Cutie Mark Crusaders Ranking, Version 5

One final update for the CMC, even though it's not an overall ranking and more how they fare after what Season 9 gave us to work with. Like with my mane eight ranking, there's a journal on my DeviantArt account if you want to see the overall rankings, specifically this journal. Like always this list is purely the result of my personal opinion so please respect it. Here's the previous version, from the end of Season 8, let's see what changed.

5. Apple Bloom
Why she moved down: Season 9 really weighed the CMC down, giving them mostly stock plots with little to actually contribute. As sweet as it was to see Apple Bloom get excited over Sugar Belle becoming part of the Apple family, and as believable as it was for her to desire to be all grown-up (more so than either of her fellow Crusaders) the most she got for screen time was "Going to Seed" which was trying to be Applejack's story, and "The Big Mac Question" that made her unbelievably stupid just to pad out the run time (you can cut it out and we'd lose nothing of substance). It really is a shame that she was the only CMC member to get episodes out the group and outside her family for the longest time, yet despite being so prominent early on (getting two focus episodes in Season 1) by the end of the show she had been forgotten in much the same manner as her big sister.

4. Babs Seed
Why she moved down: Apparently the animators goofed up with her non-speaking cameo in "The Last Crusade" by forgetting to give he her cutie mark (supposedly it's there if you look really closely). Which just further verifies how Babs Seed getting her cutie mark was just Hasbro's way of dumping her and forgetting about her, like they would go on to do with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. If you're not a Twilight expy like Sunset Shimmer or Starlight Glimmer, your story is over the moment you get reformed. And in the grand scheme of things, why did Babs Seed need to exist at all? There were two established bully characters for the CMC that could've been used for the bullying aesop, why didn't they use either of them?

3. Sweetie Belle
Why she moved down: I did briefly consider putting Sweetie Belle on the bottom because she got nothing to do all season long, not a single focus episode and much like Applejack she was mostly just the ignored voice of reason. But I feel like her personality kept her relevant on a few occasions, kind of have to wonder why they didn't use her for "Dragon Dropped" when so many people who didn't ship Sparity shipped Spike with Sweetie Belle instead. But for whatever reason they decided instead to use...

2. Gabby
Why she moved way up: Even if it was unexpected and kind of odd (not to mention continuity wrecking when Rarity didn't recognize Gabby), Gabby's return was unsurprisingly the highlight of "Dragon Dropped" and made me wish she'd become Gallus' guardian instead of Grandpa Gruff. They toned down her shrill voice and screechy nature, which was a welcome change since it did get kind of grating in "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks" after a while. Plus her connection with Spike was well established and built up. I do sort of wonder why no one tried even briefly to pair her and Terramar up when she appeared alongside him in "The Last Crusade" (for that matter, why wasn't Terramar added to the CMC's roster, or Rumble?) but I guess it just never occurred to anyone. Maybe if "Dragon Dropped" had run with the obvious and made Gabby's time with Spike romantic instead of treating it like friendship she could've made a run for the top spot.

1. Scootaloo
Why she stayed on the top: "The Last Crusade" was hands down the best Scootaloo focus episode of the entire show. Say what you will about her parents (who I find overhated) but there's no denying that this episode gave Scootaloo a conflict that for once didn't involve Rainbow Dash or center around her. As great as they were, they could get kind of repetitive after a while (you'd think Scootaloo and Fluttershy would've had an episode at some point given Fluttershy used to be a poor flyer when she was younger). Not so with "The Last Crusade", even though Rainbow Dash appears and offers moral support she's not key to the episode's resolution at all. Having parents like Snap Shutter and Mane Allgood explains a lot about Scootaloo and why she is how she is, even if her aunts clearly loved her and cared for her they could never fill the same gap left by her parents. And having them write to her wasn't the same as having them there for support in pony. There is also the apparent confirmation that Scootaloo is disabled due to her small wings even when she grows up, but Bulk Biceps makes that concept hard to sell when he saw him fly despite his tiny wings (not the best flyer but apparently good enough to try out for the Wonderbolts). Even before I updated this list I knew Scootaloo would be number one because of all those factors.

And there you have it, come back tomorrow when we'll look briefly at my picks for the Top 35 Songs of MLP FiM, including ones from the movie and "Rainbow Roadtrip".

Comments

[superfun]

Yeah, that's pretty much how I rank them now, though I'd swap Babs and Apple Bloom