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  1. bigbertha

    MLP Season 9 (and show as a whole) Retrospective

    By bigbertha,


    Season Reflections
    This probably should've come out two days ago but WHOOPS.
     

    WEAK SEASON
     
    So let's get this out of the way: The story arc in this season sucked. This show proved in the previous two seasons that it sucks at story arcs and this season changed nothing. I'll go into more detail in my bottom 5, but for now let's talk about the episodes in between.

    Since this was the last season, it had the responsibility of either wrapping up story arcs or simply ending things for the mane six on a high note. I'd say only two of the mane six got strong sendoffs. 

    The biggest problem with this season was how out of touch it was with the rest of the show. Character regression and/or flanderization was way too common and there were many blatant continuity errors. This was because of both new writers having to rely on the terrible cheat sheets given to them, and story editors who weren't doing their job. If a new writer forgets that Rainbow Dash literally trained Fluttershy in cheering in season 1 because Sonic Rainboom wasn't on their cheat sheet of episodes to watch, the story editor should catch that and do something about it. But no. One of the story editors started writing with the cheat sheets and I don't know what was going on with Josh Haber. So we got episodes like 2, 4, 6 Greaaat and A Trivial Pursuit which butchered their spotlight character.

    I guess I should talk about the characters now. 

    Pinkie barely did anything outside of her spotlight episode and "co-star" role. She was fine in The Last Laugh despite only being there to support Cheese Sandwich's story. She didn't get to do anything funny or face some kind of internal conflict. Just some tacked on stuff about questioning her life's purpose, which only got addressed at the beginning and end and put her exactly where she was before the episode. But whatever. At least we're not getting Yakity-Sax. But it is weird that the episode didn't develop the relationship between Pinkie and Cheese. The romance between them was about the same as it was after Pinkie Pride. You could easily see it, but there isn't enough for it to be anything but speculation. You'd think they'd be a bit more direct since they actually got together in the finale.

    Her only other big appearance was A Trivial Pursuit where she got shafted hard. She didn't actually do much aside from saying a couple bad jokes and getting kicked out of the plot. I also think she was wasted in Sparkle's Seven. Her big thing was wanting to go to space which was shown through a little fantasy bit. And then she just did nothing. Cool.

    I'll talk more about Twilight in the bottom 5. But for now, I'll say that she got the worst final episode out of any of the mane six.

    Rainbow Dash got another pretty bad final episode, but she was okay in Common Ground and Daring Doubt.

    Rarity's last episode sucked, which is a shame because Josh Haber has written Rarity well in the past. Dragon Dropped showed Rarity at her worst. That's already pretty bad, but the fact that it's her last spotlight episode makes it even worse. Why focus Rarity's last spotlight episode on Spike? I know that's always been a thing in the show, but there's so many more important parts of Rarity's character to focus on. All she got aside from that is She's All Yak where she somehow forgot the basic message of "be yourself" just because she agreed that Yona should act more like a pony and less like a yak. I liked her in Sparkle's Seven though.

    Applejack and Fluttershy won season 9 because I actually liked their final episodes.

    Applejack's final episode focused on her family which was a pretty obvious move. Still, the obvious move was the best move. She was actually portrayed respectfully and went out on a high note. Her other appearances weren't too bad either. She could certainly be exaggerated, but not to the horrible extents of Twilight and Rarity.

    Fluttershy's final episode also made a lot of sense. In general, this season had the best characterization of Fluttershy since season 6. The only kinda iffy thing done with her character was being so willing to believe Caballeron and Ahuizotl in Daring Doubt. I know she's forgiving, but she didn't start reforming Discord until Celestia told her to. And even then, she knew Discord's intentions. She was just oblivious in Daring Doubt. But she was still generally the best out of the mane six in this season.

    The CMC regressed in Growing Up is Hard to Do. Now they're being lectured about responsibility and being treated like little kids when Scootaloo joined the Washouts last season and Sweetie Belle brushed off Rarity in favor of her responsibilities in season 7. And then there's The Last Crusade which blatantly contradicted Parental Glideance and showed off how horrible Scootaloo's parents were. 

    Starlight is garbage. Just like last season, I started to like her until I was reminded why I hate her in the finale. I also hate her because she stopped Trixie from being a developed character. She was stuck being comic relief in Starlight stories, though she was good comic relief.

    Outside of the characters, I have to mention the memefaces. While watching season 8, I was surprised by how tame a lot of the faces were. I had this mindset that things got way too exaggerated in the later seasons and I was pleasantly surprised. As it turns out, I was just thinking about season 9. This season went off model way too often and it looked disgusting. This show is not Ren and Stimpy. We don't need the characters to have a different face in every shot. Some episodes were stuffed to the brim with memefaces which makes it even worse. It completely ruined the charm and cuteness of the show.

    I have other problems with the season that I didn't talk about above, but I think it would make more sense to talk about them in the bottom 5. But first, here are some of the few episode I actually liked.

    TOP 5:

    5. Frenemies: On its own, this is a very strong episode. It has a solid song, it's funny, and there's some really nice bonding between the villains. The problem is that the larger context of the season ruins this episode. It seems like the point of this episode is to show that the villains can get along and might even be reformed, but they're still arguing and betraying each other in the finale and they don't get reformed. So now this episode is pointless. Nice.

    4. Student Counsel: Trixie carries this episode. I don't care about Starlight and Terramar somehow thinks Silverstream being missing is Starlight's fault when she was just closing up for break. Terramar in general is annoying. And so is Silverstream before she goes missing. Plus, why didn't Starlight check the treehouse? It wouldn't have made much sense if she didn't know about it, but it'd still be better than what happens in the episode. But, Trixie is funny so I like this episode. There's not much more to say about it. Trixie is great and some of the other characters get some good jokes in too.

    3. She Talks to Angel: I can't believe we hadn't gotten an episode about the relationship between Fluttershy and Angel before this. It seems so obvious, so I'm glad it was addressed before the end of the show. The conflict between Fluttershy and Angel makes sense and the body swap plot works well. Andrea Libman does a really great job and keeps the episode entertaining throughout. It's dumb that Fluttershy is trying to force carnivores to be vegan, but the rest of the episode is solid enough for me to ignore that.

    2. The Big Mac Question: This is a better version of The Break Up Breakdown. That one has better Spike and Discord banter, but this one doesn't have all of the misunderstanding stuff. This is a very fun episode though I think the second half is better than the first. It's also the strongest Sugar Belle and Big Mac episode emotionally. The ending is very sweet and the format of the episode is reminiscent of The Saddle Row Review, which I like. It's nice to get all of the characters that were involved in this trio of episodes (as well as some from The Perfect Pear) together for the finale to this mini plotline.

    1. Going to Seed: I rewatched Apple Family Reunion recently and I liked it a lot more than I expected to. It's a comfy episode hanging out with the Apple Family. This episode gives me a lot of Apple Family Reunion vibes which I like a lot. It's a nice and cozy episode, free from all of the problems surrounding it. I like seeing Applejack get caught up in the search for the Great Seedling and there's a lot of cute bonding between Applejack and Apple Bloom. This is proof that even the worst of seasons can still have a gem or two inside.



    BOTTOM 5:

    5. 2, 4, 6, Greaaat: This is pathetic for Rainbow Dash's final episode. Even outside of the her being blatantly out of character, why is Dash's final episode at the school? We have barely seen her as a teacher. She should be out there doing some stunt or flying with the Wonderbolts or something. Not teaching at Twilight's stupid school.

    But it's even worse since she's so out of character. I know watching a TV show can be hard, but the writer seriously couldn't watch more than the three episodes on their cheat sheet? Really? And of course it's not a Rainbow Dash episode without someone going behind her back to teach her a lesson. Twilight has no right to be all high and mighty based on the garbage she does in A Trivial Pursuit.

    4. The Ending of the End: Oh boy. Now it's time to talk about the big story arc. So let's start with Discord being Grogar. That is probably the worst thing Discord has ever done. He sets four villains loose and lets three of them get even more powerful than him just to make Twilight more confident. I don't buy it. If this was only a test, maybe Discord shouldn't have sent the Legion of Doom after one of the most powerful relics in Equestria. And he doesn't monitor them at all to see if they're lying or doing anything evil. It's like he was asking to be backstabbed. Literally nothing about this makes sense without Discord being a twist villain. 

    The Legion of Doom are really dumb in this episode. They have Grogar's bell, but they never think it's a good idea to take away the mane six's magic. Or for Tirek to take their magic. They have a perfect opportunity when they invade Canterlot. The mane six are all right there, but instead they just keep blasting some random piece of rubble even though their magic was powerful enough to break Twilight's shield. Speaking of Tirek, the Legion of Doom talk about not knowing how to control Discord's magic. That makes me think that nobody making this episode watched Twilight's Kingdom sine Tirek took Discord's magic in that episode and was fine. But I guess he forgot. 

    There are many more issues with this episode, but I'll quickly mention a couple others. The racism stuff makes no sense, especially when the Wendigos appear. Apparently only Sandbar and some other random kids remember the Hearth's Warming play. Starlight goes back to being overpowered, getting a one on one fight with Chrysalis that tries way too hard to be cool. And then of course she has to be the first one to escape and save everyone else. The pillars are useless. They put up no fight against Tirek and only show up for the big rainbow laser at the end, which I don't think needed them. It's not like the laser was more powerful with them. The students are also pointless. They convince their races to help fight the Legion of Doom, but most of those races already had characters that could've been used. And for all of the talk about how much Twilight has grown, she still ends up whining in the Crystal Empire and everyone else still has to motivate her to actually do something. It makes all of that shit in The Summer Sun Setback even worse. Speaking of which:

    3. The Summer Sun Setback: This is mostly just a boringly bad episode. The Legion of Doom's plans are not well thought out and should not have worked as well as they do. Tirek is barely hiding and risking a lot by stealing peoples' magic, you know, since he's done all of this before and some of them might recognize how it feels. Also there's a continuity error since Tirek's victims don't lose their cutie marks when they did in Twilight's Kingdom. Cozy Glow somehow disrupts all of the weather on her own. Where were the other pegasi? And those unicorns are really quick to turn against what they seemed to enjoy doing before Chrysalis shows up. And there's a lot of boring stuff with the mane six trying to keep mess from Twilight.

    But what really destroys this episode for me is how Twilight is treated. This episode tries to convince me that Twilight has gone through character growth over the course of this season. Oh wait. It doesn't try to convince me. It tells me and expects me to not question anything. Discord's line about character growth being boring is up there as one of the worst lines of dialogue in the whole show. This episode comes right after A Trivial Pursuit and that's something something that can't be handwaved away in one line. This is some of the laziest writing of the entire show. It's just screaming in your face, "Hey guys, Twilight is better now! I swear! Please, please believe me!" Well I don't believe it. Believable character growth doesn't happen off screen.

    2. The Beginning of the End: The Ending of the End is much more flawed than this episode, but it's also more interesting. I can laugh at how incompetent that episode is while this one is just frustrating. It starts all of the garbage about Celestia and Luna retiring which is so dumb. Celestia retiring is stupid, but Luna retiring is even worse. Luna just got back recently, but she already wants to leave? She spent a thousand years in the moon after trying to rule Equestria by force. Now she wants to give it up? And Twilight has no choice in this. It's the same problem from Magical Mystery Cure of her role being forced on her except this one's even worse since you can't ignore being ruler of Equestria. And everything about "Twilighting" is horrible and needs to die. How is it that nobody else is nervous about ruling Equestria... somehow. I still don't get how the rest of them are ruling with Twilight. The season makes it seem like that's what's going to happen, but that doesn't make sense for a lot of the reasons them teaching at Twilight's school makes no sense, along with some others. Also, the others are so condescending towards Twilight when her freaking out is perfectly justified. Celestia and Luna say they're going to give Twilight the crown in a couple days, which is incredibly stupid since they should've known how Twilight would react. That should be concerning, but the rest of the mane six are annoyingly calm. 

    And that's not even getting into the actual plot of the episode. Sombra's new voice is horrible. I know some people like it, but it completely ruins him for me. He's not threatening. But that's also because of how overpowered he is for no reason. He takes over the Crystal Empire way too quickly and then is defeated soon after. There's no time to care. And then he's able to destroy the Tree of Harmony seemingly solely for shock value and to sell toys since it still has a connection to the students in Uprooted and changes into a treehouse. The second part isn't any better since Sombra still isn't threatening. There are attempts at drama with the other characters being brainwashed, but everything is so quick that it barely registers. And apparently they don't need the elements for a rainbow laser. 

    This is also the start of the Legion of Doom arc which I've already complained about. I guess I'll add that replacing Cozy Glow with Sombra would have been a lot better. Well, with a better voice for Sombra. Or maybe it could've been Chrysalis and Tirek on their own. 

    1. A Trivial Pursuit: All of the mane six got horrible appearances in the last two seasons, but this might be the worst. Okay, it's not quite as bad as Yakity-Sax, but it's close. This is an episode about Twilight assuming Pinkie's a moron and ruining the game for everyone just because she's insane. Seriously, Twilight assumes Pinkie will ruin everything even before she does anything. And while Pinkie does make one stupid answer, she apologizes and resolves to do what Twilight says from then on. But Twilight seems to think that Pinkie isn't capable of being anything other than a complete dumbass because she doesn't let Pinkie do anything. Pinkie doesn't continue to do stupid things to justify Twilight getting more crazy. Twilight gets crazier because she genuinely thinks Pinkie can't do anything right. Even when there's a topic that Pinkie is good at, Twilight has such little trust in Pinkie that she distracts her. Long story short, Twilight is the worst. It's fine for Twilight to have flaws, but this is way too far. She wasn't even this much of an asshole in season 1, back when she was just getting used to having friends.

    Outside of Twilight's behavior, this is probably the most childish episode of the show. Half of the jokes are just Twilight making WaCkY faces and yelling. I can count the amount of jokes I liked on one hand. And since this is a comedy episode, that is a very bad thing. 

    I mentioned the memefaces earlier, but this is where it's at its worst. Some of them look extremely ugly and uncomfortable. Twilight's crazy faces in Lesson Zero only showed up when she was at her worst. They were supposed to be uncomfortable to some degree. The faces in this episode are more over the top, go on for longer, and are played entirely for comedy. That uncomfortable feeling ruins a lot of the jokes and serves to make Twilight behavior in this episode even worse.

    This is supposed to be the ruler of Equestria? She shrugs it off in The Summer Sun Setback, but I think this reveals some very deep rooted issues that will surely bite her in the ass at some point in the future. She's definitely not fit for the throne based on this episode.

    Also, this episode doesn't deserve to say all of the ship names. If you're going to go so far as to say TwiPie, show why people like and ship TwiPie. Don't give us an episode where one of them assumes the other can't do anything right and tries to get rid of them. Same goes to AppleDash, but more so since they get together in the finale. Their rivalry in this episode isn't as bad as it was in Non-Compete Clause, but it's certainly not going to convince anyone that they'd make a good couple. They haven't had solid shipping fuel since probably season 4.



    My overall opinion on the season lines up pretty well with DannyJ's on Fimfiction. If you don't think I explained my thoughts on the season 9 arc or certain episodes well enough, his reviews are close to my thoughts. I obviously don't agree with him about everything, but the important stuff about the season arc lines up.
    https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/930390/dannyj-reviews-mlp-season-9-part-1
     
     
    Time for the show as a whole:

    OKAY SHOW
     
    It's kinda unfortunate what happened to this show. It used to be a nice and fun show. Not especially groundbreaking, but the characters were engaging and fun to be around, everything was cute, and the world had enough detail to be interesting and had enough vagueness to inspire a lot of theories and speculation. 
    And then, season 8 attacked.
    The show had been on a general decline since season 3, but I still like seasons 3 and 4 overall. And while I may not like season 5, it was at least trying new things and it felt like it had respect for what came before. I can see why a lot of people like season 5 and consider it to be one of their favorites. And season 7 had a first half that reeked of burnout and some hints what was to come with the awful stuff with the pillars, but I can accept its existence because of The Perfect Pear and the fact that the second half was generally decent.
    But I can't defend seasons 8 and 9. They felt like they had no respect for the history of the show with some things that completely contradicted the point of the show (the School of Friendship) and so much character regression. It's hard to decide which season is worse, but I don't think it really matters. They're both a stain on an otherwise solid show and I don't consider them canon (aside from Going to Seed which can be easily separated since it doesn't reference anything around it).
    Time for an overall top and bottom 20:
     
    BOTTOM 20:
    20. Spike At Your Service
    19. Owl's Well That Ends Well
    18. Daring Don't
    17. School Raze
    16. Non-Compete Clause
    15. The Summer Sun Setback
    14. Princess Spike
    13. Twilight's Kingdom
    12. Fluttershy Leans In
    11. What About Discord
    10. Shadow Play
    9. Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep
    8. The Beginning of the End
    7. Rainbow Falls
    6. Three's a Crowd
    5. A Royal Problem
    4. Every Little Thing She Does
    3. A Trivial Pursuit
    2. School Daze
    1. Yakity-Sax
     
    TOP 20:
    20. Luna Eclipsed
    19. Hearth's Warming Eve
    18. The Saddle Row Review
    17. Hurricane Fluttershy
    16. Castle-Mania
    15. The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows
    14. The Cutie Mark Chronicles
    13. Sonic Rainboom
    12. Lesson Zero
    11. Party Of One
    10. It's About Time
    9. Rarity Investigates
    8. Testing Testing 1, 2, 3
    7. Dungeons and Discords
    6. The Perfect Pear
    5. Pinkie Pride
    4. Sisterhooves Social
    3. The Last Roundup
    2. Magic Duel
    1. Stranger Than Fanfiction
     
  2. bigbertha

    MLP Season 8 Reflection

    By bigbertha,


    Season Reflections
    WEAK SEASON
    This is an interesting season for me. I started watching the show in June of 2017 so while I was somewhat following the show through the second half of season 7, season 8 was the first one that I really followed along with. And when I first watched it, I liked it. But I also liked Starlight and Sparity so clearly I've evolved since then (or devolved depending on your opinions on those things). But still, rewatching this season was kinda nostalgic and I think it's that nostalgia that got me through some of the rougher parts of the season.
    I said in my season 7 retrospective that its first half felt like the show was hitting burnout. Most of the episodes were bland and felt like they were on autopilot. Well, season 8 may not be on autopilot, but the burnout is still hitting hard. This show is now scraping the bottom of the barrel to keep itself fresh and it shows. There's another attempt to replace the mane six and by far the worst gimmick of the show in the School of Friendship. 

    The School of Friendship is the worst thing that the show has ever done. Worse that Twilicorn. Worse than the library blowing up. Worse than Starlight. And worse than the stupid shit that's going to happen next season. At least none of the other dumb stuff in the show directly contradicted the point of the show. Twilight learned friendship naturally by being sent to a small town to live life with her friends. Making a school to learn friendship in classes confines the students and treats them like toddlers. Lesson Zero was all about how Twilight didn't need to stick to a strict schedule and she learned to only send friendship reports to Celestia when she happened to discover them.

    It also makes no sense on a logistical level. How is a giant school running with only seven teachers who have to leave constantly? How do you make a semester's worth of classes based on learning basic skills like honesty, generosity, and kindness? How do the mane six find the time to teach at the school when most of them have very busy lives outside of the school?

    The school is so fundamentally broken on so many levels that I almost quit watching the show after School Daze.

    Outside of the School of Friendship, the more slice of life episodes were hit or miss in their premises. While there were a few episodes that tried to take the show in new and interesting places (The Washouts), there were way more episodes that rehashed others or made the characters out of character for the sake of a plot that wasn't even good (Non-Compete Clause, The End in Friend, Horse Play, The Mean Six). 

    I almost don't want to talk about the characters since this was a lot of characters' worst season. I don't think any of the characters had a consistently good season. 

    Oh wait that's not true. Spike had a good season. He was funny and got his wings. Good job Spike.

    The CMC were also fine. Scootaloo got The Washouts which explored her relationship with Rainbow Dash in a new and interesting way. The others didn't get anything that good, but they were decent enough despite not having much of a presence.

    The mane six are when things fall apart.

    Pinkie got Yakity-Sax which automatically makes this her worst season. Not even her worst appearances in season 4 came close to how out of character she was in Yakity-Sax. She was also really shrilly in this season. And unlike season 6 where she didn't appear as a lead often but still had a decent amount of strong side roles and comic relief roles, Pinkie straight up didn't appear often in this season. And even then, a lot of her "comic relief" roles amounted to one scene with maybe one or two lines that weren't funny.

    Despite all of that, she still got a couple of good bits. She had some nice character moments in The Mean Six, I liked The Maud Couple, and she had a couple good jokes scattered throughout the season, including by far the best jokes of the season with her fake suns in Horse Play.

    Twilight was stuck as the principal in this season. I thought she was kinda stuck in a mentor role in season 6, but that doesn't even compare to the stranglehold that the School of Friendship had on Twilight. Almost all of her substantial appearances connected to the school in some way. Being stuck as a principal gave her very little time to show off her personality. She got Horse Play, maybe Surf and/or Turf, maybe Molt Down, Friendship U, The Washouts, and maybe A Rockhoof and a Hard Place.  That may seem like a decent amount of good roles, but they were heavily outnumbered by episodes where she either had no presence outside of being a principal, was an asshole, or was an idiot. Also she wasn't even the lead in Molt Down, The Washouts, Surf and/or Turf, and A Rockhoof and a Hard Place.

    I barely remember what Fluttershy did in season 8. She was randomly a bitch in Fake It 'Till You Make It and existed in Sounds of Silence where I also think she was a bit too aggressive, though that wasn't too bad. I think I liked her in Horse Play. Evil Fluttershy was funny in The Mean Six. That's about all I remember about her.

    Applejack was a bit more memorable, but not necessarily for a good reason. She sucked in Non-Compete Clause and just played the voice of reason role in a lot of other episodes. She was also kinda an asshole in Grannies Gone Wild and I don't know why. She looked so smug at the beginning, almost as if she knew her rules were dumb and was trying to ruin Dash's time in Las Pegasus.

    Rarity was pretty solid for the most part. She didn't get any spotlight episodes, being stuck as a co-lead in Friendship U and The End in Friend, but maybe that was a good thing since she worked really well in a more comedic role. She had a lot of the funnier jokes of the season despite having her obligatory awful portrayal in The End in Friend. 

    I think Dash was the big winner of season 8. She got two co-lead roles and two spotlight episodes. She sucked in her co-lead roles, but I think her spotlight episodes let her show off her full personality, something I can't say for the rest of the mane six. I guess Pinkie got The Maud Couple and Twilight got Horse Play, but those episodes didn't do much new for them, while The Washouts had the best mane six character exploration, at least until the third act.

    Starlight continued to be the creator's pet with three spotlight episodes. The Parent Map wasn't actually too bad, but then I was reminded why I don't like this character in Road to Friendship. I have no clue why Starlight was the guidance counselor and why Twilight trusted Starlight with the school.

    The replacements for the mane six were meh. They were pretty bland when all together, but they got some good individual character moments. I liked Gallus' backstory in The Hearth's Warming Club, Yona's admiration of Rockhoof in A Rockhoof and a Hard Place, and Silverstream got easily the best character moment of all of them with her confronting the fake Storm King in What Lies Beneath. But the best of the students was Smolder since she got a more substantial role outside of the group, being a dragon for Spike to relate to and get advice from. But those are just small character moments and minor roles. In the end, the replacements for the mane six failed at being replacements for the mane six.

    Wow. That character list was gigantic, and I didn't even talk about every character. That's another problem with the season. The character list was way too big which made the balance of character spotlight episodes a mess. 

    Okay this is way too long so let's just get to the top and bottom 5. 

    TOP 5:

    5. Sounds of Silence: Autumn Blaze hardcore carries this episode. She's so charismatic and her song is really fun. The stuff with Applejack and Fluttershy gets overshadowed since their argument isn't given time to mean anything. And then the more developed conflict of the episode turns into finding the cure for the Kirin's silence instead of convincing them that feeling anger is okay. Damn it now I'm spending most of this time criticizing an episode that I actually like. Okay, Autumn Blaze is fun and there are some good jokes. That's about it.

    4. The Break Up Breakdown: Despite a cliché misunderstanding plot, there's a ton of little jokes throughout to keep things entertaining. I also really like the dynamic between Spike and Discord.

    3. Friendship University: Every episode having to do with the school automatically gains a ton of problems, but aside from that and the fact that Starswirl would rather learn friendship from a school instead of continuing to travel the world, this is fun. Rarity shines with a lot of great jokes and I don't have a problem with Flim and Flam. In fact, it makes a ton of sense for Flim and Flam to take advantage of ponies who actually think that a school of friendship is a good idea. Twilight has some of her better characterization of the season here and she does catch them doing something wrong even though she should've busted them for using her work without her permission. 

    2. The Maud Couple: This does fall in line with a lot of other Maud episodes, but I like Pinkie being confronted by maybe not knowing her sister as well as she thought and having to deal with someone who might know Maud better than her. I wish that was the main conflict instead of Pinkie generally not liking Mudbriar, though that still works.

    1. Molt Down: This is just an extremely solid episode. Spike is great here and him going through puberty is both fun and adds to dragon culture in a way that doesn't get in the way of the plot. Smolder works as a way to explain dragon culture and the climax is really exciting. Rarity being thrown into the story also helps to add some good comedy. I think Spike's conflict of thinking he has to leave should've been more developed, but that's my only issue. Spike getting wings is also a very satisfying payoff. It's definitely more satisfying than when Twilight got wings.


    BOTTOM 5:

    5. The End in Friend: This is such an artificial conflict. This episode is trying to tell me that Rarity and Rainbow Dash don't have anything in common despite them obviously having things in common. They're both prone to melodrama and have an ego. They're both ambitious in their fields and Rarity Investigates showed Rarity enjoying the Wonderbolts show. But no. Let's just make them at their worst just to have a story about two characters being angry and yelling at each other. Why does season 8 have so many episodes that involve characters just yelling at each other and being angry? That's not funny or any fun to watch, especially when it's so overused.

    4. School Raze: This story is so stupid. Cozy Glow is one of the worst villains of the show both because her plan relies on characters being incredibly stupid and because her motivations make no sense. She wants to get rid of all of the magic? Why? How does removing magic help Cozy take over? She says that friendship is power, and she wants to have a bunch of friends, but her plan contradicts those motivations. I think trying to remove magic will turn everyone against you.

    And how do the mane six think Tirek is behind it? They know how Tirek takes magic and that's not it. It's so contrived. And why is everyone so scared of Cozy? She's just a little filly who isn't powered up at all. She's not giving herself any of the magic. The whole subplot in Tartarus is pointless. It's not funny and creates another.plot hole. How has Cozy been sending letters to Tirek? She's been going in and out of Tartarus to talk to Tirek? Where did she get the magic? I could keep going, but that would take too long. The plot makes no sense, but there's enough ironic enjoyment to keep this from being any lower.

    3. Non-Compete Clause: I don't buy Applejack, Rainbow, and Twilight as friends in this episode. There's always been this air of Twilight being above her friends since she became a princess, but this is the most blatant it's ever been. She's in full principal mode and Applejack and Rainbow are just teachers. There is no friendship here and in a show called "Friendship is Magic", that is a huge problem. Applejack and Rainbow are straight up endangering kids and once again the story is just characters yelling at each other. And the worst part is that they don't learn anything. I seriously don't understand why this season made everyone so angry all the time.

    2. School Daze: I straight up couldn't finish this episode. I was watching through part one and realized that I was getting nothing out of it. Every problem with the School of Friendship is at its worst in this episode and Twilight being in full support of it is the point where I couldn't even recognize her as Twilight. I don't know what happens int the second part and I don't need to. If I couldn't even get to the second part without giving up, I think I'm justified in calling this garbage. At least I could sit through Every Little Thing She Does.

    1. Yakity-Sax: The fact that I think this is worse than the episode I couldn't even finish should tell you a lot about how much I hate this episode. Pinkie is my favorite character so of course I hate this episode for having the worst portrayal of Pinkie in the entire show. She says the Yovidiphone is the only thing that gives her life meaning. That is not Pinkie. At the very least we should be seeing this from Pinkie's perspective so we could get some level of insight as to why she cares so much about the Yovidiphone. But no. We don't know why this thing matters so much to her. There is nothing of value here. And while I could sit through this episode, the fact that it butchers my favorite character makes this the worst episode of the entire show and nothing in season 9 will top it.
     
  3. bigbertha
    This will be updated as I continue to watch through the show.
     
    0/10 (Garbage)
    158. Every Little Thing She Does (Season 6)
    157. A Royal Problem (Season 7)
    156. Keep Calm and Flutter On (Season 3)
    155. Three's a Crowd (Season 4)
    154. Rainbow Falls (Season 4)
     
    1/10 (Terrible)
    153. Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep (Season 5)
    152. Shadow Play (Season 7)
    151. What About Discord? (Season 5)
    150. Fluttershy Leans In (Season 7)
    149. Princess Spike (Season 5)
    148. Daring Don't (Season 4)
    147. Owl's Well That Ends Well (Season 1)
    146. Spike At Your Service (Season 3)
    145. 28 Pranks Later (Season 6)
     
    2/10 (Awful)
    144. Somepony to Watch Over Me (Season 4)
    143. The Cart Before the Ponies (Season 6)
    142. Applejack's Day Off (Season 6)
    141. Marks and Recreation (Season 7)
    140. Stare Master (Season 1)
    139. Amending Fences (Season 5)
    138. Secrets and Pies (Season 7)
    137. Magical Mystery Cure (Season 3)
    136. Look Before You Sleep (Season 1)
     
    3/10 (Bad)
    135. Rock Solid Friendship (Season 7)
    134. Honest Apple (Season 7)
    133. Twilight's Kingdom (Season 4)
    132. No Second Prances (Season 6)
    131. The Cutie Re-Mark (Season 5)
    130. The Crystal Empire (Season 3)
    129. Appleoosa's Most Wanted (Season 5)
    128. Boast Busters (Season 1)
    127. The Mane Attraction (Season 5)
    126. Putting Your Hoof Down (Season 2)
    125. Power Ponies (Season 4)
    124. Dragon Quest (Season 2)
    123. Daring Done? (Season 7)
    122. The Show Stoppers (Season 1)
     
    4/10 (Weak)
    121. The Hoofields and McColts (Season 5)
    120. Made in Manehattan (Season 5)
    119. The Cutie Pox (Season 2)
    118. Princess Twilight Sparkle (Season 4)
    117. The Gift of the Maud Pie (Season 6)
    116. One Bad Apple (Season 3)
    115. Crusaders of the Lost Mark (Season 5)
    114. It Ain't Easy Being Breezies (Season 4)
    113. Baby Cakes (Season 2)
    112. A Bird in the Hoof (Season 1)
    111. To Where and Back Again (Season 6)
     
    5/10 (Meh)
    110. Game Ponies Play (Season 3)
    109. Twilight Time (Season 4)
    108. Uncommon Bond (Season 7)
    107. Not Asking For Trouble (Season 7)
    106. Inspiration Manifestation (Season 4)
    105. Canterlot Boutique (Season 5)
    104. The Times They Are a Changeling (Season 6)
    103. Forever Filly (Season 7)
    102. Discordant Harmony (Season 7)
    101. A Canterlot Wedding (Season 2)
    100. All Bottled Up (Season 7)
    99. Brotherhooves Social (Season 5)
    98. Bats (Season 4)
    97. On Your Marks (Season 6)
    96. Parental Glideance (Season 7)
    95. Tanks For the Memories (Season 5)
    94. May the Best Pet Win (Season 2)
    93. Castle Sweet Castle (Season 5)
    92. Rarity Takes Manehattan (Season 4)
    91. The Mysterious Mare Do Well (Season 2)
     
    6/10 (Okay)
    90. Triple Threat (Season 7)
    89. Family Appreciation Day (Season 2)
    88. Trade Ya (Season 4)
    87. Call of the Cutie (Season 1)
    86. Buckball Season (Season 6)
    85. A Flurry of Emotions (Season 7)
    84. Scare Master (Season 5)
    83. Viva Las Pegasus (Season 6)
    82. Ponyville Confidential (Season 2)
    81. Apple Family Reunion (Season 3)
    80. Hard to Say Anything (Season 7)
    79. Bridle Gossip (Season 1)
    78. Slice of Life (Season 5)
    77. The Crystalling (Season 6)
    76. A Dog and Pony Show (Season 1)
    75. Wonderbolt Academy (Season 3)
    74. Gauntlet of Fire (Season 6)
    73. A Health of Information (Season 7)
    72. Friendship is Magic (Season 1)
    71. Read it and Weep (Season 2)
    70. Leap of Faith (Season 4)
    69. Griffon the Brush Off (Season 1)
    68. Party Pooped (Season 5)
     
    7/10 (Good)
    67. The Ticket Master (Season 1)
    66. Simple Ways (Season 4)
    65. Bloom and Gloom (Season 5)
    64. Fall Weather Friends (Season 1)
    63. Just For Sidekicks (Season 3)
    62. Equestria Games (Season 4)
    61. Rarity Investigates (Season 5)
    60. P.P.O.V. (Season 6)
    59. Celestial Advice (Season 7)
    58. Pinkie Apple Pie (Season 4)
    57. Top Bolt (Season 6)
    56. It Isn't the Mane Thing About You (Season 7)
    55. Applebuck Season (Season 1)
    54. Winter Wrap Up (Season 1)
    53. For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils (Season 4)
    52. The Fault In Our Cutie Marks (Season 6)
    51. Campfire Tales (Season 7)
    50. Sleepless in Ponyville (Season 3)
    49. The Cutie Map (Season 5)
    48. Maud Pie (Season 4)
    47. Where the Apple Lies (Season 6)
    46. Too Many Pinkie Pies (Season 3)
    45. The Return of Harmony (Season 2)
    44. Secret of My Excess (Season 2)
    43. Filli Vanilli (Season 4)
    42. Hearthbreakers (Season 5)
    41. To Change a Changeling (Season 7)
    40. Spice Up Your Life (Season 6)
    39. Swarm of the Century (Season 1)
    38. Green Isn't Your Color (Season 1)
    37. Flight to the Finish (Season 4)
    36. Once Upon a Zeppelin (Season 7)
    35. The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone (Season 5)
    34. Hearts and Hooves Day (Season 2)
    33. Hurricane Fluttershy (Season 2)
    32. Feeling Pinkie Keen (Season 1)
     
    8/10 (Great)
    31. Make New Friends But Keep Discord (Season 5)
    30. Newbie Dash (Season 6)
    29. MMMystery on the Friendship Express (Season 2)
    28. Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 (Season 2)
    27. Suited For Success (Season 1)
    26. A Hearth's Warming Tail (Season 6)
    25. Pinkie Pride (Season 4)
    24. Dragonshy (Season 1)
    23. Flutter Brutter (Season 6)
    22. Fame and Misfortune (Season 7)
    21. Over a Barrel (Season 1)
    20. A Friend in Deed (Season 2)
    19. Sweet and Elite (Season 2)
    18. Luna Eclipsed (Season 2)
    17. Hearth's Warming Eve (Season 2)
     
    9/10 (Amazing)
    16. Castle-Mania (Season 4)
    15. The Saddle Row Review (Season 6)
    14. The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows (Season 5)
    13. The Cutie Mark Chronicles (Season 1)
    12. Sonic Rainboom (Season 1)
    11. Lesson Zero (Season 2)
    10. The Best Night Ever (Season 1)
    9. Party of One (Season 1)
    8. It's About Time (Season 2)
     
    10/10 (Perfect)
    7. Testing Testing 1, 2, 3 (Season 4)
    6. Dungeons and Discords (Season 6)
    5. The Perfect Pear (Season 7)
    4. Sisterhooves Social (Season 2)
    3. The Last Roundup (Season 2)
    2. Magic Duel (Season 3)
    1. Stranger Than Fanfiction (Season 6)
  4. bigbertha

    MLP Season 7 Reflection

    By bigbertha,


    Season Reflections
    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.
  5. bigbertha

    MLP Season 5 Reflection

    By bigbertha,


    Season Reflections
    MEH SEASON
     
    Before I go into general thoughts and trends, I'm going to go through every episode and give my brief thoughts
     
    The Cutie Map: Starlight is definitely the most threatening villain to date and the atmosphere here is great, but this isn't the kind of stuff I come to MLP for. I can see why people love this episode, but I just don't. 7/10
    Castle Sweet Castle: Pretty dull overall. There are some good jokes at the beginning and the ending is nice, but that's about it. I think the scene with Twilight and Spike at the ruins of the library should've been longer. 5/10
    Bloom and Gloom: I like how this serves as a finale to the CMC and Luna trilogy and some of these scenes are very effective. I think what keeps this episode from being any better is the stuff with the Twittermites. It's not on the same level on her other two nightmares so I think it either should've been shortened or cut entirely. 7/10
    Tanks For the Memories: Dash going through the 5 stages of grief works pretty well until she destroys an entire weather factory with no consequences and the emotional climax is turned into a joke. 5/10
    Appleoosa's Most Wanted: On top of being extremely boring, Troubleshoes ends up with a career of being laughed at. For some reason, I don't think that's a happy ending. 3/10
    Make New Friends But Keep Discord: I think the reason this works is because Discord is the butt of a lot of the jokes and he doesn't spend the entire episode manipulating and making other characters miserable. 8/10
    The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone: "Pony hero complex" aside, I think is this one of the better reformations, mostly because Gilda wasn't that bad in her first appearance and she has an actual backstory with Dash. 7/10
    Slice of Life: I still don't like the mane six barely being in the episode. Like, at least Pinkie should've had a bigger role since she was the reason Cranky and Matilda found each other. Locking them out at the end is kinda insulting. 6/10
    Princess Spike: This is one of the most boring episodes of the show on top of being poorly written. Spike shouldn't be punished for the stuff he did when he was genuinely trying to help Twilight. 1/10
    Party Pooped: Did we really need to see so much of the Yaks destroying stuff? More time should've been spent on Pinkie's journey, both because it's funny when we get to see it and because it would make the message actually work. Points for the party cave though. 6/10
    Amending Fences: It's all just so insincere. Twilight doesn't even know the names of her friends before she goes to see them. And Moondancer seriously never found out that Twilight was sent to Ponyville by Celestia and that's why she left without saying goodbye? And Moondancer had other friends as well as a sister, so why is her being miserable all Twilight's fault? 2/10
    Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep: I have no idea why this show thought it could tackle self harm, but it didn't work. We already got a lesson about forgiving yourself in Equestria Games, and that episode didn't need to go into an obvious metaphor for self harm to do it. 1/10
    Canterlot Boutique: This episode doesn't seem to get that Rarity isn't completely in the right. She was wrong to add those gems to the Princess Dress. She should've known that opening a boutique in a big city like Canterlot would mean more work and more orders. But I guess it's just Sassy who's wrong. 5/10
    Rarity Investigates: I always love a good noir styled episode and this is no exception. I just wish it wasn't all concentrated in the second act. 7/10
    Made in Manehattan: This is a really boring episode. 4/10
    Brotherhooves Social: I like the focus on Big Mac and the ending is nice, but the Orchard Blossom stuff just doesn't work for me. 5/10
    Crusaders of the Lost Mark: Diamond Tiara is just worse Pacifica Northwest. 4/10
    The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows: There is some extremely impressive comedic tension here and the pure energy in this episode makes it stand out from the rest of the season. It may be contrived as all hell, but I think it's worth it when each contrivance leads to more tension and comedy. 9/10
    Hearthbreakers: The Pie family is great and I love everything about their traditions and them interacting with the Apples, but the episode loses me once Applejack tries to take over and knocks over Holder's Boulder. The rest of the episode is kinda bleh. 7/10
    Scare Master: Fluttershy scaring everyone at the end is great, but it doesn't make up for how slow and boring most of the episode is. 6/10
    What About Discord: I really don't understand the appeal of Discord just being an asshole. 1/10
    The Hoofields and McColts: Another contender for most boring episode of the show. 4/10
    The Mane Attraction: "This song may be familiar, but yet it's totally different. Kind of like me: Rara." 3/10
    The Cutie Re-Mark: I hate the self-levitation that started here. Also Starlight is overpowered and the alternate universes have no stakes and thus feel like overly long detours. 3/10
     
    This is the weakest season of the show so far, but it's probably the most interesting to talk about. That's probably because this season is always trying something new with a lot of dramatic and high stakes stories. Let's see how Twilight leaving for Ponyville affected her old friends. Let's see how Luna's guilt from being Nightmare Moon is affecting her. Let's see a mentally unstable unicorn try to destroy the world. How about a cult formed around everyone having the same cutie mark? Even the more mundane episodes do something new or further a character arc in a significant way. The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows announces that Shining Armor and Cadence are having a baby. Party Pooped introduces a new species. Brotherhooves Social focuses on Big Mac. I think that makes this season the most love it or hate it of the show. If the more dramatic style works for you, you'll probably love it. If you prefer more comedic and warm episodes, your mileage may vary.
    But even with the episodes I don't like, I don't just dislike them because they're not my thing. Well, not most of them. I genuinely think that a lot of these episodes aren't written well, which shows the dark side of going for more dramatic stories. If the stories don't work, there's nothing to fall back on. In earlier seasons, even weaker stories could fall back on charm or comedy. Over a Barrel or Feeling Pinkie Keen for example. Even The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows in this season barely has a story yet is still funny enough to make up for it. But when you have episodes like The Mane Attraction, which are focused mostly on their stories, if I don't like the story, there's nothing for me to like about the episode. 
    In terms of the characters, this isn't an especially great season for any of them. Twilight has more of personality than she did last season, but that's not always a good thing like in Amending Fences. Applejack's strong characterization in season 4 is gone. She never delves to the depths of Rainbow Falls or Somepony to Watch Over Me, but there aren't any Pinkie Apple Pie's or Leap of Faith's. Rainbow Dash is pretty weak in this season. She gets away with destroying a weather factory in Tanks For the Memories and gets overshadowed by her co-lead in both Lost Treasure of Griffonstone and Rarity Investigates. Fluttershy hasn't changed too much since last season. She gets some good moments in Tanks For the Memories and Make New Friends But Keep Discord, along with the great scare in Scare Master, but generally stays in the background. Pinkie is definitely written better than last season, at least in terms of her comic relief. She holds her own pretty well in both of her co-lead episodes and continues to shine in her spotlight episodes, though neither of her episodes have the emotional resonance of her season 4 spotlight episodes. Also I have to mention that she's still incredibly screechy, maybe even more so than season 4. I don't know whether it's a conscious choice of Andrea Libman's or if it's bad vocal direction, but all of her appearances suffer for it. Party Pooped might've actually been a good episode if it wasn't for her screechy voice. At least Pinkie gets her party cave in this season. Rarity probably has the best characterization out of the mane six overall. She can fill her role as comic relief and she can support her own story easily. She also gets the best song of the season. 
    So as a whole, I'm not a fan of this season. The stories mostly aren't compelling and there aren't any really great character performances. It may be more interesting than season 4, but it's still a downgrade overall. If season 5 disappeared and the show ended at Twilight's Kingdom, I honestly wouldn't miss it. 
     
     
     
     
     
     
  6. bigbertha

    MLP Season 6 Reflection

    By bigbertha,


    Season Reflections
    OKAY SEASON
     
    I'm really surprised that I like this season. It definitely has glaring problems, but they're not bad enough to wreck the season as a whole. This season has a style to it that McCarthy's seasons lacked. That's probably because this season marks the reign of a new story editor. Josh Haber did write a couple episodes before this (including The Cutie Re-Mark), and those episodes do have a taste of what this season is like. Simple Ways in particular feels like it would fit right in season 6. It's hard to describe exactly what changed, but the season's tone feels more fresh and full of life. 
    Now it's time for a character check in to see who changed for the better or for the worse.
    I think the mane six were struck down the middle in terms of having a good year and having a bad year.
    On the bad side, we start with Pinkie because she had no spotlight episodes. She had co-lead roles, but nothing where's she's the main lead. I don't know why. Maybe Josh Haber just had to sneak in one more episode for his creator's pet. Either way, she was mostly relegated to minor roles and comic relief. I'm not against Pinkie being used for comic relief, but there should also be episodes showing that there's more to her than that. Her only big roles were The Gift of the Maud Pie, Spice Up Your Life, 28 Pranks Later, Buckball Season, and P.P.O.V. And out of those, only The Gift of the Maud Pie and Spice Up Your Life came close to doing any interesting with her in a positive way. She got a couple of other good appearances and even a banger song in A Hearth's Warming Tail, but Pinkie was definitely not a priority in this season. BUT, her voice was much more tolerable in this season. It's not like she was in seasons 1 and 2, but I only hated her voice in The Gift of the Maud Pie and Buckball Season, so that's a big improvement from seasons 4 and 5.
    Twilight also had a weak year. She returned to having a general lack of personality or presence. Despite the fact that she appeared in most of the episodes in this season, I only remember her being in a few. I'm pretty sure P.P.O.V. was the only episode mostly from her perspective. She did get a decent showing in Top Bolt and The Saddle Row Review, but she also had No Second Prances, so I'd say this was a lackluster year for her.
    The last one on our bad list is Applejack. She had a similar problem as Twilight in terms of not having much of a presence. She had a couple good appearances (and a pretty good song in A Hearth's Warming Tail), but not much else. 
    On the good side, we have Rarity. This season as a whole didn't care about character drama as much as other seasons, but Rarity didn't suffer from this change. Even though she barely appeared in the back half of the season, Rarity has such a strong presence that she still stood out in most of her episodes. Also she didn't have an episode that screwed with her character. Her and Fluttershy are the only ones who can say that. 
    Fluttershy had a massive improvement in season 6. The season hit a great balance between Fluttershy being more assertive and her still being shy. Her presence felt stronger in this season than previous ones because of how well balanced she was written. Flutter Brutter in particular had fantastic characterization of Fluttershy.
    But the big winner of season 6 has to be Rainbow Dash. I don't know why, but this season put a lot of effort into working on her character. She got three spotlight episodes on top of a couple of co-lead roles. I'm not saying that all of her episodes were good, but she clearly stood out among the main cast. 
    But the main six weren't the only character focused on in this season. That's right, it's time to talk about the elephant in the room:
    Spike.
    But seriously, I didn't really talk about Spike in the season 5 reflection, but there wasn't much to say. He had a spotlight episode in Princess Spike. It sucked. I never really thought of Spike as a super stand out character which is why it confuses me whenever I see people who seem almost obsessive about defending him. But I must admit that season 6 actually gave him stuff to do. He had a kinda cool dynamic with Starlight in The Crystalling on top of three spotlight episodes (and a song). I'm not a huge fan of them (except Dungeons and Discords; that episode slaps), but I respect that they were trying to do. 
    Okay now let's talk about Starlight.
    I don't like Starlight. She's a creator's pet and has some of the worst episodes of the season. She doesn't start off badly. The Crystalling honestly starts her arc in a sympathetic way and I almost started to care about her. But then No Second Prances and Every Little Thing She Does happened and I stopped caring. No Second Prances had her use her magic to force Big Mac to talk. Gee, I sure hope something like that doesn't happen again. Oh wait. Starlight didn't even realize that mind controlling the main six was morally wrong. She only recognized that the mess her magic caused was wrong. I can't exactly sympathize with that kind of character. It doesn't help that Every Little Thing She Does was the last Starlight episode before the finale. The episode balance in this season as a whole was a mess. Why were there two Rarity/Pinkie episodes? Why were there three Rainbow Dash episodes and no Pinkie episodes? Even outside how badly paced and strangely executed Starlight's arc was, I don't think I'll ever be able to look at her character entirely positively after seeing the leaks about this season. It just lessens her positives and boosts her negatives. It just so happens that there were already more negatives than positives.
    I know I spent a majority of this review talking negatively about characters, but that's just the stuff I like writing about. That's not really what this season excels in. I mostly like the freshness, the aesthetics, the comedy, and some bits of introspective drama. This season was generally fun and I appreciate it for that.
     
    TOP 5:
    5. A Hearth's Warming Tail: It's A Christmas Carol, but with great songs and visuals that match the season and fit the mood of each scene perfectly. It's just a ton of fun to watch.
    4. Flutter Brutter: Zephyr is a really great character. He's an ass, but he's an ass in a fun way and nobody accepts him being a dick. When he goes too far to his parents, he's kicked out of the house. When he's slacking off, he gets zapped by Dash. His breakdown in the woods and redemption thereafter is really well done and the moral is relatable. 
    3. The Saddle Row Review: This isn't as funny as I remember, but it's still a ton of fun. I love the interview segments and the overall chaos. There are a lot of little details that add to my enjoyment on top of Rainbow Dash who's absolutely the stand out character in terms of comedy.
    2. Dungeons and Discords: This episode introduces an extremely strange dynamic, but it really works. I used to think the second act was boring, but now I think it's just awkward comedy done really well. Everything else is still as good as I remember. I love assertive Fluttershy and the game coming to life. 
    1. Stranger Than Fanfiction: This episode has everything. It's funny, has a great adventure, an interesting new character who probably wouldn't have worked in he was voiced by anyone other than Patton Oswalt, and a solid message. This is now my favorite episode of the show. Not even kidding.
     
    BOTTOM 5:
    5. No Second Prances: Twilight acting like she does here is close to out of character territory. She was kinda bothered by Trixie at the end of Magic Duel, but not to this extent. But Trixie also acts really weird. There's nothing wrong with her being bitter about what happened with Twilight, but being so overt about it is off. Also it's a Starlight episode so immediate points off. But seriously, her first instinct to seeing that Big Mac doesn't talk is to force him to with magic. That's not a good way to start an episode where I'm supposed to care about Starlight.
    4. Applejack's Day Off: Now we have two episodes that are just really boring. This is one is only better because of the Mission Impossible music.
    3. The Cart Before the Ponies: This one doesn't have the Mission Impossible music. Instead, it has a boring and awful song.
    2. 28 Pranks Later: I'm more pissed at how out of character Pinkie is than Rainbow. Pinkie made it very clear in Griffon the Brush Off that she only likes pranks that everyone can enjoy. I'm not sure how she laugh along with Dash after a prank that terrified Fluttershy and made her cry, especially since she made it clear that pranking Fluttershy is wrong.
    1. Every Little Thing She Does: It's interesting how this season has both my favorite and least favorite episode of the show. Well, I guess it's not that interesting since season 3 used to have my favorite and least favorite. Anyways, this episode has Starlight act insane and only gets punished by having to apologize and spend time with her "friends". I didn't care about Starlight before this episode, but I definitely don't care about her anymore. In fact, this episode makes me hate her.
  7. bigbertha

    MLP Seasons 1-4 (But Mostly 4) Reflection

    By bigbertha,


    Season Reflections
    I've long held the idea of "old pony good" and "new pony bad", but the thing is that I haven't seen some of those seasons (4-6) in over two years. So now I'm on a journey to see if my old opinions still hold up. I'm gonna speed through 1-3 since that isn't really what I want to focus on.
     
    SEASON 1:

    OKAY SEASON
    Pretty solid for the first outing. The thing about season 1 is that it relies a lot on its charm and cuteness factor. A lot of episodes are very laid back, though that can also be to their detriments. There's a lot of filler in a lot of episodes and it can get pretty boring at times. Still, the charm comes through in enough episodes for me to like the season overall.
    TOP 5:
    5. Suited For Success
    4. Dragonshy
    3. The Best Night Ever
    2. The Cutie Mark Chronicles
    1. Party of One
     
    BOTTOM 5:
     5. Boast Busters
    4. The Show Stoppers
    3. Look Before You Sleep
    2. Stare Master
    1. Owl's Well That Ends Well
     
     
    SEASON 2:

    GOOD SEASON
    This is a big improvement in pretty much every way. The plots are tighter, the comedy is stronger, and the characters are much more interesting. There are a lot of episodes where the mane six are forced to deal with one of their main character flaws head on. That doesn't always lead to good episodes, but I still respect what those episodes are trying to do. Also, Pinkie really shines here. Aside from Luna Eclipsed, she nails all of her appearances, and she's not even that bad in Luna Eclipsed. 
     
    TOP 5:
    5. Hearth's Warming Eve
    4. Lesson Zero
    3. It's About Time
    2. Sisterhooves Social
    1. The Last Roundup
     
    BOTTOM 5:
    5. May the Best Pet Win
    4. Putting Your Hoof Down
    3. The Cutie Pox
    2. Dragon Quest
    1. The Mysterious Mare Do Well
     
     
    SEASON 3:

    MEH SEASON
    Welp. This a huge step down. Most of these episodes aren't very good, but I can be more lenient since the production was messy. That doesn't excuse some absolute disasters (including one of the only episodes that I outright hate), but I can't get that mad about the rest of the episodes. Besides, there's still one of the best episodes of the show.
     
    TOP 3:
    3. Just For Sidekicks
    2. Too Many Pinkie Pies
    1. Magic Duel
     
    BOTTOM 3:
    3. Magical Mystery Cure
    2. Spike At Your Service
    1. Keep Calm and Flutter On
     
    SEASON 4:

    MEH SEASON
    Well that's unfortunate. I didn't set out to dislike this season, but I just didn't enjoy that many episodes here. There's nothing that I hate as much as Keep Calm and Flutter On (though Three's a Crowd comes close), but so many episodes are so flat and boring. 
    I guess I'll start with the positives. For one, the visuals looks great. The bouncy and charming artstyle of the early years may be gone, but this isn't a bad replacement. There is some fantastic atmosphere is a lot of these episodes and the cinematography specifically got a huge upgrade. I never really appreciated specific shots before, but some of these shots are extremely pretty, especially in Castle Mane-ia.
    I also like a lot of the ideas that this season brings to the show. I like a lot of the new creatures introduced and how they're introduced fairly naturally and some of the lore is also well implemented, specifically, again, in Castle Mane-ia. The whole Equestria Games arc is well paced and I think the games themselves are well handled in their big culminating episode. We get payoff from the set up in Rainbow Falls as well a look at ice archery which looks like a cool sport, all while keeping the episode character focused, which is the appeal of the show to me.
    I'm also not inherently against the gimmick episodes. Having one of the characters turned into a bat, going on an adventure with Daring Do, and the mane six becoming superheroes are all cool ideas.
    I also like a lot of the new characters introduced. Trenderhoof is funny, Suri Polomare is a good antagonist for Rarity, Maud is so good that she became a regular side character later into the show, and the Mane-iac is a great cheesy supervillain.
    And a lot of the other episode ideas are great. Rarity's generosity being turned against her in a unique way compared to Suited For Success, a followup to Sisterhooves Social with an older Sweetie Belle, Pinkie maybe kinda sorta being related to the Apples, a look at Granny Smith without relying on flashbacks, and a couple others. These are all episode ideas that could've made for great stories.
    Plus I have to mention Testing Testing 1, 2, 3. Easily the best episode of the season. Everyone is in character, there's no wasted time, the ending is clever and well foreshadowed, the comedy is consistently funny, and the moral is really good. This is like the Magic Duel of season 4. The episode that's miles above the rest in quality and makes everything else worth it.
    But notice how most of these positives don't mention the meat of the episodes. That's because so many episodes miss their potential.
    Starting with the gimmick episodes, I dislike all three of the ones I mentioned. Daring Don't makes Rainbow so unlikeable that it overshadows any fun that could come from the Daring Do adventure, Power Ponies has no fun with the mane six being superheroes, instead focusing on just playing out a generic superhero story with way too much exposition and a boring Spike plot, and Bats puts forth an argument between Applejack and Fluttershy that then gets ignored once Fluttershy becomes a bat. What's even the point of the argument when it goes nowhere and completely brushes off Applejack's side? The Flutterbat stuff isn't even fun since it's so bland and Flutterbat just acts like a normal vampire fruit bat instead of her personality mixing in with the fruit bat.
    And while the Equestria Games arc itself is well paced and elements of it are well done, the cores of the episodes themselves are flawed. I like Flight to the Finish and Equestria Games, but both episodes suffer from significant pacing issues; especially Equestria Games. And the less said about Rainbow Falls the better.
    Now I'm going to talk about those episode I ideas that I thought could make for good stories. I really do think Rarity Takes Manehattan had a lot of potential, but instead it feels like it's trying to speedrun an emotional arc. For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils is actually pretty solid, but the dream goes on for a while and I still think Sweetie Belle's voice is annoying. I don't know why I hate her voice but I'm fine with all the screaming in Castle Mane-ia. I guess it's just a personal thing. Pinkie being related to the Apples is cool, but the episode itself is really boring. Leap of Faith is both brought up and hurt by the return of Flim and Flam. They have a good song, but the episode relies on Granny Smith forgetting the last Flim and Flam episode. Like, they straight up tried to run Granny Smith out of business. 
    And now I'm going to talk about what might just be the biggest problem with this season. The comedy sucks. Having an episode with drama isn't a bad thing, but those episodes can still be funny. Remember Luna Eclipsed and Sisterhooves Social? That issue hurts quite a few episodes. Specifically Flight to the Finish and Twilight's Kingdom. And then there are episodes that are trying to be funny, but kinda fail. Simple Ways feels like Josh Haber had a couple scenes that he really wanted to write and didn't know how to connect those scenes together. There are specific scenes that are really funny and make me like the episode overall, but there are also a lot of scenes with dead air. Maud Pie is funny for a bit, but the dry humor is pretty much the only joke for a while and it gets old. Somepony to Watch Over Me pushes Applejack's behavior so far that she's more weird and confusing than funny. I could list more, but that'd be way too many episodes and this review is already long enough. And there are some episodes that don't have much drama yet don't attempt many jokes. For example, It Ain't Easy Being Breezies, which spends a lot of time lounging around in Fluttershy's cottage not doing anything when some jokes could've kept things moving before the action gets going again. The only episodes that really capture that balance between comedy and story are Filli Vanilli, Testing Testing, Castle Mane-ia, and Pinkie Pride.
    In fact, Testing Testing, Castle Mane-ia, and Pinkie Pride are the only episodes that I would rewatch without wanting to skip anything. I'd include Filli Vanilli, but Pinkie's so annoying.
    On that note, Pinkie's annoying in most of the season. She's decent in her two focus episodes, she's funny in Testing Testing and Castle Mane-ia, and she's okay in Power Ponies and Daring Don't despite barely doing anything. That's it. In her other episodes, she's either insanely obnoxious (Filli Vanilli), a moron (Three's a Crowd), is one note (Pinkie Apple Pie), or a combination of all three (Rainbow Falls). This is also the point where Pinkie's voice gets really screechy. Season 3 started this trend, but it's even worse here. It infects all of her appearances, even the good ones. Pinkie was honestly my favorite of the mane six during the first two seasons so it's a shame how annoying she is now.
    Speaking of characters who used to be one of favorites but dropped down, it's time to talk about Twilicorn. Twilicorn is not the worst thing in the world and isn't even close to the worst thing about this season. Twilight being a princess only really matters in the premiere and finale. And to be fair, Twilight has a couple of strong appearances. Despite how much I hate Three's a Crowd, she's well characterized in it. She works well in Castle Mane-ia. And Testing Testing has one of her best roles in the show. But in every other episode, she's just a pile of nothing. She has no presence as a side character and completely fails as the lead in both the premiere and finale. She's just so boring and I don't care about her struggles at all.
    There's barely any mentions of Twilight being a princess and when it is brought up, Twilight says that it doesn't matter. So if the show doesn't care, why should I? Twilight's Kingdom is the finale, but even that episode dances (or sings in this case) around the issue of why Twilight's a princess until the ending. And even when she's given a purpose, it doesn't make sense. Just like with Magical Mystery Cure, the ending revelation is not supported by the episode. Twilight only does something in a life or death situation. How is that different from when she wasn't a princess? And Twilight doesn't spread friendship in Twilight's Kingdom. She gives up her magic for her friends, but she would've done that even if she wasn't a princess. And Twilight doesn't reach out to be Discord's friend after he and the mane six are released. She accepts his apology. And she sure doesn't try to spread friendship to Tirek. She fights him and rainbow lasers him back to Tartarus. Needless to say, I still don't understand why Twilight's a princess (aside from selling toys) and I especially don't understand why she's the Princess of Friendship. Even taking the season as a whole into account, she doesn't spread friendship. She helps Rainbow study for her test, but so does everyone else. I guess she tutors the CMC. Sometimes she gives advice to Rainbow. Is that enough to become the Princess of Friendship?
    But again, this isn't even close to the main problem with this season. The main problem is that it's boring. It's not funny, most of the stories aren't entertaining, and that magic from the early years is gone. This isn't the worst thing in the world, but it is a disappointment. And from what I remember, it's only going to get worse. I hope I'm wrong.
     
    TOP 5:
    5. Maud Pie
    4. Filli Vanilli
    3. Pinkie Pride
    2. Castle Mane-ia
    1. Testing Testing 1, 2, 3
     
    BOTTOM 5:
    5. Twilight's Kingdom
    4. Somepony to Watch Over Me
    3. Daring Don't
    2. Rainbow Falls
    1. Three's a Crowd
     
     
     
  8. bigbertha

    .out.of.character. Review

    By bigbertha,


    Fanfic Review
    I just reread .out.of.character. and it's... okay. Like, it still has some good stuff, but it's a lot emptier than I remember. This used to be one of my favorite fanfics, so it's a shame that it dropped so much.
    (SPOILERS IN CASE YOU CARE ABOUT THAT)
    First let's talk about the good stuff. I like Rainbow's characterization. She is supposed to be the only one who's in character so it's important to get her right. If she's out of character too, the whole story and its message falls apart. She does spend a lot of time just reacting to characters being out of character, but it's cool to see her resist the story and she still gets good moments to show off her virtues. She stands up for Fluttershy when Fluttershy runs out of Twilight's library in tears and still shows compassion for Twilight while Twilight is taking out her anger about her immortality on others. She tries really hard to stop Fluttershy from killing herself and Rainbow's bond with Scootaloo not only provides some of the few senses of hope, but also makes the "ending" even more tragic. The ending is definitely the most disturbing part of the story, but in a good way. It also gives more weight to the loop back to the first chapter, which is a nice touch. But the ending also brings up one of the story's biggest issues.
    This story is so heavy handed with its message. It's both a call out on shitty writers who corrupt the characters (think of stuff like Cupcakes or Rainbow Factory) and on readers for giving these stories an audience. The ending is so blatant about it with Rainbow calling out for someone to help and end it that it honestly comes off as more comical than sad. And then there's the part where Lyra just explains the point of the story and what's happening to Ponyville to Rainbow. 
    Many of the call outs work like Rainbow having her wings broken and what's done with Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Twilight, but others don't make sense. Like making Applejack overtly horny doesn't make sense. I've never seen that as being a stereotype in fanfiction and I read a lot of ship fics. She's usually either oblivious, the normal one, or brutally honest. But never overly flirty or horny. Also, this is supposed to be a call out for grimdark stories and bad clichés, but there's a reference to Past Sins. That isn't overly dark and clearly has a lot of effort put into it. I don't think it should be put on the same level as Cupcakes and Cheerilee's Garden. 
    I've been mentioning the message of the story a lot, but that's also a big issue with it. The story ultimately doesn't have much to say. We know that stories that only exist for shock value are bad. We know that dumb clichés like Rainbow always breaking her wings are bad. This isn't going to stop people who enjoy those stories from reading them, so calling out the readers doesn't work. There's nothing here that says something new about the topic. There's a lot of style and it has some positives, but .out.of.character. is not very good overall.
    Score: 6/10
  9. bigbertha
    WARNING: If you can't handle unpopular opinions, get out now. I'm tired of hiding my real opinions.
     
    10. Castle-Mania
    This is the definition of style over substance. It looks nice and shiny with some genuinely good cinematography, but shininess should not be a substitute for an actual story, which this episode barely has. It’s just a bunch of contrivances to get everyone into the same place to do dumb Scooby Doo shenanigans that we’ve seen a million times with no variation, aside from the nice style, I guess. That alone wouldn’t be too bad, but this episode lands in the bottom 10 for two reasons. Number one is the screaming. Everyone is constantly yelling at the top of their lungs and it is so obnoxious. The second problem is Pinkie. She’s barely in the episode yet she’s somehow the worst thing about it. According to this episode, Pinkie can’t keep track of numbers and thinks ringing a school bell means hitting it with her head. Actually, that might explain why she’s so annoying in the rest of season 4. She probably got brain damage from ringing the school bell.

     
    9. The Cutie Mark Chronicles
    This lands here because of how much of a waste of potential it is. Instead of fleshing out the mane six’s cutie mark stories, we get abridged versions that aren’t in depth enough to get interesting. It says that Applejack left the farm, but why? Why would she just abandon the place where she grew up and probably loved just to live in the city and come back? Why does the episode waste time on a pointless Fluttershy song that isn’t even that good? Why is the whole thing framed with the CMC being annoying? Seriously, Scootaloo is really annoying in this episode with her insistence to see Rainbow Dash. The only things that keep this episode from being any lower are a couple good jokes and the ending, which is genuinely sweet, even if it’s ruined by Scootaloo. 

     
    8. Lesson Zero
    This episode’s lesson makes no sense. Why would the mane six not take Twilight seriously. She looks so messy at the picnic so at least one of them should’ve taken her seriously. I mean, not even Fluttershy takes her seriously? Really? And then there’s the tone of the episode. I know that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a mental breakdown, but at least those were short and mostly more comedic. This is a gradual descent into madness and does not fit in My Little Pony. I do not come to this show to be scared by the main character. I like that Twilight doesn’t have to be shoved into every episode anymore, but was this really the only way to accomplish that?
     
    7. The Best Night Ever
    This episode is so boring. The main joke of the episode is that everything goes wrong for the characters. That’s it. And there isn’t even much creativity in making things go wrong. Twilight does nothing. Fluttershy goes crazy in what’s probably the only good subplot in the episode. Pinkie also pretty much does nothing aside from her montage song. Rainbow pretty much does nothing. Applejack pretty much does nothing. And Rarity finds out that the rich snob she likes is actually a rich snob. Shocker. The only things that keep this episode up are the aforementioned Fluttershy stuff and a couple jokes before they go to the gala.

     
    6. Party of One
    This is such a slow episode. It’s a cool idea, but the jokes go on and on, to the point where any humor they could’ve had is sucked away. Does Pinkie have to go over to everyone else’s houses to get their excuses? Do we have to see so much of the characters sneaking around? Do we really have to see Pinkie chasing Rainbow around for the second time in the same season? The worst offenders in terms of overly long jokes are Rainbow and Fluttershy’s excuse and that bit at the barn door. They go on forever. And while Pinkie’s mental breakdown doesn’t break the tone as much as Twilight’s in Lesson Zero, that doesn’t make it any better. It’s still a cliché that was blown out of proportion by the fandom. Characters going crazy was not invented by My Little Pony and it’s been done way better in other cartoons. Also Pinkie forgetting her own birthday is dumb.

     
    5. It’s About Time
    This is just like The Best Night Ever in the sense that it relies on one joke that wasn’t even that funny to begin with. In this episode’s case, the joke is that Twilight is taking everything too seriously. I appreciate that this episode is trying to do a “Twilight goes crazy” episode that’s more in line with the show’s tone, but I at least give Lesson Zero credit for trying to do something interesting, even if it bombed horribly. This episode just rides its one joke to the end. And no; Adding Pinkie does not make the joke any better. In fact, it makes the joke worse since Pinkie is annoying. The contrast between Twilight and Pinkie was obviously supposed to be funny, but it ended up being really grating.

     
    4. Sisterhooves Social
    Sweetie Belle destroys this episode. Like, I get that she’s just a kid, but kids shouldn’t be allowed to get whatever they want just because of good intentions. All of her screwups working out is pure luck and while Rarity overreacted, she shouldn’t have been the only one apologizing at the end. And Sweetie Belle just goes on and on about how Rarity wouldn’t like all the stuff that Applejack and Applebloom are doing. It gets so old. Add all of that on top of a general lack of good jokes and you get a mess of an episode that I never want to watch again.

     
    3. Testing Testing 1, 2, 3
    This episode butchers Rainbow’s character. In this episode, Rainbow needs help to study for a test about the Wonderbolts. What? She’s been a superfan of the Wonderbolts since episode 1; it was one of the first things we learned about her. How would she not know facts about the Wonderbolts? She was able to talk about random plot details from Daring Do books in Daring Don’t, but now she doesn’t know facts about the Wonderbolts? I think that alone completely ruins this episode, but the rest of the episode isn’t any better. It’s just a bunch of Rainbow being whiny while the others try to teach Rainbow in either boring or incredibly unfunny ways.

     
    2. The Last Roundup
    Most of the episodes here have a running problem: They’re wasted potential. And this episode is no exception. Why is this Applejack episode from the rest of the mane six’s perspective. I don’t care if Applejack disappearing is supposed to be a mystery. Maybe the episode would’ve been interesting if we saw Applejack at the rodeo competition going through a conflict. Literally every other member of the mane six has an episode from their perspective going into one of their main flaws. Hell, Fluttershy has TWO. Yet Applejack can’t even have one? Instead of a compelling Applejack episode, we have to follow the rest of the mane six as they slowly reveal how much more interesting this episode could’ve been. And the ending has no impact because we barely see Applejack and what built up to this. Anything build up we do get to Applejack running away is told to us. Because of this, I can’t connect to Applejack and she continues to be a bland sack of nothing. Thank god season 4 came along to give her an actual personality because this is ridiculous. 

     
    1. Magic Duel
    This is the biggest waste of the entire show. It tries to be big and dramatic, but can’t develop anything which makes it seem like a joke. A sad and pathetic joke. Trixie coming back should be cool, but it’s all very silly. Twilight gets thrown out of Ponyville, but then she goes to Zecora and goes through a training montage that ends up meaning nothing. The rest of the mane six try to get to Twilight, but it’s just another Fluttershy is weak and scared joke. It’s too comedic to be dramatic and too dramatic to be comedic. It just doesn’t blend well. And then when Trixie is defeated she just runs off, presumably forgiven which completely deflates any tension that might’ve still existed. So what’s the point here? It tries to be a bunch of different things, but none of those things are developed which makes the episode feel like a giant pile of mush.
  10. bigbertha

    Fanfic Recommendations Vol. 4

    By bigbertha,


    Fanfic Recommendations
    It is happening again.
     
    1. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/142309/after-the-flame
    I don't read AppleDash very often, but this is a nice look into how Rainbow Dash reacts to growing old.
    2. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/3260/the-little-pink-pony
    Sad Pinkie backstories are nothing new, but this is one of the best out there and definitely the best I've read. Easily one of my favorite MLP fanfics.
    3. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/85410/resignation
    I'm a sucker for anti-Twilicorn stories, but unfortunately most of them suck, for many reasons. This one stands out by actually being decent.
    4. https://thirtyminuteponies.tumblr.com/post/25694838146/prompt-23-harmony-by-bombastic-bookman
    Now for sone Thirty Minute Ponies stories. It's an old tumblr blog that ran from June 2012 to February 2014. A lot of the mods were TwiPie fans so there's a lot of good TwiPie there, including this (and I guess there's some good non-TwiPie stuff if you're into that)
    5. https://thirtyminuteponies.tumblr.com/post/29347902028/prompt-74-the-sky-the-clouds-and-you-by
    This is so fluffy and cute. I love it so much.
    6. https://thirtyminuteponies.tumblr.com/post/29350245478/prompt-74-predictably-pinkie-by-baby-seal
    Who doesn't love nervous Twilight?
    7. https://thirtyminuteponies.tumblr.com/post/30375587204/prompt-89-best-mares-by-donnys-boy
    Cute look at Twilight and Pinkie's wedding from multiple perspectives. 
    8. https://thirtyminuteponies.tumblr.com/post/30435638185/prompt-90-a-typical-saturday-morning-in-the
    It's exactly what the title says and it's great.
    9. https://thirtyminuteponies.tumblr.com/post/31254409307/prompt-102-for-the-greater-good-by-donnys-boy
    This is an interesting way to portray Pinkie's past. and it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility. We know she left the rock farm, but that doesn't mean she had to have gone to Ponyville right away. What if she just went to a different nearby town before going to Ponyville?
    10. https://thirtyminuteponies.tumblr.com/post/30778293402/prompt-95-99-pink-balloons-by-rwlart
    This is so joyous and fun. It's exactly the kind of stuff I can see Twilight and Pinkie doing together.
     
  11. bigbertha

    Fanfic Recommendations Vol. 3

    By bigbertha,


    Fanfic Recommendations
    Here we go again. More stories that I think are really great.
     
    1. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/114900/p3-project-episode-10-the-best-smiles
    TwiPie friendshipping. I love their dynamic and Pinkie teaching Twilight to skate. It's adorable in all the best ways.
    2. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/412911/just-two-clones-having-dinner
    There are tons of stories about Pinkie clones that didn't get zapped, but this one puts an interesting spin on the idea by pairing the Pinkie clone with evil Twilight. The bond between them is nice and feels like it could set up a whole series of these two's misadventures.
    3. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/3270/sparkles-law
    This one isn't exactly underrated (it has 38K views), but I have to mention it because it's so hilarious. There are a bunch of mini plots and they're all incredible, from Rainbow's fight with birds to Applejack's food war. Besides, I still don't hear that much about this story. I hear much more about Twilight Sparkle Gets a Free Salad, a less viewed comedy from the same author. I personally prefer Sparkle's Law since Twilight Sparkle Gets a Free Salad is a bit too random for me. 
    4. https://www.ponyfictionarchive.net/viewstory.php?sid=33
    This is a very strong and emotional story, and that's coming from someone who generally doesn't like stories focused on OCs. 
    5. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/14554/home-grown
    This is one of AbsoluteAnonymous's best stories and deserves much more attention than a dumb comedy like Pinkie Watches Paint Dry. Home Grown is a fantastic look at Applejack as a character and her coming to accept her feelings for Rarity. I love that it doesn't force in a love confession where Rarity says that she's always had a crush on Applejack too. It's just a small step towards what might grow into a romantic relationship.
    6. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/9235/friends-and-lovers
    A series of short romantic one shots with mane six ships. Obviously, my favorites are the TwiPie ones.
    7. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/448318/learning-to-love
    This and the sequel are some of the. better RariDash stories out there. They work off each other really well and both stories are very fun rides.
    8. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/297613/chocolate-milk
    Another great RariDash story, though that's to be expected since it's written by Monochromatic. Her Rarity is one of the best of the entire fandom.
    9. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/457015/festivus-for-the-restivus
    There is some TwiPie here, but I'd still recommend this to people who don't like shipping since it's more focused on general comedy that shipping. 
    10. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/399247/best-friends-forever
    I highly recommend both this and the sequel. SciTwi and Sunset work incredibly together and you know it's a great story when it can support itself solely off its character interactions.
    11. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/388195/dont-want-perfection
    This is like Home Grown, but for Rarity. It's not quite as good as Home Grown, but it's still pretty great.
    12. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/233654/au-naturel
    This alternate ending to Simple Ways is better than Simple Ways in literally every way. And that's not just because it's romance.
    13. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/18032/sweet-nothings
    Adorable RainbowPie by AbsoluteAnonymous. 
    14. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/58583/no-recipe-for-perfection
    This is it. This is THE RariPie story. Everything flows so naturally which makes the ending one of the most satisfying of any shipfic.
    15. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/444188/seeking-love-in-laughter
    This and all of the other FlutterPie stories from this author are all great. These stories are what made me a FlutterPie shipper. Fluttershy and Pinkie are so well written and adorable.
    16. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/87519/between-chaos-and-creation
    And this is a much less happy look at FlutterPie. It shows how Fluttershy and Pinkie met long before the events of the show and even before they moved to Ponyville. If your suspension of disbelief can't go that far, you won't like this story. If you can accept that, you'll find an extremely interesting origin story with some well written FlutterPie. The ending is open ended about whether they stay together, but I like to think they do.
    17. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/322327/raritys-lucky-charm
    Monochromatic strikes again, this time with some adorable RariPie. 
    18. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/469779/alls-fair-in-love-and-war-games
    Short and sweet RariPie.
    19. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/461560/the-time-killer
    Another cute RariPie one shot.
    20. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/440174/flowers-for-the-leading-mare
    More cute RariPie, this time with a fun little twist.
    21. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/308675/pinkie-pie-goes-on-a-rollicking-adventure-through-time-and-plushies-almost-as-if-she-was-launched-from-a-love-trampoline-and-then-doughnuts-happen
    Don't let the title scare you away. This is definitely a strange premise and Pinkie's characterization is a little off, it's not a "LOL RANDEM" story. This is a great TwiPie story with some strong emotional moments and adorable filly Twilight.
    22. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/199158/leave-no-trope-unturned
    Short and sweet TwiPie that mocks some shipping tropes.
    23. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/11316/finding-your-rhythm
    Kinda conventional by shipping standards, but it's TwiPie so I still love it.
    24. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/14177/a-selection-of-sappy-sweet-and-sometimes-somber-short-stories-and-snapshots
    Not all of these one shots are created equal, but you should at least read Alliteration. 
    25. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/113168/it-started-with-a-hoof
    This is unfinished, but what is here is fantastic. This is some of the best TwiPie interaction I've seen and it makes me really sad that it's incomplete.
    26. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/8516/experimental-variables
    A rare use of second person (that's not a self insert) is used to great effect here. It builds some great tension which makes the final kiss very satisfying.
    27. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/1610/causality
    This was the first BIG TwiPie story. Not the first ever, but the first to go really in depth with it and take it seriously. And after all these years, it still holds up. Twilight and Pinkie's relationship could've been expanded on a bit more, but what's here works well and the catalyst is extremely creative.
    28. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/16647/darkly-dreaming-pinkie
    This is probably the cutest TwiPie story I've ever read.
    29. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/420191/a-beautiful-night
    This is the closest TwiPie has to something like The Enchanted Library. It's a big alternate universe epic with a wonderfully written TwiPie core. This is written by the same guy who wrote Passion and Reason so of course the dialogue is top notch, but there's so much more to this one and it's all great.
    30. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/259734/pinkies-proposal
    Pinkie proposing to Twilight sounds really boring, but some good comedy and a cute ending make this one stand out.
    31. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/19594/genuine
    An interesting look into Pinkie as a character. Also TwiPie.
    32. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/364345/passion-and-reason
    I'm not quite sure if I'd call this the best TwiPie story of all time, but it's up there. The dialogue is perfect and the development of the relationship is incredibly smooth. The ending kiss is completely justified, which circumvents an issue that many ship fics fall into.
    33. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/286274/the-interview
    If you like RariLight, you have to read Monochromatic's work. And I'm not just talking about her big stuff like The Enchanted Library and Injuring Eternity. I'm talking everything from the silly one shots to the Bodyguard AU. They're all fantastic.
  12. bigbertha

    Fanfic Recommendations Vol. 2

    By bigbertha,


    Fanfic Recommendations
    I think it's pretty obvious at this point that I'm a big fan of romances in fanfiction. It makes up most of what I read, but it doesn't make up everything. Shipping is only a small percentage of the grand total of fanfiction so today I'm going to shed light on some non-shipping stories that I think deserve more attention.
    1. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/14298/petriculture
    This one has such an interesting idea of Pinkie's past. It doesn't have much more than the idea, but I think the concept alone is enough for me to recommend this.
    2. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/408425/tactical-espionage-fashion
    Here's a not romantic look at Pinkie and Rarity's chemistry.
    3. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/24084/the-road-to-ponyville
    This is an extremely funny "road to" story, once again focusing on Pinkie and Rarity.
    4. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/462267/what-is-a-pie
    And here's one more RariPie friendshipping story.
    5. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/220529/refraction
    This fic hits pretty hard. It has a unique concept and uses it to examine how much Twilight's friends mean to her.
    6. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/430360/brain-problem-situation
    This entry represents most of Tumbleweed's stories. He's a very funny writer.
    7. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/49829/what-is-a-name
    This one has some issues, but it has an interesting concept that's played out pretty well.
    8. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/386111/the-choices-we-make
    I think everyone should read this at least once.
    9. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/339006/as-i-lay-smiling
    This a great look at Pinkie's sisters and how they feel about her.
    10. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/351430/canterlot-cooking-calamity
    This is one's just really funny. 
  13. bigbertha

    Fanfic Recommendations Vol. 1

    By bigbertha,


    Fanfic Recommendations
    This is just going to be a casual thing where I recommend some fanfics that I think deserve more attention. And yes, they're all ship fics.
     
    1. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/488838/sukidakara-because-i-like-you
    This fic kinda makes me want to die because it's really sad. But it's also pretty great so read it if you don't mind the sadness.
    2. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/169705/dont-be-too-hasty
    A nice FlutterPie story that's short, sweet, and to the point.
    3. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/341496/the-compromise
    I think i talked about this way back when I first reviewed The End in Friend. I stand by what I said. Rainbow and Rarity have great chemistry.
    4. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/131375/putting-our-heads-together
    Ah yes. Polyamory. This combines three of my favorite ships into a weird yet also very funny one shot. 
    5. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/132375/oh-spoony
    More funny polyamory.
    6. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/21814/candy-apple
    Believe it or not, not all of the ship fics I like are gay. Most of them are, but this one is pretty great. PinkieMac works surprisingly well.
    7. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/167615/injuring-eternity
    You have not lived until you've read this. I'd say this is Monochromatic's magnum opus, even more so than The Enchanted Library. That said, I'm probably not going to reread this anytime soon because I don't feel like crying like a baby.
    8. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/104616/truly-irreplaceable
    This fic is incredibly tightly written. It's almost 5K words, but it feels so much shorter since there's no filler.
    9. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/348743/kawka-supay
    Pinkie and Twilight fighting lovecraftian monsters is such a genius idea.
    10. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/132115/just-being-pinkie-pie
    I'm not a huge fan of RainbowPie, but I still like it, mostly for stories like this.
  14. bigbertha
    For anyone who doesn't know, The Combinatorics Project is a story that ships every possible combination of the mane six in one story. I really like the story, but not all ships are created equal. So I thought it'd be fun to rank all of the ships to see what is the OTP. Or at least the OTP in this story.
    If you haven't read The Combinatorics Project, I highly recommend it, but you don't have to before reading this.
     
     
    15. TwiDash (the angster and her secret admirer)
    I really don’t like how this was portrayed. Chapter 3 in general is easily the weakest in the series and TwiDash is a big reason why. The chapter is told from Rainbow’s perspective so her ship is the most important to get right. The chapter is about Dash looking for love as a straight mare in a world where being gay is the norm. That’s actually a clever idea since a story like this would lead you to expect that everyone is gay. But that also leads to an issue when Dash has to get together with Twilight at the end. So how is this problem resolved? Does it end with the relationship simply not working since Dash is straight? Nope! Twilight turns herself into a stallion and Dash is just completely fine with it. It’s not like Dash shows interest in Twilight emotionally throughout the chapter and her feelings don’t fully click until Twilight turns herself into a stallion. Dash shows no romantic interest in Twilight and seems to only get with her for surface level reasons. Dash is touched that Twilight put so much time into doing something for her, but that thing that Twilight put so much time into was changing herself to fit what Dash wants. That’s not healthy and the ending makes it seem like the relationship is going to fall apart later on. 
     
    14. RariJack (the industrial mavens)
    This is the other big reason why chapter 3 is the worst one. The problem here is simple. Applejack and Rarity outright state that they’re too different to live together. It makes me wonder how they even got together if they think they’re so incompatible.
     
    13. PinkieDash (the multiversal adventurers)
    There’s a whole 36K word appendix showing Pinkie and Dash’s adventure to find a cure for Rarity yet I still don’t believe their relationship. That is sad. I guess it’s because the chapter is more focused on the adventure and Pinkie musing on the various dimensions they go to. But there still could’ve been some development. All that’s there is Pinkie thinking they’re destined to be together because of weird forth wall stuff that chapter 5 goes into more detail on. That morphs into actual love way too quickly and then eventually Pinkie and Dash get together. The appendix as a whole is a fun read, but not for the PinkieDash.
     
    12. FlutterDash (the weather aficionados)
    There’s nothing inherently wrong with this relationship, but it just feels so disconnected from every other ship. Maybe that’s because it’s like a detour in its chapter. The relationship ties into the overall story in the sense that they refuse to take Celestia’s offer to see if their relationship is real or fabricated by the elements, but they just appear in the middle, make their decision, and leave. It’s even worse because the chapter has to actively switch perspectives to force a more in depth look at FlutterDash in. Chapter 4 is mostly told from Pinkie’s perspective, but it switches to Fluttershy’s in the middle. This is the only time a perspective change happens mid-chapter so it’s very jarring and makes the ship stand out in a bad way.
     
    11. RariShy (the curse victim and caretaker)
    Chapter 5 is much more story driven than the other chapters so it makes sense that it doesn’t go that deep into RariShy. Rarity suffers from a curse for most of the chapter; she can’t exactly do much. But from what is shown, it seems to work. It builds as Fluttershy takes care of Rarity and they get together before Rarity gets too bad. I like Fluttershy getting really protective over Rarity.
     
    10. AppleShy (the commune farmers)
    I don’t have much to say about them. They’re cute together. 
     
    9. RariDash (the celebrity marriage)
    This is a very believable way to show Rarity and Rainbow’s relationship. It uses their big personalities and big plans for the future to bring them together. The main issue is that we barely see the couple. Chapter 1 is about Rarity visiting the other two couples and Rarity sets off to Ponyville pretty quickly. But from what we see, the interaction between them feels natural. I especially like those last lines before Rarity leaves. It’s a great way to show off their dynamic.
     
    8. RariTwi (the burlesque showmares)
    This is a very strange place to take RariTwi. I never thought I’d see Twilight in a burlesque act, but now I have and it kinda works. Mostly because it’s made clear later on that Twilight only did the burlesque act for Rarity. Rarity and Twilight work well on stage, and the fact that we don’t see much of them outside of the stage works to the chapter’s favor. Chapter 4 is all about the idea that all of the mane six ending up with each other was caused by the elements. Celestia offers to remove the connection between the mane six and the elements. As I said before, Fluttershy and Rainbow refuse, but the rest go through with it. And as it turns out, Rarity and Twilight don’t have real feelings for each other. Or at least, Rarity doesn’t have feelings for Twilight. Twilight is pretty sad at supposedly being dumped by Rarity. It’s an interesting twist for the story and it’s definitely more realistic than I was expecting. Sometimes relationships just don’t work out that perfectly. This is contradicted by TwiDash and PinkieDash somehow working out, but that doesn’t take away from the RariTwi story.
     
    7. TwiShy (the hopeless homebodies)
    These two act as the main driving force of chapter 2. The chapter is about Celestia worrying that Twilight and Fluttershy’s marriage is too stale, so Twilight sees the other two couples to see how they keep their relationships fresh. Since the story is from Twilight’s perspective, we get a pretty good idea of how Twilight and Fluttershy’s relationship works and it’s cute. They’re overly sweet, talk about pet names, and generally live a very peaceful life. It’s not much, but it’s a nice respite from how weird some of the other relationships are.
     
    6. FlutterPie (the model train overlords)
    Speaking of weird relationships, this might just be the weirdest one. So Fluttershy and Pinkie have a giant miniature town set up in Fluttershy’s cottage. They treat the mini-figures like they’re alive and apparently don’t go out much anymore. Fluttershy spends less time taking care of animals and Pinkie doesn’t plan parties anymore. It’s so strange, and yet I kinda like it. I think they’re supposed to be creepy on some level, so that makes the strangeness work. Also Pinkie destroying the mini town is pretty funny, especially since this apparently happens often. And at least I can tell that this is supposed to feel wrong, unlike TwiDash which I have no idea if I was supposed to take seriously or not.
     
    5. TwiJack (the orchard grafters)
    This is a very cute and fun relationship. A lot of that has to do with chapter 5 being from Applejack’s perspective, so the relationship gets more depth than a lot of other ones. There’s nothing amazing here, but it’s very well done and believable.
     
    4. AppleDash (the rivals in love)
    This one is just funny. It plays up the competitiveness of the two of them, but in a good way. This is easily the funniest relationship in the series. There’s no focus on believability or strong emotional beats. It’s only focused on being fun, and not in a creepy way like FlutterPie.
     
    3. ApplePie (the dessert caterers)
    ApplePie may be my least favorite of the mane six ships, but I can’t deny that it’s very well executed here. It’s not super in depth, but it’s easily the most believable ApplePie that I’ve read. There’s one big scene dedicated to showing off the relationship and it works. Pinkie is able to just be herself around Applejack and Applejack likes listening to Pinkie talk. I really like Applejack’s line at the end of the scene. And then there’s the ending of the chapter (this relationship is in chapter 4) which is a very strong emotional moment. It’s a good callback to the beginning of the chapter and it’s nice to see that their love still shines through, even without the influence of the elements. There’s also a cute little scene in chapter 5 showing a little more of their relationship.
     
    2. TwiPie (the mad scientists)
    This is a very funny and unique take on TwiPie. Twilight and Pinkie innovating science in such disturbing ways is a great way to fit Twilight’s love for research with Pinkie’s craziness. The stuff they talk about in their section is really funny and gives a great sense of what their usual dynamic is like. It helps that the way they got together makes actual sense and helps to ground their relationship instead of it being completely absurd. The creativity on display with their section is truly a sight to behold and Rarity’s reaction to them is just the cherry on top.
     
    1. RariPie (the masquerade hosts)
    This is the perfect balance of believability and fun. Rarity and Pinkie throwing masquerade parties makes complete sense and brings their passions together perfectly. Their dynamic is funny and natural. It’s not the most emotional or the funniest, but Rarity and Pinkie work together so effortlessly without exaggerating their characters that I have to put them at number 1. Also I have a RariPie bias. 

     
    So those are my thoughts on the ships in The Combinatorics Project. If anyone disagrees I’d love to hear why.
  15. bigbertha

    Pony Shipping Tier List

    By bigbertha,


    Ships
    TWIPIE: So this is the best ship because they compliment each other so well. Pinkie can push Twilight to do new things and get away from her books while Twilight can bring Pinkie down to earth. They bounce off each other so naturally I think their relationship would be a ton of fun. I think this ship peaked in seasons 1 + 2 since they got so much screen time together. They got two co-star episode with Feeling Pinkie Keen and MMMystery, another episode where they were together for a good chunk of it with It's About Time, Twilight cameoed in both Pinkie's focus episodes in season 2, and they got a little moment in Luna Eclipsed. The ship was never the same after Twilight became a princess, but I can still revel in the golden days of TwiPie and I still think it's the best ship.
    RARIPIE: There wasn't that much evidence for this ship until season 6, but I still can't help but think these two would work really well together. They both came from humble beginnings to follow their dreams. They can both be pretty extreme, but they can be there for each other when they go too far. They're both extremely creative and can create a very natural and breezy dynamic. I still prefer TwiPie because TwiPie is a lot more fun, but RariPie feels like the most stable ship for Pinkie and I kinda like it more the more I think about it. The best examples of RariPie are No Recipe For Perfection and The Combinatorics Project. Also read The Road to Ponyville. It's not romance, but it's a much better "road to" story than Road to Friendship.
    RARILIGHT: Blame Monochromatic. There's really not much else I can say. She writes this ship so well that all I have to do to convince you of this ship is to tell you to read one of Monochromatic's stories. Maybe one of her shorter and fluffier stories.
    RARIJACK: Ah. My old OTP. It's not that I don't love RariJack anymore. It's just that I like other ships more. Either way, this is still a really good ship. They're both hard workers who can respect each other and appreciate each other's quirks. The only reason RariJack lowered over the years is because I think it's not quite as interesting as the ships I put higher. Still, good ship. 
    APPLEDASH: This ship is so obvious that it's kinda sorta maybe canon in the finale. And that's part of why the ship isn't any higher for me. It doesn't have the spark that my favorite ships have. But points for believability.
    FLUTTERPIE: For a while I thought this ship could never work. I mean, they're pretty much polar opposites. But then I read Leafdoggy's series of FlutterPie stories and now I get it. If we’re talking about early Fluttershy and Pinkie, then this obviously wouldn’t work. Not all opposites attract. But if we’re talking about late series Fluttershy, this could totally work. As the show went on, Fluttershy developed more of a backbone and could easily call out Pinkie when she goes too far. Outside of that, I can see Fluttershy and Pinkie cuddling together and Pinkie helping Fluttershy with her animals. It’d be cute.
    APPLESHY: This just seems like a cute ship. Nothing really stand out about it, but cute. 
    TWISHY: Same as AppleShy. Cute, but not much more.
    RAINBOWPIE: While Rarity and Pinkie get better the more I think about them, the opposite happens with Pinkie and Dash. That’s not to say I don’t think it could work because it can. Rainbow and Pinkie already have a strong friendship and that could morph into love. But Rainbow is pushing for higher things in life and Pinkie will try to spend more time with Rainbow in really dumb ways. Just look at Wonderbolts Academy. Honestly I think they’re pretty close to the tier below this, but I’ve seen too many solid fics about them to do that.
    RARIDASH: This is an extremely explosive ship. They’ve both got ambition and they both have big personalities, but whether that’s a good thing or not depends on the writer. I can see it easily going both ways. I can see this being really fun or a complete disaster. Both make for good stories, but many of those stories end in a bitter breakup.
    TWIDASH: I know that these two are the most popular ship, but I think I have an inherent bias against this ship because of TwiPie being my OTP. To be fair to them, I think Rainbow works with alicorn Twilight better than Pinkie. There are many reasons for that. Twilight lost most of her edge after becoming an alicorn (and thus her ability to keep Pinkie in check), Twilight and Rainbow gained more things in common (flying), and the show just shifted its focus towards Twilight and Rainbow rather than Twilight and Pinkie. But I can’t see Rainbow with unicorn Twilight at all. They both like reading, but there’s nothing else there.
    TWIJACK: I don’t see much here. They both respect each other and I guess a relationship could work, but eh. I don’t really get it.
    FLUTTERDASH:  I know that they’re childhood friends and I guess they can complement each other, but I can’t see them moving past friendship. There’s nothing about them that screams romance to me.
    RARISHY: I don’t see these two going past friendship. A relationship could easily work, but when I look at Rarity and Fluttershy, I only see friends.
    APPLEPIE: I don’t get this at all. There’s a reason this is the least shipped couple out of the mane six. I’ve seen attempts at making this work, but I’ve never bought them outside of a few short one shots and maybe The Combinatorics Project.
    OMNISHIP: There’s some cute fluff with the omniship, but there’s no chance in hell that this could work in anything more than a short fluffy one shot. Polyamorous couples of three can work, but all of the mane six together is insane.
     
    SOME OTHER SHIPS THAT AREN'T MANE SIX + MANE SIX:
    SPARITY: This ship and all the others that ship Spike with one of the mane six are insane. Spike is a kid. This is creepy. (goes under No).
    STARTRIX: There’s a reason there are so many episodes with these two. They have a great dynamic. They’re similar enough to get along well and Starlight is there to be the voice of reason when Trixie goes too far. (goes under Pretty Great).
    STARBURST: Sunburst just doesn’t have enough personality to him. There is an episode in season 8 with just them and that was pretty good, but I just don’t get the same spark as I do with Startrix. Still, it does work. (goes under Solid).
    FLUTTERMAC: These two just don’t have much interaction. I guess this could work since they’re both quiet and I could see Fluttershy having a crush on Big Mac, but the reciprocation is where I don’t quite get it. Still, it’s not bad. (goes under …it can work, I guess).
    FLUTTERCORD: I don’t like shipping Discord with anyone. He looks like a creepy old guy so any ships with him are inherently uncomfortable. Fluttershy and Discord have a nice dynamic, but anything more than friendship is creepy as hell. (goes under No).
    CHEESEPIE: Boring, but it works. They’re pretty much the same character so of course they have enough similarities, and I guess a fic could make some differences between them, but I can't see a relationship between them being interesting. The only place I saw a spark between them was in their Friends Forever comic, but that’s it. (goes under ...it can work, I guess).
    TWILESTIA: I know Twilight is an adult and technically an equal to Celestia since they're both princesses, but this is still creepy to me. (goes under No).
     
    So what have we learned? I've learned that Pinkie is the most shippable of the mane six with 4/5 of her ships being at least solid, though Rarity comes at a close second. Rainbow is the least shippable of the mane six with only 2/5 of her ships being at least solid.
     
     
     
     
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