My Review of MLP: Make Your Mark Chapter 2 Episode 2 Growing Pains · 2:54pm Nov 18th, 2024
Grading Scale:
A (fantastic episode)
A- (an excellent episode with at least one flaw)
B+ (a great episode with a couple of flaws)
B (a good episode which still could have been better)
B- (a good episode with numerous flaws but still rewatchable)
C+ (a decent episode)
C (eh... it’s not terrible but not good either)
C- (it’s not worth rewatching although it does have good elements)
D+ (a bad episode with a few good things in it)
D (a really bad episode with wasted potential)
D- (a terrible episode with badly written characters and butchered moral)
F (horrible and unwatchable)
Greetings, folks! This is Mr. J back with another G5 episode review for today. This morning, I will be reviewing the second episode of Make Your Mark Chapter 2 entitled “Growing Pains”. This is actually one of my favorite episodes of this chapter to be honest; it unraveled a concept about unstable earth pony magic in an interesting manner.
Plus, I thought that it did a wonderful job of showing us that earth ponies are still learning how to harness their magical powers, but as we see, they don’t have full control over their newfound abilities as of yet.
Throughout this episode, Hitch has been extremely paranoid about the unpredictability of earth pony magic, and he witnessed how mildly chaotic it was. Plants growing abnormally large, humongous berries rolling around, and flowers blooming out of nowhere? It nearly drove him insane.
Because of that, he was determined to put restrictions on everyone for the sake of their own safety. On the other hand, Sunny kept reasoning with Hitch—telling him that these restrictions aren’t necessary because they’re still learning how to control their magic. It’s so powerful, and holding it in would only make things a whole lot worse.
And guess what? Sunny was right! Because Hitch kept telling the townsfolk to not use their magical power, it spiraled even more out of control. Magic is just impossible to withhold, and putting a restraint on it would be like throwing oil to the fire.
I perfectly understand why Hitch acted so paranoid throughout this episode. As the sheriff, it’s his responsibility to make sure ponies are all safe & sound and to maintain law & order.
However, he was being irrational in his decisions which is evident by the fact he actually thought that completely removing the earth pony crystal from the Unity Crystals would be the ultimate solution.
Yeah, because tampering with the Unity Crystals is totally the safest course of action for sure. It’s not like that’s what caused the loss of magic for countless centuries in the first place, right? Hitch was increasingly desperate, and he wasn’t thinking straight.
This teaches us the lesson about not letting the fear of the unknown cloud our judgment. If we sit down & discuss the proper course of action we must take to safely ensure that everyone is practicing magic with just enough training & patience, then things will surely go well.
If there’s one thing I wish this episode could’ve done well, it would be the pacing being consistent. Seriously, I hated the way they paced two subplots in this storyline.
In one shot, we see Hitch testing the magic of an earth pony, then in the next scene we have Izzy dragon-sitting Sparky, then in the next scene we’re back to the main plot, and then we’re back to the secondary subplot in the following scene. It’s utter madness to have every scene last under 30 seconds; we need time to breathe, man!
Lastly, I honestly feel like Sparky actually contributed to the story this time unlike last episode. Because here, we see Sparky not only receiving parental guidance from Hitch but also the laidback type of guardianship from Izzy.
The latter may not be like Hitch—overly protective, attentive to detail, rules, & more rules—but she looks after him in a way that will allow the child to be more comfortable & expressive.
By the end of the episode, Sparky is learning how to develop his own magic. What Izzy showed him, it gave him a positive impression. Sometimes, children need to be taught that while rules are necessary, they also need to have fun without being burdened with needless restrictions.
It parallels to the main storyline about not suppressing earth pony magic or any magic in general. Just as Sparky needed that same lesson, even so did every earth pony without ever being afraid to express themselves in a magical way.
So in a nutshell, Hitch needed to stop being an overprotective dad AND a paranoid sheriff. Let’s hope they keep him consistent with this character development going forward.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention this: Twilight’s cameo via hologram was…okay. I hate seeing her accursed face, but I get why they wrote this cameo in this episode. It’s to set up the new threat to our heroes who is, of course, Opaline. Still, seeing Twilight in any episode—G4 or G5–makes me roll my eyes.
Overall, this episode was great! Definitely better than the last two episodes for sure! I’ll give this a solid A-! Thanks for reading this, and stay tuned for next week’s G5 episode review!
Peace!
Honestly, I still think that "Growing Pains" is another G5 installment that was riddled with toxic and flawed writing at its finest.
The intentions behind what role they wanted to give Hitch as the main character were clearly there, and so were the intentions of the subplot featuring Izzy babysitting Sparky. Even the intended morals were there. But, how they went about every aspect of the story was all things infuriating, and it felt like the episode was basically teaching the opposite of the morals you mentioned. Regardless of how harmless the magical mishaps caused by the various Earth Ponies appeared to be, I personally found myself supporting Hitch more than opposing him, and I believed that everything that happened was largely a result of incompetence more than anything else. I also found myself going against Sunny instead of being with her, and from my perspective...everything Izzy did with Sparky caused her to seem like a terrible babysitter and parental figure.
I'm honestly still surprised that you don't consider Twilight's cameo to be the least bit out-of-place in this episode, especially in its timing and execution. From my perspective, all it did was completely distract from the episode's overall narrative and what was happening already.
Even more surprising is the fact that you never mentioned the scenes featuring Opaline and Misty in this episode, along with Sprout Cloverleaf's return.
I'm still catching up with commenting on your MYM reviews, so apologies for these being out of order. The episode is an interesting reflection on the fear of the unknown and how we should respond to it. Sunny, of course, wants to explore the possibilities (which is consistent with her somewhat impulsive behaviour in the film), whereas Hitch shows caution-excessively so, although his idea to remove a crystal suggests he's not as above it all as he likes to think he is. The answer is, of course, found in the middle ground.
The handling of the two plotlines is a tad messy and Sparky's story could have been better incorporated into the overall plot. The Twilight hologram was also rather clunky exposition (setting aside the debate as to whether they should have used Pink Celestia for now). However, the good firmly outweighs the bad, and I'd give this a similar score.
I look forward to seeing what your thoughts on Portrait of a Princess are-in my opinion it's the strongest episode of Chapter 2.
5816687
I have no issue with the timing with Twilgiht’s cameo. It didn’t feel out of place at all. And it wasn’t worth mentioning Opaline, Misty, or Sprout because they were NOT important in this review.
5816687
I suspect the reason the reason Clown didn't mention the two scenes you cite is that narratively they don't contribute a huge amount; Sprout is used for slapstick and Opaline isn't an active participant in the carnage.
5816690
Correct. Also, please address me as Mr. J.
5816692
My apologies, sir.
5816689
It was to me. I mean, the entire cameo comes up straight after Hitch realizes his mistakes and while Maretime Bay was in danger again, and once it happens…it felt like the story took an unexpected pause and got distracted from what was already happening.
Plus, Opaline, Misty, and Sprout’s inclusions may not have been important enough for noting to you, but to me…they were generally too out-of-place and unnecessary.
5816690
Then, why incorporate them anyway? If they were never gonna contribute anything important, then what was the point of them being there?
5816697
In the former case, for a joke (whether it works or not largely depends on your taste in comedy). The latter sequence is intended to set the next episode in motion.
5816697
Opaline is there to establish her presence in the story. She doesn’t have to actively participate in the plot to do something, but she’s there to show us she’s always watching our heroes and learning their weaknesses. It’s not that hard to grasp, AMU.
Sprout is just there for comic relief which, in itself, isn’t an issue. Like I said, it wasn’t worth discussing because it wasn’t important.
5816698
Except that Misty and Opaline literally don’t do anything in this episode at all. They only have two scenes in this entire episode, and they never do anything in response to the whole “Earth Pony Magic” scenario.
Also, if Sprout really was supposed to be there for comic-relief purposes, then his inclusion is all-the-more unnecessary. He certainly wasn’t funny either.
5816700
I don’t think you understand what an actual overarching antagonist is, AMU. I just explained to you why she’s used this way. This is all set in place to build her up for what she will perform later on in this series.
Although I do think the pacing sucks, I still like the way Opaline was built up in this series.
5816699
Except for one thing:
A villain doing that sort of thing doesn’t have to always be shown, and to be perfectly honest…that intention alone isn’t important enough for an inclusion. In the end, Opaline and Misty’s inclusions really just felt like they were there simply for the sake of it.
As for Sprout…comic-relief purposes alone are really not important enough for an inclusion either. I’m pretty sure Izzy and Sparky were already filling that niche anyway, and they were actually doing important stuff.
5816702
Or, maybe I just think the “overarching antagonist” scenario was done better elsewhere, and that other villains have been given far greater buildup compared to Opaline. And reasons to be taken seriously, of course.
5816704
Alright, give me one or two examples of other villains getting proper treatment. I’ll wait.
5816707
Aku from Samurai Jack, for one.
As the overarching antagonist of the show, Aku would always show himself to be someone with an immense amount of surprises. He didn't appear in every single episode, but that was perfectly okay. To me, it was clear that the show's creator and the writing team were always thinking carefully over his usage, and whenever Aku actually appeared, you could immediately tell that his episode inclusions weren't without an important purpose. Aside from also having a great amount of buildup and background, Aku took the time to give the viewers reasons to be taken seriously, and he'd constantly develop as a character! He'd have his humorous moments, and times of shortcomings, yet they wouldn't cause him to seem like some joke. It has also been confirmed that he'd be watching the title character's every move throughout Seasons 1-4, yet it wasn't always shown, and none of the episodes he starred in featured him doing just that.
Another example is Oroku Saki/The Shredder, from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series that aired from 2012-2017.
In that series, the Shredder was featured trying to come up with ways to take down the Turtles and Master Splinter, but the turnouts were rarely predictable and he'd show himself to be someone with many tricks up his sleeves. Just like Aku, the Shredder also showed himself to be someone who's taken seriously for a reason, and whenever he'd face off against his opponents...well, let's just say that he'd prove himself as someone whom you wouldn't want to cross paths with very often. Aside from also getting great buildup and having a solid backstory, the Shredder's character development throughout showed him to be an incredibly three-dimensional individual.
5816720
We're just gonna have to agree to disagree. That's all I can say.
5816761
Of course.
Like I said before in your review of "All Dogs Go to Heaven", I believe the two of us clearly have different opinions over what makes a villain one-dimensional. And, judging from today, a different opinion over how to make a good overarching antagonist and how to use said villain wisely.
5816700
Mr J explains the point I'm trying to make far better than I could.
5816783
And, like I already told Mr. J:
I believe there are plenty of other villains that have been much better used as "overarching antagonists" compared to Opaline. Villains who are also built up well and given a reason for people to actually take them seriously, if I may add.
5816815
Fair enough.