My Review of MLP: Make Your Mark Chapter 2 Episode 3 Portrait of a Princess · 4:04pm Nov 25th, 2024
Grading Scale:
A (fantastic episode)
A- (an excellent episode with at least one flaw)
B+ (a great episode with a couple of flaws)
B (a good episode which still could have been better)
B- (a good episode with numerous flaws but still rewatchable)
C+ (a decent episode)
C (eh... it’s not terrible but not good either)
C- (it’s not worth rewatching although it does have good elements)
D+ (a bad episode with a few good things in it)
D (a really bad episode with wasted potential)
D- (a terrible episode with badly written characters and butchered moral)
F (horrible and unwatchable)
Greetings, folks! This is Mr. J back with another G5 episode review for today. This morning, I will be reviewing the third episode of Make Your Mark Chapter 2 entitled “Portrait of a Princess”, written by Janae Hall. This is honestly my favorite episode of this chapter because two of my favorite ponies take center stage in this story.
Additionally, they both go through some well-written character development while also having to deal with each other as siblings. Having that kind of dynamic is what made it so fun to watch.
In this episode, Zipp & Pipp are supposed to prepare themselves for Royal Portrait Day; the latter is excited for this, and she spends a lot of time live-streaming on her phone for the occasion. The former, however, is rather focused on the message Twilight sent them via hologram last episode and tries to discover whom she was referring to in her message.
Unfortunately, Zipp is given no chance to investigate this further due to Queen Haven’s insistence to get both of them ready for their royal portraits. Zipp is genuinely uninterested in this special day and would rather be doing anything else.
I really like this because it’s one way to show a contrast between Zipp & Pipp. Zipp, as the older sibling, has to keep her younger sister in check, but it’s not just that. She has a tendency of analyzing every suspicious situation, and she allows it to take her mind off of other activities.
This is a good quality for a detective, but that is also a weakness or a distraction if you will. It caused her to snap at Pipp for getting too easily distracted by social media and being distant from her mother instead of being upfront & honest to her about it. That’s a great way to write a character flaw—showing us something she has to learn about.
As for Pipp, I get that she’s so easily enthralled in social media and interacting with her fans, but she often gets too carried away with it which causes her to not take the investigation seriously. Plus, the way she reacts to Zipp revealing how she truly felt about Royal Portrait Day says a lot. To her, it felt like Zipp didn’t care that much about her own family.
This is something we all have to keep in mind whenever we interact with our own families: sometimes, we forget that our loved ones have feelings or certain shortcomings. We must communicate with each other frequently so we can better understand how our brains work and not end up hurting each other’s feelings.
This is what both sisters ended up doing when they got trapped in that cave. They both argued, expressed remorse, sang their hearts out, and made some amends. Now that they understand each other better, they won’t end up in this same situation again.
Another thing I love about this episode is the perfect pacing. FINALLY, they paced this episode just the way it should have been from the beginning! Everything felt cohesive, and nothing overshadowed this episode’s main plot.
And I like how the one thing Pipp was scolded for the whole episode was the thing that basically got them free from that cave. So it turns out that social media does save lives even in the My Little Pony universe.
Lastly, I am impressed with the way they wrote Misty in this episode. Aside from the fact she’s willingly following Opaline’s orders to lure out the two royal princesses with the Ocean Lily, there was one subtle hint that she was happy they got out of there safely.
When she saw them get away, she grunted in frustration at first until she softly smiled before the shot transitioned to the next scene. That seemed like she was secretly hoping they would find a way to escape their predicament because trapping them there forever was cruel…even for her.
That shows how ruthless Opaline is. This sets up a future character arc for Misty as her mistress grows more and more relentless in her plans to defeat the Mane Five. Like I said before, she gives off so much Disney villain vibes from the way she acts and behaves. I love that about her.
With that said, this was a fantastic episode. It has everything I enjoyed about it, and it was so fun to re-watch. I’ll gladly give it a solid A. Thanks for reading this review and please stay tuned for more.
Peace!
Honestly, I disagree with you about this episode for a variety of reasons. The main things I actually enjoyed were the undeniably heartwarming reconciliation moment between Zipp & Pipp, the song they sang, their teamwork in getting out of the cave, and the fact that we got a break from Izzy, Hitch, and Sparky (for once).
Other than that, though…I personally found “Portrait of a Princess” to be relatively grating.
Prior to the positive moments I mentioned regarding Zipp & Pipp, the episode spent so much time emphasizing and displaying their most negative traits that I found myself having a hard time sitting through their screen-time. Or wanting to see how they could improve their relationship, for that matter. Whenever I also looked back on their character arcs, chemistry, and relationship problems in this episode, I found myself feeling reminded of Mirabel and Isabella from Disney’s “Encanto”, and it’s even more startling when I realized Hasbro was basically copy-pasting the exact scenarios Mirabel & Isabella went through onto Zipp & Pipp. Because of these similarities, I ultimately found Pipp & Zipp’s dynamic as sisters to be the least interesting or original.
Outside of this, there were far too many plot holes regarding the subplot of Misty trying to trap Pipp & Zipp. The episode never gave a logical explanation over how Misty was able to lure the two sisters to the cave, or showed how she was able to trap them there in the first place! It also felt like, in order to lure the two sisters in the cave and make the plan work, Janae Hall resorted to character assassination by basically decreasing Pipp & Zipp’s brain cell levels, completely discrediting the idea that Zipp is a great detective & that both sisters are even remotely intelligent.
Plus, what was Opaline hoping to accomplish by just trapping Zipp & Pipp in a cave anyway? If she really wanted them gone for good, why couldn’t she also have Misty do something that could somehow “end their very lives”, so to speak?
If anything, the plan as a whole clearly shows that Opaline’s an idiot who neither thinks things through and could never be taken seriously, and all this series does is further empathize & confirm that impression.
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Big surprise, you don’t like the episode. What else is new?
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Other than you responding, not much.
Another great review. This is my personal favourite episode of Chapter 2 and acts as a fascinating character study of three very different characters. Zipp's obsession with investigating and analysing every clue that comes her way is quite reminiscent of Sunny's behaviour in the movie in many ways-a narrative theme which is picked up in Chapter 5.
This episode, I would say, is an interesting commentary on destructive selfishness. Pipp doesn't exactly help herself in this story in many ways, but she is entirely right to lose her rag at Zipp for dragging her off on a wild goose chase just so she could get out of something Pipp herself wants to do. As the saying goes, 'my rights end where yours begin.' Queen Haven commenting on how the girls are growing apart also nicely leans into her character arc of accepting her daughters have their own life, as well as setting up her empty nest syndrome which forms the core of the emotional conflict of Chapter 4. They could have done more with Sunny, though...
The only thing I would potentially bring up is the mystery email; how does Misty have Zipp's private email account? (I fully acknowledge that AMU pointed this out to me.) When adapting this episode, I chose to move it to after The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover as it makes sense for them to have each other's contact details at that point.
And so, onto the episode of Make your Mark I find incredibly painful to watch...