Izzy Moonbow: G5's Most Misunderstood Main Character

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

First time doing an essay for a G5 character, these are some thoughts on Izzy I've wanted to get out for some time.

https://www.deviantart.com/cloudmistdragon/art/Izzy-Moonbow-The-Misunderstood-Character-of-G5-963537245

Opening

I believe that Izzy Moonbow is the most misunderstood character of the fifth generation of MLP. Despite having been a fan favorite character from the moment she was introduced in a teaser that was released many months before the G5 movie premiered and being the most popular main character from the movie, Izzy’s popularity began to experience a downward trend following the premiere of the G5 shows, Tell Your Tale and Make Your Mark, with more viewers calling her “annoying”.

The former is more often cited than the latter when people speak negatively of Izzy’s character, however, Izzy behaving in a way people perceive as obnoxious is not the only reason for her waning dominance in popularity contests. As we received more content from both G5 shows, Izzy was hit by strong competition from Zipp Storm, a character who has been nicknamed “the true G5 protagonist” because of fans loving her character development so much, and Misty, currently the most popular character on the show with many fans being enthralled by her potential to become the franchise’s best reformed villain, with reformed villains in MLP like Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, and Tempest Shadow having always been popular characters.

So that means everything’s doom and gloom for Izzy, right? No, very wrong. Merchandise for Izzy is still high-selling and there are still not just G5 fans, but MLP fans who only regard the quality of G5 as fair who would go so far as to call Izzy Moonbow a better character than Pinkie Pie, her “G4 counterpart”. Izzy is indeed a strange case when it comes to fan feedback, feedback that definitely gives me the impression that she’s more misunderstood than anything. She’s always been surrounded by positive reception, yet it’s also not uncommon for positive reception for her to have a tint of disdain for the way she is occasionally portrayed, especially in Tell Your Tale.

My personal opinion on Izzy does align with the popular opinion of her being more likable in Make Your Mark, with her feeling more like a real person rather than a cartoon in said show. However, I have honestly never been annoyed by Izzy in Tell Your Tale. In fact, I generally find her over-the-top antics amusing. I know very well that what I find funny is not going to be funny to everyone. However, these over-the-top shenanigans are the root to some of the misunderstandings about Izzy’s character.

How Izzy is Misunderstood

The most notable example I can provide for a comedic exaggeration leading people to get the wrong idea about Izzy is one of the most infamous gags from an episode of Tell Your Tale, Dumpster Diving, where Izzy chases Posey on her moped in an attempt to get one of her earrings. This led some outraged viewers to go as far as to decry Izzy as a sociopath, and even a G5 reviewer who is known for reviewing G5 positively saw this moment as “Izzy becoming a terrible person”. Why are these comments reproaching her untrue? It’s already a wild claim, calling her a sociopath over a joke, but more importantly, what viewers making claims like this do not understand is that this kind of joke is faithful to Izzy’s character.

Izzy, since her debut in the movie, has always been “the innocent space cadet” of the main cast. She’s known for lacking awareness of what’s going on around her as well as lacking awareness of the impact of her actions. Posey, meanwhile, is known for bearing spite towards unicorns, loathing Izzy especially, spite that Izzy doesn’t reciprocate. Her motivation for chasing Posey down purely stems from a desire to do something nice for her friend, believing that she needs one of Posey’s earrings to recreate a lantern for Sunny. Looking at the full picture, doesn’t it make more sense now? Izzy does stupid and reckless things with pure intentions so that we don’t harbor animosity towards her when other ponies, especially ponies known for being mean, end up the butt of a joke.

Another episode where Izzy’s actions are often wrongly misinterpreted is Nightmare Roommate, where again, people don’t see that Izzy is simply unaware of the effect of her actions while only meaning well. Mistaking an electric toothbrush for an ear cleaner may seem hard to believe without context, but with context, it makes sense. Izzy has lived in Bridlewood Forest, by far the least technologically advanced part of the world, all her life. Telling her friends that she didn’t like their gifts was not her way of showing ingratitude. She flat-out explained that the way she was inadvertently inconveniencing her friends was her way of trying to be like them. The gifts initially had her worried that her friends didn’t appreciate her admiration of them and were trying to distance themselves from her. Even disregarding what people often misconstrue though, there is still much people don’t comprehend about Izzy because of what they don’t notice.

Understanding Another Side to Izzy

Another episode of Tell Your Tale, Foal Food, reveals that Izzy even made imaginary friends out of objects when she was little, with Señor Butterscotch not being her first. This is done to imply that Izzy has always been alone, never knowing what it was like to have friends before she met Sunny. This is also consistent with how there were no friends wishing her goodbye when she left Bridlewood in Sisters Take Flight, the first short of the 2D series chronologically.

Izzy is also a creative type, a personality type commonly associated with introverts, with her “element” being described as creativity by an official bio of her character. It’s not made clear what exactly inspired Izzy to be a creative type. An episode of Tell Your Tale, All That Jazz, shows her helping another pony get inspiration from music, and given what we’ve just discussed, a desire to fill a void in her lonely heart must be at least part of the inspiration. It wouldn’t explain, however, why she’s so invested in making new things out of trash. Unless you consider the possibility that feelings of loneliness when she was young were a detriment to her sense of self-worth, something she tried to remedy with a mentality of how “nothing is worthless”.

She’s also officially called “spiritual”. There’s even an episode of G5’s podcast where Izzy recounts being lost in a ghost’s “energy puzzle” for a day. This provides the opening scene of Nightmare Roommate, when she made something that looked like a ghost float when she was sleeping, with more depth. She’s been affected by experiences with the supernatural. Of course, unicorns also have “ghost cookies” and “ghost tea” (where small souls arise from said refreshments) in their culture, in addition to traditions with crystals inspired by occultism and cursed words with real magic. So what would make Izzy different from the other unicorns in this regard? The fact that she likely has a stronger sixth sense than them.

Izzy can see the luminescence, or sparkle, of other ponies, something likely meant to be inferred as their aura. She also mentions nothing about luminescence reading in Make Your Mark Chapter 2’s The Traditional Unicorn Sleep-Over, she only briefly mentions “sparkle seasons”, which could mean times when the luminescence of others glows brighter and is easier to detect. In the movie, Izzy explained that the brighter your sparkle was, the brighter it would glow. Analysts generally believe that Izzy didn’t have friends before meeting Sunny because of her upbeat personality being such a stark contrast from what unicorns were generally like, but I believe there’s more to it than just that. Other unicorns could have also rejected her out of jealousy or even fear of her powerful sixth sense and/or the brightness of her sparkle.

Even more evidence of Izzy having a stronger sixth sense than most can be observed with how she describes “hoof-reading” as something that has been in her family for generations. If it was her ancestors that started the tradition, then it’s possible a prowess for sensing the supernatural was something she inherited from her relatives. On that subject, Izzy has also been shown to have the ability to talk to the spirits of her ancestors, something we see in Make Your Mark Chapter 2’s Ali-Conned. To us, it doesn’t appear weird because of our familiarity with Izzy’s behavior. However, imagine how it would look to a random onlooker. Other kids might have not wanted to play with her upon seeing things like that, finding her to be “too weird for them”. It’s incredible how many possibilities there are for what made Izzy who she is.

Conclusion

Although we still have no proof of what exactly happened in the past that molded Izzy into who she is today, it should be much easier to see now that Izzy’s character has far more depth to it than normally acknowledged. She’s the farthest thing from a sociopath and she never needed any piece of G5 media to redeem her. There’s no malice in anything she does and her obliviousness is a product of her upbringing. It makes sense for her to lack social skills and not get certain things growing up with no friends. It’s also awesome how disregarding that fact, she possesses both fascinating otherworldly knowledge and abilities and a heart of gold. A character like her does not need great complexity to be good, but if you’re willing to adopt the insight into her, you’ll find so much to appreciate about Izzy.

Edited May 22, 2023 by CloudMistDragon
Super minor rewording.

[Evil Pink One 12,968]

I like the comic version of izzy.

Id go with this time line: movie the n comics. This is the only time line i could see is more connected to gen4... Gen 4 comics that is.

[Props Valroa 26,028]

Izzy to me is a lonely pony who wants to desperately make friends and spread joy to make up for the pain in her youth. She probably had a hard time that drove her to a deep depression that she never wants to feel again. 

[AlbaTross 1,581]

A for effort on your part.  I often write long posts, but you definitely put a ton of time into that.  With that said, there is a term for someone who lacks awareness of the impacts of their actions, but still harms others and destroys property, and that is criminally insane.  I have no doubt that Izzy's intentions are good, but as the saying goes, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.  Still, responsible for her actions or not, Izzy has done some bad things in the past.  Of course, she hasn't gotten up to such antics recently, so I'll cut her some slack for that, and I suppose she hasn't murdered anypony yet.  However, it is worth noting that Izzy did go through a bad phase, and I sincerely hope she's permanently out of it now.  

[Pentium100 2,056]

Yeah, I first saw Izzy as "less annoying version of Pinkie", because, to me, Pinkie would be really annoying (to interact with, if I was in place of some other character, she's fine to watch on TV though).

17 hours ago, CloudMistDragon said:

Mistaking an electric toothbrush for an ear cleaner may seem hard to believe without context, but with context, it makes sense. I

That's not the problem. The problem is using said item without asking for permission from its owner. Even if it was an ear cleaner or Izzy had figured out that was a toothbrush - it still would have been wrong to use it without asking. 

Some things could be expensive or they could have high sentimental value for their owner (even if the item is not very expensive in terms of money) and it is wrong to touch or use them without asking for permission. What if you accidentally break something valuable?

6 hours ago, AlbaTross said:

With that said, there is a term for someone who lacks awareness of the impacts of their actions, but still harms others and destroys property, and that is criminally insane.

Yeah. Well, that or being a child. But for children, there are parents who should take care of them and discipline them so they behave. Izzy's friends should not have to become her parents. 

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

On 2023-05-22 at 12:09 AM, AlbaTross said:

A for effort on your part.  I often write long posts, but you definitely put a ton of time into that.  With that said, there is a term for someone who lacks awareness of the impacts of their actions, but still harms others and destroys property, and that is criminally insane.  I have no doubt that Izzy's intentions are good, but as the saying goes, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.  Still, responsible for her actions or not, Izzy has done some bad things in the past.  Of course, she hasn't gotten up to such antics recently, so I'll cut her some slack for that, and I suppose she hasn't murdered anypony yet.  However, it is worth noting that Izzy did go through a bad phase, and I sincerely hope she's permanently out of it now.  

The way she "harms others and destroys property" is accidental and done for comedic effect. Cartoon invulnerability, no one is actually getting hurt. 

On 2023-05-22 at 6:30 AM, Pentium100 said:

That's not the problem. The problem is using said item without asking for permission from its owner. Even if it was an ear cleaner or Izzy had figured out that was a toothbrush - it still would have been wrong to use it without asking.

Izzy doesn't understand that, she lacks comprehension of the concept of personal space. 

On 2023-05-22 at 6:30 AM, Pentium100 said:

Yeah. Well, that or being a child. But for children, there are parents who should take care of them and discipline them so they behave. Izzy's friends should not have to become her parents.

It's also a possibility that Izzy has no parents. Tell Your Tale's Foal Food showed her being at Alphabittle's tea place instead of with her family as a kid and in the movie, you can see a birthday card she wrote to herself in the background in her house. 

Edited May 25, 2023 by CloudMistDragon
Minor fix of a sentence.