spoiler Season Six - Mid Season Poll

[Chuckles4lyfe 442]

1. Best episode: The Saddle Row Review
2. Best use of Starring Character: Fluttershy
3. Best new Character: Princess Ember
4. Best Song: Pinkie's Present
5. Best returning character: Trixie
6. Best new location: Dragon Lands
7. Best new writer: Nick Confalone 

Unlike most people who thought that the 1st 1/2 of Season 6 ranged from "meh to absolutely terrible", I found it thoroughly enjoyable. I don't see the need to overanalyze, complain, and point out flaws in every episode. I guess some people just get all riled up over that kind of thing I suppose. I'm just happy that MLP is still on the air after nearly 6 years and there are no signs that it is slowing down or coming to an end any time soon !  

[Wind Chaser 4,769]

Best Episode: "The Crystalling"

 

A hard choice as all of these are frankly underwhelming and didn't elicit as much of an emotional response as the highlights of previous seasons. Along with "Gauntlet of Fire" and "A Hearth's Warming Tale", these are the ones I'd consider the defining episodes of the season to this point. Where the strength of "Gauntlet of Fire" was in the role of its starring character, and that of "Hearth's Warming" was its technical presentation, "The Crystalling" managed to hit well on its character development and technical presentation. While it was bogged down by its density in handling Flurry Heart's storyline, the reduced roles of the Mane 6, and the time skip in Starlight's reformation which left a lot of potential on the table, it was bolstered by Starlight's interactions with the other characters, specifically in bringing out Sunburst's lost confidence and getting Spike in touch with organizational and leadership skills learned from Twilight that led to his first visible character progression in a long time.

 

Best Use of Starring Character: Rarity

 

Spike was a close runner-up, but Rarity had the advantage of more time and episodes in the spotlight. "The Gift of the Maud Pie" allowed Tabitha St. Germain to portray the full emotional range in her voice performance, including new comedy bits which, in conjunction with the animation in that episode, remind us of just how much of a new dimension Rarity gives to a character archetype not normally known for being loose, open-minded, and plain generous. The opening of her new boutique in Manehattan proves that characters can continue to keep setting goals for themselves and strive for greater successes even after achieving their lifelong dream. In addition, character moments like those in "The Saddle Row Review" and "Spice Up Your Life" show how seriously she takes her business. One part of this character I always loved is how realistically she portrays the process of making decisions involving business and art, especially for a kids' character, and I only wish the meticulousness with which the aim of breaking stereotypes was applied to Rarity was applied just as evenly to other characters in this show, especially those who portray typically maligned professions or upper socioeconomic classes.

 

Best New Character: Sunburst

 

An impressive first test for Starlight as a reformed character; Starlight is forced to face the long-lost childhood friend who was partly responsible for the beginning of her downfall. Like Starlight, Sunburst also found himself incapable of meeting self-imposed expectations, and although he was responsible for nowhere near the amount of crimes Starlight committed, Sunburst hid behind a shroud of mystery and rumor to cover up his inadequacies. It is only through open, honest discussion of their past demons and crippled emotions that the two can clear the air and join forces, with Sunburst's encyclopedic knowledge supplementing Starlight Glimmer's magical muscle to save the day. Princess Ember is a close runner-up in this category for many of the same reasons I chose Sunburst.

 

Best Song: "Pinkie's Present"

 

"A Hearth's Warming Tale" was a showcase of some of the best songwriting since "Pinkie Pride", "Magical Mystery Cure", or "A Canterlot Wedding". There is no doubt in my mind that musical episodes bring out the best talent in the episode writers, who write most of the lyrics and provide scratch tracks, Daniel Ingram, who puts the things together, and William Anderson, who scores the episodes with incidental musical motifs. This song provides a light, bouncy tone evoking Pinkie's portrayal of the similarly jovial Dickensian "Ghost of Christmas Present". The lyrics suggest a vitality and energy relevant to the tone and message, taking full advantage of the two equally relevant meanings of the word "present" to portray the vast beauty and possibilities of the now. This is also a song that wouldn't be complete without its visuals, with that same energy carrying over to how Pinkie moves freely across the set, interacting with the other characters in real time and carrying on an excellent visual reference to the iconic tap-dancing prowess of legendary Broadway and Hollywood triple threat Gene Kelly and one particularly memorable occasion when it was teamed up with the talent of the animators of MGM's Tom and Jerry.

 

A close runner-up is "It's Gonna Work". While its lyrics were relatively standard, it proved catchy in its melody, especially with Indian music being a new style for this show.

 

Best Returning Character: Trixie

 

Before this season, I was not a fan of this character. Trixie did not stand out to me as unique, as her cliche-ridden speech patterns evoke the archetypical stage magician, and her similarly trite stage-magician persona covered up what I could only describe in "Magic Duel" and before as a lack of depth. However, "No Second Prances" seemed a natural and fitting setup to challenge both Starlight and Twilight. In gaining Starlight as an assistant, Trixie begins to gain more depth and sympathy as a character; she has no friends on her traveling roadshow and the necessary "stage magician" personality appears more to be a false front indicating a desire for validation and attention. She nearly throws her friendship and her life away when she callously declares that she used Starlight as a tool to get back at Twilight, ignoring the sincerity of her friendship and falls into despair as a result, showing that while her emotional issues are real, they're largely self-inflicted by her allowance of the notoriously bragging and showy stage persona to take over her off-stage life. She manages to be a character that evokes sympathy as well as negative interpersonal behavior at the same time for me, and proves herself deserving of said sympathy by showing genuine remorse for her disrespect of her newfound friend as opposed to the "is she or isn't she" ending of "Magic Duel". It ends well and the two former antagonists exit all the wiser.

 

Best New Location: Mehhhhh........???????

 

@Jeric, you left out Canterlot. Sue me.

 

Unfortunately, this is one of the most glaring weak points of Season 6. Despite rumors and expectations of new locations, we were given only one in the Dragon Lands. As a consolation, Manehattan and Canterlot were both expanded with new sub-locations, like Saddle Row, Restaurant Row, and various brief references to real-life Manhattan locations in "The Gift of the Maud Pie". I voted Manehattan just 'cuz.

 

Best Writers: Nick Confalone and Mike Vogel

 

Confalone, writer of "No Second Prances" and "The Saddle Row Review", has a way with eking chemistry out of these character interactions. Mike Vogel, a company vice president turned writer, has proven capable of the same in his first two known writing credits, "A Hearth's Warming Tail" and "Spice Up Your Life". Confalone deserves extra credit for the unusual storytelling style of "The Saddle Row Review", maximizing the comedic and entertainment potential of having characters retrospectively commentating their own events in interview segments referencing the editing structure of reality shows and narrative films told in the characters' flashback.

[M'gann M'orzz 745]

 

As for Vogel, I wasn't a fan of his Rarity in Spice Up Your Life, especially considering he's been with the show since the beginning, but he's gotten many of the other characters pretty well. I do hope he tackles RD eventually, I remember in an interview saying she was his favorite

 

See that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be exceptional with her, I recall Larson naming Rarity as his favorite a a few times but I can't recall ever being heavily impressed by his writing for Rarity. 

[Megas 28,301]

See that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be exceptional with her, I recall Larson naming Rarity as his favorite a a few times but I can't recall ever being heavily impressed by his writing for Rarity. 

lol I know what you mean, I thought AKR's Pinkie was pretty awful in a few of her episodes(mostly early ones), notably in FV, MmmOTFE and AFID, despite Pinkie being her favorite. But still, even then it usually makes me interested to see where they take them, even if they mess up, the thought is usually there

Edited June 13, 2016 by Megas

[Rawzy 1,302]

Okay who really cares about what else happened except for the introduction of Ember. I mean yeah the crystalling was important and we got to see the CMC and RD fulfill their dreams, and Maud and Trixie were cool but whatever.

um...the CMC fulfilled their dreams last season......

 

Ember was kinda the "daddy issues" character for that episode, I didn't think she was very appealing.

[Dark Qiviut 22,652]

Best Episode

A Hearth's Warming Tail. While it has the second-weakest story in the entire season, iwhat was there is written well enough to give it a pass. And what was really there is some of the best songs, animation, and graphics of the entire show. FIM is as much a field of animation as it is a story, and the animation takes center stage.

 

Best Use of Starring Character

Give me less appearances with good quality than more appearances with semi-good quality plenty of the time. Spike had only one bad appearance all year: Newbie Dash. The others treat him with the respect he deserves, and he finally has some consistency in characterization. Gauntlet of Fire doesn't have him overcoming his flaws, but instead uses the best traits of his character into good use.

 

Best New Character

Princess Ember. She's a character with traditionally masculine traits, but doesn't approach it in such a stereotypical form. She embraces dragon culture learned by dragon life, but she also wants to change the land of dragons for the better and believes she'll lead well even without the physically big stature.

 

Runner-up is Sunburst: a better executed representation of fear to fail than Zephyr!

 

Best Song

Luna's Future, easily. It tells a very grim, dramatic story without the fluff and melodrama. You don't need to tell anymore than presented in the song.

 

 

Best Returning Character

Trixie. After Magic Duel left her fate in the air, she returned by befriending Starlight with a lot of want to prove her worth. Her desire to put it behind her and show it connects well with Starlight, who just wants someone to understand her. She played her role very well, and the best written of the returners.

 

 

Best Writer(s)

Only picked one here: Lewis/Songco. Gauntlet of Fire's their lone episode so far, and it unquestionably eclipses Castle Sweet Castle as their best to date. Second is Dave Polsky and third Mike Vogel.

 

Currently, season six has been a disappointment. If it ended eight now, it's the second-worst season behind the third. You can read more of my comments about the season in total here.

[Sidral Mundet 1,666]

Best Episode: Saddle Row Review

Best Starring Character: Fluttershy

Best New Character: Dragon Lord Ember

Best Returning Character: Maud Pie

Best Location: Dragonlands

Best Song: N/A (I just went with I know it's going to work since it was still in my head)

Best Writer:N/A

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 42,205]

For me it goes like this:

 

Best Episode: Saddle Row Review

 

Such a well done episode with plenty of humor, new characters, all of the mane 6 was involved and it had so many incredible expressions. this episode surprised me beyond belief.

 

Best use of starring character: Rarity

 

Rarity really has been strong this season. She has been funny and the chemistry between her and others is shining.

 

Best New Character: Sunburst

 

Really hope we get to see more of this pony besides the finale. He was rather cute and I loved his awkward personality. It was another thing I didn't expect much.

 

Best Song: Luna's Future

 

Never would I have expected such an epic song for an episode like that. The whole sequence was powerful and cemented that episode as one of my favorites ever and my favorite MLP musical episode by far.

 

Best Returning Character: Trixie

 

Not much to say about this one. She was just pure awesome. The map gets second place because I really thought they abandoned that entirely.

 

Best Location: Manehatten #3

 

Best Writer(s): No comment, I can't remember which writers wrote what right now.

 

So overall I am really enjoying this season, despite it having a couple of the worst episodes in the entire show for me, those being FlutterBrutter and especially Newbie Dash. It may have a couple of the worst episodes but I also feel like it has a couple of the best too.

[M'gann M'orzz 745]

Wow someone else actually voted for Torch. I voted for him mostly because I felt bad that no one else probably would and I liked him, o well.

Edited June 13, 2016 by M'gann M'orzz

[LHfunk 422]

um...the CMC fulfilled their dreams last season......

 

Ember was kinda the "daddy issues" character for that episode, I didn't think she was very appealing.

Oh, yeah. Anyway, that was actually one of the thing's that made her more relatable. She was literally just an annoyed teenager basically. Guess who else is occasionally an annoyed teenager? The answer is me. She's the most relatable character to me that I've seen in the show. Also, she's a dragon, so bonus points.  

[cmarston1 5,965]

Best episode - Flutter Brutter

Best Main Character - Fluttershy

Best New Character - Ember

Best Recurring - Maud Pie

Best Song - It's Gonna Work

Best Location - Dragon Lands

Best Writers - Mike Vogel

Edited June 13, 2016 by cmarston1

[VengefulStrudel 1,495]

Best Episode: The Saddle Row Review, though Gauntlet of Fire comes close.
I really enjoyed the portrayal of all the characters in Saddle Row, and found it an all-around very enjoyable episode. Plus, Twi showed us some sick remix skills. Sweep sweep sweep~

Best Use of Starring Character: Rarity (totally no best pone bias here)
I did like a lot of her moments, especially the silly ones in the Gift of Maud Pie. Her impersonation of Pinkie was great~ I did like Fluttershy's assertiveness in Flutter Brutter though, finally, she's more bold!

Best New Character: Coriander Cumin - I just love his deadpan and snarky nature. Nerdy wizard horse and Ember come close, though.

Best Song: I love Rarity and Pinkie songs, so It's Gonna Work was my favorite one.

Best Returning Character: The Cutie Map, map is best pone. Maud Pie

Best New Location: Dragon Lands - yay, dragons!

Best Writer(s): I'd be lying if I said I paid attention to who writes what, so, I'll skip out on that.

[twiia 1,844]

Best Episode- Newbie Dash

Best Starring Character- Rarity

Best New Character- Princess Ember

Best Song- Luna's Future

Did I leave out anything?

[Unlikeable Pony 2,700]

I really feel this could have done with a "worst episode" option as well OP

[Thrond 3,272]

Best episode: A Hearth's Warming Tale. 

 

 

For an adaptation of another story, this episode feels very much like a product of My Little Pony. Aside from arguably the season's best presentation, it subtly strengthens Starlight's bonds with the mane six and Ponyville at large while confronting her past in an infinitely more subtle way than the likes of "No Second Prances." Its depiction of Starlight is much simpler and more even than that episode, but it's also a lot more interesting while also being a very highly entertaining and cleverly adapted version of the original story. Easily one of the best episodes of the past three seasons. 

 

Best use of starring character: Fluttershy

 

Not even a contest. First time Fluttershy has been interesting in forever, and better still, it's one of the best character showcases we've had in a while. Fluttershy had fallen behind in my pony rankings for a while now, but she's right back up there now that a writer has finally come along who actually gets her and is able to display what makes her a strong character. It's lovely. 

 

Best new character: Flurry Heart

 

I'd say Sunburst, as I very much enjoyed his characterization and would be happy to see him in the future, but Flurry Heart defied my expectations by not only being utterly adorable but also allowing for some strong characterization from Shining Armor and an interesting depiction of the stresses of new parenthood. I don't like babies all that much, but I like Flurry Heart. 

 

Best song: The Seeds of the Past

 

"A Hearth's Warming Tale" had the season's best songs by some measure, and this one was my favourite, although it's a hard choice. I wonder how much the popularity of Luna's song is linked to the overwhelming popularity of that character. Not that it's not a good choice, though!

 

Best returning character: Maud Pie

 

I like Maud more and more with each appearance. I wasn't on board with her at first, but she's really grown on me, and "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows"  is her best depiction yet. Now that the show isn't focused on making her look boring, the subtleties of her personality really shine through. You can tell when something's exciting her, as well as when something's upsetting her, and you can tell that she really cares about her sister. She's fantastic. 

 

Best writer: Josh Haber

 

Giving him points for executive producing such a better season than the previous two, but I really do respect him for how he approached the premiere. It wasn't the most exciting, but it was intelligent, and its focus on character development and character interactions was something previous two-parters sorely missed. By operating with a new status quo, building up relatively mature themes for this show, and eschewing the show's previous two-parter formula, it was the freshest the show had felt in years - and the season has done a decent job living up to it, even if "Gauntlet of Fire" and "Spice Up Your Life" feel more formulaic. When he's allowed to do what he does best, Haber is one of the best writers working with the show right now, even if his best episodes aren't the most conventionally exciting. 

[Celli 4,352]

Best episode was Saddle Row Review

Best use of Starring character is Rarity

Best new character is Princess Ember

Best song is Hearth's Warming Eve Is Here Once Again

Best returning character is Maud

Best new location is Dragon Lands

And Best writers have been Michael Vogel and Nick Confalone.

[Frostgage 7,982]

Best episode: Gauntlet of Fire

Starring character: Spike

New character: Saffron Masala

Song: It's Gonna Work

Returning character: Maud

Writers: Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco, Mike Vogel

 

 

1. Get promoted to a Mod. 2. Get powers to edit my poll. 3. Abuse powers 4. Get caught in booby trap

 

 

lol you said booby

[Dynamo Pad 11,851]

Best Episode- Flutter Brutter

Best Staring Character- Starlight Glimmer

Best New Character- Princess Ember

Best Song- Can I Do It On My Own

Best Returning Character- Maud Pie

Best Writers- Nick Confalone, Meghan McCarthy, and Michael Vogel. 

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

Best episode: A Hearth's Warming Tails. Sr, No Second Prances, i love you, but... This ep is just too good 

Best Starring Character: Pinkie Pie 

Best new chactecter: Sunburst. This guy is good. Best Male character design.

Best Song: The seed of the Past. So touching... . I dont usually rate villain song even they are always awesome. The meaning of the song is more important.

 

Best returning character: Obviously Trixie.

 

Best new location: Uhmmm...... There is just 1 new location, right? It looks like i dont have a choice at all 

Best writer: Nick Confalone. I love every episode he wrote. Let him write comedic episodes, i love his comedy *I'm looking at you, Dave Posky  *

Overall. this season is fine so far. Some hardcore people may consider this season to be mediocre, doesnt live up to it standard, writers play  it too safe, episodes isnt crazy compare to season 5... However, i dont care, i enjoy almost of them, and that's all matter