opaline arcana fanart! i know people hate her design, but I think her main issue was her model in make your mark ;; i love how g5 introduced elemental alicorns
This post is about to have a lot of yapping, so I'm putting most of it under the cut to keep things clean! ENJOY ! :D
We'll start with Sunny!
As a baseline, she was... pretty flat, kinda of a cookie-cutter character, attempting to be what Twilight Sparkle was, and... falling directly on her face. Fortunately for Sunny, I can fix that! Hasbro might've mess you up, girl, but the fans got you!!!
First thing I did was change up her heritage and style.
We know just about zero about Sunny's mother, besides that one memory flashback of her and leaked info about her being an alicorn. I thought it was rather uninteresting. So I went with a different approach! Instead, she's a unicorn historian who met and fell in love with Sunny's father, Argyle. Their relationship was obviously taboo and secretive, and believe that when Sunny was born, Nova took her to Argyle so she wouldn't be cast out of the Bridlewood community. Of course, Argyle disappears in the movie due to a supposed death, but what I do with him and his character will be kept secret for now!
So, all Sunny has left of her mother is the mark on her forehead, and the journals that her father left her. And from thereon, she's researching, trying to connect the races together, and so forth, going through the events of the movie. But, instead of gaining an alicorn form, she instead gains a mere unicorn horn, one half of the whole. The other half, the wings, go to Hitch, which is up next!
I really like Hitch's character within G5, so I didn't change him as much as the other in the cast. (Though, I definitely am NOT doing anything with Sparky, the atrocious mockery of a baby dragon. Eugh.) But the changes I did make were for a reason! I gave Hitch some pegasi heritage, so he's a bit fluffier than the rest of the cast. It gives him some body variation other than being "generic stallion #99."
Beyond that, I gave him the other half of the alicorn magic! I think that Unity Crystals would've split it, granting what the pair needs to further their growth and character development. Hitch would have to work past his fears of the other races and change, while Sunny would have to confront the past and understand her heritage and the truths of the world. It's good character beats for both, which is why I made this choice!
But onto Izzy!
I made some significant changes to Izzy! I always thought that she was just... kinda of a reskin of Pinkie Pie? Not a one-to-one replica, but there was similar character points and I just wasn't fond of it.
But the changes I made were fun! She's a full-bloodied unicorn, though she's descended from Discord from wayyy back. (Which will make for some interesting storylines for when the cast go looking around the Canterlot Ruins.) I think she would struggle with magic, finding the rigidity of the others are using it too... unusual for herself. Which then ties into her recycling projects! She takes the chaos that she sees, and turns it into something that can be useful!
The other changes I made were to her personality. Izzy will still be bubbly, but I made her smarter, a bit sarcastic and blunt at times, along with some social blindness. She was a hermit in her community, after all.
But onto Pipp and Zipp!
These two are actually really well handled in the show, I think. Their sibling dynamic reflects what could be possible in reality. Pipp and Zipp are understandably strained due to the pressures of being royals, their mother's expectations, and so on. It's really well portrayed, for the most part!
Focusing on Pipp: I feel like she was... a little too perfect at times? I know she was putting a lot of pressure on herself in the series, but I think they could've pushed the envelope even harder. She's vying for her mother's attentions, for anyone's attentions at that, and so she puts on this persona, to be more appealing, more perfect to those around her. That's a thrilling concept to play around with, and I'm disappointed that they didn't!
Beyond that, I think that she should've had struggles with her little wings. They're pretty downy and not big at all, and I feel that should be something she's conflicted with, being unable to fly as well as Zipp or not at all depending on the conditions of the situation. It would've made her perfect persona crack around the edges, especially because of the facade about "only royals" have flight in the movie. But that's something I can gradually explore as I play around with G5 as a whole.
Focusing on Zipp: I think that Zipp was a good character with poor execution. The pivot to investigative work was kind of abrupt in the series? But I think it would've been received better if she was more inquisitive in the first place. So I think that would stem from her rebellious nature, pushing the bounds, questioning authority, and so on. She must've tried getting into the history of things and kept hitting walls. Which, would lead into a good plotline with Sunny, given the historical background there. Beyond that, Zipp wasn't changed too much, and I kept a lot of her facets and character beats because they fit well.
But onto Misty and Opaline!
I talked about Misty and Opaline in this post, but I'll just rehash it here too! Basic notes: Opaline is a half-dragon half-alicorn tyrant, ruling over the Dragon Lands, after winning in the Gauntlet of Fire (referencing S6 - E5) and becoming the Dragon Lord. After being shunned by Twilight, Opaline declares war. Twilight creates and uses the Unity Crystals to hide the pony races to keep them from Opaline's wrath. It was meant as a temporary plan, but given the events of the G5 Movie, that wasn't the case.
I changed a lot about Misty's character, and I mean it. I didn't like the tie in with Misty's father being Alphabittle, it felt... forced and sudden. So, instead I switched things up. Opaline is now Misty's actual mother. Instead of the flat "I saved you, now you're my servant," shtick, I flipped it. Misty's the idealized vision of Opaline, more pony than dragon--(as this is what Opaline thought was the reason for her shunning from Twilight and ponydom as a whole)--and Misty was the only hatchling that Opaline kept from her brood of eggs.
Now as Opaline's heir, Misty was meant as a ruler for when Opaline "stepped down." Of course, that just means that Opaline was just going to be ruling from the shadows, puppeteering her daughter into her bidding. Other than that, Misty and Opaline are pretty unchanged storywise in the series. I do like both characters, though I would definitely tweak a few character beats a lot more, especially on the "revealing that Misty's working with Opaline."
