Top Five Weakest Writers of FiM, Version 4

Even though I plan to go more into detail on these writers (and the five best writers in my opinion) on my DeviantArt account come Monday, this list still needed to be updated. With the positions of many writers on the show changing overall after Season 9 this list needed to be updated. Here's the third version, from a season ago. Let's see what changed. And as always, I mean no disrespect to anyone at Hasbro or DHX. Like with the previous version I'm excluding both Besty McGowen and Teddy Antonio as neither of them truly left an impression and I think it's unfair to guess how bad or good they are because of that (their low placements on the overall writers list is because they have little to their name). As it is you can consider them dishonorable mentions if you want to.

5. Neal Dusedau (Episodes written: Princess Spike (Story by Jim Miller and Jayson Thiesen), What About Discord?, Applejack's "Day" Off (Collabed with Michael P. and Will Fox for story))
Why he moved up: In this case, since it's a measure of how bad a writer is, moving down a position on the list means actually moving up in terms of a writer. Neal is moving down on the list because another writer is being added later on. Neal unfortunately wrote some pretty bad episodes in Season 5, and his final outing as writer in Season 6 was just a very bland and padded out episode. He's one of those writers who never seemed to find his way on the show and ultimately left. A shame, really. There are several writers on the show who started out weak and got better (Dave Polsky in particular underwent a writing metamorphisis in Season 4 and became a fan favorite as a result).

4. Kim Beyer-Johnson (Episodes written: Non Compete-Clause, Sweet and Smoky, Specials written: Rainbow Roadtrip)
Why she moved way up: For Kim, going from downright terrible to ultimately okay is a sign of improvement, however slim it may be. I've always said I'll take something meh over something bad any day, and Kim is living proof of that. If she only had "Sweet and Smoky" to go on from "Non Compete-Clause" she likely would've been lower, perhaps even stayed in the worst writer spot. Still, "Sweet and Smoky" was a slight improvement over "Non Compete-Clause" (I'd have been shocked if it was worse).

3. Nicole Dubuc (Episodes written: Shadow Play Parts 1 and 2 (Collabed with Josh Haber for story) School Daze Parts 1 and 2 (Collab with Michael Vogel), Marks for Effort, A Matter of Principals, School Raze Part 1, Uprooted, Sparkle's Seven (Collab with Josh Haber, Story written by Tara Strong, Ashliegh Ball, Andrea Libman, Tabitha St. Germain and Cathy Wesluck), The Last Crusade, Daring Doubt, The Ending of the End Part 1)
Why she moved up: Nicole ultimately seems to have been a rather "two faced" writer. If she was collabing with someone else (always either Michael Vogel or Josh Haber) she would do fantastic! But outside of "The Last Crusade" whenever she was left to write on her own she was bad! I don't really blame her for "The Ending of the End" and the Grogar twist anymore, she had to salvage what she could from the poor decision, but it's possible that there were explanations for Discord's actions that she chose to ignore when writing. The bigger problem though is how in other solo episodes she would just disregard continuity and character to get what she wanted, the only reason it wasn't a problem in "The Last Crusade" is because that was her own continuity. So it seems she enjoyed her continuity but ultimately never checked others' continuity.

2. Josh Hamilton (Episodes written: Parental Glideance, Triple Threat, Secrets and Pies, Fake It 'Til You Make It)
Why he moved down: Nicole got a few good episodes to her name in Season 9 and she was lifted slightly by knowledge of what was planned from the beginning for Season 9. Josh Hamilton though, since he didn't come back for Season 9 he left us with some pretty bad episodes and unfortunately he had to move down as a result. Much like Kim Beyer-Johnson, improving from the absolute low (in his case going from "Secrets and Pies" to "Fake It 'Til You Make It") is not surprising (it's surprising if you can do worse than rock bottom). I haven't checked the writing credits for other shows he wrote for, maybe he was good in those shows and just wasn't equipped to handle this show (which would make him another Merriweather Williams) or if he wasn't even good there (which would make him another Chris Savino).

1. Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim (Episodes written: A Horse Shoe-In)
Why he was added in the bottom: Like with Kim Beyer-Johnson last time, it may be a bit unfair to pick on him for only penning one episode. But unfortunately you only get one chance to make an impression, and the impression Ariel left was pretty bad. Ariel decided to just throw Trixie's entire redemption arc out the window and turn her back to how she was in Season 7, completely destroying Trixie's character in the process. And after an entire episode spent on other candidates, he just pulled Sunburst out of his rear in complete disregard to the moral he just wrote. Considering Ariel had only previously written for preschool shows from what I can gather, I really don't see why they recruited him, especially not so close to the end. Could they not just have Haber or Vogel do this episode instead, or even invited Lewis and Songco back for one last romp? Ultimately, because "A Horse Shoe-In" is what it is, Ariel suffers for it and takes the unfortunate title of weakest writer of the show.

Whew, and there you have it, come back tomorrow (or rather later in the day as it's currently after midnight here) when we'll update the rankings for the Top Five Strongest Writers of FiM.