G5’s Sure Fun

Fair warning before I get into this, there will be mentions of politics in this Blog Post. If you don’t wish to read all that, you have been warned.

I wasn’t originally going to do this, but after seeing both FOX News and The Daily Mail talk about G5, as well as my “friend” from school apparently writing a review on it, I figured I’d get into it sooner or later.

I have indeed watched it, though it was really only once after it came out, and it’s been a while. I think I can still kind of articulate my thoughts.

The movie was pretty enjoyable honestly. The plot wasn’t groundbreaking, hell, wasn’t even spectacular honestly. But the movie as a whole was still pretty fun.

The plot follows an alleged ‘activist’ on her quest to bring pony tribes back together to bring back equality to the land. Apparently. I have some major problems with the marketing saying that, and I’ll get into those a little later. As for now, let’s discuss the plot.

This ‘activist’ is Sunny, who is a wide-eyed idealist who tries in vain to get the earth ponies of Maretime Bay to maybe stop listening to the 1% for once. Sunny interrupts a seminar on completely useless creations said to protect the earth ponies from the evil pegasi and unicorns, and is promptly kicked out of the seminar.

Her character is actually pretty admirable, she knows what needs to get done, but not necessarily how to get there. She has a Point A and a Point C, but no Point B. It makes her a pretty relatable character, to my AD/HD mess of a mind at least.

As an aside, one thing I found very interesting is that each major place in the world is under a different sort of rule, Maretime Bay appears to start under a corporatocracy, or a business-run government.

Anyways, we are then formally introduced to Hitch Trailblazer, the goody-two shoes sheriff in town. Despite the title, the position seems to be more tied to the head of police than the actual mayor.

Hitch has been raised in this xenophobic community, and he understands Sunny’s goal, but also thinks it’s terrible.

I enjoy his character, it’s nice having a bit of a anti-hero, it gives the cast some pretty interesting depth. Also, bunnies are attracted to Hitch and we don’t know why.

Sunny and Hitch talk for a bit, and then we learn that Sunny’s father is dead. Then we meet up with Izzy.

Izzy, also known as pretty much everybody’s favorite character, is the type of pony who likes having fun. She enjoys asking questions and learning more about pretty much everything. She’s also unafraid of the unknown.

She’s been compared to Pinkie Pie, due to her excitement and and overall more upbeat demeanor, and I can see that. However, while Pinkie Pie takes Mentats for the charisma boost, Izzy would probably take them for the perception boost, she’s actually really good at making things.

Sunny incites a panic, and is forced to leave town, while Hitch goes out to look for her.

This, in turn, leads to Maretime Bay going from a corporatocracy into an authoritarian nationalist government, in layman’s terms; basically a Nazi. This happens because Sprout gets the title of sheriff and Phyllis (the previous ‘mayor’) lets him do whatever he wants, because he’s her baby.

Meanwhile, Sunny and Izzy get brought to Zephyr Heights, and are locked up because they might be enemy spies.

Zephyr Heights, furthering the point about different government types, is under a monarchic capitalist government (as the city is based on New York City).

This city, where the pegasi reside, is ruled by Queen Haven. She has two daughters, and we’re introduced to them, they are Zipp and Pipp.

Zipp is what happens if Twilight and Rainbow did a fusion dance. While she’s definitely not as smart as Twi, and not as athletic as Dashie, and also incredibly cautious, she definitely has shades of those characters in her.

Zipp is also a trans girl and nobody can convince me otherwise, though that is not confirmed, I will die on this hill.

Pipp, on the other hand, has the personality of a cardboard box.

And no, I’m not just saying that because of the whole ‘influencers have no personality’ thing. Pipp doesn’t really get the chance to develop a personality. All we know is that she’s an influencer and a pop star, and likely Queen Haven’s PR, though that is not confirmed.

While her seemingly plastic personality makes for some great fanfiction fodder, it’s not quite what you want to see in a feature-length film.

While Pipp is my favorite character, she’s only that way because the possibilities to write her with are basically endless. However, she is not my favorite character as portrayed in the movie. Zipp (to nobody’s surprise) is my favorite movie character.

After they escape Zephyr Heights with a crystal, revealing the royal lie in the process; that nopony there can fly. This crystal is supposed to make magic come back, which includes flight.

So, after they meet up with Hitch, and force him and Pipp to come along, they trot on over to Bridlewood. The crew is given unicorn disguises made by Izzy and are told how to be a unicorn through a very good song.

In this stretch of events, we’re shown that Sprout has been manufacturing weaponry to exterminate the Jews— I mean unicorns and pegasi. He also manages to exploit the fear of the earth ponies using 90’s and early 00’s Rock ripoffs to get them all on his side.

Bridlewood is assumed to be in the Everfree Forest, though not confirmed, assumed, but it’s now home to a depressed legion of unicorns. They’re also incredibly superstitious, implying that they haven’t really developed much since whenever the tribes split up.

Bridlewood is interesting in that it doesn’t really have a center of government, however, Alphabittle, the game master (and not in a cool way, in a greedy way) appears to utilize fear to some extent to control the unicorns. This would make Bridlewood a sort of dictatorship.

After Sunny wins a game of Prance Prance Revolution, winning the unicorn crystal, the crew is ratted out as not actually being unicorns.

Then we hit the climax.

I’ll be straight with you, this climax is the worst part of the movie. Sunny gets a half-solved Heroic BSOD, gratuitous property damage, and Sprout is there also.

A lot of things happen, and it somehow feels rushed despite going on for quite a while. It also sort of feels ridiculous that Sunny didn’t know there was an earth pony crystal. In addition, all three races coming together doesn’t really feel believable, at least without significant interference, but there isn’t really any significant interference.

I just can’ see Alphabittle coming together with the other two (Phyllis and Queen Haven), who very clearly have reasons to support this cause to benefit them. Queen Haven likely wants her position back, and Phyllis just does big business things and joins the side that’s popular. Alphabittle has no apparent reason.

I know these ponies aren’t supposed to come together to benefit themselves, but it easily comes off that way, which can cause the message to fall a little flat.

Regardless, I enjoyed the movie overall, the animation’s nice, and (most of) the characters are great. Since MLP is usually character-driven, it’s cool to see that G5’s keeping the spirit.

While I did want to give my thoughts on the movie, I do want to touch on the meta surrounding the movie from some groups.

First off, let’s get to the marketing, it doesn’t seem representative of a movie as a whole. It was marketed as this super-important movie that delves into modern politics and claims to follow an ‘activist’.

In reality, Sunny is loosely described as an activist, and the movie has barely any political overtones whatsoever. Sure, Sprout’s a Nazi, but even then, that’s not delved into much. The Nazis are generally seen as a bad group among sane people, so it’s kind of a cheap way to make a political villain. The message also holds barely any political value, I picked up on ‘stereotypes are bad’, which probably every group can agree with to some extent (saying that stereotypes of yourself are bad is still saying that some stereotypes are bad).

G5 is basically just an MLP episode.

But oh boy, the fallout!

Something about the marketing sent the conservative outlets into a fight or flight response. FOX News declared that MLP was ‘woke’ now (as if G4 didn’t already have the exact same messages). While the article itself wasn’t that biased, the headline was pretty ridiculous. The Daily Mail also decided to get into the fun and wrote a similar article. Theirs was a little more heavy-handed in the opinion, but I more or less expect that when comparing FOX to The Daily Mail.

There’s also been a lot of comparisons between Sprout and Trump because they allegedly look similar (they don’t look similar at all) and that Sprout being a Nazi is comparable to Trump apparently being one (while I will concede that the broad strokes are the same, Trump’s more of a conservative nationalist, which is not as far right as authoritarian nationalism, though still not great). Which I feel is giving the movie a little too much credit.

Also, I have seen a couple people mention that G5 promotes socialism. I think that was another thing that people just assumed because of the marketing. I think a movie promoting socialism would say more than ‘treat people like people’. It probably would’ve delved into economic theory and made a case for a government like that. If any government is being promoted, it’s anarcho-capitalism because the rulers were barely involved at all, and MLP was made to sell toys.

There’s legitimate reasons to dislike this movie. The plot’s not the greatest, the pacing’s wonky, and there’s no information on what happened (though it’s assumed that will be delved into when the show comes around). However, if you dislike this movie for its message of all things, how did you like G4 in the first place?

And until next time; be awesome!
-Dashie