My Episode Review/Rant on My Little Pony: Make Your Mark-The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover

Greetings and salutations, my friends.

This is your top-of-the-line film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.

Today, I'm gonna give you guys my take of My Little Pony: Make Your Mark's "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover".

Here's the rundown of it:

In the midst of feeling homesick for Bridlewood, Izzy Moonbow encounters a new unicorn in Maretime Bay. Ecstatic about this, Izzy immediately invites her new friend for a slumber party at the Crystal Brighthouse, with Sunny Starscout, Pipp Petals, and Zipp Storm also attending.

The only problem is...the new unicorn Izzy invited is Misty Brightdawn! And unknown to Izzy and the others, Misty is really there to steal Sunny's lantern.

After taking my much-needed break from reviewing episodes of "My Little Pony: Make Your Mark", I decided to get back into it now that I started to feel more relaxed, starting with "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover" since it was the 7th episode of "Chapter 2".

Similar to "The Cutie Mark Mix-Up", though, I had to watch "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover" three more times this year instead of two, all so that I could be absolutely certain over what I thought of it! I felt that it was important for my head to be in the game, mainly since this was both the final episode to feature Izzy as the main character and the first where Misty interacts with Izzy, Sparky, Pipp, & Zipp. Sunny's in this episode too, but she and Misty previously met in "Ali-Conned". The only pony Misty doesn't meet is Hitch.

So, what do I think of "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover" in words? Especially after seeing it three more times this year?

Well, as with the previous "Make Your Mark" episodes, "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover" is pretty much what I'd call a lackluster & terribly-done G5 installment.

Sad to say, the main problems with the episode revolve around the story and direction. The story in question was done by Julia Prescott, who previously wrote "Growing Pains". And, sitting on the director's chair is Randi Rodrigues, who previously directed "Ali-Conned".

First and foremost, I'd like to start with what I think of the episode's tone.

When it came to Rodrigues and Prescott's usage of comedy, I was either bored or irritated by the gags rather than amused. Whether the jokes were visual or dialogue-based, none of them made me laugh or so much as form a grin, which isn't helped at all by how childish they were. The ones revolving around Izzy were particularly irksome, that's for sure. Also, in terms of having emotion & heart, "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover" was an openly soulless endeavor. It would try to be emotional, but the attempts ultimately left me feeling unmoved.

Once again, I also couldn't understand what the overall themes and morals of this episode were. On one hand, Prescott and Rodrigues were apparently attempting to create a story about homesickness and how it can be remedied, largely because of Izzy missing Bridlewood and how clear that becomes as the story progressed. On the other hand, the messages weren't particularly clear in the first place, and the homesickness aspect felt like something that was hamfisted in with no creative purpose. And just like when Izzy "supposedly" overcame her creative block and helped Pipp with the same problem in "Izzy Does It", I wasn't able to comprehend how Sunny, Pipp, and Zipp helped Izzy with her homesickness.

Seriously!

Why is it that despite how clear the intended morals of each "Make Your Mark" episode seem to be, I'm left feeling lost on how they're being taught? Especially to where I'm ultimately questioning what the episodes are trying to teach in the first place?! And why does it always seem like the episodes are either not teaching anything at all or saying the complete opposite of what they intended to educate viewers on?! And if I can't understand the moralities of each episode, how can anyone else?!

Another complaint I have is that there's an extremely noticeable animation error that occurs when Zipp finds Misty in the Brighthouse elevator. The error in question was impossible to ignore, which is why it's among the issues I had with this episode.

Take a look:

Believe me, I'm not making this up. If you watch the actual episode for yourself, or simply see a clip featuring the part I mentioned, you'll find the error clear as day!

I know that the animation team obviously had to work with a small budget for each episode, but you'd think that they & Rodrigues would use the advanced technology they had to remove this error. It certainly wouldn't have been a problem to do so, and it makes me wonder if the team even cared about maintaining organization.

Another thing I noted was that the episode contained an incredibly noticeable continuity error. The error in question regards Misty & Sunny's first interaction in this episode:

In "Ali-Conned", Misty and Sunny met for the first time while the former was a member of the Filly Four; and while they didn't interact too much in that episode, they talked enough for Sunny to remember Misty. In "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover", though, Sunny interacted with Misty upon her arrival at the Brighthouse like they never met at all! She neither mentions the times they shared during "Ali-Conned", asks Misty about how the rest of the Filly Four are doing, nothing!

As Make Your Mark's story editor, G.M. Berrow should've corrected this error. But she didn't. Not only does this showcase lazy show helming, but it also refutes any claim of G5 having a tight-knit continuity structure compared to G4. Sadly enough, this isn't the first continuity error I've noticed throughout G5 in general, and you can bet on it that I'll be noting every one of them as I review more G5 installments.

But, enough of that. It's time I talk about my biggest problems with "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover".

Firstly, I'd like to address what I thought of the "Guardians of Harmony/Origins of Equestria" scene.

The main thing I applaud is that both versions of the tale, the first told by Sunny & the second told by Misty, were more naturally integrated compared to the Twilight Sparkle cameo in "Growing Pains". A bedtime story activity turned out to be a surprisingly good method for incorporating the backstory, and it neither felt forced or out-of-nowhere.

In spite of this, there were more negatives than positives regarding the sequence. Especially with Sunny's version of the story.

Among the problems I had with Sunny's version is that there's no explaination of where she and the rest of the Main 5 learned of it! Any notion that it was told by their parents when they were children is obviously out-of-the question, partly because they either wouldn't know or would tell their children a version that's different from the other, not the same one. That, and "Chapter 1" confirmed that they didn't know why the pony tribes split up or why the Unity Crystals were made.

With Sunny's version being claimed as the "True Story", did the Main 5 learn of it after going on some adventure that was never made into an episode? Or did Prescott, Rodrigues, and Berrow simply never care about giving their own lore a solid foundation?

And no, I don't think the G5 comics featuring Discord & other G4 elements explains where the Main 5 heard the story. The 2nd comic depicted an entirely different backstory on why the pony tribes split up and what made Twilight Sparkle create the Unity Crystals, so that'd obviously mean the comics featuring Discord (that being issues #1 to #10) are non-canon. Then again, "Isle of Scaly" also featured a different backstory on why the Unity Crystals were made, and it was told by Spike the Dragon! And apparently, the pony tribes splitting up was something Spike didn't know about until being straight up told by Sunny.

*Groans out of aggravation*

Again with the lack of coherent continuity!

Outside of this, did anyone besides me specifically note Sunny saying that the tribes split up all because "A Unicorn Hit an Earth Pony"?

I don't know about you guys, but as I thought back on that part more, Sunny's story immediately started to feel like the kind a racially-prejudiced Earth Pony would tell. An Earth Pony who'd demonize the other races to make their own look good, if I may add. All that's missing is the story mentioning a terrible deed caused by a Pegasus to an Earth Pony, and that'd be icing on the cake for a species victim mentality tale.

Basically, Sunny's entire story not only lacked a solid source, but it was heavily flawed, questionable, and peculiar. I'm not even gonna talk about Sunny's statement for why Twilight Sparkle made the Unity Crystals, because Berrow and company openly retconned that part using Spike's story in "Isle of Scaly". Considering the fact that Sunny's story also retconned Discord's telling of it in the comics, it feels like we're never gonna know for sure what caused the pony tribes to be divided again or why Twilight created the Unity Crystals. What's the point in giving any of those things a background if the G5 writing teams are just going to frequently change their origin tales in the long run?!

As for Misty's version of the story, I didn't have any problem with it. Misty lived under the servitude of Opaline for much of her life, so Opaline was bound to tell her things that'd ultimately prove to be a lie from the beginning. Therefore, Misty's story had a solid source to pinpoint, and it's easy to see that it was false.

Aside from my mixed-to-negative feelings towards the backstory scene, there were things about the sleepover aspect of the plot I was critical of.

The biggest thing I absolutely hated about it was how the sleepover came to fruition in the first place!

As the summary I gave at the beginning stated, Izzy started the slumber party straight after meeting Misty and getting excited over seeing her. She just sprung the whole thing onto Misty, not taking the time to actually get to know her and openly ignoring how Sparky was reacting to Misty like it's nothing. Before Izzy even came up with the sleepover idea, she also frequently disregarded personal boundaries to where she'd be up in Misty's face!

To me, everything about what Prescott did to open up the sleepover plot line was disturbingly toxic. The things Izzy did gave the impression that it's okay to be heavily invasive towards someone a person barely knows, and when she straight up invited Misty for that slumber party...I immediately found myself thinking that's the kind of thing a sexual predator would do in order to acquire a victim! It made me not want to see the sleepover plot line come to fruition, and I couldn't help but wish Misty declined the offer instead.

Afterwards, the entire story was taken in a direction that I found to be largely questionable & difficult to sit through. One of the biggest examples is the part where Sunny & Pipp tell Misty about Sparky's dragonfire magic. I get that they were simply telling Misty about their experiences with dragonfire based on talking about Sparky, but still...the whole thing was an unusually forced way of kickstarting the "Opaline's Conquest for Dragonfire" plot line that occurs in future episodes, and it felt like an instance of the series relying on character-stupidity to either move things along or open up incoming plots.

All in all, Prescott's writing was grating and unnatural.

Along with this, the characters were as unengaging & unlikable as ever.

In regards to the character-usage, the main thing I'd like to commend is that the show team made surprisingly wise use of Hitch Trailblazer & Sparky Sparkeroni. They were featured in this episode for around the first five minutes, but their early exit showed that Prescott & Rodrigues recognized when the two characters were no longer needed or necessary for the story. They didn't do anything that'd remotely annoy me either, although that doesn't mean I enjoyed watching them in this episode. Of course, this also gives way to an obvious plot hole as to how Misty & Hitch personally met afterwards. If I recall correctly, there weren't any episodes after "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover" that depicted a meeting between Misty & Hitch, nor did any feature them interacting until Chapter 4's "The Manesquerade Ball". Not even a "Tell Your Tale" episode depicted Misty & Hitch meeting for the first time.

On the subject of Sunny Starscout, Pipp Petals, and Zipp Storm, they were passable at the most. Whether their inclusions throughout the story had any meaningful purpose is obviously up for debate, and they certainly didn't have much in the ways of character growth, but at least their roles made sense. After all, they live in the Brighthouse as well, so not including them in the slumber party plot would've been a baffling choice anyway.

The only thing that annoyed me regarding Zipp, though, was how the episode tackled making her the only member of the main G5 group to be suspicious of Misty. Having Zipp take on the role definitely made sense, especially considering how much she loves being a detective. But, the way Prescott and Rodrigues were depicting that plot aspect made Zipp seem smart while the others were illogically dumb, particularly whenever Misty behaved in a way that'd make anyone raise an eyebrow of suspicion at her.

As for Opaline Arcana...well, she was just being Opaline. She didn't have much of a role to play in this episode, but the scenes featuring her were strong enough to remind me of why I consider Opaline to be an obnoxious individual. Heck, whenever she was talking to Misty through the compact mirror, she didn't refrain from shouting & yelling a lot of times, especially to where one could hear her voice from a mile away. It's one of the biggest reasons for why I think Opaline is hard to sit through, as well as classify her as an imbecile more than anything else.

And now, I'd like to share with you all my thoughts on Misty Brightdawn and her role in this episode:

At the most, Misty wasn't tolerable, but she wasn't off-putting either.

The main things involving Misty that aggravated me was that she didn't do a good job at keeping herself from giving everyone reasons to be suspicious of her, and it's even more perplexing that Zipp was the only pony not passing Misty's behavior off regardless of how obvious the things she did were. Also, despite Sunny's lantern being kept in an open & obvious spot, which was right next to Sunny's bed on a side table, Misty apparently didn't see the lantern & still never found it! How can anyone be that stupid?!

Other than that, Misty was decent to watch in this episode. It was interesting to see how she was doing in a friendlier environment compared to Opaline's castle, although I did wish that the impact of her stay at the Brighthouse encouraged a more powerful change for the character.

However, the real character I have a moutful of things to say about in this review...is Izzy Moonbow. And none of them are good.

With this episode serving as the final MYM installment to feature Izzy as the main character, or co-lead if you count Misty's focus in this episode, I hoped that Izzy would finally get to show that she's more than a soulless comic-relief. And to see why people seem to love Izzy so much, because a lot of people have been going so far as to say that she's better than Pinkie Pie.

Sadly, my experience with Izzy in "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover" proved to be no different than when Izzy (somewhat) took the lead in "Izzy Does It", only worse. To put it bluntly, all the former episode did was make me hate Izzy more!

All throughout "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover", my hatred for Izzy practically festered. I was enraged by her toxic behavior towards Misty in the beginning, from depriving her of any personal boundaries to openly springing a sleepover invitation on her despite the two of them having just met. I was irritated by Izzy's sense of humor and comedic-timings, with even her most subtle joke being overbearing. And, no matter how hard Rodrigues and Prescott tried at making Izzy an individual with complexity & heart, or someone I could relate to & sympathize with, I was not won over by her. Her lack of character development throughout this episode hardly helps the matter, because once again, Izzy never seemed to grow as an individual or learn anything!

I'm sorry, guys, but at this point...Izzy is quite honestly what I'd classify as the worst main character of the entire G5 series. She's aggravating, unfunny, infuriating, and one-dimensional. She also does nothing but constantly take various stories in an unacceptable direction, and no attempt to give her heart, depth, or relatability is ever going to change how I officially feel about her.

And you know what really doesn't help the matter?

The character's recasting of Kimiko Glenn with Ana Sani served as nothing but a crushing blow for Izzy.

When Kimiko Glenn voiced Izzy for A New Generation, she helped translate the character as someone who was instantly lovable & unique. Her performance and interpretation aided Izzy in standing out to where the character was a highlight in the film, as well as to stand apart from Pinkie Pie despite how similar their roles & personalities were.

Ana Sani, on the other hand...not only does her voice for Izzy not sound anything like Glenn's take on the character, but she translated Izzy as someone who's impossible to tolerate on a day-to-day basis, as well as an uninspired Pinkie Pie-wannabe. Sani is also perhaps one of the worst voice actresses yet, and there are a boatload of reasons for why I think so based on her work as Izzy! Any line or comedic-timing Sani was given, she turned into something that's nerve-grinding. It's also clear that Ana Sani isn't capable of portraying her characters with a natural emotional range or three-dimensional texture, because even in the parts where Izzy is sad or in a vulnerable state, how Sani portrayed the character sounded no different than whenever she was happy! The worst part is that Sani isn't the only member of the MYM & TYT voice cast I have a very low opinion of, and I'll mention who they are and why that is somewhere in the future.

And before anyone asks:

No, I do not think Sani's portrayal of other G5 characters is any better. They were hardly what I'd call interesting or noteworthy standouts anyway.

In conclusion, "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover" is nothing more than another example of why I've generally disliked My Little Pony's 5th generation. It presents terrible writing & direction quality at their finest, the characters were one-dimensional & uninteresting, everything!

So, I rate "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover" a solid one out of five stars.

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I swear, G5 is literally getting worse with each passing installment.