AlexanderThrond

I like the first three movies to varying extents. "Equestria Girls" is messy but has its fun bits, "Rainbow Rocks" is great, and I still admire the ambition of "Friendship Games." Only "Rainbow Rocks" is conventionally good of the lot, but I've enjoyed them all. After that, I don't care much for any of it. I found "Legend of Everfree," "Dance Magic," and "Mirror Magic" to all be varying degrees of redundant and mundane, and I don't find the direction this series is moving in very interesting; "Everfree" is dull, not very ambitious, and kinda messy, whereas the shorts are all just way too simple for their own good. I thought "Movie Magic" had some fun moments, though. Hope they go in that direction in the future, except maybe with more creative or personal storylines.

He seemed kinda hands-off as a story edtor, but when he actually had a writing credit in season 6, I really liked what he did with characterization. That sounds great. Putting aside that "The Crystalling" is a contender for my favourite two-parter, I'm fond of episodes like "The Return of Harmony" or "The Crystal Empire" which find a balance between the two. The stakes are real and taken seriously, but we also get a lot of fun character moments in-between. If it has to be dead serious, I'd prefer something like "Twilight's Kingdom" which at least has a little novelty and is rooted in a sympathetic character arc. Personally, the last thing I want is something action-heavy like "Cutie Re-mark," but to each their own. Ugh. Is it so hard to get a story editor who is hands-on without draining all of the life out of half of the episodes?

That actually sounds like it could be pretty fun, though I don't really want Twilight to be separated from the group like that.

It doesn't have to be.

Half of the episode is stone cold serious, and its main priority seems to be bombastic imagery. It's why I'm glad Haber scaled his subsequent two-partners way back to focus on characters.

See, I think that an episode of Twilight & friends frantically searching for a way to defeat an opponent out of their league sounds like a lot of fun, whereas an episode long fight between two extremely powerful forces just seems a bit dull to me - it's why I greatly prefer "The Crystal Empire" to "The Cutie Re-Mark." The former just feels to me like it gives more room for characters to breathe.

This one bored me a lot. Seemed like the humour was solely reliant on us somehow finding Rarity objecting to Applejack funny, but her reactions weren't all that interesting. The one other joke, Rainbow hiding her spa dates, is what I consider the worst representation of her this season. I really don't think Rainbow would hide this from her friends at this point, and I don't really think her friends would make a joke about it. Whatever. See, most of the MLP episodes I dislike are ones I just find boring or irritating, so there aren't many which actively baffle me. Still, "Princess Twilight Sparkle" and "Rainbow Falls" both fit the bill, and "Magical Mystery Cure" is full of just terrible creative decisions.

If this means Haber has someone else with him to make the story parts more fleshed out, then my excitement knows no bounds. I adore both of Haber's season 6 two-parters; "The Crystalling" is low-stakes but the character work in it is just marvellous and it does a lot of things I found really refreshing, while "To Where and Back Again" neglects its story a little but is just as delightful with regards to character work. I maintain that he might be the best character writer on the show in recent years, so if he has someone onboard to deal with his biggest weak spot, we could have something incredible on our hands. I do kinda hope it doesn't have Starlight in the main position, but Haber writes Starlight really well, so that might not be so bad. I find "Cutie Re-Mark" kinda hollow, to be perfectly honest. Doesn't spend enough time on the alternate futures to mean anything, has an overly serious tone, generally lacks much character nuance except for Starlight's reformation, which I do admittedly like. I preferred the season 6 two-parters because they were much lighter in tone.

Excited for: "Campfire Tales," which has a pretty good chance of being quite fun; "To Change a Changeling," because there's a lot that can be done with that premise; "Once Upon a Zeppelin," because 1. Twilight needs to deal with her fame and 2. we get to see Twilight's parents again. Hopeful for: "Triple Threat," because it's the only Spike episode and involves diplomacy; "Daring Done," because I really like Daring Do; "Shadow Play," because it's the finale. Not looking forward to: "It Isn't The Mane Thing About You"; "Secrets and Pies" Have zero opinion on "Fame and Misfortune" or "A Health of Information."

Season 2. This person gets it: Plus, it just has the highest number of episodes I like, and feels like the show going deeper into its characters and becoming a little less fluffy with its storylines and jokes. It was early as well, so it still had more room for character development than subsequent seasons, and that helps it a lot for me. Still have a soft spot for season 1. Not sure I'd say most of it is as ambitious or interesting as any of the later seasons, but it has the second-highest number of episodes I like, and it's the only one to actually pull off a season-long arc in the form of the mane six's growing friendship. I still think most of these episodes are really charming. Season 6 is the best the show has been since season 2, and it's exactly because it scaled itself way down from season 5. It didn't quite bring back the freshness of the first three seasons, but it toyed around with episode formats a lot more, and I generally liked its episodes more than seasons 4 or 5, although its back half was pretty inconsistent. And the novelty of Starlight's arc papered over its issues for me. Season 3 is short, uneven, and ends on my least favourite episode, but it's weird and experimental, and I have a soft spot for it because it was the first season I watched entirely as it was airing. Also, this was right after the still fairly fresh season 2, and parts of S3 were basically season 2.5, so I appreciated that. Season 4 has a lot of pleasant episodes, but at this point I felt like the show was running out of steam. Season 4's best episodes simply feel great, even if they're not always particularly substantial, i.e. "Pinkie Pride." However, this is where I felt the show started to begin relying on a lot of gimmicks which didn't actually advance the characters very much, and at the time it wore me down, though I've grown more fond of this season since. I'm actually gonna put season 7 a bit higher than I usually do this time around, if only because it's improved in its most recent episodes and has the potential to improve a lot over the rest of its episodes. But man, until "A Royal Problem," it's a real slog, and it has a curiously hard time putting its best morals in its most entertaining episodes. Hopefully the forced feeling of the first quarter isn't carried over to the back half. I genuinely like season 5 less and less with each episode I re-watch. I still find it to be the most inconsistent of the seasons, and while it does have a lot of emotional high points, I find a lot of it to feel incomplete or even joyless, and a lot of its lighter episodes just aren't very good. Most of all, I just hate the whole "mane six as mentors" thing, because I feel it severely limits their growth. I'm glad the show has backpedaled since.

It exists solely to irritate me specifically. It feeds off of my anger and frustration. In all seriousness... yeah, it's a plot device with no in-universe explanation. Its purpose is seemingly to guide the mane six to friendship problems they can help solve to maintain harmony in Equestria, but I don't know how the mane six figured it out. By its second appearance, they just took it at face value and did whatever it says with no further questions, despite having no idea what it is or how it works. Mostly though, I think it's just there so the writers can make stories happen without needing to come up with a contrived explanation or stuff the cold open with exposition.

I found Seasons 4 and 6 to afford a lot of depth and dignity to Spike. I see no reason for the writers to stop making Spike episodes now of all times.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by the votes, as I bet most people who would agree with my ranking probably jumped ship by the end of season 5. If I hadn't liked season 6 so much, I just might have as well. Anyway, rather than repeat my reasoning again, here's the seasons ranked by how many of their episodes I enjoyed: Season 2. Enjoyed 83%, 20/24 episodes. Season 1. Enjoyed 76%, 19/25 episodes. Season 6. Enjoyed 71%, 17/24 episodes. Season 3. Enjoyed 67%, 8/12 episodes. Season 4. Enjoyed 67%, 16/24 episodes. Season 5. Enjoyed 46%, 11/24 episodes. Season 7 (so far). Enjoyed 46%, 6/13 episodes. For all I know, there might not be a single other bad episode in season 7, so its rank could change dramatically. But I'd be surprised. It's also funny how this is exactly the same as how I'd rank the seasons based on emotional reaction and overall trends. I thought I had enjoyed a higher percentage of Seasons 3 and 4, but I guess not. I put 5 above 7 and 3 above 4 because of my subjective feelings about them, but technically those pairs are both ties.

I kinda started feeling like an outsider as far as episode opinions go starting with season 5, because I enjoyed S6 infinitely more than S5 or what's aired of S7. I just felt that season 5 kept neglecting the main cast in favour of new characters or old minor characters, and most of those characters weren't very sympathetic to me, including Moondancer. Sometimes, even the mane six felt unsympathetic, as in "Tanks for the Memories," "Amending Fences," and "The Mane Attraction." I always felt like I was missing parts where there should be more detail, and because season 5 focuses more on emotion than humour, that made most of the season really dreary and joyless for me. And then half of the humorous episodes were junk like "Princess Spike" and "Scare Master," which doesn't leave me with much. I think I properly enjoy less than half of the season. That said, it's not season 5 but season 7 which feels forced to me.