MYM - Chap4, Ep6: "Missing the Mark"............................(SPOILERS)

[Guardian Prime]

It's the final episode of chapter 4!
And looks like it's all hooves on deck.
Will the Mane-5 finally confront Opaline?
Will the Mane-5 become...
the new Mane-6?

The episode is now available on Netflix
---------------------------

SYNOPSIS:



Missing the Mark

Sparky's in trouble! The Mane 5 must join forces with Misty
to battle the evil Opaline and stop her from capturing Dragonfire —
if they can trust Misty.
​

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Missing the Mark



Hopefully this episode doesn't miss the mark. Chapter finale here we go.

What? HOW? You can't have this super pivotal event happen offscreen.

Props for immediately trying what worked last time.

Opaline has the dragon. She will be happy with Misty for at least five minutes.

We actually haven't seen Sparky drawn to that tree lately. That goes back a long way.

It's happening. Misty has switched sides.

Now isn't the best time for this, Zipp. This is the only lead you have.

The Marestream is flying. This is the greatest danger they've been in all chapter.

It's happening. Our heroes have finally reached the castle.

Opaline immediately reminds us that she is actually dangerous.

I'm watching the clock and realizing I'm not commenting. The plot is finally coming together and I'm just watching it.

Okay this is a great plan. Opaline would 100% believe that Misty managed to screw this up badly enough to get tied up.

After all this time it's weird seeing the G5 cast finally in a dangerous situation again, battling a real villain.

I wasn't expecting Opaline to just break out immediately. She's been waiting a long time to show us her power and she's not going to stay down now.

I also wasn't expecting Misty to hide her betrayal to Opaline. I guess she's a double agent now.



And Chapter 4 is a wrap. Misty has finally switched sides but Opaline is still out there and now she has her power back.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

Missing the Mark:

Misty managed to get Sparky offscreen. So is this a dream, or is she just WAY more competent when the camera isn’t on her?

I feel like Make Your Mark Sparky is a lot easier to like than Tell Your Tale Sparky. He’s not as gross.

Wait, where is she stashing Sparky? He literally disappears when she starts running.

Hitch’s bed is literally in a filing cabinet. He’s too dedicated to this job.

Oh…we’re doing the same thing as the last episode of Chapter 2, with Hitch going crazy looking for a missing Sparky. Hopefully, with a different ending. Kind of clever how Hitch is WRONG to have learned his lesson from that episode.

Izzy cares not for the messes she makes.

I kind of want Bat-Hitch back.

HA! No magical musical deus ex machinas THIS TIME!

…I take back that bit about this version of Sparky not being as gross.

Huh…Sparky doesn’t seem to be instinctively afraid of Opaline like most babies are of evil in media. Strange.

Bubble Baby! Meh, it’s a easy way to make sure he doesn’t run around the place.

Wow, it didn’t take long for Sparky to go full greyscale. He goes grey WAY faster than his dragon flame drains from him.

*Izzy blows on a party favor* Izzy is not at her most helpful this episode, unfortunately.

Oh, Misty…trying to keep your secret is a BAD CALL. You have to know Opaline will tell them when they see each other.

Heh. Pipp’s into evil chic. Kind of makes sense, since she loves horror stuff so much.

Hmm…”draining the little lizard”…I don’t know if Netflix HAS censors, but they snuck this past someone. And it’s not the size of the lizard, it’s how you use it!

Zipp’s paranoia has been 100% justified! Weird lesson for kids, but…yeah, probably a good one.

A surprisingly bouncy bubble prison.

Opaline just..kind of wants to kill a baby. We’ve all been there, right? …Right?!

Okay, kind of a cool moment for Misty, here. Using a magical torch-stick to poke a hole in the bubble.

That’s…a very dramatic cutie mark reveal. I thought she was becoming a alicorn for a second.

“That pony will be the end of me” Foreshadowing!

Opaline Arcana! First time in a while we’ve heard her full name.

This is a surpringly decent fight between our two alicorns.

They’re keeping that stick after this. It’s been the MVP of the episode. I dub thee...Stoker!

Wait, what is Misty doing? She’s not going with them? Is…she going to be a double agent now? That’s okay…cool. But…they HAD her. They could have just…arrested her or something. Hitch was right there! Why did they just LEAVE her there!

It’s so cute how Misty loves using her new unicorn magic. Even if it's just cleaning.

So…instead of hiding her lack of cutie mark from the Mane 5…she’s now hiding her actual cutie mark from Opaline. Kind of clever.

*SIGH* Thanks for ruining the moment, Sparky.

Oh…there are…Other Dragons!

Okay, I’m hyped for the next episode, let’s continue with…WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT’S IT!!! UGH…guess we’ll see what happens in September or October?





Okay, well, let's talk about the season as a whole, here. Since, people probably won't get spoiled in here.

This season was...uneven.

First thing, EVERYTHING with Misty was great. Misty carried this Chapter. Misty is EASILY the most interesting character in this show right now. And the last episode was pretty great. I wasn't expecting them to face off with Opaline yet.

But...man, the choice to keep the Mane 5 oblivious to Opaline's existence hasn't really felt like the best idea to me. All the sitcom-y antics feel a little played out and uninspired.

And so many little plot points never really mattered or played out. The various books the characters have found haven't really given way to any great revelations, we've just been given information through Opaline's expositions. And things just...feel like they go too RIGHT for the characters sometimes? They don't really get publicly embarrassed or make mistakes the way the G4 cast did.

And, I think trying to have EVERY character take part in EVERY episode is a mistake. I'd like more focus episodes with only...1 or 2 characters taking up the time. See how they work together, see what their relationships are like when there's just 2 of them around each other. I'd like to see them go a little deeper with fewer characters in each episode, at least for the slice-of-life ones.


And then...there's the problem of reusing plots from Tell Your Tale...and contradicting that show. Now, I'm willing to give Make Your Mark the benefit of the doubt, here. I don't think they STOLE plot ideas from TYT. Hasbro probably gave BOTH teams a list of episode ideas and they either BOTH chose a couple of the main ones. Or maybe TYT is the one who stole the ideas from MYM. TYT episodes probably don't take as long to make. But, those TYT episodes came out first. Almost a year ago, in some cases. And almost half of this Chapter were repeating ideas we first saw in TYT. It was just unsatisfying.

And the thing is...did MYM actually do any of these plots BETTER than TYT did? I...might argue that they didn't. The plot points got longer screen time, sure. But, TYT managed to pack of lot of heart and comedy in it's 5 minute shorts. MYM...just doesn't feel as well written. I don't know, I just prefer the TYT version of some of these same story beats, at least right now.

And it rubs me the wrong way that they just seem to be...giving up on trying to make the two shows work together? Maybe they weren't really intended to, in the first place. But, before MYM Chapter 4, they were actually doing a pretty good job of making it work. But, it probably WAS a lot of work. And...they...probably just don't CARE about making the two shows work in continuity with each other. It's just a shame for them to give up on the idea, just because it's hard.

But, yeah, they seem to want TYT and MYM (and probably the IDW comics) to be their own, separate universes. At least, I think so. They'll probably stay relatively closely similar to each other. I doubt that Misty will have fully joined the Mane 5 and gotten totally away from Opaline in TYT, but working as a double agent in MYM.

It's just kind of a shame.

Also, Misty never got her redder hair we saw in preview images. Not really a complaint, and it could still happen in the last third, but...it's just weird they released those images when they never actually changed her hair color?

And I don't like that they just left Opaline in the castle...BECAUSE! Really...because more of show has to happen. There's really no good reason why they shouldn't have captured her in a more final way, right here. Opaline's threat really should have ended right here in this last episode.

It was still a mostly fun season. And I'm glad I watched. it. I...just hope it gets a little better for the last third. I AM looking forward to seeing what happened to the dragons. Hopefully, the CGI show has the budget to do them justice. We'll see.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I'll respond episode by episode later, but I figure I'll start with the big picture because it's going to color every other discussion. We're going to agree on a lot but my impression was quite a bit more positive, and I'm going to see if I can get you there.

This season was...uneven.

I found this season more even than the last time, in both directions. Nothing reached the heights of Portrait of a Princess or The Traditional Unicorn Sleep-Over, but nothing outright annoyed me as badly as the broken logic of Hoof Done It?. This wasn't a roller coaster. It was a smooth road trip.

I found Opaline more... subdued is clearly not the word for her but something was different. There was already a silliness with her on paper but it came across better here. At the same time, we saw more displays of her power and she got off her rump and personally did some work to achieve her goals. I'm glad they didn't finish her off here because I did not want to give her up yet right when she's getting interesting. Last time I wanted less. This time I'm ready for more.

Sparky. Sparky Sparky Sparky. Every time I rewatch something from the last batch I remember how tiring he was. He is not as cute as someone clearly thought he was, and he was so prominent last time. Who's watching Sparky? Let's check how they're doing. It got old. This time he was punted completely into the background. He only really mattered again in the finale, and there he was hardly an active participant in things. This was a very welcome swerve.

First thing, EVERYTHING with Misty was great. Misty carried this Chapter. Misty is EASILY the most interesting character in this show right now.

Complete agreement here. They've struck gold with Misty. Her scenes are either hilarious or genuinely sad. They're hitting whichever tone they're going for every time.

But...man, the choice to keep the Mane 5 oblivious to Opaline's existence hasn't really felt like the best idea to me. All the sitcom-y antics feel a little played out and uninspired.

And so many little plot points never really mattered or played out. The various books the characters have found haven't really given way to any great revelations, we've just been given information through Opaline's expositions.

If I have a main complaint, it's this one. Our heroes never figured out the puzzle. All the clues were just half bridges to nowhere. Misty had to bring them to the castle. There might still be some arguable merit to this as Misty is also trying to figure out a puzzle with the different versions of history she's been told. Maybe this is her story to figure out. It's just weird seeing the heroes so sidelined. But since this wasn't the final battle with Opaline anyway, maybe it's fine.

And things just...feel like they go too RIGHT for the characters sometimes? They don't really get publicly embarrassed or make mistakes the way the G4 cast did.

That's TYT's job, apparently. And Misty's job. And in all fairness that cooking show did not at all go like they hoped. They do experience their share of humiliation here and there.

And, I think trying to have EVERY character take part in EVERY episode is a mistake. I'd like more focus episodes with only...1 or 2 characters taking up the time. See how they work together, see what their relationships are like when there's just 2 of them around each other. I'd like to see them go a little deeper with fewer characters in each episode, at least for the slice-of-life ones.

This is one thing the first batch of episodes did better. That batch also had multiple plot threads to keep everyone involved, but the focus tightened at times. This new batch didn't have any duo spotlight as focused as what we got in Portrait of a Princess.

And then...there's the problem of reusing plots from Tell Your Tale...and contradicting that show.

This was a thing. A disappointing thing. But I don't know if my disappointment is fair. Ever since IDW did the 'missing Cloudpuff' story beat I've suspected that the plan was three separate but weirdly interchangeable versions of the same outline. It's redundant for us, but I think the idea was that a kid who isn't keeping up with every release stands a good chance of catching some version of things, so it'll never be confusing when characters reference past events. It's not at all necessary given the way the shows are available to watch at our leisure instead of airing once on TV, but maybe the executive who came up with this plan didn't know how the shows were going to be distributed.

As for how the shows managed to fit as well as they did for as long as they did, that may have never been the plan. That may have been just the TYT team trying to make it work because they felt like it.

As for how these MYM versions played out, I might have preferred how TYT handled some of these story beats. The 5 minute pace works better for some slice of life things. But I don't know if that's a failure of MYM or just TYT being surprisingly good at what it does. I don't know that I would have much of a problem with any of these MYM versions if I'd seen them first. A Little Horse probably didn't need to be a 22 minute episode, but it did get to cover more things than the TYT version did. The only thing I really remember the TYT version for was the sweet ending. The MYM version gave me an instant classic scene of Pipp and Zipp being best sisters, another look into Queen Haven's highly questionable parenting style, and the return of the low key running gag of Sunny being unable to cook. That poor soup.

The most regrettable thing was the return to Canterlogic, as it tossed aside several TYT episodes that didn't really handle any redundant story beats but ended up as collateral damage. That was unfortunate. But... I would absolutely keep this version for obvious reasons no matter how many TYT episodes it tossed. It was a great episode and I'm gonna watch it again.

Also, Misty never got her redder hair we saw in preview images. Not really a complaint, and it could still happen in the last third, but...it's just weird they released those images when they never actually changed her hair color?

Nobody knows what the marketing department is doing.

And I don't like that they just left Opaline in the castle...BECAUSE! Really...because more of show has to happen. There's really no good reason why they shouldn't have captured her in a more final way, right here. Opaline's threat really should have ended right here in this last episode.

This is a thing, but I don't feel I can complain about it with a clean conscience because I was actually surprised when she escaped that easily. I don't know why I didn't expect it, but the episode got me there. I thought she'd be stuck longer than that. Maybe it's because she wasn't draining Sparky anymore. And in fairness to our heroes who just left her there, what are they going to do, put her in Maretime Bay's jail? If that bubble didn't work then they really don't have a more secure place to put her. She is more powerful than they are, and at the moment they do not have the ability to summon bigger fish. This actually was the best they could do.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

We're going to agree on a lot but my impression was quite a bit more positive, and I'm going to see if I can get you there.

My post MIGHT give people the wrong impression. My criticisms are numerous...but I still had fun with the show. I'm still coming back for the next binge-drop. I'm committed at this point.

And there ARE a lot of fun moments sprinkled throughout this Chapter. A few really heartfelt moments, too. There ARE good moments.

But, I'm not sure if I'd say there's a really solid EPISODE this chapter, other than this final one, maybe. There's a lot of great moments in these episodes...but they're kind of bogged down by sharing time with things that either feel like filler or are kind of routine for a show of this type.

It's just...a good 60% of the good stuff revolves around Misty. 30% is probably Pipp. And everyone else shares the remaining 10% of the good stuff. The love is not being evenly distributed here. The writers clearly have their favorites. And that's fine. But...would this show actually be stronger if they just went ahead and Misty was actually the MAIN focus, instead of the Mane 5?

And it's ALSO competing against a show that feels like has tighter writing (by necessity, but still). And funnier jokes. And a art-style that I personally prefer. And there ARE times when it feels like multiple writers are writing different parts of the same episode or something, with weird little writing inconsistencies here and there.

I'll admit, realizing they either gave up on or never wanted to tie MYM and TYT together was the biggest problem I had with this Chapter. That kind of colored my enjoyment of some of it. It didn't RUIN the show for me, but I'll admit I kind of resent the choice.

And maybe part of the problem is the show's just not giving me a lot to chew on. It's a simple show. And simple shows can be fun! It's just...I feel like the show WANTS to have these dramatic twists and turns and reveals...and they just keep dropping the ball in that area.

...AND I'm still doing it. I'm still being (probably overly) critical of this show. I think this is just a ME thing? I'm just tearing this thing apart like a mechanic, trying to see what went wrong and how to improve it. Because I think there IS a lot of room for improvement...but I think those improvements could still happen. The show's got good bones, I just think it needs a few tweaks to be the best it could be.

I found Opaline more... subdued is clearly not the word for her but something was different.

Hmm...it might be that she's just in this season less? I feel like she..probably got fewer minutes on screen, before this final episode? More of the screen time focused on Misty, which is probably the right call.

Sparky. Sparky Sparky Sparky....He only really mattered again in the finale, and there he was hardly an active participant in things. This was a very welcome swerve.

I'm kind of two minds about this. On the one hand...yeah, I'm kind of glad they aren't focusing on the baby as much, too. The baby didn't really add anything for me, personally. On the other hand...I'd RATHER they do something to make me LIKE Sparky than just not using him as much.

Really, the best thing they can do is probably get him talking ASAP. Then, he can start to become his own proper character, rather than a minor obstacle in someone else's plot. And, to be fair, he does have a BIT of a personality, right now. There are moments when he seems to know more than the Mane 5 and tries to get their attention. And there's the whole Tree subplot...but that's almost happening off-screen, at this point.

I don't know, he very well might be GONE by the end of the season. He might end up going off with the other dragons to train his powers or something. He's probably sticking around, but it seems like Sparky MIGHT have a grander destiny than Spike did in G4.

That's TYT's job, apparently.

No, no. It's one thing if they do the work to keep the two shows connected. Fair enough using one show to focus on comedy and another on bigger moments, if that's how they want to split the focus. That takes effort.

But, if they don't want to go through that work, and they just want to have both shows do whatever they want, without being tied down by whatever the OTHER show did, then they get JUDGED on their OWN merits. TYT doesn't really make sense on it's own, without plot information from MYM. And MYM doesn't really isn't doing enough work fleshing out the Mane 5 as characters with problems.

This is one thing the first batch of episodes did better.

I'll admit, I'm not really considering this season as a whole. It's just been a while since I've seen Chapter 2. I'm kind of considering each Chapter to be more of a less a "season" in my head, even though I probably shouldn't. In the credits, it seems like this batch of episodes was still made in 2022.

As for how the shows managed to fit as well as they did for as long as they did, that may have never been the plan. That may have been just the TYT team trying to make it work because they felt like it.

*SIGH* Yeah, you're right. I know you're right. It just stings.

And, yeah, I'll say I still enjoyed the MYM versions of these episodes. We got some good jokes and moments out of them. I just couldn't stop feeling the whole time that they were copying off TYT's homework a little. Even if that was most likely NEVER the case.

This is a thing, but I don't feel I can complain about it with a clean conscience because I was actually surprised when she escaped that easily. I don't know why I didn't expect it, but the episode got me there.

I'll admit, I thought they were going to leave her in the bubble for a second there too.

"Wait...are they just going to leave her in the castle all alone? How is she going to EAT?!" But, then Misty just stayed there and I started seeing what they were doing.

But, the biggest problem I have isn't Opaline not being captured. I'd be fine with that. It's the WAY they did it that I have a problem with. They had her contained within a bubble. A bubble VERY similar to the one THEY couldn't escape without Stoker just a few minutes before. THAT could have easily been a cage for her. They could have hover-carried her back into town or done SOMETHING. Or used the Magic Lantern to pull off some sort of depowering spell on her. Or she could have just ran away before Sunny could get the chance to bubble her. But...just having her bubbled up all ready to go and just...LEAVE her there without doing ANYTHING and just walking away just feels like lazy writing. I know the writers don't want to be done with her yet, but this just makes the heroes look incompetent.

As for not having a "bigger fish"...I'm going to rant about this again...this was a pretty big fight. And Opaline wanted to kill a baby, that's a pretty big "friendship problem". And we've established that "magic" or "Twilight's spell" or the Unity Crystals DON'T LIKE IT WHEN PONIES FIGHT! Why didn't magic react when Sunny and Opaline were having their ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny? Fine, Opaline's magic probably comes from a different source (..or something, it's not like they explain it) and they showed that Opaline can just cancel out the magic of the Unity Crystals. But SUNNY'S magic should have had SOME sort of reaction, here. Sunny got a powerup from her friends believing her, but...there COULD have been a black hole that pulled Opaline into it like it almost did to Posey in the pilot. Are you telling me that "magic" considers Posey a bigger threat to harmony than Opaline? Plus, then we might have been able to explore what that "black hole" even WAS! Maybe being in the black hole could have given Opaline a powerup (or maybe that could be where the dragons are?) when she eventually popped back out, hours later, when everyone left and assumed she was dead. Wasn't the whole point of the "black hole" to seal away threats to harmony?! But, magic's been so inconsistent on this show, they probably don't have any big plans for explaining any of it. *SIGH* It's hard to argue about magic systems, when the writers don't seem to give them any internal logic!

And they just left Misty there with her! Look, her being a double agent is a VERY interesting plot development...but it's a TERRIBLE thing to do to their friend. She's still stuck with her abusive boss! You don't do that to a friend! At the very least, they should have INSISTED on Misty leaving with them, so she wouldn't have to be around her anymore. It'd be one thing if Misty just started leaving them notes in secret, without them knowing that she wants to reform, as a way to try to redeem herself, but they DO know! They know she's not a bad pony now! They're friends...but they're letting her stay around a incredibly toxic person! It just feels wrong, to me. I'm looking forward to seeing where they go with this double agent plot...but I'm not 100% convinced this makes sense from a character perspective.


It's...just so the plot can happen. And that happens too often on this show. The writers CAN do better than this, I believe in them. They have moments of really nice character work. I'm sure they can make the plot make sense too, if they just thought it through a little more.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

But, I'm not sure if I'd say there's a really solid EPISODE this chapter, other than this final one, maybe. There's a lot of great moments in these episodes...but they're kind of bogged down by sharing time with things that either feel like filler or are kind of routine for a show of this type.

Hmm... yeah. This show does have a weakness when it comes to individual episodes. Instead of chapters that are a mix of slice of life and ongoing plot episodes every episode wants to be a mix of both, but the two aspects are weaving instead of mixing and it's hurting both. The slice of life parts weave around enough of the ongoing plot to not stand out as much as they should as individual stories, and the ongoing plot doesn't get to make enough moves that individually feel weighty.

I personally found the material consistently solid enough, but the episode structure is flawed. It is a show that wants to be binged. Which is how it's released. I don't watch any other shows that do this episode dump model so I have no comparison.

It's just...a good 60% of the good stuff revolves around Misty. 30% is probably Pipp. And everyone else shares the remaining 10% of the good stuff. The love is not being evenly distributed here. The writers clearly have their favorites. And that's fine. But...would this show actually be stronger if they just went ahead and Misty was actually the MAIN focus, instead of the Mane 5?

That's a pretty fair breakdown. On the other hand, Sunny was the star of the movie with Izzy as a close co-star, Zipp largely dominated the first special, and Hitch may not have been exactly the star of the Winter Wishday special but he got a lot of much needed love. He got to be the cute one for sure. These latest episodes may not have spread the attention enough but as a whole things aren't quite so lopsided.

And it's ALSO competing against a show that feels like has tighter writing (by necessity, but still). And funnier jokes. And a art-style that I personally prefer. And there ARE times when it feels like multiple writers are writing different parts of the same episode or something, with weird little writing inconsistencies here and there.

I'm never going to prefer TYT's art style, so that's one permanent point in MYM's column for me. 3D has limitations but any scene that isn't supposed to have a crowd in it looks great. And for as flawed as MYM's writing and episode structure can be, there is something about the slow pace does work for me for some probably entirely personal reason.

I'll admit, realizing they either gave up on or never wanted to tie MYM and TYT together was the biggest problem I had with this Chapter. That kind of colored my enjoyment of some of it. It didn't RUIN the show for me, but I'll admit I kind of resent the choice.

Well, maybe you can still tie them together if you want. If I'm right about the thinking behind this strategy, that it's for viewers who missed a story beat here or there but caught some other version of it and that allows them to understand current events well enough, you can basically choose your own adventure here. It's not one unified timeline of everything or multiple complete timelines. There is a list of events, and the details are whichever ones you remember.

Hmm...it might be that she's just in this season less? I feel like she..probably got fewer minutes on screen, before this final episode? More of the screen time focused on Misty, which is probably the right call.

Less is more with her, but I don't think it's just that. The tone was different somehow. I think. I may need to rewatch chapter 2 to see if maybe she just grew on me. She had moments I liked then too but she lost me somewhere.

**Sparky**

I'm fine with either of those options, but since he managed to get through this entire chapter without doing anything to annoy me I could also be fine with no drastic change. His TYT personality is already fine. Just keep him in the background imitating Hitch and I'm good.

The tree thing interests me because it does keep popping up here and there. Maybe dragons are going to have elemental affinities instead of all being about fire, and maybe his is plant related.

*SIGH* Yeah, you're right. I know you're right. It just stings.

And, yeah, I'll say I still enjoyed the MYM versions of these episodes. We got some good jokes and moments out of them. I just couldn't stop feeling the whole time that they were copying off TYT's homework a little. Even if that was most likely NEVER the case.

Call it revenge for the time MYM's Have You Seen This Dragon? was followed by TYT's Dragon Dad just a few days later.

They could have hover-carried her back into town or done SOMETHING. Or used the Magic Lantern to pull off some sort of depowering spell on her.

They just don't have a place to put her, nor any macguffins known to be capable of doing anything to her. They would have had to establish something (which honestly they probably could have found time to do by now) or do something without establishing it. As is, they're not working with a lot of tools here. They had a stick.

Why didn't magic react when Sunny and Opaline were having their ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny? Fine, Opaline's magic probably comes from a different source

Dragon fire.

At the very least, they should have INSISTED on Misty leaving with them, so she wouldn't have to be around her anymore.

That was Misty's call to make. If she wants to do this double agent thing, blowing her cover right then would have been rude.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

Dragon fire.

I'm just not 100% sure if Dragon magic SHOULD be tied to the Unity Crystals or not? Supposedly, ALL the magic in Equestria got put into the crystals. So, that SHOULD include dragonfire magic, too? Maybe? Sparky's egg didn't hatch until magic fully came back for the Earth ponies, after all. But, that might've just been a coincidence?

And this new Dragon Stone didn't have any magic still in it and had to be charged, so I'm not sure what it's original function actually was? The Dragon Stone was not holding the dragon's magic or acting as a conduit to convert their feelings into magic in the same way that the Unity Crystals do for ponies. Sparky was right there, but all it did was suck out his magic, it didn't turn HIS joy INTO magic, or something.

And then there's the wrinkle of Opaline being a "natural" Alicorn rather than earning the power like Twilight did. It's possible that her magic just doesn't come from the Crystals. And Opaline had the natural ability to create barriers that could seem to block the Unity Crystal's "signal". But, that "signal" WAS reaching her castle, since the Mane 5 could use magic after they busted out of the bubble barrier. And, Opaline HAD lost her original Alicorn magic, and that's why she's been trying to steal any magical power she can. Therefore, ALL the magic that's she's stealing SHOULD (maybe) have to follow the new rules of the Unity Crystals?

It all kind of depends on if the Unity Cystals and Dragon Stone are supposed to work TOGETHER or SEPARATELY, I guess? Are they two parts of the SAME magic system or do they create two DIFFERENT magic systems?

They just haven't explained it well enough to satisfy my nerdy tastes. *shrug*

Am I overthinking this? YES! But, my points stand!

 

[CoffeeHorse]