Make Your Mark: Portrait of a Princess Review · 4:31pm Sep 28th, 2022
After an Izzy and Pipp episode, and a Hitch solo episode, it was now time for a Zipp and Pipp episode. Weird how Sunny, the supposed main character, didn't get her own focus episode until four episodes into the season and series. But then again, it's the quality of the spotlight time that matters most. Zipp and Pipp have always been polar opposities, and any opportunity to potentially flesh out Pipp is a welcome one. So, was this episode able to juggle two characters sharing the spotlight better than "Izzy Does It" did with Izzy and Pipp? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with some exposition about portrait day, a day when the princesses and their mom the queen sit to have their portrait taken for official record. Pipp of course is eagerly looking forward to it, but Zipp detests the whole idea. She voices some concern about the message from Princess Twilight, but she has no leads to go on. Meanwhile, Opaline finally decides to do something, and that something is to send Misty to lure Zipp and Pipp into some kind of trap just to get them "out of the way". She doesn't even give Misty anything to use as bait.
Zipp and Pipp meet their mom at Mane Melody, and Zipp is apparently so uninterested in everything that she can't even bring herself to say hi to her mom properly. This is what I feared they were going to do with Zipp, make her act like Rainbow Dash in a very poor way, acting rude and blunt just for the sake of it and detesting anything girly because apparently tomboys in fiction must detest anything feminine even though Rainbow Dash was happy to wear dresses on a few occasions. Just because tomboys don't typical dress like girly girls and tend to be more at home in things like sports doesn't mean they don't like to do girly things.
Suddenly, when Zipp notices a post on Pipp's phone, she gets an idea. She mentions to Pipp about a rare flower that only blooms once a decade, and it's apparently been spotted near the beach. So Zipp convinces Pipp to duck out of getting their manes done, and also ropes Sunny into distracting Queen Haven so she won't notice. The two head down to the beach, but Pipp is on her phone the whole time and Zipp angrily berates her over this because it risks giving away their position.
Pipp argues that because she turned off the location feature on her phone, none of her posts will give away what she and Zipp are doing. But she's still soaking up the attention from her Pippsqueaks and mentions various pony parodies of social media platforms like Facebook, Ticktock and Twitch. Of course, the flower post is really just a trap by Misty.
Eventually, Zipp blows up at Pipp and admits that she really just wanted an excuse to duck out of Portrait Day. But she and Pipp actually find the flower Misty posted about it, so Misty wasn't sending them on a wild goose chase. And Misty also isn't responsible for the resulting cave in that traps the two sisters inside. So what exactly was Misty's plan, here? Just use the post about the flower and hope Zipp and Pipp would take the bait and waste all day looking for it? Did she not suspect that their friends might eventually come looking for them?
Well, meanwhile, Sunny's attempts to cover for Zipp and Pipp go poorly. Queen Haven finds out the girls aren't with her at Mane Melody, but Sunny says they went back to the Crystal Brighthouse. Then she tries to stall for time by asking Queen Haven to sing a song. You'd think they'd be setting up a joke about Queen Haven being a terrible singer. But actually, she can sing pretty good. I guess she's where Pipp got her musical talent from?
Queen Haven also mentions how Zipp and Pipp used to be inspearable when they were little. Then we cut back to Zipp and Pipp as Zipp is trying to dig out of the cave, but Pipp is freaking out over the lack of bars on her phone. Eventually, however, she and Zipp realize they're trapped with no way out. Pipp even admits she wanted to do something with Zipp since they hardly do anything together. Then Zipp asks Pipp if she'll sing the Portrait Day song with her.
When the song is over, Zipp suddenly notices a light shining down into the cave and realizes there must be a way out. Pipp's social media actually proves useful for a change when she's able to use it to send out a distress call to her Pippsqueaks, and they use their magic to open up the hole in the cave roof, allowing Zipp and Pipp to fly out. Good thing too, because Sunny just sent Queen Haven back to Zephyr Heights. But Zipp and Pipp do manage to get the flower and return to the castle in time to pose for their portrait. Interestingly, we see portraits of them as little fillies alongside Queen Haven, but no sign of a king anywhere. So this suggests Queen Haven is a single mom, either through death or divorce.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, I do like the desire to focus on Zipp and Pipp and show how, even if they didn't realize it, they were drifting apart. But Zipp and Pipp seem to hold the idiot ball here when they decide to just check something out based on an anonymous post, while only telling Sunny they're leaving. Zipp loses a lot of sympathy points when she openly admits to just looking for an excuse to get out of the festivities, and before then has basically been detesting everything to the point where she can't even give her mom a proper greeting. But Pipp isn't much better, yet again being defined solely by social media. I like the idea of Pipp having to rely on her fans for help for once, again showing that her bond with them is genuine and that she really does want to connect with them. Misty and Opaline's involvement feel very tacked on, like it was done solely because they had to be in every episode. It's not even like Opaline knew Misty would fail or set her up to fail, because Opaline acts surprised and angry that the trap failed even when she never gave Misty anything to use. Give the Bond villains credit, they actually set up traps when they want to get rid of Bond.
Queen Haven honestly steals the show here, in a sense this is almost like a day in the limelight for her. She even admits she's used to cleaning up messes when Sunny tries to keep Queen Haven from going to the Crystal Brighthouse. The very end is heartwarming, and I do like the Portrait Day song, it's a great duet between Zipp and Pipp even if again we don't get to hear the full length version of the song in the episode. But when it takes so long for the actual "trap" part to come in and we spend most of the time before then just watching Zipp and Pipp grumble, the episode can be a grind to get through. That gives it a level of borderline C/C-. Only three episodes in and they already look like they're running out of steam.
Well, next up is Sunny's first focus episode of the series with "Ali-conned" as Sunny's alicorn transformation and status becomes something for Opaline to exploit.
Queen Haven definitely stole the show here, I honestly found her quite genuine and nice through the episode. She even puts up with Sunny's antics instead of trying to blow past her with an "I'm the Queen" attitude
5689150 Really hoping we get something similar eventually for Phyllis, and especially for Alphabittle. Alphabittle really needs to be fleshed out.
5689151
Definitely, yes. Plus now that Sprout's back they're giving us a reason to have Phyllis reappear
One of my favorite moments in this episode has to be when Pipp tries to sing the song when they or Queen Haven use to sing when they was young to Zipp which cause Zipp throw her pillows at Pipp to silence her almost made me laugh so hard since I could relate to Zipp at the moment. Also, I have a feeling that Zipp has done this before since Pipp dodge the first punching bag and it's seen that Pipp didn't get mad at Zipp for throwing something at her
I guess the show staff wanted to make sure that Sunny didn't overshadow the other Mane 5.
Case in point, Smolder.
So basically, they've become like Twilight in the first season of Friendship is Magic.
-sigh- I still don't trust Queen Haven in the slightest. :/
5690526 Why?
5690527
I mean.... despite her being a "good" Queen, I honestly don't buy it. :/
It's just.... the only good queen that is fine in my eyes is Queen Novo from G4. :/
5690532 Why don't you buy her being a good queen now?
5690536
It's just.... -sigh- complicated. :/