My Episode Review on My Little Pony: Make Your Mark-Portrait of a Princess

Greetings and salutations, my friends.

This is your top-of-the-line film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.

Today, I'm gonna give you guys my take on My Little Pony: Make Your Mark's "Portrait of a Princess".

Here's the rundown of it:

It's a beautiful day, and nothing could be more exciting than the Zephyr Heights Pegasus Royals' Annual Portrait Day. The only problem is, whereas Pipp and Queen Haven are excited for Portrait Day, Zipp is far from thrilled and would rather do detective work. Particularly to focus on deciphering the warning left by Twilight Sparkle via Unity Crystal hologram.

However, when Zipp gets an email telling her that a rare flower called an Ocean Lily is in bloom, she sees this as the perfect avenue for getting out of Portrait Day. She also drags Pipp along in the hopes of spending quality time with her, promising that finding the Ocean Lily is just what they need for their newest annual portrait.

Unbeknownst to either of them, though, the Ocean Lily is really part of a trap set by Misty, having been tasked by Opaline to get the two Pegasus sisters "out of the way" for good?

In all honesty, despite having watched "Portrait of a Princess" around last year, I had relatively low expectations for it. After rewatching and reviewing three Make Your Mark episodes, and reacting with primarily negative sentiment, I was starting to think that my overall experience with this one wouldn't be any different. But, that's why I decided to watch every episode two more times, so that I wouldn't immediately jump to conclusions. And to ensure I go in with a clear & reasonable head, of course.

Coming from a guy who reacquainted himself with "Portrait of a Princess" a couple more times recently, I'm now very certain that the episode was mediocre at the most.

As a whole, the story by Janae Hall was relatively underwhelming.

In terms of the flaws, the biggest ones revolved around how Misty trapped Pipp and Zipp. It was a clever plan, but Janae Hall never took the time to help it be logically worked or enacted.

For starters, Misty managed to get the two Pegasus sisters out of the salon by sending a picture of an Ocean Lily to Zipp through an email. Then she lured Pipp & Zipp onto the beach by sending another picture of the flower through email, emphasizing where to look for it. Afterwards, she baited the two sisters into a cave by leaving a trail of the lily's petals, and somehow...they get trapped by a cave-in.

I don't know about you guys, but as I thought about it more, the whole thing seemed to open up a boatload of plot holes.

How did Misty cause the cave-in to begin with? Did she use some kind of spell despite her lack of magic capabilities? And how was simply trapping Pipp & Zipp somewhere supposed to get them out of the way for good if they'd either just find a way to escape or be found by a rescue party?

Another thing I couldn't help but question was how Misty was able to send pictures of the Ocean Lily to Pipp & Zipp through email "anonymously". The main reason for why I'm questioning this is because, based on my own experiences using email, you can't send anyone a message without using your name and an email address. Even if it was possible, your identity and location could still be uncovered; and whenever people try to use a fake name or anonymous email, they'd either get a message saying "invalid name & email" or be reported out of suspicion.

As for how Misty was able to get Zipp & Pipp's emails, the only logical conclusion is that they were likely made public. Pipp probably made her email public for if any of her fans wanted to privately contact her; and Zipp most likely made hers public for whenever somepony wanted to privately contact her for solving a case. Queen Haven likely would've done the same thing for royal business reasons, that's for sure.

Outside of this, Misty using a trail of the Ocean Lily's petals to entice Pipp and Zipp into the cave was more silly than logical. And dumb, because I'm pretty sure that even a literal Stooge would be suspicious by how carefully planted the trail was; especially in reality. The worst part is that, because of the lure-method working, it gave the impression that Pipp & Zipp were more gullible and idiotic than either of them seemed.

Zipp is supposed to be an excellent detective, yet she wasn't the least bit suspicious about how conspicuous and specific the trail was? Why? And how could Pipp not be wary about that? Why would the two sisters follow-up on an email sent by an unidentified sender?

I may not be the biggest fan of Pipp and Zipp, but to my point-of-view, it seemed like Janae Hall subjected the two sisters to character-assassination just to make Misty's methods for trapping them work. When you think about it more, Misty and Opaline's plan for trapping them is so heavily flawed that even the ghost traps of Fred Jones from Scooby-Doo made more sense.

One thing's for sure, I've also started to wonder what Opaline was hoping to accomplish by simply trapping Pipp & Zipp rather than doing something besides that. If she really wanted them gone for good, she'd obviously need a professional assassin to do that. After all, killing them would be the most logical course to take for such a thing.

Before I get down to the core of this episode, there are a couple things I'd like to talk about: The inclusions of Sunny Starscout and Queen Haven.

Queen Haven hardly contributed anything important for the overall story, and there were times where it seemed like she was there for comic-relief purposes. But, at least her appearance in this episode wasn't 100% meaningless. Portrait Day is an event that'd particularly involve her, so it was only natural that the episode would feature her in a supporting status.

Sunny, meanwhile, was just passable. She played the part of being Zipp & Pipp's voice of support quite well, and she was obviously the right pony to use for keeping Queen Haven distracted and providing her company. Plus, her fascination with different cultures does make her a logical pony to include. But, there were moments involving Sunny that seemed really cringeworthy, and it almost made me wonder whether she was also intended to be there as a comic-relief of sorts. The biggest examples that came to my mind were the parts where Sunny tried to impersonate Zipp, and when she was eating cucumber slices despite their purpose being for putting over one's eyes. Each of those scenes also caused Sunny to seem like a less-than-bright and naive individual, and this sadly isn't the first time I began to question her overall intelligence.

Now, let's talk about the "broken family bond and dynamic" aspect of the story, shall we?

To be honest, I found myself having mixed feelings towards it.

The one positive I noted was that Zipp and Pipp's reconciliation moment was undeniably strong & soul-tugging. Regardless of how predictable it was, the pay off of the scene was surprisingly well-done. Each sister wholeheartedly admitted to the mistakes they made, their reconciling was sweet to see, and I actually enjoyed watching them work together to get out of the cave. Plus, the "Portrait Day" song was an unexpectedly heartwarming musical number. I didn't find myself wanting to include the song in my Music app, but I still enjoyed the song and the visual-emphasis that came with it.

Unfortunately, there were more negatives than positives regarding Pipp and Zipp's "family problem" story.

Despite their reconciliation scene being a noteworthy highlight, the episode devoted so much time exemplifying Pipp and Zipp's negative attributes that I gradually became fatigued by their focus more than engaged. Zipp spent nearly the entire episode either in detective-mode or grumbling about things like Pipp frequently taking selfies, and Pipp was glued to her social media for so long that she likely wouldn't notice if she was standing on a rock in the middle of the ocean. I can see that this was intended for further displaying the strain between them and explaining why they haven't been getting along, but still...I think Janae Hall and the production team were going a little too overboard doing so. Especially to where it started to get annoying. The more it happened, the less interested I became in seeing how their relationship could be repaired. I can't even remember what this episode was ultimately trying to teach regarding this subplot.

Call me crazy, but something about the "familial strain" plot between Zipp and Pipp also reminded me of the one between Mirabel and Isabela in Disney's "Encanto". In this case, Pipp was the pretty-faced sister who was obsessed with perfection and being a good influence, Zipp was the complete opposite and constantly wanted to investigate things, both got on each other's nerves before putting aside their differences and reconciling, and both sang a musical number together that brought them closer in bond. Just like Mirabel and Isabela! The only difference is that, unlike the two Disney sisters, Pipp and Zipp didn't have much of an impactful growth despite their character developments.

In conclusion, "Portrait of a Princess" definitely wasn't as bad as "Growing Pains", and it had some commendable elements. But, it's still another poorly-written, bland, and forgettable member of MLP's 5th Generation.

So, I rate "Portrait of a Princess" two out of five stars.