S01:E24 - Starscout Code

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

Title: Starscout Code
Release Date: August 25, 2022
Written By: Ryan Denham
Synopsis: A message from Sunny's father leads the Mane 5 to solve the mystery of a magical blanket.

 

 

[The Nth Doctor 662]

Interesting that baby Sunny had the alicorn rainbow in her mane as a baby

Was she enchanted to hide her from the Alicorn from MYM until she was ready?

They were foretold ten generations/multiple centuries beforehand, and Alicorns are known for their longevity, so...

[DivineMist1000 71,358]

OMIGOSH I loved this episode! It really does show how Sunny misses her father but she has a new family with her friends and I thought that this was a very heartwarming episode! 

This show does a fantastic job at fleshing out all of the New 5 too. All 5 of them have had plenty of time to grow and develop and I think that these New 5 are all wonderful and amazing now! 

Best episode ever now again! 
 

Also… Zipp and Pipp figurines at the beginning too and did you notice that the jingle from the crystals was the MLP theme song?! 

Edited August 25, 2022 by DivineZipp1000

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

That...was absolutely outstanding! Albeit short due to runtime we actually had something that legitimately felt like an adventure and mystery. The emotional weight was strong and all of the Mane 5 contributed here in one way or another.

Goodness, that was FiM-quality and that's the first time I can confidently say that since the movie! Well done!

[Sparklefan1234 170,567]

This episode was ADORABLE and I LOVE mysteries so that made it even more AWESOME! 

[Starset Twinkle 499]

Ok, now this actually is my favorite episode. This was so sweet and gave me warm fuzzies. Also, it felt like the first episode that wasn’t pure slice of life! I like slice of life stuff a lot, but it was exciting to have a change of pace. They must be ramping up for the main series with this one.

The only thing that was still a little difficult was the super-fast pacing, which is why I really, really hope the main series is like this but longer, so they can take their time with it. We’ll see, but woohoo, make more like this please!

 

9 hours ago, Ashen Pathfinder-Geo said:

That...was absolutely outstanding! Albeit short due to runtime we actually had something that legitimately felt like an adventure and mystery. The emotional weight was strong and all of the Mane 5 contributed here in one way or another.

Goodness, that was FiM-quality and that's the first time I can confidently say that since the movie! Well done!

Completely agree, I actually felt like I was watching FiM for a bit, kind of magical :')

[Savy 5,077]

This was ADORABLE!!! Probably one of my new favorites!

[RDDash 19,172]

I liked Dan Brown 'Digital Fortress' episode spin off better 

[Octavian 5,421]

enjoyable lil ep. Again, Sunny feels like she's a mane character, and the world feels large and alive  

I like the way the mystery blanket is hidden by the different factions:

earth ponies hide blanket in horde

pegasi hide blanket under throne

unicorns hide blanket under games

 

[J.J 923]

I think the fact that Sunnys character puts an emphasis on loss in the family and the portrayal of how truthfully sentimental she is makes a lot of sense as to why she in particular is this chosen alicorn, and why her friendships are so important(mane 5 in specific). Applejack in gen.4 I mean we know the apples are pretty sentimental, and Sunny IS an Earth Pony, but back in gen.4 Applejack keeps her emotions to herself more so than opening up and being so emotionally vulnerable especially about dead parents, something she NEVER discusses or opens up about in front of her friends.. Sunny is more than just a cutie based on her personality/design, but how she has a sense of innocence and a lot more practical optimism than Mary sue like wisdom... It makes her more relatable in a lot of ways, Twilight is one of my greatest heroes, don't misinterpret what I'm saying, I'm just saying when people compare Twilight to Sunny, it doesn't work AT ALL because of very reasons represented in episodes like this, she's built up inspired to restore friendship, Twilight was reluctant at first and was merely doing what she was ordered to do by Celestia(thank God she was). Sunny never let the loss of her family hurt her inspiration or vision to restore magic and harmony, if anything it drove her further to do so. Twilight had a lot more to learn about the actual sentiment of friendship while meeting new friends along the way, Sunny already has a good idea of how to go about being a friend, and that is probably bc she is so infatuated by the legends about Twilight and her friends.. but Gen. 5 brings a new outlook on not just making and getting to know your new friends, but they tried to make each other's life styles seem so alien to one another, (unicorn, pegasi, and earth pony), that you know it really sets us up for a lot of misunderstandings, a lot of disagreements, and ppl have a lot of critique about splitting up the ponies, but it creates a big plot structure to reintroduce friendship to beings of all creed and nationality that have forgot about Equestrias legendary past, when teaching lessons on what it takes to make friends/be a good friend, there would be no lesson without these natural misunderstandings, it gave them a place to start not "well Since the rise of Twilight Sparkle, we all get along and nothing bad happens, were all happy, the end." It would have been harder making these new plot dynamics in a place without any flaws...

Anyways... Loved the short, thought the "idea" for the episode deserved a longer runtime than 5 minutes, as I have for a few of the TYT episodes, but I'm impressed with how they tried to be sentimental in TYT with only 5 minutes to work with and actually did a decent job at the end portraying her sentiment.

Edited August 25, 2022 by KingCorvus

[ProjectRKA 2,848]

This was such a good episode. Another one of my favorites so far along with Zipp's Yes Day. It was such a lovely surprise to see Argyle again and learn some more about him. I hope we'll get to see more of him either in TYT or MYM.

[Ganondorf8 11,303]

The only drawback this episode has is the short length. Something of this nature required the length of either several episodes or even a movie for it to fully embrace itself and how it contributes to the overall lore that G5 wants us to see. But, they managed to somehow make it work and I'd say it paid off. Seeing Argyle again was wonderful though they wisely chose not to dwell on what became of him resulting in Sunny being on her own (Remember that this is a show aimed for very young girls so the concept of death has to be handled carefully). Glad that he got some character development so now we can appreciate what he was like in life.

That rug having the main characters depicted on it... Talk about convenience for the sake for having them be united. On a similar note, I found it cute as to where each of the three pieces had been hidden which makes one wonder why they went and did that.

[ProjectRKA 2,848]

9 minutes ago, Ganondorf8 said:

The only drawback this episode has is the short length. Something of this nature required the length of either several episodes or even a movie for it to fully embrace itself and how it contributes to the overall lore that G5 wants us to see. But, they managed to somehow make it work and I'd say it paid off. Seeing Argyle again was wonderful though they wisely chose not to dwell on what became of him resulting in Sunny being on her own (Remember that this is a show aimed for very young girls so the concept of death has to be handled carefully). Glad that he got some character development so now we can appreciate what he was like in life.

That rug having the main characters depicted on it... Talk about convenience for the sake for having them be united. On a similar note, I found it cute as to where each of the three pieces had been hidden which makes one wonder why they went and did that.

That's really the sad part about TYT, in my opinion. While most episodes work great as 5 minute episodes, I think that something like this should be saved for the MYM show on netflix.

[Misty Shadow 7,866]

"That right there, is why you're the best, boss!" 

This is the first episode of Tell Your Tale to SHOCK me with how good it was. Not only is it the best episode of the series so far in my opinion, with its only flaws being short in length for its plot and short on humor...the story of it DEFINES what modern-day MLP should be about. A group of friends going on adventures across the world to understand more of their world, that's all you need. Slice-of-life stories are good too, but we've had enough of those, it's time for something new. And this episode has that. Even Argyle came back! 

[Skylight Scintillate 2,031]

Huh, well this episode certainly was interesting. Argyle seems to know a lot about what Sunny is going to do... Strange how it seems like there are so many artifacts being separated among the three tribes. First, crystals, now blankets.  That blancket is really nice, I hope we see more of it later. Finally, it seems like this episode had quite a bit of substance to it. It almost feels like It would have worked better as a 20 minute episode rather than a five minute one.

[Rising Dusk 27,674]

What a lovely episode.  I love the emotion in the beginning and seeing Argyle again.  Is TYT cannon?  I know it spoiled the Earth Pony powers a day or so before MYM came out and all.  If so, it raises so many interesting questions.  A blanket that prophesizes the rise of these Mane Five, ten generations ago?  Foal Sunny with her rainbow striped mane?  Still the absence of a mother even during filming and Sunny that young? 

Overall, still awesome they can added in a good amount of heart even when the motto for the show is comedy first.

[Rosy Moonlight 369]

13 hours ago, The Nth Doctor said:

Interesting that baby Sunny had the alicorn rainbow in her mane as a baby

Was she enchanted to hide her from the Alicorn from MYM until she was ready?

What if she is a descendent of an alicorn? or an alicorn who was regressed and depowered for some reason?

What if the Shadowly Alicorn is her aunt? or her mother?

A long-lost royal nibling or child is a concept the MLP fandom has been thinking about for a long time, and G5 is a great time to do it.

More crystal magic! What is it with Izzy's noisy glowing crystals anyway?

The Just Prance reference was smooth, and Izzy acting like Hoofdini was cute.

 

What if Izzy tried to be Hoofdini's stage assistant?

I imagined that she would try very hard to be okay with it, with being the assistant, but soon have to admit the job wasn't for her.

And she soon decides to become an engineer after realizing how much she enjoyed helping Hoofdini with stage engineering but doesn't want to travel all over Equestria for her work.

But that would leave the question of who is will be the stage assistant when one is needed.

I imagine Izzy being the kind of pony to not like being the "assistant" and traveling all over the place for work.

Edited August 26, 2022 by Rosy Moonlight

[cmarston1 5,959]

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.

[Star_Quake 28]

The beginning was okay, but something about this feels poor. I'm just not really into the idea of quilts foreshadowing Sunny's future. It just brings up more questions that I doubt the writers for G5 will answer. And why would they be hidden in such obscure places? OR even strange places for that matter. This feels like the writers are jumping off the idea of the connection/bond the mane 6 had with each other. With the rainboom and all. But this just feels lazy. Which has nothing to do with the 5 minute run-time, but if the show is going to bring up lore it should do that in the series.

[Fluttershutter 2,454]

That was really nice but it would have been SO much better as an episode or multi-episode of Make Your Mark, where they could take more time with it.

[Prospekt 11,018]

Very fun episode. It feels a lot different from what we've been getting. If it was my decision, I would've chosen to use this plot for MYM instead. The pacing here is a little too quick for a 5 minute episode. It deserves to shine in a full-length episode.

[Toastypk 923]

Oh my flipping goodness!

That was something!

I never expected Argyle to have a voiced appearance again.

And what does this rug/tapestry mean? It's as if Sunny and her friends forming was some sort of event known to happen.  Did Argyle know something gigantic? I saw a comment on Derpibooru wondering if since he had seen Hitch as a colt and Argyle's piece had Hitch on it, it's as if he knew something big was coming that was supposedly foretold.

I was starting to get really intrigued at the whole discussion of "the family", but they pulled that into a "friends are your family" sort of thing.

The only real thing I have against this episode is that it's a 5 minute TYT affair. This is the sort of thing that could have really gotten saved for MYM!

Edited August 26, 2022 by Toastypk

[Steve Piranha 29,424]

I feel this was better left as a MYM episode. I’m wondering how the blanket displays the Mane 5 if those were made generations before they were born .  It depicts a throne room, so maybe Sunny is prophesied to be the new princess. Also, Sunny having her rainbow spots as a baby is an animation mistake. I can excuse that when she was magically made a baby in a previous episode, but that shouldn’t be the case there

[Misty Shadow 7,866]

Okay, I know what I said about a very minor flaw with this episode being that it's short on length for its plot, but I'm rebutting the "it was better left for a Make Your Mark episode" complaint by pointing out that not only have we only seen the pilot for MYM so far, it's also very ambitious for a series of comedy shorts to tell a story like this. 

Edited August 26, 2022 by CloudMistDragon
So annoying when I forget to remove that image attachment...

[ProjectRKA 2,848]

44 minutes ago, CloudMistDragon said:

Okay, I know what I said about a very minor flaw with this episode being that it's short on length for its plot, but I'm rebutting the "it was better left for a Make Your Mark episode" complaint by pointing out that not only have we only seen the pilot for MYM so far, it's also very ambitious for a series of comedy shorts to tell a story like this. 

I do appreciate that they are trying to tell stories with a lot more substance in TYT though.