Thoughts on G5

[Jon the VGNerd 891]

On 2024-10-11 at 1:16 PM, Brainstorm said:

I think G5 has potential

Also, it would be cool to see them explore more parts of Equestria and see Spike again

Sadly, its considered to be a wasted potential. Thank Hasbro and their awful creative decisions.

[Dior 198]

My thoughts of my little pony generation five have changed. I didn't like generation five when it first came out, I'll be honest the whole thing seems extremely rushed. 

Yes hasbro couldn't do as much as they wanted to due to legal reason but does that excuse overall rushed plotlines? Characters? Settings? Backgrounds?

I'll be honest they did what they could under the circumstances but I truly believe generation five should have taken longer to come out. It came around 2 years after Gen 4 ended? That's insane it's impressive but insane and it makes sense why I felt like I was watching the result of rushed production. I'm sure we all could have waited longer for generation five to come out.

Also not to mention they keep trying to connect back to generation four and also attempted to be something new at the same time. That's so ridiculous to me I'm sorry. Why couldn't generation five be something new? Why did it have to connect to the pervious one. To more than likely gain support from generation four fans which it failed at horribly.

It gave away the origins of alicorns in a throwaway line. (Which again this only bothers some people.) 

And now it's canceled. Because hasbro failed to be creative, and legal reasons of sorts.

Now for some positives because I'm not here to you know deal insult the thing all day.

I would say the episodes it didn't deal with the important lore stuff where some what interesting. It wasn't the worst TV show but it definitely could have been better but they did what they could I suppose 🤷🏽‍♀️

[KPackratt 532]

I personally think that G5 should've been its own separate generation rather than a sequel to G4, especially considering the Discovery Family contract restricted the G5 team's ability to include connections to the previous generation. I think the only reason they made this mistake was to draw G4 fans into the new generation as they were afraid that making it a separate generation without any connections to previous ones would turn fans away from it, when in reality it had the opposite effect for most people. If Hasbro had remembered that Discovery Family still held enough rights to G4 to prevent them from making references to it in G5, chances are they wouldn't have taken the route that they ended up choosing.

Edited January 7 by KPackratt

[Night Sky 708]

Responding to the OP;

I started Gen 5 by watching the ANG Movie. I thought matters were off to a great start, minus killing off Argyle after the introductory sequence.

But otherwise I liked it, and figured I'd be defending Gen 5 from its many haters.

Then I watched a few episodes of Tell Your Tale, and very quickly realized that I'd better stop and switch to Make Your Mark.

I read a few issues of the IDW Gen 5 comics.

I am now getting to Chapter 6 of Gen 5, I have stopped reading any of the comics and I avoid Tell Your Tale like the plague, or in this case the migraine and seizure inducing sensory assault that it is.

I find myself liking Gen 5 less and less, so now I am actually glad they pulled the plug.

I have some Gen 5 merch, my Zipp Storm will always be a centerpiece of my collection, for example.

She's easily my favorite Gen 5 pony, and easily the smartest of them all.

I don't like the changes in characterization that set in with Make Your Mark.

While in the ANG Movie, Sunny is no Twilight Sparkle, she is still curious, eager to learn and quick to stand up for what she believes in. 

And she does have clearly stated, strong beliefs in the movie.

In both MYM and TYT, Sunny never takes the lead on anything, the series both simply happen to her.

She's just kind of along for the ride. 

Yes, it is touching that Hitch Trailblazer is a Dragon Daddy, but it almost entirely prevents him from doing anything else, including his job.

Izzy more or less stays true to her own nature throughout Gen 5, I suppose so does Pipp.

Really, after the ANG Movie, the whole rest of Gen 5 can be summed up by the three screenshots below;

- In the first one, Zipp Storm sees something anomalous that is concerning to her, but all of the other ponies are either telling her to chill out, or are too busy eating to even notice that something is up. 

- In the second one, they are all scary AF, looking like members of a nomadic California UFO cult.

- In the third one, they had been behaving like greedy, sugar addicted pigs, crawling all over each other to get their fix from an unproven piece of technology, and now they're paralyzed with fear by the arrival of unforeseen consequences. Sunny Starscout, applied cyberneticist par exellance!

Perhaps it is for the best that we're not gonna have 9 years worth of this.

Edited yesterday at 02:54 AM by Night Sky

[Misty Shadow 8,119]

I keep seeing people complaining about this series being "wasted potential" because of this thing not being explained right or that thing not being developed right even as it barely had any time to do what it wanted to do. G4 did the exact same thing while it had loads of time to do what it wanted to do. Why does the series that had much less opportunity get railed on so much more?

[Otaku-sempai 612]

7 hours ago, Misty Shadow said:

I keep seeing people complaining about this series being "wasted potential" because of this thing not being explained right or that thing not being developed right even as it barely had any time to do what it wanted to do. G4 did the exact same thing while it had loads of time to do what it wanted to do. Why does the series that had much less opportunity get railed on so much more?

Maybe because of expectations for an announced "sequel" to Friendship is Magic. The show might have been better off if any connection to the previous series had been severed. 

[StaryStory 4,058]

Nearly 2 years later, I think I can pretty much say that I'll not enjoy G5 ever again. I had my ultimate disappointment with Tell your Tale a year ago in 2024, but at the time I still liked Make Your Mark and the 2021 Movie. I decided to rewatch them later and…well, I realized that I only really enjoyed them because of my hype with Ponies at the time (I just met MLP and finished G4 at the time). Like it happened with TyT, I was positive about it at first because the hype blinded me. For me none of these productions are really good, people like to say “wasted potential here, wasted potential there”, I personally honestly think that there was never really any potential at all, everything in it for me naturally feels empty and uninteresting, from world to characters. Nothing in it is really remarkable to me, for me the landscapes became memorable but only because of how incredibly bland they are, and I think visually it's even worse. For me the 3D isn't bad, but there's nothing impressive about it either, and TyT just looks bad as a whole. I really dislike the art style and the animation for me can't compare to FiM.

The only things I still like from it are the little backstory with Twilight, Spike and Opaline. The concepts surrounding the Together Trees, I still think they are very interesting, they keep many of the original concepts of the Tree of Harmony and its spiritual powers, that's something I always liked since FiM. And of course, Opaline is the one character I still enjoy from this generation, for me she's still very entertaining to watch, I would like to see a fan compilation featuring only her scenes, from both MyM and TyT, her solo episode is easily my favorite episode from TyT, I personally think she's a G4 villain in the wrong generation.

Other than these, I don't really care about the generation at all, the movie and both shows are just not for me, it's not the MLP I like, it lacks the magic that made me enjoy G4, it just feels too different from it for me, and honestly? That's perfectly fine, if their intention was to really make it feel very different from G4, I understand it, but I really prefer to stick up with G4 only.

I do have to thank it though because I only really joined the forum because I wanted to discuss the latest episodes of MyM with other fans. 

And even though I don't care about it anymore, I still think Tell your Tale and the generation didn't deserve to get cancelled. There are people who still liked it and many episodes were still being worked on, so for me that was a huge mistake from Hasbro. A production not being able to be finished is never good, especially when it has fans dedicated to it (like G5 has the TyT revival project)

Nowadays I just really moved on completely from it, there's nothing more I really have to say about it and I'm not interested to see anything more about it either. 

I think those who complain about it or say that it's bad should do the same, just move on, go back to enjoying G4, leave G5 and its fans alone, their community isn't big, and it might still be hard for many of them to accept that it got cancelled.

[Misty Shadow 8,119]

Currently on my third watch of Make Your Mark and almost done with my second watch of Tell Your Tale and...this series is still awesome. It is 100% nostalgia, G4 connections, and art style that clouds people's judgement on it. Just look at this.

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2025/06/poll-results-what-is-best-thing-about.html#disqus_thread

Not even 30% of bronies think writing is the best thing about FiM. The amount of people who value looks and lore more...like...no wonder you can't appreciate this generation's great writing. 

[StaryStory 4,058]

I personally think that if there are ways for people to appreciate this generation and say good things about it, comparing it with G4 is not one of them.

Also, what's wrong with the fact that most people started watching G4 only because of the art style? People like to see things that look beautiful or visually appealing, that's normal.

Yes, I started watching G4 because mostly of the art style, I still really like it. But I also continued watching the show because I really liked the characters, world and stories. The show entertains me. 

And I'm pretty sure the same goes for most people as well. They continued watching the show not only because of the art style, but because they genuinely liked the story and characters.

If people really liked it only because of the art style, then I think pretty much all anime would be a success. It's undeniable that most people (me included) only watch anime because they think it looks very appealing visually. But then why do a lot of anime just don't go well? Because these people stopped liking the art style? No, because they didn't like the story and characters. Most people start watching because of the visuals, these same people will stay if they like the story and characters. And as well, there are a lot of people who enjoy specific series because they like the story and characters, but dislike the art style. I don't doubt that this happens with some people who like TyT (or G5 as a whole). Art style isn't enough to carry people's interests in a show.

“But people only saw how good G4's writing is because the good art style allowed them to notice it”

Well, then I think it's a true mystery how a lot of shows, especially in the west, managed to be a success despite people not enjoying the art style, I saw many of them, even some anime, I already saw people saying that they like the story of a specific anime but not the art style. There are cartoons that I dislike the art style, but enjoy the story, there are a lot of people who enjoy the popular 2010's era cartoons from Cartoon Network and some other channels, but these same people say a lot how much they dislike the CalArts inspiration in those cartoons' art styles (I'm one of them). How can that be explained?

The “100% nostalgia” claim and the fact that poll only has 1000 votes on it, I don't know, doesn't mean much to me, for me that is generalizing people's thoughts on G5 based on a single poll from one fan dedicated site that, even though it is relevant, most people in the mainstream just don't know about it.

“no wonder these people can't appreciate G5's great writing, they value looks more”

Yes, I value visuals a lot, but I also value entertainment, and for me a script that entertains me is valuable. G5's script for me is just not good, In terms of it, I won't discuss, for me that goes from person to person, there are people who think G5's writing is better than G4's, that's good, G4's writing for me is a lot better, and that's good too, no need for comparisons. I could very well enjoy G5's writing regardless of the art style not being good for me, but only if the script was good for me, for me it's not and I bet the same applies to a lot of people who likes G4 and dislike G5, it doesn't entertain them like G4 does, just like how that exact same pool shows that more people voted for “story and writing” than for “art style and char design”, I would vote for story and writing too, because without it I wouldn't keep watching the series post-Season 1, as an artist, I know how visuals and art style are something very important, you need to make something that calls people's attention, especially when building a product and making characters that can stay in someone's mind.

People don't have to like G5's art style, especially because there are people who like it. For me, saying that people only like G4 because of nostalgia and art style is like spitting on the generation that was literally responsible for making G5 possible to exist, G5 exists because of G4's success.

Not everyone likes G4 or dislikes G5 because of the same reasons.

I think I am myself an example that it's not the same thing for everyone. I liked G4, MyM and TyT a lot the first time I watched them because of the hype. When I decided to rewatch them, I stopped liking G4 the same way I did, and I stopped liking G5 (in general). I didn't watch G4 when I was a kid, so how can this be 100% nostalgia? Or the art style? 

I stopped liking G5 because for me it's just not fun, for me it’s boring to watch, uninteresting. G4 continues entertaining me regardless of its art style. I watched G4 for the first time only a few months before G5, and for me G4 continues to be infinitely more memorable.

Idk, trying to diminish G4 just to show how good G5 is, seems unnecessary for me, I think it doesn't help G5 in anything and it and can only anger those who prefer G4, I know a lot of G4 fans are annoying and attack G5 fans for no reason, but trying to diminish it just to say how good G5 is only asking for more war in my opinion, no matter how respectful you try to be, If you really like the product then say good things about it, saying “G5's writing is good” but not trying to develop more on that or more good things about it... dedicating 90% of a post to G4 and the supposed blind nostalgia from its fanbase, that amount could be dedicated to appreciating G5 instead. I don't need to compare G4 with G5 or other generations to say how much I like it. I think there are much better ways for a G5 fan to express how good they think the script and other things about it are.

Or better, just enjoy the two generations.

[Felis Amafeles 1,225]

Compared to G5, I prefer the art style of G4, but that doesn't mean I don't like the art style of G5.
For me, the mane 6 of G5 are more interesting and complex than those of G4, which is why I love G5 

[ExplosionMare 18,835]

I'll always love G5 but I wish it had used all of its potential. It had a lot going for it and then it just...stopped.

[PluckyPizzicato 28]

On 2025-06-19 at 11:01 PM, StaryStory said:

I think those who complain about it or say that it's bad should do the same, just move on, go back to enjoying G4, leave G5 and its fans alone, their community isn't big, and it might still be hard for many of them to accept that it got cancelled.

A hundred times this. It's clearly already lost the war for most folks. Stop dunking on us. Hasbro did that enough already. I find myself not wanting to engage with G4 anymore because of people who actively seek out G5 fans to make fun of them. It's very clear that this particular type of person learned nothing about even being courteous, let alone friendship, from a series called Friendship is Magic.

I've accepted its cancellation by now, even though that took a couple months...but knowing what I do now, I feel like it was a very wrong thing to do. I am also worried a lot about any future generation Hasbro might make. Think about it; if G5 turned out this bad, why would G6 be any better? They already fired not only most staff from G4, but G5 too. Anything enjoyable will almost certainly not be carried over to a hypothetical G6.

G4 will always be there to enjoy, and what we have of G5 will be as well. But anything past this? I don't know...

[Sparklefan1234 177,389]

13 hours ago, ExplosionMare said:

I'll always love G5 but I wish it had used all of its potential. It had a lot going for it and then it just...stopped.

I miss G5 (every other) Thursday SO MUCH! 😭