Guilty Pleasure Episodes?

[Lone Traveler 87]

I am defining a guilty pleasure episode as an episode you think has significant writing issues and could have been improved greatly, but you still really like it due to other qualities. Here are some examples for me:

Feeling Pinkie Keen: The story, moral, and Twilight's characterization is awful. That being said, this episode is hilarious and Pinkie Pie is super likeable so I love it anyways. 

Spike at Your Service: The writing, particularly involving Spike's characterization is really bad here. That being said, I find the interactions between the characters here to be really funny so I kind of like this episode and I can get past the frustrating and annoying elements. 

Keep Calm and Flutter On: Yes, this episode is very rushed, Fluttershy comes off as manipulative, and we do not get to see any believable friendship developing between Discord and Fluttershy. That being said, this episode is absolutely hilarious and fun to watch, so I do not care. Discord's antics and trolling combined with the fast pace and the reactions from the other characters make this a joy to watch. 

Equestria Girls (1st Movie): Sunset is an awful villain, the plot is completely incoherent and stupid (Sunset's plan was total nonsense, there was no reason for Twilight and Sunset to not just steal the crown, battle at end made little sense), plot was very uninteresting and by the books, setting was totally boring, the music is mostly crap, very little of consequence happens throughout most of the movie.  In spite of all of this, I still really like this movie, mainly because I really enjoy Twilight's dynamic with Spike and the other characters. Just having all of this enjoyable character interaction from the perspective of my favorite character managed to save a movie for me that had nothing else going for it. Really shows how strong the characters and the charm of MLP can be.

Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep: The episode was very rushed (should have been a two parter) so it lacks creativity, with really cool concepts that deserved so much more time to develop and have fun with. It is a shame the dream world was not explored further on this show, there is so much fun that could be had with it. Also, Luna's characterization was handled very poorly, with the issue of chronic and self destructive self harm being bizarrely addressed and "solved" within like 2 minutes. Luna clearly had serious issues here that short speech from Twilight is not going to solve. And Celestia, the person she hurt the most, wasn't even in the episode. In spite of all the missed potential and the failed self harm plot point, I still love this episode because I love the cool dream stuff so much that I can still enjoy it in spite of its flaws. But if there was one episode of MLP I wish was rewritten, this would be it.

Fake It Til You Make It: Fluttershy has no motivations for her actions here, so her being so mean is completely illogical and out of character for her. She basically became a robot for 15 minutes just doing whatever the plot wanted her to do. In spite of the writing here being totally broken, seeing Fluttershy be so assertive and taking on so many roles was really funny, so I still like the episode.

School Raze: The plot here is a total mess, mostly because of the stupidity of the concept of the school and the season's utter failure to properly develop the young six outside of like 3 previous episodes. Neighsay is also written very poorly, with no motivations for his actions or beliefs whatsoever. That being said, I still find this episode fun to watch, as I enjoy the young six's dynamic, the villains featured here, and getting to see Tierk again.

Spring Breakdown (Equestria Girls) The plot of this took far too long to get going with weird subplots during the first part that had no revolution. Once the plot finally kicked in halfway, the episode splits its time between two half baked plots (the ship sinking and the visit to Equestria), both of which had much wasted potential. The episode ended with everyone having to travel to Ponyville, which was insulting because that would have made a great concept for an episode! But instead of only got teased. The pacing and focus here is so bad that it feels like it was a first draft. In spite of the frustration of the lack of focus and missed potential here, its still a fun episode to watch due to all the action going on.

Ending of the End: The Grogar twist was a complete disaster and there was once again quite a bit of missed potential. I find Beginning of the End to be a far more solid and enjoyable version of this episode. That being said, it's still an enjoyable and action packed finale taken on its own, if one of the weaker two parters.

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

I legitimately find Feeling Pinkie Keen to be a good episode, moral's terribly misunderstood. I never felt guilty about enjoying that episode. Spike at Your Service is so bad, it's funny. I also legitimately enjoy 28 Pranks Later. So stupid, it amuses me. 

[cuteycindyhoney 13,283]

The episode where we learn that Celestia can't act her way out of a paper bag!

(Horse Play)

 

 

[Tom Gallagher 33,521]

Most of the pre-Season Eight episodes that people don’t like are actually guilty pleasures for me. I still love those episodes. 

[dead account 2,703]

4 hours ago, Lone Traveler said:

I am defining a guilty pleasure episode as an episode you think has significant writing issues and could have been improved greatly, but you still really like it due to other qualities.

I would have written the story from season 8 on differently. Not all of it, just some aspects. But I believe it would have made a huge difference. There are only a few things that bother me or don't make sense to me. But even despite this, I still enjoy every episode and I'm not bothered by anything while watching. And they still offer me what I always liked about FiM: Unique moments, funny moments, new characters, lovely songs and all that good stuff.

I can't name a specific episode for the reason that I love every episode after all.

[Megas 27,063]

Spike At Your Service I think is one of the show’s funniest episodes, unfortunately it’s a Spike episode where he’s the weakest part 

[Steve Piranha 28,778]

Fame and Misfortune is a funny and at times well deserving jab at the fandom 

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

I watched The Cutie Map plenty of times because I find the episode(s) so fascinating. 

[Sparklefan1234 161,859]

I guess "Feeling Pinkie Keen" is my guilty pleasure episode since a lot of the fandom seems split on it. 

 "Look Before You Sleep" is my third favorite episode of the ENTIRE show but I rarely see or hear people talking about it. 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Sparklefan1234

[J.J 918]

No Second Prances, I live in Starlights world, this episode has brought me to tears a few times, I somewhere on here had a giant post about how important of an episode it is for Trixie, how she literally puts her life in Starlights hands out of trust, their friendship is something that peaks my fancy, but old episodes i have a list... Bridle Gossip, Applebuck Season, Griffon the Brush Off, some of the really good episodes i like to revisit

[Rosy Moonlight 367]

I like The Perfect Pear. It's so good.

[Lone Traveler 87]

15 hours ago, Steve Piranha said:

Fame and Misfortune is a funny and at times well deserving jab at the fandom 

15 hours ago, ExplosionMare said:

I watched The Cutie Map plenty of times because I find the episode(s) so fascinating. 

6 hours ago, KingCorvus said:

No Second Prances, I live in Starlights world, this episode has brought me to tears a few times, I somewhere on here had a giant post about how important of an episode it is for Trixie, how she literally puts her life in Starlights hands out of trust, their friendship is something that peaks my fancy, but old episodes i have a list... Bridle Gossip, Applebuck Season, Griffon the Brush Off, some of the really good episodes i like to revisit

5 hours ago, Rosy Moonlight said:

I like The Perfect Pear. It's so good.

20 hours ago, cuteycindyhoney said:

The episode where we learn that Celestia can't act her way out of a paper bag!

(Horse Play)

19 hours ago, TomDaBombMLP said:

Most of the pre-Season Eight episodes that people don’t like are actually guilty pleasures for me. I still love those episodes. 

12 hours ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

I guess "Feeling Pinkie Keen" is my guilty pleasure episode since a lot of the fandom seems split on it. 

 "Look Before You Sleep" is my third favorite episode of the ENTIRE show but I rarely see or hear people talking about it. 

Guys, I said that for purposes of this topic, a guilty pleasure episode is one you enjoy despite finding significant flaws in, not just an episode you like lol. 

I'll add Three's A Crowd to my list, because the episode had garbage pacing and had no excuse to barley develop Cadence's character considering she was in the episode so much. Still, its an hilarious Discord episode despite these flaws to the point that I didn't even notice these problems until after multiple viewings.

[Sparklefan1234 161,859]

47 minutes ago, Lone Traveler said:

Guys, I said that for purposes of this topic, a guilty pleasure episode is one you enjoy despite finding significant flaws in, not just an episode you like lol. 

 

I'm sorry. The moral for "Feeling Pinkie Keen" isn't very popular though, right? 

[cuteycindyhoney 13,283]

2 hours ago, Lone Traveler said:

Guys, I said that for purposes of this topic, a guilty pleasure episode is one you enjoy despite finding significant flaws in, not just an episode you like lol. 

Wait. I found the entire episode to be stupid. Celestia being a bad actress was the only thing that made it watchable.

[Steve Piranha 28,778]

7 hours ago, Lone Traveler said:

Guys, I said that for purposes of this topic, a guilty pleasure episode is one you enjoy despite finding significant flaws in, not just an episode you like lol. 

I'll add Three's A Crowd to my list, because the episode had garbage pacing and had no excuse to barley develop Cadence's character considering she was in the episode so much. Still, its an hilarious Discord episode despite these flaws to the point that I didn't even notice these problems until after multiple viewings.

Oh, I thought it was if a significant portion of the fandom dislikes it 

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

@Lone Traveler

Ooh! In that case, I'll say "The End in Friend" because although it was mainly a fighting episode that wasn't that monumental in the grand scheme of things, it was still entertaining.

[Sasoriman 128]

Horse Play: Celestia's cardboard acting is at this point the only thing making it worth watching.

The Maud Couple: Seeing Limestone and Marble given more screentime is its saving grace.

2, 4, 6, Greaaat: Much as it's the antithesis of FiM, the song was amusingly catchy. 

The Saddle Row Review: In retrospect, this was a weak episode. I thought that Rarity wanted to open a boutique in just Canterlot; why Manehattan? Other than that, there were some good moments.

[Sparklefan1234 161,859]

2 hours ago, Steve Piranha said:

Oh, I thought it was if a significant portion of the fandom dislikes it 

 

@Lone Traveler This is exactly what I thought, too. 

Anyway, I'm not a fan of "What About Discord?" AT ALL but I appreciate the lengths Twilight went to to try to prove that she was right. 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Sparklefan1234

[Lone Traveler 87]

4 hours ago, Steve Piranha said:

Oh, I thought it was if a significant portion of the fandom dislikes it 

I mean, it can mean that, that's just not how I defined it for this topic