Top 5 Best/Worst Episodes of Season 7

There was a little show, that made a lotta dough,

And helped make its audience euphoric

When it was good, it was amazingly good

Otherwise, it just left me dysphoric.

That little parody of There was a Little Girl is probably the best way I can sum up Season 7 in terms of quality. It was a season of extreme highs and extreme lows that took me from one end of the spectrum to the other and back again, as there were very few episodes I felt indifferent towards.Still, I would say Season 7 as a whole was quite good despite a slow start, which certainly is an improvement over Season 6, which was a season with ocassional moments of brilliance buried within a giant pool of mediocrity and spunk. But that still leaves the question: What episodes of Season 7 were the best and which were the worst? Well, I finally decided, and am ready to share it with you so you can grill me in the comments about how wrong I am! HUZZAH! But first, just like last time, let’s give a quick shout out to our Honorable mentions that just fell short of the list!

Honorable Mention: Parental Glideance

Talk about a surprising turnabout. For most of the season, this episode seemed like it was a shoe in for my top 3, but now that I’ve finished the season, it’s only barely squeaking onto the list as an honorable mention. Don’t take that the wrong way though; this episode is very, very good, and the blog I made on it way back really doesn’t do it justice. Not only does it answer a ton of questions about Dash and her family that I’ve had in a while, but it manages to balance comedy and drama very well, it provides some interesting, memorable characters that I have no trouble believing are Rainbow’s parents, makes old somewhat unlikeable characters likeable again, has plenty of energy to make it enjoyable all throughout, provides some excellent character growth for both Rainbow and Scootaloo, and manages to be surprisingly good at saying a lot without many words (especially in that final talk between Dash and Scootaloo.), which is something I really appreciate. The only reason that it didn’t make the list is how it handles the conflict between Dash and her parents, which has a fairly morally complicated setup where no one is in the right, but executes in such a hamfisted, one dimensional, Lily Peet-esque “this side is all right and this side is all wrong” way that it ends up hurting the message it’s going for, that being the importance of not taking things for granted. It’s a shame, because if that was done better, this could’ve been a contender for my number one spot. Despite that, this is still an excellent episode that I whole heartedly recommend.

Dishonorable Mention: Celestial Advice

When I think of wasted potential in MLP, this is the episode I think of. Not only is the story so bereft of anything worthwhile happening that Discord literally has to step in to get the story rolling, not only does the episode ultimately go nowhere and achieve nothing in its entirety, and not only is the episode teeth grindingly boring to sit through, but it ends up completely throwing the rumored Celestia episode into the ‘filler that provides nothing new or interesting’ bucket. I was looking forward to this for a while. I’ve wanted to learn more about Celestia since Season 5, and when I heard that we’d get it as the pilot to this season, I was honestly excited. Unfortuantely, not only is this episode more about Starlight than Celestia, but even when we do get Celestia scenes, they end up telling us nothing we didn’t already know about her. Hell, I think Slice of Life told us more about her than this episode did! Granted, it does have a couple decent jokes and fun moments that keep it from being a total waste of time, such as watching Starlight die over and over again, which helps save it from the main list, but it doesn’t change the fact that this episode was so inconsequential that it could’ve been eliminated from the Season all together and nothing of value would’ve been lost. Really just a waste of the opening episode slot, IMO.

Now that those are out of the way, let’s get going to the main attraction: the yay’s and neigh’s of Season 7!

Number 5 Best: Secrets and Pies

One thing I noticed with a lot of episodes in Season 7 is that, while many of them seem like they’ll be simple and straight forward in theme, they always have a way of spicing up even the most basic shit. Take this episode, for example. At first, it seemed like it’s going to be a simple lesson about how you should never lie, and that’s that. However, impressively enough, it does something unique and not only manages to be hilarious from beginning to end, but manages to paint the situation as a lot more morally complex, presenting it as an interesting situation: is it better to tell your friend the truth the first time and break their heart over something they worked hard over, while ultimately assuring that it remains a one time thing, or should you bite the bullet, lie to your friend the first time to make her happy, and continue to do so with each following incident to keep her as such? While at first, it seems that Rainbow’s a jerk for finding every method ever to prevent Pinkie from seeing her eat it, but it’s eventually revealed that she kept up the façade to not hurt Pinkie’s feelings. Whether you think Dash’s in the right or in the wrong, the fact that the episode shows the complexities behind the situation and displayed both the good and bad of it is an excellent touch that I really appreciated. Hell, even if you disagree with Dash’s methods, the fact that she’s willing to go so far to make things right when she does get called out shows just how strong a friend she is.The writing really does take something simple and executes it perfectly, which I adored.

In addition to a strong, surprisingly smart message, there’s also the fact that this episode had quite a lot of really excellent humor.In fact, it reminded me a lot of something like Johnny Bravo or Spy vs. Spy in that regard. Yeah, it’s mostly one joke, but the reason it remains so funny for so long, both in this and the prior examples, is in how creatively varied and well timed it is.Simply seeing how Dash manages to keep up the façade as Pinkie becomes more and more unhinged is a joy to watch, and left me in stitches more than once, and the very nice ending only sweetened the deal, pun intended. With surprisingly complex writing and top notch comedy, Secrets and Pies is probably the most unexpected surprise of the season for me, and manages to sneak into the top 5.

Number 5 Worst: Uncommon Bond

You know how I feel about Starlight Glimmer by now, and no, my opinion hasn’t changed much. While I think Season 7 did handle her a lot better than Season 6, I still am not a fan of her character by any stretch. So with that being said, when an episode is so horribly executed that it makes me audibly say, “Come on, even Starlight’s not this f**king shallow!”, you know something has seriously gone wrong.

To its credit, the concept of this episode isn’t that bad.In fact, in a different situation, it might’ve worked. It’s the classic story of Starlight’s old friend Sunburst coming to town, and how he hits it off quite well with all of Glimmer’s friends… except for Glimmer herself, who becomes increasingly agitated by his lack of interest in her and her interests, or to be more specific, interest.

It sounds like a pretty tried and true story formula, right? Then… what’s the issue? Simple: That singular word ‘interest’ is the biggest issue. To put it as charitably as I can, Starlight is portrayed in the most one dimensional way possible in this episode. Literally the only thing she tries to do with Sunburst is play one specific board game with him. That’s literally all she cares about, and all throughout it, I was just thinking to myself, ‘y’know Glimmy, maybe this would be going better if you tried literally any other interest. I know you’re not exactly the Jean Valjean of MLP characters here, but seriously, this is pathetic to the point of being creepy.’ She even ends up reverting him and herself to kids at one point (without his permission, natch), just so he could play this asinine board game with her like the old days, and when he ended up yelling that she was acting like an overly obsessed, one minded idiot, the only thing I felt was surprise that she didn’t see that coming! For me, Glimmer was so one dimensional and unlikeable that I actually ended up rooting for Sunburst to cut ties with her already, which makes the ending feel completely undeserved. To this episode’s credit, Trixie, Twilight and Maud try to pick it up with their own styles of humor, but even though they all have at least one good line, they just aren’t given enough to work with, and certainly can’t solve the problem that is Starlight being completely one note, even more than she usually is.

In short, while this episode had potential, it blew it sky high with bad characterization. Normally, I’d use this as an example of why Starlight episodes are so often among my least favorites, and probably not worth opinionating on. However, I can’t do that anymore, thanks to…

Number 4 Best: A Royal Problem

AKA: the good Starlight episode, and thanks a bunch, because now I have to keep watching Glimmer episodes just in case they end up being one of the most standout episodes of the season! (Note: Despite the sarcasm, I am really glad we at least got one great episode out of her, and I hope it’s not the only one.)

Honestly, I don’t know what I can say about this episode that I haven’t already said; it just manages to do everything so well, and is a trillion times better than it had any right to be. Not only does it manage to make Starlight somewhat likeable while still keeping her somewhat impulsive under stress characterization intact, but it also features a lot of great humor, a ton of awesome visuals, an excellent fish out of water story that gives the princesses some development, as well as showing that they really do need each other, and a moral that shows both the pros and cons of going with your gut, and how while it can sometimes cause problems, it can also sometimes be the only way a solution can be reached.

This may seem a bit short compared to other entrees, but that’s mainly because I’ve said all of this before right here, so if you want something more in depth, check that out: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/743655/thoughts-on-s7e10-a-royal-problem. All I really need to say here though is that this episode was excellent in almost every department, and a great example of why it’s important to not judge a book by its cover.

Number 4 Worst: All Bottled Up

And coming back in to wipe away my goodwill for Starlight episodes is All Bottled Up, aka the ‘Trixie’s an asshole’ hour. For the most part, this episode’s story and comedy can be summed up in one word: Predictable. When I’m able to predict almost every joke and plot twist a fair bit before they’re told, it results in a very boring experience.

“Oh, Starlight’s literally bottling up her anger? How long until it breaks and becomes a demon of hatred or something?” (answer: about seven minutes)

“Oh hey, the Main 6 have the final key to their obstacle course thing and aren’t putting it in right away? Is the joke going to be they would’ve gotten it if they didn’t waste time singing that random impromptu song that’s playing in the background?” (Yes)

“Oh hey look, Trixie’s being even more of an asshole then normal. Is her being the worst going to be the source of conflict?” (Duh.)

However, the thing that bugged me the most in this episode wasn’t what I could predict: they were the things I couldn’t predict. Why? Because whenever I failed to predict something, it was because it was something so horrible that it never would’ve occurred to me that it would show up in a professional work. The worst case of this by far is Trixie herself, starring in what is quite possibly her most unlikeable appearance yet. She literally does not care about anyone or anything other than her own stupid short term whims.At one point, she literally gets rid of the entire friendship map and doesn’t seem to give a shit! Trixie, why are you using other people’s property to practice your untested magic??Sure, the stuff in the castle is mostly Twilight’s, but that’s also where your best friend lives?? A friend who might not appreciate you treating her home as your own personal experimental lab?? But no, keep doing whatever you want, fuck it!

While I like the message of not holding in your anger, the awful characters and plot that is nothing short of dull and predictable ruin it. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Season 7 overall, but between this and Celestial Letdown, it really did get off to an awful start for me.

Number 3 Best: Forgotten Friendship

Okay, I’m sort of cheating with this one, since it’s not technically main series and was only released after the main series’ season finale. However, because this ‘not quite a movie, not quite an episode’ thing is about the same length as a Season finale (and ran circles around the finale we got, which was already fairly solid in its own right), I decided to count it because good lord, Friendship Forgotten is easily the strongest EQG project we’ve gotten since 2014, and one of the only EQG things there is that can hold its own against Rainbow Rocks.

Not only is the idea excellent, taking place in a circumstance where Sunset believeably ends up back at square one with her friends not remembering any of the good things she did (basically, Anon-a-miss if Anon-a-miss didn’t suck), but the execution does everything you could want near perfectly. We see a few loose threads in Sunset’s backstory finally tied with her return to Equestria (which incidentally shows that the animators can make Celestia look surprisingly intimidating), the humor is excellent as always, with every character getting their moment in the sun, they manage to pull off a surprisingly well done, believable friendship between Sunset and Trixie which gives Trixie some surprising depth and a lot of great humor (kinda like No Second Prances if everyone in that episode wasn’t an asshole), the villain is hands down the most identifiable and human antagonist in the entirety of G4 (I’ve known several of these people before school, which helps make it easier to, at the very least, feel her pain, even if her methods are clearly wrong.), and the ending demonstrates why Sunset Shimmer is one of, if not my all-time favorite MLP character through her willingness to sacrifice everything to save her friends, which is quite heart-warming.

Even though it does have some flaws (its pacing is a bit rushed at points, and the way Sunset remembers her first interaction with the villain just comes off as a complete asspull.), they are nowhere near enough to detract from all the positives. From beginning to end, it’s a funny, emotional, top notch roller coaster filled with great moment after great moment that I simply adored. The only thing that surprised me was that, even counting it in the lineup of Season 7, there’s still two episodes I ended up liking just a little bit more than it.

Number 3 Worst: Fluttershy Leans In

Talk about an episode that just got worse the more I thought about it. When I first saw this episode, I had no strong opinion. Didn’t really like, didn’t really hate. However, the more I thought about the decisions they made, the more frustrated I became, which eventually placed it into the bottom five of the season.

Not only does this episode have next to no jokes, is full of horrible characters who directly disobey what they’re told for reasons I still don’t fully understand, and has a story that’s contrived as fuck in order to make the time limit, but the way it handled Fluttershy’s development was, in my opinion, a huge misfire for a character who was doing so well. Remember in Seasons 5 and 6, where her development was subtle? Where we saw how far she’d come by her stepping out of her comfort zone and being willing to tell someone off when they were out of line? Yeah, I liked that a lot, and what I really enjoyed was that those episodes trusted the audience enough to show it without needing to tell it. It didn’t need to make a big song and dance about it, all it needed to do was show how a character grew and we’d get it. And then, on the other hand, with Fluttershy Leans In (and Fame and Misfortune, to a lesser extent), the episode just can’t stop banging on about it, with line after line that’s basically saying “See, she’s evolved as a character!See?SEE?”, both from Flutters and the characters around her. Instead of being shown her development, you’re told it. Constantly (Though there is a bit of showing too). Heck, it’s so desperate to show how different she is from her old self that at one point when her friends are excitedly offering suggestions for her habitat, she flies 80 feet over the handlebars and screams at them. It doesn’t last long, granted, but it just does not feel right, especially since they weren’t talking over her or anything, they were just offering advice. It’s not quite Putting Your Hoof Down bad, but it’s rather off putting regardless, and really does come across as over correction for a character who didn’t need it. Slap that on top of a boring episode that adds nothing but a badly written story and bad characters, and you’ve got a mess.

The best thing one can say about this episode is that it’s a victory lap from Fluttershy, and if that’s literally all you care about, you might get something out of this. Otherwise, if you’re here for trivial things like decent stories, likeable characters, or any form of enjoyment at all, stay as far away as possible.

Number 2 Best: Once upon a Zeppelin

I’m not sure how strange of an opinion this might seem to be, but I don’t care. As far as I’m concerned, Once upon a Zeppelin is an absolutely perfect episode. I’m serious, I honestly can’t think of a single thing I didn’t like about Once upon a Zeppelin. The set-up is absolutely brilliant. Just say it out loud: “Iron Will is a cruise ship director”. Boom! The jokes basically write themselves! Good ‘ol IW was one of my favorite Season 2 characters, and I legit squeed when I saw he was back. However, this episode is much more than just that being a funny scenario, as it also provides a strong lesson on balancing your own wants with other’s needs, as executed here by Twilight being under contract (trust me, it makes sense in the episode) to make the cruise individuals, including her family, happy by doing some events. I know that’s overly simplified, but it actually works out well, with Twilight constantly wondering how much does she do to satisfy others versus herself and what she wants (demonstrated here by wanting to see one shooting star event for herself, as well as insuring her family can enjoy their events in relative peace.), and the eventual resolution is top notch. The characterization is similarly excellent; not only is everyone in character, but the episode actually fleshes a lot of Twi’s family out quite well, in ways that are simulatenously interesting and hilarious. From Shining’s sea sickness to Velvet’s dare devil ways, they all get their chance to shine, as well as develop. And speaking of hilarious, this episode might’ve been the funniest episode this season for me personally (and that’s saying something, considering how many funny episodes this season had). There are a ton of great (and surprisingly varied) jokes throughout, and almost all of them hit the mark. Heck, it even does the whole fan thing from Fame and Misfortune in a way that doesn’t make everyone seem unnecessarily horrible! Awesome!

I don’t even know what else to say about it, I just adored it. It develops characters, it’s consistently funny, it’s creative, its lesson is spot on… honestly I could go on and on, but I think I made my point. See it if you haven’t already.

Number 2 Worst: Honest Apple

Coming in for the silver medal at the worst of Season 7 Olympics, we have the show’s very first Sugarcoat episode: Honest Apple!

Hm? What’s that? Honest Apple isn’t a Sugarcoat episode? It’s an Applejack episode? Exactly! That’s the entire f**king problem!

I’m not kidding, if this episode made that one small substitution, the product as a whole would’ve been so much better; Sugarcoat isn’t known for considering other’s feelings, and is all about being brutally honest, meaning she’d fit perfectly, taking away my only major issue with the episode. With AJ, on the other hand, it’s nothing but 22 minutes of frustration. While I will confess that I don’t remember the show doing a lesson on how too much honesty isn’t always a good thing (surprisingly), the entire problem that absolutely kills this episode for me is that they have a character who has no business learning this lesson learn it! Maybe in Season 1, I’d buy an episode where AJ had trouble knowing when to reel her honesty back a tad, but in Season 7?? AJ’s not fucking blind to the emotions of others! Even ignoring the fact that her lack of an eye for anything other than practicality means she has no place being a fashion judge, the way she treats all the fashion folk is nothing short of awful.Yeah, it’s an honest opinion, but she lacks any tact whatsoever in her responses every single time. It’s like Rage Reviews, but without any of the comedic hyperbole that goes into a Rage Review! Watching a character who I know understands the feelings of others scoff at the emotions of others is nothing short of agonizing to watch, and there really isn’t much else to this episode!

If you ever wanted to see an example of how much damage putting the wrong character in the wrong role can do, just watch Honest Apple. In my honest opinion, this episode sucks, and it can go jump into a wood chipper for all I care! (Hey, if the episode doesn’t give a crap about empathy, why should I?)

Number 1 Best: The Perfect Pear

“What’s this? Charles ‘F**k Crusaders of the Lost Mark’ Spratt actually really likes an episode that everyone else also likes?? This must be a sign of the end of times! EVERYONE, ABANDON SITE!!!”- some cheeky twit

Yeah, I admit it, while I became skeptical when I heard how much everyone loved this episode, when I watched it myself, I had to concede that I not only enjoyed myself, but thought it was executed absolutely flawlessly. While it may not be particularly original (it’s basically Romeo and Juliet, rated G), it pulls it off in a way that manages to be incredibly heartfelt, sincere, and at times, emotional.

What surprised me the most is how serious the episode is. There’s very little humor in the episode, as it’s more focused on telling a good love story, which was actually kinda risky given how different that is from the usual formula. However, as I said, it did it so perfectly that I didn’t give a toss. Not only were the lovers likeable and had great chemistry, and not only did the song actually illicit some emotional response other than disgust, but it managed to tell a top notch story about prejudice and what can happen when one looks past it in a very smart, well thought out and satisfying way.It’s a very genuine love story, it’s a strong message about the importance of both looking past prejudice (kinda like a better Times are a Changeling) and burying the hatchet with old enemies, and it even manages to throw fanfic writers a bone by not making it clear if the Apple Parents are still around or not, which opens it up for expansion for both the show and the fans. Sure, if I had to nitpick, the parents are kinda dicks, but it doesn’t bother me because it makes the message a lot stronger without coming across as unbelievable.

I don’t know if I’d say it’s the episode I liked the most this season, but thanks to its excellent execution of a very different MLP idea, solid new characters that stand out as strong even without the help of other known characters, excellent execution of two morals at once, and all around heart-warming ending, I think that this episode is the one that most deserves to be crowned king of Season 7. Thanks for the memories, you old crabapple.

Number 1 Worst: Not Asking For Trouble

Well this should come as a shock to absolutely nobody ever. I made a blog post expressing my problems with it: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/741211/s7e11-not-asking-for-trouble-what-went-wrong, and fuck all has changed since then. Yes, this episode is painfully unfunny. Yes, it’s one of the most poorly paced messes the show has ever given us. Yes, most of this episode is Pinkie and the Yak’s saying the same argument over and over ad nauseum, which is just as tedious as it sounds. But the thing that makes me despise this episode more than any other was the fact that I feel it has the most toxic moral the show has ever spouted since the Tantabus episode had the lesson that the extremely guilt-stricken/depressed only suffer from their issues because they haven’t decided to get over them, as if it’s that fucking simple. Not willing to be outdone, Not Asking For Trouble ups the ante by giving us two terrible lessons to choose from. If you’re on the Yak’s side, the lesson is ‘never ask for help for anything ever even if you desperately need it, because your pride is more important.’ If you’re on the pony’s side, it becomes ‘if someone tells you not to do something, blindly disobey their wishes and do it anyway because they’re just too proud to admit they need help.’ You can take your pick on which of these messages is worse, but I think it’s safe to say both of them are completely abominable lessons which provide bad messages to kids. I’ve said before that I think, for this show at least, that the message should come first for its target demographic, so when an episode screws the pooch as badly as this episode did, then it doesn’t matter how good the rest may be, the episode has failed its purpose, which is why I don’t like Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep much. However, even DPDoMS is a heck of a lot better than this episode! At least Magic Sheep was fun! At least it had some creativity and fun visuals! At least it had some decent bits of characterization! Not Asking For Trouble doesn’t even manage that much! It’s boring and monotonous! Combine a rotten message with a story that isn’t even remotely entertaining, and you have a recipe for my new worst episode of the show. Hopefully, it remains my worst for a long time to come.

And that was Season 7’s top and bottom 5!Sorry that it was so late, but things have been kinda mad for a while with me. So, with that being said, what is your top/bottom 5? How much of this list is wrong? Feel free to let me know, and have a nice day! Peace out!

(Oh yeah, and if Friendship Forgotten wasn’t on the list, then my next favorite episode would’ve been Marks and Recreation. Take that how you will.)

Comments

[superfun]

I actually thought Celestial Advice was good, but not great.

Parental Glideance is easily in my personal top 5 of the season, in fourth place.

As for the actual episodes:
We both agree that Perfect Pear is the best of the season.
Royal Problem is my personal third favorite of the season.
Once Upon a Zeppelin is my personal fifth least favorite episode of the season.

I thought All Bottled Up was fantastic. Enough where, before School Daze aired, it was my tenth favorite episode of the series. Now it's in 11th place.
I loved Uncommon Bond enough for it to be my sixth favorite of the season, and the ninth best episode of the series overall right now.
Fluttershy Leans In, Honest Apple, and Not Asking For Trouble are ,my second, third, and fourth least favorite episodes of the season overall, though I wouldn't put ANY of them near even the bottom 25 of the series as a whole.

As for episodes in my top and bottom five that you didn't mention:
Top:
2. Shadow Play
5. Fame and Misfortune

Bottom:
1. Discordant Harmony (which is my least favorite Discord episode of the series)

As for Forgotten Friendship, overall it's my second favorite EQG thing, with Mirror Magic being number 1.
If Forgotten Friendship had had a scene with Starlight, it would definitely have taken first.

And I thought season 7 overall was the best season, with 8 episodes overall in my top ten prior to season 8, and 9 episodes in my top 20.
7 remain in the top ten after School Daze, with all 9 still in the top 15 of the series