Season 5 Quality: Good or Bad?

[Limeblossom 482]

Well, the show jumped the shark. And no, Slice of Life wasn't the episode that caused it. It's one of the few episodes of the season I like. Maybe because of my love for internetculture and wacky flashcartoons.

[Deae Rising Shine~ 58,262]

I liked and enjoyed all episodes in all seasons and that didn't changed yet.

[Side Bird 566]

I'd say the S5 quality is the best in my opinion. Touched up, good story line, great episodes. S4-S5 have been my favorites.

[Biggybrony 245]

There have been some less than steller episodes but in general I'm happy with this season. Saying that I'm not especially critical when it comes to movies and tv shows.

Edited October 10, 2015 by Biggybrony

[EquestriaGuy 1,074]

S5 > S4 > S2 > S1 > S3

 

We still have some really insane stuff left to go, if spoilers are any indication. This episode today was a completely unexpected gem, though I shouldn't have been surprised since it was AKR.

[Prince Firemane 309]

My opinions of each of the seasons has been in sine wave. Let me explain.

 

Season 1 was the starter, it introduced us to the main characters and the world in which they live. It's placed in the middle of the wave. It was good and intriguing, but there were some clunky moments as the writers were still fleshing out their rhythm.

 

Season 2 was more comfortable than its predecessor. The world and the main characters have been firmly established, leading to the opening of ideas of more subtle traits that make the main characters well-rounded out. For that, season 2 is at the apex of the wave.

 

Season 3 was potentially the final season, I'm sure the looming number of 65 episodes is in the head of any writer for an animated series. Thank you, Disney. Not to mention, they had to split their time between season 3 and Equestria Girls, something they had never done before. Thus, they both suffered for it. The main characters reverted back to their basic traits and there was too much reliance on pop culture references, so it lay in the valley of the wave.

 

Season 4 started the track back up, I believe that the writers knew what worked in previous seasons and opted to continue that trend. They also knew exactly what they wanted to do. Unlike the whole Brian/Vinny fiasco of Family Guy, they didn't cave into fan demand and gave Twilicorn a chance in spite of the massive amounts of hate the concept got. Characters were becoming well-rounded again, introductions and stories were increasingly interesting. The writers once again had to split their time between season 4 and Rainbow Rocks. However, since they were more comfortable with such an undertaking, both benefitied from it. Thus, season 4 sits with season 1 in the middle of the wave.

 

Season 5, so far, has only continued the upward swing. Characters mostly remain well rounded and the stories have become very interesting as the writers are taking more daring and experitmental steps outside the box. There are several callbacks to previous episodes and seasons, and changes made in a given episode are not immediately whitewashed by the time the next episode starts. In spite of a few duds, I believe season 5 is up there with season 2 at the apex of the wave.

 

When it comes to collective brony opinions, I've noticed that they have a collective tendancy to be very polarized with immediate opinion. They either love it or hate it; praising it as the best thing that has ever happened to the show or the show's death knell. I think the perfect time to gage collective brony opinions is the halfway point in a hiatus between seasons as there has been enough time for opinions to be well-rounded out. Another thing of noticed is that bronies have a collective tendancy to become cynical and contrarion when a lot of time has passed. We've heard the endless rose-colored praises of season 2 when it was more fresh, or the same praise for Rainbow Dash when the series first began. Now, I've noticed a trend of more and more people needlessly bash season 2 or once-favorite characters because there was once so much praise for them. It happened with Rainbow, it happened with Pinkie, it still happens with Twilight. I'm still waiting for it to happen for Applejack and Rarity. So when it comes to collective brony opinion, always take it with a grain of salt despite how loud and numerous that opinion may be.

[Lexamena 391]

This season has been kind of lackluster. I feel like the mane 6 are now pretty much little superheroes at the mercy of the bat signal. Now the cmc probably will be too. What happened to just having day to day struggles with knowing what is the right thing to do? Now they always have to be helping someone else solve their dilemmas? I just don't like it. But, of course, my opinion.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,700]

Its a good season, and has some high quality episodes. But I feel it lacks the pull of other seasons. It doesn't have the promise of the meta-arc of S4 with the box, lacks the potential of S2 where the characters were still young and had lots of lessons (And really good twilight episodes too), so its a little underwhelming though.


Overall I don't like it, but I feel its sliding into a slump. I will say, Iwas blown away by today's episode though, and feel they really did an incredible cap to the CMC's plot.

 

 

S5 > S4 > S2 > S1 > S3

 

We still have some really insane stuff left to go, if spoilers are any indication. This episode today was a completely unexpected gem, though I shouldn't have been surprised since it was AKR.

 

If you mean the finale, I honestly don't think its going to be insane.
I'm more expecting a fairly low key episode that plays out more like back to the future than a really super intense episode. (Which is somewhat funny considering they were advertising back to the future during today's episode XD)

 

 

Overall, I'd go S2>S4>S5>S1>S3

Pretty squarely in the middle.

[EquestriaGuy 1,074]

I'm more expecting a fairly low key episode that plays out more like back to the future than a really super intense episode.

 

 

BTTF isn't a time travel loop though. This would be more like the Star Trek: TNG episode "Cause and Effect".  

 

Edited October 10, 2015 by EquestriaGuy

[Carolina 212]

This season has definitely been great and has had some of the most mature/deep episodes in the series.  "The Cutie Map" was definitely the best two-part opener and we had some awesome character depth relieved in "Tanks for the Memories," "Amending Fences," "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone," "Do Princesses Dream of Magical Sheep," "Brotherhooves Social" and "Crusaders of the Lost Mark." Heck, we even got to see a new/less confident side of Applejack in "Made in Manehatten!" "Castle Sweet Castle" gave us an episode about loss and dealing with moving on.  Plus, we had just plain fun episodes like "Make New Friends, but Keep Discord," "Rarity Investigates" and (in my opinion, anyway), "Princess Spike." 

 

The only episodes I legitimately dislike are "Bloom and Gloom" (boring and repetitive, even if the moral was kind of neat), "Appleoosa's Most Wanted" (oh boy, an episode about Rodeo Clowns! My favorite! - said no one ever) and "Slice of Life" (sorry, but to me, it was just fandom jokes and was really, really boring).

 

As for the ones coming up, I'm legit pretty excited about all of them! Applejack spending time with Pinkie's family for Christmas sounds especially promising and gives AJ more opportunity for growth.

Edited October 10, 2015 by Carolina

[Unlikeable Pony 2,700]

 

BTTF isn't a time travel loop though. This would be more like the Star Trek: TNG episode "Cause and Effect".  

 

Still not expecting much

 

 

This season has been kind of lackluster. I feel like the mane 6 are now pretty much little superheroes at the mercy of the bat signal. Now the cmc probably will be too. What happened to just having day to day struggles with knowing what is the right thing to do? Now they always have to be helping someone else solve their dilemmas? I just don't like it. But, of course, my opinion.

 

 

I don't mind that; back in season one you could have called them at the beck and call of celestia with episodes like dragonquest after all. Now its just a map.

 

My only issue is that I still feel the map is a bit hokey, and activating to have them help for problems that are really low priority, like fixing that theater in MIM. That almost comes off like a little beeper telling aquaman to save a cat in a tree or something.

[Nila Bean 133]

Honestly? It's been pretty boring and over dramatic in this season imo. I don't work myself up over it though, nothing anyone can do. 

[-Octavia- 1,176]

I love it simply because it has the absolute best one-liner in the entire series.

 

Cheers, Maud.

[Flutterboy2 7]

I like it a lot, but season 2 will always be my favorite.

[FlitterFlutter 1,601]

I mean the animation is way better then season 1,2,3, and maybe 4.

On top of that I feel like the good to bad ep ratio is on par with other seasons, so I am going to say this season is good!

[Wind Chaser 4,769]

Taking into consideration everything that's happened since the beginning and everything that's changed, Season 5 comes off really well. There are so many episodes that use and contribute to continuity and character development, as well as deconstructing themes that the plots of earlier seasons took for granted (particularly cutie marks being considered a good thing without looking at the potential downsides), and catching up on themes that Season 4 should have, but didn't.

 

In particular, we see more of "the student becomes the teacher". Now that the Mane 6 are no longer on the hook to produce slice-of-life episodes as a result of the lore-expanding Cutie Map, we can develop their characters further, taking them into roles they've never been in before, pairing them with other characters, using their experiences to help others out of similar situations, and taking their special talents to the next level, on the cusp of fulfilling their lifelong dreams at such a young age while becoming excellent role models for both their in-universe friends and the audience as well.

 

 

On the same token, we've seen the Crusaders go through the same arc. In their adventures, they've amassed such a knowledge about what the concept of a cutie mark is that they've acquired their cutie marks in doing just that, and helping out others who either don't have cutie marks or have trouble with theirs. Continuing that theme, it's a fitting finale for an arc that's been around since the first season.

 

 

Season 5 has had a dud or two, but it's nowhere near the amount of duds in Season 4, which I believe to be the worst season because of a "quality gap" where the best episodes got better while the worst episodes paradoxically got tougher to watch due to trends such as simplistic characterization, poor pacing, comedy precluding content, and so on. The wide variation of quality in the episodes in the Rainbow Power arc and the overall weakness of the Equestria Games arc were underwhelming, the pacing of the show canon's development was too slow, and I do feel a lot of the progress made by Season 5 in exploring the characters' new role should have been done in Season 4 (and if it had been done as such, would have cut down on a lot of the "dud"/"filler" episodes).

 

Overall, Season 5 marks a return to consistency and a near-full capitalization on the loose ends Season 4 left open. I still personally prefer Season 2, but Season 5 is really continuing to show what MLP is capable of.

[Lil Pip 775]

So Ive been reading comments around the internet and got quite surprised by the reception season 5 is getting. People seem to either say "this is the best season yet". While others say the quality has dropped and completely hate pretty much every episode. Does anyone out there have a clue as to why this could be? Or am I totaly wrong here?

I just think the Spike episode was weak, and that their storytelling differs a little from the other seasons, overall I think its rather good though. Excellent even. I mean some episodes have moments that are just too obvious. But others are definitely progressive.

[KatonRyu 1,036]

Personally I feel this season is the best the show's had so far, but I can see why others might disagree. The overall tone of the show has shifted quite a bit from season one to now, and I imagine not everyone likes that.

 

For me, I think the show has matured and learned to play to its strengths better than it did before, signified by the more involved plot lines some episodes seem to have. Sure, there have been episodes that didn't really do it for me, but the same was true even in season one. (Over A Barrel is easily my least favorite episode in that season).

 

All in all, it just depends on what you personally think.

[Hopes and Memes 391]

I feel like it's the show's strongpoint.

But I also feel it's the last season,

notice EP 9 (Slice of Life) was a love letter to the fandom?

That usually means they're running out of ideas, and once you start making the show for the fanbase, it's going to end soon.

 

Although I think it'll be the end of season 6 is when the show will either end or peak.

Then it'll go downhill.