With the season 5 hiatus finally coming to an end tomorrow, I figure I might as well take the time to point out a few things that I think the season has done right thus far.

1. Returning Pinkie Pie's consistency

One of my most common complaints about the show since about season 3 is that Pinkie is barely written with any consistency anymore. In the first season, Pinkie was random and hyperactive, yet she still maintained a method to her madness. But this has gradually lessened as the series has gone on to the point where, for the most part, her role in the show is mostly utilized strictly for comedic purposes—she mostly only opens her mouth when attempting to induce a laugh out of the viewer. I have longed for the day when the Pinkie Pie from Swarm of the Century would return: the Pinkie who ultimately saves the day by being the only one who knows exactly what she's doing.

I would say that her characterization in season 4 was the most sporadic it's ever been. While she did have a couple bright spots like in Pinkie Pride and Trade Ya, there were also several episodes where she pretty much served no other purpose than to amuse us with her specialized brand of humor. For instance, in Three's a Crowd, Discord removed her from most of the episode by luring her away with a balloon right after she had promised him that she would take care of him while he was "sick", and she chased after it as though she had never seen a balloon before in her life, despite the fact that three of them make up her cutie mark! :okiedokielokie:

Additionally, in season 4, Pinkie did not really include herself in many of the mane six's more intense discussions and debates. In Princess Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie is the only one of the mane six who does not give any opinion about the idea to send Twilight back to Ponyville, neither in agreement, nor disagreement. In Bats, she is the only one who did not give any reasoning as to why she wanted the bats gone, and it seemed as though she was only siding against Fluttershy simply because that was what the rest of her friends were doing.

It's been a long time coming, but season 5 has finally begun to portray Pinkie with consistency again. While her antics are still often played up for laughs, she is now far more competent and involved within the mane six than she was last season. In particular, The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone amazes me with how much Pinkie manages to carry the episode with a perfect balance between her comedic antics and sense of commitment to her task. She's closer now to the Pinkie of Swarm of the Century than she's been since season 2.

2. Making Celestia (and Luna) relevant again

I've been cited as saying that Celestia has no role in the show anymore, and that she could feasibly be written out without any major consequence. Could I really be blamed for thinking as much given what has become of her since season 3 ended? In season 4, she went an unprecedented 21 episodes without making so much as a cameo, and for all intents and purposes, it seemed as though the writers ultimately had very little use for her now that she was no longer a mentor figure for Twilight.

With that thought in mind, I had assumed that if she did not make an appearance in the season 5 premiere, it would ultimately prove the sheer uselessness of her character, since up to that point, she had always been guaranteed to make appearances in the season premieres and finales. Lo and behold, she did not make any appearance at all in The Cutie Map, which I did not find particularly surprising. But although I had expected that this would mean that we would see her even less than we saw her in season 4, she has gone on to make four appearances in the first half of the season. Some of these appearances were shared with Luna, who was also in critical danger of slipping into uselessness now that her "Dream Trilogy" with the CMC had ended.

Now, granted, both of them still lack a particular role in the show. The appearances they've made thus far have been little more than cameos. However, the episode Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep thrust Luna into a main role, and it was clearly the most prominent role she's had in any episode since Luna Eclipsed. It can be assumed that if Luna can get her own episode, Celestia could possibly get one as well. It only remains to be seen. Nevertheless, at least I know now that the writers are not actively attempting to get rid of her.

3. Giving the background ponies a sense of character

There was plenty of pessimism within the fandom concerning the 100th episode when it was first announced that it would most focus on background ponies with the purpose of finally fleshing them out into actual characters (while potentially destroying dozens of headcanons in the process). However, now that the episode has aired, I really think that doing this was a great idea. The background ponies have always been blank canvases with potential for development, and for years, the fandom has only painted over these canvases because the writers have failed to do so themselves.

I'm glad that now the writers are actually getting the chance to not only fill in these canvases, but also expand upon what has already been established by the fandom. They now finally feel like something more than just stock ponies who are simply there to fill space. I think it's great that after all this time, we finally have legitimately canon characters out of Lyra, Bon Bon, Amethyst Star, Derpy, Octavia, etc...

Furthermore, I also like how the writers are also making at least some attempt to maintain continuity in the face of some of their more unexplainable appearances. For instance, in Amending Fences, it is stated that Minuette, Twinkle Shine, and Lemon Hearts, each of whom have been commonly-seen background ponies since the start of the show, frequently visit Ponyville to visit Lyra, hence explaining why we always see them there. Additionally, Pinkie was shown to have known Minuette because she was one of Cadence's bridesmaids in A Canterlot Wedding, which is a pretty legitimate display of consistency and something that probably wouldn't have been brought up otherwise.

That being said, it's not concrete, and there are still a lot of things that can't really be explained at this point (such as Bon Bon's multiple voices, and the fact that some background ponies were shown to be fully grown when the mane six were fillies), but nevertheless, I really think that making background ponies into actual characters was a very good move. I can only wonder how the writers will use them in the future.

4. Removing the end-of-episode lessons

As there has not been a single journal entry/letter to Celestia in any episode of season 5 thus far, it's likely fair to assume that the end-of-episode lessons have been done away with, presumably for the remainder of the show's run. This is a somewhat fitting change, as they really aren't necessary anymore. The mane six have grown beyond the point where they actually need to chronicle the lessons they learn.

However, this isn't to say that the show is devoid of relevant lessons now. The lessons are still there, just a bit more subtle than before, but not so much that it takes a whole lot of brainpower to figure them out. For instance, the lesson of the episode Make New Friends but Keep Discord is that you can have more than one "best" friend, and that sometimes you have to compromise when your friends make plans with someone else. The lessons are quite easy to figure out without having a journal or letter explicitly stating what they are.

5. Returning Twilight's adorkable traits and restoring balance to the mane six

I still don't particularly like the character Twilight has become since she became an alicorn, but I can't deny that season 5 has made strides to make her more like the character she used to be. Most notably, we have seen a return of her well-known, adorkable traits which were mostly absent in season 4, including her neuroticism.

Additionally, in season 4, Twilight was glorified constantly as though we were intended to see her as undeniably superior to her friends on a level which they could not even hope to compare. But this glorification has declined overall in season 5. The balance between the mane six has been restored at least slightly, as the mane five are now receiving a greater opportunity to shine within her new role as a princess. This is particularly evident in the "Friendship Missions" that this season has introduced, in which the mane six go on individual missions in pairs, the first one being The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone.

What's more, Amending Fences proved that Twilight can actually have episodes that do not feature any of her annoying post-alicorn character traits:

- No expositional monologues
- No laser battles inserted for the sake of making her look awesome
- No self-righteous speeches about friendship
- No "solution out of thin air" spells
- No moments of overall flawlessness and infallibility

That episode truly went a long way to make me feel that she can still be the character she was before her ascension.

And that's about it. It's been a great season thus far overall, and here's to hoping that the second half will be equally great.