piece cutie marks. I can’t help think of another theory, that Cozy Glow founded the Zephyr Heights royal dynasty.
And Opaline gets the Hexxus treatment, even if she wishes she had a tenth of the villainous menace of Tim Curry. Again, surprising that the local fairies didn’t get involved more… other than getting the Rainbow of Light to Sunny.
“Seems like [Sparky] transformed [Opaline’s] spell into one of his own.”
I do appreciate those kinds of metamagical shenanigans… though I do wonder if this means that Spike is technically under Sparky’s control.
Oh. Spike’s learned to bring in objects (and creatures) from pretty much anywhere. That’s… kind of absurd. In a good way; I’d expect a dragon his age and with his history to possess incredible magical potency. I just wish I’d known about the full extent of his powers when designing his card last week. Ah well, hindsight and all.
Jade and Lava seem surprisingly on-board with the whole “working with ponies” thing. I suppose Spike filled them in as they were fleeing the castle. (Also, this makes Lava look even worse in “Lavarynth.” Way to show gratitude to your saviors, my guy.)
Heh. Spike knew exactly what he was doing with Sparky. He’d never break up a pony and their dragon before both were ready. I will say that for what little screentime he has, the writers are doing good work with Spike.
That said, I wasn’t expecting Sparky’s first word. That was genuinely cute.
Oh. Looks like the Crystal Empire survived. Or something else arose in its place. But we’ll worry about that next week.
In all, this is almost tragic in how it showcases what could have been if Make Your Mark had been written with different priorities. I did enjoy it, but as my numerous biting remarks show, it’s sullied by how much time was spent on things that either never really went anywhere or had one bit of overarching plot significance buried in a C plot. (There's definitely a joke in here between the episode title and upper management both insisting on 3D animation while withholding the budget needed to make it good. 1 Timothy 6:10.) Still, this was the best adventure story G5 has given us since the movie, low bar as that may be. I just wish they’d concluded the Opaline situation a chapter or two back.
All that being said, this is fertile ground for card ideas. Let’s see what sprouts:
Hitch’s Obstinacy 1W
Instant
Target creature gets +0/+2 and gains indestructible until end of turn. This turn, that creature’s controller may have it assign combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power.
”Not in my town.”
Invasion of Zephyr Heights 2W
Battle — Siege
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it’s defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When Invasion of Zephyr Heights enters the battlefield, destroy target tapped creature.
6
Electronic Countermeasures
(W) Artifact
Whenever a creature attacks you, a planeswalker you control, or a battle you protect, Electronic Countermeasures deals 2 damage to that creature.
ZBS’s media blitz on Opaline was a prelude to the more literal one.
Shields Down 2W
Sorcery
Destroy all enchantments. Players can’t cast enchantment spells until your next turn.
Every seal, every shield, every safeguard, gone in an instant. With a single spell, Opaline wiped out an entire school of magic.
Binding Plasma X2W
Sorcery
Tap up to X target creatures. Then Binding Plasma deals 2 damage to each tapped creature your opponents control.
The spell doesn’t have to hurt, but Opaline wouldn’t have it any other way.
Innocuous Crab 1U
Creature — Crab
4(rp): Transform Innocuous Crab. Activate only as a sorcery. ((rp) can be paid with either R or 2 life.)
Nopony suspected the sea life, not even those few who could speak to them.
0/4
Carapaced Calamity
(UR) Creature — Crab Minion
1U: Switch Carapaced Calamity’s power and toughness until end of turn.
1R: Carapaced Calamity gains first strike until end of turn.
That made their betrayal hit all the harder.
2/6
Miscellaneous Supplies 1U
Artifact
When Miscellaneous Supplies enters the battlefield, look at the top three cards of your library. Put one into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.
Craft with artifact 3U (3U, Exile this artifact, Exile an artifact you control or an artifact card from your graveyard: Return this card transformed under its owner’s control. Craft only as a sorcery.)
Cunning Replication
(U) Artifact
You may have Cunning Replication enter the battlefield as a copy of any artifact or creature on the battlefield, except it’s an artifact in addition to its other types.
Izzy has learned much about the art of making friends.
Sparky’s Ingenuity 1UU
Instant
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may reveal a Dragon card from your hand.
Counter target spell. If that spell is countered this way, exile it instead of putting it into its owner’s graveyard. If you revealed a Dragon card or controlled a Dragon as you cast this spell, you may cast that card for as long as it remains exiled and mana of any type can be spent to cast it.
Invasion of Maretime Bay 2U
Battle — Siege
When Invasion of Maretime Bay enters the battlefield, draw three cards, then discard two cards unless you discard an artifact card.
4
Dredge the Maximus
(U) Sorcery
Mill four cards, then return up to two artifact, instant, and/or sorcery cards from your graveyard to your hand.
Everypony agreed that Sprout’s plan was a terrible idea. They also agreed that it was their best hope against Opaline.
Extract Essence 1BB
Sorcery
Destroy target creature. If that creature had a counter on it, draw a card.
“To hold the very core of a pony’s being in the frog of your hoof… It’s intoxicating.”
—Opaline, the last alicorn
Opaline’s Pilferer 2B
Creature — Unicorn Rogue
When Opaline’s Pilferer enters the battlefield, target opponent discards a card.
1W: Transform Opaline’s Pilferer. Activate only if you control four or more creatures.
Some of Opaline’s long-term agents faced the challenge of liking their targets more than their mistress.
2/1
Redeemed Flamescorner
(WB) Creature — Unicorn Rogue Rebel
Ward — 2, Pay 2 life.
Redeemed Flamescorner’s base power and toughness are each equal to the number of creatures you control.
Redeemed Flamescorner has indestructible and hexproof as long as it transformed this turn.
*/*
Dark Enigma 4B
Sorcery
Target player discards two cards.
Draw a card.
Elderflower stared at the Wishing Tree with more horror than anypony else could comprehend. Countless generations of unicorns stared with her, none able to explain how this was happening.
Omnipotence 5BBB
Enchantment
You cast spells by paying life equal to that spell’s mana value rather than paying its mana cost.
Sources you control deal damage as though they had lifelink.
“What do you get the mare who has everything? More, of course.”
—Opaline, the last alicorn
Creative Destruction R
Instant
Sacrifice any number of artifacts. Creative Destruction deals that much damage to any target.
“This may be super-scary, but it’s also the best Friday Night Food Fight ever!”
—Izzy Moonbow
Scornful Incineration 1R
Instant
Counter target spell or ability that targets a permanent you control unless that spell or ability’s controller has Scornful Incineration deal 4 damage to them.
“Yes, yes, we’re all quite impressed. Now knock it off.”
—Opaline, the last alicorn
Sneering Dragon 4R
Creature — Dragon
Flying
Sneering Dragon can’t block.
3(bp): Transform Sneering Dragon. Activate only as a sorcery.
“Why are you all so afraid? It’s just a pony.”
4/3
Opaline’s Thrall
(BR) Creature — Dragon Minion
Flying, menace
“I hear, Mistress Opaline, and I obey.”
6/4
Diving Dragons 4RRR
Kindred Sorcery — Dragon
Prowl 3RR (You may cast this for its prowl cost if you dealt combat damage to a player this turn with a Dragon.)
Create two 4/4 red Dragon creature tokens with flying.
“At least today can’t get any worse.”
—Jazz Hooves, before the dragons came
Intertwined Roots 1G
Sorcery
Whenever a land enters the battlefield this turn, draw a card.
The network of Together Trees stretched across the known world and beyond, a connection that anypony with the right knowledge could use. Opaline was the first to exploit it, but far from the last.
Sapling of Unity 2G
Creature — Plant
Reach
5(bp): Transform Sapling of Unity. Activate only as a sorcery.
No form of magic is too sacred for Opaline to profane.
1/4
Thrashing Mark-Thief
(BG) Creature — Plant Minion
Vigilance, menace, reach
Wither (This creature deals combat damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
At the beginning of each opponent’s end step, that player sacrifices a creature with a counter on it.
All now unite in servitude to her.
3/5
Invasion of Bridlewood 3G
Battle — Siege
When Invasion of Bridlewood enters the battlefield, until end of turn, creatures you control gain trample and “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player or battle, draw a card.”
4
Elderflower’s Elite
(G) Creature — Unicorn Warrior
Elderflower’s Elite’s base power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.
Elderflower’s Elite can’t be blocked by more than one creature.
After generations of paranoia, unicorns finally had an enemy worthy of their fear.
*/*
Summoning Breath 4GG
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast this spell, reveal a Dragon card from your hand, tap an untapped Dragon you control, or pay 3.
Search your hand and library for a creature card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
Spike still excels at getting things where they need to be.
Gilded Gourd 3
Artifact
T: Add one mana of any color
Craft with one or more creatures 5
Soul-Spectrum Peytral
Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each color among the exiled cards used to craft Soul-Spectrum Peytral and has those cards’ activated abilities.
Equip 2
Opaline adorned herself with the marks of those she most despised.
Locket of Hope 3
Artifact
T: Add one mana of any color.
WUBRG, T, Sacrifice Locket of Hope: Exile target nonland permanent.
“Records remain spotty on the nature of the Megan. Perhaps some folk deity of protection and vengeance.”
—Argyle’s research notes
Sparky, Dragonstone Prodigy UR
Legendary Creature — Dragon Shaman
T: Target spell’s owner puts it on the bottom of their library, then discovers X, where X is that spell’s mana value. (They exile cards from the top of their library until they exile a nonland card with that mana value or less. They cast it without paying its mana cost or put it into their hand. They put the rest on the bottom in a random order.)
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, if you didn’t discover it, untap Sparky.
1/1
Cenote Tyrant 2UBR
Creature — Dragon
Flying
Whenever Cenote Tyrant or another Dragon enters the battlefield under your control, venture into the dungeon. (Enter the first room or advance to the next room.)
Whenever you complete a dungeon, you may cast target nonland card from an opponent’s graveyard without paying its mana cost.
4/4
Invasion of the Dark Castle 3BG
Battle — Siege
When Invasion of the Dark Castle enters the battlefield, target opponent sacrifices a creature and a nonland, noncreature permanent.
5
Arboreal Backlash
(BG) Sorcery
Destroy up to one target creature and up to one target nonland, noncreature permanent. Return those cards to the battlefield face down under their owners’ control. They’re Forest lands. (They have no other types or abilities.)
Opaline’s punishment was the very crime she’d committed.
Opaline Ablaze 1WUBRG
Legendary Creature — Demon
Alicorn (This card is also a Pony Pegasus Unicorn.)
Flying, menace, ward 3
The first spell you cast each turn has cascade.
Whenever you cast a spell from exile, destroy target permanent.
5/5
We’re Not So Different
Scheme
When you set this scheme in motion, you control target opponent during that player’s next turn unless they sacrifice half the nonland permanents they control, rounded down.
“At the end of the day, we both want the same thing. Why fight over it?”
My memories of watching this are fresh enough (only a week old), that I feel I can respond to specific points. Bit surprised you're doing both parts in one go, but I can roll with that.
The comparatively-graceful animation cheats of the movie are a long-gone distant memory by now, alas. I'm betting the main reason these dragons are as small as they are, compared to grown ones in FiM, is for rendering time, which size would not help with.
Once upon a time, I would have assumed this was a callback to a cut moment in this episode of a prior one, but the lack of coordination has been so apparent over the past year that I can't even extend that belief anymore. Pity as even if Sprout was never going to be part of the group (Hasbro: "We can't merchandise this doofus!"), having some sign of proper reformation and acceptance would have been good.
Sometimes, I almost wonder if Hasbro realised late in the film's development that the darker topics of segregation, racism and fear-mongering were too much for this property and target-audience, and issued an ultimatum on future content to use those two as little as possible. Makes as much sense as anything else.
Literally my first thought at this moment was "FoME is totally gonna make a Cozy quip here."
One could be here all day if they listed all the major problems with this two-parter – not even all the problems, just the major ones – but the combination of how much heel-kicking the show as a whole has done leading to this mixture of recap and new-info-cram get my writing structure goat something fierce.
I was honestly stunned both that this show committed to an action bit not involving Sunny and Opaline that lasted more than twenty seconds, and one involving Hitch, but also that it marked a halfway decent resolution of the barely-there setup of Hitch's starting position. It was easily my favourite moment of the first half (you may interpret that as the only likeable one).
This really caught me off guard too.
Literally this.
It mostly is, I'll concede. I think it would have been much better if the climax revolved around Misty confronting Opaline, with how little effort has been put into the Sunny/Opaline connection (that one Chapter 2 episode, a few bits of the Chapter 4 finale, and here). Or at least sharing it with her. So this does feel like lip-service, with how much Misty's receded into the background since her episode with Alphabittle. But it's still something.
Honestly, I'm just surprised a song over two minutes was allowed to play in full. In fact, it actually plays longer than the album version (3:47 to 2:42), due to the extended instrumental edits for some of the key dialogue.
It's a sign of how much this show has mangled the obvious thing to do that it's comforting to have a Deux Ex Friendship save the day in the face of no magic. But if it means a stretch of several minutes where I have minimal notes, I'll take it.
I had predicted in advance (publicly, regrettably) that Opaline would be de-powered and flee, and with the show not getting renewed, we'd never see her again, give or take a TYT gag (so like if FiM finished at Season Six or Seven and we never saw Chrysalis after she fled, I suppose). Largely because she was clearly never going to be reformed, this show was far too sanitised to outright kill, and Hasbro is too message-conscious to run the risk of sealed evil being the call for the little kids. Guess I was wrong! Personally I interpreted this as her being outright crushed when the new tree exploded into life, something most people don't seem to share, thinking she's still stuck in that small space. But the Mane 6 not even referring to her being down there makes it clear that's what they wanted to infer as much as they could. Won't stop some fanfics doing something with Opaline again, I'm sure, but she's functionally dead here, and that took me aback.
I noted it last episode, but them snapping back to themselves really highlights a few things. One, it so felt that these two were meant to be Sparky's parents, but nope, they're just unconnected dragons. Two, the show having six dragons last episode only for two of them to not even join the expedition to Equestria and be absent altogether here. If they were going for a "each corresponds to one of the new Mane 6" thing, as seems to be the case, why not have those other dragons last episode be two short and remark that two of them were taken? Allowing Jade and Lava to complete the sextet. Only reason seems to be to have a few "counterpart" non-jokes last episode.
A point I'll concede too.
Many of its problems come from poor prior material, yep. These two kind of have to be among the show's best for being semi-dense, moving, and largely just having bland action-adventure over the failures of the show's attempts as character and comedy. I consider its script to be about as rickety as "The Ending of the End", with far dodgier production values, but even that's still something.
That said, it's a sign of how expected the failures are of MYM that even such obvious criticisms like the dragons joining the cause being a big waste of time for all they impact the actual story, are just not worth making. The children who watched this will not be returning to it or sharing it with their children the way those who watched FiM did, ditto for us adult fans. Outside of the movie, G5 will be little more than a footnote in MLP history. And even the movie only so much, what with it being tied to this generation and thus tarred by association.
And this ties to probably my biggest criticism of MYM's last chapter.
We spent a non-trivial amount of time building up to the dragons. Hinting at them, making them a big deal, then finally introducing them. And they're a giant nothing.
"Now we can fight Opaline, with ponies and dragons side by side!"
The dragons immediately leave (like, thirty seconds after Sunny says that).
"Do you know what happens in dungeons? You get captured!"
The dragons are immediately captured by Opaline with basically zero effort.
And despite all the time spent building them up? The dragons no absolutely nothing that affects the plot. Half of the introduced characters never appear after their introduction and none of their talked-about special magics are ever used. They don't power Opaline up, they don't do anything to help her that she couldn't already do (or do with her magic tree powers), and when freed they pretty much just leave. The only act taken to impact the story is Spike facilitating Sparky getting a hero moment, which just is to undo the dragons being captured in the first place.
In the end it's really telling that TYT condensed an hour of show into a sub-5 minute recap short and I don't think we really lost anything aside from Misty getting a little speech.
I'm in this picture and I don't like it (I so rarely miss calls that I invariably forget the password in between messages).
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: If none of the opponent's creatures have counters on them, they don't sacrifice anything or face any other consequences. Despite the wither, this is only realistically going to punish opponents who use counters themselves.
Quick question because I haven't caught up: Is Opaline's MYM villain song in this two-parter? Because I caught that hot shit on Youtube and it was so bad. Take a shot every time she uses a word over two syllables, you won't get drunk. Extra disappointing with how baller Feel the Flames was.
Anyhoo: and so we come to the demise of the show's villain before the show is over. The laughs Opaline gave me are sabotaged by the inevitable reality that she was an irredeemable gaslighter abuser incompetent, yet I find myself okay with focusing on the positives. I think this is how Chrysalis and NMM fans feel, a subset of the fandom I never understood before now - it is okay to enjoy a villain's quirkier moments while still knowing they are a terrible person. And if that compartmentalization does not satisfy, there is always fanfiction.
I do plan to catch up, especially with this season at least being
interestingnot boring.Pretty funny that they trot out Sprout after so much time ignoring the movie. But I suppose I'm happy enough for the confirmation that he chilled out.
EDIT: The return of "Bing-Bong" and even a brief nod to Sprout makes me wonder if there was some last-standing writer from the movie involved, who used all his influence to put this bare continuity into the G5 story.
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Corporate meddling to sanitize a good story into bland children's media despite repeated lessons that a touch of maturity improves the quality for all ages is always a killer. Multiply that by sixty for a show whose star character is described as an 'activist.'
And that's how Sunny went from fighting a society that drew pegasi like WWII cartoons of Japanese to protesting unhealthy snacks.
Between corporate mandates that came in late in the writing process (ex: G5 being its own thing until Hasbro called for it being connected to G4 Equestria lore-wise), legal buffoonery (G4 being legally chopped in two between Hasbro and Discovery Warner post-Hub, along with Hasbro realizing late that this would be a huge problem), having to use 3D animation and 2D animation (for different shows, mind you), scheduling snafus and communication errors that spoil entire plot points and render comics non-canon (see the EQG Holiday Special and the G5 comic with Discord for why that is), and a decent show team that is basically trying to make do with all of that junk AND keep the show more kid-friendly than G4 had ever been (probably Hasbro-mandated too), I can say this much about G5 as a whole:
It is a product of corporate meddling, honest mistakes, and good intentions.
Plot Twist: I don't hate it.
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It is, if anything, even worse in-context, because the episode cuts from the main character to her, does it, then moves back, while otherwise having nearly everything Opaline does that episode (plot pivotal things) happen offscreen. It almost feels like it's there just to "have" a villain song in the main show, and I really don't get why they didn't just use the TYT song, which is not only much better but also fits the context here decently well too. Wouldn't have got past the visual execution letting this down even further, but it'd be something.
Well, there was that Chapter 4 episode where he appeared prominently around the abandoned factory. There the Mane 5 largely just put up with him while frowning, so I guess the chilling out's happened since? Lord, I almost wonder if there was an episode with him better chilling out/getting accepted which got cut when the news the show wasn't being renewed came in and they pushed other stuff they "had" to do up in the order. Good a guess as any.
Officially, the only writer carryover is Gillian Berrow herself. Thing is, the reality of film writing is ideas across the production come for so many sources that the role of the actual writer is not nearly as much "everything in the dialogue and flow can be credited to them", and is far closer to "they just translate the outline to page, and revisions from everyone else adjust the writer's job further". So it may be the case that many things we think should have been carried over weren't because they were never "really" Berrow's. Either the other writer's (Tim Sullivan), or someone at Boulder Media – the directors did have Story By credits, after all, while Berrow didn't.
In any case, even for TV writing, crediting is a dastardly non-science, so there may well have been folks who had a decent hand in this besides Berrow and the credits writers.
Did anyone else notice that two of the dragons disappeared while they were trapped in Opaline's room?
Also, Make Your Mark feels like a direct-to-DVD Barbie movie.
It's rough.
There is still the last special. It is its own can of worms, as it introduces a new main villain even though the show is over.
TYT is still going for a while yet, and much as I can hope for it to switch to longer episodes and become a new main series, I do not know of anything to suggest that's going to happen and that's just hopefulness on my part. And without that, the shorts are so insubstantial that it really does feel like G5 is de facto over, a mere two years after it started
And it's hard not to see a ton of missed potential.
As someone who doesn't even remember what of the 3D series he's seen and never watched the 2D series (to the point that I'd have to look up which was TYT and which was MYM), I wonder: is there enough of this show to save? Like, if you took out all the stuff that just occupies frames and wrote the necessary connective tissue, how long would the "good bits" version be?
"Our cutie mark magic is being stolen!" And if the series had ever explained what cutie mark magic is (other than a glow that sometimes occurs as a plot line is being resolved), that would be cause for concern!
When Tirek stole a pony's magic (making their cutie marks disappear), the pony temporarily became so weak, they couldn't stand up. When Starlight took a pony's cutie mark, at least their colors became desaturated. These ponies seem to be suffering no adverse reaction to having their cutie marks removed.
Points.
That was such a baffling choice. The only not-insane explanation I can think of is that the episode was twenty seconds short and no one could think of a better way to fill the time.
I hope you're not expecting an answer beyond "so the confrontation between Opaline and Hitch could happen."
How did nobody on the staff see the perfect opportunity for a sly joke or reference? It was right there for the taking, especially since Hasbro owns D&D.
Misty: "I don't think I can face [Opaline]."
Sunny: "You don't have to. Stay here. Somepony needs to protect the Unity Crystals."
...when Opaline personally arrives to take them.
So the big climactic moment, when in the face of total despair, all of the ponies of Equestria (that the computers had the processing power and time to render) band together to demonstrate their unity... is initiated by some tertiary filly? Even though it was already established that the song was by Pipp? A character who is supposedly the social media star with the most followers of anyone in the world? So instead of having one of the main characters use her already-established streaming presence to encourage the populace to band together, the moment is handed off to some random kid, with all of the other characters spontaneously joining in through some kind of psychic cooperation? That's how that's going to get resolved?
We've been baffled numerous times by G5 characters suddenly displaying abilities or characteristics that we didn't know they had. What's one more for the folks who aren't familiar with G4?
More points. All the points. I think that may be the cleverest thing that's been written in association with G5, and I'm including all official G5 media in that assessment.
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I don't know... the first time our heroes confronted Opaline, they sealed her inside a tiny magic bubble with no food or water -- but very much alive -- and then left her as if all of their problems had been solved forever. Inferring that a trapped villain is (or will be) dead seems beyond the scope of this series.
My thoughts on the episode? For pretty much all G5 media, as soon as I finish watching it, it disappears from my memory. (I spent a couple of minutes near the beginning trying to remember whether the episode with Misty showing off her new cutie mark in Zephyr Heights explained what specifically the acquisition of a cutie mark meant. If it did, I'd forgotten... and I refused to expend the effort of looking it up.) And even though this episode wrapped up some major plot lines, I suspect that by next week, I'll have forgotten most of the details. Just like I did with all of the filler episodes.
Sooo, the grand culmination of this series' link to G4, the true impact it has on the series, the thing that makes it actually meaningful that it's FiM the series is connected to rather than some original history is... one blast of teleportation fire. Yeah, sounds about right.
I mean, don't get me wrong, some of the stuff they did with Spike wasn't bad, but it all ultimately carried far more meaning for the previous series than it did for this one. It's certainly better than the rest of its attempts to link back to FiM, but a) that's not saying much, b) it still feels insufficient given it's not supposed to be part of FiM, and c) the overall impact this show has on FiM still does not balance out as positive.
Also, bye Opaline! You probably had some entertaining moments (that didn't both occur solely in a side series and come across more like they were parodying the character than expanding her), but I can't recall any. Like, it's not as if a generic, knowingly-evil Mwahaha-er can't work, even as pretty much the sole overall villain of the series, but... yeah, there really wasn't much to her, was there? Not that previous villains in this franchise have always been great, but at least there was some variety. But, yeah, it really seems like, even if the show wasn't ending, Make Your Mark* would be better off just dealing with her and moving on.
*I was going to abbreviate that, but then I realized how M-Y-M would be pronounced and I just... I just can't bring myself to have Opaline in any way associated with a villain as fun, memorable and entertainingly Pure-Evil as Mad Madam Mim
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If I could hotfix for a second, the Feel the Flames song covering a montage of her overwhelming Equestria and dominating the dragons (fits with the repeated mention of hypnosis in the lyrics) would have gone down real well in constructively fulfilling the need for a villain song.
In the editors' room: "Geez, I just don't think we can squeeze Sprout in anywhere. Between the next wacky baby episode with Sparky and ONLY one 'Pipp fucks up business at the salon' this season there just isn't any open screen-time to work with. Maybe next season."