Friendship is Magic's Wall of Shame, Version 6 (Season 9) · 3:51am Oct 19th, 2019
Just like the last time I did this list there's no additional episodes from any prior seasons to add to the list this time around, so we're only adding the Season 9 episodes that to me were just not good or even decent. Here's Version 5, so you can see what episodes from Season 8 were flunked. Like always, this list is the result of my personal opinion, and I mean no offense to anyone at Hasbro or DHX. Now let's get this over with one more time.
Uprooted, Written by Nicole Dubac (Season 9, Episode 3)
For a final season there sure were a lot of rehashes, pretty much all of which ended up flopping. This one is basically just "Castle, Sweet Castle" but swap the rest of the mane six and their B plot for the student six and make that the only plot of the episode. That's basically what we get out of this episode. And it feels like a waste of the student six in a season that brought them back only to do nothing with them. A shame too, because the leaks indicate that they had such big plans for them originally, but for whatever reason when those plans were dropped they decided not to dump the student six until the finale. Instead, we have to watch as they destroy The Castle of the Two Sisters to make room for a new playset because I guess Hasbro still wanted more toys to sell.
The Point of No Return, Written by G. M. Berrow (Season 9, Episode 5)
You know how great "Amending Fences" was, how for some it was arguably the best that Season 5 had to offer? Well what this episode tries to do is recreate the magic of that episode, but instead of a compelling plot of Twilight feeling guilty over how she treated her old friends in Canterlot we have a stupid plot of her obsessing and freaking out over an overdue library book. And you can tell that this is one of those episodes where the initial plot is so paper thin they have to stretch it out and add in more elements to fill the run time. All we got out of this episode was the establishment of Silver Shoals as a retirement community, which would crop up again in the finale when Celestia and Luna decided to retire there (not like they had much of a choice when their old castle got destroyed by a new playset).
Sweet and Smoky, Written by Kim Beyer-Johnson (Season 9, Episode 9)
So not only do we have an unwanted rehash of "Dragon Quest" with more Spike abuse, but we also have an unwanted redemption in Garble of all characters. Claiming that the same Garble who willingly bullied Spike for being small and being raised by ponies, the same Garble who was more than happy to smash phoenix eggs and attack Equestria when he became dragon lord, the same Garble who threatened to attack Spike as a loophole around being nice to ponies, is just a misunderstood and peer pressured beatnik poet. Never mind the continuity, Garble's getting reformed. And meanwhile, all that's accomplished is making Smolder look like an idiot for not seeing obvious bullying when it happens right in front of her, and a questionable plot with Ember where once again she's dependent on others to solve the problem for her. And to think this wouldn't be the last time we'd get an unwanted redemption in an episode.
2, 4, 6, Greaaat, Written by Kaita Mpambara (Season 9, Episode 15)
Character growth? Logic? Who needs that? This episode decides to (for some reason) be the poor man's "Non-Compete Clause", and that means making Rainbow Dash regress several levels in character and have Twilight basically pull a Celestia in the worst possible way. This quickly just becomes another episode of the student six (or half of them anyway) being dragged along and made to suffer at the hooves of one of their professors who should know better. And it's also another episode where we must make the student six look good at the expense of the mane six, further proving that the School of Friendship seems to be something that made everyone who wasn't Starlight, Spike, or the student six completely regress in character and take stupid pills.
A Trivial Pursuit, Written by Brittany Jo Flores (Season 9, Episode 16)
The absolute lowest point you can go with Twilight's freak outs, right from the start you can tell you're in for a ride that will not be smooth because right away Twilight is too far gone to be reasoned with. She remains a nut case the entire episode, freaking out over something truly trivial (pardon the pun), and we watch helplessly as others are dragged in just to look bad. Everything just seems to fly around with no rhyme or reason, even the trivia isn't interesting because it doesn't offer us anything of importance (just make an MLP Trivia Pursuit and stop wasting our time)! But when Twilight sinks to a new low by getting a scatterbrained Pinkie disqualified in plain sight, no one seems to bat an eye to this and no one seems to ever call her out for it! We don't even get to see who won the contest in the end, making the entire episode pointless!
Dragon Dropped, Written by Josh Haber (Season 9, Episode 19)
Since when did Spike having a crush or a romantic relationship suddenly become taboo? Since when did Sparity suddenly become something that couldn't be treated as anything other than friendship? I'd sure like to know because there is no reason at all why the episode should have to operate under that limitation. If this is Sparity's final outing, if this supposed to be Spike getting over his crush on Rarity, it should be treated as such instead of pretending it's something else. But like Rarity the episode just wants to go through the motions and get back to where we were at the beginning, nothing's gonna truly get addressed or acknowledged. It just wants to pad out the run time and hope that its non-answer satisfies the fans. Except not addressing something like this is a cop out, not addressing the fate one of the biggest "Will they? Won't they?" ships is nothing more than a sign of weakness. Did the Hasbro higher ups suddenly issue a cease and desist on Spike having anything romantic because of his age? Because they sure as heck didn't seem to mind it in seasons prior, or even the movie.
A Horse Shoe-In, Written by Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim (Season 9, Episode 20)
Way to kill Trixie's entire redemption arc here! Way to show that she has learned absolutely nothing in the whole time she's been with Starlight, except that she can act like the biggest jerk there ever was and Starlight still won't turn on her! And maybe it's just me, but boarding school or not I fail to see how you can just operate without a permanent vice-principal or how Starlight's levels of tests are supposed to help determine who is best suited for a position that isn't defined by student interaction outside of special occasions? And when you say neopitism is a bad thing, you can't turn around and give one of Starlight's friends a position because of that (and don't you dare say Sunburst got his position because he was qualified, he never actually tried out for the role). As for Trixie as a guidance counselor, well when you already show how bad she was trying to be a vice headmare, good luck expecting us to believe she can work in a position where she actually will have to interact with the students and actually be able to think of others besides herself.
Daring Doubt, Written by Nicole Dubac (Season 9, Episode 21)
The final Daring Do episode, and they squander it on two, yes two villain redemptions that no one asked for and Fluttershy being an unbelievable idiot. Granted, the Caballeron reformation is actually passable, nothing we haven't seen before from the show. It's the Ahuizotl one that makes zero sense, completely disregards all prior continuity, and just makes you wonder why anyone thought it was a good idea in the first place. There's also the fact that Daring Do is barely even utilized here even though this is supposed to be her final episode. And since when was Daring Do so dumb as to change out of her disguise in public? It's superheroing 101, you never let anyone see you change or transform.
Growing Up is Hard to Do, Written by Ed Valentine (Season 9, Episode 22)
Maybe Ed didn't know it was the last season when he tried to get this shelved script finalized and finally able to see the light of day, but if so he still picked a bad time to have it come out. "The Last Crusade" was the perfect stopping point for the CMC, but like so many other characters in Season 9 they just didn't know when and where to stop. Disregard everything you'd previously known about the CMC and seen about the CMC. Now they're on the level of their Season 1 and early Season 2 counterparts, the stereotypical dumb kids that they'd long grown out of being. And after they're aged up they don't do anything creative with them, the whole thing is treated like it's no big deal to anyone at all. It's so uninspiring and so not noticed that they have to throw in two other ponies just to have something for a climax.
Season 9 Episodes Failed 9/26
Total Episodes Failed 82/222
Whew, and there you have it. Come back tomorrow when we'll update the rankings for all the Twilight Sparkle episodes, and I'll be imploying something I did for my princess episode rankings to save on time.
There were only three episodes this season that I consider Okay (everything else is at least good)
2, 4, 6, Greaaat
Uprooted
Going to Seed
5142084
I mostly agree, 2, 4, 6, great was by far the worst for me, as for daring doubt, I honestly saw cabilairons reformation as less believable and honestly half-hearted as hell, but while Alizultus was unexpected, to me it does make sense and I understand his point about how these artifacts should not be removed from their resting place, and Fluttershy wasn't being dumb, she was being herself, she defended DISCORD during his reformation, and he had WAY more reason to be hated at the time, but Fluttershy still saw the good in him, and defended it.
as for Grable, while again, out of left field, it does make sense, I've seen some seemingly really, really crappy people open up and be their true, nice selves in the right environment, and ive also seen how peir and environmental pressure can ruin people, just look to USA prisons to see the damage both can do. As for smolder, I think she likely 1. helped keep his secret before she had her first on-screen appearance as she also gad to hide her personal desires and thus understood, and 2. she probably didn't know bullying and being a butthole was wrong untill she went to the friendship school
It's really not. From the beginning Rarity never treated Spike as anything more than platonically. It doesn't matter if they're technically around the same age. What really matters is mental and emotional maturity, and the two really aren't similar in that regard. At best you could say Spike's mental age is that of a young teen, while Rarity is well into her 20s or maybe even beyond.
5142271 Except why keep teasing us with it on and off for eight seasons, and then just suddenly dump it like it was a bad thing? It's a little too late to second guess yourselves when you've been fueling the ship indirectly for years!
5142277
It's not teasing the ship. It's Spike having a childhood crush for too long. And it is a bad thing. I preferred this to them getting together in any way.
5142279 But that's not necessarily what everyone wanted. And again, if they didn't want to ship Sparity, why tease us with for so long? And why make the final episode about it no big deal and leave it vague?
5142283
Well, it was the right thing. It would really be bad if Rarity got together with a child. And it's because that was a part of Spike's character and a bad running joke at times. It honestly should've been dropped a long time ago. And it wasn't left vague. It's pretty clear that a thing developed between Gabby and Spike, so Sparity is pretty much done and over with. Thankfully (I mean, tbh, Gabby might still be a little too old, but I don't know how old she is, so that's at least a less inappropriate ship).