Posts

@Candacefan29
Cadance fan? Nice haha!

As someone who actually likes MYM the best out of all the G5 content, I have to join in with the hive mind a bit late here, yeah, watch the G5 movie first. XD G5 movie purism still irritates me, but you should still watch it first, given how it sets everything up and does a very good job setting everything up at that. Hope you enjoy it. If you don’t, we understand with your tastes changing like you said.

I’ll give it a shot. To be honest, my own interests have shifted so drastically that I doubt I’ll ever fully return to where i was while FiM was airing, but eh…might be a fun movie night w/ the gf at the very least.

@Jonny Manz
Last I checked official MLP content on YouTube was blocked, though that might have changed.

@DerpyFast
G5 is G4 fixed. The end.

@Candacefan29
Definitely check out The Movie. It sets up the core locations and recurring secondary characters, and the core group comes together gradually over the course of the movie, rather than all at once. It’s nice that the big, controversial thing is front-loaded at the very start of the generation. It was the #1 movie on Netflix for a time, and it’s just a really solid movie in general.

Post-movie, there’s three things to keep track of:
Tell Your Tale, the 2D shorts on YouTube.
Make Your Mark, the 3D 22-minute episode show on Netflix.
The Comics.

One of the things I’ve noticed when revisiting G4 is that most of the bad or mediocre episodes would have been fine as five-minute shorts. Tell Your Tale is nice because it lets them supplement the main story with smaller stories that wouldn’t fill 22 minutes. It’s often just an excuse for the characters to hang out. Zipp’s Flight School is where it clicked for me, and Alicorn Issues is the point where it really proved itself.

Make Your Mark is the main show, and it’s just a little bit longer than a regular season of FiM. It tells a complete, overarching story, and it even has a recurring villain. Unfortunately, it has a rough start. While there are things to appreciate in Chapter One, it’s pretty mediocre overall. The consensus seems to be that The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover is where the show hit its stride. You can skip Bridlewoodstock, but Chapters Four and Five were adored, and even people who don’t like G5 had to admit they were good. I think they’re up there with The Movie. The finale doesn’t quite live up to the high bar set by chapters Four and Five. But there are lots of great character moments, and I like it more than some of FiM’s season finales.

You don’t need to read the comics to follow the story, but I can recommend issues 1-12. It probably has the best version of Discord, where he actually acts like Q from TNG. Issues 9 and 10 are up there with The Movie.

If you look back on FiM and think “This really did not need to be nine seasons”, then you’ll probably like G5. It actually does a whole bunch of things I wish G4 did. It has recurring locations that serve a purpose. The Mane Five have things going on socially outside of the core group, and all have jobs. I personally find it very cathartic that show delivers on the things it sets up, and how events aren’t just immediately forgotten in the next episode (at least in MYM).

@Wiimeiser
Unless there’s a regional block I’m unfamiliar with, TYT is available for free on YouTube (though it should also be available, up to a certain point, on Netflix). MYM is the one for which Netflix is required

You’re all right, I should watch TYT before I complain about it. Though I’m not sure if it’s on Netflix or anywhere else here in Australia…

Thirding this

@Candacefan29
Yeah, deffo watch ANG. MYM starts off a little rough (Chapter 1 is particularly infamous - which I can acknowledge even though I find it charming), but it really hits its stride at Chapter 4. TYT is not necessarily essential viewing (at least season 1), but it’s fun little bite-sized episodes of pony (at 5 minutes apiece, it’s easy to sprinkle in), so I recommend it, too.

And the comics are pretty good, too

@TheQuietMan
Well, what’s happening with G5 now is technically what was supposed to happen after ANG: having only one 2D animated series (but it wasn’t supposed to be TYT, which seemingly just reuses character designs from a scrapped series). Is this a good thing? Perhaps not. What can we do about it? Probably nothing.

@Dragonpone
Except the former, latter 2 are excellente.

@Candacefan29
Yes, except TYT. The only bad news is because TYT is sweeping over, it’s now overtaken the g5 standard. Yeah, just quoting Willmeiser there. It would’ve been great had Hasbro chose not to make TYT everything about g5.

@CloudMistDragon
Yeah, that’s right!

that just makes it worse

I’ve not made secret of my own criticisms of G5, and I’ve said my piece on post-movie Izzy several times before.
But I’ve also, y’know, watched it. There are others who’ve watched it and come away with completely different thoughts on it.

This is more of a general statement cause you’re not the only one in the thread guilty of this, but I wouldn’t pass judgment on or repeat analysis of something I have little context for or have not watched (particularly if it’s to someone who also has not watched it).

In response to @Candacefan29, I more-or-less agree with Dustcan that the movie is worth watching, and the rest varies. In a general sense, I think TYT, MYM, and the comics get better as they go along.

@Dragonpone
I’m really only parroting what I’ve been hearing, here.

@Mr.Myoozik
Do take them with a grain of salt; I don’t know how bad things really are, only what I’m hearing from other people…

Like yeah the movie is the best G5 has offered so far so it’s a great litmus test on whether the rest will have a shot in gaining your interest rather than the other way around.

@Dragonpone
I know, it makes you take their words with a grain of salt

My favorite analyses are from people who haven’t watched the thing they’re criticizing.

I also don’t have the most pressing demands when it comes to MLP at all, always believed it should be enjoyed for what it is.

@Candacefan29
I think it’s worth it, obviously not for everyone but I think it’s good for me, I would say that the animation in chapter 1 is a bit slow but fortunately it improves later

@Candacefan29
It’s fine. Then again, I’m not very exigent (I was fine with Pony Life as well).

@Candacefan29
@Dustcan
I haven’t watched past the movie except for A Maritime Bay Adventure, but it’s getting worse. TYT has become the hard brand standard for more or less the same reason that Mario & Luigi got sequels while Mario & Wario didn’t. And the objectively better 3D stuff was terminated on a cliffhanger. Which isn’t helped by the fact that, ignoring the artstyle being the stupid bean smiles thing that basically every non-anime 2D cartoon is now, it’s basically a Tik Tok meme (literally) and they derailed Izzy so hard her train now rests on Hollister Ridge. I know very little of what actually happened there since I haven’t watched anything that isn’t here, but from what I’ve heard, >>2894498 at timestamps 0:20, 0:28 and 0:30 is her entire character now.

@Candacefan29
Like Dustcan said. If you liked the movie then the series is probably for you. But if you don’t like the movie then you’d probably not like everything else