Best/worst key episode(s)

[EternalNothingness]

For me, the best would probably have to be Rarity Takes Manehattan and Pinkie Pride. Rarity's key episode marked the first time, since the Nightmare Rarity arc of the comics, that we ever had a Rarity-centric story. Pinkie Pride, meanwhile, was all comic relief and goofiness, not just through Pinkie but also Weird Al Yankovich's Cheese Sandwich character.

The worst, on the other hand, probably has to be Twilight's Kingdom. After five entire key episodes, where the Mane Five had to work to earn those keys by learning lessons about their Elements of Harmony, and passing on those lessons to other ponies, they are deliberately disposed of and made useless for the benefit of Twilight's over-empowerment. In this way, it almost felt like Dragon Ball Z, where too many non-saiyan characters are either killed or demoted to background extras, while saiyans like Goku, Vegeta, and their sons all take up too much of the spotlight on the account of being Super Saiyans. And that's what Twilight's Kingdom was like: A deliberate excuse to disempower and dispose of Twilight's friends -- even after the way they worked for their keys -- for the sake of turning her into a boring, one-note, Super Saiyan bad-ass.

 

[flashman92]

1. Pinkie
2. Rarity
3. Twilight
4. AJ
5. Fluttershy
6. RD

 

[EternalNothingness]

1. Pinkie
2. Rarity
3. Twilight
4. AJ
5. Fluttershy
6. RD

Trust me, Twilight's Kingdom was even worse, again because the Mane Five were disempowered and victimized as a cheap and easy way to raise the stakes and make Twilight more powerful. At least with AJ, Fluttershy, and RD, they received tons of character-development based on their Elements of Harmony, alongside Pinkie and Rarity. And yet, all that character-development is deliberately tossed aside for the sake of victimizing them and giving Twilight Sparkle stupid amounts of extra power.

After all, it worked for Dragon Ball Z, right? Every non-saiyan in that series, even the ones who can do martial-arts like the saiyans, all end up reduced to disposable background extras, while the saiyans ended up being the ultimate solutions to everything on the account of their Super Saiyan transformations. And that's what Twilight's Kingdom was like: Twilight becoming unnecessarily overpowered on the account of being an alicorn, while her friends are all disposed of and made useless on the account of not being alicorns at all.

Not only that, but people loved the way the Mane Five had all their character development stripped apart, turning them into victims, while Twilight herself becomes the most overpowered monster in the universe, rivaled only by Tirek. But when the Mane Five redeem themselves with the Rainbow Power and Rainbow Castle, all of a sudden you hate them because they were useful again. In other words, you want Twilight's friends to be sidelined and murdered for the sake of Twilight's over-empowerment, and the same goes for every other brony on the Internet! Again, it worked for DBZ, so why not MLP as well?