King of Canterlot

I have to agree with you here, FIM did a good job of handling some of these topics like inclusion and judgment subtly back in the early seasons, and then a little not-so-subtly by the time season 8 rolled around, though they still handled it well. What made FIM so great is that they were able to balance these real sensitive topics with having well-written characters, a fantasy developed world, and also again just not being so upfront and in one's face about it- they were able to tell great stories even when dealing with sensitive issues. It was the talent of writers, show runners, and animators that were able to put together a show that appealed to all sorts of people outside of it's target demographic. What I'm uncertain about is what this new team will be able to do. I'm just not confident that they'll be able to pull of something like G4 again, especially without the super creative visionary lead of Lauren Faust. I've heard that the lead for G5 is some generic executive from Disney, and as they say- lightning never strikes twice in the same place. Putting my woes about the new team's ability to create an immersive cartoon that appeals to sorts of people aside, I also have some issues with this new world and characters they're proposing. Having the main character being an "activist" implies that there's something within Equestria that needs drastic changing, however, as seen by the end of G4 Equestria essentially become the pinnacle of acceptance and tolerance for all creatures under Twilight's leadership. Even throughout the series, Equestria has been shown to be a very accepting place for everyone. Anyone who was misunderstood or left out had their issues solved within a single episode (such as the buffalos or Zecora) as the ponies learned that having differences is okay and everyone got along then with no problems. Even Neighsay, the most hardcore anti-change pony we had seen in the series had his views changed by the end of only one season and became accepting of all creatures. It's just hard for me to believe that Equestria (which again has been an overall accepting place all throughout the show) would need a main character in G5 being an "activist"- I really don't think it's realistic within the pony timeline that Equestria would have such deep seated problems, especially with how Equestria was by the end of G4. This also implies that everything Twilight and her friends worked for was for nothing, which is upsetting. It sort of puts a wet blanket on the end of G4. I don't have problems with wanting diversity and stuff in the show, but it appears to me that they're going to try and re-write Equestria into this super intolerant place (which it has never been- ever) to try to appeal to the modern standard in cartoons of "confronting diversity issues" even if it means sacrificing how the atmosphere in Equestria has always been, not just in G4 but in all the other generations too. Again, I have no problems with talking about issues like that (the early season episodes of G4 tackled sensitive issues very well) but it feels like they're going to go about it in all the wrong way and tarnish the end of G4 and turn Equestria into someplace it has never been and realistically within the pony timeline would never become. That's my two cents anyway

So what would be your first? As for me, I really enjoy all of the Dazzling's songs (I believe that there are three of them in total) but Welcome to The Show, just with how awesome that music battle was and how climatic it was is probably my top pick of their three songs if I absolutely had to choose only one. Under Our Spell is another great one though too!

Twi's big wedding day

Pretty much this right here, though I don't think it's necessarily ignored, fans just tend to pay a lot more attention to the main series, so one-off things like Rainbow Roadtrip may not get as much time in the spotlight. Regardless, I thought Rainbow Roadtrip was very good, a lot better than the then-current season 9 of the main show was. It just felt very refreshing I suppose was the best way to put it, with different writers and animation directors working on Rainbow Roadtrip it just felt like it had more life put into it than the main show during season 9 did