MEH SEASON

This season is better than I remember in some ways, but I still think this is a pretty weak season and I'm having a hard time deciding whether this or season 5 is worse. A lot of the problems with this season came from the first half. Aside from Celestial Advice, A Flurry of Emotions, and Hard to Say Anything, the first half of the season was a disaster. The episodes were either insanely boring (Fluttershy Leans In) or insanely annoying (Rock Solid Friendship). So many episodes lacked any kind of substance and felt like they were just going through the motions. Jokes either didn't exist or were horribly executed. The show felt like it was hitting burnout hard. Even those three episodes that I like weren't that good. Celestial Advice was the only episode I thought was good up until The Perfect Pear.

Luckily, things picked up starting with The Perfect Pear. The jokes got better and the stories started to gain a bit more substance. But even the better episodes of the season weren't that good. Everything about this season moved towards the middle. Most of the good episodes weren't that good, but most of the bad episodes weren't that bad. It really feels like the show stopped caring. A lot of episodes feel like they're running on autopilot. This is especially sad because season 6 felt so fresh and new. But all of that energy seemed to be sucked away.

I also want to mention the jokes. So many jokes in this season suffered from awful timing and general predictability. This is because most of these episodes were so slow and lifeless. Most jokes that required energy fell flat outside from specific episodes that were designated to have more energy. Something that's gotten more noticeable over the past couple seasons are jokes that almost worked but were ruined by some little problem. It takes a lot of effort to get a joke right and episodes running on autopilot didn't have that extra polish needed to make the jokes work as well as they needed to. This lead to a lot of jokes that were timed just a little bit off so they fell completely flat. Sometimes a joke came really close to working but then someone explained it right after. Sometimes the episode was so boring that any attempts at jokes were futile. 

Now let's talk about characters.

Pinkie has returned to having spotlight episodes after a season long break and the break did not help. In fact, this is the first season where I didn't like any of her spotlight episodes. She even had good spotlight episodes in season 4, which was easily her worst season as a whole. But she just couldn't handle being the lead in any of her episodes. Not Asking For Trouble was insanely boring and Secrets and Pies didn't understand why previous comedic Pinkie-centric episodes worked. She still had some good appearances (most notably in Daring Done and It Isn't the Mane Thing About You), but this really is the end of an era for Pinkie. Her voice is still around the same as it was in season 6 except she had more shrilly episodes than tolerable ones. At least it's still not as bad as seasons 4 and 5.

Twilight was actually written pretty well as a whole. She was able to escape her mentor role that she seemed to be stuck in last season which definitely helped. She even got a really nice exploration of her character in Once Upon a Zeppelin. She doesn't have the same presence and range of emotions that she had in season 5, but she has improved sine last season.

Applejack existed in season 7. She had a presence in Honest Apple, The Perfect Pear, and Fame and Misfortune, but I don't remember her doing anything outside of those episodes. And even in those episodes, I barely remember Honest Apple and The Perfect Pear was more about the Apple family as a whole than Applejack. This was definitely her worst season up to this point. 

Fluttershy felt like the writers doubled down on Fluttershy being more assertive. She went to the opposite extreme from how she was in the early years yet it lead to the same result. That balance between shy and assertive from season 6 disappeared and season 7 made her boring again. Her best episode was A Health of Information, but that's about it in terms of memorable Fluttershy appearances.

Rainbow Dash was not nearly as prevalent here as she was last season, but she still got more to do than a lot of other characters. Her spotlight episode was more memorable than a lot of others and her strong personality was able to break through some other episodes' weak plots.

The big winner of season 7 was Rarity. Her personality was strong enough to make It Isn't the Mane Thing About You much better than it had any right to be and made Forever Filly a bit more interesting than it could've been. She didn't appear too often, but at least she left an impression.

That's a contrast to Spike who I forgot existed partway through the season. In between A Flurry of Emotions and Triple Threat, he did little to nothing. I'm pretty sure he was in Honest Apple and he was in the beginning of A Royal Problem. That's it. He went from three spotlight episodes last season to one in season 7. It's strange how he got a lot of attention last season but got such a large drop in relevance in season 7.

Starlight did nothing to make me like her. She played a part in bringing down episodes that I would've liked more without her and her past was still brought up as something that she supposedly got past even though she continued to make horrible decisions and rely on magic on a consistent basis. So much for To Where and Back Again. At least she got called out for it in To Change a Changeling.

The only other notable thing about this season was the arc which I'll talk about more later. Aside from that, this is easily one of the weakest seasons of the show and it's definitely the least interesting. Only a couple episodes stick out both positively and negatively, but let's look at some of those stand out episodes.

TOP 5:

5. Campfire Tales: This is mainly on here because of Mistmane's story. It's legitimately compelling and I think it could've supported a whole episode. Other than that, the other legends are decent and the framing device ranges from boring to kinda cute. I do think it overplays Scootaloo's fear though.

4. To Change a Changeling: It pains me to put a Starlight episode in the top 5, but this is a pretty solid episode. It has some of the better jokes of the season(mostly thanks to Trixie) and the moral is better than I was expecting. Also it calls out Starlight for being Starlight which is nice.

3. Once Upon a Zeppelin: Twilight needed this episode. After so many episodes not really dealing with her being a princess, we finally get more in depth look at how she deals with the responsibilities without being played for comedy. There are still jokes in the episode (thanks Iron Will), but Twilight's conflict carries the episode, despite some really bad dialogue and a pretty predictable structure.

2. Fame and Misfortune: This is the only consistently funny episode of the season. I actually laughed out loud multiple times. There's some great commentary on annoying fans and I love how it all comes to a head at the end with that interviewer straight up calling Twilight a character. The song is one of the best of the season both because there aren't many songs to begin with and because of that earworm of a chorus. The only problem is Starlight. I don't know why she's here, but all she does is ruin the experience when she's on screen. She also says that everyone's focusing on the wrong things when that's not the problem. The problem is that they're being disruptive and/or assholes. Also Fluttershy in this episode is hardcore overcompensating which is funny in a probably unintentional way. Other than that, every character has something funny to do there are just so many memorable moments and jokes which is a godsend in such an otherwise dry season.

1. The Perfect Pear: I love me some cheesy romance and that's exactly what this is. It's nice to see the Apple family parents and their relationship is really cute. That's just what this episode is as a whole. It's insanely cute and ends on one of the most emotional moments of the entire show. I think this episode makes the whole season worth it. I still don't like the talking babies though.

BOTTOM 5:

5. Secrets and Pies: I don't think this episode remembers that Party of One had more scenes that Pinkie's big freakout. It had, like, actual jokes that were well timed and had a story that mostly made sense. If it's just going for something completely insane like The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows, it doesn't work because the comedic energy is not even close to that level. There are some decent concepts and jokes that almost work, but they run into that problem of bad timing or being explained after. Also, just giving Pinkie the bubble pipe and hat from MMMystery isn't enough. If you're going to make Pinkie a detective, give me the TwiPie that goes along with it. And calling attention to the alliteration makes it less charming and funny.

4. Marks and Recreation: Annoying characters can be funny, but Rumble is not funny or any fun to watch. Maybe it's a combination of his obnoxious voice and the way he's written. But it's mostly his obnoxious voice. Also I don't know when "blank flank" stopped being an insult. Its use throughout the episode still bugs me.

3. Fluttershy Leans In: This episode is completely devoid of substance. There is nothing funny or interesting going on. Things just kinda happen on screen while I continue to zone out. 

2. Shadow Play: The legend of magic arc sucked. Their individual episodes (or couple minute stories) don't give much of an impression of their personality (except Mage Meadowbrook. Her introduction was pretty good). Shadow Play does not help them since they have basically no personality when they show up. Most of them just spout out exposition, something the episode is already smothered in. Since they have such little personality, it's hard for me to care about them. Especially since hindsight tells me that they don't end up doing anything in the long run outside of one episode next season. Outside of them, the mane six are also pretty much useless. Of course Starlight has to be the one who was right the whole time because Josh Haber wrote the episode. Twilight just kinda fangirls through the whole episode and trusts Starswirl blindly even through ignoring Starlight's concerns lead to the Pony of Shadows being released. Nothing about the story is interesting in any way and this two parter is mostly exposition. It's like Fluttershy Leans In, except now it's 44 minutes.

1. A Royal Problem: More shilling Starlight, but this time it adds ruining Celestia and Luna. Their behavior makes no sense based on what they've been through. Why would Celestia be such a dick to Luna when Luna says that she feels like what she does isn't appreciated enough? Doesn't Celestia remember what that lead to last time? I guess not since we need to rip off the comics except without any of the good comedy and fun. Also Starlight does something horrible and doesn't get punished. That's always nice. In fact, she gets praised for being so reckless. It's not as bad as Every Little Thing She Does since I did smile a couple times while watching this episode, but it's close.