AlexanderThrond

Chrysalis has become my favourite through sheer perseverance. Doubling down on her hotheaded incompetence is the absolute best thing they could have done with her; it was always there, but until season 8 I wasn't entirely sure how much of that was deliberate. I really do consider her silliness to be the perfect fit for the show. Cozy Glow, Discord, and the Dazzlings are similar in that sense. I don't remember all of the low-level villains, but I found Flim and Flam the most consistently entertaining. Trixie is my favourite character of the bunch, but mostly for what happened after she became friendlier.

Seasons 3 and 4 did still resemble seasons 1 and 2, but I do think the attempts to explore more serious subject matter may have pushed the show in the wrong direction. The format of episodes like "Rarity Takes Manehattan," which is based on challenging the main characters' values, is such that each of them seems to end right back where it started; I don't always feel like we're getting new things from the characters, even in episodes I would consider among the show's best. And on top of that a lot of episodes felt kinda gimmicky to me in both seasons, especially in season 3; I find that fun to an extent, but it gives the weird sense of those episodes being filler in a show without much of an overarching storyline. I disagree that season 3 rehashed the previous seasons - to me it seems very experimental while keeping the feel of seasons 1 and 2. It's just that a lot of those experiments didn't quite pay off. I do still like season 4, but in some ways it felt to me like the show stagnating before it went completely off the rails in season 5. Numerically there are fewer episodes I like, and when I look at those I didn't like, they either have dumb gimmicks ("Power Ponies," "Simple Ways") or try too hard to force a specific narrative ("Bats," "Rainbow Falls," "Somepony to Watch Over Me"). And in episodes like "Flight to the Finish," I notice the things that the show doesn't explore more than the things it does, which would essentially remain the case until season 8 suddenly became a lot more direct. It's still good, and it's certainly more ambitious, but I think the cracks were already starting to show. Maybe what My Little Pony did best in seasons 1-3 wasn't sustainable, but the show never really come up with anything I thought was a suitable replacement. I think I heard that even Faust's involvement in season 2 was increasingly limited as that season continued production. And that might explain why the show's transformation into whatever it was in season 5 was a gradual process rather than an immediate shift, but it makes that decline all the more inexplicable.

I don't think seasons 8 and 9 are that much like season 7; to me it seems that they're both much looser, and season 8 specifically is a lot more imaginative than the seasons surrounding it. The general decline in the mane six certainly carries over, but that got started at least as far back as season 5, if you ask me.

I agree with everything @Them's Seeing Ponies said, though the deepening approach to characterization that I most enjoyed started as early as late season 1, when episodes like “Party of One” started focusing more aggressively on a single character’s insecurities. Episodes like that became less frequent as the show went on, and later examples sometimes seem kinda awkward. I will say though that, despite that season’s messiness, the style of humour in season 6 just does it for me. Season 7 almost made me stop watching. Anyway I think we know each other’s perspectives now. Ironically, I felt that season 8 had a sense of growth that the previous several seasons hadn’t. It made me actively frustrated that a show which was demonstrably moving forward in certain areas was also becoming even messier.

I think you have the wrong thread.

I think what the show was doing in those first two seasons was appealing in its own right. I liked the mythology being used as a lightweight, fairy tale-esque context for stories that aren't actually that much less silly than the slice-of-life episodes, which you see in the first two season premieres and then again in seasons 6 and (to a lesser extent) 8. Season 2 specifically adds a bit more depth to the show while keeping all of its charms; it had everything that made season 1 good and more, so it was easy to assume the show would only get better. Part of the excitement is that season 2 was just ending when I got into the show, but when I watch the show again, it seems like what it was in those first two seasons could easily have improved and sustained itself for a while longer. The finale definitely showed some signs of the problems to come, though. Admittedly I was mostly brought on board by out-of-context clips on YouTube, but I will say that the mythology helped break my expectations of what this show would be. It wasn't what kept me onboard, though, especially after season 3.

Ironically that's how I felt about season 6, though in retrospect I don't like it that much more than season 4. To me season 7 was the year where, more often than not, I would tune into My Little Pony and have to work overtime to get anything out of it. I think more than half of that season is subpar. To each their own, I guess.

S1: "The Show Stoppers" S2: "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well" S3: "Magical Mystery Cure" S4: "Princess Twilight Sparkle" (both parts) S5: "What About Discord?" S6: "No Second Prances" S7: "Hard to Say Anything" S8: "Non-Compete Clause" S9: "Dragon Dropped"

It's probably my #11. Tremendous stuff.

Sure, but I mostly just mean the fact that she has to juggle the animal sanctuary with the school, which leaves me wondering what her schedule looks like. It's easier to ignore that in most other episodes. In any case that didn't ruin that episode for me. Honestly, I graded most of seasons 7-9 on a curve; of those 78 episodes, I'd say that only 6 or 7 are really on par with the show's best. But I thought "Molt Down" had its charms, and I enjoyed how direct it was.

Probably nothing, but season 7 was my least favourite in the whole show. I don't think my opinions are objective facts about the show's quality, and I don't begrudge you for liking season 7, but I don't get it. To me the "low-key character stuff" often seemed like it was going through the motions in that season, even in some episodes I didn't mind; a lot of episodes in that season have a somewhat ambitious moral but almost no character nuance that doesn't actively confirm that moral, and therefore not a lot of drama. It seems to me that season 7's creative energy was mainly focused on moralizing and ambitious concepts. I found it very dull. More power to everyone who likes it, which is apparently everyone other than myself.

It presents that issue in a way that I think is difficult to relate to and generally unappealing, while offering little real insight to what inspires any of the characters. But admittedly I don't find the CMC's efforts to get ahead of Diamond Tiara very appealing. My main gripe with this one is that the sheer quantity of responsibilities Fluttershy seems to have absolutely would not have been in a season 1-3 episode. The world of this show became very convoluted by the end. I honestly think it explored that issue in a way that is true to the characters, and I found its writing quite witty and entertaining. I honestly think it's one of the episodes which justifies the season 7-9 checklist approach to an extent, because the earlier seasons would never have approached that topic so directly. It's very refreshing, and I think that it has both humour and character details which live up to the show's past. I would not be complaining if My Little Pony had always been like that in its last several seasons.