Just Finished Rewatching A New Generation For The Billionth Time (Ending Analysis) · 7:28am Apr 25th, 2023
Hey, everypony!! So I know my recent blogs have been me complaining about real life Math issues, but considering that doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better (Seriously, Professor Cotter said that Exam 3 is the hardest one, I’M DOOMED!!!!!!!!!!), I’m switching gears back to what I normally talk about in the meantime to avoid clinical depression. In this case, while I was getting some English homework done, I turned on My Little Pony: A New Generation for about the ninth time to give it a good ‘ol healthy rewatch and help my brain focus as my mind works great when listening to stuff.
I’ll basically be covering my thoughts on the film in depth in the G5 defense video, but I just wanted to touch on a favorite moment of mine here. Everyone loves to talk about what I consider to be the best song in the movie (“Danger Danger”), but I don’t think many people are giving the ending enough credit. Some say it’s rushed (a sentiment I don’t agree with, obviously), but the sheer power of the resolution is just unmatched in the feels department. I still get emotional during Sunny’s final speech and the symbolism with Argyle’s portrait, like WOW!! It’s a shockingly mature resolution for a MLP story. The moment Phyllis Cloverleaf, Queen Haven, and Alphabittle slide each frame of the picture back into place and the score swells just wrecked me emotionally. It’s the perfect example of telling a story without needing to say a word and I had to remind myself that I wasn’t watching a Pixar movie. This was just beautiful. It’s the moment everything finally clicks for Sunny and she realizes that in order to restore harmony, the ponies that have to come together on their own. They can’t rely on the crystals for motivation or do it out of selfish reasons. The reason why the crystals didn’t work in the first place was because the ponies weren’t united themselves. The crystals only came together because the ponies did and Sunny finally realizes that she’s been approaching the situation all wrong.
It’s not a case of bad writing (despite what some people say) as throughout the second half of the movie, Sunny thinks that putting the crystals together will unite the three pony tribes when it’s the exact opposite. She thought of the crystals as some sort of incentive for unity when there really is no such thing. Friendship and Unity are built on personal motivations and desires to connect, not a survival mechanism or ulterior motives. The ending is really powerful as it showcased friendship in an incredibly realistic way. Even though Argyle died in a world of ponies that despised each other, his loss was what inspired others to come together. And at least now he can be happy knowing that his daughter is carrying on his dream. The picture really represents so much. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like much, but at the end, it becomes the one thing that brings all ponies together. That is some powerful stuff and it’s arguably a better and more mature resolution than FIM’s pilot in my opinion. The last times MLP got this mature with its resolution was with the entirety of “The Perfect Pear” and the ending to “The Last Problem.” I was literally bawling at the end and it reminded me why I continue to love G5 so much and cheer it on, as well as why I fell in love with it in the first place.
Again, I say a lot more in the video, but that is basically the abridged version of that section. I’m currently marathoning all of G5 while I study and I just finished ANG. Now it’s off to Tell Your Tale. Good thing some episodes are on Netflix. Another thing I’d like to mention is that this rewatch gave me a lot of great story ideas post Misty Saga. One thing at a time though. Once the Misty Saga is completed, I’ll have a big announcement as to what is coming next in regards to G5 content on my page.
But what do all of you think? Feel free to let me know and I’ll be sure to read your thoughts as soon as I give myself a break. Thank you and see you all soon!! 
I really liked A New Generation (a solid 7/10 for me) but my biggest issue continues to remain the low scale story. Just a quick little meander around three pony settlement to find three crystals seems a little uninspired to me. Not to mention there doesn't seem to be any motivation for Sunny to start this journey in the first place. When Izzy arrives, she finds out unicorns don't have magic, so she sets out to investigate it just because... She felt like it? An actual reason would have helped greatly. Maybe they could have established that the land of Equestria was dying without magic and if it isn't brought back soon, everything will be reduced to a barren, lifeless wasteland. That not only would have given the characters an actual motivation, but also would have greatly increased the stakes.
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Allow me to explain some things for you. Sunny’s motivation to go on the journey with Izzy goes a lot deeper than ‘she feels like it.’ Essentially, this was her once chance to find out the truth and bring the three pony tribes back together. And her main motivation to do so was for her father. Argyle taught her from an early age to never stop fighting for what she believes in and when she meets Izzy, she takes the opportunity to meet the other ponies herself in hopes of bringing them together. She’s doing this all in the name of her father and to help realize his dream. That’s the emotional core of the story as Argyle’s death hangs over Sunny (and the entire movie) like a dark cloud. Sunny even states her reasoning behind her doing this during that beautiful campfire scene.
“We promised ourselves that we would prove that all ponies were meant to be friends. We’ll do our part…hoof to heart.”
That’s Sunny’s reasoning spelled out right there and it’s a really sympathetic one. Despite all the hardship and ridicule she endured, she never stopped believing. And now she finally has the chance to prove her father right about the unicorns and the pegasi. And the low scale story actually helps in my opinion. Basically, I see it in the same vein as Encanto where the main draw of the story is through the characters. Not everything has to be grand-scale and epic. The core of My Little Pony has always been the characters and the lessons they learn. It actually services the story better that there’s no god-like force or high stakes to be reckoned with (yet). That way the characters can choose friendship naturally instead of just as a survival mechanism. And the stakes do ramp up towards the end. If the other ponies didn’t stop Sprout, we would’ve had a war. While your ideas do sound really cool, it would’ve taken away from the personal and heartfelt reasons the Mane Five have to choose friendship and unity as then it would be either do it or die.
I hope that clears it up for you.
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I do see your point about the low scales.
But when Sunny starts the journey with Izzy, she had no way of knowing that bringing back magic would actually bring the pony tribes back together. I saw a reaction video to A New Generation that pointed out that during the climax of the film, the tribes still very much hated each other and if anything, bringing back magic might actually do more harm than good as they could just use it against each other. Well at least the pegasi and the unicorns could.
And since you mentioned the campfire scene, I just want to point out something I really loved about it. When I first saw the film, I found it weird and a little forced that Izzy just showed up in Maretime Bay out of nowhere and with no reason. When the campfire scene brought it up that it was the letter Sunny sent as a filly that made her want to go there, I thought that was a very clever touch! I really loved it and turned one of my biggest complaints into one of the strong suits.
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You’re right that she didn’t know that the bringing back magic would bring ponies back together at first. Yet that wasn’t her primary motivation. She wanted to bring all three ponies back together. If anything, finding out about magic was a secondary motivation as she now had the means to inquire about what happened to it. So although she wanted to find out about what happened to Equestria’s magic, that wasn’t the main purpose of her journey. The main reason she wanted to go was to meet the pegasi and the unicorns and convince them to be friends with earth ponies again. If anything, once she found out about why magic disappeared, Sunny felt it would be easier convincing the other ponies to get along once she knew them on a personal level. It was only after that scene at the abandoned station and the stained glass window did her two goals become intertwined. That was when she started believing that only through the crystals coming together again would the ponies come together again, which shocker: didn’t happen and it gradually leads to her realization at the end that I talked about.
Yes, the pony tribes still hated each other during the climax, but that’s part of the power of that scene I described. At that point, they weren’t thinking about bringing back magic to their “enemies.” Sunny had already seen how the crystals failed twice, so it was only during her greatest loss did she finally call to the other ponies as individuals (not as their abilities or what they were, but who they were) and ask for them to come together, using her friends as evidence that unity was possible. Maybe the crystals couldn’t come back together, but they could. They could fix everything that was broken if they wanted to and they didn’t need magic to do it. And in that moment, Queen Haven, Phyllis Cloverleaf, and Alphabittle saw how Sunny was willing to lose everything in order to extend a hoof of friendship out to them, so they decided to give it a chance. They didn’t know what was going to happen, sure, but that’s the power of the resolution. They took a leap of faith and decided to believe Sunny, each piecing back together a frame of Argyle’s picture as representative of the scars of old finally beginning to heal.
Does that make sense?
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Yes. Yes it does.
I want the government to know where I am
you know
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Sorry commented on the wrong post
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Or did i
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Oooooooookay…