Ranking the Pipp Petals Episodes/Specials (From Worst to Best)

Bet you're surprised to see me do Pipp before Izzy or Misty considering I regard Pipp as the weakest of the main characters. Well, that's because Pipp has the higher concentration of episodes and specials focused on her as of right now. Don't believe me? There's a total of six episodes/specials across the first four chapters of Make Your Mark that can be said to be ones focused on her. Of course, quantity doesn't translate into quality. Which of these (if any) have brought Pipp to life and made her feel like more of a character? Well, let's find out.

6. Ali-Conned (Chapter 2, Episode 4)
Why it's on the bottom: Pipp's entire subplot here is her being jealous of the fact that Sparky is more popular on social media than her. Yes, that's right, Pipp is jealous of a baby. And I get the feeling that "shadow banished" is supposed to be the same thing as being cancelled on social media. However you look at it, it makes Pipp look petty and shallow. Are we supposed to find it funny that she's jealous of Sparky being more popular than her? Why did that have to be a sub-plot of the episode? Just so Pipp could learn to laugh at herself? Isn't that something she could learn at any point? Considering what this episode wanted to focus on, Pipp should've been the one helping Sunny learn how not to get swept up in her own fame.

5. Izzy Does It (Chapter 2, Episode 1)
Why it's not on the bottom: This feels like an Izzy episode that also became a Pipp episode at the last minute. Pipp instigates the plot and makes things worse for Izzy, but then Izzy manages to solve the problem all on her own. As for Pipp, she has a plot about struggling to find inspiration after singing a song all about how she finds it easy to find said inspiration. But she doesn't even get to solve that problem on her own, Izzy solves it for Pipp. So what was the point of making this into a Pipp episode if Pipp doesn't get to solve any problems on her own and needs others to bail her out? Wouldn't it have been better to just cut Pipp out of the episode's story all together then? Maybe they did it because of the amount of ship fuel between Izzy and Pipp? Honestly, just have Pipp sing her song to give Izzy inspiration, that's all you'd need to do. Don't make Pipp the plot instigator if you're not gonna have her solve her own problems.

4. Portrait of a Princess (Chapter 2, Episode 3)
Why it's in the bottom half: Just because they remove sympathy from Zipp doesn't mean it automatically goes to Pipp. Sur,e very early on, when Pipp is excited about portrait day, we root for her. When she's meeting with her mom and spending time with her, we root for her. But once the main plot gets going, Pipp spends her time being on social media and bickering with Zipp, and loses sympathy because she cannot put down her phone for once in her life. I like the idea of Pipp needing to rely on the Pippsqueaks for help, that's great. The problem with that is that not only are the Pippsqueaks not very fleshed out, but the rescue comes way too late into the episode, by which point we've just spent all our time watching Zipp and Pipp bicker whie Sunny tries to distract Queen Haven. I think that's a problem overall with G5, they have good concepts but the execution often falls short.

3. The Jinxie Games (Chapter 4, Episode 3)
Why it's in the top half: At least it makes sense for Pipp to become worried and then become disgusted, Pipp definitely strikes me as being closer to Queen Haven than Zipp is. However, did it ever occur to Pipp that her mom as queen might not always be able to take time out of her busy schedule to be with her daughters? Things can come up, especially with Zipp and Pipp living in Maretime Bay rather than Zephyr Heights. And you have to wonder why Pipp hasn't taught Queen Haven to text or do video calls yet with how much time has passed. All the same, Pipp seems more repulsed when Queen Haven suggests that what she has with Alphabittle is the same as what Zipp and Pipp have with Hitch.

2. Bridlewoodstock (Chapter 4, Episode 1)
Why it's not on the top: There's a little bit of nibbling around the edges for Pipp here. Her trying to organize a rock concert is a step in the right direction, however small it may be. The problem is, they don't sell us on Pipp's motivation. Why does she feel like a rock concert is the best way to spread attention and awareness of this incredible phomenon that she just found out about? Why doesn't she just take a few pictures and make a social media post? It would accomplish the same thing and feel more in character for her. The bigger problem though might be Pipp being dismissive of the unicorn's superstitions, which would be fine if not for "Winter Wishday". Plus, the first pony to ever voice her complaints about the concert is Izzy, one of Pipp's friends. If it were say Alphabittle, maybe I could buy Pipp not heeding the warnings. She does apologize, but of course the unicorns are going to be forgiving when the troggles are already defeated. And much of the organization part of the concert happens off-screen, the most we see Pipp do prior to performing is track down and recruit Ruby Jubilee.

1. A Little Hoarse (Chapter 4, Episode 6)
Why it's on the top: Much like with "The Jinxie Games", this episode's plot ended up being done in Tell Your Tale. In that case, however, Pipp actually worked herself to near exhaustion and almost lost her voice. Here, she just catches a cold out of the blue and has to stay in bed. Considering what this episode shows, it seems to me that Pipp is outright obsessed with phones and social media, she's like an addict. But she comes out of it without any sort of change, she just decides to do her big collab from the Brighthouse instead. And it's really saying something that we spend a lot of time on her friends trying to cheer her up or help her get better. Still, this episode comes the closest so far to making Pipp feel like more of a character. If she could just break her addiction to social media, or even just curb it, there is so much untapped potential they could do with her.

And there you have it, come back tomorrow when we'll look at and rank not only the Izzy Moonbow episodes but also all the episodes/specials focusing on the mane five (as in, the group before Misty officially joins).

Comments

[PonyPuffy 2012]

It's kind of ironic how Tell Your Tale has done a better job in fleshing out Pipp than Make Your Mark despite the former's run time being just five minutes and being more focused on comedy than story telling. For example in "My Bananas" Pipp's the one who helps Sunny overcome her embarrassment after the whole "banana incident" by showing her some of her own embarrassing moments. There's also plenty of moments where Pipp actually pulls her weight like when she went out into the swamp to retrieve her delivery of hair care products(The delivery pony definitely got an ear full about just leaving it out there).

[BronyRanger]

5746628

It's kind of ironic how Tell Your Tale has done a better job in fleshing out Pipp than Make Your Mark despite the former's run time being just five minutes and being more focused on comedy than story telling.

You could say the same thing about Sunny, to be honest.