bigbertha

This is such a boring season. Most episodes push more towards the middle and even my least favorite episode (The Cart Before the Ponies) isn't my least favorite because of bad story choices or whatever. It's my least favorite because it has literally no substance. And too many other episodes come dangerously close to that like Buckball Season, P.P.O.V., and The Gift of the Maud Pie. There are some episodes that stick out, but most of those stick out negatively, those being No Second Prances, Every Little Thing She Does, and 28 Pranks Later. But even 28 Pranks Later is only really frustrating in the first half. The second half is just boring. That said, this does have my favorite episode since Wonderbolts Academy in Stranger Than Fan Fiction, but aside from that episode, Newbie Dash, and maybe Where the Apple Lies, none of the good episode stand out as being really good. The entire season feels like the aiming for a lower demographic than the previous seasons. I know this is a kids show, but this season is where it feels the most like it. The animation seems more desperate than ever with "wacky" faces being much more common and the voice acting is much less dynamic and interesting. It sounds like the main cast are just going through the motions. This has been a problem since season 4, but it's more noticeable now than ever. And the writing also falls into the trap of going through the motions. Most episodes follow very simple stories and don't do anything to make them fun or interesting. There aren't any witty back and forths or good character interactions in most episodes leaving them as generic stories told in boring ways. But despite all of this, I still prefer it over season 5. Season 5 was much more interesting and tried to be different, but most of those attempts ended in spectacular failures. That's definitely more interesting to talk about, but I'd rather watch season 6 since it's much less frustrating. I guess you could say that season 5 was more successful since it actually got a reaction out of me, which is what all art should do, while season 6 barely did anything noteworthy, but that doesn't change the fact that season 6 has much fewer failures. And yes, I understand the irony of me calling this season uninteresting to talk about while writing a longer review for this season than the ones before. BEST: Stranger Than Fan Fiction, Newbie Dash, Where the Apple Lies WORST: The Cart Before the Ponies, 28 Pranks Later, Every Little Thing She Does

I like this two parter, but mostly for part 2. Part 1 starts out fine, but the Changelings capturing Twilight and the others doesn't make sense because when Starlight gets back, the Changelings there are portrayed as incompetent in their jobs. Starlight and Trixie are able to walk right into the castle at night and see the Changelings reveal themselves. Apparently they got no direction from Chrysalis on how the mane six act since they're so bad at it. Even the Twilight Changeling, while being better than the rest, still gives advice that makes it clear that this isn't the real Twilight. With them being so bad at their jobs, how did they even capture the main six in the first place? And why did Chrysalis capture Spike, but not Starlight. She says that she didn't think it was worth capturing Starlight, so why was it worth it to capture Spike? All of these questions make part 1 less enjoyable since it's focused on exposition for the most part. Not everything is bad in part 1, like Starlight's internal conflict and Trixie being really fun, but in terms setting up the story, it's not very good. Part 2 on the other hand is much more fun. Now that all of the story stuff is out of the way, part 2 is able to focus more on the dynamics between the characters and Starlight's internal conflict, AKA the best parts of part 1. Trixie and Discord have funny banter and everyone works well together. The constant tension keeps things interesting the whole way through, all culminating in the meeting with Queen Chrysalis where she's at her most threatening. There's also Starlight's internal conflict which, while not as good as Twilight's in A Canterlot Wedding, is good enough to give some substance to the adventure and Trixie's speech to her is sweet. The ending does sour things a little though. I get why the other Changelings decide to follow Thorax's example. Thorax isn't hungry anymore and the Changelings don't want to be constantly starving. Simple stuff. The problem I have is how the other Changelings are able to shoot the love beams. Thorax being able to do it is believable enough since he does have love, but the other Changelings are constantly starving and that implies that they don't have a lot of love. Yet they're able to shoot beams just as powerful as Thorax's. Also that scene is way too cheesy for my tastes, especially the line, "I can feel the love inside me slipping away", which is by far the worst line of the season. Overall though, this is a good episode. Sure, part 1 isn't that good, but it still has its fun moments. And the ending is underwhelming, but most of part 2 is really good. Score: 7/10

All of the tension in this episode comes from a conflict that makes no sense. How the hell could Vapor have been helping Sky for their entire lives with nobody noticing? When Rainbow and Twilight notice, it's made very obvious that Vapor is helping Sky which just makes this entire episode even more contrived since apparently Spitfire couldn't notice this while Rainbow could. And there's a scene where Sky zooms out of frame... without Vaper. That one inconsistency alone doesn't break my suspension of disbelief, but combined with everything else it certainly does. And this conflict is the main focus of the episode. The entire thing is about helping Sky and Vaper so this situation not making sense destroys this episode. It's not like there are other things to bring the episode up. Twilight and Rainbow's dynamic is better than Rarity and Pinkie's and Applejack and Fluttershy's, but they're still not great together. There are a few good jokes and there aren't any other problems aside from the main one, but that main problem is enough to ruin the episode. Score: 3/10

This one's cute. It's a bit too shallow for my tastes, but it's decent enough for a short.

This is a pretty good episode. Unlike most of the other more simple episodes this season, this episode has a fun spin on its pretty basic liar revealed story. Applejack and Big Mac have a great dynamic and the dialogue between them is really fun to listen to. Everything is paced well the tension of the situation is kept high enough to keep me invested the entire time. There are some issues like Big Mac having no reason to stop talking and Granny Smith not recognizing that Big Mac's arm is an arm and not a tree branch, but those are pretty minor in an otherwise enjoyable episode. Score: 7/10

This episode is really dumb and not funny enough to make up for it. The episode makes it obvious that it doesn't care about its story because of the ending with the stupid sea monster twist. This is just an excuse to tell a bunch of jokes. But the jokes aren't that good because they're all the same. The joke is that a character is being flanderized. That's most of the jokes in the episode and they get old quickly. This leads to a pretty dull and stupid episode. I do like the little bits showing Twilight and Spike's dynamic and there are a couple jokes within the stories that are funny, but they're not enough to make up for everything else. Score: 4/10

The big problem here is that Starlight isn't forced to face her biggest fault. She's called out for brainwashing the main five, but the issue is that she doesn't feel any remorse before that point isn't mentioned. Starlight learns that she shouldn't deal with things all at once and should instead take her time with tasks, but she doesn't learn that she shouldn't go to such extremes as brainwashing ponies because she can't handle something. I'm not convinced that Starlight won't brainwash more ponies. All I know is that it won't be because she wants to do multiple tasks at once. It feels like the episode misses its point and is thus unsatisfying in the end. And it makes a likability problem with Starlight since she's brainwashing her friends and doesn't face the realization that she doesn't feel remorse for her terrible actions until she's told that what she does is terrible. A vast majority of the episode is ruined by Starlight being really unlikable. Lesson Zero also had a character go to large extremes for a simple problem, but there was escalation in Twilight's craziness there and she recognized her screw up and felt guilty for it after everything became out of control. The situation was also treated with the seriousness it deserved with Celestia coming down from the sky and the real threat of Twilight being seriously punished. In this episode, Starlight is crazy enough to brainwash her friends from the start, doesn't feel guilty for a while, and she's punished with apologizing. All of the jokes come from how disturbingly the main five act after Starlight's spell, but because of Starlight being unlikable, it's more creepy than funny. The audience doesn't sympathize with Starlight being nervous about spending time with the mane five because that's overshadowed by how disturbing the main five act and how Starlight sees nothing wrong with it. Also, "chillaxing" is stupid and never becomes funny. That all said, a few jokes are able to transcend Starlight being unlikable, like many of Applejack's one sentence summaries. And Starlight does seem like she really wants to be better and is shown at least trying to make the effort at the end. This keeps her from delving into completely unsympathetic territories as I do still want to see her get better. It's just that this episode ignores Starlight's bigger problems for more small scale issues, slowing down her arc and making her unlikable for a majority of this episode. Score: 3/10

This entire episode is about a mystery. This wouldn't be a problem if the episode didn't give the most obvious hints ever about what the solution is. It's painfully obvious that Gladmane is the antagonist and other characters outright state his plan. It's true that this isn't the only episode with an obvious mystery, but those episodes had other things to bring them up like the style in Rarity Investigates and the comedy in MMMmystery on the Friendship Express. The only thing this episode has is Flim and Flam who don't have enough screen time to be really fun. In the end, this is just a boring episode. Score: 5/10

I don't feel strongly either way towards this episode. The story is fairly well done (though the third act is pretty uninteresting since it's based on a twist that's obvious from the start), but there's not much else to it. There's not any good comedy and Gabby gets pretty annoying at times. I like the ending, but that's the only thing that really sticks out here. Score: 6/10

This is such a mediocre episode. There are a couple things I like, like Snails and the game of Buckball being interesting, but most of the episode is so boring and somewhat frustrating with Pinkie's really grating voice. Score: 4/10

This is okay. I think the episode drags quite a bit in the second act and Discord is hit or miss with his jokes, but I like Discord bringing the game to life and most of the episode is mildly amusing. Score: 6/10

There's nothing that wrong here, but this is way to basic to be that interesting. The friendship between Spike and Thorax is pretty shallow, there aren't any good jokes, the song at the end is way too cheesy, and nothing about the episode stands out. Score: 5/10

The big problem with this episode is how much of a jerk Rainbow is. From the very first scene, Rainbow is established as being uncaring and callous. This attitude stays through the entire first half. When the others call out Rainbow for her prank on Fluttershy, she continues to see nothing wrong with it and doubles down on pranking everyone. So at this point, it doesn't even matter if the pranks she pulls are funny or not since she's already unlikeable. The entire first half is just an unlikeable asshole pranking everyone while the others are rightfully pissed off. I honestly have no idea how this is supposed to be seen as funny. These kinds of stories need escalation. If you start with by far the worst prank and establish the character as insufferable, it taints the rest of their pranks and makes it less fun to watch. It's not like there's an kind of emotional connection to Rainbow to give some intrigue to her actions like there was in MMDW. In MMDW, we saw Rainbow's progression from humble to egotistical and saw her expose her insecurities making her seem more relatable and complex. In this episode, Rainbow is terrible and obnoxious. There's also a much more antagonistic and dare I say it, mean spirited tone to everything she does in the first half. This is compared to MMDW which was much more lighthearted allowing more comedy to come out of the situation. The second half on the other hand is just kinda dull. I appreciate the attempts are capturing a horror atmosphere and there are a few good moments, but it is a pretty basic zombie story which drags for a lot of it. The twist is fairly obvious and nothing is that good. Score: 1/10

This is an episode with literally nothing of value aside from that gag of Rarity losing to Derpy in the past. That's the only thing here that got any reaction out of me outside of yawns. The story is so boring and dragged out. It's painfully obvious that the adults aren't going to listen to the kids, it'll end in a disaster, and the kids will call out the adults. Nothing is done with this story aside from playing it in the most boring way possible. This is an episode that has managed to be so boring that it has transcended into complete frustration. Just like Princess Spike, and that's not a comparison that any episode wants. Score: 0/10

This episode is fantastic. The best part is Quibble. He brings a new spice to this adventure, turning what could've been a really cliche and boring adventure into a funny and exciting ride. And him thinking the entire thing is a cheap adventu-cation works because the adventure is so basic and cliche. Patton Oswalt is by far the best guest star this show has brought on so far, playing an actual character instead of a pony version of himself and doing an amazing job at making Quibble funny instead of annoying. While Quibble does come off as whiney at a couple points, most of the episode ends up proving why he thinks what he thinks by bringing the audience through one of these adventures. There are a lot of contrivances and unrealistic action scenes, but that doesn't make it bad. It's part of the experience and Quibble just doesn't like these kinds of adventures. Rainbow and Quibble's argument just comes down to Rainbow preferring the big adventures while Quibble prefers more investigative adventures. Neither side is wrong or is treated as wrong in the episode. Quibble does end up solving a puzzle faster than Daring Do and that scene does a lot in keeping Quibble's side from a Zephyr Breeze situation of telling the audience something instead of showing. The comedy is some of the best of the season. Quibble's snarking during the adventure keeps things fun and Rainbow and Quibble work well together. The action is creative (especially the bridge scene) and Quibble's big speech about how terrible the "adventu-cation" is might just be the funniest moment of the season. And the opening set piece of the convention has some great jokes too like Caballeron's reactions to it and the Daring Do body pillow. Overall, this is the best episode since season 3. It's funny, exciting, and has a great story. Score: 10/10

This is just a boring episode. The message is a good one, but it's delivered in the laziest way possible, choosing to make a stereotype instead of a character. Rarity and Pinkie are dull and none of the jokes are funny. I like the song, but even then the lyrics are terrible. Score: 3/10

The only joke here is Twilight being LOL RANDOM. I'm not a fan.

I'm glad the show is ending. It's been on a downward slope for a while and it's best to end it now before it gets even worse. A fresh start for MLP might be a good thing. Or bad. I don't know. I'll give G5 a fair shot when it comes it out. Besides, Lauren Faust's new DC Superhero Hero Girls show is coming out soon and it looks very reminiscent of the early years of MLP.

This is a fun one. I'm not sure where the snow came from at the end but whatever. It's still funny.

The main problem with this episode is that it isn't from Zephyr's perspective. If it was from his perspective, there could be more depth with his fear of failure and we could've been able to see that Zephyr has real talent, but instead all we see for a large amount of the episode is Zephyr being an incompetent, manipulative jerk. That fear of failure only comes through a few times before the ending. Most of the episode is spent telling us that Zephyr is talented and just isn't applying himself, but it doesn't show any kind of talent until the end. We're left to assume that Zephyr is a failure that's trying to leech off of others to make up for it for most of the episode. The audience doesn't want to root for someone like that. If the episode was from Zephyr's perspective and we saw that he has talent but he's not applying it, that could be a character worth rooting for. Also there's some padding. Both of the scenes of Zephyr trying to get a job play out the exact same way so I think one of those scenes should've been cut. And the scene with Pinkie and Applejack is just pointless. Rainbow could've told Fluttershy what Applejack tells her. But I do like that nobody (except Fluttershy's parents) buys Zephyr's bit. Fluttershy is constantly telling Zephyr to move out of his parents' house and then to get a job. This makes Zephyr more funny than annoying, even if there's still no emotional connection. Fluttershy's characterization is really fantastic here. She's bold and stands up for herself, but not to a point where it's out of character. And a lot of credit has to be given to Zephyr's voice actor. Zephyr has the perfect voice of being manipulative and slimy, but still charming with a hint that's there's something more to him. Also, there are some good jokes. I don't find Zephyr that funny, but he has his moments and the same goes for the running gag of Zephyr flirting with Rainbow. Rainbow just having a horrified face isn't funny, but her making up a bad excuse to get away or pushing Zephyr away with a blank face is. Overall, this episode is okay. The emotional moments don't work that well, but the episode keeps Zephyr from getting too annoying and there are some pretty enjoyable moments. Score: 6/10

This is such a dull episode. It feels like an outline that somehow released as a finished episode. Like, there's a basic premise and an idea of the story beats, but the jokes haven't been written in yet and the writers haven't had a lot of time to iron out the story and pacing. Except this is the actual episode. I have no idea what was going on in the studio, but this just seems unfinished. Score: 5/10

This is an episode that relies solely on its jokes. The story is pretty much just a set up for the mane six to react to this situation in their own unique ways to get jokes. And the jokes are good. This isn't one of the funniest of the series or anything, but there are a good amount of funny jokes. My favorites being the angel and devil Rarity and everything Rainbow Dash says. But the episode relying on jokes is also to its detriment. Since there's nothing else backing up the episode, the dud jokes are much more noticeable and create a lot of dead air in the episode. Like I'm not a fan of the sweeping gag. The set up is just too obvious so the punchline does nothing. And Plaid Stripes is hit or miss. I like her door bell idea, but spoon clothes does nothing for me outside from a slight smile. Overall I like this episode since there are more good jokes than bad, but the bad jokes really stick out and the moments when the episode focuses on its story and moral don't work. I mentioned the story already and the moral is very situational. Most times, someone tells you to do something expecting that you do it they way they tell you to. Score: 7/10

I think my big problem with this episode is with that future vision. Not only is it just a bad scene that misses the point of A Christmas Carol, but I don't see how it has any point in convincing Snowfall to join the Hearth's Warming party. All it says is that she can't get rid of Hearth's Warming. It doesn't say she'll be lonely and miserable if she doesn't celebrate. It doesn't say anything about her needing to celebrate. The past and present visions do a good job of making Snowfall reconsider her attitude, but the future vision is totally pointless. And while I'm talking about the future vision, I still hate Luna's song. It's just so cheesy and melodramatic when it would've been much more emotional to have a softer song playing over Snowfall walking around the destroyed town. Show don't tell. But I still like this episode, even if the story doesn't stick the landing. The episode is still a very fun watch (except for Luna's scene) and most of the songs are great. While the professor from Snowfall's past feels a bit too overly evil (especially in his design), it works for what's essentially a fairy tale and the Seeds of the Past sequence is effective. And the episode looks great. The animation is great as always, but the Christmas aesthetic makes everything stand out even more. Score: 7/10

Meh. I thought Rarity was going to ask Celestia and Luna how their manes worked. That probably would've been funnier. Score: 5/10

This... exists. The only funny thing here is Fluttershy's picture, but that's a gag taken straight from Non-Compete Clause. Everything else is pretty mediocre. Score: 4/10