cmarston1

This was actually a really good one. There's a lot to be said about how the 5 minute run time limits the types of stories the series can have and how they can feel rushed and not end in a very satisfying way. However I feel this episode managed to use its short run time quite effectively. It honed in one simple but specific conflict and because of this it had ample time to cover it and have an actual conclusion. I also found the conflict to be quite relatable. Trying to get everything ready for the holidays and make everything can be very stressful and I feel that this episode was able to convey that through Sunny's experiences quite well. Besides that I rather liked the song, and overall I feel this episode had a good amount of Christmas vibes to feel appropriately festive for what it is. I definitely enjoyed this episode.

None of them. While there are certainly are episodes that I don't particularly like very much, and out of those some of which I wish didn't happen there aren't episodes that I flat out believe aren't canon.

I just finished the season and I overall I have to say that I really liked it. The first thing I noticed was that the animation was a clear step up from the Make Your Mark special. While being a TV show it doesn't have the same kind of budget the movie had, it no longer bothers me as for a tv grade CGI cartoon I actually think it looks pretty good in its own right. However the most interesting thing about the series is how it managed to blend being a slice of series with an ongoing series storyline. When this series and Tell Your Tale was announced I thought that the latter would be used to cover the episodic elements of the series while Make Your Mark would be primarily used for adventure and exploration and serialized storytelling. Given how G4 operated and how it handled its major events in its 2 parters being fairly separate from its slice of elements I thought it would be the same here. With that in mind I was surprised that wasn't the case here. With both elements blending smoothly with the episodic adventures being the a plot of the episode with each episode having a b plot relating to Opaline's ongoing quest to become more powerful. This was something that I found worked really well and helped to give it more of an identity compared to g4 which outside of season 9 didn't really do overarching villains, and even then never to the extent that Make Your Mark is going for. This ended up being something that I really liked about the season, and hope to see continue onward in further chapters. So yeah overall a good season and I look forward to seeing more from this series going forward.

Ok with chapter 2 of Make Your Mark coming out tomorrow, I felt now would be as good as time as ever to give me last minute thoughts on these clips. From them I can tell there are few things that I found interesting. The first of which being how ponies still haven't got a hundred percent control of their magic. With that being a major source of conflict in the first special as well, I wonder if that means this will be an ongoing throughout this upcoming season as well. Next would be the return of Sprout. After the events of the movie we haven't really seen or even heard much about him. With this in mind I wonder what he has been up to and what purpose he will have in the Make Your Mark series. Given how he was against the whole bringing magic back to Equestria thing the mane 5 were up to, I am interested in seeing how he will react to the fact that he now has magic. I think that could lead to some interesting things going on with his character. The last thing I found worth noting is the whole cutie marks glowing when the mane 5 use their magic together thing. This was something I noticed during episodes of Tell Your Tale, but I thought it was just a visual thing. With this in mind I find interesting that it is actually going to be a plot point, and by that I mean it signifies that their magic gets stronger when they work together, kind of like how the mane 6 used the Elements of Harmony. I wonder if this signifies the return of them, or that the Unity Crystals or some other form of magical artifacts will be used in a similar manner in the future. Either way I'm interested in seeing how it plays out.

If I had to chose just one I would probably go with The Cutie Re-Mark to prevent Starlight Glimmer's redemption from ever happening. While sure eventually she became a character I liked, that doesn't change the fact that her redemption "arc" if you can even call it one was rushed and sloppy. And that's not even getting into how her role in the show felt superfluous given that there were multiple characters that filled at least one aspect of it. Sunset Shimmer was the main antagonist who became part of the main cast, Spike was Twilight's confidant, and Tempest Shadow was the antagonist with a tragic childhood backstory. And thus nothing really much would have been lost if it never happened in the first place.

Given how her scene in the Make Your Mark special was framed, I kinda got the feeling that she is meant to be an overarching villain. Whether this be for just the first season, or the series as a whole, I'm not really sure. But either way I got the sense that she was meant to be a villain that would be a part of the story for more than just one or 2 episodes. How well this will be handled has yet to be seen, but if my prediction that the Make Your Marks series would be more adventure based and serialized story compared FiM turns out to be correct, than having an overarching villain could help to reinforce this. And honestly I wouldn't mind having one. I think it would be a nice change of pace to be honest. I remember being disappointed with how technically she was a recurring villain in season 5, just how little Starlight Glimmer appeared in the season, so with that in mind I would be willing to see My Little Pony try to tackle this more properly this time around.

While I don't really have a lot to say about this episode, I can say that this was a decent outing for Zipp and helped showcase that turning her into a detective was a pretty good move on the move and the part of the writers and this direction they are taking with her character is one I rather like. Which given how she was relatively underutilized in the movie, it's nice to know that in both series she has a lot more to work with.

I thought this was a weird one. While it was sweet and heartful and all that jazz to see an episode that addressed Argyle and Sunny's relationship and how she has made new family with the mane 5 after his passing, I found the whole blanket having all of the main characters on them to be kinda confusing. Like I could at least get if it only had what looked like an adult Sunny on it as given it was a family heirloom it could be rationalized as being one of her family members or whatever, but having Hitch and the others make it seem like Argyle knew that Sunny and them somehow become friends and save Equestria. It's like they were destined to do so, and I'm not sure how to feel about that. But on the other hand I did like how despite being only 5 minutes this did feel like more of an actual adventure than what we had with previous episodes. That did help it to stand out. I also really liked the moment where Hitch mistook Sunny telling him to use his earth pony magic was for him to use his animal talking skills and not G5's plant magic. I thought that was pretty funny.

Sheesh you guys are right that evil alicorn really is ugly. That shade of purple is just way too saturated. But on the plus side at least we got a better look at her unicorn lackey, who actually does look pretty cute. And yeah even from just these few screenshots it does look like she is already being set up for some form of redemption arc in the future.

Personally I would have advised Sunny to lie low for a few days and wait for some other controversy to overshadow hers. With that being said Pipp's advice to roll with the punches and lean into it was something that I wasn't expecting but seem to worked pretty well. And It did seem to make for a good moral about owning your mistakes and not letting them define you. Overall a decent episode that I ended up liking more than I thought I would have.

I thought this was a fun one. I enjoyed seeing that Hitch's ability to speak to animals is going to be something explored further in the future with both this series and Make Your Mark. And overall seeing Hitch struggle to get the animals to contain themselves was fairly entertaining. Plus we got ourselves the first Hitch solo song, so that's a win in my book.

The most noteworthy thing from this episode to me was the revelation that Rocky is a pegasus. All this time I thought he was just an earth pony wearing fake wings. I'm not the only one who thought that, right?

Oh so kinda like King Andrias from Amphibia. Honestly if Discord is going to go back to being some form of antagonist, having it stem from grief and self loathing that came from loss, honestly would be a portrayal I could get behind.

Hmm. So apparently this episode focused on Izzy making the Maretime Bay day gift she ended up giving to Sunny in the Make Your Mark special. Interesting. I wonder if this means that more of the Tell Your Tale shorts will focus on these small moments that we don't actual see in Make Your Mark. And honestly I wouldn't mind seeing that happen. It would help make the two series feel more connected to one another, and make both feel worth your time.

Interesting. I actually forgot the whole Misty thing before you brought it up. I already thought that the unicorn was going to get a redemption arc and join the main cast, but putting this into perspective, it looks like we might actually have a name for them, and I have to say that this adds more credence to this theory.

I just realized something. Given how initially Friendship is Magic's cast of 6 main character consisted of 2 members of each pony race, the fact that A New Generation only had a main cast of 5 with 2 earth ponies, 2 pegasi, and only 1 unicorn was something that a lot of us found to be rather strange. Especially given how this series going forwards really wants to stress the importance of equality between all races, having them all be equally represented in the main friend group would be something that would help reinforce this concept. However after watching this special, I have a feeling that there is going to be a new addition to the cast, and I'm not just talking about the baby dragon.

Okay so here we are the first official episode of Make Your Mark. After watching it I have to say that the series is off to a pretty good start. With how it was clear that there was a huge amount of tension between the different pony races before the events of the movie, I liked how it was addressed that even after it and with the magic coming back, that didn't magically make things better. There were still underlying tension that needed to be addressed and confronted. And even the magic itself lead to new challenges with ponies still learning how to use it after not having it for so long. I generally thought this was a pretty solid way to set up the type of conflict and challenges that the rest of the series will be addressing further. I also liked how it focused on Zipp and give her some much needed fleshing out after how the movie itself didn't spend nearly as much time on her as some of the other characters. The songs were fun and catchy, and overall I found that this special carried the same amount of charm that made me enjoy the movie in the first place. So yeah, I have to say that I'm looking forward to seeing what else Make Your Mark has in store. Also is it just me or does it seem like this generation is specifically addressing how fans of G4 viewed earth ponies. I mean in the movie, Izzy straight up sings about how she though earth ponies were the pony race's ladder's bottom rung, which let's be real is how a lot of fans viewed them in compared to unicorns and pegasi. And now in this special it seems to address the fact that earth ponies never seemed to have as much defined magical abilities as unicorns and pegasi. It even ended with Hitch gaining the ability to speak to animals and Posey being able to magically conjure up plant life. So like I really think the people involved here took the complaints against earth ponies being supposedly useless and actively went out of there way to make them more interesting or magical or what have you.

You guys are right, the animation here is pretty good. Hitch and Posey had some pretty good facial expressions and body language. And honestly if this what we can expect from Make Your Mark going forward, then I don't think there is anything to worry about regarding its animation.

I was just wondering when we were going to get a trailer for it. So it's nice to finally get to see how it looks in action rather than judging it based solely on screenshots and like 5 second clips.