Quick note: my health is not great at the moment, so don't be too startled if this blog doesn't quite keep to its usual schedule. I have this week's Ponyfic Roundup already written and scheduled, so you'll get that anyway, as well as a couple of stories I've held back for the following week. Don't necessarily expect much else, though. Right; onward!
Over on the UK of Equestria forums, we asked people to rank Season Five's episodes from 1-24 (counting double episodes as one). After 17 people had responded, I collated the responses and worked out a mean score. Below you can see the results.
The tiers work like this: any episode with an average rating of fifth or above gets five stars. Then down to 10th, four stars; down to 15th, three; down to 20th, two; and those episodes ranked below 20th on average suffered the dreaded one-star rating.
Just for fun, I also worked out the standard deviation, to see which episodes were the most and least controversial. The lowest SD was for "Amending Fences", which everyone had in their top nine. The highest was for "Tanks for the Memories", which garnered rankings ranging from second to dead last.
★★★★★
1. Amending Fences
2. Crusaders of the Lost Mark
★★★★
3. Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?
4. Slice of Life
5. The Cutie Re-Mark
6. The Mane Attraction
★★★
7. Rarity Investigates!
8. The Cutie Map
9. Bloom & Gloom
10. Hearthbreakers
11. Castle Sweet Castle
12. The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone
13. Scare Master
14. The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows
15. Make New Friends But Keep Discord
16. Brotherhooves Social
17. Tanks for the Memories
★★
18. Party Pooped
19. Canterlot Boutique
20. Made in Manehattan
21. The Hooffields and McColts
★
22. What About Discord?
23. Appleoosa’s Most Wanted
24. Princess Spike
I'd switch a few things around, of course, but not too much given the tiers you've set up. :O
ReplyDeleteSame here; I think the biggest gap between these and my own rankings is that I'd put "The Cutie Map" several places higher. I was particularly pleased (and mildly surprised) to see "Amending Fences" finish top of the heap.
DeleteI did wonder whether "Appleoosa's Most Wanted" might get a softer ride given its foreshadowing of the CMC's talent. Not a bit of it.
Would you happen to have a list of how many times each episode was listed as number 1?
ReplyDeleteYes, I can do that:
Delete6: "Amending Fences"
4: "Slice of Life"
2: "Crusaders of the Lost Mark"
2: "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?"
1: "Bloom & Gloom"
1: "The Mane Attraction"
1: "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows"
And for the sake of it, the same thing for last place:
6: "What About Discord?"
5: "Princess Spike"
4: "Appleoosa's Most Wanted"
1: "The Cutie Re-Mark"
1: "Tanks for the Memories"