Ranking The Story Editors of FiM, From Worst to Best · 7:32pm Feb 11th, 2017
While it's still unknown just who's going to running the show from an editor's perspective in Season 7 (Meghan, Larson, and Haber have all said they're not coming back, and popular candidates to succeed them such as Polsky and Vogel have also said they will not be back for Season 7), with a recently wrapped up poll on Equestria Daily, I felt it was time to give my own opinions on the four story editors so far, especially in the wake of the announcement that Season 7 will start in April!
Like with all my lists, this one is not official by any means so you are free to disagree, just as long as you remember to respect my opinion. And of course, I mean no disrespect to any of the editors here.
4. M. A. Larson (Editor for: Season 5: Episodes 1-13)
Why he's on the bottom: What's this? The fan favorite in just about everything (including "Butt Monkey" status) is on the bottom of a list for a change? Have I gone mad?! No, I assure you I am perfectly sane. Allow me to explain. Larson already got a raw deal by only being allowed to edit for half of a season, thirteen episodes isn't necessarily enough time to get comfortable with the position and figure out what kind of editor you want to be. But even with that being said, Larson's tenure as an editor wasn't particular great. He had three big clunkers during his tenure: "Castle, Sweet Castle", "Appleloosa's Most Wanted", and of course "Princess Spike". Then there's lackluster entries such as "Bloom and Gloom" and "Tanks For The Memories", as well as the controversial mixed bag that was "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?", and let's be honest "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" was only lifted from the ranks of obscurity because of Gilda's reformation and the knowledge that it would be one of the last Amy Keating Rogers episodes, without those I don't think a lot of people would've particularly remembered it. Larson did give us some good entries from a writing perspective, three of the big hits of the first half of Season 5 all bare his name. The only one that doesn't is "Make New Friends, But Keep Discord". "Party Pooped" was a good entry, but that's all there is to it, nothing particularly bad about it but nothing that really stands out, it's just an episode that does things right but doesn't really break new ground. So Larson's editing tenure just wasn't as good as his writing tenure, and I don't think much would've changed for his episodes if he wasn't in the editor's seat. Maybe if he'd been given all of Season 5 to be an editor he would've faired better?
3. Josh Haber (Editor for: Season 6)
Why he's above Larson: Honestly, I don't think it was Josh Haber's decision to reform Starlight Glimmer anymore than it was M. A. Larson's decision to make Twilight an alicorn. The decision was made by Hasbro, and much like Larson with "Magical Mystery Cure" Haber was just the person that got stuck with a concept that was hard to sell. Even if "The Cutie Re-Mark" had been perfect and made reformed Starlight a believeable concept, it still would've likely been debated and contested amongst the fandom for the entire hiatus. At least Haber got an entire season to edit, whereas Larson only got half a season. And it really shows because, while there were indeed some meh or bad episodes, the only real disappointment throughout Season 6 was "Newbie Dash", though I still do have to wonder how Haber could've approved of "Applejack's 'Day' Off" when it was clearly padded out beyond all belief. I think it's safe to say that Haber is responsible for giving us the kind of Spike potrayals we'd been long overdue for, even if it came at the expense of half the main cast in terms of good writing. The only real thing to fault him on, is that early on he had this obsession with sneaking Rarity into every episode of the show, which really showed in episodes like "Gift of The Maud Pie" and "Applejack's 'Day' Off" where it felt like Rarity had nothing to do. Once he stopped doing that, Haber's tenure was more or less a smooth ride all the way to the finish, though it does seem odd that under his tenure we had more collabs than we'd ever seen before. While there's more he could've done and I really do wish he could back and improve in Season 7, Haber was probably the best choice to take Meghan's place while she worked on the movie. And speaking of Meghan...
2. Meghan McCarthy (Editor for: Season 3, Season 4, Season 5: Episodes 14-26)
Why she's not on the top: Meghan has had two half seasons, and one whole season. And to be perfectly honest, her half seasons (Season 3 was only 13 episodes) were much better than her full season. For better or for worse Meghan made the decision to veto Merriweather Williams original draft of "Spike at Your Service" because she felt Rarity came across as too mean spirited, and it's clear that in Season 3 she was at the peak of her editing game, trying desperately to hold the show together while it attempted to re-establish itself now that Lauren Faust had departed. But then in Season 4 she completely fell asleep at the wheel, again I've expressed the belief that she was likely busy with her writing endevors for both the show and Rainbow Rocks, so she had no time to spare for her editing role and just approved of stories the moment they reached her desk. Honestly, Meghan should've handed the reigns to someone else for that season, Larson or Amy would've been good picks. "Rainbow Falls" alone shows that Meghan just wasn't doing her job, and even the best episodes of Season 4 feel like first drafts and have mistakes that are so obvious that one has to wonder how no one could've noticed them. Perhaps because of that, Meghan made the decision to take some time off for the first half of Season 5 so she could work on Friendship Games, before that went to Haber instead. I actually wonder if maybe Meghan wasn't going to return at all for Season 5 because she thought she'd have to spend all her time on Friendship Games, but when Haber got the role instead she was able to come back for the second half and take charge once again? In any case, Meghan seemed to improve in the second half of Season 5, even though it was probably a bit of luck that she had episodes like "Rarity Investigates", "Brotherhooves Social", "Hearth Breakers", "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows", and of course "Crusaders of The Lost Mark" dropped into her lap. But she still had episodes like "What About Discord?" and "Made In Manehattan" that were either outright terrible or just boring beyond all belief, and then there was the controversial Season 5 finale. All in all, Meghan started off her editing tenure really strongly, then fell from grace hard in her first full season, before she seemed to rise from her ashes and be born anew in her next half season. With the knowledge that she will not be alone on the movie and will have help from Michael Vogel, hopefully she'll be able to do a good job. And maybe if she comes back for Season 8 (assuming we get one) she'll be able to do a full season well. As it stands, for now she was good in the half seasons, but terrible in the whole season she was involved with. And considering the Equestria Girls franchise has blossomed in her absence with Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree, it's probably for the best she's not working on that anymore.
1. Rob Renzetti (Editor for: Season 1, Season 2)
Why he's on the top: Rob Renzetti was there from the beginning, and it's interesting to note to date he is the only story editor who has not also been a writer for the show. But then again, maybe that was for the best, perhaps the editor role is truly meant for someone who isn't bound by any other obligations and can truly devote all their time to looking at stories and deciding what to keep, what to tweak, and what to drop. Of course, Rob was far from perfect as the many problems of Seasons 1 and 2 will attest. But Rob gave us a lot of the early classics and I can't think of any episodes aside from "The Cutie Pox" that an editor should've flagged ("The Cutie Pox" really should've just been a promotional short and nothing else), even if the overall episodes didn't always turn out for the best. Rob contributed to some of the earliest deleted scenes and "What Ifs?" known to the fandom, including plans to have Rarity appear in both "Applebuck Season" and "Luna Eclipsed", and it's a shame he didn't at least try to stick around for Season 3 as he is the only editor who had to strike a tough balancing act between trying to appease Lauren Faust's vision for the show and operating within the restrictions Hasbro placed. At a time when the DHX staff were in a tense tug of war between the show's creator and the show's owner, Rob Renzetti was the middle man who likely kept things from falling into chaos.
And there you have it. As always, feel free to make your own list if you disagree. And here's to hoping that we'll get someone like Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco to be the story editor for Season 7.
Well its great to see the show is coming back in 2017. I dont really know much about the editors but this really well done!
For me, Josh is one, McCarthy is second, Larson is third, and Rob is in last.