My Review of MLP: Make Your Mark Chapter 2 Episode 4 Ali-Conned · 5:34pm January 6th
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 my first review of 2025: the fourth episode of MLP: Make Your Mark Chapter 2 called “Ali-Conned”! When I first watched this episode, I thought it was pretty good because I enjoyed seeing Sunny getting more character development and realizing how she is more than just another alicorn to her friends.
Now that I have just finished rewatching this episode, I feel like that the message about loving or liking someone for who they are is still crystal clear. However, I was not pleased with the way they executed the story. This manner of storytelling was surprisingly sloppy & half-hearted.
This episode starts with Sunny advocating for more healthy habits such as eating less junk food and more nutritious food that can be grown through the means of magic. However, the crowd shows no interest in what she has to say or any of her causes. But the moment she suddenly reveals her alicorn form, then they show interest in her cause.
I’m sorry but this whole situation makes absolutely no sense to me. Why are these ponies suddenly giving her this much attention to her as an alicorn? Why are they treating her as if this is the first time in eons they see an alicorn with their own eyes? They acted nothing like this at the end of “A New Generation”, and they didn’t give a shit about it every time she turned into an alicorn in previous episodes.
So…why are they now liking her so much? To me, it feels like the writer wanted to create a new situation that could spark a new lesson for Sunny to learn even though it doesn’t make sense in terms of continuity. This is why it’s important for writers to actually watch the previous material before you write a new storyline in the same canon.
Moving on, Opaline finally carries out her new plan to manipulate Sunny into being a power-hungry alicorn by communicating through the latter’s little mirror…disguised as an evil Sunny. To be honest, I have no idea why she was expecting Sunny to turn a complete 180 and be evil or whatever.
In fact, what made her think that her manipulation tactic worked on Sunny? Sunny wished nothing more than a lovely community garden and her altruistic goals to be fulfilled—causes that are genuinely helpful in and of themselves.
What Opaline could have done was use Sunny’s altruistic goals and use them as a way to gain Sunny more popularity and praise. From there, Sunny would eventually distance herself from her true friends and bond more with ponies who only care for her social status.
That could’ve made a more interesting storyline if Opaline was actually smart about this. But instead, she dismisses them as pointless and heavily hoped that Sunny would become selfish & evil out of nowhere. Opaline, that’s just not how things work. I thought you were a patient type? Are you dumb?
As for the subplot with Pipp & Sparky, I honestly didn’t care too much about it. The only thing that rubbed me the wrong way was how she was using that poor baby to farm likes and views because she was so insecure over the fact that he was trending so well on social media.
At the end, the only thing she unexpectedly got out of it was the successful trend of slapstick comedy being inflicted on her. That’s how she got a win—if you can even call it that. I wish she wasn’t so one-dimensional in this episode and actually learned a more valuable lesson such as not using someone to farm likes.
It was cute seeing them “hang out” together within their short amount of screen time, but that’s just about it. Overall, it was boring, insignificant, and irrelevant.
Also, why did Opaline send out Misty to infiltrate Maretime Bay and help turn Sunny into being a self-absorbed prick? She already has the means to communicate with Sunny through her magical mirror while in disguise, so what was the point of getting Misty involved here?
So while the plot and the execution thereof are equally subpar & poorly handled, I think they managed to send the message about understanding your self-worth quite perfectly. Sunny’s character was tested, and she managed to showcase how sincere she is with her goals and wants nothing more than to show ponies how much she wants to see her town improve in every way.
But personally, I would’ve went with a whole other direction that could’ve worked the same way but much more strongly. Sunny made very little mistakes here which feels like the writer was playing it too safe, so I would’ve fixed it by having her get too carried away with her alicorn powers.
But here’s the difference: she would act so differently NOT because of peer pressure or what other ponies think (even though these are common causes) but because of what Opaline convinced her to do…but gradually. Then the moment she gets caught up with popular ponies, she could get more powerful.
As I said earlier, she could’ve taken the route of distancing herself from her friends and gained the loyalty of false friends who only recognize social status. Then at the end, she’ll realize what she has become once she sees that her alicorn powers become corrupt or erratic and her friends not being happy with her.
This would’ve made Sunny a more flawed character but in a good way. Characters need to make mistakes in order to relate with the audience and become…y’know…actual characters with fleshed-out arcs.
I still love Sunny as a character overall, but this episode unfortunately didn’t do her any justice. The moral that we got was straightforward and powerful on its own, but it was half-hearted because the episode seemed like it didn’t know whether they wanted to go all-out with a corrupt Sunny or not. It was just all over the place as a result.
So overall, this episode has its decent moments and is nowhere as disappointing as “Winter Wishday”, but it is still an underwhelming episode that lacks all logic. With that said, I’ll give this a solid C-. Ali-Conned? That’s clickbait; it should be called Ali-Dumb.
Peace out!
A
I will admit, your review on this episode was something I've been eagerly waiting for. Maybe it's because of the last time we talked about "Ali-Conned" in the comments of my own review of the episode, I don't know, but...I was amazed to find how similar our opinions on "Ali-Conned" turned out to be in the long run.
I agree with you on all these fronts. "Ali-Conned" had a decent moral, and I thought they did a great job amplifying it by the end, but there were too many problems throughout the episode that were strong enough to turn it into a nerve-grinding chore. The episode had potential, particularly with Opaline trying to manipulate Sunny using the compact mirror, but it was either never taken advantage of or handled horribly. The subplot with Pipp was also incredibly pointless & unnecessary, the characters were one-dimensional & annoying, and so much more.
EXACTLY!
Everything about Sunny gaining such a well-renowned celebrity status was perfect for taking her in the kind of direction you described, and so did Opaline's manipulation tactics. It would've been interesting to see how they could influence Sunny for the worse, but the production team sadly decided to play it safe and not take any risks. Instead, they leave us with a protagonist who's otherwise one-dimensional & boring, and a villain who's basically an idiotic joke!
Adding more salt to the wound is that this episode is the first in which Misty interacted with a member of the original five, that member being Sunny, yet "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover" portrayed the meeting between them in the latter episode like they met for the first time. Also, there's no explanation as to how she became a member of the Filly Four, and that element in itself opened up a boatload of other plot holes & questions that were never answered.
In the end, these factors, along with the ones you mentioned here, live up to my belief that G5 doesn't have as tight-knit or coherent of a continuity as most people think.
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When I first commented on your review of this episode, I only took account of how good-hearted Sunny was without paying too much attention to the plot or to how the other characters were handled. I think I was a little biased towards Sunny when I said that.
This is why I always re-watch episodes before I review them so that I can be as honest as possible. As much as I love Sunny, if she goes through a certain phase that feels either too safe or nonsensical, I will call out the bad writing on that. The same goes for Twilight whenever I re-watch and review episodes where she is written as a good character (despite the fact she's my least favorite pony).
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I’m the same way, really.
A big reason for why I’ve often rewatched G5 episodes before making a critique on them is specifically because I didn’t want to let my own biases cloud my judgement and actually be certain over what I think of the product in question. Doing so also helps me to take in the details more and enables me to give greater note on all it provides.
This method in question is what I often do with everything I make a review of nowadays, mainly due to it taking longer than I’d like for my brain to generate constructive thoughts on something.
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Yeah.
Oh, and there’s one thing I forgot to mention in my review: Sunny didn’t find Misty at all suspicious because the latter accidentally said “our plan” before she corrected herself with “your” plan. Sunny definitely should’ve questioned her at that moment as to what she meant by that.
And the dude who shushed Sunny in the crowd and said “The alicorn is about to speak!” was just plain idiotic. She’s literally standing right next to him, and he didn’t recognize her?! I know, I’m nitpicking, but that part really annoyed me.
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I know, right?!
I think this is meant as a commentary on how many people show no interest in social causes unless a celebrity is involved (and Sunny sorta qualifies as a celebrity as she saved the town one special earlier). To give a historical example, the Gurkha Justice Campaign (which fought for equal rights for Nepalese soldiers who fought in the British Army) struggled to gain tracton until Joanna Lumley came onboard. Is the execution ham-fisted? Yes.
Make your Mark Chapter 2 was unfortunately marred by rather variable quality as the show tried to find its footing, and unfortunately Ali-Conned is one of the weaker installments. The episode tries to cram way too much in (part of the reason I believe episodes of TV shows should be around an hour or stories told in multiple parts) and as you point out is somewhat confusing. Cutting Opaline could have helped, as it would make Sunny succumbing to peer pressure more plausible as she stays an alicorn to try and keep ponies engaged.
I mentioned in the comments section on your review of Portrait of a Princess that I find this episode the most painful to watch of all of Make your Mark, but not for the reasons you might think. It's because I've been in this exact scenario myself.
Obviously I'm not an orange equine who can sprout wings and a horn on demand, nor was I spoken to through a magic mirror by a nutcase. However, I am on the autistic spectrum, and people have a frustrating habit of perceiving us as having some sort of superpower instead of a disability which needs constant and careful management. There were people I thought were my friends, only for me to learn they were only interested in me because of this, not because of who I am. That and the fact they were keeping me around for comedy value.
Trust me, it hurt to know I was only seen by them as the butt of jokes. When people only see you for one attribute rather than seeing you as a person, it hurts. And that is why I find Sunny so relatable; she's a socially awkward pony who has a lot of mannerisms of somebody with ASD, unable to realise others are exploiting her for their own gain. However, this is arguably also her greatest strength; her ability to see the best in others.
In summary, this episode has a lot of potential, but wastes much of it. Which is a shame, as it's Sunny's only solo outing in Make your Mark.
5824973
I am also under the spectrum as well, so I can somewhat understand how you feel. For me however, although I didn't exactly go through similar situations you went through, I sometimes feel like my autism is my greatest weakness because it prevents me from fully comprehending some instructions or concepts my brain doesn't fully process. Sometimes, it makes me feel depressed. Regardless, it doesn't stop me from improving myself as a person and not allowing that disability to define me as a person.
Now, it's certainly an interesting way to relate with the main character like Sunny; although for me, I love her because I see her as a compassionate, reasonable, kind, and courageous role model who goes far & beyond in teaching others about friendship in spite of her flaws--thus being far greater than Twilight Sparkle ever was.
But anyway, I thank you for opening up to me like this, Blue. I always appreciate your point of view.
5824974
I have actually adopted this angle for writing Sunny, funnily enough; there is lots of speculation that the G5 cast is neurodivergent (which it would be neat representation given lots of bronies have disabilities). My own experience has driven me to write characters who have disabilities, not characters whose disability defines their entire existance.
I found myself relating to Twilight Sparkle for similar reasons back in G4, though I am aware Twi more shows traits of OCD (a condition I don't have).
It's never a problem; I have always enjoyed conversing with you. If anything, conversing with those who have different viewpoints to ourselves is really handy for story generation; I'm seriously considering turning your proposal for an alternate version of Winter Wishday into a story, for example.