Thus we come to Season 9, the season that some say was even worse than Season 8 which is no easy feat considering how much Season 8 seemed to drop the ball when it came to writing. It almost felt like self sabotage with how bad the School of Friendship was and how underutilized so many of its concepts were.
We've only got a few episodes left to cover, especially since I'm going to be skipping over some that I've nothing new to say on. But anyway, with Season 9 having set things up for the finale (including a mostly stand alone episode after one last two parter) the remaining episodes were more or less dedicated to providing "closure" to various characters that hadn't already gotten them. The first among these was Fluttershy, who had been doing surprisingly well for herself in Season 9. Nick
After getting off to a roaring start with "The Cutie Map" Season 5 had quickly gotten stuck in the mud with lackluster and downright terrible episodes. No one seemed to be able to bring about success, not new writers and not old writers. But Natasha Levinger, the woman behind "Pinkie Apple Pie" and "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies" was going to take a crack at trying to get Season 5 back on track. This was a Fluttershy episode, but it was also very much a Discord one and in fact his first one.
Usually by this point you can get a feel for how good (or bad) a show is going to be. If something engaging isn't happening you're probably not going to hold the audience's attention for much longer. But for this show it was still impossible to tell if it was going to last, quality was impossible to gauge because it had been all over the place and the show itself seemed unsure of what exactly it wanted to do. Nevertheless, with Amy Keating Rogers at the wheel we have an episode that marks the
So after the show started taking off and went from really good to one of the best shows of the entire 2010's it seems like everything should've been looking up for it. But right when it found its footing it decided to engage in a lot of experimentation, and without spoiling too much for the reviews ahead the experiments for the most part didn't work, even the intended "finale" would get overshadowed by something else. The first of these experiments was an episode focused on the Cutie Mark
Brace yourselves, folks, we're heading into the show's first true clunker and the debut of what would become one of the show's worst written characters. Considering that the show hadn't really taken off by this point, and nowadays it can only take one bad or underwhelming episode to get your show cancelled, it's a miracle the show would recover from this early self-inflicted wound. Am I being too hard on this episode written by Chris Savino (who has since gained a rather infamous reputation
So, what was on tap for Season 2 after "The Last Roundup" and all the Derpgate controversy that overshadowed it? Well, it was this episode penned by the same M. A. Larson who'd done "The Return of Harmony", "Luna Eclipsed" and then "Secret of My Excess" with that being the one that seemed to get him back to that high level of quality he'd been known for in Season 1. So, was Larson able to continue his rebound or did he only end up proving that his success with "Secret of My Excess" was a fluke?
So after a two parter pilot that was fairly impressive and a revised pilot that was considerably less impressive, the show really needed something to indicate what to expect from it and reassure people that it was indeed worth watching. With a writing team now fully assembled, Amy Keating Rogers was given the honor of penning the first truly stand alone episode of the show and what many consider to be Applejack's best focus episode. Has it deserved that reputation, and is it a relatively solid
The next couple of episodes of Season 3 got rearranged and mixed up from production order. This episode was the ninth in production order but got bumped up to the eighth episode to air (the intended eighth episode was moved to the eleventh episode to air, most likely because of what it was meant to be tied to). And although not intended, it was the first of two Applejack episodes back to back (the latter of which had started life as a Rarity episode before being switched to Applejack). Cindy
You didn't think they'd let Sweetie Belle go without a direct focus episode, did you? If they were going to give one for both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom then of course Sweetie Belle was going to get one too. And it would be the second LunaxCMC dream episode, which was quite promising considering "Sleepless in Ponyville" was said to be Season 3's only true success story (which I don't agree with). With Dave Polsky having established his writing metamorphosis by this point, the pieces seemed to be
As the gap between Seasons 2 and 3 stretched on for a while, the Brony fandom took off in full steam. Anticipation and speculation ran wild about could possibly be in store for Season 3. The show's future looked bright. But as time went by with no news of a Season 3 on the horizon the fans started to grow worried. And then rumors started circulating that Season 3 would be the final season, the show would end with Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn princess and other controversial changes.
This episode is rather interesting in that it was originally planned for Season 2 (Sweetie Belle's nightmare night costume in "Luna Eclipsed" was meant to be an early foreshadowing), before it was bumped to Season 3. No official word has been given as to why that was. However, it's recently come to light that Lauren had originally hoped to build up to Discord through some "dark elements" and it's likely that this episode was going to be one of them. When that got dropped this episode got pushed
With Season 3 winding down, word began to spill out about what was coming: Namely Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn princess and that Season 3 would supposedly be the final season. Fans were shocked and many were outraged at the very idea, the debate over whether or not Twilight should be an alicorn divided the fandom and quite a few threatened to leave the fandom all together if indeed Twilight becoming an alicorn turned out to be true. Amidst all this drama, almost no one seemed to pay
Although she had been seen frequently throughout the season, Twilight had yet to get an episode centered around her since the premiere. Well, that was all going to change. And it was also going to be a Discord episode and a sort of sick day episode. Suffice it to say, the title for the episode was incredibly accurate because there was a lot on this episode's plate. Ed Valentine was on tap to write it, but strangely enough Meghan McCarthy was helping him. Considering Meghan had already done a
Season 2's second half was not looking so hot after Derpgate overshadowed "The Last Roundup" and "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" left no question in people's minds that M. A. Larson wasn't as on top of the world as he had appeared to be earlier. Cindy Morrow, coming off her forgotten episode "Family Appreciation Day" and still riding a high from "Sisterhooves Social", cranked out this episode centered not on Applejack but on Rainbow Dash even though she'd already gotten two focus episodes
So, after only the original "Equestria Girls", there was a really long wait for Season 4 as fans were both anticipating it and dreading it, and it all stemmed back to one thing: Alicorn Twilight. There was a very big asertik about what (if anything) would be different now that Twilight had wings and a royal title. Meghan McCarthy, the show runner once again, was tasked with trying to answer those questions in this two parter. Was she up to the task, especially after "Equestria Girls" came and
So we had what would be a key episode and an episode continuing the plot for the Equestria Games. An episode like this should've been a top priority, but for whatever reason it was given to relative newcomer Corey Powell who had never written a focus episode for any mane six member before. And keep in mind that Corey had gone from "Sleepless in Ponyville" which was highly praised to "Just For Sidekicks" which was rather forgettable and disappointing. So Corey was definitely out of her league
By now Season 4 was starting to show signs of running out of steam. "Pinkie Apple Pie" was good but a noticeably low key episode, "Rainbow Falls" was a disaster riddled with plot holes and decisions lacking explanation and "Three's A Crowd" seemed to cram three different episodes into one overcrowded mess. Even "Rarity Takes Manehattan" and "Bats!" were only being talked about for one thing, and how much you loved or hated the episodes seemed to depend on that (Coco Pommel for the former and
Season 2 seemed to be doing well for most people up to this point, and there's no denying that with "The Return of Harmony" through "Sisterhooves Social" they were showing a desire to be more bold and explore avenues and characters that hadn't been explored before. Lauren Faust's contributing presence likely helped, since now the writers didn't have to worry as much about trying to please both Lauren and Hasbro (at least for the time being). However, this is widely regarded as the first true
So after "Castle Mane-Ia" established a new method for delivering the aesop and also teased the prospect of a continued search for the keys, what was next for Season 4? Well, the short answer was not much. The search for the keys would not in fact take up every episode even just in the background, and in what was ultimately a sign to come the show would not commit to the possibility of a story arc. Dave Polsky was brought on to write again despite his track record in Season 3 being rather mixed
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