My Little Pony: Make Your Mark Ep. 1 Review

 Hi everyone! As you may know, there is a new series on Netflix that premiered today called My Little Pony: Make Your Mark. It follows the five new characters from the G5 movie that came out in 2021. Apparently, there will be 'chapters' instead of seasons? I don't really see the difference, but whatever. There's only one episode right now, but I'm assuming there will be a new one every week. This one was about 45 minutes long; I'm sure the others will be shorter. 

 I watched it today and I definitely have some thoughts. This post contains spoilers for the first episode, so read at your own risk.

Here We Go Again 

There are five main characters in the Make Your Mark special: Sunny Starscout, Hitch Trailblazer, Pipp Petals, Zipp Storm, and Izzy Moonbow. They first appeared in My Little Pony: A New Generation. I liked the G5 movie; there were a lot of plot conveniences and plot holes, but the characters were okay and the songs were fabulous. 

So far, I do not like this show.

Yes, there were a lot of plot holes in the movie, and it seems like they are well on their way to solving some of them in the show, but they have also created plenty of new ones. 

Voids & Vines

For example, at the climax when everypony was arguing and causing the gems to crack, a void spilt open in the ground and sucked some ponies in, and then Sunny had to - wait a minute.

A void?

IN THE GROUND??

What the heck? Why did that void split open in the first place? In FiM, they tell a story that when many ponies are fighting, The Windigos come and make everything cold & cause storms. There was never a void splitting open. How did this happen, and more importantly, why? Was it a portal of some sort? (Plot twist: they opened the portal to the human dimension and now they're going to turn into Equestria Girls.) It just doesn't make sense to me. Hopefully it'll be explained. 

Also: those magical glowing 'vines'? How do those work? Why did they appear? Y'all have some serious explaining to do. 

This Freaking Dragon

This dragon. This dragon right here. He makes me upset. 

 He. Has. Wings. What the actual heck. Dragons do not have wings when they're born! They get them when they become teenagers, when they go through the 'Molting', like Spike did. This is a major plot hole that needs to be addressed immediately. 

Earth Ponies Didn't Need Powers

Let's talk for a minute about the Earth Ponies' 'new' powers. Didn't they always have magic? According to the Friendship is Magic Wiki, "According to Lauren Faust, Earth ponies have a special connection to nature, plants, and animals. Though they lack the ability to consciously cast spells like unicorns or the ability to fly and walk on clouds like pegasi, their connection to nature makes them "just as necessary" as and "perhaps more important" than the other ponies." It also says that they are stronger than the others. There you have it: nearly-super strength and connections to nature. 

The Earth Ponies didn't need magic to grow plants or whatever! They pretty much already had it. The whole thing was just so unnecessary. 

Plus, the whole story was basically about how some Earth Ponies weren't happy about the new magic because they were jealous of the unicorns and pegasi. And in the end, they got new powers... but wouldn't it have been a better lesson if the whole point was that you don't have to have powers to be special? That should have been the message of this episode. 

Minor Things That Were Slightly Annoying

This is just a side note, I'm not insulting the voice actors, but for some reason their voices are just grating on my ears?? Their lines & voices are so annoying all of a sudden. It doesn't sound natural. 

Also, the animation looked kinda...iffy? I just could tell that they didn't spend nearly as much time on the animation as they did for the G5 movie. Plus the lighting is off in some scenes.

Ooh Look, G5 Has A Villain

When I tell you I was not expecting that ending- 

It made me so happy. We're getting into the interesting stuff now! G5 NOW HAS A VILLAIN.

Let's examine the scene.

At the end, the view of Maretime Bay zooms out to reveal that somepony has been watching them on this screen. (Don't ask me how - I have no idea how tech works in the MLP universe.) The floor appears to be gold and white marble, which means they could be in the palace in Zephyr Heights. There's green curtains to the side. There's something green and black behind the screen - maybe it's her symbol. You can't see in in this picture, but there were these hexagon shapes on the ceiling. That could mean A) wherever she is has a fancy ceiling B) she's in a cave and those are rocks or C) she's in a changeling hive?? Does a changeling hive look like that? Please let me know; I forget.

But the main thing to notice here is her wings.

And her horn.

SHE'S AN ALICORN, PEOPLE. SHE'S AN ALICORN.

I was wondering if Sunny was even a real alicorn, because her horn & wings appear at random times, and they're sorta clear. But this here is clearly a bona-fide alicorn. 

In this shot of her from the front, we see that she's siting on some kind of throne. There are branches growing around it. I'm pretty sure that those are windows behind her; they kind of look like the stained-glass windows in Celestia & Luna's palace in FiM. 

What could the branches mean? Is she a queen of the Everfree Forest? Speaking of which, where did that go? I'm so confused by all of the changes to Equestria.

She also said that she was going to "take back what's [hers]," which is interesting. Was she the ruler after Princess Twlight? And if so, what happened to her? Why is she sitting in this weird place with marble floors & stained glass windows & a green branch-y throne watching Maretime Bay on a screen?? Is she in her palace, and if so, why hasn't anybody found her?

And.

WHO IS THIS LITTLE CUTIE??

Look at her! Look at her hair! SHE'S ADORABLE. Is she the queen's assistant? Daughter? Apprentice? Heir? I NEED ANSWERS. I LOVE HER ALREADY.

Also. Y'know I just have to bring this up. 

There's another villain who appeared suddenly in a dark & mysterious place at the end of the episode. Another villain who spied on our heroes with a screen. Another villain whom we didn't know their name, but they sat there, saying ominous things while we watched in confusion & excitement. 

I'm talking about Obake, from Big Hero Six The Series.

 *chuckles in anticipation*

Well, it was certainly an interesting first episode. I really hated it and so far, it looks like it's shaping up to be a series for a younger audience, whereas FiM was more of an all-ages thing.  I wish that wasn't the case; I'll only be watching because it's MLP and I'm a MLP fan - and not because it's well written. Sigh. 

Bye ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)