Season six has arrived, and my blog has been at a semi-standstill lately. To rev it up, why not publish tops and bottoms for last season?

 

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Episodes:

 

Bottom-5 episodes:

 

5: The Hooffields and McColts

 

The offensive parody doesn't respect the (horrible) history of the real-life feud the Hatfields and McCoys once had. People died from their feud with each other, one of them executed for murder. This episode trivialized that conflict and used rural Southern stereotypes to boot. Combine that with terrible dialogue, pushing Fluttershy to the background until the time was right, and flanderizing Twilight, this episode is skip-worthy.

 

4: Brotherhooves Social

 

Transphobic unfortunate implications are abundant here via its use of the Man-in-a-Dress trope. Why do so many transwomen get so offended by the trope? Because the media and society altogether use it to abuse transwomen and force them to conform to gender roles and social norms; it becomes a major struggle for them to live as themselves when they're constantly bashed. To top it off, the joke is men literally being in a dress, nothing more. Usually, the MiaD comedy from the trope is cringe comedy and through stereotypes. BM's cover was blown through stereotypes, including the falsetto voice, "powder your nose," Rainbow Dash's sexist line, and the obvious Adam's Apple joke. This isn't like Derpy's unnecessary censorship; the unfortunate implications exist here, and it's no surprising to see Big Mac's attempt at drag offend lots of people. On top of this, the whole setting is mean-spirited; the folks said nothing with the intent of letting BM screw himself up, yet Apple Bloom becomes the unfortunate victim of the conflict. Even worse, the drag queen side-plot is filler; you could've written the same episode without it being bogged down by offensive jokes. Silver-Quill hypothesized BrS as a parody of stereotypes; if it is, it failed miserably.

 

3: What About Discord?

 

Talk about an episode with a broken approach. Since Discord became reformed, much of his humor is pop culture references and parodies, but it's exploited to the point of overkill and one-dimensional here. Twilight, the lead character here, was written to be the antagonist in this entire thing, but given her whole history with him and their OOC attitude, she had every right not to trust him. Unfortunately, the moral of being able to express yourself was ruined when Discord admitted to setting her up. By doing this, Discord becomes OOC, and Twilight's suspicions throughout were validated.

 

2: Appleoosa's Most Wanted

 

The worse attempt at comedy in the entire show. Troubleshoes doesn't want to live his life feeling cursed, yet we're supposed to laugh at him every single time he slips up and gets hurt. How the hell are we supposed to laugh at him when he doesn't deserve comedic karma? To make that worse, all of Appleoosa's responsible for the story of TS being a dangerous outlaw, because they ran him off when he was a little colt AND framed him. When he initially caused the pyramid of hay to fall, stakes were raised, but during the climax, it's suddenly written to be a joke?

 

1: Princess Spike

 

My most hated episode of this season and the second-worst-written episode overall. This whole thing's a complete mess. Spike written to be an incompetent idiot. Spike then written to be a greedy idiot. Spike then written to be framed as his greed causing all the chaos when his selflessness, not his greed, caused it. Dragon Sneeze Trees in Canterlot. Everyone in Canterlot acts like an idiot — not chopping down the trees, fixing the pipes — just because "Princess Twilight" says so. Then there's that ending with hugely sexist implications all but confirming how little DHX cares about his role in his episodes.

 

Dishonorable mentions: Tanks for the Memories, Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?

 

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Top-5 episodes:

 

5: The Mane Attraction

 

Easily the best Applejack episode, period. Often, when her stubbornness takes a role in the conflict, it's a personality flaw she must overcome. Here, it's played as a strength for the first time, as she suspected something was wrong with Coloratura. The Magic Inside is S5's best song and one of the best in the whole show.

 

4. The Cutie Re-Mark

 

Best two-part finale. Was Starlight's redemption condensed? Yes. But it also did a hell of a job foreshadowing Starlight into redeeming herself. It's not about the what, but the why and how it came about. Starlight was a villain, but believed she was doing the right thing. With her utopia crumbled, revenge without knowing the consequences made sense for her. Spike had one of his best roles in a two-parter, and Twilight herself had her best characterization and role as Princess of Friendship. For Twilight and her friends to elect Starlight as her pupil is one the best decisions the show's ever made.

 

3. The Cutie Map

 

Best two-parter. Well-written. Excellently paced. Starlight was introduced as the show's best villain. Characters other than Twilight had to solve Starlight's terror and beat her. Our Town is the series's best villain song with its delightfully creepy tones. Awareness of the dictatorial implications are everywhere. It's a psychological horror flick, and it's more genuine than the stereotypical snuff "horror."

 

2. Amending Fences

 

Best Twilight episode. Twilight herself was fantastically written, worried about how her old friends would react and tried to right a wrong when she abandoned Moondancer. Moondancer, for that matter, is perhaps the most realistic one-shot character in the show. Her pain, reasons for self-reclusion, want for nothing with Twilight or her old friends, and anger are all real. The moment where she verbally called out Twilight for not showing up and anguished it within her for all this time is gut-wrenching; it's the first moment of the entire show that made me cry. While the moral isn't stated, it's noble: What made be inconsequential to you can have a lasting impact to those around you; beware of the implications.

 

1. Crusaders of the Lost Mark

 

AKR's original swan song, and the best CMC episode. It's a musical episode packed with so much info, but it's paced really well. The CMC have been breakout characters since season two, and they showed it with their most mature outing. Diamond Tiara has been flat for most of the show, but CotLM changed that by giving her the character development she rightfully deserves; out goes the rich bitch and into a much more mature and likable DT. And then that moment where they finally get their cutie marks is one big ol' slap to the status quo, and at the best time. The CMCs began their quest thanks to her; with her redeemed, their quest comes full circle. It's Magical Mystery Cure done right.

 

Honorable mentions: Bloom & Gloom, Slice of Life.

 

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Full episode ranking (in order):

1. Crusaders of the Lost Mark: A+
2. Amending Fences: A+
3. The Cutie Map: A+
4. The Cutie Re-Mark: A
5. The Mane Attraction: A-
6. Bloom & Gloom: A-
7. Slice of Life: B+
8. Castle Sweet Castle: B
9. Scare Master: B
10. Canterlot Boutique: B-
11. Hearthbreakers: B-
12. Made in Manehattan: C+
13. Make Friends but Keep Discord: C+
14. The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone: C
15. The One Where Pinkie Knows: C
16. Rarity Investigates!: C
17. Party Pooped: C-
18. Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?: C-
19. Tanks for the Memories: D+
20. The Hooffields and McColts: D+
21. Brotherhooves Social: D+
22. What About Discord: F
23. Appleoosa's Most Wanted: F
24. Princess Spike: F
    

 

Moral:

 

Bottom moral:

 

Friendship is all you need to rebuild a community (Lost Treasure of Griffonstone).

 

Griffonstone isn't a community; it's a kingdom, and a kingdom's a combination of dozens of communities. Secondly, the entire kingdom has no economy or agriculture; the griffons ask or demand bits for everything because God knows if they'll survive tomorrow. It'll take decades, at least, to rebuild this bankrupt land. Lastly, friendship is magic here, but friendship should never be treated as the be-all and end-all; the fact that it is during a time where friendship won't fix everything makes this moral very dishonest.

 

Dishonorable mention: To get over your oppressive guilt, just say it, and it'll immediately go away (Magic Sheep).

 

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Top moral:

 

Everyone matters in a story, whether they are main or in the background (Slice of Life).

 

One of the biggest reasons why the background characters are so popular is because they do something. When they do something, we notice it, and we create headcanon territory from there. Background characters enrich Equestria's life. Without them, then why the heck should we be so engaged with their world? Unrelated, but observe the crowd: Every single one of them matters, and for them to stay in the same spot regardless of the camera angle tells us as the audience to pay attention. SoL's excellent moral is my all-time favorite of the show.

 

Honorable mention: Consider the consequences of your actions. What may not matter to you may affect others' lives (Amending Fences).

 

 

New characters:

 

Characters that appeared on screen prior to S5 (even when in the background) don't count, so no Minuette, Twinkleshine, Maud, Igneous, Cloudy, and so on.

 

Bottom-3 new characters:

 

3. This stallion who whined about needing Twilight to patch up his friendship with another pony because of a seat. *facehoof* If Princess Spike couldn't get any stupider…

 

2. The yaks of Yakyakistan: They are a combination of two classic stereotypes: vikings and indigenous people. They speak really broken English; have a very primitive, war-first ideology; don't understand more modern technology; don't have manners; and are isolated from all walks of life.

 

1. The Hooffields. Obnoxious, imbecilic, and with stereotypical southern accents. They're the classic rural southern stereotype.

 

Dishonorable mention: Tree Hugger (classic stoner hippie stereotype).

 

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Top-3 new characters:

 

3. Coloratura. With Lena Hall voicing her, Coloratura really shines in her range of music. The Spectacle is good (albeit with seizure-inducing visuals), but The Magic Inside gave us who she really is. A singer who knows how to put emotion into music and deliver one of the most emotional numbers in the entire series.

 

2. Starlight Glimmer. The best villain in the show and the only villain with a satisfactory redemption thus far.

 

1. Moondancer. To reiterate from above, of the one-shot characters, she's one of the most realistic this series has ever had. Her torment and internal conflict are all real, and she's someone nearly all of us can relate to.

 

Honorable mentions: Our Four (from Starlight's village), Limestone Pie.

 

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Mane Six (Spike counts, BTW):

 

Bottom M6 character:

 

Rainbow Dash.

 

The biggest problem with Fluttershy up to season five was her stagnated characterization to the point of flanderization. Nowadays, RD's character feels the most flanderized; in her one lead episode (Tanks for the Memories), she led one of her worst performances of the entire series by knowingly disregarding everyone's lives just to keep Tank awake. Yeah, she shared a role with Pinkie, and it was really good, but her solo episodes have crawled to a standstill as far as good characterization is concerned. As a big RD brony, how poorly she's been characterized since season three is a total shame.

 

Now we're at the point where Dash episodes are more in common with Spike episodes. Yes, Dash has had a collection of better episodes, but she seems to work much better with a companion or in a secondary role, ala Griffonstone and Rarity Investigates. But when she's the central character now, when the episode's bad, boy, does it suck!

 

Dishonorable mention: Spike (just because Princess Spike is so much worse!)

 

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Top M6 character:

 

Pinkie Pie.

 

In which season four was Pinkie Pie at her worst (Filli Vanilli, I'm looking at you!), season five corrected it by giving her the best characterization of the show, including in her own episode. She's not degraded into being either random for the sake of it or stupid anymore. Her humor has purpose and adds to the story while not making her dumb or mean. More of this Pinkie and not the idiot!Pinkie, please!

 

Honorable mention: Fluttershy.

 

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Full M6 rank (in order):

1. Pinkie Pie
2. Fluttershy
3. Applejack
4. Rarity
5. Twilight Sparkle
6. Spike
7. Rainbow Dash
   

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Moment:

 

Bottom-3 moments:

 

3. Big Mac's Adam's Apple reveal. There are so many drag queen and transgender stereotypes in this episode, including methods to hide or reveal his disguise. This is the worst. How it's revealed, the detail, and the closeup makes it one stereotypical gross-out joke. But this gross-out joke isn't funny. It's disgusting. Even worse is it's such an easy joke to make, you see it coming from a mile away, and it ruins a pretty sweet song.

 

2. Discord admits to intentionally not inviting Twilight just because he can. The entire episode builds upon the idea that Twilight is jealous of her friends and Discord because she missed out on so much despite the fact that she has every reason to not trust him. But when Discord admitted to being a jerk just because, the episode's moral of not to bottle up your emotions is disqualified, and Twilight's suspicions of him throughout were validated.

 

1. Spike given a dragon sneeze bouquet. The scene prior was actually rather sweet, for they help him rebuild the gem statue. But the event was nullified with the intent to plug in a very tasteless joke to confirm Spike's status as a buttmonkey. But the status worsens by the fact that he's the only main male character. For a supposedly pro-feminist show, to affirm the buttmonkey status for him opens up serious sexist implications.

 

Dishonorable mentions: Rainbow Dash stating she won't go easy on Big Mac 'cause he's a stallion; the construction worker stopping his work on the pipe because "Princess Twilight" said so; Discord threatening Tree Hugger in the climax.

 

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Top-3 moments:

 

3. Twilight apologizing to Minuette, Twinkleshine, and Lemon Hearts. Amending Fences excellently subverts the ol' reunion cliché by having her three main friends in Canterlot forgive her and treat her skipping of town blasély. Simultaneously, it makes her reunion with Moondancer more impactful and crushing to watch.

 

2. Starlight Glimmer's reformation. Starlight's redemption is Sunset's antithesis in terms of execution and method. Rather than forcing a redemption through a Deus Ex Machina brainwashing her and resetting her whole personality, Twilight gave Starlight the opportunity to change and become a better pony. Start giving the true Magic of Friendship a chance. Starlight chose to redeem herself. The fact that she chose to change makes Starlight's redemption so much better than Sunset's: It's more genuine.

 

But this is also just as great a moment for Twilight Sparkle. Since her ascension, her execution as Princess hasn't always been the best. This scene epitomized why she's the Princess of Friendship and why I now support the Twilicorn. It's her best characterization as an alicorn yet.

 

1. The CMCs deciding to follow Diamond Tiara after she lost badly and fell out with Silver Spoon. No one would blame them for saying good riddance to her after what she did to them, especially Scootaloo. But for them to acknowledge what she did was awful, yet believe what she did doesn't mean they shouldn't care about her safety shows how mature they are. After leaving a terrible first impression in season one, they improved into becoming breakout characters. This one moment showed us how far they've come and foreshadowed the cutie marks they were going to get at the end of the episode.

 

Honorable mentions: The CMCs getting their cutie marks; Steven Magnet intentionally slicing off his mustache.

 

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What I want for Season 6:

 

Continued growth for Starlight. Re-Mark implied an addition of Starlight as part of the Mane cast, and The Crystalling further enforces that notion. Of every character introduced thus far, she's the best candidate to be a part of the team. She's learning the true Magic of Friendship, has a close friendship with Spike now, and will learn more later this season. Don't be surprised if she comes into her own following the season finale.

 

Better characterization for Spike and Rainbow Dash. The Crystalling was his best characterization since Lesson Zero. Less of him being a butt of jokes and more of him as a legitimate character who belongs with the Mane cast. Also, better characterization of Dash as a lead. If I want to compare her episodes to Spike's, I want the comparison to be a positive, not negative!

 

Cut down on the stereotypes. They're a shortcut and a major flaw in this show. If you're going to use stereotypes, then why the hell should I believe you care about the quality of your work? This show is supposed to teach people (especially kids) that people are more than just false representations, but this show sometimes screws this up badly. Put in some effort into your tropes!

 

A more consistent quality of work. This show's good, but it's also really inconsistent sometimes. You have good work, and then you have work that flops so badly. Does it need to be perfect? No. But it deserves better. More consistent effort into high-quality work.

 

Watch out for unfortunate implications. I hammer this all the time. Unfortunate implications are terrible because of the unintended real-life consequences they could have on us as an audience. The fact that kids are impressionable is one key reason why the "it's a kids' show" strawman fails miserably. Poor execution, poor wording, a terrible moral, you name it. Season five did better, but it can also do better.

 

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Verdict:

 

Season five is my most favorite season of the show thus far, and it may be the best one, too. While it did some wrong, the pros are excellent, and each and every mane character seemed to grow, learn, and mature, even when their episodes aren't exactly the best. Unlike a lot of family shows, the writers spit on the status quo and helps create fresh ideas as a result. Twilight's adjusting to her role as Princess of Friendship. Starlight is a pupil now. The CMCs got their cutie marks. You name it. Larson, Levinger, and AKR won't write for season six. (AKR's now with Disney.) But Josh Haber is the new lead writer, and hopefully, he can keep the current team in check for season six.