I apologize again for a long absence. Various health issues and other irl stuff have put MLP stuff on the back burner. That said, I am grateful to be part of this group, and for all the support I get.

Now to the review. The trouble with Generation 5 is that it is so bland. I have a theory that part of G4's success was that it could be relatively scary (for a kids show). Take the first two-parter of G4. The stakes felt real, with Nightmare Moon, the dark forest, and even the Manticore. The animation lent itself to use dark, muted colors when needed, which added atmosphere.

The Bridlewood Forest in G5, in comparison, looks friendly. The aesthetic of G5 is pastel-colored all around. This, added with the lackluster writing, makes for a bland, if inoffensive experience.

Bridlewoodstock is a music festival hosted by Pipp in the Bridlewood Forest, during an event called Lumi-bloom. This is where at night, flowers become bathed in fluorescent light. Unfortunately, as the Unicorns know, there are mischievous creatures called Troggles that haunt the forest. Those who sing get their voices stolen.

Of course, the ponies end up besting the Troggles, and the festival goes on. I am skipping large chunks of the episode, because it all feels so samey compared to episodes prior. That's the problem with G5. When G4 was bad, it was at least interesting. Bridlewoodstock is on the upper end of G5, but that's not saying much.

Extras:
-The music acts Pipp and friends hire are all uninspired, save for the Dreamlands. They have an album cover with G2 ponies on it, and they reminiscence about the old days. I am not sure what the writers are going for. I thought the Dreamlands must have been in G2, and this was a decades long comeback, but nope. They were made for G5.
-At least the creepy baby dragon does not feature as much here.

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The Dreamlands cover art is actually a G1 reference, not G2. And I must say I disagree with your assertion that G5 has no stakes. Bridlewoodstock itself is a breather episode much like Winter Wishday was-a temporary break from the action. Chapters 2 and 4 focus quite closely on the main mystery, with the tension being built around figuring out what happened between G4 and G5 and precisely what Opaline's plan is. This is the reverse approach to G4, which was largely built around self contained adventures focused on a moral.

You sum up G5 quite well in that it’s the worst kind of bad possibly. The kind of bad where it’s hard to find stuff to talk about.

Very few episodes in G4 fell into that category. Even when the episodes were bad, from Swarm of the Century to the series finale, people are still talking about them and debating them to this day. With G5, it feels like Hasbro is trying too hard to play it safe. Cashing in too much on preexisting investment from the G4 fans while not having to try very hard. And since too many in the fandom just don’t know better anymore or had to lower their standards to remain invested, G5 will at least continue to turn a profit. Or maybe not. I’ve seen rumors around lately implying G5 is on the verge on cancellation, so maybe Hasbro’s not profiting off of it as much as it seems.

Going back to your analysis of G5 as a whole, I mentioned some time ago that G5 is a fascination devolution of the series. And I think I see why. The show appears to be trapped in I see as a three generation cycle. It happened with the last three generations. G1 started out very successful with the animated features proving to be greater than the sum of their parts, “G2” ended up being a step back and failed to catch on as much, with G3 and G3.5 taking the series to a new rock bottom.

And now the cycle repeats. G4 was immensely successful with a very strong start, but the decline began before the generation could even finish. Now we’re in the mediocre second phase of that cycle. G6 will likely be the next rock bottom before Hasbro has to go full scorched earth and start over with G7.

PS: The Troggles were Grogar’s minions in G1. They looked nothing like they do in G5.

Funny thing about Bridlewoodstock is that it takes place after chapter 4 (C4 spoilers in thread), but got shuffled around in production, hence why Sparky doesn't play a huge role, since they thought he'd be recovering from C4's events (and thank god for that)

The same-titled TYT episode and comic are also not half-bad, with Sparky actually doing something straight out of a good Spike episode (and getting no credit for it) in the latter

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On the subject of money, you have to remember Hasbro is a toy company at heart. MLP shows aren't expected to be directly profitable the way other entertainment is, but to drive toy sales which cover the production costs. I don't know what the numbers there look like, but with all the shit going on right now I wouldn't be surprised to learn it's not looking good. Throw in the writers strike derailing future production, and I can easily see them canceling G5 to shift to a toy-only G6, especially since that lets them bring back the G4 cast without having to justify it.

Also, remember that the adult fandom is virtually gone, and based on the front page most of the ones still here don't care about G5. They might still watch it and claim to like it because they think that's what's expected of them, but I doubt they're buying a meaningful amount of official merchandise.

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That's kind of sad. Do you think the need to sell toys limits what the show can do story-wise? I don't think it does if its' done correctly.

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Yes and no. If you're sensible about it, the impact can be virtually nonexistent, but Hasbro's idiocy on this is ultimately why they gave Faust the boot and ruined the show, so it's unambiguously a key driver of killing MLP.

As for doing it right, there are two halves of this. On the one hand, there's nothing wrong with making loosely related playsets which don't strictly map to an episode, especially for a property focused on little girls where it can absolutely be assumed that a semi-mundane activity like a tea party happened off-camera. It's also not that hard for the marketing and toy people to work with the creatives to come up with ideas that work well on both sides of the fence since they can both inspire the other, but that requires a willingness to collaborate (or an executive forcing them to get along). That said, there does have to be some give in both directions because the creatives have to respect the fact that at least some events and set pieces must be able to become toys just like the marketing people must respect the creative process. For example, it's just as unacceptable to the toy people for a character to live in a tiny, generic apartment as it is to force a new alicorn into the show, but with a little bit of cooperation between the departments this should never be a problem.