MLP: Friendship is Magic Season 5

I finished watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic season 5 recently. I immensely enjoyed it.

The idea of Cutie-Map-Adventures is a good one because it enables different kinds of episodes. It's a Quest narrative like adventurers from another genre, but instead of something like "defeat the evil overlord" it is "solve a friendship problem". This means that the Mane Six can help someone else with their problem, in a new setting, without having to argue with each other to provide an episode's conflict.

I also like it because it shows that the writers/directors etc. aren't afraid to change the status quo. The core of the show remains the same but the nature of some of the episodes changes, there is a change to the cast (addition rather than subtraction, which I think goes better) and progress is made on another front. I'm excited to see where this is going.

Some of the episodes have a lot of songs (so many they're practically a musical), but they're good songs so I enjoy them.

Starlight Glimmer is another example of this series finding new ways to express the same core. She is a villain with a warped idea of friendship that tries to enforce this idea on others. That is not something that has been done in the series before. Nor is she some evil eldritch monster like previous Big Bads (such as Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, or Tirek). She's just a unicorn with power, talent, and a lot of motivation to fulfill her evil plan.

Some episodes were weaker than others. "What about Discord", for instance, is one that I think tried too hard pushing its central conflict. I still like but not as much as others, such as "Rarity Investigates". Being a novelist, "Canterlot Boutique" struck a special cord with me.

Trickster Eric Novels gives My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic Season 5 an A+

To read my review of "The Journal of the Two Sisters" click here

P.S. I ordered the sixth season soon after this and it arrived two days ago. I watched the opening two-parter and I'd say the season is off to great start.

Brian Wilkerson is a freelance book reviewer, writing advice blogger and independent novelist. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).