If anyone has been following me in the past few weeks you'd know that I haven't been very fond of Season 6 as a whole, and while I can't say it was a total loss, as it still delivered on a few things, and had plenty of good episodes, but after giving it much thought though, my feelings towards it still haven't changed, in fact my feelings have actually worsened, and if I was suddenly allowed to live in a universe where S6 didn't exist I wouldn't miss it at all. This is the worst I've ever felt watching the show, with me becoming more critical with it, leaving it in a distant last compared to the rest of the show, EQG included(and considering I'm usually really lenient on the show, I don't feel this is a good thing), and this isn't a feeling I want to have when I watch this,

 

I feel like this is something I need to get off my chest, just finally dump my thoughts on S6 as a whole. I don't want to sound like a complete Negative Nancy, so I'll list things S6 got right, things that I do hope continue on into S7, but ultimately, this will be pretty negative. If you liked S6 that's cool, don't take this as a personal attack, just see as this might be a reason why some may not like S6, as I do feel I'm not alone in some of these thoughts

 

THE GOOD

 

1) Spike and Fluttershy finally get their due

 

 

For the longest time, people have been having lots of issues with these two, due either their stagnation or how they've been treated in the past. Spike's episodes have had a long history of being some of the most criticized episodes in the show, with season 5 not only giving him only one episode, but his worst by far, and Fluttershy never growing passed her shyness, getting to the point where it feels like that's all there is to the character(and having as little screentime as possible didn't exactly help). So the great pony gods in the sky smiled the days Spike and Fluttershy finally got their due. Spike's episodes in Season 6 are not only some of the best episodes he's ever gotten, they are some of the best in the show and while Fluttershy still could've benefitted from more screen time, almost any episode that had her as a major role she was on fire this season(well, except for 28 Pranks Later, but more on that later).This season is definitely what they needed and I hope they continue to have this momentum going forward

 

2) A great season for guys

 

 

This was a great season for the male characters. Besides for the aforementioned Spike, Discord's made a great recovery from the debacle that is What About Discord, as he was in top form in both Dungeons and Discords and To Where And Back Again(one of that episode's few highlights), Big Mac got some good expansion too, with deeper look into his nerdier side. Plenty of the new males introduced were great as well, Sunburst is adorable, Quibble is hilarious, the Flim Flam Brothers aren't redeemed and are still slimy con men(thank God!) and Thorax is one of the best support characters introduced yet. Of course it isn't perfect(I'll talk more about him later), but otherwise it was one of the better portrayal of male characters this season

 

3) The Map gives better episodes

 

 

There are still many problems with the Cutie map's existence, but it's output this season far surpasses that of S5's. While I still maintain that "Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" is still the best Map episode, as well as one of the series best, Made in Manehattan and Hoofields and McColts are on the opposite end of the spectrum, MIM is one of the most boring episodes the show has made and HAM manages to be both boring and awful, doing a disservice to it's focus characters and giving us some of the worst side characters ever. Meanwhile S6's Viva Las Pegasus and Top Bolt are also some of the best the show's given, putting their focus characters at their best(and giving Griffonstone a run for its money) and despite notable problems with Spice Up Your Life(notably its portrayal of Rarity), there was definitely a lot more heart and effort put into it compared to HAM and MIM, as everything else apart from that one flaw everything else was great.

 

4) A Potentially bright future for Equestria Girls

 

 

I dunno if it belongs here since it's technically not part of S6, but was worked on around the same time.

 

Before Legends of Everfree, it seems like the series didn't quite know what it wanted to be. While certain tropes played up to being some sort of Magical Girls spin-off(akin to Sailor Moon), it was pretty obvious there were more tropes gravitating it towards something similar to Monster High, and while this certainly isn't a bad thing(I actually enjoy this series), it does create a certain conflict of identity for it. However, with LOE, with it focusing heavily on the girl's newfound powers, it seems like they've decided to go more towards the Magical Girl route, the the glee of many. While I can't say LoE, while a solid movie, was better than Rainbow Rocks, especially with it feeling more like a pilot than a movie/special, I can say that it feels like the series finally knows what it wants to be, and with the next installments of Equestria Girls being split into 3 22-minute long specials, it feels like they're beginning to test the waters into its own series, and finally try to stand out on its own. EQG will probably stick around for a while, especially with the immense popularity of Sunset Shimmer, but Hope Shines Eternal for this spin-off, and I've probably lost a few readers for that pun

 

Unfortunately this is all I can really say about the positives about S6, if there were some I missed feel free to include them

 

Negatives

 

1) The Old Blood pulling the weight

 

 

As with many long running shows, it's only natural for writers to come and go, but what worries people is if they new people coming are up to snuff. This season saw some of the biggest influx of new writers since S4, but unfortunately a lot of them weren't pulling their own weight, and a lot of them pulled out some of the weakest the show's had to offer, either by being really boring, or setting whatever character they focused on so far back. It's also worth noting that with the exception of Dave Polsky(who...honestly isn't exactly a high point) all the writers who've been with the show has since departed. Many of the show's best episodes are from people who've been around for since Season 4 at least, with the likes of Josh Haber, Nick Confalone, and Songco&Lewis, and speaking of which, Josh took up the role as story editor from MA Larson and Meghan McCarthy, and while, he can write his own stories fine, for a guy who was with the show for a while, it's amazing he let some of the crap through. As far as new writers go, the best one was easily the duo of Burke&Wyatt, who delivered the excellent Times Are A Changeling and Viva Las Pegasus. The next best new writers were Jessica Skelly(Buckball Season) and Mike Vogel(Hearth's Warming Tale, Stranger Than Fan Fiction, and also worth mentioning that he's been with the show for a while, since S1, but he was Hasbro's VP of marketing at the time, S6 was his first time writing), and even then they have their own set of problems, with the former needing work on her dialogue and the latter suffering from similar problems with McCarthy, in that while he can write great small/SoL episodes, his work on major developmental episodes (Every Little Thing She Does)and finales are his Achille's heel(also his portrayal of Rarity needs to be called out on). And then there's the next batch of new writers, The Fox Brothers, Dave Rapp, and FM D.Marco, who have quickly become some of the fandom's most disliked writers within recent memory. It really feels like a lot of these guys didn't do any homework when they came on, which plagued a lot of episodes this season

 

2) Worst season for about half the mane cast

 

 

It was easily the best for Spike and Fluttershy, but was problematic for a lot of the cast, but for 3 certain ponies, it was easily their worst showing by far.

 

For Twilight, this season she was given a similar role she had in Rainbow Rocks, in that she was supposed to be a teacher for Starlight Glimmer, and guiding her on her quest for finding friendship. However, this seemed to have an opposite effect on her role in Rainbow Rocks, as she's shown to be a very ineffective teacher, constantly paranoid over her student, not trusting those she's forgiven in the past, and her lessons having little effect on Starlight(but apparently we're supposed to assume that they worked by the finale). There's also the fact that a lot of her roles didn't play up most of her strengths and just left her pretty boring. It wasn't until Top Bolt where she really got to shine...which was the penultimate episode of the season. Also, despite showing her try to do a lot for Starlight, she still chooses Trixie over her. She might as well been given been given a giant middle finger,

 

Next we have Rainbow Dash, whom I'm convinced the writers were deliberately treating like garbage for some undisclosed hate and punishing anyone who was invested in the character(I'm sure someone's gonna call me out as a butthurt fanboy for that, calling it now). Reasons why I feel this why is because while she had some more good appearances than the other two ponies here, is simply because of the mere existence of two of her solo focus episodes this season(that I'll touch on later, you sure as well know which ones I'm talking about), the circumstances around them, and how anyone in the staff allowed them to get passed brainstorming is absolutely baffling

 

And lastly there's Applejack who's arguably had it the worst of the 3, had easily her worst season, as the first two thirds of the season had her at her absolute worst out of any season, between her stupidity in AJ's Day Off, or her hostility toward's Applebloom in The Cart Before the Ponies, and her idiocy in PPOV(As much as I loved Rarity's depiction of Pirate AJ, it can't save the episode), it took her until BUCKBALL SEASON to actually have a decent appearance, which is about 3/4ths into the season, and she was still great in Viva Las Pegasus and Where the Apple Lies, but overall it was just a really bad time for AJ

 

3) Newbie Dash - The Ultimate "Fuck You" of a milestone episode

 

A poster child of how NOT to write a milestone episode. 1) Give it to a new writer, 2) Make sure the new writer knows fuck all about the show, 3) Make sure every past development of a character's arc is forgotten completely and fuck over your audience completely for having any sort of of investment of the character and mocking them for it.

 

Rainbow Dash's Wonderbolt arc was the show's earliest arc in the series, dating back to the very first episode. As the show progressed we've seen her slowly, but surely get closer to her goal, and despite a few bumps(namely the portrayal of the Wonderbolts) on the road, this arc has given some of the show's best and most beloved episodes such as Sonic Rainboom, Wonderbolts Academy, Testing Testing, 1-2-3, and Rarity Investigates. With Rarity, Twilight, and the CMC, not only receiving very much beloved conclusions to their arc, but also starting a new chapter for their characters, it was only natural for Rainbow Dash to receive her due. However, unlike those three, which capped everything off in a spectacular fashion befitting for their characters, putting every bit of effort the writers could, NEWBIE DASH does absolutely everything in its power to completely mock anyone expecting at least some satisfying climax. In the cold opening, the audience is suddenly told Rainbow becomes a Wonderbolt, no big feat accomplished, no big celebration, no nothing, just heads straight to the opening. Right off the bat you can tell the writers gave absolutely fuck all about this episode, and it only gets worse from there. The rest of the episode spends its entire runtime of making a character we're supposed to be happy for make a complete mockery of herself through and through, constantly humiliating her while having her dealing with a nickname that haunted her since her childhood, with her idols now teammates, the Wonderbolts coming off as real bullies and never once wondering what was wrong with her unusual unperformance. The cream of the crop, is when she's finally at her absolute lowest, instead of giving her a chance to climb back up, they somehow manage to bring her down further. Strike one - Her plan to "look cool for the Wonderbolt" includes an incredibly reckless stunt that would've her gotten her kicked out - Goes against everything she learned in Wonderbolts Academy. Strike 2 - Rainbow Dash suddenly doesn't know she's supposed to cross the road(because suddenly the writers decide now to make this a problem), and she isn't aware of her surroundings - Goes against everything we know about TT123. Strike 3 - Suddenly she doesn't know how to work with a team, has issues flying with the Bolts, suddenly cares more about herself than them - Goes against everything we know in Wonderbolts Academy and Rarity Investigates. All of this over a nickname. All of this constant humiliation. And what does the episode conclude with? "This is normal for us". Which comes dangerously close to "Hazing is OK". I'm positive that this moral wasn't intended to be interpreted like that, but it's still amazing that no one in the writing staff saw this. And what was all this for? That impersonation scene.

 

The fact that anyone there thought this was a great way to end an arc is outright infuriating to me. Whereas other characters were celebrated for their achievements, for this the writers might as well be pointing their fingers and laughing at the audience going "HAHAHA LOOK AT YOU, YOU ACTUALLY THOUGHT SHE ACCOMPLISHED SOMETHING, YOU FUCKING WASTED YOUR TIME!"

 

"BUT MEGAS, SHE NEEDED A REALITY CHECK!" Fuck off, if you seriously think that the best way to complete a character's milestone, their biggest achievement, is to humiliate them every chance you get and make a complete mockery of their accomplishment, then it is you who needs a reality check, Storytelling doesn't work that way

 

Six years of character development, six years of investment, six years of time, thrown out the window complete for the sake of a stupid fucking joke. It's amazing I didn't quit from there. There's been lots of bad episodes in the past, but considering all of the circumstances surrounding this one, this episode is the only I've ever felt that warrants a fucking apology.

 

Instead they shit out 28 Pranks Later

 

4) Insult to Injury - 28 Fucking Pranks Later

 

 

As if that wasn't enough, they went ahead with this. When the synopsis was first revealed, a ton of people first thoughts were "The Mysterious Mare Do Well 2 Electric Scootaloo". It's not a good sign when everyone's first thoughts were towards one of the show's most hated episodes ever. Of course it doesn't necessarily mean much, everyone thought Gauntlet of Fire was gonna be a retread of Dragon Quest, another wildly unpopular episode, however that episode managed to address a lot of that episode's problems and delivered a much more satisfying episode, so many were giving this episode the benefit of the doubt. Of course the exact opposite actually happened, and the episode turned out to be what many feared. Not only did the writers not learn anything at all, they in fact shit out an even worse episode. Instead of addressing MMDW's problems, they instead thought the best way to fix the episode was to make Rainbow Dash act even shittier, regressing her as far back as the beginning, so they can try to justify bludgeoning Rainbow Dash over the head with a proverbial sledgehammer, which was more transparent than a Roman Reigns push. And what was this for again? To dick ride off the zombie hype train. Again, I hope you guys thought it was worth it.

 

To this day, it's the only episode I've ever filtered from Derpibooru

 

5) Fucking Zephyr Breeze

 

 

It's amazing how unlikable this guy is. When they said this guy was hate-able, they weren't kidding, as he's managed to top Sven Gallop and Spoiled Rotten as some of the most unlikable character in the show. Which wouldn't be so bad....if they didn't expect us to root for him the whole time. The episode, Flutter Brutter, this character spends being a lazy cock, wrecking his parents things, and not putting every effort to anything, then the episode throws suddenly a sob story about how he can never live up to his sister and we have to feel sorry for him. Besides the fact that they did this much better with Big Mac in Brotherhooves Social, the episode suddenly expects us to root for him when he spends the entire time being one of the most unlikable d-bags in history. For an episode that does everything else right, Zephyr himself is the definition of make or break.

 

6) Rarity Out the Ass

 

 

I've always felt that there's always been a bias towards Rarity among the staff, and it's not hard to see why, they've made a fantastic character based off a wildly disliked trope(she's even my third favorite character in the entire show), but I was always bothered by some of the favoritism she's received. For example, she's the only character that's actually had an entire episode, Spike at Your Service, changed because the writers didn't like how she acted in it, and considering how awful they've let other characters act, that says something(also, that was a Spike episode, the episode was changed for Rarity, not Spike, who remained a bumbling buffoon. Let that sink in). This season displayed some of the worst character bias since the early start of the comics, with Rarity making a major appearance in a majority of the first half's episode, either as a main character or a major supporting character, and even in the second half there were still episodes where she had a major role. It didn't take too long until people got really sick of her, especially since other characters were severely lacking either in character development and/or screen time, especially Pinkie, Fluttershy, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Celestia, to name a few

 

"But Megas! Why are you picking on Rarity?! Rainbow Dash got THREE solo episodes! THREE!!!! I have to emphasize on THREE!!!"

 

And so many people were really fucking happy for that, one's a giant middle finger of a milestone and the other is a shittier rehash of her worst episode. There's definitely a character bias, but it sure as hell isn't for Rainbow Dash

 

7) Reforming an entire fucking species

 

By the time Starlight was reformed everyone was more or less sick of villains being redeemed, as there's been a ton of them happening at that point. It got to the point where everyone became wary of when a recurring villain showed up they would be redeemed. Flim Flam return? Redeemed?!(thankfully they didn't). Then Chrysalis was confirmed to return, people were afraid they'd redeem her, and thankfully they didn't. Instead they managed to top that, and redeemed the entire changeling army, which, quite frankly, is an absolute steaming load of diarrhea. Besides being completely implausible(a few siding with Thorax is fine, but the entire race? Come the fuck on, somebody had to say no!), they gave them some of the worst redesigns ever

 

8) You saw this coming - Starlight Glimmer

 

 

Time to address the big elephant in the room, Starlight Glimmer. Ever since her redemption made her a reoccurring character, she's been one of the most highly controversial things in the show arguably since Twilight's ascension, mainly due to the divisive nature of the character's redemption. S6 was their chance to get people warming up to her(which admittedly it started well off early on), but instead managed to make her even more divisive.

 

1) The show is seriously bending over backwards for her. A point people have been making a point about how easy she got off for her actions in the S5 finale, but the show intended on believing she's willing to learn from her mistakes, yet when she made more massive mistakes, she's given more slaps on the wrists. At some point it feels like she can do what ever she wants and show just bends over backwards to her

 

2) She never faces the consequences of her actions, and everything is handed to her on a silver platter. I'm not saying she should get death or get thrown in jail, that's not what the show is about. But facing the consequences of her actions is how you make a believable redemption, so it feels like everything she accomplishes and goes above is earned. Instead she receives instant forgiveness, everyone is willing to be friends with her and immediately becomes Twilight's student. But not having earned any of it

 

Oh and they pull they same shit again, same exact results

 

3) She's hardly around yet the show wants us to assume she's grown. She's missed many major events that could've included her but they decided to leave her out

 

4) She barely hangs out with the remane 5 yet, the show wants us to assume she's best friends with them. Despite this she doesn't feel like she's friends with them at all. She's barely around and misses major appearances like Rarity opening another boutique or Dash becoming a Wonderbolt, and such. When she finally gets a chance to hang out with them, first thing she does is mind control them

 

5) She's barely shown change, but the show wants us to assume she did. When it seems like she's going somewhere with No Second Prances(as poor as that episode was) the writers shit out Every Little Thing She Does, where she finally hangs out with the remane 5 only to mind control them as mentioned above

 

"But Megas! Twilight mind controlled Ponyville in Lesson Zero! UNFAIR DOUBLE STANDARD!"

 

First off, different scenarions

 

Second Twilight was going mental, absolutely desperate, and was at her absolute lowest point in the episode when she did that
Starlight first idea was to use mind control them. Why? Because she couldn't have been assed to actually try to be friends with them and just wanted to make her life easier

 

And again, same bullshit happens, a slap on the wrist a quick "I'm sorry" and another bullshit montage

 

6) She drags Twilight down, makes her look like an ineffective teacher only to get fucked over. This was probably meant to start a new arc for Twilight giving her a mentor role, but as we've seen it's done her no favors. In No Second Prances we constant see her go crazy over Starlight and Trixie the point of ending their friendship by mistake. Then there's ELTSD, all the mind control bs happens, and the first thing she does is praise her magic, but tells her what she did was the wrong way. Instead another slap in the wrist. Of course, as ineffective as she was we still see her try to do a lot for Starlight....only for her to choose Trixie as her best friend in the finale. Might as well shove a middle finger in Twilight's face

 

7) She gets to star in a finale the she honestly didn't earn. Said finale also needs to completely fuck over every major character without any reason or explanation? Why? Just to make Starlight look good

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Wow, that...4 for 8

 

Yikes, and I did a lot more venting than I wanted

 

Again these are personal feelings, and some I felt I really needed to get off my chest, if you agree or disagree, go ahead and comment....or don't your call