Ranking The Story Editors of FiM, From Worst to Best (Version 3) · 3:51pm Oct 26th, 2018
Another season has come and gone, and with it has come a few changes in opinion regarding the story editors. We had a returning veteran and a brand new one, both of whom looked like they could work well together. But it seems like the story editor position is becoming an increasingly ceremonious one. So with all the ups and downs of Season 8, how did the story editor rankings adjust? Well, you're about to find out.
Here's the second version, from the end of Season 7. As always, this list is purely the result of my personal opinion so please respect it.
6. Nicole Dubac (Editor for: Season 8 (Collab with Josh Haber))
Why she's on the bottom: I'm not entirely sure who did what for editing in Season 8, but it seems increasingly likely that Nicole was the weak link in the chain. Her solo writing endevors this season turned out really bad, it's still not known why she wrote part one of the finale and then didn't write the second part, or why she and Jim Miller wrote the song "A Kirin's Tale" but not "Sounds of Silence" which featured it. I still suspect that there must've been some behind the scenes issues that caused Nicole to either voluntarily leave or be forced to leave. I suspect the only reason why Michael Vogel didn't take the reigns this season, was because he was busy writing "The Best Gift Ever". If Nicole's solo writing is anything to go by, her editing seems suspect. I could be wrong though, for all I know it was Josh Haber who approved of all the bad things in Season 8 for one reason or another. But even if that were so, Nicole still only had a rocky season for story editing whereas Haber has at least some good previous seasons to build on.
5. M. A. Larson (Editor for: Season 5: Episodes 1-13)
Why he moved up: He only really moved up because he's not on the bottom anymore. We do know a little bit of behind the scenes details regarding the first half of Season 5. Originally the plans for "Make New Friends But Keep Discord" was to have Discord revert back to his old, antagonistic ways and kidnap Tree Hugger. Fluttershy was to chase after him in what I believe they said was to be an homeage to "The Mask". But ultimately, that plan was dropped and I think it was a call for the better. It's kind of unfair to pick on Larson when he got only half a season, but the fact is that half wasn't particularly strong. Many of the best episodes in that half sported his name, and then there were duds like "Castle, Sweet Castle", "Tanks for the Memories", "Appleloosa's Most Wanted", "Princess Spike", and "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?". Perhaps if he'd hung around for the second half of Season 5 he could've improved, or maybe it was because he left that the second half turned out so strongly?
4. Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco (Editors for: Season 7: Episodes 1-16, 19 (Solo), 17-18, 20-22 (Collab with Josh Haber))
Why they stayed the same: Lewis and Songco still had a very rocky tenure as story editors, ultimately proving to me that they just weren't good at it. The first half of Season 7, like Season 8, was very inconsistent in quality and only seemed to finally find its footing at the very end. Then in the second half it crashed and burned with "Fame and Misfortune" and from there it kept spinning its wheels helplessly, unable to break out of a rut. I don't think it's any coincidence that once Josh Haber came back, Season 7 started to pick up for me and ultimately managed to save itself. It's not for a lack of trying that the two didn't succeed, they just didn't seem capable of maintaining a good level of quality until Josh Haber came back. And speaking of Josh Haber...
3. Josh Haber (Editor for: Season 6, Season 7: Episodes 17-18, 20-22 (Collab with Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco), 23-26 (solo), Season 8 (collab with Nicole Dubac))
Why he moved down: Again, I don't know who's really to blame for the duds of Season 8, Nicole Dubac or Josh Haber. Either one of them could've screwed up and we may never know who signed off on what. The best I can come up with for why Haber wasn't good in Season 8, was that like the rest of the writing staff he did not approve of the school theme that Hasbro forced onto the show and wasn't interested in doing as good a job as he normally would've. I also suspect that if indeed Nicole Dubac left or was forced out, he for whatever reason didn't think to toss out her scripts and rewrite them or contact Hasbro to let them know about the snag. If not for his performance in Seasons 6 and 7, he wouldn't be as high as he is. It's a shame that he dropped down, because a season ago he seemed to have it made and looked like he'd finally hit his stride.
2. Meghan McCarthy (Editor for: Season 3, Season 4, Season 5: Episodes 14-26)
Why she moved up: Meghan's editing has started to look better now that Josh Haber has fallen from grace. The only reason she hasn't come back to the editor's chair is because she's gotten a position within Hasbro now that the movie is over. It's a shame, because I would like to see if she can redeem herself with a full season as story editor, instead of being better known for her two half seasons. We know there were changes she wanted made to "Spike at Your Service" when she thought the original script made Rarity come across as too mean-spirited. And in the second half of Season 5 she was partially lucky in that she got some really solid scripts dropped into her lap. But her editing during the enterity of Season 4 was really bad, even the best episodes of Season 4 suffer from being first drafts and if you look really hard at their stories they can fall apart very easily. It's just that some have more easily recongizeable holes compared to others. And I'm still not sure if she was responsible for any kind of editing in the movie, which could've certainly used it in spots. I'm not sure who exactly will be recruited to edit for Season 9, but I have a feeling that Meghan isn't on the list.
1. Rob Renzetti (Editor for: Season 1, Season 2)
Why he stayed the same: Again he's on top because of the fact that while his tenure wasn't perfect, he was the one who kept the peace between Hasbro and Lauren Faust so that they didn't pull the DHX staff apart with their feuds over the direction the show should go in. And perhaps because he wasn't a writer himself, Rob could look at things from an angle that none of the other story editors could. It's not really known why he left after Season 2, but my guess is that he believed (as did many of the writers) that Season 3 was going to be the last season and that he was better off looking for work elsewhere. He probably didn't discover until too late that the show was continuing on past the 65 episode mark. He has ultimately lost his title of longest lasting story editor in terms of consistency, because Josh Haber now has two whole seasons plus almost an entire half of another season. Kind of a shame, as I would like to see him come back. But unless he were filled in on all that's happened in the show since his absence I don't think he'd be able to handle it.
And there you have it. Come back tomorrow, when we'll update FiM's Wall of Shame for Season 8 right before "The Best Gift Ever" premieres on Discovery Family. When it does, expect a review of it.
For me, Nicole is number one and Josh Haber is number 2.
And Rob Renzetti is still at the bottom for me
Actually, M.A. Larson wasn't a story editor for the entire first half of Season 5. Meghan McCarthy was the story editor for The Cutie Map, Castle Sweet Castle and Bloom And Gloom while finishing it off with Do Princesses Dream Of Magic Sheep?. Larson became the story editor from Tanks For The Memories to Amending Fences.
Rob Renzetti left the series presumably because he felt he couldn't work on it without Lauren Faust.
4958526 Interesting, because it seems he more often sided with Hasbro over Lauren on a lot of concepts. Lauren didn't want any of the mane six to have parents, she wanted them all to be either dead or traveling. She felt Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo shouldn't be sisters. And she wanted the show to focus more on adventures, with Zecora becoming a second mentor to Twilight.