Do you think MLP FIM ever had an infamous episode?

[phantompone1148 126]

By that, I mean an episode everybody hates. (EX: A Pal For Gary (SpongeBob SquarePants), Certifiable Super Sitter (Fairly Oddparrents))

[Megas 27,624]

There are several instances of fans defending some very questionable episodes, though 5 I think are unanimously considered garbage without arguing would be:

Princess Spike

What About Discord

Cart Before the Ponies 

Non-Compete Clause 

246 Great

[Ganondorf8 11,303]

1 minute ago, Megas said:

There are several instances of fans defending some very questionable episodes, though 5 I think are unanimously considered garbage without arguing would be:

Princess Spike

What About Discord

Cart Before the Ponies 

Non-Compete Clause 

246 Great

Don't forget about Fame and Misfortune. That one was incredibly divisive.

[Splashee 28,564]

In the very beginning, there was The Mysterious Mare Do Well. Everypony hated it, YouTube videos and reactors, all just thought it was horrible.

[Castle Bleck 19,354]

In terms of my least-favorite Season, I'd say Sweet And Smoky and Daring Doubt.

It's like those writers saw G4's then-history of controversial retcons and redemptions and actively said, "Hold our beer."

Edited October 23, 2022 by Even Evil Has Standards

[J.J 923]

It's not talked about but "Secret to My Excess" is absolutely garbage, and is by far Faust's worst work... I never took crybabies in the fandom to seriously, I like some episodes that people think are trash, definitely some forgettable episodes but some people in this fandom have some really laughable opinions that I just couldn't ever wrap my mind around, I feel like it's an "influential" fandom at times and people have their minds easily swayed by the opinions of others, I'm not like that, I won't objectively say a season of a show is bad bc it has bad episodes in it or an album is great bc it has two or three catchy songs, people make ridiculous blanket statements influenced by their own biases and it manipulates people's opinions and perspectives all to often, it's annoying.

[flutterJackdash 218]

One of the first episodes to generate heat outside of the fandom was "The Last Roundup", for the use of the word "Derpy" to identify a certain wall-eyed character who, thereafter, went nameless and with a new voice after editing. Seemed like such an overreaction.

[Megas 27,624]

1 hour ago, Ganondorf8 said:

Don't forget about Fame and Misfortune. That one was incredibly divisive.

That episode was divisive but it wasn’t unanimously disliked like the episodes I listened 

For reference, on this forum, Princess Spike and 246 Great for example are some of the very few episodes where “meh” is the dominant reaction. Non Compete Clause is the only episode where “I hated it” was the dominant reaction

[Misty Shadow 7,866]

I honestly don't believe any episode of the show was worse than mediocre.  Shocked that no one's mentioned Magical Mystery Cure yet though, fandom literally exploded over the alicorn Twilight announcement and tons of people were hating on the episode too. 

Edited October 23, 2022 by CloudMistDragon
Oops, said "honestly" twice. :P

[Dark Qiviut 22,396]

@Megas listed a good chunk. Others like What About Discord, Mare Do Well, Somepony to Watch Over Me, and Owl's Well apply, too.

1 hour ago, CloudMistDragon said:

Shocked that no one's mentioned Magical Mystery Cure yet though, fandom literally exploded over the alicorn Twilight announcement and tons of people were hating on the episode too. 

MMC doesn't accurately apply. Plenty hate it, yet just as many (if not more) love it.

3 hours ago, Splashee said:

In the very beginning, there was The Mysterious Mare Do Well. Everypony hated it, YouTube videos and reactors, all just thought it was horrible.

I can understand why. This was the first episode I hated, and upon rewatching it years later, it looks worse. Easy to see why MDW remains so widely despised.

 

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

Newbie Dash is certainly one. We all were looking forward to seeing Dash as a Wonderbolt, but the writers ruined it. 

Spike At Your Service, Mare-Do-Well and Magical Mystery Cure are a few more. Magical Mystery Cure is infamous due to the heavy spoilers promoting the Season 3 Finale. 

[Stancet 688]

6 hours ago, Courageous Thunder Dash said:

 

Newbie Dash is certainly one. We all were looking forward to seeing Dash as a Wonderbolt, but the writers ruined it. 

 

I don’t feel like Newbie Dash was a bad episode. If she simply became a Wonderbolt there would be no story potential, but Newbie Dash proved that getting your dream doesn’t mean past problems go away.

[Splashee 28,564]

23 minutes ago, Stancet said:

I don’t feel like Newbie Dash was a bad episode. If she simply became a Wonderbolt there would be no story potential, but Newbie Dash proved that getting your dream doesn’t mean past problems go away.

Interestingly, I had no problems with that episode either... However, it is one of the most infamous episodes when reading this forum. I think it has to do with Rainbow Dash being hurt, which doesn't fit her character, or something like that.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

7 minutes ago, Splashee said:

Interestingly, I had no problems with that episode either... However, it is one of the most infamous episodes when reading this forum. I think it has to do with Rainbow Dash being hurt, which doesn't fit her character, or something like that.

Not only getting hurt but her coping with her past. The Wonderbolts straight up ignored the pain and bullied her instead and Rainbow was made too scared to speak up, which if you ask me totally goes against her personality. That's why that whole episode got me so angry because Rainbow was far from her true self. This is why this episode was so bad and infamous, because we see the writers completely miss the target on a character's personality during a specific situation. 

[Splashee 28,564]

13 minutes ago, Courageous Thunder Dash said:

Rainbow was made too scared to speak up

Knowing when to speak up, when a lot is at stake, is a challenge. A 50/50 that you will lose everything you worked for. Rainbow Dash played along, and got to become a Wonderbolt at some point in the series, instead of having to be thrown out for life.

 

The issue I feel FiM was doing wrong in some of the episodes, were obvious bullying. The bat episode in Season 4 had the Mane 6 dance around Fluttershy singing silly evil things about her (the smugness of the newly bewinged Princess Twilight Sparkle made that scene incredibility unfair from Fluttershy's perspective) . And of course, the Wonderbolt pushing Rainbow Dash in some kind of military ritual thing, looking cruel to some, but to others might be a normal thing.

[Balt 109]

I mean i actually felt insulted by Road to Friendship

[Misty Shadow 7,866]

12 hours ago, Dark Qiviut said:

MMC doesn't accurately apply. Plenty hate it, yet just as many (if not more) love it.

It's potentially the most well-known "controversial" episode though. Infamy is about notoriety, not hate specifically, even as the OP wants "episodes that everyone hates". I really feel the only episode close to fitting that bill though is Non-Compete Clause. Another oft disliked episode I just remembered though that hasn't yet been mentioned is Yakity-Sax. Lot of reviewers were pretty critical of that one, it has a dominant reaction of "meh" on this site, although just by a sliver, and it was a popular contender at the time for the "Worst Episode of Season 8".  

[J.J 923]

28 Pranks Later, Newbie Dash and Trade Ya are ALL trash that shit all over Rainbow Dash, but in the horrendous case of MY LEAST favorite MLP episode OF ALL TIME, 28 Pranks Later,

 

Well first of all we basically completely ignore the established taboo of "don't prank Fluttershy" that was agreed upon by Dash herself in season 1, with her being "to sensitive" to prank, and this again I feel is terrible writing specifically intended to make Dash look insensitive much like the other steaming pile "Trade Ya", Dashes known pranks from season 1, never includes anything as serious as putting a skunk on someone's head or a brick in their sandwich, they scaled this to make her look trashy, second, what about "pranking Fluttershy now that's just lazy" and "Whoopi cushion that's a joke short cut" and Rarity talking about putting forth the effort at a prank that "everypony could enjoy" sounds like everyone asking her to stop? They are basically egging her on step up the pranking? well a harmless prank like turning your teeth different colors seems like a prank that everypony could potentially enjoy, but no I forgot it's worth making your friend think that she's made everypony legitimately I'll bc she pulled off a harmless prank... And next, since when was Rainbow Dash a Baker? Apparently she can bake so good that she can make a cake that looks identical to a sewing machine and

she can also bake 1000 boxes of ponyscout cookies by herself? How did she pull that off? How did she have the bits? Speaking of bits look at all the bits that these ponies spent to take part in this ridiculous elaborate prank? Really petty if you ask me, so petty that these ponies literally involve the Cake Twins, and apparently like everypony else have them had professional acting lessons as well.. talk about "out of character", everypony in Ponyville can apparently act on cue this well, so well that we can teach our babies to act like sick zombies, big parenting points eh, nah this episode sucks ass, somepony pulls some pranks, let's make them think everypony is sick bc she wanted to change the color of our teeth, I interpreted that as the "prank everypony could enjoy" that Rarity was talking about... But yeah they had a chance to deflate her like adults but instead said let's be hypocritical but only take it to the extremes, let's not prank Rainbow the same way she pranks us "she may enjoy that" nah, sometimes the solution to this in an adult way is honesty, and a way that they have to suffer for their actions while actually learning their lesson, we know from,"Mysterious Made Do well" that Rainbow Dash "hates being alone" maybe you should have had her spend time on her own to figure it out, but nah, much like "Mysterious Mare Do well" the solution seems to be when you are irritated by Rainbows behavior is to collude behind her back and keep secrets from her and not just bring her down to Earth in a healthy way .. now I still liked Mysterious Mare Do Well at least in that one the ponies did what they were doing in good faith and actually doing good things for other ponies but this, this episode was trash.. 

 

THEY LITERALLY got BABIES involved in this "prank" and apparently know how to make them behave sick and deranged on cue, didn't think Mr. and Mrs. Cake were psychopaths but their kids might end up that way...

 

This steamer that's some how evaded direct scrutiny is just a shitty copy of "The Impractical Joker" from MLP Tales...

Edited October 24, 2022 by Spook Conundrum

[Stancet 688]

8 hours ago, Balt said:

I mean i actually felt insulted by Road to Friendship

I had problems with this episode too. I liked the episode but Starlight selling Trixie’s wagon was such a low blow… I couldn’t believe she’s do that even on her worst day.

 

However, I might have liked the episode more if it aired earlier in the series when Starlight and Trixie were still starting off their friendship lessons.

[Balt 109]

37 minutes ago, Stancet said:

I had problems with this episode too. I liked the episode but Starlight selling Trixie’s wagon was such a low blow… I couldn’t believe she’s do that even on her worst day.

 

However, I might have liked the episode more if it aired earlier in the series when Starlight and Trixie were still starting off their friendship lessons.

It insulted me more due to the ending

[Stancet 688]

1 hour ago, Balt said:

It insulted me more due to the ending

What part of the ending?

[Balt 109]

2 hours ago, Stancet said:

What part of the ending?

when they just went back home. as someone who travels with friends often and have had things go wrong that ending just makes me mad.

[Stancet 688]

7 hours ago, Balt said:

when they just went back home. as someone who travels with friends often and have had things go wrong that ending just makes me mad.

I understand. I assume they rushed Starlight and Trixie’s angst quickly because of time constraints.

[Esoteric 142]

I feel like I have seen enough people bitching about Newbie Dash so 

[Stancet 688]

I know another infamous episode. Daring Don’t. When that episode first aired I remember large numbers of Bronies being upset that Daring Do was revealed to be real.

 

Personally, that was one of my favorite episodes.