Wormsy

I like them both a lot because they're the mane 6 whos conflicts I tend to find most interesting. Their conflicts often go against their elements or the very notions of friendship itself. Sometimes they have to learn the hard way that being a good friend and person can require some serious sacrifice, and oftentimes they struggle with sacrificing the things the plot wants them to. It makes them really easy to get invested in. That being said, I find Rarity more appealing. Rainbow Dash's egotism can occasionally get on my nerves, but Raritys overblown dramatic reactions to just about anything make her a blast to watch. She also has incredible voice acting.

Sunset for sure. On aesthetics, I like Sunsets design a little more. Her color scheme really pops and while I like Starlights mane, her pale purple-pinkish coat doesn't do much for me, especially with her other colors. In terms of character, we all agree that Sunset had a terrible introduction, but I think she has the best redemption arc in the show. She really worked to earn her friends trust and be the best p...hum...pony-human she could be. She's proactive and really puts in the effort. Starlights characterization, even after her redemption, is a lot more inconsistent and sloppy. I struggle to get a good grasp of who she is beyond being a bit of a nutter for most of the time she's on screen. The mad-scientist aspect of her character is a lot of fun for sure, but it's hard to feel bad for her and want her to improve when she keeps falling into the same habits over and over and over. Fluttershy is different because she knows why her problems are a problem and works her hardest to improve, and her actions affect her more than anybody else. But Starlight frequently inconveniences others and struggles to understand how or why it hurts them. Fun character moments, not very well written as a whole imo.

The show for sure. There'd be no fandom without the show, after all!

- No School of Friendship - I get enjoyment out of every season except for season 8. The seasons overarching story was impossible to avoid and took up a major chunk of the season, which would be fine if the story was good. Everyone, even people who like season 8, have said that the School of Friendship is a pretty silly idea on paper, and in execution I don't think it does great either. My biggest problems with it are the characters it introduces. All of the Young 6 are really bland besides Yona, and Chancellor Neighsay and his racism...whew. I get that people exist in the real world like Neighsay, but he is genuinely not fun to watch, and the fact that a lot of the season even validates some of his racism by saying it's only in ponies nature to be adept to friendship is really weird. The show has always had this bad undercurrent of ponies being more "pure" than other races and the show trying to talk about racism outright only made that worse. I say there should be no School of Friendship, but s8 as a whole had so many issues I think there should've been some major rewriting. - Discord - This one's super subjective, but did anyone else get tired of Discords weird and constant back and forth? At first it seemed as though he was always teetering on the edge of morality, which is fun, but it eventually veered into him being an idiot at best and malicious at worst. I suppose you could read all his actions as being a sort of "test" for the characters he's harassing, but you really have to read between the lines to see it. After a certain point I honestly got tired of him outside of his interactions with Fluttershy. I wish he was there to be something other than a source of conflict in almost every episode he was in. - Brony Pandering - So much pandering. Not even in just the jokes, but even the narratives themselves, prioritizing going outside of Equestria and exploring lore over things that drew people to the show in the first place, like the cute character interactions. In season 1 there's a lot of episodes with really simple plotlines like...oh no! Bullies! Or, oh no! This party sucks!, and I actually kind of prefer that. Imo the show is at its best when it sticks with simple and fun character stuff and becomes more messy when it tries to do more complex stories. The show has always struggled with villain redemptions, for example. I wish the show was less controlled by the fandom because I really felt it in later seasons. Despite me being pretty negative in a lot of these points, I have a positive view of the show overall. I just think it has a few big problems.