Season 8 episodes: How I ranked them · 11:09pm Nov 2nd, 2018
Here's the list I produced for the usual end-of-season vote on UK of Equestria. The rules there are that double episodes count as one, and that no ties are permitted. The order might change around a little bit in the future, once things have had more of a chance to sink in, but here's my current thinking:
1. What Lies Beneath
2. Surf and/or Turf
3. On the Road to Friendship
4. School Raze (finale)
5. The Hearth's Warming Club
6. The Washouts
7. Horse Play
8. The Mean 6
9. Sounds of Silence
10. The Break Up Breakdown
11. Molt Down
12. School Daze (premiere)
13. Marks for Effort
14. Grannies Gone Wild
15. The Parent Map
16. A Rockhoof and a Hard Place
17. Friendship University
18. Father Knows Beast
19. Fake It 'Til You Make It
20. A Matter of Principals
21. The Maud Couple
22. The End in Friend
23. Yakity-Sax
24. Non-Compete Clause
I still have some serious issues with the finale.
That's the highest rating of surf and/or turf I've seen. It wasn't a bad episode, but second best in the season seems a bit high. Everyone has their own tastes and preferences, but care to explain the high ranking of that one?
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I have some, and I suspect this episode is one of those that may not age terribly well (like "Twilight's Kingdom"), but overall I found it an entertaining enough ride to paper over the cracks, at least for now. Our UK of E electorate (14 voters) actually placed it first overall, so I'm slightly less enamoured of it than many were.
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Pure, unashamed bias. I'm a huge Scootaloo fan, and her "swimming is like flying" sequence absolutely melted my heart. I don't vote objectively and I don't pretend to. I vote on what I enjoyed most. Out of our 14 voters, one other placed it second and one actually put it top.
For the most part, my list isn’t too dissimilar to yours, with most episodes landing in the same or a similar position. Other then the unusually high placement of School Raze, but you’d said your piece there.
I also concur on Surf and/or Turf; I feel it may not live up to a rewatch as much, but between a great song and Scootaloo’s unabashed glee, it’s got the goods.
Don’t know how I feel about What Lies Beneath being top. It’s one of the season’s best, but I simply cannot seeing it being the best. But, fair enough.
Unusually low opinion on The Breakup Breakdown. Then again, I suspect it won’t live up to my initially high assessment once I rewatch it either.
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That's interesting. I'm not a big Scootaloo fan, and I would rate Surf and/or Turf very highly as well.
In fact, (without thinking about it too terribly hard) I pretty much agree with your ordering of the episodes.
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In terms of what fell on the top half of the list and the bottom half I have to pretty much agree with a few episodes switched around. The Breakup Breakdown and Sounds of Silence I would rate higher.
Matter of Principles I had some serious issues with Discord's behavior through that episode and Starlight letting him off the hook at the end, but I enjoy Starlight in general so gets a little boost. Plus, Trixie asking about a long distance plan still gets giggles out of me for some strange reason. I wouldn't put it in the top half, but I'd move it more towards the middle.
Horse play I would have moved closer to the middle. It was some nice character development for sun butt, but her acting was downright cringe inducing--it felt like an older Spike episode in that regard.
I think my list would look something like, uh...
1. On the Road to Friendship
2. The Parent Map
3. The Mean 6
4. A Rockhoof and a Hard Place
5. Fake It 'Til You Make It
6. Grannies Gone Wild
And then I can't really remember most of the other episodes, except the ones I really didn't like, and I don't think anything can be ranked lower than Yakety-Sax and Non-Compete Clause, so I agree with you on the bottom two. :B I really do need to rewatch some of the ones I liked.
Here's how I would rank the episodes of Season 8:
Very Good/Great:
1. What Lies Beneath
2. Surf and/or Turf
3. The Washouts
4. The Hearth's Warming Club
5. Molt Down
6. On The Road To Friendship
7. A Rockhoof And A Hard Place
8. Sounds Of Silence
9. The Break Up Breakdown
10. Horse Play
11. School Raze
Decent/Good:
12. School Daze
13. The Parent Map
14. The Mean Six
15. Father Knows Beast
16. Grannies Gone Wild
17. Friendship University
18. Marks For Effort
Average/Okay:
19. A Matter of Principals
20. The Maud Couple
21. The End In Friend
Mediocre:
22. Fake It Til' You Make It
Bad/Terrible:
23. Yakity Sax
24. Non-Compete Clause
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I'm not absolutely sure it's going to remain there, but I really like the Student Six and felt that this was their best showing. "The Hearth's Warming Club" would probably have been top if you'd asked me a month or two ago. Out of interest, which episode would you put as your number one?
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Well, "Surf and/or Turf" isn't just a Scoots episode of course -- it's less focused on her than "The Washouts" is -- so it doesn't surprise me that those without my pro-S bias would like it too.
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I think "Sounds of Silence" might get pushed up a couple of places in due course, especially as it's a Fluttershy-heavy ep. There's perhaps an element of pushback at what I see as excessive overpromotion of it in some quarters due to the kirin. (Naming no names, cough EqD cough.) "The Break Up Breakdown" is personal prejudice: I don't generally like romance being the focus of Friendship is Magic.
I rated that fairly highly largely because it's taken far too long to get an actual Celestia episode. (I really liked "A Royal Problem" last year, but Luna and Starlight shared the spotlight there.) What I actually want is an adventure episode with Celestia, but I don't hold out much hope. The Friends Forever #3 comic (Tia/Spike) is probably going to be the best I get in official media.
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I'm pleased to see you appreciated "Grannies Gone Wild". That episode did really badly in our poll, coming in 21st overall. I think that's very harsh; to me it was a fun bit of silliness and a fairly easy choice for mid-table.
Fun fact: we started doing these polls in S4 (the top three were "Twilight's Kingdom", "Pinkie Pride" and "Filli Vanilli") and no episode has ever been as widely and deeply disliked as "Non-Compete Clause". Out of 14 voters, one person put it 15th(!), one had it 23rd and twelve put it last.
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Rockhoof's episode seems to have appealed to a lot of people in a way it didn't quite manage with me. I watched that again recently and the first act especially still doesn't really hold my attention that well. "The Mean 6" I did put a fair bit higher, though again it may not be one that holds up brilliantly to rewatches.
Pretty similar to my list, so therefore definitely right.
4962613
I can kind of understand where you're coming from when it comes to "Rockhoof".
"Yakity-Sax" is bad, but I think "Non-Compete Clause" reigns supreme as the worst episode of Season 8, and the worst episode of the show since "The Cart Before The Ponies."
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I was so disappointed in "The Cart Before the Ponies". I like sister episodes, and I'm a motorsport fan in real life, so what could go wrong? ...Plenty. I do like the song, though. I used to think "Not Asking for Trouble" in S7 was worse, but I may have revised my opinion on yak episodes a bit during this season. "Fluttershy Leans In" is down there as well for me, but that's probably 'Shy bias.
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I didn't hate "Not Asking For Trouble" or "Fluttershy Leans In" honestly. They were okay, in my opinion.
"Honest Apple" and "Daring Done" are the only two episodes of Season 7 that I don't like.
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Both those are somewhere in the pack for me, albeit probably towards the back of the pack. "Daring Done?" might have been a bit higher had it written Rainbow a bit more satisfyingly.
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Granted, "Yakity-Sax" is a worse kind of bad. It's mean-spirited/reprehensible bad, like "Dragon Quest" and "Newbie Dash" (No offense man, but I really hate that episode). But it's not as overly unpleasant as those two.
"Honest Apple" is a weird mixture of both aggressively mediocre and mean-spirited.
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It's not an amazing episode, by far, but it's one of the few I can remember actually enjoying. :B Like Fake It, it's just dumb fun.
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I dunno. Non-Compete just gets the characters horribly wrong while delivering a boring and stupid story. Hard to Say Anything is just completely wrong about everything. :| Like, it's bad in fundamentally unique ways.
4962649
Heh, is my stubborn liking for "Newbie Dash" that notorious now? Yep, I even like Rainbow's impressions. There's clearly no hope for me.
4962658
I couldn't remember anything at all about "Hard to Say Anything" beyond "Justin Bieber pony" without looking it up. Not sure what that says, but I don't think I'd miss the episode if it didn't exist.
4962610
That’s fair. I guess I kind of feel the way about What Lies Beneath that others feel about Sound of Silence, regarding the pusback thing you mentioned before.
As for my favourite? Gosh, hard to say. Don’t know if I can name a specific fav right now, but Sounds of Silence and Surg and/or Turf would be my top two, with The Washouts, Horse Play and Road to Friendship being next with Breakup Breakdown bringing up the rear (though I suspect the rewatch will drop it a few places). And being honest, those are the only six I love. Other real good ones would be Hearth’s Warming Club and What Lies Beneath, it would be remiss to not mention. Rockhoof and A Hard Place too. Much of everything else is problematic to me to at least some degree, to an extent where the problems live in my head as much as, if not more then, the episode’s strengths.
If I sound a little grouchy, I don’t mean to. I plan to do a detailed analysis of Season 8 sometime before Season 9 debuts, so i’ll Be rewatching them all closer to that time, so my ranking may change in places.
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It would also be interesting to know how you'd rate this season overall. Personally I think it's a step down from S7, but still ahead of S6. As for problems, I have my issues with most episodes in most seasons, but usually the pros outweigh the cons. There's never been an episode I consider entirely worthless, but I think "Amending Fences" comes fairly close to being flawless. All I could find to complain about it when I reviewed it was the lack of a song, and really that's not a proper complaint.
I'll look forward to it!
4962669
I sure wouldn't :|
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