MLP Make Your Mark: Cutie Blossom Bash Review · 3:59pm Sep 19th, 2023
Honestly, I would've liked this a whole lot better had the episode been focused on adorable ponies bashing each other with sharp edged blossoms...but, hey, that's just me. As it is, it's okay at best, though it continues to suffer from horrid pacing issues. But, we'll discuss that shortly. For now, let's talk turkey...er...pony.
Plot: Having just received her cutie mark, Misty is invited to participate in the annual Cutie Blossom Bash, a celebration of all the ponies who have received their special marks in the past year. Normally, this is done among the different tribes. However, seeing how everypony's united again, it's the very first Equestria wide celebration in Zephyr Heights. Though excited about her new mark, Misty is extremely nervous about being involved, owing to the massive age gap between herself and all the other participants. But, her friends ignore her nerves because they want the day to be absolutely perfect. Unfortunately, this leads to Misty having a bit of a breakdown. This leads to the others seeing the error of their ways, and they wind up celebrating her accomplishment in a much more private way. In the end, though, Misty decides to return to Opaline as a double agent to try and help her friends defeat the wicked Alicorn. Also, said Alicorn tries to find Gertrude, the all-important mane brush.
You know...much as I like the idea of the whole Bash thing...what the heck happened to Cute-ceaneras? FIM already had a special party planned for ponies after they get their cutie marks, so why redact that in favor of this new Bash? I guess it's nice to have it be a public thing, but a simple Cute-ceanera would have sufficed. It also would've solved Misty's problem of nervousness, though it would have killed the main point of conflict for the episode. Still, though, sometimes I just think logic and basic reasoning are lost on some of these characters.
Also, the pacing continues to be terribly quick. Ponies skip from line to line to line without a second thought while the story suffers in the balance. The opening scene on the Marestream is probably the guiltiest in this episode, as we go from Misty being frightened to cutie mark stories being shared to Pipp singing her signature song all in the space of about two minutes. Also, the cutie mark stories are nowhere near the brilliant, well developed stories we got with FIM. Instead, it's just snippets of tales followed by everyone marching in their various Blossom Bash parades. (Also, if the tribes were so culturally different, how the heck did they come up with the same exact Blossom Bash featuring the same exact paraphernalia?)
So, yeah, Chapter 5 doesn't really start on a high note, which is a shame because Chapter 4's finale was actually pretty good. Hopefully, they can fix everything.
A 2...out of 5
The others didn't ignore Misty's worries. They didn't know that's how she was feeling.
And the cute-ceanera has been forgotten through generations of time. Simple as that.