What is your personal ranking of the two-parters?

[pnylvr 185]

My personal ranking of the two-part episodes, from best to worst (Not that I think there are actually any bad ones; the ones near the bottom are only OK):

1. A Canterlot Wedding
2. The Return of Harmony
3. The Cutie Re-Mark
4. To Where and Back Again
5. Friendship Is Magic
6. Twilight's Kingdom
7. Princess Twilight Sparkle
8. The Cutie Map
9. The Crystal Empire
10. Celestial Advice/All Bottled Up (honorary mention, these would have been good as late-season episodes)
11. The Crystalling

[Dark Qiviut 22,359]

Since it's personal, I'm not gonna be objective here:

1. The Cutie Map: No other two-parter comes close to topping this, both in quality and sheer enjoyment.
2. A Canterlot Wedding: Is it good? No. Is it a whole lotta fun to watch? Hell, yeah!
3. The Cutie Re-Mark: Most underrated finale.
4. Return of Harmony: More for Part 2. Part 1 bored me.
5. The Crystalling: Really tame, but it really boosts Starlight's and Spike's characterizations.
6. Celestial Advice/ABU: Liked both, but ABU was far more enjoyable.
7. FIM: Really flawed, but it pumps a lot of heart into this franchise, something it sorely lacked since G1 pre-Tales.
8. Twilight's Kingdom: The battle scene's a blast. A shame how STUPID the AliTrio, Twilight, and Tirek (at the end) were.
9. Princess Twilight Sparkle: Outside of RoH1, this whole thing was boring. The flashback of Celestia sealing Luna was pointless. Pinkie's characterization's horrible. And the decision to have Twilight return to Ponyville (when it had no point in the plot) is dumb.
10. To Where: If there's any episode that could really spoil Starlight's growth, it's this one. Reliance on buildup that didn't exist or was done poorly, worst characterization of Starlight in the show, shitty pacing, and the lack of explanation to how the Changelings kidnapped everyone broke the whole story.
11. The Crystal Empire: My hatred for this piece of shit is well documented.

[K.Rool Addict 718]

#1. Twilight's Kingdom

#2. Princess Twilight

#3. Return of Harmony

#4. To Where and Back Again

#5 The Crystalling

#6 The Crystal Empire

#7. The Cutie Remark

#8. The Cutie Map

#9. A Canterlot Wedding

#10. Friendship is Magic

 

(I have not yet watched the Season 7 opening episodes  )

[Thrond 3,262]

1. "The Crystalling" - Such a plot-light, character-driven premiere was a massive breath of fresh air, and I adore its character arcs and themes.
2. "Twilight's Kingdom" - Struggle to care about Twilight's role as a princess, and the tone makes rewatches harder, but her arc has a lot of depth, the intense plotting is gripping, and it gave the other five credit which MMC denied them.
3. "The Return of Harmony" - On re-watch there's less suspense, but this thing is still super memorable and entertaining. Discord is still the most fun villain.
4. "Friendship is Magic" - Cute, and deserves credit for what it did for the franchise. There's some character nuances which only appear here, which both makes it odd to go back to and genuinely fascinating. 
5. "To Where and Back Again" - As with "The Crystalling," it's just nice to have adventure episodes which don't take themselves especially seriously, and I adore every bit of characterization here. Don't even care about the contrived plot. 
6. "The Cutie Map" - Way too indirect in its message, and boasts some very sloppy characterization, but it's just so weird to watch something so dark from this particular show. A lot of this is genuinely horrifying, and there's a real thrill to that.
7. "The Crystal Empire" - Dreading a rewatch, but the epic scale of this one actually suits the relatively serious tone, and the sheer vagueness of Sombra as a villain is genuinely unnerving. Really too bad that Twilight's arc feels so out of place, as it harms the episode in a few different ways.
8. "A Canterlot Wedding" - Second part is still great fun, and "This Day Aria" is phenomenal, but it's no longer impressive, and the first half is kinda tedious, if only because of Twilight's lack of tact. I do rather like Chrysalis, though.
9. "The Cutie Re-Mark" - The what-ifs are entirely pointless and the tone is way, WAY too serious for how stale and brainless most of the episode is. Has its moments, and I have a soft spot for Starlight's redemption, but it's just so full of itself.
10. "Celestial Advice" / "All Bottled Up" - I almost don't want to count these,  it the former feels uneventful and isn't terribly fun or meaningful, and the latter is just grating and shows character regression. Weak.
11. "Princess Twilight Sparkle" - Filled with questionable narrative decisions, and so overstuffed that its main plot gets no breathing room. The roots of Everfree are unnecessary, the flashback is even more so, and the Tree of Harmony is just heinous. 

[Hierok 11,831]

Return of Harmony

Twilight's kingdom

Princess Twilight

Friendship is magic

Cutie re-mark

The crystal Empire

To where and back again.

The cutiemap

A canterlot wedding

The crystalling

[K.Rool Addict 718]

25 minutes ago, AlexanderThrond said:

"The Crystalling" - Such a plot-light, character-driven premiere was a massive breath of fresh air, and I adore its character arcs and themes.

 

"The Crystal Empire" - Dreading a rewatch, but the epic scale of this one actually suits the relatively serious tone, and the sheer vagueness of Sombra as a villain is genuinely unnerving. Really too bad that Twilight's arc feels so out of place, as it harms the episode in a few different ways.

 

^Glad to see I wasn't alone in liking these episodes. Every one else I have talked to seems to hate em o,o

[Star Petal 215]

I am not sure if I could rank them in any order. It would take a long time and tons of thought for me to do something like that. 

[cmarston1 5,958]

Twilight's Kingdom, Felt like an event, and was the episode of the show that felt the most like an actual movie, I really enjoyed how the show handled Discord's character arc in this episode, both songs are some of my favorites from the show, the fight between Twilight and Tirek is a sight to behold with some of the best animation in the show to date, it wrapped things up with the box and keys in a way that felt like an actual conclusion in a way that season finales should do, and introduced Twilight's new castle and the cutie map, giving the audience something to look forward to in season 5.  This was the episode that had my interest in FIM at its absolute strongest, and ended up becoming one of my favorite episodes of the entire show.

Princess Twilight Sparkle, my favorite season premiere to date, with how it managed to address Twilight's feelings towards becoming a princess and how that would affect her relationship with her and her friends, Twilight's conversation with Celestia about the Summer Sun festival, and some gorgeous animation being some major highlights.  Plus it managed to set up the rest of the season with the mysterious box that managed to do a good job at keeping interest going forwards.

The Crystal Empire had one of the most threatening and effective villains in the underrated King Sombra, and had a really strong storyline going with Twilight and Spike and how she had to learn the lesson of self sacrifice, which ended up being one of my favorite morals of the show.

A Canterlot Wedding like TWaBA was a treat to watch, with some great fight sequences, great musical numbers, and all around had some really great entertainment value, and ended the second season on a pretty high note.

To Where and Back Again was just a blast to watch and had some really great character moments between Starlight, Trixie, Discord, and Thorax who all got some moments to shine and contribute.

The Cutie Re-Mark, outside of Starlight's unbelievably rushed and forced reformation (one of the worst in the show, to be honest), I was really invested in the whole different timelines and seeing how Twilight had to deal with the challenges each on presented.  And even if I hate how an entire season long character arc of Starlight gaining forgiveness from the mane 6 and her victims from the village who really should have some form of PTSD as a result of her actions, magically forgiving her in seconds, in a musical number without having to face any sort of consequences for her actions, I really do enjoy the song.

Friendship Is Magic, while the second part was rushed and Nightmare Moon is one of the show's weaker villains, the first episode was actually a pretty nice way to introduce us to the show's characters and the world of Equestria, and Twilight's speech where she finally understood the value of friendship was all kinds of awesome.

Return of Harmony, after Discord defeated the mane 6, the episodes began to drag, and even if Discord is a good villain by the show's standards, after Gravity Falls gave us Bill Cipher and Weirdmaggedon, Discord and his plan here loses a lot of its luster, when you realize he isn't being used to use fullest potential.

Cutie Map - AKA one of the most overrated episode of the show, dragged on at points, even if it did get better by the second half, and ultimately didn't make me feel all that looking forward to the rest of the season. after the super long hiatus between the end of season 4 to this episode, I was looking forward to something better, and this felt like a disappointment, even if I thought it was enjoyable but not really great.  

The Crystalling, I don't see why this episode needed to be a two parter to be honest, it felt too mundane to be one, and was managed to beat the Cutie Map as the dullest two parter episode.

 

Edited April 29, 2017 by cmarston1

[Thrond 3,262]

12 hours ago, K.Rool Addict said:

 

^Glad to see I wasn't alone in liking these episodes. Every one else I have talked to seems to hate em o,o

 

Both of these episodes get a lot more hate than they deserve. "The Crystal Empire" loses points for pretty much everything related to Twilight's "test," but I have a soft spot for Sombra's backstory and the general tone of the episode. And "The Crystalling" is just plain wonderful and deserves way more credit. 

[K.Rool Addict 718]

On April 29, 2017 at 4:30 PM, AlexanderThrond said:

Both of these episodes get a lot more hate than they deserve. "The Crystal Empire" loses points for pretty much everything related to Twilight's "test," but I have a soft spot for Sombra's backstory and the general tone of the episode. And "The Crystalling" is just plain wonderful and deserves way more credit. 

The only part I didn't like about The Crystal Empire was the guarding of the (fake) Crystal Heart by the rest of the Mane6 besides Twilight. Everything else was hype AF.

The Crystalling was one of my favorite two-parters  So much awesome characterization in that episode particularly between Starlight x Sunburst and Starlight x Spike ^^

Edited May 4, 2017 by K.Rool Addict