Roughly, with some wiggle room for many of them…
Filli Vanilli – It doesn’t get much better than this. Cut out the Pinkie Pie and you have a perfect episode that could fit in an earlier season. In a season where you have to ignore many episodes’ plots to enjoy them, this is one of the few that works from beginning to end, with some great Rarity to boot.
Rainbow Falls – Twilight Sparkle is obnoxious, but most everything else is wonderful. The world expands again, and in a better way than in Rarity Takes Manehattan, which felt very isolated. This is very much part of Rainbow Dash’s continuing saga, and very much part of the Equestria Games storyline, and brings out some solid Fluttershy. It feels difficult to judge the Wonderbolts’ jerkishness without knowing how it’ll play out in the end – someday Rainbow Dash will have to join them or choose not to, right? – and Applejack in particular was superfluous and kind of weird, but this is still well worth watching and very pretty besides.
Bats! – This episode was a real breath of fresh air when it came out, being the first episode set in Ponyville since the opener. Maybe the arguments don’t all stand up to the greatest scrutiny, but it was a real treat to see the friends talking to each other and trying to work out a complicated issue through discussion. Flutterbat is a divisive issue, no doubt, and we’ll no doubt be waiting a loooong time for her residual fangs to come back, but I liked her, and the song was quite interesting, so up goes Bats! on the list.
Pinkie Pride – The all-singing, all-dancing My Little Pony! The Cheese Sandwich character was kind of annoying and his motivations didn’t make much sense, but the near-constant songs mostly made up for it, as did the first look into Pinkie’s brain in a long while.
Somepony to Watch Over Me – I’d forgotten about this one, but it’s actually quite entertaining. Applejack gets accused a lot of being boring, and she was anything but that here… the problem is just that the factors that trigger her don’t show up in most episodes. A solid madness episode and some unexpected action sequences made for a good time!
Princess Twilight Sparkle – This was pretty good. The latter part of the plot was kind of forced and not all the rest really made sense, but it was the first time that Twilight’s being a princess mattered, and the last until Twilight Time aired three months later. Some solid action sequences and a rare Zecora appearance make for a good experience.
For Whom the Sweetie Belle Tolls – Until Luna shows up, this episode is starkly honest in a good way. Then the dream sequence, random ziplining and chase scenes, and weird pony pop group sort of take it in a different direction. They’re not bad exactly, but it might have been more interesting to see this episode without them, being about nothing but honest emotions and relationships that the characters are forced to figure out on their own. Nonetheless, some of the most interesting writing in the show so far.
Testing Testing 1, 2, 3 – A fun timewaster. Nothing profound about it, but nothing seriously flawed. I can respect that.
Rarity Takes Manehattan – As has been noted, a weak Rarity episode is still a strong episode overall! It’s been pointed out that the showwriters almost certainly had no intention of revisiting Manehattan after it got mentioned in the Cutie Mark Chronicles, but it got revisited nonetheless, and it was interesting to see a new city and a new way of life. Everyone was pretty human and Pinkie Pie wasn’t obnoxious.
It Ain’t Easy Being Breezies – A strange episode with a plot too simple to fit in its running time, but Seabreeze was interesting! Nothing too coherent to say about this one… it was just weird.
Trade Ya! – Not the greatest of Pinkies, but not the worst of Twilights, and everyone else was in top form. Rarity and Applejack have come a long way from Look Before You Sleep… they haven’t lost the antagonism, but nor do they mind it.
Twilight Time – Ups and downs here. The zombie hordes were really weird, but the rest of the plot was actually kind of cool and more complex than you’d expect for the CMC. And hey, Sweetie Belle can do magic now!
Daring Don’t – If you pretend the last minute or two didn’t happen, this is a fine episode, and it’s hard to look at 21 minutes of entertaining action and 1 minute of nonsense and say the whole thing is fine. Did the plot write the characters? Absolutely, even more than in the opening. But this episode makes it very clear that it wants only to be judged as a silly adventure romp, and I can respect that.
Leap of Faith – The storyline developed very slowly, using time that could have been better spent making Applejack’s decision more complicated, but Flim and Flam put in some very solid performances.
Pinkie Apple Pie – Too little plot stretched across too much time, and would be more interesting if it meant anything for the future, but no. A competent excursion, but it feels lacking.
Power Ponies – Ranked this high because of Rarity. Also it was a cool touch to change the art style for the backgrounds a little to resemble comic books. This episode’s not horrible, but it’s not great, and the focus on Spike’s boring little problems doesn’t help.
Three’s A Crowd – Twilight has entered the same realm as Pinkie: she’s most tolerable when she’s the star. Unfortunately, Cadance does not make a very interesting supporting character, and Discord takes over any episode he touches and not in a good way. For a moment near the start it looked like it could have been a Discord+Applejack+Rarity episode, which would have been interesting, but instead we got Princess Boring and Princess Sometimes-Boring-Sometimes-Obnoxious and Mr. Obnoxious without a break. And they probably killed a flower or something?
Castle Mane-ia – Meh. Not as bad as it could have been–the animation does a good job of picking up for the writing–but the episode never goes anywhere. It was nice to see the return of the RD/AJ rivalry and the Ry/FS friendships from season 1, though. It’s a pity this episode had to follow the opener in order to set up the journal thing, because it might have been better received later in the season with expectations not so high.
Maud Pie – This episode gets a lot of praise for its message, and sure, it’s a fine message. Everyone’s different and it’s important to remember that. But the episode is so flat and boring it’s difficult to watch it long enough to hear the characters figure that out.
Simple Ways – There’s just no reason to rewatch any of this episode besides the parts with Applejewel. Miserable. Even Inspiration Manifestation manages a better Rarity than this for the two or three minutes before she gets mind-controlled.
Equestria Games – Ugh. Throws away an entire season’s worth of buildup on some background events in a story about a little kid who deserves every negative reaction he gets in the episode but manages to save the day anyway. Except that the lesson doesn’t make any sense because he actually seriously insulted an entire major city and doesn’t even need to apologize because he feels good about himself now or something, because he can breathe fire, or no, maybe he feels good about himself because he feels good about himself… it’s just a horrible mess, and reads like it was written to make you feel bad about caring about any of the other characters or what happens to them.
Flight to the Finish – So. Boring. It’s not really the episode’s fault that it immediately follows three different action-packed episodes, and all it’s got to offer is a bunch of talking and not the best song. There are some good moments, and it’s nice to see Scootaloo get a home, but they’re bogged down by the ridiculous trip to the crystal empire and the general boringness.
Inspiration Manifestation – Crap. Started with some interesting premises – Rarity having trouble fulfilling orders because she makes things so over-the-top, and a cursed book in a secret part of the ancient castle – and completely failed to deliver on them. Mind control and Spike eating the book made the entire thing utterly without consequence, and there clearly wasn’t a high enough budget for this episode for Rarity’s actions to ever get especially interesting. Too much time spent standing around having the same conversation over and over and not enough on glamorizing everything.
