Scoring Each Season of Friendship is Magic (Season 6)

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

After my Season 5 poll took off, I figured I'd do one for Season 6.

Edited February 23, 2019 by TheAnimationFanatic

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

For my money, this is the most underrated season of the show. Sure, it has misfires like "The Cart Before The Ponies", "28 Pranks Later", and the infamous "Newbie Dash". But it also has a fair amount of gems such as "The Saddle Row Review", "The Times They Are A Changeling", "Top Bolt", and "Stranger Than Fanfiction".

It also has the most unique and subversive finale in "To Where and Back Again".

[FirePuppy 621]

19 minutes ago, TheAnimationFana said:

For my money, this is the most underrated season of the show. Sure, it has misfires like "The Cart Before The Ponies", "28 Pranks Later", and the infamous "Newbie Dash". But it also has a fair amount of gems such as "The Saddle Row Review", "The Times They Are A Changeling", "Top Bolt", and "Stranger Than Fanfiction".

It also has the most unique and subversive finale in "To Where and Back Again".

Even Pinkie Pie had some good episodes with other characters like Rarity (The Gift of the Maud Pie and Spice Up Your Life) and Fluttershy (Buckball Season) and no useless solo roles.

 

Edited January 3, 2019 by FirePuppy

[Sparklefan1234 161,573]

22 minutes ago, TheAnimationFana said:

For my money, this is the most underrated season of the show. Sure, it has misfires like "The Cart Before The Ponies", "28 Pranks Later", and the infamous "Newbie Dash". But it also has a fair amount of gems such as "The Saddle Row Review", "The Times They Are A Changeling", "Top Bolt", and "Stranger Than Fanfiction".

It also has the most unique and subversive finale in "To Where and Back Again".

 

Season 6 also gave us "Gauntlet of Fire" which, is my favorite Spike episode of the series! 

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

1 minute ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

 

Season 6 also gave us "Gauntlet of Fire" which, is my favorite Spike episode of the series! 

That too. We got not one, but TWO good Spike episodes in the same season.

Though, "Molt Down" is my favorite Spike episode.

[Thrond 3,257]

I like this one a fair bit, and I often feel alone in that. Part of it is that it just has a lot of unusual and creative episode ideas: the season premiere doesn't have a world-ending catastrophe until halfway through, "A Hearth's Warming Tale" is an indirect adaptation of a non-My Little Pony book, "The Saddle Row Review" has a novel mockumentary gimmick, etc. It also takes the setting to weird places: "Spice Up Your Life" implies the existence of diasporas in pony urban centres, "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" is a nerd convention complete with dakimakuras, "28 Pranks Later" is a zombie story, etc. It's here that I think the show's storytelling starts to get too binary, but there's also episodes like " The Times They Are a Changeling" which present internal conflicts way more mature and direct than what I had thought the show was willing to do. Plus, while I wasn't entirely onboard with the newly-reformed Starlight, the stuff they were doing with her was genuinely weird in a way that this show usually isn't, so I find that fascinating even when I don't enjoy it. A lot of the storytelling this season is relatively unpolished, and the back half gets a bit less consistent in my opinion, but it also has the highest batting rate for me after the first two seasons. 

[CypherHoof 26,479]

25 minutes ago, AlexanderThrond said:

I like this one a fair bit, and I often feel alone in that. Part of it is that it just has a lot of unusual and creative episode ideas: the season premiere doesn't have a world-ending catastrophe until halfway through, "A Hearth's Warming Tale" is an indirect adaptation of a non-My Little Pony book, "The Saddle Row Review" has a novel mockumentary gimmick, etc. It also takes the setting to weird places: "Spice Up Your Life" implies the existence of diasporas in pony urban centres, "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" is a nerd convention complete with dakimakuras, "28 Pranks Later" is a zombie story, etc. It's here that I think the show's storytelling starts to get too binary, but there's also episodes like " The Times They Are a Changeling" which present internal conflicts way more mature and direct than what I had thought the show was willing to do. Plus, while I wasn't entirely onboard with the newly-reformed Starlight, the stuff they were doing with her was genuinely weird in a way that this show usually isn't, so I find that fascinating even when I don't enjoy it. A lot of the storytelling this season is relatively unpolished, and the back half gets a bit less consistent in my opinion, but it also has the highest batting rate for me after the first two seasons. 

I think Hearth's Warming Tale is one of my favorite episodes in the entire series; it has a luna solo song (the jyc remix for which is awesome, btw), a classic pinkie song, and Twi being called out on doing her "pinkie pie voice"

Now if only Starlight would get the hint to not use magic to solve all her problems

[Thrond 3,257]

Just now, CypherHoof said:

I think Hearth's Warming Tale is one of my favorite episodes in the entire series; it has a luna solo song (the jyc remix for which is awesome, btw), a classic pinkie song, and Twi being called out on doing her "pinkie pie voice"

Now if only Starlight would get the hint to not use magic to solve all her problems

It's a genuine contender for the #1 spot for me. 

[CypherHoof 26,479]

Oh, and I think Discord's reaction to hearing about fluttershy (and his later reaction to being surrounded by fluttershies) was adorable

Totally crushing on the yellow pone

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Seeing a lot of people bag on this season.

[imawesome 449]

Had a few highlights, didn't think it was as bad as people made it out to be. Still, definitely the most underwhelming of the 8.  

Edited January 4, 2019 by imawesome

[Megas 27,041]

Welp this was the one I was dreading so it's time to unload

This was the season the made me think, several times "wow, someone actually saw this and approved of this crap". So many times there was lots of unbelievably stupid decisions, so much poor story editing, that I'm positive most of it would have never gotten passed editing had someone actually looked at the fucking scripts and stories being submitted, and 28 Pranks Later is the biggest offender of this, I vividly remember Meghan McCarthy a few years ago talk about writing an episode involving zombies but was eventually vetoed, and considering her name appeared in the episode's credits for the story, that was most likely the episode back then, now it's obvious to see why it was rejected in the first place. It was about the worst season for the majority of the main characters like Applejack,Twilight, Rarity all had a terrible season, Rainbow Dash was straight up put through the wringer with Newbie Dash, her milestone episode, and 28 Pranks Later, both of which who's only purpose is to punish her because fuck you, and Starlight which I felt S6 did more harm to her due to the fact that she was hardly present in the main season itself despite it going out of their way to give her the most important roles in the premiere and finales, whatever main episodes she had either didn't do much(HWT) or ended up making her look worse(NSP, ELTSD), in the former's case they try to get everyone to like Starlight by pairing her up with a fan favorite character, which really just comes off as the writers desperately trying to get people to like her with fanservice rather than by her own merits. Really very few characters benefited from the season including Spike, who easily had his best season of the entire show. There was also Fluttershy who had a good S6 too, however at times they still managed to fuck that one up at one point, one of her episodes, Flutter Brutter, despite being one of her best appearances, attaches her to one of the worst and most unpleasant characters in the entire show, Zephyr Breeze, which is made worse when the episode tries to make him incredibly sympathetic out of nowhere without ever earning it. Not to mention, certain episodes rely on cockriding trends popular at the time without any thought or care put into the world or characters, To Where and Back Again pretty much relies on fucking over the entire cast and neutering them just to shill Starlight while ride the hype of that awful Suicide Squad movie, 28 Pranks Later bastardizes the entire cast for the sake of cockriding the comically oversaturated zombie hype train

Now I know I'm sounding like a pessimistic douchebag right now, but I'm not saying the season's not without its merits, it has plenty of great episodes. The aforementioned Spike had his best run in the show with Gauntlet of Fire, Dungeons and Discords, and Times Are A Changeling, Saddle Row Review and HWT are great, Stranger Than Fanfiction is easily one of the funniest episodes in the show, the stretch from Times to Viva Las Pegasus is the best since S3's Magic Duel-Apple Family reunion run, the Map episodes were a huge improvement over S5, if you saw the UK release schedule, Top Bolt was technically the last episode of the season, and hey, in that regard it's a way better finale than TWABA

Unfortunately the bad far outweigh the good, and despite a lot of genuinely great episodes, the bad parts are so bad it makes me sour on the season as a whole. And honestly, the worst part about this season is that, unlike Season 3 and 8, which had a lot of unfortunate choices in them as the result of Hasbro meddling and specific demands they wanted those season, I can't blame it on Hasbro this time around, pretty much everything that went wrong in it is entirely the staff's fault, either through a mixture of people not caring, incompetence, or both. It makes me dread any future season story edited by Josh Haber and has made me incredibly cynical/critical of the show going forward(if that always obvious enough :p). While I still stand by that there are still great episodes this season well worth watching and don't want to take that away, S6 is the only season I can say I genuinely dislike, and with the bad being so bad it was the closest I've ever gotten to dropping the show completely

Spoiler

Which at the end of the day I'm glad I stayed because the next season really restored a lot of my faith in the show

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by This Whomps

[heavens-champion 1,893]

Why isn't there a "It bored me" option in the polls?

[bigbertha 410]

This is such a boring season. Most episodes push more towards the middle and even my least favorite episode (The Cart Before the Ponies) isn't my least favorite because of bad story choices or whatever. It's my least favorite because it has literally no substance. And too many other episodes come dangerously close to that like Buckball Season, P.P.O.V., and The Gift of the Maud Pie. There are some episodes that stick out, but most of those stick out negatively, those being No Second Prances, Every Little Thing She Does, and 28 Pranks Later. But even 28 Pranks Later is only really frustrating in the first half. The second half is just boring.

That said, this does have my favorite episode since Wonderbolts Academy in Stranger Than Fan Fiction, but aside from that episode, Newbie Dash, and maybe Where the Apple Lies, none of the good episode stand out as being really good.

The entire season feels like the aiming for a lower demographic than the previous seasons. I know this is a kids show, but this season is where it feels the most like it. The animation seems more desperate than ever with "wacky" faces being much more common and the voice acting is much less dynamic and interesting. It sounds like the main cast are just going through the motions. This has been a problem since season 4, but it's more noticeable now than ever. And the writing also falls into the trap of going through the motions. Most episodes follow very simple stories and don't do anything to make them fun or interesting. There aren't any witty back and forths or good character interactions in most episodes leaving them as generic stories told in boring ways.

But despite all of this, I still prefer it over season 5. Season 5 was much more interesting and tried to be different, but most of those attempts ended in spectacular failures. That's definitely more interesting to talk about, but I'd rather watch season 6 since it's much less frustrating. I guess you could say that season 5 was more successful since it actually got a reaction out of me, which is what all art should do, while season 6 barely did anything noteworthy, but that doesn't change the fact that season 6 has much fewer failures.

And yes, I understand the irony of me calling this season uninteresting to talk about while writing a longer review for this season than the ones before.

BEST: Stranger Than Fan Fiction, Newbie Dash, Where the Apple Lies

WORST: The Cart Before the Ponies, 28 Pranks Later, Every Little Thing She Does

[Kion 7,374]

2nd best season of the series not gonna lie I thought this season couldn’t be topped boy was i wrong.  This season gives great character Development and episodes to Starlight. 

Highlights 

Starlight Being the hero of the season 

Starlight taking charge 

Starlight meeting Trixie 

  

 

[Kadeda 178]

I loved it... I especially loved that they didn't make Starlight the super good person out of the blue. She was evil for years. She may not have evil intentions anymore but she's still a bit of a sociopath. Chances are... people are going to have to tell you that doing certain things are wrong... which makes complete sense. There were a lot of entertaining episodes in this season as well. Actually, the only things I was a little meh about was the 28 pranks episode and the discord one. It is a little eh compared to the near perfect season 5 though.

Edited June 29, 2019 by Kadeda

[Rushing cash 824]

This was a good season, better then seasons 3 and 8, and on par with seasons 1 and 2 on average. There were some great episodes and some disappointing episodes. It was good to see more of starlight and trixie, learn more about the dragons, and the return of the changelings.

Top 5: 

1. No second prances- 10\10
2. Flutter brutter- 10\10
3. Every little thing she does- 9\10
4. To where and back again- 9\10
5. Gauntlet of fire- 9\10

[Kion 7,374]

Top 5 episodes 

1. To where and back again 

2. No second prances 

3. A hearts warming tale 

4. Top bolt 

5. Every little thing she does

[bigbertha 410]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I like season 6. It's not on the level of seasons 1 and 2, but it's definitely the best season since 2. Josh Haber may have tried to replace the mane six with his creator's pet, but his style adds a sense of fun and freshness that McCarthy's seasons lacked, at least for now. I'll have to see whether that carries to seasons 7-9. It's episodes like Stranger Than Fanfiction, The Saddle Row Review, and Dungeons and Discords that show that the show still has some life left, even by season 6. 

Of course there are still issues. There's a fair share of episodes that are just boring and bad, but the most notable issue is Josh Haber's creator's pet. I don't like Starlight, especially after seeing the leaks. She starts out fine in The Crystalling, but I'm not sure how No Second Prances and especially Every Little Thing She Does are supposed to make me like her. I have no idea who thought it was a good idea to have Every Little Thing She Does be the last Starlight episode before the finale, but it completely destroys her arc and any chance of me caring about her. Luckily, she isn't in most of the season so she doesn't hurt it too much. 

Edited May 20, 2021 by bigbertha

[JMTV99 1,348]

Season 6 will always be my personal least favorite season of the franchise for various reasons. However, is it as bad as Season 8 and 9? Probably not.

Don't get me wrong, I still don't like it, but I just find it disappointing compared to Season 5, in my opinion. I don't know, maybe because I raised my expectations so high after Season 5, I thought Season 6 will be better. Turns out, it wasn't.

Honestly, I feel like Season 6 would've been better if it was given by much better writers who know what they are doing or just keep the old writers for now on. I'm sorry, but I'm not a big fan of Josh Haber as a story editor. I mean, he's a decent writer for Season 4, but when it comes to his story editing and writing ambitious concepts, he's the weakest of the bunch. I'd much rather have Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco as story editors because at least they know and handled the characters decently well compared to Josh.

On top of that, once the old writers left and they were replaced by new freelance writers, the quality of the show really went downhill from there.

Overall, Season 6 is very disappointing. While it's not as bad as Season 8 & 9 in hindsight, but it's not that good either. While it had some decent moments where I can give credit for, but there's a lot more bad than good. But hey, at least Season 7 is an improvement.

Anyways, here's my list of best and worst MLP S6 episodes.

Best: Stranger than Fan Fiction, Where the Apple Lies, and Heart's Warming Tail (only for the past scenes)

Worst: Newbie Dash, No Second Prances, 28 Pranks Later, Applejack's Day Off, Every Little Thing She Does, The Fault of Our Cutie Marks, Flutter Brutter, and To Where and Back Again

Dishonorable Mentions: The Carts Before the Ponies (not the worst, but not good either) and Buckball Season 

Edited May 21, 2021 by JMTV99

[Astralshy 23,404]

I finished my second run through season 6 recently.

Both times I thought this was the weakest of the first six seasons. Only season eight felt weaker to. Don't get me wrong: Season 6 is great and it has a lot of good stuff and episode I like. I just think all the other seasons are better in my opinion at least. Even if something is really good it still can be weaker if you compare with something which is better. That's how I feel about season 6.

The best parts for me of this season

• No Second prances
• Gauntlet of fire
• The Saddle Row Review
• Spice Up your life
• The times they change are changeling
• Every little thing she does
• To Where and Back again

 

 

 

[Megas 27,041]

First season I outright disliked and unfortunately not the last