Scoring Each Season of Friendship is Magic (Season 7)

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

After the surprisingly mixed (but mostly positive) response to Season 6, it's time to move on and score Season 7 of Friendship is Magic

Also, for those who were curious, here are the scores for previous seasons:

*Edit* I'm removing the scores. It felt like a cheap way of quantifying opinions.

Edited February 18, 2019 by TheAnimationFanatic

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Without a doubt, my favorite Season of the show. Peak storytelling, sharp animation, and features 2 or 3 of the show's best episodes.

Edited January 4, 2019 by TheAnimationFana

[imawesome 449]

2nd best season, I only thought Season 5 was better because it achieved more than I believe this season had. 

Season 7, after the underwhelming Season 6, delivered. I can't really say there was a truly sour episode this time, although "Triple Threat" was extremely forgettable. 

All episodes had something enjoyable, something meaningful, something that showed FiM existed not just to sell toys. (although that might be Hasbro's belief). 

This season was great, and it had me excited for Season 8. 

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

*Edit* Score for Season 6 is now 69%. Score for Season 3 is now 68%.

[FirePuppy 626]

I didn't really love it, knowing that the Mane Six had to cut down on their appearances times for a while due to their budgets in The Movie. But at most, it was great enough.

[Thrond 3,257]

I really hate to be such a contrarian but I didn't really enjoy this season. Something about its increased reliance on more ambitious morals and increased worldbuilding just didn't resonate with me at all, and as such I didn't enjoy very many of the episodes that year. A lot of the time I felt like humour and character were second priority after conveying the moral, which may have always been the case, but which was less apparent when the show was simpler. And I'm not convinced many of these episodes improved on character writing, as episodes like "Forever Filly" and "Honest Apple" seem to make characters behave poorly just for the sake of the moral. Plus I don't really like episodes where the focus character does everything right to teach another a moral, which I felt happened relatively often this season. On the other hand, I felt like this season had a lot of better roles for Twilight, and it continues season 6's slightly more confident portrayal of complex themes, which I would appreciate a lot more in season 8. 

Highlights for me: "A Flurry of Emotions," which may be the cutest episode in the entire show; "Parental Glideance," which has a perfect balance of character depth and boisterous charm; "A Royal Problem," which grounds Celestia and Luna in a way which the show had barely attempted to do beforehand; "Discordant Harmony," which shows Discord can be funny without being a jerk; "The Perfect Pear," which is unusually poetic for this show; "A Health of Information," which provides a particularly strong moral dilemma; "Once Upon a Zeppelin," which finally takes a direct look at how being a princess affects Twilight's anxiety. 

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Why? Being a contrarian is what you do best.

[Thrond 3,257]

1 minute ago, TheAnimationFana said:

Why? Being a contrarian is what you do best.

Well, in this case, enjoying this season sounds a lot more fun than complaining about it. 

Edited January 4, 2019 by AlexanderThrond

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Fair enough. I can see "some" of your critiques. But, I still love this season. 

[Sparklefan1234 161,866]

I liked the Season Premier, "A Flurry of Emotions" & "Perfect Pear".

 

I thought "Fluttershy Leans In" was one of the most "stretched" episodes in the series

 

which, made it very boring for me when I watched it for the first time. 

 

I also really liked both "Rock Solid Friendship" & "It Isn't the Mane Thing About You", as well. 

Edited January 4, 2019 by Sparklefan1234

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

1 minute ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

I liked the Season Premier, "A Flurry of Emotions" & "Perfect Pear".

 

I thought "Fluttershy Leans In" was one of the most "stretched" episodes in the series

 

which, made it very boring for me when I watched it for the first time. 

 

I also really liked both "Rock Solid Friendship" & "It Isn't the Mane Thing About You", as well. 

"Fluttershy Leans In" is an episode I appreciated more upon a second viewing. It's not the most exciting entry, but I think that it works for what the episode is setting out to do.

[Megas 27,064]

The difference in quality between S6 and S7 is insane. Season 7 was such a huge leap forward that I'm still baffled. Some of the best episodes in the entire show, lots of them, lots of episodes that could have went so wrong ended up becoming classics and despite a few weak episodes were no where near as bad as some of them in the rest of the show. The only episode I can think of as genuinely bad was Honest Apple, and even then I'll still take it over some of the schlock in the rest of the series. Hell, Secrets And Pies is an episode I completely dreaded as much as 28 Pranks Later the moment it was announced and to my surprise I ended up loving it and to me it became one of the funniest episodes in the whole show. Despite a few small hiccups S7 did a lot to restore my faith in the show and will probably remain my favorite for a while

[heavens-champion 1,893]

It was good. Twilight gets to save the day in the finale. Yes, everyone saved the day in the finale, but still.

[Dark Qiviut 22,173]

I was stuck between choosing "like" and "love." Now I clicked "love." Why?

1. This is the first season to have a strong consistent level of quality. Sure, you had your average and bad episodes (including F&M, the worst by a humongous margin), but they were much fewer than before. Often, when it's good, it's really good, from All Bottled Up and Flurry of Emotions to the golden: Glideance, Shadow Play and especially Perfect Pear are three of FIM's ten best (the latter MLP's best, period).
   
   If you wanna look at runs, look no further than the one from Mane Thing to Shadow Play. Except Secrets & Pies, the weakest was Health of Info, which had one of Fluttershy's best performances. Those two aside? All among of FIM's best. At the time, it was the series's best streak. During the second half, Josh Haber returned to FIM as writer and editor, and IMO, he helped push S7 to its strongest finish since S5.
    
2. Starlight, Starlight, Starlight, Starlight, star bright! After a mixed S6, she improved a ton here. Yes, she retained characterization from last year, but her, DHX put her in a lot more, had the lessons stick, developed her subtly, and starred in a finale where her placement and status felt completely organic and earned.
   
   Two episodes with this in mind are All Bottled Up and Uncommon Bond. In the former, she physically bottled up her angry magic to keep her composure and not risk ending her friendship with Trixie; in the latter, she grew despaired and created a rather creepy spell to reminisce her childhood with Sunburst.
    
3. Her flat humor in A Royal Prob aside, Twilight was great here. In A Flurry of Emotions, she wanted to spend time with Flurry, but overlooked her hectic schedule, causing her to learn that spending quality time is more important than just time at all. Her role in Zeppelin's a long time coming, juxtaposing her pressure as a princess and making everyone around her happy. Therefore, her valuable time to be with her family's reduced to nothing, and Cadance uses her experience as a mom to deliver a very mature moral of how one's time to do what they wanna do is valuable and deserves respect. And, yes, her role's criminally underrated in Shadow Play; she has believable reasons to revive the Pillar Six, was justifiably embarrassed when she overlooked the Pony of Shadows, worked hard to gain Star Swirl's trust, and (with Starlight's help) reunited Stygian with them.
    
4. "Both Sides Have a Point." For most of 7B, this was its storytelling theme. Are folks written in the wrong? Absolutely. Yet, can you present the conflict where their views are justified? Of course! Many episodes have this, including Marks, To Change a Changeling, Health of Info, and Shadow Play. Playing these conflicts out this way reshaped FIM's stories and morals with a refreshingly gray perspective instead of a one-sided "I'm right, you're wrong."

Edited February 18, 2019 by Dark Qiviut

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

@Key Sharkz I seemed to have accidentally locked the poll.

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Good News:

The poll is unlocked again!

[bigbertha 410]

This season is business as usual for the show for the most part. Truly terrible episodes that rank among the show's worst (Parental Glideance, Secrets and Pies, Fame and Misfortune), episodes that are dull as dirt (Forever Filly, Fluttershy Leans In, Not Asking for Trouble) and a few solid entries that aren't that good (A Flurry of Emotions, The Perfect Pear)

The biggest departure this season is the season long arc that's shoved into 4 episodes. A truly ambition endeavor that few shows have done before... because it's a terrible idea. The pacing on the Legends of Equestria arc is terrible. 3 legends are in one episode, Starswirl doesn't even get an episode until the finale, and we learn nothing about these character's personalities and why they matter aside from the bare minimum of: "Rockhoof is brave and determined" and "Mistmane is nice and generous". This leads to a lack of care in the finale because the show has given me no reason to care about these characters and their conflict with the Pony of Shadows. It's like the writers assumed that people read the comics so they thought they didn't have to give personality to the pillars. But that's not how it works.

But aside from that there's nothing really surprising here. Just more of the same.

BEST: Once Upon a Zeppelin, To Change a Changeling, Triple Threat, Uncommon Bond

WORST: Parental Glideance, Secrets and Pies, Shadow Play, Fame and Misfortune

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

This season was one of the shows best, I think a 2 part premiere would have given it the edge but what we got was still good. This season tied up a lot of loose ends and gave us some really amazing episodes. All the characters were at their prime with only a few exceptions. We finally got real development for Celestia, some fun action scenes, hard-hitting emotional moments, and lots of lore and worldbuilding.
Season 6 really screwed the pooch on only having one finale build up episode imo. Here we got 3 pre-finale episodes with foreshadowing strung throughout the rest of the season, the pillars were interesting characters that added to the mythos in a way never done before. While they aren't extremely unique or varried characters, their personalities are still enjoyable and they served the plot well. 
I can only think of one bad episode in the whole season. "Honest Apple" which butchered AJs character. Other fandom dislikes such as Secrets and Pies and Triple Threat are episodes I thought were pretty good in their own way. Secrets and Pies was hilarious.

As opposed to season 8, where the first three episodes after the premiere were meh before getting a good one, season 7 had 1 good episode with Flurry and one absolute knock out Maud episode, her best yet in my opinion, and even after that Fluttershy had a decent episode, it wasn't good but it wasn't bad either. After that we got Parental Glideance which was amazing, Hard to Say Anything which I personally found hilarious, Honest Apple was the low point before
A ROYAL PROBLEM

This episode was godly.
Same with Perfect Pear
Same with A Health of Information.
gah okay time to settle down

Top 5: Shadow Play (100/100) The Perfect Pear (100/100) A Royal Problem (100/100) A Health of Information (95/100) Discordant Harmony (95/100)
Bottom 5:   Fluttershy Leans in (70/100) Triple Threat (68/100) Hard to Say Anything (60/100) Forever Filly (60/100) Honest Apple (40/100)

Edited March 23, 2019 by RyanMahaffe

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Season 7 is easily one of the strongest and most consistently excellent seasons of the show. Nearly every episode has either great spectacle, humor, heart, OR some combination of the three. 

One of the problems with Season 6 was how it underutilized Starlight Glimmer, this season makes full and much more effective use of her character and her dynamic with the rest of the gang. 

Barring Season 9 blowing us all away, Season 7 will remain my favorite.

[Kion 7,374]

Top 5 best episodes of season 7 

1.  A royal problem 

2. Shadow play 

3. The perfect pear 

4. Uncommon bond 

5. Fame and misfortune 

Overall season 7 is by far the best season finale of the show 

Highlights

Starlight  being treated more like a member of the group.

 

Seeing Star swirl and the pillars 

AJ and RD parents 

Starlight Celestia and Luna map episode 

Making Twilight a lovable character again. 

Every character gets a Chance to shine in the season. 

Seeing Twilights parents again. 

 

 

 

 

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Without question, my favorite season of the show. 

[Kion 7,374]

Here’s how I rank all the season 7 episodes 

1. A royal problem 1000/1000 = A++++

2. Shadow play 100/100= A++++

3. The perfect pear 93/100 = A+++

4. Uncommon bond 90/100= A+++

5. Fame and misfortune 75/100 = A++

6. To change a changeling  10/10 = A++

7.  All bottled up 10/10 = A+

8. Parential Glideance 9.5/ 10 = A+

9. A health of information 9.5/10 = A+

10. Once upon a Zepplin 9.5/10 = A+

11. Discordant harmony 9.5/10 = A+

12. Forever filly 9/10= A+

13. It isint the mane thing about you 9/10 = A+

14.  Rock solid friendships 9/10 = A 

15. Fluttershy leans in 8/10 = A 

16. Celestial advice 8/10 = A

17. Daring done 8/10 = A-

18.  Campfire tales 8/10 = A- 

19. Marks and recreation 8/10 = A- 

20. Hard to say anything 7/10 = B

21. Secrets and pies 6/10 = B-

22. Not asking for trouble 5.5/10 = B- 

23. Triple threats 5.5/10 = C+

24. A flurry of emotions 5/10 = C

25. Honest Apple 5/10 = C

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 26, 2019 by Twilight and Starlight

[Kadeda 178]

Extremely strong season... it's only weakness is the premier and that applejack judge one.

 

The premier because i'm used to them being much bigger in scale... that's about it. It was still good in the scope it was in imo.

The applejack judge one just made me annoyed of Applejack... liked everyone else... especially Rarity.

[Rushing cash 824]

So far this is my favorite season, the only episodes I thought were weak(with only not asking for trouble was pretty bad, the rest were neither good nor bad) were e9, e11, e15, e16 and e18. On the other hand this season had 2 of the best if not the best episodes so far(a royal problem and the perfect pear) with some other graet episodes episdoes (e2, e4, e7, e8, e12, e14, e19, e21, e22 and e23 were all a 9 or a 10\10 for me) and the rest were either okay or good. 

Top 5: 

1. A royal problem, 1 and 2 are interchangeable. 10\10
2. The perfect pear, 1 and 2 are interchangeable. 10\10
3. Parental glideance. 10\10
4. Once upon a zepplin. 10\10
5. Fame and misfortune. 9\10

[Mongo 45]

Hard to Say Anything was my favorite show and had a scary similarity of how I met my wife and competed for her lol