I'd like to hear everyone's honest opinions on this. What was, from your point of view, the absolute worst episode in the series?

7315361
The Last Problem.

7315361
Do you only want one episode or more?

So, before I give my answer, I need to give you the caveat that I've only seen a smattering of episodes beyond Season 3. Season 3 ruined the show so thoroughly for me that I could not bring myself to watch any of the further seasons beyond catching the occasional random episode.

So with that out of the way...

Magical Mystery Cure is up there, but in my opinion the worst episode of FIM is Keep Calm and Flutter On. Not because it reformed Discord (I think that actually COULD have worked, even if they completely messed the concept up and never really managed to make it convincing), but because they managed to completely RUIN two seasons of excellent and careful worldbuilding with only two words:

"Reform Spell."

In one fell swoop, they managed to completely cast the entire world of Equestria that we'd seen up to that point into serious doubt, and they suddenly gave some degree of legitimacy to every single bullshit "Tyrantlestia" fanfic that ever existed.

I went into the issues with KCaFO and the Reform Spell in more detail in my answer to this other thread over here.

But the long and the short of it is that they managed to completely undermine every last ounce of worldbuilding that they had done in the past two-and-a-half seasons with only two words that, if you really think about it, never even needed to be uttered in the first place.

Never in all my life have I ever seen any other work of fiction so thoroughly DESTROY ITSELF so completely and so immediately. I've never seen a work of fiction so completely upend its own worldbuilding and transform its own setting into what was probably the complete reversal of what it had originally intended to be. Never in all my years have I seen such SHEER INCOMPETENCE that a mere two words could make a work of fiction so utterly, reprehensibly unpalatable.

For the love of God, it took Disney three whole movies to ruin Star Wars beyond repair. It took Dave Polsky two fucking words.

I'd be impressed if I wasn't so horrified and depressed.

Keep Calm and Flutter On is literally why I did not watch Season 4 and beyond. I could never get over the fact that, whether it was intentional or not, they had managed to imply that Equestria was a land of nothing more than brainwashed drones marching to the drum of a narcissistic autocrat. I was literally never able to look at the show the same way again. I'm sure they never INTENDED for that to be the takeaway. I'm sure they never INTENDED for Equestria to be such a thing...

...but that's why you don't let the lab monkeys handle the $10,000,000 lab equipment. It doesn't matter if the monkeys MEANT to destroy your DNA sequencer and managed to set fire to all the research notes that would have otherwise cured cancer in three years... they ruined it all the same.

7315361
That's a hard one. On the one hand the only episode that made me want to actually hurt a pony was Mare Do Well so that wins on an emotional front, but it was largely isolated so it didn't do the kind of damage to canon episodes like Keep Calm and Flutter On did. It's also important to remember that many of the problems like flanderization are by definition long-term problems so I have to point to people rather than specific episodes for that (why I hammer on McCarthy rather than a specific episode).

7315361 For me it's Fame and Misfortune, addressing the criticism of how garbage the show has become and mocking us for DARING to not swallow everything the shows gives at us.

7315361
I don't recall the episode name but it is the one where we first met Trixie I hated how the ponies treated her and thought Twilight and her five friends were very disrespectful to her.

Tied between The Last Problem and Fame and Misfortune.

Fame and Misfortune was so awful, even the people who made it don’t want to be associated with it.

The Last Problem ruins the entire experience of watching the show in the first place with a miserably tone deaf send off by ignoring concerns from fans and detractors alike from years ago with absolutely no self awareness.

Difficult choice considering the number of bad episodes.

7315698
While that episode did have serious problems with the intended message, I actually really liked the result for exactly that reason. It implicitly showed how people's viewpoints warp their perception of events, especially when they're at fault, and did a fantastic job setting the stage for a hammerblow of a followup where the girls are forced to come to grips with the consequences of their actions. I've posted this a number of times on these forums, but I have a great plot outline for a followup episode in place of season 3's illogical and irrelevant Magic Duel which I'll repost for you.

The episode would start with the girls going to meet Pinkie's family on the rock farm. The episode would start with them being excited to meet Pinkie's family on the train, cut to a shot of them walking into the rock farm from the front, and then their excitement would be abruptly cut off by Trixie shouting "What are they doing here!" from offscreen. The shot would then flip to show Pinkie's father standing protectively in front of Trixie and clearly angry at the presence of the ponies that destroyed her life before cutting to the song (and commercials). For people who recognized it, that'll bring back the problems you pointed out with the original episode and generally give the viewers a chance to reflect on it to set the stage for the rest of this episode.

The episode proper starts with a confrontation between the two groups. This start by highlighting how Trixie was abused in her first appearance as both a refresher and an explanation for anyone who missed it, and will provide more of an introduction to her character along with Pinkie's father (we only want one active family advocate to keep things flowing) who points out that she's used to hard work from her traveling and has been doing great work on the farm. This will also clarify that the ponies at fault are Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack because Twilight actually treated Trixie well by refusing to disrupt her show, giving her the chance to prove herself, and then saving her life, something Trixie especially appreciates because she immediately recognized Twilight from when she was at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and knew what she was capable of. This scene will end with Pinkie's father telling the three problem ponies that they're not allowed inside the house until Trixie says otherwise, forcing them to legitimately make up for their mistakes.

The episode will then split into two general supblots. The first is Applejack and Rarity building and furnishing a new wagon for Trixie to make up for the destruction of her old home which, while important for resolving the property damage and an excellent use of their skills, won't be especially interesting so I wouldn't give it too much screen time and would mostly use it to break up the other subplot with some AJ/Rarity clashes.

Where things will really get interesting is Rainbow Dash's subplot. She has no useful skills so she can't fix her mistakes in a material way like the other two, and thanks to her own problems with being bullied as a child she won't be able to live with the fact that she was acting just like the bullies that used to torment her. After clarifying this with a scene where she's sulking on a cloud and reflecting on this (probably with a pair of flashbacks of the two events which merge into her bullying her filly self), she'll decide the only way to make this right is to legitimately apologize and befriend Trixie. Naturally, Trixie isn't particularly excited about this since she sees Rainbow as a bully and thug, so there will be a series of scenes with her rebuffing Rainbow's attempts at reconciliation because she doesn't believe it's genuine. This will lead to the emotional climax of the episode where Rainbow breaks down crying and completely spills her guts to Trixie. At this point Trixie will realize how similar the two of them really are and finally accept the apology, leading to a conclusion where she opens up about similar issues in her own past and they genuinely bond.

The episode would then conclude with a family reconciliation scene where Trixie accepts the wagon and mentions a further conversation with Rainbow about a collaborative air and magic show to fully wrap up both subplots. A proper departure scene would also be good if there's time (which I doubt), but either way it needs to be clarified that Trixie will be going on the road again and will definitely be visiting Ponyville to spend time with her new friend and get to know the rest of them better now that they've made up.

Also, I want to clarify that while Spike is also at fault, I think redeeming him as well would clutter the episode too much (this is already a lot for 22 minutes) so I'd state that he's watching the library up front to get him out of the picture for this episode. That omission naturally creates a need for a third Trixie episode where she returns to Ponyville to address that and tie up a few other loose ends like Snips and Snails, but I see that as a win since it's an excellent setup for an episode, especially since it creates an interesting conundrum for Twilight to add complexity and make things even better.

Boy, if people hate Fame and Misfortune, they must despise Slice of Life.

...Never mind the fact F&M points out how wrong invalid criticism is, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised that nuance zoomed over people's heads because they stopped before the song.

Anywho, worst episode, worst episode...uh...hm...

It's less "worst episode" and more "worst scene in the entire show" and that's Starlight's Redemption Song, since it shows us snippits of episode plots and treats them as full episodes of development we're supposed to know and care about, thus endearing us to Starlight as a main character in the next season.

whoops

7315698
Boast Busters

7316141
I actually like Slice of Life.

7316161
It was a lot of fun and showed that the Main 6 weren't necessary to make episodes.

I just wish they did more like it.

7316140
I feel like the whole Spike having to stay at the library part just continues the issue of him getting sidelined/getting left out from the girls and such.
Especially with him being made to stay behind to watch over some thing..

Felt like he already is going through alot of misfortunes at times as well, felt like bringing that up too for some reason since he often gets the short end of the stick alot by the writers.

7316318
Yes and no. I see where you're coming from here, but you do have to keep narrative cohesion in mind, especially within the context of a TV timeslot. It's hard enough to address three characters here, and it really only works at all because two of them are off doing manual labor instead of having major interactions. Yes Spike is absent, but that's because Trixie is the focus, and that's especially visible in the fact that the only other character with a major role here is Rainbow Dash, and she only gets that because she's the best choice to draw out parallels and get Trixie to open up.

Now, if you really want to get spike on screen you can throw him into the wagon building team and largely ignore him like Rarity and Applejack, but to be frank that's worse for him than omitting him entirely. If he's in the episode he has to get jammed in on the side of a narrative that is primarily driven by Trixie and Rainbow Dash, but if he's completely absent it creates a clear need to give him an episode to himself to resolve his side of the story as I mentioned earlier. Thus, omitting him completely is actually the best way to address your concerns because it makes a clear promise to properly address him later instead of sweeping him under the rug.

Of course, if it's really bothering you you're welcome to put together an outline for that followup episode to resolve his side of the story, but my focus with this was how to address Trixie in a constructive way and I think I achieved that.

7316404
Its still a bad thing he got ommited though..
Like really there could have been a way for him to fit in there while not being just there.

And the issue of he didn't get to go with the girls on visiting that place.
Even if there is a episode on touching on Spike's side on that case there, there's still the problem of he missed out due to they made him stay behind like that.
Said problem is really too apparent. Heck.. a bunch of times in the show like in Yaka Sax or Shadow Play he was literally with the girls and yet one minute later he's just gone with no explanation and not getting to go with the girls for some reason.

7316445
There’s something you need to remember about Spike. He’s a child. Aside from a few exceptions, it’s difficult to work him into any of the major crises that the mane six are needed for.

7315361

I haven't seen all episodes, but If I had to choose I'd pick "That One Episode Where Daring Do Is Found To Be Real Because We Are Running Out Of Ideas Please Do Not Force Us To Make More Seasons".

It was the episode that really made me stop caring (even if I still kept watching for a while). It was an overall incredibly bland, incosequential episode, it was full of memes and it didn't really make sense in the context of the universe. Especially considering that Daring Do is Rainbow Dash's twin for no reason (remember when she was supposed to look like Dash because that was her projecting herself in the book?). Also, it was yet another episode where they forced all of the mane six for no reason while at the same time forgetting that Spike is a thing that exists.

7316482

Not really?
It's fiction, you can do whatever you want, as long as you create a functional plot.

7316561

I haven't seen all episodes, but If I had to choose I'd pick "That One Episode Where Daring Do Is Found To Be Real Because We Are Running Out Of Ideas Please Do Not Force Us To Make More Seasons".

Laughs and cries in Season 10 comic.

7316482
Pretty sure he's a bit older than he looks though.
Wouldn't really stop him though..

7316445
Ok, you're just being silly now. There are tons of episodes where one character (or more) either never appears, appears but has no lines, or otherwise makes no meaningful contribution to the episode. There's no need to work every character into every episode, and trying to cram unnecessary characters in just causes problems. Even semi-necessary characters/scenes often have to be cut in the interest of time with Rarity's appearance in Luna Eclipsed being a notable example, so demanding Spike have a role in every single episode is absurd.

Furthermore, in this specific example Fluttershy is completely irrelevant to the point that she would probably never even speak, so she could probably stay home with absolutely no impact on the episode. Similarly, Twilight will also be largely irrelevant and will probably only get one or two lines when Trixie is acknowledging her good behavior. Finally, while Pinkie is important to get the ball rolling, she'll largely fade into the background after the first few scenes setting the episode up so she also won't be particularly important to the story. That said, it's possible Rainbow will get advice for one or more of these characters to help the main plot move forward, but with the time constraints that would probably have to be cut.

7316610
I am not being freaking silly.
Its a annoying problem that Spike gets left out alot whenever the girls get to do something together like that.
Especially if he was there with them but is suddenly not in the next scene for no reason or he has to stay behind to watch over something.
Its happening way too much

I am not talking about cramming every single character ever into an episode. I am talking about the issue of how Spike keeps getting left out alot from the girls there.

7318295
I'm not disagreeing that there are problems with Spike's treatment in general. However, that doesn't change the fact that his presence would be actively harmful to this episode structure so I'm making the deliberate choice to save his part of the story for later. By refusing to acknowledge that, you are in fact trying to artificially cram him into an episode.

Furthermore, I directly said you should come up with ideas for that Spike-centric followup and you ignored me. That makes it very hard for me to believe you're interested in solutions since you actively avoided solving the problem in favor of complaining and trying to jam him into an incompatible story. Now, if you want to be constructive and actually figure out how to resolve Spike's mistreatment of Trixie I'll be happy to engage with that, but if you just want to keep complaining in bad faith I have nothing more to say.

7318329
It wouldn't harmful to the episodes if he got to be with the girls though.
It would be better than him just getting left out or so, at least he would get to be included.
Unless the girls happen to get called out on all the times he got left out(which sadly didn't happen though..)
I am not ignoring anything, it just hurts that Spike just kept getting left out from whatever the girls get to do.

I forgot to reply to the freaking outline part but I can't seriously think up of anything. Like really..
I really can't..
Sorry...

7318751
You seem to be obsessing over Spike here. Something you’re not telling us?

7318785
?
I just hated that he keeps getting left out alot from the girls like that from what stuff(be it fun or something else) they do.
I feel like its part of the problems on how the writers handled him in the show. He just gets the short end of the stick a bunch of times
Same with how the Royal Sisters are handled, I just hated on how things were handled for them especially during crisis stuff(either sidelined or get taken out if they do get involved when some bad guy attacks)

..Honestly really worried right now..

7318295
Spike is not part of the group. They are Twilight's friends. Spike has his own friends as is natural and healthy. I doubt you, as a child, spent all your times around your mom's friends. That'd be strange. The way to solve the issue would be to have Spike go to school like the other children.

7315464 Mare Do Well would have been high on my list for the 'bad lesson' it taught with so many implausibilities stacked on top of each other, but then it was topped by MANY episodes of Seasons 6 through 9 which were chock full of AWFUL lessons... culminating in Discord getting off scott-free for almost destroying the world AGAIN in the finale....

Which, by the way, is my least favorite episode. I know it's technically 2, but it's a single story.

It undermines ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. It gives up on characterizing the villains, it gives up on learning important life lessons, it gives up on any serious story-telling. And it tells us it's perfectly ok for someone to manipulate people, hand them dangerous weapons, and set them loose upon the population... because if you had good intentions (or at least lie well enough to convince people you had good intentions) then it's A-OK, and all in instantly forgiven!

Oh, and you also get to take part in meting out punishment to the stooges you forced into taking part in your insane plan.

It RUINED DISCORD PERMANENTLY. Even his hastily-puked out reformation didn't damage him that badly. He still went back on his word and made mistakes, and that could all be chalked up to the ponies being stupid for reforming him in the first place. But once it was established that he was LEARNING, found an outlet for his chaos, found actual friendship with Mac and Spike, and interests his powers could help further, and had developed relationships and affection to the point where he was almost willing to destroy himself to make Fluttershy happy... to have him make such a monumentally stupid plan just obliterates every shred of his growth.

And that's just one character. From a plotting standpoint, it was a disaster. The climax was sloppy as hell... how the hell could the Student 6 visit ALL THE FRIGGIN LOCATIONS ON THE PLANET in just a few HOURS, and then ALSO get back with all the characters? None of them could teleport! None of them had access to portals or anything to explain it! There was no time-skip! It could NOT have happened chronologically in any plausible manner with what they had to work with!

And again, it wasted the changelings. They were the closest allies and would have been the most useful. There was never a final confrontation between them and Chrysalis, to both give her a final chance (as she was finding out companionship was pleasant, but still resisted accepting it) and giving the Skittles Bugs the opportunity to show off how friendship had made them stronger.

No face off between Tirek and Star Swirl, who should have known each other due to Scorpan's friendship with Star Swirl. No appearance by Scorpan or anyone from their land at all, for that matter. Yet another dropped storyline which might have added much to the world and character-building.

So, yes, the series finale is the WORST of the WORST to me, as it has all the problems with the series as it went along piled up and melted together into a slagheap of immiscible, unstable elements, resulting in a total narrative meltdown of Chernobyl proportions.

7316141 "Slice of Life" could have been fixed by one, just ONE, tiny addition: Keeping in the ORIGINAL idea of ending the wedding with a shot of ANOTHER changeling invasion, then cutting quickly to a reveal that it was all Derpy's explanation to her boss about why she was late to work.

That would have written off all the ridiculous nonsense in the episode as merely Derpy telling a tall tale, or her bizarre perception of things.

You can do a completely crazy episode now and then, but you have to make sure there's an explanation behind, or an equally-nutty reset or insta-fix, to it so it doesn't wreck established continuity.

So to me, it's not the 'worst', since with 30 seconds of additional material tacked at the end, it would have been acceptable as a 'freaky Friday' sort of trope tale.

7316482 He's also a magical dragon with teleportation fire, a mysterious unknown origin, and the ability to grow rapidly into a gigantic hulking beast-form with nothing but greed fueling it.

A half-assed novelist drunk off his ass could spit out something amazing with such a set up for a character, merely plagiarizing a crap-ton of material out there with similar characters and cobbling it into one story.

Could've made him Dragon Inuyasha, introduce an evil half-brother who seeks to become Dragon Emperor and take out Ember... or his father was a traitor who worked for Tirek or Grogar.

Dammit, see? In SECONDS I came up with several ideas to make Spike epic! Just off the top of my head! IT'S NOT HARD!

7318785 Sparity should have happened... except with giant Spikezilla…

7324499 Nah man. Spike deserves someone better than her.

7324664 Well... he could always eat her.

7324486
Yes, that's all true. However, I'm not changing my answer because unlike you, I was smart enough to stop watching before all that happened.

7324709 I enjoyed it well enough until the insta-reformation of Starlight and those slap-dash alt-futures. THEN I knew it was doomed.

Still had a few standout episodes from Seasons 6 and 7... but 8 and 9 had maybe 2 tolerable ones each and the rest I forced myself to watch only so I could legitimately shred them.

Magical mystery cure was the episode that made me stop watching the series so I guess that would be it. it's not just twilight's Ascension basically being shoved in for no reason other than toy sales it's that the episode itself is poorly structured and also changes a piece of lore that I don't hear a lot of people complaining about . It changed cutie marks from simply being a representation of skills to being some sort of Destiny guided control over a pony skills and actions, only amplified when Starlight showed up and apparently stealing cutie marks takes away a person's special talents even though in the first season we saw that ponies have talents and the cutie Mark just shows up when they realize their talent. the sad thing is is that that could be chalked up to early installment weirdness and now it's Canon that your cutie mark directly affects what skills you have and can do

7321419
The thing is he is more than a "son" or a "brother" but also someone who is by her side all of his life
Its messed up that he is constantly blocked from being part of the girls' bond.

Slice of Life was the worst that I saw. I abandoned the series halfway into S6.