Unpopular opinion time

@Background Pony #3AC6  
Are even numbers better for some reason?

@Latecomer  

 
Agreed with this to an extent. Apart from outliers like S7, Best Gift Ever and Rainbow Road Trip(both of which were specials), every season from S6 onward had most of the show’s lowest points, and apart from a very small handful of episodes never hit the highs of what came before. Even S8 which I actually liked shares most, if not all of the same problems S6 and S9 did

@Background Pony #3AC6  
It does to me as well

You know what - what are people’s opinions on The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well and Spike At Your Service now, seven years later?

@Mildgyth  
Spike at your service i never really minded, but Mare-Do-Well can continue to suck a fat one.

@Mildgyth  
Still poor, sadly no longer the poorest.

@Background Pony #3AC6  

 
I can cry!

@Mildgyth  
MMDW still sucks, though it’s not the worst episode||(mainly because they tried topping it down the line)||. I actually like SAYS

@Mildgyth  
Both of them suck and stand high as examples of how not to write OR direct for a series.

@Latecomer  
No. It just annoys me.

@Mildgyth  
I still don’t really care for Spike at your Service. If the plot of an episode only works by having everyone act wildly out of character then I don’t think it works as an episode at all. Mare Do Well I think just has a badly done message but I don’t think the episode itself is bad :P

@Mildgyth  
Both are shit, but I think Mare Do Well is worse

@Mildgyth  
SAYS was bad, and MMDW was poorly executed, but the characters were in-character at least. The latter is much easier to fix than the former.

@Mildgyth
 
Funny, years ago I would have said SAYS was one of my all-time worst. That was before season 6 happened, and also Father Knows Beast.

@Spinny  
Funny how they’re both Spike episodes.

@Meanlucario  
Father Knows Beast is almost as bad as Spike at Your Servce or Princess Spike.

@Anonycat  
I think Princess Spike was OK, and the other two much worst.

@Meanlucario  
Princess Spike was just a huge string of unfunny gags and some contrived BS to keep the story from crashing under it’s own weight, like the sudden introduction of allergic trees that Spike knew nothing about despite being born and raised on Canterlot, and then there’s that issue about how he took flak over things that weren’t his fault while the things that really were his fault were never adressed at all.  
As a man who finally made his way as a professional writer, Princess Spike feels like a writing and directing trainwreck to me and I keep wondering who the hell decided to approve that mess.

@Anonycat  
At least it had Spike be incompetent after he did his job, which is more than I can say for the other two. And it’s a Spike ep, so they likely threw out any form of standards. Also, congrats on making your way in the professional writer department.

@Meanlucario  
It wouldn’t be until Gauntlet Of Fire when the kid will finally get his due, unless you count Equestria Games as the one to really get the ball rolling

@Meanlucario  
I find Father Knows Beast perfectly fine, Princess Spike enjoyable but with a fatal flaw, and Service quite flawed but with a few good points. And I don’t consider Spike eps in general to ever have been bad as a rule.

@Myoozik  
Yep. Better late than never.
 
@Latecomer  
You are a strange one.

@Meanlucario  
Rather to me, a lot of other people seem strange.

I remember Father Knows Beast being really disappointing on top of it all. To tease Spike’s origins and his father only for it to be a lie is a shitty move to pull. I don’t care how intentionally shitty Sludge was supposed to be

Trixie was a great character before Boast Busters ruined her forever. That was her lowest point in the show from the get-go, and it only went downhill from there.
 
_{definitely real opinion, the most genuine, no sarcasm there}