My Episode Review/Rant on My Little Pony: Make Your Mark-Chapter 1
Greetings and salutations, my friends.
This is your top-of-the-line film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.
Today, for my 71st episode analysis, I'm gonna give you give my take on the first "Chapter" of "My Little Pony: Make Your Mark".
Here's the rundown of it:
After the three pony tribes reunited in Friendship, and the Unity Crystals were pieced back together & reignited magic...
You know what?
I'm not even gonna bother giving a complete summary of what this episode is about. I already feel my brain going dead trying to do so, and considering how hard it is to explain the plot of this special in words, I don't think it'd be worth it.
Anyway...
Most people in the MLP fandom, if not all, obviously know by now that I'm not a big fan of My Little Pony's 5th generation. My feelings towards it were primarily negative since watching "My Little Pony: A New Generation", with my review on the latter being unusually controversial to others. Even today, I still consider A New Generation to be one of my least favorite animated films, regardless of the times I rewatched some of its clips on YouTube to see if my feelings towards the movie improved in any way.
Despite how "Anti-MLP (G5)" I am, though, I was always willing to see whether the film's televised successors would improve over the movie. So, I finally watched the "Make Your Mark" series around last year using a free film & television website, although I later decided to see the show more than once in order to review it and make sure I had an opinion that's solid, clear, and reasonable.
As you can see, I also decided to analyze the show by episode. It just seemed like the right course to take since the series was organized by "Chapter", and the episode numbers varied anyway.
So, what do I think of Make Your Mark's first "Chapter" in words? Especially after seeing it two more times earlier this month?
Well, I hate to tell you guys this, but I personally found "Chapter 1" to be a relatively poor and uneventful way of further kicking off G5.
Sad to say, the main reason for why I found this special to be so lackluster is because of the overall direction and storytelling. Even despite being written and helmed by Friendship is Magic veteran Gillian M. Berrow!
A great many will probably say that the story is about Zipp trying to crack the case of the disappearing magic and the Unity Crystals fading. But, that's actually only one thing the plot involves. It's also about the main characters setting up Maretime Bay Day and making sure it's awesome, Zipp getting conflicted over whether to stay in Maretime Bay or return to Zephyr Heights for royalty training, Sunny trying to convince Posey Bloom that magic is a good thing, Posey reigniting division and conflict amongst the pony races, and Hitch taking care of a mysterious egg that he found on the beach.
Sounds like a lot to juggle, doesn't it?
Normally, I wouldn't have much of a problem with stories containing more than one subplot, because I've seen movies and shows that actually worked with the whole thing quite well. With "Chapter 1" of Make Your Mark, though...how the subplots were executed and handled made this special feel as though it had six stories crammed into one! It was like G.M. Berrow created 6 individual narratives but couldn't decide which one to make into the pilot, ultimately combining them together as a desperate compromise. The results in question give us a plot that's incredibly all-over-the-place, having no sense of organization or consistency. The worst part is that all the subplots had zero relevance, because as the episode progressed, they became little more than a forgettable afterthought; and all they ever seemed to do on top of that was make this special agonizingly slow. If Berrow had simply made this "Chapter" into a 6-episode season rather than a 45-minute special, it would've made a huge difference.
The other aspects in this special's story and direction weren't well-done either, and it's for the same reasons I disliked MLP: ANG.
The humor was either flat or childish, and this time the jokes revolving around Izzy Moonbow were particularly annoying. The episode tries its best to be something with heart, emotion, and drama, yet every attempt made the story more soulless than charitable. Also, it would generate questions that were obviously supposed to be answered in follow-ups, yet I found myself completely uninterested instead of curious; not to mention the overreliance on franchise-expansion caused a boatload of plot deficiencies and holes in the story. And as for the themes and morals...they were incomprehensible and terribly-done.
However, the real kicker in the tush was that this episode further confirmed a theory I've had that generated ever since I saw A New Generation. The theory in question revolves around the Unity Crystals.
When I watched the movie, I had a feeling that the pony tribes were going to get magic back if they simply put the Unity Crystals back together and reunited in friendship; and that they obviously lost magic because of taking the crystals apart, dividing themselves from each other, and going to war. I also theorized that the Unity Crystals would simply take magic away whenever the pony tribes fought & division reignited, and only gave magic back whenever the tribes stopped fighting, united, and became friends.
I never wanted to believe these theories of mine were correct, but sadly...this episode did nothing but further enforce my theories. A sentiment that I equally felt with Tell Your Tale's "On Your Cutie Marks", if I may add.
And yes, I'm well aware that many fans believe the G5 ponies' situation with the Unity Crystals is no different from the G4 ponies' situation with the windigos. Personally, though, I disagree. I always considered the windigos to be the pony equivalent of the demons within oneself, and the results of the destruction they were causing are the pony version of what happens if people don't keep their negative emotions under control or learn to conquer their inner demons. It just seemed like an incredibly relatable thing on a human level.
The Unity Crystals, on the other hand...
Everything about what the Unity Crystals were doing openly gives the impression that they're the Equestrians' dog leash.
Whenever the ponies fought or became divided, the crystals took their magic away and subjected them to life-threatening dangers. It was like the crystals were torturing the Equestrians into becoming friends and making peace later on. In turn, this would make the pony tribes' ultimate reuniting appear to be based on obligation and a need to stay alive. Once the ponies would reunite and become friends, though, the crystals gave their magic back and reversed the coming dangers. When that happened, it was like the crystals were rewarding the Equestrians' for good behavior, and the impression is all-the-more fueled by the fact that they gave Earth ponies the power to control plant life by the end.
Basically, because of the Unity Crystals further bringing these revelations to light, it rendered any notion of this special teaching the importance of friendship, community, and unity completely null & void. What really doesn't help the matter is that the crystals prohibit the ponies from working out their social problems by themselves, and they take away their individual rights to actually do so. Even when just a small group of ponies are fighting, the crystals strip all the ponies of their magic and threatened their very lives.
That being said, my comments on the Unity Crystals are exactly why I stated in my review of "My Little Pony: A New Generation" that the movie appeared to be promoting Socialism. And not only did the crystals' role in this special further support my belief, but it gave the impression that all of G5 is an uninspired Socialist advocacy. It even causes any sense of character development to be pointless in the long run, and makes the ponies less interesting and engaging.
I may as well go ahead and mention that Posey Bloom is another one of my least favorite characters in the entire MLP franchise. And all because of this special.
Posey was everything I expected out of a G5 antagonist following Sprout Cloverleaf: Infuriating, poorly-characterized, idiotic, and generic. I couldn't stand her even if my life depended on it, and her reasons behind why she constantly antagonized other ponies were mind-bogglingly stupid!
I mean, hating magic just because unicorns and pegasi could use it? All while Earth ponies couldn't? Doesn't that seem the least bit hypocritical? And how could she not see that she was the one particularly sending Equestria down a path of doom?!
If G.M. Berrow truly wanted to make something out of Posey being reformed in the long run, a good course would be to have her accept the fact that Earth ponies couldn't use magic. As well as to embrace the changes brought about by the pony tribes reuniting, focus more on the things she could already do, and make peace with unicorns & pegasi alike regardless of her jealousy.
Instead, Berrow chooses to have the Unity Crystals grant Earth ponies magical abilities. This would both give Posey what she wanted in the end, and keep her from actually learning & developing as a character! It's like saying to a child that they can get whatever they want by whining and throwing a temper tantrum, which is a terrible thing to teach younger generations. The only compensation on the matter seems to be that Posey was promoted to being the comedy punching bag of Tell Your Tale, and considering her lack of personality change, I'd say that role is incredibly fitting for her.
My only wish is that they also promote Sprout and Phyllis Cloverleaf to become comedy punching bags of Tell Your Tale in the future. Mainly since they're equally unlikable characters anyway.
In the end, "My Little Pony: Make Your Mark-Chapter 1" was nothing more than a toxic waste of time. It takes everything I've disliked about its motion picture predecessor to a higher degree, and gives a strong implication that things are only gonna get worse for G5 from here on out.
So, I rate "My Little Pony: Make Your Mark-Chapter 1" a solid one out of five stars.
In the coming future, I'll definitely be reviewing more "Make Your Mark" episodes since that's relatively inevitable. I've already gotten my thoughts on the first episode down, so I may as well go ahead and do the others.
But for now...