Worst season opener in MLP

[The Cynical Lone Wolf 615]

I would Crystaling for the following reasons

• There is no villain. Every season starts off with a villain; season 4 was the tree 
• Flurry's design is worst I've seen in the show. She isn't cute, but rather some lovecraftin demon child
• Flurry plot reminded me of something out of modern Farily Oddparents and plus its predictable as hell
• No explanation as into why Flurry is an alicorn; while her mom is pegasus(Yes Cadance was pegasus before she was an alicorn) an dad a unicorn 
• The subplot is better than the main plot (Ouch!)
• The marketing bait in this episode is so painful it hurts 

Yeah Season 6 opener is the worst Edited March 27, 2016 by COBLoneWolf

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,298]

The Cutie Map

 

THAT...is by far the worst premiere in the entire show to me. There were so many things wrong with it that it was baffling.

 

-Starlight was insanely overpowered for no reason

-Starlight overpowered all of the mane 6 with no issues at all

-The ending was a complete buzzkill

-The mane 6 basically did nothing once Starlight overpowered them

-The Cutie Map itself wasn't much of anything in that season

 

It having no proper resolution left a bad taste in my mouth and right off the bat, it made me dislike Starlight. The whole premiere to me was a massive disappointment and easily my least favorite. All of the pother ones at least had some sort of proper resolution, even the first one. The Crystal Empire was even tons better to me. 

 

I am very happy that season 6's premiere was far better than season 5, that is something I am thankful for. 

 

I have a soft spot for the first premiere, as it was the beginning of the entire show. You can't expect the best from the first run of a show like this.

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

The worst season premier is Princess Twilight Sparkle, Crystalling comes second and FIM is the third.

[Nuke87654 1,849]

The crystaling was without a doubt, the worst premier the show has had. While it was in of itself, a mediocre episode, it didn't introduce any of the themes of the season (ie "explore equestria") And completely fucking stomped on any good developed interaction between glimmer and sunburst. Overall just a waste of an episode, and it didn't even give us a single good villain or new waifu.

Dude we got a new husbandro in Sunburst

My rankings are:

 

1. Cutie Map

2. Return of Harmony

 

3. The Crystalling

4.Princess Twilight Sparkle

 

5. Friendship is magic.

 

6. The Crystal Empire

 

As alphys and Dq said, Celestia treating the next part of Twilight's, saving the citizens of a whole kingdom from a poorly developed but great potential villain, as some sort of test was especially dickish and cruel to the citizens. Than with how it treated the remaning five by kicking them to placate a group of citizens while we see Twilight failing miserably without Spike's involvement, than finally as added insult, Celestia goes back on her previous order and said how Twilight learned not to be so selfish.

 

Yea those are my reasons why I consider this to be the worst season premiere

Edited March 27, 2016 by Nuke87654

[Concerned Bystander 2,902]

I don't actively dislike any of them, but if I need to pick which one is least good then I'd pick 'The Crystalling' with no hesitation.

 

Overpowered magical baby and gratuitous overdevelopment of a surplus character shoehorned needlessly into the cast.

 

It's still an okay episode, but falls far short of the other five openers.

Edited March 27, 2016 by Concerned Bystander

[Jangocoolguy 433]

The Crystalling, which felt like 2 stand-alone episodes (very) awkwardly mashed together to make a 2-Part Premiere that doesn't seem to know what it's about and can't decide on a tone...

I fear they're running out of ideas. My Shark-Jump sense is tingling...  
 

Edited March 28, 2016 by Jangobadass

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

 gratuitous overdevelopment of a surplus character shoehorned needlessly into the cast.

 

 

It makes sense to me: I don't LIKE why they'd be doing it, but I can easily see the logic here.

 

Hasbro needs to sell toys obviously, and to find a way to get new unique toys out for kids to buy. At the same time they're scared that if they try and develop the mane six they might end up altering them so they no longer fulfill a comfortable Niche of certain demographics, or upset their current fans (Even if Fans are upset that they aren't getting development or are being ignored).

 

So its safer to introduce a NEW character who they can try and develop, with a blank slate so they can easily do character development with little to no risk and zero difficulty finding "new" problems for them to overcome (since they're starting as a blank slate essentially).

Its lazy but it makes sense: New characters are "safe" routes of selling more toys, and its one that hasbro does ALOT with their franchises (look at how transformers will introduce new characters constantly and kick the old characters into a closet)

[NeonCobalt 256]

Now mind you, I don't particularly dislike any of the season openings, but if I had to pick, I'd say Princess Twilight Sparkle. It drags a bit at times, and I really don't like the scene where the rest of the Mane 6 tell Twilight she should go home. It just doesn't seem in character for them.

Edited March 28, 2016 by NeonCobalt

[Moon Sugar 532]

I'm going to be lame and say the Crystal map, but it wasn't horrible by any means.

[KatonRyu 1,033]

Friendship is Magic is the series pilot and has some early installment weirdness but I still like it.

 

Return of Harmony is downright awesome.

 

The Crystal Empire is cool because Sombra was pretty badass.

 

Princess Twilight Sparkle had Discord being a dick while actually being semi-helpful, which was cool.

 

The Cutie Map had Starlight, who I consider to be the best villain on the show thus far.

 

The Crystalling marks the first time I didn't really like the opener much. I don't like Flurry Heart or the recycled elements from The Crystal Empire and the entire problem was caused by Flurry Heart, which is exactly what I hoped they wouldn't do. The one saving grace this opener had was Starlight's story. She's a really likeable character and in this case she pretty much carried the episode.

[FullMetalDash 194]

Well, season 6 was just to establish the baby's powers

[Mand'alor Dash 2,224]

The Crystaling. At least every other two-parter had a grand conflict of some kind. The Crystaling has a complete lack of conflict until part two, at which point, they literally fight bad weather. oooooooooooooooh. scary.

 

And it further cements the niggling suspicion I had that Starlight's character had been butchered. She came into the Mane cast with one character trait, and one unresolved conflict, and ended up getting over it in under 40 minutes. Now, we can only observe her screaming freefall from a really cool villain to Sunset Shimmer 2.0.

[M'gann M'orzz 745]

It's the Season 1 premier without a freaking doubt, part 1 is okay, does it's job tells us "o hey, this is Twilight she is bookish and Nerdy, this is Applejack she is a COUNTRY HORSE and Apple Farmer, this is Rainbow Dash she GOESFAST and is a Weather Pony, this is Rarity she's a fashionista with her own dress shop, this is Fluttershy she does stuff with animals, this is Pinkie Pie, she throws Parties" but Part 2 is utterly dragged down by the incredible nonthreatening incompetence that is Nightmare Moon in it. "o sure I COULD go out and beat you all at any time, BUT INSTEAD IM GONNA TURN INTO A THORN, MAKE SOME TREES LOOK SCARY AND CUT OFF THIS SERPENTS MUSTACHE, THEN I'LL WAIT IN THE VERY ROOM WHERE THE ONE THING THAT CAN DEFEAT ME IS LOCATED AND TELEPORT TWILIGHT THERE TOO!!!". It's a shame too cause Nightmare Moon is plenty threatening and effective in the S4 opener and the S5 finale. So yeah S1 opener goes down in that establishes NMM as this great legendary adversary and then does pretty much nothing to showcase her. And then is dragged down even more in retrospect when her later appearances use her far better. S1 Nightmare Moon is a farcry from the "No bullshit, im gonna murder you sis" NMM we see in the S4 or the "Do what i tell you, or i will literally CRUSH your friend" NMM we see in S5

 

Like at least with Crystal Empire with all it's issues, Sombra felt threatening and Competent, his traps were effective and he came incredibly close to winning. And then the Crystalling, frankly this isn't a GREAT Episode but it's also one i suspect people will look more favorably at as time goes on, we've come to expect EPIC two parters and this one was more of a Slice of Life thing for the most part and that seems to have really thrown people off, also people seem to be confused as to what the main plot and the sub-plot was. the SUB PLOT was ACTUALLY the Flurry Heart one the MAIN PLOT was ACTUALLY the Starlight/Sunburst one, the Sub-Plot basically exist so Starlight and Sunburst have a problem they can solve together to cement their reconciliation. Flurry Heart really actually isn't particularly important expect as an instigator of said problem.

 

 

I don't really get what the problem people have with Princess Twilight Sparkle is, I thought that one was quite fun and in someways I liked it more than the S4 finale. You want to complain about a 2 parter when the Mane 6 other than Twilight are totally sidelined in pretty much every way? Look at Twilight's Kingdom.

Edited March 30, 2016 by M'gann M'orzz

[Buck Testa 5,505]

Season one opener without a doubt.

[Ed Lyons 105]

THE CRYSTALLING. NO DOUBT THE WORST. till good but the worst opener

[Merion 783]

I clicked The Crystalling first, for... many reasons.

 

But then I noticed The Crystal Empire was on the list as well. Honestly, I didn't even REMEMBER the episode. I kind of recall it now as the one with Spike doing the thing but that's all... This one must have been exceptionally boring. So... yeah. My vote goes to TCE.

[Attack of the Pwns 894]

My vote goes toward the pilot. It's one of those episodes that I wouldn't show to a friend interested in the show because it follows the childish stereotype the show was stuck with for many years. It wasn't a bad episode for a little girl's cartoon, but it doesn't have much to offer us bronies other than exposition, and metrosexual sea serpents if that's your thing xD

 

Second place would be the Crystaling. I was just really underwhelmed with the whole exercise. It felt like an OK 20-min. episode drug out into a 60 min. premier. I mean, none of the openers are all THAT bad, but this one was a beige 90s Camry in a parking lot full of LaFerraris and Huracans-distinctly "meh".

[PoisonClaw 8,164]

Princess Twilight Sparkle is the weakest opener in my opinion. Sure, Ponyville was invaded by Helheim the Everfree Forest, but nothing really made it stand out from the other openers.

 

I also don't like how Celestia and Luna are just kidnapped by the Plunder vines without a fight or anyone noticing. Unless they were asleep, we heard Celestia scream and so should have the guards that are usually stationed every 10-20 feet. Plus, unless the vines dragged them out a window and down the mountain, their should have been an alicorn sized hole in the ground to follow. Not to mention the fact that despite the episode trying to prove that Twilight being a Princess now won't make the others treat her any different, Applejack and the others act rather OOC and do just that, forcing Twilight to return home since she's too important to lose now that she's a princess. Like girl who who can become a magical laser chaingun to blast changelings suddenly turned into a fragile china-doll in-between episodes. 

 

Which turns out to be rather pointless less than five minutes later when they realize they have no idea how to save the tree without Twilight's help. Nice job there, guys. 

[cmarston1 5,959]

Well I like all of the season openers, but I have to say that my least favorites would be The Cutie Map and The Crystalling.

While I do think that they are both good episodes, they both seem a bit underwhelming start to the season and lack the excitement that other two part episodes like Twilight's Kingdom or A Canterlot Wedding or The Crystal Empire or Princess Twilight Sparkle had that made me either anticipate the next season or the current season going on.