Top Ten Worst MLP:FiM Episodes As much as I am in love with My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, I feel that even in my previous reviews of episodes, I’ve become very critical to many episodes, calling them bad to worse, and focusing a lot on the negative side of the show. However now, I’m going to be doing a top ten best list to compliment this list and balance out the hate with some compliments. I’m also going to be including the movies as “episodes”, and counting two-part episodes as a single episode. Now as of the reasoning behind my choices, I’m going to be weighing things a bit differently, talking more about morals, pacing, enjoy ability and character handling and less about animation, songs, or plot. Also, since everyone has their own opinions on what they like and what they don’t, not everything on this list will apply to you, seeing as a few points including enjoy ability will be a bit biased on the Top Ten Best List as well as this one. Either way lets tick off the entire fandom and dive right into this! Tenth Place: Dragon Quest Kicking off our list is a poorly played re-make of a G1 episode in which Spike decides to go off and learn what it’s like to be a “Real Dragon” and ends up learning that dragons are, as a collective, just a bunch of mean, dishonest, violent bullies who want to peer pressure Spike into becoming a bully like them. Already this is bringing up a bunch of issues, such as making a sweeping generalization about a group of beings, implementing in peoples minds that just because a few members of a certain race are a certain way, you should reject that race, even and especially if it is your own. This is the same issue I had with Gilda and the swooping generalization presented in The Lost Treasure of Griffin Stone that in order for a certain race to prevail, it would likely need intervention from the master race: the ponies. This is not exactly the best lesson to be implementing into kids minds, especially with current political events causing more and more people to turn against an entire race and make swooping generalizations about it, simply because a small group is stirring up violence. Dragon Quest is trying to teach Spike to reject the temptation to bully and step away from peer pressure, but it was executed poorly and decided to say instead: “This is how your entire race acts, be grateful you were raised by ponies and not dragons, because dragons are bad.” This episode could’ve been much better if it was only a small group of dragons who were being reckless bullies, or if there was a kindly dragon figure implemented somewhere in the episode. Instead we are stuck with the thought that all dragons are jerks and would like to assimilate Spike into a cruel way of actions, and that doesn’t sit well with me. This episode had a very poor execution of its moral, and could have been made much better if the ideas implemented about peer pressure and harmful behavior were counter acted with, perhaps, the gang of bully dragons trying to make friends with Spike but the kindness of other dragons was at least shown briefly to make sure people know that not all members of a certain race can be judged by the actions of a few members. Ninth Place: Equestria Girls: Friendship Games As big of a fan I was of Rainbow Rocks, and as much I at first liked this movie, after several re-watches I have begun to spy it’s very prominent flaws. As cool as it was to watch, the fact that it was simply a repeat of the first movie was even directly stated in the film itself. It lacked several aspects of originality, and the handling of Twilight’s counterpart was somewhat sloppy. Making her a Crystal Prep student made practically no sense, seeing as Crystal Prep is supposed to be the other worldly version of the Crystal Empire, and according to the Equestrian dimension, and looking at the events in Cutie Re-Mark, should that not be currently under the rule of King Sombra? Heck, I feel like that entire movie would have been so much cooler if the school was instead run by the iron fist of Principal Sombra, who abuses his power and wants to show off against Principal Celestia. The idea of making the movie about a competition of sports was a neat idea, I just feel like it could have been made far better. However the biggest problem I had with the movie was that there was just simply too much for a movie that only had an hour and ten minuet run time, excluding the credits and intro. They establish the Shadow Bolts team with seemingly the intention to make them a major part of the movie, but they get absolutely no development whatsoever. They just became flavorless background ponies made purely for the sake of marketing. I feel as though the entire movie was made for the sake of marketing all of these new toys, and when that occurs, it commonly leaves me disappointed in the writing aspect of the whole thing. Also, am I the only one who found Principal Cinch a real buzz kill? She was just such a bland villain, with not much to offer in the first place, and leaving the entire movie with fairly low stakes. Over all, with a bland villain and very little character development, and the entire movie practically being on fast forwards the entire time and abusing its ability to have a longer run time, I feel like the entire movie could have been much better if they had spent a longer time developing some of the characters, and rounding them out or making them more interesting. Eighth Place: Testing, Testing 123 As far as enjoying an episode, I want the episode to be fun, and reflect the character I’ve known before the episode came around. As far as Testing, Testing 123 goes, I found this episode to be painfully boring with no real respect paid to the previous development of Rainbow Dash’s character. It just didn’t make any sense, and broke character a lot from what we’ve seen in the past. Rainbow Dash is allegedly the Wonder Bolt’s biggest fan, yet she is having issues studying for the Wonder Bolt’s Academy Entrance Exam because she doesn’t know the history of the Wonder Bolts? Sure, maybe that part is believable enough, but every single one of the Mane Six knowing the Wonder Bolt’s history better than her? No, just no. I really don’t think the writers were putting in nearly enough thought into this episode when they developed it. This is the problem that commonly pops up when you make an episode purely to teach a lesson, and the lesson this episode was trying to teach was that there are different ways of learning and studying for an exam, you just have to find one that suits you. However, this level of ADD in Rainbow Dash swoops in out of nowhere, breaks her character, and is never seen again after this episode. They ignored the set structure of Rainbow’s characters in order to make the lesson work, and didn’t do anything to pay respect to her development up until this point. Not to mention that the episode was painfully boring to have to sit through, and one that I really don’t want to go back and watch again. It was a very un-enjoyable episode, and therefore it has earned itself a spot on this list. Seventh Place: Filli Vanilli Tumblr is a deep, dark place, and one that teaches lessons that should never really be taught, establishing an attitude that serious mental illnesses can be completely abolished by simply brief encouragement, seeing the bright side, and then getting the person who is suffering to change their mindset. This, however, doesn’t work out, and the more this attitude is encouraged, the less people are going to try to seek out medical and psychiatric care. In fact, I happened to have been told over and over that the reason I have been suffering through anxiety attacks lately is because I stress too much over things, and that I should simply start seeing the bright side of things. After sympathizing with Fluttershy and her constant displays of Social Anxiety Disorder, or Generalized Anxiety Disorder, it makes me very uncomfortable to see that she is shown to be cured by a simple, “There, there, I know that you are driven to the brink of insanity when you are placed under the view of more than four sets of eyes, but just look at the bright side! Look at the good things! Boom, you’re cured!” Please, if you suffer from panic attacks or have serious anxiety, simply changing your mindset is not going to cure you, and I advise you to at least consider seeking mental help. Showing a character with this level of stress and anxiety as a main character, but then never showing them seeking any help at all sets a very bad example for kids, teens, and adults alike who are all watching this show, and implements the Tumblr logic of hugs and cuddles will make all your problems go away.