Greetings, fellow Wikians! Let's get on to what episodes we'll be comparing, that is the fourth episode of each season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, shall we? Here they are.
Season 1
Applebuck Season
Season 2
Luna Eclipsed
Season 3
One Bad Apple
Season 4
Daring Don't
Season 5
Bloom & Gloom
All you need to do is to rank the above episodes from your favorite to least favorite. It's also appreciated if you give your two cents on them.
Here's my ranking.
- Luna Eclipsed: Another great outing from good ol' Larson. This episode is a great way to reintroduce the character we haven't seen since pretty much the pilot. That character is Princess Luna, who is portrayed very well as a princess who is having difficulties adapting to modern pony society, and she shows quite a surprising charm and relatability through that characterization, which really made her very enjoyable to watch. Twilight fits perfectly in the role of helping Luna out in trying to adjust to modern times and make friends, considering she has faced the same problem of not knowing much about friendship in the show's beginning, which helps to underscore how much she has learned since then.
- Daring Don't: I quite loved this one. It's a very good exploration of what happens when you put your hero on so high of a pedestal that it can affect your view on your self-worth. That conflict is a perfect fit for Rainbow Dash, considering she has faced confidence issues before (see Sonic Rainboom and The Mysterious Mare Do Well). Even putting that aside, this is a very entertaining episode, with enough humor (the scene with Rainbow and Twilight trying to out-nerd each other was absolute gold) and enough action to satisfy me. Now, there was this one issue with the episode that bothered a lot of people, which is Daring Do being real. I personally don't mind it all that much; I don't think there's nothing in the show that really contradicts it, so I don't think it would be impossible. With that said, this was definitely a good episode and a pretty underrated one.
- Applebuck Season: This is a good one. It has quite an entertainment value to it that is derived from Applejack's sleepiness causing a lot of screw-ups throughout Ponyville. In addition, this is the episode that introduces us to Applejack's two flaws: pride and stubbornness, which has been explored a number of times in future Applejack episodes to come. Overall, I liked it.
- Bloom & Gloom: This is an episode that I appreciated more than I actually liked. That's not to say I didn't like it; I mean, it does ask a very interesting question: What will happen once Apple Bloom gets her cutie mark? This episode explored that question by showing us all the possible outcomes of this situation and does that very well. It's just that I just found myself a bit underwhelmed by it. That said, I still do like it and thought it was quite a good episode, so I wouldn't say I'm that lukewarm about it.
- One Bad Apple: While I might be certain that this is at the bottom of my list, I find myself struggling to make up my mind completely about the episode, as I've been thinking very deeply about this episode just so I could come up with my two cents on this episode. I'm struggling whether I should see this as a decent episode that encourages understanding regarding someone who may have treated you very badly but may have something deeper going on in them or an episode that failed in approaching a very touchy and complex subject matter in a respectful way, despite good intentions. Still, I can be certain on a few things: I thought the episode showcased the CMC's group dynamic quite well, and it features one of the catchiest songs in MLP history.
How would you rank these episodes? Comment below and tell me what you think!
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