Season Five: The Most Interesting Season of the Show? · 6:55pm Jul 3rd, 2020
Blog Number 82: Marking Transitions Edition
I've always felt that Season Five was unique even compared to the rest of the show. A few things stood out to me, but I'd made no dedicated effort to catalogue all the myriad ways.
Well, this is going to be that effort, because the more you scratch at the surface, the more stuff just leaps out at you.
What makes Season Five unique is how much its shift defines the show that came before it and the show that followed after it. To bring to your attention some notable trivia on the subject, I'll divide this post into three major sections: the directors, the writers, and the episodes themselves. Plus a conclusion as a minor section to finish. See below for details!
CONTENTS
The Directors
The Writers
The Episodes
Conclusion
(Here is the source for much of the information below: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_My_Little_Pony%3A_Friendship_Is_Magic_episodes)
The Directors
The Eras of the Show
Season Five marks the most dramatic shift in directorial duties. If we're being strict about any change in who was director for any particular episode, then we can define seven major directorial "eras" throughout the show's run:
- Jayson Thiessen, with James Wootton as co-director: entirety of Season One
- James Wootton: entirety of Seasons Two and Three
- Jayson Thiessen, with Jim Miller as co-director: entirety of Season Four + Episodes 1-2 of Season Five
- Jim Miller: Episodes 3-13 of Season Five
- Denny Lu: Episodes 14-26 of Season Five
- Denny Lu and Tim Stuby: entirety of Season Six + Episodes 1-7 of Season Seven
- Denny Lu and Mike Myhre: Episodes 8-26 of Season Seven + entirety of Seasons Eight and Nine
If we want to relax our requirements to individual directors or co-directors, then that list reduces to six:
- Jayson Thiessen: entirety of Seasons One and Four + Episodes 1-2 of Season Five
- James Wootton: entirety of Seasons One, Two, and Three
- Jim Miller: entirety of Season Four + Episodes 1-13 of Season Five
- Denny Lu: Episodes 14-26 of Season Five + entirety of Seasons Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine
- Tim Stuby: entirety of Season Six + Episodes 1-7 of Season Seven
- Mike Myhre: Episodes 8-26 of Season Seven + entirety of Seasons Eight and Nine
And if we want to relax our requirements even more to broader mixtures and trends, the list again reduces down, in this case to two overarching eras:
- Jayson Thiessen, James Wootton, Jim Miller: entirety of Seasons One, Two, Three, and Four + Episodes 1-13 of Season Five
- Denny Lu, Tim Stuby, Mike Myhre: Episodes 14-26 of Season Five + entirety of Seasons Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine
Let's call these the Three J's era (after Jayson Thiessen, James Wootton, and Jim Miller) and the Denny Lu era, respectively.
The Biggest Divide
As you can see, the sharpest directorial divide occurs during the midway point of Season Five. In fact, no less than two directorial shifts occur during Season Five, the greatest number of such changes during the entire run. The nearest competition for the title is Season Seven, which only had one change during its run, and that was a change in one co-director, with the other never changing at all. Certainly there's no equivalent to the sharp divide between Season Five, Episode 13 and Season Five, Episode 14. Such a divide is wholly unique to this season.
On a minor note, it's interesting how much the "James Wootton" era mirrors, to a degree, the "Jim Miller" era: both start out sharing an entire season with Jayson Thiessen, only to operate solo for a stretch afterwards. In fact, Jayson Thiessen's presence in both is why it's easier to consider the first half of the show as a collective era in its own right: the overlap of directors leaves no similarly sharp divide here.
And while a couple of changes occur during the second half of the show, Denny Lu remains a constant throughout, making for another easy collective era to define there.
I'll leave this, for now, as an exercise to the reader what it all means vis-a-vis quality, continuity, and so on. I've got more to discuss yet.
The Writers
N.B. For the purposes of this section, I'll consider a writer of a particular episode as such if they have been credited officially as contributing to an episode, such as by writing the teleplay or co-writing the story. Basically, if their name's on the Wikipedia list, it's automatically counted. However, I'll note the distinction if it seems relevant to a particular point, and I apologize in advance if any double-counting slips through the net by accident.
It's easier to go through the seasons as a whole, at least for context:
Season One: The Big Five
Season One: 8 writers debut here. Of these, only 2 don't write beyond this season (Lauren Faust wrote or co-wrote the first three episodes, and Chris Savino only wrote two), but the remaining 6 have a major influence.
They are: Amy Keating Rogers, Charlotte Fullerton, Cindy Morrow, Dave Polsky, M. A. Larson, and Meghan McCarthy. Their contributions range from 7 episodes (Charlotte Fullerton, who's also the only one to not make it to Season Five) to 26 episodes (Meghan McCarthy, one of the few to make it past Season Five).
Between them, the Big Six penned (or contributed towards) a total of 92 episodes of the show. That's 96 individual writing credits minus 4 cases of a repeat wherein at least two of these writers contributed to the same episode. Or to put it another way, that's approximately 41.6% of the entire show itself. (Note that I'm excluding any movies, specials, and Equestria Girls media here, but the figure doesn't change much if you include them anyway).
Of these 92 episodes written or contributed to by the Big Six, 79 occur during the Three J's era and 13 occur during the Denny Lu era. In fact, of those 13, 5 occur during Season Five, 7 occur during Season Six, and only 1 occurs during Season Seven. None occur after that.
Keep in mind the total number of episodes during the Three J's era is 104 episodes. Over three-quarters of the first half of the show was effectively written by just six prominent people.
That said, I'm going to be hard-to-please here. I will, for the sake of argument, call into question Charlotte Fullerton's placement on the list of major contributors, since she only penned 7 episodes (the next lowest count among the Big Six is Cindy Morrow's, at 11 episodes: far more impressive a contribution, as it's nearly half a season). In which case, let's narrow it down to the Big Five. What changes?
Well, the Big Five would have contributed: 86 total episodes to the show*, 73 occurring during the Three J's era, 13 occurring during the Denny Lu era, and thus that's over 70% of the first half of the show effectively written by just five people.
* In case you're wondering, one of the episodes Fullerton co-wrote was also one McCarthy wrote, which is why it's not as simple as deducting 7 from 92; doing so would erroneously remove an episode penned by one of the remaining Big Five.
This is our starting point. This is the old guard.
Seasons Two and Three: Nothing Much to Do
Season Two: only a single writer debuts here. Merriwether Williams contributes 7 episodes total to the entire show, 4 of which are in this very season. The last one is in Season Four.
Season Three: 2 writers debut here. Corey Powell contributes 4 episodes total, and again the last one is in Season Four. Teddy Antonio contributed only one episode at all.
As you can guess, the Big Five pretty much ran the show unopposed by new blood for the first three seasons. They'll continue to dominate the writing credits for a while yet, but in the next season, we see the beginnings of a new guard arising.
Season Four: The Inconspicuous Newcomers
Season Four: 7 writers debut here. Betsy McGowen contributes only one episode at all. Of the remaining 6, only 2 continue writing past Season Five, but these two are where it starts to get interesting.
The first one is Ed Valentine, who contributes only 5 episodes total. 2 of them in Season Four, 2 of them in Season Six. Then there's a large gap before the last episode he wrote near the end of Season Nine. Apart from this outlier, he largely fits the pattern of debut writers during the Three J's era rarely lasting long.
The second one is Josh Haber, the first major rival of the Big Five since Season One. He contributes an impressive 28 episodes, larger even than the most prolific of the Big Five (McCarthy, remember, contributed to 26). You wouldn't know this, however, from the Three J's era alone: here, he only contributes 4 episodes, 3 of them right here in Season Four.
After writing the double-parter at the end of Season Five, however, he is a major writer in every remaining season. That's Seasons Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine. So the marked change between the start of Season Five and the end could just as readily be defined by his dominance: he's the first writer since Season Two to pen a double-parter that did not have Meghan McCarthy as either the only writer or a major writer credit.
In fact, this might be a good time to note the pattern for double-parters as well (this excludes single-episode finales such as "Magical Mystery Cure", or borderline cases like the opening of Season Seven). During the Three J's era, 5 of the 7 double-parters were McCarthy's. During the Denny Lu era, 4 of the 8 double-parters were Haber's, plus half of one he was a writer for (the Season Eight finale had its episodes split between him and Nicole Dubuc).
And that changing trend started in Season Five, which began with a McCarthy double-parter (albeit an unusual one, in that she didn't have exclusive writing credit for it), and ended with a Haber double-parter. Another reason Season Five can be considered a turning point for the show.
Season Five: The New Guard Arises
Season Five: 6 writers debut here, though two of them co-write the same episodes and might be better thought of as a single writing team (it gets a bit awkward here, so I'll adhere to the original strict criterion regardless and treat them separately).
This isn't the first time any writer appears who will go on to last throughout the Denny Lu era: Josh Haber is that writer, and possibly Ed Valentine if the outlier counts. But this is the first time a majority of such writers appear: 4 of the 6 writers who debut here write episodes as late as Season Nine. Before now, only 2 writers did so, and they both debuted in Season Four. So we might consider here the makings of the next big cache of writers, (a new guard, if you will): Josh Haber, Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco**, and Nick Confalone. Incidentally, Gillian M. Berrow is the first writer to debut during the Denny Lu era.
**These two always co-write episodes together. I'm also excluding Ed Valentine and Gillian M. Berrow from consideration for part of the "new team", on the grounds that each of them contributed so few episodes, which was the same reason I excluded Charlotte Fullerton from the Big Six to get the Big Five. Whatever standard applies to one must apply to the other.
Between them, these 4 writers - which we might tentatively call the New Big Four - pen 49 episodes: that's 6 episodes during the Three J's era and 43 episodes during the Denny Lu era. Not as numerous as the Big Five, but the first strong showing since the Big Five were established and the first time their dominance was matched.
To bring this back round to Season Five, 8 of those 49 episodes by the New Big Four occur here. Compare that with the number of Big Five episodes which occur here: 12.
This comparison might not seem that dramatic - the Big Five are still "in the lead", as it were - until you remember that the Big Five contributed to 15 episodes in Season Four, and of the remaining writing credits, most were from writers who barely penned a handful of episodes anyway before bowing out during Seasons Four or Five. There's simply no comparable "rivalry" prior to Season Five, no collection of new writers mounting any kind of "challenge".
Which is also interesting because Season Five simultaneously saw the first loss of two of the Big Five: Cindy Morrow and Amy Keating Rogers didn't write after this season. Even if you prefer to think of it as the Big Six, Charlotte Fullerton was alone when she left during Season Four, and hadn't contributed as many episodes as the others. This "Season Five loss" goes up to three if you count M. A. Larson, whose only credit during the Denny Lu era was for a single episode in Season Seven: a conspicuous if bizarre outlier.
In short, Season Five is where the overt writer dominance and consistency of the first half of the show finally started to give way.
Season Six: The Old Guard Disappears
Season Six: 8 writers debut here. 4 of them go all the way to Season Nine, while 2 more make it to Season Eight. The remaining 2 don't appear outside this Season.
This is where the Big Five's contributions diminish sharply: Dave Polsky and Meghan McCarthy are the only ones left, and they pen between them a mere 7 episodes. Polsky penned only 2 and bowed out early. McCarthy penned the remaining 5. None of them are exclusive credits.
For the New Big Four, we might add these four newcomers as part of a larger team, (the New Big Eight say), but not so fast: it's worth pointing out that here we have another writing duo who effectively work as one (Michael P. Fox and Wil Fox, who between them contribute to 7 episodes overall). A third writer, Dave Rapp, is among the "doesn't contribute many episodes" crowd in any case, with only 5 to his name.
That said, a strong case could be made for adding the last one, Michael Vogel, to the New Big Four. This makes it the New Big Five, as a one-to-one parallel.
He wrote or co-wrote a far more impressive 17 episodes. Include him to make that New Big Five, exclude episodes which we've already counted as being written by the original four members, and that yields 13 more episodes during the Denny Lu era, bringing the New Big Five total up to a stronger 62 episodes.
Season Seven: One Last Outlier
Season Seven: 10 writers debut here. 2 of them go all the way to Season Nine, while 1 more makes it to Season Eight. The remaining 7 don't appear outside this Season.
This is the last time the Big Five have any kind of showing, and it's an obvious outlier. M. A. Larson appears only to write "Fame and Misfortune", and once that's done, the Big Five have no further writing credits.
Of the newcomers, all but one contribute little even to this season. The exception is Nicole Dubuc, who has 12 writing credits to her name. If you want to add her to the New Big Five to get a New Big Six, and ignore the 5 episodes that have already been counted (again, because one of the other members co-wrote them and we don't want to double-count), that increases the number of episodes they can claim to 69 episodes.
In any case, Nicole Dubuc is the last writer to contribute towards an impressive number of episodes.
Seasons Eight and Nine: Mopping Up
Season Eight: 4 writers debut here. 3 of them go all the way to Season Nine. The remaining 1 doesn't appear outside this Season.
Season Nine: This is where the "writer team" issue gets especially awkward, because it depends on how you treat the cast-written episode "Sparkle's Seven". The number of debut writers could be either 3 (treating the cast as a single collective writing team) or 7 (treating each cast member as a single writer).
The general point by now is that we have cemented the change that began in earnest during Season Five. You've reached the end of the show-long journey. Now, let's jump back a bit and focus more on that transition period in Season Five.
Comparing the Old Guard and the New Guard
I think what's particularly salient here is the conspicuous presence of a handful of writers in each half of the show. For the first five seasons, that's the Big Five (Amy Keating Rogers, Cindy Morrow, Dave Polsky, M. A. Larson, and Meghan McCarthy). For the last four seasons, that's the New Big Six (Josh Haber, Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco, Nick Confalone, Michael Vogel, and Nicole Dubuc).
Now, there's plenty to dispute over how I've made the two teams. A case could be made to include borderline members like Charlotte Fullerton and Gillian M. Berrow. But the point which would be clear in any scenario is that the dominance of writers is dramatically different in each half of the show, and Season Five is the season that marks the turning point where the old guard started giving way to the new. It was the last time the old guard remained in charge before dropping out, and the first time the new guard put up an impressive showing, coinciding also with the shift in double-parter contributors and the increasing rotation of writers over multiple seasons.
For example, keep in mind that, prior to Season Five, it was rare for any debuting writers to contribute much or to last very long. Josh Haber is the only conspicuous exception, and Ed Valentine might count, give or take his outlier episode in Season Nine. Come Season Five, and we suddenly have four new writers who go on to become long-runners.
For another example, 23 writers debut during the Three J's era, whereas 25 plus 5 cast members debut during the Denny Lu era. Not particularly remarkable in itself, but keep in mind that the Big Five all debuted during one season - the very first season - whereas the New Big Six were more spread out during Seasons Four (Haber), Five, Six (Vogel), and Seven (Dubuc).
The notable spike for them, however, occurred during Season Five itself, with half of the "team" appearing there (Lewis, Songco, and Confalone). And the biggest influx of writers occurred after Season Five, during Seasons Six and Seven (8 and 10 respectively). The only rival in the first half of the show is Season One (8), which - apart from being the first season and so having something of a built-in advantage there - was also followed by two seasons straight of hardly any additional writing staff.
In a sense, Season Five represents the biggest writer shakeup since the start of the show itself. Its part in the transition between the two major eras is why I think it stands out the way it does, even compared to its neighbours who contributed in smaller ways to the transition. That transition is much more knife-edge here than it is on either side, the closest it ever got to being equally distributed, and thus the only time there was no outright dominance by either side.
The Episodes
A third reason why Season Five is unique is because of the content of the episodes themselves.
Remember "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" Well, when you remember that the Three J's era began with "The Mare in the Moon" and ended with "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?", that episode's particular story suddenly suggests a more obvious bookend kind of structure, bringing that particular era full circle.
After all, it deals with Princess Luna's feelings and her alter ego as Nightmare Moon - the very topics of the series premiere. In other words, we end where we started. It ties it together with a long-running arc in which she's demonstrated the ability to enter dreams, with a monster appropriate to that theme. It's even co-written by one of the directors involved in the very beginning of the show. Am I alone in finding those coincidences at least a little striking?
It gets better. The episode before that one? "Amending Fences", which is the consequence of a short scene referencing Moondancer in the first few minutes of the very first episode. Again, the end of the Three J's era harks back to its beginning.
Before then? "Princess Spike" and "Party Pooped" are the first episodes to put Princess Twilight in an explicitly political context, after Season Four largely glossed over her ascension, possibly as a way of completing her transition from student to master. Admittedly, here the connection is weaker than in the previous two examples, partly because this is about something that happened much later in the show, and not least of all because these episodes aren't actually about Twilight per se. Besides, you could argue the Season Four double-parters were where "political Princess Twilight" really started, further diluting the claim, but I think the distinction is between the "will she, won't she?" of Season Four and the "she definitely is" of Season Five. Completion, in other words.
And before then? "Slice of Life", a tribute to pony fans. A final hurrah, as well? A farewell, perhaps, before the end of an era? It seems especially significant when you remember this is one of M. A. Larson's last episodes (on that theme, what's the title of Cindy Morrow's last episode in this very season? "Tanks for the Memories". Is that a writer's nostalgic double-meaning?).
And...
Stop a sec. Again, this is probably time to launch a pre-emptive objection. At best, I'm likely highlighting cute coincidences. After all, we can ask questions like "How does 'Make New Friends But Keep Discord' fit the pattern?" (I don't think it does). Or: "Why are the Denny Lu era episodes exempt from such meaningful call-backs?" (They're obviously not).
Fair enough questions: one of the Denny Lu era episodes features the Cutie Mark Crusaders getting their cutie marks, for Pete's sake. If I wanted to make much of the Three J's era, that should be among the first thirteen episodes of this season, not the last.
True. If this is just about the Three J's era. But now I'm back to the point that Season Five as a whole is special again. Allow me to continue.
On that note: yes, the CMC get their ascension here, in this very season, ending an arc that's been running throughout the first half of the show and giving them a new direction for the rest of it, making this their transition season too. In fact, with the redemption of Diamond Tiara, we can say that, as of Season Five, every single antagonist and villain from Season One has been redeemed. Remember: Gilda was redeemed earlier in Season Five, during "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone".
Season Five also completes a trio of episodes featuring the CMC and Luna in a dream sequence, just before the cutie mark acquisition. There's a lot of significance established here already, but the last such member to receive this episode? Apple Bloom, the one who started it all way back in "Call of the Cutie". And in a way that ties all three together and even concludes Babs Seed's part in the club with her own cutie mark, albeit offscreen.
That's just the Three J's era, the first half of Season Five. I might also point out that the Denny Lu era here in Season Five kicks off a lot of new arcs too:
- This is where Rarity begins her post-Ponyville business expansion with "Canterlot Boutique", later followed by her Rarity For You in the first half of Season Six. It's easy to forget that, before Season Five, she had expressed no interest in expanding the franchise, focusing mainly on her reputation and current business in Ponyville. This represents a major transition into a more ambitious part of her career.
- Rainbow Dash is also active for the first time in Wonderbolt shows, doing what she actually wants to do (i.e. fly). As a reserve flyer, yes, but last time we checked in with her, she was passing an entrance exam, and before that, she was trying out for an unrelated athletic event (the Equestria Games) and qualifying at the academy. This is genuinely the first time she flies with the group in an official capacity.
- We also reunite with Pinkie Pie's larger family for the first time since Season One, and their characterization is solidified here. Maud Pie episodes become more prominent from this point on, as she goes from a one-off appearance in Season Four to two notable appearances here in Season Five.
- In addition, we get our first step towards the inclusion of Flurry Heart, who admittedly doesn't have that big an influence on the show going forward, but it's an innovation of continuity regardless. The same could be argued for Sunburst, though he only appears in flashback form here.
- Lastly, until Season Nine, this was the closest we ever got to a full villain reunion: Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis and her changeling army, King Sombra, Lord Tirek, and Starlight Glimmer return for the season finale, some for the first time ever since their debuts.
But wait, there's more!
Season Five is also replete with call-backs to prior special occasions, possibly the greatest such number in the show's run. We have our second Hearth's Warming episode, our second Nightmare Night episode, our second Sisterhooves Social episode, our second Grand Galloping Gala episode, our second rodeo episode (first was "The Last Roundup"), and our second Running of the Leaves (briefly shown in "Tanks for the Memories").
On top of that, we get a reminiscent episode in "Castle Sweet Castle", following the destruction of the Golden Oak Library and the establishment of the Friendship Castle.
I just get the overall impression the show might have been preparing to end with Season Five, and all this was one big series of "Hey, do you remember when this happened? Wasn't it great?"
Erm, ish...
It's true the Friendship Castle is more a Season Four point, to be fair, and it definitely feels more significant sitting alongside the other callback episodes here. But this is the first season with the Castle established as a notable landmark going forwards. To counter my own little speculation above, I don't think Season Five really was going to be the last one officially, even behind the scenes. But it sure feels like it, at times. A lot of stuff was ending, a lot of callbacks were being invoked, and a lot of loose ends were being tied up. By the same token, though, this also brought a lot of new stuff to the table.
For instance, while I'm reaching a bit for this one, Season Five also marks the beginning of the longest-running episode gimmick.
Yes, that's including the "Dear Princess Celestia" schtick, which easily has the greatest number of actual episodes to boast and is more impressive. Work with me here, though: that gimmick didn't last at all beyond Season Three, which in turn we should acknowledge was closer to half a season than a full one. Overall, the "Dear Princess Celestia" gimmick effectively lasted two-and-a-half seasons before being replaced by the key missions and journal entries of Season Four. By contrast, the map mission episodes run from the beginning of Season Five to the end of Season Eight, a span of four full-sized seasons.
Most conspicuously, we have the transition of Starlight Glimmer from one-off villain to the first massive shake-up of the core cast dynamic.
A bit more on Starlight here. While Discord is the obvious predecessor and the closest equivalent, I'd argue he didn't really inspire a massive shake-up in his own right. Season Four almost completely ignored him outside the double-parters, which largely raised the question of whether he was genuinely reformed at all, and which focused more on Twilight's new role post-ascension. Even Season Five only threw him a couple of episodes. Overall, his influence on the cast dynamic pales in comparison to Starlight's.
Starlight marks the first really conspicuous cast addition, most obviously by restoring the unicorn count. She gets an impressive eight episodes in Season Six alone (making cameos in a few more), and unlike Discord's, they're mostly about her in her own right, rather than as a proxy for Twilight's story. She continues to be a prominent cast member thereafter, especially during the double-parters going forward. Her impact also paved the way for further cast inclusions and expansions during the Denny Lu era, such as the dragons and Ember plus Thorax and the changelings in Season Six, the Pillars in Season Seven, and the Student Six in Season Eight.
Before Season Five, there weren't many comparable mass shake-ups. Apart from Discord, the next best candidates are Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, neither of whom had a dominant focus the same way Starlight and others did (heck, they don't even compare well with Discord himself during the Three J's era; with Twilight's predominant role in all their appearances, neither of them got a focus episode at all).
I'm not saying a case couldn't be made for ongoing cast shake-ups since the beginning, but I think they were extremely minor compared with the ones seen in the wake of Season Five's particular splash.
Conclusion
Every season has something that makes it stand out from its stablemates. Season One was where Lauren Faust's influence was most strongly felt, and it had the most to prove and the most to contribute to the series lore. Season Two capitalized more on those worldbuilding elements that remain constants to this day, whilst also pushing the envelope for how much edge the show could boast (the villains, for instance, were a lot nastier than Nightmare Moon).
Season Four marked the beginning of a whole new era of Princess Twilight, and brought that role into question the most. Season Six had a brand new arc for its new star player, as well as the first double-parter not to focus on the Main Six.
Season Seven branched out further with its cast, not least of all by introducing the Pillars (thus bringing the legendary Star Swirl to the stage for the first time), introduced new directions for the Apple family in particular, and featured a lot of family-related episodes in general (seriously, count how many times parents of the Main Six or the CMC show up). Even Season Eight - for better or worse - had the school plotline to call its own.
But I think even by those standards, Season Five stands out just for packing so much change into twenty-six episodes.
Directors have changed hands before and since, but never as absolutely as the split between the first half of this season and the second half. Writers have popped in and out since the show began, but Season Five marks where the dominance of the old guard first met its match in the dominance of the new guard. Episodes have tackled change and new characters before, but even Season Three - which boasts the ascension of Twilight and the reformation of Discord - doesn't have much else to compete against the introduction of Starlight - as villain, then as a co-star in her own right, both in the very same season no less - or the change in direction for much of the established cast (Rarity and Rainbow Dash, for instance). Nor does it match the sheer number of revisits, reunions, hurrahs, and callbacks that this one season contains.
And of course, all these different layers of change resonate with each other. "Amending Fences" and "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" are, at one and the same time: the last episodes of a directorial era, the last episodes of particular writers, and the last major goodbye waves to core components of the show present from the very beginning. To say nothing of the fact that they're considered among the best episodes of the show by lots of fans, just as an added cherry on top.
Since I brought up opinions just now, I think I might finish by offering my own, to tie up this blog post in a neat bow:
Season Five is one of my favourite seasons. Not the favourite - I must confess to being an old-school fan, and preferring Season One and then Season Two to this. Season Four is also a decent rival, in my estimation.
But even here, in personal opinion, I find Season Five unusual. I'd be hard-pressed to name a season marked by such strong extremes of opinion: I think there are episodes in Season Five which are shockingly godawful. Without exaggeration, some of the worst of the show. Seasons Four, Two, and One get by largely by having so few episodes I dislike with this level of intensity.
At the same time, it'd be easy for me to pick episodes from Season Five that knock it out of the park, in ways which even Season One's best have never exactly managed.
Of all the double-parters, for instance, "The Cutie Map" stands as my favourite for its move away from "defeat the villain with friend-making" and towards more nuanced conflicts like "get across what equality means in a friendship". "Slice of Life" is a one-off experiment, and though I don't love it for that (some of the additions I find frankly annoying), it caps the theme off beautifully with that speech, and for that, a lot can be forgiven.
"Amending Fences" is kind of a weird one for me personally, in that it intrudes slightly uncomfortably on some fic ideas I'd been coddling for a while, but it's a lovely, quintessentially pony episode in its own right. "Scare Master" is the best "face your fear" episode Fluttershy has had (er... joint-best with "Hurricane Fluttershy", I'll say), again with a pretty good message to go along with the fun.
"Hearthbreakers" is the best combination of Apple and Pie (before or, sadly, since), introducing a memorable family and its kooky dynamics with, again, a great inclusive message (see a pattern here?). And "The Mane Attraction" is one of those episodes where I can't quite pin down why I like it so much, especially when its flaws are obvious, but which nevertheless charms me greatly with its musical enthusiasm and simple moral. The final performance definitely resonates when you remember this is also the last episode from one of the Big Five.
Gosh, I could go on about many of the seasons. Frankly, there's always a lot of episodes I like. This is only a sample of all the ones I could gush about right now.
Yet I think Season Five is the only one where they come in such a spectacular range, with such particular strengths, assaying the greatest number of experiments during a time when the show itself had reached a massive turning point.
And I think that ultimately is why I consider it the most interesting season of the show.
Impossible Numbers, out.
Interesting analysis! Thank you!
Season 5's "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" was a big ol' curveball to the B-cast status quo.
5300179
Thank you too, and you're very welcome.
Indeed, and that Gillian M. Berrow debut I mentioned earlier, the one which marked the first debut writer of the Denny Lu era? Guess which episode that was too? That's what I mean by all the layers having a strange kind of resonance.
They just pile up for this season. I completely forgot to mention, for instance, that this was also the season that introduced the yaks and Yakyakistan to the series.
Having recently rewatched S5, this analysis makes a ton of sense.
And yeah, this. I had romanticized season five in the leadup of the last four seasons before show's end, but it's considerably more flawed overall than I ever gave it credit for. :B
I've long had the gut feeling that S5 was the odd one out as well. Really interesting to see how there might be some underlying reasons for that!
Ah, S5.
I love your analysis of the crew dynamics in it. I also love S5 itself. S5 was my season. There will always be a part of me that wishes I’d been in the herd during the 2012-2013 heyday; but by jumping in right after S4, I got to have the perspective of viewing S1-4 as a cohesive unit—which I only learned later that it wasn’t. And S5 was one big payoff after another for that pseudo-cohesive unit.
The things you mention about the “old guard” wrapping up certain plot lines or making targeted callbacks? I didn’t think to express it that way at the time, but in hindsight, you’re dead right. It was a time of transition—both in terms of closing certain chapters, and in opening new ones. That made it pivotal and exciting. Starlight-as-enemy was a perfect anathema of Twilight’s guiding philosophy of mutuality in friendship; Starlight-as-ally would come to be a less-perfect, but (IMO) ultimately more human, reflection of the same. And S5 sits right at the crux of that change.
I can’t pretend to be impartial about S5. It met me where I was at a time when I desperately needed it. In a non-trivial (though admittedly hyperbolic) way, Canterlot Boutique and Rarity Investigates! helped save my life. The finale has proven to be perhaps the single most inspiring work of fiction in any medium that I’ve ever encountered, in terms of volume of my reciprocal creative output. And as for Hearthbreakers... well, I’ve literally published a printed book of Limestone stories, I write this sitting underneath a commissioned painting of Limestone hanging in my living room. So, like, S5 deep-dives are all right with me.
I know it had its turds. What About Discord? remains at or near the bottom of my episode rankings for the show’s entire run. But your analysis digs into the less-obvious dynamics underpinning the time of transition that S5 represented.
Carry on.
Nostalgia for a Gen1 villain, perhaps.
Actually wait, it's a throwback to the Grand Galloping Gala, the first season finale. I remember that was a big deal, seeing it happen again but with the characters in brand new dresses.
Is it a coincidence that the first thing I ever wrote on this site was a blog about season 5? After just a few episodes, I noticed how thematically linked they were, like a concept album, and it seemed clear to me that it was hinting at some kind of bittersweet goodbye coming soon. Which of course didn't happen in the show itself, so I was pretty disappointed. But as you point out, it did seem to happen backstage with all those old staff members leaving, so now it makes some sense thinking back on it.
Season 5... hype? ??
Very interesting analysis!
Season 5 will always be the most interesting to me personally - I'd watched the show offhandedly for a couple of years before but season 5 suddenly kickstarted my interest in writing fic for the show. I find I usually want to do this with story-lines I want to 'fix' or ideas I want to explore further that a show doesn't. I think this was the case for season 5, compared to seasons 1-4. With the benefit of hindsight I now commend it for introducing ideas that sparked my creativity - even if I don't always agree/like how the show itself explored the ideas in the episodes. Definitely took inspiration from it.
I can well imagine FiM ending with the season 5 finale. As you point out, I think it wraps up a lot of elements that are present throughout season 1-4. In fact, I think my brain has already done this. The following seasons are just sorta "there" in my brain as an afterthought. Though take with the pinch of salt that I still haven't seen much of season 8 and 9, which I blame half on being incredibly bored by the Pillars in season 7 and half on failing interest in the show at the time.
I think I've blanked some of the season's worst episodes from my mind though. Maybe it's time for a rewatch!
great analysis i personally think season 5 was my favorite season i enjoyed it from start to finish i just thought it was a vary solid season while i got into the show around 2012 and 2013 i think i became more involved with the show since season 5 of course it introduced starlight (who became my no.1 favorite character thanks to the the cutie re-mark and season 6 now i really liked the cutie re-mark and i just ignore what people say about that episode and i also liked season 6 mostly for starlight) like i said before i don't like the episodes in the next three seasons where she's suffering which include royal problem matter of principals school raze the season 9 opener and a horse shoe in (the season 8 finale is the one where i got to upset when she got trapped in the orb and i actually get shaky feelings seeing the images so i can't watch that episode or the other's listed it just always didn't seem right to me to torture her like like i said so i mostly prefer to watch the cheerful episodes with her not suffering) i know that's off topic just throwing that in.
5300334
To be fair, a lot of this might just be a bunch of suggestive but inconclusive coincidences (it's correlational, after all; I don't have any evidence of what was really going on backstage). The number of special occasions revisited, for instance, might have been an attempt at a recurring continuity rather than some kind of farewell attempt to cram everything in, especially since not all of them focus on said element in the same way. The Grand Galloping Gala, for instance, could be replaced by any prestigious event, and it wouldn't change the story for "Make New Friends But Keep Discord".
And yet, I rather wonder how much overlap there would be if us two alone were to list our "godawful" episodes for this season, to say nothing of a lot of other people's lists. But even ignoring differences of opinion, I think that too would probably be a side effect of how much of a mixture there was in this season.
5300357
For me in particular, I have the same response to this season as 5300837: it feels like the "final" season, and everything afterwards is an odd extra that's just kind of "there".
I'd be interested to know if the backstage change of hands manifested in other ways. Maybe the studio as a whole was consciously hedging its bets for future seasons, say, and there's some internal memo to that effect. That said, even on these scanty details, the change in staff is pretty striking.
5300589
You mean you saw all of Season Five first? It seems pretty unusual to me to watch a later instalment before the earlier ones, but then I tend to be pretty rigid in my viewing habits.
Also, it's awesome you get so much out of Season Five. I might not understand it myself (I got in largely by curiosity), but I do appreciate it. The show's been inspiring people in some profound ways since its inception.
I have to admit Season One is special to me in a similar way, though not to the same degree. Quite apart from being my first contact with the show, it has this character-first gentleness to it, even during adventure episodes like "The Elements of Harmony", "Dragonshy", and "Bridle Gossip", wherein there is a plot with stakes, but the plot and its accomplishment is not the point of the episode. Like a hang-out season, where the plot is usually just a pretext to watching any of the ten main characters just be themselves for twenty minutes.
Some of my favourite episodes of the season are mostly character showcases ("Suited for Success" being an obvious example). It's a dynamic I don't think has been quite captured by an entire season since - Season Two's finale, for instance, feels more concerned with chucking in new cast members to serve the story, and about showing how edgy and radical the changelings are, than about any dedicated kind of hanging out - though individual episodes get there.
Ah, nostalgia. I have mixed feelings about that time, myself. On the one hand, it really did feel like something big and exciting was brewing at the time, which petered out... largely during the course of Season Four, I think, though it continued during Five and Six (another example of the transition, perhaps?). On the other hand, I find it kind of annoying how that era is romanticized, especially in the fanfiction scene. It's not like the fandom was any more graceful over so-called "Derpygate", or Twilight's ascension. Plus, I was starting out back then, so it's hard for me to think about my involvement at the time without wincing.
5300818
For the purposes of this discussion, I focused mainly on continuity within the show. I don't think Generation One references such as Tirek and the Smooze were intended as part of the "farewell" callback, because the show's been making references like that since its inception (the Season One premiere, for instance, I think contains several such references during the quest).
It's not that there's no case to be made for it. Compared with my more narrowly defined hypothesis, though, it seemed a bit tangential to my main point.
I do mention the Gala as a specific event callback. It's just that, to me, it felt the same as the episodes referencing "political Princess Twilight": there's a nod to it, but it's weakened by the fact the plots of those episodes aren't actually about the thing being referenced. The Gala's a pretext for a Discord episode, and compared with its first appearance, it doesn't get nearly as much hype and focus here. Likewise, the episodes featuring Twilight in a political context are either about Spike's attempts to stand in for her or Pinkie's attempts to placate yaks.
It definitely feels cohesive as a capper to the previous seasons. The fact that the third episode is explicitly about reminiscence pretty much sets the expectations for the rest of the season. I don't know about "The Cutie Map", though. As different as it is from any of the other two-parters before it, I've generally felt it was more like an odd experiment than an indication of imminent closure (an impression that grew stronger when the show went right back to "defeat the villain with friend-making" for this season's very finale).
5300837
Odd timing, I grant you. During a discussion with DannyJ late in April, I stumbled across the Wikipedia list of writers and directors, and took a special interest in it, mapping out individual writer and director trends (I've still got the notes somewhere).
But for a while thereafter, I didn't know whether or not to publish what trends I'd found. It just seemed like a cute curiosity. Then after a recent spate of unpleasant blog posts, I felt I ought to contribute more, and this was waiting for me.
Besides, I've long felt there was something unusual about Season Five, but I was never able to articulate it until recently. It's just taken a while for me to come to this point.
Huh. I think bookplayer made a similar observation once about fanfiction for shows with less-than-perfect worldbuilding; people find it easier to write stuff that makes better use of or "fixes" it. A seemingly perfect bit of worldbuilding forecloses any further development.
Definitely can think of a few episodes from Season Five which I use as reference points, not leastways because of "Slice of Life" and "Amending Fences", (I'll give you a hint: background characters).
Agreed. And while I've been trying to be objective about the changes in the show staff and the episode content over time for the sake of this blog post's topic, I have to admit I really kind of wished the show had just ended here too. If nothing else - and there's plenty else in my book - we'd have been spared some continuity snarls and answers to questions we didn't really want answered.
Myself, I kind of liked the Pillars. My main problem with the second half of the show was a particular character introduced in Season Five and suddenly prominently featured thereafter. To say nothing of what happened to the changelings in Season Six, the general weird lurch in quality during Season Seven, and... Season Eight.
I think, for the sake of open discussion and disclosure, I might as well admit I really don't like the second half of the show. I'm not going to crusade against anybody who does like it, but they might as well know where I stand. More neutrally, I do think the show went in a hugely different direction after Season Five than it was going before it.
Also... yeah, hype! Get ready for the biggest event of the year! Cos Season Five is coming soon to a cinema... er, is already here on DVD! And has been for years! Yeah!
5302014
Well, I do know there are plenty of people who share your view, both of this season and of that particular character, so you're definitely not alone there. What's particularly interesting is how much we weren't expecting such a change back in Season Five. Like, nobody seemed to know what to expect going forward. If I remember right, it was as big a deal as alicorn-Twilight.
And by all means throw in an off-topic topic! Digressions are part of the fun of any discussion.