EPISODE BATTLE Part 5: Season three 1-13. Which is your Favorite?

61 Comments

  • Badly Drawn Turtle - 9 years ago

    @LiboR

    " How many times were Twilight's alicornization used?"
    Exactly my point. Most of the episodes in Season 4 weren't affected at all by Twilight being an Alicorn: In other words, her alicornization didn't restrict future episodes to just those involving her alicornhood, and no creative potential was lost. If I'm not mistaken, that was your objection; that there were so many stories that could no longer be told. But can you think of a single story that they could have told with her as a Unicorn that they wouldn't be able to tell with her as an Alicorn, in light of how Season 4 went?

    Summary: Alicornization opened up new creative avenues for exploration without closing many, if any, others. It therefore didn't have any creativity-related affect on the life of the show. (It may have sped things up in other ways, however; I remember a disturbing quote from one of the show-runners about how they were striving to make each season "better" than the last, which is the attitude that all-too-often leads to jumping the shark and dooming a show early. Alicorn Twilight might have given them the impression that they had to make bigger and bigger game-changers each season, which would be very bad in the long-run, if other dead shows are any indication.)

  • Anonymous - 9 years ago

    @guys: OH COME ON! Why are we still arguing about the alicorn thing?! With an awesome S4 and a promising S5 coming, we don't have anymore reasons to complain about that or Discord's redemption. You all are acting like children, stop please.

  • LiboR - 9 years ago

    @Badly Drawn Turtle

    Season 4 was the best, but let's be honest. How many times were Twilight's alicornization used?
    Castle-Mania, Twilight Time, Testing Testing 1 2 3, Trade Ya and maybe in Three's a Crowd.
    That's four or five episodes in the season + premiere & finale (could have been in later seasons)
    I hope it's obvious enough. I believe Hasbro threw out at least 2 good seasons of Twilight as unicorn.
    I don't hate the episode itself. Nor, the step. But the timing, it just came too soon.

  • anon2 - 9 years ago

    Awesome post, Badly drawn turtle. Thanks for writing it :)

  • Badly Drawn Turtle - 9 years ago

    @Tavilicious
    I am not taking this as a "vindication" of anything. I'm only using it as a general gauge of the community; as a poll. Since I've explained most of it already, I'll just poke some holes in your comment:

    Assertion A:
    Premise 1: This poll can be easily spammed.
    Premise 2: This poll says that MMC is winning.
    Conclusion: MMC is winning because of vote spamming.
    How this is flawed: The premises are true as far as they go, but the conclusion doesn't follow. If the poll can be spammed, then any episode could be winning due to spam. Since there are at least a few dedicated fans for many episodes, not just MMC, it is reasonable to assume that vote spamming would affect a number of episodes more-or-less equally. For MMC to be winning in a spam-filled poll, there would need to be more spammers in favor of MMC than in favor of other episodes; since spammers likely have a spectrum of appreciation reflective of the larger community, this situation would itself point to a widely-held positive attitude toward the episode. So not only does the conclusion not follow, but the premises indeed would tend to support the opposite.

    Assertion B:
    Premise 1: People had valid reasons to dislike MMC.
    Premise 2: People didn't have valid reasons to dislike "Sleepless in Ponyville".
    Conclusion: Assertion A holds true for MMC, but not for SiP.
    How this is flawed: Ignoring how Assertion A is itself flawed, this still doesn't logic. Both of these premises are (opinion-tinted)-facts about opinions. Despite valid reasons for intellectual criticism of one episode or another (and I'm sure if I cared to look, I'd find criticism-worthy flaws in SiP as well), this poll is also opinion-based, not fact-based. In other words, this poll isn't going to count votes as "valid" or "invalid" based on the soundness of the reasoning of the voters. Most people vote for what they like, and most people like what they do regardless of, and often despite, flaws in the thing they appreciate. That "people have valid reasons to hate MMC, but not SiP" has nothing to do with the validity of the vote-tally. The people who do like MMC are no more or less likely to spam votes than the people who like SiP; no matter how strongly you personally disagree with their choice, or even how much better one episode is to the other through some objective rubric.

    Additionally, if we did decide to take Assertion 1 to be definitely true, then we can use the same logic to assert that SiP must also have a dedicated group of spammers and is almost as hated as MMC; indeed, we could extend this reasoning down and insist that the actual winner of the poll is "Games Ponies Play" because it has the smallest number of votes, so it must have the fewest spammers, so it must have the most legitimate votes.

    I conclude that the poll is more-or-less accurate regardless of spammability, given that there is no reason to think one episode is more likely to receive spam votes than another.

    MMC is winning, and you have absolutely no evidence that it isn't winning legitimately. I'm sorry if you don't like it.
    Yes, you could argue that "It must be spam, because I know that most people don't like it", but that is arguing with your conclusion as your premise: Most people don't like MMC, so it can't be winning, and since it isn't winning, most people don't like it. It's winning, so you have no reason to assert that most people don't like it. If you want to bring in outside evidence to support you, than that's cherry-picking because you can take the polls supporting you without question and use the same "spammability" argument to reject any that you don't agree with. The only way out is to drop the premise that spammability makes a poll inherently untrustworthy. In which case I'm confident that you'll have to concede your broader point (of MMC being highly disliked) as well.

    {Full disclosure: I voted for "Sleepless in Ponyville".}

  • Matt - 9 years ago

    I don't know why people think it's some sort of hoax or sympathy for MMC. It is truly one of the best episodes of the series, and hands down the best in Season 3. Even if it wasn't a 2-parter (which it should have been) it was still amazing. It perfectly wrapped up the entire show up to that point, and has no technical flaws whatsoever. It is one of the best animated episodes and the most well-written and paced, especially considering the time-frame they had to work with. M.A. Larson, you are a true genius, and I'm not being sarcastic when I say, thanks.

  • Tavilicious - 9 years ago

    Dan, et al:

    I have mentioned this before, but it is incredibly easy to vote multiple times in these polls if one so wished, I were so inclined to take the time I could probably add a few hundred votes to 'Sleepless in Ponyville', so I certainly would not be taking these results as vindication for MMC.

    Even Larson has officially stated that he thought it was rushed, and that that to fit everything into one episode they had to resort to using exposition-through-song. If even the writer of the episode thought it had too much jambed into it resulting in a frantically paced episode, it probably did.

    Some really hated the poorly thought out 'Your Cutie Mark determines your destiny' sub-theme where Twilights friends were forced into performing jobs they were ill-suited for and took no enjoyment in "Because that is what my Cutie Mark is telling me", seemingly negating free will in the matter.

    Some disliked Princess Twilight Sparkle, some were OK with Princess Twilight Sparkle but hated how it was presented in the episode.

    There are a lot of different and very valid reasons why people disliked MMC, as to where 'Sleepless in Ponyville' it seems to me most of the negativity boils down to hipsters going "Luna is popular, this episode had Luna, therefore I hate this episode". It was an amazing and exceptionally well written episode, with great interaction between Scootaloo and RD. And doubly amazing when compared to anything else season three had to offer (including MMC).

    I am quite positive that MMC being in the top rank is nothing more then a few dedicated voters flooding the poll to skew the results.

    A good case in point is EqG on Imdb. A month after it came out, it had a rather I felt accurate rating of 4.5 Stars. Not 'Pluto Nash' bad, but nothing overly good either. I just checked it and it is now at 6.1 stars; with 39.8% of the 2,500 or so voters giving it 9 or 10 stars in ratings. Which statistically rates it considerably higher in the 9/10 star approval range then either 'The Lego Movie' or 'Maleficent'.

    People I am pretty sure are spamming that voting system as well; that or Hasbro really needs to be looking into branching out into creating big Hollywood movie productions.

    TL;DR: Voting in these EqD polls is easy to spam, do not take the results seriously or as any sort of vindication.

  • Badly Drawn Turtle - 9 years ago

    @LiboR
    I'm sorry you think that 3 quarters of the fandom agrees with you, when it's simply not true.
    And you said yourself, Season 4 was the best. So Twilicorn didn't ruin it, did she? Why can't they keep the show going, then? What about Twilicorn is limiting potential story-lines?
    Looking back at Season 3, I think that Twilicorn's time had come anyway, or if not, then some other change of equal import. If Season 4 hadn't had Twilicorn, there wouldn't be as much of a feeling of moving forward in time, and the show could have started to feel stale to people. Instead of complaining about Twilicorn, people would be lamenting about the blandness of it all.
    There are always going to be people who don't like something; for that matter, there are always going to be things you (or I) don't like. But that isn't an excuse to cry "The end is near!" when, for the most part, that thing that you or someone else (or I) don't like isn't going to affect much, isn't going to change everything for the worse, and almost certainly isn't going to lead to a worst-case-scenario. For a change, stop to wonder if maybe those people who aren't upset about whatever have a point. They're the happy ones, after all, and they are usually right in the end.

    {End random rant}

  • LiboR - 9 years ago

    @Dan

    I don't think it's small minority that's just crying loud. I believe it's roughly those 75% I'm talking about.

    Just one thing to all of you, if Magical Mystery Cure is so high-ranked, we can expect more alicorns. (Of course, this is very deniable but, at least, it does reach up probability)

  • Dan - 10 years ago

    @LiboR

    Where did you get 75% of people hated MMC at? There was a small minority of people who were butthurt over MMC, and they just whined about it so much that it felt like 75% of the people hated it.

  • anon2 - 10 years ago

    Everything from bots, to sympathy votes, to just calling it a bad episode in resentment. The idea MMC can just win a poll? Blasphemous! The comments thread is a fun read.

  • rusticware - 10 years ago

    Voted for SiP. Great episode and NO luna being in it was not the reason. It was a SOLID episode with an EXCELLENT moral from a newcomer of all things. Better then the majority of episodes in what was a rather mediocre season and outshined most veteran writers of the series. It was also Scoots first character centered episode and did a great job showcasing her insecurities and the insecurities most children her age would face in the presence of their idol.

    As for MMC taking the top spot....? Welp you can't win em all. Pacing and crampedness aside the episode also wasn't one of my favorites when it came to the music either. There's a perception in the fanbase, that when anything about the show is met with dislike or hate, the perceived "bullying" of said episode/character/song is rallied behind with love and support far more then it deserves. Whether this is to showcase the "love & tolerance" the shows fans are so well known for or just to being "different" and go against what's generally accepted by others... Based on not being so derisive alone, SiP is a far better episode then MMC could ever hope to be, well in my opinion anyways.

  • Invader TAK - 10 years ago

    The only complaint I have about MMC at this point is that it should have been a two-parter. Other than that, it's still the best episode of Season 3.

  • smotly - 10 years ago

    @Cosmic-Dash
    Sleepless in Ponyville was one of the best episodes so far,not because there's Scootaloo,or Luna in it.It had great lesson,some funny moments and teh FEELS! And what MMC had? Songs,Luna too and rushed alicornication.I voted for One Bad Apple,it was fun!

  • Kicks_McGee - 10 years ago

    (follow up to my previous comment) Sorry, that was about Princess Twi, not the episode itself. Still, I think they mostly match. A poll about the episode here: http://eqmegathreads.blogspot.com/2013/02/poll-results-magical-mystery-cure-rating.html

  • Kicks_McGee - 10 years ago

    @LiboR: Don't know where you're getting those numbers, but they don't match any poll results I've ever seen. Every poll I've seen on EQD and elsewhere results in a strong victory for either "love it" or "don't care either way". http://www.equestriadaily.com/2014/04/poll-results-what-do-you-think-of.html

  • LiboR - 10 years ago

    20% bronies loved the Season Finale.
    5% bronies are ok with it & 75% bronies hate it.

    I'd be okay with it, but it came too soon. How many times in S4 anyone actually figured out that Twilight's princess? I think, this alicornization should come after 75% of series. (If there was 8 series, alicornization should come after 6th season) This move deleted most of potential. The FiM should end as soon as it's possible, because season 4 was probably the best. And now it'll get worse by each season.

  • ATF2Player - 10 years ago

    I'm not surprised that Sleepless In Ponyville is in second - it's a good and memorable episode.

  • Bolt the Super-Pony - 10 years ago

    Magical Mystery Cure is in first? Really? After all of the "alicorn" complaints and M.A. Larson jokes???

  • bob - 10 years ago

    @KeenBlade: Sleepless was a million times better. It deserves to win.

  • Badly Drawn Turtle - 10 years ago

    @Cosmic-Dash
    1: As I said before, hate is a very strong word for a difference of opinions on a TV show. If you really feel that strongly about this, then you probably do need to go rethink your life choices.
    2: Luna is not black, she's blue. And I have no idea where you got the "Luna is an orphan" thing from; as far as I know, that's not even a common headcanon. This leads me to conclude that you are not speaking from a position of neutrality, but from a position of dislike of the characters mentioned, which makes you a hypocrite. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
    3: In a nutshell, you just said that someone connecting emotionally with a character was a bad thing. Last I checked, that was a gold-standard for good storytelling.
    4: I have no idea why I'm saying any of this. I blame sleep-deprivation.

  • KeenBlade - 10 years ago

    Great to see MMC getting the love it deserves!

  • Cosmic-Dash - 10 years ago

    This is also unrelated but I fell like people vote for Luna and Scootaloo is because they have major insecurities, just like everybody else.We can 'relate' to them but no completely. We all have insecurities, so we are usually more favoring of the people with those same insecurities. Wow. I'm going to go rethink my life choices now.

  • Cosmic-Dash - 10 years ago

    Let me guess why sleepless in Ponyville is doing so great: People love the black orphan and the orange orphan don't they? God guys, I'm starting to get tired of you. You decide what episode is best based off of the characters in it, rather than the overall story. SiP may have been cute but it's not as good as people point it out to be. If you voted it just because it had Luna or Scootaloo in it, I hate you.

  • Dan - 10 years ago

    This was a hard choice for me, between Sleepless in Ponyville and Magical Mystery Cure. I had to go with Sleepless in Ponyville because of Scoots.

  • Anonymous - 10 years ago

    @Kicks_McGee: yeah. Once I did love that forum too. Now is full of people that throw garbage on everything about the show that's not made by Lauren Faust. And even Derpynews is full of people like that. Both the sites "got corrupted" by /mlp/.... How sad....

    Luckily on Equestriadaily, MLPforums and MLPWikia, people still like the show for what it is..... at least the 95% of them.

  • Kicks_McGee - 10 years ago

    @ThePhantom: Really? Even the Round Stable? Back when the "Twilicorn" thing first dropped, Round Stable was the only place you could go to get away from the hate...

  • ThePhantom - 10 years ago

    @anon: yeah.... I haven't left Roundstable and Derpynews for nothing. They went in business with /mlp/ and now they are full of people that do nothing but throw crap on the show except the first season because it's the only made by Lauren Faust... how sad.

  • anon - 10 years ago

    @Badly Drawn Turtle: True, plus hardcore haters tend to ruin other peoples enjoyment of the show with their negativity.

  • Matador - 10 years ago

    MMC is winning...? That's... AWESOME! Surprised no one is complaining about it. Things are looking pretty positive around here, for once.

  • Lightning Bearer - 10 years ago

    Even though "Sleepless in Ponyville" was my personal favorite this season, I'm happy to see "Magical Mystery Cure" getting a show of support.

  • Badly Drawn Turtle - 10 years ago

    @ano As I said, it's just a show. "Hate" is a strong word to indicate a strong emotion. You may "dislike" a character, and that's okay. But if you truly "hate" a character, you may have some psychological issues. :)

  • jones - 10 years ago

    @ano:
    You're right, but you don't have to name call.

  • ano - 10 years ago

    @Badly Drawn Turtle: I hate Twilight too, but I stick around because I like the other characters. I know I ain't alone either. Everyone I talk to these days have had with Twilight's shit. We don't have to like her if we don't want to. Deal with it. You get out if you don't like it. Dumbass.

  • Medicine Cat - 10 years ago

    @Badly Drawn Turtle
    Seeing that Rockpath5's avatar is The Master, aka the most evil sentient being in the universe, once described by The Doctor as someone who would interrupt what he was doing to pull the wings off a fly, I would kind of expect some bile.

  • Kicks_McGee - 10 years ago

    Adding to the conversation below: We've probably also gained a lot of new fans since MMC aired - during season 4 and such - who are used to Twilight having wings, and thus watched MMC without any baggage. There's plenty to love about the episode, if you enjoy musicals and let yourself get swept up in the emotion. Celestia's ballad... I cry evry tiem.

  • derpyshan - 10 years ago

    Badly Drawn Turtle:

    Probably you're right.

    The huge hemorrhage of fans this show had last year was not only because of MMC, but due to EG and te reception to S3 too.

  • Badly Drawn Turtle - 10 years ago

    @Derpyshan
    I doubt a significant percentage of people actually left the fandom due to "Alicorn-gate". And those who did were probably on their way out anyway. I mean, come on: It was an inevitability, it was well-handled compared to how it could have gone, and... it's just a show.

    Seriously, people. IT"S A SHOW. If you get upset over something that happens on a TV show, you need to step back and rethink your life's priorities.

    @Rockpath5
    I hate to break it to you, but Twilight Sparkle is the main character of the show. If you hate something that much, why are you sticking around? Do you /like/ being irritated?

    A message to all of those nice ponies and Bronies out there: There are always more nice, sensible people than you think. The idiots are just very loud. :)

  • anon2 - 10 years ago

    I'm surprised at all the positivity mingled in the comments here. I'm so glad to see MMC getting the respect it deserves.

    And if it loses... I guess I'll just wail "bots!" like everyone else ;-)

  • Rockpath5 - 10 years ago

    @derpyshan
    Yeah, if I had had a single fuck left to give about Twilight after Too Many Pinkie Pies, then MMC might have made me quit watching the show. Personally, I was hoping that everyone's fears would be realized, and Twilight would move to Canterlot and out of the show. They could replace her with Diamond Tiara, and the show would be better.

  • ponk - 10 years ago

    Not surprised. From what I've seen, MMC has gradually gained a base of fans who liked it mainly because it's one of the few (or perhaps only) seriously feels-y episode in the entire show.

  • Jube - 10 years ago

    Magical Mystery Cure, Keep Calm and Flutter On, The Crystal Empire, Magic Duel and Sleepless in Ponyville are my favourites from the season

  • anon - 10 years ago

    MMC always had a lot of people that loved it and thought it was one of the best episodes ever, even with all the hate it got. And honestly, none of season 3's episodes were as widely beloved as episodes like Luna Eclipsed and A Canterlot Wedding, so the positive side of MMC's divisiveness is getting through.

  • Adam Burt - 10 years ago

    Never thought Magical Mystery Cure would lead though most dislike it cos they dislike the idea of Twilight being Alicorn. Me, was excting and happy for Twilight becoming Alicorn.

  • Mojo - 10 years ago

    MMC and Flutter on are complete messes when it comes to Pacing , don't deserve those votes at all.

  • derpyshan - 10 years ago

    Badly Drawn Turtle:

    Its not that most of the fandom got over MMC, it is that most of the huge amount of people who disliked MMC have now left the fandom.

  • Anonymous - 10 years ago

    Happy to see that the three main reasons the S3 is NOT my least favorite are on the podium, even thought in a different order by mine.

  • Mac - 10 years ago

    Looks like we got some bots at work here.

  • NamelessNP - 10 years ago

    I find it rather difficult to believe that the most divisive episode in the entire series is somehow managing to win a favorite episode poll.

  • Rockpath5 - 10 years ago

    I had to go with Keep Calm and Flutter On. Fluttercord is one of my favorite ships, and it is practically canon! However, it barely makes it into my top 10, and my second favorite episode of season 3, Apple Family Reunion, is only #31.

  • Tavilicious - 10 years ago

    Pony: It is rather unfortunately easy to vote multiple times in these polls, so it is not beyond imagining that one or two dedicated people could be skewing the poll vote; especially for a poll that has just started.

    I always take these polls and their results with a rather large grain of salt.

  • Kicks_McGee - 10 years ago

    Seeing "Magical Mystery Cure" currently in the lead gave me a swell of happiness. Thanks, guys. :D In fact I love all the three top episodes right now. I do wish people wouldn't crap on the truly hilarious "Spike At Your Service," but oh well.

  • Wertcvsts - 10 years ago

    I loved the ep twilight became an alicorn with all the songs and every thing it was a really good ep in my opion I don't care if I spelt that wrong

  • Pony - 10 years ago

    I feel like the votes for MMC are organized trolling. I don't personally dislike the episode but it's kind of "meh" for a finale, plus anyone in the "omg wings ruined forever" camp would hate it by default. When I first looked at this poll Sleepless in Ponyville was winning by a fair margin and then MMC got a ton of votes from out of nowhere. Hmmm.

  • Unknown/ - 10 years ago

    Spike At Your Service.

    Excellent comedy, and the best depiction of Spike ever.

  • Badly Drawn Turtle - 10 years ago

    For once, it seems I'll be voting for the front-runner. Scootaloo is adorable.

    However, I am glad to see that most (not all, never all) of the fandom seems to have gotten over the whole "Magical Mystery Cure is worst episode because wings" thing. Considering the writers had to fit a two-part season finale into a single episode, it was actually pretty well done. The fact that it was a musical did a good job (in my view) of smoothing over the fast pace of the plot.

    Also, I don't understand why anyone would vote for Spike at Your Service. Spike is neither an idiot, nor incompetent (look ho cleans up Twilight's messes all the time, from books strewn about after a night of studying to calling Celestia when Twi goes off the deep end). Spike was so completely out of character that I have to wonder whether the writers were even paying attention when they made it.

  • Ebonysdagger - 10 years ago

    I'm going to have to vote for Magic Duel on this one. I'm rather happy and was very excited when Twilight became an alicorn (finally) in MMC and would have voted for it but I felt the episode had some minor pacing issues. It really should have been at least two or three episodes long. Since that is my opinion I must vote for Magic Duel since it was the most entertaining and amusing episode of the season. Seeing Twilight have a nice magic duel with the closest to a peer (in magic) we've seen in the show so far was interesting.

    It also had some nice touches with Twilight training with Zecora and relying upon classical hero 101 trickery over power for winning over the villain. All in all it was a rather amusing episode of a season that was way too brief.

  • InazumaFrost - 10 years ago

    I just hope Magical Mystery Cure gives a decent fight. While I can see why would people hate it, it is my personal favorite season finale due to the use of fridge brilliance in regards to continuity, the emotions in the episode (you aactually feel proud of Twilight Sparkle and all what she has achieved since arriving in Ponyville, which was the whole point of Celestia's Ballad), the music (personal taste), and the fact that despite the pacing, I highly enjoyed the episode.

    Now, if you excuse me, I'm gonna go hide beneath a rock to avoid the MMC hate.

  • Tavilicious - 10 years ago

    To my recollection, there was only one episode to season three; 'Sleepless in Ponyville'. Corey Powell basically single-hoofedly redeemed season three from something never to be mentioned again or admitting to its existence, to saying "well, at least there was ONE amazing episode".

    The downside is that with Powell knocking it out of the park with her episode, is it does make the rest of the extremely sub-par and truncated season three episodes look even worse by comparison.

  • anon - 10 years ago

    Sleepless in Ponyville: Best episode of the series.

  • Appletini - 10 years ago

    Hooray! For once the actual best episode is winning!

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