HapHazred's Top 5 Season 5 Episodes

I really rather enjoyed this season. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I rather wanted to share which episodes I liked best.

Because I can!

This is really just for the purposes of sharing my opinions, really: a lot of my choices are based on somewhat personal reasons. There was only one episode I recall outright disliking, and even then it had some good stuff about it. In a season full of fun episodes, the only real tie-breaker is how much I enjoyed them personally, and why. So let's get cracking!

Obviously, there are spoilers below? If you don't want those, don't go looking for them!

#5: The Cutie Map, parts 1 & 2

To tell you the truth, the two-parters are often the episodes I often care less about. This isn't because they aren't fun, but it's because of a problem that I noticed back in season one, when I was still unconvinced about enjoying the show. It's with regards to how the show treats the two parters, and how the main characters work together in them. Usually it's just Twilight who shoots a magical beam or something, or is otherwise the centre of attention, with her friends just sort of hanging around the sides. This has been true since day one. Even Twilight's element was special-snowflake-y.

And sure, I get the intent. I get that 'magic' represents friendship as a whole, the element that remains somewhat mysterious and stuff. However, I can't help but feel a bit off when the show treats one character as special over the others, especially for the season premier and finales. I've always been of the opinion that all the characters should contribute much more meaningfully, and be a proper team. Until Cutie Map, I didn't ever see it. That why I enjoyed this two-parter so much more than the others: for a change, I felt the mane six were more than just Twilight's side-kicks. Fluttershy especially got a real good role in those two eps, and I had a blast with it. Much more than usual, at least.

It was also good in other regards too, of course, but I particularly liked that aspect.

#4: The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone

I think this is an episode I'd be rather comfortable showing anyone. It was really fun, for starters, featuring my favourite character and Pinkie Pie who was really entertaining this time around. It also featured Gilda, who we haven't seen for ages. And I really liked how they went about trying to solve the problems in their own way.

Rainbow immediately went to try and restore the Griffons through adventure, and daring schemes of retrieving lost artefacts! Pinkie tried baking, which whilst not quite as impressive, was effective in its own way. I really liked how fun everything felt at all times. I enjoyed Pinkie's gags as much as Rainbow's overambitious plan. I liked the ending, too, which was particularly effective in my case given how much I enjoy Rainbow Dash. I might just have been projecting what I wanted to see, but I kind of got the impression Dash was unhappy with not being friends with Gilda any more. I enjoyed them making up.

Yeah, I really liked that episode. I generally rend towards the more slice-of-life episodes, but that one felt like a real light-hearted adventure with exploration, life-saving and strange creatures and history.

#3: Amending Fences

I think this is my favourite Twilight episode in a good long while... maybe ever. She still came off as neurotic and a bit nutty, desperate to prove herself as a good friend (I'm seeing a lot more pride in Twilight these days, which I like: pride is fun to watch!). I did enjoy her old friends, too, although they came off as very much ordinary ponies. I mightn't have minded something more colourful, but for what they did, they were great.

Moondancer was actually just the tiniest bit creepy in how she emulated Twilight's mane originally then sort of hid it in that god-awful bun. She really went off the rails, and it was pretty sweet to see Twilight try and fix that. The episode didn't really throw me any surprises, but given that I rarely mispredict how things end up anyway, I think that's okay.

It was still a really relaxing and sweet episode to watch, and I thoroughly enjoyed Twilight's character in this one.

#2: Crusaders of the Lost Mark

I was rather tepid about this episode until about, uh, halfway through? Give or take? This is the second episode that involved redeeming a character on my top five, and I'm sort of surprised that Diamond Tiara is in here. Truth be told, I thought she was already a pretty decent bully, and I liked her in that role... although I suppose that now the CMC got their marks, there's not much for her to tease them about, really.

I've said before that it's difficult to remember this ep as anything other than the episode the CMC got their marks, but I'm okay with that. I had already got a glimpse of what they were good at in Appleoosa's Most Wanted, but due to how that ep ended, it didn't make this list. I thought it was a really nice idea, and much better than what had been hinted at when they first kind of came together in Show Stoppers. It's another example of how the series has evolved far beyond my expectations. I, personally, really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forwards to seeing more of the CMC in future episodes.

#1: Tanks for the Memories

I really, really liked this episode, tho, albeit for very personal reasons. See, I really like Rainbow Dash.

A lot, right?

The coolest thing about Rainbow is that she wants things so much more than other characters. She gets proper depressed when she doesn't get them, and fights twice as hard for things she desperately thinks she needs. Stuff like having to choose between flying for the Wonderbolts or Ponyville is a really big deal for her, because she wants to fly for both. Stuff like not being able to learn history hits her hard, because she desperately, desperately wants to be able to. It's why she runs real hot and cold a lot of the time, and I love it. I get way more enthusiasm out of Rainbow Dash eps than I do almost any other kind of episode. As a character, she has the most agency, on average.

Usually her problems are somewhat Wonderbolt-centric. This I don't mind: they're a big deal for her and the Wonderbolts will get Rainbow into a load of crazy scenarios. This time, her problem was having to say goodbye to a friend, albeit temporarily.

First off: adorable.

Second off, I think this shows something pretty important about Rainbow. I think we kind of saw it a bit before in some episodes (like the Last Roundup), but not quite as much as here. If Rainbow has this much difficulty saying goodbye to her pet, imagine how hard it is for her to say goodbye to one of her friends.

I like this episode best of all because it really touched upon how much Rainbow really cares for the ponies and things around her. She desperately loves her friends to the point of irrationality, and she desperately needs their attention to thrive. This strikes me as not only industrial-grade adorable, but pretty central to her character. Many of her challenges have been making a compromise between her friends and ethics, and pursuing her ambition. If it was up to Rainbow, I think she'd just up and leave and focus solely on being a Wonderbolt. Instead, she has to take it slow, because she cares.

Tanks for the Memories really highlighted just how much of a child she is inside, and how delicate she really is emotionally. Other episodes were great for loads and loads of reasons, but this one shed the most light on Rainbow's character than any others in the season, and I liked what I saw.

Well, that's my top five. Like I mentioned, there was only really one episode that I didn't enjoy much, but I don't really care much for whining on and on about things I didn't like. I much prefer praising stuff I did like, especially when there's so much cool episodes to choose from. The finale was pretty fun, even if it did go back to having Twilight's friends as accessories, and of course episode 100 was a ton of fun. If I was to do an honourable mention list, it'd probably just end up being the episode list, or as close as.

I'm really looking forwards to whatever the show has in store for me next! As far as I'm concerned, it's been steadily improving and getting more and more daring, and the characters have only been becoming more colourful. It's been great.

Have a good one!