These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things... (Cream Coloured Ponies and Crisp Apple Strudels!) · 3:11pm Jan 26th, 2021
Blog Number 132: Seasonal Treats Edition
A simple one today, just for fun. 
Here's a game: Take each season and chop it in half (except for Season Three, which is already a half-season). Take one of your favourite episodes from each half. Then name one thing you really like or remember about it.
I find myself picking on things critically a lot, so this seemed a nice counterbalance. The show is good, after all. That's always worth remembering.
OK, here I go:
Season 1, Episodes 1-13
"Dragonshy"
After spending most of the ep being a liability, Fluttershy does what no one else could and persuades the dragon to move through a combination of awesome moral righteousness and sweet motherly understanding.
Season 1, Episodes 14-26
"Suited for Success"
Rarity puts on a spectacular, thematically appropriate fashion show for each of the dresses she wanted, and Hoity-Toity's enthusiasm for the show is very well-earned, as far as I'm concerned (love the 2001: A Space Odyssee musical nod during Twilight's section).
Season 2, Episodes 1-13
"Family Appreciation Day"
Granny Smith goes from a senility joke to the official badass grandma of Ponyville; turns out she not only founded the town but braved the Everfree Forest, faced down Timberwolves, and stubbornly figured out the weirdest and most convoluted magical rituals to get it done.
Season 2, Episodes 14-26
"A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2"
When "Love is in Bloom" plays. What a fantastic finish not only to a spectacular episode in its own right, but to the entire series up to this point. Leaves an uplifting, magical aftertaste.
Season 3, Episodes 1-13
"Apple Family Reunion"
Sometimes, you're just looking for fun. "Raise This Barn" has a super-infectious energy that always cheers me up whenever I watch this one.
Season 4, Episodes 1-13
"Simple Ways"
A comedic highlight of an ep, in any case, but I always really like the bit when Rarity asks how Spike could possibly understand what it's like to love someone who's obsessed with someone else. Cue one of the best eyebrow-raises in the business.
Season 4, Episodes 14-26
"Testing, Testing 1, 2, 3"
Poor Twilight is trying so hard to get Rainbow to feel confident about her own intelligence... and then she does, apparently by roping in a good chunk of Ponyville just to play a few minor parts: all that to help and cheer up her student. Teacher Twilight is Best Teacher.
Season 5, Episodes 1-13
"The Cutie Map - Part 2"
Although the Main Six are instrumental in challenging the simplistic "no dissent" philosophy of Our Town, it's when the townsfolk decide to take back their cutie marks - and specifically when Double Diamond, Party Favor, Sugar Belle, and Night Glider play hero for a few minutes - that sells it.
Season 5, Episodes 14-26
"Rarity Investigates!"
Every time it enters noir mode, because while the mystery story is a fair enough mystery tale about "attention to detail", Rarity getting a little too into the zone is easily the most entertaining bit about it: only she could get guards to talk by putting a seductive spin on the word "boring".
Season 6, Episodes 1-13
"Gauntlet of Fire"
Ember and Spike versus Garble for the fate of Equestria, and how the developing friendship-but-not-the-mushy-kind between Spike and Ember reaches its natural conclusion by having Spike trust her with the Bloodstone Sceptre.
Season 6, Episodes 14-26
"Viva Las Pegasus"
Pink-prairie-dog-loving Fluttershy and skeptical Applejack team up with the Flim Flam brothers to con a con pony by conning him into thinking he's spotted the real con when it was a fake con designed to get him to fall for the real con, and the end result is the most adorable intercom push ever.
Season 7, Episodes 1-13
"The Perfect Pear"
The single most heartbreaking line of dialogue, possibly in the entire series: "Are you making me choose?"
Season 7, Episodes 14-26
"Once Upon A Zeppelin"
Hey, I'm a simple person with simple pleasures, so I can sum up a huge amount of this ep's appeal by saying: every time Iron Will is onscreen. Or speaking. "NO REFUUUUUUUUNDS!"
Season 8, Episodes 1-13
"Surf and/or Turf"
Also a simple pleasure choice, but there is something really achingly cute about Scootaloo swimming through the underwater world and treating it as if it were flying.
Season 8, Episodes 14-26
"The Washouts"
The Washouts' actual show, which is not only the perfect avenue for Lightning Dust, but so awesome that even Rainbow Dash struggles to deny it.
Season 9, Episodes 1-13
"Frenemies"
I nearly went for "every time Chrysalis is onscreen", but more abstractly, I'll say the compromise at the end grants us the best of both worlds, allowing a smidgeon of goodness from the villain team-up while fully embracing the fact that they're still, well, villains.
Season 9, Episodes 14-26*
* (I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of the second half of Season 9, so I don't really have a top favourite episode per se. My pick for this one is therefore more a case of "something I liked in an episode I wasn't gung-ho about overall". Still, in the spirit of the game, I'll pick...)
"Daring Doubt"
Daring Do episodes are rarely great, and this one has major plotting issues. But for raw appeal, who knew adding a trusting Fluttershy and having her win over the adventurer's chief rival, evil henchmen, and monstrous archnemesis through sheer determined sweetness would work so well? (Also, that hat!).
Note that I'm trying to keep to one thing I like about each episode, or else I could gush about "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2" and "The Perfect Pear" all day. I also tried to pick for variety - some favourite things have a deeper meaning, some provide a specifically personal appeal, and some were just straightforward fun. I don't even necessarily pick the favourite episode of the bunch. None of these are essential to the game: this is just the way I've played it.
Also note that - title's musical reference aside - I've never actually tried an apple strudel, but I very much want to.
Also, it's Australia Day today. Timezone wonkiness aside... G'day to all the good blokes Down Under! 
Impossible Numbers, out.
Oh, and if you need to check which MLP:FiM episode goes in which half, a handy Wikipedia link is available here.
Why not? I feel in a game-like mood, and this seems as good an activity as any. Note that these are not all necessarily my top favourite episodes from each half-season - in the spirit of variety, I've generally opted to stay away both from your choices and from easy, obvious ones. With that said, here we go:
Season 1, Episodes 1-13
"Look Before You Sleep"
Despite the first six episodes of the show not being strong compared to what would come later, they were still good and enticing enough to make perhaps the show's most girly premise be something to not dread. And whoa did it deliver - every fun moment of friction between Rarity is Applejack is gold, but I'll give my money to the squabbles between the two while in the spare bed. Even if Ashleigh Ball lets Rainbow Dash's voice slip in during AJ's "Geromino!" leap onto the bed.
Season 1, Episodes 14-26
"Over A Barrel"
The later half of Season 1 is so stacked with great episodes that I could have picked almost any of the ones here. For variety, I went with an episode often derided these days. It's an adventure episode that’s both really funny and doesn't feel squashed to fit the runtime (something most two parters fail at), mostly by virtue of using a "split up the party" plot mechanic that I can't believe the show barely ever used again. My pick for best part here would have to be the general nuttiness of Pinkie's "You Got to Share, You Got To Care" moment and the aftermath, coming at the right moment for a bit of operatic silliness and somehow making it feel right in the split between the buffalo and Appleoosians thereafter.
Season 2, Episodes 1-13
"Sisterhooves Social"
The first half of this season is so super-stacked with great episodes, but here I went with one of the show's best. Any number of points here, so I'll just settle for the fun race towards the end - whether you saw the twist coming or not, it's such a nice, fun kind-of-action scene, and something about it, and the episode in general, really helps capture that small-town tight-knit community feel of Ponyville. Bonus points for how expertly Rarity shakes off the mud. Also, "We are apple pie!"
Season 2, Episodes 14-26
"Hurricane Fluttershy"
Which point out of the dozens in this episode will I pick? Oh, I'll settle for one of the best "Eye of the Tiger"-style training montages you're ever likely to find, with a hard rock riff that shoves once again how hard William Anderson went for us on this show. Fluttershy building up her physical side while sporting sweatbands on her head and hoof, with is both cute and awesome at the same time - doesn't get much better then that.
Season 3, Episodes 1-13
"Sleepless in Ponyville"
Too many to pick from - in an episode chock full of character, pacing and comedic highlights, I'll go with the perfectly-visually-timed moment where Applejack says to Rarity's "Are we there yet?" with the following:
"The last hundreds times you asked that, the answer was no. This time, it's actually yes." [gestures forward to the clearing]
We should remember what M.A. Larson said - the show's visual timing, especially in those early years, really strengthened many jokes, or made them land in the first place.
Season 4, Episodes 1-13
"Rarity Takes Manehattan"
With all due apologies to "Pinkie Pride", this is my top Key episode. I could easily pick the "Generosity" musical number, but I'll settle for the cute ending scene between Rarity and Coco Pommel. Something about the nature of friendship in Equestria makes the "country kid gets taken advantage of in the city, but holds onto her optimism/other positive virtue despite that", plot really work, despite how stock it is.
Season 4, Episodes 14-26
"Filli Vanilli"
Not to everyone's tastes, this one, I'm sure, but I just adore it. The music numbers, even as reprised as they are, continue to work wonders. But it's really Fluttershy's characterisation through that's the true winner. Plus, every word she says as Flutterguy is just too adorable. Sometimes that's all you need.
Season 5, Episodes 1-13
"Amending Fences"
That moment where Moondancer loses it and screams at Twilight for the emotional pain she felt at being abandoned as a friend, and how Twilight makes it up for her. M.A. Larson's instinct has never been on point more then when he pitched this episode season after season, and then, having being turned down every time, wrote it himself during his brief and tenuous ten-episode stretch as Story Editor.
Season 5, Episodes 14-26
[I eschewed the obvious pick of "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" here]
"The Mane Attraction"
As beautiful as "The Magic Inside" is, I'm actually going to go with the following reprise of "Equestria, the Land I Love" - the sincere emotion in Rara's voice as she indirectly thanks Applejack for everything before calling the CMC up just gets me every time. Theatre actors can be just ace at voice acting, and Lena Hall proves that here. That little triangle playing by Applejack and the adorable cheek rub the two share as we fade to black put a perfect touchstone on what is arguably Applejack's best episode.
Season 6, Episodes 1-13
"The Saddle Row Review"
Okay, this one is a bit of an obvious pick. In a season where the show really started going for obvious, meme humour more then it had before, and where the dialogue and visuals started to be less perfectly synchronised in delivering jokes and cute moments, this episode is a rare case where the meta interview flashback concept actually pays off. Maybe still a bit morally questionable (they do lock Rarity in the window display for hours, after all), but there's not another episode in these thirteen I find more entertaining.
Season 6, Episodes 14-26
"Buckball Season"
For being basically the only Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy team-up episode in the whole series, and a pretty good and fun one at that. The game of buckball may be Quidditch-level rickety in rules, but it can survive this debut where it's just picking up steam fine (whereas in Season 9 where it's a national sensation… yeah, no). This one's just simple and fun, and with no overt characterisation breaks as is common to this era of the show. Light on jokes, but we don't always need them. I smile through this one every time. Plus, it has a moral similar to "Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3", of people doing better at things when they approach them a different way, but it's wide reaching and different enough in application here that I approve.
Season 7, Episodes 1-13*
*[Well, with "The Perfect Pair" gone, this went from the easiest pick of the lot to one of the hardest. Let's see…]
"Parental Gildeance"
For giving us the final set of Mane 6 parents. Oh, the episode's moral balance gets a little shaky towards the end with its eventual resolution - Dash's parents shouldn't embarrass her like that, no two ways about it - but much of the early going-ons are great. Scootaloo and Dash's folks constantly trying to one-up each other as to how much they're a fan of Rainbow, that's my pick here.
Season 7, Episodes 14-26*
*[Darn you, Impossible Numbers, for picking the obvious choice! Season 7 becomes harder with just those few episodes taken out]
"To Change a Changeling"
Reformed Skittles Changelings are just awful, and seeing the last one of the old kind eventually get brainwashed into the cult is quite sad. But, Pharynx's characterisation is really great, making him an asshole that's also likeable and sympathetic (hard in any medium, let alone a kid's cartoon). The true ticket is in how well it encapsulates how people in war adjust to non-action afterwards, and trying to go forward without their purpose being there. Small wonder many of the Military Bronies emphasised strongly with him.
Season 8, Episodes 1-13
"The Parent Map"
Seeing Starlight and Sunburst in the zone and working well after the interest barrier in "Uncommon Bond" is oddly satisfying. Both Starlight's father and Sunburst's mother are fun characters; the gentrification angle, while odd, has plenty of great gags. It just has decent, solid writing with no obvious mistakes.
Season 8, Episodes 14-26
"Sounds of Silence"
Okay, a super obvious pick here, but with the Washouts gone (quite good until those last few minutes), can you blame me? Autumn Blaze and her song are just such a hoot that it largely overrides how aspects of the lore and setup here don't make much sense (how long have the Kirin lives isolated here? Their population doesn't look big enough to sustain that). And the Kirin designs are just [chef's kiss]. Small wonder they were one of the few things in the show's back half to really strike a chord with the fandom - you can't move or breathe for Kirin fanart!
Season 9, Episodes 1-13
"Sparkle's Seven"
It's kind of a hot mess, this one, but if you ignore its effect and relation to the rest of the season, backwards and forwards, it's an enjoyable hot mess. Not every subplot is a hit - Applejack's is just bizarre and doesn't produce any real laughs or emotion - but the rest all work. As much of a treat as seeing Dash's annoyance and forced flirting with Zepher Breeze was, and Rarity going into Noir mode again, I'll toss my hat to Spike's moment of triumph at the end. Finally, the little guy gets the recognition and acknowledgement he deserves.
Plus, you know, that shot of Luna looking down at the group dramatically while stroking a geese. A meme moment of this season that actually works.
Season 9, Episodes 14-26
"She Talks to Angel"
For giving Andrea Libman a gimme acting task in a body-swap-while-retaining-the-voice episode - the way she alters both her enunciation and adds a slight masculine rasp is truly great, doubly so for having a written scenario that allows this actor’s dessert to happen without shattering character (thanks, "Fake It 'Til You Make It"). Nick Confalone proves to be one of the best as characterisation in the back half of the show in a simple, well told story. And in a season that left so many stories and characters unresolved, softening Angel's abusiveness towards Fluttershy is a nice one to put a cap on. Just try and overlook the forced vegetarian element. My pick-in for best part would just be Angel's initial dialogue after they body swap - it's exquisite aural timing and perfect delivery.
Well, that's a wrap! This was a fun way to spend a hour, I suppose. Ghost Mike out!
Hmm. Definitely an interesting thought experiment... though it doesn't help that I'm easy to please. Well, let's see what I come up with:
Season 1, Front Half
"Winter Wrap-Up": Aside from the first big musical number of the show, the world building is fascinating. Yes, "Look Before You Sleep" established scheduled weather, but this really drove home just how much of the world is on manual override. Climate, animal behavior, and of course the sun and moon. This is a world that resembles ours, but functions very differently.
Season 1, Back Half
"A Dog and Pony Show": There are some very strong moments throughout these thirteen episodes, but I have to give it to Rarity's guile hero moment, turning her abduction on its ear and forever cementing her place in Diamond Dog folklore as the Unpleaseable Demon-Pony of Ten Thousand Demands. You just don't see that kind of cleverness very often.
Season 2, Front Half
"Luna Eclipsed": Not just finally seeing Luna again, but seeing her finally appreciated by her subjects, finally getting what she'd longed for for centuries through a festival she thought was disrespecting her. (And the shapeshifting into Nightmare Moon again is a truly awesome moment.)
Season 2, Back Half
"It's About Time": I'm a sucker for stable time loop shenanigans, especially repeating a scene with extra context for the audience. Reliving the start of the episode with Solid Sparkle futilely trying to keep herself from wasting her week is an absolute delight.
Season 3
"Magical Mystery Cure": "A True, True Friend" can still make me tear up if I'm not expecting it.
Season 4, Front Half
"Pinkie Pride": The Goof-Off is a triumph of comedy and metacomedy, from props ex nihilo to Boneless's Spongebob-esque shift to the real world to Cheese pulling a polka remix of one of Pinkie's signature songs.
Season 4, Back Half
"It Ain't Easy Being Breezies": Very me-specific reasons, I admit, but if there's one thing I love more than interdimensional portals, it's polymorph spells. That closing travel montage gives us both, and confirms that the local multiverse isn't limited to human high schools. (At least, that's how I interpreted it.)
Season 5, Front Half
"Slice of Life": Look, I never claimed I was unbiased. I'll take Best Pony getting a major speaking role when I can get it. To say nothing of her accidentally doing something right with the flameless fireworks.
Season 5, Back Half
"Crusaders of the Lost Mark": See comment regarding "Magical Mystery Cure," only with the Crusaders' older sisters singing.
Season 6, Front Half
"Gauntlet of Fire": It is indeed a great story in general, but what really stands out to me is how Flamecano Island and the wildlife confirm that the Dragonlands are a heavy metal album cover brought to life. And it is glorious.
Season 6, Back Half
"Buckball Season": Honestly a tie between Zen Snails and Fluttershy's rant about "the zone."
Season 7, Front Half
"The Perfect Pear": That is indeed a heartrending line, but what stands most to me is the bit in the song when the couple dances with one another from opposite sides of the village square.
Season 7, Back Half
"Secrets and Pies": There's something gloriously ridiculous about Evil Pie-Hating Rainbow Dash. They tried to make her look like a terrible, edgy OC and they succeeded oh so well.
Season 8, Front Half
"The Parent Map": Three words: Starlight's old bedroom. It explains so much.
Season 8, Back Half
"Sounds of Silence": Kirin may have been late to the party, but they're a welcome addition. Especially Autumn's hoof puppet.
Season 9, Front Half
"Between Dark and Dawn": Celestia and Luna finally, finally, finally getting to do something effective. And Dash noting how their track record isn't the best in that department.
Season 9, Back Half
"She Talks to Angel": Angel as Fluttershy is fun. Angel trying to convince Dr. Fauna he is Fluttershy is fantastic.
Lovely exercise in positivity. Thank you for it.
I dunno, that sounds like work. Are Dash or Twilight in it? Then I probably like it.
(Might come back and do this properly, but just a heads up that it's prrrrroooobably gonna look an awful lot like that, and I dunno if I have the kinda mind to play this kinda game.)
5442394
Ha! Apart from three wobbly picks in the last three seasons*, you read my mind. You even highlighted my two top favourites from Season Two.
* "Parental Glideance's" second half is just too lopsided for me to call the whole ep a favourite, but I agree the part you singled out is really great on its own merits; I haven't seen "Sparkle's Seven" and "She Talks To Angel" yet, so I simply can't comment.
Although I find it funny you struggled with Season Seven's first half, since I would personally still have had "Honest Apple" and "Discordant Harmony" to fall back on, were our roles reversed. I might be biased by the RariJack in the former, though, and by the tantalizing direction promised for reformed-Discord in the latter.
"Buckball Season" from Season Six is a marvel of an episode. It's one of those rare first-time-writer episodes that comes out of nowhere, knocks it out of the park, and then leaves just as mysteriously as it arrives. Jennifer Skelly wrote that one. Another candidate oddball episode is "Sounds of Silence" by Gregory Bonsignore, which is also one I like.
5442407
Spoiled for choice? I know the feeling, but this was more a casual primer than any kind of "NAIL YOUR FAVOURITE RIGHT NOW, ONCE AND FOR ALL TIME" deal. Another day, my list might look totally different.
In fact, "Pinkie Pride" very nearly made my own list; I went for "Simple Ways" partly because I don't see people talk about that one so much, but now I'm kicking myself. It's the quintessential Pinkie episode. I otherwise don't have one listed, even though she gets quite a few good'uns.
And Derpy in "Slice of Life" should go without saying; I just had to pick a season premier episode somewhere, and that was the best time. Although "Amending Fences" and "Make New Friends But Keep Discord" would have been serious rivals for any favourites position there too.
You're welcome. I thought it'd be a pleasant breather.
5442431
Myself, I don't see this as any attempt at being comprehensive: it's more a way to start thinking about positives, as a corrective for an overly critical mindset. You can just do a handful, if the whole set's too much.
I mostly split the seasons into two thirteen-episode segments more for Season Three's sake than anything else. Variations of the game aren't out of the question.
5442538
Oh, I didn't take it that way either. Just sayin'.