Scoring Each Season of Friendship is Magic (Season 8)

[Thrond 3,257]

8 hours ago, heavens-champion said:

Implying that friendship is solely a pony philosophy.

Well, yes, that's another mitigating factor; we know that, of the species seen at the school, yaks and hippogriffs always knew friendship, and that some dragons, griffons, and changelings know friendship better than many ponies. I was more bothered by such implications in earlier episodes, where the ponies had to teach griffons or dragons to be more friendly. It felt a little like a "civilizing mission." The friendship school, which is clearly meant to symbolize diversity and racial harmony, is more defensible. 

I guess I just wish there were some non-pony teachers. But maybe then we wouldn't get to see the mane six react to that role. 

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Season 8 had its missteps for sure, but its positives do very much outweigh its negatives.

For every episode that didn't work or fell flat, there's two or three more that knocked it out of the park. Some of which are the show's absolute best.

[bigbertha 410]

Again, this is more of the same. The writers still don't know how to do a story arc right, most of the episodes are still mediocre, and there are still a few gems.

Though I will say that Road to Friendship is one of my favorite episodes of the show and the better episodes surprised me with some really great dialogue and actually consistent comedy. I have no idea how those episodes happened, but if those could dominate season 9, this show could still be brought back from its slump.

BEST: Road to Friendship, The Break Up Breakdown, Fake it 'Till You Make It

WORST: A Matter of Principals, School Raze, Father Knows Beast

[Kion 7,374]

Easily the worst season without a doubt there are hardly any good episodes. To many bad episodes.   The young 6 steal the spotlight. Bad character development for nearly everyone except Rainbow Dash and the Student 6. Shoving the Cmcs Into the background. In my opinion they should of been the ones to save the day in school raze  instead of the students.  Terrible plots and stories.  In my opinion these are the only episodes I would even consider good in this season. 

1. On the road to friendship 

2. The parent map 

3. Sound of silence  

4. The mean 6

5.  The washouts

Overall very disappointing season

 

 

 

Edited June 26, 2019 by Twilight and Starlight

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

For me, Season 3 is the worst season. I find Season 8 to be underrated. Sure, it has its fair share of misfires, and the handling of the main characters is mixed, but I think that the good/great episodes outweigh the bad ones. I also admire how this season was willing to take risks, even if some of them didn't pay off.

[Kion 7,374]

Season 8 episodes ranked warning most of these aren’t very good numbers 

1. On the Road to friendship A+++

2. The parent map A+++

3. Sound of silence A++

4. The mean 6 A+

5. The washouts A+

6. The end in friend A-

7. Surf and turf A-

8.  Grannies gone wild B+

9. The breakup breakdown B+

10. Horse play B- 

11. Marks for effort B- 

12. A matter of principles  C+

13.  Yakity Sax C+

14. Fake it till you make it C

15. Friendship university C-

16. The maud couple C-

17.  A Rockhoof in a hard place  C-

18. School Daze D

19.  Molt down D

20. Non compete clause F

21. What  lies beneath F

22. The hearts warming club F 

23. Fathers knows beast F 

24. School Raze F- - - - Aka worst episode of the whole series .  

 

[Kadeda 178]

Season 8 was pretty good. The only bad episodes imo was yakity sax and non complete clause. The rest are enjoyable. Don't get why people up here hate it so much. It had some really good episodes and the finale was great. Cozy Glow is an awesome villain.

[Rushing cash 824]

Probably my least favorite season, however it was still pretty good. I think what hurt the season for me was that the school and the students were mishandled a bit and there were episodes which felt forced and out of place, like Yakity sax(tied with spike at your service as my most disliked episode) or the end in friend and so on. Still the plot with cozy glow and the tree was interesting and some really nice episodes as well like "horse play"(we finally learned more about celestia and the history of equestria), "The mean six"(it was a really fun episode), "On the road to friendship"(its starlight and trixie), "The washouts"(my favorite episode this season, we finally see more of lightning dust and scootaloos disability was played upon nicely), "What lies beneath"(the students best episode till this day and we learned a lot about the tree), "Sounds of silence"(new cute race with a nice moral).

Top 5:

1. The washouts 10\10
2. Sounds of silence 9\10
3. The mean six 9\10
4.  Horse play 9\10
5. On the road to friendship 9\10

[Aqua The pegasus 69]

The episodes were great I loved the ending but the one thing I honestly didn't like was the school setting it was just kinda weird 

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

In my opinion, it's the most underrated season.

[Landi 597]

Season 8 is by far the worst season of MLP. Pretty much everything about it was awful.

First there's the School of Friendship; the worst plot-device in all of MLP! The idea of needing a school to teach friendship doesn't make any sense. Friendship is just something people learn through social interactions and experiences. Along with it being a bad idea, making the Mane Six work there was a terrible idea. They all have their own jobs, and now they're expected to be teachers on-top of it; it's ridiculous. Plus, they aren't even certified teachers!

Then there's the student six. Although I don't hate them, I don't like them either. They are mainly boring and uninspired characters. The writers of this season didn't quite know where to go with their character arcs. The thing which really sucks about this is that they took a lot of screen-time away from the mane six. They were just not the best addition to the series.

Lastly I'll mention the poor quality. No other season has a worse quality than season 8. Episodes were rushed, characters were butchered, and the writing had lost all of it's charm. So many episodes didn't make sense, and they often had many random plot-lines clogging things up. The only consistent thing with this season was that it was consistently bad. So yeah, I really don't like season 8.

[JMTV99 1,348]

Season 8 is basically Season 6: "Hold My Beer" Edition.

Everything from the concept of The Friendship School, the Student Six themselves, bastardized characterizations, mediocre, forgettable, boring, and downright awful episodes, tacked on social issues for brownie points, Cozy Glow, it was such a miserable experience.

The only the good thing that came out of Season 8 was Horse Play and A Sound of Silence. At least those were very good episodes.

Edited May 14, 2021 by JMTV99

[Misty Shadow 7,057]

I voted "good, but not great", since while I don't have any animosity towards this season, it's still my least favorite. Kudos to it for adding the kirin and having Sounds of Silence, one of my all-time favorite episodes of the series, but nothing else it adds is all that interesting. Granted, I have written stories involving the Young 6, but the School of Friendship itself and the story arc in this season about Cozy Glow...they always felt off to me. 

[Savygriffs 5,018]

I think season 8 is one of the best. (That and season 9)

 

I dunno, I've just always preferred the later seasons to the earlier ones.

[Rushing cash 824]

Going by the poll, the majority (at least of those who were active in the last couple of years) liked the season, the results are slightly better than I anticipated . 

Is there a thread like this with a poll for season 9?

Edited July 14, 2021 by Rushing cash

[Thrond 3,257]

4 hours ago, Rushing cash said:

Is there a thread like this with a poll for season 9?

Not exactly; the season 9 one doesn't have a poll. It can be found here. 

[Rushing cash 824]

10 minutes ago, Thrond said:

Not exactly; the season 9 one doesn't have a poll. It can be found here. 

Yeah, I saw that one but wondered if there was one is a poll that I missed. Thanks anyway, maybe someone can add a poll there or make a new thread? 

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,809]

Okay...if there's one thing that really made Season 8 a really enjoyable season...is this...

Spoiler

It started with the first episode. When Cozy Glow stepped in, it rose up to a whole new level, and finally tied it all together with the finale. The filler episodes were on spot as well. 

[Astralshy 23,399]

Season eight is the weakest season for me. There are some good and awesome episodes in it like the Kirin episode, the Washouts, Road to Friendship etc. 

I don't dislike the idea of School of Friendship in principle and they  really used it perfectly within the season 9 ending, but I think they executed the idea not in the best way. I also think this is why many people dislike the student six so much. 'Non-compete clause' and 'The End in Friend' are those episodes where it got really visible for me how much the creators wanted to integrated these new elements in the show.

I don't mind character changing their characters over a longer amount of  time (this is actually how it works in real life too) and I also don't mind relapses. But in these cases characters were written so far to plot convenience and breaking their evolution that it was hard to watch it for me and I'm certainly not a fan of it. They should have at least some more time to make the journeys in this episodes more extensive and worthy to the characters. Well, this is at leas how I feel - only my opinion 

There is also a missed opportunity here:  Why was there no interaction between the VA of Chancellor Neigsay (Maurice LaMarche) and Pinkie?

So in short what is good here is really good, but there are also some other spots. I really don't hat this seasons but it got some moments here where the magic of the show got lost for me.

Edit: Forget to add my top episodes:

1. Sounds of Silence
2. The Washouts
3. On the Road to Friendship
4. The Mean Six 
5. The Molt down

 

Edited October 17, 2021 by Astral Soul