Really can't wait for her to become a real friend and the other unicorn of the group. Or so I'm REALLY hoping. Also pretty sure evil alicorn is the reason Misty DOESN'T have a cutie mark.
That puzzle-piece-butterfly from the end of last episode is still around. Is it going to be important? Could this be Shimmerwing, the Navi-like butterfly from the videogame?
And..we have confirmation that Hitch just sleeps in his police station…on a bunch of filing cabinets. Seriously, they can’t find a spare bed in the entire Brighthouse for Hitch? This is no way to live. His poor back has ZERO support. He needs a actual bed.
Okay, that baby blanket doesn’t look sanitary…mind it’s a baby blanket, but it could still use a wash.
Dingos took his baby!
Hitch seems to be a fan of metal if the way he yelled “Izzy” means anything.
“..The Moon”...if only Luna was still around.
Izzy in the little tube is cute.
“Nothing in the closet” This WILL be a meme. Izzy’s body language here is great.
“I feel like the worst Pony-Dragon Dad in the world right now” You are! And the best! I’m pretty sure you’re the only one of those. Pipp’s with me.
Misty stole the baby! …And the baby’s showing her NO RESPECT. Glad to see Sparky’s warming up to her, though.
Sparky can…roll around pretty fast…weird. Babies are weird.
“You’re a good listener. I’m usually the quiet listening one” She’s SO lonely.
“Please be more delicate with the plants they have feelings too. Sorry, she doesn’t know any better” This garden really is Sunny’s baby.
Stealing a baby isn’t so easy when it can breathe fire.
Mr Spoon NOOOO!
This whole episode is just going to be Misty-abuse, isn’t it?
The blankets name is Blanky-roni? Really?
“I’ll use my EYES…to LOOK for stuff. Also I have magic powers” Just a good line.
Awww…we missed Misty puppet show.
Sparky has Home Alone skills. Cool, Cool, Totally Cool.
The turtles are having a romantic moment sharing a smoothie. Okay.
A barrelful of Sunnys. Is there anything more fun than this?
Izzy always finds interesting new uses for tennis balls.
“*SIGH*…That IS spectacular” Agreed.
Hitch seems to be the one who always breaks first.
“*Majestic dodge* Still got it” Not yet. *Falls on her face* There we go, now you got it.
Hitch you’re the sheriff, you can’t be a vigilante if you ARE the LAW.
*Song starts playing* “Oh no!” Misty knows her tropes.
Bottling the dragonfire is actually kind of clever.
Huh…so Opaline can go all glowy like Sunny, too.
Aww…poor Misty. This is the first time we’ve actually seen her cry.
I kind of wonder if Operation Glitterbomb will come back later on.
Izzy’s going to upgrade a old tram car. It’ll probably look completely different when she’s done with it. She’s just stealing it I guess.
This is actually a pretty decent wrap to this “chapter”. Nothing got resolved, but this is just the first fouth of the story or so.
Overall, I think this Chapter was pretty decent. The animation felt like it was improving towards the end there. The expressions got more animated. They’ve been sprinkling in a little bit of the larger plot into every episode. We got some lore drops and character motivations. This was a solid start.
And Misty is a treasure. She’s a lot cuter than I was expecting. She basically IS our Fluttershy, right now. Time will tell if Opaline’s abuse will push her over the edge, or if she’ll join the Mane cast. But right now, she’s kind of a highlight.
Sparky on the other hand…feels a little forced. They clearly have plans for the little guy. But…he’s just here to be a baby doll and sell toys. I don’t know. He’s not terrible, but the show usually has to bend over backwards to explain who’s taking care of him. He’s kind of just in the way.
Opaline…is cliché. And not even in a winking to the camera way. She’s just a classic Disney villain. But, that’s almost refreshing at this point. She’s just a villain being villainous. I mean, she literally wants to eat a baby…it doesn’t get much more evil than that (Okay, not quite, but it’s close.) And, yes, I’ll admit it…my “Opaline is Sprout” theory was VERY wrong and it is dead and buried. *SIGH* I’ll miss it deeply. At least it kept me entertained during the wait between episodes. NOW, what will I amuse myself with?
I guess we have the Christmas special to look forward to. And then the next batch of episodes. in…I’m going to guess February or March? Netflix usually does batches 3 to 6 months apart. *SIGH* This Netflix model has it’s drawbacks. At least Tell Your Tale has been good. I’d definitely recommend it. Especially since it DOES seem to be doing the heavy lifting with some of the background characters.
Now lets talk about what we all REALLY care about…
TIMELINES!!!
As far as I can tell, I think it all goes:
A New Generation Movie: Obviously.
Tell Your Tale Episodes 1-13: We still don’t know where the Rainbow Brighthouse came from. But these all Take place before Maretime Bay Day. TYT 13 is where Izzy is making the Hope Lantern for Sunny.
Make Your Mark Special
Tell Your Tale Episodes 14-25: TYT 14 has Sunny starting to learn to control her Alicorn transformation. TYT 25 has Sunny’s birthday party, the same day as MYM C2 E1. So, I’m calling this the hand-off point.
Make Your Mark Chapter 2 Episodes 1-8-I’m going to try to keep these together if I can.
IDW Comics Issues 1-10-This HAS to take place after the MYM Special because Earth Ponies have magic. BUT, in MYM C2 E2 the Mane 5 learns about history from Twilight’s Hologram and don’t mention Discord. I’m going to assume they heard Discord’s version of the story AFTER Hologram Twlight’s, meaning they’d be less surprised hearing about the story the second time. This should take place AFTER MYM C2, since they don’t know about Opalilne or any sort of “Evil Pony” yet in MYM C2.
Tell Your Tale Episodes 26-Onward: These are just the latest ones. Odd that Opaline and Misty haven’t shown up in ANY of them yet. But, they might NEVER show up in TYT. In TYT 28, Sunny has Opaline’s compact mirror.
A Maretime Bay Adventure video game: This is probably the trickiest to place on the timeline. It takes place on the day of Maretime Bay Day, but doesn’t really line up with the events of the MYM Special all that well. Sunny has access to Earth Pony magic (being able to create bouncy flowers), meaning this should take place sometime AFTER the MYM Special. Sprouts return to EVIL is disappointing and WOULD make more sense to take place BEFORE MYM C2. BUT, if Shimmerwing is supposed to be the puzzle-piece-butterfly that Sparky creates in MYM C2 E7 it would have to take place AFTER that. So…this probably makes the most sense if this was NEXT year’s Maretime Bay Day.
0:14 We need to see hitch's house. He can't sleep in here all the time.
0:23 Yeah I've woken up to a mysterious green light flooding my bedroom before. It happens.
2:47 Pipp has found the intelligence she dropped in the last episode. Okay I'm optimistic for this one.
4:52 Well, at least Misty is consistent. Why is her instinct always to hide what she's taken instead of heading straight back to Opalina? Hedging her bets?
12:02 Ponies are bad at everything. It's amazing.
12:51 Really? Lasers? This is ridiculous.
13:31 Hitch finally snapped. He's come to terms with the futility of his job and decided to go full superhero. ... Oh no he's doing a Bale voice.
15:55 Why does Misty know this is bad? Just run for it, misty. Just run.
16:54 Catching the flame in a jar is so very videogame.
18:42 Have you ever been so mad that you opened a jar of fire in your face?
20:07 Aw, Misty's crying.
20:39 Yeah, we'd all want to keep the masks.
20:56 "Old broken down" AHA! So the tram has been having problems lately. I knew it. Well played.
This was more fun than the previous one. It was pretty low key for a finale, but I don't know if I can hold that against it because I don't know if it was written to be one.
Overall this chapter was more good than bad. I'm very happy that the animation had a sudden jump in quality, and it only took one episode to get there. I thought the special set the standard for what the show's animation was going to be, and I accepted that, and then they set a much higher standard and managed to sustain it. Once it got good, it is not any less expressive than 2D.
Characters were on point, except for being dumb in Hoof Done it?. Izzy Does It was the animation dud (relatively speaking; it still wasn't horrible) and Hoof Done It? was the writing dud. Then again I'm not even sure about the writing. From the first episode I made a comment about the tram being out of order, and the final episode seemingly confirms it's been having issues. The continuity is tight enough that I'm tempted to rewatch some things to see if I just missed something.
Misty is a gem. I am ready for that suffering compilation. Some things can get old. Her pain worked for me every time. Opaline is a lame villain, but she has a couple moments.
A few months ago I compared Opaline and Misty to the Sorceress and Bianca from Spyro 3. Opaline's newfound obsession with Sparky is not helping.
I see Hitch has been letting Sparky watch Home Alone. Though Misty is certainly smarter then the Wet Bandits... and almost more lucky.
I like Opaline as a villian, Like Zaku says she's kinda classic Disney villian, which isn't really something we've gotten in pony. G4 had fairly complex villians, and I think its fine that here we have a pretty stock one, just becuase it is actually different. Every now and then a simple 'evil for sake of evil' villian is good; and there is always time to give her more depth since she's still a complete unknown to the Mane 5, and Misty has just enough plausible deniability that her weirdness won't make her too suspicous. Like even if the Mane 5 had found her with Sparky it could have be glanced over as 'Oh... hey... um.. yeah... I found the little guy... yep, sure did... You guys were so busy looking, I decided look for myself... becuase that is totally what friends would do... and here he is! hehehehe... yeah... um... bye now..."
Who wants a new theory?! That is 100% wrong. I'll admit this right now, this is a dead end. But, it haunts me, so here we go.
What if Opaline...doesn't actually exist?
What if Misty has a split personality?
I mean, so far, Opaline has only interacted with Misty. Misty's the only one who's actually seen Opaline and her castle. Sure, Sunny has "talked" to Opaline...but that was using Sunny's body as a illusion in a magic mirror. ANYONE could have been on the other side of the mirror, there. Misty (in her Opaline personality) COULD have been talking to her instead, while sneaking away from the other Filly Four.
And does it REALLY make sense for Opaline to hide herself away from the rest of the ponies? We know that she can't enter into any of the towns, because they're protected by the dome around everything. But, she could just have Misty talk about finding a "true alicorn" and wait for them to come to her outside the magical barrier. You could argue that she wants to wait until she gets her full power again...but she's already the strongest magic user in the world, so far. And Opaline seems open to changing her plans on a dime. She COULD just influence the 3 towns with her "wisdom" and gain control that way. She might even gain a few new followers that would be willing to do her bidding if she revealed herself. Somepony who MIGHT be better at evil than Misty. But, she doesn't. Why?
It's almost like someone's making subconscious excuses to avoid anyone else having to meet her.
So...what if Misty WASN'T saved by Opaline? What if Misty's just a lonely orphan who made up a imaginary friend? A friend who's powerful. And confident. And knows everything about magic. A friend who's everything that she feels that she lacks. Someone who could stand up for her. Someone who didn't get so nervous around other ponies. Someone who could get respect.
And then magic comes back. And suddenly, Misty finds herself with the power to make all her fantasies into reality. And Opaline and her magical castle become "real" through Misty's magic. But, Misty's mind can't handle it and she starts turning on herself. If Misty's has powerful magic, she doesn't NEED Opaline, anymore. But...then she'll be all alone again. So, Opaline starts to get meaner, and more demanding. Just to keep Misty in line so she'll still need her. A imaginary friend that's gone out of control...
So picture this: we get to the season finale, and the Mane 5 burst into Opaline's castle. Misty starts pleading with Opaline to spare her friend's lives....and then Izzy asks who Misty's talking to. We have the camera pan past a column to show Opaline disappear and Misty talking to thin air.
Then we get a flashback to the sleepover. Zipp is seeing her talk to her own reflection in the compact at the sleepover and just shrugs thinking Misty's just being cute. And then we see a flashback of Misty using Opaline's voice through another compact mirror to Sunny with the Filly Four in the background. And instead of seeing her travel MILES every day to walk back and forth between Maretime Bay and Opaline's Castle, we see Misty talking to herself in a old hollowed out tree in the woods that she basically used magic to turn into a TARDIS, bigger on the inside.
Her friends try to talk her down, Misty's eyes start darting around, and it all just doesn't make sense to her. And then Misty starts having a meltdown insisting that OPALINE IS REAL!
So, is this likely? No.
Just...nah.
For one thing, Hasbro has GOT to have noticed how much fanart Misty's gotten so far. People LOVE her. It's one thing to be a good character, but she's MARKETABLE now. I'm not sure if she's actually going to be our SIXTH or not, but she's probably going to end up as a recurring character like Jazz or Dahlia later on. Whatever Hasbro's plans originally were for her, I think they'd change them since she's gotten popular. She's going to stick around, one way or another.
And...well, this theory just doesn't make sense. The twist would be interesting, but it really wouldn't line up all that well with what we've seen so far.
Misty being so overpowered just by luck is a bit lazy.
And having Sunny be talking to Misty who THINKS she's Opaline in the moment is a stretch. To put it lightly. The whole thing's contrived and over-complicated.
And the biggest downside is Misty's version of history at the sleepover. Sure, she could have read something about this in a old book she found, maybe. Maybe she made up her own version of history when she was a filly because she felt bad for the ancient Queen getting left all alone like she was. But, it's odd. It'd be odd for her to have latched onto THIS specifically.
But, she DID get a lot more talkative when something she believed in was threatened.,,
Still, nah. Just nah.
Honestly, it's just too dark a twist for a kid's show. And I just don't Hasbro would do something like this, from what we've seen of G5 so far. They've been keeping it fairly simple, so far. This would be...complex for them to pull off. It's a little too "Scarlet Witch". Or Pokemon 3 The Spell of the Unown, take your pick.
Yeah that'll never happen. I would enjoy a story like that if it did happen though. That would be a fascinating way to go.
I know it won't happen but I'm happy to throw some fuel on that fire, so
Misty is bad at her job, and an interesting point of failure is that she'll obtain what she's supposed to retrieve, but for some reason just doesn't bring it right to Opaline. She grabs the lantern, and just doesn't bring it to Opaline. She grabs Sparky, and just doesn't bring him to Opaline. In both cases it is not at all clear why she doesn't make a run for it.
*tinfoil hat equipped*
It's because there's nowhere to actually bring these things, because Opaline doesn't exist. Misty can't bring outside objects into her imaginary world. She doesn't know why she makes these decisions, but they are stopping her from breaking her own delusion.
Okay she did manage to bring fire to Opaline. In a jar. You could convince me that that was imaginary too.
She also brings in smoothies to the Dark Castle. So if this was to work, she'd probably have to be able to bring in other items. Unless the smoothies are imaginary, too. She probably doesn't have any money to pay for them after all.
*Imagines Misty miming sipping on a invisible smoothie*
But, her subconsciously sabotaging herself DOES make sense.
Shame this theory is garbage, there's some interesting things to do with it.
She consumes the smoothies. They don't matter. The fire also gets consumed and seemingly no longer matters. It wasn't enough power. The real world will never know. Bringing the lamp or Sparky to Opaline would matter, if Opaline exists. There would be a consequence that the real world would notice.
Misty can't sustain the illusion when the not-actually-existing Opaline can't actually do anything to Sparky, so the encounter just can't happen.
I loved this chapter. My top two episodes would be Ali-Conned and Portrait of a Princess, least favorite episode would be Cutie Mark Switched or whatever that one was called, which had a fine idea but could have been executed better. BTW who else realized that the episode was based on the newer toys having removable versions of their cutie marks on one side?
I love Misty with all my heart.
I think she'll eventually be a full member of the pony crew. They don't have a blue pony yet! If that's the case then this is a truly epic slowburn introduction to a main character.
Incidentally I was at TF Con and did a panel where Aaron Archer led a group of us through a thought experiment where we pitched fictional toys for a fictional franchise, and a ten year old kid in attendance excitedly said: "The hero should have a TRAGIC BACKSTORY!" Which now makes me think of Misty. I believe in you, Misty! You can be a hero!
The animation was SO much better than the 44 minute MYM special. I can only guess that Netflix or Hasbro had set a strict schedule and refused to push things back even though the special wasn't ready. The lighting is better in Chapter 2, so the ponies' coat colors no longer look weird, and the animation (the character movements) is more fluid and nuanced. It doesn't match the quality of the movie obviously, but I noticed so many nice little moments like Zipp flopping over the side of her salon chair as she moped about portrait day, the way she shielded her face with her wings when she and Pipp got caught in the cave in, etc.
My top fave protagonist ponies are Pipp and Zipp. Also, Izzy is way more charming in MYM than in TYT (although I generally like TYT as well.) In TYT she just seems like Pinkie Pie 2.0 and, sorry Pinkie fans but I could not stand her by the end of G4, lol. In MYM Izzy comes across as more relaxed and just . . . with it?
Misty is my favorite antagonist but Opaline is a close second. The CAMP! If G1 Starscream had ever actually managed to take over, he'd be exactly like this.
This batch of episodes didn't really feel like a chapter to me, until Misty's final scene. She's on a chapter-long journey to find something she can bring to Opaline, and it all came together here. She finally managed to get something, by finally pulling off some quick thinking instead of panicking and doing the wrong thing.
One of the interesting scenes of Misty was when she gracefully dodged all of Sparky's traps in slow motion . . . then tripped over a box and immediately berated herself for being clumsy. She didn't even realize she did an amazing acrobatic feat; she only saw the one thing she did wrong. Poor Misty.
Opaline is also very interesting to me. Strong Mother Gothel vibes, but she would be very bored and lonely without someone to talk to, imo. I wonder if that's why she initially took Misty in. (Or kidnapped her.) A servant is useful, sure, but she chats with Misty a lot even when she doesn't have orders for her. They do the maniacal laugh thing together. And she can blame Misty for her own failures, as an outlet for her frustrations. Opaline also jumped on the idea of trying to recruit Sunny to her side, which is interesting for a villain. Maybe she would've tried to double-cross Sunny later, but in the short term she was all for adding a newbie to Team Evil. I wonder how she would have treated Sunny if she'd agreed. I imagine better than Misty, because Opaline's talk about "alicorn superiority" seems like her genuinely held belief. But she would still neg Sunny a lot and be generally toxic, I imagine.
If Opaline treated Misty kindly she would have pony by her side who really might do anything for her, but her toxic behavior is putting cracks in Misty's loyalty, especially now that Misty has had interactions with ponies who aren't trying to manipulate her.
Now I'm wondering how Opaline would have treated Sunny. She did sound honestly surprised that Sunny isn't more ambitious. "That's your wildest dream?"
I hope it turns out (or nothing contradicts) that Opaline took in Misty in a rare bit of genuine compassion. That wouldn't be an unprecedented way to write a villain, but it is extremely rare and I think it would be the more interesting way to go. Just that one time she had an actual pang of compassion.
One of the interesting scenes of Misty was when she gracefully dodged all of Sparky's traps in slow motion . . . then tripped over a box and immediately berated herself for being clumsy. She didn't even realize she did an amazing acrobatic feat; she only saw the one thing she did wrong. Poor Misty.
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