Ranking the Shining Armor/Cadence Episodes (From Worst to Best) · 2:56pm Sep 29th, 2019
This list probably doesn't need much of an update to be honest, Shining Armor and Princess Cadence have become even more ignored in this final season than they were last season and neither do I see something like "Best Gift Ever" coming along to give them more screen time. It's really a pity, Hasbro pushed so hard for them and their existence was the straw that broke the camel's back for Lauren Faust and made her quit. Even now that we know "Best Gift Ever" counts as an episode (hence why "Sparkle's Seven" aired when it did) I don't count it as a Shining Armor and/or Cadence episode because the two of them appeared a considerable length into it (though Shining Armor especially stole the show when he did appear, though which sounds better?: Twilynanas or Twilighting). That means there's only 12 episodes to count with only one new episode to consider and two old ones that didn't count the first time (this time I'm including solo appearances for the two characters). Here's the first version, from March.
12. Princess Spike (Season 5, Episode 10)
Why it's on the bottom: By far the worst performance Princess Cadence has ever given. From the very beginning she makes so many mistakes for the sake of the plot. If she knows Twilight is so exhausted and needs sleep why would she not pass word along to the delegates not to disturb her? Why would she not think to assign guards to make sure Twilight wasn't disturbed since of Spike? And of course there's the whole not speaking up when the delegates ignore Spike despite being from a part of Equestria that all but worships him. The worst part though is when Cadence finds out Spike has been meeting with ponies Twilight was supposed to meet with and making decisions on her behalf. For whatever reason she believes he's abusing his connection to Twilight, and then she walks away, effectively haven given Spike the idea to do what she accused him of doing.
11. The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows (Season 5, Episode 21 in production order/19 in airdate)
Why it moved down: This really didn't become a Shining Armor and Cadence episode until a ways into the plot, for the most part up to that point it was all about Pinkie Pie trying not to tell Twilight the secret behind the couple's planned visit. They aren't bad when they finally show up, but then the episode apparently decides to put poor Pinkie through the wringer more for whatever reason. Shining Armor insists that Pinkie keep the secret longer despite knowing she was about to tell, and we never got to see him ask Twilight if she wanted to be surprised or not. At least Cadence seems unaware of what she put Pinkie through, though like with Mrs. Cake it's irksome that they sunk a pregnancy onto us and we never got to see even a baby bump.
10. Three's A Crowd (Season 4, Episode 11)
Why it's in the bottom three: You would think that an episode of Twilight and Cadence hanging out would be great, that we might even get a chance to either learn about Cadence's backstory or see what she does when she's not in the Crystal Empire or with Shining. But nope, Discord takes over the episode and we barely get to see anything else. The most we get is a brief battle against a vicious plant that allows Twilight and Cadence to show off their magical powers, but that's really it. Then Cadence throws Shining Armor under the bus just to thwart Discord's plan to ruin Twilight's day.
9. Once Upon a Zeppelin (Season 7, Episode 21 in production order/22 in airdate)
Why it moved up: This episode is actually moving up two spots since it isn't on the bottom any longer even though it occupies the same spot as it did before. At least this episode was indirectly focusing on them, even if the real focus was Twilight and her parents. There's one detail that's probably worth mentioning, when Cadence sees Shining clearly airsick she doesn't call him on his bluff and instead invents an excuse for him to go below deck so he can save face. That's a sign of a healthy marriage, being able to play along with your spouse/partner/significant other and cover for them. However, they milk the Shining Armor airsick joke for way more than it was ever worth (could he not take medication for it or cast a spell?) and the bit with Cadence giving Twilight advice runs contradictory to the secondary material that's shown her as not being happy with her role or her responsibilities.
8. and 7. The Crystal Empire Parts 1 and 2 (Season 3, Episodes 1 and 2)
Why they moved down: Despite this being their empire, Shining Armor and Cadence don't really do much in it. It's a little understandable at first, Cadence is busy putting up a protective shield to keep King Sombra out and Shining has been patrolling the surrounding tundra for any sign of Sombra's return. But even then Shining's sacrifice against Sombra gets no build up and effectively takes him out of the episodes because he does nothing else, he never tries to make himself useful outside of supporting Cadence. Yet somehow his support is enough to briefly revive Cadence to resolve the cliff hanger from part one, and then the most he does after that is toss Cadence up to rescue Spike. That moment is pretty nice, and when Cadence finally asserts herself as the crystal princess it's a fantastic scene. But subsequent episodes have made it so that it's Spike who gets all the credit and even Cadence is in on it (I could get showering him with praise but putting up a statue of him is probably a bit extreme). On top of all of that it feels like the two swap roles (Shining Armor is supposed to be the one who puts up protective barriers).
6. A Flurry of Emotions (Season 7, Episode 3)
Why it moved down: Shining Armor and Cadence carry this episode and they're in a B plot that barely gets focused on. It really is a shame too, especially with their frazzled manes. It feels like they were meant to do more, like this episode was meant to take place much sooner than it did but it got pushed back. It's still sweet and heart warming to see them though, it's always easy to say you'll never have kids or get married. But as any parent will tell you, once you have kids as much as they can be a headache you'll always find yourself cherishing the moments you get to spend watching them grow up. Though if "Best Gift Ever" is anything to go by they may be a little too reliant on Sunburst to keep Flurry Heart in line (wonder what they're going to do now that he's no longer her crystaller).
5. and 4. The Crystalling Parts 1 and 2 (Season 6, Episodes 1 and 2)
Why they moved down: The first part is mostly spent making jokes at Shining's expense about how he's unprepared to be a father, which would be funny if not for the fact that Flurry Heart has been born for at least a few weeks or so. By now he should at least have some idea of what he's in for and have gotten used to it, especially with Cadence to support him. It's really the second part that Shining takes command, ordering the evacuation of the Crystal Empire when he feels they have no choice. Princess Cadence does get a few moments to shine too, particularly with Twilight on helping to reconstruct the crystal heart after Flurry Heart breaks it. But ultimately the royal couple get upstaged by their own daughter, as well as reformed Starlight and the royal sisters actually doing something for once.
3. Sparkle's Seven (Season 9, Episode 4)
Why it's not on the top: For his final big appearance, Shining Armor did fantastic. This was very much his day in the limelight independent of Cadence, and he did not disappoint in the slightest. He really proved why he's not only Twilight's big brother but also captain of the royal guard, cudos to him for not only inventing a clever security system but also devising a way to have it tested. It's just too bad that the system was so easily thwarted anyway by the Legion of Doom. As for the sibling supreme crown, there is the odd question of how he got his hooves on it if Twilight always beat him in their competitions, but it's possible he took it with him when he left to join the royal guard. And competing isn't necessarily the same as fighting, though anyone who says they never fought with their sibling (older or younger) is fooling themselves, siblings will argue and fight no matter how tight nit they might be. And it was sweet to see Shining Armor acknowledge Spike as family, kind of a shame we never got to see him and Spike play Ogres and Oubliettes together (I imagine Shining got Spike interested in the game). Ultimately though, the complete lack of Cadence even in mentioning holds this episode back from the top spot.
2. and 1. A Canterlot Wedding Parts 1 and 2 (Season 2, Episodes 25 and 26)
Why they stayed on the top: Yup, the debut of these two polarizing characters remains their best outing. While we now know that Cadence was originally meant to just be a unicorn (and there's a line of dialogue in part one that refers to her as such despite her clearly being an alicorn), Princess Cadence as an alicorn is still enjoyable. Even if the real Cadence only gets to shine through in part two she makes the most of the time she's given. As for Shining Armor he is pretty good, him being in the military explains why Twilight may never have talked about him before (plus the mane six don't seem to have particularly talked about family in casual settings, and given what we know of said families it's not hard to see why). And of the ones to snap and walk out on Twilight after she accused the fake Cadence he's the only one with a believable justification: As a husband to be his first loyalty is to his wife, plus he may or may not have brainwashed by Chrysalis. It would've been nice to see him apologize to Twilight, but again it's possible that he would've listened if Chrysalis hadn't gotten to him first. While Shining Armor and Cadence do ultimately save the day here, it's not for a lack of trying on the mane six's part and they still get a chance to shine on their own (heck, Celestia nearly triumphed over Chrysalis and it's the only time they tried to come up with a believable justification for her loss). So for all those reasons, this two parter remains in the top spot.
And there you have it, come back tomorrow when we'll update the rankings for the princess episodes and I'll be doing something a little bit different there.
I did not know that Princess Cadance and Shing Armor was the last straw for Faust. Wow! Though it does explain how "A canterlot Wedding" blind-sided us all with all these nuances that were never touched on before.
This reminds me of how, at BronyCon, Faust mentioned only really wanting Apple Bloom. However, as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were kiddos from G3.5, they wanted to add more young fillies to the fold. So, in a way, I can see faut being like, "Okay.... I'll add them but, uh, I don't know how I can really make a family connection for these two additions when only Applejack is a core character with a live-in sibling. (Sweetie Belle can't count here as stahing with rarity is likely a thing she does when not with mom and dad. I doubt she is always at Rarity's and why her family is hard to bring in as we already have so many mane characters)
I'm all for 'Twilinanas' over 'Twilighting'. Twilinanas is, to me, funnier and seems less serious as making, as Twilight put it, her name into a verb.
I pretty much agree with all you have here for Spike & Cadance. I, personally, will always put 'Princess Spike' in the Bottom 10 as that episode was made to sabotage spike in every way while, as you noted, making Cadance seem dumb along with a troublemaker. She so set Spike up and, even when he was on a good path, her "Are you sure you don't like being a Princess?" thing totally would get a pre-teen/ teen to go into how he could exploit things. "Secret Of My excess" is definite proof of how it doesn't take much to get Spike to start looking deeply into how to satisfy the urge to hoard. (Though this bets the question is the whole 'hoarding growth' is more a result of being magically hatched. You don't see any other dragons getting all Macro as a result of greed.)