My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Greetings, fellow Wikians! Now that we're currently on a three-week break between The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone and the highly-anticipated 100th episode, Slice of Life, I figured that I should make "Let's Compare" blogs for the episodes that I didn't cover, which are the first six episodes of each season.

Today, we're comparing the season premieres. Here they are.

Twilight looks up at the moon S1E01
Season 1
Friendship is Magic
Discord, "First changes of Ponyville" S02E02
Season 2
The Return of Harmony
Crystal Empire surrounded by King Sombra S3E2
Season 3
The Crystal Empire
Twilight in stained glass S4E01
Season 4
Princess Twilight Sparkle
Creepy smiling ponies with equals sign banner S5E1
Season 5
The Cutie Map

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.

  1. The Return of Harmony: This two-parter still remains as my favorite season premiere of the show. It's a great adventure story providing a great challenge for the Mane Six as they are corrupted by Discord, who is definitely one of the best villains the show has to offer, who is not only delightfully chaotic but also provides as a clever adversary to our main heroines. A great way to open a great season.
  2. The Cutie Map: This two-parter does really well in utilizing adult themes like cultism, brainwashing, and sameness to make a point about how the differences of talents can assist in creating friendship among ponies. Starlight Glimmer makes for a great villain, not necessarily due to her ideology (which, to be honest, is pretty terrible), but the influence of her ideology and her methods to further it. There are also other pluses too. Pinkie and Fluttershy has a surprising amount of time to shine here, and it's also nice to see that, instead of the Mane Six saving the day through some sort of magical artifact/power, the townsponies are the ones saving the day, which helps to reinforce the friendship theme present here. All in all, it's a great way to open up Season 5.
  3. Princess Twilight Sparkle: This two-parter is successful at addressing a number of issues revolving Twilight's princesshood, particularly her doubts over her status, her new responsibilities, and how it will affect her relationship with other ponies close to her. Add that up with a good adventure story, some good comedy, a great role played by Discord, and an introduction to a season-long story arc that serves to challenge each of the Mane Six's elements make this a very compelling start to the best season of the show thus far.
  4. The Crystal Empire: This one is pretty underrated as far as season premieres go. Like the season premieres above, it has a great adventure story to tell. It has plenty of great worldbuilding in the form of the Crystal Empire, a villain whose lack of character is made up by his looming, threatening presence, a good conflict revolving around Twilight and her test in addition to some great moments involving the relationship between her and Spike and a great lesson. It has some flaws, yes, but that doesn't stop it from being a great season premiere.
  5. Friendship is Magic: The pilot is quite flawed, what with the pacing issues in Part 2 and Nightmare Moon being pretty generic as a villain (though in regards to character, she is pretty interesting). Otherwise, it's quite decent, as it establishes the basic lore and the main characters of the show pretty well, and for that, I give it credit.

How would you rank these episodes? Comment below and tell me what you think!

Advertisement