Student Six Ranking, Version 3 · 1:36pm Oct 14th, 2018
Well, the sooner I do this the sooner I can hopefully put that finale behind me. Maybe someday we'll know what the writers failed to convey that would've made it all better. Anyway, while the student six were unfortunately denied their chance to shine for most of the season, we did get a few opportunities to see them grow. So it's time to update the rankings and see what changed. Here's the previous version, from the middle of Season 8. Let's see what changed, as always this list is purely the result of my personal opinion so please respect it.
6. Sandbar
Why he stayed on the bottom: Good lord, Sandbar was an utter waste of both a character and animation. The other students have the excuse of being different species that need to learn about friendship, Sandbar is just a pony. We know nothing about him in regards to unique character traits. He's an earth pony, he has a family, he talks kind of like a surfer dude, and he idolizes (or used to idolize) the mane six, but that's about it. And none of those traits are enough to make up for boring he is, we don't know why he's attending the school or needs to learn about friendship. They had plenty of opportunities to flesh him out and give him more of an actual personality, but they didn't. It wouldn't surprise me if Sandbar was someone's self insert OC that was added last minute when "School Daze" was being written and then they forgot he was there.
5. Ocellus
Why she moved down: They kind of overdid it on Ocellus, to be honest. I don't hate her but she ended up getting the Equestria Girls franchise Sunset Shimmer treatment, in that she seemed too perfect. She has Fluttershy's cuteness and Twilight's book-smarts, and she always seemed to know more than the other students and for a time seemed to hold the leadership position. "What Lies Beneath" was the only hint we got that things weren't all smooth and it was a nice touch that I wish we'd gotten to see ellaborated on throughout the series. You could've even had Ocellus say something about how Neighsay was right about the changelings, but they didn't go for it.
4. Yona
Why she moved down: Yona is largely moving down because others are moving up. I like to think that Yona was the heart and the glue of the team, what kept them all together once they'd all bonded. She always wore her heart on her sleeve, but she was also the one who held out the most faith in her friends. In "What Lies Beneath" she was terrified without her friends by her side and in "School Raze" she was the one who believed Sandbar wasn't betraying them. It's kind of interesting that a lot of the bad stuff seemed to happen to her though, whether it was almost drowning in "Non-Compete Clause", nearly getting impaled by a bug bear's stinger in "A Matter of Principals", having to face her fear of spiders in "What Lies Beneath", or falling through the clouds in "School Raze". Outside of maybe the last instance it wasn't really funny watching her suffer, though "What Lies Beneath" wasn't playing it for laughs like I think the other two examples were.
3. Smolder
Why she moved up: It's interesting that Smolder was the only one of the student six who got to interact outside her focus episodes, and arguably she was better in them than she was when she was in the spotlight directly. "What Lies Beneath" was a nice touch, helping to show she's not a stereotypical tomboy who hates anything and everything girly. And I like that she gradually began to open up more, while showing that even dragons have standards. Still no word on her brother she mentioned in "Molt Down" but fandom speculation is that it's Garble.
2. Silverstream
Why she moved up: By process of elimination you can tell who's number one. Silverstream shot up after "What Lies Beneath" when she finally got a chance to show that she was something other than the show's substitute for Princess Skystar. Her fear of the Storm King was what fleshed her out, showing us that her bubbly personality was a mask to hide her inner fears and worries. Other than that the most we got was the sense that living underwater she'd grown up sheltered.
1. Gallus
Why he moved up: Gallus shot up to the top after "The Hearth's Warming Club" and from then on everyone else never had a chance. The revelation that Gallus is an orphan who never had a home in Griffonstone did a lot to explain why he was so distant and jerk like earlier on, even more so than other bully characters you got a sense as to why he acted the way he did. In fact, I believe he ended up getting the same glow as friendship in "School Raze", showing how he went from never even having a family to having friends who could double as one. So for all those reasons, he's number one.
And there you have it. Come back tonight when we'll rank the episodes of Season 8 from worst to best.
My rankings:
Smolder
Gallus
Ocellus
Silverstream
Yona
Sandbar
Which is how i had them ranked at the beginning.
The only change was that Hearth's Warming Club briefly put Gallus at the top, but then What Lies Beneath and Father Knows Best put Smolder right back at first.
Though the finale did make me like Sandbar a bit more
Now let’s not assume we’re finished with these kids just yet: we still have a whole ‘nother season to go through which might still provide them their chance to be what I still believe they will be.:)
I don't think she was too perfect, or was Sunset. She has flaws, they're just not shown that often. She's more of a mentor charaacter now anyway, so she doesn't need many flaws.
4953261 But she does need them. The Equestria Girls web series Sunset Shimmer can do anything the writers want her to do it seems.
4953357
Shorts don't mean that much, but anyway, after that dump of Shimmering perfection, we got a garbage heap in the form of Forgotten Friendship, where we saw that Sunset can still kinda revert to her old ways when pushed far enough. It may have been a bit overboard, but she was in desperate need of some flaws, and she got them. I don't think as she is now, she's too perfect.
4953734 Forgotten Friendship wasn't a garbage heap, that was Rollercoaster of Friendship and Sunset wasn't even the focus there, she was just in a sub-plot with Sci-Twi that was all but glorified ship fuel.
4953744
Okay, garbage heap isn't the word I was looking for. I meant it was a reverse of a lot of positive things dumped on us in the fact that it's a pretty big flaw for Sunset. Also, Rollercoaster of Friendship isn't that much worse than Forgotten Friendship.