The Apparent end of G5 · 1:11pm Sep 21st, 2024
Lots of discussion on various Discord servers about Hasbro pulling the plug on G5.
The hill I will die on:
- The Netflix movie was AMAZINGLY good
- The shows started well but deteriorated quickly
I like writing about the worst day of a character's life; it lets us see the mettle inside. (Pronouns: RB/20 )
Lots of discussion on various Discord servers about Hasbro pulling the plug on G5.
The hill I will die on:
Also, cutting corners to save money will leave you with neither money nor quality.
Quite the hot take for point 2 there! Most folks would say the post-movie G5 content was weak right from the get-go. Where would you say it went from being “well” to deteriorating fast?
G5’s end was kinda evident from the moment it became clear MYM wasn’t getting renewed and that Hasbro was just going to produce TYT for 2024 & 2025 to keep it afloat and shift some merch on the side while they formulated a plan for the future. But when the webseries switched from weekly to fortnightly uploads earlier this year, I quickly pegged that they were cutting their losses on it even sooner.
In actuality, 3-5 years is a normal length for these kinds of kids’ properties to last. Just look at any given Transformers show: the thinking is because they’re aimed so young, the audience grows out of them quickly, and the continuity lockout makes bringing in new viewers hard. It’s also known somewhat as the “four season rule”, for Disney Channel/Junior shows (well, while those were still a thing, anyway
). So G5 is lasting what is normal for its industry, if on the shorter side. It’s just going out with an absolute whimper, so quiet most aren’t even noticing (uploads of G4 content on YouTube are routinely outperforming the newer TYT stuff – even kids can tell the quality difference).
Anyway, I really do hope the G5 movie can be remembered fondly and fully appreciated long-term, and not be tarred too badly by association with the rest of its generation. Unlikely, as most these days don’t think of bits of a franchise in isolation. But it’s nice to dream.
Guess we’ll have to wait for that sweet spot found via trial and error.
But really, none of us know what’s inside the giant machine called Hasbro so just let fate decide.
I agree wholeheartedly that the movie was a lot of fun
MYM was a bit wonky at first but was starting to find its groove so to speak
TYT from day 1 was rather hit or miss on account of the 5 minute YT format. Some eps were really good, others...not so much.
A thought that I've pondered on this, maybe if they had done like the IDW comics and done story arcs, the 5 minute eps could be like part 1, part 2 and such instead of gag-of-the-week. It's like they were trying to do a low-budget ponification of Looney Tunes, all that was missing was Hitch or Sprout dressing in drag to classic opera.
Movie was fantastic, MYM and TYT had their ups and downs each. I never even watched the latest 2 seasons was just kinda burnt on it.
My biggest complaint is that for the longest time Misty, this poor child and a victim of emotional parental neglect and abuse, was being shit on constantly, sometimes quite literally since they liked to actually fart on her or throw skunks at her. It was pretty revolting how they played it for laughs that this pony just wants to be loved and instead the show dunks on her.
Other minor critiques, Opaline has the most hideous design I’d seen from a canon character. She looks like a literal clown, I’m not sure if that was intentional or not but it made me irrationally angry when I had to look at her.
Baby Sparky was a very annoying character, model was kinda ugly, and the burbling baby noises got annoying by the end of season 1 since they looped and repeated them a lot. Its hard to grow attached to a character that by definition has not achieved enough development to be a character or a person in their life cycle. He was basically just a McGuffin/plot device.
I have not seen the last few seasons but I heard that Spike was beaten with the ugly stick pretty hard. Plus from the screenshots I saw they reverted him from the gigachad appearance he had in the epilogue of g4 which is disappointing.
There was a lot of squandered potential, but part of it is admittedly also the fanbase. People wanted more g4, and when g5 wasn’t that a lot of people just walked away. That would be fine if g5 had been given its own legs ro stand on but they hitched its wagon to the ‘legacy of g4’ plot. Should have been its own separate isolated continuity. Maybe a few background pony references, but otherwise distinct.
I didn't like the movie. I think it's mostly what geomease pointed out, that it would probably have been OK as a standalone continuity, but the entire idea that basically everything the G4 crew did was for naught just left a constant bitter taste in my mouth. There were some charming moments, but nothing could really make up for making the G4 finale meaningless.
I knew G5 was relatively unpopular but I didn't think Hasbro would pull the plug completely this soon. Guess they decided their G5 toy sales weren't doing so well.
Personally the movie was meh but watchable, but the show wasn't for me. I thought Opaline's whole backstory was kinda wonky and wasn't a fan of her design. Didn't watch a lot but Misty carried the show for me, felt like she was the only interesting character of the bunch. Other than that, I was waiting for more resolution of the "what happened to Sunny's mom and dad" mystery and more G4 continuity, but I lost interest very soon.
It's officially confirmed.
Dammit. The CGI series was excellent while it lasted. The bean-mouth series never went anywhere. Overall, a lot of wasted potential.
I wonder if the Tell your Tale writers were instructed to stick to little vignettes instead of an actual story. At any rate, I have nothing negative to say about the voice actors. EqD mentions people sending nasty comments to the writers. I haven't done that either.
ANY was great. MYM started off rather rough, had improved a lot by Chapters 4-5 but didn't really stick the landing in Chapter 6 (MYM still seems to have been fairly successful with the target audience given how it ranked up there on the kids playlists on Netflix for quite a while). TYT remained a mixed bag through out.
G4-G5 linkage... A lot of the whinging from the "G4 purists" comes down to "It ruined my headcanon" and can, thus, be safely ignored. My big objection to it is they should have either left it as background ala a certain Tolkein quote or had it front and center as a major plot point... Instead we got teasing (Twilight), more teasing (Celestia and Luna) and then Spike gets reintroduced and what we actually get is "My brain am Swiss Cheese".
(incidentally, I've got a theory that the G4 and G5 link can be explained by something other than G4 has long fallen... rather G5 is a chunk of Equestria that got dragged along when Opaline was banished while G4 mostly continues fine outside...).
Of cause, we've gotta remember that to Hasbro the media side of MLP is mostly a glorified toy advert and I *think* that's what probably explains the cancellations of MYM and TYT... The whole COVID situation buggered up releasing toys in time to take advantage of the movie and MYM, then low sales means little interest in keeping G5 going...
I fully agree with the movie part, but sadly, both the series were pretty weak from the start.
MYM improved technically as it went on, but the writing remained pretty incoherent. TYT suffered from the too-short runtime throughout its run. And of course, both were hampered by the apparent lack of coordination between the two shows, and the quality (or lack thereof) of the writing. For one thing, they never seemed to be able to figure out what Opaline's motivation was, and her characterization swerved this way and that as they wouldn't commit to just how much of a mother figure she really was for Misty, and how abusive she was meant to be.
It's a shame, because the characters and the setting as established in A New Generation are good, and there was tons and tons of potential in exploring this new world, learning about its past, and figuring out where to go now. It's excellent fanfiction material, at least!