OKAY SEASON

I'm really surprised that I like this season. It definitely has glaring problems, but they're not bad enough to wreck the season as a whole. This season has a style to it that McCarthy's seasons lacked. That's probably because this season marks the reign of a new story editor. Josh Haber did write a couple episodes before this (including The Cutie Re-Mark), and those episodes do have a taste of what this season is like. Simple Ways in particular feels like it would fit right in season 6. It's hard to describe exactly what changed, but the season's tone feels more fresh and full of life. 

Now it's time for a character check in to see who changed for the better or for the worse.

I think the mane six were struck down the middle in terms of having a good year and having a bad year.

On the bad side, we start with Pinkie because she had no spotlight episodes. She had co-lead roles, but nothing where's she's the main lead. I don't know why. Maybe Josh Haber just had to sneak in one more episode for his creator's pet. Either way, she was mostly relegated to minor roles and comic relief. I'm not against Pinkie being used for comic relief, but there should also be episodes showing that there's more to her than that. Her only big roles were The Gift of the Maud Pie, Spice Up Your Life, 28 Pranks Later, Buckball Season, and P.P.O.V. And out of those, only The Gift of the Maud Pie and Spice Up Your Life came close to doing any interesting with her in a positive way. She got a couple of other good appearances and even a banger song in A Hearth's Warming Tail, but Pinkie was definitely not a priority in this season. BUT, her voice was much more tolerable in this season. It's not like she was in seasons 1 and 2, but I only hated her voice in The Gift of the Maud Pie and Buckball Season, so that's a big improvement from seasons 4 and 5.

Twilight also had a weak year. She returned to having a general lack of personality or presence. Despite the fact that she appeared in most of the episodes in this season, I only remember her being in a few. I'm pretty sure P.P.O.V. was the only episode mostly from her perspective. She did get a decent showing in Top Bolt and The Saddle Row Review, but she also had No Second Prances, so I'd say this was a lackluster year for her.

The last one on our bad list is Applejack. She had a similar problem as Twilight in terms of not having much of a presence. She had a couple good appearances (and a pretty good song in A Hearth's Warming Tail), but not much else. 

On the good side, we have Rarity. This season as a whole didn't care about character drama as much as other seasons, but Rarity didn't suffer from this change. Even though she barely appeared in the back half of the season, Rarity has such a strong presence that she still stood out in most of her episodes. Also she didn't have an episode that screwed with her character. Her and Fluttershy are the only ones who can say that. 

Fluttershy had a massive improvement in season 6. The season hit a great balance between Fluttershy being more assertive and her still being shy. Her presence felt stronger in this season than previous ones because of how well balanced she was written. Flutter Brutter in particular had fantastic characterization of Fluttershy.

But the big winner of season 6 has to be Rainbow Dash. I don't know why, but this season put a lot of effort into working on her character. She got three spotlight episodes on top of a couple of co-lead roles. I'm not saying that all of her episodes were good, but she clearly stood out among the main cast. 

But the main six weren't the only character focused on in this season. That's right, it's time to talk about the elephant in the room:

Spike.

But seriously, I didn't really talk about Spike in the season 5 reflection, but there wasn't much to say. He had a spotlight episode in Princess Spike. It sucked. I never really thought of Spike as a super stand out character which is why it confuses me whenever I see people who seem almost obsessive about defending him. But I must admit that season 6 actually gave him stuff to do. He had a kinda cool dynamic with Starlight in The Crystalling on top of three spotlight episodes (and a song). I'm not a huge fan of them (except Dungeons and Discords; that episode slaps), but I respect that they were trying to do. 

Okay now let's talk about Starlight.

I don't like Starlight. She's a creator's pet and has some of the worst episodes of the season. She doesn't start off badly. The Crystalling honestly starts her arc in a sympathetic way and I almost started to care about her. But then No Second Prances and Every Little Thing She Does happened and I stopped caring. No Second Prances had her use her magic to force Big Mac to talk. Gee, I sure hope something like that doesn't happen again. Oh wait. Starlight didn't even realize that mind controlling the main six was morally wrong. She only recognized that the mess her magic caused was wrong. I can't exactly sympathize with that kind of character. It doesn't help that Every Little Thing She Does was the last Starlight episode before the finale. The episode balance in this season as a whole was a mess. Why were there two Rarity/Pinkie episodes? Why were there three Rainbow Dash episodes and no Pinkie episodes? Even outside how badly paced and strangely executed Starlight's arc was, I don't think I'll ever be able to look at her character entirely positively after seeing the leaks about this season. It just lessens her positives and boosts her negatives. It just so happens that there were already more negatives than positives.

I know I spent a majority of this review talking negatively about characters, but that's just the stuff I like writing about. That's not really what this season excels in. I mostly like the freshness, the aesthetics, the comedy, and some bits of introspective drama. This season was generally fun and I appreciate it for that.

TOP 5:

5. A Hearth's Warming Tail: It's A Christmas Carol, but with great songs and visuals that match the season and fit the mood of each scene perfectly. It's just a ton of fun to watch.

4. Flutter Brutter: Zephyr is a really great character. He's an ass, but he's an ass in a fun way and nobody accepts him being a dick. When he goes too far to his parents, he's kicked out of the house. When he's slacking off, he gets zapped by Dash. His breakdown in the woods and redemption thereafter is really well done and the moral is relatable. 

3. The Saddle Row Review: This isn't as funny as I remember, but it's still a ton of fun. I love the interview segments and the overall chaos. There are a lot of little details that add to my enjoyment on top of Rainbow Dash who's absolutely the stand out character in terms of comedy.

2. Dungeons and Discords: This episode introduces an extremely strange dynamic, but it really works. I used to think the second act was boring, but now I think it's just awkward comedy done really well. Everything else is still as good as I remember. I love assertive Fluttershy and the game coming to life. 

1. Stranger Than Fanfiction: This episode has everything. It's funny, has a great adventure, an interesting new character who probably wouldn't have worked in he was voiced by anyone other than Patton Oswalt, and a solid message. This is now my favorite episode of the show. Not even kidding.

BOTTOM 5:

5. No Second Prances: Twilight acting like she does here is close to out of character territory. She was kinda bothered by Trixie at the end of Magic Duel, but not to this extent. But Trixie also acts really weird. There's nothing wrong with her being bitter about what happened with Twilight, but being so overt about it is off. Also it's a Starlight episode so immediate points off. But seriously, her first instinct to seeing that Big Mac doesn't talk is to force him to with magic. That's not a good way to start an episode where I'm supposed to care about Starlight.

4. Applejack's Day Off: Now we have two episodes that are just really boring. This is one is only better because of the Mission Impossible music.

3. The Cart Before the Ponies: This one doesn't have the Mission Impossible music. Instead, it has a boring and awful song.

2. 28 Pranks Later: I'm more pissed at how out of character Pinkie is than Rainbow. Pinkie made it very clear in Griffon the Brush Off that she only likes pranks that everyone can enjoy. I'm not sure how she laugh along with Dash after a prank that terrified Fluttershy and made her cry, especially since she made it clear that pranking Fluttershy is wrong.

1. Every Little Thing She Does: It's interesting how this season has both my favorite and least favorite episode of the show. Well, I guess it's not that interesting since season 3 used to have my favorite and least favorite. Anyways, this episode has Starlight act insane and only gets punished by having to apologize and spend time with her "friends". I didn't care about Starlight before this episode, but I definitely don't care about her anymore. In fact, this episode makes me hate her.