Note: This review is for season 6 as a whole. Prepare for some rearranging and unapologetically unquoted copy-and-pasting.

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So, with season seven arrived, and since I did two others (one for S5, the other for S6's first half), why not for the entire season?

Episodes

Bottom-6:

1. Newbie Dash:

   Easily the worst episode of the season and one of the three worst of the series. Rainbow Dash’s far more rational than to willingly force Scootaloo to take part in a task she should know she can’t do. On the other hand, she had every reason to feel the way she did; she’s incredibly sensitive to what people say and think about her, and for her idols to induce a trauma-triggering insult makes her feel justifiably hurt. Unfortunately, the script makes fun of her and shoots her down every time she becomes hurt. Once more, the Wonderbolts are assholes; when they call her “Rainbow Crash,” they don’t hint friendly banter, but nagging, which in turn worsens the training for the event. Ever single “nickname” was incompetence-laden and not verbally pleasing. Lastly, the moral of tolerating and embracing hazing (which governments have cracked down because people sometimes died in them) “because it’s good fun” is one of the worst of the entire show.

   On top of this, this is a milestone episode: Rainbow Dash officially joins the Wonderbolts. Joining the Wonderbolts has been her lifelong dream, which she stated midway in FIM, Part 1. It’s a major change in the status quo! If this was a common slice-of-life episode, then the quality of the writing won’t sting. But this is like Equestria Games or Spongebob’s Truth or Square: Newbie Dash reminds the audience that she’s joining the Wonderbolts and how important her dream is. You can’t separate it from this torture porn. You can’t skip this episode, because it concludes an arc.
   
   Magical Mystery Cure is nowhere close to this level of quality, and I eventually grew to appreciate and respect it more thanks to this trash.

2. PPOV:
   
   What — the — hell? What do I have to say about this piece of shit! The characterizations of Rarity, Pinkie, and AJ are abonimable; even though they're angry at each other, they each crossed the line when they blatantly lied to both Twilight and Spike about what happened while giving the other two really mean characterizations. It was played really seriously that they may no longer be friends. Well, if they shit-talked about each other behind their backs, I don't know. Twilight's conclusion for this entire conflict is also hamfisted and doesn't actually solve what happened.
   
   PPOV has some of the worst characterization in the show; no one is worse than Applejack. She completely betrays her biggest quality as a character by bastardizing Rarity as an uptight diva and, to make it worse, Pinkie Pie as an idiot who can't tell what's the sky or the ocean. She may not always be the most honest, but at the very least she respects them! She's so out of character here. So pathetic. A reinforcement of how low she was written. She's much worse here than in Somepony.
   
   For a long time, I said Rainbow Falls is the worst written episode of the show, and maybe it still is. For now, thanks to its awful characterization, sucky "humor," and the most half-assed resolution of the show, I argue PPOV's worse.

3. 28 Pranks Later:
   
   Only watched the first few minutes, and I'll never watch it ever again.
   
   Clearly, the people who worked on it had zero idea why Mare Do Well is objectively awful. It's like DHX looked at a couple of comments, added zombies to interest people, and that was it. Sure, they called her out at the castle, but it wasn't fully because of how cruel she was towards Fluttershy, but because her jokes were simple and "lacked effort." Dash's extreme jokes were partly their responsibility for encouraging her to do them and then just letting her perform them without any effort to stop her!
   
   Rainbow Dash takes part in the worst opening of the entire show. She pranks Fluttershy with dialogue suggesting she knows quite well that Fluttershy hates being pranked. This isn't like Mare Do Well, where she states, "I hate being alone" after the RM5 were cruel pieces of garbage. Not here; she's so out of character, I could fail this piece of shit even if the rest was good. But nope! Everyone in Ponyville decided that it was best to scare the bejeezus outta her by making her the victim of such an elaborate prank and make it so real that it'll scare Dash witless. What's more disgusting is, like Mare Do Well, the RM5 (and all of Ponyville here) are the GOOD GUYS! We're supposed to cheer when they scare her! This isn't something "true friends" will do! In my opinion, this zombie prank is crueler than MDW, because everyone went into such depth into it and carefully crafted it.
   
   And to make THAT worse, there's a really offensive "eye for an eye" moral (worse than MDW's), explained later in the review.
   
   This episode rips off MDW and is worse than MDW.
   
   I won't cut it any plainer. This garbage is intellectually offensive and potentially harmful to children. It deserves censorship.

4. To Where and Back Again:
   
   MMC isn't good, but is nowhere near as bad as the haters make it out to be. To Where is worse.
   
   Starlight's reason for choosing Trixie over Twilight is out of character. She saw Trixie as a closer friend than Twilight even thought Twi and Star have much closer and better chemistry. If Starlight chose Trixie to move away from her level of comfort and feels more comfortable spreading to broader goals, why not. Her reasoning makes no sense.
   
   This whole two-parter is dependent on the rest of the season to show how far Starlight, Trixie, and Thorax have grown. Unfortunately, Starlight only took part when the show dictates it (including having her involved centrally in three — including the two-parter — following Tail), and Thorax and Trixie were each in one. TWaBA depends on their growth throughout the season and tries to convince the audience that they developed leading up to it, but they had little growth, no growth at all, or were poorly written leading up to it. Secondly, DHX tells the viewer that Starlight changed; she's NOT the character for DHX to stick to their "I-choose-to-follow-the-arc" habit. Unfortunately, she was written both poorly not written into the eps at all sometimes.
   
   Lastly, the other season finales showed how the main characters were kidnapped. Not only did DHX not show it here. There was ZERO explanation to how. Their kidnapping drives the entire story. What's the glue that holds the kidnapping and rescue missing together? HOW they're kidnapped. When the glue's missing, everything falls apart. This huge plothole greatly affects the story quality and is its biggest flaw.
   
   In short, show, don't tell.

5. No Second Prances:
   
   This isn't unorganized, but it does have big problems, particularly in charcterization. Twilight and Trixie were on good terms after they split up in Magic Duel, but Twilight acted really out of character when she tried to sabotage Starlight's friendship with Trixie. Being very worried I can get behind, but there's no reason for her to get in their way and try to break them up. Then, you had poor characterization around, from Mrs. Cake freaking out at Starlight in Sugarcube Corner, Starlight forcing Big Mac to speak against his will (that "joke" sucked badly), and Celestia visibly acting like she doesn't want to be actually at Twilight's castle when she's much more polite than that. Confalone usually writes pretty good characterization, so poor characterization really sticks out.
   
   The climax implicated that Trixie was attempting to kill herself, while Twilight and Starlight watched. Guys, she’s attempting a trick she can’t do on her own, and she’s not in the right of mind. Do something the second she tries to enter the cannon!

6. Flutter Brutter:

   There aren’t many episodes where it becomes very difficult for me to sit through at any point. Flutter Brutter eclipses Princess Spike as the most difficult. And the biggest reason is because Zephyr Breeze takes everything that I hate about a character and amplifies it. He’s a complete creep towards Dash, obnoxious, a combination of the diva and freeloader stereotypes, completely destroys his parents’ prized possessions with complete disregard for importance, and manipulates her friends just to get out of very simple tasks.
   
   Despite being a major hate sink, the episode flip-flops its tone to suggest that he deserves sympathy. If he was supposed to be so hateable like what some claim, then why did they write him to be sympathetic in the second half? If he was likable, not a stereotype combo, and actually tried his best to succeed, then his efforts when he does succeed will feel far more rewarding. On top of that, the morals (fearing failure and fearing his or her first step towards doing something) are fantastic, but attaching a freeloader stereotype to it to suggests that everyone who lives with their parents are as lazy as him when in fact it’s not even true. And the overall quality of this episode is such a shame because Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are excellently characterized.

Dishonorable Mentions: Stranger Than Fan Fiction, The Cart Before the Ponies.

Top-6:

1. The Times They Are A Changeling:
   
   The one big problem this episode has is the exposition, often coming in some awkward places. But everything else is done so right.
   
   Spike's strong, flawed, boastful, vulnerable, and brave when needed to. The episode hammers in how he's "The Brave & Glorious" in response to his heroics in TCE and Equestria Games (sometimes to a fault), but that doesn't change how he not just actually lives up to the title, but challenges those when he's confronted. During a series where his character comes at the expense of story quality, this was the second in as many where he was in character and likable.
   
   Thorax is fantastic, and in a show where the males are traditionally stupid, evil, jackasses, or many/all of the above, it's a refreshing change. But that's not what makes him a character. Like Spike, he has the strength, kindness, vulnerability, and anger when he has reason to.
   
   "A Changeling Can Chang" = S6's best song.
   
   And more importantly, this is an episode where, like Bridle Gossip and Dragon Quest before it, racism or xenophobia is the central theme. However, unlike those two, Times succeeds in every way. Due to past experiences, Cadance, Twilight, and especially Shining Armor have very real reasons to be wary of and hate changelings. (Only God knows what Chrysalis did with SA while Cadance was locked underneath Canterlot. *shudder*) Their hatred for changelings is treated as wrong, but the episode also sympathizes with them. Unlike DQ and BG, everyone came out of it for the better.
   
   Spike's best characterization as a character in the entire show. Best Spike episode, bar none.
    
2. A Hearth's Warming Tail:
   
   Of the episodes in this list, it has one of the thinnest (albeit serviceable) stories, and one told parodied time and time again: A Christmas Carol. But FIM isn't merely a storytelling medium. It's a visual and sound medium, too. AHWT takes serious advantage of it with its amazing songs, incredible animation, humor when needed, and excellent set design. Applejack, Pinkie, and Luna are excellent choices to represent the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, respectively. Each song tells a story in themselves and helped progress the episode smoothly, especially Luna’s Future.
    
3. The Saddle Row Review:
   
   Compared to the more-heavy-handed works over the past three seasons, this was a huge change of pace and the status quo. TSRR forgoes the traditional FIM formula and parodies the traditional reality TV format by cutting the story into the ReMane Six and Plaid Stripes answering questions from Buried Lede, who in turn writes a review for Rarity’s Manehattan boutique branch, Rarity for You. The sharp dialogue, lighthearted tone, and excellent timing of their jokes makes this episode one of the funniest of the series. To read more about my analysis of the comedy and dialogue, click here.
    
4. The Fault in Our Cutie Marks:
   
   On Your Marks was a good follow-up to Lost Mark, but it didn't quite set up what the CMCs could do in their journey of helping others get the Marks is. Fault did that and did it very well. Everyone was REALLY good. Twilight was good as a tertiary character. But the CMCs continue to show why they're some of the best and the most consistent characters in the show. They try to help Gabby, but worry about disappointing and hurting her, because she seriously wants to get a Cutie Mark even though griffons can't. But they were able to tell her the truth, which in turn made all four come out of it for the better.
   
   Gabby, BTW, excellent.
   
   This episode establishes the lore that griffons never get Cutie Marks. But DHX decides to double down on it by not giving Gabby one. Sometimes FIM will stretch or break its own continuity for the sake of the story, but they stuck to their rules and created an excellent solution (craft her a tangible one).
   
   And the main moral — "There's no such thing as not being capable of having a lifelong goal or dream" — and secondary — "Not visibly showing their passion doesn't mean they don't love it" — are excellent and clever responses to their own lore and Ed's story theme.
    
5. Gauntlet of Fire:

   The three main flaws in this entire episode are Garble still being a stereotypical (albeit much more threatening) bully, Celestia and Luna being plugged in as mouthpieces for exposition, and thrusting in Twilight and Rarity to merely be the vessels to force the audience into a reaction. Aside from that, the rest of episode easily overcomes the three flaws in many ways, particularly four huge strengths.

   Dragon Quest destroyed dragon lore, but GoF fixed it by making the dragon race competent and not a sexist representation of society.

   Spike, Ember, and Torch are really well written here. Instead of writing Spike as that usual “Spike-is-a-buttmonkey/idiot/scapegoat” role, Lewis and Songco treat him like an intelligent, competent character and use his strengths to both win the tournament and bridge the relationship between ponies and dragons.

   Neither concept of masculinity nor femininity are written to be better or more important than the other. Princess Ember and Spike have qualities considered “masculine” and “feminine,” respectively, but both sides of the conflict are treated as equally valid, and characters can still keep these concepts while still developing and understanding the other side.

   Instead of treating Dragon Land as being completely inferior than Equestria, the ponies and dragons are written to being able to understand and learn from each other.

6. Viva Las Pegasus:
   
   Outside of The Cutie Map, all of S5's Map episodes were poor. S6's Spice Up Your Life has both a really good (Pinkie) and insulting (Rarity being completely OOC, Zesty = straw man).
   
   Fortunately, the other two Map eps this season are very good. This one, though, is the best.
   
   Flim and Flam? Hilarious.
   
   Gladmane? Hilarious and smart.
   
   The stars, though, are AJ and Fluttershy. One big problem with previous Map episodes is (with the exception of Griffonstone) one or both of the characters were flanderized, OOC, or pointless until when the time was right. Not here. Both AJ (easily her best episode of the season) and Fluttershy were on point. Even though they had to solve a friendship problem, their characterizations weren't sacrificed for the sake of the story. Burke and Wyatt understood them and took advantage. Secondly, they solved their friendship problems by predominantly using their strengths over their weaknesses, a refreshing change of pace.
   
   Sometimes when the villain is defeated, it's because he gloats like an idiot. Here, Gladmane gloats, but with reason. Flim, Flam, AJ, and 'Shy tried to dupe him into revealing his con, but he outwitted them. Fortunately, Fluttershy has Plan B: activating the intercom. Very nicely done backup plan. XD

Honorable Mentions: On Your Marks, The Crystalling.

S6 episode ranking (in order):

1. The Times They Are a Changeling: A
2. A Hearth’s Warming Tail: A
3. The Saddle Row Review: A
4. The Fault in Our Cutie Marks: A-
5. Gauntlet of Fire: A-
6. Viva Las Pegasus: B+
7. On Your Marks: B+
8. The Crystalling: B
9. Top Bolt: B
10. Dungeons & Discords: B
11. Where the Apple Lies: B-
12. The Gift of Maud Pie: C+
13. Every Little Thing She Does: C+
14. Applejack’s “Day” Off: C
15. Buckball Season: C-
16. Spice Up Your Life: C-
17. The Cart Before the Ponies: D+
18. Stranger Than Fan Fiction: D
19. Flutter Brutter: F
20. No Second Prances: F
21. To Where and Back Again: F
22. 28 Pranks Later: F
23. P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View): F
24. Newbie Dash: F

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Top-13 episodes (in order, updated):

1. The Best Night Ever
2. Crusaders of the Lost Mark
3. Amending Fences
4. Sisterhooves Social
5. The Cutie Map
6. Party of One
7. Testing Testing 1, 2, 3
8. Pinkie Pride
9. Suited for Success
10. Lesson Zero
11. Sleepless in Ponyville
12. The Times They Are A Changeling
13. Flight to the Finish

Honorable Mentions: A Hearth’s Warming Tail, The Saddle Row Review, The Cutie Re-Mark

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Bottom-13 episodes (in order, updated):

1. One Bad Apple
2. Bridle Gossip
3. Newbie Dash
4. Dragon Quest
5. P.P.O.V.
6. The Crystal Empire
7. Rainbow Falls
8. 28 Pranks Later
9. Princess Spike
10. The Mysterious Mare Do Well
11. Owl’s Well That Ends Well
12. The Show Stoppers
13. Putting Your Hoof Down

Dishonorable Mentions: Boast Busters, Appleoosa’s Most Wanted, Trade Ya!

Moral

Bottom moral:

28PL: If one person acted cruel to you, it's a-okay to be more cruel back.

When judging it on its own merits, MDW's moral of not gloating of your successes is fine, but is botched by poor execution. You can't do that here. 28PL glorifies people's lust for revenge and encourages people this. This moral alone is bad enough. FIM is supposed to teach kids lessons of friendship! Celestia forbid some kid takes this to heart and does something they'll regret! Newbie Dash's moral of hazing was awful, but is mostly accidental. Here, they're explicitly okaying the idea of revenge!!

Fuck this moral!!!

Dishonorable Mention: Even if what he or she says insulted you or hurt your feelings, as long as it’s in “good fun,” everything is okay (Newbie Dash).

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Top moral:

Flutter Brutter: Sometimes the hardest part of your idea is your first move. You don’t know where it’ll go or if you’ll like it in the end. The fear of the unknown is real and valid.

In the beginning of a Joy of Painting episode (originally thought to be from the 17th series, it’s actually from the early minutes of Snowy Morn in the 19th), Bob Ross decided to let go of his realistic approach to landscape painting: Often, people don’t know what to do before laying that brush on the canvas. The purpose of the painting is for people to relax, enjoy painting, and not be afraid to use your imagination. Their give is fearful, which represses their ability to lie out their ideas. It’s normal to have this fear. It seems like Zephyr not only feared failure, but also the unknown.

Honorable Mention: If you have a passion, pursue it. There's no such thing as not having a lifelong future (Fault in Our Cutie Marks).

New characters:

Characters that appeared on screen prior to S6 (even when in the background) don't count, so no Sunburst, and so on.

Bottom-2 new characters:

1. Zephyr Breeze: Outside of Sunset and Radiant Hope, the series's worst character, period.
2. Quibble Pants: A stereotype of "like-the-old-hate-the-new" superfans. Later, his intelligence is removed just to hammer in some humor and (even after all the blatant proof that this is very real) STILL believed that Cabaleron and the temple he and Dash were trapped in were still part of the con experience. Halfway through, they write Quibble (who's pretty intelligent) out of character.

Dishonorable Mentions: Zesty Gourmand (A stereotype of critics and a straw character), Mr. Stripes (Sleazy and cookie-cutter, albeit funny, landlord).

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Top-4 new characters:

1. Thorax: I already summarized why he's such a good character earlier, so I'll do it again. What makes him such a fantastic character is he's likable, three-dimensional, and human. He has his strengths, flaws, strong personality, and so on. Give people a good character, and they'll root for him.
2. Princess Ember: An embodiment of a character with qualities society calls “masculine,” but not a character written to be flat or a stereotype of “masculine” people or characters. Despite not featuring any of the physical qualities of a leader Torch expects, she’s a dragon with intangible, tangible, and mentally strong qualities. People male or female can relate to her conflict and desire not to let her species/culture down.
3. Gabby: Absolutely adorable. But despite being able to be great at everything, she's not a Mary Sue. Why? Because despite being good at everything, that isn't what her goal is. She wants to get her Cutie Mark and help spread the Magic of Friendship to whoever she bumps into and wants to hear. To her, a CM is a mark of not just pride, but evolution, too.
4. Sky Stinger: He is a much better Zephyr Breeze. Is he cocky? Absolutely. But why is he cocky? Because he successfully achieved amazing goals to qualify for the Wonderbolts Academy…while having had no idea that Vapor Trail (a better flyer than him) directly impacted his performance. But when he was forced to face the truth, his whole world crumbled. But when he thought his dreams were over, he still worked hard in the Academy to exceed expectations.

Honorable Mention: Vapor Trail, Tender Taps, Angel Wings, Coriander Cumin.

Mane Eight (Spike and Starlight count):

Bottom M8 character:

Applejack. ADO was an all-around-average episode, but when she revealed her tedious method into feeding the pigs, she looked really dumb and incompetent. For the rest of the season, she went downhill. Each of the adults suck royally in Cart, but AJ was the worst by her blatant flanderization (constant focus on tradition), acting like a complete idiot, and treating Apple Bloom like shit. And if that's worse, she was one of the ponies responsible for convincing AJ to "put more effort" into her pranks. And to make THAT worse, she blatantly lies to Twilight with sexist/classist and ableist interpretations of Rarity and Pinkie, respectfully. Some of her worst appearances in the entire show come from this season, PPOV being the worst of all-time.

Dishonorable Mention: Rainbow Dash.

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Top M8 character:

Spike. Give me less episodes with higher-quality roles than a character who surfaces so much with more average or poor roles. Spike’s lone bad role this season was his usual buttmonkey status in Newbie Dash. Other than that, he had his best season. The Crystalling, Gauntlet, Tail, Times, and Dungeons & Discord are all episodes with respectable roles at worst and excellent roles at best. Gauntlet and Times are by far his best roles and best episodes of the entire show.

Honorable Mention: Fluttershy (the only other solid character that season).

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Full M8 rank (in order):

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

Moment:

Bottom-3 moments:

1. The Wonderbolts reveal to insulting her out of “good fun.” Seriously? Seriously?! The Wonderbolts pull this shtick on her, rub it in her face to remind her not to screw up, and they had no idea that the more she heard it, the worse Dash became. And at the end, they reveal that they do it to everyone. Protip: Just because everyone does it and others have worse insults than “Rainbow Crash” doesn’t dismiss the Wonderbolts of their insolence! Even if you’re a part of a fraternity, you’re entitled to not tolerate abusive subcultures. Yes, the WB are a military, but guess what? I don’t give a damn. The fact that the WB revealed this and the moral implicating a tolerance for hazing is dangerous to kids!
2. Zephyr destroys her parents' prized possessions. If there's one moment to officially call Zephyr become the show's worst character, this is it. He destroyed his mom's flowers and father's cloud collection without any shame. All he cared was lying his lazy ass on the couch without even doing as much as readjust a picture frame. Simply destroying an heirloom accidentally can trigger lifelong guilt. To repeat it, Zephyr destroyed them intentionally.
3. Rainbow Dash pranks Fluttershy. To repeat from earlier, RD targeting her completely contradicts continuity dating back to Griffon the Brush Off (Pinkie reminding her not to prank her, which Dash listened). 28PL not only didn't give a shit about continuity; it doubled-down with dialogue by Dash suggesting that she KNEW her friend hated being pranked and went after her, anyway.

Dishonorable Mentions: Starlight and Twilight watch a suicidal Trixie enter the cannon moments after breaking their friendship up, Quibble Pants states that the tiled organization is something only "a true fan can appreciate," Applejack lies to Twilight and Spike about the ship accident, Fluttershy's rant (while giving the audience grotesque facial expression) in Buckball Season.

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Top-3 moments:

1. Spike standing up for Thorax. The little dragon had such an amazing season with such great moments, but this one tops them all. Think about how important this is to him as a character. Equestria and the Crystal Empire royal family hates the changeling kind for understandable reasons, but Spike not only befriends one, but also stood up for him in front of Cadance, SA, Starlight, Twilight, everyone. He willingly sacrificed his reputation to stand up for him and do the right thing.
2. "NO SPOILERS!" TSSR is a comedic genius. Rarity's hilarious line foreshadows the rest of the episode's hijinks.
3. The CMCs tell Gabby she can't get a Cutie Mark. On the surface, this moment is completely crushing to Gabby. She seriously believed she was going to get one, only to find out the hard truth. This moment is heartbreaking, but it's heartbreaking for the right reasons, and the heartbreak helps lead to the excellent moral later.

Honorable Mentions: Vapor Trail tells Sky Stinger the truth, Spike interrupts his tale to continue searching for Sunburst, Fluttershy outs Gladmane, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie join "Guys' Night" to conclude Dungeons.

What I want for Season 7:

1. Stop shitting on AJ, Rarity, and Dash! Nuff said, McGreevy!
    
2. Better development for Starlight, and don't do it a couple of times within about eighteen episodes. Remember, she's a good guy now and part of the mane cast. Skipping several episodes and hoping the audience will buy into thirty seconds of vocal babble only treats the audience (including kids) like kids. Don't.
    
3. Steer clear from the stereotypes, and better research your material. To C&P from my S5 review:

   Quote

   [Stereotypes are] 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!

   And as for researching, please understand your implications! I dictate it far too often why unfortunate implications hinder this show to the point of it being part of my reputation here.

4. As always, less dogshit episodes and more awesome ones instead. More quality consistency, please!

5. More attention paid to the pacing. Crafting good exposition is a work of art. DHX, you ain't that good at it. We as people are more programed to pictorial visuals, so they have more inherent impact than words. To show us respects kids and the medium of animation as a whole, and it helps impact the pacing, too.

6. More good new characters. Like every season, there are poor new characters. However, season six didn't have that many. Whatever characters were introduced, they were perfectly fine for the most part. Sunburst, Tender Taps, Ember, Gladmane, Vapor, Plaid. Even Flurry Heart's decent. More good new characters, the better this show will be.

7. More episodes of the characters at their best. One huge change of pace in Season 5 was its lack of reliance of the characters overcoming a flaw within themselves. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, the CMCs, AJ, and Twilight all used their best qualities as dominant vessels in the conflict to solve a problem. When the episode isn't good, they're the highlights. Gauntlet and Viva did that, too. Each of the Mane Eight have strengths; put them into good use more.

Verdict:

While S5 is the crème de la crème (including three of the five best episodes), S6 is among the bottom. Personally, I have S6 a little below S3 as the worst. There are three really great episodes, but none of them are among the ten best. Meanwhile, when S6's episodes got bad, they were REALLY bad. Many mistakes from last season weren't just repeated. New ones were added, including ripping off older episodes with a lack of understanding of why they worked. Newbie Dash: the worst status quo masher of the series. Lots of characters feel less developed and become more flanderized and/or OOC, Rarity, Dash, and AJ the worst offenders. Such a shame, too, because it went off to its best start since Season 2. Overall, a disappointing season. Hopefully, season seven fixes things.