My Top 10 Hated Episodes of Friendship is Magic

Here it is, the review that has been weeks in the making: My Top 10 Most Hated Episodes of MLP. My reactions to these train wrecks ranges from distaste to discomfort to GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME! I would like to not first that this is my personal opinion, and so is shaped by my experiences and biases.

Before we get to the main event, let’s take a look at the personal picks of people more intelligent, talented, and critical than I.

InfinityQuillPony: Baby Cakes

Byter and LethalAuraMage: Flight to the Finish (weird how they both found this personally insulting)

AnYPony: Spike at your Service

Mysterious Mr. Enter: Putting You Hoof Down

ILoveKimPossibleALot: No real hatred towards any of them. That’s nice.

And here are two phrases you should definitely know before proceeding:
Torture Porn: When there is too much slapstick at one character’s expense or unnecessary cruelty aimed at them, especially when they’ve done nothing to earn it.
Flanderize/ Flanderization: Having a character act uncharacteristically, usually exaggerating one specific trait.

Dishonorable Mentions:
Feeling Pinkie-keen- I can actually understand the moral of faith, and the episode had some great gags and slapstick (without being mean spirited), the problem however does lie in the execution of tackling a complex thing like faith.

Putting your Hoof Down- despite Angel being a Twat and Fluttershy becoming really cruel, I really enjoyed this episode, particularly for Iron Will and his Dwayne Johnson voice. Also, being a realist, fashion and party planning are frivolous pursuits that have no impact on the world around them. Wars will never be fought over dresses and streamers; however, Fluttershy is not one to talk, since all she does is play nurse maid to wild animals, which is actually a very stupid thing to do, since it essentially domesticates them. So, yeah, of the main 6, Fluttershy is the most useless to the economy. What’s that line about cast no stones?

Mysterious Mare Do-Well- I didn’t really mind anything from it. And that is what really saves it, well, that and the references to Dark Wing Duck and Batman.

Magical Mystery Cure- Liked the songs, thought the story was ok, and was already aware of Twilight’s ascension (PAINFULLY aware, even before I knew the show had a MASSIVE following, I saw those damn Miss America ads during the commercial breaks for Batman and Animaniacs). I don’t like how she’s slowly devolving into Princess Cadence, but that’s a complaint with Season 4.

Keep Calm and Flutter On- Enter’s right, using someone’s love for you as leverage is EVIL. The only thing saving this episode is Discord. I hope one day he goes back to being a villain and ends up being even darker than before.

Ticket Master: It’s saved by some funny moments.

Best Night Ever- In a perfect world, I’d be able to put this in the top five where it was originally (seeing as how I don’t like the episode and this is a countdown of MY most hated episodes) without any backlash, but GOD FORBID if we insult the god queen Faust and her lack luster writing (yeah, I said it, and Discord may have been conceived by Faust, but it was M. A. Larson who first breathed life into him)

Art of the Dress- A boring episode with a catchy song lauded to all hell by the loud and annoying Rarity fanbase, but as much as I’d love to put it on just to troll the Rarity nuts, I can’t, because overrated doesn’t mean bad or even hated. (It is VERY overrated, BTW)

Other season 4 episodes: Other than the one episode listed, I can’t really say anything bad about season four other than the weird facial expressions and gimmicky feel.  That is definitely annoying, but not necessarily a damning sin. I like Power Ponies, Daring Don’t, Three’s a Crowd and ESPECIALLY Pinkie Pride, but they do feel a tad commercialized.

Rainbow Falls- In particular, this is considered the worst of the season thus far, I don’t think so, because I empathize with both Rainbow wanting to win, and Spitfire, because competition can cause people to do things they normally wouldn’t do.

Owl’s Well That Ends Well- Only part that really got me was how stupid Twilight getting angry over the book was. Otherwise, I actually like how the episode ended with the owl not actually being malicious.




Alright, let’s get started.

10. Spike at your Service- I like Spike, he’s sort of the male analog on the show, so to see him flanderized is kind of a disappointment, and this isn’t exaggerating something he already has, this is taking something he isn’t, and forcing it into him. Spike is not incompetent. And then you have that stupid “you saved me, I’ll serve you” plot that never works. The only thing keeping this from getting hire is the inclusion of the rather badass Timber Wolves.


9. Cutie Pox- Ugh, this is going to be talked about later on in greater detail, so I’ll summarize, dramatic irony is not funny. Couple that with the liar revealed trope, makes for an unpleasant experience that I don’t like, but also, it’s just boring, despite all that’s going on, it is really, really dull. Perhaps because these are so overused, it makes it all the worse.



8. Baby Cakes- Oh, yay, Pinkie Pie torture porn. No amount of flanderization in later episodes will justify the absolute hell Pinkie goes through here. Couple it with the usual gamut of baby gross out jokes, and this makes for an unpleasant experience. And, as you all know, one of my ticks is that I hate it when good people are punished, and bad people are let off scot free. Yeah, I realize they are babies, but that means that they shouldn’t be intelligent enough to have malicious intent. It’s like Buttons and Mindy if Mindy MEANT to get Buttons hurt and in trouble.


7. Just for Sidekicks- While I can’t really stay mad at some babies; I can definitely maintain a high level of rage for the vilest character in the show, yes, even worse than Diamond Tiara, Angel Bunny. OH, that name just pisses me off, and other than Putting Your Hoof Down, this is the best example of what a cruel POS he can be. He spends the greater majority of the episode trying to get Spike in trouble. And again, here we have a lot of bad stuff happening to a character that just doesn’t deserve it. Spike charges gems for taking care of pets, as opposed to just babysitting 6 rambunctious animals free of charge? I’d want compensation too! And, he’s basically asking for a baking ingredient, sure it’s a gem, but you can literally find them anywhere! Rarity’s spell lights up the ground like a Christmas tree! I bet Twilight can make some with a spell, even (Full Pony Alchemist?), but because he dares to charge for a service, the writers decide to teach him a lesson. And we also get a good example of why I hated Rarity for so long, she pays him the SMALLEST POSSIBLE GEM. That is under handed and cruel, and we know she did because she knows she can short him, because of his bizarre, inter-species crush, meaning she actively took advantage of him (The Element of Generosity everyone). All in all, a very lack luster episode with some very enraging subtext.


6. Bats- Ok, this is pick is from a personal standpoint. Corn Weevils are a problem here in Iowa. So, to protect the corn from them, farmers began planting genetically altered corn, called BT (Bio-Technological) Corn, which is harmless to humans, but hazardous to the weevils. Umm, anyone else see the parallel here? Yeah, Bats is taking a jab at farmers trying to keep our crops from being devoured by vermin. How is Twilight altering their diet much different than scientists altering the staple of the Weevil’s diet? Maybe it’s unintentional, but it’s there. Almost all of my problems are with the moral and logic. I realize this is a little girl’s cartoon, but if you see an infestation, and it threatens to hinder your livelihood, you don’t build a sanctuary, you call an exterminator, and it really does make me question the credibility of the reviewers that NO ONE TOUCHED UPON THIS! It’s not like I’m being mean or anything, it’s just that is how the world works. And part of having a show with morals and lessons is getting kids ready for this world. And the moral it did have was an ok one, but handled poorly. We saw those bats devour a very large chunk of the orchard, and then we’re supposed to believe that these wild animals will stay in an “enclosure” (with no nets or anything else to keep them in) with a food supply that couldn’t possibly satiate their appetites. Apple Jack’s farm is toast, no crop, no cider, and no money for the winter season. Congratulations Fluttershy, you doomed Sweet Apple Acres to bankruptcy.  I hope you are happy, you stupid animalaboo! By the way, hope you enjoy Porphyric Hemophilia, day walker.


5. Secret of my Excess- Enter is right, this really does raise WAY too many questions about dragons. In fact, I’m just going to chalk this up to the writers pulling it all out of their ASS! Spike has shown his selfish side before and after, and it never became a problem, the teenage dragons were even greedier and more malicious than Spike at his worst, yet remained their age, and how did that one little memory undo it all? Already the episode fell apart logically. And then there is Spike being out of character, Rarity once again being the element of avarice, and I’m not sure what’s worse, Spike not appreciating Twilight’s gift of the heart, or Twilight not knowing the kid she raised’s preferences, like gems, ice cream, and mustaches. I barely know the guy, and apparently I know more about him than you. The worst part about all this is that Spike is one of my favorite characters, behind Cheese and Discord; he’s pretty much my favorite main character. To see him flanderized, and then go through those disturbing changes just rubs me the wrong way. This is the same Spike who saved the Crystal Empire, and got Princess Celestia, and made Twilight a bed with just dog paws. A character I really admire and the writers just say “Fuck it, he’s greedy”. And this is just #5.


4. Hearts and Hooves Day- I don’t like love potion stories, I don’t like baby talk, I don’t like the CMC, and I don’t like shipping. This combines ALL FOUR; so far, the entries had only a couple dislikable elements, and this one has doubled that. If this were a worst of list, I technically couldn’t put it on here, but it’s a most hated by me, so I can put it as high as I damn well please. Just another reminder about why Valentine’s Day is a stupid holiday.


3. Bird in the Hoof- Ok, I don’t care what I said about Fluttershy in Bats, that doesn’t mean she deserves what happens to her here, in fact, I blame her temper in later episodes on this. Every time she yells or gets angry, it isn’t a pony she sees, it’s Philomena, that evil, awful, disgusting, wretched, foul fowl! (I don’t care how many redundancies are in there, it’s wrong, I know it’s wrong, but I’m going to do it anyway, right Enter?). Not only is this episode a mean spirited Fluttershy torture porn, but it’s also boring and predictable. The only laugh it elicited from me is when Celestia trolled the cakes with the tea, and that led to the Trollestia meme, which led to the Celestia fans taking up arms, so now I have to listen to them bitch and moan all day about how everyone hates on Celestia. She may be my favorite of the 3 main princesses, but after all those headaches, I just want to watch Chrysalis’s pwning of her over and over. Also, I realize thus far, I’ve been treating the show as I would an adult show, but they showed a bird being incinerated, mind you, we adults know what will happen, but little kids won’t. If you can adapt Manticores to not have human faces, then why can’t you adapt Phoenixes to do something other than spontaneously combust? I can’t believe I have to tell a show about rainbow ponies to tone down the incineration! You can show that, but you can’t properly handle a simple moral like be assertive, but don’t be a douche? What’s wrong with you? I realize that the show has different writers for different episodes, but they all have to go through the creative head, and Faust was the head of this one… why do people love her so much again? She wrote Everyone Knows It’s Bendy, was on Quest For Camelot, and was the creative head and even cowriter for several of my most hated episodes, I hate to break this to you, but I don’t think you guys are giving the credit to the proper people.


2. Show Stoppers- Ok, dramatic irony is when the audience is privy to a joke or piece of information that the characters are not. It is not very funny, but it gets worse here. EVERYONE ELSE IN THE SHOW KNOWS THE INFORMATION! If you want to make the CMC that stupid, fine, but then you have it so that everyone else knows what they’re good at, and they never tell them? That is downright cruel. And then there is the song that I cannot listen to! It is so bad, even if it’s intentional, that is still no excuse, you could cut away to people leaving or even running away, but no, you make us listen to that horrific song. Cindy, Lauren, you two cost me years off my life with how much this episode sucked. And let me tell you all, this would be my number one, but there is one episode that is worse not because of what it involves, but what it tries to touch upon, and ends up insulting.


1. Over A Barrel- This episode would have been fine, had it been about pegasi and unicorns or something, instead of Buffalo (Indians) and ponies (white people). This show tried to tackle this subject without giving it proper consideration. Now, before I get into my rant, I want you all to know that the amount of Native American blood in my body couldn’t fill a thimble, but I do have cousins, who I am related to by blood, who are quarter Cherokee Indian (that means one of their grandparents was a full blood Indian, if genetics isn’t your strong suit) and are registered members of the local tribe. And American Colonization was my strong suit in history. Now then… HOW DARE YOU, POLSKY! You make light of what is comparable to the holocaust. In fact, some of the atrocities committed on Indians inspired the Holocaust. You have the balls to say that they were both in the wrong? Ok, look, I’m not exactly a bleeding heart liberal, I grew up in a conservative household, but I know for fact that is not how it was, Caucasians were intolerably cruel to America’s original inhabitants. The settlers and military butchered nearly every indian they came across. To quote Sick Puppies, “They used dirty blankets and they used machine guns, and they didn’t twice about what they’d done”. That is about the gist of it. And don’t get me started on the Trail of Tears and Wounded Knee! People bitch about how bad Nixon and Carter were, Jackson sent Cherokee indians thousands of miles to camps. Ok, that’s comparable to what Hitler did. And when they got to these camps, did their lives improve? NO! They were abused, tortured, and starved! And let’s not forget the massacre at Wounded Knee where American soldiers gathered up all the indians’ firearms, then mowed them down without a seconds hesitation. That is the history they chose to represent, did they? No, no they did not. This is like Captain Planet trying to tackle aids, it’s a dumb idea, and you shouldn’t do it. If you want accurate depictions of what they tried to represent, Avatar tackles it rather well with the racist, genocidal Fire Nation. This, this is worse than when Peter Pan had “Why is the Red Man Red”, at least that didn’t tackle the differences between the two. And that is why this is my most hated episode, not because of what was, but what it meant.

Share your opinion down below, just don’t expect to change mine.