This was a pretty good episode.

Now I know that CMC episodes aren’t really highly regarded. The only CMC related episode in Season 1 that’s absolutely loved is Cutie Mark Chronicles (If that counts, as it’s also kinda a Main 6 episode as well). Season 2 had a few good ones in Sisterhooves Social, Family Appreciation Day, Hearts and Hooves Day (IMO at least), and Ponyville Confidential. Season 3 had Sleepless in Ponyville at the very least, and the current season has had Flight to the Finish. Every other CMC episode though get mixed responses at best.

I think Show Stoppers is a tad underrated, but I can understand why people might be annoyed by the episode because it seems to show what the CMC’s talents are. But about 60 episodes have run since that episode and none of them have their Cutie Marks still. Call of the Cutie was at least a decent introduction of Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, Stare Master was generally ok. Even if like Pinkie Sense, we wouldn’t see the Stare used much. With Season 2, Cutie Pox was essentially filler. Nothing much is really gained though generally other then Cutie Pox the CMC episodes in Season 2 were generally better. Season 3 had One Bad Apple, which while it had quite a catchy song does have a bit of mixed responses in the way it handled bullying. In other words, Cutie Mark Crusader episodes have a broad range of how they’ve gone usually. Some have been some of the more annoying episodes of the show to some, and some ended up being at least in Top 10 or even ranked among the Top 5 episodes of the Season.

How much you like the Cutie Mark Crusaders might be one thing that works or against you going into this episode. I actually quite like the CMC, Sweetie Belle especially. So I’m happy to say that I think this episode I think has a similar quality to Ponyville Confidential. Not an entirely great episode, but good enough to be on the good side of CMC episodes. What’s interesting about this episode is usually Diamond Tiara is the catalyst of all she does since she’s almost always just there to be the recurring bully. But this time the CMC actually get the trouble themselves. Which might make it seem the CMC were idiots this time, but kids make plenty of mistakes. It’s how they learn better. The CMC do learn something from this, so it’s not totally for nothing like Cutie Pox was.

But enough about the CMC, another big thing this episode had was actually mentioning how Twilight is a Princess for once. I know people have given the season some flack for besides the opener not really using Twilight’s princess status like they could be. The biggest thing that got people raising their eyebrows was the cab driver that didn’t recognize her as a royal figure back in Rarity Takes Manehatten. But I really don’t think it’s that bad, Twilight’s Princess status not being as mentioned hasn’t exactly ruined most of the episodes. And it’s rather nitpicky. Also having her status occasionally come up again in episodes revolving around her is better then the other extreme. Where Twilight’s Princess status is somehow important to almost every single episode. Something like that could easily bring the show back to something I felt very much limited Season 1. Where Twilight had to have some role in the episode because she has to be the one that writes the moral at the end. The other extreme in Season 4 would be that every single thing that happens to the Mane 6 can’t happen without it being related to Twilight’s princesshood in some way. It’d essentially be putting a big sign over the screen that says “Twilight’s a Princess now! Remember? Huh huh huh?!” for every single episode. Even for those like me that like that Twilight’s an Alicorn Princess now, it’d be a bit grating.

Anyway on Twilight, she seemed really mature in this episode. She seemed to handle the crowd of fillies pretty great. And even seems a lot more comfortable with her status then she was during the opener. Which is really good to see. Oh I also have to say the entire fast food place part is the best scene of the episode. Not really just for Twilight eating burgers messily, but also what Scootaloo does for the Camera and everything. At first I thought that the tray around Pinkie’s neck meant that Pinkie seems to have a part-time Job at that fast food place. But then I realized since she’s an Earth pony those trays are probably there to help customers since well kinda hard to have the dexterity to hold all that food when your limbs are one big hoof.

So all in all, I think we had another good though not particular spectacular episode. That’s 2-3 great episodes, 1 rather weak episode, and 12 at least decently good so far. Chalk another one up for the quality consistency. Next week we have Fluttershy and the revival of a species that was first introduced in G3. Let’s see what this show does once again to stomp on what’s universally considered the bottom of the barrel the MLP franchise has gone through.