To be blunt, season two is not aging well. And if not for M.A. Larson’s contributions, it
would be a complete disaster. No less
than six episodes received bumps down from my original ratings (with none going
up), and the argument could be made that there should be more. Even Larson’s scripts may not be as good as first
thought, but at least he was trying. For
an overall theme, the writers pulled out baseball bats to beat our ponies over
their heads and anywhere else for laughs, or just outright hated whoever else
was around. Many were also hopefully on
some substance while writing, since they took potentially great ideas and came
up with the worst or most confounding depictions of them. While some minor gems still remain, the
second season is a profoundly flawed effort that’s just overridden with
trash. As I suspected years ago, it has
been necessary to completely revisit and reorder my first top and bottom list,
although most episodes on both returned.
However, the order seems even more arbitrary since no clear top favorite
stands out, and the bottom list is so full of horrid outings that any of them
deserve finishing last. Second seasons
can often seem raw before a series really gets going, and My Little Pony is obviously no different. At least it improved from this point, but
describing season two as “rough” understates things greatly. While probably an exercise in futility, my
revised rankings follow below. Because
of the stark contrast between good and poor episodes, and the latter’s sheer
amount, both lists are expanded to six entries.
Top 6
1. Luna Eclipsed
While I genuinely felt Luna Eclipsed was season two’s best
episode before, this time it takes the top spot by default. Luna’s a bit too awkward for her show to be
great, but there literally isn’t anything better. Instead of a fun frivolous episode, Larson
actually tackles the reasons for Halloween’s existence and our culture’s hate-love
relationship with fear. After a
year-long hiatus, Luna not only returns but establishes herself as My Little Pony’s most interesting
character outside of the mane six. While
eventually embracing Nightmare Night’s spirit, Luna must also endure certain
ponies acting too in character of their costumes. With pranks, games, scary stories, and plenty
of candy, Luna Eclipsed is a fantastic holiday episode.
Unfortunately, Larson vocalized his theme as “being afraid
is fun” when he meant to say “overcoming fear is fun/feels good”. And Luna acts a bit too overbearing, which is
starkly different from every other appearance of hers. We miss seeing Rarity and Fluttershy wearing
costumes, and another Pip (from Great
Expectations) reincarnation isn’t necessary. However, in terms of a fun Halloween episode
and depth of thought, Luna Eclipsed remains difficult to beat even if it’s far
from perfect. Also watch for a pony
going as Daring Do over three months before that episode aired.
2. Secret Of My Excess
As something of a counterpart to Luna Eclipsed, Larson
delivers his definitive “Christmas” episode with Secret Of My Excess, even
though it’s not actually about the oft-covered holiday. Instead, Larson concentrates on “it’s better
to give than receive” with surprisingly effective results once the episode
comes together. Spike receives presents
for his birthday, but starts growing larger as he hordes more indiscriminately
and with no pleasure. Before destroying Ponyville,
he remembers giving a ruby to Rarity in the episode’s first proper scene, and
suddenly finds himself returned to normal.
Most of Secret only seems to be a slightly funny joke when
Spike grows bigger but no one knows the cause.
Kidnapping Rarity and disposing of the Wonderbolts are almost too
dramatic, and many jokes don’t really work.
But Spike’s POV flashback handing Rarity his ruby also snaps the episode
into focus. How many things do we have lying
around that never get used but aren’t disposed of? Yet possessing everything isn’t nearly as
satisfying as bringing joy to someone with an object they’ll find more use
for. Instead of quoting an adage like it
means something, Larson actually demonstrates the reasons behind this saying,
which is both effective and insightful.
Secret Of My Excess may sag in any part not featuring Rarity, but its
accomplishments are unique for this season.
3. The Return Of
Harmony
No other episode better encapsulated all of season two,
which is both positive and negative.
Larson’s only outing not to deal with some sort of issue, The Return Of
Harmony focuses entirely on story, which is almost strong enough to pull
off. Twilight et al. must defend
Equestria from Discord, an omnipotent and hideously formed draconequus who
causes chaos throughout Equestria (and is voiced wonderfully by John de Lancie). They end up saving themselves though when
Discord changes the mane six to opposite versions as a prelude to their
possible breakup.
While Return’s plot is mostly engrossing, Larson also
sanctions the excess slapstick found in subsequent episodes, and gives birth to
“that was easy” solutions which became part of every McCarthy script from A
Canterlot Wedding on. These and some
dialogue rawness aren’t entirely forgivable, but Larson still finds memorable
moments along with at least one great line (“you’re the new Rainbow
Dash!”). Each member changing back is
very emotional and gives The Return Of Harmony an epic feel that most episodes
don’t have. But there are just too many
problems for it to be rated higher. Like
season two, The Return Of Harmony isn’t exactly aging well either, but some parts
are still unforgettable.
4. Ponyville Confidential
I had a feeling Ponyville Confidential would creep up last
time, and it kind of has even though these next three are very close and could
be ordered any way. Larson finishes his
season two run strong with what will probably be the best Cutie Mark Crusader
episode. In their never-ending effort,
they become journalists for the school newspaper and enjoy great success from
various gossip columns under the banner Gabby Gums. This goes well until their local subjects
figure out who must be writing these stories.
While sometimes considering the Crusaders as one character
rather than three, there is very little else to criticize. Larson’s writing perspective soaks through his
entire script, as he discusses the dilemma of writing for money or desire and
how such work may affect other people.
It also criticizes celebrity culture and a love for gossip without
caring who that hurts. But more notably,
the Crusaders aren’t terrible at this activity and quit on their own terms. Far from complete disasters, they actually
learn something after putting in effort.
Because of this and Larson’s insights, there is no more satisfying
Crusader episode.
5. Read It And Weep
Read It And Weep is surprising on a couple of levels. First, Cindy Morrow wrote it despite
otherwise producing awful episodes. And
second is how it finds character growth in Rainbow Dash after she had been
beaten mercilessly beforehand. While
laid up at the hospital, Dash discovers a love of reading out of boredom. As she gets more involved in Daring Do’s
latest story, she fears her friends finding out and rushes through their
visits.
Dash enjoying reading but being ashamed since it goes
against her image is a perfect metaphor for anything we hide from most
people. And the movie scenes starring
Daring Do as a pony Indiana Jones are fun while showing what one can imagine
from printed words. Even if not entirely
original or featuring great dialogue and scenes, Read It And Weep is a major
accomplishment from a writer not in the habit of making them. Showing Dash had depth and could grow (plus
starting a reading thread that still continues) makes Read It And Weep one of
the most memorable second season episodes.
6. It’s About Time
While slightly frivolous and featuring one head-scratching
paradox, It’s About Time is a better time travel episode than one would ever
expect from My Little Pony. Twilight gets visited by her future self, whose
horrid appearance seems to warn of an apocalyptic disaster next Tuesday. Present Twilight freaks out and tries preventing
this any way she can, but everything makes her look more like future
Twilight. Once Tuesday morning arrives,
Twilight realizes nothing was going to happen after all and goes back to warn
her past self against worrying…but she of course isn’t quite able.
As became usual, Larson addresses issues during his
story. He knocks out how fear can cause
that very problem while demonstrating we often think the future will never
happen. And clearly a lot of thought was
put into making sure there were no plot holes from such a dangerous literary
device. Larson again gets many ponies
involved and gives Pinkie Pie good supporting lines, while there’s pleasure in
watching Twilight slowly evolve into her future self. For such care and insights, It’s About Time
has to be mentioned as a notable achievement.
Honorable Mention: None.
Bottom 6
6. Dragon Quest
While some parts are mildly watchable, Dragon Quest is too
terrible not to merit mention here. A
“once in a generation” dragon migration occurs at the outset, which Spike is
induced to join after some comments from his supposed pony friends. Theoretically on a journey of self-discovery,
Spike instead hangs out with teenagers and plays games all episode, then they attempt
smashing phoenix eggs. After this, Spike
concludes being a pony is much better.
The uncomfortable racism that pervades Merriwether Williams’
writing has no place in My Little Pony. Showing dragons as uncouth heathens and
would-be murderers with no positive side is appalling now or anytime,
especially with Spike’s final letter.
Plus, he completely ignores Rarity, who showers attention on and touches
him more than the rest of the series combined.
Rarity also won’t stop spouting “fabulous”, and she dresses up in
“dragon face” (along with Twilight and Rainbow Dash) to make the racism even
more apparent. This being Williams, Dash
also takes plenty of abuse, even surprisingly from Fluttershy. Considering the many dull events and
stereotypes abounding, Dragon Quest is a thoroughly unenjoyable and offensive
experience. How an episode so poorly
thought out doesn’t take my bottom spot demonstrates just how bad season two
was.
5. Sisterhooves
Social
“I didn’t know you could burn juice.” It starts with that completely burnt
breakfast, and gets both worse and implausible.
Sisterhooves Social attempts to show the trials of a family bond, but
has no insight whatsoever. Instead, we
get Sweetie Belle being extremely obliviously annoying and not showing one bit
of contrition for her actions, while Rarity misinterprets the bullshit and is
too forgiving. Then we’re supposed to
believe the notoriously dirt-phobic Rarity would ever do that up there, plus
that she somehow became a great athlete overnight. And they still haven’t finished their dumb
race.
Sisterhooves starts a run of episodes here which just make
me angry. Sisters shouldn’t accept one
destroying the other’s life, and Sweetie Belle never shows an inkling of
remorse. She has never been worse
anywhere, and that’s ignoring the extremely implausible third act. Taken together, Sisterhooves Social is a
chore to sit through, with terrible characterization and a botched lesson. In contrast to Read It And Weep, every decision
Morrow made here was poor. She created
unnecessary questions by introducing Rarity’s parents, and showed no growth for
any character. Rarity and Sweetie Belle
are at their worst, while a “perfect” Applejack remains no less
believable. Even with good intentions,
Sisterhooves Social is terrible all around.
4. Lesson Zero
Any goodwill created by The Return Of Harmony completely
disappeared after Lesson Zero; a filler episode whose only goal is destroying
Twilight’s character. She hasn’t written
her letter this week, so of course nothing’s going on. Now completely freaking out, Twilight decides
to create a problem, which sort of works in its stupidity. But Celestia is pissed and strips Twilight of
her letter-writing duties forever.
Lesson Zero announces itself as filler with some checklist
crap and nothing happening throughout most of the episode. Repeated phrases and needlessly extended
scenes compose its fabric, while Twilight going crazy over nothing is reused from
Party Of One (also by McCarthy). Instead
of an episode about writer’s block, Lesson Zero makes McCarthy seem completely
uninspired. Shameless and boring, this
is her worst effort and shouldn’t have been produced, but she made sure Lesson
Zero’s implications were felt throughout the entire season. Quite an ignominious accomplishment for one
crappy episode.
3. A Friend In Deed
Ostensibly about the difficulties of introvert/extrovert
relations, A Friend In Deed’s structure and content are a complete mess. Rogers starts in another episode, wastes time
on pointless songs, wastes more by having Pinkie be annoying while embarrassing
a new Ponyville arrival, and then attempts approaching the plot with two
minutes left. Pinkie has never been
worse, and her actions make A Friend In Deed completely unwatchable.
Although I did rate it slightly better earlier, Rogers’ episode
takes a drop because no tiny redeeming moment could be found. A Friend In Deed is My Little Pony’s worst paced episode, and Pinkie learns nothing
from being extremely irritating. That
ends up forming a terrible lesson for children (be annoying until you get what
you want) while also suggesting introverts can be cured of their shyness. Rogers was probably rushed writing this
beast, but that isn’t an excuse. Through
a profoundly flawed script and an awful starring role for Pinkie, A Friend In
Deed is one of the most unlikable outings My
Little Pony ever aired.
2. The Mysterious Mare Do
Well
How this episode still doesn’t find itself ranked last indicates
just how poor season two was overall.
Williams’ debut established her as completely unfit for the series,
which has not diminished over time. Mare
Do Well is a 22-minute excuse to embarrass Rainbow Dash and make fun of fans
who like her. After many near-death
disasters, Rainbow Dash finds her hero career in jeopardy from a mysterious
stranger. Eventually, she unmasks this
pony to find out the mane six have been tricking her. Weary from all of Dash’s bragging, they
decided fighting fire with fire was their best solution.
Williams’ hatred of the mane six (and particularly Dash) shines
through most. This did appear in all of
her second season episodes, but was most prominent here. Every Williams script takes place in an
alternate universe, since nothing about Dash’s fan club, the perilous events,
or Mare Do Well herself could actually happen.
Then Williams destroys her lesson by having the mane six champion their
specific contributions while chastising Dash about it. With Pinkie Sense also unfortunately returning,
Mare Do Well easily merits a bottom rating.
1. Baby Cakes
Fullerton leaves me no choice except awarding her the top
spot again, despite appearing in a season with so many worthy contenders. Baby Cakes forgoes plot to display a
“realistic” day of parenting, but (like Mare Do Well with Rainbow Dash) the
real purpose is embarrassing Pinkie Pie.
After much filler, Pinkie babysits her employers’ new twins, but she
completely screws everything up attempting to be “responsible”. She watches the twins turn into superheroes,
but then they feel bad and just start behaving.
Even given how painful and unwatchable Pinkie’s antics and
all that crying are, Baby Cakes fails completely in its purpose. One-month olds can’t do nearly that much, and
actually neither can adult ponies.
Fullerton declines to show even one positive thing about having kids,
and decides a mock horror story is perfect for the final act. Pinkie’s breakdown allows her to become the
twins’ normal babysitter and pretend like she learned something about parenting. While the other episodes on this list are
hateful and poorly constructed, Baby Cakes is also completely unwatchable. That pushes it ahead of stiff competition,
and cements its place among the all-time worst.
Dishonorable Mention:
Hearts And Hooves Day, May The Best Pet Win!, Family Appreciation Day, Putting
Your Hoof Down
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