Season 9 – the UK of Equestria rankings

For the very last time, at least in the Friendship is Magic era, the members of UK of Equestria have been giving their ranked lists of their favourite and... less favourite episodes of the season. Since there were two double-headers this season, there were 24 episodes in the list – Rainbow Roadtrip did not count as it's not officially part of the season and doesn't have an episode number.

We had 13 voters, exactly the same as for the half-time vote. As usual, I've divided the episodes into five tiers, going by their mean rankings. An episode with a mean better than fifth gets five stars, from there to 10 gets four, and so on. My own rankings are in brackets after each episode name. Here we go...

★★★★★
1. The Ending of the End (5)
2. The Last Problem (10)

★★★★
3. Frenemies (1)
4. Between Dark and Dawn (9)
5. The Big Mac Question (3)
6. Sparkle's Seven (2)
7. A Horse-Shoe In (7)
8. The Summer Sun Setback (4)
9. The Beginning of the End (6)

★★★
10. Student Counsel (15)
11. She Talks to Angel (8)
12. The Last Crusade (14)
13= Common Ground (11)
13= A Trivial Pursuit (22)
15. Dragon Dropped (19)

★★
16. Growing Up is Hard to Do (16)
17. The Last Laugh (17)
18. The Point of No Return (21)
19. Going to Seed (18)
20. Uprooted (20)
21. She's All Yak (23)
22. Daring Doubt (13)
23. Sweet and Smoky (12)

★
24. 2, 4, 6, Greaaat (24)

Number of times each episode placed first
5: The Last Problem
4: Frenemies
3: The Ending of the End
1: The Beginning of the End

Number of times each episode placed last
6: 2, 4, 6, Greaaat
2: Growing Up is Hard to Do
1: Going to Seed
1: The Last Crusade
1: The Point of No Return
1: Sweet and Smoky
1: A Trivial Pursuit

Most controversial (highest standard deviation)
1. Growing Up is Hard to Do
2. Sparkle's Seven
3. The Summer Sun Setback

Least controversial
1. The Ending of the End
2. Between Dark and Dawn
3. Daring Doubt

"The Ending of the End" was a clear victor, being the only episode that all 13 voters placed in their top seven. No other ep even had unanimous top-half placings. The fandom's doubts about the S9 epilogue were fairly firmly squashed on UK of E – although there was a small cluster of voters (including me) who placed it mid-table, it still gained enough top spots to take second position with some ease.

At the bottom, that cheerleading episode was a predictable wooden-spooner, though two people did include it in their top tens. "Sweet and Smoky" was next, to my continuing disappointment, with "Daring Doubt" ranked between 13th and 23rd by every single voter. There wasn't a noticeable gap between how the two halves of this season were received, though there was a slight skewing due to the finale and epilogue's popularity.

A notable feature of the S9 rankings was the wild variation in opinion given to some episodes. "Growing Up is Hard to Do" was ranked third by one person and dead last by another. "The Last Crusade" had almost as wide a spread, from fifth to 24th. One voter ranked "Frenemies down in 20th spot, while another had "A Trivial Pursuit" up in fifth. Even "Sparkle's Seven" received several rankings in the mid-to-low teens.