So, before I begin, a bit of backstory. Several years ago, at the tail end of season 5, my wife and I gave up on the series. The latter half of season 5, in particular, seemed to have a slew of just bad episodes, so many that watching the show was more frustrating than fun. By the time we reached its end, we were contemplating on whether to even finish it. Then leaks and rumors of the season finale started circulating and we did not like what we heard, so we just quit.

A few months ago, due to several factors, we got back into G4 again. One of the things we decided we wanted to do was watch ALL the episodes and give them a fair chance. And, while it was great watching those first few seasons again, I knew we would eventually have to scale a very painful mountain.

As someone who prides themselves on having learned as much as they could about storytelling and being author, so much so that I'm currently rewriting some of my old works and finding them to be downright awful, what I just witnessed was actually painful. Like, aneurysm inducing levels of raw agitation, kind of painful.

I understand that nothing is perfect, everything has a flaw, but I have never seen something so riddled with holes that it barely has form. Somehow, it was so much worse than I was ready for.

7795523
Yeah, I know that feeling. It's exactly how I felt about the season 4 finale and what put me off the rest of the show. I personally have no plans to ever watch those later episodes, and have been spending more time on non-fiction material lately since the entire entertainment industry has gone completely to shit.

7795523
I can't blame you. I jumped off at the season five finale after Glimmer's redemption and only spectated the show's series finale.

Emotional manipulation at its finest. And too many bronies are far too easily emotionally manipulated.

7795555
It helps when you have an obsessed fanbase.

What you went though in Season 5 sounds like what I went through in Season 2, only I never made any attempt to go back and finish it. S2E19 remains the last episode I watched in full. The pre-credits teaser at the start of the next episode had me saying "Screw it. It's Lesson Zero again. I'm done."

7796286
Yeah, you didn't miss much. The episode you jumped for wasn't great and was ultimately a case of "goes nowhere, does nothing", although I wouldn't call it bad since it was just Twilight's well established neurosis creating a stable time loop of pointlessly freaking out. The only truly great episode you missed was S2E22, Hurricane Fluttershy, so I'd encourage you to watch that if you ever do any rewatching, but beyond that the best it manages are a few fun but pointless episodes and a few good episodes held back by relatively minor flaws.