Why You Might Think Season Five (or One, Two, or Four) is the Best Season of MLP · 2:54pm Dec 1st, 2015
Some people are asking if season five is the best season of the show to date.
Now, right off the bat this is totally subjective. What makes a season the best? Number of great episodes? Ratio of good to bad episodes? Average episode ranking? Consistency of writing? And that’s not even getting into how we decide if an episode is good or great or bad. Or the effect of how you remember watching each season: binge watching vs. waiting for episodes, hiatuses, the kind of mood you were in or place in your life, how dedicated you were to the show…
Not to mention that the seasons get a wildly different value when the question is “Which season would I like to watch today for the hundredth time?” but that might be a personal issue on my part.
But I digress.
One thing I’m not sure people take into account, or even notice, when they talk about which season is the best is what the season as a whole was doing, or trying to do, and how they feel about that looking back on it.
In thinking about it, I think there are themes running through the seasons. Some of these are intentional, some are unintentional, and some are a combination of the two. I think when we think of the show in terms of seasons, we pick up on these in a way we don’t really notice episode to episode, and I think they affect how much we like any given season, independent of how we feel about the episodes in it.
One thing that kind of supports this idea is that after season three, a lot of people were complaining about the show going downhill, including Jake R. I had a suspicion, and went through and counted the episodes I enjoyed from both season two and season three: there were just about twice the number of “good” episodes in season two as season three, but season two was twice as long. I challenged Jake R to do the same, and while we disagreed on which episodes were good, he found the same thing. At the time I thought the difference in perception of season two and season three was just that people could name more things they liked from season two, not taking into account that the ratio of good to bad was actually the same. But now I’m wondering if part of the problem is that season three was a mess as a season, even if the episodes themselves were still enjoyable.
So I’m going to outline what I see as the themes of the five seasons, and why those themes might contribute to people with different preferences thinking of that season as the best. But before I do that, some disclaimers:
* I am not claiming to have psychic powers that let me know what you like or don’t like about the show or any of the seasons. If you like a season for reasons totally different from what I’m laying out, you’re probably right!
* I am not claiming that most or all of what I’m about the analyze was intended by the writers, Hasbro, Lauren Faust, the Illuminati, the New World Order, or anyone else responsible for inserting things into the show. I’m basing this on the feeling I get from watching it, including clearly unintentional links I’m making that affect how I view things, and might affect how other people view things.
* There are all sorts of individual counterexamples that go against the themes I’m laying out, or that could make an episode more like the theme I suggested for a different season. I’m attempting to look at the big picture made up of a bunch of smaller pictures, and not all of the details match up perfectly.
* I could be totally off, and someone else might see a different, more distinct theme or character arc that I hadn’t noticed. If you see one, please point it out! But also please backup your theory with episodes you’re drawing on, because if I missed it once I’m probably not going to catch it the second time without a map.
Now, let’s look at some seasons!
Season one was about establishing the friendship between the mane six. Obviously Twilight was learning how to be a friend, but the others were learning how to be friends with ponies very different, or very similar to them. Applejack and Rarity couldn’t be in the same room. Rainbow wanted nothing to do with hanging out with Pinkie, and she really didn’t want Fluttershy around when they were going to deal with the dragon. Even more natural friendships like AJ and Rainbow or Fluttershy and Rarity had to have lines drawn to establish what was too far and how to relate to each other.
The most interesting arc of the season might be Pinkie, who actually seemed to have the hardest struggle to be accepted and to accept that she was accepted. She overcame Rainbow actively avoiding her in Griffon the Brush Off, no one listening to her in Swarm of the Century, and Twilight doubting her in Feeling Pinkie Keen. It’s no wonder that by Party of One she wasn’t totally sure that her friends really liked her, but she overcame that too, and right before the finale.
And in the last few episode, we got Cutie Mark Chronicles and Best Night Ever, showing that whatever their individual ambitions the Mane Six were better off because of each other.
Season one is the best season for those who love the relationships between the mane six.
Season two was the chance to look at the individual characters in more depth. Season one had made them surprisingly complex as part of showing how they could find common ground or ways to support each other, but I think season two is defined by episodes like Lesson Zero, Sweet and Elite, May The Best Pet Win, Baby Cakes, The Last Roundup, and Hurricane Fluttershy that put a character in the spotlight, showing their flaws and letting them confront them.
I’ve always thought that Rainbow had the arc of season two, going from May the Best Pet Win to The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well to Read it and Weep, and finally showing how much she’d grown in her subplot in Hurricane Fluttershy.
It’s interesting that in the finale, the big set piece for the mane six is literally fighting themselves. Also interesting, and probably way deeper than the writer meant it to be, that they can win for a while, but not for good.
Season two is the best season for character depth. People who love the mane six as individuals are probably big fans of season two.
Season three is interesting. I said at the start, in my case, and Jake R’s case, we found that the percentages of episodes we liked to episodes we didn’t like were the same as other seasons. From a whole season point of view, I’m wondering if the problem with season three was twofold: it was a truncated season, so it’s theme and arc were poorly established and rushed, and it was a transition to something that we didn’t know was coming, and once we did know it was regarded with trepidation.
If season three managed to have a theme, I’d say it was something like mastery over the characters individual goals. Pinkie learns how to prioritize her fun in Too Many Pinkie Pies, Rainbow makes the Wonderbolt’s Academy, and proves more than worthy. Applejack proves she’s capable of being the head of the Apple clan, and Fluttershy shows that she can tame even Discord himself. With the time crunch, Rarity gets left out, but she had arguably had the most previous success towards her personal goals.
The arc of the season was obviously supposed to be Twilight showing that she should be a princess, through The Crystal Empire, Magic Duel, and Games Ponies Play, but also through her role in Too Many Pinkie Pies and Spike at Your Service. But her arc needed room to breathe, and it needed to be foreshadowed more clearly without being overwhelmed with the meta-spoiler.
If anyone likes season three best, it’s probably for seeing the characters make headway towards goals. But in general, I think the season didn’t do what it meant to do.
Season four, I think, shows the writers learned from the season three mistake. I think the theme of season four was to put the rest of the mane six in place as effectively being princesses in their own right, even if they didn’t get the wings and horns, and establish that Twilight was going to be “first among equals.” And they did a much better job of it, foreshadowing with the box, and giving each of the mane six an episode that was clearly meant to be important. And the idea behind the key episodes was leadership: they not only had to reaffirm the importance of their element, but they had to do so publicly, in such a way that other ponies were inspired by it.
Besides that, the difficulties and annoyances of being role models runs through a number of other episodes. Daring Don’t and The Power Ponies establish that even heroes need help, Pinkie Apple Pie and Simple Ways both deal with being in the position of trying to impress other ponies while managing other tasks, while Equestria Games, Filli Vanilli, Three’s a Crowd, Twilight Time, Simple Ways, and Trade Ya all have plots or subplots about dealing with unwanted attention. Rainbow “Professionalism” Dash has to step up and balance decorum and common sense in Flight to the Finish, and Rarity illustrates what happens when power goes to one’s head in Inspiration Manifestation.
But I think the arc of season four goes to Applejack. She’s the one who gives voice to concerns about change in Princess Twilight Sparkle, she learns the pressure of trying to be a perfect manager in Pinkie Apple Pie, and of over/micro managing in Somepony to Watch Over Me, and how to deal with unwanted attention in Simple Ways. It’s also worth noting that her “key moment” in Leap of Faith is the most public, and addresses her role as a public figure, with Flim and Flam capitalizing on her reputation and a background pony actually addressing that she lied to the public, and Applejack’s answer that she hopes to have a chance to earn forgiveness from that public.
By the finale, Twilight is a princess in more than just form, and her friends have thrones the same as hers, in a circle: there’s no hierarchy in their positions within Twilight’s castle.
People who like season four best were probably people who wanted to see the mane six grow up and take on leadership roles, and see how they’d respond to the pressures of being not just another pony, even if most of those were addressed in more symbolic ways than some might have liked.
I think it’s clear that season five acknowledged that for the most part, the characters arcs for the mane six were complete, with maybe a little cleaning up still to do. The focus shifted to world building: the map took us to different places in Equestria, but even in non-map episodes we returned to Appleloosa, the Grand Galloping Gala, and Canterlot; saw Discord’s house and the rock farm; almost made it to Yakyakistan and got glimpses of the weather factory and Camp Friendship. We got tons of new ponies (and yaks, griffons, and oozes) and learned more about a lot of background ponies/side characters. And we learned more about cutie mark magic, dream magic, and griffon history and culture.
Now, obviously the CMC had an intentional arc in season five, between Bloom and Gloom, Appleloosa’s Most Wanted, and Crusaders of the Lost Mark. But if I had to give the season as a whole to a pony, it would be Twilight. We start off the regular episodes with her home, and it’s through her we start to learn about griffon history, get introduced to the yaks, go to the Grand Equestrian Summit, meet her old Canterlot friends, learn about Manehattan geography, find out what a geek Shining Armor really was, learn about the feud between the Hooffields and McColts, and explore new versions of Equestria in the finale. It makes sense, given that Twilight is a scholar, that she would be central to a season that deals with so much new information.
And, of course, the finale didn’t stop at worldbuilding the Equestria that we know, it gave us the foundations of a bunch of different versions of Equestria as blank slates, just in case Equestria Prime is getting too crowded for the fanfic writers.
It doesn’t surprise me to hear people talking about season five as being possibly their favorite season; the people talking about it are fans, and often fanfic readers or writers, and this season opened up the world of Equestria and rewarded people who wanted to see how things fit together.
So, there’s my theory: All of the seasons have brought something to the table. With the exception of season three, which had some structural problems, I think any of them could be called the best, depending on what interests you the most. You might even find your interests changing and your favorites shifting if you go back and rewatch. But I think which season has the best episodes/most good episodes/best percentage of good episodes isn’t the only thing that’s affecting people’s rankings of the seasons.
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Awesome analysis, bookplayer!
I'm a sucker for worldbuilding and such, so of course I love S5. But there's lots of good stuff in the other seasons, too, just as you say. Rainbow's "growth arc" is probably the most interesting, and it goes beyond S2. Her exasperation with 'Shy in Dragonshy, compared to her handling of Fluttershy in Hurricane Fluttershy, displays what I think is the biggest (yet also one of the most subtle!) changes in characterization throughout the show. And Wonderbolts Academy underlines it, by presenting us with Lightning Dust who's basically earlier, immature and reckless Rainbow.
People have complained about Lauren Faust's comment that Rainbow Dash wouldn't make for a good big sister for Scootaloo. But she's absolutely right in that S1 Dash would be terrible in that position. The Dash we see in Sleepless in Ponyville and Flight to the Finish is a lot more mature pony, and she does a lot better there.
Excellent analysis
Wow. Just wow
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Genius
Also I'm still at a toss up if season 2 or 5 is my favorite
I have to admit, that was my favorite part of the episode. Gave some much needed depth to him beyond "perfect brother."
Season five also gave us the most development for male characters. We saw the flaws and insecurities of both Discord and Big Mac. We learned that Braeburn is something of a flake. The only male character that didn't shine, sadly, was Spike. It kinda bother me that writers as talented as the MLP staff can't find a good use for a character with such possible depth. I think it was Big Jim who said he wanted to have Spike aged up so they could dive into teenager problems.
Overall, I have to say that S5 is my favorite. S2 had more character growth goodness, but seeing the girls in their element and—at least somewhat—masters of their respective crafts bring s a sense of completeness to the show. Both Rainbow and Rarity have achieved their dreams in nearly every regard. Twilight has come full circle and truly understood what friendship can be(huehuehue). Fluttershy has accepted her flaws as well as her strengths and found peace in her place. Applejack is fully set as matron of the Apple family. Pinkie is... Well, Pinkie.
I almost fear for the future of the show. Where else could the characters go? I mean, I would watch this show all the way into eternity because, at the end of the day, all I truly want out of the show is cute ponies and the occasional giggle. The character and story is the icing on the cake. But where else can they take it really? Now that we have the girls seated and for the most part content in life, are we doomed to staleness or contrivance?
Very good writeup, Bookplayer, I like your analysis.
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Well, that was part of opening up the world. Since it was originally a show about six female characters and occasionally Spike, the other male characters were just plot devices in their stories. Season five started making all the side/background characters more than just plot devices, including the male characters.
Well, two ideas: The first, all but confirmed, is that the focus will shift to making Starlight Glimmer a complex protagonist, following her arc. She's such a blank slate right now that I have no real opinion on this, I'm neither looking forward to it nor do I think it's a bad thing.
The second, for the mane six, is that growth is never really done. They're facing more grown up problems now; leading, managing, and maintaining position come with their own ways you need to grow and change. The potential is still there, though it might have to be in more symbolic ways to keep the kiddies relating to them, but the show has tackled those kinds of themes before, like how it's used AJ and Mac to show problems parents face.
I have to say, I really don't know what my favorite season is. I like... well, almost everything.
It's hard for me to say what I like most. (What I like least is easy.)
In any case, great analysis on the uniting themes of each season. Thank you for it.
As far as season three's muddled themes, I find it interesting that at the time MA Larson turned in his final script for Magical Mystery Cure, it was the last episode. It got a bunch of editing afterwards so they could continue with another season. That makes me wonder if for the whole season, they were given thirteen episodes and told to wrap everything up...
Of course, I've heard season 3 described as the first part of season 4 before, too.
--arcum42
Yep, that all seems more or less accurate.
Makes me long for more season one-esque episodes, though. Conflicts between the main characters has the double benefit of developing their characterization while keeping the cast size for the episode down, which helps the script stay focused.
I hadn't really thought it all the way out like this before, but I think you captured why I love S5 so much. I do so love my worldbuilding, and this season has given such wonderful fanfic fuel. Thanks for the insightful blog post!
My favorite episides, before S5 came around, were "Sweet and Elite," then "Filli Vanilli," and then "Sleepless in Ponyville." Now, though, the top spots have been usurped by "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" and then "The Cutie Map," followed by "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone." It's kinda funny how it worked out so my top three moved from separate seasons to S5, and that they generally aren't my favorites for the worldbuilding S5 is associated with.
Griffonstone may have had the worldbuilding, but I primarily enjoyed Pinkie's and Dash's rebuilding their relationship with Gilda and Gilda's redemption, along with Gilda becoming the first nonpony apostle of friendship.
Cutie Map I enjoyed so much primarily due to the awesome stuff happening in the episode, as opposed to the character stuff. The Mane 6 were sent by the map to take down an evil society of communists/cultists by pointing out how some ponies in Our Town were still more equal than others. They investigated, got captured and placed in a brainwashing shack, and then had Fluttershy infiltrate the enemy to bring them down from the inside. These are places I never expected our little ponies to go, and I loved it. That, and the villain was dangerous because she was ruthless and prepared, as well as being a true believer in her own radical ideology. The Mane 6 won this one by the skin of their teeth because Starlight trusted Fluttershy to be sincere and not a mole, and really, who wouldn't trust Fluttershy to not be plotting their downfall?
As for my all-time favorite, "Crusaders of the Lost Mark," it's the culmination of the biggest arc of the entire show. Forget the Twilight Princess; we've been waiting for the CMC to find their purposes in life since S1E12, and boy did the writers deliver. People were worried that there was no way they could give us the CMC's marks in a way that wouldn't be anticlimactic and disappointing, but the writers pulled it off. I still tear up a little when I think of the last song in the episode. And the songs! Those were some of the best from the entire show. Not to mention this had the best executed and most believable villain reformation in the entire show. The fact that said villain had heretofore been the most widely hated and villified villain out of the entire herd... I've described this episode as The episode of Friendship is Magic, the episode that best exemplifies what this show is about, and I stand by that description. On a side note, I know I'm not the only one who would not have been surprised had the CMC ascended to alicornhood right there at the end.
And since the last cutie mark bond we'd heard of turned out to be so important to the fate of Equestria, I am eagerly awaiting what the marked CMC will bring to the table.
Now that I've rambled long enough on my favorite episodes of the entire show, which all happened to come from S5, I'll just post a list of seasons in descending order of my favoriteness. 5, 4, 2, 3, 1. S1 may have been what got me into the show, but it just feels so pedestrian and tame compared to everything that followed.
It's been a good season of a great show. Here's hoping that S6 displaces S5 as my favorite when it rolls around!
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The problem is there's only so far you can go with those episodes-- if the characters keep coming into conflicts that are true to their characters, it starts to either feel contrived or repetitive. Like, how many times can Rarity and AJ fight it out? After the second or third time, we're not really learning anything new about them.
If Starlight Glimmer is going to be a new main character, it would be nice if she became more of a character in her own right, which would open up room for new conflicts between her and the mane six outside of an antagonistic role. That lack of character is why I'm not particularly looking forward to it, if she was a character in her own right like Trixie or Moondancer, it would open up all sorts of new how to relate/finding common ground episodes for the mane six.
#SeasonOne4Lyfe
A lot of Season Five seemed to be about forgiveness and redemption, looking a little deeper into the root of an antagonist's problem rather than the problems they cause. Gilda, Diamond Tiara, Starlight Glimmer. . .and even Moondancer if you think about it. Season Five was about going back and making amends.
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I could see that argument as a tone, though I think the key is that it didn't center on the mane six. They had to give their standard end-of-episode apologies, but Twilight was the only one of them who really had to make amends for anything in the past, the rest of them just helped other ponies (or griffons) in that theme.
I think I enjoyed Season 5, as a season, about as much as Season 2. And I think if I were introduced to the show now, bespoke and fresh, I'd almost certainly call 5 the better season because of the myriad reasons listed above that give me such oddly rose tinted glasses for the second season.
Not because it season 5 had the most memorable episodes, whether I italicize the 'most' or the 'memorable' part of that phrase, but because it had the strongest unifying theme.
Starlight Glimmer can't hold up to Discord, and she couldn't hold up to Chrysalis. The bookends of season 2 will always be my favourite episodes. Winter Wrapup might be the one I watch the most often. But I think that... immutable wholeness, that tone, that intangible 'overall' that weaves itself in the space between episodes? I think that was stronger in 5 than in 2. It had more permanent character moments, more than anything else.
It's interesting, too, because as much as I remember season 3 poorly, it had some great episodes. I always remember it disproportionately poorly in hindsight than I certainly did at the time.
I think some people need to take off the hispter glasses. But you nailed it with the whole thing being subjective. The best season for each of us is—objectively—the one each of us personally enjoyed the most.
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Eventually. The more the show uses a given type of episode, the savvier the writers have to be to keep things fresh. People are awfully complex creatures, though, and for a series that's rooted in interpersonal relationships, I think there's a lot of room left to work with before we even approach the saturation point there.
New characters definitely need some depth to work with if they're going to stick around long term. Discord's been a success on the whole, but he's been such a big bag of novelty that the writers have quite an act to follow if they want to throw in another new friendship student of sorts.
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Might have gotten a raise at work.
That said, this season was the best ever because Mac was Mrs. Doubtfire, Zecora actually made an appearance, there were cute Rarity and AJ moments, Nightmare Moon's voice actress made me giddy because she's like a hammy Ursala thanks to the slightly husky tone and that's swell, and there were ok fights.
The only downside was that the AU-verse didn't have AJ with sick scars and bionic parts like Dash, and that Starlight Glimmer didn't get the Disney death she deserved for altering the time-space continuum so much it'd make Doc Brown pass out. I don't care that you have a "tragic" backstory, Starlight. You're retarded and your shit's all whack. You be like a ghetto Sunset Shimmer, trying to be original but in reality you're a knock-off of a knock-off. You be the RC Cola of villains, yo.
The only way Season 6 can top 5 is if there's another great Mac episode, Zecora appears to help the group out via kung-fu karate battles, or AJ stops being a background pony.
3584689 You're in the extreme minority, son :P
Excellent analysis, and you allowed me to perfectly nail down why I love Season 5!
However, I find myself disagreeing with you on this season's arc going to Twilight. She does so little that she's basically a non-entity, has several episodes with scenes dedicated exclusively to her being bored, and an entire episode's conflict stems from her lack of involvement in the world around her.
That said, you do make a good argument for it, so against all logic, I find myself agreeing with you.
I agree with a lot of your points, but the claim that season three is, on an episode by episode basis, about equal in quality, or at least in density of "good" episodes, to other seasons, is somewhat flawed. Or, at the very least, it's inaccurate with regards to my specific opinions. I only liked maybe one or two episodes out of that entire season, and critically, the episodes I liked didn't place in the upper echelons of episodes overall, and the episodes I didn't like were among my least favorite. This was the season that brought us Keep Calm and Flutter On, an episode that did horribly with great concepts, and then eventually followed it up with MMC, possibly the worst episode of the show on the basis of possibility versus execution.
Compare that to, say, season two, which was a season that, while flawed, had a lot more on an episode by episode basis. With the exception of the thoroughly awful Mare Do Well, the first nine episodes all ranged from pretty good to great, with Sweet and Elite still near the top of the show for me. Honestly, put even the best of season three against one of those eight, and I suspect it'd come up short. I guess it'd be, what, Cutie Pox versus either Magic Duel or Sleepless? I guess season three comes close there, but that's still as favorable as it gets. The rest of the season was quite a bit less consistent, but even with crap like Putting Your Hoof Down and Read it and Weep hanging out, you still have great stuff like A Friend in Deed, Hurricane Fluttershy, and A Canterlot Wedding.
So, in conclusion, I think that season three had, on average, a lower high end and a lower low end, with the former perhaps taking a bigger role than the latter in the season's failure. There's just nothing there where I could say, "Yep, this is why I watch this show. My viewing it makes sense." And critically, I think this evaluation could apply to any other season. Yes, the truncated length of season three probably contributed to a rotting of its through-line, and that issue made the finale worse than it could have been, but even with that fixed we're still looking at a pretty bad season. It's possible that you're right, that a simple micro episode ranking system is insufficient to understand what gives a season of this show its delicious narrative beef, but I don't think pointing to season three is a good grounding for that claim.
Another wonderful analysis! I sent a link to this to my friend who is a diehard season two fan who loves slice of life small scale interaction and hates world building and adventure.
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That's probably the case based on what you like in episodes. It's not the case for me.
Personally, I really enjoyed Wonderbolts Academy and Just for Sidekicks from season three. I enjoyed Lesson Zero, Luna Eclipsed, Hearth's Warming Eve, and Ponyville Confidential from season two.
From season three, I hated Spike at Your Service and Games Ponies Play. From Season two I hated The Secret of My Excess, Baby Cakes, Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, MMMystery on the Friendship Express.
Of those above, I'd rate Wonderbolts Academy just under Luna Eclipsed and Hearth's Warming Eve, but above the others from season two. On the other hand, Baby Cakes and Mmmystery battle for my bottom episodes ever (joined by Bats!) though Games Ponies Play is darn close.
So for me, season three's highs were among the series' highs (even if not the absolute peak,) and season two's lows were absolutely the series' lows. I find it difficult to rank in between episodes because they tend to blur into "yeah, I'd watch that."
I just think it's funnier now than before.
3585124 Yeah, your preferences differ a bit from mine. Not massively, but for example, where I liked most of the episodes on your list of good episodes, I thought Hearth's Warming was a bit bland for my tastes. I also tend to agree with your dislike list, though Cider gets a huge pass from me because I tend to just like things with good songs in them, even if the underlying narrative is really wonky and disjointed. Wouldn't say I hated your list of hated episodes, but they were definitely middling at best. So, I suppose the difference is really where my list extends out on the high end, as applies to high end season two episodes, cause I definitely have a lot more stuff on that list. It's also probably notable that your least favorite episodes tend to be the kinda stupid episodes, where my least favorites tend to be the ones I find somewhat anger inducing. Anyway, I guess the underlying logic of episode preference necessarily can't apply universally.
A fantastic analysis! I have been thinking for months now that Season 5 was the best, and I love deep worldbuilding more than anything else (Season 2 probably second best). I think you have a good point about Season 3. Discord and Trixie gave that season some fantastic episodes, it's a volume problem more than a average quality problem.
What are your thoughts on the movies? Do they tie in thematically to their respective seasons?
You make a great point about season 1 being about establishing friendships. That said, though, I counted my love, neutral, hate for episodes (counting parts of 2-parters separately) by season & got this:
Love, Like, Meh, Hate (Love+Like) / total Love / (Love+Hate)
1: 9, 13, 4, 0 .85 1
2: 7, 10, 6, 3 .65 .7
3: 3, 3, 1, 6 .46 .33
4: 3, 15, 5, 3 .69 .5
So I did like a much higher fraction of episodes from seasons 1, 2, & 4 than season 3. But the Love and Hate columns may be more important. Seasons 1+2 gave me lots to love, while season 3 had an abundance of episodes that I actively hated, in which I felt the writers were being lazy and/or telling bad stories destructive to the characters, the world, and/or to any children watching them.
Really nice analysis. After season one, it sort of seems like the seasons alternate between having the ponies grow as characters (seasons two and four) then having them show off that growth (seasons three and five). For example, season four began with the Mane Six having to give up the elements, learn a new lesson about their element to get their key, then regain the power of their elements from the rainbow power. Season five, however, focused more on the ponies using their knowledge of friendship to help others.
Regarding how people view each of the seasons, the data seem to bear out that S3 was less well received than the other seasons:
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(source)
I think there's a few factors involved, and I think, while seasons 3-5 are themed, and people are probably more likely to be hard on season 3 if they didn't like Twilight becoming an alicorn, I don't think seasons 1 and 2 were themed. Indeed, somewhat interestingly, the division between season 2 and season 3 is actually indistinct - if you view season 1 as being the first twenty-eight episodes, season 2 being Lesson Zero through MMC, and season 4 and season 5 as their own thing, you actually end up with the seasons being just as "reasonably grouped" as if you grouped them by airdates. And really, the main distinction between season 1 and season 2 and 3 is the meta - the letters are constructed differently between the seasons. Twilight Sparkle is the main character of seasons 1 - 3 to a far greater extent than she is to seasons 4 and 5, and that's another big shift.
When I did my own episode rankings, I found seasons 1-3 all had the same average rating to within a very tight margin, and that average was 3 on a 1-5 scale. Seasons 4 and 5 had a significant difference in rating, with season 4 in particular having an average rating only barely above a 2. Note that seasons 1-3 were compiled before season 4 came out (though I have continued to adjust them slightly on rewatches), and that 1-4 were compiled before season 5.
Season 4 was by far the worst season, and I have to wonder how much of that was a reaction to the overreaction over Twilight becoming a princess, and them being afraid of using her or "overshadowing" the rest of the cast. Season 4 suffered from major "cast herd" problems, where a lot of the episodes had tons of characters crammed in and failed to use them effectively. It also had a number of episodes that focused too heavily on action sequences, which were very hit-and-miss because other shows do it much better than MLP does, and thus, when that is the "core focus", the show just isn't as good.
Season 5 reeled back on that heavily; only Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep was heavily focused on action shots (though a few other weak episodes relied on lots of gag sequences). It also reined in the cast herd issues that plagued season 4, doing a better job of making judicious use of the cast, and rather than throwing everyone in haphazardly, it made mostly effective use of them.
Season 4 - Episode 11 of Season 5 is the weakest stretch in the entire show, and indeed, there was not a single episode I gave a 5 to between Princess Twilight Sparkle and Canterlot Boutique.
That being said, I don't think that the lack of 5s was really that damaging; I think the most damaging thing is the 1s, the bad episodes. When episodes are at least entertaining, people come back the next week; when they're not, they're less apt to be excited to jump on them immediately. The more low-quality episodes air in a row, the more people you tend to lose.
Bribri, the guy who got me into the show, became very turned off by the show by the time Princess Spike aired, and that was the last episode he ever watched; he got unhappy and upset with the show, and felt that they were just no longer capable of producing high quality episodes. He might have been pulled back the next week, but Party Pooped was pretty weak too, and by the time Rarity Investigates rolled around, bitterness combined with not a single 4-5 episode in several seasons meant that he was no longer interested in watching the show anymore. The sad thing is, he still likes the idea of ponies, but it upsets him to even think about them now because he feels like they just got lucky and no longer understand what made the show good once upon a time.
I was less angsty about it, and being a fanfic writer, I have more fun playing with the world anyway, so it isn't as big of a deal to me.
But I think that weak (1-2s) episodes tend to be the real killers, much moreso than a lack of 5s (though lacking 4s is problematic as well, as the higher end episodes excite you for more).
Seasons 4 and 5 had more boring episodes than the first three seasons did. Season 1 had A Bird in the Hoof (which had some good bits but a lot of it was kind of meh) and Owl's Well that Ends Well (which is also kind of meh); interestingly, both episodes featured sort of action segments in the second half of the episode, after the first half was occupied with repeatedly trying at and failing at some inane task. Stare Master was also pretty mediocre, with the CMC being generic kids to an irritating extent, and the intentionally bad song in The Show Stoppers still is kind of painful to listen to. Of those, The Show Stoppers and A Bird in the Hoof are the only two I have rated as 1s.
Season 2's worst episode was the Mysterious Mare Do Well, but even it never actually bored me. It was an action-heavy episode. Dragon Quest was also on the weaker side, and the gags in that episode didn't make up for the general dearth of interesting character interaction.
Season 3's worst episode was Spike At Your Service, but while it was kind of painful to see Spike so distorted, there were some good jokes in that episode.
Season 4 had the most bad episodes in my eyes - Bats and Daring Don't both bored me, and Power Ponies and Leap of Faith were little better. It's Not Easy Being Breezies was eminently forgettable, and Princess Twilight Sparkle always felt kind of forced to me (though it has been a while since I watched it).
Season 5 had Made in Manehattan, which was a snorefest; the conflict was resolved early in the episode, the play was painfully bad, and there wasn't really much else to the episode. I was really saddened by a RariJack episode being that bad. Appleloosa's Most Wanted had lots of comedic gag sequences and made little use of the characters, and Princess Spike relied on much the same. The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone suffered from being blandsville as well for much of the episode, with only some spots in it that really amused me all that much, and the conclusion was offputting, while Canterlot Boutique kind of bored me a little as well, though it got better at the end. Party Pooped also had lots of long gag sequences, and the joke with the yaks got kind of reptitive after a while.
For me, the sort of heavy gag/action oriented episodes seem to occupy a lot of the bottom of my list, and I think that's because they're the most hit-and-miss kind of episode - if you don't find their central "thing" amusing, there isn't much else to them, whereas even if you don't care at all about fashion, episodes like Suited for Success still have tons of things to sink your teeth into. Not every heavy gag/action oriented episode is at the bottom of my list, but I certainly haven't been very kind to them. Something which is more multifacted is less likely to really be panned by people.
I"ve been debating setting aside an hour and a bit a day during December to try and rewatch the entire series and see whether or not I rank them differently on a rewatch through the entire series.
Huh, I had no idea people were thinking of this as one of the best seasons. I just spent like an hour trying to convince someone that the show shouldn't have ended after the second season.
Different opinions are different.