S02E06: The Cutie Pox

[The Doctor]

The Cutie Pox
Airdate: November 12, 2011
Writer: Amy Keating Rogers

After stealing ingredients for Zecora's Rooster viagra, Applebloom gets her Cutie Mark. She then gets a lot more of them.

[The Doctor]

Rewatching this reminded me again how unfortunate it was that they did a 180 on these three's character arcs regarding cutie marks.

In the episode we see them go bowling to get their cutie marks. They all fail.

had a good time. They didn't get their cutie mark, but enjoyed the experience. These two seem to know their time will come, and are enjoying the ride.

Is a grump about it.

I would have loved to have seen them all get different cutie marks separately, and specifically see Applebloom get her's last and have to deal with her friends getting them before her (and handling it a lot better than she did with Twist).

[Auxiliatrix]

I would have loved to have seen them all get different cutie marks separately, and specifically see Applebloom get her's last and have to deal with her friends getting them before her (and handling it a lot better than she did with Twist).

This is an idea I myself thought would be a great one for the show to tackle, and, unfortunately, wasn't brought up in "Bloom & Gloom" either. Granted, I love "Bloom & Gloom", and I do like what "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" did with the characters, but I sometimes speculate what having different cutie marks would've been like. Potentially, it could've led to the friendship between the trio being strained, and, as a result, been an interesting way to show how growing up can affect friendships, but if you make the effort to preserve them and keep a strong bond, you don't have to stop being friends. The downside to this would, perhaps, be that the moral might be a bit too obvious, or the fact that this idea was somewhat addressed in "Amending Fences". Still, to see the idea of "growing up" firsthand, and from characters we've known since the beginning, could've been interesting, and giving the Crusaders the same cutie marks (and, thus, the same "jobs"), somewhat rids them of having to grow separately/test their friendship.

I'm honestly still wondering if we're ever going to see any of the Crusaders as "adults".

As for "The Cutie Pox", I don't like the episode very much (as most of it feels padded and full of filler), but there's a couple good jokes (most of which occur when Pinkie Pie shows up).