Anchors away, everypony! Slipping right into port just as the summer comes to a close is the fifth and final issue of the G5 miniseries "Set Your Sail." Does it rise with the crest of the wave or did it sink into the depths? Let's find out as we dive into the final issue. As always, be aware: here there be spoilers.
The issue begins with: rocks fall, everypony dies.
Feels like kind of a short issue and an abrupt way to end the miniseries, but...
Well, actually it's only Anemone who gets beaned with a rock (I think, I'll discuss this more when I talk about the art) when she's rescued by Maris, right in the nick of time.
A relieved Zipp meanwhile is tackled by an equally relieved Pipp, who hits her with some sisterly guilt/concern.
The two trade notes, catching each other (and the audience) up on what they've each found, along with some cute bonding where the two gush about how well the other has been doing at filling in for the other: Pipp playing diplomat while Zipp keeps Pipp's social media fans up to date.
This also provides yet another opportunity in this series for Zipp to draw attention to the fake image generated by the Ersatz Enchantment back at the start and mock it once again for bad it looked, as it gave Pipp an extra hoof. I will hardly begrudge anyone working in a creative industry the right to work in some well-deserved shots against plagiarism software ("AI Art").
Pipp: I'm an NF-What?
Zipp explains about Calla Lily's use of the Ersatz Enchantment and Pipp informs her about Maris possessing the Shadow Pearl. Zipp puts the pieces together with considerable swiftness that Calla Lily must've used the enchantment to create a fake pearl and that's what caused all the earthquakes and tumult in the seas.
Either the queen has gone a bit overboard with her magic or Green Lantern Corps is getting really ridiculous in its recruitment efforts.
Speak of the devil fish, Calla Lily makes herself known, decked out in some new bling--a crown containing all the stolen anchors. She demands Anemone step away from the trench ponies, and is put out when Anemone refuses. The two exchange words over Calla Lily's responsibility for this mess with her creation of a fake Shadow Pearl, with Anemone daring to question that the story their mother told them about the trench ponies causing the darkness to swallow the seas was wrong.
Calla Lilly is hurt when she came all this way to personally save Anemone ... from the danger that she put her in. Honestly, some ponies just have no sense of gratitude.
Calla Lily refuses to even entertain the possibility. Maris speaks to assure her that the trench ponies of the Shadow Sea did not cause the darkness and they didn't cause the earthquake. She insists the problem is bringing the seven anchors together that, unlike the three unity crystals, they work best when kept apart from one another. She warns that the new crown Calla Lily wears is what is tearing apart the seas.
Well, deciding to prove just how wrong Maris and everypony else is, Calla Lily starts speaking in rhyme and commands all the water of all the seas to obey her and be still.
Stay the course, queenie, your decisions have only ever resulted in good things happening!
I'm reminded of the legend of King Cnut (sometimes rendered as Canute), a Danish prince who subdued England and subsequently ruled as the King of England, Denmark, and Norway in the early 11th Century. In an effort to silence his overly flattering and irritating courtiers, Cnut moved his throne to the seashore and commanded the tides to stay in place. Of course, this went as well as you would expect, Cnut trying to impart the lesson that as mighty as kings may be, their power is not absolute. The expression about the impossibility of holding back the tide may have indeed stemmed from this apocryphal story.
So with that in mind, you can probably guess how well Calla Lily's own efforts in that regard went.
Yeah, not that great.
Anemone swam up to try to get Calla Lily to stop, but was instead swept up in the current that's formed. It's not wholly clear what it is that formed as a result, my best guess is something akin to a whirlpool or undersea tornado. Calla Lilly is naturally distraught at her sister being swallowed up by something she caused, despite her warning.
Just as she's about to give into despair, Maris comes to tell her that a true queen doesn't give up. Emboldened, Calla Lily presses forward, Anemone (apparently) tearing a hole through the current and grabbing Calla Lily to pull her into the eye of the storm--or at least, that's what I figure happened.
This is meant to be dramatic and heart-wrenching, but I can't look at that pose and not think: "Abadee-abadee--that's all folks!"
The eye is a calm place so it gives the two a chance to talk. Calla Lily is appropriately horrified at what happened because she didn't listen to Anemone and is now prepared to accept the probability that everything she was told (including from her own mother) was a lie. She doesn't know how to move forward, but Anemone assures her that they'll figure it out together, that she isn't going to give up on her.
All is made right with boops.
A line is tossed into the eye from the Galloping Ghost Galleon, pulling the two free of the current, but Calla Lily loses her grip and falls, plummeting into the depths. While Anemone is brought about the Three G, Maris goes down to rescue her.
Maris: This be a job for Aquamare!
Calla Lily avoids getting a faceful of reef thanks to a trio of spooky looking eels. Ah, this is the time where she learns not to judge her fellow sea-dwellers based on their looks and realizes that having an intimidating appearance doesn't mean they're bad, right?
Oh you poor, unfortunate soul...
Well, no, actually, they apparently weren't doing this out of altruism and may have been thinking about eating her. That might've undercut your message a bit there comic. Whoops.
This, in turns, makes me think of a comment made by an eel mutant from the recent Tales of the TMNT series.
Lee: "Eels already have a bad rap. Did you see The Little Mermaid? Messed. Up."
Maris quickly arrives to shoo the eels off, taking a grateful Calla Lily back to the ship. As they swim, Calla Lily states that if their positions were reversed, she wouldn't have gone back to save Maris. She isn't saying that to be hurtful, she's clearly unhappy that this is the kind of pony she is and doesn't know how to make things right.
Maris, fortunately does. She destroys the crown in a very cool, dramatic image which releases the seven anchors.
By your powers divided...
She says this while delivering a message that, honestly, deserves to be transcribed in full.
"These anchors were never meant to belong to one queen, just as the seven seas were never meant to be tamed. Like the tides, we must all go our own directions. We can come together and part ways in a rush of seaform and salt, unified as allies...and friends. No enchantments shall hold us, no magic shall bind us, and we must promise to build a future where we can be united, even in our differences. Where we can go home."
With that, the story sort of ends. We have a bit of an epilogue with an array of scenes showing the seaponies rebuilding the seven kingdoms of the seas, including Anemone and Calla Lily restoring their palace--which is full of sand from the constant use and overuse of the Ersatz Enchantment.
Sand: It's everywhere! Get used to it!
...
If you were expecting the other infamous sand quote, keep waiting, I ain't gonna dignify it.
We also see Maris and Captain Starboard of the Three G plotting a new course while Creeping Jenny narrates an updated and corrected version of the story Calla Lily and Anemone had shared, about the seven seas being filled with wonder and hope. Only now instead of blaming the riding darkness on the greedy trenchponies, it acknowledges that it was because of a queen of the shiniest palace (i.e. the queen of the Sparkling Sea) who caused the darkness due to her fear of the unknown and stealing what wasn't hers to own. We even see a teary-eyed reunion as old Two-Eyed Gilbert arrives in the Lunar Ocean to see other crab-ponies.
Aww, I'm happy for these crusty crabs.
At the Boardtrot, Pipp tosses a bottle with a message into the sea for Maris to receive, inviting her and the crew of the Three G to attend the release of her newest single, called, what else?, "Set Your Sail."
On the shore, Pipp is organizing and arranging the concert preparations, with Zipp being proud of how serious Pipp is taking her responsibilities and the two have a nice sisterly-bonding moment.
These two are precious and I suddenly really miss my brother.
The Three G arrives, with its sails now a map depicting the seven seas, making one heck of an entrance.
10/10 for style, though with that masthead, you'd think that'd cause a panic in ponies who hadn't seen it before. It doesn't take much to panic them, is all I'm saying.
Pipp sings her song and its quite nice, but naturally I can't help but make a plug for one of my all-time favorite sea-related songs and, yes, it's from One Piece.
Gather up all of the crew, it's time to ship out Bink's Brew...
The series ends with Sparky tugging at Hitch to get his attention as he points to a spot on the map-sails that reads "Here Be Dragons," likely a reference to the Seadragon Drift, one of the seven kingdoms of the seas mentioned in earlier issues.
Not gonna lie, he looks legit adorable right here.
Two-Eyed Gilbert, decked out in Princess Pipp apparel, closes us out with a suggestion to keep our eyes open as you never know where the sails might set out next.
With that, the issue, and this miniseries as a whole, ends.
Art
I've been enjoying the art behind this creative team throughout the miniseries, particularly noting that they knew how to give big dramatic moments the flair and grandeur they required, something we haven't had enough of in these G5 miniseries. This issue gave us several, from Calla Lily's doomed spell to control the seas to Maris' shattering of the crown.
However, there were a few places where I was confused by what the art was telling me, including right on the very first page. I present the first two panels of this comic:
In the first panel, the impression I get is of a rock falling from above to crush Anemone against the seafloor. In the second, it looks more like she ran headfirst into a rock. This is made even more confusing by the next panel showing her falling down some depth--despite her being at the bottom of a canyon in the preceding panels and at the end of the last issue.
Likewise, the nature of what Calla Lily did that swept up Anemone is hard to exactly parse. I called it a whirlpool or undersea tornado but that was a bit of guesswork on my part, though it could simply be me not having the vocabulary for whatever effect they were going for.
I had observed in a previous issue that the artist likes to add red streaks to the faces of characters, which creates some confusion when they represent an array of emotions: from embarrassment to concern, fear, sadness, and more. It is a bit overused, to the point where it's on almost every page.
Story
Now we come to the story.
As you may have noted that I didn't mention our G5 protagonists that much throughout the recap--which is because they really didn't have much to do with the resolution. I didn't even process that the first time I read through the issue because I was invested enough in the story and the characters introduced that it didn't register until I had to think more about it for the review.
I suppose one could argue that the preceding issues set up just enough to justify letting the characters introduced here take center stage and resolve things themselves, and it would feel pretty superfluous to introduce some new characters if they were largely irrelevant to the story of saving their own home. But the flipside is that we came to this series for the main cast and having them feel largely superfluous instead this issue is a bit puzzling.
Boy, if only we had an alicorn nearby for dangerous situations with powerful magics like these...
That's not to say they were totally irrelevant or anything. Anemone did look to Zipp for support before recommitting herself to standing with the ponies of the Three G and one can point to the role Zipp played in the preceding issues in getting Anemone to see what was going on and motivating her to take a stand. Likewise, though less overt, one could argue that Pipp's songs were an inspiration to Maris as was Pipp and Izzy's willingness to help the trenchponies even after they abducted them. But that still feels a bit too subdued.
The sisters really stood out and took center stage among the G5 cast. Their dynamics were great and I especially enjoyed their interactions with each other and with the new characters, so that was well handled. Pipp's arc feels a touch underdeveloped. She started the series resenting being forced to undertake diplomatic duties, seeing her royal responsibilities as basically amounting to her social media/singing career. So now at the end she's ... organizing a concert. Which is the sort of thing she did even before this series. Granted, it is a concert carried out in pursuit of diplomatic relations, but it still feels like something more was needed. Perhaps a bit where Pipp used her diplomatic skills to smooth something out between Calla Lily and Anemone, or Calla Lily and Maris.
Zipp Storm IS Sherlock Hooves.
Zipp didn't have a character arc per se in this series in the same way as Pipp was meant to, but she still shined in her role as a detective, seeing through the deceptions, piecing the clues together, and motivating Anemone into taking action. She also bonded quite well with Anemone and called out Calla Lily to her face. Honestly, no notes here, this is why she's best princess.
Izzy, who'd gone in eager to meet seaponies and unravel the mystery behind Creeping Jenny and the book she knew was a fake, stopped really mattering with the third issue when she got to meet Creeping Jenny. She had some good moments in issue four that I covered, but her contribution to the overall plot has been minimal since then. Sunny, Misty, and Hitch play even less of a role, with them really only around to use their magic.
I think it would've strengthened the story if there was some moment of connection in the last issue with the G5 cast and Calla Lily or Maris. Perhaps if Sunny had a chance to share her thoughts, since she, like Calla Lily, believed all the ponies' problems could be solved simply through the act of bringing the unity crystals together, only to realize that wasn't enough in and of itself. Misty could've provided some insight or comfort to Anemone, or even to Calla Lily herself, knowing what it was like to be lied to by a figure they trusted implicitly. Pipp could've spoken about how the royals of Zephyr Heights had lied and how she dealt with that, or Calla Lily apologizing to Zipp--something along those lines.
Maris offers advice on how to be a queen by not giving up. I don't think that's the message you want for someone who spent the previous four issues refusing to listen to anypony and insisting on doing whatever she thought was right.
Calla Lily realizing her error is a touch rushed and her exchange with Maris about a queen never giving up feels odd and out of place to me. The quiet moment she had in the eye of the storm with Anemone was good, I would've felt it quite appropriate if Anemone had been more upset with Calla Lily after all that, but having a ticking clock scenario can focus one's mind on the immediate.
On Maris, a weird thing they introduced in the last issue was trying to make her speech more rough, speaking with 'yers' and improper grammar that she did not use at any point in the previous four issues, making it stand out and sound really off. I suppose it was meant to draw a point of contrast between her and Calla Lily, but it was really unnecessary and mostly distracting at this stage in the game.
Some characters feel like they were building to something with them, but they never went anywhere. Two-Eyed Gilbert seemed to have some connection with Creeping Jenny that went unexplored after the first issue and Captain Starboard, who seemed to be the leader of the trenchponies, who openly stated he wanted revenge--really didn't matter much as a character save perhaps as a bit of a fake out so Maris could be revealed as the real leader. Otherwise he was pretty forgettable.
One of the elements I really enjoyed was the fact that the story didn't simply have the seven anchors be the same thing as the three unity crystals; that bringing them together was actually a horrible idea. I liked that Maris' message was a bit more nuanced than the typical message of countering divisions and prejudices by saying something along the lines of "we're all really the same."
After all, how can you learn to be accepting and (for lack of a better word) tolerating of other peoples, other cultures and the differences if you effectively deny or minimize those differences? It downplays their contributions while also coming off like something Bender once said on Futurama:
I would've liked if perhaps we got to learn a bit more about the other sea kingdoms besides the Sparkling Sea and the Shadow Sea, but they seem to be teasing the prospect of doing more so we'll have to see if anything comes of that.
All in all, I'd say that I really enjoyed Set Your Sail and I still think it the best G5 miniseries we've gotten to date. I think it could've really used one more issue to tie-up loose ends, maybe have our new Mane Six play a bit more of a role in resolving things, but as it stands I don't think the story really suffers too much for their lack of involvement in the last act. We had a story with fun new characters, really solid and dramatic art, great moments throughout with the royal siblings, which made for a fairly high water mark (no pun intended) for the G5 comics to date.
But what did you think of this issue, and Set Your Sail overall as a series? Let me know what you think and thanks for reading!
