Which is the best Season Finale? (SPOILERS)

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,606]

So, now that the Season 8 finale has aired, now's the perfect time to discuss and explain which Season Finale is the best/our favourite.

Edited October 14, 2018 by Theanimationfanatic

[MLPFanatic34 3,241]

My favorite finale hands down is the Season 6 finale followed by the Season 5 and 8 finale.

[RulesofRarity 493]

Here’s my rankings from worst to best :

8. The Cutie Remark:

Still the worst finale in my eyes for the dumpster fire that was Starlight’s reformation. Twilight, the element of magic and Princess Celestia’s personal protege is unable to overpower a random unicorn all to force a redemption. Starlight suffers no consequences for almost reducing Equestria to any of those hellish realities, tricking ponies into giving up their cutie marks and trying to vaporize said ponies, and actively gloating about wanting to ruin Twilight’s life. She’s instead rewarded with the luxury of anonymity(a privilege Luna, Sunset and Trixie didn’t get), a decent position as the student of a Princess. I have to wonder why the writers had Trixie suffer so much only to have Starlight do objectively worse than her and not even get a slap on the wrist.

Also this was the finale that started the unbearable trend of antagonists who do horrible things purely because friendship failed them. Yawn.

7. Shadow Play:

When I first watched this finale, I thought it was good because I instantly turned off my brain after seeing Starswirl. Upon re-watching I find this finale hot garbage. Here we have Twilight, Sunburst, and the Mane 5 all being hit with the idiot stick to force a situation that shouldn’t of occurred. It’s so obvious that Twilight’s spell to get the Pillars out of Limbo is going to pull out the POS as well so obvious in fact, that a child could’ve worked it out and yet our supposedly intelligent main character and Sunburst(who came up with the solution to fix the Crystal Heart) didn’t think of it once.

And then we’re supposed to believe that the same pony who gave Luna,  Sunset and Starlight a second chance, and forgave Discord after his betrayal would blindly condemn the POS to imprisonment for eternity because Starswirl said so. This episode also suffers from way too many characters.

6: School Raze:

Our heros send a child to Tartarus while the literal racist gets redeemed and the CMC make an appearance. There, I just summed up 40 minutes of television.

5: Magical Mystery Cure:

This episode is not bad and if we’re being honest the main reason it gets hate is because of Alicorn Twilight. But that’s not why I personally find this episode to be a  bit of a slog, it’s the way they tried to cram story between way too many musical numbers(some of which weren’t particularly good) in a 20 minute episode. I don’t blame M.A. Larson though, his original idea for MMC(I’ve posted the video below for those who haven’t seen) sounded way more interesting than what we could’ve ended up with if it wasn’t for Hasbro’s meddling.
 

Spoiler

 

4: To Where and Back Again:

Considering the Mane 6, Spike, and the Princesses are effectively non-entities in this finale it's actually pretty good. As someone who didn't' like Starlight in S6, she was alright in this episode. It was interesting to see Discord and Starlight, two characters who are pretty reliant on their magical abilities forced to act without them. I still think it was pretty contrived to have the Changelings be able to pull of such a massive kidnapping, in that regard I think "School Raze" did a better job of removing the Mane 6 from action. Despite that, it was nice to see Chrysalis again after 4 seasons. And I liked the new Changeling designs.

3: The Best Night Ever:

As far as finales go to date this is the most mundane finale we've ever had on this show. There's no saving Equestria story or Starswirl spell causing chaos and I think that actually benefits the episode. It's pretty refreshing to come back too after some recent finales have left me disappointed. It's funny, charming and overall a decent finale to solid start.

2: Twilight's Kingdom:

Alright. So I think this finale has some issues. For example, Celestia sending Discord after Tirek even though at this point he wouldn't of been strong enough to steal Twilight's Alicorn magic so not sending her doesn't make much sense. And then the plan of transferring their magic to Twilight when Discord could just tell Tirek that there's a 4th Princess and how does Tirek know about Cadence if she ascended while he was in prison? Aside from that, this finale is decent I was happy to finally see Twilight doing something as a Princess and finally having an actual role. I loved Tirek as a villain, he worked effectively as an obstacle for our protagonists to overcome and had a far more interesting backstory than any villain post Starlight Glimmer. All and all a fun game-changing finale.

1: A Canterlot Wedding:

I adore this finale. It's still my favorite after all these years. It's still the entertaining and the most cohesive in my opinion, there's no mind-numbing redemption or an easy fix via the Elements of Harmony. It's pretty daunting to think that Equestria would've been screwed had Twilight not found Cadence. I liked the introduction of Shining and Cadence, the writers did a good job of showing us how much Twilight cared about Shining which explains her behavior in this finale. Chrysalis was a good antagonist, I loved her charisma when she dropped the charade and then proceeded to whoop Celestia's ass.

[MLPFanatic34 3,241]

I forgot to say though I also loved the Season 2 finale, it was our introduction to Queen Chrysalis and damn is she still my favorite villain on the show.

[Sovereign Leader Rarity 12,025]

For me, while I like almost all of them (save for "The Cutie Remark" and "Shadow Play"), the best of the bunch is still "Twilight's Kingdom" by a clear mile, which is my favorite episode of the show to this day.

If I had to rank them, from best to worst, off of the top of my head: 

8) "The Cutie Remark"

7) "Shadow Play"

6) "Magical Mystery Cure"

5) "School Raze"

4) "The Best Night Ever"

3) "A Canterlot Wedding"

2) "To Where and Back Again"

1) "Twilight's Kingdom"

 

 

 

[cuteycindyhoney 13,339]

It doesn't seem to be popular, but season three "Magical Mystery Cure" is still my favorite. It was too short, and should have been a two parter, but I loved it so much! My second choice is season 4, "Twilight's Kingdom".

[Thrond 3,271]

1. "The Best Night Ever" - consistently funny and creative while summarizing all six of the characters' arcs to that point, and eventually also the evolution of their friendship. Much more conclusive than it gets credit for, and still stands out as unique among the other finales. Iconic. 
2. "Twilight's Kingdom" - Also iconic. Does the self-serious suspense thing way better than any of the finales after it, partially because it was novel, but partially because it actually has some character depth throughout. I don't care what Twilight's place as an alicorn is, but I do care about her rediscovering the purpose in her life, and I do care about the contrast between confused but empathetic Twilight and self-centred, friendless Tirek. 
3. "To Where and Back Again" - The most character-focused finale since season 1, if you ask me. It's incredibly contrived in ways which are sometimes kind of a bummer, but all of the focus on character interactions, and especially on the protagonists' anxiety, mark it as closer to the Platonic ideal of a two-part finale than any of the others. And it's also really funny! If it were cleaner, I'd probably favour it over "Twilight's Kingdom." 
4. "A Canterlot Wedding" - The second half does ass-kicking better than the other two-parters, but the first half is kind of a drag. On one hand, I'm not certain why nobody else questioned Chrysalis' disguise, but on the other hand, watching Twilight be jealous and accusatory is no fun at all. But then "This Day Aria" happens, and everything after that is quite fun. 
5. "School Raze" - Kinda dull, but mostly inoffensive. I would have been more bothered by this were it not for the stuff in Tartarus, which is pointless but entertaining. Otherwise, this just seems overly familiar, and as usual, takes itself much too seriously for my tastes. I don't think it actually does anything interesting or exciting enough to justify the tone, and it's too predictable to be all that suspenseful. 
6. "The Cutie Re-Mark" - See above, but subtract some of the plot coherence. This maybe has more interesting isolated moments, but as cool as the bad futures are, none of them get enough time onscreen to be satisfying, and the idea that only the mane six are keeping Equestria from disaster strikes me as downright absurd. The way Starlight Glimmer was redeemed is relatively poignant to me, but season 6's "A Hearth's Warming Tail" hits all of the same notes more successfully.
7. "Shadow Play" - This one is particularly pretentious and joyless in my eyes, and the first half is entirely pointless. Moreover, there's character behaviour in this which just doesn't seem right to me. Why wouldn't Twilight realize the limbo spell would be dangerous? Why wouldn't she try to stand up to Starswirl more? Maybe it would make more sense if we got her perspective, but instead we get Starlight at her least interesting. And all of the worldbuilding is just so expository and bland. 
8. "Magical Mystery Cure" - Exhausting, overstuffed structure + incomprehensible narrative + unjustified major change = an genuine disaster. 

[MLPFanatic34 3,241]

3 hours ago, cuteycindyhoney said:

It doesn't seem to be popular, but season three "Magical Mystery Cure" is still my favorite. It was too short, and should have been a two parter, but I loved it so much! My second choice is season 4, "Twilight's Kingdom".

Yeah Magical Mystery Cure should have been a two parter, it's really odd it wasn't.

[Dark Qiviut 22,605]

Ranking mine, too.

1. The Best Night Ever: This episode is virtually flawless. (Sure, the songs might be a little bit dated now, but still hold up.) Unlike the others, no stakes are claimed, and it works wonderfully for that. The satire was funny years ago and remains funny today. "Afraid to get dirty?!" is still a classic.
    
2. Shadow Play: Rather than rewrite why, I'll C&P my status update.

   Quote

   It's really difficult not to underestimate the major undertaking Dubuc (in her FIM debut) and Haber took to writing Shadow Play. It had virtually everything going against it: pacing, a ginormous character cast, a large intertwining of plotlines dating back to the pilot, characterization as a whole, and Hasbro's toyetic plugs/influences in its franchises. But with all the decks stacked, they're somehow able to create an episode so cohesive, creative, balanced, and character-driven that other finales and the movie dreamed of making.

   Twilight's Kingdom: Celestia, Luna, and Cadance were completely incompetent in defending against Tirek, and their reason for letting Twilight borrow their magic's some of the dumbest logic I've seen in the show's history.

   A Canterlot Wedding: retreads some of the same scenes from Lesson Zero, has an incompetent villain, and flabbergasting scripting of nobody suspecting SA was hypnotized despite its blatant visibility.

   The Film: More than twice SP's length, yet really struggles with the pacing, and characterization of the cast minus Twi, Pinkie, Tempest, and Capper.

   Shadow Play has none of these issues. Dialogue's some of the tightest of the show, an improvement that continues today. Comedy really well done, including the snark. Worldbuilding and lore remains maybe the best of the series. Characterization's incredibly balanced. A great deal of effort was put into the story as a whole, including its usage of Ponehenge (a reference to Stonehenge). I don't know if they looked this up, but Stonehenge is believed to be an ancient burial ground, so its makes sense for the Pillars to disappear with Stygian, as though it's their final resting place. But specific areas earn their serious due, too.

   1. The villain's backstory remains the best of the series. Previously, each villain has some flaw that holds it back. Starlight's plausible yet abbreviated, yet has some of the best characterization. NMM's great, but she's a stock villain. The Pony of Shadows and Stygian's backstory starts out with great detail, but Haber and Dubuc wouldn't stop there. With each passing scene, the PoS's backstory becomes richer and richer.
   2. The Cutie Map's involvement is still the show's best plot twist, but it also makes so much sense. Coming into that moment, the Pillar Six and Bearers pieced so much lore related to the map and castle — started out as a seed infused with each of their biggest virtues, each of them grew into the Elements of Harmony today. Harmony gives that Tree omniscience, an ability to see things no one else could, all started by the Pillars eons ago. When it looked like the story was going to go one direction, it swerved; the Map's involvement led to this next point.
   3. Starlight's inclusion is earned. Unlike S6, she belongs in both the show and the ReManing cast, all thanks to really improved writing and editing of her. Everything she did throughout S7, big and small, culminated to this very moment. The map's involvement added an extra layer into the conflict, and Starlight was a piece of it. While everyone justifiably looked for a quick fix before the PoS regained power, she looked for a real fix: the cause of their friendship, divide, and his villainy.
      
      Neither Haber nor Dubuc mirrored her backstory with Stygian's by accident; despite not meeting him, she saw herself in him. As an ex-villain, she understands the villainy mind better than anyone else. Star Swirl's brisk bitterness towards him cuts deeply into her, because much Star Swirl's historic teachings modeled Twilight's life and her empathy for Stygian.
   4. This two-parter was never a stock good/evil affair. Some wondered why everyone took the stakes so seriously when we saw little of his power and criticized the episode for it. That's the point. Shadow Play was never about how to defeat an ultimate evil at his highest, but properly infuse the Magic of Friendship to reunite the Pillars with Stygian before history repeats itself. The PoS bid his time, but our heroes caught breaks as he couldn't find any hideout to regenerate. This gave them, and us as an audience, time to gauge the conflict and look at every lens without cramming the story.
      
      This tactic allowed both Haber and Dubuc to co-write a story with a trope used for most of 7B: "both sides have a point," this the ultimate use. Stygian, the Pillars/RM7/Sunburst, and Starlight all had separate views, and the episode spent a great deal of time validating them. Even more impressively, SP sympathized Stygian/PoS with barely any screentime until the climax.
   5. It brings up an important point about the Elements of Harmony. Until this episode, FIM normally used harmonious magic to defeat, hurt, or banish evil. Starlight, not an Element, rightfully took it personally, because they weren't using the Elements to create harmony, but force it. She believed they could be used for a better purpose other than banishing a personal foe, one they were previously in great terms with.
      
      Just as Twilight was ready to push him back to Limbo, she saw Stygian struggle to break free from him (and the bitterness in his heart), and she stopped her own spell to confront him and treat him as an equal. When Stygian explained his wish to work with the Pillars in battle, everything SP built up was put together. The Pillars were wrong, but so was Stygian, yet no one looked dumb because of it.
      
      Why did Star Swirl not understand friendship so well and not take it so seriously? Because he and the others lived in a very tumultuous era of Equestria and the Realm as a whole. As the Pillars' magic grew in their absence, so did the light of the Realm; it took a life of its own to maintain peace. This episode was a lesson to him, as well as the other Pillars, about how powerful the Magic of Friendship truly is.

   Shadow Play still holds up beautifully, yet is a little bit better than before. Not only is it still the best two-parter of the show, but also one of the five best overall, as well.

    

3. The Cutie Re-Mark: I can talk about how well-done the plot and humor were, but I'll focus on one: Starlight's reformation. It's believable. Think about it. Sunburst wasn't just Starlight's childhood friend, but only one, too. Both of them were really close. But then, upon saving her from a freak accident, circumstances beyond her control ripped them away from each other, and as Sire's Hollow revers Sunburst, Starlight was left alone. For an adult, it makes no sense for worldview to deteriorate and warp from this. But Starlight was a child at the time, and feeling trumps logic much more at that age.
   
   Twilight tried to fight fire with fire, but it doesn't work. She can only beat her by showing her the damage she's causing, exposing the façade she held. In the climax, Twilight was at her mercy; the only way she could stop her was to convince her to give the Magic of Friendship a second chance. Even when she could destroy the scroll, Starlight elected to trust Twilight. Punishing her implicates her word is useless: Teaching her was the best choice.

4. School Raze: It has its strengths and weaknesses. For strengths, Cozy is now the show's best villain: cunning, manipulative, menacing under a sweet façade. She embodies the MoF while actually not learning it. The RM7 have one of their most competent roles to date: despite being trapped with Tirek, they spin his plan upside-down, make him so miserable that he wants them out of Tartarus, and figure out how to use the creatures' magic to escape. Neighsay's redemption makes sense. Its weaknesses include Cozy dumping Neighsay's medallion in a basket nearby, the CMCs' underutilization, and the climax was full of awful dialogue with hamfisted references to the Elements.

5. Twilight's Kingdom: Discord's conflict is easily the best part. In the other episodes he was in, the RM5 didn't like him, and he always loved to push their buttons. Here, Tirek exploits his biggest desires, and when T double-crosses him, it rightfully crushes him. When he was a villain, he didn't care for anyone. Realizing he hurt so many made him alter his ways. So what hurt it? Among them are:

   1. You'll Play Your Part is one of the worst songs of the season. Incredibly clumsy, long-winded lyrics that crawl the pacing. Characters stand around on a balcony most of the time, and the visuals are way too still and empty.

   2. The AliTrio's plan to keep Tirek in check and solution once he joined him are incredibly stupid! No backup plan in case he does betray her. They explain to Twi that he has no idea a fourth alicorn existed…when he might've told him well in advance! AND they told her to hide her borrowed powers, putting her friends in great danger.

   3. Tirek was way more menacing before he became gigantic. In his frail state, his manipulation made him smart and clever. But when enormous, he was just a cookie-cutter brute.

6. A Canterlot Wedding: Its biggest strengths are the songs, especially This Day Aria; and this is one of only two to justify Celestia's capture. Ripping off Lesson Zero, trying to make the audience care Cadance and SA (when they came up out of nowhere, are supposedly important to Twi's life, and had no real full-fledged personality at any point), Chrysalis being incompetent, the RM5 and the wedding audience standing underneath the Idiot Ball hurt it badly.

7. Magical Mystery Cure: No need to be said. Rushed pacing, contradicting cutie mark lore, climax happens too early, should've been a two-parter. OTOH, Twilight worked her hardest to remedy the mistake she made and earned her crown.

8. To Where and Back Again: Two words: complete shit. The only bad finale of the series and an awful one at that. Why?

   1. The episode tries to work real hard to prove that Starlight changed, that she and Trixie are close friends, and that Thorax was ready to replace Chryssie. Starlight barely appeared following Tail. Trixie and Thorax only appeared in one episode each, and Thorax's development was exclusively offscreen. TWABA relied on empty exposition to make the audience believe and care for them. Starlight chose Trixie to accompany her to the village festival because she saw her as a better friend than Twilight, when the show proved otherwise; it was OOC of her.

   2. Chrysalis's worst appearance of the show by a wide margin. Starlight was right there to kidnap, but she didn't bother. Why? Because she didn't take her seriously. Her ego singlehandedly cost her her kingdom.

   3. The reformation process of the changelings was trash. In Re-Mark, Twilight had to convince Starlight at her strongest, most desperate point to change. That tone doesn't feel as urgent or serious here when it should've been, and the episode spent very little time convincing the changelings, who had been ruled by her for their whole lives, to change. It wasn't convincing at all.

   4. There's a massive plot hole in the episode. You're telling me that it took a few changelings to take out each of the RM7, Sunburst, and each of the Royal Family, when it took dumb luck and a whole army to capture Celestia and the M6, respectively? Plus, their kidnapping triggered SG's rescue mission; HOW they were kidnapped was the glue to keep the story together. Without it, the story falls apart.

   5. If FS wasn't kidnapped, Discord would've done diddly-squat, suggesting he'd let her friends rot in her hive. Him and Trixie constantly butting heads while Starlight's trying to rescue everyone only made the conflict more annoying.

Edited October 15, 2018 by Dark Qiviut

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,606]

1 hour ago, Dark Qiviut said:

Ranking mine, too.

1. The Best Night Ever: This episode is virtually flawless. (Sure, the songs might be a little bit dated now, but still hold up.) Unlike the others, no stakes are claimed, and it works wonderfully for that. The satire was funny years ago and remains funny today. "Afraid to get dirty?!" is still a classic.
    
2. Shadow Play: Rather than rewrite why, I'll C&P my status update.

    

3. The Cutie Re-Mark: I can talk about how well-done the plot and humor were, but I'll focus on one: Starlight's reformation. It's believable. Think about it. Sunburst wasn't just Starlight's childhood friend, but only one, too. Both of them were really close. But then, upon saving her from a freak accident, circumstances beyond her control ripped them away from each other, and as Sire's Hollow revers Sunburst, Starlight was left alone. For an adult, it makes no sense for worldview to deteriorate and warp from this. But Starlight was a child at the time, and feeling trumps logic much more at that age.
   
   Twilight tried to fight fire with fire, but it doesn't work. She can only beat her by showing her the damage she's causing, exposing the façade she held. In the climax, Twilight was at her mercy; the only way she could stop her was to convince her to give the Magic of Friendship a second chance. Even when she could destroy the scroll, Starlight elected to trust Twilight. Punishing her implicates her word is useless: Teaching her was the best choice.

4. School Raze: It has its strengths and weaknesses. For strengths, Cozy is now the show's best villain: cunning, manipulative, menacing under a sweet façade. She embodies the MoF while actually not learning it. The RM7 have one of their most competent roles to date: despite being trapped with Tirek, they spin his plan upside-down, make him so miserable that he wants them out of Tartarus, and figure out how to use the creatures' magic to escape. Neighsay's redemption makes sense. Its weaknesses include Cozy dumping Neighsay's medallion in a basket nearby, the CMCs' underutilization, and the climax was full of awful dialogue with hamfisted references to the Elements.

5. Twilight's Kingdom: Discord's conflict is easily the best part. In the other episodes he was in, the RM5 didn't like him, and he always loved to push their buttons. Here, Tirek exploits his biggest desires, and when T double-crosses him, it rightfully crushes him. When he was a villain, he didn't care for anyone. Realizing he hurt so many made him alter his ways. So what hurt it? Among them are:

   1. You'll Play Your Part is one of the worst songs of the season. Incredibly clumsy, long-winded lyrics that crawl the pacing. Characters stand around on a balcony most of the time, and the visuals are way too still and empty.

   2. The AliTrio's plan to keep Tirek in check and solution once he joined him are incredibly stupid! No backup plan in case he does betray her. They explain to Twi that he has no idea a fourth alicorn existed…when he might've told him well in advance! AND they told her to hide her borrowed powers, putting her friends in great danger.

   3. Tirek was way more menacing before he became gigantic. In his frail state, his manipulation made him smart and clever. But when enormous, he was just a cookie-cutter brute.

6. A Canterlot Wedding: Its biggest strengths are the songs, especially This Day Aria; and this is one of only two to justify Celestia's capture. Ripping off Lesson Zero, trying to make the audience care Cadance and SA (when they came up out of nowhere, are supposedly important to Twi's life, and had no real full-fledged personality at any point), Chrysalis being incompetent, the RM5 and the wedding audience standing underneath the Idiot Ball hurt it badly.

7. Magical Mystery Cure: No need to be said. Rushed pacing, contradicting cutie mark lore, climax happens too early, should've been a two-parter. OTOH, Twilight worked her hardest to remedy the mistake she made and earned her crown.

8. To Where and Back Again: Two words: complete shit. The only bad finale of the series and an awful one at that. Why?

   1. The episode tries to work real hard to prove that Starlight changed, that she and Trixie are close friends, and that Thorax was ready to replace Chryssie. Starlight barely appeared following Tail. Trixie and Thorax only appeared in one episode each, and Thorax's development was exclusively offscreen. TWABA relied on empty exposition to make the audience believe and care for them. Starlight chose Trixie to accompany her to the village festival because she saw her as a better friend than Twilight, when the show proved otherwise; it was OOC of her.

   2. Chrysalis's worst appearance of the show by a wide margin. Starlight was right there to kidnap, but she didn't bother. Why? Because she didn't take her seriously. Her ego singlehandedly cost her her kingdom.

   3. The reformation process of the changelings was trash. In Re-Mark, Twilight had to convince Starlight at her strongest, most desperate point to change. That tone doesn't feel as urgent or serious here when it should've been, and the episode spent very little time convincing the changelings, who had been ruled by her for their whole lives, to change. It wasn't convincing at all.

   4. There's a massive plot hole in the episode. You're telling me that it took a few changelings to take out each of the RM7, Sunburst, and each of the Royal Family, when it took dumb luck and a whole army to capture Celestia and the M6, respectively? Plus, their kidnapping triggered SG's rescue mission; HOW they were kidnapped was the glue to keep the story together. Without it, the story falls apart.

   5. If FS wasn't kidnapped, Discord would've done diddly-squat, suggesting he'd let her friends rot in her hive. Him and Trixie constantly butting heads while Starlight's trying to rescue everyone only made the conflict more annoying.

I agree with most of this. Though I liked the Season 6 finale.

[bigbertha 417]

1. To Where and Back Again- This finale just has the best balance of epic and fun that none of the other finales have managed to matched. Any story issues here are overshadowed by the fact that the core of the episode isn't on the story. It's on Starlight's emotional conflict, one that I found to be very engaging. It's also a very funny finale, though with both Trixie and Discord, how could it have not been funny,

2. The Best Night Ever- This one is very close to To Where and Back Again, but I just had more fun with the other episode. That's not to say that this episode isn't amazing, because it is. The story is a clever satire and the episode is one of the funniest of season 1.

3. Magical Mystery Cure- This episode just hits on all the right emotional buttons for me. The story is a mess, but I don't care because of how grand, fun, and emotional the entire episode is. 

4. The Cutie Re-Mark- This finale isn't very good. The bad endings aren't given enough time to become very interesting, it's repetitive, and there's a lot of hammering into the audience's head that Twilight and her friends are the most important ponies ever. Even so, Starlight's reformation is what puts this finale above the other weak ones. Her reformation is by far the most poignant of all of the initial reformations.

5. School Raze- The core Student Six vs Cozy Glow story is fun, but the problem is everything around it that drowns it out. Neighsay is a generic racist who changes his ways unbelievably quickly and the stuff in Tartarus is completely pointless. There's a reason To Where and Back Again didn't show how everyone got captured and why this finale didn't show how Starlight got captured. It's because doing that would take the focus away from what's actually important. Cozy Glow is a fun antagonist, but not a very compelling one. She has no depth or any kind of backstory. Before anyone brings up Sombra, we did get backstory for Sombra. He's used to be an evil dictator of the Crystal Empire before being locked away for 1,000 years. That's really all we needed. Even if Cozy's backstory was that she's a demon from Tartarus, that would be enough.

6. Twilight's Kingdom- This finale is just boring. It's 44 minutes of Tirek being a bland "destroy everything" antagonist and Twilight being her bland post season 3 self. I like how Discord is handled, but that's about it.

7. A Canterlot Wedding- This one is just empty spectacle to me. Shining Armor and Cadence are boring and aside from the changeling battle and Chrysalis, nothing stands out here.

8. Shadow Play- This is the epitome of everything wrong with modern MLP. It tries to bring in a bunch of new characters, but only one of those has an actual personality. Everyone is made into an idiot just so Starlight can be the hero. It's like if To Where and Back Again brought the mane six on the journey to stop the changelings and still had Starlight be the hero. Most of the comedy falls flat and everything is just so pretentious. It's trying to be like a story driven epic with tons of world building and lore, but MLP isn't a story driven show and it does not having an interesting lore. 

[Thrond 3,271]

5 hours ago, bigbertha said:

Before anyone brings up Sombra, we did get backstory for Sombra. He's used to be an evil dictator of the Crystal Empire before being locked away for 1,000 years. That's really all we needed. 

Sombra also had a much less direct presence in those episodes. He only had a couple short lines, and mostly just hung around as this approaching wall of darkness. The mane six spent more time fighting his legacy than him directly, and that's what makes him such an unnerving villain to me. 

[DonMaguz 1,023]

The Cutie Re-Mark is my favorite finale, it's exciting from the start, the concept of time traveling was well executed, intriguing speculative alternate realities, and the most defining moment for Twilight Sparkle, after her ascension, when she offered Starlight a chance to be friends.

[Misty Shadow 8,200]

Four years later, and Twilight's Kingdom is still my favorite season finale. The pacing and storytelling was just so on point and that fight scene with Twilight and Tirek is still one of my all-time favorite scenes in the show. Everything that's followed it has come close though, which is why I'm shocked to see so much hate for post Season 4 finale episodes here. Every one of them offered something new and unique to the show. The Cutie Re-Mark was the beginning of the Starlight Glimmer we know and love and opened up so many possibilities for the world with alternate universes, like, come on. 

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,606]

2 minutes ago, CloudMistDragon said:

Four years later, and Twilight's Kingdom is still my favorite season finale. The pacing and storytelling was just so on point and that fight scene with Twilight and Tirek is still one of my all-time favorite scenes in the show. Everything that's followed it has come close though, which is why I'm shocked to see so much hate for post Season 4 finale episodes here. Every one of them offered something new and unique to the show. The Cutie Re-Mark was the beginning of the Starlight Glimmer we know and love and opened up so many possibilities for the world with alternate universes, like, come on. 

Mostly just purists. 

[Here No Longer 5,286]

Here's the full list.

1) Twilight's Kingdom- I still can't find anything to top it. Discord's internal conflict was perhaps the best written sub-plot in the entire series, (hate using this as a point) the stakes were absolutely massive as well as well managed, and I still can't find a single flaw with it. It was so good I swear I felt an increase in my self-esteem afterwards.

2) To Where and Back Again- A criminally underrated finale, it brilliantly plants secondary characters into a situation where they have to team up to save Equestria, but they can't even get along with each other. The banter between Trixie and Discord was probably one of the few good examples ever of character's banter further developing them.

3) A Canterlot Wedding- I used to not like this one as much, but I've began to warm up to it. "This Day Aria" is a really, really good song which is almost perfectly executed cinematically. Nonetheless, the changeling conflict seems so random in context. If this were swapped with the S3 finale, it would have been perfect... But Nope.

4) The Cutie Remark- I don't see why this finale is so hated. Sure, there's a few problems with it, but I can't put it below fourth because of the execution of the premise.

5) Shadow Play- I've started to realize this finale... Is not that good. The problem is in the characterizations of Twilight and particularly of Starswirl. Twilight was kind of being a moron and Starswirl was just an a**. Aside from that it's pretty good I think, though they could have definitely worked on the Pony of Shadows' backstory.

6) Best Night Ever- A case study in how to make a finale completely boring. Basically a better version of "Ricksy Business" from Rick and Morty...

6) School Raze- I put it in a tie with Best Night Ever here, but I still lean on this choice being seventh. Cozy Glow was an absolutely generic villain with little flavor, and the subplot in Tartarus basically wasted half of the episode. Not to mention the pacing even otherwise was poor at best.

8) Magical Mystery Cure- Not my least favorite in the series anymore, but nonetheless a total dumpster fire with horrendous pacing, a lot of mediocre at best songs, and it even f***s with the show's backstory. What... Was... That... GARBAGE!?!?!?!

Edited October 16, 2018 by ~Dusky~

[JH24 385]

"The Best Night Ever" is still my favorite. Maybe not the most exciting but it had that special feeling to it. Some fun moments as well.

My other favorite is "School Raze" (Cozy Glow stole the show here and the Student 6 had some great moments as well)

Edited October 16, 2018 by JH24

[Midnight Solace 5,134]

Twilight's Kingdom. MLP finally had Dragon ball Z action. 

[Odyssey 5,719]

Best Night Ever is still my favorite. It's gor really funny parodies of fairy tales, and it also gives focus to all of the main six ponies instead of one. 

[FlareGun45 2,221]

The one with Spike as the hero! 

[Never Returning 28,615]

Best: "A Canterlot Wedding", hooves down!

Worst: Toss-up between "Magical Mystery Cure" and "To Where and Back Again"

[Megas 28,138]

Best Night Ever is the only one that still holds up on rewatch, and shows you don’t need to put the game world through the apocalypse to make a great and fun season finale. Unfortunately i’m not expecting another one like it any time soon 

Edited December 7, 2018 by This Whomps

[Thrond 3,271]

19 hours ago, This Whomps said:

Best Night Ever is the only one that still holds up on rewatch, and shows you don’t need to put the game world through the apocalypse to make a great and fun season finale. Unfortunately i’m not expecting another one like it any time soon 

If they made a two-parter like “Best Night Ever,” it’d probably look a lot like “Best Gift Ever.” Too bad that kind of thing has to air out of season now. 

[Sunlight Glisten 369]

I pick 3. 

Twilight kingdom. Hands down coolest. This cemented twilights place as most badass princess pony of all time. 

To where and back again was a lot of fun. All the different realities. Complete dream come true.

At the gala, hilarious. Everypony at their worst best, or is it best worst. Except apple jack, she could have been a better worst.  Hope that makes sense.

[Landi 602]

My favorite is Twilight's Kingdom, hands down. There is so much goodness in thats finale I don't even know how to describe it. The lore is sweet, the plot was well paced and intense, and the action was crazy good. Overall a really good Finale.