Ranking the Big Macintosh Episodes (From Worst to Best)

Big Macintosh was the first major stallion we were ever introduced to on the show and has undeniably been the one with the most screen time. Though famous for being a stotic who usually only says "Eeyup" or "Eenope", this guy has surprisingly managed to snag more than a few episodes focusing on him. Alongside the CMC he was probably the first secondary character to get one (I really can't do one for Cheerilee since the poor mare only really got the spotlight for "Hearts and Hooves Day", and outside of her debut episode and arguably "A Health of Information" Zecora has been more of a plot device for episodes than a character of focus). He's managed to accumulate a total of 9 episodes that I consider to be focus episodes for him, even if two of them are indirect and have him as part of a group. But where do they all fall overall, what's his best outing and what's his weakest? Well, let's find out. And as always this is purely the result of my personal opinion.

9. Where the Apple Lies (Season 6, Episode 23)
Why it's on the bottom: In addition to trying to be the episode about how Applejack came to value honesty, the story here is trying to explain why Big Macintosh went from being a chatterbox to not speaking at all. In the end of the flashback he claims that the mix up was partially his fault for not listening to Applejack and that he needs to do a better job of doing so. But here's the thing, Big Macintosh was listening, Applejack wasn't. Big Mac told Applejack repeatedly her idea was bad and she should just confess, and Applejack kept brushing him off and basically forced him into silence. But often times when Big Macintosh is speaking it just feels like they're repeating what we already saw and heard for ourselves, and they have two cutaways gags about how he got his name or how he got his cutie mark, either of which would've made for a much more compelling story than the flashback we got. Heck, why did he stay silent in the operating theater even though he knew he was about to have one of his limbs sawed off? Promise or not, you'd expect him to speak up at that point.

8. Filli Vanilli (Season 4, Episode 14)
Why it's not on the bottom: Even if most of the episode is about Fluttershy using poison joke to sound like Big Mac for lipsyncing purposes, Big Macintosh still plays a pretty big presence in this episode. The only really funny jokes in the episode come courtesy of him: Him injuring his voice so he can't sing because of a turkey call competition, and Applejack deducing from him what was behind Fluttershy's lipsyncing for him. It's kind of a shame we never got to see the Ponytones again even though it featured two of our main characters and one of the most iconic stallions in the entire show. Why didn't we get an episode with them and Sweetie Belle? Still, I'll bet that Big Macintosh's time with the Ponytones helped him gain a bit more confidence in expressing himself, as well as help him perfect his singing for a later entry on this list.

7. Pinkie Apple Pie (Season 4, Episode 9)
Why it's in the bottom three: This is probably the only time we've seen Big Macintosh openly flaunt his strength, and I kind of wish they had let him speak a bit instead of making a joke about how he was gonna but then Granny Smith spoke for him. Another thing that might be interesting is that we see Big Mac with an inner tube when the family goes onto the raft, which probably means he can't swim (he probably sinks like a rock with how heavy he is). Strangely enough, because of this episode pairings with him and Pinkie Pie kind of dropped off the map (sort of like how ApplePie stopped being a thing more or less after this episode even though fourth cousins twice removed is distant enough not to count as incest).

6. Dungeons and Discords (Season 6, Episode 18 in production order/17 in airdate)
Why it's in the bottom half: It's funny how the guy's night went from being a one off joke in "The Cutie Map Part 1" to explain why Spike wasn't going with the girls on their adventure, to being a fully fleshed out thing in this episode and even starting a trilogy of episodes centered around this trio of guys. However, while Big Macintosh is present for the most part he just stays silent and says "Eeyup" or "Eenope". I know that Peter New also voiced the Squizard (most likely as a way to conserve the budget by not having to cast another VA to credit) but I don't think that explains why he didn't provide any lines for Big Macintosh since that would be up to the writers.

5. The Break Up Break Down (Season 8, Episode 10)
Why it's in the middle: Even though this episode is cliche and predictable to a fault, in terms of a Big Macintosh episode it's actually pretty good. This offers up a much better explanation as to why he went from being so talkative to being so withdrawn, when he says the line: "Maybe he used to talk and all it did was get him into trouble." to Sweetie Belle, before he realizes his mistake for yelling at her (if even Discord looks shocked you know you've gone too far). And towards the end when he catches up to Sugar Belle, not only do we get some good bonding moments when he serves as Sugar Belle's escort to his Hearts and Hooves Day surprise, but also when he says that he wouldn't trade the moments of happiness he had with Sugar Belle for anything when he thinks she's breaking up with him.

4. The Big Mac Question (Season 9, Episode 23)
Why it's in the top half: Although this episode is also doing the whole "misunderstandings brought about due to a lack of communication" plot along with "A comedy of errors" plot (where anything that can go wrong does and it's all about how to roll with it), and even if Big Macintosh is in fact taking a back seat for most of the episode this is still definitely his episode. He has a pretty clever plan, though I have to wonder why he decided to use riddles on apples instead of just sending word to Sugar Belle for his planned meeting on the hill top. It's surprising how quickly he gets mad at Discord, and even more surprising when he brings up his parents' marriage. With Sugar Belle pointing out how they had it far worse, compared to them Big Mac gets to have the love of his life and his family approves. The necklace is a pretty nice touch to show how earth ponies propose, though it does beg the question of how pegasus marriage proposals work (do they put something around their wings?).

3. Hearts and Hooves Day (Season 2, Episode 17)
Why it's in the top three: Though he doesn't speak much until the love poison kicks in, this episode indicates how important Big Macintosh is to Ponyville. Apple Bloom is probably overexaggerating what will happen if he's not on the farm, but it is true that the rest of the family would have a hard time keeping up with the workload without Big Mac to fall back on for help. I'm still kind of irked over how they teased us with CheeriMac in the background for several seasons after this episode, and then just dumped it without fanfare by saying it wasn't a real crush. And I believe this was the first episode to not only show off Big Mac's strength, but also pretty much confirm how he's a mare magnet even if he's currently single. As for MarbleMac, I never really got into it because Marble Pie never developed beyond a Fluttershy clone, which made the ship just a discount FlutterMac (which was insanely popular in the early days of the fandom).

2. Hard to Say Anything (Season 7, Episode 8)
Why it's not on the top: Those who say SugarMac has no chemistry really need to take a closer look at this episode. I think they gave us enough material to see why both are drawn to each other: Sugar Belle wants to become a better baker and expand her skills, and Big Macintosh was the only pony willing to make deliveries out to the village so she could achieve that. It was probably just an informal thing at first, but as time went by they probably both started looking forward to seeing each other and made plans to do it more often. Big Macintosh shows how determined he is here, even if for most of the episode he's following the CMC's bad advice. It was great that they gave him a song, he actually had to make it up on the fly whereas Feather Bangs had three songs he'd likely kept in reserve for just such an occasion and had stuff like autotune and back up dancers to help him out (so it wasn't a fair fight). But of course there can be only one top contender.

1. Brotherhooves Social (Season 5, Episode 18 in production order/17 in airdate)
Why it's on the top: It was obvious, wasn't it? This episode was very much "A Day in the Limelight" for Big Macintosh, and he did not disappoint in the slightest. From early on it becomes clear that he's secretly envious of Applejack and how much Apple Blooms looks up to her, but he can't bring himself to say it and is internalizing it a lot (thus preventing Apple Bloom from noticing and further fueling the cycle). When he dresses up as Orchard Blossom, the episode could've gone the easy route and run with the joke of him dressing in drag and being busted for it at the end. But they take the high road instead, revealing that he didn't need to do what he did to compete since the social had a loose definition of what counts as a sister, and that what got him disqualified in the end was his bad sportsponyship that destroyed the obstacle course and could've caused other competitors to be injured. Then at the very end we have the scene on the hilltop with the setting sun, where he finally pours out his feelings and tries to wall himself off again, only for Apple Bloom to realize and apologize to him for unintentionally neglecting him. It's everything we could've asked for from a Big Macintosh episode, which is why it easily takes the top spot.

And there you have it, come back tomorrow when we'll do something a little bit different: We'll rank all three episodes for two trilogies: The Guy's Night Trilogy and the SugarMac Trilogy (there's no need to do them separate when they both share two of three episodes with each other).