I will come right
to the point. Season six is the worst
one yet aired by My Little Pony. It unnecessarily answers the question of what
season two would have been like minus M. A. Larson. With him, Amy Keating Rogers, and Meghan
McCarthy (thankfully) moving on, and Dave Polsky penning only one underwhelming
episode, a noticeable dearth of writing talent existed which the other staff
members could not overcome. In every
sense a “B-squad” season, newly anointed story editor Josh Haber dealt with
some scripts apparently 5-6 years old, other hateful ones like those found in
season two, and his own problematic season bookending two-parters which didn’t
match McCarthy’s better efforts. On top
of that, he was tasked with integrating Starlight Glimmer into the main cast,
but this also failed. Early episodes and
the season finale focused on her while excluding the mane six, but the
in-between efforts found her mysteriously absent. Some of Starlight’s “appearances” had zero
lines, even when her voice actress was used elsewhere in that same episode, so
these cameos didn’t really count either.
Haber and the other writers couldn’t justify Starlight’s inclusion on
the show, but this was only one of many other notable disappointments.
My choice for the
top spot and the lone episode to earn four stars (out of 24 possibilities) was
Stranger Than Fan Fiction, which featured comedian Patton Oswalt as a
know-it-all critical pony who Rainbow Dash meets and eventually befriends at a
Daring Do fan convention. This outing
was not universally well-received, and didn’t pertain to the season’s main
themes at all. Other stronger efforts
included the Parks & Recreation
tribute The Saddle Row Review (detailing Rarity’s troubled grand opening of her
boutique in Canterlot), and surprisingly the final two map episodes (Viva Las
Pegasus and Top Bolt), which both featured atypically strong characterization. Outside of the season-capping two-parters,
that was it, as most of season six hovered around 2-3 stars.
Overall, season
six was both unsure and unable to accomplish what it desired. Many new characters were introduced on top of
Starlight’s integration, although not all of them were effective or worthy of
returning. But even with several strong
animation efforts and the voice cast’s usual solid work, season six was not
close to the quality of previous years.
No other season failed to have at least three episodes earn four stars
or higher from me (and that was the shortened season three), but season six
only produced one such (admittedly debatable) effort. As such, I am dispensing the top portion of
this list since there were not enough qualifying good episodes. That leaves only the bottom, and while there
were not as many awful efforts as season two, an astounding 14 of the 24
reviews earned two-and-a-half stars or less.
This kind of quality is unacceptable, and it practically forces me to
suspend my series reviews indefinitely.
Despite so many poor outings, only five stood out as the worst, and they
are quite dreadful.
5. The Fault In Our Cutie Marks
Ed Valentine’s
second Cutie Mark Crusader episode introduces one of the unsuccessful new
characters: a Mary Sue genki girl who is literally perfect. With an overbearing personality, several
harassment moments, and no flaws whatsoever, Gabby the Griffon only
encapsulates how not to create a new character.
She tries asking the Crusaders for help earning her cutie mark, but this
fails because she is literally good at everything and griffons can’t actually
get cutie marks.
While attempting
to prove otherwise, The Fault demonstrates how uncompelling and useless the
Crusaders are now that they have their marks.
Equally egregious is how Valentine assumes the Crusaders have done much
more than they did since he wrote their previous episode (The Cart Before The
Ponies). Gabby’s absurdly hyper
personality is practically unwatchable, and Valentine’s message gets lost
through poor characterization and plot contrivances. The Fault could have been successful with a
better writer, but Valentine wasn’t nearly good enough to make anything from
his premise. And if the above picture
looks familiar, it’s because the animators reused that animation very
noticeably. Not a strong effort from
anyone involved.
4. Dungeons & Discords
Booorrrinngg! Nick Confalone’s muddle of a script tried
bringing Dungeons and Dragons into the My
Little Pony world, but he couldn’t justify why this was necessary or create
an entertaining filler episode. Discord
joins Spike and Big Mac on guys’ night (eventually), but the unlikelihood of
this occurring makes the whole script feels contrived. Confalone wastes so much time with setup that
we barely have any for the game, and everyone decides the live action version
is much more interesting than using your vaunted “imagination”. That means there’s no point to this episode
even existing.
Discord continues
being overbearingly annoying, while Spike and Big Mac’s devotion to a
non-existent night seems oddly stereotypical of how “men” must act. Dungeons still could have been saved in numerous
ways, but Confalone took the long way and ran out of time before anything
became interesting. Then we realize that
the mane six are off on a more exciting adventure which is never shown. Massive amounts of filler in a filler episode
makes for an utterly unenjoyable mess, especially since Confalone (after sadly
too many other such examples amongst My
Little Pony’s writers) produced his premise’s worst possible version. With a potentially fun game and some colorful
D&D characters, Confalone worked hard to ensure his script failed on every
level.
3. The Cart Before The Ponies
Valentine’s first
“the unnecessarily long title” episode fared just as poorly. Instead of using their newfound status, the
Crusaders get lost in a disastrous Pinewood Derby spectacle with their
sisters. The retcon runs deep, as
Valentine invents three separate awards and then has the Crusaders choose
different ones than expected for implausible reasons. This results in a massive auto wreck before
the episode just ends during the next race.
Considering they could
have just switched partners, watching these characters flail through plot
contrivances and trauma is quite painful.
There’s no way any of these events actually occurred in canon,
especially that Derpy piece of shit beating out Rarity for Most Creative. And why would you have an award for anything
other than the race’s winner? The other
cars would have no point in participating, which Applejack seems to acknowledge
when she’s content finishing dead last.
Parents living vicariously through their children in sports is obviously
a problem, but Valentine didn’t depict this satisfactorily, nor did his
solution make any sense (they’re all mechanics now and we need more kid
drivers). Thanks to poor editing, an
extreme pacing issue, and the animators unable to overcome awful writing, The
Cart is an awful episode which shouldn’t have been produced given the script’s
likely age.
2. Newbie Dash
Only Merriwether
Williams has managed to take both “top” spots on my bottom list before (in
season three), so Dave Rapp’s My Little
Pony career begins quite ignobly.
His first episode dealt with Rainbow Dash’s long-awaited acceptance into
the Wonderbolts, but my god does her training episode go terribly. Hearkening back to season two (and Williams
also), Rapp humiliates Dash as she futilely tries shedding her unoriginal
“Crash” nickname (again). This involves
Dash walking somewhere, landing in the same pointless trash can twice, talking
about wearing a “reservist” uniform, and Pinkie Pie wanting really big cotton
candy. Then we find out everyone at
flight school gets a crappy nickname based off something dumb they did and
nothing personal was intended. Sure
would have been nice to know before suffering through this unnecessary episode.
Rapp keeps his effort
from the top spot with one halfway decent line (Pinkie Pie speculating Dash is
lucky her nickname wasn’t “trash”) and the knowledge that real life flight
school really does feature embarrassing nicknames. Such an otherwise poor and hateful script
belonged as a season two reject though, so why it was used here with what
should have been an important episode remains unknown. Haber and the directors must take some blame
for not soliciting a substantial rewrite from someone who doesn’t suck. Dash deserved better than getting hit with
the idiot bug upon realizing her dream, but better wasn’t in Rapp’s immediate
future either.
1. Flutter Brutter
Every season
features its share of terrible episodes, but none since the second season have
inspired me to award anything less than two stars until Flutter Brutter. Having finished pillorying Rainbow Dash, Rapp
moved onto millennials by introducing Fluttershy’s lazy obnoxious brother
Zephyr Breeze. He dreams of cutting hair
but drops out of school, and then bounces around residences before magically
getting better and returning to classes.
Zephyr’s big success just sends him right back home with the parents
again. So much for redemption.
Zephyr doesn’t
resemble Fluttershy at all and acts like a poorly conceived gay
stereotype. Everyone hates when he comes
into the room, which becomes understandable since Zephyr won’t stop hitting on (the
probably lesbian herself) Rainbow Dash.
Zephyr destroys everything no matter where he goes, “redeems” himself by
inspiring pity from being homeless and an absurdly stupid montage, and then
just ends up back at his parents’ place again.
This is an arc? Rapp’s sole
purpose was demonstrating how much he hates gays and millennials, but his odd
stereotypes show he doesn’t know anything about them. In a series about friendship and inclusion,
Rapp spouts his hatred and ignorant beliefs instead of coming up with an actual
lesson. Not only should Zephyr be removed from canon because he isn’t
Fluttershy’s brother, but the script should have never been produced given how
it runs antithetical to My Little Pony’s
ostensible message.
Once again, my bottom
spot selection was unconscionably popular with bronies, who found Zephyr’s
antics charming and subsequently gave the episode a pass. So again I must denounce those bronies with
shame for allowing such a misguided script through without criticism. None of you are here because you wanted to
laugh at gay guys, and you are the very millennials that Rapp is making fun of. You are the ones nobody understands and who
are widely laughed at out of ignorance.
This series doesn’t judge you for liking a little girls’ show, so such
an episode should not be acceptable to you or anyone else. My
Little Pony is not a show about hate, but Rapp let his fuel an awful and
painful script. Flutter Brutter isn’t “charming”,
it is one of the worst episodes ever produced.
You might not care, but as a reviewer I cannot allow this to disappear
unscathed. It is demonstrative of why I
called season six the series’ worst.
Dishonorable Mention:
Applejack’s “Day” Off, No Second Prances, Every Little Thing She Does
While I have generally refused to do so, director Denny Lu merits
a special mention. He took over for Jim
Miller in the second half of season five, and My Little Pony has been noticeably worse since then. Adding Tim Stuby for season six did not
improve anything. They must be held
responsible for a fundamental breakdown in employing talented writers and
choosing which scripts to produce and air.
Several on my bottom list should have been completely rewritten or axed,
and the animation quality was not always consistently high either. Lu is responsible for creating the best
episode he can given his employees, and this has only rarely if ever
happened. Since he was handed the reins,
I have awarded only two of his 39 episodes four stars (with none higher), while
19 earned 2½ stars or less. This is why
I can no longer in good conscience watch and review My Little Pony. With so many
better options out there, it is not worth my time or anyone else’s until people
who can actually write for and run a TV series are put in charge. There’s no reason it can’t improve, but I’m
out until it does.
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