Shadow's Seasons: Spice Up Your Life · 4:55pm Jun 11th, 2016

Hello, everyone! My name is Shadowmane PX-41, and welcome to the eleventh episode in my Season Six review series!

This time, we're looking at Spice Up Your Life by Mike Vogel

First off, I'm personally quite glad that we're going back to the Cutie Map for episodes now. I mean, we've only really had four Cutie Map adventures in Season Five, and to be frank, the other three were somewhat lackluster, with the only good one being the trip to Starlight's Village at the start of that season. Not only does each adventure with the map seem unique, but it also gives us some more depth on each location by giving us more to see each time we use them. Even though we revisited Manehatten in Made in Manehatten, they added onto what we already knew and made the story somewhat better as a result.

But with this episode, Rarity and Pinkie are off to Canterlot. While I am a fan of seeing the most culturally advanced city in Canterlot again, I feel like we're been to Canterlot so many times that we can paint a perfect image of the city and the people who inhabit it. This did kill some of the initial interest for me, as there are so many parts of Equestria that have gone untouched, such as Las Pegasus, Phillydelphia, Trottingham, and many more. I myself would personally LOVE for the main characters to go to Trottingham on a mission from the map.

But anyways, the two ponies arrive at Restaurant Row, which supposedly has some of the finest cuisine in Canterlot, as all of the restaurants have been rated with high regards by this supposedly logical food critic named Zesty Gourmand, but we'll get to her character later.

Right now, the whole of Restaurant Row is a mess because literally every restaurant has exactly the same menus, and all of the food taste like nothing. I feel like Starlight kind of rubbed off a bit here, as I can draw this in perfect comparison to Equalist Sugar Belle's muffin shop, with how boring and uninspired it all is. Not a good idea for Canterlot, and one of the less redeemable parts of the city.

However, the girls come to this restaurant known as the Tasty Treat, a store that sits at the end of an alley that has no rating, and is so far the most unique and influential shop in the row. It's a breath of fresh air for Pinkie, Rarity, and me, as the place has some fine class. The whole indian theme and food is a nice thing to see in the show, as everything else has no spice.

The owners of the shop are Saffron Misala and Coriander Cumin, two indian ponies who came to Canterlot to try and make success in the big city. While Saffron is eager to serve our main characters, Coriander is more of a defeatist, much like Zephyr Breeze from last week's episode. This causes the two of them to have constant arguments with one another. Nothing new to see, but it does work here. Saffron wants to succeed, while Coriander wants to fail. It's a good yin-yang effect going on here, and I do like it.

Rarity and Pinkie decide to help in bringing new ponies into the establishment, but Rarity and Pinkie's methods are especially conflicting as Pinkie tries her best to bring in regular ponies, while Rarity invites Zesty Gourmand to test the food. This in turn, also causes Rarity to change the restaurant theming and menu entirely to fit the others.

This is not a good idea, even for her, and I believe that Rarity was very OOC here, as in the past, she's been known to be unique, instead of simplistic. Take a look at Canterlot Boutique. She made one dress, and when everyone liked it, she kept on making it, but eventually knew when enough was enough, and stood up to Sassy Saddles to make her own designs again. But here, she spat in the face of that and decided to make the restaurant just as drab and minimalistic as the others.

Anyway, things don't work out in the slightest, and even Pinkie Pie is angry at Rarity for it. And I can agree that Rarity is entirely in the wrong here. She's not one to stoop so low as to make exactly the same as the others, as she's done many different unique and influential clothes in the past.

However, Pinkie Pie gets the idea that a restaurant doesn't need a five-star rating to be a success. It just needs good service, great food, and casual customers. I like this idea as well. It goes to show that just because you're not as successful as others critique you, you can still draw a crowd, impress them, and get their friends to like you as well. This is most commonly evident among youtubers and certain gamers, where even though they're not as successful as the ones with 10,000,000 subscribers, they're still funny, individual, and great to keep coming back to.

Zesty Gourmand however isn't like this at all. How do I put her character simply? Think Abacus Cinch from the Friendship Games, cut out the reputation nonsense, and make her say that everything has to be the same to be bland, and therefore perfect. But overall, she's a jerk because she even has the gall to attack others verbally with this philosophy. At first, I could call her a reference to Gordon Ramsey, but I think she's even worse than Ramsey. Even without having a massive breakdown like he does, she's still able to paint herself as a very negative character, and one of the worst in Canterlot. And she even has the same ending as Cinch. Literally, exactly rhe same.

This episode wasn't really the worst, but there were so many cringe-worthy moments that I could put it in highest of the bottom tier of episodes. Meaning that there is hope for it, but don't hold your breath, as Rarity is not the best character in this episode, and is actually the worst due to how OOC she is.

And the ponies of Canterlot as well, again they're too stuck up and snobbish to try anything new, or to make any friends without someone lending them a hand. In fact, I've said before on a group that the Canterlot ponies and royals are just like the Crystal Prep students, in the fact that they're too priviledged to do anything else, other than act snooty, claim that they're better than everyone, and just look down on those that try to be unique.

As for Zesty? I'd say she's been roasted...

Spice Up Your Life is an episode that, despite having its positives, also has a good string of negative aspects to it. Saffron and Coriander are the best characters in the episode, but almost everything else about it is either ugly or unlikeable.

The song, while being catchy and well-themed with the new characters repeats some of the visuals each time they come to the chorus, and while it does represent the conflict between Rarity and Pinkie well in this episode, I wouldn't find myself singing or listening to it any time soon.

While the pacing and humour are sub-par, I could very well say that the characterizations here are the worst offence of all. Rarity being OOC, the Canterlot ponies being too stuck-up, and Zesty refusing to try anything new and flavourful is what really derails this episode. We've seen the show for six seasons now. You cannot make Canterlot ponies all stuck up and snobbish, even when there are some ponies there that actually aren't like this at all, and break the trend in the best possible ways.

Overall, this episode isn't really one of the greatest. It suffered from a number of different flaws, and Rarity could easily be portrayed as the worst character in the episode with how wrong her idea is to make the Tasty Treat a success.

Still, this episode will be remembered by Saffron Misala and Coriander Cumin; two of the best characters I've seen throughout this season so far. While they may not have done big things like Ember, have had relations with one of the main characters like Zephyr, or was even over-loved by the fandom like Trixie, I feel like their unique styles and voices are what bring this episode back from the bottom ranks.

This episode needed a bit more spice, and a little less Canterlot. But when you find the positives in it...

It truly has its' own unique flavour...

Thank you very much for reading, now as a side note, we are now in the Hiatus season, so Season Six reviews are unfortunately going to have to be stopped until the new episodes come out. However, I will return when they do, so that I can review the next episode, and the many others that will follow in the run up to the Season Six Finale.

Until then, farewell...

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