Mane Eight Ranking, Version 7 · 6:15pm Oct 13th, 2018
Well, Season 8 has come and gone, and for a lot of characters there's been little good to talk about. A lot of damage has been done. With all that went on in the second half of Season 8, how were the rankings affected? Is there finally a new number one? Here's the previous version, from the middle of Season 8, let's see what changed. Remember, this is purely the result of my personal opinion so please respect it.
8. Applejack
Why she stayed on the bottom: In a season bent on derailing characters at almost every turn and plagued with filler, poor Applejack never stood a chance. Her background pony status seems to be more and more cemented with every passing season, except this might be the first season in a long time where there was no sliver of hope for her character. Any development she could get in the next season will at this point seem forced and too little too late.
7. Starlight Glimmer
Why she moved down: Ouch, Starlight has fallen hard from grace! I never would've imagined that after she shot up from last place the first time I did this list (including her in the group) she would fall back down to second to last. The second half of Season 8 did Starlight no favors, her focus episodes didn't do a lot to help her. "A Matter of Principals" was kind of a Starlight Glimmer torture porn and not a very good one at that, but she doesn't escape blame because she blasted Discord in front of the student six and I'm pretty sure they'd all thought she'd killed him (obviously she didn't but what were they supposed to think in that instant)? Then she was not really relevant again until "The End in Friend" where she proved to be absolutely ineffective at her job by trying to force Rarity and Rainbow Dash to reconcile their differences at the same time, when any good therapist would say it's imperative to meet with them individually first and slowly build towards getting them to reconcile. "The Road to Friendship", though a good episode, had Starlight cross a major line by selling Trixie's wagon and while she did apologize eventually the episode itself points out how wrong it was for her to do that. And then she was not relevant again until the finale, and I think one of the biggest wastes of "School Raze" was Starlight being trapped. In every finale since her introduction she's always had something to do. It's saying something when she still hasn't meaningfully interacted with the CMC or the Student Six.
6. Spike
Why he moved down: At least Spike actually got to do stuff for most of the season, even if "Father Knows Beast" was another typical bad Spike episode where he's an idiot who infects everyone with his stupidity. His wings were actually put to good use a couple of times, a lot sooner than when Twilight got her wings and it took a whole season for them to be acknowledged outside of "Princess Twilight Sparkle" or when the CMC got their cutie marks and since then they've drifted in a million different directions with no clear narrative plans for them. But of course between "Father Knows Beast" making him stupid and "School Raze" ignoring him except for when they wanted to make a joke about him, the good could not outshine the bad. Even though Spike's wings were a nice touch, I really wish it had come with more of a change in terms of his character. It wouldn't have been too hard to ask for him to be sized up to Smolder's height and lower his voice a little, right?
5. Twilight Sparkle
Why she moved up: Moving up one spot is hardly an accomplishment for Twilight, oh boy did Season 8 seem intent on ruining her character. The second half of Season 8 seemed poised to fix that with "The Hearth's Warming Club" having her actually be more lenient on the student six even if the set-up was a bit clunky (it wasn't quite a locked room mystery, there were possibilities that it could've been someone besides the student six). Everyone got on her case in "Friendship University" for not trusting Flim and Flam, but in all honesty why would she? Flim and Flam acted just like reformed Trixie in "No Second Prances" and reformed Discord in "Three's A Crowd" where they may claim to not be up to anything but their actions betray their words, Flim and Flam were running the same song and dance routine that they'd already been busted for twice, anyone familiar with them would've been suspicious on that alone. It's just that Twilight was stupid to assume that an eye-patch was all that was needed for a disguise, especially when she didn't cover her wings. "The End in Friend" redeemed her slightly at the end, but she should've done that from the beginning, instead of putting her friends on the spot just send them on the artifact hunt and use that as an example for the students. But then came "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place" and she went right back to being an idiot, the only change is that she now knew how to cast that stone prison spell all by herself and they didn't elaborate on how this was possible. From there there was little hope for her, "Father Knows Beast" tried to trick you when it showed her heart breaking, but then it didn't actually elaborate on that scene. And in the finale she was, like the mane six, reduced to an idiot for the sake of the plot. I still do like her potrayal in the movie, but I really don't like how it seems to have started a trend of making her do things she normally wouldn't do for the sake of the plot (like say redeeming villains who clearly show no actual signs they can change).
4. Pinkie Pie
Why she dropped out of the number one spot: You know it's bad if even I can't justify putting Pinkie in the number one spot this time. I've forgiven a lot since I started this list, even at her worst of times before I felt like the good in her outshined the bad and justified keeping her at number one. But "Yakity Sax" is just inexcuseable in how selfish it makes Pinkie. And we never got a chance to see her bounce back from it, her last focus episode this season saw her at her most selfish potrayal of all time. She got maybe a couple of funny lines here and there in other episodes, but Pinkie isn't supposed to be good for a laugh, and more often than not her antics felt like an attempt to inject humor with no real effort. You would think that Season 3 and Season 4 would serve as examples of what not to do with Pinkie in focus and non-focus episodes. But I suppose that was just not possible this time. I still do appreciate her and love her, and if this wasn't specifically about her conduct in Season 8 I could probably still put her higher, but since we're only going off of what we saw of her on-screen I have to demote her.
3. Rarity
Why she moved down: I was all set to have Rarity take Pinkie's spot at number one after "Yakity Sax", but then "The End in Friend" came along and made Rarity so insufferable throughout most of the episode. I couldn't once find myself sympathizing with her in any of the conflicts with Rainbow Dash. She didn't care that Rainbow was hurt, couldn't pretend to be interested in buckball, and accused Rainbow of not reading Shadow Spade when she had already not bothered to read Daring Do on a complaint that made no sense considering she'd actual seen Daring Do in action. And much like Pinkie in "Yakity Sax" she just never recovered from that bad potrayal. I might even say she was at her least drama queen levels of performance for most of this season, I can't really think of any situation where she got a chance to ham it up, or any chance where she got to show her fashion expertise. It's not nearly as bad for her as it was in Season 6, but it's still not good.
2. Fluttershy
Why she moved up: Although I didn't like seeing her regress to being a scaredy cat for a while in "Sounds of Silence", I ended up siding with Fluttershy in the conflict more than I did Applejack. The kirin had very good reason to want to remain silent and surpress their emotions, it wasn't just for their own sake but also for the sake of the land surrounding them. I don't want to say it completely made up for her performance in "Fake It 'Til You Make It" but at least that left the sense that it wasn't going to matter much in the grand scheme of things and everything she did could be undone. Fluttershy largely moved up ironically by staying quiet and not doing much to make herself look bad. She was really the only one who had reason to be in Tartarus in "School Raze", being necessary to tame Cerberus.
1. Rainbow Dash
Why she moved up: Much as I loathe to reward her after "Non-Compete Clause" utterly destroyed her character, Rainbow seemed to bounce back from that low in the second half of the season. She made for a good bad cop in "The Hearth's Warming Club" but where she started to really redeem herself was "The End in Friend" where she tried so hard to accomadate Rarity and would've likely done so if Rarity actually bothered to put in any effort to compromise. And then there was "The Washouts", as much as that episode clearly called for Scootaloo's parents and/or aunts to be involved, when the conflict shifted from Rainbow Dash being jealous of The Washouts for copying The Wonderbolts to her being worried about Scootaloo's safety, she started to gain a lot of likeability points. And her forming the Scootaloo fanclub at the end was a nice touch, a way for everything to come full circle. At first she only saw Scootaloo as a fan and someone to interact with, but she slowly started to grow more attached to the filly in part because she probably saw herself reflected in Scootaloo. And that led her to taking Scootaloo under her wing, becoming her big sister/mentor, and ultimately coming to learn that Scootaloo isn't a mini version of her, she has her own dreams, desires, and faults. So for now at least, she was able to rocket her way up to the number one spot on the list. Which is pretty ironic when you consider the fact that I used to consider her my least favorite of the mane six/seven.
And there you have it. Tomorrow we'll update the Student Six ranking, but first, tonight I'll be seeing how the second half of Season 8 compared to the second half of Seasons 1-7 and whether it scored enough points to actually beat out Season 7.
This season has done nothing to change my overall ranking of the main 8.
If anything, it just reinforced where i have them;
1. Starlight Glimmer.
2. Rainbow Dash
3. Twilight Sparkle
4. Pinkie Pie
5. Spike
6. Fluttershy
7. Rarity
8. Applejack
4952611 At least we both agree Applejack is on the bottom.
4952626
She's pretty much been on the bottom for me since the end of season 5
Personally, I like all of the Main 8 on account that I usually don't like listing characters by rank. That's just my take on it though.
I don't think season 8 ruined their characters, and especially not the second half. I did think the first half of season 8 was pretty weak, but the second half was pretty high up there in terms of best 13-episode runs. And Fluttershy's always been shy, it's just that she's assertive when she has to be, like when she yelled at Applejack. I'm glad Spike mostly stayed the same. And anyways, changing him physically doesn't automatically develop his character. The eye patch thing was a joke, and she wasn't being stupid. In episode 21, I'm guessing you mean it was stupid of her to use the stone sleep spell on Rockhoof, but she'd exhausted all her other options, and she was planning on freeing him after she could figure something else out. I guess she could've kept doing what she'd been doing throughout the rest of the episode, but, at least from my perspective, the problem was partially with Rockhoof's thinking in addition to his actions, and that made it harder for him to fit in. And even if they found something he could do, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have fit him well. Rockhoof is a hard individual to fit in to society after 1000+ years, and it's lucky he found something so well suited to him. And again, how was she an idiot in the finale? Yes, it was a one time key, and maybe you're saying she should've realized what that meant, but they had to meet with Tirek, and they couldn't have known the gates would close. 1 episode to push someone from 1st to 4th? Okay, then...also, yes, Pinkie is supposed to be good for a laugh. She's the comedy relief character, and even if her jokes don't ALWAYS work, they are a big part of why I love MLP's humour, which is one of the main reasons I love MLP in general. For Rarity, i didn't really mind the things you said, but that's partially down to opinion, so I won't get too in depth with that. But about Daring Do, just because she's seen her in real life doesn't mean she'll like the adventures in novel format. She may not like Yearling's writing style, or find the adventure/actions genre in general unappealing. I think Rarity and Rainbow equally had problems, and Rainbow at least had some for sure.
It's strange, you're only talking about problems that happened at specific points in specific episodes, or general things about their character, but the important things are their personalities and the nuances of them. Twilight's my favourite (probably) because of that. She's really fun and cute and nerdy and a natural leader and has so many other likable traits that I don't care if she had a problem or two in the season.