Ranking The Mane Five of G5 · 6:13pm Nov 10th, 2021
By now I think almost everyone has seen "A New Generation" or at least a review of it, but just in case there are some who haven't for whatever reason, I'm tagging this blog post with spoilers.
Anyway, for now at least it seems we have five main (or mane) characters that will be the focus of G5. There are rumors and speculation about Sprout potentially joining the group, but until we have confirmation one way or the other I'm not going to consider him part of the "main" cast. So I'm just going to be ranking the five ponies we got to know (to varying extents) over the course of the movie, from least favorite to most favorite. As always, my personal opinion is involved so please respect it.
5. Pipp Petals: Pipp really got the short end of the stick when it came to focus and characterization. She really didn't do much of anything once joining the group to make her stand out, and what we got of her before she joined was pretty shallow: She's basically a social media celebrity and pop star, and that's really it. They could've done more to show what lies behind the mask, even if it would just be her struggling to adapt to not being the center of attention all the time. About the only thing she really contributed was a blink and you'll miss it moment of inspiration to Sunny when she was challenging Alphabittle. And that could've easily been given to any character. We didn't get to see how the group escaped Zephyr Heights, so any contributions Pipp might have brought in that regard went unseen. To be fair, Rarity (who seems to be the closet comparison to Pipp) didn't start out as a good character and it took G4 a while to pin her down. Hopefully, Pipp will be the same once the special and the Netflix series come out next year.
4. Zipp Storm: Much like Rainbow Dash, Zipp is the butch tomboy character who usually detests anything perceived as "girly". She and Pipp are intended as the typical: Serious sibling versus silly sibling dynamic, where usually the older sibling is trying to be more responsible and the younger sibling thinks their older sibling worries too much (on top of usually complaining about their older sibling getting more attention). Zipp mostly sticks to that role, but unlike Pipp she does get a couple of moments to shine. Those moments are when she breaks Sunny and Izzy out of jail and takes them down to the abandoned airship station. It's not much but it at least helps to make her feel unique, and it in turn justifies her joining the group when she does. We don't really see much of her and Pipp arguing after we leave Zephyr Heights though, her biggest contribution after that is trying to help Sunny and Izzy unite the crystals. Considering how uneven Rainbow Dash's character development was throughout G4, hopefully Zipp won't fall into the same pitfalls of always being arrogant, boastful or quick to anger and impulsive decisions.
3. Sunny Starscout: She's cheerful and legitimately wants to make a difference, and thankfully the "activist" part of her is nowhere near as annoying or condescending as it could've been. She does have a bit of the typical: Means well but tends to mess up and make things worse kind of protagonist, the ones cause problems through their naivety but not necessarily on purpose. We get to see her at her best and at her worst, and it could be easy to make a point for her being higher or lower on the list than she is now. The main issue with Sunny is something JoshScrocher (a.k.a TheFireyJoker) mentioned in his review of "A New Generation": Sunny seems to care more about what ponies are rather than who they are, and it doesn't feel like she really develops or earns her victory. Her speech at the end is very much what she was saying at the beginning, just slightly reworded. And it wasn't through anything she did or didn't do that the third crystal was revealed or her alicorn status was obtained, it seemed to happen more because the plot said so. Now, there's nothing wrong with wanting to get more information in the hopes of disproving stereotypes. But the way Sunny goes about is not unlike what's called the "White Savior Complex", the belief that minorities of any ethnicity can't stick up for themselves and need someone in the majority to do it for them, it's condescending and unintentionally reinforcing the stereotypes you're trying to disprove. The better way to go about it is to observe the minorities naturally, let them speak for themselves and use that to disprove the stereotypes. Sunny doesn't seem to care about who her friends are rather than what they are, and her friends in turn seem to teach her to get what she wants through lying and stealing rather than through honesty and hard work. Hopefully, with the news that Sunny's alicorn status is temporary, we'll get to see her develop more with the series proper and have her at least grow out of focusing on the what rather than the who.
2. Hitch Trailblazer: It would've been so easy to turn this guy into a butt monkey like Spike tended to be early on (and even to an extent after he started coming into his own as a character later into G4's run). Heck, given the ongoing debate about policing and the criminal justice system, it would've been so easy to run with Hitch as the guy who just doesn't get it and abuses his power and authority because he can. You can argue that that's what they ended up doing with Sprout, but even so they thankfully avoided that pitfall with Hitch. He does want to do the right thing, even if it means going against what he's been told or what he's been led to believe. He has good chemistry with Sunny, probably helped by the decision to make him her childhood friend. And compared to both Zipp and Pipp, he actually pulls his weight once he joins the group (even if it's kind of rushed). But what really elevates him is what JoshScorcher mentioned in his review. When Hitch is berating Sunny after her demonstration at Canterlogic, he shows that he's willing to believe her but not on a whim. He doesn't necessarily buy into the fearmongering, but he needs time and proof before he's going to be able to change his views. Instead of being talked down to, he's allowed to see for himself how little he really knows about pegasi and unicorns and comes to realize that what he believed before was wrong. And with Sprout, at least for a little while during the climax, Hitch gets to see what he could've become had he not been willing to have his mind changed. Even his animal magnetism feels like a part of his character instead of just being something used for a joke. At the same time he seems to be taking up Applejack's role of being the straight man of the group, the "Only Sane One" so to speak. But what makes him work is that he's not just playing off of others and he has a personality that lets him hold the spotlight on his own. The only thing that really holds him back is how abruptly he joins the group after tailing Sunny and Izzy to Zephyr Heights, and he doesn't really interact with either Zipp or Pipp once they join the group.
1. Izzy Moonbow: She was probably all but guaranteed to be my number one from the start given how she's very much the Pinkie Pie of the group, and Pinkie Pie is my favorite mane six/seven/eight member. And yes, Izzy and Pinkie do seem to be very similar in personality. But there is a difference. Pinkie Pie was way more in your face with her optimism and enthusiasm, the point where she could sometimes be too much. Izzy is a bit more reserved, more kinetic in a sense. She's still cheerful and upbeat but she's a touch more toned down and perhaps "realistic". I don't know if she has Pinkie's hidden intelligence, but she does seem to have picked up her own variation of the "Pinkie Sense" with her ability to detect other ponies' "sparkle". They thankfully avoid making her stupid or prone to getting the group into trouble like Pinkie Pie tended to do in the 2017 movie, and it helps that Izzy actually gets to contribute to the plot instead of just being an instigator of it like she might initially seem to be. Interestingly, we've learned recently that Izzy was originally planned to be a thief, and I can still see some hints of that with how she opts to disguise her friends as unicorns to infiltrate Bridlewood. Some are speculating that Izzy might secretly be related to Sunny (since we don't know anything about Sunny's mom or Izzy's parents), largely due to her and Sunny have moon and sun in their names and thus drawling parallels with Luna and Celestia. Izzy started out as a great character and didn't really need much to develop or stand out. I do think they could've done a bit more to elaborate on her upbringing and what (if anything) her connection to Alphabittle is. But for now at least, I'm happy to have Izzy be in the top spot. Maybe my opinions of these characters will change when we get more G5 content (apparently, a chapter book that got leaked suggests there's already going to be an Izzy focused episode in G5 so there's that at least).
And there you have it. Feel free to leave comments stating your own rankings. Maybe you saw something in some of these characters that I didn't.
Very good pick here here's my order of who I like the most
1. Hitch Trailblazer
2. Izzy Moonbow
3. Sunny Starscout
4. Zipp Storm
5. Pipp Petals
Well what I think about the mane 5 of G5 is that base on how they acted they gotta be the descendants of the g4 mane 6 since they somewhat act like them in their own way,
Like how Zipp is loyal to her friends while also wanted to reveal the truth like Applejack and Rainbow Dash once did and not to mention begin w tomboy girl like both of them did in not into much girly fashions.
Pipp acts like Rarity due to her wanting the fame of other ponies to adore her and she is a girly as we speak like the makeover and pretty much into the fame like rarity.
Izzy does act like Pinkie, so no surprise that she is the descendant of the pink party pony we know and love, but a little more realistic compared to the two but always kept a smile on their faces.
Hitch is basically a combination of both Applejack and Fluttershy together since Hitch have the instincts on wanting to help ponies like how Applejack did while helping others and not to mention Hitch inherited Fluttershy’s thing for animals since basically almost all animals in equestria simply adore Hitch at first sight and attractive to him
And finally Sunny is like an earth pony version descendant of Twilight. Because she and twilight have a lot in common, they wanted to learn more about friendship and wanting to become friends with other ponies that is not just one tribe, while also wanting to bring all creatures together and not to mention how Sunny is asking questions really quickly and wanting to learn more about the unicorns and Pegasi cultures like how Twilight have been ‘Twilighting’ in the g4 series.
So my theory of the new Mane 6 being the descendants of the mane 6 is a high possibility right there
For me it has to me
1: Zipp
2: Hitch
3: Izzy
4/5: Sunny and Pipp.
But over all I love all these characters
For me it's
Zipp
Izzy
Sunny
Hitch
Pipp
5. Zipp
4. Hitch
3. Pipp
2. Sunny
1. Izzy
Tbh I love all of them, but the top 2 are in a league above the rest, and Izzy is in a tier above that.
Well I hope not, cuz I ship Izzyscout and Hasbro definitely won't allow an incestuous relationship on a kid's show (since Lumity became canon, Izzyscout could too, unless they're related)
The Main 5 were pretty much some of the only great parts of the entire movie. The only problem revolving around them is that they were weighed down by the lackluster story and the terrible decisions the filmmakers made regarding it, which was pretty much everything.