Make Your Mark: Chapter 1 - Overall Discussion

[Venomous 18,813]

It's out.

Chapter 2 will be released on September 26th, 2022.

Title: Make Your Mark
Release Date: May 26th, 2022
Written By: Gillian Berrow
Synopsis: Something’s wrong with Equestria’s magic, and it’s throwing the annual Maretime Bay Day festival into a tailspin! Can Zipp figure out what’s going on?

Edited April 14, 2023 by The Wife of Law

[cmarston1 5,951]

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.

Edited May 26, 2022 by cmarston1

[Sparklefan1234 161,633]

NO SPOILERS but I LOVED the Make Your Mark special! 

[Scilla Bell 103]

While I definitely I prefer the movie over this special, I still think it was pretty good! Has me very excited for the series.

Spoiler

Absolutely NEED to know who that shadowy alicorn and unicorn lackey are. Rotating them in my mind

 

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,151]

Not gonna lie; I actually really enjoyed this special! I'm actually stunned it was this good, but wow! I watched it during a slow day at work and just...I was actually wanting more! Never once did it ever lose me. I just adored this!

You could say that-

Spoiler

-this special was a work of tart. 

 

[The Recherche 29,965]

Not bad, although I did prefer the movie. The visuals are mostly good, with very few exceptions, all of which are mostly forgivable anyhow. There is also the humor, which I honestly found more miss than hit, although I did like the "who wants to hear a story" joke. I think my main beef with this special is that it very much feels like a pilot; this isn't its fault per se, nor can it really be helped, but pilot episodes are almost always the least interesting parts of ongoing stories, mostly because there is no established drama or conflict yet. It does have the benefit of not having to do any heavy lifting in terms of introducing the characters or setting, but it nevertheless did feel a bit plain. I am not too upset about it, though; I more or less expected it to be like this anyhow.

I suppose I have a habit of sounding like a downer, no? On the bright side, I do still think Zipp and hitch have a good dynamic, and their increased screen time was very welcome. I also appreciated how Earth Ponies have actual magic now, so they can feel more equal as part of the trio. And there is of course the villain reveal, who introduces a ton of new questions just by themself. There are plenty of mysteries to uncover in general, which I am eager to hear the answers to.

Gen 5 really does have a lot to live up to when you think about it, especially since Netflix could can it at any given time, but ultimately, I think things will turn out just fine for this series.

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

A good, but not great start to the series. 

[Splashee 28,537]

It has "Abridge" potential to it, so yes, it is good!

 

I will re-watch it once it is on Bronies React. It was quite good

[Will Guide 21,325]

I'll have to watch it on my lunch hour while at work.

And instead of season we have chapters and episodes

 

I made it to the last 15 minutes of the episode and it feels kind of strange to watch an episode without cut to black where the commercial breaks used to be

So far, I find Hitch to be adorkable, especially with that egg

[CastletonSnob 3,025]

The movie and special are glorified pilots meant to set up the show coming in September.

[Savygriffs 5,019]

OKAY I LOVE THIS SO MUCH OMG

 

I had to watch it a second time to really take in certain things, but I think this was really good in setting up for the series later this year.

I still kind of like Tell Your Tale a bit more though, but nonetheless MYM is great.

 

Spoiler

THAT ENDING THO. WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN. WHO.

 

[Rushing cash 824]

Okay, so it turned out better than I anticipated. The animation, while not great and at times pretty bad, was overall good enough not to distract me from what was happening but I do hope that the animation improves. 

As for the story, I enjoyed it, I thought it was complex enough but some parts could have been handled better. I am glad they addressed the magicless earth pony issue and it was handled pretty well. Glad that Zipp keeps getting her character and role as a heir explored. Izzy was great, and I liked the bits we saw from the others. I especially liked that Sunny struggles with figuring her magic out and I hope it will be explored in the series. Posey played a much smaller role than I anticipated, other than being aggressive towards the other races she did not do actually anything wrong, and even than she had logical reasons. I mean, many people will behave like her in these kind of situations. Hopefully she will appear from time to time. It almost felt, to me at least, like Haven is kinda hurrying to step down.    

Spoiler

Now... I am curious about the shadowy alicorn. From what she said it seems to me like she wants to rule equestria and all of the races, she needed the crystals. Perhaps the crystals were separated in order to stop her? Anyway, it seems she will be the first real villain in the series, I am glad that (it seems at least) they developing their villains instead of beating them in the first episode they appear. I am sure she will be reformed (hope not ) at some point, but regardless I am looking forward to seeing her again!    

The music on the other hand...   Other than the opening song, the rest was bad. I hope the series will have songs on the movie level.

Edited May 26, 2022 by Rushing cash

[Rising Dusk 26,012]

What a lovely watch.  Besides minor gripes about the downgrade in animation, specifically the movement and Izzy's eyes from some reason, I was very happy with the start of the series.  I like the focus on Zephyrina and extra attention on Pipp, almost evening out the movie a bit.  I think the VAs did very good, I might even prefer Pipp's new voice over her movie voice and singing.  The story made since taking place after the movie, Earth Ponies always got the short end of the stick and now that is being brought to light how unfair it could be and bothersome while others are still figuring things out.  Best of all, they now get magic too!  Earthbending would have been better, but Flower Power works too.

That end though... Whoa.  Awesome!

[Splashee 28,537]

It managed to not have rap music, so it passed my first quality barrier!

 

Posey was kinda rude and annoying, but I never gave up on that G1 pony!

 

Hitch seems too relaxed for his duties as a sheriff. But he gets points from me for having eyelashes!

 

 

Now, Zipp was best pony. It felt like she was the new Twilight, giving her a purpose to grow in this show. She was also very interesting to look at even on some bad animations, which I found adorable!

 

 

Now, let's complain about that 3D animation:
 

Spoiler

1. Looks like a video game
2. Animation is bad
3. 3D is 3D

Seriously, are these things really a problem? What is the difference between good animated 3D and video game animated 3D? Is it just animators being lazy? Or do we think about video games as soon as something is 3D? I can't tell!

 

I rather have video game 3D animation than Pixar animation. To me, there is nothing inbetween. And Pixar stuff hasn't changed anything the last decades for me to be a fan of it (I liked Toy Story from 1995).

 

 

 

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

Overall, I enjoyed it. The jokes were funny, the songs were pretty good, and the characters were endearing (except for Izzy who has sadly degraded and Posey who turned into a real jerk just for the sake of having a villain). There was a lot of fun to be had with this special. I wished there was more of a slower pace for the story, though, since everything seemed to move so fast and get resolved very quickly. I also noticed some similarities to G4 which I found interesting:

1. The voids opening looks like a scene that came straight out of Friendship Games

2. The magic getting corrupted reminded me a lot of School Raze only without the succession of the unicorns going first, then pegasi, etc.

3. The storms popping up during the arguments reminded me a lot of Windigos. Honestly, I was expecting Windigos but if they truly were around during this gen, the ponies would not have survived due to all the divide.

As for the animation, since I'm sure most people complained already, my only comment that it was incredibly stiff at times, like when the characters would jerk their necks around. I also felt a bit off put by how the lips were rendered, they looked human almost.

[Sparklefan1234 161,633]

I DID NOT like the design for the new villain. 

 

2 minutes ago, ExplosionMare said:

The voids opening looks like a scene that came straight out of Friendship Games

 

Yeah, wasn't that awesome? They even reused the purple! 

[Splashee 28,537]

4 minutes ago, ExplosionMare said:

except for Izzy who has sadly degraded

What happened to cute Izzy? She was so heartwarming in the movie She had this perfect voice too, like it came straight from some Netflix top show like... um.. Centaurworld (which I never watched but somehow know about)

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

It's alright. The only drawbacks I noticed firsthand were the animation, lighting, and story taking a really long time to set up. The animation wasn't as consistent, but on the whole, it was tolerable.

The conflict took a really long time to get going. Only about the twenty- to twenty-four-minute mark did the tension begin to display. It also didn't help that while Zipp was rightfully concerned, everyone kept secrets. Yeah, sure, there's the Bay Day Festival to worry about, but something like the egg washing up ashore really didn't need a "I gotta keep it a secret from the ReMane Four" subplot; cut that out, and the plot would've stayed the same.

I also have questions about how getting along meant keeping the Unity Crystal intact. When Izzy, Sunny, and Pipp were at their most creative and harmonious, the Unity Crystal was really at their best, and I'd argue right now that it's the best moment of the special. That said, not everyone is going to get along. There will be tension between individual ponies and between friends. Not everyone is going to tolerate others' presence. Xenophobia, racism, and being judgmental towards others are dead wrong and don't make for a healthy society. But anger and sadness are normal. I wonder how or if they'll address that. We'll have to see.

I do like the…

Spoiler

…ending with the evil alicorn. It's the first time that we've seen an alicorn be sinister, so I'm curious how things will go.

On the whole, a downgrade from ANG, but not too bad. Maybe a re-watch later will clear things up or change my viewpoints.

[cmarston1 5,951]

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.

Spoiler

And this would be seen in the the whole stinger with the alicorn villain and her unicorn lackey.  Given how MLP tends to handle its villains, I have a feel that the unicorn will get some form of redemption arc and end up joining the main cast as its 6 member and finally balancing the group.

 

[HereComesTom 2,232]

Reading a few other reviews here made me remember how much I liked the beginning of the episode:  having Zipp conflicted over where she's going to stay, partly because she's the crown princess of Zephyr Heights and theoretically should be living there, was a wise move on the writers' part.  I liked her characterization about how she felt like she needed to distance herself from the other characters early-on, and the character development of her growing out of that over the course of the episode. 

And I agree with cmarston1 that it was also good (and believable!) that the three tribes haven't automagically gotten along after centuries of mistrust just because magic is back, and how the use of magic is itself causing some problems; those are believable conflicts that extend from ANG, just like the question of where Zipp is staying.

I also liked the fact that Tell Your Tale appears to be canon as far as Make Your Mark goes; the Mane Melody salon and the Brighthouse were good concepts from TYT, and I'm glad they carried over.

 

Now for the middle of the horseapple sandwich...

Around the climax, there were some things I didn't like:  Zipp got a great deal of focus throughout the episode, which by itself is definitely a good thing, considering how underdeveloped she and Pipp were in the movie.  But when you juxtapose how much focus she got next to the fact that it was Sunny, not Zipp, who saved the day in the end...it felt like Zipp was what tvtropes calls a "Pinball Protagonist":  someone who gets a lot of focus, but doesn't really do much to affect the plot. 

At least, that's how it felt the first time I saw the climax; when I watched it again and paid closer attention, Zipp at least figured out what was going on and informed the other characters, and without that information, things could've been a lot more disastrous.  But it still felt strange that Zipp didn't have more of a role, or at least more screentime, in the climax.

 

That said, some of the last scenes of the first episode focus on Zipp and cap off the character development she got during the episode; that, at the very least, tells a good, continuous story within the episode.  Plus, it gives Zipp a solid role going forward:  Sunny sells smoothies for a living, Hitch is Sheriff, and Pipp has her salon:  we know how they make money, and what role they have in the community of Maretime Bay.  We still don't know how Izzy makes a living, but since it's implied Pipp is now a detective working for Maretime Bay, it gives her a permanent role in the town---not to mention excellent characterization.

Also:  thanks to this episode, I think it's safe to say she's not a Mary Sue.  Mary Sues, at least by my understanding of the term, are characters who the universe bends over backwards to show how awesome they are.  Zipp had her share of failures, setbacks, and moments she could've handled better during the episode; Mary Sues generally don't have these things.  (Again, by my understanding of the term "Mary Sue".)

 

Now, personally, I don't like the fact that earth ponies' super-strength was left out of the picture: there are some sources both in the G-4 cartoon and in its peripheral written material that say earth ponies have super-strength, often comparing that to pegasi's flight and unicorns' magic.  I figure super-strength ought to be enough magic for earth ponies; while adding the ability for them to conjure plants seems like it could make the show more interesting, I feel like the writers should've remember the super-strength and made that part of the story from the beginning of G-5, the same way flight was pegasi's magic and levitation was unicorns' magic. 

Then again, if there's an in-universe reason why earth ponies' magic shifted away from super-strength toward these plant-based powers, I'd be okay with it.

 

I'd say the part that has me thirstiest for more G-5 content is the evil alicorn we saw toward the end; we don't know who she is, but if there's anyone who knows who created the crystals, how the tribes got separated, why magic has shifted the way it has with the sun and moon and clouds appearing to move on their own, it's her.  She doesn't look like Flurry Heart or Luna or any of the other alicorns we know; if anything, her color scheme seems like Chrysalis.  (There's a creepy thought!)

I also like the fact that the writers keep mysteries like "what happened between G-4 and G-5" in front of us by bringing them up during the first episode; solving those could give the first season of Make Your Mark a good story arc.  Hopefully, the writers have figured most of it out, themselves, and have a good story to tell us while unveiling those secrets!  ...Revealing them at the right pace, of course...!

 

Overall, the first episode could've been better-done; the animation was another problem (at least at times), and the lightning left a little to be desired.  But at least it's got me wanting more, and every pilot should do that, so...that's something!

[Will Guide 21,325]

About one of the background ponies. I'll  Add in pictures once I find a good one of my subject

Spoiler

During the festival, (about 10 minutes and 30 seconds remaining on the clock on Netflix mobile app)

He was a unicorn, green all over, had green curly mane, green eyes and ate right out of the garbage can "Waste not, want not!"

He's like the polar opposite of Disgust from Pixar's Out, in that instead of being repulsed by disgusting stuff, he embraces it!

 

 

The "surprising" reveal that 

Spoiler

Earth ponies have the magic of making plants grow

isn't really all that surprising if you remember how the ponies races worked in previous generations.

I know it's kind of predictable but a predictable plot does not make a terrible episode.

What did surprise me was..

Spoiler

There's an Alicorn villain

That Zipp is now considered a detective

And it's nice to actually see a dragon hatch from an egg and we likely will see it grow and experience the world from hatch (birth) rather than only saw the hatching and early years in flashback only

All in all I think it's a good start.

Plus Gillian Berrow is the one who developed this for television as Lauren Faust did for Friendship is Magic

 

I looked at the end credits. And grouped in with the names of the characters and their voice actors for the Mane five there's a character named...

Spoiler

Sparky voiced by Rob Tinkler

Who do you think the character I mentioned is?

Spoiler

The Baby Dragon, perhaps?

 

 

On 2022-05-26 at 5:08 PM, Splashee said:

I rather have video game 3D animation than Pixar animation. To me, there is nothing inbetween. And Pixar stuff hasn't changed anything the last decades for me to be a fan of it (I liked Toy Story from 1995).

 

You rather have video game 3D animation than Pixar animation? Huh? I'm confused.

Pixar animation hasn't changed? Haven't you seen Luca or Turning Red? they have a more anime style to their Animation.

Luca having a bit of a Studio Ghibli feel to it and Turning Red was described by the director being like an anime fever dream.

I know it's not for everybody but I enjoyed the slight change in art style in those examples and am ok with what we see in Make Your Mark so far

[Steve Piranha 28,748]

Spoiler

Loved the evil alicorn.  makes me excited for what comes next 

 

Edited May 27, 2022 by Steve Piranha

[Props Valroa 25,971]

I do not have Netflix. Where can I watch this? 

[Jeric 46,834]

Here are my initial thoughts. 
 

Zipp stuff was generally the most interesting part. Everything else was … 

Man this was bad for me. I don’t even want to spend much time talking about why. It’s just … boring and unfunny. I’ll watch NG or TYT any day. This … ew. 
 

Glad some enjoyed it though. I hope things pick up and it starts to add something to these characters. 
 

 

[Fluttershutter 2,114]

It was pretty good. I was surprised that it connected to events in TYT.

The animation was a little jerky and the songs weren't nearly as good as in the movie 

Spoiler

I actually like the earth pony magic here better than in FIM. I've said before that their magic should have to do with plants, not just strength.

The dragon was cute and I assume he'll be able to speak ponish eventually. Hitch can't understand him now because he's just a baby.

Villian reveal! I hope they'll tease it for the whole season, gradually learning about her. But the whole thing bugs me. I doubt the writers have thought out how all this relates to FIM and I'm worried that the story will be a cobbled together mess.