Thrond

I don't think so; I actually thought I was mostly alone in whining about that. Though to be honest even I thought "Rollercoaster of Friendship" was one of the more tolerable examples of their dynamic.

I mean... I guess? I'm not a huge fan of that first movie, but I wasn't expecting to like it at all and it turned out entirely fine, basically a simplified high school comedy filtered through the tone of Friendship is Magic. Then Equestria Girls would go on to do a lot more than I originally expected of it, with Rainbow Rocks and the first season of the short series being particular highlights.

It fits the dolls I guess. Neither of them seem like skirt-wearing types to me either, frankly.

Thankfully she stopped

I think saddles are probably also worn for fashion, like all other clothes.

I find its emotional tone extremely annoying because I don't think that episode makes a whole lot of sense. The swapped cutie marks are supposed to have big implications for the mane six's lives, but I don't understand why that makes them so bad at their new jobs, or why they keep doing it when they're bad at it. There are these big emotional songs happening pretty much back to back, but I don't buy into any of the emotions at all, so it all feels really forced to me. And I don't feel like the reason why Twilight became an alicorn princess is good enough, so that's extra fuel on that fire.

FINALLY, I can put my overly-precise rating system to use. Wound up messing with the rankings a bit, because just plugging in the raw numbers made me feel like some episodes were too high or too low. Nevertheless, here it is, with added notes where the YouTube shorts, the 2017 movie, and "Rainbow Roadtrip" would fit in! 222. What About Discord? 221. Magical Mystery Cure - Ail-icorn 220. Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? 219. The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well 218. Games Ponies Play 217. Hard to Say Anything 216. Non-Compete Clause 215. Dragon Dropped 214. 2, 4, 6, Greaaat! 213. Tanks for the Memories 212. The Show Stoppers 211. Fluttershy Leans In 210. A Trivial Pursuit 209. Daring Done? 208. Honest Apple 207. Fame and Misfortune 206. The Parent Map - Starlight the Hypnotist 205. Fake It Til You Make It - My Little Pony: The Movie 204. Over a Barrel 203. Princess Twilight Sparkle, Part 1 202. Princess Twilight Sparkle, Part 2 201. All Bottled Up 200. The End in Friend 199. No Second Prances 198. Look Before You Sleep 197. Amending Fences 196. The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows - Rarity’s Biggest Fan 195. Princess Spike 194. Marks and Recreation 193. Made in Manehattan 192. A Matter of Principals 191. Sounds of Silence - Triple Pony Dare Ya 190. Bats! 189. P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View) 188. Spike At Your Service 187. Simple Ways 186. Rainbow Falls 185. Forever Filly 184. Applejack’s Day Off 183. The Cart Before the Ponies 182. Yakity Sax 181. Power Ponies 180. Apple Family Reunion 179. Shadow Play, Part 2 178. Shadow Play, Part 1 177. Bridle Gossip 176. Owl’s Well That Ends Well 175. Somepony to Watch Over Me 174. The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone 173. Twilight Time 172. Sweet and Smoky 171. Uncommon Bond 170. The Summer Sun Setback 169. It’s About Time 168. The Cutie Pox 167. Ponyville Confidential 166. Celestial Advice 165. The Last Laugh 164. She’s All Yak 163. Where the Apple Lies 162. The Mane Attraction 161. Canterlot Boutique 160. Scare Master 159. Campfire Tales 158. To Change a Changeling 157. Stare Master 156. The Cutie Re-Mark, Part 1 155. The Cutie Re-Mark, Part 2 154. Castle Sweet Castle 153. Buckball Season 152. Boast Busters 151. Surf and/or Turf - The Great Escape Room 150. Every Little Thing She Does 149. Student Counsel 148. Green Isn’t Your Color 147. The Big Mac Question 146. Rock Solid Friendship 145. Maud Pie 144. One Bad Apple 143. Magic Duel 142. Just for Sidekicks 141. Hearthbreakers 140. 28 Pranks Later 139. Newbie Dash 138. Secrets and Pies 137. The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 136. The Beginning of the End, Part 2 135. Not Asking for Trouble 134. Too Many Pinkie Pies 133. The Beginning of the End, Part 1 132. Luna Eclipsed 131. Daring Doubt - Mystery Voice 130. The Washouts 129. A Rockhoof and a Hard Place 128. Brotherhooves Social 127. Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3 126. It Isn’t the Mane Thing About You 125. The Last Crusade 124. Daring Don’t 123. Flutter Brutter 122. Appleoosa’s Most Wanted 121. School Raze, Part 1 120. Putting Your Hoof Down 119. Viva Las Pegasus 118. Spice Up Your Life 117. School Raze, Part 2 116. A Canterlot Wedding, Part 1 115. The Maud Couple 114. Grannies Gone Wild - Teacher of the Month 113. She Talks to Angel 112. Gauntlet of Fire 111. Swarm of the Century 110. Father Knows Beast 109. Triple Threat - Sundae, Sundae, Sundae 108. The Ticket Master - Rainbow Roadtrip 107. What Lies Beneath 106. Pinkie Apple Pie 105. MMMystery on the Friendship Express 104. Family Appreciation Day 103. Uprooted 102. Trade Ya! 101. A Horse Shoe-In 100. The Hooffields and McColts 99. Call of the Cutie 98. Friendship University 97. Feeling Pinkie Keen 96. Hearth’s Warming Eve 95. The Ending of the End, Part 2 94. The Ending of the End, Part 1 93. A Dog and Pony Show 92. School Daze, Part 1 91. Applebuck Season 90. On Your Marks 89. Three’s a Crowd 88. Castle Mane-ia 87. School Daze, Part 2 86. Between Dark and Dawn 85. A Health of Information 84. Filli Vanilli 83. Parental Glideance 82. Griffon the Brush Off 81. The Break Up Break Down 80. Secret of My Excess 79. Sonic Rainboom 78. Dragonshy 77. The Cutie Map, Part 1 76. The Cutie Map, Part 2 75. Road to Friendship 74. The Last Problem 73. A Royal Problem 72. The Return of Harmony, Part 2 71. A Friend in Deed 70. Discordant Harmony 69. Inspiration Manifestation 68. Friendship is Magic, Part 2 67. Hearts and Hooves Day 66. Flight to the Finish 65. Friendship is Magic, Part 1 64. Winter Wrap-Up 63. Molt Down 62. The Crystal Empire, Part 1 61. The Crystal Empire, Part 2 60. The Return of Harmony, Part 1 59. Growing Up is Hard to Do 58. Equestria Games 57. Slice of Life 56. Once Upon a Zeppelin 55. It Ain’t Easy Being Breezies 54. Dragon Quest 53. Sparkle’s Seven 52. The Hearth’s Warming Club 51. Marks for Effort 50. Crusaders of the Lost Mark 49. Baby Cakes 48. A Canterlot Wedding, Part 2 47. Sweet and Elite 46. The Mean 6 45. Make New Friends but Keep Discord 44. To Where and Back Again, Part 1 43. To Where and Back Again, Part 2 42. The Perfect Pear 41. Common Ground 40. Frenemies 39. Dungeons & Discords 38. Keep Calm and Flutter On 37. Twilight’s Kingdom, Part 2 36. Twilight’s Kingdom, Part 1 35. A Bird in the Hoof 34. Stranger Than Fan Fiction 33. The Times They Are a Changeling 32. Going to Seed 31. The Gift of Maud Pie 30. Sisterhooves Social 29. Suited for Success 28. Fall Weather Friends 27. The Saddle Row Review 26. Sleepless in Ponyville 25. The Crystalling, Part 2 24. Party Pooped 23. The Crystalling, Part 1 22. A Flurry of Emotions 21. The Cutie Mark Chronicles 20. May the Best Pet Win! 19. Read It and Weep 18. Leap of Faith 17. Top Bolt 16. Best Gift Ever 15. The Point of No Return 14. Rarity Takes Manehattan 13. The Fault in Our Cutie Marks 12. Bloom & Gloom 11. Party of One 10. Pinkie Pride 9. A Hearth’s Warming Tail 8. For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils 7. Wonderbolts Academy 6. The Last Roundup 5. Rarity Investigates! 4. Hurricane Fluttershy 3. Horse Play 2. The Best Night Ever 1. Lesson Zero

I always wished the show did more with her. I like her design a lot, and I generally felt that something about her mannerisms made her more relatable than Celestia and Luna. Even the little backstory we got from her told us that she was Twilight's foalsitter, and there was a heavy implication that she isn't nearly as old as the sisters. And she kept getting these moments where she stepped out of the pretty pink princess stereotype, like when she got all protective of Flurry Heart in the season 9 premiere. From what little I've seen, some of the comics develop her a little more, and I've heard that one of the chapter books gives her an interesting backstory. I've always liked her, so in that sense I do think she's underrated, but it's not surprising given that she was always sidelined in the show.

I don't ship that much anymore - there's only a couple ships I'm onboard with that aren't unambiguously canon. I first got into shipping with AppleDash, because they had so many fun moments early on. I picked up Sunset Shimmer/Twilight Sparkle shipping in Rainbow Rocks and never made the switch to Sci-Twi. Somewhere around the middle of the show I had a shipping phase where I was happy to consider a variety of ships; I never gave up on AppleDash entirely, but there was a short period where I was into RariDash, mostly based on "Rarity Investigates" from season 5. Then none of my favourite ships got much attention in the last three or four seasons, and I sort of gave up on shipping altogether. It wasn't just because the ones I liked weren't popular; one of the things I always found refreshing in this show, even when I was a shipper, is that the main characters were single and most of them were okay with that. Though I still liked looking at AppleDash fan art from time to time. Then that finale came along. I liked that CheesePie was canon; that was always a good ship. Also Applejack and Rainbow Dash were talking about chores for some reason? That resurrected my interest in AppleDash big time. Meanwhile I'm in a weird place with FlutterCord where I accept it as canon but still don't really like it. I don't really ship Twilight or Rarity anymore, but I would like to imagine that at least the latter is married. I just don't know who she's married to.

For all we know, these two might actually have been there for her, unlike her real parents. This thread was posted over a year before that episode aired and I don't think the OP wasn't being entirely serious.

A lot of them are kinda just generic cartoon villains, and most of either show's attempts at something deeper were pretty awkward. I felt like the season 9 trio worked for pretty much the same reasons the Dazzlings did, though.

We know from Equestria Girls that first contact has already been made, and generally things have gone relatively well between ponies and humans. Though it's a good thing that Twilight Sparkle was the one to cross over and not someone like Neighsay.

I generally felt like the quality of Equestria Girls in that short series was often higher than in Friendship is Magic proper when it was airing. The second season lost some momentum, but it was still solid. It generally stuck to character-driven comedy, which I really appreciated when the main show would often drift into rigid moral fables or bland adventures. This series made a coherent story out of chose-your-adventure videos, which is pretty impressive, if you ask me. But I also liked the idea of seeing these characters as teenagers in a mundane setting. It was very refreshing at a time when Friendship is Magic had accumulated a ton of baggage; it cut the show back down to what was important, which for me was mostly the characters.

OK, updated for the end of the show... I'm gonna use the same good/average/bad system as @Dark Qiviut instead of my usual binary, but having had no chance to rewatch any of these episodes, here's my list from 2019. The Point of No Return Going to Seed Frenemies Common Ground Sparkle's Seven Growing Up is Hard to Do The Last Problem Between Dark and Dawn The End of the End, Parts 1 and 2 A Horse Shoe-In Uprooted She Talks to Angel The Last Crusade Daring Doubt The Beginning of the End, Parts 1 and 2 The Big Mac Question Student Counsel She's All Yak The Last Laugh Sweet and Smoky The Summer Sun Setback A Trivial Pursuit 3, 2, 1, Greaaat! Dragon Dropped

OK I have slightly different ideas now and also I'm gonna be more specific so: Mane Six ranked by how good they are at math, including some wild guesses: Twilight Sparkle (duh) Rarity (probably great at accounting) Fluttershy (Equestria Girls has shown us that she is very good at it) Pinkie Pie (she knows many things, but math isn't her greatest skill) Rainbow Dash (has a learning disability, does fine when she's taught the right way) Applejack (generally doesn't seem to like math)

I think a lot of what happens in "The Last Crusade" would have lined up just fine if only Scootaloo's attitude were different. After all, that's already an episode where Scootaloo has to show her parents that their parenting decisions are wrong. Making that story about how much Scootaloo has accomplished as a Cutie Mark Crusader is IMO the least interesting option. If they had actually tried to suggest that Scootaloo was neglected, I think that could have been a dramatic storyline that could have offered great bonding opportunities for her and Rainbow Dash. Would definitely have liked that more than "The Washouts." But I dunno, I don't feel the show was particularly consistent in suggesting that Scootaloo wanted to fly. In both of the episodes that directly focus on her disability, it's more like she's pressured into caring about it, first by Diamond Tiara and then by Rainbow Dash. On the other hand she certainly talks about flying a lot, and gets multiple dream sequences where she flies. But I think if we had seen her not worry so much about flying, so the problem was instead that ponies don't accept her for who she is, that could have worked too.

My beef with this show is mostly with what it did do rather than what it didn't. In terms of specific events and backstory, I got most of what I wanted. I just also got a lot of stories I didn't care about, and even the ones I did were wrapped in a general tone and storytelling formula that only ever seemed to move further and further away from what I originally liked about this show. Still, it might have been nice to get more of these: Princess Cadance. In general I found her way more relatable than Celestia and Luna, despite the fact that we never learned half as much about her. She's implied to still be relatively young, and as such she was always more grounded than the older alicorns despite the fact that we only ever knew her as an alicorn princess. But we only saw two sides of her at most, and barely any of either of them. I wish she was a more developed character; I loved it whenever she showed personality traits that countered the pretty princess stereotype, and what little scraps we got about her backstory seemed fascinating. Rarity's parents. There were a bunch of episodes about the mane six's parents in seasons 5-7 and they were always really cute. Why did Rarity have to be left out? It also would have answered some questions about where Sweetie Belle lives, and I've always wondered exactly what Rarity's relationship with her parents is. More from Rarity and Rainbow Dash's careers; alongside Applejack's, which we got a lot of and didn't change much over the course of the series, they're the only two that didn't eventually become completely arbitrary. Rarity managing her boutique chain and Rainbow Dash being a Wonderbolt were major highlights of the later seasons that delighted me every time they came up, so I would have loved to see more of them. And it would have been great to learn more about the people those two were working with. I wish we had gotten a more coherent idea of Spike's past and future. Past, specifically, because I want to know who raised him... well, as long as it wasn't Twilight. Future, because I feel like the show didn't do enough to show him dealing with the absence of dragon parents in his life; that could have been a really interesting story. In retrospect I feel like the Cutie Mark Crusaders should have been split up more. We got a lot from Scootaloo, but I wish they handled some of the stuff around her disability and her family issues better. We sort of stopped getting Sweetie Belle stories after the trio got their cutie marks, which was a shame. And despite having a whole episode about it, Apple Bloom never quite seemed to forge her own path separate from the group or her family. I'm in an odd position because I didn't recognize that inspiration, so I mostly saw that as a story about bad parents trying to be better and screwing it up. That's the general arc of the story, and I don't think it makes sense if Scootaloo's parents are supposed to be good at parenting. My problem is just that I don't know why Scootaloo still likes them so much. You could probably solve a lot of the problems with that episode by digging a bit deeper into that. It's all very watered down.

I really do need to catch up with the My Little Pony comics...

I don't really mind Spike. His characterization strikes me as relatively consistent, and he achieved most of his goals. I'm not as big a fan of some of the episodes where he just acts selfishly and has to learn not to be selfish, but I feel like most of the main characters have had a few episodes like that. I guess the two big changes I would make are: 1. deal with his crush on Rarity a lot earlier, and 2. explore his backstory in a bit more detail. I don't need his entire life story, but his relationship with Twilight is kinda confusing.

I didn't really buy Gilda; her two appearances didn't really seem like the same character to me. The same is true of Ahuizotl more recently, though I kinda prefer the later version. Garble was one-dimensional enough that I could probably believe anything from him, but also I don't care about Garble. Discord and Starlight both made me kinda impatient, as being "reformed" didn't seem to stop them from doing awful things; Starlight was never really a favourite character of mine, but she eventually mellowed out, whereas I enjoyed Discord some 99% of the time but always felt he was a jerk. But at least the steps of their journeys made some sort of sense, even if I don't quite understand why the mane six tolerated them so much. Really, I generally like when characters are reformed in this show, and if anything I kinda wish it happened even more often.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders started off as the characters whose episodes I dreaded in those first two seasons, and then grew on me as they became less obsessed with their cutie marks. I enjoyed most of their episodes from season 3 onwards, I would say. Starlight Glimmer actually repeated the pattern for me in the latter half of the series, where I had limited patience for her until season 8, when she became a bit more stable without just turning into off-brand Twilight.

By the end of the series he still hadn't set out on his own, but it seems to me that he grew more and more independent and confident as the series went on. In season 1, he was entirely subordinate to Twilight, whereas by season 7 we have seen him going on his own adventures and befriending foreign leaders. And we see several steps of that process: in several season 4 episodes, he questions his own worth compared to his world-saving friends, and then in season 6 we see him making tough decisions independent of the ponies around him. His character development was still ongoing and relatively consistent in the later seasons, which is not always true for other characters. Honestly, I feel people unfairly dismiss Spike, and I'm not sure why.

I don't really agree that his potential was wasted. I do wish we got a bit more from what it was like being raised by another species; we only got a few episodes here and there that vaguely hint at his relationship with Twilight, then two episodes at the end that skim the surface of that topic. Could have been more there. Otherwise, I felt like we got a lot out of him.

As someone who thought the school generally made season 8 better - or at least that it showed off everything season 8 did well - I think the summer camp idea would help with some of the things that bugged me about it while keeping most of what made it so appealing. I think I would miss the part where Twilight gets to be a principal, and it would still seem weird that the mane six all have 2-3 jobs now (is Rainbow Dash still a weatherpony?), but it would still be better than teaching friendship in classes. I'm generally defensive of Neighsay, because I really like the idea of the main six fighting against xenophobia. I had hoped that he would be the main seasonal villain rather than the lesser evil. The problem of the mane six teaching pony values to non-ponies predates the school - the Cutie Map episodes often had the same implication - and I think the school is actually an improvement, because it's inclusive rather than intrusive. That is, the mane six are welcoming non-ponies into their school rather than going to another country and telling people how to behave. A way to fix the problem might be to have non-ponies inspired by the mane six become teachers, or at least yaks and hippogriffs, who already seem pretty friendly. But that introduces even more characters, and there's already too many. I liked the idea of Cozy Glow being a student because it seemed like she was just another part of the school storyline until suddenly she was too suspicious to ignore. Gaining people's trust so she can abuse it is pretty clever, and it's more clever if it's authority figures rather than some kids she just met. Having her be an outsider who infiltrates and steals McGuffins kinda seems like the same thing we got every year from this show; I've seen it. Would that seasonal storyline be the B-plot to the usual episodic stories? It seems like that could all be condensed into a single two-parter. I don't really mind the actual season 8 finale, I just think it needed tighter pacing. Honestly, what you're laying out doesn't seem that far off from what we got.