“The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone”, definitely.
This. We got~
- some history and world-building and our long-awaited trip to the griffon kingdom
- new griffon designs
- the Arimaspi with its great design and being an incredible genius bonus
- adorable widdle Gilda
- near-unanimously redeeming Gilda in the fandom’s eyes
- Rainbow Sparkle
and 7) on a personal note, getting to watch it at a con (so I actually got to watch an episode alongside other bronies for the first time ever and got to meet Andrea Libman on the same day…win-win in my book)
In second place, I’ll say “Make New Friends But Keep Discord”. Besides actually being a genuine Discord-centric episode [compared to ‘Three’s A Crowd’ where he didn’t show up until the end of the first act], we got~
- Treehugger (still not a fan of ‘dem big ol eyebrows, but the idea of having Discord’s sitcom nemesis be a mare so mellow that Discord can’t get under her skin is a rather brilliant concept for a foil)
- the return of the glorious Maud Pie (the biggest laugh I ever got from the show ~
Pinkie: Maud…jokes!
Maud: in a slightly-enthusiastic deadpan My favorite.)
- we got our third franchise mythology comeback with the Smooze (granted he was more Flubber/B.O.B than “lovecraftian pepto bismol”; but hey, this means Hasbro retained more rights than we thought…here’s hoping Season 6 brings us Grogar or Catrina and Rep…)
- Señor Huevos. The most insane joke the show’s done thus far.
- Celestia actually getting some actual character moments this season [seriously, she was MIA for about 98% of the entirety of season five]
and 6) we finally got to see where Discord’s been living since Season 3 (a 1970’s-looking American suburban home out in the middle of an acid-trip dimension? It’s so mundane and out-of-place that it somehow manages to work as a proper residence for a chaos god)
And in third place…eh, it’s a tie between Slice of Life and Amending Fences for me.
Honorable mentions go to Party Pooped, Cutie Map, The Mane Attraction and Crusaders of the Lost Mark [granted, the latter one really wasn’t much to write home to until that ending gave me FEELS!!!]
Bottom of the list [aka my least favorite episodes]: Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep, Princess Spike, Appaloosa’s Most Wanted…. and the last few minutes of the finale
