G5 is a Lost Cause

[Rafa Stary Mini 2,872]

The letters in your post are too small for some reason! But I still read everything don't worry 

17 hours ago, nataalya said:

0) I love the new cast, the ideas for the episodes are great.

Love love them I don't but I definitely like them and think they have lots of potential, but TYT lately has just left them bland and uninteresting in my opinion, I'm just no more seeing in the recent episodes the characteristics that make them really fun to watch.

17 hours ago, nataalya said:

1) The G5 is worse to the previous generation in e v e r y possible way

I was thinking about this, and if I should include in the post, but there's one thing (or two things) I actually think G5 does better than G4, but I believe this is extremely subjective, that's why I ignored it in the post, which is that the G5 actually makes whole arcs for the villains, so they made Opaline appear throughout several episodes, thus making then have a longer development, I really liked that and that made me enjoy Opaline more than any of the G4 villains, and the fact this is one thing that G5 tried to do different from G4 just makes me like it even more, as it's somsething pretty unique to it, but that's just how each generation decided to deal with their villains, G1 does it in 5-10 episodes, G4 in 2 episodes and G5 makes a entire story arc, I just prefer the G5 style for this, but I'm not sure if this makes it necessarily better than G4 in this aspect.

17 hours ago, nataalya said:

2) The animation from the movie was beautiful. The later chapters of MyM were also well done.
3) The worst thing about G5 is TyT. Great characters, great episodes and everything cut down to a 5-minute video where sometimes 20% is the introduction and end credits. This completely kills the scope for adding depth. I wrote about it from the beginning.

I really like the 3D too despite the clear downgrade in MyM, but they had no escape, but it was good, unfortunately the same effort isn't put into TyT's visuals and that is just super cheap.

Yeah I also think the worst thing in G5 is TyT, I don't think it was in Season 1 because for me it fulfilled its purpose during that time, it was meant to be this minor production with no intention of telling deep stories, so there was no need to watch it if you didn't want, which is why I think TyT is a problem now, they finished MyM, but the story continues after MyM, so they are forcing us to switch to this really bad short format if we want to know what is going to happen. And yeah 20% of a episode is wasted in introduction and credits, sometimes it's worse, there was one where 65% was Hitch taking care of animals and 35% was Allura, I don' need to see more of Hitch taking care of animals, I already know his skills, I need to see more of Allura, and I can't even say that if the episode was 20 minutes long I would've seen more of her, given how even in the 20 minutes special she got little screentime, I don't get it. Imagine if FiM's story continued into Pony Life? That is just what happened with G5.

17 hours ago, nataalya said:

4) Personally, I secretly hope that MyM had to end... I also hope that this is not the end of G5 and we will get a new 3D series. What I mean is that MyM was only on Netflix - the new series doesn't have to be, right?

i don't know but I have the feeling that MyM was already thought as a series not planned to run for years from the beginning, if the 3D was indeed expensive, then I can't imagine them expecting the series to last longer than just 1 year and a half, I'm almost sure if they did another 3D series, it would be around the same length as MyM, the series they choose to continue was 100x cheaper and 2D, that's why I don't think they are going to make "MyM 2", the cheapest investment with the highest return is the best choice for these companies (I'm saying from a corporate perspective, I really don't know if that's indeed the case of TyT), also I don't know but I don't see them releasing this series for free on Youtube, but that's me, maybe they would, based on how they like to upload clips and scene compilations of the MyM episodes but not never the full actual episodes, I think it might have something to do with a contract with Netflix (it was in those plannings from Hasbro's last year presentation after all)

17 hours ago, nataalya said:

- MLP has a main target for young children
- This is a franchise and it's all about money
- "We might not have had a new generation or sequel to G4 at all so stfu and don't criticize and judge badly" 

This is the absolute bottom of the discussion. The first thing contradicts the second. Closing yourself to potential consumers, even if it is % of viewers, is not good for someone or something driven by the desire for profit. Especially if that % has their own money. The claim that a cartoon must be for children is perfectly understandable, but it does not justify the deterioration of quality, mistakes and all the rest. Gumball, for example, was a children's cartoon. But the number of jokes and ideas that only the older audience could understand is overwhelming. Bluey is also a charming cartoon that teaches adults a very solid lesson. G5 does everything worse than G4. Talking about how G5 might not happen at all is completely unnecessary. Because it happened and it doesn't change anything. The question remains whether such a policy makes sense in the long term. I bet that many of today's children watching MLP had parents who associated MLP with G4 a few years ago. My younger sister cried when she saw the new ponies because she realized that the old ones were gone. She doesn't watch it, sometimes she rewatches previous seasons. Will today's kids build the same bond with new mane that we did? I doubt it. Everything is limited to short jokes and simple morals. This may translate into the fact that generation 6, if it were ever to be created... if it was written in such a poor way as the current one, would have a completely unsatisfactory result that would end it even sooner than what we currently have. If MyM had appeared during G4 as a side series and content on YouTube, it would have been completely ignored. Currently, we have children of parents from the old generation, we have the old generation themselves, we have a well-made movie, a nice MyM series. TyT is the waste in all this.

It doesn't matter to the company that you're a "deviant"... all that matters is that you have money for their product. It's potentially better to have fans who will spend tens or hundreds of dollars to complete your products. For me, at this point, walking the line that the target group are only children... and cutting yourself off from the rest is simply shooting in the foot. Illogical. And it's not about going to extremes. I never buy this explanation. 

Here you enter a territory that I have to tread with caution because I don't know very much about it, I'm not saying that you're wrong, you could be right, but the lack of information and certainty that I have doesn't allow me to reach a conclusion, but anyway. That's why I said that I would have no problem with it if the entire purpose of this generation was to be like TyT, just focused on the children, with these short episodes and stories with no depth at all, I would've disliked it but I would've understood and accepted it, I would recognize that it just wasn't for me, now, if even kids may be unhappy with G5, then...?, no idea, I just assumed that TyT is made mostly for children due to how it's written and generally made, while MyM was made with the Bronies/G4 fans in mind, that's why the longer format, the better visuals (I know you can't compare 3D to 2D, but let's admit, this one is a strong exception), deeper stories and all the G4 connections, I actually forgot to talk about this, but TyT also lacked connections to G4 in its first season, there were one or two references in a few episodes, but generally, it really lacked them in comparison to MyM, why? Because Hasbro must thought that kids don't care about the continuity, the connections, these stuff, that they just want fast 5 minutes sillines, I say this because I can imagine a kid not having fun watching MyM due to its more "mature style", but that's just speculation, if they don't like TyT then Hasbro is failing both sides, if it continues like this then I'll just be more convinced that they are going to close the doors for this generation in 2025.

17 hours ago, nataalya said:

6) "G5 generates the same or greater profits than previous generations"
It's just marketing. A good face for a bad game. "All we did well as we planned and we have got what we headed for"... please... 

It's what written in that image from their presentation last year XD "TyT viewers 22% higher repeat purchase rate than other MLP shows" "93% of the Girls want to buy TyT and love it!" "Higher than MyM, FiM, Barbie and Rainbow High!", I wouldn't call them straight liars, but damn, when things are reported to be this good, it's because there's always something suspicious about it, there's at least some evidence to prove part of it, like the views, TyT episodes perform all above 100k views and there is the big plus of the series being uploaded in two channels plus the many International MLP and TyT channels around the world also uploading it. Now the rest is an exaggeration, I strongly doubt that if it was all these flowers their plans would have changed, if TyT was really a blast then they wouldn't have to worry about releasing episodes every week, I believe that no one is innocent enough to think that the company will arrive at the presentation and say "hmmm well, our product isn't doing so well!"

17 hours ago, nataalya said:

and that's why most of their official channels have great old series (I'm talking about the current state, the "old" generation is uploaded more often than the new one and if a new generation is uploaded, it achieves at best similar numbers to the previous generation, lol) + they have to add previous ones to new as the toys.

This is another red alert, so TyT is a blast and performs better than other MLP shows, right? Okay, then explain me why there are much more FiM content uploaded on the MLP official channel than TyT content? Not only that, but there's also more Equestria Girls there than TyT, "but there is a channel just for TyT" there are also channels just for FiM and Equestria Girls only, and not only that, the FiM and EQG live streams always have more views than the TyT streams, both on MLP official and on the channels focused on each of the respective shows, it's very notable, and I'm not even counting the fact that the FiM and EQG channels strangely always have 2 streams going on at the same time, so I made a fair comparison since TyT is always just one.

So there is something wrong, compare it to the Transformers channel, there they upload all the Transformers shows in the same pattern, one episode of each show, no priority to one over the other, and the streams oftenly also have around the same number of viewers for each one of the shows.

17 hours ago, nataalya said:

I understand it from the point of view that "let's make 5 short videos that will generate 5x more views than 1 long, more demanding and expensive one." Personally, I doubt that the company keeps any separate statistics for each generation. G5 did not achieve their current results individually. There is still support from G4 fans here. TyT itself is strongly supported by a full-length movie featuring themselves. Many G5 viewers mainly follow TyT due to the numerous additions to the main line from MyM. The issue from the beginning of the post - MyM was released only on Netflix as an exclusive. In itself, the fact that new generation toys often come with previous mane six says a lot. In my country, the new generation is not received at all. Pity...

7) The connections between G4 and G5 were so poorly made that at some point I stopped paying attention to it.

I agree that G5 is a huge wasted opportunity. Even apart from the comparison with the G4, the G5 is simply poor. I'm not saying this as a hater. I'm seriously sorry about this. I love the new characters, the ideas for the episodes are very interesting and it's a pity that all this was and is lost on TyT.

You know? I would be a lot more okay and probably wouldn't have made this thread if they at least made MyM as the end of G5's story, not the generation, if they continued with TyT after it I reallly wouldn't mind it, but if the story and all those character arcs ended in MyM, and TyT Season 2 happened with no intention of continuing the story, just being a silly series with nothing really interesting going on, maintaining its position of a minor production, I would've understood it, I would still be disappointed because I would be sad that the story for G5 would've ended in MyM and we wouldn't be getting more of it, but I'm wouldn't be this disappointed to the point of making this thread, because what they are doing is the opposite, they're continuing the story in TyT and forcing the ones who liked MyM to watch it if they are curious about the story, this is just unacceptable for me, continuing the story of a movie franchise or a series in something like a comic is one thing, this is just straight trolling the few fans like me who actually supported this generation, I didn't love G5 as G4 but I also barely complained about it even though it has a lot of problems, I still supported it, I paid Netflix to watch it, and this is what we get in return? we deserve better, they at least had the decency to keep MyM instead of taking it off Netflix and not uploading it anywhere else, that would be just outrageous.

Also, I forgot to mention this little detail, but now that you said in the end "all of these cool stuff in lost in TyT", remember Zipp's detective logs from MyM? So...she's not even doing them in TyT, but she did it in the recently released game "A Zephyr Heights Mystery"! So awesome but ironic at the same time, for you to see how good things are 

By the way, thanks for reading it ^^

[knabstrupper 8]

I know a lot of people are tired and sick of complaining about G5 but honestly even honest critique is shunned. I understand just dunking on the series senselessly is annoying but to actively condemn people giving their honest feelings on the series is just as bad as needlessly insulting it.

But anyways besides that, I was so hopeful for G5. Infact the "which pony is your favorite" in the G5 thread was made by my old account and I would try my best to post all the new info on it. But years later I have grown tired and with every new episode I just think "I wish they could've put the money and resources from this to an actual good quality series"

 

I do not think g5 is bad however it is extremely unfocused. The two series being split is definitely something i'm not a fan of at all. The thing that really set off red flags for me was when such a big moment in the story, something that would be a game changer and cause excitement was just thrown in a one off chapter comic. Glimpses of g4 are used as fan bait rather than anything meaningful to the story. Nothing in g5 feels impactful or filled with passion. It's all corporate, more so than g4 which is wild since it too was made purely to sell toys. However it was still able to capture the attention of groups of all ages with interesting stories, characters, and designs. Meanwhile g5 has a very hard time developing characters and making them enjoyable. The characters I like the most like Misty are only good because they have some hint of development but it's still so contrived and trope-y that it barely holds any weight to it.

 

I am at this point just waiting for g6. I hope this generation doesn't continue for much longer so they can put their resources to a new gen and learn from their mistakes. I do not want a repeat of g4 and i'm not criticizing g5 because i like g4 so much. In fact I would actively encourage an entirely new generation with new lore and characters. The old g5 concepts were much better even if i didn't like their reuse of the mane6.

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

Yup such a loss they should've 

Just made gen 4 "remake" hopefully they do that sooner. Annyway gen 4 season 1 has more than a decade of a gap so they can make a remake.

Whenni say remake:

That means change some stuff for the better. Like removing or remodelling or changing the story of the buffalo. Giving starlight glimmer a better and deeper back story. Give trixie more air time. Give big mac more air time. Give big mac the love triangle we- I MEAn HE deserves!

The pie sisters.

Better discord episodes.

Spike.... Make it more..... More? I guess?

More villain episodes!

 

[FirePuppy 733]

4 hours ago, knabstrupper said:

I am at this point just waiting for g6. I hope this generation doesn't continue for much longer so they can put their resources to a new gen and learn from their mistakes.

There may be no G6 at all, likely because of Hasbro's revenue going down to record lows.

[donutmasterjoe 201]

1 hour ago, Evil Pink One said:

Yup such a loss they should've 

Just made gen 4 "remake" hopefully they do that sooner. Annyway gen 4 season 1 has more than a decade of a gap so they can make a remake.

Whenni say remake:

That means change some stuff for the better. Like removing or remodelling or changing the story of the buffalo. Giving starlight glimmer a better and deeper back story. Give trixie more air time. Give big mac more air time. Give big mac the love triangle we- I MEAn HE deserves!

The pie sisters.

Better discord episodes.

Spike.... Make it more..... More? I guess?

More villain episodes!

 

They could easily partnership with some studios to create a movie based off since the start of G4 until the end as an anniversary commemoration, so Hasbro could use that to sell G4 toys again. But a full G4 reboot, I doubt. At that point it's better a G6 which much love as G4 had.

38 minutes ago, FirePuppy said:

There may be no G6 at all, likely because of Hasbro's revenue going down to record lows.

MLP is not really tied to DF entirely at all, and by that I mean as a franchise. Hasbro still own the franchise in a way, even if isn't tied to G4 and G5, they could still do something about it. Or, in worst case, sell to other company considering they're losing a lot of profits, and Hasbro already did that, not in the past but recently, they sold Littlest Pet Shop rights to Basic Fun which is now making G7, because after 3 full generations Hasbro completely failed in recovering the money fron early gens, which is almost like what's happening with MLP too, so yeah, no G6 if that's the case or Basic Fun could handle a G6.

Edited June 9 by donutmasterjoe

[AstraLotus 24]

I have watched all of G4 and the G5 movie, to a newly returning brony do you suggest watching G5's other content?

[donutmasterjoe 201]

1 hour ago, AstraLotus said:

I have watched all of G4 and the G5 movie, to a newly returning brony do you suggest watching G5's other content?

I suggest if you're okay that MyM and TyT aren't in the same level of story telling and quality as the movie. MyM is decent, it tried telling the story meanwhile TyT were fillers that complement some less screen world and character building, however since MyM had been cancelled and ended at Chapter 6 which many haven't been very happy with everything that happened, note that now you have to watch TyT since it'll be where the main story is going to continue, as well with the specials. There's also the comics but I barely see anypony commenting about them except for the issues of Set Your Sail within the most recent TyT special.

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

6 hours ago, donutmasterjoe said:

I suggest if you're okay that MyM and TyT aren't in the same level of story telling and quality as the movie. MyM is decent, it tried telling the story meanwhile TyT were fillers that complement some less screen world and character building, however since MyM had been cancelled and ended at Chapter 6 which many haven't been very happy with everything that happened, note that now you have to watch TyT since it'll be where the main story is going to continue, as well with the specials. There's also the comics but I barely see anypony commenting about them except for the issues of Set Your Sail within the most recent TyT special.

Actually the comics has better stories to read than the picture show...

[KPackratt 243]

On 2024-06-11 at 8:09 AM, donutmasterjoe said:

I suggest if you're okay that MyM and TyT aren't in the same level of story telling and quality as the movie. MyM is decent, it tried telling the story meanwhile TyT were fillers that complement some less screen world and character building, however since MyM had been cancelled and ended at Chapter 6 which many haven't been very happy with everything that happened, note that now you have to watch TyT since it'll be where the main story is going to continue, as well with the specials. There's also the comics but I barely see anypony commenting about them except for the issues of Set Your Sail within the most recent TyT special.

If there was a way to watch Tell Your Tale other than YouTube, I'd be okay with that. I'm personally boycotting that site given all the bad things they've done over the past few years and that they're now going after alternative means of watching YouTube videos (i.e. downloaders and frontends), but I won't go into detail here to avoid going off-topic. I know Hasbro had plans to add Tell Your Tale to Netflix according to that slide showing their plans for new MLP content for 2024, but AFAIK that hasn't happened, so I'm not interested in that series unless that happens.

[donutmasterjoe 201]

5 hours ago, KPackratt said:

If there was a way to watch Tell Your Tale other than YouTube, I'd be okay with that. I'm personally boycotting that site given all the bad things they've done over the past few years and that they're now going after alternative means of watching YouTube videos (i.e. downloaders and frontends), but I won't go into detail here to avoid going off-topic. I know Hasbro had plans to add Tell Your Tale to Netflix according to that slide showing their plans for new MLP content for 2024, but AFAIK that hasn't happened, so I'm not interested in that series unless that happens.

I don't know about other countries but I only watch TyT on Netflix, the episodes are available in a 21 minute format compilation on Brazil (which I find better than jumping every 5 minutes) as well as launching S2 episodes also, there are other dub languages available but I'm not sure which country it's available in. I also didn't know that MyM was removed from Netflix in the US since it's still on here.
 

[Sunny_Skyes 148]

At this point? I'm not watching g5 until equestria girls comes back. That was what got me into mlp in the first place.

[donutmasterjoe 201]

@Sunny_Skyes I don't think EqG will ever come back, honestly... Even if the G5 EqG toys leak is real, Hasbro probably already scrapped out that idea.

[KPackratt 243]

6 hours ago, donutmasterjoe said:

@Sunny_Skyes I don't think EqG will ever come back, honestly... Even if the G5 EqG toys leak is real, Hasbro probably already scrapped out that idea.

I agree, I'm honestly surprised it lasted as long as it did. As for the G5 Equestria Girls toys, I wonder why they scrapped them (maybe Discovery Family owning the rights to the Equestria Girls franchise? Considering they owned the broadcasting rights for the cartoons and it seems like they're the reason G4 references were kept to a minimum in the G5 shows, it's possible they didn't want Hasbro to bring it back).

With the leaked G5 toys in mind, I feel that if they made a new Equestria Girls cartoon, it would be focused on a G5 version of it, so I don't think we'll ever see an official finale to the G4 run, even if Hasbro decided to bring it back.

[Sparklefan1234 169,736]

7 hours ago, donutmasterjoe said:

@Sunny_Skyes I don't think EqG will ever come back, honestly... Even if the G5 EqG toys leak is real, Hasbro probably already scrapped out that idea.

That's too bad since I'm upset Equestria Girls never had their graduation + I was hoping  G5 could have explained what happened someday somehow. 

Edited June 24 by Sparklefan1234

[Rafa Stary Mini 2,872]

11 hours ago, donutmasterjoe said:

@Sunny_Skyes I don't think EqG will ever come back, honestly... Even if the G5 EqG toys leak is real, Hasbro probably already scrapped out that idea.

I would add No EQG in G5 to my "cut of costs" hypothesis too. With the current situation of Hasbro, and with the end of 3D productions for this generation, I believe Hasbro is trying to get any gain producing less. Equestria Girls (specially the movies) was made in a completely different scenario, there were a lot of elements in favor of Hasbro at the time. We are in a different world now, Hasbro can't take risks anymore, they maybe just aren't confident that the EQG line is going to be a success again, this uncertainty + they not wanting to invest in the production for a separate spin off show, pretty much makes a G5 EQG nearly impossible to happen. And if we consider what @KPackratt said about Discovery Family possibly owning the rights to EQG, then that only makes it worse. But that's all just speculation.

[Jon the VGNerd 885]

G5 just feels like a wasted potential from its G4 predecessor. They were great at first, but they felt tacked on. The overall plot feels grey with no true set goal, and the overall continuity just felt lacking and it felt like the show creators weren't able to commit to it (there was Twilight Sparkle, though she was in her regular form instead of her Celestial form which is odd). And I don't hate G5 as a whole, it just felt lackluster and considering as how there has been no new announcements regarding MLP G5, namely with MYM, I can only assume that it faled to meet expectations and didn't have the same charm than with G4 and have likely fallen short. While the CGI animation was okay, I feel like they should've stuck with the G4 approach. 'm also all for the continuity, but it seems Hasbro weren't able to fully commit to it and G5 as a sequel sadly felt shallow.

If Hasbro does try and revive TYT with new epsides, along with maybe new eps of MYM with a solid storyline, maybe. But overall the show itself (both MYM and TYT) was overall a disappointment from G4, which was considerably a success and a global phenomenon. I know folks will defend this and I can't blame them. The problem is that Hasbro needs to do better and unfortunately for them, they dropped the ball on it. Now, apart from Izzy Moonbow and Misty, many of the characters weren't too memorable because I know folks like the Mane Five, and other characters as well. Just wished they'd have more flair to them like with the Mane Six. As for Tell Your Tale? Well, they're still going, but they feel rather meh overall, nothing too special. Sure there's a few good eps, but they're easily forgettable otherwise. It just becomes a "been there, done that" after watching a few episodes of TYT.

[Rafa Stary Mini 2,872]

On 2024-06-29 at 12:48 AM, Jon the VGNerd said:

As for Tell Your Tale? Well, they're still going, but they feel rather meh overall, nothing too special. Sure there's a few good eps, but they're easily forgettable otherwise. It just becomes a "been there, done that" after watching a few episodes of TYT.

Pretty much my current thoughts on that show, even when they release "good episodes" I just continue to be bored, there's nothing exciting, interesting, or anything woth consequences in that show in my opinion, it's just a lot of cute moments with the characters solving their problems in 3 minutes, that is just boring to watch for me. If the problem was me, I really wouldn't mind it, but the reality is that G5 is not in a good situation, and TyT shows that, that is very worryng to me and I still consider FirePuppy's hypothesis of a G6 not happening 

On 2024-06-29 at 12:48 AM, Jon the VGNerd said:

(there was Twilight Sparkle, though she was in her regular form instead of her Celestial form which is odd).

I'm pretty sure it's because of Discovery Family, they probably own everyting post Season 4 of FiM, including character designs, so Twilight just can't show up in her End of G4 form in animated format, but she can in the comics because the contract is restricted to animated media only. It's just speculation though, but I think it makes a lot of sense.

[Jon the VGNerd 885]

9 hours ago, Rafa Stary said:

Pretty much my current thoughts on that show, even when they release "good episodes" I just continue to be bored, there's nothing exciting, interesting, or anything woth consequences in that show in my opinion, it's just a lot of cute moments with the characters solving their problems in 3 minutes, that is just boring to watch for me. If the problem was me, I really wouldn't mind it, but the reality is that G5 is not in a good situation, and TyT shows that, that is very worryng to me and I still consider FirePuppy's hypothesis of a G6 not happening 

I'm pretty sure it's because of Discovery Family, they probably own everyting post Season 4 of FiM, including character designs, so Twilight just can't show up in her End of G4 form in animated format, but she can in the comics because the contract is restricted to animated media only. It's just speculation though, but I think it makes a lot of sense.

I'm also baffled by the fact that there's no continuation in the form of IDW comics after the final episode "The Last Problem". Luster Dawn just feels like a wasted potential. And there doesn't need to be a TV spin-off series of Luster Dawn's adventures with her new friends, but it wouldn't hurt to release them in comic form unless IDW stopped publishing them.