Least Favorite Episode?

[Orablanco Account 3,706]

• MMDW: Probably the most hated episode of the fandom, and I cant really blame anyone for not liking the episode. The moral of the story, while one that Dash needed to learn (and one that she's actually stuck to pretty well), was delivered in such an asinine and hypocritical way that it doesn't hit home for the audience. And it isn't just the characters who are out of, um, charcter; Ponyville is suddenly a screaching house of death, complete with runaway carriages and collapsing buildings, just so Dash has a reason to be considered a hero by the town. It's bad, but it's somewhat made less sucky by Dash's charcater development (
  ), and the visual refrences to Darkwaing Duck and Batman: The Animated Series are nice, but otherwise, a very weak episode.

Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000: The most frustrating episode, easily. AJ acts as though she was in the right all along, but really, she was the wrongliest of the wrong that day. They act as if it's a conflict between quality and quantity, but Flim & Flam were providing an incredibly useful tool that not only increased production, but made decent cider too (remember Granny's reaction to tasting their cider during the song). But of course, we have to reject them because TECHNOLOGY BAD and we need to uphold our "love in every cup" thing, even if it frustrates the entire town, who are forced to wait in line for cider that may not even be available because the Apples suck at running a self-sufficent monopoly. But even we were to stop expecting too much from the arcane economy of My Little Pony, there's still the matter of the plot only happening because everyone is acting like an idiot. If it wasn't for the brothers' moronic decision to increase the speed of the machine, the Apples would have lost their home. Also, there's that mean-spirited gag with Dash not being able to get any cider and the tons of weird out of charcter moments (Pinkie is acting like an out-right jerk). And then AJ has the gull to happily tell us that she didn't learn anything, as if to mock me. Awesome.

Ponyville Confidential: Yes, it's the most enjoyable Diamond Tiara has ever been and some of the jokes early in the episode are funny, but the thrid act is anger-inducing. It's basically three children being ostracized by every adult in town because of something that isn't even their fault: they were aware of the pain they were causing others and wanted to stop, but they were being f***ing blackmailed into continuing. And I can understand everpony not trusting them or even being a litte upset, but force fields? Assulting them with storm clouds? Shunning them and straight up telling them to get lost!? The only one who is acting like an adult here is Rarity, and I can ssure you that something is wrong if the most level-headed pony in a situation is RARITY. It's made all the worst when you realize that the rumors being spread aren't really all that bad (Really, Pinkie? You're offended by the accusation that you party too much? REALLY?), and that it's their own damn fault. Everyone was totally okay with Gabby Gums and what she was saying about others until it was their own flank on the line. It was their demand for this type of stuff that pushed the CMC and Diamond Tiara to go so far. As important as it is to stop those spreading rumors, we also have to look at the type of enviroment that allows gossip to spread and become popular to discuss, and Ponyville as a whole was 100% guilty of letting it come to this. Also, the episode is boring and predictable alltogether, so there you go.

Just For Sidekicks: (I'm tired, so I'm copy-pasting my post in another thread here) I think I'm the only person who disliked JFS, but I just really can't understand why Spike At Your Service is hated while this one gets nothing but praise. Yes, it was weird how Spike was suddenly bad at housework, and the dragon code came out of nowhere (though I just assumed that all dragons have a personal code of honor, and Spike's adventures in Dragon Quest and The Crystal Empire inspired him to make his less about hoarding and more about being chivalrous), but the argument that it some how derails his character is baseless. It demonstartes his devotion to his friends and enthusiasm to help others (even if he doesn't realize he's in over his head). Somehow, that's unacceptable, but everyone is satisfied with his butt monkey status is JFS. I get that the episode's moral was about not shirking responsibility and helping others out of kindness, not out of personal gain, but watching Spike being upset that he didn't get invited to the Crystal Empire, getting dumped on by everyone in Ponyville, being portrayed as a careless jerk, and finally not being able to make his cake even after he learned his lesson was cringeworthy for me. He went from being a nuanced, actually sorta noble hero worthy of a stain glass window to a fail-tastic butt monkey in this episode, and it's Spike At Your Service that gets the bad wrap?

[Mand'alor Dash 2,224]

Magical Mystery Cure and Mysterious Mare Do-Well are up there, to be sure. But my all time most hated episode is undoubtedly Show Stoppers.

 

I don't even dislike the CMCs anymore, this retarded episode just painted the worst imaginable picture of them. It's like if your first exposure to Rainbow Dash was through MMDW, shitty episodes make shitty first impressions.

 

Having Show Stoppers be the very first episode to prominantly feature all three Cutie Mark Crusaders was a move so boneheaded that it pretty much killed these characters for a great number of fans.

[Edgeworth1001 648]

and it's Spike At Your Service that gets the bad wrap?

The reason why some people didn't like Spike At Your Service was because of the plot. We've seen this happen in many different shows. Character A saves Character B's life. Character B owns his/her's life to Character A and becomes their loyal, willing slave. Character A enjoys this for awhile, but they start to slowly regret saving their slave's life. Character A comes up with a plan that would have their slave save them, so that both characters would get even. Character A plan becomes truly life-threatening, and Character B comes and save their master's life. Character A finally confess that they don't want Character B to be their willing servant anymore. Both characters learn  the Aesop of The Day. Cue ending credits.

[Orablanco Account 3,706]

The reason why some people didn't like Spike At Your Service was because of the plot. We've seen this happen in many different shows. Character A saves Character B's life. Character B owns his/her's life to Character A and becomes their loyal, willing slave. Character A enjoys this for awhile, but they start to slowly regret saving their slave's life. Character A comes up with a plan that would have their slave save them, so that both characters would get even. Character A plan becomes truly life-threatening, and Character B comes and save their master's life. Character A finally confess that they don't want Character B to be their willing servant anymore. Both characters learn the Aesop of The Day. Cue ending credits.

This is very much true, and it's a very good reason to not like the episode. My initial reaction to hearing the plot for the episode was a massive eye roll. However, in the end I enjoyed the episode (for the most part) and was able ignore how cliché it was because the characters involved in the story are well written and they have at least one great in-character moment each.

 

But this isn't enough for some people, and that's understandable. The opinion on the episode is 50/50, so a very strong argument can be made against SAYS.

 

However, I will not accept "Spike was out of character" as an argument. He was overly clumsy, yes, but he's still the good-natured, somewhat cynical but still sometimes absent-minded dragon we all know and [at least some of us] love.

 

He was not that same dragon in JFS.

Edited March 30, 2013 by CITRUS KING46

[Mars Caramel 319]

Wonderbolts Academy: Possibly the only thing I hated about this episode was the ending. It would've been quite touching to see Rainbow Dash have to leave the academy and cope with giving up on her dream, but of course, everything that happened after that completely ruined what could've been a great, touching moment. Another thing that I hated about the ending was how Spitfire just forcefully took Lightning Dust's badge instead of asking for her to give it to her in honor and respect.

 

I also hated Magical Mystery Cure, but it's for pretty much the exact same reasons as everyone else. And Alicorn Twilight. I admit it.

Edited March 30, 2013 by Mars Brown

[Pixel Stick 927]

Wonderbolts Academy: ... Another thing that I hated about the ending was how Spitfire just forcefully took Lightning Dust's badge instead of asking for her to give it to her in honor and respect.

See, I thought this moment as it was was just fine. Spitfire very clearly told Lightning Dust that her actions were not worthy of her respect. It was symbolic of a dishonorable discharge. I think it was short, sweet and to the point - asking her to give up the badge would probably have drawn it out and made for unnecessary humiliation, IMO.

[. eris . 1,661]

Owl's Well That Ends Well: While there was a lesson here, and it was a situation many, many young children will experience, I just didn't like it. I don't like seeing Spike get hurt, he's a darling, and also consistently beaten up by Twilight. [Which I find irritating.]

 

The Last Roundup: I did like seeing Derpy talk, that was the best part of the episode. But I didn't like seeing Applejack's pride surface again, and I didn't like how quickly everything was resolved. AJ wasn't so much concerned about how her friends felt about her not winning - I like to think she's secure enough in her mindset to know they'll always be there for her - but she had the entire town depending on her to get money to fix Town Hall. Perhaps it's just me, but I disliked it.

 

Mysterious Mare Do-Well: This was just...very OOC. I'll be the first to admit that Rainbow Dash is very egotistical, but I thought the whole fanclub thing was overplayed, and the methods the Mane Six used to poke a hole in her pride could have seriously backfired. Rainbow Dash could have taken extreme offense to this, and I think it would have been better if they simply sat her down and talked to her. While Rainbow Dash is arrogant, she's not stupid, and usually listens to her friends.

[bladereaper07 42]

I'm with you, I dislike CMC eps and would prefer the Mane 6. But, yeah, it IS nice to take a break from the Mane 6 every once in a while, so I wouldn't use dislike.

[푸딩군 48]

All in where appeared the little ponies like the main characters of the episode (Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle...)

i don't hate them, is just that i am not too interested on see the development of these characters.

[Dr. Love 88]

Magical Mystery Cure is by far the worst episode ever, I could easily say that Mysterious Mare Do Well or Spike at Your Service are the worst, but at least their entertaining, Magical Mystery Cure is an episode I'd only watch if I'm having trouble sleeping.

[An Old Head 4,815]

I reckon I should list my five least favourites. I do think that every episode has at least something appealing about it, but as far as episodes I was underwhelmed by or irritated by, they're ranked as such:

 

5) Over A Barrel

I've never liked the representation of cultures using animal species, but even if you push that aside this episode was quite boring. Pinkie Pie got a nice song in, but I was never sure where the episode was going while watching it. Don't even get me started on the pie war. The buffaloes didn't catch my interest as much as I'd liked them to have done. This is not an episode I would go back to watch ahead of others.

 

4) Boast Busters

I can name but a single good quality about this episode - fanon inspiration. Trixie went and became a favourite for some, and an axis for fan fictions, whatever. But this episode as a whole I found to be... annoying. That's the word. You could say Trixie did her job as antagonist well, because I really hated watching her big-headedness. The episode's case isn't helped by Snips and Snails. Two irritating and entirely pointless characters - you know what, Snails is worst pony. A lot of things didn't work out in this episode, if I listed them all I'd use up too much of the page, but examples include how Twilight dealt with Snips and Snails, the casual disregard for Trixie's complete loss of stance (sure, she was being a cow, but to treat her as they did?), and how the moral could have been met in so many better ways.

 

3) Spike At Your Service

I'm not even sure how to describe this episode. I hadn't the faintest idea what was going on... ideas and stories seemed to be scattered around. A rock cake here, Dash being a writer there, a Timberwolf or two on the side. It's as if a writer dumped words on their script expecting themselves to form a plot of their own devices. I was very displeased.

 

2) Green Isn't Your Colour

This episode felt like one enormous disappointment. I do not, and never will, care for fashion, so my dislike of this episode is mostly personal. Photo Finish really gets on my nerves; the promises concept was very frailly structured; the Fluttershy characterisation was extremely forced; it was all-around lacking in humour and interesting features. The one appealing thing in this episode was the running joke with Pinkie Pie popping out of nowhere. But remove that, and you've got, plainly put, a wisp of an episode.

 

1) Hearts & Hooves Day

Ugh. Irritating, thoroughly underwhelming, thoroughly forgettable, and my least favourite.This is the only episode in the entire series where nothing at all appealed to me. The romance aspect is something I was watching a show like MLP to avoid, the song was extremely forgettable (I've forgotten how it goes as I write this), and the effects of the love potion on Cheerilee & Big Mac were strongly irritating - I don't want to ever hear Big Mac go "schmoopy-doopy" again, urgh. Which comes to another point - the writers didn't understand that some characters are meant to be sideline. We didn't need to explore Big Mac or Cheerilee. The concept was pointless other than providing a romance concept, which isn't even something a target audience should be concerned with. All in all, this episode is ranked last in my list and will be staying there unless an abomination appears in Season 4.

 

Disagree with me if you wish, but remember it's all opinion.

Edited March 31, 2013 by Flipturn ツ

[Harmony Spark 265]

As fans of My Little Pony being an awesome tv show, nothing could possibly go wrong with this wonderful show. Or can it? Like all tv shows and film franchises, there's bound to be some moment in it that you will say 'what the hell were they thinking?!' So list the episodes that weren't the best of the best and why. Here's my reason:

 

Episode: The Mysterious Mare Do Well

 

Reason: I hate Rainbow Dash being lonely it just sickens me. I know she was jealous of Mare Do Well but the mane 5's reactions to Mare Do Wells actions weren't making Dashie better and also the rest of the ponies thought that she was has-been hero. Also I hated it when Dashie walked out furious after the mane 6 had a talk about MMDW (mare do well) and the rest of the main cast looked like we don't care, you girls could have just convinced Dash to be friendly with Mare Do Well or probably just treated her like normal. Anyway I'm probably just overreacting but I really hate this episode.

[Kitsuneirou 21]

Spike at your service.

 

I got tired of spike's voice after 5 minutes of that episode. I honestly thought It was boring, unnecessary and a waste of one of the few episodes season 3 had.

 

To be honest, I didn't like Both of the spike episodes in season 3 though.

[Leafeon 2,701]

Spike at Your Service

 

Spike was far too out of character. He isn't an idiot. He can do the most basic of tasks.

 

Games That Ponies Play

 

No continuity with the rest of anything, and overall not very good.

 

Boast Busters

 

The lesson makes no sense. The mane 6 were in the wrong, by insulting a performer for no reason. The only good thing about this episode is the introduction of Trixie.

[Pinkazoid 3,493]

Why didn't you just post on the "Worst episodes of MLP" ?

 

Anyways,

 

Magical Mystical Cure.

 

Why?

 

It was horrible. Just plain horrible. What motivated Twilight to save her friends? What saved them?

 

Friendship, that's really all they had to explain how it worked, and even then, the Mane 6 had rarely any interaction between each other besides when the "Magic of Friendship" cured it all.

[hawkflame 3,310]

You're not alone regarding MMDW. 

 

Me, I go with Keep Calm and Flutter On.  I'm sorry, I just could not buy Discord being reformed so quickly and so easily.  This is a being that reveled in chaos for a millennium, redemption is *not* going to come so easily.  Discord had an element of malice that should not be ignored.  Not only was he the only one ever to defeat the Elements, he played mind games with the Mane Six and *had fun* doing so.  To anyone who says that he needed to do that in order to defeat the elements which were in his way- remember, he just brute force brainwashed Fluttershy after she failed to fall for his tricks.  He could have done that the whole time- just that it was more fun for him to fuck with their heads. 

 

Anyway, that was an element of Discord's personality that I liked.  I enjoyed the fact that he could take the show to a relatively dark place.  But now that's gone.

[BaneShea 10]

Over a Barrel.

 

It may just be cause I'm from a city that's just a mile away from a reservation and we've had native pride shoved in our faces since kindergarten...it gets old. There are other ways to show discontent between races. But it's always natives/cowboys. Try something new for once.

Also, I don't particularly like the characters based on racial stereotypes...change it up. Challenge the stereotypes and make the characters more realistic to alter childrens' already skewed views of other races.

[Orablanco Account 3,706]

Top 5 Epic Failures in FiM so far

 

5. The Mane 5's plan to reform Dash in Mysterious Mare Do Well.

 

4. The CMC failing to take a lesson to heart three seperate times.

 

3. Spike being a would-be manipulator turned butt monkey in Just For Sidekicks. Say what you will about Spike At Your Service, but at least his character was still good natured and fit in with his continuing development into a noble dragon. This was just...wrong.

 

2. The Apple Family in Super Cider Squeezy Does Anyone Care 6000. An Idiot Ball the size of Jupiter.

 

1. Hasbro's actions during Derpygate. Of all the things that could happen, that was literally the worst possible thing that could have happened.

[FoxyCryptid 4,328]

I'm going with Mare-Do-Well to, that completely de-railed Dash's character to make the story work, She never has/had a ego problem that bad outside that episode.  

[Zerobot 179]

Spike At Your Service was really the only episode that I could feel myself disliking while watching it. Then, after rewatching it and hearing some other people's opinions, I continued to dislike it some more. I feel like Spike is a good character, and it's just tragic that pretty much all of his episodes present him poorly. When the spotlight's not on him, he's a cool guy and a great counter for Twilight's obsessive tendencies. When the spotlight IS on him, (specifically in this episode), he falls back into his stereotypical toddler style character who can't take a hint and seems to have forgotten his lifetime of being Twilight's assistant and can't so much as blink without accidentally slaughtering a cow. ...I just got deja-vu. Anyway. That's the first reason I pretty much hate this episode, the second being the story itself.

 

Oh, that's where this deja vu is coming from. I've typed pretty much this exact thing before, in another thread. I'm gonna skip the second half then and just link to this. The story's been done before, and they didn't really add anything to it. It hits all the beats on the trope page.

[Yamato 1,347]

I must say that I wasn't too thrilled with "Dragon Quest"... I'm really not a big fan of Spike, for starters, and I felt that the time spent on that episode could have been spent on something much more productive (or at least more entertaining).

[duidamasterXD 9,626]

@,

 

The difference between "Episodes that failed" and "Episodes that we didn't like" is extremely small. Becuase of this, I have merged your topic with this thread for sharing our least favorite episodes, as people are sharing the same episodes as they would in your thread and giving the same reasoning.

[Golurk 467]

There's two for me.

 

Spike at Your Service, partly due to him being consistently out of character and the missed chance to make a rather epic Rari-Spike episode, but mostly because the Timberwolves didn't look even CLOSE to MLP animation. WAAAAAAAY too much 3-D and detail. Just didn't hit the right not with me.

 

And Magical Mystery Cure for... complex reasons.

[Shaky Novel 72]

I've never liked Swarm of the Century or The best night ever that much... I don't reallt know why. And also the Sonic Rainboom episode, because I get so pissed of because of Rarity's behavior. But otherwise there's none that I actually dislike. Sure, I enjoy some of them more than others, but meh, who doesn't? 

 

[Pixel Stick 927]

After going back and rewatching most of the show, I've decided that my two least favorite episodes (really the only ones I would rather not watch) are The Show Stoppers and Dragon Quest.  Show Stoppers because the CMC are kinda nails-on-a-chalkboard for me in this episode, and Dragon Quest because I just honestly didn't like the whole "big bully" aspect in it.