Friendship is Card Games: Izzy Does It · 12:32pm Oct 2nd, 2022
I find myself in an interesting situation that I can only describe as a multilevel backlog. The first one, the new Netflix content, will last me until the end of November. The one after that, all the Tell Your Tale shorts and comics that will accrue in that time, will see me through mid-January. And all the stuff I already had planned? December of next year.
Let’s begin.
Disclaimer: I’m not reacting to this one completely fresh. It’s been out for almost a week and I’m only human. 
Mind you, I’ve only seen the first two episodes as of this blog, so please keep that in mind when posting potential spoilers in the comments.
Okay, I immediately hate Sparky’s baby noises. Flurry Heart sounded like an infant. This sounds like Yoda trying to do baby talk.
I do like the brief fly-through montage of the three principle locations of G5. On the other hand, it’s reminder of how small the world feels compared to Old Equestria. To be fair, most of Season 1 took place in some combination of Ponyville, Canterlot, and the Everfree, but at least there was a sense of more out there with trips to Cloudsdale and Appleoosa.
Izzy’s creative process is a delight to behold. Especially the bits that only make sense to her. Of course you need to invert the spatula. Also, I have to wonder if the fairy lights are glowing specifically because of her magic.
Yeah, maybe letting the toddler go near the precariously balanced pile of random stuff unsupervised was a bad idea, guys.
Hitch used Grassy Glide! It’s conveniently effective!
Also, good to see someone noticed the glowing cutie mark phenomenon in-universe. I do appreciate Zipp’s efforts to understand magic scientifically.
The intro isn’t bad—quick, effective way to establish the main cast—but I honestly prefer the G4 theme musically.
Also, what happens to Sunny’s skates and safety gear when she deploys her wings?
Nice touch with the antagonists not getting any kind of cutie mark splash panel. At least one of them isn’t being true to herself.
Izzy’s crafting glasses were being held aloft by comedic timing, which has been shown to overpower gravity in Equestria under the right circumstances.
I do like how frustrated Hitch is with earth pony magic. Wild, uncontrolled surges do not sit well with a mind defined by law and order.
Izzy’s social isolation really hits hard. She hasn’t had anyone since whatever happened to her parents happened. (Heck, where are Hitch’s parents? It may be too early to say—goodness knows it took Friendship is Magic a while to cover all of the previous generation—but it feels like we have a main cast that’s 60% orphans.)
Yeah, sticking around to gloat about how you don’t have to do the grunt work is a good way to get roped into doing grunt work.
Honestly, using a gift from Izzy in a way she hadn’t anticipated may be the best way to show one’s appreciation for it.
And we are introduced to Misty, whose first action in the series is staring at another mare’s rear end. I’m sure that will never be taken out of context. 
Also Opaline, who has yet to learn that she doesn’t need to sit two inches from the camera during a video call.
Also, given the continual rainbow beacon of magic pouring out of the local lighthous, or that magic mirror working, or you know, her own telekinesis coming back, I’m not sure why Opaline felt the need to confirm the return of magic to Equestria. Granted, there is the question of just what she was capable of before Sunny reunited the crystals…
The ludicrous produce confirms (in my mind) that earth pony magic has always been a thing. Yes, I know about the Twiligram in the next episode. I’ll share my thoughts on that next week.
That said, the notable absence of apples almost feels like an intentional snub towards the legacy of the Apple Family. Definitely reading too much into that, but still.
“Trend of the day.” Is there any better phrase to encapsulate the acceleration of memetic development brought on by the Internet?
I feel like Pipp should’ve consulted with the creator of the mane accessory nee bracelet before telling all of her followers to get one. Your values are not necessarily shared by your friends, Attention Horse.
I do love the interplay between Hitch and Zipp. Heck, I’m also enjoying the Pipp-Izzy interaction. It’s a route we haven’t seen explored much. Nothing deep to add, just wanted to get in some positivity amid all the “FiM did it better” maundering.
There’s nothing a scientist loves more than an unanswered question. That’s where the fun lies.
And of course magic isn’t safe. Nothing’s perfectly safe. The trick is making sure the users understand how to handle it safely and responsibly.
Okay, seriously, Hitch. Watch your son. A son who demonstrates that, even a few weeks out of the egg, dragons are still incredibly strong.
The “magnetic hooves” effect is really apparent when Sunny passes (dare I say… hands?) smoothies to customers.
“Royally big strawberry” is an interesting idiomatic choice. It could just be a riff on “king-size,” but I like the idea that it stems from alicorns being physically larger than other ponies back in the days of Old Equestria.
Also, side note, why does a smoothie stand have salt and pepper shakers? 
“It was lightning in a glue bottle!”
Let’s just sidestep the question of where ponies get their glue…
Pipp, this is a private conversation.
I do appreciate the stallion who sees Misty spying on the main cast with binoculars, then tries to spot what she’s looking at. Good side detail.
Oof. The flap cycle on Pipp after the Misty cutaway is… rough, to say the least. To say nothing of some of her moves during the song. I honestly wish they’d stuck with the Tell Your Tale 2D animation for these. If you’re not willing to put forward to budget for quality 3D, don’t bother. Wouldn’t be the first time a feature-length MLP presentation used a different style than the main series.
As I said earlier, Pipp-Izzy interaction does present a fun angle. Rarity offered a window into the struggles and joys of the creative process, but seeing two very different creative processes clash against one another makes for a fascinating character interaction study. Especially Izzy’s more spontaneous, muse-driven artistry against Pipp’s self-commoditizing content mill.
Yeah, those stomping-in-place foals feel more like a tech demo than anything natural.
I’m not sure what I have more questions about, all the boxes in the closet marked with the Maretime Bay Sheriff’s Office logo (Hitch? Stealing office supplies? The very idea!) or the horse-Chinese takeout container (which, interestingly, has an Eastern dragon on it.)
“When’s your next new hit drop?”
Very helpful, random follower, thanks so much. Pipp might have forgotten her fanbase is a ravenous, insatiable monster that demands ever more.
“You just need to listen to your fans and do what they want.”
This may be the single worst piece of advice I’ve ever seen anyone give sincerely. But I still like it, because it shows just how differently these two approach their art. (And given how Pipp’s never experienced creative block herself, it makes sense that she’d have no idea how to deal with it.)
Hmm. That doodle of an equine figure vaulting over a rainbow is probably meant to be Izzy, but I can’t help but think of Luna given the color scheme and flowing mane.
I love the little ear flick from Rocky after Pipp’s bout of mike feedback. More of these horsey details, please.
An important moral of this episode: Your public may be adoring, but that doesn’t mean they have any idea of what goes into making what they adore. Feedback is important, don’t get me wrong, but slavishly doing whatever the public wants rarely ends well. Especially not when their wants are nebulous to the point of uselessness.
(Part of me can’t help but wonder if this is a shot at bronies. G5 definitely has some big shoes to fill. I’ll settle for different and not worse, myself.)
Meanwhile, Sunny has the simpler task of appealing to gustatory taste rather than artistic, and the responses feel like I’m watching a commercial on public access TV. (“Tastes like magic!” Dare I ask what that one guy means?)
I feel like the Sunny-Izzy exchange is missing a line. An unprompted “Do I look desperate?” feels out of left field even for Izzy. I wouldn’t be surprised if the editor trimmed a few seconds off the start of the scene at the last minute.
“Sweet sauce horseshoe toss!”
… Watch your profanity?
Never blindly confirm you’re saying what Izzy Moonbow thinks you’re saying.
It’s a good effort at stealth, Misty, but you are in full view for the rest of Maretime Bay during a crowded event and your mane was visible from the underside of the service window for a bit. Honestly, the only reason Sunny didn’t notice her was the needs of the larger plot.
There’s something hilarious about eager fans resembling a horde of zombies pounding at the windows.
Cutie mark glow does provide a useful indicator of when you’re trying to force your talent to the point of self-sabotage.
So nice of Opaline to exposit Misty’s origins for the audience. To say nothing of chastising her minion for daring to… go and perform the scouting mission Opaline presumably commanded her to carry out.
Yeah, I’m less than impressed by Princess Maleficent here based on what I’ve seen thus far. We’ll see if she has any deeper underlying motives; wanting power for the sake of having power is the peanut butter and jelly sandwich of ambition.
“What have you found?”
“Well, I think—“
“How dare you analyze the information I told you to gather rather than scrying on the town as I’ve done before?”
Seriously, mare, a little positive reinforcement goes a long way when it comes to minion management. And then there’s Opaline dismissing a connection between magic and cutie marks, which… I don’t even have words for that one. I kind of hope Misty’s cutie mark turns out to be magic-related, just to rub it in Opaline’s muzzle. Though given how little autonomy and emotional fulfillment she’s had in her life, Misty’s talent could be pretty much anything that isn’t obsequious subservience… assuming that’s even how cutie marks work anymore.
Also, you’d think Misty’s lack of a cutie mark would’ve drawn some attention in town. This may be a case where I need to see more of the series to appreciate how big the impact there is.
Ah. A villain stringing along their unicorn minion by promising her something they clearly have no intention or ability to give her. No wonder I’m underwhelmed by Opaline; she’s the Storm King all over again. (Though at least she isn’t actively mocking the idea of fleshing out her backstory or motivation.)
To be fair, “I’ll be even more powerful than I was before” is a good villain teaser. But power for power’s sake is still a hollow goal. It’s what you do with it that really matters. (That said, given the immortal, winged schemer trying to reclaim vast magical power, we have the closest My Little Pony’s come to Nicol Bolas. I wonder if Opaline had a neutral twin.)
After attending Admiral Biscuit’s seminar on horse tack, I find Sunny getting out of her wagon traces by basically shrugging somewhere between fascinating and absurd.
A walk can get the creative juices circulating again, but… Yeah, years of social isolation don’t do much for idiom comprehension.
Maybe not hats for birds, but hats based on birds?
Or Izzy can literally walk into the solution to her problem. How many abandoned scooters dot the fields of Equestria, exactly?
So, Sparky’s fire transforms objects, which is interesting enough, but apparently that slice of pizza is close enough to Zipp’s phone in mass and texture that she failed to notice anything was amiss. Mind you, she also didn’t look down when Sparky snatched the pizza-phone out of her hoof, so her situational awareness wasn’t exactly at its peak.
(Seriously, the degree of adults not paying attention to the rambunctious child is driving me up a wall here. Please watch your kid, Hitch.)
I feel compelled to note that Kertle Turtle is, in fact, a tortoise.
Please write out the actual words in the future, Izzy.
Look, if a valuable lesson was learned, it doesn’t matter if it wasn’t intentionally taught. The thing about “garbage in, garbage out” is that Izzy specializes in working with garbage.
And now we have an… interesting continuity issue. This marks the premiere of Izzy’s personal transport, seen several times in the Tell Your Tale shorts, which presumably means that Misty’s been watching the main cast for longer than we realized. Or the TYT shorts aren’t in chronological order, which is entirely possible. Still a bit of a headache.
“You inspired her to steal?”
Based on what we’ve seen, Izzy doesn’t need any help there.
Whatever happens later is partially Pipp’s fault for refusing to admit she didn’t get Sunny anything for her birthday. Not like Hitch or Zipp did either.
“Why did it stop!?” cries Opaline after Sunny clearly closed the compact. You’re the one who put the scrying sensor on the inside, lady. But no, no, it can't be a design flaw, because that would mean Opaline made a mistake. Clearly the ponies who barely understand how to make horns glow must have cast a cloaking enchantment.
(Misty’s guess does lead to interesting questions about whether the Unity Crystals are at all aware, but again, Sunny just closed the box. If the feed was meant to cut out as the group was walking inside, that’s on the animators, or possibly the scriptwriter.)
Equestria itself had a cloak on it? When magic was gone, or at least inaccessible? I have a number of questions. (Some of which can be answered by watching more of the series, I know.)
Opaline, do you even have other allies? That’s not presumption, that’s basic logic.
“This has been the best birthday in moons!”
I literally screamed the first time I heard that line. Of all the things to carry over from G4, it had to be the chronometric equivalent of quads. (That aside, lovely moment. A reminder that Sunny’s life has improved exponentially since before magic’s return.)
The bobblehead serves no apparent purpose, but I’m sure the entire stereo would stop functioning if it were removed. Also, yeah, we never really saw consequences for Pipp’s block beyond getting pestered by her fans… which is fairly realistic.
The dancing… Yikes. I’ve seen Hanna-Barbera loops that look better.
In all, a fun start to the series, though I can’t help but compare my relatively minimal consumption of Make Your Mark to those days of yore in 2011, when full episodes of Friendship is Magic were available on YouTube and I binged all of Season 1 over a few days. But that may just say more about my greater obligations these days. Making cards, for example:
Craft Fair 1W
Enchantment
2: Create your choice of a Clue token, a Food token, or a tapped Treasure token. Any player may activate this ability.
Maretime Bay festivals have something for everyone.
Creative Block 1WW
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Enchant player
Enchanted player can’t draw more than one card each turn.
Enchanted player can’t create more than one token each turn.
Worse than a nightmare is having no dreams at all.
Aven Headdresser 2W
Creature — Bird Hatificer
Flying
Whenever another creature that has a hat enters the battlefield under your control, draw a card. This ability triggers only once each turn.
She only uses ethically sourced feathers, mostly from herself.
2/1
Iterative Improvement 2UU
Sorcery
Create a token that’s a copy of target artifact you control. You may put two +1/+1 counters on the copy. If you don’t, it gains “This artifact’s activated abilities cost 2 less to activate. This effect can’t reduce the mana in that cost to less than one mana.”
Every update is a step towards perfection.
Trend of the Day 2UU
Sorcery
You may cast a nonland card from your hand without paying its mana cost. If you do, each opponent copies the spell and may choose new targets for their copy. Those copies can’t be countered. (Copies of permanent spells become tokens.)
Pipp’s followers are aptly named.
Bridlewood Duplimancer 4U
Creature — Unicorn Wizard
Whenever you cast a spell that targets only a single creature you control, create a 3/3 blue Unicorn Wizard creature token.
Hitch moaned. “There’s two of her?”
“Three,” corrected Zipp. “And more on the way.”
3/3
Diehard Fan B
Creature — Zombie Pony
Diehard Fan enters the battlefield tapped.
Whenever a player sacrifices a Song, you may cast Diehard Fan from your graveyard.
He goes conveniently deaf whenever somepony tries to tell him that Coloratura didn’t have wings.
2/1
Demanding Fanbase 1B
Creature — Pony Citizen
Menace
At the beginning of your upkeep, discard a card.
“You pour out your heart, your soul, your dreams, everything you are. And the next day, you have to do it again, but better.”
—Princess Pipp Petals
5/4
Dread Resurgence 2BBB
Sorcery
Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each black mana symbol in its mana cost.
Opaline longs to not merely return to her ancient might, but to exceed it.
Torment of Expectation X2B
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Enchant player
Vanishing X plus 1 (This Aura enters the battlefield with X plus one time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from it. When the last is removed, sacrifice it.)
Whenever enchanted player casts a spell, that player loses 3 life unless they sacrifice a nonland permanent or discard a card.
Squealing Feedback 2R
Sorcery
Multikicker — Remove a verse counter from a Song you control. (You may remove any number of verse counters from Songs you control as you cast this spell.)
Squealing Feedback deals X damage to any target, where X is 3 plus the number of times it was kicked.
Servant of Atsushi 3RR
Creature — Dragon Spirit
Flying, trample
Whenever Servant of Atsushi attacks, choose another target attacking creature. Until end of turn, that creature gets +2/+2 if it has a counter on it, gains flying if it’s equipped, and gains trample if it’s enchanted.
4/4
Unicycled Charm G
Instant
Choose one —
• Create a 1/1 blue Unicorn creature token.
• Put target card from your graveyard on top of your library.
• Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
With the right idea, Izzy can make something for any taste.
Back to Your Roots 1GG
Sorcery
Choose one or both —
• Destroy target artifact or enchantment
• Target player searches their library for a basic land card, puts it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffles.
Reconnecting with nature can answer a question no one knew they were asking.
Absurd Bounty 2G
Enchantment
When Absurd Bounty enters the battlefield, create a Food token. (It’s an artifact with “T, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”)
Noncreature tokens you control have “T: Add G.”
Earth pony magic soon redefined “All you can eat.”
Leyline Rider 2G
Creature — Pony Druid
As long as you control an enchantment, you may cast this spell as though it had flash.
Leyline Rider can’t be blocked as long as defending player controls an enchantment.
Sliding along invisible currents of magic is fun up until you find out somepony put a building in the way.
3/2
Glasses of Izzy 2
Artifact
T: Scry 1. Look at the top card of each other player’s library.
“I’m not that nearsighted. They’re mostly for making me feel more artistic.”
—Izzy Moonbow
Rusted Roadster 3
Artifact — Vehicle
As Rusted Roadster, you may exile an artifact creature or Vehicle card from your graveyard.
Rusted Roadster has the power, toughness, and all abilities that aren’t crew abilities of the exiled card.
Crew 3 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 3 or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.)
*/*
Tower of Friendship 4
Artifact
8, T: Create two 5/5 colorless Pony Golem artifact creature tokens.
The tower’s runes tell of the first color to touch the plane of Argentum, a stripe of pink painted across a world of chrome to the wonder of creator and ur-golems alike.
Destiny Thief (ur)B
Creature — Unicorn Rogue
Inspired — Whenever Destiny Thief becomes untapped, exile the top card of target opponent’s library. You may cast that card for as long as it remains exiled and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast that spell.
True artistry is taking what will be had.
2/2
Mischievous Hatchling UR
Creature — Dragon
Skulk (This creature can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power.)
Frenzy 2 (Whenever this creature attacks and isn’t blocked, it gets +2/+0 until end of turn.)
For everyone’s safety, never leave a child unattended.
1/1
Reforging Breath RW
Instant
Exile target permanent. Its controller may put a card that shares a card type with that permanent from their hand onto the battlefield. If they do, that permanent gains haste. At the beginning of the next end step, return it to its owner’s hand and return the exiled card to the battlefield.
“All You Need is Your Beat” GU
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on “All You Need is Your Beat”.
(gu), Sacrifice “All You Need is Your Beat”: Draw X cards, where X is the number of verse counters on “All You Need is Your Beat”. You may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield.
Shroud of Concealment 2WU
Enchantment
You have hexproof.
Creatures you control have ward 2. (Whenever one or more creatures you control become the targets of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays 2 for each of those creatures.)
Geez. Combine Craft Fair with Academy Manufacturer and you'll just be loading up on tokens
It’s pretty much the antithesis of “Suited for Success” (g4s1e14). I can almost see Twilight producing the relevant Friendship Report and gently tapping Pipp on the muzzle with the scroll as Rarity sings “The Art of the Dress”.
TYT episodes can't (just) be out of order. Izzy uses her scooter when chasing Posey, which she does before repairing Sunny's lamp, which obviously happens before she repairs the scooter in this series. That, plus a series of other things, makes it seem like the two shows are two separate but adjacent continuities. Things that happen in one end also happen in the other (you'll see more callbacks too going forward), but not necessarily in the same order or to the same degree. It's honestly actually a good way to look at it (intentional or not), it helps reconcile the differences in tone and TYT's more exaggerated cartoony antics compared to MYM.
I got done with the show yesterday, and I think I like it. I also have words about the earth pony magic stuff, I'll save those for next blog. I think you can make it all work with just a bit of headcanoning, and I also think the problem stems from FiM mainly, but we'll talk about it then. I like Opaline. She's not particularly original or deep, but I also think it's dumb to think either of those are strictly needed to make a good villain. She is worse than FiM's better ones, but she's no worse than some of the other ones in terms of motivation when you take away all the headcanons people have convinced themselves were part of the show. For what it's worth there are a lot of things I like about her, and I definitely think she has potential to be very entertaining going forward. She'll mostly be defined by how well her scenes are executed (though she's unfortunately gotten the short end of the stick with her dialogue so far, much too repetitive across different episodes and a little too on the nose with the abusive parent stuff early on, thankfully the show gets better on showing stuff there later on).
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Your Trend of the Day is Phage the Untouchable. No, the token isn't optional. Yes, casting it without having to pay is still casting it. Sure, you could do other things with it, but tricking all of your opponents into killing themselves with a bogus Tiktok challenge is funnier.
Inside Baseball Alert: Because Kamigawa had its historical Japan era in one of the most distant parts of the past that canon charted out, its modern day has gone cyberpunk. Chinese takeout makes at least as much sense as a planeswalker from there who sparked when he was hit by a bus and now thinks he's an Isekai protagonist. (My own fanwalker idea uses Kamigawa in the other direction: a Segovian who ended up there on his first planeswalk mostly because issun-boshi is a thing; the idea for him predates the Neon Dynasty being referenced above, but there are enough traditionalist areas to let him have the aesthetics he needs for that because they needed to reconcile what we'd seen of Tamiyo's home with what they were doing to the plane)
Inside Baseball Alert: There are many potential explanations for Pinkie Pie. One of FoME's has her as a pre-Mending planeswalker who legitimately created the plane G4 and G5 take place on. Yes, pre-Mending planeswalkers were powerful enough to do that; Argentum is a canon example and it isn't even the only one.
Protection from Editors Alert: Unicycled Charm needs "from a/your graveyard" in its second ability. Anything else would be both too powerful for a one-mana charm and out of pie for green.
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While I'm not a big fan of Opaline (though that could change), I fully agree with this. Just about everyone loves Discord, and his initial motives were "dickishness for dickishness's sake". Heck, that's some of his later motives, too. Opaline having a named lackey already makes her stand out from FiM's villains (except for the Storm King, funnily enough). If we're lucky, Misty will get a win or two later in the series and we can see their relationship shift.
I also think "wanting power for the sake of having power is the peanut butter and jelly sandwich of ambition" isn't that great a comparison, because peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are delicious. "Buttered toast of ambition" sounds better to me; it's acceptable on its own but not much more, it's kinda lazy, and it needs something more to make it memorable.
The thing that bothers me:
The most about Opaline is the noticeable lighter fuzz on her muzzle around her lips. It just draws my eye every time she's on screen. Is it an animation glitch? Or is she constantly drinking frosty grape milkshakes when we're not watching?
Mike
Reforging Breath on lands might be a little sus. I'm picturing an awful scepter lock...
If he weren't too famous to do this series, I would have guessed "Howie Mandel as Gizmo."
I hate to ruin your fun, but I heard it as "really big strawberry."
This goes back to the other two pieces of G5 Netflix content, but I've developed the opinion that while the 3-D models look fine in stills, whenever they're required to perform any kind of feats of moderate dexterity, they become weird, flailing tube monsters.
I don't know, but during the previous special, Hitch said that something tasted like magic. Coincidence or foreshadowing? Coincidence? Okay, fine.
Bold choice to have a character introduce the first song in the series by saying it's a retread (with the lowered quality that implies).
It wasn't until this episode that I noticed that the curved ramp to the second floor inside the lighthouse is shaped like a horseshoe.
They're trying to make Hitch's high-pitched "Whaaaaaat?" a catchphrase. I wish they'd stop.
I watched this first episode earlier in the week to see in what direction the series would go. At the moment, it feels very "generic kids' cartoon." I'll stick around for now because I'm curious whether they have a plan for explaining how this relates to G4. (They do have a plan, right? Or did they just throw in those references at the beginning of the movie as a sort of "transfer of power" with no concern about or intention to address the massive narrative problems they would create?) But I have no urge to watch the remaining episodes in advance -- I'll just watch them one-per-week as this blog series comes out, and we'll see if I can avoid spoilers in the meantime.
(So far, all I've picked up on is that Misty appears to be extremely popular on Derpibooru.)
As of right now, though, the show is going to have to do some work to make these characters interesting in order to get me to care about future seasons.
Shouldn't have complained about lack of content those months back.
Vaporized. Alicorns don't mess around, man!
Just flip that IK/FK switch, aaaand done! A lot of the movement is also the "x-axis tango," i.e., rotating the joints on only one axis, which is mostly unnatural looking. With that said...
So... There's this thing about studios hiring animators right out of school because they're cheap and desperate to get work... And that's not to rag on the artists; if the Art Director, Director, or Producer cared more about quality than the budget or schedule, they'd help guide and teach the junior animators. Might happen yet. Watch for improvements in later episodes.
*sigh*
Y'know, the ponies have got high tech now, and they know the other tribes aren't the monsters that they used to be portrayed as, and they don't really need to use magic for much, so they might be better off just smashing the crystals and getting on with life. No magic, no endless parade of villains trying to steal it.
I yelled, "Oh for f#@k's sake!" so loud that the dogs went and hid behind the couch.
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Not an unreasonable point, but I don't know if that's a fair comparison, because not all villains require the same amount of... well, I don't know what you'd really call it, since there are many reasons a villain may or may not impress, but whatever it is that makes one like a villain (as a villain, that is - many are utterly loathsome as people and work very well), some villains need more than others.
For example, as was pointed out, Discord didn't have much in the way of depth in his first appearance, but the thing is, he was only in one story (yes, a two-parter, but still just one), so it didn't necessarily call for that much more. Plus, it should be noted, motivation and backstory are far from the only reasons a villain can be engaging and, while I wasn't ever that amused with Discord's jackassery myself, many people were and it did give him enough distinct personality to make him effective.
In general, I'd say the more time a villain is a central focus, the more solid they have to be as a character and villain. That's why, in the original Star Wars trilogy, Darth Vader, the character with intriguing mystery, backstory and gravitas, was the primary focal point of the bad guys while the relatively one-note emperor was kept mostly in the background until the finale. And, indeed, why, whatever one thinks of the prequels and sequels, they at least attempted to give then-Chancellor Palpatine and Kylo Ren more dimension.
And, well, if you look at the G4 villains that did get more time in the spotlight, like Starlight, Cozy Glow, the Storm King... well, general reactions were decidedly more mixed, and the people who liked them generally did so because they did see more to the character.
To be clear, this is neither a criticism of the character in question nor of anyone's opinion on the character - I'm not watching the series (not out of any kind of objection, dislike or disdain - what I've seen of it seems perfectly fine, just... not remotely interesting to me), I'm just here for the commentary, so I can't really comment. I'm just not sure it makes sense to compare primarily one-shot villains to ones that seem to have far more time and focus dedicated to them.